So I have finally made it home...(can't say I was elated on landing).
The past 10 months have been absolutely, incredibly, awesomely amazing!!! I have met some great people and seen some wonderful places...coming back home a week ago today was a bit of a shock - the weather was awful (and of course it has improved just in time for me to go back to work) but now I'm settled in and looking forward to properly catching up with everyone, including all of my new travelling chums! :)
Final photos completes my round the world set...next challenge to sort out all 8,500 and get some printed!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150844453061491.403065.516011490&type=3&l=0afa28273f
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150924967631491.411757.516011490&type=3&l=cf59984eb0
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150924979401491.411759.516011490&type=3&l=a60a0af4ef
Thanks for reading
E
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Monday, 23 July 2012
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
The end is near...
So this is likely to be my final post until I'm back in England seeing as I now have 13 days of my travels left, and very mixed emotions! I'm excited to be coming home and seeing everyone again but I'm also going to miss travelling from country to another on a new adventure everyday. I'm also going to miss the heat of Asia...just not the humidity! I doubt I've had a day below 30 degrees C in since I flew into Singapore back on 31st March. It's going to be tough.
Anyways, going on from my last post - the elephant riding in Luang Prabang was great fun. Before going to see the elephants we got up at 5am that morning to go and see alms being given to the monks...not quite what I was expecting really - monks just lined up walking along the street. But it was good to see. We then got picked up and driven into the jungle before getting on a boat to travel 15 mins down river to where we would be begin the half hour walk to the elephants. They were pretty tucked away and we all got eaten by flies along the journey!! There were loads of elephants when we did eventually find them, most seemed to be in ok condition but not quite as happy as I would have expected...either way we'd trekked that far and it was time to get into the wooden seats on their backs. The ride lasted for just over an hour (we were bitten alive by flies) but it was really great fun, especially when I got to ride on the neck of mine and Jenny's elephant for half of the journey. Attempting to direct it with my feet...not that it listened to anything I said! They showed us how they could knock down huge trees that stood in their paths which was pretty impressive and overall it was good fun. The following day, and the one after that, were spent travelling down the Mekong River into Thailand. In between we stayed in a tiny village in Laos beside the river. The scenery was amazing but by the second day we started to get bored so livened things up with a bottle of vodka that Kim (our guide) kindly bought us. We played cards and drank shots of vodka (for the losers) before arriving in Chiang Kong late in the afternoon. Chiang Kong was a bit of a stopover on the way to Chiang Mai so we didn't really get up to much but on the afternoon of arriving in Chiang Mai we went to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom was brilliant, we chose to go in with the largest (adult), small (7-10 months) and smallest tigers (1-2 months). The smallest were by far my favourite, they were so cuddly and playful and just adorable. The adult tigers were pretty scary to be honest but it was a great experience and I really enjoyed it!! That evening we went for a few drinks in one of the very few places in Chiang Mai with a late licence, 'Spicy'. The next day I found out that my flight with Air Asia to Sri Lanka had been cancelled so spent most of the day sorting that out and arranging a new flight. That evening we got the final sleeper train of the tour to Bangkok - 15 hours. The train was actually really nice and Kim had bought more alcohol, rum this time which we got halfway through before bed. The next morning we arrived in Bangkok and after showering, Hannah, Elody, Joel and I headed to the station to arrange our trains down to the islands. We decided to go to Koh Samui first and work up to Koh Tao.
Once the train was booked Elody, Hannah and I went to MBK Shopping Centre to see if I could find a hygrometer for the family I was going to stay with in Sri Lanka. They needed it for an incubator to hatch eggs. Unfortunately no matter how hard I tried to act out a hygrometer, the Thai people just didn't understand and so we had to give up on that one! That evening we had the final group meal of the tour which was quite sad. We gave Kim a tooth necklace that we had picked out and a card that we'd made out of my very useful coloured paper - it's been a really handy item in my backpack on this trip as it turns out :) After dinner we went to a Pingpong show and this was quite an experience to say the least...After that we headed back to the Khao San Road, finally stumbling home at 6am just as it was getting light. We managed to get a bit of sleep before checking out at 12pm where we went back to the Khao San for lunch and a wander around before the night train at 7:30pm that evening. The night train to Chumphon was a bit more basic than the previous one, we arrived at 4:30am and had to wait until 6am for the giant tuktuk to take us to the port. At the port we got on a 2 hour ferry to Koh Tao which then went another 2 hours to Koh Phangan where we had to change boats to do the final 45 mins to Koh Samui. When we arrived on Koh SamuiElody...it was actually pretty comfy, apart from the issue that by morning it would always be pretty flat. After checking in we sat on the beach for a bit to recover from the night and day of travelling. I got a gecko henna'd onto my foot and then we had dinner on the beach. Along the beach there would be several men with monkeys walking around and when they got near they'd put them on you. They were ADORABLE (one kept sucking it's thumb!) so I eventually caved in and paid 100 baht for 3 photos with one. The next day was spent on the beach and in the clear blue sea which was lovely and that evening we went out for drinks which turned out to be a pretty fun night and we finally got back at around 4:30am. The following day we had to check out at 9:30am to get on the boat to Koh Phangan. Not ideal with a hangover and not much sleep and it was really not a fun journey for any of us! We checked into Coral Bungalows on Haad Rin beach once we arrived and went for lunch. Koh Phangan was really pretty and that evening we walked into town for dinner before heading back to our accommodation where there was a pool party. This was the build up to the 'blackmoon party' the following night. After moaning at how typical it was that we had missed both full and half moon it turns out we got a party of somesort.
We didn't last long at the pool party though due to the hangover from the previous night and by 11pm headed to bed. The next day was spent on the fullmoon party beach, 'Sunrise' beach, in Haad Rin which is really, really nice! Then that afternoon we met up with Jay and her boyfriend, Ross, who had just arrived from Bangkok. We made plans to meet later for dinner and drinks before the blackmoon party that evening. The evening turned out to be really great fun, and we ended up covered in neon paint (which still stains my clothes now!) and had great fun partying on the beach. Hannah and I headed back to our hotel room at around 5am to find out that reception was shut and they don't leave keys out. We banged on reception for a bit until a girl walked past and said the same thing happened to her recently. Fortunately for us she was really lovely and let us share her room until we could get our key at 7am. At 7am we ran down to reception, grabbed some water to nurse the hangovers and went to our own beds before having to check out at 11am. We then had to get on a boat (hungover again, clearly didn't learn from the last time...) and travel 2 hours to Koh Tao. When we finally arrived we found accommodation at a dive centre. Koh Tao is much more chilled out than the other islands and we instantly fell in love with it. That evening we had an early night but I signed up to go diving at 6:30am the next morning, which also meant that our accommodation was cheaper on days that I dived.
In the morning I got up and got my equipment ready in the dive centre before we headed out 40 mins on the boat to Chumphon dive site. I was buddied with the dive master and we dived with a couple from canada. The first dive had amazing visibility and we saw lots of moray eels,a puffer fish plus loads of fish - it was great! The second dive was at Hin Pee Wee site which has a shipwreck, only being open water certified we were not meant to go to the depth to be able to see the wreck. Luckily the dive master let us sneak down to just over 20 metres where we got a glimpse of it in the distance - amazing! Wreck dives are pretty much the main reason why I want to do the advanced course...but I'd need more time and money for that which I unfortunately didn't have. The next day Jay and Ross arrived from Koh Phangan and I spent the afternoon by their lovely pool at their hotel (which was much nicer than ours, but guess we can't complain at £2 each a night...even if we didn't get a toilet seat on the toilet.) The following evening we sat out on Jay and Ross' veranda with a few drinks before going to see a ladyboy show 'The Queens Caberet' which was pretty interesting. There were a couple of dancers that were so good we had to go up and ask at the end if they were actually women. They weren't.
The next day Jay and Ross left for China and Hannah and I enjoyed our last day on Koh Tao in the sun before sitting outside our bungalow. We moved from Big Blue Dive Centre because we realised we could get better accommodation for the same price elsewhere. The next morning we had to check out at 11am but our boat didn't leave until 2pm so we sat in a restaurant before getting the boat, giant tuktuk, and night train back to Bangkok. We arrived at 5:10am and my flight to Sri Lanka was not until 5pm that evening. Luckily Hannah was staying an extra night in Bangkok so I could shower in her room but spent the day sitting in yet another restaurant (my favourite, near the Khao San Road - Serwanee's - or something like that). Finally it was time for me to head to the airport for the rather long journey to Sri Lanka (via Kuala Lumpur)...yet another night with no sleep. Funfun.
So after the boat, giant tuktuk, night train, sitting around all day on the Khao San Road, sitting at the airport, flying to Kuala Lumpur, sitting at KL airport for 3 hours, flying to Sri Lanka and travelling 8 hours to get to the village where was staying - I made it to Sri Lanka. Firdouse (the father of the family I'm staying with) , his 5 year old son, and one of the students met me at the airport to show me the way to their village. 4 buses and 8 hours later we arrived and it was morning. I was pretty exhausted after two nights with no sleep but didn't want to be rude by going straight to bed so spent the morning playing with their 5 children - a 1 months old baby, a 3.5 year old, a 5 year old, an 8 year old and a 10 year old. They were all adorable and most of them were at school when I arrived so it was pretty quiet. I stayed in a tiny village called Mi Ella just outside of Hakmana on the west coast, it was very pretty and there were no tourists at all. In the whole week I only saw 5 white people and they were all in one town which had a beach and was a tourist place, it was surreal and pretty incredible. As I walked down the street in the village everyone would come out of their houses and children would chase me down the road practising their english. Families would also randomly invite me in if they saw me for a coconut to drink or a chat in very broken english - it was awesome and such an experience. The only downside I had at the beginning of the week was the amount of free time I had. I taught from 4 til 5pm and again from 7 to 8pm and the rest of the day was free. There wasn't much to do in the adorable but tiny village and most of the family's children were at school until lunch time. However, the 3.5 year old was around and she was so cute and very entertaining. I'd also forgotten to buy conditioner and a new deodorant at the airport and they are not things I could find in the village...along with bottled water! Luckily Firdouse brought me back a big bottle from Hakmana but as for conditioner I had to go without and managed to find a random spray deodorant in my bag to get by on. It was an experience.
On my third day in Sri Lanka I did get to watch three chicks hatch out of eggs in an incubator. I was mesmerised for hours watching them struggle out of their eggs and sit cheeping away all naked and ugly. They soon dried out and became adorable fluffy chicks which we transferred to a box. On the morning before they left to go to their new home (a poor family who rely on the eggs for income and food who had been bought the eggs by two other people who stayed with Firdouse and his family: http://www.thekindnessofstrangers.net/index.cfm?Content=3). That morning I sat with one of the chicks who had a broken leg (possibly because the children had been playing with them) whilst he fell asleep in my hand. It was love at first sight :) A few days later I got to go and visit the family and the three chicks which was brilliant and again I spent the whole time nursing them in my pocket. During my time with the family Firdouse took me to see Hakmana and the other nearby town Wallasmulla, where we travelled on the back of his vehicle. A motorbike pulling a trailer pretty much, it was awesome! Before I flew out on the monday I had a weekend free of teaching so Firdouse drove me and his eldest daughter in the trailer down to see the wild elephants, we stayed overnight with a poor family whose house barely had walls let alone windows and the kitchen was a mud shack. They were very hospitable and the two teenage daughters spent the evening mesmerised by my blonde hair, putting it into all sorts of styles. They also cooked an amazing meal. The next morning we were up at 5:45am to see the elephants, they are kept out of the village by an electric fence due to the problems they used to cause which resulted in villagers killing them. We saw 8 in total and it was amazing!! After that we drove 250km all round the south western parts of Sri Lanka where I got to see Mirissa beach and a fort plus loads of stunning scenery. It started to rain at one point and we had to pull in to shelter into a driveway. The owners of the drive invited us into their house for tea - everyone was fascinated by me and wanted to know my story. Including all the traffic police that stop the traffic in Sri Lanka. After that it was pretty late and we popped in to see Shihama's (firdouses' wife) family. Her brother-in-law's father had passed away and it is tradition for them to hold a family gathering to celebrate the persons life 40 days after their death. That day was the 40th day and all the family were there. The women all gathered around me practising their english and wanting to know about my life and family etc. After that they piled tonnes of amazing curry and rice onto my plate before ensuring I ate dessert too. I was SO full but it was really good and they were incredibly friendly. We had to leave in order to make the 2 hour drive back at a reasonable hour but I could have stayed much longer chatting away. The kids adored my camera! We got back at around 10pm and it was pretty much time for bed ready to get up the next day to pack and head to the airport. Firdouse escorted me back to the airport, we left at 1:30pm and finally made it by 9:30pm, 5 buses later. I then had to wait at the airport for my 1am flight to Kuala Lumpur, followed by an hour wait in KL and then my flight to Bangkok. I arrived at 10:45am this morning and checked back into the hotel just off the Khao San Road that I stayed in previously. That's the third night in just over a week without sleep! I restocked on conditioner and deodorant back on the Khao San Road before reading by the pool (I'm on the last Hunger Games book now and its getting pretty good!!) then going to get some dinner, enjoying my last evening travelling by myself.
Tomorrow at 12pm my mum, dad, brother and sister arrive in Bangkok. EXCITED. Cannot believe i now have less than 2 weeks left. Travelling has become my way of life over the past 10 months and staying put back at home in one place is going to be weird. Lots of weekend trips need to be planned I think!! There is lots to look forward to going home to though and I'm excited about seeing everyone. Excited, nervous, and sad that my trip is coming to an end. It has truly been the BEST, most amazing 10 months of my life. EVER.
Pictures will follow soon...
E
X
Anyways, going on from my last post - the elephant riding in Luang Prabang was great fun. Before going to see the elephants we got up at 5am that morning to go and see alms being given to the monks...not quite what I was expecting really - monks just lined up walking along the street. But it was good to see. We then got picked up and driven into the jungle before getting on a boat to travel 15 mins down river to where we would be begin the half hour walk to the elephants. They were pretty tucked away and we all got eaten by flies along the journey!! There were loads of elephants when we did eventually find them, most seemed to be in ok condition but not quite as happy as I would have expected...either way we'd trekked that far and it was time to get into the wooden seats on their backs. The ride lasted for just over an hour (we were bitten alive by flies) but it was really great fun, especially when I got to ride on the neck of mine and Jenny's elephant for half of the journey. Attempting to direct it with my feet...not that it listened to anything I said! They showed us how they could knock down huge trees that stood in their paths which was pretty impressive and overall it was good fun. The following day, and the one after that, were spent travelling down the Mekong River into Thailand. In between we stayed in a tiny village in Laos beside the river. The scenery was amazing but by the second day we started to get bored so livened things up with a bottle of vodka that Kim (our guide) kindly bought us. We played cards and drank shots of vodka (for the losers) before arriving in Chiang Kong late in the afternoon. Chiang Kong was a bit of a stopover on the way to Chiang Mai so we didn't really get up to much but on the afternoon of arriving in Chiang Mai we went to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom was brilliant, we chose to go in with the largest (adult), small (7-10 months) and smallest tigers (1-2 months). The smallest were by far my favourite, they were so cuddly and playful and just adorable. The adult tigers were pretty scary to be honest but it was a great experience and I really enjoyed it!! That evening we went for a few drinks in one of the very few places in Chiang Mai with a late licence, 'Spicy'. The next day I found out that my flight with Air Asia to Sri Lanka had been cancelled so spent most of the day sorting that out and arranging a new flight. That evening we got the final sleeper train of the tour to Bangkok - 15 hours. The train was actually really nice and Kim had bought more alcohol, rum this time which we got halfway through before bed. The next morning we arrived in Bangkok and after showering, Hannah, Elody, Joel and I headed to the station to arrange our trains down to the islands. We decided to go to Koh Samui first and work up to Koh Tao.
Once the train was booked Elody, Hannah and I went to MBK Shopping Centre to see if I could find a hygrometer for the family I was going to stay with in Sri Lanka. They needed it for an incubator to hatch eggs. Unfortunately no matter how hard I tried to act out a hygrometer, the Thai people just didn't understand and so we had to give up on that one! That evening we had the final group meal of the tour which was quite sad. We gave Kim a tooth necklace that we had picked out and a card that we'd made out of my very useful coloured paper - it's been a really handy item in my backpack on this trip as it turns out :) After dinner we went to a Pingpong show and this was quite an experience to say the least...After that we headed back to the Khao San Road, finally stumbling home at 6am just as it was getting light. We managed to get a bit of sleep before checking out at 12pm where we went back to the Khao San for lunch and a wander around before the night train at 7:30pm that evening. The night train to Chumphon was a bit more basic than the previous one, we arrived at 4:30am and had to wait until 6am for the giant tuktuk to take us to the port. At the port we got on a 2 hour ferry to Koh Tao which then went another 2 hours to Koh Phangan where we had to change boats to do the final 45 mins to Koh Samui. When we arrived on Koh SamuiElody...it was actually pretty comfy, apart from the issue that by morning it would always be pretty flat. After checking in we sat on the beach for a bit to recover from the night and day of travelling. I got a gecko henna'd onto my foot and then we had dinner on the beach. Along the beach there would be several men with monkeys walking around and when they got near they'd put them on you. They were ADORABLE (one kept sucking it's thumb!) so I eventually caved in and paid 100 baht for 3 photos with one. The next day was spent on the beach and in the clear blue sea which was lovely and that evening we went out for drinks which turned out to be a pretty fun night and we finally got back at around 4:30am. The following day we had to check out at 9:30am to get on the boat to Koh Phangan. Not ideal with a hangover and not much sleep and it was really not a fun journey for any of us! We checked into Coral Bungalows on Haad Rin beach once we arrived and went for lunch. Koh Phangan was really pretty and that evening we walked into town for dinner before heading back to our accommodation where there was a pool party. This was the build up to the 'blackmoon party' the following night. After moaning at how typical it was that we had missed both full and half moon it turns out we got a party of somesort.
We didn't last long at the pool party though due to the hangover from the previous night and by 11pm headed to bed. The next day was spent on the fullmoon party beach, 'Sunrise' beach, in Haad Rin which is really, really nice! Then that afternoon we met up with Jay and her boyfriend, Ross, who had just arrived from Bangkok. We made plans to meet later for dinner and drinks before the blackmoon party that evening. The evening turned out to be really great fun, and we ended up covered in neon paint (which still stains my clothes now!) and had great fun partying on the beach. Hannah and I headed back to our hotel room at around 5am to find out that reception was shut and they don't leave keys out. We banged on reception for a bit until a girl walked past and said the same thing happened to her recently. Fortunately for us she was really lovely and let us share her room until we could get our key at 7am. At 7am we ran down to reception, grabbed some water to nurse the hangovers and went to our own beds before having to check out at 11am. We then had to get on a boat (hungover again, clearly didn't learn from the last time...) and travel 2 hours to Koh Tao. When we finally arrived we found accommodation at a dive centre. Koh Tao is much more chilled out than the other islands and we instantly fell in love with it. That evening we had an early night but I signed up to go diving at 6:30am the next morning, which also meant that our accommodation was cheaper on days that I dived.
In the morning I got up and got my equipment ready in the dive centre before we headed out 40 mins on the boat to Chumphon dive site. I was buddied with the dive master and we dived with a couple from canada. The first dive had amazing visibility and we saw lots of moray eels,a puffer fish plus loads of fish - it was great! The second dive was at Hin Pee Wee site which has a shipwreck, only being open water certified we were not meant to go to the depth to be able to see the wreck. Luckily the dive master let us sneak down to just over 20 metres where we got a glimpse of it in the distance - amazing! Wreck dives are pretty much the main reason why I want to do the advanced course...but I'd need more time and money for that which I unfortunately didn't have. The next day Jay and Ross arrived from Koh Phangan and I spent the afternoon by their lovely pool at their hotel (which was much nicer than ours, but guess we can't complain at £2 each a night...even if we didn't get a toilet seat on the toilet.) The following evening we sat out on Jay and Ross' veranda with a few drinks before going to see a ladyboy show 'The Queens Caberet' which was pretty interesting. There were a couple of dancers that were so good we had to go up and ask at the end if they were actually women. They weren't.
The next day Jay and Ross left for China and Hannah and I enjoyed our last day on Koh Tao in the sun before sitting outside our bungalow. We moved from Big Blue Dive Centre because we realised we could get better accommodation for the same price elsewhere. The next morning we had to check out at 11am but our boat didn't leave until 2pm so we sat in a restaurant before getting the boat, giant tuktuk, and night train back to Bangkok. We arrived at 5:10am and my flight to Sri Lanka was not until 5pm that evening. Luckily Hannah was staying an extra night in Bangkok so I could shower in her room but spent the day sitting in yet another restaurant (my favourite, near the Khao San Road - Serwanee's - or something like that). Finally it was time for me to head to the airport for the rather long journey to Sri Lanka (via Kuala Lumpur)...yet another night with no sleep. Funfun.
So after the boat, giant tuktuk, night train, sitting around all day on the Khao San Road, sitting at the airport, flying to Kuala Lumpur, sitting at KL airport for 3 hours, flying to Sri Lanka and travelling 8 hours to get to the village where was staying - I made it to Sri Lanka. Firdouse (the father of the family I'm staying with) , his 5 year old son, and one of the students met me at the airport to show me the way to their village. 4 buses and 8 hours later we arrived and it was morning. I was pretty exhausted after two nights with no sleep but didn't want to be rude by going straight to bed so spent the morning playing with their 5 children - a 1 months old baby, a 3.5 year old, a 5 year old, an 8 year old and a 10 year old. They were all adorable and most of them were at school when I arrived so it was pretty quiet. I stayed in a tiny village called Mi Ella just outside of Hakmana on the west coast, it was very pretty and there were no tourists at all. In the whole week I only saw 5 white people and they were all in one town which had a beach and was a tourist place, it was surreal and pretty incredible. As I walked down the street in the village everyone would come out of their houses and children would chase me down the road practising their english. Families would also randomly invite me in if they saw me for a coconut to drink or a chat in very broken english - it was awesome and such an experience. The only downside I had at the beginning of the week was the amount of free time I had. I taught from 4 til 5pm and again from 7 to 8pm and the rest of the day was free. There wasn't much to do in the adorable but tiny village and most of the family's children were at school until lunch time. However, the 3.5 year old was around and she was so cute and very entertaining. I'd also forgotten to buy conditioner and a new deodorant at the airport and they are not things I could find in the village...along with bottled water! Luckily Firdouse brought me back a big bottle from Hakmana but as for conditioner I had to go without and managed to find a random spray deodorant in my bag to get by on. It was an experience.
On my third day in Sri Lanka I did get to watch three chicks hatch out of eggs in an incubator. I was mesmerised for hours watching them struggle out of their eggs and sit cheeping away all naked and ugly. They soon dried out and became adorable fluffy chicks which we transferred to a box. On the morning before they left to go to their new home (a poor family who rely on the eggs for income and food who had been bought the eggs by two other people who stayed with Firdouse and his family: http://www.thekindnessofstrangers.net/index.cfm?Content=3). That morning I sat with one of the chicks who had a broken leg (possibly because the children had been playing with them) whilst he fell asleep in my hand. It was love at first sight :) A few days later I got to go and visit the family and the three chicks which was brilliant and again I spent the whole time nursing them in my pocket. During my time with the family Firdouse took me to see Hakmana and the other nearby town Wallasmulla, where we travelled on the back of his vehicle. A motorbike pulling a trailer pretty much, it was awesome! Before I flew out on the monday I had a weekend free of teaching so Firdouse drove me and his eldest daughter in the trailer down to see the wild elephants, we stayed overnight with a poor family whose house barely had walls let alone windows and the kitchen was a mud shack. They were very hospitable and the two teenage daughters spent the evening mesmerised by my blonde hair, putting it into all sorts of styles. They also cooked an amazing meal. The next morning we were up at 5:45am to see the elephants, they are kept out of the village by an electric fence due to the problems they used to cause which resulted in villagers killing them. We saw 8 in total and it was amazing!! After that we drove 250km all round the south western parts of Sri Lanka where I got to see Mirissa beach and a fort plus loads of stunning scenery. It started to rain at one point and we had to pull in to shelter into a driveway. The owners of the drive invited us into their house for tea - everyone was fascinated by me and wanted to know my story. Including all the traffic police that stop the traffic in Sri Lanka. After that it was pretty late and we popped in to see Shihama's (firdouses' wife) family. Her brother-in-law's father had passed away and it is tradition for them to hold a family gathering to celebrate the persons life 40 days after their death. That day was the 40th day and all the family were there. The women all gathered around me practising their english and wanting to know about my life and family etc. After that they piled tonnes of amazing curry and rice onto my plate before ensuring I ate dessert too. I was SO full but it was really good and they were incredibly friendly. We had to leave in order to make the 2 hour drive back at a reasonable hour but I could have stayed much longer chatting away. The kids adored my camera! We got back at around 10pm and it was pretty much time for bed ready to get up the next day to pack and head to the airport. Firdouse escorted me back to the airport, we left at 1:30pm and finally made it by 9:30pm, 5 buses later. I then had to wait at the airport for my 1am flight to Kuala Lumpur, followed by an hour wait in KL and then my flight to Bangkok. I arrived at 10:45am this morning and checked back into the hotel just off the Khao San Road that I stayed in previously. That's the third night in just over a week without sleep! I restocked on conditioner and deodorant back on the Khao San Road before reading by the pool (I'm on the last Hunger Games book now and its getting pretty good!!) then going to get some dinner, enjoying my last evening travelling by myself.
Tomorrow at 12pm my mum, dad, brother and sister arrive in Bangkok. EXCITED. Cannot believe i now have less than 2 weeks left. Travelling has become my way of life over the past 10 months and staying put back at home in one place is going to be weird. Lots of weekend trips need to be planned I think!! There is lots to look forward to going home to though and I'm excited about seeing everyone. Excited, nervous, and sad that my trip is coming to an end. It has truly been the BEST, most amazing 10 months of my life. EVER.
Pictures will follow soon...
E
X
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Adventures in Asia - Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos!
23/5/2012
So I have now reached Cambodia and heading into Vietnam today. On the 11th May I flew into Bangkok from Singapore after saying goodbye to Jude the previous evening. I arrived in Bangkok and headed to my hotel - Rambuttri Village Inn and Plaza, just off the Khao San Road. I had a lovely room (with air con!!) and the hotel even had a pool which was useful for killing some time before the tour started around Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. That evening I headed out for dinner and came back to the hotel. The next morning I had a wander around the Khao San Road and bought a few bits and pieces along the way - including some super baggy trousers :) The following day was Sunday and there was a weekend market on, Chatuchack, so I hopped into a tuktuk which was about 5km away for less that £2! Chatuchack was massive, possibly the biggest market I've ever seen!! In the three hours that I was there I didn't even make it around all of the stalls and they sold everything from meat and fish to statues and household goods. I did get some jewellery and had a really good fruit shake. The last two days on the Khao San Road were spent by the pool and wandering around the local shops...and enjoying the amazing Thai food. Massaman curry has to be my favourite!!
On the 16th the tour began. I got a tuktuk (much prefer these to taxis!) over to Chinatown to find the hotel. I checked in and had the room to myself until around 4:30pm when Jay arrived. Jay and I got chatting straight away and it wasn't until it got to 5:45pm that we realised we needed to get ready and go down to meet the rest of the group and our guide, Kim. That evening we headed out as a group for dinner and a few drinks. Some of us then headed back to the Khao San Road for some more drinks and Jay and I finally stumbled back to our room at 3am. The next morning we had the bus into Cambodia to Siem Reap at 7am, not fun when still drunk from all the Mai Tai's from the night before. I really wasn't feeling my best and after taking my antimalarials that was it and we had to stop the bus....several times. We finally made it to the Thailand-Cambodian border and began was feeling much better. Once we were stamped into Cambodia (starting to run out of space in my passport now) we checked into our accommodation in Siem Reap and got tuktuks to New Hope, a Cambodian School where they teach English and helped the locals with medical care. The tuktuks in Cambodia are very different to in Thailand - literally just a motorbike with a trailer that you sit on attached to the back. New Hope was great to see, Cambodia has a LOT of poverty but the school is for the poorest families so that they are able to send their children to learn English for free. We got to sit in on an older class (12 to 24 year olds) and got to see a Cambodian lesson in full swing. After the lesson had finished we had dinner, Khmer style - including crickets (rather nutty!) and 5 courses! The food was lovely and even the crickets weren't that bad.
The evening after we visited New Hope was pretty tame seeing as we had to be up at 4am the next morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We got to Angkor Wat in the dark and found a spot right next to the lake. Unfortunately it was a little bit too cloudy but we still saw the sunrise and come up over the temple which was lovely. We then spent a few hours exploring the temple before heading back for breakfast. After breakfast we did a few more temples including Bayon, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm (the jungle temple in Tomb Raider). That evening, after some market shopping and dinner, we had several drinks...we started at a Cambodian Fun Fair with all the locals and got to go on bumper cars and a mini rollercoaster - brilliant fun. :) There was also the optional choice of beetles as a snack, something I declined - the crickets were enough for me! After that we headed back to the 'Pub Street' in Siem Reap and to 'Angkor What!?' Bar. Several buckets and shots later we tuktuked back to the hotel to bed. The next day we had yet another early bus to Phnom Penh and this time I was wise enough to wait until after we had arrived to take my antimalarial tablet. We arrived in Phnom Penh
After the rather morbid morning Elody , Hannah (two british girls on the tour), Jay and I went for fruit smoothies and killed some time wandering around before meeting up with everyone that evening for dinner and then back to the hotel to pack ready to head to Sihanoukville the next day. We arrived in Sihanoukville at around 2pm ish. We stayed at Beach Road which was a lovely hotel with a swimming pool and a bar with really comfy chairs. Jay and I booked onto a dive for the following morning and then we sat in the bar with some of the others playing cards and jenga. That evening we had dinner on the beach - seafood BBQ with squid, prawns and barracuda, SO good! Then we moved onto a bar and started on the buckets. As we were walking into a bar I spotted a friend that I had met in New Zealand which was really random and completely out of the blue. After several buckets later I decided that it really was time for bed seeing as we had to be up and at the dive centre for 7am the following morning. Getting up the next day was a bit of a challenge but we made it over the road to 'The Dive Shop' and got the tuktuk down to the marina, followed by a 2 hour boat over to the Koh Tong. Once we got to the island we got our wetsuits, fins, weight belts and masks ready before heading out on another boat to the dive site. Jay was doing a refresher course in the morning but there were 3 other divers and I was buddied with one of these. The visibility wasn't amazing but we did see lots of marine life including a giant puffer fish and a little box fish. We had a bottom time of 61 minutes and by the end I still had 100 bar of air left - the longest dive I've ever done so far...it still flew by though. After resurfacing we headed back for lunch and then it was back on the boat to the next dive site. This time I was buddied with Jay and it was just the two of us with a dive instructor. We saw loads of Blue Spotted Stingrays and a baby moray eel but visibility again really wasn't that great, we still had fun and again were down for an hour. After the diving and boat trip we arrived back at 7pm for a quick shower and then headed to the beach for another seafood BBQ.
This morning we have a 5 hour bus ride to Chau Doc in Vietnam where tonight we can go on the back of motorbikes to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset :) I'm really enjoying the tour but missing the freedom of travelling alone slightly and not sure I'd opt for a tour around these countries if I were to do repeat the trip...but after my Dengue episode I really wasn't keen on getting sick all alone in Asia again!
30/05/12
We didn't end up getting up to much in Chau Doc mainly because we were not there for very long as it was a bit of a stopover on the way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We arrived in Ho Chi Minh in the early afternoon so headed out to the markets after lunch, before dinner and a few drinks that evening. Ho Chi Minh was really nice but pretty hectic with thousands of motorbikes everywhere! With a population of around 9 million people there are apparently almost as many motorbikes! The following day we went to see Cu Chi tunnels which were pretty incredible. The tunnels were built for the Vietnamese to hide and move around in during the war. The actual tunnels are absolutely tiny, but they have made larger 'western' sized ones for tourists to go in, twice the size of the originals. These are still minute and you have to bend over and shuffle to get through. At the tunnels I got to shoot an M30 machine gun which adds to my rifle and shotgun list :) That evening we had a sleeper train to Nha Trang. The train was surprisingly lovely with 4 bed cabins, free water, and pretty comfy (slightly narrow) beds. By 9:30pm we were asleep ready to wake up at 5am to get off at Nha Trang. We arrived to our hotel at 6am ish and because we couldn't check in headed down to the beach to sleep before going for breakfast. It was quite strange to get down to the beach at 6am to see it full of people! The Vietnamese go to the beach from around 4am until the sunrises to avoid being in the sun - they like to be white (and even have skin whitener as opposed to fake tan) which is the complete opposite of most tourists...grass is always greener! That evening dinner was followed by a drunken night out where we even managed to get our way into the posh sailing club by asking for 'Richard'...still have no clue as to who Richard actually is! Due to the previous night's drunken antics the following day was spent recovering on the beach and swimming in the sea preparing for another night train to Hoi An the following evening. This night train however was not quite on the same standards as the previous one. We had mouse droppings in our cabin along with baby preying mantis' and cockroaches, although I think we did well getting the mouse as he seemed to reduce the number of insects and bugs in our cabin...some of the others were not so lucky and didn't get much sleep at all!
Hoi An is possibly one of my favourite places in Asia. It is really pretty and has the added bonus of hundreds of tailoring shops offering tailor made clothes at super cheap prices! We went out on a boat to watch the sunset on our first evening with a few beers before Jay and I headed off to get some dresses made. I went with a turquoise dress with a black band around the middle and Jay got a lovely green one. The next morning we went back for a fitting (after getting ridiculously lost trying to find the shop). The dresses were lovely and just needed minor alterations, we also decided to get more clothes tailored - Jay went for another dress and jacket and I opted for a coat. After some time at the hotel pool sunbathing we headed back that afternoon for the fittings. My coat is perfect, even if it is a bit of a bulk to carry around for the next two months. That evening we headed out for dinner for Elody's birthday. We gave her the rather artistic card that Jay and I had made and the Vietnamese doll that we bought (as a bit of a joke present). Kim, our guide, organised a cake and it was a really nice meal. After that it was the usual drinks...in an Australian bar, in Vietnam(!?). I headed back at around 1am and woke to a missing roommate who eventually rocked up at 6am still drunk which was pretty hilarious. We frantically packed Jay's backpack and headed down to breakfast to sober her up. After that we had a 4 hour bus journey to Hue which is where I'm writing this. The bus journey was really uncomfortable and hot but we did stop on the way to see a pagoda and some caves...although climbing lots of steps in the boiling heat and humidity here (even at 9am) was not ideal! We now have one night in Hue and this afternoon Claire (another girl on the tour) and I went on a motorbike tour. We saw paddy fields, a rice museum where we learnt how rice is grown and processed, the oldest Buddhist monastery in Vietnam, we learnt how incense and conical hats are made, and also visited the burial site of a Vietnamese Emperor. It was pretty fun, if not a bit scary at times, driving around on the back of a motorbike seeing the countryside areas surrounding Hue. Driving in Vietnam (or Asia in general) is definitely very different to at home - the art is to never stop for anyone and just beep your horn at everyone.Tomorrow we are off on yet another train, 15 hours this time, from Hue to Hanoi where we head to Halong Bay.
7/6/2012
The train to Hanoi was much better than the previous one, only one baby cockroach this time! The train was delayed by an hour but we still made it to Hanoi early and arrived at 4:30am. We got onto our transfer bus and headed to Halong Bay arriving at 8am. We couldn't check in until 9am so sat around the hotel until check in time and then headed to the rooms to change and get ready to go on the boat at 12pm. The boat was really lovely and we had amazing seafood for lunch - crab, squid, prawns and whole BBQ fish. We stopped off to see a floating village where Jay and I shared a kayak and set off (bumping into a lot of other boats and rocks) around Halong Bay in and out of caves. It was stunning! After half an hour of kayaking it was time to head back to the floating village, we got lost on the way back but eventually found our group and we all piled back onto the boat to the next stop, some caves in the limestone karsts. The caves were really humid and damp and cement had been put on the ceiling to prevent stalactites from forming which was a bit of a shame, it was also lit with multicoloured lights. After the caves it was back on the boat to sail to the mainland. First of all we crashed into another boat (they drive their boats just the same way as the cars here - stopping is not an option, no matter what). After that we ran aground and broken the steering. Another boat came to our rescue and tied us alongside it so that we could be dragged back to land. It was a bit of an exciting journey back but we made it in the end, only an hour or so late. That evening we had a look around the night markets before bed...I'm not sure I've ever seen so many tacky items in one place, however all the locals seemed to love it (there we not many western tourists doing any shopping!).
The next morning at 9am we headed back to Hanoi where we checked in and had a wander around more markets. Jay and I then went for coffee by the lake before meeting up with the group for diner that evening. After dinner we headed out for drinks but it started to rain and we got absolutely soaked so ran into a bar - 'Half Man Half Noodle (!?). In here we got chatting to some guys from Ireland who told us about the Vietnamese music festival and an after party that was going on that evening. We ended up getting a taxi to the after party and had a great night - there were live bands and it was really good fun. We finally stumbled back to our hotel at 3:30am where Jay and I sat chatting for another couple of hours before we finally went to bed. We didn't get up until 12pm the following day and went for (a very hungover) lunch before getting taxi bikes to Hanoi Prison. The prison was pretty interesting and we wandered round for an hour or so, there just wasn't that much information about it. So once we had had a wander round we decided it was time to head back to the hotel to sleep for a few hours before dinner and an early night. The next day was our flight to Laos with Vietnam Airlines. The flight to Vientiane was only about 50 minutes and we soon arrived at our hotel and checked in. After lunch we went on a city tour, it was great...but our guide/driver couldn't speak any English so we weren't really sure what we were looking at. After seeing a few temples, a lot of Buddhas, and a monument we didn't fancy putting on any more wrap skirts to cover up (it was SO hot) so went back to the hotel. The following day we got a 4 hour bus to Vang Vieng and after checking into the hotel and going for lunch we hired motorbikes with Kim (our tour guide). We each got a bike and had great fun practising changing gear up and down the road until we realised that we needed to top them up with fuel. We split into several groups to go and get fuel but unfortunately didn't all make it to the petrol station...mine, Elody's and Noah's bikes ran out half way and so we had to wait beside the road for the others. Eventually Noah headed off to get us some fuel and came back with two water bottles full. After refuelling we were all good to go and set off behind Kim to the caves. Along the way two of the bikes got punctures so had to be lifted onto a truck for repairs whilst we climbed the many steps up to the cave in the boiling heat and humidity. The caves were great, just pretty dark and damp so very slippery. We also had a bit of a treacherous climb back down the steps to reach our bikes but it was really fun. Jay and I made it down before the others so set off back to the hotel because it looked like rain was on its way. We made it back to the main road before it poured down and we got soaked running back to the hotel after dropping the bikes off, by that point we decided we may as well play in the rain given how wet we were. After we got bored of jumping in puddles we headed up for a shower when the others finally made it back - Elody and her motorbike had a bit of an argument with a ditch and her bike hadn't fared up too well but she made it back in one piece with the others. That evening we went out for a few drinks but didn't want to over do it because we had a big day of tubing planned. The next morning we got up for breakfast and then set off to the shops to stock up on clothes, flip flops, waterproof bags and other essentials for tubing. We then changed and headed down to the tubing station to grab some tubes (55,000 kip for a tube and 60,000 kip deposit which gets returned if you bring back your tube before 6pm otherwise it drops to 40,00 before 8:30pm and then nothing after that), sign a piece of paper (something about tubing being dangerous...) and then got the tuktuk up to the first bar.
We had a couple of drinks in a 'mini' bar when we got off the tuktuk (where we were told by a volunteer in a nearby school that one tourist every 2 weeks dies tubing...!!) before getting a make-shift boat over to the first bar. There had been a bridge until the rain washed it away the previous week. At that point we did worry that there had been a lot of rain the day before and the river was much wider and flowing a LOT faster that we expected. We got over to the first bar and had one of the many free whisky shots (which often contain some sort of massive centipede type bug) and got our first 'friendship' bracelet. We stayed at the first bar for quite a while and it gradually got busier, we also entertained ourselves with a marker pen drawing all over each other (I still have remnants of the blue ink on my skin now). Once we were ready to leave the first bar we grabbed our tubes (before the Laos guys could steal them and take them back to Vang Vieng so that you lose the 60,000 deposit!) and floated down to the bar. The guys managed to grab the bottles attached to rope that reel you into the bar but all of the girls missed and we got pulled into a bar on the opposite side of the river. We had our free shot there and then got the tubes and walked back to the boat where we had started and tried all over again to reach the boys in the bar. Second time round we made it and headed straight to the bar for more beer (and free shots)...by this time we had begun quite a collection of bracelets - the typical tubing souvenir! The second bar was great fun and we danced away for a while, soaking wet from the river, before decided it was time to tube onto the next stop. This time it was only Jay who didn't make it and ended up clinging to a branch until she was rescued, however her t-shirt and waterproof bag were swept away and so she was left with no money. By this point we really didn't need any more drinks so just stuck to the free shots and soon moved onto yet another bar. This time they had a swing into the river...possibly not the most sensible idea but we all had a go and as I landed it felt like I'd been slapped in the face by the water, but other from that great fun! Again we didn't stop long at this bar and soon floated down to one that had a slide - this was brilliant fun as you went down a tiled chute before flying into the river where a ring was thrown at you to get you back into the bar. After that we headed to a couple more bars but the group got split into three - Me, Hannah, Elody and Noah; Jay and Greg; Jenny and Joel. Hannah, Elody, Noah and I floated on until we realised we had gone past the last bar and had to get our way across the river to the correct side and pull ourselves out onto the land and climb through some bushes where we found a tuktuk to take us back into town. We did well with 3 tubes between the four of us, it was 7pm so only ended up with 40,000 kip back for each tube...pretty good result for tubing and I still had my original flip flops (almost unheard of!)! We finally found the others after dinner that evening and decided to head to 'Bucket Bar' where they were handing out free (very strong) whisky buckets. After a few sips of a bucket Jay and I had really had enough and stumbled back to our hotel, collecting a banana, chocolate and coconut pancake to share along the way. Tubing was AMAZING!!! This morning at 9am we got a 6 hour bus to Luang Prabang where we are now staying for two nights and off elephant trekking tomorrow which should be great fun! :)
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So I have now reached Cambodia and heading into Vietnam today. On the 11th May I flew into Bangkok from Singapore after saying goodbye to Jude the previous evening. I arrived in Bangkok and headed to my hotel - Rambuttri Village Inn and Plaza, just off the Khao San Road. I had a lovely room (with air con!!) and the hotel even had a pool which was useful for killing some time before the tour started around Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. That evening I headed out for dinner and came back to the hotel. The next morning I had a wander around the Khao San Road and bought a few bits and pieces along the way - including some super baggy trousers :) The following day was Sunday and there was a weekend market on, Chatuchack, so I hopped into a tuktuk which was about 5km away for less that £2! Chatuchack was massive, possibly the biggest market I've ever seen!! In the three hours that I was there I didn't even make it around all of the stalls and they sold everything from meat and fish to statues and household goods. I did get some jewellery and had a really good fruit shake. The last two days on the Khao San Road were spent by the pool and wandering around the local shops...and enjoying the amazing Thai food. Massaman curry has to be my favourite!!
On the 16th the tour began. I got a tuktuk (much prefer these to taxis!) over to Chinatown to find the hotel. I checked in and had the room to myself until around 4:30pm when Jay arrived. Jay and I got chatting straight away and it wasn't until it got to 5:45pm that we realised we needed to get ready and go down to meet the rest of the group and our guide, Kim. That evening we headed out as a group for dinner and a few drinks. Some of us then headed back to the Khao San Road for some more drinks and Jay and I finally stumbled back to our room at 3am. The next morning we had the bus into Cambodia to Siem Reap at 7am, not fun when still drunk from all the Mai Tai's from the night before. I really wasn't feeling my best and after taking my antimalarials that was it and we had to stop the bus....several times. We finally made it to the Thailand-Cambodian border and began was feeling much better. Once we were stamped into Cambodia (starting to run out of space in my passport now) we checked into our accommodation in Siem Reap and got tuktuks to New Hope, a Cambodian School where they teach English and helped the locals with medical care. The tuktuks in Cambodia are very different to in Thailand - literally just a motorbike with a trailer that you sit on attached to the back. New Hope was great to see, Cambodia has a LOT of poverty but the school is for the poorest families so that they are able to send their children to learn English for free. We got to sit in on an older class (12 to 24 year olds) and got to see a Cambodian lesson in full swing. After the lesson had finished we had dinner, Khmer style - including crickets (rather nutty!) and 5 courses! The food was lovely and even the crickets weren't that bad.
The evening after we visited New Hope was pretty tame seeing as we had to be up at 4am the next morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We got to Angkor Wat in the dark and found a spot right next to the lake. Unfortunately it was a little bit too cloudy but we still saw the sunrise and come up over the temple which was lovely. We then spent a few hours exploring the temple before heading back for breakfast. After breakfast we did a few more temples including Bayon, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm (the jungle temple in Tomb Raider). That evening, after some market shopping and dinner, we had several drinks...we started at a Cambodian Fun Fair with all the locals and got to go on bumper cars and a mini rollercoaster - brilliant fun. :) There was also the optional choice of beetles as a snack, something I declined - the crickets were enough for me! After that we headed back to the 'Pub Street' in Siem Reap and to 'Angkor What!?' Bar. Several buckets and shots later we tuktuked back to the hotel to bed. The next day we had yet another early bus to Phnom Penh and this time I was wise enough to wait until after we had arrived to take my antimalarial tablet. We arrived in Phnom Penh
After the rather morbid morning Elody , Hannah (two british girls on the tour), Jay and I went for fruit smoothies and killed some time wandering around before meeting up with everyone that evening for dinner and then back to the hotel to pack ready to head to Sihanoukville the next day. We arrived in Sihanoukville at around 2pm ish. We stayed at Beach Road which was a lovely hotel with a swimming pool and a bar with really comfy chairs. Jay and I booked onto a dive for the following morning and then we sat in the bar with some of the others playing cards and jenga. That evening we had dinner on the beach - seafood BBQ with squid, prawns and barracuda, SO good! Then we moved onto a bar and started on the buckets. As we were walking into a bar I spotted a friend that I had met in New Zealand which was really random and completely out of the blue. After several buckets later I decided that it really was time for bed seeing as we had to be up and at the dive centre for 7am the following morning. Getting up the next day was a bit of a challenge but we made it over the road to 'The Dive Shop' and got the tuktuk down to the marina, followed by a 2 hour boat over to the Koh Tong. Once we got to the island we got our wetsuits, fins, weight belts and masks ready before heading out on another boat to the dive site. Jay was doing a refresher course in the morning but there were 3 other divers and I was buddied with one of these. The visibility wasn't amazing but we did see lots of marine life including a giant puffer fish and a little box fish. We had a bottom time of 61 minutes and by the end I still had 100 bar of air left - the longest dive I've ever done so far...it still flew by though. After resurfacing we headed back for lunch and then it was back on the boat to the next dive site. This time I was buddied with Jay and it was just the two of us with a dive instructor. We saw loads of Blue Spotted Stingrays and a baby moray eel but visibility again really wasn't that great, we still had fun and again were down for an hour. After the diving and boat trip we arrived back at 7pm for a quick shower and then headed to the beach for another seafood BBQ.
This morning we have a 5 hour bus ride to Chau Doc in Vietnam where tonight we can go on the back of motorbikes to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset :) I'm really enjoying the tour but missing the freedom of travelling alone slightly and not sure I'd opt for a tour around these countries if I were to do repeat the trip...but after my Dengue episode I really wasn't keen on getting sick all alone in Asia again!
30/05/12
We didn't end up getting up to much in Chau Doc mainly because we were not there for very long as it was a bit of a stopover on the way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We arrived in Ho Chi Minh in the early afternoon so headed out to the markets after lunch, before dinner and a few drinks that evening. Ho Chi Minh was really nice but pretty hectic with thousands of motorbikes everywhere! With a population of around 9 million people there are apparently almost as many motorbikes! The following day we went to see Cu Chi tunnels which were pretty incredible. The tunnels were built for the Vietnamese to hide and move around in during the war. The actual tunnels are absolutely tiny, but they have made larger 'western' sized ones for tourists to go in, twice the size of the originals. These are still minute and you have to bend over and shuffle to get through. At the tunnels I got to shoot an M30 machine gun which adds to my rifle and shotgun list :) That evening we had a sleeper train to Nha Trang. The train was surprisingly lovely with 4 bed cabins, free water, and pretty comfy (slightly narrow) beds. By 9:30pm we were asleep ready to wake up at 5am to get off at Nha Trang. We arrived to our hotel at 6am ish and because we couldn't check in headed down to the beach to sleep before going for breakfast. It was quite strange to get down to the beach at 6am to see it full of people! The Vietnamese go to the beach from around 4am until the sunrises to avoid being in the sun - they like to be white (and even have skin whitener as opposed to fake tan) which is the complete opposite of most tourists...grass is always greener! That evening dinner was followed by a drunken night out where we even managed to get our way into the posh sailing club by asking for 'Richard'...still have no clue as to who Richard actually is! Due to the previous night's drunken antics the following day was spent recovering on the beach and swimming in the sea preparing for another night train to Hoi An the following evening. This night train however was not quite on the same standards as the previous one. We had mouse droppings in our cabin along with baby preying mantis' and cockroaches, although I think we did well getting the mouse as he seemed to reduce the number of insects and bugs in our cabin...some of the others were not so lucky and didn't get much sleep at all!
Hoi An is possibly one of my favourite places in Asia. It is really pretty and has the added bonus of hundreds of tailoring shops offering tailor made clothes at super cheap prices! We went out on a boat to watch the sunset on our first evening with a few beers before Jay and I headed off to get some dresses made. I went with a turquoise dress with a black band around the middle and Jay got a lovely green one. The next morning we went back for a fitting (after getting ridiculously lost trying to find the shop). The dresses were lovely and just needed minor alterations, we also decided to get more clothes tailored - Jay went for another dress and jacket and I opted for a coat. After some time at the hotel pool sunbathing we headed back that afternoon for the fittings. My coat is perfect, even if it is a bit of a bulk to carry around for the next two months. That evening we headed out for dinner for Elody's birthday. We gave her the rather artistic card that Jay and I had made and the Vietnamese doll that we bought (as a bit of a joke present). Kim, our guide, organised a cake and it was a really nice meal. After that it was the usual drinks...in an Australian bar, in Vietnam(!?). I headed back at around 1am and woke to a missing roommate who eventually rocked up at 6am still drunk which was pretty hilarious. We frantically packed Jay's backpack and headed down to breakfast to sober her up. After that we had a 4 hour bus journey to Hue which is where I'm writing this. The bus journey was really uncomfortable and hot but we did stop on the way to see a pagoda and some caves...although climbing lots of steps in the boiling heat and humidity here (even at 9am) was not ideal! We now have one night in Hue and this afternoon Claire (another girl on the tour) and I went on a motorbike tour. We saw paddy fields, a rice museum where we learnt how rice is grown and processed, the oldest Buddhist monastery in Vietnam, we learnt how incense and conical hats are made, and also visited the burial site of a Vietnamese Emperor. It was pretty fun, if not a bit scary at times, driving around on the back of a motorbike seeing the countryside areas surrounding Hue. Driving in Vietnam (or Asia in general) is definitely very different to at home - the art is to never stop for anyone and just beep your horn at everyone.Tomorrow we are off on yet another train, 15 hours this time, from Hue to Hanoi where we head to Halong Bay.
7/6/2012
The train to Hanoi was much better than the previous one, only one baby cockroach this time! The train was delayed by an hour but we still made it to Hanoi early and arrived at 4:30am. We got onto our transfer bus and headed to Halong Bay arriving at 8am. We couldn't check in until 9am so sat around the hotel until check in time and then headed to the rooms to change and get ready to go on the boat at 12pm. The boat was really lovely and we had amazing seafood for lunch - crab, squid, prawns and whole BBQ fish. We stopped off to see a floating village where Jay and I shared a kayak and set off (bumping into a lot of other boats and rocks) around Halong Bay in and out of caves. It was stunning! After half an hour of kayaking it was time to head back to the floating village, we got lost on the way back but eventually found our group and we all piled back onto the boat to the next stop, some caves in the limestone karsts. The caves were really humid and damp and cement had been put on the ceiling to prevent stalactites from forming which was a bit of a shame, it was also lit with multicoloured lights. After the caves it was back on the boat to sail to the mainland. First of all we crashed into another boat (they drive their boats just the same way as the cars here - stopping is not an option, no matter what). After that we ran aground and broken the steering. Another boat came to our rescue and tied us alongside it so that we could be dragged back to land. It was a bit of an exciting journey back but we made it in the end, only an hour or so late. That evening we had a look around the night markets before bed...I'm not sure I've ever seen so many tacky items in one place, however all the locals seemed to love it (there we not many western tourists doing any shopping!).
The next morning at 9am we headed back to Hanoi where we checked in and had a wander around more markets. Jay and I then went for coffee by the lake before meeting up with the group for diner that evening. After dinner we headed out for drinks but it started to rain and we got absolutely soaked so ran into a bar - 'Half Man Half Noodle (!?). In here we got chatting to some guys from Ireland who told us about the Vietnamese music festival and an after party that was going on that evening. We ended up getting a taxi to the after party and had a great night - there were live bands and it was really good fun. We finally stumbled back to our hotel at 3:30am where Jay and I sat chatting for another couple of hours before we finally went to bed. We didn't get up until 12pm the following day and went for (a very hungover) lunch before getting taxi bikes to Hanoi Prison. The prison was pretty interesting and we wandered round for an hour or so, there just wasn't that much information about it. So once we had had a wander round we decided it was time to head back to the hotel to sleep for a few hours before dinner and an early night. The next day was our flight to Laos with Vietnam Airlines. The flight to Vientiane was only about 50 minutes and we soon arrived at our hotel and checked in. After lunch we went on a city tour, it was great...but our guide/driver couldn't speak any English so we weren't really sure what we were looking at. After seeing a few temples, a lot of Buddhas, and a monument we didn't fancy putting on any more wrap skirts to cover up (it was SO hot) so went back to the hotel. The following day we got a 4 hour bus to Vang Vieng and after checking into the hotel and going for lunch we hired motorbikes with Kim (our tour guide). We each got a bike and had great fun practising changing gear up and down the road until we realised that we needed to top them up with fuel. We split into several groups to go and get fuel but unfortunately didn't all make it to the petrol station...mine, Elody's and Noah's bikes ran out half way and so we had to wait beside the road for the others. Eventually Noah headed off to get us some fuel and came back with two water bottles full. After refuelling we were all good to go and set off behind Kim to the caves. Along the way two of the bikes got punctures so had to be lifted onto a truck for repairs whilst we climbed the many steps up to the cave in the boiling heat and humidity. The caves were great, just pretty dark and damp so very slippery. We also had a bit of a treacherous climb back down the steps to reach our bikes but it was really fun. Jay and I made it down before the others so set off back to the hotel because it looked like rain was on its way. We made it back to the main road before it poured down and we got soaked running back to the hotel after dropping the bikes off, by that point we decided we may as well play in the rain given how wet we were. After we got bored of jumping in puddles we headed up for a shower when the others finally made it back - Elody and her motorbike had a bit of an argument with a ditch and her bike hadn't fared up too well but she made it back in one piece with the others. That evening we went out for a few drinks but didn't want to over do it because we had a big day of tubing planned. The next morning we got up for breakfast and then set off to the shops to stock up on clothes, flip flops, waterproof bags and other essentials for tubing. We then changed and headed down to the tubing station to grab some tubes (55,000 kip for a tube and 60,000 kip deposit which gets returned if you bring back your tube before 6pm otherwise it drops to 40,00 before 8:30pm and then nothing after that), sign a piece of paper (something about tubing being dangerous...) and then got the tuktuk up to the first bar.
We had a couple of drinks in a 'mini' bar when we got off the tuktuk (where we were told by a volunteer in a nearby school that one tourist every 2 weeks dies tubing...!!) before getting a make-shift boat over to the first bar. There had been a bridge until the rain washed it away the previous week. At that point we did worry that there had been a lot of rain the day before and the river was much wider and flowing a LOT faster that we expected. We got over to the first bar and had one of the many free whisky shots (which often contain some sort of massive centipede type bug) and got our first 'friendship' bracelet. We stayed at the first bar for quite a while and it gradually got busier, we also entertained ourselves with a marker pen drawing all over each other (I still have remnants of the blue ink on my skin now). Once we were ready to leave the first bar we grabbed our tubes (before the Laos guys could steal them and take them back to Vang Vieng so that you lose the 60,000 deposit!) and floated down to the bar. The guys managed to grab the bottles attached to rope that reel you into the bar but all of the girls missed and we got pulled into a bar on the opposite side of the river. We had our free shot there and then got the tubes and walked back to the boat where we had started and tried all over again to reach the boys in the bar. Second time round we made it and headed straight to the bar for more beer (and free shots)...by this time we had begun quite a collection of bracelets - the typical tubing souvenir! The second bar was great fun and we danced away for a while, soaking wet from the river, before decided it was time to tube onto the next stop. This time it was only Jay who didn't make it and ended up clinging to a branch until she was rescued, however her t-shirt and waterproof bag were swept away and so she was left with no money. By this point we really didn't need any more drinks so just stuck to the free shots and soon moved onto yet another bar. This time they had a swing into the river...possibly not the most sensible idea but we all had a go and as I landed it felt like I'd been slapped in the face by the water, but other from that great fun! Again we didn't stop long at this bar and soon floated down to one that had a slide - this was brilliant fun as you went down a tiled chute before flying into the river where a ring was thrown at you to get you back into the bar. After that we headed to a couple more bars but the group got split into three - Me, Hannah, Elody and Noah; Jay and Greg; Jenny and Joel. Hannah, Elody, Noah and I floated on until we realised we had gone past the last bar and had to get our way across the river to the correct side and pull ourselves out onto the land and climb through some bushes where we found a tuktuk to take us back into town. We did well with 3 tubes between the four of us, it was 7pm so only ended up with 40,000 kip back for each tube...pretty good result for tubing and I still had my original flip flops (almost unheard of!)! We finally found the others after dinner that evening and decided to head to 'Bucket Bar' where they were handing out free (very strong) whisky buckets. After a few sips of a bucket Jay and I had really had enough and stumbled back to our hotel, collecting a banana, chocolate and coconut pancake to share along the way. Tubing was AMAZING!!! This morning at 9am we got a 6 hour bus to Luang Prabang where we are now staying for two nights and off elephant trekking tomorrow which should be great fun! :)
Latest Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150844453061491.403065.516011490&type=3&l=0afa28273f
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Thursday, 10 May 2012
A Month in Malaysia - starting and ending in Singapore!
So quite a fair bit has happened since my last update...I ended up staying in hospital for 5 nights in the end to fully recover from my Dengue Hemorhagic Fever. My platelet levels dropped to 35,000 as opposed to the 150,000 - 450,000 that they should have been. I almost reached the stage of needing a platelet transfusion when they finally picked up and I started feeling much better. I did start to get a bit worried when they told me that I wasnt allowed to walk around too much in case I tripped and caused internal bleeding!! The hospital was really nice in KL and the staff were all lovely, I ended up needing 20 bottles of IV fluid and had 12 blood tests before I was finally allowed to leave - on the condition that there was someone to look after me. Luckily for me my Mum and Brother flew out and arrived the evening before I was allowed to leave the hospital and they had arranged an amazing apartment for us to stay in.
I was reaching major boredom by the 6th day when I was finally able to leave the hospital and it was brilliant to go back to the apartment, 22 floors up overlooking the city! We also had a pool, fluffy towels (a BIG excitement when you are travelling!) and were fairly close to a 'Megalmall' shopping centre. Seeing my mum and brother again after 7 months was really good and we had a really lovely two weeks exploring Kuala Lumpur once I started to feel a bit better. It took ages to sort out insurance payments and everything on the day I left hospital so we didn't arrive back to the apartment until fairly late, had some dinner and then went to bed. The next day we had to go over to the shopping centre to get some food and I was starting to feel a bit better, apart from tiring really easily. Mid Valley Megamall is huge and we soon found a big Carrefour to get some food and water to take back to the apartment. That day tired me out a fair bit so we spent the following day by the pool which was hardly used by anyone else in the apartments so we had it all to ourselves. The following day we went to the Vietnam Embassy to get my visa and then went into Chinatown to explore the market. In the two weeks with my mum and brother we also booked tickets to go up the Petronas Towers, went to the zoo, did a canopy walk through the jungle and saw Batu Caves. The Petronas Towers felt even higher when you got up to the top on the 86th floor and the view was pretty amazing. Batu Caves was also good fun and there were loads of monkeys everywhere that attempted to steal anything that tourists were carrying! The zoo was great, the animals were in pretty small enclousures which was not so good, but they had lots of different animals and I got to feed an elephant! We also managed to go and see the Botanical Gardens one afternoon and got lost walking around for ages before we found our way out. In between those trips out were days by the pool which were great fun and by this time I was feeling almost back to normal again :) On the last day before my mum and brother flew home I had to go back to the hospital for a final check that I was fit to fly for insurance purposes and then Jude arrived in Malaysia for 9 days before she flies back to England. We arranged to go to the Perhentian Islands together and it was really nice not having to be back on my own again just yet and we had great fun!
It was lovely seeing Jude again, especially as it was unexpected as I had planned to be in Thailand for the full moon party by this point. We had a day in KL together once my mum and brother had flown home and we went to see the Petronas Towers, Batu Caves and Chinatown together. That evening we got a night but to Kuala Besut ready to get the first boat over to the smaller Perhentian Island to stay on Long Beach. Unfortunately, the night bus wasn't one of the better ones I've been on...it kept stopping and the lights came on, was really noisy and we had very little leg room! However at 6am we arrived at in Kuala Besut and bought our boat tickets for the 7am boat. The boat was pretty expensive for Malaysia (£14 return) and so I was expecting a fairly biggish boat. Turns out it was pretty small and they filled it with as many bags and people as they could! By 8am we were safely on the sand of Long Beach trudging up and down looking for accommodation in the boiling heat with our backpacks - not fun! Becuase it was a friday most places were full but we did eventually settle on the first place we had looked at. We got a lovely little hut with a verandah and private bathroom just set back in the jungle overlooking the beach at Panorama Chalets and Dive Centre. Whilst we were waiting for our room to be cleaned we had some food and an amazing milkshake each, possibly the best one either of us had ever had and they had all sorts of flavours - coconut and chocolate, peanut M&M's, Snickers, Mars Bar, chocolate orange were some of the better ones :) We then headed up to our room to shower after the night bus and then fell asleep for 5 hours...we didnt get a lot of sleep on the bus! That afternoon we went to find out how we could book a bus to Singapore where we were both due to fly from, me to Bangkok and Jude to England. We managed to book a nightbus for 9pm on the 8th May, leaving us 4 nights on the Perhentians. We then booked onto a snorkelling trip for the following day - 5 snorkel sights, a trip to the fishing village and boat transport all day for £8!
Our first evening on Long Beach was really stormy...as per usual in the tropics!! We had the fish BBQ in the restaurant attached to our accommodation (we had one free meal included per night). We both tried Baracuda and then watched a film that was played on a projector in the restaurant. It was still raining by the time we were finished so seeing that we couln't go to any of the bars on the beach we headed up to our verandah for a bit before bed. The following day was the snorkelling trip which was brilliant!! We got picked up by the boat at 11am ish and then went around the two islands collecting as many passengers as possible for the trip - there was actually one stage where we did almost capsize - the boat was really only designed for probably a maximum of around 8 people but somehow they managed to cram 14 of us on and when adults didn't fit they found some children! The first snorkel spot was Fish & Coral Garden where we saw a LOT of fish!! Our boat driver gave us bread and before long there were hundreds of them surrounding us. Then we headed to Shark Point and saw several Black Tip Reef sharks crusing around and a little baby one. After that it was Turtle Point where we saw a massive turtle, I swam down to watch him eating and saw his beady eye watching me...I managed to give him a little stroke on his shell too which he didn't seem to mind :) :) Then it was lunch time over in the fishing village before the final two stops - the Lighthouse, where there were again loads of fish and coral, and Romantic Bay which was a white sandy beach. On the way back to Long Beach we dropped all of the many passengers off back at their beaches, and then ran out of fuel. Luckily our driver had his phone on him and before too long a boat filled with 5 children (the eldest being 10) came to our rescue and brought over a can of fuel to get us back to Long Beach. That evening we had the Fish BBQ again, Blue Marlin this time and fried ice-cream (!?) for desert. As it wasn't raining we headed out for a few drinks, we tried the infamous Monkey Juice that is 'only' sold on the Perhentians (also sold as Arak in Indonesia...). Then we moved down to the beach to sit on the mats by the fire torches where we saw a friend we had met diving in Indonesia which was very random!! The bar, Black Tip, was really nice and pretty cheap the only slight problem was the lack of toilets - 'everyone just uses the jungle' was what I got told by the barstaff...We finally headed to bed at around 4am, due to a huge thunderstorm, which meant to following morning was a complete write off. After getting up and going for lunch we went down to the beach but it was wayyyy too hot to sunbathe so sat in the crystal clear sea (the most amazing sea ever!!) for most of the afternoon. That evening it was stormy and raining again so we headed down for dinner before a fairly early night to bed.
The next day was our last so we wanted to make the most of the sun, after lunch we headed back up to the room to get our beach things. On the way back up I nearly trod on a toad and then two seconds later heard Jude let out a massive scream, as I looked around to see what was wrong I saw a HUGE black fat hairy spider on my shoulder...I screamed and threw my water bottle as I flung him off, pretty traumatised but luckily a local came to the rescue and hurried the spider along with a leaf. I needed a few minutes to recover but we then headed down to the beach for the afternoon. At around 5pm we walked over to Coral Bay on the opposite side of the island to watch the sunset. We made the 15 minute walk through the jungle, only spotting two spiders to our relief, to hear the thunder rolling in and lightening flashes. We quickly had to walk back over the Long Beach to make sure that we didn't get absolutely soaked (when it rains it really rains) so our sunset was a bit of a write off. After dinner that evening we went back up to pack but as Jude went into the bathroom I heard her say 'Ohh no...'. I assumed it was Colin our resident cockroach and his baby as he was usually hanging out somewhere in the bathroom but went I went in to investigate it turns out it was a giant hairy huntsman on the cistern. He moved slightly and we both screamed, sending him scuttling off behind the back of the toilet. I armed myself with the broom and Jude with the bathroom hose thingy that they always have in Asia and together we heroically washed and scooped him out of the bathroom down the hole we had in the wall...which we then frantically blocked up with toilet roll to match the hole on the otherside of the room that Colin the cockroach kept coming through (turns out Colin really liked the new toilet paper home we'd built him...!!). After that we both headed outside to recover, after 5 minutes of sitting down suddenly a massive flying grasshopper flew at us and by this point we couldn't cope with any more. We screamed and the couple next door to us came out to rescue us, again the broom was used to attempt to squash it but it was so big it didn't work and instead finally flew off and left us in peace. By this point we gave up packing just in case anything else came out to attack us and instead I decided to write my journal from the safetly of our mosquito net. As I went to pick up my bag I saw something scuttle around, I soon realised that it was Colin and that I had disturbed his sleep under my bag and sent him into my open backpack - WONDERFUL! I really couldn't cope with any more bugs that evening so left him to it and we went to sleep (with the light on). On the plus side we did have a very pretty ghecko type lizard that hung out outside our front door evey night eating any bugs that came near!
The next morning we both had to pack, emtying our backpacks item by item until I found Colin in mine. I still don't know where he went but by the time I'd finished emptying my bag he was no where to be seen. After packing and checking out we had lunch before getting on a very unstable boat over to the boat that would take us back to the mainland. By 1pm we were back in Kuala Besut waiting for our nightbus at 9:15pm that evening. 9:15pm finally came round and we set off in the bus for Johor Bharu where we could get a local bus over to Singapore. By 1pm the following day we had made it to our hostel in Singapore, 24 hours later, where Jude would have one night and I would have two before flying out. That evening we went to Chinatown for dinner and to look around the night market before bed.
Today was our last day together (for the second time) and we had a look around Singapore (again for the second time for me). We went to see the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands and headed to Bugis Market where we both found some dresses and I replaced my watch which I had lost running from a storm on the Island. Tonight Jude flies back home and I'm back on my own again for the first time since I caught Denge Fever. Tomorrow I fly to Bangkok for 5 nights, staying on the Ko San Road, before I meet up with a tour for 30 days through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. After that I have two and a half weeks on my own again before my family fly out for a two week holiday and then I'm back home...time is flying by!
Latest Photos:
Rest of Indonesia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150640921301491.389145.516011490&type=1&l=c4935130f7
Singapore and Malaysia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150777296866491.396845.516011490&type=3&l=6ed7694d95
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I was reaching major boredom by the 6th day when I was finally able to leave the hospital and it was brilliant to go back to the apartment, 22 floors up overlooking the city! We also had a pool, fluffy towels (a BIG excitement when you are travelling!) and were fairly close to a 'Megalmall' shopping centre. Seeing my mum and brother again after 7 months was really good and we had a really lovely two weeks exploring Kuala Lumpur once I started to feel a bit better. It took ages to sort out insurance payments and everything on the day I left hospital so we didn't arrive back to the apartment until fairly late, had some dinner and then went to bed. The next day we had to go over to the shopping centre to get some food and I was starting to feel a bit better, apart from tiring really easily. Mid Valley Megamall is huge and we soon found a big Carrefour to get some food and water to take back to the apartment. That day tired me out a fair bit so we spent the following day by the pool which was hardly used by anyone else in the apartments so we had it all to ourselves. The following day we went to the Vietnam Embassy to get my visa and then went into Chinatown to explore the market. In the two weeks with my mum and brother we also booked tickets to go up the Petronas Towers, went to the zoo, did a canopy walk through the jungle and saw Batu Caves. The Petronas Towers felt even higher when you got up to the top on the 86th floor and the view was pretty amazing. Batu Caves was also good fun and there were loads of monkeys everywhere that attempted to steal anything that tourists were carrying! The zoo was great, the animals were in pretty small enclousures which was not so good, but they had lots of different animals and I got to feed an elephant! We also managed to go and see the Botanical Gardens one afternoon and got lost walking around for ages before we found our way out. In between those trips out were days by the pool which were great fun and by this time I was feeling almost back to normal again :) On the last day before my mum and brother flew home I had to go back to the hospital for a final check that I was fit to fly for insurance purposes and then Jude arrived in Malaysia for 9 days before she flies back to England. We arranged to go to the Perhentian Islands together and it was really nice not having to be back on my own again just yet and we had great fun!
It was lovely seeing Jude again, especially as it was unexpected as I had planned to be in Thailand for the full moon party by this point. We had a day in KL together once my mum and brother had flown home and we went to see the Petronas Towers, Batu Caves and Chinatown together. That evening we got a night but to Kuala Besut ready to get the first boat over to the smaller Perhentian Island to stay on Long Beach. Unfortunately, the night bus wasn't one of the better ones I've been on...it kept stopping and the lights came on, was really noisy and we had very little leg room! However at 6am we arrived at in Kuala Besut and bought our boat tickets for the 7am boat. The boat was pretty expensive for Malaysia (£14 return) and so I was expecting a fairly biggish boat. Turns out it was pretty small and they filled it with as many bags and people as they could! By 8am we were safely on the sand of Long Beach trudging up and down looking for accommodation in the boiling heat with our backpacks - not fun! Becuase it was a friday most places were full but we did eventually settle on the first place we had looked at. We got a lovely little hut with a verandah and private bathroom just set back in the jungle overlooking the beach at Panorama Chalets and Dive Centre. Whilst we were waiting for our room to be cleaned we had some food and an amazing milkshake each, possibly the best one either of us had ever had and they had all sorts of flavours - coconut and chocolate, peanut M&M's, Snickers, Mars Bar, chocolate orange were some of the better ones :) We then headed up to our room to shower after the night bus and then fell asleep for 5 hours...we didnt get a lot of sleep on the bus! That afternoon we went to find out how we could book a bus to Singapore where we were both due to fly from, me to Bangkok and Jude to England. We managed to book a nightbus for 9pm on the 8th May, leaving us 4 nights on the Perhentians. We then booked onto a snorkelling trip for the following day - 5 snorkel sights, a trip to the fishing village and boat transport all day for £8!
Our first evening on Long Beach was really stormy...as per usual in the tropics!! We had the fish BBQ in the restaurant attached to our accommodation (we had one free meal included per night). We both tried Baracuda and then watched a film that was played on a projector in the restaurant. It was still raining by the time we were finished so seeing that we couln't go to any of the bars on the beach we headed up to our verandah for a bit before bed. The following day was the snorkelling trip which was brilliant!! We got picked up by the boat at 11am ish and then went around the two islands collecting as many passengers as possible for the trip - there was actually one stage where we did almost capsize - the boat was really only designed for probably a maximum of around 8 people but somehow they managed to cram 14 of us on and when adults didn't fit they found some children! The first snorkel spot was Fish & Coral Garden where we saw a LOT of fish!! Our boat driver gave us bread and before long there were hundreds of them surrounding us. Then we headed to Shark Point and saw several Black Tip Reef sharks crusing around and a little baby one. After that it was Turtle Point where we saw a massive turtle, I swam down to watch him eating and saw his beady eye watching me...I managed to give him a little stroke on his shell too which he didn't seem to mind :) :) Then it was lunch time over in the fishing village before the final two stops - the Lighthouse, where there were again loads of fish and coral, and Romantic Bay which was a white sandy beach. On the way back to Long Beach we dropped all of the many passengers off back at their beaches, and then ran out of fuel. Luckily our driver had his phone on him and before too long a boat filled with 5 children (the eldest being 10) came to our rescue and brought over a can of fuel to get us back to Long Beach. That evening we had the Fish BBQ again, Blue Marlin this time and fried ice-cream (!?) for desert. As it wasn't raining we headed out for a few drinks, we tried the infamous Monkey Juice that is 'only' sold on the Perhentians (also sold as Arak in Indonesia...). Then we moved down to the beach to sit on the mats by the fire torches where we saw a friend we had met diving in Indonesia which was very random!! The bar, Black Tip, was really nice and pretty cheap the only slight problem was the lack of toilets - 'everyone just uses the jungle' was what I got told by the barstaff...We finally headed to bed at around 4am, due to a huge thunderstorm, which meant to following morning was a complete write off. After getting up and going for lunch we went down to the beach but it was wayyyy too hot to sunbathe so sat in the crystal clear sea (the most amazing sea ever!!) for most of the afternoon. That evening it was stormy and raining again so we headed down for dinner before a fairly early night to bed.
The next day was our last so we wanted to make the most of the sun, after lunch we headed back up to the room to get our beach things. On the way back up I nearly trod on a toad and then two seconds later heard Jude let out a massive scream, as I looked around to see what was wrong I saw a HUGE black fat hairy spider on my shoulder...I screamed and threw my water bottle as I flung him off, pretty traumatised but luckily a local came to the rescue and hurried the spider along with a leaf. I needed a few minutes to recover but we then headed down to the beach for the afternoon. At around 5pm we walked over to Coral Bay on the opposite side of the island to watch the sunset. We made the 15 minute walk through the jungle, only spotting two spiders to our relief, to hear the thunder rolling in and lightening flashes. We quickly had to walk back over the Long Beach to make sure that we didn't get absolutely soaked (when it rains it really rains) so our sunset was a bit of a write off. After dinner that evening we went back up to pack but as Jude went into the bathroom I heard her say 'Ohh no...'. I assumed it was Colin our resident cockroach and his baby as he was usually hanging out somewhere in the bathroom but went I went in to investigate it turns out it was a giant hairy huntsman on the cistern. He moved slightly and we both screamed, sending him scuttling off behind the back of the toilet. I armed myself with the broom and Jude with the bathroom hose thingy that they always have in Asia and together we heroically washed and scooped him out of the bathroom down the hole we had in the wall...which we then frantically blocked up with toilet roll to match the hole on the otherside of the room that Colin the cockroach kept coming through (turns out Colin really liked the new toilet paper home we'd built him...!!). After that we both headed outside to recover, after 5 minutes of sitting down suddenly a massive flying grasshopper flew at us and by this point we couldn't cope with any more. We screamed and the couple next door to us came out to rescue us, again the broom was used to attempt to squash it but it was so big it didn't work and instead finally flew off and left us in peace. By this point we gave up packing just in case anything else came out to attack us and instead I decided to write my journal from the safetly of our mosquito net. As I went to pick up my bag I saw something scuttle around, I soon realised that it was Colin and that I had disturbed his sleep under my bag and sent him into my open backpack - WONDERFUL! I really couldn't cope with any more bugs that evening so left him to it and we went to sleep (with the light on). On the plus side we did have a very pretty ghecko type lizard that hung out outside our front door evey night eating any bugs that came near!
The next morning we both had to pack, emtying our backpacks item by item until I found Colin in mine. I still don't know where he went but by the time I'd finished emptying my bag he was no where to be seen. After packing and checking out we had lunch before getting on a very unstable boat over to the boat that would take us back to the mainland. By 1pm we were back in Kuala Besut waiting for our nightbus at 9:15pm that evening. 9:15pm finally came round and we set off in the bus for Johor Bharu where we could get a local bus over to Singapore. By 1pm the following day we had made it to our hostel in Singapore, 24 hours later, where Jude would have one night and I would have two before flying out. That evening we went to Chinatown for dinner and to look around the night market before bed.
Today was our last day together (for the second time) and we had a look around Singapore (again for the second time for me). We went to see the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands and headed to Bugis Market where we both found some dresses and I replaced my watch which I had lost running from a storm on the Island. Tonight Jude flies back home and I'm back on my own again for the first time since I caught Denge Fever. Tomorrow I fly to Bangkok for 5 nights, staying on the Ko San Road, before I meet up with a tour for 30 days through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. After that I have two and a half weeks on my own again before my family fly out for a two week holiday and then I'm back home...time is flying by!
Latest Photos:
Rest of Indonesia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150640921301491.389145.516011490&type=1&l=c4935130f7
Singapore and Malaysia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150777296866491.396845.516011490&type=3&l=6ed7694d95
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Sunday, 15 April 2012
Hospitalisation in Malaysia...
Well I'm currently writing this latest update from a hospital bed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I've had a fever and haven't been able to leave the hostel for the past few days so decided I really should go and get it checked. Luckily a really lovely girl from my dorm, Maren, came with me to hold my hand whilst they gouged out my veins when taking blood and even went back to the hostel to pick up some things for me - absolute STAR! So seeing as it looks as though I'm going to have some time on my hands for the next day or two I thought I may as well update my blog!
So following on from my last post we flew from Darwin to Cairns three days before we were due to fly out to Asia. The first afternoon in Darwin we wondered around (there really isn't much to see!) before cooking dinner back at the hostel and sat around by the pool chatting for the evening. We stayed in Dingo Moon Lodge, a really friendly, lovely hostel not far from the centre of town. The following day we sat by the lagoon where I managed to get burnt! After that, looking like a lobster, I didn't really fancy doing much else for the rest of the day but we did manage to book a trip to Lichfield National Park for the following day. Lichfield was AWESOME!! We started the trip by driving out to the Adelaide River where we got into a rather small boat and set off in search of some crocodiles. Within minutes we found them and soon our guide was dangling bits of meat over the edge of the boat, before long a huge crocodile was jumping out of the water in search of the meat. It was all pretty good fun until one started eyeing up the people in the boat rather than the meat and we had to make a swift departure away from him. Some of the crocodiles were up to 5 metres long and pretty scary when they are within an arms length from you, as they grabbed the meat you could hear the crash of their jaws chomping down...amazing!! After the crocodiles it was into Lichfield to see some giant termite mounds up to 2 to 3 metres tall, and then it was lunch time. After lunch we headed to Florence Falls for a swim in the the water, very refreshing after climbing down 137 steps, the way up was pretty tough in 30+ degree heat! However we did get to see a rock wallaby on the way back up which was really cute! Then we headed for a swim in Wangi Pools, and finally it was back to Darwin to pack and prepare for flying out of Australia the following day: Jude flying out at 4:30pm to Bali (supposedly...delayed until 7:30pm) and my flight was at 6:30pm to Singapore.
I landed in Singapore at around 9pm and found Nina waiting for me at the arrivals gate, it was soooo good to see a familar face from home after 6 months of being away and we had lots to catch up on so made our way to the airport hotel that Nina had arranged - LUXURY compared to the dorms that I've been used to, no bunk beds and just the two of us, we got fluffy towels and a huge bathroom with all the little mini shampoos and conditioners. We finally went to sleep before getting up early the following morning for the flight to Bali. We landed in Bali and made our way to the Hotel (Green Garden Resort). Again a lovely hotel with a pool and more fluffy towels - so nice after using a travel towel for so long. We also had an amazing buffet breakfast which we made the most of and saved on lunch that way! After we'd settled into the hotel we set out to find Jude on Poppies Lane II. She showed us her little room with ensuite bathroom that she managed to get for around £4 a night, she even had a resident cockroach in the drainage hole in her sink. We had three nights in Kuta before heading over to Gili Trawangan, on the first the three of us found a restaurant for dinner and had a couple of drinks. The next day we went to Waterbom, a waterpark just up the road from our hotel. It was brilliant fun and we spent all day going down the water chutes and on the crazy 'Boomerang'. The following day we had a chaeuffer and after some confusion over what we'd paid for (he took us on a tour rather than where we wanted to go) it was actually good fun and we got to see Ubud and the monkeys in the Monkey Temple - including one which stole Nina water bottle), the volcano, rice terraces, a coffee plantation and a temple. It was a good day and that evening it was more drinks with dinner before bed.
The next day was the boat ride over to Gili Trawangan, Nina and I got the fast boat becuase we couldn't lose two days going there and back on a boat when we only had 9 days in indonesia whereas Jude got the slow boat and met us on the island that evening. The boat took around 2 hours after the drive to Padang Bai and when we arrived we set off in search of accommodaton. Edy's Homestay was out first choice but was unfortunately full so we settled for a bungalow not far from the beach that the three of us could share, it was also opposite Buddah Dive dive centre (not difficult on Gili T!) so after dropping our bags we went in to book Jude and I on a fun dive and Nina on a Discover Scuba Diving course becuase she hasn't done her Open Water. That evening we had a few drinks with some friends Jude had made on the boat, Megan and Amy. We were booked to dive at 2pm the following day but Nina needed to go earlier to do her DSD course in the pool so Jude and I went along to watch. We were bought ice creams by one of the divers at the centre whilst we waited, possibly the best coconut ice cream ever! Then it was time to get on the wetsuits and get our fins, weight belts and masks ready. We played around in the pool for a bit taking photos with Bruno's underwater camers (our dive guide) before going out on the boat to Shark Point Reef. The current at Shark Point was unbelieveably strong and once we were under the water we were just swepted along, magaging to cling to bits of coral to stop and see the turtles, we saw at least 8 to 10 which was incredible!! After 30 mins the visibility dropped to 1 to 2 metres so we had to surface and the boat came over to pick us up. It was a brilliant dive and Bruno took his camera along so I finally have some diving photos!! Once back at the dive centre we played around in the pool some more before collecting hte photos on our USB sticks and heading back to shower, ready for 'party night' on the island. We had a pretty fun night that night and by the time we left the Gilis we had done three nights until 3am and were in desparate need of some sleep... The last day that Nina and I had on Gili T (my last day with Jude) the three of us walked the perimeter of the island, non stop it would probably take 1 and a half hours but we stopped to sunbathe and go snorkelling so managed to fill most of the day, plus we also stopped to see a newly born goat - adorable and les than an hour old. But it was SO hot! Think I'm slowing starting to adjust to Asian climate but its definitely taking its time - and a fever for the past 3 days really hasnt helped!
The following day Nina and I said our goodbyes to Jude and headed back to Bali to stay in Legian for two more nights before going back to Singapore. We found a really nice bugalow to stay in for £4 each a night and it even had a lovely pool. We didn't arrive until 7pm so headed out for diner and then straight to bed. The next day we went down to see the beach and walked around town shopping before going back to swim in the pool for a bit. Then the following day it was back to Singapore. It was Easter weekend so the flight was packed but we arrived by 7pm ish and got the MRT to our Hostel on the edge of Little India. The next day we wanted to explore as much of Singapore as possible so saw most of the main sights - we went to the financial district, Chinatown, walked along the Esplanade and just seemed to walk a lot. We also had to pop into the travel clinic at the hospital to pick up my antimalarials for Asia - I've seen my fair share of Asian hospitals so far! That evening we went to the Night Safari which was good fun, maybe slightly over rated - that or we are just too old for things like that these days...we did get to go on a bus around the park in the dark and then watched a show about creatures of the night. The following day we went to Singapore Zoo which was much better and we had a great time! After the zoo we popped into Chinatown to see the nightmarkets and had some dinner before going back to pack ready for Nina to fly out the next day (and me to give her a tonne of things from my backpack to take home - it was slightly worrying at the airport when they had to put a 'heavy' tag on my bag due to it being 23kg, whoops!). That evening was pretty depressing once Nina had left, it was the first time I'd been on my own for quite some time and suddenly having no friends was pretty lonely. Especially when that night was when the fever started and I felt like death warmed up. I did manage to get on my bus to Kuala Lumpur the next day, drugged up on paracetamol and spent most of the 5 hour journey sleeping. Arriving in KL I had to walk with my backpack for about a kilometre in the boiling hetat to get to my hostel, I finally made it, checked in and collapsed on my bed. From there I didn't really move apart from for breakfast each morning and it was climbing the stairs this morning and having to sit down once I reached the top to prevent passing out that I really realised I needed to see a doctor. I reasearched the best private hospital in KL and Maren and I got a taxi. We didn't wait long to been seen and within an hour I was having blood tests although the nurse couldnt find my veins so a lot of digging took place with me finally getting her to stop before I passed out. Nightmare!
So now I've just had a vist from the doctor and he's taking more bloods tonight to check my platelet count as it is still likely to drop over the net few days before it rises...then begain talking about the possibiltly of platelet transfusions if necessary - sounds delightful! Just what I expected when I left England 7 months ago...Anyways I'm sure I will make a swift recovery, although I have been told not to expect to leave the hospital until Thurday at the very earliest - fabulous...there goes most of my plans of Malaysia - good job I hadn't booked anything! The worst part about it all is being attached 24/7 to an IV line that seems to get stuck on absolutely everything and do the opposite of what I tell it to, most inconvenient. However on the plus side I do have a window to look out of which is one up on the dorm room that I'm currently paying for!
More Photos:
Australia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150615670006491.385651.516011490&type=3&l=45e9216663
Some of Indonesia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150640921301491.389145.516011490&type=3&l=c4935130f7
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So following on from my last post we flew from Darwin to Cairns three days before we were due to fly out to Asia. The first afternoon in Darwin we wondered around (there really isn't much to see!) before cooking dinner back at the hostel and sat around by the pool chatting for the evening. We stayed in Dingo Moon Lodge, a really friendly, lovely hostel not far from the centre of town. The following day we sat by the lagoon where I managed to get burnt! After that, looking like a lobster, I didn't really fancy doing much else for the rest of the day but we did manage to book a trip to Lichfield National Park for the following day. Lichfield was AWESOME!! We started the trip by driving out to the Adelaide River where we got into a rather small boat and set off in search of some crocodiles. Within minutes we found them and soon our guide was dangling bits of meat over the edge of the boat, before long a huge crocodile was jumping out of the water in search of the meat. It was all pretty good fun until one started eyeing up the people in the boat rather than the meat and we had to make a swift departure away from him. Some of the crocodiles were up to 5 metres long and pretty scary when they are within an arms length from you, as they grabbed the meat you could hear the crash of their jaws chomping down...amazing!! After the crocodiles it was into Lichfield to see some giant termite mounds up to 2 to 3 metres tall, and then it was lunch time. After lunch we headed to Florence Falls for a swim in the the water, very refreshing after climbing down 137 steps, the way up was pretty tough in 30+ degree heat! However we did get to see a rock wallaby on the way back up which was really cute! Then we headed for a swim in Wangi Pools, and finally it was back to Darwin to pack and prepare for flying out of Australia the following day: Jude flying out at 4:30pm to Bali (supposedly...delayed until 7:30pm) and my flight was at 6:30pm to Singapore.
I landed in Singapore at around 9pm and found Nina waiting for me at the arrivals gate, it was soooo good to see a familar face from home after 6 months of being away and we had lots to catch up on so made our way to the airport hotel that Nina had arranged - LUXURY compared to the dorms that I've been used to, no bunk beds and just the two of us, we got fluffy towels and a huge bathroom with all the little mini shampoos and conditioners. We finally went to sleep before getting up early the following morning for the flight to Bali. We landed in Bali and made our way to the Hotel (Green Garden Resort). Again a lovely hotel with a pool and more fluffy towels - so nice after using a travel towel for so long. We also had an amazing buffet breakfast which we made the most of and saved on lunch that way! After we'd settled into the hotel we set out to find Jude on Poppies Lane II. She showed us her little room with ensuite bathroom that she managed to get for around £4 a night, she even had a resident cockroach in the drainage hole in her sink. We had three nights in Kuta before heading over to Gili Trawangan, on the first the three of us found a restaurant for dinner and had a couple of drinks. The next day we went to Waterbom, a waterpark just up the road from our hotel. It was brilliant fun and we spent all day going down the water chutes and on the crazy 'Boomerang'. The following day we had a chaeuffer and after some confusion over what we'd paid for (he took us on a tour rather than where we wanted to go) it was actually good fun and we got to see Ubud and the monkeys in the Monkey Temple - including one which stole Nina water bottle), the volcano, rice terraces, a coffee plantation and a temple. It was a good day and that evening it was more drinks with dinner before bed.
The next day was the boat ride over to Gili Trawangan, Nina and I got the fast boat becuase we couldn't lose two days going there and back on a boat when we only had 9 days in indonesia whereas Jude got the slow boat and met us on the island that evening. The boat took around 2 hours after the drive to Padang Bai and when we arrived we set off in search of accommodaton. Edy's Homestay was out first choice but was unfortunately full so we settled for a bungalow not far from the beach that the three of us could share, it was also opposite Buddah Dive dive centre (not difficult on Gili T!) so after dropping our bags we went in to book Jude and I on a fun dive and Nina on a Discover Scuba Diving course becuase she hasn't done her Open Water. That evening we had a few drinks with some friends Jude had made on the boat, Megan and Amy. We were booked to dive at 2pm the following day but Nina needed to go earlier to do her DSD course in the pool so Jude and I went along to watch. We were bought ice creams by one of the divers at the centre whilst we waited, possibly the best coconut ice cream ever! Then it was time to get on the wetsuits and get our fins, weight belts and masks ready. We played around in the pool for a bit taking photos with Bruno's underwater camers (our dive guide) before going out on the boat to Shark Point Reef. The current at Shark Point was unbelieveably strong and once we were under the water we were just swepted along, magaging to cling to bits of coral to stop and see the turtles, we saw at least 8 to 10 which was incredible!! After 30 mins the visibility dropped to 1 to 2 metres so we had to surface and the boat came over to pick us up. It was a brilliant dive and Bruno took his camera along so I finally have some diving photos!! Once back at the dive centre we played around in the pool some more before collecting hte photos on our USB sticks and heading back to shower, ready for 'party night' on the island. We had a pretty fun night that night and by the time we left the Gilis we had done three nights until 3am and were in desparate need of some sleep... The last day that Nina and I had on Gili T (my last day with Jude) the three of us walked the perimeter of the island, non stop it would probably take 1 and a half hours but we stopped to sunbathe and go snorkelling so managed to fill most of the day, plus we also stopped to see a newly born goat - adorable and les than an hour old. But it was SO hot! Think I'm slowing starting to adjust to Asian climate but its definitely taking its time - and a fever for the past 3 days really hasnt helped!
The following day Nina and I said our goodbyes to Jude and headed back to Bali to stay in Legian for two more nights before going back to Singapore. We found a really nice bugalow to stay in for £4 each a night and it even had a lovely pool. We didn't arrive until 7pm so headed out for diner and then straight to bed. The next day we went down to see the beach and walked around town shopping before going back to swim in the pool for a bit. Then the following day it was back to Singapore. It was Easter weekend so the flight was packed but we arrived by 7pm ish and got the MRT to our Hostel on the edge of Little India. The next day we wanted to explore as much of Singapore as possible so saw most of the main sights - we went to the financial district, Chinatown, walked along the Esplanade and just seemed to walk a lot. We also had to pop into the travel clinic at the hospital to pick up my antimalarials for Asia - I've seen my fair share of Asian hospitals so far! That evening we went to the Night Safari which was good fun, maybe slightly over rated - that or we are just too old for things like that these days...we did get to go on a bus around the park in the dark and then watched a show about creatures of the night. The following day we went to Singapore Zoo which was much better and we had a great time! After the zoo we popped into Chinatown to see the nightmarkets and had some dinner before going back to pack ready for Nina to fly out the next day (and me to give her a tonne of things from my backpack to take home - it was slightly worrying at the airport when they had to put a 'heavy' tag on my bag due to it being 23kg, whoops!). That evening was pretty depressing once Nina had left, it was the first time I'd been on my own for quite some time and suddenly having no friends was pretty lonely. Especially when that night was when the fever started and I felt like death warmed up. I did manage to get on my bus to Kuala Lumpur the next day, drugged up on paracetamol and spent most of the 5 hour journey sleeping. Arriving in KL I had to walk with my backpack for about a kilometre in the boiling hetat to get to my hostel, I finally made it, checked in and collapsed on my bed. From there I didn't really move apart from for breakfast each morning and it was climbing the stairs this morning and having to sit down once I reached the top to prevent passing out that I really realised I needed to see a doctor. I reasearched the best private hospital in KL and Maren and I got a taxi. We didn't wait long to been seen and within an hour I was having blood tests although the nurse couldnt find my veins so a lot of digging took place with me finally getting her to stop before I passed out. Nightmare!
So now I've just had a vist from the doctor and he's taking more bloods tonight to check my platelet count as it is still likely to drop over the net few days before it rises...then begain talking about the possibiltly of platelet transfusions if necessary - sounds delightful! Just what I expected when I left England 7 months ago...Anyways I'm sure I will make a swift recovery, although I have been told not to expect to leave the hospital until Thurday at the very earliest - fabulous...there goes most of my plans of Malaysia - good job I hadn't booked anything! The worst part about it all is being attached 24/7 to an IV line that seems to get stuck on absolutely everything and do the opposite of what I tell it to, most inconvenient. However on the plus side I do have a window to look out of which is one up on the dorm room that I'm currently paying for!
More Photos:
Australia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150615670006491.385651.516011490&type=3&l=45e9216663
Some of Indonesia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150640921301491.389145.516011490&type=3&l=c4935130f7
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Monday, 26 March 2012
Cyclones, Tornadoes and Sunshine - Australia East Coast
21/3/12
It's been a while again since the last update, time in Australia has flown by and cannot believe I only have 10 days left before I leave western comforts and head into Asia!
After leaving Byron Bay we got the greyhound to Surfers Paradise, our hostel in Surfers (trekkers) was a bit out of town but we ended up with a 6 bed dorm to ourselves which was pretty good! After dropping off our bags we headed out to the local 'shopping centre' to stock up on goon and then sat by the hostel swimming pool for a bit before heading out into Surfers for a few drinks. A few drinks soon turned into many when we found a club (Sin City) that had 'ladies night' and offered us free entry and free drinks ALL night - we only had to pay for the bus fare home!! We stumbled back to the hostel to bed at around 2:30am which did not make it easy to get up and check out in the morning! After checking out we sat by the pool for until it was time to get the shuttle bus to the greyhound stop for the bus to Noosa.
We arrived in Noosa and got picked up by the hostel, again not in the centre of town, but we had yet another dorm to ourselves!! The next day we explored Noosa, we got dropped in Noosa Junction so wandered down to Main Beach before walking along the boardwalk into the national park where we did a 12km walk along the coast and back through the forest. After a quick shower at the hostel we walked down the road to Sunshine Beach for the evening. The next day we were back on the greyhound to Rainbow Beach for Fraser Island. We had our briefing at 4:30pm for the Fraser tag along self drive trip where we also met the people we would be sharing a car with, everyone seemed really nice. The next day we were up at 6:30am to get the 4WD's packed and ready to go...although there was a bit of a hold up becuase the hostel needed to find us accommodation on one of the resorts on Fraser Island due to all the rain, normally we would be camping but with a cyclone heading our way that was a no-no. When we got up it was really raining and the roads were flooded (all greyhounds cancelled!), luckily we were in the 4WD's and so after accommodation was found we were good to go. We packed all the equipment into the trailer of the lead car and all got in ready to leave - I was the first to drive. It was prety fun driving the 4WD (Toyota Land Cruiser), although it was MUCH higher and bigger than my car back at home! It wasn't so great to drive on the sealed roads but as soon as we got onto the sand and hit the 4WD setting it was brilliant fun!
We had to queue for the ferry to cross over to Fraser and after that we were off. We had 4 cars in our group, 3 self drives and the one at the front with our driver guide. We drove along the beach to our resort where we made our lunch (all food was provided by Dingo's, who we booked the tour with, all we had to do was prepare and cook it). After lunch (ham sandwiches, salad and fruit) we unpacked the trailer with the rest of the things in it...mainly the eskies full of goon, and then set off in the cars on the way to Lake Wabby. Lake Wabby was really nice, even in the rain. We went on a half hour walk and then got to swim in the lake which was full of catfish and little fish that gave you a free foot spa! We then went back to the resort and cooked our potato salad and steak dinner, followed by drinking games in our room. We were put into 4 bed dorms in Eurong Resort, each had a mini kitchen and we were given proper towels (a luxury when backpacking!). In our drunken state we decided that at around 1am it was a good idea to leave the resort and go out of the dingo fence to see if we could see any dingos - seeing as it was still really raining and very windy due to the cyclone we were not in luck...the only good side to all the rain meant that there were not as many huge horrible march flies to bite us! The next day was another early start where we drove to Lake Mackenzie, Champagne Pools, Eli Creek and the shipwreck on the beach, we also got to see a couple of dingos on the beach. At Lake Mackenzie we got to swim in the lovely clear blue water and sit on the soft white sand. In Eli Creek we swam down the cold creek from one end to the other (4 of us were the only ones to do it becuase it was so cold). At the Champagne Pools we could swim in the sea becuase it was a protected area free from the strong currents and sharks...although there were still jelly fish (not a fan of those!!). After that it was back to the resort for dinner (chicken stir-fry and fruit cake) plus more goon. The cyclone was still pretty full on at this point with winds of up to 90km/hr and lots of rain! We got told that all greyhounds were still cancelled and that we could be stuck in Rainbow Beach for a few days, not good news when Jude and I had everything booked and on a pretty tight time schedule! The next morning was yet another early start but the cyclone looked like it was blowing over so we headed out to swim with some tutles in a tea tree lake before driving back to the mainland. We were back by 4pm and had to unpack and de-sand the cars before being dropped back at the hostel. We went straight into Peterpans (the travel agents) to check the buses and luckily to our suprise we were told that everything was fine and all back to normal, great news!!
That evening Jude and I cooked dinner with Karina and Clare, who we had met on Fraser, and had a few drinks before bed. We had to check out at 9:30am the following morning and killed some time walking around Rainbow Beach and swimming in the pool back at the hostel (Dingo's) before our bus to 1770 (Agnes Water). The hostel in 1770 was really nice and we got a free BBQ included which was really good. We then had to pack our bags ready for Castaway the next morning.
We had a briefing for Castaway at 9am the following morning and met the rest of our group, 11 of us in total. We were told our flight times over to the island and what to bring etc. Jude and I were on different flights, an hour apart, due to the plane only seating 4. I was first on the 12pm flight so had some time to kill on the internet and managed to book my full moon party accommodation in Thailand for the 5th May. At 12, me and the two other people on my flight were picked up by our pilot, Bruce, and driven to the 'airport'...a grass strip. I was lucky to get the front seat and had to wear ear-protector thingys which meant I could talk to Bruce through it. We took off from the runway in the field and began the 15/20min flight to Castaway. Once we were up Bruce told me to turnaround and take a photo of the 2 in the back once he counted to 3. At 3 we nose dived and all flew up in the air, luckily held in by the seat belts. He kept dipping the wings and cut off the engine so that we just glided along for a bit before going in to land on the beach - he was a slightly mental pilot! He opened the window mid-flight and threatened to take off with the door open, it was only as the wheels lifted off the ground did he shut it!! It was awesome fun though!
Once we arrived at the camp I put my bag into a tent to reserve it for Jude and I and put the food and goon into the esky. We then waited for Bruce to return and bring the rest of the group in, 3 at a time. Once Jude arrived we put on suncream and walked 2km to the other side of the island to Pancake Creek with Michelle and Rob (brother and sister travelling together). There were LOTS of giant spiders hanging from the trees so Rob had to walk with a stick at the front to break the webs. When we arrived at Pancake Creek it was low tide, we thought we saw a turtle and a ray in the water but it was so murky it was hard to see much - the snorkels that we hired were a waste of time! We couldn't see anything in the water so decided to head back to camp where we went swimming in the sea and paddled out on the kayaks. We managed to catch some crabs on the beach to cook later on that evening on the fire and attempted to go fishing using the hand line and an oyster that we had collected fresh of the rocks (disgusting things!!) as bait...with not much luck. After that we cooked the stew that was sent over in the plane for dinner and had some goon whilst the boys collected wood for the fire. The stew took around 1 1/2 hours to cook in a big metal pot and when it was finally ready we ate by the fire which was great, right on the beach. We then cooked the crabs that we had caught earlier and ate them, they were pretty small so didnt have much meat on but they were pretty good all the same! Some people had brought sparklers and marshmallows with them so we had fun toasting the marshmallows on the fire and playing with the sparklers. Jude and I went for a walk along the beach in the dark in search of turtles (it was quite reassuring knowing that we were the only ones on the whole island), it was meant to be egg laying time for turtles but we didn't get to see any. We headed to bed by around 12pm to get up early in the morning to go kayaking. We managed to get up at 7am and headed straight to the sea. Jude and I spent 15mins trying to get both of us into one kayak which just didn't work but the morining dunk in the sea was really refreshing and it was warmer than the air temperature! After giving up and getting into separate kayaks I headed out in search of more fish to catch. As were were heading back towards the land, after reaslising maybe was had gone a bit too far out, we saw a pod of dolphins swimming right in front of us, it was AMAZING!!!! We then headed back in to tidy up the camp, as I went to wash up the dished in the sea I noticed that it attracted lots of fish so grabbed the hand line and used a lump of beef from the stew as bait. I'd soon caught 5 fish fresh from the sea...the only person able to catch any somehow! I could easily catch them but then had to pass them over to the others to bash them on the head with a rock and take the hook out of its mouth. After catching 5 fish I got a bit bored so headed back in from the sea to descale and prepare them for lunch. After descaling I cut off the head and tail and pulled all the guts out - not nice! Once all 5 were done we washed them in the sea before cooking them on the fire, they tasted really good!! After that we sunbathed on the beach before Bruce flew back in. We had a photoshoot by the plane where Bruce put us in all sorts of positions and then the first flight took off back to 1770. We had about an hours wait before Jude and I got on our flight, both in the back this time. Once we were up in the air another plane came by to the left of us and Bruce dipped the wings and did some nose dives. He then took our cameras and placed them at the front of the plane and told us to watch them, we were pretty worried by this point, especially with the window open as we were flying along! He then sent the plane into a climb before dipping us in a nose dive which sent the whole plane into zero gravity and out cameras slowy came towards us just like in space - it was AWESOME!!!!!! We then landed back in the field on the 'runway' and got our bags out of the back of the plane before being driven back into 1770. We checked back into the hostel and immediately showered, it was so good to feel clean again after no freshwater to wash with on Castaway. We then had all of the following day in 1770 before heading to Gladstone at 9:00pm.
In Gladstone we were due to head to Kroombit Cattle Station for two nights. We got picked up by the hostel from the bus stop in Gladstone (Gladstone Backpackers) at 11:30pm and got shown to our dorm - yet another empty one with just the two of us! The next morning at 7:30am we were dropped back to the bus stop where two people from Kroombit arrived to collect us and drive us the two hour drive into the outback to Kroombit. The park was amazing, 10,000 acres of land with 1,000 cattle and 300 goats plus Millie the brahman calf, Boss the cockatoo, Dog and Tuscany the dogs and Nessie the joey. We got our own 4 bed dorm to ourselves again in a cabin which was really nice. After arriving Jude and I went exploring before lunch where we got steak and salad. After lunch we did a 20km quad bike ride around the park which was great fun and we got to see a mustering site. Kroombit do their mustering by helicopter due to the costs being cheaper to do it that way! It was fun having to change gears on the quad bike although I never had a clue which gear I was actually in! After the Quad bikes we had a couple of hours of free time before roast beef and sticky toffee pudding for dinner, really good after a lot of beans on toast and other typical backacker food! That evening we sat with the staff (mainly backpackers working at Kroombit) and had a few drinks. Al, the cattle station owner, chatted with us for a bit before teaching us how to crack whips, it's pretty difficult at first but once you get the hang of it the noise is pretty cool, very loud! Then we had a chance to ride the mechanical bull - much harder than it looks but after several determined attempts Jude and I made it to level 3 of 4. The next day we were up at 8am for breakfast and had a free morning so we tagged along with Al in his ute on his rounds of the park. He drove up to turn on the water pump generator to provide the cattle with water and we went to see the huge seeders before taking us into Kroombit Tops National Park where we got to throw sticks into a lake for Dog to catch. Once he was wet though Al wouldn't let him back in the ute so he had to run the half hour drive home and was absolutely knackered by the time he made it back! Before lunch I befriended Boos the cockatoo, I intially noticed him on the park when he said hello to me as I came back from the shower that morning. Whilst we were waiting for lunch he hopped over to us (he can't fly) and showed me that he wanted me to stoke him by ducking his head down and pointing with his feet - he was SO cute! I groomed him until he fell asleep and then it was time for lunch, steak again. After lunch we were off out goat mustering on horseback, the highlight of our stay at Kroombit for me! I got a black horse called Ghost who was apparently a bit hard work to ride but we got along great and had loads of fun. The goat mustering was good fun, but a bit scary when 3 or 4 male goats kept attacking one female. We had to drive the goats along by shouting at them and moving the horses towards them. At one point some goats got separated and I had to go and get them back, but no trotting was allowed due to the adrenaline in the horses then sending the goats all over the place. Once they were all inside the pen I got to close the gate and lock them in and we had successfully rounded them all up. After that we rode the horses back and began the next set of activities - lassoing and clay pigeon shooting. Lassoing was pretty hard work but I got there in the end however I really enjoyed the shooting. It was a shotgun and I managed to hit 3 out of the 5 disks that were sent flying into the air. Finally after that it was the Goat Rodeo. We got into teams of two and got put into the goat pen, one had to grab a goat by the horns and drag it back to the other person who had to straddle it's back and hold it still whilst the other pretended to brand it's rear. After that we had to get the goat out of the pen and shut the gate before we were finished, all against a timer. Funnily enough we didnt win becuase the goat I chose decided to fight with another and Jude nearly got headbutted several times trying to hold it still! After all the excitement it was back down for roast dinner again. That evening there was more whip cracking, bull riding and we got to hold a green tree frog that Al found sitting in a tree stump. The following morning we had to be up at 5:15am for the drive back to Gladstone. We had time for a quick bit of toast off the fire and then hopped into the ute arriving back in Gladstone at around 8am. We dropped off our bags and Andy, who had driven us back from Kroombit, kindly dropped us to the shopping centre where we spent the day before getting our 10:50pm nightbus that evening to Airlie Beach.
We arrived in Airlie Beach at 7am after the nightbus, we walked with our bags in the rain (yes rain again!!) to Beaches, the hostel we had booked. Lucking they let us check in so we headed to bed seeing as there was nothing much we could do in the rain instead. That evening we went out for a few drinks but it seemed pretty dead in Airlie so were back in bed by around 12pm. Again the next day it was raining so we had a lie in before checking in for our boat (Tongarra). We went back to the hostel for dinner where we happend to meet two girls that had been in our dorm in 1770. We chatted away for a bit before packing our bags ready for 3 days and two nights on the boat sailing around the Whitsundays. The next day we had to be on the boat by 2:15pm so spent the morning in the hostel hoping that the rain might clear...it didn't! We had a quick intro once we got on the boat and got to meet the two memebers of staff (Beinke and Dave) and the other passengers, 22 of us in total including Beinke and Dave. We then set off in the rain for the Whitsundays, there was not much space inside the boat and it made me feel sick being in there for too long so I dont think I spent more than 10 minutes inside at anyone time on the whole trip. In the evenings 90% of the outside area of the boat was covered with a giant tent cover so that we could sleep outside which was pretty cool, although the sides weren't covered and my water bottled managed to go overboard along with my toothbrush cover! The first day we didn't do much apart from sail to our night time stopping area where the tent cover was put over the boat and we had dinner, BBQ fish, mash potato and coleslaw. After dinner we had a few drinks but by 12 the music had to be turned off and drinking had to stop which was fine seeing as we were woken up at 6:30am in the morning. The next day we had breakfast before we set off for Whitehaven beach, it was still raining and all we could really see was grey. We did manage to see dolphins and turtles though which was really good. The sand on Whitehaven beach was really soft and white and we did a short bush walk to get to a viewpoint. It was still raining but it was really warm in the sea, although slightly annoying that we had to constantly wear stinger suits to protect from the jelly fish. After spending a couple of hours in the rain on Whitehaven beach we swam back to the boat for lunch, tuna salad, rolls, wraps and salad. We ate whilst sailing our way to Mantaray Bay to snorkel. For the snorkelling we donned the wetsuits once more and jumped into the water to swim out to the reef. Dave took the smaller boat out to keep an eye on us and also took some fish food, he threw it at us and loads of fish bundled on top of you to get the food - pretty scary. We did get to see three huge fish which we could stroke. We snorkeled for a couple of hours before getting back on the boat to sail to the place we were stopping for the night. The weather was meant to turn even worse and that night the boat was a bit rocky and I got pretty wet sleeping outside, even under the tent - the wind just blew the rain under the shelter! After dinner (spaghetti bolognaise) we played some drinking games and all finally went to sleep at around 2:15am. We were up at 7am the next morning for breakfast and a swim off the back of the boat (again in stinger suits) to clear any hangovers before we set off to the mainland on the 2 1/2 hour journey back. It was pretty choppy on the way back, but great fun because we got to sit right at the front of the boat with our feet dangling over. We got covered in waves every so often which was really nice because the water was warm, but it was still raining! It did not stop the whole time we were out on the Whitsundays and we were constantly soaked and ended up just wearing a bikini and yellow fishing raincoat the whole time because anything else got soaked within seconds! The whole trip was good fun but would have been so much better in good weather! We arrived back in Airlie at around 12:30pm and checked back into the hostel where we went straight to bed to recover from the past few days of lack of sleep, plus it was still raining so there was nothing else to do!
We had a 7am greyhound booked the following morning so trudged down to the bus stop in the rain at 6:30am only to find that no buses were going due to flooding - wonderful! We had to go straight to Peterpans where we waited until they opened to see what could be done about all the accommodation that we have already booked and paid for. They moved everything forward a day for us but it still meant that we lost one nights accommodation in Mission Beach and also had to pay for more in Airlie. We checked into a hostel, Magnums, in a ten bed dorm and sat in there waiting for the rain to stop. Airlie Beach is not a very big place and in the rain there is absolutely nothing to do! We managed to book onto another bus the following morning (this morning) at 9am only to find out that that was also cancelled. We had to then cancel all of our plans to go to Mission Beach and move our Magnetic Island accommodation forward yet another day. The rain finally stopped today and we even managed to sunbathe by the lagoon this afternoon. We are booked onto a bus at 7am tomorrow morning now and fingers crossesd everything has returned to normal with the buses, there is just a slight worry that we won't be able to make it to Townsville (where we get the ferry to Magnetic Island) due to the tornado that passed through! We shall see in the morning...
27/03/2012
Well we did make it to Magnetic Island! The greyhound was an hour late and we had to drive through flood water but we made it to Townsville and hopped straight on the ferry over to the Island. We got the bus straight to the hostel and checked in, we stayed in 6 bed cabins right on the beach which were lovely! After that it was straight to the pool before dinner and a few drinks. The next day we got up and headed over to Horseshoe bay where we swam in the sea (stinger sauit free due to the sectioned off stinger safe area) and sat on the beach for a while. After that we headed down to Geoffrey Bay to feed the rock wallabies which were so cute! We got dinner and packed our bags up yet again before getting back on the ferry and greyhound to Cairns the following morning.
When we arrived in Cairns the weather seemed pretty nice which was great. Yesterday was our first full day here and we were booked on a dive boat to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We had to get the 7am shuttle bus from our hostel into town where we managed to find our boat, by this point it was raining (there goes the lovely weather from the day before!). We got soaked getting onto the boat but made it and found a seat whilst we wiated for everyone to arrive. We had three dives included on the boat along with a buffet lunch. The ride out to the reef was very choppy, someone managed to fall over as we went over a wave and got a black eye and there were lots of people being sick...Once we got to the reef though it was much calmer and we quickly got our equipment ready and jumped in - the visibility wasn't amazing due to all the rain but we saw lots of fish and a TURTLE! :) We didn't have a particularly long bottom time on the dive but we came up, got our tanks refilled and got ready to go again. This time we got to go through a passage and touch some anenomes, by the time everyone else was down to 50 bar and it was time to go up for them I still had 90 so our dive guide told everyone to go up and took me further round the reef where we got to see a tiny little shrimp sitting in an anenome and lots of nemos! After that it was time for lunch before our final dive. On the last dive we saw five HUGE Maori Rass that were swimming around, they were each at least a metre long and we got to go quite close before they swam away. The diving was definitely one of the highlights of Australia, even if the Barrier Reef was a bit disappointing. Definitely planning on more diving in Bali and the Gili Islands over the next few weeks!
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It's been a while again since the last update, time in Australia has flown by and cannot believe I only have 10 days left before I leave western comforts and head into Asia!
After leaving Byron Bay we got the greyhound to Surfers Paradise, our hostel in Surfers (trekkers) was a bit out of town but we ended up with a 6 bed dorm to ourselves which was pretty good! After dropping off our bags we headed out to the local 'shopping centre' to stock up on goon and then sat by the hostel swimming pool for a bit before heading out into Surfers for a few drinks. A few drinks soon turned into many when we found a club (Sin City) that had 'ladies night' and offered us free entry and free drinks ALL night - we only had to pay for the bus fare home!! We stumbled back to the hostel to bed at around 2:30am which did not make it easy to get up and check out in the morning! After checking out we sat by the pool for until it was time to get the shuttle bus to the greyhound stop for the bus to Noosa.
We arrived in Noosa and got picked up by the hostel, again not in the centre of town, but we had yet another dorm to ourselves!! The next day we explored Noosa, we got dropped in Noosa Junction so wandered down to Main Beach before walking along the boardwalk into the national park where we did a 12km walk along the coast and back through the forest. After a quick shower at the hostel we walked down the road to Sunshine Beach for the evening. The next day we were back on the greyhound to Rainbow Beach for Fraser Island. We had our briefing at 4:30pm for the Fraser tag along self drive trip where we also met the people we would be sharing a car with, everyone seemed really nice. The next day we were up at 6:30am to get the 4WD's packed and ready to go...although there was a bit of a hold up becuase the hostel needed to find us accommodation on one of the resorts on Fraser Island due to all the rain, normally we would be camping but with a cyclone heading our way that was a no-no. When we got up it was really raining and the roads were flooded (all greyhounds cancelled!), luckily we were in the 4WD's and so after accommodation was found we were good to go. We packed all the equipment into the trailer of the lead car and all got in ready to leave - I was the first to drive. It was prety fun driving the 4WD (Toyota Land Cruiser), although it was MUCH higher and bigger than my car back at home! It wasn't so great to drive on the sealed roads but as soon as we got onto the sand and hit the 4WD setting it was brilliant fun!
We had to queue for the ferry to cross over to Fraser and after that we were off. We had 4 cars in our group, 3 self drives and the one at the front with our driver guide. We drove along the beach to our resort where we made our lunch (all food was provided by Dingo's, who we booked the tour with, all we had to do was prepare and cook it). After lunch (ham sandwiches, salad and fruit) we unpacked the trailer with the rest of the things in it...mainly the eskies full of goon, and then set off in the cars on the way to Lake Wabby. Lake Wabby was really nice, even in the rain. We went on a half hour walk and then got to swim in the lake which was full of catfish and little fish that gave you a free foot spa! We then went back to the resort and cooked our potato salad and steak dinner, followed by drinking games in our room. We were put into 4 bed dorms in Eurong Resort, each had a mini kitchen and we were given proper towels (a luxury when backpacking!). In our drunken state we decided that at around 1am it was a good idea to leave the resort and go out of the dingo fence to see if we could see any dingos - seeing as it was still really raining and very windy due to the cyclone we were not in luck...the only good side to all the rain meant that there were not as many huge horrible march flies to bite us! The next day was another early start where we drove to Lake Mackenzie, Champagne Pools, Eli Creek and the shipwreck on the beach, we also got to see a couple of dingos on the beach. At Lake Mackenzie we got to swim in the lovely clear blue water and sit on the soft white sand. In Eli Creek we swam down the cold creek from one end to the other (4 of us were the only ones to do it becuase it was so cold). At the Champagne Pools we could swim in the sea becuase it was a protected area free from the strong currents and sharks...although there were still jelly fish (not a fan of those!!). After that it was back to the resort for dinner (chicken stir-fry and fruit cake) plus more goon. The cyclone was still pretty full on at this point with winds of up to 90km/hr and lots of rain! We got told that all greyhounds were still cancelled and that we could be stuck in Rainbow Beach for a few days, not good news when Jude and I had everything booked and on a pretty tight time schedule! The next morning was yet another early start but the cyclone looked like it was blowing over so we headed out to swim with some tutles in a tea tree lake before driving back to the mainland. We were back by 4pm and had to unpack and de-sand the cars before being dropped back at the hostel. We went straight into Peterpans (the travel agents) to check the buses and luckily to our suprise we were told that everything was fine and all back to normal, great news!!
That evening Jude and I cooked dinner with Karina and Clare, who we had met on Fraser, and had a few drinks before bed. We had to check out at 9:30am the following morning and killed some time walking around Rainbow Beach and swimming in the pool back at the hostel (Dingo's) before our bus to 1770 (Agnes Water). The hostel in 1770 was really nice and we got a free BBQ included which was really good. We then had to pack our bags ready for Castaway the next morning.
We had a briefing for Castaway at 9am the following morning and met the rest of our group, 11 of us in total. We were told our flight times over to the island and what to bring etc. Jude and I were on different flights, an hour apart, due to the plane only seating 4. I was first on the 12pm flight so had some time to kill on the internet and managed to book my full moon party accommodation in Thailand for the 5th May. At 12, me and the two other people on my flight were picked up by our pilot, Bruce, and driven to the 'airport'...a grass strip. I was lucky to get the front seat and had to wear ear-protector thingys which meant I could talk to Bruce through it. We took off from the runway in the field and began the 15/20min flight to Castaway. Once we were up Bruce told me to turnaround and take a photo of the 2 in the back once he counted to 3. At 3 we nose dived and all flew up in the air, luckily held in by the seat belts. He kept dipping the wings and cut off the engine so that we just glided along for a bit before going in to land on the beach - he was a slightly mental pilot! He opened the window mid-flight and threatened to take off with the door open, it was only as the wheels lifted off the ground did he shut it!! It was awesome fun though!
Once we arrived at the camp I put my bag into a tent to reserve it for Jude and I and put the food and goon into the esky. We then waited for Bruce to return and bring the rest of the group in, 3 at a time. Once Jude arrived we put on suncream and walked 2km to the other side of the island to Pancake Creek with Michelle and Rob (brother and sister travelling together). There were LOTS of giant spiders hanging from the trees so Rob had to walk with a stick at the front to break the webs. When we arrived at Pancake Creek it was low tide, we thought we saw a turtle and a ray in the water but it was so murky it was hard to see much - the snorkels that we hired were a waste of time! We couldn't see anything in the water so decided to head back to camp where we went swimming in the sea and paddled out on the kayaks. We managed to catch some crabs on the beach to cook later on that evening on the fire and attempted to go fishing using the hand line and an oyster that we had collected fresh of the rocks (disgusting things!!) as bait...with not much luck. After that we cooked the stew that was sent over in the plane for dinner and had some goon whilst the boys collected wood for the fire. The stew took around 1 1/2 hours to cook in a big metal pot and when it was finally ready we ate by the fire which was great, right on the beach. We then cooked the crabs that we had caught earlier and ate them, they were pretty small so didnt have much meat on but they were pretty good all the same! Some people had brought sparklers and marshmallows with them so we had fun toasting the marshmallows on the fire and playing with the sparklers. Jude and I went for a walk along the beach in the dark in search of turtles (it was quite reassuring knowing that we were the only ones on the whole island), it was meant to be egg laying time for turtles but we didn't get to see any. We headed to bed by around 12pm to get up early in the morning to go kayaking. We managed to get up at 7am and headed straight to the sea. Jude and I spent 15mins trying to get both of us into one kayak which just didn't work but the morining dunk in the sea was really refreshing and it was warmer than the air temperature! After giving up and getting into separate kayaks I headed out in search of more fish to catch. As were were heading back towards the land, after reaslising maybe was had gone a bit too far out, we saw a pod of dolphins swimming right in front of us, it was AMAZING!!!! We then headed back in to tidy up the camp, as I went to wash up the dished in the sea I noticed that it attracted lots of fish so grabbed the hand line and used a lump of beef from the stew as bait. I'd soon caught 5 fish fresh from the sea...the only person able to catch any somehow! I could easily catch them but then had to pass them over to the others to bash them on the head with a rock and take the hook out of its mouth. After catching 5 fish I got a bit bored so headed back in from the sea to descale and prepare them for lunch. After descaling I cut off the head and tail and pulled all the guts out - not nice! Once all 5 were done we washed them in the sea before cooking them on the fire, they tasted really good!! After that we sunbathed on the beach before Bruce flew back in. We had a photoshoot by the plane where Bruce put us in all sorts of positions and then the first flight took off back to 1770. We had about an hours wait before Jude and I got on our flight, both in the back this time. Once we were up in the air another plane came by to the left of us and Bruce dipped the wings and did some nose dives. He then took our cameras and placed them at the front of the plane and told us to watch them, we were pretty worried by this point, especially with the window open as we were flying along! He then sent the plane into a climb before dipping us in a nose dive which sent the whole plane into zero gravity and out cameras slowy came towards us just like in space - it was AWESOME!!!!!! We then landed back in the field on the 'runway' and got our bags out of the back of the plane before being driven back into 1770. We checked back into the hostel and immediately showered, it was so good to feel clean again after no freshwater to wash with on Castaway. We then had all of the following day in 1770 before heading to Gladstone at 9:00pm.
In Gladstone we were due to head to Kroombit Cattle Station for two nights. We got picked up by the hostel from the bus stop in Gladstone (Gladstone Backpackers) at 11:30pm and got shown to our dorm - yet another empty one with just the two of us! The next morning at 7:30am we were dropped back to the bus stop where two people from Kroombit arrived to collect us and drive us the two hour drive into the outback to Kroombit. The park was amazing, 10,000 acres of land with 1,000 cattle and 300 goats plus Millie the brahman calf, Boss the cockatoo, Dog and Tuscany the dogs and Nessie the joey. We got our own 4 bed dorm to ourselves again in a cabin which was really nice. After arriving Jude and I went exploring before lunch where we got steak and salad. After lunch we did a 20km quad bike ride around the park which was great fun and we got to see a mustering site. Kroombit do their mustering by helicopter due to the costs being cheaper to do it that way! It was fun having to change gears on the quad bike although I never had a clue which gear I was actually in! After the Quad bikes we had a couple of hours of free time before roast beef and sticky toffee pudding for dinner, really good after a lot of beans on toast and other typical backacker food! That evening we sat with the staff (mainly backpackers working at Kroombit) and had a few drinks. Al, the cattle station owner, chatted with us for a bit before teaching us how to crack whips, it's pretty difficult at first but once you get the hang of it the noise is pretty cool, very loud! Then we had a chance to ride the mechanical bull - much harder than it looks but after several determined attempts Jude and I made it to level 3 of 4. The next day we were up at 8am for breakfast and had a free morning so we tagged along with Al in his ute on his rounds of the park. He drove up to turn on the water pump generator to provide the cattle with water and we went to see the huge seeders before taking us into Kroombit Tops National Park where we got to throw sticks into a lake for Dog to catch. Once he was wet though Al wouldn't let him back in the ute so he had to run the half hour drive home and was absolutely knackered by the time he made it back! Before lunch I befriended Boos the cockatoo, I intially noticed him on the park when he said hello to me as I came back from the shower that morning. Whilst we were waiting for lunch he hopped over to us (he can't fly) and showed me that he wanted me to stoke him by ducking his head down and pointing with his feet - he was SO cute! I groomed him until he fell asleep and then it was time for lunch, steak again. After lunch we were off out goat mustering on horseback, the highlight of our stay at Kroombit for me! I got a black horse called Ghost who was apparently a bit hard work to ride but we got along great and had loads of fun. The goat mustering was good fun, but a bit scary when 3 or 4 male goats kept attacking one female. We had to drive the goats along by shouting at them and moving the horses towards them. At one point some goats got separated and I had to go and get them back, but no trotting was allowed due to the adrenaline in the horses then sending the goats all over the place. Once they were all inside the pen I got to close the gate and lock them in and we had successfully rounded them all up. After that we rode the horses back and began the next set of activities - lassoing and clay pigeon shooting. Lassoing was pretty hard work but I got there in the end however I really enjoyed the shooting. It was a shotgun and I managed to hit 3 out of the 5 disks that were sent flying into the air. Finally after that it was the Goat Rodeo. We got into teams of two and got put into the goat pen, one had to grab a goat by the horns and drag it back to the other person who had to straddle it's back and hold it still whilst the other pretended to brand it's rear. After that we had to get the goat out of the pen and shut the gate before we were finished, all against a timer. Funnily enough we didnt win becuase the goat I chose decided to fight with another and Jude nearly got headbutted several times trying to hold it still! After all the excitement it was back down for roast dinner again. That evening there was more whip cracking, bull riding and we got to hold a green tree frog that Al found sitting in a tree stump. The following morning we had to be up at 5:15am for the drive back to Gladstone. We had time for a quick bit of toast off the fire and then hopped into the ute arriving back in Gladstone at around 8am. We dropped off our bags and Andy, who had driven us back from Kroombit, kindly dropped us to the shopping centre where we spent the day before getting our 10:50pm nightbus that evening to Airlie Beach.
We arrived in Airlie Beach at 7am after the nightbus, we walked with our bags in the rain (yes rain again!!) to Beaches, the hostel we had booked. Lucking they let us check in so we headed to bed seeing as there was nothing much we could do in the rain instead. That evening we went out for a few drinks but it seemed pretty dead in Airlie so were back in bed by around 12pm. Again the next day it was raining so we had a lie in before checking in for our boat (Tongarra). We went back to the hostel for dinner where we happend to meet two girls that had been in our dorm in 1770. We chatted away for a bit before packing our bags ready for 3 days and two nights on the boat sailing around the Whitsundays. The next day we had to be on the boat by 2:15pm so spent the morning in the hostel hoping that the rain might clear...it didn't! We had a quick intro once we got on the boat and got to meet the two memebers of staff (Beinke and Dave) and the other passengers, 22 of us in total including Beinke and Dave. We then set off in the rain for the Whitsundays, there was not much space inside the boat and it made me feel sick being in there for too long so I dont think I spent more than 10 minutes inside at anyone time on the whole trip. In the evenings 90% of the outside area of the boat was covered with a giant tent cover so that we could sleep outside which was pretty cool, although the sides weren't covered and my water bottled managed to go overboard along with my toothbrush cover! The first day we didn't do much apart from sail to our night time stopping area where the tent cover was put over the boat and we had dinner, BBQ fish, mash potato and coleslaw. After dinner we had a few drinks but by 12 the music had to be turned off and drinking had to stop which was fine seeing as we were woken up at 6:30am in the morning. The next day we had breakfast before we set off for Whitehaven beach, it was still raining and all we could really see was grey. We did manage to see dolphins and turtles though which was really good. The sand on Whitehaven beach was really soft and white and we did a short bush walk to get to a viewpoint. It was still raining but it was really warm in the sea, although slightly annoying that we had to constantly wear stinger suits to protect from the jelly fish. After spending a couple of hours in the rain on Whitehaven beach we swam back to the boat for lunch, tuna salad, rolls, wraps and salad. We ate whilst sailing our way to Mantaray Bay to snorkel. For the snorkelling we donned the wetsuits once more and jumped into the water to swim out to the reef. Dave took the smaller boat out to keep an eye on us and also took some fish food, he threw it at us and loads of fish bundled on top of you to get the food - pretty scary. We did get to see three huge fish which we could stroke. We snorkeled for a couple of hours before getting back on the boat to sail to the place we were stopping for the night. The weather was meant to turn even worse and that night the boat was a bit rocky and I got pretty wet sleeping outside, even under the tent - the wind just blew the rain under the shelter! After dinner (spaghetti bolognaise) we played some drinking games and all finally went to sleep at around 2:15am. We were up at 7am the next morning for breakfast and a swim off the back of the boat (again in stinger suits) to clear any hangovers before we set off to the mainland on the 2 1/2 hour journey back. It was pretty choppy on the way back, but great fun because we got to sit right at the front of the boat with our feet dangling over. We got covered in waves every so often which was really nice because the water was warm, but it was still raining! It did not stop the whole time we were out on the Whitsundays and we were constantly soaked and ended up just wearing a bikini and yellow fishing raincoat the whole time because anything else got soaked within seconds! The whole trip was good fun but would have been so much better in good weather! We arrived back in Airlie at around 12:30pm and checked back into the hostel where we went straight to bed to recover from the past few days of lack of sleep, plus it was still raining so there was nothing else to do!
We had a 7am greyhound booked the following morning so trudged down to the bus stop in the rain at 6:30am only to find that no buses were going due to flooding - wonderful! We had to go straight to Peterpans where we waited until they opened to see what could be done about all the accommodation that we have already booked and paid for. They moved everything forward a day for us but it still meant that we lost one nights accommodation in Mission Beach and also had to pay for more in Airlie. We checked into a hostel, Magnums, in a ten bed dorm and sat in there waiting for the rain to stop. Airlie Beach is not a very big place and in the rain there is absolutely nothing to do! We managed to book onto another bus the following morning (this morning) at 9am only to find out that that was also cancelled. We had to then cancel all of our plans to go to Mission Beach and move our Magnetic Island accommodation forward yet another day. The rain finally stopped today and we even managed to sunbathe by the lagoon this afternoon. We are booked onto a bus at 7am tomorrow morning now and fingers crossesd everything has returned to normal with the buses, there is just a slight worry that we won't be able to make it to Townsville (where we get the ferry to Magnetic Island) due to the tornado that passed through! We shall see in the morning...
27/03/2012
Well we did make it to Magnetic Island! The greyhound was an hour late and we had to drive through flood water but we made it to Townsville and hopped straight on the ferry over to the Island. We got the bus straight to the hostel and checked in, we stayed in 6 bed cabins right on the beach which were lovely! After that it was straight to the pool before dinner and a few drinks. The next day we got up and headed over to Horseshoe bay where we swam in the sea (stinger sauit free due to the sectioned off stinger safe area) and sat on the beach for a while. After that we headed down to Geoffrey Bay to feed the rock wallabies which were so cute! We got dinner and packed our bags up yet again before getting back on the ferry and greyhound to Cairns the following morning.
When we arrived in Cairns the weather seemed pretty nice which was great. Yesterday was our first full day here and we were booked on a dive boat to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We had to get the 7am shuttle bus from our hostel into town where we managed to find our boat, by this point it was raining (there goes the lovely weather from the day before!). We got soaked getting onto the boat but made it and found a seat whilst we wiated for everyone to arrive. We had three dives included on the boat along with a buffet lunch. The ride out to the reef was very choppy, someone managed to fall over as we went over a wave and got a black eye and there were lots of people being sick...Once we got to the reef though it was much calmer and we quickly got our equipment ready and jumped in - the visibility wasn't amazing due to all the rain but we saw lots of fish and a TURTLE! :) We didn't have a particularly long bottom time on the dive but we came up, got our tanks refilled and got ready to go again. This time we got to go through a passage and touch some anenomes, by the time everyone else was down to 50 bar and it was time to go up for them I still had 90 so our dive guide told everyone to go up and took me further round the reef where we got to see a tiny little shrimp sitting in an anenome and lots of nemos! After that it was time for lunch before our final dive. On the last dive we saw five HUGE Maori Rass that were swimming around, they were each at least a metre long and we got to go quite close before they swam away. The diving was definitely one of the highlights of Australia, even if the Barrier Reef was a bit disappointing. Definitely planning on more diving in Bali and the Gili Islands over the next few weeks!
Latest Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150615670006491.385651.516011490&type=1&aft=10150615757056491&l=45e9216663
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Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Australian Adventures Begin!
So I am now in Australia, country number 9 on this trip so far. The last few days in Auckland were actually pretty fun considering the tonsilitis. I met a really nice group of people in my dorm, went to a chinese lantern festival and went to Auckland Zoo, where I finally got to see a live Kiwi bird :). By the time I left though I was looking forward to getting to Australia and meeting Jude (who I'd previously met in Peru and had arranged to travel round Oz with).
The first day I arrived in Sydney I was on my own so went for a wander around Darling Harbour, the weather wasn't great which was a bit of a let down but on first impressions I really liked Sydney as far as cities go. The next day Jude arrived and we began planning our Australia adventures. We went into a travel shop and managed to book a camper van to leave the city two days later with the aim of making it to Adelaide and back in 2 weeks (a little ambitious according to everyone...but we made it!). After booking the camper we headed out to meet Andy, a friend that had been on our tour in South America, and he took us for lunch where we made arrangements for him to pick us up from Bondi Junction the next day to drive us around and show us the key sites. After lunch Jude and I popped into Peterpans travel agents and booked our east coast trips, we got a really good discount when we booked them all together which was great and we settled with: Fraser Island, Castaway trip, an outback adventure trip, Whitsundays, a 3 dive day trip from Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef and 2 nights on Magnetic Island plus our Greyhound pass from Sydney to Cairns. Finally we booked a flight from Carins to Darwin and then had all our plans pretty much sorted...much easier than I expected! That evening we went out for a few drinks with Hannah and Lawrence, some friends from home which was nice.
The next day Andy showed us around and took us to Bondi Beach where we planned to stay for two nights after we returned the camper, we drove over the Harbour Bridge towards Manly and stopped for an amazing seafood lunch, we also visited 'Summer Bay' and Whale Beach before stopping for a drink in a bar overlooking the jetty where they flim Home & Away. Andy showed us his parents (amazing) beach house and then dropped us off in Manly where we got the ferry back to Circular Quay...it was a really good day and great to see things outside of the city centre that we otherwise wouldn't be able to! On the ferry back into Sydney we saw the Harbour Bridge and wandered through the Botanical Gardens. We got sushi for dinner (SO much nicer here that back home!) and made a rough itinerary for our two weeks in the campervan.
The next morning we arrived at the campervan rental place (after walking in the wrong direction for 10 mins in the rain!) and were told that we had been given a free upgrade. We got upgraded from Travellers Autobarn's 'Chubby' van to a Toyota hitop. The upgrade was really great news as it meant we could stand up inside the van, had a fridge and proper kitchen (including a microwave that could be used when we plugged into charge) and more space...it did mean that I had to drive a pretty big van though! After getting shown around the camper it was time to set off so we decided to take it around the block a few times so that I could get used to it. It was really easy to drive and manouver apart from the odd wrestling match with 3rd gear, so we quickly set off in search of a supermarket and then onto the Blue Mountains. It took us 2 hours of driving in circles before we finally got out of Sydney and drove onto Penrith where we stocked up in a supermarket and filled our cupboards in the camper...it was starting to feel like home already. We then continued on to the Blue Mountains arriving at around 5:30pm...we couldn't find a free campsite anywhere in the vicinity so had to pay $27 for just a grass pitch, no electricity! The next day was an early 6:30am start to see the Blue Mountains before heading on towards Melbourne. We managed to fit in a lot of the viewpoints between Katoomba, Wentworth and Blackheath, alongside the 2 sisters and the scenic railway which was good. The Blue Mountains were really lovely and it was great to have the freedom of the campervan even if the weather wasn't too wonderful. The next day we began the drive to Melbourne, stopping to camp in a free campsite just outside of Wagga Wagga (pretty much besides the highway). We ended up with a bit of an evening routine in the camper each day...we'd arrive, have some goon (amazingly cheap boxed wine - not the nicest but great value :) )then we'd cook dinner before a bit more goon, set the bed up and be asleep before 10 when it was dark and there was nothing else to do! We did make a real effort with meals though seeing as we had nothing else to do and cooked curry, kangaroo steaks and tuna salads...much better than the food you cook in hostels.
The next day we arrived in Melbourne by 3:30pm, we were staying 2 nights with Harlan, another person from our trip in South America. Harlan showed us around before we headed into St Kilda where it was the end of a week long festival. We sat outside and had some curly potatoes on a stick and then headed to a bar for some sangria and $2 tacos. The next day Jude and I went to take photos of 'Ramsey Street' (Pinoak Court) before going to shopping in Chadstone Shopping Centre for the afternoon. We bought the ingredients for dinner: Lasagne and banoffee pie :) and then went for coffee with Filippo, another friend from home. Everyone seems to be in Australia! After that it was back to Harlans to meet Caroline (another person from the South America trip). Harlan had put his Tomtom Australia on my iPhone which was brilliant to naviage around Melbourne (the map we had was useless) but it unfotunately died on the way back but with joint directions from Harlan (on his way back from work) and Caroline (sitting outside Harlans) we made it back eventually! We had a really nice evening chatting away and catching up, and the lasagne and banoffee pie went down well - until we found a live caterpilar in the salad...at least we had already eaten!
The next day it was time to leave Melbourne and head on to the Great Ocean Road. We dropped Harlan to the station in the morning and then packed our bags and loaded them into the campervan before we set off. We stopped in Torquay to buy more food stocks and see the beach (where surfing first began) before having lunch on Bells beach. We stopped on the way to our campsite to see some wild kangaroos that live on a golf course in Anglesea and went to a viewpoint before finally arriving at Big Hill Campgound. The campsite was tucked away in the forest, it was really nice and free! The toilets were basic but we were going to have to get used to that, that and the lack of showers...we soon became pretty inventive there and made good use of our hose pipe and taps. The next morning it was another early start at 7am, we packed up the bed, had breakfast and headed further along the Great Ocean Road. The first stop was Erskine Falls followed by several viewpoints along the way. After the falls we headed to Kennet River to see the wild Koalas (I want a pet one!!) and we managed to feed a small, friendly parrot which was really cute! The koalas was definitely the highlight though! After that we did a short rainforest walk where there were lots of bugs and then it was onto Joanna beach campsite where we had lunch and planned to camp that evening. We spent the afternoon on Joanna beach which was nice and came back to the campsite in the afternoon to have a hose-pipe shower...it worked pretty well and got us clean! That evening we were on a bit of a slant so wasn't one of the best nights sleep.
The next day we carried on along the Great Ocean Road, stopping to see the 12 Apostles and Gibsons Steps. The weather had changed and it was a bit clousy but still amazing views! We then continued on to London Bridge, the Grotto and Loch Ard Gorge to take more photos from the viewpoints and then it was onto the Bay of Islands and Bay of Martyrs before Port Campbell where nothing was open so we carried on to Warrimbol. Here we restocked on goon and went to a cheese factory where we were pretty excited to get free cheese samples...cheese is not in the backpacker budget in Australia! After that we went to to Tower Hill where we saw wild emus (one chased us for our lunch) and more koalas :). That evening we had to pay for a campsite because our second battery in the camper had reached the point where the inside lights (that we use of an evening) didn't work...we found one 4km sourth of a little place called Yambuk - it was empty. There was another set of campers and then a weird guy who was sleeping in his car who told us to go down to the beach becuase it was now empty and we would have it all to ourselves at sunset - very weird and creepy!
The following day we drove the final 650km to the outskirts of Adelaide, stopping at the 'Big Lobster'for lunch on the way. That evening we found a brilliant free campsite called Frank Potts Reserve and ended up stopping for three nights...it had a fully flushing toilet with NO bugs or spiders - a luxury! The following day we spent on Carrickalinga beach...possibly the nicest beach ever and amazing crystal blue sea - whilst we were swimming dolphins came past in the water, only about 100 metres from us!! We had another hose pipe shower, this time by the beach before heading back to the campsite for dinner. The following day we went to Cleland Wildlife Park where we got to feed kangaroos, cuddle up to a koala (!!) and hand feed some little bandicoots. It was great fun and we even got to see a little joey in its mothers pouch - much better than all the dead kangaroos we'd seen beside the road recently! After that we had our final night at the Adelaide campsite before the journey accross the edge of the outback to sydney. The first stop on the journey back was Mildura, passing Wentworth which we then went back to the following morning to visit Perry Sand Hills - some sand dunes which were pretty cool. In Mildura we had to re-charge the electricity so got a pitch in a campsite and even had a pool, we made the most of it and had a lie in until around 8:30 the next morning. After that we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon driving to Hay where we where we found another free campsite right on the river. Again the next day was mainly driving back, stopping to camp just outside Cootamundra, this free campsite was again really nice and we were happily sunbathing until a giant scary wasp like thing spent the afternoon taunting us. There was a huge storm that evening and we were really worried about driving off the grass the next day...I'd accidentally parked next to the storm drain - not the best of ideas but it all worked out ok once the grass dried out. The next day was the final one in the campervan and we headed closer to Sydney, camping at Flat Rock campsite, the next morning we were up at 7:30am cleaning out the van before we had to return it at 3pm to Mascot in Sydney. As we were driving along an oil warning light popped up on the dashboard which meant we had to stop to buy oil...but becuase the engine was hot we couldn't open the oil cap so had to take the oil with us back to the hire centre for them to do it. We also got a bit lost back in Sydney and by 3pm we still hadn't found a car wash for the camper - they are all under 2.25m and we were 2.7m! We finally found one for $35 (!!) and managed to return the camper just after 3pm. By this point we had done 4800km and had the most amazing two weeks, we really did not want to give the campervan back!!
That evening we took our backpacks (not fun having to carry those again after 2 weeks of personal transport!) and headed to Bondi Beach where we had two nights in Noah's Backpackers - pretty basic but friendly hostel. We spent a day on the beach there and also caught up with Gemma, a friend of my sisters from home. The next day we had our overnight Greyhound bus at 11pm to Byron Bay which is where we are now. The night bus to Byron wasn't the best, far worse than the nightbusses in South America but we saved on a nights accommodation and arrived at 11am the next morning. We dropped our bags off a Nomads hostel before going for a wander around town. Byron Bay is a really nice, pretty small town right on the beach so we have spent the past two days topping up our tans and exploring the town...accompanied by drinks in the evenings.
Tomorrow we head to Surfers Paradise for a night before Noosa and then all the activities begin, with Fraser Island to start with! We also managed to book the majority of our accommodation with Peterpans in Byron and got 9 nights to average out at $17 per night - super cheap for Australia! VERY excited for the upcomming few weeks!!
Photos:
New Zealand: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150514315296491.372224.516011490&type=3&l=88e9e0ab4e
Australia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150560453781491.377817.516011490&type=3&l=91a86c3ef5
Will try and not leave the next update so long...!
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The first day I arrived in Sydney I was on my own so went for a wander around Darling Harbour, the weather wasn't great which was a bit of a let down but on first impressions I really liked Sydney as far as cities go. The next day Jude arrived and we began planning our Australia adventures. We went into a travel shop and managed to book a camper van to leave the city two days later with the aim of making it to Adelaide and back in 2 weeks (a little ambitious according to everyone...but we made it!). After booking the camper we headed out to meet Andy, a friend that had been on our tour in South America, and he took us for lunch where we made arrangements for him to pick us up from Bondi Junction the next day to drive us around and show us the key sites. After lunch Jude and I popped into Peterpans travel agents and booked our east coast trips, we got a really good discount when we booked them all together which was great and we settled with: Fraser Island, Castaway trip, an outback adventure trip, Whitsundays, a 3 dive day trip from Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef and 2 nights on Magnetic Island plus our Greyhound pass from Sydney to Cairns. Finally we booked a flight from Carins to Darwin and then had all our plans pretty much sorted...much easier than I expected! That evening we went out for a few drinks with Hannah and Lawrence, some friends from home which was nice.
The next day Andy showed us around and took us to Bondi Beach where we planned to stay for two nights after we returned the camper, we drove over the Harbour Bridge towards Manly and stopped for an amazing seafood lunch, we also visited 'Summer Bay' and Whale Beach before stopping for a drink in a bar overlooking the jetty where they flim Home & Away. Andy showed us his parents (amazing) beach house and then dropped us off in Manly where we got the ferry back to Circular Quay...it was a really good day and great to see things outside of the city centre that we otherwise wouldn't be able to! On the ferry back into Sydney we saw the Harbour Bridge and wandered through the Botanical Gardens. We got sushi for dinner (SO much nicer here that back home!) and made a rough itinerary for our two weeks in the campervan.
The next morning we arrived at the campervan rental place (after walking in the wrong direction for 10 mins in the rain!) and were told that we had been given a free upgrade. We got upgraded from Travellers Autobarn's 'Chubby' van to a Toyota hitop. The upgrade was really great news as it meant we could stand up inside the van, had a fridge and proper kitchen (including a microwave that could be used when we plugged into charge) and more space...it did mean that I had to drive a pretty big van though! After getting shown around the camper it was time to set off so we decided to take it around the block a few times so that I could get used to it. It was really easy to drive and manouver apart from the odd wrestling match with 3rd gear, so we quickly set off in search of a supermarket and then onto the Blue Mountains. It took us 2 hours of driving in circles before we finally got out of Sydney and drove onto Penrith where we stocked up in a supermarket and filled our cupboards in the camper...it was starting to feel like home already. We then continued on to the Blue Mountains arriving at around 5:30pm...we couldn't find a free campsite anywhere in the vicinity so had to pay $27 for just a grass pitch, no electricity! The next day was an early 6:30am start to see the Blue Mountains before heading on towards Melbourne. We managed to fit in a lot of the viewpoints between Katoomba, Wentworth and Blackheath, alongside the 2 sisters and the scenic railway which was good. The Blue Mountains were really lovely and it was great to have the freedom of the campervan even if the weather wasn't too wonderful. The next day we began the drive to Melbourne, stopping to camp in a free campsite just outside of Wagga Wagga (pretty much besides the highway). We ended up with a bit of an evening routine in the camper each day...we'd arrive, have some goon (amazingly cheap boxed wine - not the nicest but great value :) )then we'd cook dinner before a bit more goon, set the bed up and be asleep before 10 when it was dark and there was nothing else to do! We did make a real effort with meals though seeing as we had nothing else to do and cooked curry, kangaroo steaks and tuna salads...much better than the food you cook in hostels.
The next day we arrived in Melbourne by 3:30pm, we were staying 2 nights with Harlan, another person from our trip in South America. Harlan showed us around before we headed into St Kilda where it was the end of a week long festival. We sat outside and had some curly potatoes on a stick and then headed to a bar for some sangria and $2 tacos. The next day Jude and I went to take photos of 'Ramsey Street' (Pinoak Court) before going to shopping in Chadstone Shopping Centre for the afternoon. We bought the ingredients for dinner: Lasagne and banoffee pie :) and then went for coffee with Filippo, another friend from home. Everyone seems to be in Australia! After that it was back to Harlans to meet Caroline (another person from the South America trip). Harlan had put his Tomtom Australia on my iPhone which was brilliant to naviage around Melbourne (the map we had was useless) but it unfotunately died on the way back but with joint directions from Harlan (on his way back from work) and Caroline (sitting outside Harlans) we made it back eventually! We had a really nice evening chatting away and catching up, and the lasagne and banoffee pie went down well - until we found a live caterpilar in the salad...at least we had already eaten!
The next day it was time to leave Melbourne and head on to the Great Ocean Road. We dropped Harlan to the station in the morning and then packed our bags and loaded them into the campervan before we set off. We stopped in Torquay to buy more food stocks and see the beach (where surfing first began) before having lunch on Bells beach. We stopped on the way to our campsite to see some wild kangaroos that live on a golf course in Anglesea and went to a viewpoint before finally arriving at Big Hill Campgound. The campsite was tucked away in the forest, it was really nice and free! The toilets were basic but we were going to have to get used to that, that and the lack of showers...we soon became pretty inventive there and made good use of our hose pipe and taps. The next morning it was another early start at 7am, we packed up the bed, had breakfast and headed further along the Great Ocean Road. The first stop was Erskine Falls followed by several viewpoints along the way. After the falls we headed to Kennet River to see the wild Koalas (I want a pet one!!) and we managed to feed a small, friendly parrot which was really cute! The koalas was definitely the highlight though! After that we did a short rainforest walk where there were lots of bugs and then it was onto Joanna beach campsite where we had lunch and planned to camp that evening. We spent the afternoon on Joanna beach which was nice and came back to the campsite in the afternoon to have a hose-pipe shower...it worked pretty well and got us clean! That evening we were on a bit of a slant so wasn't one of the best nights sleep.
The next day we carried on along the Great Ocean Road, stopping to see the 12 Apostles and Gibsons Steps. The weather had changed and it was a bit clousy but still amazing views! We then continued on to London Bridge, the Grotto and Loch Ard Gorge to take more photos from the viewpoints and then it was onto the Bay of Islands and Bay of Martyrs before Port Campbell where nothing was open so we carried on to Warrimbol. Here we restocked on goon and went to a cheese factory where we were pretty excited to get free cheese samples...cheese is not in the backpacker budget in Australia! After that we went to to Tower Hill where we saw wild emus (one chased us for our lunch) and more koalas :). That evening we had to pay for a campsite because our second battery in the camper had reached the point where the inside lights (that we use of an evening) didn't work...we found one 4km sourth of a little place called Yambuk - it was empty. There was another set of campers and then a weird guy who was sleeping in his car who told us to go down to the beach becuase it was now empty and we would have it all to ourselves at sunset - very weird and creepy!
The following day we drove the final 650km to the outskirts of Adelaide, stopping at the 'Big Lobster'for lunch on the way. That evening we found a brilliant free campsite called Frank Potts Reserve and ended up stopping for three nights...it had a fully flushing toilet with NO bugs or spiders - a luxury! The following day we spent on Carrickalinga beach...possibly the nicest beach ever and amazing crystal blue sea - whilst we were swimming dolphins came past in the water, only about 100 metres from us!! We had another hose pipe shower, this time by the beach before heading back to the campsite for dinner. The following day we went to Cleland Wildlife Park where we got to feed kangaroos, cuddle up to a koala (!!) and hand feed some little bandicoots. It was great fun and we even got to see a little joey in its mothers pouch - much better than all the dead kangaroos we'd seen beside the road recently! After that we had our final night at the Adelaide campsite before the journey accross the edge of the outback to sydney. The first stop on the journey back was Mildura, passing Wentworth which we then went back to the following morning to visit Perry Sand Hills - some sand dunes which were pretty cool. In Mildura we had to re-charge the electricity so got a pitch in a campsite and even had a pool, we made the most of it and had a lie in until around 8:30 the next morning. After that we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon driving to Hay where we where we found another free campsite right on the river. Again the next day was mainly driving back, stopping to camp just outside Cootamundra, this free campsite was again really nice and we were happily sunbathing until a giant scary wasp like thing spent the afternoon taunting us. There was a huge storm that evening and we were really worried about driving off the grass the next day...I'd accidentally parked next to the storm drain - not the best of ideas but it all worked out ok once the grass dried out. The next day was the final one in the campervan and we headed closer to Sydney, camping at Flat Rock campsite, the next morning we were up at 7:30am cleaning out the van before we had to return it at 3pm to Mascot in Sydney. As we were driving along an oil warning light popped up on the dashboard which meant we had to stop to buy oil...but becuase the engine was hot we couldn't open the oil cap so had to take the oil with us back to the hire centre for them to do it. We also got a bit lost back in Sydney and by 3pm we still hadn't found a car wash for the camper - they are all under 2.25m and we were 2.7m! We finally found one for $35 (!!) and managed to return the camper just after 3pm. By this point we had done 4800km and had the most amazing two weeks, we really did not want to give the campervan back!!
That evening we took our backpacks (not fun having to carry those again after 2 weeks of personal transport!) and headed to Bondi Beach where we had two nights in Noah's Backpackers - pretty basic but friendly hostel. We spent a day on the beach there and also caught up with Gemma, a friend of my sisters from home. The next day we had our overnight Greyhound bus at 11pm to Byron Bay which is where we are now. The night bus to Byron wasn't the best, far worse than the nightbusses in South America but we saved on a nights accommodation and arrived at 11am the next morning. We dropped our bags off a Nomads hostel before going for a wander around town. Byron Bay is a really nice, pretty small town right on the beach so we have spent the past two days topping up our tans and exploring the town...accompanied by drinks in the evenings.
Tomorrow we head to Surfers Paradise for a night before Noosa and then all the activities begin, with Fraser Island to start with! We also managed to book the majority of our accommodation with Peterpans in Byron and got 9 nights to average out at $17 per night - super cheap for Australia! VERY excited for the upcomming few weeks!!
Photos:
New Zealand: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150514315296491.372224.516011490&type=3&l=88e9e0ab4e
Australia: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150560453781491.377817.516011490&type=3&l=91a86c3ef5
Will try and not leave the next update so long...!
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