13/03/07
Returned the car and escaped an anticipated ‘chipped windscreen charge’ (I challenge anyone to drive around NZ without getting a stone thrown onto their windscreen – road works galore!) Checked baggage in, incredibly efficiently and hung around the airport for what seemed like eternity.

Arrived in Fiji where we were greeted by bright blue skies and glistening white sand? NOPE!! We got grey skies, a thunderstorm (accompanied by 1000% humidity), muddy brown seas and a clapped out old mini bus to take us to the hostel…so far so good?!?

The hostel was in an extremely isolated location so there was nowhere to go for dinner other than the in-house ‘restaurant’. We then returned to our room, but had to re-locate due to a leaking roof. Finally, we settled down to survey the island literature and realised that there was no way on Earth that we were going to be able to afford to go anywhere…we therefore reassessed our financial situation and decided to alter our return flights for 5 days time, pushing our budget back up to a reasonable allowance per day.

14/03/07 – HAPPY BIRHDAY GRANNY + MWAHH!!
The storms had continued all night and the morning offered no alternative…what do you do in Fiji when it’s raining?? Well, you pat yourselves on the back for deciding to get out of there and spend the morning on the phone to Qantas altering your flight plans. Eventually we managed to cut the trip back by 10 days, enabling us to spend 3 days on 2 of the surrounding Yasawas islands (which were meant to be more idyllic). Even then we could only afford ‘budget’ accommodation – but how bad could it be? We booked 2 nights on Nanuya Lai Lai and 1 night on Nacula, leaving the following day.

Having sorted that out we decided to head into Nadi town centre and caught the local bus (typical 3rd world variety, fully ventilated (i.e. no windows)) for 65cents. There was nothing there but tourist shops with 1000’s of Americans tourists in - obviously the arrangement works well. We were somehow dragged into a shop with a couple from Finland, who we’d been chatting to on the bus into town. The shop owners then coerced us into participating in a ‘welcoming ceremony’, where we had to watch them make kava (local drink, reminiscent of muddy pond water – in taste and appearance). You had to clap and chant something Fijian whenever anyone was given the drink. Finally we were allowed to browse around what we had thought was a market, but in fact was a family-owned shop the size of a walk-in wardrobe. We literally couldn’t get out of the shop until we’d bought something (obviously lost the skills we’d developed in Vietnam) and ended up with an extortionately over-priced wooden mask.

Having escaped the mad-house we found an internet shack and then waved goodbye to our Finnish friends (Is that what you call people form Finland??) By the time we got outside again the sun had made an appearance - hurrah!!! We therefore rushed to get back to laze by the pool, and in our haste got on the wrong bus. Fortunately we managed to jump off before being driven out of town and walked the rest of the way back to the hostel (40 mins) without getting lost.

That evening we went to a reasonably posh restaurant (‘Chef’) in town to celebrate my 23rd birthday. We had a really lovely evening; gorgeous meal served by our very own singing waitresses and a complimentary desert with ‘Happy Birthday Ema’ written on the plate in chocolate – ahhh.

15/03/07
A massive storm thundered throughout the night, damaging the electricity supplies, so when I rose at 5.30am I had to take a shower with only our battery powered lantern to assist my sight. After breakfast we were picked up by a coach and taken to the harbour, where we boarded a catamaran and spent the morning cruising through the Mamanuca islands (home to Monuriki – a.k.a Castaway Island, think Tom Hanks, and Bounty Island – a.k.a Celebrity Love Island).

We spent most of the day on the boat and arrived at Nanuya Lai Lai (a.k.a. Blue Lagoon) about 3.30pm. The owners of ‘Seaspray’ (our budget ‘resort’) collected us from the main ship in a ‘speed’ boat, along with another couple from Birmingham. Bearing in mind we’d compromised our remaining budget into these 3 days we were somewhat shocked when we arrived. The lady who’d booked the resort was right about experiencing the ‘real’ Fiji… claustrophobic/cramped, dirty bure, ‘eco-friendly/human-enemy’ toilets where leaves are used to ‘flush’ your excrements after you’ve battled with the flies and a bucket of rainwater complete with a margarine tub to wash….utter paradise!! Accepting our plight, we did enjoy the company – both tourists and residents. Queenie and Britney (the 2 gays in the village) provided meal time entertainment, whilst the owners little boy gave an added cute factor. Oh, and of course Wayne loved the 1000’s of stray dogs.

The meals consisted of 100% carb stodge, which we ate at the family table with 9 other guests after holding hands and saying ‘grace.’ We then carried out plastic seats outside and sat around a bonfire on the beach. Spoke to a really friendly Dutch lady who’d (along with her boyfriend) quit her job in advertising and decided to travel the world. They’d been to Antarctica –sounded amazing.

16/03/07
The family cockerels woke us up at 5:30am, so we got up and wondered around. After breakfast we went shark-feeding on the family boat (kitted out with masks and snorkels). It was a bit of a non-event… my mask kept leaking and they only found one reef shark. No money-back guarantee here though. We had booked to do a dive that afternoon, but the visibility was awful so we decided to cancel and wonder over to the Blue Lagoon on the other side of the island instead. No-one had warned us that the island is pretty steep and well forested (we assumed it was all sand), so we set-off on our little trek in bare feet (ouch!!) An hour later (our feet battered, bruised and covered in mud) we reached the Blue Lagoon. Our hired snorkelling gear leaked yet again, so we couldn’t see much underwater, but we did catch a glimpse at how Fiji should be – for those with a bit of cash. The luxury resort on this side of the island was so much better than ours…we purchased a drink and Wayne made use of a flushing toilet. A couple of hours later we plucked up the courage to go back, but bypassed our shack in favour of the beach tea shop, where we purchased a very, very weak tea and a slice of chocolate cake.

That evening we sat at the dinner table speaking to the remaining guests; the Dutch couple and 3 English lads, who’d had a similar opinion of Australia as us…i.e. they hate the British and glamorise their own country far too much, which led to an overall disappointment upon arrival. Similarly they couldn’t fault New Zealand. Great minds think alike.

17/03/07
Took the ‘speed’ boat and raced over to Nacula; the third largest island in the Yasawas. Although the facilities at this new ‘resort’ were slightly better: dripping pipe for a shower and a flushing loo, our bure was full of cockroaches, ants and centipedes – cringe!! Wayne had mild sun-stoke and slept most of the day, so I just spent mine reading my book on the beach. That afternoon we were dragged over to make palm leaf headdresses for the Fijian ‘lovo’ evening. I really wasn’t in the mood and just wanted to go to bed – I think the beginnings of our week long illness were setting in. We forced ourselves to attend and ate the ‘lovo’ food, which had been cooked underground and tasted like it had been shoved into a chimney breast all afternoon; smoked isn’t a strong enough adjective. After the kava ceremony (that we couldn’t participate in because we refused to pay to drink the muddy water) we sneaked away and went to bed feeling a bit grotty. We were definitely looking forward to heading home at this point.

18/03/07
Couldn’t sleep because the bed was so uncomfortable and my mosquito bites were unbearably itchy all night. Got up at 6am, showered and sat waiting for the boat to take us over to the returning catamaran – yes, we really were that fed up. Suddenly, about 8.30am we both started getting stomach pains and ran to the filthy toilets (luckily there were 2). I think we had contracted food poisoning from either the ‘lovo’ food or the previous resorts fly-ridden meals. Our 30 hour plus journey home suddenly didn’t seem so appealing – we crossed our fingers, hoping it would reside.

The five hours spent on the boat dragged, but was relatively uneventful – 1 toilet trip each. We got back to the hostel and asked the unhelpful lady on reception (who I now know retained my birthday cards!!!) if we could take a shower before catching a lift to the airport. She was so blasé about everything she just nodded us in the direction of the shower so we assumed this was ok. However, when we returned to reception she unapologetically informed us that the minibus had already gone to the airport and we would have to get a taxi!! AGHHHHHHH!!!! With no time to argue (well, no time to argue successfully) we caught a taxi to the airport and managed to check our bags in before running to the toilet yet again.

The 10 hour flight from Fiji to LA was at the time, how we imagined hell could be – I think Wayne spent most of the flight in the toilet rather than in his seat. I did however manage to catch up on a bit of sleep and the time passed relatively quickly. The 10 hours spent in LA airport made the Fiji to LA flight look like a breeze. At least we just had to sit there, and our only worry was reaching the toilet in time. At the airport we couldn’t do anything right. Firstly, I took a mouthful of abuse from an arrogant American passport control ‘officer’, whilst desperately wanting to run to the nearest WC. Secondly, we went to collect our baggage from a carousel (despite the fact we were a connecting flight), where surely the logic here is to let the baggage circulate around the belt so that passengers all have an opportunity to spot their bag and grab it – but no, in LA they employ someone to stand at the opening and throw the luggage off the belt into a massive pile on the floor. Us passengers just stood waiting for about 20 minutes before someone pointed out that all the bags were sitting around the other side. AGHHHHH!!!

We were then directed through to the check-in desks and had to queue to get through to departures – not good as my stomach had started to churn AGAIN. Very strange – Wayne suffered more whilst sitting still on the plane, where as nature kept calling when I was moving around in the airports. Anyway, we queued up at BA’s desk, only to be told that we needed Qantas to stick a little date-change label on our ticket….why?!? they had us booked onto the flight on the computer!!! So, we trundled along to the Qantas desk and waited an hour and a half for them to open up, got the damned sticky label and went back again to BA. Fortunately we didn’t have to queue for quite as long this time. We simply didn’t have the energy nor adequate control over our bowls to take a wonder around LA, so we sat at the gate for about 4 hours willing time to pass. Since we’d flown over the date line we were back where we’d started, and it was 9pm again on 18/03/07 – when to us it should have been about 2pm on 19/03/07.

19/03/07
Another 10 hour flight in similar degrees of agony and we finally touched down into London Heathrow – phew!!!! Only 1.5 hours from home…or so we thought. It actually took us a couple of hours to get through to arrivals (baggage collection at Heathrow doesn’t have the best reputation) and we spent a further hour sorting out our hire car to get home. We were told to go outside, choose our car and check it for any damage. Well…there was no way we could stand outside in the snow checking for damage when we were in flip-flops and all we wanted to do was roll into bed. So, we took the car and drove off, looking forward to surprising Mum and Rich, dropping the car off at Luton Airport and then going straight to bed. Even in England things didn’t go to plan. 8pm (landed at 2pm) we pulled up outside the house, no lights on, Wayne desperate for the loo and no cars outside….trouble. No-one answered the front door and I didn’t have a key. We drove down to the garage so that I could phone Mum and Wayne could use the toilet, but Mum’s phone was switched off and the garage didn’t have any toilets! I then suddenly remembered that it was Monday night and that Richard would be at work, so we rushed down to Sainsbury’s, Wayne ran straight to the toilets and I got a supervisor to call for Rich over the tannoy system. When he finally arrived at the customer service desk he said ‘hi’ as if I’d only seen him an hour ago and ‘what did I want?’ Then it suddenly registered that this was the sister he hadn’t seen for 6 months and he tried again…’OHHHH, HI!!!....what are you doing here???’ After a brief explanation he ran upstairs and gave me his car and house keys. We then dropped off the hire car at Luton airport, attempted to pick Rich up from work – although he’d started to walk home and by the time we got fed up waiting for him and drove back, he was just strolling up the road – some things never change! At 9.30pm we FINALLY got home. Mum was out with her school children at the Royal Albert Hall, so I had to wait up until midnight to say ‘Hi’.

This magical ‘appearing’ act continued for a couple of days – we sprung up in Rushden, then again in Harpenden and then finally in Luton. I think everyone was a bit put out by our early return – apparently no-one was ready for us quite yet.

After a week of being home we feel like we’ve never been away, so I will try and sift through these blog entries in a couple of weeks to remind myself of what this write up was all about ….

The End.

Fiji and the long journey home... remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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28/02/07
Drove to Picton Port and then wondered around the town for a couple of hours. Boarded the ferry around lunchtime and arrived in Wellington 4 hours later. Navigated our way out of Wellington and into Plimmerton (seaside suburb, 20 mins north of the city). Staying in a ‘homely’ guesthouse, although owner is a little ‘full on’ and spent most of the afternoon trying to avoid him!

01/03/07
Hung around the guesthouse in the morning to get our laundry done. Unfortunately this innocent chore entailed a 40-minute ear bashing from the owner who tried to corner us into his 3-man dingy so that we could explore the nearby island – fair enough if we had time, but we wanted to go into the city and look around before moving north. We escaped, after he’d offered us a self-made itinerary of the city, complete with hand drawn map and spent the rest of the day (about 4 hours) looking around Te Papa; the national museum. It was excellent – very interactive and lively. The geology exhibition was the most impressive section because all of the plate tectonic case studies were local: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes (complete with a shaking house) etc. Since the weather was poor we decided to head back to the hostel, but sneaked in via the back entrance so as to avoid another ‘incident’ with the owner.

02/03/07
Back into Wellington…wondered down the waterfront, through the city and took a cable car up to the Botanical Gardens. Ate lunch in the gardens and then zigzagged down through the park and back into the city. Pretty place but surprisingly small for a capital city and nothing remarkably different about it. Bought a couple of tickets at a small independent art house cinema and watched the ‘Last King of Scotland’ that evening – excellent film.

03/03/07
Headed out of Wellington and up to Turangi; a small town close to the Tongariro National Park. Planned to do the Tongariro Crossing (reputedly the best 1 day walk in NZ) as it would be a cheap and health benefiting day out. Only the latter was true…it cost us a humungous $70 to get to/ from the park (not a circular walk so couldn’t drive ourselves). Spent the rest of the day recovering from the shock…

04/03/07
Tongariro Crossing: The national park comprises of 3 mountains; Tongariro (1967m), Ngauruhoe (2287m) and Ruapehu (2797m, best know for its cameo as Mordor’s Mt Doom, in Lord of the Rings). The 7 hours hike was exhausting but very rewarding – we set off at 7.30am, along with what seemed to be the entire tourist population of NZ, and trekked up Mt Tongariro to its’ Red Crater (1900m, last erupted 1926, but still regarded as active). We then walked down/skied down (without the ski’s!) a slope of ash, past the Emerald Lakes to its central crater. Some parts were very demanding; Wayne landed face first in ash 4 or 5 times!! Haha. Emma moved at a snails pace so as to avoid such embarrassment. Unfortunately we couldn’t appreciate the views of the surrounding national park, hence how high we’d battled, as the weather didn’t serve us well - we were caught up in cloud for most of the day. On our decent we saw numerous hot springs gushing sulphur and spent the final 2 hours engulfed in lush native forest. We reached Ketetahi Car Park 6 hours and 15 minutes later – blisters galore! Spent the rest of the afternoon lying down recovering – ate dinner at 5.30pm and went to bed! I told you it was exhausting.

05/03/07
Drove from Turangi, past Lake Taupo to Rotorua (dubbed ‘Sulphur City’, due to its distinct rotten egg aroma – nice!) Wondered around the town centre, but there was nothing of any interest, unless you count the pungent steam rising from the drains! Since we were still aching we went back to the campsite.

06/03/07
Walked into town again, quick internet stop and then walked across town to the Rotorua Museum, which was originally an elegant spa retreat (medicinal/therapeutic bath house) in 1908. The museum gave an insight into the past: electric current treatments, mud baths and the ‘maintenance nightmare’; the complex pipe system that continually eroded away due to the rich mineral waters. Ate lunch in the government gardens watching bowls and then wondered up to Lake Rotorua (formed by an eruption and subsequent subsistence of the area) and around to Ohinemuta – tiny Maori village.

That evening we drove to Te Puia and spent the night immersed in Maori culture. First up was the Powhiri (a traditional welcome ceremony), where we were told NOT to laugh or smile, as this would be deemed offensive. This was a challenge in itself for me – how can you not laugh at people who stare at you eye to eye whilst sticking their tongues out!! By biting my lip I managed to pull it off – thankfully or that would have been a waste of money! Our self-volunteered tourist chief (an American chap) had to go and greet the Maori chief with a ‘double nose rub’ and then we were allowed to walk down into the intricately carved meeting house: men at the front, women ‘protected’ at the back. We ‘sang’ a greeting in Maori and then watched the Haka performances, which were excellent…wide eyes, tongues out, body slapping, foot stomping dance routines (even treated to the original ‘All Black’ haka). The women then performed a Poi – formation dancing with balls of woven flax, before escorting us to Pikirangi – a reconstructed Maori village. We’d booked without knowing that a meal was included in the price, but luckily re-read the literature before starting dinner that afternoon. The buffet meal was gorgeous: roast, stews, salads and even a kiwi pavlova. I was very aware of the fact that we were the only people sticking to the free jug of water on the tables!! Cheap skates! Haha. We sat next to a Dutch couple, who were very friendly but had slightly overpowering singing voices – my lip was well and truly mauled by the time we got back into the car! Fantastic night out.

07/03/07
Rose early because we were intending to visit the Waiotapu Thermal Reserve. The weather was really bad though and we didn’t want to spend money on something that we were going to rush around, so we changed our plans…visited the park next to the campsite: Kuirau Park and caught a glimpse of a volcanic area…some boiling mud and a steaming crater lake, for free!! We then went into town and purchased a cheap card game (yes, we were getting desperate for ideas) that kept us entertained for the rest of the afternoon.

08/03/07
Another uneventful day – drove for most of it…to the Bay of Islands – 7-hour journey. Booked into a hostel just up from the beach, between Paihia and Waitangi. Pondered over the idea of booking a dive, but decided we couldn’t afford it so opted for a boat trip around the islands instead.

09/03/07
Visited Waitangi National Reserve, where Wayne spent most of the morning toying over the idea of purchasing his very own piece of Maori weaponry – when I reminded him that the ‘stick’ (for want of a better word) he was about to purchase was 200 GBP he decided against it and we were FINALLY able to look around the grounds. Visited the colonial style Treaty House and gardens (built 1832 by Busby, an English officer), which was the setting of the ‘Treaty of Waitangi’ signing in 1840, and then walked around the Whare Runanga (Maori Meeting House – built in 1940 to celebrate the centenary of the Treaty). That afternoon we caught the ferry across to Russell – an early European settlement. Very pretty, but small and since it was raining (yet again!) we quickly moved on.

10/03/07 – Happy Birthday Andy!!
Up early, walked to Paihia dock and boarded a catamaran that took us on a 6-hour trip around the Bay of Islands. We sailed up to Cape Bret and the ‘Hole in the Rock’ Island and then back down past Black Rocks. The highlight of the trip was seeing 3 different pods of bottlenose dolphins in the wild!! Unfortunately we couldn’t swim with them because they had a few calves, but it was an amazing sight…they swam with the boat for about 30 minutes – kept up with the speeds of about 45kph.

11/03/07
Arrived in Auckland and the pre-booked cabin at the campsite wasn’t ready, so after hanging around for about an hour we finally got checked-in. The room was reminiscent of our Asian lodgings – indistinguishable smell (musty, damp, stale…rank!), carpeted walls and an MDF bed that Wayne couldn’t fit on! He went to complain and we were begrudgingly ‘upgraded’ to a larger, but equally ghastly room with a longer bed (at an extra cost – cheek!) – Wayne’s still too long but at least his feet can dangle off the bed – the previous bed had a wooden board at the end?!? Problem solved…except they didn’t have a room key?!? We were given the master key – great security – but the door didn’t lock so Wayne marched up to the office again to get them to sort it out. We needed to stay another night, but they claimed the room was fully booked the following day so were moving us to a smaller room the other side of the park the following morning–we know for a fact it hadn’t been occupied the previous night so they should have put us in there in the first place! It was SO infuriating!

Briefly visited the city centre later that day, but came back as we had no money to do anything – ahhhh. That night our room door mysteriously flew open, despite there being no wind…spooky!! I don’t like this place.

12/03/07
Drove into the city and got ripped off by a second hand book dealer with an annoyingly large grin…we needed to get rid of a few books as our bags have become too heavy and we got charged excess baggage weight by the last airline! The women bought 8 books off us for $9 (less than 4 GBP) – bargain! Spent the rest of the day on this internet sorting out flight problems and writing this blog.

So long New Zealand...hopefully I’ll get a bit of colour back whilst lazing on a few beaches in Fiji. I doubt I’ll have much to report next time, but I’ll try and give you one last update before we return! It’s all going too fast! See you all very soon, take care e xx

North Island, New Zealand remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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13/02/07
Rose early (final time in the camper – hurrah!!!) to sort out our rental car for New Zealand...we thought we'd sorted it out before we left the UK, but Qantas had changed our flight times and we were unable to collect the car at our stated time. Since we've chosen a cheap rental company they fail to offer such luxuries as 24hour reception, so we had to arrange to collect the car from a hotel car park upon arrival. $15 later; after numerous phone calls and fax correspondence, we THOUGHT everything was OK: the rental company had phoned to confirm, so we checked out of the campsite and headed in search of the garage we had been instructed to return the camper van to. No easy task with an inadequate map, but we'd left plenty of time so the odd wrong turning or two didn't create too much tension. After a 30 minute argument over the phone with the Cairns rental company (what legit car rental company makes the customer wash the vehicle before returning it!!) we were on our way to Melbourne airport and arrived 5 hours early...I don't know how I ever earnt a reputation for being late??

Arrived in Christchurch around 11.30pm but didn't get through passport control until after 12.30am, primarily due to poor management: 5 officers allocated to 'Australian and Kiwi' stations, 1 officer for the rest of the world! The line moved unbearably slowly – there were a lot of angry tourists, mainly impatient Americans (as you can imagine: we didn't suffer in silence). Only benefit: luggage was out before the owners so no waiting around the carrousel's. We managed to find a pay phone in arrivals and rang the hotel so that they could come and collect us and take us to our car...only problem - they didn't have any keys to a rental car! AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We tried to ring the rental company to find out what they were playing at but no-one was in the office until the morning. Without a guarantee of reimbursement we reluctantly caught a taxi to our pre-booked campsite, where thankfully a key HAD been left for us in a safe and rolled into bed about 3am. Noticeably colder here – these rooms have heating instead of air con.

14/02/07
Forced ourselves out of bed at 7am and rang the rental company – no help, advised us to go back to the airport office. Caught yet another taxi and 'politely' explained our predicament to a guy on reception. They were extremely apologetic and realised that their Auckland office hadn't informed them of our new arrival time. We managed to get our taxi rides reimbursed, a day knocked off the rental price and a reduced ferry crossing fare from the South to the North island. Since they were so accommodating and apologetic we let the fax fees slide in exchange for a free road map – result!

Stocked up on grocerys before returning to the cabin and finally made it into Christchurch city centre by lunch time, where we ate our picnic lunch on the banks of the Avon River. Very pretty place (often described as the most English of NZ's cities) but by mid-afternoon our tiredness kicked in and we had to go back and catch up on sleep. Awoke about 7pm and spent the evening planning our NZ itinerary. Realised that we haven't got nearly as much time as we'd like here: we are going to have to move on every day so that we can fit in as many places as possible.

15/02/07 – CONGRATULATIONS ANG + ANDY ON THE BIRTH OF YOUR NEW BABY: KEIRAN ANDREW BUNKER – we can't wait to meet him.
Left Christchurch and headed down Arthurs Pass through glorious scenery to the West Coast. The landscape here is so majestic: snow-capped mountains, bright blue skies and lush green forests – I don't think you could ever get bored driving around. We planned to reach the glacier region by late afternoon so that we could take a guided hike on a glacier the following day. Although we did manage to book ourselves onto the 7.30am hike we couldn't find any accommodation for that night: all fully booked! Stopped off in Hokitika and found a tourist information centre to ask for their help. Here we learnt that you 'must' book your accommodation in advance, as NZ is a popular tourist destination, especially at this time of year. Whoops – this was a new revelation as we had simply been turning up at places in hope of a bed/spot of grass for the last 5 months. After a number of attempts the helpful tourist info lady managed to find us a motel room in the tiny hamlet of Hari Hari (1 hour north of the glaciers). It was perfect, stunning views and very quiet so we couldn't be taunted by people getting ready to go out (a 'no no' for us in the late stages of our trip: we are now trying to survive on 19GBP a day!) Since there was no phone reception at the motel we drove down the road and parked outside an independent garage for 2 hours, so that we could sort out accommodation for the following 2 weeks - no easy task as many places were fully booked. In fact we had phoned so many places our phone credit ran out. Bookings could only resume after we'd driven back to the local shop and purchased some more phone credit. After dinner we returned to our phone spot and rang Wayne's mum for a baby update...thinking surely Ang must have had had it by now?!? Our hunch was confirmed....'a little boy!!!' So once again, congratulations Ang and Andy (and Tia: now officially an older sister – tough job T but I'm sure you'll be up for the job – plenty of role models!) Don't let Keiran grow too much before we get back!

16/02/07
Up at 5am and drove into Westland Tai Poutini National Park at dawn – stunning 'Lord of the Rings' like scene: mist hovering over the water in front of a beautiful mountain backdrop...photographs just couldn't capture it. We arrived in Franz Josef village around 6.45am and waited around for 45 minutes before the office opened and were then kitted out in a gortex rain jacket, waterproof over trousers, woolen gloves/hat/socks, leather boots and attachable Ice Talonz for grip. We caught a bus to the Franz Josef Glacier car park, walked to the terminal face (about 45 mins), attached our ice talonz and were good to go. The Franz Josef glacier is the 3rd largest in NZ (11km long) but is the World's steepest and fastest flowing glacier (1-5m/day – 10 times faster than the average glacier!!)

The guide carved steps into the ice as we climbed and we soon got used to walking normally (initially I found it hard to put trust in the spikes of the talonz). It was an amazing day but felt very surreal: we were standing on a massive body of ice but could absorb fantastic views of forests and lush mountains! We spent 4 hours on the ice, but it only felt like an hour (at the time – later that day it felt like we'd spent 10 hours on the ice as our knees started to ache.) The dangers surrounding these natural formations were brought home towards the end of our trek...we'd heard a crack and ice crumble 10 minutes before reaching the terminal face but weren't sure what had happened/where the ice had fallen. It was only when we'd made it back down onto solid ground that we realised what had happened. The opening of a glacial cave on the face had collapsed and some idiot who hadn't bothered to fork out the money to go on a guided trip had decided to explore the glacier alone (despite rope barriers and numerous signs warning of the dangers). He'd been knocked over by some ice and thrown into the freezing melt water. A few guides who were about to take people up the glacier had seen him and fished him out (lucky guy), but his legs were badly injured and a helicopter ambulance had been called. By the time we got there he had been wrapped in foil blankets and the guides own fleeces. Another older man had also fallen onto the ice (due to the vibrations) and injured his head.

By the time we got back to the car we were exhausted and plans to walk up to the Fox Glacier (2nd largest in NZ) face were aborted. Instead we drove down a viewing road and walked 5 mins through some rainforest to a lookout point. We then drove 40km down he highway to another motel room in the middle of nowhere (no reception again – we were trying to ring to congratulate you Ang – promise!) Spent the evening talking to some guys from York – reminiscing about Asia and comparing our glacier trips...they'd spent 5 times the amount on a helihike, where they were flown to the middle of the glacier. Sounded excellent but they didn't have as much time on the ice.

17/02/07
Rose early and drove from the Fox Glacier to Arrowtown (30 mins north of Queenstown.). We stopped off in Wanaka enroute and ate lunch on the southern tip of Lake Wanaka: beautiful (sorry I think I have exhausted this word now). The entire journey was once again stunning: snaked along the Haast River and up into Mt Aspiring National Park. Arrived in Arrowtown, a picturesque ex-gold mining town, early afternoon. Wayne was determined to pan for gold so we spent 2 fruitless hours knee-deep in river water whilst an elderly Norfolk gentleman (on holiday with 3 other ladies – he kept dropping this into the conversation) demonstrated his gold panning skills. I had no time for this activity – kept trying to remind Wayne that it was an 'EX-gold mining town' but was kept entertained by Waynes' chum who professed his entire life story...and found the gold-digging ex-wife chapter quite ironic.

18/02/07
Drove from Arrowtown to Te Anau (Fiordland) via Queenstown (NZ's adrenaline activity capital – we surfed the web). Since there wasn't a lot to do there unless you had big bucks to spend we moved on to Te Anau; a very quiet town in a magnificent location. Wandered down to Lake Te Anau (53km long, 2nd largets in NZ) and watched the sun go down. Te Anau is the gateway to Milford Sound, an apparently stunning fjord (once described as the 8th natural wonder of the world) – we'll see and judge for ourselves tomorrow...

19/02/07
...Breathtaking!! Majestic mountains (including Mitre Peak 1700m) covered in thick forest despite the absence of soil, glacial striations, waterfalls and even a deep fault line was evident on the mountainsides surrounding the fjord lake. Our cruise boat pulled up near some young mail fur seals basking on rocks in the wind (to keep the sand flies at bay) and up to Stirling Falls (approximately 3 times the height of Niagara Falls – but obviously not nearly as wide!) where we were soaked by the spray. The ship just seemed dwarfed by the scale of the surrounding landscape. The trip around the fjord only lasted 2.5 hours but it was a constant photo opportunity and we had to endure a brutal editing session later that day. Beautiful part of the world. Our return trip was held up by a rouge tree that had fallen earlier that day and was subsequently blocking the highway. Tree surgeons were already at the scene (apparently – we were over a mile away so relied upon Chinese whispers!) so we only had to wait about an hour for the traffic to clear.

20/02/07
Drove to Dunedin; home to NZ's longest running university, the World's steepest street and NZ's Cadbury's World (none of which we had time to visit.) Instead we spent the afternoon in search of the cheapest frying pan and saucepan in town, as contrary to our original belief (and hopes) many campsites fail to provide cooking apparatus (we have been microwaving baked beans in non-microwavable bowls – not a very balanced diet!) Dunedin looked like a lovely town and if we'd had more time in NZ we would have probably stayed longer. Unfortunately time isn't on our side so we stopped here primarily to break up the journey from Te Anau to Mount Cook...

21/02/07
...woke up too early due to unbearably low room temperature (no linen provided so we only have our own sheet) and hit the highway in the direction of Mount Cook. Paused at a number of interesting sights along the way (mainly large rocks!):
1.Moeraki Boulders – bizarre spherical creations formed millions of years ago around lime crystals within the surrounding mudstone. Way too many tourists on the beach – 3 coach loads!
2.Elephant Rocks - surreal landscape: massive boulders (originally sand hardened to limestone) scattered around a grassed mountainside. Setting of Aslan's camp in the recent Chronicles of Narnia film (according to the Lonely Planet – I couldn't recall it??)
3.Lake Pukaki – just stopped very briefly to take some snaps of the unusual colour of the water: milky turquoise -gorgeous.
Eventually arrived at Mount Cook (Australiasia's highest mountain) but we couldn't find our pre-booked accommodation?? Gave them a ring and they politely informed us that they were on the East coast -close to Christchurch (we were sitting in the middle of NZ). WHOOPS!! My fault – in our hast to sort out the accommodation for the south island (2 hours outside the garage) I must have highlighted the wrong number. Unfortunately the entire village was fully booked, bar The Hermitage Hotel (NZ's most famous hotel) who had a room for $800/night, but were prepared to drop to $500 – Wayne was actually considering it!!! Mount Cook looked stunning covered in snow and was very inviting, but we decided (very quickly) that paying $500 to explore the area the next day wasn't worth it, and reluctantly moved on Lake Tekapo, knocking a '0' off our accommodation bill in the process.

22/02/07
Spent all day driving and ended up in a hostel in Hanmer Spring, which was probably the best place we've stayed: massive bedroom with French doors in an old house with a lounge, dining room and huge kitchen. So nice in fact that we spent the rest of the day there – reading in the garden.

23/02/07
Visited the outdoor Thermal and Sulphur Pools (35-42C!) in the town spa, but only spent about an hour there before the novelty wore off! Started to rain not long after we left so our plans to go for a long walk were aborted. Instead we spent the rest of the day back at the hostel, sorting out our North island accommodation. Glad we did this as I read a newspaper article the other day reporting a massive overseas visitor influx this year – hardly any rooms are available and rental cars are in short supply. In the glacier region up to 25 people a night have been caught sleeping in their cars and in this hostel there are a lot of senior citizens residing in dorm rooms! Tensions were rising the other day...battle of the ages. The older generation get up too early (although me and Wayne are always up with the best of them!) and open the dorm curtains!! haha. Whilst the younger generations have turned green with envy at the smell of the wholesome dinners they cook.

24/02/07 – 25/02/07
Drove to Nelson and wondered around the town centre: ghastly cathedral (art deco = breeze block extreior and interior!!) Did very little. The next day we visited Rabbit Island and spent much of the day lazing on the beach.

26/02/07
Got up early and drove further north to the Abel Tasman National Park. We'd seen so many tempting tourist leaflets: cruises, kayak tours and multiple night stays but decided to just experience a taster of the area on the cheap....we walked. It was an unbearably hot day, but we managed to walk 12km along the coastal track in 2.5 hours (from Marahau to Anchorage Bay). The actual track was very disappointing (not many views – too much growth) but Anchorage Bay was stunning and almost deserted. It reminded us of a Thai beach (but without the crowds), although the sea felt like it was -50C!! Both had a quick dip before frost bite had a chance to kick in and then bathed on the picture perfect sands. This country is fantastic: I doubt there are many places in the world where you can experience sizzling temperatures on tropical beaches and freezing temperatures on icy glaciers within the space of a week!

Wayne decided that he wasn't going to walk the 12km back (blisters- ahhhh...) and ' dragged' me into a water taxi speedboat....the first smile of the day appeared on his face! Suprise, suprise. When we reached land we were attached to a trailer and towed back through town by a tractor (whilst still wearing life jackets!!) The park is very pretty and if we ever had a chance to come back to New Zealand we'd try and visit with a bit of money and take a kayak trip further north for a few days.

27/02/07
Last day on the South Island - time has just flown.
Spent the day in Nelson city again, mostly on this computer. We are catching the ferry to the North island tomorrow morning so will update you in another 2 weeks. Not long left – a serious job hunt looms aghhhhhhh - well for me anyway, Wayne has sorted out his job. Hope everyones well? E

South Island, New Zealand remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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01/02/07 – 913 km (not all in 1 day, but we forgot to break down the trip from Sydney – Canberra – Batemans Bay – Lakes Entrance)
Drove all day (7 hrs +) through southern New South Wales into Victoria and finally arrived at the Lakes Entrance late afternoon. Wondered around town, down the Esplanade and over a pedestrian bridge to the sand dunes leading onto Ninety Mile Beach. Watched a kids surf school in action and witnessed the cries of one little girl who couldn’t hack the 3-day course: “Wahhhhhh, I don’t want to do it anymore, I get scared of the waves!!!! wahhhhhhhh” Probably not the best extra-curricular activity to enrol that child in then.

02/02/07
Walked down Ninety Mile Beach and completed a 6km circular route, walking back beside one of the lakes – surprisingly hard work in the sand…our legs were aching! We then drove to Metung to see Lake King, bit dull so no need to elaborate.

03/02/07 - 163km
Drove to and around Philip Island. Even duller than previous day so I won’t bother with any finer details.

04/02/07
Visited Churchill Island (tiny, tiny island 5 mins from Philip Island), which comprised mostly of a working heritage farm (first crops planted in Victoria were planted here), complete with its own cattle, shire horses, sheep and ‘chooks.’ The 1870s farmhouse was very pretty, as was Rogers Cottage (built by a Cornish immigrant) and the surrounding orchards.
Next stop: the Koala Conservation Centre, back on Philip Island. Not as good as the Koala hospital in Port Macquarie, but we spotted a few snoozing in the trees. Just off the southern tip of the island lies Seal Rocks, but surprise, surprise...we didn't catch a glimpse of a single seal. The views were fantastic though, and we did spot a tiny penguin in its burrow. We watched it peacefully for a few moments, before some Korean kids caught sight of us and started ranting and raving, scaring the poor thing back into the Earth.
At 18.30 we traipsed down to a beach, along with a few hundred others, and sat for a couple of hours, awaiting the ‘Penguin Parade’. We waited and waited and waited and finally, at around 21.30 (nose blue and fingers numb) the ‘smallest penguins in the world’ (according to the visitors centre) emerged from the ocean and waddled slowly up the beach in little groups, to their burrows. It was an awesome sight as there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of these tiny penguins waddling up to greet their young. The visitor’s centre has set up boardwalks and sensitive lighting networks, so you are only a few metres away from the penguins.
Appropriate at this point to note that the nights have become increasingly cooler the further south we’ve come, and recently we have been waking up in the middle of the night freezing cold (1 sheet and 1 blanket full of holes = bedding). Very strange considering we were hanging up the mosquito net in Cairns, so that we could get some air in by keeping the campervan door open.

05/02/07
Drove to Melbourne, grocery shop enroute created confusion and meant that we ended up driving through the city centre rather than around – whoops. Campsite = excellent, complete with a resort-like swimming pool, where we spent most of the afternoon as it was far too hot to venture into town. That evening we caught a tram (yep – case study comes to life Rich) into the city and although we are only 9km from the CBD it took an hour! Pretty place with a similar ‘city atmosphere’ to Sydney, but feels a bit smaller. Crossed the river and visited the gigantic Crown Casino Complex (hotel, showrooms, shops, cafes, restaurants, cinema etc. etc.) which is apparently the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Most notable parts of the evening: I got asked for ID - which I was quite impressed about as I have been wondering whether or not all this sun has aged my skin! Wayne got tempted by his Cairns win and lost half of his chips – will he ever learn?

06/02/07
Weather turned cold and cloudy, but we attempted to explore Melbourne by day. Visited Federation Square (empty rail yards were revamped into a ‘riotous explosion of steel, glass and abstract geometry’, in other words, the architecture =horrid!) and then caught a tram (free tourist service) around the city centre, although we couldn’t see a lot because everyone else had the same idea. Jumped off at Carlton Gardens, walked past the Royal Exhibition Building and up into Melbourne Museum. We then spent the next 4 hours submerged in all things Australian...from Aussie flora and fauna to a genuine ‘Neighbours’ treasure; an interior set, complete with scripts!

07/02/07 – 387 km
Weather awful again so we decided to stay in the car and drove down the Great Ocean Road. Although the 12 Apostles, London Bridge (now an arch, as part of the limestone structure collapsed in 1990, leaving 2 tourists stranded on the arch!) and Loch Ard Gorge etc. are stunning natural sculptures, we are unsure as to whether the 6/7 hour drive was really worth it? They were great to see, but I think we would have appreciated them more if we’d stopped off en route to Adelaide, rather than spending all day driving just to take a few photos! Stayed the night in a town called Warrnabool, on the southern coast of Victoria.

08/02/07 – 344 km
Headed back towards Melbourne via the A1 (rather than the slower Ocean Road), but diverted to the centre of the Goldfields region; Ballarat, a stunning Victorian town with tree-lined streets and pretty architecture. Our main reason for stopping here was to visit Sovereign Hill (see tomorrow), a tourist attraction recommended by a Danish couple who’d lived in Melbourne for a few months. Since we’d arrived late in the afternoon we decided to stay the night and visit Sovereign Hill the following day.

09/02/07
Sovereign Hill (a working 1850s township) describes itself as a living museum representing Ballarat’s first golden decade, following the discovery of gold in 1851. (The second largest nugget ever found was found at Ballarat = 64kg!!) It is set in the open-air (we had a warm sunny day at last!) on 25 hectares of ex-mine sites. After browsing the entrance museum displays we unsuccessfully panned for gold in the creek and then took 2 separate tours in the underground gold mines (evidence that Cornish tin mining techniques were transferred into the gold mines by the independent miners). The differences in general working conditions and mining techniques, between the independent miners and the ‘company miners,’ were highlighted to us throughout the tours (i.e. from what I can remember: the unskilled workers (company workers) received a wage from the mining company and relied heavily on the company-owned steam-powered pump, so that they could use their explosives below the water table. The skilled immigrant miners (independents) carved out mines by hand in the shape of an arch and never ventured below the water table. They were therefore a lot safer – no explosives and little flood risk.)
We then went and watched a ‘gold pour’ demonstration, where liquid gold (heated to about 250C and previously purified by combining with various metals) was poured into a mould and then cooled in water. The result = a 3kg gold bar – amazing process to witness and brought chemistry to life: wish that Dr Smith or Mr Whitmore had offered us a similar practical lesson!! (Haha – Claire, we probably would have bodged that up as well!) Apparently I looked like an ‘honest person,’ so the man demonstrating asked if I wanted to hold the $84,000 gold bar. I gratefully accepted (but was handcuffed first! only kidding) and went up to the front to receive my prize (we are now residing in the Hilton.) The bar was still warm and surprisingly heavy for its mere size.
With the gold bar wedged into my pocket, we rushed out onto the street and tried to mingle into the crowds on Main Street. We visited various 1850 style shops: haberdasheries, grocery stores, jewellers, bakers, and Wayne’s favourite…the sweet shop. We then watched boiled sweets (butter drops) being made with traditional ingredients and equipment…delicious.
The highlight of the day was watching a class full of kids (on a 3-day long school trip, dressed in traditional attire) in the town school. An English schoolmaster was telling them off but they didn’t seem to be taking the ‘role play’ very seriously and were all cracking up. The whole set-up was excellent (street actors roaming around) and we had a fantastic day – definitely recommended trip for anyone in the Melbourne area.

10/02/07
Back in Melbourne and decided to try and explore a bit more of the city…
· Queen Victoria Market: massive 130-year-old market with thousands of stalls selling everything and anything.
· Bourne Street Mall – just shops!
· State Library – free internet too busy so gave up.
· Chinatown – cheap internet access.
· Very old, but cheap cinema – watched Miss Potter, who came across as a bit Potty and the film was probably not worth the pennies!

11/02/07 – HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY BETH!!!! Hope you enjoyed Rome??
Caught the tram to St Kilda (a seaside suburb in the south) where there was a massive weekend-long festival in full flow: music events, BMX and crosser demonstrations and 100’s of market stalls. Lively and entertaining day out, but as A.A. Milne would say, it was a very ‘blustery day’ and a lot of events were cancelled. We managed to catch a tram back into the city, but the power lines were down on a huge section of our journey (north of the city), so we ended up having to walk for about 1.5 hours. We weren’t 100% sure of the way back to the campsite, but just followed the tramlines and hoped for the best! We made it and lived to tell the tale.

12/02/07
Final day in Oz, so we got our act together and after packing up the van’s contents into 1564 bags we headed towards the eastern suburbs of Melbourne in search of Pin Oak Court (a.k.a Ramsey Street). Well…what can I say…we were ALMOST star-struck (by a couple of houses.) Actually we felt like right plonkers taking pictures of peoples houses, but it was fun seeing the street that we so often catch a glimpse of on telly, at 5.35pm, on BBC1! The street is a lot smaller than it appears on TV, but the houses all look the same. Shame we didn’t see any of the fictitious residents.
Journey back from Ramsey Street was an absolute nightmare – we must have missed a turning and ended up in the middle of Sydney yet again. By the time we got back it was 3pm – what a wasted day!
We are now sitting in an internet café in Chinatown, and have just recently treated ourselves to the most expensive meal we’ve eaten in 5 months – 10GBP each.

Congratulations and thank you if you are still reading this sentence – I know this must have been one of the worst entries yet! We drove, drove and then drove again! Anyway, we’ll love you and leave you now and will write again in a couple of weeks once we’ve explored a bit of NZ…. Where’s this new baby Ang???? E and W xxxxx

Victoria remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ate dinner and then wondered over to the harbour in the early evening to watch the sunset behind the bridge: beautiful! We sat in a waterfront bar and saw the sky change into a million shades of orange, red, purple and pink – excellent evening.

22/1/07
Caught the bus into the city again and took a tube to Kings Cross: backpacker hangout with very little there. Escaped, and returned to the Botanical Gardens again, venturing into the grounds of Government House (a stunning mansion built: 1837-1845). Bad timing meant that the house was closed, but the gardens were great to walk around.
Sat on the steps in front of the Opera House and ate lunch whilst watching tennis (the Australian Open) on the big screen. We then walked over to Central Quay and caught a ferry to Manly (‘jewel of the north shore’). Pretty coastal town, but far too busy : Australian teenagers crowd onto the beach during the school holidays. Too hot to complete the scenic walk so we just squeezed through the sea of people and found a spot on the beach to read.

23/1/07 – A bad day gets worse….
NB. 387km backlog: Newcastle – Sydney – Blue Mountains
Breakfast with the birds….about 6 rainbow lorikeets joined us for breakfast (obviously word had spread to friends and family that the guy in the camper feeds generously). One sat on our cereal box, another (to my horror) tried to feed off my plate (!!) and as the final straw one decided my head was a perfect landing spot!!
Decided to get out of the city for a few days and head to the Blue Mountains…left the campsite and briefly stopped off at a petrol station to fill up. As we were heading back down the highway we stopped at a set of traffic lights and then stalled – whilst the clutch was down?!? Wayne tried to get the van back into gear again but it was stuck…GREAT!! We were holding up the traffic on a busy highway, so Wayne jumped out and (with the help of a random passer-by) pushed whilst I steered. Once we were safely on the grass verge we phoned the hire company (as instructed) and told them that we had broken down. They then put us through to a recovery company in Brisbane!!! USELESS!!! We rang up again and explained yet again that we were in SYDNEY not Brisbane!! Second time round we got through to someone that could help and were told that someone would be with us within the hour. Since we had no ice in our Esky I walked back to the garage to save our chilled goods. As estimated, a recovery man arrived on the scene about 11am (an hour after our breakdown). He was useless and a complete ******! He could have easily towed us himself to a garage, but decided to bring yet another person into the equation. To make matters even more complicated we were meant to tell the towing company where to take us!! As if we had a clue?? We phoned the rental company again and they said they’d get back to us. By the time they did, our helpful recovery man had buggered off! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Another 30 minutes passed until the tow turned up, where once again we went through the palaver of phone conversations with our rental company. Eventually it was decided to tow us to a garage in Epping (suburb of Sydney). The mechanics were on lunch by the time we arrived and so they said they’d look at it in an hour and told us to come back about 4pm, as the anticipated problem wasn’t too much of a job. We did as told and spent the day in a shopping centre (a 45min uphill walk from the garage!) Arrived back at 4pm and were told that the wrong part had been delivered! They were still waiting for a little hose before they could fix it. AGHHHHHH!! Couldn’t be bothered to trek back to the shopping centre so we waited at the garage for another 2 hours (listening to Aussie banter: mostly regarding cricket, fishing and drinking...zzzzz).

At 6.30pm (8.5 hours after setting off) we were finally back on the road. The mechanics had been really friendly and recommended a classic car event (“lots of pommy cars – you’ll like it”) that’s on every year in Hyde Park, on Australia Day – Wayne can’t wait!

Drove up to the mountains upon my insistence (since we hadn’t done anything all day I thought we should get to the mountains so that we could start looking around early the next day). Actual drive was stunning as we witnessed another sunset (pinks, oranges, purples). Arrived in Katoomba about 8pm and found that the campsite was shut! We considered parking in front of the office and using the facilities, but realised we needed a key to get into the kitchen and toilets – damn! Tensions were high (i.e. “Emma, I am FUMING so don’t even try and talk to me”) – I do take full responsibility for this mishap - and since there were no other campsites around (and parking up in a rest area was a ‘no no’ due to the possibility of getting arrested) we had to fork out $60 for a motel room (originally quoted $90 but I offered a sob story and my ‘natural charm’ (?!?!?) seemed to persuade the guy to drop the price – RESULT!) Although we’d obviously have preferred to stay on a campsite (due to our financial state) this motel room did brighten our moods: ensuite, kitchenette, tv: LUXURY!

24/1/07 – 150km
Pouring with rain: great day to explore the mountains! Our good fortune continues…views were ruined as the cloud cover below was too thick. Since the campsite was ‘cash only’ we decided not to bother and planned to explore the mountains in a day and head back to Lane Cove National Park in the evening. Despite weather we did manage to have a great day and fitted quite a lot in:
• Echo Point: viewed the ‘Three Sisters’ rock formations which roved to be a spectacular sight as they jutted up from the clouds. We walked down to the ‘Three Sisters’ through the Eucalyptus forests: the smell was overwhelming (probably because it had been raining), it felt like you were breathing in aromatherapy oils!
• Scenic World – a trip on the skyrail would have been a waste of money as all you would have seen was cloud cover, so we opted for a ride on the Worlds steepest (and possibly, although not advertised, Worlds SHORTEST) railway down to the old coal mining area. We then wondered around the mountain side for a couple of hours and saw a few interesting sites (including an old miners hut). We then caught a cable car back up the mountain.
• Katoomba Waterfall: short walk down to the waterfall, which Wayne decided to climb….bit unremarkable.
• Evans Point: meant to be a spectacular view but the cloud cover was too thick so we gave up and headed back to Sydney (this time we booked and luckily there was one spot left – phew!)
The Blue Mountains are beautiful and it’s amazing that they are only an hour’s drive from Sydney. It’s a shame the weather wasn’t better otherwise we would have stayed a few more days.

25/1/07
The bad weather continued (25C and we are in trousers and jumpers – we are going to get a shock when we get back to UK!) Caught a bus into the city and since we the weather was so poor all we could do was window shop and visit the cinema (for the thousandth time!) Saw ‘Blood Diamond’ – excellent movie.

Headed back to the campsite and went into the camp kitchen to make dinner. Unexpectedly bumped into Thanh and Blanche (the couple we’d met in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and whom we were planning – via e-mail - to meet up with for a drink the following day – such a small world!) They had hired exactly the same campervan as ours (hadn’t seen another one like it on our entire trip down south), from the same back-alley rental company in Cairns (and got it at a cheaper rate!!) We spent a few hours catching up with them before they headed off to a friends house in the city and then got talking to another couple (Hailey and Simon, from Wales, who’d been in Melbourne for 2 months and were on a 10 month honeymoon!). Got on really well, so we invited them out for a drink with Thanh and Blanche the following evening (Australia Day).

26/1/07 – Australia Day
After breakfast with the Welsh couple we caught up with some laundry and then headed into the city a bit later in the day. The Harbour was heaving with boats and the quay was packed with people! Live music concerts were scattered around the city and overall there was a fantastic atmosphere in the city. The Aussies are very patriotic (especially with regard to their dress – see photos!)

Sat on the steps of the Opera House and had lunch, then strolled through the Botanical Gardens (yet again) and this time got to venture inside Government House. The interior was a little disappointing (not nearly as nice as a lot of our national heritage buildings) but there was a fantastic Concert Band playing in the grounds (took me back to music GCSE!), so we sat on the grass and were entertained for about 30 mins. Made our way up Macquarie Street to Hyde Park (where the citizenship presentations were taking place). The streets were lined with thousands of vintage cars, which kept Wayne entertained until I was begging to go back to the campsite. Fantastic day as the sunshine had returned and there was so much to keep us entertained.
After dinner we caught the bus (with Hailey and Simon) into town AGAIN! Darling Harbour was just a sea of people, so we couldn’t see the presentations going on next to the water, but we stood on the bridge and waited for the fireworks. They didn’t disappoint – millions must have been burnt that night. Just as the crowd was about to disperse a fighter jet with a humungous fireball shooting out of its behind roared through the night sky: awesome sight. We tried to find Thanh and Blacnhe at a bar on the waterfront, but Simon and Wayne weren’t allowed in anywhere because they were wearing ‘thongs’ (flip-flops to the English-English speaking world!) Since we’d been standing up for so long all we wanted to do was find somewhere to sit down and get a drink: impossible as the city was heaving. We slowing snaked our way out of the harbour, following a massive crowd until we found an Irish pub in the CBD. We were all pretty fed up by this time and said – “oh, lets just go in for ONE and then head back”….at 4am we staggered onto the street: ONE drink had turned into ONE TOO MANY! Need I say anymore… It was a great night out (I introduced a UK dance-off: Beth, Claire - you would have LOVED IT) – hahaha , but our bank balances have been obliterated! Since we couldn’t find our bus stop, (thinking about it now I doubt there would have been a bus anyway!) we had to catch a taxi back to the campsite. To add to the hilarity of the night, Simon tripped over a ‘sleeping policeman’ (speed bump to you and I) whilst running away from a caravan that Wayne had knocked on.

27/1/07 – HAPY 20th BIRTHDAY NATALIE!!!
Uuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………....NEVER EVER DRINKING AGAIN!!!!
Woke up at 9am: hot and extremely hung-over. Just about managed to have a shower before falling back into bed. Felt awful!!! Campsite = worst place to nurse a hangover: toilets too far away and too many screaming kids/birds. Slept until 1pm, and then managed to eat something. Lazed around for the rest of the afternoon and that evening, whilst Thanh and Blanche sipped their wine, we stuck to a nice cuppa. Played a card game: Backpackers until the lights in the camp kitchen went off.

28/1/07
Grocery shopping and then went to Bondi Beach (massive surfers paradise) with Simon and Hailey. The guys spent most of the time drowning in the humungous waves, you literally got washed off your feet – I was too concerned about loosing my bikini to venture in! That evening we sat outside Si and Hailey’s campervan and chatted: they’re so funny, so Welsh! We got on really well, so we swapped contact addresses and promised to meet up once we are all back in the UK. That evening we spotted a mother and baby possum, a pregnant possum and 2 other possums fighting in a tree!

29/1/07
We were both quite sad to leave Sydney; great city and great times there, but as we only have 2 weeks left in Australia we thought we better move on. Drove to Canberra (aka Crapberra), which can only be described as the dullest and most useless capital city on Earth! We deliberately diverted here to find an internet café so that we could catch up with this blog (as southern NSW is meant to be a bit less developed than the north). No internet cafes to be seen, the only place that had computer access was a photo shop! The campsite wasn’t much better. They stuck us (and charged us for) a powered campsite even though we insisted that we don’t need power. This site was about 50km from all the amenities – we actually had to drive to the kitchen!
Both thoroughly pissed off and wouldn’t recommend visiting this city to anyone!

30/01/07
A new day, a new perspective. Since we’re here we decided to try and see something of Canberra and picked the National Museum of Australia (primarily because admission is free!) The museum was surprisingly good…it documented Australia’s history (albeit short!), environment and culture. Drove over Lake Burley Griffin, past Anzac Parade and the citys’ war memorial, towards the highway…next stop Batemans Bay. The landscape we passed was incredibly dry – all the grass and trees were dead. Arrived at a campsite late afternoon (cheapest yet - $18/night) and lazed around the pool.

31/1/07
Weather has declined again, so our plans to visit the beach here have been abandoned. Although saying that I have been sitting here half the day, so we haven’t got much more time until it gets dark!

Until next time....E and W xxx

New South Wales (continued) remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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11/1/07
After finishing the BLOG entry last time round we went to the cinema (the weather hadn’t improved) and watched ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ (Will Smith), which I thought was pretty good. We then caught the ferry to Kangaroo Point (residential area of Brisbane) and viewed the bright city skyline by night.

12/1/07 – 350km
Retraced our steps BACK up the highway to Australia Zoo (the late Steve Irwin’s), but were a bit disappointed as it was a lot of money and nowhere near as good as the Singapore Zoo. We did however see and touch some Koala’s (who were always asleep) and Kangaroos (free ranging). We also saw a humungous Giant Tortoise and the infamous live Croc Show (where they paid tribute to Steve Irwin’s work.) After a few hours we got fed up and headed back down the highway past Brisbane and through the Gold Coast to Byron Bay. Manic!! This place was so busy: all of the hotels had ‘no vacancy’ signs hanging up outside and the first campsite we stopped at was charging $40/night! We therefore backtracked out of town to a $24/night camping spot: let’s just say battery chickens are kept in better conditions (2000 places, kitchen for 10).

13/1/07
Rose early and wondered around Byron Bay: a really pretty coastal town with loads of boutique shops. The beach was also beautiful and the sea was choppy, offering massive waves for surfers to ride (not good conditions for bikini wearers!) Spend about 5 hours on the beach and then returned to our cramped quarters to do our laundry. Cooked dinner and ate by the lake.

14/1/07– 320km
Decided to venture up to Cape Byron via the pretty 4km coastal walk (a very popular running route). Walked past the most easterly point on mainland Australia and then up to the lighthouse: gorgeous views. From here we continued around the circular track and wondered through the rainforest where, in the middle of nowhere, Wayne was stung on his foot (whilst wearing walking flip-flops) and proceeded to hop around on one leg in agony. At the time we didn’t know if he’d been bitten or stung and so we stopped for a few minutes to assess his condition (there was no swelling or obvious marking but we checked for any other symptoms…) Fortunately nothing seemed to come of it and the pain receded after about 10 minutes (I was getting worried that I’d have to drive that day!!!) We returned to the van and continued on down…destination = the unknown. See how far we can get before dark.

Arrived at Monnee Beach (near Coffs Harbour) early evening and decided to stay one night and move on the next day. Weather was appalling: it rained all evening and all night so we sat in the camp kitchen and went to bed early: boring when it rains! That evening we realised that we had possibly been travelling around for days with a warped concept of time. The office at Byron Bay seemed to always be open ahead of time and our receipts were always wrong. We now realise that on crossing the New South Wales border we lost an hour (so we are now 11 hours ahead of you lot) due to their daylight summer saving…and we though we were doing well: getting up and going to bed early!

15/1/07 – 220km
Back on the road for a few hours and parked up in Port Macquarie (the 3rd town to be established on mainland Oz (1818), by 1821 it was a Penal Colony.) The Lonely Planet believes it has a ‘touch of cosmopolitan about it’ and this does deem true (for once!) We wondered around the coastal town which boasts numerous tree-lined avenues and beautiful beaches. Sunbathed and then went to a local rundown cinema for 3GBP. Beans on toast for dinner – hard times!

16/1/07
Returned to the beach in the morning and then visited the Koala Hospital (main complaints: dehydration, conjunctivitis and road accident/bushfire injuries). Although you couldn’t go inside the hospital (had to wonder around the fenced off enclosures) we did see a lot of Koalas and at feeding time we saw little joeys being hand fed milk by volunteers – ahhhh.

17/1/07 – 330km
Left Port Macquarie and headed south again, diverting off the highway to follow the tourist drive through stunning lake lined road networks. Paused for a break in ‘Seal Rocks’; a magnificent little fishing village. We walked up to the lighthouse to get a better view of the ‘seal rocks’ but unfortunately (as anticipated) didn’t spot any of the summer breeding seals. It was well worth the drive though as the rock formations and gorge were beautiful. We continued down to Newcastle and got a bit frustrated upon arrival as there were no campsites anywhere! The information office was shut, but a notice on the window stated that the only campsite in the area was back out of town in Stockton (Wayne = fuming! I did offer to drive but this was declined – I tried!) We were pleasantly surprised by our drive through Newcastle as the city offers the best architecture we have seen in Australia so far (not much competition to be honest!) Whilst driving along the coast we pulled over to admire the ocean liners dotted across the horizon – it was an amazing sight as they were all heading in the same direction down the South Pacific Ocean – total count: 33!

Finally found the caravan site, which had a beach front position, so we ended the day with a stroll down the beach to the pier (which doubled as a memorial to the numerous shipwrecks that had occurred in the surrounding seas.) Cooked dinner in the camp kitchen whilst Bingo was in full swing – highlight of our night life!! Its surprising how many Australians live permanently in campsites: many of the mobile homes have mature gardens surrounding the perimeter.

18/1/07
Spent the day in Newcastle (caught the passenger ferry over from Stockton). Found a second hand book shop, visited the internet and then wondered down the river to Noby Head Beach.

19/1/07
Since we’d spent most of the day in the car driving down to Sydney we thought we’d try and save some money by staying outside the centre and then move on to the city early morning. Diverted off the highway at Gilford and headed through Brisbane Waters and Woy Woy to Etalong Beach. The campsite cost $44/night!! Not saving at all! When the friendly couple at the desk saw our horrified reaction they proceeded to help us find a cheaper site, which ended up to be only 10km from Sydney city centre ($30/night)! We therefore drove back through Brisbane Waters to Lane Cove National Park (Greater Sydney). We were really pleased with the campsite as it was a great sanctuary to return to after a hectic day in the city and our site was right next to all the amenities for once!

20/1/07
Following a 20 minute walk to the stop we caught the bus into Sydney (over the harbour bridge). The city has a great atmosphere and contrary to standard reputation we found the people of Sydney to be really friendly (if anyone saw us looking lost with the Lonely Planet at hand, they’d come up to us and ask if we needed any help!) Probably quicker if I just run through where we went:
• Fleet Park – excellent view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
• The Rocks – 1st European Settlement where convicts, prostitutes and street gangs resided, but now a beautifully restored ‘tourist precinct’ (1970’s redevelopment) comprising of narrow cobbled lanes, mock-colonial buildings and a fantastic market.
• Circular Quay – on shores of Sydney Cove and basically a transport hub which leads round the harbour to the Opera House.
• Royal Botanical Gardens – fantastic green space full of humungous fig trees and numerous walking tracks. We spotted 1000s of fruit bats hanging upside down (in the middle of the day!) off the trees towards the northern end of the park – amazing sight.
• Main shopping streets: George Street, York Street etc. where we found an internet café to check our mail before heading back to the campsite.

Wayne has been leading us down the path of poverty as he keeps feeding the damn ducks and beautiful rainbow lorikeets all our bread! There are loads of birds in our campsite and at night we have spotted numerous wild possums and bandicoots. Wayne has also been feeding the possums and managed to stoke one the other day….’Nature Boy’ returns! He has been bitten on the odd occasion though – never learns.

To be continued.....

New South Wales remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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04/01/07
Wayne woke up with a total of 57 bites on his body: from ankles up to biceps – we think this must have occurred before entering the midge-free oasis of the van, but who-knows?!? I think this makes up for his lack of suffering, as I have been attacked daily for the last 4 months (albeit moderate attacks of 4/5 bites) and Wayne thought he was invincible so hadn’t been bothering with the repellent! That will teach him!
Anyway, we rose early and were picked up from the campsite and taken to Abel Point Marina…we were boarding ANOTHER boat (wasn’t too keen after the last venture – but how else were we going to visit some of the Whitsunday Islands?)
Set sail on the Voyager; a 23m, high-speed catamaran. First stop: Day Dream Island, which is basically a resort island. We wondered around, lazed by their pool for about an hour and tried to enjoy the views of the Whitsunday Islands, but it was very foggy and we couldn’t see much! Set sail again and were dropped off at the infamous Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island. Although unbearably touristy (exacerbated by the fact that all us tourists were confined to the southern part of the beach because a movie (Fools Gold, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey) was being shot on the beach further north), the beach is stunning and regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world. There are no resorts here, so everyone was on a few hour drop-in visit. The sea was surprisingly cool (compared to Mission Beach) and we had to wear stinger suits (as there are no nets), which ruined the whole ‘paradise’ image, but it was beautiful place to stop. Since the weather had brightened up we were then able to enjoy the next leg of the trip: to Hook Island. By snorkeling in the surrounding waters (a Marine National Park) we absorbed spectacular views of the Great Barrier Reef, but a lot of the coral immediately offshore has been killed – this is probably due to poor leisure management, as these trips let anyone snorkel (and many people don’t seem to appreciate the fact that if you stand on the coral it dies!) There was, however, a lot of tropical fish in the area, and the captain of the ship kept throwing out bread to the fish, who scrambled in a mad rush to get a bite. I found this a bit scary when they rushed towards you bearing their teeth! Wayne thought this was amusing and kept getting bread from the captain to through in my direction – it’s pretty hard to scream through a snorkel without inhaling a mouthful of saltwater! Not pleasant.
Later on, when boarding the ship, the crew fed the fish again from the pier. This attracted a huge array of fish, including massive Mauri Mantas (1m in length) and turtles!! The mantas are all born female, but the dominant female in the shoal transforms into a male when its predecessor dies – strange fact. We also took a fleeting visit down a historic underwater observatory, which was a bit crap as there was more steel than glass so you couldn’t really see anything!
On the journey back we sailed past Hamilton Island, home to numerous celebrity cribs, including George Harrisons’ old abode. Overall we had an excellent day.
That evening we watched a free outdoor movie (Over the Hedge) on the big screen at our campsite. We sat on our camp chairs, it rained a little, but we enjoyed the al fresco viewing experience.

05/01/07 – 695 km, 20km of which I expertly navigated down one straight highway before Wayne got bored of being a passenger and decided to take over again! I think he wanted a laugh when he suggested I drive the van, but when I managed to pull it off without stalling, kangarooing etc. it got boring. There were no complaints from me – at least I can ‘read’ my way down the long straight roads. I now understand why the government insists on plastering the roads with signs every km. They are quite inventive: ‘Rest or RIP’, ‘Drive, Revive, Survive’, ‘Tired drivers die’, ‘Has your car got a knut loose at the wheel? K is a killer’….
As you can gather from that elaborate intro on ‘distance covered’, we set off again, back down the Bruce Highway with the hope of reaching Hervey Bay (we weren’t sure if it was manageable in 1 day). Passed 100’s of empty creeks (so dry here), paused in Rockhampton (Beef capital of Australia) for a coffee (not a steak), a random rest area (where we saw a kookaburra) for lunch and after 8 hours on the road (passing only 2 major towns) we arrived in Agnes Water (surfing capital of Queensland) in the hope of snatching a look at some turtle hatchings in nearby Deepwater National Park. Unfortunately we couldn’t get on the tour and since the track was only suitable for 4WD we couldn’t get there independently. Since it was getting late we abandoned the idea of getting to Hervey Bay and stopped the night in a campsite just outside Agnes Water (where kangaroos are renowned to bounce around.) Unfortunately we didn’t get a sighting (of either turtles or kangaroos)!

06/01/07 – 287 km
Back down the highway, took a brief stop in Bundaberg (pretty town; popular with working backpackers as there is a lot of fruit to pick, and birth town of Bert Hinkler, who made the first solo flight between the UK and Oz in 1928) and then parked up near Mon Repos Beach to try and get onto another turtle tour – waste of time!
Arrived at Hervey Bay early afternoon and wondered down the beach (where we can actually swim in the sea for the first time without the confines of stinger nets or suits!) Reason for this stop is to visit Fraser Island: the world’s largest sand island, which has been formed over 1000’s of years by longshore drift (useful case stuffy Rich!) Since its only accessible by 4WD (like much of Australia) we can’t take the camper there, so had to book a day trip.

07/01/07
Woken at 4.45am as usual by the birds. Carried out some chores (yes, we do have some): the laundry and grocery shopping and then hit the beach. Hervey Bay has a fantastic beach, beautiful and not too busy. It was a boiling hot day so the freezing cold, non-stinger infested water was very welcoming. This is how we imagined Australia to be. It seems to have become better the further south we’ve gone.

08/01/07 - Day Trip: Fraser Island; World Heritage Site and basically a giant sandbar (120km x 15km)!
Picked up at 7.30am and taken to River Heads Pier. Took the ferry across to Fraser Island and then climbed into a massive 4WD/offroad coach. Visited various locations around the island:
1. Central Station: an old logging village (now only 2 buildings) in the centre of the island (used to be a railway that ran to the coast). Fraser Island is incredibly green for a sand island and has a diverse array of fauna and flora. One of the trees here (name escapes me) is unique to the island and has been used in the construction of the London Docklands and the Suez Canal. We walked through the forest and saw 2000-year-old ferns, scribbly gum trees and a freshwater creek amongst other things.
2. Lake McKenzie: a beautiful freshwater lake with sandy beaches. This, as far as I’m concerned, is more like paradise than any other beach we’ve visited. The water was crystal clear and I could enjoy swimming in it without the fear of jellyfish, stingrays and sharks. Definitely my favourite swimming spot of the trip (well, on par with the blue lagoon in Laos). Would have liked to have spent more time there, but since we were on a tight schedule we were rushed off to lunch at Eurong Beach Resort and then driven down part of Seventy-Five Mile beach in the 4WD. This beach is more like a congested highway of 4WD vehicles than a beach. Stopped off at:
3. Maheno shipwreck, a former passenger liner, turned WW1 hospital ship. It was sold to the Japanese in 1935 but as they were tugging it back a cyclone hit and the Maheno was washed up onto Fraser Island. The Japanese didn’t react fast enough and the ship sunk into the sand making it too hard to remove and it has therefore been sitting there ever since. Fantastic sight. Inspired us to dive around a wreck.
4. Coloured Sands of the Pinnacles – bit of an anticlimax, not very colourful and at the end of the day only sand.
5. Eli Creek; a fast-moving, crystal clear waterway and a massive tourist spot. Very shallow, so we just waded in the water. Apparently 4 million litres flow of this freshwater source flow into the sea every hour! Considering Queensland is experiencing a drought I don’t understand why they don’t utilize this resource?
We were just about to head back down the beach in the coach when the tour guide mentions that there is a scenic flight available in a 7-seater plane that takes off and lands on the beach. “Anyone want a go?” I pretend to put my hand up – JOKING (as we are BUDGET travelers) which Wayne takes as a ‘yeah lets go for it’ hand up and shouts out ‘YEAH WE’LL GO!!!!!!!!!’ So we end up sitting in a tiny 7 seater plane which is zooming down a busy beach (full of thousands of tourists and hundreds of vehicles), evidently it acts as a highway and a runway! Although the take off was uncomfortably close to other objects, the views of Fraser Island were breathtaking (and it was actually only 20GBP each - too much for us, but reasonable for the actual trip). Wayne even managed to act as co-pilot; sitting in the front seat. We saw a butterfly shaped lake, the shipwreck from air, gigantic sandblows and a massive expanse of greenery.

09/01/07 – forgot to take a note, but about 400 km
Reacquainted ourselves with Bruce and stopped off at Rainbow Beach for about an hour to walk up to Carlo Sandblow; a truly awesome sight (like a mini-desert on the coast). We walked through the sand down to the cliff edge and then made the strenuous trudge back up again. Spent the rest of the day driving to Brisbane. Parked up at a site 12 minutes south of the city but not very impressed as there is no fridge and you have to pay for the BBQ’s and stoves!! (In the country where BBQ’s are free on the side of the highway – bloody cheek!)

10/01/07
We therefore moved to a site 4km north of the city, which has better facilities for a similar price, and then caught the bus into the city and explored. Visited City Hall (its museum and clock tower), browsed the shops, walked through the Botanical Gardens and walked across the bridge to the South Bank (where there is the standard lagoon – free public swimming pool). Weather wasn’t great so ended up sitting inside an internet café for most of the afternoon and here we are again! Finishing off where we left off… Its now midday 11/01/07 and I shall report back in a few weeks time…

Phew………………………. I’m done xxxx

Queensland continued remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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23/12/06
Just a quick note here to announce that after 3 months of being on the road, today was our first laundry day….no, we are not THAT disgusting, it is purely because in Asia they do it for you – we couldn’t find anywhere where you could use machines yourself (any money-making opportunity is abused on that continent). Anyway, to complete this tale we washed our clothes and due to the fact that most of the stains had been settling in nicely throughout our time in Asia, nothing seemed to come out clean. Spent the rest of the day wondering around Cairns and playing cards in cafes and watched ‘The Queen’ at the cinema (very English!).

24/12/06 – Christmas Eve: Appalled that they don’t sell mince pies in the shops!!
Checked out of the hostel and walked 5 minutes down the road to a ‘posher’ establishment: huge room, ensuite, kitchenette, TV, sofas – complete luxury!! (NB - The shower is so powerful that you can feel gusts of wind when you turn it on, and it feels like millions of pins are stabbing you – although painful, very impressive as shampoo washes out of your hair in seconds. Our recent experiences of showers have been occasional drips, so although this may seem like a trivial detail it was the highlight of the day for us!) Put up our Christmas cards, stockings and our single decoration: a hanging star given to us by a little Cambodian girl. Watched Christmas crap on tv (1000 times worse than UK crap) and then went for a swim. In the evening we went to the hostel BBQ (the place we’d just checked out of – they didn’t seem to mind??) and participated in a Christmas quiz. We then jumped on their free shuttle bus into town and went spent the rest of Christmas Eve in Cairns Casino: Wayne transferred money from HIS account so that he could re-enact the latest 007 movie, as I wasn’t keen to hand over the rest of our travel money to an Australian ‘fat cat’! We actually had a really good evening, as there was a great atmosphere. Wayne even came out with winnings (probably because I kept hold of them so he couldn’t bet them away!) He recouped his $250 and made a further $100 – not bad! Needless to say I didn’t participate in any betting – I don’t have any money to loose L

25/12/06 - Christmas Day
Woke up early and made snowflakes out of paper ?!? Ate breakfast in our luxury room (usually we’d have to fight for some space in a shared kitchen) and then opened our stocking presents…we had both bought each other little souvenirs from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia to open on Christmas Day (ahhhhh). Watched a Christmas film (The Family Stone) before heading out for Christmas lunch at a nearby hotel. No music, no mince pies and no roast – bit disappointing as it was a buffet lunch, but there was a good atmosphere and we had a good time. Walked off the calories along the seafront: bright blue skies and scorching temperatures – very weird…spent the rest of the day on the internet and by the lagoon (Cairns public swimming pool). Once again, we went to the cinema (on Christmas day!!!) and watched ‘The Holiday’ – good English, Christmas chick-flick!

26/12/06 – Boxing Day
Hit the Christmas Sales: bought two bargain cardigans, suitable for wearing to work – once I get a job! Walked 45 minute journey back to hotel before realising that I’d left my new purchases in the internet café – I was sooooooooooo mad at myself!! Stormed back in the midday heat and luckily my bag was still sitting underneath the computer – phew!!

27/12/06 – 28/12/06
Back to the hostel, more film viewing (due to bad weather) and more window-shopping. I now have enough books to open my own library (despite the fact that I have exchanged and sold half of the books I’ve read) and Wayne could possibly open up his own dvd rental shop when he returns.

29/12/06 - Two dives around the Great Barrier Reef!
Got up at 5.30am and walked to the other side of Cairns to the Marina. Boarded Seastar and embarked on a very, very rocky ride to Michaelmas Cay (endured a 2.5 hour journey with numerous passengers spewing overboard. Wayne threw up in the toilet and I had to keep my head bowed between my legs for the entire journey to stop myself from joining the party.) We were advised to go snorkelling before our dive to restore our balance – I didn’t think I could get up, let alone swim! However, after a few minutes in the water we both felt fine and did our first 40-minute dive with a dive master (just the 3 of us = excellent!) Visibility wasn’t fantastic (8m) – typical, always seems to be the way when we dive – and because we weren’t wearing wetsuits the water felt a bit cold, but the actual dive was fantastic. We saw so much marine life: upside down jelly fish, clown fish (nemo), white damsels, parrot fish, longfin batfish, blue spotted stingray and a couple of giant clams (when you stroke their inside with your hand they clamp up – very cool!) Our dive master also handed us sea cucumbers: odd looking things that breathe in through one end (their mouth) and out through their bum?!?
After lunch we took a small boat to the outer edge of the reef (we were meant to go Hastings Reef but the conditions were too rough) and carried out our second (13m) dive, which was awesome. The coral was so much more colourful (pinks, reds, yellows, browns and blues) and we swam through massive coral walls and canyons. We also encountered a 2m long white-tipped reef shark!! It swam past us, rather than towards us, so I didn’t freak out and use up all my air. Other creatures of interest (well for us) were triggerfish, potato cods, a black-saddled toby and a spotted sweetlips.

30/12/06
Took a bus to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Centre, where we spent a few hours learning about the Tjapukai Tribe. Visited the History Theatre (film), Creation Theatre (aboriginal performance with holographic images and music), Dance Theatre (where one of their toddlers joined in the performance – so cute (hence numerous pictures!)) Also listened to a Bush, Foods and Medicine talk, learnt about how to make and play a didgeridoo, threw spears and threw a boomerang (well I TRIED to – my attempt was just embarrassing! Someone actually shouted out ‘at least the kangaroos are safe!’) I dismissed this failure: hardly a vital life skill and if needs be at least I know I can crush a few ants/worms with a boomerang.

31/12/06 – 150 km (nothing)
FINALLY!!! Picked up our new home for the next 6 weeks: a small campette. We are now living with no electricity (no fridge, charging devices etc.), no water (toilet/shower) and no mirror!!! But, we can finally get out of Cairns, which can only be a good thing after spending over 2 weeks here. First stop, supermarket to stock up on groceries (we can now cook our own meals) and then headed south, down the Bruce Highway. Destination: Mission Beach. The drive through north Queensland highlighted the beauty of the area: lush mountains, sugar cane fields, banana plantations, waterfalls and hundreds of creeks. It also highlighted the enormity of this country! Where as in the UK towns merge into each other, or at least crop up every 5/10 minutes, here in Australia you drive for hours to reach the next settlement!
We arrived at Mission Beach mid-afternoon and set up camp in a basic park: no cooking facilities and just 2 toilets/showers for the entire campsite. But, we found a beautiful shady spot right next to the beach so were happy. Wondered into town but upon realising how small it was (and that most of the shops were shut, due to the fact it was New Years Eve), we headed down the beach for ½ km to the safety of the stinger nets and swam in the warm bath-like waters. Spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening reading on the beach as the sun began to set for the last time in 2006.
Headed back, showered and started chopping vegetables for our Mediterranean Chicken Pasta dish, then realised that we had no light. The electrician therefore got to ‘work’ and managed to orientate our al fresco kitchen in front of the campers’ headlights. With a little torch and a blinding headlight we cooked dinner on our portable gas stove. It tasted good so we just sat in the dark and prayed the chicken was properly cooked! Celebrated New Year with a few beers and walked along the beach (where some people had lit fires). Although quiet, it was a New Year’s Eve to remember!

01/01/07 – New Year’s Day – 560 km
Our first night in the camper was hot and stuffy – we had to open the side door and therefore got eaten alive. Due to the chorus of thousands of horrendous birdsongs we were woken up at 5am and briefly saw the most beautiful sunrise across the ocean. We then managed to doze back to sleep and got up at 7.30am. Upon opening the Esky (Oz Ice Box) we realised that the ice had completely melted and all our fresh supplies (fruit, veg, cheese etc) were soaking!! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Spent about half an hour drying off saveable items and then had to boil water in a saucepan to make a cup of coffee – oh the joys of camping….and this was day 1!!
Although beautiful, Mission Beach is a very small, quiet place and we decided to move on since we had wasted valuable time in Cairns. Headed back down the Bruce Highway: long straight road that seems to go on for eternity. We keep seeing mirages in the distance – the first time I saw it I shouted at Wayne because I thought he was heading at full speed into a lake!!
After 560km and possibly 560 McDonalds Advertisement Boards, we arrived at Airlie Beach: gateway to the Whitsunday Islands.

02/01/07
Moved campsites as we needed a fridge and were in desperate need of a socket so that we could charge up our camera batteries (the previous place didn’t have any electricity). This new site is massive and a bit too up-market for our little campervan (half these people have converted coaches into moving homes and the other half have the latest campervan models that probably cost more than the average house!) We just hid our van and headed straight to swimming pool.
Later in the afternoon we attempted to wonder around Airlie Beach town (pretty but a bit touristy) but gave up and went back to the free swimming pool to sunbathe!

NB. Have forgotten to mention, since writing up about Australia, the incredible number of free BBQ’s that the Aussies provide – they are literally in every public space imaginable…town parks, national parks, local swimming pools, highway rest areas etc. etc. (and they are always in use!)…Its quite amusing to us Brits as it is such a stereotypical Australian image.

Ok, I have been on this computer for over 2 hours so I’m going to have to give up – I know I said I’d sit here until it’s complete but my bum has gone numb! We are currently in Brisbane for those of you I haven’t e-mailed/spoken to…it’s a high-rise city – completely different to Cairns. Weather is a bit poor so haven’ t done much, but we’ll head out now and see if its improved? I’ll try and add to this tomorrow…Hope all are well? E and W xx

Queensland: The joys of camping remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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15/12/06
Checked out of the family home in Singapore and wondered around Chinatown, trying to figure out how to fill our time (are flight wasn't until 10.30pm). We walked into a coffee shop and through what can only be described as a bizarre coincidence bumped into Thanh and Blanche (a couple from London who we'd met briefly in Krabi, Thailand and then again in Georgetown, Malaysia). We therefore spent the afternoon playing 'James Bond' style poker with little packets of sugar under the watchful eye of the coffee shops two employees (Thanh VERY discretely 'borrowed' the coffee shops entire sugar supply...they didn't seem too impressed.)

Got to the airport early and found out that Qantas had transferred us onto their 'ryan air' style JET airline - very, very sneaky as this meant ridiculously slow check in (2 desks open), no in-flight entertainment and very limited leg room. We were not impressed – if they were going to tamper with out flight they could have at least upgraded us! If the next flight is on JET I’m going to moan to Qantas – in the hope of being flown first class from LA back to London…wishful thinking?? In contrast, Singapore airport was luxurious…free internet booths and foot massage chairs, a cinema, spa and gym. We were reluctant to leave but the 4.5 hour flight to Darwin was painless. After a quick security check in Darwin at 4.30am we popped back on the plane for another 3 hours (stunning views) and landed in Cairns around 8.30am. With no sleep for the last 24 hours we were a little p*ssed off when we arrived at the hostel to find that our pre-booked room wouldn’t be ready until about 1pm.

Cairns city centre is nothing special…pretty bland and spread out (hostel = 45 minute walk to the centre). It doesn’t embrace the high-rise city landscape of most famous cities and therefore looks like any other town-centre. The best feature is the ‘lagoon’: a free public swimming pool, located on the waterfront.

16/12/06
The hostel is sooooooooooooooooooooo annoying!!! As soon as our pre-paid nights are up we’re moving out of here: they have an irritating speaker system (which they obviously think is high-tech modernism) installed into the guest rooms. Whenever they want to make an announcement (even to specific people), i.e. “Sarah Black your taxi’s arrived and waiting for you out the front” EVERYONE in the hostel gets the announcement blasted into their rooms (day and night!). It’s like being on Big Brother – I keep checking for cameras.

Anyway, today we made a dramatic change of plans: instead of catching the greyhound bus down the East Coast we have decided to hire out a campervan (decision made primarily because of 2 main facts: there are thousands of free camp sites in Australia – National Parks etc. and the accommodation in this country is a rip-off compared to Asia – our budget is spent after paying for a night in a hostel and one meal a day.) Only problem with hiring out this campervan is that it is x’mas time and the campers are VERY popular. The first one available isn’t arriving in Cairns until the 30th December, so we will not be on the move until New Years Eve. We now have to think of things to do in this not-so happening town??? Fortunately the area around Cairns is meant to be stunning so we will try and do lots of trips out of town…

17/12/06
Up early to sort out money probs with the campervan hire, then took a taxi ($30!) to Cairns Skyrail Terminal. Jumped into a car and took a ride on one of the longest skyrails over the canopy of the Barron Gorge National Park (7.5km cableway, towers lifted into place by helicopter.) Bit of a tourist trap (100’s of Koreans posing for each others cameras!) and completely blew our budget, but thought it was a worthwhile trip – the views were amazing. Stopped at 2 stations enroute to Kuranda: Red Peak, which had a boardwalk through the rainforest, and Barron Falls, which had numerous lookout points over the Falls, but there wasn’t much to look at since it’s the middle of summer here!

Kuranda is a pretty village in the rainforest – again another tourist destination, with numerous market stalls selling didgeridoos, boomerangs and kangaroo skin souvenirs. Visited ‘Venom Zoo,’ which breeds venomous animals for medical research purposes: supply venom in the hope that new drugs can be developed. Saw the most poisonous spider, snake and centipede in the world! Instead of catching the ‘Scenic Railway’ back to Cairns we opted for the $2 bus ride.

18/12/06
Checked out of the Big Brother style hostel and headed up the Captain Cook Highway (single lane each side – nothing like the M1!) in our Hyundai hire car. Beautiful coastal road: Great Barrier Reef to our right, rainforest to our left. First stop: Mossman Gorge, a freshwater swimming spot complete with huge boulders for sunbathing on. Unfortunately, being the budding photographer that he has now become, Wayne got a bit too into his snapping and accidentally slipped jumping from one boulder to another. He balanced on his back: both arms stretched out - one holding is his camera, the other with his camera case. Luckily he flipped himself upright and neither camera nor case got wet, although he was a little damp!

Second stop was taken when we realised we’d ‘seen it all before’ and had evidently taken a wrong turning ending up looping around Daintree Village a couple of times?!? Following a shopkeepers directions we backtracked 11km and found Daintree River Crossing (rope pulled ferry contraption). We then continued north through the stunning Daintree National Park, reaching Cape Tribulation later that afternoon. Found the cheapest accommodation available in this isolated town: a tent! But this was no normal tent. It had proper beds, a light and even a fan! There were cooking facilities and hot showers, so it actually seemed better than a lot of Asian guesthouses. Perfect location: right next to the beach. Only problem is the fact that you can’t swim in the sea due to the presence of crocodiles, stingrays and jellyfish. This is a cruel strike of nature as the beach is stunning: fine white sand and in swimming distance to a coral reef! To cool down we had to walk up to Masons Store (extortionate prices as it has sales monopoly) and swam in the freshwater swimming hole in the forest next to the store. Pretty cool place full of fish and supposedly turtles (although we didn’t spot any). Later that evening we walked down Myall Beach in search of the resident croc (who attacked a Danish guy a few weeks ago because he WALKED INTO THE WATER in the hope of getting a better picture! What an idiot!) Unfortunately/Fortunately we didn’t see him, but we did notice loads of stingray swimming in the shallow waters.

Days are great, but evenings are getting pretty dull because we can’t afford to do anything! We are hoping that fellow travelers will be residing on various camp sites along the east coast, otherwise we are going to be going to bed around 8pm every night. Whilst discussing this predicament we were mucking around with our cameras and Wayne accidentally deleted ALL of his photos! This isn’t as bad as it seems as he uploaded most of them onto the computer, but all of the last few days have been lost (aghhhh!!!!) You therefore haven’t got any illustrations of the basketball match, Kurunda or Mossman (although I think I took a few pics).

19/12/06
Ever wondered why people don’t lie in when staying on a camp site?? Because you cook to death if you stay in the tent past 7am! It was scorching when we woke up this morning! After breakfast we went in search of the local croc again, but this proved fruitless, so on the way back we diverted down Dubuji Boardwalk: a 1.8km circuit through rainforest and mangroves (giant crabs and massive fan palm canopies = highlight). In the afternoon we attended an ‘Exotic Fruit Tasting’ session at a local organic farm, which turned out to be excellent. Digby (the farmer) and his wife used to be a Biology teachers, but had enough of teaching (in Melbourne, Darwin and in an Aboriginal school in the middle of the outback: school = a caravan) so decided to purchase 9 hectarres of land in Cape Trib. They lived in another caravan for a few years whilst building their home and planted a variety of fruit trees to see what would prosper in this tropical environment. Their philosophy has been to let things grow that want to grow and let the others die off – no chemicals used. The problem with this is that they can’t produce enough of one thing for it to be commercially viable and therefore rely on these fruit tasting sessions as their main source of income (popular: 20+ people there). Many of the fruits are simply not suitable for mass market, mainly because their shelf life is just one day. We tried 10 different fruits, including an ‘abiu’ which was a very sweet, (almost condensed milk like flavour) fleshy fruit with a latex rim (had to be careful how you ate it!); ‘soursop’ an ugly looking chewy, fibrous, fruit-salad flavoured fruit that you couldn’t really chew – you just had to swallow and a ‘Davidson plum’, which was incredibly sour but after eating a ‘miracle berry’ (which kills your sour taste buds temporarily) the plum tasted like jam! Very odd. We were also given a tour around their garden and orchards. It is an amazing place because everything that grows possesses edible parts, whether it be the foliage, flowers or roots. They grew coffee, peanuts, all spice, pineapples and even chocolate pudding fruits (no calories but same texture as mousse – just add cocoa!)

That evening when we were having a wash, Wayne was joined by a humungous Huntsman Spider (regarded as one of the largest and most frightening spiders in existence, but fortunately harmless). It was bigger than my hand! In fact all the insects here seem to be five times the size of ours back home – I told you this place is dangerous (especially if you are living in a tent!)

20/12/06
Another search for the croc proved futile so we packed up and headed to Port Douglas which is a very up market holiday destination (boutique shops, art galleries etc) and also where the late Steve Irwin died. It is far too expensive for us backpackers, and yet again we found our budget merely stretching to a two-man tent. The tent was located at a backpacker hostel, so we had access to the bar and kitchens etc. After a few hours lazing on 4-mile beach we spent the evening playing cards again!

21/12/06
Headed back to the beach. The water is very choppy, a real contrast to Thailand’s calm waters. I was reluctant to go in the sea (due to the deadly stingrays and jellyfish – quite justifiable reluctance!) but Wayne spent most of the morning riding the waves strictly in the confines of the stinger nets. After lunch we made our way back to Cairns, where it was pouring down with rain (we are lied to in the UK – Australian weather isn’t all sunshine!) and found that we were returning our car a day early?? See what happens when your life doesn’t revolve around a working week! You loose all sense of time! We were advised by the hire guy to spend the afternoon at Crystal Cascades (another swimming hole in the rainforest) but it was pouring when we got there so we turned around and came back. Pleased with our new residence as the hostel provides free breakfast and dinner – result!

Right that’s us up to date – hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas. We have booked ourselves into a bit more ‘up market’ establishment for x’mas eve, x’mas day and boxing day so I doubt we’ll have much more to report in a few days time. In Cairns until the 31st so our blog entry next time will be much shorter as we won’t have done much! E x

Officially upside down in the land of Oz: N.E. Australia remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We visited Fort Canning Park and ate our picnic lunch (common occurrence these days – saves us a few dollars) and then found Raffles Hotel, where the minimum price for a room is 250GBP/night. Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside (surprise, surprise: no shorts or sandals/flip-flops allowed). Walked along the waterfront and went inside Singapore’s’ 200 million GBP flagship development: Esplande (Theatres on the Bay). We then splashed out on 2 Christmas stockings (1 GBP each) so that we could celebrate Christmas in style: we will ‘fill’ our stockings with the small gifts we have bought for each other: one from each of the countries we have visited.

12/12/06
Headed to Sentosa Island (dubbed by the locals as Concrete Island because it has been developed purely for tourism – you have to pay an admission fee for stepping foot on the island). Visited Underwater World, which featured a huge underwater tunnel: as you walked around, sharks, rays and divers etc. surrounded you. The admission price also entitled us to see the pink dolphins at a lagoon towards the south of the island. However, the most interesting attraction we visited was Fort Siloso, built in the 1880’s as part of a ring of British Fortresses guarding Singapore Harbour (Siloso is the only remaining coastal fort). It was really well put together: as you walked around you got a feel (and smell) for colonial army life as it was re-enacted by life-size models and audio commentary. It featured the surrender chambers, where wax-works recreated the British surrender to the Japanese in 1942, and then another room showing the Japanese surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945. You could also explore the tunnels (which reminded me of the air-raid shelter in our garden at Bloomfield Road). Only drawback of the day was the temperature: it was sweltering (event the locals have been saying it is unusually hot for December).

13/12/06
Visited the new outdoor swimming pool (30p each!) in Little India. Fantastic pool – it is an Olympic sized pool and, to Wayne’s delight, had bookshelves scattered around the perimeter: full of car magazines. After writing up a bit of the blog we ventured to the National Indoor Stadium to watch the Singapore Slingers play the New Zealand Breakers. It was actually a really enjoyable evening – I would definitely go to a basketball game again, if not for the sport then for the music – I didn’t realise they play such wicked tunes all the way through a game (Claire, Beth – you would have loved it!) The actual game was quite amusing; they only played for 8-minute intervals then took a break – lame! Before we arrived I was a little concerned that the Slingers would get thrashed: have you ever seen a tall Asian man?? Surely Basketball is not a suitable sport for Asian’s to be competing in: even the taxi driver seemed a little confused! However, it transpired that the ‘Singapore’ Slingers comprise of second-generation expats: I only saw one Asian player. The crowd also consisted of mainly white expats (I think most of them worked for the sponsor companies and had been given free seats). Anyway, regardless of the player’s race, they won; beating the Kiwi’s 111-94…well done the Slingers!!!

14/12/06
Our last day in Singapore and Asia We have had an excellent 3 months and have so many memories to take away with us…we’ll defiantly come back one day to explore more of the continent, but for now we can’t wait to reach Australia…

Melaka (S. Malaysia) + Singapore Continued remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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6/12/06 – 8/12/06
Melaka wasn’t anything to write home about: stayed in a travelers guesthouse that had military-like house rules, but the room was a great size so we just kept ourselves to ourselves so as not to get into any trouble! Visited a few museums (including Baba Nanya Heritage Museum: a traditional 19th century Pernakan house, and the Maritime Museum: located on a recreation of the ‘Flora de la Mar’ – a Portuguese ship that sank off the coast of Melaka whilst trying to transport treasures back to Europe) and hung out in coffee shops playing cards most of the time. We were just really stalling so that we didn’t have to pay for too many nights in Singapore.

9/12/06
After a 5-hour bus journey we arrived in Singapore…We hadn’t booked any accommodation, so were delighted when a random man on a bicycle greeted us at the bus station in Little India. He offered us a room for S$25/night – far cheaper than any of the ‘budget accommodation’ listed in the guidebook – so we jumped at the offer, no questions asked. When we arrived at ‘Al’s Nest’ as he like’s to refer to it, we realised that we had agreed to a ‘home stay’ arrangement, rather than a room in a guesthouse…we are therefore currently residing in a family home. It is very bizarre – the sign over the door declares that it is an export trading company (??), they leave dirty washing all over the floor and never ever clean the shared bathroom (gross), but they give us breakfast and then let us get on with it…all we have to do is put up with the grandmother, who gawks at us, whilst shouting in Chinese (we have now established that she’s deaf). After ‘settling in’ we caught the underground to Orchard Road, the infamous shopping district. It is so Christmassy: lights, music and decorations everywhere, and incredibly busy – worse than Oxford Street at this time of year!

10/12/06
Breakfast eaten quickly and in silence, whilst grandmother viciously decapitated smelly fish with a humungous knife. Escaped and caught the underground then bus to Singapore Zoo, which is just outside the city in the centre of the island and set in beautiful jungle. Saw a Bengal White Tiger and a Polar Bear for the first time. The zoo is excellent and internationally acclaimed, primarily because they try to recreate an entire ecosystem appropriate for individual species. There are virtually no cages and animals are only separated from visitors by a moat system (many species, including the Orangutans are free-ranging ).

We spent the evening wondering around Little India: it was a memorable experience; despite the fact we did very little. Apparently every Sunday night all the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants (in Singapore on 2 year work visa’s) swarm the streets and simply hang around…there were literally thousands of men (no women), you could hardly move, even the alleyways were crowded. Sunday is their only day off, so they ‘socialise’ according to ‘Al’ (the man of the house we are staying in). They don’t drink, eat or party - they just stand. Some of them must have intended on spending a bit of money though, as we went to the only ATM in Little India and queued for about 20 minutes behind a massive line of Indian men. Spoke to Al for the rest of the evening and learnt that hangings are still carried out here and that men who commit crimes receive a beating from the police force!

Run out of time, I’ll continue tomorrow – our last day in Asia! Emma xx

Melaka (S. Malaysia) + Singapore remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The most important message to get across is that Malaysia is sooooo HOT!!! I think it's the warmest place we've been to so far. It is sometimes unbearable and you just want to go back to the hotel room and lie in an air conditioned space. Other than that its a wonderful country and we have been having a really great time.

20/11/06
After a late night (watching Thai boxing in a bar with Micheal (the Dutch guy) and his Thai 'girlfriend'...) we rose early to catch the ferry to Krabi, so that we could take a minibus from Krabi to Hat Yai (southern Thailand, on the Malaysian border). To cut a long story short, we broke down and ended up sitting, once again, on a very cramped minibus on the hard shoulder of a motorway. The upshot being that our last day in Thailand turned out to be our second last day as we had to spend the night in Hat Yai (which can only be described as a concrete dump). The city, for obvious reasons that strike you upon arrival, does not cater for tourists – basically because no sane tourist would set foot in it. The main attraction appeared to be the Carrefour (massive superstore – identical to the one we always visit in Italy). No-one spoke English, but with the help of some Thai ladies who were in our minibus, we managed to find a reasonable hotel and a travel agency, so that we could catch yet another minibus to Malaysia.

21/11/06
Arrived in Georgetown, the second largest city in Malaysia, via ferry as it is on Penang (an island in NW Malaysia). The first hostel we looked out was gross: stale smell, no lock or key and no toilet...so we snuck out and found a newly opened hostel above a bar. It was clean and cheap so suited us, but it did look a little incomplete: concrete floor and the 'ensuite' consisted of a freestanding shower, randomly placed in the room like a wardrobe (no sink, toilet etc.) It was very strange. I think they ran out of money and opened early to earn money off travelers so that they could tile/carpet the floors.

Georgetown is very much a Chinese city, with a scattering of colonial architecture. Since we were staying in Chinatown we went for a Chinese that evening and decided to explore the rest of the city the following day...

22/11/06
Hired a moped and stopped off at all the main sights:
1.Fort Cornwallis, where Captain Light first set foot on the virtually uninhabited island of Penang in 1786. He established a free port, in the hope of luring the spice trade form the Dutch. The fort was made from wood, but in 1808 a convict labour force replaced it to the current stone structure.
2.Penang Museum, which highlighted the customs and traditions of Penang's' various ethnic groups (Chinese, Malays, Indians and Europeans).
3.Piang Peranakan Mansion, the ornate home of a wealthy Chinese family – beautiful, but a bit OTT!
4.Penang Hill, was cleared of forest under the instruction of Captain Light so that he could grow strawberries, hence its also known as Strawberry Hill?!? We took a painstakingly slow tram 800m up a steep slope, but the 30 minute ride was worth it: the views of Georgetown were stunning.

First impressions of Malaysia are really good: prefer it to Thailand already. Its much more developed, but still retains a traditional atmosphere. Tourism doesn't seem to be everything to Malaysia. We wanted to see the 'real Thailand' but now realise that the real Thailand is in fact what we saw: tourism. A huge majority of the population seem to work directly/indirectly in the industry, and this has in my opinion ruined its' appeal. They just shouldn't try so hard!!

23/11/06
Kept hold of the bike and headed to the Botanical Gardens. Pretty place, surrounded by natural jungle and where monkeys roam freely. Found a pagoda, ate our picnic and then read our books for a couple of hours (yes, I said 'our books', Wayne is now reading novels!! Well he's read one...what a transformation!) On the way back we stopped off at 'The World's Largest Toy Museum,' but I desperately hope that this is a false claim as it was probably only a little bigger than a double garage. We had the impression that it would be full of life sized toys, but it consisted of a few glass cabinets and looked like an unexciting version of Toys'r'us After a brief stop at the beach we headed back to Georgetown and booked a bus ticket to our next destination...

24/11/06
Caught the early bus departing for Tanah Rata; the main town in the Cameron Highlands (name taken from William Cameron, the surveyor who mapped out the area in 1885). The highlands are 6000 feet (2000m) above sea level and it was therefore a lot, lot cooler than anywhere else in the country (I actually had to put my jumper on in the evenings!) Temperatures there rarely climb higher than 21C (but don't drop below 10C) and the fertile soils mean that the land is perfect for vegetable cultivation and horticulture – something the town of Tanah Rata is VERY proud of...we should have really read up about the highlands before we came, because other than the fact that Jim Thompson (the American whose house we nosied around in Bangkok) disappeared here whilst out on a pre-diner stroll in 1967, we knew nothing about the area. It transpired that the only things to do were: visit various vegetable farms, visit various fruit farms, visit various tea plantations or go on a walk!! We opted for the later the following day...

Tanah Rata possesses an old-fashioned English atmosphere, despite the fact that the main ethnic group is Indian. On several occasions we went to a tea shop and dined on English Breakfast Tea and sc'o'nes. Our accommodation was clean and comfortable but the name painted on the front of the building suggested that it was a retirement home! We never said anything to the owners but I'm worried that the 'aging' gene mentioned earlier has already kicked in??

25/11/06
We'd had enough of paying tour guides to take us on treks that we could navigate ourselves, so we decided to use the guidebook and head out into the jungle alone. After 4 hours of jungle photography and one ambiguous set of crossroads/tracks we finally made it to the Boh Tea Estate, where we continued our trail through the plantations and upto the factory (bit of a brief encounter). Since we'd walked over 20km we treated ourselves to ANOTHER cup of tea and a scone, and then took a taxi back to the main town. It was a really fun day, despite the leg effort, and we hardly spent a penny – tap on the back.

26/11/06
Upon realising that unless we wanted to visit a farm there was little else to do in the highlands, we decided to make our way to Pulau Pangkor; a very small (8 sq km) island. The journey from the highlands, via Ipoh and Lumut only cost us 3GBP each (minibus, coach, local bus, taxi, ferry, minibus again) but did take 9 hours! Found accommodation in Teluk Nipah, the most 'happening' place on the West coast of the island. We timed our arrival completely wrong as it is now school holidays and Pangkor is 'apparently' Malaysians top holiday destination! The place is FULL of school kids (holiday camp ambiance) and prices have rocketed, so we seem to be paying over the odds for our chalet. Despite this 'weeks' worth of popularity the island doesn't have much to offer. Its main industry, surprisingly, is still fishing. Spent the rest of the day and most of the following doing very little; lazed on the beach and cooled down in the expensive chalet.

28/11//06
Hired a bike and rode around the island, which took all of 50 minutes – well worth the 24 hour rental fee! The east coast is full of fishing villages, which were pretty, but offered little to do, so we drove back to the west and lazed about again on Coral Beach. Started to feel ill that evening: on and off the toilet all night (centre parcs re-run!!)

29/11/06
Planned to leave the island that morning, but I didn't think I could control my bowels for the 4 hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur so we spent another day doing very little – it was starting to get boring! Since we had stayed for so many nights, Wayne decided to try and negotiate a better price for one more night but they wouldn't budge, so we moved next door. It was a lot cheaper, offered a similar type of room, but breakfast was included! We should have looked here before! I wasn't feeling any better by late afternoon, so Wayne hired a bike and went and found the only chemist on the island to get me some antibiotics. Seemed to have an effect as I was feeling a lot better by the evening.
We were woken up that night (about 2am) by the most horrendous thunder storm I've ever heard: torrential rain and roaring thunder that went on for hours. We were scared that the room was going to flood so we got up and moved all of our luggage and belongings onto the furniture.

30/11/06
Up and out at last!!!!! I know there are many, many places on Earth far worse than a tropical island to be stuck on, but this place was seriously dull and the food was terrible. We couldn't wait to get to Kuala Lumpur. The Bus dropped us off in Chinatown and we eventually found a windowless box to sleep in (the hotel is aptly named 'D' View Inn!) It's actually quite a nice place, you just can't tell what time of day it is, or what the weather is like outside, when your indoors. That evening we wondered around Chinatown (Wayne got his hair cut at last!), visited Petaling Market and generally enjoyed KL's vibes; seems like a wonderful city.

1/12/06
Can't believe it's December already – Christmas is coming and we have finally found somewhere in Asia oozing with festive spirit: a shopping mall! Took the underground to KL City Centre early morning in hope of going up the Petronas Towers (Malaysia's landmark). We got into the queue, but it was enormous and a member of staff came and placed an 'out of tickets' sign after the couple standing 5 places ahead of us...aghhhhh. Since only 800 tickets are allocated to members of the public each day we had to abandon all hopes of seeing the view that day. Instead we browsed around the shopping mall, wondered around the park and then walked to the communication tower, which we foolishly paid to go up. The view was impressive but we should have just waited to get some free tickets at the Twin Towers. Later that day we bought a ticket to see Dejavu at the cinema (1.5 GBP each – bargain!)

2/12/06
Walked around Chinatown and the Colonial District. Saw Masjid Jamek (1907 British designed mosque), Central Market (handicrafts and arts stalls) and Merdeka Square (aka Independence Square). Not very exciting day. Its so hot and humid here that its hard to appreciate all of the sights – we gave it our best shot.

3/12/06
Visited the Lake Gardens situated towards the west of the city. Really pretty place to relax, but very, very hot. We had a look around the World's largest 'covered' Bird Park, which was essentially an enormous walk-in aviary, with around 160 species of birds. Witnessed a bird show: parrots performing clever routines on mini-bikes etc, and saw eagles, pelicans etc... Kept us entertained for a couple of hours. That evening we returned to the shopping district and ate in pizza hut of all places.

4/12/06
Visited the commercial centre and faffed around: sorting out Waynes camera and FINALLY managed to put his pictures online (3 hours worth of uploading – we actually persuaded the bloke to let us leave the memory card connected to the computer while we went and got lunch – it was still there when we returned – phew!)

5/12/06
Finally made it up to the skybridge in the Petronas Towers (level 41 of 88) – at least we can say we've been in the buildings that Catherine Zita Jones hung from in the film Entrapment. The actual view was not as great as from the Communication Tower – oh well – it was free.

We've spent most of our time in KL wondering around the shops, but the city is fantastic and if you have a job and money you could really have a great time here. We've decided to move on to Melaka tomorrow, so our next update will probably be summing up Singapore and our time in Asia. Moving on to Australia next week...............very excited!!

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8/11/06
Catamaran from Ko Samui to Ko Tao – ROUGH RIDE (1.5 hours) …they were handing out sick bags to passengers – was glad to reach land.
On board a ‘Big Blue’ Diving School tout approached us - the price for an Open Water course seemed reasonable (130 GBP) and the accommodation was free so we agreed and managed to get a free ride from the port. We had originally intended to do a PADI course but they have just introduced a compulsory book (which you have to purchase separately – more expense!) so the diving school suggested we just do the SSI course – same international reputation, but more popular in Australia than in Europe. 6 people on our course (one couple from St Albans! Such a small world). The instructor, Rick, was Hawaiian and turned out to be a really cool guy – very pleased with our ‘choice’ of dive school. It was located right on the beach and our al fresco classroom doubled up as the restaurant/bar. Only drawbacks = homework (on a tropical Thai island?!?) followed by a written test and the fact that we have arrived in November (worst visibility).

Ko Tao is a very small island in the Gulf of Thailand, dominated by dive schools. It has a really chilled out atmosphere as there are very few shops, restaurants and roads, but plenty of beach bars. I read that in 1983 only 1 bungalow existed on the island – there are now over 40 dive schools! Tourism gone mad. We both loved the place, but could see that if you didn’t dive there was little else to do…it is just too small.

9/11/06
1st Dive Day
Morning = all theory…breathing techniques/equalisation, nitrogen level assessments, dangers and fish types etc etc…
Afternoon = water skills…mask clearance + removing mask, regulator retrieval, buoyancy etc etc… We all mastered the skills quickly and finished ahead of schedule so the instructor took us out for a shallow dive (5m) to some coral relatively near the shore. We got used to breathing under water for long periods of time and tried to work on our buoyancy – was excellent – really good fun!

10/11/06
Morning = theory again, but finished early so we took our exam a day early – easy 50 multiple choice question– all passed no problem (yes….Wayne passed a test first time! He was chuffed! Haha).
Afternoon = first proper dive – very excited…went to the dive site ‘Twins’ and dropped to a depth of 14m. Unfortunately visibility was dreadful – 2m at most! It was so bad that Rick (instructor) lost navigation (around a site he has visited over 500 times!) When we came up to the surface a storm was raging – very rough waves, rain and generally very dark and gloomy – bit scary but we all managed to get back to the boat. Apparently achieving neutral buoyancy in these conditions is extremely hard – so I think we all did ok. We spent 1.5 hours sitting on the boat (recovery time –allows your nitrogen levels to lower) and then tried a second dive at ‘White Rock’ dive site….even WORSE! We could barely see each other. We stayed down at around 14m to achieve the required dive time and then surfaced as there was no point – you couldn’t see anything. I was a bit anxious during this dive as it sometimes felt like you were on your own down there, in a murky sea with dangerous creatures that could approach you without warning….a few days earlier a whaleshark had been spotted at this site so I think I had good reason! We were all a bit disappointed, but had our fingers crossed that tomorrow would be better…

11/11/06
Early Morning (7am) = third dive and visibility had improved (slightly = 9m – usually visibility in Ko Tao = 30m). We returned to ‘Twins’ and ‘White Rock’ but it felt like a different place…we saw so much more – clown fish (nemo), angelfish, parrot fish, massive jellyfish, cleaner fish (that eat the bacteria out of wounds), stingray, red breasted wrasse, scissor tail sergeant majors, trigger fish and green blood!! (I cut my finger on some coral and my blood looked green underwater – very impressive!) Enjoyed it so much more than the previous day. Noticed that Wayne breathes in more than his fair share of air, which meant that he was ALWAYS the first in the ‘red’ (air cylinder – like petrol tank) and made the whole group return to the surface. We couldn’t understand why he ran out of air so much faster than everyone else, but after watching the video of our dive (made by our accompanying videographer) we could see why…my ‘buddy’, unbeknown to the rest of the group, was constantly dancing around - doing numerous spiral dives and rolls in front of the camera – show off!
Afternoon = no test as had been completed the previous day so we had a free afternoon – slept! Met up with the others later that evening, collected our dive cards and log books and then went out for dinner…good fun.

12/11/06
Gulf of Thailand to Andaman Sea (Ko Tao to Krabi) – 6 hour boat ride, 4 hour bus ride – non-eventful and therefore dull for both you as readers, and us as passengers!

13/11/06
Hired out a moped and found a mediocre beach. Sunbathed for a few hours but then got caught in a storm so ran to the nearest restaurant. Once again, bit of an unremarkable day. Krabi town is bit of a dump – surrounding area is beautiful karst scenery (therefore popular place for rock climbing) but didn’t want to stay an longer so booked a boat for the following day.

14/11/06
Krabi to Ko Lanta (boat, bus, truck). We originally tried to book to go to Ko Phi Phi, but it is so popular that there aren’t any rooms available unless you book a few days in advance. Ko Lanta is also a popular place and we could only find accommodation in a bungalow at Last Beach Resort – as the name suggests it was the last resort on the island (if you work you way down the west coast.) Very isolated (no road – just dirt track, no phone reception, no internet) and bit of a dump – the bathroom stinks! When we arrived we were a bit pissed off.

15/11/06
Decided to make the most of it since we were here. Hired a bike to try and find civilization – found it, but unimpressed. After Ko Chang and Ko Tao, Ko Lanta was a bit of a let down. Beaches were ok, but nothing spectacular…towns were developments of nothingness.

16/11/06
Rainy season became very evident….bit of sun in the morning, but were then forced to retire back to the dump for the rest of the day. I read an entire book and Wayne found solace in his psp (I think). I know it is awful to convey this when we are so lucky to be on this trip, but on 16/11/06 we were BORED!!!!! Wouldn’t recommend Ko Lanta – not much going for it.

17/11/06
Up at 6am (eager to get out of Ko Lanta) so that we could catch a truck lift at 7am to the pier…our next stop Ko Phi Phi …. no show!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANNOYED!!!!!!!!!!!!! The island has no taxi service so we were forced to wait until 11am for the next lift. By the time we got on a boat (6 hours after we’d hoped) it stared raining and the staff onboard failed to cover our luggage….everything in my backpack was soaked…books ruined, cards soggy and clothes drenched. Once again, very pissed off!

Arrived in Ko Phi Phi late afternoon. Tsunami damage is still very evident across many parts of the island – lots of derelict plots and copious amounts of construction going on. Yet it is so popular here. This has caused accommodation prices to rocket (we bumped into someone we met in Laos and he said that he had met someone who was here 2 months ago, staying in the same room as he was now, but had paid 350B then, and was paying 1500B now! – crazy!) Our room is the most expensive we’ve stayed in yet (10 GBP) but is certainly not the nicest….the bathroom is the size of our freezer in the garage at home, and it is situated on the main road, next to some steps which we now recognize as the social hub for all returning clubbers. It is noisy outside the room all day and ALL night!! The hard core clubbers (unfortunately not us) decide to return to their rooms about 5am, and the local shop keepers decide to open up around 5.30am. Sleep deprivation. Wayne got so pissed off last night he started banging on the window to get them to shut up – unfortunately he forgot there is a mosquito guard across the window and he has punched it in…whoops….now we’re getting eaten alive as well! I think we are staying in the wrong area –the rest of the island sounds gorgeous, but since there is no road network, nor motor vehicles, the only way you can get to the other towns is by boat. Upon arrival, an employee from the guesthouse turned up with a metal trolley to assist us with our luggage – no tuk tuk’s on this island!

18/11/06
Snorkeling trip around Phi Phi Lay (the smaller of the 2 Phi Phi islands – with no development whatsoever) via longtail boat. Visited various shores…Bamboo Island (excellent visability), Monkey Island, Maya Beach (aka ‘the’ beach in the film ‘The Beach’) and Shark Point. Good fun, but not nearly as rewarding as diving (too expensive here – boo hoo). We got drenched in sea water on the boat as the sea was very choppy – not the best of experiences but we survived…I heard a lady telling someone later that day that their boat had sunk!

19/11/06
Happy Birthday Rich (again!) Wondered around, lazed on the beach and booked our bus/boat to Malaysia for tomorrow morning….fancy a change of scenery. Phi Phi is not as stunning as all the hype (and accomodation prices) suggest, although to be fair this could be because of the Tsunami damage. Generally though there are just too many people in such a small place.

Quick update - we bumped into the guy we shared a dorm with in Hanoi, Vietnam AGAIN this evening – its so weird….AND Wayne is now having a drink with Michael (the Dutch guy we met in Laos) whom we also bumped into today. I’m now off to join them.

I’ll write again once we’ve traveled a bit around Malaysia….E xx

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3/11/06
After 8 hours on an incredibly cramped minibus (and short-ish ferry trip) we arrived at White Sand Beach, Ko Chang. Hadn’t booked anywhere and found the only place we could afford was a very smelly red brick ‘bungalow/cupboard’ with a DIY flushing toilet and cold dripping shower (which has now become commonplace for us as ALL the accommodation we have stayed in since Ko Chang has offered the same luxurious bathroom – cringe!!!!!!!!!) We thought our first impression was bad enough, but later on when I was just about to brush my teeth I noticed the water was running brown...we turned on the shower and sure enough brown crap started flooding the wetroom (drainage was also very poor). Wayne ran to get one of the owners who then proceeded to spray the walls, ceiling and floor with this filthy suspicious substance. It was just revolting. After about 30mins he ‘realised’ (or just told me this to keep me sweet) that one of the pipes outside had been sliced open so mud (although I still believe it was sewage!) was getting into the water flow. He ‘fixed’ this problem and let the tap run to clear the system out…….over an hour later the water ran clear-ish, but our bathroom was still a filthy mess.

Although our accommodation wasn’t up to much, it was on the beach and the adjoining bar was excellent. We stayed out until about 3am singing and playing the drums while one of the owners sang along to his guitar (re-reading that it does sound a bit odd! – we had had a few drinks.)

4/11/06
Hired a moped to flee the tourist haven we were residing in –headed south and found a deserted beach! When we arrived we were the only 2 there – it was paradise…the sea was crystal clear and warm, and the sand was fine, white and rubbish-free. Later in the day a few more people found the beach (much to our disappointment) but it was still really, really quiet =fab!

Ko Changs’ interior comprises mainly of lush national parkland and it is therefore remarkably unspoilt. By this time we had had enough of waterfalls so didn’t bother visiting any, but the jungle was beautiful. Looking back I would say that Ko Chang (East Coast, near Cambodia border and in the nearest island cluster to Bangkok) is one of the better islands we’ve been to – although White Sand Beach (West coast) is too touristy, the rest of the island is beautiful.

5/10/06
Hired a moped again (a cool bright pink vehicle!) and this time headed East: which is relatively deserted (very little development/tourist industry). It took us hours – we didn’t realize how big the island was, nor how bad the road surface became….we had read that the road around the island wasn’t yet complete, but had assumed that the road continued down to Long Beach (SE.) Not the case. We encountered massive dirt track slopes where our poor little rev-and-go struggled – it couldn’t get enough power to reach the top, so we had to walk up half of them. Once the tarmac road stopped (see pic) we should have really turned back, but since we’d come so far we persevered. I even had ago on the bike, but was quickly demoted to the back seat again when I came into a ‘spot of bother’ with a sharp corner (lets just say we went ‘off’ road before the tarmac road had ceased – whoops!) The treacherous journey was NOT worth the hassle –we should have just gone back to the beach in the south. ‘Long’ Beach may have been long but it certainly wasn’t wide – there was nowhere to even sit – the sea came right up to the tree line. The only restaurant/accommodation there, was a stereotypical hippie hangout (think grown men in sarongs, with flowers in their hair….) After one drink and one very awkward conversation we waded through the sea until we found a spot where we could dump our bags and swim – it was soooooo shallow we had to crawl! No exaggeration, you could keep walking 200m out to sea without it getting past your knees! The water was lovely and clear, but there was no way you could swim. Very disappointing. We stayed about an hour and then made our way back down the dirt track. Our petrol gauge (yet again) didn’t work, and we run out of ‘gasoline’ on one of the steep hills…typical! Whilst we were contemplating what to do next, a lovely local couple pulled over and helped us out. The guy disconnected his petrol pipe and filled up my empty bottle of water with fuel – ahhh. We tipped it into our tank and then drove to the nearest gas station (term used VERY loosely as such things rarely exist). In reality you just have to pull up at one of the road side stalls (sell odds and ends, fruits and drinks) and buy an empty squash bottle full of pink fuel –I was very skeptical at first but all our mopeds/scooters have seemed to work ok).

6/11/06
Left Ko Chang and headed for Pattaya (yep its meant to be a hole I know –but we had booked a very cheap flight from Pattaya to Ko Samui so we were just heading there for one night so that we could catch the flight the following morning). After a ‘slight’ disagreement the previous night (yep again, our first big argument – not bad for 2 months 24/7 or is it?) we were both a bit pissed off: in our own little worlds, oblivious to others and hence vulnerable –perfect for a pair of vultures/con-artists. I don’t know how it happened but I was only aware that we were being led to some unknown accommodation once we’d been dropped off by the minibus into the middle of no-where. We were told by these two ‘passengers’ (who we now realise were commission-earning tour operators) that we had to wait for a free ‘taxi’ from this deserted bar, but nothing ever showed up, so we then had to pay to get into Pattaya –should have stayed on the bus!! However, it all worked out rather well as the room was brilliant (and cheap 5GBP for the night!). It was huge, had hot water, a sofa, a tv, a balcony and best of all it was spotless!!! Things were looking up…

7/10/06
…or were they? As I said before, the only reason we came to Pattaya was to fly out of the airport (to Ko Samui, where we would catch a boat to Ko Tao). The flight, although a bit more expensive than bus, was chosen as it would save us valuable time. This didn’t quite work out…we asked an employee at the hotel how long it takes to get the airport and they said 1.5 hours/800B! I knew that Pattaya airport was ‘out of town’ but this was a lot further than expected. We were really pissed off – having paid over the odds to get into Pattaya we realised that we should have stayed out of town anyway! By that (eve 6/11/06) time we couldn’t do anything about it, so we booked a taxi for 7.30am (aiming to get to the airport around 9am).

The taxi turned up on time (phew) and I’d found a copy of The Guardian the previous evening so I was happy: engrossed in British news. 15 mins later Wayne was concerned that we were heading to Bangkok –very odd as the airport is in the opposite direction? After much deliberation we decided that maybe the motorway network meant that we had to go north slightly, before heading south-eat?!? (it was early!!) The further north we crept, the more concerned we became so we stared checking with the driver (a 17 year old who evidently couldn’t read) that this was the right way to Pattaya airport. He kept saying “yes, yes” so we felt a bit rude and just shut up. Anyway, an hour later I noticed a sign to Suvarnabhum (Bangkok’s newly opened) Airport and literally shouted at this imbecile to “STOP and PULL OVER NOW”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then calmly (?!?) tried to explain, using visual aids – i.e. guide book map, airport booking voucher, and very, very slow, well pronounced English that we were at the WRONG airport. The poor guy just didn’t understand –he didn’t speak much English. 20 minutes later we were still sitting on the hard shoulder, and our driver was yet to experience any sense of urgency. I knew we were going to miss our flight so I rang the airline who, eventually, told me that we could turn up late and get booked onto the next flight (5pm). This would really mess up our plans (we wouldn’t be able to get to Ko Tao that day) but was better than paying for another flight from Bangkok – slight ray of hope –all we had to do was get the driver to “turn around!!” After numerous phone conversations with various taxi associates we managed to get the driver to understand that he must drive us back to Pattaya. With this ‘new’ revelation our driver was concerned as to who would pay for his fuel. Once again I had to speak to a colleague, who tried to persuade us to pay a bigger fare to cover the cost of the ‘gasoline’. My response: “NO WAY!! This guy has taken us to the wrong airport and made us miss our flight! I don’t see why we should pay at all – would you?” She got a bit mad, made me pass the phone back to the driver, who also got a bit mad, and then we carried on our journey in complete silence. We had obviously pissed him off as it appeared that his new mission was to kill us before we got to the airport – his driving was crazy. He didn’t know where he was going and would have driven us past Pattaya airport if it wasn’t for Wayne shouting out the directions from the road signs (illiteracy was confirmed). I think we actually did a handbrake turn into the airport: tyres screeched and we were flung out of our seats, but to his credit (?!?) he did get us there very quickly: it had taken over 1.5 hours to get out of Pattaya, but took only 30 mins to return! We pulled up outside departures at 10.50 (our flight was at 10.50!) so while Wayne negotiated a reasonable price for this farce of a ride, I sprinted into the airport, through security, in hope of stopping the plane. No such luck, it had already departed: 10 mins ahead of schedule. AAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We’d been in the car for over 3 hours and in reality it should have taken us 20mins (MAX!)
AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

We booked ourselves onto the next flight (without any penalty charges!) and then faced a 6 hour wait in an airport with one canteen and no shops – fun, fun, fun. We hadn’t eaten all day so we spent a few hours in the restaurant and then wondered outside. Time went surprisingly quickly: we watched a film in the canteen, read a newspaper and part of a book, but it was such a wasted day! And, what gets me most is that if you had booked at taxi to the airport in Luton or the surrounding towns, you wouldn’t get taken to Heathrow!!! I just couldn’t believe that we’d booked to go to the airport in Pattaya, but had been taken to an airport miles away! It does explain the estimated 1.5 hour journey though – the hotel employee must have thought we meant Bangkok???

Ko Samui Airport made up for it though – it was a gorgeous open air, beach hut style affair, with super-efficient staff who helped us find accommodation for that night and transport to Ko Tao for the following morning. Didn’t see much more of the island, as it was pitch black by the time we got to our room.

I'll sign off now as I've written far too much as usual. I'll try and carry on tomorrow...still got over a weeks worth of info to write up...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (mostly beach stuff.) Hope you're all ok. E (and silent typer W) xxxx

Island Hopping: Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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24/10/06
Smooth flight from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai, so no tails to tell. As soon as we hit the ground we felt as if we had been transported to another world (or at least continent)…a shuttle bus whisked us off to a ‘normal’ sized airport (as opposed to landing right in front of Laos’ Dr’s surgery equivalent). Thailand is so much more developed than Laos and to begin with we felt a bit lost in a bustling city (although in reality Chiang Mai is a small, reasonably quaint development!) To recover from the modern stresses of life that we had been bombarded with, we decided to treat ourselves to a Thai Massage – BIG MISTAKE!! This pain endurance test should be renamed ‘Full Body Pounding’ (Natalie, if law doesn’t work out I have found you the perfect vocation – you have the right potential for this profession if my memory serves me correctly!) We thought massages were meant to be relaxing! Anything but! I was biting my lip for the entire hour, whilst Wayne was crying out in pain (much to the amusement of both our masseurs) as a sadistic Thai woman walked over his back. They must have pulled every bone out of place. Never again!

25/10/06
Thai Cooking Class. This was a pretty fun day – we were in a group of 4 and visited the market to buy fresh produce before cooking (and eating) five dishes each (favorites included Green Thai Curry and Chicken Coconut soup). So, we fully intend to treat all of you to a Thai feast on our return. After explaining the tortures we had endured the previous day to the other couple on our cooking course, they advised us to try a foot massage, which is apparently so relaxing you can fall asleep. Upon exiting the second massage parlor (which we had sworn never to go in again) Wayne proclaimed ‘me and massages don’t work– I’m NOT doing that again, you can go on your own next time’. Verdict: not quite as bad as a full body pounding, but definitely NOT relaxing. Wincing is a better description.

26/10/06
Another trek! We had planned to do a 2 night/3 day trek in the north, but ever since the flight to Thailand I hadn’t been feeling 100% (a cold that completely knocks you back - yes in Thailand – in 35C heat?!? – maybe my heart is with all of you at home and it contracted the bacteria….ahhhh) Anyway, yes we went on yet another trek – this time we visited a few more ethnic villages and rode an elephant. I was really looking forward to this part, but once we got there I felt a bit harsh – it all felt very immoral and I couldn’t enjoy the experience, despite numerous attempts of telling myself that it was ‘just like riding a horse’. Our elephant was more like a pig – he kept lifting his trunk up to us, begging for sugar cane (like a dog!) We decided to ration him, so he started to wonder off and turned to the jungle in search of a light snack (pulling down half a tree!!) the trek also involved bamboo ‘rafting’ – all a bit lame – more like floating down the river on a lilo (no rapids )
27/10/06
Flew into Bangkok’s ‘brand spanking new,’ 26-days-old airport, which is MASSIVE – felt like we had arrived back at terminal 4 (apart from the stifling heat!) Decided to give the infamous Khao San Road a try and the rumours are true – it’s a tourist haven: lively, bustling and ridiculously commercialized, but very cool (Wayne attempted to get dreds – not so cool - Claire it was Wayne NOT me – can you imagine!! Fortunately they told him his hair was too short – phew!) We shopped in the dirt cheap market and lazed around the busy pool (our first one since Nha Trang, Vietnam!)

28/10/06
Sight-seeing day: Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, via the express boat (river and canal network). Lived up to its name: very grand place, but a complete rip off as we couldn’t go inside. It was just too hot that day, so we gave up on our ‘cultural’ attempt and went back to chill out in our air-con room (luxury!)

Only thing to add about Bangkok is that their booming sex industry is extremely evident and fed primarily by old western men. More worryingly, ladyboys seem to outnumber ‘ladies’ in the prostitution/waitressing (interchangeable as most waitresses in any restaurant or bar, are in fact prostitutes) profession – do these men know who they are perving on – do they even care?!?!. The whole thing is very in your face – Wayne has been offered numerous unrepeatable ‘shenanigans’ in the street whilst I have been standing next to him!! It’s obscene! We decided enough’s enough and booked a ticket ‘outta here’ for the next morning…

29/10/06
…Kanchanaburi (130km west of Bangkok) is in a really scenic location (see pics – when I can load them on – this computer won’t let me) but is famous primarily because of the ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ and Death Railway. Checked into a really pretty guesthouse (small bamboo bungalows facing gorgeous gardens) but it’s a ‘little’ basic (cold water, non-flushing toilet?!? Yuck.)

30/10/06
Visited the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, which is an excellent contemporary museum/research centre. It was really informative and gave a non-bias account/explanation of Death Railway: why it was built (alternative supply route), why there were so many deaths (16,000 Prisoners of War) etc etc… Japanese engineers estimated that it would take about 5 years to complete the railway, but the army forced the POWs (many of which were British) to complete the 415km railway in just 16 months!! (18 hour shifts were not uncommon, 7 days a week). The Bridge was only in use for 21 months before the allies bombed it in 1945. After the museum we walked around the immaculately cared for Allied War Cemetery (half of which is filled with British graves, most in their 20s/30s – so sad).

In the afternoon we caught a truck to the long-awaited ‘Tiger Temple.’ This forest monastery is a growing tiger orphanage, and cares for tigers that haven’t developed enough instinct to survive in the wild as hunters (although plans are now in place to train their offspring for an eventual return to the jungle). We arrived at the temple and were greeted by a sign reading ‘red, orange and yellow make tigers angry’ … f***ing fantastic – they could have warned me BEFORE - at the guesthouse (where we had arranged transportation.) My cleverly constructed outfit chosen this morning, as you will see from the pictures, entailed a bright orange strappy top, yellow bra straps (visible) and yellow/orange shorts. I also anticipated that within 5 seconds of being in contact with these BIG CATS I would earn my final suicide accessory: a pair of bright red, bloodshot eyes. Antihistamines were NOT going to ward off this allergy! Instead, my only means of self defense was a light blue smock (again, see photos) kindly donated by the monastery. Cool and calming blue seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately it was, in the end, my loud chesty cough, as opposed to my anger-inducing colour combo, that provoked the tigers and sparked off a ferocious roar and near attack (luckily they were chained down!!) Whoops. So, a word of warning to anyone intending on visiting this temple: in addition to avoiding ‘warm’ colours, don’t cough!

Before visiting the temple we had got the impression that tigers roam around freely – rightly or wrongly (I can’t decide – caution veers me towards rightly/ethics veer me towards wrongly!) this is not the case. The tigers are in fact on leads/chains. We also got the impression that you could just walk around and approach the tigers, as long as you are with a monk. Instead, due to increased popularity, the once in a lifetime experience has turned into a conveyor belt of tourists. You didn’t get to spend much time stroking the tigers. It was more a case of: ‘stoke, pose, snap and go’. However, it was a great experience – how many times do you get to go and sit next to a tiger and stoke it like a domestic cat?!?

The temple was an amazing place. Aside from the tigers, the temple attracts an array of wild animals from the surrounding jungle. Wild buffalos, cows, hogs, horses, goats and deer all roam around freely…we didn’t appreciate how many animals were present in the grounds until the monks started emptying sacks full of maize along the dirt paths. Hundreds of animals emerged from every direction, attracted by the free food – it was an amazing sight – almost biblical (thinking Noah’s Ark here) as the animals did actually walk in lines of 2/3 according to species (I believe the additional line is a contemporary addition to the biblical story –the only explanation – especially as we are in Thailand – is a line of ladyboys for each species!) As you can no doubt imagine, nature boy was in his element! I think he actually took thousands of snaps – no exaggeration! Fortunately they are mostly on his new toy and you won’t have to endure all of them on snapfish.

A slightly amusing incident to report from the temple (but in confiding this piece of entertainment I realise that I may be condemned by Buddhist Gods): the monks lead the tigers back to their evening retreats (aka cages!) at about 5.30 every day. On this particular evening a tiger decided he wasn’t having any of it and wanted a rest (see photos). As punishment for this act of defiance the tiger was walloped with a massive branch by a temple volunteer. Quite rightly reacting to this blatant physical attack, the tiger leapt up and started sprinting off in the direction of the jungle. The old monk, who had been holding the tigers’ lead, was pulled off his feet and flew mid-air for what felt like 10 seconds before falling ungracefully back down to Earth. The tiger at this point I must highlight WAS ‘free’ (a long hatched escape plan looked like it was finally paying off!) Unfortunately some volunteers chased after him and managed to catch hold of his lead (phew!!) Anyway, with the palaver of a flying monk and a Noah’s Ark rerun we lost track of time and got back to the truck (and 6 unimpressed faces) a little late. Didn’t make any friends on that excursion! Hahaha

31/10/06
Visited:
1. Erawan National Park, famous for its 7-tired waterfall. I think we have become desensitized to waterfalls – seen to many – but it was very pretty. The waters were brilliantly clear and the fish were humungous (about 50cm long!) The smaller fish kept nipping you – bit uncomfortable but bearable: felt like minor electric shocks.
2. Hellfire Pass and the accompanying Australian-Thai memorial project which honors the allied POWs and Asian labourers who died whilst constructing the Thai-Burma Railway. Hellfire Pass is the name given to the largest of the 1000m mountain cuttings (which were carried out using only minimal equipment: hammers, picks, and shovels etc.) By the end of the cutting 70% of the POWs had died, due to exhaustion, malnutrition and various tropical diseases! The conditions were horrific. Various pictures on display show the POWs looking like walking skeletons
3. Train ride on Death Railway – unremarkable...zzzzz
4. Bridge over the River Kwai – not particularly beautiful (especially due to reconstruction) but interesting because of its complex history.

1/11/06
Return to the Western World and this time we embraced it to the max!!! Gave Khao San area a miss and headed for the shopping district. Spent most of the day in the MBK centre (felt like a vertical Milton Keynes – 8 levels!) Highlight was indulging in Western Cuisine – visited the mall’s food court which is super cool. You are issued with a swipe card, where you purchase whatever food you want from an array of kitchens, and then pay for it all at the end: pasta and chocolate waffles – yum! Very expensive (compared to our usual 3GBP meals for 2) but worth every penny. Completed the ‘home away from home’ day with a trip to the cinema….but this was no normal cinema – we opted for the VIP ticket where, for the price of a normal ticket at home, we were given a complimentary drink and snack, a luxurious leather reclining couch with blanket and pillow and table service!! (see pic) VIEWING HEAVEN! (Watched The Guardian – pretty good film).

2/11/06
Shopping mall repeat. So tired and neck/shoulders ache from typing so much, so that’s all im offering for today’s agenda. Off to bed…hope you enjoyed. Haven't checked ANY of this so excuse all spellings/typos xxx

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21/10/06
Sight seeing day: Looked at an array of temples (again!) and went to the Royal Palace, which is now a Museum because the Royal Family were extradited from Laos in 1975. Great to look around, but not nearly as grand inside as you would expect. As in most buildings in Laos, you have to take your shoes off and walk around barefoot (even in the guesthouse!)

The most memorable part of the day was back at the guesthouse: Wayne blocked the toilet (due to a dodgy gut!) Every time he flushed the chain the water (etc…) rose further up the bowl…after numerous attempts to deal with the ‘problem’ (yes, hands were used!) he (to my horror) went and told the guesthouse owner! The owner then went across the road and got his wife (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to come and sort it out with a giant plunger!! I was so embarrassed - don’t know why – it wasn’t me!!!

The law states that everything here must shut by 11.30, and the vast majority of places here in Luang Prabang stick to this rule. Evidently there is not much nightlife, but we have met up with friends several nights in a row for dinner and drinks.

22/10/06

Shared a tuk-tuk with Roger, Iza and Michael (a Dutch guy we met in Vang Viang) to Kwang Xi waterfalls – journey and falls were stunning, yet again – this country (bar Vientiane) has ceased to disappoint. We spent the day swimming in the pools and climbing up part of the waterfall. Wayne (being Wayne) jumped off one of the waterfalls – everyone gasped in horror, questioning whether there were rocks under the surface?? Fortunately for him, there weren’t, and he started off a bit of a craze...
He also attempted to climb behind the waterfall (not the major one featuring in all the pics) but a reasonably sized one – but this time wasn’t so lucky and nearly slipped! Wayne (aka nature boy) also appreciated the bear rescue centre and tiger sanctuary (all animals were rescued from poachers) that was set in the surrounding jungle.

As with most evenings here, we browsed (and bartered) around the night market and managed to purchase a large proportion of Christmas presents (unfortunately today – 23/10/06 - we paid the price: $70 sea mail!!! so you better like the presents!)

23/10/06
5am start – deliberately got up early to watch the monks receive offerings from the locals and tourists willing to purchase bamboo bowls full of rice. Hundreds of saffron coloured robes paraded past us, but none of the monks seemed to acknowledge the gifts?!? Glad we got up – it was a unique scene and a great experience. After breakfast in a local café we wondered around Wat Xieng Thong, a traditional Lao temple, covered in mosaics and built in the mid 16th century. Its sweeping roof is said to resemble a birds wings (?!)

The rest of the day we have been doing ‘sweet fa’ – well Wayne has, I’ve been writing up this blog! Off to Chiang Mai in the morning, so our next entry will be from Northern Thailand. Hope you’re all well…

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17/10/06
Having spent a few rather dull days in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), we booked ourselves onto the earliest bus out of there (nothing exciting to report for once – despite the fact that we were traveling on the infamous route 13 – renowned for staging regular bandit attacks on tourist buses!) and arrived 160 km away in Vang Viang. This tiny little town is very touristy in comparison to the rest of Laos, but this is because (a) it is located in one of the most stunning places on Earth: craggy karst limstone mountains covered in jungle conceal gigantic caves, crystal clear pools and gushing waterfalls.... (b) it offers fantastic out-door activities: caving, kayaking, tubing (will explain later) etc....and (c) despite the fact that the use of, and dealing in drugs is dealt with extremely seriously in Laos (one guy told us that his friends came here a few years ago, got caught smoking weed and were held at gun point by the cops until they coughed up $500 each!) Vang Viang openly advertises weed, mushrooms and opium on their food menus (see photograph!) Happy pizzas, happy shakes and happy coffee are all popular local cuisine?!? Evidently the night life in Vang Viang is excellent – despite the fact that there are only really two main places to go. Bizarrely pirated ‘Friends’ videos have taken over the town - most restaurants play ‘Friends’ on multiple TV screens and offer comfortable seating areas where you can lie down and watch.

18/10/06
Took advantage of the outdoor activities on offer and along with 6 other people were led through the surrounding countryside to fabulous caves and local villages. One particular cave was engulfed in water, so we actually had to swim into the pitch black hole, with ‘waterproof torches’ (powered by what looked (and felt) like a moped battery hung around our necks. No—one got electrocuted despite the fact that copper was exposed? After lunch we jumped onto the inner-tube of a tractor tyre and floated down the Nam Xong River, stopping every now and again at riverside bars (you had to pull yourself in by grabbing hold of a bamboo pole!) These bars were a bit ‘18- to 30s’ but were wicked – they had flying-fox swings, which were a bit like zip-lines, but you had to grab hold of a bar and jump off a ‘lampost and a half’ high platform (not the most stable of constructions), and swing over the river until you built up the courage to let go. Fortunately (?!?) for me, I didn’t have to build up the courage on my second go. I simply leapt off this enormous platform and fell straight in (after shouting to the girl behind – moments before - that ‘there is no way I’m going to be able to hold onto this thing’!!!) After what seemed like an eternity I emerged to the surface and was greeted by wails of concern: ‘are you ok???” I could only just manage to swim (after severely winding myself) and could not muster up enough breath to shout ‘just about’! Needless to say I did NOT attempt it again! We all got a bit to engrossed in the swing, and ended up leaving the last bar too late. This meant that we were floating down the river on what are, in reality, gigantic rubber rings, in the pitch black with NO lights. Fortunately our tour guides were in kayaks and tried to speed up our progression by pushing us along. The people in our group were all lovely and definitely ‘made’ the day. We went out for dinner and drinks that night with Roger and Izabel (sorry if I’ve spelt that wrong!) whom we’ve been meeting up with frequently ever since! Roger repels silence and always has a story or joke to tell, so we are never short on conversation!!!!

19/10/06
In the hope of exploring the region independently we hired a motorbike. Unfortunately, a quarter of a mile down the road from the hire shop it broke down because the owner didn’t feel the need to supply petrol! ‘Slightly’ p***ed off, we wheeled the bike back to the shop and were given another bike – this time with fuel. The owner of the shop wasn’t even apologetic....these people are far too chilled out (probably due to the local cuisine!!)

We somehow navigated our way onto an ‘off road’ track, full of boulders and massive stones – not the best place to drive a bike....evidently I spent half the journey hopping on and off the back so that Wayne could maneuver the bike! Should have just walked and saved our dwindling supply of cash! Anyway, the scenery was, yet again, stunning and we managed to find the bluest natural lagoon you can imagine. It was gorgeous! The water was so clear that you could see thousands of fish swimming around you. After a little dip we decided to explore the nearby cave (Poukham Cave)...an hour and a half later we emerged from the mountainside in disbelief. It was the most enormous cave we have ever seen: pitch black with treacherous 50ft drops, beautiful stalagmite and stalactite formations and natural vase-like structures. Following the advice of some people we met on the climb up to the cave, we hired the ‘resident’ tour guide, who I can only describe as a living day ‘caveman’! He navigated this cave in barefoot, on surfaces that were both jagged in places and unbelievably slippery in others. If anyone is ever in Laos they HAVE to visit this cave, it is amazing! In fact, if anyone is ever intending on visiting SE Asia, visit Laos – it’s definitely the most beautiful country we have visited so far.

20/10/06
Although we could have stayed a lot longer in Vang Viang, we had to stick to an itinerary in Laos (due to a pre—booked flight to Thailand), and therefore boarded a bus to Luang Prabang early Friday morning. This bus journey was anything but dull...Lao was definitely rising into the premier league of ‘countries not to be missed‘. The scenery, which had got progressively better the further we drifted from Vientiane enroute to Vang Viang, was simply stunning (I’m running out of adjectives now!) The route took us up windy mountain roads surrounded by lush, green jungle and the occasional rural village (which weren’t ALL selling Pringles and Coca Cola – a sure sign that we really HAD gone rural.) I read in the rough guide that the Americans dropped the equivalent of a plane load of bombs into Laos, every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for a total of nine years!! With this in mind nature has done incredibly well to restore its beauty, because we could see very little evidence of this atrocity.

The only quibble I had with this journey: toilets. Lao people are renowned for being laid back and always appear to be very chilled out (as I said before – I attribute this to the ‘Happy Menus’ – although I am aware that most locals don’t touch the stuff!) They simply can’t be bothered to carry out trivial tasks and this attitude has created a big problem for western women! Here the concept of a toilet, which has been simplified to a ‘hole in the ground’ in Vietnam and much of Asia, has been taken one step further by the people of Laos. If you need to go to the toilet enroute to Luang Prabang you get to pick your own place to pee! Why bother with a fancy ceramic surround?!? (To be fair to Laos, we did witness 3 Cambodian girls pulling down their pants and sh*tting in the grounds of the Angkor Wat – a toilet break in-between sales jobs!!)

Luang Prabang is another UNESCO World Heritage site and, as expected, is a gorgeous colonial town, littered with temples, bakeries and cafes. My favourite feature is the ‘night market' - which offers a fabulous array of handicrafts: carvings, paintings, silk fabrics and bags – SHOPPING HEAVEN!

We are staying in a 5$/night guesthouse, facing the River Mekong. We have spent hours just wondering the streets, sitting in cafes and soaking in the atmosphere – I love this place! So much so that I am fed up of sitting at this computer, having spent over an hour on typing up this account, and am off now to explore some more.... I will finish this write up in a few hours time...

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Woke up at 4am (?!?) and took a tuk-tuk (see bleary eyed pics - will post them a.s.a.p) to the temples of Angkor in hope of catching the sunrise (an apparent must-see) at Angkor Wat. This must-see was a cloudy murk and a complete waste of time! It was too dark to appreciate the temple, so we were advised by our 'tour guide' (who in actual fact was just the tuk-tuk driver from the dirt cheap hotel and had absolutely no real clue about the temples) to go and get breakfast at his ‘commission earning’ stall and start exploring later. The picture of the guy sleeping in a tuk-tuk in amongst the temple pictures is the enthusiastic ‘fountain of knowledge’ himself… he had to be woken by a fellow ‘tour guide’ when we returned from the ‘Angkor Wat’ - we’d obviously got him up far too early.

Despite the disappointing start, and the fact that we had to decipher info on the temples ourselves, our day at the temples was a fantastic experience and we were glad that we’d got up early, as the temperature was bearable for most of the morning. We spent over 10 hours in the complex as we wanted to see as much as possible in 1 day. The entrance fee was 20 GBP each, which completely swallowed up our day’s budget. We therefore hoped that we could get away with 1 days sightseeing, rather than the intended 2. I was really, really surprised at how much I enjoyed it, it was so much better than I had anticipated. The size of these structures is awesome, and the amount of detail that goes into each stone is incredible. The fact that they are still standing with such grandeur, after almost 1000 years (sometimes more), withstanding numerous wars and natural catastrophes, is really remarkable. Although we managed to see the main Hindu and Buddhist monuments (Angkor Thom: Bayon, Phimeanakas, Terrace of Elephants, Terrace of Leper Kings; Thommanom; Ta Keo; Ta Prohm; Banteay Kdei; Pre Rup (oldest – 961) and Srah Strang; Pasat Kravan and finally, Angkor Wat) we only saw a tiny proportion of the 100 + monuments in the complex. Our favorite was of course Angkor Wat, which is just humungous and very regal. The steps to the top were almost vertical, and since the steps are so narrow (half the size of my size 6 foot) it was a bit hair-raising! Mum – you would have hated it!! Not many people ventured up to the top precisely because of this obstruction.

All the temples are unique, which meant that you didn’t get bored (as I thought we would) of visiting temple after temple….The Bayon (see pics of the structures with four faces carved on each of the 54 towers) was an impressive site and Ta Prohm looked like it was being reclaimed by nature: massive tree roots sprawled haphazardly across the temples walls. It felt like you were in an Indiana Jones movie!

Wayne’s words of wisdom regarding the temples were offered whilst exploring the Angkor Wat: ‘this is a wicked place to play hide and seek’ – typical Wayne!!! Hahaha - Rich I think, at that point, he wished you were there instead of me!

That evening, to top off a really cool day, we went to a REALLY cool restaurant: The Deadfish Tower (unfortunately the camera battery had died by that time so we don’t have any pics ) It was a bright, funky, multi-level open planned space, with a crocodile pit (where you could feed the 13 crocs with fish – which of course ‘nature boy’ chose to do) and the option of sitting on cushions on the floor – which ‘nature boy’ – with his long legs, chose not to do! There was live dancing and music and a really great atmosphere – recommend it to anyone who happens to be in Siem Reap!

14/10/06

Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored! Wished we’d splashed out and gone back to the temples as there is NOTHING to do in Siem Reap – it really is just a service centre with accommodation and restaurants for the tourists who intelligently chose to spend their days looking at the temples.

We did however find a live King Cobra Show to go to (guess whose idea that was…) We both held a whip snake (although I must add that Wayne only did it after I’d done it – to make sure they didn’t think he was a ‘wuss’!) We looked round the ‘mini’ farm and saw a massive 6m long (about 5” wide) python and 2 cobras. The show was pretty cool – as we were the only 2 in the audience – yes I told you this was Waynes’ idea (where he found out about it I have no idea!) It was really good though, as they made US participate. They wrapped a python round our legs: it was incredibly strong and squeezed a bit too tight – I wanted them to get it off! We also held it round our neck?!?!? Moments of madness…. The scariest part was when they ‘made us’ (well since we were the only ones there we had to otherwise the show would be ruined!) crouch in front of 3 cobras (only about 1 metre away)….we survived though. The bloke (Mr D) was a nutter – he was kissing the cobras and dodging there attempted attacks. Our tuk-tuk driver (the guy who drove us round the temples) got a free viewing of the show so he was chuffed with us.

15/10/06

Other travelers had told us that the main place to visit in Cambodia is the temples, so we hadn’t planned to bother wasting time traveling around the country, when there was very little else to see. Instead we flew to Vientiane. The flight was hilarious – it was like a bus! We stopped off at an airport in the south, right outside the entrance door…let a few people off, let a few more on, and continued on our trip. It was very odd! We weren’t sure what was going on at first, because they didn’t explain anything! The actual plane was an old-ish propeller plane, and so the flight was a bit bumpy and loud (Claire – I thought of you!!)

Vientiane is in a word: ‘dull’. If I could re-write the guidebooks on this city I would simply write: ‘don’t bother’. There is absolutely NOTHING to do here, hence the lack of photos. We visited the museum today (which summed up the state of the city – dull) and paid (stupidly) to walk up the Patourxai (Arc de Triomphe – attempted French look-a-like). The most interesting fact about this monument is that the country used US aid money (intended for the completion of the airport) to complete this over-promoted structure. It is therefore more famously known as ‘the vertical runway’!

We have spent most of our time (due to slight illness – which I think our bodies timed immaculately well considering the place we are in) in our hotel room. Luckily we decided to splash out a bit and booked a hotel with a nice clean room and satellite tv. We have therefore spent most of our time here reading books and watching films – just like being at home!

We are off to Vang Viang tomorrow morning and can’t wait to get out of here…should be cool as there is plenty of stuff to do in this small town: caving, trekking, tubing, white water rafting and kayaking…roll on tomorrow!

Hope all are well, keep e-mailing us….. lots of love E and W xxx

Siem Reap and Angkor, Cambodia remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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By the time we reached our hotel they had assumed we were a ‘no show’ and had given our room to someone else! Fortunately they had a ‘sister’ hotel across the road which had a room available. This worked in our favour as the hotel was fab – breakfast and dinner was included in the price of our room (which was on par with any other accommodation we had stayed in!) The hotel was also immaculately clean (another big PLUS) as guests had to remove their shoes before going upstairs.

11/10/06: Cu Chi Tunnels
Signed up to a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. During the War this area supported the Vietcong (VC), who along with the local villagers quite literally dug themselves out of harms way - creating a massive tunnel network of over 250km and spread over 3 different levels! Tunnels were at places as small as 80cm high and 80com wide - although they have now been widened to accommodate (FATTER - as our guide continually reminded us) western tourists.

Our tour guide was a bit of an odd character - born locally in Saigon, moved to the US with his father in the 40s and therefore fought (to his shame - well so he now says) for the US Navy. He has been shunned by his country, and although a trained Dr can't work here - the only job he can get - ironically - is as a tour guide around the Cu Chi Tunnels - the location he fought at during the war?!? Wasn't entirely sure whether to believe him. He also, irritatingly (is that a word?!?) kept asking us if we could understand him as he doesn't talk English: only American (very funny joke..)

The day was really interesting: we saw numerous booby traps used by the Vietnamese and we were some of the only people (brace enough) to crawl through a small section of the tunnels - very HOT, SWEATY, CLAUSTROPHOBIC and PITCH BLACK - we couldn’t see anything and kept bumping into the person in fronts bum! haha. Apologies in advance for the revealing pictures you will see of me in the tunnels - I didn't realise how far you can see down my top whilst crawling! Wayne could have told me!

Wayne also paid to shoot 10 rounds on an AK47 - the noise was CRAZY! It was incredibly loud - I jumped back everytine he fired. He loved it.

12/10/06

Explored Saigon: Reunification House, Cathedral, Saigon Zoo (very cramped, inhumane cages - best feature (hence photos) = crocodile pits) and War Remnants Museum (which was excellent.)

Eve: flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia (much better than the usual bus - on;y 45 mins!) Hotel was basic, but can't really complain for 2 GBP a night. Major concern was the bathroom, which in a word was 'filthy.' Oh and the wholes in the wall - v anxious re: insects, hence we battled with the mosquito net all through the night - it kept falling off the hook (lamp shade) during the night and the frame landed on our heads on numerous occasions - very annoying! Also, realised that most men in cambodia are arrogant, chauvinistic twats who refuse to deal with women – this was a big mistake on their part as they were left to deal with Wayne – who didn’t really know what they were on about half the time!! (hahah – he told me to write that!!) Well that is a generalisation, but we did meet a few of those characters.

Anyway, I have waffled on a lot so I will continue this blog in a few hours, after we have refuled....at moment in an internet cafe in Vientiane, Laos...be back later....

Southern Vietnam remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hoi An is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site; primarily because the towns’ diverse architecture (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese + European) managed to escape war damage. It is full of traditional old wooden shop fronts; making it an enjoyable place to spend copious amounts of money...unfortunately we did! We both invested in a tailor made suit (completed in less than 24 hours!), tailor made shoes, various souvenirs and refreshments in-between fittings (see dragon fruit picture – has anyone else ever seen this before? So cool – its got a bright pink rim when you cut it open and the fruit is white with tiny black seeds – a mix between watermelon and kiwi).

Aside from shopping we also managed to hire a scooter and visit the beach (which has been damaged by the typhoon and was therefore not as picturesque as it would have been the previous week). However, this worked to our advantage as the beach was deserted - the only people around were local women trying to sell anything and everything: from pineapples to pringles, backrubs to bracelets!! I opted for a french manicure (beth you should be proud!) which only cost 1GBP.

We also decided to do an excursion to My Son - a World Heritage Site of listed ruins created by the Cham people in about 400AD, and also home to a number of unexploded mines. This trip was, in a word, 'crap'. The tour guide didn't tell us anything about the ruins, so to us they just appeared to be a pile of bricks put together without cement. Through our cynicism we did however meet a like-minded couple, who we have since been out with a couple of times (see pics: dan = guy with curly hair/ laura = girl with blonde hair). They are doing a similar trip so they will possibly feature in a few of these blogs down the line...

The last thing to mention about Hoi An is the crazy autumn full moon festival that was going on from the eve we arrived until the eve we left (yet again immaculate timing!) The festival seemed to be a Vietnamese version of Halloween: kids dressed up as dragons and danced around to the beat of a drum for hours on end, trying to entice money from tourists and elders...day in day out. The first night we thought it was quite interesting, by the fourth I had a constant headache. It did however highlight another cultural difference: where as in the UK we would never dream of allowing begging kids into restaurants to annoy our customers while they eat, in Vietnam it is completely fine - they can annoy customers so much that they actually leave before ordering! haha

After 4 days in Hoi An we took a night bus to Nha Trang (suprisingly uneventful: bareable this time, although the coach did break down at 3am - flat tyre. I was amazed that the driver managed to find somewhere open at that time in the morning to sort it out - but he did!) Nha Trang has a great night life - we ended up staying out last night until 4am (a GREAT achievement for me these days - as I'm usually falling asleep by 10.30pm!) Its amazing how many people you meet from previous destinations along the way - a total of 8 of us ended up in the same bar in Nha Trang last night: small world.

The beach in Nha Trang is beautiful, but we havent found that much to do during the day. The blue and red boats in the pictures are unique to this town: eyes have been painted on the sides to 'spot fish'. We plan to look around a bit more tomorrow and will then move on to Saigon (HCM City) on Tuesday...

I will try and put the pics on now, if not tomorrow, so keep checking out the site. Sorry for not including any in these blogs - it just takes far to long to upload each photo individually.

Hope everyone is well and I hope the travel tales are a bit more exciting next time...although this blog is pretty dull we have in fact enjoyed Hoi An and Nha Trang...v odd!

Take Care, E and W xxx

Hoi An and Nha Trang (Central Vietnam) remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Once we arrived in Hue the driver, as expected, tried to drive off with waynes bag still on the bus! Their mentalities here are so odd - what do they think we are going to do?!? just let them???? Anyway, we were dropped off at the Ninh Binh hotel: our home for the proceeding 48 hours: v grim experience...

Everything in Hue had been shut down in preparation for the typhoon so there was very little to do. We found a bar that eve, had some food/drinks and then came back to the hotel. That eve it started raining heavily, but when we woke up the next day (after very little sleep - paranoia re: the stability of the hotel fed by rattely windows) all of the roads, pavements and shops/houses on street level had been flooded with filthy water. The wind had been howling all night: trees had been torn up, pilans were down and pretty much all the cheaper constructed buildings had been destroyed. Very sad. Rumour: it was the worst storm since 1985 - what timing we have! Wayne - big heart - was the only person who went out to help the local men clear the trees and electricity lines from the roads whilst the storm was still blowing. He nearly got decapitated by a flying mashettie (spelling?!?) As you can see from the photos he was drenched!! All of the hotel staff were calling him a hero - hahah - i wouldn't go that far..he was starting to develop a bit of a big head!

With no electricity, we were held hostage by the storm and spent the next 1.5 days, sitting in candle light talking to some fellow brits. By the end of the first night we had run out of beer and bread (I blame the EXTREMELY annoying american guy, who had no concept of decibels; spouting crap the entire evening and drinking so much that he was sick into the flood - and then nearly fell into his own vomit - yuck!)The only meal we had that day was noodle soup (twice!) Luckily it was quite nice - even wayne enjoyed it.

We didn't really get to see much of Hue - by luck we checked with the bus operator Mon am to see when we could get out of Hue and they said that afternoon, so we looked at the Imperial City (see canons and storm damage photos etc) for about an hour and then went back to pack our stuff. However, our first encounter with a snake (albeit dead) was in Hue - it was lying on the pavement as we crossed over a bridge - see pic.

Another bus journey - this time to Hoi An, and super organised. The guy was obsessed with checking our tickets - we must have got our receipt/non-existent ticket (as it still hasnt been issued to us) out of our bag at least 5 times! Journey was much more comfortable though, the only prob was - as always - at the end of our journey when we were told that the bus had broken down - such a lie - so that we HAD to stay at the hotel it had conveniently pulled up at rather than our chosen hostel. Since we tried to get a taxi from the hotel they offered us a room for $4 a night! We couldnt refuse. It was a bit shabby though, and so the following morning we made our way to the hostel I am sitting in now - free internet access and swimming pool - perfect! Only prob - rich - is no skype and no headphones.

Anyway, wondered around Hoi An today - pretty place but yet again lots of storm damage - but loads of shops. Wayne has ordered a tailor made suit for $45 (US) which he will send bk to the UK. 2moro we plan to hit the beach - hard life....

Missing you all - keep sending us updates of life in general

E and W xx

Our first Natural Hazard: Typhoon in Hue remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hotel was dreadful, arrived about 8am and there was no available room, despite the fact that we were due to start a trek at 9.15am. As you will all know, I refused to go anywhere until I'd had a shower so they eventually gave in and gave us a key. Opened the door and the room hadnt been cleaned - sheets were all falling off the bed, rubbish everywhere - disgusting!! After numerous attempts to usher the maids into our room we finally were able to meet the group downstairs at 9.30 (the food in the hotel was also vile - just thought i'd add that...)

The first trek was ok - very very hot and we only visited Cat Cat village; home of the Black Hmong people. Bit touristy: they were all trying to sell us pillow cases, bags, bracelets etc etc, but I loved going inside their homes - about 15 people share one shack - very basic with 2 seperate fires - one for maize, rice and veg and the other for animal. ALL the huts did however boast their very own colour tv!! The most entertaining part of the day was the korean couple in our group. The women turned up for the trek: dolled up with high heel shoes, white gloves and a white sun hat?!? She looked ridiculous! They walked 5 mins down the road, decided it wasn't for them and hired a motorbike...What did they think they were getting when they signed up for a trek??

That eve we met up with a guy who had been sleeping in the bed next to me in our dorm in Hanoi - small backpackers world! Went to a bar near to the hotel where u could make ur own playlist - pretty cool. I played darts and drank tiger beer - what a lad! (well wayne thought it was funny, hence the pic - see snapfish)

We both really enjoyed the next day - it was hard work: 20km trek in sweltering heat, but the views and villages were amazing. The korean couple (minus the high healed shoes) tried once again to explore the region, but 10 mins later hopped on the back of a bike! Our group dwindled down to 3: us 2 and a vietnamese tourist from Saigon; who proceeded to address wayne as 'nature boy' for the entire trek, because he believed wayne was a genuine animal lover?!? very odd man, although flicking through our photos I can see where he was coming from. Wayne has taken thousands of photos of animals (which I have - for your benefit - deleted the majority of).

Visited Sin Chai (Black Hmong), Lai Chai (Black Hmong) and Ta Van villages (Zay tribe). That morning 2 little Black Hmong girls (6 and 7 years old) followed us from Sapa to their home village (Lai Chai) - see photo of me posing with 2 ethnic girls in snapfish. They were so sweet, spoke very good English and made myself and wayne crowns, bracelets and wands out of ferns and grasses enroute. They walk to and from Sapa evey morning b4 school (2pm) to try and sell bracelets etc. We visited the health centre in their village - filthy! But the village was extremely proud of the centre: medicines and treatment were free (although only minor ailments could be dealt with as there were no doctors - just 3 local nurses).

Walked through numerous maize fields, a bamboo forest and across waterfalls - one of which wayne swam in (I was too much of a whimp - far too cold!) I thought wayne was going to drown because the current looked incredibly strong but we both survived to tell the tail.

A lot of the bridges we crossed were a little rickerty to say the least - again see pics - I kept saying mum would HATE this - I even began to feel edgy because wayne and the guide kept jumping along these unstable pieces of wood!

I felt like giving up on what was (although I didnt know at the time) the final hill - I was soooooooooooooooooooooo HOT and Sweaty and we had been walking for hours - it was starting to feel (but not quite) like one of uncle rich's holiday 'strolls'. i made it though, and we were picked up in an ex-army jeep - very scary ride over waterfalls and very narrow mountain roads...

One last story of interest on this sapa trip, which wayne has requested I include to highlight a (RARE) moment of stupidity on my part... we had been sitting, waiting at the train station in Lao Cai for hours for our night tarin back to Hanoi and I realised we hadn't sorted out our tickets. I therefore went over to the ticket office but was told by someone that I wasn't in the right place....he started pointing outside of the station and so I began to follow (without telling wayne). Basically I ended up wondering off without telling wayne where I was going in the middle of the night....I did begin to feel a little scared when we turned a corner and I couldnt see the station anymore...but as i headed back I saw wayne struggling down the road with ALL our luggage - bless!! He was a little mad! Whoops! But I am NOT impressed that he is using this minor mishap as an excuse for smoking YET AGAIN!

Since returing from Sapa we have survived a typhoon and its accompanying floods but I will write that in my next installment - which I will try type up 2moro as I have been on this computer for far too long! I will also try and upload photos 2moro so watch this space (and snapfish)... in Hoi An (central Vietnam) at the moment just in case anyone was wondering...

Lots of love E and W XX

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Got back from Halong Bay last night - beautiful place consisting off over 2000 islands. Most of the trip was on a boat - photo's (on snapfish) don't really capture the sights but give you an idea of what it was all about. The first day we stopped off on one of the islands and visited some massive limestone caves - full of stalagmites and stalagtites - geography came in useful! haha. We then continued on the boat and stopped off at another island - hiked to the top and the views were amazing. Sunset swim, followed by dinner on the boat. Food is lovely - mostly fish, noodles and rice - but wayne is eating it all! Its that or starve so I think he's adjusting to a new diet - or he may come back looking like a rake!

Cabin was pretty rank - ants all over the bathroom floor but it was ok - next day we did some kayaking in lagoons - was really fun but got a v v numb bum. Visited a floating village - where all residents live on these floating huts - we waited for our boat in one of their homes for about 30mins - even there they were trying to flog us pringles and beer. Wayne played pool with one of the residents - but no-one understood their rules! haha. The kids go to school in a floating hut - its so surreal.

Contined on to island near Cat Ba - private island and resort was fantastic - had our own room in beach huts (see pics) and there was a bar, pool table, mnore kayaks....i just chose to laze on the beach and read but wayne went off around the island with Olaf and saw some wicked caves.

People on the trip were all really cool - a real mix: German, French, Spanish, Kiwi's, Canadians and us! It was realy funny talking to the couples from new zealand (they were in there 50's/60's) and said they loved English humour - Office, Faulty Towers etc - Coronation Street is on everynight in NZ - hahah how odd! They gave us their contact details so we can give them a ring or drop by when we get to the north island in Feb.

The rules of the sea are the same as on land - honking, bumping into each other etc. - manic! We can't wait to try out their airline (thinking of flying from Saigon to Siem Reap - Cambodia - so that we don't have the hassle of the border again!) We must have crashed into other boats multiple times and the harbour boats bump into each other and push just to dock! Its crazy - we had to climb over another boat to get out. Women and girls row floating supermarkets - they appraoch the boat throughout the day trying to sell you various food stuffs and drinks - where ever you go you get harassed!

Went for dinner in Hanoi with olaf, Danielle and Jacob (a German guy we met on the trip) last night. Jacob then took us to a bar/road side stall in the old quarter for cheap beer - i.e. 7p for a glass!!! unbelievable. Think we spent 1.50 GBP on the meal and 48p on drinks after - not bad! haha only thing is coping with the illegal sellers - little boy came up to us trying to sell us photocopied books - in the end I couldn't say know so spent 3.50 GBP on a photocopied book - rip off but hopefully he'll get a cut of the money - he 'says' he uses it for schooling - who knows - but he was very bright - knew a lot about various locations across the globe.

anyway going to love you and leave you now - take care and we'll update you soon. Appologies for all the poor spelling, grammer and fragmented documentation - we're in a constant rush when it comes to computer time!

spk soon xxx

Halong Bay remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We are now in Hanoi, Vietnam after a very eventful 36 hour journey from Hong Kong - it started out well: we boarded a clean, spatious high tech train in Hong Kong and after a 2.5 hour journey we arrived in Guangzhou in southern China - we were the only white people and were stared at from the moment we arrived from then on!! We needed to get to another station in the city so stupidly followed this guys advice and got badly ripped off. He tried to get us a soft sleeper berth on the train but there werent any beds left so in the end we paid for 2 seats and he gave us a piece of paper with 'we are prepared to pay more for beds' written on it. He dropped us off at the station in a minibus and we waited in the city for a few hours as we didnt have a map and didnt want to get lost!

Boarded the train and had a fight with 2 girls as they'd knicked our EXPENSIVE/OVERPRICED seats! We had to give in as we couldnt communicate properly, but then found a station guard, showed them the piece of paper and they nodded, sending us in the direction of the guard office on board the train. Handing over another 10GBP we managed to book ourselves beds, which in fact appeared to be 3 seats with a sheet thrown over them. This was fine though - we were happy as we had much more space. The guards however were not as pleased, they shooed us away and made us follow yet another guard!! We walked through multiple carriages and ended up in what can only be described as hell! sections upon sections of triple bunks, full of chinese people. we slept (?!?) well attempted to sleep on 2 bottom bunks next to the toilet...after 14 hours we finanlly arrived in Nanning at 4.45am. It was pitch black and we had no idea where to go - but a really friendly canadian couple appraoched us and were in the same situation...so we wondered around together, found a new ticket office, purchased our train tickets to the border for just over 1GBP each and played cards with them in a station cafe for a few hours until we could board the train. We then sat with them on the train and have been with them ever since.

I am sooo glad we met them as crossing the Chinese/Vietnamese border was very confusing. The train we all hoped to get didnt exist, and after riding these wierd motorbike vehicle we took a taxi to the nearest town and was told by the taxi driver to get a minibus with most of the local people into Hanoi...very cramped journey!! wayne was shoved in the back with half of the luggae and goods the local people were planning to sell in a market! He had permanent cramp.

The minibus driver then refused to drop us off at our hotel so we have ended up sharing a dorm with the couple we met in china - Hanoi is beautiful - i prefer it to Hong Kong because its less metropolitan. Vietnam is an ex-French colony and therefore seems really European - loads of quaint bussling streets but larger French tree-lined avenues as well.

Anyway I have tro go now - check out our pics on www.snapfish.com as it takes far too long to upload them onto this site - if you want to see the pics let me know and i'll e-mail you the 'share pics' link.

Sorry the photo's dont make much sense without accompanying description but i'll try and sort this out at a later date.

Hope everyones ok, love E and W xxx

Journey from Hong Kong to Hanoi, Vietnam (Nightmare!) remains copyright of the author emjosmi, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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