Gemma, Liz and Sarah On Tour!

Home Girl

2010-06-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

It hardly feels like it was a year ago that I was packing up my room and passing boxes into the loft space of my parents' house in North Yorkshire. Now, a year on, I am back up in the loft retrieving all my worldly belongings that wouldn't quite fit into a backpack and blinking hard, in the familiarity of my home, to understand whether this past year has actually happened or not?

It was the strangest feeling to be waiting at my departure gate for my flight from Singapore to Heathrow. Without sounding spoilt, I had flown quite a lot in the month prior to that particular day in late May, and so it didn't feel unnatural to be getting on a plane again. The fact that this journey meant I would end up in London was hard to get my head around! Even as I was onboard and settled in my seat, high up in the night sky towards England, I'm afraid there was no point, whatsoever, during those fourteen hours at which I felt all dreamy and thoughtful about my lovely year hopping around the world. Nope, not all all. In fact, all I could do, was swear. Swear repeatedly, over and over again. To myself of course - in my head, under my breath..at least I hope I am right by this and didn't accidentally say it out loud and offend anyone..

I continued swearing when I landed at 5.30am, groggy and sleep deprived on a cold Wednesday morning in May.

"Oh my goodness" I thought. "I'm actually back! F***!"

Typically, I had to get unsettled again as I stepped off the plane into the corridor after hearing the air steward announce, "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to London Heathrow. The outside temperature is a cool 10 degrees"

"F***!! It's COLD!!"

Then of course, I remembered that in less than half an hour I was about to be reunited with my parents, who had got up at the crack of dawn to collect me from the airport.

"F***!"

I should clarify that this expletive was purely based on the fact I was about to see them after a whole year, not to suggest that I was unhappy about it at all!

Yep, who could have thought I was capable of such vocabulary. Though I'm sure we're all victim to the odd swearword as a means of relief when we're faced with something peculiar. And peculiar it was to be back in my parents' car and on the M1 up to Northern England. I really hadn't mentally prepared myself for this. With such a jam packed lifestyle in May, I was too busy enjoying myself and all the little adventures along the way.

The most recent of which, had been my trip to Hong Kong. Funnily enough, I caught myself in another state of shock on this flight - but for completely different reasons, and I promise there was no f-word in sight! The plane was making it's slow descent over Hong Kong, at about 9 o'clock at night, and I was casually looking out of my window at the cloudy black sky. All of a sudden, the plane must have sunk below the clouds, because the sight infront of me was like someone had just switched on the lights. I could see the whole of Hong Kong and it's endless skyscrapers and towers, lit up in dazzling gold lights, sprawling for miles and separated only by little breaks of water between the islands. It was breathtaking. Picture me, nose and hands pressed up to the window of the plane, totally awestruck by the lights of Hong Kong, and completely blocking the view for anyone sat next to me to see! Oops.

My Chinese friend, Connie, who I had met during her work & study year in England, was waiting patiently to meet me at the arrivals gate. It was lovely to see her in her home country, and a real relief to be touring the city over the next four days with a local. We soon found our way by bus to our tiny guestroom on the 16th floor of a residential style building in Tsim Sha Tsui, where we dropped our bags before heading out for some dinner at a chinese restaurant. I couldn't wait to have a cup of tea - and didn't mind the fact that Hong Kong style tea is made with evaporated milk - surprisingly tasty.

I had a great time in Hong Kong. I pleased myself on my first day whilst Connie was out at work by walking around some shopping malls, grabbing some lunch and then taking the Star Ferry over to Wan Chai to meet Connie after she finished her shift. Considering that I had just come from the quiet life of Bali to a busy city, I wasn't overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of city life in Hong Kong. My only annoyance about it all was that I was targeted, amongst a crowd of local people, by Indian shop sellers to buy rolex watches or have a suit tailored...rather irriating when I am just minding my own business trying to get to the art museum!

Connie was keen to have me try many weird and wonderful delicacies in Hong Kong. I felt I was doing quite well on the adventurous side by happily dining out at a sushi restaurant on one of our first evenings together, sushi something that I tried for the first time in Sydney and loved. Eating raw scallops, raw salmon and raw tuna with rice and seaweed was utterly delicious. On account of this tourist victory, Connie decided to take me to a cafe for noodles the next day. For breakfast. Hmm, a bowl of steaming noodles in stock water with fish dumplings floating about....not quite what I'd usually stomach first thing in the morning. I happily tried it, ate half of it, and couldn't face the rest. It wasn't that it didn't taste good - I would have easily eaten the meal for lunch or for dinner, but since it didn't resemble weetabix and banana I was having trouble. Not to worry. A day of shopping in Hong Kong's endless variety of multi storey shopping malls, window shopping at the high fashion labels such as Gucci, Versace and Louis Vuitton, and nipping in and out of street markets, we decided to rest our weary soles and have a Korean style barbeque for dinner.

I wondered how on earth we were meant to have a barbeque inside a restaurant, but as the waitress showed us to our table, it all made sense. In the middle of the table was a sunken metal dish, lit by a gas hob below. We were invited to choose our raw foods from the buffet table, which I left Connie to do, not believing what she would actually come back with. Pig's neck, chicken dumplings (made of tiny edible bones) and cow's gut to name but a few. Thankfully, she'd brought some vegetables and fish over as well. Phew. So we laid out a few items and watched them sizzle in front of us, quite entertaining really! Until I decided to try some fish, and could barely enjoy the thing for the amount of fish bones I had to keep retrieving. Ah dear. All in all, not a bad meal really and I was able to enjoy a few familiar things, and steer well clear of the meaty things I wasn't too keen on.

Hong Kong Hot Pot night was disasterous however. In a similar way, we had a hob in the middle of the table with a large pot of stock bubbling away, and we ordered several raw items to cook in it. So far, so good. Until I discovered that all the foods get cooked together, in all the juices, and so even a nice corn on the cob or fresh prawn would be lifted out with chopsticks and covered in beef bits. Eek, I just couldn't do it. Up until then, I'd been pretty good I'd thought, trying unusual chinese desserts, a couple of traditional breakfasts and crazy half tea-half coffee drinks. As grateful as I was for the cultural experience, hot pot was just not for me and I sat the second half out!

That was the only glitch in a brilliant few days however. In between mealtimes we managed to go by cable car to the top of the mountains to see a big buddha statue, which unfortunately was largely masked by prolific fog that day, but I believe made for some very atmospheric photos! It was also an opportunity to witness a bit of nature aside from the concrete jungle of the city, albeit with a tint of grey cloud. We also spent a lovely day browsing the art museum, watching a dragon boat race and then catching the bus up to The Peak, which gave you fantastic views over the city as the evening got darker and the buildings switched their lights on. A fascinating city, that's for sure.

I was sad to wave goodbye to Connie at the airport on a lovely blue sky day, but we left on the note that we will see each other again, and in the meantime, social networking makes it very easy for us to stay in contact. She informs me that I am not to get married in the next three years or so, as she doesn't think that she can afford the plane ticket. Fine by me I told her. Though of course my future husband be so rich by then that he'll pay for her ticket! ha!

After Hong Kong I stopped briefly in Singapore again, and stayed in a very nice hostel in Little India. I went out for some yummy Indian food and treated myself to a session at an Indian beauty salon where I had beautiful henna designs semi-permanently tattooed over my hands and arms. Love it. Sadly it did not last more than a week but I was thrilled with it while it was there and loved watching it being applied. Of course, I squeezed in another trip to an art gallery in Singapore before my time was up and I had to be on the shuttle bus to the airport.

So that concludes recent events, I believe. Sadly, my gap year is over but they are memories that I will hold on to for ever. I'm very lucky to have been able to take the year out and enjoy myself so much. For the near future, it's England for me, and high time to sort my life out. I'm done with university, working to save, and gap year travel. Now it's time for the grown up stuff. Work. My new swearword - it has four letters after all!

A Taste of Asia....again

2010-05-13T03:20:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that in less than two weeks, I'll be landing back on British soils and adjusting back to an English way of life. It's May 2010 now, which means it is my 12th month of travelling....I have to say I feel quite proud of myself for managing to get this far and for putting up with crappy back packer jobs in Australia to still be travelling a year later! I now find myself in Bali, Indonesia, and I am absolutely loving a taste of Asia again!

In the weeks since my last post, I spent three final weeks in Perth - three final weeks in Australia, infact. My plane took off on 29th April at about 6 in the evening, and I felt rather thoughtful and reminiscent as I looked down from my plane window with the sun setting over Perth. Yes I know, call me cheesy, but the eight months that I had spent in that continent were a seriously good time, and although I didn't get to see entirely everything that I had hoped to, maybe I will make it back one day. I spent my last three weeks re-visiting some good friends in Perth, going for lots of coffee and trying to make the most of the sunny weather, despite the climate cooling down considerably for their winter season (boo hoo). I was back working for All Seasons Catering again, fortunate enough to work at some great occasions such as the RedBull Air Race in Perth, viewed from the balcony of a luxury apartment whose American owners were having a lavish party for all their darling work colleagues. Quite a treat to serve platters of impressive food to guests, on a glorious hot day (minor facial sunburn achieved in under five minutes). Other functions included a large function for the Breast Cancer Awareness Charity of Western Australia, of which Mick is a dedicated supporter. Amazing food produced by several caterers and served inside an attractive marquee, plus we also bagged lovely free t-shirts! Love free stuff. The time in between work shifts was spent with lots of different friends, trying to preserve the funds but still managing to fit in the odd coffee shop or two, beach trips and window shopping.

With my earnings that month, I decided to re-route my flight home. My original ticket home departed from Brisbane, which is on the East Coast of Australia. I decided that for the cost of having to fly across the country to catch this flight (some $350), I would rather spend the money on a budget flight to Bali, spend a few weeks there, and from there I could fly to Singapore very cheaply to catch the Singapore to London connection. So that's what I did, and I've not regretted it one single bit. I love, love LOVE Bali!!

As I stepped off the plan in Denpasar airport, I immediately felt the humidity hit me, even at 11 at night! All the memories of my Asian travels in 2009 came flooding back, and for the time being I was actually enjoying the novelty of the humidity!! After queuing to pay for my entry visa to Indonesia (another page filled in my passport - woop!), I jumped in a taxi and headed in the direction of Kuta - the trashy, touristy capital of Bali. Full of Aussies and very developed for the tourist...with streets upon streets of Western clothes shops, drinking spots and various hotel resorts, but with a good beach to take the edge off it. I was warned by friends that this was to be expected in Kuta, but to just use it as a base for the first couple of nights. I successfully managed to get a walk-in booking at a guesthouse called Komalah Indah 2, paying 70,000rp a night for a twin room (approx 5 quid) which included a breakfast of banana toastie and a cup of herbal tea each morning. Yum!

I spent two days in Kuta, browsing the markets and enjoying some time on the beach, watching surfers catch some good waves and taking endless photos of gorgeous sunsets. On the third day, I got picked up at the obscene time of 6.30am from my guesthouse to be taken on a shuttle service to the Gili Islands, and I was super excited! Well, at about 10am when I'd actually woken up and was on the speed boat, I should say. On the way I met another solo traveller called Sarah, from Switzerland, and when we arrived two hours later on Gili Trawangan, it worked out well that we should share a room together.

And so passed four fantastic days of life on Gili Trawangan...lazing on the beach, hiring bikes and exploring the island, going on a snorkel trip (where we saw turtles!) and eating the most amazing fresh fish every evening. Our little bungalow was so cute, with a huge king size bed and an open air bathroom, though not quite so appealing when it decided to chuck it down one afternoon, and were busting for a wee...! Sarah and I met a lot of local Indonesian people, mainly guys that worked in restaurants and would come and sit with us when we had our meals. Lovely, friendly people. Though I was starting to realise that practically every one of them made a beeline for me! Me, the tall, pale and rather more rounded friend of Sarah, whom I assumed they would all love for her Italian looks and petite, tanned frame....but oh no, they commented on her skin saying it was like their own...then seemed to drool over me for my "western beauty" ! Ha!! If only Westerners would fall at my feet in the same way! I suppose I should be complimented, but really, I was actually starting to get very irritated by the attention, especially as they would just not accept the words "just friends" or even (in desperation) that I had a boyfriend (ok so a little lie doesn't hurt, right?). Infact, these Indonesians didn't care, as some of them were even married themselves but still tried it on with other girls. One of them even said to me "If you do not love me, I will kill myself", to which I giggled, but then five minutes later saw the melodramatic twat dive off the balcony, fully clothed, into the swimming pool below...then get kicked out by the bouncer...but at least the coast was clear after that! Blimey. If only I was attracted to these five foot tall, skinny Indonesians then I could have had a different husband each day.

The experience didn't end on Gili Trawangan. After saying goodbye to Sarah, my new French friend, Cecile and I caught the public boat over to Gili Air. Gili Air was a lot quieter and far less developed than Gili Trawangan, but we loved it, for these very reasons. The Gili Islands do not have any motorised transport, so bye-bye to the tooting cars and motorbikes of Kuta, Bali, and hello to walking, bicycles and horse and carts! Lovely. Cecile and I shared a twin room (with Disney princess bed covers) in a great little bamboo bungalow right on the beach at a place called Lucky's. Yep, lucky we really were, to wake up to such a stunning view as the mountains of Lombok and the calm blue ocean, with hardly a soul around. In my whole year of travels, it's only now, right at the end, that I find my little spot of paradise that I had been searching for all along. Time for some more snorkelling, lazy beach days, and great evenings watching a live band one night, and gathering on the beach a few other times with local people to have a bonfire and play guitar together. Happy days. Unfortunately I still hadn't developed dark skin by this point, so I was still flavour of the week for the local men, and would just be minding my own business cycling along when I'd hear my name called out, usually by guys I didn't even recognise! Cecile didn't get any of this treatment due to her deep tan, much to my annoyance of course, but she did giggle at me as I tried to edge away from guys repeatedly trying to kiss my hand, and stroke my arm, and even try to woo me by telling me that I have "hair like spaghetti". Wow. The English Language teacher taught them some shocking chat up lines. I'm guessing the reference to spaghetti was down to the fact that my hair has bleached quite a bit in the Australian sun, so I'm quite a blondie these days. At least that's the analogy I'm going by, rather than my hair was a tangled mess at the time of conversation...

Despite all these crazy Indo-dudes I seemed to meet, I had a truly amazing time on the Gili Islands, and I am so, SO glad that I decided to stop in Indonesia. I'm now in Ubud, which is back on the mainland of Bali, and soaking up some culture for a few days. Have visited a fair few temples so far, two great art galleries, and mused through the various shops and markets for a few bargains. Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to the Sacred Monkey Sanctuary, but sincerely hope that said Sacred Monkeys do not steal my camera!! I have heard they have been nifty little buggers if you're not careful!! In the evening I am hoping to go to a local dance performance at the Ubud Palace, before heading off the following day (saturday) to Nusa Dua, not far from Kuta. I'm hoping to meet up with my friend Jane (who I met in Perth and who also worked with at All Seasons) who is staying in a hotel as I write. My final few days will be spent enjoying as much beach and sun as possible with her, before I head off to Singapore on Tuesday! This will just be a quick overnight stop for me, as I take my flight the following day to HONG KONG!!! Very excited about this, I tell ya! I will be meeting up with my lovely Chinese friend, Connie, and seeing some sights with her.

So that's about all for now folks! Love you and leave you.

Back in town

2010-04-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Perth - my home away from home. Over the fantastic summer months that span from my arrival in early December through to March, long hot days consistently in the high 30s, teamed with gorgeous beaches, a relaxed city vibe, and wonderful people, I was loving my life on the West Coast and wanted nothing more than for it to continue for ever. I began, once again, to consider an application for the second year visa, which unfortunately, was not as straight forward in obtaining as the first one. If only I could just go online, fill out another form, hand over another 120 quid and voila. No can do. It seems that the huge backpacker population in Australia has convinced the authorities to issue 2nd year working holiday visas only on the basis that the visa applicant has completed 88 days work on a farm, a mine, or some similar kind of concentration camp. i.e. jobs that Australians are too lazy to do.

Hmm. Working on a farm....stay a whole extra year....or go back home to reality...or stay in Australia and avoid my "real life" in the UK (career wise)...hmm, Australia vs England...what to do, what to do? After much deliberation in February and a few turn of events, I booked myself a flight to Adelaide on 1st March. An emotional goodbye in Perth with all my amazing friends at the Coolibah and at work, and later in the day I am crashing along the windy roads of the Adelaide Hills in a vehicle very similar to the 4x4 I drove on Fraser Island (minus the Germans in the back). I'd been picked up by my new manager Donagh (Irish), and we were on our way through the extensive South Australian vineyards to my new home for the next 88 days. It was here that I would be reunited with Juli and Melanie, two friends I'd met in Perth, and who had been working on the farm to make up the requirements needed for their visa applications. Absolutely lovely to see them again. Absolutely a shock to the system to get up at 5am the following day however. Now don't get me wrong, I may be a bit clueless on occasion, but I was fully aware what I was letting myself in for. Juli and Melanie did not hold back on the truth about this job. I knew and expected that it was going to be low paid, long hours and hard work, but it gets you the visa, and well, it's like a rite of passage that all backpackers should try the fruit picking thing! It also crossed my mind that when leaving the farm after 3 months, I could potentially be 3 stone lighter, and that was a rather encouraging thought to keep me going during the days in the vineyards...hello boys.
Various alarm tones, sleepy groans, cockerill calls and lights on at 5am, we were dressed, fed and on the road by 5.45am. Still dark, and kitted out head to toe in several layers, boots and wax jackets, pulling off netting in the vineyards. Australia in 2011, size 10 bikini, three months wages, Australia in 2011, three months wages, size 10 bikini...was the mantra going round and round my head.
7pm, end of the day, back to the house. Shower, food, exhausted, bed by 9pm. Cockerill call at 5am. Repeat.

Australia in 2011, money, size 10, Australia in 2011, money, size 10, Australia.....
"Excuse me, are you married?"
Interrupted from my affirmation, I look across to the little Indian guy next to me, clipping grape bunches.
"huh?"
"Lady, are you married?"
"er, yeah, I mean NO, why? Do you know an Australian?" I joked...but actually the thought of a spouse visa was quite appealing thinking about it...
"So you're not married. Do you have a boyfriend then?" He asked.
"No. Someone once told me that all men are complete ..."
"My name's Deep." He cut across. "Like the deep blue ocean, the deep blue sky. What's your name?"
"Elizabeth" I mumbled, avoiding eye contact and making an effort to speed up in my grape picking and edge away.
"Ah! Like the Queen! You're English, like Queen Elizabeth!"
"er yeah,"
"You're beautiful, Elizabeth"

At that point my bucket of grapes was full and I was able to make a getaway from Deep Indian Admirer to deposit my bucket in the tractor trailer. I took up position on a new row in the vineyard, next to a lovely Cambodian lady and started to chat to her a little about my time in Cambodia.
"Hello lady" says the guy next to me, from Nepal.
"Hi" I smile back.
"Are you married?"
"No, don't be silly, I'm only 23."
"You're 23 and you not married? You are old woman!"

I look to Melanie for support, but it turns out she was also having the same conversations.
"Lady, are you married?" they ask her.
"No, I'm not married."
"Then are you single?"
"No."
"Then lady, how can you not be married, if you are not single?"
"Because I have a boyfriend" Melanie replies.
"Then why are you not married?"

Finding a suitable distraction was a good way to end these sorts of conversations, walking away from the calls of "Lady, why you have your nose pierced? You not Indian!" behind me.
Once you got past the initial maritial status interrogation and dinner invites, I quite liked the team of fruit pickers. The simple conversations were nice, and the women liked any opportunity to practise their English. Melanie, Juli and I were still stared at like aliens every morning for being white, an awkward feeling at first but something that you get used to.

By the end of the first week, I'd clocked up well over 50 hours in just five days, and was really questioning every decision I had been making up until then regarding my stay in Australia. That same day, we had been stood in the vineyards, in the rain for several hours, trying to finish our rows to meet the farmer's quota for the day. I counted the 6 months that I'd been in Australia, and thought how long that had felt, thinking about everything I'd done in that time. Then I imagined the remaining 6 months on my current visa, and realised that, actually, that was a good amount of time left. Why was I so intent on the extra year? It was largely to give me the time to work enough to buy the flight home (as the first one had an expiry date of one year) but I had never intended to stay as long as August 2011, as that had always felt very intimidating to imagine. So I made the decision to stop the farm work. If I had decided against the 2nd year visa, there was no point wasting my time doing a badly paid job and not being happy whilst working, and not having much of a life after shifts.
By the following evening, I was on a bus out of the beautiful Adelaide Hills, and checking into a hostel in the city centre.
The following day, I woke up on my 24th birthday, a year older, happier and unmarried it appears. It was a public holiday in Adelaide for some reason, but as I wandered the city by myself, I managed to find a nice bookshop and bought an arty magazine and sat with a coffee for a few hours in there. In the evening I met up with an old friend from Port Douglas called Anna, who I'd met on her holidays back in October. She is an English teacher in Adelaide, but is from London. We went to a nice bar and I enjoyed fish n chips and a beer as me birthday tea, keeping it British of course. Anna invited me to stay at her flat in Glenelg, an offer which I gratefully accepted as I was totally not keen on the hostel I had picked in the city. She picked me up after work the following day and I spent five lovely days, chilling out at her place and spending time at the beach while she was out.

I also had time to book myself onto a tour of The Grampians National Park and The Great Ocean Road, which would take me over to Melbourne, where I intended to find some work. The tour over the weekend was brilliant, and well worth the money. Stunning views and sunsets, and a good group of people to meet. Melbourne was equally as exciting a place to end up in. A buzzing, creative and clean city, bursting full of tiny side streets and hidden lanes of coffee shops, impressive street graffitti, tiny galleries, vintage shops, with an endless variety of markets at the weekends and plenty of festivals running throughout the year. Don't think I've ever drunk so much coffee in all my life, or been so inspired by all the sites around me. I arrived in the middle of L'Oreal Fashion Week, and the Food & Wine festival, sampling some nice food and watching some free fashion shows in the street. I was also feeling rather lucky at that stage in my travels, to arrive in a new place by myself and have a list of friends that I could look up. After a few nights at another hostel, I went to stay with my friend Angela at her flat in Northcote, an arty suburb of Melbourne, whilst I sorted myself out and applied for jobs.
I loved staying with Ange. As well as being a lively, bubbly soul, she is also a senior fashion designer, and an amazing cook! After a scrummy dinner of stuffed peppers (or capsicums as they call them here) she had some fantastic portfolios to show me, and lots of interesting artefacts around her apartment from various travel destinations. As well as her current freelance job which keeps her busy full time, she also manages to fit in an alterations business and has several customers for that, as well as doing some volunteer work at the weekends for local creatives. An inspirational lifestyle, talk about self-motivation! Ange was also kind enough to give me a crash course in Adobe Illustrator, something that will be very valuable to me, once I get my head around it!

I ended up staying two weeks with Ange, and even managed to find myself a job in Northcote, just about. A restaurant requiring waiting staff got back to me and invited me to do a two week trial shift. I was disappointed to arrive and be told that it would be just $14 per hour (usual rate is $19-$20) and that they could only offer me one shift a week. By this point, I was exhausted with job hunting and having to start from square one all over again, for what felt like the millionth time since being away. Ten months of travelling and constant on the go, and so I wanted to go somewhere where I would be happiest. Perth. My old job at All Seasons Catering was kindly left open for me, so it didn't take much to persuade me to head back. I spent the remainder of the time in Melbourne having a great Easter weekend with Ange, driving out to the countryside and having lots of devonshire tea, evenings spent in Melbourne having cheese and wine, or coffee, or chilling out watching dvds and chit chat. Melbourne has definately been a hotspot for me.

So here I am, back in Perth and all things familiar. A lot of my friends are still here, and I'm thankful to be working for my old boss and earning some dollar again. They say that things never quite go to plan, but that it all works out in the end, and I suppose this update has been a great example of that. So unless I meet a nice Aussie and run off for a quick marriage, you'll be seeing me very soon...

2010-02-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

Everytime I have sight of a calendar, my mind jumps back into reality and I find it difficult to understand where the days have gone. It is the first day of February, well over a month since Christmas, and far too long since I wrote a blog entry.

At the time of my last essay (sorry guys, but I can type very fast and get carried away!), I had just arrived in Perth and was staying with Mick in his beautiful townhouse in East Perth. I worked on some amazing functions for his company which included various Christmas parties, one on a boat cruise from Perth to Fremantle - gorgeous cityscape at night, all skyscrapers lit up and dazzling with fairy lights, another in an old prison in Fremantle, several private functions at impressive houses across the city and the odd wedding or two in January. Always a change of scenery and ever a happy occasion. It also meant that I have met many real life Australians (I was starting to wonder if they really existed) and can really pick them out in a crowd now, usually because they're all athletic, tanned and body beautiful (the fake boobies industry must make millions out here!) , or, if male, they have hilarious white patches from their sunglasses and beer "stubbies" permanently in their hands etc.

If you've seen any of my photos on facebook, you may have gathered by now that I'm somewhat of a party animal, and so after ten luxurious nights of quality living at Mick's house, I decided to spend my earnings on accommodation at a hostel in Northbridge, the backpacker area of Perth, and start meeting some friends in time for Christmas and New Years parties of my own. So I rocked up at The Coolibah Lodge in Northbridge a week or so before Christmas, and I think it took me three days to roll in drunk after a night out with new friends, goal! Sorry Mum, it's all in moderation I promise.

I spent Christmas with more Irish people in one place than I've ever met in my life, and consequently it was a very beer flavoured event. I had worked Christmas Eve at a house party for Israeli guests (the most attractive males of the species by far, SHALOM) and once back at the hostel I cracked open a bottle of red and happily greeted Carleen, an English girl that I had lived with in Port Douglas for nearly two months and briefly in an apartment together for a week. The full cooked breakfast on Christmas morning set us straight again, and later that day we all had a barbeque in several sittings, and I can now definately say that "I threw another shrimp on the barbie, mate" woop!! Many drinks later and we all ended up at a house party down the road, where I got chatting to some french guys from our hostel, speaking very poor gramatical french to them (but it sounded good at the time!) and then making a pact with them to help them with their English and me with my French! If only Madame Fleutre could see me now. Actually no, she'd be disgusted that I've forgotten so much of her lessons!

On Boxing Day I headed to the beach with some girls and enjoyed a splash about in the water, finding it hard to realise that it was, yes, the 26th of December, and I was SUNBATHING!!!! I can't deny that my webcam conversation on Christmas Day with the family had given me a twinge of saddness, and disbelief as they showed me the snowy view out of the back windows. Everyone was in the same boat though at the Coolibah, and decided it was beer not tears that day. We had all participated in a Secret Santa present giving too which was great, though when I opened my present, my Secret Santa had decided to give me an inflatable old man doll. Hmm. That's guys for you!

It was a very strange experience to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Australia, on hot, sunny days that we could only dream of back in England. New Year's was especially weird, as usually I am used to the wind down of the end of term, or the end of the working month, and the feeling of a new start for January. I didn't really have that kind of separation this year that is usually coupled with a wintery season, but I can say that I have had a brilliant time since I began my travels some eight monts ago, and I am sure that it will continue to be a great time in 2010. My New Year's resolution is to get a second year visa! So perhaps I will have another Christmas in the sun, who knows.

In the New Year, the season quietened down for All Seasons Catering, but it meant that we did have time to have our staff Christmas do. Mick, ever the generous spirit, took us all go-karting in the morning, and then off for a 20 minute helicopter ride in the afternoon! How cool is that!? A really good day and amazing views over Perth and Fremantle. I feel quite lucky to say that I have now been in a helicopter twice! Over the quiet period, I managed to get myself a job in the hostel, working on reception both to cover my accomodation for free and to earn some extra money.

I was really happy to see my friend Kitty again when she flew to Perth last week. We had met in New Zealand originally and then met up again in Sydney in December, where she was working on the Sydney Sky Tower. Kitty and I had a really great week doing a couple of mini road trips south of Perth to Margaret River, and northwards to The Pinnacles. We made it back to Perth (just about) to join in with the Australia Day celebrations, and watched some spectacular fireworks on the waterfront later that evening. Kitty stayed for a week and then headed back to Melbourne and then onto Tasmania. I was really sad to see her go but hopefully it's just see you later and not goodbye! She lives 30 minutes away from Amsterdam in The Netherlands so I'm sure it won't be difficult to meet up again in the future.

So I believe that rounds off my events for the past couple of months. I really like Perth and am having a great time staying at the Coolibah Lodge.

Happy New Year xxxx

Yee-ha

2009-12-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

To think that I was once a nervous driver...you should have seen me on Fraser Island! Give me HGVs, tractors, coaches or caravans, I reckon I am skilled for life after driving a 4x4 jeep full of 10 screaming passengers on the world's largest sand island!

Of course I was happy to admit that I held a full driver's license and could therefore 'help out' with 'a bit of driving' here and there over the course of the three days, but little did I know that I was the only driver in the group who is used to driving on the left, consequently I was forced to drive from the word go. So off we set from the hostel, all the camping gear loaded up on the roof of the vehicle, all ten Germans and Swedes strapped into the back of the car and raring to go for three days of fun and games on Fraser. Vehicle into gear, slow manouvering out of the hostel driveway and careful driving along the road to the ferry crossing.....with the handbrake on....no wonder the bloody car was so slow and couldn't pick up any speed!! Once I released the handbrake the jeep lurched forward, causing much 'hilarity' and calls of 'woman driver' from the Germans in the back. Charming!! My excuse was that I was used to driving an automatic the last time I drove in New Zealand, but apparently this excuse was void as automatics still have handbrakes...so really I guess the woman driver thing was taken on board and I seemed to improve after that.

It was quite a struggle actually driving up to the barge. The sand was so fine and soft that the jeep got bogged straight away, meaning that I kicked my group out and told them to push, and when that didn't work they had to dig the sand from behind the tyres, I had to reverse a little and then heavy accelerator to get us moving again. My foot was heavy on the pedal but the jeep was moving at a snail's pace...we were happy that it was moving though and we did finally make it onto the barge.

It didn't end there. Once on Fraser Island we were again facing sand pits and soft hills that required much team work, lots of pushing, lots of sweat and tears to actually get anywhere. It was a hard first day but we eventually came off the dirt tracks and out of the worst of it and found ourselves cruising along the beach, waves lapping, wind in our face, happy Germans in the back, the odd dingo passing by....suddenly everyone relaxed again and we stopped off by the Mahino Shipwreck before finding a place to set up camp for the night. We were travelling in a group with a second jeep from our hostel and I delighted in hearing the English language again as we started making dinner all together. I got lots of praise from the other group on my driving abilities that day (good job they weren't around for the handbrake incident in the morning!!) as I had been the sole driver in the group whereas the guys in the second jeep had all taken turns. My group all seemed a bit too nervous to take over, and left the scary stuff for me! I didn't actually mind though, as throughout the day I was building up confidence and getting used to the way the 4x4 moved etc. Those things are indestructible I swear, you can actually feel quite safe in them believe it or not.

We had some drinks that night before getting up at 5am the following morning to get moving again. There were only certain times of the day that you could drive along the beach according to the tides, otherwise we would have been stranded for a few hours at the tents. Driving along the beach at dawn was a really amazing experience, watching the sunrise over pristine beaches, just stunning! We drove for three hours to get to Lake McKenzie, where we stopped to cook a big breakfast and then swim for a few hours in the beautiful clear lake. The water was so clear and we enjoyed a good relaxation on the white sandy beach too. We had to pile back into the cars again in order to sync with the tides and make it over to the next destination which was Indian Head, right at the top end of the island and another few hours drive. I think we all underestimated how much driving was involved to get around the island. Indian Head had some beautiful lookouts, and from one point we could see turtles and stingrays in the ocean below us.

We had lots of laughs that evening as we got back to camp, namely due to the dreaded dingoes. Dingoes are somewhere between a dog and a fox, they hunt for food and are known to be a bit vicious. We were warned to be so careful about leaving out food and drink, food scraps in dish water, toothpaste etc and we even had to dig 50cm holes in the sand instead of peeing in bushes! Anyway, the evening was first disrupted after we heard a rustle and realised that the dingoes had run off with some leftover sausages, scandal! So the boys all ran off with shovels and sticks to bark at these dingoes and try to recover the sausages (lost cause). This routine was replayed when the dingoes tried to take the rubbish bag and only found empty beer cans in it, and similarly when the dingoes popped up just metres away trying to sniff out food. So what was initially a bit of an intimidating situation, camping around wild animals, turned into a comedy show as our new 'Dingo Kings' held the fort together and kept us thoroughly entertained with their heroic acts. The Dingo Kings even escorted us to our toilet facilities en masse and kept a lookout while several girls had a group pee, wary of dingoes nipping our bums (it has happened, we were told!). What lovely guys, taking good care of us.

Getting up at 4.30am the next morning wasn't easy at first, but again, the sunrise outside our tents over the beach made it well worth it. It's the most beautiful part of the day in my opinion, but I'm usually in bed and miss the daily spectacular all because i'm too busy being lazy. Maybe I'll turn into a hippy tree hugger and make sure I get up at the crack of dawn each day just to appreciate nature's beauty...

Lake Wabby was our next stop off that day. We were the first group to arrive that morning, so no one else was around as we ran down the sand hill and splashed about in the gorgeous green water...lovely stuff! It was another boiling hot day and we really enjoyed chilling out for the morning and cooling down in the lake. We also visited Eli Creek before heading back to the barge to cross back to the mainland. By this point, I had started to develop a massive headache and was beginning to recognise the early signs of sunstroke, so started to guzzle lots of water. It was too late really but I managed to get us all back to the hostel in one piece before crashing out in my bed that evening and being rather sick all night! That'll teach me to not drink enough water!

After Fraser Island, Annika and I continued further south of the coast towards Noosa, where we stayed in a bush camp for three nights to go canoeing. It was loads of fun, if a bit hard work going up stream at times, but very scenic in our boats. At one point we started to pass the time by singing songs from Titanic and various Disney films at the top of our voices! We met some nice people in our group, one of which we ended up going to Australia Zoo with a few days later (Steve Irwin's zoo). Saw lots of lovely animals, especially those darling Koalas, ahhh!! We also got to feed kangaroos. Hoping to see more koalas and roos in the wild, as I'm not too keen on the whole zoo thing, infact there were some areas which surprised me as they seemed quite small and un-natural for the animals...I thought that given all that Steve Irwin was about, the enclosures would be huge and very realistic, but it often wasn't the case. Hmm. God bless his soul anyway, what a funny guy he was.

Annika and I parted ways after Noosa, as she'd already been to Brisbane, Byron Bay and Sydney and couldn't afford to travel them a second time. So she fast tracked to Sydney where she caught the Indian Pacific train from Sydney to Perth, taking four days and three nights to arrive!! She had tried to convince me to go with her, but I chose to take a flight instead, which only took 5 hours! So for about a week I was travelling solo again, enjoying a bit of city life in Brisbane, meeting up with a friend that we'd met in Thailand, heading down to Byron Bay (like a slice of Heaven on Earth) and then spending some time in Sydney where I stayed with my friend Jon in his apartment. I loved Sydney. The day I arrived we went for a nice evening stroll around the city where I saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, before eventually ending up at a nice restaurant in Kings Cross for some lasagne and garlic bread. Lovely stuff. While Jon was at work during the days, I went off into the city where I met up with a friend called Kitty that I'd met in New Zealand. She now works on the Sydney Skytower, so after coffee she smuggled me into the lift for free (saving me about $40) and left me up there to enjoy the panoramic views of Sydney, on a perfect blue sky day! I saw Kitty a couple of nights later in an area called The Rocks, and we watched some fireworks over Harbour Bridge and had some drinks in an Irish Bar. Later that evening, Jon took me out to, well, his end of town shall we say (!) on Oxford Street, where we danced the night away in a very flamboyant club. Going to what I thought was the ladies loo was hilarious, full of guys touching up their hair and adjusting their outifts, then one of two queens grabbing my face and saying "but darllinnngggg, you're BEAUUTIFUL!!!". Love it! Like walking into a room full of fans haha!! It was pretty hair-raising as my friend and I were queuing with a load of idiots to get a taxi back home later than evening, but I have to say, the taxi drivers in Sydney really do look out for us ladies, and always saw me to my door to check that I was safely inside before getting back in and driving away. How good is that! Jon did pick quite a dodgey area to live in though, round the corner from a large homeless area and just off the street from the Red Light District...dear oh dear.

So after a great few days in Sydney I made my way to the airport to catch my evening flight to Perth, taking 5 hours to arrive, also being delayed for nearly two hours, and having a time difference in Western Australia of three hours. It is crazy how massive this country is. By the time I finally got to bed that night it was 4am, but 7am my time, so the next day I felt rather jet lagged, even though it was only 3 hours time difference! I am staying with a friend of my aunt & uncle at his lovely house in East Perth, and have started doing some waitressing for his catering company. Have earnt a fair bit of money already which is great. Tonight I am doing a function on a boat which sounds like a lot of fun.

So all is good in my world. Though it takes some getting used to having to work again after six weeks of playtime on the East Coast. Happy memories though!

2009-11-17T01:41:00.000-08:00

Magnetic Island and Townsville were great places to visit from a tourist's point of view, because we were actually meeting real life Australian people! Frankly, it's starting to annoy me that everyone I seem to be meeting is usually German (sorry but they're everywhere except their own country right now) or English or Irish or Scandinavian. Why so many Germans? I sit in these hostels, or on a beach, or a bus or even just walking round town, and I could just as well be in Europe, I don't understand a word of the languages being spoken around me! Sometimes I feel a bit of an outsider, in an English speaking country!! But yeah, when we went to a Full Moon Party on Magnetic Island my ears pricked up as I finally heard some Australian accents, woop! Except the bad habit of saying "aye" at the end of every sentence grates somewhat but I will let them off because at least they don't speak German! The Full Moon Party was good fun, wasn't the actual full moon that night but I guess they had to have the event at the weekend! The real full moon was a few nights before when Annika and I were in Townsville. It was enormous and had a bright orange glow to it. So much so, that our first thoughts were that it couldn't possibly be the real moon, it must be some kind of light display from a nightclub or something....but no, twas the moon indeed. Interesting stuff eh!

Airlie Beach was our next port of call after Magnetic Island. We stayed two nights in a freezing air conditioned room before setting off on our sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands. We boarded a nice boat with three staff and 25 guests (of which I was the only English, the rest were, yes, GERMAN!) and set off for 2 nights/2 days. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side for the first half of the trip. So Wednesday night saw me and Annika dancing up on deck (alone!), kitted out in waterproofs looking very Regatta chic, beer in one hand and doing some kind of rave sundance to impress the Gods and to make them stop the rain. Don't think they could make sense of our knee flexing/chicken wings/spinning pizzas, so the rain continued! Bugger. So we got through our alcohol supply instead and talked all kind of profound ramblings about stars and "being a tiny megapixal in the gigantic poster of life". Yeah man.

Next morning the skipper kindly woke us up at 6.30am by bringing up the anchor and chugging the boat along to White Haven Beach. I sat up in my cabin bed (shaped like a coffin and shared with Annika, romantic hey) and immediately felt sick from the waves and smell of oil below deck. So I managed to get up top for some air, but couldn't face any breakfast from the rocking of the boat, not good first thing in the morning!

We arrived at White Haven Beach later that morning, zipped up in stinger suits and dropped off on the white sandy shores. In the rain. Under the clouds. Oh paradise blue sky photos, where are you? We got in the water, laughing our heads off for our one opportunity of being on the Whitsundays, in terrible weather! Oh, did we get the giggles! Eventually the boat crew picked us up again (lucky buggers keeping dry on the boat!) and just as we left to sail on, did the blinkin sun decide to shine! So for the final half of our trip we had some sunshine and a lovely sunset in the evening! Wahey! We did some snorkelling and lots of sunbathing, and all was well again.

Quite happy to get back to solid ground again, though the trip was good fun. We travelled on by overnight bus that night to Agnes Water and stayed at a brilliant hostel called Cool Bananas. The overnight bus meant that the next day was a bit of a wipe-out to recover from interupted sleep, but still, who wants to waste 11 hours in the day by being on a coach? We chilled out for a couple of days in the lovely hostel, sleeping in hammocks and watching lots of good films, and now we are in Rainbow Beach, preparing to do a Fraser Island self guided safari trip for the next two nights. I am the designated driver for tomorrow, as I am the only one in the group who drives on the left in their home country (guess what nationality the rest of my group are!) so I'm gonna be responsible for the safety of 10 others in a 4x4 tomorrow, HAHAHAHAHAA!!!!! We'll see how that goes! Temperatures are meant to reach 45 degrees tomorrow, hello Australia! We've had our safety talks about dingoes and driving on sand, so lets hope for the best and hopefully we won't get bogged down in sand too often! At least I won't have to push!

Hope your thoughts are with the passengers!

It's all go

2009-11-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

Well it's been an awfully long time since I last wrote anything on here. Firstly because there wasn't much to report whilst I was working away in Port Douglas! I finally left Port Douglas after a stay of about 7 or 8 weeks, ready and financially backed up to start heading down the East Coast towards Sydney. Hooray! I spent the final week in Port Douglas in a state of luxury accommodation wise - a friend of mine had been living in a holiday apartment with some other girls, and since they had now moved on she was looking for someone to share with again temporarily. It worked out pretty well for both of us, so for seven happy days I enjoyed sharing a private and spotless kitchen, bathroom, living room, TV and free laundry facilities! Rather nice.

It was a shame that Annika and I were suddenly overcome with waves of car sickness on the windy bus ride back to Cairns, because before that we'd been bopping out to the funky tunes from our ipods on the back seat, totally excited to be on the go again and not cleaning hotel rooms or serving pizzas to tourists! So on arrival at our hostel in Cairns we looked a bit green (getting in the spirit for Halloween I guess!) but it was soon forgotten once we reunited with some friends that we'd met in Port Douglas, and got shown around our new pad! Calypso Hostel was a million miles better than the Parrotfish in PDouglas. Oh my days, we had been living in a slum compared to this, and paying more for it!

We had a great time in Cairns that week, immediately being introduced to a whole bunch of friendly faces, and enjoying some nights out, as well as a brilliant Halloween party at the weekend. I managed to fit in a day of volunteering at a print workshop just outside of the centre, which prints work for aboriginal artists. I helped with etch plate printing which was really good, great for the CV too I hope!

Annika and I did a bit of research and booked ourselves up for some treats down the East Coast, successfully playing several travel agents off against each other to get the best price we could for a Greyhound bus ticket and some sailing trips! Our first stop after Cairns was Mission Beach, where we both did our long-awaited 14,000ft sky dive!!! Hip hip hooray! We didn't really sleep much the night before, and the 7.30am pick up was quite uncomfortable! I was bouncing with excitement as I got geared up with the harness and onto the bus to the airport, but once we took off, rose above the clouds and knew that I was the first one out of the plane (from a group of 10) I was, well, pooing my pants. The tandem parachutist was rather abrupt with me when he was telling me to swing my legs out of the plane and all I could do was instinctively grab onto the other people beside me in the aircraft!! haha! Plus I kept forgetting to hold my head back on his shoulder before the jump, so the DVD shows him having to keep pushing my head back! But surely, if I'm sat on the edge of a plane I'm gonna look down right?

So, one, two, three, and boy did I scream! Full mouth full of cold air, neat hair completely destroyed by the gusts of wind, arms and legs locked backwards beneath the instructor and there we were, free falling for 60 seconds. What a weird sensation too as we went through some clouds. Like little wet hail stones on your cheeks. As my brain came back to reality I remembered that I was indeed connected to a parachute and it soon hauled me back up again (quite uncomfortably with the harness on actually!) and we started to descend over Mission Beach, with amazing views of Dunc Island, beautiful ocean and the sandy white beach below. I even had a chance to steer the parachute, oh yes. As we got closer to landing it looked like we were going to crash onto a palm tree but thankfully, it was a nice smooth landing on the sand. One of the other group wasn't so lucky though - his parachutist screwed up the beach landing a bit and they ended up landing in someone's back garden (no joke) with ripped shorts and a sore bum to show for it! ah dear. Think he bagged a free t shirt for that though!

So I've done it now, ticked the thrill seeker box, would like to do it again though if I ever can! No way to bungy jumps though. Like suicide but without the death.

Coincidentally, my house mate from uni, Adele and another uni friend, Charlotte were in Mission Beach at the same time as us, so we met up for a good catch up. Very strange to be talking about uni stuff whilst on the beach in Australia but so it goes! It was really nice to see them both and exchange travel stories. They also had a good laugh at our skydive DVDs!

We're now in Townsville for a few nights before heading to Magnetic Island for another Full Moon Party. Then next wednesday we set sail on a 2 day 2 night boat trip around the Whitsunday Islands. Beaut. It's been busy and exciting recently, and I'm loving every minute. I still can't get my head around the fact that it's November and nearly Christmas, maddness.

Think that is about all from me! byee

working holiday

2009-09-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

There's not really a lot of interesting stuff to report I'm afraid, but thought I'd send a post anyway!

I've been in Australia for a month now - crazy! I've paid a month's rent at the hostel, which takes me up until mid October, and then from then on I'm hoping to travel down the East Coast for at least a month, spending all my money again! I've got two jobs now, yes TWO! It's hardcore. Infact I actually had a burn out on Thursday, it was my only day off in the week and I'd decided to go to Cairns for the day to volunteer at a print house, helping to curate some aboriginal work and edition some prints. Good experience for the CV hey! I got up and tried to hide the pending migraine with some paracetamol and caffeine, but finally I admitted to myself just as the bus was arriving, that really, I wasn't fit for a day of printing and that from past experience with migraines, today was a day for BED.

And so it was, I spent a lovely day, doing absolutely nothing but sleeeep and lounge in my bunk, in a quiet dorm room while the others were out at work. Bliss. I popped out to the supermarket to buy some chocolate (my Dad swears this cures his headaches!?!) and happily ate that too. I'm going to see if I can do the volunteer day next week, or when the school holidays are over here when hopefully I am less busy!

Then it was back to work on Friday. My routine at the moment is as follows: leave the hostel at 7.15am to walk to work on the beach (lovely!!) starting work at a holiday resort at 8am. Finishing work there at approx 3pm each day. Walking home along the beach (a good wind down, sometimes run in for a dip in the sea too!) then have a couple of hours to myself, put a different uniform on and start waitressing at Mango Jam, a funky pizza restaurant in town. Run round again for at least four hours waiting on tables until I get back to the hostel, crash out, then up again in the morning. Needless to say, I don't do the job in the hostel anymore for free accomodation, so that's one thing less to do! I do get some really good tips from the restaurant though - it's such a busy place with a high turn over of guests, but the best thing is that they are happy eaters! Woo! I can kiss goodbye to all those horrible waitressing jobs I've done in the past where the food is terrible and there are endless complaints! Also the staff are sociable - I went along one night for some drinks after service as two of them were leaving. I tried a legendary Mango Daiquiri courtesy of the manager...mmm!

I am enjoying staying in the hostel here, we've had some really nice group nights. A guy called Camarle was leaving so we had two feasts over a few days - the best one was pancake night! He is an amazing cook, and made the best pancakes with strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, nuts etc in them, loads of choc sauce...oh they were amazing but very filling. There's also been a toga night, a Pimps 'n' Hos night, Hawaiian night...all good fun. There is also a free bbq every Sunday, and I get free breakfast here, so saving some pennies here and there.

The German girls have now left me! Two of them moved out into an apartment in town for a bit of luxury after living in hostels for a long time, two of them have gone on the Greyhound bus down the East Coast and the other girl has embarked on a road trip to Ayres Rock and Alice Springs (to which I was invited, but I'm not in a hurry to go just yet, plus I need to work!). A new German girl came into the room though (another one, there are Germans EVERYWHERE I swear) who I've been getting on with very well, she's called Annika. Anyone remember that amazing programme Challenge Annika by the way? Well, we've been hanging out together a lot anyway, yesterday was her 21st birthday infact, so in between both of our shifts, we managed to go out for some lunch, go shopping, have some Mango Jam staff pizzas (75% discount) for tea and go out for some drinks . I'm packing a lot in really! We both keep telling ourselves it will all be worth it in the end, when we travel down the East Coast and party and sunbathe and throw ourselves out of a plane! Two new girls moved in yesterday, both from Paris, and one of them earns her accomodation by singing and playing the guitar in the bar every Sunday (easy life hey - I had to clean the blimmin dorm rooms 5 days a week for mine!!).

So that's about all really from me. I'm working and will continue doing that for a few weeks yet. Still liking Port Douglas and the sunny weather. Getting excited about Christmas on the beach too!

Bye for now!

So long, Sarah!

2009-09-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

So the time has finally come - I'm now without travel buddies, doing the whole independent travel thing toute seule. Curly girl (aka Sarah) departed these sands yesterday to fly back to Nottingham. A real end to an era for me now and I was sad to wave goodbye as I got on my bus to Port Douglas a few days ago. Hope she gets back in one piece..I'm sure the remaining bras she owned were the first thing she packed before leaving! Not forgetting of course her beloved rubix cube, which she bought whilst away with the challenge to complete it (and successfully mastered, record time 3.5 minutes!). So ta ra duck, say hello to Nottingham for me, tell my brother to stop drinking so much and good luck with the lights!!

So, what have I been doing. I spent about 10 nights in Cairns before finally getting the hell out of there...it really wasn't that great a place for me, but I did enjoy hanging out with Jon and Sarah, our various nights out and the occasional barbeque and the great day on the Great Barrier Reef. It was also a good time to be in Cairns as there was an arts festival going on, so there were several street performers each night and lots of art exhibitions and installations to keep me happy!

The three of us went on a trip to visit Cape Tribulation, which isn't too far from Cairns but the tour involved a few stops at a zoo where we saw some crocodiles, one very shy dingo and a cassowary bird, and some walks through parts of the rainforest and a river boat tour on the Daintree. Nice. Cape Tribulation was very quiet and secluded with a lovely beach - hooray a beach! Cairns did not actually have one, just a nice but (sadly) man-made "lagoon", basically a huge and busy swimming pool. So we enjoyed a spot of sunbathing at beautiful Cape Tribulation, thankful of the peace and quiet. We couldn't go for a swim in the water though due to stingers and crocs this time of year - eek! Two nights were spent here, not doing a lot which I enjoyed, but I think Jon and Sarah were grateful to return to Cairns, whereas I didn't want to go back in a hurry so I stopped overnight at Port Douglas by myself, catching up with them a day later.
Port Douglas is great! A small coastal town with lots of expensive restaurants, which apparently attracts celebrities on holiday (not that I have seen any yet!). There's also Four Mile Beach which is lovely and this time, you can swim in it! I liked Port Douglas so much that I decided to collect my rucksack from Cairns and head straight back. Jon is on his way to Sydney so we're probably going to meet up again in November and head to Perth, can't wait!

Since being in Port Douglas I have been working in the hostel I am staying at, doing five days a week housekeeping shifts in return for seven nights free accomodation and breakfast. Nice to be saving some money. I'm in the process of sorting out a paid job at a holiday resort down the road, so soon I should start topping up the funds. I can breathe a sigh of relief again!

I'm sharing a dorm room with five German girls, so I'm loving listening to them twitter on. Last night I learnt a few new phrases to add to my current list of "hi how are you?" "excuse me how do I get to the church" and "he's a horny pig". I can now say "weather's good yes" plus a good selection of swear words (I would list these but I'm told my Grandmother reads these blogs). I believe last night I was taught me how to say "I'm a hussy" in Italian, which would have been great to remember but due to excessive 'wodka' consumption this was not stored in the memory bank!! Ach nein.

So ja, ich bin in Port Douglas, ich habe les nouvelles amies, ich trinke beaucoup mais je suis heureuse. Think I'll reste ici for a while. Oh and I have a slight tan, bien!

Ciao!

Bye Bye New Zealand!

2009-08-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

Being in Christchurch was a funny little experience for me. Firstly, I kept seeing signs everywhere for Canterbury Christchurch, Canterbury Museum, Canterbury this, Canterbury that. It took me back to the days of living in Kent and particularly my fun year living in Canterbury whilst I was at art college....ahh the good old days where the next few years were mapped out for you in a series of terms and holiday blocks. Also the times where you didn't have to fret too much about getting a job/running up an overdraft/finding a bed for the night/new freckles etc. But hey, the unknown is the exciting part I'm told!

I shed a tear as Gemma got into the shuttle bus and on her way to the airport to commence her mammoth journey back to the UK, taking her some 36 hours at least when you take into account her two changes in Sydney and Bangkok. Felt like an end of an era after our 10 weeks travel together. I believe she is back safe and sound now, and was greeted at the arrivals gate by her boyfriend and his nephew with banners reading "Welcome home Gemma" and "We love Gingers". Brilliant! Infact I shed another tear at this point...what a beautiful moment that must have been...though don't worry I'm not missing England at all and I'm quite happy where I am ta! Though of course you could all show your love and appreciation by wiring some money if you like?! :-)

Jon and I, abandoned by J Lo Gemma, wandered off to fend for ourselves and consequently got lost straight away. A few directions later and we found ourselves somewhere to eat some brekkie and sort our lives out for the next few days left in New Zealand before we were due to fly to Australia. Christchurch, as lovely as it was, wasn't enough to keep up occupied for the next five days, so we decided to hire a campervan and do our own thing for a bit before reuniting with Sarah and a few other of the team from the Stray bus. We collected our van the next day, called a Wicked Camper, which was affectionately named Tea Bag and covered in spray paint graffitti, and loaded some kit into the back. Feeling rather nervous about driving an automatic van in a different country (NZ drive on the same side of the road to us which made it easier!), I ordered Jon to stay awake the entire time so that I had a map reader! I got beeped once in Christchurch within the first half hour...haha well surely they could see we were tourists?! But we made it out of Christchurch quite easily and followed the scenic road up to a town called Kaikoura. The drive was a lot of fun, beautiful rolling country side and snow capped mountains as ever, as well as crashing waves on the seafronts next to us. Unfortunately the radio signal cut out shortly after leaving Christchurch so poor Jon had to put up with my choice of music (the only CD I had was Manu Chow) but we had a good time all the same. We pulled up in Kaikoura after about three hours, cooked ourselves a spot of dinner from the little cooker in the back (wrapped up in many layers and freezing to death) and then headed straight to the pub to warm up. We ended up joining in with a pub quiz actually. Two local kiwis must have taken pity on us, as every other table had large groups formed, whereas Jon and I sat with just the two of us! We had a good evening chatting to them, and they told us where to park up for the night. We blasted the heating on in the van before bedding down for the night...infact it wasn't too bad really, not too chilly really. We work up the next morning to sunrise on the beach and snow capped mountains...incredible. A lady was getting into her car next to us and she said "It's paradise isn't it? And I pinch myself as I wake up to it every morning" Ahhh...write that down as a meaniful quote!

We took ourselves off to Maruia Springs that day which was a bit more inland. More lovely scenes and winding roads. We drove through a lot of towns which were like ghost towns...seemed to be nobody about everywhere we went! We finally arrived at Maruia Springs, and excitedly booked a session in the hot pools and Japanese spas. It was amusing to have to walk speedily in bathing suits in the freezing cold, and sit in the spas as quickly as the temperature would allow...but once immersed in soothing heat and the natural minerals in the spa pools, overlooking the mountainside, we were happy! An odd sensation to be in the cold air but to feel warm in the spa pools! How very relaxing and worth the drive!

On the drive back we started freaking out as the petrol light flashed up, and we were by this point in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black. A very tense ride that was I tell you! We were trying to calm ourselves by noting that there was always a car ahead or behind us, so that if the worst happened at least we could try flagging someone...though Jon did start recalling all sorts of stories he remembered from Crimewatch and scaring himself that we could end up in a similar situation....thanks Jon! Just the sort of conversation we needed at that point! Going uphill was the worst bit, the petrol all ran to the back of the tank and the petrol light was threating to stop us in our tracks, then a sigh of relief as we cruised down hill for a bit more....oh dear you can see the pattern here? Finally, after what seemed like an age of gripping the wheel and negotiating all the sharp bends, we finally saw a Mobil garage. Phew!! So in we pulled, hearts lifting again, until we then saw that you needed a Mobil club card in order to use the stupid thing. The air was cursed like pandemonium and we slammed the doors to drive back on our way. Who only allows Mobil club members to use their petrol tanks? Surely that is bad for business - they just lost our custom didn't they! All was ok in the end as we found another garage and filled up. Thank goodness we had not broken down before then, would have been very intimidating in the countryside and would have broken the bank to have call out charges etc..but hey, these stories make it the adventure it was I guess!

Once back in Christchurch the next day we met up with Sarah and a few others to do a day of sightseeing in Christchurch. We visited the Botanic gardens and some markets and also a few art galleries at the arts centre. That evening we sat and watched the All Blacks v Australia rugby game in the pub, absolutely loved the haka and brought back the memories of our cultural evening earlier on in the month where the boys in our group had learnt how to perform it. Sadly, Christchurch by night was not as great as it was by day, so we gave up on the rubbish bars after a while and went to bed. Australia the next day!!!! Yippee!

So yes, we are now in Australia, Cairns to be exact. I left my coat and winter clothes behind in New Zealand for someone else to make use of, and I am now sat here in shorts and a top, not feeling cold what so ever. Lovely. Yesterday, Jon, Sarah and I went on a boat trip around the Great Barrier Reef which was great. Snorkelling was incredible. Even better was my chance to fly in a helicopter which was something that I have always longed to do. Seeing the Great Barrier Reef from 500ft above was so exciting, and amazingly beautiful. The ten minute ride seemed to go in seconds which was shame but it was such a good experience. There should be a ton of photos on facebook to follow.

We're staying put in Cairns for a bit until we decide what to do with ourselves. Today we had our first Australian barbeque out on the seafront and I even tried a tiny piece of kangaroo meat - bloody disgusting. Don't do it. We're off out tonight, and then tomorrow I'll try get onto the job hunt again. Fingers crossed.

That's about all for now. Ta ra.

Farewell Gemma

2009-08-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm sat staring at the computer screen, willing my brain to remember what I've been up to since my last entry...so bear with me.

So our few days in Wellington was really cool, so we left the blue skies to make our way to Queenstown. On the journey down south we stopped in a place called Franz Josef. We stayed two nights there so that we could take advantage of the hiking activities on the glacier. So bright and early our big group of Strays headed down to the reception to get kitted out with waterproof (remember that key word) outer clothing and hiking boots, sufficient for the day ahead of us. We winced somewhat at the grey clouds and spots of rain, but decided to remain positive and assure ourselves that dry weather was on the cards. A few last minute snoozing and a bus journey later, strapped up in plastic sheeting legwear and flattering overcoats, we grudingly piled off the coach and onto the wet, rainy setting of Franz Josef glacier. Off we set on our full day hike. In the rain. Which didn't stop...all day. On the bright side, we successfully climbed through ice caves with ice boots and pick aces, up several ice steps and down varying levels of the glacier to see panoramic and foggy views of the impressive, natural landscape. But back to the moans - we were absolutely soaked through!! Being the safety conscious traveller that I am, I wore my money belt that day, and even my passport got soggy! Not good.

To cheer things up, we all went down to some hot springs at the end of the day to rest our weary limbs and chat about the days events. The hot springs were so, so good - three pools ranging from 36 to 40 degrees....pure luxury! Felt a bit light headed getting out of them mind!

From Franz Josef we stopped off at a few nice places before eventually getting to Queenstown. We stayed five nights and met up with our friend Jon (that we'd met on Koh Phi Phi). Queenstown has been really good - a kiwi pub crawl, winning wet t-shirt competitions (guess who!), jet boating, Gemma and Sarah's killer bungy jump (134m!), Fergburger dinners and a day of skiing.

Skiing. Man, I am not meant to slide down slopes gracefully. I spent the morning feeling cranky, tired and bloody useless at skiing! I spent more time on my bum than I did standing up! The ski instructor, bless him, had a lot of patience for me, and some how knew my name straight away. Probably because I was the Bambi of the group! (Maybe that's an insult to bambi?) Gemma, Sarah and Jon took a lot more naturally to skiing than I did! Having said that, by the afternoon I had managed to ski down the nursery slope and travel up on the ski lift a good four or five times without falling over - nice one! I have to tell you importantly, that I avoided collisions with any other skiers so I was quite pleased with that (obviously I made myself fall over instead of learning how to stop!) but Gemma managed to plough into people on at least three occasions, taking out several people at a time! Then she proceeded to head on to the intermediate slope, before realising that she wasn't quite up to speed with this level, thus requiring tandem skiing with the new ski instructor in order to get back down the slope. I take my hat off to her for her bravery!!

Today we are all aching like hell, my arms and shoulders in particular from the amount of times I flew arse over tit and my poles went flying! Even other snow boarding instructors were starting to recognise me when I needed assistance back onto my feet! Oh the humiliation, thank god I just lay in the snow laughing at myself. Anyhoo. So Queenstown was cool. Absolutely full of stunning snow boarding Australians (I had the fortunate pleasure of sharing a lift with three of them in my hostel!) We've left Sarah in Queenstown for a few extra days, while Gemma, Jon and I travelled onto Christchurch today. Our bus broke down half way so we were quite late arriving. Ah well it could have been worse. We were thankful to have smuggled Jon onto the Stray Tour Bus without having paid for a ticket (we owe our bus driver a drink or two now!) which was really helpful. Jon's having a bit of a battle adjusting to backpacker life at the moment. The poor guy has never cooked a meal in his life, always eats out in trendy places and stays in nice hotels (perks of working for Virgin) and currently doing well stopping smoking without too much disorder. I'm on a mission to get him cooking and penny pinching, else we'll both be back in England in two weeks. Funds are low. Job hunting is high on the agenda next week when we get to Cairns (as well as sunbathing, he tells me).

Gemma gets on her flight back to the UK tomorrow! :( How very sad for us, we will miss her and her Gemmaisms. Rudeys, minnies, enemers, fudge buckets, J Lo, Eutopia, Estanbul and tiddlywinks. What a girl.

Time for me to go. Maori kiss x x

Climate shock!

2009-08-09T03:13:00.000-07:00

I have never felt jet lag in the same way as I did when I arrived in Auckland! I guess if I hadn't have stayed up drinking wine with Gemma and Sarah, and missed some films to get some sleep then maybe the change over in Melbourne and the continuation onto Auckland might not have felt so bad! The drive into Auckland felt very much like a bus ride through England on a November day, and finally I felt grateful for carrying round a hoodie, jeans and a waterproof for the past two months in Asia!

We stayed in central Auckland for a couple of days to get our bearings, get over the long flight from Singapore and to do a bit of shopping! Mainly for winter clothes and in my case, for a new camera (someone remind me to claim back on my tax before I leave for Australia!). We booked ourselves onto a Stray Bus Tour for the month (like Kiwi Experience bus tours but for an older and more sophisticated age group, obviously), and set off a few days later to travel through the North and South Islands. We whizzed through the North Island fairly quickly, stopping off everyday at different locations. The scenery along the way has been absolutely stunning, mountainous, green, rolling countryside everywhere. I have not seen a bad place yet!

Raglan was pretty sweet, a great little surfing town with amazing beaches. Sarah and Gemma went for a surf but I decided to leave that for the warmer weather in Australia! I was quite happy to snuggle up in my new coat and drink beer on a picnic bench with the rest of the bus! Another stop off was in Maketu for a Maori cultural evening, where we watched Maori guys perform the haka (they were very scary!!) and then we all had a go learning traditional dances. This was also Sarah's 25th birthday, so a few drinks were consumed along with birthday cake!

We have been on several walks through National Parks, looking like proper hikers with trousers tucked into our socks (very glamourous!) seeing amazing views, lots of snow capped mountains, caves with tiny glow worms inside (magical!), millions of waterfalls and crashing waves on gorgeous beach coves....New Zealand is just beautiful. I can completely see why so many people move out here - apart from the amazing landscapes around you, it is very quiet with such a small population, not many cars on the road, everything so clean etc etc. The winter season is not such a draw back either, as once again we benefit from discounted prices, and as long as you can put up with wearing a coat, hat and scarf it is fine. In fact, Gemma and Sarah had their bobble hats custom made for them by a fellow Stray bus traveller who passed the time on bus journeys by crocheting!

We got off the bus finally when we hit Wellington, staying here for three nights with some of the group. A big night out was definately on the agenda! Team building of course! We loved Wellington (capital of New Zealand) - it felt just like a big town rather than a capital. We amused ourselves at a great museum (free) called Te Papa museum for several hours, before stumbling across a boat quay with spherical sculptures - for those of you on facebook, you will see that we spent at least an hour messing around with a digital camera and the video function. Gemma's videos were hilarious, strutting about like a catwalk model, then running after joggers on the boat quay (before complaining to them that she couldn't keep up with them since she wasn't wearing her sports bra that day!), then she decided to run after skateboarders, flash her bra..etc the list goes on. A lot of laughs that day!

We are now in the South Island, and heading for Queenstown in a few days where we are planning to meet up with our friend Jon that we met on Koh Phi Phi. Gemma's countdown begins around now, as she flies back on 19th aug, but Sarah, Jon and I still have Australia to look forward to.

Reckon that is all I can squeeze in for an entry before my computer cuts out!

Love you all! Love New Zealand! Sweet as.

Bye Bye Asia

2009-07-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Our stay on Koh Phi Phi started out as a bit of uncertainty - we weren't sure if we liked the crowded vibe of endless shops, bars and restaurants, but this feeling soon changed once we made some new friends. Gemma had flagged early one night and headed back to our room, but Sarah and I decided to keep throwing some shapes! So there we were on the beach, the smell of gasoline everywhere from the fire poi shows, strobe lights and dodgey club tunes surrounding us, when all of a sudden a handsome young man approaches me to begin conversation! Sarah gives me the eye of approval, subtly moves away to give me some "space" and so the handsome guy and I begin chatting.....his first line was "Just so you know, I'm not coming onto you, I'm gay!" DAMN!!....in the strongest Leeds accent known to man, just what every single girl wants to hear!!!! you gotta love Jon! Soon he pulled over his best friend Hayley and the happy times rolled. Dancing the night away, helping Jon find a man, talking life stories with Hayley...in fact we loved them both so much we managed to persuade them to follow us to Koh Lanta! So a few days later after hardcore beach parties were well and truly out of our system, we met up with them on the island of Koh Lanta - extremely quiet and shut down this time of year but quite refreshing after the manic atmosphere of Koh Phi Phi! We all stayed in a luxury holiday resort on the beach with a great pool - all for 2 quid a night each - we couldn't believe how cheap it was - everyone should travel in low season!! the five of us hired mopeds to explore the island, seeing viewpoints, beaches and mountains along the way, stopping at 7 Eleven convenience stores for cheese toasties and mentoes! One night we also had dinner with some South African friends we'd met on Koh Phi Phi, who'd also come to Lanta. They worked for RBS in Canary Wharf so we went over to their side of town for dinner one night - very nice indeed, not quite budget eating but a pleasant evening all the same!! Most nights we ended up in Ting Tong bar which was on the beach by our resort - we later realised that Ting Tong is a Thai phrase for the state of mind when one gets high! So did we get ting tong? hehe...

So Koh Lanta was good - great company, lots of giggles, even had a slumber party one night and watched films (detoxing from alcohol that evening!). Soon the time came to wave a sad goodbye to Hayley and John as they went off to see more of Thailand, and the three of us made our way to Phuket. I really can't think of much good to report about Phuket as I couldn't wait to leave really - well perhaps the only thing would be that we stumbled across a massive market and managed to find some Mac, Chanel, Givenchy and Bobbi Brown fake make up - really good fakes actually for a fraction of the price. As we were in Phuket Airport I went to the duty free section to spy some genuine Chanel eye shadow and was suitably pleased that my rip off version was exactly the same! Girlie Win! Yeah so apart from the retail therapy there, Phuket, as a city, got the major thumbs down from us! Too busy, pretty dirty and just not much to do.

But all's been great since as we arrived in Singapore!!! We love it here! It is so clean, so spacious, so friendly, so amazing at every corner you turn! We are staying in a great little youth hostel in Little India, our first experience of dorm rooms so far as Singapore is the most expensive place in Asia and up until now we have had the luxury of private ensuite rooms for pennies! We have had some amazing Indian food at a vegetarian restaurant near us (much to Gemma's delight - she has really struggled to find satisfying vegetarian food these past two months) and we also spent about three hours in an Indian beauty salon yesterday getting henna tattoos on our hands and arms!! This is a life ambition fulfilled for me - the other two are glad I've finally found somewhere so that I can shut up about it!! I now have the most amazing henna designs on both hands and one forearm, I feel like waving my arms in everyone's face to show them off, they are so bloody cool!! The designs have turned really dark brown too - much better than the henna I've done at home in the past. I then decided to go purchase some new nose studs...when in Little India....

We were taken out to see some sights and to have dinner by some American lawyer guys we met on the plane from Phuket...they actually tried to blag us a hotel room through their company, at the amazing hotel they were staying at (30th floor views of the fireworks and sky scrapers - ooh err!) but we declined this offer, but didn't mind letting them take us out for dinner! We sat on the boat quay in the evening eating Indian food (again!) and drinking wine, very sophisticated! Food babies well and truly blooming, we headed back to our youth hostel budget region and felt rather amazed that we'd been shown around Singapore and wined and dined all for free! Pretty good budget travellers huh!

Then last night we managed it again! We'd spent the evening amusing ourselves in Chinatown and when we got back to the hostel the manager offered to take us out, well why not? We slung our stuff in our room, jumped in a taxi and soon we were at Movida - a massive nightclub amongst the skyscraper cityscape. Simon, the manager, showed his card to the bouncers and got us in for free (smooth) and sat us in the VIP areas to drink whiskey and coke and partake in some salsa dancing!! Not too sure I approved of the singer getting down from the stage to try swing me around the dancefloor but a few drinks later and "Areeeeeba! Let's go!" Salsa dancing in nightclubs, I think this could catch on - maybe a niche in the market in quiet little Richmond? After the show stopped in that room, we moved on to a different floor and another VIP space...it was the weirdest thing ever to be in a club where we were the only Western people - it was purely a case of Spot The Traveller - three tall girls walking through a sea of beautiful Singaporian women, us lot dressed in flip flops, thai trousers, bikini tops and messy hair, feeling not quite the part!! Still, we enjoyed dancing to the music before another live act came on - this time it was a Malaysian rock band - bloody hilarious!! So we rocked out for a while, Avril Lavigne style, the rock band were pretty cool though, sang in Malay most of the time but then they threw a Bryan Adams classic in there - yay! a sing-a-long! The night club was amazing though, even if it was a Sunday night....I love Singapore, someone find me a job and let me live here!!

Today we are leaving Singapore :( and leaving South East Asia :( We have had the best two months in this part of the world!! Tonight we are getting our long haul flight to Auckland in New Zealand, winter time for us! It will soon be Sarah's 25th birthday so there will be birthday treats in store for us!

Until next time x

2009-07-16T02:37:00.000-07:00

Well I guess an update has been long overdue...

We had an amazing time in Pai, meeting lots of people and being pretty lazy and chilled out. Once we managed to get out of a hammock, we hired some motorbikes one day and took a ride out of the town. We visited some natural hot springs (like taking a hot bath outdoors - so good), a waterfall or two and a canyon. Lovely sites and good fun to ride about! We stopped at an amazing coffee shop on the way called Coffee in Love with panoramic views overlooking Pai.

Towards the end of our stay in Pai we discovered the art of Muay Thai - thai boxing, and so two gingers and a curly girl took themselves across the rickety bridge to kick some ass....
The warm up was funny...we were told to start skipping to build up our heart rate etc but we soon got bored of the serious stuff and started revising old playground skipping, even managing to convince a set of Thai twin girls to join in the fun while their Big Mama was in the ring! So we mucked about for a bit before donning the gloves, then we each took it in turns one-on-one with the gym instructor in the ring. I'll have you know I was giving some good kicks - I never knew I had so much agression in me! Boxing was a pretty good work out (despite us not taking it step by step!) and by the end of the three hour session we'd collapsed in heaps of giggles trying to keep up with the pros and their "cool down" press ups!
The manager and the staff at the gym were so friendly and we often sat with them having drinks in the evening. On the Saturday evening after boxing we were invited to a barbeque hosted by them which was great...at one point someone told us to check out one of the empty bungalows on the way back home - where we discovered that a dog was giving birth to puppies!!! She had a litter of 6 by the time we got there and the puppies were all squeaking and just being adorable! But then we got angry as we wanted to know where the father was in the situation! tut tut.

On our final morning our Thai friend Jacky cooked us a lovely lunch meal to send us off on our way - we all tucked into rice, omelettes, thai soup and chilli noodles, so grateful for the gesture! Jacky was such a legend, we really miss her, thank goodness for facebook hey! We then set off on our mammoth bus journey from the north of Thailand down to the southern islands in search of the Full Moon Party. The journey involved two overnight buses and a 12 hour stop in Bangkok...bloody knackering but made all the more fun for picking up a new friend from Pai called Kamalee - a French Canadian who was also on her way to get down and funky on Haad Rin Beach! So we hunted down some luxury (but cheap) bungalows on a beach called Haad Yao on the main island of Koh Phag Nan. We were staying right on the beach and it was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! Masses of white sand and blue blue sea! So off we ran, flip flops a flapping and off for a good swim! We had some amazing food on the seafront too - barbequed red snapper was a particular highlight.

We went out the night before the proper Full Moon Party to warm up - beach was buzzing with loads of different bars all blaring out music and advertising the notorious buckets (of cocktails). We met a group of irish guys and had a brilliant night trying everything out, from inflatable hamster balls on the water to podium dancing and fire limbos! The Full Moon Party the following night was a lot busier but still good fun. We watched the sunrise and carried on dancing!

We also did a great boat trip around the various beaches on the island. We met an Australian and Israeli couple and went snorkelling together. I don't know why we bothered with suncream really as we all had the most hideous sunburn afterwards but seeing all the varieties of tropical fish made it completely worth it. At one point we had pieces of pineapple with us to feed them, and ended up with hundreds of beautiful fish swimming round us to grab the pineapple! Awesome.

We left Koh Phag Nan a few days ago and made our way to Koh Phi Phi, which we were meant to do all in one day but since the sea was somewhat "choppy", to put it mildly, we had to stay overnight in Krabi. The ferry the next day was still quite a rough ride, so much so that Gemma decided to share her toast with the rest of the boat...poor girl. Koh Phi Phi is the island that was mainly affected by the Tsunami Disaster. Sarah visited back in 2005 about 8 months after the event, and helped to make Memorial Gardens and clean the beaches. Coming to Koh Phi Phi four years later, she could not believe how much has sprung up where once lay open stretches of beach...in fact I kind of find the masses of shops and bars a bit claustrophobic...it seems that there's been a rush to build their lives back up and get tourism thriving again, but we think they've overdone it somewhat! Something we were impressed by is that there are no motor vehicles on the island - everybody walks, cycles or gets a boat to get around! Very refreshing.

We took another boat trip yesterday to see other parts of the island - including the spot where the film The Beach was filmed. A bit more snorkelling and sunbathing rounded off another good day. Oh but you can all have a laugh because I have a sunglasses mark and a burnt face from being in the water!

We are now trying to decide what to do for the next few weeks, and researching how to get to Malaysia...

Pai in the sky

2009-06-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

I have been sat in a hammock solidly for the past four days doing sweet F.A so I'm feeling quite braindead..but I'll try to give a summary of what we've been up to since returning to Thailand.

I was anticipating having to be put into quarantine when crossing the border of Thailand - I'd been suffering from a cold and had lost my voice whilst in Luang Probang so I was popping lots of ibuprofen and icing my forehead in preparation! Previous experience of crossing borders and going through heat sensitivity machines manned by staff in full protective gear and face masks, having thermometers shoved in our ears and having to fill out numerous health forms told me that, maybe, it might be a task? So I sweated a bit and hopped about from foot to foot but after all that palava it happened.......shit.................the Thais in white coats approached me...and they let me through no problem!!! So much for excessive health checks at airports, no wonder there has been a swine flu outbreak!

So that was the first drama over with, so we settled in a guesthouse in Chiang Mai safely and felt ready to spend a few days there. We found a good night market on our first evening which was great, amused us for hours - our bartering skills are perfected now!! The next day we walked about for hours in the heat, trying to find a women's prison we had read about that offered massages. The inmates are supposedly due for release in 6 months and the money spent on the massage will help support them when they leave...not sure it was quite my cup of tea so when we arrived and were told there was a huge queue I was quite relieved....somehow the thought of having a massage by a criminal wasn't very reassuring! Oh and I musn't forget my Lara Croft moment the following day when we went quad biking in the mountains - I was going downhill over rocky and wet terrain and the bike veered to the cliff edge...I threw myself off in time (wearing safety gear so it was ok) but the bike carried on going....I was more concerned about the bike falling off the side of the mountain and having to pay to replace it...but thankfully it got stuck on some grass, so three of us managed to pull it back up! The tour leader eventually came back to see what was going on and laughed!! Charming! My near death experience wasn't the first - another girl in my group had actually come off the bike and it had rolled over her about 20 minutes beforehand - hence my timidness after that! A guy in a different group had also gone over the cliff with the bike but only had a sore back to show for it!!

So anyway, we all lived to tell the tale, and I've been whizzing around on the back of motorbikes ever since...we left Chiang Mai the day after quad biking and headed to a place about 4 hours away called Pai. It is, by far, my favourite place. I didn't like the hussle and bussle (and dodgey health and safety!) of Chiang Mai, but Pai is a great little town full of nice little cafes and art houses, Thai locals in tie dye and flares and mesmerising live music every night. We are staying in a bungalow on stilts overlooking the river - beautiful. So as I wrote at the beginning, I have pretty much been lying in a hammock ever since I got here! I went to a free meditation class one morning which was an interesting experience and I will definately be going to more. I have had a thai massage and a foot scrub, and at stupid o'clock this morning I got on a moto to go to some hot springs at dusk....this is the life! I've been spending some time in some tattoo studios too, talking to them about their work, looking at their drawings and watching Gemma get inked!!! The artist that did hers was only 21 but so talented...we had drinks with him and his friends later on that night, what a legend!

So I thought Laos was amazing but Pai is something else...I love it here.

Bye bye Laos

2009-06-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

A week on from our previous post and we're still in love with Laos! We spent our final few days in Vang Vieng by going kayaking and caving one day, going out every night and being really lazy - just the way we want to be! Spending a week there was really cool - we met so many great people and it was sad to say goodbye to our temporary community. Still, by the time we got on our bus to Luang Prabang, we felt ready to see something new. Luang Probang, forgetting the white knuckle "VIP" bus ride to arrive here, is a beautiful river town, full of French style cafes and a great night market.

Gemma and I treated ourselves to a traditional Laos massage on our first day - lovely! I am still covered in huge bruises from tubing (over a week ago!) so massaging my legs was rather painful and not quite the soothing experience I was hoping for!! Let's see how a thai massage compares hey.

We took ourselves down to a local education centre one morning where we sat with local Lao teenagers who are learning English and want help with their reading and pronunciation - this was a great experience as, for once, there was no pressure to spend any money first and we genuinely felt like we were helping people and not being conned out of any money! I sat with a 15 year old girl called Va whose English was really limited but we were able to communicate just about! I showed her some pictures of my family from my camera and wrote down their names for her. I asked her to do the same and her list went on for ever! 12 brothers and sisters! My word. After a while drawing loads of fruit, vegetables and animals I gave up on English and decided to teach her how to play noughts and crosses! Then I tried to show off by making one of those paper game origami things, and before i'd even finished she'd taken the scraps of paper and made me some origami roses...ahh! Really good morning anyway, Lao people have been so friendly in each place we've been to.

Later that day we visited some beautiful waterfalls and a bear sanctuary, and spent the rest of the day relaxing (too hot to do much else) and spending loads of money at the night market! Had a great time this morning going elephant trekking and feeding them bananas afterwards - riding an elephant is a lot scarier than I'd imagined though, especially going downhill!! The elephant trail took us across a river as well which was stunning for the landscapes - then suddenly Sarah and I (who were sharing an elephant seat) heard some loud splashes from behind us, and realised that our beautiful elephant was having a poo in the river!!! Didn't we kill ourselves laughing when huge green lumps of dung floated past us! Well when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!

This is our last day in Luang Prabang and tomorrow we are leaving Laos and heading to Thailand! Probably going to stop in Chang Mai first but hoping to visit Pai as we've heard good reports!

I'm trying to encourage the other two to write some posts on here soon - slackers!

I want to ride my bicycle

2009-06-13T01:35:00.000-07:00

We have been in Vang Vieng now for the past four nights, and loving it. We have finally stopped somewhere and chilled out for a good amount of time and not in a hurry to leave just yet! We have met some great people each night when we've headed out for a game of pool - one place in particular has a warped table so it takes us hours to get through a game! It has been a great place to socialise though and there are many backpackers here. Admittedly on our first night, it felt a bit reminiscent of freshers week, but all the same we've met a varied bunch of people and had some great times.

Our first full day was spent tubing down the lake (forget the exact name, begins with N) which involved getting a tuk tuk to the starting point and being greeted by drunk gap year students waving cocktail buckets about and throwing themselves off swing ropes into the water. We stayed at the first stop for a while before jumping into our tubes and floating down the lake where we were pulled in by the next bar to participate in mud bath tug o war - very funny times. Time went quite quickly and before we knew it we'd been to each bar along the river and it was time to float back to return our tubes before 6pm. This was the best bit of the day, lying in a ring and being carried down by the current of the water for an hour under the stunning mountainous scenery of Laos - awesome. By the evening time I felt completely dead and am still covered in various scratches and huge purple bruises - am hoping I'll feel a bit more normal in a few days!! Lying down is a bit of a task at the moment!
We chilled out by the pool the day after tubing, and yesterday decided to do another activity - a 32 km bike ride/cave trip - and boy did we feel it, cycling all that way in mid day heat!!! We left at 9.30am on our mountain bikes, and didn't get back til 4.30pm that day....looking back it was well worth the struggle though! Our guide led us out of Vang Vieng town centre and round all the countryside, passing several villages where the children would run out and wave at us, shouting "sa bai dee!" (hello in Lao) so we did try to wave back where possible but at times it was so rocky that we decided it might be better to hold on to the handlebars and scream "sa bai deeeeeeee" back!! Too many brusies from tubing so we didn't want to injure ourselves anymore!
At lunchtime we stopped at one of the caves and climbed up 100 feet to the entrance - rather scary in sandals! The caves were amazing, quite risky as they were so slippery. We swear that if it had been in England there would be no way we could have done that trek - it was quite dangerous at times and health and safety would not stretch that far to backpackers with no experience in rock climbing and not even helmets (I bumped my head, ouch!). Still, cool adventure and once we were out and back to ground level we were able to swim in the lagoon to cool off while our guide cooked our lunch. It was THE BEST Lao food we have had so far - fried vegetable rice in banana leaves and sweet and sour vegetable kebabs, as well as fresh mangoes and bananas - the fruit out here it unreal - it all tastes amazing unlike all the imported stuff we have in the UK. The rest of the afternoon was the long cycle back to town - we stopped so much for water and all looking quite bronzed now too! We're ever so slightly flaked from that day so we're just taking it easy today! Might go kayaking tomorrow.

So things are good really, lots of socialising and lots of Beer Lao, gorgeous weather and cheap accommodation! Think we'll be here for a few days yet before heading off to Luang Probang - some 6 or 7 hours away by bus.

We're off to go relax! x x x

Puppies

2009-06-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one to say that we got our flight ok yesterday from Phnom Penh to Vientienne in Laos - thankfully no fake air tickets and no dodgey aircrafts. Though once again, Gemma was not impressed with the supposed vegetarian option offered on the plane - just extra bread and butter!

Vientienne is really quiet, quite dull, not a lot going on really, Actually, we did go to a bar last night and watched some live music which was really good. Not sure Sarah was enjoying the sorrow mood of some of the songs as she'd experienced a great loss that same day. Sadly, on our arrival in Laos, she realised that the all important item had been left behind in our previous guesthouse in Cambodia - something very close to her heart - her black bra. Deeply upset, this bra had been a great support to her for quite some time, and now she didn't feel quite so perky!

Still, the sun shone today and Sarah felt a lot better as we embarked on a walking tour around a few sights, after having spent most of the morning at the Thailand Embassy getting our Thai visas. We're catching a bus tomorrow afternoon to go to Vang Vieng. Hoping to stay put there for a good week at least to take full advantage of all the water activities. Fill you in later！

Edinburgh, Essex, Estanbul, Eutopia!

2009-06-06T04:12:00.001-07:00

So, as promised, we treated ourselves to a night out in the seaside town of Sihanoukville. After having dinner with some new found friends in the restaurant of our guesthouse, we walked to the nearest bar and ordered a drink. Whilst at the bar, one of the many dogs we pass decided to lick my ankle .... of course I instantly panicked about the threat of rabies as indicated by the faithful nurse back in Richmond. So I whipped out my hand anesthetic stuff and said a million hail marys. Seems to have worked, I'm still here 24 hours later so not so bad hey? We won't tell you what we saw two other dogs doing in the middle of the street though a bit later on!!

Sihanoukville offered some good deals for backpacker party people - a free tuk tuk to a bar on the beach which offered free drinks to the laydees after 10pm! Nice one! So naturally we stayed there, enjoyed watching some awesome fire displays by Cambodian guys on the beach. We even tried to get him to teach us later but unfortunately didn't manage much before dropping it or narrowly poking an eye out! Did get invited up for a booty shake by the locals, one including Cambodia's home version of Gok Wan - he was the best! Told us all about his arsehole Western boyfriend who ditched him for a different country - bastard. He seemed a bit offended when we told him he was like Gok Wan but once he understood this was a popular fashion stylist in the UK he was happy. Will try get some photos up soon. Oh and I mustn't forget the local women who are obsessed with our skin and are so jealous of our pale complexions! They were so friendly and it really helped to make our night by mixing with them. We couldn't believe that one girl/woman was 31 - they all look much younger. She was so pretty with a great figure so we told her so. She replied, "Oh noooo, we want to look like you! You know, Cambodian men - they like women like you (grabs my hips) like really fat!" Hahaha!!! Completely meant as a compliment in every way possible but it did make us laugh (and did make me squirm at being fat!).

So our night in Sihanoukville was lots of fun, hardly spent anything considering that Cambodia has been pricey. The next day it was back to brilliant sunshine - typical, but still we hopped on our bus to Phomn Penh - the capital of Cambodia. Along the way we have been hanging out with a German girl called Anna and an American called Nick. Though Nick insists that he is not an American, he is from Planet Earth! Somewhat embarassed of the American reputation I guess. Also, whilst racing a few tuk tuks to our guesthouse, we got talking to a group of travellers who just so happen to be from Northallerton - blinkin small world!

We aren't staying in Phonm Penh very long - after much deliberation we have decided to abandon the idea of visiting Vietnam as we really just won't have time and will be constantly on the move and not enjoying ourselves. We have a flight booked tomorrow to fly to the Vientenng (sp?) capital of Laos. We are planning to spend about two weeks chilling out and finally settling somewhere for a bit longer as we've been ongoing pretty much from the start. A lot of people have advised us to go tubing which is meant to be a lot of fun. Will keep you posted!

As we sat having our dinner this evening in the ghetto regions of Phomn Penh (there are rats running by our guesthouse and the toilet is already blocked but it's only $1 a night!) we befriended a street kid who tried to sell us some knock off Lonely Planet guides. He offered to do our hair for us so prompltly whipped out our hairclips and started styling away - we have some dodgey hairdos going on now but amazingly, he didn't ask for a tip! He just chatted away and was so cool! I feel quite comfortable walking around with some crazy plait and quiff combination!!

Aside from the good stuff as mentioned, we decided to visit the S21 museum today (google it for a summary!) so that we could have more of an understanding of what the country went through in the 70s. It was really distressing and I didn't enjoy it at all, yet we all appreciated the importance of learning about it.

So tomorrow evening we will have landed in Laos, ready to settle down for a bit and live it up some more! Watch this space.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

2009-06-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

Sat typing this email from the internet cafe of our latest guesthouse in Sihanoukville, after leaving Siem Reap last night by sleeper bus. We found Siem Reap to be quite expensive - especially the entrance fees for the Angkor Wat Temples, which are admittedly, well worth seeing and cover a huge area so we bought a two day ticket costing $40. We watched the sunset over Angkor Wat on our second evening, which involved climbing some very narrow and steep steps to the top of the temple which had amazing views. We then got up at 5am the next morning to watch the sunrise over Bayon Temple and spent the rest of the morning walking around the different locations - one of the temples was used in the filming of the Tomb Raider film apparently! Couldn't get over how hot it was at only 8am that day!

We also had a bit of sorting out to do with regard to our visas for entry into Vietnam - these need to be applied for before crossing the border, so we searched round a few places for a reliable organiser and also went to have some passport photos taken. We eventually found the fujifilm shop after a while, and went upstairs to the photo studio to have professional passport photos taken (weren't expecting that at all!) - they came out airbrushed - pink cheeks and everything!! As we sat downstairs at the desk to pay for the photos, the Cambodian women were staring at us and then one said "Bweautifuullllll" and pointed to our skin!! So the lack of tan at the moment is working in our favour it seems!

Have to say we're getting a bit annoyed whenever we go somewhere for a visit and get totally bombarded by children trying to sell us bangles or postcard books. We swear when these children are born their first words must be "one dollar??" They will really follow us pestering us to buy their things and it does get a bit annoying!!

After spending one morning at the temples we then visited a floating village just outside of Siem Reap, the boat trip and scenery was great, had to dodge a few tourist traps though when they took us to a shop to ask us to buy exercise books for the children for $15 for a small pack! We don't think so!

After a few days in Siem Reap we really felt like chilling out on a beach so took the night bus last night to Sihanoukville. Unfortunately, rainy season has kinda spoilt it for us and the forcast is pretty crap, so we're currently looking at entering Vietnam sooner than we thought so that we can catch the better weather. Going to go out tonight in Sihanoukville and enjoy ourselves first though!

Laters!

2009-06-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

So here we are in Siem Reap, sweating profusely in the heat!

On our second night in Bangkok we thought we'd have a laugh and go to a ping pong show, so we bartered with a tuk tuk driver to take us to Patpong - the red light district of Bangkok. For the cheap price we agreed on he took us straight to a building that wasn't quite in the Patpong district but obviously he would get commission by taking us there. We refused this but walked down by ourselves to where we wanted to be. It's taking some getting used to being called at all the time and the local people trying to entice you into their bars. Patpong turned out to be a massive hassle - at one point we walked down a street and were just met by walls of touts, but sucessfully passed through without giving in though we did have a giggle at what we could see through the doorway into the bars!! We attempted to go to another show which offered supposedly free shows for a cheap drink but we soon gathered that it was never going to be free and we would be stupid to go in, as the staff were very persistant and could be agressive. So we eventually got back on a tuk tuk, having seen enough to make us smile and experienced enough hassle but thankfully not giving in to any prices. It completely took the comedy out of the idea in the first place!

Rainy season is definately in full swing, there have been heavy downpours and thunder and lightning each day, this has been quite a welcome cooler most of the time though. Thank god for good grip on my flip flops or else I probably would have broken a nail by now.

We got up early the next day to catch our minibus to the border of Thailand. We picked up some other people on the way including two English girls, until that point we hadn't really met any other people in Bangkok, oh except for two American Christians (who, we would like to point out, were both ginger!!) in Patpong. They were on a business trip researching the trafficking issue in Bangkok. They said a prayer to Jesus for our safety!

Anyway the ride to the border was fine, didn't take much more than 4 hours and was air conditioned the whole way. Crossing the border into Cambodia was somewhat tiring - heavy backpacks, midday temperatures and queues at various stages. Also we made the mistake of changing our currency at the border and getting a dodgey exchange rate - something we will not be repeating! Driving through to Siem Reap was basically a massive long stretch of road, taking about 3 hours to arrive in Siem Reap by taxi. We have a nice guesthouse and an air conditioned room which we love at the moment but eventually we will try to cope without air con once we have aclimatised to save money.

Last night we met some Canadian people in the bar of our guesthouse and also an English/Welsh couple in their 50s who rent out their home in Devon, have been saving for 20 years to do this and have been travelling for the last two years, planning to stay for many more. Really awesome couple, have given us loads of tips. We ended up going out that evening to relax since we'd had a big journey that day - ordered our first bucket of cocktails and danced the night away on Pub Street - My nail varnish made my toe nails glow under the UV lights which was very entertaining for me on the dancefloor!!

Siem Reap is so much nicer than the hussle and bussle of Bangkok - the people also seem a lot friendlier - our guesthouse porters gave us some lychees yesterday (Gemma had never heard of lychees and instantly named them Big Hairy Testicles - oh she is going to be funny to travel with. The porters also pissed themselves when she didn't know how to eat it and even tried to eat the nut from the centre..!) We have paid for our Vietnamese visas today as we need to get them in advance before crossing the border (which won 't be for another week we reckon). We are staying in Siem Reap until they arrive and plan to visit the temples of Angkor Wat tomorrow, which are meant to be amazing. We are going to catch a tuk tuk ride tonight to go watch a sunset somewhere too.

From Siem Reap we are heading to Sikanoukville which is full of beaches!! Woo! I am really looking forward to relaxing on the beach and going for a swim. We're going to get a sleeper bus there in a few days time.

That's about all for now I think! xx

2009-05-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

Went on a tuk tuk ride around Bangkok today - got taken to the obligatory expensive tailor shops and a few temples etc before it started to chuck it down! We did a bit of research about the cost of travel before deciding to book our journey to Siem Reap in Cambodia, leaving at 6:45am tomorrow morning!!!!! Arriving in Siem Reap at about 6pm, mixture of bus and taxi rides. We got up today at 1pm...sleeping patterns still not quite with it! Been trying out the local cusine and a bit of shopping so far.

Off to find the sexi boys now in Patpong!

Day One

2009-05-29T06:14:00.001-07:00

All arrived safe and sound! A wall of heat hit us as we waited for our taxi outside the airport..the taxi driver had never heard of the address of where we were staying but after stopping a policeman we managed to get there door to door...our room is air conditioned! wahey! but it doesn't lock...well at least it didn't appear to at first and we realised we'd need a big padlock to secure it. Not the cleanests of suites either but we do have a balcony overlooking the river..muddy river. Just enjoyed a meal on the Koh San Road and a wander around the market stalls and we'll be heading back shortly. So far, so good. Feeling tired, bed soon, then some planning to do about our next stop. Possibly go to some ping pong shows tomorrow!! :-)

The Adventure Begins!

2009-05-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

So here it is, the official place that you can read all the nitty gritty of our travels round South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia...

We set off on 28th May so tune in from then to find out more!

Love, the gals xxxx