Surfers Paradise

We drove to Surfers paradise with the car full to the brim with all our stuff, leaving barely any room for us. We had surfboards, body boards, camping gear which we didn’t even need over the next 10 days, and then all of our backpacks.
Arriving at the Santana apartment complex we were all so excited. Just to be able to sleep in a bed, watch TV and cook in a kitchen was a luxury. You take so much for granted, such as having a bath, keeping food in a fridge, or having electricity for that matter!
First things first we unpacked. It was so nice to be able to take my clothes out of my backpack for the first time and hang them in a wardrobe, another luxury (I’m so easily pleased)!
Next was food shopping. We did a massive shop, buying proper food, a nice change from eating out of tins when we were camping. I was so happy that I didn’t even feel the need to go anywhere. We had a pool and BBQ facilities at the complex and were only a short walk from the town centre and beaches.
To make a nice change, the weather was great. How far we’d come from being in a tent in the rain, and we were only an hour or so away. This was our holiday within a holiday!
During the day we pretty much just made the most of the weather and enjoyed the sunshine at the beach. Thankfully the sea was warmer here too. Surfers is like a big party town, and can be compared to Miami. It's a bit like Marmite (or Vegemite as i'm in Australia) you either love it or you hate it. It's considerably tacky, but the shoppnig is brilliant and the beaches are good enough. It is quite commercial, with Starbucks and McDonalds on every corner, but at the same time it has everything you need. I loved everything about it, like how at night the whole place lit up with neon lights and became nightlife central. And then during the day it was a chill-out zone with people walking around in swimmers heading for another day of surfing at the beach.

To me, there wasn't anything else you could ask for of a beachside resort. It was far from idyllic, and any form of class goes right out the window, but it's good fun!
It did rain occasionally, and then it’d be really humid afterwards. In fact sometimes it was so humid it would be unbearable.
One day we went to one of Queensland’s many tourist attractions, the Wet ‘n Wild waterpark. It was great fun, and beat the one we went to in Vietnam, ‘Vin Pearl Land’, hands down! I felt like I was a kid again, getting excited and nervous queuing up for all the rides. Unfortunately, early afternoon, it started to piss it down again. And, believe it or not, they closed the rides down....at a waterpark!! What a joke, it makes no sense at all! More annoying though was that we’d just spent ages in a queue for a ride and it closed as we got to the front! So that was the end of that day out. After spending about 80 bucks on the tickets we probably only went on half the rides.
After we were home and dried off it was time to start thinking about the weekend ahead, and get ready for a night on the town. This was our first night out in ages, so i went to the effort of dressing up in the only nice clothes I had at the time and straightening my hair etc, only for the humidity to turn it into a giant frizz! What a waste of time that was. Note to self – stick to curly hair in Queensland, it’s not worth the effort!
After some pre-drinks at the apartment, Paddy realised he had left his only shoes in our other car back in Byron, and only had flip flops. Surfers is really strict on dress code, so he couldn’t come out...which meant Keeley didn’t either. And so instead, quick change of plan, Me, Tom, and my frizzy hair got a taxi to Jupiters Casino. I’d never been in a casino before, apart from Vegas when I was too young to gamble. Australia has 21% of the world’s slot machines, they’re mad on it, and so the casino was packed, especially being a Friday night. There were lots of locals, tourists, and of course the Japanese spending big bucks. Cameras are banned in the casino, I’m sure the Jap would have struggled with not taking photos for a night!
I had a go and won 30 bucks first time with a $1 bet. That was enough to make me happy so I didn’t do anymore, i just got the drinks in while Tom gambled God knows how much on the roulette table. It was a funny night and we didn’t end up going to bed til 5 in the morning. Amazingly, I didn’t spend any more money on gambling, I did on wine though and I felt it the next day! I think it was 3pm by the time I dragged myself out of bed! I don’t think I’d stayed out so long or slept in that late since I was in Thailand!
For the next few days, the rain was on and off; so many a sunbathing session was cut short! One evening, once Paddy had bought shoes, we got ready for another night out. This time we went bowling, which I lost, as always.

Then we went on to a cool bar called Melbas, which was always packed when we’d gone past it before, but was quiet for a Sunday night. It was good in here, good music and plenty of cocktails to sample. Another nice change from the $15 cartons of wine we’d been drinking, warm, when we were camping. As much as i loved camping it was so nice to be able to get ready in a bathroom, dress up, and get out and about amongst the night life.
After 10 days in our apartment, having cooked many a nice meal and watched many a crappy Australian TV programme, it was time to head back to Byron Bay to meet the others and put our tents back up. I was actually looking forward to getting back to basics after our brief stint with normality. I was just keeping my fingers crossed for no more rain!

Gunther and the Gang go camping!

Our trip was supposed to begin the morning I got back from Becky’s. We went to various camping shops to by all our gear, and then everyone had something they wanted to do before we left, so by the time we were ready it was late in the day. We made it across the Harbour Bridge to Manly, which was where I’d just come back from! Realising we weren’t going to make it any further before dark, we crammed the lot of us into an apartment room for the night, and finally hit the road the following morning.

We jumped in the cars (ours was named Gunther, I’m not quite sure why) and made our way to our first stop, picking out a camp site randomly from a map. We ended up in Munmorah National Park, in the middle of nowhere! We had no phone signal and no electricity. The campsite was nearly empty, and we had to drive through miles of windy tree lined roads to get there, but it was great! There were cooking facilities, plus we had our own gas stoves etc, and were fully prepared with lots of food and beer in our cool boxes! We let the boys set up the tent, and enjoyed an afternoon of glorious sunshine and peace and quiet! We were about a 5 minute walk from a secluded beach, and a short drive to other beaches and viewpoints around the national park. At night time we sat around our camp, not quite singing camp songs, but having a laugh just the 6 of us with no one around, no noise, no traffic, no lights, nothing!

We stayed here for a few days. The boys would spend the days playing football, fishing, surfing (which I’m determined to learn to do), or any other ‘boy activities’ while Keeley and I chilled out on the beach. Every night we would have a BBQ and a few drinks. Life could not have been better or more relaxed.

Next stop was a place called Myall Lakes, another national park. This one was my favourite of all the places we stopped. In fact, one of my favourite places i’ve been to in Australia. Again, we were in the middle of no where, about a thirty minute drive to the nearest town. As before, we were fully stocked up so that once we had set up camp, we didn’t need to leave. This campsite was completely basic, we were at one with nature! There were no showers, no running water, and the toilets were long drops! We were right on the edge of a giant lake, (hence the name)! It was so big you couldn’t see where it ended, and way way in the distance were mountains and forests. The lake water was warm and shallow, so we used to grab some beers and sit in there for hours, watching the sun set in the distance over the mountains (i do love a sunset)! It was beautiful. Aside from this, the lake was also the only place we could wash, brush our teeth, do our washing up, everything!

At night, breaking the silence, was the howling of packs of dingos. If you were unfortunate enough to need the loo in the middle of the night you were bound to come face to face with one, which I did many a time!

There were also possums getting to our food and rubbish, and giant lizards climbing, and falling out of, trees. When I say giant lizards, I mean huge, like small dinosaurs! The rangers came round and told us all the wildlife was pretty harmless as long as we kept our distance, which was worrying as the lizards always wandered around our tents while we were sitting there! After a while, you get used to the weird and wonderful wildlife in these national parks.

One day we drove down to yet another secluded beach, and went off-roading in one of the boys’ 4 wheel drives. This beach was amazing, it went on for miles with not a soul in sight.

The next week or so was pretty much the same. We stopped wherever we wanted and enjoyed doing next to nothing in beautiful surroundings, only having contact with civilisation when we stopped for supplies – beer and tinned food! I loved everything about the outdoors lifestyle, even when we had no running water to shower in or when we had to cook with no light after the sun had set. I was lucky to be with such a fantastic group and never got bored.

After a while we decided to move on up the coast to where there were other people and a bit of normality, so we headed for the famous Byron Bay. Byron is a small, hippy town right on the beach, and is completely full of backpackers and surf dudes. It’s a real chilled out and relaxed lifestyle. We still camped, but this time in a livelier area, walking distance from loads of cool restaurants and bars, and of course the beach! It was a nice change from being far from everything for a couple of weeks.

In terms of what we were doing, nothing really changed! We still lazed on the beach all day and barbecued at night, treating ourselves occasionally to a meal at a nice restaurant. Amazingly, one afternoon, sitting having a beer in the Northern hotel, I bumped into my friend Sarah from Queensland, who I worked with in Portugal in the summer of ’07. That wasn’t the first time I’d bumped into someone I know on my travels. It’s scary what a small world it is!

Byron was everything I expected, a real backpackers paradise. Although I imagine after too long you’d get bored. Without eating and drinking out all the time, which no backpacker could afford to do anyway, you’re left sitting on the beach everyday (not the worst way to spend your days but you can’t do it forever)!

On a few occasions, we drove round the surrounding areas, like Lennox Head and Ballina, taking in the sights of scenic drives to yet more beaches!

For the 4/5 days we were there we didn’t have much luck with the weather. In fact, after day one, it pretty much rained on and off the whole time, which is not much fun when you’re camping! Not wanting to drink away our money all day, and with the beach not an option, there wasn’t a great deal else to do. So….time to move on!

Of the 6 of us, 2 wanted to stay as they were having so much fun at the place they were staying. So the rest of us, me, Keeley, Tom and Paddy, decided to treat ourselves to an apartment in Surfers Paradise for 10 days. We left one car behind, and all our camping gear, and crammed into Tom’s 4x4, surf boards and all, and headed an hour or so further up the coast to Surfers, just north of the New South Wales/ Queensland border.

The last few weeks I had such a great time, being out in the open and away from everything.

It’s difficult to write about, as we didn’t do a great deal, but I can’t emphasise enough how much I enjoyed it and what an experience it was.

Maybe it was the freedom of being away from the normal tourist trail, with no other backpackers or tour guides. Or maybe the brilliant weather we had (before Byron) and our beautiful, peaceful surroundings. Or maybe it was just spending quality time with no one but great friends!!

Quick Stop in Sydney...

After a 14 hour drive (that was supposed to take 10) we arrived in Sydney in the evening and checked into a hostel, my first hostel since Vietnam, and Vietnam won hands down!
The place was pretty expensive considering how filthy and basic it was, and I was sharing a dorm with 7 others, along with a bathroom and kitchen shared with a hostel of over 100 people! Thankfully, there were enough of us that we had a dorm room to ourselves.
That night, I got my first taste of the Ozzy night life. We headed to a place called Side Bar, full of backpackers from all over the world. Considering it was a backpackers bar, drinks were still quite expensive, but as we'd had plenty of $15 wine from a carton before we came out, we didn't need much more! It was great to have a night of getting dressed up and dancing the night away to good music, which we hadn't done since Thailand. After we were kicked out at closing around 2am, we happily crashed out in bed after a long day.

Waking up hungover, we dragged everyone out of bed and drove to the famous Bondi beach. It was a scorchnig day and the beach was full, mainly with backpackers. The boys had a burst of energy and were playing ball games etc, while Keeley and I topped up our tans. It's amazing that despite the sun being so strong, the water in Victoria and New South Wales is so cold, like ice.

After the boys had had enough of being kids and tired themselves out, we decided to do the 2 hour walk from Bondi to Coogee, going round all the bays at the cliff top. The walk was beautiful, we went round loads of smaller beaches and saw amazing views out to sea. We also passed some of the most impressive sea view houses i've ever seen, they must have cost a fortune - oh how the other half live! Once we arrived in Coogee we rewarded ourselves with a few beers at the Coogee Palace Hotel.

That evening while most of the others crashed out hungover and exhausted, me, Sander and Tom went back into the city for a night out. In Sydney they have loads of 'Responsible Drinking' laws, such as, no entering a bar/club after 2am. Also, after midnight, for 10 minutes every hour they stop serving alcohol. So anyway, we were in a cool place called World Bar which closed at 2. At quarter to, we hailed a taxi and made a mad dash to the next bar before they stopped letting people in. This bar was pretty empty for a Thursday night, so we left to find somewhere else, but by now it was past 2. The three of us ended up in a rough bar in the middle of Sydney's gay district, where we stayed til about 6am. I found out the following day that we were in one of the roughest bar in the area! It was pretty crap, like a cheaper version of Wetherspoons, but we had a laugh and there was no trouble.
The next morning after a crap night's sleep because of the boys' snoring, I packed my bags and went to meet my mate from home, Louise, who has relocated to Oz.
Louise lives in the trendy Oxford street in a lovely apartment. After lunch at hers, we walked to the main tourist part of Sydney, the harbour. After taking the compulsory photos of Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, we spent the afternoon sitting in the glorious sunshine at Opera Bar, overlooking the harbour.

A little while later the others came to meet us with the good news that they'd bought a stationwagon, including camping gear, ready for our road trip, for only $500 each.

I stayed at Lou's after a Mojito-fuelled night on the town, then went to meet another friend who lived in another part of the city across the Harbour bridge, Collaroy, about 50 minutes away.
I met Becky and her boyfriend Tim in 2007 when i spent the summer working in Portugal.
By the time I got there and we'd spent hours catching up on the last year or so, it was time to get ready for a gig her boyfriend was doing with his band 'Ninjaz with Attitude', back in the city. The band was great, they didn't take anything seriously and spent the whole gig taking the micky out of themselves in their songs whilst dressed as ninjas. Really entertaining!
Back at Becky's later it was like a Portugal reunion, with all the guys who I worked with in Portugal who lived nearby round for drinks, like the good old times!
On what was supposed to be my last full day in Sydney, Becky was showing me the sites around where she lived. First was Palm Beach, aka Summer Bay, the beach where Home & Away is filmed. Apparently all of us 'Pommies' love Home & Away - I don't know anyone who watches it, but that's what the Ozzies think, that, and Neighbours! After the lovely Palm Beach, where I stood outside the surf club (if you don't watch Home & Away you probably won't know what that is) we got a bus to Manly. Manly is opposite Sydney Harbour and a really smart area that reminds me a bit of London's Docklands.
The Wharf bar, Manly, was packed full with all sorts of people from beach babes, to those dressed to kill for a Sunday afternoon in this trendy bar. It was a great way to spend a lazy, sunny, Sunday afternoon with a good crowd.
In the morning, when Becky and her housemates had gone to work, it was time for me to head back over the bridge to meet the others. Rather than get the bus, I jumped on the ferry for a ride back to the city, a much better journey seeing all the views of both Manly and Sydney Harbour.
I got back to the hostel in time to meet the others loading up our new (old) car, ready for the road trip to properly begin! Only a quick few days in Sydney, but I fit loads in and had a brilliant time catching up with friends. There is so much more to do and see there, so I will definitely go back at some point. But now was time to hit the road!

Melbourne Madness

The cheapest flights I could get from Kuala Lumpur to Australia meant i first had to fly into Perth and spend the day there. Keeley and Paddy were already there so i jumped on a bus to the city centre to meet them for a few hours.

The city is small, you can walk around it in no time at all. And also it's so expensive. The guys were paying a fortune for a crappy hostel, and pub meals were about $30 dollars each, so lunch was a sausage roll sitting on a park bench!

After our gourmet meal, we got on a train to the nearest beach, Cosstletoe. The sun was shining and the beach was beautiful, but after a few hours there i had to leave to make my way back to the airport for my flight on to Melbourne. That was the most i've seen of Perth, and unless i hear anything spectacular in the next year, that's probably all i'll see!

Before leaving Kuala Lumpur i had got in touch with all of my Ozzy mates from Melbourne, and one of them, Beau, from a suburb called Frankston and who i'd met in Thailand 2 years earlier, offered to pick me up in the early hours of a Monday morning, and also offered me a place to stay for as long as i needed....result!

Beau was late picking me up, and so i waited at the side of the road in the middle of the night with my backpack, and a bag of over 1000 cigarettes which i'd not knowingly smuggled into Australia! (The limit is 250 - ooops)!

The next day, in the near 40 degree heat, i went to Long Island beach, where i fell asleep and burnt my eyelids! Despite nearly 4 months in Asia, i wasn't used to the sun being so strong. In Oz you can't buy sun tan lotion below a factor 30, and now i know why!

Beau gets sent home from work if the heat exceeds 35 degrees, so he came and met me at the beach, then showed me the sights of Frankston (not a great deal, but i now know the best places for a night out)! Then in true Ozzy style we went to the supermarket for beers and meat for the BBQ he was having for me later, inviting all his friends to welcome the 'Pommy chick'to Oz!

The week that i stayed at Beaus was pretty much the same - me at the beach or by the pool in the day when everyone was at work, then in the evening all his mates would be round for drinks in the unbelievable bar that he'd had built in his back garden. It was great being surrounded by a new group of people, and they all wanted to hear stories about my travels which of course i was happy share!

On the Saturday, a big group of us got the train to Richmond, in the city, to watch the Australian Open. I also invited along a few of the guys who we were travelling with in Asia. By the end of the day there were probably over 30 of us.

It was a great day out; Melbourne was in the middle of a heatwave so the sun was beaming and the beers were flowing! We only ended up watching one game, afterall, no one goes to watch the tennis (that's what i think and i'm sticking to it), and i can't even remember the names of the players! I'm not really a tennis fan, and so we ended up spending the majority of the day in the Heineken tent, along with most other people who were there!

After a long day, we'd all drunk enough and spent enough, so we headed back to Frankston. As usual, we stopped at the 'bottle shop' (off licence) for another night in at Beau's bar.

I couldn't have arrived in Oz at a better time. First was the Australian Open, then 2 days later was Australia day, an Ozzy bank holiday where they spend the day, traditionally, knocking back beers and having a BBQ.

Every year Beau has a house party on Australia day. His garden was decorated ready for about 150 people to turn up at 10am ready to celebrate and drink the day away! Most people don't last long after dark, and by about 10.30pm there were only a few of us left, even Beau and his girlfriend had gone to bed! I'd had plenty of practice in Asia, so I was one of the last ones standing!

Another great day in Melbourne, but i'd still barely seen the city itself! And after a 'recovery day' the following day we were leaving for Sydney.

I will go back at some stage, maybe to settle and find work and an apartment, so that at least i can see why everyone loves it there. But my days were spent catching up with old friends and enjoying the festivities, so i couldn't have had a better start to Australia.

On our last day, 3 of my mates from our group in Asia hired a car and picked me up from Beau's at 6 am to make our way to Sydney where our road trip began!

Malaysia

We arrived on Langkawi island at midday, and i could not wait to catch up with our two friends who were already there. We checked into our crappy budget bungalow resort then tracked them down by screaming their names until they finally heard us and came to the door! They'd already been on the island a few days, and had mopeds rented, so straight away we jumped on and did a bit of a tour round the island.

Langkawi is beautiful but not at all what i was expecting. We'd come from the southern islands of Thailand which are also beautiful, but full of backpackers and are known worldwide for being party islands and pretty lawless. This could not be more different.... Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, and so you can't drink beer freely during the day (something which was standard in Thailand)! In fact you can't even buy alcohol in most shops or restaurants...randomly the only place i could find to buy a few beers was a fruit and veg shop!
So anyway, riding round the island, covered up rather than just in our bikinis, we started off by visiting a secluded beach called Tanjung Rhu, where we sat around drinking from coconuts and, as usual, enjoying the sunshine.

In the evening we drove to the top of a mountain where we sat, with a few cans of beers the boys had managed to buy somewhere, and watched the sunset over the whole island. (i love a sunset)!

The following day, Sander, Pablo and I went on a ride round the island to the waterfalls and hotsprings. First stop was Durian Perangin waterfalls which was at the top of a steep mountain with hundreds of steps, but completely worth it. The view was spectacular across forests as far as the eye can see. The water was freezing but fresh and crystal clear. Even better was that we were pretty much the only people there so we got to enjoy it in peace.

After this, they took me to see 'Snake Man', who is in the Guinness Book of Records for being crazy enough to stay in a house for 35 days with 250 poisonous snakes! He is also the man the islanders call when they happen to find a 10 foot python in their back garden! Thankfully, i'm not fazed by snakes at all, so i went to each cage and held all the different kinds that i was allowed to.

Next, the 5 of us went to Telaga Tujuh, 'Seven Wells'. These were even higher up a mountain, up even more steps. In fact i had to stop about 5 times just to make it to the top! Right in the middle of the forest, full of loads of monkeys which of course we fed peanuts to, the seven wells are natural freshwater rockpools, running into a huge waterfall. It was so beautiful it was hard to believe they weren't man-made. We stayed here for hours, sliding down watery slopes and diving around in the pools. We were there so long that we got to see yet another beautiful sunset!
After a few days of glorious sunshine at the beaches and riding around the island feeding monkeys, as you do, we were ready to all fly together to Kuala Lumpur, where again, we were going our seperate ways. Although....we couldn't leave the island til Pablo had conquered his fear of heights and gone up the Langkawi cable car which takes you 700 metres above sea level to the top of MaChinchang mountain. Keeley, also afraid of heights, refused to come!

Once arriving in Kuala Lumpur, our first flight in 4 months of travelling, and after an emotional farewell, seeing Sander off to Sydney and Pablo back home, Keeley, Paddy and I headed into the city late at night and found ourselves a cheap hostel right in the centre, ready for a good nights sleep. They stayed for a day, and so the three of us, along with a French girl called Flo that we met in the hostel, headed to the Petronas Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world.

After Keeley and Paddy left that evening, i stayed with Flo and we went into the city to see China town at night, and it was just like a market in Thailand, selling the same old useless crap and the same market traders hassling you to buy it.

The next day we got up early to buy our tickets to get up the to bridge joining the 2 towers together, on the 44th floor. You only get a few minutes up there but it's enough time to see across the whole city for miles, and was completely free which was an added touch!

After we did this, we headed to the Orchid and Hibiscus Gardens....not something i'd normally be interested in but Flo wanted to go so it was something to do! To be honest it was something i think my mum and dad would enjoy more! But it took up some time when otherwise i'd be wandering aimlessly around the city. Other than this Flo and i just messed around in the city, trying not to spend much but still having a good time!

I'm still not quite sure what a Malaysian person looks like.... KL is so multi-cultural, you see all nationalities from English to Indians and everything inbetween. I know i say this about every country in Asia, but the people here were really friendly and helpful. And they speak the best English of all the other countries i visited.

KL was so expensive in comparison to Langkawi, and all other countries i went to. I spent a few days there just doing the general touristy things, and with different company which made a nice change to spending the previous 2 months or so with the same group. As i was now on my own i decided i wanted to see Singapore, but i then heard it is so expensive and not backpacker friendly in relation to cost, so i decided to leave after 3 and a half days and instead flew to Melbourne to stay with an old friend Beau....more on that when i have the patience to write another entry on my blog!!

Thailand - Full Moon, Christmas and New Years

Oooops..... it's been a while since i've updated this. Where to start....
We arrived in Ko Phangan after a quick stop for a few hours in Bangkok to do a spot of shopping. Bangkok is the same as ever, it smells, it's dirty and the people still try to rip you off!
We were in a massive rush to get to the islands, not only for the sun, sea and sand, but to be back with the group of people we met in Laos.
We arrived in the morning, with accommodation already arranged for us thanks to them, and then the mayhem began! Ko Phangan is the party island of Thailand, and probably in the whole of SE Asia too. We spent far too long there, about 4 weeks altogether, not including the few times we went over to visit other islands on the east coast for a few days at a time.
By 12 noon on our first day we'd taken a small boat to a secluded beach, ordered Sangsom (Thai whisky/rum) buckets and from that point onwards life was a blur! This explains why i am so late in updating my blog, not because i was so busy i didn't have the time, moreso that i was so drunk/ hungover that i wasn't capable!
As i've been to Thailand twice before we weren't really interested in doing anything cultural, it was all party party party, staying out on the beach til sunrise and not waking up til sunset each day!
After a while this got too much and so we stayed on the island but moved to another resort, about a 20 minute drive away from Haad Rin, which is the main backpackers place. Once we moved it was a different story...life was calm and chilled! We saw daylight and caught the sun, ate proper food again, and saved ourselves a fortune by not drinking all the time. I'm sure my liver and kidneys were pleased too!
The resort we moved to was a family run place, with bungalows by the sea. The people there were great, the accommodation was cheap and cheerful, and our group took over the entire resort, so I couldn't have asked for more!
Skipping forward to xmas as there's not a great deal to report before then.... We came across a proper English pub, set right in the heart of the island surrounded by nothing but woods. The place was surreal; it had a beer garden with Guinness umbrellas and proper benches. Inside was a pool table and darts board and beer on tap! It was the most surreal feeling, as though we'd come across a mini- England, and once inside that's exactly where it felt we were. And then.... as soon as we stepped outside in the tropical heat, got back on the mopeds and turned a corner we were in Thailand again! It made me realise how much i miss a glass of wine in my local on a Friday after work!
So this is where we decided to have our Christmas dinner, the Mason's Arms. We had prawn cocktails followed by a traditional turkey roast with all the trimmings, i couldn't have asked for more! They even had a christmas tree and played all the xmas music. It definitely beat our dinner on Christmas Eve.... a BBQ on the beach around a bonfire, not quite the festive feel, not that i can complain, i can think of worse ways to spend Christmas Eve!

A few days later, Anna came out for her holiday and i couldn't wait! I needed a bit of normality back in my life after the craziness of the previous month! And to top it off she came with christmas presents from home!! Including my new camera, as i lost my other one doing the bucking bronco whilst drunk in Ko Samui, but that's another story!
Having Anna with me changed everything. It was good to spend some quality time with someone from home who i've missed so much. And to hear her stories about normal life and what people are doing at home, a bit of reality.
New Years Eve was brilliant, we were raving on Haad Rin beach with about 30,000 other people from all over the world, it was the busiest i've ever seen it. Fireworks were going off all night and everyone was in good spirits. It was the last night i had in Haad Rin and it was a good way to end my stay on Ko Phangan.
The day after, Anna and I and who was left of the group moved on to Phi Phi island, my favourite island and also the most beautiful of them all. We checked into a lovely hotel, far too expensive for my backpackers budget but well worth the treat.
Phi Phi has changed a lot since i was last there, which was right after the Tsunami. In fact it changed so much i barely recognised the place, except the beaches were the same and as amazing as ever, same white sand and crystal clear water.
Finally we were in a place where i didn't feel the need to go out all the time or drink loads... i was content eating good food, sitting reading my book on our balcony, or chilling out on the beach with Anna.
One day Anna and I booked ourselves onto a boat trip, and it was by far one of the best days i had in Thailand. We went snorkelling in clear blue sea; we visited monkey beach where we watched the monkeys terrorise tourists and eachother! We went to an uninhabited island called Bamboo island which was just paradise. And finally we visited 'Maya Bay' which is where the film 'the Beach' was filmed. Then on the way home we watched the sunset over the island from our longtail boat. It was a great day and we got loads of briliant photos (all of which are on Facebook)!
After having a brilliant week or so in Phi Phi, and spending far too much money yet again, it was time for Anna to leave. So, with the group even smaller now, (down to 6 of us) we got the boat over to the hellhole that is Phuket to take Anna to the airport. We checked ourselves into an Israeli guesthouse, with a room to sleep 6, and headed into Patong to see the usual sights... ladyboys and go go girls harrassing every man that walked past, whatever the age. People lining the streets selling all sorts of crap, anything they think tourists will buy ranging from trinkets to fake Gucci watches to DVDs, hammocks and so on.
By the time it was evening it was time for Anna to go, so we put her in a cab and i cried my eyes out for the next half an hour! The group we were in was getting smaller and smaller as everyone was going off to do their own thing, and then my best friend from home was leaving...an emotional day!
Keeley and i still had over 2 weeks left on our 60 day Thai visa. In the time we'd spent in Thailand we'd been to Bangkok (briefly), Ko Phangan, Ko Samui, Phi Phi and Phuket. I wish we'd visited more places, as i didn't go anywhere i hadn't been before and there are loads of places i still want to see. I also wish i had more will power to not go out and instead to concentrate on getting my scuba diving license, which i'm really disappointed that i never did.
So anyway, a few of our friends had moved on to Malaysia. Keeley and i were happy with the time we'd spent in Thailand with the people that we became really close to since Laos. I loved it but with the exchange rate being so bad i spent much more money than intended, and so we cut Thailand short to head to Malaysia to meet the others. It wasn't planned, but Thailand is exhausting sometimes, and there's no rest for the wicked!
So on to the next adventure, completely unplanned and spontaneous, which is what i love about the freedom of travelling!

Laos Chaos

This entry into my blog is going to be a bit vague as I’m a bit behind and we actually left Laos 10 days ago but here goes!
Compared to every border crossing so far the Cambodia/ Laos was really straightforward, with no nightmares for a change! The only downside was that the police on both sides of the border are completely corrupt and wanted us to pay them for leaving Cambodia and entering Laos. It’s not official but we had no choice other than to pay them.
We got a bus and then a boat to Don Det, one of the 4000 islands south of Laos, right on the Mekong river. The island was completely secluded and so untouched by tourism aside from a few small family run bungalow resorts and restaurants.
After arriving the 2 of us and 5 others that we met along the way booked out 4 bungalows and went for dinner to get straight on the beers after a long journey. We had a lovely meal on the riverside, aside from the fact that the Mekong river is not pretty to look at at all! After that it was back to the bungalows for a few more drinks until it was lights off at 10! The whole island’s electricity is run on a generator which shuts down every night at the same time, which wouldn’t be a bad thing except that without electricity we had no fans and so had to suffer in the morning heat in our tiny bungalow!
The following morning we booked ourselves onto a day trip to see the Khan Phapeng waterfall, which is the largest waterfall in South East Asia…but as it’s on the Mekong river it’s hardly nice to look at but it was worth the visit. After that, the 7 of us squeezed onto the tiniest boat, which barely fit us all in, to a tiny deserted island for a BBQ and drinking games, with only us and our Lao tour guide around. It was so deserted the island had no facilities which meant no toilets! Overall it was a great day spent with a great bunch of people.

After spending a few days on the lovely island of Don Det we moved on to head up to Vang Vieng to go tubing…. The moment we’d been waiting for in the whole trip! It took us a while to get there, and when we finally arrived at lunch time we dropped our bags off and headed straight for the river to tube! For those of you who have never heard of tubing, it’s the strangest concept… You pay a deposit for a rubber ring, you get on the river (not the Mekong!) and float down it, stopping off at the loads of makeshift bars en route. The river runs through the middle of the mountains and the scenery is absolutely beautiful, not that many people take any notice of the surroundings!

The bars start filling up at about 11am, when everyone is already drinking whiskey out of buckets and raving to the music blaring out all day. One day we were there at about 9.30am, and were some of the first people out. At every bar there are rope swings or zip slides where people are doing flips into the water and so on…probably not the safest thing to do when you’ve been drinking, but in the 7 or 8 days we ended up staying there, we only actually saw one injury!
In the time we were there we had 2 days off where we spent the day by the pool. We met a cool bunch of guys from London who we’ve actually ended up staying with till now, 3 weeks later. Our whole time in Vang Vieng was pretty much a blur…. up early every day to go tubing, and then drinking all day till the early hours (don’t worry mum we were safe and well looked after)!
As soon as the sun goes down in Vang Vieng, the weather turns ice cold, which we were not expecting at all! Why does the Lonely Planet guide not mention this?! We were completely unprepared for the weather, and only had one pair of jeans each and one thin hoody which we ended up having to wear every night we were there! Gross, I know…
I would love to write more about Vang Vieng but I just don’t remember that much, and every day was pretty much the same! After a week it came to the point where our poor bodies could take no more and we all decided to leave. The boys headed straight to Bangkok; Keeley and I went up to Northern Laos to go to Luang Prabang, our last stop in Laos.
The journey to Luang Prubang was the worst by far. I know I always mention bus journeys, and it can’t be interesting to read, but this one is worth writing about…The roads in Laos are notoriously bad, although apparently they have been greatly improved in the last few years which makes me wonder what on earth they used to be like! We drove even higher up into the mountains on roads with giant holes in, not potholes, actual holes the size of a bus. Next to the giant hole would be a sheer drop straight down the mountain side. The bus would have to move in a way that made it sway from side to side, so much so that everyone on the bus (the girls) were screaming for their lives! It wasn’t just the thought of falling from the side of a mountain, the thought alone that the bus would topple over was bad enough. It got to the point where I thought I was going to have to make a phone call to my friends and family!
After surviving that ordeal we arrived in the even more beautiful city of Luang Prabang, even higher in the mountains and even colder! We met up with a Dutch couple we met back in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and went bowling! The bowling alley is the only place open late in Luang Prabang as there’s an 11.30 curfew. Most people at the bowling alley are completely drunk but needing a detox, I didn’t touch a drop. We had a great and random night bowling, where I unfortunately lost every game! It seems bowling just isn’t my thing!
The next day we went with the Dutch couple to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls which are spectacular! We climbed all the way to the top which was hard work, but we got great views of the waterfall and of the mountain tops. Afterwards we dived into the waterfall into freshwater pools, which of course were freezing cold, but it was the nicest water we’d been in, even nicer than what comes out of the shower in our crappy guesthouses!
After the waterfall we visited the bear sanctuary. We were also told part of the trip was to visit a tiger sanctuary, but were then told the only tiger actually died ages ago and so we were conned out of that part!
We got back into town just before sunset, in time to climb the 400 steps to the top yet another mountain to a temple, where everyone goes to watch the sunset over the mountains. Another great sunset to add to the collection!
From Luang Prabang we needed to arrange a way to get to Bangkok without going back the way we came… and without flying due to the problems at the airport. After going into every travel shop it seemed the only way to get there was to go back the dreaded route along the mountain side, only this time for the 9 hour journey we were on a locals bus, which meant being surrounded by no Westerners, and instead, bags of rice, vegetables and live chickens! I suppose at least it made our journey that bit more entertaining.
And so we arrived at Vientiene, ready for yet another border crossing into Thailand. We spent just over two weeks in Laos; I absolutely loved it but could take no more of the crazy culture, although coming to Thailand has been no different! I will update again soon when I feel normal again…