Wednesday 8th Dec 2010

Perth was lovely a very modern city without being over crowded. Whilst there I decided to take a trip up the west coast to Monkey Mia. It was fabulous. There was nine girls including another Irish girl (finally someone that could understand me and knows what giving out means!!!) And then there was our poor bus driver Murray that had to put up with us bless him! First we hit the Pinnacles. Its just a load of weird red rocks, not really unusual for Australia but the Aboriginals think its some tribe that angered their God. Then we went sand boarding that was cool but the walk back to the top was a killer. We stayed overnight in Kalbarri that was lovely especially when we went for a walk on the beach and there were ‘flaming galahs’ everywhere. The next day we went to Shark Bay (didn’t see any sharks though) We did see gorges and some of the girls went abseiling. I did it once in a quarry in Dalkey with Denise and once was enough for me. We stopped off at Shell Beach. Millions of tiny shells all over the sand don’t take you shoes off here. We were the only people there and it was beautiful. We stayed in Money Mia with guess what, more beautiful beaches! I also acquired a love for Strongbow Sweet, who knew! In the morning we went to see the wild dolphins that come right up to the shore to be fed. That’s been one of the highlights of the trip so far. We took a boat trip here around Shark Bay and the dolphins swam with us. We saw sea cows too or Dugong if your Australian. Apparently we saw turtles too but they were too far away so I’m not convinced. Later we went to Hamelin Pool to see Stromatolites. More weird rocks but apparently they’re the reason there’s life on earth because they give off oxygen. Murray wants to put some on Mars so we could live there as well but I think he’s a bit touched in the head. That night we stayed on a farm. That was great craic. We got to see their kangaroos, ostriches and emus plus a sheep that thinks he’s a emu. We also got to see a wolf spider (sounds worse then it is). The two Irish girls sat out watching the sun go down with a nice cup of tea.  I never fail to find a fellow tea enthusiast. The next day we had to head back to the city. We stopped off at a wildlife park to feed the crazy animals. They bashed each to get the food. The kangaroos were the worst. But i did get to meet baby Lexie here, an 8 month old kangaroo. She was so cute we wanted to steal her. We also briefly left the country even got stamps in our passports in Hutt River Province. A crazy Australian created his own country by declaring war on Australia over a weekend when the office was closed. It was fascinating but a little bit creepy. Then it was back to Perth. The next day I flew to Darwin. Its a lot smaller then I expected but still a fun place. And as I’m finding with most places in Australia, its very expensive!

Wednesday 4th Dec 2010

Well my second trip in Asia finally got underway. Thank god because you can only spend so long in Bangkok city without going crazy. We met our group on the first night (another diverse one but in a good way) only to find that two of them had decided to meet us in Krabi instead. The day we were due to leave Ian, who had been with me since I arrived in Bangkok Airport, decided he was too sick to travel and went home to England instead. But I still had Meera and Kimberly (sometimes). We set off for a few days in the National Park in Khao Sok, Thailand on another horrible overnight train. It was worth it though the park was beautiful. The resort was like a tropical paradise with the best banana lassi ever. The park itself is a rain forest quite nice to walk around but it got a steep for my dodgy hip. The next stop was Krabi where we collected our two fallen angels only to lose one again a few days later. People going missing was a bit of a habit on this trip. Krabi was amazing and had a gorgeous beach with massages and beauty treatments at one end. There’s a lot of island hopping to be done here. We took a trip to Phi Phi island where the movie the beach was filmed. It was lovely there but you can see its already getting very touristy which means it’ll be destroyed in a few years. Our next destination was Malaysia. This is a great country with really friendly people. We stayed in Penang for a few days where I finally found my cinema to watch Harry Potter and let the tourism take a backseat for a few hours. We also found a fun reggae bar here. So fun in fact that I managed to get twisted which resulted in me missing my bus to Kuala Lumpur the next day. Thanks to our tour guide leaving me instructions to get there and with the help of a lovely Dutch couple I finally made it there. KL is a great city. Lots of shopping and sight seeing to be done here. We took a trip up the Menara Tower, over 300 meters tall. I managed to make the bus on time to our next stop in Malaca. The hotel we stayed in here was really basic but the staff were so nice and friendly I’d stay here again. The town here was very nice. Malaysia in general was fantastic and the level of English speakers definitely improved the further south you go. The only thing that bothered me was the early morning wake up calls from the Mosques. At the crack of dawn everyday the singing starts well its more like wailing it only lasts few minutes but its enough to wake you up. After a while you find yourself singing along even though you have no clue what they’re saying. The last stop on the trip was Singapore. I loved it here. Everything you could possibly want to buy is all on Orchard Road. But its really expensive compared to the rest of South East Asia. The train system here is very easy to use. They have a fantastic zoo and bird park and they have a night safari which is basically a zoo at night but it was good craic. So there ends another part of my adventure and more sad farewells. Now I’m in Perth starting my Australian leg of the tour. I stayed at Scarborough Beach for a couple of days. Already I love the place.

Tuesday 9th Nov 2010

Well we finally made it to Hue. We were really late so we missed out on a few things but we were still supposed to go on a cyclo tour. Cyclo’s are like adult buggies propelled by a man on a bike. But surprise!! A load of motorbikes showed up instead. The mode of transport I fear most. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun, terrifying but fun! The next day it was off to Hoi An a place I definitely will return to with an empty suitcase. Its the tailor capital of the world. We found ourselves  a tailor we liked and went to town. It was so much fun picking out clothes and then picking the material. I got three dresses one coat and two pairs of short for €150 but I would have loved more. The next day was Halloween and also Gemma’s happy birthday.We went on a 40km cycle which has been one of the highlights of the trip. We saw a lot of the Hoi An’s sites and scenery. It was a glorious day as well to make it even better. One downside though was we called into a few  of the local farms and I’m not entirely convinced the animals are being treated well. After the cycle we surprised the birthday girl with a party and BBQ. It was a great night especially since there was a free keg of beer!! Our last night there was spent shopping and going to tailor fittings. A word of advice on shipping stuff home from here is don’t use the hotel service go to the post office directly its much cheaper and their English is perfect. The following day we flew to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) for a couple of days. We finally got to do our cyclo tour here which was hilarious. It pissed rain the whole time but that made it even funnier it looked we were in buggies with rain gear over us. It was a strange city with a really big contrast between the super rich and extremely poor. I had a funny moment when a Vietnamese preacher that said Jesus wanted to save me! I told him I’d already been saved. When he realised I was Irish he said “Ah Ireland, Bertie Ahearn! He got out before all the corruption”. Picture someone saying that in a Vietnamese accent. I nearly wet myself laughing. 

Our next port of call was Cambodia. This is an amazing country my favourite of all the countries we’ve visited. First we went by public bus to Phnom Penh which isn’t as bad as it sounds. They are air conditioned coaches and your fed plus they take care of all the visa stuff at the border. While there we went to the killings fields, not for the faint of heart. After that we all had to part-take in the €1.50 cocktails for medicinal purposes. Then we stayed in Siem Reap for a few days also well worth the visit  but there are way too many temples and don,t bother with Ankor Wat at sunrise its a waste of sleep. The highlight here for me was micro lighting. This is a tiny two-seater plane just you and the pilot. We flew over Siem Reap so you get to see all the temples from the sky. Now this was worth the early morning!! On our last night here we went for a traditional feast which resulted in me eating eel and frog. Both of which were really tasty.

All too quickly our Indochina tour was over and we found ourselves back in Bangkok for a few days. Khao Sarn Road is the only way to go. From morning to night its jam packed but its true what they say about this street “anything goes”! Including me eating scorpion which actually does taste as disgusting as you would imagine. Anyway we all made it back safely and now we just have to wait for our next adventure to start. I hope its as amazing as this one has been :)

Friday 29th Oct 2010

Did I say the overnight train was the worst sleep ever? I take it back! Hin Boun was far worse. Its a tiny village one of the poorest places I’ve ever been to including Sheepmore (only joking). Everybody lives in wooden houses on stilts. They were some of the happiest people we’ve met though. The kids were mesmerised by us. Our tour guide doubled up as a chef and cooked us a local dinner. The fun really started when it was time to go to bed! We were split into groups of four and taken away into the pitch black night (no street lights because there are no streets!!) with our crappy rechargeable torches. We walked up to what I thought was a barn only to find out it was where we’d be sleeping. The woman that owned the house found my attempts at climbing the ladder to bed hilarious because I was bricking it that it would collapse under my weight! It was wafer thin! She even called people over to point and laugh! Our bed consisted of mats on the floor with faulty mosquito net. We had a chorus of crickets all night long plus the loudest gecko in the world decided to take up residence right beside my ear. The cockerels partied all night long and didn't stop just because the sun was up. They were hardcore. The next day a bus of zombies crossed the Vietnam border. We had one night in Ninh Binn then it was off to our cruise liner in Halong Bay. After checking out the caves we spent the night anchored amongst the cliffs. The amazing views were totally ruined by our brutal karaoke singing but we had fun trying. Then it was off to Hanoi for a few days. I loved this city it was a weird mix of old style markets and modern shops. The traffic is mental though. We became expert Vespa dodgers quite quickly. We had another over night train to Hue. Our carriage was delightful and all the cockroaches made it really cosy!! I managed to sleep a bit better on this one but we were delayed for six hours due to flooring along the tracks. Considering we just missed out on a typhoon we should count ourselves lucky!

Saturday 23rd Oct 2010

Another mad week in Asia! After our two day cruise along the Mekong and an overnight stop in Pakbeng (a tiny town of 2,000 people) we finally got to Luang Prabang. If you’re coming to Laos you have to visit this place its amazing. My favourite part of the trip so far has to be swimming in the Kuang Sii waterfalls here. It was beautiful. There’s also a bear rescue centre here and we just happened to be there at feeding time. We also went elephant trekking here the following day but to be honest I didn't like the way the elephants were treated by the trainers so I didn't part-take in the training. Afterwards we went kayaking down the Nam Khan river. That was an experience I’ll never forget and will never do again. We all needed a drink after that so the Lao Lao raised its ugly head again!! The hotel we stayed in there was fantastic like something you’d see on a tropical beach. Although I nearly destroyed our room when a rouge bra ended up in the roof fan due to a laundry malfunction!! We flew to Vientiane  and stayed there for a couple of days. Its the capital but not the best place to go. The best part was Sticky Fingers & Joma’s because they did western food. We were all in our element since rice was getting old at this point! Next stop Hin Boun for one night then its ‘Good Morning Vietnam’.

Sunday 17th Oct 2010

What a first week! After being sexually harassed by a crazy South African (only joking V) we decided to go exploring to get our bearings before the intrepid tour began. It took us about 30mins to find a temple on the map that we wanted to see so we took a stroll through the smog encrusted streets of Bangkok. We rocked up to Wat Po ready to get our tourism on then this crazy guy called Som in a tuk-tuk pulled up in front of us and offered us a trip to see four temples for 20Baht (50c). Too good to be true I hear you say! It was. Its a scam to get you to go to dodgy jewellery shops and tailors. But he didn't know who he was dealing with and we got to see our temples all for 20Baht. The next day we took a boat tour of Bangkok  and a tour of Wat Po in end. That night we took an over night train to Chiang Mai. Worst nights sleep ever!!! Don't do this trip without earplugs and eye masks. Once there we split up to do our own thing so me and a couple of the girls decided to do a Thai cooking class. It was fantastic. I made the mildest red curry known to man since I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to spice. That evening we went to Doi Suthep and climbed up all 300 steps to the temple. We got a blessing from the monks while we were there as you do! The next day we set of on a long drive to Laos and stopped off at the White Temple. This was the best one so far. It looked like the Snow Queens palace but inside was a epic mural portraying modern day evil. George Bush was in it and Avatar and Superman to name but a few. It was cool. Once in Laos it didn't take long for us to mix with the locals and their love of Lao Lao their crazy homemade Whiskey. It was a crazy night as well. We spent the following two days sailing up the Mekong river to recover.

Tuesday 12th Oct 2010

Well here it goes finally. I’ve set off on my travels. After all the tears, snots and tantrums when I couldn’t get everything into my miniscule backpack, I made it to the airport with hours to spare only to find out my 6pm flight was cancelled. They put me on the delayed 3:50pm flight instead which meant a mad dash to to the gate. TGI’s in Heathrow cheered me up even though my flight to Bangkok was delayed too.  I had a touchy feely Scottish creep beside me which made it hard to sleep for fear of being groped. Once I got to Bangkok everything started going right. I sailed through immigration and baggage but when it came to finding my transfer to the hotel it was like mission impossible. It took three hours to find someone who knew what I was talking about but I got there in the end. I also met someone from my group at the airport so I had a friend from the start.