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.