ROUND THE WORLD Not in 80 days though! tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-02-11:/blog/?domain=garvie 2008-10-07T22:55:39Z garvie img/travel-blog-feed.png Brisbane, the East Coast - Fraser Island tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-09-27:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=22&entryid=130769 2008-10-07T22:55:39Z 2008-09-28T01:58:09Z Ok Ok I know I'm useless at keeping this updated, and it was sucha promising start too! So we stayed in Brisbane for a while (2 and a half months) in which time we lived in Base Palace Backpackers hostel for a week (thanks to Scott and his discounted rates...not entirely above board but these are the things your Geordie friends will do for you!) then found an advert on share-accomodation.net which offered us a room in a very nice Queenslander ... Ok Ok I know I'm useless at keeping this updated, and it was sucha promising start too!
So we stayed in Brisbane for a while (2 and a half months) in which time we lived in Base Palace Backpackers hostel for a week (thanks to Scott and his discounted rates...not entirely above board but these are the things your Geordie friends will do for you!) then found an advert on share-accomodation.net which offered us a room in a very nice Queenslander house for $190 a week for both of us for 6 weeks which came inclusinve of a very graceful (not really) sausage dog called Ruby and a very timid and slightly schizophrenic terrier called Custard. It was great becasue is was only a 40 minute walk (or 10 minute bus) to the city where both me and clare had managed to get jobs. Clare scored a waitressing job in the best paying bar in town called Fridays and I got a very well paid job temping for the Queensland Nursing council doing admin for $20 an hour (better wages than at home and less effort involved) and we merrily worked for 37 hours a week and tried (and failed) to save money for the first four weeks. (Top money saving tip - visit the food courst just before they close and you can get dicounted food, usuually half price) To be honest the working and going out at weekends ended up making us feel like we were basically doing what we would have done back home so after a rushed decision we headed off one weekend to Byron Bay to try out surfing and to see the sea and nota man made lagoon in a city centre (i.e. Brisbanes South bank...approximately 70% kids pee we're told). It was amazing, it was the remedy we were in need of, it was beautiful, it was the kick start of our adventuring again! We stopped into a Tribal Travel (local backpackers holiday booking place) and managed, in 30 minutes before our bus took us back to Brisbane, to have entirely booked our last few weeks in Australia, making sure we hit all the highlights on our way round!
We handed our notices in a our respective palces of employment and began our saying our goodbyes (and had a samll gathering for my 30th birthday....our first BBQ in Oz and a night out!) before packing our bags and saying goodbye to the dogs and Jane (our hostess) before getting on the Premier bus (greyhound buses are notorious for breaking down and more expensive!) and heading to our first East coast destination Rainbow Beach. To be honest our first impression was not the best....we arrived at 7pm to a town with everything shut apart from one shop that shut at 7:30pm which we had to scamper up to to make sure we could eat that evening! We were in a very quaint backpackers called Pippies though so we were at least comfortable for the night. The next morning was a glorious day and we finally got to see the very small town in the daylight. It's really nothing to shout about, it is pretty off the beaten track however the beach is worth seeing. there is an aboriginal stroy relating to the beach which gets its name from the thousands of colours found in the cliffs surrounding the bay but it's long and I'll probably get it wrong (must google it) and it was lovely just to lie on the beach and run into the freezing cold water every so often and watch the 4x4's trundling along the sand.
We left Rainbow Beach that evening (we had a lot to fit into very few days!) and headed up to Hervey Bay which is the main jumping off point to Fraser Island (the largest sand Island in the world) where we were going on our self-drive (although neither of us can drive) 4x4 tour. We stayed a a very clean backpackers called Next and had also met up with Adam (Clare's university friend) on the bus up so we decided a celebration was in order and defied hostel law and drank some drinks in Adam's room to catch up for a while before trying to find somewhere to go in town (nowhere, everything seems to close at 11pm), but it was a nice walk around! In the morning it was a fruit breakfast on the beach before aome fribee-ing on the beach and some fish and chips (I just had chips) and some angry seagulls circling us and trying to steal our food. We then had to meet out Fraser Island group and have a safety talk (for anyone lucky enough to watch the Queensland offical safety video....it is hilarious and "Be Dingo Safe!"). We then had to do our shopping for 9 people ($20 each) in the shop next door, of which we managed to buy too little.
The next morning was 'Launch day', we packed up our 4x4 and headed to the ferry terminal and the adventure began! No one told us the weather was going to be rubbish....it was a hard drive and a miserable time was spent looking at Lake McKenzie for our first stop. We ran back to the 4x4 and decided we needed to find some cover so we could rummage in the Eskies (food containers) on the top of the truck. We found the only town on the island and used a bench outside the shop to hastily prepare cheese sandwiches, cuningly using two swiss army knives to butter the bread before doing the dangerous beach drive up to the aboriginal camp ground we were camping in on the first night. The tides are extrememly dangerous on Fraser Island and you can only drive up them on certain times of the day for fear of being swept out to sea...
We made it in one piece though and we lucky enough to be able to sleep in a rotunda rather than tents and we even got to build a massive camp fire which we shared with another group once the rain had stopped. It was a great first night with preparing our dinner and drinking goon (boxed Oz wine which is rahter too cheap and nasty) and sitting round a huge fire sharing stories and looking out for dingoes. Me and Adam decided at one time to go searching for firewood which led to an amusing incident of borrowing and axe from the aboriginals and deciding whther it was better to take wood to axe or axe to wood....being a woman I was right and the axe needed to go to the wood as the original need for an axe was that we were uable to lift the log we needed to chop!). Cue hilarious attempts to chop the log in front of another group of amused Germans... we eventually got enough fuel for the fire!
The Second day was much nicer in terms of weather, although it was a bit cloudy. We got up and had breakfast or cornflakes and other such hangover cures and got into the packed 4x4 and headed to Indian Head in a hurry (we were behind schedule and the tide was coming in FAST!). We got there unscathed and saw the breathtaking views from on top of Indian Head (a hike up the hill first) but the sea was too rough to see the whales and turtles usually visible in the sea below.
There was then the hard decision on whether to drive up to the Champagne Pools but due to our late arrial at Indian Head it was decided that it was too much of a risk so only 3 of us then decided to walk to 2km to see the Pools. they were spectacular but as we had missed low tide they were also a bit dangerous and we nearly got swept away! So we headed back to the 4x4, taking along with us on Clare's towel, what looked like a tarantula...cue hysterical twoel throwing and me carfully removing the 6 legged-half dead spider...which turned out to be a non-dangerous Huntsman.
We headed down to Eli Creek and waded down the crystal clear (and very cold) water creek and did more frisbee-ing before heading to our next campsite (where nasty rangers were willing to dish out harsh fines for noise after 9pm.
We set up our tents and set about making dinner of pasta and beans and any other food we had thought to buy and ate huge amounts before heading to the beach for more goon drinking (to avoid the ranger fines). After a few dune related peeing trips and some dingo scaremongering we deceided to head back to the campsite and hit the hay and be ready (on time) for day 3.
The best was saved for last.....beautiful weather and easy driving! We hit Lake Wabby first and it is well worht the 45 minute walk to see! It is just amazing....we swan on the lake and even took part in some dues boarding down the massive sand dune and into the lake before heading back to the 4x4 as quickly as possible so we could sample Lake McKenzie in nice weather. It was a completely different place than what we had seen on the first day and we were massively disappointed to only have 15 minutes of the lake (in which some very funny fastforwarded beach frisbee-ing and sunbathing took place) before heading abck to the ferry home.

Brisbane, the East Coast - Fraser Island remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Australia tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-07-02:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=21&entryid=117160 2008-07-03T02:02:57Z 2008-07-03T02:02:57Z It's been a long time since I've blogged and I apologize but things have been pretty hectic. We moved through the rest of South East Asia so quickly that we just didn't have time to keep you updated. We're in Australia now, a little later than planned as our new found friends from South Africa begged us to go back to Koh Pangnan for another Full Moon Party which meant we had to change our flights to Oz. We made it here ... It's been a long time since I've blogged and I apologize but things have been pretty hectic. We moved through the rest of South East Asia so quickly that we just didn't have time to keep you updated.
We're in Australia now, a little later than planned as our new found friends from South Africa begged us to go back to Koh Pangnan for another Full Moon Party which meant we had to change our flights to Oz.
We made it here though, after a long 12 hour flight with British Airways (not as good as Qantas!) to Sydney. It was a night flight and I unfortunately did not get any sleep so we landed at 6am, I was groggy and....COLD. We travelled in the usual style of shorts, flip flops and vest tops after spending a few hot days on the beach and in Bangkok to arrive in winter in Australia. It was a bit of a shock to the system but we're glad to report that Australians are mad if they think that the weather here ever gets cold...it only gets lukewarm compared to the UK!
We spent about an hour getting out of Sydney airport, due to their need to check everyone for wood items (because they don't have woodworm here apparently, and don't want it for obvious reasons!). We did have to remark that the customs people were really lovely and helpful, possibly due to having to deal with the stern faced Vietnamese previously.
We headed out at 7am to find somewhere we could store our luggage for the day and to find jumpers to wear. We successfully ditched our bags and walked through the city centre ona mission to find the Opera House and Habour Bridge. We stopped for a hearty breakfast of course and studied the maps we'd found for free and decided we were fit enough to walk the sights of the big city.
We literally kept walking in a straight line to find the world famous landmarks but it was all a bit surreal at 8am and we've also come to the conclusion that we're suffering from 'Landmark Viewing Fatigue' which means we no long 'ooooh' and 'ahhh' over the things we've been wanting to see for years. For exmaple, Clare's comments on the Harbour Bridge - "Oh, it's just a bigger version of the Tyne Bridge then..." and my comments on the Opera House - "Oh, it's a bit small really...and there are too many stairs...now where are the toilets?".
We took some pretty pictures though and killed some time sitting by the landmarks taking turns to snooze on the park benches and listening to the Aboriginal man play his digeridoo.
The reason we needed to kill so much time was because we were meeting Clare's cousin once she finished work at 5pm so it was a long wait when you're that tired and a bit disorientated.
Luckily, we survived the wait and met Nicola and she took us back to the suburbs (Hornsby) so we could stay there for a few nights and recouperate and doing plenty of laundry. It was great to just be able to take our time and relax and be in a house rather than a guesthouse. I remember the first night, sitting down to a home cooked dinner and sitting around a dining table and not having to pay...it was bliss!
We mostly hid in the suburbs for a few nights and tried to catch up on sleep and adjust our body clocks again before we hit the city again. We decided to check out Manly beach (tip from Nicola) rather than Bondi beach as it's a nicer area. And it was lovely....we stood and watched the surfers try and catch some waves and had a nice lunch and tried to find bargains in the surf shops (nothing is going to be as cheap as Bangkok!). We headed back on the commuter ferry at 5pm so we could see the sunset over the Harbour Bridge which people usually pay a lot of money to do on a private cruise and it was stunning.
The next night we said good bye and many thanks to Nicola and headed for a night in the city before catching our flight to Brisbane. It was a bit of a mistake...we wanted a bit of a night out and we got a big night out which ultimately led to a bit of a disaster of sorts! We managed to set an alarm to wake us up at an appropriate time to catch the flight...however, we forgot to change the alram clock to Oz time and so we slept in until 10:30am and our flight was at 11:10am... I was very optomistic that we could still make it but we only managed to get on t a train to the airport at 11:10am rather than the plane! It wasn't a complete distaster though, we had to pay a small charge to change us to the next flight (it was a popular morning for it according to the JetStar staff) and we were on our way to sunny Brisbane in search of jobs and cheap accommodation (and a few friends from home!).

Australia remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Na Trang, Hue, Mui Ne and Cambodia tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-06-13:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=20&entryid=113793 2008-07-03T01:36:47Z 2008-07-03T01:36:47Z Sorry it's been a long time since I last posted a blog but we've been ever so busy over the past few weeks! So...Nah Trang was beautiful. It is a beach resort with a huge stretch of beach with plenty of sun loungers and umbrellas and people willing to charge you a fortune (a relative, 'on a tight budget' amount anyway) to have the pleasure of a day filled with sunbathing, and scuttling across the red hot sand to the ... Sorry it's been a long time since I last posted a blog but we've been ever so busy over the past few weeks! So...Nah Trang was beautiful. It is a beach resort with a huge stretch of beach with plenty of sun loungers and umbrellas and people willing to charge you a fortune (a relative, 'on a tight budget' amount anyway) to have the pleasure of a day filled with sunbathing, and scuttling across the red hot sand to the sea to cool off. We spent 3 days there, taking a break, as it were, from the long bus journies and making the most of not being in the city envirnoment.
We took a boat tour on our second day to see some of the small island, to snorkel at the reefs and swim beside the boat drinking, what the captain of the boat described as "f***ing minging wine!" at a very loud volume from his floating bar whilst we all circled him in the safety rings from the boat screaming "Yo!' (Cheers!). A truely bizarre experience...and truely awful mulberry wine! We were fed a huge lunch though on the top of the boat, in the blazing sunshine and were taken to a man made beach where we had to pay to have the privilige of sitting on the very small beach.

Sorry I'm going to publish this then get back to it at a later date to fill in the details about South East Asia.

Na Trang, Hue, Mui Ne and Cambodia remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Hanoi, Hue and Hoi An tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-05-31:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=19&entryid=111428 2008-05-31T08:03:46Z 2008-05-31T08:03:46Z After our Cruise around Ha Long Bay we decided that we needed to see more of the city. We went to see the water puppetry (after a very long walk in the wrong direction before realising we'd walked right past the building we needed) which was....interesting. What made the night more amusing was Clare's questioning afterwards..."How did they get the fox from the water up the tree?!"...hard to explain why that question was so silly! The next morning we were up ... After our Cruise around Ha Long Bay we decided that we needed to see more of the city. We went to see the water puppetry (after a very long walk in the wrong direction before realising we'd walked right past the building we needed) which was....interesting. What made the night more amusing was Clare's questioning afterwards..."How did they get the fox from the water up the tree?!"...hard to explain why that question was so silly!
The next morning we were up early to go and see Ho Chi Minh's (Uncle Ho) body at the mausoleum... we just about made it on time, using very excitable taxi man and some cunning queuing techniques (just walk faster than the other people queuing). We were ushered into a giant pyramid tomb by very solemn looking guards (who 'shushed' Clare) and past the body of Uncle Ho. I didn't enjoy it at all, firstly because in his will Uncle Ho asked to be cremated but the government decided this was not what the people wanted, secondly, he didn't look real and thirdly Uncle Ho's museum was a very strange mix of art and propaganda which seemed more about symbolism and less about history. As Clare put it "It made my head hurt!".
We got a taxi back to the guest house and we're going to venture off to more things that afternoon but a trip to the post office to send things home took up practically all of our spare time (due to the copious amounts of paperwork involved in sending anything out of Vietnam!).
We caught our 12 hour night bus to Hue at 6pm... this bus was like nothing we'd seen before, it actually had beds in it and a toilet - which we sat too close to in hindsight! We grabbed to bottom bunks (for fear of falling off the top bunk due to Vietnamese driving skills) and settled into our journey before realising that someone had very stinky feet...
Hue was a very historical city with it's massive citadel and forbidden city (where the king stayed with his harem) which we walked to see on the morning we arrived. It was a very hot day so we spent most of our time trying to get from place to place via any shade that was available. As I said the citadel is huge, and there were even elephants you could go for a ride on, but it's also undergoing some restoration work so it looks a bit like a construction site in places. We also managed to get on TV as there were some people running around being chased by camera crews (it was possibly for a programme called The Greatest Race?!) and we were accosted by one of the girls shouting "Have you seen the check point?" to which we replied "The what?" and she said something about a giant red dot but the look on our faces must have been totally clueless as she darted off seconds later.
We had a late lunch at the Madarin Cafe and had a look down the many streets near our guest house before getting ready to go and try and find another bar we'd heard was a great place for travelers to visit. We failed to find it (this is becoming a recurring problem for us) and ended back in the Madarin Cafe for a beer before heading home.
In the morning we hired two xe oms (motorbike guides) to take us to one of the tombs (of king Tu Duc) and the Buddhist pagoda which was a fun way to see everything when you're in a hurry (the bus we needed to catch to Hoi An left at 1pm).
The bus to Hoi An was a short one (only 4 hours) and our first during the day for a while which made it interesting as we still had to sit/lie on the sleeper bus beds which made it impossible to sit upright. We busied ourselves with finishing off a packet of Ritz crackers and some Pringles and let out a few ooh's and aah's when we saw the South China sea.
Hoi An is a town mostly filled with tailors and shoe shops and as much as we didn't want to get anything made we ended up getting far too much. The protagonists of this shopping spree were the two South African girls we've known since our boat tour of Ha Long Bay who have a toy panda who walks and sings the Lambada as a traveling mascot...they showed us Panda in his coat made by the tailors and we just had to get things made! I got two pairs of light cotton trousers in brown and black and two Chinese style tops (which look fantastic) in red and in silver. And a pair of black flip flops which they actually measured my feet for so that the fit like a glove! Also the ladies from the tailors we used (Phong Cloth Shop) took us all out for dinner (for free) for buying lots of things and telling everyone to go to their shop (they had just opened their shop two days prior to us arriving!).
Around Hoi An are the Marble Mountain and China Beach (where American GI's spent their R and R time during the Vietnamese War...it was a beautiful beach with the most crystal clear water and white sand...we hired scooters with the South Africans from the guest house and took our time driving to see everything (ok, we got lost so we took the long way round!).
We spent two nights in Hoi An before heading off to the beach resort of Nah Trang on another 12 hour night bus... more on Nah Trang in the next blog!

Hanoi, Hue and Hoi An remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Ventiane to Vietnam (Hanoi) tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-05-23:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=18&entryid=110585 2008-05-23T11:28:00Z 2008-05-23T11:28:00Z The bus journey....oh my oh my! Firstly, the bus was not the VIP buses we had become accustomed to in Thailand, Laos is a very poor country so we boarded a very old rickety bus and hoped it would stay on it's wheels for the entire journey. We were placed on the back seats with the other Westerners and heard how the journeywould unfold (by a guy called Nate who has done the same journey 2 days earlier but ... The bus journey....oh my oh my! Firstly, the bus was not the VIP buses we had become accustomed to in Thailand, Laos is a very poor country so we boarded a very old rickety bus and hoped it would stay on it's wheels for the entire journey. We were placed on the back seats with the other Westerners and heard how the journeywould unfold (by a guy called Nate who has done the same journey 2 days earlier but had been turned away from the Vietnamese border for not having his visa on arrival). His story prompted 4 girls (who were wearing Ugg boots...says it all) to depart from the bus before it set off never to be seen again (well actually Nate says he saw them here in Hanoi the next night!). The journey was not for the faint hearted...the first part was in Laos which took us from 7pm to 3am, we parked up at a guesthouse which was closed, the bus driver got out of the bus and was let into the guesthouse whilst we were left to sleep on the bus with 50 other people. There isn't much room on these buses and being wedged between tiny Clare and her ability to curl up (taking up most of my seat) and Nate who is 6 foot 6 was not entirely idea for sleeping purposes so I decided to disembark and read my book outside the guesthouse, making sure I walked into all the people who had stretched out across the aisle. By 4am there was another attack of the bugs that are like ants with wings who have a tendancy to dive-bomb people so I took to playing flying ant tennis, using my book as a racquet...at 5am the locals got off the bus and looked at me like I was entirely insane.
The border opened at 7am so we headed off in our bus again for on of the most formidable border crossing we have encountered so far. The Vietnamese seem to have an aversion to smiling at Westerners (they apparently think we're all American) and they have very scary German Shepherds and they don't seem to want to help you to cross their border easily (let's just say it took us a while to get over!).
Back on the bus for our final leg of the journey...which was the most insane. they swapped drivers for this part, most likely for his amazing ability to continously honk his horn and avoid all traffic at the same time, this is the way of the roads here in Vietnam, they don't have many rules and any drive is incredibly scary. However, there was some amusement as we were stuck in a trafic jam outside Hanoi, Nate had been travelling with some friends and they had left him at the Vietnamese border... his friends are staying in the most helpful guesthouse in the world (where we're now staying also, the Kangaroo Guesthouse) and the staff set off on mopeds to catch every bus on the highway that had come from Laos to ask if Nate was on the bus... she found Nate, obviously to his amazement, and got all of us a taxi at the bus terminal and took us to their guesthouse. The staff here are brilliant, they pretty much do anything for you and they can actually smile!
Upon arrival Nate's friends took us all (ok I should explain, along with Nate on the bus there was an Irish girl and a Dutch girl) out in Hanoi for some food and coffee and beers (to the Loo pub which has toilet bowls with cushions on!) and back to the guesthouse where we also booked ourselves onto the boat tour of Ha Long Bay the next morning.
The boat cruise was just brilliant! We ended up on a boat with some Aussies and the fun never stopped! The first day was spent visiting the huge caves (the name of which I forget) and kayaking around the many islands and drinking copious amounts of alcohol on the boat, singing some terrible karaoke and diving off the boat into the sea before realising they had emptied the boats toilets! Luckily, we were on the 'deluxe' tour though so the cabins were very comfortable!
In the morning (far too early!) we had breakfast and headed off to Cat Ba Island, (via a 'beach' - it was a rock with a small amount of sand on it - for some swimming) which is the only inhabited island in the Ha Long Bay area so we could stay ina hotel for the night. Cat Ba is not the most exciting of places however we did make the most of it! We had dinner (why oh why do they only give vegetarians tofu??!) and headed to the bar across the road where the Aussies literally took over as the entertainment for the evening... they were absolutely crazy but I must admit we were all joining in on the fun and games! After the bar we went to the Discotheque (that's what it was called!) next door to experience the Vietnam clubbing experience. Basically, all the men dance and the women (if there were any) watch. and they have doorman/'fun police' who make sure no one has too good a time (I personally don't see the problem with placing a 4 foot 11 Irish girl on the 6 foot 6 guys shoulders myself....). We had a great time in the end, we laughed until we cried, danced until the flip flops came off and drank until they kicked us out at closing time.
The next morning.....oh dear! Everyone was feeling hungover and the thought of getting back on the boat at 8am was not appealing! We did it though, we all survived the trip back to the mainland for our lunch in a restaurant (tofu AGAIN!) and then back to Hanoi.
The Aussies and Nate and his friends have left already to get the bus to Ho Chi Mihn City which is a hop on hop off so they can stop at any of the cities on the way down for the night, whihc is what we plan to do tomorrow. We want to see Hanoi properly before setting off down south and to be honest, after the cruise, I need a good nights sleep!

Ventiane to Vietnam (Hanoi) remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Laos tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-05-18:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=17&entryid=109734 2008-05-18T07:15:17Z 2008-05-18T07:15:17Z Luang Prabang was probably the best place I've ever been to! We both decided we wanted to live there...in a shack with a couple of hammocks, between the waterfall and the town centre... it was the most laid back and peaceful place I've ever came across and completely different to Thailand. On our 9 hour slow boat on the second day we talked to an Irish girl called Emma and a dutch girl called Claudia and after disembarking from the boat ... Luang Prabang was probably the best place I've ever been to! We both decided we wanted to live there...in a shack with a couple of hammocks, between the waterfall and the town centre... it was the most laid back and peaceful place I've ever came across and completely different to Thailand.
On our 9 hour slow boat on the second day we talked to an Irish girl called Emma and a dutch girl called Claudia and after disembarking from the boat we all stayed together as we tried to find a few cheap rooms from the touts that surrounded us. After seeing two guesthouses we eventually ended up staying at the first guesthouse we'd been offered (the guy had literally tailed our tuk tuk on his motorbike and took us one by one on the back of it (with our massive back packs) to the guesthouse 2 minutes away. The rooms were great, clean and had en suite bathrooms and were close to the town centre (and cheap - 180 Baht). As we arrived in the early evening it was decided that we'd all get showered and dressed and meet in the Hive bar across the road to get some food and a few drinks and to get to know our new companions. As it turned out we ended up having two for one cocktails in the Hive bar and moving on to the bar down the road called Lao Lao bar which had a massive beer garden out the back and a very good menu. We ate, we drank, we talked. Iyt was a very enjoyable evening until we read the back of the menu which had information about Laos and we discovered there is a midnight curfew in Laos, meaning that all the bars kick out at 11:30pm... however...we left the bar and were immediately confronted by several tuk tuk drivers asking if we wanted to go to the bowling alley. At first we just laughed as this seemed like the most bizarre destination but wesoon found out that the bowling alley is the only place that stays open until 3am and serves alcohol. After a brief discussion and much amusement we decided that we only live once and even though 75% of our group hate bowling (me being the exception) we headed to the town outskirts for Beerlao and bowling (actually we didn't play at all). The only problem encountered was that the tuk tuk home cost twice ad much as it did on the way there and we the driver pocketed a 10,000 Kip (that's less than a pound) when we were paying and we had to pay again (it was more about the lack of honesty rather than the loss of less than a pound!).
The following morning we all arranged to meet at the cafe/bookshop to arrange our trip to the famous waterfall. Emma and Claudia were trying to get us all to cycle the 32 kilometres in the midday heat...up hill, but luckily we managed to persuade them that this was a very silly idea when we could be driven there by tuk tuk.
The waterfall was....breathtaking. I have never seen anything like it in my life. On the walk up the path we came across the lowest pool (which you could swim in) and thought is was beautiful until we realised that there were two more swimming areas and the highest fall to go. The last stop was incredible. We decided to go back to the first pool to swim in and it was freezing...so much so that I had trouble catching my breath the entire time I was in there! Claudia and I then decided we were going to jump off the waterfall (there was also a tree with steps nailed to it that you could jump in from) so we decided to scaled the slippery rocks. I was terrified, so much so that my legs were shaking so much when we were ready to jump that I thought I was not going to be able to push myself off! After a 1-2-3 we jumped. Well, Claudia jumped and had hold of my hand so I was basically pulled in! I felt incredibly brave and had an adrenaline rush!
That evening we booked ourselves in for a well deserved massage and discovered the night market, which someone joked that unlike Thailand where your are practically dragged over to stalls, you actually felt like apologising for trying to buy things!
The next day in paradise we climbed the hill steps which took us to some Buddhist monuments (and Buddha's giant footprint in a cave) and had our massages (I have decided I don't like them...) and got an early night ahead of our departure by minivan to Vang Vieng the next morning.
Vang Vieng as the guide book told us was a strange place dedicated to reruns of 'Friends' in every guesthouse and a phenomenon known as 'tubing'. We loved it!
We got dropped off in the middle of town and literally walked into a guesthouse and got a room then settled into some serious Friends addiction. The next morning was tubing day! Tubing involves being taken 3km up river being issued with a giant tractor wheel inner tube and floating downstream. Now this may seem harmless however there are at least 8 bars on the way down, and a swing jump into the river - the first of which was 10 metres high! I managed to work up the courage to climb up to the swing and then promptly (well after about 5 minutes of 1-2-3....no no no!) decide that my life meant more to me than embarrassing myself in front of a bar full of 'tubers' by chickening out.
The next bar had a smaller swing and Clare prompted me into action by saying she was going to do it. Not to be outdone, I went first. And successfully avoided death (and landing face first!). Clare managed to get four steps up then sat back down again!
Several bars and sings later though she did redeem herself and completed the second largest swing and we have video evidence luckily the video obscures the fact that she had to be pushed off the tower by a kindly man to save her the shame of descent via the stairs!
We had however spent far too long in the bars as the tubes had to be returned by 6pm and at 5:30pm we were back on the river trying to make it back in time. Darkness set in which did not please me so I left the safety of our group of tubes and paddled frantically downstream before realising that there were no signs to tell you where to stop and I should just land anywhere I could (around a mile past the end it turns out - long walk back for me and a worrying wait for Clare). More drinks followed with the Canadians we made friends with and a trip to one of the island bars for music before the curfew.
The following day we were sure we'd go tubing again however the paddling/singing/lifting beer had taken it's toll on our arms and the beer had taken it's toll on our heads/bodies/ability to move. More Friends and lots of food later we headed to the river to watch the tubers coming in and the sunset in hammocks. Followed by more hammocking and beer in the bar we'd been in the previous evening.
We left Vang Vieng the following morning for Vientiane (the capital city of Laos) where we are currently enjoying a mixture of sunshine and rain. As it is a Sunday everywhere seems to be closed (such as the National Museum) so we're a bit stumped as to what to do. Vientiane is not the best place to be entertained we have discovered and...we now realise that the country is indeed still a Communist state which explains why I keep seeing the hammer and sicle flag everywhere and why there's a curfew (people have been trying to tell me I'm wrong on the way but I'm sure it's just a mild form of Socialism here, hence you can get a Pepsi and other American brands). We're thinking of heading to Vietnam tomorrow night on another 20 hour night bus (I'm so happy about that....) but we're not sure about going to see the Plain of Jars on the way out of Laos...

Laos remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Phuket to Bankok to Chain Mai...to Laos tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-05-12:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=16&entryid=108881 2008-05-12T13:37:24Z 2008-05-12T13:37:24Z Oh my Buddha (a new saying which has me in stitches), it's been a long time since I've written anything so I'll try to get everything in and not make it too long. Our bus journey from Phuket to Bangkok - a nightmare because the bus driver thought he was Lewis Hamilton, we did survive though. It was 2 hours of 'interesting' driving and we arrived in Bangkok at 6am. By the time we managed to catch a taxi from the ... Oh my Buddha (a new saying which has me in stitches), it's been a long time since I've written anything so I'll try to get everything in and not make it too long.
Our bus journey from Phuket to Bangkok - a nightmare because the bus driver thought he was Lewis Hamilton, we did survive though. It was 2 hours of 'interesting' driving and we arrived in Bangkok at 6am. By the time we managed to catch a taxi from the bus station to the city centre (one that was metered at not a crazy price) it was 7am and we soon realised that nothing in the MBK/Siam Centre area opened until 10am so we killed some time eating noodles in a 24 hour restaurant. Then we got approached by another very friendly Thai lady who, of course, was very helpful and showed us where (her brother's no doubt) Travel agency was so we could get tickets to Chiang Mai (20
Baht Tuk Tuks are always a con, they should cost around 60 for legitimate fares).
However, we needed to find a travel agent to leave are bags in and get tickets so we actually made it a great deal. We got accommodation, bus, trekking, slow boat into Laos and a smile for around 100 quid each (for 10 days).
So we had around 11 hours to kill in Bangkok...we basically hung around the Siam Centre which was quite fun because it was the 2nd birthday and it was Japanese themed music and clothing so there were loads of kids dressed in some interesting stuff.
The bus to Chiang Mai was pleasant as was the guesthouse we stayed in. We got there at 4am and the next day was a 'free day' (not trekking, bus, boat etc) so we just walked around looking at the night market and admiring the moat and wall surrounding the city centre. The next day we were supposed to be trekking but the weather meant we couldn't go until the next day so Clare decided that we were both going to do a Thai cooking course (yes, I did protest...I was not happy). Actually, I will admit to having lots of fun... and the pictures of me proudly displaying my spring rolls say it all.
Clare then, unfortunately, spent the night being very ill...so trekking was postponed again whilst we took her to see a very friendly doctor. Whatever medicine (and shot in the bum) he gave her seemed to work so we went two day trekking (not three as planned) in the jungle. Firstly we got to do elephant trekking which I'm not sure I enjoyed as I've heard that the elephants are mistreated, but it was funny having the greediest elephant who refused to move unless he was fed 4 bananas and who tried to steal everyone elses with his long trunk.
Trekking was amazing, I absolutely loved it. Although, I was worried about Clare and her sickness (which was food poisoning by the way) and the 3 mile hike up hill and the heat but we both made it unscathed. We stayed the night in a shack basically with mosquito nets and a thin mattress and pillow. Having gone to bed at 9pm we were rudely awoken by the family's cockerel at 6am and by the time we all surfaced, they had all started their daily work in the fields. We stated next to a village which disappointed me somewhat as it was supposed to be some tribe who lived basically and it should have been like stepping back 1000 years but they had electricity from solar panels and cable TV.
We then had to start the trek back which was another 3 hours and our legs were already aching. However, it was really fun and we got to stop at a waterfall half way and go for a swim. It was beautiful and walking through a waterfall is really tough as the water pressure is immense.
The rest of the trek was easy going and we got picked up by the truck and taken to the river for some bamboo rafting. It started sedately but by the end we were soaked and laughing. Basically the bamboo raft is long and flat and 4 people plus a driver can fit on it. the driver uses a long pole to push us down the river...seems simple as a concept but when I took control I immediately got us stuck on a rock and when the water got bumpy I immediately found myself in the sitting position. Clare....oh Clare....she simply is no good with water vehicles (think back to the kayaking incident). She had us heading (at great speed) toward a massive rock, no evasive manoevers were employed nor did she try and save herself. Cue us hitting said rock and Clare being projected into the 'hugging rock' position (luckily she escaped any injury but I feared for her face when she hit the rock).
The following day we had to get a minibus to Chiang Khong. It was a 5 hour journey so it was a piece of cake to us and we arrived at our hostel for the night at a reasonable hour. There is not much to do in Chiang Khong at all apart from do the border run to Laos over the might Meh Khong river which we did the following morning. It took a long time to process the 3 boat loads of tourists. And get us organised for the slow boat (yes, I did buy a cushion). The first day was 7 hours on the boat, pretty cramped conditions (we were on the floor) and we had to stop at Pak beng for the night. This was a very small river town and the electricity only came on between 6pm and 10 pm everyday and was powered by a generator. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong guesthouse.... I was in bed by 9pm and by the time the lights went out at 10pm we were infested by flying bugs... literally thousands of them. I was woken up by the bugs crawling on my face. It was awful, we decided to sit outside as there were less bugs there for an hour. Then, dressed in hoodies and trousers we crawled back to bed and hoped for the best. In the morning there were dead bugs covering the floor. Nasty.
The second boat was 9 hours long. and has brought us to Luang Prabang which is truely wonderful. I will explain more in my next post.

Phuket to Bankok to Chain Mai...to Laos remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Phuket tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-05-01:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=15&entryid=107533 2008-05-02T06:29:25Z 2008-05-02T06:28:06Z We've been in Phuket for 2 nights now. Phuket is an island (which I didn't know before) and we're staying in Phuket Town in a hostel called Thalang Guesthouse. It's a nice place, we get breakfast included every morning of coffee/Tea, Toast (with marmalade) and a banana! We managed to get a boat from Phi Phi to Phuket which was direct however we were both slightly worse for wear from the preceding night as it had been a the night ... We've been in Phuket for 2 nights now. Phuket is an island (which I didn't know before) and we're staying in Phuket Town in a hostel called Thalang Guesthouse. It's a nice place, we get breakfast included every morning of coffee/Tea, Toast (with marmalade) and a banana! We managed to get a boat from Phi Phi to Phuket which was direct however we were both slightly worse for wear from the preceding night as it had been a the night of the beach party. We decided to have a couple of drinks in the Irish bar then head to the Reggae Bar to see the Lady boys....They were supposed to be on at 10:30 but in true Thai style we had to wait an hour. I'm growing very cynical of the Thais and their cunning ways of getting you to stay longer and drink more and having to pay the lady boys for the photos we were practically forced to take after the show..then the inevitable "Now you tip me!" then 100 Baht wasn't enough....I think I had a rant about it to Clare who helpfully pointed out that things don't come for free...
Anyway, after the show had finished we got talking to a couple who had been sitting in front of us and whilst Clare discussed things with the girl, I talked football to the bored looking boyfriend! It was aound 1:30 that we decided to then make our way to the beach party...surprisingly the 'boring man' accosted us as we were heading for the bar and told us to come and dance with him and his other new friends. By the time we'd got our drinks and were finally getting to dance the music stopped playing....the party was over! Determined to have some fun we headed off in the direction of Hippies Bar which we were assured was open until 5am. We flip flopped for a good 10 minutes before finally finding the bar which appeared to be shut! However the TV was still on and it was the Man Utd vs Barcelona game but the bar was shut. We had to wait for these teenage boys to wander in with plastic bags filed with beer before we could get a drink (which was 100 Baht a can - you can pick the cans up from the 7-11 for 25 Baht) so after attempting to haggle (maths is apparently not my strong point when drunk haggling - I offered 75 Baht for two and was surprised by his rejection of this!). Anyway two beers later, the match was over and we decided we really should have been tucked up in bed a long time ago if we were getting a boat the next afternoon.
The boat journey was a joy...we both ended up on the deck as the constant rocking of the boat which usually resulted in Clare sleeping had actually made her (and me!) quite ill - "watch the horizon"
We landed in Phuket and got a taxi to the town where we stumbled across the first hostel listed in our Lonely Planet guide and decided it wasn't worth looking for the one I'd wanted to stay at (the On On Hotel where they filmed part of The Beach, room 38 I've been informed). We ended up with a triple room as they had nothing smaller but the price was reasonable compared to Phi Phi and the room was massive and clean.
The next day we decided that we had to visit Patong beach which is literally like some Spanish resort crossed with Brighton. The streets are lined with shops, bars and clubs. Selling novelty hats, T-shirts, silk and in the window of a pharmacy there were some 'Borat' style swimming trunks with added wings and horns (Google it if you have no idea what I'm talking about!).
We had a great day at the beach....there were rows and rows of sun loungers (which you had to pay 200 Baht for the day), parasailing, jet skis, surf boards and body boards. I immediately wanted to get a surf board however, Clare had to remind me that without lessons first I would simply drown. So I opted for a body board instead (200 Baht an hour) and spent most of the time battling with the massive waves that were crashing against the shore. I did catch a few big waves though and was thoroughly impressed with myself! Next time though I will have to wear a rash guard as my stomach got a battering from the waves I discovered when putting on after sun that evening (ouch!).
We caught a bus back to Phuket town around 5pm and visited a travel agent to see how we were going to get from Phuket to Chaing Mai. We decided upon a night bus (arriving at 6am!) as the plane tickets were quite expensive but either way we have to go via Bangkok again (our trip appears to be not very well organised!) but this happens to be a very good thing as we didn't realise that we need to sort out Vietnam visas before we get to the border and this can only be done in Cambodia or Bangkok in one day! Once we pick up our visas we will have to get another night bus up to Chaing Mai which will be quite tough two nights in a row (I'm sure I'll be a delightful traveling companion!!).

Phuket remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Phi Phi tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-29:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=14&entryid=107130 2008-04-29T11:15:16Z 2008-04-29T11:15:16Z We left Krabi on the afternoon after Clare's celebratory cocktail (and several beers!). We got a small taxi followed by a bigger taxi (these are just pickup trucks of varying sizes) to a bus after a 20 minute drive to the port. We boarded a very sturdy boat which had life jackets on each seat (reassuringly) and headed off to the wonder of Phi Phi island (pronounced Pee Pee.........titter!). We arrived in the late afternoon and were immediately faced by ... We left Krabi on the afternoon after Clare's celebratory cocktail (and several beers!). We got a small taxi followed by a bigger taxi (these are just pickup trucks of varying sizes) to a bus after a 20 minute drive to the port. We boarded a very sturdy boat which had life jackets on each seat (reassuringly) and headed off to the wonder of Phi Phi island (pronounced Pee Pee.........titter!). We arrived in the late afternoon and were immediately faced by the usual flock of people who greet the boats and tout you for their business (they want you to stay at their guest houses). After safely navigating past these people we set off with a plan which involved me sitting ina bar and waiting for Clare to roam the very narrow streets to find the cheapest and cleanest accomodation... whilst she was gone the waiotress at the bar asked if we needed a room much to my amusement and we accepted it as it was 200 Baht cheaper than most of the rooms and better than the 600 Baht room Clare sent me to check out after her wander. the room has air con and a tv but we're not sure what it's called. We presume it has something to do with the bar/restaurant which is called Cosmic but we could be wrong!
On the first night we decided to just walk around the streets and discover all the places to eat or drink and look at all the boards advertising exciting things to do on Phi Phi. We decided upon a full day boat tour for the following day and headed to find some food. Whilst eating we realised how small a world we live in as the guy we'd been chatting to oh Koh Pangnan stooped outside and was chatting to other people...we unfairly refer to him as the 'boring guy' as his conversations are tiresome...but in true polite fashion we shouted our 'hellos' and he came over for a chat. He hastily retreated as the food came to our table but we said we'd meet him in the bar opposite after food for a few drinks with his new-found friends.
We went across to Jordans (the local Irish bar) and played Connect Four until they arrived (who knew how competitive Clare could be...and how ungracious she can be in -several- defeats?!). The other kids arrived (I say 'kids' because they were ranged from 19 to 21...) and we got talking....the conversation turned to music as it seems to be the thing that can untie people and we took over the music for about 4 hours with our requests to the DJ... I must say it was a great night in the end, maybe because it turned into weird form of karaoke...but we left around 1am as we had the boat trip the following morning and didn't want to be facing the open water with too much hangover!
The boat trip was amazing... our first stop was on Maya beach which was the setting for the film The Beach. We stopped in a cove and were told to don our snorkelling masks (but not flippers) and to swim (with flip flops on hands) over to the rocks on the far side. I did so with gusto, maybe too much so, as I didn't realise what lay ahead! We had to struggle with the waves and try and put flip flops on in the water dodging the coral under-foot so we could try and grab the ropes leading to the smae gap in the rocks which would take us to The Beach. I flailed around for a while whilst Claer slowly made her way there before scambling across the coral to the small gap. At which point I realised I'd sliced my finger open on the rocks and was bleeding all over myself... Regardless we made our way along the path surrounded by lovely trees and beautiful scenery to The Beach. A total disappointment awaited me... The Beach was swarmed by boat trippers, the water full of speed boats...my hopes of finding the most beautiful place on the planet were dashed by roaring boat motors....we made our hasty retreat back to the boat...and snorkelled in the bay we'd moored at.
The second stop was the Long Beach for snorkelling with the Reef Sharks (I saw none!) then to Bamboo Island for kayaking (never EVER do this with Clare!) and more snorkelling. Then to Monkey Beach (I saw NO MONKEYS!) for a swim and more snorkelling.
Luckily this was our last stop as I was all snorkelled out and ready for some food. We ate....then went to bed as the day had been long and tiring. This meant that today has been mostly spent on the beach...sunbathing!
One more thing to add...Phi Phi was devastated by the Tsunami in 2004. Today we found the only building that remained standing after the waves struck, it's a hotel and it was used as a medical centre in the aftermath...this is a truely haunting place for me... and the evacuation route signs send chills up my spine.

Phi Phi remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Krabi tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-26:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=13&entryid=106730 2008-04-26T12:06:57Z 2008-04-26T12:06:57Z We've stayed in Krabi for three days now... Clare decided (after a lot of deliberation) to do her PADI qualification so she could become a scuba diver! They shortened the course to 3 days so we didn't have to stay here too long and today...she qualified! On the first day of her training I hired another scooter as I wanted to get to the local beach which is a couple of miles away. I took off along completely the wrong ... We've stayed in Krabi for three days now... Clare decided (after a lot of deliberation) to do her PADI qualification so she could become a scuba diver! They shortened the course to 3 days so we didn't have to stay here too long and today...she qualified!
On the first day of her training I hired another scooter as I wanted to get to the local beach which is a couple of miles away. I took off along completely the wrong road and ended up on a three lane motorway headed towards Phuket...not an ideal start I must admit so I took the first left exit (as I did not fancy doing a U- Turn on the busy road and headed back towards Krabi. I visited a 7-11 for a drop of water and consulted the map (a particularly useless one!) and decided which roads I needed to take to get to the beach... I successfully hopped back on the bike to find it wobbly wheeled and I knew something was wrong! I stopped as soon as I found a good spot and tried to figure out the problem...a few seconds later I spotted that the back wheel was flat...I was stuck on the side of a dual carriageway with no clue how I was going to get the bike anywhere when a little ice cream man (the have mopeds with caged sidecars) came back down the wrong side of the road to come to my rescue! He spoke no English, he simply left his wife with his ice cream and wheeled my bike across the busy road and straight to a repair shop... It was amazing! After a lot of thank yous they guys set to work on the bike...after a lot of hammering and chin scratching later they had the wheel off and showed me the huge rip in the inner tube. They replaced it for a total of 150 Baht and sent me on my merry way in the most horrific rain storm!
Basically it felt like someone was throwing buckets of water in my face and I could barely see so I trundled back to the hostel to change my very wet clothes and wait for Clare to finish. It was a truamatic day!
The next didn't get any better... I sent Clare off to 'school' and sat down at a cafe and tried to decide what to do with my day (no scooters!)... I decided to have a wander around town however the first corner I turned was carnage! Some poor holiday maker had been run over by a van and there was a lot of confusion and blood!
Luckily though she managed to get to her feet and was helped into the back of a police pcik up truck and taken to the hospital. It was at that moment that I decided that a brisk walk along the river and then back to the safety of the hostel were the best course of action!
I sat there watching the only English speaking tv channel...which happened to be the Australia network which was showing an Aussie Rules football game... I still have no understanding of it but was was rooting for the Collingwood team who are nicknamed the magpies...of course!
Clare found me 3 beers later looking dazed and confused at the tv....
She had a great day doing her first dive (but I'm sure she will write about that herself!)...and we headed to the diving school/bar to have a few drinks with some girls from Manchester, then onto thte night market for some lovely (and very cheap) food!
Today I was allowed along for her second day of diving and I snorkelled around the reefs with a Danish guy called Morton who was very inquisitive. Clare did two dives today which seemed to take forever but on the first dive we were joined at the boat by two other with sightseers from Thailand who were also snorkelling. They fed us some melon and a banana and had lots of questions and basically wanted to try out the very few words they knew in English. The day was great though, I swam with lots of pretty fish on the surface whilst Clare was weighted down and sent to the bottom...she did get to see seahorses though but she's a bit jealous that I saw four swordfish!
I spent quite a lot of time on the deck of the boat though and even though I regularly applied the factor 30 I seem to have forgotten to do my knees as they are now red raw and very hot...much to Clare's amusement!
We got back and showered and Clare had to sit her exam which would have been more tense if they had made her go upstairs to the classroom but instead she sat opposite me slurping her Sprite as she ticked boxes and scratched her head!
92% and she only needed 75% to pass! So she has now got her temporary PADI card so she can go diving in the next 90 days whilst she waits on the official (and no doubt laminated) card!
I got her a cocktail as a celebration...

Krabi remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Koh Pangnan to Krabi tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-23:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=12&entryid=106449 2008-04-24T04:07:57Z 2008-04-24T04:07:57Z Koh Pangnan was beautiful! We decided to hire a scooter to tour the island as there is no public transport apart from the expensive taxis. So for 200 Baht we got a scooter for a day. I quickly learnt how to use it (it was automatic so no gear changing needed), popped Clare on the back and off we scooted! We wanted to check out the waterfalls that are dotted all over the island as they are supposed to be ... Koh Pangnan was beautiful! We decided to hire a scooter to tour the island as there is no public transport apart from the expensive taxis. So for 200 Baht we got a scooter for a day. I quickly learnt how to use it (it was automatic so no gear changing needed), popped Clare on the back and off we scooted! We wanted to check out the waterfalls that are dotted all over the island as they are supposed to be spectacular...however we soon found out that unless you're there during the monsoon weather the waterfall are actually dry or just a simple trickle of water! It was good though because we got to see lots of things along the roadside and got to stop where we wanted to have food (we found a very English pub called the Mason Arms which even had the smoking ban!) and we saw more beaches along the West of the island. That evening we watched the football in the hostel because we didn't want to scooter in the dark to the pub and was very glad to see the score (2-0!!!) before we headed off to the Full Moon party in Haad Rin. We had to cover ourselves in neon paint (as this is a tradition apparently!) and we got a cheap ride to Haad Rin from the hostel staff in their jeeps. The beach was packed with people and there was a big police presence there... we grabbed a bucket of booze (apparently Sangsom is actually rum not whiskey!) and tried to keep up with the other hostel people (we lost them in about 10 minutes!)... we mostly spent the evening sitting on the beach chatting as there were too many people dancing outside the main pubs playing music and there were frequent toilet trips needed (the alcohol and noise of the waves are a bad combination!). However, this slow pace was to our advantage as many people left quite early to head home and we managed to stay until the sunrise over the beach at about 6am and Clare took lots of pictures of the sky changing colour...I, unfortunately, got to witness boys peeing in the sea and one vomitting...so no paddling for us! We got a taxi home around 6:30am which was paid for by a very chatty Irish man in a poncho before falling into bed and sleeping until 2 the next afternoon! That day was pretty much a write-off and we drank plenty of water and ate lots of food!
The following day was our last on the island so we decided to hire the scooter again and discover the north east side of the island. This was a much more difficult ride as the roads were mostly dirt with some very steep hills! We managed to make it though and were glad we did it as the bay in the north east was ebautiful and we discovered a little town which had the bumpiest road ever but was so laid back is was great. We had lunch in a bar called Rasta Baby which was amazing! The design of the bar, the friendly staff, the cats trying to teal Clare's fish and the views..brilliant, I'd recommend it to anyone!
We scootered home after our late lunch and watched a film until we were both tired enough to get an early night so we were both ready by 6:30am the next morining to go catch the boat at 7am to the mainland. We both slept on the boat which took us directly to the bus to Krabi, which, in our previous experience, was quite a novelty! The journey didn't take too long and we arrived at the port of Krabi so people going to Koh Phi Phi could catch their boat and we could find a hostel in the tourist office for us that night. They were very helpful and we have a room in a hostel called Bai Leaf for 300 Baht a night. The rooms are clean with en suite bathroom and a fan! One downside....last night we discoered we're sharing our room with Skippy Mark 2 who scuttled across the bed and sent Clare screaming out of the door leaving me to cahse it around the room hopelessly (I can't stand them either but one of us had to be pro-active!). I failed to catch him so he slept under our bed and didn't show his face again (I hope!). Clare also booked herself some diving lessons when we were out walking around town last night. She's doing her training this morning and the dives over the next couple of days which leaves me with lots of time to wander around Krabi and figure out where we're going next and how we're going to get there!
I think we're heading for Koh Phi Phi next (where the filmed 'The Beach') then on to Phuket (pronounced 'poo-get' not any other way you might find amusing!)

Koh Pangnan to Krabi remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Bangkok to Kho Pangan tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-19:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=11&entryid=105835 2008-04-19T10:59:19Z 2008-04-19T10:59:19Z We have said farewell to Bangkok... we did so in style by visiting the red light district (finally!) which was an experirence I won't forget, unfortunately! It is, as they say, a tourist trap now and there were loads of stalls set up and lots of neon signs. It was also terrifying! There were men with little cards just said 'porn dvd' and we got dragged into a strip club by some man on the street. We paid 300 Baht ... We have said farewell to Bangkok... we did so in style by visiting the red light district (finally!) which was an experirence I won't forget, unfortunately! It is, as they say, a tourist trap now and there were loads of stalls set up and lots of neon signs. It was also terrifying! There were men with little cards just said 'porn dvd' and we got dragged into a strip club by some man on the street. We paid 300 Baht each and got a free drink but it was horrible. We sat and were harrassed for the entire time for money and were entirely uncomfortable. We gave them the little money we had left even though none of the dancers had 'performed' any of their rountines. Although we did see things we never want to see again...bottles of beer being opened without the use of limbs (the only polite way of saying it!) and the classic ping pong (which Clare was disappointed to find out had nothing to do with table tennis...)

We finally left Bangkok on Thursday night around 6pm and headed on a bus to Kho Pangnan. It was an over night bus which we thought would be comfortable enough for 12 hours. However, although Clare is capable of falling asleep practically anywhere, I am not. So I spent many hours just hoping the time would pass quickly or that we'd stop for another break. I survived though and we arrived at a port at 6am. We sat waiting for 2 hours...and were put on another bus for an hour (this was not the main ferry port!). We finally got on a boat which was fantastic...we lined the edges of the boat to try and catch some sun whilst skimming across the water. The first drop off was Kho Samui which looked chaotic with taxi people trying to get some business from thse disembarking.
Another hour on the boat and we arrived at our destination which was even more chaotic as they were literally throwing backpacks off the boat to the pier and you had to dig under other bags to find your own! I managed to get ours successfully though and we ran away from the taxi people as they were trying to charge 100 Baht per person which we thought was very steep. We already knew we had a free lift from the hostel anyway and it was just a case of calling them and telling them we had arrived. We had only one slight problem...they said satnd outside the 7/11 store and there were two! We chose the wrong one of course...the man found us eventually and in no time we were checked in.
The hostel is called Power Beach resort and the rooms are quite basic but we have a room, a bed, a shower and a western toilet so we can't complain! Also they serve food, beer and havea swimming pool and... hammocks outside the room!
We also went out to Haad Rin with our Swedish neighbours (one is a half Irish) which is where the Full Moon Party is tomorrow night just to have a look around but ended up drinking buckets of a combination of Sangsom (Thai whiskey), coke and redbull...and dancing on the beach until 2am! Then is started to rain...really badly...the streets turned to rivers and we grabbed a crepe from a stall and waited for a taxi.I must explain about the taxis though, they are all jeeps and have a cover on the back and seats and can fit about 12 people in. So they earn a fortune at 100 Baht for each passenger!
Tomrrow is the real Full moon party so we're heading to a bar near the hostel to watch the football (Newcastle v Sunderland....very important!)before heading out later on to enjoy dancing on the beach again (we will be careful!). We're also going to try and get to the waterfalls on the island during the day as they are supposed to be beautiful.

Bangkok to Kho Pangan remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> The water carnage... tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-14:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=10&entryid=105202 2008-04-14T11:11:06Z 2008-04-14T11:11:06Z It's still an ongoing affair...I'm a bit bored of it now and I'm tired of being in soaking wet clothes for the entire day! So today for Clare's birthday I booked us into a hotel behind the Khao San Road. It's called the Viengtai Hotel and I we have one of the best rooms in the place (not quite penthouse though and it cost 5400 Baht for 2 nights which isn't quite as bad as I thought it was going ... It's still an ongoing affair...I'm a bit bored of it now and I'm tired of being in soaking wet clothes for the entire day! So today for Clare's birthday I booked us into a hotel behind the Khao San Road. It's called the Viengtai Hotel and I we have one of the best rooms in the place (not quite penthouse though and it cost 5400 Baht for 2 nights which isn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be....and we have a swimming pool! The room is lovely and there's even a TV and air-con that actually makes you feel freezing cold! It's a luxury existence compared to what we're used to.
Tonight we're trying to get away from the water fighting and we have devised a cunning plan involing carrying dry clean clothes and getting in a tuk tuk or a taxi to another district and changing out of our soggy stuff there! On a positive note I finally managed to get my flip flops dry today in the sun by the pool, however, the street is awash and they are damp yet again! Hopefully tomorrow on Clare's actual birthday things here will be a bit more normal!
We didn't make it to the red light district last night but maybe tonight we will...
Apart from the water and the clay they paint you with and me not being happy about being in large groups of people and being squirted repeatedly in the eyes (not good with contact lenses!) I'm having fun!

The water carnage... remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> BANGKOK! tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-13:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=9&entryid=105073 2008-04-13T10:10:37Z 2008-04-13T10:10:37Z 20 hours on the night train from Butterworth in Malaysia....enough said! It was an interesting experience and they have bunk beds. It was weird but fun! My first impressions of Bangkok were that I hated it... all the signs are in Thai and not very many people speak English and showing a map with road names in English only confuses taxi drivers! The first hostel we arrived at was the Bed & Breakfast and it seemed miles away from anything really ... 20 hours on the night train from Butterworth in Malaysia....enough said! It was an interesting experience and they have bunk beds. It was weird but fun! My first impressions of Bangkok were that I hated it... all the signs are in Thai and not very many people speak English and showing a map with road names in English only confuses taxi drivers!
The first hostel we arrived at was the Bed & Breakfast and it seemed miles away from anything really and was very expensive (600 Baht) so we spent only one night there. We headed out the first night to the Khao San Road and loved it! It may be because it's the Thai new year and there's a 3 day water fight or maybe it was just seeing lots of tourists but I did immediately exclaim that we were moving to a hostel of the Khao San immediately at a cheaper cost (350 Baht) but with a terrible bathroom!
Before we left we visted Jim Thompson's house (google Jim Thompson and Thailand to find out more about it!) house like his...or there would be trouble! It was a beautiful house I must admit but not quite suited to the British weather!
So we packed again and set off for our new room in the lively part of town... apart from me collapsing with what cn only be described as a combination of heat exhaustion/dehydration/being fed up with carrying a backpack for miles (we got lost even though the taxi driver dropped us pratically on the road/HANGOVER...Luckily two Oz girls picked me up and carried my pack to the hostel (I bought them a beer later!). We then set about exploring the road and getting absolutely drenched! I don't think I've dried out for three days now...flip flops are all over the place and I have a cquired a super soaker for water carnage! It's been brilliant so far apart from the massive number of people today...which is very daunting and at times terrifying!
This morning we decided to havea tour of some 'places of interest' and ended up being bundled into a tuk tuk and taken on a tour which I was convinced would end up in robbery, serious physical pain or a rip off...I was mostly right! the last stop on the tour was a tailors where we got measured up for suits and paid 15,000 baht for the privilege! It's ok though we had already decided we were getting some made anyway but still...I was waiting for the scam the entire ride! But then again I was taken to the cashpoint on the back of a scooter so I was very happy (but terrified of falling off!).
We're going to get some more delicious food now and possibly plan a trip to the red light district for a laugh!
Oh and we've booked our trip fo the Moon Party the entire trip with accomodation in a beach chalet for 5 nights and bus there and bus on to Krabi only cost us 3200 Baht each (52 pounds!) - amazing!

BANGKOK! remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Tanah Rata to Penang tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-09:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=8&entryid=104606 2008-04-09T08:33:08Z 2008-04-09T08:33:08Z We've arrived in Penang now, it's very hot in comparison to the highlands. We spent 3 days in the mountains which had the most amazing views (we took lots of pictures!). We only did one tour though which was disappointing...we spent the first day just lounging around enjoying the cooler climate and the massive thunder storms which happened every night. The second day we did the Countyside Tour which involved us getting a minibus from the hostel to several places ... We've arrived in Penang now, it's very hot in comparison to the highlands. We spent 3 days in the mountains which had the most amazing views (we took lots of pictures!). We only did one tour though which was disappointing...we spent the first day just lounging around enjoying the cooler climate and the massive thunder storms which happened every night. The second day we did the Countyside Tour which involved us getting a minibus from the hostel to several places (The Rose Centre - amazing view and beautiful flowers, the Strawberry farm - not very interesting, although I didn't realise strawberries are the flower, The Butterfly Farm - totally amazing insects and butterflies and snakes....and a whole load of cannabis plants apparently then the honey bee farm - not so great if you feel the need to run away from bees...). The Father's Hostel we stayed in was nice and we made a friend... Skippy (Clare named him) the Jungle Cockroach, who appeared to live either under my bed or under Clare's...we're not sure,he may have had two houses, anyway he made me sleep in my hoody (hood over my head)...apart from that it was great!
We caught the early bus from Tanah Rata (the town we were staying in) to Penang (6 hours on a bus for 26 RM!) and ended up getting a taxi from near the airport where the bus station is (another 25 RM) to Chinatown and the hostel we're now staying in (75 Travelers Lodge). We're just trying to work out how to get to Bangkok from here so we can be there for the Thai New Year and Clare's birthday! Then we're heading back down to Phuket and the islands for some serious sun-worshipping!
Please comment! Thanks Richard and I'm glad it's bringing back memories!

Tanah Rata to Penang remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Leaving Singapore and heading to Kuala Lumpur tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-05:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=7&entryid=104072 2008-04-05T10:29:29Z 2008-04-05T10:29:29Z We only lasted 2 nights in Singapore...to be honest it was a bit boring (Unless you like to shop!) and it was very expensive (we're measuring the expense by price of beer, in Singapore it cost singapore $8-14 which is roughly 4-6 quid!) so we booked ourselves on a bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for $25 each. We couldn't find the bus station for a long time, we exited the MRT (metro/tube) then had to walk for ages ... We only lasted 2 nights in Singapore...to be honest it was a bit boring (Unless you like to shop!) and it was very expensive (we're measuring the expense by price of beer, in Singapore it cost singapore $8-14 which is roughly 4-6 quid!) so we booked ourselves on a bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for $25 each. We couldn't find the bus station for a long time, we exited the MRT (metro/tube) then had to walk for ages with our backpacks to the remote bus station only to find that we'd just missed the 10am bus by 10 minutes and we'd have to wait until 12 for the next one... so we sat on the shaded benches and travel hysteria kicked in! For some reason the cans of Mango juice has bits of jelly in them much to my amusement and Clare's disgust but she persevered with drinking the entire can!
The bus was air-conditioned thankfully as the journey to 5 and a half hours. The border crossing took no time at all, put it this way, a Kim Wylde song started on the radio as we got off the bus at the crossing point and it was still playing by the time we got back on the bus! The journey didn't seem to take that long (compared to the 12 hour flight!) and we even got a refreshment stop at what can only be described as the scariest service station in the world! Whilst Clare pottered around looking for food I was left with the task of calling ahead to make sure we could get beds in KL. The first phone I found did not appear to work and before I knew it I had a big spider on my face but I refused to scream about it and went to use the other one...then a poor man with backwards feet got off another bus, he could only walk squatted down so he was only 2 feet tall and it was quite bizarre to watch him get off and then back on the bus! Needless to say though I still couldn't work the other phone either so we were heading to KL without accommodation.
Once we had realised that there was absolutely nothing I was going to eat we got back on the bus with a packet of wheaty cheese crisps which I took an instant dislike to! During the rest of the bus journey there was a massive rain storm which lasted until we got off the bus in bustling KL. We didn't have a clue what bus station we were in or where any of the hostels were that we decided we were going to try and get rooms in...luckily we managed to orientate ourselves quickly and stumbled across the hostel that was number one on our list of places we wanted to stay (Red Dragon Hotel in Chinatown) AND we managed to get 2 bed room for 3 nights at a very reasonable price (19RM each per night. 6RM = 1 pound! Oh and I'll get to beer prices in a bit!).
The first night we decided to have a wander around Chinatown, it has a really busy street called JL Petaling which is filled with market stalls and places to eat...you literally can't pass a stall without hearing 'beauty, come look at my watches/bags/perfume/pirate DVDs/fake football shirts/belts', it's all very amusing but it is quite annoying having to say 'no thank you' every few seconds every time you walk down the street to get somewhere!
The next morning we got up early and walked to the KL Tower which is the 4th tallest communications tower in the world. The lift to the observation tower was unbelievably quick and after a few seconds we were 276 metres above KL which had some amazing views!
We then headed to the Petronas Twin Towers but by the time we walked there we decided we'd had enough of being hot and enough of looking at towers and ambled through the shopping mall instead to take advantage of the air-condtioning and get a ice cold smoothie! Yet another walk back to the hostel, and we had a few well deserved beers (beer price in the hostel 7RM = just over a pound!), and I have managed to convert Clare to a beer drinker...
We then headed back down the market street to find a place to eat, it was raining bu we sat out on the street tables with a massive brolly to keep us dry. We ate loads and headed to the Raggae bar which is the only bar in Chinatown because we'd seen a sign saying it was ladies night and we'd get drinks for a pound! We had several! We finally got over our collective shyness to chat to some English people in the bar and only tow things soured the night:
1. Some guy did something (not sure what) and was asked to leave but he refused and got man-handled out of the bar but not without a fight and he squirted pepper spray all over us (we were sat at the next table) and the bar was quickly vacated until the pepper had gone.
2. We decided to try and find a club but were to inept to read a map and ended up seeing more rats and cockroaches than is generally acceptable before heading back to the hostel!

This morning we tried and failed to get up early... we were not exactly clear-headed! But we did manage to walk to the Lake Gardens which were beautiful! Plus we've booked ourselves into the next hostel in the Cameron Highlands, a place called Tanah Rata which is apparently a mountain rainforest where I hope to be left in a hammock for one entire day with NO WALKING! Not that I'm complaining but I just had to insist that we get our first taxi of the entire trip today from the Lake Gardens as I think I'm quite exhausted from walking up to 6 miles a day in very hot and humid conditions!
We'll be in the Highlands for around three days before heading up to Thailand for some sunbathing on the beach (at last!).

Mosquito bite count
Clare: 6
Leanne: FOURTEEN (all in the last 12 hours!)

Leaving Singapore and heading to Kuala Lumpur remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Day 1 - Singapore tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-04-01:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=6&entryid=103472 2008-04-05T10:29:56Z 2008-04-01T12:13:36Z We left London on Monday morning in rush hour to get the flight to Singapore... the first couple of hours were fine and we watched some of the in-flight entertainment (P!nk live at Wembley of course!) then tried to doze...I was unsuccessful but Clare fell asleep before we even took off so I had sleep-envy for most of the flight! I also had a small child behind me who insisted on kicking the chair repeatedly...I was not amused! in the ... We left London on Monday morning in rush hour to get the flight to Singapore... the first couple of hours were fine and we watched some of the in-flight entertainment (P!nk live at Wembley of course!) then tried to doze...I was unsuccessful but Clare fell asleep before we even took off so I had sleep-envy for most of the flight! I also had a small child behind me who insisted on kicking the chair repeatedly...I was not amused! in the 10th hour of the flight I started to get very grumpy and it was't helped by the awful breakfast I was served... We landed in Singapore at 8am their time which was like 2 in the morning our time and immediately found me the smoking deck...once 'd stepped out of the air-conditioned terminal in the very hot and humid air Ithought I was gong to die there and then of heat exhaustion but we managed to haul ourselves back to the baggage carousel and both bags arrived safely!
As we are useless we had badgered our hostel booking and so we got the Metro/tube/MRT to one of the many shopping centres and sat there wandering what to do with ourselves. We walked for a while (mostly in cirlces) before finding a little hostel called the Cosy Corner which is...ummmm....interesting! We have a double room and we're staying here 2 nights and some how managed to ight off the urge to sleep and went for a walk to one of the Quays to have a look around and take photos (they are lovely I promise to upload them asap!).
After walking around for hours and developing blisters from our flip flops we decided to have a snooze back at the hostel...unfortunately I have no concept of what day it is and set or alarm to wake up up yesterday...needless to say the 3 hours kip we got was great and we headed off to Little India where we ate a very hot Indian meal before a thunder storm strted crashing around us...a bit soggier than before we headed back to the hotel which has free internet but there's a queue so I'm going to sign off now and update you all later....We're heading to the rooftop beer garden to drink Tiger Beer and look rather pink and tourist-like!

Day 1 - Singapore remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Last day at work tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-03-25:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=5&entryid=102587 2008-03-25T14:28:32Z 2008-03-25T14:28:32Z It's been a really sad day so far and it's really sinking in that I'm leaving everything behind just to go off travelling the world. I've quit my job, I'm working my last day of work for a long long time and I'm saying goodbye to people I've worked alongside for almost 3 years. It's a pretty upsetting day for me....there have been so many people who have been saying lovely things to me and I'm lost for words by ... It's been a really sad day so far and it's really sinking in that I'm leaving everything behind just to go off travelling the world. I've quit my job, I'm working my last day of work for a long long time and I'm saying goodbye to people I've worked alongside for almost 3 years. It's a pretty upsetting day for me....there have been so many people who have been saying lovely things to me and I'm lost for words by peoples' generosity.
This is real! I'm leving to go around the world...in less than a week! Serious preparation is still needed....ahhhhhh! I think I'm still convinced that it's all just some mad dream I thought up a while ago and I'm really not going anywhere and I'll snap out of my daydream any second....Clare leaving on Saturday morning to go back to London FOREVER didn't really hit home because I've sat there all weekend just waiting for her to walk back into the flat...but she hasn't, she's at home, preparing, and packing, and shopping for stuff...
I on eht eother hand have been watching dvds, drinking rum and muttering about how bad tv over Easter has been (I mean, how many antiques shows do we need...really??!). I did attempt some packing yesterday though...it was a pretty haphazard attempt which culminated in me getting very annoyed by the amount of tat I have been hoarding and wondering if anyone would be willing to remove the entire contents of my room and take it all to the skip! AND how will I get all these things to the train station on Friday night? It baffles me...
Tomorrow is going to be a very strange day because it will be my last time plodding up and down Northumberland Street looking for the various bits and pieces I still have to buy for my trip (at least I was bought some flip flops, that would have taken my hours to make a decision on!!!). Then there's Thursday and my last night out in Newcastle for a long time... I'm sure it will be a messy affair with beers and tears!
Also on my mind today...how many times will I unpack and repack my backpack in the next couple of days?

Last day at work remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Counting down the days tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-03-19:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=4&entryid=101687 2008-03-19T11:17:44Z 2008-03-19T11:17:44Z I bought a backpack last weekend, it's great! I've added a picture which makes it look tiny but, to give you an idea of size, the little sticky out part with the Berghaus logo on is actually a day-pack which is the same size as a normal-size backpack that you would have used for school! When I tried it on in the shop (with two tents in it to give me an idea of weight!) the shop assistant sent me ... I bought a backpack last weekend, it's great! I've added a picture which makes it look tiny but, to give you an idea of size, the little sticky out part with the Berghaus logo on is actually a day-pack which is the same size as a normal-size backpack that you would have used for school! When I tried it on in the shop (with two tents in it to give me an idea of weight!) the shop assistant sent me on a walk around the shop... I nearly knocked two people over when I turned around! I'm probably going to be that REALLY annoying tourist type, especially if I attached my daypack to the front of my backpack...and with me wanting to buy some geeky sandals instead of flip flops....I'm turning into someone's embarrassing dad!
Back to bag....It's 55 litres plus 15 (the day pack) and all the straps and everything can also be zipped up so it's better for all the flying as I've heard stories of backpacks getting stuck on conveyor belts and then having to be cut free making the bag useless!
BAG.jpg

Obviously, I'm far too excited about the backpack...but it is lovely! I also bought some new board shorts and some bikinis and I need sandals/flip flops (am I going to be cool or comfy??!) too before I go.
I think we've decided that taking the bare minimum is the best plan and picking cheap stuff up along the way. There's no point paying loads for these things when they'll be a third of the price there....unless I go to Primark and stock up on £1.50 t-shirts?!

We're staying in Singapore for a couple of nights to acclimatise ourselves. We're also not going for the cheapest hostel either just in case 'roughing it' is too much for us in the first few days! The hostel we're keen on is called The InnCrowd (link below) which is in Little India
http://www.the-inncrowd.com/

It's not the most expensive but it's had some good reviews from people who've stayed there.

We've done loads of other research and planning on the rest of our adventure but I can't put it all in this post. At least we know where we'll be for the first couple of days then we'll have a clearer plan where to go next when we're there and talking to other packpackers!

Oh and we've discovered they have disposable mobiles out there in vending machines...I'm not entirely sure how they are disposable or what use they are but we're thinking they might be safer...although I'm still keen on taking mine with me!

Counting down the days remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Home from home tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-03-04:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=3&entryid=99662 2008-03-04T10:07:02Z 2008-03-04T10:07:02Z There are only 27 days to go. I must not panic...I must remain calm. I am back at work today after a long weekend away with Clare to visit my family, it was great to get away as it's been a very long week with far too much stress! Firstly, my second income has been stopped as the management, in their infinite wisdom, decided that I must be stealing from them as I'm leaving and there has been some dodgy goings-on ... There are only 27 days to go. I must not panic...I must remain calm.
I am back at work today after a long weekend away with Clare to visit my family, it was great to get away as it's been a very long week with far too much stress!
Firstly, my second income has been stopped as the management, in their infinite wisdom, decided that I must be stealing from them as I'm leaving and there has been some dodgy goings-on with the tills. I have not been so angry in a really long time. I am angry that I have been accused of something would never even think about doing, angry that my plan has been jeopardised and angry that Clare and all my friends have to listen to me prattle on about it for hours on end about 'the injustice' of it all.
I have mostly sorted it out though through the disciplinary hearing I had last wednesday where they showed me the 'evidence' they had gathered which to me looked suspiciously like hard work. I handed in my resignation letter before the hearingas a ahow of protest too and they said they'd pay me for the shift I missed and all the holiday pay I'm owed. They also asked me to reconsider my resignation by the end of it as I'm 'one of their best staff'....I was most confused by the whole experience and have vowed not to work for them again as my little stressed head can't put itself through working in a place where I'm accused of such things. So I'm a bit worried about money now... I was relying on those wages to live on for the next few weeks and now I'm eating into my spending money... I'll have to work something out!
Going home was really great though, entirely more relaxed than Christmas at home and it was nice to present Clare to my family so they know she's not devoid of her sensibilities... But it was also really sad leaving them behind at the airport, knowing they're going to worry so much about me, even though I'm an adult who has managed to look after herself (mostly) for a few years now...
We're getting travel insurance htis week, I've finally made Clare start looking for the best deal as I'm sick of the sight of the small print. Plus we're getting the Oz Working Holiday Visas...I hope!
Money money money! I must check that lottery ticket I bought on Saturday...

Home from home remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> The Prep tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-02-18:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=2&entryid=97016 2008-03-04T09:52:22Z 2008-02-18T15:25:21Z Part two of my blog and one week on from booking tickets. Things have progressed, I am now vaccinated for Hepititis A & B and Dyptheria. In four weeks time I will have my Hep A & B boosters plus my Tetanus & Polio shots... Malaria tablets are also on my mind as the nurse kindly informed me that they are a private prescription and that I had best shop around for the best price... Asda is apparently quite cheap ... Part two of my blog and one week on from booking tickets. Things have progressed, I am now vaccinated for Hepititis A & B and Dyptheria. In four weeks time I will have my Hep A & B boosters plus my Tetanus & Polio shots... Malaria tablets are also on my mind as the nurse kindly informed me that they are a private prescription and that I had best shop around for the best price... Asda is apparently quite cheap however, I may need to remortgage my imaginary house to be able to afford a 3 month supply as they are £2.50 a tablet and you have to take them daily! I think I'm more appreciative of living in a non-malaria zone now....

Travel Insurance - not quite got this one sorted, possibly due to still being in recovering mode from the price of the tablets, however Global Village who we have bought our tickets through seem to have a fairly reasonable price. Then again, I'm not sure of all the small print and if it's better to go for slightly more expensive cover just in case! AND no insurer will pay for drunken accidents which I find obviously outrageous and a matter for concern....

Still massively looking forward to going home in a couple of weeks to see my family with Clare. It will be an interesting experience I'm sure because Clare is terrified that she will laugh at everyone's accent (Northern Irish) and we all know she can't handle more than two double vodkas....

The fund saving has not really gone to plan mostly because I spent all my money on the ticket and I'm now praying for Friday and my wages from working in the pub (even though it'll only be £100) just so I can have a little bit of independence instead of asking to borrow cash from Clare...I'm also hoping that I continue to get lots of shifts, even if working 50-60 hours a week in almost killing me and is making me more grumpy than usual!

This week is also, the kick-start of the health regime that I've decided is needed to get me as fit as possible before attempting to lug around a huge backpack flled with unneccassaries which will be discarded as soon as I realise how ridiculous it is having to carry around pointless clothing/shoes/books/the kitchen sink. I have given myself 5 weeks of fat-burning in the gym to ensure than donning a bikini will not be an entirely shameful experience (I think my idea of bulking up before I go away to avoid wasting away to nothing was possibly the worst idea I've ever had!).

Jobs for the remaining time:
Seriously get round to sorting out Insurance, possibly with the help of an 'adult' who knows about such things...
Work my socks off
Try not to have any accidents between now and the end of March
Organise some sort of leaving party!

The Prep remains copyright of the author garvie, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Booking the tickets tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-02-11:/blog/?domain=garvie&thisblog_entryid=1&entryid=95894 2008-03-04T09:51:50Z 2008-02-11T23:01:53Z So far this week I have spent £1500 on a ticket, packed up Clare's belongings into many heavy boxes (I blame the shoes!), carried said heavy boxes, resigned from work....and freaked out a little bit! Now comes the hard part...the intricate details of planning the trip! We have the flights booked and an estimate of how long we're staying each country but as for how we're doing things and where's good to go, we're a bit clueless...I like to think of ... So far this week I have spent £1500 on a ticket, packed up Clare's belongings into many heavy boxes (I blame the shoes!), carried said heavy boxes, resigned from work....and freaked out a little bit!
Now comes the hard part...the intricate details of planning the trip! We have the flights booked and an estimate of how long we're staying each country but as for how we're doing things and where's good to go, we're a bit clueless...I like to think of it as being a blank canvas, in that we will have a clearer idea once we are....wherever we are at that point in time.
Also, a determined effort in fund management has been implemented! No more going out randomly after work....no more takeaways...no more taxis! I will have money, I will have money I will have money! Although I would LOVE some secret benefactor to come along and help me out....or to win the lottery! Not too much, I'm not greedy. Just enough to make life a little simpler and less stressful. Maybe I'll add a little paypal button so any donations can be lodged easily??! Maybe that's just wishful thinking!
So.....the next steps:
Wednesday 4pm - a visit to the nurse who will pump me full of vaccines and over charge me for malaria tablets!
Sometime this week - arrange travel insurance
1st March - fly to Belfast and see my family with Clare and try not to let them get too scared.
Sometime in between - have a leaving party!
21st/25th March - leave work for good! Clare leaves Newcastle to go home to London
25th/26th March - leave Newcasle to go and stay in London until departure
PACK!
31st March - Go to Heathrow and fly to Singapore!

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