World Travels

We headed for the airport destination Australia, no real excitement there except I was glad to find out it was only a 3 hour flight instead of a 7 hour flight we thought it was, Result !!!!!!!!!

We arrived in Perth and we were lucky enough to have a friend waiting for us which was a strange experience in its self, we are so used to getting out of the arrival gates and then just have chaos for hours until we find somewhere to spend the night. Our friend Nadia who we met on the very first part of our travels in India was waiting for us. We drove to her house that she shares with 2 others and had a nice evening planned, yes you guessed it a Bar-bee!!! There was about 12 people there for the bar-bee and it was a really nice evening a nice welcome to Australia. Everyone there seemed really nice and friendly. We were pretty beat and left everyone to it at 11ish. Nadia was kind enough to give up her bedroom for us for the night and she stayed on a mattress in the lounge. We would have been more than happy with the mattress in the living room, but Nadia said she knew what it was like to be travelling and how much it means to have a nice bed to stay in, and it truly was a nice bed just like being at home!!!

The next day we were up at 7am as Nadia had organised a trip out for the day. We drove to Busselton which was about 250 kilometres away, we met up with 3 of her friends and hired Kayak's, we took them down the estuary and towards the ocean. Once we got there we were trying to spot dolphins I didn't think there would be much chance of this, but sure enough they came, it was amazing to see them in the wild swimming around our little boats. I was a bit weary of Sharks but was told over and over that if there are Dolphins there are no Sharks, so we decided to get in and swim with them. Then a massive great big jaws like shark came and took a massive chunk out of my Boat!!!!! well not really but that's what I thought was gonna happen lol. I was in a kayak with a girl called Sam and Helena had already got out onto land around the corner, we had to take the kayak onto the beach for lunch, the waves were pretty big, I asked Sam what the best way of doing this was, she said just paddle straight and we will just go sliding straight onto the beach, mmmmm well we road a massive wave towards the beach and I thought that was pretty cool until I heard Sam say 'O CRAP', at this point I had a fair idea of what was coming another massive wave just hit us pushed the front of the boat into the sand and sent us up in the air 45degree angle and straight into the water, we both luckily didn't get hurt and found this highly amusing. We headed home about 3ish, it was an awesome day and when we go back round to Perth in a few months we will definitely do that again. We arrived back at Nadia's house where we were meeting our other friend Lisa who we also met with Nadia on the same trip in India, she wasn't at the BBQ the night before as she had a concert that night. We all caught up and then we went to Lisa's house as we were staying there for 2-3 nights until we sorted somewhere else to stay. The next day Lisa was at work and so was her house mate Quinn, so we decided to catch the train into Perth, only takes 30mins, we had to sort out our Australian bank accounts that we had set up. We spent the rest of the day shopping (window shopping) as it is so expensive over here, it was real lucky we had somewhere to stay without having to pay for accommodation as well. We went to the supermarket which we were very excited about as we had a kitchen to be able to cook our own food for a change. The next day we spent in Fremantle where Lisa lives looking around checking things out, That night Nadia came over as we were going to have a movie night, but Lisa's friend Milo had just came back from Ireland so he came over to catch up. He was a really nice guy and ended up spending a lot of time with him over the next 5days, which was really cool.
On the Wednesday we went back into Perth to look round Kings Park, this was very beautiful and its a great view from there overlooking the city. That evening we went down to the harbour with Lisa and met Milo for fish and chips, frankly they put our British fish and chips to shame, they were delicious. We got an early night as Thursday morning Nadia was picking us up as she had booked the day off from work so we could spend it together. We headed for Swan Valley about an hour out of Perth. We went for a really nice walk to the waterfalls, (unfortunately no water but still stunning to see) we then walked back through the bush and saw a Kangaroo in the wild. We went to the pub that was still inside the bush where the Kangaroo's come up close for food and water, It was great to see them so close an experience I will never forget. We then headed onto the swan valley wineries where we did lots of FREE wine tasting it was great fun, got a bit drunk but hey it was free. Then a big sign on the road said free chocolate tasting mmmmmmmmmmm well that was a no brainer. We then headed onto Nadia's mum house where she has a fantastic view of the lake, Nadia's brother came round and Nadia's friend came as well. We all went for a walk along the river. Nadia's mum was absolutely lovely and cooked us a really nice meal and we stayed that night at her house.

We had to leave the house by 7am the next morning as Nadia had work and we were getting a lift back to Freemantle to meet up with Lisa for about 11am so we could spend the day with her. Once Lisa had returned from her surfing in the morning we went out for a bike ride, we managed to hire the bikes for free from the local council, Result, we met up with Milo and Linda for lunch at the markets. We then cycled down to the local beach called south beach and went for a swim. Milo then arrived on a free hire bike as well and we all cycled cottesloe beach. We went for a swim there as well. Both beaches were great and the water was crystal clear and no sharks. That evening Lisa had a welcome home party for Milo at hers and we all made pizza's, as my friend Tony would say they were GGGGGGGRRRRReat.

We got up early the next morning to go with Lisa to watch her surf as she is really into it. That was good fun watching, right at the end she caught a really good wave and was very impressive I think the whole beach heard her scream with excitement. After the surfing we went to Hilerys which is a shopping village up the road. That evening we went to a mascaraed carnivale with Lisa Milo Linda and Quinn, it was good fun and we all dressed up, some more than others, myself Helena Lisa and Linda all had mascaraed masks on and that was about it but Quinn crossed dressed as a woman (he seemed a bit too comfortable lol) and Milo had just finished receiving his Doctorate from the university so he was dressed in all the graduation robes with a mascaraed mask. It was a good night out actually, there was an after party at the beach but we were too tired for that it had been a long day.

Sunday, we decided just to chill out and relax as the next day we were leaving for Adelaide. We laid in, lots of people where heading to the beach for the morning but we passed so we could relax and have a walk into town to get some bits for our trip. Lisa and Nadia had tickets to a concert that started in the afternoon and went on till late so we were on our own for the evening which was a shame as it was our last night in Perth, however we got a call from Lisa and she said that Linda was with her at the beach and she wanted to do a bbq for us in the evening, so I spoke to Linda and she told me she had a pool and just come round to relax and chill out, Linda is such a nice person we are very glad to have met her and it was really kind to have us over for the evening, she also invited Jay,Keiran and Milo. It was a great evening and it was good to just chill out with familiar faces.

Monday, Lisa took the morning off work to take us to the camper van hire place which was a big help as it was out the way a bit. We arrived at 10am and said our goodbyes which was really sad. After all the tedious paperwork to go through we were in the camper and ready to hit the road, it was really nice it was a 2 berth and had a shower, toilet, small kitchen, it was perfect for the 2 of us.

Perth was an amazing place and all our friends made it very special for us it wouldn't have been the same without them.

Read our next blog to see how we got on with the 3256 kilometre drive to Adelaide.

Well its been nearly a month, if not longer since we last updated you and how we are and what we are doing. Don't worry I won't bore you with all the details I'll just keep it brief so that you have a vague idea on what we have been doing and where we are now.

So after leaving Langkawi and heading to Koh Lanta for my birthday we hit the roads again and headed to Krabi town on the southern mainland in Thailand. This time we paid a little extra to go with a tour company so that we wouldn't have to contend with all the ferry crossings and transport connections. We were and still are feeling rather exhausted from all the intense travelling we have done, so we didn't really mind parting with the extra few £'s. There's little to do in Krabi town, not even beach, but its a great little place to unwind for a few days with little stresses. We checked into a cheap hostel, that was also clean and with bargain food prices. Plus the guy owned a lot of DVD's that we have copied onto our laptop as keep sakes. I'm sure we copied close to 40 and they were just the one's that worked. We took a trip to Ao Nang beach, around 15km away which is extremely touristy and a favourite with package holiday guests due to its amazing array of SPA's. Other than stocking up on some more DVD's which we have also copied to our computer and are not risking sending home via post for them to go missing by the Royal Mail, however they made it through Australian customs no problem. On day 2 we took a boat tour out into the Beautiful islands that surround Krabi, but mainly to see Koh Phi Phi, Maya Beach (where the beach was filmed) and monkey island. Chris even had a go at snorkelling which I left out as there were far to many fish swimming about for me. Day 3 was spent spending an absolute fortune sending items back to the UK. It was actually cheaper to do that and upgrade our baggage allowance to 20 Kg on Air Asia flights. Surprising it took just over 2 weeks to make it home, all in tact and all there. Which is less time than it has taken me to update you on where we are. Day 4 we took to the jungle and Chris experienced his first elephant ride. Elephants really are great animals, especially to interact with at feeding time. Its took them no time at all to wash down the banana's we brought them.

After leaving Krabi and against all the advice we had been given by people we decided to head to Phuket. Well you can't really go to Thailand and not go and see what all the fuss is about in Phuket. To be honest its no worse then heading to one of the tacky 18-30 resorts throughout Spain. Girls, maybe guys, wearing very few clothes and gyrating around the place, much to the delight of the U.S. Navy that had just docked nearby and were clearly enjoying a few days rest and relaxation. Other than bars, clubs and shopping, there really isn't a lot to Phuket. We deliberately stayed in the tacky stripe, however there are some absolutely beautiful quiet beaches nearby that are well worth a visit.

Then were the flights that we had not been looking forward too. Much of the reason we had put off Borneo and Indonesia was that it was the wet season and with that comes rains and storm therefore meaning bumpy flights. Our flight from Phuket to the Indonesian capitol of Jakarta took just under 2 hours and thankfully was bump free. We had less than 24 hours there, which actually proved to be enough time as we didn't really have much time for anything. We looked up staying in the local 'backpacker' district but all the reviews we found involved people being robbed, stuff going missing from their rooms at night and creepy hotel staff. The taxi driving actually drove down the street on the way to hour hotel and we are so pleased that we choose against it. We checked ourselves into the every so classy Formule One. I must say WOW, it is by far the best room we have had on our entire trip and other than the trip to the shopping malls around the corner, we never left the room. We were just far to exhausting and what we had seen so far of Jakarta didn't exactly have sex appeal. Our flight departed the following evening, so by the time we checked our emails and had lunch we headed to the airport for another flight we were not looking forward too. It had only rained for about 30 minutes Max each day during our stay in Jakarta, however an hour before our flight a lightening storm set in in the distance. Generally not an issue, but when your flying you know dam well that your going through it and boy didn't we go through it. The first 20 minutes of our 2 hour flight to Bali were hell. I really don't know why they would think it is safe to fly through a storm. We were bouncing around all over the place and the lightening was everywhere around us. Chris' legs were shaking so fast it was comical, but we all felt light we were going to fall out of the sky any minute now. I really don't know how we made it. However we arrived in Bali and hour later than planned and had 3 days before out flight to Perth to just chill out and relax. Bali however is a bit of a let down. Again we didn't have much time there and headed straight for the tourist beach, but the sands not great and its so tacky with chops and stalls selling beach ware and holiday memorabilia. Again I'm sure other areas of the island are beautiful but my opinion of it is that its the tacky Spanish holiday resort equivalent for Australians.

Hi All!!! Well just a quick update to let you all that we are still alive. Not a lot has gone on since we least wrote to you. We've got rather lazy since arriving in South East Asia. All the intense travelling we did before Christmas and the made rush of making it somewhere nice for Christmas had taken all the energy from us so we have pretty much done a lot of chilling, far too much eating and tons of sun bathing. Finally though we are getting our strength ready for our next challenge.

After spending 4 days in Langkawi we decided to head back into Thailand and head over to Krabi and Phuket which we never got around to seeing the first time. We took an early morning ferry from Langkawi back into the dreaded Satun where we waited for the bus. All the transport was local as opposed to VIP, but we kind of new it was coming as the ticket was only slightly a rip off as opposed to completely over charged robbery. It proved to be a very long and 9 hours after we left Langkawi we arrived at the island of Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta is a beautiful unspoilt island in southern Thailand, a few hours south of Krabi. Its connected by car ferry's from the mainland connecting it with Trang and passenger ferry's that connect it with Krabi and Phi Phi and further on to Phuket. So far its relatively unspoilt by tourism however the German's are having a good go at it. I do hate people the litter beaches with cigarette butts. Who do they think is going to sift through the sound and clean it up???? Plus I haven't meet one yet that isn't obnoxious. But other than that the island had the clearest waters I have ever encountered across the whole of Thailand, they are absolutely beautiful. My birthday was also spent in Koh Lanta, nothing too crazy, just a bit of sun bathing and a nice dinner in the evening. Chris brought me a Pillow from the 7 eleven for 69 Baht. Its very funky with colourful flowers over it, but it feels like its been filled with bricks, but very thoughtful anyway.

So we're now on a ferry heading to Krabi town. It cost us 400 Baht, which is a little over priced as you can go overland for 200 Baht, but we had already booked the very before we found out!! Its an early morning ferry which left at 8am. Waking up at 7am was a bit of a shocker and is certainly not a time of day I am used to seeing any more. God knows how I used to be in the car ready for work by then?? Once in Krabi town we plan to do a little sight seeing and take a day tour out to Koh Phi Phi tomorrow before heading over to Phuket, which is likely to be our last stop before heading to Bali to catch our flight to Perth.

Well its another day and another new tale to tell. Things have changed a lot in some sense since the last time we updated you, but on the other hand they haven't really as we are now back where we started in Langkawi. However that hasn't exactly been the bed of rose's we thought it would be. We've returned to the same budget motel that we stayed at the last time we were here, however they didn't have the same room, but still the room was of a similar quality except it had an unwanted guest in the form of the biggest cockroach we have ever seen and this one was big!! We had already looked at other rooms as the A/C in this one wasn't good, but they didn't have any more left so we settled with it, however when we returned from dinner it was crawling along the side of the bed and then under the sheets. That was it, we freaked and we had been pushed to the limits. Generally we're OK with cockroaches now, but this one was a size of a rat (maybe a slight over exaggeration) and we didn't dare lift the covers in case there were more.

If you ever get the chance to visit, Malaysia is a great country and is completely different from Thailand, especially in landscape terms, even though they are right next to each other. Thailand is very much a concrete country, with little greenery in and around the towns, Malaysia however is absolutely beautiful and Kuala Lumpur for shopping is out of this world. We spent 2 days alone in one shopping mall solely dedicated to electronics, with 6 out of the 7 floors for computers alone. They even have a shopping mall with a theme park of the 8th floor, genuine roller-coasters included.

We also took the oppertunity to go up the Petronas towers, and accross the sky bridge that links the two towers, we had to queue up before 8 as tickets wrer gone by 11 but at least the tickets were free!!!!!

So having spent 5 days in Kuala Lumpur, which was a lot more than we intended and having parted with a lot of cash after many a shopping trip, all of which was Chris by the way, updating his wardrobe with something the rest of us call fashion, and after buying a laptop, we headed to Singapore after deciding now wasn't the best time to visit Borneo because of the weather and boycotting the Jungle as the leaches were in full force. This time however we didn't take the night bus as we wanted to catch up on some sleep, however the night bus may have been better. The public long distance buses in Malaysia are fantastic and are so comfortable. They actually make better beds than some of the beds we have stayed in. But by the time we arrived in Singapore it was so late (something public transport is good at everywhere around the world it seems, not just the UK) that after walking for 45 minutes we took the first place we saw, and begrudgingly parted with £40 for a private room. However when we checked in, the dorms were right outside the door (and I mean literally)and we had to walk through them to go the the bathroom. And at 3am the Muslim temple at the end of the road started blaring what can only be described as horrific prayer music. Oh and thrown in for good measure was the last occupants short and curly's in the sheets. I used to work in a hotel so I'm pretty hot on checking sheets to see if they were clean, but this one was obvious it wasn't. £40 well spent, I think not.

Singapore is a great place, very similar to Japan, however the weather remains hot all year round and its a lot noisier. Not that its noisy there, but in Japan, no-one really says a word to one another. That's why they have so many vending machines where they can by all their worldly goods (rumour has it that you can by insurance and bouquets of flowers from some) and therefore they don't need to say anything to anyone. Singapore on the other hand is an east meets west country and where everyone knows the English language. The streets are immaculately clean and the food there is amazing. None of the dodgy meat rubbish you have to be weary of in the rest of Asia. So after our over priced accommodation on the first night, we headed a little further out of town, not that it makes a difference as Singapore is tiny and the metro covers the whole island at 1/5 of the price of the London Underground. We managed to find a clean hostel in the recently refurbished red light district for £15 a night. Which is a lot more than we would usually spend and we had to share a room with 6 other people, especially as we usually didn't go over £10 and that had to include our own bathroom, but is was ample for us. Unfortunately our plan to leave Kuala Lumpur to escape the shops didn't go to well. I knew Singapore had great shops, but as soon as we exited the underground New Look was straight in front of me and I can't tell you have great it was to go into a shop where you could find clothes in your size so easily (is a size 14 really that much to ask). Asian girls are so tiny, that there definition of a large would barely be a medium in the UK. But we restrained ourselves and only came away with a pair of shorts!! We took a trip over to Sentosa Island, which is a tiny island off the southern tip of Singapore, which has transformed so much over the years since I was last there. As well as its super clean beaches and tourist attractions is due to open its doors to Universal Studious later in the year.

As Singapore costs about the same as it does back home, we decided we couldn't stay for too long. We already have a flight to Perth booked from Bali on 6th Feb, but the weather in Indonesia now is wet and set to remain wet for the next few months, so we were hoping to catch a cheap last minute flight into OZ, but the cheapest we could get was £130, which is still very cheap by any standards, but as we already had a flight which only cost us £36, we didn't really want to waste it, so we decided to head back to the sun and got a bargain flight to Langkawi for £11!!! So that pretty much brings me back where we are now!!!!

Other than that we haven't really done a lot. We've both started reading again. I read 3 books now in less than a week and even Chris has purchased a book that he his set to finish in the next 20 minutes. He discovered he actually likes to read. And basically just a lot of rest and relaxation. Back packing is actually quite strenuous that you need a break from it sometimes.

Hope all's well back home!!!! xxxxx

Well its that dreaded time when we have to sit at a computer for over and hour telling you what we have been doing for the past 2 weeks. Sometimes we don't mind, but when its times that a lot has happened, it really is a big chore!! Thankfully I am doing the Malayasia blogs and Chris needs to finish the Thailand blogs, which is a good job really as he has a lot to write about. Its more likely that you'll read this first and we will have left Malayasia by the time he has finished the Thailand blog and you get to read about it.

Anyway, Langkawi was absolutly scourching!!!The temperature was well into the 30's and even on the morning it did pour down, by 12 o'clock the sun was out and shining hard. Good job really as after the eventful trip (and cost) we had getting there, we needed a relaxing time and a place to top up the tan after the last few cooler days we had in Thailand. We checked in to a hotel after looking at many and unsuccessfully trying to find a cheap one (obviously there were cheap ones, but i mean super cheap) It only cost us 60MYR a night, which is about 10 pounds a night. That said it was pretty decent and super clean, with hot water which is just what we needed as we haven't had hot water since 26th December and my hair really needed a good wash, especially as I got it coloured (twice) in Koh Phangan. But the main reason for the fancy room was that the bar had satalite TV and therefore Chris was able to watch the Arsenal match. Kinda ironic that the match got cancelled that night then!!!

Langkawi wasn't quite what I expected it to be, although i think thats because we stayed on the tourist drag, which doesn't give you the best prospective of the island, although that said it was a lot quieter than other holiday strips. The beach that we were staying at was relatively quiet, but still had the typical beach activities, such as banana boats, jet ski's etc, but not enough to put you off the area. So after dropping off our bags ( we weren't allowed to check in until 5pm as someone had a late check-out, although we used that to our advantage and got a discount from the hotel, we set about to see the island. We thought it would be a good place to buy a laptop, and so headed back into town and took a look around the many malls that have popped up there, but that proved to be wrong. We couldn't find a single computer shop. We did however find a fast food chicken restaurant called Marry Browns, where Chris brought a coke which was handed to him from across the ant infested counter, nice!!!!!!!!

The morning of day 2 we took to the roads and explored the islands. This was after the 4 hour down pour in the morning, so we didn't get out and about until 12 o'clock, but when you consider we hadn't got any sleep for at least 36 ish hours (again sorry but chris is telling that story), the late start wasn't an issue. To be honest we got too relaxed in Koh Phangan, we had it far too easy!!! We took a trip to Langkawi cable car, that unsurprisingly went up a mountain, via cable car, but this one was pretty steep. Enough to make Chris sit there for the 15 minute ride and not say alot except look out the window looking slightly white. But still the views across Langkawi Islands, which is made up of 99 individual islands, was beautiful. By the time we made it back down we needed to be back at the resort to drop of the bike. The bike which had magically fallen over in the night and had gained a few scratches on one side and a broken front brake handle. So we had to make sure we covered the marks shall I say and give it back. The scratches were relatively easy as when we took the bike they mark a sheet with a picture of a bike on and any problems it has. Ours had scribbles all over the place, so they wouldn't be able to tell what was new and what wasn't. The brake handle however we put a little insulation tape around to hold it steady and hoped for the best. It worked, they only checked the right brake handle, chris got his deposit back and ran for the hills. To be fair the bike was standing on a parcial sandy pavement, but if thats what made it fall over as it was too soft for the stand, then the brake wouldn't have snapped, so if someone else had knocked it then it wasn't actually our fault. Needless to say my rant at Chris has ensured we are not getting another bike for a while, which is good because we don't need another one on our travels now, he can destroy our camper van instead!!!! Too much money was spent getting to Langkawi (again Chris's story), but they are good ways to see the islands as taxi's can get expensive when there are 2 of you.

Day 3 and the morning of day 4 was spent chilling on the beach. We were due to go to Penang, but the ferry was a little pricey at 60 Myr (10.00) and Langkawi is one of Malayasia's nicest islands so we decided to stay a little longer. Its so bizarre that Thailand is just across the border, but in comparison to Malaysia is so dry and fulll of contrete structures everywhere, whilst Malaysia is so green and lush and the people are unbelievabally friendly and don't try to rip you off.

Last night we were due to take a ferry to Kuala Perlis, which is a northern town on the mainland and then an onwards bus to Kota Bharu to catch a day train though the jungle. However we decided against this as it meant we would be continually travelling and if we decided not to stay in the jungle, then we would carry on to Kuala Lumpur anyway. The buses here are amazing. They are super comfy and the seats are huge!!!! The ferry from Langkawi to Kuala Perlis only took an hour and then we waited for the last bus to leave for K.L so we could save on a nights accommodation. It took around 7.5 hours and we arrived here around 5 am this morning. We decided to grab our thoughts and spend some time deciding where to go etc and of course an egg McMuffin before finally tracking down some accommodation, which brings us to know. We're still waiting to check-in but at least we have something. The hostel we are staying in is full and someone happened to check-out as we arrived. Plus the area we are in is known for being full of bed bugs!!!! can't wait!!!

Oh and guess who we saw in Langkawi ???? the weird crazy girl from Japan, (read the japan blog if your unsure on who we are talking about).