Thailand, We left Penang on a long and tiresome 10hr bus journey over the Thai border to Krabi. Krabi is the port from which you can get a ferry to the small island of Koh Phi Phi (the island where the film The Beach was filmed). The island was very beautiful, with towering karst formations and white sandy beaches but the island was spoilt by hundreds of drunk Brits- it felt more like Tenerife than Thailand. We stayed there a few days until we couldn’t take anymore drunkards and took a ferry back to the mainland. Our next destination was Koh [View Full Entry]

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Malaysia From Melaka we got a non VIP bus to the Cameron Highlands. The buses we were taking continued to decline in quality and the bus to the highlands poisoned us with noxious fumes then broke down twice- the first time with smoke pouring from the steering wheel…the second time with boiling water erupting from the dash board. We finally got there and spent a few days exploring the area by bike, drinking a lot of tea and going on a long and disastrous walk up a mountain through endless slippery jungle. From the peaceful highlands with a perfect climate we [View Full Entry]

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Indonesia: We arrived in Medan after a hideous 7hr ferry ride. Medan is a hot and dirty city with a lot of very poor people. We quickly left for Butik Lawang, a small riverside town where Orangutans live in the jungle. We saw a beautiful orangutan and Thomas Leaf monkeys in the jungle and the next day went tubing down the river in car inner tubes. Took an unexpected 5hrs to float down to the bridge to get the bus back but it was lots of fun. We went to rather scary cave which had bats, lots of leaches, spiders and [View Full Entry]

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Singapore After culturally deficient Australia arriving in Singapore was a bit of an assault on the senses, with Malay, Chinese, Indian and many more different cultures all living on the island. We stayed in a lovely hostel near the Arab District, which had some brilliant resteraunts and shops packed with goodies from accross Asia. One of the highlights has been the food which has been good quality, plentiful and generally cheap. A couple of times the language barrier resulted in us being charged alot of money for food and drink but most places are incredibly cheap. The city has three d [View Full Entry]

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Western Australia The west is best.....definately the case in Australia. We arrived in Perth early in the morning a bit tired and went to pick up the van. We had been worried about the Wicked Camper we could possibly get as we had seen some pretty crude vans on the east coast. As we approached the car parking area we could see a particularly horrid rude van which we knew had to be ours.....We couldnt change it so got the electrical tape out, did a quick cover up job of the offending words and hit the road! The first night was [View Full Entry]

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Australia, Eastern Coast We flew into Sydney and got a bus straight to Bondi Beach. After an hour searching for the hostel in the sweltering heat with all our luggage we found the hostel on the top of a hill overloooking Mackenzies beach. It is a great hostel and brilliantly located inbetween Bondi and Mackenzie. We thought we wouldnt like it here as it is packed and really touristy but it is amazing! It was really nice to see more than 10 people in one place again and it was really hot and sunny. We did all the touristy stuff in [View Full Entry]

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New Zeland, South Island The South Island has been really spectacular. The sceanary and the wildlife is far more dramatic that the North Island, although the weather has been far worse! We got the ferry into Picton, which is a lovely small port town with the best bakery we have found during the trip yet. From Picton we headed NE to the Abel Tasmin National Park, with the hope of doing a few days kakaking around the peninsula there. The plan failed as the weather was miserable but we saw some beautiful beaches and i built a fine hut to shelter [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand, North Island I met Tom in Auckland where we spent a couple of days before getting the hire car and heading off around the N island of NZ. We have ended up with the smallest and girliest car ever. Its is a lovely tiny pink Toyota car and despite our initial horror about having to spend 5 weeks living in it we have grown to like the little thing! Weve spend a few nights in it, largely due to my poor navigation resulting in us missing campsites and torrential rain. We also have an equally brilliant tent ($30 dollar [View Full Entry]

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Rarotonga, Cook Islands (1st Feb- 8th Feb) Rarotonga is paradise! I have seen some of the most beautiful beaches and sceanary. After many terrible hostel choices in the past i have finally picked a good one. Its is run by a really lovely old couple, located about a 1min walk from the beach, it is clean (ish) and there are no crazy people! The place is full of all kinds of wildlife (mainly lizards, wild chickens, dogs, cats and insects) which are all harmless apart from the biting insects! I have been sharing a room with a Norwegian girl called Greta [View Full Entry]

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