http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Becki/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Becki en-us Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:23:19 +0000 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:23:19 +0000 Whimped out of the slow boat and spent one whole hour on the plane to Louang Phabang it was great Met two very sweet but rather clueless Welsh boys on our flight and we sort out accommodation together. Wandered around the town first Lao meal and ended up at Hive local bar full of westerners. Evening drinking until we were thrown out at 12 after which everyone headed for the local bowling all http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-173217.html After a 14 hour train journey we arrived in Chiang Mai. Spent the day wandering around the city booked a 2 day trek for the next few days and had a massage which was very lovely as Irsquod insisted she be very gentle with me. The next day we headed off on our trek. We met our group which consisted of 3 couples from Oz Germany and Dominican Republic Before the hike up the hill we went on a s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-165901.html After a VERY long and slightly tedious mini bus journey which involved Mr Driver going the wrong way for at least an hour I'm certain we arrived in Bangkok. Spent an evening on Khaosan Road checking out the numerous stalls selling billions of cheep and cheerfull clothes and stuff and enjoying the craziness of generally BKK. The next day we heaed out to do some sightseeing in the blazing heat. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-163381.html Next stop Koh Samui. Found somewhere to sleep and caught taxi to Samui Airport also known as a bunch of small shacks in the middle of the island to meet Em and Becca. Was sat so close to the runway could actually have got run over if I'd put a bit of effort into it. SOOOO lovely to see them both until they were actually there I wasn't totally sure they'd be on the flight quite surreal havi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-158598.html Crossed the boarder from Malaysia to Thailand Langkawi to Satin and then took a mini bus up and across to Koh Lanta one of the islands on the east coast. After a very long and extremely hot day of travelling we rocked up at one of the hundreds of resorts along and beach and fortunately landed on our feet by finding a beautiful little place with lovely clean bungalows for 2 pounds a night. Then http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-154409.html Arrived in Singapore late in the evening and managed to navigate our way through the absurdly clean underground system to our little hostel. The next few days were spent exploring the city including Little India visited a fish market where they appeared to be selling a whole shark Clarke Quay and Orchard Road huge great shopping malls selling every designer label under the sun not quite http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-149852.html Arrived in Fiji late afternoon and Rich met me at the airport along with a guy from our hostel holding my own little sign. Drove to our hostel Mama's Tropic of Capricorn and settled in. Mama the lady who ran the hostel was very lovely and treated us all like her own children. The next day we sat down with Mama and planned our whole trip. We decided to spend 10 nights on the islands and she reco http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/Yasawa-Islands/blog-145359.html Arrived in Wellington and after a slight struggle managed to find our way out of the docks we rocked up at our hostel and slept The next morning we embarked on a long drive up the middle of the island to Turangi. We were extremely impressed with our choice of hostel a band new homely little abode with the most gorgeous dog and the most comfy bed I have slept in since leaving 10a. Our plan was http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-136958.html Drove from Chirstchurch to Wanaka a six hour drive and chatted the whole way there. We had rang ahread to book our sky dive over Lake Wanake the day before so we were already anticipating the next day. Cooked food and headed to bed early but only to be woken at 1am by a fat Irish guy snoring like a train for hours. This drove both of us mad until I whipped him with my towel and he finally turned http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-133170.html Arrived in New Zealand late Friday night checked into hostel Base Backpackers.Following morning Bekka and I found Stefan who had followed Bekka over from Oz and sat down to discuss our route for the next week. Knowing I had Sarah arriving in 10 days we planned to see parts of NZ that we wouldn 't include in our trip. After much discussion we came up with a vauge route but decided we'd hire http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-130547.html From Perth Bekka and I flew back to Melbourne where we met Rich and Stefan. Our first day was spent wandering round the city going to the Queen Elizabeth Markets which had amazing food stalls and checking out St Kilda which had cake shops selling every different type of cake imaginable.The next day the four of us hired a car and we headed to Philip Island. At the west point of the island we sa http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-127485.html Landed in Perth and was met at the airport by my aunt and uncle Di Pete. Was so cool to see them as I have not seen either for years esp Di who I think I last saw about 10 years ago. Whilst driving home I was able to describe their house from memory when I was 9 quite impressed as pretty much got it spot on. Once back my cousins Graham Dick came round and we all went out for food. Half http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Perth-City/blog-123081.html With Christmas over we next had to contend with the build up to New Year. As always I behaved like a complete spoil sport and refused to look forward to celebrating the arrival of 2007 or 2008 as I told my parents I was really looking forward to got a little confused as to actually what year it was whoops. The morning of the 31st Dec was spent debating what we were going to do that daye http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Perth-City/blog-118042.html Arrived in Sydney 18th Dec very tired after 13hr coach journey. Day walking around in a complete daze longing to be able to sleep in my not yet made up bunk bed.Following day being a little more awake went to Parm Beach where some of Home and Away is filmed. Met lots of people from the hostel and took part in a vollyball comp. I was teamed up with Stacey and one guy from Canada Randy and another http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-114169.html Well I'm afraid this is going to be a pretty crap entry as I spent most of this time drinking and sunbathing and has managed to delete all the good photos I wanted to put on this blog entry vvv.upsetting still dealing with the lose even though it was my fault. We arrived in Surfers and checked into Sleeping Inn a rather nice hostel were we had our own little appartment. I was not particular http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Byron-Bay/blog-112732.html Checked into Dingos Backpackers on Rainbow Beach in prep for our Fraser Island tour. In the afternoon we were divided into our groups of 11. There was the 7 of us one English guy called Chris aka Perky and 3 Israily guys called Shahar aka Dawn we couldn't prononce his name so he went with Dawn as its means the same thing despite it being a girls name Guy and Omri. They were all 23 and seeme http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Fraser-Island/blog-107099.html At 3am on Thursday 16th Katy Jo and myself arrived in a small town called Agnus Water better known for its neighbouring town of 1770 named after it was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770. Due to the crappy times of the Premier bus we had no choice but to rock up in the early hours of the morning after having been dropped off in the middle of no where and be picked up by a man and his dog an o http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Agnes-Water/blog-105927.html After a very relaxing time on Magentic Island we caught the bus fro Townsville and headed down the coast to Airlie Beach. Checked into our hostel Backpackers on the Bay the only one that didn't have bed bugs so we heard which was a bit out of town just to our liking. We had an evening out which was ok but being a Monday night it was quite quiet and once again the Ozzy men were very leary.The http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-102254.html I had to add an extra blog entry for this little gem as it was so amazingOn our last day on Magnetic Island me Lou and Katy took a short trek to a Wildlife and Koala Sanctuary. It was run by a little old lady and we were the only ones there. Firstly we checked out there birds who apparently really love English woman and this little white thing called Snowy got really attached to Lou. He was s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Magnetic-Island/blog-102245.html Arrived in Mission Beach and checked into Scotty's Beach House. The weather was amazing and we couldn't wait to get on the beach. There was one other girl who checked in the same time as us. She asked to come to the beach with us and introduced herself. She is called Preet and is from North London. She arrived in Cairns similar time to us and has been travelling alone but finding it really hard as http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Magnetic-Island/blog-99173.html