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 alley!!! Few rounds of rather drunken bowling, much fun! Next day I climbed the Phou Si (the Sacred Hill)in the middle of town to visit temple and check [View Full Entry]

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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 I’d 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 short elephant ride through the foot hills. Our Ellie was very well behaved and meandered along easily which was very good [View Full Entry]

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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. First we went to the Grand Palace, which was amazing. So so shiney, I do not know how else to describe. Really beautiful and very impressive how all those thousands [View Full Entry]

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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 having my big sis there. Unfortunately, the weather was pants, rain and cloud, not quite what they had been hoping for. But [View Full Entry]

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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 next day was spent at the local clinic then hospital as poor little Lou Lou had picked up a very nasty bug in Malaysia and [View Full Entry]

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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 backpacker shopping territory). Managed to find extremely cheep and yummy food, including traditional puddings which consisted of a lump of ice with coconut milk poured on it and fruit. Unfortunately [View Full Entry]

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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 recommended various resorts where we should stay. It was great as she booked everything for us!! In the afternoon we headed into Nadi [View Full Entry]

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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 to conquer the Tongariro Crossing (a very popular 8 hour walk through the Tongariro National Park) the next day, however due to a rubbish [View Full Entry]

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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 over, but continued to make the most offensive of noises. Very tired the next morning we headed for the sky diving [View Full Entry]

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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 a car and just see how it goes. Unfortunartly, our other girls had arrived a week before us and had already set off on a tight schedule [View Full Entry]

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