Leaving behind the security and comfort of Warnambool, it was finally time to get back on track and head to Cairns, the starting point of our final leg in Australia, The Cairnes to Sydney road trip. Cairnes sits on a flat plateau nestled between two Australian 'Greats', the Dividing Range to the west and the Barrier Reef to the East. Its also ended up as backpacker central and your typical tourist trap. Whether its retired package tourists, diving enthusiasts, families or the 18 to 30's crowd, they all swarm to this coastal city for guaranteed sun, sea, sand and partying. Unfortunately [View Full Entry]

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Melbourne is not your average city although its central business district could convince you otherwise. It boasts everything a modern day metropolis has to offer but somehow manages to keep the community feel that most cities lose. It probably has a lot to do with the numerous suburbs which make up the majority of the city's mass, each one pocessing that individual vibe that makes a visit an adventure in itself. Whether it's the 'Camden-esq' individuality of Richmond, the fashionable, bistro laden streets of Prahan/South Yara or the party mad beach scene at St. Kilda there is always somewhe [View Full Entry]

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Another day another flight. This time we were leaving Asia behind and heading off to Australia. When your travelling, moving on is always exciting but this time was even more so, as after five months in Asia we were really in need of some western normality. The flight from Singapore only took seven hours but because of the time difference we arrived in Sydney at six am having had no sleep whatsoever. After going through customs where Becky was pulled up for having a sachet of tomato ketchup in her bag (apparently an offence if not declared)! we headed off to [View Full Entry]

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Mount Kinabalu stands as the highest peak in Malaysia and more impressively is the tallest mountain between the Himalayas and South America. Being the 'Mountain that anyone can climb' (according to the guide book) means it attracts around fifty people a day to attempt to climb to its rather impressive 4100m sumit. We had booked our climb date in KK when we first arrived in Sabah, but due to the waiting list it ended up being the last thing we did before leaving for Singapore. We arrived at the national park headquaters the night before our climb and stayed in the [View Full Entry]

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Kuala Lumpur is a great place to start a trip around Malaysia. You get to top up your fast food and shopping levels, chill out in air conditioned cafes and use the cheapest post rates, we have found so far, to send home the next lot of accumulated junk. Besides our trip to the Petronas Towers (the building used in the film 'Entrapment') our time in the capitol was fairly relaxed and uneventful, exactly what we needed before flying to Sabah (northern Borneo) where relaxation didn't even come into the equation! Never on our original list of destinations, Sabah is one [View Full Entry]

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After a 90 minute flight from Kunming, China, where the temperature had been a very cold 4 degrees C we landed in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand which was a very welcoming 30 degrees C! Chiang Mai is famous for its trekking opportunities, its handicrafts, Thai cookery schools and traditional massage. We spent the first few days taking in the local sights and wandering around the night bazar, which is basically a large street market selling everything from fake jeans to fairy lights. There was even an 'English' pub the 'Red Lion' where I managed to get a refreshing but overpriced pint [View Full Entry]

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We stepped accross the border from Vietnam into what seemed to be another world. The streets were clean and tidy and for once the signs had no English translation. We walked to the bus station where we were to catch the night bus to Kunming the capital of Yunnan Province. We had been looking forward to the brand new Korean made sleeper busses that we had been promised in the Vietnamese booking office (you think we would have learnt by now). We were somewhat dissapointed to see what resembled a 1970's tin can on wheels. It didn't get much better when [View Full Entry]

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Once again we arrived in a city, this time Hanoi, tired, hungrey and in need of a hot shower. We adventually, after an hour or so trudging around in the rain, found a so called guesthouse which had vacancies and was in our price range. Unfortunately our budjet could only stretch to a room which resembeled a giant damp tupaware container! Our room seemed to be a cheap addition to the hotel, the walls were made of thin plastic and the roof of tin. Due to the broken bathroom door it was possible to take a morning shower whilst waving to [View Full Entry]

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Vietnam is a difficult country to visit unless you are prepared to do the well trodden tourist trail. You can't walk down the street in any city without seeing a travel agent offering all sorts of tours and excursions, most of which seem to be bulked out with random rubbish to appear better than other tour opperators and therefore get more money from you. For example, in Dalat we could have enjoyed the 'Valley of Love' which consists of a group of Vietnamese tour guides dressed up as american cowboys taking you on horseback around the lake and periodically stopping in [View Full Entry]

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When traveling through Cambodia you are constantly reminded of the atrocities that, as little as 30 years ago, were tearing the country apart. You are never far from someone who has lost a limb or their sight from a landmine, or less visable, the people who have lost parents, children and friends either directly in the hands of the Khmer Rouge or by their legacy of unexploded audenance left in Cambodia's soil. We felt it important to learn about some of the country's recent past so that we could understand the people of Cambodia a little more. The 'Killing Fields' just [View Full Entry]

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