Botley

Hello there! How´s it going? Box of tissues at the ready? The time has indeed come for my final blog of the trip, so if things get a bit emotional then don´t say I didn´t warn you. Since I last wrote we´ve been in Mexico, where we started off in Tulum, which looking back has probably been our favourite spot in the country. The beaches all along the Caribbean coast have been fairly spectacular but for me Tulum will probably have to go down as my favourite of the entire trip. I´d try and explain how good the colour of the water was to you, but there just aren´t any words I´m afraid. After Tulum things became a little less backpackery and a lot more touristy as we encountered the holiday resorts that this part of ... read more

Hello there! How are things going? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Interesting, glad to hear it. I myself am good, well apart from the fact that a large number of winged creatures are currently treating my body as some sort of banquet. Between the title and general Simon Botley knowledge a lot of you will know that I´ve become another year older and wiser since the last time I wrote to you. Once again, to all those people who sent me some sort of Happy Birthday message, thanks very much. It was much appreciated. We´re currently sunning ourselves on Caye Caulker, a small island in the Caribbean off the coast of Belize, which is a very long way away from Leon in Nicaragua. The most sensible way to explain how we´ve got here seems to be to carry ... read more

Hello! How are you? Really? That good!? Glad to hear it. I am also grand, thanks for asking. I thought now was as good a time as any to let you know what we've been up to since the easy life of Fiji was left behind. Those amongst you with good memories might recall me mentioning in my last blog that we were about to head back in time on our flight to the States. This did indeed happen, we lived out the afternoon of May 22nd in both Fiji and America. If you struggle to get your head around the subject, don't worry, I lived it and it confuses me. LA was our destination in America, for what was essentially 13 hours in transit. We decided that we wanted to take advantage of our little ... read more

Hello! Or Bula as they say a lot in Fiji. How are we all? Hope everybody is well. Apologies for the fairly massive gap between blogs. I'd planned to do one earlier but I've spent the last 6 days on a tropical Fijian island that only had electricity and water occasionally. So internet was definitely out of the question. As you may have gathered from the title I'm pleased to report that me and Chris's attempt to meet up again was a success. As the time drew nearer I think we both started to think that meeting up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was a fairly ambitious plan for two travellers who have suffered from their fair share of bad luck. But it all passed off without a hitch and we were able to ... read more

Hello there! How are things? Well I hope. I've been journeying through New Zealand these past couple of weeks since I last wrote to you all, so I thought it was about time to tell you all about it. To be honest, as far as starts go in a new country it wasn't a great one as I got my wallet stolen on my very first night in Auckland. Not ideal by any means. Unfortunately this set the tone for the rest of my first week there as I went through my longest spell of bad luck on the whole trip so far. The next few days were spent in Auckland with a lot of faffing around, calling home, cancelling cards and all the other annoying things which accompany a lost wallet. Luckily Mum and Dad ... read more

Hello. How's it going? All well I do hope. I thought it ws bout time that I filled you in on the rest of my wanderings down the east coast of Australia. When I last wrote I think I was in Airlie Beach, so I'll pick up where I left off. After Airlie there was a day on the bus to get me to Agnes Water, which is a small little town partnered with the equally small little town called Town of 1770, or just 1770 most of the time. I was here for a couple of nights with the thing giving me the most to be excited about being the first appearance of waves on my whole trip. Who knew that the Great Barrier Reef acted as, well a barrier and stopped the whole of ... read more

G'day! Strewth! Crikey! Can ya guess where I am yet?? That's right, the home of the bearded music playing vet man who coined a similar phrase to that one, Australia!! Obviously, despite the fact that I've entered the Southern hemisphere for the first time has made no difference to the speed which time seems to be moving at, and I've appparently already been down under for a week and a day! Which doesn't seem at all right. I got into Cairns early last week after a sleep deprived flight through the middle of the night from Singapore and spent my first three nights there. On my final day there I splashed out for the first time during my visit and went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Being certified and right next door to it, there ... read more

Hello there. It's been a while hasn't it. I hope the suspense hasn't been killing you? Unbelievably we are almost at the end of our first two months which has, all to predictably, flown by with impolite haste. I'm not sure how I can already be a third of the way through the trip? What can I tell you about what we've been doing since I last wrote to you then? Well, from Koh Tao we headed over to the west coast on a bus, briefly stopping in Krabi before catching a boat to Railee Beach for a couple of days. Railee was very impressive, only accessible by boat, you complete the final few yards of your journey by wading through the sea with your bags on your back. It's surrounded by massive, dramatic cliffs and ... read more

Hello! How's it going? I do hope you're all well. Chris goes on doesn't he. Jeez. I'm back for the time being anyway for the latest update and it promises to be a much shorter read as apart from the big things we've done, the rest of the time has mostly been spent on one beach or another. How is February in Britain by the way? I heard Leeds had snow... So as Chris signed off last time he mentioned the Full Moon party on Ko Phan Nyan and that seems as sensible a place to start as any. Basically it is mental. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy it as much as I'd been hoping that I would as I was ill throughout the day leading up to it. however, I was still able to go ... read more

Hello. We have a little bit of a treat this week. I'm going to hand you over to our very own guest writer, for one week only, unless he's good, then he can do them all... Enjoy. Without wanting to disappoint the interested followers of Simon's love life, this guest writer is not, unfortunately, a lovely lady he met while traveling (though there have been a few...). No, better than that, the writer of this blog is none other than Simon's friend and, more recently, free-riding guest who owes him money in four different currencies, Chris! Yay! Details of our most recent escapades will follow shortly, however, I feel the need to use the first part of this blog to respond to some of the allegations Simon has made on these pages regarding my general incompetence. ... read more