TravelBlog » Claire Lewis

Claire Lewis - Claire

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Map Legend: 9%, 24 of 263 Territories

Plan to visit later in this trip

Visited on previous trips

Visited on this trip

My limited travels of the world so far...

This blog is so that you can keep updated on my travels.
My general plan is to be away for a little while, about 9 months as long as my money lasts that long! Here is the plan as it stands at the moment.

Aug 19th - Fly to Jakarta, Indonesia. There i'll be working for a NGO, PATTIRO, helping to put together proposals for funding requests and generally learning about public service improvement..

Dec 13th - Fly from Singapore to Cairns. Where I'll meet up with Em and travel down some of the East coast of Oz with her.

Feb 25th - Fly from Sydney to Christchurch. Travel around the South and then North islands of New Zealand.

April 3rd - Fly from Auckland to Bangkok. Travel from Bangkok around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

May 30th - Fly from Bangkok home!!

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Joined on: August 6th 2007
Last Login: May 7th 2008

Blog Entries: 36
Photos: 1074

TB Code: [blogger=44867]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Claire-Lewis, order by Date newest first.

By Claire Lewis
April 27th 2008

Trekking in Sapa

Asia » Vietnam » Sapa

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Here are just some photos at the moment of our trekking in Sapa, I will try and update this with more info soon.. Sapa is a little town in the mountains in the North of Vietnam near to the Chinese border. The area is surrounded by many villages lived in by hill tribes who still wear their traditional dress everyday. We did a 2 day trek there includign a homestay with a family. [View Full Entry]

waiting for us to get out of our car so they can start selling!!

By Claire Lewis
April 26th 2008

North Vietnam, Hanoi and Halong Bay

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi

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I have missed adding entries for Thailand and have only just added Laos but it really difficult to find internet that is fast enough to upload photos to here so this has taken ages even. I liked Hanoi, it is a really busy, smoggy city, but much cooler than what I have been used to in Laos and Thailand so felt quite freshing. The city has an old quarter with lots of narrow streets and many, many shops selling anything you could possibly want! There is gernerally a street fro each product too which makes shopping easier, so a street full [View Full Entry]

By Claire Lewis
April 19th 2008

Laos

Asia » Laos » West

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Laos is a really beautiful and amazing country. Carelessly I didn't plan my Vietnam visa very well and so I could have spent much longer in Laos but every extra day more than I'd planned was taking time from my Vietnam visa. I got the slow boat along the Mekong river from the Thai border down to Louang Phabang. The boat took two days of about 9 hours with an overnight stop in a village, Pak Beng along the way. The journey was not the most comfortable ever, but I quite enjoyed it. I had heard stories and so prepared myself [View Full Entry]

the slow boat down the Mekong, from north Thailand to Louang Phabang

By Claire Lewis
March 14th 2008

Dunedin and the the South of the South Island

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Dunedin

a beach we stopped at along the Caitlins

The Stray bus only goes every three days to the South bit so we had to stay that long everytime we stopped anywhere. Dunedin was a nice place to spend the time though. Dundein has a massive student population and we spent St Patrick's Day there with some irish lads so it was really fun. Queenstown is a really really nice place, really fun and picturesque too. There are really lovely views back down over the town and Lake and mountains that surroung it from the top of the Gondola. Kate and I decided to walk up rather than take the [View Full Entry]

By Claire Lewis
March 11th 2008

Stewart Island

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Stewart Island » Rakiura National Park

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Stewart Island is the 3rd largest island in New Zealand and one of the few places with lots of Kiwi's, birds out number people by a long way.. The ferry crossing to the island from Invercargil almost made it not worth it as it was so rough. People were being sick all around me and the only way I could feel better was sitting as still as possible and trying not to look at any of them, it was worth it though as the island is really pretty and quite, lots of lovely beaches and coves, birds, walks. Kate ( [View Full Entry]

By Claire Lewis
March 11th 2008

Milford Sound

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Fiordland National Park » Milford Sound

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The drive to Milford Sound is suposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in New Zealand. Milford Sound is actually a fjord, created by a glacier moving to the sea, and not a sopund which is a flooded valley, it was just wrongly classified by the first exploer that discovered it. It is the wettest place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world, receiveing about 7m of rain a year. We saw it in one of these lovely rainy periods.. The fjord streches about 15m inland and the sheer rock faces rises about 1,200m on [View Full Entry]

some of the many waterfalls down the side of the valleys

the view from the coach on what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in New Zealand

By Claire Lewis
March 4th 2008

The West Coast

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast

Pancake rocks again

Along the west coast we stopped at a tiny little village called Barrytown. There is nothing else there other than the pub/guest house we stayed at really and we had a v random fancy dressed night… That is the disadvantage of Stray actually is stays in some v random places and you have no choice but stay there too. The cross dressing night was actually quite fun but the fact that we had no choice but attend put me off a little. We then stopped at a few sights for photos along the way to Franz Joseph Glacier. Franz Joseph Glacier, [View Full Entry]

some more seals we stopped to have a little look at

By Claire Lewis
February 28th 2008

starting the South Island

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region

some seals we Kayaked to in the NP Marine Reerve

After National Park I got the bus to Wellington. I wouldn't really recommend travelling by bus in New Zealand by public transport. The bus was fine but the timings aren't great. Anita & I planned to get a bus from Taupo to National Park but there are only 2 buses a day so we missed that and decided to hitchhike instead. This was act a much better plan as we got picked up within about 5 mins and got dropped off exactly where we wanted to go, and saved $30 perfect! Wellington seems like a really nice city. I only spent [View Full Entry]

preparing the kayaks, the weather was quite grim as you can see

By Claire Lewis
February 25th 2008

The Tongaririo Crossing

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Tongariro National Park

the sun starting to emerge at the start of the track

The Tongaririo crossing is suposed to be New Zealand's best one day walk and it was v impressive. I took 140 photos... maybe it didn't warrant quite that many but it was really beautiful. ...Don't worry I won't quite put all of them up here! We stayed at National Park, a tiny village near the park. The main/only reason, people stay there is to go walking or to ski in winter and the place really felt like a ski lodge, especially when we had to get up early to start the walk and it was still dark and a bit chilly.. [View Full Entry]

By Claire Lewis
February 24th 2008

Taupo again.. for a skydive this time

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo

the landing patch

Anita and I said our goodbyes to Carrie and Rina, :( and got a bus back to Taupo so we could do a skydive and do the Tongariro Crossing walk. the skydive was cancelled again on Sunday and Monday morning but then about 10am on Monday it cleared up completely and so we got to do it with beautiful clear skies. The dive was amazing!!! Jumping out of the plane would have been vvv scary and I don't think I could have done it judging by my bungy attempt but when you are up there you don't have any choice as [View Full Entry]