Bangkok In keeping with our flashpacker way of travelling we stayed in Shanghai Mansion, a rather lovely boutique hotel and a perfect retreat after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. As expected, Bangkok is one great big dirty city and we loved it. The first day involved visiting the Grand Palace and surrounding temples which were spectacular to say the least. The photos don't really do it justice. The same day also involved getting scammed by a tuk tuk driver who took us to a load of jewellery and silk shops. This was so he could gain a petrol voucher worth [View Full Entry]

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Having spent a rather hectic 10 days in Sabah, Borneo, we were looking forward to chilling out in Koh Phangan. We were recommended, by Andy or Bruce/Wilfred as you may now know him from the lovely comments he leaves us on our blog, to stay in Sunset Cove. The place was gorgeous. Anyone who read my facebook status will already know about the infinity pool and beach views plus delicious free breakfasts, comfy sun loungers, the list goes on. As you may have gathered by now, we loved this place so much so that we didn't leave it for the best [View Full Entry]

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Borneo We flew to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo where we met Charlotte (Neil’s wee sis) and her friend, Anna. They’re currently partaking in their elective as part of their medical degree. When we met we were embarrassingly white by comparison to these bronzed babes but rather than let it get us down we headed to the food markets and filled our faces with chicken kebabs and rice with the best soy sauce god ever created! We then had a few cocktails before retiring to bed. Incidentally, Lotte and Anna had decided to treat themselves to a stay in the Meridian, a [View Full Entry]

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Singapore From Brisbane we flew to Singapore where we met my old chum, Jude, who kindly let us stay at her gaff. The first night we had dinner and a few beers before heading off to bed. The next day we didn’t manage to drag ourselves out of bed until 4pm but it was all good as there were huge rain storms!!! The second night we headed towards the waterfront and had dinner, v impressive. Thereafter, Jude, great tour guide that she is, showed us the Merlion, symbol of Singapore. It’s cross between a fish and lion which apparently represents Singapore’s [View Full Entry]

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Our boz around Oz, with special guests Caz, Babs and Baz..... Just to pre warn you, this is a rather big entry so you, and in particular Andy, may just want to scroll through the pics!! Sydney After our whistle stop tour of NZ we headed to Sydney to meet the folks. For those of you who don't know, Neil's parent's came out to Oz together with my lovely mother on tow. (Dad surprised mum with a plane ticket to Oz but being a good old Belfast man he couldn't possibly leave the realms of Northern Ireland to pay a visit [View Full Entry]

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Having said to good bye to South America (boo hoo), we made our way to Auckland, New Zealand. We decided a while back that we'd like to experience campervaning around NZ for a bit even though it was a tad over our budget. So we picked up a van at the airport which we were able to upgrade to a mini winnebago styley vehicle, awesome!! Our first night in Auckland we stayed with Neil's old friend, Mark and his wife, Ida (from his days in Bordeaux). They cooked us up a corker of a meal, lamb shank with all the trimmings [View Full Entry]

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Pucon is a cute little town about 12 hours south of Santiago. It’s surrounded by volcanoes which you can climb and then descend via a bum board. I was extra keen to get cracking with this activity. Neil on the other hand was not! If you have read our account of climbing Cotopaxi in Ecuador you will recall Neil had told me in no uncertain terms that he was never to climb another f’in mountain again and he stuck to his word. This was particularly in light of the fact that 2 days previously a girl from our hostel had fallen [View Full Entry]

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Next stop on our magical mystery tour was Buenos Aires, Argentina, where we were meeting me old mukka from school Neil (aka Campdog, Coolio, The “big C”, Lumberjack Neil, etc). We arrived on a flight from Quito at 6 am in the morning, strangely via Panama airport (the things we do to save twenty squid) and jumped in a cab straight to the hostel. We decided to stay in the Milhouse, a party hostel famed because you get a free t-shirt if you can survive 7 nights in there. Anyway, as we rolled up at 7am, after 28hours on the move, [View Full Entry]

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Hey folks, so we left you in Santa Cruz in our last blog entry. After our 4 day trek in the beautiful mountains we were ready for some chill out time on the beach. Therefore Mancora, a little place on the North west coast of Peru, was our next port of call. We’d initially booked into what was a highly recommended hostel. However, we were slightly horrified to see lots of teenyboppers everywhere and particularly horrified when they told us that it was a pirate theme that night and all you can drink for 20 soles!! The accommodation was also a [View Full Entry]

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Ola once again, this time from a lovely cafe in Huaraz. We arrived on Sunday 31st May after an overnight journey from Lima. Huaraz is the outdoor capital of Peru, and probably South America. We have met loads and loads of hardcore climbing dudes (ie the type of people who attempt everest are all here). This is the entry point to the Cordillera Blanca, the 2nd highest mountain range in the world (22 peaks over 6000 metres) and renowned as the most beautiful mountain range on earth, as well as one of the most dangerous - for those in the know, [View Full Entry]

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