So I left Phuket and its couples, families, Swedish colonialists, suit-sellers and developers to it and decided that a 12 hour bus ride to Bangkok would be far better. The luggage area was in an open space down stairs on the bus where I found a spot and slept for most of the trip. As a result I highly recommend sleeping amongst the luggage. I strolled out of the bus and into the famous Khao San district of Bangkok at some sort of unreasonable hour. I wasn't feeling too bad and very pleased to have left all my package tour [View Full Entry]

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Well well, it seems that I made my first travel blunder by visiting the totally overdeveloped and tourist contaminated trashy island of Koh Samui (in the Gulf of Thailand), where everyone outside every shop is trying to sell cheap suits, clothes, taxi services and whatever else. I don't recommend going here. The beach is nice but there are just so many resorts blocking the way. The plan was to get to Koh Phangan- for the full moon party. I'd travelled through Southern Thailand the previous day (don't worry no terrorist bombings or shootings occurred that day, but things are still [View Full Entry]

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The rest of my Malaysian journeys involved a 4-day long trip to Tioman Island followed by 2 days in the jungle. I'd met a good group of people at a backpackers in KL who were going to Tioman the following day. It wasn't really on my itinerary and it meant a bit of back-tracking, but after a few drinks I thought what the heck. The island was really good fun where tourism was minimal and you could just relax. We basically just hung out on the beach for most of the day until it was happy hour which was about [View Full Entry]

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We don't seem to have received your Masters progress report, which was due on 01 April 2007. You can use the link below to download the necessary form that needs to be submitted: -someone able to do this for me?? Just follow this link: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/acad/documents/forms/masters_progress_report.doc I'm sure that it's a simple procedure. Allrighty, Malaysia. I arrived in Malay the other week (last I think) but I've been all round the show since then and I finally made some friends whom I travelled with for a bit. Escaping the crazy anarchical archipelago of Indonesia [View Full Entry]

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Banda Aceh. It's about as far away from Western Civilisation as I've ever been. They even have Sharia law (conservative Islamic law) imposed. I first arrived in Medan; the fight was actually not too bad- bit of a bumpy take-off but then Lion Air's full three-hour full flight service of a plastic of water certainly made up for it. I hope that Lion Air can expand their services to NZ. Medan. All I can say is that if anyone wins a competition for a trip to Medan, just say thanks but no thanks. I had to endure this place and [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Java, not quite the luxurious package tour that I firmly had in mind. I've been using the crazy Indonesian Bus system (and one ferry (that made NZ's crappy inter-islander look like a cruise liner). This island is so packed- there are so many people- 100 million infact, so with it come buses, trucks, scooters and plenty of pollution to go round- I've had my fair share. I took a gamble again as I never learn. My Bus from Denpassar Bali arrived in a Javanese town- called Probolinggo at 3am (not ideal). Everything was shut (except the local mosque) and [View Full Entry]

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Bali, is crazy! Not really what I expected. There are Scooters everywhere, and it's pretty dirty and people trying to sell me stuff left, right and center. Common questions: where are you from? do you want to buy? you want transport? I'll show you my shop. You want massage? Sir sir, wait! Sir, where are you going now? and more Honestly, ALL DAY LONG. I literally would have been asked 1000 times out of my four days on the island! It makes me think that I actually have friends. I arrived at 11pm (4pm NZTime), so after having spent all [View Full Entry]

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