http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Emma---TB/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Emma TB en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:39:17 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:39:17 +0000 So as we had delayed our departure from the Philippines so long we were going to have to make the longest journey ever to Sidney as follows having spent over three weeks in Iloilo and Manila it was time to leaveDecember 19th and make our way to Australia the first flight was just a short hop from Iloilo to Manila from where we would transfer to Hong Kong after arriving in Hong Kong we to t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-129221.html So after a long flight we finally arrived in Sydney and we were picked up by David Emma's father he drove us back to the house where all the family where gathering for Christmas it was lovely to catch up with everybody as we have not been overly good at keeping in touch with each other just as we had finished our evening meal my phone rang the replacement for the one I had lost in Vietnam A http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Bondi-Junction/blog-131902.html Whilst I was at home visiting Mama Claire rang with some amazing news. Due to a spur of the moment offer of a venue she and Barry were going to get married on the 26th January Australia Day. I was able to make it back to Sydney two days before the event and had just enough time to join in some of the final touches. On the morning of the wedding Kylie ensured that everything was running smoothl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-155346.html So having caused no end of trouble we finally arrived at Iloilo airport to an extremely warm Philippine welcome. This was the beginning of what was to be a superb visit. Tom met us outside the airport and within seconds our gleaming chariot in the form of a sturdy land cruiser arrived with a beaming Paul Measures at the wheel. We climbed in repeatedly offered our apologies for having caused http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Panay/Iloilo/blog-155314.html It is 363 days since Marc and I started our travels and our One World flights home expire in 48 hours. This was to be the end of our travels but neither of us could bring ourselves to stop. So many months ago we resolved to ignore the return flights and continue on for a further six months or for as long as Marcs additional funds would last. However the thought of the return flights going to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/blog-174712.html First of all new thing a little video for you to watch. So after a wonderful 4 months of easy living it was time to hit the road again into country's new. New Zealand was to be our next stop a short flight and a few hours later we arrived in Christchurch we took an airport shuttle to the YHA it was opposite the arts center and museum and close to the center of town so we could not of picked a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-165388.html The journey from Bangkok to Iloilo turned out to be the most frustrating of all the trips we have made so farthe day started well with a visit to see the emerald Buddha and the royal palace then back to the tailors to pick up the cloths Emma had ordered at midday back to the Indian embassy to put in our passports for visas back to our room where Emma starts to pack and I go to the post office http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Panay/Iloilo/blog-115451.html So we land at the new and very smart Bangkok airport Suvarnabhumi and are immediately besieged by a hoard of waiting taxi drivers. All offering to take us into the city via the expressway all tolls includedin fact I think that there were more taxi drivers than there were people coming off the planes all the drivers seem to offer a very similar price which is about three times the amount you http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-124451.html OK OK OK I admit I have been a bit slow in keeping you all upto date with our travels I promise to try harder in future.So after arriving in Stromtrem only to discover that there are no ATM's again and that we cannot change money at the boarder we needed to find a solution the solution seemed to be to go across the boarder carry on as far as Pakse where there was a bank we could get a cash http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-116323.html When I was a very young child I had an irrational fear of Mama my grandmother and guardian passing away. So much so that I would creep into her bedroom early in the morning to check whether she was still alive. This rather morbid behaviour resulted in Mama giving me some sound advice. She sat me down and asked me whether I would forfeit our good times together so as to avoid the pain of u http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Surrey/Earlswood/blog-118816.html We arrived in Siem Reap and were met by Tom our tuktuk driver for the next week who took us to Sweet Dreams Guest House. This was not the place that we were expecting though. We thought that we would be going to Number 11 Guest house but it turned out that they had moved to a new address and we where to be their first customers they were still laying the patio when we arrived. Before we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-95995.html The bus journey to Kampot was without inccedent and fairly short about 5 hours. When we arrived there where more than 20 touts trying to get us to stay at there guest houses which was strange as there was only about 10 guest houses our guest house of choice was fully booked no really so we went across the road and got a room there instead 7 for hot watertvand a fan we booked a couple http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Kampot/blog-97816.html First timeSo the bus stopped at some hotel or other and we took a tuktuk down to the backpackers end of town called lakesidewhere the rooms are cheap and the showers are coldafter Emma had looked in about four differant hostels we settled on number 11 Happy Guest House we took a room with ac and no hot water for 7 a night. First thing next morning after putting in our laundryhaving a ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-95994.html We arrived safely at the small airport and after a short wait where met by a young chap from the Southern Hotel that we had booked the night before. Emma had chosen the hotel for its location rather than its charm because we only planned to be in town for two days so we wanted easy access to a travel agents and the town itself. After a short drive we arrived at the hotel and hit the town runni http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/blog-94145.html Anna there is a caterpillar picture at the bottom of the page. Having left Hoi An far too many hours before hand we arrived safe and sound away from the typhoon a little later than anticipated at about 1.30pm. Claire and Emma let Bruce and I get on with the gritty business of selecting a hotel so we based ourselves in a modern mini hotel that had wonderfully comfortable beds and plenty of ho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Central-Highlands/Da-Lat/blog-92458.html Our motorbike journey left us soaking wet bedraggled and dirty but in high spirits. We booked into a hotel but having had to share our bath water with live small red worms decided to check out the following morning. We upgraded to the Vang Hung I just down the road. It was much nicer but still had a half size bath. It was clean had AC and looked nice but it was a whopping 22 American do http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-92457.html As promised by the gentleman that had spoken to us on the train before it departed Hanoi we were collected at the train station and taken to a hotel called the Thai Bingh II. It was modern as are nearly all the hotels in Hue was well located and we took a lovely room for ten dollars.It was raining in Hue when we arrived and surprise surprise we did not venture far on our first day. We on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-92454.html Never never never get your Hanoi train ticket from the smiling lady who has the travel concession in the Vietnamese passport control building. True to her word the minibus with the screaming banshee did pick us up from the hotel our earlier telephone call may have helped in this and she did meet us at the station with some train tickets. However not until we boarded the train two and a hal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-92441.html As we disembarked the bus into the bright hot morning air we realised that we had no VMD dong and a quick look in the photocopied pages of the Lonely Planet we had showed that there was no bank in town. So there was no other option but to use the black market in the form of a young man who met us as we got off the bus. He seemed a little disappointed that we had no Lonely Planet to sell him http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-92407.html Our trip on the bus from Lijiang to Dali was not without event...Firstly as we were going over a mountain pass we were forced to stop and join a queue of other buses whilst the Chinese military played with their tanks. There was a race track with targets set around it and when the tanks fired their guns the windows of the bus shook. Then as we approached Dali the bus driver pulled over and j http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Dali/blog-85564.html