http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Gemma-and-ste/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Gemma and ste en-us Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:30:38 +0000 Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:30:38 +0000 Well we have been in Australia nearly six weeks now and our time here is flying already. Our first week or so was spent in Perth where we were very busy sorting out bank accounts getting our mobile phones up and running looking at and buying our campervan and hunting for jobs. All of this only took us only 10 days which was great and by the 7th October we had left Perth behind us and we drove http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/blog-447175.html We left Borneo behind us and spent our last three nights in Asia in Singapore. We arrived late the first night and we leave for Australia very early on the morning of the 25th. So we have had a very hectic two days trying to see and do as much as possible. The day after we arrived we made our way to the Singapore Zoo a must on our list of things to do and we spent the whole day there from dawn http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-439118.html Our final few days in Borneo was spent in and around Kuching before returning to Singapore. Kuching is the capital of Sarawak and it was a lovely little city to chill out in and wonder around a perfect place to spend a few days. Whilst we were here we went River Kayaking down the upper stretch of the Sungai Sarawak. This took 34 hours as we kayaked through some amazing jungles breathtaking sc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-437219.html Our next destination was to return to Maylasia for just under two weeks. We flew into Kota Kinnabalu in Sabah and after a night or two figuring out our best route we made our way to Sepolik. Here we visited Sepolik Orang Utan Santurary where we got to sit in the jungles of Borneo and watch rehabilitated orang utans Most were former drug users but we did see a few that were former alcoholics..... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-436393.html From Phuket we flew directly into Kuala Lumpur and had three days full of sightseeing. We settled ourselves into a nice little place called Paradisio bed and breakfast right in the centre of everything. All we had to do was walk out of our BB and we were right in the thick of things less than 50 metres from the nearest Monorail station Bukit Bintang. Public transport is extremely cheap and eff http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-435608.html A final night on Koh Samui was followed by a 1 hour boat journey 6 hour bus to leave us in Ao Nang On the Andaman Coast. We relaxed here for 2 nights drinking heavily in a great irish bar right next door to our guesthouse. Strange how we ended up there. We managed a good few drinks that evening returned the following day for a roast dinner. Gemma didnt speak for 10 minutes... it was aweso http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Railay/blog-434031.html The past 2 weeks have been spent relaxing on stunning beaches drinking beer cocktails until the wee hours of the morning and recovering the following day on.... well stunning beaches. This was unofficially our holiday from our holiday.We picked Rob Lorraine up at the airport in bangkok and from there things just escalated. 2 nights 3 days in bangkok were all rolled into 1 massive blurr. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-428022.html Our last week in vietnam was spent between Sapa and Hanoi. We spent a night in Hanoi before 4 nights in Sapa with a night on the train either side and then a final night in Hanoi. The first night we spent in Hanoi we went to a water puppets show. This is an ancient technique that had been used by rice farmers for about 1000 years but has only been known outside vietnam since 1969. At first we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-426050.html Halong Bay in Northeast Vietnam This was without a doubt the highlight of our trip so farWe organised a 3 day2 night tour of the bay through Vega Travel in Hanoi were collected from our hotel at 8am. From here we drove 3 hours to Halong Bay where we boarded our boat and were immediately treated to a big lunch before being given our room keys We would spend the first night on ther boat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northeast/blog-425540.html It took us only 4 hours to reach Hue from Hoi An once there we found ourselves in a nice little hotel where we managed to get a great room right on the top floor so had a savage view of the city. We planned to stay here only 3 nights before moving onwards and upwards to Hanoi.So after our first night we decided to explore the Citadel. We hired bikes and set off which was a little nerve wrackin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-425532.html After an overnight bus from Saigon we found ourselves in Nha Trang a town on the coast of Vietnam.. We spent 3 nights here chilling on the beach by day and drinking in the bars by night. We did a pub crawl one night which was great craic... ended up at a rave at a bar on the beach called the sailing club. Enough said.After Nha Trang we head up the coast to a sleepy little town called Qhy Nhon. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-422193.html We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City midafternoon after crossing the border from Cambodia. We dumped our bags in our hotel wandered around the city in seach of the usual nessessities.... food and drink. Definition of the word 'wandered' to struggle for ones life while crossing the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. This was just serious crack altogether. It's literally a case of walking out in front of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-420219.html Our last week in Cambodia was split between Sihanoukville in the very south of the country and Phnom Penh the capital. We spent 6 nights in Sihanoukville. There are some great beaches here so we spent our days lying on the beach relaxing and tanning Well i did ste sat in under an umbrella by day and drinking cocktails by night. What more could you wantWe took a boat trip out to a few islands http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Sihanoukville/blog-417394.html Having crossed the LaosCambodia border with ease early on the morning of the 29th we set off on our 12 hour bus journey to Siem Reap. Arriving at close to midnight we crashed in the first guesthouse we seen. It was cheap and well upon further inspection not that cheerful. 1 pillow no towels uncleaned sheets and no windows was enough for us to move on early the next morning. We checked into http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-414978.html Having left Pakse we made our way south towards the 4 Thousand Islands. We had intended to go to Don Khong initially but our bus driver ended up going further south and dropped us off at Don Det. So we just ran with it.... Checked into a small place overlooking the Mekong river called 'mama's something or other'. Mama was a very eccentric old woman who would always be laughing and smiling but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-413033.html We spent three nights in Vientiane the capital of Laos. We didn't arrive until 6pm our first night and after finding somewhere to stay a bit more expensive than we have been paying our room was 100000 kip a night. So 8 euro between us this got us air con ensuite and a tv. Anyway our first full day was spent getting our visas for Cambodia this took up a few hours we first arrived at the em http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/blog-413039.html What do ya say about Vang Vieng I LOVE VANG VIENG Done.....This is basically just the drinking capital of Asia as far as we could tell. After arriving late in the afternoon we decided to pop into a local pub for food a quiet drink. We stayed there in the same bar for 3 days...... Well not literally but thats how it seemed. Every bar has tv's that just show 'friends' 'family guy' or 's http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-409787.html Well after our hellish second day on the slow boat we decided to spend a few nights in quaint little sleepy Luang Prabang. Our first full day there was spent wondering around taking in the sights until about mid day we then found a bar sat and chilled the beans for no other reason apart from that fact that it was too ridiclously hot to move. At about 6pm it had cooled down a little only abou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-409770.html So we finally made our way to the border between Thailand Laos. We arrrived from Chaing Rai on a 3 hour journey on a local bus to the border town of Chiang Khong was strange being the only white people on the bus but we managed to blend in just fine. Then is was a tuk tuk to the 'departures terminal' where we got our passports stamped n then a small boat over to Laos. We were only 10 mins get http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/North/blog-407987.html We spent only two nights in Chiang Rai after spending so long in Chiang Mai we were keen to push on a little and we were eagar to get into Laos. But we did do the Golden Triangle which ste especially wanted to do and as timing had it on his birthday too. The golden Triangle is more an area than a place in years gone by all the opium was produced here but now there are more tourists there than http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Rai/blog-407978.html