After Fraser it was off to Airlie beach for our next trip which was a boat trip around the Whitsundays Islands. We were a bit worried as the weather in the area had been bad following a cyclone that had hit a few weeks before. As it turned out we were very lucky and had the first day of sunshine that had been seen for weeks. We stayed two nights on the boat and during the day went snorkelling, James went diving, and stopped at a couple of islands. The islands were very picturesque and we were so happy that the [View Full Entry]

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Our next trip on the east coast was Fraser Island which turned out to be probably our best experience so far. We had heard so much about Fraser, both good and bad, and were really looking forward to the trip. Fraser Island is a huge sand island off the east coast. Our trip was not guided which basically means you are put with a group of 9 people and sent off in a huge 4 wheel drive truck to explore the island and camp there for 2 nights. We met up with Mike and Tasha (friends from home) who joined us [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, sorry it has been a while again! Well, the east coast of Australia was brilliant. We had some amazing experiences aswell as lots and lots of partying. After we left Sydney we stopped over briefly in a few small places, namely Newcastle, Port Macquarie & Coffs Harbour, which were all small beachy towns and were all very pleasant. The highlight in Coffs Harbour was ‘the big banana’ which is basically huge banana with a whole tourist park around it devoted to bananas! Very strange! Then we headed to Byron Bay which was lovely. Byron is quite a laid back [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, sorry it has been a while again. After leaving Western Austrlia we flew across to Sydney to spend Christmas and New Years eve there with James' family. We stayed in a beautiful house right on the water in a suburb called Avalon. Christmas was very different to any Christmas we have had at home. Christmas Dinner was a bbq outside and it was a lovely hot day! Definately a good way to spend Christmas! It was lovely to see all the family again after 3 months away and having them there did make it feel like Christmas. We spent [View Full Entry]

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G'day Folks! We are now in Western Australia. We arrived in Perth at the beginning of December. We spent a few days staying in Perth and seeing the city (mainly its bars and pubs!) and the surrounding beaches. We spent a day on Rottnest Island which is a short ferry ride from Freemantle, where we hired bikes and explored the beautiful island. The island was quite hilly so we found the bike ride a bit of a struggle at times but were rewarded with the most beautiful, deserted beaches and clearest waters we have seen so far in our travels. After [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, sorry it has been a little while since our last update. After leaving Vietnam we headed to Singapore for a few days. Singapore was very different to the other Asian countries we have experienced. The city was so clean and modern and the prices there were definately a shock compared to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam! A bottle of beer cost us 8 pounds in Singapore (compared to a pound for a large bottle elsewhere in SE Asia!), so we stayed pretty sober the few days we were there! The two main pastimes in Singapore seemed to be eating and [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) after leaving rainy Nah Trang by night bus. The weather in Saigon was an improvement and we set off for the afternoon to explore the city. Saigon's streets were even busier than other cities we have visited in Vietnam and crossing the roads was dangerous business. We visited the War Remnants museum which was like no other museum we have been to before and was both shocking and moving. After looking at the horrific photographs of the war and also more recent photographs of the effects of the toxins used by the Americans [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Hanoi we headed to Hue. We only spent three nights in Hue, unfortunately Hayley spent the three days in the hotel room with a bad stomach but James went on an interesting day trip to the DMZ (De-Milatarized Zone) just outside Hue, close to the Laos border, where lots of fighting took place during the Vietnam war, and saw some of the tunnels and shelters used during the war. Our first night in Hue we got home to find a huge (no exageration!) cockroach crawling round our room! After spending half an hour both standing on the bed screaming [View Full Entry]

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We have spent two and a half weeks now in Vietnam and to say it has been wet is an understatement! We arrived in Hanoi to flooded streets. We attempted some sight seeing the following day but gave up after battling the rain for a couple of hours! The next day we headed off on a 3 day boat trip to Halong Bay which was beautiful. The weather stayed mostly dry for us but was not the scorching weather we were hoping for. Halong Bay is a really beautiful place with 3,000 islands jutting out from the calm waters. The first [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, Sorry it has been a while since our last update, we have had trouble finding a computer that will download our pictures without crashing! We spent four days in Siem Reap, Cambodia after leaving Thailand. Four days was just long enough to enjoy the city and visit all the temples of Ankor which were absolutely amazing. We started with the smaller temples first and on our final day we got up really early to watch the sunrise over Ankor Wat which, although a little cloudy, was amazing. We were quite shocked at how poor the people there are and [View Full Entry]

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