http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/J8mes/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from J8mes en-us Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:48:29 +0000 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:48:29 +0000 The United States of America. The final stop on our world adventure and for me a return to my birth country and a chance to catch up with some relatives. Our destinantion on arrival was Los Angeles the so called Cityof Angels a city which I had travelled to before and had a mixed opinon of. The flight from Fiji departed at 2200 on Tuesday 24th July we landed at Los Angeles International Airpor http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/West-Hollywood/blog-297763.html Bula welcome to FijiIn Fiji we went on a relaxing 12 days cruise and island hop around the Yasawa islands. Sun Sea and Sand. KuataWe did some shark diving with the locals one morning which was awesome They speared some reef fish and ripped them up to attract the white tipped reef sharks which are harmless to humans and actually really friendly The locals could grab them so we could touch thei http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/blog-291816.html Sorry for the delay in writing. I'm now in Los Angeles California. We've enjoyed Auckland and the last few days in New Zealand and then two weeks chilling in Fiji. There's not too much to blog about but I'll make it short and sweet. The last few days in New Zealand were eventful. Firstly we went to Wellington to see the All Blacks play Ireland at Westpac Stadium. It was awesome and a great experi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-291812.html Queenstown The Adventure Capital of the World Copyright. If you can ride jump fly swing it it's here. To complete every activity avaliable here would cost you 3000 pounds and take you 21 days. For me I choose to do the imfamous AJ Hackett Thrillogy which consists of three of the most famous bungy jumps in the world. The K Bridge the original bungy which opened in 1988 from 43m over a river. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-282035.html Following the previous day's activities which involved jumping out of a perfectly good plane at 12000ft we figured the best thing to do was to hike up the Franz Josef Glacier a truely awesome experience. I've been on quite a few walks and hikes in the past but the Glacier hike was one of the best. The glacier creeps through the valley in Franz Josef and as you stand on the valley floor you can http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Franz-Josef/blog-282028.html Hey all sorry its been a while but I'm in New Zealand. and it's action packed and full of adventure so I haven't had a lot of time to update the blog. Since landing in Christchurch last week on Wednesday we have been doing a tour of the South Island. We started in Christchurch NZ's third biggest city and after watching a thrilling game between Manchester United and Chelsea in the Champions Lea http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Glaciers/blog-280580.html Well the final blog of Australia. The last six weeks have come and gone. I've had a great time and met some awesome people in Oz it has definately been an experience in one sense or another. After Brisbane and Zorbing we went to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. It was pretty cool there to meet up with Jamie Maddie and Joe who are all friends from high school they were all working and living http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-277743.html Hey I'm in Brisbane at the moment. I arrived here with Nick and Jonny on Tuesday. We left the other guys in Noosa only 2 hours North and they would catch us up on Friday. We came down early because Jonny's arm has been giving him pain and he wanted to see a Doctor and also my debit card had arrived at the British Consulate. First things first I collected the FedEx package from the consulate. It http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-274372.html Following our departure from Magnetic Island we took a trip down to Airlie Beach where we had booked a sailing trip around the fantastic Whitsundays. The Whitsundays are made up of 74 islands off the coast of Eastern Australia and a World Heritige site taking a 3 day 2 night trip around them is a great way to explore them. We left and met the rest of our shipmates Katie and Michelle from near L http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-273675.html Hello again. This blog isn't going to ramble on loads. Basically since my last blog I've had loads of fun in Cairns Cape Tribulation and Magnetic Island. In Cairns we had a traditional Aussie BBQ by the sea and continued to enjoy nights out at the woolshed. We met up with our friends Laura and Emma from home and hung out and caught up with them at the bar. I even entered a Mr Backpacker competiti http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-269559.html Hello I'm down under. The Southern Hemisphere where people walk with their hands and the toilets flush the wrong way. Only one of those points is true. I'll let you guess which one.We arrived on Friday after spending Thursday night on a plane from Singapore to Darwin to Cairns. We landed at 8am and immediately went to our hostel where our old friend Kit had booked us in. It was well expensive http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/blog-266255.html On Thursday I left the Idd Crowd Hostel which was superb and our home for 5 nights in Singapore. After a final game of pool I said an emoitonal farewell to the 4 members of the Gap Year Crew plugged my iPod in pulled on my pack and walked out the door. The first steps of my 4 week personal journey to Cambodia Vietnam and self discovery. I had booked all my flights sorted acommadation and done http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Cairns-City/blog-265596.html Hello again. Singapore the finale of our Asian tour. Or not as the case maybe for me.We arrived after a short stay in Melaka an old city which plenty of European influence in the buildings and streets. We only spent went night here and the highlight was a free eye test. My eyes are fine aside from the fact I need to purchase some 100 UV protection glasses and moving swiftly on we left to Sing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-264326.html Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia's capital and after the adventures in Tamen Negara and Cameron Highlands it was our first major city since Bangkok we were looking forward to basing ourselves down for a while. On Thursday we travelled down from Taman Negara looking forward to the possibility of maybe a warm shower and bed that I didn't have to share with bed bugs. It wasn't alot to ask. As soon as we appro http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-262270.html Hello We are in Taman Negara National park the Eastern side of Malaysia where we have spent two nights so far plus a further one tonight before KL tomorrow morning. I never never been to a rainforest and it is spectacular. The power of nature is evident in such abudance in the rainforest. As we found out yesterday....We caught another minibus from the Cameron Highlands on Monday with our new f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Kuala-Tahan/blog-259890.html Well apparentely my blogs are like buses you wait for one for ages and then two come along at once.On Thursday we left Thailand and crossed the border in a minibus. It was all fine and with no problems we took precautions with our bags and wrapped them up in Cling Film to stop any unwanted sustances being smuggled into one of our pockets.After about 8 hours we arrived in Georgetown Penang whi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Penang/George-Town/blog-258802.html Sorry I know it has been a long time since my last blog. For the last 16 days we have been relaxing on Thailand's glorious beaches. Firstly Ko Tao.Ko Tao 4th March 10th MarchKo Tao is the northernmost island in the Gulf of Thailand on the East Coast. It is largely untouched by tourism and is the smallest of the three islands on the East. It is famed for its diving. We decided to learn how to Sc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Krabi/blog-257629.html Ok I won't bore you to death. This blog will be short and sweet. Today we went to Khanchanaburi about 2 hours West of Bangkok. We set off at 7am this morning driving through the dawning Bangkok sunrise. It was amazing to look over the city at the start of a new day. Firstly we arrived about 9.30 and we went to the floating markets which was really just a market on water but cool and different http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Western-Thailand/Kanchanaburi/blog-251947.html On Monday evening we got on a bus bound for Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand to do some trekking in the rainforest. We didn't know quite what to expect really mosiquitos spiders and elephants. We had no idea. We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 6am on tuesday caught up on a few hours sleep in the guesthouse and went to explore Chaing Mai on Tuesday before the trekking began on Wednesday. We w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-251454.html Before leaving Hong Kong I should mention two things we met a group of Chinese kids playing football and decided to challenge them to a quick game. They agreed. The pride of the group rested on this. 5 Englishmen taking on some Chinese men who seemed very determined so much so they warmed up for 20 minutes while we ate snacks to beat us. The games 4 in total were well fought and contested ye http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-249431.html