Good day mate, how is it going?! I am leaving on a jet plane (with cheap airlines TIGER) in a matter of hours for Sydney where i will be spending Christmas and NYE and most of January in the northern suburbs. I am in the library trying to burn a CD to back up my amazing pic-a-tures but it is taking forever and i only have 9 mins of internet left for the day! Bad times. I feel a little bit sick as i had a 6 egg omlette with humous and sundried tomatoes for brunch as i was trying to get rid of all the food that i had at the hostel. Eweeee. The sun is shining today, which means i have had about 4 days of beach/ bikini weather in the australian summer. Ridiculous. ... read more

I have had *FRIENDS* this week. Chazza P and Lottie have come to experience the backpackers, beach area of St Kilda. I packed my bags on Thursday and joined them for a weekend at the sea side! The weather hasn't exactly been bikini on a beach, but it is rather chilled and a good area. Charli and I have discovered the cheapness and fulfilling SUSHI here! $5, bargain. I have just booked a flight to Sydney for NEXT Wednesday, so Melbourne has the pleasure of my company for about 10 more days! There are still a lot of bars and places I NEED to go to... And I haven't actually been in and seen any of the exhibitions they have on here (for the magic F- word FREE). I have signed up for couchsurfing (even ... read more

So- it seems as though I am not as much of a sun seeker as I anticipated. I am loving the slighly overcast/ cloudy smokey cooler Hanoi weather! I am curently sitting on a suede sofa (my bed) with huge french doors opening to a lake view balcony. I had cookie for breakfast and am having thanksgiving tomorrow... I have also begun using the word "awsome" and "dang"... That's right, I am living with Amricans. I really like Hanoi. The Old Quarter is so busy and vibrant and there are shops with EVERYTHING in them, an strees dedicated to each item (i.e. silk street). I did REALLY well a resisting buying the whole place, as I will come back next July and there is no point carrying stuff around for 9 months. People in Hanoi are ... read more

Monday- apparently you should "BOOK A TOUR" to and through the Mekon (from Saigon). Colette and i took this as merely tourist centres wanting us to indeed "book a tour". So we hunted down the local buses, squeezed ourselves into a small minivan filled with Vietnamese and about 5 hours later arrived in Cho Thou (? i am SO rubbish with remembering names). When we got there we got harassed by 'motorbike/ taxi/ etc" and we booked into a random hotel with a HUGE room, and a very proud owner who kept saying that he is "in the Lonely Planet". It was a tough day on the coach (well- i was in and out of sleep for most of it and trying to read my book my torch light). The day ended with some nice ... read more

So- after three connecting flights, Toy Stoory 3 (I laughed and cried through), Old Poetry Society, broken sleep classical chillout music and 5 curries later- Colette and I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City- as the ONLY white as ONLY packpackers at the airport. We got the bus to the city (determined not to get ripped off, but still got charged 15,000 instead of 3,000 Dong!? (like 50p instead of 10p) BASTARDS. Ho Chi Minh Tues: I was sweating like a beast and struggling with my backpack, and cloth bag (which has broken twice) travel pillow and 1000 page book! Then as we got off the bus (with help of locals) the SKY opened. So walking with Cols lonley planet in hand trekked the backstreets of Saignons backpacker district and finally found our random tiny guesthouse, ... read more