KateR

It's maybe a little late in updating this (as I am now home!) but it will save me telling you all what I did when I see you! In Hanoi the first thing we went to see was Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum - a very bizarre experience! there were loads of security checks along the way (which is fair enough) but they then frog marched you around the grounds in silence, along with the hundreds of other people, to see his body. once inside the building the military prode you along without letting you get more than a glimce of him. To get out of the grounds you have to follow a set route (therefore having to pay entry into his house!) and again you're not allowed to stop to look or take photos. We also ... read more

I've finally stopped being lazy and decided to update this journal! From Malaysia we got a bus upto Koh Samui, a lovely all day bus journey. The ferry ride across was so pretty - the landscape was so beautiful! We arrived in a powercut so had slight problems trying to find any accomodation (it was dark, we were tired, and the taxi dropped us in a random place!), but we eventually found a nice guesthouse by Lamai beach. We were quite surprised at how big the island was - we've been used to tiny island that have no cars and you stroll along the beachfront to find bars and restaurants, but this island had cars, roads, airports - very daunting!! The weather was pretty rubbish while we were there so we had Thai massages, wandered around, ... read more

I'll get round to doing Thailand and Laos soon! From Singapore we got the bus up to Malaysia to a very unexciting town called Jahore Bahru. Luckily we only had to spend a night here which we did in luxury - a proper hotel! The next day we flew across to Malaysian Borneo to Sandaken. The main reason to travel over there was to visit the orangutans - this is the 1 thing that I've most wanted to do throughout my whole travels!! We went and saw them at a rehabilitiation centre, which I was scared would be very zoo-like, but infact it was really good. There were walks our could do around the forest, but the highest chance of seeing them is during the feedin sessions, during which time normally 5-10 turn up, these are ... read more

It seems so strange, but I've finally come to the end of Australia. The East Coast with Jenny was lots of fun! After Surfers Paradise we travelled down to Byron Bay where we spent a couple of very chilled out days on the beach and caught up with some friends, very relaxed! from there we went to surf camp. surprisingly we both did ok at this! there were some spectacular fall-offs, but also some amazing standing-ups (the boards we were using were very much beginner boards and very easy to use!). Sydney was amazing!! I absolutley loved it there (it took some persauding to make me leave!). Whilst Jenny was still with me we visited the Blue Mountains, spending the day looking at the 3 sisters and amazing landscapes; saw the Olymipc Park; walked over ... read more

Hi! It's been a while since I updated this, so here's a quick-ish update of all that I've been doing with myself in Australia. After leaving the beautiful west coast I flew to Alice Springs and went on a 3 day tour to Uluru (Ayers Rock). The 1st day of this we went around the Kata Tjuta rocks which were amazing (huge rocks on an amazingly flat desert - from the plane uluru and these looked spectacular). That evening we went to watch the sunset over uluru. This sounded lovely and the postcard views of it are stunning, but when we were there we could hardly see the rock for fog. The rain then started, and didn't stop. Instead of camping in swags in the outback we had to huddle under a shelter in a campsite, ... read more

HI! After a really lovely last few days in NZ Jack and I went our seperate ways around the world; Jack to Bali and me to Australia! Western Australia is easily one of the nicest places I've been - the landscapes are amazing and the temperature is lovely and hot. I spent the 1st few days in and around Perth, spending lots of time with people I met in the hostel. This included going to various beaches, markets, the shops and Kings Park (you get the loveliest views of the city from it). I also did the cultural thing of going to the art gallery and WA musuem - it was intersting to learn about the Aboriginal culture, it's totally different from the Maori's in NZ, and really makes you realise how cruel the 1st ... read more

hi! having not written on this for a while i thought i'd best update you all on what we've been upto. After leaving Queenstown (where we'd been to watch bungee jumping, go up the gondala and play on the luge) we made our way down to Invercargill. This was a bizarre town which had amazingly wide streets (3 lanes of traffic on each side of the road, as well as really wide parking bays and massive pavements) and we stayed at an incredibly weird campsite (it was beside a prison, a railway line, the airport and a dismantled showground). We stayed there for a few days but all we seemed to do was go round the shops, to the cinema and walk through the park. From there we drove through the Catlins towards Dunedin. This took ... read more

I've finally got round to adding photo's to the other entries! We completed the Queen Charlotte Track in 3 days, during which we had the loveliest weather we've had in NZ. The walk was pretty tiring, but the views were absolutely spectacular! Having finished it we were contemplating not doing any more walks due to blisters, but now that they've healed we want to do a walk in the Abel Tasmin National Park, except now the weather has gone down hill and I hurt my knee on the last walk (where was my Inca stick when I needed it?!). So the new plan is to go sea kayaking around the area instead - lets just hope the rain stays off for a bit! We travelled down to Blenheim after our walk (the heart of the Malbourgh ... read more