KateandTerry

Darwin – 23rd – 27th October As we were only in Darwin for three nights the only campervan that we could hire was a Wicked campervan. We knew the horror stories about these vans; not road worthy, small, dirty, but we wanted to tour around Darwin so decided to go ahead and book one anyway. The Wicked vans are converted old work vans and are covered in spray paint and graffiti so I requested a ‘tame’ van due to my mom being with us! We picked up the van and it did not look too bad but Terry had to give the inside a good clean first and we had to supply our own bedding which suited us anyway. Unfortunately the van came with no aircon and it was so hot morning and night with highs ... read more

14th – 18thOctober 2012 Beijing We arrived in Beijing after a great night sleep. The nearest subway was a good 10 minute walk away so off we trot. The public transport system is not as extensive as Shanghai was but it was still cheap; 10p on the bus to anywhere and 20p on the tube regardless of distance. We had pre-booked our hotel which makes this 3rd part of travelling a lot easier without having to turn up to a place and then search for the best accommodation. Our hotel was near the city centre and down one of the alley ways that Beijing is famous for. We decided to freshen up and off we went to take a look around. We walked down to the main high street, and found a food court where we ... read more

Shanghai After 7 months working and living in Melbourne we are finally on the last leg of our journey home. We really enjoyed working in Melbourne and both managed to get great jobs to do with our careers which will help when we return to England at Christmas. So we said goodbye to our work colleagues, house mate and friends and made our way to Melbourne Airport. We just booked cheap flights to Shanghai with Eastern China Airlines, cost approx $450AUD each which is around £300. We were pleasantly surprised to find the first 8 hours of our journey was in fact with Quantas, as Eastern Airlines were selling seats on their behalf. We would be stopping over in Singapore for a couple of hours before heading onto Shanghai which would then be another 5 hours. ... read more

04/03/12 Singapore The next day we caught the bus to Singapore for RM19pp - £4. We wanted a bus to take us all the way into the centre of Singapore but they were all full. Melaka is a big destination for people from Singapore especially on a weekend, unfortunately we were making our trip on a Sunday. Therefore we caught a bus to the Malaysian/ Singapore border where we then had a buy our ticket through to Singapore. Was only around £2 each so very cheap as it was a board the public buses. The first bus we jumped on took us to the Malaysian border which was only a short 10 minute drive away. Here we jumped off, walked through immigration, got our passport stamped out and then found the bus again to take us ... read more

11/2/12 – 13/2/12 Ko Lanta - by Terry Leaving Ko Lipe was a massive comedown for us. We peaked with paradise a little too soon, but you don’t realise that until you leave and visit the next place. Our trip to Koh Lanta was a ‘Five Parter’ – Boat, Minibus, Minibus, Speedboat, Songthaew (that’s a pick-up with seats in the back). We had paid 850 Bht (£17pp) on Koh Lipe to leave at 9am and arrive at 4pm the sameday. The ferry ride back to Pakbara, on mainland Thailand, was as crammed as it could have been. I’m very sure they just keep selling tickets until the boat leaves and operate under the principal ‘nobody gets left behind’. For each wave we hit the roof of the boat flexed downwards under the pressure of luggage piled ... read more