The first 'real' city that we had encountered; we found Brisbane to a pretty lively, cosmopolitan place and it roughly marked the halfway point for us and our epic road trip along the coast of Oz. We'd heard a lot of good things about the place and weren't disappointed. On day 1 we explored the botanic gardens (which is actually just a big park) and around the river making time to swing by some of the malls and squeeze in some shopping. We checked out Fortitude Valley, the up and coming bar and cafe scene was meant to be good here [View Full Entry]

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After a 4 hour stop off at Darwin we landed in Cairns to beautiful sunshine and 28 degree heat. We had arrived into civilisation! We were picked up from the airport by the hostel we were staying at (Dreamtime Traveller's Rest) which turned out to be a really nice place with a very helpful chap at the helm. It was all a bit surreal to begin with as it had been so long since we'd been in a Western country- we weren't used to normal flushing toilets, sensible driving and even shopping (of the food variety- we loved doing our first [View Full Entry]

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Singapore was pretty uneventful for us, mostly because we were on a budget but particularly because it was just a whistlestop- 1 and a half days and 1 night before we flew out to Indonesia for the last leg of our epic South East Asian adventure. After getting through customs (the most thorough of any country we'd encountered in the last 5 months), we booked into the stupidly overpriced YMCA on Orchard Road and although we were paying London prices, it gave us a good central base for our time there and was nice and clean, with a decent breakfast. From [View Full Entry]

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We were both really looking forward to the Cameron Highlands- it sounded like a pretty unique place. It's a former Colonial hill station that the British used as a retreat from the hustle and bustle of normal Malaysian life, and due to it's high altitude it's considerably cooler than the remainder of the country. The Brits also left thier mark on things like the architecture with most of the oldest buildings sporting mock Tudor facades (weird to see in Asia) and there was also an abundance of tea and scones on offer (something that Kelly made sure she got her daily [View Full Entry]

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We touched down safe and sound in the island port of Penang and made our way to the capital city Georgetown. This was meant to be the 'most Malaysian place in Malaysia,' representing the country better than any other province, city or rural area. The place was a bit dissapointing as we were met with crumbling buildings, lots of dirt (the place felt filthier than a lot of cities its size that we'd previously encountered) and accomodation that was really bad value for money (we were living like kings in Thailand, Laos and even Cambodia- the accomodation was pretty grim and [View Full Entry]

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Refreshed after our time in Salad Beach with Kate and Alan, we said our goodbyes and hopped on the Express boat that would take us to Ko Tao. The journey started out nice, but as with all good things it soon came to an abrupt end; the waves ended up battering the ship and the rain was coming down sideways by the time we docked. And trudging from one guest house to the next once we were ashore was a bit of a pain - but worth it in the end as we found an ok room for 400bt a night, [View Full Entry]

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We were overdue some beach time so were looking forward to Sianoukhville in the south of Cambodia, but there's really not much to write home about the place. The beach was nothing special- dirty in places but pleasant enough and there wasn't that much going on in the town. We rented bikes one day and cycled all around but it wasn't very big and so we'd seen all there was to see within a couple of hours. Our guest house was ok for a couple of nights- a British owned place called Monkey Republic; with great music, food, drinks, chilled out [View Full Entry]

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Nothing could have prepared us for the day we had in Phnom Penh- the capital city, when we arrived and decided to visit S21 and The Killing Fields. We didn't really know that much about the history surrounding these places so were eager to find out more. Phnom Penh itself was a spralling, dirty place, much like any other SE Asian city but the it felt seedier, somewhat more desparate- a feeling that was only intensified once we'd learned of the true horrors that took place there less than 30 years ago. We hired a tuk tuk for the day and [View Full Entry]

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Flying into Siem Reap in the north of Cambodia was a bit of a shock to the system. After weeks in Laos where the temperament was chilled out and we almost never got hassled for anything, Siem Reap was the complete opposite. From the outset there were motorbike drivers, tuk tuk drivers, beggers and people trying to sell us stuff, coming at us, with arms outstetched from every angle. We retreated immediately from the airport taxi and managed to (somehow) stumble upon the guesthouse that our friends had reccomended to us a couple of days before, Red Lodge. This place was [View Full Entry]

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Making our way back to Luang Phabang, we decided to to break up the 6 hr journey by stoping for a couple of days at Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng was your typical tourist hangout, the likes of the Khao San in Bangkok or Las Americas in Ibiza (well sort of)- streets and streets of bars and restaurants (albeit quite laid back and chilled out) all pointing the way down to the main river. The main activity on the river (and this is what stands it apart from the forementioned Khao San), is tubing. Tubing is where tourists fling themselves into the [View Full Entry]

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