Well with my usual planning and careful preparation i arrived in Fiji with absolutely no idea what i was going to do - this is starting to become something of a habit!! So i got my backpack and headed to the ladies loos where i happened to start talking to Emi a fijian lady. She said that she worked in the airport and could go through some of my options with me, so i thought why not i havent got a better idea!! And i am so glad i accepted her offer because it led to an absolutely brilliant experience. I [View Full Entry]

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Having said goodbye to the car and Nadja and Andy i flew to Alice Springs to go and check out 'The Rock!!' (unfortuanately not Dwayne Johnson!!). As soon as i landed in Alice i was hit by the extreme heat of the place and the number of bloody flies!! And they are not like the flies we get in England, these flies are determined that they either need to be in your mouth or up your nose and they really do not take no for an answer! To get out to see Uluru i joined a 3day tour with The Rock [View Full Entry]

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So after a great tour on the great ocean road Nadja (from Switzerland) and Andy (from Austria) decided to join me in hiring a car and starting an international tour of the rest of the East coast in our lovely Toyota Carolla - a proper family car!!!. I am just going to summarise it for you here because if i did it in detail it would take me all night, you would get very bored and i just cant be bothered!! Melbourne - a really attractive city with great nightlife and food!! After checking out some of the cities attractions - [View Full Entry]

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Wow finally writing another blog and this time i think i will be here all night catching up!! Not a great start on the oz front as my flight from Singapore was delayed by 3hours which meant a long night in the airport after several days already spent travelling. Thankfully the airport was big enough to keep me entertained! Finally arrived in Adelaide at 11am and, as seems to be becomming a habit of mine, i had no idea what i was doing there!! Fortunately the tourist info at the airport were great and they soon had me booked on a [View Full Entry]

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After a few crazy days in Bangkok and a very expensive visa run to Cambodia (never trust the travel agencies on khoa san - when will i learn!!) I was off to Ko Chang. Turned out to be the longest bus journey ever as we had to stop at every restaurant owned by anyone related or friends with the driver! But eventually i arrived on the island and headed via pick up to lonely beach. This is the main backpacker area on the beach and apparently not very lonely as it was difficult to find accomodation on the first night. The [View Full Entry]

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Well i decided after to listen to many stories and with some encouragement to go and experience a 10 day meditation retreat. Not knowing much about meditation i thought it would be interesting to learn and a great experience, however, i was slightly nervous about the silent part and the 'no eating after midday' rule!! (Yes I know you are now all thinking there is no way lauren could be silent for ten days, let alone stop eating!) The retreat was at Suan Mokkh which is just outside Chaiya half way down thailand. We took the night bus from bangkok and [View Full Entry]

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As soon as the meditation retreat was over and we were allowed to start talking a few off us headed for Ko Tao. We only just made the ferry, our tuk tuk driver did a handbrake turn in the car park and then we ran along the boardwalk and just made it. The crossing was awful as we were on the high speed boat and it was so rough - spent most of the journey clinging to the side as if my life depended on it!! Eventually we arrived on the island and headed off to choose one of the million [View Full Entry]

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After what was an increadibly long journey i arrived in Singapore and set out on foot to Little India, here i found a very friendly backpackers who let me take a much needed shower!! And leave my stuff there for the day. I spent the rest of the day wondering around the city. It is a really nice place, very clean with really friendly people and definately somewhere i will return to when i have more money!! I went to have a look at the famous Raffles Hotel but souldnt get in because i was not appropriately dressed!! I checked china [View Full Entry]

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Bangkok - possibly the only city where you can be sat in rush hour traffic, worse than that in London, and around the corner comes a man riding an elephant!! Crazy! I spent a few days in Bangkok staying at the Roof Garden hotel - couldn't actually find the roof garden but at least it was clean and the owners were very friendly. The hotel was behind the temple opposite Khao San road, i am sure this means nothing to you in less you have been to Bangkok, but the roads here are a bit quieter and so it is a [View Full Entry]

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Pai (pronouced pie!!) is amazing, only intended to go for 2 days but ended up staying for ten days!! The countryside is gorgeous and the people are really friendly and the atmosphere is so laid back. Every night there are different bands playing in the bars - standards vary!! Our particular favorite was a thai man we named Pai Lennon!! And his girlfriend was Yoko Thai! Hired a motorbike for a few days and went to the waterfalls in the surrounding areas, also visited the canyon just outside of pai and got some good sunset photos. Every evening at the guesthouse [View Full Entry]

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