We walked across the Thailand - Cambodia border into a town called Poipet. Immediately on the Cambodian side hundreds of people were running around in casino uniforms. Gambling is illegal in Thailand so, there are 4 or 5 casino's here for them. Apparently, there's no ATM in Poipet but the casino's have an arrangment with border officials where unlucky gamblers can be escorted, with no immigration requirements, to a cashpoint on the Thai side (for a small fee) to draw more money out & then cross back! We bumped into an American who'd been on our bus who had just successfully [View Full Entry]

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Phuket After reluctantly leaving Phi Phi we took the boat to Phuket, one of Thailands biggest resorts. From the port we got a taxi to Karon Beach which sounded quieter than neighbouring Patong. We soon realised we should've either stayed where we were a few more days or headed straight to Bangkok! The only positive things about Phuket was the mini-bar in the hotel which was both ridiculously well stocked and ridiculously cheap & the food was fantastic, if you looked hard enough to find a local place. Other than that Phuket can only be described as Blackpool with sun for [View Full Entry]

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The journey from Kuala Lumpur to Thailand was possibly the worst bus journey ever! All looked good as we set off with big comfy seats and loads of legroom and we were sat right at the back so no-one behind us either. That was until we went over the first bump in the road, of which there would be many. Because we were right above the back wheels and the seats were knackered we'd get mild whiplash from the back of the seats moving up and down everytime the road was the slightest bit uneven. This wouldn't have been such a [View Full Entry]

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We flew from Macau via Air Asia and landed in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo around 11pm. Tired, we went straight to bed upon arrival at the hostel. Usually, no matter how tired, we'd normally at least go for one quick drink when arriving somewhere new, however, Malaysia is an Islamic country & none of the bars/restaurants around our hostel served beer! Got up the following morning and ate breakfast - noodles - a few doors away from the hostel after which we took a sweaty walk into town. I'd been in a state of extreme worry since arriving the night before [View Full Entry]

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Macau We travelled to Macau by Hydrofoil from HK which took about an hour and a half. To get tickets (HK$148) you need to go to the China Ferry Terminal on Canton Rd in Kowloon where they take cash or card, preferably the day before - they go every half hour but a few were already full. Large bags can be checked for an extra HK$75 or you can save the money and take them on. Sailing over was quite choppy and the hydrofoil almost took flight on a couple of occasions but we eventually arrived in one piece to a [View Full Entry]

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Landed in Hong Kong at around 4.30pm. There's a 7 hour time difference so our bodies were at 9.30 am English time and we'd hardly slept a wink on the plane despite, in my case, plenty of help from Johnnie Walker. From the airport we took the bus to Kowloon which cost HK$33, about 2 pounds and took about 45 minutes. Our hostel was the Kowloon New Hostel on Nathan Rd which is the main thouroughfare through Kowloon and Mong Kok (I love the place names here!) 2 areas full of bars, restaurants, shops and hotels. Upon arrival at the hostel [View Full Entry]

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Since arriving in El Calafate we’d attempted to book a flight to our next destination, Bariloche, only to find the prices extortionate and it was looking like we were going to have to take a bus - not to worry the journey was only going to take 33 hours! So we reluctantly booked this, stocked up on Pringles & set off at around midnight on a Friday night. The journey involved 3 different buses. The first was a 4 hour boneshaker south, i.e. the wrong way, to a place called Rio Gallegos (which was a dump). After a short stop [View Full Entry]

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El Calafate We flew at 5am from BA to El Calafate, a small town in Southern Argentina visited mainly as a base for trips to the Perito Moreno glacier. Upon arrival around 8am we were greeted with fine weather but a lot cooler in comparison to Buenos Aires. We took a mini bus to our hostel for 18 pesos each, about £3. This was booked right next to the luggage carousel. Arrived at our hostel, the Marco Polo Inn and the place was dead, everybody on daytrips apparently. Unable to check in until 2pm we headed into town. The main street [View Full Entry]

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Back in BA Thank god! We checked into the Palermo Suites hostel at around midnight and headed straight out for a few drinks on Plaza Serrano. Unfortunately the nacho place (Tazz Bar) had stopped serving food so we had to settle for a couple of tapas style dishes at the place next door which were nice. We then had two full days. The first day we found a mass of market stalls selling second hand books (we’d now gone about 3 weeks with nothing to read) most of which had an English language selection at about £1.60 each. We both bought [View Full Entry]

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Uruguay We took a 3 hour ferry from BA across the River Plate to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Yes, 3 hours across a river. It’s a big river. A big, brown one. The company was BuqueBus and we got the tickets a few days in advance from their terminal at the port for about £30 return. There was a hydrofoil option which took an hour and you could also go directly to Montevideo in 5 hours. The trip over was good. The main seating area was very comfortable, resulting in the amazing sleeping woman dropping off almost immediately only to [View Full Entry]

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