OIsham

In my room at The Arts Factory hostel in Byron I met two English guys who had just arrived. Dan; who was visiting his old friend who had moved to Perth, and Andy; who had come over from Sydney to meet Dan. They had rented a car from Sydney and offered to give me a lift back with them the next day, I cancelled my bus ticket and took up their offer. For our last day in Byron we drove up to the Lighthouse as it was a clear day. I had been told the view was good, but it was far more than that. On the short walk from the carpark we already spotted a pod of dolphins surfing in the waves breaking on the most Easterly point of Australia. The view was hundreds of ... read more

I arrived into Sydney with a flight up to the Gold Coast early the next morning. I dropped my bags at the desk and decided to spend the day in town rather than sitting in the airport where I was going to spend the night. I got the train to Museum station, found my hostel where I will be staying upon my return to Sydney and went down to the Quay for lack of any better ideas. Weather was clear and the walk was not as far as I had expected and by lunch I was looking out at the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and surroundings. I arranged to meet Angus and Emily briefly as they were in town and met them at an anti police demo outside the parliament building having taken brief shelter in ... read more

A 24 hour coach journey overnight down the coast of Western Thailand and we arrive at at rather ropey looking ferry port with a cafe selling only noodles and bean soup at 5AM, not exactly a welcome sight. However once on the ferry for the 2 hour journey to the island of Koh Phangan the beauty of the ocean and rock formations began to make up for that, (along with our "VIP" seats which reclined). We arrived onto the island on April 13th... the first day on Songkran. We had been warned about Thailand's infamous water festival which marks the Thai new year, but nothing could quite prepare us for the chaos. What I had previously experienced as a quiet and rather reserved population in the north of the country, had gone insane. The taxi journey ... read more

About 4 hours Drive West from Bangkok is kanchanaburi Province. Our accomodation was bordered by the River Kwai which flowed quickly and carried everything from speedboats to floating houses and restuarants. Our firstday trip was to the Erawan waterfalls, 7 tiers and 5km of pathways... each with pools deep enough to swim in. Plenty of locals as wellas tourists and school groups spent the scorching hot day in the cooling pools and showers on water from the mountain. Even while you swim small fish bite at your ankles; the same fish they use in massages in the street in Bangkok. The next outing was to one of Kanchanaburi's many temples. This one required a steep climb through the body of a concrete dragon up the mountainside. Inside we were blessed by the resident monk and learned ... read more

Arrived in BK after a flight from Joburg connecting in Sydney at 1am, I decided to sleep at the airport until I could get a taxi and check in around midday. the first taxi offer was 2000baht... 2 minutes later after walking away it was suspiciously altered to 450. Driving into downtown BK is exactly what you might expect; major traffic, mental driving, enormous roads and near misses on every side, however eventually I made it to Kho San Road and the hostel just after midday. The next day the rest of the group began to arrive and we set out for a water tour on the canals and visits to a number of ancient temples in the city. Thecity is a vast maze of waterways and backstreets... still yet to make it into the heart ... read more

The last week or so on the farm we spent at the schools. Teaching at St Basil's everything from English and Maths to HIV awareness; a real eye opener. We played football with the kids in the afternoons, naturally we were made to look terrible by the 9-14 year olds both because of the heat and the fact that we are generally rubbish. We also visited another school on a neighboring farm, much newer than St Basil's, and spent the day there teaching and talking to the headmistress about her plans for the school which currently operates out of her front room. It has been overcast but warm for the last few days of my time in Zim. Since returning to Harare we managed to pack a lot into a few days before I headed back ... read more

Left Gary's in Harare early AM on the 7th for the 4 hour drive to the border, or that was the plan. We were towing his boat that he planned to leave up in Moz for friends and clients of his to use, and around 2 hours into the journey the tire of the trailer was victim to one of Zim's insane potholes. We changed the spare only to find that it too was almost destroyed and drove gingerly to the nearest town to find a tire yard... which we did. 1 hour, $200 and some very ropey tire fitting techniques later we were on the road again. Arriving at the border was somewhat tense, we had no idea how much a visa would cost... or if we would even get one, and the boat had ... read more