So two pairs of shoes, three dresses, a skirt, three tops, about 20 visits to the tailor later, you could say I’ve succeeded in expanding my wardrobe.. and reducing my bank account. Cammy didn’t do too bad either, getting a cashmere suit for only $160 as well as three pairs of shoes, two pairs of shorts and a pair of “chinos”. You’re probably thinking there isn’t anything to Hoi An other than getting clothes made (and “what about your credit card?”), and though every third store is a tailor’s shop there is still loads to do.. like going in the remaining stores consisting of restaurants (the Cargo Club in particular) and tourist souvenirs! Other than getting clothes made, eating at the Cargo Club and going to souvenir shops, we ventured out of town and visited the ... read more

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m back.. After months and months of Mum ranting on about “this booked for Vietnam” and “that’s what we’re doing in Vietnam” and “what do you think we should do in Vietnam?”, the time came to leave for the Gold Coast to catch our flight. 3pm came and went as Cammy worked feverishly to get his assignment done before the library closed. We probably should have known it wouldn’t be done by 3, but no complaints here; I was suffering from a hideous hangover thanks to the girls, Rics, Woodland Bar, and tequila shots. So the valley of death was avoided, and 4 hours later the car was finally packed and off we went. We got on the plane at some ridiculously early hour and in our first 12 hours of travel I ... read more

Well it's been a while since we were in Medellin, Colombia. In fact we have travelled the length of South America (nearly) and all the way back to Australia since! We found Medellin to be a bit of a disappointment, though it was probably our fault for arriving on a Monday as opposed to the weekend. The part of the city we stayed in was as nice as any suburb at home with a Maccas and a shopping centre more expensive than indro. During our time there we checked out the city centre, where as we stepped out of the cab, were greeted buy a homeless begger with his hand out and a "welcome to Colombia". I'm not sure whether he was being friendly or trying to emphasise the poverty factor. Anyway, there didn't seem all ... read more

So after a few hours of being on a boat that felt a lot like the batman ride con agua, we arrived in the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. There are over 100 of these tiny sand islands and the one we stayed at was called "Sanidup". It was absolutely stunning and you could literally walk around the island in under five minutes. We also visited four other islands on a day trip and most of our time was spent swimming, reading books, lying in the sun and eating fresh lobster. The huts we stayed in were very basic; they didn't have a door and the floor was just the sand. During the night the cockroaches, crabs and geckos came out to play. If I remember correctly, a couple of geckos fell off ... read more

Sorry it has taken so long to write again! Since last time, we finally finished our open water dive course (this seemed to be an ongoing joke with the staff at UDC), found our sea legs, took the boat back to La Ceiba without puking, bussed it to San Pedro Sula, bid farewell to Delaney, got food poisoning AGAIN, and made our way through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Panama. After a grueling 12 hour bus trip during the day we arrived at our first stop in Nicaragua, Leon. There isn’t all that much to the city, but there are plenty of things to do in the mucho bonito surrounding areas. On our second day, we went volcano boarding in the afternoon. Unfortunately on the way there, another bus coming from the opposite direction broke down ... read more

Well, the last week has certainly been eventful! Since the last blog, Tandi and I said goodbye to the boys and traveled from Belize to Utila, Honduras. The rest of our time in Caye Caulker was super chilled and filled with many lobsters. We spent Christmas eve snorkeling with a gazillion sharks and stingrays and drinking alot of rum punch- a Belizian specialty. As cool as it was, i still haven't seen a reef that compares to the Great Barrier Reef at home. On the night of Christmas eve we had a pot luck dinner with everyone at the hostel and sang "Feliz Navidad" a million times. On Christmas day we celebrated by hanging on the beach and revealing who we had for secret santa. I had Tanz and got her a Mayan mask, Tanz had ... read more

So after a well deserved night in the Holiday Inn, Tandi and I met the boys on the beach in Playa Del Carmen. This place was such a sweet town.. awesome beach, excellent nightlife and super yummy food. The first night started off with Mexican food, several margaritas and tequila shots.. from there on you can use your imagination. The next few nights followed a similar pattern, and Sean's streak of not vomiting has now come to an end. During the day, we spent most of our time hanging on the beach, where Stuey forgot how delicate his skin is and morphed into a lobster. One day Tanz and I took a day trip to see Chichen Itza, a seventh wonder of the world, and another day we visited Isla Mujeres on a yacht. For some ... read more

Welcome to Homieville. I am starting with Belize City as this is the only place i have experienced culture shock on this trip so far. Usually tourists only make this stop over (unless they are rich cruise ship passengers) to get the water-taxi straight to Caye Caulker. Unfortunately Tandi had to take her special accounting exam at the University of Belize, so we stayed the night. Tandi rocked up at the university, which she described as "an abandoned primary school in Inala", but the exam hadn't arrived.. thanks for letting us know UQ! It was weird being in a city where everyone is yelling at you to buy something in English.. normally we don't understand so it's easy to ignore and keep going. We ended up getting bullied into going to some restaurant when we weren't ... read more

So the exchange rate turned out to be 8 to 1, but we didn't find out until after the huge amount we'd spent on dinner. I suppose we did deserve a treat after the crazy bus ride from San Cristobal de las Casas to Antigua. Our first day in Antigua was just spent checking out the city which was really pretty and surrounded by three volcanoes. As we were sitting in the central park reading, a guy with a marijuana plant on his shirt came up and asked us if we wanted to buy some weed.. couldn't be any more obvious eh. We declined and he proceeded to fist bump us and be on his way. This is probably the first time i hadn't initiated a fist bump and i felt elated. After that, we decided ... read more

Mexicans love their chile. It is everywhere and seems to find it's way into everything, even lollies. I am one who doesn't eat alot of spicey food at home, so this has been a big adjustment. The only problem is i'm not adjusting. After a week of real Mexican food, i can't think about it and everytime i see 'taco' or 'burrito' my stomach flips. Such a pity as it is rather delicious. I think I take after my Dad.. and Jeags. Our stay in Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaca) wasn't overly eventful, but it was nice to chill out in the plaza and the food markets, and lie in the sun on the roof of our hostel. The hostel gave us burgers too.. ooh right. After two nights there we split from Eric the Fish and the ... read more