After catching 2 flights from Cambodia to Bangkok then on to Chiang Mai, we explored the city, had a swim in a very cold swimming pool, and sat on the back of an elephant (while feeding him bananas). We also did a bit of bamboo rafting, swam in a waterfall and visited remote Burmese hilltribes. We then decided to go North to the small town of Pai. This involved a rather long, windy road journey through the hills. But it was well worth it, as it was one of our favourite places in Thailand. Its extremely chilled, with a great [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello as usual we've been quite busy. We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand on the 11th of Jan , both very sad to have left Australia. People we've met warned us that you either love or hate Bangkok, but we loved it. There's a LOT of traffic and hustle and bustle, so we spent the few days we had there soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the cheap food and drink. We also played the game of who could spot the most Lady Boys, Some where so good that the only thing that gave them away was there voice!! After a few [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello, we've sadly finished our trip down the east coast of Australia and have reached Sydney. Between Brisbane and here we had a lovely week soaking up the sun, sea, surf, and hippy atmosphere in Byron Bay. While there we did a lovely walk up to a lighthouse which is the Eastern most point of Australia (we also did the Southern most point in Tasmania). It was then just a quick stop of at Coff's Harbour and Port Maquarie before our last stop of Newcastle. Here we did a day trip to the infamous Hunter Valley for a bit of wine [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi Folks, From the sunshine Coast we headed here to Brisbane. Our main reason for staying here was to earn some money in the hope we can afford a trip to Fiji. The first thing we did was get a tiny flat in the Fortitude Valley area. Its basically a shoebox, but has done the trick, and even has cable tv (with 2 sports channels for me, and the National Geographic for Laura). Over the last 7 weeks we have had 4 jobs. First up was selling mortgages over the phone, for a guy with no front teeth. We lasted a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello. We've been very busy since our last blog so will try to fill you in without boring you too much. After Magnetic Island (where I had the worst case of bed bugs in a dirty hostel. Rich was lucky and didn't get a single bite, the alcohol in his blood stream must have put them off ;) ) our next stop was Airlie Beach. From here we did our two day two night boating trip out to the Whitsundays. The weather wasn't great and truly put our sea legs through their paces, but we survived and had a great [View Full Entry]

---

---

Greetings, It's been a lazy few weeks. But we needed it after New Zealand. We arrived in Sydney to spend 10 days with Esther (Laura's sister) and her boyfriend Chris. It was very good of them to put up with us (especially my feet), and it also helped with the finances. We didn't do a massive amount of touristy things - as we're back there for around 3/4 weeks in December. We did however see the Opera House in all its glory, plus the harbour bridge in the background. We also went to the Australia vs South Africa test match, which [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello every one. We've spent the last three weeks travelling around the south Island of New Zealand, it's been brilliant. On the North Island we hired a car and did our own thing, however on the south Island with the difference in weather conditions, sometimes chains are needed. Having no idea how to attach chains to a car, we decided to do a coach tour round the south island. Our coach tour took us around most of the North, East and West coast. We started in Christchurch, a lovely little city. When we were there, they were celebrating their 150th birthday!! [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi, Lot's to ramble on about, so we'll get straight on with it: Our last trip in Melbourne was to a fabulous building called the Shrine of Rememberance. It's built to commemorate all those who died in the second world war. In the main crypt is a big tomb with the words "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN". And on the roof, there is a piece of brick missing. Every year, at 11.11am on the 11th of November the suns rays shine through the gap in the ceiling. The rays strike the word LOVE on the tomb to mark the end of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Melbourne has been amazing. It's such a cosmopolitan city but with a laid back vibe too. We have stayed in 3 or 4 different hostels (on average about 8-9 pounds a night), and eventually settled in a really friendly one where we've met a few lovely people. Our first week was spent exploring the many cafe's, shops, bars, galleries, museums, markets and parks. There's so many that we still haven't found them all. In one of the biggest parks, Carlton Gardens, we took some crackers up after dark and fed lots of Possums - they're curious fellas - or maybe [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tasmania was amazing, it has beautiful scenery absolutely everywhere. We were there for a week in total. We hired a car in Launceston and drove down the whole of the east coast, right down to the south east peninsular. From there we headed back up to Launceston via Cradle Mountain. We covered 845 miles in total and thankfully managed to get the car back in one piece. Tasmania is much like the Lake District but on a grand scale. Some of the scenery really has been breath taking. Rich has even said that some of the views are nearly as amazing [View Full Entry]

---

---