Ross and Sean

On to the East Coast of Australia then. We flew into Sydney resigned to the fact that everything was going to cost an arm and a leg... so with that behind us we decided to go out for a few beers! It's good to get over your issues we thought (beer helps too). The following day we headed out to do the typical tourist thang and stroll round the harbour. It was all a pretty impressive sight and it was so weird actually standing in the shadow of a building that you've seen so many times in pictures, on the telly etc. etc. (that’s the Opera House by the way). After a few days of wandering the city and its botanic gardens (and seeing some wild Fruit Bats in the trees!) we decided it was time ... read more

Crikey, it seems like a long time since I've written a blog... Sorry about that chaps, we've obviously just been too busy enjoying ourselves to get round to doing something as mundane as blog writing. But now that we've got a few hours to kill (waiting for a ferry in NZ) I'll fill you in on some of our exploits... After finally having our fill of Thailand, Ross and I decided to start our long and arduous journey towards Singapore for our flight to the wonderful world of OZ. We contemplated flying but it was a bit on the expensive side (and our money was dwindling fast) so, like the geniuses we are, we decided to get a train/bus medley down through the (apparently dangerous) Thai south to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Jebus Jones it was a ... read more

With Heather over to visit Sean, I was given the chance to explore another South East Asian country, recommended by a couple of people we had met, but seemingly not visited by many as part of the 'backpacking' circuit. Not only this, but it also gave me 18 days away from the moaning, worrying and general woman-like tendencies that make up Sean.... The Lonely Planet guide bought the day before my flight was the only information I had on the country so I boarded the plane with great expectation coupled with overwhelming mystery. Although the boarding of the plane didn't exactly go smoothly. After three times of asking, I genuinely insisted I had no liquids in my hand luggage. Soon after, I found myself in the Investigations Room, the contents of my bag shrew across the ... read more

After all the partytime in Vietnam our poor livers were in need of some serious recovery, and nowhere seemed better than the little heart shaped country in SE Asia called Cambodia. We headed into the capital Phnom Pehn to start with early in January and to be honest it was a bit of a dump, we did very little here (the first time round anyway, be patient dear reader...) except watch the mighty Luton achieve an admirable draw against the Scousers in the FA cup and walk though the most rat infested market known to man (seriously some of those blighters were as big as cats!). We then headed down to the beach resort of Sihanoukville, planning to stay 3 or 4 days there before a bit of culture and heading up to the temples round ... read more

Right then, onto Laos. We headed out of Chiang Mai on a fully loaded minivan heading for the Thailand/Laos border at Chiang Kong. Normally I wouldn't have mentioned such a mundane event but we had the strangest fellow on the van I've ever come across (well nearly, I am traveling with Ross... ho ho!). He was clearly of Thai origin but he spoke with the worst cockney style accent I've ever heard in real life; imagine Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins and you'll pretty much be there - he even uttered the phrase "cor blimey!"after he sneezed at one point, pure brilliance. Anyhoo, bit of a prattle there so I'd best move on... We got to the border at Chiang Kong and quickly realized there was very little to do, we had an early boat ... read more