Sammy Al
Samuel Erwin Allen Joined: September 16th 2009
Logged in: October 22nd 2010
Logged in: October 22nd 2010
Travel Blog Posts
First of all huge apologies for the extremely long time since my last blog entry, the last month has been hectic, intense and chaotic as you will soon find out... Landing late on a thursday evening we made our way to the Balmain Backpackers Hostel tired and weary from the non stop few weeks in South East Asia. However we would have no time to relax. In a totally alien city we knew we had to get our bearings fast, find somewhere nice but cheap to live, and then get a job. Where the past 5 weeks had been about trying to appreciate as much culture, cuisine and fun as we possibly could, our time now was entirely dedicated to setting ourselves up in Sydney. Using the websites gumtree.com.au , domain.net , share-accomodation.net and general advertisements ... read more
I am now writing to you from Australia!! Eeek exciting times! A lot has happened in the last week, and I will now update you on my recent antics! So making a swift exit from Penang before causing any more trouble we took what for us seemed like an incredibly short 5 hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur. Here we would find a whole new level of heat! Just before we disembarked from the bus there was a typical short burst of powerful rainfall. When we went outside not only did the familiar heat wave hit us, but the puddles that we were walking through felt like hot bath water. Extremely intense heat. Kuala Lumpur, apart from Singapore, was the most developed city we visited. Very clean, with an efficient train and mono rail service, the ... read more
Phuket proved to be the loation for my first piece of proper bad luck on my travels. Upon arrival I had noticed that the padlock on my suitcase had quite a few scratch marks on it. Assuming that it was simply something that had happened during transit I thought nothing more of it. However when I next checked on my secret stash of backup money that I had been keeping in my suitcase, to my horror it had disappeared. Robbed. Annoyed but not devastated its just part of travelling I guess and it teaches me to be more careful in the future. So although we had a really nice chilled out day on the stunning Patong beach watching a beautiful sunset, I was pretty pleased to see the back of Phuket when we left. After a ... read more
When someone mentions Thailand often the first images that enter your head are long white beaches with soft sand the reach out into a clear aqua marine ocean. The tiny island of Ko Phi Phi is the definition of these stereotypical images, and Maya Bay - the setting of the hollywood blockbuster "The Beach" is Thailand's most famous. Actually located on an even smaller island south of Phi Phi called Phi Phi Li, after I last wrote to you Tom and I took a boat there. Although the weather wasnt perfect, nothing could spoil the beauty of what we were about to see. After stopping on beaches filled with monkeys, our first stop on Phi Phi Li was just outside a hidden lagoon. Taking Kayaks we made our way through the giant cliffs that surrounded us ... read more
PICT0187
Ok so first of all I have to apologise for the lack of writing this last week, but due to limited internet connection in the most recent places we have visited I have been unable to update my blog. So let me tell you about the adventures of the past few days. We left Phnom Penh with an extremely good impression of the city and eagerly awaited what Siem Reap would have in store us. While our journey to Siem Reap was extremely comfortable bus ride taking 5 hours, the weather suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worseas we were hit by the end tail of Typhoon Ketsana that had ravaged much of Vietnam a few days earlier. When we arrived in Siem Reap - a beautiful little town containing much French inspired architecture dating ... read more
Photo 2
When I Last wrote I was just about to embark on my last night in Nha Trang before heading to Chau Doc in the morning in order to get a boat up the Mekong River to Phnom Penh. Oh how much has happened since then.... Nha Trang being the fun place that it was, Tom and myself decided to give it an appropriate send off, and that night we partied into the early hours of the morning, meeting many nice fellow students from all over the world. How we would later massively regret this decision... Up at 7.30 in the morning we embarked on our "hard sleeper" train to Ho Chi Minh City in order to get our interconnecting bus to Chau Doc where we inteded on getting a boat up the Mekong River to Phnom ... read more
Snake Wine!
Its been over a week now since I started my Gap year and I can hardly believe how much has already happened! I am writing to you from the Son and Daughter Hotel in Nha Trang and, like the other places we have stayed in, it is very comfortable for a cheap price. The days of grotty hostels seems to be ending as all the places we have stayed so far have had internet, an ensuite bathroom and air conditioned rooms, and we havent paid more than five dollars a night in any either! But let me tell you about my time in Hoi An. Totally different to the hectic, crazy cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, Hoi an was a sleepy idyllic little town on the beach. Although I have to say this may ... read more
Photo 1
Entry number 2 and I'm now writing to you from our hotel in Hoi An, and I have some stories to tell! Ok so the day after my last post our next stop was Halong Bay, and what an incredible day that was! After an early rise we boarded onto a bus that was to take us on the 3 and half hour drive to Halong Bay. As it was 8.30 in the morning naturally everyone on board the bus was sleepy and it was half an hour into our trip when everyone was just dozing off that our guide decided to wake us up in a forceful but not rude manner. Everyone on board naturally assumed that he was going to give us some information about our day ahead, but he simply said "Hello... how ... read more
Photo 1
As I write my first entry Im sitting in my very comfortable air conditioned hotel in Hanoi, and already after three days I have seen a mixture of the amazing, moving and bizarre. After a 12 hour flight we landed in Hong Kong which definitely has the campest jazziest money I have ever seen, forget the pink pound, their notes are actually pink there! It was only a quick two hour stop and we then flew on to Ho Chi Minh City where we landed at sunset. The first thing that hits you as you walk out the airport is the heat and humidity which was incredibly intense. To those of you who like your windy bracing weather and have been known to perspire easily, Vietnam may not be the place for you. Its been three ... read more
