Scott Writes: Time was running out but we were still squeezing as much fun as we could get into the remaining days. Firstly we had a great stop over in Stellenbosch, which is pretty much the wine capital of SA with around 200 wineries in very close proximity. We hired bikes on a glorious day and cycled off into the hills for a day of wine tasting. We visited five vineyards, purchased the odd bottle en route and at the end of it the wine started to taste all the same, our cycling was getting slightly wobblier and our red faces [View Full Entry]

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Scott Writes: After returning from the Kruger to Nelspruit we gave back our rent-a-car and opted for a 7 day hop-on hop-off pass on the tourist Baz Bus which would eventually drop us off in Port Elizabeth (PE) in around 7 days funnily enough. Now whoever came up with the Baz Bus is now making a fortune out of 'tourists' and smelly backpackers who do not want to take the local buses. It is twice as expensive and it takes twice as long as the local buses plus its not even that comfortable. Still though, it is packed everyday with people [View Full Entry]

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Kat writes: Having got another little car and a few camping supplies we were on our way to Kruger National Park and a big reason for coming to South Africa. Arriving around midday the first thing we did was get to the nearest bush camp to try and book some accommodation, only to be told that practically everything was already taken. Ek! But with a little bit of brain power and an 8hr journey tomorrow. It was doable. We were ‘in’ for the next 6 nights, which later turned to 8, moving to a different camp everyday to see just as [View Full Entry]

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Kat writes: We left at midnight for Bangkok airport in a flurry of excitement. Not only were we about to embark on a mammouth two flight journey to reach our final destination, South Africa (can't wait!) but we also heard that we now have a new little nephew! (Big congrats to JJ&L!) After a 9 hrs to Dubai, 3 hour stop, then 7 hr onwards flight, we landed in Jo'Burg airport. Obviously we hadn't slept a wink on the flights - not when a personal entertainment system was on offer, (United Emirates Airline - still loving you). Stumbling out of baggage [View Full Entry]

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Scott Writes: Originally we were supposed to fly back to KL and then catch another flight onwards to Bangkok which had been pre-booked. However, it was much cheaper to fly straight to Bangkok from Kota Kinabalu and miss out the other flight so we opted to do that and were back in Thailand one day early as well. Nice One! We have had great times in Bangkok and Thailand and were really pleased to be back in the city for the forth time and treated ourselves to a nice meal as an arrival present. We had only a couple of days [View Full Entry]

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Scott writes: Fresh from our 5 hour coach and minibus jaunt east across the country we arrive in Semporna around lunchtime in the sweltering heat. Semporna is the jump off town to a host of idlyic islands that boast world class diving and Pulau Sipidan being the piece de resisdence of them all. Apart from the chance to experience the diving there really isn't anything else to do or see in the town, which in itself, is a complete dive! However, the town does have a nice fruit and fish market but come on, you can't go walking around them for [View Full Entry]

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Kat writes: After jigging along on a local bus for an hour we reach our destination Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre and it is so worth the journey. A centre, on the edge of protected jungle, where they rehabilitate orphaned Orangutan's with the aid of WWF UK. They teach them everything, even how to climb and then send them back out to the wild. Unfortunately the centre had just suffered a major blow- at the beginning of the month a monsoon totally destroyed their tourist viewing platforms. This is where Orangutans that they have released come back if they want to [View Full Entry]

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Kat writes: So we decided to hop on a plane in KL and just over 3 hours later we were here to check out Borneo Malaysia. The place of mystery, full of dense jungle bursting with wildlife including the endangered Bornean Orangutan and the Sumatran Rhinoceros (and if you've ever seen the movie 'Anaconda' - man eating snakes!) Well, it’s not quite 'full' of jungle any more - commerce, logging and palm oil plantations are seeing to that but it is still a beautiful and mysterious country. Sabah's capital We landed in Kota Kinabalu, a Malay lad about our age was [View Full Entry]

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Kat writes: So up nice and early we catch a bus in Singapore at 6.30am (my dad would be proud!) to take us back into Malaysia. The border crossing this time was very different. Unlike Singapore's huge modern border control, the Malaysia one was a little string of what looked like a row of down trodden shops. I thought I had taken a trip down Shirley High Street in Southampton by accident! Surprising actually as Malaysia is a relatively prosperous country compared to some of its neighbours. People are less interested in giving us the hard sell and many can speak [View Full Entry]

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Scott Writes: After a one bus, two planes, a train, taxi and 22 hours later we arrived in our hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia not quite a fresh as we were when we left Christchurch. We flew with Emirates on our three hour trip back to Sydney and not only do they Sponsor the best team in the world, they have a pretty sweet airline too. All mod cons with a plethora of films to watch and games to play. We sat back, enjoyed the complimentary Brandy's and Tia Maria's and ordered what we wanted from the menu. Emirates are our [View Full Entry]

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