Just a quick blog to say thank you for all the messages wishing us a happy anniversary and also a big thankyou for all the wedding presents recieved last year that have help make our 1st year married unforgetable. Thank You! [View Full Entry]

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It is easy to become blase when you have been travelling for a while, things that would normally make your head turn or stand in awe become the norm. The sights and sounds that at first were strange are just part of the background noise we've come to know. Such as the chirupping little lizards and the calls of the Gecko that sound like it is saying Gecko or obsenity with two sylabuls and the last word ending in you! But after the serenity and laid back feel of Laos, it was a jolt back to a different culture when we [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Luang Prabang from Van Vieng after a 9 hour bus journey, the windy road passed through stunning scenery of tree clad mountains, though shrouded in cloud at points. The majority of the population of Laos are not served by roads, so as highways have been built little villages have sprung up along side the roads, often seemingly precariously positioned on the edge of mountain drop offs, with houses only supported by a couple of wooden stilts. The feel of Laung Prabang was still relaxed but had a lot more of a touristy feel, this is where the majority [View Full Entry]

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We left Nong Khai and headed off for the border crossing to Laos over the Friendship Bridge, a bridge that was first proposed in the 1950's and didn't get built till 1994 due to war in Indochina and financed to the tune of Us$30mn from Australia, to help boost the Ozzies reputation in Asia. As soon as you reach Laos you immidiately notice that the roads deteriorate, the taxi's are a hell of a lot worse (infact they're a pile junk with 4 wheels), and straight away you get the feeling that your getting ripped off by the taxi drivers. There [View Full Entry]

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We left Koh Phagnan on the 8.30am catameran to head back upto Bangkok. We were transfered from the catamaran at the 'port' of Chumporn (which is a jetty off a beach) to aircon buses which were waiting ready to take us to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at just after 8.30pm after a hassle free journey. Already we are missing the sea breeze of the coast, as the heat, humidity and aromas of Bangkok are stifling, even at night. Our aim whilst back in Bangkok is to sort out our visas for Laos. Having sorted out the forms and handing them [View Full Entry]

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We got a morning flight down from Bangkok to Phuket with Air Asia as the flights were cheap and we're not quite ready for 10 hour bus journey's yet. The flight was a mixture of Thia's and westeners but it was suprising to see the number of older western men with young Thai women on the flight. Even heard one guy say that he wasn't spending anymore money on this gal cause he had already spent enough on her by hiring her for the month! The views down on the flight were beautiful, loads of green lush islands dotting the bays [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Bangkok airport at around midnight and after finding out that the airport hotel listed in the travel guide as $50 US is now $300US we set to finding somewhere else to stay. We booked a place with a guy at the airport - overpriced but the transfer and everything was sorted for us and it was only for one night. At 1am after the 9 hr flight and a few beers with Jon and a few more on the plane we just wanted to get into bed. We awoke suprisingly refreshed the next morning and set out on [View Full Entry]

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We landed in Sydney on the morning of the 23rd May and transfered straight through from International to Domestic flights for our flight to Melbourne. We are only staying in Australia for a week and heading to Melbourne to catch up with a couple of friends, Andy and Tim whom we met in Peru and travelled with for a while. We arrived in Melbourne at about 2pm pretty exhausted after a poor nights sleep, early morning, a day of travel and the loss of a couple of hours which isn't a good combination. We headed into the centre of Melbourne and [View Full Entry]

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We left the orchard on 26/04/06. Given that we had to return to Hastings hospital in only a couple of weeks time and that I couldn't do much of what we really wanted to do in the South Island, we set of with the aim of making sure we did the rest of the North Island thoroughly. Our plan was to stay in Wellington for about a week, we drove down to Wellington via Mount Bruce Wildlife centre. The centre is managed by DOC with the aim of preserving and increasing the populations of endangered birds in NZ. The enclosures were [View Full Entry]

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We moved down to the Orchard on the 26th of February and started picking on the 27th, the first day of the picking season. The Orchard we were working at was Mr Apple Ongaonga. The Orchard is actually 3km by road from the "village" of Ongaonga (which is named after a large very poisonous stinging nettle). Ongaonga is a very old historical village in NZ terms and it has a village museum, department of conservation information hut, a shop, a car mechanic and a pub (The Sandford Arms)! The nearest town of any kind of size worth mentioning is Waipuk (Waipukurau) [View Full Entry]

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