Page 2 of TheJetsetters Travel Blog Posts


The 8th Wonder of the World...

Published: April 16th 2013Asia » Philippines » Ifugao » Banaue
TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
April 12th 2013

When we last left the Philippines after a fantastic 3 weeks in February, we vowed we would be back soon, as there is just so much to see and the 21 day visa does not give enough time for everything. Less than 8 weeks later, we find ourselves back in this amazing country, excited to visit new places and experience new things. The rice terraces of Ifugao are claimed to be the 8th Wonder of the World, and as we hadn't visited them last time around, they were high on our list for this time around. First though, we had to get here... It started with a short flight to Kuala Lumpur from Kuching, where we arrived close to midnight so chose to save some money and catch a few hours sleep at the airport, as ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
April 9th 2013

Borneo, to most people, conjurs up images of lush rainforests, exotic creatures, rare animals and tales of jungle treks. Well, this is exactly what we encountered whilst in the region of Sarawak, the largest state on the Eastern side of Borneo-Malaysia. We chose the city of Kuching to base ourselves in for our stay here as it was both convenient and easy to get to most places that we wanted to see. Originally when we had planned the Borneo part of this trip, we had intended to travel across to the Sabah area and take in Kota Kinabalu for it's famous mountain trekking, Sepilok for nature and wildlife and Sipadan for diving, but due to serious political problems and reports of violence and terroism there we just didn't feel 100% sure about going so decided to ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
April 6th 2013

When planning our time in Borneo, one of the places we said we must visit was Bako National Park, as we had heard the wildlife there was sublime, not to mention the various jungle-like trails throughout the park, and we were looking forward to a bit of an adventure again. Once we had booked our accomodation for the park in Kuching at the National Park and Wildlife office (you have to do this before you go if you want to stay there the night), we bought some snacks and got our stuff together in preparation for an early start the next day. Bako is Sarawak's oldest and premier national park, and contains a wide range of vegetation, almost every type found in Borneo. The bus ride from Kuching was easy and by 9am we were at ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
April 3rd 2013

Before starting this blog, we would just like to give a quick thanks to everyone who nominated and voted us into the Travelblog Hall of Fame. Something which started out over 3 years ago as a means to updating our friends and family back home and has grown into a recording of our personal adventures around the World is something we will look back on in years to come with the greatest memories. Even looking back at some of our older blogs today, we cringe when we think about the very first time we entered Thailand from Australia and thought paying 250Bht for a curry was great value - I am glad we can now pass on some of our favourite places to eat and info on local food, transport and accomodation . . . Anyway, ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
March 30th 2013

It had been over a week since we were last on a beach and while we had gotten used to (and enjoyed) the cooler climate in the Highlands over the last few days, this is the tropics and we knew it wouldn’t be too long before we were back to sweating in the heat. It was with the heat in mind that we took an early mini bus for 6 hours towards Kuala Besut, the jumping off point for the idyllic Perhentian islands, just off the East coast. On the way we met a nice girl from Holland (Debbie) who was travelling alone so our group of four quickly became five, which would grow more in the next few hours. After the obligatory stops for lunch/petrol/toilet breaks we arrived at Kuala Besut ready to take the ... read more



Hiking in the Highlands

Published: April 6th 2013Asia » Malaysia » Pahang » Cameron Highlands
TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
March 24th 2013

After a good start to Malaysia, we left bustling Georgetown for the calmness of the Cameron Highlands, around 5 hours away inland. When we got to the bus station at 7am we were pleased to see Thea and Jeremi (the Canadian brother & sister) there, who we had dinner with the night before, and it turned out we would all be on the same bus – this is how we gained travel buddies (and friends) for the next few weeks! The first bus was nice and comfortable, but after a stop in Ipoh about 3 hours in, we had to change to a small mini-van which wasn’t so great; it was another couple of hours until we were dropped in the town of Tanah Rata, the gateway to the trails through the Cameron Highlands, passing some ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
March 20th 2013

We were both excited to be entering a new country and experience a different culture, but first we had a long day of travel ahead of us before we got to Malaysia. We were picked up by mini van from our hotel in Koh Lanta at 7.30 am, along with a couple from Finland, and once it had made several stops to pick up the other 7 passengers and organised the luggage for the 3rd time, we made our way to the vehiecle ferry to cross over to the mainland. Then it was a 3 hour drive to Trang, where we had to swap to a different mini van, before continuing on to Had Yai. Once there we had a 2 hour wait until we got in the last mini van of the journey which would ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
March 18th 2013

After the madness of Phi Phi we needed to relax, unwind and get away from the party scene, as well as restore our faith in the country and its people, so arrived on Koh Lanta hoping to have a nice last few days. Thankfully, it provided just what we needed and having had no real expectations before we got there, it also surprised us in a good way. Getting off the boat at the pier there were a lot of taxi drivers and hotel touts vying for our business, and one guy seemed pretty genuine when he told us he had room at his resort on Khong Klong beach which he would take us to for free and it sounded nice so we went with him. We usually avoid touts like the plague but this guy ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
March 14th 2013

First things first - Koh Phi Phi is not a quiet, undiscovered island. It is full almost all the time (especially in high season from November-April) and as it is so small can feel quite claustrophobic. Loud parties on the beach go on until 4am every night (in 2011 there were only 3 parties a week which went on til 2am), and the village doesn't close down until 2am (previously mid-night). Accomodation, for the standard you get, is expensive compared to other islands in Thailand. Locals appear to be less friendly and more greedy than elsewhere we have been. However, it still has beautiful beaches, good restaurants and stunning views across the ocean, as well as a great traveller vibe which is why we chose to come here. We took a 2 hour ferry there from ... read more



TheJetsetters icon
TheJetsetters
March 12th 2013

The Krabi province offers some of the most stunning landscapes we have ever seen, with limestone karsts protruding out of emerald waters, soft golden sand beaches and amazing sunsets, and it was with this in mind we made the boat-bus journey over from Koh Samui. When we did this journey over 2 years ago it was a nightmare, with a delayed boat and several bus changes and it took almost 10 hours. This time it was much smoother, as Lompraya now run this route, so it was one boat then one bus all the way to Krabi, and took just 4 hours. We were very keen to get back to ‘traveller mode’ so were thrilled when we found a decent room at a good price in the beachside town of Ao Nang and eyed up the ... read more






Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0498s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 2; ; mem: 6.8mb