TomandBry

I had a few free mintues so I thought I' add some oh-so-interesting travel stats regaring our trip. So, here are the mileages by different modes of transport, in no particular order: * Air : 25717 * Train : 2308 * Bus : 1905 * Car : 1233 * Campervan : 1926 * Cab/tuk-tuk/rickshaw/scooter-taxi : 146 * Ferry : 156 * Inner-tube : 6 * Kayak : 25 * Pushbike : 19 * Foot : lots and lots ... read more

Bry speaking: Had a few boxes to tick in LA and a whole two month's unspent budget... - go behind the scenes at a movie studio - do a little shopping on Rodeo Drive - check - spot some celebs - check - walk Hollywood Boulevard - check - lunch on Malibu Beach - check - hit the malls to make the best of the 2$:1£ rate - check - have a 'wicked' night out - check All in all we packed a lot in to our last 3 days. Tom had found a great hotel for the (relative) bargain of £50p/n we stayed in a the Millenium Biltmore Hotel. In its heyday the venue for the Oscars amongst other glittering events. Still a stunning building. Less popular because it's a little out of town ... read more

Starting out Tom speaking: Christchurch is a nice city. Has a very 'British' feel to it. Some of the suburbs the cab was taking us through were lovely - the houses were a nice mix of quirky contemporary styles and traditional, and actually looked like they'd survive more than a light breeze (proper brick vs. the usual wood construction). The cabbie went on to say that this area was one of the most expensive in all NZ. At least that confirmed we have expensive tastes...! Our first night there was pretty cool - the hostel was called 'Jailhouse' and actually used to be the city jail. In fact it turned out to be easily the cleanest and best equipped hostel of our travels. Can recommend to anyone coming here. So we picked up our wheels ... read more

Bry speaking: In the few days we've been here I have detected at least four distinct scenes. There's the 'we're so chilled' hippy crew; the 'we're so naiive' 18 year old crew; the 'we bloody live here' crew and the 'we're bloody rich' bunch. All in all it strikes me as Pembrokeshire in the sun... those of you who know will recognise all types above. Naturally, there is the angst between the 'we bloody live here' and the 'we're so chilled' who've lived here for quite some time now... as is to be expected, but far less pronounced than Pembs... obviously the sun has chilled everyone out. But, for the most part it is a pretty lovely place to live I reckon. Of course, I haven't mentioned the indigenous people, of which there must be ... read more

Bry speaking: Plane trip from Perth was the worst so far... despite being the shortest at 4 hours. It left at 11.30pm and got in at 5ish (local time) and neither of us got a wink. Unlike SE Asia the hostels here don't open until at least 7am so we had a not so amusing dawn wait at Cairns bus depot. We still haven't adjusted to the book-ahead thing, so it took a few shots to find somewhere with a room. It's rubbish... a kitchen stocked with one mug, two flimsy plastic bowls and three tin openers - none of which work. But, it's in a great location on the Esplanade (Sea front) and reasonably priced, relitively speaking. So, after a couple of hours R&R we booked up a trip to Cape Tribulation and a ... read more

Tom speaking: My turn to have a blog... I've been letting Bry get on with it as I've been busy sorting photos and stuff. So we arrived on the train from Singapore after an 8am border crossing from Malaysia - very inefficient as they pile everyone off the train, do immigration, scan bags, get everyone back on the train. I would have thought the Singaporeans of all people would have something cleaner sorted out. Maybe I'm just whingeing 'cos I wanted to stay in bed longer! So we had booked into a pretty good hotel in Singapore with really cool central Atrium which was well impressive. As it was Saturday night we headed over to Clarke Quay, which is not dissimilar from the waterfront area in Bristol (bars, restaurants, etc.) but with less pikeys and generally ... read more