ailie
ailie rundle Joined: June 28th 2003
Logged in: May 5th 2006
Logged in: May 5th 2006
Travel Blog Posts
Its that time of year again when the weather is getting colder and darker (even in NZ I hear - hehe!) and i have to send a big fat Christmas email out to you all. I've decided to resume my monologue writing because I have had so many good reviews ;-D sorry to those of you who don't have the time for 1500 word epics! I've included some pics so you can just check out those if you can't be bothered reading for the next hour. I think the last time I wrote to everyone I was in Turkey way back in July and I had just dislocated my elbow. Its all better now (well not as straight as it used to be but i'm working on it). I had to spend the next three weeks relaxing ... read more
Merhaba! hello, all the way from a wee caravan, complete with free internet, at the Oludinez Blue Lagoon on the turkisk SW coast! well its been nearly 7 weeks (i think, have lost track of time) since i left edinburgh and the uk for egypt. ive been a slacker with the groupie emails, probably due to having a constant travelling companion this time! however marie has just left to start heading back to istanbul and nz while im slowly heading towards the greek islands. we delayed our flight to turkey in order to avoid arriving the same day as Bush for the NATO conference that shut down most of istanbul and had already sparked some bombs. So far in Turkey we have seen the fairy chimneys and ancient christian underground cities of cappadokia, the statues of gods on top ... read more
Hey all! or 'Salama alekum' (Peace upon you, the arabic hello - see they are not all terrorists!) We've had many adventures over the last 3 weeks - seen many amazing desert terrains and stunning ancient monuments. At first we did not find the independent travel easy - its not like Thailand! We were almost (almost!) jealous of the numerous tour groups. The main problem was getting in and out of Cairo when we did have to pass through it - the bus and train timetables are not terribly in sync! For our first week and a half we came across very few other backpackers for travel tips so we were travelling blind and relying heavily on the guide book. We enjoyed our first 4 days in Cairo - pyramids, bazaars, sufi dancing, coptic cairo, islamic cairo, mosques, earthquake rubble ... read more
Man it’s been 4 1/2 months since I arrived in the UK! It seems so much shorter than my 4 months in SE Asia. I've had plenty more adventures but they have slowed in the last few weeks due to lack of a job. Most of you must think I've disappeared but I thought I'd give you all a nice long break from my lengthy monologues! I landed on my feet in my first week scoring a PA job at General Electric Real Estate (through my friend Aimee from Wellies) so I had little idea of how hard it is to find that kind of job with my limited office experience. The job lasted 6 weeks and I turned down another 2 month role declaring I was off to Edinburgh as originally planned. My first little trip was a ... read more
Helloo! Its been ages because I've been a bit lazy since I've been back in the western world. But I'm not gonna tell you about that yet because first, Laos. It lived up to everything I had heard. When I crossed the border by boat across the Mekong from Northern Thailand I met a kiwi guy who liked to think he was Barry Crump and has lived in the NZ and Aussie bush for the last 10 years (The "BC factor" wasn't working on me though!). We wanted to get off road (or off the over-touristed river) so plotted a course up to the far north near the Chinese border. Once again the Lao road travel proved memorable - our first bus trip, in a big old American bus, on a windy four wheel drive track, ... read more
Ok, somehow I've made it to Thailand already! I have finally made up my mind to go to the Full Moon Party on Ko Phangan Island to meet up with friends and then travel back up North to see the rest of Lao before i go to the UK in mid to late September. I last wrote from central Vietnam before heading to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I arrived and immediately bumped into 3 guys I had met in Hoi An, Hugh from Scotland, Truong a Vietnamese Canadian (very handy as a translator!) and Steve from London. That night we went out to see the Water Puppetry which was a whole lot of puppets splashing around in water that originated from farmers in the rice paddies. Then we dined out on a huge Vietnamese meal ... read more
Helloo! hello! hello! hello! (A Khymer-style chorus welcome whenever you go anywhere) Since I last wrote I have had 2 trips out from Phnom Phen, first to the South coast and beaches of Cambodia, and then to the far East jungles of Ratanakiri National Park. But not before some fun at the Phnom Phen Water Park being big kids on the waterslides! On our trip down south I travelled with an ozzie chick, Brianne, to the dusty, empty town of Kampot (famous for its peppers before the civil war). We took a day trip into the Bokor National Park where the French once built a town (about 1917-1920) on top of the mountain range to escape the heat. Now it is a ghost town, complete with the eerie old Bokor Palace Hotel (straight out of The ... read more
Angkor Monsoon
Sua s’dei! I can't believe I could write so much last time and I hadn't even been out of the hotel! Well its getting much easier now apart from the strange nightmares about giant bugs and being entombed in temples, and not knowing where the hell I am everytime I wake up! I meant to explain last time about my online travel journal, unfortunately the site has been having technical difficulties so I will have to find a better site when I get time, so for now it'll be group emails and not many photos. Since I last wrote (in mild culture shock from Bangkok) I have made it all the way to Phnom Phen, Cambodia! In Thailand I experienced Bangkok city for 5 days while getting my visas for Vietnam and Laos. I got out ... read more
Hello Everbody! Sawat-dii kha! I have finally embarked on my OE and so far this is all the Thai I know. I have just arrived in Bangkok this morning after 2 1/2 wonderful weeks in Oz. I stayed with my sister, Kirsty, at her flat in North Fitzroy in Melbourne (she is nursing there). It was great to catch up with Jane, Rach and Greg, Nat, Jackson and Jenny. When I first arrived Kirsty and I set off with a nursing friend of hers to drive the Great Ocean Road. We hired a car and stayed a night in Lorne on the way. The Twelve Apostles were very impressive. Other than that, in Melbourne, I ate alot (with Jane's help), didn't drink enough and even did some house cleaning and cooking to earn my keep (it ... read more
