Back from Halong Bay, we arrived at our hotel to find arguments in full flow regarding being overcharged for rooms, tours, lack of rooms... all the problems we had had. I decided for once to stand up for my principles and tell everyone I met in the hotel not to book a tour with them as they would be overcharged. I even butted in when I saw a couple agreeing to a tour with the manager- they left, pleased I had warned them. The manager was less impressed, resulting in our taxi to the bus station arriving half an hour early [View Full Entry]

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A little 2 day 1 night cruise out onto the waters of Ha Long Bay, started early and took 4 hours to cover 175km! In the Vietnamese style of enforced tourism, we had to stop at a centre selling local crafts at exhorbitant tourist prices, along with a million other tourist buses. We arrived in Ha Long city around 12pm and were shepherded across 4 boats to our identical junk- minus the advertised sails. Lunch (abysmal food) was eaten while we waited for the congestion to ease so we could make our way out into the bay. Once out in the [View Full Entry]

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Our arrival into Vietnam is one which I hope no-one I know has to ever repeat. We left our plane after a pretty poor flight, running almost an hour late, no food or entertainment onboard, and stepped out onto the tarmac at Noc Bai Airport. Our Visa On Arrival meant we should have been met by an official and taken to finish the immigration procedure. We weren't met and after waiting in line for about 15 minutes realised we were in the wrong queue. We finally found the make-shift desk where one "official" was standing playing with his mobile phone. He [View Full Entry]

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The international rail station to Malaysia in Singapore is owned by Malaysia, and subsequently, the local transport system doesn't interlink. We took an MRT to the closest stop to the Malaysia Railway Station, and got lost looking for a connecting bus. As time pressed on, closer to the trains departure, we were flagged down by a local in a car, who in English, explained where we had to go. We managed to get to the station in time for walking into immigration queues. You could tell already that you were out of the jurisdiction of Singapore, as chaos reigned, people pushing [View Full Entry]

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We arrived fairly late and managed to navigate across to terminal 2 and get to our Hostel on the other side of the country! Singapore peninsular is one small country consisting of one huge city. The local transport system, MRT, is super-slick and efficient, if only Singapore had been the bench mark for the rest of it's neighbouring countries! We didn't really experience the humidity until the following day. The skies looked to [romise rain, but although it stayed grey for the duration of our stay, we never got wet! We walked and intermittantly caught an MRT train around. We saw [View Full Entry]

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I saw a calendar entitled a 'land of contrasts', and geographically I think Australia is just that. We have now been here for nearly four months, and seen an immense amount of the country. Queensland; with the heat and tropical beaches, as well as the tablelands, waterfalls and swimming holes. New South Wales; busy Sydney vs the small laid back towns and surf beaches nearer the Queensland border. Victoria; more history and culture, but rain to match, and the wild southern coast with rugged cliffs. South Australia; a contrast between cosmopolitan Adelaide, and vast tracts of nothing [View Full Entry]

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Now back in Brsibane, and a couple of days before we blast on to Singapore. Our first impression of Perth was tainted with poor weather, rush hour traffic and a 2 hour hunt for a car wash that could take our 2.5m tall van. Despite threats of late fees, we managed to get the van back into the depot 2 1/2 hours late but uncharged due to the owner wanted to leave and not waste time filling in billing papers! We trundled off armed with untidy backpacks, day-sacks, surfboard and 'Coles' bags brimming with leftovers. We managed to get a double [View Full Entry]

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Forgot to touch on events between Broome and Perth. Alot of the time was weighted in driving the couple of thousand kilometers between the states two main stopping points. The drive is through sparse open bushland skirting onto the coast infrequently and briefly. This was certainly a disappointment for me, having trekked through with a surfboard which never got wet! In retrospect, if I'd read my surfing book, and checked spots on a road map, I'd have realised in advance, there are no roads to surf, 4WD is a surfers best friend in WA! We did manage to get into the [View Full Entry]

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Photos from cable beach. Lost writing atm. [View Full Entry]

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Some pics. Lost writing. [View Full Entry]

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