21st July - LA. Just about as far away in people and culture as you can get from Fiji. We had decided to spend as little time in LA as possible. We did the usual trip down to Hollywood, the boulevard, Hooters etc. Myself and Adi had decided that we were going to head down to San Diego, so we hired a car and off we went. Driving in the States is interesting, big cars, big motorways and they drive on the wrong side of the road.. We arrived in San Diego in the late afternoon, a lovely place, very colourfull, especially as it was the last day of the pride festival. It was also a comic conference which drew 150,000 people in. This made finding a room a bit difficult. We decided to stay for ... read more

So i arrived on the the morning of the 20th June in Chrstchurch in the south island of New Zealand and it was cold. I spent most of the day wandering round, had some lunch, few beers, back to the hostel, few beers, food and a few more beers ! 21st June - Up early to get the flight to Queenstown. Only a 30 minute flight over spectacular scenery and lots of snow capped mountains. I arrived at lunchtime and checked in to Bumbles backpackers (to be my home for the next 9 nights) and caught up with Steve (From Edinburgh & The Whitsundays sailing trip). The day i arrived in Queenstown coincided with the start of the winter festival and the first proper chucking down of snow. So believe it or not the winter ... read more

Arrived in Sydney on the 17th April with Jim. We got a taxi to Bondi where Graham a mate of ours from Uni lives. He treated us to steak and ribs, which after a few months in Asia went down very nicely. 19th April - Decided to give Graham some space as he was moving house and flew to Melbourne. This was my first day of travelling on my own. I got a train to the centre and checked into a dorm room in a hostel . Dump doesn't even come close. I was in a room with 2 girls from Belgium and it was cheap, so it would do for now. I stayed there for 2 nights before heading to St.Kilda beach on the other side of town - much nicer, however 10 people ... read more

21st March - Arrived In Luang Prabang. Very quaint. Considering it's the 2nd biggest town/city in Laos. A couple of streets, lots of restaurants, a night market, guest houses and the odd temple. We found somewhere to stay and then went to eat. The restaurant claimed to have had Jamie Oliver over for cooking lessons (not sure if thats a good thing or not) It was lovely if not a bit pricey. Next day we hired a tut tut driver and went to the waterfall and had a picnic - French bread, cheese, pate & wine - how civilized ! Considering the fact that Laos is such a poor country, the choice of food & wine etc is incredible and cheaper than England in most cases.. It's still hard to get your head round a ... read more

27th Feb After a few days relaxing on the beach it was time to start travelling properly. Early start to get to the port, boat, taxi then Minibus. Met a couple of Sweedish girls, one was a massive United fan. (little Mo) Asked her to marry me, she said yes ! Got to Koh Kong late afternoon, not much there, bit of a contrast. You only stay there one night to get the early boat to Sihanoukville. Arrived in Sihanoukville and checked into a guest house near the beach, had some food and met Paul from Brum as you do ! Then watched the replay of the Reading cup game... Lovely place, however you can't relax on the beach for 2 mins without kids trying to sell you just about anything, or old guys who were ... read more