cambrus
Christine RTW Joined: July 30th 2008
Logged in: February 13th 2009
Logged in: February 13th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Beautiful Beach in Koh Samui
Thailand is wonderful! That's probably the best way for me to put it. I spent 4 days in Koh Samui on the Gulf of Thailand. Koh Samui is very touristy, the main street is packed with shops, tailors and restaurants - but the beach is beautiful. My days went something like this... wake up around 9, go get breakfast, alternate lying on the beach and swimming in the beautiful emerald sea, at about 5pm move to massage hut for 1 hour massage, shower, go out for dinner and drinks, go to bed. I tell ya it's a hard life!!! On arrival in Koh Samui amidst the chaos at the airport I latched on to a Swiss girl and we have been travelling together ever since. After Koh Samui we hopped on the Ferry to Koh Tao ... read more
Fooling around in Bangkok
Bangkok was a weird place for me. Can't say that I liked it much, but I didn't end up hating it as much as I thought I would. Let me explain... I arrived in Bangkok late at night after a full day of temple-ing in Cambodia. Very tired... just wanted to get my hotel and sleep. No problems there, great room, A/C (soooo needed... Bangkok is hotter/more humid than Cambodia if that is possible?!?), great night's sleep. Woke up the next morning feeling lazy and a little intimidated by the city. Decided to suck it up, grab a map and go explore. The Lonely Planet (guide book) has a whole page on all the scams to avoid in Bangkok - read it twice. Thinking I was armed against those who would take advantage of me... I ... read more
Angkor Wat - Main temple
What can I say about Cambodia except it was wonderful. I left Beth, flew into Bangkok, stayed at a hotel near the airport and then flew to Cambodia first thing in the morning. The airport is ... different... you fly in on a small plane that pulls right up to the door of the Siem Reap airport. It looked like we were pulling up to a resort... I was waiting for my complimentary drink and flower garland! :) Straight to my hotel, a small nap and then I hired my Tuk-Tuk driver for the next 3 days. $50 will get you a Tuk Tuk (basically a carriage attached to a scooter) for 3 days. He takes me anywhere I want and waits around until I am ready to leave. We started with the main temple of ... read more
Beautiful beach - Coral Bay
I can honestly say that Beth and I made the right decision to go north - the weather was phenomenal and the beach in Coral Bay was unbelievable! After Exmouth we headed down to Coral Bay. Coral Bay is this beautiful beach area with a population on 220 that swells to 2200 during the high season. The water is impossible to describe (see pics), the weather is hot and the beer is plentiful - what more can I say!! We enjoyed our time here - sun and sea during the day, food and drink at night... On our last night in Coral Bay we met up with Hammin (sp?) who asked if he could hitch a ride back with us to Perth. Being the nice people we took him along. Little did we know that Hammin ... read more
The plan was to meet Beth, renta car and travel down the south west coast together. The plan started off really well... but then we decided to throw the plan out the window!! :) Weleft early morning and started our drive down the coast to Magaret River... beautiful green fields, sunny blue sky... everything was perfect. We booked a night at a hostel and then a wione tour for the next day.Went out to the local pub where a great band was playing, had a couple of beers, danced a little, met some guys who talked about how wonderful the north was and then got kicked out when the bar closed at.... 12???!?!?!!? Oh well... what can you do.... Next day wine tour, great wineries, great cheese... the only problem was... rain... cold cold rain. Well ... read more
Friendly elephant
The last stop on my 24 day journey through Africa was Kruger National park. Kruger is probably the most famous of the game parks in Africa. It is very large - about the size of Switzerland. We arrived in Kruger late afternoon and decided to get an early start on our game drive. Impala here, impala there, impala everywhere - we were eventually playing punch buggy impala!! Chris our guide showed us the markings of a Rhino and explained how they mark their territories. We then played at tracking the Rhino and eventually found it. Fun!! Back to our camp, dinner and then early to bed - was not feeling well so even earlier to bed for me. Next morning was another early start for our game drive. The plan was to spend the whole day ... read more
Barra Beach - Cabins
From Mount Mulanje it was a very long drive into Mozambique; border crossings, too many potholes and hours in the car. Our first stop was Vilankulos for one night - not much to do there, walked around the town a little, used the internet and we had dinner at the restaurant. The nicest part was that we ended up having rooms of our own - a nice luxury after sleeping in tents for so long! But the really best part of Mozambique was Barra Beach in Inhambane. How to explain Barra... well, I guess the most important part is that it's right on the beach. We each had our own huts with views of the oceans and there was a communal kitchen hut where we cooked dinner and ate. The communal hut looked out over the ... read more
As you have probably noticed with the scarcity of my updates... internet is not very available in the heart of Africa. I've been on an overland trip through Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and am now in Mozambique. The trip has been amazing so far and apparently great things to come in the last 5 days. I've seen elephants charging, I've dodged crocs and hippos, fallen down the falls... We are only 6 in our group including our fearless leader Chris so we have formed quite a nice little family. We had Jim and Lauren a father and daughter duo from Oz. Lauren is only 16 so we have been introducing her to some "sin" in a nice safe evironment!! :) Next we have Katie the athlete... you can expect to see her rowing for the Dutch team ... read more
Sunset on Lake Malawi
Unfortunately my Africa updates will start to get shorter and shorter... I'm halfway through my Australia trip and Africa is starting tofeel like a distant dream! After South Luangwa we crossed the border into Malawi (border crossings... very interesting!!). I don't have very much to say about Malawi... it was a very beautiful country, the people seemed poorer than Zambia, the begging was much more in your face and the beer was REALLY cheap... $0.50!!! We spent 3 days at Senga Bay on the shore of Lake Malawi. We managed to get a cottage to share amongts the group soit was a very relaxing time. Katie and Chris baked us a pie, Silvan and Chris got into a whipped cream fight, we played cards and did lots of relaxing. Italmost felt like a break from the ... read more
Giraffe and baby
Before I left on my trip I talked a lot about wanting to experience a National Geographic moment. Well, my night drive in the South Luangwa national park afforded me that opportunity. We drove most of the day - the very steamy day - to arrive at our campsite at South Luangwa. After a quick refreshing jump in the pool, we got dressed, covered ourselves in bug spray and got ready for our night drive through the park. The night drive at South Luangwa is supposed to be the best opportunity for viewing predators on the hunt. This was not to be for us. What we did see in my opinion makes up for it in a big way. As we entered the park saw that a whole bunch of Safari trucks were stopped by the ... read more
