holbchett
Simon & Becka :-) Joined: January 8th 2006
Logged in: January 7th 2012
Logged in: January 7th 2012
Those of you that know us this year (2007) we are going travelling for 5 months in October, visiting, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Australia, New Zealand, The Cook Islands, L.A., Las Vegas, Alaska and Canada!!!!!!! Maybe if funds allow we might be able to fit in Greenland??
Watch this space for lots of updates and pics.
Travel Blog Posts
Welcome back to our blog, sadly we are approaching the end of our adventure now so this will probably be the last update until we get home. First let us tell you about the last 2 weeks we've spent in North Island, New Zealand. We flew from Christchurch in the South Island to Auckland in the North on a clear sunny day, the views of the mountains and volcanoes from the plane were superb (well I thought so anyway, Becka didn't get much of a view with my face stuck to the window). Auckland itself is not really like the rest of New Zealand, it's big, busy (in NZ standards) and theres a lot of high rises. It's ok though, not as bad as a lot of Kiwi's would have you believe. We only had one ... read more
Lake Matheson
Hello there! Well we travelled to Fox glacier and stopped at the very picturesque Lake Matheson for lunch. Unfortunatley the weather was a little windy so we couldn't get any pics of the reflection of Mt. Cook in the lake but nevertheless it was still very beautiful and gave us a chance to stretch our legs. The next day we set off to Lake Wanaka however the rain set in and it poured it down which caused the only route into Wanaka to close. We decided to drive as far as we could passing overflowing waterfalls everywhere (some of which were flowing into the road) and were getting ready to camp in a conservation campsite called Pleasant Flat which only had two toilets and plenty of sandflies to keep us company. Fortunatley for us the road ... read more
Simon at -18 degrees
The flight from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand only took 3 hours. It felt good to be leaving Australia and onto somewhere new again after the past 5 weeks on the go. Immigration was fairly painless but they're just as strict as Australia on what you're allowed to bring in (no plants, dairy produce, dirty shoes!? etc.) so we had to declare any wooden souveneirs we had. Thankfully we were given the all clear and welcomed by warm sunshine. Christchurch is known as the "Garden City" and the most English like, it's also the sister of Christchurch back in the U.K. which seemed a bit wierd after being so far away home. We took a trip to the Antarctic Centre (advertised as the best in the world, because it is the only one in the world!) ... read more
Matt & Becka 4x4 Fraser Island
Apologies for not filling in our blog for such a long time but we have been very busy on our whistle stop tour of Oz and thought you wouldn't really want to hear from us whilst you were getting yourselves ready for a cold xmas. Now that you have got over your holidays and are thoroughly depressed from having to go back to work, broke and in the cold we thought we would brighten up your day and fill you in on our last five weeks (in the sun :). MELBOURNE: So we arrived in Melbourne (LAND OF THE FLIES!) and as Si was so ill (Becka) had to do most of the lugging of luggage and believe me they had now grown to the size of baby elephants. We caught a bus to our hostel ... read more
Amanda and Si on the beach at sunset
The last time we left you we had just got through dancing road in Cambodia. After that traumatic experience we went through the Thai border and we were more than happy to see that our transport through to Bangkok were two huge A-Team style vans!! Talk about travelling in luxury, I (becka) had a whole row of seats to myself so i soon got comfy and went into a pleasant deep sleep until we arrived at our destination, Si on the other hand chose the wrong van to get into and didn't have as comfy journey as me...ha ha. We were so excited to get to Bangkok that we were actually calling it home which is a bit bizzare seeing as the very first time si and I got to Bangkok we were quite scared and ... read more
Becka & Si at Angkor Wat
We took a morning flight to Siem Reap (Becka was still feeling very ill and had to enjour the whole flight whilst trying to hold down her sick....it was not a pretty sight) and then transferred from the airport to the hotel by bus. On the way we were welcomed by our first glimpse of the stunning temple of Angkor Wat that we would be visiting at 4am the next morning to see at sunrise. First impressions of Siem Reap were how different it looked to Phnom Penh. Where Phnom Penh had a sort of edgy feel and was still going though the aftermath of the Pol Pot regime, Siem Reap felt a lot more relaxed and looked more tropical surrounded by jungle and monkeys. The hotel at Siem Reap was also the first hotel where ... read more
Well the bus journey was actually very good. We got to the Cambodian border and had to lug our bags off and on the bus several times (becka-by now people my bag is no longer light but the weight of a small hippo!). Initial impressions of Cambodia were that it looked a lot greener and the people a lot darker than in Vietnam, there was a lot less traffic and a lot less beeping horns. We had to do a very short boat crossing and saw this as an opportunity to quickly get off the bus and get some fresh air; however we were greeted by loads of people trying to sell us smelly old prawns and delicous crunchy crickets! Although we were quite hungry we refrained from endulging in their local cuisine. Clammering to get ... read more
Spent 3 days in Hoi An which after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi was such a chilled out place, just what we needed. Hoi An is a little town along a river which is probably most famous for the amount of tailors who will whip something up for you for next to nothing. Becka took full advantage of this and purchased a whole new wardrobe and I even bought a few items...it would have been rude not to! Unfortunately Vietnam is in the end of its rainy season and we experienced a fair chunk of this whilst there. It rained and it rained, not like the rain you have at home but really heavy and intense. The river burst its banks and flooded most of the town, almost making its way to the hotel we ... read more
Junk - HaLong Bay
Hi all, Arrived in Vietnam a few days ago through the border in the mountains. The difference to Laos is almost immediately noticable. Instead of the wooden shacks and and relitively quiet streets we were used to we were now greated with lots of concrete buildings and many, many motorbikes. It seems here that there aren't really any road rules (an invisible middle lane that both sides use to overtake) and all you hear is the constant beeping of horns. We started with an overnight boat trip around the many islands around HaLong bay. This was so nice, amazing scenery and we were treated to some really great food and even the chance to swim. We both jumped off the top of the boat which was incredibly high, Becka gave herself a water enema and I ... read more
Hill Tribe children - along Mekong river
Our last night in Chiang Mai was in a beautiful wood guess house but basic it was! Our sheets lookedlike they had seen better days and we had to pour a bucket of water down the loo to flush it. Out shower was also positioned above the toilet. Oh well at least we could have killed two birds with one stone (shit, shave and shower :-) In the morning we crossed the Mekong river from the Thai border to the Laos border. Exiting Thailand was straight forward enough but getting into Laos was a very painful process (leaving passports with Immigration for half an hour and getting shortchanged by the exchange desk). Anyway once through we got straight on another boat for our 2 day journey down the Mekong river into Luang Prabang which we arrived ... read more
