joeandmon - Joe Smith and Monika Kozak

We spent a year and a half travelling in 2006/2007 and were back in the UK for 6 months, but it is shit so we are going back to South East Asia for another 6 months before returning on a more permanent basis. The plan is to travel round SEAsia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Idonesia are on the "to do" list at the moment.) Plan to do see some ancient temples (Ankor Wat is top of the list), do lots of trekking and as much diving as we can as well as some sitting around and drinking tiger beer and singha. Will be meeting up with as many friends from our previous trip as we can (Hanna, Pino, Anand, Yaakub, all the TBD crew and anyone else who is around!) and definitely re-visiting the lovely perhentian islands where we became and worked as divemasters. Sugar Wreck and T3 - I miss you!

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Joined on: March 5th 2008
Last Login: September 30th 2008

Blog Entries: 20
Photos: 603

TB Code: [blogger=63907]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by joeandmon, order by Date newest first.

By joeandmon
June 18th 2008

Bogor and Bandung

Asia » Indonesia » Java » Bogor

Joe Smith
He's Famous!

We landed in Java and then went straight down to Bogor where there some botanical gardens. We then headed up to a place called Bandung which was described somewhere as the Paris of Asia. What a load of old shit! Nothing much happened in either place, so we are not going to write about them, but here are a few pics. [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
June 12th 2008

Bukittingi and Lake Maninjau

Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Bukittinggi

Photo 1

Again, the piccies are unsorted, but we hope you enjoy! Should be another one in the next 48 hours too! The journey from Bukit Lawang involved going back into Medan, which we did with Calvin (who was following us to an ATM to collect the rest of our bill!) and Penny who was heading to Lake Toba another travellers favourite in Sumatra. We decided to skip Toba and go straight down to Bukit tinggi and Lake Maninjau. We were dropped off at a bus stop after sorting Calvin out and saying our goodbyes and then jumped on a local bus with [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
June 2nd 2008

Bukit Lawang

Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Bukit Lawang

P6090180

Note: We wrote this ages ago and have only just found an internet cafe with a decent enough pc and connection to actually upload it! The piccies are not labelled and are in random order. Hope you enjoy J&M x The journey from Pulau Weh involved a dodgy old minibus to the ferry port, express ferry and then an overnight coach back to Medan (we paid a bit more for a half decent one) which delivered us straight to the local bus which would take us to Bukit Lawang our next destination. Bukit Lawang is situated on the fast flowing Bohorok [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
May 20th 2008

Adventures in Pulau Weh!

Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Banda Aceh

ScubaMon and ScubaJoe!
Look at Mon's fringe!

(There is a blog missing which covers Malaysian Borneo, including Miri & Sipadan. This will be added ASAP) We flew from Tawau to Kuala Lumpur and then had an 8 hour wait before our flight to Medan. Medan is the capital of Sumatra - the furthest east island of Indonesia which happens to be the most populous Muslim country in the world. During the long wait we got Mon's eyes checked out by the airport medical centre and she was given some cream and drops for conjunctivitis. Her eyes had been getting increasingly swollen, pink and itchy recently. After that we [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
May 1st 2008

Return to the Perhentians

Asia » Malaysia » Terengganu » Perhentian Kecil

First ferry to the islands
The sun is still coming up as we speed towards the islands on the ferry we nearly missed.

After a good nights sleep at Anands family home, we were up and showered and ready to leave at 6am as planned. We quietly called Ananad who stumbled out of his room, fag in mouth, looking distinctly like he just woke up although he claimed to have been awake for ages (yeah, right). We finally left the house at around 6.20 which was going to mean we would be lucky to make the 7am ferry as planned. We also had to do a pit stop at 7-11 to pick up batteries, iced nescafe to wake us up and 200 Dunhills for [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
April 30th 2008

Ko Lanta

Asia » Thailand » South » Ko Lanta

Mon and Joe and the gang!

On the way to Koh Lanta we had the misfortune of passing through the asshole of Phuket - Chalong. 3 words. DON'T GO THERE. The main road was lined with cheap red light bars, with giggling thai girls and old western men and horrible hotels which could be hired by the hour. We did find a reasonable hotel (with free wi-fi thanks to someone), a decent fish and chip shop (SERIOUSLY!) and a really nice curry place. So maybe it wasn't all bad. But nearly all bad. We got the boat from Phuket to Lanta, with a quick change of boats [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
April 20th 2008

Burmese Visa Run

Asia » Burma

Welcome To Union of Myanmar
A temple greets us to the nation of Myanmar/Burma. Baz! The motherland!

After our liveaboard trip, we realised we had been in Amazing Thailand(tm) for nearly 30 days (doesn't time fly when you are having fun?) and we would have to do a visa run to restart the 30 day timer. From Lanta, where we were, the most easily accessible other country was Myanmar (Burma). We booked an all-in-one visa run which picked us up at 08.00 in an air conditioned minibus, fed us, drove us to the port, put us on a boat, showed us where to line up to get ourselves stamped in and then straight out of Myanmar (we had [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
April 16th 2008

Similans Liveaboard - Manta Queen II

Asia » Thailand » South » Ko Similan

First morning
Pre-dive breakfast

The pickup we had a arranged to take us to the dive shop was late and we sat waiting impatiently bickering and bitching at each other. We didn't have enough credit to call them either (cos Mon had used it all up - which gave Joe more ammunition). The worst bit is, we could have walked to the diveshop (albeit with big fuck off packs) in 10 mins! Eventually almost half an hour after the arranged time, we bit the bullet and went to 7-11 for more credit. We called them and they were like “Oh yes, he has just left” [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
April 13th 2008

Khao Lak - Thai New Year

Asia » Thailand » South » Khao Lak

Sunrise on the bus
The bus from Surat Thani to Khao Lak

We arrived at around 5am at the port town of Surat Thani. From the little we saw of it, there was nothing pleasant about the place and we were glad to be leaving immediately. We were met by a rep from the company we had used who then attempted to load 11 people into a pickup converted into a taxi with 2 benches and a frame with a roof along with our large packs. He managed to cram 8 of us poor tired sardines in before we mutiny occurred and we refused to let any more in. He tried to argue [View Full Entry]

By joeandmon
April 12th 2008

Kho Tao

Asia » Thailand » South » Ko Tao

Golden Bhudda
Shining in the sun with a clear blue sky behind

The next morning we were up early, had toast and jam and then took our minibus to the dock picking up a selection of other travellers on the way including a guitar toting young chap wearing a black trilby hat, sun glasses glued to his face, fag constantly hanging out of his mouth who you couldn't help thinking was trying that little bit too hard to be cool. And failing miserably. We got on the boat and got a seat down stairs which was air conned, but smelt of a weird strawberry flavoured medicine Joe used to be given when he [View Full Entry]

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