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cherie Denise Preston
I'am nearly set to go on my around the world (in 195 days) trip, i'm really nervous but extremly exited!!!! I have enjoyed a fantastic two years as a youth worker now and just wish i could take all my friends with me!!!! I'm gonna miss you all greatly. we are travelling to Bangkok first where we will arrive on February 11th 2007, from there we make our way up to changmai, sam's coming too!! an apparent 3 day bus journey isnt the best thing i'm looking forward to but i'm sure it will all add to our big adventure!!! sam is only staying with me and James (my boyfriend) for one week in thailand before he flys to Sidney to live and work with his uncle. From Thailand we will make our way to Vietnam then Cambodia, then we are somehow travelling to malaysia to visit the Orangotangs in Borneo and James old school friends in Brunei. From here we head to Singapore then to Australia Sidney to meet up with sammy boy (hopefully he will have saved a bundle of cash to persue with us our tour to the USA!Up the east coast in oz to meet friends Dino and Suzie for a cold beverage bit of diving in the Great Barrier reef, Surfing and a BBQ!On the 7th of july we depart to Hawaii as it is my 21st Birthday on the 9th, good timing too for the USA drinking age! Although i will ensure i do this in moderation! Anyone looking for a break is very welcome to join up with us in Hawaii from the 7th, be great to see you all!!! From here we fly to L.A, then down to San Diego to meet a friend of James, we're heading further south to Mexico where i am going to try to track down some of my Mexicano relatives!! i plan to hire a car from L.A and drive up the west cost conservation area to San Fransisco as i have been greatly advised to do by a good friend and colleuge of mine Cath and my Mum too as she did exacltly the same when she was my age!Lol> From there i just have to visit Viva Las Vagas! I'm sure this will be just awesome!won't gamble all of my few remaining pennies though, well i hope not anyway......... i cant wait to shop in New York! So from here we somehow get back to L.A and fly to our final destination the big apple, well not our final destination the place that is the ultimate home coming celebration destination will be the one and only leeds festival!!!! To see all my good mates!YEY! Get yourselfs there we'll have a party!!! I hope that you find my jorney around this big old world exciting and inspiring i hope to hear from you all whilst on my travels. I will try to update this blog as often as possible. Stay safe you lovely lot, i'll be thinking about you all, lots of love x x x mexsmission
Travel Blog Posts
May 6th 2007
We stayed one night in a cheap hostel in Miri. The next day we caught a taxi to the airport joining us was a German guy called Hubert. We were heading to a remote place deep in the jungle called Bario. It can only be reached by plane, a very small MAS Twin Otter 19-seater aircraft. This was the first time I had ever flown on such a small plane so I was petrified. Bario is home to 900 people living across the land and in long houses. When we arrived we landed on a small concrete landing strip at their tiny hut like airport. The locals UN loaded boxes of supplies from the plane. We waited for some direction as we were surrounded by large muddy puddles. Eventually a jeep pick up truck came to ... read more
May 1st 2007
So we arrive at the port of Brunei after a 1 hour boat ride from Labuan. James had made arrangements with one of his old Bruneian friends to meet us at the dock as we were staying over at his place for a few days. The transport in Brunei is completely unreliable and the busses run spontaneously. The taxis charge prices. So we were completely relying on James friend to be there. We stepped off the recycled aircraft interior vessel through customs where they searched our bags for alcohol ( as it is illegal for anyone to sell alcohol in Brunei, it is a very religious place, the only places to sell it are some high class hotels at a high class extortionate prices) although you are allowed to take in a small amount for ... read more
April 29th 2007
After a three hour boat journey we arrived on the island of Labuan 8km from the coast of Borneo. The island is completely tax free! The first night we stayed in a really large apartment on the 16th floor, it even had a kitchen! I was dying to cook mashed potatoes with gravy and vegetables. When we got down to the supermarket we figured it would be a lot cheaper just to buy a takeaway pizza. So i had to make do with more unhealthy crap food. (I am craving fresh fruit and vegetables.) There wasn't a lot to do in Labuan so I browsed around the shops as usual. The next night we must have found the worst place on the island to stay, it was really grotty and i swear things were biting at ... read more
April 10th 2007
we arrived in kota kinabalu (KK) in the early hours of the morning as we had traveled throughout the night on a bus from Simporna, luckily there weren’t many passengers on the bus so I got the prime spot at the back to lie across four empty seats, it was freezing with the air con blowing so I grabbed my sleeping bag from the boot and slept the whole journey. I only rolled off the seat once when the bus had to break suddenly. Apart from that it was a goodnights sleep. We stayed in KK for a week, while we were there we didn’t really get up to anything exciting, watched some DVD’s James got a bit of a fever so I played nurse for a couple of days, there was a market on ... read more
April 8th 2007
We traveled to an island called Sipidan which is renowned for its natural beauty. It has been classed amongst the top three sites to dive worldwide. There are only 100 people permitted onto the island at any one time, in order to preserve its beauty. We booked our dives and caught a speed boat out to the site. It was so beautiful the nicest beach I have ever seen. It had the whitest sand and the clearest sea water, just heaven. On our 3 dives we saw sharks, thousands of turtles (some of them were really huge), a school of Bump head parrot fist which were just massive!!! Moray eels, sting ray and hundreds of other species swimming around. The island is surrounded by a 600meter drop off; only 6 meters from the shore (where ... read more
April 5th 2007
We left Sandakan for a journey deep in to the centre of the Jungle, The journey took us four hours in a mini bus but there were only two other travelers so we had a sufficient amount of room to breathe, their names were Patrick and Sophie they were on their 4 month honey moon and were such lovely people, really good fun to be around. We eventually came to the very end of the road we had traveled on for two hours into the jungle, before us we could see a large bungalow on stilts surrounded by forest. A large river flowed by the residence. We really were in the Jungle it was awesome I was so happy excited and terrified of snakes, crocodiles, big spiders, praying mantas, scorpions etc...... I crossed over the ... read more
April 2nd 2007
We left Penang and the lovely guys at 75 travelers lodge, (who have been mentioned twice in the Lonely Planet guide to South East Asia for their lovely friendly nature and hospitality with a BIG smile. Caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur as we had a cheap flight from the KL airport out to Borneo island at 7am the next morning. We didnt spend any time in KL as we thought it would be a good and conviently cheap idea to stay over night on a bench at the airport!!!! (When my flight was 6 hours delayed in Majorca I slept on holey iron seats like a baby and was fine). Here it is another story the seats are tiny and plastic, there no where comfortable and practical to liye. We were already quite a few ... read more
March 27th 2007
The journey so far cherie Denise Preston We travelled down to the Malaysian border on another mini bus, being very careful to avoid travelling through the problem area of south Thailand where their have been a number of murders reccently. The BBC reports.... S Thailand hit by wave of bombs Banks across Yala province were attacked A series of small bombs has exploded almost simultaneously at commercial banks in southern Thailand. At least 21 banks were attacked in quick succession on Thursday morning across Yala province. Two people have been killed and police say dozens of other people were injured in the blasts. The attack is the latest in a string of violent incidents in the Thai south, where more than 1,300 people have been killed since January 2004. Officials blame Muslim insurgents for much ... read more
March 26th 2007
We arrived in Hat Yai from koh Lanta to stay one night before we embarked to the Malaysian border. It was midday, the bus had dropped us at the station we were hot, tired and carrying our heavy back packs (18.5kg), and we needed to search for a place to stay. We looked at another budget guesthouse and I moaned saying to James I need a little luxury. We found a gorgeous hotel, 30 pounds for the one night with breakfast, and I just had everything that I have slightly missed for the past two months, a hairdryer, air con, large comfy bed and huge clean fresh room, with the thing I have sorely missed the most a BATH with HOT water. I spent a good hour in that bathroom it was much needed. I ... read more
Another tropical island.........
Published: March 23rd 2007Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Lanta
March 23rd 2007
We arrived on the island of koh Lanta after spending hours squashed into a sardine can on wheels and a crazy driver! The island was relatively small and had plenty of beach resorts, more family holiday orientated I think, (after almost 3 weeks of staying on beautiful beaches with clear warm sea we had had enough of chilling out), so we hired a moped and drove around the island, it was quite poor, I am judging this by the state of peoples houses and the littered markets lining the edge of the road. The island was hit by 2004's tsunami but there was only considerable minor damage to be had. I booked in for another dive a few kilometers from Koh Lanta out towards koh Phi Phi (where the film The Beach was shot) I ... read more
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