neil and rosie

Firstly, apologies for the lateness in this blog, I know that we are letting down our dedicated readers by not writing about places until ages after we've left them. On that note, you'll no doubt be surprised to hear that we've left Sydney, been through Melbourne, took a short break in Tasmania, drove to Adelaide and are now in Perth. So, starting at the beginning of all that, Melbourne, we drove there from Sydney so had a car for the first few days. This meant we didn’t actually see much of Melbourne at first as there wasn’t much point having the car and staying in the city. On the Friday (4th), we drove to Phillip Island, about 3 hours from Melbourne, and saw our first real experience of wildlife. On the way down we saw the ... read more

Arrived in Macau on Thursday evening (6th) and set about trying to find some accomodation. The first problem we came across was that no taxi drivers speak or read a word of English, nor, apparently can they understand maps, so they still didn't know where to take us. After a while we managed to communicate the general direction we wanted to be taken, where we came across our second problem. We arrived at a hostel recommended in the guide book, only to find that it was only for guests with a Hostel International card, which we don't have. So, another taxi in the opposite direction, took us to an area with hopefully more hostels. Here we found most places full and only one hotel with either a room with 1 bed, or a room with 5 ... read more

After a relaxing evening by the fire warming up (Phonsovan is 1800m up and freezing cold) and enjoying our first beer Laos we took a tour the next morning to the plain of jars and other sights nearby. During the 60's and 70's, the US spent over $2 million a day bombing most of Eastern Laos. The aftermath of this can still be seen in the craters marring the countryside and more than 30 million unexploded bombs still buried in the ground. Our tour took us to see most of this, as well as a cave where almost 400 people were killed as they were hiding from the bombers. The plain of Jars sight was hyped up in the guidebook making us expect something amazing, or at least slightly interesting. However, it turned out to be ... read more

After an overnight train from Ko Tao to Bangkok, we caught the 5am train to the Cambodian border. From here we intended to find our way to Siam Reap in the cheapest way possible. The guidebook told us that this would be easy as there are loads of cheap buses doing that journey. However, it seems that this is a bit out of date as there is now only "the company", which operates in a kind of mafia style where it is their way, or no way. Their price for a bus was $12 but we knew you could get it for $4 in the opposite direction. We decided, along with 4 other people that their way was not acceptable and tried to find alternative transport. This was made impossible as a man from "The Company" ... read more

Sat 15th - Took the jungle railway to, predictably, the jungle. This was supposed to be part of the jungle experience and a great way of seeing most of the jungle whilst on your way. Unfortunately, due to the 6am start time and the fact that for most of the journey we literally couldn't see the wood for the trees, the journey was a bit of a non event. After the train, we switched to a boat for the final bit of the journey to the jungle. Once in the jungle we went for an easy afternoon stroll, which turned out to be a mountain trek all afternoon during which Neil was attacked by leeches which were more annoying when they came off than when they were attached. On the next day we went up ... read more