oktravel
onida and killian Joined: September 4th 2009
Logged in: February 1st 2010
Logged in: February 1st 2010
Travel Blog Posts
The Pinnacles Nambung National park
Australia (Perth to Ex-Mouth) 2/11/09 - 10/11/09 We landed in Perth at 1400 with Quantas and within no time we were sitting in our 4x4 sourced by Noel Joyce and Aoife McDermot. The plan was that we’d catch up with Noel and Aoife on the West coast in a few days. The Holden Jackaroo came complete with duvet, tent, ice box, bbq, pots and pans, GPS and camp chairs. We drove around Perth looking for accommodation. Next morning we bought supplies for the road and just drove around Perth. We drove sth along the coast and later ate in Freemantle, the classy part of town. Joined a noisy funny coulpe from England. Next day we were starting our road trip but first we had to buy spark plugs and an oil filter. We hit the road ... read more
Raffles Hotel
Singapore 31/10/09 - 2/11/09 Oops Singapore is actually a country on its own. This, us educated, only found out through the lonely planet and conversation with someone in Koh Tao. Getting pretty tired of lonely planet bashers as well, look it’s a good book and we all use it. Bang, big difference in prices here. All we wanted was a sandwich but we ended up getting a spread of cheeses and Spanish meats and some flamboyant coffees. The metro systems are very impressive. We had free accommodation for the next two nights thanks to Gareth O’Brien whose a family friend of the McBrides. Easily we made our way to Raffles Hotel and we had our Singapore Slings, know this is typical tourist route but by golly was it delicious. Singapore has lots of shops and quite ... read more
Petronas Towers
Kuala Lumpar Malaysia 29/10/09 - 31/10/09 We arrived in Kuala Lumpar about midday and found our accommodation in the middle of China town. Bustling street outside but hotel was good value. Obviously we spent a lot of time walking the market and we bought a few tops. We ate some street food washed down with a beer. We moved onto a reggae bar recommended and soaked up the atmosphere, literally. Next morning we made our way to the Petronas towers and got our free tickets. Our slot was for 4.30. We got breakfast in O’Briens Irish sandwhich bar. Kulau Lumpar is a lot different than what I imagined. We were very impressed for all it had to offer. Bustle and modernity. We bought some clothes in the KLCC and before we knew it we were up ... read more
Island Olympics
Perenthian Island Malaysia 22/10/09 - 28/10/09 Having left Koh Tao all refreshed we were going to find it hard to get back into living out of a bag, but it wouldn’t be too long before we’d be lapping it up again on the Perenthian islands off Malaysia. Just two nights to get there. We left Koh Tao after a good feed of pizza and boarded an overnight boat that night. Sitting up on the stern we met a few drunk Europeans, they had the right idea cos twas a tough journey. 50 people sleeping side by side on hard deck, pretty smelly and rain getting in the window. We got a bus to the border and walked 200m to the border, they let us pass and then we had to go back in to Thailand to ... read more
Koh Tao
Koh Tao 11/10/09 - 22/10/09 We landed in Koh Tao on Sunday the 11th and there’s a big blank spot in our diaries from here until we hit KL, island life has set in, finally we can sit around and spend a day doing nothing but walking around a bit, eating and sunbathing. Stayed at Bans diving school for the ten days. We met Ouray once he’d come back from diving, a happy reunion! We started our Open water course on the Wednesday I think and Ouray assisted. It took four days. Went well, we both enjoyed it and got on grand, no major issues at all, though killian was a bit too fond of the air! After that we took a day off before doing our advanced diving course, a further 2 days. So ... read more
Chang Mai
Chiang Mai Thailand 07/10/09 - 11/10/09 Most ridiculous border crossing ever! Got a speed boat from luang Prabang to the Laos boarder for $55, the most gruelling journey yet! It was a boat about 10m long, 1m wide and ½m in depth and there were 9 people in it, with life jackets and helmets for7hrs in the scorching heat, craziness… Anyways we made it got across the boarder and got a minibus then to Chiang Mai. On Thursday we booked into Tk hotel where we got an air con room for 7euro, we rented bikes and cycled round the city, saw some temples, markets and had a local snack. Wednesday we did a tour that included pretty mush everything there is to do in Chiang Mai! We visited a butterfly and orchid farm, did some white ... read more
Laos
Laos 29/09/09-07/10/09 We flew from Siem Reap to Vientiane on Tuesday. Did nothing in Vientiane except treat ourselves to a steak dinner. There was a festival of some sort on - celebrating the end of the rainy season or something but just a load of stalls really. Got a bus to Vang Vieng on Wednesday, Barry had recommended accommodation owned by an irish guy to stay at but there was no room there, so stayed in a hut by the river instead - grand spot with a mattress on the floor, mossie net, toilet and shower, but best of all had to be the hammock! We headed back to the irish guys place and ended up meeting two jackeens - alan and keith- and heading out for our first night out in Vang Vieng. Also introduced ... read more
Cambodia
Cambodia 25/09/09 - 29/09/09 Arrived into Cambodia via the slow boat from Vietnam, long, slow journey but killian enjoyed it, took loads of pictures and read some! Grand transfer then from wherever we were to phnom phen in a minibus. Another nights accommodation was included in the Mekong tour so we stayed in sinh tourist hotel, our plushist accommodation yet, class but a bit out of the way and trouble finding food that night so moved next day. Sat morn we got up and got a tuk tuk out to toul sleung or S21 prison and the killing fields, quite a somber morning but insightful all the same (had us having a heated discussion a couple of days later in siem reap!) The prison was where they tortured non-Khmer Rouge revolutionists and the fields was where ... read more
Nha Trang
Hoian is golden if your chasing cheap ass suits and clothes, lets hope the seam dont split when I bend over in the next interview. Anyway its for sweet FA and top quality aswell. Met some guys from Hanoi and went on the beer to a beach party. Spent two nights in Hoian and back on the Karaoke bus again for another gruelling night. Nha Trang was the next stop and the beach here was awsome. Warmest water ive ever been in and had good craic on the water sports. Day 2 we went visiting some islands?? Since come to conclusion that visiting islands is optional at every resort, and it just sells to people, granted some are interesting -particularly if they knit wolly sweaters. The boat trip none the less was good craic and the ... read more
our first tuk tuk, Hanoi
Arrived in Nam and first stop was Hanoi, home of the Viet Mien. A Crazy place where it takes two days to cross the street. Honda done very well selling mopeds here. Stayed in Backpackers hostel, australian theme hostel and pretty cool. Next day we looked at the bible (lonely Planet)and all that seemed of interest was the ethanology museum. Basically a museum teachhing us all about the the different ethnic groups in Vietnam. Ok..... There was a BBQ organised for the top of the hostel but we left that and met some guys and sat down on baby chairs on the side of the road, teeming rain beers noise and frying shrimp. This was Hanoi for me. We booked to get a 2night boat trip to Halong Bay, a Unesco World heritage site and it ... read more
