Having spent the night in our campervan at Hervey Bay we woke up early to make our way to Tin Can Bay so we could go and feed the dolphins that come into the bay there every morning. Unfortunately we arrived about fifteen minutes too late and only saw the one dolphin, Harmony, who is still very young and not ready to be fed by the public. Harmony's father Mystique had been fed and had already left the bay. Feeling quite disappointed that we had come all this way and not managed to feed them, we decided we would stay the [View Full Entry]

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This blog begins in Townsville, where we arrived quite late in the evening and set ourselves up at a campsite. Our impression of our whistlestop visit was positive, Townsville seemed to have an upmarket French feel to it with a picturesque marina and colonial style buildings. The following morning we decided we would go over to Magnetic island which is just offshore from Townsville and is roughly 50% national park with some lovely bays and beaches to explore. The name of the island came about because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the ship's compass of Captain Cook as [View Full Entry]

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Romana and I decided we would take a road trip along part of the east coast of Australia. This would be a farewell trip for Romana, having been in Australia since November and a welcome trip for me, having just arrived. So we set off with 10 days to play with, starting in Cairns and ending in Brisbane. We hired a little campervan so that we would have the freedom to stop when we felt the need and also didn't have to worry too much about accommodation along the way. We flew from Sydney to Cairns and as we approached our [View Full Entry]

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I left Ubud and headed to the north of Bali, to a town called Lovina, recommended by Lisa whom I had met in Singapore (Hi Lisa if you're reading this!!). Lovina isn't your typical beach-side resort as it's made up from black volcanic sand so it's spectacular in a different way. The bus journey from Ubud had lovely views as we went over a mountainous area and then made our descent with views of the coast and where we were heading down below. The town is a lot smaller and quieter than Ubud which was a nice change after the hectic [View Full Entry]

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So here we are, another new place to explore! I only had a week here to explore this beautiful Island so I had to limit the places I could see (you can't do it all!) Bali is an Indonesian island lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces, and has a mainly Hindu cultural following. My first stop in Bali was Ubud, well known for it's culture; dance shows and many artists painting in the typical Balinese style. It's a good place to explore the surrounding areas easily too. My [View Full Entry]

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Finally I left my beloved Thailand; home to me for 3 months (minus the 2 weeks in Cambodia and Laos) and made my way alone to Singapore. It's very strange when you've been with people for so long, to suddenly be on your own again, not having anyone to consult with...especially when you are so awful at making decisions like myself! I had 4 days to explore Singapore, I wasn't sure if this would be too much but actually when I was leaving, I wanted to stay longer!! I managed to fit a lot into 4 days so I'm afraid this [View Full Entry]

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So we left the beautiful island of Phi Phi after a nice week of relaxing and making lots of new friends...Gill, Hayley and Gill's family and friends all left to go to Bangkok and I met up with Wiz again. We decided to head to Koh Lanta which we had heard was also beautiful and only an hour away on boat from Phi Phi. On the boat there were many 'hotel touts' ready to try and sell us their accomodation 'very cheap, cheap!' We had literally entered 'low season' from 1st May (it was 2nd May!) and it meant we chose [View Full Entry]

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Even arriving by boat to the Island of Phi Phi was breathtaking; Phi Phi has it all...beautiful white sand beaches, turquoise waters and limestone cliff backdrops. Of all of the islands I've visited in Thailand, this is by far the most beautiful. Most of you will have heard of Phi Phi as it was used as the location for the film 'The Beach,' but that's the glamorous stuff....it also suffered horrendous devastation at the hands of the Tsunami that struck on Boxing day in 2004. Although on the outer surface you would never guess, you only have to walk a few [View Full Entry]

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At the end of my last entry, I was suffering at the hands of yet another journey glitch!! Anyway, the bus did EVENTUALLY turn up at midnight, not at 8.30pm as expected and we all fell asleep quite quickly once we got on, only to awake at 7am feeling thoroughly grouchy and having to board at catamaran... Arriving on the island of Koh Tao, we made our way to one of the main beaches and walked along it with our rucksacks to find some cheap beach bungalows. We settled with a place we liked and basically grabbed our bikini's and hit [View Full Entry]

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Even though we all thoroughly enjoyed our time in Laos and Cambodia, we all said we kind of missed Thailand in a strange way, I guess when you've spent 6 weeks in a country you feel like you know it well, you get used to the currency etc...(let me just tell you that in the last 2 weeks I've gone from Bhat, to Kip, to Riel and US Dollars thrown in for good measure! You start to lose track of what's a good deal and what isn't!) Anyway, so we left Siem Reap and knew we had a mammoth journey that [View Full Entry]

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