http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/rach-whit/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from rach whit en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:38:21 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:38:21 +0000 Sydney is surrounded by some beautiful places and one place that I had on my list of 'to do's' was the Blue Mountains. It's a mountainous area consisting of a sandstone plateau that includes gorges up to 760 metres in depth and has high points up to 1190 metres. It's namesake is derived from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. My housemate Kate also mentioned that she http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Katoomba/blog-351900.html By the time the west coast campervan trip was over I was pretty certain I had to start working straight away. Australia was far more expensive than the 3 and a half months I had spent in South East Asia and was beginning to bleed my funds quickly. I wanted to be in a position of covering all my costs and saving some would be a bonus. I began to work in a small Cafe or kiosk as they say in Aus w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-351898.html I know this blog has been 6 months in the pipeline but it does actually carry on from the previous one I just forgot about it whilst I was busy working in Sydney....So we left Tin Can bay having hand fed the dolphins and made our way down the coast as far as Noosa. Noosa National Park is a headland that covers an area almost 23 square kilometres and has many coves and beaches backed by forest. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Byron-Bay/blog-294285.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Rainbow-Beach/blog-291773.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-291772.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Daintree/blog-291771.html 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 beachside 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Lovina/blog-279501.html 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 danc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-278935.html 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 t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/Little-India/blog-276067.html 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 accomodat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Railay/blog-275004.html 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 horren http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-272060.html 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 i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Pha-Ngan/blog-269592.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-266273.html After a well earned rest by the Coast we were ready for some more sightseeing and journeying so we firstly made the pleasant enough 4 hour journey to Phnom Penh. Having only seen Cambodias capital at midnight on our whistlestop journey a few days previously we were quite suprised to see how run down it was. I mean Cambodia is extremely poor but we weren't quite expecting dirty rubbish strewn st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-266270.html After our absolute mammoth journey all the way through Laos and into Cambodia we decided another 4 hour bus journey wouldn't make much difference so went to the coast south west Cambodia's main point for exploring the area is Sihanoukville. Laos was a much poorer country than Thailand but Cambodia seemed even worse. There were children everywhere in ragged clothes some as young as 2 or 3 ca http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Sihanoukville/blog-266250.html I left Chiang Mai to make my way accross the border into Laos to meet Afra and Wiz 2 of the girls I had done my project with. The journey seemed pretty straight forward a flight to Udon Thani and then an hours bus ride to the border cross the border and meet the girls the other side in Vientianne. Getting to Vientianne was the easy part. Basically my phone decided to work sporadically and I co http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-263566.html Well I left the comforts of the eco house and went on my merry way to Chiang Mai which is in the north of Thailand. I went to stay with a friend from my village back home for a couple of nights and helped out in the school she was the Principle of. The school was amazing set in the mountainous scenery about 20km outside Chiang Mai and the kids and the teachers there were very welcoming and frien http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-262011.html A little history lesson for those of you that have never heard of Kanchanaburi and 'The bridge over the River Kwai' which was a famous book and was also made into a film for those who already know or do not wish to know skip to the next paragraph Kanchanaburi became a POW Prisoner of War camp during WWII when Japanese military leaders chose the River Kwai basin as the route for the construc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Western-Thailand/Kanchanaburi/blog-260590.html This week we have been hard grafting it at an orphanage in Singburi. I joined this programme specifically so I could go and help out in an orphanage for 4 weeks. When I arrived in Thailand in February I was informed that during the time of my volunteer project in the orphanage there would be no children there as it was the 'school holidays' in Thailand...this seemed a little strange to me and a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Singburi/blog-260574.html You'll be pleased to know that I've been back on my home territory the beach We've just had the best week on the island of Koh Samet which is one of the closest islands to Bangkok. We were afraid for this reason that it would be overrun with backpackers heading there but it was absolutely fine quite quiet and serene even though we were based on the main beach on the island.Our accomodation was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Samet/blog-256346.html