Nick Murray

ride34ever

Im Nick, just booked my trip around SE Asia & Australasia for October!

Starting this blog so as my friends & family can see what im getting upto...



Travel Blog Posts


13th November 2009

Published: November 18th 2009Asia » Laos » North
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November 13th 2009

The guide returned at 6am to give us our breakfast and take us out looking for gibbons, unfortunately that hadn't been sighted so we settled for watching a monkey in a tree near out house having a feast. The rest of the day was spent hiking to other zip lines and treehouse around the forest, a great way to spend the day. Got plenty of videos too so I hope to upload them soon. After dinner the guide again left us to it and we zipped around for a while then watched the freaky insects arrive. This time a huge hornet bee dive bombed us hitting me in the chest, Chris in the leg and Josh in the face! Luckily it didn't sting anyone but hung around above our heads for a few hours before on ... read more



12th November 2009

Published: November 18th 2009Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha
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November 12th 2009

Wow! Sitting here in a treehouse 40m off the ground looking at some seriously amazing views over the rain forest! Treehouse 3 is to be our home for the next two nights, I'm teamed with my American friends so it's worked out very well. We started the day with a kind of safety brief video and then were bundled into vans for the 2 hour ride to the outskirts of the Laos forest, 1 hour offroad and another hours hike took us deep in where we came across the first zip line to treehouse 1. It's very scary the first time you step off the edge of a solid platform and suddenly your upto 150 meters above the trees below zipping along at some crazy speed. The feeling is just as breathtaking as the views ... read more



11th November 2009

Published: November 18th 2009Asia » Laos » West » Ban Houayxay
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November 11th 2009

Annelien and I left pai taking a minibus to chiang krong and what a ride that was! The driver was a complete lunatic weaving round twisting mountain roads at a fenominal speed, over taking on blind bends, the g forces on your body going from hard left to hard right literally every 20 seconds for a good 2 hours before stopping for a toilet/sick break. Everyone kinda flopped off the 15 seater and fell to the ground still spinning. A kind german girl went around handing out travel sickness tablets which I've never needed before but felt unable to decline on this occasion. 3 hours later at 1.am we arrived at a guesthouse near the river boarder with Laos, the next country I'm visiting. Got up and headed down to the boarder pier with some other ... read more



8th november 2009

Published: November 18th 2009Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Pai
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November 8th 2009

Been in pai since yesterday afternoon, seems like a real nice chilled out place, more like a holiday destination than a town of thailand. I guess it must be judging by the amount of thais we watched buying the usual crap at the night markets. I was having dinner with my new Dutch friend Annelien who I met on the bus out here from chiang mai. She has just finished her law studies and is due to start work for a government oraganisation after travelling south east Asia. Went out for drinks last night and met a lovely couple of Irish girls, loads of fun! Was due to meet again today but we kept missing each other at the sights. There's not a huge amount of things to do here but Annelien and I have kept ... read more



1st November 2009

Published: November 3rd 2009Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand
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November 4th 2009

1st November 2009 I'm laying on a hammock out on the roof top of julies guesthouse back in chiang mai. A beer in one hand and a badly rolled bannana leaf cigar thing in the other. There is a beautiful sky tonight due to the Thai festival currently bein held. All the locals buy or make huge hot air ballon style lanterns and set them off flying into the sky with the breeze. There's fireworks going off sporadically too and it's amazing to watch. I decided not to venture out to see the millions of floating lanterns down at the river as I'm very tired and can bealy walk after our ride back today. Ped had given me the choice to follow the usual route back taking in a couple of waterfalls on route or due ... read more



31st October 2009

Published: November 3rd 2009Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai
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November 3rd 2009

31st oct 2009 Sitting in a quiet farmyard in a village called mejam in northern Thailand. Yesterday I started my bike trip off roaring it up into the mountains. We began at 8:30 from julies guesthouse, I was sitting eating breakfast thinking I'd made a big mistake in booking this biking trip as they said that there were no other people signed up and it would be just the guide and me. Ped, my guide picked me up and took me to his company office which was a shed in the centre of chiang mai. I was told to check my bike - a 125cc semi auto, orange tiger bike made in Thailand. I took it down the road and found it to be quite gutless but then I hadn't seen anything over 250cc since I ... read more



29th October 2009

Published: November 3rd 2009Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
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October 29th 2009

29th oct 2009 So I'm currently heading out of bangkok on yet another over night bus, my 4th since arrive here in Thailand. This one cost 350 baht (about £7), lasts 12 hours and takes me to the north of the country - Chiang mai. It's been a very normal feeling couple of days which has suprised me, since my last stint on khao San road left me mentaly broken and running for the most relaxing island I could find. My current blarzay attitude gives a relatively shocking realisation that - I have changed! I must now have gotten used to this travelling lark in some way or another and it's a great feeling for me, just 10 mins ago I was giving a couple of newbie travellers from America some advice about the up coming ... read more



25th oct leaving Koh Tao

Published: October 29th 2009Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Chumphon
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October 25th 2009

25th oct 2009 Well I'm on the road again (well actually a boat), feels good to get going again after a full 2 weeks in paradise just diving and chilling out. Meesha has convinced me to join her in khao sok national park, totally opposite direction to where I'm supposed to be going, which is north! But hey ho, I'm easily led, but also intriegued by the sound of the place, a proper tropical rainforest. Gonna be a full day and night of travel I think which will be harsh, hope it's worth it, but then they do say it's not about where you get to, it's about the journey.....right?... read more



Day 6

Published: October 29th 2009Asia » Thailand » Southern Thailand
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October 24th 2009

Day 6 08:30 Another sleepless night. They told me this was the quiet side of the island! So many screaming scooters around here that ferry the drunkun idiots around at all times of the night. Westerners seem to ruin every little bit of paradise I've seen, I guess I'm just in the wrong hostel maybe, there is a bar at the end of my road afterall, Once the course is over I shall find another. Had the classroom theory for the scuba yesterday afternoon, seems like alot to it but probably something that will become natural underwater, mainly just alot of safety checks above water I guess. Also took a wonder round the Buddha view diving resort area, seems a well run place with very friendly people, alot of great looking women too but they don't ... read more



Day 7

Published: October 29th 2009Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Tao
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October 24th 2009

Day 7 05:45 An early one this morning, damn them bloody scooters!! Lol Lukily I went to bed about 22:45 so I got a fair few hours kip as there was no party outside my room all night :o) Yesterday was pretty packed with the course, had morning of theory with a test at the end, it's not too strict like school or owt, Caroline and I even managed to compare answers and changed one each, we make a good team! Becky is starting to get on my nerves a bit, reminds me too much of a girl o knew back at home, constantly complains, never happy, thinks the world owes her something. I'm hoping she gets eaten by a shark on our open water dive tee hee. Got chatting to an instructor after the classroom ... read more






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