shn4clr

Hi everyone, Well as it turned out we did not return to Koh Tao, but travelled on to Koh Phangan instead. We stayed at a small but perfect hotel on a white sand beach (what other kinds of beaches are there?) One of the outstanding things we found on this island is an Italian restaurant run by an Italian chef and his wife from Northern Thailand, who make all their own pasta, some of the best food we have eaten outside of Italy, not really what you would expect to find on a small Thai island. On to the ferry after a few days and on to Samui largest of the local island group sporting an airport and many resorts, still very relaxing which had we known of our next journey we would have appreciated ... read more

Hi Everyone, This is my second attempt at this entry, the last one was lost when lightening caused a temporary power failure, ho hum. Anyway onwards, I left you in Battenbong (bad luck for you). From there we returned to Phnom Phen the capital for our onward journey sadly involving yet another bus long past its retirement date. Next day 25th April and on to Sihanoukville (named after an ex king). The usual excellent bus journey followed by much haggling with the cyclo driver (a moped with trailer that you sit in which is actually much more comfortable than it sounds) finally got through with the old walking away with your baggage trick this generally leads to an agreement about price pleasing to all parties. Sihanoukville is a very strange place built in the 1960's its ... read more

I am writing to you from Vientiane, capital of Laos, where we are currently staying in a typical socialist hotel reminicent of the Soviet era. But back to the blog. As I have said we entered Laos by simply crossing the Mekong river from Northern Thailand in a tiny boat. Once there we had to go to the immigration hut to get our visa. Prices of visas depended on nationality, with Canadians paying the most! We also had to pay a one dollar charge for it being sunday overtime I guess. After the form filling we were taken off to the dock and on to the slow boat. This was a 30m long and 5 m wide wooden boat with rows of two hardwood benches on either side. There followed a 7 hr journey through the ... read more

Hi everyone, Time for an update on our travels in OZ. On the 28th Jan we set out south from Perth, W.Australia to enjoy the less extreme end of the state. Driving south from Perth you encounter many ports and industrial sites, competeing with whole new towns that are springing up on the beautiful coastline. The south of WA is a lush warm area with many vineyards, fruit production and farms. We spent our first night in Bunbury a small seaside town with a great beach, ie no sharks jellyfish or stingrays. Oward the next day through Cape Naturaliste national park, beautiful seascapes spoilt only by the huge number of flies constantly trying to get into your ears, eyes and nose! On route south we went through forests still smoking after recent bushfires had swept the ... read more

Hi Everyone, When we left you we were in Kiakoura. This is the whale watching capital of NZ, and we duly boarded a very fast catamaran to go out finding whales. After 20 minutes underway we saw our fist whale, a young male sperm whale surfacing after a dive. They are quite remarkable creatures to see up close especially when they lift thier tail before diving. Sperm whales routinely dive to depths of 1000m to feed on squid and deep sea fish. This wasnt our only first that day, fpr the first time in our various travels both Claire and I got seasick! The swell on the ocean was big that day, and by the time we reached land we were both looking a little green. The East coast of the South Island was also the ... read more