http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/zephyrbc/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from zephyrbc en-us Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:57:08 BST Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:57:08 BST We arrived in Singapore about 11 hours after we got on the train at Jerentut in Malaysia. The train was incredibly slow and at each stop people got onoff the train to have a look around buy food and generally slow the journey even more. We also had some mechanical issues which meant we stopped somewhere between stations along the way for about an hour and a half luckily they were solved when http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-304249.html Having stayed in the Perhentians for an extra three days we got back to the mainland with about 50 ringit 17 left thinking that there would be an ATM there. Unfortunately this wasn't the case but our bus driver assured us that we would be able to stop off at an ATM before we reached the national park. After a couple of hours and breakfast and lunch already eaten the bus pulled up at a shop f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Taman-Negara-National-Park/blog-299523.html We arrived at Kuala Besut at about 10am from Kuala Terengganu. As soon as we got off the bus we were harassed by people trying to sell us boat tickets to the islands. We weren't sure if they were trying to rip us off and charge us more than they should so we walked towards the pier with a couple we met on the bus Khalid from Qatar and Mira from Malaysia. Surprisingly everyone did actual http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Besar/blog-299428.html Surprisingly our Air Asia flight from KL to KT was actually on time so we arrived at about 4pm. We intended on spending about 3 days in KT however on the drive to our hotel we were already planning our escape. It was just a town nothing particularly interesting to see or do. We ended up spending about 1.5 days there not doing a whole lot although we did go for a walk around the city to see th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Kuala-Terengganu/blog-299415.html BiancaWe arrived in Kota Kinabalu after a 6hr bus ride via Ranau near Mt. Kinabalu. The bus ride was uneventful and we arrived in KK about 3pm. After we settled in we went for a walk and ended up trying 'cheesy wedges' at KFC...hmm.The following day we decided we should do some touristy things...so we walked to the Sabah Museum. It was probably only a 1.5km walk at most however because of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kota-Kinabalu/blog-293013.html We caught a taxi out to the Sandakan War Memorial this morning which is just outside town. Its on the site of a Japanese POW camp which was used to hold British and Australian prisoners during World War 2. The camp held 2700 prisoners of which only 6 Australians who managed to escape survived.The site has been made into a memorial by the Australian government and was fantastic. The main pavil http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sandakan/blog-291077.html BiancaWe arrived in Sabah a few days ago after spending 22hours traveling from Melbourne to Kota Kinabalu KK. Every single one of our three flights was delayed. The one from Melbourne to Sydney by one hour which meant we had to clear customs immigration and security at Sydney Airport in 20mins Luckily we made it onto the plane. Our flight to KL arrived about 15minutes late. We were catc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-290658.html Siem Reap airport is quite possibly the nicest one we have seen. It looks more like an expensive resort on a tropical island than the tourist hub that it is. We made it through immigration after Scott chose the slowest line yet again and caught a taxi out the front to take us to the hotel which had been recommended by Michael Vang Vieng. The hotel turned out to be great nice clean bright r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-246815.html After a short flight from Yangon the four of us arrived in Bagan. Bagan is kind of like an alien planet and you notice this before the plane has even landed just looking out the window. It's a difficult sight to explain but basically there are over 4000 stupa's pagoda's and monasteries across the skyline in all directions as far as you can see.We spent three days in total in Bagan in a town call http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Bagan/blog-246485.html We arrived in Vientiane after a 3hr minibus ride from Vang Vieng and were dropped pretty much out the front of our hotel. We decided that after a month we would splurge on a room wow..20. It was worth it it was clean and nice about the standard of what we had all through Vietnam last year. After settling in we headed out for lunch at an Indian place just near our hotel. The food was ama http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-244072.html We arrived in Vang Vieng at about 4pm after a 7hour mini bus ride from Luang Prabang through the mountains. Had the road been straight it probably would have taken about an hour. Oh well the scenery was really nice the beautiful hills the little villages with their world visionUNICEF water tanks and the truck which had crashed into the side of the mountain squashing the entire cabin...Vang http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-243821.html Luang Prabang involved a lot of sitting on the internet watching the rain out the window rain falling for the first time in 3 months and continuing basically the whole time we were there. We had originally planned on spending almost a week in LP because we had heard really good things about it but on our first day there we went to book our flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia and ended up having to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-243392.html Chiang Mai was an effort to get to. An early morning flight from Yangon to Bangkok a few hours waiting and then another flight to Chiang Mai with Bianca suffering from food poisoning the whole way not fun. Arriving in Chiang Mai the hotel we wanted was full so we settled for the first one we came across and that was it for day 1 and Bianca spewed in the gutter haha.The following day we moved http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North/Chiang-Mai/blog-241684.html This blog is written about a week after we left Myanmar.We arrived back in Yangon on the 18th of January at about 11am. At the airport we had t fight pretty hard to find a taxi that would take us to our hotel for 5000Kyat which is how much our hotel told us it would cost about a week and a half earlier. Anyway we eventually got there and checked back into Motherland Inn 2.From our hotel we ma http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Yangon/blog-240996.html This blog is written about 2 weeks after we left Inle Lake.We flew from Mandalay to Heho the airport for Inle Lake on the Monday. Heho airport was amazingly hightech...the baggage carousel was the best we've seen so far a bunch of guys carrying the bags directly from the plane and plonking them on the arrivals hall floor.We had about an hour long taxi ride through the mountains before we arri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Inle-Lake/blog-240981.html Somehow we managed to choose the one day of the dry season that it rained to catch a boat 6hours down the Mekong River....and it didn't just rain it poured. We were woken up at about 4am by rain bucketing down and it still hadn't subsided when we boarded at 10am...and it continued ALL day.The slow boat is one of the 'must do' trips in Laos. Its basically a 2 day ride down the Mekong River from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-240675.html updatedWe're fast forwarding a few blogs because we wanted to write this one while its all still fresh.We arrived in Chiang Khong on the 24th at about 4pm after a relatively comfortable 6hr bus ride from Chiang Mai in Thailand. Getting to Huay Xai Laos from Chiang Khong involves hopping on a small boat and taking a two minute trip across to the other shore. When we arrived in Huay Xai we checke http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-239938.html On leaving Bagan Scott managed to score himself an unexpected souvenir Food poisoning. So following a long and sleepless night for both of us we boarded a plane and headed for Mandalay feeling a tad worse for wear. Given the state of Scott's stomach our first day in Mandalay was pretty much all spent in bed catching up on sleep.The following day we emerged from our room and picked up a guide f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Mandalay/blog-237639.html We've started to write these blogs about two weeks after they actually happened because of the horrible internet access around the country. Now that we're in Yangon and have a few minutes to spare we thought we would catch everyone up on our trip so far...and maybe just maybe be able to upload a picture or two.We arrived at Yangon International airport at about 9am local time...which was an hour http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/blog-237617.html Hi allWe are heading off on Sunday 612008 at 210pm. Heres our plansWe arrive in Bangkok at about 740pm local time on the 6th of January. We are staying the night in a hotel near the airport because our flight to Yangon in Burma leaves the next morning at 715am. We will arrive in Yangon at 800am local time. BurmaMyanmar 7th January 21st January Yangon 7th Jan 8th Jan meet up http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/Park-Orchards/blog-227682.html