Fatmarkstravels

After the 3 hour flight from Sydney I landed in Christcurch for the last leg of my trip. Having last been in Christchurch 9 years ago I wasn’t sure what to expect as the bus carried me into the city. After the devastation caused by the earthquakes last year I thought I would see a lot of rubble and construction work ongoing. What I actually saw was somewhat surprising as many of the buildings affected were still standing, waiting to be safely demolished. This meant that a large part of the city centre was cordoned off for safety reasons, with the area feeling a ghost town, barely anybody walking around the streets on a Tuesday morning. After a long walk I found the guest house, which turned out to be a really nice little place, feeling ... read more

It was great to finally arrive in Singapore after a long stint on the night train and, after some emailing in Starbucks, I managed to arrange to meet Tom and Emma for lunch.....its amazing how difficult it is to meet up with someone when you dont have a mobile, how did people used to manage on the move? A club sandwich in the financial district was very welcome after the dodgy KFC the night before and I was soon back at their apartment enjoying my first hot shower since KL and a catch up with everyone online using their broadband. Tom had football at the National Stadium that night so we headed to a restaurant close by for some food together before he went off to his match. It was nice to know I would be ... read more

So I have finally left Koh Tao after two months and 12 days on this beautiful island in the Gulf of Thailand and am currently waiting for a train to take me south over the Malaysian border and on towards Kuala Lumpur. Life continued much as it had since my last blog for most of the time, with diving and nights out the norm. I began my Divemaster course early in May after first completing my EFR (first aid), Rescue, Deep, Wreck and Nitrox courses. The Divemaster course itself contains a number of elements ranging from practical skills through to theory and stamina tests. I managed to get the theory out of the way fairly quickly and nailed the two multiple choice exams. The stamina element consists of a 100m tired diver tow with both of ... read more

So it was time to leave Cambodia and head off on an epic dash to Koh Tao to arrive before everything shut down for Songkran, the Thai new year. 6 of the Irish bunch and I got a morning bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok and were told it would take 8 hours, putting me at the train station with plenty of time to try and get an evening train down to the jumping off point for the islands. Unfortunately, as is usual here, the timings were somewhat off. The 8am bus set off at 9:30 but not before I had a mad panic after leaving my passport at the hotel when I left for the coach. Fortunately they sent a driver round on a motorbike to get it to me before we left, crisis averted ... read more

The night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang turned up early, which was first so far on this trip and even better, I was the first person on board which meant I had the pick of the seats in the bizarre arrangement that is the sleeper bus. I settled in for the trip, which meant jamming myself into the small space as best as I could. Once again I was cursing being 6ft 3. The seat next to me was soon taken by a South African girl, Derryn and we chatted away to pass the time and also to distract ourselves from the extremely scary view out the front window as our driver was intent on overtaking every vehicle he got up the arse of, regardless of whether there was a lorry coming the other ... read more