HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy new year to everyone from Sydney.

I hope you all had a good new years eve, we certainly did and as a result we decided to have a rather chilled out day around the pool today!

We headed into the city about 3pm and met up with Laura and the friends she had met during her time on the Oz Experience trip she had just done, it was great to catch up and had a nice spot to view the bridge from the other side of the harbour so meant getting a ferry across.

The firework display was quite amazing which lit up the whole of the city, they definately do not worry about blowing their finances here it seemed to go on for ages!

So yeah Happy 2009 to everyone, even our blog has changed slightly for the new year, you like the new colours?!

Acheron

On boxing day we were invited up to Larraine and Pauls holiday house out in Acheron, just outside the town of Alexandra. I was very pleased we got the chance to go up there as I had heard so much about the place and it was great to see it.

We decided as we were driving through it we would go to the Healesville sanctuary and see some of Australia's wildlife that unluckily or in some cases luckily had not see on our trip so far! We also got to spend more time with Fiona and Reini which was really nice.

An hours drive later we turned onto a dirt road and drove a bit before turning up a long driveway up to the house, which was in a setting much better than i could have expected.

Alex and Ben brave the dam! (it was actually warm but Jen wimped out)

The couple of days we spent at Acheron were great, it was so nice to just relax, swim in the dam and spend time with the family, Ben even took his boat up so one morning Reini, Ben and myself went for a tour of Lake Eildon with Ben making a great tour guide!

It capped off perfectly our time in Melbourne and I know we were both sad to have been leaving the family but we will be back down mid Februrary for a couple of days before heading to NZ.

Thanks again to all the family for Christmas and especially to Larraine and Paul for being so good to us.

Then it was 12 hours on a bus...........Sydney...just like that really!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Happy Christmas to everyone, we hope you all have a great day and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Alex and Jen
xx

Great Ocean Road and Grampians tour

We had an early start and were picked up from our hostel at 7.20am!! It was a bit of a struggle but as we found out well worth it.

By the time the tour guide had picked everyone up from hostels scattered all over Melbourne we hit the road for real and made our way towards the Great Ocean Road, first stop Torquay just outside Geelong.

Our bus party was made up with a largely european group with 21 of us in total the majority dutch and german and a random taiwanese man who was dating/with a married polish women, yeah was a bit weird!

Torquay houses all the big surf brand outlet shops with the latest designs being sold and around the back the discount outlets selling the previous years designs, so you can guess which end of the shops we headed to. Unfortunately alot of the clothing that was left was either xxl, which i'm pleased i am not yet, or really strange designs!

We headed off onto the Great Ocean Road shortly after and saw such sights as the lighthouse as seen in the 'going around the twist' tv programme and the coastal towns of Lorne and Apollo Bay. The weather was definately on our side for the first time this trip and when it did rain a little bit we were in the Otway ranges walking through some rainforest and so quite well sheltered so we didn't mind that!

The first night was spent at a camp ground in the Otway ranges which was full of Koalas everywhere and many noisy parrots and lots of horses. We had free time in the evening and took this opportinity to escape the noisy dutchies who seemed to love making noise and talking all the time to go and see some of the wildlife a bit closer up and so followed signs to the Bighill lookout, as the name suggested it was exactly that and it looked out over the Otway ranges and over towards the coast the other side, on the way back down we stopped so Jen could see the horses and fed them a mint or two, I just watched!

That evening we had a nice bbq and salad which was all prepared and cooked for us by our guide and we just got to know each other better before heading off to bed ready for another day.

The second day consisted of a fair bit of driving but we got to cover the remainder of the coast road which took in the twelve apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge and the Bay of Islands, it was another nice day and we were getting used to the constant chatter going on behind us in the bus!

We stopped off at the Bunyip hotel/bar for a drink on the way towards the Grampians which broke up the journey nicely and the drink was paid for by the tour so even better!

That evening we arrived at the Asses Ears lodge, so called as it is in the shadows of the mountains behind which are known as the Assess Ears due to their shape, as most of the names in Australia they are quite obvious!

It was in a really great location and we had a really nice lodge for just the two of us and with the rest of the group camping further away it really was so still and quiet. The reason we did not camp was we, well, decided to plan ahead again (we are getting better) and the forecast was for rain/sun and i really didnt fancy getting up early in the morning having to pack away a soaking wet tent and as it was it did infact rain overnight so maybe it was the right decision.

It was decided that we were going to have a little christmas party that night and a couple of girls from London on the tour even had a little Christmas tree with them although everyone was too tired and seemed to disapear off to bed very shortly after dinner!

The following morning was a rather slower start due to many of the guys sleeping in and we had a lot to pack in to the day so it was all a bit rushed to start with but it calmed down when we made it to the base of the Pinacle rock walk. We were told this was a 'walk' with an odd rock to climb a bit, as it turned out it was actually quite steep in places and was defiantely not good for those who had problems with heights!

Once at the top we took in the awesome view and had the mandatory group shot before heading back down and making our way to the Brambuk cultural centre to learn a bit more about the park and its aborginal roots which was all quite interesting.

We stopped off at a few viewpoints on our way back and drove through Ballerat but it was very much go go go as we were quite far behind schedule and we ended up not getting back up to Melbourne until 8pm and we were supposed to be in at 6pm, I guess that from the mood of the guide he was probably only paid until 6pm and he had to be up at 5am to do it all again the next day!

It was all a really great experience and we both enjoyed getting out of the city and seeing more of the wildlife, we are now staying with Larraine and Paul who are kindly putting up with us.

Not long till Christmas..

Alex and Jen

Australia, Melbourne so far

Unfortunately we were delayed by an hour on the plane to Brisbane our first stop, but after landing in Brisbane and getting through security we had to get on a later flight to Melbourne.

We managed to see the sun in Brisbane but unfortunately as we landed in Melbourne we could see the rain!

We got picked up by Paul(Alex's uncle) and taken to Anna's(cousin) house where we meet Larraine(auntie) and Oscar(baby 2nd cousin) also had a lovely lunch and quick catch up. Anna took us to our hostel which had a great location right in the middle of Melbourne city.

The next day we managed to get back onto Singapore time by waking up at 11 o'clock wups!
After having a walk around Melbourne which is a lovely city (sorry we forgot the camera cable but will put pics on soon), we went to the aquarium which had a new enclosure of penguins. It was great as the enclosure was all clear and you could get right up close to the little penguins and watch them swimming in the pool.

The following day we went off to the old Gaol which is the old jail and we first went around the newer part which is now closed with a police officer (actor) who treated us as we were being arrested. After going through all the procedures in a very strict manner including being locked in a cell and the light being turned off!!! we we able to explore and even saw a padded cell.

After the tour we went through to the older part of the jail which had in nearly every cell different tales and artifacts of the inmates including Ned Nelly and we even saw the place where he was hung. Another strange item they had of some of the inmates were death masks, the whole place was very spooky and probably not something that I would do again.

We had plans for the next few days!! shock I know but unfortunately as we arrived in Phillip Island the weather didn't improve and we didn't camp. The next day wasn't any better but we walked to a near by wildlife park and got to see most of Australia's animals, I even fed the kangaroos and wallabies who were free range so came hopping up to us! but Alex wasn't feeling that brave and didn't even feed one by hand lol.

After getting absolutely soaked in the park we got a taxi to race track where we had some lunch and visited the museum. After reading about the history and seeing a few old bikes and cars and unfortunately it was raining so Alex decided not to go and try the track day where they had hire bikes!

That afternoon we got picked up by(well saved from the rain) my mum's old school friend Sarah and her husband Colin. They very kindly put us up and took us out on a drive around Mornington and up to a view point called Arthur's Seat(The area was beautiful with lovely sandy coasts then up around the view point with forest areas which included lots of winery's and stables) also we went down to the harbour and saw some Pelicans which were beautiful.

We are now back in the city and heading off to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians tomorrow for three days on a tour.

Love Alex and Jen xx

P.s written by Jen : P Shaun!!!

Singapore

After a rather long overnight sleepless coach journey we arrived at a very wet and I mean torrential Singapore bus station at 5am!
We wanted to get to the airport to get our bags dropped off and to explore the city, which we managed to go and decided to get the sky train into the city to have a look around.

The rain didn't stop so we visited many shopping centres before taking in a bit of history and spent a couple of hours at the interactive museum which was actually really good and we both enjoyed it.

Then it was back to the airport where we had a much needed shower and had a look at their rooftop hotel where we had a free cup of tea before heading down to catch our flight to Australia.

That was about it really it was literally a quick intro to Singapore for us and our gateway out of Malaysia.....bring on the sun.....or so we thought!!

Hello From Malaysia :- )

On our final morning in Ko Samui we were up early at quarter to 6 to get ready for our bus to the harbour that was coming to get us at half 6. We were shocked when the man came at 20 past because we had been getting used to everything running at least 15 minutes late in Thailand.

After going across to Surat Thani we then continued on in the mini bus all the way down to Penang, when we arrived we asked the driver to take us to the backpacker street to find cheap room for the night. Unfortunately after asking at a few hostels we couldnt find room apart from a run down place. Which we decided to take because we were both very hungry however after a good indian we went back to the hostel to discover how bad the state of the place was, it was awful and reminded me of the hostel in Khosan road from the film the beach!

The following morning we left early and caught a bus down to Kuala Lumpur, luckily it was a big coach with reclining seats so we could at least get a bit of sleep, Jen, the book worm again completed another book on the journey down where as i was just happy listening to the Ipod taking in the Malayian countryside or i was just asleep one of the two!
We checked into the Classic Inn hostel in KL which after a fun ride in a taxi trying to find the place was luxury to us so we just chilled out and had a much needed shower before heading across to Times Square which is across the road from us and then to the Petronas twin tower complex for a look around, I can see a city that thinks its New York here!

On our first full day here in KL we were rather busy, we decided to head to the Sunway Lagoon water and theme park only to find on our arrival (once paying to go in!) that it was family fun day and so the place was heaving, we didn't manage to go on the water slides due to the queues being about 1 hour long and so went in their wave pool and on a water river floating thing!
After escaping the family madness we found a donut and coffee shop combined, we only went there for a coffee but seeing as they said it went best with a donut we decided that we should take their advice and so had a rather nice donut to go with it!

There was just one other thing in Kuala Lumpur that i knew would probably bug me if we didn't see it seeing as we were so close and that was the Sepang race circuit so we jumped in a taxi and off we went.
The circuit just loomed out of seemingly no where and I instantly recognised the sail like architecture of the grand stands, we were able to look around their museum and we told by security we could go for a look further a long the circuit grand stands which we did and managed to catch a some scooter racing going on. It was actually quite amusing to watch, seeing scooter racing being taken so seriously with riders in full tuck position going down the main straight where the motogp bikes top out at over 200mph, I think the scooters were considerably less than this!
We both agreed that on a full pro weekend the atmosphere would be really good in the way it was all set up and I think I may have convinced Jen to come to a motogp race sometime in the future!

It is now our final day in KL and this evening we are on the midnight carriage (coach) to Singapore which should take about 6 hours-ish.

Ko Samui continued..

On our third day in Samui, we got up early walked a few paces off the front of the beach hut and dived into the sea and then rinsed off in the cold showers which were "not as bad as i thought" quote Jen!

With all that has been taking place in Bangkok and the locals seemingly wanting to pick a fight with each other we decided that the best option was to change our flights to Singapore instead of Bangkok and to bring it forward to next week and try to see if the sun is shining in Oz!

After 4/5 attempts of phoning Qantas and getting put on hold for what seemed like hours we did eventually manage to get the flight changed and so we decided to actually do something with the day so headed out on a scooter.

I decided that instead of being on a dull automatic (no offence intended to automatic vehicle users) I would rent out the manual well semi-auto honda 125cc they had. No problem i thought gears will be like a normal bike, well not quite there is a rocker leaver to change gear which i soon found out my heel does not bend down like everyone elses around so i had to take my foot off and push down with my toes! Then you change down for up and so yeah was all quite alien, but after a few rather jolted gear changes and Jen rocking about on the back with each change i soon figured it out and we were going along quite nicely until the bike started handling funny and yes there was a problem...we had a rear punctur, 20 minutes later at the nearest garage and about 100 baht lighter (about2 pounds ish) we were back on the road!

We found an aquarium which Jen was keen on going to, i reallty wasn't too fussed but she even bought my ticket so i couldn't get out of it.

It started out okay, fish...small...large, although it soon became apparent that they didnt really fit in the tanks they were in and so it was quite cruel really, they had tigers also outside in similar condtions which wasn't nice to see.

Our word of advice to anyone visiting Ko Samui, stay clear of the aquarium!!

Also on our journey we came across a Tescos and a Macros, they really do seem everywhere!

I now even have a Tescos own brand of phone charger as i lost mine somewhere along the way, it seems good so far although is off the thai plug sort so i will have to find an adapter to get a thai plug to work in Oz now, oh well that will teach me to lose stuff.

I almost forgot, my new purchase aswell, I now have a nice pair of polarised Ray Ban glasses and yes they are official! I needed a pair so didn't mind spending a bit of money on a good pair, especially after what happened to me last time i went travelling.

Tomorrow we are up at 6.30am to begin our journey down into Malaysia, first stop Penang.

Anyways i better go head back to the beach and yes i will make sure Jen has sun cream on, and me! Jen is already at the beach now outside our hut she is engrossed in a book and was happy enough so I left here to it!

Ko Samui

Massive frog/toad from Khao Sok

Well we made it to an island, Koh Samui, and have managed to find ourselves a little hut on the beach itself just a few metres from the sea at high tide which is nice.

The weather is much the same as it has been everywhere so far, overcast with the odd bit of rain but other than that all is good, fingers crossed it should clear up in a few days!

We arrived on the island on Friday on a rather old looking tatty ferry that seemed to go so slow but none the less we made it in one piece, no safety announcement at the start of this trip or a sign of a life jacket in sight although we have started to notice the severe lack of health and safety here in Thailand! But maybe we are wrapped up in cotton wool a bit in the uk!?

On our first day we decided to head straight to a beach bungalow but unfortunately quite a few were shut on the beach we were looking at so we headed to a tourist info and managed to find a room for the night. Unfortunately it was a bit more than we wanted to pay but for 900b it wasn't too bad and the food was gd.

The next day we got a moped with helmets even though we did look like goons lol and headed off around the island to explore and found a beautiful waterfall also managed to find a great beach hut(as I looked at the photo around us I thought we were at a lesbian resort lol but then alex said that it was a man in the pic he had v long hair!). We went to the fisherman's village along the next bay and managed to speak to family which was great xx alex then decided that he would get his hair cut unfortunately it is shorter than he expected next was indian for tea mmm.

We are both very happy where we are staying now at 350b which is basic with shared showers and toliets behind us but to my suprise it does have electricity!!And a great beach bar and resturant.

Hope all is well there love jen and alex xx

P.S Please keep commenting it is gd to hear from everyone :-D

Khao Sok National Park

Rain, rain, rain sun for a few minutes then more rain that has been the trend during the past two days however this has not dampened our spirits and we have enjoyed two days of real rain forest and an over night stop on the lake.

We arrived at Khao Sok on Monday afternoon we managed to locate the guy who drove us to Nung's house a series of huts set back in the rain forest. After dropping our hut in our new home we made our way to have a look at what tours were available and found a two day one night jungle trek and lake exploration with an over night stay.

All immodiomed up I decided the tour was definitely achievable and off we set.

Over to Jen

After an hour and half driving to the National park in the back of a 4 by 4 with 4 other people then a long tail boat ride of about 45 mins. That showed us the amazing scenery of huge mountains covered in many different trees and emerald blue water. We saw some floating huts on bamboo as this turn out this was home for the night. I think we were all a bit amazed and a little shocked when we all realised there were no fly nets in the one room hut!! The afternoon was spent chilling out and swimming and canoeing on the lake.

We also had our first guided forest trek that afternoon and Alex managed to get a tag along friend, a leech on his leg!

After walking on the track with everyone slipping and sliding everywhere we boarded what can only be described as bamboo sticks on the water with a engine strapped on the back and were taken across to a large cave full of many stalactites and stalagmites and the odd bat! We then did the reverse of the above, bamboo thing, slip-slide mud, boat, back to the floating hut.

7am was our time to be up the next day as we tried to see what animals were about. So by 7.15pm we were on the longboat on our way and got to see many hornbills (birds) and a handful of monkeys jumping about in the trees.

As it was raining we headed into the rainforest allowing its thick canopy layer to shelter us, so off we trekked and on finding a wild pigs tracks the guide decided that we follow, so winding up and down through dense bush we went!

It was very slippery in parts to which Jen found out by falling rather hard on a rock on her bum!

All the colour drained from her face and I thought she might faint but after a few moments she was okay and we carried on managing to see many spiders webs and a buffalo spider and also hearing monkeys swinging about the trees above.

At the end of the trek we had time for one last swim in the lake and to say good bye before heading back to Nungs house where we still are currently.

Phang Nga boat and Canoe Tour

We had an early start, well early for us anyway and were up at not long gone 6.30am after hitting the snooze button on the alarm a couple of times!

The reason for this early start was that we were getting picked up from the bungalow that we had for the night at 7.30am to head off on a boat and canoe tour of Phang Nga. The sun managed to come out through the clouds for us for the first time so far so we were definitely pleased about that! The boat we were on was typically thai with its noisy diesel engine and wooden construction, it was run by a very friendly thai crew of which there were about 25 of them!

On arriving at the first of the islands we got into our canoes and headed into a cave which was full of bats and had a rather unpleasant smell to it! There was light at the end of the cave which opened up to reveal that the island was in fact hollow and so had water in the middle! As we came out we soon realised that we were not alone and were surrounded by monkeys, two of them were even in the water fighting!

We headed back to the boat where lunch was waiting for us, a well presented assortment of thai dishes and a very western dish of spaghetti and tomato sauce thrown in for good measure!

Whilst we were eating the boat made its way to the famous James Bond island as made famous in the 'man with the golden gun', even film buff Jen was unsure which one this was and when we were told that Roger Moore had been the main man I soon realised it wasn't all that recent!

A long tail boat escorted us from our main boat to the island (a long tail boat can only really be described as a tuk tuk on water with its truck engine mounted like an outboard with a straight through exhaust pipe making lots of vibration and noise),

Once on the island we were harassed by many touts trying to sell us all kinds of rubbish from their stands all trying to cash in on the many tourists that go there daily.

The final destination on the tour was another small island where we had some time to swim and enjoy the sunshine.

Once back on the boat our crazy boat crew turned up the music and began to break dance for us, was quite funny to watch!

After saying our good byes we spent the night in Phuket town.

We should have been heading up to Kho Sok national park today but unfortunately towards the end of the boat trip i started to feel unwell and have had a bad stomach ever since along with the symptoms of a cold to go with it,we therefore decided to spent another day in Phuket town where we have done absolutely nothing to try to get better. Jen has been a great nurse to me and we should be good to head up and out of Phuket tomorrow for the national park at some point tomorrow.

All the best

Alex and Jen

Phuket

Yay we are finally out of Bangkok after a crazy couple of days, after getting off the plane last night we decided to head straight down to the hotel unfortunately we had a detour again to a tourist info place but after 10 mins carried onto the hotel. After going through some mad road we arrived at the hotel which was very nice for the price we paid 1200B however we arrived to a Thai Elvis Presley live lol.

We have noticed that Phuket is not really a major backpacker haven and so the prices are higher than that of the islands the other side but its all still a good experience.alex again

The next day we decided to explore Kata Beach and had breakfast right next to the beach which had beautiful views of the bay as the area was quite touristy we decided to head across to Rawai Beach where we are now :) it is lovely we found a little bungalow right across from the beach.
The weather has, as feared not be as awesome as we would have liked, today has been slightly overcast with the odd bits of rain! Its still warm though so phuket :-P (that's my input to this blog, Jen told me it was too rude!

Tomorrow we are off on a tour to a few different islands including James Bond Island should be interesting will keep you all updated.

Bangkok!

Well we made it, after what seemed like an endless plane journey at the time actually turned out to not be so bad and the nice hotel we had booked in Bangkok was a welcome greeting for us both.
It is now our third day in Thailand or our second full day if you want to be more exact and we have already experienced all different sights and smells (and no I don't mean Jen!).
From seeing a random bird in the airport on arriving to our taxi into Bangkok with the driver in tears mourning the death of a royal!

We are clearly not fully on thai time yet as we managed to wake up at 11.30am yesterday morning...wups! Although I see to be finding it harder than i remember to adjust Jen is seemingly having no problem with sleeping at the correct time, or it could just be that she is ignoring me when i ask if she is still awake!


We have already taken in a bit of the local culture by taking a trip down the river on a rather long narrow boat, the water level was rather high and so we had to test our balance walking along some narrow beams to get back to dry land and then experienced a show last night, which even i must say was quite good!

As I am writing this I now realise I have left our camera back at the hotel (its ok m&d its in the safe!) and so this entry is lacking much colour!

In a few hours time we will be back at the airport to continue our journey, we decided against the usual low budget traveller option of a 14hour bus to Phuket and instead have opted to fly down in 1.5 hours.
So yeah thats the future plan for now really, Phuket-Islands, beach, sun, chill out.

Hope all is well
lol
Alex and Jen

Booked!

Yep...the travel agents have taken our money and we have the e-tickets ready to go.
Now all we need to do is fill the gaps as to what we are going to do on our four month adventure!

Watch this space for updates, roll on 17th November...