So for everybody back home I should probably fill you in on what I'm up to over the next few months. We've been lucky enough to find a nice little apartment in East Perth (pictured above). Rachel has gotten herself a job and is raking in the money working as a receptionist at a printing firm. We're planning to spend Christmas here as we've decided to spend our money doing other things, not to mention that travel over crimbo is about 3x the price it normally is.
I'll quickly list our planned itinerary, this takes us up to getting back to the UK next March
1) At the start of February we'll be jetting off to Melbourne for a few nights.
2) From Melbourne we'll be zooming over to Auckland (New Zealand), from there we are planning on Camper-vanning or bussing around both islands for 2-3 weeks before ending up in Christchurch.
3) Christchurch -> Sydney
4) Sydney -> Singapore (just for a stopover) then Singapore -> Mumbai (yep India!)
5) From Mumbai we need to get to Delhi
6) In Delhi we'll be meeting up with a load of other people and a "guide" of sorts who'll be taking us all over the place for the next 3 weeks.
7) Hopefully we'll end up back in Delhi in one piece, from there we have to get a flight back to Mumbai again, then we fly Mumbai to Heathrow on the 22nd March.
..or something along those lines! I think we have about 8 different flights booked at the moment, which brings the total for this year to 13! My carbon footprint is bigger than yours :-p
As I mentioned we should be getting home about March 22nd or 23rd. Currently I have no plans for what to do when returning to the UK, I hope I wont be hanging about too long (just a few months), travelling is just too much fun and the UK really sucks.
So Rachel and I have given up with the whole house-sitting thing for a while, moving around so much is a bit of a pain now Rachel is working full time. After many hours of searching (mostly by Rachel) we've found this lovely apartment in East Perth (the posh part) about a 3 minute walk from Rachel's office.
We're sharing the place with 2 other guys, Adrian from Singapore and Alex from Ireland.
We had a load of people over for a BBQ at the weekend, it's good to be meeting new people again.
I shot this little video for you to all have a looksy at. It's not very good, I must try harder with these things!
Ok so here are a few moments from our time in Adelaide...
We spent 2 months looking after Jill and Ians house, we were put in touch with them via Rachels family in Adelaide, we looked after their 2 cats Paws and Cass. After that we stayed with Linda (Rachel's relative) for a week or so.
Hector
Hector the Herron was a common sight in the back garden scrounging for cat food.
Port Noarlunga
This is where the river at the end of Jill and Ians garden joins the sea.
Fishing
This was my first ever fishing trip and the first fish I ever caught
Sasha
Sasha is Lindas dog, such a cutie!
Goodbyes
Time to say goodbye to everbody, went out for a nice Vietnamese meal. From me clockwise: Rachel, Linda, Dorris, Jill, Laura, Sally, Ian and Stephen.
We arrived in Airlie beach at some unknown hour of the morning, We had a little brekkey then went to check-in for our sail the next day, we were sailing on a Catamaran called Wings, the owner is a total boat nut and just spent AUD $2 million on there newest boat. Wings takes 24 people and 3 crew, there were 23 in our group.
The next day we packed up and bought some pink goon before heading to the boat. We met everyone and did the awquad hellos before boarding and getting our rooms sorted out. Rach and I ended up with a quality double bunk with curtains, very comfy.
We set sail... well, motored for a few hours out and around some of the islands, we stopped in Blue haven bay and did our first dive, we went down in a group of 4 and saw some cool stuff, to be honest I think the snorkelling would be just as good as we didn't dive much deeper than 7m. There were these huge fish that live in the bay and would swim right up and kiss you, the leader was called precilla and she was going through a sex change at the time.. crazy things.
We then headed further south and did some more snorkelling before stopping for the night. Our cook CJ was Canadian and she fed us so well, loads of food and it was all really tasty. The evening was spent drinking cheap wine, playing guitar and chatting.
The 2nd day was an early start with us being dropped on the beach around 7:30, we spent a few hours messing on the beach taking stupid photos then headed up to a lookout where you could see this crystal clear bay with little sand islands, it was quite a sight. I'm starting to think we may become beach snobs as we've seen some of the worlds best, Felixstowe just won't be the same.
Once back on the boat we headed north and found Mackerel bay where we did our next snorkel / dive. I was minding my own business as this shark swam up from behind me and passed beneath me! It was over 1m and shocked me a bit, they're harmless White tip reef sharks but you are still a little cautious. That evening as we were sitting around waiting for dinner, the under boat lights were on and attracting loads of fish, then a dolphin showed up and started splashin around and chasing the fishicles, it was pretty crazy as he arced out of the water for air then dived back down, they are really agile and the little fishies had to work hard to avoid being eaten. The stars that night were amazing too, with very little land in sight and no clouds the sky was a mass of dense stars, a sight you can't believe until you have seen it yourself.
The 3rd and last day we were up early again, this time diving before breakfast, unfortunately the snorkelling was pants and I still haven't swam with a turtle which I am desperate to do! It seems like everyone but me saw them.
On return to dry land most of the group met up that evening and had a lil party with some drinking games at a bar. We did our goodbyes but we'll bump in to them again at some point on the trip.
Next day was a fabulous bus / ferry up to Magnetic Island.
We arrived in Agnes just after 6pm and made our way to Beachside Backpackers hostel, it's about 200m from the beach and is a brand new hostel built by some people that own the yuppy resort next door. This hostel is definitely the nicest we've stayed in, we had a double with ensuite and aircon - check us out!
Everyone we have spoken to about 1770 said you have to do the Scooteroo tour so we booked ourselves on to that for the next day and settled down for an evening of Scrabble and Masterchef.
Next day we took a stroll along the beautiful beach and into Agnes for some food shopping and a lil explore. It was a very little explore as Agnes and 1770 are tiny tiny places consisting of about 10 shops.
We got picked up for the Scooteroo tour in the afternoon and it was awesome fun, this old biker dude takes everyone out on mini Harley Davidsons and you cruise around,, going 80km/h on a little bike is exhilerating to say the least! Although I did feel a little fat as we went up hills and my bike was spluttering to do 40. During our drive we stopped at the side of the road to see a load of Kangaroos. We rode up to 1770 and sat at a pub eating wedges as we watched the sun go down.
The next day we borrowed some push bikes and headed to 1770, there's a national park atop a cliff and it looks pretty cool, although the journey wasn't far it took us probably over an hour, a mixture of laziness, hot sun and bikes with broken gears slowed us down. When we eventually arrived the view was pretty amazing, you can go out on the cliff and view up and down the coast, Rachel and I jumped off the path and climbed down to this rocky area that would have looked more at home on Mars. There was a little beach there too that we had a short chillax on before heading back, pushing our bikes half the way (apparently that's why they are called push bikes).
Our 3rd and final day we spent lazing around on the beach and generally being bummy before a had to catch the overnight coach up to Airlie beach to go sailing.
As always the overnight bus was heaving and this time had a lovely aroma of piss and dampness the whole journey, our driver was a yank with an odd sense of humour, such fun!
Our self drive tour to Fraser island was our next point of call and we headed up the coast to Hervey Bay for a night where you get organized into your groups and go shopping for eveything you need. We stayed at beaches as they organize most of the trip for you.
To be able to drive the truck you have to be over 21 and it turned out in our group that there were 3 people able to drive, me, Rach and another girl, Louise, being the man and hating women drivers I voted myself in to be the main driver and we were soon on our way driving.
There were 9 of us in our truck, 3 guys, me, Jonny and Harry, then Louise and Rach and 4 Swiss girls. The guys were so funny and we all had a right laugh.
The cars we were in were Toyota Land Cruisers all kitted out for off roading with a big roof rack, huge wheels and some fat suspension. There were 2 bench seats in the back for the others to clamber on to. We drove to the 4x4 hire place from our hostel where we packed up everyones bags and our food, tents etc on the roof, we had to watch some safety videos and have some mean looking guy scare us with all the stories of people dieing recently from flipping their trucks on the sand. After being thoroughly scared the 2 groups got our itineraries for the next 3 days and set off for the ferry.
We arrived on the island about 10am and it was pissing it down. Fraser island is the largest sand island in the world and the wet tracks leading over the island were an interesting first experience of off roading, I'm pleased to say that in all 3 days I didn't manage to get us stuck once (the other group did) there was one point where everyone had to get out while I floored it at a sand bank and bounced up over some rocks, it was so much fun and I can see why people do it as a hobby.
The truck was so top heavy that it's really unstable going along the beach in the soft sand at 60km/h and we had a few fun tail slides as we went along. It was really the inland tracks that were the hardest with huge holes and some big grooves in the road to negotiate, but like I said it was good fun and nobody came back with any bump induced injuries.
The first day on the island was pretty miserable and our first stop was a lake 40 minute walk from the beach, we got out and started walking in the rain and half way Rachel decided she wanted to turn back and I was not impressed. The others carried on so we got to see the pictures at least.
We carried on up the beach and stopped for lunch on the way, 9 people in the back of a truck trying to make sandwiches is well funny.
Further up the beach was the rusting shipwrek of an old army ship that crashed in the 30s, it's a pretty impressive sight to see and we took some cool photos, check them out on Flickr.
By the time we made it up to camp the rain had stopped and we were able to put our tents up, there was a bit of a divide forming as the 4 Swiss vegetarian girls did the shopping, went massively over budget and bought stupid food. Some people made a bigger deal of it but it really wasn't that much of a problem and we all got along fine really.
The 2nd day we had an early start and were up by 6am, we had a long drive up the beach to our first stop Indian head, a decent spot on the coast to walk up and check out some pretty amazing views of the island and a big drop off a cliff. From there we walked along the beach to Champagne Pools, a series of rock pools that waves crash on and create a giant natural jacuzzi effect, the sun was out and it was a gorgeous place to sun it up a bit and chillax for a while.
We drove back to base camp and took a few beers and the frisbee down to the beach to watch the sun go down. You could look in both directions as far as you could see and there was nothing but beach, sea and you, it's a pretty amazing sight.
The next day was our last and we were up early again and heading back inland along some extremely bumpy tracks to get to central station, an old logging camp with some nice walks through the forest. We then continued on to lake Mackenzie, now this lake is amazing, totally enclosed by hills with a gorgeous white beach with the softest whitest sand and crystal clear water that was just amazing, I swear this water was clearer than tap water, colder too! We stayed here for a few hours sunning it up before we had to head back and get some lunch, I think we all wanted to stay longer but we had to get back for the ferry, boo!
On returning back to the hostel we were all in a big dorm room together and cooked up the leftover food, drank beer and played cards, the 3 days had been amazing but we were all going our seperate ways the next day.
So now i'm typing this up as we wait for our bus up to 1770, we're staying up there for 3 nights before we do our sailing tour around the Whitsundays, hopefully the weathe will hold out as some peoplebwe spoke to said there's was ruined by nonstop rain for 3 days.
After a short bus ride to Surfers paradise we met Rachels friend Andrea, she took us back to her place in Coomera Springs, she and her family moved out here about a year ago and have settled in really well, her husband Steve is a bigwig at Coles (like Sainsburys) and they have a nice big house with Spa, outdoor pool, 4 bedrooms and the largest ensuite I have ever seen. There 2 kids, Jack and Callum were funny, we went and picked them up from school and they are all Australian.
Staying here was a bit of a luxury for us smelly backpackers and we really appreciated the decent shower and quiet bed for the night.
We couldn't stay long so next day we were back on the bus and heading for Noosa heads, Noosa is a town on the coast with a load of rivers running through the middle of it, the area is really quiet and small and quite spread out. We booked ourselves into a hostel by the river, got a double room which is nice. We met a couple that night and they were doing a surf lesson the next day. That sounded like a good idea so we booked ourselves in too.
$40 for a 2hr lesson is pretty good and it turned out to just be the 4 of us and was good fun, The "instructor" Sarah took us through the basics and hazards and we were out. I managed to catch a few waves but it's a lot harder than it looks, you need a lot of upper body strength to get yourself up and my arms soon began to tyre.
I don't think Rachel was too impressed with surfing and halfway through she got up and went and sat on the beach, preferring to sun herself and watch me fall off instead.
The next day we went to Australia Zoo which is owned by Steve Irwins family, the zoo was an hour or so away by oach and we had some discount vouchers too and thought it was worth going to as we were yet to see and real Aussie wildlife.
The zoo was pretty good, we watched a few feeding shows and visited the "Crocoseum" to watch a crocodile being fed. Crocodiles get ginormous and you would not want to see one any closer, this 5m long thing got out of the water an it was just amazing, there jaws have up to 6000lbs of force which is what they reckon T-Rex would have had, it's mental. There were load of other cool animals about, we strokes Kanaroos and Koala bears but my favourites were probably the Otters that were sisters and did everything together, they were great fun to watch.
I found the zoo to be a tad creepy as it's like a big memorial of Steve and his photos and videos are used everywhere, I guess it's all for a good cause though.
We didn't do much else in Noosa, just chilled out and lazed on the beach mostly, we watched the sunset over the river one day and had a little walk around some of the yuppier areas
Arg, that bus journey sucked. 13 hours up from Sydney, luckily we managed to get a few hours sleep. When we arrived in Byron it was like stepping back in time, it's a small town with a hippy surfer vibe to it. There are loads of little shops, only a few chain stores, all the buidlings are 2 story or less, it's nice.
We went for a walk and found ourselves a decent hostel called the backpacker inn, it's right on the beach and we managed to get a double bed in a 4 person dorm which is also nice, sharing with 2 Swedish guys. The first day we went for a little walk and got some shopping along with some Mexican fast food (such a good idea). We visited the beach which is just huge, it's golden sands and rolling waves stretch as far as you can see in both directions.
That night we got chatting to a guy and he recommended the walk up to the lighthouse, it's about 3km and the weather was nice the next day so we set out, we eventually got to the lighthouse and also visited the most easterly point of Australia whilst we were there (it's very exciting) - then the heavens opened, we were stranded up this cliff in the pouring rain and cold wind with nothing but shorts and tshirts. It was rather funny and so we settled down and waited for the rain to calm, we got talking to the guy that ran the ice cream stand and fortunately he was heading back to town and offered us a lift, we were obviously very grateful, his name was Adam and worked for "In the pink" ice cream shop so well done that man!
Next day we thought we would just chill out on the beach and as our hostel had free bodyboards to use we thought we should make the most and have a go, the waves aren't huge but big enough to have a little splash around in, I was surprised how well Rachel managed to get on, only complaining a little bit about getting dunked.
In the evening we decided to head to the cinema as the weather wasn't great, we watched "The boat that rocked" as we had been wanting to see it since we heard of the release back in the uk. It was very good and I enjoyed seeing a decent British film.
So now we're on the bus heading north to surfers paradise. we are meeting a friend of Rachels who moved out here last year, think we'll just be spending the night there and then moving on again up to Noosa Heads in the morning where hopefully there will be less rain :-)
Yup we've finally made it to Australia, we had a short 9 hour flight from Bangkok and arrived in Sydney airport just after 6am. We caught a minibus to a hostel called Wake Up which everyone has recommended to us and got ourselves checked in to a 4 bed dorm room.
After a short nap we joined about 30 other people from our hostel on a free walking city tour, this guy Joe took us to all the major sights in Sydney, we ate lunch on the steps of the opera house looking out to the Harbour bridge, it's a pretty cool place here. We also walked around the botanical gardens and saw a load of historical places and facts you're never normally get to hear about.
The weather had been alright - around 20c which is good for this time of year but freezing compared to the 35-40 we've been accustomed too.
After an earlyish night we were up and ready to do some exploring ourselves. We jumped on a short bus ride to Manly beach (a big surf spot with lots of yuppy apartments) we sat on the beach for a while and watched some very good and some very bad surfers do there stuff, I can't wait to try it myself!
That evening we were all over the place, we went to meet a man who was sailing up the coast for 12 days and was taking a load of backpackers with him on his 32ft Yacht, we were going to go but changed our minds after a nights rest, we wanted to spend a while longer exploring Sydney, and being all cramped on a little boat for 2 weeks didn't impress Rachel too much.
So after all that we decided to head to Bondi beach the next day, now don't get me wrong it's a very big, very nice beach, but I thought that Manly was nicer.
The next day we stayed closer to home and decided to visit the Aquarium on Darling harbour, there were some pretty amazing fishicles in there. Eels coming out of drain pipes all lit up was like a bad dream and the Crocodile was pretty mean looking, the sharks were amazing... You do not wanna be in the water with one of those fellas!
We also saw the Gougons, there are only 1000 in the world and 3 of them were in this aquarium, they are the animals thought to have been mistaken for mermaids by the drunken sailors years ago, how they could be mistaken I do not know but it was pretty cool to see them anyway.
Next day was the beach walk, we joined a load of people and Joe (from the hostel) for another walky tour type thing, we walked from Coogee beach for a few miles to Bondi, it was really good to start with then poured with rain towards the end and we got completely soaked. We met a nice Scottish couple who had just been in Thailand too.
The day after I hunkered down in the hostel and watched films and ate cookies all day, it was raining and Rachel had gone shopping so I just chillaxed.
1st May was Rachels birthday, 22 - so old! We got up late then caught the bus to the Botanical gardens for a picnic on the grass, I had bought tickets for Rachel and I to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge that evening so we headed over there about 4ish, climbing that bridge was pretty crazy. We had chosen to do the Discovery climb which means you walk between the steelwork with the road visible between your feet, the views of the city from the top are amazing, the city all lit up at night is something you have to see to believe, it's huge! looking into the harbour with the opera house and all the boats is cool stuff. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top, take photos, sing happy birthday to Rachel, then get back down again. So after that we were pretty hungry.
We headed to an area called The Rocks and found a nice little Italian restaurant where we sat outside and eat so much food we thought we may not be able to walk home, we had a fair amount of wine to drink too so that may have been the real reason.
On our last day I managed to get man flu somehow and woke up feeling pretty shitty, we headed out to another park for another picnic and I got myself a little nap on the grass. We snuck back in to the hostel to cook some dinner and hang about for our bus that left at 9. We have bought a ticket for Greyhound which is like a national express that you can hop on and off or up to 45 days, we're planning on travelling up to Cairns taking about a month to stop at places in between, we have also booked 2nights / 3days camping and 4x4ing around Fraser island then another 2 nights / 3days sailing on a Catamaran around the Whitsunday islands. It cost a bomb but sounds amazing so we're really looking forward to that in a few weeks time.
After our amazingly fun catamaran trip from Koh Tao to Chumporn (they didn't show the end of high school musical, what happens?) - we jumped on a bus, then another bus, then eventually arrived in Krabbi, we went for a lil walk n found a half decent hostel (we got air con as a treat too) to rest our weary heads for the night. We got washed up and headed for the local night market, it was nice, pretty tourist free as well, I ordered a green curry and the lady asked if I wanted spicy, I said yes and wowsa did I get spicy, definitely the hottest meal i've had in Thailand (possibly ever!)
We hadn't really decided which of the islands we would head to first so we had a little read of the bible and decided on Ko Phi Phi, it's a tiny island but with a huge tourist trade, it was one of the worst affected areas by the Tsunami because of it's very skinny shape between 2 mountains.
So we headed to P.P in the morning by ferry (boats are quickly beginning to rule our lives) and arrived by lunchtime, we had gotten talking to a girl named Yaneka from Yorkshire on the boat and decided to head for the hostel she and her 2 friends were staying. They were all very nice, a Canadian called Char and a Californian called Lauren, the hostel is a bit ropey, but it is real cheap.
That afternoon we went on a boat trip around the islands, we visited the beach from the film "The Beach" as well as doing some snorkeling, seeing some fishies and laughing at the old Swiss guy in Speedos who had picked up a young Thai guy... very very odd.
In the evening we all headed out for dinner and a few drinks, went to a bar which doubles as a Thai boxing gym (as you do) and watched some people beat the hell out of each other.
On arrival back at the room you would have thought Rachel had seen a body or something, alas it was just a cockroach, she kept tip toeing around looking for bugs for ages, she woke me up in an unnecessary panic 3 times that night!
After a few hours sleep we woke up to another gorgeous day on a tropical island, it was so hot by 10am even the locals were stripping off and sweating, but us Brits are made of strong stuff so Rach and I thought it was a good idea to climb to the highest point on the island (only a few thousand steps up to 189m).
At the top there was this cool local guy who I got chatting too, he was abnormally interested in our royal family and the F.A cup (don't ask me why). To get down from this highest point is either back the way you come or over the other side of the mountain through the jungle, yes people... for some reason we chose the jungle in 40deg heat, we eventually made it down to this tiny little bay on the opposite side if the island where there was a beach bar to grab some lunch, now at this beach bar I learnt an important lesson about culture, I fancied a cheeseburger right, I know it's cheating and I know better now because what came out was a burger with no meat, just cheese. I guess I'll have to wait for a while before I get a proper burger.
Luckily for us the bar owner offered us a cheap lift back to where we were staying using his funky taxi boat, I don't think either of us could have made the walk back without severe pissedoffness.
So I should probably fill you guys in on what we have been doing the last week or so.
Well from Chiang Mai we took the overnight train to Bangkok, had a 12 hour wait there with nothing to do, next up was an overnight bus that left at 6pm, we drove all the way south to Chumporn where we got dropped at the side of the road with no indication of what to do (it was now 3am). At 4am a minivan came and took us to some random office where we then waited another hour before getting another bus to a port where we waited another hour for the ferry. It was now 8ish and we were finally on a ferry. The ferry took about 4 hours of pretty rough waters to arrive in Koh Tao, by this point it was midday and we were shattered, basically we had been traveling 3 days with only a few hours sleep.. not so good.
We headed to the accommodation we had arranged and to be frank... it was a shithole, we thought it was going to be a bit of luxury so we went and kicked up a fuss and managed to get most of our money back, we stayed the first night there but arranged our open water scuba diving course that day, we went with Ban's dive resort, it's one of the biggest in the world and came with 4 nights free accommodation. There are about 50 dive resorts on Koh Tao, an island 2km long and with 300 native residents, the place is tiny which makes it feel so nice.
The room was pretty nice, there's very little air con on the island (electricity is a bit hit and miss too) so we just had a fan, we were right next to a lush pool. And Ban's is right in the middle of Sairee beach which is lovely, full of bars and restaurants, prices were a lot higher than Chiang Mai but still cheap compared to the western world.
Our dive course started in the evening of the 2nd day and it was orientation and 2 hours of dodgy videos you have to watch for the exam, we met our instructors and our group was pretty huge, nearly 20 people so that was good. Everyone was really nice and the 3 instructors were great fun.
2nd day of the course and we met up with Cav at breakfast, was crazy to see him, been 5 or 6 months so we had a good catch up over breakfast, he managed to get in on the same course as us which was awesome.
We started by setting up all our equipment, doing safety checks then getting in the pool, you start off by doing exercises like buoyancy control and taking off your mask underwater and putting it back on (Rachel proper freaked out anytime we had to do this).
You always dive with a buddy so I abandoned Rachel and buddied up with Cav, it worked out for the best as Rach buddied up with one of the dive masters (who she blatantly fancied the pants off) so she got some extra help..
The next day was our first at sea, we got taken out to the dive boat and went to the north of the island to Mango Bay where we did our first open water dive. W went down to about 12m and it was cool, we saw this huge cloud of 1000s of Barracuda, was just like you see on tv in a giant ball above your head.
We were all really nervous and concentrating so we probably missed half of the cool fish that day, we did one more dive over at Twin peaks, here we practiced our emergency procedures again (I saved Cavs life)
That night was Songkran (Thai new year) naturally there was a huge party and the entire country has a giant water fight, everyone gets soaked and nothing is off limits.
The last day we postponed til the afternoon (everyone was far too drunk the night before) we were taken back to Twin peaks where we did an 18m dive, it was cool, we saw Trigger fish, a Nemo fish, rainbow fish, angel fish and loads of other funky looking stuff too.
On our last dive we went down with compasses and did a little excercise where we had to swim away then get back, easy stuff but it's a prep for the advanced course.
Cav had a bit of an incident and his eye blew up to like half a tennis ball, it happens when you don't equalize your mask and all the air gets sucked from behind your eyeball, he had to be taken to the surface and is ok now, he put glasses on and milked it with the Canadian girls.
We had a camera lady with us all that day and we all met up in the bar that night to party and watch the footage back, they were made really well and funny to watch everyone messing about on the sea floor.
I was really considering doing the advanced course but we don't have long left and there's so much other stuff we want to do in Thailand, maybe I'll do it another time, but for now Rach and I are both qualified open water divers and can dive anywhere in the world down to 18m.
The day after the course we decided to stay one more night and explore some of the island on a moped (hmm) we hired one of these crappy 110cc things with road tyres only to find out as soon as you turned off the main road you were on a sandy dirt track, there were a few interesting moments!
We explored where we could and stopped in some nice places on top of mountains for drinks, for dinner we found this private beach with a restaurant built into the cliff over the sea, we watched the sun go down and the stars come out, we were far enough away from town that the sky was just a huge blanket of stars.
.. so now we have had to wave goodbye and we're on this high speed Catamaran over to the mainland, they're playing stupid high school musical arg! When we arrive we've got a bus taking us to Krabbi where we'll spend a few days exploring the surrounding islands before we have to head back to stinky Bangkok for the next stage of our journey.
Today we have been to our Thai cooking lesson, the head cook and owner of "The best Thai cooking school" came and picked everyone up, we all squeezed in his van and drove to the premier food market where Permpoon showed us how to pick out the best ingredients.
Try at home tip: buy small eggs they are from younger chickens and taste better.
We tried a lot of the veg at this Market an they had pink eggs, if you ever cone across these run a mile, they have been slow cooked in the ground for months and look all brown and rotten inside... Not nice! He also showed us the correct way to check a pineapple and garlic and tomatoes an onions and all sorts.
We continued out of the city to Permpoons house, within a few minutes we knew this was going to be a fun day, Permpoon was hilarious, such a nice guy, he confirmed to us that he was not shy therefore had many children, haha, he also has a very comfortable sized house with the school out the back.
We met a few people we had seen before and lots of new faces. The kitchen setup he had was good, we each had our own little gas stove, chopping board, knife and pans.
We started out by going through the basics and he showed us how to make sticky rice (the local delicassy you roll up and dip into sauces).
We then made a load of dishes each, they had little pots with all the ingredient in and we just ha to use the ones for the dishes we wanted and follow his lead, he was very well organized and made the day really enjoyable.
We made spring rolls and the dipping sauce for them, they were amazing. I also made sweet and sour chicken, Thai green curry, Pad Thai, and Mango and sweet sticky rice.
The last activity was cooking with fire where we used a wok to make stir fry and burnt our eyebrows off with 3 foot pan flames, check out the pics and Rachels video, so much fun!
We then all got to sit down together and enjoy the dishes we had made. Fantastic day, learnt a lot and filled my belly, what more could I ask for?
Today we booked ourselves in to a very touristy tour to Doi Inthanon national park, we got picked up about 8.30 and started out on a 2 hour drive south of Chiang Mai.
Our first stop was at the highest point in Thailand, it's about 2500 metres and unfortunately there was little to see as it was quite cloudy. At least we can say we've been there, the temperature that high was about 8 degrees so pretty nippy compared to the 35+ days we've been used to.
Next up was a Mong market where there was plenty of freshly grown produce to buy, Rach and I went half on some sliced melon, so refreshing.
We grabbed some lunch and got chatting to a nice Chinese couple in the tour with us, they were nice people and kept apologizing for their "bad" English.. Better than my Chinese ;-)
So after that we headed to a small village and it was quite uncomfortable, for me at least, I'm sure these guys don't want a load of tourists walking round taking photos of how they live, I'd be right annoyed if someone did that to me. Some of the women were
weaving scarves and table cloths, these take a week or more to inish and sell for 250baht (£5) at a market. Rough deal.
Next up was a few waterfalls, the last one we visited was pretty hugemongous, must have been a 25 or 30 meter drop, was pretty amezin so I jumped the barriers and went for a little paddle to cool down.
On the way back Rachel fell asleep and I have a hilarious photo, I'll try and get it up on flickr soon.
Tonight we've just gone to a few bars and enjoyed a few beers with out 100 baht spaghetti bolognese.
Chiang mai is preparing itself for the new years festival next week and I think we will both be sad to leave it behind, it's been so nice here, will have to come back, the people and atmosphere is awesome.
Wow, last night was mental! The thunder storm lasted through to the
early hours, the sky was lit up with lighning and loudest cracks of
thunder I have ever heard, it was like a bomb going off.
We woke about half 7 and blearily made our way outside where we had
yet more rice and veg to eat for breakfast, thankfully there was toast
and jam so that went down well.
We set out about 9.30 and none of us wanted to walk another step,
regardless we had to (unless we fancied staying on the mountain).
We walked for half an hour and fortunately it was slightly easier
(still harder than anything I've ever done before, but easier none the
less).
Our first stop was at the elephant camp, these beasts are crazy big,
we got on to the little seat they put on top and started riding
around, it quickly turned out that our elephant, Misuzu, was going to
be particularly mischievous and fancied going for a meal, we went a
bit off course and after a light snack (a few trees!) we met back with
the others, the driver (what do you call an elephant driver) let us
get out of the seat and sit on the elephants shoulders with our legs
behind its ears as it walked along, it was pretty fun, they're a
really odd texture and have long prickly hairs, there's a bit behind
their ears that is really soft too - random.
Next up was a few more hours of walking through the jungle, our guide
Noom almost caught us a snake! At some points we were walking along
these little mud walkways about 8 inches wide next to a very big drop
down the mountain.
You can not understand the relief we all felt when we came in sight of
the river and waterfall we were stopping at next, we hopped over 2
small logs over the river and stripped off before jumping in from the
top of the water fall, it's only about 4 or 5 metres but it looks a
lot higher when you have to jump from it. We managed to persuade
Rachel to jump too, check out her blog for a video.
It was the best feeling ever to plunge in to that river, cool down and
wash all the jungle crap off.
After a little waterfall shower and a swim we had yet more trekking,
yay, here the group seperated as 2 of the guys were doing a slightly
different itinerary.
We continued on until we got to a small farm in the middle of nowhere
yet it still had running water, electricity and satellite tv! crazy,
there were 2 tiny little puppies crawling around playing with baby
chicks, it was surreal.
I was completely screwed by this point, did not want to go 1 step
further and felt pretty sick, I think the lack if sleep and no meat
made me feel pretty bad. Luckily this is where our truck was picking
is up.
We drove for about 40 minutes and arrived at our next activity, white
water rafting.
The river we were going down was quite small but the rapids were fun,
if a little slow, we got stuck a few times and it was pretty good to
have all that water to cool down in, after the rapids we jumped onto a
bamboo raft that took us further down the river for 15 minutes into
some civilisation.
As we were going down the river it was so cool, there were monks and
children playing in the water and we had a little water fight with the
kids. Everyone is alway so happy here, it's amazing. We passed under a
few guys building a bamboo bridge over the river, fascinating stuff.
This was the end of our little trip and we arrived back at the hostel
an hour or 2 later, sooo tired buy we could not go to bed, it was the
hostel owners birthday so we all went out for a meal n had some drinks
(from a bucket).
We got up early this morning thinking we were infor a gentle trek and
some nice scenery, never expecting to have such a crazy day.
We got picked up at 9 by our guide Noom, he was born on the mountain
we were about to climb. We picked up a few other guys from their
hostels, a nice couple from Switzerland and 2 Canadian firefighters,
we headed to our first stop, a butterfly farm, that was pretty lame,
we then moved on to a local market where they were serving loads of
cooked bugs and odd offcuts of pig trachea, intestines etc. Rach and I
took the safe option and just got some Oreos. Ha!
After a short drive we arrived at 1st base, we started walking and
after about 5 minutes were faced with a mountain, the only way was
straight up, the guides cut us some bamboo walking poles and it got
hotter and hotter and tougher and tougher as the day progressed.
We eventually made it to our first stop after 2 hours of gruelling
heat and extremely tough terrain, Rachel had to be helped out quite a
lot but we were here, a bat cave, unfortunately batman and robin were
out but we did see a few of the little critters hanging around.
The guides had been collecting plants all day for our dinner and after
another 2 hours or so of trekking we got to the village where we would
be spending the night. I tell you it was such a relief, mylegs were
about to give way and we desperately needed more water.
We're staying in a little bamboo hut with about 10 beds side by side
on the floor (very cosy). The first thing we wanted was a nice shower
and what we found was interesting to say the least, imagine an open
bamboo hut with the worst toilet you've ever seen, now imagine a pipe
up the wall next to it with a tap that shoots out cold water. The
shower was brief but refreshing, we would have washed in anything
right then.
After a short relax and a cool beer dinner was served, we all sat
around a huge table, the food was amezin and there was enough to feed
us 4 times over.
After dinner the guides and there friends from the village joined us
for drinks (one villager got very drunk and was singing to Rachel ..
"Baby i loooooove yooouuuu" it was so funny. A few of them played
guitar whilst teaching us some puzzle games with matchsticks.
Then the thunder storm came, all of a sudden we had a tropical
downpore and wind that could blow you over, our clothes and towels we
had out to dry scattered everywhere and even the locals said they'd
never seen it like this! So now we are tucked up in our beds looking
forward to tomorrow when we should be elephant riding, White water
rafting and jumping off of waterfalls before returning to the hostel
So, as you may or may not know, I've been trying to calculate the shortest distance to travel between a number of points (aka The Travelling Salesman Problem) While i completely failed at doing this is Java i have created a way to do it in PHP. So without further hesitation here is the class and a quick usage example.
