Cambodia & the Thaislands

From Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Alex and I took a bus into Cambodia to start the final 3 weeks of our trip - 5 days in Cambodia, then 2 weeks in the Thai islands of Koh Tao and Koh Phangan!

Map of Cambodia

The bus took us to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, where we stayed for 2 nights at a really chilled out hostel, 88 Backpackers. On our one full day in Phnom Penh, we had a very depressing visit to the Tuol Sleng Prison and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. However, as they are both a part of Cambodia's recent history, we felt it was important to visit them to understand what happened in Cambodia only 38 years ago.

On April 17th 1975, the extreme communist group Khmer Rouge, led by the dictator Pol Pot, stormed Phnom Penh and made everyone evacuate to the countryside, as part of Pol Pot's insane plan to create a completely self sufficient country, with the entire population working in forced labour farms. For this plan to work he decided to eradicate professionals and their families, who might oppose his plan. He jailed doctors, lawyers and teachers along with many others, who were then tortured until they confessed to their supposed sins, before being sent to be executed. Tuol Sleng, a former high school, was used as the  largest of all the Khmer Rouge prisons in Cambodia and became known as Security 21 or S21. In the 3 years that the Khmer Rouge were in power, around 20,000 innocent Cambodians were sent to S21 before the majority of them were told they were being moved to another jail, but were in fact being sent to be inhumanely killed at Choeung Ek. It is estimated that altogether 3 million Cambodians, a quarter of the population, were killed by the Khmer Rouge. The prison and killing fields are now museums, which serve to remind future generations of the evils of mass genocide, in the hope that something like this will never happen again.

A touching tribute at one of the mass graves at Choeung Ek

From Phonm Penh we then travelled to Siem Reap, home to the famous Temples of Angkor, with Angkor Wat being the most well known. We spent 3 days in Siem Reap, exploring the temples, shopping at the night market and partying at Siem Reap's most popular bar, Angkor What? on the backpacker haven of Pub Street!

Monks at the Temples of Angkor!

You could spend forever exploring the hundreds of temples, with 1 day, 3 day, 1 week and 1 month passes available. However, we just chose a 1 day pass, which cost $20, and did the typical tourist route - a sunrise trip to Angkor Wat, exploring the huge walled city of Angkor Thom, and finishing with a visit to Ta Prohm where Tomb Raider was filmed!

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

From Siem Reap we took a bus back to Bangkok, where we then headed to Don Muang Airport to fly down to the Thai islands.

With only 2 weeks left of our trip, we decided to skip the islands on the West coast of the Gulf of Thailand (Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and the mainland resorts of Phuket and Krabi) and instead just went to the islands off the East coast of the Gulf: Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. The nearest airport to Koh Tao is Chumphon on the mainland, so we flew to Chumphon from Bangkok, then took a boat across to Koh Tao.

Map of the Thai islands

Koh Tao is probably the most unspoilt of all the islands and it really is beautiful! We stayed there for 9 days at Simple Life Resort on Sairee Beach, the resort where the majority of the backpackers on the island stay. Unfortunately, of those 9 days, only 3 of them were sunny. For the first 6 days we had rain, rain and more rain. So depressing! We filled those days by visiting lots of cafés, going for an excrutiatingly painful Thai massage (never again!) and cloudbathing whenever the rain stopped, either by our pool or at one of the islands' many beautiful beaches with 3 lovely Welsh girls, who we originally met in New Zealand on the Kiwi Experience!

Cloudbathing at one of Koh Tao's beautiful beaches

Of course, we also went on plenty of nights out, which included the infamous Koh Tao Pub Crawl and an amazing ladyboy cabaret show!

When the sun finally came out, Alex and I, along with 2 of our friends, went on a boat tour around the island, stopping in 3 bays for snorkelling before heading to the most beautiful little island just off the coast of Koh Tao, Koh Nangyuan, where we climbed up to the amazing viewpoint! If you ever go to to Koh Tao, Koh Nangyuan is so worth visiting!

Koh Nangyuan

After 9 days in Koh Tao, we took the boat over to Koh Phangan for 3 nights, with the world famous Full Moon Party falling on our last night. There are at least 6 boats a day going between the islands, so it is incredibly simple to just book on to them when you're there. Plus, if you book them from your hotel, you usually get a free transfer to the ferry.

In Koh Phangan, we stayed quite a long way away from Haad Rin itself (the beach where the Full Moon Party takes place), however, it was really easy to catch a taxi into Haad Rin so it wasn't a problem! The two nights leading up to Full Moon, we went to the infamous Coral Bungalows pool party and the Jungle Experience, which was great fun - I actually preferred the Jungle Experience to Full Moon, as it was slightly less busy.

On the night of the Full Moon Party we headed into Haad Rin, where we neon-ed up with body paint at pre drinks, headed to the beach, then managed to lose everyone in a matter of minutes which was a bit of an anti-climax. It was good fun though and definitely worth going to for the experience, but it was without a doubt the busiest place I have ever been to!

Neon body paint!

The morning after Full Moon, we somehow managed to drag ourselves out of bed and on to the boat to Koh Samui, where we flew home from the following day.

What an amazing 4 months - I can't quite believe that it's over! I have seen some of the most beautiful places imaginable and made some great friends along the way. I have a feeling that it won't be the last time I go traveling though!

Next stop, London, where I move to in a few weeks, where no doubt the adventures will continue...

Same Same, But Different!

After our quick stop in Singapore, we flew to Thailand's massively hectic capital city, Bangkok, to start the next part of our trip: 10 days in mainland Thailand, spent in Bangkok & Chiang Mai, followed by 3 weeks travelling down the coastline of Vietnam, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh.


A map of Thailand and Vietnam


In Bangkok, we stayed on the popular Khao San Road in Khaosan Palace Inn. Khao San Road has a great market and is definitely the best area to stay if you want to meet other backpackers, although I would recommend staying one road over on Thanon Ram Buttri (Thanon is Thai for street) if you want to get some sleep! Plus, Thanon Ram Buttri has a much better selection of restaurants and street food.

We spent our entire first day in Bangkok at MBK shopping centre, which is essentially a ginormous indoor market! Prices weren't actually that cheap, but it's a good place to pick  up fake  handbags and purses, if that's what you're looking for (same same, but different!). On our second day, we visited Wat Pho, the Reclining Buddha Temple, in our full on temple gear - bloody boiling! Having previously visited the Emerald Buddha Temple with my family, I would say either is a good choice to visit, as they are both equally beautiful!

Wat Pho

That night we went out on Khao San Road, where we met some guys and decided to go a ping pong show together! If backpacking in Bangkok, it's just one of those things that you have to do - it was both disgusting and hilarious all at the same time! If you go though, you have to be aware that it's more than likely that you will be ripped off.

From Bangkok, we took the overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. We bought our train tickets on the day, from Hua Lamphong, the main train station. This is the best place to buy your tickets, as travel agents will overcharge you! The train journey took 12 hours and though we didn't get much sleep, I felt completely safe and the beds were actually quite cosy. On arrival in Chiang Mai, we took a 'sawngtheaw' or red truck (similar to a taxi, except there is a set price and the driver will stop and pick people up wherever he fancies) to Vanilla Place Guest House, which we found on Tripadvisor (so useful!). That day we visited a museum, then headed to the Sunday walking market - the best market I've ever been to, stocked with all sorts of local handicrafts, rather than the typical commercial tourist crap! Bought loads!

We spent our second day in Chiang Mai at the Mae Sa waterfalls, which I also found on Tripadvisor! I knew I wanted to visit some waterfalls in Chiang Mai, as sadly we didn't have enough time to visit the town of Pai - which my friend Danielle had told me was her favourite place in Thailand, partly because of the amazing waterfalls - and the Mae Sa waterfalls hopefully compensated for this! A series of 10 waterfalls surrounded by picnic tables and barely any tourists - lovely day out!

One of the waterfalls at Mae Sa

Our third day in Chiang Mai was spent at Thai Farm Cooking School, where we learnt to make 6 Thai dishes including green curry and pad Thai. I love to cook so I really enjoyed our day at Thai Farm, especially as we got to eat everything that we made!

Our cooking teacher at Thai Farm

We spent our last day in Chiang Mai at Patara Elephant Farm, which was the most surreal experience ever! If you ever go to Chiang Mai you HAVE to go to Patara (make sure you book in advance), as it is literally amazing! Patara adopt domesticated elephants from circuses, illegal logging camps and from families who are no longer able to take care of them. The elephants are free to roam around, thoroughly looked after (as they would be unable to survive on their own in the wild) and, when the time is right, breeded, in an attempt to increase the massively declined population of elephants in Thailand. 

You become the owner of one of the adopted elephants for the day; mine was the smallest elephant, named Bang and she was 7! During the day I got to feed her, as a bonding experience, check she was healthy (which included checking her dung - ew) and ride her bareback to a waterfall (her daily exercise) where I washed her! We then got to visit the elephant nursery, where since Patara was founded, 14 years ago, 18 baby elephants have been born. Adorable!

Washing Bang before riding her to the waterfall!

From Chiang Mai, we took the train back down to Bangkok to then fly to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, as we could find no direct flights from Chiang Mai.

Vietnam was under French colonial rule from 1883 until after WWII and the influence of the French is still very visible in Hanoi, with some beautiful French-style buildings, such as the opera house, and tree-lined streets throughout the city.

We spent 2 days in Hanoi, where we visited the Temple of Literature, explored the Old Quarter and booked our Halong Bay trip. There are an unbelievable amount of tour companies and hotels in Hanoi offering boat trips with different cruise operators, and with incredibly lax anti-piracy laws in Vietnam, there are many tour companies all operating under names of reputable brands, making it not only a really confusing decision but one where there's a chance that you are being conned and may end up on a boat that is no where near as nice as the one you paid for. After lots of research, and again with the help of Tripadvisor, we decided to book on the Alova Gold Cruise for a 2 day, 1 night trip of Halong Bay!

Halong Bay

Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, made up of 1969 limestone islands and it is absolutely beautiful! Our trip included a stop at Titop island where we walked to the viewpoint at the top, kayaking round a floating fishing village and visiting the aptly named Amazing Cave, which really was pretty amazing!

After our return to Hanoi, Alex and I sadly said goodbye to Laura who was headed home at this point, then made our way down to Hue, halfway down the coast of Vietnam, on an overnight train.

In Hue we visited the Dong Ba market, where we were the only non-Vietnamese people and went to explore the Citadel - a former Imperial City, which was home to 4 emperors before being heavily bombed by the Americans during the war!

A beautiful building in the Citadel

From Hue we took the relatively short bus journey to Hoi An. Hoi An was my favourite place of our trip so far, such a picturesque little town! In Hoi An we stayed at a brand new hotel called Vaia Boutique, once again found on Tripadvisor. At £8 a night each, including  breakfast, it was literally the best value for money ever. If you go to Hoi An, you have to stay in Vaia Boutique.

Vaia Boutique

Hoi An is famous for tailoring, so we spent our first morning there designing our own dresses at To An Cloth Shop, a few doors down from Vaia Boutique. Before we got to Hoi An, I spent quite a while researching how to choose which tailor shop to go to (there are over 500 to choose from) but I think this is all the advice you need - choose somewhere close to your hotel so it's easy to get to for fittings, and if you want to pay more find somewhere that looks expensive, if you want to pay less find somewhere that looks cheap. Easy! We spent the rest of our day at a traditional Vietnamese tea house, where you are served by speech and hearing impaired waitresses to make you appreciate the beauty of a cup of tea or coffee drunk in silence. How lovely!

Traditional Vietnamese coffee!

We spent the next 3 days at Hoi An's nearby beaches, which we cycled to, and spent the nights exploring the restaurants and shops of the old town. Also, one night whilst we were there, there was a festival to celebrate the full moon and we bought lanterns to float down the river, which are meant to bring good luck to your family!

Nha Trang was our next destination in Vietnam. Very popular with the Russians, Nha Trang is a beach resort filled with high rise hotels. We spent three days there, which included a visit to a mineral mud spa (which left our skin silky smooth!) and a trip to Vinpearl Land, Vietnams answer to Disneyland. Vinpearl Land is a waterpark, theme park and aquarium all rolled into one, built on an island which you have to take a cable car too - great fun!

The cable car to Vinpearl Land

From Nha Trang, we headed to Mui Ne on the Southern coast of Vietnam for 2 nights. Mui Ne is famous for its red and white sand dunes, which we did a half day tour of. At the white sand dunes, Al and I rented a quadbike to ride around the dunes on and, of course, we managed to get stuck... Twice. Oops!

Quadbiking at the sand dunes in Mui Ne

Our final stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City, which is still referred to by its previous name of Saigon by the locals. In HCMC we stayed on the backpacker road of Bui Vien which was great for bars!

From HCMC we did two popular day tours: one to the Cu Chi tunnels and one to the Mekong Delta. The tour to the Cu Chi tunnels was so interesting! In the Vietnam war, the communist Viet Cong, from North Vietnam, were fighting the anti-communist South of Vietnam, along with the American Army and their allies. However, the area of Cu Chi, although in the South, was under Viet Cong control. The local Cu Chi fighters constructed a 200km long underground tunnel system to assist them in battle - it protected them from American bombs and allowed them to ambush the Americans when they attacked, by running through the tunnels undetected, then taking them by surprise! On the tour we got to crawl through a 25m section of the tunnels (it was SO small!) and we saw some of the booby traps used by the Cu Chi fighters - scary stuff! What made the tour even more interesting was that our tour guide, Mr Bean, a half Vietnamese, half Filipino man, served as a lieutenant in the American Army and his platoon fought at the Cu Chi tunnels! He told us that after the war, because he chose to stay in Vietnam, he had to serve 5 and a half years in a communist prison!

Me in one of the Cu Chi tunnel entrances!

Disappointingly, the Mekong Delta trip was not so interesting - especially combined with a hangover from a crazy night out the night before with Alex's friend from Uni, Anna, and her friend Kaz! I did enjoy the part where we rowed along a canal through a mangrove forest though.

Alex & I at the Mekong Delta wearing traditional Vietnamese hats!

I really enjoyed visiting Thailand again, after a family holiday there 2 years ago, and I absolutely loved Vietnam! Such a great place and with so many lovely French bakeries and coffee shops, I didn't even feel that far from home!

Next stop... Cambodia! x

Indonesia & a Singapore Sling!

The beautiful island of Bali was the first South East Asian stop of our trip. After landing at Denpasar Airport, we took a taxi to our hotel in the nearby, popular and heavingly busy tourist destination of Legian. Kuta and Seminyak are the 2 other well known tourist hotspots near the airport, but from what I could tell, Kuta, Legian and Seminyak all roll into one along the same stretch of beach!

We stayed in Legian for 2 nights and spent our time there shopping (you can't avoid it - the streets are literally paved with back-to-back shops), trying out Indonesian cuisine and watching the sun set on the beach with a Bintang (Bintang is the local beer and is literally everywhere. I don't even drink beer but it felt compulsory to have one!).

The beautiful sunset in Bali

I read about watching the sunset in my Lonely Planet travel guide - South East Asia on a Shoestring - which Ed bought for me before our trip (thank you!). I had originally thought that it would be useful for pre-planning our trip but I have actually found that it is far more useful once you have turned up in a place, to read about what you can do there. Lonely Planet books are the king of all travel guides and I would recommend checking them out for any country you plan on visiting.

After our quick stop in Legian - where thankfully we somehow didn't get run over by the thousands of mopeds hurtling down the narrow streets - we took a taxi up to Padang Bai, where we then took a fast boat over to the Gili islands. There are 3 Gili islands: Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan, which is the largest of the 3 and is where we stayed. The Gili islands, whilst still popular tourist destinations, are remarkably different to Bali, with the main difference being the non-existance of motorised transport on the islands. Hiring a bicycle or taking a horse and cart are the only 2 options other than walking!

A horse & cart on Gili Trawangan

So on arrival, with our massive backpacks but nowhere booked to stay, we chose to walk along the main road and look at hotel rooms on the way until we found one we liked the look of. After looking at about 4, we came across a divine hotel - the Good Heart Resort - and although it was £17 a night each (which is pricey in SE Asia), we felt we deserved a treat after 2 months of hostels!

On our first night on Gili Trawangan, we found out another difference between Bali & the Gili islands: Bali is the only Indonesian country that is Hindu, whilst the rest of Indonesia is Muslim, therefore, we had a very early wake up call (we're talking sunrise early, so about 5am) from the island's mosque!

We stayed on Gili Trawangan for 4 days, with our stay involving as much sunbathing as we could bare in the boiling heat, a bike ride round the island/taking our bikes for a walk along sand tracks that were largely uncyclable, a big night out (Gili T is known as the party island of the 3) and a snorkelling trip round the islands!

Gili Trawangan Harbour

From Gili Trawangan we took the boat back to Bali, where we went to Ubud for a couple of days. Ubud is known as the cultural centre of Bali and was made famous by the 2006 book, Eat, Pray, Love, which was later made into a film. In Ubud we visited the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, home to over 500 Balinese macaques who certainly weren't afraid to interact with humans - 2 leapt on Laura and another stole Alex's water bottle right out of her hands! An intimidating experience but definitely worth the visit. We also went to see a traditional Balinese dance at Ubud palace (thanks to Lonely Planet), which was amazing! If we had had more time in Ubud, I would have liked to have been to see the famous rice-terrace covered volcano as well - maybe another time!

Traditional Balinese dance

From Bali we flew to Singapore, where we stayed for only one night before continuing on to Thailand. Singapore is like an Asian version of England - I can see why so many ex-pats live there. In the short time we were there we wandered to the famous Raffles Hotel, where we looked around, spent ages browsing in the gift shop, then had a cup of tea! I definitely want to return to Singapore when I have a bigger budget!

Raffles, Singapore

Next stop... Thailand!

The Land of Oz

After an amazing time in the beautiful New Zealand our next destination was Australia, where we had 5 weeks to make our way up the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns, leaving the cities of Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth for another time (hopefully!).

Our route

The most popular way to travel round Australia is on Greyhound buses (Premier buses are also a popular choice), however, we booked to go on Oz Experience in the hope that we would have a Driver Guide and be able to meet a group of likeminded travellers. Unfortunately though, on arrival in Australia, we discovered that Oz Experience had moved to its "winter schedule" and so we would be travelling on Greyhound buses anyway, even though we had paid more! Very annoying!

On our first morning in Sydney we went on a 3 hour free walking tour with a company called I'm Free, who also offer free walking tours of Melbourne. If you are planning a trip to either of these cities I would definitely recommend doing the walking tour as it was a brilliant way to see things that we otherwise might not have seen! We spent the rest of our day sunbathing in the nearby Botanic Gardens, before heading out to the suburbs where we went for a BBQ at Laura's family friends house - what a great way to start our time in Australia!

The next morning we went on a shopping trip (Sydney is amazing for shopping) and I just couldn't resist the lure of Topshop and ended up buying a dress that probably cost me twice what it would have at home - oops! Ed arrived in Sydney in the afternoon so we went for a walk to the harbour, then that evening my Mum's cousins son, Robbie, very kindly took us out for dinner at really nice place called The Sheaf in Double Bay.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

For the next few days, Alex & Laura stayed with Steve, a family friend of Alex', and his family, whilst Ed and I stayed in Bounce Hotel, a budget boutique hotel, which was recommended to me by Hannah, my older sister, and it was amazing!

On our third day in Sydney, we took the ferry to Manly Beach where we met Laura, Alex and Brad and Chippy, the boys Ed is travelling with. I would definitely recommend going to Manly if you're going to Sydney, as on the ferry trip you get such a great view of the harbour! The following day we went on the ferry again to Taronga Zoo, where we saw koalas, kangaroos and an amazing seal show - without a doubt the best zoo I've ever been to!

A koala at Taronga Zoo!

After a great few days in Sydney, we boarded our first Greyhound bus up to Spot X Surf Camp, an inclusion on our Oz Experience pass. Rubbish weather, even worse accomodation, and the surf lesson was also pretty useless! Our sleeping bag liners got their first use of the trip at Spot X - grim.

Two days at Spot X was two days too many, so we were very pleased when the bus arrived to take us up to Byron Bay! On our first night in Byron Bay we stayed in Nomads hostel - such a nice hostel. To book all of our hostels in Australia we used Hostelworld, a website and app, where people can rate the hostels, so you can then rank the hostels by rating. So useful, as we then stayed at the best rated hostel in each place we went!

The following day, we met my Mum's cousin, Terry, and her daughter Lara, who were on holiday in Byron Bay, and Terry very kindly offered for us to stay with them for the rest of our time in Byron Bay. On our second day in Byron, we went on a day trip to Nimbin, another inclusion on our Oz Experience Pass. Nimbin itself was a tiny street filled with hippies and drugs and definitely not worth the visit, but the trip was a good way to meet people, who we then met that night in Cheeky Monkeys  - a great club in Byron Bay where the dancefloor is made up of picnic tables. So much fun! On our last day in Byron Bay, Terry and her husband Neil booked us a surf lesson with Style Surfing which made us realise just how rubbish our other surf lesson had been. All three of us managed to stand up on nearly every wave and it was a great hangover cure!

Nimbin

From Byron Bay we headed up to Surfer's Paradise, which ironically wasn't a little surf town, but a city filled with high rise hotels - certainly not paradise! The good thing about Surfer's Paradise is that there are tonnes of activities to do if you have the money, but as we are on a budget we spent our day cloudbathing.

Brisbane was our next stop, where we spent the majority of our time at Southbank, a lovely area next to the river, with a manmade lagoon, museums, art galleries and cafes. On our second night in Brisbane, we met up with Dave and Arj, Alex and Laura's friends from home, for a night out. From what I can remember (not much) it was the best night out we've had whilst travelling!!

Southbank, Brisbane

Our next destination was Noosa, where we stayed with Al's Nanna's friend Jill for two nights, then with Jill's daughter Caroline for one night. Noosa is such a pretty place! Whilst there, Jill took us on a trip to the nearby coastal towns and we went on a walk in the Noosa National Park - lovely!

From Noosa we travelled up to Rainbow Beach, which is where we did our Fraser Island trip from. You can get to Fraser Island from either Rainbow Beach or Hervey Bay, with Rainbow Beach probably being the best choice, as it is only a 10 minute ferry crossing compared to 45 minutes. We did our Fraser Island trip with Rainbow Beach Adventure Company, who offer a self-drive 4WD tour of the island in a convoy of 4 cars, with a guide in the lead car. The other option on Fraser Island is to go on a 4WD coach but I would 100% recommend the self-drive trips over a coach, even if you can't drive, as driving or being a passenger in a 4WD car is the whole point of the experience and it just wouldn't be the same in a coach!

Fraser Island

On our first day in Fraser Island we drove to Lake Mackenzie, where our guide, Muzza, found some tiny turtles for us to look at - so cute! From Lake Mackenzie we headed up to our campsite for the night. It is safe to say that if you are more of a glamper then this trip is not for you! On our second day we went to Eli Creek (a lazy river that you can float along in), the Maheno shipwreck, then to the Champagne Pools, which are rockpools that are deep enough to swim in, where waves crash over the edges making the pools look like fizzing champagne! From the Champagne Pools we drove to a massive sand dune which we hiked up (seriously tiring), before heading back to the campsite. That night we played a hilarious drinking game with the lovely Swiss girls that we shared a car with, which did not make for a pleasant drive back to Rainbow Beach the next day (via Lake Wabby which we walked to for 40 minutes in the pouring rain).

The Maheno Shipwreck

So we arrived back at Rainbow Beach, looking like drowned rats and feeling slightly worse for wear to be greeted by Ed, Brad & Chippy in their Jucy campervan. (If hiring a campervan to travel round Australia, then Jucy are definitely the most popular company to hire from.) The next day, the boys headed off on their Fraser Island trip and we headed further up the coast to Agnes Water. Agnes Water is an even smaller place than Rainbow Beach, yet somehow I managed to get lost whilst on a run and had to hitchhike back to our hostel! At Agnes Water we stayed at Southern Cross which had a great pool to sunbathe next to.

Airlie Beach was our next stop, which is where you sail to the Whitsundays from. We spent 2 nights in Airlie Beach before our Whitsundays trip, staying at Nomads hostel (Nomads is a chain, with other chains of hostels including Base, YMCA & YHA), which was so nice! The morning of our Whitsundays trip we woke up to unbelievable weather - so lucky as the week before, most trips were being cancelled due to a storm! We had booked a 2 day 2 night trip on a boat called Powerplay, which takes 18 people plus the crew. There are hundreds of boats to choose from and we chose that one as it's not a booze cruise, but still for people our age. On the trip we stopped at 4 snorkelling spots and at one we saw 5 turtles which was incredible! The boat was ideal for sunbathing and the crew literally did not stop feeding us - without a doubt, the best thing we did in Australia!

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays

After returning from our Whitsundays trip, we headed up to Townsville where we took a ferry over to Magnetic Island for a 2 night stay at Base hostel, which was included on our Oz Experience pass - definitely the best inclusion. The hostel was right on the beach and would be better described as a resort! On our full day there, we hired a white and pink "topless" car to explore the island, and whilst there wasn't much exploring to do on the small island, it was such a fun day, plus we got to feed some wild rock wallabies!

Topless!

Our next stop was Mission Beach, a really popuar spot for skydiving. Having already done a skydive in NZ this made it a pretty pointless stop for us as there is not much else to do their apart from sunbathe.

Our final stop on our Greyhound route was Cairns where we spent 4 days, staying at the incredibly popular Gilligans hostel, complete with its own club! In Cairns we spent all 4 days at the manmade lagoon, as we managed to miss our trip to the Atherton Tablelands (oops).

From Cairns we flew to Darwin as this is where we flew to Bali from. For some reason, we had dismissed Darwin as a transfer day but unexpectedly, it was such a great place! It has a really nice waterfront with a wave pool and a deckchair cinema, and is home to the vast majority of Australian Aboriginals making it a culturally interesting place also! Darwin is also home to a huge number of crocs, so on our one day there we hired a car and drove up to the Adelaide River where we went on a jumping crocodile cruise. We got so close to the crocs and although it was pretty scary it was amazing to see them in their natural environment!

Jumping croc!!!

Whilst the weather let us down a lot, I really enjoyed Sydney, meeting my Australian family and our Whitsundays trip, all making Australia well worth the visit!

Next stop... Bali!

Gladrags: Australia

Australia doesn't usually come to mind when I think about fashion brands, but whilst here I've discovered some great high street shops and have also been told about some really lovely Aussie fashion websites, so I thought I'd share them with you (especially as nearly all deliver to the UK, for my friends from home that are reading this)!


A popular brand in Australia is Sportsgirl - it reminds me of Topshop, just smaller! Unfortunately I can't add links to the individual items but I thought I'd show off my favourite pick of their products anyway!

www.sportsgirl.com.au

Zoe Spliced Top $79.95 AUD - now the time is nearing that I need to enter the real world and find myself a job, I have developed an obsession with shirts, and I love the graphic print on this one!

Thread Bar Necklace $29.95 AUD - I love a good statement necklace and this one is great - simple, yet still effective!

Black Stud Bucket Bag $59.95 AUD - I've never been a huge fan of bucket bags until finding this one - love the black studs.


Bardot is also a popular brand , prevalent on the high streets of Australia...

www.bardot.com.au

 

Polka Shirt $79.95 - Another great shirt that fits right in with the current monochrome trend.


Witchery is another, more expensive, high street store, selling some gorgeous accessories.

www.witchery.com.au

Wide Metal Belt in Black $59.95 AUD - I so want this, as it's just like the Aqua belt that has sold out!

Joan Metal Hardcase Clutch $99.95 AUD


Mura Boutique is an online store that sells some of the nicest summer dresses I've ever seen!

www.muraboutique.com.au

Sweet Orchid Dress $55 AUD - so so nice, if I wasn't travelling right now I would buy this ASAP!


And last but certainly not least, Sabo Skirt is an amazing website, that Alex told me about, with the prettiest clothes!

http://www.saboskirt.com/

Tropical Bird Shorts $42 AUD

Crochet Garland Maxi $52 AUD


Until next time... x

Kiwi Experience

For the majority of the 3 weeks that Laura, Alex & I were in New Zealand we were on the, very popular, Kiwi Experience.

However, our first 2 days in NZ we actually did our own thing - on the first day we headed down to the Kiwi Experience head office to check our bus booking, then after that we got a train out to the suburbs to meet Laura's old school mentor and headteacher, who since teaching Laura, have emigrated back to New Zealand to work at a school here. Laura's old mentor, Janet, met us at the train station then took us for a tour of the school they now work at, before very kindly treating us to lunch. This was such an interesting way to see parts of the city we would never otherwise have seen and to experience a different culture by comparing their school system to ours. It was so interesting to do something different to the 'norm' of backpacking and I can't recommend it enough if you are going travelling and have some foreign contacts!

On our second day we took a ferry out to Waiheke Island, which was absolutely beautiful!

Auckland skyline from the Waiheke ferry!

 We started the Kiwi Experience on our third day - we chose the Sheepdog pass, starting in Auckland and finishing in Christchurch, with a minimum time of 16 days and stuck to this timing, as we had to!

Doing the Kiwi Experience was such a great way of getting to see loads of places in New Zealand without having to worry about organising it all ourselves! It was also a really great way to meet people and make friends, so I would definitely recommend it to other first-time travellers like us! Other more independent options include the Stray, Magic and Naked buses or a lot of people hire their own camper vans!

Our route round New Zealand

From Auckland we travelled to Hot Water Beach, where we stayed in some really modern lodge-style accommodation and attempted to dig hot pools in the sand at low tide. The next day we travelled to Waitomo, where we skipped out on caving (the main activity there) to save money and sunbathed all afternoon, then Rotorua the following day, where we went to the Polynesian Spa which was voted one of the top 10 spas in the world by Conde Nast! Rotorua is a volcanic area and the spa was made up of hot springs that looked straight out on to Lake Rotorua - once we got over the smell of rotten eggs (from the hydrogen sulphide), it was absolutely beautiful!


Polynesian Spa in Rotorua


Taupo was our next stop and the first place where we stayed for 2 nights. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere and provided amazing scenery for our skydive which we did on our first day there with Taupo Skydive! Taupo is the cheapest place in NZ to do a skydive and I am so glad we did it there, the weather couldn't have been more perfect! Taupo is also the first place we had a night out at the bar under Base hostel, which made it so easy to get to bed after - even though I don't remember the process! On our second day, Ed came to surprise me as we weren't planning to see each other in New Zealand which was so nice, although unfortunately not a hangover cure!

Skydive Taupo

From Taupo we travelled to River Valley which was literally in the middle of nowhere (no phone signal and outdoor toilets and showers!). The following morning Laura went horse riding whilst Alex and I sunbathed, before heading to the capital city of Wellington where unfortunately we only got to spend a few hours as we arrived late and left early. Had we had more time I would have wanted to stay an extra day there to explore the city properly!

An early start got us on the 8.15am interislander ferry which took us to the South Island where our first overnight stop was Kaiteriteri. We travelled through the optional hop-off of Nelson which was a really pretty city and if I could do the Kiwi Experience again I would definitely plan to spend at least a day in Nelson! Westport came next, where we went jet boating - so much fun! From Westport we headed to Lake Mahinapua (I love all the Mauri place names in NZ) where we had a fancy dress night with the theme of St. Patrick's Day green! Lau, Alex & I dressed up as the bright green Kiwi Experience bus!

The Kiwi Bus!

Next we spent 2 days in Franz Josef at my favourite accommodation of the trip, Rainforest Retreat, where we spent our second day doing an ice hike on the Franz Josef glacier, which included a helicopter ride! This was without a doubt my favourite activity in New Zealand - possibly because weirdly enough I feel totally at home when surrounded by snow and ice!

Franz Josef Ice Hike

After a great 2 days in Franz Josef we headed to Wanaka, which I was really excited to visit, as it is where Olivia, my little sister, has lived for the past 4 summers at the Treblecone Ski Race Academy - it was absolutely beautiful and Olivia is one lucky girl! From Wanaka we went to Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand, famous for bungee jumping... and we sunbathed! Adventurous or what! We did however visit the infamous Fergburger which I can confirm was amazing! Definitely the best burger I've ever eaten! Two days later we headed to our final stop of Christchurch which was devastated by an earthquake in 2011. Most people we met had warned us not to spend too long there as the city centre is pretty much deserted with boarded up buildings everywhere you look, but I actually found it so interesting to see how a large city is coping with the aftermath of such a huge natural disaster!

New Zealand is without a doubt the most beautiful country I have ever visited and I will definitely be returning! Next stop Australia... x