The Big Trip...

Hey everyone

So, we left Samui first thing the next morning after an entertaining evening sitting through 4 hours of Muay Thai boxing (not my choice but Jo is obsessed) and then checking out the Samui nightlife.

We got a boat over to Ko Phagnan which is about half an hour away from Samui (so not too far!). On arrival we were met by this really sweet girl who recommended a place for us to stay. Following her advice we turned up at a bunch of shacks on the beach in the middle of nowhere...we were not too impressed! Later we found out that she had not been 'shopping in Samui' as she told us but she actually gets on the boat to round up idiots like us who belive anything nice people tell us! We setteld into a bunglalow..and, yes, they had a beautiful view, but not our cup of tea, and set about getting a taxi over to Haad Rin where all the activity on the island is.

Impressions of Haad Rin were excellent so we quickly got a taxi back to our stupid bungalows in the middle of nowhere with every intention of telling teh really friendly staff that we were not going to be spending the night there. However, when we got back the lovely staff had made us dinner and set about teaching us to use firepoi! So obviously we could not tell them that we wanted to go, so we ended up staying for one night.

The following day at 7am we sneaked out (dont worry...we paid!) so nobody could see us leave and got a taxi to Haad Rin to settle into our accomodation which we would be staying in for teh next 2 weeks (although did not know it at the time).

There is not too much to tell about my time on this island..the day normally starts around 10 or 11 am, we have a leisurly breakfast before hitting the ebach, sunbathing and swimming in the sea, a spot of lunch and then dinner followed by partying on the beach at night. Its a lovely life.

The main thing we have done is go to teh Half Moon Party. This is held on every half moon, which is twice a month, and its a huge party in the middle of the jungle, with around 5000 people there and neon body paint for everyone to have. Its such a sight. Anyway, all 'neoned' up, and armed with a couple of buckets, we set about to dance the night away until about 6am when we retired to bed, leaving the hardcore partygoers there until around 10am!

The other thing I am doing is my advanced diving course. Currently through day one of the course, it feels amazing to get under the water and i did a dive today at Seal Rock (which is the only 5* dive sit in the gulf of Thailand) and went down to 35metres. I have lots to tell about my diving, but you will have to wait for the pictires for that.

Anyway, my course finishes tomorrow and then me and Jo are hanging around here until the Full Moon Party, which is a massive evernt with up to 50,000 people all partying on the beach for around 24 hours.

Until next time..i'll try and send you some sunshine

love Danielle xxxx

Hey everyone

I am currently sitting in an internet cafe because the weather is a bit overcast...but its the first time since my last update that there has not been beautiful sunshine...so i'm taking this golden opportunity to update this blog.

Ko Phi Phi was absolutely beautiful. Plenty of people told me not to go there because it has become far too commercial and it is a bit of a construction site because they are trying to rebuild the town following the devastating effects of the tsunami. However, me and Jo were pleasantly surprised with the island.

On our first day, Jo was really ill and spent teh day in bed so i went off exploring, and found an amazing beach and lovely little market stalls scattered around. I didn't do much else as I was exhausted from the previous night sleeping in the airport!

Day 2 on Phi Phi was spent lying on the beach, doing a bit of snorkelling and hitting a few bars at night.

Day 3 - we went on a fishing trip with some boys we met from edinburgh. Having never fished in my entire life, i was really happy to catch 3 fish during the course of the day (ok, i know its not a lot but still...better than nothing!). It was a really relaxing day sailing around all the different islands.

Day 4 - today me and Jo (along with the edinburgh boys) went on a boat trip for the day around the phi phi islands. We visited the island where the film 'The Beach' was filmed and various others, where we could go snorkelling and kayaking. It was great day where we sailed around and then stopped off at magnificient beaches for an hour or so, before getting back on the boat. We had a huge night out that night because it was our final night on the island, so off it was to the many bars on the beach to drink many many buckets filled with god knows what alcohol! We knew we would never make the 9am boat when we stumbled into bed at 5am!

Day 5 - after missing the 9am boat (there was absolutely no chance on earth we were gtting up after 3 hours sleep!) we booke doutrselves onto the 3.30pm boat to Railey Beach. Feeling slighty fragile, we spent the day going from coffee house to coffee house wasting the day away. At 3.30 we got on teh boat for one and a half hours to take us to Railey Beach. Railey is probbly the most beautiful beach i have ever seen in my entire life...stunning white sands surrounded by cliffs that people go rock climbing on (I however, did not partake in this). We stayed at a lovely resort because there is not really any cheap accomodation here, but only for one night. I would reccommend anyone to go to Railey. The only downfall is that they have yet managed to build a pier so when we arrived (and left) we had to wade through knee deep water in our flipflops and carrying our 15kg rucksacks...its not a surprise that i fell over on the way in!!!!

Day 6 - We left Railey for Krabi Town..now, everyone told us that we must visit this town, but me and Jo were not too impressed with it so we booked ourselves onto a bus and boat to take us to Ko Samui the following day.

Day 7 - we spent the entire day travelling to Ko Samui...apparantly we were supposed to arrive at 4.30pm, but we somehow didnt get into our hotel until 8.30pm! Great! Anyway, we met some really nice people on the bus and boat and ended up having a great day, follwed by dinner and drinks in Samui until the wee hours. Samui is very commercial and very big and even has a starbucks, burger king and piza hut on the road we are staying on! Its a bit too much like home for us so we are off to another island tomorrow morning probably.

Hope everyone at home is well

love danielle xxxxxxxxx

Hi everyone!

So i left vietnam for bangkok and spent 2 days in bangkok just relaxing and sorting out my visa for China before i was to meet my friend Jo (who i met in Oz) and travel to Cambodia with her.

Our flight left bangkok at 7am, so we decided that teh best thing to do would be to sleep in the airport the night before! Lets jsut say not much sleep was had as the airport is full of metal chairs and they crank up the aircon!!

We flew into Phnom Penh and went straight to a guesthouse. Once checked in, we set about seeing all the sites of the city in one day so we could make a speedy exit for Siem Reip. We hired a tuk tuk for teh day and visited the Killing Fields and S21 Prison Museam, as well as the Russian Market. The killing fields and teh museam were horrible but an eye opener and i'll tell you more about it when I come home.

That night we crashed into bed at around 7pm due to the fact that we had had next to no sleep the night before. The following morning we took the bus to Siem Reip (which took almost all day because the Cambodian roads are not so great) and arrived around 4pm. We cheked into a really nice guesthouse, right in the centre of town and we went out for a lovely dinner at night. Siem Reip has a huge tourist industry because it sits right next to the famous Ankor Wat. Therefore, there are loads of lovely cafes, restaurants, bars etc. The only downside to Siem Riep is that you get hassled quite a bit by the little kids who try to sell you stuff and actually will not leave you alone and physically follow you down the street for about 10 minutes until you eventually shout at them!

The following day we had out tuk tuk driver pick us up at 5am to go and watch the sunrise over Ankor Wat. Well.....it was cloudy, so we didn;t see much of a sunrise, but it was nice and cool at that time of day so made for a pleasant walk around teh temples. Ankor Wat is amazing - loads and loads of temples in ruins, all scattered, and you drive from temple to temple, and they are all completely different. Now me and Jo get bored quite easily, so after 5 hours we had had enough of temples (some people spend a full week going round them), but we really enjoyed what we saw, and unfortunately, the pictures do not do it justice.

After deciding that one day at Ankor Wat is enough, we tried to book a flight out of cambodia, but only one airline runs the route out of siem reip and it costs a fortune....so, we were left no choice but to travel to teh border of thailand by land. This would not normally be a problem, but the road to the border is so bad, that buses break down every day, and seats in buses break because of all the potholes! (Its all very corrupt...the airline pays teh government not to fix the road so they will make more money!) Anyway, we decided to get a taxi to the border (3 hours for 30 dollars - not bad!) and although it was bad, it wasn;t as awful as everyone made out to be. From the border we got in a nice minibus back to bangkok (for the THIRD time now!).

Now, we decided that we had had enough sighseeing and needed some time relaxing on the beach, so we went straight to the airport in the hope that we would be able to get on a flight that night down to the islands. Of course we had noluck, and it was another night sleeping in the airport!! After numerous starbucks, surfing teh ent adn a thai massage, we finally decided to get some sleep around 2am. At 5am we were back at the ticketing desk asking to be put on the first flight to the islands...so off to Phuket it was!

We have been told bad things about Phuket, so decided to head straight to phi Phi. (Althought, flying into Phuket was absolutely lovely..such amazing views! and, it looks like a lovely place, but anyway...) We arrived at around 8am, and got ataxi to teh harbour and then on a boat for 2 hours to Phi Phi.

I'm in Ko Phi Phi now, and its lovely...this was one of the islands hit by the tsunami so there is a lot of construction work going on, trying to rebuild it. Nonetheless, it is a lovely island...not as idyllic as Fiji, but its hot, sunny, and has a beautiful beach. What more could you ask for?

xxx

Hey everyone

So i left Hue after 24 hours...there just wasnt much to see there. I spent my one and only evening chiling out in a bar with a group of people also travelling alone which was really lovely. Having not met many people in Vietnam, it was nice to be part of a group again!

Anyway, I got teh bus to Hoi An, and after 5 hours of sitting next to some vietnamese grandmother, listing to a vietnamese comedy show on the TV (lets just say nobody was laughing as the bus was 90% tourists), i arrived into Hoi An.

Hoi An in a really beautiful town, with ancient buildings, set on a lovely lake. Even the motorbikes are less annoying here! Anyway, after checking into my hotel (which is lovely and right in the centre) i headed straight to the tailers!

So..over the past few days i have bought: 3 pairs of trousers, 4 shirts, 4 skirts, 2 tops, 1 pair shorts, 1 winter coat, 1 pair knee high boots and 1 pair of shoes! Excellent. Oh, and then i made a trip to the post office to send it all home cause there is absolutely no way i can carry it around me with (all bar 2 tops and 1 skirt..cause its nice to look nice once in a while ) I do think that the post office in Hoi An is the only post office in the entire world that is open 7 days a week, from 7am to 10pm. Craziness!

At night i have been meeting up with some girls i met, Sarah Jane and Holly, from London, and going out for lovely dinners by the lake. Its all very pleasant here.

Tomorrow i am flying back to bangkok because i have had enough of Vietnam, and from Bangkok i'm going to head to Cambodia.

Keep in touch xxxxxxxxx

Hey everyone

So I'm in Vietnam now. And what do I think of it? Well...cant say i'm its biggest fan. Before i arrived i was prepared for thinking this as I had heard mixed reports about the country, but I won't make a final decision until I have left.

Probably one of the reasons why i'm not loving it here is that sitting in Laos airport i suddenly felt really really ill. After phoning mum and worrying her i checked myself into airport exec loungs (that cost me $2) and tried to calm down.

The flight was fine, and i felt a bit better. On arrival into Hanoi i was pleasantly surprised with how advanced everything was...they have proper roads, lighting, infrastructure..the works. I really did not expect that. After leaving the airport, me, 2 japanese people and some vietnamese woman were all sitting in the minibus waiting for it to leave when we were told it would be another hour's wait. Having none of that, we all piled into a taxi to the city. The taxi dropped us off at a random point that was helpful to NONE of us. Someone then shoved a flyer into my hand for a guesthouse that looked alrite, so i jumped on the back of his motorbike (yes, thats how everyone gets around here and it scares me senseless) with my rucksack and off we went. The room was fine and i was so excited to sleep. But then i felt really ill again and it was another sleepless night for me.

The next day in Hanoi I just wandered around the city. But whatever bug i had was refusing to shift so after another phonecall to my poor mother (i actually cant help it when i'm ill...i gotta talk to her!) with me moaning that I wanted to come home and her trying to convince me otherwise (i swear, you'd think it would be the other way round!) i sat myself down in a comfy cafe for the rest of the day with a trashy novel. Bliss.

After such a wasted day, i was determined not to let it spoil my next day. I was off to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is about a 3 hour drive from Hanoi and is made up of over 3000 islands. There are loads of legends about the Bay and how it was formed, and its something to do with a dragon...i really couldnt follow it though!

I only spent the day there and that was enough for me. We sailed through the islands, visited a kiatdergarten school (the the British Embassy bought, wouldn't you know!) and clambered our way through some magnificant caves. It really was lovely.

By the time we arrived back into Hanoi at 7pm, i was exhausted so i grabbed some dinner and settled in for an early night.

Today I was up at 4am!!!! to catch my flight to Hue. I decided to fly rather than take the train simply because the train takes 14 hours and costs only $15 less than the 1 hour flight. Sweet.

I arrived into Hue at 7:30am and went straight to my guesthouse which is fine. Still not feeling 100% so am taking it easy for the most part. I went to the Citadel today which is a city within a city. Created in 1804, it is still really beautiful even though it was bombed quite a lot by the Americans. I had a wander around this area for an hour or so and then walked through the markets of Hue. Apparantly this is the best place in Vietnam to buy conical hats and although I desperately want one, somehow i dont think (a) i would look good in it (b) the vietnamese would be impressed and (c) i would be able to get it home in one piece.

The main thing about Vietnam that i do not like is the traffic and it seems to have follwed me to Hue! There are 3 things i do not like
1) you can never cross the road or when you do its whilst praying because there are no traffic lights and 1000's of motors on the road!
2) Vietnamese drivers are really really impatient and they constatly beep their horns to make drivers get out of the way - its sooooo annoying
3) the motorbike drivers are infuriatingly annoying as every 2 seconds i am approached asking if i want a lift anywhere...i feel like wearing a sign saying 'no, i want to walk thanks'. (However, it is a good conversation starter with other travllers as we all have a mutual hatred for the drivers!)

Ok, after that rant, i just want to say that although the traffic annoys me, the thing that everyone said would get to me the most was the people. I have heard that they lie and steal from you, but so far everyone has been so friendly and lovely (apart from the motorbike drivers!) and if anything, have made my stay in Vietnam more enjoyable.

Okay..thats all for now. Tomorrow I am heading to Hoi An to get some clothes made for me

Hope everyone is doing well at home

Love Danielle xxxxxxx