A time which I won't forget was 2 and a half weeks ago. I sat with my friend Jo at Koh Samui airport (which is lovely btw...definately recommend travelling with Bangkok Air from this airport!) as we waited for our flight to Bangkok. I was heading to Hong Kong and Jo was heading back to the UK. Bored out of our minds as we had 3 hours to wait for our flight (due to Thailand's annoying boat timetables) we turned on Jo's Ipod (I borke mine in NZ - a bad day) to pass some time.

As Green Day's 'Time of Your Life' came on I turned to Jo with a look of sadness as my trip was coming to an end with only 2 weeks to go, and Jo had tears in her eyes.The words of this song summed up our travels brilliantly. I thought i'd share the lyrics with you:

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test and don't ask why.
It's not a question but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind.
Hang it on a shelf, In good health and good time.
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial.
For what it's worth, it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.

So I sat there, trying to console Jo that it was good that she was upset because it meant that she had had the most amazing time ever..and that all good things must come to an end. When it comes down to it, travelling is not a reality..its merely a snapshot in time where you see amazing places, learn amazing things and meet amazing people.

So in this final blog entry I thought i'd do a general sum up of the most incredible, exciting, awe inspiring, adventurous, scary, thrilling and magical 6 months of my life:

Methods of Transport:I've travelled by plane, coach, the kiwi bus, the greyhound bus, metro, subway, car (few occasions, but wonderful every time), taxi, tuk tuk, motorbike, moped, back of a van, ferry, speed boat, water taxi, elephant, junk boat, bamboo raft, tube, train, helicopter, hydrofoil boat, ship, sleeper train, cable car and obviously...by foot.

Some of the Food I've tried:I've sampled pies; kangaroo; the obligatory backpcker food of spag bol and tuna pasta in hostels; far too much curry in Fiji; so much noodle soup i thought i'd turn into a bowl of it; rice soup for breakfast in Thailand; pineapple galore; mangosteen in asia; dorian friut once i got over the smell!; thai green curry; pad thai (its a must!); salted broad beans (the best thing the 7/11's stock at 5am); the must have chicken schnitzel sandwich at 5am in Koh pagnan; fresh baked good in Laos; street food; pumpkin soup in Vietnam, too much pizza in Koh Phi Phi; dumplings, banquets every night in China; chilli with EVERYTHING; 5 yuan packet noodles and of course, peking duck.

Drink:
far far far too much alcohol - VB, Carton Cold and Tooheys in oz, Tui and Speights in NZ, lots of snakebite, Beer Lao in Laos, Chang and Singha in Thailand, Ankor beer in Cambodia, TsingTao in China. And then there is goon (boxed wine that tastes vile), bundaberg run in OZ, too many Jagermeisters and Teapots in NZ and buckets of Samson in Thailand. But then i was sober as well - i had a mild green tea and ginger tea obsession, as well as bottles of Ice Tea.

Amazing Activities and Moments:Walking the sydney bridge, NY Eve, surfing, driving on Fraser Island, sailing the Whitsundays, scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, jungle surfing, Australia DayWaiheke Island, dolphin swimming, digging hot water holes, the golw worm caves, skydiving, visiting the Maori village, thermal pools, te Pap Museam, wine tasting, kayaking and hiking at teh Able Tasman National Park, helicopter ride, hiking on Franz Josef Glacier, milford sound, scuab diving and snorkelling in Fiji, tuk tuk rides in bangkok, cooking class, Song Kran, elephant trekking, bamboo rafting, swimming in waterfalls, tubing down Vang Viengs river, Halong Bay, getting clothes made in Vietnam, Ankor Wat, fihsin at Ko Phi Phi, visitng 'The Beach', 1/2 moon party, full moon party, scuba diving thailand, Maui Thai fight, the terracotts warriers, the Pearl, Kung Fu show, acrobats show, Great Wall of China, learning fire poi

Journeys I wont forget:plane to sydney on day 1; overnioght bus to Byron Bay, every Kiwi EXp journey especially when teh badgs fell out of th bus onto the road and when the bus broke down as we were all in fancy dress; journey to Chiang Mi overnight; slow boat into Laos; Siem Riep journey over uneven road back to Bangkok; overnight trains in China and the 3 gorges boat trip.

People I won't forget:
Claire, Jo, Wenna, Nicole, Kate and Kate, Dean, KAren, BEn, Dani and Amy, Ben and Ben and Rod, Gemma and Rich, Oscar, Nick and Jem and Snoop, Justin, Nick and Jonno and Chris, Tim, Dave (Scot), Nick (Canada), Tom, Ben and Jake and Dave (room 212!), LJ, Dave (driver), Dave (Welsh), Ashley, Euan, Adam, Team America 1 and 2, Hannah, Stu and Tim, Martin (my dive buddy), Rob, Luke, Olga, Mike, Hans and Jolene, Chris and Sarah, Holly and SJ, Raphael, Sam and Tom (NZ), Team Portsmouth, Leo and Jake (Team Brazil 1), Paul and Anthony and Rob (Team Canada), Gabriel, Gustav, Bai, Ross and Ryan, Team Brasil 2 and 3, Megs, Richard, Sam and Steve...

Some of the Funny Things that Happened:Nicloe stamping her passport at the animal reserve place; vodka bottles strapped to our legs on NY's eve; stuck on Fraser Island; Ice box girl; River Valley; Fancy Dress night; boys waking us up in Phagnan; Jo cutting hair drunk; steve breaking the thai's fishing rod; mile long strw and bucket tournament; falling at railey; night at Ban TAi; bartering at silk street.

Favourite place:Sydney; Byron Bay, Lake Birabeen on Fraser; Queenstown, Able Tasman and the rest of the West Coast; South Sea Island on Fiji, Ko Phagnan; Hoi An; Luang Prabang; Shanghai

Songs that will always remind me of this trip:Mika- Grace Kelly; Detroit (I love this City); Green Day-Time of Your Life; Aladdin- A whole New World; We Are Your Friends; Bob MArley-dont worry bout a thing; The Beatles-Hey Jude; The Fray-How to Save a Life; Killers-Mr Brightside + All These Things I have done + This River is Wild; Pete Murray-So Beautiful; James Blunt-Cry; Gwen Stephani-Sweet; Free Falling; Fat Freddies; Oasis-Champagne Supernova +Halfway round the world + Stand by Me; Shakira-Hips don;t lie; Whitney-I want to Dance with Somebody (the dance version); Ben HArper-Steal My Kisses; Promise me you'll wait for me; gtting to know you, YMCA..and hundreds more that i can't think of right now!

So how do I sum up 6 fantastic months? Well i could try by stating that I've seen countless sun rises (eg over Ankor Wat) and even more sunsets (favourite being in Fiji); I've embraced local culture by eating with local families; I've take up new sports for example scuba diving and fire poi; I've partied till dawn and had lots of early nights (though you may be surprised); i've slept in beds, buses, trains, boats, on floors, in airports; i've lived out of a bag for 6 months and it hasn't bothered me one bit; i havent missed Tv but i have missed my Ipod; I've met hundreds of people and hopefully made a few very close friends; I've turned up in a new country with no accomodation booked and no idea where to go and have been fine with that...

Basically, when it comes down to it...i've had the time of my life.
Thanks for reading

Danielle xxxx

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Woke up early and splurged on the 40 Yuan (about 2 pounds 50) breakfast and met the rest of the group for our first full day sightseeing in Beijing. Today we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Square is located in the center of Beijing City and you can visit Tiananmen Tower, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, Mao Zedong Memorial Hall and see the national flag raising ceremony. After a walk around the square we entered the Forbidden City. This is now known as The Palace Museam and was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 buildings. It was called the Forbidden City because the general public were forbidden to enter into it.

From the Palace we all got into Rickshaws and got taken for a ride down the cobblestone streets of old Beijing. These communities are very quickly being destroyed to make way for new, bigger roads, so it was a real treat to be able to see what Beijing used to look like. The best part of the day was at lunchtime when teh rickshaws dropped off the group at a Chinese family's home and ate lunch with them in their house. It was really lovely and they were so excited to have westerners in their house that they insisted on showing us how to make steamed dumplings and then they showed us their pet grasshopper and crickits...so random!

We had some free time late afternoon and then at night we headed to the Theatre to see a Kung Fu show. This was incredible...i have never seen such amazing dancing and monks were breaking slabs of metal on their heads! Its really hard to descrbie but i'd recommend anybody coming to China to see one of these shows.

After the show we headed to Bar Street for some dinner. Pizza was the meal of the night which was fantastic as we were all getting a bit sick of huge chinese banquets by this point. Today was the Dragon Baot Race festival so it was really busy and the restaurants were giving out free steamed rice and date parcels..very strange, but tasty nonetheless.

The following day was a free day so we slept in and then went to Silk Street Market which is amazing. Its a huge indoor market, the size of a shopping mall and you can get anything from shoes to pearls to fake bags to designer suits. Anyway, we had a great time bartering with the shop owners and i was very pleased with my china tea set that i got for 250 Yuan, down from 1700! AT night we went to a restaurant near our hotel and i am not sure what happened but suddenly my hand swelled up and i fainted and was really ill. Hmmm...think i took an allergic reaction to something i ate. Luckily i was with people from the group so they took me back to the hotel and i was better very quickly.

The next day was out last full today together as a group, and it was the day that we visited the Great Wall of China. We were up early and had a 2 hour bus ride to the point of the wall that we were going to climb. Today was hot and the smog had cleared (due to some rain overnight) so we decided to get the cable car up to teh start of teh wall walk rather than hike up the hill. Good move. We spent about 2 and a half hours walking the section of the wall that we were brought to (no..we did not cover all 6,700 km!) and then got the cable car down. Two people (Samantha and Steve) on our tour got engaged on the wall which was lovely news so we cracked open the beers on the bus on the way back to town. On the way back we also stopped off at the new Olympic Stadium that is in its final stages of being buils. Called 'The Nest', it does actually look like a huge metal birds nest that should be outstanding when lit up..will have to wait until next year to see! From here we went to a traditional chinese tea house and got taught how to drink tea properly and the merits of the different types of tea.

At night, for our final meal together we went to a traditional beijing restuarnat and ate Peking Duck (otherwise known as duck and pancakes for all you westerners). The chef came and carved it out at the table and it was a lovely (although i was scared to eat anything really because of what happened the night before).

The following day everyone was leaving at various times to head off in different directions (apart from me). I ended up spending the day with Ian and Michelle who were not leaving until 5pm..so i took them back to Silk Street and helped them out with bargaining (they were hopeless). At night i wandered down the pedestrian street near our hotel (whioch i actually just found yesterday even though i have been in this city for almost a week!) and had an early night. It was strange being in a room on my own as this was the first time since Vietnam that i have been alone!

Today I headed to the Summer Palace which is a huge and beautiful park with old Chinese buildings (i.e. pagodas, bridges etc) surrounded by a huge lake. After a few hours of wandering around there i headed back to the hotel to rest (and to type up this blog).

Tonight i am going out for dinner with the only 2 people left from my tour.

Anyway, this is my last entry re what i have been doing on my trip (as i plan on doing not much else except pack) but I will do a follow up entry tomorrow.

See everyone soon

Danielle xxx

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What a busy week! We had a free day in Xi'an which was lovely as I could finally sleep in and not be expected to be downstairs, washed and fed at 7:30am for once! After a lazy morning, me, Megs, Sam and Steve set out for the Wild Goose Pagoda which is set in a huge park and is absolutely beautiful. After walking around there for a few hours we went to teh Xi'an Museam which was a complete waste of time because it was all old artefacts which interests me as much as watching paint dry. We also spent some tiem walking along the city wall (it is amazingly preserved and runs in a complete square around the inner city of Xi'an). All in all, it was a busy day which ended off with a lovely banquet dinner and a chinese opera show. The show was lovely..no opera singing, but lots of dancing and playing chinese musical instruments (mum and dad - i finally know what those ornament things you have in teh house actually sound like!), however was ruined slightly by the 4 drunk middle age people sitting at teh table in front of us, fanning themselves, talking loudly and fainting all over the place. Wonderful.

The following day was highlight of the trip. We got up ealry to drive one hour to see the magnificant terracotta warriers. There are over 2000 warriers already uncovered and they are unsure how many more are hidden deep within the grounds. They were first discovered by a farmer who was digging a well and came across teh top of one of teh warriers head. Apparantly they were made thousands of years ago by an emporer who wanted his army to be rememebered beacuse they were so great. Anyway..we had a great day and learnt a lot about the history of China thought these sculptures.

After the warriers we went to visit a school for mentally disabled children. The reason we went here is because Intrepid (my tour company) gives a lot of money to help this foundation through our tour costs. We sat and watched a show that the children put on for us and learnt a lot about the opportunities for mentally handicaped children in China. After visiting the school we went straighht to teh airport and flew to Yichang which is where we were to board the ship to take us around the 3 Gorges.

We arrived at the boat by 9pm (after the interesting flight of being ina 30 seat plane) and I went straight to bed as I was exhausted. The boat was a bit dingy and one night was definitely enough on it. The following day we lef the big ship for a small boat to go around teh 3 gorges. These were absolutely beautiful although the only bad thing was that there was a chinese tour guide who insited of speaking into a megaphone for the entire 4 hours in chinese!!!!! We all wanted to kill her by the end! We left the boat in teh afternoon and checked into a hotel in one of the communities around the 3 gorges area for one night.

The following day we were up at 8 to boat teh hydrofoil boat to take us back to Yichang. From here we went to have a look at teh dam project that is going on at the moment. They are building a huge dam to deal to with all teh floods that kill hundreds of people each year around the Yangtse river area. tehy are also having to relocate hundreds of thousands of people because they are raising teh water level so high to fuel a new power plant. The whole project is extimated to be cost around 40 billion US dollars.

After this we caught a 20 hour (yes, thats right..20 hours!) train to Beijing. This train was much nicer than our other sleeper traina s there were only 4 beds in a room and they evern had doors! luxury! no..it was absolutely fine, and we just sat and ate snacks all night and tehn got a good 8 hours sleep for once! The highlight was when 4 chinese students came and sat in our cabin with us (they were fascinated with Sam's long blond hair) and we (along with the help of our tour guide Richard) were able to converse with them.

We arrived into beijing at 2pm the follwong day and had free time until the next day.

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So we left Shanghai in the middle of the afternoon for Nanjing. This was a 2 hour train journey that passed really quickly whichwas good. Nanjing is a lot smaller than Shanghai and is less commerical but it is the capital of the south of China. We arrived into Nanjing around 5pm , checked into the hotel and headed out for dinner. We had a lovely banquet again (the food is amazing!) and then wandered around the night market before having a drink in a very posh hotel (for only 2 pounds ) and tehn having an early night.

The follwing day we went to the Mausoleum of the last emperor of China which was actually really intersting. It was set in a beautiful park and we spent aroud 3 hours there, climbing pagodas and learning about the history of China, especially the revolutions and the fall of the Emperors.

After this, we had a quick lunch of noodles and went back to the hotel to get ready for a very intersting journey to Xi'an. This was a 12 hour sleeper train that left at 5pm, arring in at 5am the follwing day. Well, this train was hysterical..beds were 3 bunks high and crammed together like sardines...in fact the entire train held 1500 people!! We were all exhausted so we settled into bed at 9pm (i scored a bottom bunk!) even though lights did not go out until 10 pm. Around 9:45 a chinese lady came around selling spinning toys that hummed happy birthday..so bizzare and it completely cracked me up!! The worst thing about teh journey was the smell of smoke...outside they are burning their crops for fertiliser and the smoke fills the train..well, it can;t be great for global warming!

We arrived at 6:30am (after being woken up at 4am!!!) and headed for our hotel in Xi'an. Its a lovely hotel, in a great location right in the center of the city. Today we just wandered around the market and went for a traditional meal of chinese dumplings!

Tonight we are going to muslim stret for dinner and some late night shopping, and tehn tomrorow we are seeing the sights of the city before heading to the Terracotta warriers the day after.

Take care

Danielle xxx

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So, I'm in China now..my final destination and last stamp in my passport.

I arrived into Shanghai on the morning of the 9th and my first impressions were good. The hotel i am staying in is lovely (a big step up from hostels!) and that is because I am doing an organised tour with Intrepid travel. My tour meeting was not until 5.30 pm so after pottering about teh hostel for a few hours i set out to see the city.

Shanghai is absolutely beautiful..probably one of my favourite cities I have ever seen. Our hotel is right in the center so I had a walk around, found some shopping malls and went to look at the impressive skyline at the Bund. The Bund is the financial district of Shanghai and has extremely impressive buildings along with the Pearl Tower which is kind of like teh CN tower but silver and pink..very bizarre.

Anyway, after eating my first lot of chinese food (very different to home by the way) i went to my group meeting where i met the other people in my group and got told how everything would be working. I am the youngest in teh group and teh age range is huge, but everyone is really lovely and sociable so its all good. We went out for dinner to a random chinese restaurant in a back street that our guide took us to, and he ordered a bunch of meals for us all to try...very interesting. All ic an say is that the 2 months in thailand have definitely paid off as i am now a master at the chopsticks whereas everyone else was struggling completey!

After dinner we went on a boat ride down by the Bund and there were fireworks going off everywhere because it was the 10th anniversary since HK became part of China.

The following day we were meeting at 9am..so i was up at 8 and went to get raekfast on teh mains treet, but couldnt because there were thousands of chinese people all dressed in Beijing 2008 teeshirts as part of a 'get fit for the olypics' program all doing their exercises. Great.

As a group, we all walked to the Museam of Shanghai which was not that interesting..mostly just artefacts and stuff. So i left quite quickly, and spent teh rest of teh day getting teh tourist tunnel to the Pearl and going up teh Pearl. The tourist tunnel is a bizzare way to cross teh river - you get into little pods that hold about 4 poeple and travel down a track as flashing lights and stuff come around you..i can;t describe it..its very very strange. After going up to teh top of the Pearl and taking teh obligatory photos i went to teh history museam at teh bottom which was really interesting and thn settled into Starbucks at the adjoining mall for the rest of the afternoon.

At night the group met up again and we went to see chinese acrobats! The show was absolutely amazing and i spent most of it with my hands covering my eyes because the stuff they were doing was so scary! The grand finally was 'the ball of death' where 5 men on motorbikes went into a huge ball on teh stage and rode around it...i was sure they would crash but they escaped without a scratch...obviously!

After the show we went and grabbed some noodles before heading to bed.

Today, we are going to Nanjing overnight before heading to Xi'an the following day. So i will update again as soon as possible.

Bye xxx

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So onto Hong Kong...

Completley exhausted after another sleepless night in Bangkok airport i luckily got on an earlier flight to HK, arriving in at 11am. My good luck ran out then as i had a fight with BA and Quantas as I tried to cahnge my flight to come home a few days earlier but it was not going to happen thanks to their stupidity.

After arriving at my hostel, checking in etc, i set off to see a bit of the city. By this time it was 3pm so i jsut wandered around my local area, taking in the amazing shopping centres and feeling a bit overwhelmed at the fact that i was back in a bustling city and no longer sunning myself on a thai beach! Also..it was freezing!! Well, it was 27 degrees but coming for 40 degrees i was cold.

I had an early night after going out for dinner with a couple of people from my hostel and then slept for a blissful 12 hours.

The next day I got up early and went to The Peak to have a look at teh view of HK, but it was overcast so the pics didnt turn out all that well. Oh well...due to teh bad weather i sat myself down in Pacific Coffee and took full advantage of teh free internet on offer there. The rest of the day as spent walking around Central and Causeway Bay shopping areas where i only window shopped due to how expensive everything is and my lack of money so near the end of my trip. Alll in all, it was a lovely day but reminded me of being home which wasn't so great (sorry!).

My final day in HK was spent in Kowloon having a wander around and then walking the Avenue of the Stars (a cheap copy of LA, but still nice as the view of the skyline is lovely). On my final night in HK, i went to see Oceans 13 at the cinems (a treat as i havent been to the movies in about 5 months!) which was excellent and then got to bed early as I was still catching up from all those late nights in Thailand!

All in all, HK was a great city..one i'm sure that i will be back to, but far too expensive and the shopping too tempting for a poor backpacker

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So this is my final update from SE Asia as i am heading back to Bangkok tomorrow and then off to Hong Kong the following day.

The second day of diving was just as good as the first..and i took an underwater camera down with me so I have lots of pictures of all the aquatic life! However, i think i was poisoned by the falafal restaurant (serves me right for not eating thai food) and i spent teh day on the boat feeling sick and not eating (which are not the best conditions for diving).

I came back after the course was finished and just had a chilled out night and went to bed early cause I was feeling ill, while Jo went out with the group of lads that are in the room next door to us.

The next few days passed in a blur of lying on the beach, going out for meals, and partying it up until 5am every night. The the full moon party came. Now, this island is absolutely lovely, and really really quiet and that is why me and Jo love it here. Once the full moon party approached the population increased tenfold and teh island became almost unbearable. The day of teh full moon party, you could barely walk down the street without haveing to say 'excuse me' every 2 seconds to get people to move out of the way!

The party itself was overrated. Far too many people, too hectic and just not that much fun...but it was an experience and we are glad that we went. My biggest recommendation to anyone would be to go to the 1/2 moon party over the full moon..100%.

Anyway, we left the party at around 4am (we are lightweights) and went to bed. At 11am the boys next door started banging on our door, woke us up and dragged us to teh after party on the cliff top overlooking the beach....the boys hadnt been to bed yet. And neither had anyone at the after party. Except us. Who were sober as a judge and everyone else was still drinking beer. Craziness.

Remembering the mess of the night before, me and Jo decided to give the beach a miss as we feared it would be covered with passed out bodies, shards of glass and general dirt. Instead we found a lovfely 5* resort that would let us use their pool and facilities for 100 baht for teh day (about 1 pound 50..so pretty reasonable). And so the past 3 days have been spent lying by a stunnin gpool and pretending we are living the life of luxury..only to go back to our cheap (yet cheerful) room at the end of the day.

To maximise time in the sun (and to work on my tan) we decided that the best possible option to get back to bangkok would be to fly...so tomorrow night we fly from Samui to Bangkok at 10pm, meaning i have another night of sleeping in the airport before my flight to Hong Kong the following morning. Jo is leaving to go home at 1am...so its all going to be a little bit rushed for her at bangkok..c'est la vie.

Anyway, next time I update it will be from Hong Kong and onto the final leg of my trip.

Hope everyone is well at home and counting down the days till I return.

love danielle xxx

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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My second last night in Laos and i mwet up with Hans and Jo. We went out for a great dinner then settled into my new favourite Bar to watch a movie. Its all very exiting stuff in Laos (well the country has an 11.30pm curfew!)

The following day I changed hostels again after the worst nights sleep ever! Upping my price to now $15 a night (and people thin laos is cheap..i tell you, i resent paying 7 pounds 50p for a room) i had a beautiful room 2 doors down from my last hostel. I spent teh day with Jo and Hans, going to see more temples before our final dinenr together and an early night all round.

On my final day in laos i met up with my friend Mike (whom i met in Fiji) for lunch and then took a tuk tuk to teh airport and it was farewell to Laos.

Great Country, great people...everyone should visit.

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Well, i know i have not updated for my entire time in laso, and this is because its been a really relaxed and chilled out week and there has not been too much to report...so i thought i would condense it into one blog entry.

Luang Prabang (LP) is an absolutely stunning french colonial town set upon the Mekong River. On our first night there a big group of us went out for dinner adn then had an early night as we were exhausted from our previous bad night's sleep in Pak Beng.

On my first full day in LP i just chilled out...sat by the river bank and read my book, had a tradittional lao massage and people watched from the quaint cafe's. At night a group of us went to the food amrket for noodle soup and then had a wander round the textile night market. Textiles is amajor industry in laos so it only seemed right to give back to the community and treat myself to a handwoven silk scarf!

Day 2 in Lp and we all hopped into a tuk tuk to take us to Tat Kuang Si. This is a multi tiered beautiful waterfall about 1 hour outside LP. We spent the best part of the day swimming there and en route back to LP we stopped at a laos village which was really interesting. AT night we all just went out for dinner again and wen to a bar. Everything closes in Laos at 11.30 due to government legislation so there s not too much to do at night (which is fine).

Day 3 in LP and i decided to be active and see the city. I visited the Royal Palace Museam, Wat Xieng Thong (probably the most beautiful temple i have ever seen) and i climed Phu Si (2000 steps..not so easy!). This gives great views over teh city and has some unique temples at the top.

I left LP the follwing morning for Vang Vieng. This was a 5 hour bus journey and was surprising fine (apart from the mountain road that left me almost throwing up!) On arrival into VV i was dissapointed. We had left this beautiful quaint town and arrived in a touristy building site, where every restaurant shows friends on widescreen tvs. I spent the afternoon trying to find a half decent place to stay and then met up with the dutch couple and olga for dinner.
Then me and Olga went to a bar which was full of backpackers and i felt like i was in Australia again..very strange.

I only had one full day in VV and i spent it tubing on the river. The tuk tuk drives u 3 kilometres upstreamand u float all teh way back to teh start. This started really fun and you can go along loads of ziplines over the river, and there are bars and restaurants all the way along so you can stop and just relax for a while. Then the weather changed and it got cloudy and the wind picked up and started to blow us the wrong way!! It was not amusing..there we were..the 4 of us frantically paddling to stopus from going in the wrong direction! Eventually we gave up and got out of the river, grabbed a tuk tuk and headed back home.

That night we sat and watched friends in a restaurant for about 2 hours (you think thats bad..the guy sitting next to me had been there for 11!) and had an early night.

The next morning i caught the bus to Vientiene. This bus journey was not as good as the previous one as it was hot, cramped and took twice as long as it should have...oh well..the joy of public transport in Laos. I arrived late afternoon, checked into my guesthouse and me Olga for dinner. WE had a great meal (the food here is awesome!) and then we wernt to a bar called the Chicago Bar where we put on a movie on the wide screen, sat on compfy sofas watching it and sipped on cocktails..all for less than 1pound!

Today I got up early and checked into a cheaper guesthouse and then set off on a supposadly 6 hour walk arounda ll the cites of the city. It took me 2 and a half hours (i have no idea where tehy got 6 hours from - the city is small). I visited Patuxai (which looks like teh Arc de Triuph in Paris) and climbed up it to get great views of the city. Then i walked throuhg some markets and onto That Dam which is one of VIetiene's oldest Buddist stupas. I then visited a couple more temples and some big foutain in the centre, before going to JoMa's cafe (such a good palce..its a chain here) for lunch and a read of the Laos times (which is in english). Thats about it for Laos so far...I leave for Vietnam on the 29th.

Till next time
Danielle xxx

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So, I have just spent the past 3 days travelling by bus and boat, and although the scenery was amazing..ther novelty wears off after about 1 day of it!

Anyway, here's how the last 3 days panned out...

I was up really early to be picked up by the shuttle bus that would take us to the Thai border. The bus (which was supposed to come at 8am) finally turned up at 10am. It was one of those little minibuses with no aircon and no radio..oh, and it was full to maximum capacity. There we were, 9 of us, crammed in like sardines, absolutely sweltering and stuck on this bus until 6pm. Great. Actually, it was fine because the people were a good laugh and we did a couple of stops at some random markets where the bus driver gets commission if we buy anything. We had a little fight with the driver cause he kept stopping at travel agents trying to get us to buy Laos visas off them for more than the price at the border, because then he gets commission. When we refused, he took a strop and started driving really erratically from then on.

We arrived into Chiang Khong at around 6pm and went straight to the guesthouse which was basic but perfectly fine. Once again we were tried to buy a visa but we were having none of it. We all went to bed early anticipating the boat trip to follow.

We were all up early again to go to the border crossing and this went smoothly and was much cheaper than at any travel agent. Needless to say we were very pleased with ourselves for standing our ground. After being stamped out of Thailand, we got a short boat ride over to Laos where we got stamped in. The we boarded a long boat that would be home for the next 2days. This boat can fit about 150 people sitting, and i reckon there were about 200 people on the boat. The seats are wooden and lined up so that there is pretty much no leg room and they are probably the most uncomfortable woodenbenches you have ever sat on. So, teh 2 days passed relatively slowely as we all tried to find a position that didnt kill our backs.

Halfway through the trip we stopped at a place called Pak Beng for the night. It was adequate (but for 100baht a night you can't really complain!) and a group of us went out for a nice dinner. What wasn;t so great was the electrical storm later on that shut off all power! It was an experience.

Day 2 on the boat was pretty much the same as day 1 and we arrived into Luang Prabang at 6pm. Luang Prabang is such a lovely quaint town and i'm going to spend a few days here to chill out. The main street is lined with lovely antique shops and smart restaurants that only cost about 3 pounds for a meal. The guesthouse that i am staying at only have 4 rooms, so a group of us are all staying there which is nice.

Hope all is good at home

love Danielle xxx

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So, I left bangkok at 6pm and did not arrive into Chiang Mai until 8am the following day. Luckily i had 2 seats to myself on the overnight bus, but the air conditioning was at full blast and some random Thai film was blaring in my ear, so all in all it was not a very pleasant journey!

I went straight to my hotel and was pleased with the quality of the place..so far so good with teh travel agent i booked this leg of my trip with. I didn't do much that first day as I was completely exhausted, so I just took a wander into town where it became apparant that the Thai New Year water festival was already in full swing. After getting completley soaked (and i was unarmed so it was really unfair) i headed back to the hotel and just chilled by the pool for the rest of the day. That night I had been handed a free Kantoke dinner evening by the travel agent because i booked a lot with them, so at 7pm I was picked up and taken to this huge dinner thing. I have never been given so much food ever, but it was all really good, and once everyone had finished their meal, thai dancers came onto the stage and performed some traditional dances. Then we went outside and some performers did some fire dances which were really spectacular.

The next day I went to an all day cookery class which was really worthwhile. They picked me up at 9am and we got taken to the cookery school. This time I was safe in a car with the windows locked, so we did not get wet en route. The drive was so random...thousands and thousands of people had lined the canal that circles the city of Chiang Mai and all had water guns, big buckets of ice cold water, or mere water balloons. It is the most bizzare thing I have ever seen.

At the cooking class we made green curry paste, pad thai, green chicken curry, papaya salad, spring rolls, banana fritters, basi chicken and some more things i cant rememeber. Oh, and we ate everything we made, so I was completley stuffed by the time 5pm came and it was time to go home. I met some really nice people on the course and we all headed out to the Night Bazzar that evening for a little bit of shopping.

The following day I was starting my trekking through the jungle, and this was definately an experience. The people all going on the trek from my hotel didn't speak much english and I thought that I was in for a relaly boring 3 days, but we met up with another van load of poeple and they were all really nice people. On the first day of the trek we drove for 3 hours in an open top car (yup, thats right, we got drenched going through the streets of chiang mai, and teh villages surrounding!) to the elephant park, where we rode on elephants for about 1 hour. This was awesome and a great introduction to the trekking. After some lunch we drove to teh start of the trek and then the hard work began. On that first day we literally climed a mountain for 3 hours and I was completely ready to pass out by the time we got to camp. Once we had relaxed for a bit, our guide took us round the village that we were staying in and explained to us the life of the hill tribes which was really fascinating, and I will tell you all more about that wen i get home. It was early to bed because we were so exhausted. The following day was another full day of hiking up and down mountains (i can;t decide which is better..going uphill or downhill because my knees still hurt!). This day was pretty uneventful. The final day was te best...we only walked for about 2 and a half hours and then we went swimming in the most beautiful waterfall to freshen up. After that we drove to the bamboo rafting and we all got on huge bamboo rafts and got taken down the river for about an hour. This was so so strange because the water festival was still in full stride adn lining the river were thousands of people all throwing water at the poeple on the bamboo rafts. I think we were dry for the forst 30 seconds. All along the river they are having a party, drinking beer and eating chiken, and they were including us the whole way...random Thais were coming up- to our rafts with big glasses of beer and handing them out to us...it was so much fun! Its really hard to describe what it was like and unfortunately i do not have any pictures because my camera would have broken with all the water....its just teh biggest water fight and drinking festival ever known to man.

Once back safely in Chiang Mai we all had hot showers before meeting in teh town for a group dinner which was really nice. We stumbled upon a thai boxing match as well and a lady boy parade (ye, there are loads of lady boys here, its very strange and it is really hard to tell if they are real women or not!).

Yesterday i just had a chilled out day and i spent most of the day by the swimming pool having a well deserved rest from the trekking. I met some really cool people and we just did nothing all day which was luxurious. At night me and Luke took his moped into the town (probably the scariest ride of my entire life..thought we were going to crash and die because the traffic here is manic) and we got some thai massages for like 4 pounds. Bliss. We then met up with some more people from the pool and all went out for dinner and did a bit of shopping in the night bazzar. It was a good day.

Today I am starting a 3 day journey into Laos which I am really looking forward to. Hope everything at home is okay and please keep in touch.

Love Danielle xxxxx

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Well i am safe and sound back in the Northern Hemisphere ( ) after a 25 hour journey from Fiji. After being knocked back when asking for an upgrade (yet again..u gotta ask) i realsied i was in the very back seat of the plane and the seat did not recline! i was not a happy bunny. On the plus side i watched some great movies, saw an amazing sunset through the plane window and got chatting to Rob who was sitting next to me. On arrival into Bangkok, me, Rob and some other random girl with a backpack all got into a taxi to the Khoa San rd (backpackerdom). 800 baht, 2 toll road costs, and 45 mins later we were at the hotel and ready to crash. Hotel was absolutely stunning (i had decided to splash out a bit for my first 2 nights) and slept like a baby.

The next morning me and Rob met a couple of guys whilst trying to barter for some fisherman pants, and we ended up spending the day together. After some shopping and pad thai for lunch (which costs around 40 pence here) we decided to get into some tuk tuks. For those of you who don;'t know what these are, they are a cross between a car and a motorbike. Basicalyl very fast, dangerous vehicles that transport you around the city for very little money. We wanted to go to see the Grand Palace and th Giant Buddha. They took us to these sites but then insisted on taking us to 2 tailer shops (and they were surprised when we didnt want to buy anything?!), and a temple that not only was closed for renovation, but there was a funeral going on at the same time! There we were...4 travellers clad in fisherman pants and singlets, wearing flip flops..and we just walked into a buddist funeral. Great. We couldnt get out of there fast enough! Once back at the khao san rd we spend about 10 mins bartering with the tuk tuk drivers for the price, and we left satisfied having only paid 10baht (there is about 70 baht to the pound) for an hour long tour of the city. Sweet.

We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon..went swimming etc and then headed out at night back to the madness. We bought noodles from a street vendor and then had some beer on the side of the road. Was a good night, but me and rob were so tired still from the journey, that we left the other guys and went back to the hotel.

Today i am just getting ready fro my trip to Chiang Mai. I leave at 6pm tonight and spend 12 hours on a bus up north, arriving just in time for the Thai new year where there are giant water fights on teh streets of the city for 5 days. i am going trekking in the jungle for a few days whilst i am there before heading into Laos.

Hope all is well at home

Danielle xxxx

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So, I am sitting in Sydney airport after a 4 hour flight from Fiji and i have 4 hours to kill before my flight to Thailand, so i decided this would be a good time to update my blog on the past week's events.

I left Auckland first thing in the morning for Fiji, and arrived mid afternoon. The heat hit me as soon as i walked off the plane which was a welcome surprise since NZ was just going into winter. I had my first expereince of 'Fiji Time' in the airport when we were told the courtesy bus would be picking us at at 4pm, and didnt turn up till 5pm. Great. I must be the most punctual person in the world so this was a shock to my system!

I arrived at the hostel (which was absolutely beautiful) and met up with Claire again. After dinner and relaxing we headed to bed because we were going to picke dup at 7am the following morning to start island hopping.

At 7:45 the next morning, we were picked up (again, fiji time - see above) and taken down to the harbour where we boarded the boat to take us up to the Yasawa group of islands. There are 336 islands in Fiji and they are grouped into 15 lots. We were staying on 2 islands only, but visitng many more.

It took 4 hours to reach our island which was called Nayuna Lailai. Basic does not descibe it. Our room was one big dorm and i had a top bunk with a ladder that i was seriosuly scared would come away from teh bed if i climed on top of it. thsi resulted in a 2 man operation of claire hoisting me up on the bed. Great. The toilets were vile, the place was ridden with mozzies and teh food was pure stodge. other than that we were set in paradise, surrounded by palm trees, crystal clear ocean and probably some of the most friendly people i have ever met. We spent 2 nights on this island. The activities on the first night consisted on a crab race - all very exciting stuff..before heading to bed early. Food was served at 7am, 12pm and 7pm, and everyone on the island sits down together to each meal, which is really nice and it means that you get to know people really well. On the next day we went to the Sawailau Caves which involved swimming underwater to reach into teh caves, then resting in air pockets..was really beautiful. That afternoon we hiked for about an hour to reach the Blue Lagoon and we spent around 2 hours snorkelling in amazingly clear waters before heading back to the resort. That night there were no organised activities, so we took it upon ourselves to creat a bar around a box of lifejackets. there we were, 8 of us, one bottle of lethal 60% Bounty Rum and 3 cans of Coke to mix it with - made for a very funny night. lets leave it at that.

The next morning we headed back onto the boat to take us to the Wanna Taki. This is a liveaboard boat around the Naviti area. We had such fun on this boat. Everyone (24 people) all slept in the same room (and it was airconditioned - such a luxury) and you could snorkel, swim, kayak, fish etc straight off the boat. The views were spectacular and every night we sat on the top deck drinking cocktails and sampling some Kava. Kava is a the national drink of Fiji and its made from some pepper tree roots and water. It tastes of filthy water and really has no appeal. Apparantly, if you drink enough of it then it will make your entire body go numb. There is a whole procedure for drinking the kava, and it is offensive to refuse it if someone offers it to you. The fist night i didnt try any of the vile tasting drink becausei had a dive booked for te next morning, and nothing was going to spoil that!

My dive was off Manta Ray island -another tropical paradise island. the dive was miuch better than my dives in Australia and fuelled my desire to do some more! (this is bad because it is not a cheap hobby!) The rest of the timeon the boat was spent sunbathing and snorkelling in different locations. On our second day on the boat, some of our friends from the Kiwi bus joined us which was a lovely reunion.

We left the boat the following afternoon and headed for our final island - South Sea Island. Now, i am not exaggerating when i saw that we could walk around the entire island in less than 5 minutes. The entire island consisted of the rest or we were staying in and thats it! We watched a lovely sunset when we arrived and then me, martin (my new dive buddy from the trip) and the instructor did a night dive straight off the beach. Well, let me tell you...it was so good that i went to bed that night with a smile on my face. Enough said. The next morning i woke up and had managed to convice claire to do an intro dive (she is scared of the water so this was a major feat for me!) so i waved her off, had some breakfast and then got my gear together to do my third and final dive on Fiji. this was a shipreck dive which was awesome and the deepest dive i have done at 23m. the rest of the day was spent sunbathing, swimming around the island (takes 20 mins) and we had a huge BBQ lunch which was fantastic!

We were picked up by the boat at 5;30pm and it was really sad because we had made so many friends and had to say goodbye to all of them, and headed back into Nadi (pronounced Nandi because thy put a 'n' before every 'd'). It was 7:00pm by the time we arrived back at the hostel, and we had a quick dinner with our friend Ben (someone we met in Queenstown) before heading to bed as we had to get up at 5:30am this morning.

All in all, it was a week of complete heaven (apart from the mozzies on the first island) and i recommend everyone to go there to chill out.

My next update will be from Thailand - take care everone

Bula! xxx

Paradise..oops..i mean Fiji remains copyright of the author daniG, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hope you are all well and not missing me too much

So, we left Kaikoura in the morning and travelled by bus up to Picton where we would get the ferry back over to Wellington and cross over into North Island. It was a beautiful drive along the coastline where we spotted some more seals (i swear, they are everywhere in NZ) and through the wine region. The ferry journey was pretty (going through the Marlbourgh Sounds) and then it was straight into Wellington. Me and Claire decided that we would spend 2 nights in Wellington because (a) it is a really lovely city and (b) we didnt really see much of it last time acuse we were partying too much..oops! We went to some bars at night before having a reasonably early one. On our free day in Wellington we took the cable car up to the top of the city (its build on a hill) and took some great photos and then had a walk round the bottanical gardens (which seems to be a regular occurance with us in cities!). After this we met one of Claire's friends for some coffee before heading back to the hostel and calling it a day.

From Wellington we journeyed to Taupo again. Our bus driver to Taupo was slightly strange and tried to get us to play wierd get to know you games...we were having none of it! We arrived in Taupo mid afternoon and we met up with LJ (our bus driver through the west coast of South Island) and he took us to some natural hot springs with his new bus. That night we went out for dinner to a really cool Mexican restaurant where they give you free monkey nuts and you throw the shells on the floor (very random, i know) followed by partying with LJ and his crew which was a great night. The following day we had a free day to chill out so we went to the Kiwi House (yes..the bus drivers get houses in some places that they can all stay at and they have sky tv and baths etc - thats a real treat when you;ve been on the road for over 3 months!) Anyway, we chilled out in the house watching movies all day - i have never been so pleased to see a couch in my life (its funny the things u miss!).

We left Taupo the following morning for Auckland and this was going to be our final bus journey with the Kiwi Experience.

There is not really that much to say about Auckland as i have been here twice before. Me and Claire met up with some friends from Queenstown and went out a few nights with them, and spent a great deal of time in the $6 Asian foodcourt. Apart from that, we really just got ourselves ready for Fiji. Claire left for Fiji yesterday and i leave tomorrow. Last night i went out with a group of people to celebrate Ben's birthday which was a great night out but I am very ready to leave Auckland.

I'll update after I have been sunbathing and diving in Fiji!
xxxxxxxxxx

The end of Kiwi Exp...:( remains copyright of the author daniG, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our final day in Queenstown was pretty non eventful...we did our washing, sorted out our bags, had one final Fergburger and said our goodbye's to people. The following day was a 9 hour bus journey to Christchurch. Surprisingly the journey went quite quickly and we actually got speaking to some cool people during the journey. En route, we stopped off to get a great view of Mount Cook which was 'sweet as'! When we arrived into Christchurch we were met by some people we thought we were not going to see again which was awesome, and we all went out for dinner before heading to the hostel bar to see a sweet Juggling show.

On our first full day in Christchurch we went to the gym (felt the need for some excercise for some strange reason!) and then me, Claire and Tom took a picnic to the bontanical gardens and lay there all day. AT night we went to teh bar where they had a Magic show which was pretty cool and then we all went up to the Penthouse (its basically still dorm rooms but on the top floor and they have their own tv room and kitchen - Dave (one of our friends) was staying there so we got to use all the facilities ) with some wine and chilled out.

Day 2 in Christchurch - we hung out around Cathedral Square and went to the markets where we bought some Poi (really hard to describe...kinda like ribbon dancing stuff) and then went back to the park to practice with them. We then had a look round the Art Centre which was really cool. At night, we went to one of the suburbs for dinner with come of Claire's friends (she was working in Christchurch prior to the Kiwi Experience) which was really fun - it was nice to hang out with some Kiwi people rather than just travellers for a change.

Now we are in Kaikoura where we have spend the day chilling out by the beach and continuing with the practice of poi. I dont have enough money to go whale watching so i gave that one a miss. Tomorrow we are heading back into the North Island to Wellington.

Speak soon xxxxxxxx

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We left Wanaka first thing in the morning and headed to Puzzling World which is a museam like place which is all about illusions. There is a maze that takes about 40 mins to work yourself around and an illusion room which seriosuly messes with your head. I have great pics from it, but i cant really explain what it is like! sorry...

En route to Queenstown we had a minor mishap when the luggage compartment in our bus flew open whilst driving down a hill, and loads of rucksacks flew out onto the road. Yeah..that took a while to sort out, but luckily my bag was fine!

We also stopped at the worlds first commercial bungy jump site - Kawarau Bridge. This is a 43 m jump, and no, i did not do it - are you crazy?! We watched a short show on the history of the bungy and then a few people from the bus did the jump and we stood on the platform and cheered them on. We arrived into Queenstown at around 4pm.

Queenstown is the extreme activities capital of the world...if you want to jump out a plane, jump off a bridge, go white water rafting, do a canyon swing etc etc, then this is the palce to do it. Therefore, the town is full of adrenaline seeking backpackers which means a great night life also exists!

On our first night, we had a huge night out because me and claire had finally met up with the guys that we had travelled north island with, so it was a big reunion...also, it was Justin;s birthday so everyone was in party spirits. We went to a couple of bars, including the World ar where they serve you drinks in tea pots - no joke!

The next day we just chilled out and had a look round Queenstown, and caught up with some friends. It was an early night as all this partying is starting to take its toll on us!

Day 3 in Queenstown we went to Fergbuger (probably the best burger bar i have ever been to - seriously!) - me claire and dave, and then we just pottered arounda again...we dont really have any money to do any more extreme activities. At night we chilled out with our dorm mates (who turned out to be the biggest laugh ever) before headoing out to Altitude and World bar for another big night out.

The next morning we were heading onto the Bottom Bus which is basically a loop around the south of New Zealand. It was quite a sad morning because we had to say goodbye to everyone that we had met so far because they were all leaving for Christchurch, so it was an emotional morning with about 30 goodbyes, including out bus driver LJ who is an absolute legend. (We're probs going to meet up with him again on our way north though so its cool). We got on the Bottom Bus which only seats around 20 people - a big contrast to the 45 seater that we have travelled south on. We slept most of the way to Dunedin, arriving there around 4pm. This is a very prominant Scottish town and it is mainly a university town. There is astatue of Robert Burns in the centre and it hosts the Speights brewery and Cadbury's World (NZ and Oz version). We had a walk around the town centre, before having an early night.

The next mornign we left for Invergargil, but didnt actually arrive there until 7pm. En route we stopped at the Catlins (the southernest point in NZ) and we went to see some sea lions. These are wild sea lions and just perch on teh beach. They weigh about 5 times my boday weight and can eat you. We had to be really really careful walking past them because they can sense people and at some poitns we definately broke into a run just to escape them. It didnt help when Barbara (our resident 77 year old on the Kiwi bus who has done more extrere activities than the rest of us put together - no joke) fell and that sparked off the sea lions interest in us. great. We couldnt get back on the bus quick enough!!

We then went to a fossilised rainforest which was soooo boring because we were nmade to wait for an hour and a half in the freezing cold for some stupid penguins that never turned up!

When we finally arrived in Invercargill we were tired and hungry so we went to the Speights brewery for dinner (yes, it doesnt just sell beer!) and then went to bed.

Day 3 on the Bottom Bus was Claires birthday so we had big celebrations. It was also St Paddys day so, everywhere was pretty lively anyway. We were heading to Te Anau today. en route we stopped off at a Paua jewellery making factory and made some neclaces which was pretty cool, and then whilst some of the group went to a farm to sheer a sheep (no thanks!), the rest of us went out for lunch for claires bday. We arrived mid afternoon in Te Anau and had a lovely dinner out and some drinks in the local pub before crashing into bed.

The next day was suppsoed to be one of the highlights of NZ, but i think it is overrated. Todayw e were going to Milford Sound. Firstly, we were really annoyed cause nobody told us that the clocks went back, so we were up an hour earlier than we had to be!! It took around 3 hours to get to Milford Sound from Te Anau and it was absolutely beautiful. (But, we thought that Abel Tasman national park and the Glaciers were nicer). We did a 2 hour cruise around the Sound (which is actually not a Sound, its a Fiordland..but to be fair, i dont really know the difference). We were surrounded by amazing mountaisn with waterfalls cascading down them - absolutely stunning and the pictures do not do it justice!

The journey back took 5 hours to Queenstown and we went out again at night to celebrate Claire's birthday again (just because Queenstown is a more lively place than Te Anau).

Today is our final day in Queenstown before heading to Christchurch tomorrow. Think that that is everything up to date now.

hope everyone is well at home

xxxxxxxxxx

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Hope everyone is well and missing me loads

So,at Franz Joseph i went on a helihike - basically, a 15 minute helicoper rde up to the top of the glacier and then a 2 hour hike in the glacier, before getting a helicopter ride back down. The ride was incredible..i had never been on a helicopter before and the views surrounding the glacier were unlike anything i had ever seen. On arrival at the top, we met our guide and got all kitted up with spikes and the like before setting out. Walking on ice is so strange and took a few minutes to get used to. Luckily i didnt fall over, but certain people in the group did, which was quite funny! We walked through crevises and caves, and even jumped into an ice cold plunge pool with all our gear on, just for a laugh. It didnt seem so funny when we got out and were freezing cold with still another 40 minutes to hike! Regardless, it was an amazing trip. Going back down to the mainland, our pilot did some nifty tricks in teh helicopter, spinning us around and pretending to crash into mountains. great!

We just chilled out in the afternoon and it was really quiet because the majority of people were doing the full day hike over the glacier or sky diving. It was an early night to bed after a great day. We left Franz at 7.30am the next day and started our long journey to Wanaka. Despite the lengh, it was probably the best journey we have had in terms of scenery - just absolutely stunning!

We stopped off at Lke Matheson which is a really dark, still lake surrounded by mountains such as Mt Cook (very famous here) and Mt Tasman. Because of the colour of the lake, these mountains reflect perfectly in the water, so was an amazing sight. After a quick breakfas, we set out back on the road. We stpped off at a few viewpoints en route, including Haast River which had a very cool waterfall, Thundercreek Waterall and Ship Cove.

On arrival into Wanaka, we checked into our hotel...yes, thats right.HOTEL (not hostel for once!) and went to check out the town. Its a very small town with a population of only 4000 (but that increases during the ski season) but in a beautiful setting. ME and Claire just sat by the lake for a while and tehn joined some of the bus group for a BBQ at the bar accross the road from the hostel. It was another fairly early night beacuse today we are heading to Queentown where we are meeting up with our friends from North Island and its going to be a huge party!

Speak soon

xxxxx

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sorry its been a while since my last update, but i've just been too busy and been having too much fun!!!

Ok here goes...

Abel Tasman national park is absolutely stunning and i think its fair to say that i have never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. The park is luch forests surrounded by crystal clear turquoise waters with random islands hosting seal colonies scattered around. Me and Claire were up at the crack of dawn to catch our bus to the park, after an emotional goodbye to all our friends we had made since Auckland. (They were all leaving a couple of nights before us and were not coming to the park - idiots.) So off we go, feeling slightly miserable but looking forward to teh days to come. On arrival we boarded a water taxi to take us to the north of the park and the plan was for us to walk for around 4 hours to Bark Bay, stay there overnight in a hut, and then kayak the rest of the way the following day back to the start. We headed out on our walk and the views were amazing, and everything went well until we realised that the tide was still in and we had to cross to teh other side - great! There we were, walking in our bikinis, holiding and bags, clothes and trainers over our heads trying to cross the river - was a funny site and dont worry, i have plenty of pics!

We arrived at Bark Bay aroun 3pm and set about for a difficult few hours sunbathing on thte golden beach - its a hard life, i know. Accomodation for the night was interesting to say the least. It was basically a hut with 2 rooms, and each room have 14 mattresses. That was it. But, due to the fact we had been out partying late for the past few weeks, mixed with the efforts of our 4 hour hike (and i was not very well) meant that we actually went to sleep at 8pm and slept for a blissful 12 hours.

The next day was the kayaking and we had been told that if we were ever going to go sea kayaking, then this was the place to do it. There were 8 of us kayaking (so 4 kayaks) and our guide. It was really hard work but so much fun. AT a couple of points when the wind picked up, we all joined the kayaks together and the guide got out a sail and we made a little boat and sailed for a few kilometres. All in all, we kayaked for 15 kilometres back to the start. Lets just say my shoulders were in agony the following day, but it was well worth it!

A couple of guys in our kayak group had a car so tehy drove us back to the hostel in Nelson and we had an early dinner and crashed into bed.

The next day we were up early to get on our new bus to Westport. New bus, new driver, new people - lets just say me and claire were very sceptical as our last bus had been fantastic. Well, our new driver LJ is just as good as Dave, and the people are 'sweet as'. NZ slang meaning 'cool'). Off we drove to Wesport, stopping off for a lovely scenic walk and more photo opportunitys. Westport is a bit of a dead town with nothing in it..its just a palce to stay overnight to break up the journey. We all went out for some pizza and beer, and set about trying to learn a new set of 40 names.

The Poo Pub. What can i say. Its the oldest hotel in NZ, and it looks it. On the way we went to see the Pancake rocks and we stopped off in a town to buy costumes for the party that night. Ona rrival at teh hotel, the 82 year old owner, Les, came onto teh bus to explain how the night was going to run. LJ and Les cooked a fantasic meal for only $10 each first. Then, we all went to get dressed up for our party. This pub holds a fancy dress party every night of the week for teh Kiwi bus, and on teh walls of teh bar there are photos of every group since 1990 ish - all in costume. Its very very strange. Anyway, our theme was occupations, and i went as an artist. Fully equippedwith my apron, paint brushes and paint i set about painting the rest of teh bus. (little did i know that 2 days later, the paint wont shift!). People were dressed up in all kinds of things. We had - a cleaner, a plyboy bunny, borat, the spice girls, scuba divers, a nun, someone who works at KFC etc etc. It was a fantastic night and the costumes rocked!

Tired, we all got up really early the nect day to drive to Franz Josef...now LJ thought that it would be a great idea to continue the fancy dress theme...so we all packed onto teh bus in last nights clothes and let me tell you, we got some funny looks on the way...especially when claire adn LJ swapped costumes and our bus driver was now dressed head to foot as a playboy bunny! It got ever funnier when the bus broke down adn LJ had to hitch a ride back to the nearest town in his playboy costume to find a mechaninc. Classic. We visited a musean en route to Franz where we saw some possums and watched a videa about deer hunting - was a bit strange, but hey, its the wild west out here!

We arrived at Franz quite late because of the stupid bus that broke, and had a quick dinner before bed. In an hour i'm going on a helicopet ride over teh glaceiers, and tehn they drop you at the top of the gaciers and we hike for 2 hours ebfore being brought back down by helicopter - am soo excited!

keep in touch everyone

xxxxxxxxx

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So, i have now left Wellington, and am in the South Island of NZ. My visa for Vietnam came through in 24 hours so we decided to get on the bus with our friends to the south.

What did we do in Wellington? Well, we had some great nights out (that i am not going to describe - you'll just have to wait for the photos!) and on our second full day in W. me and Claire went to the museam, which was amazing, and then just chilled out in the hostel and grabbed an early night.

The next morning at 6am we were up to catch our ferry to Picton. We had a new driver for this leg of the journey and he was nowhere near as good as Dave, our driver thoughout north island - c'est la vie! Anyway, me, Claire, Jonno, Chris, Nick, Ewan and Ashley were the only one left of our group, and we spent the 3 hour ferry ride playing cards and catching up on some well needed sleep! On arrival, we started our drive to NElson, which is the sunniest place in NZ apparantly. En route, we stopped at a winery and tried out some wine and olive oils - was lovely and they tried to make us buy cases of 12 bottles...do they not know that we are backpackers!?!?

Next we stopped off at a wateringhole fopr a swim and some lunch before arriving in Nelson around 4pm. We were reunited with teh rest of our group and had one last big night out together. That half of the group left this morning after rudely wakening us up at 6am to say goodbye - thanks!

Today, me and claire and the rest of the guys are just going to chill out and get ourselves ready for the next 2 days - we are going into the Abel Tasman National Park for a 2 day walking and kayaking trip, which should be amazing!

i'll update soon

xxx

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We had one more night in Taupo partying...but it was not a big one because we were due to leave the following day to River Valley quite early in the morning.

En route to River Valley, we drove through the Tongariro National Park, which is wrld heritage listed and absolutely beautiful. We did a 2 hour hike which was stunning, and included seeing such sights as Mount Doom (the big volcano where frodo eventually puts the ring into at the end of Lord of the Rings) and some lovely waterfalls (where the boys had great fun jumping off cliffs into!) I felt sorry for my friend Claire who tripped over her ankle about 10 mins into the walk and sprained it...but not too bad - our bus driver Dave carried her for the entire hike!

Back on the bus, we continued to River Valley. This is a lodge in the middle of nowhere where you can go white water rafting. However, there has not been much rain here for a few weeks, so the river was too low to go rafting - so annoying!!

The accomodation was very different, shall we say! We were put in 20 bed dorms, which basically translates into very little sleep. After a great roast cooked by the lodge and plenty of beer, we all crashed in the dorm. It was an extremely funny night - but one of those you had to be there' situations.

We left river valley around 12pm the following day and spent the entire day on the bus to Wellington. Arriving around 6pm, me Claire, Nick, Jonno, Chris and Tim all made a huge Spag Bol for dinner before joingin the rest of the bus for drinks and dancing in downtown Wellington.

Today, me and Claire headed off to the Vietnam Embassy so i could get my visa, and then did a wee bit of shopping. We have some time here before we move to South Island so just planning on chilling for a while.

Speak soon

xxx

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