The Big Trip...

Hey everyone

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

Hey everyone

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

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