Friday, 1 April 2011

Town of 1770 - Scooteroo

After 4 days of no sleep and lots of drinking on the Clipper and in Airlee, we were both absolutely exhausted. Our next stop was a tiny little town called 1770. There wasn't much going on here except for a nice, almost deserted beach with really good surf and the amazing Scooteroo.
Chilling by the pool.

The hostel we stayed in was almost like a nature retreat, with each dorm being in its own log cabin around a small lake. It was just the type of place we needed to chill out and refresh. The only two other people in our dorm were two Swiss girls, Tammy and Manu, who had already been there a couple of nights before we got there. Scooteroo had been cancelled for that day because of the weather so we intended on getting an early night as we were so tired. Tammy and Manu, who were just happy to have two people to talk to in their dorm, had other ideas and managed to convince us (fairly easily) to share a box of goon with them. I was asleep on the hammock outside our dorm by 11:00 whilst the other three kept on drinking.
Gravy, me and Nash before Scooteroo

The next day we woke up and the weather was amazing. Scooteroo didn't start until 3:00 so we had all day to sit by the pool until then. Gravy (who we met on the clipper) and the girls from Bolton who we met in Airlee Beach had now arrived to do Scooteroo as well. Scooteroo is the most unique thing I have ever done. Some crazy Aussie has bought 60 Harley Davidson style chopper motor bikes, stripped the engine out of them and put a 50cc moped engine in there instead.

He gives you leather jackets and fake tattoos and takes you on a tour of the coastal roads around 1770 and then over to the harbor to watch the sunset. Apparently the locals hate it, which I can understand as 60 mopeds make a hell of a lot of noise. The sunset itself was really good, setting over the bay at Agnes Water.
Some of the bikes lined up
Tammy and Manu at sunset.
Gravy, Nash and Me at sunset
Me, Tammy, Nash, Manu and Gravy before Scooteroo.

Monday, 21 March 2011

The Whitsunday Islands.

The Whitsundays are a chain of islands off the coast of Queensland near a town called Airlee beach. There are loads of boat companies offering tours but we were booked onto the "party boat", The Clipper. It holds up to 50 people, has a hot tub and a water slide. Airlee beach is a great little place. Theres only one main street but theres a really good atmosphere as people are either waiting to do their trip or have just come off it and are going on nights out with people they met on the boats.

We stayed in a Nomads hostel on our first night and had a dorm with 3 Swedish guys and 2 English girls who we went out with that night. The 2 English girls, Anne-Marie and Laura, were from Bolton and we've kept bumping into them all the way down the coast.

The next day we got up early to get our alcohol supplies for the boat and to go to the harbour and check in. As soon as we got aboard, we hit it off with a group of English guys. Charlie and Sam who were posh farmer boys from Bedfordshire and absolutely hillarious. There was also Chris, George and Gravy (named that because he wears and "I love gravy" t-shirt) who were all 18 from the South Coast.

George, Chris, Gravy, Nash and Me.

The Clipper
After being introduced to the crew, we made our first stop on one of the smaller islands which has nothing on it but a little 30 bed resort. It's run by this crazy Aussie called Benny. It was a beautiful resort and we were pretty much the only people there at the time. We had a few sangrias by the pool and then got put into teams for the games and talent contest that were happening that night. Me and Nash were in team Wankish with 4 girls, all from Wales.
Benny's resort.
We jumped back on the tenders and headed back to the boat for our first snorkelling trip. It was also the first chance we got to jump of the 8m top deck and make use of the water slide. The snorkelling was really good, probably better than it had been on my dive trip in Cairns as it was much shallower and less damaged by cyclone Yatsi as it was sheltered by the islands. We saw clown fish in an anenome with its babies, sea turtles, reef sharks etc.
Me, Gravy and Nash three-way water slide.
We got back on the boat for a baked fish dinner and after that started playing a crazy drinking game that Gravy made up on the spot. I couldn't begin to explain all the rules again but it was the best drinking game I've ever seen.
"Poke-ball ring of fire"
By the time 9pm and the talent contest cam around everyone was pretty drunk which made it even funnier. Team Wankish did a mini cheerleading routine followed by a Chris Nash striptese to some poor girl we dragged out of the audience. It's in everyones interest that I don't put photos of this on here. We won the talent contest easily because of his performance though.

Cheerleading with Sarah, Briony, Lauren and Cath.
All through the games it had been raining sideways and even though we were under cover on deck, everyone was soaked so we all headed for the hot tub. It's supposed to hold 13 people, the previous record was 18 but we managd to get 28 people in there. That night, Nash was sick in our cabin which resulted in a $50 fine for him and us having to sleep on deck for the 2 nights because of the smell of sick.

We were woken up at 6.30 by crewman Steve's version of Tom Jones - Sex Bomb. After a good breakfast we were in the boats heading to Whitehaven Beach by 8:30. Whitehaven beach is listed in the top 5 beaches in the world and has the finest sand of anywhere in the world except for one beach in the Carribean. Even though the weather wasn't fantastic, it was still the best beach I've been to with pure white sand and clear, warm water.


We had a couple of hours to chill out on the beach and the professional photographer from the boat was with us to take some cool photos. We had to wear stinger suits whenever we went in the water because Box jelly-fish float around in the water in the summer months. While we were on the Clipper, a German guy from another boat got stung in the face whilst wearing a suit and had to be airlifted by helicopter back to hospital.
Me and Gravy.

Charlie, Sam, Gravy, Me and Nash.
We got back on the boat and had some time to sun bathe before lunch. After lunch we had our second snorkelling trip which was even better than the first. We got dropped off on a tiny little beach on another island for a few hours to snorkel and relax. The snorkelling here was even better than the previous day.

The sunset that night was pretty special and we all sat on deck watching it with a few beers listening to a Live Lounge album. That night we saw something that was out of a David Attenborough documentary. At night the crew shone a big spotlight off the side of the boat into the water. A school of fish were sticking to this light so that they could see and were being attacked and eaten by about 10 squid. Suddenly the squid disappeared and 2 reef sharks appeared and started diving into and catching the fish. This went on for about 10 minutes before a dolphin came from below the school of fish and jumped up out of the water. The sharks, dolphins and squids carried on attacking the fish, who stuck to the light so they could see and meaning we could see everything. It's pretty hard to believe that we actually saw this.
One of the dolphins.
That night was fancy dress night and there were more games and competitions to crown the King/Queen of the Clipper.
Fancy dress night.
The next morning, we were woken up early again and were in the water snorkelling by 8:00! We were all pretty nackered but there is definitely no better hangover cure than snorkelling on the great barrier reef in a little bay with only a handful of other people with amzing views like this.
One of the private little bays where we went snorkelling.
After snorkelling, we headed back to the mainland and got off the boat. That night the boat company rented out a bar in Airlee beach and we had a party with the crew and free dominoes pizza. The Whitsunday's was one of the best places I have ever been and I met some amazing people. Saying bye to some of them after the party was pretty hard because I got to know them all so well in such a small space of time. It will be hard for anything else I do out here to match the time I had on the Clipper.
Same, Me, Nash, Charlie, Gravy and Chris.

Monday, 7 March 2011

Ko Pangnan

For our first night in Ko Pangnan we stayed in a hostel in a town called Haad Rin, where the full moon parties take place. We wanted to be in the middle of all the action and get a crew together to head to Half Moon with. We met a group of German's, of who Franz was the nicest. Never met a German who understood the English sense of humour as much as him. We pre-drank on the street at a place called chicken corner, which turns into an outdoor night club because of the music from all the bars around.
PHOTO
We headed to Half Moon party and as soon as we walked in, Nash bumped into some of his mates from uni who he didn't even know were in Thailand, let alone going to Half Moon that night.
PHOTO
Half Moon was good, but not as good as Tubing and the English girl who was in our dorm and came out with us had her drink spiked so me and Nash had to carry her home.

A killer Changover (hangover brought about by the consumption of Chang beer) was occuring the next day and we had to check out a lug our stuff on a walk to the other side of the Haad Rin peninsula to find our accommodation for the next couple of days.

As soon as we walked out of the trees and saw this view, the hangover didn't seem so bad anymore. One of the best beaches I'd ever seen and was only 10 minutes away from the full moon beach.

Walking out of the trees onto the beach.
By the time we saw the view from our bungalow, at a place called Lighthouse Bungalows which was on the rocks above the beach, the hangover was gone.


Amazing beach!

The view from the terrace of our bungalow.


It had amazing views out to see and over to Ko Samui. It was almost like camping though and at night was pretty scary as it was in the middle of nowhere, pitch black, and pretty exposed to all the lizards, birds, bats and insects that were around. Totally worth it to wake up to that view every morning though.


e spent a couple of days chilling and recovering on the beach. I rented a moped for a day and drove around the island a bit which was loads of fun. We also went on a snorkelling boat trip. The captain was giving out free weed as well which Nash gladly accepted.
PHOTO
On our last night, we met up with Franz again for another night out, this time on the beach. In Haad Rin, there is always a party on the beach. On the night we went there was a huge foam machine at one end of the beach. After sharing a bottle of rice vodka (3 quid a bottle) on chicken corner we had some buckets on the beach.
The next afternoon we started our horrific 24 hour boat-minivan-bus journey down to Singapore.

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Ko Tao

We Arrived in Ko Tao two days after setting off from Laos, absolutely knackered. We planned to have a quiet night in but met a guy from Wigan, Dave, who actually went to Lancaster uni the same time as me. We ended up having a few quiet drinks in our beach bar which turned into a full on beach party until 6am in a place called Lotus bar until 6am.
 Main beach and Lotus Bar

Ko Tao is an amazing island, really chilled  and has a really nice atmosphere compared to Bangkok. The beaches are the cleanest and quietest I've seen almost anywhere theres a gorgeous sunset. But at the same time theres a really good nightlife.
 Sunset at our hotel beach bar.
 Our hotel was called Wind Beach Resort. Our room was literally a 30 second walk to a quiet part of the beach in the main town, Saari. But it was also about 200 metres away along the beach to Lotus bar and the rest of the nightlife so was in a really good spot. The staff were awesome as well, all a good laugh who ended up drinking with us in the bar on our first night.
 Our hotel bar and the beach.

We had originally planned to stay in Ko Tao until our flight out of Singapore but we discovered there was a Half Moon party on nearby Ko Pangnan so after 2 nights and 3 days we headed over there by boat. I would have loved to have stayed on Ko Tao for longer though and its somewhere I'd definitely go back to.

Sunday, 13 February 2011

Laos

After our last night in Bangkok, we got a sleeper train up to Laos. It was really comfortable, more so than the hostel we'd stayed in the night before!

Getting into Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was like going to another world after being in Bangkok. So much more chilled out and relaxed with no annoying Tuk Tuk drivers hassling you on every street corner. Hard to believe they're both a capital city. It was a French colony so its like a little European town, with loads of French restaurants along the banks of the Mekong River.

After one night in Vientiane we headed northwards to Vang Vieng. This is a little village in the mountains with some amazing scenery on the banks of another river. Its mainly a stopover for backpackers coming down from China, through Laos on their way to Thailand.

Its on the the banks of another river and is famous for Tubing. Basically, you get a rubber ring and float the 3 or so miles down the river. On the way there are loads of bars along the banks of the river who fish you into them. They have rope swings and slides going into the river and crazily cheap drinks. Met loads of people when we did this because its basically a big party all the way down. This is me and Nash doing a tandem zip line.
Me and Nash tandem zip line
After two nights in Vang Vieng, we had another chillout night in Vientiane to recover from tubing before getting another sleeper back to Bangkok on our way down the the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, Ko Tao and Ko Pangnan, where we are now.
I was going to put some photos up with this blog but somehow the computer I was on has just wiped my memory card! I'll get some from Nash's camera to put on next time I'm online.

Monday, 31 January 2011

Bangkok

Hello everyone. We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday morning after a very long journey and had to wait until about 1 in the afternoon to check in. Didn't get a lot done on Saturday because we were so tired, apart from going to see Wat Traimit temple which is not far from our hotel, it has the biggest golden Buddha temple in the Thailand inside. 






On Sunday, after going to bed at half 7 the night before, we were up pretty early and went to the Chatuchak weekend market which was huge and really cheap. I got some Havanna flip flops for 2 quid and some Abercrombie shorts for 8. Yesterday was by far the best day, we went on a day trip out of the city to see the Bridge over the River Kwae, rode some elephants and stroked tigers in the Tiger Temple





The Tiger Temple was a Budhist temple, where the monks raise the tiger cubs from birth meaning they aren't scared of people and carry on sleeping while you stroke them.  And tigers sleep most of the day anyway so just lie there while you stroke them. It was still pretty scary though.
Today we are going to the Grand Palace and then we were supposed to be getting the train to Laos but one of Nash's friends from uni arrives in Bangkok today so we decided to stay one more night and go out with them. We get the sleeper train at 8 tomorrow night, arriving 8 on Thursday morning, so next time I post I will be in Laos.

Speak to you soon.


Wednesday, 26 January 2011

The first one.

Hey guys! I will be posting updates from my travels on here as and when I can. It may not be very active depending on how much time I have but we shall see. I'll just start off with a quick itinerary.

28th January - Fly to Bangkok
29th January - Arrive in Bangkok, spend three days here
1st February - Board train to Laos
2nd February - Arrive in Laos capital Vientiane, spend 5-7 days in Laos
9th February (ish) - Arrive back in Bangkok and head down to Ko Pha Ngan
10th February - Arrive Ko Pha Ngan, spend a couple of days here
14th February - Head back to mainland and get on train to Singapore
16th February - Arrive Singapore
18th February - Fly to Cairns, then amble our way down to Sydney over the next 6 weeks
1st April - Fly from Sydney to Aukland, then spend 4 weeks driving down to Christchurch
1st May - Fly from Aukland to Nadi, Fiji, staying at Bluewater Lodge for a night
2nd May - Head over to Yasawa and Mamanuca Islands for 10 days of island hopping
12th May - Fly from Nadi to L.A.
15th May - Leave L.A. for home.

We probably won't stick exactly to the itinerary, especially through Thailand and Laos but hopefully won't be missing any flights! Next time you hear from me I'll probably be in Thailand but for now I have to call Nash and tell him what to pack.

Tarrah!