Ash's World Trip

USA

2006-03-21T16:32:00.000Z

Greetings and welcome to what may be the final post on this blog.
We have finally made it to New York where we are staying with my aunt and uncle in brooklyn.

Going back in time somwhat to Fiji...

In this photo you can see a Kava ceremony which is a mildly sedative drink created from the crushed stems and roots of the kava plant. Tourists dont generally find it has much effect, but the Fijians drink it all the time and get absoultely wasted.

Here is the view from our resort's beach.

Onto San Francisco. Here is Lombard Street, the only wiggly street in San Fran. People drive down this all day, for no real reason!

We went over to Alcatraz on a rainy, windy day. Here's Suze in one of the cells.

Had a quick look at the Golden Gate Bridge

We spent 8 days in San Fran and finally worked out that we couldnt afford to get a car so took a Greyhound bus to LA. We stayed three nights in Hollywood and one night in Venice Beach. We stayed very close to Mann's Chinese Theatre which has the concrete handprints outside. My favourite one was this one.

We went on a walking tour around Beverly Hills and Bel Air and saw Brad & Jen's house which they can't sell because it has bad karma, apparently. We also saw the Playboy Mansion and this house, which belongs to Erin Spelling. It has 210 bedrooms, dedicated gift-wrapping room and cost $90M!!!

We went down to Rodeo Drive and two of the people in our group swore they saw 50cent racing away behind us in a sports car.

Spent a day at Venice, but the weather was freezing so there wasn't much beach action and the next day we went off to fabulous Las Vegas. We arrived in the evening and headed straight off to play some poker. We played three times in total and I lost $100, while Suze lost $50, but it wasnt my fault, I just didnt catch the cards. The next day we moved to a hotel(!) in downtown Vegas ($35/night), which was exciting after months in hostels. The four blocks that make up Freemont Street have been covered over with a canopy of 12 million LED's, which they use to make light shows. It was a pretty impressive sight.

We checked out the Strip and saw all the hotels over the next couple of days. My favourite one is the Venetian, an ordinary casino on the ground floor, but go up the stairs... and you find a full replica of the canals of Venice complete with gondaliers and venetian streets.

The newest hotel in town is the Wynn which was very beautiful, but very posh.. and has a full golf course out the back.

Vegas is also home to the drive - thru wedding, and we found numerous chapels with bargain deals of $45/wedding, including a photo and rose. We saw three couples getting married at the famous little white chapel.

We did a day trip to the Grand Canyon, which was a 14hour bus ride, return. Last time I went to the Grand Canyon, it was so hot that by 10am we had to go inside. But this time there was snow on the ground which made it look even better.

After Vegas we spent a night in Omaha to see Nick from uni. Nick took us out for dinner and I had the best steak of my life, it was like butter, amazing. The next morning we went to see his parent's mansion.

Our next stop was Chicago. We celebrated Paddys Day in a very busy Irish bar and this was the only bit of Chicago I saw as I caught a viral infection which meant I couldn't get out of bed for the next two days and I am still recovering from it now. Suze did an afternoon of sightseeing without me and brought back this picture takrn from atop the Sears Tower

So now we are in New York. I have managed to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, but that's about it. In fact, I am so ill that Suze is my PA and has had to write this all for me. So a big hand for Suze. I am home about 9am Sunday so I expect to see you at Heathrow :)

Fiji and San Francisco

2006-03-04T11:40:00.000Z

Bula!

After a hectic few months of travelling the time finally came to relax for a bit so we went to Fiji. We stayed at a nice place called the beach house and did almost nothing of interest for a week and it was lovely. I apologise if this makes for a poor blog entry but i wanted to make america as interesting as possible for you.

Te 2nd of march was the longest day of my life, literally! We spent the day by the beach in Fiji and went to the airport, then we set off at 10.15pm and landed in LA at 1.15pm on the same day! (Dateline crossings are weird) We flew to Los Angeles with no plans other than vague notion that we wanted to get to San Francisco as quickly as possible as LA is monstrously huge and once you go downtown it takes a couple of hours to get out again. After finding the United airline tickets were $370 we thought we were going to have to get the bus overnight but fortunately we found another airline which cost $120 so we flew and managed to get into the hostel we'd booked for the following 2 nights.Then we went out on a pub crawl and ended up in a club until the 3rd March, blimey.

Last night we went to a free show and saw Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys) at a very cool club. At one point he was mixing 'Smells like teen spirit' with 'Killing in the Name' San Fran has so many cool bars and clubs (and you know i'm not that bothered about clubbing) so we're probably going to stay another night or two.

We'd planned to go to Omaha to see our friend Nick from Uni but that's unfortunately fallen through so now we've got some spare days and no real idea what we want to do, Yosemite and Death Valley are possibilities though we'll probably hire a car and drive down the coast road to LA, if we can find a car cheap enough.

Pictures shall follow but this PC is locked in a box!

Last Days in NZ

2006-02-22T05:27:00.000Z

Hey, well our time in NZ has basically come to an end. From White Island we drove up the coast and stopped off at some small towns along the way and ended up at the bay of islands in the far north. Ideally we'd have done a boat trip but we didn't have much time or money left so we just drove around and went swimming and sunbathed a bit. Yesterday we drove to Auckland and got rid of our car, 5600Km worse off than when we got it (We only had it 21 days, do the maths on that one!) Auckland isn't the most exciting place in the world so we've done a lot of walking around, went to see Munich last night (Pretty good film) and went over to Devonport on the ferry. Tonight we're going to the -5 bar which is carved out of ice and you have to put on thick clothes and drink vodka out of ice glasses, sounds fun. Tomorrow we get up at 4am! and fly to Fiji. We're scheduled to be there a week but it seems to be raining a lot so me might go to California a bit earlier. Only a month left now, i'll be back with you all before you know it!

North Island

2006-02-18T06:10:00.000Z

Kia Ora (Greetings and good health in Maori)

It appears that my blog is not worth commenting on unless i put up various pictures of suze and I in ridiculous poses so perhaps this post will fare better than the last.

So here are some photos which relate to the last post, firstly the gorge at Hokitika

Here is me in the smallest BMW i've ever seen at a car museum in Nelson, the windscreen was also the front door.

Next up is split apple rock in the Abel Tasman

We spent our two days in Wellington before heading north to Taupo, the cheapest place in the world to skydive. Both Suze and I jumped from 12000ft. I'd already done a jump in the Czech Republic but this was Suze's first jump and she was scared on the way up but euphoric after. Jumping for the second time is cool because you can take in the sensation of freefall better as the first time it's quite overwhelming and you find you can't remember it. What was also good about jumping over Taupo was that you could see the volcanos used as Mt Doom in LOTR

Here is Suze after her jump

From Taupo we headed up to Rotorua, the Maori cultural centre of New Zealand. We went to a Maori show and saw their weapons, songs and dances.

We also went Zorbing where two of you climb inside a huge rubber sphere and slide down a hill with a load of water in the bottom of the Zorb, it was fun! You can see one in the background here

Today we visited white Island, one of the world's most active marine volcanos. we took a 2 hour boat ride out to it and walked around, it was very cool.

And that's all for now, we have 4 days left in New Zealand, we have to be in Auckland in 2 so we have 2 days free which we're not sure what to do with but we've already spent our budgets here so whatever we do will have to be Cheap! If anyone wants to pay me for all the entertainment this site brings you i'm sure we can sort something out!

Wine Tasting

2006-02-12T19:48:00.000Z

Hey there, after our long drive up the west coast we did another long drive across to the East coast and stayed a night in Kaikoura where one can go whale spotting. However the weather was rubbish and we decided it wasn't worth the cash so we headed up to a small town called Renwick which is in the heart of New Zealand wine country.

The next day we hired bikes and visited 7 different vineyards and got free wine tastings at all of them. We were getting 6 or 7 small glasses at each place so needless to say our bikes got progressively more unsteady as the day progressed. We were drinking 12-15 pound bottles of wine from one of the best places in the world for white wine so it was all very drinkable. It would have been nice to stay longer really, there were 41 vineyards within 5km of our hostel and we only managed 7 but we had to press onwards to Nelson and the Abel Tasman national park.

Yesterday we did a quick 7 mile hike in Abel Tasman. Upon arrival it was raining and we feared we might have our first rain-off of the whole trip but fortunately it cleared up. We took a water taxi up the coast and then walked back along an elevated coastal track which occasionally ran along the coast but also showed a preponderance for going inland. By the time we finished we were knackered though suze wants you to know she did very well!

From there we drove to Picton where the ferry to the North Island goes from which we caught this morning over to Wellinton, the capital. Today we explored the town a bit and met up with a couple we trekked with in Vietnam which was cool. We're going to take the north island a little slower than the south so tomorrow we're going to spend another whole day in Wellington, craziness!

New Zealand South Island

2006-02-07T00:30:00.000Z

Hello, my sincerest apologies for this ridiculously late blog. Basically the internet in New Zealand is a little behind the times and many cafe owners enjoy locking their computer in a wooden box so you can't play with the insides, but i've finally found a vulnerable one so let's begin.

We flew into christchurch many eons ago (About 2 weeks) and stayed 2 nights, it was quite pleasant and had quite an english feel to it with punters boating down the avon river and such like. We visited the college where Ernest Rutherford did his early work and saw an interesting aerial sculpture. Unfortunately both of us were feeling rather ill and the lingering after effects still trouble us but we battle on, for you!

We have hired a car, a thrilling 1.5L Toyota Corolla no less which we've already thrashed for 3000Km as you read this and it's going to get plenty more yet. Our first stop outside christchurch was Akaroa, a quaint, slightly french town (the french landed here first but the Brits kicked them out when they came back, hoho) We ate pastries.

From here we went over to Lake Tekapo which had a nice little church on its shores. The lake was a wonderful turquoise colour from dissolved rock (That was all in one day)

Next we went to see Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand and then off to Oamaru to see two penguin colonies, the ultra-rare yellow penguins which climbed up the cliff and came within touching distance and the smaller blue penguins which we had to find in our car.

From here we went off to Dunedin which was mostly uneventful though it does have the steepest street in the world, Balwdin street. I climbed to the top and found a bench and a drinking fountain, how thoughtful!

From there we headed along the southern scenic route through the Catlins to Slope point, the southern most point of New Zealand, possibly the furthest point from home for us, we weren't sure. (Can someone work it out, what's the furthest point from guildford and if it's not in New Zealand what's the nearest place we'll be to it)

We also saw nugget point which was quite beautiful.

Arriving at the other end of the scenic route we got to Milford sound which isn't really a sound but a Fiord and a stunning one at that. We took a 2 hour boat trip around it and drank loads of complimentary coffee/tea.

From here we went to Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of new zealand. Unfortunately adrenaline appears to cost around $200/hr so we contented ourselves with racing each other on the luge and checking out the great scenery from above the town.

Heading north from Queenstown we arrived at puzzling world in Wanaka which had some cool exhibits including this weird room and a giant maze which took suze and I 45 minutes to solve.

Yesterday we did a full day walk up the Franz Josef glacier which was great, we walked through an ice cave which was predicted to melt within 3 days.

Today we raced up the coast to see the pancake rocks of punakaiki and the glow worms of hokitika (no photos of them i'm afraid, too dark)

Whitsunday's and Fraser Island

2006-01-23T02:23:00.000Z

Hey there, the last week of our trip has been excellent, almost certainly the most expensive week of the trip but we've done some cool stuff. After checking out Bondi beach in Syndey we flew 3 hours north up to Airlie beach to do a 3 day sailing trip on a racing yacht 'freight train'.

We visited whitehaven beach which looked stunning from the lookout above it.

We also saw a great sunset here

We did some scuba diving here and also did a night dive which was pretty cool, we all piled into a little dingy with all our stuff on and backrolled out of the water with just a torch and a glowstick for light. I saw a squid which was cool but we had to abort the dive because the instructors torch failed but we got to finish our tanks the next morning so that worked out alright. We also did some great snorkelling on the reef and all our meals were cooked for us so it turned out to be a really fun three days.

From Airlie we hopped on an overnight bus to Hervey Bay which is the jumping off point for Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world. We had a good group of 8 lads and 2 girls in our 4.2L Toyota landcruiser and everyone that wanted to drive got a go. There's no tarmac roads, just sand tracks of varying quality, we got bogged a couple of times but did pretty well overall.

The first place of note we saw was Lake Wabby, possibly the most striking lake i've seen. The ocean around fraser is full of sharks and jellyfish so you can only swim in the lakes but there are about 6 and they're all beautiful.

We saw the 75 year old shipwreck of the Maheno

We had to cook our food in the evening at a base camp, the girls did more than their fair share.

Here's the jeep we used

The water in Lake Birabeen and Mackenzie was absolutely clear and great for swimming in, we spent the 3rd day swimming and attempting various flips.

So that was Fraser, we had a good laugh in the evenings as well and got back to Hervey Bay pretty tired. The next day we bused down to Noosa where we are now. We walked through the national park and saw Koalas, Parrots and Brush Turkeys.

Now we only have 2 days left in Australia, we fly to New Zealand on the 25th and we're hiring a car for about 25 days, we're both really looking forward to it!

(There are more photos on Flickr, click on any of the photos above to jump to the set page.)

Sydney

2006-01-11T13:05:00.000Z

G'day

So last time i wrote we were about to do some surf lessons... well they were really good, both of us managed to get up pretty quickly (long boards) and enjoyed it thoroughly, we booked another lesson the next day and i managed to turn the board somewhat, an action very similar to snowboarding. The day after that we went to Nimbin. Nimbin was a dairy farm until the market dropped out in the 70's and all the farmers left. At the same time a load of hippies in melbourne and sydney were looking for somewhere to live as no one liked them much so they moved into Nimbin and it quickly became hippie central. We went and had a look, i think it would have been better to visit 30 years ago as now most of the hippies have gone leaving behind a few junkies who couldn't make it and a load of tourists but it was still fun. We also got a didgeridoo show from a guy who was advertising a coroboree (an aboriginal party) which was cool.

We got back from Nimbin and jumped on an overnight bus to Sydney (and saw the giant prawn binx) Sydney is great, i'm always happy wandering around big cities and syndey certainly fills that category. We've seen the opera house and bridge, went over to Manly on the ferry and we're off to Bondi once we get off the internet. We also went to the blue mountains which has some great views and rock formations. (Check the photos) We've also booked a flight to the Whitsunday coast and booked a 3 day sailing trip on a 65ft yacht which should be great, and we'll get to do a free scuba dive on the reef. Then we're off to Frazer island to self drive some 4x4 jeeps and camp out. We'll be in New Zealand before i know it!

Due to Flickr limitations i've put new photos in a new photos set and all the others in an old photo set. There's a link on the right to the sets page or click below for the new ones.

New Photos

Who'd be a koala eh???

Byron Bay

2006-01-03T16:42:00.000Z

Hurrah, We've finally found some reasonably priced internet, about 1/6th of the cost at the last two hostels.

We're in Byron bay now which is much nicer than surfers paradise where we've just come from. Surfers was a bit like the costa del sol (i think, i've never been there) byron has much more character, there are lots of organic food shops and impromptu drumming sessions on the beach, that sort of thing. We're going for a surf lesson tomorrow, looking forward to it. They guarantee you'll surf a wave for 40m or you get your money back, sounds good. I think we'll stay here for about 5 nights and then have about 5 nights in sydney before we fly north, all the other towns between here and sydney don't sound interesting enough to bother getting off the bus for.

Hope you all had a good new years, and enjoy your remaining holiday. Also good luck to dave with all his travels as i believe he leaves today.

Australia

2006-01-02T11:02:00.000Z

Suze and i came flying back into the western world on the 29th, it sucks. Everyone said singapore was expensive but we were paying 6 quid a night there and we're paying 11-15 per night here. After the financial high of entering vietnam and the asia for the next 10 weeks we've now gone through a financial comedown where we have to re-adjust to english prices, and it really is english prices, not just Aus ones.
We landed in Brisbane and spent one night there. It's a nice city but we didn't do a great deal as we were tired from the flight over and we were leaving the next morning. We've been in surfers paradise the last 3 nights which has been quite good, the beach is probably the best i've seen, 100m deep and about 6 miles long of perfect white sand, and no sunbeds. New years was cool, we saw fireworks on the beach with loads of people there. The weather is beautiful here, about 30 degrees and not too humid. We're off to byron bay today.

Apologies if the blog is a bit neglected, internet is expensive here!

More Photos

2005-12-27T04:25:00.000Z

Hey there, as the internet is free here i've been messing around with flickr to display my photos. I haven't got it all worked out yet, like how to blog a set of photos but if you click the link below you'll get a set of photos which you can comment on individually or view as a slide show. Let me know if you prefer them like this or embedded in the blog as before.

December Photos

Wow, it's our last day in asia, this is basically the half way point of our trip. Though it seems we've been away for a long time i think the next 3 months are going to really fly and then i'll be back in england, crazy. Also i have a map of the east above me and i can see the that the total distance we've covered from hanoi to singapore is about the same as from Cairns to Brisbane and we intend to cover twice that distance in 1 month, yikes i can see some long bus journeys ahead!

Happy Christmas from Malaysia

2005-12-24T18:22:00.000Z

I'd like to wish everyone a very happy christmas.

Suze and I are in the Cameron Highlands at the moment and will be until tomorrow evening ( the 25th) when we'll be taking an overnight bus to singapore, the joy of travelling! Malaysia is certainly a little more festive than thailand, what with it being an ex-british colony but both suze and i wish we were home for christmas. I think we're going to try to generate some christmas spirit by buying exciting gifts for each other from the local market and we've watched die hard 1 and 2 while it's been raining so there's some more christmas there as well. Still in a few days it'll all be over and then we'll be in australia for january instead of miserable england so it's not all bad.

The past few days have seen us visit Penang and KL before coming up here. Penang was nice enough, not a huge amount to do but it felt good to be traipsing round cities again after 2 weeks of beach bumming. We spent 3 nights there and then went to Kuala Lumpur which was a cool city, we saw the Petronas towers and marveled at the sheer scale of the shopping available. We thought it'd be nice to get out of the heat and head up to the highlands, it's been raining a lot and feels similar to england in october. We're both looking forward to Singapore where we're spending 2 nights before jetting over to Australia for new years.

Full Moon (or not!)

2005-12-19T05:28:00.000Z

They cancelled the full moon party! 6 guys went swimming 2 days before the party at night and at least 2 of them drowned. I thought this happened quite regularly but apparently not so they decided to stop all music on the beach as apparently the rips are pretty bad at this time of year so everybody was milling around the town. It was disappointing but i still had a great night, James was on a bucket powered mission which lasted until about 6ish. Fortunately we had been to the beach the 2 nights before so we knew roughly what we were missing, Suze and I are planning some sort of scuba diving + full moon christmas holiday at some point in the future.

We've just hit malaysia after possibly the worst bus journey of the trip, we were supposed to be travelling from 6am til 7pm but we ended up arriving at 2am after waiting 2 hours in thailand and then getting stranded at the border for another 2. Then 2 buses magically appeared to take us to the right destinations but we had to pay 100 baht each, how convenient! It wasn't the biggest problem but we might add another day in Penang now. Malaysia is a fair bit cheaper than thailand which is nice, we're planning to enjoy the last few cheap days of our trip as it's all western prices from here on, yuck!

Thai Islands (Photos)

2005-12-12T21:00:00.000Z

Greetings, please accept my apologies for being rather slack recently but i've got some more photos for you to peruse so i'm sure you'll forgive me.

Going back a week or 2 we were in Chang Mai where we found these sculptures which i quite fancy having at my parents house in England (what do you reckon mum?)

Our trekking in Chang Mai was through some proper Thai Jungle

On the second day we got to go on an elephant for an hour which was awesome

Looks like a lady, in fact, it's a chap

Ah ha. That was in Chang Mai, but in Bangkok there was also a dodgy looking backing dancer ( i'm hoping it was just the one ;)

The one time we got scammed in Bangkok we did get to see an impressively tall Buddha

The temples in Bangkok were awesome but i particularly liked these 2 dudes

And that basically covers the past week or so, now for some new stuff!

We travelled from Bangkok overnight to Phuket on the west coast of Thailand expecting sun and beautiful beaches. The beaches are pretty nice, though somewhat overdeveloped, but the weather wasn't great, we got rain about 3 days out of 4. Still it was nice relaxing by the beach and it was still about 28 degrees so we were hardly freezing. From Phuket we got the ferry over to Koh Phi Phi to meet Em and James. PhiPhi is something of an enigma, almost everyone there is a backpacker yet the accomodation starts at $20 and for $80 you get a shack by the beach, it's all about four times more than the rest of thailand and i don't know why. The tsunami hit Phuket pretty hard, you can see smashed palm trees and maybe some of the building sites in this pic

We took a boat trip around the islands which was good, we went to the beach, as in 'The Beach' (Think Leonardo DiCaprio)

The snorkelling was fantastic here and the film crew apparently did a great job of clearing the place up when they filmed here. Later that day we got tuna sandwiches which were really nice though you wouldn't know it from this photo.

Suze and I left Em and James behind to get over to Koh Tao which offers some of the cheapest and best scuba diving in the world. We're 2 days into our course now and we do our final dives tomorrow morning, after which we'll get our open water certificates, lovely. Then the next day we're off to Koh Phangan to meet back up with Em and James and go to the full moon party, I can't wait.

Bangkok

2005-12-04T20:40:00.000Z

Hello there, we're currently in Phuket, one of those typical paradise islands you see on the posters with the golden sand and palm trees. However the weather is the worst we've had yet (It rained yesterday and it rained today, weak)

I doubt there'll be much to report from here as it's just a chill out on the beach sort of place but hopefully Em and James will arrive soon.

Bangkok was hot and humid as you might expect. We arrived on the first day and fell for one of the oldest scams in the book, a friendly guy asked us where we were going and ended up sending us on a tuktuk tour of the town which also included a stop at a tailors and a travel agents, but we did get to see a 45m tall Buddha which we would never have found otherwise so it wasn't too bad.

The next day we went to the floating marked which used to be really cool about 25 years ago but now it is seriously over-touristy and rather a waste of time. Fortunately it only took half a day so we could see the temples in the afternoon which are amongst the finest we've seen. I'll do some photos soon. That night we went to Patpong, the red light district of Bangkok. The main road wasn't really the sort of place we wanted to chill and have a drink so we went to the gay alley next door where the places were more welcoming and had a few drinks. Later we watched an Elvis/Tom Jones act on straight street with a rather dodgy looking backing dancer, you'll see what i mean soon.

The next day we went around the commercial district of bangkok and then got an overnight bus down to Phuket. We plan to stay here a few days and then go over to Koh Tao for a scuba diving course and then Koh Phangan for the full moon party, should be fun.

As a final note i'd like to say congratulations to Suze for going out with me for 4 years, scary stuff eh! :)

Luang Prabang & Chang Mai

2005-11-28T15:16:00.000Z

Hey, greetings from Thailand

We spent 3 nights in Luang Prabang in northern Laos. It was nice but it had been hyped up to such an extent that it couldn't really meet our expectations. It was a nicer town than Vang Vieng but the scenery was nothing in comparison. We didn't really do anything worth blogging about (there was a cool waterfall but they don't blog so well) so we'll get on to Thailand.

We decided to take the speed boat to the border (gasp of horror from Binx) as we thought we could get all the way to Chang Mai in one day instead of it taking 2 days to get to the border plus the next morning to get to Chang Mai. Well the speedboat people messed us about pretty badly, but (to cut a long story short) we just made it to the border as it closed and arrived in Thailand at 18.05, 5 mins after the border closed. Fortunately they let us in, for no fee. By 18.30 we were on a minibus to Chiang Mai and arrived by 11pm, what a day!

Thailand is so westernised compared to Laos it was like a mini culture shock coming back into civilisation and having smooth roads and western companies around. We did a 2 day trek, the first day was pretty hardcore hill climbing but the second day was cool. We did a 1 hour elephant ride which was awesome. I sat on the neck while Suze clung onto the chair for dear life and we had a baby elephant following us which was nice. We also did some white water rafting and then got 9 people on a bamboo raft which promptly sank 1-2 feet under the water whilst our slightly mad tour guide delighted in tipping it up and soaking us up to our necks. We've booked a 1 day cookery course for tomorrow and then we fly (yes fly, slumming it as usual) to Bangkok.

I'll do photos at some point, now i'm going to email everyone who hasn't commented on my blog yet, hopefully some new people will comment.

Vientiane and Vang Vieng (Photos)

2005-11-22T18:53:00.000Z

Greetings from Laos

I'm currently in Luang Prabang in northern Laos but nothing of note has happened here yet so let me tell you about the past few days.

We travelled overnight to Vientiane, the capital of Laos (If your geography isn't up to scratch) The main tourist attraction is this thing

I can't remember the name off the top of my head but it certainly is an impressively gold structure. We only spent one night here and then travelled up to Vang Vieng which has some beautiful scenery.

See what i mean! We chilled out here for 3 nights and spent 1 afternoon tubing (think floating down a river in the inner tube of a tractor) and the next day kayaking and looking at caves. The town was very backpackery with certain menu items designed with alternative types in mind, here's an example. (guess what the O stands for???)

We've spent the past few days travelling with a wicked austrian guy called imo, i'll see if i can find a picture of him somewhere, a very handsome man to be sure.

Tony requested more pictures and i have a few from the past few weeks which haven't made it on here yet so here they are, keep commenting!

Rocket boat in Cambodia

National museum in Phnom Penh

And now some photos from the Angkor temple complex, first up Bayon

Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat

Crossing the border from Cambodia to Laos

2005-11-16T16:38:00.000Z

If anyone is wondering about doing this trip it's easy. We took a speedboat from Kratie to Stung Treng and then on to the border. Once there we paid the Cambodian side $1 which you could probably avoid paying if you argue. We paid $1 to cross the river from Cambodia to Laos as the boats we had come on had mysteriously lost their drivers, then $1 on the Laos side which you have to pay. (It's $2 on tue/wed/thu apparently) From there we got a lift to Don Det via a waterfall for $3 including the boat over to Don Det from Nakasang. If you have a 2003ish lonely planet it will make out that this journey is very difficult but it isn't at all, as long as you don't decide to be an example of western incorruptibility and refuse to pay the border guards, you'll be there all week if you do.

Anyway, that's for people who wish to know about the border crossing, most people probably want to know what me and suze are up to. We arrived in Kratie at 2pm and were on a tour to see freshwater dolphins at 3pm. The dolphins were quite shy so we didn't see a great deal but there were a few of them quite near our boat. The next day we got rocket boats up the Mekong river to the border, quite a thrilling ride as they go about 70 kph. Binx warned me off these in nothern Laos but i couldn't see another way of getting to the border and as i made it unscathed i'm glad i did it. When we go from Laos to Thailand we can get a slow boat for 2 days or a fast boat for 5 hours, i think we might take a slow boat next time but we'll see.

We spent 2 nights in Don Det doing very little. It's very tranquil and scenic, we stayed in a bungalow for $0.75pppn and there is no electricity supply so once the generator is turned off at night which powers the main building it's very quiet and dark. Most people who go there end up staying about a week doing bugger all but suze and i are hardcore and have too much more to see to just relax and not do anything, Raaa!

Cambodia

2005-11-12T22:46:00.000Z

Oooh Cambodia, it used to be dodgy, now its fine but you can immdediately see how much poorer it is than Vietnam. The traditional buildings we had to look so hard for in Vietnam are everywhere in Cambodia. However the rules regarding western imports are a little less strict here so in many ways it appears more developed, i had my first cappuccino for 3 weeks the other day and it was like mana from heaven. They also have normal bakeries which has allowed suze and i to resume our staple breakfeast of croissants and various sticky gooey cakes.

So we've been to Phnom Penh, the capital and Siem Reap which is where Angkor Wat is. Phnom Penh is cool, better than Hanoi and Saigon. We haven't covered all the attractions here (which are mostly based on the indiscrimnate slaughter of cambodians in the 70's) as we were feeling a bit tired and there's only so many prisons/torture camps/killing fields you can go to before you just want to chill out by the river with a beer. We spent 2 nights in Phnom Penh before heading up to Siem Reap.

After a very hot and sweaty bus ride we got to Siem Reap and wound up staying in a wooden shack with a mosquito net in it, very rustic. We found a friendly TukTuk driver (think moped with a 2 wheeled carriage on the back, you feel like a king until you hit a bumpy road) and went up a tall temple for sunset and then spent the whole next day seeing pretty awesome temples. They are about 1000-600 years old and trees have recolonised some of them creating some amazing images, i'll put some up soon.

Due to the regular bus journeys we are making our standard wake up time is about 6am at the moment, i trust all those people working hard will be glad to hear it. We're back in Phnom Penh now and tomorrow we're going to Kratie to see some freshwater dolphins and then off to Stung Treng to figure out a border crossing into Laos. I don't know when i'll next be able to post as Laos is quite backwards but i'll see what i can do, hang in there!

Dalat, Mui Ne, Saigon

2005-11-07T19:06:00.000Z

Right, it's been a while since i regaled you with tales so here's the lowdown.

We travelled from Nha Trang to Dalat on the open tour bus and found that in order to see any of the sights in Dalat one has to either hire bikes or get a guide. We'd never ridden bikes so we got a guide, an Easy Rider to be precise. They hang around on the streets and don't have an office to avoid tax but they're good guides. We did a 1 day tour around Dalat and enjoyed it so much we decided to do a 2 day trip to Mui Ne with the same guys. When we did the longer trip we had our big packs strapped on the back so it was like being in an armchair, very nice for seeing the Vietnamese jungle and hills. We got out in the sticks and saw some of the real Vietnam where it isn't designed for tourists and it was very refreshing. It would be nice to do the whole country like that but the costs would rack up quite badly, i do now have dreams of buying a bike and touring South America though i still haven't actually ridden one so i might do that first.

The guides left us at Mui Ne which is a sea side town 5 hours from Saigon. We decided not to stay the night so we booked a 1am bus and then went sand surfing, basically get a large piece of plastic and shoot down a large sand dune with some vietnamese children helping you out (and pulling Suze back up the slope!)

So we got to Saigon at 6am, lovely. Walked around and saw the city, i wasn't particularly impressed, it's no Beijing or Bangkok, but there was a few things to see. Today we went to the Cu Chi tunnels where you can go through the tunnels the vietcong used when they were fighting the yanks and then we went to the war remnants museum which had captured aeroplanes and howitzers outside which you could look around and touch, very cool. Tomorrow we get the bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia so we'll have spent precisely 3 weeks in Vietnam, marvellous!

More Photos

2005-11-06T19:11:00.000Z

I finally got my old memory card downloaded so now i can share some photos from the first couple of weeks of the trip, enjoy. (click on the photos to get a sharper version)

The Great Wall of China

Beijing's forbidden city

How about that for a high definition LCD (Sony Centre, Tokyo)

Himeji Castle, Japan

The bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo

Carnival in Hong Kong

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Nha Trang

2005-11-02T19:05:00.000Z

I imagine Nha Trang is quite a happening place in high season, however Nov 1st is definitely not high season around here. We arrived about 7am and went out to look around but there was no one about and the waves were so vicious looking we didn't go in the sea (neither did anyone else, i'm not just a wuss) We went to the sailing club and played a couple of games of chess and then went back for a siesta, ROCK!

Still things picked up later when a canadian couple we had met in Hoi An wandered into the same bar as us on Halloween. Being North Americans they take Halloween very seriously so they were dressed up as trees with a hammock between them and their male friend was dressed in drag. You have to see a guy in drag in vietnam, the loacals couldn't believe it, guys were crossing the street to grope him and people were falling off their bikes looking over their shoulders, it was hilarious. Theres a photo on here now which isn't working at present but hopefully will be when you read this (Magic Macca is on the case)

We booked a boat trip for the next day which was pretty cool, we ended up drinking mulberry wine while hanging from life preservers in the sea and the chefs and guide bloke put on a show playing songs from around the world (yellow submarine, la bamba,etc)

Now we're in Dalat and we're doing a motorbike tour tomorrow which should be fun, my first time on a motorbike (no i'm not driving). Then we hightail it to Ho Chi Minh to pick up some Laos visas and then head into Cambodia, Oooooooh!

Photos

2005-11-02T17:57:00.000Z

Hey, we found a decent internet connection so now i should be able to bring you my travels in glorious technicolor!

Suze gets ambushed by vietnamese pineapple seller in Hanoi

Water buffalo in Sapa

Fancy a place in Hong Kong? (Divide by 12 for pounds)

Halloween in Nha Trang, check the poster on the wall.

Hoi An

2005-10-29T18:21:00.000+01:00

Well we decided not to stop long in Hue as the buses to Hoi An ran quite conveniently so we spent 4 hours in Hue and saw the citadel and then got back on the bus.

Hoi An is tailor town, there are around 200 tailors in an area the size of a supermarket car park, it's also a nice town and a world heritage site to boot so suze and i have been chilling out and buying a few clothes. I came away with 1 pair of shorts and 1 pair of trousers,now i have 2 pairs of trousers and 4 pairs of shorts and i'm about 30 quid worse off, seems reasonable. Suze has spent about 70 quid.

We hired bikes today (20p) and went down to the beach, however we didn't really comprehend that we were going to a beach and didn't take swimming gear or towels or anything, strange indeed. It wasn't very nice weather so it didn't really matter but we got to cycle past houses on stilts and rice paddies which was cool. Tomorrow we're off to Na Trang which is a beach town,hopefully the weather will be a little sunnier, it's about 30c here but quite cloudy and humid. We may get scuba lessons there or we may wait til Thailand, it all depends on the weather.

Sapa

2005-10-26T19:00:00.000+01:00

We got back from Sapa this morning (at 4.20am for all those who think this travelling lark is actually fun). It was pretty cool, we did a 2 day trek with a stop over at a hill tribe village. We didn't really interact with the family that much but had a good evening with a few beers.

The actual town was a bit dead as it's off season but we found the one bar that seemed to be worth going to.

Now we've killed another day in Hanoi and we're getting the overnight bus to Hue (pronounced Hwey) in about half an hour. Should be a fun ride. We got the overnight train to Sapa it was fine on the way out there as we were knackered from Halong but not so fun on the way back. I'm looking forward to pressing on into Vietnam, apparently the people are more friendly in the south, we shall see.

Halong Bay

2005-10-22T20:26:00.000+01:00

Well it had to happen, the first illness of the trip, i don't know if it was the beef noodles the night before or the beef soup that morning but i wasn't a happy bunny from about 2pm until the next morning.

We took a cruise around Halong bay which is a very pretty part of the world, though it does all look quite similar after you've been there a while. We did some kayaking which was cool and i was sick in a world heritage cave, classy i know. We got back about 4 and now we're waiting for our overnight train to Sapa.

It's nice to see i have such computer literate (geeky) mates, next time i have a bit of time i'll put up some more photos. That probably won't be for about 5 days though so you'll just have to sit on your hands or something.

Bananas

2005-10-20T13:14:00.000+01:00

Hmm, i can't seem to get pictures working properly. I've tried uploading an image from this machine and from macca's ftp server and from yahoo pictures but it isn't appearing in my blog. If anyone knows what i'm doing wrong or knows a way to insert photos directly through HTML that would be cool. You can see the bananas image at leedsruletheworld's yahoo photos.

Hanoi

2005-10-20T12:35:00.000+01:00

Ah, it's time for another exciting update of the travels of suze and Ash, this time, Hanoi!

Hanoi is crazy, i mean mad. When Suze and I first stepped out of our hostel (great hostel btw, thanks binx) we just stared about in bewilderment wondering what to do. Someone gave everyone here enough money to buy a scooter so they all zoom about beeping their horns constantly, and they don't stop for pedestrians either. The way to cross the road here is to keep one eye on the traffic and slowly walk across the road so that they have time to steer round you, if someone stops then something's gone wrong. It's a bit unnerving but you rarely have to wait to cross a road, you just keep walking.

I was planning to pick up some Malarone malaria tablets here but when i went to the only place i could find that stocked them they told me it would be $55 to see the doctor and $9 per tablet! And i need about 70 of these things. So i went to another chemist and bought 70 doxycylcine for a fiver, i might get sunburnt but at least i'll have enough money to eat, bargain!

We've booked two tours starting tomorrow morning, the first is a boat trip around Halong Bay which is apparently reet pretty, and then after that we're doing two nights in Sapa which is an overnight train ride so that'll take about 4 days. Sapa is mountainous so we'll be trekking and staying with a local family one night, should be a laugh.

Last night we ended up sitting on the street drinking Bia Hoi which is perfectly good lager at 6p for about 2/3 of pint so we both got pissed for the grand total of about 70p. A decent meal here is about 1 pound but i imagine if we eat on the streets we can get it a good deal cheaper than that. I've nearly got photos working now, hopefully blogger will upload them soon and then you can all see Suze in a traditional conical hat carrying bananas, i know you can't wait!

Hong Kong

2005-10-17T13:39:00.000+01:00

Hello

It's our last day in HK now, we've been taking it easy and not been rushing around seeing all the sights in the whole province. We were planning to take the train to Hanoi but when we went to book our tickets we found out that one of the trains we needed only runs on a wednesday and a sunday! Basically it would have taken about 3 days which might have been bearable if it was really cheap but it was going to be about 100 quid. Well we bit the bullet and decided to fly, 200 quid, 2 hours. I guess my poker money will be coming in handy.

Hong Kong has been cool, after the trauma of booking our tickets we went across the bay from Kowloon to Hong Kong island and stumbled across Lam Kwai Fong, the bar district where they were doing a rio carnival style thing, loads of people on the street dancing and drinking with parades and shows going on. We also went up on the peak last night to see the view. The weather has been hazy for the past few days so the views weren't as good as they can be but it was still good.

I'm really lookinng forward to Vietnam, just booked a double room (at Darling backpackers Binx) for $4 a night. Planning to do trips to Sapa and Halong Bay. I feel like we're going to be really travelling soon instead of doing expensive city breaks.

Himeji Castle and Hong Kong

2005-10-15T12:07:00.000+01:00

Hello there, we made it to Hong Kong. Japan was really cool but it really is expensive so it's nice to be here where things are a little more reasonable.

We visited Himeji castle which was pretty cool, and visited Kobe as we had a couple of hours spare, not much to report but there's no trace of the earthquake that happened in 95.

We went back to Tokyo and visited a sacred area called Niko, it was nice but we weren't too impressed with having to pay for our trains.

Now we're in Hong Kong and planning to take it a little easier, Japan was quite hectic so we're going to spend a few days here and then mission it to Hanoi on the train. It'll probably take about 30 hours.

Finally bought a CF card for my camera but still haven't got a cable, but i will very soon. I'm not feeling very creative at the moment, i'll write more soon.

Kyoto and Osaka

2005-10-10T23:05:00.000+01:00

Herrow

Finally got back to free internet, phew (100 Mb/s i might add, we're so behind)

So we left Tokyo with some intrepidation, we told the guy there which hostel we'd managed to book and he sort of snorted and said "ah, Uno house, veeeery cheap but not very clean" Great!

Well we arrived and it was, as an estate agent would say, quaint and cosy. Basically you had to step over other people most of the time and instead of beds there was Tatami matting, but it was a roof over our heads so we survived. Kyoto was nice, there was some parts of old japan which had managed to not get burnt/bombed/built on over the last century which was nice to see. We saw a Shogun palace which had specially designed floor boards which squeaked as you walked on them to reveal intruders (that was their excuse anyway).

We also saw Kyoto train station, mental! Basically imagine a massive wedge out of the ground made up of escalators with shops on them. There were about 14 large stories, each one had restaurants and shops and there were partial ceilings. I can't describe it, some day i'll get some photos on here, anybody got some web space i can host them on? (Macca?)

Today we baled out of our lovely hostel and came to a hotel in Osaka which is much more pleasant, we have beds, and walls and other luxuries. We ate Sushi today, just a bit to try it, it was quite nice but just not as filling as a good old bowl of soup noodles. We're going to a proper samurai castle tomorrow and then we're going back to Tokyo before our rail passes run out and we actually have to pay for the bullet trains, urgh.

Oh yeah, i bought a compass today and it pleases me, but suze thinks it's lame, pretty much sums it up really, Bye!

Tokyo

2005-10-07T23:52:00.000+01:00

Wow, Japan is great, nice to back in a fully civilised place where the drivers stop at red lights and occasionaly someone knows how to speak a little engrish.

Arrived last night and managed to do most of the notable districts of Tokyo today (i'm shattered). We have inter rail style passes which we used to go on the overground trains today. First stop was Ginza where we went round the Sony demonstration building. (i was thinking of you Matt) Saw the next generation of HDTV's and MP3 players (and MD, when are they going to learn). I want an HDTV, they are sweet. There was a 70 inch one, nearly as tall as Suze!

Next stop was Akihabara, the electronics district. Wanted a 1GB CF card for my camera but they were twice as much here as in England, cutting edge my arse, i guess i'll wait til hong kong and try there.

We also checked out the international forum and a lovely lovely department store before getting some noodles for dinner and traipsing back.

Unfortunately there's no room at the inn tomorrow night so tomorrow we need to try and get some accomodation in Kyoto and then bullet train over there (3 hours by bullet, 9 hours by regualar) Lets all hope there's some room or it'll be some sort of sleeper train for my bed!

Hope everyone is well, let me know what you're up to.

Beijing

2005-10-05T21:18:00.000+01:00

Hello from China!

As far as i can tell my blog is not viewable to those within China, no doubt due to my radical political ideals, but i've managed to read all the comments posted (via email) so thanks for those.

It's my last night in Beijing, had a cool time so far but there is certainly a language barrier here, Beijing is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world but all the tourists are bloody chinese, and we came during national holiday week so there were plenty here this week. Still it hasn't affected us too much, the Great Wall was very busy but i think that's pretty standard.

So first things first, i arrive in Beijing safe and sound but my bag didn't! Great start, i made a report and fortunately it turned up at my hostel the next day but it was an anxious 24 hours. I didn't fancy replacing all my stuff in Beijing. Jetlag kicked in and we slept from 7pm til 12pm the next day. That day we went to Tiannenmen square, apperently the biggest in the world, i can believe it. We found a cool night market where any food you could wish for can be purchased on a stick including octopus, grasshoppers, scorpions, starfish, silkworms and seahorses!

Next day we went to the great wall, WOW, it is a crazy structure, we walked up a section for about half an hour and we were knackered, i'll put some photos up once i've bought a USB cable which i forgot to bring.

Well we're off to Tokyo tomorrow, pretty excited about Japan but it's going to be pricy, i think my total expenditure in China is about 50 quid, my rail pass in Japan is 140 alone but it'll be worth it and i can always go back when i actually have some money. Keep the comments coming and i'll keep writing, it's in your hands!

One Day Left

2005-09-30T17:26:00.000+01:00

I'm getting quite excited now, i've spent the day packing and doing last minute jobs and now i've just got to wait. I'm going to a restaurant where you can choose your steak before they cook it and then down scruffy's for my last night in the UK. Hopefully my next entry will be rather more interesting, see you in china!

Costs

2005-09-19T19:51:00.000+01:00

So you're possibly thinking how much does all this cost? How can a student bum like Ash afford to travel for 6 months. Here's a wee breakdown

Plane Tickets (Star Alliance) £1600 inc Tax
Insurance £130
Spending money £3500 plus £3000 poker money should i need it.
Japan Rail pass £140 for 7 days
Rucksack £135

Injections
£30 for Hep B
£110 for Rabies

Visas:
Vietnam £35
China £40

I was surprised how cheap the plane flights are and how much visas and injections cost. I still need malaria tablets and Laos and Cambodian visas which i expect will be about $40.

Fortunately most contries tie their currency to the dollar which is very weak compared to mighty pounds so once i'm out there things are going to be pretty cheap. E.g. accom in Hanoi is $6/night for a double, £1.60 each!

The First Post

2005-09-18T23:11:00.000+01:00

Hey! Glad you could make it.

Well this is going to be my online record of my forthcoming world trip. Me and my girlfriend suze are going 'round the world' for 6 months. First stop is Beijing on Oct 1st.

Then Japan
Hong Kong
Overland through Vietnam,Cambodia,Laos,Thailand,Malaysia
Australia
New Zealand
U.S.A.