Claire, Mic, Jo & KT's BIG trip

mickys and claires final say!

2009-07-28T13:34:11Z

We arrived safely in Beijing after an awful train journey involving bright lights! Apparently taxi drivers don't know their way round their own city, so it took us a while to find Leo hostel as it was located in the middle of a building site! On our day of arrival we visited the temple of heaven and the gardens surrounding, it was extremely warm and we have discovered the chinese tourist population have no aspect of queueing/ control over their brollies. Later on Jo napped whilst me and mick got ripped off at a tea tasting session-long story you will have to hear on our return. In the evening we discovered a food street and ate some nasty noodles containing unexpected octupus, then fell asleep promptly in a state of exhaustion! The following day we cheched into a 5 star hotel complimentary of Peter Jones (thanks dad!!!) We made the staff giggle because of our grubby backpacks which right now are very big. In the hotel we swam and watched films whilst eating nice cake-it was luxourious.
The next day we sadly checked out and went back to the building site. Decided to make a trip to the summer palace which turned out to not be so summery, we have not been so wet in our lives, paths turned into rivers and we transformed into drowned rats. Later The public bus on the way back was interesting as well. Jo was very happy to see Oli the next morning when he came to join us in Beijing-we gave him just enough time to get ready before we headed out to explore the forbidden city. We climbed up to a pavillion where we got a beautiful view of the tiled roofs from the city.

the next day we went on a secret adventure to the wall it was beautiful there where no tourists in site! we where really lucky with the weather and had a prety clear daywith no rain which was good as every other dayit managed to rain on us! mic jo and oli did another adventure to the wall the next day to a new part that had been rebuilt, claire felt sorry for herself in bed or on the toilet it was prety much 50 50! in the evening we sat by the lake and had some goodbye drinks it was a sad affair!

jo left us the next morning with oli and they headed to mongolia on a very long train journey!
mic and claire decided to spend the rest of their pennys in the silk market and ended up spending more than that!

we went out for a final evening dinner of peeking duck and headed bk to the hostel to pack our very big very hevey bags the waight is going to be interesting when we get there we will hav to wait and see!

we are about to head off for the airport so we will see you all very soon!

Mic and claire

jo left
shopping

mickys and claires final say! remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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China begins ...

2009-07-19T04:17:29Z

Well we all enjoyed Sapa very much, it was the perfect end to Vietnam, and also where we said bye to Pete and Vinnie! From there we headed across the border on foot to a random town called Hekou where we booked our bus to Kumming. Kumming was much busier than expected and suprise suprise noone spoke english which is where the phrase book came in handy, we eventually managed to find our hotel and went straight to sleep because it was past mdnight and we didn't want to turn into pumpkins! Dragged ourselves out of bed in the early hours to fight our way through the crowds to the station, we managed to get a ticket for the same day so set off on our first 24 hour train journey; which was thankfully much more comfy than the one to Sapa!!

Chongqing was also a lot bigger than expected, it took us a while to realsie that everywhere we're visiting in China has a population of over 3 million, which confirms how different our experience is going to be compared to south east asia. In Chongqing we spotted the first tourists we have seen in a very long time, this was very exciting on both sides as they also hadn't seen westerners for a week or so, we shouted and waved across the street and found out we were staying in the same hotel so organised to meet up later! Booked our boat trip through the 3 gorges, and decided to cheer oursleves up with a shopping trip. The evening entailed a real experience oh how the Chinese like to party, we went to a local club where we were the only foreigners in sight-the moment we walked in we had drinks put in our hands and a massive warm welcome of sheers and dancing.

The next day we boarded our boat in Whanzou and found out we had been lied to; all are activities were not included as told! Spent a lot of time chilling on deck eating instant noodles and enjoying the scenery. We caught a glimpse of the damm as we arrived in Yinchang where we departed the boat and stuggled up a million stairs in the heat of midday. Wandered and did more shopping, Jo bought herself a beautiful chinese dress, and we had an interesting dining experience, again with our phrasebook! Having no idea what we had ordered and being plesantly suprised with fried cucumber.

It was then time for our next 24 hour train journey to Shanghai, we have been here for 4 days and the buget has gone out of the window. We have had lots of fun exploring town and sweltering in the heat. Mick and I have been busy designing more tailored items that will remain a suprise until our return. Jo visited and art street yesterday, and enjoyed the picturesque YunYan gardens. We are slowly becoming accutomed to the heat, I don't think it willl ever be possible though to leave the hotel room and remain sweat free!
Love micky and Claire x

China begins ... remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Vietnam

2009-07-06T03:01:41Z

ow my god i have just deleted the hole blog just as i finished it and was doing spell check im about to kill my self arrrr severs me right for writing it on hotmail and not on the blog : (
so lets start again me and micky where the last to arrive in hoi an after our very squashed bus ride over, where we met pete and kt and claire in a very nice hotel with a swimming pool, it was like being on a proper holiday relaxing and eating lots. pete had already been there a couple of days so had kind of been adopted by an australian family who where a great laugh, kt and claire arrived in time to sing happy birthday to vinnie and even got some birthday cake! sadly we missed this, the main reason why pete came here early was because hoi an is the place to come to get cheap suits made we arrived in time for pete final fitting at the tailors his suit is definably one of a kind, we had not planed to get anything made but once i found out that they would make what ever i wanted i started designing and consequently have now ramed my bag with a jacket a coat a dress a top and a skirt and just just to make it really heavy i bough a marble sculpture to pack in there too!!!! the others didnt quite go so over the top! the original plan had been to spend most of are time on china beach however the pool was just to close so we only made it there once!!! lazy.
micky and pete headed of early to hue to look at the tunnels and other war thing and we all met up again in hanoi, which is the capital and quite nice as far as big cities go as usual we got ripped of but it was all in good humour and some time you just cant be bother to barter! we spent most of the day look for a halong bay tour for the next day.
after a bit of a panic where we didnt think vinnies bus was going to get in on time the 6 of us head out to halong bay for 3 days, the views where amazing, and we did along to sea kayaking, vinnie and i decided that we would do some cave exploring in our kayak against our guided wished. it was pretty cool apart when we couldnt see anything and we had no idea where the rocks came down to,we even found a little enclosed bay it was like something out of jurassic park as well as an enclosed lake thing. amusingly we ended up getting in trouble as we didnt come back when the boat honked us and they came out a grabbed our kayak while giving us the evils and shouting NO (it was like being back at school)!!!!! we also went to visit the AMAZING CAVE and though shear boredom we formed for one night only the cavetts choir!!!! singing their new single 'amazing cave' solo by claire jones and managed by micky mclaughlan we performance in the middle of the cave and put a smile on a lot of peoples face! the song was surprisingly similar to 'amazing grace'! even though the waters where infested with jelly fish we went jumping and swimming apart from micky who for once was too scared even kt jumped!!!!
we are now in sapa after saying bye to kt : ( the train journey was a bit of an experience as we spent the night on wooden beaches with vietnamese opera blaring until 12 pm arrrr it was an experience!!!! sapa is a nice hill town just south of the china boarder with lots of hiking around and well as some markets (mic and claire have a shopping list!) so this is our last stop before saying bye to pete and heading over the boarder.

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Elephants!!!!!!!

2009-07-06T01:37:25Z

after being told about the elephant conservation centre several times on are first trip to asia we decided it had to be done, and it was as good as everyone said it was going to be. after being randomly dropped of on the side of the road from a long sleepless (and im my case sticky) bus ride we walked 2km down this track in what we hoped was the right direction for our home stay, eventually we got picked up and where dropped of in the right place we dumped are thing in our room and where told to go a look at the baby elephant that was 6 days old, it was so small and cute, there was another 2 month old orphan that was extremely playful and he spend a long time grabbing are arms and trying to pull us over the fence eventually he gave up and tried to clamber over the fence him self image seeing a baby elephant trying to balance himself on basically 1m high garden fence trying to get himself over, he didnt manage but it was quite funny to watch!
after that we met up with 2 of the other people who would be doing the mahot training with us and had dinner together as they where staying in the same home as us. the mahot's are the people who look after and train the elephants using a set of command this is what we where going to learn for the next few days, each elephant has its own mahot and they are together most of the day and have a very strong bond similar to a dog and it owner (though elephants are a lot more intelligent) so when my elephants mahot (mayo) started play fighting with one of the other elephant my elephant (wana) marched over to try stop them!
we where each given our own elephant to work with for the 2 days it was a bit like being at school being picked for team sports apart from for once i was picked first as wana sniffing me with her trunk (though i think she was just looking for food) the others all got on an elephant mickys was called gel and claires was called Luca we where straight away shown different ways to get on a of it was easy for me as i just stood on wana's knee and then jumped over the others needed a little more help as they where higher up the elephants would lift their leg up so the could jump over, we then went to was them and have water fights great in the hot weather, in the evening the elephants stayed in the forest and we would ride them up there wana being small and fit got quite excited and decided to run up there (its quite scary sitting bear back on a running elephant) the next day we went to collect and clean them off we then had one final water fight and we showed are mahot skills of in a show and then its was time to say good by to the elephants and head off.
it was an amazing experience we all loved it and it was great to see how happy all the elephants where.

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motorcycle diaries

2009-06-29T03:13:58Z

well we left katie and claire after our treck had finished and got an over night bus to pakse, i hav to say that this bus was the best bus we hav been on so far it had bunk beds on it so we could actually lie down! pete left us in Pakse and me and jo headed on down to the 4 thousand islands! we decided to stay on Don det which was surposed to be the more party island out of the 2 big ones, party island was deffinetly an over statement iv never been somewhere so chilled out before it took them 3 days to get our washing back to us and that only happened because we where leaving, there was only electricity from 6 till 10 and after that it was prety much bed time! it was really quiet and relaxing just what we needed we chilled out on hamocks for a couple of days and did some reading! of corse me and jo being us couldnt actually do nothing so on one of these days we rented some bikes and cycled around the 2 islands visiting the waterfall with the biggest volume in asia and cycleing along the bumpyest track ever right doun to the boarder of cambodia where we got a boat over and saw the famous pink dolfins!

after we where relaxed and refreshed from a couple of days chilling we got a local bus back up to pakse and then carried on up to tad lo, the busses where quite interesting but nothing compared to the the transport coming later, Tad lo was really nice also very chilled out, it was really interesting walking around the village all the children would shout and wave at you and animals would be wondering around everywhere noone seemed to realise there was a road that had moving transport on it. the next day we hired some moterbikes and went exploring the near by places, starting off on the bikes was very interseting considering i had only bin on one a week or so before and jo hadnt done it before i think the guy we borrowd the bikes from was a bit worried they wouldnt come back in one piece! we drove up the main road toward one of the cities which was actually a dirt track but didnt go to far before turning around and heading back to the tarmak road we had a really good day exploring the place and came back in one piece which i think the man was very pleased about!

the next day we headed on aqccross to attepeu where we where going to get the bus over to vietman and meet the others we got on a bus that took us accross the dirt track the bus had 3 goats on the roof and about 20 chickens tied up on the floor! attepue was interesting as noone could speak english and it looked like noone had ever seen white people before they where stroking our arms and pointing and staring! we got a bus over the boarder which was very interesting it got stopped by the police and searched they found something and there was alot of argueing and eventually alot of cash was handed over and we quickly left! we arrived in vietman and had no idea where we where and unfortunetly we didnt hav a guide book so we wondered around trying to find a way to hoi an it was very stressful, eventualy got on a bus that was rammed full of people i was actually flat against a window and jo was practically sitting on peoples knees! we where both very glad when we finaly made it to hoi and and met up with the others!

motorcycle diaries remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cambodia and beyond ......

2009-06-28T14:29:31Z

Well well well we meet again, Claire speaking by the way! So I thought I'd catch you up on what me and KT got up to when we branched off from the other 3. We flew out of Vientiane on the 21st (fathers day) and got a flight to Siam Reap in Cambodia where we jumped on the back off motos to get to our guesthouse! That day we visited a floating village and the great Angkor Wat for sunset. Despite the not so good weather the temple itself was amazing. Following day we did a huge temple tour starting at 6am; I think I can speak for both of us when saying Ta Prohm aka the Tomb Raider temple was by far the most spectacular-I loved it.
Tuesday we headed to Phnom Penn the capital of Cambodia where we explored the city in the evening and did our much needed laundry-the following day we got a tuk tuk to S21 which was a concentration camp and the killing fields-this was all related to when Polpot was taking over Cambodia to make it a communist country and in the process destroyed many lives! It was an emotionally exhausting day for both of us.
Early rise to get to Ho Chi Minh city the next day in Vietnam-crossing the border was fun fun fun especially the thermometer shoving in my ear that they call the health examination!!! This city was beyond crazy-motorbikes in every direction it made crossing the road v.interesting-I got clipped by one on my arm at night (I'm fine), but it was very scary! went to the markets and met some nice fellow backpackers at night time.
Night train to Danag the next evening, we chose a hard sleeper which was suprisingly great fun we met some lovely Vietnamese people who wanted to share all their food with us, and we taught the man how to play a card game which he loved. 17 hours later we arrived in Danang and shared a taxi with 2 other brits to Hoi An where we had arranged to meet Pete, Mick and Jo. The hotel is amazing and has a lovely swimming pool and lots of friendly guests. Pete was already here and Mick and Jo arrived later that day! The fantastic five are back together, and very very happy!!! xxxxxx

Cambodia and beyond ...... remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Return to Asia

2009-06-21T13:30:55Z

So our last blog entry finished in New Zeland, we got flight out to Bangkok where when we landed a very happy Micky was met by Pete. Pete had very kindly organised us a hostel and there we headed. Our three days in Bangkok contained im afraid not much in the way of sightseeing, after handing in our passports for our Vietnam visas we headed for shopping and Kho San Road, tourist heaven (or possibly hell). We all bought things and enjoyed our time chilling in the city, I bought the second camera of our trip as mine died! After two nights in our hostel during which we had had very little sleep thanks to the LOUDEST (yes evern louder than Dad) snorer in the world we had had enough. We checked prices online and then headed to a bargain hotel where we had a beautiful 3 room suite. We had room service and swam and enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately the next day Jo woke up with a horrible stomach bug. We stayed in the room for as long as possible and then left Jo by the pool to go shopping to get her (and us) some last minute things. We then got a night bus to Chiang Mai for Pete and me and Lampang for the girls to do the elephant hospital. Pete and I spent the day in Chiang Mai temple hopping then headed to a market where we tried to eat random foods, which lead to us eating bugs and insects. We had had to buy a big bag so we shared them around with other farang (tourists) and then went for a beer with a few. After this Pete headed off to do his own thing and I went to a little place called Pai. Its a lovely and chilled and I spent the follwing day at hot springs and waterfalls before getting a night bus to Chaing Rai to meet up with everyone. We spent the following day we chilled had late lunches then in the afternoon went to an amazingly kitsch white temple just outside the city. It was amazing and they are in the process of making it bigger. Inside there were amazing murals of buddah and the modern world, with the twin towers and batman and American taxi's - surreal! The following day we headed for the Loas border, we got a slow boat to a place called Pak Beng. The slow boat was fairly noisy and not all that comfortable on wooden benches but still nice. Pak beng was interesting it was a small place with electricity only between 6 and 10 which actually turned out to be 9.15pm. We had an indian for dinner! The following day we arrived at the slow boat a bit late, instead of sharing benches we decided to sit in the engine room on the floor and have the noise rather than be cramped. We arrived in Luang Prabang which is the second largest but actually quite small city in Laos, in the evening we browsed a night market and then went for dinner.
The following day we headed for the Kuang Si Falls. The falls were very beautiful and it was nice to be able to cool off!! They also had rescued bears there which was cool. They were less bear like than I expected!
In the evening we climbed above the city to a Wat (temple) for a lovely sunset. We wandered the night market again and some purchases were made. The following day after a relaxed start we got the bus to Vang Vieng. It was quite windy with amazing scenery, Claire was sick : ( Vang Vieng is a very touristy place where the restaurants show lots of friends DVDs!! After our first night we got up late and went for breakfast we were going to go tubing down the river but it rained so instead while Claire recuperated we went to some caves. We tubed in one, pulling ourselves through. A guy showed us the way and at the end tried to charge us a ridiculous amount for being our guide!!! He didn't get as much as he was hoping for! The next day we went tubing we started around 12 at the first bar, there was a very high rope swing Pete went first then the others and I was last as I needed a little persuasion to jump off. We then floated down the river to the next bar with a zip wire, the third bar had mud pits and we had a tug of war which he girls side lost! Our final bar had a huge slide, it was fun! We finished by tubing for an hour and a half back to town.
Next we headed to Vientiane on a public bus. After arriving and finding a guesthouse we headed into town to search for a trek. After some deliberation we settled on a three day camping trek to start the next day.
Our trek began from the Tad Luek Waterfall in the ..................National Park. We trekked for around 4 hours after lunch to our camping site for the night by the river. We had a delicious local dinner cooked by our guide and 3 local guides. We played drinking games with the guide with some unknown alcohol called Lao Lao which had twigs in it. Claire, Jo and my tent leaked that night and we got a little wet as it rained very heavily. The following day was our longest day of trekking. We began at 9 and walked until 2 when we stopped for lunch and a swim by the river. Then we walked for another hour or so to make camp. We taught our guides a new card game and then went to bed, this time they had arranged a dry tent but unfortunately it ended up being on top of an ant nest and we got badly bitten!! Micky and Pete's tent was precariusly close to the water and on a big slant! our third day was a short few hours return to the road, they took us to see the dam then back to the city. this everning we split up, Jo and Micky have gone South to Islands off Laos, Pete has gone South to motorbike and me and Claire caught a Lao Airlines flight to Cambodia this morning!

Claire and I say hello to everyone, including Jo, Micky and Pete! Hope everyone is ok at home!!!

Katie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Return to Asia remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Onwards and upwards

2009-06-10T02:10:25Z

It started with a very bumpy boat trip across the Cook straights, the day before the swell had been 14m and this was the first day the boats where going again. the waves were crashing over the boat (it wasnt a small boat either, they where about the same as the ones that you cross the channel with) as you can imagine we all got very sea sick. it wasnt all bad though when we where coming out of the sounds we sore a massive school of dolphins there must have been about 100 of them. we then had a quick over night stop in Wellington where we sorted out our visas and just relaxed a bit.

we then drove up to a place called National park, however it wasnt as attractive as the name leads you to believe. but out of the window of our hostel we could see Mt Ngauruhoe for those that have watched lord or the rings thats mt doom! which you past when walking the tongariro crossing, said to be the best day walking in New zealand and the reason we'd come. as its winter here there was loads and loads and loads of snow so with safety in mind! we trekked up there will ice axes and crampon ( we wouldnt have managed without) it was the first day in one month that the weather had been clear and we had the most spectacular views on every side, but it was the sky that was the most amazing bit it looked like it should have been up on the sistine chapel (i could go on about it for a while but that would bore you!). we also did a bit of indoor climbing as bizarrely our hostel had a climbing wall in it and micky did her first ever climb.

the next stop was waitomo where there are over 100 caves, and we joined a group to do a caving experience where we did abseiling rock climbing pot holing and best of all black water rafting where we would sit in tubs and float through the caves in the dark, this wouldnt have been overly exciting apart from the fact that the roof of the caves was covered on glow worms making it look like a night sky. after that is was across to Rotorua which has loads of geezers and thermal spring unfortunately the sulphur makes it smell like rotten eggs we still spent a very relaxing evening in a spa slowly cooking in 42 degrees of water. as New zealand is full of sheep and Rotorua calls its self the sheep shearing capital of the world we felt it would be appropriate to go to a sheep shearing show!!! we havent laughed so much in a long time, it would be good material for the village panto!!!! later that afternoon Kt and claire went to a Mauri village and sore the traditional dancing crafts and also sore a kiwi which kt was very excited about, as usual it was raining so mic and my plans to mt bike through the red woods got postponed till the next day, i fell off quite alot (the trees just kept getting in my way!)

we then drove up towards auckland via a quick over night stop at the hot water beach. there is a reason why it was called this, a hot spring come up through the sand at low tide and if you dig a hole with a spade could can sit in your own natural hot tub, however the water was that hot that we burnt our feet just standing in it. we then headed west over to Auckland and the west coast beaches Karekare and piha both beautiful although the sand does go every where! in Auckland we just sorted our selves out for the next bit of the trip this included sending a parcel we all our warm cloths home for $150!!! worth it though as i would want to be carrying it now and went to the ice bar! for our last experiences of the cold, it really was freezing in there!!!!

joxxxx

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the begining well half of New Zealand

2009-05-25T08:36:59Z

well we have all arrived safely into wellington and picked up our chinese visas which went surprisingly smooth which we where not expecting!! our trip in NZ so far has been very busy and exciting im sorry if i miss anything out it all seems so long ago now!

arriving in Christchurch was very cold and everyone kept telling us it was just going to get colder so we went straight out to buy some walm clothes and thermals, it was all very autumy it felt strange switching seasons so fast!! after picking up our car the el cheapo which looked and felt cheapo to drive we headed off to lake tekapo! the drive was prety cool and the lake was very beautiful it was a shame the sun wasnt shining but we still made the most of it, its aparently a fact that NZ has 3 times more rain than england (i might be lieing about this but its def more than us) and you can deffinetly tell! we woke up after a very cold nights sleep in our hostel (we dont think they had ever hurd of central heating) to lots and lots of snow it was really cool we went on a walk round a bit of the lake before heading off as we didnt want to get snowed in. i think we left it a bit to late becaues on the way to queenstown we got a bit stuck going over the hills and we wherent given any snow chains so jo was having an interesting driving session on the slippy roads it was deffinetly an adventure!

we picked up some snow chains as soon as we got to Queenstown sadly we hav not had to use them yet but you never no they may come in handy! we also went to sort out what walks we wanted to do the following day originally me and jo where going to do the Milford track and claire and katie where going to do the routburn but when we went to ast in the DOC office about them they said we would die if we attempted any of them this was a bit upsetting so we talked to another man in the office because we didnt like the patronising lady and he said that we would be ok as long as we kew where we where going and we where carefull so we all decided to do the routeburn track so we could stick togeather and we got togeather our surplies! turns out the lady in the DOC office was deffinetly lieing the walk was so much fun it felt like we where trecking to the arctic there was nearly knee deep snow and the weather cleared up for us on the second day when we went up to the summet so we didnt hav snow storms the whole time. we all got very cosy on this trip and learnt the art of spooning as it was so cold and we needed body heat at night to keep us from freezing in the massive wooden hut.we walked back the same way when we got to the summit because our car was at that side and made our way back to QT, the next day claire and Katie threw themselves off a bridge (which im sure they will tell you about) and me and jo went on a small road trip to the Milford sounds, the drive over there was amasing it would have been worth going just for that but there was a bonus and we did the boat ride around the sounds when we got there it was unsurprisingly raining for most of it but that didnt ruin it!

our next stop on the way north was lake wanaka we only stopped here for a couple of hours as we had to get to the glasiers that day so we just did a small walk and then carried on driving in the rain, the franz joseph glasier was by far one of the highlights so far we did the full day tour because we had been recomended it by alot of people and it was well worth it we all felt like real explorers me and jo where in the lead group as noone wanted to go in that one so we got up quite quickly and did some exploring at the top our guide took us around a bit that noone had been on before which was exciting, we all went through tunnels and ice caves aswell and got ice axes to help us while climbing the trickyer bits. it was raining all day but this just made all the ice really blue so it was even more like a post card, and we had really cool gloves that kept out hands warm even though they where really wet.

the next day was still very wet but we where deturment to not let that stop us so we went on a walk around lake matterson and came back to the car looking like we had swim in it, we have since seen postcards of it and it looks alot nicer in the sun with the mountains around it that we didnt even know where there. we then made our way up north stopping over night in a random bed and breckfast along the way which was cool, we alos stopped at the pancake rocks and blow holes on our way up to nelson, from nelson we sorted out the able tasman walk we did 5 days here and it was amasing. we did 2 days sea kyack stopping at dyserted beaches and paddleing through seal colonies the pups came right up close to see who you where. we then did 3 days walking back alson the coast it was completly differnt walking the views where really nice and to top it off we had 4 days of blue skys and one day of patchy rain yay, we hav now recovered from our 5 day adventure and we are in the north the ferry crossing was interesting they hadnt been sailing for a few days because the weather has been to bad and they where getting 14 meter waves but today they did and we all got a bit sea sick noone was actually sick but it was not plesant.

so we now hav just under a week and a half to do the north island hopefully we will fit it all in!!
sorry if this is long i tryed to keep it short and sweet but alot has happened
lots of love
Micky

the begining well half of New Zealand remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Oz comes to an end!!!

2009-05-06T01:51:34Z

Hello far away people!
So the last time you heard from us we had just arrived back from our sailing trip which was awesome. We left airle beach the next day and headed inland to Townsville where we caught a ferry over to Magnetic Island where we stayed for one night. Mick and I enjoyed clambering over rocks, whilst katie spent the day on the beach and Jo nearly died doing a huge walk without sufficient water-not literally. The next night was SIZZLER NIGHT!! to explain this is an all you can eat buffet place which has unreal food, so yes we are keeping well eating enough, however Katie struggled to keep up with our 5 plates-she only managed 3. Don't worry we're keeping an eye on how much shes putting away!
We enjoyed a day 'on the ranch' as well just outside townsville where we did activities such as horse riding and cattle herding. sheep shearing etc etc. this was great fun, we all got carried away cattle herding it was great fun, much enjoyed!
The next 2days were spent seeing waterfalls, in particular the Millaa Millaa falls which were amazing. (We have been told these falls were in a timotei advert) Shortly after that we arrived in Cairns where we organised a dive on the great barrier reef; so we jumped back on a sailing boat and sailed, rather choppily to green island where we cnorkelled, dived twice and visited the actual island. Jo hyperventilated at first but soon got into the swing of breathing underwater. We all loved this day, we saw a huge turtle and nemos, woop woop! Katie nearly threw up on the boat, was really funny-also we burnt lots despite Katies special need sun cream. We all take the mick out of her because she has cheapo, rubbish sun cream, hahaha!
Bye Bye Camper, Hello saloon car for our last week. We picked our toyota up in Cairns and drove up to Port Douglas (well I didn't drive because I'm still to young, shame!) Shopped and found some amazing aboriginal art, also bought some tents to camp in for the fllowing 6 nights. Micky is slowly (dying) from (heat rash) we think the cause is the floor of the cheap tent-poor micky!! Up to Cape tribulation from there which is all rainforest and beach, rained a lot but was great to have time to chill out because we all felt like we hadn't stopped yet! We went on a night walk a boat ride where we saw crocodiles, it was ace. Now were back in Cairns ready to fly to NZ tommorrow, soo excited! Speak soon, xxxxxx

Oz comes to an end!!! remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Exploring 1770, Fraser Island and the beautiful Whitsunday's

2009-04-22T00:30:36Z

Woop so so much fun stuff to tell you about! So when we last wrote an entry we were in Rainbow beach and it was raining. Well it didn't really stop, so we decided it was time to head on. We booked a tour out to Fraser Island and to the Whitsunday's and then drove off in the pouring rain and dark, Micky did really well with the driving in tricky conditions, we had discussed staying and leaving the next day, but it was a good job we didn't as Rainbow beach became cut off by flooding later that night. We drove off to a place called Hervey Bay to stay in a car park ready for our trip out to Fraser Island the next day. We booked a tour out to Fraser for 2 days on a 40 seater 4 by 4 bus, it arrived to pick us up at around 8 and we headed across on the boat with the skipper shouting abuse at the 4 x4 drivers who couldn't seem to reverse onto the boat...quite amusing! When we arrived we were told that unfortunately due to the cyclone a few weeks ago we wouldn't be able to go to the North of the island due to the sand being washed off the beach, (which is also the highway) and exposing this coffee rock stuff, which is like really compacted dark sand stuff, like rock but not. In the morning we walked through the rainforest from the central station, we saw trees which were the inspiration for camoflage. After heading for lunch we then headed for a swim to the very beautiful Lake Wobbi, which is emerald green in colour to look at but this is algae at the bottom and when you cup the water in your hands it is crystal clear, as it is purely rainwater. It rained here after maybe half an hour of being there, which made the rest of our bus walk back across the sand dunes to the bus. We stayed messing in the water as we were already wet, seemed silly to waste the time, but this was probably the start of our tour bus beginning to not like us, arriving within the time limit given by the driver, but around an hour after the rest of the bus had headed back!! That evening we had dinner (Mexican and apple crumble!!) in the resort before playing cards and heading to bed, very full after the buffet meal! The next day we went to another fresh water lake, this one called Lake Mackenzie, this is also beautiful clear water and on a blue sky day the water is a beautiful tuquoise, but unfortunately for us a little overcast but still beautiful. In the afternoon the weather cleared and the sun (yes the sun!) came out. We went to a place called Rainbow gorge which people don't normally go to, we walked across the sand dunes, which were lovely, with some of the same almost like slate. The girls did a race up a massive sand dune, the way down micky was so quick I thought her legs might actually fall off. Our bus driver Steve was hilarious, he repeated everything he said many many times, very funny!
After leaving the beauty of Fraser Island we had two days before we needed to be at Airlie beach for our Whitsunday's sailing tour. Upon some advise we headed to 1770, the first place in Queensland that Captain Cook stopped at, there isn't a lot there except a beautiful beach and harbour and a campsite. We stayed for a night and hal of the next day, Jo and Micky saw dolphins whilst we watched the sunset. That evening we had a BBQ and tried some local fish and meat (prawns and spanish mackrel).
After leaving mid afternoon we drove around 600km's around 400 miles to Airlie beach arriving late at night. We had some problems with where to stay as there were lots of police around and lots of signs saying no staying in your campervan. In the end we drove around 10 kms out of town and stayed on the roadside leaving early. The following morning we drove into town and found a campervan site behind the hostels. Jo, Micky and Claire booked a sky dive for later in the day. We then all headed into the market in town and had some funky spray on tattoos done! The girls then headed off to sky dive (they will have to tell you more about it) whilst I headed to the pool. After checking into our boat we had an early night.
The next day we drove to the harbour to start our sailing tour! Very exciting! We decided that we all wanted to go on a smaller sailing boat rather than the massive party boats holding around 60 people. There were 12 of us and it was definately a brilliant decision. On our boat there were two crew the skipper, Simon and the deckkie Mark. Other passengers were two girls from Liverpool, Dani and Carolyn, Four Irish girls, Fiona, Lisa, Cat and Loraine, a german girl Marika and finally Alfie, the only guy from Guernsey. There were a great group of people much better than we could have imagined we had great fun with them.
On the first morning we arrived late for our sailing as we couldn't find any spaces to park our campervan! They gave us a quick brief and then we set off for dunbell island where we had our first snorkell on a reef. We had to wear stinger suits in case a jelly fish stung us (can be fatal, but not to worry no stings!) We saw some amazing fish in beautiful bright colours and some truely spectacular coral. After this we heaed to Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island to go to Whitehaven beach to a section of it called Betty's beach. It was very beautiful, tuquoise water and pure white sand (due to the very high silica content) which was squeaky under foot, we made recordings and took pictues. We then headed back to the boat for dinner and chatting before bed, Jo and Claire slept on the boat deck. The following morning us for and the two Liverpudlians headed with Mark out on the dingy to watch the sunrise from a place called esk Island, very beautiful, and to make it even more special we became surrounded by sufacing turtles coming up for air! Amazing! That night we had stopped in Mantaray bay, we then moved onto Pinacle Bay for our next snorkel expedition and on the way dolphins began swimming with the boat playing in the front of the boat. This snorkell was again spectacular, this time we saw the most massive aquarium looking fish in greens and blues I have ever seen, it was around 2 metres called a Maori Wrass, we tried to take a picture with our underwater camera ( I hope it comes out!) They also fed the fish around us, with lots of small black and white fish, and blue and yellow fish surrouding you, swarming and pecking.
After lunch and a spot of tan topping we headed for our next snorkell this time to Luncheon Bay, also on Hook Island. This reef was amazing, it had a steep ledge which dropped away covered in beautiful coral. Some of our boat spotted a reef shark (harmless) here, however Micky and myself were too busy swimming with a turtle to be in the right area for this! Jo spotted the end of it. In the evening we went to a beach called Black Island to watch the sunset, chat and have some delicious snack and some not so delicious goon ( Cheap Ozzie wine which comes in a box - potentially not really wine!) I got eaten alive by I assume sandflies which are very very itchy. We then headed back to the boat for some Spag Bol, a few beers, some stories about a man called Jambo from Alfie and then a brilliant card game taught to us by the Irish girls. (Like rummy but more competitive and great) This evening we also saw lots and lots of giant Trevelli.
The following day we snorkelled the reef at Black Island where we had stayed overnight, not quite as amazing coral wise, but we were exceptionally lucky and as the last four in the water all of us saw up close two turtles and one even swam with us! Truely Brilliant.
After this as our final trip the took us to a place called Lakeford Reef a sandback in the water where it looked like we were walking on water. Here our next amazing animal encounter took place as Jo spotted a small Reef shark. We then headed back, we had an amazing trip - I think we saw more than most people get chance to see so we were so so lucky.

Sorry this has been so very very long!! There was so much I wanted to say, it could have been twice as long!! Thank you so much for all your messages, they are lovely and its great to see that everyone is well at home.

Katie

Exploring 1770, Fraser Island and the beautiful Whitsunday's remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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1500ft

2009-04-18T00:00:03Z

by the time you read this Mic Jo and Claire will have jumped out of a plane!!!!

1500ft remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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rain rain go away come again another day!

2009-04-13T05:25:41Z

so we arrived in port Macaquire right in the middle of an iron man competition where micky and kt spent the evening shouting their support to the competitors, the following day we when to a kuala park where we were able to pet a kuala and then feed the kangaroos which i fell in love which (that evening we had kangaroo on the BBQ!) we then headed of to byron bay where we chilled out and went on some walks up to the light house unfortunately as i have said above the weather has not been what you would expect in oz!! so rather than another day on the beach we drove up to Nimbin a hippie town in the hills every thing was painted in the colours of the rainbow and it was full of organic shops and old men smoking weed, from there we drove on to surfers paradise where i found australia's 'Big Market'!!!! those from newcastle will know what i mean. then on to Brisbane for the easter weekend where we found some cool markets with yummy food and while kt and claire went to one of the parks and found mints that smelt like 'after eights' me and micky went to the art gallery to have a look at the cool aboriginal art (micky even enjoyed it!!!) from there we travelled by night to noosa noosa national park unfortunately i managed to make my self look like to total idiot, those of you who have driven with me wont be that surprised by this. i drove 2km up the motor way with no lights on (they are automatic in the cilo!!) we only realised as a man stuck his head out of the window shouting "lights lights" at me, to be fair kt was next to me and she didnt notice even though i was commenting on how dark the road was opps, in noosa noosa we sore a wild kuala and had about 1hr of sun!!! now we are in rainbow beach (its raining) we have just booked our tour for the witsudays and frasier island we're all very excited!!!

rain rain go away come again another day! remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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the beginning (claires spelling) of Oz

2009-04-05T08:35:58Z

Well we had 3 nights in Sydney, after arriving very early in the morning, first on the agenda was heading down to circular quay to see the main attractions and meet up with Katie (she arrived the day before due to misunderstood txts). we saw thousands of bats in the trees in the botanical gardens they smelled a bit but the where very exciting and we went a bit snap happy! the night ended with huge ice creams and free sauce (you have got to love the free food) fireworks and a night view of Sydney!
the next day was not a good day for me as i managed to get pooped on by a bird and spat on by a boy dont ask why! we met kate and went to Manley to do the scenic walk which was very nice and a huge lizard scared jo to death, we thorght we would hav a night out with free drink coupons which went well even though we had some red wine issues!
we decided we wanted to see a show in the opra house it was the most random performance any of us had ever seen we all found it very amusing!! by this time the weather had started to turn and we where not impressed with the rain especially jo who had just died her hair blond to go with the sun!! we had to say good bye to kate at this point which was quite sad claire delt with her grief by hitting the biscuits hard!!

it was then time to pick up the camper van this was very exciting and it would have gone very smoothly if it hadn't been smelly dirty and wet due to leakages but we managed to sort it out and we were on our way!
first stop blue mountains sham we couldnt see the 3 sisters due to weather but me and claire managed to become 2 of them for some other tourists, had a trip to see some caves which was an interesting scary drive for katie but we are all still alive!!

on our way up the coast we stopped at the hunter valley where we did wine tasting and walked to a view point!!
there was a massive storm that left jos clothes wetter than when she put them out to dry!!

last night we slept in the middle of a national park all alone this was very exciting and we where all a bit scard of rhinos spitting at us, we are now in port Macquarie where we will make friend with some Koalas!!

Micky (sorry about spelling and punctuation)

the beginning (claires spelling) of Oz remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The rest of malaysia, singapore and melbourne!!

2009-03-29T04:11:56Z

So the last you heard was we were heading to the national park called Taman Negara in Malaysia on the 18th of March! So in the end after our bus journey was made earlier we ended up getting two busses, a train and then a longtail boat to the local village. We stayed here for 3 nights and enjoyed the canopy walkway and a trek to a hide, where we woke up in the morning on Mickys birthday in the middle of a rainforest with loud scary noises. We saw what me and Jo thought was a wild boar, however Micky was sure it was a deer, hahaha! Also it was leech mania, you have already seen a picture of Jo's bloody sock from where the leech had got.

On the 21st of March we headed down to Kuala Lumpur where we did our laundry, yay!!!!!! By then we weren't smelling pleasant so it was such a relief to finally have clean clothes. The first night here we wondered around the city and managed to find a festival going on called, 'Colours of Malatsia' it was all about the different cultures within malaysia!! Not only did we get free food and fans but we also met a really nice family who were Chinese/Malaysian which has this really cute son-I got a bit attached. Best if all as we were leaving we got asked to be filmed having an interview with a tourism channel, was so funny and kind of embarrasing yet brilliant. So if any of you are watching sky?? Next day we visited the Lake Gardens and saw deer and mousedeer (we thought these would be small deer but infact they resembled rats more with scarecrow legs) Visited Chinatown to look at markets and Jo got this really cool flower necklace that the buds slwoly opened in time, also we went to a temple with lots of incent sticks. Later in the evening we went to the Petrona Towers where there is also a big shopping complex, was so sureal to see all the shops back home. We had yet anothr curry and went to see a film called 'The International' at the cinema-Jo wore Mickys anorak to keep warm???

23rd March!!! Headed down to Singapore by bus, didn't get there till 6ish so had another curry and found a cheap place to stay called the 'Prince of Whales'. Played cards and chilled out, believe it or not the Liverpool match was on which was pretty cool. So the next day was Jo's Birthday, woop!!(Yes I know I felt pretty left out-jokes) Anyway, we walked to the shopping street called Burgis, this place was filled with markets with lots of cheap clothes-Micky managed to get a dress for 100 dollars cheaper than it was supposed to be, (silk and lovely) infact she got many items of clothing this day. Had our first Singapore noodles dish, which was yummy and then went to the night Safari. We saw lots of animals, including this wolf which looked more like a dog and was so scared it opened his mouth to howl and no noise came out :-(((( The next day the 25th was a short day because we only had the morning when we walked down Orchard Road (posh street), ate ice cream, and Jo bought converse shoes after a lot of undecisiveness on her behalf! Our flight to Melbourne left at 9 ish so spent the last of our dollars eating subways, noodles, cheescake and cookies!! Followed by sweets and plane food, watched 'Twighlight' on the plane, however we weren't impressed with it probably because we are all far to into the books, and I mean obsessiveness!

26th March; Melbourne wayyyyyy!!! Katies filled you in with most of our outings I believe but god were we tired on the first day! We actually walked around St Kilda like zombies, serious lack of sleep. In the afternoon we went to federation square and chilled out in the Alexander Gardens so not too completely waste the day. Next day we all felt much better so Jo headed to some galleries in the city, whilst the rest of us ofcourse went to ramsay street-and yes agree with katie I was very excited it was great fun! And you will all be glad to hear we have purchased an ozzy sim so now it is ultra cheap for us to ring home, did a major budget shop as well. Grand Prix was later and we managed to find a cheaper so we could get a taster of what it was like and we found out it was incredibly, LOUD!!! infact that is an understatement, we didn't get ear plugs either-was so exciting to actually be there and to walk over the track mid race. Later that evening we met up with Micky and Jo's friends from South America, Nick and Chris!! They took us to a bar and afterwards club in South Yarra, we had a really good night dancing to cheesy songs like 'Angels' by Robbie, also there were some songs which we had never heard before which was also fun. In between all this Jo is thinking she may have got bed bugs.
Nick offered to take us to the great ocan road the next day which we were really chuffed about, so we left at 12 and headed there, lovely scenic drive. We indulged in fish and chips on the coast which was a crazily big portion, so that filled us up! Night train to Sydney at 8pm ish so headed to the station. Arrived safely in Sydney this morning, being sunday the 29th. Will update soon. Apologies for the delay this time, love claire xxxxxx hope everyone back home is good and leave lots of comments because we like hearing from you all.

The rest of malaysia, singapore and melbourne!! remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Katie starts off

2009-03-28T10:15:34Z

So I set off from home, to get the flight from manchester via London to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is an amazing city, there are so many skyscrapers its actually incredible! I enjoyed being there very much, I did the usual touristy things wandered the city, took the peak tram up to the peak. It is amazingly steep, a 27 degree incline I believe, feels very strange in a little tram. I also happened upon the Hong Kong flower festival whilst heading to a park which was an unexpected surprise. I enjoyed some fairly random chinese food, never entirely sure what I was eating, but the majority was ok, ( I was not so sure about, I think they may be called Razor clams? I thought I was getting a piece of fish!!) But all in all a very interesting trip.
Following this, I headed off to Melbourne. I was picked up from the Airport but Mum's Second cousin Bron and her husband Greg. I went to stay for two nights and saw the sights of Geelong, a town just outside Melbourne, including the famous surfers Bells beach and my first Kangaroo's. I had a brilliant time with them.
I then headed into Melbourne to meet Verity for a night, we found a hostel, despite the Grand Prix being in town which we were unaware of. It is an ok hotel, a little dirty and with quite a few long stays which makes a hostel a bit boring! We got the free city bus around the town, to acquaint ourselves, which took quite a long time. We then wandered around to find some places of interest to photograph, like the library and Chinatown etc. In the afternoon we visited the immigration museum, which was interesting if a little random. In the evening we went up the Observation tower to look at the city lights!!
The following day we got up early to greet the girls, who arrived tired after their night flight from Singapore. We all headed out to St Kilda to the seaside. The weather was a bit dubious! After this Jo, Micky and Claire headed back for a short nap, before heading out later in the afternoon, Verity and myself went window shopping in St Kilda and had some of the famous cake. In the evening after dinner we had a long chat to catch up properly and Verity and myself headed out to a bar called the Cookie bar in the centre of Melbourne.
My third day in Melbourne, whilst Jo soaked up some true Oz culture by heading to the art galleries, the rest of us went for a bit of TV culture and went to find Ransay Street (where Neighbours is filmed, the street not the studio) This was an interesting trip of trams and random places around Melbourne, but we found it and had lots of photos. Claire was especially happy!! In the afternoon whilst the girls went to the Grand Prix, Verity and myself went to the park, federation square, the river Yarra, and the sights we had missed before. After this we got the night train to Sydney. The girls will join us a day later, because I can't read messages!!! Oopps

The girls are going to fill in their blanks shortly I believe.

Katie starts off remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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down to Malaysia

2009-03-17T12:08:36Z

after bangkok which wasnt really the most enjoyable time we headed down to Kho Phi Phi the island where the beach was filmed we did a tour to the national marine park there the snorkaling was amasing, we all got atacked by little fish that where i asume pretecting the babys. but its quite a shock when you get bumped in the leg and then look down and see a load to little fish swimming at you full speed! after sitting on the beach for a fuw days be desided to head to malaysia this took us quite a while as we had to get to penang for the first night which involved 2 crampted mini vans and 2 boats! penang was not so exciting altough we tryed all the street food and no one got ill!! the next day we made the mistake of staying in bed, we missed the direct bus to the cameron highlands and had to get a local bus and then wait 5 hr in a bus terminal to get the last bus there, arriving at 10pm!! its lovely here, hills covered in forests and lots of farms and tea plantations it remineded me of the black forest, and its much much cooler than the coast but it rain a lot! we went for a walk yesterday and got socked through, the day ended around a camp fire where we spent alot of time moving our shoes around trying to dry them off. today we hicked in the rainforest/cloud forest to see the worlds bigest flower which turned out to actualy be a mushroom! preety cool thought then we whent to the tea plantations where we got showen how tea was made! tomorrow we are of to the main national park (i have forgoten what it is called) to do 3 or 4 days of trekking.

jo (sorry for any bad spelling!)

down to Malaysia remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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update

2009-03-11T13:47:03Z

well our bags turned up safely on the monday!!
we have now arrived safely in kho phi phi after an interesting couple of days in Bangkok involving one mad taxi ride, claire making her mark on the streets of bangkok and a not so joyful over night bus down the coast due to snoring Thai man (who reminded claire of her dad) and a wonderful lady boy film.

tomorrow we are all set to visit maya bay this is where the beach is filmed to do some snorkelling. we will let you all no how it goes lets hope we dont get as burnt as we did today!

claire and micky

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Thialand

2009-03-08T14:13:01Z

we have all arrived safe into bangkok and our hostel with only one small problem....... only claire's bag turned up so fingures crossed they will arrive tomorrow!!!!

Thialand remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Its the final count down!!!!

2009-02-23T18:44:16Z

Well we have less than 2 weeks to go until we start are travels and as the last time me and Micky went away we fail miserably in keeping in touch with any one, we felt a blog would be a good way for you all keep up to date with where we are and what we are doing. You can read what we have written or, if you cant be bother you can just look at the photos (there should be lots)!

Our trip starts from school lane where we will then travel to Manchester airport, Clair Micky and Jo will then fly to Thailand and work are way to Singapor where we will fly to Melbourne and meet up with Katie, from there its up the east coast and then over to New Zealand for a big circuit and then a flight back over to Thailand then Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (not necessary in this order). And then over to china where in Hong Kong Katie will leave use and the 3 of us will then carry on up to Beijing, where assuming we are all still talking we will fly together back to Manchester ending again in school lane!

Its the final count down!!!! remains copyright of the author JMCK, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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