Síle & Bruce’s Travel Blog

We arrived in Goa a week ago now and managed to get a cheap-o room at Jerry’s Place, it costs just 300rp a night. The beach here isn’t really up to much which has been a little disappointing and I was sick the first night we got here. In the morning Bruce ended up chatting to an English guy, Dale, who took him to the chemist for me. We ended up spending the next few days with Dale, he took us out, shows us around the place and took us out to some lovely places to eat.

It was really nice to have someone just to ’show us the ropes’ and made us feel so comfortable in Goa. We went for a tour of the market in Mapusa, went to a really nice restaurant in Panjim and then he took us to this outta the way restaurant with beautiful views!

He has also let us use his motorbike whenever we want to which is AWESOME! And, he ‘made’ Bruce get a clean shave (!) the first in 7 yrs and It looks really great, I think it even surprised Bruce!

Thanks a million Dale!

Today has been total and utter MADNESS!! We got up early and headed to the train station to get our train ticketd to Goa (we’re leaving this evening - 13hrs on an Indian train should be interesting!) which proved to be much easier than we thought. With this false confindence we headed to Crawford Market … error! It was sseriously stressful, we were told that we had to have a ”tour guide” to have a peek around, so not really knowing if we were being onned or not we decided to shoot off. We took a walk around and discovered some awesome little markets, and onced we’d relaxed, realle enjoyed the city. Once we got back to our neck of the woods we decided just to sit and ‘people watch’ arounf the Gateway to India, having sat down on a step (about a foot away from human poo!) some India people came up and asked if we’d have our photo taken with them; this had happened a bit in Indonesia so we didn’t think much of it. Once we had done it for one person however, lots more people asked and it ended up with around 10-15 people with their cameras out shouting for us to have a snap with them! Bruce got the sweats pretty quickly so we made a speedy exit - phew!

On our way to get a Coke we again heard someone shoutting “sir, sir!” we turned around and started to chat. It turns out that this guy was from a Bollywood Studio and looking for extras in a film being shot tomorrow! We’d heard that westeners sometimes get asked. BUT we can’t do it! We’ve booked our train tickets to leave this evening, it’s a shame as that would’ve been one to tell the grandkids!

Anyway, we’re just killing time before our train leaves, maybe we’ll catch another curry (this one’s for you Sarah)

We love you all
x

Hi all, Just a really quick one to let ya all know how we’re getting on.

We both arrived in one piece on the 17th Sept … its a shame we couldn’t say the same for our bags, they were still in Sydney! But we got them back a few hours ago, and nothing was missing - we also got 60quid from Qantas so, as of yet we haven’t spent a penny of our own money here.

India is a complete assault on the senses!  Everything in extreme, smells, sights, tastes the lot! Having said that its not in a bad way, I think coming here straight from home would have been a mistake so it’s great that things have worked out the way they have. The food is incredible, eating tasty curry twice a day really isn’t a problem!

We are gonna try to get down to Goa tomorrow, trying to figure out the train system should be interesting.

Anyway, like I said just a quick one. We’ll update again when there is more to tell.

We love and miss you all, keep in touch!

xxx

So it’s been ages since we’ve last written and we done loads so I’ll try to fill you in on the adventures!

We left Cairns and headed straight to Townsville to stay with Bruces friend Phil and his lovely girlfriend Jodie. Our plan was to make a quick buck then get travelling again, but we ended up staying 3 weeks and woring in a fruit processing factory for 7 days - my gosh it was depressing, and we had to pretend that we “loved” the work and that we were gonna hang around for another 8 months!! Anyway, we had fun in Townsville, camping with Phil, Jodie and Chris was awsome, thats where we jumped into waterfall, it was beautiful! And not forgetting that BBQ …

So after Townsville we heading back up North a little to the Atherton Tablelands. It was beautiful, Bruce spent a lot of time fishing (or at least trying his best to fish). After winning a meant tray (16 sausages, 4 meatball typr things, 5 lamb chops and 2 MASSIVE steaks!), next on the plan was Airlie beach, this is where everyone spends far too much money to go snorkelling or diving on the Whitsunday Islands! We went for a cheapo trip on a sailing boat and had the best time. We were told to look out for whales but didn’t really think we’d see one, but, sure enough, about an hour into the trip the captain saw some in the diatance. As we got closer we could see it was a baby and mother. The baby was jumping all over the place - it was awesome. But then the mother came leaping out of the waves, incredible - eveny the crew were amazed saying they had never seen anything like it before. Even though the snorkelling was rubbish the whales made the day brill!

Then came Fraser Island - a MUST! A friend from uni, Rick, happened to be in Melbourne so flew up to Hervey Bay to meet up. The 3 of us hired a 4×4 for 3 days and headed of to Fraser Island, I had never driven one before but have now decided I’d very much like one and a big field to drive it in. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island on earth, with beautiful fresh water lakes with pure white sands through out it. We may not have had showers, we may not have had toilets, we may have been living off tinned food, but my gosh did we have fun!

JUst when we though things couldn’t get a whole lot better they did - AUSTRALIA ZOO! Ok so it wasn’t cheap to get in but it’s worth every single penny and more - I mean you can (kinda) get your photo take with Steve Irwin! Its just outside of Brisbane and you couldn’t miss it! you’re met with a huge billboard, it’s akinda Irwin/animal montage! Inside it’s really well done, of course you kinda have to get into the Irwin way of thinking, but it’s also a lotta fun! We went to watch one of the ‘Shows’ and I was completely blown away. Was nice is that the whole thing is really conservation and education heavy without being, well … heavy! This could have be my favourite day in Oz so far!

Next came Sydney, it was only flying visit really, just 2 days. We saw the Opera House and a very flexible lady fit herslef into a small box!

We’re just on our way down to Melbourne, we want to get good jobs and live somewhere that has a built in toilet and shower! We’re both doing well and looking forward to getting settled somewhere for a change!

We love you all and love hearing form you
xxx

Hello all, Just a very quick one.

We left Bali of the 18th of June, and to be honest, we would have loved to have stayed a little longer! We flew from Bali to Darwin and the in-flight meal was … wait for it … MEAT PIE! It was honestly the best airplane food I’ve ever had, and an awesome introduction to Australia!

Bruce got stopped by immigration, I was very excited and was hoping that we may be taken into the interrogation room! It was due to his terrorist style beard … and the small matter of a drink driving charge a few years back. But within a few mins we were out and hanging around the airport for 4 hours waiting for a flight to Cairns.

We got ot our hostel and went straight out on the Campervan hunt … nightmare! We’ve walked the whole of Cairns about 6 times now. But, yesterday we finally got the keys to our very own van! The only slight issue is the fact that it’s bright red, but other than that its a very “good runner”.

Oz is very expensive, it’s hit us a little harder than we thought it would. We even think it’s more expensive that London!

The hostel experience was interesting , I couldn’t do it for much longer though. Very noisy and not much going on. Although we met a few decent guys there … and some VERY racist Americans too!!

We’re off to Port Douglas, just north of Cairns, tomorrow morning. It’s meant to be very beautiful so looking forward to getting the van on the road.

We’ll get the rest of our pictures up shortly, can’t wait to show all of you our van!

Love and you all

xx

Hi All, I thought I’d take some time away from the beach to write a small post. We are currently on the Gili Island in Indonesia, just north of Bali, and they are stunning!

Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s been ages since we’ve last written so I’ll try to get you upto date!

We left Hanoi (the city where dreams are destroyed!) and flew to Bankgok. Once we got to the airport we realised that it was the start of the Water Festival, this meant a giant water fight all around Thailand for the next 4 days, it’s for their New Year. Our plan was to get a taxi to the train station then hop on a train to bring us down to the sun soaked islands. Once we got out of the airport we were told that this was near impossible (due to the water fest!) as all the trains were fully booked and it was unlikely that we’d get a room for a reasonable price in Bangkok! Oh dear, slight error in planning on our part, but we decided to get the taxi to the train station anyway, just for the craic!

Well we got to the train staion at about noon time and there were only a few places left on the train for 19:30. No worries, at least we got a ride! As we had our big bags with us (and because we were likely to get soaked if we went anywhere else) we hung around at the station for 7hrs - our second home!

The train journey was uneventful, apart from water being thrown through the windows at us and we arrive at Champon (or Chumporn as we saw a few times) at around 3 in the morning, then it was a tuk tuk to the pier and then boat to Koh Tao. It has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. We stepped onto the pier, look down into the water and could see to the bottom of the sea with only the fish in the way!

We were expecting the accomodation prices to be sky high but we managed to find a little bungalow with a bathroom inside spitting distance from the sea for 450 Baht (7.50) a night - bargain! Our plan was to stay there for 7 days then head over to some of the other island for a week. However, we found it to be so laidback and easy going that we just spent another week on the island.

It’s a funny little place, the main “road” that everyone uses is infact a walkway that runs almost the whole lenght of the island with motorbikes and cars speeding down it. One day we hired out a motorbike and, with the couple in the bungalow next to ours, headed to Shark Bay! Aparently there you can get a glimps of a shark if you’re very lucky. Bruce and Freddie spend hours snorkelling while Mel and I chatted away on the beach under the coconut trees - bliss! Aparently the fish that Bruce saw were amazing, he even claims to have seen a little shark swimming away from him - “It was THAT big!!”, hmmm fishermans tale anyone?!

We waited a while to get a good sunset, but when it happened it was stunning, Bruce got a really good pic of it (at the top of the blog). The sand was pure white and the sea completely clear. To be honest, we were too busy chilling out to do a lot more, I would go back to Koh Tao in an instant!

I also managed to get hooked up with Skype and with the aid of a webcam got to see some family, it was really nice; not that I was forgetting what people looked like but it just nice to know that everyone is still there!

Well I’ll let Bruce fill you in on our next set of adventures…!

love at all back home, we miss and love you all! Keep in touch!
Sile

xxxx

A small correction on my last post, 30000 Dong is actually a Pound!

So we are now in Hanoi, I don’t really like the place. We arrived at a guest house to be greated by someone telling us we were talking “F-ing Bullsh*t” and then told us to “Fu*k-Off”, Nice! It is more expensive here also, we had to upgrade to a $25 room for a few nights as the cheap-o’s we’re damp and Bruce is trying to get rid of a cold (a good reasonfor air-con and lots of TV channels!)

 We went to see the Traditional Water Puppets last night … what a disapointment. We have flights booked for Bangkok on the 13th and we tried to get them changed, its just cost too much and turned out to be a bit of a pain to do.

Once we get to Bangkok the plan is to get the train down to the Islands and then spend a few weeks diving and chilling a bit more on the beach! Bliss!

Love to all, I hope all is well back home

xxx

Well since we haven’t written in a while, I think it’s about time for a little catch up.

First of all, Welcome to the World Aidan Mallon!

We left Ho Chi Minh City after Bruce played football and had a reasonably O.K 12hr over night bus journey to Nha Trang. It’s a beautiful little seaside town, with a lovely beach and it was very cheap! our room was $7 a night, big fan, TV, fridge AND the toilet was inside! It was also only a 3/4 min walk to the beach where we hired out sun loungers for 30 000 Dong a day (about 30p!). We did watch a few fights between the locals who’d been drinking in the sun all day which is always fun, and evenings were spent making friends with travellers and locals alike at the “fresh beer” bars for 3000 dong.

One day while looking around a shop we found some dried fish with the label “Instant Leather Jacket Fish” I almost bought it for that but we wouldn’t eat it and it would really stink! 

We left Nha Trang after just 5 days and while waiting for the bus we were asking ourselves why we were leaving, we liked it so much; but by that stage we had bought our ticket to Hoi An and had checked out of the hotel, so on we went.

It turned out to be the best decision as Hoi An was amazing. Bruce is writing something on Hoi An now I’ll let him post that before I add anything else!

xx

Happy Easter All!

We’ve been in HCMC for just over a week now (the reason we stayed so long was Bruce’s football game - highly entertaining!)

This place is crazy - so different to anywhere else I been. In a way its very ”westernised” but so un-western in another way. It’s far richer than Laos or Cambodia, there are Gucci shops and massive shopping malls in one area with rich women ”lunching” about town. We felt like real scruffs!

We’ve met a lot of locals so far in Vietnam, they’re really friendly and always up for a chat, even if they can’t speak English and our Vietnamese isn’t any better.

We’ve been to a few museums, one of which was the War Remnants, really interesting. Lots of photos and military stuff from the Vietnam War, as well as a nasty video about the victims of the war.

Yesterday we spent the day at a local water park (trying to escape the heat) - it was massive and full of Vietnamese kids shouting and staring at us! It’s strange and difficult to get used to, but it’s only done in a friendly way so we just smile back!

We’re getting a Sleeper Bus this evening to Nha Trang. It leaves at 8pm and takes about 10hours. We’re planning on getting a bit more beach action!

We’re still really enjoying the novelty of not working and just taking it easy with minimal stress!

I hope all is well back home, it’s lovely to hear from you all.

Lots of love
xx