Síle & Bruce’s Travel Blog

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

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

Im never gonna complain about bus trips in the uk again, Lands End to John O’Groats is a walk in the park compare to the journey we injured about a week ago. VIP bus from laos to bangkok, Vip, I don’t think so, we didn’t feel very important, more like cramped. About 3 hours in my tummy decided to expand some what, which for the next 3 hours would become a major concern for myself and my underpants. Lucky as time went by the trouble subsided after another 3 hours it gave me the green light, and i was back in the room. We struggled into bangkok and got a quick connection to the cambodian border, where phase 3 of the journey would start. Local propain rally taxi (express) I have never seen a highway stroke dirt track like it, unbeliveable. The taxi drivers horn had given up the ghost 2 hours in and instead of a loud blast it had turn into a quiet whimper. By the way, sile’s remarks about me having to wear a sports bra are unfounded, my peks are in good shape due to the healthy 7 pints a day of local beer i am consuming, they’re in good shape. Siem Reip was good, im not a religous person but sites we visited were pretty awsome, it was like been in Indiana Jones and the temple of doom. We headed to the capital where I was looking forward to another couple of days on the bike, I quickly decided against that when we entered the place. It is a complete free for all on the roads, drive the wrong way up a dual carriage way or take the whole family for a bit of dinner, record so far is 6 people on one bike.

We are now at the coast and back on the bike and enjoying the beach and local curry and beer, 50p for a pint of ankor draft. (Back of the net) Hope everyones well. Take it easy

So the last time we wrote we were in Vientiane, having visited the Buddha Park and the Beerlao Factory. We spent a few days long than expected there just because it was so relaxed. We were staying in the most disgusting guest house. It needed a chemical clean! One guy got bitten so badly by bedbugs that it looked like he has awful sunburn! Read the rest of this entry »