All good things come to an end

Well, after four months travelling globe it is time to go home. It has been a trip of a lifetime and we have loved every second of it. It's hard to pinpoint our favourite place as each was totally different from the other and together they have made for an adventure we will never forget.

For those of you who have been bored by the long-winded stories, here is our trip reduced to numbers:

Total flights: 16
Kilometers flown: 49,529km (1.2 laps of the planet!)
Kilometers driven ourselves: 7500km
Oceans swam in: Atlantic, Pacific (incl. Tasman), Indian/Andaman
Books read: 33
Hottest temperature: 47 degrees celsius (Rio)
Coldest temperature: 10 degrees celsius (at night in New Zealand)
Rainy days: 7
Suncream used: 1.5ltr (and about the same amount of mosquito repellent!)
Number of B&Bs/Hotels/Hostels: 29 (incl. 6 weeks in the camper)
Best accommodation: Boipeba, Brazil
Worst accommodation: Newcastle, Australia
Time spent writing this blog and uploading photos: 1.9 days

We think everybody should go on a trip like this at least once in their lives. Who knows, we might be able to do it again sometime! But in the meantime it is back to reality for us. The job market awaits us, but hopefully the memories of our trip will make it easier to bear. At least we will have some nice desktop backgrounds and screen-savers to remember it by. First things first though...there are still a few weeks of the ski season left so let's see how many days skiing we can fit in!

Adeus, Sawadee Krap...until next time, as a wise lady once told us: You have to come back to go away again.

Poisoned to Deaf

It's been a while since our last post, but we have been really busy lazing on the beach. Sorry about that!

We left Chiang Mai and flew down to Phuket where we were met at the airport by the owner of the place we were staying. Only five minutes by car from the airport, but away from the noise, we rented a villa set in a lush tropical garden with a pool that was shared with only two other villas (we had to ourselves most of the time!).

The beach was only a short walk away, so if we weren't lazing by the sea, we would laze by the pool!

Lunch and dinner was at a different local beach shack everyday, which was great until we 'went Western' and had pizza and pasta. Disaster struck when the simple pasta dish turned my stomach upside-down, causing severe food poisoning.  The same day, Nikky had managed to catch an ear infection. What a pair! It wouldn't have been so bad had we not planned a 7hr journey to the island of Ko Lanta the nexy day. After a sleepless night running to-and-from the toilet, and Nikky exhausted from battling her ear ache, we strapped on our backpacks and dragged ourselves down the road to meet the mini-bus to take us to the port. The ferry to Ko Lanta was the most torturous four hours ever!

We eventually made it to our hotel and spent the next three days recovering. We are now both a lot better, Nikky can hear again and I can eat again! Ko Lanta is nice, with a beautiful empty beach and great sunsets. We have one more day to enjoy it and then we are getting back on the ferry to Phuket for another week in our luxury villa! So much for backpacking....but it's our last week and we intend to make the most of doing nothing.

We can't upload photos from here, but we will try to get some up soon.

See you all far, far too soon.

A flavour of Thailand

Leaving the madness of Bangkok behind, we arrived in Chiang Mai after a short 50 minute flight. Our base for the next three nights was a beautiful little guest house in the middle of the old walled city. It is perfectly located, walking distance to everywhere and directly opposite a stunning Wat (temple).

A totally different atmosphere here than Bangkok, Chiang Mai is far more calm and relaxed. But on Sunday night the peaceful streets surrounding the guest house burst into life for the weekly night market. The noise and atmosphere was incredible, with only a 30 second break for the national anthem when the street froze and everyone stood to attention.

As well as clothes, jewelery and handicrafts, there were hundreds of food stalls selling everything imaginable. Including various deep-fried insects! I couldn't help myself and managed to blag a free Cricket off one of the vendors...Yum! A bit chewy, salty with a crunchy head! Nikky was not impressed. We also ate some proper food and ended up having dinner in the market for 40 pence each! (80 if you include the beer!)

Inspired by the local dishes, we enrolled in a one-day Thai cookery course in an organic farm outside the city. It took an hour to get there, driving through paddy fields and shanty towns. On the way we stopped at a local food market where we were shown what the ingredients are and how to buy them. The market was a bit different from the nice, clean Covered Market in Oxford!

We were shown around the farm when we arrived, tasting all the different herbs and seeing how it all works before getting stuck in with the cooking. We selected 6 dishes each to cook and our teacher was a tiny little Thai man who was slightly nuts but great fun! We are looking forward to replicating our dishes when we get home! (And yes...Nikky cooked!)





Tonight will probably end up going back to a really fancy bar, where we enjoyed cocktails, beers and two courses for less than a tenner! Not that we can eat any more after feasting on our home-cooked dishes!

We would love to stay longer in Chiang Mai and maybe explore the area a bit more, but we are heading down south to Phuket tomorrow for a week of chilling out on beaches. Sounds pretty good too!

Never assume anything...

Our flight from Sydney to Bangkok was three hours delayed, which meant we didn't land until almost 2am! Luckily for us, Catriona had arranged for us to stay at her friend's, mum's guest house and she was waiting with a driver to pick us up. The 'guest house' turned out to be more of a palace than a house! Our luxury room was just what we needed for a good night's sleep (all four hours of it!), as we set the alarm to wake up early to hit the streets of Bangkok!

The next morning, we had a hearty breakfast that included eggs. bacon, sausages and....Prawn Stir-Fry. Nice! As we only had a day in Bangkok and weren't too sure what to go and see, a private driver was arranged for us for a 'City Tour'. Unbeknown to us, this tour would turn out to an epic day of temples and markets!

Our first stop was the Grand Palace. The former residence of the King, the palace grounds has more than 100 buildings, each ornately decorated with golden, shining Buddhas and shimmering walls and rooftops. Our first experience of the temples here was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) which was stunning, totally over-the-top and awe inspiring! The whole place was a bit overwhelming and we jumped back into our air-conditioned mini-van, slightly dazzled and eager for the next experience!

We had 'assumed' that we would only be shown around the centre of Bangkok, but the driver kept driving...and driving.  All his information was lost in translation and we were trying to follow on the map, but the map stopped once we had gone past the airport! Over an hour later, we stopped in a small town in the countryside outside Bangkok. We were in the Ayuthaya Province, an area we wanted to visit, but didn't think we would be able to. We were dropped off outside the Bang Pa In Palace, which had an odd mix of European, Chinese and Thai buildings! Best of all, it had trees with shade for us to cool down!

From here, we went to the Ayuthaya Historical Park, an ancient ruined city, with crumbling temples and head-less Buddhas. It also has an enormous reclining Buddha and a huge 17m bronze Buddha! At this point we were a little Buddha/Templed-Out and when the driver said we were heading back to Bangkok, we felt relieved to be going home for some rest.



But as we were beginning to learn...never assume anything.The driver had one last stop in mind, the crazy and infamous Khao San Road. This street is right in the centre of the old town and  became a haven for backpackers since the film The Beach. We couldn't believe our eyes as we walked past busy bars, stalls selling everything from fake t-shirts to ID's and driving licenses! Catriona....almost got you one! We loved it here and found it really hard not to spend a fortune! We limited ourselves to four t-shirts, a pair of trousers and a necklace....all for a mighty 14 pounds! We will definitely be going back there before we fly home.

By this time we were well and truly shattered. Arriving back at the guest house, we 'assumed' that we could go to bed. But again...we were wrong! After 9 hours, our date with driver still wasn't quite over, as he received instructions to take us to a local restaurant where we treated to a great (and very spicy!) meal.

We finally made it back to our room after almost 10 hours on the road, our minds boggled, eyes fried but a day we will never forget. We are already looking forward to coming back to Bangkok before we come home in three weeks (ARGGH!). We took around 135 photos, so have only uploaded a sample. You'll just have to wait for the slide shows when we get home....you lucky folks!

Today we left Bangkok and flew to Chiang Mai in the north. So far our afternoon here as been incredible! But that's a story for another time...

Farewell Sydney...G'day Bangkok!

Well, that's it! Aussie trip over! We fly out to Bangkok tonight for the last few weeks of our trip!

We loved Australia...the people, the weather and the beaches! We will definately be back! We had a great last evening in Sydney, catching up with old school friends at the pub!

Thailand here we come!

Thunder in Paradise

Leaving Lennox Head and the teddy bears behind, we headed off to cross the border into Queensland. The drive got off to a rocky start as we had a flat tyre on the hire car, but we arrived in Noosa safely a few hours later.

The town is like a mix between Venice and Miami, with waterways that meander in between stunning luxury mansions. It has a very European feel here, almost French/Italian Riviera! We spent the first night in a YHA youth hostel, but came to the conclusion that we had earnt oursleves an upgrade (we had spent the previous 14 nights in youth hostels!). We headed off in our little hire car in search of something a bit more glamorous and came across a perfect ground floor apartment with its own private beach and pool...and cheaper than the YHA! This was our base for the next 6 nights.

The Sunshine Coast lived up to its name for the first few days, so we made the most of the beach and the BBQ! But then Olga arrived. Not an Easter-European prostitute, but a tropical cyclone that was wreaking havok across northen Queensland moved south and hung over Noosa, bringing with it terrential rain and strong winds. So much for the private beach! Luckily the apartment also had a DVD player, so we spent the time hiring movies from the local rental shop and reading books.

It was also our six year anniversary (!!), which we celebrated with a bottle of bubbly and a nice meal out at a Tapas bar.

Tomorrow we are dropping the hire car off at Brisbane Airport and flying back to Sydney for one last night in Australia before we fly to Thailand for a month! Looking forward to being in a cheaper country!