The Journey

Aaarrrragggghhhhh! F*&%*£g Web design!

As usual it's been ages since my last post and nothing about my travels has been written. I have good intentions then I get lost in a mind field of web hosting, servers, domain names and content management systems, then by the time I'm sick of not understanding what's going on my brain is so fried there is no chance of me writing a blog post!

Anyway a brief update on life back in blighty. I STILL don't have a masters project client! I thought I'd found the perfect one then the university vetoed it so it was back to the drawing board. I've now found another that I'd like to do but they are unresponsive to email and I have searched the internet for hours for a phone number for them to no avail. If by some kind of miracle someone reading this happens to be a member of the Mid Devon Mudflickers off road club please contact me using the form on this blog cause I wanna work on your website!

In the mean time I decided to have a practice run at buying some web hosting space, adding a content management system and getting a website online. The ideal practice site was my dads business the actual designing and writing of the site should take me less than a day. But it's now been three days and the domain name still hasn't registered. I can't quite figure how to add the CMS, it's all going a bit wrong and is incredibly confusing. I wish I had a techy brain!

I guess I'd better stop winging into my blog and do something useful. At least now I can tick off 'write a blog post' from my to do list.

Hopefully soon this blog will get a bit more interesting and I can update all the fun and frivolty in OZ. Until then over and out!

Ready to go again

Why did I come back again? I take back everything I said about enjoying being at home. It was good for a week maybe two but now I'm well and truly ready to go again.

It's Saturday night, I'm struggling with my masters project, there is bugger all on TV, it's raining outside, I'm cold, my tan is almost non existent, I'm constantly paranoid about putting on weight because of stodgy English food and I have just finished uploading the last of my travelling photos. Those beautiful Thai beaches, days on almost deserted islands, not a car in sight and loads of geckos laid on for my nightly entertainment - what happened to those days? How I long to be back there right now!

It's official less than three weeks of England and the novelty has worn off!

Do YOU need a website?

I've been back from travelling less then three weeks and today I booked my next adventure! Obviously I have the travel bug bad. I'm off to New Zealand with a friend next December. BUT first I have to complete my masters degree, which is kinda why I'm writing this post.

Now, I'm sure I have a readership of about one but I figured this is worth a go....

In order to complete my MA in Online journalism I have to find a real world client to design, build and write a professional website for. I've had a few ideas and made a few approaches but I'm beginning to feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall! Either they already have a good website or they don't have the budget for one (an argument that doesn't entirely wash because my services are entirely FREE!)

I'm an outdoorsy type person with a keen interest in extreme sports and classic cars (especially Minis). Living in the South West I didn't think it would pose a problem to find a client with a business/organisation in that kind of area that would jump at the possibility of professional web design for free, not so! Which brings me to the reason for this post..

If by some miracle you happen to be reading this and feel my masters project could help develop an existing site you have or build you a completely new site (regardless of the subject) PLEASE contact me using the contact form on this blog.

Fingers crossed!

Home: But did I ever really leave?

It's true - after 535 days travelling around Asia and Australasia I am back in old blighty!

I touched down on English soil two weeks ago - and yes it has taken me this long to get around to updating my blog. After a massive hug from my dad as I passed through arrivals my next concern was getting a cup of proper English tea. After 18 months of crappy tea bags and dodgy Asian milk words can't describe how good REAL English tea tasted.

With renewed energy from my cuppa I hoisted my backpack onto my shoulder for one last time and made my way to the car. Driving down the A303 towards the green fields of Devon the sun was shining and in car climate control meant the chilly February air seemed decidably warm. Probably a good thing, as although I was wearing trousers my only other clothing consisted of a vest top and pair of flip flops!

Passing Stonehenge I craned my neck to get a look at the ancient stones and realised that despite having driven past scores of times I'd never bother to stop and take a look at one of England's most ancient sites. I was filled with a determination to 'see' some of England. My first job (once I had some money) would be to get a Great Britain guide book and set about discovering some of the country I'd spent the last 26 years neglecting to (really) look at.

My first day home was a non stop round of seeing people and making plans to meet old friends. But the first thing I did was jump into The Baby (my 1991 Mini Cooper) and take her for a drive. Whilst I'd been away she'd had a full engine rebuild and tune (thanks James) increasing the bhp from 55 to 92, and she was suitably quick!

The next few days passed in a haze of people who were incredibly happy to see me. It's a really nice feeling when someones face lights up as they set eyes on you. Everyone feels the need to give a slightly awkward hug and then you set about talking about anything but what you've been doing for the last 18 months. The the next time you see each other, there's no glimmer in their face, no awkward hug and the conversation revolves around your day to day life - it takes about 24 hours to begin to feel like you never left!

Don't get me wrong some people are interested in where you've been, but most are only interested in those places they've already been to or places they intend to go - their interest being a front for syphoning off some of your travelling knowledge. I also found myself re-telling the same stories time and time again - as if 18 months didn't give me enough amusing anecdotes to tell a wealth of different stories.

I've been back for just over two weeks and I sit here writing this in the same University classroom I used to spend my days in before I left. I'm back in lectures, learning the same stuff I was before I left and attempting to find a client for my final masters project. Nothing has really changed, the room has a few more computers, the classroom has some different faces but essentially, Preston, Exeter, my whole life remains unchanged. It's like I've been asleep had some amazing dreams woken up in a slightly shifted version of reality!

So it's back to study for me. I am quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. I like the feeling that I'm learning something and challenging my brain again. I will be (I bet you haven't heard this before) trying to get the blog up to date very soon. I'm going to take you all the way back to Australia then write all about my adventures in Indonesia, Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Then hopefully pick up with my everyday life in England. After all 'The Journey' doesn't end here there is plenty more of life still to discover.

My poor neglected blog and Thai beaches

Well once again my updates are a little sparse. But rest assured I am returning to the damp, soggy, grey land of England in NINE days, (yes NINE days). I will endeavour to bring the blog right up to date with pictures and everything on my return.

For now a very quick update on where I am and What I'm doing.

Malaysia ended in style on the luxury island of Langkawi (luckily this was open). Here I spent my birthday being wined and dined in some very expensive Malaysian restaurants. Although the whole night actually only cost 25GBP between the three of us!

From there were moved onto the beautiful white sand of Ko Lipe in Thailand, where we sunned ourselves on the beach and enjoyed a few days relaxing. We moved onto Ko Mook, another beautiful Thai island. Here we visited the Emerald Cave - an 80 meter long, pitch black swim through a cave onto a hidden secluded beach on the other side. We also spent some time snorkeling off the coast of Ko Karaden.

Our next stop was Ko Lanta. Here the cheapest accommodation we could find was at the very cheap side of a proper holiday resort. We had everything we could ever want - western toilets, mosquito nets, plus rats, mice and large lizards living in our rooms. But the rooms were some of the nicest we'd had and the resort had its very own swimming pool! We ended up spending longer here than planned, doing... well... nothing! But at least we now have semi respectable tans to return to England in February with!

Whilst the girls were doing nothing on Ko Lanta I went on a day trip diving off the coast of Ko Phi Phi. Ko Phi Phi is the island where 'The Beach' was filmed, but not having heard anything nice about the island (apart from it having a pretty beach) we decided it wasn't worth spending the money to get there! The dive trip was awesome (I will write more about this when I get back). I saw a SEAHORSE, a SHARK and a TURTLE all in one dive. The shear number of fish were incredible - definitely some of the best diving I've done.

We are now on Ko Tao (and haven't spent a night on the mainland since the 27th January!) The reason we came here was because it is reportedly one of the cheapest places in the world to learn to dive. I intended to do my Advanced Open Water diving qualification. Although on the way here I developed an ear infection and am now preying it will have cleared up sufficiently by tomorrow to allow me to begin my advanced course. Fingers crossed.

Well that's about it for now. I'll try and check in again soon, but if not there will be a lot of updating going on in about ten days (once I've recovered from the excitement of getting home and realised nothing has changed in the last 18 months!)

It's offical Malayisa is poo!

After yesterday post we moved on to Ipoh hoping our Malaysia experience would get better.

Well...

We arrived at 8am this morning after a 12 hour bus journey. Kat was getting straight on another bus to go to Kuala Lumpa to get some souvenirs she'd seen when we'd been there a couple of weeks ago. (She'd tried to get them before we left but the shop was closed.) Everything went according to plan. Kat got the bus and Emily and I headed off into Ipoh.

We got to the hotel, apparently one of the best budge hotels in the area, and were disconcerted to find it was yet another scabby establishment above a Chinese restaurant! I stayed with the bags whilst Emily went off in search of somewhere better. She ended up in a hostel (recommended by the guide book) down a side street with old drunk men leering at her. She was shown a room that had a man lieing on a bed and told they would clean the room for us and kick him out! Not likeing the hostel, despite it being cheap, and seeing a sign asking guests to refrain from drilling peep holes in the walls and to leave their firearms at reception she politely declined. After walking for 40 minutes in the blistering heat Emily reappeared and we checked into the first hotel.

We walked around Ipoh and weren't surprised to discover everything was closed. Including the tourist information.

The guidebook mentioned a nearby hot spring cost 5 Ringett (less than 1GBP) and was open Tuesday to Sunday. This seemed like a good way to spend the afternoon. We walked for about 40 minutes to the local bus station where we got a bus that dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and told us to walk down the road to the springs. We eventually found it and discovered.... You guessed it. IT WAS CLOSED! Emily spotted a boat ride nearby and asked the attendant: "Can we go on the boat ride?" His response: "Closed!" By now there was nothing to do but laugh. We trundled off back to the main road to catch the bus and ended up on the return trip of the bus that had dropped us off.

With nothing else to do we came to the Internet cafe where I sit now. But more bad news was to follow! Kat had emailed us from Kuala Lumpa tourist police station. She'd fallen asleep on the bus and had her wallet stolen from her bag. She was in Kuala Lumpa, alone, with no money and no visa card. Luckily she had her mums 'emergency' credit card separate - although the only hotel that would take credit cost 150 Ringett a night, we usually pay 10 Ringett and she can't draw cash on it. Luckily she also had some spare Thai Baht in her bag and has managed to change it for enough Ringett to pay for her bus ticket back to Ipoh and some food.

The irony of this being we were chatting to a man on a bus the other day who was saying how safe Malaysia is because it is a Muslim country. He was telling us we'd have to be careful in Thailand because they have no religion and steel from peoples bags!

So all in all things couldn't get much more crappy. Kat will arrive back here tomorrow and we are getting the night bus to the ferry port to go over to Langkawi. We are due to arrive in Langkawi about 9am on my birthday after spending all night travelling. The island had better be nice because otherwise we will leave with a very bad impression of Malaysia.

It's such a shame that I am writing this post because I'd heard people say that Malaysia was a bit shit, but I desperately wanted to like it. I guess another time of year and it would have been completely different. But it really is a case of not much to do and not much to see, everything just seems to disappoint. It's a real shame that this is the first country any of us have actually wanted to leave! But never mind Langkawi is supposed to be amazing and Thailand will be good. Plus we'll be home in rainy cold England three weeks tomorrow!

Malaysia is closed

Well I didn't do well at updating the blog did I. Its been 23 days since my last post and in that time I haven't had a spare second to catch up with things. I have however been, as usual, having an amazing time.... until recently (more on that in a bit)!!!!

Bali was amazing. We spent New Year in Kuta and had a great night out with some Aussie friends, Renee and Nate. It was the usual New Year in the pub having a few too many beers, in reality we could have been anywhere in the world - Until we left the bar and realised rain in Bali is unlike any I've ever seen before. Streets that were dry two hours earlier were now knee deep in water with motorbikes still attempting to ride up and down the street. A short dash from one side of the road to the other left us soaked to the skin so we gave up and walked leisurely down the road watching groups of pissed revellers having gigantic water fights in the street. The following morning we found much of the pavement had collapsed due to the water!

Along with Renee and Nate we left Kuta as soon as the celebrations were over and headed to the Gili Islands. The Gili's are beautiful with sweeping white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. Kat and I took this opportunity to learn to dive and left the Gilie's certified open water divers. The diving was amazing, lots of incredibly beautiful fish and we even saw three turtles gracefully swimming and feeding on the ocean floor.

From Bali we flew into the sterile metropolis that is Singapore. Singapore was nice, for a city. The zoo was amazing and we spent an awful lot of time wondering around the electronics market.

Our next stop was Malaysia and Tioman island. Back in the 70s Tioman was voted one of the worlds 10 most beautiful islands, and it didn't disappoint. Although the developers are slowly moving in and in a few years time it will be completely ruined. This is where we first discovered that Malaysia is CLOSED!

We arrived in Mersing to get the boat to Tioman... It's outside of tourist season so there is only one boat a day. We had to wait until the next day to get it.

We arrived in Tioman, only about three places are open for accommodation. Only one restaurant is open - I guess we'll be eating there then!

We walked across to the other side of the island (about 9km through the jungle). It was incredibly beautiful - the reason why Tioman was voted on of the world 10 most beautiful islands. We ordered lunch... banana pancake - no banana. Pineapple pancake - no pineapple. Baked beans - no beans. Tuna sandwich - no tuna. Surely it would have been easier to have told us what they did have!

We left Tioman fro Kuala Lumpa and had a fantastic time (more of that in a later post).

From Kuala Lumpa we went to Kuala Lipis to go into the jungle. We arrive... it's outside of tourist season and the only available trip went earlier that morning, there isn't another for three days.

We head to Jerantut. A tour guide is due to give a talk about trips to the jungle in a hotel that night. We arrive for the talk...it's cancelled, not enough people are around.

The next day we go to the tourist information. We want to book a trip into the jungle, but they only go if they have four people. Not a problem we are told there will definitely be four people going on the trip. We need to get the bus at 8:00am the next morning.

8:00am the next morning, the bus actually leaves at 8:30 but there is no point in us getting it because nobody else is booked on the tour so it isn't going! We are told it is DEFINITELY going the following day so we book and pay.

We get a public bus to Kuala Tahan and go to the booking office to confirm our tour. Nobody else has booked so at the moment it isn't going!

The next morning, an hour before we expected to be off jungle trekking for two days, our tour is cancelled.

We book some day trips and luckily bump into Clive ( a guy we met at Tioman) making our group number four so they will actually run trips.

We leave Kuala Tahan and go to Kota Bharu looking for arts, crafts and traditional Malay culture. Everything is closed until February. No crafts, no traditional performances, no workshops, no craft market! We wonder around the local marked but none of the arts traders are there until February.

We move onto Terengganu. It's Friday the Islamic holy day so everything is closed. We wait until the next day (today) and head to the tourist information - guess what... it's closed.

We are planning to go to the Perhentian islands for my birthday and try to book a ferry. But surprise, surprise the islands are closed until February.

We give up on ever seeing Malay arts and crafts or any more islands and book a night bus to the west and more developed side of the country hoping something will be open in the city. Our plan is now to spend a day in the city of Ipoh before moving on to Thailand. Hopefully something in Thailand will be open!.

The message in this story DON'T visit Malaysia in January! The bit we have seen has been great but we are fighting a loosing battle trying to see anything!

Will I ever get up to date

Once again time is slipping by and I am destined never to get the blog completely up to date. I did get a good bit written over Christmas but now it's back to limited internet access.

Australia is over, we've moved on... I'm sitting here writing this in a VERY hot internet cafe in Bali. Maybe one day I'll get the chance to write the rest of Australia but from now I'm going to attempt to blog the present. You never know I might get that bored when I get home that I write up everything I've had to miss out - although I doubt it.

Well right now I'm just rambling and I don't have time to write a proper post. I'll update soon.

The world's largest sand island

It is said that all the sand from the Eastern coast of Australia eventually ends up on Fraser island - a gigantic sand bar measuring 120 kilometers by 15 kilometers and one of my favourite places in Australia.

To access Fraser Island we had to get a ferry and then the only way around was using a four by four. Naomi and I took an organised tour with four other people hoping this would be a good way to meet some people but unfortunately our tour companions didn't speak a great deal of English. Our tour started off meeting our fellow travellers, picking up our Toyota Land Cruiser and being given a safety briefing at the tour office.

En route to the ferry we stopped and bought some food and alcohol for the next couple of days and were on the island by noon.

Our safety briefing had told us not to drive on the beach for two hours either side of high tide. Getting off the ferry we only had about an hour to make it to the beach and drive to our accommodation before we were no longer allowed to drive on the beach. A guy called Ramco of an undiscovered nationality drove us very slowly along the uneven sandy track to the beach. It took forever and just as we reached the soft sand at the entrance to the beach we spotted a four by four in front of us stuck in the sand. We hoped the same wouldn't happen to us, but it did. By the time we'd dug ourselves out of the sand, using pieces of wood to encourage the tyres to move over the sand rather than burrow into it, our beach driving window had gone. Collectively we decided to bump slowly back down the track and try and make our way to our accommodation inland. Upon reaching the end of the track we realised the road we needed no longer existed, so we had no choice but to drive back to the beach and wait for the tide to go out so we could drive across it. At this point I took over the driving employing the 'move quickly through loose sand' tactic in the hope I wouldn't get stuck as had happened regularly when both the boys were driving. At one point there was a comment about how much better my driving was, but this was before I hit a couple of big bumps a high speed - well as high speed as the track would allow. The speed limit was 35 kilometers an hour but this was more a target than a limit!

One of the inland tracks.

Stuck in the sand.

Driving along the beach was amazing fun. The hard sand was like driving on a normal road then every so often you would splash through a shallow creek running into the sea. At intervals I'd 'aquaplane' over a patch of soft sand feeling the steering get lighter as I did so - sooo much fun. I drove the whole way with a massive grin not wanting to ever reach our accommodation and have to turn of the beach! But alas eventually our turning came up - much to everyone else's relief - and we were soon safe and sound in our accommodation for the night.

Me driving along the beach.

The main road - Seventy-Five Mile beach.

The second day on Fraser Island was an early start as we had to pack everything in before the tide came and in precluded beach driving. On Fraser Island the main road is the beach so places are inaccessible whilst the tide is in. Our first stop of the day was Indian Head a large volcanic headland offering fantastic views over Seventy-Five Mile Beach on one side and up to Middle Rocks on the other. From here it is possible to spot whales (in season) sharks, dolphins and rays although I didn't manage to see anything!

The view from India head.

Our next stop was the champagne pools. These rock formations have made natural pools alongside the sea and are safe to swim in, although the waves still crash over the rocks and into the pools. We stopped here for a while to relax, enjoy the sun and go for a dip.

From here we began heading south again to Happy Valley (where our accommodation was) stopping along the way. We stopped at The Pinnacles, large sand formations in bright orangey colours. They were nowhere near as impressive as the ones in Mui Ne (Vietnam) but  still  worth a look. They looked as though weathering was beginning to take its toll as they had been fenced off around the bottom and were beginning to fall down.

The next stop was the Maheno ship wreck. The boat was blown ashore in a cyclone in 1935, luckily everyone on board survived, and it currently stands at the waters edge. It was very cool to look around, the wreck sticks out of the sand with the water crashing through it. One end looks much as it would have done save for the rust, the other end is much more broken up and is little more than scrap metal rusting in the sand.

Naomi and I stood in the wreck of the Maheno.

The front of the Maheno.

Next we attempted to go to Eli creek but missing the turning ended up back at Happy Valley. Here three of our travelling companions decided to go back to the accommodation for the afternoon but Naomi, Ramco and I pressed on. We drove back up the beach eventually spotting Eli creek. This was obviously a favourite with tourists as many people were parked up near the creak swimming and walking up stream letting the current wash them back down. We joined the throngs of people walking upstream then sat at the waters edge and ate our lunch.

Our last stop of the day was a dodgy drive to Lake Allam to see fresh water turtles. We were cutting it close to get to the lake and back to the beach before our beach driving time expired but we decided to give it a go. Just as we got to the track leading to the lake two other four by fours pulled onto it. I followed them along the track willing them to move faster as going so slow meant I was liable to get stuck in the loose sand. Inevitably this is what happened. The car in front of me got stuck meaning I had to stop. Once I stopped there was no way I could get enough speed to pass the point where he got stuck. With lots of low revs we eventually crawled at snails pace through the deep sand and continued down the track. We soon caught up with the other two vehicles as one of them was stuck again. This time his mate with a bigger four by four had to pull him out of the sand. They saw we'd stopped and got stuck behind them so once their mate was safely out of the sand they came back for us, pulling us out then letting us go in front of them. After this there were no more incidents of getting stuck. We arrived at Lake Allam but there were no turtles around. This was probably because of the people swimming in the lake had scared them off. Never mind - it meant we didn't stay long and we were soon heading back to the beach.

We exited the track onto the beach after the time we were supposed to be off the beach and began the precarious drive back to Happy Valley. There was almost no hard sand at all and we were constantly driving through soft sand. Normally I'd have loved this but if we broke the vehicle when we weren't supposed to be driving on the beach our security deposit would have been lost, so I was pretty nervous. Eventually I caught up with a day trip bus that obviously knew where on the beach was best for driving and followed him zigzagging along the beach until we reached the turn off for Happy Vally. Parking up for the evening I was very glad the four by four made it back in once piece.

Our last day on Fraser Island was much more relaxed. The first stop of the day was a walk to Lake Wabby. This lake is slowly being overtaken by a massive sand blow and is pretty impressive to look at. The sand blow makes a very soft but steep drop into the lake. When we arrived a group of people had a bodyboard and were sliding down the sand and skimming across the lake before sinking into the water. It looked like a lot of fun and I was very tempted to ask for a go but I didn't have my bikini with me.

Naomi and I on the sand blow at Lake Wabby.

Looking down into Lake Wabby.

We moved onto one of the prettiest parts of Fraser Island Lake McKenzie. The banks of the lake are gorgeous white silica sand giving way to crystal clear water that turns green then blue as the lake gets deeper. We spent some time here relaxing and enjoying our surroundings before making our last journey along the bumpy sandy tracks to the ferry.

Lake McKenzie.

Laying on the bank of Lake McKenzie.

Moving on

We left the Whitsundays behind and moved on to Agnes Water and Town of 1770 (what a cool name for a town). This was a mammoth drive so along the way we stopped at an Aboriginal culture centre in Rockhampton. Here we learnt how to throw a boomerang were given a didgeridoo performance amongst other things. I don't have time to go into it in detail!

Me, Naomi, Brian, Kat and Emily throwing Boomerangs.

We stopped for two days at 1770. Kat, Naomi and I camped on a really nice campsite in Town of 1770 whilst Emily and Brian stayed a little way up the road in a luxury apartment in Agnes Water. Our main adventure here was spending an afternoon out riding  a chopper - a lot of fun. It was amazing riding  a motorbike, although a little scary as we didn't have any leathers or elbow and knee pads. I did manage a not very impressive 80 kilometers an hour before remembering that if I fell off and hit the road at that speed it wouldn't be very pretty and slowed down! I do think I might like a motorbike though it was ace riding along with a panoramic view of the scenery.

A random guy, Brian, Kat, Naomi, Emily and me on our bikes.

Having dinner at Brian and Emily's luxary apartment in Agnes Water.

From Town of 1770 we moved on to Harvey Bay. Here Naomi and I went over to Fraser Island for a few days whilst the others stayed behind - more on that later.