A bit of culture

After leaving Koh Samui I caught a boat, 2 buses and then another boat to get to Koh Phi Phi on the west coast of Thailand. On the way I text my friend Trang to see where she was - she was in seedy Phuket and within a matter of minutes had booked a ferry ticket...

The Islands

Before I came to Thailand, I was being a bit of a travel snob and had said I wasn't going to bother with the islands, as they were bound to be full of gap year students getting drunk. Well, there is some truth in that...

Songkran

Wow - it's going to be very difficult to try and put into words how incredible Songkran is... I arrived safely after a good flight, on Tuesday evening into Bangkok feeling a little disorientated but ready to explore, I headed into Chinatown...

Preconceptions

Finally it's here! A cyclone of nervous excitement is whirling in my stomach. I'm impatient, scared, unprepared but, conversely, totally ready for my adventure. However hard I try not to imagine what to expect, it's impossible not to have a picture in my mind. I can't wait to have my preconceptions blown out of the water...

The final countdown

In one week today the dreaming will be over and I will be en route to Bangkok. Having spent the morning (and much of the last few weeks) surfing the internet and reading endless blogs, articles and travel advice about S-E Asia, it is starting to dawn on me how illprepared I am. This trip...

The last leg, the home strait, the final frontier. However I put it, the end of my journey.

I'm now back home and although it seems a lifetime ago, it was really only a couple of weeks since I was in Canada with my Aunt Sue. We had a lovely week together; gardening, baking, chatting and hiking (something that she can't do alone due to the black bears and cougars in the forests). We covered...

la la land

LA was crazy, as I expected it would be. But it was also fantastic – something I didn’t expect at all. I stayed in Santa Monica, one of the 80-odd cities that make up LA County (I meant that to read approx. 80 cities, but it would not be wrong to read it as 80 ‘odd’ cities)! My hostel...

New Zealand. Why not?

I am now in the real capital of NZ, Auckland (shh... don't let the wellingtonians hear you say that). It's been a busy couple of weeks hence the lack of blogging...so prepare yourselves for a mammmoth entry.

After leaving Wellington I drove north up to Tongariro, a stunning national park which is home to three volcanoes, including the iconic Mount Ngarahoe which was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings...

New Zealand ... it's like Lord of the Rings

I am writing this from the capital of NZ, Wellington at the southern tip of the south island. To get here, I travelled down from Queenstown to the beautiful Milford Sound. It was one of the most remote places I've ever been (including parts of Africa!) but well worth the long lonely drive...

New Zealand - rocks!

Wow. Wow wow wow. I don't know where to start describing my first few days in New Zealand. What an incredibly beautiful country! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before coming here I had to say goodbye to my home for the last 3 months, Australia, and the incredible...