Saturday 31st May
White Water Rafting is possibly my new favorite sport, it is amazing!! I want to do it again even after all this time after doing it I want to do it again, brilliant!!
I got picked up at 8.00am, only just made it through my cocoa pops – was on a bit of a go slow – still not much of a morning person!! Anyway got on the bus and everyone was really quiet – not a good sign! But once we got to the main area for our first briefing it was all good, people started chatting and I sat down with a couple, Nicky and Max. Max comes from Kingston and Nicky from Staines – not far away at all, small world and all that! Well anyway I get put in a group with them – I reckon they probably regretted that as soon as we went down the first rapid and I started screaming my head off!
Now anyone who has ever heard me cream will appreciate why our guide soon called our team “Team Scream” and why the other guides came over to our boat to find out who was making all the noise and then proceeded to dunk me when they tried to get me out of the boat and I held on with my legs so they just pulled me back by my lifejacket and held me under the water!! I also went swimming when I fell for a prank played on me by the guide – he asked me how I felt about leeches and I said I didn’t know why and he told me I had one on my leg and pointed I looked down and he tipped me over!! Luckily other people in the boat were fooled by similar pranks so I wasn’t the only Muppet!
To be honest the dunking and screaming was what made it much more fun , Nicky and I were at the back of the boat providing the encouragement and screaming – luckily for me she is a fellow screamer so we had great fun! It was such an adrenaline rush trying to steer through a load of rapids which you know people have died in! Yes you ready that last bit right, two deaths in the last two years – they don’t tell you that until you’re safely in the boat and on your way!! You start wishing you hadn’t signed the disclaimer!!! To be honest a few times I thought we were going to go over and so you start paddling faster and faster and harder so you don’t go over, once you’re through and in the calmer water you’re ready for the next one. Thirteen rapids in total, and when you finish the last one you want to do it all again. Don’t get me wrong it was a bit chilly when out of the sun and wet but it’s a laugh when your doing it that you don’t notice. I even jumped off a rock in the middle of a calmer bit of water – yep, I, jumping off a rock. I must admit I had to hold Nicky’s hand on the way up there but I jumped off all my own – screaming of course!!! I would recommend it to anyone, was such a brilliant day!
Those of us who were staying in Misson Beach met up that evening for dinner and I exchanged details with Nicky. I’m in Sydney at the moment and have spent the last few days hanging out with her; tonight I’m going to the Sky Tower for dinner with her and her family – should be good!
Sunday 1st June
I can’t remember if I mentioned meeting up with the Bristol Boys at Mission Beach again but the guys James and I met in Ko Tao were working at Scotty’s Mission Beach and on the Sunday I was sunbathing and Tom and I played Gladiators over the pool. Basically there is a wooden log over the swimming pool and they have a load of foam tubes which you use to try and knock the other person into the water. Now if you had felt how blooming cold the pool water was you would have done as I did and tried extremely hard to stay on the log!! As it was we both didn’t want to go in so much that we stayed on for ages and actually called a truce because the foam tubing was actually beginning to smart!! As we started to walk off I cheated and got Tom so he fell in but then later as I was chatting to some of the other girls he managed to push me in!! Damn it! Was fun though!
Monday 2nd June
Got on the Oz Bus and headed towards Magnetic Island, had to get a ferry over there and made some friends on the bus. One of the girls I was in Mission Beach with, Monisha had kinda attached herself to me and without sounding like a cow (which I know I do!!) and I was having to try and sort out how to loose her, not that she wasn’t a nice girl but she was just a bit weird. Bit of a strange habit of asking a lot of questions and as we all know I haven’t got great patience! When you have someone who stresses as much as her she really needs to be with someone who will answer her questions and be very soft and gentle. Not going to happen here I’m afraid! When you have the following bombarding you on the bus when all you want to do is listen to your IPod it gets a little tedious! Things like…What time do we get there? How do we get there? Do we have to get a ferry pass? How long do you think the ferry will take? Do you know what time we get there? So do we have to take a ferry and then what? Have we paid for this? How much is it? Do you think we will have to pay for a bus the other end? Is there a bus the other end? How do we get to the hostel the other end?? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Now you and I know that I am not Mystic Meg but I’m not sure that Monisha didn’t think I had some sort of 6th sense and after the millionth time of saying that I didn’t know most of the answers even when she re-worded them to say the same thing but in a different way I still didn’t know I knew I was going to have to hatch a plan! Luckily I met two really cool girls called Anna and Ellen on the bus, they seemed really sound and come from Kent, we hit it off straight away. Somehow I managed to get in a room with Mon (Short for Monisha) on my own!!! Yeah not very impressed!! Anyway luckily for me everyone arranged to meet up for some dinner at the hostel restaurant so I knew I could get away! That evening I had a really good night getting to know the other girls on the bus and especially had a laugh with Anna and Ellen who I felt like I had known for years! We played pool, well attempted to play, I think the first game lasted about an hour!! We decided we were probably better when we hadn’t had a couple of beers but then a few days later we confirmed that wasn’t the case. I am actually really bad at pool generally and every now and then I get a freakily good shot. Ellen on the other hand is always pretty good but when she has a few beers and probably influences by me comes down to my level of playing!! We had such a giggle playing pool and dancing to some old school tunes, it was so nice to meet up with people who were on the same level with me.
Tuesday 3rd June
The following day us girls all met up for some brekkie and heading to the beach, which incidentally was two steps from the hostel. We stayed at Base backpackers which is in such a good location. It’s a bit out of the way of the main shops and other bits and pieces but for just lying on the beach its perfect. Its actually on the beach and you can rent out Kayaks and Snorkels and even go diving but the visibility was terrible while we were there so it wasn’t worth paying the money. It was lovely to spend a day in the sun just chilling out and listening to people’s travelling stories, I managed to get away from Mon for mos of the day although she did put her towel right in front of mine, so much so that I Sharon(one of the other girls on the bus) actually had to move from where she was so that she could lie down – just plain weird!
Wednesday 4th June
Had another lazy day on the beach, in the afternoon me, Ellen and Anna decided to go rock climbing over to the next bay, unfortunately what we weren’t prepared for was the tide coming in and almost as soon as we could see the next bay in our sights we had to turn back and made very quick moves back to our bay otherwise we would have been stranded!! Was great fun – felt like a kid again! Once back on the beach we decided we had worked hard enough to reward ourselves with white wine spritsers and the night continued on from there with a few more cheeky white wine spritsers and more amazing pool playing and crazy dance moves.
Thurday 5th June - Back on the Oz Bus and headed towards Airlie Beach (Gateway to the Whitsunday’s islands)
Saturday 7th June
Checked out of our hostel and checked onto our boat “Power Play” a catamaran which would take us around the Whitsundays for a few days. Anna and Ellen had decided to come on the same boat as me, as had Monisha unfortunately, however to be honest by this point she had actually made me laugh a lot and was definitely growing on me. I felt a bit mean about taking the mickey out of her so much, she was harmless and actually a good laugh she just has to know what’s going on at all times and worried about things. We met our crew, Pete the skipper, Stu the dive instructor, Kerry the cook and Velenska the hostess. There were 16 people in total on the boat which was a really nice number, we had a good mix of nationalities; 1 Spanish girl, 2 French Canadians, 2 from the French part of Switzerland, 2 Danish, us 4 English girls, 3 other English guys, 1 Aussie girl. Everyone was really nice and got on well. We headed straight out for Haymen Island to Blue Pearl Bay for our first Dive or snorkel. Again I was really nervous about going diving without James but I had done it three times before so i managed to get over it, it helped that i was diving with Tina and Andes a really nice Danish couple who had also learnt to dive in Ko Tao. They suggested the three of us diving together as buddies so that the diving instructor Stuart could lead us around the reef. It was really nice of them to include me liek that and it made the dive much more enjoyable to know that i had two backup's!! The dive itself wasn't that great the Fish were HUGE which was very cool. There were massive shoals swimming all around us, apparently because some of the divers feed the fish they often swam around other divers as they expect us to have food. We also saw the biggest fish i have ever seen, i must admit i was every so slightly peeing my pants when i saw it! Its name is apparently Priscilla and she was a massive napolean fish, about 1 metre long and about that long again, scary!! The visability wasn't that great which was a shame, also the coral looked quite dull in comparison to the coral i had seen in Cairns, i think all the boats and divers must be killing it off which is quite worrying. At the end of the dive i must admit i was very happy, i was shivering and apparently my lips had gone blue!! I did tell them i should wear two wetsuits but they didn't believe me and told me i would be ok! Stupid people, they should know i'm always right! It was so nice to have a cup of hot tea when we got back on the boat, i was soooooo cold! That evening we had a BBQ and all sat around chatting, was really nice to hear other people's travels and what they do back at home etc. Going to bed was strange and i was a bit worried when i lay down that i wasn't goign to be able to go to sleep but i woke up in the morning so i guess it wasn't so difficult!!
Sunday 8th June - We were woken up at 6.30am, so glad I had gone to bed reasonably early! We headed towards Whitehaven beach which is a beautiful beach with bright white sand and clear blue water. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy but it was still lovely to be on this beautiful beach, we had a running race and played some team games which were very funny. One involved turning in circles 20 times and then trying to run back in a straight line back to the next person in the team, needless to say quite a few people nearly threw up – far too early for games like that!! The sand on the beach is so fine that you can actually clean jewelry with it! It also squeaks as you walk on it, really strange! I didn’t go all the way in to the sea but I did get up to my waist. (Just to say I had done it!!)
We then got back on the boat and travelled over to the lookout point where you can see the Whitsunday islands and some beautiful beaches, such a pretty view. The photos I took just don’t do it justice! Then we were off again to a place called Luncheon Bay for our second Dive/Snorkel, again the visibility was crap and although I was a little warmer in two suits I still wasn’t in any way warm!! Didn’t really see too much of massive interest, one thing which was really cool is that Stuart showed us some anenomies and sea stars and told us which ones we could touch. There was one which was really sticky and it kinda grab hold of your fingers, really strange. There was another which was so very soft it felt like animal fur and one which was really rubbery like rubber gloves. Touching that was very cool as I haven’t ever done that before. The weather didn’t get any better during the course of the day and it was quite choppy heading towards our anchor for the night – I’m very glad I had kept up the travel sickness tablets!
Monday 9th June – Our last day on the boat, woken up at 6.00am and told it was our last chance to go for snorkel if we wanted to, the weather still wasn’t great so we couldn’t do any more dives so I donned my wetsuit and off we went! In the water and snorkeling before 7.00am on a Monday morning – what a start to the week! It was well worth it we were rewarded with seeing a massive sea turtle, I was so busy swimming around trying to find it that I nearly kicked it with my flipper!! It was awesome, it wasn’t as clear as when we saw one in Koh Toa but it was still very cool! Then we were back on the boat for some much needed breakfast! It was a bit of a choppy ride back and I am glad to say I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit sea sick – woo hoo!
That was our Whitsunday trip over, I must admit I was disappointed with the weather but you can’t have anything, it was good fun, I met some lovely people and saw some amazingly beautiful sights, you can’t have it all!!
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Monday 19th May - Friday 30th May - Sydney, Cairns
The latest update is that i'm going to be a bit more selective with what i write on here coz i seriously can't be on this thing all day and althought there are lots of exciting things happening i'm sure they aren't that exciting to you!!
So i arrived in Sydney well and was picked up by Huw from the airport. I was a very lucky girl and had roast lamb which Huw and Sarah had cooked for everyone, it was amazing! All of the house had a pretty big weekend so they all went to bed early so i watched some telly and got some much needed rest!!
Monday 19th May - didn't really do much, i walked into the town after being given directions from Sarah and visited the famous Queen Victoria Shopping centre (well it would be rude not to!!) Sydney is a very cool city, not as busy as london but with a good array of shops and not at all backward! Brilliant! I was staying in an area called Pyrmount which is just over from Darling Harbour so i had a walk around and found the tourist information etc. Picked up a map and some decent tour information to enable me to plan what i was going to do now and also when i coem back.
Didn't do much on Tursday other than visit China town where old ladies stand on the side of the road and yell at you to try and make you come into thier restuarant for dinner!! Felt just like i was back in Thailand, very strange!
On Thursday 22nd i walked to Circular Quay which s the main traing station and ferry port in Syney and i grabbed some lunch while i listened to a street busker playing the digeridoo - only in Oz!! I then went on a ferry ride all around Port Stephen, which is bascially all of Sydney harbour and was named that by the first Captain who visited. It was a bit of a cold day to be out on a boat and i soon wished that i had brought another layer but we got free tea so i was warmed for sections of the journey- i think they were a bit scared about the crazy English woman who kept asking for more tea while trying not to shiver!! Again there were some amazing houses on the river, just like Perth and also some beautiful beaches. It was very cool to see them from the water. After my boat ride i decided i wanted to go to the aquarium - continuing the water theme!! It was a very cool one, they have a massive enclosure just for seals which is so sweet and also one with Sharks, Manta Rays and Turtles in, you walk through a series of tunnels and they fly over your head. I can quite safely say that i was probably more scared of the HUGE manta rays than soem of the sharks. Not saying that i would want to take on a shark but the mantat ray scared the hell out of me as it swam past!
On Saturday i got a train and a bus to Bondi Beach which was very cool, there were so many surfers in the water it was crazy. Although the sun was out it was unfortunately cold beacuse of the sea breeze so i did venture in for a paddle but no further, otherwise i think i would have come out like an ice block! While i was out one of the people i met from Ko Samui, Paul (who i met on the kayaking tour with his girlfriend Natty) texted me to say he was in Sydney and if i was there we could meet up. It was really cool to see him and catch up on what he and Natty were doing, was a shame she couldn't be there really. He met me at Bondi and we had a walk along the beach. We also grabbed a McDonalds and ate that while watching the surfers and the people walking along the beach, it was nice when you were out of the breeze and the sun was shining. I was going to do the clifftop walk from Bondi to Coogee but seeing as i was really quite cold i thought i would grab a bus when Paul said he would drive me which was a hell of a lot cheaper than catching a bus!! So we drove along the coast road - very similar to if i had walked it!!! Coogee was lovely, a bit quiter than Bondi but at least as lovely, non one out in the water but the waves were massive - i suppose that was probably just because Bindi is just around the corner!!
That evening i went out with Dan and his mates, crazily enough one of the guys he plays football with lives in Farnborough and i used to sit next to him in Business Studies, small world!! We were off to a retro party so i had popped to the cheapy chop and grabbed a top and gone to the reduced section to get some bright beads and earrings - very classy! It was a good night, mostly dancing the night away and the rest of the time queuing for drinks!! The next day i must admit i felt a little worse for wear!! I now remember really clearly why i don't even have too much to drink! Even the memory is painful!
On Monday 26th May i caught a flight to Cairns from Sydney - had to be up stupidly early to get there in time, not good!! The flight went without a hitch though and i landed in Cairns at 10.15. Luckily the night before Huw had given me a hand to book my accomodation, at the same place him and Sarah had stayed at when they went, Caravella's backpackers. I grabbed a taxi from the rank and was on my way! Well when i chacked in and got my key to my all girl dorm i must admit that i was a bit apprehensive, so far i had stayed in mostly nice, clean places and i was concerned! Turns out i had good right to be... i walked into a room that stank of wet feet and mouldy unwashed clothes. There were clothes all over the floor, the sheets on all the beds were crumpled in a heap in the middle of each bed and the whole place looked like a bomb had hit it, not nice!! As i checked in the lady said there were clean sheets at the front desk if i needed them - well i was going to need them! I just dumped my bag and got out of there as fast as i could, not knowing what to do. As i was on my way out i met the first of my new Roomates, Misty a bouncing Canadian who apologised profusely for the state of the room. I should think so too!!! I still wanted to leav and went for a wander around Cairns, unfortunately the weather was crap and it was chukcing it down with rain which i was not impressed with, so not only did i have to sleep in a sh*t hole but i couldn't escape into the sun either. I mnaaged to find a little place where i got a hot chocolate and a bite to eat and i wandered around for as long as i could then went back to my room. It was good because they had actually changed the sheets and i'm guessing Misty had cleared up a bit coz you could actually see the floor!! My two other room mates were asleep in thier beds and i woke them up - shame!! They were Camilla and Daniella who immediately tried to explain how they had a load of guys back the night before and one of them had cut thier legs so thats why there was blood and mess everywhere - i hadn't even noticed the blood! Nasty!! At this point i'm still trying to work out how the hell i am going to get through this hostel thing -how do people do it???!
Anyway a bit later on, after we had all had a bit of a sleep - the joy of travelling!! We went to a place called the Woolshed for dinner, i keep wanting to call it the Woolpack which is a bit stupid but hey!! We get a free voucher from the hostel for a meal and you can pay more if you want to upgrade to a slighty better meal. I had roast beef with vegatables and chips which was nice for only 2 dollars!! After dinner we went back to the room and the girls got ready to go out, even after my sleep i was not in the mood to go out so i watched a movie on my Ipod and gave approving noises at appropriate moments about dresses etc! Later that evening, while i was asleep i was woken up by a lot of noise and without going into too much detail was not impressed to hear male voices in the room!!! Needless to say i woke up quite quickly and sorted out that particular problem! How bloody rude, disgusting and horrible! Do they have no self respect! I was branded as being old and boring and told i should get over it, when i pointed out that they should go into a mixed dorm if thats the way they want to play it then they shut up! Good thing too, no one deprives S-J or her sleep and gets away with it!
The next morning i was up and out by 9.30 and went for a wander around town again, i found a woolworths which is a big supermarket over here and brought some supplies of water and snacks. When i got back the girls were up and were very apologetic - we made up!! We all went anhd sat by the pool as the sun was out and i tried to get my tan back!! That evening Misty and I (she didn't bring a guy back!!) went to get dinner together and went to a mexican restaurant for Fajitas - yum! That evening i decided to go out and we got ready and went to the Woolshed where it was $12 to get in and then 5 drinks free, which so doesn't work because clearly you are playing $12 for 5 drinks they aren't free but whatever i suppose to the young people of today that is clever advertising!! The Woolshed is an interesting place when your not getting dinner there and by interesting i mean a lot of drunken people falling over each other and trying to get to the bar, this place is worst than most! I stayed for as long as possible, dancing with the girls on the dance floor, i was there for 3 hours which i think is quite a good effort! I don't think it went down well when i told the girls i was leaving but i didn't really give a toss i was doen with this scene a long time ago! God i am old!! Ahhhhh!
On Thursday 29th May i had booked a trip to go diving on the great barrier Reef with a company called Quicksilver. They picked me up at 6.45!! Early or what! Anyway we got a coach to Port Douglas which is a really nice part of Oz, a very pretty town. Looked much nicer than Cairns!! We were on a very nice boat called the Silver Swift and after free tea, coffee and biscuits we were on our way! We got to our first dive site and i must admit i was really quite nervous, having not done a dive without James before i was worried i would bottle it but the first dive went without a hitch and the reef was amnazing. The fish were really big and the colours of the reef were so amazing, it just goes on for miles and miles. We then went to our second dive site and i saw a white tipped reef shark!! Ahhhh! To be honest seeing my first shark was all a bit of an anti-climax as it was quite small and not really very scary but i saw one all the same and it was good! After lunch we had our final dive which was classed as a dift dive where basically you let the current take you along, it was amazing there was a sheer drop off below us and we were just moving along with the fish, i saw the largest shoals of fish all doing the same thing as us, i felt like i was in finding Nemo!!! Unfortunately on the way home the sea was really rough and i got sea sick again!! I thyink i should have taken a few tablets before i got on the boat!! Better be ok for the Whitsunday's otherwise it will be awful! Lukcily i got back without actually throwing up but i think i must have looked very green as the crew put on plastic gloves and got soem bags ready!! Now that would have been embarrassing!
This morning Friday 30th May i got picked up at 6.45 again but this time to leave Cairns and get on the OzExperience Bus which is going to take me down the coast. So far it has been good i have met a good bunch of people. On the way to Mission Beqach which is where i am at the moment, we stopped at a crcoldile farm and we got to hold snakes - yup i held a snake and it was actually really cool! Ok it wasn't massive but it wasn't a baby either, they also had a baby crocodile (with a taped mouth!!) Some cockateels and various other lizards which we all got to hold - very cool. They took us around the farm and showed us soem of the Crocodiles, soem of them were massive!!! HUGE! Very scary, especially to see them opening thier jaws to get soem chicken! I would not be comfortable going near that!
I am now at Mission Beach as a place called Scotty's as i got dropped off a familiar face came around the corner to help us with our bags, it was Bristol Tom who James and I met on Ko Tao when we went diving!! It was an emotional reunion, ha ha!! Was seriously nice to see him and the other Tom too! What a surprise! They are working here to get soem money before they move onto the next step.
Five girls got off the OzE bus and so we were all put in a room together, i have met a nice couple of girls and we are pretty much all doing the smae route which is good. I'm off White Water Rafting tomorrow morning at 8.00 which should be good - exciting and scary all at the same time!! So i will sign off for now, hope everyone is good xx
So i arrived in Sydney well and was picked up by Huw from the airport. I was a very lucky girl and had roast lamb which Huw and Sarah had cooked for everyone, it was amazing! All of the house had a pretty big weekend so they all went to bed early so i watched some telly and got some much needed rest!!
Monday 19th May - didn't really do much, i walked into the town after being given directions from Sarah and visited the famous Queen Victoria Shopping centre (well it would be rude not to!!) Sydney is a very cool city, not as busy as london but with a good array of shops and not at all backward! Brilliant! I was staying in an area called Pyrmount which is just over from Darling Harbour so i had a walk around and found the tourist information etc. Picked up a map and some decent tour information to enable me to plan what i was going to do now and also when i coem back.
Didn't do much on Tursday other than visit China town where old ladies stand on the side of the road and yell at you to try and make you come into thier restuarant for dinner!! Felt just like i was back in Thailand, very strange!
On Thursday 22nd i walked to Circular Quay which s the main traing station and ferry port in Syney and i grabbed some lunch while i listened to a street busker playing the digeridoo - only in Oz!! I then went on a ferry ride all around Port Stephen, which is bascially all of Sydney harbour and was named that by the first Captain who visited. It was a bit of a cold day to be out on a boat and i soon wished that i had brought another layer but we got free tea so i was warmed for sections of the journey- i think they were a bit scared about the crazy English woman who kept asking for more tea while trying not to shiver!! Again there were some amazing houses on the river, just like Perth and also some beautiful beaches. It was very cool to see them from the water. After my boat ride i decided i wanted to go to the aquarium - continuing the water theme!! It was a very cool one, they have a massive enclosure just for seals which is so sweet and also one with Sharks, Manta Rays and Turtles in, you walk through a series of tunnels and they fly over your head. I can quite safely say that i was probably more scared of the HUGE manta rays than soem of the sharks. Not saying that i would want to take on a shark but the mantat ray scared the hell out of me as it swam past!
On Saturday i got a train and a bus to Bondi Beach which was very cool, there were so many surfers in the water it was crazy. Although the sun was out it was unfortunately cold beacuse of the sea breeze so i did venture in for a paddle but no further, otherwise i think i would have come out like an ice block! While i was out one of the people i met from Ko Samui, Paul (who i met on the kayaking tour with his girlfriend Natty) texted me to say he was in Sydney and if i was there we could meet up. It was really cool to see him and catch up on what he and Natty were doing, was a shame she couldn't be there really. He met me at Bondi and we had a walk along the beach. We also grabbed a McDonalds and ate that while watching the surfers and the people walking along the beach, it was nice when you were out of the breeze and the sun was shining. I was going to do the clifftop walk from Bondi to Coogee but seeing as i was really quite cold i thought i would grab a bus when Paul said he would drive me which was a hell of a lot cheaper than catching a bus!! So we drove along the coast road - very similar to if i had walked it!!! Coogee was lovely, a bit quiter than Bondi but at least as lovely, non one out in the water but the waves were massive - i suppose that was probably just because Bindi is just around the corner!!
That evening i went out with Dan and his mates, crazily enough one of the guys he plays football with lives in Farnborough and i used to sit next to him in Business Studies, small world!! We were off to a retro party so i had popped to the cheapy chop and grabbed a top and gone to the reduced section to get some bright beads and earrings - very classy! It was a good night, mostly dancing the night away and the rest of the time queuing for drinks!! The next day i must admit i felt a little worse for wear!! I now remember really clearly why i don't even have too much to drink! Even the memory is painful!
On Monday 26th May i caught a flight to Cairns from Sydney - had to be up stupidly early to get there in time, not good!! The flight went without a hitch though and i landed in Cairns at 10.15. Luckily the night before Huw had given me a hand to book my accomodation, at the same place him and Sarah had stayed at when they went, Caravella's backpackers. I grabbed a taxi from the rank and was on my way! Well when i chacked in and got my key to my all girl dorm i must admit that i was a bit apprehensive, so far i had stayed in mostly nice, clean places and i was concerned! Turns out i had good right to be... i walked into a room that stank of wet feet and mouldy unwashed clothes. There were clothes all over the floor, the sheets on all the beds were crumpled in a heap in the middle of each bed and the whole place looked like a bomb had hit it, not nice!! As i checked in the lady said there were clean sheets at the front desk if i needed them - well i was going to need them! I just dumped my bag and got out of there as fast as i could, not knowing what to do. As i was on my way out i met the first of my new Roomates, Misty a bouncing Canadian who apologised profusely for the state of the room. I should think so too!!! I still wanted to leav and went for a wander around Cairns, unfortunately the weather was crap and it was chukcing it down with rain which i was not impressed with, so not only did i have to sleep in a sh*t hole but i couldn't escape into the sun either. I mnaaged to find a little place where i got a hot chocolate and a bite to eat and i wandered around for as long as i could then went back to my room. It was good because they had actually changed the sheets and i'm guessing Misty had cleared up a bit coz you could actually see the floor!! My two other room mates were asleep in thier beds and i woke them up - shame!! They were Camilla and Daniella who immediately tried to explain how they had a load of guys back the night before and one of them had cut thier legs so thats why there was blood and mess everywhere - i hadn't even noticed the blood! Nasty!! At this point i'm still trying to work out how the hell i am going to get through this hostel thing -how do people do it???!
Anyway a bit later on, after we had all had a bit of a sleep - the joy of travelling!! We went to a place called the Woolshed for dinner, i keep wanting to call it the Woolpack which is a bit stupid but hey!! We get a free voucher from the hostel for a meal and you can pay more if you want to upgrade to a slighty better meal. I had roast beef with vegatables and chips which was nice for only 2 dollars!! After dinner we went back to the room and the girls got ready to go out, even after my sleep i was not in the mood to go out so i watched a movie on my Ipod and gave approving noises at appropriate moments about dresses etc! Later that evening, while i was asleep i was woken up by a lot of noise and without going into too much detail was not impressed to hear male voices in the room!!! Needless to say i woke up quite quickly and sorted out that particular problem! How bloody rude, disgusting and horrible! Do they have no self respect! I was branded as being old and boring and told i should get over it, when i pointed out that they should go into a mixed dorm if thats the way they want to play it then they shut up! Good thing too, no one deprives S-J or her sleep and gets away with it!
The next morning i was up and out by 9.30 and went for a wander around town again, i found a woolworths which is a big supermarket over here and brought some supplies of water and snacks. When i got back the girls were up and were very apologetic - we made up!! We all went anhd sat by the pool as the sun was out and i tried to get my tan back!! That evening Misty and I (she didn't bring a guy back!!) went to get dinner together and went to a mexican restaurant for Fajitas - yum! That evening i decided to go out and we got ready and went to the Woolshed where it was $12 to get in and then 5 drinks free, which so doesn't work because clearly you are playing $12 for 5 drinks they aren't free but whatever i suppose to the young people of today that is clever advertising!! The Woolshed is an interesting place when your not getting dinner there and by interesting i mean a lot of drunken people falling over each other and trying to get to the bar, this place is worst than most! I stayed for as long as possible, dancing with the girls on the dance floor, i was there for 3 hours which i think is quite a good effort! I don't think it went down well when i told the girls i was leaving but i didn't really give a toss i was doen with this scene a long time ago! God i am old!! Ahhhhh!
On Thursday 29th May i had booked a trip to go diving on the great barrier Reef with a company called Quicksilver. They picked me up at 6.45!! Early or what! Anyway we got a coach to Port Douglas which is a really nice part of Oz, a very pretty town. Looked much nicer than Cairns!! We were on a very nice boat called the Silver Swift and after free tea, coffee and biscuits we were on our way! We got to our first dive site and i must admit i was really quite nervous, having not done a dive without James before i was worried i would bottle it but the first dive went without a hitch and the reef was amnazing. The fish were really big and the colours of the reef were so amazing, it just goes on for miles and miles. We then went to our second dive site and i saw a white tipped reef shark!! Ahhhh! To be honest seeing my first shark was all a bit of an anti-climax as it was quite small and not really very scary but i saw one all the same and it was good! After lunch we had our final dive which was classed as a dift dive where basically you let the current take you along, it was amazing there was a sheer drop off below us and we were just moving along with the fish, i saw the largest shoals of fish all doing the same thing as us, i felt like i was in finding Nemo!!! Unfortunately on the way home the sea was really rough and i got sea sick again!! I thyink i should have taken a few tablets before i got on the boat!! Better be ok for the Whitsunday's otherwise it will be awful! Lukcily i got back without actually throwing up but i think i must have looked very green as the crew put on plastic gloves and got soem bags ready!! Now that would have been embarrassing!
This morning Friday 30th May i got picked up at 6.45 again but this time to leave Cairns and get on the OzExperience Bus which is going to take me down the coast. So far it has been good i have met a good bunch of people. On the way to Mission Beqach which is where i am at the moment, we stopped at a crcoldile farm and we got to hold snakes - yup i held a snake and it was actually really cool! Ok it wasn't massive but it wasn't a baby either, they also had a baby crocodile (with a taped mouth!!) Some cockateels and various other lizards which we all got to hold - very cool. They took us around the farm and showed us soem of the Crocodiles, soem of them were massive!!! HUGE! Very scary, especially to see them opening thier jaws to get soem chicken! I would not be comfortable going near that!
I am now at Mission Beach as a place called Scotty's as i got dropped off a familiar face came around the corner to help us with our bags, it was Bristol Tom who James and I met on Ko Tao when we went diving!! It was an emotional reunion, ha ha!! Was seriously nice to see him and the other Tom too! What a surprise! They are working here to get soem money before they move onto the next step.
Five girls got off the OzE bus and so we were all put in a room together, i have met a nice couple of girls and we are pretty much all doing the smae route which is good. I'm off White Water Rafting tomorrow morning at 8.00 which should be good - exciting and scary all at the same time!! So i will sign off for now, hope everyone is good xx
Friday, 16 May 2008
Monday 12th May - Friday 16th May WA - Perth and down South
Monday 12th May
Early start to get on the road down to Busselton our destination for the next three nights. Our first stop on the road is Mandurah where we crack open the tea and muffins and sit on a bench in the sun, what a way to start a Monday morning! We then took a walk around the town and found an English Sweet shop which I got very excited about. Sad I know! They had everything though, it was amazing; fruit salads, cola pips, Nerds, Wham Bars, Rhubarb and Custards, Popping Candy – I was like a kid in a sweet shop, except unfortunately I was an adult! What’s good about being an adult in a sweet shop is that no one can tell you what is too much to buy so I grabbed as much as I could carry and went to the counter – y-u-mmy! Back in the car for another couple of hours and we stopped for lunch and then got to Bunbury. Unfortunately the weather had made a turn for the worst and we nearly got blown away trying to see if the dolphins were anywhere near the shore, after a few minutes of freezing cold air I decided I wasn’t all that worried about seeing them again and we drove off to a lighthouse. I was quite pleased with myself I made it halfway up the lighthouse, not bad for a vertigo sufferer! Another few hours and we arrived at the Abbey Beach Resort at our self catering 2 bed apartment. It was a stones throw away from the beach, which I’m sure is lovely when the sun is shining, there was a nice indoor pool and gym area (which I’m sure will get a lot of use!!) and a nice river with ducks on!
Tuesday 13th May
We headed off towards Margaret River which is a main wine producing region in the South West of Australia. We headed straight for the cheese factory to get our elevenses, they had five cheeses and a yogurt to try so we were sorted!! After this we headed into the town of Cowaramup and the home of Candy Cow sweet shop and factory!! No wonder I am having trouble fitting into those jeans! We watched them make Honeycrunch which is basically like the inside of a Crunchie, really tasty but the size of the packets they sell would definitely be enough to rot your teeth! I was happy with some fudge and a new cow keyring!
We then headed into the town of Margaret River itself and had a walk around the town to try and pick out somewhere for lunch, we then decided to had to a winery for lunch instead – perfect! We went to Amberley Winery and firstly did some wine tasting, I’m not sure if it was any good but it certainly tasted good to me! We then had another amazing lunch and the most tasty pudding I have had in ages. Chocolate brownie, still warm and slighty sticky with clotted cream on the side and covered in a light chocolate sauce – needless to say once we started eating it I think we probably would have liked one each rather than sharing between three!
We then headed for the coat to a place called Yallingup, the weather had really pulled the black clouds towards us and the wind was making huge waves, I got sprayed with water and I was miles away from the actual coast. We then stopped at our final destination for the day Simmo’s Ice Cream shop where they have 44 flavours of ice cream, I decided to go for Swiss Chocolate flavour, it had bits of nougat and chocolate pieces and the size they gave you was amazing. Was a truly fattening day, brilliant! One thing I will say in my defense after eating so much in one day is that I did go to the indoor pool and do a few lengths, but as soon as I realised the hot tub was free I did let the bubbles do their work!
Wednesday 14th May
On the road towards the town of Nannup, a tiny town with most of the shops closed because it was a Wednesday and they close on a Wed and a Tues! We found a café open and had a lovely hot chocolate and a scone with cream so all was going well for a second day of indulgence! We then headed to Balingup which was another very small but quaint town where we had lunch at the local Gallery, another lovely meal, this time I abstained from a pudding as I was so full from Lunch and I had a herbal tea to try and help my digestion! Just outside Ballingup was an emporium of Arts and Crafts made by Western Oz artists, the place was huge, just as you thought it had finished it carried on around a corner. If I had more space and more money they would have made a fortune out of me that day. Some of the tables they had made out of old branches were just beautiful. We then moved towards Donnybrook and to a cider factory where we tried some cider and picked our own Pink ladies. I was a bit disappointed with the guy serving the cider, when I asked him how it was made it avoided the question and told me that scrumpy cider has more of the pith and skin left in, so there you go!! Useless! On the way back to Busselton we drove though the town of Capel and then on towards our temporary home. I had another swim before dinner which I think allowed for the large amount of cheese I then consumed for dinner!
Thursday 15th May
We visited the town of Busselton itself, specifically going to see the 2km long Jetty. There is a lot of history around the jetty and had the weather been better I would have taken the walk but as it was the clouds were creeping in and I did not want to be stuck at the end of a jetty in the middle of the pouring rain! After that we were back on the road again and heading towards Perth, we made another stop in Mandurah at a lovely pub which my Auntie and Uncle had been to before. Back on the road again and we got back home in good time, time enough for me to start uploading the photos I have taken in the last 2 weeks and to try and finish this bloody blog! I think I’m going to go back to only writing certain days again soon cos this is just taking far too long! Later that evening we went and watched Julia play Indoor beach volley ball, it was such a laugh. Basically they have a sand court with nets around it and you have four a side and you play volley ball!! Wish they had that in England it looked like such a laugh although I would obviously have to get over the urge to cower when the ball actually came towards me, but I would probably get used to it! Maybe, with time!
Friday 16th May
To be honest I spent most of the day writing this blog and uploading photos, I still have emails I should respond to but I am fed up of being at the computer! I am getting far too used to not being at one! The kids are having a sleep over tonight because they wanted to have one while I was still here. We had fun playing frustration which I must admit is really frustrating, I lost and I wasn’t even trying to! They have gone to bed now and I’m going to follow very soon. We are doing something with them tomorrow, maybe a picnic in Kings Park if the weather is good or we might go bowling, we will have to see what tomorrow brings.
On Sunday I fly to Sydney and I shall be sorry to leave my Australia family, I have had such a laugh and it has been great fun getting to know my young cousins before they get too old and too cool to talk to their boring older cousin! But the sun beckons and I hope to find it as I travel up to the Whitsunday islands and to the Great Barrier Reef….. watch this space for the new adventures of Sarah-Jane… has anyone seen Lois Lane?? (I know I know lame joke!)
Signing off for a while
S-J xx
Early start to get on the road down to Busselton our destination for the next three nights. Our first stop on the road is Mandurah where we crack open the tea and muffins and sit on a bench in the sun, what a way to start a Monday morning! We then took a walk around the town and found an English Sweet shop which I got very excited about. Sad I know! They had everything though, it was amazing; fruit salads, cola pips, Nerds, Wham Bars, Rhubarb and Custards, Popping Candy – I was like a kid in a sweet shop, except unfortunately I was an adult! What’s good about being an adult in a sweet shop is that no one can tell you what is too much to buy so I grabbed as much as I could carry and went to the counter – y-u-mmy! Back in the car for another couple of hours and we stopped for lunch and then got to Bunbury. Unfortunately the weather had made a turn for the worst and we nearly got blown away trying to see if the dolphins were anywhere near the shore, after a few minutes of freezing cold air I decided I wasn’t all that worried about seeing them again and we drove off to a lighthouse. I was quite pleased with myself I made it halfway up the lighthouse, not bad for a vertigo sufferer! Another few hours and we arrived at the Abbey Beach Resort at our self catering 2 bed apartment. It was a stones throw away from the beach, which I’m sure is lovely when the sun is shining, there was a nice indoor pool and gym area (which I’m sure will get a lot of use!!) and a nice river with ducks on!
Tuesday 13th May
We headed off towards Margaret River which is a main wine producing region in the South West of Australia. We headed straight for the cheese factory to get our elevenses, they had five cheeses and a yogurt to try so we were sorted!! After this we headed into the town of Cowaramup and the home of Candy Cow sweet shop and factory!! No wonder I am having trouble fitting into those jeans! We watched them make Honeycrunch which is basically like the inside of a Crunchie, really tasty but the size of the packets they sell would definitely be enough to rot your teeth! I was happy with some fudge and a new cow keyring!
We then headed into the town of Margaret River itself and had a walk around the town to try and pick out somewhere for lunch, we then decided to had to a winery for lunch instead – perfect! We went to Amberley Winery and firstly did some wine tasting, I’m not sure if it was any good but it certainly tasted good to me! We then had another amazing lunch and the most tasty pudding I have had in ages. Chocolate brownie, still warm and slighty sticky with clotted cream on the side and covered in a light chocolate sauce – needless to say once we started eating it I think we probably would have liked one each rather than sharing between three!
We then headed for the coat to a place called Yallingup, the weather had really pulled the black clouds towards us and the wind was making huge waves, I got sprayed with water and I was miles away from the actual coast. We then stopped at our final destination for the day Simmo’s Ice Cream shop where they have 44 flavours of ice cream, I decided to go for Swiss Chocolate flavour, it had bits of nougat and chocolate pieces and the size they gave you was amazing. Was a truly fattening day, brilliant! One thing I will say in my defense after eating so much in one day is that I did go to the indoor pool and do a few lengths, but as soon as I realised the hot tub was free I did let the bubbles do their work!
Wednesday 14th May
On the road towards the town of Nannup, a tiny town with most of the shops closed because it was a Wednesday and they close on a Wed and a Tues! We found a café open and had a lovely hot chocolate and a scone with cream so all was going well for a second day of indulgence! We then headed to Balingup which was another very small but quaint town where we had lunch at the local Gallery, another lovely meal, this time I abstained from a pudding as I was so full from Lunch and I had a herbal tea to try and help my digestion! Just outside Ballingup was an emporium of Arts and Crafts made by Western Oz artists, the place was huge, just as you thought it had finished it carried on around a corner. If I had more space and more money they would have made a fortune out of me that day. Some of the tables they had made out of old branches were just beautiful. We then moved towards Donnybrook and to a cider factory where we tried some cider and picked our own Pink ladies. I was a bit disappointed with the guy serving the cider, when I asked him how it was made it avoided the question and told me that scrumpy cider has more of the pith and skin left in, so there you go!! Useless! On the way back to Busselton we drove though the town of Capel and then on towards our temporary home. I had another swim before dinner which I think allowed for the large amount of cheese I then consumed for dinner!
Thursday 15th May
We visited the town of Busselton itself, specifically going to see the 2km long Jetty. There is a lot of history around the jetty and had the weather been better I would have taken the walk but as it was the clouds were creeping in and I did not want to be stuck at the end of a jetty in the middle of the pouring rain! After that we were back on the road again and heading towards Perth, we made another stop in Mandurah at a lovely pub which my Auntie and Uncle had been to before. Back on the road again and we got back home in good time, time enough for me to start uploading the photos I have taken in the last 2 weeks and to try and finish this bloody blog! I think I’m going to go back to only writing certain days again soon cos this is just taking far too long! Later that evening we went and watched Julia play Indoor beach volley ball, it was such a laugh. Basically they have a sand court with nets around it and you have four a side and you play volley ball!! Wish they had that in England it looked like such a laugh although I would obviously have to get over the urge to cower when the ball actually came towards me, but I would probably get used to it! Maybe, with time!
Friday 16th May
To be honest I spent most of the day writing this blog and uploading photos, I still have emails I should respond to but I am fed up of being at the computer! I am getting far too used to not being at one! The kids are having a sleep over tonight because they wanted to have one while I was still here. We had fun playing frustration which I must admit is really frustrating, I lost and I wasn’t even trying to! They have gone to bed now and I’m going to follow very soon. We are doing something with them tomorrow, maybe a picnic in Kings Park if the weather is good or we might go bowling, we will have to see what tomorrow brings.
On Sunday I fly to Sydney and I shall be sorry to leave my Australia family, I have had such a laugh and it has been great fun getting to know my young cousins before they get too old and too cool to talk to their boring older cousin! But the sun beckons and I hope to find it as I travel up to the Whitsunday islands and to the Great Barrier Reef….. watch this space for the new adventures of Sarah-Jane… has anyone seen Lois Lane?? (I know I know lame joke!)
Signing off for a while
S-J xx
Monday 5th May - Sunday 11th May Western Oz - Perth
Monday 5th May
I woke up to the sound of children in the house, bit strange so I thought I had better investigate!! Turns out Shawn and Ryan weren’t feeling to well so Julia let them have the day off school. After the second argument about who was playing with what I stupidly suggested going to the park! BIG mistake, you can tell I don’t have kids!! When are we going? How long till we can go? Can we go now? How about now? Are you ready yet??!! Seeing as I had literally just got up I needed a few minutes to remember my own name! Off we went to the park, was quite fun actually, at least I got some exercise playing chase!
In the afternoon Julia took me shopping for some warmer clothes and some much needed socks!! We then went back home and picked everyone else up and went to my other cousin’s house Gary. It was Gary’s birthday so I met his wife Sue (Who I have met before but I was about 13 we think!) and his children Rachael, Lauren and Jarred. Was actually quite strange to be allowed to sit with the adults and have an alcoholic drink. The last time I saw these guys I was probably trying to pretend I was just drinking lemonade! We then came home for dinner and me and Uncle put in a joint effort to make Green Curry and watched Die Hard 4, which isn’t a bad movie.
Tuesday 6th May
We met up with two of Uncle T and Auntie L’s friends Mike and Jean over lunch in the Swan Valley at a place called the Black Swan which is attached to a vineyard. We had amazing food and lush wine, I could get used to this!
Wednesday 7th May
We headed off into Perth city fairly early to try and avoid attractions being too busy, our first stop was the Bell Tower just off the Swan River which I kept wanting to call Swan Lake! It was built for the millennium and had 12 bells which ring out on special occasions, so much smaller and probably more historical than a dome which no one wants to go and see! We managed to get in on the back of a school group who were being taught how the ring the bells and we got to have a go. So Perth city was subjected to S-J Nightingale ringing bells out at 11.45 on a Wednesday morning – poor things! They are a lot harder to do thank you think, the first bit is the most difficult but once you have it going its much easier. After seeing the tower we headed towards the Perth Mint where we had a guided tour teaching us about how they first found the gold and showing us the coins they still make today. It was amazing to see all the different coins that you can buy and who brought them. Apparently I am worth 1.2 million dollars in gold, once you convert that with the current exchange rate it’s a bit crap, I did think about going back and weighing myself after lunch to see if I was worth more but I decided you should be happy with your lot! We went for lunch inside the Mint and I had something called the finger sandwich selection, it was very posh and I tried to eat all of them with my little finger in the air!
Shawn had asked if I could go and watch him play basketball so off we went to the Joondalup sports centre, I got quite involved and I think I put off one kid because he turned around to see who they silly women shouting in the English accent was! Sorry!
Thursday 8th May
I was woken up with a nice cup of tea and told to get out of bed by my Uncle!! I really could sleep for England! We went back into Perth to go on a River cruise along the Swan River up to Fremantle. It was a shame it wasn’t a warmer day but it was warm enough for us to sit on the back of the boat and enjoy the fresh air, it was lovely when the sun came out. We had commentary all the way along, going through the history of the bridges we went under and the yacht clubs around the River, we even got told about the massive houses on the edge of the River. There was one which was apparently on sale for $85million, I’ve been in resorts smaller than that, it was crazy! We then got closer to the docks and came across a hug cargo carrier, I’ve never seen one up close and I couldn’t believe how the smaller boats manoeuvred it onto the side of the Harbour, they must have some good engines on them! After the cruise we headed towards Kings Park, a botanical garden plush with native Australian Flora and Fauna, I can imagine it would be packed on a hot sunny day. As we were walking past the Anza memorial monument there were two ladies one at each end of a wall and they seemed to be trying to hear each other speak. My Uncles asked what they were doing and apparently when one person stands at the end of one wall and another at the other if you whisper you can still hear the person at the other end. Well this we had to try… I nearly jumped out of my skin when I hear my Uncle call my name clear as day. Really spooky! It just jumps out of the wall at you, so clever! We then followed the two women to the look out point and came across an aboriginal talk about their shields, spears, boomerangs and didgeridoos, then two young guys came out and showed us some dancing. To be honest the talk was interesting but I did feel sorry for the boys not wearing much in the rain, I was cold and I had a bloody jumper and jean on! For dinner we went out with some other friends of Uncle T’s, Marion and Mike. We went to the local Chinese which was very nice, it had been a long time since I had Chinese.
Friday 9th May
Me and my Uncle set off for Fremantle just after 9.00 to miss the traffic and went straight to Fremantle prison. As my Uncle had visited the prison 4 times before with previous visitors I left him to have a wander about and set off on the tour. Our tour guide was fairly amusing getting people to stand in cells and closing the doors and almost locking one couple on solitary, I’m just glad I wasn’t the butt of any of the jokes! It was really weird to walk around the prison and I definitely did not like it when the door was close on me in solitary so I could see what it felt like. The gallows were also quite full on, especially when you hear that they hung an 11 year old boy for murder and you see the drop below the noose. Sent a shiver down my spine I can tell you! After the prison tour we took a walk through the market which sold all sorts of things from fruit and veg to sunglasses and foot massages (I was tempted but then I remembered the wooden stick and thought better of it!). We walked along to the old railway station and along to the roundhouse where they used to keep people prisoner and still have stocks in situ. Unfortunately we had just missed the cannon firing, how we didn’t hear it I don’t know, but at least my ears were safe!! We carried on around to the harbour and had fish and chips then walked back through the market tp pick up some veggies. In the evening Julia and I went to the cinema while Auntie L and Uncle T went to a Quiz night. We saw “What Happens in Vegas” with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, I don’t even want to think how long it has been since I went to the cinema, it was good old fashion chick flick, brilliant! As we came out and went into the loos Julia did the loudest sneeze I have ever heard and the entire toilet went silent, problem was this then gave us the giggle and soon the whole of the ladies tolit was laughing at the loud sneeze. There were a bunch of teenagers laughing when we came out but we knew if we said anything they would probably think we were weird so we just kept laughing to ourselves. Some people are so noisy, not like my dainty sneezes which Julia now keeps taking the piss out of!
Saturday 10th May
One of things I wanted to do in Oz is hold a koala and at a park called Cohunu you can do that so in an effort not to look quite so stupid walking around an animal park at 26 getting excited at seeing all the animals and getting to feed them we took the kids with us! As you walked in you got given a bag of popcorn, I’m not sure which of the animals it is supposed to be appetising to the most but apparently the only ones not to give it to are the Emu’s. We soon found though that they aren’t fussy and they actually freaked me out a little bit because every time you turned around there was one over your shoulder. Anyway once we got to the koala area I got to hold one and have my photo taken with one! It was actually a bit smelly but luckily they give you some Eucalyptus leaves for it to eat and that masked some of the smell! After that we went into the Kangaroo enclosure which was very cool, they are just hopping about all around you and actually they do eat popcorn! Some of the bigger ones were a bit worrying when they started to box each other but the smaller ones were all very cute and if you approached them slowly most of them would eat out of your hand. This was definitely the highlight for the kids and probably me too! Although the talking parrots were highly amusing, there was one which made a really high alarm sound when you walked away from his cage and one which danced when he asked “What are you doing?” They had little Daniel in stiches whenever he said Hello and they responded he laughed so loudly, so much more enjoyable with the kids there. We even had to go back to the Kangaroo enclosure after lunch to feed them again, I don’t think they wanted to leave! We went to take the kids home and ended up staying for homemade pizza which was yummy (Thanks again Julia!) and started to play on the Wii. I must say even the adults can get a little bit competitive, especially when Julia’s partner Dave starts pushing me to try and put me off. Me, competitive?? Surprising isn’t it!!
Sunday 11th May
This was Mother’s Day in Oz so my two cousin’s and respective families were coming over for a late lunch/early dinner. We were up early in the morning to go and watch Ryan play Aussie Rules Football which is nothing like English football and I spent most of the gam trying to figure out what on earth they were doing and clapping at all the wrong places! Later in the day the Wii battles commenced again and we progressed outside to a game of piggy in the middle made even more confusing because there was always about 3 people in the middle at any one time and everyone kept changing so quickly it was difficult to work out who was in and who was out. Luckily no one got hurt but it was probably a close call. It was such a good day, it reminded me of when we used to go around my Nan’s for the day and us kids would all be playing and fighting each other and the adults would be eating and drinking, made me very nostalgic and made me miss my family a bit. It was great to be able to speak to Mum and Dad on Skype although I think it got a bit confusing when we had most of the family trying to gather around the camera and all talk at once! Was lovely to see them though!
I woke up to the sound of children in the house, bit strange so I thought I had better investigate!! Turns out Shawn and Ryan weren’t feeling to well so Julia let them have the day off school. After the second argument about who was playing with what I stupidly suggested going to the park! BIG mistake, you can tell I don’t have kids!! When are we going? How long till we can go? Can we go now? How about now? Are you ready yet??!! Seeing as I had literally just got up I needed a few minutes to remember my own name! Off we went to the park, was quite fun actually, at least I got some exercise playing chase!
In the afternoon Julia took me shopping for some warmer clothes and some much needed socks!! We then went back home and picked everyone else up and went to my other cousin’s house Gary. It was Gary’s birthday so I met his wife Sue (Who I have met before but I was about 13 we think!) and his children Rachael, Lauren and Jarred. Was actually quite strange to be allowed to sit with the adults and have an alcoholic drink. The last time I saw these guys I was probably trying to pretend I was just drinking lemonade! We then came home for dinner and me and Uncle put in a joint effort to make Green Curry and watched Die Hard 4, which isn’t a bad movie.
Tuesday 6th May
We met up with two of Uncle T and Auntie L’s friends Mike and Jean over lunch in the Swan Valley at a place called the Black Swan which is attached to a vineyard. We had amazing food and lush wine, I could get used to this!
Wednesday 7th May
We headed off into Perth city fairly early to try and avoid attractions being too busy, our first stop was the Bell Tower just off the Swan River which I kept wanting to call Swan Lake! It was built for the millennium and had 12 bells which ring out on special occasions, so much smaller and probably more historical than a dome which no one wants to go and see! We managed to get in on the back of a school group who were being taught how the ring the bells and we got to have a go. So Perth city was subjected to S-J Nightingale ringing bells out at 11.45 on a Wednesday morning – poor things! They are a lot harder to do thank you think, the first bit is the most difficult but once you have it going its much easier. After seeing the tower we headed towards the Perth Mint where we had a guided tour teaching us about how they first found the gold and showing us the coins they still make today. It was amazing to see all the different coins that you can buy and who brought them. Apparently I am worth 1.2 million dollars in gold, once you convert that with the current exchange rate it’s a bit crap, I did think about going back and weighing myself after lunch to see if I was worth more but I decided you should be happy with your lot! We went for lunch inside the Mint and I had something called the finger sandwich selection, it was very posh and I tried to eat all of them with my little finger in the air!
Shawn had asked if I could go and watch him play basketball so off we went to the Joondalup sports centre, I got quite involved and I think I put off one kid because he turned around to see who they silly women shouting in the English accent was! Sorry!
Thursday 8th May
I was woken up with a nice cup of tea and told to get out of bed by my Uncle!! I really could sleep for England! We went back into Perth to go on a River cruise along the Swan River up to Fremantle. It was a shame it wasn’t a warmer day but it was warm enough for us to sit on the back of the boat and enjoy the fresh air, it was lovely when the sun came out. We had commentary all the way along, going through the history of the bridges we went under and the yacht clubs around the River, we even got told about the massive houses on the edge of the River. There was one which was apparently on sale for $85million, I’ve been in resorts smaller than that, it was crazy! We then got closer to the docks and came across a hug cargo carrier, I’ve never seen one up close and I couldn’t believe how the smaller boats manoeuvred it onto the side of the Harbour, they must have some good engines on them! After the cruise we headed towards Kings Park, a botanical garden plush with native Australian Flora and Fauna, I can imagine it would be packed on a hot sunny day. As we were walking past the Anza memorial monument there were two ladies one at each end of a wall and they seemed to be trying to hear each other speak. My Uncles asked what they were doing and apparently when one person stands at the end of one wall and another at the other if you whisper you can still hear the person at the other end. Well this we had to try… I nearly jumped out of my skin when I hear my Uncle call my name clear as day. Really spooky! It just jumps out of the wall at you, so clever! We then followed the two women to the look out point and came across an aboriginal talk about their shields, spears, boomerangs and didgeridoos, then two young guys came out and showed us some dancing. To be honest the talk was interesting but I did feel sorry for the boys not wearing much in the rain, I was cold and I had a bloody jumper and jean on! For dinner we went out with some other friends of Uncle T’s, Marion and Mike. We went to the local Chinese which was very nice, it had been a long time since I had Chinese.
Friday 9th May
Me and my Uncle set off for Fremantle just after 9.00 to miss the traffic and went straight to Fremantle prison. As my Uncle had visited the prison 4 times before with previous visitors I left him to have a wander about and set off on the tour. Our tour guide was fairly amusing getting people to stand in cells and closing the doors and almost locking one couple on solitary, I’m just glad I wasn’t the butt of any of the jokes! It was really weird to walk around the prison and I definitely did not like it when the door was close on me in solitary so I could see what it felt like. The gallows were also quite full on, especially when you hear that they hung an 11 year old boy for murder and you see the drop below the noose. Sent a shiver down my spine I can tell you! After the prison tour we took a walk through the market which sold all sorts of things from fruit and veg to sunglasses and foot massages (I was tempted but then I remembered the wooden stick and thought better of it!). We walked along to the old railway station and along to the roundhouse where they used to keep people prisoner and still have stocks in situ. Unfortunately we had just missed the cannon firing, how we didn’t hear it I don’t know, but at least my ears were safe!! We carried on around to the harbour and had fish and chips then walked back through the market tp pick up some veggies. In the evening Julia and I went to the cinema while Auntie L and Uncle T went to a Quiz night. We saw “What Happens in Vegas” with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, I don’t even want to think how long it has been since I went to the cinema, it was good old fashion chick flick, brilliant! As we came out and went into the loos Julia did the loudest sneeze I have ever heard and the entire toilet went silent, problem was this then gave us the giggle and soon the whole of the ladies tolit was laughing at the loud sneeze. There were a bunch of teenagers laughing when we came out but we knew if we said anything they would probably think we were weird so we just kept laughing to ourselves. Some people are so noisy, not like my dainty sneezes which Julia now keeps taking the piss out of!
Saturday 10th May
One of things I wanted to do in Oz is hold a koala and at a park called Cohunu you can do that so in an effort not to look quite so stupid walking around an animal park at 26 getting excited at seeing all the animals and getting to feed them we took the kids with us! As you walked in you got given a bag of popcorn, I’m not sure which of the animals it is supposed to be appetising to the most but apparently the only ones not to give it to are the Emu’s. We soon found though that they aren’t fussy and they actually freaked me out a little bit because every time you turned around there was one over your shoulder. Anyway once we got to the koala area I got to hold one and have my photo taken with one! It was actually a bit smelly but luckily they give you some Eucalyptus leaves for it to eat and that masked some of the smell! After that we went into the Kangaroo enclosure which was very cool, they are just hopping about all around you and actually they do eat popcorn! Some of the bigger ones were a bit worrying when they started to box each other but the smaller ones were all very cute and if you approached them slowly most of them would eat out of your hand. This was definitely the highlight for the kids and probably me too! Although the talking parrots were highly amusing, there was one which made a really high alarm sound when you walked away from his cage and one which danced when he asked “What are you doing?” They had little Daniel in stiches whenever he said Hello and they responded he laughed so loudly, so much more enjoyable with the kids there. We even had to go back to the Kangaroo enclosure after lunch to feed them again, I don’t think they wanted to leave! We went to take the kids home and ended up staying for homemade pizza which was yummy (Thanks again Julia!) and started to play on the Wii. I must say even the adults can get a little bit competitive, especially when Julia’s partner Dave starts pushing me to try and put me off. Me, competitive?? Surprising isn’t it!!
Sunday 11th May
This was Mother’s Day in Oz so my two cousin’s and respective families were coming over for a late lunch/early dinner. We were up early in the morning to go and watch Ryan play Aussie Rules Football which is nothing like English football and I spent most of the gam trying to figure out what on earth they were doing and clapping at all the wrong places! Later in the day the Wii battles commenced again and we progressed outside to a game of piggy in the middle made even more confusing because there was always about 3 people in the middle at any one time and everyone kept changing so quickly it was difficult to work out who was in and who was out. Luckily no one got hurt but it was probably a close call. It was such a good day, it reminded me of when we used to go around my Nan’s for the day and us kids would all be playing and fighting each other and the adults would be eating and drinking, made me very nostalgic and made me miss my family a bit. It was great to be able to speak to Mum and Dad on Skype although I think it got a bit confusing when we had most of the family trying to gather around the camera and all talk at once! Was lovely to see them though!
Monday 28th April - Sunday 4th May WA - Perth
Monday 28th April
We got an early start and headed to Monkey Mia where the dolphins come into shore and are handfed by the public. They start the feeding at 8.00 and finish at 13.00 but they can feed them at any time during that time so you have to get down early to ensure you see it. We got down there just in time and saw the dolphins come right up to people in the water. It was a really overcast day so there weren’t that many people there which made it all the more upsetting when I wasn’t chosen to feed the dolphin. Mean cow who was deciding who could feed them; I felt like having a strop but then remembered how old I actually am so decided against it! Probably a good thing, James would probably have disowned me! After watching the feeding we grabbed a hot drink to warm ourselves up and set off to find our boat for a tour we had booked the day before. It was a Catamaran called the Aristocrat 2; there weren’t many people on the tour which was quite nice really as it felt like we had the boat to ourselves. They have something called “Boom Netting” which is basically a net strung between the two part of the back of the boat. A Canadian lady said she was going to do and so as to not let the Brits down James and I decided we would have a go too. It was very cold but really good fun, I would do it again in a heartbeat although hopefully it would be on a warmer day next time! As we headed towards the Pearl Farm a shoal of dolphins followed us all the way, jumping in the wake created by the boat, we even saw a sea turtle. He poked his head out of the sea to see what was going on and then disappeared just as quickly. When we arrived at the Pearl Farm we were told how pearls are actually made and it has nothing to do with sand!! Crazy I know! It’s a very complicated process one which I’m sure you’re not that interested in so I won’t tell you, needles to say it takes ages to grow one. Obviously it would be a crime if I had left the pearl farm without any pearls so I brought some pearl earrings at probably half the price they would have been if I had brought them in the shop. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! At the pearl farm there was a pink dolphin swimming right next to the jetty, it very tame and a few people got in to swim with it. I thought about it but when I heard the guy saying that they can get quite violent and bite people I decided I would leave it, it is a wild animal after all. I also thought if that was out then there might be other animals lurking out there! In the afternoon the heaven’s opened and it chucked it down – we were not happy!! We got absolutely drenched! It’s not supposed to rain when I’m not the UK!! That evening we were really up against it and had the tiniest bit of battery left on the Ipod but luckily we managed to watch the final episode of 24 and were gutted we didn’t have any more of them. It’s so addictive!
Tuesday 29th April
We were up early again and got on the road to Geralton, luckily Geralton is a lot bigger than Coral Bay and Shark Bay and I got an Ipod charger, yey!!! We had our evening’s entertainment! Oh and incase I forget we saw road, road, a bit more road the odd road train and some bushes!!
Wednesday 30th April
Got on the road in good time and headed down south again towards our final destination – Rockingham. Stopped off at my Uncle Terry and Auntie Lydia’s for dinner (my Mum’s brother) which was lovely to have a home cooked meal and also to watch some telly – genius!! My cousin Julia and her three kids were also there, the last time I saw Julia I was 11 and in England, I’m sure I haven’t changed!! Was lovely to see the kids as I had seen pictures but not actually met them. We got on the road late that evening and headed down to Rockingham, we got a little bit lost, due mostly to the fact that I couldn’t really see the map in the dark!!
Thursday 1st May
We started the marathon clean of the van inside and out, luckily it was a nice day and the sun was shining so cleaning the outside wasn’t too much of a chore, although I must say they have some big old bugs over here and once they are squished and baked in the sun they sure are difficult to get off! Squashed fly anyone?? They would probably eat that in Thailand!! We went down to the beach to grab some lunch before driving the van back to June, luckily we said we were in a hurry and we managed to get away after about 15minutes – must be a record or something! We then got a bus and the train to Perth and stayed in a nice hotel. Was so nice to have some space and a lush shower which we could actually move about in and James could actually stand up straight in! We had a very expensive meal out, at Nandos, brilliant! Chicken and chips – you can’t go wrong!
Friday 2nd May
Took James to the airport, had a bit of a nightmare as we thought he flew from the International terminal but it was actually domestic!! So we rushed over to make sure he could check in, would have been a shame if he had missed the flight! It wasn’t sabotage, honest!! Was really sad to say goodbye, we had an amazing 6 weeks together but I still had some travelling to get out of my system and so we had to say goodbye.
My cousin Julia kindly picked me up from the airport and dropped me at my Auntie and Uncles where I was going to stay for the next few weeks. They were currently away caravanning and so I had the place to myself. Was so lovely to have my own washing machine and a dryer to get things clean and dry, I could watch TV to my hearts content and laze about all day – brilliant! I even had access to the internet so I could finally upload the 500+ photos I had taken over the last few weeks. The best thing of all though was having a fully stocked fridge, freezer and larder; I could eat as much as I wanted. Don’t you just love family!
Saturday 3rd May
Did loads of washing, uploaded photos and watched about 3 DVD’s!
Sunday 4th May
Had a nice lie in and did much of the same as Saturday, my Auntie and Uncle came home just after lunch so we caught up on their trip and had some lunch. Later afternoon we went to a place called Hilary’s Harbour which is a lovely Harbour!! (Almost as nice as my friend Hilary but not quite – miss ya Hil’s!!) They had two amazing ice cream places with loads of different flavours – I stupidly wondered out loud why they didn’t have this type of place in the UK and my Uncle made some very witty response about the weather. God I am so blond sometimes! That evening I helped cook the BBQ – Aussie style (that’s actually no different to UK style apart from the fact that you’re not either freezing your arse off or standing in the pouring rain!!)
We got an early start and headed to Monkey Mia where the dolphins come into shore and are handfed by the public. They start the feeding at 8.00 and finish at 13.00 but they can feed them at any time during that time so you have to get down early to ensure you see it. We got down there just in time and saw the dolphins come right up to people in the water. It was a really overcast day so there weren’t that many people there which made it all the more upsetting when I wasn’t chosen to feed the dolphin. Mean cow who was deciding who could feed them; I felt like having a strop but then remembered how old I actually am so decided against it! Probably a good thing, James would probably have disowned me! After watching the feeding we grabbed a hot drink to warm ourselves up and set off to find our boat for a tour we had booked the day before. It was a Catamaran called the Aristocrat 2; there weren’t many people on the tour which was quite nice really as it felt like we had the boat to ourselves. They have something called “Boom Netting” which is basically a net strung between the two part of the back of the boat. A Canadian lady said she was going to do and so as to not let the Brits down James and I decided we would have a go too. It was very cold but really good fun, I would do it again in a heartbeat although hopefully it would be on a warmer day next time! As we headed towards the Pearl Farm a shoal of dolphins followed us all the way, jumping in the wake created by the boat, we even saw a sea turtle. He poked his head out of the sea to see what was going on and then disappeared just as quickly. When we arrived at the Pearl Farm we were told how pearls are actually made and it has nothing to do with sand!! Crazy I know! It’s a very complicated process one which I’m sure you’re not that interested in so I won’t tell you, needles to say it takes ages to grow one. Obviously it would be a crime if I had left the pearl farm without any pearls so I brought some pearl earrings at probably half the price they would have been if I had brought them in the shop. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! At the pearl farm there was a pink dolphin swimming right next to the jetty, it very tame and a few people got in to swim with it. I thought about it but when I heard the guy saying that they can get quite violent and bite people I decided I would leave it, it is a wild animal after all. I also thought if that was out then there might be other animals lurking out there! In the afternoon the heaven’s opened and it chucked it down – we were not happy!! We got absolutely drenched! It’s not supposed to rain when I’m not the UK!! That evening we were really up against it and had the tiniest bit of battery left on the Ipod but luckily we managed to watch the final episode of 24 and were gutted we didn’t have any more of them. It’s so addictive!
Tuesday 29th April
We were up early again and got on the road to Geralton, luckily Geralton is a lot bigger than Coral Bay and Shark Bay and I got an Ipod charger, yey!!! We had our evening’s entertainment! Oh and incase I forget we saw road, road, a bit more road the odd road train and some bushes!!
Wednesday 30th April
Got on the road in good time and headed down south again towards our final destination – Rockingham. Stopped off at my Uncle Terry and Auntie Lydia’s for dinner (my Mum’s brother) which was lovely to have a home cooked meal and also to watch some telly – genius!! My cousin Julia and her three kids were also there, the last time I saw Julia I was 11 and in England, I’m sure I haven’t changed!! Was lovely to see the kids as I had seen pictures but not actually met them. We got on the road late that evening and headed down to Rockingham, we got a little bit lost, due mostly to the fact that I couldn’t really see the map in the dark!!
Thursday 1st May
We started the marathon clean of the van inside and out, luckily it was a nice day and the sun was shining so cleaning the outside wasn’t too much of a chore, although I must say they have some big old bugs over here and once they are squished and baked in the sun they sure are difficult to get off! Squashed fly anyone?? They would probably eat that in Thailand!! We went down to the beach to grab some lunch before driving the van back to June, luckily we said we were in a hurry and we managed to get away after about 15minutes – must be a record or something! We then got a bus and the train to Perth and stayed in a nice hotel. Was so nice to have some space and a lush shower which we could actually move about in and James could actually stand up straight in! We had a very expensive meal out, at Nandos, brilliant! Chicken and chips – you can’t go wrong!
Friday 2nd May
Took James to the airport, had a bit of a nightmare as we thought he flew from the International terminal but it was actually domestic!! So we rushed over to make sure he could check in, would have been a shame if he had missed the flight! It wasn’t sabotage, honest!! Was really sad to say goodbye, we had an amazing 6 weeks together but I still had some travelling to get out of my system and so we had to say goodbye.
My cousin Julia kindly picked me up from the airport and dropped me at my Auntie and Uncles where I was going to stay for the next few weeks. They were currently away caravanning and so I had the place to myself. Was so lovely to have my own washing machine and a dryer to get things clean and dry, I could watch TV to my hearts content and laze about all day – brilliant! I even had access to the internet so I could finally upload the 500+ photos I had taken over the last few weeks. The best thing of all though was having a fully stocked fridge, freezer and larder; I could eat as much as I wanted. Don’t you just love family!
Saturday 3rd May
Did loads of washing, uploaded photos and watched about 3 DVD’s!
Sunday 4th May
Had a nice lie in and did much of the same as Saturday, my Auntie and Uncle came home just after lunch so we caught up on their trip and had some lunch. Later afternoon we went to a place called Hilary’s Harbour which is a lovely Harbour!! (Almost as nice as my friend Hilary but not quite – miss ya Hil’s!!) They had two amazing ice cream places with loads of different flavours – I stupidly wondered out loud why they didn’t have this type of place in the UK and my Uncle made some very witty response about the weather. God I am so blond sometimes! That evening I helped cook the BBQ – Aussie style (that’s actually no different to UK style apart from the fact that you’re not either freezing your arse off or standing in the pouring rain!!)
Monday 21st April - Sunday 27th April Western Oz - Coral Bay, Shark Bay
Monday 21st April
Had a bit of lie in, seeing as our bed takes over most of the campervan it seemed a shame not to take advantage and have breakfast in bed!! We then went to check out the sites of Coral Bay… we were back in about half an hour! There are two supermarkets in the area and they aren’t exactly plush with choice but hey nothing else for another hour and a half so you cope with what you have. They did have a lovely bakery which made lovely fresh rolls, donuts and loaves so we were quite happy.
I want to mention it but I’m only going to mention it once because it’s not very pleasant, one of the drawbacks of campervanning/caravanning is the waste tank, you have to empty it yourself! In Coral Bay they don’t have an area dedicated to it so you have to go to the Fish Absolution area which is basically where all the fish heads and bones are taken. As I’m sure you can guess the flies were unbelievable, the smell was… well I’m not sure saying rotting fish covers it but it will have to do as I don’t want to relive it by trying to describe the stench that comes from a place like that. Needless to say I wasn’t really a great deal of help and very nearly brought up my lunch. Horrendous, bloody horrendous!
After the trauma it was off to the beach for some sunbathing and paddling, there would be no swimming until I got a bit more used to that water. After coming from Thailand where the water is like bath water I was not impressed to wade into the freezing cold water and I soon decided that actually I didn’t really want to swim that badly!! We then went back to our van and like good campers organised the van so that we didn’t have to keep getting our rucksack’s out every time we needed a change of clothes. We then did a load of laundry and started to get organised for dinner. Luckily we had found a bottle shop, in Oz they don’t seem to sell alcohol in supermarkets you have to go to a bottle shop; they even have drive through ones!! How cool is that you don’t even have to get out of your car! Anyway we had found out the bottle shop was attached to the one pub which was at the next door resort so we had alcohol! A big saviour when there isn’t much to do! Again the trusty Ipod came in useful and we watched the Golden Compass, one thing we had realised is that the charger I had was not going to be any use in the Oz plugs and seeing as we were in the middle of no where there wasn’t much likelihood of getting an Ipod Charger, we started to get worried! But we were ok for the minute; the worst was yet to come, when the batteries truly run out!
Tuesday 22nd April
Nothing interesting today, went to the supermarket and realised if you get there early the food is better, basically everyone must shop in the morning!! Lesson learned! Got a nice whole cooked chicken like the ones you can buy from Tesco food counter – perfect! Chicken and chips – yummy!
Wednesday 23rd April
Did some more sunbathing and attempted a swim – got to waist height!! Good effort I thought – progress. One thing of note when travelling in Oz, flies. Flies, flies, flies! They are quite annoying especially when they try and fly into your mouth and up your nose and even into your eyes – you actually start to think that a hat with corks on isn’t such a bad idea – and I’m being serious!
Thursday 24th April
Diving day!! Woo hoo! Booked a dive on the Nigaloo Reef with the local Dive shop, had the usual drill and sorted out our equipment and then it was off to the boat. When asked if we wanted wet suits we said yes but only the half ones, it can’t be that cold. Big mistake, huge!! The sea was a lot rougher than what we were used to in Thailand and I even started to get sea sick which was not fun! Our first dive was good, interesting how other people run their dives, the dive master who took us clearly didn’t know he way around the reef and we came up a huge distance away from the dive boat and we did seem to be going around in circles looking at the same thing. On the boat were some Open Water students and you soon realise the difference in a small dive shop to the one we learned from. They were really lapse on their Buddy checks which is just stupid really, if your buddies air isn’t working and your’s fails your soon going to wish you spend 5 mins before getting into the water checking each other’s kit! They also left their weight belts on the floor which was quite amusing when someone stubbed their toe; as long as it wasn’t me! They were good dives and it was so great to under the water again it was just such a shame we had such a crap guide and the water was freezing! I don’t know why they didn’t say to us we would probably be cold diving in just short ones, even James started to feel cold towards the end of the dive so it must have been cold! Oh well we will know for next time! In the evening we decided to go to the restaurant for dinner, it was a bit of a let down but then it was nice to have a night off! The Ipod came out again and we watched the Last King of Scotland – a really good movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it. I thoroughly recommend it.
Friday 25th April
Another day of nothingness and laziness! In the evening we were going to walk to the look out but on the way up there were bugs in their millions! Beatles and grasshoppers all over the road and they kept jumping up my legs, I felt like I was in Indiana and the Temple of Doom, so we decided going into Long grass in the dark was probably asking to be eaten by a snake! Who needs to see the moon at night anyway, it looks the same as it does in the UK just a different way around!
Saturday 26th April
We decided we were going to stop being wimps and go snorkelling (well ok I was going to stop being a wimp!). We hired some snorkels from a place just along the beach and just as we were getting into the water I see a lady out of the corner of my eye pointing to a fin and moving along the water to try and get a close look, well if that isn’t enough to make you shift your arse out of the water I don’t know what it. All these thoughts were rushing through my head about how a shark can get you in just a few inches of water and stupid women is running in to the water to get a closer look, while I’m moving towards the shore as fast as possible in a pair of flipper, which isn’t very fast. Well after a few minutes we realise she is actually pointing to a dolphin! Bloody ozzies scaring the s**t out of us Brits, we are not used to seeing fin’s in the water. We were all traumatised by Jaws for goodness sake! Anyway when I have finally got over the fin episode we decide we will just stay close to the shore so we don’t have far to swim if you we see something. Especially after being told there are reef sharks out there, which are apparently totally harmless? I don’t bloody care if they are totally harmless they are still a bloody shark! A shark harmless, well you can just bet that on the day I meet one it decides to see what human tastes like!! Anyway the snorkelling goes without a mishap although I think we did manage to freak ourselves out when we realised how far away we were from the shore! The reef was amazing and only yards away from the shore, such a good place for kids to learn to snorkel. In the evening it was getting tense as we started to watch the first series of the TV show 24 and the Ipod battery was getting low. I only managed to put 8 episodes on before I came away so we weren’t sure if we were going to get through them before it died. If any of you have watched 24 you will know how full on it is, we were on the edge of our seats!! Brilliant!
Sunday 27th April
We left Coral Bay behind and made our way back down the coast towards a place called Shark Bay. One the way we stopped off at a place called Shell Beach, an amazing beach consisting entirely of shells. In some places its 10 metres deep with shells. People have even dug down to see if they can find sand underneath and its just shells, it’s so beautiful. Bit painful on the bum though! We arrived at our new caravan park and set up, after that we took a walk down to the beach which overlooks Shark Bay, we saw what looked like a couple of fins in the distance but they could have just been dolphins, who knows! We watched the sun go down drinking a nice cold beer – what a life! Mind you over here you have to be quick to catch the sunset the sun goes down so fast that it was all over in a matter of minutes.
Had a bit of lie in, seeing as our bed takes over most of the campervan it seemed a shame not to take advantage and have breakfast in bed!! We then went to check out the sites of Coral Bay… we were back in about half an hour! There are two supermarkets in the area and they aren’t exactly plush with choice but hey nothing else for another hour and a half so you cope with what you have. They did have a lovely bakery which made lovely fresh rolls, donuts and loaves so we were quite happy.
I want to mention it but I’m only going to mention it once because it’s not very pleasant, one of the drawbacks of campervanning/caravanning is the waste tank, you have to empty it yourself! In Coral Bay they don’t have an area dedicated to it so you have to go to the Fish Absolution area which is basically where all the fish heads and bones are taken. As I’m sure you can guess the flies were unbelievable, the smell was… well I’m not sure saying rotting fish covers it but it will have to do as I don’t want to relive it by trying to describe the stench that comes from a place like that. Needless to say I wasn’t really a great deal of help and very nearly brought up my lunch. Horrendous, bloody horrendous!
After the trauma it was off to the beach for some sunbathing and paddling, there would be no swimming until I got a bit more used to that water. After coming from Thailand where the water is like bath water I was not impressed to wade into the freezing cold water and I soon decided that actually I didn’t really want to swim that badly!! We then went back to our van and like good campers organised the van so that we didn’t have to keep getting our rucksack’s out every time we needed a change of clothes. We then did a load of laundry and started to get organised for dinner. Luckily we had found a bottle shop, in Oz they don’t seem to sell alcohol in supermarkets you have to go to a bottle shop; they even have drive through ones!! How cool is that you don’t even have to get out of your car! Anyway we had found out the bottle shop was attached to the one pub which was at the next door resort so we had alcohol! A big saviour when there isn’t much to do! Again the trusty Ipod came in useful and we watched the Golden Compass, one thing we had realised is that the charger I had was not going to be any use in the Oz plugs and seeing as we were in the middle of no where there wasn’t much likelihood of getting an Ipod Charger, we started to get worried! But we were ok for the minute; the worst was yet to come, when the batteries truly run out!
Tuesday 22nd April
Nothing interesting today, went to the supermarket and realised if you get there early the food is better, basically everyone must shop in the morning!! Lesson learned! Got a nice whole cooked chicken like the ones you can buy from Tesco food counter – perfect! Chicken and chips – yummy!
Wednesday 23rd April
Did some more sunbathing and attempted a swim – got to waist height!! Good effort I thought – progress. One thing of note when travelling in Oz, flies. Flies, flies, flies! They are quite annoying especially when they try and fly into your mouth and up your nose and even into your eyes – you actually start to think that a hat with corks on isn’t such a bad idea – and I’m being serious!
Thursday 24th April
Diving day!! Woo hoo! Booked a dive on the Nigaloo Reef with the local Dive shop, had the usual drill and sorted out our equipment and then it was off to the boat. When asked if we wanted wet suits we said yes but only the half ones, it can’t be that cold. Big mistake, huge!! The sea was a lot rougher than what we were used to in Thailand and I even started to get sea sick which was not fun! Our first dive was good, interesting how other people run their dives, the dive master who took us clearly didn’t know he way around the reef and we came up a huge distance away from the dive boat and we did seem to be going around in circles looking at the same thing. On the boat were some Open Water students and you soon realise the difference in a small dive shop to the one we learned from. They were really lapse on their Buddy checks which is just stupid really, if your buddies air isn’t working and your’s fails your soon going to wish you spend 5 mins before getting into the water checking each other’s kit! They also left their weight belts on the floor which was quite amusing when someone stubbed their toe; as long as it wasn’t me! They were good dives and it was so great to under the water again it was just such a shame we had such a crap guide and the water was freezing! I don’t know why they didn’t say to us we would probably be cold diving in just short ones, even James started to feel cold towards the end of the dive so it must have been cold! Oh well we will know for next time! In the evening we decided to go to the restaurant for dinner, it was a bit of a let down but then it was nice to have a night off! The Ipod came out again and we watched the Last King of Scotland – a really good movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it. I thoroughly recommend it.
Friday 25th April
Another day of nothingness and laziness! In the evening we were going to walk to the look out but on the way up there were bugs in their millions! Beatles and grasshoppers all over the road and they kept jumping up my legs, I felt like I was in Indiana and the Temple of Doom, so we decided going into Long grass in the dark was probably asking to be eaten by a snake! Who needs to see the moon at night anyway, it looks the same as it does in the UK just a different way around!
Saturday 26th April
We decided we were going to stop being wimps and go snorkelling (well ok I was going to stop being a wimp!). We hired some snorkels from a place just along the beach and just as we were getting into the water I see a lady out of the corner of my eye pointing to a fin and moving along the water to try and get a close look, well if that isn’t enough to make you shift your arse out of the water I don’t know what it. All these thoughts were rushing through my head about how a shark can get you in just a few inches of water and stupid women is running in to the water to get a closer look, while I’m moving towards the shore as fast as possible in a pair of flipper, which isn’t very fast. Well after a few minutes we realise she is actually pointing to a dolphin! Bloody ozzies scaring the s**t out of us Brits, we are not used to seeing fin’s in the water. We were all traumatised by Jaws for goodness sake! Anyway when I have finally got over the fin episode we decide we will just stay close to the shore so we don’t have far to swim if you we see something. Especially after being told there are reef sharks out there, which are apparently totally harmless? I don’t bloody care if they are totally harmless they are still a bloody shark! A shark harmless, well you can just bet that on the day I meet one it decides to see what human tastes like!! Anyway the snorkelling goes without a mishap although I think we did manage to freak ourselves out when we realised how far away we were from the shore! The reef was amazing and only yards away from the shore, such a good place for kids to learn to snorkel. In the evening it was getting tense as we started to watch the first series of the TV show 24 and the Ipod battery was getting low. I only managed to put 8 episodes on before I came away so we weren’t sure if we were going to get through them before it died. If any of you have watched 24 you will know how full on it is, we were on the edge of our seats!! Brilliant!
Sunday 27th April
We left Coral Bay behind and made our way back down the coast towards a place called Shark Bay. One the way we stopped off at a place called Shell Beach, an amazing beach consisting entirely of shells. In some places its 10 metres deep with shells. People have even dug down to see if they can find sand underneath and its just shells, it’s so beautiful. Bit painful on the bum though! We arrived at our new caravan park and set up, after that we took a walk down to the beach which overlooks Shark Bay, we saw what looked like a couple of fins in the distance but they could have just been dolphins, who knows! We watched the sun go down drinking a nice cold beer – what a life! Mind you over here you have to be quick to catch the sunset the sun goes down so fast that it was all over in a matter of minutes.
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Monday 14th April - Sunday 20th April Phuket, Singapore and Oz
Monday 14th April
We checked out of Lanta Villas and prepared ourselves for another long journey, this time on a boat for most of the way. We were on a speed boat which didn’t really have much speed about it but after about an hour and a half we got to Ko Phi Phi where we swapped boats and got onto another rickety old boat, although this one was even more worrying because of the sheer volume of people on it, it was crazy! There was no where left to sit on the top deck and it wasn’t like there were seats oh no you just have to sit on the floor and then below deck you are jammed into a load of seats back to back and even that lot was full, I don’t reckon there were nearly enough life jackets but luckily we didn’t need them, otherwise there would have been a few fights for jackets! Once we arrived in Phuket we got a mini bus to the airport to see where we could fly to. The night before, in Ko Lanta I decided I had enough of Thailand and wanted some westernisation so we thought we would fly to Singapore and then from there onto Oz. Unfortunately there weren’t any flights but we found a resort which was only five minutes away in a cab and booked ourselves on the flight the next day. The resort was in Hat Nai Yang and if we had know how lovely it was I think we would have stayed longer, the apartment was lovely, white walls soft comfy beds with duvets, decent air conditioning and a large high pressure shower. The pool was so amazing, a deep blue colour it looked like ti went down forever but it really wasn’t that deep, perfect for lazing about in. The only thing that let the hotel down was the area it was in, it was very quiet with only a few restaurants on the beach to choose from, if we had stayed longer I think we would have needed a little bit more atmosphere.
Tuesday 15th April
It was so difficult to get out of our lovely comfy beds ready to catch the taxi, it was such a shame, especially if we had known what we were going to, it would have been even more difficult! So anyway we arrived at Singapore at 11.30 and went straight to the information desk as we didn’t have a guide book so we sorted ourselves out with maps and a couple of accommodation listings and grabbed some lunch. We had to go to the Qantas office to get our tickets changed and then went to a number of hotels but most of them were fully booked!! Not very helpful! We finally found one called the New Asia Hotel, not that there was anything new about it! It was a bit of a dive but it was mainly clean and it was a bed, after phoning around a few more places we realised it was about the best we were going to get unless we wanted to break the bank so decided to stick with it, after all it was only for a few days and it was a good location. After dropping off our bags we went on a search for some dinner and on the way came across Raffles hotel. One of things I wanted to do during my stay in Singapore was to have a Singapore Sling in the Raffles hotel, so off we went! We made the mistake of going in via the main entrance and soon were asked if we needed help!! Must have been the flip flops and trainers which weren’t exactly in keeping with the posh décor of our surroundings! While James went to the front desk to be nosy and check out how much it was per night I started to take some photos and was soon ushered out with the door closing right in front of my face to a tune of, “photos aren’t allowed in here madam!” Whoops, bit late for that sunshine! Ha ha! So off we went around the grounds of the very posh Raffles Hotel and eventually found the long bar where we were allowed to take photos and sit with the other ruffians and have a drink!! I must say I was a bit disappointed that they hadn’t swept the floor; it was covered in peanut shells, not very hygienic I can tell you! Then James pointed out that they were actually all over the floor and probably had something to do with what used to happen when it was first open seeing as they still had a box of them on every table. Silly me! Still was a bit strange to be walking peanut dust everywhere!! The Singapore sling was ok, very alcoholic and very sweet, I think James had the right idea letting me order one and having a beer himself!
After finishing my Singapore Sling we headed off to try and find somewhere to eat and came across an area called “Chimes.” It was an area with lots of restaurants and little shops, a great place to find somewhere to eat!! We went to a place called “The Hog’s Breath Café” and had some lovely food. After dinner we had a wander around the city and tried to get into a place called “The Stamford” a very very posh hotel with a view of the whole city. Annoyingly we managed to escape the people guarding the door and get into the lift with a few people who were staying there and then once we were in the lift safely we realised you couldn’t get to the top floor you had to go around into a separate bar area. It was there we were busted, damn it! Unfortunately we were not appropriately attired for the establishment, I wanted to question her and put on a thick London accent and say “alright luv no need to get your knickers in a twist” but I wimped out and we ran out of the entrance in case anyone saw us being rejected!!
Wednesday 16th April
We had a very Singapore style breakfast at Starbucks!!! Then got on the tube to the Bird Park which was another thing I wanted to while I was in Singapore. It was quite cool, they have massive aviary’s which you walk around and the bird fly around you, luckily we didn’t get hit with anything!! They have one which has the largest Man made waterfall inside, it was very impressive, but I can remember how tall it was! We also watched a show which was probably meant for the kids but we watched it anyway! They had loads of bird’s performing all sorts of tricks, parrots flying through hoops and bursting paper, catching balls in the air, pelicans walking around all sorts of clever things. It was a really hot day so I must admit after walking around most of the park we decided to call it a day; there is only so much appreciation you can have when sweating profusely!
We stopped off at Chimes again for dinner, this time we had Italian and then made our way to the Night Safari, which was very cool. We walked straight into a show with various animals again doing tricks, there was a very cute beaver who was sorting out plastic bottles from can’s in an effort to teach kids about recycling and a hyena that showed us how high he could jump for some food!! The scary part came when they started to joke about having lost one of the animals, so they start getting people up and looking in compartments underneath where they are sitting. So they check two either side of us and then come to one literally at my feet and someone screams! Not what you need when you’re already peeing your pants thinking what the hell is it and if it’s a spider I will have to kill someone while trying to get away. Luckily it was only a massive cobra!! Nothing too much to worry about, well as long as it stays well away from me! Anyway they get this guy out of the audience who has been volunteered by his friends and he was obviously terrified of snakes. The poor guy I thought he was going to pass out he went such a pale green colour it was a wonder he stayed on his feet. If I was asked to go up there and someone draped a snake the same size of me around my neck I would not be impressed, I thought he did quite well, although he was quite obviously s**tting himself! Then you get on a train/tram type thing and go around the park. It was very cool to see all the tigers, lions, elephants and other creatures in their natural habitat at night; I must admit I was a bit scared at times! We then got off at the first stop and did a walk which takes you around some of the smaller animals and into the bat cave which was very cool. Because its night time all the bats were flying around our heads and swooping, it was cool, although I did freak out when one got a bit too close for comfort!
Thursday 17th April
After our busy day yesterday playing with the animals we decided to have a lazy day and we had a wander around the city, looked at a few shops of things we couldn’t afford and or fit in our rucksack’s! Then we went in search of an internet café which is very difficult to find in Singapore and it took about an hour to bloody find! We then went to our favourite place for dinner, Chimes and had another lovely dinner. Came back to the hotel and packed our bags ready for our flight to Perth the following morning.
Friday 18th April
Flight out of Singapore at 09.05 so up at 5.30am!!! Sod’s law it was chucking it down with rain as we ran to get into the taxi and we got soaked! Luckily the airport drop off is under cover otherwise we would have been in trouble! We arrived at Perth Airport at 14.00 and went straight into the City centre to investigate! We booked into the Holiday Inn and much walking about in the wrong direction found the bloody place! You would have thought the tourist information would have pointed us in the right direction but no!! Once we had checked in and sorted out a few details for picking up a campervan the following day I fell asleep in the comfy and clean bed!! I woke up quite a few hours later and we decided to go out for dinner not realising that at 9.30 on a Friday night unless you want to sit in a noisy bar or walk ages from your hotel in the freezing cold then there isn’t a lot of choice for dinner. We decided it was best to have room service as even Hungry Jack’s (Burger King) was closing by the time we got there which was probably only about 10.00pm, it was worse than Fleet!!
Saturday 19th April
Checked out of the Holiday Inn and got the train from central Perth to Rockingham to pick up our campervan. Our home for the next two weeks!! When we arrived at “Go Campervan Hire” we met June who runs the business with her husband Michael, we then proceeded to get the family life history and anything else she could throw in for good measure, it felt like we were there for about 3 hours but it turns out it was only 2!! Definitely not a place to go if you in a hurry to get on the road! Finally we got away from her and stocked up at the local supermarket which is apparently much much better than the big ones around the corner! Hummm, well after going in the smaller supermarket we soon wished we had ignored what the stupid coz had said and gone to a decent supermarket! There was hardly anything in the bloody place, we got the essentials and decided we would probably come across something bigger on the way. We set off for our first port of call, “Dongera.” Well you would think if you are renting a campervan out to two people who firstly don’t know the country and secondly have never been to a campsite in their lives you might tell them that during school holidays it gets very busy and its best to book. Also you might tell them that most places close at about 6.00pm and unless you have pre booked no one answers the out of hour’s bell! So basically we are in Dongera and are driving around campsites and no one will have us!! Well actually to be more specific no one will answer the bell to us! There is nothing else for it, we found a look out point at the side of the road and parked. I was not happy, I was scared, even thought I don’t make a habit of watching horror movies I have a very good imagination and I kept thinking that someone was going to break in and kidnap us and drive us into the wilderness and leave us there. Again probably a bit melodramatic but I have heard what Wolf Creek is about even if I have seen it myself! But after a nice bit of warm soup and making the bed up I somehow managed to drift off to sleep!! Although I must admit at this point I wasn’t sure I was going to get on with campervanning!
Sunday 20th April
We got on the road quite early in case anyone wanted to move us along!!! This time we had learnt our lesson, we phoned ahead and booked a powered site at our destination “Coral Bay”. One thing I don’t think you can comprehend unless you have visited Western Oz, I don’t know about the East side yet but I’ll let you know, is the sheer vastness of space all around you. The ground is flat as well so you can see for miles and miles and there is nothing absolutely nothing around but the odd bush and red sand. We didn’t even see any kangaroos until dusk as we were driving into coral bay and I think we saw maybe five or six other cars/campervans on our journey. Other than that there were the massive road trains which are HUGE! The size of them is unbelievable, we had to overtake one carrying a wide load and as we drove past we looked at it to see these huge dumper trucks, about the size of a house. I mean who does dumps that big, do they have giants living in this strange land??!! Our little ford transit style campervan was dwarfed into insignificance where these big boys were concerned. Crazy! We stopped for gas on the way and it was so weird how you feel as if your on a film set, there was these four petrol pumps which look as if they are about to give up the ghost and this store which is the size of my kitchen and it’s the general store for the area! Then the guy comes out and asks how much gas you have, it’s not automatic, we were lucky that we have enough cash because he said the card machine is down! Backwards!!! You so wouldn’t get away with that in the UK, can you imagine the uproar! To be honest it is nice to see people living without technology and doing it the old way I’m just not sure I could do it!! We finally got Coral Bay and set ourselves up with Power – woo hoo!! For dinner I cooked us a gourmet dinner of good old Bangers and Mash!! After that we realised how little there is to do at a campsite so we watched some Lee Evans on my Ipod and went to bed, thank god for the Ipod. If anyone ever tells you, you can spend 2 weeks in a campervan with no TV or anything of that nature they are either extremely boring and go to bed at 8.00 or they are a big fat liar!
We checked out of Lanta Villas and prepared ourselves for another long journey, this time on a boat for most of the way. We were on a speed boat which didn’t really have much speed about it but after about an hour and a half we got to Ko Phi Phi where we swapped boats and got onto another rickety old boat, although this one was even more worrying because of the sheer volume of people on it, it was crazy! There was no where left to sit on the top deck and it wasn’t like there were seats oh no you just have to sit on the floor and then below deck you are jammed into a load of seats back to back and even that lot was full, I don’t reckon there were nearly enough life jackets but luckily we didn’t need them, otherwise there would have been a few fights for jackets! Once we arrived in Phuket we got a mini bus to the airport to see where we could fly to. The night before, in Ko Lanta I decided I had enough of Thailand and wanted some westernisation so we thought we would fly to Singapore and then from there onto Oz. Unfortunately there weren’t any flights but we found a resort which was only five minutes away in a cab and booked ourselves on the flight the next day. The resort was in Hat Nai Yang and if we had know how lovely it was I think we would have stayed longer, the apartment was lovely, white walls soft comfy beds with duvets, decent air conditioning and a large high pressure shower. The pool was so amazing, a deep blue colour it looked like ti went down forever but it really wasn’t that deep, perfect for lazing about in. The only thing that let the hotel down was the area it was in, it was very quiet with only a few restaurants on the beach to choose from, if we had stayed longer I think we would have needed a little bit more atmosphere.
Tuesday 15th April
It was so difficult to get out of our lovely comfy beds ready to catch the taxi, it was such a shame, especially if we had known what we were going to, it would have been even more difficult! So anyway we arrived at Singapore at 11.30 and went straight to the information desk as we didn’t have a guide book so we sorted ourselves out with maps and a couple of accommodation listings and grabbed some lunch. We had to go to the Qantas office to get our tickets changed and then went to a number of hotels but most of them were fully booked!! Not very helpful! We finally found one called the New Asia Hotel, not that there was anything new about it! It was a bit of a dive but it was mainly clean and it was a bed, after phoning around a few more places we realised it was about the best we were going to get unless we wanted to break the bank so decided to stick with it, after all it was only for a few days and it was a good location. After dropping off our bags we went on a search for some dinner and on the way came across Raffles hotel. One of things I wanted to do during my stay in Singapore was to have a Singapore Sling in the Raffles hotel, so off we went! We made the mistake of going in via the main entrance and soon were asked if we needed help!! Must have been the flip flops and trainers which weren’t exactly in keeping with the posh décor of our surroundings! While James went to the front desk to be nosy and check out how much it was per night I started to take some photos and was soon ushered out with the door closing right in front of my face to a tune of, “photos aren’t allowed in here madam!” Whoops, bit late for that sunshine! Ha ha! So off we went around the grounds of the very posh Raffles Hotel and eventually found the long bar where we were allowed to take photos and sit with the other ruffians and have a drink!! I must say I was a bit disappointed that they hadn’t swept the floor; it was covered in peanut shells, not very hygienic I can tell you! Then James pointed out that they were actually all over the floor and probably had something to do with what used to happen when it was first open seeing as they still had a box of them on every table. Silly me! Still was a bit strange to be walking peanut dust everywhere!! The Singapore sling was ok, very alcoholic and very sweet, I think James had the right idea letting me order one and having a beer himself!
After finishing my Singapore Sling we headed off to try and find somewhere to eat and came across an area called “Chimes.” It was an area with lots of restaurants and little shops, a great place to find somewhere to eat!! We went to a place called “The Hog’s Breath Café” and had some lovely food. After dinner we had a wander around the city and tried to get into a place called “The Stamford” a very very posh hotel with a view of the whole city. Annoyingly we managed to escape the people guarding the door and get into the lift with a few people who were staying there and then once we were in the lift safely we realised you couldn’t get to the top floor you had to go around into a separate bar area. It was there we were busted, damn it! Unfortunately we were not appropriately attired for the establishment, I wanted to question her and put on a thick London accent and say “alright luv no need to get your knickers in a twist” but I wimped out and we ran out of the entrance in case anyone saw us being rejected!!
Wednesday 16th April
We had a very Singapore style breakfast at Starbucks!!! Then got on the tube to the Bird Park which was another thing I wanted to while I was in Singapore. It was quite cool, they have massive aviary’s which you walk around and the bird fly around you, luckily we didn’t get hit with anything!! They have one which has the largest Man made waterfall inside, it was very impressive, but I can remember how tall it was! We also watched a show which was probably meant for the kids but we watched it anyway! They had loads of bird’s performing all sorts of tricks, parrots flying through hoops and bursting paper, catching balls in the air, pelicans walking around all sorts of clever things. It was a really hot day so I must admit after walking around most of the park we decided to call it a day; there is only so much appreciation you can have when sweating profusely!
We stopped off at Chimes again for dinner, this time we had Italian and then made our way to the Night Safari, which was very cool. We walked straight into a show with various animals again doing tricks, there was a very cute beaver who was sorting out plastic bottles from can’s in an effort to teach kids about recycling and a hyena that showed us how high he could jump for some food!! The scary part came when they started to joke about having lost one of the animals, so they start getting people up and looking in compartments underneath where they are sitting. So they check two either side of us and then come to one literally at my feet and someone screams! Not what you need when you’re already peeing your pants thinking what the hell is it and if it’s a spider I will have to kill someone while trying to get away. Luckily it was only a massive cobra!! Nothing too much to worry about, well as long as it stays well away from me! Anyway they get this guy out of the audience who has been volunteered by his friends and he was obviously terrified of snakes. The poor guy I thought he was going to pass out he went such a pale green colour it was a wonder he stayed on his feet. If I was asked to go up there and someone draped a snake the same size of me around my neck I would not be impressed, I thought he did quite well, although he was quite obviously s**tting himself! Then you get on a train/tram type thing and go around the park. It was very cool to see all the tigers, lions, elephants and other creatures in their natural habitat at night; I must admit I was a bit scared at times! We then got off at the first stop and did a walk which takes you around some of the smaller animals and into the bat cave which was very cool. Because its night time all the bats were flying around our heads and swooping, it was cool, although I did freak out when one got a bit too close for comfort!
Thursday 17th April
After our busy day yesterday playing with the animals we decided to have a lazy day and we had a wander around the city, looked at a few shops of things we couldn’t afford and or fit in our rucksack’s! Then we went in search of an internet café which is very difficult to find in Singapore and it took about an hour to bloody find! We then went to our favourite place for dinner, Chimes and had another lovely dinner. Came back to the hotel and packed our bags ready for our flight to Perth the following morning.
Friday 18th April
Flight out of Singapore at 09.05 so up at 5.30am!!! Sod’s law it was chucking it down with rain as we ran to get into the taxi and we got soaked! Luckily the airport drop off is under cover otherwise we would have been in trouble! We arrived at Perth Airport at 14.00 and went straight into the City centre to investigate! We booked into the Holiday Inn and much walking about in the wrong direction found the bloody place! You would have thought the tourist information would have pointed us in the right direction but no!! Once we had checked in and sorted out a few details for picking up a campervan the following day I fell asleep in the comfy and clean bed!! I woke up quite a few hours later and we decided to go out for dinner not realising that at 9.30 on a Friday night unless you want to sit in a noisy bar or walk ages from your hotel in the freezing cold then there isn’t a lot of choice for dinner. We decided it was best to have room service as even Hungry Jack’s (Burger King) was closing by the time we got there which was probably only about 10.00pm, it was worse than Fleet!!
Saturday 19th April
Checked out of the Holiday Inn and got the train from central Perth to Rockingham to pick up our campervan. Our home for the next two weeks!! When we arrived at “Go Campervan Hire” we met June who runs the business with her husband Michael, we then proceeded to get the family life history and anything else she could throw in for good measure, it felt like we were there for about 3 hours but it turns out it was only 2!! Definitely not a place to go if you in a hurry to get on the road! Finally we got away from her and stocked up at the local supermarket which is apparently much much better than the big ones around the corner! Hummm, well after going in the smaller supermarket we soon wished we had ignored what the stupid coz had said and gone to a decent supermarket! There was hardly anything in the bloody place, we got the essentials and decided we would probably come across something bigger on the way. We set off for our first port of call, “Dongera.” Well you would think if you are renting a campervan out to two people who firstly don’t know the country and secondly have never been to a campsite in their lives you might tell them that during school holidays it gets very busy and its best to book. Also you might tell them that most places close at about 6.00pm and unless you have pre booked no one answers the out of hour’s bell! So basically we are in Dongera and are driving around campsites and no one will have us!! Well actually to be more specific no one will answer the bell to us! There is nothing else for it, we found a look out point at the side of the road and parked. I was not happy, I was scared, even thought I don’t make a habit of watching horror movies I have a very good imagination and I kept thinking that someone was going to break in and kidnap us and drive us into the wilderness and leave us there. Again probably a bit melodramatic but I have heard what Wolf Creek is about even if I have seen it myself! But after a nice bit of warm soup and making the bed up I somehow managed to drift off to sleep!! Although I must admit at this point I wasn’t sure I was going to get on with campervanning!
Sunday 20th April
We got on the road quite early in case anyone wanted to move us along!!! This time we had learnt our lesson, we phoned ahead and booked a powered site at our destination “Coral Bay”. One thing I don’t think you can comprehend unless you have visited Western Oz, I don’t know about the East side yet but I’ll let you know, is the sheer vastness of space all around you. The ground is flat as well so you can see for miles and miles and there is nothing absolutely nothing around but the odd bush and red sand. We didn’t even see any kangaroos until dusk as we were driving into coral bay and I think we saw maybe five or six other cars/campervans on our journey. Other than that there were the massive road trains which are HUGE! The size of them is unbelievable, we had to overtake one carrying a wide load and as we drove past we looked at it to see these huge dumper trucks, about the size of a house. I mean who does dumps that big, do they have giants living in this strange land??!! Our little ford transit style campervan was dwarfed into insignificance where these big boys were concerned. Crazy! We stopped for gas on the way and it was so weird how you feel as if your on a film set, there was these four petrol pumps which look as if they are about to give up the ghost and this store which is the size of my kitchen and it’s the general store for the area! Then the guy comes out and asks how much gas you have, it’s not automatic, we were lucky that we have enough cash because he said the card machine is down! Backwards!!! You so wouldn’t get away with that in the UK, can you imagine the uproar! To be honest it is nice to see people living without technology and doing it the old way I’m just not sure I could do it!! We finally got Coral Bay and set ourselves up with Power – woo hoo!! For dinner I cooked us a gourmet dinner of good old Bangers and Mash!! After that we realised how little there is to do at a campsite so we watched some Lee Evans on my Ipod and went to bed, thank god for the Ipod. If anyone ever tells you, you can spend 2 weeks in a campervan with no TV or anything of that nature they are either extremely boring and go to bed at 8.00 or they are a big fat liar!
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Mon 7th April - Sunday 13th April Ko Tao,Krabbi and Ko Lanta.
Monday 7th April
Another early start, onto the speed boat and then the dive boat, for our third dive we went back to “Twin Peaks” but this time went to a deeper part of the reef to learn different skills, like buoyancy. This time to get into the water we all did the James Bond roll off the side of the boat, I’m not sure I’ll do that again – I lost my mask and was spluttering about afterwards!! The conditions were amazing for this dive and we had almost 40 metres of visibility, the water was still like bath water and again I just dove in my bikini and a rash vest. The second dive we went to “White Rock” which wasn’t quite as good visibility as there was a thermo-cline but it was still 10-20 metres at different points. This was the best dive yet as we came across a Green Turtle!! It was amazing, he was just there having his lunch and wasn’t even bothered that we were there. He turned around saw us and then just carried on eating, it was such an incredible experience. After the dive it was back on the dive boat and with a few forms to complete we were now Open Water qualified, it was a bit of an anticlimax really because all we all wanted to do was go and do another dive. I would have done it all over again I loved it that much. Was nice to think we had an evening without homework though!! We got back and the whole group had lunch together and arranged to meet up for dinner and a trip to the Mai Tai boxing. Our lead instructor Ant was the MC for the boxing and said it was a good night out so we thought it would be a good one to go for. That afternoon James and I lazed about, I fell asleep – what a surprise!!! We met up with everyone a about 7.00 and just ate in the resort then walked along to the boxing which was great fun. There were two ladies fighting and we all agreed they were more vicious and feisty than the men, it was painful to watch! After the boxing had ended we all went to Lotus bar for a few drinks and then the youngsters got very drunk and James and I decided we had had enough and walked along the beach home.
Tuesday 8th April
Our first lie in!!! Well in three days anyway!! We slept in till about 3.00pm!! Yup, think it might have more to do with alcohol rather than tiredness but all the same was so lovely to stay in bed! We went down to the resort for “brunch” and then went down to the beach where some of the guys and girls from our course were. We ended up playing a massive game of ball and Frisbee, both at the same time and had a lovely rest of afternoon. We met up with people again for dinner that night and decided to catch a lady-boy show called Queens!! It was very amusing, highly amateur but amusing all the same and one of them was so ladylike it was scary! At the end of the show they got some of the men from the audience up on stage dressed in their outfits, luckily we had two rugby boys in our group so they felt more than at home dressing up!! We had decided to carry on with our diving and do the Advance Open Water course as we got a discount if we carried on and neither of us were ready to stop. So we got an early night ready for our sessions the following day.
Wednesday 9th April
We were back in the classroom at 9.30am and spend the morning conducting knowledge reviews and going over the basics of using a compass and dive computer. After grabbing a quick lunch we were on the dive boats out to the first of our two dives of the day. We headed out to the “Chumpon Pinnacle” with the water at 30 degrees and 20 metre visibility this was to be our deep dive to 30 metres. We saw bigger fish this time as we were deeper and didn’t feel any effects of nitrogen narcosis. Basically sometimes when people do deep dives they can suffer from nitrogen narcosis which means that you act a bit drunk under the water, I think we were all secretly hoping we might feel something but everyone was fine!! Damn it! Our second dive was to Twin Peak and was a navigation dive where we went off on our own and tested our navigation skills the visibility was even better this time 20/30metres and the water slightly warmer to so we really didn’t have any trouble with the navigation. This time James and I went and found Nemo on our own and swam through some rocks, well ok James found Nemo and I followed but hey you can’t do everything!!! We then went back on the boat to get back to the mainland for a quick turnaround of dinner and change of clothes ready for our night dive. I must admit, I was very apprehensive about doing this dive, not sure why I’m not exactly scared of the dark but I think I was just worried about loosing people! The dive site was called “White Rock” so it was one we had done on Open Water which was good so I knew it wasn’t a particularly advanced dive site and we were lucky that the water was still 30 degrees and the visibility (with a torch!!) was 20 metres. The dive itself was very cool, although I have to admit holding onto James hand quite a few times, I know what a wimp! Halfway through the dive we turned off our torches and could see the phosphoresce if we moved our hands in-front of our faces, again most of the time with the torches off I was holding onto James’ hand! But it was amazing and I would definitely do it again, it would have been even better if there weren’t so many other boats around as they cat light down onto the reef which made it more difficult to see animal life with the torches off. When we got back to the mainland unfortunately we still had to complete a couple of knowledge reviews so I started on them while James went and got take away from downstairs! That evening while we sat on the balcony finishing the reviews and having a drink we made a little friend a black a white cat. Well as some of you know I have a little cat called Lucy who is black and white, although this cat wasn’t as pretty as my Lucy we still fed her and had a play. She was very cute and after that she kept waiting for us whenever we went to or came back from the room, what a shame!!
Thursday 10th April
Another 9.30am kick off and straight into more theory, this time about calculating nitrogen levels in the body when doing a multi-level dive, needless to say its complicated and actually quite boring, but very important!! After lunch we were back on the boat and getting ready for our 2 dives which we were allowed to plan and dive ourselves, no supervision, woo hoo! Rosie one of the girls we met on the open water course didn’t have a buddy so she came with me and James and we also got to take out our instructors Underwater Camera and got some amazing shots of us under the water, and some of fish of course!! The first dive at “ South West Pinnacles” was a bit crap for me as my mask misted up and nothing I was doing would clear it, I was just going to go back to the surface but we were doing a multi level dive so I wasn’t sure how safe it would be! Our second dive at “White Rock” was very cool, we got some amazing shots of the coral and the fish, it was such a rush to be able to navigate around on your own, going at your own pace and where you liked. I adore being under the water! After our second dive was finished we were officially Advanced Open Water Divers and can now dive a hell of a lot cheaper than we could before!! We had another quick turnaround after our dive and met up for dinner and a few drinks. James and I had decided to leave the following day and see what the other side of Thailand had in store for us so we left the drinkers early and went to sort out our flights and accommodation.
Friday 11th April
We were up at 9.30 to check out and grabbed some breakfast a bakery just along the road. It was a scorching hot day and after a brisk walk we were both in need of a cool down and were kicking ourselves for not extending the room check out for later, instead we stopped off at the pool to try and cool down but with the water being so warm that was futile. Instead I ran and got loads of water from the shop and we ended up covering ourselves in that just to cool down!! Our taxi picked us up at 14.30, which we nearly missed cos we were too busy cooling down but we got there just in time and got on the ferry back to Ko Samui with no dramas. We had decided to stay one night on Ko Samui to break up the travel and had booked our flight for the following day. We went back to the lovely Thai place for dinner and watched a movie back at the apartment.
Saturday 12th April
Up at 7.30 for the taxi to the airport and caught our flight to Krabi at 10.30, it was quite sad to be leaving Koh Tao and Koh Samui behind as I had spent such a long time between those islands but I knew that we had more fun waiting for us ahead. When we arrived at Krabbi we took a mini bus into town to see what it was like and we weren’t impressed, it was very spaced out and there seemed to be a distinct lack of nice places to stay. We then got another bus to Ko Lanta which was a mission in itself! We got told it would take 2 hours! Funny cos it wasn’t even close to 2 hours! Bloody Thai’s! We drove for a few hours then got a ferry then drove some more and got a ferry then drove some more and finally arrived in Ko Lanta. We left at 13.00 and got there at 17.15!! I don’t seem to have much luck with mini bus’s as this one didn’t have any air conditioning either!!
We stayed at a place called Lanta Villas which was ok, a bit of a let down after Ban’s but then we had been spoilt, it was on the beach front which was lovely and it meant I could sit on our terrace on a sun lounger and not need to go and lie on the beach and get sand everywhere!! Also I was closer for food and drink! Lazy or what! We walked along the beach that evening and found a nice Italian for dinner.
Sunday 13th April (Thai New Year aka Sonkram)
As a rule of thumb when its Thai new year I wouldn’t recommend hiring a scooter and going to see what the town is like. For the simpler reason that children and adults line the side of the road and throw buckets of water at you as you try to drive past and not only is this water stinking coz its probably been sat there collecting since last new year but it also has flour in it! So there we are heading off to see the town as I am suddenly entered into a wet T-Shirt competition which I certainly did not sign up for! I was bricking it about going on the back of the scooter anyway without people finding it hilarious to chuck buckets yes BUCKETS of water at me! Well as I’m sure you have already ascertained that little trip around the town did not last for very long! After getting dry we grabbed a bit of lunch at one of the beach restaurants, rather than venturing out into the water party! After lunch James wanted to go out again, insisting that everyone would have got bored by now and it would probably be over. There was no way I was getting back on that scooter so I sunbathed and off he went. After about ¾ of an hour I was getting a bit worried that he might have come off and tried his phone but it went straight through to voicemail, so now I really started to worry. At this point I hear a squelching noise coming towards me, I turn around to find James drenched and I mean absolutely soaked through so much so that his very expensive and not at all fake from Bangkok diving watch has fogged up, his phone is completely broken. The two books we were going to exchange at the bookstore look as though they have been dropped in the bath and they were in my rucksack! Turns out when your on your own on a scooter they literally run into the road and up-turn a bucket on your head! I can’t imagine how I would react to that!! Even his trainers were soaked, after three days of drying they still weren’t properly dry and they stunk! We washed them three times once we got to Oz to get the smell out, nasty! After our traumatic day we decided we deserved a Thai massage on the beach but even that was not going to be easy. Both of us had the most painful massage’s of our lives. We reckon the ladies were taking it out on us coz they had to work on New Year’s. I had to ask her to stop about 6 times, even James who likes them to dig in had to ask her to stop, they were evil! Such a shame as it was to be our last Thai massage in Thailand and they ruined it! Cow’s! We found another restaurant along the beach that night and had another nice dinner with a few drinks. It was lovely to look up to the sky and see all the lanterns in the sky where people had made New Year wishes. I’m just not sure of the safety aspect of attacking people on bikes with water, those things are dangerous enough as it is!
Another early start, onto the speed boat and then the dive boat, for our third dive we went back to “Twin Peaks” but this time went to a deeper part of the reef to learn different skills, like buoyancy. This time to get into the water we all did the James Bond roll off the side of the boat, I’m not sure I’ll do that again – I lost my mask and was spluttering about afterwards!! The conditions were amazing for this dive and we had almost 40 metres of visibility, the water was still like bath water and again I just dove in my bikini and a rash vest. The second dive we went to “White Rock” which wasn’t quite as good visibility as there was a thermo-cline but it was still 10-20 metres at different points. This was the best dive yet as we came across a Green Turtle!! It was amazing, he was just there having his lunch and wasn’t even bothered that we were there. He turned around saw us and then just carried on eating, it was such an incredible experience. After the dive it was back on the dive boat and with a few forms to complete we were now Open Water qualified, it was a bit of an anticlimax really because all we all wanted to do was go and do another dive. I would have done it all over again I loved it that much. Was nice to think we had an evening without homework though!! We got back and the whole group had lunch together and arranged to meet up for dinner and a trip to the Mai Tai boxing. Our lead instructor Ant was the MC for the boxing and said it was a good night out so we thought it would be a good one to go for. That afternoon James and I lazed about, I fell asleep – what a surprise!!! We met up with everyone a about 7.00 and just ate in the resort then walked along to the boxing which was great fun. There were two ladies fighting and we all agreed they were more vicious and feisty than the men, it was painful to watch! After the boxing had ended we all went to Lotus bar for a few drinks and then the youngsters got very drunk and James and I decided we had had enough and walked along the beach home.
Tuesday 8th April
Our first lie in!!! Well in three days anyway!! We slept in till about 3.00pm!! Yup, think it might have more to do with alcohol rather than tiredness but all the same was so lovely to stay in bed! We went down to the resort for “brunch” and then went down to the beach where some of the guys and girls from our course were. We ended up playing a massive game of ball and Frisbee, both at the same time and had a lovely rest of afternoon. We met up with people again for dinner that night and decided to catch a lady-boy show called Queens!! It was very amusing, highly amateur but amusing all the same and one of them was so ladylike it was scary! At the end of the show they got some of the men from the audience up on stage dressed in their outfits, luckily we had two rugby boys in our group so they felt more than at home dressing up!! We had decided to carry on with our diving and do the Advance Open Water course as we got a discount if we carried on and neither of us were ready to stop. So we got an early night ready for our sessions the following day.
Wednesday 9th April
We were back in the classroom at 9.30am and spend the morning conducting knowledge reviews and going over the basics of using a compass and dive computer. After grabbing a quick lunch we were on the dive boats out to the first of our two dives of the day. We headed out to the “Chumpon Pinnacle” with the water at 30 degrees and 20 metre visibility this was to be our deep dive to 30 metres. We saw bigger fish this time as we were deeper and didn’t feel any effects of nitrogen narcosis. Basically sometimes when people do deep dives they can suffer from nitrogen narcosis which means that you act a bit drunk under the water, I think we were all secretly hoping we might feel something but everyone was fine!! Damn it! Our second dive was to Twin Peak and was a navigation dive where we went off on our own and tested our navigation skills the visibility was even better this time 20/30metres and the water slightly warmer to so we really didn’t have any trouble with the navigation. This time James and I went and found Nemo on our own and swam through some rocks, well ok James found Nemo and I followed but hey you can’t do everything!!! We then went back on the boat to get back to the mainland for a quick turnaround of dinner and change of clothes ready for our night dive. I must admit, I was very apprehensive about doing this dive, not sure why I’m not exactly scared of the dark but I think I was just worried about loosing people! The dive site was called “White Rock” so it was one we had done on Open Water which was good so I knew it wasn’t a particularly advanced dive site and we were lucky that the water was still 30 degrees and the visibility (with a torch!!) was 20 metres. The dive itself was very cool, although I have to admit holding onto James hand quite a few times, I know what a wimp! Halfway through the dive we turned off our torches and could see the phosphoresce if we moved our hands in-front of our faces, again most of the time with the torches off I was holding onto James’ hand! But it was amazing and I would definitely do it again, it would have been even better if there weren’t so many other boats around as they cat light down onto the reef which made it more difficult to see animal life with the torches off. When we got back to the mainland unfortunately we still had to complete a couple of knowledge reviews so I started on them while James went and got take away from downstairs! That evening while we sat on the balcony finishing the reviews and having a drink we made a little friend a black a white cat. Well as some of you know I have a little cat called Lucy who is black and white, although this cat wasn’t as pretty as my Lucy we still fed her and had a play. She was very cute and after that she kept waiting for us whenever we went to or came back from the room, what a shame!!
Thursday 10th April
Another 9.30am kick off and straight into more theory, this time about calculating nitrogen levels in the body when doing a multi-level dive, needless to say its complicated and actually quite boring, but very important!! After lunch we were back on the boat and getting ready for our 2 dives which we were allowed to plan and dive ourselves, no supervision, woo hoo! Rosie one of the girls we met on the open water course didn’t have a buddy so she came with me and James and we also got to take out our instructors Underwater Camera and got some amazing shots of us under the water, and some of fish of course!! The first dive at “ South West Pinnacles” was a bit crap for me as my mask misted up and nothing I was doing would clear it, I was just going to go back to the surface but we were doing a multi level dive so I wasn’t sure how safe it would be! Our second dive at “White Rock” was very cool, we got some amazing shots of the coral and the fish, it was such a rush to be able to navigate around on your own, going at your own pace and where you liked. I adore being under the water! After our second dive was finished we were officially Advanced Open Water Divers and can now dive a hell of a lot cheaper than we could before!! We had another quick turnaround after our dive and met up for dinner and a few drinks. James and I had decided to leave the following day and see what the other side of Thailand had in store for us so we left the drinkers early and went to sort out our flights and accommodation.
Friday 11th April
We were up at 9.30 to check out and grabbed some breakfast a bakery just along the road. It was a scorching hot day and after a brisk walk we were both in need of a cool down and were kicking ourselves for not extending the room check out for later, instead we stopped off at the pool to try and cool down but with the water being so warm that was futile. Instead I ran and got loads of water from the shop and we ended up covering ourselves in that just to cool down!! Our taxi picked us up at 14.30, which we nearly missed cos we were too busy cooling down but we got there just in time and got on the ferry back to Ko Samui with no dramas. We had decided to stay one night on Ko Samui to break up the travel and had booked our flight for the following day. We went back to the lovely Thai place for dinner and watched a movie back at the apartment.
Saturday 12th April
Up at 7.30 for the taxi to the airport and caught our flight to Krabi at 10.30, it was quite sad to be leaving Koh Tao and Koh Samui behind as I had spent such a long time between those islands but I knew that we had more fun waiting for us ahead. When we arrived at Krabbi we took a mini bus into town to see what it was like and we weren’t impressed, it was very spaced out and there seemed to be a distinct lack of nice places to stay. We then got another bus to Ko Lanta which was a mission in itself! We got told it would take 2 hours! Funny cos it wasn’t even close to 2 hours! Bloody Thai’s! We drove for a few hours then got a ferry then drove some more and got a ferry then drove some more and finally arrived in Ko Lanta. We left at 13.00 and got there at 17.15!! I don’t seem to have much luck with mini bus’s as this one didn’t have any air conditioning either!!
We stayed at a place called Lanta Villas which was ok, a bit of a let down after Ban’s but then we had been spoilt, it was on the beach front which was lovely and it meant I could sit on our terrace on a sun lounger and not need to go and lie on the beach and get sand everywhere!! Also I was closer for food and drink! Lazy or what! We walked along the beach that evening and found a nice Italian for dinner.
Sunday 13th April (Thai New Year aka Sonkram)
As a rule of thumb when its Thai new year I wouldn’t recommend hiring a scooter and going to see what the town is like. For the simpler reason that children and adults line the side of the road and throw buckets of water at you as you try to drive past and not only is this water stinking coz its probably been sat there collecting since last new year but it also has flour in it! So there we are heading off to see the town as I am suddenly entered into a wet T-Shirt competition which I certainly did not sign up for! I was bricking it about going on the back of the scooter anyway without people finding it hilarious to chuck buckets yes BUCKETS of water at me! Well as I’m sure you have already ascertained that little trip around the town did not last for very long! After getting dry we grabbed a bit of lunch at one of the beach restaurants, rather than venturing out into the water party! After lunch James wanted to go out again, insisting that everyone would have got bored by now and it would probably be over. There was no way I was getting back on that scooter so I sunbathed and off he went. After about ¾ of an hour I was getting a bit worried that he might have come off and tried his phone but it went straight through to voicemail, so now I really started to worry. At this point I hear a squelching noise coming towards me, I turn around to find James drenched and I mean absolutely soaked through so much so that his very expensive and not at all fake from Bangkok diving watch has fogged up, his phone is completely broken. The two books we were going to exchange at the bookstore look as though they have been dropped in the bath and they were in my rucksack! Turns out when your on your own on a scooter they literally run into the road and up-turn a bucket on your head! I can’t imagine how I would react to that!! Even his trainers were soaked, after three days of drying they still weren’t properly dry and they stunk! We washed them three times once we got to Oz to get the smell out, nasty! After our traumatic day we decided we deserved a Thai massage on the beach but even that was not going to be easy. Both of us had the most painful massage’s of our lives. We reckon the ladies were taking it out on us coz they had to work on New Year’s. I had to ask her to stop about 6 times, even James who likes them to dig in had to ask her to stop, they were evil! Such a shame as it was to be our last Thai massage in Thailand and they ruined it! Cow’s! We found another restaurant along the beach that night and had another nice dinner with a few drinks. It was lovely to look up to the sky and see all the lanterns in the sky where people had made New Year wishes. I’m just not sure of the safety aspect of attacking people on bikes with water, those things are dangerous enough as it is!
Friday, 9 May 2008
Ko Phangan and Ko Tao 31/03/08 - 06/04/08
Monday 31st March
We checked out of the Charming Charm Beach resort and jumped into our waiting wheels, well “The Banger” as I had duly named it, and took the hair raising trip back to Hat Rin! As we neared the road leading up to our new resort we encountered a rather large digger which seemed to be digging up the road, and when I mean road I mean the road we need to drive along to get to our resort and when I say digging I mean across the road. Oh yes they weren’t digging up the side of the road oh no digging across the road! When we got a little closer we were told it would only be an hour before it was laid back again! Hummm, bit of a tall order! So we parked the jeep and took to the road which unfortunately was a great big hill and with a bloody great rucksack on my back by the time I got to the top of the hill I had decided I wanted t go back to the diggers and give them a piece of my mind but then I had second thoughts coz that would mean going back with the bag still on my back so we carried on to the resort! After dumping our bags we had lunch in the resort and then walked back to the jeep which incidentally was about 3 hours later and the road still wasn’t back – 1 hour my arse! We took the jeep on a little journey to a Marble Buddha which was marked on the map and then drove to see a group of waterfalls, only to find they had no water!!! I can tell you honestly that a water fall without water is… just a pile of rocks! On our way back to drop the banger off we stopped at the supermarket and brought a load of supplies, water, juices, milk etc so we could have some breakfast and some snacks in our room. We got the jeep back in one piece and managed to get all our deposit back which was a relief and had a Thai meal in one of the local restaurants. We soon realised that on Koh Phangan all the restaurants show movies so instead of having to talk to each other we just watched a movie – was such a novelty!! You can even stay longer if you just keep buying drinks and they put on movies till about 1.00am in the morning which is definitely a good idea some nights!
Tuesday 1st April
This day is adeptly titled “The lazy day” (many more to come if I’m honest!) we didn’t get out of bed until about 2.30 in the afternoon then had lunch in the resort, went and had a Thai massage and watched the sunset on the beach. It was a really tough day! IN the evening we had dinner, again in the resort an borrowed a couple of DVD’s from the reception and watched them in bed, laziness itself!
Wednesday 2nd April
We were up reasonably early, about 10.00!! Ha ha, sorry to all those reading this at work I know you are hating me rather a lot at the moment! We had booked an island tour with a company called Munchies, it picked us up at 11.40 and took us in the smallest songathew I have ever been in to Hat Rin Pier. It’s a good thing that the people it picked up weren’t fat coz there was hardly enough room when it picked me and James up, then they added 4 more people and at that point we thought we were going to have to sit on laps but it worked out ok in the end, a couple of people sat on the floor! We got on our little blue boat, about 20 people I would say and headed out around the island, first stop being a waterfall which was about 20 mins from the beach. Made me laugh a huge amount when James started joking about us doing our second jungle trek when one girl said “ I know how much further so you think it is I’m not sure I can go on much further” We had been walking for ten bloody minutes, ten minutes!! Well she wouldn’t last long in a real jungle trek I tell you. I had half a mind to tell her so but then I took a better look at her and thought better of it, she was bigger than me, and I don’t mean in height. If she sat on me I would probably be in a lot of pain and to be honest once I realised that she was horizontally challenged which I believe is the correct term for “really shouldn’t be wearing a small bikini like that coz no one wants to see that much of a bottom that size” I decided I would just carry on to the pretty waterfall! (Man I’m horrible, sorry for that but every now and then I need to vent!) So we got to the top of the waterfall and there was a lovely pool which we jumped into, was a bit worrying though when the guide was so specific about where you could actually jump, I don’t know about you but when I’m given a small circle to jump into I’m not really sure I’m going to be able to be that exact but I escaped without any concussion so I guess I can’t be that bad!
So after our “waterfall jungle trek!!” we got back on the boat and headed to “Bottle Beach” which is a beautiful cove only really accessible from boat or by 4 wheel drive over the hills. I was told it was a very unspoilt beach, but unfortunately another boatload of tourists had got there a few minutes before us so not quite so unspoilt, but lovely all the same! It was here we had lunch, which was lovely chicken fried rice which is one of my favourite Thai dishes cos it is so simple but tastes divine. We had time for a little sunbathe then it was back on the boat for snorkelling. The spot we went to was amazing, as you looked over the side of the boat there were massive shoals of fish just swimming either side of the boat. The water was so clear you could see right through to the bottom. The added bonus of snorkelling in Thailand is that the water is so warm, especially for someone like me who gets cold so easily, it was bliss! We snorkelled for about an hour and then it was back on the boat to head back to Hat Rin Pier. It was such a perfect day, the right amount of activity and lazing about, I don’t think either of us wanted it to end but alas it had to and before we knew it we were back at the pier and getting off the boat. We went back to the resort and after so much fresh air we realised how tired we actually were and decided to be lazy and grab some food in the hotel and watch another DVD. A perfect end to a great day!
Thursday 3rd April
This could probably be entitled “Lazy day 2” as we woke up and went down to the beach to catch some ray’s then tried to swim in the sea but soon realised that were was a lot of seaweed when the tide is out and I am not a lover of sea weed, also the bottom of the sea was almost clay like as there wasn’t much sand in the actual water so everything was slimy underfoot, not the best for swimming so we abandoned that plan and washed ourselves off in the showers and jumped in the pool – much better! We even had a couple of lilo’s to use while we were in there – all I needed was a cocktail and I would have been in heaven!! After a while in the pool we decided to use the hotel’s kayak and have a paddle out over the seaweed to see what we could see, the only problem being that with the water so low we kept hitting rocks and I must admit I wimped out and was probably making quite a lot of fuss over nothing but I didn’t want to carry on incase we tipped over and I fell into the seaweed! Stupid really but hey that’s how I felt! That evening we took a walk into town and I brought a bikini, probably not the best plan to buy a bikini in a shop in Thailand but I know that now. The lady in the shop said I was probably a small so I brought a small and as they were closing I didn’t try it on (I’ll come back to this later!). After buying the bikini we went for dinner at the only busy place we could find, thinking that if it was busy then it must be ok food. Now, never, never, never, never will I think that again! I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and James ordered a burger and you would think they are quite safe foods- not so! They came out my sandwich was burnt and had a nice long Thai hair coming out of it and James burger was questionably meat!! So we decided the coco pops in our room were much more appetising and left the meal uneaten! Not surprising really!
Friday 4th April
Our last morning in Sarikantang, I left James packing the bag’s and had to take the long walk into town… why I hear you ask?? Well a bloody small in Thailand is about the size of a small pea! The bikini I brought was so tiny it barely covered the essentials and as much as I’m sure that is probably the fashion on some beaches I am not prepared to show that much flesh! So I went back to the shop and got a medium, again tough didn’t try it on coz it looked big enough, a lot bigger than the last one and also as we were being picked up shortly for our transfer to the main pier. Anyway turns out I’m not even a medium in Thailand and although it was definitely a lot bigger than the small it was still slightly indecent when I went into the water, I didn’t realise that bikini’s can shrink but they can! I’m sending it home in the post anyway and I shall have to see if any of my smaller friends can fit into it. I just can’t believe I’m actually a large, probably an extra large if I’m honest, devastated! Mind you it made a lot of sense why that girl on the tour had such a small bikini on, I felt her pain!
So the taxi picked us up at 13.30 without too much trouble and transferred us to the main pier where we got on our ferry towards Ko Tao. The night before I had looked through the Rough Thai to Thailand – or the bible as I like to call it and have called around a few dive places to see how much things cost and if they gave any discount on accommodation if you did a dive course and I ended up going back to the first one I phoned, always the way!! Ban’s Diving Resort offered a half price discount if you went on one of their courses and also picked you up from the pier to the resort. I booked a Deluxe Garden View room with air con for a couple of nights so we could see how we got. After doing quite a bit of snorkelling I wasn’t sure how I would get on with the breathing as I really wasn’t good with the snorkel in my mouth, after a while I was fed up of it so we booked onto the Open Water Course and were told if we didn’t get on with it we only paid for the day we had done which sounded perfect. So we got picked up from the pier no problem and checked in, we were then told there was a short session starting at four as part of the open water course, we dropped off our bags in our lovely room and dashed back to the room. Four hours later we finish watching a series of videos and finally get some food, at which point we are both starving with no lunch and no dinner, a short video it was not! But it meant that the following day we would have a go underwater and see if we actually wanted to go ahead. To be honest the videos although terrible had interesting content and some of the chapters in the book were interesting, although I must admit when we got told we had to do some questions as homework I think James and I nearly fell off our chairs! When was the last time we did homework!!! So after the session we grabbed some food and went back to the room to do some homework! Crazy! Not long after we passed out, tired from our long day or mental and physical effort!
Saturday 5th April
We had an early start the next day and had to be down at the resort pool by 8.30am which is a bit of a shock to the system if you have been getting up at 10.00! So we first went and got a load of kit which included wet suits, breathing apparatus, flippers and masks all in correct sizes for each of us then we learnt how to assemble them!! After that we had to do a swim test, if I remember rightly if was five lengths then tread water for 7 mins or something like that, well it’s the most exercise I’ve done throughout my travels and it wore me out!! After that it was time to go under the water with all the kit on and put into practice all the theory we had learned so far. I was really nervous and as we started to put our heads under I panicked, I had to keep telling myself to breathe, one girl stood up and had to be taken to one side for extra tuition and I saw that no one else had a problem so I forced myself to carry on and although it felt alien and I kept wanting to stand up and just breath normally I stopped myself and stayed under. After what felt like an hour we had practised all our skills and it was time for lunch so we surfaced and were told we had been under the water for 2 and a half hours, I couldn’t believe it, it was crazy that we had been under for that long! It was then time to grab a quick lunch before going back into the classroom for some more theory and to go through the homework!! So weird to be back in the classroom but amazing how much easier it is to learn something when your interested in it. Although most of the theory was interesting I must admit I am not used to sitting still and having some one talk at me for that long and after a couple of hours I was as bored as the rest of them!! Luckily it only went on for another couple of hours and then we finished for the day. We grabbed dinner at the resort restaurant again- not wanting to wander too far as we were very hungry after our busy day!! We then had a walk along the beach and around the local area and called it a day, we had another early start the next day.
Sunday 6th April
We were up at …. Wait for it…..6.30am!!! I haven’t been up that early since my last few weeks at work, and even then I was trying to avoid it! We met at 7.30 checked our diving kit and got a speed boat out to the dive boat. Our first dive site was “Mango Bay” we got there about 8.30am and were in the water by about 9.00am. The water was like a bath at 29 degrees so I opted to dive without a wet suit and we had almost 20 metres visibility, it was amazing to look down with my mask on and see the reef below. I must admit I was peeing my pants about going under the water again and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it but it went without a hitch and once I got closer to the reef I was too busy looking at all the beautiful fish and coral to worry too much! I must admit though standing on the side of the boat with all my gear on I had butterflies and without a bit of peer pressure of people telling me to hurry up I’m not sure I would have jumped in at all!! I suppose it is good sometimes! I did have to remind myself to keep breathing every now and then, just because I would see a fairly large fish and it would make me jump, ha ha! We practiced the skills we had learnt in the pool the previous day, stuff like taking your mask off and putting it back on again (remembering to keep your eyes closed if you wear contacts!!) and clearing your regulator (that’s your breathing apparatus). After we had done that a few times and everyone was proficient it was off for the main part of the dive. We were taken by Ant one of the instructors who is also the Lead dive instructor at Ban’s, he was an excellent teacher, really inspiring, patient and I definitely felt safe with him, he had 12 years experience after all. I would recommend anyone thinking of learning to dive to try with Ban’s because we had such an excellent experience. We did have a good group of people who we were learning with which I think makes a big difference as well. Our other instructor was a guy called Jon who was also great but didn’t have a lot of experience as an instructor, not that that made a difference he was also an amazing teacher and a good laugh, we were really lucky to have such good people around us as we were learning.
We then got back on the boat and went to our second dive site, “Twin Peaks”, the conditions were the same as the first dive site and this time I saw a lot more on the reef. I think this probably had more to do with the fact that I was probably a bit scared on the first dive and was concentrating on what I had learnt so far and not on actually paying attention to what was around me!! One this dive we went and saw Nemo, well maybe not the actual Nemo as he is obviously a fictional Disney character!! But we sae three clown fish who live in an anemone in the middle of a circle of rocks just to the right of the reef, mummy, daddy and baby – very cool! We also saw Christmas Tree Worms which are little organisms which when cast in shadow retreat back into the rock they are on, but when they are out they are really bright colours, red, yellow, greens, really pretty. We also saw a trigger fish who are supposed to be quite aggressive but only if you get really close to them and go into their territory.
After our second dive it was time to go back to the mainland for a quick lunch and then back in the classroom for our final theory – thank god and a test of what we had learnt so far!! We arranged to meet up with all the other divers for dinner and found a place about 10 minutes from our resort with cheap meals so we grabbed some food and then went along to the Lotus bar which is basically the most popular bar for everyone in our area of Ko Tao. They had fire dancers, or I believe the correct name is Poi dancers, either way they were very impressive, I don’t know how they don’t burn themselves more often!! We didn’t stay out that late as we all had another early start the next day, well I say that the youngsters stayed out and us oldies went home!!
We checked out of the Charming Charm Beach resort and jumped into our waiting wheels, well “The Banger” as I had duly named it, and took the hair raising trip back to Hat Rin! As we neared the road leading up to our new resort we encountered a rather large digger which seemed to be digging up the road, and when I mean road I mean the road we need to drive along to get to our resort and when I say digging I mean across the road. Oh yes they weren’t digging up the side of the road oh no digging across the road! When we got a little closer we were told it would only be an hour before it was laid back again! Hummm, bit of a tall order! So we parked the jeep and took to the road which unfortunately was a great big hill and with a bloody great rucksack on my back by the time I got to the top of the hill I had decided I wanted t go back to the diggers and give them a piece of my mind but then I had second thoughts coz that would mean going back with the bag still on my back so we carried on to the resort! After dumping our bags we had lunch in the resort and then walked back to the jeep which incidentally was about 3 hours later and the road still wasn’t back – 1 hour my arse! We took the jeep on a little journey to a Marble Buddha which was marked on the map and then drove to see a group of waterfalls, only to find they had no water!!! I can tell you honestly that a water fall without water is… just a pile of rocks! On our way back to drop the banger off we stopped at the supermarket and brought a load of supplies, water, juices, milk etc so we could have some breakfast and some snacks in our room. We got the jeep back in one piece and managed to get all our deposit back which was a relief and had a Thai meal in one of the local restaurants. We soon realised that on Koh Phangan all the restaurants show movies so instead of having to talk to each other we just watched a movie – was such a novelty!! You can even stay longer if you just keep buying drinks and they put on movies till about 1.00am in the morning which is definitely a good idea some nights!
Tuesday 1st April
This day is adeptly titled “The lazy day” (many more to come if I’m honest!) we didn’t get out of bed until about 2.30 in the afternoon then had lunch in the resort, went and had a Thai massage and watched the sunset on the beach. It was a really tough day! IN the evening we had dinner, again in the resort an borrowed a couple of DVD’s from the reception and watched them in bed, laziness itself!
Wednesday 2nd April
We were up reasonably early, about 10.00!! Ha ha, sorry to all those reading this at work I know you are hating me rather a lot at the moment! We had booked an island tour with a company called Munchies, it picked us up at 11.40 and took us in the smallest songathew I have ever been in to Hat Rin Pier. It’s a good thing that the people it picked up weren’t fat coz there was hardly enough room when it picked me and James up, then they added 4 more people and at that point we thought we were going to have to sit on laps but it worked out ok in the end, a couple of people sat on the floor! We got on our little blue boat, about 20 people I would say and headed out around the island, first stop being a waterfall which was about 20 mins from the beach. Made me laugh a huge amount when James started joking about us doing our second jungle trek when one girl said “ I know how much further so you think it is I’m not sure I can go on much further” We had been walking for ten bloody minutes, ten minutes!! Well she wouldn’t last long in a real jungle trek I tell you. I had half a mind to tell her so but then I took a better look at her and thought better of it, she was bigger than me, and I don’t mean in height. If she sat on me I would probably be in a lot of pain and to be honest once I realised that she was horizontally challenged which I believe is the correct term for “really shouldn’t be wearing a small bikini like that coz no one wants to see that much of a bottom that size” I decided I would just carry on to the pretty waterfall! (Man I’m horrible, sorry for that but every now and then I need to vent!) So we got to the top of the waterfall and there was a lovely pool which we jumped into, was a bit worrying though when the guide was so specific about where you could actually jump, I don’t know about you but when I’m given a small circle to jump into I’m not really sure I’m going to be able to be that exact but I escaped without any concussion so I guess I can’t be that bad!
So after our “waterfall jungle trek!!” we got back on the boat and headed to “Bottle Beach” which is a beautiful cove only really accessible from boat or by 4 wheel drive over the hills. I was told it was a very unspoilt beach, but unfortunately another boatload of tourists had got there a few minutes before us so not quite so unspoilt, but lovely all the same! It was here we had lunch, which was lovely chicken fried rice which is one of my favourite Thai dishes cos it is so simple but tastes divine. We had time for a little sunbathe then it was back on the boat for snorkelling. The spot we went to was amazing, as you looked over the side of the boat there were massive shoals of fish just swimming either side of the boat. The water was so clear you could see right through to the bottom. The added bonus of snorkelling in Thailand is that the water is so warm, especially for someone like me who gets cold so easily, it was bliss! We snorkelled for about an hour and then it was back on the boat to head back to Hat Rin Pier. It was such a perfect day, the right amount of activity and lazing about, I don’t think either of us wanted it to end but alas it had to and before we knew it we were back at the pier and getting off the boat. We went back to the resort and after so much fresh air we realised how tired we actually were and decided to be lazy and grab some food in the hotel and watch another DVD. A perfect end to a great day!
Thursday 3rd April
This could probably be entitled “Lazy day 2” as we woke up and went down to the beach to catch some ray’s then tried to swim in the sea but soon realised that were was a lot of seaweed when the tide is out and I am not a lover of sea weed, also the bottom of the sea was almost clay like as there wasn’t much sand in the actual water so everything was slimy underfoot, not the best for swimming so we abandoned that plan and washed ourselves off in the showers and jumped in the pool – much better! We even had a couple of lilo’s to use while we were in there – all I needed was a cocktail and I would have been in heaven!! After a while in the pool we decided to use the hotel’s kayak and have a paddle out over the seaweed to see what we could see, the only problem being that with the water so low we kept hitting rocks and I must admit I wimped out and was probably making quite a lot of fuss over nothing but I didn’t want to carry on incase we tipped over and I fell into the seaweed! Stupid really but hey that’s how I felt! That evening we took a walk into town and I brought a bikini, probably not the best plan to buy a bikini in a shop in Thailand but I know that now. The lady in the shop said I was probably a small so I brought a small and as they were closing I didn’t try it on (I’ll come back to this later!). After buying the bikini we went for dinner at the only busy place we could find, thinking that if it was busy then it must be ok food. Now, never, never, never, never will I think that again! I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and James ordered a burger and you would think they are quite safe foods- not so! They came out my sandwich was burnt and had a nice long Thai hair coming out of it and James burger was questionably meat!! So we decided the coco pops in our room were much more appetising and left the meal uneaten! Not surprising really!
Friday 4th April
Our last morning in Sarikantang, I left James packing the bag’s and had to take the long walk into town… why I hear you ask?? Well a bloody small in Thailand is about the size of a small pea! The bikini I brought was so tiny it barely covered the essentials and as much as I’m sure that is probably the fashion on some beaches I am not prepared to show that much flesh! So I went back to the shop and got a medium, again tough didn’t try it on coz it looked big enough, a lot bigger than the last one and also as we were being picked up shortly for our transfer to the main pier. Anyway turns out I’m not even a medium in Thailand and although it was definitely a lot bigger than the small it was still slightly indecent when I went into the water, I didn’t realise that bikini’s can shrink but they can! I’m sending it home in the post anyway and I shall have to see if any of my smaller friends can fit into it. I just can’t believe I’m actually a large, probably an extra large if I’m honest, devastated! Mind you it made a lot of sense why that girl on the tour had such a small bikini on, I felt her pain!
So the taxi picked us up at 13.30 without too much trouble and transferred us to the main pier where we got on our ferry towards Ko Tao. The night before I had looked through the Rough Thai to Thailand – or the bible as I like to call it and have called around a few dive places to see how much things cost and if they gave any discount on accommodation if you did a dive course and I ended up going back to the first one I phoned, always the way!! Ban’s Diving Resort offered a half price discount if you went on one of their courses and also picked you up from the pier to the resort. I booked a Deluxe Garden View room with air con for a couple of nights so we could see how we got. After doing quite a bit of snorkelling I wasn’t sure how I would get on with the breathing as I really wasn’t good with the snorkel in my mouth, after a while I was fed up of it so we booked onto the Open Water Course and were told if we didn’t get on with it we only paid for the day we had done which sounded perfect. So we got picked up from the pier no problem and checked in, we were then told there was a short session starting at four as part of the open water course, we dropped off our bags in our lovely room and dashed back to the room. Four hours later we finish watching a series of videos and finally get some food, at which point we are both starving with no lunch and no dinner, a short video it was not! But it meant that the following day we would have a go underwater and see if we actually wanted to go ahead. To be honest the videos although terrible had interesting content and some of the chapters in the book were interesting, although I must admit when we got told we had to do some questions as homework I think James and I nearly fell off our chairs! When was the last time we did homework!!! So after the session we grabbed some food and went back to the room to do some homework! Crazy! Not long after we passed out, tired from our long day or mental and physical effort!
Saturday 5th April
We had an early start the next day and had to be down at the resort pool by 8.30am which is a bit of a shock to the system if you have been getting up at 10.00! So we first went and got a load of kit which included wet suits, breathing apparatus, flippers and masks all in correct sizes for each of us then we learnt how to assemble them!! After that we had to do a swim test, if I remember rightly if was five lengths then tread water for 7 mins or something like that, well it’s the most exercise I’ve done throughout my travels and it wore me out!! After that it was time to go under the water with all the kit on and put into practice all the theory we had learned so far. I was really nervous and as we started to put our heads under I panicked, I had to keep telling myself to breathe, one girl stood up and had to be taken to one side for extra tuition and I saw that no one else had a problem so I forced myself to carry on and although it felt alien and I kept wanting to stand up and just breath normally I stopped myself and stayed under. After what felt like an hour we had practised all our skills and it was time for lunch so we surfaced and were told we had been under the water for 2 and a half hours, I couldn’t believe it, it was crazy that we had been under for that long! It was then time to grab a quick lunch before going back into the classroom for some more theory and to go through the homework!! So weird to be back in the classroom but amazing how much easier it is to learn something when your interested in it. Although most of the theory was interesting I must admit I am not used to sitting still and having some one talk at me for that long and after a couple of hours I was as bored as the rest of them!! Luckily it only went on for another couple of hours and then we finished for the day. We grabbed dinner at the resort restaurant again- not wanting to wander too far as we were very hungry after our busy day!! We then had a walk along the beach and around the local area and called it a day, we had another early start the next day.
Sunday 6th April
We were up at …. Wait for it…..6.30am!!! I haven’t been up that early since my last few weeks at work, and even then I was trying to avoid it! We met at 7.30 checked our diving kit and got a speed boat out to the dive boat. Our first dive site was “Mango Bay” we got there about 8.30am and were in the water by about 9.00am. The water was like a bath at 29 degrees so I opted to dive without a wet suit and we had almost 20 metres visibility, it was amazing to look down with my mask on and see the reef below. I must admit I was peeing my pants about going under the water again and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it but it went without a hitch and once I got closer to the reef I was too busy looking at all the beautiful fish and coral to worry too much! I must admit though standing on the side of the boat with all my gear on I had butterflies and without a bit of peer pressure of people telling me to hurry up I’m not sure I would have jumped in at all!! I suppose it is good sometimes! I did have to remind myself to keep breathing every now and then, just because I would see a fairly large fish and it would make me jump, ha ha! We practiced the skills we had learnt in the pool the previous day, stuff like taking your mask off and putting it back on again (remembering to keep your eyes closed if you wear contacts!!) and clearing your regulator (that’s your breathing apparatus). After we had done that a few times and everyone was proficient it was off for the main part of the dive. We were taken by Ant one of the instructors who is also the Lead dive instructor at Ban’s, he was an excellent teacher, really inspiring, patient and I definitely felt safe with him, he had 12 years experience after all. I would recommend anyone thinking of learning to dive to try with Ban’s because we had such an excellent experience. We did have a good group of people who we were learning with which I think makes a big difference as well. Our other instructor was a guy called Jon who was also great but didn’t have a lot of experience as an instructor, not that that made a difference he was also an amazing teacher and a good laugh, we were really lucky to have such good people around us as we were learning.
We then got back on the boat and went to our second dive site, “Twin Peaks”, the conditions were the same as the first dive site and this time I saw a lot more on the reef. I think this probably had more to do with the fact that I was probably a bit scared on the first dive and was concentrating on what I had learnt so far and not on actually paying attention to what was around me!! One this dive we went and saw Nemo, well maybe not the actual Nemo as he is obviously a fictional Disney character!! But we sae three clown fish who live in an anemone in the middle of a circle of rocks just to the right of the reef, mummy, daddy and baby – very cool! We also saw Christmas Tree Worms which are little organisms which when cast in shadow retreat back into the rock they are on, but when they are out they are really bright colours, red, yellow, greens, really pretty. We also saw a trigger fish who are supposed to be quite aggressive but only if you get really close to them and go into their territory.
After our second dive it was time to go back to the mainland for a quick lunch and then back in the classroom for our final theory – thank god and a test of what we had learnt so far!! We arranged to meet up with all the other divers for dinner and found a place about 10 minutes from our resort with cheap meals so we grabbed some food and then went along to the Lotus bar which is basically the most popular bar for everyone in our area of Ko Tao. They had fire dancers, or I believe the correct name is Poi dancers, either way they were very impressive, I don’t know how they don’t burn themselves more often!! We didn’t stay out that late as we all had another early start the next day, well I say that the youngsters stayed out and us oldies went home!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)