Category — Round the world

I’ll start by apologising to those at home who’ve been missing the tales of my travels. I’ve been incredibly busy, and I hope to make it up to all of you in this blog, that WILL be the first of many regular features on my new site.

So, how did it all begin? Well, I’ll back track slightly to the point when I thought I was probably not going to make it past Sydney. The first few months of travelling made me realise I really enjoyed being away from the UK. I don’t know if that will last, but all the people we met, that feeling of independance and seeing new things - in the sunshine - every day just really made me happy. So, somewhere in Vietnam - I think around Hanoi (seems so long ago) - I started thinking that Sydney would probably be somewhere I’d want to stay put. And how right I was…

We arrived in Sydney from the North, driving in on the Pacific Highway. Now that was a scarey experience. It was the tail end of Sydney’s rushhour, and we were whisked along by 3 lanes of traffic. This in itself is ok, as it was fairly tame compared to London, but it was the lorry driving along just ahead of us that was intimidating. It almost felt like Steven Speilberg’s film, Duel! We just couldn’t get away from it, and eventually settled for lying in it’s wake, allowing it to part the traffic before us. Then there’s the way you drive over a blind hill at the speed limit, to be greeted by a row of parked cars that required the split second decision of trying to skilful swerve into the right-hand lane, hit the car, or make use of the pavement. You’ll be pleased to know that we took the first option! Ok, so that was a long paragraph just about driving into Sydney, sorry. But, I’ll finish it by saying we drove across the Harbour Bridge. And what a way to be greeted into the heart of this fine city.

We stayed in the Sydney Youth Hostel near Central station - after eventually navigating the irritating one-way system! For a hostel, it was very well appointed. Every other floor had washing facilities, then TV rooms. And, on the top floor a dip pool and Sauna! Although I only made it there once.

The first few days, I dived into the city doing my usual wandering trick. I think being the early bird, I spent most of my days on my own, which, when I’m siteseeing, I don’t mind. Armed with my trusty Canon 20D - Dan and Dai were getting sick of me moaning about not having a wide-angle lens for it - very few angles were left unexplored. I’d forgotten how much we’d enjoyed our first trip here, and this time it had a much more homely feel, as if an old friend were welcoming us back. It was one of those moments, where every so often you’d round a corner, see something - like the Opera House - and get that pleasant tingly feeling.

Obviously the nights weren’t neglected either, and we did spend most of them out until the small hours. We were accompanied by Steve and Eugene - the 4th person in our dorm. But, fun as it was, when I moved out of the hostel, it was quite a relief as the pace of drinking and partying suddenly went down to more normal levels - Dan and Dai were started to look and sound quite ill.

Which leads onto how I landed on my feet, and what has subsequently made me decide to stay in Sydney. So, on a friday morning - the 21st April for those of you who like details - I went to look at a house, which I liked and decided to move into the next day. So, later that day, sitting in the Botanical Gardens, overlooking the Opera House and bridge, my friend rings me up and asks if I was interested in an interview at his company. So, in my best “I’ve been backpacking, and don’t own many clothes” attire, I had an interview that evening and started work there on the monday.

Wiliam is a Web Design firm based in North Sydney. Which means that as I live in South Sydney, everyday I get to cross the magnificent Harbour Bridge and see the Opera House. What a way to start the day (is anyone envious yet?).

And the people I live with are great too! Although the downside of the house is it’s location, the plus side is also the location. On the main road from the airport it has traffic, but it’s also slap bang in the middle of everything, and it only take me 30mins to get to work (at £9 a week!). My flatmates are Sarah from Louisiana, Nicole from Germany, Sabrina and Roberto from Italy, and a couple more I’ll ignore as they ignore us.

As you can tell, the first couple of weeks in Sydney were awesome! And I’ve been really lucky to land on my feet running. Anyone who feels like coming to visit, I’ll be here for a while yet…

Links
Duel
Wiliam

Byron Bay is described in many guidebooks as a booming town, desperately trying to hold onto it’s small town feel. Sadly, I think it’s days as a small town are numbered, and the march of fast food chains will soon be surrounding the town in all directions.

So why’s it so popular? Well, there’s a very large beach right at the front of town, although a better one is Watego Beach round by the lighthouse. Best mention the amazing view afforded from the climb up to the lighthouse, itself a thing of beauty - and the light shines 27miles in all directions, which looks rather cool wandering through town as it sweeps over your head.

Then there’s the small town, bohemian feel to the place. There’s a lot of people wandering around looking like they may have forgotten to leave the 60’s and 70’s behind. A rash of tattoo parlors, bars and surf shops line the streets, seperated by some great cafes, restaurants and juice bars - not entirely convinced by beetroot in a drink, but they say it’s good for you.

I really do like Byron. It’s one of the places where you can do nothing, and feel like you haven’t wasted the day. Naturally, I did something all the time, but I can’t sit still for very long, except for one time. I headed down to the beach and sat on the rocks watching the sun set, and the evening surfers, all desperate for the last few waves before the light faded. Whilst sitting there, 2 guys turned up with their bongos and started playing a tune. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable moment, staring out to sea at nothing in particular, and absolutely loving it!

One of the highlights for me this time, and something I dearly wished I’d done the last time we were there, is to visit the lighthouse and see dolphins from the Cape - which, incidently is Australia’s most Eastern point. The lighthouse is reached from Watego Beach, a small, slightly less busy beach, surrounded on both sides by rocky outcrops. Wandering upto the lighthouse, you really feel the sense of purpose as to why it was built there.

Looking around from the top is breathtaking. Out to sea, you can watch the dolphins playing in the surf and posing for any people in the water nearby. Looking back inland, we were greeted by the rolling green forests and grassland found in this lush area. Oh, and a hanglider. Look North and South, you see the beaches rolling on for miles in each direction, broken by the occasional rocky outcrop. It’s another place you could just stay and soak up the view, and never get bored of it.

Nightlife in the town is also, excuse this comment, but rather rocking. The Beach Hotel usually has live music on, and serves a good range of drinks and food. Generally the people are friendly in there, except for some little oiks (does that make me sound old?) who started fighting each other for no reason other than ‘He looked at me’. And then there’s the infamous Cheeky Monkey’s, a hangout and party venue for backpackers. One word of caution though, avoid the cheap meals as you eat off the tables that everyone dances on later that night!

One thing I haven’t mentioned up until this point, is meeting our good friend, Steve. A former traveller who made it to Australia, and then decided to stay there. It’s been more than 3 years since he settled in Sydney.

Byron Bay is a must visit place. You can easily spend a week here, and not get bored. We only scratched the surface as there’s so much to do here. One thing on my list for a future time is kayaking out to the cape to meet the dolphins. I can’t wait!

Links

Beach Hotel

What can I say about Noosa other than it’s nice? It’s not the kind of place that really shines in any particular way, in fact, as far as I can tell, a lot of guidebooks don’t give it much of a mention - I know this as I’ve met several people who stayed one night as a stop off and wished they’d stayed longer, but no-one told them to.

It’s much like any other Australian town in so many ways. It has too many - and this still surprises me - of fast food places like McD’s, SubWay and kebab shops. There’s lots of pubs and working clubs. Backpacker’s are well catered for - I’ll come to that point in a minute. And there’s the surf and national park.

So, why did we decide to come back for a longer stay this time? Well, it’s just the niceness of the place. Sorry, that’s so feeble, let me expand on that. The streets are clean, open, generally friendly (apart from Dai being mistakenly accused of stealing some sunglasses - the accuser and the policer office both apologised a lot for that. We thought it was his topless limbo dancing t-shirt that people seemed to keep staring at). Most of the restaurants serve great food, although we stayed in such a nice place that we went for the self-catering option. The bars, again, are clean and friendly with a lot supplying live music.

Then we get onto activities, including Kayaking, surfing and, if you’re like me, walking. This time I made sure I explored the more Eastern parts of the town, including the beautiful National Park, and more upmarket suburbs. The centre piece of the park is a lookout from which you can see Noosa and along the coast to the next mountain range. But, the highlight for me - which I wasn’t expecting - was coming face to face with a Kangaroo! It’s the first time I’ve seen one (that’s not roadkill), and to see it hoping around free in the trees was simply awesome! It got my hopes up that I’d be lucky enough to see a Koala too, but sadly no luck this time. As for surfing, well, I can do that anyway, and besides, the waves looked a bit tame for my liking.

So, why mention the backpackers as a dark side to the town. Well, lets just say that Koala’s is in many ways a great place, and in others it’s a nightmare - well, the next day it is anyway. Cheap beer, great live music somedays, and the people… Oh, and it’s the first (of many) places that I’ve been asked for ID in (ok, so they did to everyone, but even so, kind of makes you feel your youthful looks shine through). We also ran into Steve from Fraser island, who is a bit of a dark horse on the dance floor.

We also took the opportunity to catch up on our washing. I think I heard several people go Eughh… at the meer mention of backpacker’s cleanliness habits.

But as I say, Noosa is a nice place to visit and chill out. I would recommend it, I’m just not sure how better to say why, other than it’s nice. Byron Bay and a weekend with our old school mate, Steve is next on the cards.

Hervey Bay… The gateway to Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand bank. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Hervey Bay, but I was dissappointed with it. My vision was of something akin to Byron, a small charming place, growing but still maintaining it’s small, village feel. What you get driving into town is row after row of shopping malls and retail outlets. Then, when you get to the quainter parts, the bit of life that was there, disappears from trace. It’s as if someone had a load of buildings, and decided they’d just dump them randomly all over the place! Besides the malls, there’s not one central area to the town but, infact, several. This makes finding somewhere to eat and drink challenging - assuming you avoid the rash of fast food chains that seem to afflict every town in Australia.

But, there is a plus side to it. We stayed in the Colonial Log Cabins, which is run by the YHA which meant we had clean rooms. But, being cabins, we also got TV and a great kitchen - which meant we weren’t quite so bored by the lack of things to do in town. Then there’s tha aquarium. A quaint little place with some BIG fish - one called Greg - and a tank with sharks and turtles in. The turtles were cool as they come right upto the surface to be stroked - but mind the neck as they bite! Wandering around town, there’s lots of bats, which all come to life at sunset and head off Fraser Island to feed. On a slightly tangent, we also went to the cinema to watch V for Vendetta, which I can’t recommend enough. Excellent film! (Not going to do a review of it though)

So, now comes the good part, Fraser Island. I won’t lie, no matter what I’ve read and seen, I just wasn’t expecting much from this place. My mistake! It was gorgeous from the off! At this point I’ll admit that we took the slightly soft option of going with an organised tour, Cool Dingo, which meant we got to stay in comfort in the evenings and not have to worry about food - just about everyone I met said they’d run out of food on their tours.

Arriving on the island our guide, TK (may have been TC though, akin to Top Cat fame), greeted us and directed us to the toughest looking bus I’ve ever seen! It was basically a cross between a lorry, a bus and a monster truck. This thing was awesome! As you can imagine, there’s no tarmac as such on the island - except in the resorts - so everywhere is sand paths cut through the trees. This means lots of potholes, hitting of overhanging trees, and basic motion sickness problems - not wearing your seat belt is a mistake! And the way TK drove it defied belief. Nothing, and I mean nothing could stop him or his machine. At one point, we helped a trapped 4×4 by ripping it out of the sand trap, almost removing the front of their car in the process. The driver of the other car looked visible shaken, while TK just laughed it off!

Our first stop was Basin Lake, formed in a sandbowl, and home to fresh water turtles. You get an idea of how fragile the eco system is on the island as you can’t apply suncream nearer than 15minutes before swimming as it affect the PH level too much. The water felt so good on your skin, and we had the whole lake to ourselves. Nothing like swimming in fresh water, and the depth was unbelievable - we couldn’t reach it, even with face masks on.

Next, we hiked through to Central Station, a former logging camp on the island, where we stopped for what can only be described as a banquet - there’s was too much food for us. Hiking further into the island along the Wanggoolba Creek, known as the silent river - water in here is around 150 years old as it takes that long to filter from underneath the sand. We were surrounded by the lush rainforest, one of the only places in the world where it grows in sand. On the way, a lizard also momentarily stalled our progress as it was over a metre long.

To finish the day, we went for a swim in Lake McKenzie, which felt more like a typical beach as there was a golden arc of sand around one side where visitors to the island lay idly sunbathing. Although another fresh water lake, this one didn’t impress as much as the number of people made it lose that feeling of isolation we’d felt earlier at Basin Lake.

That evening, after even more food - it’s almost worth the trip just for the amount and quality of food they give you - we visited the resort’s main bar, Dingo Bar. Now, to my surprise (and amusement), Dai, Eamon and Dan decided to do Karoke. Dai and Eamon I understand, but Dan… He hasn’t got a musical bone in his body, or so we’ve all been led to believe. I’m not sure if this is the effect of alcohol or not, but they were actually quite good (I have low quality video footage of it that will get posted at some point). Chris, you may have a rival as the Karoke king! I feel a sing off coming on…

Day 2 saw me being wished a happy birthday by the whole bus - thanks to Dan and Dai for that little wake up greeting. Our first port of call was to head across the island to Seventy-Five Mile Beach, where we were to drive - at the buses top speed - to the Maheno ship wreck (The Maheno’s story on ABC). Seeing that old ship, and how the sea had reclaimed it was astonishing. You could still see it was a ship, and imagine how it had looked, but everything had turned to rust, and been eaten through.

Moving on, we carried on along the beach to Indian Head. Climbing to the top, you get a dizzying view of the ocean below, and the Tiger Sharks circling the bay. Despite having one of the largest beaches in the world, you absolutely cannot swim off it as you will get attacked by sharks! We watched them swimming around below, and then spotted a feeding frenzy going on out to sea with seagulls diving in to grab any remnants that came to the surface, looking like a scene from a David Attenborough documentary.

Past Indian Head, we came to the Champagne Pools, the only seawater on Fraser Island that it’s safe to swim in. These pools are cut off from the sea by rocks, but waves routinely crash over into the pools. Several people were trying to be clever and stand on the rocks as the waves hit, and soon wished they hadn’t as they were hit with such force. To my surprise, there were also brightly coloured fish swimming around in the pools, carefully dodging the human intruders.

Heading back along the beach, we stopped at Eli Creek for a quick paddle and afternoon tea. The creek cuts a path through the trees and shrubbery, and is home to some well hidden fish and eels - although I only know this from Roger who swam along with his mask on (our surrogate Dutch person, who’s name Dan forgot and promptly renamed to Roger, which amusing stuck).

That evening, after the usual spine jarring journey across the island, we all headed to Dingo’s for my birthday drinks. The evening started with a few games of killer on the pool table, laid on by the bar, and involving free shots (the barmaid was trying to make a new drink, and we were the guinea pigs. Thankfully it was really nice, and there was a lot of it). Next up came drinking games, and once again, 7’s was highly effecient at catching out those with poor numeracy skills. We also played a few more involving coins and nominations, which oddly enough usual involved me drinking for some reason. The evening ended for me a 5 in the morning.

The final day… What can I say? Despite having my alarm next to my head - I mean a whole 10cm away - I slept through it, and we all slept through the phone ringing in the lobby of our cabin. Thankfully, the last day was nothing special on the tour, and our chilled out day exploring the rest of the resort and swimming in the resort’s pools, passed the day nicely.

Fraser was great, and if I ever get the opportunity, I would consider going back and probably doing the slightly tougher way of a self drive. On the downside, and you may have noticed a certain abscence from my ramblings, we didn’t see any Dingo’s which I was looking forward to. Especially after someone on the tour before us had seen one up close on the beach as it aparently ‘posed’ for photos. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back there…

Links

Colonial Log Cabins
V for Vendetta website
Cool Dingo Tour
The Maheno’s story on ABC

This time, our boat was Enid, a recently restored ketch. We arrived at the harbour to be kitted out with the ever beautiful Stinger Suits - after some of the stories I’ve heard, make sure you get one of these! We set sail, with our skipper, Captain Gary (also later known as Doctor Gary). And, once again, we had a great group of people on the boat!

After a short trip out, we hoisted the sails up and let the wind take us round to a bay off Hayman Island. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I love sailing! There’s just something about the feeling of the wind pushing you boat so effortlessly through the water. All you can hear is the sound of the water tearing past the boat - Enid was fast, and has won a few races!

As soon as we’d dropped anchor, everyone jumped in for some snorkelling before lunch. The water was so clear you could see soo much - still doesn’t compare to Scuba diving sadly - the only downside was the low tide making it slightly innaccessible. It was also the first time Dai had been snorkelling for a very long time, and thankfully he loved it!

Lunch was superb, and set us up nicely for an afternoon cruise round the islands to our bay for the evening. We were taken onto a small beach to watch the sunset, where we were treated to the golden rays setting behind the bay. The evening was spent chatting and looking at the stars. I’d forgotten how amazing they look from the bay, with so much visible to the naked eye. We also did some squid fishing. Sadly we didn’t catch anything, although on relection this may have been a good thing as the skipper would have made us clear up the mess the ink would’ve made on the deck.

The second day saw us heading round to the White Sands. This time the view was different as there was a high tide, but this meant you could walk out into the lagoon created where the sand cut the bay off. It was awesome, and we even got to see some small sharks in the water with us! I did have a small mishap - and this is where the Doctor Gary part comes in - pushing the dingy off the shore with the deckhand, I managed to slice the back of my foot open on a shell. It wasn’t pretty, and also hurt a fair bit.

Later that day, with my foot wrapped in a bandage and a plastic bag (which didn’t last long), we went snorkelling again. Now here’s a little tip, don’t snorkel if you have blood on your foot as the big fish really like it, and do have quite a bite to them! Did get to see some amazing fish though, and the big fish do eventually back off with some persuasion.

That evening, we moored in some shallows but first we had to transfer some water from the boat called Spank Me (silly name, but awesome boat). We later showed our more mature side by playing drinking games till the early hours. Seven’s is a great game, especially if you play with people who struggle with their tables (if anyone want to know how to play it, let me know. Works especially well on accountants for some reason).

The final day, I skipped the morning snorkel and dive as I didn’t want to risk infecting my foot (and I had a bunged up nose and forgotten my Padi license - basically everything was against me going Scuba Diving). Sailing back into the harbour, we were the only boat capable of using the wind - which meant we got back first too!

Back on dry land, everyone met for an evening of partying in Airlie beach, sad to be back on dry land. But we had a blast, and everyone has stayed in touch. We also planned a recovery day in Airlie, which is a fairly boring place on reflection other than the sailing. So, we were sad the sailing was over, but were glad to leave Airlie and be on the road to Hervey Bay and Fraser island.

Links

Enid on Oz Sail’s website

Port Douglas was somewhere highly recommended to us on our last visit to Australia, but sadly we didn’t have time to visit. This time, we made sure we paid it a visit, with the added advantage of it being away from the effects of Cyclone Larry.

On our way, we drove past Hartley’s Crocodile farm and we just couldn’t resist stopping to look. And boy were we glad that we did! It was so well organised, and the shows going on - including the highlight of a crocodile attack - were very informative and interesting. There was also a boat trip around their lagoon which was full of crocs who were fed before our very eyes.

The town itself is quite spread out, and it builds out to the point of the coast. One of the main sites is the 4 mile beach, which I’m not going to make any obvious comments about. But it was all beautiful, and we had a very relaxing few days here. Actually, we ended up spending a few days longer as we couldn’t get past Innisfall.

We also decided to take a day trip to Mossman Gorge and the Cape of Tribulation. Mossman Gorge is part of the tropical rainforest, and contains a fast flowing river which you can swim in. I didn’t as the previous day some thieving [censored] stole both pairs of swimming shorts and some of my t-shirts (can you tell I’m angry about that?). Wandering through the forest was like being in another world. It was so peaceful, and everywhere you looked just made you want to stay there forever.

Getting to the Cape of Tribulation involves using a rather unique ferry guided by cables on either side of the river. Once over, the roads are nice and twisty as they work their way over the mountain - my boy racer side comes out on such roads. There’s an amazing feeling of tranquility up there, with very little traffic or people to be seen. One of the highlights, which I wasn’t expecting at all, was the ice cream factory. Then there was the nature trail where a raised walkway has been built through the rainforest enabling you to see it at all levels.

We did enjoy Port Douglas, but I think it was a bit to laid back for us as we started to feel slightly bored after a few days. But, it’s well worth the trip though if your in that neck of the woods. Just keep an eye on your clothes if you hang them out to dry!

Dan and I arrived fresh after 36 hours of travelling to get to Australia. Due to spending more time in Koh Tao than we planned, we ended up doing an island hop involving boats, buses and planes, with Malaysia being sadly crossed off the list and marked for a visit another day. But the exitement of being back in Australia made us forget any fatigue we may of had.

My last memory of Cairns was partying to excess and doing an introductory dive. In one place, I read a great, if somewhat old line that does nicely sum up the experience:
“The drinking town with a diving problem”

This time, we had Dai with us, who was waiting at the hostel to greet us. Unfortunately, diving was crossed off the list this time due to Tropical Cyclone Larry making conditions out at sea - and later inland - a tad demanding and not all that conducive to a good time.

With this in mind, we resorted to the next best thing (again)… Partying till the wee hours every night. The guesthouse we were staying in, Nomad Serpents, was well geared up for such activities and so were the great staff. Julie, the main event organiser was great at getting everyone in a party mood - and my god could she handle her drink! She was one of the last standing in the century club (we were sensible enough to only watch this event). For those who don’t know what that is, it involves drinking one shot every minute to 100, with no toilet breaks and a couple of challenges, such as everyone changing seats within 5 seconds, thrown in for good measure. We sat on the side lines helping to come up with more and more taxing challenges for the beleaguered competitors (Can’t imagine why they looked cross with us).

Other nights included St Patrick’s day, helped by most of the staff in the resort being Irish. Then there was the quiz night, the bar crawl and some other events. We had some great nights, and met some fantastic people but the days were rather lacking as a result.

Around Cairns, you can wander the quite well stocked shopping centre, and the many photo galleries - Australia is such an amazing place, with so many wonders that it seems that a lot of people make their livings just from photographing their own country. There’s also the great walk along the Esplande, with a great exercise routine thrown in if you feel fit (we didn’t due to bodily abuse).

Due to Cyclone Larry’s appearance, we ended up back in Cairns as, after leaving Port Douglas (our next port of call), we couldn’t get past Innisfall due to the roads being flooded, so we returned to Cairns. As for Innisfall, I’ve never seen anything like it. Every other building was pretty much demolished, and people were lingering on the streets with army vehicles and soldiers clearing the streets. One nice thing we saw, that showed how people were trying to help, was a convoy of Dominoes Pizza vans we followed who were giving away free food to the people on the streets. It was really heart warming to see a smile return to the peoples faces after the tough time they’d had.

Overall, Cairns is great fun, but it can be bad for your body (and your wallet), but for all the excess, we did have a brilliant time (again)!

I’ll start this blog by expressing my love for Koh Tao. It’s such a beautiful, amazing and fun place that we originally planned to stay for 5 or 6 days to get our PADI certificates, but in the end, left after 12 days, completely abandoning Malaysia (so we can come back and do it another day), and going on to the Advanced diver course.

Part of our love for it was that the island wasn’t overly busy. Apparently this was due to the 2004 Tsunami, the recent problem on Koh Samui over Christmas and the full moon party taking place on neighbouring Koh Phangan. The atmosphere on the island was great, I think partly as you can’t drink and dive (no pun intended), which meant that a lot of nights out are sober affairs (and you get to see more of the day too!)

We arrived in Chumphon - the mainland station - at 4am on the overnight train from Bangkok, where we met Mike who runs a fantastic dive school on the island, for the Seashell resort. Getting to the island takes around 3 hours, with the a 15minute transfer on 2 of the most packed buses I’ve ever been on! We were actually surprised that they didn’t put anybody on the roof. It was quite an intimate experience with a couple of Swedish girls.

But when you first see the island, it just make your jaw drop. It really is a tropical paradise! I’ve never been to an island so beautiful and lush! Pulling into the harbour, you pass over coral and crystal clear water, surrounding by jungle and resorts crafted into the forest and hills.

Our resort was on the beach, with our accomodation being a bungalow set back about 300 yards from Sairee beach. As part of our PADI package, we also got a discount on our room for each night of the course, plus a discount on any fun dives. The restaurant - run by Michelle, Mike’s girfriend - has a fantastic view West for the evening sunsets, as well as serving delicious food.

Then there’s the tropics… The air was around 36 to 38 degrees C, and the water 28 to 29 degrees C! It felt so good jumping into the water, walking out for 200 metres (the water is that shallow), and then swimming amonst the coral - whilst dodging the Thai long tails, which are possibly the most dangerous boats ever built!

A great part of doing our PADI course on Koh Tao is that all the confined water training is actually done in one session in the sea - not 3 sessions in a swimming pool. On the downside, the water had a lot of Plankton in it making the visibility only upto 15m and not the usual 20 to 30m the island is known for. But, on the plus side - and this is a very, very big plus - we surfaced on our 3rd open water dive to be greeted by 3 to 4 Minke Whales! They were enormous, and dwarfed our boat (which was about 10m long in itself). Sadly, I’ve got no photos of it, but it’s something I’ll remember forever, and we were the envy of a lot of the professional Scuba divers as they’ve never seen one in their whole dive career!

And, being completely hooked on Scuba Diving at this point, we booked straight back in to do a few fun dives and to get our Advanced Open water certifcation. For this part of the course, we were joined by Raynard from Norway, and we all did the following dives:

• Buoyancy skills - working on Neutral buoyancy and inverted floating (that was good fun, and gave a new twist to diving so as to speak. Also useful for photos)
• Underwater navigation - using a compass, measuring distances and natural navigation
• Night Dive - Now this is good! It’s like another world down there, and we got to see some blue spotted Sting Rays gliding along the bottom
• 30m deep dive - checks if you’re susceptible to Nitrogen Narcosis (or being Narced as it’s known) Paul, our instructor told us some great stories about this. But we were all ok - although Dan needs to work on his long addition!
• Multi-level dives - a way of calculating dives to maximise your dive time, and minimise Nitrogen absorption
• Underwater photography - this was quite tough, but I did manage to get a few good shots in

Basically, we’re now hooked on diving and our instructor, Paul was such and enthusiastic, solid teacher - even going diving with a painful ear infection because he didn’t want to leave us halfway through our course - that we felt really helped to make even mopre enjoyable, and us better divers. But the whole staff of Seashell Divers were great, and really looked after us whenever we went out for lessons or fun dives.

On the rest of the island, we went snorkelling in Shark Bay - guess why they call it that - where we saw black tipped reef sharks (sorry, gave it away)! An awesome site! Oh, and there were some other fish and coral down there, but seeing sharks really pipped it for me! Although Dan claims to have been attacked by a foot long fish whilst swimming - we all think one the them fell for Dan’s number 2 haircut, and thought he looked like an easy meal. If only I’d had a camera!

Nightlife was great too - partying till the sun came up - and the people we met were all great, even running into Brendon and Kieran from Laos.

It really is a fantastic place to chill out in it’s own right. But for us the diving was the best part of the experience! I can’t recommend Koh Tao enough, and it was the highlight of Thailand for me!

Links

PADI
Seashell resort

We arrived in Bangkok at 6am on the overnight train, and made a dash across the city to catch the train to Kanchanaburi - still using cabs and not the suicidal tuk-tuks. I really enjoy train journeys, and the overnight train makes long overland journeys so much more comfortable. Then, moving onto the local train was also great - despite the wooden seat. Don’t worry, I’m not going to start writing down the numbers, but there is something very, well, pleasant about train journeys.

There was a rumour going round that all the guesthouses were full, but thankfully that turned out to be wrong, and we ended up staying in the C&C Guesthouse which is a collection of huts set around a garden next to the river Kwai, run by some very helpful people.

Kanchanaburi is most famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai. To be honest, it’s just a bridge to look at, but all the history surrounding it suddenly makes it all the more interesting. It also looks great done as a silhouette at sunset. You can walk across the bridge as there’s only 4 scheduled trains a day that use it, but the hoards of people make this frustrating. One thing that did detract from the visit though is the number of ‘tourist trap’ shops and stalls in the area. But that’s to be expected, and they did sell highly refreshing coconuts.

Another place I’d heard about was the Wat Pa Lungtu Bua Yamnasampano Forest monastry (ok, Tiger temple for short). Here, you get to stroke tigers. The place itself is nothing special, just a series of open areas with some rescued animals wandering around - the horses were quite friendly though. The tigers themselves appear to be dozing. There’s several schools of thought on this one, some saying they’re drugged, others that the monks have a calming effect on them, others point out that big cats sleep for 20hours a day anyway (I know a few people that do that too). Personally, I would have liked to see them more active, but stroking them felt slightly safer with them sleeping!

But, saving the best for last, the highlight was the Erawan falls! Apparently, if you see a photograph of a waterfall in Thailand, it’s probably these falls. They were breathtaking! The pools of water were so blue and clear, and the waterfalls couldn’t have been any prettier. We took some snaps, but to be honest, couldn’t wait to jump in. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but swimming in fresh water is one of the best, most refreshing experiences! We had 5 hours there, but it seemed to fly by! In the water, little fish swim around, and nip at your feet cleaning them, which is slightly disconcerting initially, but you soon grow to like it till a big one joins in. There’s 7 levels, and we made it up to the 7th which was worth the effort as there was hardly anyone there and it blew the other levels away.

As part of the tour we took to the falls, we also took a ride on the Death Railway, riding it along the Wang Po Viaduct. The viaduct itself was an impressive feet, built from wood, and rising high over the river. Our train rolled across it very slowly, which didn’t really fill us with much confidence in it’s strength. But it was an experience to see it!

Once again, we’d been lucky with the people on our tour, and met in the Jolly Frog backpacker’s guesthouse for dinner with everyone. Despite only in Kanchanaburi for 2 nights, it was more than enough to see everything in the area. Our next stop is a quick rest in Bangkok, before heading down to Koh Tao island on the sleeper train to get our PADI certification.

Links

Tiger Temple

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second largest city, and we’d spoken to so many people recommending doing a trek there, that we just couldn’t refuse. On reflection, we’re glad we listened to them as it made the start of our second visit to Thailand so much more enjoyable than the first!

However, our arrival in Chiang Mai was slightly frustrating. The minibus dropped us off at 11.30pm, and it then took us another half an hour of wandering around with our packs on - incidentally, I could now travel a lot lighter - until we found a guesthose with space. It was a real beauty! Alright, it was ok, and the staff were quite pleasant as long as you didn’t wake them up in the middle of the night!

Chiang Mai itself is a great city. The place has a really nice, friendly atmosphere to it, with markets, book shops and coffee shops (sounds real sad, but I missed these at times). The streets are fairly open, and not too busy. And wandering round, you come across the occassional temple. In the evenings, the nightlife is not too manic, and we spent most evenings in a Reggae bar believe it or not! And a word of warning, Chang is cheap, but my god does it get you drunk and give you a hangover!

But, the main purpose of our trip was to go treking, and we decided to book ours through the Eagle guesthouse, which puts money back into the tribes they visit. Our trip was what’s known as ‘Off the beaten track’, which meant a lot more remote, and no other tourists, just the local villagers. Sounds like heaven! We were visiting one of the more remote tribes, known as the Karen tribe.

The journey to the trek area took us via a local market for our food supplies, and then onto a cave full of bats, where we stopped for lunch. It was so strange seeing and hearing the bats flying around inside the cave, especially after my experience in Laos.

Carrying on, the minivan dropped us in the jungle - I had a small dose of travel sickness on the way, for the first time in the all the time we’d been away - and we hiked for about 3 hours to the village for our first night. Chai, our guide, cooked a superb dinner, which we felt we’d earned - Hey! You don’t do that much exercise backpacking! That evening, we went to visit one of the locals for some tea and a chat. It was amazing sitting in his house, with the open fire in the floor for his kitchen, drinking from Bamboo cups, sampling Rice Whiskey.

The second day, we set out, going past a local school where all of the children came out to greet us and get their picture taken - they hadn’t seen digital cameras before. Carrying on, the views were amazing, and you really got a sense of how far away from everything you are, except for 2 things that ruined the illusion slightly:

1. The villagers all have scooters
2. Mobile phones work

To me, that seems wrong, but I suppose that’s a sign of the times. We did meet a few villagers who’d been out hunting, and showed us their catch.

Then, we moved onto to feeding and riding elephants. They were really friendly - especially when you had food - and you could see from the look in their eyes that they are peaceful animals. Feeding them was amazing, and was only beaten by riding them. For such large animals, they can really move around the jungle incredibly well! There were times when we had to hang on for dear life as they walked down steep slopes that we’d have struggled on on foot!

On the way to our base camp that evening, we stopped for a swim in a river. Mainly to cool down before the hardest part of our trek. They weren’t kidding, and several people stumbled on the steep climbs and ascents.

Our camp for the evening was next to the river, which also acted as the playground and shower area, with the nearest village being 30minutes away by scooter! Everyone sat around the fire singing and playing games. At one point, lights appeared on the river, and it was locals doing a spot of night fishing. Then there was the spiders in the toilet… They were big, and no-one knew if they were dangerous or not.

The final day, we started with bamboo rafting. The villagers assembled the rafts next to the river there and then. They were surprisingly strong and nimble on the way down the river, especially as it was dry season so the river was low. I was the aft oarsman on our boat, and I have to say, our boat took the least damage! It was great fun though, just a shame it didn’t last longer.

Returning to Chiang Mai, we stopped at two very grand Stupas - a present from the air force to the King and Queen - and a waterfall. In the evening, we all met up for some great food and drinks (once again in the reggae bar).