Home again....

I admit, I have been home for about 6 weeks now, but I still wanted to finish off the blog with a conclusion. After all, everything needs closure.

It has been weird being back at home, and took me a while to get used to. At the same time, I feel as though I was never away, and constantly have to remind myself where I've been and what I've done. Nothing much has changed at home (sorry everyone!) except everyone's a bit older! My tan has faded far too quickly and I still don't have a proper job.

I have around 3000 photos to sort out now, and need to get them sorted into albums, one day I might finish this!

So in a slightly corny way, I just want to finish by saying that I had the best year of my life, met lots of amazing people who I hope I can stay in touch with for a long time and basically just had an awesome adventure.

Back to Bangkok

Well I thought I'd do one last little post before I get home... I'm back in Bangkok after a quick visit to Ko Samui, again it is lovely there and I had a really relaxing time, had a thai massage on the beach which was an experience!

Flew back this morning and my flight home is a 12.45pm tonight so by the time everyone in the UK wakes up tomorrow morning I will be in the same country as you!!! That's a pretty weird thought, but I am getting more excited about being home, I miss my own bed, and having a wardrobe, and not having to carry my passport round everywhere, and heaps of other things that you take for granted at home. i'm sure that in a couple of weeks I'll miss my backpack, but the thought of not lugging it around at the moment is a good one! (But now I feel like I'm bitching about a friend.. I've become very attached to my Karrimor, and find it very comforting! It's always been there for me, as a seat, my home, my wardrobe, I think I'll be lost without it and may continue to pack it every day...)

I'm off now to do a bit of street shopping on Ko Sahn Road, I'm going to try bartering... I'll probably be paying full price for everything.... But since that is not much anyway I don't think I'll worry too much! The pics are of my last day and night in Ko Samui. Good times.

Bangkok and beyond

This is only going to be a quick post to update my Thai adventures so far - I'm sure I'll be home when I put pics up and finish off my year of blogging, I need a conclusion after all!

Thailand is amazing, in a variety of ways, good and bad! Arriving in Bangkok my first reaction was, I just want to go home now. It's really quite terrifying! Full of people, crazy driving, markets, food stalls, it's completely insane. On the first day me and Wendy, who I met in Perth, went out to a tiger temple, where we stroked tigers, visited a floating market- which is the best and worst way to throw yourself into a new country/civilization/culture etc! It is so crazy, it's really hot and I had complete culture shock, pretty much in a daze just looking around in bewilderment! We also visited the bridge over the river Kwai, which was pretty cool and we walked over it as well. The next day (after a night on Ko Sahn Road) we had a nice lie in and then headed to the Grand Palace, which is beautiful, we also saw the Emerald Buddha which is so amazing we were quite mesmerized by it. That night we had a proper night out on Ko Sahn Road, and we wandered back into the guesthouse at 6am, only to have to check out at 11.30am, we pretty much wandered around in a daze for that day, preparing for our train journey up to Chiang Mai. however, we got to the station, had our tickets taken off us and without a word being said, or any explanation whatsoever, we had our money refunded, then told that the train was broken. Whether this was a nasty Thai scam or true we have yet to discover - but we had to pay extra to get a bus up to Chiang Mai so I'm thinking they conned us - which happened to a lot of the people on the bus too. Ah well, we got there earlier than expected so could have a powernap! The next day we headed out of Chiang Mai to go elephant riding, which was awesome, scary when the Elephant went a little rebellious whilst I was sat on it's neck and the guide was standing hitting it with a bamboo stick and feeding it lychees. We did have a nicer experience with a baby elephant earlier, we were taking pictures and a guy randomly came up to us and untied this little elephant, and let us sit on that one! It was so cute but surprisingly prickly!

We flew from Chiang mai down to Phuket where our beach adventures began, however the beach we stayed at (Patong) is similar to.... Benidorm, or I might even have to say Blackpool. We had a couple of goog nights out there but hastily left for Ko Phi Phi which is exactly what you imagine Thailand's beaches to be like, we are staying on a secluded beach in a bungalow, literally on the beach. It's lovely and relaxing, and the view from the bungalow is Ko Phi Phi Leh, where The Beach was filmed, and today we got a boat around there to Maya beach, which is the actual beach. It is beautiful but sadly was pouring with rain. Now it's lovely and hot again, giving me the opportunity to top up my tan before I get home to all you pale people. Ha ha haaaa!

Our experiences in Thailand so far have been mixed, the transport mainly has been our downfall - as I said to Wendy, it's been a comedy of errors, mainly due to us getting drunk the night before we attempt to get anywhere. Although I can't blame it all on that. Sometimes it's just bad planning - such as when we had to carry our checked in luggage to the airplane we were getting onto, because we didn't leave enough time in between flights, then they tried to stop me boarding cos there was scissors in my backpack. (I KNOW!!! YOU WOULDN"T LET ME PUT IT ON THE PLANE!!!!) and we had to pay excess baggage twice when we could've got our luggage put through all the way...... oh well it's all good fun and I'm having a great time seeing Thailand. Only a few days till I'm back home in sunny Wales, so I'll do a lovely concluding page (because I feel like this blog has released my inner writer). See you all (tooo) soon!

Birthday, Oz-Style, and my last week in Australia

I've been in Thailand now nearly a week, after what was an emotional farewell to Australia! Although saying that me and Jillian had an awesome week full of fun, I even treated myself to a hotel on Scarborough Beach for my 23rd Birthday, and we had a fantastic night out. What was also bizarre was going to the beach on my birthday - it was actually a beautiful day, 29 degrees outside so we got some crisps, beers and a happy birthday banner and headed to the beach.(although we had to hide the beer, it's not allowed on the beach...)

After that we got our nails done (!) and then put on our party dresses and headed to Jimmy Dean's on Scarborough Beach, where Jillian got the waitresses to sing happy birthday to me (I wasn't too embarrased at all...) and then we went into Perth, and had a great laugh.. I think... it's all a bit blurry after the bus ride!

My last day in Australia was spent lazing around on the beach, and we headed to the beach again later on for sunset (how sentimental am I?!) but it turned out to be one of the best sunsets I saw in Australia, there was this amazing mist over the beach, and the sea just looked incredible. It was a great way to end my time in Australia, although I'm certain it isn't the last I'll see of it!

So now I'm in Thailand, on my way home, and that's going to have to be a whole new page...

West Coast Rules!

I got back to Perth 2 days ago after what was an amazing week trip up the West Coast of Australia.

We headed up to Kalbarri first, stopping to go sandboarding on the way, which as you can see i was rubbish at (we did start drinking on the bus at around 1pm - well can you think of a better way to get to know people?! It broke the ice considerably!) our next stop was Monkey Mia, where the dolphins come right onto the beach, it is sooo amazing i have some great video of it aswell. The next day we drove up to Coral Bay which is the start of the Ningaloo Reef, which is a beautiful fringing coral reef. There were sharks right up near the beach there it was amazing!

The highlight of this trip, however, was when we reached Exmouth, I went diving with Whalesharks!!!! It was ridiculously scary but so awesome, they're massive and have these huge mouths which is the first part of them you see. We swam with 3 different sharks, although in a comedy moment, I swam alongside the first one without even noticing it!!! I was looking in the wrong direction and was sooo upset that I hadn't seen it, now however I can see the amusing side of it - who could swim with the biggest fish in the sea and not see it?!?! I spotted the next one though (which really isn't hard to miss!!!) and it really was amazing. They're so graceful and calm, although when I saw the mouth the first time (which was coming straight at me) i shouted something into my snorkel which i don't think I can write on here! It was a proper adrenaline rush, different to skydiving but equally as cool.

On the way back down to Perth we stopped at a wildlife park and I held a snake and had a completely unexpected reaction - I was so terrified of this teeny baby snake I involuntarily cried and told them to get it off me! It genuinely surprised me how scared I was and it annoyed me too! how can I jump out of a plane, swim with a shark but not be able to hold a snake?!?! Maybe I do have limits after all....

I need to explain a couple of those pics too, the one of me in a throne is when we visited the Hutt River Province, which is acutally a separate country and has it's own prince, Prince Leonard, who is really old but a legend! He showed us around his country, stamped our passports and everything! It was so funny, look it up on the internet, it's like playing a game (especially the post office - which is also the government offices!!!) It was really cool.

The other photo is one of the best pictures I've ever taken, I'm planning to enter it into some competitions I think it's that good! It was taken at sunrise in Exmouth, just before we went diving with the sharks. I love the colours and the clouds, it was just amazing, and really funny that we had gotten up specifically to see the sunrise on 3 other mornings, but then the one where we could have a lie in (and only 3 of us saw) was the most spectacular. I just thought it was completely amazing.

Neighbours.... Everybody needs good neighbours! (Part 2)

Oh My God!!! I've just been to Ramsay Street, and it's real!!!!

I don't even know what to say about it, but I think the pictures are awesome, and I was actually the biggest Neighbours geek on the Neighbours bus.... It was so funny though,

just walking down Ramsay Street, and visiting Erinsbrough High.... Completely expected to see Harold doing some gardening, and I really wanted to knock on Susan and Karl's door, just to say hi! I really feel like I could leave Australia happy now, my work here is done! (just wanted to add, I don't want to leave... )

Neighbours... Everybody needs good Neighbours!

Just a quick post to say I finally got to the World Famous Neighbours Night last night!!! It's in St Kilda's in Melbourne, and I met the legend that is Dr Karl Kennedy!!! We also met Janelle Timmins, and Connor (who's not in it anymore).

Dr Karl also played with his band, The Waiting Room

and he was awesome, seriously, he sang Foo Fighters, Robbie Williams, Queen, and heaps of other stuff too. What a legend.

Me and Jillian are off to Ramsay Street on Thursday, and I'm too excited about that, it's like my lifelong dream coming true..... (I'm serious too, just ask Mum and Dad!)

The Red Centre (and a long journey)

Well I've had a busy old week, I flew out of Cairns on Sunday, to Alice Springs and left at 6.30am for Uluru, which is about 6 hours away from Alice.

We walked around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and then had champagne (well, cheap sparkling wine anyway!) and nibbles whilst watching the Sunset by Uluru. I'm not sure how to describe Uluru, it is really kind of mysterious, and it seems to glow in the sunshine. Our guide explained the geology of it, but it's still amazing to see this huge rock sticking out of the ground, which is flat as far as the eye can see. I also saw my first wild snake! It was just slithering past while I was sipping my champagne.

We got up at stupid o clock the next day (after camping out) and watched sunrise, which is just as cool as sunset, then walked the base of Uluru. You can climb it but the local Aboriginal paople frown upon it (which gives me an excellent excuse as to why I didn't, nothing about not being bothered....) The base walk takes a couple of hours and it's cool to see the different sides of it, after all it's nothing but desert around so not much to see from the top really! (still making excuses....)

Later that day we drove to King's Canyon, and I slept in a swag that night, which is an Aussie single man tent kind of thing, and honestly is the best night's sleep I've had for ages! So comfortable! We got up super early again for our walk up and around the rim of King's Canyon, which is really impressive actually, you can see ripples in the rock from when it used to be underwater, and there's loads of local stories about why the canyon is there. We got back to Alice Springs that night and the next day I caught the train to Adelaide... I thought, hmm, wouldn't that be a great way to see the desert, blah blah blah. It turns out the desert is the same ALL THE WAY DOWN!!! so I was stuck on a train for 24 hours, and I will one day put extracts from my journal (yes I have a journal!) on here cos it's comedy, I was soooo bored and just drank endless cups of tea and coffee, and ate almost a whole packet of "malt o' milks" whilst trying, and failing miserably, to fall asleep in an aisle chair. You can all imagine the mood I was in when I arrived in Adelaide, only to get into a taxi with a driver who didn't know where he was going...... I got straight into bed when I (finally) arrived at my hostel! I leave here on another overnight trip, this time on the bus, to Melbourne (rookie error I think... will be equally as grumpy when I arrive there at 6am tomorrow!) but I don't care cos my friend Jillian is there, and it's home of Neighbours!!!

you guys are not going to believe this

I don't have the pictures or dvd yet, so i don't expect anyone to believe me, but I wanted to write about it while the adrenaline is still pumping!!! I just did a skydive from 14000 feet over the great barrier reef!!! and landed on the beach!!! It was the most amazing feeling, I was completely terrified going up in the teeny tiny plane, and you don't have much choice about when u r jumping out, it's more you're pushed, which is lucky!! I was freefalling for about 60 seconds, the whole time I was screaming, then the parachute goes and there's a real pull upwards, then it's kind of chilling out and looking around at what's going on, i saw turtles in the sea, and stingrays, it is awesome.

Will pop up some pictures later on when I get them, but for now I need to recover... I may have to lie down for a while!!!!



p.s. Ok pics are up now, how awesome are they? And if u think my face looks funny in stills, just wait till you guys see the video. I didn't know my ears could flap so much!!!

SSSSCCCCCUUUUBBBBBAAAAAAAAA!!!

I just got back yesterday from what I think has been the best part of my whole entire trip. And that's really saying something!!! I went out on a Catamaran and sailed the Whitsunday Islands, just off the coast of Airlie Beach.

The sailing was awesome, we slept on the catamaran and stopped at various bays around the Whitsundays to do some snorkelling and scuba diving, which is the coolest thing ever, I never really fancied trying it but it is completely addictive, it's an amazing feeling of complete weightlessness, and soo much better than snorkelling because the fish just assume you're one of them, and carry on as if normal, occasionally swimming up to you and eyeballing you! The coral is amazing as well, and we saw so many different types, and anemones, and Nemos!!! (I'm on the left in this pic)

We also stopped over at Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, which has sand made of 90% silica, which means it's really, really white and incredibly fine, it gets everywhere, worse than regular sand! As you can see, we were pretty happy to be there... Unfortunately me and Naomi have pretty bad hair in these pics, due to the 2 scuba dives we had done that morning. We did 4 altogether which meant we got free t-shirts! The random hand signage in the pictures means that it's awesome - the thumbs up sign underwater means you want to go up, which we definitely did not!