A&Jadventures

East Coast

aandjadventures — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 19:00:00 GMT

Heyy, Here is another update of our east coast so far....

Bryon Bay
So we arrived in Bryon after a 12 hour sleepless bus journey from terrigal after house sitting for a week. Arriving on Australia day probably wasn't our smartest move, very tired from the journey and then was thrown in the Australian day fun. It was a really good day, we had fun wearing silly hats and playing Aussie games! Byron town in itself is a really relaxed place. Pretty much the whole town walk around barefooted looking hippy like and surfing! Day one we were ambushed by an Aussie man trying to convince us to do a surf lesson for the day, after bartering with him for over an hour we gave in and got a good price. Surfing was so much fun, was a challenging to stay on the board...however, we was both successful standing and staying on the board. Our instructor was easy on the eye , which made motivation a lot easier. The following days we ached lots but was glad we had the opportunity to have a go...next stop Hawaii!. The following day, we took a trek up to the lighthouse to the most easterly point in Australia, it was a longggggg way but was well worth it to see the beautiful views, we stayed to watch the sun set. The rest of our time we visited the quarry, jumped off a few rope swings, had a swim and sun bathed. We also took a short trek along the beach to the tea tree lake, the lake is formed when Tea Tree plants grow beside a lake, as they do at Lake Ainsworth, their supernatural oil drips down into the water, creating something similar to a 'medical bath'. They also give the water a browny color and an almost oily looking layer on top of the water. It doesn't look very appetizing but the water is totally fresh and the tea tree oil works wonders on your skin. After a good long soaking you'll come out of the lake feeling fresh and revitalized!We both felt very nice after :).

Surfers Paradise
As some of you may know myself and Ashleigh work for the Grand Prix in the summer selling merchandise over at silverstone race track,   Matt the Aussie that runs the stalls , offered for us to stay with him in his family home on the gold coast. Gold coast has also been know as 'Mini Miami' , its high rises, beaches and nightlife form this persona... very beautiful and full of big mansions and boats. Matt lived in a very nice house with a pool, his own pontoon, close to the main centre 'Surfers Paradise'. We had a great time and got treated with luxurious foods, clean washing, comfy beds and en suite ...we was in heaven. His family were very welcoming and we had lots of fun with his children! We tried bikrim yoga with his wife jenny-30 degree heat yoga in a room of 30 people. We was very duboius when asked to join her , when telling us how dizzy she felt, for those of you how don't know, its yoga in 40c heat. However, we really enjoyed it, feeling very refreshed and stretched- It was very amusing as myself and ashleigh spent most time trying not to laugh at the impossible yoga positions he was asking us to bend ourselves into. The following days we were there we went to the beach, sunbathed, enjoyed a couple of nights exploring the nightlife, had a few bbqs. All in all a very nice relaxing break to the normal hustle and bustle of traveling life.

Brisbane
After a short bus journey to from the gold coast, we headed to bunk backpackers- really good hostel, was attached to a bar, had its own pool, 20 bed dorms! We had lots of fun here, met lots of people. During our time here we visited south bank. This is the nicer end of town and has its own man made lagoon where we sunbathed and had a dip in the water. Most nights the hostel had activities going on and pool parties during the day so we weren't short of things to do. One of the days we got the citycat (ferry) to Australia Zoo. This was a fun day out, we went with a group of 15 from our hostel. We also took a walk to the botanical gardens for an ice cream. On our last night we went to see Ashleigh's friend Ryan who lives about 30km outside the city to have a BBQ with his flat mates and have a good catch up.

Gagaju bush camp
We was both a bit apprehensive of the highly known to travelers as the Gagaju bush camp, as we have heard so many different reviews. We got picked up from the bus station in a shack on wheels by a bush man called Jessie, he was hilarious, he took us to get some food and to a bottle shop to stock up on the famous 'Goon' ( cheap boxed wine...eww!!) He took us out in the middle of no where to a forest, where two big bunkers with hammock style bunk beds and 10 tents were scattered round. He shipped us off the shack to take us for a look around. The camp had its own man made kitchen area, pool table, ping pong table, camp fire, activity tables. Our first night was great, we had a group of 30 which was split into two for a scavenger hunt ( a race to provide a listed amount of items in the camp in the pitch black) lots of laughter some of the items on our list, group photo in the creek, picture of two team members kissing, picture of someone skinny dipping, cup of swamp mud, 3 cotton buds, left shoe, blue pillow case and pillow, phone charger, black pen etc...
We also played lots of team building games including race to fill up 2 large barrels , using some cups to fill them and only allowed to use the swamp water in the dark..we was covered in swamp mud and had great fun taking on the challenge..our team won. Despite of most team members being in fits of giggles. So..after a restless nights sleep in the bunkers ..listsening to rats, mice, spiders, running around we were woken up at 7am to take a 3mile trek up the river there and 3 miles back in an old riggity canoe . 3 people per boat we set off , it was hard work! we had wind and current againist us, despite having 5 hours of sleep between three of us..it was harder than it seemed. Anyway we headed of to a local swimming area long the river with rope swings and picnic areas where we had some lunch and had a swim with the fishes (massive fish) didnt tell Ashleigh though..shhhhh! she is still under the Illusion no fish were in the water.... After , we headed to a local pub on a beach for a much needed drink and rest..later we headed back slowly but surely.. 20 minutes into our return journey we was deep in conversation when a bull shark leaped out of the water about 2 ft in front of our boat and splashed back in the waster soaking us....I know, you can imagine the shear screems and terror of us trying not to capsize, paddling away and keeping Ashleigh calm- this was not an easy task as she was shouting SHARK and trying to leap out of the canoe. Day two we headed off on a another canoe  trip- despite having to convience Ashleigh that ther shark was a large fish- just to get her back in the boat. We managed to head to a beautiful secluded beach area where we went for a swim in the sea and did some sun bathing... we was on our way back again, having a giglgle about the shark when we found ourselves stranded in shallow waters stuck in our canoes , we managed to push ourselves out. Once we had showered we had a lovely BBQ and sat by the fire till the early hours talking. Overall bush camp was both an experience and was fun, minus the sleeping arrangements- we had a great time.

Rainbow beach for Frazer island - which we will inform you all about in our next blog...way to much writing in one day! sorry!

15 hour bus journey later sat on a wheel arch clutching onto our seats for dear life we arrived in Airlee from Rainbow beach for our Whitsundays trip. We stayed in an 8 bed dorm in rainbow for 2 nights, Airlee is a small beach town, quite quiet, not much to see, wasn't much of a beach as it was more of a port for trip boats. It was nice to have a few chill out days from recent traveling and to prepare for the 2 nights 3 days on our Whitsunday trip we was about to embark on . During our time over the two days we sun bathed at the hand made lagoon, meet up with some friends from bush camp and Frazer island.
We headed to the docks at 2.30pm to have our briefing before boarding the Atlantic Clipper for Whitsundays; Whitsundays are made up of 74 islands of which most travellers book on to various different boats to visit all these islands- the boat we choose catered for 54 people! As we boarded we were sent upstairs for a briefing of the boat, we was introduced to the skipper and the crew of the boat, was informed of the basics of the boat we was traveling on, and the plan of the next two days, the most important bit obviously..when we was going to be fed. We was then put in 3's or 4's to be put into our rooms, we had some dinner ( still not sure how one guy in the smallest, hottest kitchen i have ever seen prepared for 54 people plus crew). The next few hours, were spent labeling our 'goon' to put in the freezers, we had a wonder round the boat and had a dip in the jacuzzi ( which was made up of sea water and was freezing), we were all given stinger suite as it was stinger season so the sea was filled with jellyfish ( not the most attractive attire but we rocked it of course) we threw ourselves down the water slide and jumped off the boat, we headed off to our docking point for the night. Later on in the evening we had a game of speed dating to introduce ourselves, mind you was it was a bit difficult as the ratio was 18: 36 ladies, we had fun and was an ice breaker to get to know each other...Then the karaoke came out...! Well ...it was poor but you think you should great after a few drinks!
6.30 wake up call of a local Fijian song and shouting, banging on the doors by the crew and the sound of the engine moving to our next reef point, we was summoned to the lounge for breakfast, after a few cups of coffee we got our stinger suits, snorkels and noodles ( flotation aids), the crew informed us of the safety gestures we needed to perform so the crew can indenitfy whether we want picking up, any bleeding, drowning or problems in the water. We headed out in groups on a smaller boat towards the reef to be plunged in to look at the coral and the beautiful marine life. I would like to add here, this was ashleigh's first time snorkelling ( as she's scared of fishes) very proud of her as she plunged herself in and tried to keep calm ( im not sure whether she plunged herself longing for the promise of her hangover to go ) The crew watched up from the smaller boats to keep an eye on us, they also brought fish food, to bring all the fish to the surface , i can't explain how many fish came to the surface, thousands all different shapes and sizes all diving in your hair, body, face etc but was great fun...ash was not so keen, however, she stuck it out and kept quite calm. we both really enjoyed it..! We also had opportunity to sunbathing on the decking, go down the slide and jump in the now heated jacuzzi!
That night we had a lovely buffet dinner, the crew put on some activity games ..and we had some drinks. The following day we headed to our next snorkelling point, this reef was a lot shallower and we got to see more of the different colours of the reef and go to meet Elvis (napoleon maori wrasse) He was huge, you could ride him! We got to feed him and stroke him, ash re framed from putting her head in the water in denial of his existence ...asking me to see if he was near her every 2 seconds, very proud of no screams or tears miss smith! . When all jumped back on board to head to whitehaven beach, one of the most photographed paces in Australia, famous for its aqua blue water and pristine sand, whitehaven stretches over seven kilometers along Whitsunday island, the largest of the 74 islands in the Whitsundays. Idyllic place, we were taken to an amazing 'look out' place to see the picturesque views (photos to follow) we had opportunity to explore the beach and have a dip in the sea!
The last day , the crew talked about the different islands, famous people who live, or travel the islands , about the route we took, depth of sea in different locations , the Atlantic clipper, past stories of travelers who have been on the boat etc.
The following day, we headed back to Arlie... sunbathing, sleeping and well earned rest, ready for the next bus to Cairns!!

We arrived in Cairns after a ten hour bus journey from Airlie beach! It was during the day from 9am until 7pm so very boring!! But they did play a few movies on the coach to pass the time.

Our first night in Cairns we checked into the notorious Gilligan's!! Biggest party hostel up the East Coast of Australia. The hostel is huge!! But really well layed out, probably the best one that we have stayed in as far as facilities etc. go! It has its own man made beach, bar and nightclub attached to it. We were pretty tired from the journey so didn't make it out that evening. But we did go downstairs for our 'free' backpackers meal! (after you've spent $6 on a drink) We were served vegetable curry (tomato puree and rice) and Chilli Con Carne (Mince and rice) ! Never the les for $6 we couldn't complain. We decided to get an early night as we had to be up at 7am for Uncle Brian's!

Uncle Brian's is a day trip that we were encouraged to do by most people we have met along the way.. The brochure doesn't do it any justice but everyone we spoken to assured us that this was a must do! So off we went..! We were greeted by 'Cousin Brad' on Uncle Brian's bus that morning outside the hostel. There were 21 of us, and he managed to remember all of names in one go after asking us just once when we got on the bus! Our first stop was the Rain Forest in Babinda. He drove up into the mountains and we had a chance to walk through the forest to a look out point. We saw some HUGE spiders in the trees and had the chance to wonder round and look for snakes (much to our dismay!) After our group had walked through the trail, everyone had the chance to swim in the lake and jump off the rocks into the water. It was freezing! But certainly was a good day to wake us up! Drinks and snacks were provided and then we headed off to the next spot! Next stop was Josephine Falls. This was one of the largest water falls that falls from the top of the mountains into a series of rock pools all the day down the a large one at the bottom. You are not allowed to swim at the top and the water current is too strong. We made our way to the large pool at the bottom. Along the side is a strong white water current rushing down into another smaller pool, we had to jump over the current and swim to the rock face. (Not as dangerous as it sounds mothers don't worry!!) Everyone climbed up the rocks and at the top there is a 'rockslide' This is just a smooth rock face with water cascading down it, you can sit yourself at the top and slide down into the pool! It was great fun. We did this several times! You'll see this In the pictures...After Josephine falls we made our way up to Inisfail to have some lunch. Everyone is taken to a little restaurant up in the mountains for lunch. We were served chicken, cous cous, salad and dessert! Backpackers heaven after our school dinner like meal the evening before. We stayed here for a while and Cousin Brad explained that next we would be going to Milla Milla Falls.. This is where Peter Andre filmed 'Mysterious girl' the one hit wonder. He told us that here we would be doing a 'photoshoot' everyone was to strike a 'sexy' pose and do a hair flick for the camera! I'm not sure the boys were to impressed with this. We made it down to Milla Milla falls, the water was sooo cold! But we dived straight in and swam to the back of the waterfall to sit on the rocks. Cousin Brad told us we had to all jump off and swim into the waterfall for our 'free massage' Thought I'm not so sure you could quite call it that... More like a pelting! You jumped off, swim under and are then crushed by the flow of water as you attempt in your out of breathe state to swim back round.. Nevertheless it was amusing. Then came the time for the 'photoshoot' He basically made us stand there and bend over to get our hair wet, we had to count down and flick our hair back on 3 to get the image effect of the water flicking! Ashleigh and I decided to try and do one together... This only took about 10 attempts! We all stayed here and swam around for a while and explored some more of the rain forest. From here Brad took us all to Malanda to swim in a Volcano! Upon arrival it just looks like a large lake, but it is actually formed over a volcano and is over 150metres deep. The water is a lot warmer here so we were happy to have this after the freezing waterfalls! We all made our way down to the deck that sits on the edge of the water and jumped in for a swim. The lake is beautiful and we enjoyed our time here. Next stop Gordonvale to try and find a platypus! They have a breeding ground here, we stopped for much needed hot chocolate and muffins, and then made our way to the look out point in search of a platypus! Everyone had to be very quiet in order to not scare them away, we had to wait quite a while but we managed to see a few swimming in the water! After Gordonvale it was nearly time to head back to Cairns, but not before heading back to Uncle Brian's lodge for a drink and a wonder round before making the long drive back. The lodge was in the middle of no where but really small and cosy. We wondered around had a drink and played with the didgeridoos until Cousin Brad announced it was time to leave. The journey home was hilarious, the most windy road we have ever seen. Our journey back consisted of us singing very loudly to Oasis and dancing the Macarena along with various other songs, and just generally being silly. Al in all we had a great day on Uncle Brian's and had a great group to do it with. We made our way back to our hostel, had some dinner and headed downstairs to the bar for a few drinks with some friends we met in Fraser Island.

The following day Ashleigh and myself spent the day trying to sort ourselves out! Boring chores like laundry and making sure all flight details etc were printed and ready for Bali on Friday!!! (Anyone would think were excited...) That evening we cooked dinner with some friends at the hostel and had quiet evening as we were due to get up early for a Scuba Diving tour in the morning.

Next stop...A date with Nemo on the Great Barrier Reef! This was a brilliant day we had so much fun. Ashleigh and I made our way down to the reef terminal in the morning to check in on our boat. A member of the crew asked us if we wanted to try a scuba dive... we were very apprehensive but he assured us that we could try to equipment on etc, complete the safety exercises in the water and then decide from there whether we could like to continue on with a dive, so we found ourselves agreeing and signing up! Once on the boat we had time for a tea and coffee before we were taking for our diving safety briefing.. we were put into the last group so we would be diving last. (Not sure whether this was good or not!) If you have your own SD card you can hire a good quality camera to take pictures under the water so we decided to do this! We had to have photos of Nemo of course!! We spent the morning snorkelling and trying to find ourselves a turtle/shark! It was great fun, the Barrier Reef is a lot larger and there are twice the amount of fish up here than there was in the Whitsundays. We managed to find Nemo and get some great photos in the water. One of the crew members dove down beneath us and took some great underwater pictures of us that you will see on the blog.. After snorkelling it was time for lunch so we made our way inside (we were the first ones up with our plates of course) We had lunch as the boat made its way to the next dive/snorkel location. The journey there was rough when you sat out on top deck and we found ourselves holding on the stay in place! Once we arrived at the next place it was our turn to dive! We heard our names being called and nervously made our way down to the back of the boat to get our kit on. We didn't realise just how heavy all the gear would be and found ourselves becoming increasingly nervous. We were told to sit on the platform on the back of the boat with our feet in the water. One by one we lowered ourselves in. Only to be yanked down by our ankles by a crew member! We had to take it in turns to show that we understood all the safety procedures under water. How to clear your mask of water, how to regulate your ears every metre on the way down, how to breathe properly, and how to take out our regulator and clear it of water. It seemed like so much to remember but we managed it and before we knew it we were diving down! The dive itself was amazing!! We saw two reef sharks, turtles, clown fish, and a huge fish called a Napoleon Marie Wrasse. Those are just the ones we can name... There were so many beautiful fish down there, the dive seemed to go so quickly and we would of loved to do it again. We are both so glad that we had the opportunity to do this.. How many times do you get the chance to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef... Once back on board it was time to head back to shore. One of the crew provided on board entertainment with his guitar and got everyone singing along to the likes of Bob Marley all the way home... The cheese and wine that was served made it even better. Overall we had a such brilliant day and wished we could of done it again.

That night we met up with a group of girls that we had met back in Noosa and some girls that we met on the Whitsundays. It was a great evening, we all met downstairs for dinner and headed out for some drinks in the club attached to our hostel. It was great to see everyone again and we had a really good night!

Today has been our last day in Cairns :( We can't believe that the East Coast has gone so quickly. It seems like yesterday that we were in Sydney booking It all. We have spent the day today exploring Cairns itself and headed down to the lagoon for a few hours in the Sun.. Tonight will be our last night with all the girls that we have met along the way so a glass of wine is in order to say our goodbyes!

Next stop BALI! We leave via airport shuttle at 4.55am tomorrow morning (ouch) We will be flying into Denpasar and then heading into Kuta for two days, then we will make our way up to Ubud,Padang Bai and then off to the Gilli Islands for the last 5 days of our trip... I'm not sure two girls could be more excited if they tried!!

Love always xxxxx

Photos: East Coast

aandjadventures — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 18:34:00 GMT

From Byron to Cairns!

Photos: Elephant trekking/Mangroves/Sydney

aandjadventures — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 21:00:00 GMT

Sydney!

aandjadventures — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 16:37:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

Since we last spoke we got a bus/boat across to Koh Lanta, for a few well-earned relaxing days. Koh Lanta was probably the quietest of the Island that we visited in Thailand. We stayed near Klong Dao beach a few kilometres out of town. It was quite remote place, not much around. We spent our time here on the beach and went kayaking through the mangroves. You can rent a kayak for half a day and go out onto the water with bananas to feed to monkeys! They jump down on the boat and you can feed them by hand… You have to quick as it’s hard to keep up when a family of 50 monkeys jump on your kayak to fight over the one bunch of bananas we were given! Baring me in mind we also had to make sure they weren’t stealing our bags! Too many things to think of once but we came out alright… The night time in Koh Lanta is very peaceful, lots of nice beach front bars to have quiet drinks. We spent the evenings doing just this or visiting the local town.

Back to Krabi! We had to come back to mainland in order to get our flight to Krabi, so decided to catch an early morning minibus from Koh Lanta, so that we could have the day in Krabi and do our elephant trekking! The elephant trekking is out in Ao Nang which is the other side of Krabi. We had a fantastic day here, of course our elephant Wontong.. (What a name!!) was the naughtiest of the bunch and refused several times to cross the river. Never the less we made it, and continued on a trek through the jungle. Our guide insisted that we take turns sitting the correct way on the elephant’s neck so that he could take 100 photos of us we felt like we were on a photo shoot. And I quote “Ohhh yes very nice” and “Pretty english girl’s look here!” I think he wanted to relieve himself of the task of attempting to get Wantong back to base! So we were left to contend with a misbehaving elephant, having to shout commands, tickle his ears with your feet in order to encourage him to walk, and dodge the branches that he insisted on picking up with his trunk to smack us in the face with!! Once safely back at base, we were able to feed Wantong his bananas and then head over to the ‘waterhole’ for play time! This consisted of sitting on Wontongs neck as he plunged himself and us into the water, continuously using his trunk to spray us with water.. Pictures to follow!

We were only back in Krabi for one day, so we headed back to our hostel for the night ready to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur in the morning. Our room was above what can only be described at a nightclub we resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t be sleeping. We went downstairs to collect our passports as our taxi was coming at 5am only to then discover that the hostel manager had left the premises and gone home for the night, leaving our passports locked in the drawer. This then became a wild goose chase, asking in the local bars and hostels if anyone knew where the owner was! We eventually managed to contact the taxi company who were due to pick us up, and got hold of the manager to come back and give us our passports. By the time we managed this it was 4am, and our taxi was coming at 5!

The flight to KL was quick only an hour, so we arrived in KL 10 hours before our flight to Sydney.. Not so appealing when you’ve had no sleep! Though thanks to Mother and Father Smith we were able to spend the day in the airport lounge, making the most of the free food (which I can assure you we did!) and the unlimited flow of wine. Once we checked out of the plaza lounge we made our way to the international terminal, only to discover that our flight had been delayed 3 hours! And so the waiting game began… !!

Kuala Lumpur to Sydney… Probably not the best flight we’ve had…Lots of turbulence both absolutely shattered and cramped. Though pestering the air hostess for red wine every 15 minutes seemed to make it more bearable! Jenna’s leg decided to have a mind of its own. Her trapped nerve meant her leg was frantically twitching every minute, so poor Jen spent 90% of the 9 hour flight, doing laps of the airplane. Whilst I occasionally woke up to see if she was still on board! After 9 hours of broken sleep we arrived very tired in Sydney!! So we were 48 hours down and still no further with sleep…

We arrived in Sydney at 9am Christmas eve with ‘Santa Claus is coming to town blasting in our ears’ We heaved ourselves to collect our bags and made our way out to get a taxi to the city. Not before paying $9 for two cokes!!! Bit of a culture shock from Asian prices.

Touchdown Sydney! We made it straight to bed for a well-earned nap… this only lasted a couple hours before we found ourselves being introduced to goon (disgustingly cheap boxed wine!) and a night out on the town to celebrate Christmas eve.. Several drinking games were played, and this was the day that Jenna and I were to become beer pong champions! This must have been beginners luck as I can assure you we were rubbish in Asia!! We headed out into the city for a few drinks and returned by midnight as lack of sleep was catching up with us. The following morning we woke up to the smell of barbecued Kangaroo , this was a great change from the smell of roast turkey, Brussels sprouts and mulled wine at home! Christmas day.. So of course we did what every living backpacker does, and bought a $5 Santa hat and made our way to Bondi Beach! We didn’t stay here too long and ended up making our way to Coogee Beach, mainly because they allowed you to take booze on the beach! Sold! We resorted to playing games… like cricket.. Which we would later discover would become the bane of our lives in Sydney! It was a great day we had a lot of fun, very surreal, it didn’t really feel like Christmas day…

Over the following weeks, we did a lot of the usual touristy attractions in Sydney! Of course we went down to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. We had great weather pretty much the whole time we were there which was brilliant. Up to highs of 36c! The first week we also spent a lot of time down at Coogee and Bondi beach.

One of Jenna’s friends from home is working in Sydney at the Sydney Sky Tower. This meant we got a free Sky Walk! The tower is 309m high... Again much to my dismay! You are taken up to the observation deck which is outside and made to wear jumpsuits and plimsolls whilst they harness you.. I was convinced by this point that Jenna had lied and we were actually there to do a bungee jump off of the tower. Everyone was harnessed onto a hook which was attached to the railing on the sky deck. The doors open and you follow the guide outside for your tour. The view of the city was incredible; you make your way around the edge of the tower. Another surprise when I realised Jenna had failed to mention the GLASS decking, you are lured into a false sense of security… until this platform extends out and you find yourself 309m above the city with a clear view of the drop below.

New Year’s Eve! – We went with a group of people to a district called Bal Main which is about 3km from city centre. There is a park there with a clear view of the Harbour Bridge. Lots of people camping out for the night, very busy and lots of beer and boxes of goon being passed around! We had a great evening and a fab view of the fireworks at midnight. All in all a good way to end 2013, we decided to make our way back for more drinks. People were queuing up for taxis and every bus pulling up was full. So in our less than sober state we decided it would be a brilliant idea to walk all the way back to the city. This did allow us to walk over the Anzac Bridge (every cloud) however three hours later sober and legs hurting we arrived back home and wondered what on earth we had been thinking!

The following week we spent our time discovering more of the city. Visiting the Botanical and Chinese gardens, and spent some time at the outdoor pool, doing a lot of walking around the city. During this time became addicted to Froyo (Frozen Yogurt!) Hard not to when there is a shop every 5 metres down the street!

On our last weekend in Sydney, we made our way to the Blue Mountains. This was incredible. We stopped at various points along the way. Wentworth falls, echo point, the three sisters, giant stairway… It was absolutely beautiful, some of the most amazing views we’ve seen so far, and literally the mountains are blue! There is a blue haze that falls over them and surrounds the area. Hopefully you will see in our photos.

Our last full day was spent getting the ferry across the harbour to Manly Beach! Where we treated ourselves to burritos, sunbathing and froyo’s for the last time! A very enjoyable way to end Sydney!

We are currently now in Terrigal, which is about an hour north of Sydney, house sitting for Harry’s cousin Amanda. Feeding the cat and fish whilst they are away, they have a beautiful house right on the lagoon and within walking distance to the beach so we can’t complain! We will be here until the 25^th when we start to head up the East Coast to Byron Bay!

For those of you who don’t know. Jenna and I have booked our trip up the east coast, via hop on hop off bus all the way from Newcastle to Cairns. Our first stop is Byron Bay, then onto Gold Coast, Brisbane, Fraser Island, Noosa the Whitsundays and Cairns. During this time we have lots of things organised but we will tell you about these as we go along!!

We have also decided that we wanted to go to Bali.. So we will be heading to Denpasar on the 28^th of February for ten days! In which time we hope to visit Kuta, Ubud and the Gilli Islands as we have heard so many great things about them! After Bali we will be heading back into Melbourne to work for the Grandprix and then making our way to Auckland on the 19^th of March. We will try our best to upload as much as we can along the East Coast and keep you updated on all the things we will be doing!

Lots of love as always

Ash and Jen xxxxx

Ho Chi Minh, Cambodia...Thailland so far!

aandjadventures — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Sorry its a late post- We updated recently from Cambodia to only realise it didn't upload or save. Apologies if its a brief update, connection isn't great out here!!

Ho Chi Minh City

We only had two days here, our first full day we spent exploring the city and visiting the war remnants museum, this is probably the most graphic and moving of the war museums we have visited. However very biased to the Americans, not covering there side of the story. It was definitely a tear jerker, realising the devastation that occurred during this terrible time. Unfortunately we didn't have more time here, our schedule required us to move on!

Next stop...Pnomh Penh

We spent 3 days here, mainly visiting the Killing fields and s21 genocide museum- You hire a tuk tuk driver to take you to these places- our first stop was the killing fields. It was $6 for an audio tour- which was well worth it. The Killing fields are in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during 1975 to 1979 immediately after the end of the Cambodian civil war. Innocent people were taken from their homes with the promise of better jobs and provision for their families. Mothers, fathers, cousins, aunties, grandparents and children were brought here to be tortured and executed. There are a number of mass graves , the audio tour takes you around the sight telling a moving story about the regime and survival stories of the people under pol pots ruling. All in all extremely upsetting, it was worth visiting. We are glad we had the opportunity to show our respects to the people who were killed during that time.

From here we went to S21. This is a former high school which was used as the notorious security prison 21 (S21) by the Khmer rouge regime between 1975- 1979. S21 was only one of at least 150 execution centers in the country, as many as 20,000 prisoners there were killed. No audio tour here and slight lack of information which meant we couldn't fully comprehend what went on here. Some of the main leaders under the Khmer rouge still haven't been correctly sentenced, though they have been detained, they are not expected to receive full liability until as late as 2014- some of them in their 90's!!

Siem Reap

Of course here we did the famous Angkor Wat sunrise- despite getting up at 4am to get in the freezing cold tuk tuk it was a spectacular sight and well worth it. You have to get there early to avoid the flocks of people and traveling to get the best view. We had hired our own tuk tuk driver called 'BATMAN' for this day- lovely guy, genuine gentleman. After Angkor Wat he took us to the surrounding temples, giving us brief history on each one. He kept stopping to show us different sights and historic buildings. By around mid day, as you can imagine we were very tired having gotten up so early, he took us back for a power nap and offered to come and collect us late that afternoon to visit the silk farm free of charge. The silk farm was great. We got a little tour and got to see how they nurture the silk worms and collected the silk once ready. This place was really incredible, catering for jobless women mainly, training them up yearly to create such beautiful, crafted hand made silk form wooden manual machines- skilful work!

.....Moving on to Thailand

Krabi- Visited 1 night only - not so much to see here, not really an island, just the main port for traveling to islands!

Stayed in a really cool hostel called 'Pak up' all the dorms were school subjects, they had a playground and roof top bar which was great to meet people and getting involved in drinking games. The following day we boarded the long tail boat to Railey beach- quite a small beach, lots of tourists! We stayed in a hill top shack , sharing with lots of monkeys trying to still all your food and drink out of your hands.We sun bathed all day, in the afternoon we had a stroll on the beach, walked up to see the view point while we watched the sun set and then explored a few bars :) we played some crazy Jenga which the locals taught us and enjoyed a few frozen margarita's.......

Koh Phi Phi

Only a short ride from Railey beach by tail boat- 5 days of glorious sunshine ..hahaha Hope you are all enjoying the winter!!!

The main beach here is to be desired, so we decided to do the jungle trek to long beach...literally hoisting yourselves across ropes up in the hill side of the islands. Its about a 45 min walk..slogging in the heat but well worth it. Flip flops maybe wasn't the ideal footwear for this...but Oh well no bones broken. This is a lovely beach, soft white sand and clear water, we could only last 5 mins in the sun before we had to make a dash for the sea to cool down. Very pretty scenery and had a very lazy day...until the sun set!

The next day we booked ourselves for tour of the islands...Maya Bay, Monkey Island, Phi Phi Lay lagoon, Shark Point etcWe boarded on to a long tail boat with around 15 others, only to discover we were the only girls willing to do the cliff jump, only to decide maybe there was reason for this??... So shark point first for a bit of cliff jumping, they provide you rock climbing shoes and literally drop you in the sea to swim to the cliffs, whilst hoisting yourselves up a sheer rock face to climb with no harness or ropes!!!!! Once me and Ashleigh took turns lifting each other up the rock pushing each other up by our bottoms, we were faced with a 11 meter drop to begin. Unfortunately as the other guys were real gentleman let us limb the rock first ,little did we realise we would then be the first to jump......fear set in. What was worst was that miss smith ( scared of heights) was first up in the rank....legs shaking and close to tears...as well as the boys joking to push her off..she kindly stepped back and suggested I go first..brilliant! what a good friend! This was the longesssttttt jump of our livessss, it felt like you was falling for forever trying to miss the rock beside of the cliff , as we had to leap to insure we landed in a safe place, whilst also jumping in the correct position, this is lot to think about at one time considering you're balancing on a tiny rock to leap from with a sheer drop. Needless to say we both made it. Ashleigh swam back to the boat immediately...clearly once was enough , I scaled the rock climb once more to have a second go at a breath taking 15 meters...wow! The swim back to the boat was very hard work as the water was choppy and you are still shaking from the jump..took a while to get there . Once safely on the boat we went for a snorkel to see the sharks, nemo fish and lots of jelly fish...was great once you got used to the breathing and strong current. From here went went on to Phi Phi lay lagoon... postcard perfect. Due to Ashleigh's motion sickness the guide wrapped a life jacket round her and literally threw her in the water for some chill out time with all of us , despite her green face, she was camouflaged in these beautiful waters! We had a good swim and set off for Monkey island- as soon as we arrived we was greeted by some veteran monkeys (Maybe even older then our fossil Dads!!!!) who clearly ruled the island, we were given pineapple and melon to feed them and gave them water from our water bottles to drink from...very cute! Whilst Ashleigh was sat rocking on the sand telling me this motion sickness was life threatening.....! Maya bay... or those of you who don't know this i where they filed 'The beach' unfortunately Leo wasn't here to greet us.....devastated!!! We got the opportunity to explore the National Park and had a swim the the blue waters. We all hopped back on the boat to watch the sun set and headed to another corner of the island to snorkel with the glowing plankton- those of you who don't know, you swim the the caves where its dark, swish your arms around rapidly to see little flecks of light in the water ..really cool but COLD!! Headed back for some dinner and a few drinks!!

Koh phangan

Full moon and jungle experience- for those who don't know, once a month on the full moon the island hosts a huge beach party and thousands flock to Haad Rin to dose themselves in neon paint and dance till the early hours. The beach in itself isn't a place you would really go to chill on during the day and there wasn't much to see but served the purpose for full moon. We had a lot of fun and got a bit tipsy- hard not to when buckets of drink were $1. Koh Lanta next.......we will update you soon.

Love always! xxxx

Vietnam so far

aandjadventures — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 11:47:00 GMT

So a little bit about Vietnam. Hanoi is a very big busy city I don't think we've ever seen so many mopeds. You definitely risk your life when you cross those roses. A pair of scared chickens! We arrived late that night so just had an early one as we were tired. The following day we bumped into some people from vang vieng and ended up booking onto castaway island cruise to Ha Long bay! We spent one day looking around the Vietnam prison museum.. V bias they certainly don't like the Americans! We went back to the hostel the the roof top (free beer) to play games and meet other travellers.! Another fairly early one as we were up at 6am for a coach to the Ha Long bay port. The boat took us right into Ha Long bay where we were to dock for the night on the boat. Everyone had a chance to go kyacking through the 'dragon caves' Jenna and I spent majority of the time paddling in circles, but soon picked up a rhythm shouting "LEFT, RIGHT,LEFT,RIGHT" eventually got the hang of it despite being in fits of giggles!! When we got back onto the boat it was getting dark and we had the opportunity to jump from the deck into the sea! Which was beautiful lit up from the moon light!! Thought I might die on the way down!! Jenna braved it from top deck I think she was the only one !! The evening was spent playing drinking games, dinner on the boat and getting to know the others... Music and dancing until the early hours !! The next day we boarded the taxi boat to 'castaway island' it's a small island with a collection of open beach shacks with dorm style rooms.. We explored the island a bit and went high speed tubing !! This was hilarious it's basically a giant inflatable circle you lay on your stomachs and hold on for dear life!! They take you right out to the middle of the sea and try and throw you off as quick as possible. We had such a laugh doing this. We have photos but were unable to upload these at the moment as the computers here don't have the facility to do so! That afternoon Jenna did some rock climbing up to around 215ft!!!! She made it!! Bruised legs and grazed knees but still smiling. Jenna wouldn't let me climb because of my back ;( it's like having mum and dad there !!!! Though probably wise. More drinking games that evening and a midnight swim... The following day was spent heading back to hanoi which took most of the day..

We spent one more day in HAnoi looking around the natural history museum the weather was rainy so we decided to book our bus to Hue. We purchased a hop on hop off bus ticket which takes us all the way down the Saigon.

Next stop was Hue. Jenna woke up around 6am to a Vietnamese man caressing and kissing her hand ?? The bus is a sleeper bus as some of the trips are over night! It's basically just reclining chairs in pods..

We spent our time in Hue renting bikes and cycling to the old imperial city and the tombs. Around 10km out of town. On the way we managed to stumble on some martial arts. Jenna has a video which we will upload too. Day two we were up early for a bus to Thong Nah caves.. To then catch a boat over to the actual caves. You split into groups of 4 in small tail boats (the opening was so small you had to duck) nearly had heart failure in the process. You ride through to te dry section where you were able to get out and walk through some of it to other side to catch the boat back.. It was a great experience!!

We only spent one more night in Hue and then caught a day bus to Hoi an. This is probably the quietest place we have been. Beautiful at night and lit up with lots of lanterns across the Japanese bridge and moonlit restaurants. We loved it here ! There are tailors and shoe shops everywhere there. We both got dresses made the custom fit as a treat at very cheap price! We took a tour to the My Son Holyland . This is a world heritage sight made up of various old temples, it was beautiful but a shame that the weather wasn't great for us. The second day in Hoi An we rented bikes and cycled the 4km to the beach and layed there for a while. No sun as such but it was warm enough to enjoy. Unfortunatly the bus to Nha Trang was fully booked we so ended up staying another night. We didn't do much other than eat at the same restaurant we had been to most night.!! Less than a £1 for local pho ga or pho bo noodle soup. We can't complain!!

Next stop Nha Trang.. The night bus was horrendous. They pack it full of locals and people sleep on the aisles. We spent most of time trying to read Jenna's book from the light of my kindle and balancing ritz crackers on our stomachs. Lights out at 7pm!! You can't see a thing. There's only two toilets stops in 13 hour, or should we say squat stops! We were warned about a huge spider, probably the size of our hands in the toilet so took to the bushes instead. Keeping a watch out for eachother... We arrived in Nha Trang this morning at 6am and went straight to the hostel for a few hours nap. Today we went to Thap Ba, hot springs and mud baths evening though it was raining it was still a lot of fun. You bath in the mud for 15 minutes and then move into a salt water spray down through a small tunnel and then head for the hot mineral baths for 40mins!! Nice to have a day of relaxation after all the horrific local sleeper buses we have endured...

There is not much to do here when weather is so bad so tomorrow we now onto Mui Ne to see the sand dunes and hopefully do some sand boarding! The weather seems to be much better there so were keen to move on for some sun!

Updates to follow soon...:

Much love as always xxxxx

Laos!

aandjadventures — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:10:00 GMT

Sorry its been a while guys, we have been really busy travelling between places and have struggled with wifi access. So where do we start…..well the overnight train took us to Nong Khai (that was intresting) We manged to get a few bed bug bites and considering the feeling of being vertical, we are convinced the train was travelling rapidly down hill and so didn’t manage to get much sleep. After meeting a french train buddy called Peter, he helped us figure out our next destination and took us to get some local food, chicken larp and sticky rice. We shared a tuk tuk to the ‘friendship bridge’ and then had to purchase a bus ticket to the border. Getting into laos was a bit tricky- we didn’t realise that all 10 ATM’S wouldn’t be working and didn’t manage to get any money out before crossing the boarder.

We caught the bus to vientiane, then arranged our mini bus to Vang Vieng which took 4 hours or so. We arrived quite late, the hostel we wanted was booked up so we stayed in a guest house next door for half the price. The following day we went Tubing- for those of you who don’t know….. basically travelling down the river inrubber rings, along the river there are 3 bars and as you travel down thr river they pull you in with rope. Great fun, we played beer pong, volley ball and had a beer or five. We went out with a few people we met that day and bar hopped down the road from were we was staying- had some lovely food too! Following day we had a lie and decided to rent some bicycles to explore more of Laos.

After check out, the next morning we booked our bus to Luang Prabang. Suddenly didn’t seem so appealing when 2 o clock rolled round and what can only be described as a shack on wheels came to pick us up. No air con and polly pocked sized seats, we crammed our bodies into the back, crushing our knee caps! The road was a horrendous quality but the views were spectacular, the journey felt like a life time. We were certainly happy to lay down at the hostel after. We ended up have an early night and got up for Kuang Si waterfalls in the morning, the place really is postcard perfect and had great fun jumping off waterfalls and swinging from rope swings in to the clear blue water. We stayed there for most part of the day with a couple of girls from our dorm, later that evening we grouped together with some peple from the hostel and went out for some drinks. Very different to Vang Vieng, everything closes at 11pm and everyone goes to the ‘bowling alley’ to finish the night, not for the bowling of course, more for the fact that they don’t stop selling booze untill 2am!

All in all we really enjoyed our time in Laos and would have loved tp spend more time there.After much thought and advice from others we decided to ditch the 28 hour bus ride to Hanoi, and caught a flight instead, so far so good. We will update you about vitenam in the next blog!

Much love! Xx

p.s pictures to come, we are currently struggling to upload them as we don’t have the facilites to do so yet.

Bangkok

aandjadventures — Sat, 9 Nov 2013 23:07:00 GMT

Sooo time to tell you guys about Bangkok! After a short flight we arrived at Bangkok airport it's huge !! We got a taxi with mr pud... To our hostel.. It's nice pretty central and convenient. The hostel is really upbeat and everyone is really nice, very different to hostel in KL. Some Canadians and Aussies took us to our first night in the RCA district to a club called Route 66..it was fun but different to night life in UK! You pay 300baht to get in but get the money back in tokens to spend on booze..

The following day we were making our way with two of the Aussie girls we met to the pier to get the ferry to wat pho... Clearly looking lost and confused (Bangkok is so much bigger than KL) A Thai man helped us into a tuk tuk confirmed a cheap price, and showed us to the cheaper pier so we wouldn't pay full price at the main one. When we got there the man running it wanted 1500 baht for the trip all the way round the river stopping at the floating market and then to the temples (you have to haggle so much here so we got in down to 650!) it was really interesting to see all the wooden and Tin shacks on the river in amongst some huge mansions.."ley" he was the driver of the long boat was hilarious he spoke little English and insisted on shouting "HAPPY NEW YEAR" constantly.. He let us have a go at driving the boat!! He took us a small floating market (woman on little canoes selling souvenirs) they paddle up to your boat and pull back the cover to show you all the things on sale. From there we went all the way to wat pho.. It's incredible we have never seen anything like it. The architecture is outstanding ... It took a long time to see it all and by the time we left the royal palace had closed :(

That night we went to get some street food and had an incredible Thai curry cooked on a little cart on the side of the road... The flavours were amazing!! And SO cheap.. 190baht for two of us and beer!! So later that night we headed to pat pong night market (red light district) with loads of people from our hostel.. It was strange to see prostitutes approaching every male from all angles.. And with the offer of the famous "ping pong shows" (we won't go into detail!!) we will leave that to your imaginations. Lots of stalls and bars selling cheap clothes and booze.!! We stayed there for a little while and then decided to leave and head up to Khao San road..:backpackers haven!! To explore the nightlife. It was crazy, busy and full of Europeans!! Music was insanely loud lots of lady boys and gay men dancing in the streets. We found a food cart selling crickets, scorpions, grasshoppers etc, everyone wanted to try something... First up.. Ashleigh tries cricket...tried and failed we should say. After Jenna insisting it tastes of nut It was spat out..unfortunatly for Jenna this was all over her face! Round two Jenna tries grasshopper... very chewy half out of the mouth nearly impossible to bite it tastes like pork scratchings...

Following morning (heads heavy) we crawled to the royal palace and had a look round it's amazing!! So beautiful....after this we headed for the weekend market at mo chit via the sky rail. Stopping off at the main station on the way to get out over night sleeper train tickets (yay!) to vientianne in Laos..The weekend market was massive.. Something you really need all day to do. we were there until early evening lots to see :) there were lots of blind and disabled children almost put on show to sing and make money by their parents... Quite shocking to see.... We treated ourselves and bought the traditional baggy pants (of course Jared!!) for those who don't know almost every backpacker walks around in these Aladdin style trousers!! These were incredibly cheap 150baht... You can't complain really!! It's rained every day since we've been here off and on but it's very humid and around 28-33c... The rain never lasts for long.

Tonight were not doing much as we have a big journey tomorrow... All in all we have loved bangkok (minus the insect bites and Ice cold aircon at night) it's really a great place to go and were glad to of had the experience... Especially the tuk tuk driving !!! These guys are crazy.. Anyway. Next stop vientianne. We've been told that there's not much to do here however we will still see this for ourselves. We may head to vang vieng earlier than planned. It's been great to meet so many people, everyone has a story to tell, and can advise us on the best places to go alongside some of the worst.

We will update you again after loas. As always much love to you all back home...

Ps we have been informed about the weather hitting Vietnam and Laos are keeping close eye on this..We hear that it has lessened in intensity but intend to check this tomorrow morning. We don't leave until 8pm. If we need to change plans to ensure our own safety we will. Don't worry mums/dads!!

Lots of love xxxxxxxxxx

Photos: J & A Adventures

aandjadventures — Wed, 6 Nov 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Petronas towers

Exploring KL

aandjadventures — Wed, 6 Nov 2013 02:04:00 GMT

We had a early start, heading to petronas towers to book tickets for a night tour. We then headed towards the tourist centre where we got directions to little India- was a bit disappointed as we was told it was a vibrant town, little shops, places to eat. This wasn't the case and we was faced with a bush tucker trial at a local "cafe", cold chicken and cucumber! following this (stomachs grumbling ) we ventured to KL tower- reaching the observation dec 270 metres high , little did I know Ashleigh was level to the lift floor hiperventalating. I obviously didn't mention that we would be seeing the 86th floor of the petronas towers later that evening! once Ashleigh had calmed down and was safe on the ground, we had a look around the markets and shops- we even navigated ourselves around using a map, oh yes ladies and gentlemen we can read a map) well we had to learn pretty quickly- after losing/ ruining 5 maps in the space of 48 hours, not only this our blistered tired feet went through a box of plasters (ouch) note to self bandage feet before walking approximately 15 miles round kl. This may of been in circles but we made it back to the hostel before midnight .

Tomorrow we head to Bangkok! We shall update you soon. Xxxx

Touchdown Malaysia !!

aandjadventures — Tue, 5 Nov 2013 09:00:00 GMT

so... After a long (13 hour) flight, complete with screaming children, a severe lack of red wine and minimal sleep We made it! I mean who wants to be woken up at midnight and 3am English time and offered three course meals .... However we did except with the promise of risotto..turns out it was chicken and cold stirfrY!!

Anyway we made it.... After collecting our 10 ton bags we plodded, dragging our day sacks behind us to get the KLIA express to KL Central station to then hop on our last train to meskrat LRT. The hostel was pretty easy to find (once of course we had completely missed it and walked straight past it) we finally settled in. The hostel is nice we can't complain at all.. Were in at 8 bed dorm, everyone seems quiet but pretty friendly. We were tired and in need of beer! So we set off to china town for noodles and tiger beer! Food was great a we are suitably stuffed. Were currently sat in the courtyard evesdropping on German conversation! Beer included.

Tomorrow we hope to see the petronas towers and explore a bit of this brilliant city...

goodnight all! Updates to follow

thinking of and missing our loves ones..

xxxxx

First stop KL

aandjadventures — Mon, 4 Nov 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

We are sat ready, packed and finally not panicing (ish)all set to go to the airport..Preferably for a glass of wine.. or five..Our flight is due to leave at 22:00 for all of you thinking about us back home!

Watch this space...We will be thinking of you all back home with winter approaching as we sun ourselves silly and explore the world!

ADIOS! (not that were going anwhere near spain!!)

Ash and Jen xxxxxxxx