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 25th 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 28th 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 19th 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
