Homeward travels

Photos: Australia weeks 3 and 4 and Asia

afalconer — Mon, 8 Nov 2010 20:23:00 GMT

Broome, Darwin, Ho Chi Min, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Melaka and KL

Weeks 4 and 5

afalconer — Sun, 7 Nov 2010 22:12:00 GMT

I know what you are all thinking.....how was the bus ride??? Well it was a big greyhound bus with at max, 6 people on board, so was actually very comfortable. We slept quite alot which helped pass the time. The scenery was actually very dull as its just dry outback. Still, we arrive in Broome at 5pm on Tuesday and check into our lovely YHA which has a tropical setting with a nice pool.

Wednesday we hire bikes to cycle to Cable beach. It is 22km of white sand. Absolutely beautiful, however when we arrive we see a crowd of people by the water. As we get nearer, we also see something lurking out in the water...yes, a crocodile has been hanging around for a few days and they are trying to catch him. So no swimming, which when its 35 degrees is pretty tough. We do a quick cycle tour of Broome in the afternoon and arrive back at the hostel early evening. Broome is a town dominated by mining and tourism but seems nice enough.

The next day is spent by the pool in the hostel reading more of Mr Blair and jumping in the pool every 20 minutes to cool down. In the afternoon its back to cable beach...still no swimming but this time we do a sunset ride on the camels. It is fantastic, very relaxing and a great way to see the amazing sunset. A quick dinner in town, then we go to the oldest outdoor picture garden in the world to see eat, pray love. Gorgeous cinema, not backed up by the quality of the film.

Friday morning we fly up to Darwin, and after circling a few times to miss the thunderstorm over the airport we land in hot humid conditions (normal for Darwin). We find our accommodation then walk through the park to the waterfront and find the wave pool...what fun and a nice way to cool down. Darwin is a lovely setting, but main problems I can see are- its always hot and humid, there are crocodiles and box jellyfish in the water so no swimming in the sea.

Saturday we do a mammoth walk in the heat to the war museum. Very interesting as Darwin was an important military base in WWII but was bombed heavily by the Japanese. We explore more of the city in the afternoon and then head back to the airport.

Back to the “land up over” as we cross the equator to Vietnam and Madame Cuc’s hotel. She has kindly laid on a private driver to avoid us being taken to the wrong hotel and overcharged which is apparently a problem in Vietnam. A very different experience now awaits us.....

We arrive in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) at 10pm and head out into the throng of people to meet our driver...except there is no one there for us. After a while we brave our own taxi into town and get to Mada Cuc’s. Some delightful ladies meet us there and explain there was a mix up in our booking. Anyway, we have a lovely double room for the next 2 nights.

We spend the day walking, the best way to see the city. First challenge is to navigate the motorbikes on the road. Its like something else with thousands of them all charging at you, but you walk slowly out in front of them and they move around you. By the end of the day, and no accidents, we are experts. We see the reunification palace that was stormed when Vietnam became one independent state. We also wander through some markets, seeing live frogs being killed and fish waiting to be boiled for eating. We also experience some local food. The rice porridge with pickled eggs is one I will not get again. Early bed as we move onto Hanoi tomorrow and straight onto Halong Bay.

A day of travelling on Monday (have lost track of days), but what an interesting one. We fly to Hanoi, get a taxi to the bus station, then a bus-boat-bus ticket that takes us direct to Cat Ba Island, the only inhabited island in Halong Bay. We arrive at Cat Ba town at about 4pm expecting to find our accommodation easily. To cut a long story short we end up having a little man take us on his wooden boat for 45 minutes across the most amazing scenery I have ever seen, then a moped ride for 5 minutes to arrive at our bungalow accommodation for the next 3 nights. It is gorgeous and real rural Vietnam. Its great fun watching them pile our massive bags onto one moped.

We spend Tuesday treking around the local area. We see it all in the light and it is so spectacular. Dramatic valleys and limestone cliffs, and amazing views over the water and islands from up top. Lunch and dinner are shared with the other people in the bungalows. A Vietnamese feast. Although it is so beautiful and relaxing, we decide we will head back to civilisation tomorrow, or at least Cat Ba town so we can do some Kayaking.

After some confusing conversations – they speak no English so we rely on tour guides who bring other groups there to translate – we get back on the mopeds, and sure enough, the same little old man is there to take us back on his boat. We get into Cat Ba town and quickly get a nice harbour view room for the massive price of 7 pounds. Then do a kayak trip in the afternoon along with some swimming on Monkey Island (which does have monkeys).

Thursday is time to leave the stunning island and head back to Hanoi, arriving at lunch time to hoards of taxi drivers pointing at you as you get off the bus. We make one of their weeks by agreeing to a very pricey meter ride (only 5 pounds but expensive in Vietnam terms). Having given up on lonely planet, we find another cheap but smart hotel for 8 pounds. We spend the day walking round Hanoi which is beautiful with its French architecture. We see the Ho Chi Min grave which is mightily impressive. By the evening we are exhausted by the pace of life in Hanoi and constantly being hassled to buy things. A cheap dinner on the street and beer are well deserved.

Friday we are on the move again, flying down from Hanoi to KL, then a bus on to Melaka. The bus is super posh with our own seats that pretty much recline into beds. We arrive early evening into Melaka and check into Emily’s guest house. It is very special (well done lonely planet), with jungle showers and is run by two brothers who just seem to sit, smoke and relax all day. We head into the night market which is a huge surprise (in a very good way with loads of atmosphere) and have a lovely laksa soup dinner for a measly two pounds - bargain. Melaka is a world heritage city and the architecture shows why. Its a bit like the venice of the east. The food is pretty good too.

Only 2 weeks to go now which includes KL, Borneo and Singapore.

Week 3

afalconer — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 19:37:00 GMT

Welcome to week three of the Australasian adventure. We arrived in Perth late on Friday 15^th.

After a noisy night in Northbridge, Perth, we do a lovely early morning run to see the city. Perth is beautiful, very clean, gorgeous weather and no humidity. We board the train to Fremantle (Freo to the locals) and meet Angus’ uni pal for breakfast at the John Street Cafe, cottesloe. She also gives us a guided driving tour of the posh beach suburbs which give amazing views back to perth. Once in Freo we hit the beach before stumbling on a lovely brewery on the waterfront. Dinner is with Gem’s uni pal and aussie girlfriend at the lovely mussel bar. Life is all good.

A treat on Sunday as we get the ferry to Rottnest Island, the playground for Perth’s rich and famous. It really is gorgeous. We hire bikes and cycle around to find deserted white sandy beaches. Only problem is the flies which we are told will get worse further up the coast. Back in Freo and we have a home cooked dinner before an early night – tomorrow we start our journey up the coast.

After the issues with our previous tour company going into liquidation, we are now with Red Earth Safari’s and Terry picks us up. We join 9 others, 1 Aus, 1 HK, 1 Spanish, 1 German, the rest English!! First stop is yanchep national park for a tour of the crystal caves and koala sanctuary. Lunch is at Moore rive and we share it with millions of flies. The beach there is very special though. We reach our evening destination of Cervantes and check into a lovely hostel. Then its off to see the pinnacles for an amazing sunset, the only way to see them.

7.30am start on Tuesday as we continue north, stopping to feed some kangaroo’s and hold snakes. They are not as scary as you think. Lunch is chip butties in the shade as it is really hot, then we go abroad to Hutt River Provence to meet Prince Leonard and princess Shirley. An amazing story of a genius who beat the AUS system to avoid taxes and created his own country within Australia. Passports stamped we drive up to Kalbarri for our next overnight stop, stopping at a cliff lookout to watch whales breaching . Its also Terry’s birthday so we have cake and candles with our meat feast.

Wednesday morning we go into Kalbarri national park where Angus abseils into the gorge. Gemma walks down and there is time for a swim in the “fresh” water. Its incredibly dry everywhere, apparently its been a really dry winter and there is a 7 year drought. We keep moving up the coast to Shark Bay world heritage area where we see the oldest living creatures on earth – the stromatolites – just some rocks really but apparently they are living. Denham is our overnight stop where we have a beer in the most westerly hotel in AUS.

Thursday morning we rush over to Monkey Mia, aptly named for its famous dolphins that come in for a feed every day like clockwork. And as we watch from the beach, sure enough at 8am they all swim in. Gem gets picked to feed Surprise the dolphin. Driving out of the shark bay peninsular we stop at a lookout to see sharks in the water and shell beach (name says it all). A long drive then to our next overnight stop, the luxury of the outback Caralya sheep station. It is literally a few tin sheds. We pull the beds outside and sleep under the starts (although cloudy). After being initially very hesitant about it all, it is a great experience of how simple life can be.

ON Friday we arrive early in coral bay and do a glass bottom boat and snorkle tour on the Ningaloo reef which is really cool. Then its finally time for some beach relaxation on the stunning white beach. Back here in 2 days – can’t wait. Final stop is Exmouth, an old strategic naval town where we have a champagne dinner to celebrate the week.

A free day in Exmouth, although we join the bus which takes us on a free tour of the area. We stop for more snorkling at Turquiose Bay (because of the colour of the water). We see turtles and reef sharks swimming with us. ON returning to the hostel, it is 39.6 degrees, so we jump in the pool as its too hot to do anything.

Sunday we get dropped back in Coral bay, and after a week on a bus, we spend most of the day on the beach and snorkling. We are staying in a lovely hostel which is very modern and has table tennis – gem beats me.

Monday is a treat of a day for Angus, off on a day of diving and swimming with Manta rays. We snorkel with 3-4 Manta Rays which must be about 3-4 meters across their wings. Then do 2 dives on the Ningaloo reef which beats the great barrier just due to the accessibility of it (100m off the shore) and visibility. Am thinking now perhaps padi is a good idea, although not sure how much use it would get in the UK. Gem has a very relaxing day walking and on the beach. We have some more table tennis in the hostel bar before boarding the 18 hour bus to Broome!!! What fun.

So Broome, Darwin, then Vietnam....can’t wait, although now half way through the trip.

Week 2

afalconer — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:43:00 GMT

Airlie Beach was all that it was hyped up to be. A lovely lagoon on the waterfront, lively bars, and brilliant sailing. After a morning run in which we nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion, we boarded the boat for our 2 days sailing. On Ice, owned by brothers Tristrum and Luke, and assisted by Garry (with two r’s). Garry is one of those guys who has spent is life travelling the world picking up work here and there. He was a brilliant source of knowledge for hints on what to do. He cooked a mean meal on the boat too. The weather was not the blue sky’s we had hoped for, but that did not stop us windsurfing on Whitehaven beach, paddle boarding, more beach Olympics and snorkling. We had a great group too, including the Dutch doctors Freek (yes that is his name) and Jess.

Next stop after some magnificent sailing, Magnetic Island, just off tropical Townsville. We get the ferry and bus to our Base hostel that is located right on the beach in possibly the most amazing setting I have ever seen for a hostel. Our day on magnetic is spent touring round in our little pink convertible that we hire – more amazing beaches, koala’s and wallabies in the wild, and finally boozy bingo, which gets a bit boring and we give up after round 2.

We wake up to rain, so keep moving up the coast towards cairns, with a quick stop at mission beach, famous for where the rainforest meets the sea. We arrive in cairns to scorching sun and temperatures so hit the lagoon straight away. No swimming in the sea due to saltwater crocodiles!!! While at the lagoon we get asked to do a quick photo shoot for the local paper for a completion, and lo and behold the next day we are on page 3 of the cairns post!!! Our hostel in cairns (travellers oasis) is the best accommodation yet. A gorgeous friendly hostel set in tropical gardens and great hosts. We book onto a trip to the great barrier reef for the next day which includes an intro dive for Angus.

Thursday does not start well with torrential tropical rain storms, however ever the optimists we board our boat. Out at the reef the sun is out, and I do my dive. What an incredible experience. It is so peaceful once under the water and the fish and coral are just amazing. I even saw nemo (or clown fish as they are really known). An excellent trip all round and I have the diving bug.

Our final day on the East coast is a trip up to Port Douglas, a very chic resort with more lovely beaches. We randomly stop at Hartley’s crocodile farm on the way back – what a find. We see a snake show with the worlds most venomous snake, the Western Taipan, and do a boat trip in a crocodile lagoon. I can’t believe the noise that a crocodiles jaw makes when in bites. The power is immense. Safely round the crocodile farm we head back to the airport to board the short 5 hour flight to Perth.

An amazing coast and an amazing time had.

Until next week when we will be half way up the west coast...BYE

Photos: Australia week 1

afalconer — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:53:00 GMT

Brisbane to Whitsundays

Week 1

afalconer — Sat, 9 Oct 2010 10:42:00 GMT

I can’t believe it’s been two years since arriving in Auckland. I remember the day like it was yesterday. Still, time flies, and it’s now time for us to fly to Brisbane to start the first leg of our Australia/Asia extravaganza, 7 weeks, 11 flights and 4 different countries. So a glass of bubbles to celebrate a fantastic 2 years and onto the plane for a hot and uncomfortable flight over the ditch.

Brisbane isn’t kind to us on arrival as it is raining. Warm, but wet. Seemed like a nice lively city, but would be much nicer when the sun is out. After 2 nights in Brizvegas, its time to move on up the coast as time is ticking and we have 1600km to do in just under two weeks, in a little Hyundai Getz – why do we always end up getting white rental cars!!!

After catching some waves and rays in the chic seaside resort of Noosa (like something straight out of Miami) we drive on up to Rainbow beach and watch DVD’s about the dangers of driving 4WDs, enough to put you off actually going to Fraser Island. But we persisted and had an amazing two days driving on beaches, 4wd tracks, swimming in lakes and creeks and climbing sand dunes. No dingo’s though.

Once the 4WD is safely back on the mainland after 2 days on Fraser, it was time to get some km’s under our belt. So 400km up to Rockhampton, arriving late and weary, but with a “nice” double room (or prison cell) to check into. Now I don’t know alot about Rockhampton, and an early morning run round the town proved that I don’t need to know alot about it. Apparently though it is the best steaks in AUS so we were certain to try that out. We did decide to stay in Rockhampton for a day, but rather than see the city, we made an early morning decision to drive to the coast, and take a ferry to Great Keppel Island. It turned out to be an absolute jewel of a place. We hiked 30 minutes and spent the day on a gorgeous golden beach and had the place to ourselves. Some great snorkelling too as it is on the edge of the great barrier reef. On the ferry back, a humpback whale and its baby then swam right passed the edge of the boat to say hello, quite an unforgettable moment and a brilliant way to end the day. And the steak was good too. So Rockhampton does have its benefits!

Another early start on day 5 and 6 hours later we arrive in Airlie Beach just before lunch, again to more sunshine and soaring temperatures. We have treated ourselves to a nice hotel room for the night before we jump on board a posh catamaran for 2 days cruising round the islands. Can’t wait.

Love to all and can’t wait for week 2 which sees us continue up to Cairns before flying over to the West Coast.

Gem and Angus