Thursday, May 28, 2009

Sydney, Australia 20th-28th May 2009

The flight to Sydney was GREAT! There was hardly anyone on the plane so me and Sara enjoyed having a row each! They even bought round ben and jerry's ice cream which i took advantage of and ended up feeling a bit sick but was fine once we landed in drizzly Sydney!
After getting on the metro, we found our hostel, WAKE UP! which was as far as hostels go, pretty amazing. Every one in the room was really nice and we ended up going out with them on the first night. We didn't do heaps of sightseeing whilst we were in Sydney, obviously went to see the Opera House and The Harbour Bridge. We were lucky to see Vivid Sydney as well which began on the last night we were there. It was basically a music and light festival and we saw the Opera House and the Museum of Contemporary Art lit up with amazing projections! Whilst we were in Sydney we also met up for dinner with my sisters and my friend's James and Tim and James' girlfriend Diana. It was so nice to go somewhere different in the city instead of the usual touristy places. We ended up in a lovely pub and had such a fun evening.
One day we decided to do the Coogee to Bondi beach walk with a couple of girls from our room, Nishma and Laura. We picked such a sunny day for it but when we got 5 minutes into the walk, there was a big road block up and the path had been closed for maintenence. We did manage to get to Bondi in the end and had a sunny but bit chilly afternoon lazing on the beach!!
We also visited the Museum one day with Nishma but we were all so tired from being out the night before i don't think we appreciated it enough!
Soon, the week was up and we were on another plane to Christchurch, NZ!!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Thai Islands-Samui, Ko Phangan, Ko Tao. 30th April-16th May 2009

Soooo, we have been terrible blogging. 1. because we are lazy and 2. internet is expensive! But it is our last night on Ko Phangan and EVERY bar is playing the football so i thought i'd come and update you as to what we've been upto! The Cambodia blogs are on there way, we promise!

Ok, so we landed on Ko Samui what feels like aaaages ago now and we just spent one night on Big Buddah beach. The next day we headed for Ko Phangan and to a really pretty beach in the north called Thong Nai Pan Noi. Is really cool, quite quiet but there are some good bars if you venture in land. We stayed here at Star Huts for about 3 nighst and went to the beach club next door at Baan Panburi practically every night for dinner and yummy cocktails!! We had one funny day when we bought a bat and ball, then the bat decided to break so we went back, exchanged it only to find that had no balls! We couldn't be bothered to go back again that day so the next morning we went to explain but the woman in the shop was convinced we had stolen the balls and just wanted to return the bats! After about 20 mins of conversation via a translator we managed to get 2 bats and 2 balls. We never actually used them and i left the bats in Koh Phangan in the end...wooops!
So, after Ko Phangan it was off to Ko Tao for 4 nights. Most people go there to do diving courses but we decided that wasn't for us and found other ways to entertain ourselves!! We went for a day out on a boat around the island and did some snorkelling! It didn't start well as Sara has such tiny feet, they couldn't find flippers for her but they did eventually and we were on our way! It was quite a challenge for Sara too as she has a bit of a fear of water (actually quite a big one, she doesn't even like putting her face under the water in the shallow end of a swimming pool!) but as soon as we got to our first snorkelling spot, in she went and sometimes without a lifejacket, i was very proud!! Having never been snorkelling before, it was so amazing! We saw lots of zebra-fish, the second spot was the best i think it was Ao leuk on the East coast of the island. We didn't see any sharks or turtles but at the end of the trip we stopped at Nang Nuan which is 3 small islands all joined by a sand bar, really pretty. One of our other days on Ko Tao, we went for a walk upto a viewpoint in the north. We should have really hired a bike for this as it was a bit hilly and we got VERY sweaty but it was so cool when we reached it. There's a resort with a restaurant that looks out over to Nang Nuan so we sat and sneakily ate sandwiches we bought. Later that night we met up with 2 german boys we had met on the boat over from Phangan and played some cards with them, but it decided to pour with rain so what else could we do except go to the ladyboy cabaret show!!! This was HILARIOUS!! Songs included Annie Lennox, Anastacia, Madonna, Tina Turner and these boys (ladies) had studied all their moves! Was so good, me and sara decided to go back the next night!!
For the last day on Ko Tao, we decided that Sara should go to Ko Phangan early and secure us a room as it was the day before the full moon party and places seem to fill up pretty quick. Was very handy that a friend of hers from school and some of her friends we already there. Was weird to spend 24 hrs apart but sara had people to meet up with and i went for dinner with the 2 germans we met earlier in the week.

Ok, this is costing me heaps, so will blog more about my birthday and full moon soon!
xxxxx