Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and San Francisco

Hey all from the wonderful city of San Francisco. The past week has been really really fun and we have seen ALOT!!

From Los Angeles our tour bus took us all the way to Las Vegas (sin city) where we were checked into a lovely hotel by the name of $ Queens Hotel, it was luxury, a big change to the hostels we are used to!! We were taken on a tour of all the hotels!! We found Vegas to be a crazy place as its right in the middle of the Nevada desert and there are the most fantastic hotels surrounding the city. One in particular that we saw was the Venician which was a replica of venice! There were canals with gondola rides inside!! All the ceilings were painted so it looked like you were outside during daytime, it was very disorientating but really clever! We saw a couple more shows and the had a early night as we couldnt drink or gamble due to age restrictions in the entertainment capital!! The following day we were taken to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon ( a very long journey!). It was stunning and just how I imagined!! I could'nt believe the grand scale of canyon it was massive!! Later that day we head back to Vegas (via the hoover dam) and had a huuge $10 buffet in the hotel opposite!! The next couple of days we visited Yosemite National Park which was beautiful! Soo many trees, landforms and waterfalls everywhere it was stunning. A very different side to America I thought I would never see!! The following day we were taken for a tour in San Francisco or the Golden Gate Bridge and other attractions where we finished off and checked into the European Guest hostel!! We spent the weekend with Mike before he headed home. This week we managed to go and visit the island of Alkatraz (the old high security prison, located just offf the bay) It was a really good day out! They provided a very good audio tour and we felt like we learnt quite alot about the prisoners experiences when the prison was up and running.

So whats the plan from here... tomorrow is our l;ast day in San Francisco so were probably going to visit golden gate park. We will be off to New York on Friday!! I really cant wait to get to the big apple!!

I really cant believe we get home in under a week now, it is very strange...

I will see you all soon then.
I guess.

Alex.xxx

Fiji, California and Tijuana

Hey All!!

I know... It's been a while!!!

What have we been up to you may ask?? (if you hadnt seen Chris' blog already)
Well.. Since I last updated the four of us made our way to the lovely Fiji!! We wanted to find somewhere we could completely chill out and do our diving course and we found that!! 2hrs north of the main island to a place called Rakiraki we took a small boat to an island name Nananu-I-RA. There was 6 guests in the hotel (including the 4 of us) most days. It was stunning and peaceful. Just what we needed after an exhausting 3weeks in New Zealand. Mike and I spent most of our days with our dive instructor Paulo who was an absolute legend. We completed our Open Water Dive course which I had always wanted to do and went diving down to the reefs a coupleof times after that. So heres an average day for us in Fiji. Awake about 8am, get picked up and get straight into a wetsuit. Dive some of the most beautiful reefs in fiji for a couple of hours. Go to volivoli (where the dive team were located) eat lunch by the mangroves, head back out for another dive of head back and go kyaking or stay at volivoli, play volleyball for hours with the staff and wait for the kiwi bus to arrive for a bit of a party and a fire on the beach.

This is what we spent most of our days doing, which was such a good time. We could have spent so much longer here, we got to know the dive intructors pretty well so we got really good discounts for diving and had a really good laugh in the meanwhile.


Athough this was all good fun it was time to get back on the road, stu left us to meet Derek and steve as he was staying in Fiji for another 2weeks! So Chris, Mike and I all head off to LA!! We have now been here just over 1 week and we have done soo much!!! On our first day we stayed in Santa Monica which is a beautiful seaside town, we found ourselves being drawn toward the resturant 'fat burger' where chris and I took on a 24oz burger american style! We recieved certificates and our photo on their wall! The following day we moved to Hollywood Bvd, where everything really happens. The movie premieres etcetc. We visited the avenue of stars and the kodak theatre. Also on the boulavard was the massive Virgin megastores, a music shop like no other. I think we spent 3hrs here checking out all the music and dvds they had to offer!! We decided we should go and visit mexico as it was just a couple of hours drive away so the following day we hopped on a bus to Tijuana!! WE walked across the mexican border to find the only entry we needed to do into mexico was through as small turnstyle gate. no passport control nothing!!! It was crazy! We spent most of that evening with mexicans with whistes pourind straight tequila down our throuts, riding mechanical bulls!! It was really good fun to see what this part of central America was all about!

The following day we returned back to LA and I head off to watch Flight of the Conchords in downtown LA . (a comedy duo from New Zealand). I saw a couple of celebrities here including Tony Hawk and Weird Al Yankovich. It was a really good evening despite the weirdest journey back to the hostel. There are some really crazy people out here, id never suggest getting the metro alone at night. Los Angeles is amasing for concerts we were lucky enough to catch Newton Faulkner play in West Hollywood which was an amazing gig!! I never though id ever see him in Hollywood! We also managed to get hold of tickets to see a band called the RX Bandits of whom Mike and I are big fans of so we took a 2day trip up to the lovely town of Santa Barbra!!

We are now back in hollywood staying at the Vibe Hostel which is actual really good fun! Chris and I head off on our tour tomorrow!! We're really looking forward to what lies ahead. We will keep you posted about what we get up to and hopefuli we will get some photos up soon!!

lots of love

AJ.xx home soon!!

New Zealand!!

Hello from Christchurch!!

We'll here we are, a couple more hours in New Zealand and then we're off to Fiji!!!
Its been three and a half really fun weeks driving around in our spaceship, sleeping in some of the randomest and most beatiful places (such as next to Lake Wanaka, Stunning!)

New Zealand has soo much to offer as we found out from visiting Seal Colonies in Kiakura, climbing up the Franz Josef Glacier, Skydiving from 15,000ft over Lake Wanaka, Queenstown!! Bungee Jumping! and Surfing in Dunieden. We've really enjoyed ourselves here, having the freedom to go where we want and see what we want. It's good to have that freedom and attempt to get away from the usual tourist route and really make a trip our own.

Most of the things we have done here should definately be at the top of your list to do before you die. The day of the Skydive I have never been so scared!! I was soo nervous and im not entirely sure why loking back at it. (this shows in my dvd) but with nerves came soo much fun. It was such a good feeling except for the fast it was soo soo cold.

In New Zealand the place to be is definately Queenstown, theres soo much to do! One evening we all went to the 'world bar' and we entered a compettion to win a bungee jump and I was lucky enough to have my number drawn out of the hat. So I won a free nevis jump (the biggest in New Zealand) which was a big saver as I would have spent $220 on this the previous day!! While in Queenstown I was lucky enough to do 2 bungee jumps. 1) was a tandem with stu off the Kawara Bridge (i think thats how u spell it) well anyway, this was the first commercial bungee jump in the world which was really really fun. We were both quite ok until we got to the ledge and though what are we doing! We jumped anyway and it was sucha good feeling, the adrenaline rush is soo much fun. 2) The Nevis, Stu was nervous because this time it was 3times the size of the day before! 8 seconds freefall. Chris and Mike were both excited hiding both their nerves. I really couldnt wait to do it. Everyone should try this, seriosly one of the most fun things ever, you really do have to push urself to go over the edge but when you do it such a good feeling, the whole day i was pretty much speachless!!

So next stop on our Journey is Fiji!! We really look forward to getting back to the hot weather and onto a beach. Its really tiring moving about all the time here and we need a holiday! I think I may do my dive course out there which I'm really looking forward to!

All my recent photos are now up so i'f you have time on your hands heres the link.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/gapyear2008/NewZealandLakeWanakaToChristchurch

Christchurch to Franz Joseph Glacier (life in a spaceship)

Hey all from the wonderful Franz Joseph Glacier (located west of the south island).

We have been traveling through New Zealand for about a week in our Spaceship (camper van car) named 'Megatron'. It's just what we needed, we are far away from the tour bus, touristy areas, we can finally be free!! The past week we have mainly been hiking in some fantastic locations, camping in some really random places and watching DVD's in our Spaceship. Today we were lucky enough to climb up the Franz Joseph Glacier, It was amasing! Something I was very keen to do here in New Zealand! You will have to check out the photos, it was stunning!! 6hours of hard work climbing up the ice was well worth the view and the opportunity to climb through the ice sheets. We've been to some very cool destinations including Chetwood Forest which was included in the Lord of the Rings film. Theres not all that much more to say about New Zealand but WOW the scenery is breathtaking and were having a really good time despite it being really really cold. The pictures are much much better than words so go and have a look. On Tuesday we plan to get to Lake Wanaka, Chris and i are very keen to do the 15,000ft skydive there so I think we will be booking that tonight. Really loving New Zealand but looking forward to being back on the beach. Ohh and by the way my eye has healed fine, the stitches came out a couple of days ago and you wouldnt know a thing.

i'll do my best to keep you all posted, but internet is proving rare in some places.

Go check out the photos!!

AJ.xxxxx

Sydney to Melbourne to Sydney to New Zealand!!

I know!! It's been quite a while since I last posted! We'll I've only jus found time! We're non-stop at the moment. So heres the vaugue story so far (if you want the low down of every second of our travels please see chris's blog).... Ohh all of my pictures are now up if you would like to check them out. Im very excited about getting some awesome landscape shots here in New Zealand.

So I left you last when we were about to travel to Melbourne. We took a Greyhound bus overnight lasting around 12hrs (much longer than I thought) to the well recommended city! We arrived around 8am and checked into our hostel called Nomads Industry (by far the best hostel so far). really cool funky little bar downstairs and hot working showers!! We stayed in Melbourne for a week exploring the city (reminds me of Bristol quite alot, with all the river etc.) We spent most of our evenings in Uni bars which were awesome, just our thing I guess. Tons of people our age, no tourists about and cheap beer. A bar we found on the thursday night was called the 'Traders Bar', we found this jus by walking down some back alley it was reali quite cool. On the Wednesday it was Mikes Bday!! woop. It was reali funi, we bought Mikee party hats, drink umrellas, curly straws and Party blowers and went for lunch along brunswick street. In the evening we were determined to head out for a big night but it was a wednesday and ended up in some small Irish bar in the Centre. On the Friday we were lucky enough to be taken out by one of Chris' relatives to a Wildlife park which was fun and quite different as we had our own safari. (check out the pics of the baby hippo, its pretty cool). It was reali gd to be taken out by someone who lives there as gettin around is next to impossible without a car. On the saturday Ellen a friend of mikes who we were stayin with took us out to a cool little surf beach where we spent the day on the Surfboards, it was good fun. Later on that evening we met up with some friends who we met along the way and went to an AFL game. It was very exciting to watch as it was a very close scoring game! AFl is a strange sport, It is pretty much a cross between football and rugby. It doesnt seem too logical but they are crazy for it in Melbourne. It was good to watch tho, a really awesome atmosphere.

After a pretty busy week in Melbourne, we head back to Sydney for Stuarts birthday, arrived at about 8am off the bus again and went to breakfast with stu and his parents who shared their storis about their travels around Fiji!! We then all head off to the pub (about 11am now) where chris and I left to book our campervan for NZ. An hour later chris and I returned to a very drunk stu where we joined in and then head to the cinema to give the livers a rest. After the cinema we head back to the hostel to get some sleep that didnt really happen!) Not too long after Stu parents arrived with a cake and sparklers. We lit the sparklers ready to sing Happy Birthday when we suddenly realised that there were smoke detectors in the room. We quickly attempted to put them out but it was too late. The fire alarms to the whole hostel were going off. We evacuated the builing, and stus mum ran down to reception to explain. We got outside when two fire engines arrived and cleared the building!! It was soo funi. We were very lucky we didnt get charged for the call out!! We decided to stay clear of the hostel and head back to the pub til the evening and went to Sidebar to meet some of stus rugby mates from back home. It was a very amusing evening. The remaining 3days we decided to spend at Manly beach which was an aweosme little chilled out surfing town!! We spent a day at Bondi surfing and another at Manly!! On the last day we all hired boards and immi and rachael came down to visit us!! We were out in the surf for about 4hours all of us were getting up great and the surf was pretty gd. Although we were surfing quite close to each other. I unfortunately managed to injure myself when i fell offr my board and then chris fell off his board resulting in a surf board in the face causing an inch long gash within my left eyebrow. It wasnt painful but there was blood evverywhere, we walked to the nearest doctors who stiched it up for me (5 stitches!!) and took a break for the rest of the day!!

We are now in New Zealand and loving every minute of it, my stiches come out tomorrow woo, hopefuli It wont scar too much! We now have our own Spaceship (a type of campervan which we will be staying in for the next 3weeks!!) Its really good fun, were stayin around some of the worlds best scenery, check the pics, we slept on the beachfront last night was soo nice.

I must go now, but ill keep you all posted about our adventures in New Zealand!!

Alex

Sydney!!

Picture taken at Mojo Surf Camp, was such a wicked day!!



Hello from Sydney!!!

We have now finished the East Coast of Australia, travelled 4,000km and it has been an amasing 5 weeks!! Loved every minute. We arrived in Sydney late afternoon, checked into our hostel (cheapest yet in oz at $17 a night) and went out to 'The Gaff' Australia's Number 1 backpacker bar for an Afterparty with the Oz Experience bus. It was really good fun, stu met up with us and the 4 of us were once again back together which was really good fun!! Yesterday (our first whole day in sydney) we decided to head out to one of its many beaches, so we went to visit Coogie Beach, we took a very scenic walk along the coastline (for about and hr) to the famous Bondi Beach which was amasing and had a quick swim. Checked out the costs for surfboard hire for the following days to come. Last night we headed out into Kings Cross with Joe, Emma and Martin. It was martins last night away and was heading back home today :( so we all said our goodbye's and danced to night away. The DJ was amasing!!
Today (well in about 10mins) we plan to head off to the sydney opera house and the harbour bridge to get some photos (watch this space). Then Ed (who we met in Thailand) and I will be heading off to the ANZ Stadium (formerly Telstra Stadium) where Englang Won the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics were held!!

Chris and I are off on our bus to Melbourne which were really looking forward to. I will keep you updated from there.

Much Love

Alex.

Brisbane and the Gold Coast

Hey all!

It's been a while since I have posted as I have been soo busy!! Everything moves soo fast over here especially when you are non stop. This is literally one fo the first times ive been able to sit down and write this.

So we arrived in Brisbane on the 25th of March at an amasing hostel (my favourite so far) named Bunk, it had a TV room, Hot Tub, Bar, Swimming Pool and tons of people we have met along the way. It was a real good laugh. Janhavi joined us for a couple of days which was good fun and quite surreal to see her the other side of the world. Natalie also joined us for her easter break and has now travelled down to sydney with stu. We spent until the 30th visiting Southbank [public beach pool] and going out in Brisbane's Valley [brisbanes top nightlife location]. We then headed down to Surfers Paridise [which is apparently the benidorm of Australia] lots of high rise buildings and miles and miles of stunning beaches where we spent most of our time. We only stayed in Surfers for one night before we headed down to stay with Vicki and Jack [Verity's Cousin] in Burleigh/Miami. It was really good to be out of the hostels and into a home. Vicki and Jack were both very kind to us letting us stay for the time we did, we had a good laugh and really enjoyed ourselves. Within the week we stayed we managed to visit Burliegh Heads [stunning view all along the coast], go to Wet n' Wild [which was sooo much fun, we spent most of our time on a water ride called the Tornado, which threw you and 4 other people down a watery half pipe at high speeds, it was good fun!] and also in Burleigh I took a surf lesson which was amasing. The waves were brilliant and I managed to catch quite a few, on my first attempt to stand up I managed to do it which I thought was a great achievement. We were using big boards and they were really good conditions. I really hope to do more as we go down the coast. However my last day in Burleigh, I hired a board and spend most of my time on the beach with my head in the sand as the waves were very rough as there was a storm brewing.

We are now in Byron Bay, back with Mike, Joe and Emma. The weather here has been rubbish lately but we hear its better in Sydney (which is where we are heading tomorrow). Despite the rain we have managed to go out on bike rides up to the lighthouse which was the most easterly point in Australia and watch dolphins below in the sea which was really good to see.
I'm not sure if you have head back home about the Shark attack on a 16 year old boy in Ballina [15mins south, a couple of headlands away]. This happened yesterday so all the beaches were closed to surfers and swimmers which was quite scary. However we plucked up the courage to go surfing this morning which was good fun. Tipping down with rain but ah wel we were wet anyway.

So tomorrow we head to Surf Camp for one night then to Sydney where the 4 of us will be re-united again. :)

keep checking the photos! We've got tons up now!
Still loving every minute, hope your all enjoying the snow back home.

Alex.

Fraser Island / Rainbow Beach

Happy Easter!! The Sun is shining here and I hear you have plenty of snow back home. We arrived back from our 4x4 Camping Trip to Fraser Island yesterday afternoon. Tired and with Sand everywhere!!!

We left on Friday in a Toyota Land Cruiser (a Tank!) with 11 people in total. Packed up the vehicle with enough food, alcohol and camping equipment for 3days! It was good fun, reminded Chris and I of being in cadets. We soon left for the biggest sand Island in the world and soon arrived at the ferry terminal for the 7minute journey over to the island. Alan (from Ireland) drove most of the time, which was good because he was the only one who had driven a 4x4 before. It was good fun. Driving along the longest beach with FatBoy Slim pumping out the stereo, it was good fun. 100km later we arrived at Indian Heads which was the most northern part of the Island. We couldn't drive any further so we visited 'Champagne Pools'. It was stunning, there were waves crashing up against the rocks on one side and the other there were these quite pools with the spray of the waves coming over the top, making the water look like champagne bubbles. It was really good to visit, we ended up swimming in the pools until the waves got higher and started washing us back! Later on that day we drove back along the beach and set up camp near quite a few other campers. The tents were suprisingly easy to set up, despite there being sand EVERYWHERE. We tried our best to keep it out. We set up the cooker and cooked our meal for the night Steak and Potatoes, which turned out really well. We soon moved onto our selection of alcohol consisting mainly of wine as its what is cheap out here which im slowly getting used to. It was'nt too long before we headed to bed as it was a very long day.

The following day we awoke around 9am to cook scrambled eggs for breakfast, quickly packed up the Land Cruiser and head off to Eilie Creek about 5mins down the beach. It was a small creek of water that had come down from the hills, ICE cold. It was very shallow so we managed to walk down the whole thing. We soon moved on to Rainbow Gorge which had some amazing sand dunes, the sand was all different colors, it was stunning. Some of the steeper sand dunes we ended up sprinting down, jumping and even roli poling down. It was good fun, we got a couple of good pictures aswell. Once we shook most of the sand off of our clothing we began to head back to the car. On the way back Chris managed to spot a python hiding underneath a tree stub, Our first close encounter with a snake. Chris got about half a meter away whereas I stood way back with my big lens to take a picture. Later on in the day we head off to Lake Wabby which was a good 40minute walk through the forest it was quite secluded. Well worth the walk tho because it was stunning. There was a massive sand dune headed downwards into the water where we had races into the lake almost toppling over, it was really funi, martin ended up falling in head first (wish i got a picture). Along the beach we found some Australians body boarding down the slopes which looked like soo much fun. Around 4pm we head back to the car because we could only drive until 5 (because we could'nt drive on the beach during high tide). We headed to a campground on the beach close to the entrance to the road leading to Lake McKenzie so we could visit it in the morning. We set up Camp and it was a similar story to the following night. We awoke in the morning to a touch of rain. We had cornflakes which somehow attracted a dingo that was hanging around the sight, the girls that were traveling with us got quite scared as it was right outside the tent. Chris took a few good photos and it soon went away. Once the dingo left we soon packed up camp again and headed along a long bumpy track to Lake Mackenzie. White sands, blue waters. It was amazing, soo clear. It was very touristy tho which I didn't like and not as secluded as Lake Wabby so I didn't enjoy it as much. Was a stunning lake tho and got a couple more pics.

We soon headed back for our 2pm ferry, tired and sandy. We got back to Dingo's (our hostel) at around 4, jumped into the comfort of a bed, washed all the sand off and chilled out for the rest of the evening. It was well needed.
So after a refreshing sleep and some free pancakes here I am in Dingo's Internet cafe spending the next couple of hours trying to upload all the photos from the past couple of weeks. Have a look! Theres loads tho, can't stop taking pictures.

Today were going to head up to Carlo Sand blow, which is another sand dune region of rainbow beach. We're gonna take the body boards so it should be good fun!! Tomorrow we head off to noosa for a night, to check it out. Then off to Brisbane, I'll update you all of our movements from then.

Hope your all enjoying the snow :)

Whitsundays / Airlie Beach

Yesterday we arrived back on the mainland at Airlie beach on the return from our boat journey on the Atlantic Clipper. It was amasing, it was quite a big yaht and had 50passengers on board. We headed out to the Whitsunday Islands. The first island we visited began on the first night where we headed to the Northern part of the region of Islands to an Island named Hook Island (one of the 74 Islands within the National Park). It was soo peaceful, not a car or a plane in sight. We docked up there for the night as the water was soo still. Early on in the evening Chris and I were on deck talking to the dive instructor when suddenly out the corner of his eye he spotted something and shouted 'HAMMERHEAD'. If you havnt gathered he spotted a hammerhead shark. Chris and I darted round to cath a glimpse in the water. The rest of the boat attempted to join us but i think it was too late for them I think. We were told this is where we wernt going to be snorkelling. :) In the evening we had our meal which was cooked in a small kitchen oin board consisting of chicken and mashed potato which was great, i havnt eaten mashed potato in a couple of months. different to my usual diet of noodles or pasta. The boat is a great place to be when its still, although not soo much below deck when we're hitting fairly big waves. We finished the eveing with a couple of games involving some alcohol and socialising with some new found friends on board. The cabins we were staying in were quite small, stuffy so I did'nt sleep well for the first time since being away and awoke around 5am to sit on deck to cath the fresh air. Once everyone had awoken we head off to a beach where everyone went snorkelling and scuba diving. I gave scuba diving a go as I had been waiting to do it for quite a while now. I did an introductory dive which cost me about 25pounds which was really good. It was very strange at first getting the breathing right but after a while I got used to it and we all went for a dive in no time. We got down to about 9meters. The weightlessness was such a cool feeling and we saw soo many fish. We managed to swim underneath and between some of the coral, it was quite a surreal experience. We soon headed back to the boat for some lunch and then head off to Whitehaven beach. We were dropped off by a speedboat on a nearby beach and took a short walk to Whitehaven Beach, It was stunning. It's hard to explain so ull have to see the pictures! It was amasing!!!
After this spectacular visit we went anchored up for the night and played a few on the boat games such as Eat the Box, involving a box and a cricket bat and alot of flexibility. One to play in freshers week with the rugby team when i get home. The rest of the evening was spent socialising with the rest of the passengers on the boat, most people were from Australia, Holland or Canada. It was good fun.

The following day we took the day to relax and recover from the following early mornings and then went out in the evening for St Patricks night which was great fun. We went to san Irish Bar called Paddys, There was an amasing cover band playing. It was a good fun.
Another day to recover we spent by the Airlie Beach Lagoon, chilling out in the sun and swimming. In the evening we cooked a BBQ and said goodbye to a few friends we had met along the way, Joe and Emma. We may see them again, maybe in New Zealand. And for once headed to bead early for our 5 o clock rise for our bus journey to Kroombit Cattle Ranch.

Kroobit Cattle Ranch was a typical Australian Ranch (about 10,000 hectares) we arrived late in the evening and we all learnt how to crack a whip. I attempted to ride the mechanical bull and failed miserably, (chris has a great video about 1 second long), Chris was much better and didnt fall off until it started turning.

Now we are in Rainbow Beach, we have a tour booked for tomorrow and a 4x4 with a group of 10other people ready to go to Fraser Island. I'm really looking forward to it, something completely different. We will be camping and cookung on stoves just like the good old times at cadets.

Theres soo much to write about, but so little time, Internet here is rare and expensive. Uploading as many pictures as possible atm so keep your eyes out. Cya in 3days.

Alex.

Mission Beach to Magnetic Island to the Whitsundays

So where do I start.... It's been a while since I last updated, most likely due to the great weather and the expensive internet on Magnetic Island.

So we had one more final night at mission beach which consisted of stu and I making the BIGGEST spaghetti bolognaise for the guys, was great if i may say so myself, we were proud. Mums and Dads we are learning well. In the evening we chilled out with our new friends from the hostel and learnt a couple more drinking games....

So the following morning we awoke about 10am to check out and laze by the pool for a couple of hours before getting on the Oz Experience bus to Magnetic Island. This is the sunniest place on the East Coast, which sounded good to us so chris and I booked 3nights and a ferry (all part of a savers package) whereas Stu and Mike decided to only stay one night and head down ahead of us towards brisbane to see the world famous Blues and Roots festival. So Chris and I (quite reluctant to rush down) stayed for a couple of days with the people from our room (Team 122!) who were lovely. Australia is a great place for meeting new people, we all got on pretty well and everyone is pretty laid back, all except chris and I were uni graduates. We had a good laugh tho. So what exactly did we do on Magnetic Island I hear you ask... Umm not much during the day It was waay to hot to do anything so we sat in the shade chatting and playing cards, a bit of well needed relaxation. In the evening the hostel had a quiz night, we teamed up with our new found friends to try and win the 150pounds worth of Diving Vouchers. We unfortunately came second to last however Chris' team came second and managed to wangle free breakfasts for the morning. So after the win we decided to turn in early as we were leaving the following morning.

In the morning I awoke early to take a walk along the beautiful sandy beach and then packed my bags to check out for 10am. We all had our breakfasts and jumped on the coach, then ferry, then oz experience bus to our next destination - Airlie Beach.

So here we are now. In 'Peterpans Travel Office' where we now have free internet woop!! We booked ourselves onto a boat leaving tomorrow for 3days cruising around the stunning Whitsunday Islands (the third national park of the trip). We're really looking forward to it. Our boat is called the Atlantic Clipper and we leave at 3pm tomorrow, food etc. All included. We got a pretty good deal with free meals and hostel nights all the way down to Brisbane.

Airlie Beach is great (no beach tho which is confusing), a couple of nice bars, a supermarket and a post office with a couple of tourist shops a nice little town know for as the gateway to the Whitsundays.

I will update you on this trip on our return, it could be a while. Hope everyone is well back home. I hope to get thje pictures uploaded asap.

Australia - Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Cairns and Mission Beach

Hey from Mission Beach, Australia.

We've had a couple of really busy, exciting days here. Since I last wrote to you we had jus planned to head up into the rainforest of the Daintree and Cap Tribulation. We booked a tour and promptly left the following morning at about 7am, not a pretty sight for the sleepy heads. We were concerned about getting there due to the recent amount of rain that had accoured as there was flooding all over cairns. (They have had half a metre of rain since January) Our first stop was a Mossman Gorge where there was water pumping through the greeny banks at really fast speeds, seemed like a great place to do white water rafting. Maybe a bit too dangerous. After this we were taken for a walk along a rainforest trail where we saw many spiders and other insects and some larger animals such as bats! I got a few great pictures which i'll hopefuli load up soon. We were told a few stories and learnt quite a few facts about the rainforest and mangrove area (mangrove is where the rainforest meets the saltwater). We were told about a tree in the area named by the aboriginals as the GimpyGimpy tree (also known as the stinging tree) If you were to brush past it you would have glass rods inplasnted into your pours of your skin for months resulting in pain every time you sweat or had a shower!! Not nice, we stayed clear from all plants for the rest of the tour. Although we did try tasting some nice green ants which were quite tasty.
We were then taken to a local wildlife sanctury where we were shown kangaroos (stuart managed to stroke one), a couple of crocodiles, some pythons and even a cassowary! It was good fun. We were later taken to our accomodation at PK's Village where we were put in a hostel room for 4.
In the evening we decided to go out on a night walk of the rainforest which was an organised tour to see if we could catch any more of the wilfife in the area. We saw many frogs, tree dragons and lizards. No snakes unfortunately. Although a few spiders named Golden Orbs. They seemed to be popping up alot all over. \
The following day we were taken to the river for a river cruise to find some crocodiles, we saw a couple up on the banks looking after their eggs which was reali good but we didnt get to close. We did manage to see a couple of snakes sitting on the trees as we went by.

We're now in Mission Beach staying at a hostel names Sonny's, we took the Oz Experience down here today who took us to visit innisfal along the way and another gorge and crocodile farm. It was a great day. I will keep you informed on how we get on down here on Mission Beach, I dont think we'll be staying for too long tho.

Speak to you all soon.

Alex.

xxx

Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to Australia

So we left Kuala Lumpur having seen the sights looking forward to our short time in Singapore. We caught our night train at 9.10 for Singapore, it was really confortable and I slept most of the journey whereas, Mikes Ipod ran out of battery and was blessed by the sounds of a woman snoring very loudly on the lower bunk. When we arrived Singapore we hadnt boooked anywhere to stay so we took a taxi to Little India, the backpackers part of town to find no hostels couls take us as they were fully booked. We eventually found a Hostel called Sky Orchids which was located above a couple of shops. We spent the day travelling around Singapore's train network exploring City Hall, Raffles Hotel and Orchard Road. Along the way we managed to stop for an expensive Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel. In the evening Mike and I decided to hit the town (while the sleepy heads were boring and stayed in bed on their saturday night), we were told to head to a place called Clarke quay which was a bunch of different clubs along the riverside. We had good fun, completely not our scene with rappers and dance offs but a funny night out never the less. The following day we had a mission to find a new hostel to stay in so we looked on the map and traveled 4 stops down to a place called bugis, where we found a nice little backpackers hostel for a small price located fairly close to city hall, that evening we decided to head out on Orchard Road to go to the Cinema. We decided to do this because to be honest in singapore it is too expensive to do much else. It was good fun tho we watched a film called 'Jumper' which was ok.. not much more to say about that just another film with a pretty bad story line. Trailer made it look better.
The following day we decided to have a much more productive day and packed our bags and headed out to Singapore Zoo for the Day which was sooo goood. We saw soo many animals up close such a White Tigers, Various Monkeys, Snakes and Kangaroos. I took thousand of photos which are now uploaded, if youd like to have a look. Singapore zoo was a great zoo to visit, none of the animals were caged as such, jus secluded on their own little islands withing the park surrounded by water and ditches so they couldnt escape their seemingly happy little habitat. It was a really good day out. However we managed to get quite carried away resulting in us having to head back to the hostel quickly to pick up our bags and head off to the Airport bound for Cairns. We arrived 30mins before the gate opened at Changhi Airport and were put onto a plane with a company named Jet Star with all of the quantas passengers to Cairns via Darwin. We had no idea this was going to happen.
I once again found the flight extremely quick as I spent the majority of it sleeping whereas Mike and Stu didnt even manage to shut their eyes. I think I have an ability to sleep wherever when i'm tired enough. I didn't even know we'd taken off as I fell asleep before take off.

So here we are now in Cairns, the boys have been counting down the days to Australia whereas I think I would have probably liked to have spent a little more time in Thailand and Malaysia. On the other hand I've always wanted to visit this beautiful country and I really look forward to see what it has in store for us. I think I'll have to do Thailand again sometime.

We're rite in the middle of a tropical storm right now, so were stuck inside the internet cafe. It's meant to clear up by friday so I may head up north for a day trip into the rainforest. I really look forward to it. I will keep you all updated.

Hope everyone is well back home.

lots of love.
Alex.
xxx

The Sights and Sounds of Kuala Lumpur.

So here we are in Kuala Lumpur, we expected it to be quite simular to Hong Kong with the hustle and bustle of the city but they have their strong differences. First of all its sooo much hotter and humid here! Secondly the people are much more friendly. The place is'nt as chlostrophobic (i think thats how you spell it). Yesterday we decided to head off into the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) to see the Petranos Towers (the tallest twin towers in the world)and then we had to figure a way to get to Singapore so we dropped in on the Malaysian Tourism Office who gave us a choice of Bus and Train. We decided to get the train as it would cost us about 4pounds and we would get a bed to stay in for the 11 hour journey. So a nights accomodation and travel to singapore is not bad for 4pounds, we head off about 9pm tonight. Today Chris and I awoke about 8am to get our free tea and toast and to head to the Petranos Towers to get early tickets to get up to the bridge in the middle of the two towers. We got tickets for 11.30 and went for a walk around the park. At 11.30 we were taken into a 3D theatre to watch information about the history about the towers. It was quite interesting. Petranos turned out to be an oil company, I did not know this before. After this had finished we were taken as a group up to the 41st floor to visit the viewing bridge where we could see some stunning views of KLCC. After our 10minute visit we headed back down and went to the KL Tower (about 10minutes away) We were meant to visit Stu and Mike but we were an hour late so we completely missed them, they had already head off to the aquarium. So Chris and I headed up to the top of the tower 250m above the ground. You could see a full 360degrees around the tower. We could see for miles around, their were skyscrapers as far as our eyes could see. It was really good fun and cost a small price of about 3pounds.

It has been really good to stop off here in Kuala Lumpur but i dont really think we needed more than 2 day i dont think there is much to do here, but i definately think it was worth the visit. So next stop singapore.\

Oh and by the way last night we went to TGI Fridays to treat ourselves and we made out it was stuarts birthday he got a song and some cake. Theres a video on you tube so check it out there http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ4j61yK40E

The Story So Far......

Ok so I havn't really had a chance to write on this since we arrived in the south of Koh Phanghan so I will outline the main events of the past week. (If you would l;ike the better, more detailed version please visit chris' blog at gapyear08chris.blogspot.com).

So we checked into our hostel called Thong Yang just 3km from Haad Rin (Haad Rin is the beach where everything happens) on Tuesday the 19th. Thong Yang was a great place to stay up in the hills just 5 minutes from the wonderful BaanTai beach. The rooms wernt too bad as we were paying about 3pounds per night and the owners were very relaxed which made it very enjoyable. We didnt check out til about 7pm on the last day! So when we arrived on the 19th we spent most of the day checking out the beach and settling in to our temporary home. We were once again met by jane and polly by accident again, not on koh san road this time, it was down on the Beach. They managed to find accomodation just up the road from us which was useful as most nights we all shared taxis into haad rin and back home. So that evening we went to another party, this one named 'the Jugle Experience' which was good fun, not as good as the half moon party but it was good to get out with everyone, we played a few drinking games and chilled out for most opf the night as there wasnt as many people as we expected there.

So the next 3 days followed a very simular pattern.. we would be out till about say 5/6am and then most of us would sleep till about 2pm get up and head down to the beack for a swim and lunch at the Blue Lotus. Spend a couple more hours on the beach playing guitar and chilling out then we would all head back for an overdue shower and an attempt tp find some clean clothes for the evening.

The evenings are very mixed up for me as they were quite simular but different. 'same, same... but different' A saying that they use alot out here that I dont really understand.
So here are a few things we will definately never forget that happened in Haad Rin:

- Drinking Games - Stuart Straw, My Peter Griffin Impression 'milkshake' and Mikes random noises to strangers.

- Tom's eyebrow piercing

- Whisky buckets, Large and Small

- The Fire Skipping Rope / Fire Poi

- Dancing the night away.

- RAVE paint on the faces.

On the 23rd of february we were kindly invited by Paul (a family friend of chris' who we earlier met in Hong Kong) to attend a Wedding Reception on Koh Samui (a neighbouring island) and to join him in staying in a 2million pound beachside villa for the night for the grand cost of nothing... We really couldnt refuse. We arrived at the Wedding Reception (the nicest hotel I have ever seen) around 10pm where we walked into a room full of people doing 'line dancing'. It was very awkward as we knew no-one and we didnt attend the ceromony. We had to simply explain we were invited by our friend paul howard, which was very awkward at first but we were soon introduced to the bride and groom and from there on it was fine. We had access to the free bar which was a luxury, on of the reletives dragged us into a new drinking game for us which was good fun, stu and I came out worse on that 1 I think, but it was good fun. Later on after the reception we took a taxi to Pauls Girlfriends boss' villa which was brand new, no one had ever stayed there before and we were asked to check it out for them to see if everything worked etc. It was stunning, I cant really describe how nice it was (iu guess youll have to see the pictures), put it this way, we had a bath, a hot shower, a pool, maids and our own chef. We spent the night by the pool drinking the beer from the poolside fridge with paul and his friends, listening to music at 3am having a beer fight was soo funi. Something I will never forget.

The following day, the day of the full moon party, I woke up early to make the most of this luxury beachside villa. I got up and had a bath OUTSIDE as I still stunk of beer from the night before. A tropical storm hit us at that time which was good fun, Ive never really had a bath outside before let alone being in heavy hot rain at the same time. About 4hours later the rest of the guys woke up and we headed down to the pool for some breakfast. Bacon and Eggs, Cereal with mint tea! This was all too gooid to be true, all cooked by our own chef. A great hangover cure. Shortly after we all headed to go and visit one of the waterfalls on the island followed by sie elephant trekking which was really good fun, that is something ive wanted to do since we got out here but hadnt had a chance until then. It was strange being so high up but feeling soo safe from the sturdy amimal beneath us. I bought a few benanas to feed him with which didnt last very long. Shortly after we found a Monkey which we named Leonard who became friendly with us all, you will have to see the pictures when i get them up. Afterward we decided to head up to the waterfall, it was stunning, a good 45minute walk into the hills in our flip flops, was followed by the biggest down pour,we were soaked head to toe and stuck at the top of this waterfall, attempting to get back was a slippery attempt but really good fun. At 5pm we dried off and the chef back at the hostel had spent the day preparing the best bbq ever! There was everything, King Prawns, Kebabs, Fresh Fish, Local Satay sticks and Steaks shipped from aboard that were earlier picked up from the airport. It was soo good a bit different to what we had been eating recently, we made the most of it.
At 7pm a speed boat picked us up from the beach of the villa and took us all the way to Haad Rin for the long awaited Full Moon Party. I had never seen the beach soo busy, There were about 8 or 9 different bars along the beach all playing their different styles of music. I managed to somehow loose everyone which resulted in me spending half of my night trying to find everyone again. It was good fun. I must do for anyone who visits thailand on the right time of month.

It took us a good few days to recover and we all decided to leave on the 26th, Jane, Polly and Tom got a taxi to ThongSala for their boat to Koh Tao (an island north of Phanghan) to do some scuba diving. They left around 2pm which was quite sad as we had all had soo much fun as a group over the past week, something that was a shamne to leave behind. It was quite hard leaving fordie again for the second time as we wont see him again for another 4 months. :( Later on that evening we were meant to be picked up from the accomodation for our journey to Kaula Lumpur at 8pm.... This never showed...

I am now writing to you from Trekkers Lodge in Kuala Lumpur we had a pretty strange 26hr journey down here from koh phanghan it's taken soo long, first of all our taxi never showed up... so we ended up waiting until 9pm. The really kind guy who owned our accomodation from Thong Yang drove us all the way to the night boat. We got to the nightboat and were late of corse because of the lack of taxi so we had no beds allocated which meant we had six hours sleeping on the hard wooden floor wasnt a great way to start the journey. So we arrived in surrithani (6hrs later) only to find we had to get a bus to a travel agent to get another bus 1 and a half hours later which took us to another travel agent 4 hours down the country closer to the border. Here we were told we apparently needed 300ringgit to cross the border where we were marched to a cashpoint. NO WAY we thought, it was a big con. They were trying to get us to exchange money with them for silly exchange rates theres something like 7.9 baht to the ringit and they were selling at about 18.9. We were going to get caught out big time so we decided to sort it out at the boirder if and when we needed to. It turns we only needed 5 baht to cross the border so all was lies and a big money making scheme. Once we crossed the border we had another 4ish hour bus journey mpw taking us to butterworth, the time was 4.30pm now and we were taken to another travel agent to be told that WE MISSED our bus by 20minutes (It wasnt even our fault!) and had to wait til 10pm. Long story short we were taken in by a lovely malaysian family who own the resturant we ate at who kindly let us use their showers and beds in one of their rooms. At around 8.30pm we were greeted by the resturant owners son who was 19, he took us to the beach to show us the coastline of Penang and introduced us to some authentic malysian food which he refused to let us pay for. Such a nice guy, he goes to college in Kuala Lumpur so he also helped us out on suggesting places to go during our visit! He kindly dropped us off on at the bus park aroun 9.45 where we actually got onto a real coach to KL. We got here around 3am. It was a crazy journey, soo long. I think in total we had to take 2 Taxis, 1 Boat, 4 Bus' and 1 Coach.

We are now staying in a hostel in Kuala Lumpur called Trekkers Lodge we checked in about 4.30 this morning and its costing us about 3.50per night with included breakfast and internet.

Today we plan to go sight seeing in KL and book our travels to Johor Bahru as we will leave KL tomorrow. I hope to update this much more now i mislaid my diary on one of the many bus'.

Photos will be uploaded as soon as we can.

much love
Alex.

xxxxxx

Welcome to Paridise.

Hello all from the sunny, beachy koh phanghan.

Last wednesday we took a 12hr bus journey all the way from Bankok and then toook a 2hr boat journey to Koh Phanghan via Ko Tao (Thailand). It was a well deserved journey as this place is beautiful. Nothing we'd thing we'd see until fiji. Since we arived we have been staying in a place called 'haad son' north west of the island (one of the quietest places). It feels soo good to get away from the cities (Bankok and Hong Kong) and to somewhere a bit more remote. We have been staying in beach bungalows, all 5 of us squeezing into 1. This island has endless things to do, for the past couple of days we have been swimming off shore in 'haad salad' to do quite a bit of snorkelling around the reefs. It's great iv'e never seen so many fish in one place. Chris (the expert diver) has managed to spot a couple of clown fish and a few puffa fish which is pretty gd.

The day we arrived (the 14th i think) we managed to catch the 'Half Moon Party' which you cant really explain it was soo good. Let me put it this way.. take the best night club you have ever been to, tenth the price of drinks and take that into the middle of the jungle (oh and throw in some rave paint and glow sticks). It was a pretty crazy night. I lukily stuck to the beer unlike some people (not naming names) who went directly onto the whisky buckets who found themselves sleeping behind the dancefloor.

Last night there was a big thai boxing fight in 'thong sala' close to the international port. We decided to go because its something that is very important to people over here in thailand. It was really good, 8 fights from different age ranges. It was an outdoor ring with sets of seats running around the outside, it was great to watch, a good experience and a great atmosphere. For many people over here thai boxing is their life, we were introduced to a previous champion who has now retired at the age 33 who kindly offered to teach us thai boxing for 350baht this afternoon. We may take him up on that..

One of the most memorable moments for me so far on this island would probably be an evening we went down to 'haad salad' and took the guitar. Watching the sunset with my friends with a bit of acoustic guitar is wonderful. This attracted the locals who invited us into their resturant on the beach where they played us their instruments, some drums and some pipe instument that they had made themselves, we all sat there playing and singing together.

So where from here... today we check out of 'haad son' and head further down towards 'haad rin' (where the full moon party happens) so were going to be stayin near 'baan kai' in the hills, a fantastic view. We're paying about 3pound per night theres which is amasing for what it is. Tonight we will probably go to the 'jungle experience' (the warm up party for the full moon) quite simular to the half moon apparently. I look forward to it. In a couple of days we plan to go elephant trekking which should be something different. Can't wait. On the 24th we plan to leave the island for malaysia.

I hope to upload the photos as soon as I can.

speak to you all soon.

AJ.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thailand...

From Hong Kong 02-...

We flew into the airport around 11am on the 10th not really knowing what to expect and not really sure how to get to 'koh san road' (the suggested place to be in bangkok for people like ourselves). As we stepped out of Bankok International we were hassled by taxi drivers (many were fake and overpriced). It was very overwhelming especially after the small amount of sleep we had the night before. Out of nowhere we all bump into someone... something we didnt really expect.. Thomas Ford. It was great relief to see him as we were clueless of what to do next. (we planned to meet him a few days after but he took a 24hr bus down from laos to meet us).

So 4 best friends has now evolved into 5 and we are really enjoying our time here in bangkok. The weather is humid and hot but no sun as of yet because of the thick smog overlaying the city. This place is great tho you can walk less than 100m from the doorstep and find anything for the smallest prices. A full meal out here costs around 60baht which is just under a pound, i went out yesterday and bought myself some sandals for about the same price. We're living pretty cheaply and going out most nights here which we can afford to do (we went to a rooftop bar last night called gazebo, great live cover music, was really good).

So whats the plan now... well we were planning on going down to Koh Phanghan tomorrow (by 12hr night bus) to get away from the city and to get to some beaches. We are planning on going to stay in the north of the island for a week. On the 21st we plan to head down the island for the full moon party where thousands flock from all around. We have been told by soo many people that it is a must.

I will keep you all updated once i head down to southern thailand. I have finally finished uploading the hong kong photos so visit the gap year photo site for the updates if you would like to see them.

Love to all.

Alex.

xxx

Last Day in Hong Kong

Ok so today was our last day in Hong Kong. We all made the most of it, Mike and I went to Lantau Island to visit the monastry and the huge Buddha which is a major tourist attraction over here, we also had to get a cable car high above the mountains to get back to the station, the views were spectacular! (i will upload photos soon but this place wont let me). A couple of days ago we visited the peak, this is basically the best place to see hong kong from the sky, we went up on the apparent steepest tram in the world, it was good fun. We could see all throughout hong kong. Later that day we made our way to the avenue of stars to watch the FANTASTIC Chinese New Year Fireworks display (Brockham had nothing on this it was that good) (again more photos to come) It ended with a huge bang rattling the surrounding building and hills (chris got a great video). We've thoroughly enjoyed our stay here in hong kong but we really need a change of scenery. We are flying out to Bankok tomorrow morning which should be a good move.

Tonight we plan to head up to stuees favourite bar in hong kong 'Dublin Jacks' take a guess why.. They could be selling guinness there for a reasoinable price and they could be showing the ireland game.

I will update the phtotos asap and speak to you in Bankok.
Goodbye for now.

Happy Chinese New Year (from Hong Kong)

So here I am thousands of miles from home in the middle of Mong Kok in a 24hr internet cafe and its 00.13 in the morning. This evening was very entertaining we went into kowloon to see the new years eve parade. The past few days have been good fun, It took a little while to settle in but before long we were on our feet exploring the local area. I still dont think its hit us how long we are going to be away from home. We are having good fun, its great going away with the guys we watch each others backs and make each other laugh. We've sussed the transport here from trams to underground. We've visited a couple of markets with the freshed fish weve every seen (they were still jumping). I will give you all more of an update with pictures hopefuli when i get more time. Ok must go. Musch more to say. Hope to find an internet cafe at the airport before our departure to Thailand.