Daisy's Big Adventure

Early Morning Aerobics.

2010-06-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

We are on a happy bus to Ha Long Bay at the moment. I am very happy 
because I am listening to the funky tunes of Panic at the Disco. Even 
Dec likes this song.

We a have just left Hanoi, but we are going there again tomorrow. I 
think we have like two more nights there. I'm not really sure. It's 
probs good that we have more time there, because yesterday we really 
didn't do much. It was the fault of another sodding sleeper train.

We got off the sleeper train at about four o'clock ish. None of us had 
slept very well that night though, because in the middle of the night 
Nat woke up and started screaming at us,  "Guys, get up! Shit, guys, 
we're here! Shit, get up, get up!". We were not there at all. It was 
only bloody midnight, but she had made us all jump so much that we had 
all started getting ready to leave. I had even packed my sleeping bag 
away by the time Mirelle had told us that the time was, in fact, a 
quarter past twelve. Stupid Hopka. I couldn't get back to sleep after 
that because they had turned the air con off and I was sweating like a 
person who sweats a lot.

So because of Nat's late night outburst, and the four o'clock start, 
we were all pretty gormed out when we arrived at our hotel. We weren't 
allowed to check in straight away, so Huy took us on an early morning 
stroll around the city. There is a lake in Hanoi, so we walked around 
that. It was brill. There was like a bajillion people exercising by he 
lake. Becky and I joined in with an aerobics class. The instructor was 
a very scary looking Vietnames lady who was dressed in the craziest 
eighties attire. She pointed to us and made us move to the front. I 
guess we weren't thrusting correctly, and she wanted to show us 
properly. We ran away when she wasn't looking.

I love the exercise regime of the Vietnamese.  I like it so much, in fact,
that I am considering setting up an early morning aerobics class in Belper.
Just a group of cool kids, exercising in the early morning in the nice outdoors.
We could do it at the river gardens, perhaps.  "Daisy's Fitness Freaks" I would
call it.  Yeah, YEAH!!

We went for some breakyfast after all that exertion. Becky had a 
pancake that acually tasted of vom. Gross.

After breakfast, Huy invited us to go to his house. We accepted his 
invitation and hopped on a public bus. I fell asleep. Oops. Luckiy, 
Huy woke me up when we had to get off.

Huy lives in a place about forty minutes outside of Hanoi, and it is 
where a lot of wooden furniture is made. Literally every house and 
building makes this jazzy furniture. The furniture is very ornate. 
Properly carved and stuff. The people have to be really good at it. 
Huy's family are also in the furniture business and his house was full 
of it.

We had some green tea when we got there, and then he showed us his 
house. Then it was way random, because he was all like,"Ok guys, have 
a nap, I'm gong to go and help my mother". So he just left us to have 
a nap in his bedroom and his brother's bedroom. We thought t was odd,
and we weren't that comfortable sleeping in random people's beds,
but we were very tired so we napped.

A few hours later he woke us up for lunch. It was only like ten 
o'clock though. His mum had cooked us up a right feast. There was a 
ton of food. We tried to eat a lot to be polite but we were way full 
from the sickie pancakes. Huy gave us red wine to drink. At ten 
o'clock. Brill.

We journeyed back to Hanoi after lunch, and as soon as we got to the 
hotel we fell asleep. I woke up about four hours later, and it was 
time to get ready for dinner.

We went out to a nice little restaurant for dinner. I had sweet and 
sour pork and it was delicious. Absolutely delicious. Griff had fried 
fish with cashew nuts. I tried some and it was mega tasty. I loved it. 
I am turning into a right old fish lover. Yey.

We went out for drinks to a place called Beer Corner. It was like 4000 
dong for a beer, which is like 15 pence or something. Brill. It was a 
really random place though, it was just like a load of plastic chairs 
and stools on the pavement. Some of the chairs spilled out onto the 
road, but no one got run over.  Then all of a sudden the owners came 
out and started yelling at us to stand up and they started putting all 
the chairs away. They were ever so dramatic about it. It was quite 
spectacular. We didn't really know why they were doing it, until we 
heard some one say that the police were coming. Major lols. They are 
not allowed chairs on he street because the police tell them off and 
take them away. Bimes for them.  Luckily, the police were a no show this
time.  False alarm.  Phew.

When they had run out of the draught beer we took the advice of a 
strange man on a moped and had a drink at "Top Pub". I like it because 
it was kind of like Topshop. There was a bit of a problem when we 
realised that it was on the fourth floor, and there was no lift, but 
the leaflet we were given promised us brilliant views, so we soldiered 
on. The views were shit. But they gave us free beer so it was ok.

They had this special offer thing at the Top Pub, where if you stood 
on one foot for a minute you got a free beer, and if you stood on one 
leg for two minutes you got a free vodka mixer. Yey. I got a free 
vodka and coke. Becky got a free vodka mixer as well, but they didn't 
have lemonade and as she is allergic to caffeine, she couldn't have 
redbull or coke. So instead, she made a deal with the bar man that if 
she stood on one foot for ten minutes then he would give her a free 
cocktail. She did it as well. Good times. She does yoga.

We finished up our freebie drinks and went home a little bit tipsy.

Those Pesky Korean Posers.

2010-06-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

Day number two in Hoi An. Haha, number two. :). We did not really do 
much. We went to see some ruins in the morning time. My Son ruins.  To 
be honest they were not very exciting. I think I have been spoilt by 
the spectacular spectacular Angkor ruins, because these ruins were 
disappointing. The pesky Americans had bombed them all anyway. Bastards. 

The highlight of the trip, in my opinion, was ridiculing the Koreans. They were
posing for photos like they were in freaking Vogue. We started playing an 
amusing game where we try at all costs to get into people's photos, 
generally making a stupid face. Ever such a lot of fun.  The pesky Koreans
were so keen with their photo taking that they kept climbing all over the ruins to
posh and get nice views, even though there were signs everywhere telling poeple
not to.  Huy got wayangry at them climbing on the ruins, so he threw a rock at one
guy.  It hit his poshcamera.  Way funny.  Serves him right for not obeying instructions.

Becky and I had both decided to go and have shoes made, and Hoppy Hop 
wanted a dress made, so we spent our afternoon time running between 
the shoes makers and the tailors for various fittings. Becky Bum got 
some cute little army boots made. Like the All Saints ones, only 
waaaaaay cheaper. And I got my slaggie slag shoes. They are a bit like 
YSL Tributes, only waaaaaaay cheaper. Hoppy went for a green silky 
dress. It is way nice. It is like the green if the witches face in 
Wicked. Super nice, yes.

In the evening time, Hop went out with the rest of the gang for a 
cooking class. Becky and I opted out, because we already did a cooking 
class in Chiang Mai and it was super good. We prefer Thai food to 
Vietnamese food as well. Secretly, we were also a little scared about 
cooking with Hoppy. She is a really really good cook, and Becky and I 
are just ok a cooking, and when Hoppy cooks she becomes very intense. 
So we wimped out and went for a romantic meal, just the two of us.

We had a very nice time.  We went to a restaurant full of romantic snogging
couples, which I did not really appreciate, but the food was nice.  We got the
best table in the house as well, right by the entrance, so we could people watch
at everyone walking past in the street.  I love to people watch.  It is one of my
favourite hobbies.

Afterwards, we shopped for Nat's birthday pressies.  We had already sneakily
bought her a dress, and we got her some earrings and a nice purse to replace
her one that was stolen.  I saw dress that was made form the same material that
Mother \hen has a skirt made from.  It is from H&M.  It reminded me of Mummy and
Becky took a photo.  Becky bought a nice flowery dress as well.  Lovely lovely, it is.

When we got back to the hotel, the others were already back from cooking.  We had
a nice late night swim in the pool and then we went to bed.

Another Bloody Bike Ride

2010-06-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

Sleeper trains are bad times, you know, because we always arrive at 
our destination at like stupid o'clock in the morning. I think it 
would be much more civilised to board the train a few hours later, so 
that we could alight at a reasonable hour. Apparently, that is 
impossible, so we got off the train in Danang at about five in the 
morning. We then had an hour on the bus to Hoi An.

Hoi An is a cool place, I like it a lot. Unfortunately, I did not 
appreciate the coolosity of Hoi An when we arrived at the hotel at six 
o'clock to be told that we were going on a bike ride. A bike ride. 
Another sodding bike ride. I tell you, I have spent more time on a 
bike in the last three weeks than I have in the last ten years at 
home. I will have major leg muscles when I return. Anyway, we hopped 
on our bikes and rode to the beach. We had a little swim and it was 
awfully pleasant.

In the afternoon times we went on a walk round Hoi An. There are some 
nice things to see there, for example a nice Chinese temple and an old 
Japanese bridge and some old merchants houses. We saw some of those 
things and they were very pleasant, but the main thing in Hoi An is 
tailors. There are tailors freaking everywhere. "You want dress, lady?
I make dress for you". Good times.

I didn't want a dress. I did, however want some shoes. Some slag 
shoes, as I have taken to calling them. In fact, I have taken to 
calling them something different, but the name was inspired by a 
horrid person I used to know, and if this person should ever read 
this, I would not like this person to discover the name of the shoes, 
because this person may then come and punch me. Much safer to keep it 
off the Internet. I do jot want to get punched, no sir. We had a look 
at a shoe making place and it looked very promising. Yey.

That evening we went out for a nice meal. Becky had this weird tuna 
thing that she did not like in the slightest. She ate hardly any of it, 
so she thought it might be a good idea to hide the dirty tuna 
underneath the banana leaf that it was served on. She did not do it very 
discreetly, and she didn't realise that the waitress was standing right 
behind her just when she plopped the dirty tuna upside down in 
disgust. The waitress did not look happy, and poor Beck Bex was 
majorly embarrassed. We reckon the waitress spat in her pancake as 
revenge. Lol.

I did not have dirty tune for dinner.  I had sweet and sour pork.  Oh man, I love
sweet and sour.  It is the shizz.

The Missing Camera and Mud Bath Times.

2010-06-04T02:47:00.000-07:00

The day after Nha Trang fun times, I was feeling very worse for wear 
indeed. I had a very poorly head. It was way bimes. I went to see 
Hoppy when I had awoken properly and we made a terrible discovery. The 
night before, I had given her my camera and make up bag so that I could 
smuggle our buckets from one bar to the next in my bag, but when I asked 
Nat for my camera she couldn't find it. I had a little bit of a panic, 
because I could defo remember giving her may camera. I searched my bag 
and my room and I couldn't find it, so Nat went round all the bars and 
asked if anyone had handed it in or if they'd found it. Bimes for me, 
she came back without it. I was way gutted, because of all my photos. 
I had taken like five hundred photos that I hadn't got backed up yet, 
but I was annoyed at myself for losing it. Then, when Nat was having a 
last look through her bag, she realised that her purse was gone as 
well. We realised then that some one could have stolen them. We spoke 
to the girls who were with us on the beach, and they said that some 
strange Vietnamese people had come up to them while Nat was in the sea. 
I remember them now, but thought nothing of them at the time, but we 
reckon that while one of them was talking to us, the other one went in 
Nat's bag. Bastards.

I was way gutted. I cried on Huy, and he really didn't know what to 
do. I was just so upset about all the photos I'd lost. I had taken like 
soooooo many. I am still way gutted about it, but I have realised now 
that there is no point being upset about it, because I'm never going 
to get them back. Although, I did have a dream last night that I got 
my camera back, but it didn't have the memory card in it anyway.

Nat and I spoke to Huy about going to report the things to the police, so 
that we could claim on our insurance when we get home, but he said 
that there would be no point because they wouldn't give us a report. 
We put our foot down and made him take us, but we couldn't go straight 
away because at the time the police people were on lunch. Because no 
crimes happen over lunchtime, obviously.

I was proper bummed out when we went to see some sights that day. Nat 
was annoyed too, but luckily she'd had hardly any money in her purse, 
it was only her drivers license she was really worried about. So when 
we went to see the sights of Nha Trang that day, I was not really 
feeling it.

We went to see the Long Son Pagoda, which was pleasant. To be honest, 
I have seen so many pagodas now that they all seem to have merged in 
my brain. There were to big Buddahs at this pagoda. One was lying down 
and one was sitting up. They were very large. Very large and white. I 
wanted to take photos, but couldn't, because some skank had stolen my 
camera.

After that we went to see the Cham Tower. It is a really old tower, 
like super old. Apparently there used to be loads of towers but now 
there is just four. Bimes for the towers. We saw some ladies dancing 
with pots on their heads outside the towers. They did not look very 
happy about it.

After tower times, we went to the police station. Huy came in with us, 
thank goodness, because we never would have got anything sorted 
without him. The police station was literally just a room with a desk 
in it. The room didn't even have a door on one side. And inside the 
desk there was just a load of paperwork all crumpled up and forgotten 
about. We had to wait for ages to see a police person, and when she 
eventually came out, she just handed us some paper to write down what 
had happened. Huy then translated it into Vietnamese, and then she 
stamped the piece of paper. Then we just went. It was ever so odd.

We needed cheering up after that, so we went to some mud baths. The 
mud baths were also quite odd, as it happens. The mud was really 
strange, it was just like brown water. We all expected it to be thick 
mud, but it really wasn't. It was still fun times though. We covered 
ourselves with it, and poured some on Becky's face. Good times.

After mud bath times, we were advised to go and bake in the sun before 
washing all the lovely mud off. We did as we were told, but there 
wasn't really much sun. Bimes. We showered off, but that was not fun 
times because there were loads of leery Vietnamese blokes. We escaped 
to the womens only showers and that was a lot better. Once we had got 
all clean from the mud, we had a mineral bath. It was lovely; 
especially because Becky and I haven't had a bath in four months. Then 
we took a dip in an unnaturally warm swimming pool, but we didn't stay 
long because the leery guys had caught up with us. Darn them.

We bought a photo of us in the mud and then went home.

We spent that night on a sleeper train to Danang. I had a right mard 
on because I was mourning the loss of my camera. I just read my book 
and went to sleep.

Dancing in the Slag Bar and Merry Sailing Club Times.

2010-06-04T02:38:00.000-07:00

The sleeper train was actually super nice. We had a cosy little cabin
for me, Becky, Hoppy and Mirelle. I had a top bunk. It was ever so
nice. We went for some food in the restaurant coach, and I had instant
noodle soup. Boy, it was yummy. I love instant noodles. Nat had a
dirty sausage sandwich, because she is gross.

We made a friend on the train. A guy who worked there kept coming in
to talk to us. He seemed to really like us. First he came into our
cabin and told us we were beautiful, which is always nice to hear.
Then he came in and started chatting to us. He didn't speak the best
English, so we couldn't really understand. I just replied to his
question with "Yes", and he left again. Then Becky told me that I had
answered "Yes" in reply to the question "Are you American?". Oops. We
got scared that he would hate us because he thought we were American,
so the next time he came in we put him straight. When we told him we
were English, he took our glasses for water away and washed them. How
very kind, I thought. He defo wouldn't have done that if he thought we
were American.  After a little while he came back in and sprayed
air freshener and waved at Becky. Then when we left our cabin to go
and get food he locked up our cabin and stood guard outside it until
we got back. It was brill. We were defo VIPs on that train.

We arrived in Nha Trang super early in the morning, like five or half
fiveish. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and went for a walk to the
beach. It was about six o'clock when we got to the beach, but it was
sooooo busy. It was insanely busy for that time in the morning. There
were people doing aerobics and yoga in the sand, there were people
playing badminton and there was a ton of people just setting up their
umbrellas and beach mats in preparation for a day in the sun. I
thought it was very keen of them. Becky told me it was disgusting and
that they should all go back to bed. She is not a morning person.

We breakfasted after beach fun times. I had a banana pancake. Then we
sun creamed up in preparation for our sunny sunny boat trip.

On the way to our happy boat, Becky and Nat decided to buy some cone
hats, like the ones the Vietnamese people wear. I didn't get one
because my hat from Angkor Wat is still intact, whereas Becky lost
hers and Nat wrecked hers. They looked ridiculous. :) I did purchase some
goggles.  I am a right wimp when it comes to getting sea water in my eyes,
so I decided that goggles would be a good idea.  I look ridiculous though.
I have since thrown them away.

Our boat trip was super fun. First of all we went to a fishing village
and had a walkie round. We saw a lady making a fishing net and we saw
a man getting his ears cleaned. Hygiene, hygiene.  We also saw some kids
in school and  they were really cute. Then we had a ride in a lovely bamboo
contraption. The water was lovely and clear and it made me very happy.

We returned to the boat and Becky and I had pedicures by some ladies
on the boat. I had frenchie manicure style on my toes, which Mummy Hen
hates because she thinks it looks wag. I like it though. I like wags.

After our nails were nice and dry we snorkelly snorkelled. The
snorkelling was way better that the crappy snorkelling in
Sihanoukville. Way better. I had a life jacket on because I am lazy
and I like to float. We saw lots of lovely coral and some nice fishies
as well. Mirelle and Griff saw an eel thing but I didn't see it
because you had to get way close to coral and rocks and I don't like
to touch things in the sea. It freaks me out.

We had lunch on the boat. There was soooo much food. I had noodles and
spring rolls and green beans and beef and I tried some fish but I
didn't like it so I gave it to Nat.

After lunch we behaved like loons and jumped off the top of the boat.
It was way scary, it was like a lot of metres high. I wasn't sure if I
was going to jump off when I went up onto the roof of the boat, but
when I got up there the floor was so hot that I really didn't have
much choice. I had a strapless bikini on as well, so I was worried
that I would flash. I didn't though. Phew.

We went and sat on a nice pebley beach after that. I sat in a deck
chair and fell asleep. It was very pleasant. Thankfully I was in the
shade, so I didn't fry like a piece of bacon. I woke up just as we
were about to hop back on our boaty.

We stopped at another snorkelly spot after that and then we returned
to dry land.

We just chillaxed after that and got ready for dinner. I straightened
my hair and everything. We went out for dinner to a place that did
loads of Italian food. I had pasta with bacon and it was way nice.

Our guide, Huy, had organised to take us out to a local bar for drinks
after dinner. We all accompanied him. We thought it would be very nice
to see how the locals spend their evenings, when in Rome and all that.
So we went to this bar. When we got there it was not at all what
we had expected. He had taken us to this really sleazy old man's club,
with banging music and girls in very little clothing dancing around
poles. We were the only girls in there who weren't there solely for
the entertainment of drunken Vietnamese men.

We decided to make the most of it, and we stayed for a drink. When
there was an especially funky tune on, we went and danced. That turned
out to be a had idea though, because we attracted the attention of
groups of old drunken blokes who came and gyrated next to us. Not fun
times. In the end, we made our excuses and left. The boys had already
gone, I guess it was even more awkward to be a guy in there than it
was for us. When we were walking back to the hotel, we saw them having
a drink so we stopped and joined them.

It was the end of happy hour, so we quickly ran to the bar and ordered
buy one get one free cocktails. I had a Cosmo. It did not taste like a
Cosmo in the slightest. It was still nice though. We stayed in there
for ages, it was a really cool place. We wrote on the wall.  You were
allowed, like. I didn't just do it like a vandal.  After we had become
sufficiently merry, we accompanied some Irish people to a bar called
the Why Not Bar. Nat and I danced around like loons on the dance floor.

We met a horrible Canadian boy in there. He was way mean to Natasha. I
asked him to leave our group if he was going to be mean. I was ever so
polite about it, but I didn't want to have to spend time with a horrid
person, so I told him. He wasn't happy, and spent the rest of he time
in the bar bitching about us to a girl with a stupid headband on.

When the Why Not Bar got boring, we took a  trip to the Sailing Club.
Golly, the sailing club was fun. We danced around to some funky tunes
and it was wicked cool. When we were sitting down after dancing fun
times, the nasty Canadian came and sat on our table. I was not a happy
bunny. Hadn't I already made it clear that he was to horrible to be in
our company?? So I asked him not to hang around with us. He went off
in a mard. No wonder he has no friends, being such a grump.

For some reason, the music in the Sailing Club stopped quite early. We
were not ready for bed time, oh no, so we took our buckets to the
beach. Nat went in the sea because she had her bikini on, but I stayed
on the sand because I had normal clothes on. I was very happy on the
beach, until a pesky scouser came and picked me up and threw into the
sea. In my clothes. Goodness me. So I had a little swim and then we
went home for sleep times.

Midnight feast and the Discovery Channel.

2010-05-23T00:25:00.000-07:00

After Silvia left, we got ready for dinner and went to meet our tour  
group for Vietnam. They are all very nice. There are Callum and Griff,  
who did Cambodia with us as well, then there is Mirelle, Natasha and  
Nicole. There is also this random fifty something year old Vietnamese  
guy who called himself Andy. He told us that he comes from Vietnam but  
lives in London, and that he had been in Vietnam for nine weeks  
already. We thought it was very odd. Why would you come on a tour of  
Vietnam if you came from Vietnam? Very strange, very strange indeed.
 
So after our little welcome meeting we set of for some dinner. We went  
to the local market and had a very fine meal there. I had noodles but  
Hoppy had some red snapper. I have been trying to make myself like the  
taste of fish while I have been away, and until then I had been  
unsuccessful. However, the red snapper was very tasty. Yey for red  
snapper. Snappy snap.
 
The rest of the gang went out for drinks after dinner, but I was still  
feeling a little under the weather, so I went back to the hotel. I  
stopped at the mini mart on the way home and bought myself a midnight  
feast. When I got back I ate cookies and drank chocolate milk in bed  
while watching the Discovery Channel. :)
 
The next day we departed early for our homestay in the Mekong Delta.  
It was way strange because on the way to our homestay we stopped off  
at a sweet factory and a brick factory. Super random. It was  
interesting to see how that made the sweets and we got to try some  
but they weren't very nice. The brick factory was just odd. Why would  
we be interested in how bricks are made? Why? It's not even as if they  
took us there to buy stuff because we can hardly buy bricks! Goodness  
me.
 
After all the factory madness we went on a boat to our homestay. We  
had to go under a really tiny bridge to get there. It was so funny, we  
literally all had to lie on the floor of our little long tail boat to  
fit under it. Fun times.
 
When we arrived at the homestay we spent a little while chillaxing in  
hammocks and then we set off on a bike ride. The bike ride was nice. I  
am getting good at bikes now. We stopped off at the house of some local  
people to see how they weave bamboo mats. I had a go at it but I was  
not very good. Gutted. On they way home I rode off the path and nearly  
fell off my bike. I managed to stay on though. Phew.
 
I felt very homesick and poorly that day, especially because we were  
at a crappy homestay without real beds and a nice shower, so I was a  
bit glum. Becky and Nat and the guys decided to go for a swim in the  
dirty dirty Mekong but I was boring and sat in the house. Then I got  
jealous and went in the water anyway. It was way gross. Really grimy  
and horrid. But I didn't want to miss out on fun times so I had to go  
in.
 
When I got out I realised that I wasn't wearing my FU bracelet that  
Rosie Siddons made for me. I was way scared I had lost it and started  
frantically looking for it. I couldn't find it anywhere. I presumed I  
had lost it in the crappy Mekong and I was way gutted. It was bimes.
 
So for dinner I was bummed out because of my FU bracelet and I missed  
my Hens and I did not have fun. The noodles were nice though. And  
there was some tasty beef.
 
After dinner we had some entertainment. Some local people came to the  
house and played instruments and sang songs to us. It was strange. The  
two guitarist sounded like they were playing two completely different  
songs the whole way through, and our local guide sang a song and she  
was no Leona Lewis. But some other ladies sang to us and they were  
very good. Then the owner of the house sang us a few songs. In one of  
them we had to join in, which I found very enjoyable, and in another  
song he did some funky dancing. Brill.
 
The fun entertainment times had cheered me up a bit, so when Huy, our  
guide, asked if we wanted to play a Vietnamese drinking game I decided  
to join in. The only drink available was rice wine, which tastes like  
nail varnish remover, so we changed the game so that instead of  
drinking we drew on each others faces with charcoal from a blackened  
pot. It was super fun. We all looked ridiculous by the end of it  
because our faces were covered in charcoal. Brilliant.
 
We played cards after that. We played this games which is like UNO  
only with a normal pack of cards. It was way fun, but the games went  
on forever, so in the end we gave up and went to bed.
 
In the morning we had eggs for breakfast. I do not really like eggs,  
so I just had bread and jam. The jam was a bit funky but it was ok.
 
We got back on the boat for our lovely trip back to Ho Chi Minh City.  
We went under the stupidly low bridge again, but this time it wasn't  
stupidly low because the water level had dropped. It was defo not as  
fun that time. Gutted.
 
When we returned to Ho Chi Minh City we went straight out for some  
lunch. We went to a nice place that we had been to before. I had a  
jacket potato with chilli. It was very agreeable. I also had an iced  
coffee. Lovely lovely.
 
In the afternoon times we went shopping. We had seen some cool shops  
like Accessorize and stuff, so we went for a wander round them. It was  
super annoying because the shop assistants kept following us round the  
shops. I was like, "Go away!". Bimes.
 
We went into this one shop that was a Vietnamese shop. Becky and Nat  
really liked the look of it from the outside, but I thought it was a  
bit girly and frilly. And flowery. Anyway, we went in, and the girls  
wanted to try things on. The Vietnamese lady shop assistant did not  
look happy when the asked to try stuff. She was a right old grump.  
Because she was being so mardy, I decided to annoy her by fiddling  
with things and moving stuff around and generally messing the place  
up. She looked like she wanted to punch ke in the face, so I left.
 
We went into Naf Naf after that and tried loads of dresses on. The  
shop assistant was brill. He gave us heels to try our dresses on with  
and he gave us fashion advice and he gave us tips on how to keep our  
skin sparkly. Love him. I was not very happy though, because I tried  
on a dress and it didn't fit so he hadnto get the bigger size. I was  
about to cry when I realised that the first dress I tried on was a  
size six, so the next one he got me was an eight. I don't mind being an  
eight, so that is ok.
 
We went to by snacks and then watched the Disney channel and then we  
boarded our happy happy sleeper train to Nha Trang. Good times.

Snuggles on the bus with a random Australian lady.

2010-05-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

The day after our Pnomh Penh fun times we got up early to get on the  
bus to Ho Chi Minh City. Silvia had been my bus partner all the way  
through Cambodia, but for this final journey I sat with a random  
person. The random person for the journey is called Chloe and she is  
an Aussie Aussie. Oh, she was ever so pleasant and we had some mighty  
good chats. I was not feeling to sunny because I had a tummy ache, so  
after a while we stopped our happy chats and I went for a nap. I awoke  
to find myself leaning on her shoulder. Oops. I apologised but she  
laughed and said she didn't mind. Phew.
 
When we were at the Cambodian border with our bags we got chatting to  
some boys who were on our bus. One of them had the same bag as me, but  
my bag is a girls bag. We ridiculed him for having a girls bag.
 
When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh we went out for lunchey. We didn't  
really know where we were going, so we just chose a direction and  
walked that way. I don't think it was the wisest choice, because we  
couldn't really find anything. It was way bimes as well, because it  
was like three o'clock. Super late lunch times. Eventually, we  
stumbled across a Japanese restaurant. I have never tried Japanese  
food before, and I decided that this wasn't the right time to try it  
for the first time. I will wai until I go to Japan, maybe. Besides, I  
really wanted a ham and cheese sandwich. I had an Orangina as well.  
Oh, I love Orangina. I love the combination of the fizzyness and the  
orangey bits. Genius. Nat had an Oreo flavour iced mocha, which was  
very nice and Becky had a strawberry smoothie.
 
After lunching, I was not feeling to great, so I headed back to the  
hotel. It was brill, because there was the Asian Disney Channel on. I  
watched Hannah Montana and then Jonas. Heaven.
 
We went out for our last dinner as a group to a lovely restaurant. As  
I was feeling a little bit poorly sick, I was not feeling the  
Vietnamese food, so I went for the lasagne. To be honest, it was quite  
disappointing. Gutted. Nat and I had Mojitos, but I didn't like mine,  
so Nat had mine as well. Pissed as a fart, she was.
 
We went put for a little drinkie to a place called the Crazy Buffalo.  
It was not very crazy in there, and I definitely didn't see a buffalo,  
so I don't know where it got it's name from. There was a band playing,  
and they were actually quite good. They played chilled out music and  
it was way pleasant. I went home quite early because of my poorlyness  
and went to bed.
 
The next day we had a mega early start. We had booked a trip to the Cu  
Chi tunnels, which is just outside Ho Chi Minh City. It was really  
interesting. The tunnels were built during the Vietnam war, by the  
people of Cu Chi. The people lived in the tunnels for like  
seven years. They used them for living and hiding and escaping and  
stuff. There was one particular tunnel that you could get to by going  
feet first into a whole in the ground. Some people volunteered to go  
into the tunnel, and one of the volunteers was a Japanese girl. She  
was a little but tubby, and he hole was very small, but she had  
voltunteered to go down, so it wasn't really appropriate for anyone to  
suggest that she might not fit. She almost fit. Se got stuck half way  
though. Her bum wouldn't fit through, and she couldn't get out of the  
tunnel either upwards or downwards. She was wedged in. It was  
hilarious. It was really hard not to laugh, because it was sooooo  
funny, but it would have been way mean. It got even harder to hold in  
our hysterics when two blokes had to push her into the tunnel. It was  
not an easy task, I can tell you. They had to give her a good shove  
before she could fit through. Hilarious.
 
Afterwards, we had the option to go down a tunnel. I walked down to  
the entrance of the tunnel but then chickened out. It was way small  
and hot. I have no idea how people lived down their. Bimes for them.
 
When we got back to Ho Chi Minh we got some lunch. I was really not  
feeling very well by this point, and all I wanted to eat was pasta.  
Just plain pasta with cheese. That was not a possibility. They had  
pig's trotter on the menu, but no pasta. I then asked to see the  
breakfast menu,  because the only thing I wanted apart from pasta  
was toast, but they wouldn't give me the breakfast menu. Bastards. We  
were the only people in the whole restaurant, so it wouldn't have been  
very difficult to whack out some toast for me, but they wouldn't. In  
the end I just ordered some garlic bread. It was gross.
 
The others wanted to go and look at the Reunification Palace, so I  
went with them. We walked for like an hour to get there and it was way  
not worth it. It was just a building. Not even an old building. A new  
building. Gutted.
 
The others in the group wanted to go inside the boring new building,  
but I was not very enthusiastic. Thankfully, Becky and Nat didn't want  
to go either so we walked back together. I was back in time to watch  
Hannah Montana and Jonas again. Yey.
 
At about five o'clock Silvia left for the airport. I was way sad about  
it. I really like Silvia, she is so nice. And we had been with her for  
the whole of Cambodia so we had made really good friends. But she had  
to go back to sunny Germany. Bimes for us.

Phnom Penh.

2010-05-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Today has been a funny old day. It is our only full day in Pnomh Penh today, we arrived last night from Sihanoukville. We just went out for dinner as soon as we got here, and we were going to go to the hospital for Becky afterwards but it was closed, so we went for a walk instead. We just had a little wander to the Palace. It was very pleasant but we couldn't really see much through the gates. Hang told us it would be lit up but it wasn't. Bimes.

So today we headed straight for the hospital. Becky is not super poorly or anything, I don't want to worry anyone! She had just run out of migrane medicine so we went to get her a fresh supply of happy pills.

I had fun times at the hospital. I like hospitals though. I like all the doctors. All the knowledge. I told that to Nat and she agreed with me because she is a geek too, but Hang laughed at me. Horrible person. Anyway we got the druggies and went to visit the Palace.

I was very excited abou visiting the Palace, because the guide books lead me to believe that it is spectacular. In Hoppy's Lonely Planet it even says that the Palace is one of the "35 things not to miss". And Nat's book is not just a Cambodia guide book, but a South East Asia one. So I thought it had to be brill.

I was not very impressed to discover that the entrance fee to the Palace was $6.25. $6.25, I tell you. That could feed you for a day here. A week even, if you didn't eat much. But. We paid it and went in. It was very pretty and nice. We posed for photos outside of pretty buildings and behind trees and stuff. Hoppy was extremely enthusiastic and kept getting excitied about "relics". "Ooh, there's relics in here!" and "Wow, a room full of relics!". She was very disappointed, however, when she discovered such a relic room and went to go inside, only to find out that the door was locked. Becky and I did worry that she might try breaking and entering to get to the relics, but she didn't. Golly, that girl is special.

Our day after leaving the palace got way serious. We went to visit the Killing Fields and Choeung Ek, which was where a load of people we killed during the Khmer Rouge. It was super interesting, but not really very fun times. The first thing you go to is a big memorial building that is about 40 feet high, and in the middle there is a big kind of shelving unit with 17 tiers, and it is just full of bones. On the first tier there is a heap of clothes, which were collected when the mass graves were excavated, and on the tiers after that there were hundreds and hundreds of skulls. It was really not very nice. We walked round for a while and we read all the signs. There were some very horrible things that happened there. I will not write about them because it is not very nice.

After the Killing Fields we went to S-21, which is the Genocide Museum. It was where loads of people were tortured, before going to the Killing Fields. This place was awful. It was especially nasty to visit, because in one of the buildings there are just hundreds and hundreds of photos of people who were held at S-21, and most of them died not long after. It was really horrid.

On a happier note, we had a lovely tuk tuk driver. We managed to barter with him to get him to take us to the Killing Fields and S-21 for $4 each, but we liked him so much that we gave him a generous tip. I say it was generous, but it wasn't really, when you think about it in real money.

After we got back I helped Becky sort out her shit. She has this problem with wanting to buy the most ridiculous hints. For example, today we walked past a shop selling quilts and she wanted one. A quilt. In cambodia. Goodness me. So anyway, normally I am the voice of reason and I tell her that she is ridiculous. She sulks for a while, but i think deep down she is grateful because her bag is huge, and it would be huger if she bought all the crap she wanted. Anyway, I was helping her sort out her bag, and I discovered a secret stash of crap that she'd bought in private! The sneaky sneaky sneaker!

We dined at a lovely place this evening. I suggested it. Yes, I am brilliant. It's this place called Friends, and I watched a program on it while I was in Phi Phi. It is a nice charity place where Cambodian kids work so that they aren't on the streets and stuff. I had nachos. Lovely lovely. We gave them a nice tip because we are leaving Cambodia tomorrow so we had loads of Riel left. They we nice there though. They pulled my seat out for me and everything.

It was a bit of a bummer tonight though, because two of the people on our tour have been poorly. Bimes. So they stayed at the hotel while we had a lovley dinner. Gutted for them.

Ooh, and something excitig happened while I was at the restaurant. A beautiful butterfly landed on my bad. I named her Marissa. Then she flew away, but we definitely made friends.

We were supposed to be going for karake times tonight, but we didn't because of the poorly people and because we have to be up at five o'clock tomorrow to go to Vietnam. Oh no.

I have just been watching BBC World News and the Big Issue guy that sings outside Ann Summers in Derby was on it. It was brill. I love that guy. He makes up the most fantastic songs, and now he is famous. Well done, Dave.

I think it might be bed time now. Night. Xx.

2010-05-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today has been super fun. We were supposed to be leaving Sihanoukville at stupid o'clock this morning to go to Pnomh Penh, but no one was that keen on Pnomh Penh times, so we got Hang to change the bus for us so that we left at two. That was a spiffing idea, because it meant that we could have wicked cool times in Sihanoukville this morning.

As the main beach in Sihanoukville is major scummy, we decided to try a different one. The one we went to is called Sokha beach. We snuk into a lovely little five star hotel and spa, as they have their own private bit of Sokha beach. We were meant to pay $4 for the privelage, but the guy we gave the money to didn't have enough change, so we got in for free. Yey. Everything is better when it is free.

Although the beach was beautiful, we just stayed by the pool to avoid that pesky sand. The pool was amazing. Super lovely. I felt like Cheryl Cole, lounging by a gorgeous pool in the lovely sunshine wearing a pink frilly bikini. Good times, I think.

We had lunch at the posh place. I had a club sandwich. It was super tasty. It was slighty annoying, though, because this weird waiter guy with huge teeth kept talking to us and we were like "Go away, please". He did in the end.

Then we hopped on the bus to Pnomh Penh and went out for dinner dinner times. We went out to this Italian place, and everyone had lovley cheesy lasagnes and pizzas, but I decided to embrace the culture and have Cambodian food. It was ok, but I was way jealous of the pizza and pasta. Bimes for me.

Pesky blog madness.

2010-05-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

I am trying to write up all my blog entries tht I wrote on my iPod. I sent them all to the computer, but somehow they are not in paragraphs anymore. It is not me writing like an idiot, I promise. XX.

Homestay fun times. 22.04.10

2010-05-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Goodness me. Four whole days have passed and I have not written a single thing about all fun times. Silly me. Hoppy had a right good journal sesh yesterday because we had a lovely free afternoon. I was lazy and decided to watch a program about synchronised swimming on the Australia Network. It was mighty interesting. So now we are on the bus to Pnomh Penh again. No one is really that excited about going to Pnomh Penh. It is a big city and it is dirty and quite scummy. Still, we are on our way. I will try and remember the fun time that I need to write about. I think I left off just before the homestay. Yes, the homestay. Homestay fun times. I have absolutely no idea where in Cambodia the homestay was, apart from that it was in the middle of nowhere. They didn't have showers there (I really don't know why, surely a shower is a necessity, even for Cambodian people), so our guide took us to a "fresh water lake" for a swim. Let me tell you this, that lake was not fresh. There was loads of litter in it and the water was a sludgy brown colour. It was quite gross. We still got in and had a swim though. I got out after a little while because this gross plant kept following me and I got scared that it would drag me under that water, like what happens to Harrry in The Order Of The Phoenix. Only with Hazza it is not a plant, it is a load of dead people. Still the same idea though. Afterwards we went to go and watch some small Cambodian children do some dances. They were very cute. I'm not surprised that Angelina Jolie stole one really. We nearly put one in the back of the van to take home with us. We didn't though. Bimes. The man who introduced the show told us that some of the children will give ip dancing in a few years for various reasons, including becoming a monk. I did not realise that monks are not allowed to dance. That is quite terrible. I would hate a life without being able to dance around like a loon. Remind me never to become a monk. We had dinner after the happy happy dancing show. It was cooked for us by local people. I was very grateful for the dinner, but I'm afraid to say that I didn't enjoy it very much. The curry tasted like perfume. It was not very pleasant. Then we went home and chatted to the people who we were staying with. Hang translated for us. It was very interesing to talk to the local people and find out about their lives, and they asked us questions too. I felt really guilty when they asked us some questions though. Like they asked us how much money our holiday had cost us. I told a bit of a porky pie and knocked a couple of thousand pounds of the real amount because I flet bad that I have enough money to have super fun times all the time and they can't even afford a shower. Because we were sleeping in a real Cambodian house and not a snuggly hotel, there were no fans or air con. It was bloody hot. I was in a bed with Hoppy and she looked ridiculous. She decided that she didn't want to get bitten by the pesky mossies, so she put her mosquito net on her head (even though our bed was covered in a massive mossie net). Then she wanted to write her journal but the big light was out, so she put on her head torch. She looked very silly. I found it very amusing and I took a picture. The next day we had a crazy Cambodian breakfast and departed for Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville is by the seaside. Yey. It was not very good when we arrived though, because Becky was not feeling well. She had bad migrane times. She decided to go to bed and we went to get some lunch. We went to a nice little place on the beach. I had pineapple fried rice, but I was quite disappointed with it. In Thailand the pineapple fried rice is awesome. They out cashew nuts and spring onion and egg and sometimes raisins and chicken in it and it is super tasty. This rice was quite different though. It was literally rice with pineapple. Not fun times. We sat by the sea for ages. We took turns going in the sea, because our guide told us that people steal your things if you leave them. When we went in the sea all the Cambodian people stared at us. I don't know why. It wasn't in a mean way, they all said hello and smiled at us, but they found us very amusing at the same time. A small child came up to Nat and asked her why she was so pale. Haha. I did lol at that. Then some girls came up to her and posed for a picture with her. It was very odd. Funny though. For dinner time I had a very tasty porkie kebab. It was delicious. We went out for a few drinkie poos afterwards. Nat and I stayed out a bit later that the rest of the crowd, because we'd met some cool people. A boy called Tim from Germany and an Aussie girl called Rhiannon. I told her that I have a cousin called Rhiannon and she seemed very impressed. We shared a Mekong bucket, me and Rhiannon. We went to a bar and danced around with gay Canadian boys dressed in spandex. What a night. The next day we went on a little boat trip. We went for a snorkel, but it was not snorklly fun times. The water was not very clear, and coral freaks me out a little bit anyway. Then we went to perhaps the most beautiful beach in the world. It was on Bamboo Island and it was amazing. I loved it. We had fish for lunch though, and I don't like fish so it was bimes. I think we had a bit too much sun that day, becausenon the way to the next snorkelly spot I had a bit of a snooze. It was not very comfortable to sleep on the long tail boat, but I actually couldt stay awake. I woke up when it was time to snorkel again but I didn't fancy a proper look at the freaky coral, so I just put a life jacket on and had a float. Oh, it was very pleasant. Then, all of a sudden I realised that I was floating above some especially scary looking coral, so I got back on the boat. When we it back to the hotel we realised that Hoppy had actually turned into a tomato. She was sooooo red. It was way bimes for her. I went to the mini mart and got her some moisturiser. It was called Happy Time. How very wonderful. I got her the extra big bottle. For dinner that nigt we did not really have fun times. Hang took us to this horrible place on the beach and it was way gross. The day after, Hoppy and I decided to have a nice quiet day in. She really needed to stay out of the sun, and the others on the trip were only going to a borin old National Park, so we decided to miss it. Becky went on the trip, because she didn't go on the on the previous day, but she felt poorly anyway so came home early. We did boring stuff that day, like washing and stuff. Hoppy spoke to Helen and Frank on Skype and I said hello to them. It was about half past five in the morning their time, so they had just got out of bed. Bimes for them, waking up at stupid o'clock just to speak to Nat. :) We lunched on the beach. We both had a craving for mashed potato so we ordered a plate each. It was super nice but we could have shared on between us because there was loads. We left quite a lot, and then the flies got to it, which was wY gross. Hoppy had about A gazillion on her plate, but there were only a few on mine. I told her that it was because she was unclean. After the rest got back from the National Park we went for dinner at the place we went to on the first night. I had pork kebabs again, but this time I went for potato salad with it instead of a baked potato. How very unpredictable I am. Living on edge, I am, with my varying potato choices. We went out for drinks on the beach afterwards. I had a Mekong bucket. $2, it was. If that's not a bargain I don't know what it. I didn't finish it though. I would have been on the floor.

Tasty glass burgers 18.04.10

2010-05-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today has been super fun. We arrived at our very very nice hotel at about one o'clock today. We went straight out for lunch. We are in Kampong Cham at the moment, and it is a really small town. It's nice for us to be here, because it's not very touristy, but it means that there are only two restaurants in the whole place! It is Khmer New Year at the moment as well, so those two restaurants are both closed! Bimes. So for lunch our tour guy organised a meal with a local family. We went to their house and they had made the most amazing food for us. We had sooooo much as well! We had chicken curry, fried noodles in ginger with fish, deep fried pork, vegetable curry and, my personal fave, deep fried aubergine. The family was really nice as well. The dad was a tuk tuk driver and the mum had cooked all the food for us. She was way preggo and had three sons already, poor woman. There were grandparents there as well. Really nice, it was. After lunchey we applied lots of sun cream and then went out for a bike ride. A bike ride. Me on a bike. Heck. I got injured before I'd even left the bloody hotel. I was dismounting from the bike because the stand had broken and I bashed my knee on the bike. Idiot. Not the most promising start. When we actually got going though I was ok. The main problem was that Becky, Nat and I had decided to wear the ridiculuos hats that we bouhgt the other day, and mine kept flying off. Bimes. In the end I just tied it onto the back of my bike. Genius idea. :) We rode our merry bicycles to an island on the Mekong River. To get there we had to cross a bamboo bridge that was like two hundred metres long. It was super rickety. There were several times when I thought that the bridge would actually break. But it didn't. Phew. Riding around the island was brill. The Local people there love tourists, so everywhere we went people said hello to us and waved. It was super, I felt like a celeb, like Cheryl Cole. I said that to Nat but she pointed out that it was probably a bit different for Cheryl. And she has never cycled around Cambodia, but still. We went and tried some fruit from someones house. They invited us, blates, we didn't just turn up. We had a fruit that begins with a p that is very much like a big orange, only it is green. I said it is like an alien orange. It was very tasty but very odd at the same time. An old Cambodian lady came and shook my hand and sat next to me. She had no teeth. She kept shouting instructions at us about how to eat the big green orange, but she didn't speak English. We had a bit of a communication problem. She went off somewhere and came back with a very jazzy fruit for us to try. Jackfruit. It was yummy. It was a bit of a faff to eat, because it has seeds the size of eggs in it, and then there us this whte stuff that you can't eat and then there is a kind of gunk. Well worth it though. It tasted kind of like tropical juice. We said goodbye to our new Khmer friends and then set off on a tour of the island. It is Khmer New Year at the moment, and for some reason they celebrate by throwing water at each other. They also put a smelly powder on your face. So we got a lot of that happening to us. Our celebrity status only seemed to increase the fun in getting us soaked. It was mega loads of fun though. The little kids loved it especially. At one point we were riding down the road and we could see a group of kids up ahead with their big buckets of water, so we readied ourselves for a soaking. I was riding through at he back and managed to get stuck in the mud in the middle of the soaking zone! Bimes for me. All the rest of the group were up ahead so I was all alone. I was not worried though, because the people in Cambodia are super nice. Perhaps if I hadn't got out of the soakig zone I could have stayed here and started a new life, Cambodian style. But that didn't happen, because a small Cambodian boy pushed me and my bike out of the mud. Hooray! I had another encounter with a Cambodian boy when we were on our way back home. This boy was slightly older, I'd say about 15. Anyway, we were riding through a group of boys who were messing us up with the perfumey powder, when all of a sudden he grabs my face, announces " I want to kiss you", and plants one on my cheek. Goodness me, I was in a right tizzle after that. It's not every day that a girl gets a surprise kiss from a Cambodian toy boy, you know. Then we watched the sunset by the bamboo bridge. We didn't have many options for dinner, because the main places are closeed, so our guide took us out for some local food from a street stall. I was happy to eat fried noodles from one of the stalls but a few other people in the group didn't want to because they thought it was unclean. So we went to a burger restaurant instead. I had a chicken burger and chips. I was happily eating my burger when the guide got all freaked out. We asked him what was the matter and he said that he'd found glass in his burger. Seriously, a little piece of glass. Then Griff found glass in his burger too. We didn't want to pay for our burgers because there was glass in them, but the most the guy would offer us was half price. The cheek of it. We didn't stay out late last because we were all really freaked out that we'd eaten glass. I wanted to ring Mummy Hen so that she could reassure me that I wasn't going to die, but I couldn't because I didn't have signal or credit. Bummer. In the end though, I got through it on my own like a big girl. I did not die from eating glass. Phew.

Scammed by a small child. 17.04.10

2010-04-27T02:47:00.000-07:00

Goodness me, this country is amazing!! We arrived here on Wednesday from Bangkok. It was quite a long journey because we traveled in a mini bus, and it was quite a long wait at the Cambodia border. Still, we got here in the end and now I have another lovely stamp in my passport. :)

We just chillaxed on our first day, and in the evening time we went out for a happy Khmer meal. Nat had amok with fish, which is a traditional Khmer dish. I chickened out of jazzy Khmer food and went for sweet and sour chicken, but I tried Nat's and it was very tasty. Apart from the fish. Fish is gross.

After dinner we paid a visit to the Siem Reap Night Market. I bought a present for Brother Hen. We walked past an ice cream stall and the boy who was selling the ice cream said that we could try some for free. Yey. I asked for free Rocky Road. It was very pleasant.

On Thursday we had a very early morning indeed. We got up at half past four to go on our temple tour. It was not fun times waking up when it was still nighttime, but golly, it was worth it. We got to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Lovely lovely, it was. I took lots of photos. I am normally rubbish at taking photos, especially now that my camera refuses to zoom, but I took a cracking photo of the temple and the sun and stuff. I might get it framed. Well proud. :)

After breakfast we went to Angkor Wat. As we were arriving there in the bus from breakfast we became surrounded by small children trying to sell us things. I made friends with a Cambodian child who claimed she was called "Small Girl". She was trying to sell me postcards. "You want postcard, ladyyyyy?". I told her that I didn't want any, but she was quite persistent. She gave me a letter saying that I have a lovely smile. :) Love her. So anyway, another girl came up to me telling me to buy a hat. "You want hat, ladyyyyy?". I declined, but turned around to see both Nat and Becky wearing these ridiculous pink and green straw hats that the small child was selling. I didn't want to be left out, so I agreed to buy one. I gave her a $5 bill and waited for change. Small Girl decided that instead of change I could have her postcards. I was about to protest and wait for my change from the second small child when I realised that my whole tour group had run away from me. In a terrible panic, I took my postcards and ran to them. When I got there, I found out that Nat and Becky had paid $1 each for their hats, and I remembered that Small Girl had offered me the posties for $1. So they scammed me out of $3. They exploited a poor innocent, kind hearted tourist. Bastards.

Angkor Wat was super fun when we got inside to look around. We had a Cambodian guide with us, and he was very good. He knew everything, it was brill. He explained lots of the carvings to us, and there were plenty of lovely carvings about the story from the Little Princess about the evil monster with 10 heads.

After a while at sunny Angkor Wat we journey to another temple. This one is called Bayon. It was very lovely. It has loads of big faces carved out of the stone. 54 faces, I do believe. We walked around for a while, but it was about a bajillion degrees and super sweaty. We got tired towards the end of our time at Bayon, so we entertained ourselves by ridiculing people. There were a few tourists wearing very odd things. For example, one lady had wooly gloves on. Purple and white stripy wooly gloves. The type one wears when it is snowing outside. It was ever so odd. Another lady had chosen to go on a temple tour wearing five inch stilettos. She was stumbling about all over the place. It was hilarious. Naturally, we took photos of this ridiculousness. Good times.

After Bayon fun times we went for lunch. I had a ham and cheese sandwich. Not very Cambodian, I know, but I really fancied it. Ooh, and it was lovely. It was actually more like a club sandwich to be honest, but I didn't mind because club sandwiches are my fave.

Afternoon times called for another temple visit. I loved this one. I don't know the proper name for it though. I tried to look for it in the Lonely Plenet but I couldn't find it. The guide called it the Lady Temple. This was my favourite because it was rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1940s, and I thought that was very exciting. They would love to find something like that on Time Team. Mummy Hen loves Time Team. I posed for a photo where I pretended that I was an archaeologist discovering the temple. It was brill.

We had a short break from temple after that to visit the landmine museaum. It was really sad actually. I learned that there are still an estimated 6 million unexploded land mines in Cambodia. That is serious bimes. We all felt quite glum after that sad stuff at the museum, so we went to another temple to cheer up.

This was Ta Phrom. It was used in the Tomb Raider films. Exciting times indeed. It was very beautiful. There were loads of trees growing on top of the actual temple, and it was nice to look at. I pretended that I was Angelina Jolie and Nat took a photo of me in a Lara Croft pose. When Becky saw it she actually thought it was Angelina Jolie. Oh yes.

It was home time then.

We got ready for dinner an then we hopped in a happy tuk tuk to Pub Street. Yes, the street is actually called Pub Street. I took a picture of the sign. :) Anyway, we had dinner at a place called the Red Piano. Angelina Jolie has been there. There is a photo and everything. I had pasta.

We went for drinkies at a bar called Angkor What. It's slogan is "Promoting irresponsible drinking since 1998". My kind of place. Hoppy and I shared a pitcher of "Angkor Sunrise", which was Bacardi, Malibu, pineapple juice and grenadine. Lovely lovely, it was. I thought it was very appropriate that we were drinking Angkor Sunrise, because that very morning we had witnessed an Angkor sunrise, oh yes.

Nat realised that she is way too sophisticated for Siem Reap when they brought the pitcher out to us. They didn't bring us any glasses, just straws in the pitcher. Goodness me, she was not happy. "We don't have any glasses!! How are we supposed to drink this??". We asked for some glasses to keep Hoppy happy.

Becky and Silvia went home early but Nat and I stayed out. We had fun times. I befriended a New Zealander with dreadlocks. He had been tattooed that very day, oh yes. He showed me his brand new sparkly tattoo, but it was on his foot and it did not smell very pleasant. I was embarrassed for him, but I don't think he was embarrassed. People with dreadlocks don't get embarrassed. The wouldn't have dreadlocks otherwise.

I also met a boy from Duffield. I need to add him on facebook. I met an Irish girl called Rachel. I decided that her name wasn't Irish enough, so I called her Niamh instead. she thought that was funny. I also made friends with a guy from Liverpool. I told him about my Anfield heritage and he was very impressed. Thank you, Father Hen.

We left Angkor What after a while in favour of a bar called Banana Leaf. There were people dancing in the street outside it, so we joined them.We danced with small Cambodian children who were tyring to sell us things. If I was Angelina Jolie, I probably would have taken one of the children home iwth me. She tends to do that, you know. Pesky Cambodian child stealer.

We tuk tuked it home and went to bed.

The next morning Hoppy was in a bad way. She had had some dirty dorty vodka redbull the previous night and it hadn't agreed with her. Poor girl. We went out for brekkie and I had fried eggs on toast. Yummy yummy. then we went to a market.

At four o'clock we went on a nice happy boat rode to a flouating village. I was expecting to see just a few little floating houses, but the village was HUGE. There are four more villages just like it on the same lake as well. Wow. We got off the boat and went onto a floating shop. The had real live aligators in the shop. Not just walking around, blates, but in a kind of pit. They weren't for sale either. Not like in a pet shop. The Cambodian people kill the aligators and sell the skin for shoes and stuff. I told Becky that I could get me a nice belt from one of them, but she wasn't happy. She loves the animals, does Becky. Pesky veggie.

While we were on the shop, I'm pretty sure a woman offered to sell me a small child. "Baby one dollar!" I heard her cry. I declined. I am no Angelina.

We hopped sailed back to Pub Street for some lovely dinner. I am proud to say that I ate some genuine Khmer cuisine. Amok with chicken. Lovely lovely. :)

Then I went back to Angkor What to buy a t-shirt and then we went home.

Today we are on a public bus to a place that I don't know the name of. I'm sure I will find out when we get there. Let's hope it's nice, eh? We just stopped for happy loo loo, and there was a food stall selling steamed turtles. I took a photo and showed Nat but not Becky. Veggie.

Goodness me.

2010-04-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Rightey ho. Since I've last updated this pesky blog I have been to Cambodia and left again!! We were super busy all the time in Cambodia, and it was way tricky trying to find a computer, so I wrote my happy blog on my iPod. I have now found a lovely computer here in Vietnam and I am oging to type up all that I have written. Goodness me.

Pai in the sky.

2010-04-12T02:37:00.001-07:00

So, now that Phi Phi is done, I can write about Pai fun times.

There is not that much to say about Pai really. It was quite pleasant, but we didn't really do much there. We got the bus from Chiang Mai, and it was a bit of a bad journey because Becky got sick. She was ok in the end though. A girl from Israel told her to drink lemon juice, so she did and she was ok.

When we got to Pai, we stayed in a bamboo hut by the river. I was a little worried about the whole hut malarkey, but Becky really wanted to stay there, so I said I would. I just didnt fancy sharing my bed with some scary bugs, that's all.

We had a very nice lunch on our first day in Pai. It was at a hippyish kind of cafe that I think Ro Hen would really like. I had a pesto salad with chicken. It was very tasty. After lunch we did nothing for a while and in the evening time we walked around a market. Then we went for a drink by the river.

We didn't really sleep very well on that first night, because the monks were having a bit of a party in Pai. Something about new monks starting to learn about the monk ways. And they have a party to celebrate. It involved lots of strange music. And then a load of animals started making animal noises in the night. And then, a lady in the next hut found a spider in her bed and freaked out, and we could hear her load and clear. Golly.

The next day, Becky wanted to go to a different market. We walked for about a bajillion years to find it, and it was the heat of the day, so it was not fun times. When we finally got there, we discovered that it was a fruit market. A sodding fruit market. I was not a bappy bunny. So in the afternoon we went to the pool and chillaxed.

In the evening time we were going to go and check out a pool party, but it was a 2km walk, so we decieded that it was too much effort. We drank malibu and pineapple by the river and then went to bed. I found a huge spider in the bathroom earlier in the day, so I was not looking forward to the night itme when it oculd have potentially crawled into bed with me. I was ok though. Phew.

More Phi Phi.

2010-04-12T02:36:00.001-07:00

So, more Phi phi fun times. Yey.

The next day on Phi Phi some of the Warwick girls decided that it would be jolly fun to try and find a different beach. Becky and I agreed. We thought about getting a taxi boat over, but then some one realised that we could in fact walk to a very pleasant beach. Rikki, Rachael, Sophie, Becky and me decided that we could manage the walk, while Katie and Jade chose the taxi boat option. We got up super early (well, nineish) to start the walk, because we had to walk up to a viewpoint and then back down the other side to get to the beach. My goodness, it was tremendously hard work!! Sophie and I had to stop about a tousand times on the way up to the viewpoint, and that was just climbing stairs!! Quite a few stairs, mind you. It was super hot as well, and we were all looking very sweaty and gross. Ew. At the top of the viewpoint (when we finally got there) we took some photos and celebrated our achievement with ice lollies.

We htought that the journey down te other side of the big hill woudl be easier, because it was downhill. Sadly, we were mistaken. Wile on the way up there was a lovely track with steps that had been made especially, on the way down there was no track. Just sand, and leaves and stuff. And it was very steep downhill. A few times we got a bit lost as well, because it was not veery well signposted through the jungle. Bimes. There were also quite a few incidents where one or two of us fell over.

Finally, we made it to the beach. We were all soooo happy to finally get there. It was a beautiful beach, but I think the fact that we had trekked for two hours in the heat to get to it made it even more special!! By the time we got there it was majorly hot, so we sat in the shade for a while and got some lunch. After about an hour, Katie and Jade rocked up in their taxi boat. We started telling them about our mad adventure, but it turns out that they had had quite and experience as well. They had been told by Doris that you caould walk to this beach in half an hour, so they had started to walk to it. It turned out though, that the walk was way difficult, adn they had to go through jungle and over rocks and in the sea, and they had got halfway round when Jade slashed her foot open on a rock. It was way bimes. So they got a taxi boat for the rest of the way. The boat would have been super expensive, but Jade cried so that taxi guy gave it to them for cheaper.

We spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach. It was super fun. We got the last taxi boat back at six o'clock. I could ahve stayed on the beach for longer, but I was not prepared to walk back!!

In the evening time we had a happy meal together. I had sweet and sour chicken. We went out to the beach for free buckets after that, but some boys had pinched their cards so we couldn't play ring of fire. Gutted. No one was really feeling the drunken times anyway, so we went to bed pretty early.

The next day we planned a super adventure again. We wanted to see the Tsunami village, and there were signposts to it everywhere, so we presumed we could walk to it. Wrong again, we were. We began the walk, but we seemed to be walking fo rAGES with nothing around us. We kept asking Thai people, and they didn't really know what we were on about when we said "Tsunami village". We thought it was strange but we carried on. We kept having to walk up major hills as well. We had just go tto the top of an especially large hill, adn we were all very happy, but we looked ahead of us and there was like amountain in front that we were supposed to climb. We gave up and went back to get some lunch.

We all wanted to go to Bamboo Island in the afternoon, becauses omeone had told us that it was really nice. We started bargaining with the taxi boat people, but htey were all saying that it was way expensive to get there. We tried really hard to bargain, but it didn't really get us anywhere. Then we found out that even just t sit on the beach on Bamboo Ilsnad you had to pay 200 baht for a national park fee. We are poor backpackers, sowe gave up on bamboo island. We got a taxi boat to a happy little beach and chilled out there all day.

Int he evening time we went out for a nice dinner at an Italia place. I had bolognase pizza. Lovely lovely. But Becky wsn't feeling great so she went to bed afterwards. I stayed out with the girls adn we went to watch some Thai boxing. Oh, it was major fun times. :) People kept coming up to us with big signs saying that volunteers got free buckets, but we did not feel like joining in. For some reason, I'm not quite sure how, Rikki and Rachael got persuaded into doing th eThai boxing, and they went up against each other in the ring. It was soooo funny. Possibly one of the funniest things in the world. They were properly going at each other. It was brill. They won free buckets and we all got merry.

Then we went into the randomest bar in the world. It was completely empty apart from us, and we only went there to get free buckets. It was like in the ghetto of Phi Phi. Way funny. We were about to leave, but then they played Cheryl for us, so we stayed and danced. Then we went to the beach. We met lots of taxi boat drivers on the way. We randomly kept saying "cheap cheap" to them. And we tried to get a taxi boat to England for 20 baht. It didn't work. Then we thought it would be funny to get a tattoo (there are a bajillion tattoo parlours on Phi Phi), so we kept saying "tattoo for dessert". I don't know why. No one got a tattoo. Phew.

Then we went to bed. The next day a few people were feeling very poorly. I was fine, because I had learned my lesson about the Thai whiskey from the first night. We were on the boat to Krabi as well. Not fun times with a hangover. Oh dear.

I was very sad to leave Phi Phi. I loved it. Going back soon though. YEY.

PHI PHI.

2010-04-02T04:33:00.000-07:00

I have changed my mind, and decided to write about Phi Phi, because it was WICKED.

We flew into Phuket from Penang and the plan was to spend a couple of nights in Patong Beach in Phuket, and then go to Phi Phi. However, when we got to th eairport in Phuket we decided to go straight to Phi Phi. Everyone had told us that Phi Phi has the nicest beaches in Thailand, so we decided not to waste time on an average beach in Phuket, and just let the fun Phi Phi times begin. Brill decision. It was a right old rush though, because we got off the plane at two o'clock, and the last ferry to Phi Phi that we could get on with our tickets was at half two. Oh dear. Luckily, the taxi driver made a call and the boat waited for us. Phew.

The ferry ride to Phi Phi was very nice. We sat outside and looked at the nice views. :) When we got to Phi Phi we booked into a hotel called P.P. Princess. Princess! :) Happy days.

We didn't really know what to do when we got there, so we just took a walk around, and went for dinner. We had fish and chips with mushy peas. The mushy peas were cold though. Gutted. I don't half miss mushy peas.

The next day we bummed on the beach. For the whole day. The beach in Phi Phi is beautiful, it is like paradise. We hired some loungers and we lounged. I had a lemon shake as a nice snack. It was mighty refreshing. :) In the afternoon time I got chatting to some friendly English girls. I am getting awfully good at introducing myself to random strangers, by the way. These girls are lovely. Five of them travelling together, all of them went to Warwick uni together. Rachael, Katie, Sophie, Jade and Ricky. Very nice. We chatted for a while in the sea and we realised that the sea was in fact a little bit scummy and made you look terribly dirty when you came out. Bimes. We arranged to meet up for drinks in the evening time.

We went to a place on the beach that gave out free buckets. We took advantage of the free bucket offer, and we played ring of fire. Golly, we got merry. I think there was Thai whiskey in the buckets. Oh dear. We danced around on the beach until the early hours and had major fun times. We watched a fire show as well, but didn't join in, oh no.

The next day I was feeling very ill. Not in a happy state at all. But we had made plans with the girls to go on a boat trip to Maya Bay, where The Beach was filmed. Luckily, the girls were not feeling too great either, so i was not a dirty hungover person on my own. :) The boat trip was super fun. We went swimming, and snorkelling, and we went to Maya Bay. I bought some Pringles on Maya Bay, because I finally felt up to eating. Then we watched tohe sunset from the boat. :)

In the evening, we went out to a nice seafood restaurant for dinner. I had spag bog. :) We had an early night that night. I was not up for any more Thai whiskey madness, thank you very much.

I am bored of writing now. Will finish off Phi Phi latr. It cannot be rushed. It is the funnest place in the world.

Food time now, I think.

Xx.

Chiang Mai. Oh let's trek up a mountain.

2010-04-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

Rightey ho.

I was going to write about all the fun times on Phi Phi. But I can't be bothered. This keyboard is not very friendly, and it hurts my little fingers to type. So I will leave out Phi Phi fun times. I will just say that it was AMAZING!!

It is now Friday, and we got to Chinag Mai on Wednesday. We decided that it would be fun to do a little tour around Chinag Mai, and we booked one for today and yesterday. The tour we signed up for included elephant trekking, a homestay at a hilltribe village, white water rafting and bamboo rafting. Fun times, I thought.

So yesterday, we got up and got ready for our tour. It didn't start well, because they nearly forgot us, but the tour lady made a phone call, and they came back for us. The first stop was an added extra to the tour. It was a happy visit to a butterfly and orchid farm. Oh, it was pleasant. I took a few little photos of the butterflies, and a man from Malaysia took a photo of me and Becky by the orchids for us. :)

There was a guy from Italy on the tour with us. He brought his chihuahua along. He was very camp. The man, not the dog. It was ever so funny. The dog even whe

Then we went for lunch (fried rice, of course) and got on our elephants. Our elephant was called Dolly, we decided. She was quite stubborn, our Dolly. She didn't really like doing what the elephant guy told her to do. She also went for twosies while we were on her. Then we think she got an itch in her private parts, because she kept sctratching her bottom against a tree. But she was very nice. Very friendly. We fed her bananas. We got our photo taken with Dolly, and then I dropped my shoe and she tried to eat it, but we saved it in the end. So that was plenty fun times.

Afterwards, the guide told us that we were going on a two to three hour walk to the hilltribe village. Two to three hours. Golly, I thought. Becky was not having happy times on the walk. Before we had even really started she was not feeling well and we had to stop so that she could have a break. And then her knee started hurting and the guide was going super fast. So it was not a good time for Becky. I was ok to start with, but then the walk started getting a little more strenuous. We were walking uphill for forever. And my legs were hurting. And I kept slipping over. And then we found out that the hilltribe village was not on a hill, it was up a mountain, and we had got more than halfway to go. So I had a bit of a strop and decided that I couldn't walk anymore. It was really not fun. And the guide kept saying that it was just around the corner. It was most definitely not just around the corner. I was not a happy bunny, I can tell you.

But we got there in the end. I had a happy Chang to celebrate. In the evening time the guide sung songs nad played guitar and we played cards. Some people had massages, and other people went and did naughty drugs. Becky and I did neither. We just sat and played cards and played I Remember. Good game, that one.

Today. we ghot up and had breakfast, adn then we walked down the mountain. I fell over. We went for a dip in a waterfall. It was so cold I thought I might get hyperthermia. But refreshing. Very refreshing. And then we walked some more and then we went white water rafting and bamboo rafting. And now I am very tired. I hav ebum ache.

There was a guy from Italy on the tour with us. He brought his chihuahua along. He was very camp. The man, not the dog. It was ever so funny. The dog even went on the elephant and white water rafting. And the Italian guy wore speedos and shaved his legs. It was gimes. It was way funny, because there were loads of dogs in the hilltribe village, and they kept trying to eat the chihuahua, and Italy had to keep protecting his dog from the big dogs, and he was getting ever so stressed. In the evening time, we heard a really loud scream coming from the toilet block, and we all thought someone had fallen down the mountain or something, but it was Italy rescuing his doggy!! Fun times.

We are going out tonight with some people we met on the tour. They want to go clubbing. I really don't htink I can manage it. I feel like an old lady. One drink and then bed for Daisy. Xx.

More Malaysia!!

2010-03-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes. The sunny sunny Cameron Highlands. That place was very nice. It was really good because it is quite chilly in the Cameron Highlands, so we had to wear cardigans. It was a welcome change from the heat of KL!!

We planned on staying just one night there, and then going to Penang the next day, but that didn't really go to plan. The tour we wanted to do finished at half past one in the afternoon and the bus for Penang left at two, so we probably wouldn't have made the bus. We had to stay for another night but we didn't mind. On the second day we went on the tour. There were two German ladies on the tour, and they didn't speak much English, so I was working my mad German skills all day, which I loved. :)

They grow lots of tea in the Cameron Highlands, and we learned a lot about it that day. The tour guide took us to look at a tea plantation and we looked at a nice view of all the tea. He told us about how they make tea, and it was surprisingly interesting. We took lots of photos because the view was pretty. Then we hopped back into the jeep and drove to the highest point in the Cameron Highlands. Golly, it was high. We climbed up this tower to get a nice view and it was super windy. We didn't really see much of the view to be honest, because I was a little distracted with trying not to be blown away. We also took a walk through the mossy forest, which was fun times. Afterwards we visited the tea plantation. They took us round and showed us the machines that grind up the tea and stuff, and it wasn't very exciting. We got to go to the cafe at the factory though, and that was enjoyable. I had some tea and lemon cake. The tea was tasty. The last stop on the tour was a stawberry farm. Again, it was not the most exciting place I have ever been to, but we got to eat strawberries. Good times.

In the afternoon time, we wrote our postcards and chatted to this random guy we met. We went to a place called the T Cafe for dinner, and afterwards the random guy invited us out for a drink with a Canadian couple we met in KL. We went round to their hostel and there was a campfire. We sat round and drank beer and chatted. There was this random Malay guy who started sprouting on about herbal medicine. He said that modern medicine is terrible, and anyone who receives modern treatment dies straight after. He also said that herbs can cure cancer. And he said that we should all drunk urine. Our own urine, and also the urine of camels. It was quite strange.

The next day we hopped on the bus to Penang. On the bus was a Canadian girl who we met on the Whitsundays. We got chatting, and it was very pleasant. We arrived in Penang and got a taxi with this Swedish boy to Gerogetown. This Swedish guy had been travelling with the Canadian girl and some of her friends, but they needed to go off and sort out Thai visas, so he came with us. When we arrived in Georgetown we checked into our hostel, and we expected that he might check into a hostel as well, but he didn't. I think he was waiting to here from his Canadian friends, but he stayed with us while he was waiting. Becky and I didn't really know what to do in Penang, so we had a walk to the shopping centre. We were quite tired after our coach journey so we went to the cinema. We really wanted to see Remember Me with Robert Pattionson, but Simon the Sweidsh guy didn't. He wanted to see a vampire film. I was like, no way. Becky and I got our way, but Simon didn't come with us. Oh my goodness, Remember Me is brilliant!! So sad though. We cried like babies. It was so funny, because the cinema was just full of girls, and when the lights came up at the end of the film, we looked round and saw that EVERYONE was crying. We bonded with these Malaysian girls who were in tears behind us. We just laughed at each other. It was so funny that we were all in a mess!!

In the evening time, we got some food from a happy stall on the street, and then we went back to our lovely hostel and stayed up chatting. Simon suggested that we watch a film, but we declined, as we had already discovered that we have different film tastes.

The next day, Becky was very poorly. She had a migrane and was sick and it was not very pleasant for her. I am a good friend and said that I would stay in with her, but she said that I should go out because she would just be in bed all day. I didn't really know what to do, but in the end I decided to leave her in peace. Before Becky had got sick, we had made plans to go to Penang Hill, where you can get a train to the top and then do a canopy walk. I decided to do that alone, but when I went to reception to ask how to get there, the reception lady told me that the train wasn't in service. I was a bit gutted and didn't know what to do, but the reception lady suggested that I go to the Kek Lok Si temple instead. I took her advice, and made my way to the bus station. When I got on the bus I was a little scared that I wouldn't know where to get off, so I asked the bus driver. Then I got worried again, so I asked a friendly Malaysian girl. Then an old Malaysian guy asked me where I was going, so I showed him my map, and he helped me out as well. They are all so friendly!! The old guy told me to look after my bag, and he even showed me where the police station was in case it got stolen or something. He was very kind.

I got to the temple and it was very nice. I took lots of photos and bought a postcard. I was very proud that I had managed to get there all on my own. :) I bought a sarong, and then made my way back to see Becky. She was still poorly when I got back, so I went out for dinner on my own, and we got an early night.

The hostel we stayed in in Penang was super. It was called Stardust Guesthouse, and it was recommended to us by Alison and Geoff, who had been there for breakfast when they were in Penang. It was lovely. The room was so nice, and the beds were huge with nice comfy mattresses. :) It was brill.

That is the end of my Malaysia story, because the next day we went to Thailand. I will not write baout that now, as I need to pack.

Xx.

MALAYSIA!

2010-03-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

Golly. I have not been keepin gup with this blog very well. I've just been having too much fun you see. :) I will just give a brief summary of the days I have forgotten about and then write about the major fun times.

Okies. So after Singapore we went to Lumut on the night bus. The buses out here are wicked fun times. They are way luxury. They are like normal coach size, but they only have 26 seats, so the seats are MASSIVE. And they recline. And they give you a blanket and a bottle of water. Super fun, I can tell you. So anyway, we arrived in Lumut and had a McDonalds breakfast. There is not an awful lot to do in Lumut in all honesty. It is not a very touristy place, so Becky and I got a lot of stares from the locals. It was nice though, I felt like a proper traveller, seeing the "real Malaysia". Haha. We went down to see Uncle Roger's boat, and we booked our bus to KL, and we ate fried rice, and we went for a walk down to the beach. And that is what we did in Lumut.

Then we went for a day to Kuala Lumpur. I liked it there. It is super dirty and quite scummy, but I liked it. We only had an afternoon in KL, so we got the train to the Petronas Towers and took some photos. Then we went back to our hostel and wrote our postcards that we had bought. I got one for H&M. I'm sure they all miss me lots. I was a great employee and colleague. :)

In the evening time we went for a little wander around the night market. Golly, it was intense. I have to say that KL is the land of the fakes. There was fake everything in that market. They had fake Ralph Lauren coming from every direction. Becky and I practised our bargaining skills when we bought t-shirts, and I also bargained well for a little pressie for my Hens. :) It was mega hot though in that market, and we got mighty tired. So we went home and watched a program on the telly about an Italian cruise ship. Our hostel in KL was super nice, I have to say. Very clean and tidy, and the guys on the front desk were way helpful. There was only one problem with the place, and that came in the from of a HUGE cockroach. We were just about to go to bed, and we were packing up our stuff, when Becky came across one on her clothes. Our first instinct, naturally, was to find a boy to remove it, but we didn't know any, so Becky stepped up and got rid of it. Phew. The next morning we had a similar incident with a scary cockyroach in my stuff, but Becky removed that one aswell. She is a brave girl indeed.

The next day we journeyed to the Cameron Highlands. Oh, I did like the Cameron Highlands. Becky has been there before, and we stayed in the same place that she sayed in last time. It was called Twin Pines and it was ever so pleasant.

Goodness me, my hands are tired from typing. We are going out for dinner soon (in Krabi) and for a trip to the night market, but I fear there may be a storm arriving. I must change out of my skirt if it's going to be windy. Bizzle. Xx.

Oh yes it's ladies night and the feeling's right, oh yes it's ladies night, oh wat a nightha

2010-03-20T01:15:00.001-07:00

Oof.

Fiona, Mark's wife, kindly informed us that Wednesday night is in fact Ladie's Night in Clarke Quay in Singapore. :) Becky and I decided that it would be a very silly idea to miss an opportunity for free drinks and dancing, so we went out to Clarke Quay. We had spent the day in Little India walking around and getting henna tattoos, and Roger tried to persuade us to go straight out from there to Clarke Quay, but we couldn't have possibly gone out in our day clothes, oh no. We went back to the flat, and I put on a new dress that Mummy Hen sent me, and Becky put on some new flowery shorties. We looked way snazzy.

The first place we went to was called the Clinic. I remember writing about it before, so I will not repeat myself. It is a cool place there. Pricey though, bloody pricey. It cost is $26 for two drinks. Daylight robbery, I tell you. We left pretty quickly after discovering the cost of our drinks, and stumbled upon a salsa bar. Oh yes, a salsa bar. :) Free entry and free champagne for the ladies. Ooh it was fun. We salsad our little hearts out.

After that we found a club called Zirca. Free entry and FIVE free drinks for ladies. FIVE, I tell you. The club was not that special, they weren't playing very funky tunes and no one was dancing, and we were obviously the only people not from Singapore in there. We didn't mind though. We got on that dance floor and showed Sinapore our funky moves. For example, the trusty Shopping Trolley. Good times.

We made lots of friends as well. Singapore friends. It was wicked fun times.

On the way to the taxi we went back for a little bit more salsa time. We danced with some guys from Peru. Oh yes, Peru.

And then we stumbled home. :)

Night Safari :)

2010-03-19T20:15:00.001-07:00

I HAVE to write about the night safari. I am famous because of it. But that part comes later on in my story.

We went to the night safari on Wednesday. It was super easy to get there, we just hopped on the MRT and then on the bus. We were awfully good with the public transport. I felt like a real Singapore person. :) At the night safari you can go on a tram to be taken round the park, or you an walk round. The tram is $10 more than to just walk round, and Roger told us that it wasn't worth it, so we decided to walk round. The weather was not very pleasant though, it was quite rainy and a little bit thundery, and it was SO dark, what with it being at might time and everything. And I can tell you, golly it was scary. We got about a third of the way round the walking bit and we were really freaked out, so we ran back to the tram and went on that. And the tram was super fun. The lady who told us all about the animals had a very nice sing songy voice, it was ever so pleasant. And we didn't have to walk. Winner.

We saw lots of animals.

After the crazy tram times, we went to get some food. It was way expensive at the night safari, so we just shared some chips. We sat down in the restaurant, and they were setting up for a show right outside, so we got seats really close up. It was a show of these blokes in tarzan costumes dancing around and blowing fire at each other. They also had these long sticks that they blow cocktail sticks through to pop balloons. It was very entertaining.

All of a sudden, one of the tarzans grabbed my hand and started leading me onto the stage. It was terrified. I did not want to blow fire, or be stabbed by a cocktail stick!! Becky thought it was hilarious, I kept looking at her for reassurance, but got none. She was laughing so much. Bimes for me. What I had to do was blow a cocktail stick through the long pole to pop a balloon that was between one of the tarzan's legs. It was very scary. The pressure was intense. I did not want to stab him in the privates. I tried to tell another tarzan that I didn't wan tot do it, but he peer pressured me. So I blew through the pole, and it hit one of the tarzans in the leg. Oops. I did it again and it hit another tarzan in the leg. Oh dear. Then I did it again and popped the balloon. Phew. I thought I was free then, but then a tarzan handed me a balloon. Oh no. I was very afraid. Becky thought this bit was very funny. I didn't! So I held the balloon as far away from me as possible, and a tarzan popped it with a cocktail stick. I didn't get stabbed. Yey.

And that's why I'm famous. The tourists loved me. The tarzans wanted me to join their show. I declined.

After that we went to watch a show about animals. That was fun. We saw a hyena. And these ferret things had been taught to recycle as part of the show by putting cans into a bin, but they weren't behaving. This one ferret thing just wouldn't let go of it's can, and it must have been on stage for like ten minutes!! The keepers were getting very frustrated. It was funny for us though.

Then we went home. The end.

More from Singapore.

2010-03-09T07:44:00.000-08:00

Golly, I am finding it very difficult to actually remember what I have done since arriving here. I think it may be my old age. Or the fact that most of my time has been spent wandering around Orchard Road. Oops.

Let me try and think what I have been up to.... Oh yes. Fun times were had on our second day in Singapore. We got up late (comfy mattress's fault) and did a spot of shopping in the shopping centre in Sembawang, where we live. I bought some cleanser and some toner. :)

Then in the evening time we put on our best dresses and strutted out to Raffle's. Oh golly, Raffle's is pleasant. They asked Roger to leave because he was wearing shorts, but Becky adn I got away with it. Meek took lots of photos of us posing in various locations in Raffles. It was awfully fun. Then we went to the Long Bar for Singapore Slings. The long bar is very odd. Most of Raffle's is WAY posh, but the Long Bar is most definitely not. There are peanut shells ont he floor everywhere, adn no one cleans them up. There is a sign on the door saying "littering encouraged". Gosh, I was not impressed with that. Littering encouraged?? Goodness me. Anyway, we ordered our Singapore SLings ($25 each!!) and they were tasty. I did not feel tipsy in the slightest when I was sitting down, but as soon as I stood up I felt very merry. Becky was drunker than I was. It was fun times.

We went for a little wander around another shopping centre that used to be a convent, and then we stumbled home. :)

Sunday called for a return trip to Orchard Road. :) I bought some shorts from Cotton On, because my short are gross. I have to throw them out. They have holes in and they are way tatty. That is what the pesky outback does for you!! Thanks, Australia.

Then we went to meet Mark (Father Hen's cousin) at his house. We got a taxi to his house, because there isn't an MRT station nearby. The taxi's are very good in Singapore, oh yes. Mark and Fiona live in a very nice house. We had a drink there, and then we went up to the British CLub for some food. Becky and I both had fish and chips. Yey. It was awfully civilised. Then we went back to the house and met Mark and Fiona's son, James. Fiona and James were giving us tips about where to go out for a good old boogie in Singapore. Fiona recommended that we go out on a Wednesday, because it is ladies night. Oh yes it's ladies night, and the feeling's right, oh yes it's ladies night, oh what a night. Oh what a night.

Then we got a taxi home, and the taxi driver serenaded us. He sang us many songs, including London Bridge, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Daisy Daisy, and, my personal favourite "Finkle finkle little star". It was wonderful. We did join in for a while, but I have a terrible cough at the moment, so I was unable to participate in the singing as much as I would have liked.

Yesterday, Roger had to go to the bank, so we went with him. The banks are very nice here, they give you free coffee. I asked for a biscuit and the lady gave me about 10. :) We also looked at some temples.

Golly I am tired of writing. Bed time now.

Xx.

SINGAPORE.

2010-03-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

Singapore is wicked.

We got here yesterday, at about seven in the evening. The flight was like seven hours long, and it dragged a little. Becky got way bored while I was watching New Moon, and kept distracting me. I was not happy with her. Jacob Black is beautiful, and he deserves my full attention.

Anyways, when we had got our bags we met Becky's Uncle Roger and his partner Meek. We had no idea what they looked like, so we were a little nervous in case we couldn't find them. Uncle Roger had e-mailed Becky saying that he looks like Santa, so I was looking out for a guy in a red suit with white fur. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt though. Gutted.

We went to the other terminal for some food. We had Indian. The food is way cheap here. It was like $4.50 for a whole tray of veggie food, which is about $2 or something. Wicked cool. It was super tasty as well. Becky and I shared because there is so much, and that is saying something, because I can eat A LOT.

To get to Roger and Meek's apartment, we went on the MRT, which is the Singapore version on the tube. Much better than the tube, in my opinion. Lots cleaner, and the trains are a lot wider, so there is no feeling of being a sardine.

Their apartment is very nice. We have a lovely bedroom and our own bathroom, and the mattress is SOOOOO comfy. Roger and Meek bought it in Portugal. I did sleep well last night. We are on the 14th floor though, which gives us very nice views over to Malaysia, but I don't like to get too close to the windows!!

This morning I woke up before Becky, as usual!! But she was up soon after me anyway. Roger made us toast for breakfast, and we chillaxed for a while and had a lazy morning. We left for Orchard Road at about twelve o'clock, and while Roger went to the dentist, Meek took us shopping. :D Singapore is INSANE for shopping. We went to Topshop and New Look and River Island and Accessorize and Zara. It was WICKED. We didn't come across an H&M though, which I was slightly gutted about. I love H&M, it makes me feel at home. :)

We met up with Roger, and went shopping some more. Orchard Road is crazy for shops, there are just so many. There is shopping centre after shopping centre after shopping centre. I will never be content with the measly Westfield after this!! It is super weird though, because a lot of the shops are underground, because it is so bloody hot here, so for the first three hours while we were shopping we just didn't see the Sun!! When you actually go outside into the heat, you wish you were inside in the lovely air con anyway!!

I bought a pair of gladiator sandals from a shop called Cotton On, which is really popular in Aus. They were only $10, which is like five pounds. Bargain. And Becky spent a small fortune in a shop called Forever 21. Nice place.

After about a year of shopping we decided to go down to the river. It is way nice down there. There were nice little stalls selling loads of crap, and swanky bars and restaurants and stuff. We walked past this one bar called the Clinic, which has hospital beds and wheelchairs as seats, and the bartenders are dressed in scrubs and white coats, and they serve your drinks to you in a drip. It is super cool. I want to go there. Malibu and pineapple through a drip, yes please!! :)

Then we came home. We bought cakes and crisps on the way back, and we have just eaten those. I think it might be bed time now. :)

Xx.

I love this place. It is brill. I cannot describe the super fun times I have had today. It has been AWESOME!!

Melb.

2010-03-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

Golly, I have realised that lots of time has elapsed without writing this pesky thing. So I have decided to not write down stuff about the trip from Darwin to Alice. I can hardly remember what happened myself!! So I will just write baout Melbourne fun times.

We got to Melbourne on the 24th. We were ataying with Steph, who is an old friend of Becky's, and her boyfriend Dan. They met us at the airport and we got a taxi to their house. They have a very nice house. It only has one floor, so it is more of a bungalow than a house really. It is still very pleasant though. There are two bedrooms and a nice bathroom and a snazzy kitchen with an oven. The one unusual aspect to the house was that they didn't actually have any furniture. Bimes for them. All that was in the house was one double bed, a TV which was resting on two dining chairs, and a table with two more dining chairs. Seriously, that was it. Nothing else. Steph said that we would go into town to buy an air bed for me and Becky to sleep on, so we went into town on the tram.

When we got to town we met up with some of their friends and we had some drinks. It turned out to be a bit of a drinking sesh actually, and we never got round to buying an air mattress. Becky and I said that we would be happy to sleep on the floor, but Steph wouldn't let us so she gave us her mattress and her and Dan slept on just the bas of their bed. Gutted. Not very comfy, I reckon. It was very nice of them to give up their mattress for us though.

The next day steph had to go to work, but Dan didn't have a job, so he was our "tour guide". We went into town and went to the Queen Victoria Markets. It was fun times. They mostly sold food, and they had loads of little free tasters to try. We tried some cheese, and some of it was way gross, but we tried this one cheese and it was AMAZING. I loved it. :)

Then we went to the ACMI, which is the Austrlian Museum of the Moving Image. It is basically like the Quad in Derby, only an Australian version. It was good times though. We watched the most depressing film in the world, and then we went and looked at an exhibition about films and stuff. We saw the windmill from the Moulin Rouge and the cotume that Nicole Kidman wore in the film. Wicked fun times.

Afterwards, we went outside and watched the Winter Olympics on the big screen. It was the weird skiing thing where they do all flips in the air, and an Australian lady won it, so everyone was way happy.

We ate fish and chips for tea. :)

I am tired of writing now, so I will take a breather. Xx.

Oh Yes It's Ladies Night.

2010-02-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

We had a girls night in Cairns. On the Tuesday, because in Australia they do cheaper cinema tickets on Tuesdays. so me, Jodie, Amy and Becky went out to the cinema to see Lovely Bones. It was not a very good film. I have read the book, and the book is very good, but the film was a bit of a let down. Amy, idiot that she is, thought that is was going to be a happy film because it had the word "lovely" in the title, so she was very shocked when she discovered that it was not the pleasant film that she was expecting!! We also got told off in the cinema. Boo. Amy was texting during the film, I think because she was so terrified at the film, and the cinema lady came up to Jodie and said, "Can you tell your friend to get off her phone?". It was way funny though, because Jodie jumped out of her skin when the lady came up. She properly made us jump. Bumhead.

After the film fun times, we went out for Greek food. :) The greek restaurant that we went to is in fact owned by the borthers of Peter Andre. how very exciting. Becky and Amy were especially excited by the fact that they were being served by the Andre Brothers, and kept wanted to ask them silly qustions. Jodie and I, the more sophisticated ones in the group, were highly embarrassed by their childish behaviour. Haha. They did tell us that they were his brothers, htough. They even had a photo of Pete on the wall.

I had souvlki for dinner. I couldn't decide between chicken and lamb, so I had both. It was very tasty indeed. I do love Greek food. :)

After the dinner, we had a photo with the brothers. They were quite camp.

It was a very fun evening. On the way home Amy said to me, "I'm so happy that I've touched an almost famous person's brother!" And I thought it was a spectacular summary of a wonderful night.

Oh dear.

2010-02-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

Oh dear. It appears I have become very behind with my blog. It is not my fault, it is the fault of the Northern Territory. As I discovered, there are no internet cafes in the outback. Goodness me. I will endeavor to fill in the gaps. :)

Not right now though.

Xx.

Comments.

2010-02-10T03:13:00.000-08:00

Please write me nice comments. It makes me feel very unloved when people don't. Xx.

The Great Barrier Reef. :)

2010-02-10T02:54:00.001-08:00

We went to the Great Barrier Reef the other day. On Monday, I think. Yes, on Monday. The days of the week are irrelevant out here. It is just one long super fun weekend!! FUN TIMES.

Yes, the Great Barrier Reef. We went on a boat. Because it is in the sea. We got on the boat and they gave us free coffee and biscuits. Good start. :) When we booked our trip we got a free dive included. Becky and I weren't sure if were going to do the dive, because we were both a little terrified, but we decided to give it a go. The dive instructor was way nice. Johnny. I think I love him a little bit. He is like, major times old, at least 26, but I don't care. He is quite a dish. <3

Anyways, we had the dive talk about what to do and how to breathe and how to make sure that our lungs don't explode and stuff. (I wasn't really listening, I was more just staring at the love of my life). I got quite excited when Johnny told us that he would have to link our arms when we got under the water. :) So I was way looking forward to fun diving times.

We got all our stinger suits on, and our diving apparatus and things, and we got all ready. There was a group of four girls (me, Becky and two others) and we were all very scared about diving, but we all really wanted to do it. I got in the water and it was super fun. I could breathe and everything. And I went under water and my boyfriend was there with all his scuba equipment on. Loved it. But then disaster struck. I was climbing down the ladder under that water and my boyfriend told me to pop my ears, but they wouldn't. Then Johhny touched my hand and my heart skipped a beat. But I still couldn't pop my ears. So I went back to the top of the water, and the nice Irish guy who was helping us was nice to me and told me how to pop my ears, and I went back to see my bf. And I tried to pop my ears again and it wouldn't work. Boo. I tried like a gazillion times. But I failed. I was scared that I would break my tympanic membrane. :( So in the end I didn't dive. I went back to the boat and the nice Irish guy took my diving stuff off and was nice to me. I was gutted though. I really wanted to dive. I don't like to fail at things. Failing is for losers. I think I will have to do a bungee or a skydive to make up for it. Or maybe not.

Becky and another girl from our group didn't do the dive either. So I was glad that I wasn't the only loser. We went snorkelling anyway, and golly, it was fun times. I wore a stinger suit, and a life jacket, and a noodle, to be on the safe side. I didn't want to drown. The reef is very pretty to look at. Lots of nice corals and fishes and other nice things like sea cucumbers and clams and things. Very impressive. Well done, coral.

We had a nice lunch. I had three sausages and two pieces of steak, amongst other things. :)

The we drove to another dive loaction and this guy from the boat took me on a snorkel tour. He got a sea cucumber from the bottom of the ocean for me to look at. I touched it and it was way slimey. He tried to find me a nemo to look at, but he couldn't. Pesky nemo. It was way shallow when we went on the tour. I was scared to wiggle my feet in case teh fins touched the coral and some broke off. Becasue coral only grown like, a centimetre a year, max. So if I broke a bit off, I could have potentially broke off like a centurys worth of growing. And if I was a coral and that happened to me, I would be pissed off. Major times. But I didn't. Phew.

Then I went on a semi submarine to look at the coral. I saw a nemo then. But it only had one white stripe on it. So not exactly like nemo. The guy on the submarine told us how nemo fish can change gender. Weird.

And then we came home. A good day, all round. :)

Daintree and Cape Trib.

2010-02-05T23:16:00.001-08:00

:)

We went to Cape Trib yesterday. It is a world heritage area. In fact, it is better than that, because it is the only place in the world where two wolrd heritage areas overlap. It's slogan is "Where the rainforest meets the reef". Catchy.

We had to be up way early to get there, which was a bit of a bum but it was way worth it. The first thing we did was stop for breakfast and I had a banana muffin. They gave us jam and cream as well, and Jodie couldn't eat all of her muffin so I had some of that too. Good times. Then we had some free coffee adn biscuits. I took two packets of biscuits, because they were free. Becky gave me hers as well. :)

Then we went crocodile hunting on the Daintree river. We saw three. One was really small, like a baby one. It was way cool. But the big crocs were all chillaxing in the water because it was so hot, so we didn't get to see those. Never mind.

Then we stopped off for a rainforest walk. It was not a strenuous walk, but it was bloody hot. Pesky tropics. We walked around and we saw this big spider on a weba dn Jodie took a photo of me with my face right up to the spider on it's web. I was way brave. Then we saw a tarzan swingy branch thing, so we all had a swing. Becky kept falling off, oh dear. No upper body strength, that girl. Then we all licked these ants bums. I don't know who was the first person to try licking an ants bum, but it is actually the most peculiar thing. It tastes all citrusy adn it gives you a little shock on your tongue. Quite pleasant really. I may take it up as a hobby. How would that look on my C.V.?? Haha. "My hobbies include ant bum licking." HAHA. I have also thought that I will put applying mascara down on my C.V. as one of my hobbies. I just love to put mascara one. Especially when I have curled my eyelashes.

After the rainforest we went to Cape Tribulation beach. I only went to the beach for like a minute or something, because ont he way down to the beach I saw Ruth and Jules, who we met on the Whitsundays, so I chatted to them. The beach was very pleasant when we go there. No swimming allowed though, pesky stingers.

Then we had lunch. I had fish and chips. Oh, it was tasty. I also ate some of Jodie's salad wrap, becasue she didn't like the pesto they had put in it. I did though. :)

After lunch we went to Mossman Gorge. Oh heck, it was very nice. It is this place with loads of rocks and water and stuff. We went swimming in it, and the guide showed us how to swim down the rapids. Dave went down the rapids and it looked way scary so I decided not to. I could easily have smashed my head on a rock and died. But then it looked fun, so I went down the rapids anyway. It was not that fun really. In fact, it was rather unpleasant, because I couldn't breath and then I got caught in the current and then I tried to get up on this rock and it was way slippery. But at least I did it. Then we climbed on some rocks and posed for photos. Good times.

The next stop was Port Douglas. I wanted to buy Grandpa a top, but the guide said that Port Douglas was crap, so he only gave us like twenty minutes to look around. I didn't think that Port Douglas was crap, I thought it was very pleasant, and I would have liked more time there. Never mind though. So anyway, I didn't have time to go to the marina, which is where Grandma got Grandpa's last top from, so I got in a right tizzle because I got scared that I wouldn't be able to get one. I did though. A nice one as well. :) I hope he likes it. It has a boat on it.

And then we came home. We showered, went down to the bar for our free meal (we get a free meal every night here - wicked!) and then we went out for party party times. Becky went to bed early because I think she was feeling homesick, but I stayed out. she said it was ok though, I didn't just abandon her. I went out with this girl called Paige, who is ACE btw, and we went to this place called the Woolshed. I don't know why it is called that. It is rather odd, really. We had fun times though. I got to bed at four this morning. :)

We are having a bbq at the lagoon tonight. :) Then we are off out to the Woolshed again because Paige leaves for Perth tomorrow. Bimes. I will miss that girl, she is super fun.

Ooh, I am hungry. Can't wait for my sausage.

Croccie Farm

2010-02-05T23:01:00.000-08:00

Ooh heck. We went to the croc farm forever ago now, but it was mega fun times so I am going to write about it. We stopped off at the croc farm with the Oz Bus when we were travelling from Mission Beach to Cairns. We didn't know if it was oging to be very good, and it was like $18 to get in, but everyone from our bus was going in and if we hadn't gone in then we would have just been sitting on the bus for two hours, so we decided to go for it. What a jolly decision.

Firstly, this croc guy got onto our bus with a baby crocodile. It was beautiful. He said it was called Louis, because in a few years time it will be dead and it's skin will be sold to Louis Vuitton and it will be made into a handbag. He was serious and everything. They have a "Prada Pool" full of the croccies that are going to be handbags one day. I want one of those handbags.

We got to hold the little crocodile. It was ace. And we held a snake, and Becky held a bird but I didn't because it looked like it's claws could scratch your shoulder. We took loads of photos but facebook is being a big gay and won't let me upload them.

Then we went to feed some kangaroos. They were adorable. They properly ate this food out of our hands and everything. It was wicked. I love them. We also got to stroke a dingo. I would like a pet dingo now, but it is not allowed. They are wild, apparently.

Then we got to go and watch these crazy croc guys getting into a cage with the HUGE crocs and throwing food at them. They were crazy. They kept poking the crocs with these big sticks. I was like, "What are you doing you crazy fool, it will eat you!". But no one got eaten. One time though, the guy prodded this croc with a stick and the croccie turned round all angry and flipped the stick out of the guys hand and it flew right at me. Luckily, there was a fence in the way so I didn't get killed, but it was a close one. Phew. And the crocs can jump well high, I can tell you. The croc guy threw some chicken in the air and the croccie jumped way high to catch it in its mouth. Wow.

Some of the crocodiles at the croc farm have actually eaten humans. Backpackers mostly, we were told. Apparently we are the tastiest. No one got eaten while we were there though.

I learned lots of interesting things as well. For example, you can decide the sex of a croccie. If you take the eggs away from the mummy croccie and keep them in an incubator then you can decide if you want girl babies or boy babies. If the temperature is lower then 30 degrees then it will be a boy, and if it is higher than 30 degrees it will be a girl. Or the other way around, I"m not quite sure. I think Mrs Parrish may have told us about that in bio. Perhaps during our crocodile module.

Anyways, wicked fun times. I would recommend the croccie farm for a fun day out for the family. :) DEFO.

GILLIGANS!!

2010-02-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

Hey.

I have written loads of blog stuff down on paper but can't afford to type it up. Internet is way expensive here. So I will write about the here and now.

Today, we are in Cairns. :) We are staying at Gilligans. It is party central. It is like my idea of what heaven would be like if I were to go there. They give us free meals as well. For example, today we ate spaghetti bolognase. The portions are very small, but luckily for me Jodie didn't eat hers so I got to eat it as well as mine. Good times.

We had a SUPER FUN night last night. Perhaps the best night since my arrival in Australia. We went out to the Woolshed for food. Mmmm. $6.50 for a steak. A nice steak as well, with pepper sauce. They did overcook it a bit though. I asked for it to be medium, but it was definitely medium well, if not well done. Golly. But then it was only $6.50. Winner. :) I also ate Becky's chips an dPaige's chicken thing. Good times.

Then me adn this Dutch girl called Snoop (I know, random) drank beer. I was like a proper man. Beer and steak. I loved it. Richard would be so proud of me. :)

Then today all we have done is laze by the pool. We went to Woolies to buy some food, and then went back to the pool. It is SO HOT here.

Natalie would love it here.

We are going to Cape Trib tomorrow. Me, Becky, Dave, Jodie and Amy. Good times ahead.

LOVES. Xx.

1770.

2010-01-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

G'Day.

Still in 1770. It is fun times here. There is not a lot to do in all honesty, but it is nice to chillax. The hostel is way nice. It is super clean. They clean the kitchen like three times a day and then in the night time as well I think. Mega clean. They mop the rooms and all sorts. And tonight they are cooking crepes for us with cocolate and banana for only $3. $3, I tell you. Wow. And they have a super nice common room type thing here. With free DVDs. We have watched about a bajillion films since we arrived. For example, Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which, incidentally, is on at the moment as well), Road Trip, The Hangover, 40 Year old Virgin, Sex and the City and Saving Grace. Becky bought us microwave popcorn when we watched SATC. It was ace. And we watched Saving Grace this morning. It reminded me on Mother Hen, because she likes that film a lot. Occasionally they put scary films on, so when that happens I just read my book. Scary films are not fun times. Oh no.

Anyways, besides watching films we have done some fun stuff. We went on the Scooteroos the other day. They are like motorbikes, but they are called scottroos for some reason. It was well fun. Mine was yellow with flames on it. I looked way cool. We drove round Agnes Water and 1770 for a couple of hours and then we stopped off at the beach to watch the sunset. Do you know that 1770 is the only place on the east coast where one can see the sunset?? And I saw it. Yey. It was way funny though, because Jodie, like a retard, couldn't ride the motorbike. Silly girl. She fell of it and cut her trousers. Oh dear. She wasn't injured though, but the Scotteroo guy told her that she couldn't ride one of her own on the tour so she had to ride on the back of the Scooteroo guy's. They went well fast though, like a bajillion miles an hour. I only got up to 60 kilometres an hour. It felt way faster though. Scary times. We ate wedges while we watched the sunset. Damn, they were tasty.

Jodie and Dave left us yesterday. :( Boo. They only stayed three nights here and we are here for six. But we are meeting up with them again in Cairns. Phew.

We went to the beach yesterday. The lifeguard (not fit, way old) told us off for not swimming between the flags. Darn him. But at least we didn't die. Becky hired a surf board but didn't surf. Bimes.

I am looking forward to my crepe this evening. Helen and Natalie will appreciate my crepe times more than anyone else who reads this blog, I'm sure. That's because we had funny crepe times during a Sunday dinner one time. the continue to ridicule me for a perfectly innocent comment. Darn those pesky Hopkas.

There was a weird girl in our dorm on the first night who threw her book in the bin. The book swap here is crap so I fished it out of the bin (true traveller style) and now I am reading it. I finished The B.F.G. in Hervey Bay. Good book.

Since I have been here I have developed a liking for super noodles. The ones you make in the tub though, not the ones that you have to use a pan for. Way too much effort with a pan. My favourite flavour is Singapore Chicken Curry. And only $1.87. Winner. I tried the Chicken and Sweetcorn flavour yesterday, but it's got nothing on the Singapore bad boy.

You get free tea and coffee here. :) I didn't realise how much I liked coffee until it was taken away from me. Darn pesky coffee.

Goodness me, the mossies here are little gays. I have got bitten on my head. On my forehead. Oh no. I look like a right idiot. Bimes. I have put bite cream on it like a thousand times. It has gone down a bit now. Thank goodness.

Wow, I have written a whole load of rubbish today. Oh well.

Wicked cool. Xx.

Fraser Island. :)

2010-01-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

In 1770 now. We're staying at a place called Cool Bananas. It is pretty cool I think. :)

We left Hervey Bay this morning, after three days and two nights on Fraser Island. Goodness, it was fun. We were doing a self drive tour, so we were basically given a 4x4, put into a group and sent onto the island. In our group there was me, Becky, Jodie, Dave, Steve, Kyla, Jo, two French guys called Jean and Flo, and a German girl called Laura. The Frenchies were very nice, but the German girl was most unsocialble. Bimes.

Anyway, we packed up our little truck and went off to Fraser. The driving was insane. Becky and I weren't allowed to drive because you have to be 21. Becky said she was disappointed that she couldn't drive, but I was relieved. For both me and Becky. Haha. The driving was insane, it was like being on a freakin rollercoaster. I was way scared when we first got there. Especially because loads of people had told us stories about people who had crashed and died and stuff. But we didn't crash and die. Phew.

The first nice thing we saw was Lake Wabby. It was lush. Nice and green. And way deep. We swam in it and there were catfish and stuff in it. They were nice catfish though, they didn't attack us once. It was super nice to get in the water as well, because it was SO hot. And there are no showers on Fraser. Well, none that we could use, anyway. It was cool to see Lake Wabby anyway, because apparently in a few years it won't be there anymore. It is getting swallowed up by a sand dune or something. Bimes for Wabby. Everyone kept calling it Lake Wallably. Funny funny.

Then we left Lake Wabby and had to find a place to camp. Ew. There were five trucks in our group, and we were all supposed to camp together, but we drove off by ourselves and ended up camping all alone. I was gutted about that to be honest, because I do like to mingle and make friends. And when we were on our own there was no one to socialise with really. But it was fun times anyway. We had a bbq for dinner. Sausages and burgers and tomato ketchup all round. Oof, it was tasty. And then we all sat round and drank goon and played the name game. Then me and Jo and the Frenchies stayed up and looked at the stars. Very pleasant. Then some dingoes came up and started sniffing orund our campsite so we got scared and went to sleep.

In the morning we found the other trucks. Good times. And we all went to Eli Creek together. Oh my goodness, the water in Eli Creek is so cold and nice. It was way refreshing. Everyone as well sweaty because there are no showers. Gross. And we are not allowed to swim in the sea on Fraser. Some rubbish about it being a breeding ground for Tiger Sharks or something.

Afterwards we went to Indian Head to look for sharkies. I well saw one. A good one as well. It was swimming in the sea only a few metres from people. Golly. They didn't get eaten though. We went to the Champagne Pools as well. I was quite disappointed to discover that thery are not in fact filled with champagne. Just water. And a few jelly fish. Bimes. They were nice to look at and swim in though.

We camped with all the trucks on the second night. :) Fun times. In our little group there was a dispute over cheese and pasta. I was not involved, so I just tried to make the situation more light-hearted by cracking jokes. I don't think my input was appreciated.

There were like a bajillion dutch people in the other trucks and they were not very sociable with people who weren't dutch. So we sat apart from the Holland Brigade and drank goon like loners. :) Then we went to bed.

We woke up in the morning ay a quarter past three to watch the sunrise. Ooh, it was an early start. We took our sleeping bags and headtorches and some snacks down to the beach and got a ncie spot to watch from. There was a couple who were snuggling next to us, and I felt a bit bad for ruining their romantic morning. But oh well. It was well pretty. Way worth the early start.

In the day we went to Lake McKenzie. I think that it is perhaps the most beautiful place in the world. The water was bright blue and we swam in there for hours. :)

I am bored of writing now. Overall feeling of this blog entry: fun times. Done.

Lovesxx.

Way bored.

2010-01-14T21:26:00.001-08:00

I have written loads on paper about what I have done, but I can't be bothered to write it up. So I will just write about today. :)

We got up stupidly early today to leave Rainbow Beach this morning. Bimes. We only got to Rainbow quite late on yesterday as well, so we just had the one night there. We din't even see the beach. Gutted. Although, apparently the beach isn't really rainbow coloured. It just has like yellow and white sand and stuff. Let down.

So anyway, we arrived in Hervey Bay at about half nine this morning. I got a McDonalds breakfast when we got to the transit centre. Mmmmm. Sauge and egg McMuffin. Yes please. I also nicked some jam and marmalade for toast. Yey.

Then we got to the hostel. We are staying at a place called Palace. It is not a palace really. I wish it was. We just went to the beach today (me, Jodie, Becky, Dave and a girl called Jo who we met on the bus) and it was rally nice. I have got a bit burned on my back though, and I was wearing a crissy crossy back bikini. Gutted.

We are off to Fraser Island tomorrow. I am way excited. :) Although, apparently a guy choked on some steak while he was on the island the other day and nearly died. Oh dear. No steak for Daisy!!

I am going to buy some flip flops today, and then we are having pizza for tea. From Dominoes. Good times.

I am way not in a good mood right at this moment because I am trying to upload my sodding photos and it is not working!! BIMES!!

Peace out. Xx.

The Bane. Caesar Salad Sauce Sandwiches.

2010-01-13T01:02:00.001-08:00

Ooh, yesterday was a fun day indeed. We were supposed to be going to the zoo. The Steve Irwin Zoo, but htat plan failed. Failed bad. We were told by reception (that pesky Irish reception lady) that we could book on this thing called Croc Connections. It was like over $100 but it included transfers and the zoo ticket. And we really wanted to go because Jodie and DAve were going from Noosa and we wanted to meet up with them. So we went don to reception the night before to book on the trip. Disaster struck. It was sold out. And it was way annoying because we had asked the reception lady if we needed to book right away. She said no. She lied. :(

So anyway, we went out with fran and Becky. We didn't really know what there is to do in Brisbane, so we went for a walk. Becky S had a map so she lead us to the river. We found the "cultural centre' and visited the Queenslad Museum. It was free entry. :) It was bimes a little bit though, because it is the kids holidays here at the mo, so the place was crawling with children. Ew.

Brisbane.

2010-01-13T00:57:00.000-08:00

The first day in Brisbane was quite not that fun. We had to find the Medicare office to get Medicare cards, because Becky has had to go to the doctors about her foot. It got infected. Bad times.

So we got way lost in brisbane and it was SO HOT. But in the end we got it sorted.

We did washing in the afternoon. There was this way mardy receptionist ther ethough. She was horrid. I looked on the map of the hostel to find the direction of the laundry room and couldn't find it. So I went and asked at reception where it was, and the reception lady was way mardy. She got really annoyed with me, and spoke to me like I was a tard. I felt like saying to her, "Excuse me, I have three As at A Level, what the shizz do you have??" But that would have been way harsh. Stupid Irish lady. I found it in the end anyway.

In the evening times we met up with Becky adn fran to do the pub quiz in the Irish bar at the hostel. It was a way hard quiz. We thought we had failed, but we actually came fifth. Out of seven. But it wasn't last. I drank a Corona. For the first time ever. Wow.

Air Con Bliss and the Pool of Dreams.

2010-01-13T00:49:00.000-08:00

The next day was Sunday. We were all feeling alittle worse for wear. But Bex's friends who had the nice air con apartment invited us round for brekkie, so we all went round there. Ooh, they cooked us up a treat. We had potatoes and bacon and egg and beans and juice and coffee and toast. Oh yes.

We stayed at their apartment for forever. Me, Becky, Bex and Hayley (Jodie and Dave had gone to the water park Wet and Wild). It was lovely, that air con. We snuggled up on the sofa and drank juice and got comfy. It was bliss.

Then we went home to get our swimming stuff, and Hayley and I went in the pool at the apartment. It was way nice, way better than our skanky hostel pool. We posed for photos in it, and Hayley and me chatted like old ladies. Good times.

In the afternoon, Hayley and I went to the beach. The others were lazy and wanted to stay snuggled in the air con, but Hayley adn I were a little more adventurous. The beach was lovely. Loads of hotties. I rang Mummy hen from the beach, adn tried to make her jealous. :) Jodie and Dave joined us on the beach and we stayed there for like forever. I was gutted when we had to leave that lovely beach.

In the evening we had planned to go out for pancakes, because it was our last evening all together. We found the nice pancake restaurant and we were all choosing our pancakes, when I noticed a closed sign. I was gutted. I really fancied a pancake. :( We got ice creams instead.

On Monday we had to leave Surfers. Oh it was a sad day. Me and Becky went to Brisbane, Jodie and Dave went to Noosa and Hayley and Bex stayed in Surfers, so we were all splitting up. I was well sad. But on our bus were two nice girls we'd met at Surf Camp, Becky and Fran. They are nice girls. :)

More from Surfers.

2010-01-13T00:38:00.000-08:00

I have written all this out on paper, but can't seem to find time to write it up here. So I will try my best to get it all down now!!

So, in the limo to the hostel the driver guy told us about this "big Night Out" that was going off that night. It was like $30 for free entry into four clubs and looads of free drinks and a free glowstick and hat and stuff. So we were all like "YEAH!!". So in the day time Becky and I went off to find and internet cafe to book all our hostels and stuff and we did a spot of shopping while we were there. I bought a dress for the Big Night Out. :) $10 bargain!! Then I went back to the hostel for a snooze. The other girls came back later and we sat by the pool and chatted for like 10 minutes or something, before Jodie decided she wanted to go back out to the shops to buy a dress!! So we all went out again. Then we all got ready to go out, and most of us had new clothes to wear. :) Bex and Jodie had brought their GHDs with them, so I straightened my hair all nice. Then Hayley showed me this playsuit that she was going to throw out. It was sehr nice. I just couldn't let her get rid of it. So I had it. :) I qore it that night as well, so I didn't even wear my new dress!! Oops.

Once we were ready, we started the night at Bex's friends holiday apartment in Surfers. It had air con. :) Bex and I drank a fair bit of goon. We got quite merry. When we went out we had super fun amazing times. We danced around like loons in these crazy Aussie clubs. It was way fun times. In the second club we went to, there were a few cheeky dance offs going on. Bex taught us the "Shopping Trolley" so we danced that one a few times, but it was my "Sprinkler" that won me my dance off. I can always rely on the Sprinkler. I was amazing. The third club we went to was called Cocktails and Dreams. We liked the name. I nicked some strawberries from behind the bar, but the bar lady wasn't happy, so I had to put them back. Boo.

We never made it to the fourth club. I was a bit gutted about that because it was called th eBedroom and apparently there are loads of random beds lying around the place. I could have had a snooze. But anyway, Bex, Jodie and I walked home. We got sausage rolls from a shop called Pie Luvas. Ha.

Byron to Surfers.

2010-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

I have decided to write about these blog tims on paper first, because I take forever to think about what to actually write. The internet is free here but in most places it costs a bomb.

So anyway. Oh yeah. On the way back from Nimbin we went to a little lkae thing to swim in. We all had our cossies on so that we could go swimming, but none of us actually went in. We all chickened out. Our excuse was that it was a little cloudy so it owul dhave been cold, but I don't think I would have gone in anyway. It looked well dirty, the water. Then we went to the pub and played pool. i was rubbish, as usual, so when no one was looking a potted a ball with my hand and then told everyone I had done it for real. They believed me. Ooh, I am a big lier.

When we got to our apartment some scousers had moved into our apartment. They were well annoying. they decided to put some music on, and the scouse guy was a DJ, so he brought out like a freakin suitcase full of CDs. It was all dance crap though. Music with no words. In fact, I'm not sure it was even music. Bad times. I mean, they are from Liverpool. The land of the Beatles. What would John Lennon think?? Personally, I'm not sure any of the fab four would be happy about the musical preferences of these dirty scousers.

Anyway, we left them to it and went to Cheeky Monkeys for dinner. $5 for bangers and mash. Brill. There was a Wet Tshirt Contest on and Jodie kept trying to get one of us girls t go up. We didn't, blates. We tried to get near the stage to see the competition, but we had no chance. It was way busy. A Swdish girl won. She got her boobs out.

Then after thatwe danced on the tables and drank goon. Bex was proper going for it. She really was throwing some crazy moves with this Australian guy. Jodie got a video. It is hilar.

The next day we chillaxed on the beach under an umbrella. Becky's foot was poorly so she had to stay in. She watched Bride Wars. We ate chips on the beach for lunch. It was brill. then in started to rain, and Bex decided it would be a good idea to go in the sea. So we did. I was well scared though, because DAve and Bex had seen a jellyfish earlier in the morning, and then Jodie read from her Lonely Planet about their fatal sting. Bimes. I was ok though.

Dave cooked us fajitas for dinner. ooh, they were good fajitas. We wanted to eat in our apartment but the scousers had taken over, so we had to eat in Jodie and Dave's. It was all very pleasant though. Billy Elliot was on TV. I love Billy Elliot. Hayley got drunk off goon with this Canadian guy she had met. It was way funny. she was wasted and everyone else was completely sober. Bless our Hayley. When we went downstairs the scousers ad moved all our furniture around and were playing drinking games with their stupid crppy music on. I wa snot a happy bunny. I wanted sleep. But they quietened down, so I got to sleep ok. It wasn't too bad after all.

In the morning when we were leaving to get the bus to Surfer's Paradise we saw that some one had been sick outside our room. Gross. Drinking games are bad news.

It didn't tkae long to get to Surfer's. Like an hour and a bit I think. We had all booked into the same place, Sleeping inn. So the crew (me, Becky, Bex, Hayley, Jodie adn Dave) were all together still. Yey. A limo picked us up from the Transit Centre. :) It was the oldest limo in the world an dit could barley start, but it was a limo nonetheless. We felt like movie stars. Bless us.

Anyway, I am bored of writing now. Will fill in on the rest later probably. Peace out.

Xx.

More from Byron!!

2010-01-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

Ooh heck. I'm actually in Brisbane now. I have unfortunately not been keeping up with this blog as much as I'd like. But we have free interent at this hostel, so perhaps I will manage to update it sufficiently!!

So, the pasta and pesto party. Oof, that was some good pasta. Bex and Hayley cooked it. I was going to help, but they were doing such a good job without me that I left them to it!! It was jolly tasty. After dinner though I didn't feel very well. It was not the food's fault, I think I'd had too much Sun, so I had a right banger of a headache. So I rang my Mummy and then went to bed. I spoke to Ro Hen as well. Ginge.

The next day I felt a lot better and we went to Nimbin. Nimbin is like hippy paradise. There is history about it but I don't know what it is so i won't explain. It is about an hour and a bit away from Byron, so we went on a bus. It was actually the jazziest bus in the world. It was green and pink and purple abd blue and double decker with all flowers and swirls all over it. And it had a major time sound system banging out hippy tunes. Ooh, we had fun on that bus. On the way there we sat on the top at the back, but it caused a slight feeling of sea sickness for some people, so after the loo stop we changed to the bottom floor. Much better. It was just me, Becky, Bex, Hayley and Jodie who went to Nimbin. We left Dave at home. I think he'd had too much of us girls!!

Nimbin was way weird though. There were all these shops selling special cookies and all other strange ways of getting high. Obviously, we didn't purchase any. We did have some food though. Bex abd Jodie had chips and gravy, but the bowls of chips were HUGE. So we shared. I was very happy about that. I love chips.

We went into the Nimbin Museum. Strange place. It was full of old hippies who were all high. And not much else. You will see how strange it is when I put pics up. Way weird. We went into this one room, and it was just a dark room with a TV playing a police video of a drugs raid. Odd. And there were all these signs everywhere saying stuff like "Drugs are good" and stuff. Pesky hippies.

I am only allowed half an hour ont his free internet to make it fair for everyone so I will continue later.

Lovesxx.

Byron Bay Today Please.

2010-01-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

Hey you guys.

Manly was awesome. :) We got the ferry across from Circular Quay and we met some very pleasant folk on there. They were from the US and Canada. Lovely people. Then we got to Manly and met Chris. I was a little scared that I had forgotten what he looks like, but I remembered when I saw him! He took us to a lovely tapas restaurant. Oh my goodness the food was beautiful. We had pork belly and sweet potatoes and olive bread. And I had a lovely glass of wine. Ooh, it was BRILL. The restaurant was so nice as well, there was a live band playing funky tunes and the waiter was very dishy. We had nice convos about Sydney and other things. I told Chris that everyone sends there love.

Then we got the biggest ice cream in the world on the way back to the ferry.
Delicious. On the ferry back we met the crazy US and Canada kids who were on the ferry there with us. We went out for drinks with them after. We went to this bar called Sidebar and there was a band playing who reminded me very much of Riptide. They were defo not as good though, blates.

Then on Monday we had to be up super early to get the bus to Surf Camp. Like five o'clock. Wow. We met some nice poeple on the journey to Surf Camp. Bex, Hayley, Jodie and Dave. Nice people, very nice indeed. The bus took forever. We stopped off at a few places though. At the first place we had a McDonalds breakfast, and at the second place we had Subway. :) Good times. Our bus driver was called Sconzey. That's not his real name, but Oz Experience give everyone fake names. I don't know why. It is quite unnecessary really. He was very friendly though. We drove past a big banana and he took us to see some kangaroos.

When we got to Surf Camp it was like half five or something. Me Becky, Bex, Hayley, Dave and Jodie stayed in a room together, with two other girls called Fran and Becky, and this weird Dutch guy. We had dinner at Surf Camp and it was really nice. There was so much food. I loved it. After dinner Bex and I drank goon (wine from a box) and we played shithead with some randomers from the other OzEx bus. Oh it was fun times. Bex got a little bit too merry and she was sickie. On my foot. Nice. Then I out Bex to bed.

Then we all decided to go to bed, and Becky and I were just changing into our jim jams when we found a cockroach in our room. We were well grossed out. So I ran outside the room and found some boys to help us get rid of Cocky the cockroach. The boy that came to rescue us was useless. Firstly, he decided it would be a good idea to kill the cockroach with a bag of goon. I have no idea why. in my opinion, a bag of goon is not the most appropriate instrument for killing a cockroach, but he was determined. Anyway, he couldn't kill Cocky because he was a crap boy. I told him I was going to find a real man, andstarted to walk out of the room when I saw the hugest spider in the history of the world run across the floor of our room. The stupid useless boy screamed like a girl and ran away, so I went to find Dave. I couldn't find Dave, but when I got back to the room he was there, so we told him about the horror of the spider. But alas! He couldn't find it. Naturally, I cried because I didn't want to share my bed with a spider. But I was on the top bunk so it was ok. Then all of a sudden, I saw the tarantula run across the floor of the room. I screamed a little bit, and Dave the exterminator climbed under the bed and killed the poisonous beast. Phew. So we all went to sleep.

At about one or two o'clock, however, my sleep was disturbed. I woke up to find Bex crawling from Becky's bed into mine. I was a little surprised to see the girl I had met only a few hours eearlier trying to get into bed with me, but she didn;'t stay there for long. She got down from my bed and stared at the wall for a while, and then walked out fo the room. In the morning, we were all chatting baout it, and everyone remembered what had happened in the middle of the night. It turns out that Bex had originally climbed into bed with Dave (Dave is Jodie's boyfried), had then curled up into a ball at the bottom of Becky's bed, and had then tried to get into mine. She doesn't remember anything about it. A prime example of what too much goon can do to a person, I think. Don't drink people. It is bad.

Then the next day we had a surf lesson. I was shit. I did stand up once, with the help of the instructor (who, btw, was not fit in the slightest) but then I fell on my bottom. Boo. I hlaf stood up a second time, but then I gave up. Me adn this girl Emma just played in the waves with our boards after that. Good times. One boy got hit in the head with his board and I think he may have broken his nose. There was blood everywhere. It was gross. Surfing is way dangerous.

We had fish and chips for lunch. I stole some sachets of coffee.

We got to Byron at about fourish last night. Me, Becky, Bex and Hayley are in a room together. We have a little apartment with four other girls. They are well lairy. We went out last night to Cheeky Monkey, which is this backpacker club. They gave us free goon and free beer and we had fu ntimes. There were loads of random competitions and fun times. We didn't really participate because we were way tired after all that surfing. Becky went in early because she didn't feel well, but I stayed out with hayley adn Bex and Fran and the other Becky. We danced on the tables. It was the funnest time ever. This Italian guy kept trying to make a move with Bex, so we ran away and went homeat about 11 o'clock. And then this morning he turned up in our room, adn he is staying with us. We think he is stalking Bex. Lucky girl. Haha, he is not fit.

Today we went to the beach. It was stupidly hot, and I got a headache. Bimes. But I hope I tanned a little. We had toasties for lunch and then Hayley and I went to get milkshake. :)

They have Woolworths in Australia. But it is a supermarket. We went there today to get ingredients for dinner. We are cooking pasta with pesto and chicken and onion and peppers and we have chocolate cake for dessert. Yum.

Off to cook now. Nimbin tomorrow, it is hippy paradise.

Xx.

New Years. And Stuff That Happened After.

2010-01-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

NEW YEARS WAS WICKED!!

It started off pretty dramatic actually. We decided to go and sit at The Rocks to see the fireworks, but we knew we needed to be there SUPER early to get a good spot, so we left the hostel at about ten o'clock. We were just at Central Station, where we get the bus from, when we realised that we hadn't been to Wicked Travel to pick up our vouchers for our trips. We defo needed them as well, because it was closed on New Years Day and we had a trip the day after. It was bad times. So we decided to split up, and I went to Wicked Travel while Becky went to get us a good spot. We both had our phones, so we thought we would be winning. But we weren't. Because Becky has an Australian sim and I'm still using my UK one, we couldn't ring or text each other. Oh no. Luckily, I used my genius brain to use a pay phone at the station to ring Becky, and then I got a taxi to meet her. $14 that cost me!! Darn taxi. The taxi driver was terrible as well. He needed to turn right at the end of a road, but ther road clearly said that it was no right turn. Then he started swearing about how bad the roads were. I was like "You're a taxi driver!! You should know this!!" But we got there in the end. Phew.

Once we were at The Roccks, we went round some nice shops. I bought a postie card and we tried on fur coats in this amazing vintage shop. I didn't buy the post card from the vintage shop. They didn't sell post cards in there. We went for some lunchie, but it is way expensive round The Rocks. We walked round for forever trying to find some nice cheap food. We walked past Sydney's oldest pub, and it looked ok in there. But we went inside and it smelled funny, so we left. Eventually, when we though all was lost, we found a Subway. That Subway Melt was heavenly.

Then we found a nice little spot at Circular Quay to wait for fireworks. Boy, did we have a long wait. Becky had taken her iPod so we watched John Tucker Must Die. Good film. And I read the BFG for a little while.

The nine o'clock fireworks were amazing. MJ Man in the Mirror was part of the sound track. I danced around like a loon on loon tablets. :) The twelve o'clock fireworks were even better though. We had made friends with some people who were sitting round us, and we all danced and screamed when they came on. There was a nice family from Canada, some crazy scousers, and some drunken French guys. And we all had fun times together.

Then the next day we went to the zoo. It was SO HOT. We made sandwiches for lunch, to save some pennies. We had cheese and pringle. But they collapsed in Becky's bag, and the pringles had gone all soggy. I still ate mine but Becky decided not to. I think she had the best idea, to be honest. They were not very tasty.

We saw the seal show, and that was super fun. Darn, those seals are way talented. It was brill. They did all these tricks and danced around and made weird noises for the crowd. Golly, I loved it. We saw some proper Australian animals as well, like kangaroos. They were very nice.

After the zoo we went to a very pleasant cafe. I had a coffee. I love coffee. People can make coffee at the hostel, because they have the appropriate equipment. However, I do not like to use the equipment at the hostel, because it is well dirty. And also, I would only be able to have cheats coffee, because they do not have a plungey coffee maker. Darn. Becky had a strawberry pancake. The loos at the cafe were gross though, so we stole some jam and butter, because they owed us.

Then we sat on a bench. For like an hour. We talked about how hideous people looked and stuff. We also looked at the happy old couple who were sitting on the balcony of the building opposite us. They looked ever so cheerful.

Then yesterday, we went to the Blue Mountains. Firstly, I think I should mention that they are not blue. Lies. They are nice all the same. Becky and I wore our boots and took rain coats. We looked like right geeks, and we were a little bit worried, because everyone else was in flip flops and converse. But we had read the weather forecast, which told us that it would rain. So we stuck by our geeky decision. It was a good job that we did as well, because at our second stop it started raining, and it rained on and off all day. We did A LOT of walking and it was well muddy. Those poor people in flip flops. Golly.

There were lots of nice views. And we had pie for lunch. That pie was nice. Chicken, leek and mushroom. I even ate the dirty mushrooms, that's how nice it was. Then we went on the worlds steepest railway. 52 degrees. It was so scary. I would not reccommend it.

We met some really nice people yesterday. We went round for most of the day with a lady called Amanda. She is lovely. And we also met some guys who had been round SE Asia, and they gave us lots of nice advice. One guy said he was going to get a tattoo, but he didn't know what he wanted yet. I suggested "I heart D. H.", but I don't think he was that keen.

We have done laundry this morning. It is drying in our room as I type. We did a dark load and a light load. I helped Becky decide what is dark and light, because she wasn't sure. But I am a genius. A washing genius. It will be nice to have clean clothes. Everytime I've gone to my bag, I have got terribly worried about the pile of clean underwear going down. But it is all fine now. Phew.

We are going to Manly later to see Chris. We were going to chillax on the beach today, because Manly beach is supposed to be super nice. But it is raining. Hopefully the weather will cheer up. All our clothes that are suitable for rain are wet as well, because we have just washed them. Darn. So I am wearing a flowery jumpsit and flip flops. How very appropriate.

I am hungry now. I ate a banana this morning. Ooh, it was very nice. I am trying to make sure I eat some fruit, because fruit is healthy, and healthy is good.

We have to be up stupidly early tomorrow, to get the bus to surf camp. Goodness. So tonight we have to be organised. I think both Becky and I will find that very difficult. But we will try our best.

Bye for now.

Xx.

Greetings form Sydney.

2009-12-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

Evening.

Currently I am in a travel agent on the computer. They are called Wicked Travel. They are Wicked. Becky and I have just spent about a bajillion pounds in here, so we get to use the computers for free whenever we want. It's the least we deserve, after all our precious money has been spent here!! It is like two doors up from our hostel so it is quite handy though. :)

What news is there?? Hmmm. Well firstly, I think I saw some one from Strictly in the airport. He was one of the dancers and he has longish blonde hair. I don't know his name, and I wasn't completely sure it was him, so I decided not to approach him. I would have well got a photo is it was one of the better dancers, like Lilia Copilova or some one.

The flight was very long. But there was a bad ass entertainment system on the plane. I watched Julie and Julia to start with, and then I watched (500) Days of Summer. I loved it. The food was gross though. We pinched about ten cans of fizzy drinks from the fridge behind our seats to compensate though.

The hostel is ok. It is quite loud. The room is not very spacious, but that is probably due to the fact that I have moved my mattress from the top bunk onto the floor. I was about to go to sleep last night and I climbed up to the top bunk, but it was WAY too high for it to be safe in my opinion. So I moved it. The showers, however, are a completely different story. I think they may be diseased. They cannot be hygienic. How am I supposed to get clean in showers that are dirty?? Goodness me.

We went out fro breakfast this morning. Becky had a vegetarian breakfast and I had fried eggs on toast. It was very civilised. It take us about a zillion years to find Darling Harbour though, and Becky was nearly dying of starvation before we got there. But she survived.

Then we walked to see the happy bridge and the sunny Opera House. We took loads of photos. We saw a Chinese person wearing a wooly hat. In Summer. It is like a trillion degrees. Does his head not feel the heat?? It was most confusing.

I took a photo for a girl who was trying to take a pic of herself with the Opera House in the background. She is from Massachusetes (incorrect spelling, I am well aware) and she is called Kristen. She was awfully pleasant. She said that she was travelling on her own, adn that she had been staying at the same hostel as us but now she had to go to Brisbane because she couldn't find a room. I cried a little inside, because I thought we could have been friends. Bimes. she was not at all like Kristen Stewart. Dirty vampire lover.

We are being very concious of money at the moment, so we went to the supermarket and bought some cheese adn bread and pasta and things. We are going to cook for ourselves and everything. We had cheese on toast for dinner tonight. I am not at all confident that the kitchen at the hostel is sanitary, but we are poor and connot afford to eat out. Darn. I have a nice juicy green apple to look forward to on my return to hostely hostely. :)

We sat in the TV room today. At the hostel. It is on the third floor. It is awfully comfotable. We watched Girls of the Playboy Mansion. Intellectual viewing indeed.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach I think. Bondi maybe. We have to first work out how to get there. I will conult the Lonely Planet before our departure.

I am beginning to feel a little dizzy. I think it is the result of staring at htis pesky screen for to long, lack of sleep, and the funky funky disco tunes that are banging out in the travel agent. i will go now then.

Bizzle.

Xx.

Lil is gay

2009-11-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

It is not even 67 days until we leave. It is 40!! Lil told me it was 65 days til Christmas. What a bumhead.

Xx.

67 Days To Go

2009-11-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Eeeeee.

67 days to go until we fly to sunny sunny Australia!! I am setting up my blog in preparation. I feel so Gossip Girl. :)

xoxo