Me likin' Oz!!

Right, again, over these last few days I've done quite a few things in Oz and I'm beginning to love this place.

I'm Sydney at the mo, checkin out Lisa's pad!! Man, what a bewdy!

But anyway, lemme update you about all the cool things I did in Cairns before arriving in Sydney.

Went whitewater rafting in Tully! It was such great fun, although at some points I thought it was a little mild - it was suppose to be grade 4 rapids (scale ranges from 1 to 6, 1 being mild), but there where some drops which were really exciting. At one point we had to huddle at the end of the raft then drop down this big fall, then wait to all fall out of the raft!! Pretty scarey, but really thrilling!!

We hired a car and drove around the Cairns Highlands and Tablelands - saw loads of wildlife and a massive Cedar tree (Kee got really excited about this tree for some reason... ). Australia has the most amazing wildlife, there's so many animals that I never knew existed until now. There's the big Cassuwary bird, looks a bit like an emu, but has a blue head that looks like skull, and MASSIVE claws for feet. Apparently it can kill you in just one strike of its claw!! Scarey! Also saw loads of wallabies, kangaroos, tree kangaroos, massive crocs and all different types of colourful birds - gorgeous!!

Driving around the highlands was really cool, came across some quaint little towns and had a swim in a beautiful lake.

Went to a croc farm where they farm crocs for commercial use (making handbags, accessaries, and meat) and also for show. Funny thing is that all the park rangers talk just like Steve Irwin, shouting stuff like "Crikey!" "Did you see that?" "What a bewdy!" - love it!

We arrived in Sydney yesterday - and our first encounter was a ride on the trains, which was very similar to the tubes in london - pretty depressing!! However, Sydney is much more spacious, lots of cheap and yummy food - and AMAZING sushi!! You can get a fresh handroll - massive for 1 quid - and thats the expensive handrolls!! The sashimi literally melts in your mouth - lurrvly!! Me likin' OZ!

Awesome diving in the Great Barrier Reef!

Ok - I was suppose to update you guys on the orangutans, but i've been mega lazy and keep putting it off.

But anyways, since my last blog I've travelled to Cairns, Australia...so if you really wanna hear about the organgutans I can give you details in an email - basically it was a totally fascinating encounter and I would seriously consider working for the charity in the UK that helps these gorgeous creatures.


Now, lemme tell you bout Cairns...

My preconceptions bout Cairns was that it was a large city near a lovely big beach, and only a few minutes from the Great Barrier reef - full of posh and retired people... well, it is kinda like that, but there are some parts of it that reminds me of something out of Ibiza uncovered!! Type of people living here - the odd old people, loads of jap tourists and some trashy travellers.. I mean not as in skanky travellers, but i mean the type of people that visit places like Ibiza and Tenerife. In fact, this place is a little like tenerife - you got english and irish pubs holding wet t-shirt competitions, karoke nights, toad races and sleazy stripping contests (held by hostels).

Ok - I'm making this place sound really tacky now - but really its not THAT bad... its still a really nice place to be and chill out. Major thing we weren't prepared for was the cost of living here - DAMN expensive!!! We have to pay like 5 or 6 quid per head per meal! Although we have had some free meals from the hostel we staying in, and get this, the hostel is called the Asylum... and we're staying in room 26 and a half... yeh, kinda crazy...

Anyways, despite having to live like a real traveller, i.e staying in hostels rather than mid-range hotels (like what we've been doing in Thailand), we had the most amazing dives in the Great Barrier reef! We were mega lucky - as soon as we dived in, we saw reef sharks, giant potatoe cods, napolian wrasse (big wally) and a GREEN TURTLE!!! Apparently, its pretty rare to see turtles (only comes out once a month). The water was so calm and clear, and coral was really colourful! I'm on a roll now and desperate to do some more diving!!

Tomorrow we going WW rafting, then we hiring a car to drive up and around the Cairns area, which I'm really looking forward to - instead of going on all these organised tours...

Til then!

Beautiful Borneo!

Ok, this is gonna be a long update guys, so get your mugs of teas/coffees ready...I'm gonna tell you all about my amazing adventure in Borneo!

We visited the North-east of Borneo - Sabah - a region richn in it's wildlife.

We arrived on 9th October and decided to stay 8 days here, which I now kinda regret because its such an amazing country - but due to budget restrictions we decided to keep it short.

There is so much to do here, however its a pretty expensive place for travellers...

But anyway, in just 1 week I managed to fufill 3 of my all-time ambitions (I've actually got quite a few, but these were my top ones)....

12th and 13th Oct - we made the arduous, but very rewarding climb up Mount Kinabalu, SE Asia's tallest mountain (over 4000m high). It was a 2-day climb, starting with a 6km trek up to the lodge, then early next morning - a 2.7km up to the summit.

I really couldn't believe that I managed to make it to the top as there was one point when I felt so low on energy, and desperately needing food, I was ready to give up. This was 2.30am morning climb - after having an hour's sleep (being kept awake by the cockroaches crawling around my bed) and only 1 slice of toast for brekkie - it was long hard climb up to the top. We reached the summit at about 5.45 am, it felt totally amazing and pretty emotional. It was also terribly cold and I definitely wasn't dressed or prepared for the weather conditions up there! I felt like I was going to freeze to death, but we were there to watch the sunrise... but I just couldn't bare it any longer and just had to go ahead and make the decent. So, after that looong climb up, and staying there for like 5 mins, we had to face the decent - this was the difficult part! All in all, the whole decent took us 6 hours, with a break in between for breakfast.

Its 3 days since I made the climb, and I'm still walking like an 80-year old lady!!

14th Oct - went to visit Pulau Tiga. This is where the series Survivor was filmed. It wasn't as idyllic as I thought it would be. Its on the South China sea so the beach was pretty much washed up with big logs and stones, making it impossible to swim. But our main reason for visiting this island was for the volcanic mud pools! Silly me, as we got to the pools, I didn't realise that it was right in front of me and I stepped in with my lovely sandals and all my clothes on and got stuck straight away!!! It took both me and Kee to save my sanadals from the deep pool of volcanic mud! After that, I thought, f*ck it... off came the clothes and I dipped myself in the thick grey mud! It was totally liberating and great fun!! Got some cool pix too!

15th Oct - Seligan Island (aka Turtle Island). Turtle island is a protected island, which runs a rehabilitation scheme for the turtles - helping to increase their chances of survival.

I remember the days sitting in front of the TV watching doumentaries about beautiful sea turtles, how they lay their eggs, then the baby turtles crack out and swim off to sea... And here I was today, on Turtle Island, watching that very process in real life!!

First, we spent the morning and afternoon on the Island's beaches snorkelling and soaking up the sun. Then in the evening, after dinner, we sat there and waited for turtle to land. We were lucky in that, on this particular island, September thru to October is peak season for the Green Turtle's nesting. So we were assured that there would definitely be a sighting.

When the ranger ran in to the cafeteria, shouting "Turtle! Turtle!", there was a mad rush to the beach. When we got there and saw the turtle laying its eggs, it was just an indescribeable feeling! I just couldn't believe that this was happening before my very eyes! It was about 98cm diameter, and looked so cute - massive eyes and smiley face! It layed about 89 eggs in total! After it layed it's eggs we left it to rest and make its way back to the sea...

I though that was the end of it, then the ranger said that we could be a part of the next process which was to set the hatchlings (from a previous nesting) free into the ocean! He brought out basket full of baby turtles, and we each had the chance to hold one, which so cool! It was really funny watching it, held between my fingers, frantically flapping away like it was about to fly off. Totally cute! Finally we brought the hatchlings to the beach and set them off into the ocean - a truly awesome end to the night!

Ok, now i'm running out of credit so I'll write about my encounter with the orangutans tomorrow - i'm sure you've had enough to read now!

From cockroaches to facials..

We're in KL! Well... its our last day now, but we've been here for 3 days. It took us 10 hours on the bus from Hat Yai in Thailand to get to KL. There's actually not much to so here for travellers apart from eat (still don't think food is as good as Thailand here though) and see the twin towers.

The first night we got here we stayed in a mega manky hotel. We though 78RM (about 850BT) would get us to somewhere decent...how wrong were we! The room was infested with cockroaches and mini wierd insescts crawling all over the carpet. We had to adjust ourselves to city life and face the truth, that not ALL is cheap. You do have to dig into your pockets when you're in Malaysia!

SO, after having enough of all that mankiness, we decided to check ourselves into a 3/4* hotel! Immediately I went for the pool (even though it was literally a paddling pool), had a facial and ordered room service, then stayed in the room all day!! Mega luxury! We said to ourselves that this will be a one-off!! No more luxuries...til Dec i guess... :P

Last night we went to check the Twin Towers, and I must say, it was a truly amzing piece of structure! It almost looked fake cos it was so perfect looking and so damn tall!! We didn't go up it, we thought we'd save it for Dec and go up with the guys.

Also, good news - there some amazing bars and clubs in KL - mega trendy and sexy looking - so we'll have enough to keep us entertained in Dec!

Ok, we off to Borneo tonite to check out the wildlife and hot springs!

Til then, laters!

Qualified diver at last!

3rdOct - The last day of our diving course was awesome! Although it was raining heavily and I was sea sick, I was still able to do the 18m dive. We were filmed underwater whilst doing skills like kung-fu fighting, dancing with with sunglasses on and somersaulting underwater! We watched the vid after and realised how confident underwater we had all become.

The sealife in Koh Tao is ok, no way as colourful as Egypt - the coolest thing we saw was a puffer fish - really cute with massive eyes! The other group of students saw a turtle! I was so jealous, so now I'm dying to see one on my next dive!

After diving, Kee and I went to a Spa retreat high up in the mountains, the view was breathtaking - we could see the whole of the island from the resort. From the outside of the spa, the place looked luxurious, but once we got to the treatment rooms, I felt like we were in a brothel or something! Red curtains, paintings of naked oriental women on the walls and old bed sheets! We had to lie completely naked (although only partly covering our private parts) whilst having our massage - really strange!

In the evening went for drinks with the other students and instructors at this trendy bar called the Dragon Bar - its a real chilled out bar, it's the kinda bar you would find in somewhere like Soho – cool people, funky music and yummy cocktails - though the price of drinks are like 10 times cheaper - like a long cocktail for only 2 quid or less!

4th Oct - We decided to leave Koh Tao in the morning as the weather wasn't picking up at all. We've been experiencing thunder storms and heavy rain for the past 4 days!

So now, after a 6-hour bus journey, we're in Hat Yai - a stop-over in Thailand before Malaysia. Apparently this place is a mecca for ‘massage ladies’ and hookers! A bit like Shenzen - where cheating husbands come over from Singapore and Malaysia for some ‘entertainment’!

Nearly certified diver!

We've been in Koh Tao for about 4 days now. The journry took nearly 11 hours from Bangkok by bus and ferry - but its been well worth it. I really love it here, theres a great community feel - everyone is so friendly and welcoming!

We're staying in an air-conditioned beach hut - right on a sandy beach, and its just so relaxing!

We just did our 3rd day of our Open water dive course, and I'm feeling pretty confident now - I'm happy to let water into my mask, swap regulators with my budddy, ascend with no regulator, and loads of other stuff that I wouldn't have imagined myself brave enough to do!!

We've also made loads of new friends, mainly from the course - most are same as us, just travelling round - taking time off or have given up their jobs. Also met some random couple after Kee crashed after 5 mins of hiring a moped!! Yeh, bad idea - ended up paying 1000BT for some minor damage to the basket! And Kee was ok, just a few scratches on his leg and hand!

Now have loads of mozzie bites too - they're mega lethal on this island - totally immune to any strength of repellent!!

Feeling bit dizzy and nauseus now - feel like i'm still on the boat -best get off this comp!

Laters!