Louise is a question master and loves to ask me lot's of questions about things I don't know. At school I deal with this pretty well and manage to get through the odd tricky question. Lou however has cottoned on that most of the time I make my answers up and calls me up on this. I can't distract her like a 10year old so I have now learnt to say 'I dunno.' We are now thinking of keeping a book of questions so we can bombard someone wiser than us with our travel queries when we return. Google perhaps?
We boarded our new bus and sighed a giant sigh when we realised Shelley was no longer our tour guide wooo! However when a 40 something year old guy introduces himself as 'Squatter' alarm bells should start to ring. Was he a gym enthusiast? Didn't like to stand or sit? Nope he just had a weird name - apparently its the Australian way. As we headed out of Melbourne towards Wilson's Promontory National Park (the most southerly point in mainland Australia did you know!) we soon realised Squatters flaw (apart from his name that is) He loved to talk, he loved to talk when everyone wanted to sleep, he loved to talk when there was nothing to say. Some may even say he loved to talk more than life. At this point we were very grateful for Lou's ipod thingy as we had it on loud to drown him out. Now thinking about it he probably could of answered some of our questions. Oh well.
Along the way we stopped at the side of the road. Alright to wear flip flops? Yeah corse! So off we trundled. Me and Lou were the last in the group and were wondering what we were going to see. Everyone was clustered around this upturned tyre. We squirmed in and saw this spider. It was a red back - 2nd deadliest spider in Australia. We had exposed toes. EEK! Photos were taken and we moved away from the killer creature. As we looked around we realised we had been joined by loads of wild kangaroos. Now I have learnt that I don't really like animals I don't know. Yet for some reason though me and lou thought we were David Attenborough (animal guy yes?) and did our best to get as close to the kangaroos as possible. Whilst we were engrossed in our own animal documentary making we didn't realise the rest of the group had moved away to seek out some emu's. At this point Lou thought it was a good idea to remind us both about the killer spiders lurking and our exposed toes... we got out of the bushes quick and waited for the rest of the group whilst hopping up and down to stop the spiders eating us alive (not actually sure if this is factually correct about the way they kill or a proven method of survival.) Back on the bus it was for us and alot of driving. Quite night and bed.
The next day we were up early and driving into the mountains along a pass called Barry Way* and across the Snowy River, which was a river but not snowy. We saw the aftermath of a bush fire from a couple of years back and were told a gruesome story about how they picked water up from the sea and dumped it on the fires. Though at this particular point they had picked up a scuba diver as well and dumped him on the fire too. After being told that we were back in the bus and headed further into the mountains. We arrived at the base of Mount Kosciusko the highest mountain in mainland Australia. We were going to climb it. The first part of the climb is a little bit of a cheat as you get a ski lift up. This was my first time on a ski lift and didn't I make everyone know it. I waved at people, took photos and used the word wow alot. At least this is all out of my system now. Once we were off the lift we started to walk. Lou and I were wearing shorts and vest tops with Santa hats. People coming down the mountain were wearing fancy walking clothes which said things like 'wind proof 200x' or something along those lines. We were not fazed and trundled along to the first look out point. Oh did I forget to mentioned there was snow everywhere! In their summer! Apparently it has never been like that before - weren't we lucky! At our first look out point we looked down at what we had climbed and were proud of ourselves. We then were told the ski lift closes at half 4 so we had 2 hours to get to the top and back down again. Squatter advised us to 'just make it to the next lookout point.' This of corse made Lou and I and some others in the group determined to make it to the top. There was no point coming all this way and then coming home to say: Oh yeah the tallest mountain in Australia, yeah I made it to the lookout point. Nope we wanted to go to the top.
*There is no evidence that this road was named after our very own Barry Taylor, though on the other hand there is no evidence to suggest against this...
Onwards and upwards we climbed. We got to the last point before the top and saw the path veer one way and a steep climb the other side. Squatter told me and lou that if we wanted to make it to the top we had to go the most direct way (the others were ahead of us at this point on the path) - which was of corse up the steep hill covered in icy snow. So we clambered up and made it to the top. Photos were taken - mission completed. We were on top of the world...kinda. All now that faced us was a race with time to make it back to the ski lift before it closed. Cue Benny Hill esk music as we 'ran' along the flat parts and climbed down the sloping bits (we learnt this was the best method as Hannah, our fellow mountain walker, slipped and cut her hand and arm up- ouch.) We were pleased to say we made it back to the lift in time, where I managed to get told off by the guy for getting on in the wrong manner. We were proud of ourselves that we had reached the top and back down again in the given time and rewarded ourselves with a jacuzzi at our accommodation. That night we were introduced to the 'ski shot' where shots are placed in an old ski and you line up in 4's to drink them. It would of been rude to not embrace the Australian culture so we reluctantly joined in!
Our muscles ached. Muslces that probably don't even exist ached. Luckily we had another long journey to the purpose made capital Canberra.Oh wasn't that a joy to see. No offence but they basically 'stole' parts of European capitals (I've seen loads- London, Paris...erm) and mashed them together to make their own. We visited houses of parliament which was kinda interesting for my inner geek, and went to a museum which no one was really in the mood for. Oh and we drove past their prime ministers house, that was fun ish. Overall not really impressed with the capital. By this time it was the 23rd December and everyone just wanted to get to Sydney for some Christmas spirit. We were rewarded after a loooong drive and checked into our base accommodation in Sydney. 10 bed dorm for the next 10 nights. Excited about the festive holiday adventures that awaited us!
As you probably know by now I'm coming home on Wednesday and really want this blog up to date as Lou promises she is going to keep updating with her own solo adventures once I'm back home.
Much love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x x
p.s. Ooo and this travelling lark is educating us. Watching 'The Chase' on tv last night and we answered questions about Singapore tourist attractions and Australian prime ministers! yeah!
Sunday 20 February 2011
Wednesday 16 February 2011
I'm on a bus to Melbourne yeah
Walking into McDonald's and asking them if they serve burgers has not been one of my finest moments, yet it lives as a reminder of a brilliant night out don't you think? I should start at the beginning: Our Adelaide 'morning after' did not start well with my creeping out early (11am ish) and Lou 'finding' my empty bed. Apparently she had to go on a massive search for me, which consisted of the Internet cafe and then finding me in the hairdressers - Super detective Lou! Having my hair chopped off delighted the hairdresser, but I did feel a little bad for her when Lou 'found' me and was like 'OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!' I don't think that is the usual response to a haircut but least it was followed up with compliments! After the haircut was the MacDonald's incident (less said about that the better) and the day was meant to be spent on the beach, however it was really cold (about 22!) and we were really hungover so we pretty much spent the whole day in bed :)
Our alarm was set for an early start the next morning as we were hopping onto another bus heading to Sydney. As mentioned before Lou is in charge of the time/phone/alarm and always asks me what time we should wake up. Guaranteed I will say a time and she will set it 15mins earlier so we can have a 'lie in'. Our catch the bus day was no different. The only downside to this plan was that Lou presumed (silly billy) that I read the pick up time correctly. Checking things like this whilst in the cab and being 20 minutes late is not fun. For some reason I was sure we were meeting at 6.50, yet the darn little piece of paper said 6.30 - big oops on my part. After frantically calling the bus company and being told 'the bus will wait for no-one' we headed straight to the head office to meet it there. Luckily for us (well mainly me as I had messed up) the bus was running late too. Lesson for the day: I say the pick up time and then Lou checks it.
Being the last on the bus we had the back seat which was the worst as we couldn't hear anything our tour guide Shelley said (we later realised that this was a blessing as she got over excited whenever she saw any type of animal and would scream the animal name whilst slamming on the breaks!) Anyways some familiar faces in the form of Natalie, Marcel, Adrian and Fernando from our other tours faced us on the bus which was cool and we soon settled into the journey. So our journey to Melbourne had began. We started off by heading into the Grampians, a mountain range, and our first walk. We got all geared up for our walk but then the heavens opened and a few of us decided that it was too cold and rainy to climb the mountain so we sat and waited in the bus for hours. At this point our British nature had escaped us. And weren't we glad about it when the others arrived back on the bus soaked through and teeth trembling. That night after everyone had dried off and warmed up we had Lou's favourite spag bol and an early ish night. An eventful day of mishaps!
Our Great Ocean Road trip began with a clear blue skies...behind the clouds that lurked. It was cold. Many of us felt cheated by the cold weather as somewhere in a travel brochure in our rooms back home it said that December was the start of summer. Well sorry Australia you promised sunshine so it was only fair that it had to put up with the same winter outfits for 3days in a row. My look consisted of leggings and a hoodie and Lou embraced the jean hoodie combo. Along the Great Ocean road we stopped and saw many of it's famous sites such as London Bridge (looks like a bridge) Mackenzie Waterfalls (alot of steps were climbed today) and the 12 Apostles (they lie, there are only 8 now.) We did great impressions of tourists, jumping out of the bus, whipping our jumpers off (if we were brave), taking photos with Natalie's amazing camera that made it look hot and then jumping back on the bus again! That night we headed back out to the 12 Apostles for sunset which was amazing as the sun and clouds worked together to give us some great Kodak moments. At this point Australia was forgiven for it's coldness and simply admired.
The next day we were back on the road and Melbourne bound. Along the way we stopped off at Kennett River for some wild Koala spotting. We were rewarded with baby Koalas hiding in the trees with their mums. Shelley also gave us some bird feed for the brightly coloured birds that hung out in the same trees. Yes I now may seem stupid but whilst gazing up at the Koalas thinking they had it pretty good (love the idea of all that sleep) I kinda forgot I had two handfuls of bird seed in my hand. I was rudely reminded when a bird swooped down and attacked me. Later it was mentioned that the bird simply landed on me. But at the time I felt under attack! Soon the whole group had birds all over them and many photos were snapped. Lou even had one land on her head which she loved until I pointed out it might think her head was a toilet! After the walking in the shoes of Dr Doolittle for a while we were back on the bus for the long stretch towards Melbourne.
We arrived in Melbourne and checked into our hostel and settled for an early ish night as surprise surprise we had an early morning wake up. That night was possibly one of the worst nights sleep we both had. The guys in our room were out partying and seemed to lost the ability to move around quietly when they returned. They also seemed to forgot to close the door whilst using the bathroom. And at one point the guy above Lou was coughing so much he sounded like he was going to be sick onto Lou's bag on the floor below - nice! She also had the squeakiest bed ever. On one of his many trips to the bathroom the guy above lou (we shall call him GAL now) obviously left his bed empty. However upon returning to it he realised someone else had climbed into it. GAL was not impressed and started to kick up a fuss. The guy sleeping by the door (DG) took charge and turned the light on. After a quick head count we realised there were 9 people in a 8 bed dorm. A drunken guy had somehow got into our room and commandeered GAL's bed. DG did a fine job of shepherding him out and we all finally got to bed. It was 4am. Our alarm went off at 5am. We woke. We weren't quite. We didn't care. Since this night we have been asked 'what did you think of Melbourne?' To be fair we didn't really see it but we still just shake our heads and recall the worst night (so far!)
Hope this little snippet sheds some light on a teeny bit of our travels.
Also Happy Birthday week to my lovely brothers. Man your both getting old! Which must make mum and dad feel even older!
Much love
Steph and Lou x x x
p.s. yes I know I used 'this' alot - but I like it ok!
Our alarm was set for an early start the next morning as we were hopping onto another bus heading to Sydney. As mentioned before Lou is in charge of the time/phone/alarm and always asks me what time we should wake up. Guaranteed I will say a time and she will set it 15mins earlier so we can have a 'lie in'. Our catch the bus day was no different. The only downside to this plan was that Lou presumed (silly billy) that I read the pick up time correctly. Checking things like this whilst in the cab and being 20 minutes late is not fun. For some reason I was sure we were meeting at 6.50, yet the darn little piece of paper said 6.30 - big oops on my part. After frantically calling the bus company and being told 'the bus will wait for no-one' we headed straight to the head office to meet it there. Luckily for us (well mainly me as I had messed up) the bus was running late too. Lesson for the day: I say the pick up time and then Lou checks it.
Being the last on the bus we had the back seat which was the worst as we couldn't hear anything our tour guide Shelley said (we later realised that this was a blessing as she got over excited whenever she saw any type of animal and would scream the animal name whilst slamming on the breaks!) Anyways some familiar faces in the form of Natalie, Marcel, Adrian and Fernando from our other tours faced us on the bus which was cool and we soon settled into the journey. So our journey to Melbourne had began. We started off by heading into the Grampians, a mountain range, and our first walk. We got all geared up for our walk but then the heavens opened and a few of us decided that it was too cold and rainy to climb the mountain so we sat and waited in the bus for hours. At this point our British nature had escaped us. And weren't we glad about it when the others arrived back on the bus soaked through and teeth trembling. That night after everyone had dried off and warmed up we had Lou's favourite spag bol and an early ish night. An eventful day of mishaps!
Our Great Ocean Road trip began with a clear blue skies...behind the clouds that lurked. It was cold. Many of us felt cheated by the cold weather as somewhere in a travel brochure in our rooms back home it said that December was the start of summer. Well sorry Australia you promised sunshine so it was only fair that it had to put up with the same winter outfits for 3days in a row. My look consisted of leggings and a hoodie and Lou embraced the jean hoodie combo. Along the Great Ocean road we stopped and saw many of it's famous sites such as London Bridge (looks like a bridge) Mackenzie Waterfalls (alot of steps were climbed today) and the 12 Apostles (they lie, there are only 8 now.) We did great impressions of tourists, jumping out of the bus, whipping our jumpers off (if we were brave), taking photos with Natalie's amazing camera that made it look hot and then jumping back on the bus again! That night we headed back out to the 12 Apostles for sunset which was amazing as the sun and clouds worked together to give us some great Kodak moments. At this point Australia was forgiven for it's coldness and simply admired.
The next day we were back on the road and Melbourne bound. Along the way we stopped off at Kennett River for some wild Koala spotting. We were rewarded with baby Koalas hiding in the trees with their mums. Shelley also gave us some bird feed for the brightly coloured birds that hung out in the same trees. Yes I now may seem stupid but whilst gazing up at the Koalas thinking they had it pretty good (love the idea of all that sleep) I kinda forgot I had two handfuls of bird seed in my hand. I was rudely reminded when a bird swooped down and attacked me. Later it was mentioned that the bird simply landed on me. But at the time I felt under attack! Soon the whole group had birds all over them and many photos were snapped. Lou even had one land on her head which she loved until I pointed out it might think her head was a toilet! After the walking in the shoes of Dr Doolittle for a while we were back on the bus for the long stretch towards Melbourne.
We arrived in Melbourne and checked into our hostel and settled for an early ish night as surprise surprise we had an early morning wake up. That night was possibly one of the worst nights sleep we both had. The guys in our room were out partying and seemed to lost the ability to move around quietly when they returned. They also seemed to forgot to close the door whilst using the bathroom. And at one point the guy above Lou was coughing so much he sounded like he was going to be sick onto Lou's bag on the floor below - nice! She also had the squeakiest bed ever. On one of his many trips to the bathroom the guy above lou (we shall call him GAL now) obviously left his bed empty. However upon returning to it he realised someone else had climbed into it. GAL was not impressed and started to kick up a fuss. The guy sleeping by the door (DG) took charge and turned the light on. After a quick head count we realised there were 9 people in a 8 bed dorm. A drunken guy had somehow got into our room and commandeered GAL's bed. DG did a fine job of shepherding him out and we all finally got to bed. It was 4am. Our alarm went off at 5am. We woke. We weren't quite. We didn't care. Since this night we have been asked 'what did you think of Melbourne?' To be fair we didn't really see it but we still just shake our heads and recall the worst night (so far!)
Hope this little snippet sheds some light on a teeny bit of our travels.
Also Happy Birthday week to my lovely brothers. Man your both getting old! Which must make mum and dad feel even older!
Much love
Steph and Lou x x x
p.s. yes I know I used 'this' alot - but I like it ok!
Tuesday 8 February 2011
From point A to A (Alice to Adelaide)
Waking up at 4am is not fun. Fact. By this time Lou and I had realised it is best if we don't try and communicate with words when we first wake up and favour nods of acknowledgment and the occasional point instead. Apparently according to Lou (who is now the keeper of time and therefore the alarm) waking me up is not too fun as I usually look at her with utter confusion and the occasional frown and the morning of the tour was no different - sorry Lou! But we managed to get our stuff together in time and by 4.45am we were sitting on our bus with 20 other people in silent respect of the time of day.
We were thrown into the deep end by starting the day with a 6km hike/trek/pulling ourselves up by our arms walk around Kings Canyon which was spectacular. The first part of the climb was the worst as there was no shade and was constantly climbing upwards but we managed to make it to the top and by this time glowing slightly and a tad red in the face (me rather than Lou!) Walking along the top of the canyon was fun, though my heart did skip a few beats when Lou and I posed for photos on a jutting rock waaay above the gorge and then skipped a few more beats when lou clambered higher to get better photos. We continued our walk through to 'The Garden of Eden' and Lou and some of the others swam in the crystal clear water to cool off - simply paradise! After our day walk we were back on the bus and onwards to watch sunset whilst looking at Mount Connor (which we all mistook for Uluru). We finally arrived at our camp after a long day and was treated to a BBQ of camel and Kangaroo which was surprisingly tasty. That night we spent in swags, a massive sleeping bag with a mattress inside it, under the stars. The sky was so clear and I have never seen so many stars before in my life, I even saw some shooting stars which topped off a brilliant start to the trip.
Waking up at 3.40am is not too fun either and especially not for Lou as she had been bitten on the forehead in the night! We were off to see the rock in the center of Australia at sunrise. After watching sunrise we walked around the base of Uluru which was 11km, everyone was glad to do the walk in the (relative) cool of the morning before it got too hot. Uluru is breathtaking. By this time it was only 9am, but felt alot later and we headed off to Kata Tjuta to walk through another rock formation that looked like two domes. The walk on Walpa Gorge was about 2.6km - Lou and I have realised that we were really enjoying the walking and climbing which surprised us both! After lunch some of the group left as they were just doing Uluru and we were left with 3 girls and 11 guys. We got on really well as a group and it was fun to met people from different parts of the world. We spent a couple of hours chilling out in the pool at the campsite before heading back to Kata Tjuta viewing point where we could take in the 360degree view of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We then headed back to Uluru for champagne aka sparkling fizz and sunset. We proceeded to spend the next hour taking funny photos with the rock, it was especially funny trying to get lou to look like she was lying down on the top. The best we could do was for Simon and I to hold her up which got a few stares from the other tourists!! Again the day ended with sleeping under the stars in our swags whilst trying to tune out Stonnes (a Canadian) snoring!
Another early morning greeted us but today was spent sleeping on the bus as we travelled to Coober Pedy. We stopped off at the Northern territory/southern border for photos ops and had to put our clocks an hour earlier. After our mini stop it was back in the bus for another long drive which was spent listening to Aussie Hip Hop (which we both loved!) and some questionable boy music. Barabra Streisland also became our group song and pepped us all up throughout the journey. We arrived at Coober Pedy at around 3ish and it was 40degrees with no wind. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town that is basically built underground with home and shop fronts on the surface and then everything else built downwards as it is cooler. We went on a tour of a disused opal mine. Whilst the lady was talking to us (and repeatedly telling us how deep we were) I noticed that Lou and gone a lovely shade of grey. She felt really claustrophobic, sick and dizzy so had to leave the tour half way to go back up to ground level :( Once the tour was finished and lou went back to her normal colour we went to a kangaroo sanctuary where we both got to hold a joey that was sooo cute. That night we went to the local underground bar and proceeded to get our group up and dancing. That night was spent sleeping in an underground bunker. Lou was alright with her claustrophobic as it was cut into a mountain rather than built downwards - phew!
The next day was another long day spent on the bus with a stop off at Glendambo Roadhouse which had a population of 30 people! We really were in the outback. We finally arrived at Quorn, a sleepy little town, in the Flinders Rangers and chilled out till dinner. Someone had the great idea of watching wolf creek as we were at the place where it was filmed. It was so scary to be watching the film in the middle of no where and both me and lou managed to scare ourselves silly whilst trying not to look to girly in front of the guys! The rest of the evening was spent chatting and listening to music - a very chilled out day.
We got to lie in till 8am this morning which felt like luxury! We still had to wake Ben our guide up though, but no one was fussed as he was a relaxed guy and made our tour really enjoyable. We took the bus to Flinders Rangers National Park and on route we stopped off Kanyaka Homestead Historical Site which was apparently famous for it's sheep shearing!? Our next stop was at an Aboriginal site called Yourabulla Caves where we saw some original aboriginal paintings. We were back on the bus for a drive to Wilpena pound resort which was the site of a meteorite hit (we think!) We were let loose into the wilderness by Ben and were told 'it's easy to find the lookout, just walk up there'. 45mins later we realised we were lost and quite literally wandering around in the outback. At this point some people in the group were like let's go this way and others wanting to go another way - again me and lou made references to the horror movie formula where the group splits up. Eventually we all decided to stick together and found the lookout point path. We had all simply walked past it! Once we reached the top we were a little disappointed as we were smack bang in the middle of the site and couldn't really get a real perspective on what we were looking back. That evening we had a random game of lawn bowls which was fun. Though Lou and I were rubbish at it! The old man in charge took a shine to Lou and creeped her out a bit, which I found funny. After our disastrous game we had a chilled out evening drinking our goon.mmm yummy!
Our last day of tour didn't start to well with the bus refusing to start up. It was funny as the guys pushed the bus onto the main street to try and give it a jump start but it failed miserably. Eventually the bus was fixed and we were on our way to our last hike 'Devil's Peak.' Climbing the mountain was one of the best experiences we had, the group was great and we all kept motivating each other and the views were spectacular. When we got to the top there was this massive crag we had to climb up, luckily as I had longer legs I managed to get a good foot hold and scramble up. Lou on the other hand couldn't pull or climb up and had to be hauled onto the top rock by Rudi and Marcel, which was funny to watch! We reached the peak and everyone chilled out and sat in silence just taking in our surroundings (and trying to get our breath back!) Was truly a memorable experience! The way down was just as fun and probably a little harder - my tactic was to slide down most of the mountain on my bum - a slow but successful solution. Lou on the other hand was far faster and was one of the first down the mountain. Unluckily for her she was waiting at the bottom with millions of biting ants who took a shining to her red trainers. It was funny seeing her trying to shake them off her shoes whilst in the bus!
That night we arrived in Adelaide and went out for a last group drink together. Lou and I were staying by the beach so had to get the tram into the city. We thought we would take some drink on the tram with us but later found out this is illegal - we were lucky we weren't caught as they are quite strict about this - oops! Once out we had fun dancing the night away and even going on a bucking bronco in a deserted club! A fun end to an amazing 6 days! We are glad we got to see a different part of Australia that some people leave out altogether, and met some great people along the way.
Going to be continuing the writing soon as I am sooo far behind with this blog. Next installment will be Adelaide to Sydney part of the trip....
Hope you are all ok at home and a tad warmer now!
Lot's of love
Steph and Lou
We were thrown into the deep end by starting the day with a 6km hike/trek/pulling ourselves up by our arms walk around Kings Canyon which was spectacular. The first part of the climb was the worst as there was no shade and was constantly climbing upwards but we managed to make it to the top and by this time glowing slightly and a tad red in the face (me rather than Lou!) Walking along the top of the canyon was fun, though my heart did skip a few beats when Lou and I posed for photos on a jutting rock waaay above the gorge and then skipped a few more beats when lou clambered higher to get better photos. We continued our walk through to 'The Garden of Eden' and Lou and some of the others swam in the crystal clear water to cool off - simply paradise! After our day walk we were back on the bus and onwards to watch sunset whilst looking at Mount Connor (which we all mistook for Uluru). We finally arrived at our camp after a long day and was treated to a BBQ of camel and Kangaroo which was surprisingly tasty. That night we spent in swags, a massive sleeping bag with a mattress inside it, under the stars. The sky was so clear and I have never seen so many stars before in my life, I even saw some shooting stars which topped off a brilliant start to the trip.
Waking up at 3.40am is not too fun either and especially not for Lou as she had been bitten on the forehead in the night! We were off to see the rock in the center of Australia at sunrise. After watching sunrise we walked around the base of Uluru which was 11km, everyone was glad to do the walk in the (relative) cool of the morning before it got too hot. Uluru is breathtaking. By this time it was only 9am, but felt alot later and we headed off to Kata Tjuta to walk through another rock formation that looked like two domes. The walk on Walpa Gorge was about 2.6km - Lou and I have realised that we were really enjoying the walking and climbing which surprised us both! After lunch some of the group left as they were just doing Uluru and we were left with 3 girls and 11 guys. We got on really well as a group and it was fun to met people from different parts of the world. We spent a couple of hours chilling out in the pool at the campsite before heading back to Kata Tjuta viewing point where we could take in the 360degree view of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We then headed back to Uluru for champagne aka sparkling fizz and sunset. We proceeded to spend the next hour taking funny photos with the rock, it was especially funny trying to get lou to look like she was lying down on the top. The best we could do was for Simon and I to hold her up which got a few stares from the other tourists!! Again the day ended with sleeping under the stars in our swags whilst trying to tune out Stonnes (a Canadian) snoring!
Another early morning greeted us but today was spent sleeping on the bus as we travelled to Coober Pedy. We stopped off at the Northern territory/southern border for photos ops and had to put our clocks an hour earlier. After our mini stop it was back in the bus for another long drive which was spent listening to Aussie Hip Hop (which we both loved!) and some questionable boy music. Barabra Streisland also became our group song and pepped us all up throughout the journey. We arrived at Coober Pedy at around 3ish and it was 40degrees with no wind. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town that is basically built underground with home and shop fronts on the surface and then everything else built downwards as it is cooler. We went on a tour of a disused opal mine. Whilst the lady was talking to us (and repeatedly telling us how deep we were) I noticed that Lou and gone a lovely shade of grey. She felt really claustrophobic, sick and dizzy so had to leave the tour half way to go back up to ground level :( Once the tour was finished and lou went back to her normal colour we went to a kangaroo sanctuary where we both got to hold a joey that was sooo cute. That night we went to the local underground bar and proceeded to get our group up and dancing. That night was spent sleeping in an underground bunker. Lou was alright with her claustrophobic as it was cut into a mountain rather than built downwards - phew!
The next day was another long day spent on the bus with a stop off at Glendambo Roadhouse which had a population of 30 people! We really were in the outback. We finally arrived at Quorn, a sleepy little town, in the Flinders Rangers and chilled out till dinner. Someone had the great idea of watching wolf creek as we were at the place where it was filmed. It was so scary to be watching the film in the middle of no where and both me and lou managed to scare ourselves silly whilst trying not to look to girly in front of the guys! The rest of the evening was spent chatting and listening to music - a very chilled out day.
We got to lie in till 8am this morning which felt like luxury! We still had to wake Ben our guide up though, but no one was fussed as he was a relaxed guy and made our tour really enjoyable. We took the bus to Flinders Rangers National Park and on route we stopped off Kanyaka Homestead Historical Site which was apparently famous for it's sheep shearing!? Our next stop was at an Aboriginal site called Yourabulla Caves where we saw some original aboriginal paintings. We were back on the bus for a drive to Wilpena pound resort which was the site of a meteorite hit (we think!) We were let loose into the wilderness by Ben and were told 'it's easy to find the lookout, just walk up there'. 45mins later we realised we were lost and quite literally wandering around in the outback. At this point some people in the group were like let's go this way and others wanting to go another way - again me and lou made references to the horror movie formula where the group splits up. Eventually we all decided to stick together and found the lookout point path. We had all simply walked past it! Once we reached the top we were a little disappointed as we were smack bang in the middle of the site and couldn't really get a real perspective on what we were looking back. That evening we had a random game of lawn bowls which was fun. Though Lou and I were rubbish at it! The old man in charge took a shine to Lou and creeped her out a bit, which I found funny. After our disastrous game we had a chilled out evening drinking our goon.mmm yummy!
Our last day of tour didn't start to well with the bus refusing to start up. It was funny as the guys pushed the bus onto the main street to try and give it a jump start but it failed miserably. Eventually the bus was fixed and we were on our way to our last hike 'Devil's Peak.' Climbing the mountain was one of the best experiences we had, the group was great and we all kept motivating each other and the views were spectacular. When we got to the top there was this massive crag we had to climb up, luckily as I had longer legs I managed to get a good foot hold and scramble up. Lou on the other hand couldn't pull or climb up and had to be hauled onto the top rock by Rudi and Marcel, which was funny to watch! We reached the peak and everyone chilled out and sat in silence just taking in our surroundings (and trying to get our breath back!) Was truly a memorable experience! The way down was just as fun and probably a little harder - my tactic was to slide down most of the mountain on my bum - a slow but successful solution. Lou on the other hand was far faster and was one of the first down the mountain. Unluckily for her she was waiting at the bottom with millions of biting ants who took a shining to her red trainers. It was funny seeing her trying to shake them off her shoes whilst in the bus!
That night we arrived in Adelaide and went out for a last group drink together. Lou and I were staying by the beach so had to get the tram into the city. We thought we would take some drink on the tram with us but later found out this is illegal - we were lucky we weren't caught as they are quite strict about this - oops! Once out we had fun dancing the night away and even going on a bucking bronco in a deserted club! A fun end to an amazing 6 days! We are glad we got to see a different part of Australia that some people leave out altogether, and met some great people along the way.
Going to be continuing the writing soon as I am sooo far behind with this blog. Next installment will be Adelaide to Sydney part of the trip....
Hope you are all ok at home and a tad warmer now!
Lot's of love
Steph and Lou
Thursday 27 January 2011
We're off to see the wizard - the oz adventure begins
So it has been pointed out by a few people now that we have been a bit lazy with our blog writing, as it is raining here I have decided to update as much as possible to fill you all in with our oz adventures. Arriving in Brisbane on the 5th December we were greeted with rain which we trekked through, as for some reason we decided to ignore the advice of the train lady as to where our hostel was! We soon settled in our room and were excited to meet our new roomies...who did their best to make us feel UNwelcome by pretty much ignoring us even when we tried to make conversation - not the welcoming we were expected. Anyways we were looking forward to exploring Brisbane, but the rain seemed to have different ideas making us hostel bound for awhile. At this point Lou and I were getting a tad depressed and both got teary to our mums via skype (sorry mums) as oz wasn't what we expected (it was cold and rainy people!) In the end we cheered ourselves up by booking a tour to the center. We did spend some of our time wandering around seeing the sights but to be honest our hearts weren't really in it. One highlight though was ladies night at our hostel which included free cocktails, strippers and men dressed in dresses - a funny night that lifted our spirits for a while. All in all Brisbane was not the place for us, maybe in summery climates we might of liked it a tad more but who knows!
We flew out of Brisbane to Alice Springs and the sunshine with 40 degree heat and immediately our mood perked up! Alice is an odd little place with a town that you can explore in 10 minutes, we however felt the need to hire bikes to cycle along the 'river' and when we saw there was a tandem we thought why not! We took the tandem for a practise ride around the hostel car bike (unknown to us being watched and laughed at by the aussies!) but Lou hated it at the front of the bike so we swapped around with her at the back, this was worse though as in her words 'I don't like looking at your back and with you in control of the brakes and steering.' So after faffing some more we got our own bike each and proceeded to cycle along the river path. Now I know I said river but after about 10minutes we realised this was a loose term for a river that once ran through the town and has now been dried up for ages - so not really alot to see. Also hiring bikes in 40degree heat has not been our wisest decision as we both couldn't cope and had to stop alot to drink water. All in all a funny trip out but not alot seen or done!
The next day we went on a day trip out with two aussie guys we had met a the hostel (Lou had agreed to this trip when I was in bed - they seemed normal enough...) We drove to Tephina Gorge but on the way we had to abandon the car as the rivers had flooded, so we waded through and continued the drive on foot. Along the way we met some locals who had their caravan stuck in one of the many rivers, so the guys helped to dig them out whilst Lou and I took pictures and tried not to talk about horror movies. We continued our walk and then came across another man stuck so we all had to give him a push start. Finally we reached the gorge trail and began our hike. Once at the top we could see the amazing views and had our picnic lunch overlooking the gorge which was spectacular. We survived our day trip out and yet again done something we didn't think we would of done on our own.
We were picked up for the tour in the wee hours of the morning and begun the next part of the journey from Alice to Adelaide...
Going to be writing the next part very soon, but need to go and get Lou's diary as I have sort of stopped doing mine and my memory is not that great.
Lots of love
Steph and Lou x x x
We flew out of Brisbane to Alice Springs and the sunshine with 40 degree heat and immediately our mood perked up! Alice is an odd little place with a town that you can explore in 10 minutes, we however felt the need to hire bikes to cycle along the 'river' and when we saw there was a tandem we thought why not! We took the tandem for a practise ride around the hostel car bike (unknown to us being watched and laughed at by the aussies!) but Lou hated it at the front of the bike so we swapped around with her at the back, this was worse though as in her words 'I don't like looking at your back and with you in control of the brakes and steering.' So after faffing some more we got our own bike each and proceeded to cycle along the river path. Now I know I said river but after about 10minutes we realised this was a loose term for a river that once ran through the town and has now been dried up for ages - so not really alot to see. Also hiring bikes in 40degree heat has not been our wisest decision as we both couldn't cope and had to stop alot to drink water. All in all a funny trip out but not alot seen or done!
The next day we went on a day trip out with two aussie guys we had met a the hostel (Lou had agreed to this trip when I was in bed - they seemed normal enough...) We drove to Tephina Gorge but on the way we had to abandon the car as the rivers had flooded, so we waded through and continued the drive on foot. Along the way we met some locals who had their caravan stuck in one of the many rivers, so the guys helped to dig them out whilst Lou and I took pictures and tried not to talk about horror movies. We continued our walk and then came across another man stuck so we all had to give him a push start. Finally we reached the gorge trail and began our hike. Once at the top we could see the amazing views and had our picnic lunch overlooking the gorge which was spectacular. We survived our day trip out and yet again done something we didn't think we would of done on our own.
We were picked up for the tour in the wee hours of the morning and begun the next part of the journey from Alice to Adelaide...
Going to be writing the next part very soon, but need to go and get Lou's diary as I have sort of stopped doing mine and my memory is not that great.
Lots of love
Steph and Lou x x x
Sunday 19 December 2010
Sing a Paw 'we love this city'
Erm, so yep you guessed it, it is time for a little update (prompted by Lucy!) Our last stop in South East Asia was to Singapore. After our other adventures to cities we both were a little dubious as we were not loving them, but with open minds we stepped off our bus into Little India (cheap cheap!) We ended up having to stay in a different hostel to Emma and Lorna as they were too darn organised and booked ahead - unlike us. But once settled we soon met up to sit in our bar and watch the rain pour down for a good couple of hours. The afternoon was whiled away drinking lemonade and eating silly amounts of chocolate! Emma finally motivated us to actually go and explore, so with our rain macs on we ventured out.
We got the train through to Clarke Quay where we all got silly excited at the pretty coloured buildings and rainbow bridges. We spent our time wandering up and down trying to take good photos in the dark and rain! We then mosied along to see the Christmas lights and ooed and ahhed for a while. It was an early night for us as the travelling had taken it out of us! So we headed back to our giant dorm for a much needed sleep.
The next day Lou and I decided to go on a ducktours thingy to see the city in a different way, so after a stop to Hooters to buy t-shirts we headed to the dock. We boarded our boat to take us to the meeting point for the tour, where we sat back and soaked up the sun whilst listening to a commentary about the buildings perched on the harbour. It wasn't until lou pointed out that we were heading back to the same dock that we realised we got on the wrong boat! Eventually we managed to get the boat to the right place, but we had missed our slot for the tour - luckily they booked us on to a later one phew! Whilst waiting we went on the Singapore flyer (just like the London eye but a tad taller) We listened to the commentary about the feng shui of the buildings and took in the breath taking views. By the time we finished on the flyer we realised that yet again we had missed our time slot for our tour oops! Again the very kind guy booked us on the next one. To be sure we didn't miss it again we ended up sitting in the duck tours shop for a good half hour!
The tour was fun, but by this time we had seen a lot of the city already and it had started to rain. We did enjoy going from the land to water and screamed suitably at this point. Oh also in the harbour there were loads of white floating beach balls with messages on ready for NYE, both Lou and I wrote our own wishes for the coming year and added ours to the hundred already floating ready for the light show. So if you see Singapore bringing in the new year keep your eyes peeled for our messages...
That evening we headed out again to Clark Quay as it was our final night with Emma and Lorna before we parted ways for the last time. Also I was trying to arrange with Andy and his friends (who were over to do the marathon!) to met up for a drink or two - this was some what hard as we didn't have a phone and it wasn't looking hopeful. After a few drinks in some random themed bars we ended up bumping into Andy and the other Brunei lads and ending up going clubbing till the wee hours - pretty impressive for guys who were meant to be running the marathon that weekend! It was a fun farewell and a great greeting that topped our time in Singapore of nicely!
The following day I went back into town to say bye to Andy, who just happened to be staying in the swishest hotel in town (the one with the boat on!) and then Lou and I prepared for our 8hour flight to Oz. We also gained our first cringy 'dorm sex story' with a couple on the bottom bunk not much caring for the other 8 people sleeping in the room! Again not really a story to be told on here, but a funny one that I'm sure will continue to make us girls giggle!
We hugged Emma and Lorna goodbye for about the millionth time and headed to the airport in plenty of time ready to start the oz adventure. We both loved Singapore and were pleased to end our South East Asia section on a high! It has been a crazy couple of months filled with experiences that we never even dreamt of, and hope that we continue the journey in the same way (minus the stolen phone, Lou hurting her back and tag along urchin)
Lots of love to you all, especially to Lora and Matt on their special day and Katie and Rob celebrating a year of marital bliss!!
Steph and Lou x x x
We got the train through to Clarke Quay where we all got silly excited at the pretty coloured buildings and rainbow bridges. We spent our time wandering up and down trying to take good photos in the dark and rain! We then mosied along to see the Christmas lights and ooed and ahhed for a while. It was an early night for us as the travelling had taken it out of us! So we headed back to our giant dorm for a much needed sleep.
The next day Lou and I decided to go on a ducktours thingy to see the city in a different way, so after a stop to Hooters to buy t-shirts we headed to the dock. We boarded our boat to take us to the meeting point for the tour, where we sat back and soaked up the sun whilst listening to a commentary about the buildings perched on the harbour. It wasn't until lou pointed out that we were heading back to the same dock that we realised we got on the wrong boat! Eventually we managed to get the boat to the right place, but we had missed our slot for the tour - luckily they booked us on to a later one phew! Whilst waiting we went on the Singapore flyer (just like the London eye but a tad taller) We listened to the commentary about the feng shui of the buildings and took in the breath taking views. By the time we finished on the flyer we realised that yet again we had missed our time slot for our tour oops! Again the very kind guy booked us on the next one. To be sure we didn't miss it again we ended up sitting in the duck tours shop for a good half hour!
The tour was fun, but by this time we had seen a lot of the city already and it had started to rain. We did enjoy going from the land to water and screamed suitably at this point. Oh also in the harbour there were loads of white floating beach balls with messages on ready for NYE, both Lou and I wrote our own wishes for the coming year and added ours to the hundred already floating ready for the light show. So if you see Singapore bringing in the new year keep your eyes peeled for our messages...
That evening we headed out again to Clark Quay as it was our final night with Emma and Lorna before we parted ways for the last time. Also I was trying to arrange with Andy and his friends (who were over to do the marathon!) to met up for a drink or two - this was some what hard as we didn't have a phone and it wasn't looking hopeful. After a few drinks in some random themed bars we ended up bumping into Andy and the other Brunei lads and ending up going clubbing till the wee hours - pretty impressive for guys who were meant to be running the marathon that weekend! It was a fun farewell and a great greeting that topped our time in Singapore of nicely!
The following day I went back into town to say bye to Andy, who just happened to be staying in the swishest hotel in town (the one with the boat on!) and then Lou and I prepared for our 8hour flight to Oz. We also gained our first cringy 'dorm sex story' with a couple on the bottom bunk not much caring for the other 8 people sleeping in the room! Again not really a story to be told on here, but a funny one that I'm sure will continue to make us girls giggle!
We hugged Emma and Lorna goodbye for about the millionth time and headed to the airport in plenty of time ready to start the oz adventure. We both loved Singapore and were pleased to end our South East Asia section on a high! It has been a crazy couple of months filled with experiences that we never even dreamt of, and hope that we continue the journey in the same way (minus the stolen phone, Lou hurting her back and tag along urchin)
Lots of love to you all, especially to Lora and Matt on their special day and Katie and Rob celebrating a year of marital bliss!!
Steph and Lou x x x
Monday 6 December 2010
Malaysia, the sequel
So picking up from yesterday... the slump that was Penang was soon dug out of by an amazing couple of days in Cameron Highlands. We took another long(ish) bus journey inland and upwards to the highlands and arrived early evening. After sorting out our accomodation we realised that we were sharing a squat loo, (please bare in mind I have only used one of these toilets once the whole time out here) In the end it wasn't actually that bad and I wondered why I had been making a fuss for so long! Lou was right at home as nothing could be worse than THAT toilet at some border... That night we stayed in and watched movies at the hostel. I finally managed to see eclipse, though we were mocked from the start the tv room soon filled up and a debate of team edward/jacob begun. On a side note, just because I have seen it does not mean you get out of watching the movies with me Sean!
Anyways, the next day we signed up for a tour. We were a bit miffed that we were the only ones on our tour, but soon realised this was a good thing as we had our own private tour guide! We started of by visiting the 'BOH' tea plantations which were crazy as they had to pick the leaves whilst standing on hillsides. We went around the factory (slight yawn) and then had some tea. I fell in love with a lemon & lime iced tea whilst Lou had gold blend mmmmm yummy. We then went to the highest point of the highlands and climbed this metal tower - I was slightly wary at this point mainly due to Lou being clumsy, but we both managed to climb up and down without injury (although lou did fall out of the jeep at one point)
We then went for a trek in the jungly/forest which was amazing! Climbing over trees, down mud slide paths and along muddy tracks with sheer drops. At one point I was hanging on to two trees but my trousers got caught so I couldn't move, the guide was too far down to help so Lou had to scrabble down to free me. My height for once was a good thing in Asia as I found the giant steps we had to take a little easier than poor Lou. At one point me and the guide were a bit ahead and Lou was stuck up this moundy thing. Our guide had to hold onto both her hands, whilst I was encouraging her to jump down (I didn't have to jump so it was easy for me to say!) I think our guide liked this as he from then on kept on holding his hand out for us both. We finally realised that sliding about on our bottoms was an easier if some what unorthodox trekking method. Our guide found this funny and took great delight in taking a photo of our muddy bottoms muttering 'best photo ever' as he took it!
We then went to a butterfly farm and Lou enjoyed butterflies landing on her and taking photos to make Lorna and Emma jealous! I on the other hand didn't really enjoy it and was a little scared of them. We saw lots of creepy crawlies and to my delight and Lous dismay they were all safely locked away. After the butterfly farm we went to an aborigonal village to try blow pipe hunting. Basically you blow into a bamboo pipe at a stuffed teddy!! We both managed to get the target first time...and then missed every other one afterwards. The final part of our day was spent at a waterfalls - again this meant us being led through the jungle over rocks and streams, but by this time we were pros (meaning we knew to hold our guides hand!!) and took in the breathtaking waterfall. An amazing day that we still are grinning about now weeks later.
After Cameron Highlands we headed downwards to KL, here we stayed in chinatown and had a pretty chilled out day of wandering the streets taking it all in. The evening we went for a couple of drinks and cheap food! The next day we spent exploring the city further, I spotted on the map a craft fair where you could see artists at work which Lou was intereasted in. So after walking around in the rain (me limping because of my foot!!) we finally arrived at the 'craft fair' It was very bizzare as there was no one around and there was no fair or artists. I slight disapointment you may say. That evening we went to the twin towers as we wanted to see them at night, they looked amazing lit up and we tried our hand at taking some different photos there. Oh we also rode the monorail alot - with me singing 'monorail' from the simpsons and Lou exclaiming 'this is amazing' everytime we went on it - Proper Tourists!
Our next destination was to the sleepy town of Melakka which comes alive at the weekend. Unfortuatly we were there mid week so didn't get to experince the night markets. We met up with Jenny and Hannah (who we met in langkawi) and then with Lorna and Emma the following night for a few quiet drinks. During the day we saw parts of the town, but this was by default as we ambled alonged to be pampered at the spa. It was so cheap so we decided to treat ourselves before Oz and the big expense that is. So we basically spent the whole day be looked after and de-grotty-fied for less than a tenner :) So Malakka was our last stop in Malaysia. We both had mixed feelings about the country as we had equal amount of amazing memories and places we would rather forget! But yet again, now reflecting back on it we were both glad we went to the places we went to - even if we only take away the thought of knowing we would never return! Plus we are both proud that we survived the rest of malaysia injury free (and more importantly less of a worry for our parents!)
Love and Kisses (annie how many days till xmas??)
Steph and Lou x x x
Anyways, the next day we signed up for a tour. We were a bit miffed that we were the only ones on our tour, but soon realised this was a good thing as we had our own private tour guide! We started of by visiting the 'BOH' tea plantations which were crazy as they had to pick the leaves whilst standing on hillsides. We went around the factory (slight yawn) and then had some tea. I fell in love with a lemon & lime iced tea whilst Lou had gold blend mmmmm yummy. We then went to the highest point of the highlands and climbed this metal tower - I was slightly wary at this point mainly due to Lou being clumsy, but we both managed to climb up and down without injury (although lou did fall out of the jeep at one point)
We then went for a trek in the jungly/forest which was amazing! Climbing over trees, down mud slide paths and along muddy tracks with sheer drops. At one point I was hanging on to two trees but my trousers got caught so I couldn't move, the guide was too far down to help so Lou had to scrabble down to free me. My height for once was a good thing in Asia as I found the giant steps we had to take a little easier than poor Lou. At one point me and the guide were a bit ahead and Lou was stuck up this moundy thing. Our guide had to hold onto both her hands, whilst I was encouraging her to jump down (I didn't have to jump so it was easy for me to say!) I think our guide liked this as he from then on kept on holding his hand out for us both. We finally realised that sliding about on our bottoms was an easier if some what unorthodox trekking method. Our guide found this funny and took great delight in taking a photo of our muddy bottoms muttering 'best photo ever' as he took it!
We then went to a butterfly farm and Lou enjoyed butterflies landing on her and taking photos to make Lorna and Emma jealous! I on the other hand didn't really enjoy it and was a little scared of them. We saw lots of creepy crawlies and to my delight and Lous dismay they were all safely locked away. After the butterfly farm we went to an aborigonal village to try blow pipe hunting. Basically you blow into a bamboo pipe at a stuffed teddy!! We both managed to get the target first time...and then missed every other one afterwards. The final part of our day was spent at a waterfalls - again this meant us being led through the jungle over rocks and streams, but by this time we were pros (meaning we knew to hold our guides hand!!) and took in the breathtaking waterfall. An amazing day that we still are grinning about now weeks later.
After Cameron Highlands we headed downwards to KL, here we stayed in chinatown and had a pretty chilled out day of wandering the streets taking it all in. The evening we went for a couple of drinks and cheap food! The next day we spent exploring the city further, I spotted on the map a craft fair where you could see artists at work which Lou was intereasted in. So after walking around in the rain (me limping because of my foot!!) we finally arrived at the 'craft fair' It was very bizzare as there was no one around and there was no fair or artists. I slight disapointment you may say. That evening we went to the twin towers as we wanted to see them at night, they looked amazing lit up and we tried our hand at taking some different photos there. Oh we also rode the monorail alot - with me singing 'monorail' from the simpsons and Lou exclaiming 'this is amazing' everytime we went on it - Proper Tourists!
Our next destination was to the sleepy town of Melakka which comes alive at the weekend. Unfortuatly we were there mid week so didn't get to experince the night markets. We met up with Jenny and Hannah (who we met in langkawi) and then with Lorna and Emma the following night for a few quiet drinks. During the day we saw parts of the town, but this was by default as we ambled alonged to be pampered at the spa. It was so cheap so we decided to treat ourselves before Oz and the big expense that is. So we basically spent the whole day be looked after and de-grotty-fied for less than a tenner :) So Malakka was our last stop in Malaysia. We both had mixed feelings about the country as we had equal amount of amazing memories and places we would rather forget! But yet again, now reflecting back on it we were both glad we went to the places we went to - even if we only take away the thought of knowing we would never return! Plus we are both proud that we survived the rest of malaysia injury free (and more importantly less of a worry for our parents!)
Love and Kisses (annie how many days till xmas??)
Steph and Lou x x x
Malaysia Part 1
Yes I know it has been a while but we have been busy bees and now have a few days of nothingness so I thought I would update y'all on our Malaysian part of the journey. So we arrived safely over the border onto an island called Langkawi where for the first night we stayed in the worst accommodation to date - it was dingy, dirty and smelly (couldn't think of another d word!) and the door didn't lock properly. Having already paid a deposit we couldn't leave but did insist on changing to a room which we could actually lock!
After our first night terror (I had weird dreams about girls screaming...) we moved on to a nicer guesthouse. Though this was only a little step up as we had some cockroaches visit us. I tried to be all brave and capture on that was squirming around on its back, but when I looked up I saw a massive one on the wall. Screaming I informed Lou that actually I couldn't make the bathroom cockroach free! Our solution was to leave the door open so we could run out if one tried to attack us (yeah I know a tad dramatic!)
So the next couple of days we appreciated the white sand beaches and cooling off in the clear(ish) water, unaware of the jellyfish bobbing alongside us. We found this chilled out reggae bar called Babylon on the beach that played live music and spent many a night sipping a chang and chatting to other backpackers. We met two guys who told us about this amazing Indian restaurant that was open 24hours, so after one particular night out partying to the wee hours we tried some of the food and fell in love with the place, visiting it for cheap curries at 4 in the morning!
One of the days we decided to do an island tour, we saw the hill(mountain?) that looked like a pregnant lady had fallen over, went to a national park that was over run with monkeys which tried to attack us! We also stopped at a fresh water lake which we could swim in, which was pretty amazing. On the way back to Langkawi we stopped at an island called Beras Basah - a postcard beach! We had an amazing time in Langkawi with the locals and other backpackers being really friendly and welcoming but decided to head back to Thailand for a few days to an island recommended by Emma's boyfriend.
Hopping back over to Thailand to Koh Lipe was an adventure in itself - we managed to get the front seats of the open top ferry and could not believe our eyes as the water and sky looked the same colour, it was kinda magical! To say we were a tad excited when we 'landed' in Koh Lipe is an understatment, the water was so clear and the white sand beach was littered with wooded beach huts. That night we watched a lighting and thunderstorm from our balcony which I loved (lou was a little bit scared!) We spent the next couple of days soaking up the sun and generally chilling out in paradise.
On the third day we decided to go another beach on the island called Sunset beach, surprisingly named as you could watch the sunset there. So after a 30min walk around the unmarked dirt tracks we stumbled onto our new beach, which only had 4 other people on! Laying in the sun for about 10mins I spotted some rocks in the middle of the sea/lagoon thingy and decided to go for a swim out to them. Leaving lou on the beach and her warning of 'be safe' ringing in my ears I started to swim out. Having just read the book the beach the thought of sharks did cross my mind, but I soon relaxed and enjoyed the swim. I climbed up onto the rocks and waved to Lou wondering if she could see me and more importantly of course take a photo - not seeing if she had I stood there for a while. I decided to get down and swim back and that is when my foot slipped in between two rocks. I felt a sharp pain in my foot and fell forward into the water, looking at my foot I had loads of spikes sticking out of it! I started to panic as I was unsure of what I had stepped on and started to swim back to the beach. My foot felt numb, but now I think I was just in shock a little, and found it quite hard to swim back. Yet again I'm grateful for all those years swimming!! When I got nearer the beach I started to shout at Lou, which of course panicked her - I shouted to get help but she didn't want to leave me alone swimming back.
Eventually I got back onto the beach where a local boat man was, he quickly told me I had stepped on a sea urchin and that it wasn't poisonous phewww. Lou went on a hunt for some tweezers to try and get them out but couldn't find any. A very kind German couple tried to get some of the spikes out with a pen knife (at this point we didn't know not to do this!) but eventually we decided to go to the medical center which was on another part of the island, so a boat trip was in order. Once at the medical center and I had calmed down a little the doctor cleaned my foot and said I had protein in my foot and they have to work their own way out. We were instructed to keep the foot clean and wait it out. Now I don't want to be too girly and gushy here but part of the reason why I wanted to do this part of the blog was to say how much I appreciated Lou's help. She held my hand, sat on the floor of a wooden motorbike thingy, cleaned my foot for me as I was too much of a woss and looked after me when I wanted my mum the most! Yes looking back it is not that bad and loads of people get urchin spikes stuck in them, but at the time it was scary and painful and she really looked after me - so thank you!
We spent another couple of days in Koh Lipe before getting the ferry back to Langkawi where we met up with Emma and Lorna again. We had a few days with them on the beach and partying at Babylon and Samba, where one particular night we managed to stay out till sunrise! From Langkawi we then travelled over to another island called Penang. We went with a guy called Kristopher who we met at our hostel. We spent the first night in a hostel called Love Lane Inn and shared a 3 bed room with him, this was our first time sharing with someone else and did feel a little odd - but it was something we had to get use to. Up till now we have been kinda spoilt as it has been just as cheap for us to have our own room rather than a dorm! We moved the next night to a nicer hostel with a larger dorm.
During the day we were a little stuck on what to do as we didn't really want to walk around Georgetown, so we ended up shopping a little and going to the cinema twice (saw Unstoppable and HP7!) We went to Red Garden for food as Penang is meant to have the most amazing food, both me and Lou couldn't really see the major fuss but I suppose we all have a different definition of 'amazing food.' Again we met up with Lorna and Emma and bid a farewell to Kristopher who was heading to Thailand. From Georgetown we decided to go the beach at Batu Feringgi by this time we were both feeling a little sorry for ourselves as Penang wasn't really what we thought it was - so we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe that night! We did feel a little guilty spending 10 pound on food rather than only 1, but we needed something to smile about!! We spent the next couple of days avoiding the horses on the beach and generally just lazying around. Our next stop was inland to Cameron Highlands... we both hoped that we would enjoy it more than Penang!
Well that is part one of the two parter...stay tuned for Malaysia the sequel, coming very soon to a computer near you.
Love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x
After our first night terror (I had weird dreams about girls screaming...) we moved on to a nicer guesthouse. Though this was only a little step up as we had some cockroaches visit us. I tried to be all brave and capture on that was squirming around on its back, but when I looked up I saw a massive one on the wall. Screaming I informed Lou that actually I couldn't make the bathroom cockroach free! Our solution was to leave the door open so we could run out if one tried to attack us (yeah I know a tad dramatic!)
So the next couple of days we appreciated the white sand beaches and cooling off in the clear(ish) water, unaware of the jellyfish bobbing alongside us. We found this chilled out reggae bar called Babylon on the beach that played live music and spent many a night sipping a chang and chatting to other backpackers. We met two guys who told us about this amazing Indian restaurant that was open 24hours, so after one particular night out partying to the wee hours we tried some of the food and fell in love with the place, visiting it for cheap curries at 4 in the morning!
One of the days we decided to do an island tour, we saw the hill(mountain?) that looked like a pregnant lady had fallen over, went to a national park that was over run with monkeys which tried to attack us! We also stopped at a fresh water lake which we could swim in, which was pretty amazing. On the way back to Langkawi we stopped at an island called Beras Basah - a postcard beach! We had an amazing time in Langkawi with the locals and other backpackers being really friendly and welcoming but decided to head back to Thailand for a few days to an island recommended by Emma's boyfriend.
Hopping back over to Thailand to Koh Lipe was an adventure in itself - we managed to get the front seats of the open top ferry and could not believe our eyes as the water and sky looked the same colour, it was kinda magical! To say we were a tad excited when we 'landed' in Koh Lipe is an understatment, the water was so clear and the white sand beach was littered with wooded beach huts. That night we watched a lighting and thunderstorm from our balcony which I loved (lou was a little bit scared!) We spent the next couple of days soaking up the sun and generally chilling out in paradise.
On the third day we decided to go another beach on the island called Sunset beach, surprisingly named as you could watch the sunset there. So after a 30min walk around the unmarked dirt tracks we stumbled onto our new beach, which only had 4 other people on! Laying in the sun for about 10mins I spotted some rocks in the middle of the sea/lagoon thingy and decided to go for a swim out to them. Leaving lou on the beach and her warning of 'be safe' ringing in my ears I started to swim out. Having just read the book the beach the thought of sharks did cross my mind, but I soon relaxed and enjoyed the swim. I climbed up onto the rocks and waved to Lou wondering if she could see me and more importantly of course take a photo - not seeing if she had I stood there for a while. I decided to get down and swim back and that is when my foot slipped in between two rocks. I felt a sharp pain in my foot and fell forward into the water, looking at my foot I had loads of spikes sticking out of it! I started to panic as I was unsure of what I had stepped on and started to swim back to the beach. My foot felt numb, but now I think I was just in shock a little, and found it quite hard to swim back. Yet again I'm grateful for all those years swimming!! When I got nearer the beach I started to shout at Lou, which of course panicked her - I shouted to get help but she didn't want to leave me alone swimming back.
Eventually I got back onto the beach where a local boat man was, he quickly told me I had stepped on a sea urchin and that it wasn't poisonous phewww. Lou went on a hunt for some tweezers to try and get them out but couldn't find any. A very kind German couple tried to get some of the spikes out with a pen knife (at this point we didn't know not to do this!) but eventually we decided to go to the medical center which was on another part of the island, so a boat trip was in order. Once at the medical center and I had calmed down a little the doctor cleaned my foot and said I had protein in my foot and they have to work their own way out. We were instructed to keep the foot clean and wait it out. Now I don't want to be too girly and gushy here but part of the reason why I wanted to do this part of the blog was to say how much I appreciated Lou's help. She held my hand, sat on the floor of a wooden motorbike thingy, cleaned my foot for me as I was too much of a woss and looked after me when I wanted my mum the most! Yes looking back it is not that bad and loads of people get urchin spikes stuck in them, but at the time it was scary and painful and she really looked after me - so thank you!
We spent another couple of days in Koh Lipe before getting the ferry back to Langkawi where we met up with Emma and Lorna again. We had a few days with them on the beach and partying at Babylon and Samba, where one particular night we managed to stay out till sunrise! From Langkawi we then travelled over to another island called Penang. We went with a guy called Kristopher who we met at our hostel. We spent the first night in a hostel called Love Lane Inn and shared a 3 bed room with him, this was our first time sharing with someone else and did feel a little odd - but it was something we had to get use to. Up till now we have been kinda spoilt as it has been just as cheap for us to have our own room rather than a dorm! We moved the next night to a nicer hostel with a larger dorm.
During the day we were a little stuck on what to do as we didn't really want to walk around Georgetown, so we ended up shopping a little and going to the cinema twice (saw Unstoppable and HP7!) We went to Red Garden for food as Penang is meant to have the most amazing food, both me and Lou couldn't really see the major fuss but I suppose we all have a different definition of 'amazing food.' Again we met up with Lorna and Emma and bid a farewell to Kristopher who was heading to Thailand. From Georgetown we decided to go the beach at Batu Feringgi by this time we were both feeling a little sorry for ourselves as Penang wasn't really what we thought it was - so we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe that night! We did feel a little guilty spending 10 pound on food rather than only 1, but we needed something to smile about!! We spent the next couple of days avoiding the horses on the beach and generally just lazying around. Our next stop was inland to Cameron Highlands... we both hoped that we would enjoy it more than Penang!
Well that is part one of the two parter...stay tuned for Malaysia the sequel, coming very soon to a computer near you.
Love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x
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