Broome

After an 11hr bus journey we rolled up in Broome, on the way though we did see a bush fire!!
First night we decided to stay in the town and checked into a hostel, we all stayed in a dorm, dropped our bags off then went out on lash!
Broome is a fairly small town bit busier then last few places we have been to..lots of locals about just getting pissed on street!
Next afternoon after spending the morning mooching around the shops and drinking coffee we made our way up to cable beach and checked into a campsite there..again the campsite was very nice lots of aussie holidaymakers there. Same same we pitched up then went out on booze...with nothing to eat as u can imagine it was a dissaster, it finally got to the point where jack was seeing double so we decided to head back and make some food!
Campsite was quiet when we got back as it was around 10ish, things soon changed out came cards on came speakers and jack attempted to make dinner..wasnt good!!
Today we have spent the day at the beach. The beach is massive and there was a few surfers out..!
We leave today onto Kununurra so its an overnight journey on Greyhound...!!!

Karratha (Western Australia)

After a long night on the Greyhound we arrived at Karratha which was a stop mainly for breaking up our journey to Broome. Karratha is just a little town mainly a mining town, not much going on! We stayed at a campsite which was fairly nice! It was a long walk from the town though...felt like we was walking along the never ending road when we went for some food shopping and a coffee! We saw and smelt a dead roo on the road side its was horrible! Finally made it back to campsite shopping in hand, just sat by the pool then in the evening watched a bit of tv before our early start at 530am for yet another Greyhound journey onto Broome!

Exmouth (Western Austrailia)

Arrived at 3am after a fairly short bus ride, although a traumatic one, we hit loads of roo's on the way!! Was knackerd so checked into a backpackers for the night, a dorm aswell first time!!! We was failry lucky we was just in there with another couple! We checked out in the morning and made our way to the campsite. Campsite was really nice had a pool, tv lounge nicely packed kitchen so we was ok!
We got a bike out had a cycle round the town, made our way down to the beach, which was amazing we was just stood looking out over the oceon and in the distance we could see a whale splashing around, it was a humpback whale and it was just brilliant stood there watching it, did take a pic but its just its fin splashing on the water! We cycled along some cycle paths and all over was signs with pics of roo's and emu's saying watch out for wildlife, and also seen one saying beware of Dingo's..apparently they attack the wheels of the bike, luckily we didnt see anything!!
In the evening we just made a meal then made our way down to the tavern, had a few drinks there then back to the campsite!!
Next moring JJ (paul's new nickname for Jason) and Harry had arrived so we just had a walk to town and then spent rest of afternoon round pool and late afternoon went for a game of mini golf..then stopped off on way home at bottle shop for bottle of gin and bottle of tonic, that was us for night!
We decided to go on a sunset scooter safari next evening, was really good we went to bundegi beach, boys did some snorkelling, Paul went really far out to the coral and saw a turtle and he was following a little fish around and then he saw a shark (reef shark) just sat on the bottom looking at him, dont think he has ever swam so fast in his life ha ha!!! We also visited muldurra ship wreck, went to turtle sancturay and then made our way to the lighthouse where we sat eating cheese and crackers with bottle of beer and watched the sun go down!! Jax had slight accident on scooter, she only ended up with bruises and grazes ha ha!! After the safari we went to the tavern had far too many jugs then made our way to the potshot bar and drank a bit more there!
Next morning the boys had been roped in to doing some work for the couple who worked at the mini golf for only 1 hr or so, out of it though we got free bike hire for the day, so we was off. JJ had bought a fishing rod so we went down the marina and did a bit of fishing, it was so funny think i spent most of day laughing! Bit of a disaster at first JJ broke the handle off his reel, so him and Paul went to replace it, only to come back with new rod...after a while they managed to get a mackrel!!! That eveing was happy hr at the tavern, needless to say we was there, spent a fair bit of time at the tavern then made our way to the potshot...! Very merry we went back to the campsite where JJ cooked his fish and Harry cooked up a pasta meal for us, and we all tucked in with a glass of gin!
Next morning feeling worse for wear and deciding to lay of the booze for a while we went back down to the marina for a bit more fishing...Paul got a sailing boat out and went out for a couple of hrs..! JJ did us proud and caught a whiting???? (big enough for us to have a little sample each)! Evening was spent in the tv room!
Our last day in Exmouth we decided to hire a car out, we went to Cape Range National park, we visited Yardie Creek, Sandy bay..the beach here was lovely we had a bit of picnic then JJ got his rod out and we went for a swim! Oh yeh saw a turtle to! We also went up Mandu Mandu Gorge, Turquoise Bay, then Lakeside before we ventured home! Bit of a long night infront us, we had the Greyhound to catch at 0030, so sat in picnic bay and waited for couple of hrs there was this german bloke there with his guitar so he played us some music and sang a little!!

Coral Bay (Western Australia)

Got to Coral Bay at a ridiculous time because of the Greyhound, everywhere was closed so we had a little walk round to see where we could pitch up for the night, in the end it was decided the best spot would be the beach, so along with Harry and Jason off we went!! Decided to get up early doors as camping on the beach is not allowed and didnt fancy a fine!
Stayed at a great campsite had good facilities..and even better the sun was out and we was right nr the beach!!
First day sorted a few things out, went down to the beach..soaked up the rays, water was freezing in the sea Paul had a dip but not for me!! In the evening it was only right that we have barbie for tea..then off the bar for a few jugs and like tradition now..couple of games of shithead, also tried to play bullshit but not quite as good!
Day after more or less the same except some snorkelling came into play and later in the afternoon we had a walk round to Oyster Bay at the other side of the beach, we was told that there was a lot of sharks out that way so off we trecked!! We came across the sharks...there was loads of them all just circling around rounding up the fish, we all stood in the water really close to them, although Jack was nearer to beach for quick escape..!! Then it was back to camp jacket spud for tea followed with a carry out of 24 carling draught, few ghost stories..and of course shithead!!!
On the last day we met a Dr who lives in tazmania, he was out here on holiday, enjoying a lot of the coral! He offered to take us out snorkelling and show us where all the good coral was, we excepted and it was a good couple of hrs, but cold!!!
We decided the last night we would treat ourselves and eat out, went to the pub and enjoyed fish and chips..followed with 2jugs and then a couple of midi's and pints inbetween, game of pool and laughed our heads off watching a group of american people pole dancing, break dancing, glass smashing..u name it!!!....We had a lot of time to kill as we was getting the greyhound to exmouth that night at 00.55!!!

Denham / Monkey Mia

Denham yet again is one of those quiet little towns, although very nice right on the sea front..weather was lovely bit chilly in the evening though!!!We arrived 9pm on our first night put our bags down and off we went to local pub with Jason & Harry had a couple of jugs a few rounds of shithead then home to bed!
Next day up bright and early to get the shuttle to take us to Monkey Mia..! Monkey Mia is lovely to, just a little island main attraction the dolphins. They have a feeding programme there for the dolphins, so every moring the dolphins come in to get fed and you can get really close to them but cant touch them as they can pick virus's up from you! Was really good and interesting to, you have the opportunity to learn a lot about the dolphins!
Later on that morning me, paul and Jason took a catermaran ride out to sea, we went wildlife spotting...unfortunately it wasnt that great..we got to see a dugong, which is a bit like a dolphin but without the fin and its brown and bigger with a squashed nose..they call them underwater cows as all they eat is sea grass! We saw a turtle..and a ray! Then we went to a black pearl farm which was also fairly interesting but peals do newt for me! The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach soaking up the rays!
That eveing we decided to have a barbie so we got some food 2cartons of wine and we was ready! Jason cooked the food which was ok, although we was all a bit warey of the chicken ha ha!! Food out of way, wine already flowing..time to settle down to more shithead and 1-21!!! Someone thought that it would be wise to do shots of wine and needless to say next day we was a bit fragile so another day at beach was called for!
Accomodation is getting more and more expensive so we have decided to buy a tent, couple of sleeping mats a few pots and pans and there you have we are now fully fleged travellers!!!

Kalbarri (Western Australia)

Landed here after another pleasant bus ride, but saw some road kill which was a large roo and jackie was traumatised, just before we arrived at the town we saw one hopping across the road. This sleeply little village is again lovely, unfortunately the weather was bad and it rained most of the day, so didn't get up to much. We went out with a couple of lads who have travelled up north with us to the local pub, and met this mad local who had us all in stiches.. It's a bit nicer today so got up and went for a walk along the beach to the view point and took some more photo's and looked for some whales, but didn't see em. Off to Denham today, where we will see Dolphins and Whales,(fingers crossed) we'll keep you posted..

Cervanties ( Western Australia)

Got the Greyhound bus to the Cervanties which was nice a trip! Cervanties is just a little sleepy town with a population of 250! This small town is mearly a stop off for people who want to come and see the Pinnicles, which is a historical landmark, of course we was one of them, so we booked our sunset tour with an x ranger of Nambung National Park!
The Pinnicles were lovely, it was quite sureal being there in the dessert, apparently Billy Connolly did a documentary here a couple of years ago, he did it naked!! Well we wernt for taking our clothes off but we did have a walk round, the ranger we was with was great he pointed things out to us and gave us a brief insight into how the Pinnicles became to be there! We also saw a Sandgroper??? A kangaroo and an Emu..!! We stayed there for the sunset, had a glass of wine whilst the sun went down..then off we went back to the hostel!! The hostel was very nice, lovely and clean and the people who owned it was very nice and orginally from England! With it been a small town not much to do in the evening so we just made some dinner..or should i say Paul made some dinner and we watched Australian Idol which i have to say is far more funnier than ours!!
Next Day we was leaving at 12 to make our way by Greyhound up to Kalbarri, but first we managed a walk along the beach to the look out point and then we walked to the lake and saw the Stromoloites, which was another little piece of history!

Perth

The flight across was only 4 3/4 hours, so time flew by as we had a wide selection of movies/CD's/Games to choose from, and an endless supply of food and drink which we took full advantage of. Landed and went through customs and Paul's bag went through an xray machine and was pulled to one side, a woman called over a customs officer and she looked at the x ray and said i had a mosquito bat inside. I confirmed that i did, and she told me that it was illegal to have them in Australia as it discharges an electrical current, so no more fun zapping flys in the evening!
We got a taxi to the hostel, the hostel is like a big house, our room has a comfy double bed with a proper quilt. There is a big lounge area where we can watch DVD's, and a big kitchen area. The Hostel has a Spa but it's too cold to use it as the moment. After sorting our stuff out, went for a short walk and soon realised it was freezing so went back to the hostel and wrapped up and went back out to see the sights. We walked through the City and to the river, there are loads of american sailors here as USS Kitty Hawk is docked nearby! Perth reminded Jack of London with the way the buildings look. The City is very clean and is Beautiful, it's nice to return to a westernised country, with no squat toilets to be seen!!! The down side is that everything is expensive so we are now on home cooked meals, which we cook ourselves which is a delightful change.
Friday night we had a night out, went to Northbridge..got a bit drunk..went to mainly backpacker bars, which was nice as the drinks wernt to expensive, we sampled a couple of jugs of aussie beer! Went to a bar called the "Shed" which was a big outdoor place, it had a dance floor and seating area, also had a huge log fire which was very nice as it was a little cool in the evening!
The saturday we got quite a few things sorted like laundry, greyhound pass and route, mobile..Paul had his hair cut!! In the afternoon we took a train ride to Freemantle which is close to the coast, its a small fishing village, lots of lovely scenary and a fair bit of history to the place, we had a look round the market and also went to cappacino row..! We went to the harbour for a look as this is where USS Kitty hawk was docked, Paul was to excited couldnt miss out!!!
Got a couple of routes sorted so far on our greyhound pass, our first stop is Cervanties which is north of Perth..bus leaves at 0815am!!

Singapore

Singapore is like a maze...we just got dropped off on a random street by the bus not the bus terminal like we thought! It took us ages to find out where we was. Took us ages to find the MRT (no signs to be seen) eventually after walking around for ages came to the hostel we had pre-booked, or should i say thought we had! It was full! The guy sent us in the direction of a hotel that was close by, so off we went and checked in there! My shoulder and back was killing from carrying my bag, its just so heavy didnt ralise id picked that much stuff up along the way, its only been just over 2months!
We are staying just outside the city center in a place called Little India. It seems a lot cleaner than any of the other citys we have visited and a lot more spaced out, not as crammed together, its more like Hong Kong island! Now we know where the MRT is we are failry close to that so can get around the city no problem. Last night we went to Orchard Rd, which is shopping heaven, we didnt buy anything just ate there and looked around. There is so many shopping centers its unreal and music just booming out onto the st!
We have been to the Zoo, which was great. The zoo its self lets most of the animals run wild, we were walking along and Monkeys were swinging through the trees. We could get really close to them and you could stroke them in some areas. We were sat on a bench at one point and a cheeky little monkey came and joined us... We saw polar bears, white tigers, white rhinos and loads of other weird looking animals!
We spent the whole day at the Zoo then at night the night safari opened and we went there. The night safari was a bit dissappointing compared with the zoo, don't know what we expected but it was like going to the Zoo at night. We wne to a creature at night show, this was different types of nocturnal animals doing alsorts of tricks.. they had a huge snake hidden under one of the benches and brought it out which scared a few people fortunately it was not anywhere near us! There was sloths crawling down a rope which was above our heads!
The next day we went into the City Centre, it was Singapore's National Day, the main business district was empty as every one was near the stadium, where the national day parade was taking place, unfortunately you needed tickets for this, we went to Marina Bay and there were a few bands on, and face painting etc. The city itself was nice there is a river running through it with some nice restaurants and bars along the side. As every other City it's full of shopping centre's and expensive clothes!
We had a walk through Fort Canning park where the old british barracks were. Off to Perth tomorrow, early start again (5am) at least we have a flight this time instead of Bus or train.

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Arrived sooner than we thought think it was only 3and half hrs..which was good news! We didnt really do much first day as paul still isnt 100%. We just had a walk round the city, grabbed a little something to eat then came back to the hostel and watched mission impossible 3!
Today we got up early had some breakfast then off we went to do some sight-seeing! KL is just like every other city in southeast Asia except for a difference in things to do! Its got loads of shops, bars, restaurants everything really. We have noticed its a lot cleaner than most places we have been to and a lot greener to!
We went to the Petronas Towers (twin towers)had to que for 90mins to get tickets then we was able to go on a small tour and visited the 41st floor which is where the bridge connects the 2towers we was able to walk along the bridge and see the surrounding views! We also went to KL tower which is the telecommunications tower we went up 461metres in the lift at a speed of 50seconds! We had panoramic views of the whole of Kuala Lumpur unfortunately it wasnt a very clear day but got some ok pics! As paul still wasnt himself we decided to have a quiet night at the cinema so we watched "click" which was very funny and because it was so cheap we are going back again tonight to watch "Superman", think it was 4quid for 2tickets, popcorn and drinks!!
Today we have been to the lake park on the way to the park we saw the biggest lizard ever, we was just walking along the rd side then all of sudden both of us spotted it together i obviously run off and paul shit it to ha ha!! It must of been the size of Pauls arm, and its head was massive, we did try and get a picture but by the time paul dared to go back to it,it had almost vanished in the bush!
The park was very nice, just like any other really but was nice to be away from the city center for a while!
We are off to Singapore tomorrow another 5 and half hr bus ride, but was speaking to a couple of people today who say that Singapore is not like any other city in southeast Asia, apparently its a lot nicer and a lot cleaner?? So we will see!
Last leg of our southeast Asia trip now, have enjoyed it and we have experienced a lot of new things but we are looking forward to going to oz and experiencing more, think we have spent enough time here, would come back again to certain places in a few yrs just to see how they have changed!

Cameron Highlands ( West Coast Malaysia )

The journey up to the highlands was a slow one but the views were amazing. When we arrived it was freezing cold couldnt wait to get our pants and jumpers on. Its a lot like the Lake District here, its lovely! There are a lot of Tea plantations here and lots of Strawberry farms and Bee farms! We have found some great accomodation, family run and the people are really nice!
We went for a 13mile accidental walk on our first day here, we went in search of a tea shop, came across a local who told us that there was a waterfall not too far away, so we was like "oh ok then" and off we went looking for the waterfall. Next thing we are on this path saw a sign for jungle walk no9 and just followed the path to the Robinson waterfall. Decided to carry on along the path thinking we wouldnt be too far away from our village and we had a little map with us anyway. After about 1hrs walk in the jungle i was becomming a nervous wreck kept seeing things moving and feeling things on me, even saw a big black fury tail up a tree but didnt try and find out what it was just kept walking. Finally came to the end of the jungle trail and from the map knew that if we just followed the rd it would take us back to our village! After about 20mins into the walk saw a sign saying our village was 9km away and it was all uphill!! Luckily we came across a tea Plantation which had a little tea shop, so we stopped there for a pot of the finest and 2 tuna sandwiches with a nice piece of carrot cake and sat and enjoyed the views!!
We planned on staying here for 3nights but ended up staying 4 as Paul hasnt been too well for last couple of days and gradually got worse, think he has food poisoning so been to chemist and he is on a course of antibiotics at min!
Thankfully today he is feeling much better, so we decided to have a walk to a Strawberry farm, of course we had to go to the one furthest away so todays walk has ended up being a 12mile one! We did buy a few goodies from the strawberry farm which we will save for our journey to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow! We also went to the Butterfly & Inscet farm, i just looked around the shop of course and Paul went in..! On our way back we came across this lovely country style pub where we had some lunch a pot of tea and a latte for my goodself!
Cannot believe how many products Cadburys do here, they have alsorts of chocolates and sweets, dont think we have time to sample them all!!
Booked our bus tickets to take us to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow at 8am, ahve already booked some accomodation in the Golden triangle area..bus journey should be around 5hrs!

Krabi to Butterworth via Had Yai

Got up bright and early to get our bus as arranged at 06.40am..got some supplies at seven 11 then sat and waited and waited and waited..finally at 07.00am the bus came for us. We went to the tourist office and boared another bus, not nearly as nice and full of people, so we squeezed in and set off for Had Yai! After roughly about 1hr on the rd..the mini bus started having problems, we pulled upand the driver started messing with the van, next thing we know the van is filling up with steam everyone trying to get out as quick as possible, typical we was at the back!! Radiator problem or something, another mini bus pulledup behind us and started passing our driver bottles of water..the engine still running he pours water in and it just spurts all over but he just kept pouring and pouring, then another bottle and another, finally gets back on board and off we go again..about 15mins later same again and same procedure..obviously the Thai way to sort it! On the rd again 65km to go and again the mini bus breaks down, this time there was no fixing it, so we sat there and sat there..an hr must of gone by and we was still sat there and is was hot..we was cooking! Eventually another mini bus came and collected us...!
Finally arrived at Had Yai only to find that the bus we wanted to get to take us Ipoh had left and the later bus was no good as we good get there in the middle of the night and with nowhere to stay that wasnt an option! As we needed to be out of Thailand by midnight the only option we had was to go to Butterworth and either try and get bus from there or a night train..so we booked our ticket and had 2hrs to wait..Had Yai had nothing there...and what was there was shut because it was sunday, thank god for seven 11...a hot dog some crisps and water we was sorted!
Got our mini bus for the 3hr journey..got through the boarder no problems entered Malaysia no problems..and we was well on our way..or should i say we thought we was..the driver decided to stop for chicken, then he stopped to collect more people, then he stopped to fill up with petrol at which point most of the people got out and went to the toilet or went to buy snacks..eventually we set off again after about 40/45mins at the petrol station alone!
Arrived at Butterworth only to find the train had no seats left for us and it was to late to get the bus, no other option other than to spend the night in Butterworth and try and get bus in morning, the lady at the ticket counter pointed us in the right direction. Arrived at this hotel..looked so dodgy from the outside, but again there wasnt really anything around and we hadnt seen any others and it was late at night so we went in and got a room..it was the pits, it was like a huge cell with floral bedding and a tiny sink in corner! It smelt like damp and it was just awful..no air con..just this big fan that wad so loud but didnt really do a lot, no light in the room it was outside the room..just kept telling myself the quicker we go to sleep the quicker morning will come (my sister told me yrs ago)! We woke up early got our stuff together and made our way back to bus station, got a ticket for Cameron Highlands only 1hr to wait!
The bus station was manic ticket offices everywhere selling same bus tickets but for different times and people shouting you and grabbing you to go over there and come here, it smelt to, smelt of urine..was a dirty hole..just 1hr to wait!