GlobeTrotter 2012

Back on the road again for my second weekend...I love it. So we left the city at about 12 O'Clock and began our trip.

I had highlighted the lonely planet guide for each town we should stop off at on route.
We headed in to a town called Geelong for lunch, to a cafe named OK GO which was a pretty quirky cafe and typically lonely planet style. After lunch we popped into Geelong town so I could stock up on car snacks for us and then we were back on the road.

Here's a few of the little towns and viewpoints on our journey that we stopped at.

Classic Lighthouse!

We booked up a motel for the night in a town called Lorne. - Helena was still traveling the great ocean road too so we would meet her for dinner and then head to the bars. It turned out to be a very random evening. I can say that there are quite a few strange people kicking about Lorne. We soon discovered which bar was the local bar and which was the travelers bar. A fun evening was had by all.

Sunday after a little lie in we were back on the road... and getting ever closer to the twelve apostles.
First stop was the Erskine Falls and then shortly after we spotted a real life Koala in the wild!

KOALA!

We also came across a couple of parrots....

We arrived at the apostles mid afternoon. Alan joked we should do the helicopter ride... when I said yes I was deadly serious! I didn't push it enough though as in the end we settled for the foot walk instead. I took in the view and couldn't believe how stunning it was!

After the apostles we were heading back as it was a 3-4 hour drive back. I may have mentioned I was a little disappointed that we had only seen one Koala on our trip and no kangaroos (Lonely planet leads you to believe that you will see hundreds on the 243-kilometer stretch of road.)
After this I fell asleep and then awoke as the car came to a stop. I soon realized we were parked outside an animal reserve where we could visit some KANGAROOS and KOALAS! I was super excited and we headed in just in time as they were about to close. It was a funny little place which would need a lot of work doing to it to make it into a tourist attraction.

We got back into Lorne at just as it was getting dark, it was power nap time and then dins.
It was a Sunday in Lorne and the small town was half shut so we ended up getting local takeout pizzas and sitting outside a restaurant listening to the jazz music playing inside. This is actually the most backpacker thing I've done so far....

It was back into the city on Monday morning and straight over to the airport to catch my flight up to Sydney.

AT was an great host and I had the best time in Melbourne! Thank you Tregidgo!!

We arrived back into Melbourne, Monday lunchtime. I absolutely loved Avoca and had such a fun weekend!
Helena was now heading off into a hostel for the night as she was driving the Great Ocean Road the next day and Alan was back to work.
As the sun was beaming down in Melbourne I decide that today I would go up to the Eureka Sky Deck. It's an awe inspiring view of Melbourne from the Southern Hemisphere's highest viewing platform. You view on the 88th floor and you can see over the whole of Melbourne. I had purchased a sun and starts tickets for an extra $4 so I could return later to view at night.

What a view....

No I didn't stand in the same spot all day! ; )

I was cooking that night and after a weekend of un-healthy food I decided we would eat healthy so cooked us salmon with roasted veg and salad.
We sat on the balcony with our wine (standard) and ate whilst the sun was setting. After dinner I went back over to the skydeck - its 5minuites from Alan's apartment - look it really is, here it is from the view of it from Alan's balcony.

Eureka Skydeck

On Tuesday I met up with my friend Sinead who I had met back in Thailand. As the forecast has told us it was going to be the last day of sunshine we made our way over to St Hilder. Its a beach town with a man-made beach.
We caught a few rays had some lunch and then headed back to Sinead's friend house for a few hours.
That evening it was Alan's turn to cook and I wasn't let down we had Moroccan chicken with chickpeas! Delicious!

St Hilder
Luna Park
More wine please...
Moroccan chicken with chickpeas and rice

Wednesday was quite lazy I did some planning in the morning then at 4 o'clock headed into town to meet Sinead for a glass of wine. ( a bit of a picture emerging - 4'oclock glass of wine time in the sun!) Life is Peachy!
We went out that night as Alan was meeting some friends to go to a gig. Being with Sinead it was a most amusing night if a little random.

In the afternoon we visited Brunswick Street first which is very the closest you would get to Camden over here.

Blending in with the Graffiti.

Finally roof top bar for a few shots!
Sinead

Thursday I was waiting for Friday to arrive!

Friday - It's Neighbors day!!!!!!!!! very exciting! (might even say a childhood dream.) We had to set our alarms as the afternoon tour was fully booked so we needed to be at the pick up point for 8:20 I hadn't done a day trip tour for a few weeks now so I was extra excited!
The trip didn't disappoint. We arrived on the street and filming was taking place, this meant at that time we couldn't get onto the street but could watch some filming. As we were delayed getting onto the street we were taken to the outside studios where they have the outside sets... it was so funny being outside Grease Monkeys and the Garage!
Then all of a sudden an Audi pulls up and out comes Dr Karl! AKA Alan Fletcher! I have to say that he absolutely loved it and really relished meeting his fans!
Following on from the excitement of meeting Dr Karl we headed back over to Ramsay Street! This time we were aloud onto the street to run around like excited kids!
If you are lucky enough to own one of the houses of Ramsay Street you get a minimum 50k pay out per year not to add the pure excitement of living on Ramsay Street! Some lucky residents owned yachts!

I got way to excited at meeting Dr. K - Look at my smile!

After the excitement of the trip we got dropped back off in central Melbourne. We headed for lunch then split to do some of our own shopping.

Friday evening I finally headed to Alan's gym. How Lucky a free gym swimming pool and tennis courts for the residents - you dont even have to go outside to reach it! The workout was good, I discovered how good the next day!

Saturday arrived and we were back off on road again!

G'day!

I am officially in Skippy land!

I had a great flight over from Bangkok into Melbourne. I slept for most of the journey (very rare) and the seat next to me was empty (super rare) so I had extra space. I'm staying with my university friend Alan for my first week or so in Melbourne.
Alan had given me directions on how to get to his apartment once I landed as he would be at work. It was all quite straight forward and I soon reached reception where I asked the concierge for the keys that had been left for me under Sarah Bavister.... to which he looked at me strangely and said are you sure? This went on ....when it was actually Alan thinking he was funny writing Bavi-L A R! (another new veriation on BaviSTER!)
Once inside I discovered Alan's balcony fairly quickly so I caught some rays for a few hours before he got home.
For out first evening we went out into the city to grab some food and Alan showed me around. Melbourne is lovely at night especially down by Southbank.

I had no jetlag as I was only moving forward 4 hours in time so on Thursday I was up early - as I had one mission - to locate Topshop Melbourne. Success!! Australia is not Thailand and I soon realised my beach shorts and vest tops were not quite suited to the city. So I picked up a couple of dresses and tops.
Topshop is located on Chapel Road which is quite a trendy area with some cool boutiques! I wondered around in the streets in the sun for a few hours then got the tram back over to the centre of town. It was nice to shop as my only purchase in Thailand were my Thai pants!

In the evening we headed out into an area called St Hilder. We found a good Italian restaurant which was listed in my lonely plannet guide. We both had Steak! Although mine was diced steak so I wanted to swap plates but Alan was having none of it!

Mmmmmm......

Delicious!

Excited to see me?!
On Friday I had to pack for Avoca. Avoca is 2 hours North of Melbourne. We were going up for the weekend as Alan works for an event company and it so happened that this weekend was the first event that he had organised and was event managing. Helena was also joining us for the weekend too. Helena is was one of Alan's backpacking friends from Bali. Friday rained so I spent the day relaxing at the apartment. It was the first time in 7 weeks that I had crashed out on a sofa, watched TV and done little else. (Yes I know I've been laying on beaches in Thailand but it's not the same as being snuggled on the sofa at home!)

I got over to the office at about 5. The three of us went for dinner in East Richmond where the office is based and then we started our journey. It took about 2.5 hours. It was a fun drive up as Helena is like Alan they like to chat and when they are together they get even louder!

Hard at work

We must have arrived at our cottage at about 10.30. Avoca is right up in the countryside and its very much like, 'i dont know you you're not a local from round here are you?' Get the picture. So after a little confusion on the day that we were arriving we got shown to our cottage. We had some wine and chilled out as we would have a busy day setting up the event on Saturday.

The company Alan works for is called Big Hill Events. It's a very small company as only 3 employees run by Rohan. (or Jenson Button if you squint!) (I did alot of squinting that weekend!) The mountain bike event is known as the toughest mountain bike ride on the circuit. On the day they had approx 150 riders.
Helana and I helped Alan set up the registration desk, the marquee etc on the Saturday. Having just left an events company I was quite familiar with how events work.

Yes Im hard at work too!

In between set up Helena and I popped in to do some wine tasting. Ronda ran the wine tasting and had been working at the wine cellar for 28 years and works every Saturday, she was a very cool lady.

Helana

Ronda

Helana + Rajah

Juicy

Vines

The weather was a lot cooler where we were although if i you were in the sun it suddenly became t-shirt and shorts weather again.
I could see Rohan's bike sat on the grass so I excitedly asked if I could borrow the bike and go for a ride. Rohan said this was fine but just as I was about to set off Alan decided to let me know the bike cost £4K - just want you want to hear.
I think that the bike ride was one of the best parts of the weekend - it was beautiful to be cycling out in the Australian countryside. Yes, I took a few pictures on my bike journey.

Expensive

In the evening Rohan had organized a BBQ for all family and friends who were helping out for the weekend. This was my first Aussie BBQ and it didn't disappoint.

Sunday was RACE DAY!

We were back at the event before at 6 in the morning which meant I got some great sunrise pictures.

Event day was so exciting! Helana and I were in charge of timings. This is quite an important role as we they were the official race times!
I couldn't believe how coooold it was on the Sunday which was mainly due to the wind. I had brought my shorts, t-shirts and dresses for the weekend but lucky more sensible people had lots of jackets and hoodys I could pile on!

Rohan aka Jenson!
Winner!

The event was a success, Alan is a great Event Manager especially for first time hands on organising everything.
To celebrate the three of us headed to the pub for dinner and then that evening back at the cottage we sat outside with our glasses of wine and had the most amazing veiw of the stars, and decided that this is the life!

Friday arrived and I said a FINAL goodbye to everyone at Ting Tong bar and across at the Full Moon bungalows. Ravi the owner of the bungalows looked like he was about to cry!! Ravi and Sue (wife) had been great during my stay and had fixed me a cheap-e-r flight ticket. The minibus arrived and I headed over to Krabi airport. It was on the plane that I had a fit of laughter to myself which I think was due to the excitement of knowing I would be traveling to a new country in a few days.

I reached Paws at about 10 o'clock so she was just finishing off at work. We caught up on each others news and got some food! : )

As this was my third time in Bangkok I had already seen all the sights so we had a relaxed Saturday. This was a chance for me to eat some more fabulous street food. As it was my last week in Thailand I was eating as much Thai food as possible. My favorites are, pad Thai, garlic and pepper beef, chicken with cashews, spring rolls and chocolate and banana pancakes! That's not even mentioning the fruit and the fruit shakes! : )

Final pad Thai - This pad Thai came with batter on the top?! Every pad Thai I had in Thailand came out slightly different.

Garlic and pepper beef

I was introduced to the spinning fish (which dosnt look great but once you peel back the skin it tastes great)

Saturday night we headed out into town and back over to the bar Route 66 and the night ended up over in a club called Scratchdog. We had the funniest night ever! This was quite clear when we looked through the pictures in the morning.

Here's the ones you get to see!

No farting in the taxi!

Sunday arrived and we slept.

Monday was my last day so whilst Pawes was at work I headed over to MBK to pick up a few last bit and pieces and spent the remainder of my Thai Baht.
I also finally got round to writing out and posting all 10 of my postcards!

Tuesday arrived and it was time to bid farewell to Thailand! It's been an incredible experience to this point and have to say that traveling solo is completely the best way to do it. You get to come and go as you please and actually you are never really on your own.

See you all Down Under!

xxx

... After a day of traveling (with two crazy Isralian's as my company) I reached my new island of Koh Samui and got into my bungalow at around 9'o'clock where I crashed out for the evening. I was peacefully sleeping away until I was awoken (once again) by the loud night creatures of Thailand. I've come to recognize most of the different sounds having been in Thailand for 5 weeks now. I awoke to loud scraping and scratching on the bungalow window. There was most defiantly something trying to get inside which went on for what seemed liked hours! I still have no idea what was actually out there but he/she was back every night!

Morning finally arrived and I headed for breakfast. The restaurant was on the beach so after breakfast I went for a day of sunning!
I was pre-booked for a week as it was meant to take me up to the week of the Full Moon party. I would then cross over to the island Koh Phangan. This didn't happen though as I decided to leave Ko Samui after 4 nights.
I didn't find any character to the island and I only met the two backpackers where I was staying. Rowena and Maaike who were two girls from Holland. They had been on the island for a week and also said that they to had not met any other backpackers on the island. We were staying on the east coast of the island so it simply could have just been the location. Although the locals didn't help. On the Tuesday I decided to explore so I grabbed a taxi into town of which ended up with a me being locked in the taxi! It was the classic agree the destination and price on the outside of the taxi and then once inside the famous quote 'i don't speak English anymore' .....need I say more!

I spent the next 3 days sunbathing and did little else as I was really waiting to move islands. As I was leaving early this left me with a decision. Did I make my way over to Koh Phangan early knowing the Full Moon Party not being for another 8 days or use my last week to go back to my favorite island.
As Will and I learnt last year hindsight can be a pain in the arse!
I decided to head back across to Koh Lanta for my last week (which was great) but I do now wish i had pushed onto Koh Phangan. Typically the girls Katie and Mel who I had met in Chaing Mai got in touch to go to the party together. I was back on Koh Lanta on the south islands whereas Koh Phangan is back in the north. It would have been a another 12 hour boat ride and I also had my flight booked from Krabi back up to Bangkok for my last 4 days before flying out to Oz.

Thursday I arrived back in Koh Lanta to a nice big welcome from Don. Randomly the two girls from Holland were on the same ferry and bus over to Koh Lanta and staying in the same bungalows for a few nights so we put our bags down and headed down to the beach for some dinner.
Rowena 21, Maikke 23, were backpacking in SE Asia for 3 months and on a gap from their studies.

Maikke, Rowena

Walter (our Italian friend) & Maikee

I was keen to do some more snorkeling so booked onto the 4 islands tour. This was excellent as we got to do lots of snorkeling! The first spot was quite rough so it was harder to snorkel but the second spot was beautiful. There were so many different fish swimming toward me made up of such vibrant colors.

The fish were pretty high up so I got this shot from the boat

Lunch that day was Thai Green Curry - it was so nice if a little HOT!

After the snorkeling we visited Emerald Cave. The Emerald Cave is a secret lagoon hidden inside the island of Ko Mook. The only way in to the cave is to swim through an underwater tunnel that opens out into the secret bay.
The cave used to be a smugglers resting place and is reputed to have been used by pirates as a secret and secluded place to stash their treasure - I had left my camera on the boat as didn't realize our tour guide had a wet bag to put them in when swimming. So unfortunately
I dont have any pictures of the cave but I do have pics of our long tail boat.... : )

The next day back at the resort I met Alex and Martin. They were a couple from the UK who were taking some time out to travel SE Asia.
They were pretty cool so I spent a few days chilling out with them.

Martin and Alex

After Alex and Martin left the resort had quietened down and we had 2 days solid rain! When it rains in Thailand it really rains!!!
I headed over to Ting Tong bar to swing in the hammock and keep dry! The rain stopped for a break and Don asked me if I wanted to go into Saladan with him as he was heading there. Saladan is the main town on the island off Koh Lanta. We headed off as its about a 20 minute ride. Half way through the rain started again. We both got soaked! Thankfully Don is a good driver so we made it into town in one piece. We were so soaked that we needed to take cover after the bank and it was still raining heavily so we ended up in this random German delicatessen. It was amazing... so many differently types of cheeses and meat with fresh baguettes too! We had Salami and sour chive and herb cheese baguettes! Mom, mon, mon, mon, mon!
Filled up we headed back out and I popped into the shops to have a look around, then ate more food, this time a banana and chocolate pancake. It was a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon.

I managed to get 2 more days of sun in before taking my flight back up to Bangkok for my last 4 days!

Koh Lanta really does have the best Sunsets in Thailand!