Round the World

Hi all I made it here to Cairns a few days back and met up with Ruth! It was a bit different than expected - it was pouring rain! It hasnt really let up since we got here. But we've had fun anyway. The first night we stayed at a backpackers resort that was a bit dodgy so we moved last night to a holiday apartment which is really nice and had a kitchen and everything. We cooked chicken curry and rice last night...mmmmmm The first night we ate some meal that we got free with our hostel fee...yikes! Not so hot! Yeah anyway...so the first day here we just bummed around most of the day, drove around a bit (she rented a car), went for a swim, shopped at the markets (there are markets everywhere!!!! I coudl scream I am so fed up of them!) and then came back and cooked dinner and drank wine (me) and beer (Ruth) and ate lollies (candy) and Cadbury chocolates while watching cheesy movies on TV. We had a great time! Today we went on a tour to Kuranda, which is a rainforest area northeast of Cairns. We rode a train to the top of a mountain and hiked around on the trails up there, then took the sky rail back down. The sky rail was the best! It was about 4 miles long and took you over the forest canopy and over barron Falls and river. It was amazingly beautiful. The river was the color of a caramel latte (sounds gross but it was beautiful) The waterfall was the highest and biggest I've ever seen (though I havent seen Niagra). So that was pretty much today. Now we'll go for a swim at the lagoon and get ready for our scuba reef tour tomorow! I'm so excited! I hope all is well with you all, take care

Hi all I'm here in HK still for the rest of today. Yesterday I walked and walked and walked. I saw alot but good grief I am soo tired today. I missed my bus into the city and I'm actually relieved. I am tired of travelling so fast to so many places. Today I want my job back and a steady life and to be near my family and friends. I'm sure the feeling will pass once I am rested but for the moment I am a bit crabby and tired. It is cold here in HK, well relatively that is. I tried taking a shower last night after all my sight seeing and stuff. Oh my gosh! Huge mistake! The water icy and the air was worse I proptly jumped out and went to bed stinky. One joy of travelling alone is that there is no one to care if I smell bad or have proper hygene accept myself. There are actually many joys to travelling alone, there is a great freedom to it. Unfortunately I have one 2 minutes left here on the net so I dont have time to fill in on all the details of my time here, maybe later at the airport I'll add on. In any case, thanks again to all who are writing to me and sorry I havent always been able to wrte back! Take care all

Haha, so its later at the airport and I have free net...not working very well but still free......

So let's see here....Yesterday: I walked a lot as I already said. My hostel was located on HK Island near Victoria peak. I took the hostel bus down into Wetern district. Hong Kong is extremely tourist friendly and they have walking tour booklets you can pick up. They are easy to follow and the streets also have big signs pointing to all tourist attractions and trasporation options. (Needless to say this is a HUGE change from all the other places I've been lately!) Anyhow, so I walked the wester district and central district tours then I took the star ferry across to Kowloon Island and walked the Star Avenue, and then all the way up Stanley street where there are a bunch of markets. I have never been anywhere are densly populated and full of skyscrapers in my life! It is overwhelming and quite amazing. After that I took the ferry back to HK Island and then made my way to the Peak Tram and rode it up to the top of the peak. Quite a view from up there, I bought so way too pricy Haagen Dass ice cream and did yet another walking tour around the top of the peak. It was georgeous - I started at dusk and was still walking it at sunset and was on the side of the peak facing central
HK when it got entirely dark. It was so amazing to see all the lights. Then I stayed on the peak until 8pm when they have a lights show where many of the main buildings light up in cool displays all at the same time. It was pretty good but not as phemomenal as everyone said it was. There is a sound show that goes with it but I didnt have a radio. Yeah, so I was pretty well exhausted, I basically ran back to the hostel bus in order to not have to wait another 2 hours. I made it on time. I ate McDs for lunch and dinner...they are everywhere here!! I would have tried local cuisine but I nearly vomitted everytime I walked past a food stall there. I dont know why exactly, but when I saw the obscure dried sea food parts, tanks of live sea food and unidentifiable objects I just couldnt do it. I totally wimped out. Oh well. Ok so then today, I didn want to be in the city again so instead I took a different ferry boat to Lamma Island and did the walking tour there. They said it would be an hour and a half of gentle slopes...LIARS! There was nothing gentle about those trails! (It probably didnt help that I walked 15 miles the day before!) Anyway, it was beautiful too. I saw star fruit growing on trees. That was pretty awesome! Thats about all I did today. I'm so tired I just want to get a good nights sleep..on a bed with a real mattress. Have I mentioned that I havent slept on an American style cushy gushy mattress since I left? That sounds so lovely right now. Other countries, or maybe its just hostels apparently dont believe in soft is for sleeping, mattresses are hard and thin. Oh well, I've usually been so tired it doesnt make a difference and I sleep anyway. Oh yeah! Today marks one month of my great big Gungula!! Who ha! Now on to Australia Can't wait!!!

So I arrived today in HK, a bit later than originally planned, I switched my flight to one a little later in the day. So I arrived here a few hours back and took 2 buses to my hostel. HK is beautiful at night, the little I've seen of it. My hostel is on HK Island and the airport is on Lantau so it was about an hour away. It is so awesome - my hostel is on the top of a peak - it took 10 minutes to wind our way up to mountain and it is the only building up here, with a great view of the city lights and some water - not sure exactly what it is yet! I'm exhausted so I'll write more later. My last day in Bangkok was great too but I'l save writing about it for later. Take care and goodnight all.

Hi Everyone Last night I went out and had some fried rice at the street food market with some girls I met in my dorm room. It was nice. This morning I woke up early, at 6am and had quite a long day. I went on another tour. This time to Kanchaburi, which is a 2 hour drive west of Bangkok. We visited a WWII cemetary, which had Thai graves as well as POW graves. We then visited the war museum and the bridge over the River Kwai. During WWII Japan invaded Thailand and wanted to be able to move northwest into Burma, so they recruited workers from Asian and used POWs to build a the railroad. It is now called Death railway because several thousand people died working on it as a result of diseases spreading and also because the Allied forces bombed the brindge over the River Kwai several times (and Japan forced POWs to stand on the bridge in hopes that this would prevent it from being bombed...to no avail). I'm no history buff but all that stuff was pretty interesting to me. Apparently there is an old movie called "The River Kwai" so I'll have to check it out when I get home. After that we went to some waterfall nearby - not an entirely impressive one but it was nice to get my feet wet and climb on the rocks Then we had lunch and went for a ride on the Death railway and saw some of the countryside. I also saw tapioca growing (I had no idea it was a plant...I'm a moron!). The last stop of the day (not counting the jew factory which we had to stop at again..) was the Tiger Temple. It was a strange place. It is run by Monks and it started as some sort of place of refuge for injured and orphaned tigers and now it is set up so that you can go walk around these grounds and there are all kinds of animals just roaming around (chickens, deer, horses, water buffalo, elk). Then there is a place down in a canyon where there are tigers. I think they must have been sedated because they were just laying there all groggy. Then guides took you out one by one to pet them and have photos taken with them. At one point the guide had me sit down by one then to my shock me lifted the tigers head onto my lap. The photos tell all - my face was like "What the hell do you think you are doing?!?!?" Yeah intersting. After we got back, I went out for dinner with these 2 nice Aussies I met. We went to their hotel before going out. They are staying at the tallest building in Bangkok so I got to go up to the top floor, which revolves and look at the city! It was very cool! We got some curry and then went out roaming around at a night baazar. I didnt find anything but thats just as well, I have no room to carry anything more! We had a drink at a big outdoor pub area there while we listened to some horrible Thai version of the Backstreet Boys peform on stage! Altogether it was a really nice day!

Day 2 Thailand. I woke up at 6:35. My tour van was scheduled to pick me up at 6:30. I threw on my jeans and ran out the door. I felt like a total slob, and looked like one too. The van finally came at 7:30. I was a bit stressed starting the day thinking I got totally ripped off by the travel agent but then they came and the day started to go much better. There were 10 of us of the tour and everyone spole English and all were friendly (a nice change after my Goa tours!) It was an extremely educational day (not that I'll remember everything but here it goes...) We drove past salt fields on the way to our first stop. I guess it is made from taking the salt out of the sea water. (So I've seen where your salt comes from Grandma!) I also learned that Bangkok has over 4000 temples in it. Most of them are Buddist temples. I tried to learn more about Budism from my tour guide but she was a bit difficult to understand! We stopped at a place where they make sugar and massage oil from coconuts. Then we went to the floating river market. People line the canal with their flat boats and then you can shop from a flat boat. It was quite unique. The merchants here don't hassle you as much as in India, which is also a welcome change. I had some fried coconut milk pankakes there and tried coconut water (for the second time) and actually liked it this time. (Are you catching a theme here...COCONUTS! They are everywhere...umm yeah anyway...) Then is was off to a snake show. The most memorable part of which was the pre-show during which some guy walked aroudn holding out a snake while the announcer said again and again (insert broken English Thai accent here) "Snake haaa 2 penis, 2 time the fun!" Yikes! Then we went to a place where merchants were making and selling intricate wood carvings. There was everything from full size elephants to small carved boxes. We then had a buffet lunch and then went to a place called the Rose Garden. There was an Elephant show there, and obviosly rose gardens. The last thing was a Thai culture show complete with traditional dancing, a wedding ceremony, Thai full contact wrestling and sword fights. Oh wait my bad...last stop was....another jewelery store! It is a huge scam, not supposed to be part of the tour, but all the drivers go there so they get free gas. This time we even had to sit throw a video about the sapphires and rubies of Thailand. Yeah anyway, so I'm tired now and another girl is waiting for the computer. More tomorrow...another tour...yikes!