Ok guys, so we have been terrible at keeping you all up to date. This is infact due to the sad fact that we have to pay everytime we wish to use the internet. So i will give you a brief summary of whats been happening sure you all know tho through fb. So we completed the jungle trek. The hardest thing we have ever had to endure, but we did it yay.
We went to Kho Phi Phi, an island off Thailand where the film "The Beach" was filmed, tht was awesome, we skipped, jumped and limboed with fire, had beach parties and chilled.
We then went back to Phuket and completed a three day Padi certified open water diving course which was pretty cool. We then headed off to Malaysia to see the petronas Towers which were HUGE and pretty awesome, staying in China town which was a little dodgy haha.
Ok so we moved on to Singapoe next and for the first day we chilled out as we were both sooooo tired from the constant travelling. The next day we went to Singapore Zoo, which was HUGE and takes like three hours to walk around, not including stopping and looking. we saw some pretty cool things and took some awesome pics of which all are on fb.
Then, off to Australia, landing in Brisbane and being shocked by reality of the actual size of the place, i think Brisbane itself is the size of England! anyway stayed in a place called Mooloolaba which was quite by the beach and pretty cool. Moved on to the Gold Coast, in a place called Surfers Paradise which is awesome as it has the city and the Beach!!
So here we are, we have been here 2 weeks, we are both working in the hostel for accomodation until we get a job, we have learnt to surf but need more lessons like every other sport. We both managed to stand if only for a minute haha. We plan on working here for 3months and then travel around for 2 months so hopefully w can save a bit....
Miss you all
Love you all
Keep well, take care and enjoy life!
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Tuesday 11 August 2009
The Jungle Trekk in Chaing Mai - Day 1
The jungle trekk lasted for 3 days and was one of if not the hardest thing Vicky has ever had to do in her little life. Brett too found it a huge challenge but soldiered through.
The trekk begins with an early pick up, driving a couple of hours to the chaing mai jungle. We stopped off at a market on the way through so that the guide could buy some ingrediants for dinner. As we are getting out of the mini bus there are woman bombarding you with things to buy, one of these was a drinks holder that has a strap to go around your neck making it easier to carry. We decided to buy one of these and bartered a fair price what was really annoying was that once we had bought the one she was pushing more at us buy more buy more and it takes some assertiveness to really make them understand no! Then you have the other woman looking at you like why didnt you buy from me and eyeing us up?! pretty strange.
Once we got to the beginning of the jungle we had our Elephant ride, i have to admit i felt pretty bad stepping on the poor elephants neck to get on him! We decided to name our elephant eddie, we thought "Eddie the Elephant" sounded pretty cool haha. We have some really good pics of this that are on facebook.
We had a bit of a wayward elephant infront of us, he decided to take a dump right infront of us, then have a wee. Its soooo strange he starts weeing then this huge thing slowly works its way out and when the elephant is finished it stays there and the elephant kicks it around as he is walking getting it all muddy and well it must get sore!! It was gross!! haha
We then went and had a thai lunch before setting off on our trip still excited and not sure what to expect! We were with a group of a few other people, a dutch girl, 2 irish guys and a french couple who were all pretty cool.
After lunch we set off.... and the challenge began!
The mountain was so steep it may as well have been vertical, it was so hot and humid and we had our bags as well. The guide was steaming it up but Vicky couldnt keep up and had to keep having lillte breaks. (Those of you who know Vicky, know that she and exercise are really not best friends haha) Unbeknown to us we had 4 hours of this ahead of us on the first day, 7 hours on the 2nd day and 2 on the last! It was really quite daunting and a huge challenge. Vicky wasnt so bad when it was walking on the straight or even down hill, it was the up hill slog that was gruelling and reduced her to tears a couple of times. With Brett by her side, supporting her and making her believe she can carry on and to basically suck it up haha she did it and felt so proud at the end of the three days. We managed to pick up a few bites, bumps, bruises and scrapes along the way. A moment in particular which is worth a mention is when we stopped of the see a bat cave. The lads decided to go for a mooch down in the dark where literally you couldn't see a thing. Brett led the way only to make one step down the rock and fall down to the bottom. Now, bear in mind you couldn't see a thing we all thought, including Brett, he was a gonner. He did shout he was OK though so everything was fine, apart from the fact he picked up a couple of nasty scrapes that Vicky cleaned up for him! We then saw a few bats, which weren't even down in the pitch black abiss! They were right up at the top near the entrance!
The first night we stopped off at a village that was by a waterfall so we got showered (with shower gel haha) in the waterfall. The whole group was so tired after our 4 hour up hill slog that we ate and were in bed at 7.30pm - 8pm!
Waking up in what felt like the middle of the night but was really 11pm we chatted and talked about the past few days and how fast paced we were moving. After finding the day so difficult Vicky cried with fear for the next 2 days and feeling she would not be able to do it and be stuck to die in the jungle haha after a while and plenty of talking we were fine and eventually went off to sleep. The village was small and we slept in a bamboo hut with dirty make up matresses that were about an inch think surrounded with mosquito nets to keep the bleeders out. We had rats scratching on the doors to try get in and heard all sorts of wierd and wonderful noises.
Coming soon to your pc screens....DAY TWO OF THE JUNGLE TREK! starring Brett Cullen and Vicky De Meillon.
The trekk begins with an early pick up, driving a couple of hours to the chaing mai jungle. We stopped off at a market on the way through so that the guide could buy some ingrediants for dinner. As we are getting out of the mini bus there are woman bombarding you with things to buy, one of these was a drinks holder that has a strap to go around your neck making it easier to carry. We decided to buy one of these and bartered a fair price what was really annoying was that once we had bought the one she was pushing more at us buy more buy more and it takes some assertiveness to really make them understand no! Then you have the other woman looking at you like why didnt you buy from me and eyeing us up?! pretty strange.
Once we got to the beginning of the jungle we had our Elephant ride, i have to admit i felt pretty bad stepping on the poor elephants neck to get on him! We decided to name our elephant eddie, we thought "Eddie the Elephant" sounded pretty cool haha. We have some really good pics of this that are on facebook.
We had a bit of a wayward elephant infront of us, he decided to take a dump right infront of us, then have a wee. Its soooo strange he starts weeing then this huge thing slowly works its way out and when the elephant is finished it stays there and the elephant kicks it around as he is walking getting it all muddy and well it must get sore!! It was gross!! haha
We then went and had a thai lunch before setting off on our trip still excited and not sure what to expect! We were with a group of a few other people, a dutch girl, 2 irish guys and a french couple who were all pretty cool.
After lunch we set off.... and the challenge began!
The mountain was so steep it may as well have been vertical, it was so hot and humid and we had our bags as well. The guide was steaming it up but Vicky couldnt keep up and had to keep having lillte breaks. (Those of you who know Vicky, know that she and exercise are really not best friends haha) Unbeknown to us we had 4 hours of this ahead of us on the first day, 7 hours on the 2nd day and 2 on the last! It was really quite daunting and a huge challenge. Vicky wasnt so bad when it was walking on the straight or even down hill, it was the up hill slog that was gruelling and reduced her to tears a couple of times. With Brett by her side, supporting her and making her believe she can carry on and to basically suck it up haha she did it and felt so proud at the end of the three days. We managed to pick up a few bites, bumps, bruises and scrapes along the way. A moment in particular which is worth a mention is when we stopped of the see a bat cave. The lads decided to go for a mooch down in the dark where literally you couldn't see a thing. Brett led the way only to make one step down the rock and fall down to the bottom. Now, bear in mind you couldn't see a thing we all thought, including Brett, he was a gonner. He did shout he was OK though so everything was fine, apart from the fact he picked up a couple of nasty scrapes that Vicky cleaned up for him! We then saw a few bats, which weren't even down in the pitch black abiss! They were right up at the top near the entrance!
The first night we stopped off at a village that was by a waterfall so we got showered (with shower gel haha) in the waterfall. The whole group was so tired after our 4 hour up hill slog that we ate and were in bed at 7.30pm - 8pm!
Waking up in what felt like the middle of the night but was really 11pm we chatted and talked about the past few days and how fast paced we were moving. After finding the day so difficult Vicky cried with fear for the next 2 days and feeling she would not be able to do it and be stuck to die in the jungle haha after a while and plenty of talking we were fine and eventually went off to sleep. The village was small and we slept in a bamboo hut with dirty make up matresses that were about an inch think surrounded with mosquito nets to keep the bleeders out. We had rats scratching on the doors to try get in and heard all sorts of wierd and wonderful noises.
Coming soon to your pc screens....DAY TWO OF THE JUNGLE TREK! starring Brett Cullen and Vicky De Meillon.
Wednesday 29 July 2009
last day in Bangkok and trip to Chaing Mai
The last time we wrote a blog was a 2nd day in, we have not been very good to all you people so here we are with some time free and somecheap interenet. We will update you on the last three weeks of our journey.
Grab yourselves a cup of tea......
We were waiting for a taxi the last time we wrote, so its been a few days as we've been so busy we have not been able to blog. On 22nd July (Wednesday) we got in what they call a Tuk Tuk, its like a 3 wheeled motorbike thing with a carriage on the back, kinda. Anyway, the tuk tuk only cost us 5 baht for the day which is like 10p. We went around to see the Buddha temples as all the Thai people are very religious and worship the buddha. The temples are beautiful and all plated with Bronze, you'll see on the pics. The bad thing about getting this Tuk Tuk for so cheap is that he took us around to the fashion shops and jewlery places because if we looked in there long enough or bought something, he got free petrol from them. So although it was cheap, it got quite annoying in the end. When we came out of the jewellery shops with no purchases the tuk tuk man got very dissapointed and a little aggresive too actually. Eventually we just said to him we are done and to take us back to the hotel.
So we got the taxi to the train station later on, pushing for time as the traffic was manic, we got on the train just before it was about to leave. It was a sleeper train which means the seats turn into beds and one rolls down from the top, which makes a bunk bed. Pretty cool and surprisingly comfy, which was good because the train was something like 11 or 12 hours long to Chiang Mai. Have a look at the pics if you havent already.
We arrived in Chiang Mai the next morning at around 9am to be greeted by a huge gang of taxi and tuk tuk drivers all wanting us to get a ride with them. They can come across as quite aggresive coz they want a sale that bad, this puts us right off. You would say "no thanks" to about 20 and they will still continue to ask. We thought we could walk but then realised we didn't actually no where we were going and ended up paying 500baht (1opound) for a private taxi to our hotel which was booked for us. The taxi was private but if we didn't want private then he drives along looking for other fares until he is full so bit of a pian in the nethers. We think that as soon as he realised where we were staying he was going to con us as the hotel was 4* he thought we had a bit of money and with us not knowing where we were going we were easily duped.
Once we has settled our stuff, got showered and changed we head off for a walk and nosey around the town. We thought we would get a cheap tuk tuk to take us round but were sadly mistaken when a few tuk tuks rejected our 10baht offer. We realised that if they are rejecting us we must be taking the mick and it must just be more expensive up north. Eventually we got one, cant remember how much we paid must have been around 45baht i think.
Again we saw temples and although they are beautiful for Vicky they just seem to end up all looking the same just in different places. After our temple seeing we spied a thai massage place and decided to have a massage. Brett loved it but Vicky found it to be really painful.
For the rest of the day we chilled out and packed our daysacks ready for the trekk.
Grab yourselves a cup of tea......
We were waiting for a taxi the last time we wrote, so its been a few days as we've been so busy we have not been able to blog. On 22nd July (Wednesday) we got in what they call a Tuk Tuk, its like a 3 wheeled motorbike thing with a carriage on the back, kinda. Anyway, the tuk tuk only cost us 5 baht for the day which is like 10p. We went around to see the Buddha temples as all the Thai people are very religious and worship the buddha. The temples are beautiful and all plated with Bronze, you'll see on the pics. The bad thing about getting this Tuk Tuk for so cheap is that he took us around to the fashion shops and jewlery places because if we looked in there long enough or bought something, he got free petrol from them. So although it was cheap, it got quite annoying in the end. When we came out of the jewellery shops with no purchases the tuk tuk man got very dissapointed and a little aggresive too actually. Eventually we just said to him we are done and to take us back to the hotel.
So we got the taxi to the train station later on, pushing for time as the traffic was manic, we got on the train just before it was about to leave. It was a sleeper train which means the seats turn into beds and one rolls down from the top, which makes a bunk bed. Pretty cool and surprisingly comfy, which was good because the train was something like 11 or 12 hours long to Chiang Mai. Have a look at the pics if you havent already.
We arrived in Chiang Mai the next morning at around 9am to be greeted by a huge gang of taxi and tuk tuk drivers all wanting us to get a ride with them. They can come across as quite aggresive coz they want a sale that bad, this puts us right off. You would say "no thanks" to about 20 and they will still continue to ask. We thought we could walk but then realised we didn't actually no where we were going and ended up paying 500baht (1opound) for a private taxi to our hotel which was booked for us. The taxi was private but if we didn't want private then he drives along looking for other fares until he is full so bit of a pian in the nethers. We think that as soon as he realised where we were staying he was going to con us as the hotel was 4* he thought we had a bit of money and with us not knowing where we were going we were easily duped.
Once we has settled our stuff, got showered and changed we head off for a walk and nosey around the town. We thought we would get a cheap tuk tuk to take us round but were sadly mistaken when a few tuk tuks rejected our 10baht offer. We realised that if they are rejecting us we must be taking the mick and it must just be more expensive up north. Eventually we got one, cant remember how much we paid must have been around 45baht i think.
Again we saw temples and although they are beautiful for Vicky they just seem to end up all looking the same just in different places. After our temple seeing we spied a thai massage place and decided to have a massage. Brett loved it but Vicky found it to be really painful.
For the rest of the day we chilled out and packed our daysacks ready for the trekk.
Wednesday 22 July 2009
Thailand, Bangkok
We're here!
So we will start right from the beginning then starting off with the traffic on the run way in Manchester Airport! Debree was on the floor after some poor bird got taken out by the plane in front of us - it got sucked into the engines! Great start! Haha!
We made it here safely invited by bright green yellow and pink taxis after 14 hours travelling! And after all that you could say that on the roads over here we feel a little bit worried for our lives, lol. There seem to be no rules on the road here, if you want to get into a lane you push, it doesnt matter if you hit each other you just keep going! If your in the left hand lane of the motorway and the driver infront is annoying you, you just undertake using the HARD SHOULDER!! This makes a tuk tuk drive pretty exciting haha ... James... we've seen a coach painted totally in Dragon Ball Z!!!
The hotel we're staying in is pretty dingy, but nice enough i suppose! The houses are small well shall we say not like England.
We went on a little tour last night on the local street where we are staying, Khaosan Road. The busiest in Bangkok. So as we are out we pass cooked, seasoned meal worms, cocroaches and grass hoppers.... My wonderful wannabe "Im a celeb" boyfriend decided he would try one, for the hell of it! ... pass you over for the verdict...yeah brett now typing... so I thought give it a go! So i did! A crunchy yet chewy grasshopper was devoured in seconds...not as bad as what you would think, i wasn't ever ever going to try the cockroach - not a chance! But I am proud of my grasshopper effort.
So, as we write this we are sitting waiting for the taxi man to pick us up to take us to the train station were we will head North to Chaing Mai where on Friday morning we begin our jungle trek which includes bamboo rafting, white water rafting, elephant rides, trekking and more! So, as we will be in the far away deep jungle we will not be able to blog for a few days. But keep checking and we'll keep updating.
Although we have only been here a couple of days we have plenty photos that we will attempt to upload. We will do this asap.
So love to you all
Bon voyage
xxxx
So we will start right from the beginning then starting off with the traffic on the run way in Manchester Airport! Debree was on the floor after some poor bird got taken out by the plane in front of us - it got sucked into the engines! Great start! Haha!
We made it here safely invited by bright green yellow and pink taxis after 14 hours travelling! And after all that you could say that on the roads over here we feel a little bit worried for our lives, lol. There seem to be no rules on the road here, if you want to get into a lane you push, it doesnt matter if you hit each other you just keep going! If your in the left hand lane of the motorway and the driver infront is annoying you, you just undertake using the HARD SHOULDER!! This makes a tuk tuk drive pretty exciting haha ... James... we've seen a coach painted totally in Dragon Ball Z!!!
The hotel we're staying in is pretty dingy, but nice enough i suppose! The houses are small well shall we say not like England.
We went on a little tour last night on the local street where we are staying, Khaosan Road. The busiest in Bangkok. So as we are out we pass cooked, seasoned meal worms, cocroaches and grass hoppers.... My wonderful wannabe "Im a celeb" boyfriend decided he would try one, for the hell of it! ... pass you over for the verdict...yeah brett now typing... so I thought give it a go! So i did! A crunchy yet chewy grasshopper was devoured in seconds...not as bad as what you would think, i wasn't ever ever going to try the cockroach - not a chance! But I am proud of my grasshopper effort.
So, as we write this we are sitting waiting for the taxi man to pick us up to take us to the train station were we will head North to Chaing Mai where on Friday morning we begin our jungle trek which includes bamboo rafting, white water rafting, elephant rides, trekking and more! So, as we will be in the far away deep jungle we will not be able to blog for a few days. But keep checking and we'll keep updating.
Although we have only been here a couple of days we have plenty photos that we will attempt to upload. We will do this asap.
So love to you all
Bon voyage
xxxx
Friday 26 June 2009
The New Blog
So we decided to change the blog so that you folks can leave comments... so keep coming back here to see our blogs and pictures and leave comments!
B&V
B&V
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