This used to be a miserable view. The top left of the picture is the MediaCity:UK site which will be home to, among other things, the BBC’s new Salford Quays home next year. Before we went to Tignes this was a horrible looking building site and one of the reasons we got away for so long.

It has snowed all day and now the skies have cleared leaving a wonderful view from our apartment balcony.

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The snow has begun to fall in the Alps and we’ve booked our first winter trip of the season returning to Tignes in March.

This photo is of the Aiguille Percée which loosly translates as ‘The Eye of the Needle’. It is a beautiful rock formation caused by wind erosion. The locals believe in ten years it will have completely eroded away.

After a good snowfall there’s a hairy hike up through the Eye that leads to stunning views and a brilliant off-piste run on the other side.

Winter: God’s season.

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26,883 Miles by plane
777 Miles by bus/coach (we avoided overnighters)
693 Miles by train (average 1 cockroach per 48 miles)
183 Miles by car
192 Miles by ferry
100 Miles by sailboat
0.5 Miles by motorbike (before we crashed in Hoi An)
28,828 Miles in total (1.16 times around the world)

19 Airports
9 Airlines
8 Different currencies (US$ widely accepted in Cambodia as well as the Riel)
2 Equatorial crossings
6 World Heritage Sites
Approximately 47 toilets in Hanoi for Pezza

140 Hours traveling (5 days 20 hours)
3 Nights spent on planes
4 Nights on a boat
1 Night on a train
1 Night in Ha Long Bay

48 nights in Asian hostels (average £24.21/night)
10 nights in Aussie hostels (average £45.22/night)
4 Nights in posh hotels (average £250.25/night)

£1,614.18 total spent on hostels (58 nights. Average £27.83/night)
£2,816.18 total spent on all accommodation (62 nights. Average £45.42/night)

2 Items lost (camera and flip flops)
2 Items broken (padlock and laptop power cable)

0.6 Kilograms my luggage gained
3.4 Kilograms I gained (Pezza doesn’t wish to discuss any weight she may have gained/lost)

0 Major arguments
0 Times I was right
100 Times Pezza was right

977 Pictures uploaded to Flickr
23 Blog posts on the road

38 Degrees – highest temperature (MySon ruins, Vietnam)
21 Degrees – lowest temperature (Sydney, Australia)

All the accommodation costs are based on two people sharing a double room. Further details on all our accommodation can be found on the dedicated Southeast Asia Page.

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There’s not a lot we wanted to do in Sydney, we knew it was the last stop and fully intended to spend a day or two on one of the beaches. When we first came in 2006 we tried to go up Centrepoint Tower but were informed it was an hour wait (it was new year’s day) so we pulled the cord and had a day on Bondi. This time we made it up there for unrivalled views of the city from the Harbour (above), the beaches, suburbs and stadia. The tower is less than a tenth of the price of the bridge climb, offers a higher view and you can also take your camera up (banned from the bridge climb); for us this is a much better option than the two hour walk over the bridge.

With me getting pictures of the Olympic Stadium and Pezza using the free telescopes to spy on a wedding we worked up a thirst and headed to my favourite restaurant in the world, Sydney Oyster Cove on Circular Quay – sun, oysters, wine and a view of the Harbour Bridge.

Another reason for visiting Sydney is that we know a few people here. The first visit we made was to my old work buddy, Dom, who took us out for a Vietnamese meal and then to some of the more ‘interesting’ pubs in seedy Surrey Hills. He invited us to a house party the next day which was full of people I used to work with, it’s as if the boat to Sydney now picks up from Michael Page’s Manchester office.

We didn’t want a late one as we were on the 9.30am train to Richmond to see Pezza’s family. Pezza’s cousin, Stephen, bought ten acres of land in rural Richmond and intends to build a great house in the middle of nature, in the mean time he lives on a bus parked in the middle of the land with his wife.

We had a great afternoon of beer-cricket and a meal overlooking the bushland of New South Wales. It was great to see everyone but by the time we got back to Sydney in the evening we were tired and just about had the energy to get the obligatory Opera House Shot…

Our last day was now upon us and we could think of nothing better to do than spend the entire day horizontal on Bondi Beach and the night on George Street.

The final reason for coming to Sydney was to experience the A380 once again. It’s an epic journey from Australia to Manchester and we were fortunate to be able to do it with just the one stop in Singapore, the only downer was that the A380 was our vessel for the first part of the journey; the Singaore to Manchester leg was on an old 777-200.

We’re now back in rainy Manchester. When we arrived at the airport and waited for a taxi it was tempting just to turn around back to the departures area and head off somewhere.

So, that was that.

The sydney photos are now on my photo page

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Approaching Byron was a warm feeling.  With the exception of Bangkok, Byron Bay is the only other place we’ve been to before; Bangkok is brilliant but we were there more out of necessity whereas Byron Bay is a place we’ve really taken to.  We arrived bright and early so there was no need for the customary nap, we packed our bags and headed for the beach.  The wind was up and aside from a few brave kite surfers, the beach was a no-go for the first day but as we were new in Byron a walk around town is great way to spend a day.  There are strict controls here as to what buildings can look like and they are not allowed to be more than three stories high.  You’re left with a gorgeous looking town with a relaxed atmosphere like no other we’ve experienced and it’s quite hard to put into words.  The only picture I can paint is one of people sat by the beach playing their guitars, not for money but just because they want to.  There’s also the ‘body and soul’ side to Byron; the concept of smoothies and organic food that the world has cottoned onto over the last five or six years has been part of Byron for so much longer.  That being said, a huge burger and a dirty pint are just as accessible as elsewhere.

It took us a day or two to catch up on the sleep from the sailing trip and once recovered we decided to take the lighthouse walk.  Pezza had been promised it was ‘about a 20 minute walk’.  After nine weeks away where the most active thing we’ve done so far has been the jungle trek near Chiang Mai, we were not really ready for this activity.  The ‘20 minute walk’ turned out to be two hours and most of it was uphill.  Our reward at the top was a stunning panoramic view of Byron Bay.

Hostels and travellers in Australia tend to be different than in Southeast Asia (there’ll be a whole post on this in due course, probably in a week or two when we’re home) but one thing that stands out is the communal nature of the hostels here in Australia.  They make the effort to get guests together in activities and nights out and negotiate deals with the local pubs and clubs so it wasn’t long before we were sat in a group of total strangers playing a series of drinking games and drinking bags of cheap goon

There’s not much to write about Byron, I suppose if there was then you’ve missed the point of it, it’s a place to kick back in the day and either take in some acoustic music at night or get thoroughly trashed at one of the rowdy clubs.

When I think of my favourite destinations it’s hard to order them as there’s many different categories.  For example it’s hard to compare Tignes, Las Vegas, Barcelona and Byron Bay as they all offer something completely different.  Suffice to say, Byron is very near the top.  We’ll be back.

Byron Bay Photos

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We checked out of the hostel on day three and made our way to the Able Point Marina where we found our new home for the next three nights, a 30 metre sailing racer called Spank Me.  Most people who come to the Whitsundays take some sort of a trip and there are over 60 vessels to choose from, our was one of six that make it to the outer reef (many people choose to visit the reef from Cairns as it’s closer).  We were introduced the the four-man crew who encouraged us to make small talk with the other 21 passengers whilst a few technical issues with the boat were sorted – it worked out quite nicely as our maiden sail was into the sunset, even the crew were excited by this.  We arrived at our sleeping spot in Hook Passage and after a bit of dinner and a few cold ones we bedded into our (very cosy) beds.

We had been warned by the crew to expect early starts, maybe it was my own fault for not wearing my earplugs but at 5.15am I heard the crew rummaging around and, along with a few others, I got out of bed to see the sun rise and assist the crew in raising the main and head sails, an exhausting task.  The reason for the early start was that the tide was going out and our fist stop was Whitsunday Island for a visit to the picturesque Whitehaven Beach, had we left much later the boat wouldn’t have been able to get its 15 foot keel through the surrounding reef.  We arrived at Whitehaven Beach at 7.00am, this was perfect as it is a very busy beach with many day trips coming here but as we arrived before most of these day trips even left Airlie we had the entire beach to ourselves, there would have been over 200 people here after lunch.

Shawny came to pick us up in the tender at around 10.00am and we set sail once more for Luncheon Bay on a fringing reef. I’d always wanted to dive on the main reef but as Pezza has ear issues she is unable to do this, we therefore intended to take a snorkeling trip to the reef.  Fortunately this boat catered for both snorkelers and divers meaning that I could dive without leaving Pezza stranded on land or a different trip.  We were given our briefings and those of us who are not certified divers were told we would need to take a skills dive before we got to the reef and that would happen at Luncheon Bay as there’s an area off the beach shallow enough to do this and also enough coral to keep the snorkelers and certified divers happy for the afternoon.  We dived and snorkeled until the sun went down and were all up for a much earlier night – having a lie in when sailing is not an option when the boat is tilted 30 degrees making you roll out of bed.

With my earplugs firmly in it wasn’t until the Skipper, Gary, started the engines that I woke up.  A glance of my watch told me the true horror that it was earlier than the day before, 5.05am.  It makes perfect sense when sailing to make the most of daylight and as the sun made its appearance over the horizon we were attacking the grinders and raising the sail.  Today was a big day, Great Barrier Reef day.  It was touch and go whether we would get to the reef as conditions were very choppy but Gary made the call to stick to the plan as the wind was forecast to not get any stronger.  He was right and the wind that was present did a fantastic job of pushing us to Bait Reef in just an hour and a half.  Breakfast was served and we had from 8.00am until 3.00pm to explore one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Our Dive Master for the trip was Rob who was always happiest when in the water.  On previous dives (including the day before) I have always suffered with pain in my ear and have been reluctant to go further than around 5 metres deep, today was a choice of a 12 metre dive or snorkelling.  Rob sorted out my ear problem out easily and within no time at all we were kneeling on the sea bed 12 metres below the surface.  We were underwater for 40 minutes and in that time saw the most fantastic and bold coloured coral and several reef sharks.  My personal favourite was the ‘daddy’ of Bait Reef, Elvis, the biggest fish I have ever come across who is resident there with his three wives.  He is very intrigued by the divers and swam up to every one and looked them square in the eye.

* If you’re reading this by email or RSS you may not be able to see the above slideshow, click here to go to the original post.

From originally planning on one dive I was gagging for more and there was time for Rob to take me on my third dive of the trip, this time we explored much more of the coral, home to thousands of species of fish of all colours and sizes – very nice to tick off number 1 from The List.

We sailed once more to our sleep spot for the night which was an ideal place to see the sun go down.  The crew dumped us on a spit of sand just off the coast of the exclusive Hayman Island and the whole boat disembarked and messed around on the sand with a few beers before we commenced the arduous task of ensuring the boat had no more alcohol on it for the morning.

By the time we arrived back at Abel Point we were exhausted but beaming from one of the most phenomenal trips possible.

I’ve cut the pictures down to a manageable slideshow, as ever on my Photo Page.

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Australia: after two months in Southeast Asia we’re back down under.  It was only a few weeks ago we said to each other we wished we hadn’t booked flights all the way to Australia as we were having too much fun where we were, the smart money was on Bali and Gili Trawangan.  That being said, as the day our flight to Australia approached, we became more and more excited.

Airlie Beach Lagoon, QLD

It was a hell of a journey here from Ko Phangan: tuk-tuk to the pier, ferry to Ko Samui, taxi to the airport, flight to Singapore, flight to Brisbane, train to domestic terminal, flight to Proserpine, coach to Airlie Beach.  Travel time = 27 hours.  It was now Pezza’s birthday, we had a few hours in Brisbane airport and it was here I gave her her cards from the family I’d been concealing for eight weeks and the present I hastily purchased from Singapore airport nine hours earlier (it wasn’t an ‘I Love Singapore shirt’). Even though we were only three hours ahead of Thailand time we were goosed from the journey and once we arrived at our hostel we commenced the usual drill of nap, shower, out.

It’s apparent that the hostels in Australia are very different from Asia.  In Asia you get a room/dorm and maybe there’s a bar however in Australia they are much more communal in the sense that they tend to have a bar, a games room, sometimes a TV room and they go out of their way to arrange social activities during the day and night.  The price is a bit of a shock – for US$20 in Bangkok you get a very nice en-suite room in a decent hotel, the same here will set you back over four times that amount (granted, the Aussie Dollar has gone nuts against the US Dollar and the Pound in the last 18 months or so).

Nick was the overwhelmingly enthusiastic co-manager of our hostel in Airlie and he was right on the ball giving Pezza a free bottle of Airlie Beach sparkling wine for her birthday and informed us there was a nightly quiz about to take place.  We won the quiz and received yet another bottle of Airlie Beach’s finest, a good way to set the night up.

Nick was a bit surprised we had nothing planned when there.  We picked up that people who spend their year out travelling through Australia tend to be a bit more organised that their Southeast Asia equivalents, maybe it’s because it was low season in Asia and people could afford to be more liberal with their plans – I haven’t fully worked it out yet!  We chatted to him and he booked us on a boat to sail the Whitsundays over three nights (there’s a full post on this coming up in a day or so, as soon as it’s ready I’ll link it from here).  Suffice to say it’s probably the best thing we’ve done over the last nine weeks, so make sure you read the blog when it’s up.

Airlie Beach’s only industry is tourism so aside from the accommodation, bars & restaurants they need to make sure the days are taken care of.  Aside from the beach there’s a man-made freshwater lagoon and artificial beach for those who dislike saltwater, it’s here that we spent the days taking in the books we just picked up from the book exchange and having the usual conversations with people making their way up and down the East coast.

Next stop Whitsunday Islands & The Great Barrier Reef…

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Getting here was simple enough, just an hour or so on the boat from Ko Tao.  We were genuinely worried about accommodation for the first time since we started the trip – this was the week building up to the Full Moon Party (FMP) and it gets busy here even during low season; as you would expect the first places to book up will be those mentioned in the guide books, especially if they have an online booking facility – there was nothing available online whatsoever.

We expected there to be the usual army of tuk-tuk drivers offering rides to a plethora of guesthouses and bungalows – this is the norm everywhere else whether it’s a bus station, airport or ferry port however the people congregated on the pier were just there to pick up the guests who had pre-booked well in advance.  We were ok though as we simply hopped in a share taxi and found a bungalow right on Sunrise Beach on Haad Rin, it’s where you want to be.  We were early in the week and we knew full well as the days went on it would build up every evening leading up to the FMP, we were therefore a bit surprised to see one of the bars on the beach, the Drop-In Bar, advertise a foam party on the day we got there.  It soon became obvious that Phangan is mega-party island and is on a time zone very different to the rest of Southeast Asia: some places have an 11pm curfew whereas Phangan doesn’t even think of getting going until then.

The foam party was a raging success although I did lose my PNS camera (I’ve since bought a new one).  This was the first party of the week and every night from then on there was something happening on the beach.  With our body clocks set to Ko Phangan time the day usually started at 11:45am, just in time to get free breakfast and then we would sleep the hangovers off on the beach or by a pool in a neighbouring resort.  The beach is very busy all day with numerous football and volleyball tournaments taking place.  Thankfully however the beach does not have the hundreds of hawkers that Samui suffers from, indeed it’s probably the best stretch of sand we’ve come across so far on this trip.

With the days and nights rolling on from one another nicely the main event soon crept up on us.  The beach was awash with activity all day as the football goals were cleared away and replaced with mile after mile of decorations, scaffolding for fireworks, makeshift bucket stands and many sound systems.  I wanted to catch as much of the build up as possible and spent time strolling up and down the beach taking in the atmosphere.  It was then time for a nap before venturing out.  We got painted up by one of the locals, Pezza went for a flowery arrangement all the way down one side of her body whilst I adopted a huge dragon across my back, fire down my right arm and  my BOTT squad number on my left.  We visited Romeo, our adopted bucket vendor for the week, who was now offering us discounts without asking and free vodka shots with our buckets.  Those not in the know, a bucket here consists of 20cl of spirit (8x 25ml shots) and a couple of bottles of Thai Red Bull (more ‘wings’ than the UK version), they are typically under a fiver, needless to say it’s not long before everyone is wasted.

The party was great fun, a well worthwhile experience with loads of energy, fire and music, it was still very much alive by the time Pezza & I called it quits at about 6.45am, about half an hour after the sun came up.  We were tired, covered in paint that was making my back blister and had the onset of a hangover – but we were very happy to have crossed off number 27 from The List.

The day after the party you would not have known anything had happened, the beach was spotless and it was eerily quiet – like being in a football stadium when nobody else is around. We stayed one more night to let the Red Bull wear off and kissed Asia goodbye; it’s been a fantastic home for us over the last seven weeks and six days but we have just arrived in Australia after a gruelling 26 hour journey (taxi, ferry, taxi, aeroplane, aeroplane, train, aeroplane, coach) to Whitsundays on the Queensland coast of Australia.

We’ll work out a plan and let you know!

A big happy birthday to Pezza!

Ko Phangan Photographs

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We had no firm plan other than we were flying to Samui on 19 September and wanted to end up on Ko Phangan for the Full Moon Party that takes place on 4 October.  After that we have a day’s rest before flying to Australia on 7 October, Pezza’s birthday.  As you’ll know we were seriously weighing up Bali due to the rainy season annoying us a little bit in Cambodia but we were sure the decision had paid off when we had a few days of uninterrupted sun on Samui.  We took the first couple of days as an opportunity to get some more luxury and we checked into the Six Senses, which is probably the best hotel in it’s category that we’ve ever stayed in.  Here’s a view of our private pool…

I’ve got a short Youtube video of the whole room, click here.

We left there after two nights and made our way to Chaweng Beach, the heart of Ko Samui.  It was dark when we left because we wanted to milk the 5-star comforts as much as possible, and it took a while to pack up the hotel towels and top up our shampoo & shower gel bottles from the hotel freebies.  We knew we were approaching Chaweng as the dive shops and 7 Elevens came thick and fast and the streets were awash with Newcastle United tattoos; very different to any of our destinations so far.

There were rooms at our first choice – the Ark Bar Hotel.  We were lucky that rooms near the back were free as this is the party sport of Chaweng Beach with stuff happening every night with the backdrop of fire throwers and kids trying to con you into a game of Connect 4 for 100 Baht. This was our first beach since we were in Nha Trang in August so we didn’t see too much of Ko Samui that wasn’t in and around Chaweng Beach.

After four nights we grew tired of the commercial nature of Chaweng and thought Ko Tao would be our tonic.  The boat trip was very rocky thanks to Tropical Storm Ketsana that has just wrecked the Philippines and some of Vietnam & Cambodia; even though it’s hundreds of miles away the winds here are higher than normal and the cloud cover fairly constant since we got to Ko Tao.

With the Full Moon Party looming, accommodation on Samui and Tao tend to be busier than normal in the week or two before and it took us a short while to find a bungalow.  It’s obvious that Ko Tao is a diving mecca, only Cairns issues more PADI licenses in the world and despite cheaper accommodation being harder to come by the island was very quiet and many of the famous party nights simply didn’t run but in the main centre of Sairee Beach there was always a bar that would be busy as well as many others showing films for those wanting to be free of a hangover for the morning dive.

Had the weather been better then we may have strapped on a tank of oxygen but we opted instead to hire a quad bike and set out exploring the various bays and beaches of the island.  Ko Tao is easilly explored in one day but if you’re not used to the roads then some of the steep dirt-tracks can prove too much – we weren’t the only ones to abandon one or two of the more testing tracks.  We finished our stay on Tao with a view of a spectacular sunset and had one last night’s sleep on a particularly terrible mattress before getting the boat to Ko Phangan.

We’re here for eight nights in total, much longer than anywhere else we have stayed but with the Full Moon occurring this Sunday it’s important to get here in good time if you want a base on Haad Rin, where the action takes place.  I’ll update you from Phangan in a few days!

Ko Samui & Ko Tao pictures via the Photo Page

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Last time, we attempted to whiz around the world in six weeks. We did this but felt, especially in Thailand, that we missed a trick. So, here we are, six weeks in, and we have spent the entire time in Southeast Asia. Those of you who know our 2007 trip will know that we spent nearly all of the time ‘five-starring it’. Our goal this time was to get more amongst it and stop off at one or two plush places along the way. If you discount the four nights we’ve pampered ourselves on this trip, our accommodation has cost us £636.60. Compare that to the £10,000.00+ we spent in 2007: Average of £16.75/night (£8.38 per person per night), compared to £238.00/night in 2007.

Typically we’ve been aiming for ‘mid-range’ accommodation, with air con and preferably a private bathroom, these usually go for circa $20 a night, including breakfast. Not bad for two people.

If you’re interested, the four nights’ luxury have cost us a total of £1002.00 (two nights in Nha Trang, Vietnam and two nights in Ko Samui, Thailand). This takes our total spend to £1638.60 at an average spend per night to £39.00, still well under the cost of a Travel Inn in the UK!

I think we’re done with the luxury now. As I write we’ve moved on from Chiang Mai (the subject of the last blog post) and have had the two nights’ uber opulence in the Six Senses on Ko Samui. We’re still on Ko Samui now but have moved accommodation to somewhere that doesn’t make the credit card get stopped and we are enjoying the party life on Chaweng Beach.

Before Ko Samui we were debating heavily on the next destination. The rains in Cambodia and Chiang Mai were getting a bit much and we seriously looked at Bali and the surrounding islands due to the fact it’s still dry season down there. After a hasty Lonely Planet purchase we looked at flights and possible accommodation. As you know we have been doing the accommodation on a whim when we’ve got to a destination but after a bit of research I found out it’s the Aussie school holidays at the moment and as a result Bali is pretty busy. With that in mind I looked at a few places to stay but they were all full; we didn’t fancy taking the chance so we stuck to the original plan and flew to Ko Samui where I’m pleased to announce the weather has been kind.

We’ll probably do another day or two here before getting the boat to Ko Tao where we’ll have a few more days before boating to Ko Phangan, home of the Full Moon Party on 4 October. ‘Beach’ is very much the current theme; after hopping from city to city over the last month or so we were craving some downtime. After these islands it’s on to Australia starting at Whitsundays, about three-quarters up the East Coast and we have our flight out of Sydney just over two weeks later to return home. We intend to take in two or three places down the East coast of Australia.

You can see all my pictures through my photo page and can also get details on where we stayed, how we got there, visas etc on my S.E. Asia 2009 page. If anybody needs any more details on these, drop me a line.

Four weeks to go…

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