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Goodbye Asia and HELLO Australia!
Hay everyone its 6.35am and me and Jo have just taken the very LONG overnight bus journey from Phi Phi up to Bangkok- yep you guessed it I'm in an internet cafe on Khosan Road! The journey involved a packed boat from Phi Phi -Krabi, and on arrival surviving a tropical storm which drenched all the travellers and their bags-RAINY SEASON HAS ARRIVED!! After this we were transfered onto lots of different buses and then eventually arrived here this morning!Our first bus had a leak which made loads of the seats wet, the second was mad and had disco lights and pumping music and the third was almost normal!! It's early here and we have time to kill before our flight into Melbourne tonight so I thought I would update you on my news over the past few days!
It's raining here at the moment and the weather has ceratinly changed from what it was when we arrived on sunny February 1st. It's moving into the rainy season so it seems we are leaving at the perfect time! Overall we have had 4 months in Asia and alot of this has been in Thailand and its beautiful Koh's! I know I will miss Asia alot....
Similan Islands
Now for my update on the Similan islands!I took a 4 night live aboard trip to these beautiful islands which are known around the world for their spectacular diving. This place didn't let me down, it's amazing and the diving one of the best I have experienced! We dived every day 4 times and even managed a few night dives! We visited lots of different dive sites around the similans but my favourite had to be Richelieu Rock and Koh Bon. Both these reefs had amazing amounts of fish and fan corals. I was lucky enough to see lots of large sting/ blue spotted rays, turtles, leopard sharks longer than me, cuttle fish having sex and at the same time changing colour, mini Nemo fish, octopus, puffer fish, white tip sharks, black tip sharks....
The sites were packed full of huge schools of fish which are great fun to swim through! This is as long as it's not a school of barracuda!!! Also saw lots of Moray eels which are cool but at night very scary!
The people on board the boat were lovely and my dive group all got along great and had a real laugh! They thought that my crazy hair underwater was hilarious!! My buddie and I managed to hunt out a very big leopard shark at ~35m and were even more lucky to go and lie beside the huge beast! I must say it had really beady eyes but didn't seem bothered by us lying beside it and taking pics with it! We only left when our dive computers started to beep and flash at us that we had to move to shallower water's or we would go into deco!
Overall a very memorable trip with fantastic diving and an added bonus was that the food was excellent. They attempted to feed us at just about every occasion so I was stuffed for the whole trip!Managed to win a game of poker one evening and also had afternoons of fun jumping off the top of the baot into the clear waters below!
So it's soon to be goodbye to Asia.... so what sticks in my mind about our 4 month stint here.....
- Sunrise at Ankor Wat-Cambodia
- The view of the Great Wall of China snaking into the hills
- Bartering with boat sellers at Halong Bay for a cheap bottle of wine
- Gekko's which wake you up at silly o'clock each morning
- The smell of incense burning at the Grand Palace-Bangkok
- Muesli with fruit and yogurt
- Pouched eggs on toast in Koh Tao, aswell as the spottie dog!
- My excitement of going on The Maglev train- Shanghai
- The hustle and bustle of Nathan Road in Hong Kong
- Vodka buckets on Had Rin beach- Koh Phagnan
- Our ski coats and thermals we wore in China
- Beautiful cast scenery and rock climbing-Phi Phi
- Sellers saying to you "same same" even though what you are buying is completely different to what you want!
- The noodles for 20 baht on Khosan Road
- Tiananmen Square kite sellers and Chinese tea house
- Long bus/train/boat journeys between destinations for "A very cheap price"
- Amazing Cambodian chicken curries
- The banter you can have with the locals
- The twin towers at night in Kuala Lumper
- Stunning views of the limestone peaks on bikes in Yangshou-China
- Air Asia flights which only allow you to take 15kg luggage (but don't care about how much junk you take on the plane!!)
- Haggling in Vietnam for Cadburys eclairs and fake Milky way's
- Clinging on for dear life to motorbike taxis in Hanoi taking us to a random club
- Shops in Japan which sell dog and cat clothing
- Diving at Koh Tao and learning to be a divemaster
- Chicken and vegetable fried rice
- The street children in Bali who stay up to all hours
- Our lunch boxes for long journeys- mainly filled with rice and fried mixed veggie (and on occasions spring rolls!)
- Sunset in Koh Tao
- Sumo wresting match in Tokyo
- Spy wine coolers and Samsung buckets at Lotus Bar- Sairee beach Koh Tao
- Ladyboys and prostitutes taking over Gulliver's on Khosan Road
- Getting suits made to measure in Hoi An-Vietnam
- The cheap but yummy biscuits on board the dive boat in Koh Tao
- The bullet train between Kyoto- Tokyo
- Haggling for hours at the markets in Beijing to purchase CK underwear and designer glasses
- Having scrambled egg on toast in bed-Shanghai
- Fresh pineapple, chicken and corn on the cob
- Lying beside a leopard shark - Koh Bon
- Jumping off the top of the boat in the Similans
- Pit -pat on Chawang beach- Koh Samui
- The view of the huge buildings from Victoria Peak-Hong Kong
- Lakeside stilt houses in Phenom Phem-Cambodia
It goes on but these are some of the first which came into my mind! Let's hope Australia brings many more happy memories.....
Aussie here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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