My South East Asia adventure begins!

Bangkok + Chiang Mai

After a last minute panic at Auckland airport, where I had 3 minutes to book a flight out of Thailand before they would let me have my boarding pass (apparently you have to prove that you are leaving before you enter the country these days...) I made it to Bangkok! Bangkok is just as busy and manic as I had imagined. I had to walk down Koah San Road with all my luggage to get to my hostel. I spent my first fall day in Bangkok looking around the biggest market I've ever been to, selling everything including puppies and kittens. However tempted I was to pick up a few kittens I realised it wasn't practice. It took me a while to work out the food situation, unfortunately Bangkok has a rather unpleasant smell and the food looks kind of odd too but after tasting a few things i worked out that it actually tastes pretty amazing. That evening I headed out onto Koah San Road, had such a fun evening until my wallet got stolen from my bag :( :( Not good news at all as all my cards where in the wallet. So family to the rescue once again and I have been surviving on the good old western union money transfers ever since. After this incident I was pretty ready to leave Bangkok but made the best of it and visited some temples and sorted out my sleeper train for getting up to Chiang Mai. On my final day in Bangkok I was so ready to get out of there that I just chilled in the hostel and watched films. The sleeper train in the evening was really cool. Nice and spacious and really well air conditioned. Arriving into Chiang Mai I knew straight away that I was gunna love it. It was so relaxed, my hostel had a pool and the streets were less rammed. I actually enjoyed spending time walking around the city and seeing the temples without being harassed by tuk tuk drivers or people trying to sell you stuff. I had a couple of Thai massages in Chiang Mai, they were run by ex female prisoners as the result of an employment initiative set up by the government. The Thai massage feels like you back is being broken but it feels pretty good after. My highlight of Chiang Mai has got to be visiting the elephant sanctuary. It was such a beautiful experience, the elephants were so comfortable with humans and were treated so well by a family that live up in the mountains where the elephants live. We fed them and washed them which is how they should be treated, not this elephant riding which is not fair treatment of these precious animals. I also enjoyed a day trip to the north of Chiang Mai near the boarder where we sore a beautiful white temple with a super hero theme which was kind of random. We also visited a tribe where the woman stretch there necks with gold rings, I was a bit uncomfortable to see especially on the children and it's not actually clear why they do this but I guess they are just carrying on tradition. After a wonderful week in Chiang Mai it was time to head into Laos. So far I have spent two nights here in Laos after flying in on the smallest plane I've ever been on. You can definitely see the difference between Thailand and Laos, it's a little more basic and you can tell that the people are far less used to tourists here. I have already seen and swam in  beautiful waterfall with the bluest water I have ever seen. I also went to the only bar in the city and everything closes at 11 which is kind of unusual but I suppose it's just where Luang Prabang is such a quite town! Now onto back packer central Vang Vieng! 

J x

Goodbye New Zealand

My time on the kiwi bus came to an end in Queenstown after a really fun time, the Nevis swing was so much fun and I had such a good time on the wine tour with my kiwi bus buddies Jess & Jade. Sadly I began to feel a bit under the weather so the best plan for me was to end my Kiwi experience on a high and get back to Auckland to stay with my family friends Jon, Liz and Harriet. I have spent my time recovering and getting better, ready for Asia. My backpack saw its last legs here in NZ so I picked up a new backpack in Auckland along with other essentials for my Asia leg of the trip. I had a delicious meal at the Orbit in the sky tower, it's a revolving restaurant so you get 360 degree views of the city. I've had an amazing time in New Zealnd and thank you to everyone who made it so wonderful. Bring on Thialand!!

Kiwi experience bus - South Island!

After a fab time in Wellington I hopped back on the big green bus to cross over to the south island on the ferry. Truth be told i didn't even look out of the window on this ferry, we were so knackered from the big night out before that we set up camp in the corner of the cafe a slept the whole way. Our first stop in the south was a little beach town called Kaiteriteri, this was a really relaxed stop, i sunbathed on the beach during the day and we had beach parties in the evening. I was only scheduled 2 nights here but i added on an extra night last minute because the weather and scenery was so beautiful. Next stop was Westport where I did a horse trek through the native bushes and through a number of stunning rivers too. I didn't get to the chance to see the town unfortunately but we had a beach bonfire which was pretty fun, we then had a 30 minute stumble back to the hostel ready for an early start in the morning. Our next destination was Lake Mahinapua which was essentially a pub in the middle of nowhere, the purpose of this stop was the infamous kiwi experience fancy dress party. Our theme was "i'm glad i'm not..." so naturally me and my friends Jade, Jess and Bex dressed up as these lads from our bus, they are farmers from Devon so our costume consisted of an "i love Devon" t shirt and farmer props such as a sheep and a pitch fork. Our costume came 3rd place and we won one bar crawl between the four of us...Franz Joseph was our next stop, famous for its glacier on the mountains.We managed to get ourselves a "flashpacker" room which had a bathroom, kettle and sky tv wooo. Franz Joseph town was lovely, some great restaurants and bakery's. Definitely the beast hostel we stayed at, great bar and a hot tub that could fit 20 people in! I did a few little walks of my own free will on my free day in Franz Joseph, didn't make it to the glacier though but could view it from afar. After potentially the longest and most horrific bus journey from Franz Joseph we arrived in Wanaka.Wanaka had a beautiful lake front and was surrounded by mountains.As a town it is the definitely the place the reminded me of Shoreham, small but still had stuff going on. It was the first time in a long time that we actually saw local people here, had a great evening out and by this point i was ready to get to Queenstown.On the way to Queenstown we stopped of to watch some bungy jumpers which was quite entertaining.I've got some exciting activities lined up for Queenstown including the Nevis swing which is the world biggest swing, you are suspended 160 meters from the canyon floor and then dropped.. My friends Jade, Jess and I have also treated ourselves to a wine tour, visiting a number of different vineyards and wineries.The next few days should be pretty sweet as.

J x