Woke at dawn

All of the animals are awake before us but they certainly tried their best to raise us from our slumber. The smell of bacon cooking certainly helps!

With a day of paddling ahead, we set off to ensure we arrived before the pickup time. We paddled with the boats close together so we could chat to each other. We snacked a lot to keep our energy levels up ;-)

We arrived half an hour early so had time for a swim in the river which was great. Our pick up arrived on time. We loaded the boats on the trailer and were whisked off back to our starting point.

After another great day, we drove home. All a little tired from our adventure, we treated ourselves to a well earned takeaway pizza!

Early birds

We needed to leave early for the hour long drive through the countryside. We packed the 'ute' (truck) with all of our camping gear, food, kitchen sink etc. etc.

The journey to Kangaroo Valley was very pretty. Many rolling hills and quaint little villages like we have back home. We stopped in Berry, a lovely country town for a short break and to refuel with delicious cinnamon coated doughnuts.

When we arrived in Kangaroo Valley, we battled through the flies and loaded our camping gear into waterproof barrels. We were then dropped at the river with 2 Canadian canoes as our trusty companions!

Paddling through the tree lined valley was amazing. We spotted cute kangaroos, furry wombats, huge eagles, water dragons (lizards) and could hear the cuccaboroughs laughing from the trees. Amazing!

We reached a great camping spot and set up all our gear. We heated up some food we had prepared the day before and started a camp fire. The fire was so good at keeping the bugs away and as the temperature dropped (a little), we huddled round for the night. A great adventure!

Preparation

This morning we decided to top up our camping equipment with a couple of cheap sleeping bags. So, back to the shops again. Although it is fairly warm at night here, we thought it likely to get a little chillier in a tent! We again paid a trip to Big W and purchased 2 wonderful Australian flag sleeping bags!

We tested our tent in our friends front garden as the back is so much like a rainforest... and actually managed to get the tent back in the bag!

The afternoon was spent preparing food for tomorrow's kayaking adventure to Kangaroo Valley.

The evening was spent relaxing in the hot tub until the the small hours ... chatting!

Wollongong

Today we jumped out of our nice cosy bed as it was shopping day! After our friends had headed to the office, we headed to the shops. We needed to get camping equipment!

We took a trip to Warragong as there is a few camping shops in the town and a few local local stores that sell everything! We started our search in a store named Big W, went on to Target, KMart, BCM etc. etc. We even extend the shopping trip to visit Shell Harbour. What a beautiful place. We saw some pelicans in the lake, some locals surfing at the beach.... Very nice!

Eventually, we loaded the car with a tent, sleeping mats, gas stove, lantern.... and now we should have most of the equipment we need for the planned weekend ahead.

After our shopping spree we visited a local hotel and restaurant with our friends for a meal. We both chose the most amazing 'Bonza Burgers' which were enormous. They had everything on them, from pineapple to betroot. We even managed to get a few questions right in the quiz that night, even though we weren't really taking part!

Airport Arrival

Our flight left at 01.45am! It took 9 hours to reach Sydney, though we slept most on the way...

We were collected from the airport by a very kind friend which was wonderful. We are staying with them for a few days before we head south. The house they live in is amazing. The garden is our favourite part. It is like living in a rainforest. The noise of the birds, frogs and other mysterious creatures is truly incredible!

We had dinner with the family on the decking outside and Christine made friends with a rather large huntsman spider! Yikes ...

Ferry

Up at 6am. Ferry left at 7am...

We caught the ferry back to Mersing. The sea was nice and calm for our trip back to the mainland. We had a few little items to shop for before we headed to the bus station. The bus to Johor Bharu was at 11.30, so we had a little time to spare.

As eating is our favourite pass time, we stocked up. Indian food seems to be the most easily accessible and we have taken rather a liking to rotis! On the TV in the restaurant we watched the British Academy Awards.

The bus left on time and we slept for most of the journey. In Johor we switched buses to head to Singapore. Having passed through passport control, we asked various people which bus to catch and getting different responses each time, we made our own decision and headed for the MRT. 2 buses and 2 trains later we arrived at our friend's house where we spent a lovely evening playing with their 2 little boys and enjoying a wonderful, home cooked South African dinner.

The Next Bay

After yesterday's little adventure, we decided to take it easy today. We ventured to the next bay which involved a 20 minute trek through the jungle.

The beach was wonderful and deserted other than 2 ladies catching some rays. There were some chalets and a little restaurant but nothing else, so very relaxing.

We decided to give the restaurant a try and ordered one vegetable dish between us. We are so glad we did as it was big enough to feed about 4!

There was a small pier which we walked along. You could easily see the bottom as the water was so clear. We spotted a number of stingrays swimming below and some magnificently coloured crabs.

The trip back through the jungle went quickly. There were so many tree roots to negotiate but we managed not to fall.

Back at ABC, we went snorkelling off the beach and stumbled across the wreck of a large sailing boat that appeared to have hit the coral and sank. We could make out some parts of the boat amongst the coral that had now taken hold. We spotted a huge puffer fish swimming nearby and the most beautiful coloured clams. Some of them were huge!

After drying off we headed out for our evening meal. The dish was made completely from scratch. In it we found cinnamon sticks, cardamon seeds, star anise ... Mmmm.

Trekking

This morning was a little cloudy, which was great. It meant we could attempt to trek across the island, through the rainforest and not get too hot! We followed a track into the forest and started to climb. The track took us deep into the forest where we saw monkeys, millipedes, squirrels and some giant ants, that really were enormous. Thankfully we didn't see any leeches or poisonous snakes. On the way we stopped at a little waterfall, which was cute. After 7km, we reached the other side. Here we ate lunch, stocked up on water and had a rest! The sounds of the jungle are amazing. From the constant drone of cicades to the singing of birds and the howling of monkeys. It has to be one of the nicest things ...

We set off after our well earned break. This time we walked much quicker as we covered the same distance in half an hour less. We were tired at the end but really enjoyed ourselves. After we shopped for tomorrow's breakfast we returned to our Mr Satay to refuel.

When we returned to our little bungalow, we continued our Scrabble challenge before retiring to bed exhausted!

Tioman

We arrived at Mersing on time at 3.30 am. We asked a local which way we had to walk to the jetty, to catch the boat to Tioman. After a short walk we arrived. There was nothing around but a closed ticket office and outdoor waiting room. We tried to get more sleep but the unfriendly mosquitos put a stop to that! Time passed ... 4am .... 4.30, yawn! A local man approached us and told us the boat goes at 7am and the price $35! Crikey, that sounded a lot. SCAM detected... as the ferry is tidal, it can only go at 10am today!

At about 8am the ticket office opened. Well, 2 men sat behind a desk outside the ticket office. Were the tickets they were selling real? It turns out they were so we bought 2.

We had some time to kill, so we thought we would eat breakfast at an Indian restaurant down the street. We had some huge dosas (like giant naan bread) and they were yummy!

The ferry eventually left at 10am. The journey fairly bumpy and it took around 2.5 hours on a fast boat. Tioman island appears to be covered in dense rainforest with expensive resorts hidden amongst the trees. We were the last stop. The name of the beach ABC. We tried a couple of beach bungalows and finally settled on a nice, clean one.

We sat and rested after our journey. A group of mischievous monkeys raided the bin of the bungalow next door but eventually they scampered off. Whilst we sat on the balcony a giant monitor lizard nearly 2 metres long strolled past. As soon as he saw us he bolted into the rainforest. Snorkelling gear on, we hit the beach. There was more sand than coral but there was loads of colorful clams and we saw a blue spotted stingray. The water was a little cooler than expected so we didn't stay in too long.

In the evening, we walked to the main town Tekek. We stopped on route to try these strange sticks made from mashed up fish. Quite delicious! We eventually found a small stall selling satay. We ate there and managed to find out from the owner a few ingredients that went into his delightful sauce. It was dark when we headed home but the track was lit. In the light we saw giant fruit bats hunting amongst the trees.

Haircut

Today, we woke up .... eventually! Our hostel is great but we don't have a window, so there is no natural light to wake us up. Even though breakfast is served just outside our room, the people staying there are so quiet, we can't hear them. Also there is not a single cockerel in KL! All this leads to ... sleep!

Eventually we surfaced and decided to go to the TBS bus station and secure a ticket for the night bus to Mersing. We checked the metro map and planned our route. As we arrived at our first interchange, we got off and went to find the next line we needed. What we didn't know is the line we wanted is owned by a different company and our ticket wasn't valid. However, by returning to our previous station and travelling the opposite way ... we could get there. So, we did.

Eventually we arrived at the TBS bus station, which was huge! There was one bus full and only one other bus leaving tonight at 10.30pm. We paid up for the night bus. The only teeny issue being that it takes 5 hours and we arrive at 3.30 am!

It was time for lunch and Little India was calling! 2 roti chennai later, we were full. Shopping was next on the agenda. We browsed through Little India to see what interesting things we could find. We stumbled across a textile museum and went inside. Basically, any museum is good if it has air conditioning to escape the afternoon heat. It was however, good with lots if traditional costumes on display.

As we headed back to our hostel, we decided Darryl could do with a haircut. We checked out in a few places but time was getting short so we thought we'd wait. Amazingly, back at the hostel we found a friendly young man who had just shaved his head with his set of clippers. We asked if he wouldn't mind us borrowing them and he kindly offered do cut Darryl's hair for him! 5 minutes later ... done!

We reached the bus station in plenty of time and found the nice, shiny, luxurious bus. As we had an early morning arrival, we decided to try and sleep. Just as we were nodding off the rest of the passengers arrived in the form of 2 groups of screaming teenagers! Sleep will have to wait ...

The long walk to Petronas Towers

First we walked through Chinatown and stopped to look in the colourful Chinese temple and then on to Central Market. We spent some time watching the local artists. One lady was doing a Batik painting, where you edge the pattern in wax before adding the colours. Another lady was creating amazing sand pictures in bottles.

Next we headed to Merdeka Square and saw the impressive Saltern Abdul Samad Building. We stood in awe of a beautiful couple, in their wedding attire, having their photos taken in front of the building. A photographer approached us and wanted to take our photo. He needed a picture of tourists, taking pictures with the impressive building as a back drop. The photo was to be used in a Malaysian business magazine called Focus. Christine took some time to prepare her hair and make up and the photo looked great! Models 'R' us ... here we come!

We went to the National Gallery and saw an amazing miniature reconstruction of Kuala Lumpur city centre and watched people making little wooden Petronas Towers for tourists to buy. We had our photo taken in front of the 'We Love KL' sign after standing neatly in line waiting for our turn!

We stopped in a mall to cool down from the heat and grab a drink and what did we find .... a chocolate museum. Too good an opportunity to miss! We learned all about the different chocolates and how they are made and the highlight .... chocolate tasting!! We tried strawberry, mango, tiramisu, hot chilli, green tea and peppermint.

We then walked on to the Petronas Towers and wandered around the shopping mall. In one perfume shop Christine was give a stunning red rose by a shop assistant. It had a code attached to allow you to try their skin ageing machine. The machine interestingly calculates the age of your skin! Christine sat with the beautician and had a go.... Not to miss out on the fun, Darryl was given a rose too. He also sat down and his skin age was revealed by the machine. Christine won't allow the results to be published but that in itself tells an interesting story as to who has the youngest looking skin ;-)

We then found a Harrods shop and restaurant! A nice girl on the tea counter offered us some Harrods Green Earl Grey tea to try - it was very nice.

In the evening we headed to a local satay restaurant for dinner. Chicken or beef was served on a skewer and the most incredible peanut sauce dip (satay) served with it. It was food heaven!

Up, up and away!

The buzz of the alarm clock woke us at 6am for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We had booked the hotel car to drop us at the airport. We think it was the hotel owner's car but it cost the same as a tuk tuk, which was great.

We made sure we arrived early as it was an international flight, however, the check in desk was a little behind schedule opening. We are travelling light with hand luggage only. At each airport we have to fine tune the weight of our bags, so as not to have to put them in the hold!

There was a problem with flying through Bangkok airspace due to military restrictions. It delayed our take off by about an hour. We landed at KL and caught the bus straight to the city. On the bus our peace and quiet was bought to an end, when the global text notification kept interrupting ... Every bus, train, boat and tuk tuk journey all over Asia, someone has had this same tune on their phone. It's even more popular than Coca Cola and David Beckham!

A short walk and a few asks brought us to our hostel, right in the centre on Chinatown. Our first impression ... KL is HUGE!

So far we have asked directions and were offered to sit and join the kind man whilst he 'Googled' a route for us. We ate amazing food at a little restaurant and the friendly man on the next table chatted to us. He gave us some travel advice and bought us a 'welcome to Malaysia' ice tea! Next, we visited a beautiful Hindu temple. Some of the local Hindu worshipers called us over to a table. They issued us a banana leaf each, filled it with incredible food and a dessert - for free - as a welcome to their temple! We have only been in Malaysia for about 3 hours and have received the most incredible hospitality. Having come from Laos, there could not be a greater contrast! WOW ...

Tonight we have been exploring. KL is beautifully decorated for the Chinese new year with pretty lights. There are many bars, restaurants and shopping centres all over the city. We have been to see the famous Petronas Towers, the symbol of KL. They are soooo impressive all lit up! See for yourself ...

Vientiane

Woke up early this morning to upload loads of photos to the website. Take a look at ....

http://www.vengara.co.uk/photos.html

Next, we went to explore the city. There was lots of temples to see. Some were closed but one of the temples contained a huge gold Buddha statue! It was approaching lunchtime so we tried to spot somewhere to eat. We watched as locals on their lunch break flocked to one particular place and all they served was 'Chicken Rice'. The number of customers told us this must be the place to eat! It was a good decision, the food was great.

We continued our walk and came upon a huge, very grand looking building. It was the Laos National Cultural Hall. We wandered in to have a look and discovered they are having an Indian film festival with Bollywood movies showing for free, so we stayed and watched. Luckily there was English sub-titles. The movie was really, really good. We think it was based on a little known king and his queen love story from the past...

We returned to the theatre in the evening to watch a wonderful Indian dance portrayal of the Ramyana (Rama and Sita). The dancing was great and the music too! In reception they were selling chai (Indian tea), so we had to grab a cup. On the Indian theme, we ate once again at the great Indian restaurant. Tomorrow, we fly ... Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

Back of the bus

The bus was packed out for our trip to Vientiane. We had the back seats which are always the worst as you feel every bump in the road and we did!

The journey went well. The driver drove cautiously and we were taken to the centre rather than an 'out of town' bus station. The first few hotels we tried were fairly damp and mouldy but eventually we found a more expensive hotel, so asked there. They had cheap rooms in the attic, next to the staff quarters which were nice and clean.

It is Sunday today and the whole area is very quiet. Maybe tomorrow will be different. We ate lunch in a busy local restaurant before strolling along the Mekong and settling under a shady tree in the park. There are certainly more singing birds than people. From where we were sat, we could see a huge statue but we were not sure who it might be. It looked like a dictatorial leader by the pose or possibily an army general?

We managed to find a nice little Indian restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious, so we may have to visit again. There was an interesting night market along the river and where all the people came from, we really don't know. Tonight the whole town is buzzin'!

Late Start

No rush ... After a lazy start we managed to motivate ourselves to buy our bus tickets for tomorrow to Vientiane. We are being picked up at 9am, so not too early this time.

We said goodbye to a group of American girls we had met a couple of times as they are catching their bus to southern Laos and it is a 20 hour journey! Ours, at 3.5 hours seems like a dream...

We had lunch in a small cafe, whilst watching Friends. Fairly tricky to avoid as it is not just playing downstairs in our guesthouse but in nearly every single bar and restautrant in Vang Vieng, all day and night!

In the afternoon we took a walk along the Mekong River. There was a cool breeze which was certainly welcome. We passed fields of cows, small sun shelters for the local workers and saw some pretty butterflies. We rested under the shade of one of the shelters watching the banana trees grow,before walking back along the river across the bamboo bridge and back into town.

The friendly man was at the market today but wasn't making his little fresh cakes, so we had to settle for the dreaded doughnuts ;-) After demolishing a few and saving some for breakfast, we headed to visit the quieter end of town. There was a nice temple with many vibrant colours and a lady selling more snacks. We tried part of what looked like a giant omlette. It was very salty and hidden discretely inside ... red hot chilli peppers. No, not those superstar pop idols but the little veggies that can burn when you eat them, and they did!

Afterwards, we decided we had not eaten enough today and stopped at a great little cafe for some veggie fair before heading back to Friends episode 126! The rest of the evening we battled with the internet to try and book future travel!

Walk out of town

After a good nights sleep, we ate our healthy breakfast of fruit before searching the Internet for things we need for the next part if our trip. It always seems to take longer than we expect and before we knew it, it was lunchtime!

In the afternoon we went in search of a lagoon, which is supposed to be really pretty and great for swimming. It is quite far from the town but we thought we'd try to walk. We would have had a greater chance of finding it had we followed the correct path but we ended up at a cave. The route was very pleasant, through farmers fields and short jungle sections.

After arriving back in Vang Vieng, we explored a small temple. There seemed to be something special happening as there was a stage set up and lots of games for the kids to play. We walked to the market to buy some snacks but the friendly man from yesterday wasn't there. Everything else was covered in flies so we gave snacks a miss and went for dinner. Following on we went to grab desert at one of many street stalls. There is about 50, all selling the same thing ... banana pancakes! They call this part of Laos the banana pancake trail for good reason. If the tourists like anything, it is surely banana pancakes!

A long journey

It is very interesting catching a bus in Laos. There appears to be some underlying 'darkness' that inflates tourist tickets considerably. Bus stations are located out of town, even when the town only consists of 2 streets. It is too far to walk into town, so you have to take a fixed price tuk tuk. We are fairly sure the minibus dropped us off today at the bus station. We then transferred to an equally sized minibus and travelled back the way we came on a parallel road to be dropped off in town, of course we had to pay again! We are beginning to see why people we are meeting are cutting their time in Laos short and heading back to Thailand.

Our bus today lasted about 6 hours from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. The driver drove rather fast round the tight bends and we saw 2 worries overturned!. There were many people from China on the bus being sick, which must be horrible for them and not great for us either! The scenery was wonderful with huge hills and limestone karsts filling the view. We had several rest breaks, some for the driver to say hi to his friends and family and others to visit the WC. One place we stopped had a huge clear jar on the counter with a small tap for filling a cup from. Inside the jar was ... what looked like the remains of a bear. Yuk!

We must have entered the standard tour route through Lao as today we saw a huge overland tour truck full of European looking faces. There was also a huge amount of minibuses stopped at view point to let their passengers take snapshots.

Eventually we made it safe and sound. We checked into a guesthouse some girls had recommended. It was right in the centre of what is known throughout Laos as the party town. We have ear plugs, so should be ok! The main draw for here is tubing down the river and zip line across the river. There have been many deaths over recent years and the Government has closed many bars. However, you wouldn't think so, this place is like Ibiza! People on go carts, quadbikes racing around the street, drunken behavior, English menus etc. etc. It is not what we are in Laos to see and is horrible to think what tourism has done to this town! We stopped here to break the journey as we head out of Laos in a few days but that's ok, we can relax and watch back to back episodes of Friends in the bar downstairs! Really?!

Looking around ...

We left the guesthouse and headed straight to the sites of Luang Prabang. It is a very pleasant city to walk around and there are so many temples to see. We walked down to the Mekong river and along the beach. Small boys were swimming in the rapids.

The boys jumped in the river then drifted with the current, just avoiding the huge rocks and then scrambled out further down the beach. It looked fun but just a little dangerous!

We continued on towards the first temple, then the second, then the third... There were so many, all beautifully decorated in gold!

We stopped and ate a French baguette with bacon and salad to revive our energy a little. Further down the street, we revived our energy a little more with noodle soup! It was getting hot, so we sat for a while in the shade of the restaurant and chatted to a friendy girl from Holland.

As it cooled a little, we climbed the hill in the centre of town. We didn't go right to the top but skirted round and made our way down through a local housing area. The view through the trees of the river was great. Many slow boats made their daily journeys along the river.

When darkness arrived, we walked to the night market. There was lots of beautiful things to buy, all handmade. We were certainly tempted to fill our bags but managed to resist. We discovered a nice restaurant serving noodles for a good price, so decided to give the notorious night market buffet a miss!

Kicking back

Today .... we did very little, other than relax!

This morning we woke up early to visit the market but as it was Sunday, it seemed to have finished early and most people had packed away. We continued on and checked the times of the bus to Luang Prabang.

We drank coffee .... and then more coffee! When the sun poked through the morning mist, we did some washing. Yawn. Then relaxed ...

We took lunch with our neighbours in the next room. Garlic soup. No vampires will dare come anywhere near us tonight. Then we relaxed ...

When it was a little cooler we walked about an hour to a small, pretty village by the river. Water buffalo gathered in the fields. We lazily strolled back before it got dark.

We decided to spend our last night eating at our favourite restaurant across the street accompanied by wonderful neighbours!

On the water

It was a little chilly when we left our room this morning to take the boat back to Nong Khiaw. The mist was hanging in the hills setting a lovely scene. Whilst we stood on the riverbank, a young fellow drifted past. He had bought himself a machete, cut down some thick bamboo and made himself a raft. He was camping on the sandy beaches and had constructed his paddle from a long piece of bamboo with his scuba diving fins tied to the end. What an adventure!

The boat journey took us downstream through a few short rapids and we arrived safely in NK. We walked back to the guesthouse we had stayed in before and ate lunch in the little Indian restaurant ... again! We waited for the heat of the day to subside before walking the 3km out to the cave. The walk was very pleasant through beautiful scenery. The cave was quite large and people used it to hide in during the war.

We arrived back at our guesthouse just as it was getting dark. We then spent the evening chatting to our friendly English neighbours. They are independent travellers too and shared some amazing stories with us. Oh, almost forgot to mention ... they are in their 70's!