Cambodia-Temples

Of course a trip to Cambodia is not complete until you visit the temples at Angkor. A 5am start to the day, we traveled in the dark in our tuk tuk (motorbike taxi) to see the glory of Angkor Wat as dawn broke behind it. It was truly magical as the temple became bathed in pink hues. From there we spent the rest of the day temple hopping, seeing The Bayon, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm (where Tomb Raider was filmed), although at one point we though we might be left there as our tuk tuk had deserted us and we had to flag down another.  

Northern Thailand

Northern Thailand, where locals, businessmen, travelers and monks share the streets...

Times spent in the north was very different to that of the south. With no beaches to spend our days we got on our bicycles and set our exploring the many temples dotted around the cities. It can be unbearably hot walking around at times, with no way of cooling off apart from taking three showers a day (no such luxury of air con or swimming pools), bikes were definitively the way forward. 

In Ayutthaya; one of Thailand's early and most revered kingdoms, we discovered the ruins of ancient Khmer temples from the 14^thC hidden amongst the sprawling urban center. We visited the Karen Longneck tribe, immigrants from Burma they now reside in the Thailand's hillsides. Was interesting to see their villages and hear their story. Really enjoyed the north, felt a real sense of culture here where monks are offered food every morning and people pray in the streets. 

Similan & Surin Islands Liveaboard

 DIVE, EAT, SLEEP, REPEAT...


Spent 4 days and nights on the Andaman Sea 5 hours off Thailand's west coast. Most of the dive sites were made up of coral bombies and granite boulders which provided great swim-throughs and surfaces for soft corals to thrive. Felt like a holiday off from backpacking, we didn't have to budget or get our wallets our for 4 whole days. Oi the boats chef cooked up enough food to fuel our starving stomachs after 4 dives a day. 1st dives were at 6.30am and last dives we surfaced just as the sun was setting. Thai and dive crew were all good fun throughout the whole trip, the biggest smiles in Thailand. Thanks to Hugh our dive guide who showed us some incredible marine life from leopard sharks to seahorses and everything in between. What a laugh everyone had on the boat together, we hope this liveaboard will be the 1st of many!

Southern Thailand

Arrived in Thailand bright and early after a 12 hour night bus from Malaysia. Boarded a boat headed for the Phi Phi islands where we were met by a throng of people at the pier throwing bags off the boats and ushering you into their hotels. Leaving the hustle and bustle behind we wondered out to a quieter spot where we found a beach where you can snorkel with black tip reef sharks. Took a longtail boat to Phi Phi Lay where Maya Bay was made famous as the setting for the film "The Beach".

Had a couple of great days climbing on the limestone cliffs at the World renowned Railay. With hundreds of sports routes to choose from, any climber would be spoilt here. An overnight ferry took us to Koh Tao, a small island on the east coast of Thailand. Definitely an experience sleeping amongst 60 other people on the floor of the boat. Nang Yuang (sand bar islands) off Koh Tao were beautiful. Howard and I are sat here finding it hard to describe in words just how stunning it was; best to just see photo above. From Koh Tao we went to Phuket where we awaited pickup for our diving liveaboard trip...

Diving Mataking, Sabah

An hour boat trip out from Semporna we arrived at Mataking Island. The visibility was 25m plus, the coral was untouched and with only 6 people at the site we were spoilt on this dive. Some of the best spots were great barracuda, frogfish, ghost pipefish, scorpionfish and nidibranchs galore. We were so impressed with the coral at Mataking, rich in colour and biodiverse! Would definitely recommend Borneo to any divers.

Had a great time in Borneo, the people were some of the friendliest we've met so far...even if they don't understand you most of the time.

Sabah, Borneo

Borneo is such a large island we concentrated our traveling in the Malaysian state of Sabah in the north east of Borneo. Forests cover 60% of the Malaysian territory, however only 12% of these forests are considered pristine and unfortunately due to an increase in oil palm plantations (utilizing 15% of land area in Sabah) these rainforests are quickly disappearing, seeing this for ourselves whilst traveling between towns on long coach journeys. We loved seeing the orangutans "the wild man of Borneo" swinging through the trees in Sepilok rainforest where the rehabilitation project here has proven very successful.They made us laugh, we could have watched them all day with their human like traits. After much bartering in Semporna we got a local man to take us around the floating villages of the Bajau (sea gypsies). The early Bajau people lived their entire lives aboard their boats. Today, most live along the coasts perched on stilts over the shallow reefs where they continue their love affair with the ocean. A village with its feet in the sea. 

East Coast, Australia

Squashed into our little Hyundai Getz we travelled from Cairns to Sydney. Moving on most days we covered 4,000km stopping at some uniquely beautiful places. One of the best moments was watching a loggerhead turtle nesting on Mon Repos beach in the middle of the night and to top the evening off we also witnessed 100 or so hatching juvenile turtles make their big break to the ocean. Apparently they make straight for the EAC (East Australian Current) just like in Finding Nemo. Had some great days on the water exploring the Whitsundays and The Great Barrier Reef and arrived in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast just in time to watch the Quicksilver Pro surfing World Championships, seeing Kelly Slater in all his glory! Finished up in the Blue Mountains where we were greeted by a green version of the Grand Canyon; vast table plateaus and sandstone cliffs. In the morning the mist seemed to fill the Jamison Valley like water. What an end to a great month.