yay.. i have put up some Thailand photos.. check em out!
Location: Melbourne - home, Australia
..I'm home!!! :o)
Location: Koh Tao, Thailand
...and so begins the journey from Koh Tao to Perth via Bangkok & Singapore over three or so days via taxi (aka sitting on the back of a ute), ferry, bus, overnight train & two planes! :o)
Location: Koh Tao, Thailand
You never imagine a place to actually be picture perfect.. but this place is! It is just beautiful!
Can't believe I'll be home week after next.. how time flies!!
Location: Chang Mai, Thailand
We caught an overnight train lastnight from Bangkok to Chang Mai after spending the day taking a boat up the river and then a tuktuk to go visit the beautiful temple of Wat Arun. Also squeezed in some shopping on Khosahn Road which was great & very reasonably priced.
This morning we arrived in Chang Mai around 7am and got a lift to the hotel where we were able to check in straight away (phew!). We all showered and felt refreshed, had some breakfast and then while some went on a learning how to cook trip, three of us with our tour guide, Sunet, hired biked for the day (50 baht each) and he showed us around Chang Mai and to the old temple. Had a great day.. even though I feel like a tomatoe (!!) -I had to throw out my sunscreen after it leaked ALL over my bag! -Thankfully it was at the bottom so didn't get on any of my clothes, but I had to save my towel and sleeping bag!
Tonight we are having a group dinner and then tomorrow we head off on a trek to visit a hilltribe, which I am really looking forward to! :o)
..And now.. off to find my aloe vera gel!
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Gday! Wow, I am in Thailand! Yippee! It is absolutely amazing here -so different to anything I've ever experienced before!
I am heading off on my Intrepid Trip today so won't be 'connected' to the world -will write more when we get back to Bangkok in 9 days :oD
xoxoxoxoxo
Location: Heathrow Airport, England
Well.. I'll try and keep this short.. at a pound per 10mins!
I had another wonderful day today sightseeing. It has certainly been a productive day! I got up early, did all of my washing, caught up on some emails, checked out by 10am and then spent the rest of the day sightseeing. ..My feet are so incredibly sore!!
I went to so many places it's hard to remember them all!
I started by going to Kings Cross Station.. to keep the Harry Potter theme going from yesterday and so naturally, I had to go see platform 9 3/4. Unfortunately my camera battery died so I had to go buy a disposable one, wasn't too bad though as it was buy one, get one free! ..Not sure if everyone got that deal though, the guy who was serving me said i had a cute voice -maybe it worked in my favour?! ..I wonder if he was hoping for my number!? ..hehe ah well. Oops!
So from Kings Cross I headed to Leicester Square again and this time past Haagan Daz without going in for icecream! (The self-restraint was commendable in my opinion!)
I stopped at the Swiss clock as it was nearly 1pm in hope that I would see it do it's little chime and dance but unfortunately it didn't so I walked down to the National Portrait Gallery. There are some incredibly talented artists in this world! The diversity in the style of art was really interesting. I could've sworn some of those portraits were photographs they were so life-like! So that was lovely (and free! -which was great!).
From there I walked to Trafalgar Square and took a few photos before catching the tube to see the Tower Bridge. I walked over to the southern side of the Thames and headed down to the Fire Brigade Museum however unfortunately it is only open by appointment and I'd missed the last tour for the day by an hour. -It will have to go on the to-see list for next time!
After that I walked back over the Thames and took a photo of the Tate Modern Museum -no time to go in though.
Then I caught the tube to Westminster Abbey & Big Ben. I was going to walk there but my poor little feet were feeling a little worse for wear by that stage!
I decided I had a little bit of time left so quickly headed up to Buckingham Palace, took a few quick photos and then headed to Hyde Park Corner to catch the tube back to the hostel where I'd left my bags for the day.
After that I walked back to the station and caught the tube to Heathrow, had to squeeze my handbag into my carry on luggage as you are only allowed one bag through xray (!!!!), including your handbag! -When the lady at the check-in told me I didn't believe her ....silly me! They were being very strict -everyone was getting patted down as they came through. Didn't have to take our shoes off like in America though. It's funny how every country does it so differently!
Well.. time to dash.. my flight has just been called for boarding.. can't belive my second leg is about to be over! Am scared but excited about seeing Thailand. Am excited about doing the Intrepid Tour thoguh as I've never done an organised tour before and the itinerary sounds incredible! Hopefully will meet some nice people on the tour too.. always a bonus!
Will upload the rest of my photos when I get back to Oz and will write my next diary entry from Thailand! Yay!
Location: London, England
I had a wonderful day today! I caught up with Sarah and we went to see the new Harry Potter movie (-I resisted buying popcorn!), after which we went to Madamme Taussaud's -where we saw none other than Harry Potter! Got lots of great pics!
After a cruisy day we went to Haagan Daz icecream resteraunt and i had the most disgusting icecream! -IT WAS DELICIOUS! yum!
Then I met up with Jeanne and we had dinner at a burger place, followed by desert at.. yep.. you guessed it! ..Haagan Daz! -I am definately ice-creamed out for a while now I think!
It was a really great day and awesome to catch up with both Sarah & Jeanne.
Location: England, UK
Ello ello! ..I have had a wonderful week catching up with friends. I've decided I'm just about sightsee'd out (is that a word?!?!) so I will have to muster up some enthusiasm before Friday when I arrive in Thailand.. however I imagine being nothing like I have ever experienced before, that shouldn't be a problem!
I arrived in England last Tuesday. I have caught up with so many friends it's been great! The run down...
Tue: Emily & her bf Aaron (Grade 1 & 2 (AIS), Belgium, 1989)
Wed: Michael (High School (Billanook), Australia, 1993-1998)
Thur-Sat: Sally & her parents Wendy & Graeme (Grade 2 & 3 (AIS), Belgium, 1989-1990)
Sun: Alex & her bf Rob (Grade 5 (ICS), Switzerland, 1991-1992)
Mon: the Hills (family friends from when we lived in Harpenden, 1982-1986)
I must say it was wonderful catching up with everyone & having an abundance of home cooked meals and comfortable beds to sleep in -quite a novelty! Many stories shared and good times had.
Tomorrow I am catching up another friend, Sarah who I know from skydiving from back home & Jeanne whom I met when I was travelling in LA.
..So a little bit of sightseeing & seeing a few more friends and then on Thursday I am off to Thailand for three weeks. Sorry but you'll have to wait till I get back to Oz for the next round of photos!!
Hope everyone is well.. wherever in the world you may be! :o) xoxo
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
I tried my best to get my photos up to date since I've been at dad's but the rest might have to wait I'm afraid!
I have uploaded photos up until the end of my national parks tour at Yosemite NP (California) & I also uploaded photos from my mini holiday with dad here in Europe.
So that only leaves Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto & New York, as I've already uploaded my Niagara Falls pics.
....nearly there!
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
I am so glad I planned this trip the way I did. It has been amazing and I wouldn't have wanted to do it any other way!
I got to spend an amazing leg in North America, flying around and then driving through some of the most amazing national parks in the world over four weeks. That was followed by a three day train ride to Chicago, through some beautiful countryside on which I met some great people. I then crammed three cities into a week -it was a bit much I must admit, but I am not a city person so it was okay.
Then, exhausted after 8 weeks of non-stop travelling through USA and a little of Canada I arrived here in Zurich to stay with Dad for three weeks. I had planned on doing a little travel around Europe while I was here, but it occurred to me that the rest of the trip I will be on the go, so I took the opportunity to have a rest for a while, put my feet up and do a whole lot of nothing! -And it was great!
But now my rest is over! Today I take a bus, tram, train, train and plane to England, followed by three or so more trains to get to my old school friend's place in London, Emily. We went to school together in Belgium back in grade 2 and 3 and Dad and I caught up with Emily's sister, Anita and her boyfriend Chris for dinner when they were here in Zurich. I haven't seen Emily since grade 3 so it will be really exciting to see one another again!
Then tomorrow I head down to Southampton to visit a school friend from Melbourne who is living and working in England at the moment. That will be followed by a trip to Stonehenge on Thursday and then on to another school friend's place in Oswestry. Sally and her parents and my family have kept in touch ever since we were at school together with Emily in Belgium -I am really looking forward to seeing them again too!
And if I hadn't caught up with enough friends by then I am hoping to get over to Birmingham briefly at some point to visit an old school friend from when we lived here in Zurich, Lisa and then on Sunday I train it to a little place near Cambridge to visit another school friend from Zurich, Alex.
From there I am heading to our old town of Harpenden, where we used to live between '82-'86 and I'm visiting family friends there before heading in to London for a few days of sightseeing, and.. yep! you guessed it! catching up with a friend from skydiving in Australia and Jeanne, an aussie I met in Los Angeles who is now working in England!
Then, most probably entirely exhausted, I hop on a plane to Bangkok on Thursday 19th July.
So it will be a busy week or so, but will be absolutely fantastic!
I'm not sure when I'll next be online but I will try my best to keep my blog and you all updated of my travels! :o)
Hope you are all well xoxo
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I drove Dad to the airport today -he is off to Australia for 3 weeks holiday. But that meant I had to drive back to his apartment without directions in a left-hand drive, manual car! AND I made it!! Yaaay! Hehe.
I felt great getting back in one piece and I didn't even switch the GPS man on!
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Well.. I am endeavouring to catch up on my blog entries from north america so to save you the time of working out which ones are new I'll tell you! :o) ..More to come in the next few days, and photos too.
23 May - Zion NP
24 May - Canyoneering Trip
25 May - Las Vegas
27 May - Three Rivers
28 May - Sequoia NP
Enjoy the reading!! :o) xoxo
Location: Chamonix, France
..it's raining, it's pouring.......
and we are inside the hotel, nice and dry, hoping this weather will pass and the clouds will lift so that we can at least get a good view of Mont Blanc while we are here!!!
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Well, sufficiently relaxed after a few weeks staying at dad's place in Zurich, today we are heading off on a short holiday down just over the border into Italy and France. We are going to Ilanz to have lunch with an old friend of mine, Julia. She and I did an exchange to/from Mainz, Germany in Year 10 (in 1996), each for three months. We've kept in touch ever since, so it will be great to see her again! She is now working as a doctor in Ilanz.
From there we are heading to a little place called Andermatt for the night and then tomorrow will head over the mountains, rather than through the St Goddard tunnel -figured the view would be better going over the top! :o)
We are going to Locarno, Ascona and a view other places along the lake there before heading west across to Chamonix, Geneva and then we will drive up to Lausanne and back home to Zurich on Thursday.
We are going to be driving through some beautiful countryside! :o)
We considered driving back through St Moritz, but I really want to see Mont Blanc. I was originally planning on doing this trip last year and doing a hike in the Mt Blanc area, organised by The Cancer Council back home, to raise money to find a cure for cancer and Mum also visited the area on her round the world trip in 1974, so it was somewhere I really wanted to see this trip. :o)
Well, I will update my blog when we get back to Zurich, and I will try to fill in the blanks from my american leg of the trip then too, before I head to England on 10th July!! -Oh, and there are still a few photos to get up-to-date too, so I will endeavour to do that next week.. keep your eyes peeled! :o)
..i love holidays!!
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Have been rather slack with the diary entries but I've uploaded some more photos today :o)
The new pages are (they are listed in chronological order):
- Universal Studios
- Death Valley National Park
- On the road to Three Rivers
- Sequoia National Park
- Yosemite National Park I
- Ghost Town of Bodie
- Mono Lake
Enjoy!!
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
After 7 hours on the plane I've arrived in Zurich, greeted by dad at the airport! Boy was it good to see him! :o) ..As for me now though I'm off to have a nap!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Location: New York, USA
Today certainly wasn't meant to be a long day, but it turned out to be after I spent nearly an hour at the World Trade Centre Memorial Gallery. It is so moving. I can't begin to imagine the pain the thousands upon thousands of people effected by 9/11 must have felt, and the emotional scars that will be left with them for life.
This trip has been a dream for so long and one mum and I talked about and discussed every so often. I remember flying back from our trip to Europe after I finished school in 1998. I'd spent my 18th birthday in London and Dad had flown over from Switzerland. It was kind of weird us all being there, Mum, Dad, Paul & I, in London, to celebrate my 18th -but it will be a day I will remember forever. In the airport on the way home I bought a map of the world and I circled all the places I wanted to go on my round the world trip, which at the time was only a dream. Mum told me stories of her trip around the world in 1974. When I began planning the details of this trip last year I found that map and I've thought of it and those stories often. I am sure there are plenty more I never got to hear.
I've been thinking of mum often this week -probably as I have been to so many places and am feeling tired and a little home-sick. Whenever I go to a new place and see something amazing I think, 'Mum would love to see this/be here" and I wish I could just call her up and tell her all about it, but instead I trust that she's with me the whole way, watching me from above.
Going to the 9/11 Memorial Gallery today made me realise just how lucky Paul, I and all of my family were to spend as much time as we did with mum and tell her that we loved her before she passed away.
That's something we can all cherish forever.
Location: Toronto, Canada
Wow, 3 cities in a week! 2 down.. 1 to go & then I fly to Zurich to see dad.. yay!
Wow, I took a tour to Niagara Falls today.. It certainly looks much more incredible than it did when I looked it up on Google Earth, that's for sure!
Have seen and done SO much I hope I don't forget before I catch up on all my diary entries.
Hope everyone's well, wherever you may be :o)
xoxo
Location: San Francisco, USA
I just arrived in San Francisco today. Have decided I've so many journal entries to catch up on that I am going to sit down when I get to Dad's in Zurich and write them all then, along with uploading all my photos!
Have had an amazing few weeks seeing all of the national parks but am glad to be giving the rental car back on Sunday! I've had enough driving for the time being! Am looking forward to the extraordinarily long train journey to Chicago where I cna put my feet up and enjoy the view :o)
Hope you are all well xxoo
Location: Sequoia National Park, USA
Saw the biggest living thing on the earth today!! -The Giant Sherman sequoia tree. It was quite impressive they could grow to be so enormous! The people looked like little ants in comparison to the size of the tree! Quite amazing!
I really enjoyed Sequoia National Park, it is beautiful and was lovely to be in a forrest, surrounded by trees and nature again after spending so much time in the deserts of Arizona, Utah and Nevada!
We were going to go to Kings Canyon National Park on our way to Yosemite also, but the day was getting on and we were told Sequoia was the one to really see, so we left it at that, however we did kind of go to Kings Canyon as you have to drive through part of Kings Canyon NP when visiting Sequoia NP! ..don't think it really counts though! hehe
We are staying at a lovely hostel near Yosemite NP, called The Yosemite Bug. We are in a room with six bunks all to ourselves which is great -no snoring or stranger's smelly feet! Yay!
