Final blog entry.

hey guys,

You'll be glad to hear my last day snowboarding bought with it my biggest crash of the week. Nice big blow to the head. but still as pumped about snowboarding as ever.

After leaving Queenstown, i headed up to Christchurch. its a beautiful city. Very English in design. i was there for 3 days spending loads of time in the gardens situated in the heart of the city. my flight to Rarotonga went smoothly until arrival where me and 2 dutch guys also staying at Vara's beach House were told to jump into a mini van that took us to the other side of the island. luckily we managed to get a taxi and 3.30am around the island.

The backpackers hostel im staying in is stunning, with it decking overlooking Muri beach. It is paradise. Yesterday bought with it the chance to go spear fishing. was such good fun. A group of 8 guys with spear guns hunting trumpet fish. i only had mild success catching the smallest fish of the day. but i was 1 of only 2 who caught anything, thank god our guide caught loads. Nice fish and chip dinner after!

Tonight i fly out of the Cook islands to Auckland for the first leg of my return journey. a nice 16 hour stop over in Auckland is followed by a 26 hour flight via Hong Kong to home!!!!

see everyone on Thursday!!!

how long has this been,

been doing some amazing things in New Zealand. today for example i went snowboarding for the first time, and was surprisingly good at it! tomorrow brings the black slopes.

yesterday i achieved one of the greatest things i will ever do. i jumped off the highest bungy in NZ. the Nevis. 134m in 6.5 secs. what a great feeling.

The past few days i've been caving, jumping into ice covered water, climbed the Franz Josef glacier, been to a Maori village for dinner, done another bungy jump in Queenstown, grade 5 Whitewater rafting, kayaking in a subtropical jungle which lead onto the Glacier!! and so much more that ive forgotten.

tomorrow bring more snowboarding. which is the best thing i've ever done i feel. Then Saturday brings me to Dunedin for the All Blacks VS France. first game since the world cup defeat. should be a cracker.

hope all is well.

bungy #1, Done!

hey guys,



See i have been able to keep this thing update more regularly recently. everything is now in place for me to leave on Wednesday morning. The route I'll be taking you can check out by clicking the link at the bottom.

Today i was dropped off in the big bad city to fend for myself for a night. needless to say i am safe and well 8 hours into my ordeal. After getting lunch and the normal sights of the city i made my way down to the harbour for my big bungy jump!!(photos available soon). the jump itself came surprisingly easy to me. although nerves did kick in as i was standing on the edge. i think the idea of hitting the water below made it easier then jumping towards solid ground. i now cant wait to jump the Nevis 440ft, 8.5 seconds of free-fall. sounds like fun to me.

On Friday night i went to see the Chiefs vs the hurricanes. Good news. Chiefs won and are through to the final. Unfortunately they have to play the Bulls in South Africa. which means they wont win but they gave this season a good go anyways. lol.


http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=auckland&daddr=Tauranga+to:rotorua+to:taupo+to:Palmerston+North+to:wellington+to:blenheim+to:nelson+to:reefton+to:hokitika+to:queenstown+to:milford+sound+to:queenstown+to:christchurch&hl=en&geocode=%3B%3B%3B%3BFV44mP0dHqF3CilHI0L_J7NBbTEPqwXAxnpdLA%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B&mra=pe&mrcr=3,4&vps=4&jsv=159e&sll=-31.728167,-163.476562&sspn=44.362979,92.8125&num=10

hey,

Again my plan to update this every day has failed. but i have much news.

Firstly, im now traveling by myself. i unfortunately left my dear friend Chris in Brisbane. i moved up the coast to cairns! first activity there, diving on the Great Barrier reef. Was good fun. Though to be honest i was expecting better. i believe we were treated to some of the best diving in the world in Thailand. but to say Ive dived the great barrier reef is pretty cool.

After 2 days in the north of Australia i took a flight over "the ditch" as they say to New Zealand, Auckland to be precise. Where im staying for a few night at my aunt pips house about 50km south of the city. Pips been a great help getting the rest of my Kiwi Adventure sorted and letting me stay. After the initial greetings to the new members of the family (Kyle and Baby Reilly) we settled down chatting away about our lives to date.

Tonight promises to be a really good night. Got a ticket to Chiefs Vs Hurricanes in the Semi-final of the Super 14 down in Hamilton! and im really looking forward to it. I've also booked myself a little bungy jump from the Auckland harbour bridge on Monday.

My Travels continue on Wednesday where i join the Kiwi Experience bus that takes me everywhere i wanted to go. namely the north island and down to Queenstown in the south and back up to Christchurch.

Hey, I'm getting really bad at keeping this updated. so from now on I'm just going to do little bits each day. probably better and more informative then me every so often remembering i haven't done a blog for a while and cramming everything in.

Over all we spend just under a week in Byron bay. the place is great fun and defiantly worth a stay, but I'm afraid we needed to move on. i bought myself a $20 greyhound bus ticket from the receptionist who I'd be pestering all week about loads of little things (think she was quite happy to see me leave). After arriving in Surfers Paradise on the gold coast, i waited for what seemed like hours for Chris and the yanks we'd met to find my hostel.

Surfers Paradise turned out to be awesome fun. we spent 2 days completely chilling out on the beach opposite our hostel. One of the night there was Erin(one of the yanks) birthdays so as you do when went out to celebrate. At this point i was introduced to something worse the tequila shooters. The "Irish Car-bomb". Pint of Guinness with a shot of Jameson's and Baileys dropped in it. The idea is to down it before the baileys curdles! Sweet Jesus I've never had a head rush quite like that.

After Saying our goodbyes for the last time we set of to the greyhound stop once again moving further up the coast, this time to Brisbane. unfortunately i was only there for about 24hours but got to see quite a lot of the city in this time. nice enough but I'm glad I'm not staying here any longer then that. My flight to Cairns was hard to wake up for. 5am this morning i was, 5!!! so far this place seems really nice and laid back. not like the other cities we've been to up till now. i think I'm going to enjoy my 3 days here. I've now left Chris to his own devises in Brisbane whilst i move on with my trip, by going to New Zealand on Tuesday morning.

Sun, Sydney and Surfing

its been a bit too long since i updated this, sorry guys.

After our Melbourne experience came to an end last week. Our flight up to Sydney took roughly an hour. on arrival checked into the hostel which would be our pick up point for our previously arranged Rip Curl Surf Camp. The hostel was a beaut. as well as being modern and well managed the top floor pool over-looking Sydney was also a pleasant surprise. After photos of the bridge and the opera house, we walked back to our hostel. On route we stopped to marvel at the street performers. One in particular caught my eye. An English bloke riding a bike for no more then 4 meters. He was offering $50 to anyone who could also do it. After jumping on and having a go i realised if you turned left you went right and right you went left. I failed miserably at it. He also went on to say that he'd ridden this bike for so long he could no longer ride a normal bike. typical sounding English lad.

Monday morning around 6am i begrudgingly got out of bed to catch the bus to the surf camp about 120km south of Sydney. Conditions were perfect. Nice swell and perfect crumbling waves. the instructors were all really laid back, living the surfers life style. Getting paid to surf 2 times a day cant be bad. They were seen more as mates then instructors by the end of the 4 days. One particular instructor Shaneo was the typical "surfer dude" long Blondie hair, using the words "brother","dude","sick" and finishing every sentence with "ah", not to mention was pretty much the voice of Dori the turtle in finding Nemo.

After 4 days of surf lessons we were taken back to Sydney where most departed, me and Chris however took the overnight 12 hour bus from Sydney to Byron bay to have one last day of surfing. Today I'm pretty tired after my long ordeal on that bus. We both went out for a qucik surf when we arrived but conditions were great and the swell was only minimal. im just about to shoot off to bed and get some sleep.

hope all is well, good luck to greg evens in his trans america cycle BTW.

birthday and MCG

hey,
thursday bought with it the chance to go diving. unfortuantley that was not the case due to the tempurature being lower then 26 degs. So instead we did the next best thing. Tour of the MCG. was fantastic. Taken to all the parts that people dont normally get to see. Even got to play being Ricky Ponting, by sitting in the team dressing rooms. (im such a little child, but still).

Yesterday was my birthday. Waking up was very difficult after the night out. But we managed to get up for 1pm to see Fast and Furious and also a quick game or 2 of bowling. in the evening we went out for a meal with lucy and her friends, followed by a quick drink at one of their local haunts. whilst there i learnt the rules of auzzi football. and also learnt that Collingwood are the tottenham of the AFL, (hated by all) .

Today we try again at going diving. tomorrow is very exciting. were being taken by charlie, (the eldest son of the family were staying with) to the old telstra dome now Etihad stadium to see our first AFL game between Essendon and the Kangaroos. On pain of death we've been told by the entire family we have to support Essendon.

OZZY, OZZY, OZZY!!

hey everyone its been far far too long. as you probably know i popped home recently for a number of reasons. well i say popped i mean a 36 hour journey from krabi to kuala lumpur to London. But now I'm back out with Chris causing havoc once again.

My flight Back out took me to kuala lumpur where i spent a wonderfully enjoyable night watching movies on the Ipod in the airport. Finally arriving in Singapore i met up with Chris in a hostel in the north of the city. i was made to feel extremely welcome by a miserable Indian chap who took offence from me waking him up at 6pm and other certain points of his 24 hour a day sleep pattern.

All said Singapore is a beautiful city with plenty to do (if you love shopping and have a 6 figure wage packet). for us though it was more about focusing on the end of Asia and the start of Australia.

We arrived this morning in Melbourne. Arriving early we rang Chris's family friends who have very kindly put us up for the next few days. Their daughter Lucy has become our very own tour guide to Melbourne, showing us the sights and sounds of the city. Today's little excursion saw us up the tallest building in the city, to watch the sunset. Awesome.

Tomorrows days out see us at the high diving boards in their outside pool a few blocks down. Injuries are likely.

bye bye project!!

Alas time has come for me to move on from the project in Thailand. next stop Malaysia!! (via a few places first)



As Project Abroad tradition states, the last dive of a volunteer has to be exercised in ridiculous outfits for all, chosen by the leaving volunteer. Speedos and silly animal hats were my preference. Everyone entered this full heatedly, but unfortunately Chris was able to loose his underwear to a savage scissor attack by myself, huge and uncontrollable laughter ensued leave most with very little air for the rest of the dive. Upon return to the surface harsh glances were exchanged between us but friendship resumed, in the end.



Yesterday we also had a birthday girl in our group. Entering a restaurant with 19 people in Thailand is greeted with a greater deal of foreboding on the faces of the waiting staff as in other countries. Maybe due to the fact we were intoxicated western teens/20 somethings. After rearranging the entire restaurant to fit us in, service of food was also staggered to the point people were ordering ordering dessert before a number of us had even got mains. This is a one of a number of things i miss about England.

hey,

had a good last couple of days. things are pretty quiet round these parts. last night was one of the best nights to date on this trip. after diving we returned to the hostel where we were told of a restaurant which did Sunday roasts! it was massive,and had very little room left after. (mum take note for when i get back) a quick dip in the ocean in very little clothes followed this. Dripping wet we walked and got thai massages, pretty much on the beach.



Today was also a dive day. Local dives such as today's normally mean very poor visibility and not a great deal to see. Today was no exception apart from the Lionfish and Scorpionfish. At this point i'd just like to thank Valorie another volunteer for saving my life, by pulling me up and out the way of a deadly Stonefish i was less then 2inches away from. lol. never mind. needless to say she had a few choice words for me when we surfaced. My reply "what ever doesnt kill you, only makes you stronger!" but it was very very close.



tomorrows our day off and because its st.paddies day tomorrow we plan on having a few pints of the black stuff and some green beer they brew in the US for paddies days.

Full moon party and other goings on

hilariously Last night 14 of us travelled 10 hours across Thailand for the infamous 'full moon party'. after numerous Thai buckets, passing out on the beach came very quickly. many other joined the ranks and the night finished there. "pics available on facebook very soon", i have to say the 10 hours back seemed a lot longer. this week hasn't been to successful. lost my dedit card, iPhone and 50quid all in the space of 48 hours.

in other news im now a PADI qualified diver. this part of the trip is going very well. also have booked to do a night dive which should be fun tomorrow night.

just wanted to end this blog with mention regarding Adam Howard, my thoughts are with his family at this very, very sad time.

Day Off.

Today was a rest day at the project. This gave all of us time to explore and catch up on some much needed rest. Today saw a group of us explore a local beach only accessible by sea. Beautiful stretches of sand and also a reggae bar run by real Rastas. the sun today was also very Strong which went really well with the free flowing alcohol on the beach!!!!

tomorrow brings another dive day with our first open water dive. should be really good fun as tomorrow is in one of the best dive sites in thialand.

Dive Training, Complete

the last few days have been restful. the project decided to change dive company's, so with that we were asked to move out of there house provided by the dive company. Kon-tiki our new dive company are newer and better, which is good. Ossi, mine and Chris's instructor from Finland is a really laugh. after our last training session in the classroom, we all decided to get subway. on route ossi got pulled over by the police for not wearing a helmet. me and Chris got food and came back to the centre and at the moment are waiting for him. sounds like hes been arrested. so maybe no diving today.LOL.

been a few bad days of weather. rained and was cloudy. but still 30+ degrees. today is better by still a few clouds in the sky.

tomorrow we plan to go paint balling which should be fun after our big night out tonight!

thailand

Hey,
Arrived at our project placement in au nang in the south of Thailand. heat is pretty uncomfortable. Yesterday we started our placement with a beach clean up. Conditions unfortunately we perfect. 35*c+ and not a cloud In the sky. Already got a nice little tan appearing. Au nang is a busy town based around tourism. Beaches are very pretty with islands off shore making it ideal for diving. We have our first dive on Saturday. Should be fun.

Sun, Sea, Football and Kebabs.

The last few days have been very relaxing. Walks around Macau and the like. Just after updating my blog last time, Chris and I stumbled upon Macau's premier Kebab house, very exciting.

Also exciting was the fact we could watch every Premiership game in our room back at the hotel. trouble soon insued due to the fact West Ham played Bolton at the same time Arsenal played Sunderland. so we watched west ham first half (oh joy) and arsenal second (oh joy again).

not a very exciting blog today. We fly to bangkok tomoz. should be fun. BRING ON THE GO-GO BARS!

HK + Macau.

Has it only been 3 days since i updated the blog!! Where do i start.

The bus from Yangshou to Hong Kong was unforgettable experience. Picture a bus, then add beds, 2 high, 3 wide. each bed measuring 5ft in length. i think you have a good idea of this bus. Being just shy of 6ft 2" these beds weren't too comfy to put it lightly. Along with the rolling bus and the feeling of sickness this bought. eventually the 12 hours came and went and we arrived in Hong kong....ish.

When we finally arrived in Kowloon, across the water from Hong kong island we started our hunt for somewhere to stay. on the 3 floor above and Indian market, between two Indian restaurants we found a guesthouse of sorts. This room for 3 costing us 4 times the amount the double beds in Chengdu cost. but we took it.

Kowloon and Hong kong island were both a very nice change from the main land of china. No spitting, road names that didn't change in the middle, and an underground which made scene.

The first day we spent wondering around the business center of Hong kong island. in the afternoon both Chris and i sat for 2 hours on Kowloon hall of stars to get our first glimpse of Hong kong by night. AMAZING.

Day 2 in Hong kong consisted of Hong Kong Park and the longest escalator in the world. followed by a good bye meal with our good friend Shehan, who we've spent the best part of 3 weeks with through china.

After an early start we left our Kowloon room and went underground to Hong Kong ferry port. shortly after arriving in Macau we realised we had no idea where anything was. A quick stop at the tourist information shop set us right.

We checked into a cheap hotel for the next 3 night due to Macau having no hostels.

Macau itself is beautiful. Its just like a typical Portuguese town. Road names in Portuguese and signs of their influence from building to food (and driving!!).

We have a 3 night stop over here before our flight to Bangkok on Monday leading to our flight to krabi in south Thailand on Tuesday.

Yangshou

Hey, sorry its been a while. no wireless in this hostel so had to wait for the PC to become free. on the 15Th we arrived in Yangshou after an over night stop off in Guilin. Its a beautiful town in the middle of the mountains in southern central china. when we arrived we checked in to the weirdest hostel ever. no passport needed no nothing (fairly sure were not allowed to stay here as foreigners, but hey its cheap) the bloke running the hostel also showed us loads of tours we could do, he also took money for these(dodgy). but everything has turned out fine.

On the first day in Yangshou we settled in and had a look around. after buy comedy t-shirts (thanks Joe) we went on to the river to watch the local fisherman use birds to fish. i forget the name of them. after our fishing adventure we returned to a home made catfish and rice dish called "beer fish".
the morning after we got given bikes and a tour guide and we road through the mountains to a water cave about 5 miles out of town. there were dressed appropriately and went for it. the water was freezing but the mud bath in the cave bought great fun.

Today we woke early to jump on a bus to a small village about 40 mins west of Yangshou to be taken up the river on a local bamboo boat. the scenery was spectacular.

Tonight we are taking the sleeper bus from Yangshou to Hong Kong. I'll keep everyone updated with our progress.

Panda panda panda

Our good fortunes seem to be continuing. Whilst writing my last entry a local man failed in fixing our dorm door. So for £3 a night the 3 of us are for the next 3 days are stay in a £54 a night top floor apartment, each with a temper double bed ,of course. Obviously there was a catch. The DVD collection for the hd tele is all dubbed in eastern European languages. LOL

Today was the day I've been looking forward to for ages. Panda day. Even though it did mean waking up in the A.M it was so worth it. The panda sanctuary in Chengdu had loads of pandas ranging from the new born to the old and frail. Again like in Beijing they had photos of famous statesmen holding pandas this time from previous visits. My fears of what I'd see next to the GB flag came true. Mr Prescott holding a little panda that obviously didn't want to be there. I did find myself loosing track of time watching these amazing animals just sit and eat.

Got back to our hostel about an hour ago to the staff putting a variety of veg and meat on sticks. Apparently tonight is hot pot night (famous in Chengdu) and we've been invited for free. Result.

Let's hope our luck doesn't run out soon.

Just a quick congrats to Julian for his app being featured on the app store

Chengdu

I believe I referred to Chengdu in my post as a small village. I'd like to offer an apology, it's a huge city. I was miss informed.
Yesterday we arrived to a busy town centre. Whilst looking totally lost a pretty Chinese girl walked up to us offering a hostel in the best part of town for only £3 a night. She also offered to pay for the taxi, glances were exchange between the 3 of us but we thought we'd take the risk of being taken to a dark ally and..... Well. We arrived at the dragontown yh. This place is amazing. Right in the centre, beautiful surroundings and cheap. Chengdu is so beautiful as well. So relaxed with no one wanting to sell me anything.

Whilst walking round the flower festival in the peoples park I got asked what my favourite song was by a group of 5 old blokes brandishing musical instruments. After a few minutes of some Russian song I didn't know convo got on to our fav films and surprisingly the old Chinese bloke loved Apocalypse now (with MARVIN Brando, apparently) when I told him it was also my favourite film a great friendship was struck up and they played more songs to celebrate.

In the evening we went to an Irish bar. Food was good and also stayed fir the 20/20 between sri lanka and India. Also got beaten in a pool tournament. And this bar also show 6 nations. Result.

Xi'an To Chengdu

After arriving yesterday in Xi'an we've decided to leave. pretty much only the warriors here.
We have the longest train journey (to date)to a small town called Chengdu in the heart of shicuan to see pandas. Probably the best chance we have to see them in china. we also have 2 weeks to make our way down to hong Kong.

anyway must dash got a train to catch

Colin McRay didnt die. he's a Chinese bus driver.

The last few days of shanghai were very peaceful. visiting fuxing park to witness people walking backwards and the best diablo(ers) in the world.

Qi pu market on the other hand was one of the most stressful moments of my life. even though the guys following us knew very well how to speak English to get us to there shops, they refused to understand both local and international sign language to go away!!

After a 16 hour train journey and very little sleep we finally arrived in Xi'an, central china. after checking in to the nearest hostel we could find we jumped on 306 bus to the terracotta warriors. this bus however wasn't the normal 306. it had film crew, a host and a crowd very much up for being entertained. after the hour or so busy journey and a signature or two we arrived as celebrities, and were given soft toys to thank us for taking their bus.

The 3 pits of the terracotta warriors were all very impressive. 13,000 solders individually carved along with 500 horses and a number of chariots. pics available soon.

The bus journey back gives me the title for today's blog. the bus driver had no regard to others on the road or off, in fact for human life in general. often ploughing into peoples front gardens to undertake taxi's. The highlight has to have been the 3 wide overtaking manoeuvre performed on a busy dirt track.

its 4pm and I'm going to bed to get over my tonsillitis and cold. Wish i had packed my anti-biotics

Moving on.

first stop yesterday was to terrify a little child by taking his net to catch a frog to show him. didn't realise he wasn't looking for frogs and he proceeded to snatch his net back and run off to his parents. yesterday was also your museum day which consisted of the urban planning museum which shows Shanghai's plans for the 2010 expo.

after Tuesdays horror shock finally realising how much we'd spent over the last 10 days, Wednesday started our economy drive. 30p noodles for brunch and 90p noodles with meat and veg for dinner( which was surprisingly very tasty) followed by drinks at home before going out. finally found a bar which sold Guinness for less then 95 yuan.

today on the spur of the moment we bought train tickets to go to Xi'an about 1000km west into central china. Xi'an being the home of the terracotta army. we leave Saturday for a 16 hour train journey.

not sure what the Internet connection is like in central china but I'll keep everyone updated as much as possible.

Shanghai prt3

Hey, sorry I haven't updated the blog the last couple of days.

We've had a few days of relaxation. A few gentle walks throught the city and the like today. Yesterday didn't wake up till 3pm and slowly walked into town to eAt and buy washing powder (after calling back to England to ask mum how to put the washing liquid in!!). Afterwards we went to the French consession for buy one get one free beer and burgers, followed by trainspotting and beer.

Tonight we plan to visit a jazz club to experience Chinese culture.

shanghai prt2

Yesterday was started with a nice 5.30 wake up to go watch the raising of the Chinese flag. out of 4 only myself and Christina were (wo)man enough to go.

After breakfast all 4 of us trekked to the forbidden city.

Got back to Shanghai this morning. after a 5am start and a hearty breakfast we set out on the subway to the airport. all seemed fine until the Chinese decided we had to go to the other part of the station. on arrival, no matter how hard Chris tried to make himself look and sound like and aeroplane, they wouldn't let us buy a ticket. taxi to the rescue.
Got back and went round to our friends house to a house party followed by a free bar club. Morning wasn't great.
Picked up an Aussie lad called shez who's a good lad. He's tagging along to hong kong.

What a day!!!

where do i start. maybe the guy jumping through sheet ice in a pair or speedos. or maybe or maybe chris almost falling through sheet ice.

I think i start at last night. Peking duck. awesome. well almost. between 11 its recommended 2/3 ducks. so after hearing their recommendation we ordered 5. don't get me wrong it was fantastic. mega celebs such as "Geoff Hoon" and some french dude called Jacques Something or other have eaten there and had there photos on the wall.

We woke up this morning and rented bikes. great idea. until you've tried to cross the 10 lane highway next to Tien'mien square. we road for 2 hours north to the lakes in the center of Beijing. this time of the year they are frozen over, so as anyone would do we rented special bike sleds (photos available when china gets Internet above 1MB an hour). Chris almost killed a child.

Being men, roman,sharan,Chris and i found a Indian restaurant and ate BUTTER CHICKEN with all the works for 70ish yuan about 7.30. After 2 hours of curry we went back to the lakes where we decided to use our road bikes as sleds on the next frozen lake. (pics are hilarious)

Chris almost fell through the ice in a thin point.Laughter ensued.

later we saw a bloke, for no apparent reason stand on the edge of a frozen lake at a point which they had cleared of ice, decide to belly flop into the water, to the enjoyment of the crowd. after this we decided to start getting back. passing Tien'mien we caught the start of the flag lowering ceremony. Being intelligent guys we saw everyone was queuing up behind the barriers with a cycle lane in front, so we stopped in the cycle lane in front of about 2 thousand people. The Chinese solider on guard didn't seem as happy, as we were at our decision (well i say that, i didn't understand what he was saying but a guy with a assault riffle walking towards you screaming at you probably means he didn't like us being there too much) anyways must dash, food.

Beijing

Got to Beijing yesterday after a brilliant train journey from Shanghai. hostel were in is really good. paid to be taken to a remote part of the great wall today. beats the tourist spots. Wasn't as cold as we were told. Yesterday we looked round the temple of heaven and went to a Chinese spring festival market where both chris and i ate a number of different foods ranging from silk work(dont try, honestly, trust me)dog(which was good)
starfish and sheep penis. Tomorrow we've rented bikes to look round the city. if i survive, which i probably wont i'll put another post up. the driving here is INSANE.

Happy New Year

hey,
happy new year everybody. its new years eve. don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight due to the fireworks which have been going on all day. been invited out to a new years eve dinner tonight with a group of very nice danish people.
went out to a "nightclub" last night with out friends from projects abroad. free drinks all night. needless to say Chris and i took full advantage. the night ending perfectly with Chris trying to opening the door to our room with a metro card for a good 15 min!
Booked our train tickets to Beijing today. Our train travels over night and arrives around 10am local time (2am UK) and cost around RMB370 (35quid). meeting up with people we met through our friend Kay in shanghai.
post some pics tomorrow.

SHANGHAI!

hey,



IM KNACKERED. we arrived at the airport around 6.30 local time. Kay our friend in shanghai met us in the middle of the peoples square, the heart of the city. which meant a trip on train from the airport, wasnt just any train though. 430km!! unfortunatly we got the first train of the day which meant it had to be limited to a mere 300km.



What an awsome city though. its incredible! fair enough today all we've rlly done is drink coffee and eat pasta.(i know, it was cheap ok!!!) would love to upload the pics of today but this POS wont let me. i'll try and find a way round it and upload some pics.

hope everyones well.



we were told on landing it was 1*c today. like crap it is. -6 at least with wind chill.

BYE!!!

hey,



If you didn't already know tomorrows the off and i would just like to thank everyone who has helped us get this trip off the ground. Firstly to everyone who has given money to support the trip, thank you so much. Every penny has been greatly appreciated!! secondly to Neill at the flight centre, kudos!! and finally everyone else who has show us love!!!


THANK YOU!!! see you in July!

2 Weeks to go!!!

hey, Guys this page has been set up for you all just to pop by now and again to see how me and chris are doing. 

On our travels both of us will try and update this page as much as possible, with these little posts vids and pics.  Our route starts on the 22nd when we fly from Heathrow to Shanghai. Our route consists of:

22/01/09: Heathrow to Shanghai

13/04/09: Singapore to Melbourne

10/06/09: Cairns to Auckland

03/07/09: Christchurch to Rarotonga(Cook Island)

11/07/09: Rarotonga to Los Angeles

20/07/09: Los Angeles to Heathrow

before i forget, i believe you guys can also comment on anything you like. so feel free. 

well keep everyone updated with our prep