Flickr: Photos from catriona7byrne

Flickr: Photos from catriona7byrne

KHO KHO ISLAND

Booked a taxi and went to Kho Kho island.

took an short trip by wodden boat from pier across to island. Beautiful beach and very few people on it. Lovely calm water. Had a very chilled day yet again, no point in getting too stressed! On count ... down will be returning home next week. Staying here in Khaolak for another few days. I return to Krabbi for two and then make my journey home.

KHO KHO ISLAND

KHAO LAK

Staying here f0r four days. Nice hotel with big room. Went diving today to the semelin island. Two hours by speed boat, and when one is not used to it, it becomes quite an experience! Bopping up and down at high speed is not so good on the tummy! There were about fifteen divers on board that included four doing a paddi course for those who know all about that. There were five of us diving together. Lots of fish life and lovely worm waters! Temperature was 29 degrees! It was great diving in such comfort! Did a second dive in the afternoon which was just as enjoyable! Got back to base about 4.30. I am still feeling the affects of the boat! ... Mind you it still does not encourage me to go back diving back home! Sorry to all my diving buddies that might be having a look in!!!!!

AO THALANE

Today we went kayaking in the mangroves forest. Fantastic views. Plenty of life including sea lizard and monkeys. the monkeys would just come and land on your boat for a little pineapple. We were out for four hours , I kiakked on my own as most had two aboard, more work for me but all good fun!Weather getting very hot here now. My travells are nearly at an end but i think i may have said that before !!!!

KO LANTA

Left by ferry for Kolanta. You have to go with the flow you know! Very different Island. I feel i am in the country! Looking over the sea again but no restaurants or shops in sight. Did think about renting a motor bike but roads are bad in spots. It is an Island that is not very developed yet but has huge potential. Staying here for another two nights and then back to Ananong, and who knows after that!

PIPI ISLAND

Still in Thailand. Did a visa run across to Malaysia and got another month! Left Krabi 6.30 in the morning got back at 7.00 that evening all worth it. I took the ferry over to Pipi Island. It is absolutly beautiful here. Lovely clear water. I am staying in a beautiful bungalow overlooking the sea. I decided to splash out on a little luxury!
I went diving today. Left this morning 7.30, a little nervous but soon got back into my stride. I did two dives. The visibility was Christal clear. Got to see leopard shark, and swam along with a massive turtle. I saw lots of very colourful fish. We had lunch on board and dived again later. I loved it all so much that i am heading out again tomorrow!
Pipi was one of the worst hit by the Tsunami. There is allot of building going on and it is getting back to normal again. When i sit on the beach I think of the terrible disaster that claimed so many lives. .

NATIONAL PARK

We took our last overnight train down south. will not be sorry to see the end of those! we stayed in Khaosok National park. On our first evening there we all had great fun going down the rapids in rubber tubes. I think i will never grow up the child in me will always be there! we stayed in tree houses that night. I literally slept in a room with a trunk of a tree going up trough the middle of it. The shower outside just came gushing out of the wall, such fun.
Up early next morning where we made our way by boat to raft houses. These were small huts on the lake sitting on rafts. No electricity! The food was good though. The weather was very good here. Plenty of early morning swims in the lake. I am now on my last lap of my trip. We have just arrived at Ao Nang not far from Krabi.

I hope everybody enjoyed my adventure! I had a ball .. I may stay .. Who knows!

THAI COOK!

Six of us did a Thai cookery course. we started with tomyom soup hot and spicy,then green curry ,Thai omelet followed by sticky rice and mango. The great thing about it was that we were able to eat it too! It actually tasted good as well. We all got presented with our certs when finished. No mean achievement. We are now back in Bangkok for one more day and then take overnight train down south. I believe we are heading intolots of rain!

TREKKING THIALAND

We had three great days trekking. Yesterday we did five hours trekking in the jungle. all good fun. the heat was a killer but very rewarding. Stayed two nights with host families. Again we slept on bamboo floors surrounded by mossie nets, still managed to get eaten alive We had lunch in the jungle and drank tea out of bamboo shoots wonderful. We also visited an elephant place where the converted their dung into paper .. nothing like recycling! Going to do a thi cookery course tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.!

CHANG MAI (CONTINUED)!

Nearly a week here hard to believe it. Hotel very nice,swimming every day. Weather is improving all the time. Went on an elephant trek for an hour. Had some laugh. I managed also to sick on his neck too! Fed him bananas along the way.
Went to a traditional Thai night,good food a cabaret and dancing,met another Irish couple. She was from Blessington. The three of us went for dinner next evening very good. We ended up in a bar down at the river. Many Thai rum and cokes later we wandered home!
I change hotels Sunday where I rejoin my group and start trekking Tuesday... I think!

CHIANG MAI

Staying here in Chiang Mai for one week. took the overnight train from Bangkok to here. My fellow travellers have gone working with elephants for a week and I have been put up in this nice hotel here courtesy of imaginative travel. For those of you who do not know my trip got cancelled and is gong ahead a week later. did not wish to work with elephants for a week. I am now chilling out in Chiang Mai. Went to a great night market the first one that I have really enjoyed with out been hassled in to buying something. Very relaxed and easy going and lots of local restaurants. I love the Thai food hot and spicy!.

BANGKOK

Arrived eventually in Bangkok. Population about six million. Went to visit Wat Phra Kaew. This is known as the temple of the emerald Buddha. It is also full of gleaming gilded stupas levitating above the ground. All lovely colours beautiful to look at. The Emerald Buddha is housed in the main chapel. From here I went to see the grand palace the former royal residence. Today it is used by the king only for certain ceremonial occasions such as Coronation day. I also visited the Wat Pho temple. The big attraction is the stunning reclining Buddha, 46m long and 15m high. It is made out of plaster around a brick core and finished in gold leaf. I also went to see the golden Buddha which is the tallest Buddha in the world and made of solid gold.

OUR LAST MEAL IN VIETNAM

We went to a restaurant that was certainly different! It was like a big hall with all the locals dining there. Arron our leader ordered lots of different things. First we cooked our own steak on BBQ nothing unusual. Scorpion, field rat, cricket, wait for it goats penis! How gross was that! There is only so much a stomach can take, not for me i am afraid! We had some laugh all the same. I do have plenty of photos and will put them up on blog when i get home. I finished off the evening with many drinks! Off to Thailand early Friday morning.

MEKONG DELTA

The Mekong Delta Starts in Tibet and the river meets the sea in southernmost Vietnam. Its lush with rice paddies and fish farms. We stopped off at a local village along the way. We also stopped at a pottery factory seeing bricks been made to the finished terracotta pots! Alot cheaper here i can tell you. We had a nice lunch stop and a rest in hammocks!We were then taken by rowing boats down the river, so peaceful! We went to see a fruit nursery and a bonsai plantation. We finished up at our home stay for the evening! We were greeted by their BIG Friendly snake of which we all had around our necks at different stages! Home stay was most enjoyable and plenty of good food as usual! This is the last part of this trip so good bye Vietnam ...

HO CHI MINH

Here we are on our second last part of our trip. Ho Chi Minh city formally Saigon. Very busy city more motor bikes but roads twice as wide. At rush hour they even drive along the foot paths if they could get there quicker!All tired after our overnight train which arrived 4.30 in the morning! Not the cleanest ... no further comment on that! On arriving in Ho Chi Minh we took an early stroll around the park to see all the locals taking part in Thai Chi and many other activities!, putting the rest of us all to shame.
After Breakfast we headed for the cu chi tunnels. These became legendary during the 1960s for its role in helping viet Cong control of a large area. Some of these stretched from Saigon to the Cambodian border. Some of these tunnels have been reconstructed so visitors can fit through them. Alas not for the faint hearted ... I did not take part. A little to claustrophobic for me! All very interesting to say the least! Went to the market later in the day. Too many people trying to sell you stuff.

WHALE ISLAND

Do you know the saying lost on an island! well that is exactly what is happening here! It's wonderful white sand and palm trees. the rain has stopped wonderful weather. Staying in beach huts. Nothing to be concerned about only what time the next meal is at! Plenty of good snorkeling and diving. The Bombay jin is also good. Did a bit of a walk around the island at 7a.m. this morning very good. I could get very used to this life!

HOI AN

Now in Hoi an after a four hour bus journey. to me it is like a place that was caught up in a time warp. we have been told if we were lucky enough to be here for a full moon, they light lanterns along the river. No chance of that as it has been raining for the last twenty four hours and plenty of more to come.Plenty of markets around. One can also have a suit tailor made also. Me I think I have had enough of clothes for a while. We will be here for two days and then another ten hour bus trip to whale island.

HUE

Hue served as a political capital from1802 to 1945under the 13 emperors of the Nuguyen dynasty. We went to see the Citidel within this enclosure is the forbidden purple city which was reserved for the private life of the emperor. We also visited the tomb of Tu Duc. This is a majestic site at a lake. Did a river cruise down the perfume river, not much to see there. We are having very heavy thunder storms here today and lots of rain.

HALONG BAY

Four hour bus journey to Halong Bay but worth every bit of it! We stayed on wooden boats with two birth cabins. The great thing about Halong Bay are all the rock formations everywhere. All so different. We also took part in a bit of kayaking good fun but hard on the shoulders. We visited a fantastic cave today. We also did some diving off the boat lovely worm water. The weather has picked up again. Yesterday the boats could not leave the bay because of a typhoon. Back on at our hotel in Hanoi and heading on an over night train tomorrow night to Hue.

MONDAY 24 ----- WEDNESDAY 26. {I THINK!}

We had three great days trekking. We left by bus for a four hour journey to our next destination. In Vietnam there are about fifty four minority group of people. We stayed with families of two of these groups . Our first stop for lunch was with the white thi people. We walked for two hours from there to our next village. That night we stayed in Hang Kia with the flower Hmong people. They made us very welcome. We all slept on very hard mattresses on the floor. All the houses are on stilts. Will not mention toilet facilities they were down the field, not so good when you had to go during the night! Thank God for head torches. Next day we walked for five hours through mostly forest. It rained all day yesterday not much of a view but very nice. We arrive at our next home stay even more primitive but good. We were on the first floor this time. One would have to thrust the bamboo flooring between where you were lying and the bottom! After several shots of rice wine and a few games of cards we all slept well! Today we had another two hour trek to where the bus picked us up. We were covered in muck after all the rain! It was good to get back to the hotel in Hanoi to have a good shower. Tomorrow we are heading to Halong bay for a boat trip. This will all have to be decided in the morning as there is meant to be a typhoon coming! We will have a chill out here and some kayaking all going well!

SUNDAY 23/09/2007

Just another day in hanoi,except that it is Sunday. Guess what there are even more motor bikes on the road. We took a cyclo around town. This is a guy cycling a bike with a sort of a carriage behind. Two of us took this for an hour poor guy top weight you know. We got to see lots of the old part of Vietnam.. Tonight we are going to see water puppetry should be int resting. Went on a bus tour yesterday.I went to ho chi Mihn Mausoleum Comples. We got to see Ho Chi Minh embalmed corpse.Also to the temple if litature. All Vietenamese architure.' very good.

THREE DAYS IN HANOI

Three days here now and i have just mastered the trick of getting across the road without been killed by motor bikes! Met up with our new group of five. Starting our trek in the mountains on Monday If you do not hear from me I promise I will send a card!

ARRIVING IN VIETNAM

Had a very pleasent flight from hongkong to vietnam. One hour and fifty minutes and i also lost an hour. I was met at the airport and delivered to my hotel safe and sound. I am feeling much more relaxed the second time around. Yet again i am met with a whole new experience with loads of motor bikes everywhere {with people on them of course)! When you cross the road you just have to keep going! These people on their bikes will just weave there way in and around you, you just have to take your own life in your hands! good fun really...! My next trip does not start until Saturday so i guess i will just become a local for the next while!

3 DAYS IN HONG KONG

Here now two days and heading off tomorrow for hanoi in vietnam. Do not like it to much here way to big a city for me! we are staying in a posh hotel. Our group have now split up and all gone different directions! There are also one or two still here too which is good for me. looking forward to part two of my next adventure. Hong Kong very expensive also.

Saturday 15 /9/2007(Last day in China)

This is our last day in china i love where we are now as ita quite far south and very relaxing! Unfortunately we are leaving here this evening after been here three days! Overnight train to hong kong.


SEVERAL HOURS LATER! just after waking up after several hours sleep. Sleep I am not to sure about between snoring spitting talking not much sleep was got glad to be finished with overnight trains in china! Now in hong kong. I think it is saturday I really forget what day or time it is, Its great! We are in a posh hotel for our last night with this group. I will stay here till wednesday>
so good bye China hello Vietnam!

P.S. If you are wondering why no photos Don't know how to put them up! but will put up when i get home! I can check comments again for those who wish to leave them! Don't be too smart!
Catriona xxx

THURSDAY 13TH P.M,(THE COOKS BY 10)!

We had our cookery class in the afternoon. We all cooked three dishes sweet and sour pork gong bao chicken braised egg plant with garlic and steam vegtetable dumpling, Darina Allen eat your heart out! I t became fairly hot in our kitchen! Kelly was our head chef and she really put us through our paces. turn up the heat turn down the heat turn off the heat! We were very heated by the time we were finished! Believe it or not it did actually taste the way it was supposed to taste i was pleasantly surprised! we got to eat all of our nice dishes, mind you my dumplings were a little sad looking! Forgot to say Kelly brought us all to the market first to get all our fresh veg and there sure was a great selection. It was some experience too as you could see live fish dog hen snake all ready for the slaughter did not check out the dog to close to the heart!

THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE!

Ok not good Must start acting my age. Trying to keep up with these young ones is not easy! We had the last meal together as a group last night,great crack! Catriona even got to sing her "kermit" song need i say anymore so i am now a real bit hit! We were involved in a table quiz and guess what our team won! It must have been all the correct answers that i gave! After many drinks later a few shots included and dancing Chinese style we fell home in the early hours this morning! I still seem to be the only one up and out this morning! Nothing but do not disturb signs on everybody Else's door!
Chinese cookery class this afternoon we get to cook three dishes should be fun!

THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE!

BACK AGAIN

Hi All
Just in case you thought i may have got lost along the way not really .. everything is so action packed and sometimes its like living on the edge! After leaving the great wall which was one of my highlights so far we did a few more touristy things like visiting tinanmen square and the forbidden city. For people that dont know this was the home of the emperors for 500 years and local chinese were forbidden from entering the imperial palace. Buth that has all changed now.It has been rebuilt over the years.
Next day we went to see tge longman grottoes where thousands of buddhas carved into the cliffs and have survived 1500f turbulent history. In Luoyang the are also the white horse temples the first buddhist temple built in china.
...........we went fron there by train to xian. This was my second highlight so far.We went to see the terracotta warriors commissioned by emperor quin shi huang 2000 years ago. They were discovered in a pitand covered over aand this farmer clains to have made the discovery in 1974 and he is still alive. He signs a book all about the worriers every day to this day and if you try and take his photo he just roars! A seleberty do you think!

From here we had a bit of luxury> We embarked on a cruise boat for three days. I have to say i felt very posh here. We spent our time eating buffetts and really stuffing our faces! We were on the yangtse river. Our route here took us from Yichabg to Chonqing taking in the three gorges. Though the lower part of the cliffs are now submerged the change of water level remains small compared to the scale of the mountain.
We have now taken a flight to guilin and bus to yangshou. This is my favorite spot so far in between ridgid pointy mountains great for rock climbing for all those enthousiastics!. My third highlight was a fantastic art show by people and lighr on the river, it was fantastic will tell you all again about this.
5.30 rise this morning for a cycle. We have to go this early as is is very hot and very humid! Out for three hours recken will have quite a soar bum this evening but well worth it. Had a massage yesterday as i had a very stiff neck 13.00 euro for hour and a half! hm hm hm!

Well thats all up to date. Take care everybody not responsible for spelling or any other mistakes this cafe is to hot so its time to go ! xx

leaving beiging

After spending three days in beiging it is now time to leave. There is a very high polution level here so it is very good to get away from it all. I am amazed by the very old bicycles that everybody has. Sometimes they could be carrying so much stuff aboard that you could harly see the person cycling.
Last night we did an overnight train jurney to leoing, it was good! Six bunks in a very small space. I slept in the middle but watching people climbing up to the top was worth watching. The beds were hard but confortable. We arrived at our destination this morning at 7.15. We have just visited many buddast tempils (rather buddadad out it yhis stage)! Tomorrow we have another train journey but by day so we will see where that takes us

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 03/092007

Up today at 5.30 three hours by bus to treck on the "great wall of china". We started about 9.00 and trecked for about three hours. We did not go on the real touristy route. It was a fantastic sight. Hard walking at times but well worth it. We had loads of little helpers along the way with bottles of frozen water much appreciated! There are 10 in our group three irish 1 swiss two american two australian, a good motly crew and of course our tour leader luke from australia.Heading off tomorrow on an overnight train to oh i forgot where) ! They say it is an expierance as everybody rushes for the train at the one time even though you have a ticket should be intresting! The weather has been very hot and humid. It sure is a change from home but getting more used to it now> Everybody is very laid back and deffinately no rush on! Chinese food is to die for so different from home. So onwards and upwards from here.

First Blog

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