Round-the-World
In and around World
When i thought the time would never arrive for me to embark on my round-the-world adventure, it is finally here. Ever since i was a little girl i had one dream, to put a backpack on my back and go see as much of the world as possible. Now that dream has turned into a reality...and boy am i excited.....!!!
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Susannah
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1
Singapore Sling!!
After what felt like a dozen emotional goodbyes Rob and I were Singapore bound. It still hadn't quite hit me that we were on our way. After... Continue reading »
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2
Bangkok bound!
Before arriving in Bangkok, i had had a preconception of what it was like, as many people had told me it was smelly, dirty and there was nothing to... Continue reading »
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3
Chiang Mai
After a very uncomfortable and long 121/2 hour overnight bus journey from Bangkok we arrived in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand). Not only mhad... Continue reading »
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4
Laid back Laos
Not many people have heard of Loas, and it's not really surprising when the only thing it is famous for is for being one of the most bombed nations... Continue reading »
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5
Vang Vieng
Vang Vieng is a tourist trap for the activities that are on offe, as well as the strip of bars that all play Friends episodes all day and all night!!&... Continue reading » -
6
Hoi An and Nha Trang
After an 18 hour overnight bus journey we arrived in Hoi An, a town in central Vietnam.....to the rain!!! Oh my god...it was raining!! ... Continue reading »
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7
Hanoi Madness
We arrived in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam after flying from Vientiane, the capital of Loas. 3 words...oh my god!!! This place is abso... Continue reading »
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8
Dalat and The Easyriders...Day 1
As the weather was so bad, we decided to head further south but inland to Dalat, a french colonial town in the central highlands. After a 7 h... Continue reading »
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9
The Easyriders...Day 2
Day 2
After a breakfast of bread and laughing cow chees with tea with condensed milk (sweet!) we headed out in the dr... Continue reading »
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10
The Easyriders...Day 3
Our 3rd day started by stopping at the workshop of a very talented young guy. He carved objects out of the roots of trees and made houehold obje... Continue reading » -
11
The Easyriders...Day 4..final destination
After a very early start at 7am and having our noodle soup at a local market for breakfast (which i'm now addicted to), we carried on to stop at the f... Continue reading » -
12
Cambodia in 4 days
After an early morning 6 hour bus ride we arrived in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. On the journey in, we noticed how much poorer this... Continue reading »
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13
Siem Reap
After a very bumpy 6 hour bus rider to Siem Reap, we arrived in the bus car park to haords of Cambodians trying to get our business. As we pu... Continue reading »
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14
Phuket
So we landed in Phuket, after flying from Bangkok with Air Asia. Phuket could only be described as a drink fuelled, sex fuelled party town. ... Continue reading » -
15
Ko Phi Phi...a little bit of paradise
We caught the early morning ferry to Ko Phi Phi Don, the island famous for 'The Beach'. We had landed in paradise! Glorious beaches, gl... Continue reading »
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16
Koh Lanta...a diver's paradise
Koh Lanta is one of the least frequented islands on the west coast of Thailand as most treavllers visit Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and then cross over to the... Continue reading » -
17
Krabi
After uming and ahhing about where to go next, we finally decided to go to Krabi for our last few days on the beach. We caught the early morn... Continue reading »
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18
We hit Oz...Perth
After another very enjoyable Qantas flight from Singapore to Perth, we arrived at 1.45am rather tipsy ( we drank about 4 bottles of wine each - so nic... Continue reading » -
19
Perth to Broome in 10 days (Day 8+9+10)
Day 8
We awoke at 6am to find that all the water had evaporated. We inspected the damage...some wet and very di... Continue reading »
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20
Perth to Broome in 10 days (Day 5+6+7)
Day 5
Today was the first divide we had in the group. The group was split into 2, with 10 people (including Rob... Continue reading »
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21
Perth to Broome in 10 days (Day 3+4)
Day 3
The main reason people go to Monkey Mia isn't to see monkeys, bu the dolphins that come onto the shore of the b... Continue reading »
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22
Perth to Broome in 10 days (Day 1+2)
Day 1
After only 2 hours sleep we rpse at 5am to catch the train to perth, where we were meeting our group at 7am.&nb... Continue reading »
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23
Chilling in Broome
After seeing where Jules and Susan (our dutch friends) were staying just down the road in a new swanky hostel with a big pool, we checked in there... Continue reading »
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24
3 Day tour of the South-West (Day 1 and 2)
Day 1
We got picked up at 7am the following morning to go meet our group for our 3 day tour of the South-West. ... Continue reading »
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25
3 Day tour of the South-West (Day 3)
Day 3
We had an early rise at 6am on our final day as we had a lot to fit in. Our first stop was to feed the ka... Continue reading »
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26
The Red Centre
Alice Springs
We flew from Perth to Alice Springs with Qantas Link and checked into our hostel, the Haven Backapckers... Continue reading »
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27
Melbourne - Sunny Xmas!
Christmas
We spent 2 weeks over Christmas and New years with Stephan, Rob's cousin, who has lived in Australis... Continue reading »
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28
Sydney!!!!
When Captain James Cook first set foot on this stunning coastline in 1770, the most praiseworthy place he could compare it to was Wales: hence t... Continue reading » -
29
Australian Tennis Open
Being a bit of a Venus Williams wanna-be, we got tickets to the Australian Tennis Open. Not just any tickets i might add, but Centre Court tickets... Continue reading »
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30
An Irish wedding on the Bay of Port Phillip
My friend Ruth from netball in Dublin was getting married to her irish man in Queenscliff, on the Bellarine Peninsula on the bay of Port Philip. Da... Continue reading »
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31
Future Music Festival
Having bought our tickets in January for the future music festival, it was something we had been looking forward to for a while. Based on Stevo's r... Continue reading »
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32
Australian Grand Prix
If you're in Melbourne when the Grand Prix is on, you feel compelled to go, even if you're not the biggest fan. The whole city is engulfed in a sea... Continue reading »
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33
The Grampians and the Great Ocean Road...roadtrip!
Finally another road trip had arrived! The car was booked, a rough plan made out so the only thing waiting for us was the Great Ocean Road. Before... Continue reading »
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34
Mum's trip Down Under (Sydney)
Sydney: We got to our hostel 'G'day' quite late so hit the sack. The following day the rain set in so we went to P... Continue reading » -
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Mum's trip Down Under (Cape Tribulation - Melbourne)
Cape Tribulation:
We hired a little Hyundai Getz to explore the tropical rainforests of Cape Tribulation the next day.... Continue reading » -
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Mum's trip Down Under (Airlie Beach - Port Douglas)
Airlie Beach: Our overnight bus to Airlie (all 91/2 hours of it) was, let's say uneventful! Airlie Beach is the gateway... Continue reading » -
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Mum's trip Down Under (Brisbane - 1770)
Brisbane: I flew into Brisbane (of Brisvegas) as it's known locally, to meet Mum, who had flown in from Singapore to start her... Continue reading » -
38
On the road again...Cairns to Cape Tribulation
After a quick spell in Melbourne to watch Ireland play Australia in a test rugny match and suffering with the hangover from hell the next day, we f... Continue reading »
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39
White water rafting in Mission Beach
Based on our friends Sarah and Paul's recommendations we stayed at the YHA - the Treehouse in Mission Beach. Sarah and Paul worked there for 6 m... Continue reading » -
40
Sailing the Whitsundays!!!!
We arrived in Airlie Beach at 8pm, checked into Magnums our hostel. Whilst we were in our dorm getting ready for our trip, one of Rob's friends... Continue reading » -
41
Town of 1770/Agnes Water
After 10 hours on the bus we arrived in Agnes Water, just slightly tired! We booked into our hostel and hit the beach for a bit of sunbathing... Continue reading »
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42
4x4 driving on Fraser Island
We left for Rainbow Beach on the 8th July, which was where we were doing our Fraser Island trip from. We had kept checking the weather foreca... Continue reading »
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43
Noosa and the 'crickey' Australia Zoo
We arrived in Noosa, a chic town on the sunshine coast....to the rain! So much for the sunshine! Rob had caught a cold from Fraser Isla... Continue reading »
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44
Brisvegas!
Brisbane was a short but sweet visit as we only stayed one night. We had decided to bring our flight to New Zealand forward so we had a lot t... Continue reading »
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45
Surfers Paradise!
Surfers was just as I imagained it to be...built up, busy, commerical and vibrant but i quite liked it! It is full of tourists and you could... Continue reading »
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46
Byron Bay and Nimbin!
We left Surfers the next day, bound for Byron Bay. What a cool hippy little place. I loveed Byron - one of my favourite places on teh east... Continue reading » -
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Quaint Queenstown
The flight from Sydney to Queenstown was something else. The views of the snow capped mountains and the pristine lakes was awesome. The... Continue reading »
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48
Tranz-Alpine journey across the country
Christchurch was pretty uneventful compared to Queesntown but there's not an awful lot to do there. Jenny, Rob's sister arrived in from... Continue reading »
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49
Glacier hike!
We were up early and down at our 'station' at 8.15am preparing for our hike. We were kitted out with over-trousers, a goretex waterproof caot... Continue reading »
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50
Queenstown...take 2!
We left the next day and travelled for 8 hours on a bus to Queenstown (again!) Jenny wanted to do something extreme so we decided to take her... Continue reading »
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51
Kaikoura - Wellington
We had booked ourselves onto the Magic Bus, much like the Kiwi Experience, which is basically a bus that takes backpackers around the islands... Continue reading »
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52
Wellington - Auckland
We left Wellington the next morning for the art-deco town of Napier. Before we arrived in Napier itself, we stopped at Mission estate winerie... Continue reading »
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53
Auckland - Rotoura
We left Auckland the following morning, to head back down throuhg the north island to Wellington and then down the west coast of the south island... Continue reading »
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54
Taupo - skydives and bungy jumps!
We left Rotoura the next day, after 2 nights, for the town of Taupo. On route, we stopped at a number of places.
Our first stop w... Continue reading »
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55
Wellington - the capital city
We left Taupo and traveled through Tongariro National Park, where we got a good glimpse of Mount Ruapeh and Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom in Lord of... Continue reading »
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56
Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park
We left Wellington the next morning and caught the interislander ferry across the Cook Strait back to the south island and to Picton. The ferry... Continue reading » -
57
Greymouth - backwards!
We left Nelson and started our journey dwon the wild west coast. Our destination was Greymouth, the largest town on the west coast. Before... Continue reading » -
58
Franz Josef Part Deux
We left Greymouth and arrived in Franz Josef about 11.00am. As we had already been here before with Jen, we were only staying for one night. &n... Continue reading » -
59
Wanaka
On the way to Wanaka, we stopped at a couple of scenic places, namely Lake Matheson, Ships Creek and Lake Hawea before arriving at Lake Wanaka. ... Continue reading » -
60
Q'town Part 3 and Milford Sound
Upon arriving in Queenstown, we stopped at the Kawarau bridge bungy, the original and first bungy site in the world, estanlished in 1988. Nob... Continue reading »
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61
Dunedin, Lake Tekapo and the finish line
This day will forever be a blur in my memory, for falling in and out of consciousness! After sleeping all the way to DunedinContinue reading »
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62
A whole lot of paradise!
We flew into Nadi in Fiji on the 5th September to 30 degrees sunshine! A nice change from the cold New Zealand winter. Fiji is made up of... Continue reading » -
63
More Fijian paradise - Long Beach
Our next resort was 2 nights at Long Beach, on Matacawalevu (try saying that!) island. There was a total of 11 of us staying there, so it was mo... Continue reading » -
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Yet more Fiji - Mantaray Resort
Next stop - Mantaray reosrt on Naviti island. Mantaray had been recommended to us by a few people we'd met along the way. As you may have... Continue reading » -
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And Yet more Fiji...Octopus resort
We left Mantaray, said goodbye to our gay friends Jack and Daniel and headed to the Octopus resort on Naviti island. This had also been recommen... Continue reading » -
66
Guess what? More Fiji!
We left the following afternoon, to go to Beachcomber island. Beachcomber is the party island in Fiji. It´s where the 18-35´s go to let th... Continue reading » -
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Leaving Fiji :-( Mana Island
That morning we were heading to our last of 6 islands, Mana. It had been recommended to us (yet again!) by a Danish couple we had spent some tim... Continue reading » -
68
Santiago - arriba arriba!!!!
We arrived in Santiago after flying from Fiji viz Auckland, where we had a 6 hour wait in the airport. All in all it took us about 22 hours.&nbs... Continue reading » -
69
Valpo!
We left the hustle and bustle of Santiago for more hustle and bustle in the city of Valparaiso about 2 hours away. We had been told to go the... Continue reading »
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70
Puerto Varas - climbing a volcano!
We caught the bus at 6pm, which was going to take 15 hours to get to Puerto Varas. We had heard that the buses in South America were really g... Continue reading »
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71
Bariloche...Part 1
We left Chile the following morning to visit our 2nd coutnry in South America - Argentina! It was a quick journey of 6 hours (we got another sna... Continue reading » -
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Bariloche...Part Deux
We started our group classes in our 2nd week. it was low season in the school, so there was only about 12 students but we got to know a really g... Continue reading » -
73
Purto Madryn - whale watching
We left Bariloche at 5pm and met Jason and Liz, an Aussie couple we'd met in our hostel, with whom we were going to spend the next 2 weeks with. ... Continue reading » -
74
Giaman..my little taste of home
The next day we caught the bus to Gaiman, to visit this little welsh town. I had heard about this colony of welsh, where there were supposed wel... Continue reading » -
75
BA - the european capital of South America
We left Puerto Madryn at 9pm. We had upgraded our seats this time to what they call 'coche-cama', which is a 2nd class ticket. ... Continue reading »
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76
BA - part deux
Sunday was the big day the boys had been waiting for as there was a football match on. We had taken ages deciding whether to get tickets... Continue reading »
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77
Uruguay begins...
We left Argentina by boat the next morning at 9am and 3 hours later arrived in Uruguay, in the UNESCO town of Colonia del Sacremento. We had lef... Continue reading » -
78
Montevideo - the capital
One thing we noticed in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay is how many Mate drinkers there are. Mate is a drink, drunk in Argentina, Urugu... Continue reading » -
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Punta del Diablo
We decided to leave Montevideo and go straight to Punta Del Diablo, a small town on the east coast of Uruguay, close to the border of Brazil. Th... Continue reading » -
80
Ilha de Santa Catarina
We left Punta del Diablo a day later than planned to cross the border into Brazil. We knew this was going to be quite an arduous task! Thi... Continue reading » -
81
Rio de Janeiro!
We arrived in Rio about 8am and took a taxi to our hostel, Ipanema Beach House. We took a stroll around the suburb of Ipanema, which is one o... Continue reading »
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82
Rio part deux
A little worse for wear the next day, we decided to walk the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. Copacabana is a lore more built up with... Continue reading »
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83
Iguazu Waterfalls
We left Rio at 2.30pm and 22 and a 1/4 hours later we arrived in Foz do Iguazu. That was our longest bus jouney to date! We decided we wan... Continue reading » -
84
Salta - gaucho country
We left Puerto Iguazu at 9pm and arrived in Tucuman at 7pm, 22 hours later. Then we boarded another bus at 8.30pm and 4 and a half hours late... Continue reading »
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85
Salta - Cafayate Ruta 40
We had decided to hire a car for 2 days to drive the ´Circuito Sur´which started in Salta, through to Cafayte, via a national park and back up to Salt... Continue reading » -
86
San Pedro
We painfully got up at 6am, after 4 hours sleep to catch our bus to San Pedro in northern Chile. During the 9 and a half hour journey, we reache... Continue reading » -
87
The largest salt flat in the world....
We had booked onto a tour into Bolivia for 3 days/2 nights, to see the biggest salt flats in the world, something I had really been looking forward... Continue reading »
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