Saturday 22 September - Bangkok, Thailand

View of Bangkok from our hotel room

We left Australia after spending 5 very relaxing days at Holloways Beach north of Cairns. We were starting to get itchy feet, so it was good to be on the move again even if it meant 24 hours of travelling. We arrived in Bangkok at 11.30 pm and were greeted by a wall of heat and humidity. Since it was very late and also quite cheap (compared to UK prices) we decided to take the limousine service from the airport to the hotel. We travelled in complete luxury in a brand new BMW 7-series for £10! Even our tight budget stretches to paying for a room at a 5-star hotel, it is very nice to be cocooned in such a bustling city like Bangkok.

Bangkok is a fascinating and crazy place that is an onslaught to all your senses. The heat and humidity is suffocating, the noise is deafening, there are masses of people and traffic everywhere, people shouting at you trying to sell you things you don't want, condensation from air conditioners dripping on your head and shoulders as you walk down the street, hawker stalls cooking all manner of intruiging food on tiny and very hot BBQs giving off delicious smells of thai food, street stalls selling a random mix of flowers, underwear, illegal copies of DVDs and fake watches, beggars playing instruments badly and in the background is the never ending soundtrack of traffic droning along the streets. Bangkok is an exhausting city unlike anywhere we have been to. This is also a booming city with what seems like an endless number of skyscrapers being constructed in stark contrast to ancient and very ornate temples that are within walking distance no matter where you find yourself.

Family of four on moped, Silom Road, Bangkok

Through the centre of Bangkok runs the Chao Phraya river which can best be compared to a super highway on water. Small boats, large boats, ferries, hotel boats, water taxis, tourist boats and enormous barges move up and down the river with no apparent order or organisation. The river is lined by an eclectic mix of modern sky scrapers, ancient temples and ramshackle homes that look like they could collapse any minute.

The temple of dawn seen from Chao Phraya River

It has been fun, intruiging and tiring being in Bangkok for 4 days. Now we look forward to 2 weeks of cycling from Thailand, through Cambodia ending up in Saigon in Vietnam.

Stephen at the library in the Grand Palace compound. This is where sacred buddhist scriptures are kept

Friday 14 September - Mission Beach/ Wheeler Island

Kayaks at sunset, Wheeler Island, Family Group of Islands

On Monday afternoon we arrived in Mission Beach after another long journey on the Greyhound. This time we spent 9 hours on the bus to get from Airlie Beach to Mission Beach. We are very glad we only have a 2 hour journey left before we reach Cairns. We had booked a 3 day kayak tour with Coral Sea Kayaking. David, our guide, came around to our hotel on Monday night to give us a pre-departure briefing. He showed us a map of the Family Group of Islands, which is a small collection of islands about 20km off shore from Mission Beach. He also gave us dry bags that are rubber bags used for clothing and anything else that needs to stay dry while you are paddling.

The next morning we headed to the beach to get ready for our paddle trip to Wheeler Island, where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. David gave us a quick lesson in how to paddle and we packed our kayaks with our clothes, water and food, camping equipment and anything else we would need whilst away from civilisation for 3 days and 2 nights. Most of the gear went in Stephen and my kayak which was a double, extra wide and long for the stability needed by novices like us.

Getting the kayaks ready

Although the kayak was heavy it was easy to paddle and glided well through the water. For once we were very lucky with the weather in Australia. We had perfect paddling conditions for all 3 days, hardly any wind and sunshine from clear blue sky and no swell. It took us 4 hours to paddle to Wheeler. It would probably have been quicker (less zigzagging) if Mette had managed to work out the steering mechanism, which was not exactly complicated.

Soon after we started paddling we saw a dugong. Dugongs are large, grey marine mammals related to manatees. Dugongs feed on seagrass and are the only fully aquatic herbivorous mammal. A dugong can best be described as a sealion with a flattened nose. They are extremely rare so we were quite privileged to see one up close, it came within a couple of metres of the kayak. We also saw lots of green sea turtles and even a shark that came out of the water right in front of the kayak. It wasn't quite jaws size and it didn't have its mouth open, still we were glad to see it disappear into the depths.

When we reached Wheeler Island we set up camp and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in tropical sunshine after our tough morning of kayaking. David cooked us lunch and dinner and entertained us with great conversation. It was camping, but with a private chef. Great! We should mention that the trip we went on was meant to be a group trip, but we were the only ones that signed up.

Our campsite for 2 nights

Wheeler Island along with the other islands in the Family Group of Islands is a national park and therefore a special camping permit has to be obtained. We were the only people staying on the island. The island can best be described as a small mountain that has risen steeply out of the sea. It is mostly covered in dense, impenetrable rainforest, there is a small beach on the north western side of the island and the remainder of the shore line are rockfaces dropping vertically into the sea.

Mette and our kayaks, looking back towards Mission Beach to the far right

Our camp was on the beach. After dark the wildlife on the island made itself heard. There were nocturnal pigeons coo-ing through the night, wild hens rummaging through the undergrowth and an endless number of frogs croaking. To the sound of the wildlife we enjoyed looking at the night sky, where we could see the milky way and the southern cross. The southern cross was used by early explorers as a navigation aid. The lack of light pollution meant that the night sky looked especially clear and we were able to see millions of stars dotted across the sky.

Pondering the tougher aspects of life. Stephen and David enjoying sunset

The next two days we spent exploring other islands, snorkeling, swimming, spotting more wildlife and eating lots of delicious food. We saw numerous sea turtles and also dolphins, flying fish, sharks and stingrays. It was an amazing trip and was so relaxing and carefree that it was almost like a holiday from the holiday!

Getting ready for departure at Dunk Island, looking towards the triplets and the twins where we camped

9 September - Airlie Beach/ Whitsunday Islands

In an attempt to save time we decided to take the overnight bus from Hervey Beach to Airlie Beach, which is a 13 hour coach ride. The journey went fine, but we spent the next day wandering around Airlie Beach like zombies since it was not very comfortable sleeping in non-reclining bus seats.

View towards Airlie Beach

We are spending two days in Airlie Beach, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday islands. The Whitsunday Islands is a group of 74 islands off the coast of Queensland. We are in the tropics here and the scenery reminds us of Fiji. There are beautiful sandy beaches, rainforests and steep hills that drop into the sea. It is very pretty and no wonder tourists flock here to enjoy sailing, fishing and just lazing around in the sun.

The crew on SV Domino

We have spent today on a 40 feet sail boat along with 5 other people and Reg our skipper. We sailed from Airlie Beach to Bali Hai and among the Whitsunday islands. On our way we saw whales, dolphins and closer to the island turtles. We were able to go snorkeling on the reef and saw hundreds of rainbow coloured fish amongst the brightly coloured coral.

Stephen feeding the fish

The turtle coming up for air

Tomorrow we will leave the Whitsundays and head further north to Mission Beach. From there we will kayak out to the Family Group of islands, spending 3 days kayaking and camping.

6 September - Hervey Bay / Fraser Island

We have spent the last few days in Hervey Bay, a small tourist town 300 kms north of Brisbane. Hervey Bay has the feel of an English sea side resort that has yet to be invaded by the cappuccino crowd. There is a mixture of caravan parks, B&Bs, backpacker places and small hotels and a seemingly endless number of fish and chip shops where the frying fat hangs heavy in the air. We turned up without having booked anywhere to stay and, as usual, we easily found a hotel within budget.


We have purchased a Greyhound travel pass which allowes us to use any Greyhound buss service along the east coast as long as we are travelling north. Greyhound busses in Australia are clean and have good seat pitch which make for a mostly comfortable journey. The journey from Brisbane to Hervey Bay took about 5 1/2 hours.


Yesterday we went on a guided tour to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a 129 km long and 15 km wide sand island, making it the largest sand island in the world. In the centre is lush rain forest and the island is fringed by vast golden beaches, several pristine rivers run through it and there are also around 100 freshwater lakes dotted around. Fraser Island is one of several world heritage sites in Australia.

Mette at the crystal clear waters of Lake McKenzie

We took the ferry from Hervey Bay in the morning and spent the entire day at Fraser Island, in the pouring rain. Because it is a sand island the only transport allowed is 4WD, we were in a 4WD buss that had a 300bhp engine and 16 gears. The island is hilly because wind and weather has created sand dunes over time and the "roads" are barely passable sand tracks that weave and wind their way over sand dunes and through dense rain forest. No wonder 4WD is required. We saw one vehicle stuck on the beach as the tide was getting dangerously close.

Enjoying the rainforest in the rain

Our trip to Fraser was made all the more exciting by the wild weather. When we drove along State Highway 75 (this is the road along the beach which is designated an official highway, with a max speed of 80kph) the wind was lashing in from the sea covering one side of the bus with sea foam and the other side was buffeted by big waves. Our return trip along the beach was even more nail biting since we only had about 30mins to get off the beach before the tide would get in too far and would cause the bus to get stuck in the sand. We made it in time, but only just. Due to the bad weather all the trips to the island the following day were cancelled, so we were lucky to make the trip.

Board walk through the dense and dark rainforest at Central Station. Central station was one of the areas used by logging companies when the island was logged between 1865-1991.

The wreck of the Maheno cruise ship which ran ashore onto 75 mile beach in 1935. It was later used as target practise for the Australian bombing squad, which dropped 200 bombs on it, of which only 2 hit the target.

4 September - Brisbane

We spent 3 nights in Brisbane and really enjoyed our stay in the city, which reminded us of a very warm, sunny and clean version of London. The wide, meandering Brisbane River runs through the city and on the south bank are a row of buildings that look much like the South Bank Centre and Royal Festival Hall in London.

View across to Brisbane River southbank

We managed to get tickets to an Aussie Rules football game on Saturday night, which also happened to be the opening of the annual River of Fire festival, with a spectacular fireworks display. We had the fortune of watching the Brisbane Lions fight it out against Geelong for a place in the final play-offs while colourful fireworks lit up the night sky. As the finale to the fireworks two jets dumped their fuel and lit it with their afterburners. The jets flew over the stadium with tails of fire. Along with 30,000 supporters we were awed by the fireworks. Though unlike the majority of supporters we were thoroughly baffeled by the antics of aussie rules football.

Stephen at the Gabba before the kick-off

Aussie rules was created as a game for cricketers to play to stay fit after the cricket season had finished. 18 players are on the field for each team, the game is played on an oval field with what looks like a rugby ball. The ball is constantly under contest and punch ups seem to be part of the tactics to win over the ball. In addition to the 36 players there are number of other people that are on the field including 4 umpires and a number of other people. We never really understood the role of the 2 guys wearing flourescent yellow, we think that they may have been message boys telling players what to do. There was also a woman who was on the field during play giving players bottles of water. All in all, it was quite a spectacle.

Fireworks at the Gabba

During an early tackle one of the Geelong players had his shorts ripped off and a little later a Geelong official ran onto the field with a replacement pair of shorts. In the 3rd quarter (aussie rules games last for 2 hours of playing, played in 4 quarters with short breaks after 30 minutes) 2 women streaked across the field in their bikins to the amusment of players and the crowd. During their sprint around the field they managed to pinch the bottoms of several of the players.
We decided to support the home team, which unfortunately lost by 103-138. Triple digit score lines are not that uncommon in Aussie rules, in fact there seemed to be goals scored all the time. After a while we clapped when other Lions supporters clapped rather than trying to keep track of all the goals.