Day 30 to 33: Hello Australia! Melbourne

Day 30...

We had finally arrived in Sydney Australia but still had one more flight to catch to Melbourne. Jack was over excited about being in Australia, almost breaking out in dance and thrilled to be out of Asia. When we touched down in Melbourne we headed straight for car hire and Nicola became the designated driver. We had been provided with an automatic car which was a new experience for us. The whole group struggled to find the handbrake so we decided to quietly ask someone for help. The lady then proceeded to shout to a collegue in front of everybody, "they can't use the car". Her collegue then tried to make us feel better by giving us the excuse that were European! It was very embarressing. After that small drama we were finally on our way and headed to Mount Martha to stay with Kimmy's uncle and aunty. Arriving to the best possible start to our Australian trip, lovely people and an amazing aussie BBQ!!!!!

Day 31:
Obviously slighty jet lagged we managed to sleep through our alarms so had a rather lazy morning. And what was that out the window.........RAIN?! Booo!!! So we decided to have a chilled day and do a little shopping in Frankston shopping mall. With Kimmy rather excited from the site of Nandos, we settled for lunch..yum! Arriving back we chilled out and enjoyed some cool ciders whilst chatting away. We had our first experience with a massive 'house spider' and after some girly screams from Jack we had captured it to put it outside.... until Tony (Kimmy's cousin) decided to let it run up and down his arms before putting it back on the wall!!! We than ordered a taxi for our first Ozzy night out. The night didnt go as planned with Niks being refused entry for wearing Havai-ana thongs....how did they know she was wearing a thong?! Ah Thongs means flip flops! As well as them not accepting our English driving liences we called it a night with plenty of entertainment from drunken Tony as well as drunken Ozzy's. Best people watching experience.  But did we want a Taxi or a Maxi Taxi?! You don't know what a Maxi Taxi is?!....it's a Mini Bus duh.

Day 32:
Same story as the Previous morning, we had managed to miss our alarm again.... oopps. Up and ready, it was time to be Tourists with a trip into Mealbourne City. We met with James, a friend of Jack's, and the begining of what we like to call Baver's on tour #BaversOnTour. We strolled around the City taking in all the lovely sites as well as a visit to the Mumba Festival where we watched Weight boarding and Jack losing on the fairground games. We saw the grafitti street, the tower, museums and some fabulous architecture. We settled In a bar on the waterfront and enjoyed a Cider (Nik and kerry), Wine (Kimmy) and Beer (Jack) with Jack bringing along another friend Jess from Camp America #BaversOnTour. We headed back arriving to a very delious curry made by Chris.....it was amazing!

Day 33:
All packed up we headed out for Fish and Chips (never as good as home Fish and Chips....they don't do curry sauce!) before saying our goodbyes and heading for our first overnight bus on the Greyhound to Sydney.

Thank you so so much Dave and  Chris for inviting us into your home, the amazing food and late night chats!!!

Day 29: Goodbye Asia

Crazy to think we've been gone for one month and it was actually time to say good bye to Asia! The journney to Australia began with a flight from Hanoi to Bangkok where we enjoyed a Starbucks and ate are last Thai food with chopsticks. It was time to start a new adventure in Australia!!!!

Reflections on Asia......

Asia you have been amazing with so many great experiences and a few bad for some!

♥♥♥♥♥♥We will miss...
Staying in hotels
Eating out
Pampering ourselves - manicures, pedicures and eyebrow threading!
Cheap alcohol
Cheap hair extentions for Kimdoll
Motorbike taxis
Someone washing and folding your clothes
Buckets
Beach parties
Bunkbed buses
Tuk tuks
Chopsticks
Street corn
Street food generally...it tastes sooo good!
Air hostesses on buses
Ladyboys
The mafia - Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese (there everywhere)
Friendly cambodians

XXXXXXWe will not miss...
The smell of poo
Being offered something which is the same same but different
Taxi men pretending they know where you want to go but they dont
Hole in the growned toilets/self flush toilets!
Begging children and their relentless efforts.
The continus beeping of every single car/bus/motorbike/lorry to simply say get out of my way NOW beeeeeeeeeeep!
Trying to cross the road...nightmare

Missing items....
Samsung charger
Rain mac
Make up...and lots of it
Perfume
Travel pillow
Varius clothes
Camera
Sewing kit
Mirror
Hairbrush
All of the above belonging to Kimdoll
One very floppy hat by Niks on purpose

Things we didnt get round to and so an excuse to go back for...
Eat some bugs on sticks
Ride an ostriche in vietnam
Tailored made suit
Visit the south of cambodia
Become a certified diver in Koh Tao as it is rediculously cheap
But most importantly to go on a motorbike taxi again.

Toe Update: Kerry's Toe Nail still intacted. #ToeDrama

Day 28: Hanoi

We wrrived late in Hanoi the night before so we checked in and went straight to bed. Unable to book a trip to Halong Bay that night, Niks being a good sport got up at 6:00am and got us a place on the tour....yay Niks!

It was a 4 hour Bus Ride to Halong Bay so we all seized the perfect oppertunity to nap as always. When we arrived at halong Bay we saw some amazing views, a floating village, kayaked through some caves, strolled through some very big caves and had a very fishy lunch (Niks and Kerry trying clambs.....yes really). In the very big cave the tour guide was determined to find animal shaped rocks. He had a very strong imagination as no one in the group could really see these animal shaped rocks. He also told us romeo and juliet had visited there as their shadows returned there when they died?! Very bizarre but funny.

Arriving back we quickly got ready and joined the hostals pub crawl for our final night in Asia. Finishing up at The Light House, which we crossed the Motorway to get to and was ran by the Mafia! We all had an amazing night, we danced, Jack TC, Niks and I tried our first pork patty, Niks cut her toe, Kimmy and kerry carried Niks out the club (unnessarily) and we all got our final motorbike taxi home......we love motorbike taxi's♡♡♡♡♡

We also wished we had more time in Hanoi as it is a fairly big place and we didnt get to see much of the city. It wasnt very commercialised so felt like we were in real Vietnam and not a tourist spot. We need to return to Vietnam to see and do the things we missed! Mainly to ride an ostriche. 

Day 27: 12 hours in Hoi An

The bus arrived in Hoi ann around 7am, bright and early. We were amazed by how good the bus journey was as we were told some bad stories about the buses being full of smoke, the isles full of people and belongings being stolen. However none of this happened to us, instead we just had persistant beeping from the driver and other road users (the norm in Asia).

After a very short taxi from the bus station we had arrived at our hostel. We had a quick breakfast and headed to a recomended Tailors, Kimmys Tailors. We had limited time with a flight to Hanoi that evening so we picked our fabrics, designs, got measured, all within 10 minutes or so and arranged to return at 3pm for our Kimodo fitting. Once again leaving Jack to sleep.

In between fittings we headed for a cooking lesson which we loved ♡♡♡♥♥♥ We made Pork Spring Rolls, Prawn and Mango salad and Chilli Chicken with Rice.....now take a seat (especially Jodie) NICOLA AND I ATE PRAWNs haha!! We shall be holding a Vietnamese dinner party when we arrive home which shall be eaten with chopsticks only. We then strolled around the Market brought a few Souviners - chopsticks.  Kimmy and kerry had their eyebrows threaded by a crazy vietnemise woman.

After a hectic day we returned to Kimmy's Tailors to pick up our custom made Kimodos. They fitted perfectly and had been made in 3hours.....crazy! Another flight onto Hanoi!!!

It was a busy day in Hoi Ann but so much fun. It is such a stunning little town full of tailors, market stools and beautiful flowers! We wished we had more time here.

Day 25 & 26: Nha Trang

Day 25...
We started the day with a flight to Nha Trang . We arrived at the airport to find the flight had been delayed......by 4 hours!!!! With a very restless Nicola, a few naps on the floor, we passed the time with card games and wondering around the really rubbish shops.

Upon arrival in Nha Trang we arranged a trip to the mud baths for the following day and brought ourselves a bevvy costing a mere £6.00 for a liter of Smiroff vodok......lovely! And why not, we headed to the why not bar. A very funny night of unusual dancing with the  Vietnameses and of course Nicola being told to move from a seat AGAIN. We had a great night.

Day 26...
It was a morning of great timing for Nicola with a speedy get up and ready. Once again, Jack stayed in bed as we headed for the mud baths. The mud baths were cool/strange with what seemed to be a family day out for most! We started with mud (no photo evidence....lets not talk about that!), onto the human car wash, into the mineral bath, through another human car wash and into the hot springs. Arriving back from a day of relaxation we continued it with some more pampering, a pedicure to match our fresh nails...Kerry recieved some strange and confusing looks when it came to her big toe (fake toe nail).

Feeling rather peckish we came across a small restaurant and were greeted by a very friendly Texas man. Sold by his american manner and charm, we took a seat. The restaurant was very cool with pictures of customers covering the walls (get your picture up by visiting 3 times). We got slighty carried away and pretty much ordered the whole menu, but it was good! The texas owner asked how our food was for which we all replied 'lovely thank you'. He commented that we were apparently too polite and our reponse should have been 'it was damn good' .....were still to make a Texas girl out of Kimmy!!

We got our first night bus in Vietnam to Hoi Ann. Coolest night bus ever with 3 rows of bunk beds, wifi and charger points!

Day 24: Saigon Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City also known Siagon. After setting up camp in our Hostal we were two men down. Kimmy and her Cambodian disease with 100% death rate (heat rash) and Jack ill (probably hungover). Niks and kerry headed to see what Siagon had to offer. Looking for somewhere to have breakfast we came across The Hungry Pig. It was so dreamy with real bread, real Bacan (a welcomed change from rice and noodles) and REAL TEA (our 1st since we left). We then went on a mission to find ourselves a traditional Vietnamese hat, with our hats on what better way to see the City than a motorbike taxi!!!!!! With the breeze through our hair It was the best experience ever and got to see all the sites with plenty of photo opportunities. When the motorbike tour was up we strolled around and decided to treat ourselves and have our nails done. Once sat down we suddenly realised that we were not in an normal Nail Salon with the Ladies VERY dressed up the 'Nail Salon' was more or less a cover up for something else going on. Leaving in fits of laughter and not the best manicure. It was a very funny experience! We had our first Vietnamese meal and beer. The waiter told us we use our chopsticks the Asian way and introduced us to the Vietnamese way. We had a starter, main and beer for £3.00! Strolling back we saw a real Nail Salon and had our nails done a second time that day, gel nails ♡. Niks going for a lovely shade of red and kerry a clear glitter, we were more than happy!

Day 19: Back to Bangkok

After taking our first internal flight from Phucket to Bangkok our second 24 hours in Bangkok began. We had some food and got ready to go out with Kimmy popping out to get her hair extentions done (she lasted 3 weeks before she cracked), Vietnamese hair special, how could she resist?!. An evening filled with drinks, banter with other backpackers, facetime to the girls back home.  Before we knew it was almost 6:00AM and our bus to Cambodia left at 6:00AM ooopps! With no sleep we took a tuk tuk to the bus station. Tuk tuks normally only fit 2 people with no luggage. However the thai man insisted 4 of us will fit with luggage, it was a very crammed journey with legs and arms hanging out of the tuk tuk everywhere.