We go to a land down under – 6th – 7th January 2010

We had breakfast with M&D before catching a cab to the airport and checking in for the first leg: Krabi to Kuala Lumpur. We knew we had a few hours to kill in KL but having been there before we were happy we could amuse ourselves with all the restaurants! Our connecting flight was an overnight flight from KL to Gold Coast so we thought we’d catch some zzz’s on the flight and arrive in Oz refreshed. We hadn’t done any research before arriving in Australia with the foolish notion that as it was an English speaking country we’d have no problem navigating our way around, booking accommodation etc, etc. HOW WRONG WERE WE!!! Firstly we got NO sleep on the plane and when we landed we soon realised that this was no well connected airport….even worse than Cork! We had an extortionate breakfast and then had to sit in the carpark and wait for half an hour in the hope that a minibus would be headed to our destination – Byron Bay.

Last day in Thailand – 5th January 2010

The boys were surprisingly up for the craic in the morning so it was down to the beach at 9am, where we had the best of the sun (enjoyed from a shady spot!) and our last dip in the sea. It was lucky too as the rain came by early afternoon and cleared everyone. We went for a siesta and had a pretty relaxed night after packing our bags for the big trip down under the next day.

Journey of hell – 4th January 2010

Still not recovered for the festivities our journey full circle is nearly complete. We set off at 6am with the promise of arriving in Krabi at 2pm where we were then going to head back to Ao Nang to meet some friends (Maurice & Donna) from London. 11 hours later and we arrived pretty jaded and looking for McDonalds! This had the desired effect on Liam and he partied like a new man but Aileen just couldn’t keep up.

BACK TO THE ISLAND – 19th December 2010 – 3rd January 2010

We had booked the night bus/ferry back to Koh Phangan for 6pm that evening and spent the day trying to shop but failed miserably. When all else fails what do you do? Have a beer and sit and watch the world go by….we ended up having several and meeting a guy who we’d first befriended in Laos and we’d been bumping into pretty frequently all the way down…..come to think of it he did appear to be almost skulking in an alleyway when I spotted him!!!

We caught our bus and proceeded to have the best craic on a night bus ever! Had a really cool group (down the back, of course!) and so the many pit stops were used to replenish the stock of beers. It was a pretty crazy journey taking about 18 hours but we finally made it back to Koh Phangan and our resort of luxury for Christmas – Sarikantang. Our friend Lesley was on her way back home from London to Australia and stopped along the way so she was sitting with cocktail at the ready for our arrival by the pool. A couple of pretty messy but fun filled nights ensued with us almost thankful of her departure cos then we could GET SOME REST!!!

Christmas was surreal but lovely – I had the proper roast dinner in an English pub but Liam opted for PASTA! I obviously had the obligatory Coghlan Christmas brekkie of scrambled eggs and a cup of tea, which was great and Liam had cornflakes….you would never have guessed we were in Thailand! Went out that night for the Christmas party dressed up in all sorts of Santa clobber – the beach was packed (or so we thought, NY was still to come, yikes!). Took it pretty easy after that hanging out with a lovely couple from the epic journey that were staying on the island too. Really glad we splashed out on our room cos it was LUSH!

Had an obligatory ‘gala’ dinner at the resort new years eve then the party of all parties….Full Moon New Year’s Eve Party 2009!!! Talk about mega packed and yes we did lose each other but were reunited in the early hours but I had lost my bag (with our second camera of the travels!). Hence there are no photos of that night….which is probably just as well. We were supposed to check out on the 3^rd of Jan but after 3 days of partying (which included wicked jungle party non accessible by car & mad trip in back of pick up out of there….our ears popped we were up so high and the vertical ascents and descents had Aileen holding onto the back of the truck for dear life!) we thought it best to take one more night before we set off.

Bangkok – 18th December 2009

We arrived in Bangkok and got a cab to our pre-booked hotel close to the Koh San road. We weren’t too shattered but the energetic cabby was a bit too much to handle! Liam was wearing the Vietnam cap and in his really limited English he tried to relay the message that yes he liked Vietnam, he was in the war and he liked shooting!! We weren’t going to push him when he dropped us in the general vicinity of the hotel and not outside the door as preferred….

I must say (Aileen) that I love Bangkok….so many people you meet on your travels or in life say how dirty and horrible it is but I reckon I must be a city girl at heart, I love the hustle and bustle! Unfortunately our one night in Bangkok was not spent sampling the delights of the KS road but rather a look into the pristine interior that was Bangkok Hospital! Liam had been suffering again since Cambodia but after an attempt to find a hospital in Nha Trang in Vietnam and coming across two pretty poor offerings (think people lying on floors) he had given up the hope of medical attention until we reached the westernised world again. It was painful for him and expensive for us (still trying to sort an insurance claim!) but we had a good night in the hotel with some cheap cans of Chang and some really trashy movies on HBO!

Siam Reap – 17th December 2009

As we were pressed for time we only managed to go around the temples of Siam Reap for one day, some may be aghast at this but it was plenty of time for us! The thought of going around the temples over a week would be just too much.

We hired the tuk tuk driver who picked us up from the bus the day before to drive us around the temples for the day. He was a really nice guy and looked after us throughout the day. The Temples were amazing and the ones we enjoyed the most were the ones that the trees and jungle had begun to take over - a little bit disappointed with the main one Angkor Wat though. We decided to take a balloon ride to see the temples from sky - Liam was pretty happy when it came back down but surprisingly Aileen wasn’t scared!! After an early morning pick-up of 7am we were well and truly done by 1pm and got our spin back to town. Our driver (Joy) was willing to stay with us until after sunset at the temples but we gave him a tip and sent him on his way early! After booking him to pick us up for the airport in the morning we had a rest and a MASSIVE feed then early night again. I (Aileen) dreamt that I was soaring over temples so a great impression was made. Glad we got up so early to do it though as the HEAT by 10am was pretty stifling and thankfully by that stage we were getting to the more shady/jungley temples!

Siam Sleeper – 16th December 2009

Got the sleeper bus which was 10 hour trip back to Phnom Penh and then up to Siam Reap. Not the most comfortable of journeys but not the worst by a long shot. Got into Siam Reap at 6am and finally for the first time on our trip everything went well with the hotel pick up and our names were up in lights (ok written in pen on a board) to greet us and take us to the hotel. Managed to get a room straight away and so we had a good sleep. When we woke we got up and discovered a really nice chilled out town – we walked to the main part and sat by the river for brunch and had a beer. We then ran into people we had met in the booze cruise and had a couple more. Had dinner back at the hotel and got an early night for the next day.

Sihanoukville – 9th – 15th December 2009

We arrived in Sihanoukville to beautiful weather – Sihanoukville has a lovely long beach that stretches for about 4km – although the recent rains and typhoons have made the beach very narrow the sand is lovely and the water is almost crystal clear. So in Sihanoukville we relaxed for a week on the beach having lovely food and topping up our tans. We went to three beaches and the best one being Sokah beach that was a part of a hotel – its lovely beach was almost empty and so we relaxed by ourselves – away from other people and the hawkers who try to sell you everything and everything almost non-stop on the other 2 beaches.

We also did a booze cruise (11th Dec) but the pics will speak for themselves....we had a ball! (Those of you who had the pleasure of a personalised Christmas card may recognise the setting!!!)

Sihanoukville – 8th December 2009

With a sore head we made our way to Sihanoukville by bus - met a lovely Australian called Kevin on the bus who had been to Sihanoukville many times and he gave us a run down of what to do and where to go. We were shattered after the night before and the trip and so after a lovely bbq on the beach we had a couple of drinks with Kevin and had an early night.