Around the World in 89 Days

Almost finished

2005-09-02T01:54:00.000+01:00

Hey there everyone. In our last place now before we fly home. Haven't found an internet cafe where we're able to put up the new pictures but over the next week or so I'll get around to it. We've had a brilliant time and yet again it was nothing like we expected. We have driven over 3000 miles and seen some amazing things. We've camped and partied and gambled and hiked and millions of other things. But still we're really looking forward to going home to see everyone. Also, we have no choice in the matter because we have absolutely no money left.

So check back to the site in a couple of days and you'll see some of our pics.

New Zealand

2005-07-26T10:11:00.000+01:00

Hey there. On the island of Maui now and managed to get a loan of a laptop for a while, so over the next few days I'll try get the site up to date with all the pics. But for now here are some pics from New Zealand.

My Passport

Pretty cool eh?

Bay of Islands - Paihia

First day in New Zealand. Woke up at 1.30 after about 14 hours sleep, had to sort out a load of crap with the car rental company and by the time we were ready to go see stuff it was 4.30 and peeing rain.

Cool thing about all the rain is that all the waterfalls are massive. Found this one by accident.

Hells Gate - Rotorua

This place stank. I nearly threw up a couple of times and Sinead felt sick for a while after. But it was really cool.

And had some mad signs like:

Crap thing about New Zealand is that its hard to capture or describe how nice the land is.

Other Warnings - Taupo

Never new it about New Zealand but its full of volcanic activity and has about 200 earthquakes a year! The last one was in march and it was only about 6.4!!! This was on the first page of the visitor manual in the place we stayed in.

Mount Taranaka - New Plymouth

This was our view most mornings in New Plymouth. Didn't get a chance to go up it but at least we got to see it.

Wiatomo Caves - Wiatomo

Here we are about to go into the caves to go down a river to see millions of glow worms. It was like looking at the night sky in a cave. It was excellent. Cool part of the trip was when we got to an underground waterfall then walked in pitch black to a place to sit and had hot choclate and cookies.

Going to New Zealand

2005-07-09T11:04:00.000+01:00

Just a lil note to say that ther first part of our trip is over and we're in Singapoe airport now waitin to fly to New Zealand! It's hard to believe a month has gone by already, but sometimes it feels like we've been away for 3 months.

We'll post some more pictures in a little bit cos there will be more internet cafes there.

Bye for now!

Just another few pics 4 ya

2005-07-05T04:45:00.000+01:00

Thailand - Hua Hin

This is what we like to call an action picture hee hee! Although you cant tell we're holding on for dear life on the back of a tuk tuk, well conors holding on and trying to keep me from flying out of it while i take this. Basically a tuk tuk is a small van type pickup truck with seats in the back and no seat belts, doors, or windows!

Thailand - Ko Samui

This is just a cool picture of a storm coming in onto the beach one day we were there. It rained once every day but didnt bother us at all cos it didnt last that long and was kinda cool to watch. We sat at a bar on the beach, where it also happened to be happy hour for a few hours, and watched the storm with a couple o beers.

This is a fab picture of me (not really) after we climbed some extremely dodgey steps up the side of a waterfall. We're at the top and decided that we had to take a picture of the view- trees, which incidentally we could have taken plenty of pictures of at the bottom of the waterfall without half killing ourselves!

To get to the waterfall and elephant trecking we hired a bike for the massive some of 4 euros. This is just a cheesy picture of conor in his element when we got lost for about an hour and a half on these dirt trails in the mountains. Eventfull day!

Malaysia - Palau Penang

This picture was taken just around the corner from where we were staying. Not much to it really!

Malaysia - Palau Perhenthian Kecil

This was a really nice and not that developed place. Quite tranquil really until we came across this beast outside our chalet/shack! Mother of god it was massive, like a crocodile, and it was trying to eat a little stupid cat that kept following it!

Theres loads of cool things to see in the sea around the island so we decided to go on a snorkelling trip. This is a picture of where we stopped for AGES to have our lunch in the only town on the island, the fisherman's village. As you can see we were accompanied by some manky, hungry sheep!

At the end of the trip we were brought to the most fabulous beach ever in the world. Its totally untouched with white sand and crystal clear calm water. If you look closely you can see me swimming.

Hello Again

2005-07-01T08:14:00.000+01:00

This is the first chance that we have had to actually put the pictures up. We're in Kuala Lumpur (the capital of Malaysia) now and have been away for about 3 weeks. Only one week left in South East Asia and then on to New Zealand.

We arrived in Singapore on the 9th of June but didn't take many pictures cos we were just really getting used to being away and getting roasted off our arses. But here are a selection of pics from Thailand and Malaysia.

Singapore - Fountain of Wealth

My Arse! It took us about an hour and a half to find and when we got there it was covered in trees and surrounded by road works. After taking this picture we made a hasty retreat to the safety and comfort of Starbucks.

Singapore - Bukit Timah

Holy Mary was this place hot. It's a bit of rainforest in the middle of Singapore, about 40mins outside the city. When we got there there was a load of Singaporians and they were even sweating, so what chance did we have!!! But we gave it a shot and made it to the top of the hill. Then we got chased by some mad black thing and decided to call it a day.

Thailand - Bangkok

This is a pic of Sinead on Khoa San Road in Bangkok city. She's just after getting her hair braided and it looks mad. But this road is mental. They sell all kinds of crap and everything is really cheap. It's the heart of the backpackers district and we were staying close to here.

This is a picture of me buying such crap at the side of the street. Before we went away the doctor told us not to eat from these places .... he was right. They are not all bad and Sineads stuff was fine, but mine tasted like crap. we like to call them meat on a stick cos we don't know what kind of meat it is, we just know that it's meat.

This is me in this big temple - Wat Po in Bangkok. I'm beside a statue called the Reclining Buddah, which is 35m long.

Thailand - Hua Hin

We met this kid who was selling roses in a Thai beach resort called Hua Hin. He was mental and it was sad to see a little kid out at about 11 selling crap for his parents.

Thailand - Ko Samui

This place is an island off the coast of Thailand. We hired a motorbike one day and found this company that do elephant treks through some jungle on the island. Is was crazy being up on one of those. After the trek we got to feed it.

There was a bar called the Sunlight Bar on the island and everynight they had these guys doing mad stuff with the spinney fire thingies. It was cool cos you got to relax by the sea in comfy chairs and watch these guys.

Malaysia - Pennang

When we were on our way to Malaysia we met these guys in the minibus there. 3 guys from Newcastle who were sound out. Euwan, Mark and the guy taking the picture is Terry. They've headed on to New Zealand now to find jobs so were gonna try meet up with them in a week or so.

We also went up Pennang Hill which is about 800m above sea level and you get a brillaint view of the city. They have a jungle there aswell and a canopy walk which Sinead is on in the picture.

Singapore - We're here!!

2005-06-10T08:29:00.000+01:00

Well we arrived here after about a day's travel, and it's flippin roasting, about 33 degrees.
The flight was great thou, I was able to lie out across 4 seats and sleep for the most of it. And got to see a few films aswell.
Haven't taken much pictures yet, but we are going to India town tonight for some food which should be fun and then chinatown tomorrow.
I'll write more when we do more stuff.

Local Times

2005-05-30T15:12:00.000+01:00

Click here to view the local time in each city.

2 Weeks to Go

2005-05-26T07:38:00.000+01:00

It's just under two weeks now before we go, and our minds are set to packing. It's hard to know what to bring thou, but luckily I found this book, or else I'd be screwed:

Well no, actually I didn't buy it. I'm not going to bring all that much and just buy whatever I need while away. We are going to Bangkok where everything is supposed to be really cheap.

Also I cant wait to go from this:

To This:

Just thought I'd share that.

New Southeast Asia Plan

2005-04-21T10:07:00.000+01:00

We decided to change our plan of where we go in Asia cos of all the earthquakes. we only have a general plan but it includes going to the place where the film "The Beach" was shot and through some jungle where you stay in tree houses. We decided against going to the Full Moon party because it would be a waste of money and time and we want to see as much as possible while there.

Injections

2005-04-21T09:29:00.000+01:00

We had to go get our injections yesterday in the Tropical Medical Bureau in the Keogh Practice in Waterford. We spent about 45 mins going through all the countries that we would be visiting and what kind of crap you could catch there and how to avoid getting bitten or infections.

I had visions of the doctor trying to push all sorts of vaccenes at us, but in the end it only came down to four that we would really need, and nearly all of them last more than 3 years. It cost us €130 each, but I'd prefer to pay that then get some crappy disease.

My arm is still sore thou, and last night I felt crap, but it's all good.

We got our tickets

2005-04-17T16:59:00.000+01:00

Yay, got our tickets off Elaine and they are all payed for. At least it's the biggest thing out of the way now.

September 2005

2005-04-12T08:55:00.000+01:00

All this traveling is all well and good, but a big problem we are going to have is when we get back as I have to get a job asap (to pay back parents and banks) and then a house (to live in). Sinéad is waiting to get the results from an interview she did for Trinity to do a PhD in St. James Hospital but I know she has got it so at least she'll be sorted.

Me on the other hand, well my plan is to try and organize some interviews and email recruitment companies while away and go straight to Dublin when I get back and go to them. It almost seems too easy. So if anybody has any jobs or houses lying around in Dublin in September, let me know.

Full Moon Party

2005-04-11T14:02:00.000+01:00

Ok, new plan. The more I read about it the better is sounds. Instead of going to Sumatra with all its earthquakes gonna go to Bangkok and work our way back down and stop off here for a few days.

Full Moon Party is an enormous party organized during every full moon night, on the beach of Hat Rin, situated on the east end of the island of Koh Pha-Ngan.

It began about ten years ago with a group of tourists seating quietly on the beach and who thought that the best place to admire the full moon was on Koh Pha-Ngan. Nowadays it gathers together between 7,000 and 10,000 revellers each month and it has the reputation to be the biggest party of Asia!

Click here for more info.

We only have to be back in Singapore for the 9th so we'll have plenty of time to go to it in the 21st June and then travel down down through Malaysia and back into Singapore.

Earthquakes off the coast of Sumatra

2005-04-11T10:08:00.000+01:00

There was another earthquake yesterday off the coast of Sumatra, so I think we might be revising our trip and not go there as our insurance probably wont cover us while we are there. Maybe go further into Thailand or something but we wont have to decide that until we get there.

Hawaii

2005-04-11T09:58:00.000+01:00

This is our plan for when we reach Hawaii. Bascially we are not going to do anything here as we will have spent the last month and a half just travelling around 5 other countries so its going to be a week and a bit on a beach. Alot of people have told us that Oahu is too comercial and to get off that island asap. Maui is really the only island left that still retains some of the places you would imagine Hawaii to look like. So its a short flight the day after we land and then I think we're going to hire a couple of bikes and just cycle everwhere.

What's going to be weird is that we are leaving Sydney on the 23rd July at 8:30 p.m. and we arrive in Honolulu on the 23rd July at 9:50 a.m. So a big thing that I'm worried about is making sure we don't lose track of what day and time it is.

New Zealand

2005-04-08T14:39:00.000+01:00

Here is our plan for when we go to New Zealand. It's the only part of the trip that is completely planned out as we want to see as much of New Zealand as we can, but we hadn't a clue of what to see there. Sinéad found out about a company that does accomodation passes and car hire and they have a load of information about what to see and where to go. Visit the New Zealand Tourism Online site for details.

We hope to save as much money as possible here by cooking all our meals for ourselves and we can go to a supermarket at the start of the trip and buy as much stuff in bulk and bring it around with us in the car.

So here's the plan for when we are in New Zealand.

South East Asia

2005-04-07T09:46:00.000+01:00

This is hopefully the way we are going to travel around Southeast Asia for the month. It's a lot of travel but we want to see as much as possible. The good thing is that travel is really cheap. Most of the travelling costs under €5.

Basic Trip Plan

2005-04-06T09:52:00.000+01:00

Heres the basic plan:

1 month travelling around south east asia
2 weeks travelling around the north island of south-east asia
2 weeks on a beach in Maui
1 month travelling around the west coast of America

Can't freaking wait.

Mossy Breen a.k.a The Boat

2005-04-06T09:48:00.001+01:00

Just have to say thanks to Mossy who created the rocking desing for our blog. His design ability easily makes up for his lack of moxie.

Hi and Welcome

2005-04-05T10:34:00.000+01:00

Hi There. Just set up the new blog to post pictures and stories while Sinéad and me are away. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we are going around the world in 89 days. More info is coming soon.