Kylie | See It Do It Live It

Yogyakarta

The first thing we saw in Yogyakarta was a half naked lady, squatting in the middle of a busy bridge, doing a poo into a plastic bag. Things could only get better! Fortunately, they did. We managed to negotiate the local transport system and get ourselves to Borobudur, a ninth century Buddhist temple. The temple lay forgotten, buried under a layer of ash and jungle for hundreds of years, before being rediscovered by Thomas Stamford Raffles. Now, it has been restored to its former glory. We spent an hour exploring…read more

Mount Bromo

With two backpacks and two passports in our possession, we were ready for our trip through Java. Our minibus left Kuta at 10 am and then we spent the next 5 hours driving to the north of Bali. We passed through some nice countryside and past lots of beaches, confirming our suspiscion that Kuta is not the best bit of Bali! It was comfortable, newish bus and there was only us two and two Indonesian ladies on it, giving us plenty of room to stretch out. We then had to…read more

The story of calamity Kylie and a bungling boat company

Posted by Kylie in Asia, Indonesia, Trip

It should have been so straightforward: a boat transfer from Gili Air to Padang Bai (Bali) and then a minibus transfer to Kuta. This is the reverse of the journey we had taken a week previously, which went very smoothly. The return trip was slightly more eventful…. When our boat arrived at Gili Air, they loaded everyones bags into the hold first before boarding the passengers. We watched Graham’s bag go on first and mine a short while later. We then got onto our rather busy boat and sat on…read more

Bali and the Gili Islands

Bali Our first stop in Indonesia was Bali. We landed in the evening and found ourselves in one of the most overcrowded and pointlessly bureaucratic airports of our trip so far. We had to line up in no fewer than four separate long, and infuriatingly slow, queues to get a visa, go through immigration, hand in a customs form and get our luggage scanned. We were lucky and avoided the baggage collection queue as we had flown with just hand luggage. We then found a taxi, but apparently our driver…read more

The Perhentian Islands

The Perhentian Islands are a tropical paradise situated off the north-east coast of Malaysia. I headed there on my own for a week of sunshine and swimming. There are two main islands: Perhentian Kecil and Perhentian Besar. I had read that Kecil was popular with backpackers whereas Besar was aimed at couples and families. As I am travelling solo, I decided to get the boat to Kecil. My speed boat left the mainland at 7 am, so during the journey I could watch the sun rise over the islands. The…read more

Chaos in Kuala Lumpur

From Singapore I flew to Kuala Lumpur. When I arrived it was raining and it carried on raining all evening. I was staying in a dorm room in Sunshine Bedz Hostel and was lucky enough to be put in a room with a really nice group of German girls. I joined them for a street food dinner, and then headed out for a drink in the evening. The next day the weather had cleared up so I could go and explore the city. My first job was to purchase a…read more

Singapore

After a week in Chiang Mai I went to Singapore and Graham stayed in Thailand to travel around the islands. I was going to Singapore to meet Paul, my partner in final-year-Chemistry-crime. Paul and his Dad met me at Changi airport and we went to stay with his Dad and his wife Jo at their house for the next four nights. In the car on the way there Paul casually asked if I was allergic to dogs, as there were three huge ones in the house. A bit late….but luckily…read more

Tom Yum Thai Cooking

In the last four months we have been cycling, trekking, caving, kite surfing, we have done a safari and visited a chimpanzee orphanage. We have sampled more types of cuisine than I can possibly list, we have probably accidentally eaten several ants and Graham has even knowingly eaten caterpillars. But we have not done very much cooking at all. Today we signed up for a Thai Cooking School and it was amazing! The Tom Yum Thai Cooking school is run by Oun and Kae from their home in Chiang Mai….read more

The ‘Blue Lagoon’….

Vang Vieng used to be the party capital of Laos, with tubing, opium cocktails, and death slides being the activities of choice. A few years ago, after several tourist deaths, the government clamped down and closed most of the bars. The town is re-establishing itself as a centre for outdoor pursuits such as rock climbing and mountain biking. Tubing is also making a comeback, and a few river side bars have re-opened. I arrived in Vang Vieng by myself, with Graham following a couple days behind. I booked into the…read more

The Plain of Jars

Graham’s aunty, Sheila, lives in the East of Laos, near the Plain of Jars, where she is an English teacher. To visit her, we took a 7 hour minibus from journey Luang Prabang. As I’m sure we have mentioned previously, the drivers here seem to only go at one speed, with the accelerator jammed to the floor. This is scary at the best of times, but when you are snaking up a mountain with sheer drops on one side, it is completely terrifying. This particular driver would happily go around…read more