Darwin, Kakadu, 3 million Mosquitoe Bites & Day one in Singapore.....!

Helllloooooo from the open road....!

Well we have finally set off and I am currently updating this from our Hostel in singapore while it is thundering and raining outside....

We arrived in Darwin at around 1am on the 4th of September, and spent the night a Christian Womens hostel (hahahahah little did THEY know!).  After checking out of there, we popped around to my Auntie Ronnie and Uncle Alans place....which was MUCH nicer than the hostel we stayed in! Had a quick bite to eat, then picked up our car and drove 300k's to Kakadu.

Now, coming from Melbourne to Darwin was a bit of a shock for 2 reasons. 1) It was so freaking hot my face was peeling off! and 2) The aboriginals...! Growing up in Melbourne, you don't really see alot of aboriginals around. And if you do, they are normally the ones giving talks at schools etc etc. Well...not in Darwin.  They would sit in groups drinking, fighting, yelling, singing or begging. Absolutely bizzare.

Anyway, moving along....!

So we set off for Kakadu at around 11am, and after a 3 hour drive we arrived at the Merl Campground just outside of the Ubirr Rock Art.  After setting up our tent...which was one of the most frustrating things to do in 35 degree heat, we headed to the rock art site.

I will upload some pictures soon, but to be honest the pictures would not do the artwork justice. It truely was amazing.  We spent around an hour looking at the various pieces, and then watched a lovely sunset over Kakadu.  It was a good end to our first day on the road!

That night Lucy and I possibly had THE WORST sleep ever imagined! Even though we covered ourselves in deet, we were attacked left right and centre by mosquitoes and sand flys.  Lucy currently has around 23 bites on her right knee, and 17 on her left (we clearly missed her knees when applying the repellant!).

The next morning, we drove out to the Nourlangie Rock Art site, which was again fantastic...although not as interesting as Ubirr.  I think it was all the tour groups that ruined it for us.  Ubirr is around 40k's off the main Kakadu Hwy, and Nourlangie is on the main stretch which makes it one of the busiest spots in Kakadu.

By the time we finished at Nourlangie it was about 12 midday, and it was red hot.  We later found out it got upto nearly 40 degrees, so we decided to drive strait back to Darwin rather than camp again.  Yes, we are soft, but the thought of a nice comfy bed and airconditioning in Darwin seemed to appealing to let go!

After arriving back in Darwin we wandered into the city and grabbed a bit to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, and then witnessed what Darwin is famous for: Dick Head English Backpackers.  I have never seen so many drunk people in one street.  Now, as everyone knows, me and Lucy love a drink or ten, but to see these idiots not only being drunk and pissing in the street, but also blatently taking the mick out of the aboriginals in town just made my blood boil.  Anyway, I'l leave it there, but it really wasn't a good look.

On  Monday we did a major cull of our bags (never a good sign 2 days into an 8 month trip!) and then headed to the Darwin Museum which housed an excellent Cyclone Tracey Exhibition and some great aboriginal art work.  Monday evening we had a lovely meal with my Aunt and Uncle, and Tuesday we headed to Singapore....where we are now....!

We arrived quite late last night, around 9pm.  We are staying in the "Little India" part of Singapore which is worlds away from the western influences Orchard Road etc, and we love it! We had a great meal at a Morrocan Restaurant opposite our hostel, which came to a whopping $10AUD (!!!!!), and then we fell asleep....!

Our plan this morning was to go for a wander around the city, but at the moment, being 11am....it has't stopped raining since 8....so therefore I am updating this blog.

We get our flight to Kuching in Borneo in a few hours....very excited about that! Hopefully its not raining there!


Will update from borneo....!


jess xxxx

1 more sleep....!

Wow the last 2 weeks have gone fast!!

I can't believe Lucy and I actually leave Melbourne tomorrow. Crazy....!  We are packed, and as organised as we can be.  We will finish up saying the last of our goodbyes to some of our good friends today, then tomorrow its good bye to a predictably teary mum and dad and Melbourne Airport.

So tomorrow - being Friday the 3rd of September, we are flying to Darwin at 9.30pm on Tiger Airways, and arriving in Darwin at about 1.30am. We are staying at a youth hostel in the city centre over night, then on saturday we pick up our car and drive 300k's to Kakadu National Park.  The main objective for our time in Kakadu is to see some Aboriginal Rock Art.

For those of you who know me quite well, you know that I am a tight arse traveller. That is, I will not spend money where I dont have to, and if there is a cheaper way to do something...then I will find it!

When we were doing our research for travelling around Kakadu, we figured maybe we will just do a tour of the park, thinking that must be the cheapest and easiest way.

Well...it wasn't.  The cheapest tour we could find was $170....EACH! So thats $340 for 6 hours!! Insane...!

The way it would have broke down is this:

Accomodation Darwin x4 nights @ $30 p/night:     $120
Kakadu Tour                            @ $170:              $170
Food for 4 days                        @ $20 p/day        $80
                                                                   ____________
TOTAL                                                              $370
TOTAL FOR 4 DAYS ME & LUCY                   $740

$740!!!! FOR 4 DAYS!!!! I don't think so Darwin.

The way we are doing it is this:

Accomodation x1 night Darwin:                            $75
Car Hire for x3 Days                                           $200
Petrol                                                                 $100
Camping 2x nights @ Kakadu @ $10 p/night         $20
Food for 4 days (Cans of Beans & Bread!)           $25                                                
Accomodation x1 night at Family's house              FREE!
                                                                  _________________
TOTAL FOR 4 DAYS ME & LUCY                  $420

Now, $420 is still expensive by my travelling standars, but much better than $700 + !!

The budget for the rest of the trip (once we outside of EXPENSIVE australia!) is roughly $35 per day.....! It will be interesting to see if we can stick to this....!

So on that note I shall leave you, if I have chance I will update again tomorrow.  If not, you will hear from me in Darwin.

Jess xxxx

10 more sleeps + 1 lost passport

So...imagine the WORST thing that could happen 2 weeks before leaving on the trip of a lifetime?

Correct - I have lost my passport....! Probably the single worse thing that can happen to someone as OCD and organised as yours truely. However, there is a silver lining in this big effing black cloud of mine! Luckily, I have two passports...an Australian and a Brittish. Lucky for me, it was the latter that I have 'misplaced' somewhere in the house. Which means we can still leave the country and enjoy our trip hassle free. Fortunately our friend Sophie is meeting us in Bangkok for our three months in Nepal, and she is going to courier the thing over in her bag. Lucky!!

And before you say anything, yes I have looked everywhere and ripped the entire hosue apart trying to find it. Murphys law, it will more than likely show up the day before we fly out. We shall see....

In other Jess related news, we are pretty much all organised and just waiting to head off. I finished up work at Clive Peeters last friday (3rd time leaving, you think they would learn their lesson about employing such a free spirited Salesperson!), and Lucy & I had our farewell on Saturday night at Bazoo Bar in Croydon. Great night with some excellent company, including some random blind guy with his dog. Very strange.....

Lucy is busy painting my parents outdoor area as I write this, trying to get as much done in the next week as possible.

Thats about it for news this week...I shall update again next week with a super excited blog regarding leaving and plenty of exclimation marks....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (x300000000000)

Jess xx

4 weeks and 4 days to go...!

Ok...so we leave soon. Like really soon. Like...sooner than I realised! And now that stuff we needed to do that has been shelved on the 'Things we will do in August' list......yeah that list is pretty damn long now!!!

So in between booking places to stay and working out what else we have missed in our plans, I thought it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling with this blog again and give everyone an idea on where we are off to....

The plan thus far is:

September 3rd - September 7th: Darwin & Kakadu

September 7th: Overnight in Singapore

September 8th - 30th: Malaysian Borneo & Brunei

October 1st - 14th: Thailand

October 14th - January 30th(ish): Nepal (2 months trekking & 6 weeks volunteering)

February 1st - April 30th: Northern India

When we run out of Money: ENGLAND!

Soooo as you can imagine Lucy and I are pretty damn excited. As per usual, Sophie is coming to meet us for some of the trip (mainly Nepal) which will be ace.

Lots of stuff still to do but I will endeavour to update this in the coming weeks.....!

jess xxx

ok...so lets try and kick this off again....!

Right so just so everyone is aware - I am actually back home in Australia now...!!

I'm going to try and kick off this blog again from the start of the NEXT trip I am planning (41 countried and counting....!!)

Soooo....keep your eyes peeled for some updates over the coming weeks on what the next 12 month plan is....and the 12 months after that....! The main difference to this trip is my beautiful girlfriend will be coming along for the ride....no longer the lonely back packer....!

Anyway - thats it for now....will keep you all posted as things eventuate.

Cheeeeeeeers, jess xx

PS Being home SUCKS!

The Trans-Mongolian Part V - St Petersburg and Goodbye Intrepid

Our last over night train journey was probably the nicest and most comfertable out of them all....and it was only 12 hours!!! We left Moscow station in the evening and arrived in St Petersburg bright and early at 7am, where we were informed that at 10am we were going to be doing a giant walking tour of St Petersburg....exactly what you want after an overnight train journey!!!!!

The walking tour was actually brillant, even though we were all absolutely knackered by the end of it! Our guide took us through all the back streets of St Petersburg, where I saw some of the most amazing street art I had seen so far on the trip. St Petersburg appeared to be alot more "communists" looking than Moscow, which screams capitalists at the top of its lungs. All the apartments have that standard square look about them and the city in some parts did look a lot more run down. However, in saying this, I think I enjoyed walking around St Peterburg alot more than I did Moscow. I think maybe because it was the Russia I imagined while reasearching. Its a little bit new, a little bit old and has a hell of alot of character about it.

The following day we spent the day walking through the Hermitage Museum, which is one of the biggest museums in the world. The buildings itself was amazing to walk around, let alone the 3 million odd displays of art work from all over the world. There is a fact I read somewhere that if you visited the hermitage, and spent just 1 minute looking at every piece of art work, you would be there for over 3 decades. Pretty crazy huh?

The Hermitage building itself used to be a royal residence back in the day, and the ineterior certainly depicted this. Walking through the various halls was quite similar to walking through somewhere like the Sistine Chapel in Rome, just on a much larger scale. Holding artworks from such big wigs like Picasso, Da Vinci, Monet & Van Gough, the Hermitage is somewhere you have to dedicate at least half a day to walking through, even if its just to have a quick peak. Seriously, 5 - 6 hours is a quick peak!

We spent the afternoon walking up and down the massive Nevsky Prospect, the main street (or avenue rather) in St Petersburg. Holding shops for all tastes and budgets aswell as most Restaurants and nightclubs, you can imagine just how busy this place gets. Honestly, you can't walk in a strait line for more than about 30 - 40 seconds before some one comes barging into you.

That evening we had our final tour group meal, and said our goodbyes to everyone. After spending 3 weeks with these 12 people, it was quite sad to finally bid them farewell. However, not being much of a tour group traveller, I was really looking forward to being back out travelling on my own again (in the company of Sophie for the next 3 months!).

The following we checked out of our hotel, and jumped on a night bus to Helsinki, Finland.

Photos from Suzdal and Moscow

Suzdal









Suzdal







St Basils Cathedral, Moscow



One of the many amazing Moscow Metro Stations