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2023 Travelling trip
  • Amy Firth
  • Thomas Baxter

2023 Travelling trip

After years of conversations, saving and planning, we set off on our adventure on NYE 2022 and landed in Bangkok ready for 5 and a half months of adventure. Read more
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  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Manila to Melbourne

    March 26, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We woke up to a lovely bright morning, and was thankful for an acceptable wake up time just before 9 with an added luxury of time for a coffee before we set off! We used grab for a taxi to the airport which highlighted the rip off we got when we arrived, but after seeing some fellow travellers get into a street row with a local tuk tuk driver, we were thankful for our driver and gave him 100peso tip! Within moments of arriving at the airport, we both had a spring in our steps as we walked past all the queues to see our check in desk was practically empty. The happiness continued with speedy immigration and security! However, the happiness slowly deteriorated here... The man took my water (acceptable) followed by deoderant and then attempted to also throw my skincare! I had to step in here however as clearly the man was thick, stating it was over 100ml (the bottle said 125ml but it was see through and very clearly nearly empty!) Anyway, with time to spare we got ourselves a bagel and coffee and stocked up on snacks and treat ourselves to evian water before going to our gate where we were greeted with more stupidity. Here, our bags were checked once more along with our bodies and our brand new sealed evian water was taken from us!! The plane wasn't full which meant people started to spread out and take advantage of the space. Being us, we thought we'd ask first which backfired. We were told the seats were taken but kept seeing locals move. It then moved to some backseat empty seats and was told these were resting seats for the crew...later finding a local woman sat there and to top it off, they had no bottles of water for us! Get us to Melbourne!!Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne

    March 27, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    After a non surprising late morning, we went to Fitzroy where we headed to Lune for their famous croissants which did not disappoint. Another luxury of the day was going to the toilet there, and seeing luxury handwash! The small things which were truly missed in Asia! Tom then went to get his ear syringed so I had a wander around Fitzroy and enjoyed a walk around Coles! We met back up and headed to Patagonia so Tom could treat himself to a new raincoat. We went to a rooftop bar, Naked For Satan, where we went for drinks, although with Tom's ear, he was not in the best of moods, and after so many weeks of not drinking wine, the white wine and lack of sleep hit me and I was ready for a lie down. We went back to the hotel, where I had a nap whilst Tom went to the hospital to try and get his ear sorted out once and for all! With Tom still gone, I went on the search for food at 11pm and found a greek restaurant still serving, Stalactites. With a table for 1, I phoned home and had a leisurely walk back to the hotel at half 12 and waited for Tom to return with his new ear!Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne

    March 28, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Today we spent the morning on the walking tour, learning about Melbourne's history and seeing some impressive architecture. After the walking tour, the weather began to warm up, so we sat outside near the water and had a drink before having a lovely walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens.Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne > Port Campbell

    March 29, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Ready to depart, we checked out of the hotel, thankfully with an 11am checkout time. We got a coffee from Seven Seeds Coffee Roasters before heading to get the hire car and doing our first food shop in a long time at Aldi. We continued our journey to Port Campbell, stopping at dairylicious farm fudge where I had the luxury of a farm portaloo toilet trip and we enjoyed a coffee with a taster board of fudge with a lovely green view! We found our accommodation for the night where we chatted to a man who was from Geelong, staying over for work. After making our pasta for tea, we got back in the car in at attempt to see a sunset at the twelve apolstles. Sadly..this did not happen. After a cold and windy attempt at seeing a sunset, we went to Sow & Piglets for some drinks.Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Port Campbell > Apollo Bay

    March 30, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We left port Campbell and had a scenic journey full of limestone to Apollo Bay. We strolled along the windy, cold beaches and wandered between differing shapes and arches. We even saw our first kangaroo whilst driving! (I think). We came to one beach which had a very narrow gap from the sea, learning about a shipwreck here from England, where there were 2 survivors who washed up on the sand.Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Apollo Bay > Melbourne

    March 31, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Today we headed off on our final drive along the Great Ocean Road and back to the city life of Melbourne.

    I'd found a GOR blog which covered the exact journey we wanted to do, so we used this to pick and choose where to stop on our long drive back. The first stop was only a few minutes into the journey. We parked up in the car park and following a short yet steep walk up the hill, we were greeted with a beautiful, rainbow view at Marriner's Lookout, overlooking Apollo Bay which made the uphill walk most definitely worth it!

    We set back off on our journey and the weather unfortunately started to talk a turn and the rain started coming down. We stopped for another short walk to Carisbrook Falls. We really enjoyed these hidden gems, particularly as there were no other people around! This was such a peaceful spot with the sounds of the waterfall located in the middle of a hill.

    The next stop was a place known for the koala sightings, however when we got here, the heavens had truly opened! Tom was smugly pleased with his Patagonia purchase at this point! Luckily, the cafe there was selling ponchos at 3 dollars! That was me sorted, fashionista! After a toilet stop for me, and a deeeeelicious sausage roll snack for Tom, we walked towards the group of people looking up and there, huddled in the tree branches was a koala! We walked further up the hill, hoping for more sightings, but it wasn't meant to be!

    We continued on the rainy, grey journey to the end of the GOR and jumped out for the iconic photo shot at the memorial arch. We read here that the arch was built in honour of the soldiers who worked on the road and its creation during World War 1.

    On we went with a coffee stop and surfing viewing and after Torquay, we finally made it to our home for the next few nights in South Yarra. Walking through Melbourne, we could hear the roaring engines coming from the F1. We stocked up at Aldi, got comfy in our apartment (slippers were well and truly missed here!) and Tom dusted off his cooking skills and rustled up a curry which we thoroughly enjoyed, along with a mountain of rotis...heaven!    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne

    April 1, 2023 in Australia

    A touristy day of seeing the street art and visiting the State Library Victoria. We spent some time outside first of all, where Tom was in his element watching some chess enthusiasts going head to head, however was not brave enough to partake himself! Once inside the museum, it was definitely impressive with different areas, including the armour worn by Ned Kelly. We learnt about this irish 'hero' during the walking tour. With plans to watch the 'footie' that evening and the Melbourne Autumn temperatures hitting, we headed to Uniqlo to get some layers! That night, we enjoyed a local game of the footie and had a really enjoyable Friday night! I learnt that the footie involves a LOT of whistle blowing and backward throws from the refs!Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne St Kilda

    April 2, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Today we set off walking and hopped on a tram to visit St Kilda for the day. Today was possibly the best weather we've had in Melbourne, with the sun shining and not a rain drop in sight.

    We got to the market and enjoyed a stroll along looking at the stalls and treat ourselves to some food.Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne

    April 3, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    After a long, lazy morning making the most of the home comforts of a TV and sofa, we set off on a lovely Autumnal sunny walk along the boardwalk from South Yarra.

    Our destination was the National Gallery of Victoria, which was a free art musuem with some pretty cool displays, even for a couple of art noobs! There was an Alexander McQueen exhibition on, however that cost, so we stuck to the viewings of the free exhibitions. The gallery had a range of pieces, with my favourite ones being a pencil drawing which came to life through music and video and the x ray scanner where we put the contents of our pockets on the moving belt to add to the artwork.

    We continued to walk into the CBD, stopped for a drink on Flinders street before heading back to the comfort of our South Yarra apartment.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Melbourne last day

    April 4, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Our final day in Melbourne and it was time to leave the taste of home living and back to the travelling life! After finding some available lockers at the station, and Tom checking that is was locked several times, we headed to Brick Lane for a treat with an expensive brunch! We then headed to Queen Victoria Market for a wander where there were all sorts of things being sold including clothes, souvenirs, food etc! Once again, I wished I could have an extra bag of luggage for shopping!

    From there, we walked onto the immigration museum, but after realising this was not a free musuem, we qucikly decided to move on.

    With time to fill, we jumped onto the free tram, which takes you around Melbourne city loop with an automated speaker giving snippets of information about the buildings and sights we passed.

    Our greyhound bus wasn't until 10pm, so we still had hours to fill. We decided to go get Tom's ear suctioned once and for all!    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Sydney - Bondi to Coogee coastal walk

    April 6, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Today we wandered on from our room at Darlo Bar and stopped for some brunch at Darlo Deli. Annoyingly, they were running low on many ingredients! Once fuelled and ready to go, we hopped on the bus and headed to Bondi to complete the coastal walk along to Coogee. The skies were slightly overcast which meant our photos aren't the best, but it was a lovely walk all the same! Once we got to Coogee, we were pretty hungry and went into a bar as we were slightly pushed for time. LittleJack Horner, however, absolutely robbed us!

    That evening, it was finally time for our fancy meal.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Sydney - NRL

    April 7, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Today we had to move from our accommodation which we found really odd. It was a lovely place with a private room and shared bathrooms which were evidently cleaned, however we barely saw anyone else there which is why we found it very odd that it was booked up for the rest of the week!

    We decided to head to the museum today as it's free and was a pretty good museum! It had areas on the aboriginals, the history and also the animals! From here we headed to the stadium for our NRL game of the bulldogs VS rabitors. The first great experience was the double decker, chair flipping trains they had! We also had free transport with our NFL ticket which I also loved. The weather was perfect when we got to the stadium and we had time for some pre match drinks outside. We loved how the bar was full of both teams! The game was good and we managed to meet up with Christine and Ash, who we met back in Laos! We went for some drinks and chips before parting ways again for what would be the final time.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Sydney - Blue Mountains

    April 8, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today was a later start than originally planned after receiving some news from home, but we decided to not pas up the chance we had to visit the blue mountains.

    As we had no car, train transport was our only option, which wasn't great as it took 2-3 hours to get there. As soon as we got off the train, the change in temperature hit us... Baltic!! We set off to the first viewpoint we wanted to visit, Cahill's lookout in the Katoomba area. This wasn't overly busy which was a good start, but it was extremely windy with some impressive views, just a shame it wasn't a bright sunny day!

    From here we wanted to see the three sisters. It took us about an hour to walk there, which was mainly on roads past houses. I'd envisioned walking in nature all day so wasn't really aware of how spread out the viewpoints were. Three sisters was super busy and touristy which we were NOT expecting. It appeared that many asian tourists go coaches to the viewpoints and weren't actually hiking like us, but ruined the viewpoints and although my patience was wearing thin....this was nothing compared to Tom's!

    The next part of our blue mountains experience will be remembered forever....

    Tom decided to try and beat the crowds, and was adamant that the steps we could see would take us to the ground and then a 10 minute walk, and we'd be out! Sounds simple...simple this was not.

    The steps on the giant staircase just kept going, and going and going...998 steps later, we finally made it to the forest ground. This is where Tom assured me we won't have to walk back up the same amount of steps as we'll come out at the roadside. The forest was pretty sheltered, which made it pretty dark, and with the early sunsets, we realised we had to walk speedily to beat the dark (and any hiding creatures!)

    After walking, for what was most definitely more than 15 minutes, we finally came across another couple who advised us the path was closed, but that they went through it and it was fine. They also had a packet of sweets which I couldn't take my eyes off! So on we went, through the no access path and bridge, and there they were...the never ending stairs to get us out. This was a real test of the fitness and half way up, Tom dared tell me to speed up as though I wasn't trying.

    After what felt like hell, we made it to the top, stopped at the shop and returned back to our hostel.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Sydney - Ale Trail

    April 9, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 21 °C

    Today, as it was Easter Sunday we decided to mark the occasion by doing the Sydenham to Newtown craft beer trail. The weather was perfect for a Sunday pub crawl! My favourite beer of the day was the white chocolate one we had. There was a good buzz around the areas and we tried a few different breweries and beers along the way and Tom was robbed when he decided to get an 'esky' (schooner cooler). We booked ourselves in for a long awaited sunday roast enjoyed with a bottle of wine. The roast was delicious, but possibly a bit to fancy for our expectations and shockingly... No yorkshire pudding!

    We ended the night in the traditional english drunken way, with a KFC. Coming back into the CBD, it felt completely different with only tourists around, and it was apparent that the locals go away for the Easter weekend, which was abit of a shame as we didn't experience the full Sydney city life feeling.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Sydney - Palm Beach

    April 10, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today we hopped on the 199 bus to Palm beach. We were feeling a little fragile from our ale trail last night so made our first stop to get a coffee. Many places here in Australia provide suncream, which are often huge bottles of spf 50. Very wise after learning that South East Australia has a hole in the ozone layer!

    Palm beach is where Home and Away is filmed, which Lauren and I loved when we were younger so I enjoyed seeing the iconic places of 'Summers Bay' and we got an ice lolly from Alf's shack.

    We had a walk along the beautiful northern beach and sat and listened to the waves for a while before heading on the lighthouse walk, which was short yet steep! On the way up, looking back you can see the beautiful view of the 2 beaches, Palm Beach and Barrenjoey beach where one was visibly wavy and one looking still.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Sydney final day

    April 11, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Our last day in Sydney and the weather had blessed us! Although we've filled our days, and we've been here almost a week, we both feel like we could fill at least another week! We started the day walking through Sydney, with more views of the harbour bridge and the opera house. We saw people enjoying their lunch break by the water, which looked like heaven to me!

    We walked to the Rocks, and had a look inside a free museum, all they ask if to know what country we're from! This area is known as the birthplace of modern Sydney, as this is where the convicts set up their houses!

    From here, we walked to the Opera Bar, which was extremely popular but managed to get a seat along the edge and enjoyed 2 very expensive drinks!    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Byron Bay Day 1

    April 12, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We arrived in Byron Bay around 7.30am following our marathon 13.5hr overnight bus from Sydney. The journey was fine all things considered.

    We gathered our bags and set off on a short walk to our accommodation, another YHA. The hostel reception was closed, so we dived into a cafe over the road and had a coffee. To our suprise, the cafe was bustling with locals, many of whom appeared to have been for their morning surf/swim. As the cafe filled up, we finished our drinks and headed back the hostel to drop our bags.

    We walked down to the beachfront and immediately felt the attraction of Byron Bay. It's a very cool and trendy town, with lots of boutique shops and cool cafes. We had breakfast at a Balinese themed cafe and headed to sit on the famous grass mound above the beach. It was a lovely spot to relax for the morning until our room was ready, and we were both happy to do so as we were shattered from the bus journey. We relaxed on the mound and watched the world go by. A loud siren interrupted our relaxation, and we quickly learned this was the shark warning, and people promptly evacuated the sea. I'm not sure whether we actually saw the shark, although we saw huge schools of fish moving around the bay with some activity on the surface.

    After a relaxing morning at the beach, we headed back to the hostel and checked in. The hostel had a huge well equipped kitchen, so we decided to make some tea - budget/improvised seafood "paella" and a bottle of white wine, yummo!

    The kitchen during mealtime was chaotic to say the least, but it was fun to cook again.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Byron Bay Day 2

    April 13, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today we did the Cape Byron coastal walk. Along this walk, we noticed some of the phone holders, which are placed so over time, people can take a photo from the exact angle and see how these locations change over time and seasons.

    The walk began walking across the beach, where we heard the shark siren go. Tom completed his pull up on the outside gym before continuing along the walk where we were constantly treat to beautiful, bright views.

    We made tea in the hostel again tonight, where we witnessed some odd entertainment from the youths who were dressed in bikinis and sarongs playing a game of hide and seek.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Byron Bay Day 3

    April 14, 2023 in Australia

    Today was our surf lesson. I was pretty apprehensive considering I hate to be under water without my goggles but what a great morning we had! We met at the beach where we met our surf teacher, Gary, who was a 54 year old Aussie who was fantastic and had us laughing all morning with my favourite moment being when he directed to Tom, "Anytime today would be good.."!

    We started with some theory where he explained about the currents in the sea, the safety and the key point of taking a long swim if you get caught in a current.

    We then started practicing some basic skills on our boards after waxing them up, before Gary swapped me and Tom around (much to Tom's disappointed as he wasn't impressed with my waxing skills). We had to wax in diagonals for the grip, and the younger instructor was not impressed when Tom dropped the brand new wax onto the sand!

    We headed into the sea, which was much trickier and tiring than expected as it was quite a walk out we had to go with our boards attached to our ankles with the waves adding challenge!

    We probably had around 10 surfs in total and surprisingly both managed to get up on our boards with a couple of surfs making it all the way without falling. This helped with the instructors giving us a push out onto the waves and telling us when to get up.

    Both instructors were great, and Gary was determined to improve my confidence and mindset by the end of the lesson!

    We stopped for some post surf snacks before having a chilled rest of the day. In the evening, we headed to a local burger joint.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Brisbane Day 1

    April 15, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Our first short bus journey took us to Brisbane where the good weather continued! We were met by Becki and co who picked us up in their ute and took us to some lovely Brissie spots! After being shown some of the tourist views, we walked along the boardwalk and had a catch up over some beers and a pizza.

    We stopped off at the bottle shop before going to our home for the weekend, which was luxury to be in a nice house in alex hills! We spent the rest of the day sat outside in their dream garden with drinks, before watching the rugby accompanied by a cheeseboard.    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Brisbane Day 2

    April 16, 2023 in Australia

    We enjoyed a lie in at Becki's followed by a luxurious shower in a bathroom, alien to the shared bathrooms we've been used to recently.

    Jamie was designated driver and took us to Southbank for the afternoon, where we had a pleasant stroll along the boardwalk, and then enjoyed beers in the Sunday sun. We really enjoyed Southbank, which is where the iconic, 'Brisbane' sign is, although we had to wait for an Indian girl to have her photoshoot before we could take a photo of this.

    Southbank has a man made beach, where there were plenty of people sunbathing and enjoying the pool which is free to use! Much to Arielli's disappointment, we weren't going in for a dip.

    We decided to go to Chumley Warner's Traditional British Fish & Chips for dinner which did not disappoint, washed down with a delightful Dr Pepper! Becki stocked up on millions sweets and I enjoyed seeing what was sold there that's not available in Aus, such as dilute juice & Zoflora!

    We went to a lovely spot for sunset which again was a busy spot, but we managed to secure a bench to enjoy our fish & chips whilst watching some fishing!    Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Brisbane Day 3

    April 17, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We waved goodbye to our luxury stay at Becki's and treat ourselves to an uber into the city. We came down to earth by checking into our youth hostel and ventured into the city. A bonus for the hostel was the happy hour roof top they had. We later headed to kangaroo Point to meet up with Jennie and Brad which was great to catch up and hear about their new lives! On our walk back, we spied our first possom!Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Noosa Stopover

    April 18, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 24 °C

    We departed Brisbane at 2pm for a relatively short bus journey to Noosa Heads. This would be the base for our Fraser Island trip. Noosa is also a very popular surfing town, and as a result is quite developed with lots of holidaymakers both domestic and international. We were staying in the YHA which was the most expensive yet. We arrived around 5pm with the intention head straight to the shops before they closed to stock up for our Fraser trip. We checked out the communal kitchen, and decided that we would rather eat out. We headed back up the hill to a shopping centre and stocked up with essentials. Afterwards we took advantage of a steak night deal at the Four Pines brewery bar. We got two rump steaks for 30 dollars which was excellent value. We went back to the YHA and packed up ready for an early departure to Fraser. The building was an old wooden lodge, full of character but unfortunately sound travelled very easily and spoilt our stay. Not quite the good night's sleep we needed.Read more

  • 2023 Travelling trip

    Fraser Island Day 1

    April 19, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 24 °C

    An early morning with a 7am pick was not made any easier by some inconsiderate loud girls through the night! We were picked up and taken to the Noosa offices where we had our first introduction from our tour guide Doug. Here we were to drive to Rainbow beach and Doug asked for some confident drivers. Tom ummed and arred and with a nudge offered his services and became a pro 4x4 driver. It was a long drive to the ferry crossing and here Tom had his first go at sand driving. With the blue skies, he was in his element! We were introduced to beach camp before heading to Lake Wabby where Tom became the boomerang king.Read more

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