When we were in Australia, hiding from the rain for a couple of days in Alva Beach, we organized Tasmania and determined our next stop should be New Zealand. We organized flights with Jet Star and rented an older camper van from CampaSouth. We were able to fly from Hobart to Christchurch, with a short stopover in Melbourne. We had some issues in Melbourne, going from the domestic terminal to international isn’t a long walk but was very challenging. We had to do a desk check since they wanted proof on onward travel, luckily we had that. Then the luggage system was down so we were told to leave our bags in piles, Jet Star is 7kgs of luggage so we checked our bags. Getting through security was a gong show and we literally had to run to our gate as our flight was boarding.

10 days in Tasmania wasn’t enough. We could of easily spent at least a couple more weeks to explore this lovely island but we only had a short time left on our Ozzy visas. It remains one of our favorite places… even though we landed during a massive rain storm and spent the day hunkered in the van. 🙂

Australia Part 2 was us heading back south from the Daintree down to Melbourne and beyond. The original plan was to head back inland but we ended up going back along the coast. The reasons… a random message allowed us to reconnect with some of our favorite people and why not? We really enjoyed some of the places on the way up. Plus we needed to test out the Zombie Apocalypse machine that we saw on the way up. Seriously, Zombie action? Head to Australia during Sugar Cane Harvest.

The land of OZ, the land of OZ! Okay, the land of Australia but still awesome! While spending 2 months in Kampot we were lucky enough to borrow a computer to figure out what to do next. The original plan was Vietnam, but the weather there wasn’t co-operating. So how about a complete change of scenery and we look into renting a camper van and travel Eastern Australia! Flights, check, Phnom Penh to Brisbane. Australian visas, check. Camper van rentals, checked, checked again… once more and then boom… pulled the trigger. Look out Australia, the Rimmer’s are coming… for 3 months!!! 😀

After a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong, we headed back to Cambodia for further adventures. We had an overnight in Phnom Penh before heading south to Kampot to visit our old friend Lee. We ended up staying there for 2 months… yep, 2 months in Kampot.

Bokor

If you are in Kampot you have to go up Bokor mountain. It’s spooky, beautiful and weird all at the same time and has its own weather system. Lee took us up the first time on a very foggy, rainy day. We went to the waterfall with water that looks like tea, explored the old casino, went through a huge warehouse that people were living in and checked out the suburb that is supposedly being built. We ended up going up Bokor several times but only once in the sun.

Hong Kong? What!?! That was unplanned… well yes, but everything has pretty much been unplanned! Let’s make a long story short… in May we looked into getting tickets to the Liverpool FC preseason game in July at Hong Kong Stadium. They sold out in less than 24 hrs… too bad, moved on. While in Don Det, Laos, we discovered that one of Paul’s favorite Liverpool podcasts, The Anfield Wrap, was going to do a live show at the Hong Kong game. So, hmmm, maybe we should look into it further especially since it was going to be someone’s birthday month. Within 3 hours we had tickets lined up for both the game and Anfield Wrap Podcast show, hotel and flights booked. So “Hong Kong? What!?!” became “Hong Kong? You Bet!”.

Cambodia (Part 1)? What? Why, you ask? Even if you didn’t, I’m pretending you did so I can tell you all about it! After a great time on the 4000 islands in Laos our next stop was Cambodia. We were very excited for a couple of reasons the main one being an opportunity to see our old friend Lee. We hadn’t seen him in years… basically since he moved there from Calgary, Canada. The other reason was that we heard it was amazing. So we took off from the 4000 islands on a boat, then a bus to the infamous border crossing, renowned for its corruption. We were super lucky in that our Thai friend Nok had also decided to leave at the same time so we all traveled together.

The Land of Laos was next on our list. We met wonderful people, saw some beautiful sites and had a blast. We spent the most time in Luang Prebang, Vang Vieng and the 4000 Islands.

Slow Boat on the Mekong to Luang Prabang

This is a two day journey with an overnight in Pak Beng where we stayed at the Monsavanh Guesthouse. We crossed over the Mekong on the Friendship bridge which is the border at Chiang Khong into Laos and then took a minibus to the slow boats. The seats were basically car seats dropped into a boat. We stayed away from the back of the boat to avoid the engine noise and enjoyed the sites along the Mekong. These boats are big and can easily hold 50 people. We had a great Indian meal and our first beer Laos at the Hasan restaurant in Pak Beng. Every once in a while you would see a boat heading upstream. These were usually very and small and scary fast.

After Myanmar we spent several weeks in Northern Thailand. All the Chiang’s together: Chiang Mai, Chiang Dao, Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong!

Chiang Mai

We decided to get organized in Chiang Mai. Mailed some items back that we don’t use, saw Wonder Woman and did a cooking class with Pat and Liz. I’d wanted to a do a class so this was more for me then Paul. We got to make several dishes and no injuries occurred. After wandering the night market we spent some time at the shopping malls, not either of our favorite things to do but we managed. Had a nice evening at Small House Kafe where some advice from Dao had us heading off to Chiang Dao instead of Pai.