WE'RE CURRENTLY SITTING IN OUR KUALA LUMPUR HOSTEL WAITING FOR OUR TAXI TO TAKE US TO THE AIRPORT...HOME (sydney) IN 8 HOURS!

Love Katie and David xxx

Hello Everyone!

This is just a quick blog to let you all know that we have at last found a flight home for the last leg of the journey: Sydney to Brisbane!

So as you know we arrive into Sydney on Friday 14th September and we will be leaving there on Tuesday 18th September at 4pm, arriving into Brisbane Domestic at 5:25pm.

So we will see you all very very soon! Borneo is great, we're having fun, soaking up the last of the trip! Hope everyone is going good back home/UK/still on travels!

Lots of Love, Katie and David. xoxoxoxox

P.S. Alison and Flo, if you're reading this can you send me your email address' please?

Well hello there!

Long, LONG time no blog. We know, we know and we do apologise for this; however it probably proves easier to explain everything this way as we have had so so many changes to our plans lately that we were confused ourselves for a while as to what we were doing...god knows what you would all have thought with all our chopping and changing! I think some people thought we were coming home this week! But, alas, no we are not!\

So, basically (as simply as it comes) the story goes like this:

• 3rd July we go to England to see my family and re-coperate.
• Spent one weekend in a cute little town called 'Tenbury Wells', some true English style streets, fish and chips and pint beers from the local pub!
• 18th July we head to Dublin; a grand birthday present (early for the 12th August - i turned 20!) from my parents! Thank you very much! We stayed for a long weekend returning to England on the 22nd, after deciding not to have a last night of accommodation, staying up all night and then sleeping on the floor of Dublin airport for a couple of hours. (Well Dave did, i read the last Harry Potter book - i'm addicted). This ended up being a bad idea as we both got incredibly sick that lasted us a nice couple of weeks.
• This whole time was spent in the area of Shropshire where i grew up, but on the 29th July we headed down to London for a few days staying with my Aunts Pippa and Emma (thanks again for having us guys, it was an awesome few days!) We did some sighseeing and then on the 2nd August we took the bus back to Paris. And honestly, the channel tunnel is the weirdest thing i've ever seen. Must also mention that we missed out on meeting up with Dave's parents in Croatia at the end of July...that was a real shame...sorry John and Janelle! But hope you had a great time, sounds like you have been.
• By this time we had decided to come home...we'll explain better in person but basically it proved nearly impossible to get jobs in France, will have to go back when we speak French!...It could help! We looked at friut picking etc too but this was also not possible. Will explain when we get home because i type too much anyway!
• So we had a week in Paris...did all the stuff you would do there...tried snails...i have a photo of Dave eating one as proof!
• On the 10th August we left Paris arriving in Hong Kong on the 11th, we got to our pre-booked hostel to find it in the middle of renovations which was lovely after a long and delayed flight (typhoons in Hong Kong!) but we got someplace in the end.
• Spent my birthday there where Dave was a wonderful boyfriend and took me to the 'Victoria Peak View Point' where you can see the whole of the city...except it went and rained and clouded in on us! It was very amusing and lots of fun anyway, we did see the view for a couple of minutes at night!
• So then on the 14th August we flew out of Macau (China) to Kota Kinabalu, which is in Malaysian Borneo and that brings us to today! We have 3 days here then fly an hour down south to Miri (same country) where my Grandad lives with his family. He owns a Bed and Brekky and we will live with then for a month and do some work for him there. His place has a website called www.borneo-holidays.com other photos here http://www.treetops-borneo.com/check it out and stay there if you're ever over here! Its a gorgeous place!
• Then on the 12th September we leave Miri for Kuala Lumpur, have one night there then fly to Sydney arriving on the 14th! We'll be seeing Liz and Matt for a couple of days which we're really looking forward too then back to Brisbane!

Told you it was a long story! I think thats enough for now...tempt you to all start reading again!

Love to you all from both of us (i think Dave may have fallen asleep), not so far away till we see you....

Love Katie and Dave xxoxoxoxo

Hello from the Lost Travelers!

Yes, we are still alive and well and currently in Dublin, Ireland, enjoying some Guinness before going back to the grind of job hunting (maybe). Since leaving Paris we went to the UK to visit my (Katie's) rellies for a couple of weeks and this brings us to now in Dublin which is an early birthday present for me from my parents (for the 12th August).

So we will renew our promise to post some photos on here when we get back to my Dad's later next week...this time we really will. We promise.

Ok, so keep on the lookout for our next post (and also any jobs you may find for us) and we will speak to you all again soon.

Lots of love and missing you all,

Katie and David xxxx

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick message to let all of you know that we are still alive and we find ourselves now in Shropshire, England.

Tomorrow or some time we will upload some photos from Paris and let you know what is going on in the next couple of weeks and what has been going on in those passed.

Much love to all,

sorry for the long absence,

Love Katie and David.

Well, well, well...
The lonesome traveller returns and returns the not-so lonesome traveller anymore! Sure i'm used to talking out loud but i'm not used to a response, especially one with such a sweet tone. Katie and i have returned from our little trip to the country (12 days in total...maybe a little longer than expected) and it was uneventful and glorious but only after a spritely 10km walk with 40 kilo backpacks; a clean and non-shared shower and kitchen was good enough reward.

Either way Katie and i are back in paris and we are gearing up to job hunt and appartment hunt and it's beggining to feel like there will be way, way too much to blog about but we will try!

Lots of love to all, and for those who haven't received responses yet to emails they are coming and finally HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!!!! whos 21st we missed, but i promise to make it up to you with a pair of something tight or loose or cool clothes-wise from Paris, if we can afford to buy bread and milk.

Lots of Love

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Au Revoir!

Bonjour!

This is Katie and David reunited at long last in Paris. After everything possible going wrong with our flights, connections, transfers and then lastly trying to find each other at the airport, we are here safely after, in the end, having to meet up in Paris, at the hotel instead of the airport!

It is fantastic and surreal to finally meet up after way too long in foreign places. We had planned this trip on our first date and cannot quite believe we are finally here! Our hotel is smack bang in the middle of the action; two minutes walk to the Sacre Coéur and steps away from the Moulin Rougè.

So from here we go to my (Katie's) Uncles house in the North of France in the area of Normandy for about a week and we will have no phone or internet there. After this we will be back in Paris and back to the real world of trying to find jobs/apartment/learn Français (see its coming along nicely!) etc.

So we'll write soon, probably in about a week or so.

Lots of Love,

Katie and David

xxx

P.S. Liz was right; it was the longest flight of our lives. It took 2 months to get here!

Hello!

I'm back in Bangkok now after spending a week down in the Thai Islands, Koh Phi Phi Island to be exact. It was so beautiful and pretty much all i did was eat, sleep, swim and sunbake! I stayed in a cute little bamboo hut on the beach, which i paid only a couple of dollars for, it was really nice. I was planning on only a few days, but those few days quite easily turned into longer! There's still alot of work going on there from the Tsunami, lots of pictures of before and after. It was quite shocking seeing the difference of course, being there in a restaurant and seeing pictures of what it used to be like.

Koh Phi Phi is also the place they filmed 'The Beach' with Leo DiCaprio so of course i took a boat ride around the islands (there are two Phi Phi Islands; Koh Phi Phi Don where i stayed and Koh Phi Phi Lay where no one is allowed to live, but is the place they did the filming), and stopped at the beach of 'The Beach', if that makes sense! It was really beautiful like all of that area but you can tell that they did alot of photoshopping for the film. So i went snorkelling and swimming all day and then the next day i did yet another hike in my flip-flops(!) with a couple of friends to the other side of the island to a quieter beach. We caught a taxi boat back and on the way the guy was like; "You want to go cliff jumping?" so of course we said yes, that was pretty cool, seen as normally you pay for a separate trip to go and do that! Then he said he had to go and get his fishing net in and would we like to go too and see? So we went and did that and at that point it was sunset so we watched the sunset and a couple of the other girls on the boat wanted to pull the net in (which was 300mtres long) in, so he let them do that. It was pretty awesome to see, there were a few fish and crabs, but the most exciting were two octopus and one shark! Yep, one shark, no kidding!

So now im in Bangkok and i spent the day window shopping (yes mum, i was being very good and didn't buy anything!) and wishing i could buy everything! Tomorrow i fly to Paris in the evening so the next blog will be from both Dave and I! I'm just itching to get to France now! So close!

Sorry to those of you whom i haven't emailed back yet, i will do as soon as i can! Love and miss you all,

Love Katie!
xxx

Back in New York, again.

I left Provincetown this morning.

There is a quote that says that Provincetown is the place that you can turn your back on the whole of America and i figure that's fairly approriate since i travelled from one side to the other in two great months that took me from Venice Beach to Cape Cod. I leave for Paris on the 31st of May my time.

Maybe some photos tomorrow and i will call home for those wondering. Sorry!

Lots of Love,

From David in America

Hello!

I thought i better move this thing on from the depressing top post it is currently at. I am now in Boston where it is 96 degrees Farenheit or 36 degrees Celsius; having literally come from two jumpers and overcoat weather in Canada it was a shock to the system. Here in Boston everyone seems tough and irish and Catholic and they all where the name 'Boston' somewhere on there clothing; can't imagine walking around home with 'Brisbane' emblazoned on my t-shirt and cap. The hostel i am staying in is pretty expensive (a Boston policy it seems) but it is nice and has a TV in the room that i roasted in last night. The manager, to my amusement, is 9 parts Norman Bates and 1 part Norman Bates' Mother which for those of you who have seen Hitchcock's Psycho means 10 parts crazy. When checking in he thought it apporiate to stall for 5 minutes, dead still and gentle sway to the chords of Them coming over the radio; freaked me out a little bit.

Either way things are fine. It is planned to go to Harvard this evening and meet up with one of Liz's many globally mobile friends. That should be cool.

Katie, she tells me, is lazing about the beaches of Thailand at the same location that 'The Beach' was filmed. Today she goes to the limestone cliff that the young DiCaprio jumps from in the film. Pretty awesome.

Hope everyone is keeping well,

Love david xoxoxoxo

p.s. 5 or 6 days till France depending on what hemisphere you're in. Bloggers will unite!

Ok, so I suppose the purpose of this blog was to depict the ups and downs of travelling and unfortuntely today is a definate low. Last night while i was sleeping i had my beautiful old German camera stolen from under my nose. It was literally 5cm max from my face. Of course, Katie had given it to me as a gift.

It was really my only valued pocession so insurance is really no condolence, but, Dad, anything we can do? I went to the police station and all that.

Ok, so sorry about that. I'll go back to staring off into the distance.

Dave.

This is a photo i took of Katie and Macca back in Australia with said camera:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjILQfVqRdFLScDGayMrWdZX6qnhHqXmtC9JK-Na1-xPI5jmxNnxX9A9DgXRcpZUHATBz8BqIjQ8_WwPsPNAL5_lte8chPqOeUKHXgg2tp1knKuuqUKcS_9U3ohiAN9y3wIbX/s1600-h/590144-R1-021-9.jpg

Some more photos..for some reason the computer won't let me put them all up at once so i have to do it in parts, also it keeps deleting things and its all in Thai so i have to guess what i'm doing and just click randomly! Top photo is of (left to right) Mike, Kat, Ryan and Jess on the mountain. Then there is another one of the waterfall in Laos, a couple of a temple and one of us at a very posh hotel bar in Bangkok that we went to last night to meet one of the guys friends. I noted on walking through the front doors the sign with the dress code on also stated, and i kid you not; 'No backpackers', it made me laugh, they actually had to lend us all clothes too as we were to daggy to enter! I'm just all class aren't i?!
I'm getting on a bus in a couple of hours for Koh Phi Phi island so next time you'll hear from me i'll be kicking back on the beach! Love Katie

A few photos of recent events; the sunrise from the top of Phu Kadung Mountain where we went camping and a couple of shots of the waterfall we went to in Laos.

Well aside from learning French, which should really be my priority i know, i have learnt some Thai in the past few weeks. This provides both useful and hilarious to the locals who find it especially funny when you barter with them in Thai. Very strange but hey.
So the last time i blogged i believe i was in Vientiane in Laos and writing about how the next day i would head back in Thailand with a new group of people and go camping up a mountain. Well i left the internet cafe, bumped into Jess who was having the passport trouble and in short she had to leave Laos asap, so we packed our bags and jumped straight into a tuk-tuk headed for the border. It has ended up being the craziest, fun-filled and packed few days i've had on this trip. Basically it went like this: We left Laos, crossed the border and 8 buses/tuk-tuks and 24hrs later we arrived at the bottom of the mountain. For some reason the Lonely Planet has only one tiny paragraph on this mountain and the trek up it, which i find very strange because backpackers would love it, even though it is way, way off the beaten track! So we left all of our stuff two bus trips back at a hostel as there is nowhere for it at the bottom of the mountain and there was no way that we were lugging our stuff up there. We have to have been THE most unorganised, chaotic bunch of people i have ever seen, somehow we didn't prepare whatsoever and ended up climbing this mountain of 1200m (yes, i'm not kidding) with less than a litre of water each, one mango between six of us, no spare clothes, only a few of us had a jumper and waterproof clothing (i was one of them you'll be please to know mum!) a toothbrush and in flip-flops. Don't ask why, i'll never know, it was crazy, but extremely good fun! So the main idea of going up this mountain was to watch the sunset and sunrise, we missed the sunset because it was so cloudy and you couldn't see anything but the rain and dark clouds. We got given a tent and some very smelly blankets at the top (yes we forgot sleeping bags too) but the leeches were on the prowl and even though we got given some leech preventing powder we got attacked, it was like the Blob! So we got moved to an army tent that was pitched indoors and woke up at 4:30am to see the sunrise. It was still quite cloudy, but pretty and worth it all the same. Then it was time to walk back down and by this time my feet were so blistered from the flip-flops that i had to go barefoot. My feet at the end were in such bad condition, so bruised! I'm very glad we did it though, it was away from any tourists and something very different to do. Apparently locals youths go up the mountain to camp and drink as a Spring Break type thing!
So another 4 buses later and we are back in Bangkok and i am now going to go and buy my ticket to the islands today to leave tomorrow. I plan on sitting and lazing around on the beach for the remainder of my trip! Then bring on Paris! I spoke to Dave a few days ago for the first time on the trip which was fantastic!
Hope you are all well, Janelle i hope you enjoyed Toronto!
Love Katie xxx

Hello again for the last time from Toronto.

Mum and I farewell tomorrow; i go to Montreal (Elise, i heard you have been and loved it. Any emailed recommendations would be greatly appreciated davidyoung4@hotmail.com) and mum goes back to Australia. In the past two days we have been to both Niagara Falls and the CN Tower which is the tallest building/tower/thing in the world. Here are some photos of those events as the internet and the photos may be a distant memory by the time i get to France and Katie and I sell our clothes on the street for a sweet, sweet taste of blue vein cheese:

And a little still-life shoe-study in the hotel room...

Converted hotel room; the Marriott Hostel:

Thanks for the comments again and everyone stay safe and stress free during any kind of study/assignment/busy work season. Blood pressure...blood pressure...

Love David.

p.s. i spoke to Katie in the phone for the first time two nights ago; bring on Paris.

p.s.s. mum is going to kill me for that photo of her; sorry. Liz will love me for it.

Hello! Well it's been a while since I've blogged, but i do have good reason! Right now i'm in Laos in the Capital, Vientiane. In the last few days i've been doing some seriously intense travelling, it's been go, go, go, i just haven't stopped and now i have a day here to catch up and slow down. I'm pretty tired out! So i can't remember what i last wrote but since bangkok i headed North to a place called Chiang Mai, which was quite nice, didn't grab me really but still it was pretty. I took a Thai cooking course there which was excellent so now i can cook you all some fantastic dishes...famous last words i think! No but really, it was great and you get a cook book at the end so i can cook some of the things i learnt there.
From there i headed into Laos with a couple of guys i met on the bus to Chiang Mai, one Scot, one from the UK and also one of the guys girlfriends, Om from Thailand. So we had to catch a slow boat from the border down to the first town called Luang Prabang. The boat took two days and i think 'slow' boat is an understatement...it was hell. Ok so i exaggerate a bit there, it was great for about 3 hours, beautiful scenery, different way to travel, exciting and all but after that when they just keep stopping and keep packing on more and more people it got a little frustrating. It acted as a kind of bus for the locals too and so we were all squashed onto the floor, people standing everywhere, not enough seats, bags chucked on top of you. I had a baby put on top of me while the mother went to sleep! Very cute for about 2 hours and then after being kicked and bitten and grabbed at for that long i got a little grumpy!! Got some great photos though. Plus the fact that they would say it's only 6 hours on the boat and "we're nearly there", then we would take about 8hours! So two days of 8 hours each was quite enough for me! Luang Prabang is a Heritage listed twon so it's very well kept, very pretty and very French! So we went to some amazing waterfalls there and rented bikes, which was good fun! We went out to the only club there too which was just locals, that was really good to see, and being the only western female there was cool because i had at last got away from any tourists! It was something different. Then we went down to Vang Vieng where the famous tubing happens! Basically you rent a rubber tube, stick it in the river, hop in and off you go. Very touristy really but great great fun! There are rope swings and places to drink the whole way down, you can buy a beer and get free jumps and then hop back into your ring and keep floating with your beer! Most people are pretty intoxicated by the end, it's few kilometres long the river so we took about 4-5 hours floating along until the sun set amoung these beautiful mountins that we were at the base of. The rope swings were fantastic, very high and very hard to hold onto after a few drinks!
After this we half took a tuk-tuk (little mini-van type thing thats open air) and half kayaked down to the capital where i am now, Vientiane. the kayaking was fun, a few rapids (i didn't capsize, very impressed with that!) and some cliff jumping along the way. So now i'm here and travelling with a different group of people, 5 others, some from the UK and some from the States. Really cool people and from here we are hopefully going to go back into Thailand and go camping up this mountain to watch the sunset and sunrise which is supposed to be stunning, then back to Bangkok and onto the islands! I'm dying to get to the beach! So we'll see about the camping because the tourist police took one of my friends passports!
So apart from that i'm doing well, looking forward to France now! Only two weeks left!
Will put some photos up when i get the chance.

Hope your all keeping well,

Love Katie xx

Torontorion or Canberrians, same thing.

So I am still just taking it easy in Toronto, it seems there is not much else to do other than take it easy here. I admit i'm not looking too hard for the 'hip' and 'young' areas but it seems like pretty slow going around here ("Oooo, Toronno' ay..."). Either way it has given me the chance to sleep a bit in a good bed and organise photos and plans for next week. Here are some photos that are pretty random and steer away from the touristy fair; just because:

R.I.P Bobby Kennedy

Things got a little rough and windy at Ocean Beach, San Diego

Texans drinking Fosters, at there request of course, none of that filth for me!

Vietnam Memorial, D.C.

A fraction too much friction; almost walked out of my pants

Kananbie, Dayboro

xoxo

David

From Toronto

Hell again, this time from the downtown Marriott Hotel in Toronto where i have met up with my mother and she is putting me up in a 4 star classy hotel room until the 19th of May; she is here for a conference. Good timing i know. I'm currently sitting in the sports bar downstairs which has free wireless internet (all for the cost of drinking a coke slowly for three hours) so i will put up some photos soon if anyone is interested.

Katie i believe is either in or on her way to Laos and i'm not sure about the internet but hopefully we'll be hearing from her soon as well.

So everyone stay happy and i'll hear from you soon.

Love David

xoxo

p.s. how was AIH? (for those who know what i'm talking about)

Last word to Lady of Liberty...

Hello Again.

So i am back from Washington D.C., after seeing some incredible things and i'm in New York again for a few days until i catch a train to Toronto to make first family contact with Mum. The last time i made a proper post i was in New York, but minus the photos so i'll try and show you some New York, celebrities and D.C.

The Financial District, Lower Manhatten etc (World Trade Centre Towers stood on the right hand side)

Chrysler Building and friends

Strawberry Fields (forever), Central Park

"Ok George, let's have a look at what you have done with the Penske file" (Seinfeld)

The Brooklyn Bridge

Christopher Walken (!!!!)

the Washington Monument

Congress, The Hill

Natural History Museum, D.C. (David Attenborough eat your heart out)

The White House

Lincoln Memorial

Ok, so there are just a few of the many, many i have and like Katie i wish i could upload, but it takes and age to put them up and i don't want to spoil the 5 hour slide nights i'll be having (god knows what year that will be). Generally i have found America to be a very enjoyable place to be and very easy to travel around by myself. The many quirks of the people here keep things interesting. It is true that meal portions are ginourmous; i didn't noticed until the second week thinking that i was getting more bang for my buck but i was really getting more fat through my arteries. Things are also pretty cheap, especially alcohol (go figure), public transport and people willing to help abound at all locations (when i say help, i mean grunt and point, but that's helpful enough). It's also worth mentioning that i have found New York the safest place i have been so far. I was walking around Brooklyn at 1am this morning and it was safe. I have a feeling those who make trouble can't afford to live here anymore.

Anyway, i hope everyone is well and keep commenting.

Love to all.

David.