Jorda Rundt

Hey people. Elisabeth here.
We are in Australia now and are having a GREAT time! We landed in Brisbane the 22nd of February. The weather was very nice and the city was nice in it self! But it was a big city compared to any other big citites
As you know we came from Thailand and we actually came to a cultural shock!
We went to toilets with TOILET PAPER! and we got hot shower on our first hotell (the preebooked one) and even at the Hostell we booked for the rest of the days in Byron (Banana Bender Backpackers)
We didnt have to bring a roll of toilet paper in our purse anymore and we could sit on NORMAL toilets. I promise you. You have to experience Thailand to understand the extreme joy we felt to go to anormal toilet!
Another thing which wasn't that cool was that EVERYTHING over here is expencive again. Norwegian prices on everything. When you then come from Thailand that isn't the easiest thing to accept.. hehehe. 25dollars (140NOK)for one night?! We can't pay that! We were used to pay 76 NOK for one night. And here the food actually cost something! We're starting to get used to the prices now and are still enjoying hot showers and normal flushable toilets. Probably used twice the budget from the whole time in Thailand already, but that's okey. We have great time and have done a great deal og fun things already.

After a couple of days in Brisbane with shopping and a visit to the Koala Sanctuary (Lonepine) we booked a 2nights 3 days trip to Fraiser Island. It was GREAT! Such a nice place and soo much to see! We came to a hostel at Rainbow Beach (2 nights at a hostel there included in the price) and got to know the group we were travelling with on Fraiser. A fun group with people both from Germany, Holland and Ireland. Then we left the next day and were driving around on Fraiser (Huge SAND Island) watching a big shipwreck stranded on the beach, meeting other groups and camped on the beach while one of our Holland friends made us a delicious meal. Couln't have a better "chef" on our gruop. MAde all this delicious food the whole trip
THink the best thing about Fraiser was LAke Mc. Kenzie. A freshwater lake in the middle of the Island. White sandy beach and cristal clear water. It was Beautiful! (will try to put out a picture later) Best memory from the trip to Fraiser But in total we had a good trip

Stayed one more nigth in Rainbow Beach before we travelled back to Brisbane. Stayed one more night in Brisbane before we went to Surfers Paradise. Stayed only 3 days there I think it was, but had a good time there. KIne and I went to an amusement park called Dreamworld with two guys we got to know at the hostel while MAri and Hege looked around in the City ( A relly huge tourist city!) and lie on the enourmous beach.
We were supposed to watch a big surfer competition while we were in Surfers but missed it because of some misunderstandment with the people in the desk at the Hostel. It was the final of Roxy Pro. Really anoying that we didn't see it, but well. A friend from Banana Bender told us that it's much more important to enjoy the things you have done and are doing than to use streght in being anoyed about the things you haven't done. You have a great time even though you don't do EVERYTHING! He's right. Kine and I had a great time in Dreamworld and Mari and Hege had a great time at the Beach.
We are having a great time no matter what we are doing. We are travelling! We have been lucky with the weather and have done soo many fun things and some times been relaxing with a good book each or been walking around meeting new people or done window shopping (Can't afford to buy more stuff) hehehe.

Still have to say that my BEST day on the whole trip has been my 20th birthday (7th of March) Are staying in Byron (Still) and on my Birthday I got a beautiful weather. Clear blue sky and sun. PERFECT. Started the day by watching the sunrise. Cars from the hostel drove us out to de Lighthouse here in Byron and we had a view out on the whole ocean. Saw a beautiful sunrise and had a good time even though I think we all were A BIT tired still (6.30 in the morning) hehehe.
At 8 o'clock the a bus came picking me up. I was going to skydive! It has been my biggest dream for soo many year and finally I was going to do it!
They took me up in 14000 feet. I could see everything from there. Saw the whole of Byron Bay, saw all the way to Surfers PAradise and it's huge hotels and.... I could just see EVERYTHING from there! I had started already the day before to just smile and i promise you... Couldn't stop smiling for days after! When we threw us out of the plain (tandem) it was just an amazing feeling. wasn't scared at all, I just looked with amasement around us while we were falling for 70 seconds in free fall. Hard to explain how I felt excpet for WOW! CAn recomend anyone to do the same!
After the skydive the four of us went to the beach and lay there for the rest of the day just enjoying the weather. Ate at the hostel a really good BBQ and went out afterwords. It was just the best day EVER!

The next days have we spent in Byron Ba y also. Relaxed with a really good movie on the cinema called "in to the wild" and been surfing when we havent relaxed on the beach.
I have been writing a lot now, but it's soo hard to stop writing because we are doing and experiencing soo many things!

Still some time left in Australia before we are heading to New Zealand. Think we are spending most of the time here in Byron but want to have a couple of days in Sydney to.

Guess you will hear from us soon and hopefully we will be able to put out some pictures very soon. If not, you can join our group on facebook called "4 jenter jorda rundt".
See you soon.

Og for de som ikke skjonner saa mye engelsk haaper jeg aa faa lagt ut noe paa norsk ogsaa snart.

Snakkes

Hi. Me again, Elisabeth.
Our second stop on our trip has been Krabi or more correctly Ton Sai Beach. (By just luck)
We came from Bankok with bus to Krabi, then further on to Ao Nang where we wanted to stay for some time. Mari had been here before and liked the place a lot so why not.
After a couple of hours walking around in the heat asking for cheap places to stay, we gave up and started to ask around where we could find something cheap (after Bankok everything is expensive!) outside Ao Nang. No one could help us. had to give like 1000 thb per night around the area because it's the best tourist season this time of year.
Luckily we met one guy who told us that we should take a Long Tail boat to Tonsai. He was staying there and he told us that it was a lot cheaper. We went together with him out to this peninsula and he was right. It was a lot cheaper. 400 thb for bungalow for 2 people. We were planning on staying for like 4 days or something but guess what. After more than to weeks we are still at the same place. This is why.

The local people on Ton sai are the most friendly people you can meet! We have got to know a lot of them in our time on Tonsai and are going to miss them when we leave Thailand tomorrow.
Tonsai is a climbers paradise and climbers from all around the world are coming back every year to climb the walls around this place. Tonsai is more a climber and backpacker place than a tourist place and it makes a great atmosphere. If you want to go to more tourist friendly places (better standard on the bungalows, better beach and so on) it's just to take a walk for 5 minuites over to the next beach (Railey Beach) when the tide is low. There everything is twice as expensive, but with some more luxury.

As I said, we were planning on staying just for a couple of days, but from day one we got to know soo many new peole. Both backpackers, locals and climbers and just haven't been able to leave because we have such a great time!

The food is Brilliant and our favourites are the lemonshakes and the banana pancakes with chocolate and honey. The nightlife is the best! "The Chill out bar", The pyramid bar" and "Andaman" are the places we hang out the most. So many nice peole who works there. Playing games like 4 in a row and some other games with us while listening to a LOT of chill out music like Jack Johnson and Bob Marley.
At Andeman we usually eat (Great food!) and talk to people while watching good movies. Everything is just so relaxing everywhere at this place so never want to leave!

We have got to know a great guy from Canada named Craig who have been taking us out climbing for a couple of days and it has been soo much fun! The only thing we were alowed to give in return was a dinner. He's just great! Live on Tonsai 5 months a year climbing, helping "newbies" like us on restingdays and watch movies on andaman.
He introdused me to climbing and I know I'm hooked! It's soo much fun!

Beside climbing, we have been cayaking, renting a longtail boat with some Canadien guys we met one of the first nights travelling around on the different beaches nearby and relaxing on the beach. In the evenings/nights we have been hanging out on The pyramid bar where our new friend Chai is working.

It's hard to explain how much we all love this place and it's hard to give a real picture af how great it is to stay at this place. I can just say that Tonsai Beach 10 minuites from Ao Nang with Longtail boat is GREAT!!!!! and I can recomend it on the warmest if you like to chill out, getting to know new people or climb (also dive)

We are leaving for Singapore (plain to Australia) tomorrow and a 24 hour long bustrip is waiting. Hopefully it will be a bit better than the one from Bankok and hopefully Kine will get well (Has been sick for 2 days now)
It's gonna be hard to leave.

Well... This was all for now. We haven't been riding elefants or wisiting tempels. Travelling around in jungels on marked up routes with ten other tourists or been taking guided tours around the island seeing all the known places, but we have been relaxing, climbing and just had a GREAT time!

Next time you will be hearing from us we are having a great time in Australia.

See ya. Love from Thailand

Hi. Elisabeth here.
Trying to update the blog some, and are writing in english so everyone can get updated.

Our first days on our trip we had in Bankok. We had already paid for one night at a hotell (Bankok Royal Hotell) but figured quite fast that it was way to expensive to stay there and the area around wasn't that good either. Okey hotell, but poor areas around. Only one street away from the hotel, lay the famous backpacker street (Koa San Road) so we went there our first night (even though we didn't know it was the backpacker street) to check out the nightlife. There were stores after stores, bars after bars and people yelling to us to come in everywhere. Wasn't possible to just walk around to look in the stands, oh no. They were on your neck as soon as you entered their stands to try to sell you something. You also had Tuk Tuk drivers and Taxi drivers that wanted to drive you everywhere. "Cheap Cheap" they said, but no thank you. We had been warned :0) We usually walked around and we even walked around to find a new place to stay after our first day. Luckily we met a nice backpacker from Holland (Dan) who gave us some tips on where to go, so we followed his tips on going out just one street from Koa san road to find much more quiet areas. We found the street and actually met him right outside the hostel he stayed at. (Wild Orchid Villa) It was nice and cheap and we stayed there the rest of our time in Bankok.

I have been paranoid to eat food on the street, but the other ones were'nt so I guess they ate at least two plates of phad thai every day. Cheap and good. I sticked to the food on the hostel or didn't eat at all (Relax mum I have been eating This have changed so I'm just as big thai eater as the other ones now and are loving it.
But we didn't just eat in Bankok. we were shopping, meeting a lot of nice backpackers from all around the world and were travelling a bit around.
In the evenings we relaxed at one of the bars just around the corner from our hostel and talked to people.
Got to know a lot of people we will miss from all around the world only in a couple of days!

We stayed in Bankok in total 5 days and experienced more there in those days than we would do back home in 5 weeks!
Naked people walking around in the corridors in the middle of the night, boattrip along the river through Bankok with our new friends, me being called up on the speaker at the shopping mall "MBK" because I was late for our meeting time, relaxing in one of the nearest parks and just walking around in the streets hearing "tuk tuk!" all day long and shopping and eating.

Typical me, I got the famous "tourist stomach" the day we were leaving Bankok. We had a 14 hour bustrip ahead of us from Bankok to Krabi and that wasn't fun. But we all survived. Mari and Hege with the smell from the toilet, Kine with her watery feet (Reacting on mosqito bites) and I with my stomach. Oh well. A bit of the charm that to

Came to Krabi early on the 5th and went straight to Ao Nang where our trip continues.

Daa va me klare! Brillene e me og saa blonde saa me e klarte me til og me paa Sola aa ikkje skjonne baeret av d saa skjedde rundt oss. Takket vaere en go venn av Hege fra shellen kom me oss paa flyet og til og me heilt t Thailand! Takk!
Her sitte me i varmen og kose oss. Siste dagen i Bankok og i kveld reise me videre t Krabi. Nattbuss paa 14 timer,men me overleve Me e toffinger me vettu ;p

Snakkes

Klokka er 03.00 og Elisabeth er nettop ferdig med å pakke sekken. Er nok ganske likt for oss alle fire. Alle en smule sent ute med pakking, noe som ikke er helt å anbefale

Likevel er det ikke så mye som stresser akkurat nå, tror alle fire gleder oss til å komme oss av gårde. I ett år har det vært snakk om turen og nå er den endelig her!

Har sikkert pakka med alt for mye, men soveposen er droppa akkurat som alle "eksreisende" har anbefalt oss. Blir spennende å se om vi gjør samme erfaringen som dem, at sovepose er noe en klarer seg fint uten -"Bruk heller lakenpose"

Men nå er det på tide å komme seg i seng. Eventyret starter kl.11.00 i dag på Sola flyplass. Noen timer søvn burde en ha...

Kommer til å savne alle der hjemme, men 4 mnd. går fort og før vi vet ordet av det står vi på Sola flyplass igjen fulle av nye opplevelser.

Neste innlegg kommer fra Thailand!

Snakkes og Go natt

Nå er avreisen farlig nær!
Vi reiser fra Sola Lufthavn Tirsdag den 29. Januar
På kartet nedenfor kan dere se hvor reisen går

Her på denne bloggen kommer vi til å legge ut reisebrev og bilder slik at dere der hjemme kan holde dere oppdatert og følge oss på vår spennende reise jorda rundt

Hilsen oss

Mari, Kine, Hege Elizabeth og Elisabeth