Strewth mate!

First things first happy new year to everyone. It's been a while since our last email and so much has happened since then...mainly the obvious...the tsunami. Thanks to everyone for your concern about us, we were very lucky and on the otherside of thailand when it struck....all the places we mentioned in our previous emails were hit and one of the beachside hotels we stayed in was completely washed away. We hope that none of you had any other friends or family in the area, and if you did we really hope they are OK too.

Despite everything that happened our final weeks in thailand were not ruined. The thai people on Ko Pha ngan (the full moon party Island) almost ignored it with only a few donation boxes etc around. There was 24 hour coverage showing in the pubs from BBC world and CNN so everyone knew how bad it was and their was a real feeling of sadness but the Thai people were very matter of fact about it all and carried on business as usual. They just seemed determined to keep the tourists there spending money which makes sense.

Needless to say we spent loads of baht....mainly on buckets of Whiskey Redbull and coke, an interesting combination which fuelled us through one full moon party, one waterfall party and new year's eve...all which were HUGE parties on the beach where literally thousands of people dance the night away. As well as the dancing we did a LOT of sunbathing and sleeping (hard life but we managed)...it was definately the most chilled out of all the places we had been as the main focus there is on the nightlife. We also met some great people, particularly the girls in the room next to us who brought us christmas pressies on christmas day! On one boat tour we got chatting to two northern girls (who were also scared of gekkos and snorkelling! Proof its is not me being a wimp but is actually something bred into northerners) and it turned out that they went to my uni and know John and loads of my friends from uni!

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and the day came when we had to leave thailand....

From Kho Pha Ngan we decided to take the bus to Singapore, only a 28 hour journey which included 7 mini buses, 2 taxis, 2 buses and a ferry! As if this wasn't bad enough I had the most traumatic experience of the holiday so far...worse than the gekkos! We were somewhere in the middle of Malaysisa when one of the many minibuses pulled over at some dingy roadisde toilets. I was bursting so hopped out and ran over to the ladies. As I opened the door (to the thunderbox style loo) I dilodged a grasshopper that was the size of a smeall rat from the door frame. It flew at may face so I screamed and wafted it away where it flew straight into the light and dislodged about 100 other creepy crawlies and spiders! Unfortunately it was about another 4 hours before the next toilet break so I had to go in a rainstorm of insects! Awful.

Thank God Singapore is the cleanest and most efficient city we've ever been to and we splashed out on a trendy hotel in the heart of the city, just what the doctor ordered!! We had two days of utter luxury and went to some amazing temples, took a cable car ride and drank on a roof top bar. we also had to have the most amount of will power so far...the shopping was AMAZING! Gucci, prada...and topshop! Needless to say being the cutlture vultures we are that is where we made our only purchase. Oh dear. As a final bit of luxury we treated ourselves at singapore airport to a hot shower in their spa facility...we really need to work on this budget backpacker thing!!

As you have probably guessed we are now in OZ. We touched down at Perth airport to be greeted by Bev, Erins Mum, who had invited us to stay with her and gave us a slice of home life for four days including our first Aussie Barby with Bev and Terri, Erins sister.

Getting straight into the Aussie spirit we took our first day trip to "Freo" (freemantle) and went on a tour of the prison! We had a crazy old irish man as a tour guide and he had us all in stiches telling us about the wierd and wonderful inmates who have lived there since we shipped all our dodgy sorts over here. there is one guy who escaped recently who has gone on to steal over 6million dollars from 40 aussie banks...but thoughtfully sends a postcard to the wardens from everywhere he goes...and once even went back to visit and signed his name in the visitor book! The tour guide also sepnt a good part of the tour trying to sell the new craze in OZ...weddings in the prison. Only in a land of convicts.

Our second adventure was to "Rotto" Rottnest Island which is covered by small ratty animal the size of cats that look like kangaroos called Quokkas!! The Island has no cars and the only means of getting around is by bike or bus. Being the young athletic types that we are we, obvioulsy we chose to cycle and by 10am we had cycled 2 miles and had blisters all over our bums. Luckily the sores were worth it as the Island is surrounded by the most beautiful beaches, white sands and the turquoise water! In fact the water was so enticing that Ruth managed to snorkel for the first time.

Erin- just to let you know we had our first sunday session at The Cot, what a meat market, but great fun and we obviously left a little tipsy!

One place we had been looking forward to going to for a long time was Margaret River, so we hired a car and went there for 3 days! There are 2 main reasons for visiting Margaret River, surfing and wine tasting, needless to say we threw ourselves into both whole heartedly. The wine tasting started at 11 in the morning and involved slurping and sniffing over 40 varieties of white, red and rose wines. Fortunately, they were all lovely and we didn't need to spit any wine out. A bushtucker lunch, inlcuding Kangaroo and Withcy grub pate, stopped us from falling over!

With slighty fuzzy heads the next day we headed off to the beach for a spot of surfing. Well I say "we" but what I actually mean is Alex. He donned his speedo's (without oil this time) and a very sexy wetsuit and ran baywatch style into the water. Despite having a surfboard that was three times the size of him he was of course the best in the class and within half an hour he was standing up (albeit a bit wobbly) and by the end he was surfing all the way in to the beach! (It was sometimes a bit hard to tell which one he was cos some of those Aussie 10 year olds are quite tall) Although Extreme Sport Alex had gone running into the water it was a very tired and half water logged Alex who came walking out. His arms were so sore he could barely drink a can of coke and he was a bit green from swallowing half the Indian Ocean.

At the end of a tiring couple of days the only thing we fancied was the cinema and we found a drive-in!! We ended the day by sitting between hundreds of 4x4s with their boots up, packed with children in sleeping bags, watching The Invincibles under the stars.

We are now a 20 hour coach ride north on Shark Bay, with its 600 inhabitants. It is possibly the hottest (50 degrees today) and most fly ridden place we have ever been. Today we were up at the crack of dawn to watch wild dolphins swim to the shore to be fed. We then went on an action packed adventure around the bush, Ruth is definately getting better with the wildlife, as she let a small shark swim around her (don't believe her when she claims it was a great white).

Tomorrow we are off up north, where unlike Engalnd, it gets hotter and more exotic. Rumuor has it that's where the crocs are. It's 7pm now and still far too hot to do any thing so we are going to sign off. Hope the weather is not too cold there, as always we miss you all lots and wish you were here with us.