Melbourne, Sydney

Before we made it to Melbourne, we had a stop off in Bangkok-its safe to say that Bangkok is practically our home these days for the amount of times we’ve been there in the last few months. This time we were meeting our Laos ladies Alexis and Jordan. We decided to pass on the night out and have a quiet catch up and DVD night, get some pizza, put on face masks, braid each other’s hair...ah ye right, as if that was ever gonna happen! The night was mental :) and of course Koh San Road, lady boys and ping-pong shows were central to the messiness! We had few drinks on Koh San to warm up and then headed back to the girls apartment to drop our rucksacks off. This is where things got crazy. An hour and two bottles of rum later we were all fecked, another hour and a bottle of vodka later we were all well and truly fecked!! At this stage we lost Jordan, man down man down. But being the good friends that we are, we all stayed in and minded her....ehhhhh....well not exactly. We held her head out the window of the taxi, jousting it back in to avoid the oncoming traffic, got her home and put her to bed, took off her shoes, gave her a basin and headed back to the Koh San :0 it’s what she would have wanted! We’d love to tell you more but that would break the code of the Koh San, as quoted by an obese man with his arms around two small Thai girls- ‘what happens on Koh San, stays on Koh San!’.

Nearly two months of travelling had left our hair in dire straights; we decided that the lady boys of Thailand were the best equipped to deal with us. If anyone was going to be able to redeem us, these were the guys (no the girls..guys??..Eh the people!). It was a particularly scary experience for Sherry who had never dyed her hair before, especially when they put peroxide streaks on her jet black hair ahhhhh...Annie was ready to run to the nearest chemist and buy a bottle of black hair dye but alas we should have had more faith..Roll on FIVE hours and she was transformed into a blonde (ish) bombshell!!! Maybe now the endless comparisons between us and the Kardashian sisters will end!

So onwards to Melbourne. We were only staying here for a few days before we went to Tasmania for Christmas. We got the shock of our lives when we landed. I don’t know why people don’t tell you these things but Australia is EXPENSIVE!! Asia had spoiled us, within a few hours we had gone from $5 hotel accommodation to $35 dollars for a 12 bed dorm (which by the way was our worst accommodation yet, so disgusting). To our horror we then saw the price of vodka, literally 30 times more expensive than Laos. Sherry was in Oz last year so she had some idea, but poor Annie nearly had a heart attack. Whats worse our once celebrity status had dwindled rapidly and our pale white skin no longer drew the crowds, apparently being Irish in Australia isn’t such a novelty.

With our new money woes we luckily randomly got offered a few hours work handing out leaflets in return for a free bar and some dollar..Hell to the ye! ChaChing! For the first hour we ran around the place handing the leaflets out, really taking our job seriously. But then the devil on shoulder took over and we *gasp* threw all the leaflets out, spent the day sunbathing and then drank the bar dry. Don’t judge, were backpackers! That night we had the first of our Australian reunions when we met up Jackie. Que a lot of hugging and high pitch screaming! 

With the state of the hostel we were in, all we can say is thank god for Olmo, who very kindly put us up. It was actually hilarious when we were reunited, so basically last time we saw Olmo he had a full grown beard and was rocking a fro, the classic travelling through the wilderness look! When we met him he had been reintegrated into western society, shaved the beard and cut his hair-he was transformed! It literally took us four takes to realise who he was. Like a new man!! We honestly wouldn't have recognised him if he walked by us on the street. Ah hopefully travelling won’t have the same effect on us :0

We had timed our stay with Olmo to perfection as they were having blowout party that weekend, eek. The house was unreal, with a pool room, Ping-Pong table, a bar, slides and pools; it couldn’t have been built better for a party. And these guys went all out with the preparation, putting up lights, building stools (so manly Will!), setting up lasers etc. We got so involved in the set up (even cleaning the pool with sieves) that by the time the party arrived we were calling it OUR party! When we started drinking at 12 in the day we knew it was going to be a off the chain and even better the Irish were taking over with more reunions with Trish and Claire! It definitely will go down as the best party we’ve ever been too, like a downscaled project X. The rave cave, which was a shut off room with lasers, pounding music and strobe lights, was definitely the highlight, we were couch surfing and dancing there for literally hours. At seven in the morning it was still rocking. Things took a drastic turn after the rave with a very sophisticated wine, cheese and cracker spread! Hosted by none other than Chase who only a few hours earlier had been running around in a sparkly G-banger! (That’s a male G-string for anyone who didn’t know!!)

It was at this point that Annie realised her ankle was severely swollen and painful. It had been sore during the night but she had ignored it, claiming it was 'just a headache', kinda like when Liam Leamy thought his potential broken neck was just a pulled hamstring! Being severely hung-over, we ignored it for another few hours until the point that Annie couldn’t walk and was crying with pain. When Claire Dillion, a nurse by profession, saw it her jaw dropped and we were straight to A & E! A small cut on the ankle had gotten infected and we were facing potential blood poisoning *Gasp, dramatic music dun dun duuuunnnnnn* not cool, that would definitely put a dampener on the party. Prognosis was that it required surgery. *More dramatic music* Well not exactly surgery per se but the doctor used a scalpel and bandages. Annie in her delirious state thought the liter of iodine poured over her cut to clean it had actually come from her ankle…Sick! Things were bad but not that bad! Poor Sherry was distraught! But thankfully the cute doctor kept her preoccupied. Turns out it was nothing an antibiotic drip and a mcflurry couldn’t fix. Things were looking up, Annie had survived yet another near death experience and we were all set for Tasmania. Maxi Taxi look out!

(Tasmania was so awesomely cool and eventful that we thought it deserved it’s on blog, so were skipping ahead to Sydney where we went after Tasmania)

Our Australian reunions continued when we were back on the mainland in Sydney. This stop was dominated by meeting up with all the Irish ex-pats! There’s so many Irish there that we actually got the fear that we were back in Ireland and had to cut our Australia trip short (that and the fact it was bleeding us dry, not two dollar to rub together!) Our headquarters for Sydney was 91 Bream Street, home of Fiona, Nadia, The Goat and his Billy and about 70 other people. The place was pure mayhem, we’ve been in many a hostel but this place beat them all. There were so many people staying there that there were actually people pitching tents in the back garden (no joke!). Sure what’s two more slight Irish cailins! Despite the chaos we settled in pretty quickly, especially when on arrival they had cups of Barry’s Tea waiting for us- a moment of calm amongst the never ending party!We got back to Sydney just in time to meet Annies sister Niamh and her boyfriend Emmet who were on route to South America. Not only were we going to be on the same continent for the first time in a year but also the same city. Only for 12 hours though. It was Kirwan overdrive from the second we met up (Sherry can vouch for this, she didn’t get a word in all day!), cramming all our stories from travelling into those few hours. The only time Emmet got to speak was to explain his monstrous beard growth, which he has impressively been growing for months all so he and his friends can drink whiskey, with beards in South America! Sherry and Emmet did a lot of bonding that day, practically bessies by the end; she was even combing his beard! We did the usual tourist haunts- Manly Beach, the Opera house and Sydney Harbour. Aisling even made a quick appearance!!!

We also got a new recruit- Elton the duck. He's the coolest lil' dude ever, such a party animal!

Continuing the Irish invasion we met up with Edel and Des the following night. The last time Des was spotted was a weekend in Amsterdam- so the standard for the night was set high. It was always going to be a winner though when we found blue WKD, the staple to any ridiculously drunken night! Between the Blue WKD and the amount of Brigids girls out that night you swear it was just a regular night in coppers! This was the first of many a drunken night in Sydney and many a reunion. It was a never ending cycle of going out, going wild (they have 24hour bars), hangover food and hangover TV mainly Gossip Girl (xoxo).

The only time we broke the cycle was to fulfill our lifelong dream to go to Palm Beach, where they film Home and Away. Poor Pauric didn’t know what to do with two hyperventilating girls in back of the car. The excitement was so much we even acted out scenes from the best drama in the world. Sherry got a little too into it slapping Pauric across the face- sorry about that. Life couldn’t get any better when low and behold the Brax brothers rocked up (blood and sand, for life).

We had to say our goodbyes to Fiona, Nadia and 91 Bream Street; the endless partying had taken its toll on us and our pockets. It was time to start planning the next stage of our trip and no better place to do that than the safe haven of Claire Donoghue’s apartment. We spent so long sleeping on couches that we actually found it difficult to adapt to sleeping in a bed. What we had attempted to do for the previous three weeks we got done in one day there, clean clothes again, hurray. We even managed to book our trip to New Zealand, just in time too because we were leaving the next day. Typical us though, we always leave things to the last minute, it makes this more exciting- especially for the poor travel agent who spent her morning frantically trying to organise our trip.
                                                          Kia Ora New Zealand.

Vietnam

For the last of our Asia adventure, we were heading to Vietnam, first stop Ho Chi Mihn city. We had been warned that it was crazily busy but sweet mother of Jesus it was another level. There are mopeds motherfudging everywhere, something like 3 million in the city. Crossing the roads as you can imagine is an experience, especially as there are no proper pedestrian crossing with flashing green men, just white stripes on the road where it's suggested you cross! The idea is that you walk slowly across the road and the mopeds will weave in and around you. And most importantly whatever you do you DO NOT RUN. Eh so kind of going against every instinct you have when faced with an on coming barrage of mopeds! We adapted the eyes shut technique, where at the crossings you shut your eyes, walk and pray you reach the other side! Not for the faint hearted.

We got a break from the city on our second day when we went on a tour to the cuchi tunnels, an hour outside the city. These tunnels were built by guerrilla fighters during the war and were used for protection from bombs and also to move underground from place to place. The tour was one of the oddest things we've been on. We were expecting a moving, emotional explanation of the tunnels and the war but instead it was like an anti-American celebration, with our tour guide jumping around the place describing how the courageous Vietnamese killed Americans. Slightly awkward for the Americans on board! We should have known from the start it wasn't going to be a normal tour, when our tour guide told us to call him John Wayne and then put colored stickers on all of us to recognize us because he thought all white people looked alike- same same but different!

　

The tunnels are split into levels 1,2 and 3 depending on the size of the tunnels. The first one we got to was a level 1 and man it was tiny, the opening was no bigger than an A4 sheet. After a few incidences where people had underestimated their size and got stuck in tunnels 1 and 2, tours can now only go into level 3. Apparently these were serious events but honestly they just sounds hilarious, flashbacks to that scene from In Bruges where the American tourist tries to go up the tower! For a demonstartion of tunnel 1 Annie was picked to go down, definitely Karma for laughing at the people getting stuck! Getting down into it was a tight squeeze, there wasn't room to budge, how anyone could stay in them for hours is beyond us, not for anyone with any sort of claustrophobia. John Wayne ever the joker, then shut the entrance of the tunnel so now not only was in suffocatingly small but now also pitch black. So that's what it's like being buried alive! Compared to level 1, the level 3 tunnel was a breeze. Well not really actually, they were about 10 times the size of level 1 but you were still crawling a few hundred meters in pitch blackness with insects at your feet and bats above you, an improvement but hardly what you'd call comfortable. While Annie recovered from the tunnels, Sherry was in her element when she got the chance to shoot the Ak47. Major stress relief. It was a little worrying how well she took to it. Note- don't ever mess with young Mannion!

After the mayhem of the previous few days we decided to have a quiet night and head to bed early. We literally had turned off the light when our door burst open..' Hey Irish, get up, get outta bed, session on!'. Elton who had split with us a few days before to go diving had evidently arrived!! Aw well we wouldn't want to disappoint him! So we threw on whatever clothes were nearest to us, ran a brush through the hair and off we went. Oh how we changed from Ireland, where it took us a few hours to get ready! Not only had Elton arrived but there was actually a mini reunion of people who had been in the bus crash, which can only lead to one thing SHOTS!!! Uggh cheap Vietnamese rum does not go down well.

　

We had great night, singing, catching up etc when what we feared most happened, Annie's phone was stolen! Disaster, we used the phone as our main camera and it had been glued to her wrist since we left Ireland. As we were walking down the street some jerk on a moped drove by and ripped it off her wrist WAH!! Of the 15 of us that were out that night 10 of us got robbed. As you can imagine, the local police were straight on the case..ahem NO. They sat around in the office saying to come back at nine in the morn, which we would have done except we were leaving at 8!! While very frustrating at the time, we have to look back and laugh at the state of the two us (drunk as skunks) trying to reason with them to get a report for the insurance and Sherry pretending to ring the Irish consulate and having a full blown conversation on a phone that didn't work, taking notes etc, But alas they weren't fooled and so we had to leave Ho Chi Mihn phoneless.

Our next stop was Mui Ne, a beach side town up the coast. Miriam Kerins email again was pivotal to our planning of our days here (seriously we'd still be floating around terminal 2 of Dublin airport without it!) The main attraction of the town is the sand dunes along the coast. Miriam had recommended seeing them at sunrise but as we all slept in we went on the evening tour instead. But lucky we did or we wouldn't have met Kam who was on the evening tour too. Kam, how to describe her, basically she had gone from 1000 euro bottles of champagne to 50c beers within the space of a few weeks, quitting her job, ditching the Louis Vuittons and going backpacking. The dream! Except for the minor blip where she had ten dresses tailor made the week before you'd never know it. Some people actually thought we were the Kardashian sisters when were standing together :) . At the dunes we got the chance to ride ostriches, which Sherry had a natural flare for, you swear she was doing it all her life! While the rest of us were holding on for dear life, Sherry was shouting at it to go faster, in her element. In a very eventful day we then got to ride quads on the dunes, had the dune jumping Olympics ( gold medal to Peter!), went dune sledging and even swan boating. In all the excitement we actually ended up missing sunset on the red dunes, the whole point of the tour, but what can you do. A fantastic day with the only downside to the sand dunes being the actual sand, it got everywhere! Even in the center of erotic according to Peter, in one of his classic German to English literal translations!

After Mui Ne we ventured up the coast to another beach side city Nha Trang. Unlike Mui Ne which was a sleepy resort, Nha Trang had a lot more going on with beautiful beaches, great night life, restaurants and even a mini Disneyland! What a combination! Even better we somehow ended up staying in a really fancy hotel for only five dollars a night- sweet you got to love Asia! It was only in the hotel, when we saw Christmas decorations, we realized not only was it December but just over a week till Christmas! We went into Christmas overdrive when we went to Disneyland, it was very strange listening to Christmas music when the sun was splitting the stones, but a very welcomed change! The rides at the park were terrifying, not because they were particularly big or anything but just because health and safety standards don't really translate to Asia! Roller coaster and Vietnam probably shouldn't be mixed. But we survived, albeit with a few new bruises from getting thrown around the place, and made it to the water park section, where we even got to go tubing again!

Peter was leaving us that day to go inland while we stayed on the coast, and my God did he go out with a bang. During the day we was hilarious, screaming 'save me hello kitty' on the rollar coasters, getting stuck with children on the merri-go-round, picking up a new Russian lady and sulking when we ignored him in retaliation for leaving us. But he took the biscuit that night- donning the ridiculously tacky hello kitty bracelet we gave him, letting us straighten his hair and walking around with a strut that would make any camp man proud.

Unfortunately the next day after saying goodbye to Peter we also had to say goodbye to Elton. He was hanging on to go diving again and by the time he would be finished we would be out of Vietnam. Wah leaving people is probably the only downside to traveling, but as Peter put it very blunty- 'the whole point of traveling is to meet new people!' Harsh!

So with two men down, we and Jarred headed to Hoi An our final stop in Vietnam. If you ever need a dress, shoes etc made this is the place to go. Its literally streets and street full of tailoring shops that will make anything you want for pennies. Now we know how Kam got so carried away. It a girls dream. Unfortunately our backpacks are so jammed backed that dresses were out of the question and we had to settle for a pair of sandles each. Which we desperately needed; for some reason were having awful luck with shoes, in five weeks between losing them, bus crashes, breakages, drunken messing we were down twelve pairs of shoes. Annie had resorted to wearing a pair of flip flops we got complementary at our last hotel! They were awful! With our new shoes being made we decided to cough up the two dollars and get a manicure and pedicure. We were like new women after it.

Our final night in Hoi An, was one of our best yet. As has become standard we started the night with Kings and headed to the 'night club'. Things got out of control here, especially when out of nowhere Peter showed up. The prodigal son returns! The next few hours a blur a buckets, shots and pool table dancing. By the time we were leaving the club Sherry had fallen off the pool table, giving herself a dead leg, ripped her shorts and broken her shoes (another pair lost!). An amazing send off from an amazing country!

So were leaving Vietnam having only made it half way up the coast. Unfortunately time got the better of us and before we knew it we were boarding a plane to Bangkok without seeing Halong Bay and Hanoi up North. Thats what happens when your having too much fun. The plan is though to hopefully finish the trip off when were back in Asia in Spring. Now we were meeting up with are tubing ladies, Jordan and Alexis. We went wild in Laos, we can only imagine whats going to happen when we hit Koh Sahn Road together :)