They say things happen in 3's

Again an apology for no pics. Computers are very slow and my pics quite large. If you wouldn't mind using your imagination for the moment until I can get to a high speed computer ;)

We left Patong for the Similan Islands. It took 1.5hrs to drive to the port then another 1hr by speed boat over the Andaman ocean to the main boat we would dive from. The speed boat was cool at first seeing monitor lizards and flying fish however towards the end of the journey James started to fill sea sick. We boarded the main boat where we had a dive briefing (James still feeling rough) then headed into the ocean. I couldn't decend remaining buyount, I needed more weights. This freaked me out a little on top of my mask fogging constantly. None the less once down to 24meters it was stunning! Our 2nd dive proved to be the winner as we saw an octopus and a sea turtle. It was so amazing. Just like the dolphines. Everything was wild and coming up to you on it's own accord. At one point there were so many fish around me I couldnt' see James or our instructor. I felt like the Little Mermaid (minus the sea shells!)

On the surface James was so violently ill from motion sickness we had to cancel the trip and head back to land. He was so upset and angry however the dive instrutors said they had never seen someone that ill before. Needless to say the speed boat back was quite scary for both of us.

We went back to Patong as needed to go to the Dive Centre re cancellation. The next morning we headed for Khao Lak which was weird as we were covering ground we had already traveled the day before. We spent a nice relaxing day there until whilst rock pool searching James slipped and really hurt his arm cracking it as he feel. I dont' think it's fractured but he went down with a real bump. All so he could get a better look at some crabs!!!

The next morning we got up early to head for Surat Thain where we would catch the train from. James realised he didn't have his passport and procceded to freak out (as you would). I had been preparing for this however I thought it would be because my passport had gone walk about. So I checked emails for insurance details etc and low and behold the hotel in Patong had sent a mail saying they had it and would we like them to send a taxi with it in!!!! How lucky?!?!? We spent that afternoon around the pool waiting for a Mr Bang and Mr Tony to return with James passport. It was the weirdest and funniest situation to be in.

So now these 3 things have happend we are hoping we don't encounter any more surprises along the way ;) The main thing is we have our health and more importantly both our passports!

PADI on Paradise Reef

We are now certified divers! Yeah!

Arriving in Patong beach we booked ourselves onto a 3 day PADI course where we completed 4 12-13meter dives, 5 theroy modules and an exam (which I scored 98 percent in!!!) The dive school even awarded us with there dive school t-shirts! How exciting!!!! The dives were amazing. As well as completing our skills (mask removing and emergency ascents) we got to see Nemo (the real one) a honey combed moray, lion fish and a frog fish. The frog fish was so funny as they are unable to swim having to walk on the sea bed. The one we saw looked like an old punk rocker proping up the bar.

The diving was so much fun that we have enrolled onto the Advanced course where we will be certified to dive down to 30meters although I am not sure why I agreed to this as one of the 7 dives you have to complete is at night!!! I am not looking forward to that however we are promised excellent visibility during the day, allowing us to possibly see turtles, leopard sharks and lots more. James has assured me that if marine life is going to bite anything it will be his masshussive buttocks first!!! That's a relief.

We will be heading to the Similan Islands to do the advanced course aboard (what looks like) arather nice boat and then head for Khao Lak to start our journey north. Negotiating the train system should be fun as it's proving complicated so far then off to Hua Hin.

Sorry there aren't more pics. The system wont upload them. Will post some when in Khao Lak.

Madness and Mayhem in Malaysia

Arriving into Malaysia was quite chilled until James didn't get his backpack on quick enough when getting off the express train from the airport to KL Sentral. The doors ended up closing on us and started off to the next station!!! I freaked as only 5 minutes earlier he had taken the mick out of me for getting ready too quickly. We didn't have a clue where we were headed and I panicked as did James. We were safe, the train only turned round and we were able to get off! Passengers waiting to get on were very puzzled to see us get off an empty train. Hopefuly this will teach Mr Aveling to prepare himself earlier and not rib me about it!

We decided to head for the Taman Negara jungle so off we went in search for trekking, white water raffting and a bit of general knowledge about the area for a tour guide. We gained nothing of the above. We did however manage a soaking wet 3 hour ride up the river which was much more fun than it sounds and a night jungle walk where we saw tons of wildlife. You can only imagine how excited we both were and what a pair of kids we turned into. The funnest thing on the walk was the sleeping birds. James woke one up by shining his touch to close in it's face and I yelled out "He woke it up! That was mean!" The guide wasn't to pleased. We also saw a red posions spider that was hairy (eeww!) and glowing mushrooms!

The accomodations was no where near as good as the activity therefore we got ourselves out of the jungle double quick. We headed back to KL the next day. And that is where we are now. The weather is pretty misserable but we trekked around town today sightseeing which was cool. It's not the nicest city people wise but I can't get over their shopping centres. One of them has a theme park in it wher ethe roller coaster runs around one of the floors! Madness!

We had an experience on the monorail this evening where by it was jammed, just like the tube. One women got on behind james and decided to hold on to his arm. James couldn't stop laughing as she kept gripping then realising what she was holding on to so letting go then gripping. He also had a little boy clinging to his shorts. He was so pleased he had a belt on. He looked funny being so tall, blond and fair in a sea of small dark haired people all clinging to him. All we could do was laugh!!!

We fly to Phuket tomorrow to do our PADI cert if we can. I am excited but quite nervous.

Official Apology!

To my Dearets Fans

This is a sincere apology to you all for not having kept my blog upto date over the past month.

I know it must have been hard not having heard from me but I hope the girls and Jenny's blogs were a sence of confort to you, safe in the knowledge that I was having the time of my life and too busy to do any blogging. This is no excuse however so just for you, my dearest fans, I have blogged some of favourite bits so far.

Naturally I will have missed things as there is just too much to recall but please read and view below to see what has happend, in a tiny tiny nut shell.

I will endevour to keep up the blog from now on......well I will try!

Yours apologetically

Jules xxxx

aka Juicy, Soft as S**t Burnett, Dolly May, English Rose, Burney

Singapore Down Pours

A very sad goodbye was said to the Burnett Clan in Perth as we departed fro Singapore.

On arrival it was humid and sticky coupled with a bad map reader in James and the result is a 5 hungry and tired girls. A very scary concept for James!!! Needless to say we seeked out food in China Town and were much happier.

The next day rained so hard we just had to go shopping where James thought it would be a good idea to spend 1000 english pounds (yes I said 1000) on binoculars and an i-pod! What rain can do to some people is unthinkable!!! The rain also drove the girls to have what sounded like the most painful waxing experience ever.

Day 2 was drier but not much. However we draved the elements and chanced it with a visit to the Night Safari. This was excellent and we were able to see clouded leopards, lions and have fruit bats fly out our heads! We didn't make it home till 1am. What ravers we are!

Sadly Singapore is where James and I waved goodbye to the girls :( They departed fro home sweet home leaving James and I to head for the Raffles Hotel. At first the doorman wouldn't let us into the hotel (I think it was cause James shirt was so loud!) sending us to another bar around the corner which was cheap and nasty. So we hung aorund and slipped in when he wasn't looking! Two singapore Slings later and it was homeward bound on the bus! Oh the Glamour!

Fun with Flipper

As it was James birthday on the 26th of Nov I bought him the experience to swim with wild dolphins. The girls also joined us on this trip so it was off to Rockingham for early o'clock (again) to see if we could get a glimps of the dolphins. Once more it was on with the attractive wetsuits. I think one of the crew was trying to be kind to me when he clearly held up a suit 3 sizes too small. I saved him (and myself) any embarrassment by stating I was not going to fit into THAT suit! I was right.

Due to the dolphins being wild we weren't guarenteed to see them let alone be able to get into the water and swim with them. Quite early on we were in luck. We got into the water and saw a pod feeding off the back of an Eagle Wray!!! This was so exciting and I would have been happy with this but we were on board again in search of more.

Kate and I attempted to make hot drinks whilst the boat was speedign along. Let's just say it was like trying to make tea at 3am having come in after too many vinos without the fuzzy head. We couldn't stand still for the motion and the giggerling. Nightmare! Poor Kate ended up with the sweetiest coffee ever! Yuk!

The second sighting had us in the water for 45 minutes surronded by a pod of at least 15 dolphins by then end of it. Was an magical experience!

Finding Family Down Under

The 26th of November saw us flying to Perth from Alice Springs. I was particularly excited about this for two reasons. 1 - I got to see James as he flew here to start his trip with me and 2 - we were to meet and stay with uncle Lewis and auntie Mary Burnett for the duration of our stay. The last time I saw Lewis and Mary was in the summer of 2005 when they came over to the UK and stayed with Mary's sister in Southend. Now I was in Perth being given big scottish hugs by my wee auntie and uncle!!!! What a joy to see them.

The time we spent in Perth was excellent but not because of it's tourist attractions but because of the family I discovered that I have here. Lewis and Mary have 2 children, Don and Rhona. Don has two daughters Jaimie and Callie. Rhona has twins, Asha and Cohen. The time we all had together was unforgetable. Discovering I have a whole additional part to my family has been one of the best parts of my travels. We all look similar, laugh at the same things and talk alot!!!

I can't wait to plan my next trip to Perth and hope that they will all try and come to the UK ASAP! Thank You for such a wonderful time Burnett Clan! We miss you tons xxxx

Awesome Uluru

When we first arrived in Alice Springs I didn't like it. I felt unsafe. I think this is because we were warned about all the alcoholics around the place but this soon wore off after a sunbath and swim at the hostel. That night we also meet up with Stef and Pierceaser who are good friends of mine from home. They are also traveling for a few months and our paths crossed whilst in town. Was so lovely to see them.

The next day we headed out to Uluru with a great tour guide called Spud and a slightly better bus than the East Coast tour! Over the next 2 days we had champers watching Uluru change colour at sunset, listended to our guide play the didg around an open camp fire and made friends with some wild ozzy's and an american!

I nearly missed Sunrise at Uluru though. We pulled up at 5am I think and as we were picking spots for the best pics a Hungry Horse attack came on (for those in the know you can imagine my horror, for those who aren't you don't want to know!) Well with no convenience in sight I ran to the nearets plush looking coach I could find and found myself pleading with the driver to let me on. All I could imagine was all the Japanese tourists belonging to the coach wondering why some English girl was on board causing such a stench! How I managed to make sunrise I don't know but let's just say I wasn't that bad in India!!!! Poohie!

Pretty Port Douglas

Having finished our East Coast Tour we headed for Port Douglas just north of Cairns. Here we chilled out and caught up with the original Team Canada, Wendy who had been back to Melbourne for a while.

Whilst we were here we went Jungle Surfing in Cape Tribulation (swinging from trees like monkeys) and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. We wanted to Scuba Dive but because we flew out within 24 hours of diving it wasn't possible but snorkeling was just as impressive even if the waves were a bit choppy and scary!

The Parrott Fish lodge where we stayed turned out to be a real find having $10 champagne Happy Hours and a bar tender Josh who also cooked! One night he cooked esp for us ladies rusteling up a Corona Chicken with Pancetta, cherry toms and mushrooms! I thougth we were backpacking but here we lived like Princess! It was bliss.

Whitsundays With Love

The Whitsundays was my favourite trip of my travels so far. It was such a stunning place in all weathers and we just had the best time on the Boomerang yacht! The crew were excellent and a lot of funny with Max being a brilliant chef cooking us up Nachos and dips ready for us when we got back from snorkeling. We spent 3 days and 2 nights in total on board.

The 2nd day we headed for the beach where after managing to get some postcard pictures it poured with rain!!!! Dancing to YMCA on deck that evening made up for the bad weather and watching Kate run around with Franchies speedos over her shorts was a real treat. The biggest fright was going to bed and finding a crew member, Trevor, already lying there with my sunglasses on!!! Stacey couldn't breath for laughing so much.

Our final day saw us pulling down sails in attractive green and yellow anoracks but still keeping the chic in sailing by wearing our sunnies!