Holmes & Anderson - The Solicitors!

G'day Yall!!

Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to update my blog - I know lots of you have told me you've been checking it regularly and nothing has changed! We have been soooo hectic and haven't had a chance to sit down and tell everyone what we've been up to!
Secondly...I must aplogisise for the fact this is going to be a short blog! I have a stinking headache which hasn't cleared all day and we have a 19 hour bus journey tonight (yuck!) so the less time spent on the computer, the better i think!
Today we are in Coral Bay, WA. I hired some snorkelling gear & went and took some underwater photos of some huge fish! (before I freaked out and did some sunbathing instead!) Ceri got some good photos of me in the water so we will get them uploaded asap!
Before that, we spent 5 days in Monkey Mia - which was abosolutely stunning & by far the nicest place we have been yet! On one of the days, the temperature soared to 40 degrees which was a bit much! We had the added bonus of going down to the beach each morning (which took 2 seconds as it was literally on our doorstep!) and watching the dolphins get fed! :o)
Since we have arrived in Australia, we have been on a mini tour around Perth, Busselton, Margaret River, Pemberton, Albany, Denmark etc etc etc! This included wine, cheese and chocolate tasting, seeing lots of "look-out points" and generally stopping at all the touristy bits along the way! Me & Ceri then spent about a week in Perth and actually managed to walk around Perth and Northbridge TWICE! This wasn't on purpose...we were looking for a bed for the night!! (get the violins out now... haha!)
During that time we nipped down to Cottesloe for a couple of nights which was a lovely little seaside town but not a lot was happening! We then went back to Perth and met up with Nina's brother Edward who is out here & had a good night out with him!
From Perth, we were due to stopover at Geraldton for a couple of days but after the driver told us he was heading to Monkey Mia after, we changed our plans and stayed on the coach! This meant we ended up staying at Monkey Mia for 5 days which was beautiful! We then headed straight to Coral Bay (where we are now) and arrived at 2.30am! We entered our shared dorm to a rather old, interesting character waving at us from his bed....what a treat!! Luckily we only had a few hours sleep - which was actually shortened by the blissful noise of diggers that woke us up at 8am :o) Nevertheless, the beach is stunning so we quickly got ready and spent the day down there!!

I will try to update my blog on a more regular basis as it is so hard to reply to everyone's emails all the time....
It's great to hear what you're all up to so definitely keep me posted! I can't believe Katie Price went back into the jungle? and FINALLY Jedward are out of X Factor? hurrah!!!!!! :oP
Speak to you all really soon, look forward to hearing from you all!
Lots of love, Rachel xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

p.s according to the coach drivers, Holmes & Anderson is the perfect sounding solicitor firm - so we are going into business!! :P

Malaysia - rain, rain, rain!!!

Hi Everyone!

We are now in Malaysia after spending a couple of days in the south of Thailand. We went to where "The Beach" was filmed in Maya Bay on the PhiPhi Islands but it rained most of the day which was very disappointing! We thought Malaysia would be sunnier (as we are heading further down South all the time!) But it seems like we've brought the weather with us as it it chucking it down and the sky is grey & miserable!! Luckily we are only at this hotel for 1 more night (as the air con is broken & our toilet floor is flooded...travelling doesn't seem quite so luxurious after all eh!!) We have been bitten alive again so tonight I think I may risk being cooked alive & sleep in my cotton sleeper!!

Tomorrow we head to.....(somewhere else in Malaysia!) I have just asked everyone who is sitting at the computers and no-one actually knows!! but we are praaaaying for some sunshine as there isn't much to do in the hotel or this area!!!

We went out on our last night in Thailand on Wednesday & somehow ended up in the "ladyboy" bars - although it turned out to be a really good laugh!! We requested Sean Kingston - Me Love & it reminded us of home, ahhh :o( We also met a young girl who was only 16...she was dancing with us and we were all having a really good time although she let it slip that her parents had sold her at 16 to become a prostitute because they needed the money & she wasn't sure where she was going to stay from one night to the next...it was really heart-breaking and made you realise just how lucky you are!! She was soooo sweet yet had to grow up so quickly...

I will have to keep this blog short & sweet but I will update it at the next opportunity! :0)

Let me know what is going on back home, miss you all lots!

love Rachel xxxxxxxxxxx

Hello from Thailand!!!

Hi everyone!!! This is my first official blog from Thailand!! A BIG thank you to mum who has been posting for me as the internet was slow in Chiang Mai & I didn't have enough time to send emails and post on my blog!! xxx
Luckily you haven't all been left in the lurch and you've got the gist of what we've been up to over the past week! It feels like so much longer than a week...I can't believe I have stayed in mud huts, climbed a mountain, had an elephant ride, rafted down a river and had my feet sucked by fish in a week!! Yep....we have just got back from a "foot massage" where you put your feet into a tank of tiny fish who apparently nibble away at all your dead skin....delicious hey!! :P I am the tickliest person in the world so I spent the whole time laughing my head off!! We've just nipped into this internet cafe to update blogs/photos finally!!! (and also to watch Stacey & Olly from X Factor on YouTube...wow!!) - you can take the girl out of Watford but you can't take Watford out of the girl ;) what was Cheryl wearing?!!?!?!?! We are boarding yet anooooother sleeper train tonight (12hrs) and heading for the beaches, yay!!!!! We have spent the past week roughing it so it's about time we started working on our tans :P We changed groups yesterday as most of our original group is on the 16 day tour and we are on the 21 day tour so they go down the other side of the coast to us :o( It's crazy how close you can feel to people after just one week! I think hanging off the side of a mountain together definitely bonds you....!! :P We have become really close to 2 girls called Kate & Jo and they're going to be in Oz near Christmas so hopefully we'll meet up with them! :0) One couple from our original group are coming into our new group so that is really nice - they're called Damien & Laura and are the cutest couple ever to come out of Northern Ireland! Except when Damien gets drunk I have noooo idea what he's saying as it all turns to slurs haha!
I hope everything is going well at home! Let me know what you're all up to, missing you all lots and lots!!! Speak to you all in the next few days....from the south of Thailand!!
lots of love Rach xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx