Hutchwood

The full map!!!

Hey guys,

Whew, home at last! slept off the jetlag and feeling good as gold. So good to be home especially with the welcoming i got at the airport. Walking through the tunnel an hour late (sorry guys) and from half way down, positioned perfectly to see me, theres mum grinning! a few more steps revealled dad and behind plum and ev. Awesome to see all of them and big hugs all round. Really missed you all! They recieved a VERY scattered hairball and led him to where we would wait for Lindo. And then out of nowhere, not even sure where i was supposed to be looking comes a bounding smiling jussy, Another big hug and hellos to cam and bill and judy. 5 mins later Lindo appears and more hugs smiles and greetings to be had. Sadly, I could barely construct sentences... more so than usual. And my parents just wanted to get me home. so we headed off. Very excited for this weekend though. Messages came through from Sam and Swan (sam even gave plum a call so we could have a quick chat). Swan got me later that night. Oh, it was really good to see them again.

Anyway, ill get chronological and come back to all this.

After writing that last blog we lazed around all day drinking in a beautiful resort and chilling out. hard life. Our second last day on Koh Tao we hired a motorbike and rode all around the island snorkelling and sightsea-ing. (i am hilarious) :P We really had a great day. One of those really big days doing heaps of stuff and then you realise that you havent spent any money cos you have been having good wholesome fun.

Next day it was time to ferry and bus back to bangkok. as much fun as ever. We got in at midnight and went straight to bed. With only two full days ahead of us, it was a trip to the tailor followed by a very big MBK session (MBK is a big mall) including seeing Indiana Jones 4... awesome!! After that we headed to Pat Pong in the evening indulging in expensive japanese food, many an asahi (delicious japanese beer) and took in a fairly awful show. Khao Sahn for a night cap and bed. Jim arrived during the night and the next morning was too tired to come to the JJ-Market. It's a huge, cheap, weekend market with everything from puppies to knock-offs to swords to well everything. money spent and exhausted we headed back to meet James. Soon after that the boozing commenced... A great finish to a great trip, boozing with my two longest travel companions in James and Linden.

Hung over.... so hungover... managed almost nothing. Lindo had to pick up the clothes from the tailor. we achieved almost nothing except breakfast of burger king and one last pad thai lunch before linden and i headed for the airport. First flight was great. on time, comfortable, good food, good movies (i watched hitman and loads of tv eps) but i just couldnt sleep. Sydney... my bag was pretty much last and customs took 20 mins to clean my boots. the transfer line was then 45mins long so i just winged it over to the domestic terminal and arrived with 8 mins to spare.... only the cancelled my flight anyway and i scrounged one of the last seats on a flight to melb half an hour later. which left late and took FOREVER to disembark. But that melted away in the big smiles i had waiting for me.

So now I am back in Benalla and when I arrived to my delight chiefy did remember me and went NUTS. seriously out of control, he was so happy he was whining and choking. jumping around like an idiot. Genie just follows me around, finidng me wherever i am and sitting with me. I'm glad they missed me as much as i missed them.

It still feels very weird to be home. Not really sure what to do with myself. I guess without a job or a place to live I kinda still feel like i am on holiday. I have had an amazing year in which i was privelleged to travel with a lot of my closest friends and both my brother and my sister. I made new great friends, visited some living overseas and stayed with family. I lived and worked briefly in England and risked my life enough to feel alive. I am as lucky as i am in debt.

Now enough wanging on about all that. Thank you to you all, you have been great to see/email/call/miss over the last year and i look forward seeing you all as soon as possible.

Lots of Love
Tim

Hey guys!

Wooo, home in under 6 days! nuts! what a year! its been so great seeing the ones of you i saw, missing the ones i didnt and not seeing you daino. ah who am i kidding, i even missed you. pity we couldnt have caught up in Bangkok when you were there.

So a lot has been happening. quick run through. we went down through Laos to Cambodia. Then went across the country quickly before coming down here to Koh Tao where we have been diving for the last week. Magic. now some details.

I left you last in Luang Prabang. Firstly that waterfall was freaking sweet!! i have so many cool photos of linden and i swimming in a pool at the top of a big plunge. i think i like it better than erawan. Next we took a bus to Vangvieng. Wow, we went tubing one day and what a mad mad day. Drinking beers and shakes made us pretty happy and in the perfect frame of mind for a lazy tube down the Nam Song. All kinds of crazy swings and mad people really made for such a fun day. Sadly the hangover left us uncabable of anything but sitting around watching family guy and friends the next day. Next day we hired a motorbike and hit the caving scene which was amazing. having never been it was pretty damn cool. Especially the one where we had to pull ourselves into the cave in the water for hundreds of meters sitting in a tube. awesome. pity some jerks cyphened our fuel and we had to refill to get home. jerks!

So next was Vientiane. Didnt do a whole lot other than get our cambodian visas and some good japanese food. then it was time to go all the way down the country to the 4000 islands. Beautiful. We stayed on Don Khong which was very quite and had some great things to explore. we rode bikes all over the island seeing 2 huge waterfalls, a beach and we even hired a boat to see the irrawady tiver dolphins. kinda stupid looking with no nose. but very cool nonetheless. after two days it was cambodia time.

Annoying, we got stuffed around at the border and couldnt make it to phenom penh and this meant that we had to cut the capital all together. we got stuck in the shitty town of Kratie. The next day was spent getting to Siem Riep. For the next 2 days we visited Wats. Amazing, Angkor was incredible but each wat had some cool element of its own as rulers tried to outdo one-another. and our tuk-tuk driver was awesome! such a genuine nice guy. we had one crash which was scary. we hit two dogs running across the road and the driver and the bike went under and we kinda skidded on them. I jumped out and lifted the trailer off them and the dog came exploding out covered in petrol as did our driver (with skinned feet and knees). He refused to go home or even take care of himself saying he was fine. Always with his huge grin. We really liked him, could have been really hurt if he had swerved but he took it for us.

Sorry, i got away from it for a bit, Angkor was just amazing. weather wasnt great and the kids/touts were horrible. No i dont wanna buy your f@!king pineapple b*tch!! sorry but i had to let off a bit of steam.

Then it was time for the horrible trip to bangkok. hours and hours on that horrible road to the border. well we got there and even met up with james for a beer. crazy kid is at the full moon party right now. us old timers gave it a miss for quieter koh tao. Anyway thats just what we did the next day. bus then ferry to koh tao. Linden got stuck stright into her open water divers course.

Our first real day here was my bday so i decided not to start my course immediately. I lazed on the beach. Called mum and dad, got a massage, lazed by the pool, back to the beach.... then it was dinner and bed. couldnt ask for a more relaxing lovely day. heard from lots of guys back home. Sam got in first nice and early, but also heard from all the family and lots of facebook and phone messages. Was really cool.

So the for the last few days its been my Advanced Open Water Course keeping me occupied. Now im qualified to 30m depth so i can go down there and get 'narked' anytime i want. Saw some pretty cool stuff. hawksbill turtle being the best. also a very poisonous banded sea snake. triggerfish other cool things but the whaleshark still eludes me. next time!

Yeah so lindo and i have been spending it up and celebrating out qualifications and imminent trips home. been amazing and we have a few days left. eek cant believe ill be home soon. cant wait to see everyone again! and eat the foods ive been missing!

Anyway, this has been long enough already, ill see you in a few days.

Lots of love, Happy Birthday to Sara and Plummers (20th and 21st)
Tim and Linden

Hey Hey!

How are you all? Been about two weeks or so since I last wrote and we have been moving and playing quite a lot. So, I last blogged from Ko Chang

I got up early and jumped in a songthaew straight for the port. A long day ahead to get to the airport in time to meet Linden's plane at 7:40pm. So it went like this. Songthaew -> Ferry -> Songthaew -> Bus -> Bus. Finally rolling into the airport at 6pm. Nice. Only around 2 hours to wait. Looking along the big list of arrivals... Yep the only flight that is delayed on the whole board. 9pm it is! At around 9:30 Lindo rolled in and we jumped in a taxi to Khao San Rd to get some late night grub and a sleep.

Next day we figured the quicker we got outta bangers the better and we jumped straight onto a bus to Kanchanaburi. After a long day we just went for a wander up to the bridge over the river (kwai) and checked out the night market before hitting the hay. Was so close to buying an awesome little french bulldog puppy for only 3500 baht.

The next day we decided to check out the Erawan Waterfalls and they were even better than the amazing way i remembered them. 7 tiers of beautiful limestone stained water full of little biting fish. We walked all the way to the top and swan in all the pools on the way down. There were also sliding rocks and ledges behind the falls. It really is a magical place. Dinner on the riverside was disappointing afterwards but not enought to mark the day.

The next day we chilled in the morning and checked out the Kanchanaburi War Museum. Then we decided to make our own minds up about the controversial tiger temple. I have to say I still dont know whether I am for or against it. Some animals were definately not drugged, some looked like maybe they were but they probably werent. It was hard to say. One wasnt even on a chain and we walked along side him touching his back no problem and he was NOT drowsy. I dunno, a very interesting experience nonetheless.

That night it was time to head back to Bangkok and take the overnight train to Chiang Mai. Fairly comfortable but still quite hot we arrived in Chiang Mai after lunch. In Chiang Mai we did a full day cooking course out on a farm which was really cool. I cooked, red curry paste, a chicken red curry (using that paste), a tom yum soup with prawns, chicken basil and chilli, pad thai and sweet sticky-rice with mango. It was delicious! The next day we rode elephants, went on a short trek to a waterfall, visited a hill-tribe village then bamboo rafted down the river. It was a pretty fun day if a little directed (being on a tour and all). Our last full day in Chiang Mai we hired a motorbike and headed out to the Zoo to see the PANDAS!!! they were awesome! so so so cool to see them and so close. heaps of other cool animals aswell. then we rode the bike way out of town up the hill to the Wat (temple) the sits above the city. It was beautiful up there. For there I carved through peak hour thai traffic right across the city to the bus station (getting back a lot of my old form and practising with a passenger) to buy our tickets. All that was left was dinner a few beers and bed.

The next day we got to Laos... that was it. Then it was time to head off to the Gibbon Experience in the Bokeo National Park. heaps of fun zip lining and some really hard hours hiking to stay in tree-houses about 50m from the ground (accessable only by cable) for 2 nights. We swam in waterfalls and hunted gibbons (sadly i got to the bottom of the trees they were in but couldnt see them, only hear them) and generally just enjoyed the leech-filled jungle for a few days before heading out. It really was a wonderful experience.

For the next two days we chilled on the slow boat down the river to Luang Prabang (still in laos) and thats where i am writing to you from. Very cool town with some beautiful waterfalls like erawan just out of town. we will check them out tomorrow. Today is a day off and as linden is off getting a massage i think i will go find myself a friendly beer and curry in the shade.

Lots of Love to you all, sorry no pics, the upload speed is terrible.
See you in less than 4 weeks

Tim and Linden

Hey guys!
It hasnt actually been that long for once, so i will be able to keep this one relatively short.
Well, to start with I went and saw Noel Fielding and Friends. It was a pretty good show. The first act was terrible but the rest of the show featured Johnny Two Hats, Gareth Marenghi, Razorlight, The Moon, The Boosh Band (playing Electro Boy/Girl, Nanageddon and Charlie) along with Julian Barrat and Bob Fossil.

Noel + Razorlight

Noel and Fossil

With that down and all on my lonesome I got ready and go on my flight for Bangkok. Little did i know that it was Thai New Year from the 13th - 15th of April... (and cos the 12th was a Saturday it got added). Khao San Rd was a warzone as they celebrate by throwing water and and talcom powder from dawn till 9pm. Old ladies and children alike set apon you and eachother in a frenzy, regardless of your luggage burdens and expensive equiptment. Such a pity cos i would have loved some photos of the size of the smiles everyone was sporting.
Songkran - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_New_Year

Super Soaker (crap photo but best i could do on my own... not for long )

I bought myself a supersoaker (6 bucks) and got out there but eventually I just had to bail and Koh Chang was calling me. So Bus, Songthaew, Ferry, Songthaew and I was here. On Lonely Beach. And its great. A boozy first night followed by getting a better hut and relaxing. I hired a motorbike yesterday and rode through the jungle and today i have been diving all day. Its been a good (yet sweaty) couple of days.

Treehouse Restaraunt (Where i spend most of my time)

My Hut - Stuff downstairs and Bed upstairs

Not a bad view to eat BBQ fish to.

Tonight a few beers (maybe with the divemaster from today) and then tomorrow off to meet Linden in Bangkok and get back to some excellent hutchcroft-style exploration!

Lots of Love
Counting the days (but not too quickly)
Tim

Hey Everyone,

As usual it has been quite a while since i have written and as usual it will be long and boring. After writing the last blog, we jumped on a train to Luxembourg.

Luxembourg
What a ridiculous city, the entire thing built on a hill is great, just so long as you are sleeping on that hill.... Needless to say, we werent. It was however, beautiful with walls along one side and great views. We took our time strolling around and checking the squares out, before heading underground. Underneath part of the town, carved into the bock is the old fortress which was pretty cool to wander about in. Not a lot of time for much else and without the funding to do the typical stocking up (alcohol, cigarettes and perfumes duty free) we headed off to Belgium.

Brussels
Immeadiately into Belgium I remembered why I had loved it so much when i visted a few years ago. Only this time it was even better cos I had quite the drinking partner in Linden. We found the guiness record pub for having the most beers available for sale (over 2000, guaranteed at least 2004 in stock at any one time) and set about trying them all... Well not quite but we did have some amazing ones (Hoegardden Grand Cru and others) including my favourite in the world Watou's Witbier. Magic! Then we stumbled directly accross the road into an Absinth Bar... Here the story goes a bit wrong. We knocked back a couple of them, including a Mansinth (Marylin Manson's) before finally stumbling toward home. I think if anything i was drunker than lindo (although dont tell her that ).
Brussels also held some other cool sights, like the flea market, well actually it wasnt that cool. just a bunch of rubbish really. We did get some amazing waffles and chips and I even took a drunken piss on the side of a church. I know what you are thinking but there was a urinal! Seriously, what a cool country that they put a urinal on the outside of the church!

Antwerp
From Brussels we did a day trip to Antwerp. Seriously this town has some Sass! it was cool! punky clothes stores, graffiti parks and the coolest shop i think i have ever been into. Seriously anything cool you can imagine was in it! Comics, computer games, figurines...... well maybe not coventional cool, but cool to me! And it was huge! i could have spent weeks in there just looking through all the fantasy novels and anime dvds. We walked all through town and even under it for 15 mins in the sewers which was pretty cool. Record stores, goth stores and funky clothes stores a plenty it really was a cool town... EXCEPT FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ART MUESUM! I have never seen such a collection of crap all brought together before! Im no art critic, but seriously it was all AWEFUL! I would rather have spent the afternoon looking at a turd covered in burnt hair! sorry to end on such a sour note, i just remembered how sucky it was and couldnt hold it all back!

Ypres (Ieper)
On leaving Brussels for Paris we decided to take in the small war torn town of Ypres. I visted it with my parents a few years ago and I really wanted to see it again. To my delight (and lindens annoyance, although she was very good about it) i remembered quite a lot and the beer and chocolate shops were just where i remembered. Menin Gate stands just outside of town and is a very emotional place. The names of over 50,000 names of allied soldiers of whom bodies where never found. The countryside is littered with war memorials and it is awesome to feel the appreciation of the locals in how Australians are spoken about and treated in that area. Plus we had a beautiful lunch and day in the sun.

Lille
After the day in Ypres, we arrived in Lille. Not wanting to spend much time in our sleezy hotel we wandered about the town late into the night. Finally retiring for take away dinner, belgian beers and ipod movies in bed. We took the TGV at breathtaking speed the next day to Paris.

Paris
The plan was to spend quite a while in Paris and even with having to leave early we did. We spend the first 2 nights in a dorm then one night in a hotel before meeting up with a friend of Lindens from Uni. Audrey was amazing, after moving all her things into her 5th storey apartment and collapsing, she went to work before meeting us and letting us into her new apartment. She then stayed at her boyfriends for the next 2 night while we slept in her new bed. She really was amazing, taking us to 2 awesome restaraunts in a row for dinner and helping us hire bikes and go night riding all over Paris into the wee-hours, even though she was working by day! We did see a lot of sights while we were in Paris too though. Notre-dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Rodin's Garden, Hotel les Invalides (sadly only from the outside), Palace de Tokyo and the museum there, Luxembourg gardens in the sun. Lets just say we saw heaps during those days and i really could spend the same amount of time writing it all. We had a blast is the main thing. Then things took a bit of a turn. Already dreading that Linden might have to go home early, it became more of a "now" situation rather than the "soon" it had been for a while. So we decided that we could only do the best with the situation that we could and we cancelled the trip to Normany we had planned for the weekend and kicked it straight for London!

London
With not a load of time before Linden had to go we spent a fair bit of time just getting her things together and sorting everything out. We did have the quickest of pokes through the Natural History Museum though. Then before too long, sure enough the mad rush to get her to the airport was on. Ashcroft time VS Hutchens time. She won, we were late, very late, the last ones in line. (Not that it was her fault, that damn tube!) at least she made it and from what i hear she got ushered at each airport to make sure she didnt miss her other flights. So that left me in london on my own... Silly Hutchens. Im really not to be left alone. To the church the next day to drink with Nick and Fi for 12 hours. Ridiculous but a heap of fun! Absolutely trashed! (Dont worry mum, nick was drunker) Really good to catch up with them though, including Bunx and Hammo. We have caught up everyday since, Fi, Nick and I going to the Tower of London yesterday and seeing the changing of the guard today. Im staying with james again and its great to hang out with him a bit too. Im going to see Noel Fielding tonight with a mate met while travelling (Dan) then its off to Bangkok tomorrow night. Eeek!

Well thats gets you all up to date and I can get back to blowing all my money on pints.

Lots of Love to you all. I miss you heaps.
Tim.