Our trip to Cambodia was short and sweet, being only six days in total, but it was a great week.  Cambodia is a country of contrast, the rich are clearly silly rich - we saw many young girls being driven around in posh 4x4’s and lunching at nice cafes - and the poor are some of the poorest we have seen in south east asia. The country is full of street kids who grab onto you and don’t let go, wanting food and money. Their english is impeccable, some as young as about 5 or 6. One evening a little boy was asking for milk so we decided to buy him milk, in the shop he then pointed to a $20 tub of formula, saying it was for the baby. Unfortunately we had been told about a scam, where you buy things for kids from shops and they immediately take it back and get half the money back. To be fair, this kid probably did want the formula, but we decided against spending $20 on him.  There were about twenty kids a night asking for the same thing and you want to help all of them but it’s just impossible. We had to remember that this country is full of NGO’s and realistically the best way to help is to donate to them.

Anyway, from Saigon we decided on a night bus to Phnom Penh. This was a mistake!! Sleeper buses are no more once you get down to Saigon, they seem to be strictly a Vietnamese thing! SO we had a normal bus, which was annoying but we could live it, as it was supposedly only a six hour journey… Except it wasn’t, it was about four hours to the border then two hours of sleeping in a hot coach waiting for the border to open! At 6am we all piled out to leave Vietnam, piled back on, drove a hundred metres and piled back out to enter Cambodia. We arrived around 11ish and got absolutely accosted by tuk tuk drivers. After a night of fitful sleep in the heat we were so not in the mood. Walking along the riverside, the sun was blaring, and the guesthouses were so expensive! We eventually found a nice one and after checking in and showering we had a nice relaxing lunch. The rest of that day was spent drinking smoothies, walking along the river, napping, and going out for dinner. Phnom Penh is a lovely location, I didn’t even realise it was along a river until we arrived! The streets are set out in a grid system, tree lined and pretty, and the roads are so very quiet - no constant beeping like in Vietnam!

Our second day in Phonm Penh was a pretty horrendous sight seeing day. Our first stop was S-21. This is a former school that was turned into a prison in the days of the Khmer Rouge.  The Khmer Rouge regime ruled from 1975 to 1979 and an estimated 2 million Cambodians were killed in the most barbaric of ways. Pol Pot, the party leader, wanted an agrarian based communist country, and moved entire city populations into the countryside who were then forced into hard labour.  Anyone seen as against party policies was imprisoned. This was basically anyone who had any education, any professionals who were considered capitalist and of free mind. These people were tortured in prisons like S-21 and kept in barbaric conditions, before inevitably being taked to many of the countries ‘killing fields’ to be battered to death over mass graves.  After looking around S-21, which is full of photos of the prisons victims (the Khmer Rouge was very particular about keeping records of their victims), we headed out to the Killing Fields. This area is full of mass graves, with teeth, bones and clothing still coming up from the ground when it rains. Many of the graves have been excavated and their is a huge stupa in the middle of the field, full of skulls and bones, to honour the dead. To say the day was depressing is an understatement. We kept thinking how recent it all happened, and looking at anyone over the age of forty in Cambodia, you really want to know how they survived. The sad thing is that in Cambodia they believe that the dead have to have a proper burial to move on, and the fact that none of the victims did is apparently still a source of massive pain to the victims relatives.  After looking around the Killing Fields we got dropped at the citys Russian Market for a look around before having some lunch. That afternoon I then went to have a look around the Royal Palace and that evening we met up with friends and had dinner and a few drinks out.

Next on the agenda was Siem Reap, which brought alot more ancient history for us! We opted for a day bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap which was much better than doing it over night. Our guesthouse in Phnom Penh booked us into their sister hotel with free pick up from the bus station, which made it alot easier for us upon our arrival. The hotel was lovely, and we had free breakfast which was a bonus! OUr first evening we ventured into town and found ‘Pub Street’, a great little street full of restaurants and bars! The town has apparently changed dramatically in the last ten years and you can see that it is a town grown up around tourism. Our first full day was spent out seeing the Temples of Angkor! We decided on our own itinery and got a tuk tuk driver and a guide and off we went! We started in Angkor Thom, which is an area full of a few different sites. We went in the South Gate and our first stop was the incredible Bayon. This temple is probably the most well known, and even if you don’t know the name you would know the famous image of Bayon’s faces. The entire building is full of Buddha faces, and seeing them for real was fantastic! The carvings are in amazing condition considering the age. The temples of Angkor date back to the 10th century. After Bayon, we saw a few other little temples, some of which are undergoing restoration, before heading to Ta Prohm. Something I didn’t know before arriving is that this temple was used in the film Tomb Raider! This particular temple is brilliant to explore as it is still very overgrown, and trees have grown up around the templed, meaning many of the trees’ roots are exposed and winding around the ruins. Cue some great photo opportunities! The morning was a long one, and we had a late lunch. Unfortunately at this point Lucy was coming down with a bug, and she headed back to the room, whilst I went to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset, along with about a thousand other tourists! Nonetheless, it was a great experience and the sunset was of course beautiful.

Day number two was the big one, I was up at 4.45am to get to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise! Again, this is a very popular site for the sunrise but the grounds are vast and so it was alot less crowded than the peak of Phnom Bakheng. The temple looks amazing as the sun is rising, and is reflected into the pool in front of itself, which makes some fantastic viewing. It takes a while but eventually the sun then rises above the temple, when another bout of photo taking ensues! Angkor Wat is a spectacular temple, being the worlds largest religious building, and has some beautiful carvings. The temple has five towers and it was possible to get right up into the top of the middle one. The views over the surrounding grounds are also lovely. By 9am we had looked around Angkor Wat and from there it was onto Preah Khan, which is the temple of the sacred sword. This temple was similar to Ta Prohm in that it had been left to ruin and is still largely overgrown, resulting in some climbing around to see it all! We then headed out to see Banteay Srei, which means the Citadel of the Women, and was a pretty temple built of different colour sandstone - some with a pink hue! On the way back we looked at a temple called Banteay Samre before having lunch. The afternoon was spent looking around the temples of the Rolous Group which date even further back than Angkor Wat, as the area was the first capital of Cambodia, known as Hariharalaya. These temples were obviously in more ruin than the temples of Angkor but impressive nonetheless, especially the largest of the group, Bakhong, which was a nice last stop as the sun was going down. As you can imagine, I was shattered that evening, and Lucy was still not feeling well having spent the day recovering at the hotel, so a quiet evening was had.

Our third day in Siem Reap was lovely, it was the first time in a while we hadn’t had to rush to move on. We had breakfast and then sat in the sunshine on the roof for a while. Cambodia was so hot, especially compared to Vietnam where we even had rain! We wandered into town for lunch and had a look around the markets where I bought an Angkor Wat T Shirt, before Lucy went to see Angkor Wat in a tuk tuk and I went and had a massage! It was back to Pub Street and the famous Angkor What? bar in the evening but it wasn’t a late one as we were both still very tired!

The next morning we got a bus at 8am to head back to Thailand! I wish we had had more time in Cambodia, the people were helpful and friendly and I think know there were alot more towns to explore. The bus journey back was a long one, and the border was the worst of the lot, two hours were spent waiting at passport control, an hour of which was outside in the heat. It was totally unorganised too, we had to get off the bus and switch onto a minivan on the Thai side, so some guy carted our luggage off and left it on the other side of the border for us to find ourselves! Coming back into Bangkok was a funny feeling, almost like coming home! We got dropped at Khao San Road and we were both amazed that we’ve done it! The circle has been closed, the loop has been completed, South East Asia has been thoroughly explored and there we were, back where we started. It was funny looking around at the other travellers on Khao San Road, knowing that some of them have probably only just arrived and are yet to do everything we have just done. I felt like a bit of a seasoned traveller!!

However we are doing one last stop in a town called Ayutthay just north of Bangkok, and after some dinner last night we hopped straight on a train. Today has been spent looking around more temple ruins, as this is a former capital of Thailand from the 14th century, and then looking around a floating market. We decided to come now rather than when we were first in Thailand because their is a festival going on celebrating the town becoming a World Heritage Site. Tonight we are going to a sound and light show over one of the larger temples which should be spectacular!

Tomorrow it’s back to Bangkok airport for our flight to Melbourne! It feels like the end of one adventure and the start of a new one! I have had the absolute time of my life in south east asia. I have seen some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen, met some amazing people, and partied hard! I have been constantly surprised by the people and the experiences, and have mostly found the south east asians to be friendly and helpful. Food and accommodation has been excellent, and some of the towns have been positively beautiful! Mostly, instead of seeing signs of poverty or signs that these are still developing countries, I have seen people living off the land, not rich, but definitely not poor, always with a smile on their face. If I could do these ten weeks over again, I most definitely would, and I most definitely intend to come back!!

I am currently sat waiting for a bus to Cambodia, so I thought I would do one last blog in Vietnam about our trip today to the Mekong Delta! A very short update, we were up early for a 7.30 pickup and we got a minibus down to My Tho. From there, we got a wooden boat across the river to the island of Ben Tre.  There we sampled an array of tropical fruit, saw a bee keeping farm where we tried honey tea, and saw a coconut candy workshop! I bought some coconut and chocolate sweeties which are yum! We had a nice Vietnamese lunch and took a bike ride around the area, before being rowed down one of the many little streams down to the main river and getting the boat back to the mainland. It was lovely to look around the island and we had an enjoyable day out! Back in bustling Saigon now, waiting for a bus to cross the border into Cambodia, hopefully arriving in Phnom Penh around 6am.

Feeling a little sad this evening that our South East Asia trip is so close to finishing, I don’t want it to end! Nine days to go - Hello Cambodia!

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I am writing this from Saigon, our very last stop in Vietnam.  I am absolutely roasting sat in the reception area of our guesthouse, with several women lying on the floor around me as it is basically their living space! We are situated down a tiny little alleyway with lots of similar guesthouses, at the moment all the Vietnamese are sat in the alleyways on plastic stools eating their dinner with music blaring, kids running around playing and scooters whizzing by.. I definitely just nearly got knocked over!

As a whole Vietnam has been an interesting experience. It was the country I was most looking forward to but so far not actually my favourite. I don’t know whether that’s because I had high expectations, or because we’ve had to do the country alot quicker than we wanted, or even maybe because Laos was so hard to beat! Obviously we started in Hanoi which I loved, the craziness is hard not to like when you first see it! But Vietnam as a country began to grate on us as we moved down. I have never known salespeople like them, they don’t just come and offer you their wares as others did in Thailand and Laos, they then stand at your table giving a long spiel about how they can’t afford to go to school, or follow you down the road talking at you until they get bored of being ignored.. Which takes a long time! The young girls that try and engage you in conversation are the worst, because you get chatting and then they try and make you feel sorry for them, the best line we’ve had is ‘open your hearts with your wallets’. Yes, seriously. Don’t even get me started on the motorbike men.. “Hello, motorbike?’, ‘Hello, you buy something?’, all day long, every single second!

Going back to the beginning anyway, for our last day in Hanoi we were up early to get to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  We queued up and got sent through in a line, walking slowly around Hi Chi Minh in his glass case protected by five armed guards. It was an eery sight, for those who saw Lenin in Russia with me, it was a very similar experience, no cameras, no stopping, and it all takes about one minute. The mausoleum itself was a huge structure though, very impressive, but I have to say I felt bad going to see a man embalmed when his wish was actually to be cremated.  It would seem it’s a very communist thing to do - embalming dead presidents. Anyway, afterwards we had a look round some of Hi Chi Minhs residences and then the Ho Chi Minh Museum, none of which were that interesting but they were right next door! Then the afternoon was spent looking around the horrible Prison Museum which had some horrendous things on display, a guillotine to name one.  After that we had time to kill so we went to watch Disneys Megamind in 3D before getting our overnight bus! Unfortunately, Vietnam has also proved to be the worst country travel wise. Pretty much every bus journey has been plagued with trouble! Our bus from Hanoi down to Hue broke down for three hours at 5am, lengthening an already long overnight journey.

Hue itself was a good stop, the first afternoon we went to see the citys Citadel, which was the Royal Palace built in the early 19th century, and the Imperial City. It is mostly now in ruins, alot of it from bombing, but the area it covers is vast and it was easy to imagine how it used to be. We also went to see the tomb of the last Emperor of Vietnam, and his many wives, which was a very impressive sight. Our second day in Hue was spent on a tour to the DMZ. This consisted of seeing alot of sites of things that ‘used to stand here’! But it was nonetheless very interesting. We were shown the Ben Hai River which was the divide between North and South Vietnam, and the second borderline after the North pushed slightly further south. We saw an abandoned airbase and the site of an old army base, but best of all was a set of tunnels which the local villages dug out to hide in and take shelter from bombs. They consisted of bomb shelters, family rooms, a maternity room, and even water wells all over three levels underground.  The tunnels were incredibly small and low, and would only have been lit by oil lamps. It was amazing to still be able to go down there.

From Hue, we went down to Hoi An. Hoi An is a lovely little town on a river that is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It used to be a port for Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese traders and the influence from all three cultures is evident there. There are lots of sites to look around, and we looked at a Japanese bridge, a Chinese Communal Hall and an old Vietnamese house among other things, aswell as taking a short trip down the river with a couple of ladies paddling us! We also watched a fantastic dance and music show in the evening. On our second day we took a morning tour out to My Son. My Son is an area of ruins dating from the 4th century when it would have been in the Champa Kingdom.  The ruins are amazing to see, and our guide explained that it is a mystry how the temples and buildings were made, as they didn’t use cement between the bricks, but they are still standing! What was absolutely terrible to see were the buildigs that had been destroyed by US bombing in the Vietnam war. These buildings had stood for centuries and then knocked down by a single bomb. An absolute waste and another atrocity commited by the Americans.

Hoi An also held a surprise for us in that it is a town full of tailors. Shops everywhere that can tailor make clothes or shoes in 24 hours. Lucy and I both succumbed and I got a beautiful silk dress tailor made for 15 pounds, and a pair of leather shoes tailor made for about 17! Amazing. Whilst we were in Hoi An we also popped down to the local beach which is part of the famous China Beach. The weather so far in Vietnam hadn’t been very good though, no sunshine and not very warm. The beach was very windy and the sea was incredibly rough, but still a lovely stretch of coastline.

Then came another rubbish bus journey between Hoi An and Nha Trang. Or bus got stuck in a traffic jam for FIVE hours, making our total journey length a staggering 19 hours. Horrific! Turns out a trailer had obviously been stacked up too high with wood and had collapsed all over the mountain road. The tailbacks were horrendous and when we passed they just seemed to be stood guard over the wood instead of attempting to move it!

Nha Trang’s main appeal is the beautiful beach there, but the weather was not being kind and without the sunshine the town itself left a bit to be desired. There were some lovely beach front restaurants, but aside from that the town was pretty standard, and the horrendous rain we had there didn’t help! I did however spend an evening visiting the island Vinpearl, which is their answer to Disneyland really, with a big waterpark (not that I went in there), some outdoor rides, a fantastic aquarium and an indoor games room. The cable car you have to take over the sea to get to the island is also a fun trip in itself! Due to the bus taking up part of our first day we didn’t stay very long in Nha Trang, and we got a bus to Dalat next.

This particular bus journey was plagued with flat tyres, twice we had to stop to change it. Again this really encroached on our time in Dalat, as we only planned to spend the night there. Dalat is way up the mountains and we expected quite a small town, however it was still incredibly bustling. We went to some waterfalls just outside of town, where the main attraction was actually the rollercoaster ride down the hill! Then to an architects house which has become known as ‘Crazy House’ due to the crazy buildings! Very Alice in Wonderland-esque with winding stone staircases and rooms built into trees and stone! We also had a very enjoyable evening, listening to an expat on the guitar in a nice restaurant, and then going with him and another expat to a local kitchen/bar! It was the type of place where the locals sit on stools around plastic tables, throwing their foor on the floor and drinking beer over ice. We tried quails eggs, clams and then said no to a particular ‘delicacy’ of an egg with a baby chick inside.. Not nice.

Another early start in Dalat to get a bus down to Saigon and all of a sudden our Vietnam adventure is over! We got here late yesterday and had a great night out last night with a bunch of people we have met around South East Asia - it seems everyone has ended up in the same place at the same time! Today we visited the Reunification Palace which has been left as it was the day the North Vietnamese ploughed through the gates in their tanks. Afterwards we went to the harrowing War Remnants Museum, which was really very well set out. There were some horrendous images from the war, and also of the people that have been affected by Agent Orange since the war. It was a real eye opener and shows that the affects of war are still very present.

Tonight is our last night in Saigon as tomorrow we are going on a day trip to the Mekong Delta and getting an overnight bus to Cambodia! Last country of our South East Asia tour, and only a week and a bit to go!

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What a very original blog title, I know! But we did actually arrive in the morning so us turning to each other on the bus to say ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ was a very exciting moment! Especially as the bus was sooo horrendous, and we’d been on it for 12 whole hours..

But prior to any of that, we had Laos! Which was the best surprise of our trip, what a beautiful country it is. After the delights of Luang Prabang we were expecting a bit of a comedown in the next town, surely they couldn’t all be as lovely as Luang Prabang we thought. But we were pleasantly surprised again and again! After Luang Prabang we went on to Vang Vieng, which yes admittedly was not totally unlike being at a European holiday destination.. Malia, say.. Or Ayia Napa.. But still the town had other things to offer besides the partying! Although of course, partying is the aim of the game there, and party we did! I don’t know how many of you will have heard of ‘tubing’ before, because Lucy and I are sure we hadn’t actually heard of it until we started our travels. Basically, tubing consists of hiring a tractor tyre inner tube, no bigger than a standard rubber ring, and getting a tuk tuk ride a few kilometres up river where you all get dropped and left to it. The first thing that happens is someone accosts you with free whiskey shots. Should have realised then really that it was game over!! There are little wooden hut style bars all the way down the river, literally every few hundred metres, and the whole crowd moves together down the bars until about 6 o clock. There are about 400 people all doing the same thing, and the bars have free whiskey, cheap buckets, spray paint and slides and swings better than any water park! Lucy and I got stuck in straight away, hitting the slide, then the swing, and consuming a few morning beers! You have to make sure you grab a tube though as everyone starts leaving because some people literally just do the bars, ‘borrowing’ a tube to get them to the next one. Due to this it is quite literally a mass evacuation the second one person sets foot in the river!! And so on to the next one the crowd moves, all floating down the river covered in paint trying not to spill their buckets! There was a really high jump that Lucy went and did, so I had no bloody choice, thanks Lucy! It was pretty terrifying but pretty exhilarating! Obviously we were having to be careful about where we jumped, as their health and safety is practically non existant, and you had to watch out for tubers and rocks in the river.  There was a wicked zip line that I went on more than once, and another huge slide, not to mention the mud volleyball. It was more mud carnage than volleyball, but that’s what buckets do. The first day - yes we did this twice! - it was dark before we knew it and we were back late, woops, but at least we had a tube to return! The next day we ignored the hangover and started all over again, basically putting off the inevitable; the next day we felt like death. We spent that third day mostly in a cafe that played reruns of Friends and at about 3pm decided to go and check out the towns more cultural sights and went to the local caves and blue lagoon, which was beautiful.

Vang Vieng was followed by Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Again, we didn’t have high hopes as we’d heard the city was basically a construction site, but it was fabulous! You would not believe it was the capital city, there were no traffic jams and pretty boulevard style roads, with posh bakeries and fancy restaurants dotted around. The other fantastic thing about Laos was that the people are so, so friendly, and they don’t hassle you. In fact to get a tuk tuk ride, you generally had to get the bloke out of his hammock in the back of his truck! Lucy and I met some friends and went to a lovely little French restaurant on our first evening, and then went bowling and played some pool! The next day we checked out the Laos National Museum which was fascinating, followed by their Victory Monument which looks remarkably like the Arc de Triumph and then a Buddha Park just outside of town in the afternoon.

Looking around the museum, you almost feel sorry for Laos, they were under French rule at the beginning of the 20th century, and once they had the French out the Americans came along and tried to take over. Laos is also one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world, with the Americans dropping two million tons of bombs between 1964 and 1973.  Around 30% of these bombs failed to explode, and they reckon it will take 100 years to clear the country of all the Unexploded Ordnance.  Learning about it was horrifying, as it is something that we just don’t get told about in the West.  After Vientiane we headed up to Phonsavan, mainly to see the Plain of Jars they have there. This is a vast area covered in stone jars of varying sizes, and nobody knows the true meaning behind the jars or why or how they got there, much like Stonehenge at home. One theory is that they are funerary urns, another more amusing local theory is that they were used in ancient times to brew rice wine! We spent a lovely morning walking around the area seeing how the locals lived and checking out the Jars, it was nice to be in a town in Laos that was practically unspoilt by Westerners, the towns we had been to so far had obviously been very much geared towards us travellers. However, there was another story in Phonsavan, the town was in the most bombed Province in the country. Therefore the Plain of Jars was also littered with bomb craters, and we were able to watch a few sobering documentaries on the subject of the UXO in the Mines Advisory Group centre who are helping clear the country.

We only spent a day in Phonsavan, and to get to Hanoi we annoyingly had to go east to Vinh in Vietnam, 6 hours south of Hanoi! To get to Phonsavan and then to Vinh we used local buses, and it is safe to say they were the last local buses we are taking! They absolutely cram them full, with people having to sit on stools down the aisle, and several people along the back row.  There was also a rather odd hour long stop before we even left Vientiane for everyone to get water, and most strange, stock up on French baguettes that were being passed through the bus windows… The bus journey from Phonsavan however was the worst, we turned up at 6am in the morning, to find our driver glugging a can of Beer Lao and acting rather drunk. After alot of protest and reassurance on their part that we had two drivers, off we went.. With the drunk bloke driving. He was driving slow enough, so unfortunately we were left with little choice but to watch the road and hope for the best. He got us to Vietnam in one piece, twelve cramped and smelly, dirty hours later. In Vinh we had an excellent dinner for a couple of dollars each and then got a sleeper bus to Hanoi, which after the local buses, was bloody luxury.

And so here we are in Vietnam! The country we were most looking forward to, and after Laos it has alot to live up to! But so far it has not disappointed us. Hanoi is unlike any other city I have ever been to. We are staying in the Old Quarter, with narrows streets, tiny shop fronts, street kitchens with tiny plastic stools, and mopeds zipping everywhere! Crossroads don’t mean a thing in this city, and to cross the road it’s a case of waiting for a slight gap (if you’re lucky), then walking slowly and purposefully into the road, not dithering, and letting the traffic move around you. The middle of the city is occupied by a big lake, with some lovely restaurants and cafes around it. We spent the first day recovering from our bus journeys in a spa and cafes, having a quick look around Memorial House - a traditional dwelling in the old quarter. The next day we were all recovered and we had an epic sightseeing day! We went to the Temple of Literature which was the first University in Vietnam, founded in the 11th Century! Then had a look at the temple on the lake, which houses a giant embalmed turtle.. Random I know, but turtles are one of their four holy creatures here and these giant ones are said to inhabit the lake! We had a lakeside lunch then went to the Museum of Ethnology which covered all the Vietnamese hill tribes, aswell as having each of the tribes traditional houses to have a look around outside. We had dinner in a street kitchen for some authentic Vietnamese grub, then went to a Water Puppetry show which is a 1000 year old tradition and was fantastic to watch! We then walked back through the Walking Streets Market which was pretty good.

After the two days in the city we then went on a trip to Halong Bay. The bay is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is indescribably beautiful. There are rocks jutting out of the sea everywhere, with floating villages set up between them. It would be easy to get lost amongst all the tiny islands. We did a three day two night trip, the first day including a trip to some caves - easily the most impressive we’ve seen so far, lunch on the boat and then a night on Cat Ba island. The second day we did a climb up to a fantastic viewpoint in the mountains, had lunch and checked out the beaches, then had a cruise and dinner on the boat before dropping anchor in the middle of Halong Bay somewhere in amongst a load of other tourist junk boats! It really was quite a sight. This morning we did some early morning kayaking and after lunch in Halong City we came back to Hanoi. Whilst we enjoyed trying out some Vietnamese food on the trip it is safe to say we were absolutely sick of rice so for dinner we went to Pizza Hut!! Absolutely exhausted now, and tomorrow we are getting up early to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum, and then the Prison Museum which PoW’s used to call the Hanoi Hilton.. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow afternoon we are getting on a bus to Hue, much further south. We can’t believe how soon our time is up in South East Asia, it has really flown by, so we are now making the most of every moment to make sure we don’t miss a thing! None of the relaxing times we had in Thailand!!

Hope everyone at home is getting excited about Christmas, Hanoi has Christmas decorations everywhere and we are missing the build up at home!

Lots of Love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi everyone,

We are currently in Luang Prabang in Laos and have been here for four days so far! The town is a fabulous little place, and besides the border town of Houay Xai this has been our first stop. The town is rather small, but incredibly popular with Westerners, in fact it is positively full of them, either backpackers like us or OAP tour groups! It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because the town is considered so pretty! There is a big French influence here, in the style of the buildings and in the breakfasts! We really could stay here for alot longer just chilling out in the lovely cafes or eating in the many nice restaurants they have here.

After our trek in Chiang Mai we went up the mountain of Doi Suthep where there was a temple and beautiful views across the city, and then bussed across to Chiang Rai where we spent about three days. Chiang Rai was another nice town, with a great night market, but not a whole lot to do during the day. We went to see a temple where we had an impromptu meditation lesson from a monk which was pretty surreal, and visited an art and cultural park called Rai Mae Fah Luang. The particular park is also an educational centre for children of hilltribes, set up by the late Queen Mother. It was a beautiful spot and we spent a nice afternoon wandering around! But apart from that Chiang Rai was definitely a chill out town, and we were excited to come over to Laos!

To get here we crossed the Mekong by a little row boat - that was immigration done! And then got a two day slow boat from Houay Xai down to Luang Prabang, stopping at a little town called Pakbeng for the night. The slow boat was pretty cool with beautiful views of the Mekong.

Since being here Lucy and I have been to visit the Royal Palace Museum and done a kayaking trip to Pak Ou Caves. We were kayaking for two hours before reaching the caves which are full of about four thousand buddha statues - pretty impressive - and then another hour down the Mekong! We didn’t fall in once, not even on the (fairly small) rapids! Today we also went to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls out of town which were spectacular.

Moving on tomorrow to Vang Vieng for some tubing which we are very excited about! Hope everyone is well xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi everyone,

Currently sat in a little internet cafe in Chiang Mai and this is a pretty dodgy keyboard so excuse any errors!! Every time I come to update this I have to think back before I start, I’m amazed at what we are fitting in each week!

The south is now well and truly behind us, but after Koh Samui we went to Koh Phagnan for a few days. There we stayed in a little beach bungalow which was really cute, even though we got totally ripped off with the price back in Bangkok! The sea was shallow so far out so we were able to walk into the ocean and stand and watch the sunset with a beer in our hand which was wicked :) We went down to Haad Rin every night, everyone just parties on the beach on this island, very different to Samui. But also different in that it is far more laid back, there are no hotels really, all just little bungalow resorts with hammocks outside, and the roads, when even paved, are all up and down the hillsides!

The first night we went down to the beach it was pretty crazy, they have a thing about fire on that island, there was a fire skipping rope, a fire limbo, fire breathing, fire signs.. Everything! We avoided the burning skipping rope but I did partake in a little limbo.. I did the first level, just to say I did! Then scarpered.. There were too many people running around with burns. It’s crazy what they let you do, you really have to have your head screwed on and avoid anything stupid.

The second night on the island was Saturday and the notorious Full Moon Party woop! The beach was full of people, stands selling buckets and uv painters. Lucy and I got painted up by a friend of ours and a group of us all hit the beach together. There were Full Moon Party signs on fire of course and DJs setup every few metres down the beach, with little stages out the front of each. We had started the evening with a beer watching the sun go down, and I’m proud to say we stayed the night and watched the sun come up, at which point we looked at each other and said ‘time for bed’!

The cafes in Haad Rin are fantastic due to the fact they show movies alllll the time! So the next night we went down for some food then chilled out and watched ‘The Beach’, the book of which we have both read whilst out here.

Monday we left our bungalows and began another absolutely mammoth journey. It took us two whole days and nights to get up North. First was the boat and then overnight bus back to Bangkok which was an experience in itself. At about 2am asleep on the bus I felt something brush past my feet, looked down and saw a Thai guy crawling on his tummy down the aisle of the bus. I was so shocked! I woke up Lucy and we just saw him slither down the stairs. We didn’t think he had got anything and it had happened so quickly there was nothing we could do. I was pretty freaked out and stayed awake to keep an eye out, which is hard when the bus drivers keep all the lights off (now we understood why they say ‘lights not working’). About an hour later I turn around and see a pair of feet, in the darkness, sticking out from under a blanket. This time I was ready and woke up the whole bus. The guy didn’t get anything, but he got away down the stairs before anyone could stop him. I was pretty shook up after the journey to be honest and I think we will think twice before booking any more overnight buses.

So anyway we arrived in Bangkok at 5am on Tuesday and had some breakfast in a nice little cafe and then actually slept in there for a few hours!! And then basically killed time before getting on our 2.30 train to Chiang Mai which would take us there overnight. Except the sleeper train we had booked wasn’t there, so we came all the way up north in third class on some crappy benches, with the windows open and bugs flying everywhere. Happy bunnies we were not. But arrive we did, at about 7am on Wednesday and we came straight to a great little guesthouse in the centre of town who are putting us up for about a fiver a night!

Besides the fact we were pretty spaced out and felt like we had lost two days of our lives we decided to book onto a trek for the next day! And also spent the afternoon out and about in the city. We went to see Wat Phra Singh, which is the most famous temple in the city, and whilst we were there we had a sit down with a couple of Monks who wanted to practice their English. One of them was telling us that he is originally from Laos and came to Chiang Mai for University and to become a novice monk. The monks in Thailand wear bright orange robes and especially here in Chiang Mai they wander around in groups like any normal students! We then went to visit Wat Umong, which is more of a big park than a temple. There is a big lake there full of massive fish which the Thai’s like to go along and feed! Lucy and I were throwing some bread in and being suitably girly about the beastly fish snapping at the surface!! We went straight from there to the biggest market in Chiang Mai, the Night Bazarre, and went a bit shopping crazy! The market was amazing, the best we have been to, with some great souvenirs, but also fabulous wood carvings and silver jewellery. We spent about an hour haggling for various items before going back to pack for our trek!

So yesterday morning off we went at about 9.30 and headed straight to an elephant camp where we got an elephant ride! The elephants are so amazing, so huge but so agile, climbing up steep hills and through the river, all with us on their backs! We left the camp and had some lunch and then the trekking began. We walked for about an hour and a half up some hills, into the forest and through some really windy footpaths until eventually we came to a fantastic waterfall. Had a much needed cool off there for an hour or so and then off we went again! Into what had now become pretty dense forest, and up some really steep paths, for about another two hours until we reached a village of ‘mountain people’. This particular group of people were part of the Karen tribe, who are Burma’s biggest ethnic minority group and have faced persecution in their home country for centuries. In the 90’s, facing savage treatment, the Karen then fled to the jungle borders of Thailand and Burma. The Karen have not been granted citizenship by Thailand, and many of them don’t even have refugee status, therefore they have largely been left to fend for themselves. In the particular village we visited, the Thai government wouldn’t allow them electricity, instead has given each house a solar panel. The people were incredibly hospitable though, and we stayed in a little lodge all six of us together on mats in our sleeping bags under mosquito nets! We even had a couple of beers each with our dinner of Thai Green Curry which they cooked for us :)

After a short nights sleep due to the noisy pig that was roped up directly under our raised lodge, we had breakfast and set off again, this time trekking for three hours straight. It was such a relief and such a great feeling when we finished! Especially as it had been raining and it had started to get incredibly slippy, both Lucy and I ended up on our bum at one point or another! After lunch the trip was then rounded off nicely with a leisurely trip down the river sat on a bamboo raft!

Lucy and I are now absolutely exhausted, and have made up for two days of rice by having a nice dinner in a mexican restaurant :)

I am going to try and upload some photos soon to make this blog a little more colourful! But for now we are going to call it a night.

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So we have been in Koh Samui now for a week and we absolutely love it. This place is amazing! After the ridiculous 24 hour journey and then the clouds making us suitably grumpy, we were chuffed to bits when the sun came out a couple of days in. And it hasn’t gone away yet :D

We spent six nights in a town called Lamai. Lamai is the second biggest town on the island and has a beautiful beach and alot of nice restaurants, but because it’s currently their low season we found it actually pretty quiet. Saying that, we still had some wicked nights there. The first evening we found ourselves in an Irish bar surrounded by bikers! And I’m talking proper hairy Harley Davidson bikers! They were having a fundraising event for a local school and all the bikers had come over from the mainland for a weekend of partying basically, so we joined right in! There was a wicked rock band playing and lots of drinks flowing. We fit right in in our flowery sundresses… Ahem, but they included us in the party and we had a great night.

The second day we were here we hired a moped to explore the island. It’s the best way to do it, in our own time and for the money we paid (about three quid for the day). We first went to a town called Bophut which is on the north coast, and has a lovely little area called Fishermans Village. Lots of lovely little cafes and restaurants and I kinda got the feeling this may be where the expats or holiday home owners hang out. So we had a coffee, then headed along the coast to see the Big Buddha. Exactly what it says it is, and that was the cultural part done!! We then headed back down through Chaweng and back to explore Lamai before getting the moped back before dark.

The worst bit of news we had when we arrived was that there was a three day drinking ban.. Get this.. Due to elections?! Excuse me?! We’re on the party island! We want to party! But it didn’t manage to stop us our first night, or indeed the next when we found ourselves in a lovely Mexican restaurant (Have I mentioned how well we’re eating here?!) after hours with the wine flowing.. Lights off = Private party :) Another fab way that all the bars seemed to get around it was by serving their alcohol in coffee cups! Genius.

Which brings me to Ark Bar which we discovered on day three. Ark Bar is in Chewang, which is the busiest town on the island but not so pretty and kinda smells! But all of that is fine, and we have spent the last few nights getting taxis here and back and we have now moved to Chewang for three nights in a hotel called Chewang Palace.  This particular bar is right on the water, and they have bunches of sun loungers pushed together with little tables perched on top and everyone sits and chills out and wanders around chatting. They have good music, shisha and reasonably priced - strong - cocktails, and people can buy lanterns and fireworks from Thai sellers to set off from the beach. It’s bliss.

But basically, the people have made this town. We have met an Ozzy boxing enthusiast, a Danish hippy from the Amazon (for real), a bunch of riverdancing Irish lads, and a bunch of Canadian girls who taught us the best little drinking chant (one for us girls when we’re home!) And due to the fact it’s low season, we have been bumping into these people every night and all partying together. It’s been wicked :)

Daytimes have mainly been spent on the beach (except for one unfortunate day where our hangovers were hideous), and swimming in the sea. It’s sandy and shallow further out than you could imagine, and clear and warm and beautiful! And today we we were up at 7am - after bed at 3.30 - to get a boat trip to the Ang Thong National Marine Park.  Had a lovely day on the most picturesque little islands, and saw a lagoon that had formed in the middle of the mountain. Basically this place is as close to picture perfect paradise as I’ve ever come.

Next is Koh Phangan in a couple of days for the infamous Full Moon Party, and then, so I’m not inciting any jealousy here, let me tell you that we are headed up North to Chang Mai where there is apparently rain, floods, and more rain.

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So we’ve finally been here a week and already it seems so much longer! I am writing this from an internet cafe on Koh Samui, we just arrived today after an epic 24 hour journey.

To backtrack slightly to Bangkok, we left on the saturday morning in a minibus to get to Kanchanaburi. We stayed there one night and loved it! I would well recommend the place as a stop for anyone if you go to Bangkok. We stayed in a little dodgy backpackers place called Jolly Frogs and had a teensy little room with a pretty gross wet room attached.. Funnily enough neither of us showered that night :P During the day we hired bicycles (I stood debating over the mopeds for a long time… I’m going to definitely hire one at some point!)and went to the Death Railway Museum. The museum itself was really good, told the story of the POW’s from WW2 that were forced to build a rail link between Thailand and Burma through thick jungle and cliffs. One of the war cemeteries was directly opposite and even though it is in the middle of a tiny town in Thailand it was nice to see that it is beautifully maintained. We then cycled down to the Bridge over the River Kwai to have a look. They let everyone just wander all over the tracks and the bridge even though the track is in use!

Also staying in our b+b were some German and Danish people who we got chatting to, and then Lucy and I went and had some drinks in this really cool biker bar and got chatting to an English couple, then the whole lot of us went down to this club called Nine Under Where, lol! A Thai band was playing and it was clearly where all the cool Thai kids go as it was buzzing! The band was awesome, playing Linkin Park and Lady Gaga mixed in with Thai music! A few beers were consumed and it turned into a 3am bedtime for Lucy and I.. We were meant to be getting the 10.24 train out of Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok the next morning, which funnily enough didn’t happen! We instead got the 4.15 train… which in Thai time meant 5.15 grr. This unfortunately meant that the last half of our journey on the infamous Death Railway was in the pitch dark.. But it was still pretty scary going through the tight tunnels the POW’s had dug out by hand, and then on wooden trestle bridges around cliff faces!

We arrived in Nam Tok that night to find it absolutely dead and deserted, with just a couple of Thai ladies offering to take us to their accommodation. Through lack of choice we went with them, along with another German guy who had ridden the train with us. We were offered some pretty bungalows and then shown to the rafthouses.. They were amazing and despite the price Lucy and I were sold so we all decided to share one to split the price. That night we then got pretty drunk on Bacardi and Coke sat on a bamboo raft attached to these floating bungalows with a group of Australian, German and English expats living in India. We had a great night! I was pretty tempted to swim in the river, as others were, but I really couldn’t get over the fact it was BROWN, although it was probably only mud, it looked pretty gross to be honest!!

So the next day we continued on our journey, this time going north to Erawan National Park. This particular National Park has what are supposedly the best waterfalls in Thailand, and I can tell you they are pretty spectacular! There are seven tiers in total, only five of which we completed due to the pretty sketchy paths and steps upwards, and the fact that each pool was teeming with FOOT SUCKING FISH! Honestly, these little critters attach themselves to your feet and pretty much anywhere else they can cling on. These particular fish are pretty small, but along with that there were HUGE fish.. It was taking longer and longer to get in each pool trying to dodge these fish, so it’s probably a good job we gave up at level five!!

So in total we spent two nights in this lovely little bungalow in the middle of this National Park, with nothing around, barely any people, and pitch black roads to the top. Therefore Lucy and I spent a relaxing couple of evenings in our little bungalow planning the next bit of our trip and drinking Raspberry vodka and lemonade (what else was there to do!?)

Then came the absolutely mammoth journey ahead of us. We left Erawan at 10 o clock yesterday morning on a bus to Kanchanaburi.. Once there at about midday we got on another bus to Bangkok.. This one taking nearly four hours, mainly due to the crappy traffic around the city. Once in Bangkok we went back to the travel agent who had arranged our minibus to Kanchanaburi and she said she could get us on a bus to Koh Samui that left at six.. And it was five o clock at this point! So last night, after a quick pizza on Khao San Road we got back on a bloody bus and drove over night down to Surat Thani. The bus itself was pretty cool to be honest, there was plenty of leg room (especially for us as we managed to blag the top front seats!) so the chairs reclined right back. So it should have been an okay journey except we kept breaking down!!! Every half an hour we were stopping and the driver and a group of boys were sticking their heads in the engine emerging covered in grease. I have no idea what was up but we eventually arrived at Surat Thani about 7 o clock this morning. Onto another bus and then a ferry and voila, Koh Samui at midday today :) And guess what.. It’s CLOUDY.

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Hi!Hayley here.

Arrived safely in Thailand after a slightly delayed take off, but shorter flight than expected. I slept pretty much the entire time, whilst Lucy got through three movies! Stepping outside the airport the heat hit us, so muggy but no sunshine. We were expecting to find Bangkok pretty flooded, as our Rough Guide had warned us, but so far no floods and only one short bout of rain! Turns out we didn’t need those travel brollies/ponchos afterall!!

Bangkok is a pretty crazy place, we got a taxi straight to Khao San Road and looked for the D+D Inn, somewhere I had found online and is as nice as hoped! Lovely pool on the rooftop, outside bar area and a clean, basic room. We opted for the windowless room in the middle of the building to avoid the noise from the street! Khao San Road itself is as crazy as people say, stalls selling clothes, dvds, jewelery etc, and then loads and loads of these little food stalls that they wheel around with their bells ringing!! The food doesn’t look particularly appetizing I have to say, even though the guide books recommend them, we are giving them a wide berth, mainly because we have absolutely no idea what the food is!!

Talking of food, Lucy and I have managed to eat rather well so far, you will all laugh at what we had the first night… Pizza and wine in an italian resaurant!! Get in :D Hit up a few bars the first night and went to one called the Brick Bar, which was recommended in our guide book (fast becoming the most important item I packed). You would never have known this particular bar was there from the outside but we went in and found ourselves in a really cool underground bar full of local Thais with a band playing on stage! Couple of Singha beers and we fit right in (as if)!

Our first day we went to see the Grand Palace, only to be told it was closed to the public until the afternoon due to a religious holiday so we got shuffled into a tuk tuk and taken to some other small temple, pretty but also pretty unremarkable! Then the tuk tuk took us to the TAT (Tourist Asccoaition of Thailand) where we nearly had our entire trip planned for us by the sales guy! After a few firm no thankyous we got our accommodation booked for the Full Moon Party on the 23rd. The tuk tuk driver was outside waiting for us and after a few more no thankyous (“one more stop to see clothes and I get free fuel” …. “NO”) we got dropped on the road to the Grand Palace. With time to kill we went to see the National Museum, which had a very good exhibition of Thailands history - pretty fascinating! Turns out everyone absolutely loves the current King and Queen too, apparently the King has been known to make visits to places disguised as a normal man to see how people really live! Their photos are also absolutely everywhere though so how he manages to go unrecognised I don’t know! Also a room full of the carriages used in royal funeral processions.. Pretty amazing and massively elaborate!

The Grand Palace was next which was really very lovely, the place was covered in gems inside and out! By this point though we were pretty much melting in the weather so we headed back to the hotel at about 3. Enjoyed a nice swim and then had the customary Thai massage and not so customary facial, but they were cheap!!

Headed to Chinatown last night which impossibly is even more hectic and even busier than Khao San Road. We were getting pretty hungry and pretty demoralised trying to find anything to eat that wasn’t fried insects (I kid you not) whilst avoiding all the ‘helpful’ Thais. Eventually we came across a rather lush looking White Orchid Hotel and I knew from the guidebook they had nice food.. And although not from a food stall, it was Chinese - Result! There is also a bar we wanted to find called the Sky Bar, so we got in a tuk tuk and found ourselves at another stunning hotel on the 83rd floor… The views were incredible and they had WINE! So all in a all a very busy day followed by a typical backpacker evening hahahaha :P

Today was even hotter than the last couple of days and we had a very unhelpful tuk tuk driver trying to sell us boat tours to a floating market that wasn’t even on, but we eventually got where we wanted to be after a couple of boat taxis, which was the Wat Arun, a very pretty temple (more of a monument) that has incredibly steep steps to the top level.. Pretty cool! We then had a lovely lunch in a place called Aquatini, nice english food and a cup of Earl Grey haha!! It was on the riverside but that really isn’t as nice as it sounds, the river is GROSS, really really gross!! The whole city also pretty much smells, so we are moving on tomorrow. And I think this is when the real backpacking will begin, I don’t think we’ll be getting sandwiches or wine outside of the city but we shall see. We are moving onto a place called Kanchanaburi for a trip on the Death Railway, and to see the Erawan Falls.

Missing everyone, lotsa love Hayley and Lucy. xxxxxxxx

The girls at Mine and Lucys Leaving Do!