Airlie Beach and the Glorious Whitsunday Islands

We arrived in Airlie Beach on the Greyhound with brilliant blue skies and schorching temperatures, everything was looking perfect for our sailing trip around the Whitsundays. We checked into our studio which overlooked one of the Marinas, on the downside it was up the biggest hill we’ve had to climb!

We spent the Thursday night in Airlie Beach, this place has enough going on with one road in and one road out. The usual backpacker clubs and pubs lined the street as well as more upmarket restaurants toward Airlie Beach Marina. We were going to return to Airlie and stay here for one night more after our sailing trip, but the main reason people stay here is to catch a trip around the Whitsunday Islands.

The next day we headed for the Marina and boarded our boat. We decided to spend a little more money and treat ourselves to a Luxury Catamaran which only sleeps 8 people. We met the three other couples at the Marina who all happened to be British as well! What a coincidence! There were several choices of boats when we booked our trip as the Whitsundays are the most sort after sailing trip on the East Coast, you can choose anything from party boats that sleep 30 people to smaller Yachts and Catamarans that have a more chilled out agenda.

We boarded our Catamaran and were greeted by our 2 man/woman crew for the next few days, Dylan and Kim. We sat in the lounge area on board and had the briefing of the next 2 days to come, everything sounded amazing! We then set out to where we would anchor for the night, over the next few hours we chatted and got to know the great people we had the pleasure of sharing the trip with. We were also taken in two’s to be shown our cabins, having not slept on a boat before me and Sarah were not sure what to expect, but we soon settled into life on board!

Throughout the trip we were treated to the most amazing food, the Catamaran had an onboard BBQ which cooked our steaks perfectly that night…while anchored up we finished dinner and had a few drinks with our new found friends. We were anchored up next to an island in the National Park but this had no development on what so ever, so there was no light pollution which made star gazing one of the best skies we’d ever seen. The Catamaran was spacious and had a net at the front for lying down and sitting on which was good for chilling through the whole trip and stargazing in the evening.

The next morning everyone was up early as we set sail at around 7am!! The seas were choppy so there was no chance of a lie in! Getting changed even proved difficult as the boat swayed from side to side, we were falling all over the place! We had breakfast and anchored up at Whitsunday Island and this lead down to the infamous Whitehaven beach, we took a small motor dingy to one side of the island and then followed the forest path to the lookout point on the other side. Here we were greeted by an amazing panorama of the Whitsunday Islands and it was possible to see the whole of Whitehaven beach which stretches 7km.

After lots of pictures at the look out point we headed down to Whiteheaven beach, the sand here is one grade off pure glass. It is so fine that it will exfoliate you skin if you rub it between your hands (no need for moisturiser here!). We donned our stinger suits, which by the way looked hilarious! They are basically wet suits but skin tight, a bit like morph suits. These were nescessary due to an extensive list of dangerous marine life that can kill you in minutes that are present in these waters. We waded in in our suites and spotted a few stingrays along with small schools of fish. We enjoyed the views and the beach and then headed back to our boat.

After lunch we headed to our next port of call, we anchored off a small remote island with no one around and went snorkling. For being in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef we were expecting to see a lot of marine life and vast amounts of coral, the clarity was okay but there was less to see than we expected. We still think for marine life Thailand has had the best snorkling sites. After snorkelling we tried out paddle boarding, many of you may know what this is but for those of you who don’t its basically standing up on a surfboard with a paddle. For our first time we took to it quite well after falling off a few times! The hardest part was having two of you on it and trying to balance and paddle at the same time! We loved the paddle boarding and we will definetly look for places that do it back home when we are back!

Later that afternoon the crew had prepared a suprise for us and we didn’t know what to expect. It was a long sail to where we were going so I grabbed my chance to have a sail of the boat! Felt pretty cool…

We arrived in a little cove and headed up a forest path where we were greeted by famous Ngaro Aboriginal Caves that dated back thousands of years! Here we saw engravings and drawings on the side of the cave walls which were actually drew by these people thousands of years back! A little bit of history and culture to mix things up.

That night we anchored near Hamilton Island which is home to a high class resort in the Whitsundays where it will set you back around 500gbp per night! We saw a fair few guests being flown in and out by seaplane…We watched the sunset over the ocean and enjoyed a cold beer, there could of been no other place we wanted to be…

After another amazing dinner we were sat around chatting and Dylan our captain said he heard a blowhole noice off the side of the boat. To our amazement/surprise we were given our own private show by a lone Dolphin. It showed off its moves and swam next to and under the boat, coming up for air for about 20 minutes. This was an amazing sight as we rarely get to see them in their natural habitat and for so long! Sarah was overjoyed as Dolphins are her favourite animal!

The following morning was home time, we paddle boarded and snorkled in the area where we had anchored and then it was clear up time for home. The sail home was about 3 hours and we spent this time soaking up the sun and enjoying the amazing views of the Whitsunday Island National Park. The weather throughout the whole trip had been amazing we couldn’t of asked for better. The trip took us away from real life and showed us the natural beauty of what Australia has to offer. This is a must do for anyone who comes here, we could not recommend this enough!

We said our goodbyes at the Marina and headed back to our accomodation, we spent the rest of the time in Airlie Beach chilling out and enjoying the cafes/marinas/bars. It was fair to say we had sailing blues the days after. The evening of the cruise finishing we went to dinner with Dave and Steph who are great people that we met on the cruise, it made a change eating with other people in a restaurant and it was great company! On leaving Airlie Beach we rented a car and carried on heading south after Sarah had a few practise lessons in a local carpark as she’d not driven automatic before. Next stop was Mackay to meet up with my cousin Danny. We had timed our Whitsundays perfectly as it rained like we’d had never seen the following days after our trip!

East Coast Aussie Adventure – Cairns to Magnetic Island

Okay, so first of all we must apologise for the extreme lack of blog posts over the past month since we arrived in Australia. It feels like we have been so busy as we have constantly been on the move from one place to the next. It has been so strange to get used to in comparison to Asia where we were moving from country to country, whereas here it is just on to the next destination which only takes a few hours.

We will try to keep this as brief as possible (although it most likely will not happen) to update on somw of the time we have spent here so far. Watch out for the next post to follow directly from this from the next part of the trip. We realise that even after these two posts we will still be many weeks behind, but we are trying to catch up we promise!!!

Before we had even reached our first destination in Oz, we encountered our first problem! After a 5 or so hour flight from Singapore through the night, we arrived at Darwin airport in the middle of the morning local time. We were already a bit dazed with tiredness and jetlag from not having slept in almost 24 hours, so we made our way through to Australian Immigration. All was going well until we stepped up to use the self service passport scanning machines and I (Sarah) had my glasses on (those who know me will know that I literally cannot see ANYTHING without them on), so I attempted to look in to the camera without them on waiting for the gates to open. However the gates were not opening, so I put my gegs back on, only to find an “Error identification not recogised” message across the screen. Graham had already made his way through by this point so I made my over to the counter and explained the situation and how it must have been that I wasn’t looking in the correct place without my glasses on. The lady behind the counter was not the most friendly character in the world and clearly had not woken up on the right side of the bed that morning. She scanned my passport then looked me up and down and told me that I was not allowed through as my eye colour is brown on my passport and my real eyes were blue. As you can imagine I had no idea what to say, so immediately panicked and assured her I had blue eyes which was clearly obvious!!! Anyway I got ushered in to a private office for further investigation and interrogation as to why I was here and how long I was here for and why my eyes were brown on my passport, which I had no answer to whatsoever! After about 10 mins or so of them looking in to my other forms of I.D another lady reappeared and said that it seemed a bit strange but after running tests I had passed (of course I passed I am not a criminal)!!!! I went to follow Graham and that was our first encounter of Australia, from this point onwards we had no idea what to expect! After sleeping for a few hours on the airport floor as we were not allowed through boarding so early, we finally made it on to our next flight to our first destination – Cairns.

Cairns:

We were staying in a backpacker hostel in Cairns, which wasn’t great but in comparison to some of the places we stayed in Asia it was a million times better (even without a window)! We were suprised to find that wifi was only available in the common area, whereas all of the hotels/ hostels/ guesthouses in Asia all had wifi available for free throughout, despite it being much more under developed than Oz. Cairns was a nice place to start our journey and it took a while for us to get used to the quietness and lack of people around after we had spent so much time on congested streets with motorcycles driving along the pathways in previous countries. Cairns is a fairly small city with a large outdoor swimming lagoon next to the beach and barbeques lined up along the esplanade (promenade) where campers/ locals/ tourists reguarly cook their tea and sit on picnic benches – this is a common theme throughout each town in Australia.
We treated ourselves the first two nights to a meal deal voucher from our hostel for a meal and beer in an irish bar, P.J.O’Briens, for $7 (just realised there is no pound sign on this keyboard, but that is 3.50). After about two or three nights I couldn’t take much more of the rubbish food so we had a change of scenery, although Graham would have been happy to eat that food for the rest of the two months!

We spent one of the days here getting the public bus and heading out to a place called “Palm cove”, a little beach side resort which was supposed to have a nice beach and cafes/ bars/ restaurants etc. After sitting on the bus for a good 50 mins we finally got there to find NO people around and brown water in the sea and not a soul on the beach. We soon found out that this was due to the fact we had come in the wrong season for swimming due to crocodiles and stingers in the water so no swimming was allowed. We soon started to wonder if the whole way down was going to be the same, and not the blue sea/ surfing/ white beaches which we had envisioned! We asked a local why it was like a ghost town and he told us that it was low season and the weather is too hot for locals and later in the year the crocodiles/ stingers disappear so the beaches become swimmable again. Uh Oh!

The next day we went on an organised day trip to The Daintree Rainforest. The trip was really good and helped us to see more of what Australia is really like and the vast amount of wildlife there is here. We stopped off first at the Daintree River and did a river cruise up the river to hunt for crocodiles. We luckily managed to see one croc lying on a log just on top of the water, and learned about how dangerous these animals are and how easy it is for people to be killed by them without realising they are there. This made us think twice about the previous day how we were sunbathing on Palm Cove beach without a care in the world, when a few weeks previous the whole beach had been closed due to a croc sighting on the sand. After the boat trip we headed on to a great lookout point before going on a walk through the Daintree Rainforest. Our guide spent a good 10 mins telling us about all the plants/ creatures to watch out for which didn’t fill us with much confidence but when walking around it was crazy to see how extreme the wildlife/ vegetation is here with stuff we have never seen or heard of before. It is certainly not a place you would like to be at night with some of the sounds we heard! Following the walk we headed on to Cape Tribulation Beach which is the point where the Great Barrier Reef meets the Rainforest and had lunch. We finished our day by heading to an indigenous camp where local tribesman gave us an overview in to survival in the desert, before heading for a swim in the freezing cold Mossman Gorge. A great day!

The rest of the time in Cairns was spent chilling out and exploring the town. A cyclone was due to arrive on the day we were planning to head down the coast, which the locals seemed to be very worried about and preperations were made to try and prevent damange to buildings from the wind/ flooding. We changed our plan and decided to stay in Cairns the day the cyclone hit as we were told no buses would be running that day and all trips had been cancelled. We had a huuuge downpour of rain the night before and black skies, however after much anticipation on the day it was due to hit, we didn’t even get a speck of rain! The sun was shining and the whole cyclone had passed over to the North with no damage caused (slightly disappointing as we were intrigued as to what it would have been like to be in the middle of a cyclone). After 5 days in Cairns we were on to our next stop…

Black skies the night before the cyclone.

Black skies swimming in the lagoon the night before the cyclone.

Mission Beach:

We were recommended by many people to head down to Mission Beach as it is known to be a backpacker resort with nice beaches. After getting off the Greyhound (bus service used in Australia to get down the whole of the East Coast) we realised we were in the middle of nowhere. We walked for about 1.5 miles with all of our bags in the blazing sun to arrive at our self contained apartment. We dumped our bags and headed out to explore the town. However we only got about 5 minutes down the road before we realised there is actually no town. And no people. Anywhere. The front stretch had about 3 restaurants/ cafes of which only one was open and that was all that Mission Beach had to offer (there were 1 or 2 hostels/ cafes at the other end of the beach but all seemed to be closed/ quiet as well). Granted it was a nice residential area and the beach was nice (however again no swimming due to crocs and stingers) but we came to the realisation we had landed in ghost town. This is where we started to panic that the whole of the East Coast was going to be the same and we were going to see no life anywhere…

We now know that the only reason to go to Mission Beach is to do a skydive (like crazy laura Swain who did one here – you must be mad) and we spent some time watching those mad people come down from the sky.

We only had one night here so we headed to the supermarket and got some food to cook for tea, this was the first time on our travels we have had our own kitchen so we were pretty excited to cook and sit on a sofa and watch friends all day! The accomodation was really nice with a nice pool and hot tub to use so we spent the time here relaxing and enjoying the sun before heading on again the next day…

Townsville:

Our next stop was a place called Townsville which was like a smaller version of Cairns. Most of the towns along the East Coast have an identical set up with a long Esplanade running down the coast with grassed areas and barbeques, and a “lagoon” swimming pool to swim in free of stingers etc. This esplanade was nicer than Cairns in our opinion with a huge rock pool at the end for swimming, however this fed in straight from the sea so not completely stinger free here either! After reading some of the signs about jellyfish you will realise why we chose not to swim in these areas as the box jellyfish is capable of killing a human in two minutes if you are stung, with the body going in to cardiac arrest and shutting down immediately. We didn’t fancy this to be honest, so waited until further down the coast when we were assured it was OK to swim without risk! We had two days to spend in this town so on the first we took the public bus out to a place called “riverway” where there is a really nice stretch of river to walk round sorrounded by really nice houses, here we had a picnic and fed the turtles! There are also two huge swimming pools overlooking the river so we finished the day with a swim here.

The next day we headed to Bilabong Sanctuary which is a huge wildlife centre with all the local animals you can think of. Every half an hour they had a show on for visitors where the staff gave talks on each animal and fed them which was really good. It was so surreal as there was hundreds of kangaroos hopping around freely on the paths so it took a while to get used to them coming over to check us out! We saw casawary’s/ kangaroo’s/ wallabies/ birds of prey/ dingoes/ snakes/ wombats and pretty much every other native Australian animal you can think of. We got our pic taken with a Koala bear called Tinkerbell (soooo cute) and watched the crocodiles being fed which was crazy as they were massive.

Unfortunately Graham was not feeling good at all this day so missed out on half of the shows, so I got to see a lot more than him. He perked up just in time for crocodile feeding though so it wasn’t a complete waste of money! We had another self contained apartment here (found that this is the cheapest way to keep to a budget) and treated ourselves to baked beans and mash for tea!

Budget tea!

Magnetic Island:

From Townsville we got the ferry over to Magnetic Island which is the place where Captain Cook’s compass went crazy on his exploration of Australia, hence the name Magnetic Island. This was a really nice island with a number of different beaches and small resorts. We were staying in a BandB, however this actually turned out to just be a bedroom in an old couple’s house where the bedroom was partitioned off from the living room with a wooden plank. We had to sneak past them watching Antique’s Roadshow and eating casserole to get to the bathroom. The owner picked us up from the ferry stop and showed us some of the local wildlife with an area near her home which was full of hundreds of butterflies flying around and koalas living up in the trees.

Luckily for us the lady’s husband was a bus driver of the only bus company on the island and we managed to time him coming home for his lunch break with us heading off out to get the bus. Fortunately he offered to give us a hop on hop off day bus pass for free and we jumped on outside his house – door to door service! We explored some of the beaches that day and sunbathed, before heading over to a walkway in the rocks on the coastline to feed the rock wallabies at sunset. Wallabies are the strangest creature, like a tiny version of a kangaroo and they came right up and ate the food out of our hands. A lot of other young tourists had the same idea but it was a really nice experience with great views.

Horseshoe Bay Magnetic Island (note the stinger net area for swimming)

Picnic Bay Magnetic Island

That night we took the pushbikes from the BandB and cycled on the darkest road ever to the beach for tea. Again most places were shut apart from two restaurants, so we found a nice italian and had our tea (you have to be seated for tea mega early in these places as they stop taking orders at about half 7), and cycled back. It was so scary as there were no lights on the road and no people in sight, yet the strangest sounds were coming from the side of the road. We passed a few unfortunate dead wallabies on the road as they have a tendency to run out in front of cars and passed a few kangaroos on the grass outside the BandB. They are actually a lot scarier than you think in the dark! The next morning we had the biggest breakfast ever at the couple’s house sat outside in their garden before heading back to the ferry stop for our crossing. A nice trip 🙂

The Asia Finale: KL and Singapore

Continuing our adventure in Malaysia we were on to our next stop which was Kuala Lumpur. We had been looking forward to this since the beginning of our trip as we were staying with family friends, Libby and Steve, and by this point we were ready to see some familiar friendly faces! We took a flight from Langkawi early morning and landed in KL early afternoon. When we reached KL we were greeted by Libby and headed up to their apartment to settle in. The apartment was luxury and we were relieved to be staying somewhere so nice compared to some of the places we had encountered previously! It is suprising how much you miss little things from home when travelling, it was so good to have sandwiches and crisps on arrival instead of heading out walking round in circles on the hunt for food. After catching up on our travels Libby took us for a wander round the centre of KL around their apartment and we knew immediately it was somewhere we were going to enjoy. In the space of twenty minutes we had passed through three huge shopping centres all interlinked underground with every single shop you could ever think of (it was so good just to see a Topshop and Marks and Spencers)! We wandered through the central park on the way back to the apartment which is like the hub of KL where it all happens and had a really good vibe about it. The apartment is located directly opposite Petronas Towers so we didn’t need to go far to see the main attraction.

That night we headed out to tea with Libby and Steve and had some of the best food on our travels (Graham claims this is his best pie to date) and saw a bit of KL after dark. The restaurants here range from everything you can imagine and they have some really nice upmarket places with amazing food!! We also got to see the famous Petronas Towers lit up at night which was amazing, the lights are so bright and the towers take over the skyline and can be seen for miles around.

The following day myself and Graham headed out to see some more sights on the hop on hop off bus. the full loop takes roughly 2.5 hours and although the city centre is fairly compact in comparison to others, there is a huge greenbelt surrounding the city so it was nice to see further afield. We hopped off at Chinatown and were amazed by the amount of stuff on offer. We have been to A LOT of Chinatowns on our trip but this one had to be the best by far with really good quality cast offs from bags to purses to shoes to sunglasses etc. I saw so much stuff I wanted to buy but unfortunately we still had two months in Oz to pay for so I had to make do with just looking 😦 Graham did manage to wangle another knock off football kit though (second of the trip) for a classy price of £3.

That night we all went to the Petronas Philharmonic Concert Hall to watch an organ recital. As strange as this sounds it was really nice to do something a little different and reminded us both of home, we forgot that we were even in KL at some points. They even played Graham’s mams favourite song as the opening piece which was funny as Graham says he cannot get away from it anywhere! After this we ate at an amazing italian restaurant called Tatto’s with desserts that were to die for! Again this was one of the best meals on the trip and the chocolate mocha genache dessert definitely helped!

Our final day in KL was spent by taking the guided tour up Petronas Towers to walk along the bridge which adjoins Tower 1 and Tower 2 on the 41st floor, and the Observation Deck on floor 82 (or around that number). The view was amazing of the city and you really get to see how green the place is compared to other cities.

The final night Libby and Steve took us to a part of town famous for streetfood called Jalan Alor. The atmosphere was buzzing on the street with hundreds of locals and tourists eating outside on the tables of endless restaurants lining road. We headed to a favourite of Libby and Steve’s and had a feast of food and had a great time.

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Myself and Graham then headed to a few bars located just around the corner to end our time in KL (unfortunately). The nightlife is really good in the city and this area of town (ChangKat Bukit Bintang) felt like being on holiday in Europe somewhere.

We had a fab time in KL and cannot wait to come back to visit again. Libby and Steve were great hosts and we cannot thank them enough for their hospitality and showing us the best parts of the city…although it was not going to be easy to go from the luxury apartment and friendly faces back to unappealing hostels again.

If you haven’t yet been to KL we definitely recommend it!!!

The next morning we headed to the bus stop and said our goodbyes after a fantastic few days in KL! The bus down to Singapore took 5 hours and it was bliss compared to all of the other bus journey’s we had endured! Reclining leather seats, blankets, personal tv screen and free lunch made the hours fly by. We arrived at the harbour front in Singapore which is overlooked by the city cable car. We headed to our hostel which was on the main street in Downtown Chinatown. Just outside our doorway there was market after market of the usual goods and souvenirs we’ve seen along the way in Asia. (Fake sunglasses, bags, perfume, watches etc). This happened to come in handy at the end of our time here though as we needed a cheap carry on case for our flight to Oz!

That evening we headed to one of the local food courts in Chinatown, there was stall after stall of steamed dumplings, chicken rice, beef noodle soup…the lot! This is probably the cheapest way to eat in Singapore as the main restaurants are pretty pricey, so most of our meals came from here during our time in the city. After our tea we headed to where all of the action is in town, Clarke Quay. There are three Quay’s lining Singapore River which are all pretty lively with plenty of bars, restaurants and clubs. We walked over the river watching hoards of locals/students drinking and socialising on the banks and bridges. The nightlife looked amazing and there was certainly enough going on as all the bars were heaving!

We managed to find a restaurant that thankfully had a happy hour on, and sat overlooking the river with a cold pint. At £4 a pint we thought the price was not to dissimilar to London prices but it would have been double had it not been happy hour 😂.

The next day we purchased another hop on hop off bus ticket as we have found it has to be one of the quickest ways to see everything in the city if you are pushed for time. There were three routes that the bus took around the most famous landmarks of Singapore. We stayed on for the most part of the afternoon and saw all of the sights. The main attractions in the city were the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the Singapore Flyer, Little India, Orchard Road and the infamous Raffles Hotel. Singapore also has a really efficient underground system which is very clean and reasonably priced so we used this a lot to get around throughout our stay.

On the subject of Raffles Hotel, that night we put on our best clothes (not that we really have any with us) and headed to the Long Bar which is famous for the Singapore Sling. We were given two great seats in the centre of the bar to enjoy our Singapore Slings. Big shout out to Janet and Martin who treated us to these! Thanks guys! We savoured them for a while as they weren’t cheap and watched as locals and tourists enjoyed the atmosphere.

The bar is hard to describe as it seems to hold the feel of several countries. The actual bar itself looked like a typical Irish Bar, the black and white tiled floor was covered in empty peanut shells and the wooden surrounds had a distinct Japanese/Chinese architecture. After finishing our drinks we took a peek upstairs where there was live music reserved for loyal patrons, looked like the place to be! On leaving the bar we walked through the grounds of the hotel passed it’s shopping arcades, gardens, outdoor restaurant and suites. ‘Maybe one day’ we thought…

For our last day in Singapore we headed over to the Botanical Gardens on the underground and took along a picnic that we got from the supermarket. Doing the shopping brought back memories of home, although the prices are a little different over here! We sat in the gardens and enjoyed the sun before the gloomy grey clouds appeared, these Botanical Gardens were huge. To walk from one side to the next it was around 1.8km! Later in the afternoon we walked through the gardens’ rainforest trail and listened to an ‘A Capella’ band who were performing in the park for around 1000 people.

That evening we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Australia.

To sum up South-East Asia it was everything we imagined and more. The two months we have been here have gone by so so quick, yet within these months we’ve seen more than we have in a lifetime. Engaging in different cultures, seeing the way other people live and enjoying the many sights SE Asia has to offer was fantastic. Our best country undoubtably was Vietnam, the people the places and the food were all amazing. The best places we have visited in SE Asia which are a must visit for anyone are:

• Bangkok (Thailand)
• Chiang Mai (Thailand)
• Koh Lanta (Thailand)

• Luang Prabang (Laos)

• Hanoi (Vietnam)
• Halong Bay (Vietnam)
• Hoi An (Vietnam)
• Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

• Siem Reap (Cambodia)

• Langkawi (Malaysia)
• Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
• Singapore

Livin’ La Vida Langkawi

The next morning we got on the apparent speed boat to Langkawi, it was actually a big ferry! On planning this trip Langkawi was not on our original itinerary but after hearing great things we gave it a go. This was one of the best decisions we have made so far.

We got off the ferry and jumped into a cab to our motel in Cenang Beach. On driving to the motel we could already feel/see the differences from Thailand as we were now in Malaysia. We dropped our bags and headed out, we found a lovely chic french cafe to have a nice ice coffee and brownie, and then hit the beach early evening to see a host of activities going on. We walked down the beach with several parasailers above our heads, Sarah was far too keen to get up in the air and do one of these! We stayed on the beach until dark and there were still hoards of crazy tourists out on banana boats and jet skis. Sarah found us the best restaurant in Cenang beach that evening and the food was amazing, we also treated ourselves to our first bottle of red wine on the whole trip! We both had Laksa which is a famous Malay dish which tasted great, it was like a curried soup with noodles, eggs, chicken and king prawns.

The next day we headed to the bike shop to get a moped and drove to the famous Langkawi Sky Bridge and Sky Cab on the north west of the Island. Driving conditions were perfect and it seemed everyone abided a lot more to the rules of the road than in previous countries. On route to the cable car we stopped at Telanga Harbour for lunch, the waitress was surprised that we wanted to sit outside but at first we didn’t think the heat was that bad. Towards the end of lunch we had melted along with our ice cream deserts! Still this was compensated by a great view over the harbour which was host to several luxury yachts!

The cable car station is within a little man made village called Oriental Village which had several coffee and clothes shops. We grabbed two tickets for the cable car and went inside the station, we were first treated to an experience in a 360• panoramic 3D cinema. This had nothing to do with the cable car and was like being in a simulator at a fairground, albeit it was included in our ticket. As none of you probably know I, (Graham) am not the best with heights when it comes to being suspended from something, ski lifts when skiing are probably the tops of my limits. Sarah had forgot to mention that this was the steepest cable car IN THE WORLD! We got on and the views were great until I shut my eyes half way through and waited until we got to the midway point! Here the views were spectacular and we could pretty much see the whole of the island, we looked over the harbour where we had just eaten and could see other islands of Langkawi. A couple of go pro selfies and pictures later we hopped back on the Sky Cab and headed to the summit.

Here was the start of a temporary jungle trail which led us to the Sky Bridge. (They are currently building a roller coaster type shuttle to take people to the bridge). Before we were allowed on the jungle trail and sky bridge we had to sign a written disclaimer taking full responsibly for our lives! The trail to the Sky Bridge was tough and we were shattered by the time we got there. It was well worth the walk though, we stood and admired the Sky Bridge which is only held up by one pylon before walking onto it. Again I was very apprehensive while walking over the bridge and at the start I wanted to get across it as quickly as possible, so I left the camera with Sarah and told her if meet her at the other end so I could just walk across quickly. This plan was severely jeopardised when I got to the other end of the bridge and found it was blocked off for maintenance, so the only way out was the way I came! After the nerves had gone we both stood on it for a while and enjoyed the panoramic views that it offered, we even stood on the glass panels they installed to walk over enabling you to see the shear height of the drop!

After the jungle trail back to the summit we got the Sky Cab down and enjoyed a well deserved, ice cold drink at the bottom!

On the way back we stopped at one of the night markets, these open pretty early so it was still light and was full of various local foods and produce.

The next day we made it out the hotel a little later and decided to try an English Tea Rooms that we’d seen on the main street. Let’s just say it was nothing like the afternoon tea back home! We hit the main Cenang Beach and sunbathed all day taking in the beautiful scenery that Langkawi had to offer.

We finished the day with a meal at a local Mexican which was amazing! I had a burrito and Sarah had enchiladas, we were full up!

The next day we departed for Kuala Lumpur and we were driven to the airport by one of the most friendliest taxi drivers ever! As you will pick up through this post the people in Malaysia are lovely and everywhere we went they couldn’t do enough for us and they all wanted to know our story!

Back to Baht

We tend to update the blog when we have spare time, as you can imagine from the lack of posts over the past month we have been rather busy!

Picking up from the last post we were up to, we caught the bus at 9 o’clock back to Bangkok from Siem Reap to head down to the islands. Our previous luck with buses hadn’t been the best and this very much continued with this journey. We waited outside the tour office for the bus to arrive and by now we expected it not to be on time, having waited 45 minutes a few people were getting agitated. With an hour gone by there was no sign of the bus and the company owner turned up in his 4×4 and explained to us that the bus had broken down somewhere and wasn’t going to come for us! So instead we got into his 4×4 and he drove us to the border. On arrival at the Cambodian/Thai border it was chaos. Firstly we had to queue to get our exit stamps for about half an hour, then to get back into Thailand it took us 3 hours of standing in a queue waiting to get through immigration! This was a grave test of nerves as everyone was at their whits end! People were arguing and shouting about people pushing in etc. it was manic. Not the best of days!

Immigration into Thailand

Having got our entry stamp we were then greeted by a torrential downpour which we were unprepared for. We then got dropped off at a local bus station and left to our own devices. We arrived in Bangkok 6 hours later after probably our worst day of travelling yet.

Putting that behind us we were ready for some sun, sea and sand! We headed down to the Gulf of Tonkin to enjoy a few days on each island. The first island we went to was Ko Samui, the island was very different from the mainland.

On arrival from the ferry we struggled to get a taxi to the hotel and nearly had to resort to hitch hiking! That evening we settled down and went to the beach to have a look around, as you can imagine our first impressions were similar to a tropical island paradise! Everything seemed to be in short supply on the island as it was peak season and it was hard to find a place that had any bikes left for rent! We drove out to Bophut where there is a little fishing village and narrow walking street, after this we headed to Chaweng beach which is the main beach at Ko Samui. On the islands there’s not much to do apart from sunbathe, swim, eat, drink and enjoy the scenery. It was a change to the jam packed sightseeing days that we had been used to. Out of the three islands Ko Samui was the biggest. After three days on here we headed to the next one along which was Koh Phangan, this is infamous for the full moon parties although when we were there we had just missed one.

Our accommodation here is described on there website as the first Eco resort on ko phangan, I think this just sugar coated the fact they were make shift huts on the beach front with ample cracks and spaces for all the wildlife to get in! The view from were we stayed was great and when the sun set the sky looked amazing, that was probably the best bit about the accommodation. We found it harder to find nice beaches here as many of them were littered but through driving to the opposite end of the island we found some secluded beaches which were great to relax on.

The final island was Koh Tao, this is the smallest of the three islands and had two main beach areas, we stayed in the south which had good local restaurants and was an easy walk to the beach. Having read many articles that speculate that koh Tao is run by mafia and bad things can happen to backpackers, we were unsure of what to expect, but this had to be our favourite Island out of the three on the Gulf. This was a quaint little island with enough going on, the beaches were quiet and clean with white sand and clear blue waters, perfect for diving and snorkelling.

One of the days we went out on a snorkelling boat which circled the island and dropped us at the best spots. At the first drop we saw a few black reefed sharks! Only little ones but still we were swimming amongst sharks!

The other drops we saw many tropical fish and coral reefs, the weather was perfect and it was nice to be out on the open water with a cool breeze blowing through your hair! The food on the island was great and we had a large choice from traditional thai to gourmet burger joints! We were sad to leave Koh Tao but hopefully will return one day to enjoy it’s pleasantries once more! We then headed to the Andaman coast with out first stop being Koh Lanta.

After completing all three islands on the Gulf it was time for us to head overland to the west coast to investigate the Andaman islands. After a three hour ferry back to the mainland followed by a two hour bus journey we arrived in Krabi which is the gateway to the surrounding islands. Due to lack of research we chose Koh Lanta as our first island stop not realising it was actually one of the furthest away, so after a few more trips on minivans, ferries and a lot of waiting around aimlessly we arrived!!

We were not sure what to expect from Koh Lanta as we decided to ‘go with the flow’ on the Andaman islands so had no idea what to expect when we arrived. Immediately we noticed the vibe was totally different to that of the previous islands and everything seemed a lot more relaxed and chilled out. We were staying on khlong Dao beach which was one of the main ones on the island and my first thought was that it resembled our coastline at home. The views were amazing and the beach was much wider than the other islands as the tide was often very far out so the sand was much easier to walk on for a change. The beach was lined with really nice restaurants and beach bars but the clientele was mainly families and couples as opposed to backpackers and large groups like Koh Phangan/ Koh Tao.

We initally planned to spend two nights at Koh Lanta before heading on to the next island but we fell in love with the place and ended up staying for six days, which is the longest we have spent anywhere so far. The hotel and hostel we stayed in there were both very nice and reasonably priced and all of the people on the island were very welcoming and kind.

We spent the time mainly on the beach however one day we rented (yet another) moped and explored the island. We headed over to the opposite side of the island to the old village, which consisted of a row of wooden shophouses on stilts and an old rickety pier. The town was dead but it was a welcomed change and nice to see a place where tourism hasn’t completely taken over.

The island is large with not much development barring a few tourist resorts so it was nice to drive around and take it all in. We spent most nights at the next beach along (Phea Ae Beach) watching the sunset around 6pm with many others as it was the best sunset we have ever seen.

The island is not as catered for nightlife but there is still some areas for backpackers with beach parties which we visited, but it was a lot more relaxed and friendly. Koh Lanta has been our favourite Thai island and one of our favourite overall places so far, and if we go back again we will make sure to stay at one o

f the many top class luxury resorts…which unfortunately we could only admire from a distance this time (and probably next time as well but we can dream)!!

Our next and final stop for the Thai Islands was Koh Lipe, the furthest South of the islands on the Andaman. We had been recommended this place a number of times throughout our trip by people we have met along the way for its laid back vibe and paradise like beaches. After taking a very long and bumpy 3 hour speedboat ride we arrived to see that the recommendations were not wrong. The beaches were pristine white sand and clear blue water. The island is the smallest we have visited but with a lot going on! There is one main ‘walking street’ which cuts through the centre of the island connecting the two main beaches. We were conveniently staying just off the strip so location was great for restaurants/ bars/ nightlife. Unfortunately the accomodation for our first two nights was grim, so we opted to stay out as much as possible until we found somewhere slightly better for the final night! We really enjoyed Koh Lipe, especially for the buzz of the main street and the way everyone headed to the beach for drinks and pancakes on a night on the sand. The beaches were very tranquil and the water was like being in a warm bath with no waves at all, making it good to see the fish etc. We were however suprised by the amount of longtail boats lining the shore of all of the beaches for the endless day trips, although they were authentic they also seemed to ruin the paradise like feel of the beaches a little.

We spent our final night on the island feeling a little more like home at one of the main bars “cinema nights”. The bar fills with people who grab a spot on the cushions on the floor to enjoy a film on the tv screen. We really enjoyed it after having watched no films so far when we love going to the cinema at home, and even more so the beer and popcorn offer that went alongside it!

A great way to spend the last night before heading off to Malaysia the next day…..(watch this space for a Malaysia/ Singapore blog post ASAP)

Central to the City, overland to Cambodia

Ok, so we were running a few days behind with our blog on the previous post so there is a lot of catching up to do on this one im afraid! We have done a fair bit of travelling since our last blog post which left off leaving Hue.

Our first stop from there was Hoi An, which is one of/ if not the best place we have visited so far. We took the sleeper bus from Hue even though it was the middle of the day and after around 4 hours we reached the next stop. Hoi An is a small town on the coast of Vietnam and from the first night there we could tell that we were going to love it. We headed straight out when we arrived to explore the area and decided it was time to treat ourselves to something a little different for tea, so headed to a jam packed indian restaurant, which was so popular that all of the tables were joint together so getting to the other side of the table meant walking outside round the building just to get to your seat! The food was delicious and made us feel a little like we were back at home. After tea we wandered around the pedestrianised streets of the quaint and attractive centre, which were lined with multicoloured chinese lanterns lighting up the way. The town is very pictureque and the narrow walkways are lined with wooden shophouses selling upmarket clothes and shoes as well as everything you could imagine. If I had it my way I would have spent the whole time we were there browsing the boutiques but luckily Graham was there to stop me (even though i tried)! I did manage to replace my ruined sewage sandals which were left in the bin previously so that was a bonus! That same night we sat in a cool bar in town full of locals and tourists watching an extremeley talented french singing duo whose voices were amazing.

The next day we paid for a pass to visit a range of attractions in the “old quater” where for £4 you can choose from a choice of 22 points of interest to explore. We looked around a range of things including the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation, chapels, traditional houses dating back several centuries and finally concluded by watching a cultural vietnamese singing and dancing performance in an old rustic handcraft workshop. It was all going well until they played their traditional bingo game where they sing a song and hold up cards to the audience to see who has the lucky figure. You probably wont be suprised to hear that out of the approximate 100 people watching I had the lucky card and had to get up on the stage. I was gifted with a lovely orange chinese lantern embroided with “bingo game” but unfortunately due to limited space issues the lucky lantern had to be abandoned en route 😦

At sunset we explored a little further afield on a rented mophead and drove along the beach front to take in the views. On the way back we pulled up to take a picture of some water buffalos in the rice fields and next thing we know the farmer man had got us holding the buffalos horns for the camera and posing (these things are huge)!

The final day in this amazing place was spent relaxing on the local beach which was very much needed as this is the first time we have been able to chill since arriving 5 weeks ago. We cycled through the scenic paddy fields and parked our bikes up at a local homestay in order to use their sunbeds for the day. The sea was very choppy with a strong back current making it virtually impossible to swim but it was nice to just sit and read a book all day in the sun! We really enjoyed our time in Hoi An and were sad to leave this place but it is definitely somewhere we would like to return to one day.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh at around sunset. After flying in over the city it was easy to see how densely packed it was with buildings and people. We took a cab and headed to our nights stay, how anyone manages to drive around in this city is beyond me. Every spare metre is taken up and the cars drive centimetres apart from each other. Half of the worlds motorbikes surely must be here! After surviving the cab ride and freshening up we headed out into the night to see what the city had to offer. We walked past the Peoples Committee Hall and the Opera House all surrounded by cosmopolitan hype. This city had a vibrant, fresh, business like feel which was far from what we expected. We wandered around looking for a place to eat and we found somewhere called 3TVietnamese BBQ. This was another D.I.Y dinner where you chose your meat and cooked it on a hot BBQ stove in the middle of the table. On the menu there was a vast array of traditional Vietnamese food from Frogs, Eels, Wild Boar, Goat and Snake. During our dinner we were handed red envelopes with money in which is a tradition for the Vietnamese New Year, Tet, 19th Feb. We thought that the money inside the envelopes was fake, although the next day we were proved wrong! Bonus!

The next day we designated the job of tour guides to ourselves and looked round as many of the top Ho Chi Minh city sights as we had time for. We started with Notre Dame Cathedral which was built around 1877 and had striking characteristics/similarities of European architecture. The walls of the Cathedral were lined with Asian tourists striking all sorts of crazy poses. ✌️

Next to the cathedral was the Central Post Office which was built by Gustave Eiffel, the same bloke that the Eiffel Tower is named after. It would have been hard to miss as it was painted bright yellow which is traditional of important buildings in Vietnam. When inside it felt like we had walked into the 1930’s, with it’s tiled floor and wooden phone booths.

After this we headed to Reunification Palace. The palace is most famous for it’s deep association with the fall of Saigon in 1975, as this was where the first communist tanks that arrived in Saigon crashed trough the wrought-iron gates to the palace. We walked round the palace in ore of it’s never ending rooms, cinema, underground command centre and it’s helipad.

Following this we headed to the War Remnants Museum. After visiting a war museum previously in Hanoi we thought there couldn’t be much more that we could read about, oh how we were wrong.

We walked round the ground floor and didn’t think much of it at first and were wondering is this all there is to it as we were doing a lot of re reading. We headed to the second floor and entered a room with an exhibition of war photos and extracts. What we read and saw in this room has to be some of the most disturbing text and images I can recall in my life. Photographs of war really do reiterate that we take life far too for granted at times. Reading story after story of families being torn apart, executed in front of each other and seeing images of civilians being murdered at the time of the infamous My Lai Massacre brought a feeling of disappointment with humanity at how such atrocities could be committed.

The exhibition on the third floor was equally as harrowing with the stark realities of the aftermath of war. Around the room again were large photos and extracts, this time not from the war itself but of the ongoing effects from the chemicals used during the war. We weaves our way around tearful eyed tourists reading the shocking first hand stories of the civilians who have been affected by Agent Orange (a dioxin chemical sprayed by US forces during the Vietnam war to eradicate vegetation). Picture after picture of babies born prematurely with mutations, children growing up with no legs/deformed arms and adults who have had children taken from them due to severe illness. This demonstrates that for some when the war on the ground is over they get to pack up and go home, for others it’s decades of enduring family illness and worry.

Our last stop of the day was at least a happy one! We drove out to a little Pagoda in the middle of a busy city district. Here we were greeted outside by a pond of turtles which are considered sacred animals in Vietnam.

We spent our final evening sat on the main high street trying some of the best coffee in the world! The following day we had to be up for our 7 hour bus ride into Phnom Penh, Capital of Cambodia.

Entering Cambodia we could see the change in equality/infrastructure immediately. Firstly the roads were back to the same condition as Laos and there was litter everywhere, and we mean everywhere (not a green, blue or black bin insight…). Just past the border there was casino after casino as these are frequented by day visits from Vietnamese gamblers as there are laws restricting gambling in Vietnam. We were also amazed to see a large group of people (approx 1000 people) having finished work and heading into town, how they were getting there was astonishing, although there would be no need for air conditioning!

In Phnom Penh we took the time to see some of the sites and relax. On the river front stood the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which we looked round, all these palaces after a while blend in and you can’t remember which is which!

We had a walk round the central market which was a little different to a market at home…

The next day we visited the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek, this was one of the sites where thousands of people were murdered under the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the mass graves have been left untouched and it is not uncommon to see human bone or clothing coming up through the soil. The final part of the tour was a memorial building holding over 8000 skulls of the people discovered here.

We left Phnom penh early morning by coach and travelled 8 hours all on one main road through the baron countryside towards Siem Reap. The road was horrendous with only one small strip tarmac for the use of both sides of the road, and the driver we had was craaaazy flying over speed bumps at about 80mph, so when we finally arrived it was a relief to say the least! We were pleasantly suprised by Siem Reap when we went out to explore the town that night, after having a few quiet nights in Phnom Penh we were ready for a bit more life and this place definitely has it. There are 3 night markets which make up the centre of the tourist area all located in a triangle combining together to make hundreds of stalls. We were also suprised to find that the main attraction in the town is the “pub street” which is a long street full of lively bars and restaurants catered for locals and tourists with a major party atmosphere, it felt a little like being on a strip on holiday.

The next day we hired a tuk tuk to take us around the whole of Angkor for the price of £10. Angkor is home to Angkor Wat – the biggest religous site in the world as well as many more temples and historical sites dating back from 9th cwlentury AD until 15th century. It was an early start but as soon as we arrived it was easy to see why this was the case. At the ticket booth hundreds of people were queing up for either 1,3 or 7 day passes for the sight. Pulling up to Angkor Wat itself was a bit like entering Centre parcs with designated roads and pathways leading around a lake to the main site. We spent 2 hours taking in the beauty and enormity of Angkor Wat which was a great experience. The temperature was so high that day and the sun was beaming down, not helped by the fact that there were swarms of tourists being pushed down the same small pathways.

Once finished the tuk tuk driver led us around a whole load more temples/ sites for us to wander round and admire. The views were amazing and we found some of the smaller/ less known temples to be equally as impressive as Angkor Wat.

Our last stop for the day was the site used in the film Tomb Raider 3 with Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. It was just like the Tomb Raider playstation game fo lr those who remember it! The site was beginning to fall apart with boulders lying everywhere so it currently undergoing construction work to convert it back to its original state. It seemed as though every man and his dog had decided to come and see the same site at the same time as us, so it got quite claustrophobic in the small dark corridoors which seemed to go on forever.

By this point we were ready to head back as the constant walking/climbing/heat had exhausted us! Our final night was spent spontaneously dancing away with some very unusual characters(one of which looked like a tuk tuk driver who had just finished his shift) in the local club celebrating chinese new year to music which was a little behind the times!

Apologies again as these posts seem to be getting longer each time and they are starting to turn more into essays but there is just so much that we want to share along the way 🙂 Our next port of call (literally) is the Southern Thai islands for 2 weeks of relaxation … we hope! Until next time ….

Good Morning Vietnam

We touched down in hanoi in darkness although it was inevitable to see that the weather here was nothing like what we had left behind. Getting off the plane in the misty drizzle and cold weather had a certain feel of being back home. After travelling for most of the day and being ready for our beds we were greeted by Mr. Winter who was one of the night staff at the hotel. He was the most enthusiastic man we have ever met, he proceeded to sit down with us when we arrived for over an hour and give us the low down on the whole of Vietnam (which was very much appreciated however we were desperate for our bed at this point)!

The next day we hit the streets and headed to the old quarter, the traffic here is nothing like we have ever seen. Crossroads with motorbikes crossing from all directions and no sense of any rules apart from give way to the bigger vehicle. Crossing the road took a lot of getting used to, it was a case of balls of steel. Keep at a steady pace crossing the whole road and hope that all the bikes/cars/trucks will slow or swerve round you.

The old quarter was originally named 36 streets in the 13th century but these days there are more than 50 little steers and allies packed into this small quarter. We wandered through street after street with vendors out on the pavement selling their goods. Most of the time we had to walk on the road as there are literally hundreds of motorbikes parked on the pavements. We walked for around 2 hours around the streets and this gave us an insight into the daily chaos of the capital city. It was interesting to see the change of culture again here as we explored the city, with the atmosphere and decor of the temples being completely different to that of Thailand and Laos. Here the temples are very cluttered and chaotic with biscuit boxes and empty toffee jars making an appearance in the shrines.

Later that day we visited the Vietnam Military History Museum and read about how Vietnam has fought through many a hardship to establish the Vietnam of today. Fighting off oppositions such as the French, Chinese and the USA.

The following day we experienced one of the strangest sights of our travels so far. We headed over to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex and were greeted by heavy security and bag checks. Then we were asked to proceed onto the forecourt and had to wait in front of a guard, neither of us had got a clue what was going on we thought we had just come to see a museum! With our puzzled faces we waited for a couple of minutes as we were joined by more tourists behind us in a line. Then we were marched into the Mausoleum, having to admit that we didn’t know what one of these was until we had experienced it. The procession of guards in their impeccable white uniforms guided us into the Mausoleum, we headed up some steps and were led into a darkened room with more guards all stood at attention. In the middle of the room was the pale body of Ho Chi Minh enclosed in a glass sarcophagus. Ho Chi Minh is seen as the liberator of the Vietnamese people and is deeply respected by the country, hence people coming from all corners of Vietnam to pay their respects. Sorry, no photos of this one guys, strictly prohibited! We carried on to the Ho Chi Minh Museum to learn a lot more of the history of Vietnam, learning along the way that the people are very proud of their achievements and heritage. We also walked around the stunning grounds of the presidential palace where Ho Chi Minh resided seeing some of his quarters and the different cars he was driven in.

In the evening we went to see a water puppet show which involves live traditional Vietnamese music accompanied by water puppet sketches depicting ancient tales. It was one of the strangest things we have experienced and very different to a night at the theatre back home! No hacklers shouting he’s behind you! After we ate at a sky bar restaurant overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake.

The next day we were up at 6:00am for our early morning bus pick up to Halong Bay! From initially booking our flights for this trip Halong Bay was one of the places we were both most looking forward to, from seeing pictures and films of the amazing scenery previously. En route we were anxious about whether we would actually get to see any of these views based on the non stop rain we had encountered over the past few days. However as we drew closer it slowly began to brighten up and the blue skies appeared much to our relief! The drive to Halong Bay harbour was not what we had expected with huge construction being carried out on the sea front to create luxury resorts, some of which seemed to have been left abandoned for some time and were a eyesore to the pictureque views around. However soon as we pulled further out of the harbour the development disappeared and it was clear blue water and limestone cliffs jutting out of the water. After jumping on to a small boat and being suited up with life jackets we arrived at our junk (the term used for the boats which sail around here), after seeing some less luxurious ones on the way we were not sure what to expect from ours. The outside of the junk was impressive and the inside even more so, with an a la carte dining area and roof top terrace. Our room was set on the second floor with large panoramic windows and an en suite with a shower that beat that of any we had experienced in the hotels so far. The staff on the trip were amazing and the food even more so, for every course we had around 7 different dishes brought out to our table to choose from. Halong Bay is made up of around 2000 Islands and we were soon slowly cruising through the scenic landscape.

That day we spent some time kayaking around the local floating market, there are 7 in total in Halong Bay and it was very interesting yet suprising to see how some families live on the smallest boats in the middle of the sea, with several generations piled in and no schooling for the children as well as no means of getting back to shore in an emergency. We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking dalat wine (the most disgusting wine ever possible) on the roof terrace at our “sunset party”, followed by a walk up to a viewing point on one of the limestone islands for the chance to take some amazing pictures. That night we had another feast for tea, most of which was fish which the staff on board the trunk purchase from the floating village market, including catfish and other local delicacies. After tea entertainment was in the form of squid fishing over the side of the boat, which was fun even though both of us failed to catch a single squid!

The next day was another early morning at 6pm as the boat headed back to shore. We were shown around the biggest cave in Halong Bay after sunrise and then made our spring rolls with the chef for lunch (which was yet another feast at 11:00am…the time we would probably eat breakfast at home)! On heading back to Hanoi we stopped at a pearl factory to conclude our trip. The rest of the day was spent travelling comprising of a 4 hour bus journey back to Hanoi, 1 hour taxi ride to the airport, 1 hour (delayed) flight to Danang and finally a 3 hour taxi journey to Hue, where we finally rested our head at 1:30am!

Hue is the old capital of Vietnam and we had two nights to spend here as it lies in the middle of the country. The first day was the least productive day since we arrived 1 month ago after getting lost on the map trying to find the Imperial City and walking aimlessly for 3 hours in the wrong direction, only to get a taxi back to where we originally started. And to make things worse it was raining yet again after we thought we had left the miserable weather behind in Hanoi! By the time we found the Imperial city it was 30 minutes to closing time and it is advised to spend half a day looking around the site, so as expected we sacked it off and headed to a temple out of town to try and make some use of the few remaining hours of sunlight we had left. The temple made up for it, as well as a backstreet family run cafe we discovered down an alley on the evening for tea!

The next day (Monday) we headed back to the Imperial City (by taxi this time of course) and spent the morning looking around the site. Once again it was raining but interesting to see this citadel-within-a-citadel which housed the emperors residence. Much of the site has been untouched apart from that damaged in the war, continuous renovation occurs to keep the main buildings standing.

The afternoon was spent on a 4 hour sleeper bus, the first one we have encountered since we arrived which was a nice change, and headed to Hoi An, which is were we are currently writing this blog. The weather is much better here thankfully and updates of the town will follow in the next post 🙂 ….

Down the Mekong into Laos

Well, what a week, and apologies to those who have been waiting in great anticipation for the next blog post, it was worth the wait.

Following the last post we were up around 5am to catch a minibus up to Chiang Khong where we would leave Thailand and cross the border into Laos. A couple of hours later we arrived at the border crossing, got our exit stamps and headed to the visa on arrival desk at the Laos immigration. It was clearly distinguishable by numerous westerners looking very confused with all sorts of different forms and money in their hands. No queuing systems here! We entered Laos and the morning mist had risen revealing another glorious, clear blue sky day.

We headed straight to the boat pier to begin our two day slow boat to Luang Prabang. We were greeted by an old diesel boat with recycled car seats as our resting place for the next two days. We set off for the first stint that would take us to the halfway point to a village called Pakbeng, this took us about six hours and the scenery was the best there is to see. The coolest place to sit was at the front of the boat, outside sipping on an ice cold Beer Lao while watching the banks of the Mekong pass us by.

We arrived at our overnight stop at Pakbeng, before we could even get off the boat we were badgered by touts for guesthouses. With some chaos me and Sarah climbed onto the bed of a pickup along with 10 other people and all their bags and were driven up to the village. On arrival at our guesthouse, keys were literally being handed out left, right and centre, pretty much a free for all. Just as we were about to inspect our sleeping quarters for the evening the whole town went into darkness for around 20 minutes. Powercut. (Or a great sales technique for no one being able to see what sort of conditions the rooms are in!) Once the lights came back on I think we were both glad that it was only for one night and we were straight out of there as soon as the sun came up!

The next morning we were up early again for the last bit of our slow boat ride to Luang Prabang to which we arrived at around sunset. We checked into the guesthouse and headed straight out to the night markets! The next day was spent seeing the sights of Luang Prabang, it was amazing to see what an influence french culture has on the town, given as it was previously governed by the French. Some of the times if you stopped in the street you could of been in un petit village in the south of France.

The next day we went to some amazing waterfalls about 40mins drive from Luang Prabang, we walked to the top of the falls and then headed down stream to enjoy a swim and a jump with everyone else! The waters were turquoise in colour and ice cold when we took the plunge!

That night we met up with an English couple who we met on the slow boat, they recommended a fantastic Korean BBQ restaurant where you choose all your meat and vegetables and cook them on a silver pan in the middle of the table over hot coals.

After this we all made our way to a bar called Utopia, we had heard lots of people mention the bar in passing at our guest house and as we wandered round the town, once we got there it was clear to see why. The place was hidden at the end of a windy back alley which seemed to go on forever and it was packed, it seemed like everyone in the town headed to this one small bar to drink/party the night away. Everywhere shuts early in the town so at 11:30pm lights went out so we emptied our drinks into plastic glasses and made the journey home. En route I (Sarah) was too pre-occupied trying to avoid a dog whilst making sure I didn’t spill my gin and next thing I knew I had fallen down a huge manhole in the road. Only the next morning did we realise it was a sewage drain and so I had to throw my new sandals in the bin for obvious reasons! The bruise is getting bigger by the day and takes up a good proportion of my leg but it makes a good story!

Before the fall!

The next day we experienced the day from HELL and what will hopefully be the worst journey we will encounter on our 4 month trip! We set off on our VIP coach (not a patch on what we experienced in Thailand, this was like a scruffy school bus) at 9:30am from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng and at 10:00am the bus had broken down!

We sat on the side of a sweltering hot roadside for 2 hours whilst not having a clue what was going on. At 12:00 we set off for what should have been a 6 hour journey including a lunch stop half way through. EIGHT hours later after winding through the mountains and cliffedges of Laos (and stopping every 2 miles for a kid to go to the toilet) we had our “lunch” stop! This consisted of mushed up vegetables and rice in somebodys yard in the middle of nowhere. After setting off again 5 hours after we should have arrived, to our luck the bus broke down yet again in the pitch black darkness at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. The electrics had completely broken along with the engine so we were stuck on the bus as the passenger doors would not open. It was only when we saw a spark from the engine that we thought it best to find a way off and had to squeeze through the drivers seat to clamber out of the wedged open door.

The only thing to make this better was to drink beer lao! Finally the most run down bus we have ever seen in our lives turned up to rescue us, so on we piled with people sitting on stools in the aisles to reach our destination (the stools were actually in better condition than the seats)! After arriving at 10pm and having to get a tuk tuk to our hotel we finally made it to Vang Vieng!

The next day, after recovering from the day before, we made our way to a lagoon and a cave about 30 mins out of town on the bumpiest tuk tuk journey ever possible. We were actually bumping our heads off the roof of the tuk tuk on the dirt track which seemed to go on forever

Once there we explored a huge cave half way up the side of a mountain. We hired a headtorch from the bottom and made our way inside not knowing what to expect. The cave was enormous and seemed to be never ending. We were not given helmets and we were free to explore the whole thing with the only warning being to remember our path as it is easy to get lost and not find the way back out! Inside the ground was very slippy and it took a lot of concentration to basically stay alive! Every now and again if you shined your head torch in the right place you would just about see the handwritten cardboard “danger” sign next to a huge cravas in the rocks that you in no way would be able to climb your way back out of!

After exploring for a good 2 hours we made our way back down to an eco-friendly volunteer project site we had spotted on the way in. We had lunch here in the nature reserve and sat in hammocks for the afternoon to reflect on the fact that we were glad to still be alive 🙂

The next day we took the plunge and joined the rest of the crazy young people in Vang Vieng and went tubing down the Nam Khan river. The activity basically entails grabbing the tube of an inner tractor wheel and floating down the river for 4km stopping at a number of bars on the way. It was so much fun!! We were a bit concerned of the safety of it after reading a number of horrific stories online but from what we saw those days are gone. We were greeted with a free shot at the first bar and made our way on to the river before hitting the next bar within about 1 minute. After the 4th bar it was a 1.5 hour straight tubing ride back to town.

Our tubes had to be back by 6pm and with an hour to go we soon realised we were miles away from town, the current was taking us nowhere and the sun was due to set! After having several drinks and determined to tube the whole thing we paddled like mad to reach the finish line! On the last stretch we noticed we were the only tubers left as everyone else had opted to get out early and tuk tuk it back to town to get their money back. This made us more determined so after paddling for what seemed like a decade we reached the end with 4 minutes to spare and sprinted through town with our tubes to get our deposit back. AND WE MADE IT!! However now we are both struggling to move our arms but it was definitely worth it. The scenery on the river was amazing and the whole experience was unforgettable.

So that finally brings us up to today. This morning we were up at 7am for our 4 hours bus journey (minivan this time thankfully) to Vientiane, which is where we are now writing this blog. This is the capital of Laos but there is not a lot going on here and we have explored all of the sights pretty much this afternoon.

Laos’s Buckingham Palace

Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi in Vietnam for the next leg of the trip and we are excited for what the country has to offer.

Updates on Vietnam to follow shortly 🙂 ….

On the Northern Trail

So, after leaving Ayutthaya behind we started a lengthy train journey north to Chiang Mai. When originally doing the research a slight miscalculation on my part meant that the train journey was 6 hours longer than expected so all in all 10 hours to Chiang Mai. This slight error was soon compensated by the stunning natural landscapes travelling up through the North of Thailand. Travelling through some of the national parks in the north weaving round mountains and forests gave us an opportunity to embrace the beauty of Thailand at grass roots level. The train journey itself was comfy with a lot better standard of seating than in England, although the free food on the other hand…I’m sure some prisons here serve better than the ready meal mackerel in soybean sauce that we were given.

On the first day of Chiang Mai we looked around the old city which is enclosed by a square wall boundary. We visited the main temples during the day and spent some time relaxing in the city park. This was a strange experience as we accidentally sat in the middle of a spiritual corner with everyone dressed like hippies doing extreme yoga and meditating. It’s interesting to see how on one hand the city is very chic and cosmopolitan yet at the same time traditional with monks ordaining locals in the temples. On each of the evenings we headed to the night bizaare which consists of a huge market with vendors selling everything you could imagine.

The following day we went to a traditional Thai cooking class where we first went round the local markets and chose our fresh ingredients for our recipies.

The dishes we chose to make included spring rolls, Chiang Mai fried style noodles, green curry soup, chicken in cashew nuts and pad thai. Let us say we couldn’t manage dessert after the five savoury dishes we had prior! Below is the finished product of our spring rolls.

We were up even earlier the next day to travel an hour south to an elephant sanctuary where we fed, rode and washed the elephants. This was a great experience and it opened our eyes to how some of these animals are treated prior to them coming to the reserve. They seemed very well looked after here and we enjoyed riding on them even if we were clinging on for dear life. Also I’m sure we were given one of the rebel elephants as it kept straying from the group doing it’s own thing!

With a very eye opening/eventful few days it was time to pack up again and head to Chiang Rai, another town further north. The further north we get the better it seems to get, one similarity with England I guess… A little town with a lot going on provided us with its weekly night market on the Saturday night, where every week all the locals come from all around to get the best prices and best food! Here we found fried cockroaches, maggots and other insects which are best left to be in some hotel bathrooms that we’ve stayed in and not on people plates!

Today was spent hiring another moped and heading about 10 miles south of Chiang Rai to see one of the most beautiful temples in Thailand, the White Palace. We got the bike for £3 for 24 hours and a full tank of petrol cost £1.50, it’s easy to see why they are so common.

Anyway, if you’ve got to this bit well done in not clocking off before hand! Up at 5am tomorrow to cross into the next country, Laos. Over and out.

Authentic Ayyuthaya

On Sunday it was time to leave the chaos of Bangkok behind us and make tracks to our next stop Ayyuthaya. We travelled there by train which took around 2 hours for the meer price of 20 THB which equates to roughly 40p at home! The journey was nice as the trains are much better here, although that was probably due to the fact that we sat in 1st class by accident but the nice conductor man let us stay 🙂 the trains are much older in Thailand you can hear the click clacking of the carriages on the track whilst leaning out of the window to admire the view.

We arrived in Ayutthaya and made our way to our guest house which was just outside of town but it was like a rural retreat (the peace was very much appreciated after the craziness of Bangkok).

The town itself is very quiet and authentic with just one road for tourists which comprises of around 5 bars and a number of guest houses. We spent the first night drinking very cheap beer in a bar here listening to a live band which was nice.

The next day we took the plunge and decided to hire a moped from the guest house for the price of £5 for 24 hours. The roads round the guest house were nice and quiet however soon as we got in to town the craziness kicked in and we ended up in rush hour traffic on dual carriageways where there is absolutely no rules at all, you just have to take a deep breath and hope for the best. Thank god Graham was driving and i attempted to navigate on the back. It was good fun however we didn’t have suncream with us that day and ended up frazzling to a crisp!! There is not a lot going on at Ayyuthaya but it is very pretty and a lovely place to walk around with a huge park/ lake in the middle with Temples etc to see (well it was lovely until we spotted a huge lizard thing coming out the lake which was the size of a small crocodile)!

That night we ate at a restaurant just behind our hotel which was extremely authentic but a great experience, and was my favourite meal so far. On the walk back we nearly got savaged by dogs, which are EVERYWHERE in Ayyuthaya and most of them are stray or belong to the temples so it’s quite daunting walking past them, but it is all good news because we are still alive 🙂

Next stop – Chang Mai…..