Nha Trang - rain and mud!

Our first day in the beach town of Nha Trang was rainy. It pissed it down. We were all psyched up for soaking in the last sun of our holiday too... instead we spent most of the day on the internet! :-P Nerds that we are...

But in the gaps between the rain we did head out for some food and a wander along the beach esplanade which is quite nice. We found a little bar with tiny plastic seats on the streets selling cheap bia hoi - fresh beer. At 50 cents a jug we settled in for a couple of hours! There were two very lively little kittens that entertained us while we drank as well - and it poured with rain outside!

We found a great monkey that belonged to an art gallery (well maybe all monkeys are great, but this one was especially great) to play with for a little bit, he stole my sunnies and chewed them up a bit, and messed up Gav's hair!

On our second day we headed off to Thap Ba - mineral mud baths! This is a great way to spend a day in Nha Trang. You go and sit in a bath of mud for about half an hour, then sunbake for a bit covered in mud, then rinse off in these high powered spray shower things, and then go have a hot mineral water bath (these are big outdoor tubs with straw roofs on them) for a while, and then grab a cold beer and head to the big hot swimming pool! It was like a massive bath tub - the water was 38 degrees but felt hotter! You couldn't really swim for very long, it was too hot! In all, great fun - I recommend this if anyone goes to Nha Trang!

After the mud baths we grabbed a quick dinner and said a last goodbye to Minsoo before catching the overnight train to Danang.

Saigon - Cu Chi tunnels, AK-47s and Xe-Om's!

We arrived in District 1 of Saigon which is the city centre and the bus dropped us off in Pham Ngu Lao which is where all the cheaper guest houses and hotels are. The original hotel we planned to stay at was full but easily found a nice one just across the way for $15/night.

It didn't take us long to realise that this city's roads are ruled by motorcycles, just crossing a small street is risking fate and with Jess's hand in mine we danced across the streets with 2 steps forward and two steps back. I think 8 of our 9 lives have been used up already, and that was only on the way to get a beer! Speaking of which, we tried the local drop called Saigon Red or 333 which turned out to be a wheat beer. Not really much to say about it as it was pretty tasteless which was dissapointing. From here it was time to eat the local favourite - Pho. It's a simple but tasty noodle soup dish, with beef or chicken, plenty of spring onion and you can add a variety of different garnishes that are offered such as lime, chilli, bean sprouts and basil. Absolutely delicious!

We wandered the busy neon-lit streets for a while to take in the local surrounds and gather our bearings. It seems no matter where you are in south-east Asia there's always someone asking to take you somewhere and in the case of Vietnam you have a range of options from a 'Cyclo' a modified bicycle for a more traditional ride, random people sitting on their motorbikes called xe-om's and of course taxi's. It was just very strange to not here them shouting "tuk-tuk!?". Of course if you decline you will then be offered another tourist service in the form of marijuana. I don't know if it's my beard, but I swear if I had a dollar for everytime I was asked!

So in the evening we thought let's relax and enjoy a few beer's and after all the street vendors plastic seats and chairs were full, thought we go to a cafe nearby. I'll admit it wasn't the most authentic choice I could've made and ordered a garlic bread which once it arrived seemed it had been dipped in a vat of oil. It was only then that we notice the large pictures of Harley-Davidsons on the walls to find that this was an American grill! Bleh...but they gave us free peanuts in shells so we stayed for one more beer before getting some Zzz's for our big day crawling through some tunnels.

The Chu Chi tunnels are absolutely fascinating and sometimes hard to believe the fact that they managed to live in such places so deep below the earth. Getting the opportunity to climb in to these small spaces, no larger than 1.3 metres, really felt as if we'd stepped back through time. It's hot, stuffy, the smell of dirt penetrates your nose and all you can see if pitch black with the odd camera flash going off strobe style. Some of the English girls in our group must've suffered from claustrophobia as they took one look and were quick to turn in the opposite direction. Not the place to be if you have that condition that's for sure! They only place smaller was the one of the secret entrances to the tunnel that I was just lucky enough to fit in to, unfortunately for another girl she managed to get a little stuck with everyone standing around her, a tad embarrassed.

A few craters caused by B-52's and cheesy animatronics depicting how the Viet-Cong made mines and ammunition from American bombs we followed the sound of large bangs going off until we arrived at what I was most excited for. It was time to shoot some guns! For $US1.25 a bullet I got a mag of 10 to share with Jess and we made our way down to the trenches to shoot some stationary cardboard cut-outs of animals. Yee-haw! I'll tell you now the sound of an AK-47 is LOUD. Trying to talk to the person next to you is impossible and how the military guy could just stand there and not even wince standing right next to the AK amazed us. I grabbed the ear-protection and the guy loaded the mag - I told him to set it to semi-auto as the guy before us blew his load in a second before it was all over. I wanted to enjoy every bullet of it! It is strangely addictive firing a gun, especially one of such fame as the AK-47. There were other fire-arms on offer like the M-16 and Colt .45, but the AK suited just fine. And of course I didn't hit a single thing except the dirt, I blame it on wind sheer. It was quite enjoyable watching Jess shoot off a few rounds and I think she may have even done better than me! After it was all over and our emptied shells had joined the millions littered on the ground it was time to leave. Awwwwwww! I felt like a little kid that didn't want to leave his friends house to go home. Jess was more than happy to leave the ear shattering ka-booms behind.

Our tour bus was kind enough to drop us at the War Remnants museum, our next stop to improve our knowledge of the devastating Vietnam war. Outside the main building sat numerous American war machines ranging from jet-fighters, helicopters, tanks and of course the very impressive 600 pound bomb used during the war which could clear a 3.2Km area. Scary stuff! Once inside museum, we saw the walls adorned with photos which documented the effects of napalm, Agent Orange, and all manner of variety of menacing devices used to inflict injury and death on both sides, more so the weapons used by the Americans. In cases lay the weapons American GI's used against the VC and stories of the American terror brought upon the Vietnamese.

So after a couple of emotional hours at the War Remnants museum we took off for a hectic walk beside the Saigon traffic the train station to buy our tickets for the 5-star express to Nha Trang, only to find that the 5-star express no longer exists! So we booked a regular train instead, and then looked for a ride back to the hotel. We thought it would be fun to try out a Xe-om (motorbike taxi) and while being surrounded by a number of drivers who seemed to be arguing with each for our business, were finally given our helmets and we were off in a flash to get around Saigon, authentic style! You just haven't been to Vietnam without trying this, it is thrilling, exciting and shitting you're pants scary at the same time. Whizzing between a seething mass of cars, trucks and what seemed like an endless stream motorbikes, the only thing we could do was just to trust our drivers not to crash in to anyone else - or them crash in to us! Going around a round-about was the worst as there are no rules to these roads and only driver etiquette which seems little more than beeping at anything that got in your way. We made it back to our hotel in one piece a little buzzed and in Jess' case a little shaky!

Photos here!

Siem Reap & Angkor temples

So we get to Siem Reap and are greeted by a friendly tuktuk driver, who insists on showing us his guesthouse before taking us to the one we want to go to, so what the hey, we check it out, and no its a bamboo fan room with a single bed (I just want a nice room! * in desperation*) so he takes us to another one which actually turns out to be really nice, so we get a pretty luxurious room for $15 and I'm so happy!! Air con, comfy bed with real spring mattress, nice pillows, cable tv, white sheets, hot water shower, you get the picture).

We found a really nice restaurant in the old market area - Khmer family restaurant - nice little candles on the table - comfy chairs and a traditional Cambodian group playing music traditional music just next to the restaurant. They served up some brilliant Amok - the Cambodian specialty dish - meat cooked in coconut and lemongrass curry served in a banana leaf bowl with rice. (see pic above) Yum!! And the fresh spring rolls are great there too, by fresh I mean they aren't deep fried or cooked at all.

The next day we spent exploring the Angkor temples. Our tuk tuk driver from the bus station took us around all day for $12 which we thought was a pretty good deal for them, but then again they really just sit in a hammock in a restaurant for most of the day while they wait for us - its a hard life hey... but on the other hand they're only earning $12 a day (this is a lot to them though).

Anyway we went to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom & Bayon tmeple, and Tha Phrom I think it's called - the one with the trees growing through the temples. It was pretty amazing - definitely worth all the travel to get there, it is incredible walking around such ancient temples that are in such good condition (some more than others).

This was all we could manage in one day - they are massive and it is hot and tiring walking around them - we did a good 7 hours or so before calling it quits. We don't usually go back to a restaurant twice but we went back to the same one for some more Amok - it was so good and figured we probably won't ever come back to Cambodia so might as well. We met a very down-to-earth American guy sitting at the table next to us travelling by himself, turns out he despises America and will never go back. He has a solar panel business in China that runs itself and earns him a good living so he's pretty much just travelling the world trying to find a new country to live in. Very interesting! His parents were travelling jugglers! We had a great time chatting to him...

Not much else exciting to report about Cambodia - we got a bus back to Phnom Penh the next day, found a nice guesthouse run by a Norwegian guy right near where the bus dropped us off - oh and I had a really nice spaghetti carbonara that night!!! The best food that's not Asian in my whole trip I think. We took off the next morning on a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon, Vietnam. :-)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We arrived in Phnom Penh at about 8pm, were dropped off in the Lakeside district and after being accosted by guesthouse touts and looking at 4 different guesthouses we decided to stay at the Floating Island guesthouse which is a hovel, but the same as the rest of the guesthouses in this area. We tried to find a more expensive room but couldn't! The average seemed to be around $3 a night which is what we paid for very old and basic room with double bed, fan and tiny bathroom. The foam mattress was thin so you could feel the wooden slats underneath and the floorboards were all uneven so I kept stubbing my toes! And the walls were very thin, and the drains in the bathrooms are crap so your bathroom is literally a pool after a shower (which is cold btw) - just trying to paint a pretty picture here! hehe... its similar to a lot of places we've stayed in SE Asia. The staff were really really friendly though!

I think I had enough of roughing it by the time we got to Cambodia so after our failed efforts at finding a nice room in Phnom Penh we didn't settle till we found one in Siem Reap - I'll mention this later.

So we found a room, the first one with aircon actually, we literally dumped our bags and were trying to get the aircon to work when an english guy came out of his room and started saying that his friend is sick and he didn't know what to do. So we went in with the guy who worked at the guesthouse and saw this his friend wasn't in good shape, sweating all over and fading fast - wanting to pass out, couldn't walk at all so Gav and Sangheon (Korean friend) had to carry him out of the guesthouse (which was in an alley etc so a little walk) and into a tuk-tuk and off to the hospital. It was a bit full-on especially after our 12 hour journey! We hadn't eaten since lunch and it was about 9pm so we were shattered.

Our aircon ended up not working, so we switched to a fan room, had a shower and finally could sit out on the lovely terrace overlooking the lake for a quick meal before going to bed.

We wanted to get out of PP and head to Siem Reap as quick as possible so we booked a bus at midday the next day, and arrived in Siem Reap at about 6pm.

I'll also just mention that the Lakeside in Phnom Penh is the backpacker area, and a great place to stay if you want a room that costs under $5US. They are all pretty scummy but there's loads of cheap cafes, bars etc and the drugs are definitely a-plenty! :-S Gav seems to be a magnet for being offered weed - it must be the beard!! Don't worry mum we're not the slightest bit tempted though - no way! We were speaking to some American guys after we carried the british guy to the tuk tuk, and they said that they heard that 7 people have died in the last 10 days or something in Phnom Penh... :-( very sad... sampling the beers of each region is more than enough for us hehe..

There are pretty cute bars lining the lakeside, some playing music and have pool tables etc so it's a pretty sociable place to be as well. Mana you probably did well not to stay in this area I think! There seems to be only one nice guesthouse in the whole area - Simon's place, which seems to be always fully booked.

Crossing the border - Laos to Cambodia

After enquiring at 3 different travel agencies about different prices for the trip from Don Det to Phnom Penh, we decided to pay $20 for the agency that promised a minibus to Stung Treng (about 40 mins fromt the border in Cambodia) and then a VIP bus all the way to PP. (ha!) Travel agencies across the island were all charging different rates, from $16 to $24 some saying that you can't even go all the way to PP in one day, that you have to stay overnight in Kompong Cham, about 2 hrs from PP. We've read loads of horror stories on traveller's blogs about this trip, all saying that it was the worst day of travel in their whole trip. We considered flying but it costs too much.

So here's our journey in a nutshell. It actually panned out a whole lot smoother than we anticipated and took roughly 12 hours from start to finish so we were happy enough!

6.30am - Wake up and pack
7.30am - Breakfast
8.00am - Boat to Ban Nakasang on the mainland Laos... wait around for... not sure what?
9.00am - Minivan to the border - first stop Laos immigration to stamp out ($1)
9.20am - Told by the driver that we have to walk to the border to the Cambodian immigration and he'll pick us up there. So off we go... about 5 mins walk to the Cambodian immmigration to get our visas on arrival ($20 + $1 for the officer) and stamps (another $1). Here we are told we have change minivans, so we all pile into the minivan and wait.... we weren't sure what we were waiting for, as the van seemed to be full already, but it turned out that we were waiting for more people! 5 more people turned up and looked in disbelief at the van that they were told they have to fit into! We all kicked up a bit of a fuss to no avail, so in the end 19 of us squeezed into a minivan with 14 seats! And a couple of the seats were broken too. It was a bit of a laugh though - well Gav and I thought so, not everyone did though :-P
10.45am - We finally take off in our crammed minivan into Cambodia - heading to Stung Treng where we crossed on a ferry (seriously, a dodgy bridge goes about 75% across the river and a ferry connects the rest of the way - why not just extend the bridge?! Sometimes I just don't understand these people!
12.00pm - We stopped in Stung Treng for lunch (worst lunch) and waited around until 1.30 - again not sure why!
1.30pm - Leave Stung Treng and head for Kratie
3.00pm - Arrive in Kratie, and change minivan again! This time its even smaller.
3.30pm - Leave Kratie and drive over some pretty bad dirt roads. It's a solid 5 hour drive.
8.30pm - Arrive in Phnom Penh!! Shattered.

Si Phan Don - 4000 Islands (Don Det)

We arrived in Pakse on an overnight bus (10hrs) from Vientiane at about 6.30am and then managed to get straight on a minibus to Don Det, another 2 hours drive south from Pakse. A short long boat trip and we were on Don Det searching for a bungalow on the water. We settled on the 3rd bungalows we looked at, for about $3 per night, along with an English girl, Gee, that we made the journey with. The bungalows here are very basic - a small wooden hut with a bed, thin mattress and mosquito net, as well as two hammocks on the balcony overlooking the water. Don Det is so peaceful and quiet (apart from the farm animals - chooks, pigs, buffalo, roosters) and the views over the water from the bungalows are amazing. We had a brilliant time there during the day. Night time is a bit of a different story though! The island only has generators for power and so there is only electricity on some parts of the island from about 6pm until midnight, other parts and most of the individual bungalows have no power at all (including ours). So no lights and most importantly no fans! Which makes things a little uncomfortable at 30 degrees at night! But we survived :-)

Our first day we were shattered as we didn't really sleep much on the overnight bus, so just kind of chilled out on the hammocks and slept for the afternoon. We watched a beautiful sunset from our balcony with a couple of Beerlaos and had yummy banana muffins from an Aussie baker who has a bakery on the island and delivers cakes and bread to the whole island every evening on his bicycle! When the sun had gone down we went in search for a little nightlife - we were expecting much but literally couldn't find anywhere that was lively - of the few bars and restaurants that are there, there was only a couple of people at each. So we ate a very average Indian meal at the only restaurant on the island that had fans! :-P We joined a Swiss couple and German guy who had also made the trip from Vientiane with us.

On our second day we hired bikes headed down to the Aussie's bakery for breakfast (The pumpkin burgers are yum!) and then headed off to Don Khon, Don Det's sister island - the two are joined by an old railway bridge that the french built and used to carry freight between the islands before World War II. Don Khon is host to some waterfalls, a couple of rusted train engines and some Irrawady dolphins to the far south on the Cambodian Border. We made it down to one of the waterfalls which is one of the biggest in South East Asia, volume-wise anyway, not in height. As you can't swim at the waterfall there is a tiny beach about 200 meters away from it where we headed to cool off for a bit, although the water is pretty warm so we stayed there for at least half an hour trying to cool down and chatting to some Americans. Sadly travellers had died here before as the undercurrent is so strong, so you can only wade about in the shallows.

After a litte exploring on Don Khon we decided to head back to Don Det, found ourselves at the bakery again drinking cold Beerlaos! hehe... Here we met Sangheon, another Korean! We spent the afternoon and evening chatting to him, and since he was also heading to Phnom Penh, we booked our bus trip together.

Vientiane take 2

Hello!

Thought I would drop in and say hi before we head off to Southern Laos on our way to Cambodia. We are planning on staying a few nights in the 4000 island region of Laos as we've heard from other travelers how beautiful it is there. Our original plan was to head back in to Central Thailand and East to Cambodia as the border is a bit more, how could you say, legit so to speak. The border that we are planning to go through isn't really governed appropriately as there has been talk of paying US$1 for 'stamp tax' twice, which i think is Cambodian speak for drinking money, either way I'm sure we'll find out!

We've just come back to Vientiane after spending the last week and a bit in Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang for the Laos New Year (which is for the year 2551!). There isn't all that much to do in the capital city which is why we are on the internet. I would be drinking beer right now but since we have a 10 hour bus trip ahead of us through the night maybe it's in our best interests not to! Really though Laos has definitely been one of the highlights for on our trip as the Laos people sure know how to party for their new year! They practically have about 7 days worth of solid celebrating and 3 of those are spent soaking the crap out of each other with water pistols, buckets and pretty much anything that will hold H2O! We had a blast joining in on the action and although after 2 days of being dripping wet, by the third we just really wanted to be dry for a change - but the people of Laos waiting for us down every street we took had other ideas.

Well the weeks are surely flying by right now and Jess and I are constantly checking and changing our plans to make the most of our time, which is about approximately 3 weeks I think? It's funny that we have truly lost all concept of days of the week as just this morning Jess asked me what day it was and I thought it was Thursday, then Wednesday only to finally figure out that it was really Friday! We amuse ourselves like that. Haha. We won't be in Cambodia (or as we have heard travelers call it "Scambodia") for very long and will visit Angkor Wat and then back to Phnom Phen to get in to our last leg of our trip through Vietnam. We have made a Korean friend who we are going to meet up with once we are in Na Trang after spending some time in Saigon who is going to show us around and mentioned something about a mud pack, so we are very curious!

Well I hope you guys are all OK back home and can't wait to see you! It won't be too long before we do! Can't wait!

Love and miss you! xoxox

Gavin & Jess.

Sabaidee Pi Mai!

Let us just say this first off, we have never been more wet in our lives and Laos sure knows how to party! After hearing that Luang Prabang is the place to be for the Lao New Year (which it is now the year 2551 according to their calendar), we enduldged in another 7 hour 'VIP' bus ride North from Vang Vieng. When the Laos say VIP, they mean a grotty old bus that you would have thought surely wouldn't even start any more, with windows for aircon and not even enough seats for everyone! After the bus filled up, out came the plastic outdoor chairs and they piled people into the aisles as well - there was about 10 people sitting in the aisle! The bus drive, although long, was actually superb, as it drives most of the way through massive mountains, so the views are simply spectacular (and some of the mountain curves are quite scary!) and the tiny mountain villages that you drive through are fascinating - pure little huts lining the edges of the mountains along the roads, such a simple life these village people live.

After being dropped in to town from the bus station, the touts at once began riding their bikes towards us flogging their 'special price' for accomodation to fill their guesthouses. We conveniently enough ran in to one touting the guesthouse we had already booked, at a much cheaper price! Feeling liberated from the huge mark up we had been quoted on the phone since it's the new year, we threw our bags down, threw on our soon to be wet clothing and hit the streets to join in celebrations.

As soon as we stepped on to the main strip which follows the Mekong around the town we were greated with "Happy New Year!" by Laos young and old followed by buckets, pans, saucepans, and water guns filled with good ole' H2O and then they proceeded with the drenching. It didn't matter if you were driving a tuk-tuk, a car or a motor-bike, no-one was safe from the festivities. The favourite seemed to be throwing big buckets of water into the faces of motorcycle riders as they rode through town. But it didn't just stop with water, oh no! Once you thought you could not get any more wet, it was time to bring out the wok-grease (while little kids brought out the muffler grease!) and flour and have it smeared any where they could get you. We were hit with the 'good luck' trying to escape down a back street. Good plan Jess! Haha! It was pretty much a tar and feathering that we received!

Across the Mekong from all this madness was an island filled to the brim with Lao under marquees drinking, eating and singing their finest renditions of Lao and Thai-pop karaoke. Of course we had to go check that out! After jumping on one of the 50 or so boats going back and forth between the mainland and island, we arrived to see the beach lined with sand sculptures which looked like mounds surrounded by balls with white flags depicting images of Buddha and the animals of the zodiac made to bring good luck. By the time we had made it over this way however, it was pretty late in the day and the beer already warm, so we endured one beer, walked around the island and handed our water pistol over to a young Lao boy whose face lighted up like all his Christmas' came at once and sped off to soak his friends and family immediately.

To describe the vibe that was engulfing this town today would mean to say that there was not a frown in sight, everbody constantly laughing and foreigners and locals were as one wetting each other and drinking the local Beer Lao (which we found is half owned by Carlsberg now). Being in Luang Prabang for the Laos new year is just one of the many things that you need to see for yourself, but be sure to put it near the top of the list.

Going to Laos

We've been crap with blogging lately - about a week behind now as there's still most of Chiang Mai and Bangkok to write about, but just wanted to let everyone know that we're heading to Laos tonight and will hopefully have some blogs published while we're there. We'll be in Laos for about a week. We haven't had wireless internet in Bangkok (of all the places!) so this is the first net cafe we've been in for a few days. Bangkok has been busy busy busy with lots of walking! But will write about that later....

Write again soon!! xox

Orchids, butterflies and long-necks

After a quick banana shake we set off to begin our early morning start to a day long tour of Northern Chiang Mai booked through 5 star tours (which we can highly recommend as our agent, Map, is very friendly and courteous).

Our minibus filled with Australians who were hungover, and a token Canadian who had been living in Korea for 2 years. Our first stop was the Orchid and Butterfly farm about an hour drive outside of Chiang Mai. There isn't too much to shout about here.

From here it was time to go venturing deep into Chiang Dao cave to see numerous buddha images strewn throughout the cave once used as a hideout for the Burmese invaders. We went as far as we could into cave before needing a torch as it was pitch black.

After finishing lunch we were off to visit the hill-tribes. A 2 hour drive later we entered the village and were introduced to a few members of the long-neck tribe when we could ask a few questions like the obvious 'does it hurt?' which they say it does not. They take the rings off to add a new one with more coils.

Such a charming people and very welcoming, we felt lots of guilt for exploiting these very friendly villagers. But then again it wasn't a 'true' village as all we walked through were shops to sell their hand-made wares, which we bought plenty of and saw how they were made. It was more of a refugee camp as the long-necks aren't a Thai tribe, so they are living off the Thai government and the money their tribe makes from tourists. So a few photos later, we set off back for the 3 hour drive to Chiang Mai.

Walking the streets (Chiang Mai)

The Walking Street is biggest market in Chiang Mai and only takes place on Sunday evenings. When Jess hears the word market her ears, without fail, prick up, so I said bring on 5 hours of walking through packed streets! I love it! (sarcasm intended)

We found that the walking street is exactly that - walking the street where there are stalls as far as the eye can see in all directions. This particular market shuns the night bazaar into shame. You can purchase fresh food plus some strange additions like sweets made from soy beans (which weren't as tasty as they were colourful), Chiang Mai sausage and everyone's favourite - deep fried insects. Yummo!

The local temples even served as a food court of sorts. Of course food wasn't the only offering, there were plenty of funky t-shirts with my favourite being 'Travelling you get happiness' .. unfortunately the only size they had to sell would be likely to fit my nephew after a few washes.

Ceramics, wooden crafts, paintings, handmade scarfs, bags, and all manor of objects were being sold to the many locals and foreigners alike. Our luck soon ran out weather-wise and the markets were plagued with heavy rain causing many to pack up and leave early so we soldiered our way back to our guest house - that was after getting some more pop-corn chicken!

My Chiang Mai

After subjecting ourselves to four week's worth of sun, golden sandy beaches, crystal waters (and at times oil slick brown water, and yes I'm looking at you Samui!) and numerous islands of Southern Thailand we thought it was time to head north and check out Chiang Mai.

Our original plan to shoot up to Bangkok was blown apart as it was pretty cheap to skip that leg for now and head up to get our feet dirty in the second largest Thailand city. We've experienced a mix of ups and downs with charming markets, tours to the mountainous far northern Thailand, being scammed (to add a bit of angry spice to the recipe) and learning to cook amazing food.

We stepped off the plane along with the other 10 passengers of our flight and straight into a taxi for 120 baht to Awana Guesthouse where we laid our heads for the week. A very tidy, neat hotel close to the Thapae Gate at the eastern side of the old city (where all the backpacker digs are) surrounded by the moat once used to protect the city from Burmese invaders, where the city gets its actual name "New walled city".

Our guesthouse is a fantastic port of call in the sense that we're so close to everything that we need to be close to. Not only that but we had cheap accommodation with wonderful friendly hosts and an arctic temperature pool (very slippery - we both completely stacked it when playing silly buggers trying to push each other in - of course ended up in a heap on the floor).

Our first night consisted of gathering our bearings and went venturing to find the talked-about Night Bazaar. We didn't really have any idea where we were going, our maps were failing us! We followed Thapae, the main road out of the old city and then headed south trying to find the Night Bazaar. This took us through some pretty unlit dodgey areas. Funnily enough this was the way to Charlie's authentic English fish 'n' chip shop. Of course there was zero patron eating Charlie's grub so we continued our trek finally to find the Night Bazaar.

The Night Bazaar here is about 10 to 15 different shops repeated for kilometers on end. Fisherman's pants, i-pood tshirts and 'real' rolexes. There are plenty of artists shops who create some amazing copies of anything you present them but all the touts begin to get on your nerves very, very quickly so it was time to get a drink.

We found an arcade of girly/go-go bars in which many Thai ladies (boys) and 'farang' (tourists) were just playing pool, drinking through super-long happy hours and, well, tuning anything that was Thai and looked like a woman. We wanted something a little more different and new just the place - a bar we'd walked past on our earlier travels - the THC bar.

The Tribal Hemp Connection bar strangely enough does not (seriously!) condone the use of drugs in its bar. After walking through what seemed to be a dead bar, we climbed to the third floor roof bar to find a pretty happening little space of Chiang Mai.

We took off our shoes for the first time in Chiang Mai (but definitely not the last) and got cozy on the cushions laid out on the bamboo-laden floor and got ourselves a few drinks. This bar was really the only mentionable drinking hole due to it's unrivalled character - a DJ spinning minimal, funky house, cool Thai bar chicks and plenty of UV lights and cool lighting via christmas lights lining the walls. The prices were a bit steep but worth it considering the atmosphere. After getting a bit pissy and a few mojitos later it was time to hit the sheets and get ready for another day in my Chiang Mai.

Ko Phangan

On Rob's advice we hit the shores of Had Rin on Ko Phangan but jumped straight on a long tail boat and headed to Had Yuan. It is great! Had Yuan is a small beach with a few cheap bungalow operations (one deluxe resort smackbang in the middle but we didn't see a single person emerge or go into it) and it is surrounded by huge boulders, on which are built some more bungalows overlooking the sea, and a couple of bars and restaurants. It's all wood and bamboo which gives the place so much character! And the beach is lined with palm trees, on which are strung the occasional hammock :-)

Surprisingly there were more people on the beach of Had Yuan at about 3pm when we arrived than there were on Had Rin (the full moon party beach) but that was as busy as it got - it was very laid back all evening, and a lot of people didn't surface until the early afternoon. Big Blue bungalows were right on the beach and had lots to keep their guests entertained - pool table, table tennis, mini basketball court and nightly movies in the restaurant, where there were lots of cushions and come 7pm was full of people lounging around watching the movie while eating their dinner.

The bungalows were nice and cheap (almost 6 squids a night) so we stayed 3 nights enjoying the relaxation. There was a great restaurant up on the rocks called Bamboo hut which had a great view of the beach and out to sea so we spent a couple of late afternoons up there with a beer. Some of the bars sell 'special cocktails' although we haven't indulged... one big bummer is that I've had a 5 day migraine since being on ko phangan - not sure what it is, possibly the rocks they substituted for pillows at Big Blue! (although the beds were very comfy).

So we went to Had Rin on Thursday to arrange our travel up north, we were going to get the train to Bangkok but they were full until Sunday, so we decided to skip Bangkok and fly straight from Samui to Chiang Mai, since we have to go back to Bangkok to go to Laos anyway.

We spent 2 nights in some cute bungalows up on the hill above Had Rin, that had good views of the bays and the sunset. We spent half a day sorting out our flights which proved more difficult since HSBC decided to stop my credit card as well as my debit card (Grrrhhhhh!!) but managed to catch some last minute rays yesterday on Had Rin beach which is beautiful.

Today (Saturday) we arrived in Chiang Mai and have only been here a couple of hours but are just chilling for a bit and taking advantage of the free wireless internet before heading out to the Night Bazaar!! Can't wait! Photos will come over the next day or two.

Full photo album here...

Jess and Gav xox

xox

Ko Samui

Now we're on Ko Phangan, so I'll just briefly let you all know what happened on Ko Samui... We stayed in a nice cheap resort in a fan room (about 10 pounds a night) which was pretty good, the room was basic but the gardens were really nice and the staff were pretty friendly. It was across the road from the beach (althoug being on the north end of Chaweng beach it wasn't really swimmable so we had to walk up or down the beach to swim) and it was about 10 mins walk to the shops etc. We spent a few days at the beach, either down the south end or up the very north end which was actually beautiful, not much sand to lay on but the water was really shallow, clear blue and calm.

We went on a day tour safari very similar to the one I did last time I was at Ko Samui, which involved elephant trekking, an elephant show, monkey show, crocodile show, a waterfall, amazing views of the island, grandmother and grandfather rocks, magic buddha garden and the big buddha. It was fun to have a day seeing different parts of the island :-)

We ate a lot of pot noodles (2 min noodles from 7-11 - about 20p a meal) but did splash out one night on an exquisite dinner at Eat Sense! The most amazing food and... deep fried ice cream! Yum!

In all Samui was slightly disappointing after being at such beautiful places as Phi Phi and Railay, however we still had a nice time there. We extended our stay one night as I was sick with a 24hr bug of some kind and wasn't up to travelling.

So after 6 nights on Samui... time for Ko Phangan!

The album of Ko Samui photos is here!

Railay

Railay was wonderful - we didn't really do that much since we only had 2 days there, mainly just hanging at the beach. The sand sea resort had super-yummy food, I had a brilliant pad thai on our last night, and gav had fried rice served in a pineapple! I also *had* to try their deep-fried icecream to compare it to the icecream I had at Eat Sense last time I was at Ko Samui... it was pretty good but Eat Sense was better! :-)

Yesterday we made the journey from Railay to Ko Samui... it was a bit of a mission and took ALL day... we left at about 8.45 am and a long-tail boat, 2 interesting bus rides, a ferry and a taxi later we finally arrived at our guesthouse in Ko Samui by about 7.30pm.

Railay beach

Yesterday we got a boat over to Railay, about 1.5 hrs from Phi Phi, the boat is destined for Ao Nang, but stops near Railay on the way in the middle of the sea of Railay beach, where you are met by longtail boat, and you have to climb from the big boat to the longtail boat with about 8 other people and your backpacks! It was a fun little way to get here :-)

We were greeted with golden sands, emerald green water and looming limestone cliffs and a very relaxed vibe! People were chilling out on the beach, some were playing volleball on the sand and others were chilling out at the few resort restaurants lining the beach. There were also no speedboats, only a few long-tail boats! I really like Railay. It's the rock-climbing capital of Thailand and you can see why! The island is mainly large rock formations which are really cool. They enclose the beaches making them calm bays.

We have a cute little bungalow - no aircon this time! But it has been fine, reminds me of my childhood - we never had aircon in the Australian heat! We arrived, settled in and headed out for a little wander to see what the place is all about. We watched an AMAZING sunset from the restaurant on the beach and ate really yummy thai food! Prawn red curry and garlic pepper squid :-)

I had my first night drinking Sang Som (Thai rum! makes you loco hehe) and red bull before heading out to check out the nightlife on Railay... headed over to the east beach and wandered through the bars, they were all playing pretty crap music but we settled for the Last Bar as they had cheap vodka and fun staff and nice bamboo lounge thingies, so we had a drink and watched the fire twirlers (nervously as they weren't that good and kept dropping the fire sticks on people!)

Today we had yummy buffet breakky (with banana fritters!) and headed over to Phra Nang beach about 10 mins walk away, which was really busy but its the nicest beach on the island, it also has caves you can climb around, and hilariously they have shrines in them with lots of penises mades out of wood! We didn't get a photo but will take one tomorrow. Apparently its for good luck!

Pics for Railay so far are on my smugmug...

Stay tuned for more Railay adventures coming soon! Jess and Gav xox

Phi Phi is teh awesome!!

Edit: To see all the photo's of our trip so far, be sure to visit Jess' Smugmug page.

Sawasdee! Phi Phi has been fantastic! I've never been to a place with such amazing beaches, water and a really cool vibe in parts of the island.

We've done quite a bit of relaxing on the beach but have mixed it up as well. On our first day on Phi Phi we arrived wet, salty, hot and sunburnt from the boat trip - as Gav has written before, it was high tide so the pier was about a meter under water so we had to hold our bags high and wade through it up to our thighs to get to the shore. So we rocked up to the hotel, dumped our bags and headed straight for the beach! Beautiful crystal clear calm acqua water greeted us which we welcomed excitedly! So we spent half the day swimming and sunbaking (didn't realise till we got into the otel room that we were very burnt) and then spent the evening wandering about the tourist village. It's a really cool little town with a small island vibe - friendly, laid-back and with no neon lights and go-go bars like phuket has. The town consists mainly of clothing shops, beach gear shops, restaurants, bars, mini-marts, scuba diving schools and accomodation/tourist info agencies.

We've become very close with our friend Chang beer since we've been here, it's the cheapest at 50 baht for a tallie and on a few nights we've drunk a couple of tallies on the balcony while the clouds in the sky turn pink and purple-grey. Typically we have spent way too much money so far - mainly on accommodation as it is really expensive on Phi Phi! We luckily booked ahead for the first 4 nights on the internet, which turned out to be cheaper than if we turned up and booked on arrival - plus our hotel was fully booked! We spent the second day wondering how we could extend our stay since we've booked our accommodation for the next 2 islands, only to check over our bookings to find out that we stuffed up the dates and we weren't expected in Railay until Saturday! Yayyy.... very strange that this happened as it meant that we could stay on Phi Phi for an extra 3 nights! Then we weren't rushed trying to do everything.

Although we tried to extend our stay in the hotel only to be told no, they are fully booked, so we spent hours wandering the island trying to find other accommodation that was cheaper and not too grotty (which is difficult on Phi Phi). We ventured to one end of the island close to a Mosque that we found blasts loud and proud prayer through speakers spread out across the island. Another was the backpackers call 'The Rock' which had the nice price of 250 baht that got you in a less-than private room with another 16 people! In the end we went to an accommodation booking place who managed to pull a few strings and get Phi Phi hotel to let us extend our stay in our own room no less! But at a higher rate so we really have overspent! Railay will also be expensive but after that its dodgey fan bungalows all the way! Hello insect repellant...

A little more about awesome Phi Phi! --------------------------------------------

On Sunday we took a long boat out to Long Beach (Hat yao) which is less touristy than Lo Dalam, the main beach, and spent the day lazing about in the shade (since we were burnt we couldn't handle the sun!) and playing cards. There is great snorkelling off Long beach but we forgot the snorkelling gear! :-P

We found a great bar - Carpe Diem - which is right at the end of the beach and has chilled out tunes, cushions and little tables overlooking the beach, cute fairy lights, great staff and fire twirling later in the evening. It's a brilliant place to just chill with a drink as the sun goes down. We had one random night where we went to a funny little makeshift bar selling buckets, kebab sticks and blasting their music out in competition with one of the biggest bars on the island right next door, ordered some kebab sticks and were told to sit and wait while they were cooked. So we down at a table with an irish guy and a thai guy (who worked there but was completely hammered!) We ended up having random banter with them for about 2 hours and got a bit pissy! So was a little seedy when we had to wake up early to go on the snorkelling trip.

Our favourite restaurant (in fact pretty much the only restaurant we've eaten at apart from one night) is the Phi Phi Bakery - which does yummy thai meals for 60 baht - 1 pound! And has great cakes :-) Since we've been spending all our budget on accommodation and going way over budget with boat trips (and booze) we've kept eating to a minimum - 1 pound meals at Phi Phi bakery and we've been trying out the 2 minute pot noodles from 7-11! They're actually pretty tasty here! Mike you'd be proud, I've been eating Tom Yam noodles! Spicy!!!! And we bought a pot of vegemite in Singapore (by the way they have loads of Australian foods in the supermarkets in Singapore! Shapes, arnotts biscuits, uncle toby's meusli bars!! We thought it would be a couple more months till we saw any of that food!) so we've been buying bread and eating a lot of vegemite sandwiches like true Aussies. Unfortunatelyl I haven't seen any pork buns on Phi Phi which are a great snack. They have Thai pancakes here which are the snack food but they are cooked in a pool of oil and then drenched in chocolate sauce, so aren't the most healthiest snack.

Under the Sea -----------------

On Wednesday we went out on a day tour of the islands. We were on a big boat which meant that we couldn't go up to the beaches, we had to either swim/snorkel there or kayak. So we went to Maya bay (the beach were the movie "The Beach" was filmed) and it was full of tourists!! Speed boats lined the beaches and bigger boats filled the bay and the beach was covered in tourists taking photos.

So not quite what we expected although it wasn't really surprising. There's loads of Japanese tourists here although they only seem to come on day-trips from Phuket so they are all gone at night! So we didn't actually get to go to the beach as it was a little far to swim and we spent the time snorkelling around the boat. The boat (which I think was the slowest boat on the entire island) then took us all around the Phi Phi islands, stopping at various places allowing us to snorkel or kayak to the shore to check it out.

There is some great snorkelling spots around phi phi, we've seen some really cool fish! Although the coral isn't colourful here?? It's all brown. Anyway that was a fun trip and we both did the token jump off the top of the boat (I hated it) where as Gav absolutely loved it! Gav lost his snorkel due to the dodgey gear we were given but managed to persuade the tour operaters to replace the snorkel for 120 baht rather than pay their 300 baht price tag for lost gear, robbers!

We went to Monkey beach were apparently the monkeys steal your stuff and would rather your cigarettes than the banana you offer them hehe... but we had to swim to monkey beach so had nothing for them to steal, or offer them and no camera to take pictures of them and their fat bellys.

Step by step
---------------

Yesterday we took a walk up the view point. It nearly killed us!! So many steps! It was 186 meters above the town and parts were very deceiving!

Just when we thought that we had met the last of the steps and we were there, there were even more steps to climb!! Finally we got to the top and the view was pretty amazing. Gav noticed locals going through the rainforest and a sign so we thought we'd take a random trek through the jungle and ended up on the other side of Phi Phi at 'Relax beach' where there are a few bungalows and not much else. It was great! Although the construction noises weren't so relaxing. we didn't realise how far we'd gone, but as it was the other side of the island it cost us 300 baht to get a boat back! :-S But there was NO way I was walking back over the view point! Ha! I was so shattered I was asleep by 8.30pm.

So today is our last day and we're going to spend it.... relaxing on the beach! haha.. we want to make the most of the beauty of the beach so are just going to chill :-)

Until next time!! Now it's off to Railay for us... xooxx

Koh Phi Phi

We're now on Phi Phi and it truly is paradise!! But paradise has expensive internet, so we've uploaded our photos so far to Facebook and Smugmug - check them here.

Also check out my smugmug for the rest of the Phuket pictures. The stories will come later sorry!! Enjoy the piccies for now though....

We're in Phi Phi until Saturday then head to Railay for 3 nights, and onto Ko Samui for 5 nights from there.

Love to everyone!!

Jess xox

Bye bye Phuket!

We managed to get a good day of sun-tanning on Karon Beach on lovely banana lounges only to forget to bring along our camera to show you how awesome it was! Then we went for a swim in pool at the hotel (amongst the beginner scuba divers!). We went to the markets again (the ones selling bunnies in dresses) and got some amazing spring rolls and tempura prawns for our dinner on the way down to the beach to watch the sunset. It was pretty although not quite as spectacular as last time I was on Phuket as there was more clouds unfortunately. We got some cheap chang beers from the 7-11 and I taught Gav how to play 500.

The rest of our Phuket photos are on my smugmug.

Burn baby burn!

Hello Phi Phi! After 5 hours of sleep and a frantic, early appointment with another journey on a packed mini-bus we were on our way to the ferry terminal. We hopped on a boat filled with a world of nationalities (with the majority of this world being Japanese), we climbed up to the third story of the boat as it was the outdoor deck and to our luck it was completely empty, we were stoked! But as the boat left the pier we soon found out there was a method to this madness. It wasn't before long that we were receiving mouthfuls of the deep sea's finest and the poor suckers that chose to sit on the opposite side of the deck were getting absolutely soaked, not to mention their plastic chairs were now sliding all over the place like ice hockey pucks! This entertained Jess and I to no end as it went on for quite a while and we kindly complemented their acrobatic feats with a huge cheeky grin.

As the boat neared the island of Phi Phi we could feel our skin drying out faster than my boardies on Karon beach! Remnants of the water sprayed on to us had left enough salt on our bodies to sprinkle over 3 English breakfasts and it was then that we could feel our moon tanned skin starting to burn up. Stupidly, we left our sunscreen in our backpacks since we figured it was only a 1.5 hour trip and only early in the morning. So by the time we rendezvoused down to the lower deck it was already too late and the damage was done. Before our eyes our skin which was one of the lighter shades of white, was now as pink as the box Barbie comes in! It's only 10am!

Now the Ton Sai jetty is in view as our boat passes rocky, tree-topped cliffs and long boat after long boat, we arrive excited at our first of many Thailand destinations. It's high tide and we wondered what was taking everyone so freaking long to hit the sands of Ton Sai beach and get off the boat/make-shift pier. As we made our way closer to the front of the queue our bewildering question was answered - the 'pier' was submerged waist-deep in water! So as fast as we can we are ripping our shoes from the soles of our feet, rolling up our 3/4 shorts and I make sure my ciggies don't suffer the same fate as my last drowned packet in the pool of our hotel in Phuket. All things are in check (or so I thought!) and Jess and I take our first plunge in to the warm, crystal clear tropical waters of Phi Phi and make it to dry land. A little burnt, a little wet and when i got around to to rolling my shorts back down I'm struck with horror...my iPod! I forgot that I used it in the minibus on our way to the ferry and placed it in my pocket for 'safe-keeping'. Good one Gav!

I'm now too upset that my tunes are now swimming with the fishes and too annoyed to write, so it's time for some more sun, beach and Chang!

Edit: I know that we have been slack on the blog front but don't blame us, blame the sweet, sweet weather we've been having...oh and all the beer! We have a bulk of posts waiting to hit so get your reading glasses on and be ready for it!

Love Gav & Jess xoxo

Introduction to Phuket

Just a quick post here as there's not all that much to report to Phuket... except that I am sooo sooo excited that the weather is okay! After looking at a dreadful forecast of thunderstorms for the foreseeable future, I was almost reevaluating the first half of the trip, but on the plane as we got closer to Phuket the weather got better and better, to be greeted off the plane with warm sunshine!! Hooray.... I've waited for the moment for so long.

It took quite a while to reach Karon (after waiting in the longest passport control I've ever experienced at the airport and then being the lucky last stop on the minibus) but we finally arrived and got straight into it with some pad thai and chang beer at the cute hotel bar/restaurant! I love how cheap it is here - not even 2 quid for a meal and a nice one at that, and the 7-11 sells chang tallies for 38 baht - not even 80 pence each :-) Gav was also pretty stoked to buy a pack of ciggies for just over a pound!

We wandered down to the beach ( a small trek) and walked to Kata, the next beach and just wandered along the street markets and restaurants pretty much and got ourselves a pair of sunnies each since I was nearly blinded I've gotten too used to London grey skies.

Although my feet are killing me from wearing thongs (flip-flops for the English reading this) which I haven't worn for at least 8 months.

Tomorrow we're hitting the beach for some sun! Pray that the weather is good. Love to all.... xox

Singapore wanderings

Shops, shops and more shops! Singapore seems to be a city full of shopping malls! We wandered all the way along Orchard Road which I think is their shopping street, although we had no money for shopping so wasn't very productive. We went to go for a Singapore Sling at Raffles - where the drink itself was invented, although they cost $25 (singapore) each! So just had a little looksee around and quickly departed haha... We checked out Bugis street market - the largest in Singapore, where we found a cool little dodgey looking food court and got ourselves some pork mince fish ball noodle soup for about 1 pound each :-) It was absolutely bucketing down with rain so thought this would kill some time until the storm blew over. It was the first time in sooo long that I've experienced a summer storm - it was great! The humidity, the smells.... ahhhh.... memories of home....

We walked down to the river and had a little look at the cute restaurants along the river but it was pouring rain so got the metro back to the hostel for a nap and then a pork bun! (thats food)

Singapore was lovely although a day was really enough, we were ready to hit the beaches!!

Singapore Slung

If I knew how to say hello in Malay I would but we don't so a straight up Hawaiian Aloha will have to do! We arrived safe and sound and not as hungover as I would've liked but maybe that's a good thing since both Jess and I are totally buggered from the 11 hour flight not counting the hour delay at Heathrow. I think I'll keep this short and sweet as my typing is only getting worse and we need to eat and sleep! Loving the humidity though, it goes great with our shower that has a broken heating element! Anyway ya'll we'll let you know how we go once we've experienced a little more of Singapore than just Changi Airport and the subway!

Gav & Jess
xo

Our route!

For anyone interested, here's a map and details of our route (9 weeks through SE Asia):

• Singapore

Thailand

• Phuket
• Ko Phi Phi
• Railay (Krabi)
• Ko Samui
• Ko Phangan
• Bangkok
• Chiang Mai
• Ko Chang (after Laos on the way to Cambodia)

Laos

• Vientiane
• Vang Vieng
• Luang Prubang

Cambodia

• Pnomh Phen
• Siem Reap (Angkor temples)

Vietnam (rough route)

• Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)
• Na-Trang
• Hue
• Hoi An
• Hanoi
• Halong Bay

Then back to Singapore to fly on to Oz!!! :-)

2 weeks of Winter left

Only 2 weeks to go until we're eating noodles and laying on the beach! :-D

Check this space for regular updates and photos as we travel round Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam...

You can also subscribe so that you get emailed every time we update it.

Jess x