Eden, Kangaroo Valley, Sydney, Wamberal, Port Macquarie…

Heading north from Port Albert towards Sydney we hugged the coastline with stunning sea views to the right and green fields and forests to our left. Our next stop would be the town of Eden and after a long day of driving we pulled into a caravan site for the evening, nicely nestled between the sea and a lake with lots of colourful birds feeding and a perfect beach to stroll along.

We have been in the camper for a few days/nights now and it is proving to be a great way to travel, sleep and cook. There are many companies offering camper hire in Australia, from small people carrier styled campers to luxury RV’s. The main “backpacker” companies are Juicy, Wicked & Spaceships…the names aren’t great and the vehicles are even worse! When we had initially looked into hire options we considered these companies but after looking in detail at their pricing and vehicle options we quickly steered clear. The average age for their vehicles is 14 years and even the best vehicle is well worn by then, especially after being driven across this huge country by backpackers the whole time. The vehicles have low roofs and cramped sleeping areas, with cooking outside and to top-it-off the standard excess is often 5000 AUD (£3250) – more than the value of the vehicle.

The decent companies all come under two companies – Apollo & Britz. These companies both cover the entire range and as vehicles become older they move down through their brands. Apollo’s budget brand is “Cheapa Campa” and after a lot of searching and phone calls we had settled on a “hi-top” vehicle, average age three years and 100 AUD excess! The mileage on the budget brand campers must be horrendous as our vehicle is four years old and has already covered 275,000 kms.

The vehicle is an adapted Toyota Hiace Van and has space to stand-up inside, fridge and cooking facilities and convertible dining/sleeping area.

Even the good vehicles go wrong sometimes….When we collected the camper and drove it back to Sarah & Timmy’s house in Melbourne, we noticed a small amount of water trail out the back. We passed this off as run-off from the vehicle having been cleaned. When Matt tried to fill the water tank for the first-time in Eden water rushed out the back. Lifting the inside hatch Matt found the connection had come-off the side of the vehicle filling cap (which we had been warned about). Matt re-connected it and was about to close the hatch when he also noticed the real problem – the water tank fitting had snapped clean off the tank!

The efficient team at Apollo booked us in first-thing with a repair shop – luckily right in Eden. We popped over in the morning and they fixed the tank and when we mentioned that the second battery didn’t seem to hold charge, jumped at the chance to fit a new battery too. Thirty minutes work and the guy managed to pocket a nice 500 dollars off the hire firm – The water tank needed a tiny hose-fitting and for that part alone he charged 70 dollars!

Eden  has a nice look-out over the sea and a coastal path to walk and we had a nice stroll before being attacked on three occasions by Magpies. Timmy had warned us that at this time of year the Magpies are nesting and become aggressive to passers-by however we didn’t quite realise that they would be quite so forward with their attacks, swooping to within millimetres of our heads before landing nearby to observe.

Soon moving again, we aimed to reach Kangaroo Valley by the end of the day. An area an hour’s drive from Sydney it is highly ranked by many and the Lonely Planet feature it as one of the top things to see in Australia – It also happens to have a free camp-site listed in our book.

We drove for a few hours before stumbling upon a beautiful inlet and beach where we could park for lunch which was taken in the camper as Magpies were again controlling the area around the picnic benches. We walked along the beach and to a look-out point over the heads before continuing the drive north.

The free-site at Kangaroo valley was listed as 7km off the main road and it was dark by the time we arrived. We weren’t sure who (if anybody) would be around but we made our way down the small road to take a look. As we arrived our lights shone not-only on twenty or so other campers but also on the large grassy area in the centre of the camp, covered (to Emma’s delight) with many Wombats and Kangaroo’s.

The site turned out to be in an amazing spot and even in the morning Emma managed to snap a lone Wombat who wasn’t yet-sleeping. We only found-out a few days later that it is rare to see Wombats in the wild and many people who we have met who have travelled/live in Australia have never seen them.

A nice feature of the camper is that you can open the rear door from inside and awake in the morning to snooze with the door open and take-in the early morning sun.

We set-off in the morning and had a browse at the small, old shops in Kangaroo Valley. A few miles into the journey we spotted a look-out sign and ducked off the road. We were treated to a great view of the valley and sea from the balcony and grounds of the hilltop café.

We have two sets of maps in the camper – one which Alan gave us and the one supplied with the van. We also have a Sydney road map which we had picked-up at one of the information centre’s en-route. All of the maps had conflicting information on the toll roads in and around Sydney making for an interesting drive towards the only camp-site within the city reaches. We managed to navigate around the toll roads (we think) and haven’t received any fine notifications yet.

The camp-site proved to be in a handy spot only five minutes walk to a station on the main-line taking twenty minutes into the city.

On our first day in Sydney we met with Chris & Keri Elkins, friends from home, who have recently moved to the city after a spell travelling. It was strange to think that only a couple of months before we had met with them in Bangkok as they passed through on their way to Vietnam. We had a nice meal near to their flat on Bondi Beach.

The weather had been slowly closing in and from our first day in Syndey and it was soon raining – The rain persisted for the next couple of days as we explored the city.

Neither of us has ever been to an Imax Cinema before so we decided on the second day to escape the rain and see the “Born To Be Wild 3d” film at the Imax. Aside from escaping the rain we had also wanted to see this film as it is a documentary covering the Ourangutans in Borneo and the Elephant Orphanage in Kenya which we had visited earlier in the year. It was a nice reminder of what we had seen and featured the founder Dame Daphne Sheldrick whom we had met on our visit.

In the evening we met with another friend Emily, whom we went to college with and had lived in Basingstoke until three years ago when her family emigrated. It was nice to see another familiar face and catch-up after so long.

Our next few days were spent exploring the city and its nice areas such as the Rocks with is coffee shops and markets. We strolled across the Harbour Bridge, around the Opera House and took the ferry ride across the bay to Manly. The weather had improved for the last day and we had spectacular sunshine for the ferry ride across the harbour.

A short drive from Syndey is the small town of Wamberal where we had arranged to visit some of Matt’s family friends; Greg, Janice & Kate Brown.. Matt’s Brothers and Dad have all stayed with them at different times whilst travelling Australia, Greg & Janice have visited in the UK and Kate lived at Matt’s for a few months.

The Brown’s live only a stone’s throw from the beach and we spent two days relaxing and walking the dogs which was a welcome break from all the driving.

As we left the Brown’s the weather took another turn for the worst as we headed north towards Port Macquarie.  Stopping at the lighthouse on the edge of town was incredible as the sky was almost completely dark apart from some perfect blue sky in the distance. Many amateur photographers had flocked to the lighthouse to try and catch a shot, with lightening striking every minute.

The town was  nice and smart with an impressive “glasshouse” information centre and we explored the town and took a walk along the boardwalk before settling down for the night at a free campsite on the beach.

We are continuing our journey north towards Byron Bay and Brisbane over the next few days.

Love

Emma & Matt

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Port Albert….

Our flight from Singapore to Melbourne was a night flight, departing at 10.30pm and arriving at 7.15am. The flight was smooth and we flew with Emirates so the entertainment and food was also good. Our friends Timmy & Sarah took the day off to collect us and had a nice early start to meet us at the airport!

Melbourne Airport was actually one of the most basic we have flown into which surprised us a little and the baggage reclaim was a nightmare. All five incoming flights had been put onto one belt and the belt was ten deep with people. It took us an hour to get our baggage and then amazingly we breezed through customs, even having declared our bag of M&M’s just-in-case (it did say all food items on the landing card, but they weren’t worried about our sealed sweets).

Timmy & Sarah were waiting for us at arrivals and soon whisked us off to a lovely country café for a hearty full English breakfast. We headed back to their house just outside Melbourne in Point Cook and relaxed for the afternoon and amazingly were still awake early evening to head into Melbourne for dinner. We had a quick orientation of Federation Square and the waterfront (as Sarah & Timmy would be working during the days as we would be exploring the city on our own) before heading into the lanes for a great dinner with some amazing steak for Matt & Timmy.

After a much needed sleep we headed out the next morning and spent the day roaming the city and found the very handy information centre to plan our next few days sightseeing.

Timmy catches the train into the city each morning so we were able to catch the train with him early the next day, ready for a full day of sightseeing. Our first stop was the Victoria Markets to browse the stalls housed in old covered buildings. The general market was much as any other market at home with lots of tacky clothing and shoes etc – Matt tried on a pair of trainers and the seller was telling him how good they look before they were even fully on his feet! The food market was incredible and we had to evacuate quickly before we spent a lot of money.

Whilst at the information centre yesterday we learned that the Melbourne Museum was hosting the Tutankhamun Exhibition (which we had missed when it came to England) so we decided to visit this in the afternoon. We had also learned from the info centre about the old, free tram which runs a loop around the city and was a convenient way to travel around.

The Tutankhamun exhibition was really worth seeing and housed some great pieces recovered from his tomb however they didn’t have the most famous item – his full head mask (even though it featured in all their adverts). We also don’t have any pictures as cameras were banned inside.

In the late afternoon we had planned to meet with Alan, one of the guys from our China Trip. He had been travelling in Australia for a few weeks now, with Nicky whom he had met on an other Gap Trip. They had taken a camper van from Cairns to Sydney, much the same route as we would take only in reverse. We met them in the late afternoon and had coffee a their hotel bar. It was great to catch-up after so long, we had been travelling in Asia whilst Alan had been exploring Europe before heading back to Australia. They had also brought a guide book on free and cheap camp-sites which they kindly gave to us. They were heading off to meet some friends for the evening and we needed to head home for dinner so we agreed to try and meet next week, once we return to Melbourne.

Friday soon came around and was the day we would be collecting our camper – home and transport for the next 32 days. Timmy had the day off and drove us to the hire depot near the airport. Thankfully we are a little clued-up on vehicles and motor-homes as our hand-over was completed by a trainee (who was being shadowed) and was both inaccurate and painfully slow. The lady pointed out the “screen-wash” which was actually the brake fluid, spent far too long explaining the sink and how to pump the tap and even told us if we get a flat tyre we should call the breakdown line as “they will do a more professional job”.

We were given a slight upgrade from the “Hippy Camper” brand to the “Cheapa Camper” brand – slightly nicer branding, newer vehicle and a microwave!

Sarah finished work at 1pm and we were soon following them out of Melbourne towards the great ocean road for our weekend road trip.

We based ourselves at the picturesque town of Apollo Bay a few hours drive from Melbourne and half-way to the twelve apostles.

Our first full day was spent walking some forested tracks to viewing platforms overlooking waterfalls and climbing the hill overlooking Apollo Bay.

We awoke early to climb the hill overlooking Apollo Bay at sunrise. The view was spectacular and a lovely morning. It was fairly cold at the top yet some Aussies arrived in shorts and t-shirt, cracked open some cold beers and began hitting golf balls off the top of the hill!

Driving back to the camp-site, Sarah & Timmy were already awake and cooking a good fry-up breakfast for the busy day ahead.

The drive to the Twelve Apostles was stunning and mostly hugged the coastline, darting inland for short sections before returning to the coastline.

A couple of hours driving and we reached the famous “Twelve Apostles”. There was only ever actually eight pieces of the rock protruding from the sea although there is a story behind the number twelve being used. There now remains only five or so “Apostles” but the view of the coastline is nevertheless impressive.

 

 

We drove a short section of the “food loop” tourist drive inland from the Twelve Apostles stopping at a chocolate factory and a cheese producers before beginning the drive back to Melbourne.

En-route home we stopped at a light-house which looked great against the clear blue skies in the background and the shimmering seas.

We decided to spend another day in Melbourne exploring the few remaining parts of the city we hadn’t yet reached. In the morning we walked through the Fitzroy Gardens in the centre of the city. The flowers were in full bloom and the park was immaculate against the backdrop of the city.

The gardens also house Captain Cooks Cottage the famous explorers home and the “oldest building in Australia”. Although the home was relocated here some years ago it looks perfectly at home amongst the gardens and trees.

We took a walk around the waterfront area before heading back to Point Cook.

We had been thinking about a suitable thank-you present and combined early wedding present for Sarah & Timmy and had been helped by their “to buy for house” list on the fridge. Matt had already had the idea of a BBQ and it was luckily on the list. We had probed Timmy over the last few days and learned that “Bunnings” was the equivalent of Homebase/B&Q and good for BBQ’s. We found the BBQ we wanted only to find it wasn’t in stock at the local store we were in. Some hassle and driving later we found another store and managed to buy a lovely big BBQ, ready built and loaded it into the camper with ease.

It was a nice surprise for Sarah & Timmy and a summer essential in Australian homes but also signalled that we would be moving-on in the morning and beginning our drive toward Sydney. We were the first friends they had seen from the UK since leaving in July.

We said our goodbye’s in the morning and hit the road out of the city. We stopped in Seaford to meet with Alan and Nicky for one last time. They were spending a few days here with friends from the UK before flying to New Zealand.

We discussed over coffee the horrendous overpricing in Australia covering a wide range of items. We knew it would be expensive here but didn’t expect it to be quite this bad. Matt had been into some bike stores and once converted back to pounds the price was still double the UK prices for exactly the same product. We had also looked for trainers and it wasn’t possible to find them for less that 120 dollars (£80). An identical pair of trainers which in the UK would be £50 were the equivalent of £130. Many grocery items were also expensive and eating-out double the UK price!

Alan had his laptop with him and we copied to our hard drive loads of movies and the Blue Planet / Planet Earth series to watch in the camper on our travels which have proved handy entertainment in the evenings.

A lovely drive for a few hours would take us through both lush-green, undulating countryside and nice ocean views. We stopped off for lunch overlooking the entrance to the Great Lakes.

Our stop for the night was a free camp-site in the small town of Port Albert. Although the town was virtually a ghost town and most places were for sale the spot couldn’t have been nicer. All the free camp-sites have toilets and a BBQ and this one also had a lovely view of the Ocean and harbour.

We will continue our journey towards Sydney, arriving in Sydney in the next few days.

Love

Emma & Matt

xxxx

 

Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore…

We loved our time in Siem Reap and all the great Khmer food we had been eating over the past few days, topped off with a great guest house, but also looked forward to meeting Emma’s mum and sister in Singapore. What we weren’t looking forward to so much was the three days of travelling to reach Singapore…

A local bus would take us from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh the capital where we were due to catch a flight the next day. The return bus wasn’t as good as the one we took to Siem Reap and the leg-room was minimal. Having trundled along the dirt roads for five hours we came to a halt in a small town. Matt was fidgety from being cramped and took the opportunity to stretch his legs (whilst finding out why we had stopped). Matt found the assistant of the bus carrying a tool-box to the rear of the bus and was soon involved in what seemed to be some running repairs. The assistant removed his shirt and gave it to Matt to hold whilst he wriggled under the bus and began jacking the bus up, whilst underneath it, and whilst it was full of people! Walking around the the other side of the bus it became apparent that we were not going to move anywhere as the wheel bearing had virtually exploded and a faint burning smell drifted around!

We were looking at 2-3 hours waiting for a replacement bus to arrive when two minutes later another bus stopped, only half full, and took on some of our passengers. We were luckily one of the few who had got our bags off already and got a seat…the rest were left waiting for another bus. A total of 15 minutes delay seemed good for a breakdown.

After one more night at the Mad Monkey Guest House and an early start the following morning we were sat at the airport, drinking vastly overpriced coffee and talking to a Swiss man who lives in Jakarta before boarding our two hour flight to Kuala Lumpur. Air Asia is a great airline for hopping around Asia and very much the Easy Jet of the region but as with all low-cost airlines, flight times and routes are not always the best and we couldn’t get a direct flight to Singapore.

We landed at the “low-cost terminal” in Kuala Lumpur where they ship the cheap flights and in return you get even cheaper standards….It took us over an hour to clear immigration, half an hour to order a McDonald’s and a wait in the rain for a 1.5 hour bus into the city.

It was strange to be back in Kuala Lumpur at the same guest house as we didn’t expect to be coming back so soon.

The next days transport to Singapore was certainly welcomed. We booked the “Aeroline” coach service to Singapore, a five hour journey. The company markets itself as “the convenient way to fly” and has great coaches with business-class styled seats, in-seat entertainment, toilets, business lounge and full food service from an on-board steward – They even call their drivers “captains”!

The picture below shows Matt in the downstairs business lounge.

We arrived in Singapore around 11am and headed to our hotel on Orchard Road, one of the main streets in Singapore. We dropped our bags at the hotel and dashed back out to get the train to the airport and meet Emma’s mum and sister. They were expecting to meet us at the hotel and luckily we made it to the arrivals gate just before they reached the baggage reclaim and we watched them come through the gate and reach their chauffeur before we crept up behind them!

The following day, after a good sleep we headed out to the harbour area to catch the cable car to Mt Faber and Sentosa Island. The cable car runs up the the mountain first which has some good views before continuing down to Sentosa Island over the harbour. We were lucky to pass right over the top of a cruise ship moored in the harbour which was an impressive sight.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Sentosa Island and some other stores on our way back to Orchard Road.

We had booked “breakfast with the Orangutans” for the following morning and set-off early for the zoo. An great buffet breakfast awaited us followed by watching the elephant bath and a visit from the Orangutans .

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the zoo, the highlights being the “Jungle Enclosure” full of birds, monkeys, mouse deer, bats and a sloth.

In the evening we visited a local food court where we found some of our favourite Chinese sweet & sour pork and steamed buns/dumplings, all for a very reasonably price (especially by Singapore standards).

One of the highlights of Singapore was the Botanical Gardens and Orchid Gardens. The flowers were in full bloom and the colours were stunning.

Emma’s dad has been doing business in Singapore for many years and has made some good friends whom he put us in touch with. They kindly took us out for dinner one evening to a local Hong Kong styled restaurant for some lovely authentic Chinese food. Emma’s mum had met these same friends some thirty years ago on a visit to Singapore so it was god to meet up with them and talk about how Singapore had changed in that time.

We had been recommended to visit the bird park whilst we were here, which houses the largest single-span aviary in the world. The aviary was huge and full or colourful birds feeding on their morning fruits and seeds and even features a huge waterfall at its centre.

We have often passed the London Eye and discussed going up but never actually go around to it due to the long queues and hefty prices and Emma’s mum and sister have also not been on it. Singapore has the largest wheel in the world and also has a very reasonable price so we decided to give it a go.

The views from the top were great and we could see right over the harbour and CBD. The Grand Prix is also coming to Singapore in the next few weeks and so we could see the grand-stand and the pit area clearly with roads all around beginning to resemble a track. In the pictures below you can also see a building on the left called Marina Bay Sands. This incredible building has a top shaped like a boat with an infinity pool atop it and is one of only two casinos in the country. Previous government outlawed gambling but the new government has seen the money making potential from wealthy (mostly Chinese) holiday-makers. The funniest part is that Singaporeans have to pay a huge entrance fee to try and discourage them from gambling!

One evening we headed to Clarke Quay, a popular riverside area full of nice restaurants and bars. After a nice Thai meal we took the harbour tour ferry down the river and into the Marina where the CBD and all the bridges were lit-up.

A visit to Singapore is not complete until you have sampled a Singapore Sling in the bar where it was created – The “Long Bar” at Raffles.

We loved the hustle and bustle of Singapore and enjoyed catching up with Emma’s mum and sister….Although sadly Singapore will be our last stop in Asia before we head back to “the west” starting with Australia.

We are looking forward to seeing our friends Sarah & Timmy in Melbourne our first stop in Australia!

 

Love Emma & Matt

xxxx

 

 

 

 

Cambodia – Phnom Penh, Siem Reap….

A 7 hour bus ride took us from Saigon and across the border into the capital of Cambodia – Phnom Penh. We had been travelling in Laos with a lady called Nicky who headed into Cambodia for three months after Laos. We met with her in Bangkok and she recommended the Mad Monkey Guest House in Phnom Penh.

The Mad Monkey turned out to be nice and in a very nice area of the city full of embassies and NGO’s, however on the Tuk Tuk ride from the bus station the area was noticeably very poor and full of rubbish – Very much resembling a poorer area in India.

We settled into the Mad Monkey, run by three friendly British guys and were pleased to find that the restaurant served great food. We ate our first “western meal” for some time!

In Bangkok we had taken a bike tour with a company called Grasshopper Adventures. They specialise in cycling tours and holidays in the Asia region and we had enjoyed the tour in Bangkok so we headed out in the morning to find their office in Phnom Penh.

We hired some bikes from the guest house to work our way to their office and were pleased to find that the area of the city we were located in was much different to the areas we had seen the day before. Wide, clean streets, based on an American grid system made finding our way fairly easy and we soon located the river-front and main shopping areas of the city.

We located the Grasshopper store and booked a day tour for the following day – “The Oudong Trail” which would take us to the famous temples atop Oudong Mountain some 65km from the city.

The weather in the morning looked good and we met our guide and bikes before heading off along the old railway tracks into the countryside around the city. There is currently no railway system in Cambodia but it is being re-developed and will hopefully open again in a year or two.

We cycled through the poorer areas of the city which hug the old railway lines, the living conditions here looked appalling and sewage was flooded everywhere.

We soon left the railway and entered the lovely countryside outside of the city, cycling along rice paddies dotted with palm trees.

Setting off at 7am the temperature had been nice and the temperatures soon increased although thankfully they remained pleasant with a nice breeze. We stopped regularly for cold drinks and local snacks of sticky rice and jack fruit.

Our guide was great and really informative and pointed out many interesting sights along the way. Most incredible was how friendly the people were along the way, especially the children. Every child we passed came running out of the house shouting hello and many came to the roadside to give a hi-five as we passed. Older locals showed interest, especially at our bikes – Grasshopper is western run and aimed at western tourists so they use nice imported mountain bikes which the locals have never seen!

After 65km riding, along quiet flat back-roads we reached the base of Oudong mountain where we would stop for lunch before climbing to the top. Lunch was the only disappointing part of the tour as it was a little bit too “local” even considering that we love local food – Emma wasn’t impressed when a chicken head and foot appeared in her soup!

We climbed to the top of the mountain which was well worth the ride to see the views all around. Oudong Mountain is the only hill in the area with the surrounding land being completely flat so the views were great.

We had a couple of local boys walking with us who spend their afternoon talking to tourists and acting as informal guides in order to practise English (and get some tips towards their learning costs). Their English was impeccable and the boy walking with Emma even carried a fan to keep her cool as we climbed the steps to the temple.

We returned to the guest house around 5pm and met up with Niamh (from our Vietnam tour) who had just checked in. As the food was so good at the guest house we again had dinner in and some drinks.

The following day we had arranged to visit the infamous S-21 Prison and the Killing Fields in the afternoon. We spent the morning relaxing at the very nice Brown’s coffee shop – an ex-pat and business person hot-spot with some very nice cars parked outside!

A minibus picked us up at 1pm to take us first to the S-21 prison. The information at the guest house had stated that the bus would play a video containing the key facts of the prison and killing fields. When our driver pulled up with his bright shirt and neon green ray-bans he was actually playing a dance music video with the accompanying bass projected though our seat via a large sub-woofer. We couldn’t work out how he thought it remotely appropriate but possibly the places are so depressing that it is aimed to lift your spirits. He also had some impressive clutch control, even managing to “kangaroo jump” in third gear! – Maybe this was also intended to make us smile?

The S-21 prison is right in the centre of Phnom Penh and was actually built as a high school. During the three-year reign of the Khymer Rouge it served as a detention and torture centre for anyone opposed to the regime. Almost all the prisoners here were then transferred to the killing fields outside the city to be executed, if they had survived the torture. The Khymer Rouge meticulously documented all of the people who were detained and pictured them before they were killed. The prison has not been changed since and we could still see the beds prisoners were chained to and blood stains on the walls and floor. Even a room remains filled with the prisoners clothes.

Most incredible was that all of this happened from 1975 – 1979 and ended only 9 years before we were born. Still today there is a court in session to try to bring the leaders and government ministers of the regime to trial. We actually met some of the lawyers who come to the bar at the guest house to have a drink.

The bus collected us and we were dropped off at the killing fields where thousands were killed and buried in mass graves. They believe around 8-10,000 people were buried here. The main memorial is a disturbing building full of skulls recovered from the burial pits. When it rains here teeth and bone fragments and also clothes still rise from the ground and can be seen as you walk around.

After what must be some of the most harrowing places to visit we again boarded our inappropriate “party bus” back to the guest house.

We spent the evening with Niamh drinking cocktails at the rooftop bar of our guest house. Niamh would be flying the next day back to London and we would be catching a bus to Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples.

We had a good bus journey the next day to Siem Reap and arrived at Rosy Guest House early evening. Niamh had just stayed in the guest house and had recommended it. Again run by an English couple, the guest house was great and had everything you could need to enjoy your time here and lots of information on how best to visit the temples.

Siem Reap seemed much nicer than the capital, which we were pleased about. It was hard to imagine that in 2005 the town had virtually no paved roads or internet connection yet it now has 200+ hotels, 350+ restaurants and the whole town is covered with a high-speed single wifi connection!

We spent our first day here exploring the town and again hunting out the Grasshopper Office. By the end of the day we had booked onto a tour the next day which would take us cycling around some of the main temples whilst getting off the main transport routes.

Setting off at 7am the next morning with our cycling guide and also a temple guide we decided to take a better paved route to the first temple as it was raining and had been all night!

We spent the day visiting a number of temples including the famous Angkor Wat and the temple where the Tomb Raider film was produced.

The day turned out to be nice and the rain soon cleared up. We had good time as the cycling guide was fun and spoke perfect English and the temple guide gave us a good insight into the history of each temple. We arrived back to the guest house at 3pm for a much needed shower – the humidity during the wet season is incredible!

Over the next two days we hired a Tuk Tuk for an afternoon/sunset and also for a sunrise/morning. The Tuk Tuk drove us around the temples stopping at the main temples along the route. We also took a ride out to a nice temple 40km from town which was deserted when we arrived which was a pleasant change.

The weather had been on and off for the three days with drizzle and clouds most of the time. Both the sunset and sunrise were covered by clouds which was a shame. Even though we didn’t see the famous “Angkor Wat Sunrise” we loved the three days exploring the huge temples which are on a scale impossible to imagine until you see them!

On the last day we visited a temple with a nice lily pond near it and at one temple a little boy climbed onto his buffalo for us to take a picture (of course in return for a pen)!

Tomorrow we begin a three day journey to Singapore. We will catch a bus to Phnom Penh and spend another night at the Mad Monkey before flying the next morning to Kuala Lumpur. We spend another night in KL at a guest house we have previously stayed at (and possible a cinema visit) and the next morning get a nice looking bus to Singapore.

We are looking forward to meeting Emma’s Mum and Sister in Singapore for eight days.

Love Emma & Matt

xxxx

Hoi An, Saigon, Mekong Delta, Saigon….

A long bus journey on the way to Hoi An was well worth it as we crossed the Haivan Pass, winding up the hillsides until we reached the top where we stopped to take pictures of the city and sea below.

Da Nang was the city we overlooked, a city which the Vietnamese government are building into their new commercial hub alongside Saigon, a logical choice as it has an international airport and deep sea harbour.

Hoi An is a Unesco protected town and has been preserved and renovated perfectly with small car-free streets and lots of nice shops and restaurants making it the perfect town to relax and browse shops especially by bike.

Our first afternoon was spent taking an “orientation walk” with our guide around the old town. Hoi An is most famous for it many tailor shops (some 350 of them) producing anything you can imagine overnight. Our guide pointed out the best shops for tailored goods and also the best restaurants and bars. As Matt had already had suits and shirts made in Bangkok we opted for the next tailored option – shoes! Emma got some nice sandals and Matt some loafers for only 60 USD for both. The store took all foot measurements and the next afternoon the shoes were ready to be collected and do seem the perfect fit!

All the hotels we had stayed in during the tour were nice but this one was the first one with a pool. It was good to have the pool to dip into as we were spending three days here and had lots of free time.

Also close by was a lovely big beach and we spent our first full day in Hoi An exploring the town by bike before cycling to the beach for an afternoon swimming in the sea.

For our second full day in Hoi An we had some optional activities and the guide recommended we do a cycling tour of the countryside. All the group agreed and we spent most of the morning cycling the countryside followed by a boat ride over to an island in the river and a nice BBQ lunch – again the food was incredible, especially considering that it was all cooked on a small BBQ.

We loved Hoi An and the amazing restaurants it has to offer although it looks like it will soon be over-run by tourists. As you drive into the area the road is lined with big new developments of villas and golf courses mainly catering to the Chinese and unfortunately in our experience they seem to be the least conscious tourists and certainly the worst for litter!

A short drive took us to Da Nang “international airport” – It is being re-developed and will I’m sure become a busy tourist airport but at the moment is very small with 5 check-in desks! We were flying to Saigon in order to cut the journey time and avoid another over-night train journey. Jetstar Airways are in general an OK airline although we had the ex British Airways plane, nice and old and still with BA logo’s in the kitchen at the back! It has been some time since we have flown on a plane which states on the tray table in front “your seat bottom can be used as a flotation device”. We had a good flight and arrived in the economical centre of Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City which most still refer to as Saigon.

After checking in to our hotel we had lunch at a local restaurant which is well know as Bill Clinton stopped of there for lunch – odd as it was a fairly basic cafe-style place but maybe he already knew how good the food was!

We spent the afternoon at the War Museum which covers the war with America and shows many of the atrocities which happened during the war. Obviously a very one-sided story in the museum and all the photo collection rooms had titles such as “The aggressive American War”. The photo collections, taken by a couple of brave journalists showed many graphic situations of torture and killing during the war and also the current deformations at birth caused by the agent orange chemicals used by the Americans.

When we left the Museum it was around 5pm and the streets were chaos. It was a great time to see the streets of Saigon at the busiest – during rush hour. Hundreds of scooters drive in every direction, including on the pavement. The second picture below shows a school with all the children being collected by scooter.

We spent a night in Saigon before departing for the Mekong Delta. An optional point on the trip was the Cu Chi Tunnels. We did think it a bit bizarre that this was optional as it is such a main attraction to see in Vietnam but all the group wanted to go which was helpful.

The Cu Chi tunnels was a 250km long tunnel network used by the Vietcong during the war to fight against the Americans using cunning tactics of surprise. It was incredible to see this massive network and the many human traps developed to catch the Americans. The picture below shows our guide explaining the network on a map and the basic tools used to dig the tunnels.

The tunnels were so small that most western size people just wouldn’t fit down them, we found it hard enough just to fit down the small entrance hole which when closed cannot be seen at all!

We did take the opportunity to test out the “tourist tunnel” which has been built to give you an idea of what it would be like in the tunnels whilst still being big enough for you to move – just!

We covered a section around 50m long and that was plenty.

We spent time looking at all the traps set by the Vietcong, all of them very clever, well disguised and designed to trap and kill the enemy slowly.

After a morning at the tunnels we set off to the Mekong Delta where we would be spending another night in a Home-Stay.

En-route we took a boat ride to a small island in the Mekong for lunch with a visit to a coconut candy factory and a stop to drink fresh honey tea at the side of a small river.

The ladies at the candy factory spend the morning at school and the afternoon wrapping sweets to be sent out. Watching them it was fascinating to see how fast they could wrap and pack the sweets.

After the honey tea, three small boats arrived to transfer us to the main Mekong Delta where a boat would take us to another island for our home-stay. The small boat ride was nice with lots of palms and other plants surrounding the narrow river.

We next transferred to a moto taxi which would drive us through incredible countryside and across bridges only just wide enough for the rear wheels to cross. We sped along for a good twenty minutes before reaching the homestay. At one point the moto in front of ourS clipped an old lady on a bike and she was very angry, throwing down her face mask and cursing (as we drove away!).

The home-stay was open style with mosquito nets for each bed and was located in the countryside jungle, surrounded by big palms and rivers.

After another incredible dinner, followed by home-brewed banana wine, we settled in for a cozy night with just the sounds of insects and rain around us.

In the morning we headed back to Saigon where the tour was to end. We all went out for a fair-well dinner at a local BBQ restaurant. The first course was very good with beef which we cooked in the middle of the table. The second course of Prawns didn’t appeal to all as the Prawns were still alive and moving whilst skewered ready to BBQ. The boys logic was that to wait would prolong the process and on the BBQ they went! – They were tasty and even Emma couldn’t resist trying one in the end.

After the meal the majority of the group and our guide Lap headed to a local bar and club for some drinks. We had a great night again and were all sad that the tour was ending and we would be heading our separate ways.

We really enjoyed the tour and Vietnam has been an incredible country to see with friendly people and great food. The trip was well planned and covered everything we would want to see in the country, accompanied by a really good group and tour leader. Most of the tour group will now head off on their way home with some stopping in Thailand and HK for a few days post-tour relaxation.

We will be heading across into Cambodia and the first stop is Phnom Penh. We were pleased to find that we would cross paths with Niamh, the Irish girl from our tour in Cambodia and are looking forward to a new country to explore!

Love

Emma & Matt

xxxx

 

 

Hanoi, Sapa, Halong Bay, Hue….

After a short and pleasant flight from Bangkok with Air Asia we arrived in Vietnam. We were interested to see the country having heard so many mixed reviews from other travellers. It seemed from the differing opinions to be a love/hate country.

Our first day was spent milling around the many lovely small streets of the Old Quarter in Hanoi. We were shocked at how lovely the place seemed and the overall feel was much different than we expected. Great looking restaurants, bars and stylish shops lined the narrow streets bustling with scooters.

We had expected many scooters and interesting street crossings and had expected hundreds of old, standard Honda scooters as we found in the rest of Asia. What we actually found was mostly stylish Vespa & Piaggio scooters ridden by fashion clad riders with matching helmets. We later found that as these scooters are imported they are extremely expensive at around 8000 USD, double the UK prices. The numbers of expensive cars on the streets also caught us by surprise, especially considering the number of bumps and scrapes they must receive from all the scooters!

It looked like we would be pleasantly surprised by Vietnam and we were looking forward to beginning our GAP tour “Best Of Vietnam” a few days after we arrived in Hanoi. The first very pleasant surprise in Vietnam came accidentally whilst discussing prices of food with some British girls we met. We were quite surprised at how expensive Vietnam seemed, especially food. It turned out that somehow we had written down the wrong exchange rate and had been using a “5” instead of a “3”. That made a huge difference and made everything very cheap!

We spent a couple of days just getting to know our way around and catching up on some forward travel plans as we knew the tour would be busy. On the Sunday evening we joined our tour group and headed out for a first meal. The picture below shows 10 out of our 15 tour group.

We headed out on our first day of the tour to see some of the sights in Hanoi, starting with the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. Modelled much like Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the building houses the body of the former leader Ho Chi Minh. The complex was closed to the public the day we visited, which was a shame but its a little spooky to see a preserved body on display!

The weather seemed nice but just as we were walking to the next sight it began to drizzle..Nobody in the group had brought their rain jackets out. Whilst we visited a Temple the heavens opened and we spent the next 30 minutes huddled under a stall watching the puddles grow in size. Our tour leader purchased us all Poncho’s and we headed out in the rain to see the first University of Vietnam.

The streets were completely flooded and at times we walked up to our knees in water. Incredibly the locals ploughed on, lifting their feet on mopeds to avoid the water. We even helped a smartly dressed business man get back into his car, opening the door so he could take his shoes off and hop right in from the raised kerb he was stranded on! It was incredible to see the amount of water which could fall in such a short time and how quickly it dispersed only a couple of hours later.

Amazingly this bench was in the courtyard of “The First University of Vietnam” which we visited and shows how much water had fallen!

In the evening we saw the famous Vietnamese “Water Puppet Show”. It turned out to be a bizarre performance using puppets in the water with the controls disguised underwater. Interesting to see but the whole group seemed glad that it was included in the tour and not a paid extra!

The itinerary for the tour was set to be quite busy and we had to get to know each other quickly ready for our first sleeper train on the first day which would take us to the hilly region of Sapa.

The picture below shows the railway which runs right through the middle of Hanoi.

The train was much nicer than we had expected and for the first time we had sleepers in a locked cabin with four berths per cabin. The walls were all wood panelled, comfortable mattresses and good bedding. We had a fun evening with drinks and music on what was described in the tour literature as the “Thousand Bumpies Hotel” due to the old rails making the train bump around a lot.

Our guide told us not to worry in the morning as he would wake us up early enough to pack and get off the train and the train would stop for 30 minutes anyway at our destination. Having gone to sleep at 3am we awoke and 5.30am to our guide hurrying us all off the train saying we had only minutes before the train would leave. Our guide had overslept!

A one hour bus journey took us to our hotel in the hilltop town of Sapa. Niamh (Neve) the Irish girl on our tour had tried hard to represent the Irish during last nights drinking on the train and on the twisty bus journey seemed to be regretting that fourth bottle of red!

It was refreshing to arrive in Sapa where the temperature was much cooler. After a good breakfast we headed to see a local Market. The market wasn’t exactly what everyone was expecting nor what they wanted to see just after breakfast (especially Niamh!) – Bees in a bag, fish being chopped and de-scaled whilst alive, chickens being killed and even dogs being chopped up! Most of us retreated to the main road and waited whilst the few with stronger stomachs continued through the market.

The Sapa region is home to the Hmong Tribes whom we soon found out are very persistent sellers. Teams of American & Australian volunteers trained the Hmong to speak better English to help them with their selling skills. Their tactic it to ask you all sorts of questions and follow you wherever you went. Over the next few days they even followed us during 15km treks! They asked in perfect English all about us and how old we were, where we live, if we were married and most importantly how much we earned!

We spent the afternoon visiting a local village to see how the Hmong people live and had a look around a local house. Some of the group also took a walk to Cat Cat Village a small village a few km’s into the valley below the town.

On the way to Cat Cat Village we saw a local lady carrying a huge amount of firewood.

The Cat Cat Village has a lovely waterfall. The picture below is looking up-stream from the falls. The group picture at the start of the blog is also taken at the falls.

In the evening of the first day we ate at a restaurant nearby the hotel and again the rain came down in huge amounts. The main town is all built on a hill so the water came running down the hills and into the streets causing the main street to turn into a river, flooding shops opposite the restaurant in a matter of minutes and knocking over motorbikes parked on the hill.

In the morning we packed small backpacks and headed off with the group for a 15km trek through the Sapa valley ending at a home-stay for the evening.

The scenery en-route was breathtaking and lush green. We were lucky to be visiting during the wet season when hillsides covered in rice paddies are at their greenest.

During the walk each of us was shadowed closely by one of the local Hmong ladies and young girls, insisting on helping us across the rivers and tricky sections and actually proving handy at times! In return for this they of course are hoping that you will buy from them at the end of the walk. The distances these tiny women cover each day is staggering and always carrying large baskets on their back full of their goods to sell or young babies.

Young children here are given the task of minding the Buffalo during the day. Each family has only a couple of Buffalo and they are valuable so need to be watched at all times. Generally they roam where they wish and the children are on hand to make sure they don’t get killed for eating farmers crops! The Buffalo are actually very gentle and the children spend their days lounging on their backs.

We spent the evening at a home-stay with a local family. The accommodation was a large open house with double beds covered in mosquito nets and was actually very comfortable. The food here was incredible and much appreciated after a long day walking. We spent a nice evening swimming in the river and eating dinner followed by drinks of their home-brewed rice wine and a good sleep ready for the next days walking.

The morning proved to be very wet but luckily the rain ended just before we set off. As it had been raining all night and the route would be treacherous we split into two groups. One with good shoes and one with not so sturdy shoes! We walked a further 7km and were met by the bus and the rest of the group ready to return to town.

We had a free afternoon in Sapa and after a good shower and setting out shoes out to dry we went off shopping to buy some jackets we had seen earlier. North Face clothing is made in Vietnam and we managed to pick up two good winter jackets for only £70 and are fairly certain they are not fakes!

After dinner we caught a sleeper train which would take us back to Hanoi, arriving at 4am.

The sleeper train was more subdued than our previous train and we had a decent nights sleep arriving early in Hanoi to transfer 3hours to Halong Bay. We had enough time in Hanoi for a good breakfast at our favourite cafe, Joma Bakery.

We boarded our traditional style Junk, similar to the one in the picture below, just in time for a good seafood lunch. Halong Bay is an area only a couple of miles from the mainland which is created from hundreds of limestone casts protruding from the water.

The next two days and one night were spent cruising Halong Bay, swimming and canoeing. The boat was good and private for our tour group with incredible food all included.

The local people who live in floating houses in the quiet waters of the bay have developed another ingenious selling solution by creating floating shops to visit all the moored tourist boats. Stocked with everything you could find in a local shop these women proved handy selling good priced beer, wine and many snacks.

Although the area is a tourist hot-spot it was still idyllic and quiet and with a good guide we managed to avoid all the other groups when canoeing and visiting caves. The sunsets in the bay were a nice end to each day.

We transferred back to Hanoi for our final sleeper train which would take us to the town of Hue, one of the oldest and most religious towns in Vietnam and world heritage site. Many old temples surround the town and the best way to see the area is on a motorbike tour.

On the first morning our group was met outside the hotel by a team of drivers on scooters. We all had our own moped and driver for the day for only 18 dollars including lunch and all entrance fees.

We visited small temples and pagodas stopping for a huge lunch at a temple. The vegetarian lunch cooked by the monks was some of the best food we had eaten in Vietnam and our trip in general.

We headed down small back alleys, stopping off to see a lady making conical hats. She only has one arm and still makes many of these hats each day, the work going into each one really doesn’t reflect the 2 dollar price tag. Most of the group purchased hats to take home. We also saw a lady making incense sticks and some of the group had a go, with some not bad attempts although the lady made it look so easy making over 1000 sticks a day.

We headed off road to a viewing point overlooking part of the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Perfume River.

Emma took the picture below of an old lady, bent double, carrying a huge bundle of firewood at a temple.

We had a fun evening at a lively local bar and everyone was tired in the morning. Luckily with the heat bearing down hard on us we had a relaxing ride on a Cyclo to a famous citadel modelled on the forbidden city in China.

Our tour will next take us to Hoi An, Saigon and the Mekong Delta. The group has been great so far and again we are really enjoying being on such an informative and well organised tour with like-mided people. The food in Vietnam is proving to be some of the best we have had this year!

We hope everyone is well.

Love Emma & Matt

xxxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Penang, Langkawi, Penang, Bangkok…

We finished our last blog planning to head back into Thailand and spend a few days in the Islands of the south before arriving back in Bangkok. Our plans changed again, as the weather in the Islands of Thailand is unpredictable at this time of year, we opted again to spend longer in Malaysia on the Island of Langkawi, north of Penang.

We were by this time “experts” on Penang, having already been there twice, making booking onward travel very easy. We booked a boat to Langkawi and spent two days in Penang catching up on the fantastic local Bee Hoon Noodles.

Harry Potter had just been released in Malaysia, and although we had planed to see the film in Bangkok we couldn’t resist and headed to a local mall for the cinema and a “western afternoon”. We had McDonalds for Lunch and found an amazing pick & mix shop to stock up on sweets for the cinema. You could even try all the sweets first. We spent a lot of time choosing and eating! In the evening we headed to Nando’s for dinner (as we often would at home before the cinema!). We ordered drinks and starters whilst choosing our main course and then ordered mains. Only after the waitress had put the order in did she return to inform us they had run out of Chicken Breast!! We were slightly shocked that this would be the case in a chicken restaurant and still had to pay the full bill before we left to find food elsewhere. There are many big brands here but they still struggle with good customer service as its just not a part of the culture. Matt is now in discussions with the Marketing Manager for Nando’s Malaysia to receive free vouchers, he was very embarrassed that they had managed to run out of chicken breasts! We opted to head to TGI Fridays to complete our “western afternoon”.

The ferry to Langkawi took three hours and we arrived in the morning to check-into our hotel and explore. We had booked a really nice hotel for the first three nights, it was very cheap but, as we found out, miles from everything.

Langkawi is a fairly large island and is duty-free, however much more expensive than the rest of Malaysia and geared mainly for shorter holidays in the nice resorts hugging the coast. As we would spend the first few days away from all the main areas, and taxi’s were expensive, we rented a nice little Nissan Micra Auto. Only £13.00 a day but the real benefit is that fuel is only 40p a litre!

The first couple of days we spent driving around the Island and exploring beaches and some of the attractions on offer. The Island has a big cable car running to its highest point with a sky bridge at the top giving some great views on the island. The cable car was quite scary as it is only single cable and at the top travels up at 45 degrees. The owner of our next guest house informed us it was all safe as it was run by a German firm and would have broken by now if it was Malaysian owned!

We visited all of the beaches on the Island and returned one evening to the northern tip, reputedly having the best sunset.

After three days in the Bella Vista hotel we moved to a small gust house, in the central area. We had wanted to stay here before as it looked lovely and had great reviews but they were booked the first three nights. We spent the next few nights here and it was amazing. The guest house is owned by a gay couple, one of the guys was English and one Malay, who had studied in Bristol and lived in England for many years. In 2000 they sold a small house in Somerset and brought 10 acres of land, near to the main areas of the Island but in a small village surrounded by palm trees and rice paddies. They built their own three bedroom home and in a separate building 6 guest rooms and a lounge area. They built the rooms for their family to use when the visited but turned it into a guest house when their family didn’t visit often! Amazingly they had money left over and needed no planning permission to build. It was a great place to relax and was quiet with only six rooms.

We spent evenings listening to all the bullfrogs and reading in the comfy outdoor lounge.

One of the evenings there was a big storm, with strong winds and two of the fours dogs followed us into our room and slept the night as (the owner informed us) they are scared of storms.

Making the most use of our car we visited a craft centre on the other side of the island. We watched glass blowing which was incredible to see and wondered around the craft halls filled with hand-made goods. We loved the Batik paintings but couldn’t work out how to get them home in one piece.

When the time came to return the car, we dropped it back to the airport and parked in the car park. We went in to drop the keys off and the guy came out to check the car over. When he saw it was raining hard, he asked where the car was (we pointed but you could not see it) and returned our deposit before heading back inside. They had previously taken no copies of id from us, just asked us to fill out a small form and this was a decent car so obviously they are trusting!

We hopped back onto the ferry to return to Penang and were treated to a lovely sunset.

We stayed two nights in Penang, as we had to wait for seats to become available on the train to Bangkok. We wanted one lower berth and one upper as the lower is much bigger and would allow us to store our bags. When the bed was made up it was so big that we both slept on the bottom and put our bags on the top. We slept really well and met some other travelers on the train so the 22 hour journey wasn’t so bad.

Matt had noticed some boxes were under the seats and it turned out there was two boxes under each seat, the whole length of the carriage (and most likely the next). As we neared Bangkok the guard was sliding them out and moving them to the door at the back. He offered us a box for 5000B (£100), even though we didn’t know what was in it. We soon found out each box contained 10 bottles of Jhonnie Walker which he must smuggle from Malaysia!

On our return to Bangkok we had a few thing to sort before flying to Vietnam on the 4^th August. We had to spend five nights here to give us enough time to get the Vietnam Visa, as we arrived on a Friday.

We spent the first day sorting the final fittings for Matt’s suits and shirts and collecting his replacement credit card which had been sent from home. Matt decided to increase the number of shirts in his order to 15 as they were such good value and we settled the balance ready for the suits and shirts to be shipped home.

Our five days in Bangkok turned out really well as we managed to meet an amazingly large number of people we had previously travelled with and also friends from home!

We first met with a British couple Tom & Anja, whom we spent three weeks with on our China trip. We then met with a British guy Simon whom we travelled through Laos and the Thai Islands with followed by Nicky another British lady whom we also travelled with in Laos. We then managed to cross paths with Chris and Keri from home. It was incredible really as although Bangkok is a central transport hub, all these people we met separately and were all travelling onto different locations in the same three days!

We spent a lot of time in Bangkok trying to work out our travel plans once we arrive in Australia as prices are already sky high due to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, where people are staying in Australia and flying in for the game they are seeing!

We have now booked a camper van for 32 days which should provide most of our travel and accommodation needs, albeit still very expensive.

Below are some interesting pictures from Bangkok: Matt’s favourite street corn, smothered in butter and salt, The “Thai Police Promise” and very realistic fake Id for sale on the main streets!

As we write we are in Hanoi, in a lovely coffee shop, awaiting the start of our GAP tour tomorrow. Hanoi is much nicer than we had imagined and has heaps of nice shops, restaurants and bars.

Love

Emma & Matt

xxxx

Perhentian Islands, Taman Negara National Park, Cameron Highlands…..

We are now in our sixth month of travelling and have only just found a suitable description of our travel style. Many times, in conversation, during long bus & train journeys we have witnessed the look of horror and disbelief on other “backpackers” faces when we tell them which accommodation we have/intend to stay at, GAP tours we have taken, transport we have used and places we have eaten. To put it in perspective, we may spend £7.50 a night on a nice guest house, when other “backpackers” would choose the very cheapest, nastiest accommodation for £5.00 a night.

The best looks are gleaned when talking about the GAP Adventures trips we have taken. On face-value the trips are more expensive than travelling by yourself and regularly, quick mental calculations from other travelers show that they have “done” the country for half the price. It is only when you investigate the “backpacker” definition of having “done” a country that it becomes clear we have seen and experienced much more in the same time-frame, making the cost very reasonable – in our logic.

One of the typical responses would be “yes but you haven’t really experienced the country if you didn’t use “local” transport”. A bewildering justification that “backpackers” have come-up-with as the reason to use the cheapest, longest and most dangerous way to travel to the places you wish to see. Again this could be the difference between taking a local bus, overloaded by 50%, that stops at every town and takes 12 hours for £10 and a tourist bus, with seat belts, brakes and air-con taking 8 hours for £15!

It was whilst browsing the Lonely Planet that we came across the term “flashpackers”. We think it is a very fitting description.

 

We had been looking forward to the Perhentian Islands and the promise of white sand and clear-blue seas as over the past five months, we have spent only a handful of days on the beach.

It was only after we had arrived that Emma’s friend warned us of the brutal 40 minute speedboat crossing to the Islands. The sea was a little rough but in a small boat, with twelve passengers, a driver who looked 12 and two huge engines we hit every wave a full speed, flying through the air and rising off our seats before smashing into the next big roller.

Most passengers, who had travelled to the islands for relaxation quickly tired of this and Matt told the guy he was an driving like an idiot and needed to slow down. He responded by killing the engines, moving us to the rear of the boat, (meant to be smoother), and quickly powering back to full-speed, often checking his watch in annoyance at the time lost!

We had booked into the Tuna Bay Resort on the larger of the two islands, reputedly quieter and cleaner than the smaller island. The island did not disappoint, with white powder sand and the warmest and clearest sea we have seen. Our bungalow was situated one row back from the beach-front bungalows and was lovely. The pictures below shows how close to the beach we were and a bungalow the same as ours (we were the row behind), and the view from our terrace.

Initially we had booked six nights and as July/August is the peak season for the islands we had to move to the resort next-door in order to extend our stay to ten days.

Our ten days were spent snorkelling on the house-reef (just off the beach at our resort), snorkelling trips to the islands best snorkelling spots, walking on deserted beaches, swimming in the 31 degree waters and reading.

The food at the resort was incredible and a BBQ each night produced amongst others: mango chicken, grilled beef skewers, satay’s and incredible grilled king fish.

There was huge swathes of beaches, with just us on them and we spent a day walking the whole island visiting all the beaches we could find!

Our snorkeling trips were great value and we saw loads of pretty fish, corals, stingray, turtles and even sharks!

Our next stop in Malaysia was Taman Negara National Park. Situated in the centre of Northern Malaysia, Taman Negara is the oldest forest in the world and has never been affected by an ice age or volcanic activity.

We had a nice smooth crossing on a flat sea and a good bus journey and arrived at the odd little town, just across the river from the park headquarters. The town is just a few hotels and all the restaurants are floating on the river. If you have a lot of money to burn there is the huge Multiara Resort dominating the park. A little out of our budget at £300 per night (for a single)!

The park features the longest canopy walk in the world at 500m in length which we conquered on our first day, followed by a walk to a hilltop viewing point.

The park is very well signposted and has numerous walks which can be completed. It is virtually impossible to get lost as the forest is so dense you cannot stray from the path and signs cover every junction. Even so the park still tries to persuade you to take a guide for any walks outside the main area of activity. We decided against this and on the second day headed off on a 12km walk through the forest, following the path of the river upstream.

The forest was very interesting with huge trees and roots with many small streams to cross. Although there are many snakes, elephants and 40% of SE Asia’s tiger population they all steer clear of the accessible areas of the park and we saw not one animal on our four hour walk.

The walk was fairly tough due to the humidity and amount of water lost through sweating and was much longer than the 10km stated ( 12km minimum). It is a well known fact that their signs are way out on distances. The Lonely Planet described the walk as “mostly flat with some hills to navigate” this was also wildly wrong and the walk was very hilly and steep in places but we enjoyed it.

We arrived at a lookout post and bumped into a group we had travelled on the bus with, the only people we had seen on the walk, with the exception of one group who were bathing in a river en-route and carrying stupidly big backpacks for the terrain!

We took a nice boat ride 45 minutes back down-river to the town.

The Cameron Highlands is an area of Tea Plantations, 1400m above sea-level and established by the English as a retreat from the hotter temperatures of Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

We booked a day tour for our first day here which actually took-in most of the sights in the area worth seeing.

We travelled in a convoy of Land Rovers an visited tea plantations (owned by a Scottish family), the highest point in the highlands at 2000m, a mossy forest in the clouds, a strawberry farm, a tea factory and tea rooms, a Chinese temple, local museum and a butterfly farm!

There are many Tudor-style buildings here from the British Era and Devonshire Cream Tea’s are the local speciality. The Land Rover is everywhere here, unlike the rest of Asia who all drive Toyota 4WD. The Cameron Highlands has more Land Rovers for the area than anywhere in the world!

The guides on the tour were great and the Butterfly Farm provided us with great shots for the colour select mode on our camera.

Initially we only intended to visit Malaysia for a few days and obtain a Thai Visa. We will have spent just over a month here before we head back into Thailand in a few days time. We have loved the country, its diversity and friendly people and of course the cream teas!

In a few days we head back to Penang and into Thailand for a few days in the islands before we return to Bangkok. We fly to Vietnam around the 4^th Aug and begin our latest GAP trip – The Best of Vietnam.

Love Emma & Matt

xxxx

Bangkok, Koh Phangan, Penang, Kuala Lumpur…

After a very cold train journey, where the air conditioning seemed to be set to overdrive all night, we arrived back to Bangkok, only five of our fellow travellers from the Stray bus still with us. We checked into a nice hotel on Khao San Road along with our guide and two of the British girls. The hotel had a nice rooftop pool, and we were looking forward to a few days relaxation.

We hadn’t been to the cinema since we had been away (other than in India to see a Bollywood movie) and we decided that it would be fitting to see the newly released “Hangover 2” as the film is based in Bangkok. The guide from the bus and the two British girls came along with us and we had a great time. Most interesting was standing before the film to sing the national anthem of Thailand and watching a kind of slide show with old pictures of the Thai King.

The night didn’t end on such a high note when we realised, upon returning to the hotel, that we had lost Matt’s credit card (for the second time). It seemed to have fallen out of the wallet as some of the pockets are loose where there used to be more cards carried. Its not the end of the world, just a hassle and our other cards aren’t nearly as economical to use abroad!

We spent the next day and evening relaxing and spent an evening at a nice bar on Khao San Road, with live music, which for a fraction of time became a frenzied bar brawl, which luckily we were far away from as stray bottles were flying everywhere. Emma checked out a guy who was an innocent bystander but had been caught by a flying bottle and cut his head. He was pouring with blood but, as is often the case, the cut wasn’t as bad as the blood suggested! The best part of the brawl was seeing the old cleaner move swiftly into combat mode, using his broom as a weapon and even removing handcuffs from his pocket to secure the offender! The bar soon returned to normality and we had a nice evening with great music.

We had booked a “Bangkok by Night” bicycle tour for our second evening back in Bangkok. The tour took us around many of the major sights of the city, in the cooler temperatures of the evening. The places we visited covered most of the major temples etc which were wonderfully lit up and totally free of tourists. It wasn’t possible to go inside at night but to be able to see the architecture at such a peaceful time of day was great. The picture below shows one of the main temples and the very colourful evening flower market.

Emma’s dad was undertaking a 20 day business trip around Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Jakarta and KL, amazingly enough the dates when we would both be in Bangkok matched up. On our third evening in Bangkok we headed over to meet Emma’s dad at his hotel, it was very surreal to be meeting him!

He treated us to a lovely meal at Panorama Restaurant, part of the Crowne Plaza hotel where he was staying. After our meal we hopped in a taxi back to Khao San Rd and Em’s dad came along with us to see where we were staying and get an experience of the infamous backpackers road of Bangkok!

We agreed to meet up again the following evening, once meetings for the day were over.

The previous day Matt had been fitted for some tailored suits and shirts and having met up with Em’s dad early evening we popped into the tailors so Matt could have a second fitting before dinner. The suits and shirts were really nice quality and two suits, nine shirts and three ties cost only £300 including delivery to the UK.

Whilst at the shop the ever observant tailor kindly pointed out that Em’s dad’s shirt “did not fit well” and that (of course) a tailored option from himself would be a better fit. At 13.00 a shirt, it was a difficult one to resist so Em’s dad went ahead and ordered five shirts!

Measurements taken we headed out for another nice meal on a nearby street to Khao San Rd and amazingly returned to the tailors only three hours later for Em’s dad to try on the first completed shirt.

We said our goodbye’s – Em’s dad would be flying to Vietnam the following day and we would be catching an overnight bus to our first stop in the islands, Koh Phangan.

We caught the bus at 9pm and begun the hair raising “bullet bus” ride to the port town of Chumporn. We arrived at the small port at 5.30am, the ferry not departing until 7am. The “port” itself was really just a rickety wooden jetty used only by the high speed catamaran service. We saw a nice sunrise here before boarding the catamaran.

Three hours later we arrived on the island, tired but excited. We had arranged to meet the four English girls and English guy that we had met on the Stray Bus, and together go to the Full Moon Party on the 16^th.

We had booked a nice resort on the northern tip of the island, with a lovely pool overlooking the sea and the headland. At £20 a night it was steal as the accommodation was nice and food even better. To stay near to the full moon beach we would have had to spend the same amount but for a very basic hotel.

We spent a nice few days here relaxing before heading to the infamous and crazy Full Moon Party. This is most likely the most famous “party” in the world and essentially involves a lot of young people partying on the beach until the sun comes up (and way beyond). In low season there can be between 10,000 and 15,000 people attending and in high season this rises to in excess of 30,000!

Considering we were there in the “low” season, it was still quite a sight, the beach completely covered with half naked, painted bodies. It was very clear that many people were on some form of drugs, due to the somewhat interesting dancing styles on display!

We left at the very early time of 5am, weary of the fact that we had a one hour taxi ride back to our hotel.

Unfortunately we arrived at the party and found that we had no memory card in our camera so pictures will follow shortly, once we receive them from the girls!

We sent the following day catching up on sleep and decided that the next day we would spend exploring some of the remote beaches the island has hidden away down steep, dirt roads. Having seen the many injuries obtained by backpackers trying to navigate the steep roads to the beaches on scooters, we opted for a 4WD Jeep. Even using the low gearbox, many of the roads in the north of the island were still slow going!

Filling stations in the more remote part of the island are interesting – Vodka bottles are used to sell the fuel in even measures!

The visa system in Thailand is frustrating – You can receive 30 days free upon arrival if you fly in and 15 days if you travel overland. We were currently running on 15 days since we had crossed from Laos. The most infuriating aspect is that you cannot buy a 60 day tourist visa once in Thailand, but you can leave and re-enter to gain an extra 30/15 days as often as you like!

We decided to visit Malaysia as we would be able to get a visa and wouldn’t have time to see the country following Vietnam and Cambodia, which had been shifted back as we booked a GAP Adventures Vietnam tour for 7^th Aug.

There was no “easy” way to travel into Malaysia and we opted for the train. A three hour ferry/bus took us to the train station of Surat Thani on the mainland, a supposed “travel hub” for back-packers. With this in mind we decided the 9 hour wait would be fine as there would be thing to do etc. What we actually found, when we arrived an hour early, was that there was virtually nothing in the town or at the station to keep us amused during our now 10 hour wait!

With the help of the lonely planet guide we found a listing for a spa hotel 15km outside the town and decided to head there. We initially asked if we could pay to use the pool and then enquired about a room. The issue was getting a taxi from the hotel to the train station at 12pm as apparently the taxi drivers didn’t work that late?

Eventually the manager came up with a solution – Use the pool for free, use the free wifi and eat at the restaurant if we like and their taxi will take us to the station at 10pm!

The spa hotel was deserted and we made full use of their facilities and lagoon style pool before popping over the road to Tesco’s to fill up on goodies for the 12 hour train ride.

We arrived in Penang in northern Malaysia, very tired from our 35 hour journey and settled into a nice guest house.

We had a really nice couple of days in Penang, one day was very wet and we made full use of the 50 inch TV and 400 movies in the guest house lounge. The second day we had really lovely weather and clear blue skies so decided to take a trip to the Largest Buddhist Temple in Malaysia and also Penang Hill.

To get up Penang hill we travelled on one of the worlds longest funicular railways to the top, 850m above sea-level.

The view from the stop was stunning but most impressive was English Mansion and Tea Rooms we found, serving traditional Devonshire cream tea’s!

The cream tea was just how it should be and from the shady garden we could look out over the whole of Penang.

We spoke to Emma’s dad whilst in Penang and were surprised to learn that he would be in Kuala Lumpur at the same time that we had planned to be there. With this in mind we spent another day in Penang before catching a train to Kuala Lumpur, two days before Em’s dad was due to arrive.

It was strange to be travelling in a taxi to Emma’s dads hotel again, and in a different country but we were looking forward to seeing him again.

We arrived at the hotel just as he was arriving from the airport and once checked in we paid a visit to the Petronas Towers.

We weren’t able to go up the towers as they only issue 1000 tickets a day and these run out early in the morning so we hopped over to the KL Tower, an equally impressive tower nearby which allows a 360 degree view of KL and the Petronas Towers.

In the evening we were again treated to an lovely buffet dinner at Em’s dads hotel and arranged to meet again the following day once his meetings had finished.

Our mission for the morning was to find a dentist as Matt has lost the side of one tooth yesterday, whilst munching on chewy mints plundered from the hotel reception. The tooth had been filled before and must have been weakened causing part of the side to come away.

A quick google search of “dentist in Kuala Lumpur” turned up “Dental Pro” and unlike the UK we managed to book for the same morning.

Dental Pro turned out to be a very nice dentist surgery in what was clearly a very expensive suburb of the city. A guy strolled in looking like he had just come from the golf course and turned out to be the dentist we were seeing!

A lot of drilling, a numb mouth and £75.00 later, Matt had a very nice new filling.

We headed straight to meet Em’s dad at his hotel and he was just finishing up with a customer he has know for thirty years. The customer, a guy named Rocky, kindly offered to drop us off at the Central Market on his way to another meeting.

The market turned out to be very nice, and pleasantly free from hassling stall owners. We brought some nice souvenirs and enjoyed watching a man making the decorative sand bottles.

We got a call from Rocky to say his meeting finished and he would like to take us for dinner and to see some of the nice government buildings and bridges which are lit up by night.

We had a really nice evening and ate ate delicious local food from a market stall styled restaurant.

The evenings we spent in KL where we didn’t meet Em;s dad, we went to the cinema and managed an impressive three visits to see Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men and Blitz. All new movies and in English. Even better was the price – £1.50 each.

Incredibly the huge shopping centre even featured a theme park with full size roller-coaster!

We really enjoyed KL and as we write this blog, we are on a train heading back to Penang. We have just had a text message from Em’s dad to say that he arrived home safely.

We will spend two nights in Penang before heading to the Perhentian Islands, Taman Negara National Park and the Cameron Highlands.

 

Love Emma & Matt

 

Southern Laos – Vientiane, Tad Leuk, Kong Lor, Thakhek, Tad Lo, Pakse, Don Det…

We were looking forward to the southern section of our Laos trip, with promises of remoteness, lack of tourists and amazing scenery. We spent one night in Vientiane the capital city of Laos which is actually fairly dull although it does feature one branch of the Joma Bakery chain which we had grown to love whilst in Luang Prabang. We ate an amazing lunch of bagels with cream cheese, fresh coffee and carrot cake – the first western food we had eaten for some time. Although we love to eat Asian food and the food in Laos was great, the odd craving for western foods do creep in from time to time – It was good value in pounds but in Laos Kip it was extremely expensive – twice the price of our hotel room for the night!

It was in Vientiane where the British girls and guy we had been travelling with would leave the bus and head back to Bangkok. We picked up a new group which we would be with for the southern section – five British, two Kiwi’s, 1 Dutch and an unusually quiet American.

We all headed out and met the new group at a western style bar which turned out to be swarming with ex-pats and local prostitutes! Introductions complete we headed out to a nearby bowling alley, managing to squeeze 11 into a Tuk Tuk for the short journey. The bowling alley was modern, just like home but very frustrating as the system kept going wrong and putting wrong scores on the screen!

The people of Laos love to party and we had already discovered their strange “Chinese” nightclubs. We never really got to the bottom of what the Chinese aspect was but the Chinese build all the roads in Laos and own most business – we had even seen a hotel which was only for Chinese guests!

Across from the bowling alley we discovered what we thought was one of the dodgy “Chinese nightclubs” but turned out to be very up-market with Hummers and nice Lexus parked outside. A mini cooper was parked by the entrance and we soon found the proud owner sat at the bar in his mini t-shirt!

Vientiane was also influenced by the French and has a large central road with a central building similar to the arch de triomphe. Matt climbed to the top but Emma was struggling with her ankle still and decided to stay around the fountain!

 

Whilst in Vientiane Emma also converted to Buddhism and can be seen here praying with our guide and the rest of the group in one of the main temples!

We awoke early for a short journey to Tad Leuk, a huge national protected forest where we would be camping for the night. The area can only be described as the perfect spot to camp – it was only us, we had space for a camp fire, jungle walkways and a river with waterfall and rock pools.

We had already visited a supermarket and local markets on the way to the camp-site and had been promised a great stir-fry by our Laos guide Manna. As the evening drew in we began preparing heaps of vegetables, corn and meats which were all cooked over an open fire and provided us with a huge feast!

Tents and bedding were provided by Stray and the park rangers set all the tents up for us. The evening must have been one of the hottest so far and with no wind we had quite and uncomfortable night although a shower in the waterfall in the morning was nice and refreshing!

Before leaving Vientiane we had visited an ex-pat supermarket which had many western goodies including Kettle Chips and Kellog’s just right! We had gone for a tin of Heinz baked beans for breakfast but in the morning we couldn’t get access to the hut to heat them as a big snake had been spotted. The park rangers were chatting with Manna our local guide and between them they decided it was either harmless or it would kill you within 15 minutes! Having read the lonely planets advice on snakes in Laos which gives the advice just not to get bitten as there is only anti-venom in Vietnam or Thailand, we stayed well clear although we did see it climb a tree!

Our next stop was Kong Lor which boasts a 7km long cave navigable by small boat. In the pictures below you can see the entrance to the cave and the small canoe-like boats we travelled in through the cave and back. The cave was huge and also 100m high at some points! We had a much welcomed comfortable guest house here with some of the best food we had in Laos.

We had been promised an accommodation option for our next town of Thakhek which would far surpass anything we had seen so far in Laos. The whole group was excited by the prospect of a night of luxury and the vibe on the bus was great as we travelled from Kong Lor, stopping en-route at another cave, somewhat spoiled by the fairly lights inside!

Arriving in Thakhek at mid-afternoon we checked into our “boutique” hotel for the night which more than surpassed expectations with huge comfy duvet and pillows, a separate rainstorm shower, air-con, flat-screen and all other mod-cons all for the huge price of £17.00 per night! We headed out for a nice dinner along the Mekong River.

The hotel was a little spoilt by the fact we had to awake at 7am for a 7.5 hour journey to Tad Lo.

Manna had recommended that we get some baguettes for the journey and after deciding that the fillings at the stall of minced pork or pate most likely contained dog we opted for a plain baguette with butter. What Manna failed to mention is that their style of “plain” baguette includes butter and condensed milk! When we tried the sandwich later that day it wasn’t too bad but still a little odd!

The image below shows one of the views from a toilet stop along the route. An amazing view although we are all still a little shocked at the truck we had just seen drive past full to the brim with live dogs, making their way to Vietnam to be sold for food!

Tad lo was a nice river-side stop, really to break up the journey to Pakse. We spent the afternoon swimming at another waterfall!

Tomorrow was set to be an exciting day with Emma’s birthday and a visit to Mr Coffee’s Workshop en-route to Pakse. Mr Coffee is a Dutch guy with a Laos wife who owns a coffee plantation in a small remote village 1300m above sea-level. The coffee plantation is small with only 2500 trees, producing 2000kg of coffee each year and it is fully organic with all coffee had picked.

 

We had a tour of the plantation with information on different types of coffee beans and processes and an interesting explanation of “fair trade”. A farm can only qualify for fair trade if it is part of a co-operative. Therefore an independent organic farm, with many employees to hand-pick beans and tend the trees cannot be a member by themselves but another farm, using pesticides and full automation and only employing a very small amount of staff in relation to the quantity of coffee they produce can be classed as fair trade! Therefore you are not only paying more for fair trade, it is often not making a difference and the quality of coffee will be lower!

After the tour we watched the process of roasting beans to different levels and finally enjoyed a great cup of coffee!

Matt loved the coffee and has ordered a kilo to be sent to Pedalon for Bob the “coffee master” to try. At £25.00 per kilo it isn’t the cheapest but each pack is freshly roasted on the day it is sent and it should make some great coffee!

We made a second stop on our journey to Pakse, at the twin waterfalls. The highest waterfalls in Laos at 120m, they were spectacular although difficult to get good pictures as the mist kept covering them completely!

As it was Emma’s birthday we all headed out for a nice Indian meal followed by a lovely rooftop bar for cocktails and onto karaoke with the locals! One of the strangest things to get used to in Laos is the curfew of 11pm. Having been locked out of our hotels a few times, having to awake the receptionist (who usually sleeps behind reception), we headed back at 12pm, still having to awake the receptionist!

Our final stop in Laos was Don Det and the 4000 islands, on the border with Cambodia. Our journey today would feature many different modes of transport but our first stop was just outside Pakse at a world heritage site called Wat Phu, a collection of ancient ruins.

The walk to the top was hot and steep but well worth it for the views!

They are currently trying to restore the buildings however this may take some time due to the very relaxed nature of the Laos people and their “fun before enterprise” motto!

Don Det is a collection of around 4000 islands, many so small they can only be described as a rock or tuft of grass. There are two main islands and we would be spending the night on one of these. In order to reach them we took the most basic “car ferry” possible. Essentially three narrow boats joined together with wooden planks, with two drop-down ramps at each end!

Amazingly they usually pile more vehicles on here but Stray paid extra so we could leave immediately for the short 20 minute crossing to reach a smaller boat which would take us to Don Det. The ferry even featured on-board dining options and Emma had some sticky coconut rice wrapped in a banana leaf from the lady below!

As the bus descended the ramp at the other side one rear wheel fell through the planks trapping us momentarily and damaging the underside of the bus, much to the annoyance of the driver who’s contract means he has to pay for any damages!

We relaxed on Don Det and visited the waterfall below where local fishermen have set-up bamboo traps to catch the fish.

The image below shows Emma updating her diary, looking out over the 4000 islands.

We will be travelling by train back to Bangkok where we hope to meet Emma’s dad who will be there for a few days on business!

 

Love Emma & Matt