Ok well im so so sorry and i know it has been a good while since this blog has been looked at or added to. I hope you will understand that we are both lazy and rather busy.
Right well lets go back to our departure for Vietnam. We left Vientiene early to make our way to a home stay near the vietnam boarder. This long journey consisted of loads of our group taking pictures of each other sleeping, singing and playing card games! we then arrived near to the village where we were to spend the night and took B52 bomshell boats to the little village. However when we got to the litlle village they rally werent that interested in us at all, which we found rather odd as usually we are just stared at. The group was diveded between 3 homes, in which we were given mats on the floor and mosquito nets (although a lot of god they did!) so after taking endless amounts of pictures of children and animals, some of us lay on some mats outside drinking nice cold beer laos, while others played card games. We then had a dinner prepared for us, which consisted of rice, noodles, curries and vegetables and was so yum! Although we were all rather disapointed not to be eating with the locals, as they wanted to eat with themselves. After diner we were given the chance to ask questions which wasnt really that insightful as our local guide was translating for us and kept answering for them saying "Oh they wont know that" or "I dont think they those types of ideas", so the general conversation condesended into Canadian Kate asking all of us questions about our lives. We later all had to go to our seperate houses, all the boys in one and the girls dived into to 2 houses, me and the 3 kates were put in the town Chief's house, whose wife walked around topless and the cheif snored so loudly - which added to the whole fun of the experience!
The next mrning we left the village at 6 am to get a 13 hour bus journey to Ninh Binh in Vietnam! Immagration was fine and rather strict, and when we got to other side we changed bus to a rather rusty looking one - which did not scream safety! None the less we continued our journey through horrendous downfalls of rain and crazy vietnamese driving! Thats something to warn people about when they go to Vietnam - they drive like idiots, we were literally holding on to our seats! The scenery was so beautiful and green as we descended into the Vietnam valleys and also quite derelict compare to other places we have been to. We stopped at a place for lunch in which everyone literally stopped eating and stared at us- rather strange!
Eventually we got to rainy Ninh Binh were we spent the bight before departing to Halong Bay the next day.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sleepy Laos....
Right where were we? After spending our first night in Laos we woke up early and boarded a slow boat along the Mekong river. The boat was a wooden one, quite basic, but had plenty of room for a few beers and endless amounts of card games! On route we stopped off at a local village for a quick tour, as soon as we pulled up and saw the sheer poverty our heart strings began to tug! The little children were all so sweet and some didnt even have clothes! So some of us were just rummaging through our stuff to see what we ould give them! I grabbed a pack of pringles which they grasped as if it were gold! A truelly fantastic experience was trying to teach them English words! After that we continued down the Mekong for another couple of hours until we reached a little village powered by generators, we stayed there for one night and had a curry that evening - which made Tod and I rather happy! After dinner we went to a local party to celebrate the growth of rice!! And some interesting dance was experienced here! We then swiftly made it bcak to the hostel before the 10.30pm curfue due the generators cutting off! The next morning we continued our journey down the Mekong with a prepared lunch on the boat, made by the wife of the captain! On route we stopped off at the Pak Aou caves ( a large cave filled with thousands of Buddas) the highlight of this was when our tour guide was trying describe what material the buddas were made out of, he kept saying "Semen , you know Semen" so we were all in histerics untill one of the girls on our tour said did you say "Semen", we then found out he actually meant "Cement".
Early evening we finally arrived in Luang Prabang with enough time to check in to our rooms ( Due to me putting my foot down Tod and I got a massive twin room as a pose to a small double! Result!) and have a shower ( a sheer luxury when you havent had hot water in days!) The good thing about this hotel is that it had 2 really good movie channels so Tod and I were in our element! That evening we had a gropu dinner and a wonder around the majestic night market!
The next morning we all did a 3 hour trek to the waterfalls, the heat was exhausting and there were bugs everywhere, however we hitthe jackpot when we reached the waterfall with a clear blue lagoon at the foot of the waterfall to swim in! people were also jumping off the waterfall into the lagoon so i thought i would takemy chance and give it a go!!! We also went to a bear rescue center. We then got a TUk Tuk ( laos taxi) back to the village to do what ever you want in your free time, of course Tod and I watched a film! That evening we all had a wonder around the night market and went were ever we wanted for dinner, followed by drinks at a luxury bar called Laos Laos garden. It was there we actually ended up going for dinner the following evening and Tod and I shared this massive BBQ thing!! As weel as buy one get one free cocktails! We hit the markets after dinner and there was a lot of bargin hunting going on, Tod was more successful than me as i was more stubbon and refused to pay the asking sum, so left me very jealous of Tod's Beer Laos T shirt ( Beer Laos deserves a paragraph of its own - the best beer you will ever drink!). The next morning before our flight to Vientiene there was an optional activity to watch the monks collect food, when tod and I found out it was at 6am we decided against it!
The Flight as expected was quick, bumpy, and in my opinion rather scary, although we did get complimentary water! When we got to Vientiene we checked into our hotel and then had an orientation walk around the town, followed by a beer Laos at sunset by the Mekong! Bliss! That evening we went to a restaurant recomended by our tour leader which was so yum, and also nica and spicey! Oddly though they were giving away free condoms! That evening Tod and I hosted card games in our room - so notoriously named ourselves the party room! The next day Tod and I did a wonder of the town then went to the national Laos museum, and being typical westerners had a pizza!! We tried going to the Beer Laos factory in the afternoon with Kate and Katie but once we got there they said it was closed! Dissapointment as we were craving a free Beer Laos! We later had another relaxing sunset Beer Laos, before going to a Martini bar to watch Slumdog millionaire! Bizzare as it was extremely good fun!
Thats all for now folks! Missing you all so much and do leave feedback on our blog or facebook!
Early evening we finally arrived in Luang Prabang with enough time to check in to our rooms ( Due to me putting my foot down Tod and I got a massive twin room as a pose to a small double! Result!) and have a shower ( a sheer luxury when you havent had hot water in days!) The good thing about this hotel is that it had 2 really good movie channels so Tod and I were in our element! That evening we had a gropu dinner and a wonder around the majestic night market!
The next morning we all did a 3 hour trek to the waterfalls, the heat was exhausting and there were bugs everywhere, however we hitthe jackpot when we reached the waterfall with a clear blue lagoon at the foot of the waterfall to swim in! people were also jumping off the waterfall into the lagoon so i thought i would takemy chance and give it a go!!! We also went to a bear rescue center. We then got a TUk Tuk ( laos taxi) back to the village to do what ever you want in your free time, of course Tod and I watched a film! That evening we all had a wonder around the night market and went were ever we wanted for dinner, followed by drinks at a luxury bar called Laos Laos garden. It was there we actually ended up going for dinner the following evening and Tod and I shared this massive BBQ thing!! As weel as buy one get one free cocktails! We hit the markets after dinner and there was a lot of bargin hunting going on, Tod was more successful than me as i was more stubbon and refused to pay the asking sum, so left me very jealous of Tod's Beer Laos T shirt ( Beer Laos deserves a paragraph of its own - the best beer you will ever drink!). The next morning before our flight to Vientiene there was an optional activity to watch the monks collect food, when tod and I found out it was at 6am we decided against it!
The Flight as expected was quick, bumpy, and in my opinion rather scary, although we did get complimentary water! When we got to Vientiene we checked into our hotel and then had an orientation walk around the town, followed by a beer Laos at sunset by the Mekong! Bliss! That evening we went to a restaurant recomended by our tour leader which was so yum, and also nica and spicey! Oddly though they were giving away free condoms! That evening Tod and I hosted card games in our room - so notoriously named ourselves the party room! The next day Tod and I did a wonder of the town then went to the national Laos museum, and being typical westerners had a pizza!! We tried going to the Beer Laos factory in the afternoon with Kate and Katie but once we got there they said it was closed! Dissapointment as we were craving a free Beer Laos! We later had another relaxing sunset Beer Laos, before going to a Martini bar to watch Slumdog millionaire! Bizzare as it was extremely good fun!
Thats all for now folks! Missing you all so much and do leave feedback on our blog or facebook!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Discovering IndoChina!
Ok firstly our apologies for this well overdue post!! We literrralyy havent been within access of any decent internet and even the one we are on now my turn off at any second!!
Well lets go back a few days to the first day of our tour! In the morning Tod and I made our way to the Vietnam Embassy in the hope that we could finally get our bloody Visas!! We qued and then ended up paying 50 pounds for next day processing (which was triple the normal price) we also had to leave our passports there, so consequently we left there feeling very bare! Waht a stressful experience i can tell you! When we were done doing that we thought lets just go to the GrandeVille hotel ( the starting point of our tour) and just relax! We were pleasantly suprised with how nice the hotel was compared to hostels! Once checked in we decided to CHILL by the pool (which we had to pay for - absolute rip off!). In the evening we had our first group meeting where we all introduced ourselves and met our group leader Kakada Chimm from Cambodia ( a true legend) He was trying to explain that if we pronounced his name wrong it meant something else in Cambodia - we couldnt work out what he was saying "penish penish" until he said "you know morning glory!" well that left us all in histerics!!! We later went for a group meal of a lot of pad thai!
The next morning we took a boat troup along the river and saw little local villages as well as a spectacular view of Bangkok, we then went and saw Thailands largest reclining Budda, after which one of the girls on our tour fainted dur to heat exhaustion ( that should give you a general idea of how hot it was there!). After that we were given free time in which Tod and I got back in a taxi all the way to the MBK to get a skytrain to the Embassy which was at around 2 oclock but we werent allowed our visas till 3.30 , which was a bit stressful as our tour leader wanted us back at the hotel to leave for the train station at 4. So we were on a strict time limit and the traffic in Bangkok is horrendous! Luckily we managed to get our visas at 3 then swiftly made our way back to the hotel!! phew we thought as we had made it in good time and had our passports back as well as Vietnam visas!!
From the hotel we all went to the train station to get our 14 hour sleeper train to Chaing Mai, and as many of you can imagine i was panicking like anything getting on a train in Thailand. The train had bunks all opposite each other and we just slept with out luggage with us! The train was ok bit bumpy but most loved it! In Chaing Mai we checked into the guest house then those who opted to do elephant ridding made their way to the elephant farm. Tod and others did elephant ridding and really enjoyed themselves , i went but watched at a distant, what made me laugh is that all the men who worked there was smoking massive spliffs! After we went bamboo rafting which was very wet but very fun!! That evening some including Tod went to watch the thai boxing whilest others explored Chaing Mais notorious night market!
The next day we took a minubus to the Laos border, stopping off at a condom factory and cashew factory a long the way! Once arriving in Laos we checked in to a guest house which was really basic but fun as we all felt like we were camping!
Ok well thats all for now but we shall right again soon we promise!! love to all!
Well lets go back a few days to the first day of our tour! In the morning Tod and I made our way to the Vietnam Embassy in the hope that we could finally get our bloody Visas!! We qued and then ended up paying 50 pounds for next day processing (which was triple the normal price) we also had to leave our passports there, so consequently we left there feeling very bare! Waht a stressful experience i can tell you! When we were done doing that we thought lets just go to the GrandeVille hotel ( the starting point of our tour) and just relax! We were pleasantly suprised with how nice the hotel was compared to hostels! Once checked in we decided to CHILL by the pool (which we had to pay for - absolute rip off!). In the evening we had our first group meeting where we all introduced ourselves and met our group leader Kakada Chimm from Cambodia ( a true legend) He was trying to explain that if we pronounced his name wrong it meant something else in Cambodia - we couldnt work out what he was saying "penish penish" until he said "you know morning glory!" well that left us all in histerics!!! We later went for a group meal of a lot of pad thai!
The next morning we took a boat troup along the river and saw little local villages as well as a spectacular view of Bangkok, we then went and saw Thailands largest reclining Budda, after which one of the girls on our tour fainted dur to heat exhaustion ( that should give you a general idea of how hot it was there!). After that we were given free time in which Tod and I got back in a taxi all the way to the MBK to get a skytrain to the Embassy which was at around 2 oclock but we werent allowed our visas till 3.30 , which was a bit stressful as our tour leader wanted us back at the hotel to leave for the train station at 4. So we were on a strict time limit and the traffic in Bangkok is horrendous! Luckily we managed to get our visas at 3 then swiftly made our way back to the hotel!! phew we thought as we had made it in good time and had our passports back as well as Vietnam visas!!
From the hotel we all went to the train station to get our 14 hour sleeper train to Chaing Mai, and as many of you can imagine i was panicking like anything getting on a train in Thailand. The train had bunks all opposite each other and we just slept with out luggage with us! The train was ok bit bumpy but most loved it! In Chaing Mai we checked into the guest house then those who opted to do elephant ridding made their way to the elephant farm. Tod and others did elephant ridding and really enjoyed themselves , i went but watched at a distant, what made me laugh is that all the men who worked there was smoking massive spliffs! After we went bamboo rafting which was very wet but very fun!! That evening some including Tod went to watch the thai boxing whilest others explored Chaing Mais notorious night market!
The next day we took a minubus to the Laos border, stopping off at a condom factory and cashew factory a long the way! Once arriving in Laos we checked in to a guest house which was really basic but fun as we all felt like we were camping!
Ok well thats all for now but we shall right again soon we promise!! love to all!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The First Few Days
hello, tod here this time... umm, where were we, we got the bansabai hostel place on the first day. It was a great place and good value for money. It had a pool on the roof, large rooms with fridge, tv, bath etc. for around 7 quid each a night. However it was as we discovered after a few minutes of getting there, in the middle of nowhere! It was in the far North east part of the city and over an hours drive from the centre. So on the second day we got the sky train to our next hostel, called Wendy's House! Which was in the Siam Square area but which turned out to be quite pricy for the hovel that it was. That day we also tried to get to the Vietnam embasssy only to arrive exactly at closing time, due to a guy on the street trying to convince us that it was closed and that instead we should get in his mates tuk tuk and take a ride somewhere else. He held us up for the vital few minutes meaning that we now have to wait until monday to order our vietname Visas, which leaves very last minute! Went to Siam square and the rather larger MBK centre, this is like a blue water in the centre of Bangkok. It was around 10 stories high and very modern, so we rather enjoyed it..
We decided that Wendy's hostel was absolute crap so we took a taxi to the infamous Khao San Road to get to the Khao San Palace hotel mainly because it had a swimming pool on the roof which more like a sweaty tourist jacuzzi area and the bedroom was pretty crap too.. However being on Khao san road was great, it was a bit like albuferia meets Quateria market times a thousand.. you can't walk 5 metres without someone trying to sell you something or some annoying tuk tuk driver hasseling you. It was also packed with foreigners, from Sweeds to Americans to Australians. The night time there was twice as busy as it was during the day, and there was a telly on every corner showing premiership football, so i loved it. Pip however was not so keen on Khao san and was relived to leave and get back to where we are now, which is back in Siam square area, now in a cheaper hostel called A-One hotel. Also looked around all the temples yesterday, didnt go inside but will do that on tuesday, which is the first day of our trip thingy. Having done nearly everything in Bangkok me and pip are both kean and excited to start the trip and travel north to Chiang Mai and Laos!!!!
Missing you all
We decided that Wendy's hostel was absolute crap so we took a taxi to the infamous Khao San Road to get to the Khao San Palace hotel mainly because it had a swimming pool on the roof which more like a sweaty tourist jacuzzi area and the bedroom was pretty crap too.. However being on Khao san road was great, it was a bit like albuferia meets Quateria market times a thousand.. you can't walk 5 metres without someone trying to sell you something or some annoying tuk tuk driver hasseling you. It was also packed with foreigners, from Sweeds to Americans to Australians. The night time there was twice as busy as it was during the day, and there was a telly on every corner showing premiership football, so i loved it. Pip however was not so keen on Khao san and was relived to leave and get back to where we are now, which is back in Siam square area, now in a cheaper hostel called A-One hotel. Also looked around all the temples yesterday, didnt go inside but will do that on tuesday, which is the first day of our trip thingy. Having done nearly everything in Bangkok me and pip are both kean and excited to start the trip and travel north to Chiang Mai and Laos!!!!
Missing you all
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sa-Wat-Dee
Finally!! Tod and I have safely arrived in Bangkok, after a luxurious Quantas flight in which we both drank an average amount of Red wine which later lead to me throwing up! When we arrived in Bangkok we were kindly greated by a humid temperature which soon became rather sweaty and annoying as we were dressed for our delightful British (of course Tod is welsh) temperature. We managed to get through the airport after being hassled in to taking taxi journies with private "Good price!" taxi drivers. Outside we hauled a thai meter taxi who couldnt speak a word of English, except "England number one!!" and "Liverpool,Chelsea and DROGBA!", he also had no idea where our hostel was! Great!! I slightly panicked when i saw no seat belts in the back and the taxi driver kept turning around to say stuff and taking his hands off the wheel to clap. The journey progressed and I practiced my very best thai and this entartained the taxi driver a lot!! We began to get worried as he kept stopping at dodgy looking places to ask for directions!! We eventually got to the Bansabi hostel and were pleasantly suprised by the cleanliness and overflowing pool on the top floor! Later that evening we went to the hostels local restaurant which happened to be thai kareoke night and well lets just say they arent great singers over here!!! Food was fantastic though and very cheap!!
We shall update more later missing you all xxx
We shall update more later missing you all xxx
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