New friends and old

Chris and I with Caterina and Thao

Before we left in September, Chris signed us both up for something called Couchsurfing - which is an online website which allows you to stay with a local, in varying degrees of comfort, basically for free. There is also an option if you want to find out more about a specific city, to meet someone for a coffee and a chat...
from the website Couchsurfing state: CouchSurfing isn't about the furniture- it's not just about finding free accommodations around the world- it's about participating in creating a better world. We strive to make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. .. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!
I was a little sceptical in participating at all. But without having any experience of this new surfing world, I was talked into meeting up with the local Couchsurfing ambassador in Hue, a lovely girl called Thao. We met, were shown round a lot of the less touristy parts of Hue and were also introduced to another Couchsurfer who was in Hue for only a day. After the whole experience I feel a lot more confortable with the idea of surfing etc... and I may well be talked into actually staying in someone's home - who we have only met online, in the next few months.

Chris at the Imperial Palace, Hue (inside the Cidetal)

After a tour of Hue, Chris and I headed down along the coast to a beautiful part of Vietnam called Hoi An. It was an area which was originally on the 'to see' list, but we were going to miss it out, and I am so pleased that we didn't. Not only because I got a lovely pair of shoes made and also got a lovely dress made to fit too, but more importantly, we managed to catch up with a long time friend and fellow work colleague Elaine.

Ellie and Elaine

Elaine has been travelling since Feb '08 and is on the final few weeks of her journey. It was lovely catching up with her and finding out all about the places she has been to etc... some which we will be heading to, so it's great for a 'heads up'. We met up in Hoi An, making sure we stayed at the same hotel, and had a lovely afternoon and evening together. It was strange having more than one Northern Irish accent at the table! (Elaine met a girl called Ellie from Norn Iron too!!).

So with the wallet a little lighter - one day in Hoi An and I'm pleased we didn't have more time for shopping (this place is certainly somewhere we're coming back to) we boarded our plane to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and arrived in the heart of backpacker district at 8:30pm tonight.
We're here for a few days so we'll have a look at the museums etc.

Hue to go !!!

Laos was a country which will hold special memories for both Judith and I. Not great memories but special ones. We spent most of our time in Laos travelling and the main places we stayed were touristy. It is a place I would go back to if only to see the real Laos and I would definately fly!Patuxai Arch - Vientiane

Another mamouth journey saw us leaving Vang Vieng via minibus to Vientiane in Laos then to Vinh by 'VIP' bus to get a train to Hue (pronounced Hoo-way) in Vietnam. After Laos we decided to cut out a bit of traveling and bypass Hanoi. A bit of a disappointment but we have realized just how many places we have tried to cram in and after a while your body says take a break. A 16 hour bus journey and an 8 hour train journey got us to a decent hotel (decent by our standards, not average western standards). The Bus was fine, we got seats that didn't have 50KG bags of rice wedged in front and they were not too bad. A bit dificult to sleep comfortably but after moving our backpacs about, letting Jude spread out on the floor and being careful not to kick the head of the girl sprawled out opposite I managed to sleep 'comfortably'. That is sleep comfortably in bewtween police checks, snoring men, badly dubbed movies and swerving round corners avoiding cows, buses, cars, trucks and roadworks. It was comforting to know the drivers didn't drive tired. We stopped for 3 hours while the driver slept. Arriving at the border for opening at 7:00, crossing the border only took 3 hours of bagage checks, forms, and waiting.
The 'VIP' bus - Glad it wasn't the non-vip!
The 'in-flight' movie on the bus was a Jackie Chan film. I love his films, mostly for the funny fight sequences . Thai/Vietnamese programmes have an unusual dubbing service for their films and TV. The have one person will dub all the dialogue. Not one person per character or one male/one female, they have one female saying all the lines of all the charcters. In the background you can hear the original language (chinese in this case) and very faintly some of the music/atmospheric sounds. I plugged in my Ipod and just read the English subtitles which where mixed with the chinese subtitles. In a restaurant in Vinh (waiting for the train) we saw a soap opera which had all the sound removed and the same female talking for all of the parts. Very difficult to watch.

Our train journey wasn't a huge amount better. We had fun in the station waiting because we where a novelty. Several young people sat beside us and practiced their English skills with us, we even learnt how to properly say some vietnamese phrases much to the hilarity of the locals. The train was at 10:17pm and while waiting we got online in a local hotel foyer and checked out some bits and pieces. Trains come with many different carriages. Our seats where on the airconditoned soft seat section. No room on the hard or soft sleeper section and we didn't want to chance the hard seats. Climbing onboard the carriage was already filled with bodies, half asleep chairs fully reclined and we had to squeeze ourselves into our seats. It wasn't too bad once you fell asleep and we were that tired, it didn't take long.

Hue is a big and busy town, even at 6:30am. We intend to explore, sort ourselves out and sort out some plans for future stops. We should also take some more photo's, our camera's have been used very little of late.

A day of highs

The slow boat ends in Luang Probang which is a very different town to those in Thailand. Very quiet, very laid back and although full of guesthouses, it's not a very touristy town which is nice.

The view from high above the river bank

The various Wats, markets and temples make for an easy time finding somethng to do. Utopia is a beatiful restauraunt on the banks of the Nam Khan. The veiws are fantastic but from a platform 25m up a rope ladder they were spectactular if very difficult to climb.A perfect sPOT for lunch (get it... sPOT....nevermind)

We finished our day at the Phousi Stup. A temple high on the moutain overlooking Laung Probang and providing a great spot to watch the sunset.The Phousi Stupa

Tomorrow is another bus journey towards Vang Vien for some tubing. Should be interesting.Sunset over the Mekong

two days, two boats and 60 travellers.

We left Thailand via a very traditional backpacker route, the slow boat along the Mekong River to Laung Prabang. An interesting journey lasting 2 days actually turned out a nice experience. The long boat packed with about 60 foreigners made it's way along the 125miles (something like that) just after entering Laos. It is called the slow boat because the other fast boat, seats 5 or 6 people and you wear crash helmets. It only takes them 7 hours.

we sathalf way up the boat, hard wooden benches very low roof

The river is dotted with small villages, many fishermen and some beautiful landscapes. In-between chapters of our books, or while listening to ipods, we chatted with fellow travellers all with different stories to tell and experiences to share. Accommodation on the first night of our trip was in a small village specifically catering for the travelling crowds from the slow boat. We where met from the boat by over 20+ guesthouse reps touting for business. Most people got a good deal if you didn't pre-book, those that listened to the empty warnings from the travel reps ended up paying nearly twice what they should have. We stuck to our guns and got accommodation on spec!

Fishing in the Mekong, Catfish.... big Catfish !

Laos is actually quite a mountainous country. The range of views along the river made for a variety of photo's. Baked in sunshine the wisps of cloud where welcome, as was the rain shower when it appeared, the sun is exceptionally strong but the breeze was enough to keep everyone sort of cool.

The mighy Mekong River

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble....

Chris and I decided to partake of a Thai cookery course while in Chiang Mai - (which is a beautiful city and one well will certainly be returning to to explore further). The course was so much fun and a novelty to us as we haven't had to cook since February!!! (and even then is was under protest from Lee and Mona at their house!) So with woks in hand, we visited a local market, gathered our spices and veg and headed to the Pak Thai cookery school to begin our full days culinary course!


We had a ball - and didn't burn down the place despite the high flames. We'll certainly be cooking more dishes like this when we get home - with the added ingredient of tofu so Lesley - watch out!!!

From Chaing Mai we headed to the border of Thailand and Laos, to a place called Chaing Khong near the Golden Triangle. But those are pictures for another blog and plus - they are still in the camera!! And now we are in Laos and a town called Luang Prabang which is an Unesco World Heritage site - and another blog for another day!

100+ posts (and still blethering!!)

To celebrate over 100 posts... we decided to just show some pics.

Our first day of travelling - outside Sao Paulo airport


At Laguna Verde - Bolivia

With my folks @ Boulders, South Africa


White water rafting on the Zambezi (Chris in the white t-shirt and me behind)


Candle lighting ceremony on the Ganges, Varanasi

In Patong, Thailand

On the Night Train..... with photos

It's been a tiring couple of days of travel from Phuket to Chiang Mai. We spent several days relaxing on the beach in Phuket but boredom set in and it was time to remove ourselves from the tourist trap of overpriced hotels and western food outlets.

Having settled for 2nd class travel on the way down, we thought we would upgrade to the VIP bus. The seats are bigger, there is more legroom and we got food. The snack food at the start of our trip was good, bottle of water, cartoon of juice, bread roll thing and big packet of peanuts. Alongside our crisp sandwiches (the loaf lasted us 4 meals ! - not on it's own.... money's not THAT tight !), we didn't expect to have any more food. 4 hours into our 12 hour trip we were awoken for a feed at a service stop. Ushered into a resteraunt and fed a selection of dishes with rice, sitting around with the locals. Very intresting and tasty.

The long trip was accompanied by books and iPods and neither Jude or I slept much. Arriving at 6:00am we found out how to get to the train station for our next stint to Chiang Mai. 2 hours in rush hour traffic on a public bus with back packs isn't the best thing when you've just got off a bus. We arrived at the train station shattered, and it was raining, very heavily. Booking our tickets for the overnight sleeper train that evening we formulated the best plan possible. Find a cheap hotel and get some sleep. 5 pounds got us a lovely chinese run wooden slatted room 100m from the train station.

We ignored the peeling paint, concrete floors, all in one shower/squat toilet and having disgarded the hotel pillows for our own travel pillows, we fell asleep within seconds of lying down. The hotel would have been fantastic in it's hayday.... about 80 or 90 years ago. Beggars can't be choosers though.

Checked out, fed and watered we caught our train for the overnight service to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. 2nd class was all that was available but there was lots of room, we had books, and ipods and settled in for the long trip. We finally finished our bread (more crisp sandwiches - Seaweed flavour) and the last of our rations managed to stave off the hunger. While Jude slept most of the night, I just about got comfy in the Asian sized beds which where made for us at about 8:00pm. Cocooned behind silky curtains the berths where private but sleeping on the bumpy (not very rythmic) train was not easy. We arrive after nearly 14 hours onboard.

Another hostel, another city. Chiang Mai is the adventure capital of Thailand. Rock climbing, mountain biking, treking, 4 wheel drives. quads, motocross (off road motorbikes for those unsure), white water rafting, bungee jumping and cookery courses to name but a few options. This place I am definately coming back to in the future when we have more time and funds. We've only 2 days to explore and we hope to do a cookery course one of those days.

It's also raining in Chiang Mai but it is cooler, Laos is in a few days (via slow boat) so something else to look forward to.

Life's a Beach

We enjoyed our time in Bangkok but have to admit we didn't do all the tourist things. It is somewhere we will go back to in future years as there is so much still to see. Planning our next few months has been awkward to say the least. Deciding where to go, what to do and how to get there has been trying but we have a rough plan for the rest of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Singapore.

Bangkok is bigger than I imagined. The roads here are huge. 6-10 lanes of traffic on the 'outer' areas, 2-5 lanes in the city, A maze of one way traffic (except for Buses, Motorbikes, Tuk-Tuks and anyone else wanting to take a short cut). The Subway is very clean and if anyone has been to Terminal 5 at Heathrow, exactly the same. The Skytrain was always packed and at about 60 pence a trip was fairly convenient. We had a few Visa's to sort out and managed to get only the one essential (Vietnam). Cambodia moved their embassy and without realizing how far in the middle of the suburbs the Laos embassy was we didn't arrive until after closing. It will make for a bit more fun at the borders. A Thai Massage (for £4) was required to relieve the stresses of Bangkok's streets.


I call it a Gregory Special, Bikes rule in Thailand, they are mostly motorised now and more dangerous

We left Bangkok on a bus to Phuket, on the southwest coast, for a bit of sunshine on the beach. Saving a few pounds we traveled second class for the 13 hour bus journey but to be honest it wasn't bad and sleeping most of the way (it was overnight) made the time fly. The bright lights of Buddha Shrines dotted in the strangest of places was bizarre. Imagine 20 florescent tubes of different colours vertically in the ground surrounding a 3 foot square very ornate birdhouse type structure. (it's the only way I can think to describe it). Bizarre but very nice in the same way.

Sunset in Patong, Phuket
With free wifi in our room, (we overspent on £11.40 a night) it's been time to catch up on emails, bills, sorting photos, ideas for the next 5 months and life in general (it still goes on!)
We've toured Patong which is a really big version of Portrush with lots more shops and bars. Prices to match back home but it has a huge beach and some sunshine. The one day of constant rain gave way to a cooler 32degrees but we forced ourselves to the beach and enjoyed ourselves reading in the breeze.

In a few days we head towards Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand before circling Southeast Asia. Another style of Thai in the north, apparently more laid back..... we'll somehow manage.

Not what, wat!

With a free upgrade to business class on our Cathay Pacific flight because of Chris' birthday, we left the McDonald's Maharajah burgers of India behind and entered the land of the Samurai Pork burger in Thailand - with a month of spicy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the spices were getting a little too much!!!

Th Khao San road

So we have arrived in Thailand, and spent our time here in Bangkok and the Th Khao San area (I'm hearing groaning from those who have been here!!) Th Khao San is in the Banglamphu Neighbourhood and it's were nearly all of the backpackers head. The crazy neon lights of the road (Th) itself should either scare you off or welcome you in and so, after the hectic nature of Delhi, we have enjoyed the wind down.

I don't know how long we planned on staying in Bangkok, but we have been here nearly a week and only moved our location the once - from a £10 per night place with a fan and hot water to a £7 per night room with air con and no hot water - in this heat, the cold water isn't even cold! We have enjoyed doing nothing and lounging about reading books, but now I am frantically trying to sort out travel arrangements and dates to apply for our visas for travel to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. A little warning, in the guidebook Chris was reading about Cambodia, it says not to go to the toilet too far off the roads if nature calls, as there are still some unexploded land mines.... certainly something I have never thought of needing to look out for.

Anyway... today we ventured out into Bangkok, not too far - the bus we were waiting for didn't turn up to take us to the main shopping area (fanfares at not spending more money!!) But we did see some of the sights.

After Chris got a haircut and cut throat shave, we walked along the riverbank to a big recreational park called Sanam Luang, from there we traversed the Grand Palace - another place which we still need to visit - and made our way to Wat Pho.

Not only is this the site of the largest reclining Buddha (46m long and 15m wide), but it also houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. The temples in which the site comprises are extremely ornate and the renovations which are taking place make the area seem like one of the countries from Epcot in Disney world.

I think my problem with some of the places we have visited (and although I am lucky to be able to travel and see the world), is that so many of the sites Chris and I have seen have been replicated in either theme parks or on the Vegas strip, so when you see the originals, some of the element of awe and surprise has been lost despite its historical factor. Fortunately with the reclining Buddha, the sheer size of its feet as I viewed them from outside its 'shelter' was still something to make me say 'wow'!!! And sitting at the Taj Mahal last week and watching time pass by... well, that was special. In order to appreciate things more, I need to take time to admire not only the surroundings but also all that I have seen and the roads I have travelled on this journey. There are still times I need to pinch myself and think am I really here? I'm glad that for the next four and a half months I can still say - yes I am and I've still more to see!