2 Jeniuses abroad

10/02/12 Alice springs, weird, weird and weird. We arrived and got on the airport shuttle bus. The driver asked us where we were from. We told him England and he said, in extremely strong Ozzie accent “so, you’ve cam to see ya facking convict cousins then have ya?” Charming, but actually despite the coarseness he was a really nice guy and gave us a free short sightseeing tour on the way in pointing out where everything…or in Alice Spring’s case nothing really….was. We were dropped off at our lovely hostel called Alice Springs secret backpackers before heading off to get some food. Alice Springs has a very strange and slightly scary atmosphere. There are a lot of aboringals who sleep, sit, drink, fight with each other and mutter to themselves everywhere also it has white ozzies ... read more

17th-20th Khao Lak and Similan Islands Oh night buses, what a joy! This was Helen’s first Asian night bus experience and she was in for a treat. Nice karaoke style programme on the TV, until lights and TV were all turned off at 8pm and the snoring started. She also had the added pleasure of sitting next to a woman who had a child on her lap. Luckily she was a nice lady and a pretty well behaved child. We were woken up half way through the night for a compulsory pit stop, everyone off, “no you cannot stay on the bus and yes you must take your complimentary smelly milk drink things, all three of them.” After a confused half an hour or so Helen decided she would buy a neck pillow to help her ... read more

30th December Journey to Luang Prabang, by minibus again. It was a very bumpy, windy (as in curvy not wind blowing) road as we had been warned but it was also very beautiful. The unsealed roads took us round mountains giving us spectacular scenery. When we arrived we did the tuk-tuk negotiation and were taken to our guesthouse: Sysomophone. This was basically a family’s house with rooms turned into guest rooms. It soon became apparent that the family – dad, mum, sons, grandchildren all slept downstairs in the reception/living room under a huge mosquito net. They did have themselves a T.V though. We got a very warm welcome from the dad/granddad who was, as he informed us proudly, the official owner. He was keen to show us his photo albums which were largely full of passport ... read more

18th December Today we set off for Tha Khaek – another joyful Laos style public transport experience! When we arrived we started usual negotiations with a tuk-tuk driver. It didn’t work-at all! Tuk-tuk driver turned out to have a tuk-tuk big boss and he was very much in charge of his platoon of drivers. When we appealed to other tuk tuk drivers we were shunned! We weren’t being funny, he had asked for an extortionate price even by English standards. He won; we caved as we had no choice. If we had to sum up Tha Khaek in one word I would say “dusty.” “Dust anyone??!” Tha Khaek is full of it. After arriving at our guesthouse we got ourselves dusted off (sorry couldn’t resist) and got some yummy food and contemplated our options for the ... read more

7th December 2011 A four hour bus ride to Battambang (town in North West of Cambodia) today. I was feeling worse again and toilet trips were becoming extremely frequent. We spent the afternoon roaming around the rather derelict town. We had pasta for the first time since we'd been away (apart from weird pasta breakfast at Hoi An hotel!) 8th December 2011 Following a recommendation from some fellow travellers we contacted Mr Blue a tuk-tuk driver who did tours of the countryside surrounding Battambang. Mr Blue arrived this morning on a tuk tuk painted black with Batman signs and "The Batmobile" written on it. Mr Blue was also wearing a black eye mask. "I am Mr Blue/Batman" he told us! Brilliant!! We knew it was going to be an entertaining day! First stop was the infamous ... read more