Beata & Tomek
Beata and Tomek
we have been away from home
We love to travel. It is as simple as that ;-)
30.09.2011 we embarked on a trip of our lives ;-) 5 years ago we got inspired by our friends (Monique and Nigel who constantly travel and have been on RTW) and since then we have been thinking about it all the time. We finally set up a date, started to save up and focused only on preparation ;-) We could not just stay at home all the time so we traveled a bit in between but now the time has finally come for 'the big one' ;-)
We plan to be away for 18 months but we will see how far our money goes;-) Hope you will enjoy our adventures and maybe we can inspire someone to do the same;-) We live only once so we have to follow our dreams;-)
We travel on strict budget and try to give ideas of how much things cost in our blog. It is our way of giving back as we found it very helpful when planning this trip.
Our RTW plan is:
Leg 1: Poland (visit home), Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, China (for all the blogs and map of Leg 1, Please Click Here)
Leg 2: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia
Leg 3: Sydney, Fiji, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador
Leg 4: Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, USA (New Mexico, Chicago and NY only - unless we still have money left to see more)
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Travel Blog Posts
March 19th 2012
Entering into the country where time goes a lot slower!!! We had to overnight in Kratie again when on the way to Laos and this time we opted for a very cheap 4$ per night room. It was basic but clean so no complains. Seems that Kratie offers cheapest food as well as rooms in Cambodia. We could have gone the same day to Laos but afternoon buses arrive late in the evening at the border and we did not want to pay even higher 'stamping fee' for our crossing. To be honest this whole fee process is a joke. Everybody knows it is illegal payment/bribe for doing nothing but yet no-one complains. People just pay and the worst thing is that last year it was 1$ on each side (from what I have read on ... read more
March 15th 2012
Whenever we ask any traveller what was their most memorable place in Cambodia, they always say Angkor Wat. Not a very surprising answer as in the end this is Cambodian, if not Southeast Asian most important historical treasure. If you ask us the same question, we will say - probably to your surprise - that it was Mondulkiri Province and Elephant Valley to be precise. If you follow our blog you probably noticed how big of animal lovers we are, however as much as it was a reason for us to go there, it was not the only reason why we loved it so much. We read about EVP (Elephant Valley Project) based in Sen Monorom in Lonely Planet but what you read is a mere glimpse of what you meet when you arrive. When doing ... read more
March 11th 2012
After 5 fabulous days in Siem Reap it was time to move on. We were headed towards Laos border but we really wanted to avoid going back to Phnom Penh. In this case we decided on taking a rather long journey (more than 10h and a change of buses) to Kratiein the north-east of Cambodia. So far we have been really enjoying this country a lot (with an exception of few minor incidents with Tuk-Tuk drivers) and judging by what we had read about Kratie, we were more than confident that our next destination would be equally good or even better. We arrived in town just in time for a beautiful sunset over Mekong. Kratie is a very small town so our walk from a bus stop to a hotel took us maybe 2 min. We ... read more
March 7th 2012
The beach was great, however no one really comes to Cambodia only for some beach time right? Every single travel itinerary must, by all means, contain Siem Reap and the amazing Temples of Angkor. It is yet another UNESCO protected area and for some the most impressive and memorable of all Southeast Asia's ancient sites. You can tell by the intro that our hopes and expectations were really high when we got there;-) We did not even bother ourselves with the typical budget minded question of buying a one day - 20$ or 3 day - 40$ pass. We wanted to see it all and spent as much time as possible in this place. It is very typical in Cambodia that buses don't really drop you where they supposed to (or you would wish to be ... read more
Great beach time and our fist glimpse of an ultimate backpackers' party place;-)
Published: May 10th 2012Asia » Cambodia » South » Sihanoukville
March 2nd 2012
Sihanoukville located only a few hours away from Kampot seems like a different world. We went from quiet and cosy to busy and very touristy. Even though we arrived just before noon all the beaches were already fully occupied by holiday makers and travellers. To our surprise this place still looked quite nice considering that there are only local bars and restaurants (Serendipity and Occheuteal Beach side). We opted for Otres beach a little bit further away from the party epicentre but still walking distance to it all. We walked for 30 minutes or so and we could not find any decent place to stay. There are cheap hostels and guesthouses for 3$-5$ per night but we met people who told us how dirty they were and that there were bedbugs in their rooms. We like ... read more
Getting into relaxed pace of travelling ... Finally :-)
Published: April 14th 2012Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot
February 25th 2012
We left Vietnam behind us together with tight schedules and fully packed itinerary. Since the beginning of our trip we were moving all the time trying to see as much as possible (especially in China). Cambodia is a much smaller country and also we only had a few places in mind that we really wanted to visit. At least that was our plan when we crossed the border and got to the capital city of Phnom Penh. Fanny was still with us and she was in fact going in the same direction so we decided to stick together. We stayed in Royal Guest-house (9$ per room) purely because it was located within short walking distance to food courts. Seems that food has much bigger importance in our lives than riverside location;-) We really only meant to ... read more
Life in rhythm of the 'Nine-Dragon River'
Published: April 8th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Mekong River Delta » Can Tho
February 19th 2012
We still had a very exciting time in Vietnam ahead of us – tour around the Mekong Delta. However first, we had to do a stop-over in HCMC to decide where and how we visit the delta. Unfortunately because of the unplanned stop in Phong Nha National Park and longer than anticipated stay in Hoi Anwe only had 5 days left on our visa. We gave it a lot of thinking and research and decided to opt for an organised 3 day tour combined with Mekong border crossing to Cambodia. Not the ideal solution but we did not have enough time to do it ourselves. Looking at the bright side of it we found an agency with great itinerary and the cost of the trip came to a bargain 25$/day per two of us. There is ... read more
Tropics....ow, how we have missed you!!!
Published: March 30th 2012Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Hoi An
February 11th 2012
When we got to Hoi An we could not believe how warm it was. After 4 months in cold weather we finally arrived in place where we could wear our summer clothes;-) And it was supposed to stay like this for months so you can imagine how big our smiles were. We had a group of 8 so we thought that finding a nice and cheap hotel would be more than easy as we had a bargain edge. Well, it does not work like that in Vietnam. Price was the price and they would not even go down by a dollar to have 8 people staying with them for a few days. We had to split as boys and Thang (Vietnamese girl who grew up in America) wanted to stay in a dorm and the rest ... read more
Lush green landscapes and farm-less farm-stay!!!
Published: March 23rd 2012Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Phong Nha Ke Bang
February 5th 2012
It took us 4h to get to Ninh Binh. It is not a particularly pretty place but we only really came there to visit near by Tam Coc village known as 'Halong Bay of Rice paddies'. This town is also well known for its great hotels and we can actually confirm that this is the case. We stayed in Queen Mini Hotel where for 6$ you get big, modern, clean room and really inexpensive food in their downstairs restaurant. Portions were quite nice as well as since we crossed to Vietnam we felt like we were constantly hungry. Maybe it had something to do with huge portions of food served in China and we just got used to the amounts we consumed. I do understand that Vietnamese people are rather on the small side but we ... read more
Halong Bay-ing or not, Cat Ba Island is definitely worth a visit!
Published: March 18th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Cat Ba Island
January 31st 2012
So here we are, Halong Bay ... after years of reading about it and admiring photos we are finally here. Even thinking about it gave us goosebumps – we were that excited;-) Of course we knew, we did not come at the right time of year so there was no expectation of amazing turquoise water etc. but never the less we were confident that it would look stunning. When you embark on such a long trip as ours, you cannot expect to always have fantastic weather, we just had to get over it. Tomek was a little bit disappointed with visibility and light for his photos but what else could we do. We got to Cat Ba town by bus-bus-boat-bus combo from Hanoi (see previous blog for details) and Lorraine and myself walked around to find ... read more
Beata and Tomek
| Joined | August 16th 2010 | Trips | 9 |
| Last Login | May 26th 2012 | Followers | 20 |
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Beata & Tomek
Map Legend: 22%, 58 of 263 Territories
live here 
Plan for 2012/2013 
visited on RTW 
been to 
Trips
India
September 15th 2005 -» February 27th 2006
Trips in Europe
September 1st 2006 -» February 1st 2008
Morocco
March 15th 2008 -» March 26th 2008
Egypt & Jordan
December 12th 2009 -» December 30th 2009
Scotland by Motorhome
May 28th 2010 -» June 8th 2010
Sri Lanka & Jaipur India
October 28th 2010 -» November 16th 2010
Queensland Australia and Singapore
May 13th 2011 -» May 29th 2011
RTW Leg 1: Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, China
September 30th 2011 -» January 19th 2012
RTW Leg II: SE Asia
January 20th 2012 -» ongoing
September 15th 2005 -» February 27th 2006
Trips in Europe
September 1st 2006 -» February 1st 2008
Morocco
March 15th 2008 -» March 26th 2008
Egypt & Jordan
December 12th 2009 -» December 30th 2009
Scotland by Motorhome
May 28th 2010 -» June 8th 2010
Sri Lanka & Jaipur India
October 28th 2010 -» November 16th 2010
Queensland Australia and Singapore
May 13th 2011 -» May 29th 2011
RTW Leg 1: Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, China
September 30th 2011 -» January 19th 2012
RTW Leg II: SE Asia
January 20th 2012 -» ongoing
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