Delaval and Beyond
The_Hallsters Joined: October 17th 2008
Logged in: March 13th 2011
Logged in: March 13th 2011
- Work
- Bad weather
- Credit crunch
- North east
- Stress
- Sobriety
- Reality TV shows
We have been married a few years now and as anyone who knows us will testify, we are fond of the old holidays.
To that end, we will be embarking on a tour of SE Asia beginning mid Feb 2009 and we reckon we will be visiting Thailand, Malaysian Borneo, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
We're Off
Travel Blog Posts
Smiling face of King Jayavarman VII
Angkor Temples We got to Siam Reap and its a pretty well developed area. We came here because this is where there are many ancient religious sights including Angkor Wat which lies 5km north of the town. We only had one full day here so we made the most of it and were up at 4.30 the next morning to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. Can I just say at this point we had pretty low expectations about visiting a load of old ruins. However Angkor is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The whole area has been a major highlight of this trip for both of us. Sunrise was magnificent as the sun rose behind the inner temple. We watched from the North pool and it was an amazing sight. ... read more
Sunset on Mekong
Pictured Above - Small Banana Waterfall, Bolaven Plateau, Southern Laos. We flew into Luang Prabang on a dodgy little plane from Chaing Mai and the scenery was stunning-all rugged cliffs. Luang Prabang was a very chilled out city which seemed as if it would fit better in France than in Asia. It was full of quaint little restaurants and coffee shops. Whilst there we spent a day sight seeing taking in Phu Si (a temple on the top of a mountain and a great view over Luang Prabang) and the Royal Palace Museum as well as checking out the night market and having tea there. During our hectic sightseeing day we also managed to squeeze in a massage at the Red Cross - the things we do for charity! We also did a day trip ... read more
Gareth & Melissa at Songkran
Songkran - Thai New Year. We caught a flight from Hanoi and swung through Bangkok right in the thick of the anti-government protests. By a good piece of luck we had decided a couple of weeks previously not to stay in Bangkok but instead fly straight into Chaing Mai - the northern and cultural capital of Thailand. This proved a choice move as when we arrived at the airport, the Songkran festivities were in full swing. We arrived on Monday 13 and the festival runs until the 15th. Its celebrating the end of the hot season in Thailand and the onset of the rains. From the airport the taxi informed us we couldn't get to our hotel in the center of town - he would drop us and we would have to walk. Songkran is ... read more
Life at "Bia Hoi Junction"
The Vietnamese roads suck in that they have built them far too narrow. Any bus journey comprises a fair bit of nail biting overtaking maneuvers into blind corners or more often than not, headlong into the path of an oncoming truck. The drivers very much live for the moment which in this instance, maybe isn't the best thing... Vietnam highway 1 runs from Saigon to Hanoi. I thought it was crazy that the highway is only 2 lanes in places then I remembered that our very own A1 is also single lane just out of Morpeth - so which one is the developing country again? Anyway, I digress - after our previous experiences on long distance buses we decided to fore go getting on another one and instead purchased a flight on Vietnam Airlines from Hue ... read more
Non Nuoc (China Beach) Danang
We caught an overnight sleeper bus to Hoi An. Unfortunately when we got on we were at the back next to three English lads from Coventry. I initially asked them if they were from Essex or something and i'm not sure how that went down but it pretty much killed any more conversation. Anyway there were 5 seats along the backand the 3 of them were sprawled all over. When any girls got on they were 'a'right love theres 2 spare seats up here if you want'. I was thinking why are we stuck next to these knobs. Anyway our luck turned when a couple of hours later 2 elderly vietnamese got on and sat in the only 2 seats left - next to bazza, spazza and dazza or whatever they were called. Fairly shut them ... read more
Orphanage, Nha Trang
We arranged our time at the orphange in Nha Trang through the manager of Asia Paradise Hotel a lovely kind hearted man called Mr Tan. Mr Tan and his colleague drove us to the orphanage on their mopeds and when we got there we were surpised and overwhelmed to be plonked in a room just full of babies. There were 10 babies in the room ranging from 5 months old up to 18 months old and all were thrilled to get some fuss and interaction from myself and Gareth. The orphange was set up and run by Mr Tong Phuoc Phuc and his family. The orphange receives no government funding and relies on donations from visitors and local companies who offer clothes and food when possible. The staff at the orphange seemed very caring however there ... read more
2 Generations of Vietnamese ethnic minority tribe
Wohoo-my turn again-apparently more people read the blog when I wrote it than when Gaz does so he's letting me have another chance! We travelled to Dalat from Saigon on a horrendous 9 hour bus journey where the driver insisted on stopping every 10 minutes to pick up or drop off his friends/ local people but refused to stop for us to go to the toilet. The journey was so bumpy you could not even read however it was very scenic as we travelled into the highlands. Actually this road is so crazy that one week previously a bus carrying russian tourists plunged over a cliff killing 10 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7943757.stm We eventually arrived in Dalat late in the afternoon feeling a little shell shocked from the bus journey and found 'Peace hotel' which was recommended in ... read more
Water Buffalo in Mekong Delta
We were catapulted straight into the mayhem of Vietnam's second city, Ho Chi Minh (affectionatley referred to as Saigon). The city is officially home to 8m people, 11m unofficially and 4m scooters. This is the first thing that strikes you upon leaving the airport. It's a head spinning introduction to Vietnam. The bus driver leaves the airport goes into a roundabout, doesn't stop & honks his horn constantly while scooters swarm around the bus on all sides. It's absolute mayhem but we loved it!! We also loved the price 9000 D for the two of us - that's the local currency, Dong, and you have 25,000 in the pound. This makes us all millionaires for about 40 quid! What a great place - you can eat out for maybe 80,000 dong - that's food and drink. ... read more
Melissa and Gareth with young Orangutans
Well I'm finally getting a turn at writing the blog-Gareth has been hogging it up until now (note from Gareth - this is untrue - Melissa not interested in blog up til now) so I've put my foot down and got artistic license to write this one. Gareth left off in Sandakan just after we'd spent three days in the jungle. During the night in Sandakan I woke with a fever pain in all my muscles, clutching stomach pains and diahorrea. Made it back to KK on a flight with lot's of help from Gaz and after seeing the Doc 2 days in when the antibiotics were failing to cure me I began to feel better. In KK we booked into Akinbalu Youth hostel-the room was a bit plain but there was a nice lounge where ... read more
Grasshopper
Once upon a time only David Attenborough types could visit the rainforests of Borneo - but now with Air Asia everyone can fly... there. (on a side note I really like Air Asia and despite their reputation have never had a late flight yet - we are on to our third now). We were chuffed upon arriving in Kota Kinabalu - the capital of the semi-automonous Malaysian state on the island of Borneo - to be met at the airport by my great uncle Des. Uncle Des moved out to Malaysia and Brunei 26 years ago and has lived here ever since. On landing at Kota Kinabalu or KK as its better known we were immediately more comfortable in the heat here. We are talking 28-32 C which is more pleasant but the hummidity is ... read more
