Michael and Sophie
Why we have decided to do a blog is to have a backup of all our memories while we travel the world for eight months. The fact that we will probably lose our diaries, our cameras and memory sticks we will have this to fall back on. Plus it saves us both writing separately to our family members and blocking up Cathy´s facebook wall!!Michael and Sophie
Travel Blog Posts
April 18th 2012
18.4.2012 On to Cambodia Off to Phnom Penh today. After checking out we piled our entire luggage along with everyone else in the group onto the back of a rickshaw. It looked like something of a comedy sketch, the luggage was piled so high, rucksack after rucksack balancing on top of one another! And off he went down the road, dodging scooters, cars and people. Our initial thought was that we were never going to see our luggage again, and how would we explain that to our insurance?! Luckily when we got to the dock to board the boat, all our bags were there waiting for us! We visited a fish farm on the way to the border; families live in floating houses which have thousands of fish underneath them. We were given a little talk ... read more
April 16th 2012
16.4.2012 Started our 2 night/3day tournof the Mekong Delta, visiting My Tho, Can Tho, Chau Doc and finishing in Phnom Penh (Cambodia). We had a bus journey to My Tho dock were we boarded a boat to visit Pheonix Island on the river. It is much bigger here from when we were last on it in Laos. On the Island we were shown life on the Mekong Delta. All the fruits they grow, how they make the honey for their tea. The tea was very nice with lemon, honey and water. We then got into 4's and got onto a tiny long boat on one of the small canals that ran through the island. 2 women with conical hats on rowed us down the bamboo banked canal until we ended up back at the main river ... read more
April 14th 2012
14.4.2012 Early morning flight to HCMC. Arrived and noticed it was very humid and stuffy. Got the local bus to the centre, everyone on the bus was very helpful and friendly and told us were to go and when to get off. We stayed in the backpacker district and found our hotel fine. In the afternoon we headed to the Presedential Palace. It was pretty boring really, not much to see and nothing interesting. We got back the hotel and I had a few beers while we got ready as it was the FA cup semi final Liverpool v Everton. Sophie skyped the family and we booked a few tours which meant we missed the first 10 mins but didn't miss anything. We watched the match on a roof top bar overlooking the city. Everytime we ... read more
April 11th 2012
11.4.2012 We arrived in Nha Trang after a terrible sleep at 6am. We had a few hotels in mind but on the way some guy wouldn't leave us alone trying to sell us a room. We had a look at it and decided to stay there, for the first night anyway. We were shattered so we went to bed for a few hours. When we got up we went the beach. It was actually a nice beach and was very long. Been a month or so since we were last on one! The sea was very warm, so didn't do much if you wanted to cool off! On the way back the hotel we looked for a cheaper place to stay and booked a boat trip for the next day. I have been craving pizza so ... read more
April 6th 2012
6.4.2012 Up at 8 to catch a bus to Hoi An. We got a open ticket from Hue to Nha Trang. We arrived about 1, as soon as we got off the bus we were poached by people selling us hotel rooms. We had a look at one for $10 and we decided we would take it. We had a walk around Hoi An and it is the nicest places we have visited it is beautiful. The old part of the town is a UNESCO world heritage site. All narrow lanes full of cafe's, restaurants and shops, all decorated with lanterns and fairy lights. It is very pretty and set on the Thu Bon river We then headed for a tailors which we have been looking forward to. After some tme and negotiations we ended up ... read more
April 4th 2012
4.4.2012 Up very early at 3 to get to the airport for our 6.40 flight. It ended up being delayed as usual and didn't take off till 8.40. On arriving at Hue we got a bus to our hotel called Valentine Hotel, which we had recommended. I managed to to a bit of haggling and got them down a bit. The staff were really nice and showed us all the things we couuld do in Hue. We went to explore the Imperial City (citadel) the old part of the city. It is completely surronded by a high wall and a moat all the way around. We ended up getting a rickshaw around to all the sites. He showed us the old Vietnamese housed that we could look around, a few temples, and a look out. From ... read more
April 1st 2012
1.4.2012 After a 3 and a half hour bus journey, all packed in like sardines we arrive at Halong City where we board the junk boat for a cruise around Halong Bay. We booked a 3 day 2 night tour with 1 night on the boat and one night on Cat Ba Island, which is the biggest island in Halong Bay. As we were waiting on the dock we couldn't see our boat that we were supposed to be getting on. It was very busy and we gott ushered ontp this boat that wasn't the right boat. First of all it was called the party boat when we had booked a 'luxurious' boat. I phoned the hotel and he knew straight away what he hhad done and sold us the wrong thing! He lied to us ... read more
March 30th 2012
30.3.2012 We arrived in Hanoi quite late and decided to get a bus to our hotel. It was in the old quarter. We were stuffed into a mini bus with more people in seats and gave the adress to the driver. We had no idea where we would end up, but after an hour and a half we somehow ended up at our hotel. We checked in and Skyped Laura and Pete and got to speak to baby Erin Grace. 31.3.2012 We booked a trip to Halong Bay this morning. We went round a few places but decided on the boat that the guy in the hotel was offering, which turned out to be a big mistake! We walked around the Old Quarter of the city and it is very nice. There is a big lake ... read more
March 29th 2012
29.3.2012 We felt very hungover from a days tubing. We couldn't really remember much of the night so we tried to piece it all together over breakfast. We had a bus booked at 10 to go to Vientiane, so we had to pack and checkout which took some effort. Sophie was moving very slowly and I had to keep telling her to hurry or we'll miss the bus. The bus journey took 4 hours, which was a bumpy ride. Sophie spent the whole journey trying not to be sick. We found a guest house and had a walk around the city. 30.3.2012 Sophie was still unwell. She was blaming the anti-malarial drugs but I think it's a 2 day hangover. We were flying to Hanoi later on in the day so we checked out stored our ... read more
March 28th 2012
28.3.2012 We went straight to sleep after finding a hotel to stay in. We woke up in search for some food. We wandered around town, very small and dusty. Not much to see, buildings and roads not in great condition - but we wern't there to do that we were there to go tubing. We sorted it out where we got our tubes from and sussed out where to go etc. We got our swim gear on and bought a waterproof pouch for our camera and some money. We hired the tube and got a tuk tuk to the start. We had no idea what to expect, but once we got there it was nothing like we have seen before - it was brilliant. There was bars either side of the river banging out tunes with ... read more
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