Michael and Sophie

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!!



Travel Blog Posts


INDIA

Published: July 9th 2012Asia
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Michael and Sophie
May 13th 2012

13.5.2012 India Walked out of Delhi airport to find our driver holding my name up on a board. His name was Dave and he would be our driver guide taking us round the Golden Triangle. From Delhi to Jaipur, to Agra and back to Delhi. We went to the office to pay and go through our plans for the next 4 days. Dave took us to our hotel; we checked in and went on a city tour of Delhi. First we visited the Presidents House. It has 544 rooms in it and the president sleeps in a different bedroom each night of the year. Close to that was India Gate where we stopped briefly and took a quick photo. We then visited Humayun’s tomb, he was the first Mughal Emperor and is one of the oldest ... read more



Thailand, The Islands

Published: July 9th 2012Asia » Thailand » Southern Thailand
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Michael and Sophie
April 25th 2012

Bangkok 25.4.2012 Another early morning wakeup call at 5am to get the bus to Bangkok. We were crammed into a mini-bus to the border, not the VIP coache we were expecting. After about an hour of queuing we were back in Thailand with another mini bus waiting to take us to Bangkok, this time just 4 hours, still crammed in like sardines though. Back to the chaos of Koh San Road! We met up with Gennigan (Finnigan and Genna) and had a catch up over a few beers. Nice to have our own friends. We then went up to the roof top pool for a dip and a few drinks, where we met up with one of Genna’s friends who was also travelling. After a shower we went to a few bars and got on the ... read more



Cambodia

Published: May 8th 2012Asia » Cambodia
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Michael and Sophie
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



Mekong Delta

Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Mekong River Delta
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Michael and Sophie
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



Ho Chi Minh City

Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Mekong River Delta
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Michael and Sophie
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



Nha Trang

Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Khanh Hoa » Nha Trang
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Michael and Sophie
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



Chaing Mai

Published: April 7th 2012Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand
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Michael and Sophie
April 7th 2012

21.3.2012 We arrived in Chaing Mai at 13.00, 3 hours later than we had meant to. We got picked up by our hotel and taken there. We were staying in the old part of the city, which has a very old wall around it. It has narrow streets and lots of temples. The sky wasn't blue, it was hazy and smoggy. Apparently the farmers were burning all the old crops off all across northern Thailand, Laos and China. You couldn't smell smoke but you could sort of see it. Once we checked in we went for a lunch at an amazing cafe called Blue Diamond. It was very quirky selling all home made cakes, icecream, pastries ect. We had fruit shakes a noodle curry soup and Thai fish cakes. It was delicious. We went for a ... read more



Hoi An

Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Quảng Nam » Hoi An
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Michael and Sophie
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



Hue

Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Thua Thien - Huế » Hué
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Michael and Sophie
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



Halong Bay

Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Northeast
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Michael and Sophie
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






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