Niamh and Steve

Donegal... read more

Koh Phi Phi We went to beautiful Phi Phi for two days. Knowing that it would be a lot more busy and hence expensive we ended up at Phi Phi Hill resort on Long Beach. We found that this was the best value for money place in this beach with huge bungalows and decent restaurant with spectacular views! Our twin room with bathroom was 750baht. Phi Phi was definitely worth the visit even though you have to share with many people. We met a lovely Australian couple called Jono & Claire and spent time with them on Phi Phi. We booked a longtail boat to go on a snorkelling trip to Maya Beach on Phi Phi Ley (where the film 'The Beach' was filmed) and another lovely bay nearby. The snorkelling here is so good and ... read more

Langkawi With our Thai visa about to run out, we decided to head south to the Malaysian border on a visa run. This would allow us to return to Thailand to explore some more islands for the last leg of our trip. We decided to visit the Malaysian island of Langkawi for two nights as we had missed this area on our way through Malaysia previously. It was easy organising a bus and ferry from Satun, Thailand to Langkawi and it cost us 850B and took around 6 hours in total. Langkawi is a beautiful island but very commercialised as it is a duty free zone. We stayed at AB Motel AT Cengah beach and got a very basic but clean room for 50RM. Having spent the last few weeks in Thailand, Langkawi was a bit ... read more

Laem Ngop Because of our delayed bus from the cambodian/thai border we missed our connecting ferry that evening to Koh Cang. The driver brought us to a guesthouse where he would make commission in the port town of Laem Ngop even though we had previously been assured that we would be brought to nearby Trat if we wished. We decided to look for another guesthouse instead which may not have been the brightest idea when we realised that a lot of the roads were unlit and had stray dogs howling at us!! Luckily, a nice Welsh man called Jim passed by on his motorbike and stopped to tell us of his friends guesthouse. He kindly gave us each a lift there with our big rucksacks. The guesthouse was called Spider's Web and is run by a ... read more

We ventured to Phnom Penh after Saigon. Here we went to visit the National Museum where we saw many artifacts from the Angkor Wat area. We also visited the Tong Sleung museum which was once a high school but was then used the Khmer Rouge as a centre for the torture of many cambodians accused of being opposed to the Khmer Rouge regime or people that once worked for the previous government. You can still see the torture instruments used and photos of the victims. And before we left we saw a huge box containing skulls of some of the victims - it was very good to learn about this and to think it only happened not so long ago. We also spent a few evening's by the Mekong riverfront. A lot of the Phnom Penh ... read more