OAFC
Dave Joined: April 20th 2007
Logged in: October 20th 2011
Logged in: October 20th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Do we, don't we?
We walked across the Thailand - Cambodia border into a town called Poipet. Immediately on the Cambodian side hundreds of people were running around in casino uniforms. Gambling is illegal in Thailand so, there are 4 or 5 casino's here for them. Apparently, there's no ATM in Poipet but the casino's have an arrangment with border officials where unlucky gamblers can be escorted, with no immigration requirements, to a cashpoint on the Thai side (for a small fee) to draw more money out & then cross back! We bumped into an American who'd been on our bus who had just successfully bribed an official to avoid the queue back into Thailand. A few hundred yards on we negotiated a price for the 2 hour taxi journey to Siem Reap. Just as our driver had closed the ... read more
Tiger Temple
Phuket After reluctantly leaving Phi Phi we took the boat to Phuket, one of Thailands biggest resorts. From the port we got a taxi to Karon Beach which sounded quieter than neighbouring Patong. We soon realised we should've either stayed where we were a few more days or headed straight to Bangkok! The only positive things about Phuket was the mini-bar in the hotel which was both ridiculously well stocked and ridiculously cheap & the food was fantastic, if you looked hard enough to find a local place. Other than that Phuket can only be described as Blackpool with sun for Scandinavians. There were Norwegian restaurants everywhere - I'd try my best not to eat Norwegian food if I was in Norway and I think most Norwegian's would say the same. We hired a car for ... read more
Ko Phi Phi
The journey from Kuala Lumpur to Thailand was possibly the worst bus journey ever! All looked good as we set off with big comfy seats and loads of legroom and we were sat right at the back so no-one behind us either. That was until we went over the first bump in the road, of which there would be many. Because we were right above the back wheels and the seats were knackered we'd get mild whiplash from the back of the seats moving up and down everytime the road was the slightest bit uneven. This wouldn't have been such a big problem travelling during the day but this trip started at 10.30pm and ended 12 hours later. The hour and a half to get through immigration at 9am was great fun aswell in our deprived ... read more
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We flew from Macau via Air Asia and landed in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo around 11pm. Tired, we went straight to bed upon arrival at the hostel. Usually, no matter how tired, we'd normally at least go for one quick drink when arriving somewhere new, however, Malaysia is an Islamic country & none of the bars/restaurants around our hostel served beer! Got up the following morning and ate breakfast - noodles - a few doors away from the hostel after which we took a sweaty walk into town. I'd been in a state of extreme worry since arriving the night before but and it was with great relief that I spotted several Carlsberg & Tiger beer signs along the way. Our main reason for coming to Borneo was the wildlife, especially the Orang Utan sanctuary in ... read more
Breakfast!
Macau We travelled to Macau by Hydrofoil from HK which took about an hour and a half. To get tickets (HK$148) you need to go to the China Ferry Terminal on Canton Rd in Kowloon where they take cash or card, preferably the day before - they go every half hour but a few were already full. Large bags can be checked for an extra HK$75 or you can save the money and take them on. Sailing over was quite choppy and the hydrofoil almost took flight on a couple of occasions but we eventually arrived in one piece to a wet Macau Saturday afternoon. Macau’s ferry terminal is located on Taipa which is an island. We were looking to stay in Macau City which is on the mainland and linked by bridge. To get there ... read more
Landed in Hong Kong at around 4.30pm. There's a 7 hour time difference so our bodies were at 9.30 am English time and we'd hardly slept a wink on the plane despite, in my case, plenty of help from Johnnie Walker. From the airport we took the bus to Kowloon which cost HK$33, about 2 pounds and took about 45 minutes. Our hostel was the Kowloon New Hostel on Nathan Rd which is the main thouroughfare through Kowloon and Mong Kok (I love the place names here!) 2 areas full of bars, restaurants, shops and hotels. Upon arrival at the hostel they showed us our room which was nothing like the one on the website! They then offered us an upgrade to a "luxury" room for an extra 4 pounds a night which was still nothing ... read more
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Since arriving in El Calafate we’d attempted to book a flight to our next destination, Bariloche, only to find the prices extortionate and it was looking like we were going to have to take a bus - not to worry the journey was only going to take 33 hours! So we reluctantly booked this, stocked up on Pringles & set off at around midnight on a Friday night. The journey involved 3 different buses. The first was a 4 hour boneshaker south, i.e. the wrong way, to a place called Rio Gallegos (which was a dump). After a short stop here we proceeded to Comodoro Rivadavia, another dump. Here we had a 2 hour stopover so we headed off in search of food only to be, for the first time in my life, turned away ... read more
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El Calafate We flew at 5am from BA to El Calafate, a small town in Southern Argentina visited mainly as a base for trips to the Perito Moreno glacier. Upon arrival around 8am we were greeted with fine weather but a lot cooler in comparison to Buenos Aires. We took a mini bus to our hostel for 18 pesos each, about £3. This was booked right next to the luggage carousel. Arrived at our hostel, the Marco Polo Inn and the place was dead, everybody on daytrips apparently. Unable to check in until 2pm we headed into town. The main street has been done in the style of an Alpine village and, while slightly artificial, was quite picturesque. The majority of shops sold either chocolate or outdoor gear. For such a small town there was a ... read more
Recoleta Cemetery
Back in BA Thank god! We checked into the Palermo Suites hostel at around midnight and headed straight out for a few drinks on Plaza Serrano. Unfortunately the nacho place (Tazz Bar) had stopped serving food so we had to settle for a couple of tapas style dishes at the place next door which were nice. We then had two full days. The first day we found a mass of market stalls selling second hand books (we’d now gone about 3 weeks with nothing to read) most of which had an English language selection at about £1.60 each. We both bought one each as the choice wasn’t great but, hallelujah, we now had something to read. Today we also arranged our flight to our next destination, El Calafate, by going direct to the LAN office as ... read more
Punta del Este - sun capital of S America
Uruguay We took a 3 hour ferry from BA across the River Plate to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Yes, 3 hours across a river. It’s a big river. A big, brown one. The company was BuqueBus and we got the tickets a few days in advance from their terminal at the port for about £30 return. There was a hydrofoil option which took an hour and you could also go directly to Montevideo in 5 hours. The trip over was good. The main seating area was very comfortable, resulting in the amazing sleeping woman dropping off almost immediately only to be awoken by the entertainment a few minutes later - an opera singer who went down a storm with the older passengers and saw most of the younger ones dashing up onto the deck. Up ... read more
