http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/PaddyandSage/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from PaddyandSage en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:14:04 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:14:04 +0000 Just thought I'd give a quick update.Riga was pretty but again rainy and cold and infested with English stag parties. Patrick thought he'd never get to experience a real Riga stag party but we were sitting eating our dinner in a bar near a private room one night when all the lads turned up for the party so he invited himself in We hung around until I found it all a bit offensive which didn't http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-344617.html I have been meaning to update these more regularly as there is free internet at most of the hostels in Russia and we have had a fair bit if time hanging aroud waiting for trains but it just hasn't worked out for me. We are leaving Russia tonight so I'm condensing the train Moscow and St Petersburg into one. We boarded Irkustsk ready for our 77 hour train trip on the evening of the 19th which http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-338913.html Sooo. After we had realised our timing error we examined our options. They were limited. If we tried to catch a minibus down we risked missing the train and we weren't entirely confident that we would in fact find a place to sleep the night at Angaskolkya. We headed back to the guesthouse to check the internet and once again check the train times so we could be sureor not sure of making the cir http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-337769.html We left Mongolia on the 15th and boarded the train headed to Irkutsk which was to be our first stop in Russia. Once again we had a compartment to ourselves and the Provodnitsa carriage attendant was a jolly gay German who would surreptiously wink and blow kisses to me on his way past. The trains between Mongolia and Russia are full of Mongolian traders smuggling their wares across the border http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-337399.html There are photos attached so click the web link on your email is you can't see themWe have just spent the most amazing two weeks in the Mongolian countryside and have had a fabulous experience. We organised a driver and a guide through our guesthouse and were joined by 2 Spanish girls and a Danish couple. Accomodation was mainly in Gers owned by Mongolian families although we slept in tents o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Gobi-Desert/blog-333416.html We had very inauspicious start to our visit to Mongolia. After alighting from the train we were met with the usual touts for hostels and because we had to find an ATM chose to jump in a taxi instead. A taxi driver came running toward us and after assuring us that his was indeed a metered taxi packed our bags into the back of his vehicle. First he drove us to a money exchange even though we h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-333411.html Nearly a month no blog....we are now in Mongolia but I need to update on the rest of our China tour.Last blog we were killing time in Suzhou waiting for our overnight train to Xi'an. We arrived left our bags at the hotel breakfasted on dumplings and then grabbed a tandem to cycle round the city walls 13km in all and Patrick will tell you he did most of the work. We then grabbed a cab and h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-333161.html China where do I startWe are doing an organised tour through China with Intrepid mainly because at the time we wanted to get our visa the whole Olympics hoopla was making getting visas difficult in the end we probably didn't need to but we are looking at it as a bit of a holiday from our holiday in that we don't really have to think we have someone doing it for us. China is big everything i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-321831.html It's been a long time between blogs.....we are now in China and internet is not so easy but I thought I should just go back a month ago to Northern Thailand and give a brief run down before moving onto the China files.We flew to Chiang Mai on the 9th of August and were met at the airport by Jono and BB. You have no idea how nice it was to be met at a destination after all this time......also the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Northern-Thailand/blog-321808.html Ok. So Patrick tells me that I write too much for you busy people that actually have to work to read.....so we'll try a new format with some highlights and then some detail below for those of you that have the time.Since I last updated the blog we have Secured both our Chinese and Russian visas....there is a lot more to this story it took us nearly a week in Vientiane and many trips back and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-308849.html There are a couple of things I neglected to mention in yesterday's motorbike blog We road 677km in 5 days 130km on dirt Patrick now considers himself a dirtbike champion Our top speed was 105km which we only reached on the last day after filling up with Shell fuel The only time we came close to hitting anything was when a little pig ran out in front of us and only veered at the very last m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-303491.html After the islands we decided to hire a motorcyle for the next couple of days sorry Mum's and Dad's to go touring round the Bolaven Plateau. Obviously Patrick was keen but I was a little unsure so the decision was made to hire the bike for one day see how we go and if I survived and felt safe enough we could look at getting it for longer.Day 1 PakseChampasakWe headed out of Pakse on our http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-303003.html We have now been in Laos for nearly 3 weeks already.....wow time flies.The 9th to the 15th was spent on the island of Don Det which is one of the '4000 Islands'. This was our cheapest accomodation yet about AUD1.90 a night for a very basic bungalow overlooking the Mekong. The bungalow had a squat toilet and a big bucket of water so essentially a bathroom since we could use the big bucket of wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-302999.html I've been slack. This blogging is harder than I thought. I will go back and write about our beautiful island Ko Chang and Bangkok but I thought I had better update you about our whereabouts.As you can tell by the title we are now in Laos. We are in South Laos in Pakse. We crossed the Thailand border yesterday after catching an overnight train from Ayutthaya to Ubon Ratchatani and then an Int http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Pakxe/blog-296837.html We are currently in Ranong which is on the Andaman coast of Thailand. It's here you can do a 'visa run' over to Myanmar so that you can get an extension of your Thailand visa. When we arrived in Thailand on the 28th June I used my APEC card and was given 90 days. Patrick doesn't yet have his card so was only given 30 days and hence the visa run. You can do visa runs from Phuket whereby you ge http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ranong/blog-289167.html Here is a link to some photos that Patrick has loaded onto Facebook...with captions for those of you who don't have access.httpwww.facebook.comalbum.phpaid39954l9ad7fid680385046 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-289157.html Thought I would give a quick update of our whereabouts it's been a while. I think last blog we were leaving Langkawi for Thailand and that was weeks ago........We arrived in Thailand at the ferry port of Satun and ended up travelling to Krabi with another Aussie couple who had been on the same boat. We stayed the night in Krabi whilst they headed directly to Ao Nang.....we've been following the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-287537.html We caught the ferry across from Penang to Langkawi and had the misfortune of sitting right under the aircon vent. Luckily I was prepared and by the end of the trip Patrick and I were both huddled under a fleece blanket and a pashmina. To be honest Langkawi was not that exciting. We had an aircon hut with a fridge 20m from the water compared to the Perhentians the water was murky and not as ni http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Kedah-and-Perlis/Pulau-Langkawi/blog-282401.html Ok so I want to get Malaysia out of the way and you are about to be bombarded.My lasting memory of Penang will be how bloody hot it was. hot hot hot. We arrived o a bus which we though would take us to the centre of Georgetown. Alas no it dropped us off at a bus station way way outside of town. We really didnt have any idea where we were or how to get where we were going. Some helpful locals http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Penang/George-Town/blog-280741.html Hi AllOnce all our friends had left it was also time for us to leave the Perhentians. We made the deicision booked our boat and started packing. Finola cooked us up a farewell dinner of pasta with real parmesan and we stayed up with her drinking our last beers and finishing off our Thai Song. The boat back to Kuala Besut left at 8am so we trudged down the beach and hopped onto a taxi boat t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Tanah-Rata/blog-279868.html