Reach and Go

Arriving in Sumatra After the home comforts of big town, developing Malaysia (Starbucks, flushing toilets and efficient public transport) we arrived in Sumatra and quickly realized we were back in country where just day to day survival is the main concern for most people. The roads are full of mopeds and potholes, cattle happily wonder alongside the traffic and buildings are mostly constructed in an abstract fusion of concrete and tin. Sumatra is one of the poorest countries in the region and this hasn’t been helped by the natural disasters they’ve had to cope with in the last few years. The 2004 Boxing Day earthquake (magnitude 9.3) and tsunami that followed left approx 167,000 dead and over 500,000 displaced. Following this they’ve also had devastating earthquakes in both 2005 (magnitude 8.6) and 2007 (magnitude 8.5). This ... read more

Getting there… Due to the train out of Thailand running three hours late we were almost resigned to having to spend a night in the Malaysian border town of Khota Bharu and then getting to the Perhentian islands a day later than originally planned. Luckily, however, we found a taxi driver who some say, is the Stigs’ Malaysian brother, and assured us he could do the seventy miles to the speedboat jetty in time for the last boat of the day! He was true to his word… Liz and I both held on for dear life! Thirty hours, five forms of transport (ferry, bus, train, speed-taxi, speedboat) and one border crossing after leaving Koh Tao in Thailand we arrived at the Perhentian islands in Malaysia. The Perhentian Islands The Perhentians’ are a couple of small tropical ... read more

During our travels around Asia we’ve spoken to lots of other backpackers about the places they’ve been and Bangkok has never really had glowing reviews. Often it seems to be the city they first fly into from Europe and then just pass through to some of Thailand’s more scenic destinations. Coming from a western city straight into Bangkok would be a big culture shock and as we’ve found out, the madness of big Asia cities takes a bit of time to get used to! Bangkok was a bit of a pass-through for us as well. After leaving Chiang Mai in the north (more on that in a minute) we were heading towards the tropical islands of Southern Thailand. However, to get there we had to pass through Bangkok so thought we’d better stop for a couple ... read more

Luang Prabang For the last week we’ve based ourselves in Luang Prabang which is a small town situated in northern Laos at the point where the Nam Khan River joins up with the mighty Mekong River. In addition to the rivers the town is surrounded by rainforest and mountains which altogether makes for an amazing setting! Luang Prabang was given World Heritage status in 1995 due to the high number of well preserved and still functioning Buddhist temples it has. Every street you walk down seems to have a temple on it with Monks all dressed in their robes going about their business. As part of the World Heritage agreement they’ve banned any large vehicles from entering the centre so compared with the rest of Asia this place is like a sea of calm and tranquility! ... read more

Apologies that this blog is a bit of a history lesson! If you’re not interested then just skip to the funny stuff at the bottom…. Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City We only had one day here so we made a beeline to the Chu Chi tunnels; which are located on the outskirts of the city. The tunnels at Chu Chi are one of last surviving sections of a once huge underground tunnel network that stretched 250km from the Cambodian border across to Ho Chi Minh City. They were dug and used with great effect by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War and featured underground living quarters, hospitals, meeting rooms, weapon stores and even a honeymoon suite! Apparently the deepest tunnels were far enough below ground to be protected from the B-52 bombs, of which ... read more