SazandCarlos

We left India in 37*C heat and clear blue skies..................... We landed at Istanbul, Turkey in 5*C, cold, wet and grey.................. Welcome back to Europe.......................... Our first visit was to Ankara as we went to see Rosie and Kaan for the week, where we had a relaxing week with them both and visited some of the sights and sounds of Ankara. Thankfully they had good central heating and we had a weeks intensive course climatising as we had -*C temps, lots of rain, snow and thankfully sun by the end of the week!!!! Our next adjustment was to the "modern western world" as we could not believe how fast cars went, having the choice of foods, super markets, clean & tidy streets, general ease & organisation and finally an increase in prices!!!!! We did a 1 ... read more

"This blog is dedicated to Amy, Josh, John and my Nana. The first 3 were taken away in their prime the latter was in her prime for 99 years. Rest in Peace.” We hit Chennai at 11.30pm feeling a little tired and very relieved after one of the bumpiest and scariest flights I’d been on in a while. We passed through 3 different thunderstorms that clearly lit the night sky and the plane!!! The next morning we decided not to cycle into Chennai, but headed south towards Mamallapuram a tourist fishing town overlooking the Bay of Bengal. We put on our armor, sun cream and ear plugs as we set off!! We soon realized that Indian roads are best described in one word... “mayhem”. Truthfully the way out of Chennai was not as bad as we ... read more

As we entered back into the motherland, Carl was in his element as we were greeted by smiling border guards and the smells of the all the different food stalls filling our noses with Thai music playing in the background. We completed our visas and crossed back over onto the left hand side of the road ... well me and Carl did, Neil tried to take on the oncoming traffic!!! It was bliss being able to pull up wherever we wanted and buy cold drinks from a fridge and sit down on a bench in the shade and enjoy them... This basic bliss we had left behind 2 & half months previous when we crossed into Lao. The joy we felt when we saw our first proper cold fridge was unbelievable. In Vietnam and Camdodia just ... read more

We crossed into Vietnam early in the morning with tender backside from sleeping on the benches at the Lao border. We decended to Dien Bien Phu with heavy rain and a skeptic mind as Carl had filled both me and Carter with scare stories of Vietnam when he visited 10 years ago!! The next 6 days we cycled through unspoilt mountain scenery towards Hanoi. Along the way we came across some mega friendly hill-tribes as they waved at us, shouting "hello", giving us fruit and posed for pictures in their colourful dresses. This was the opposite of what Carl and Rob received 10 years ago... I think it might have included stones (but this is a completely different area)!! The traffic was light, but you could see the potential building up as we got nearer to ... read more

The arrival of Neil (Carter) led to a couple of nights out in the re-nowed areas of Patpong and Soi-Cowboy in Bangkok. However, both mine and Carl's taste are very different to Neil's as the first bar he choose was a full on 'gay bar' with male couples sat outside having a couple... I quietly had to mention this to Neil and Carl as neither of them had noticed this in the first minute or so.... The second night was a bit safer as we met up with Neil's friends Harry (female) and Dave from his teaching days in Kenya. We left the dizzy heights of Bangkok and got the train to Pitsanoluk and spent a day looking round the historical ruins of Sukhothai. It was here that we had our first heavy thunder & lightening ... read more