Travel Blog Posts
March 19th 2007
Getting off the night train from Xi'an in the small town of Pingyao was quite a shock. We were greeted with the smell of coal and much cooler air. We were glad we had our stylish face masks. After getting off the tuk-tuk we had hired and chilled to the bone from the ride, we found our place on the main street. The city wall we passed through was first built just under 3000 years ago and the ancient city inside was just as amazing. The city inside the wall appeared no different than it would have 500 years ago. After warming up in our room and rock, paper, scissoring for the best bed we set out to look around this ancient town. The streets were very interesting because every ash laden building sold antiques and ... read more
March 19th 2007
After Hong Kong our next place to see was Shanghai. We decided to take a 25 hour sleeper train and we both loved it. It gave us both time to relax for a whole day and take in the scenery. When we first arrived in Shanghai we were both confused how to get to a guesthouse we were looking for so we opted just to take a taxi. The hostel we were staying at was about a block west from the Bund, so it was really convenient for us to do our sightseeing. We stayed at "The Captains" youth hostel and both really enjoyed it. We bought a dormitory room and were both surprised to see the rooms layout was similar to an old ship! The bunks had portholes and the room was laid out with ... read more
February 26th 2007
We left Hanoi just in time as it started to rain heavily while we were in the airport waiting for our flight to Hong Kong. The flight was short only about one hour but due to the storm it was turbulent much of the way which made both of us unnerved and relieved to get off the plane in Hong Kong. The city was a shock from Vietnam! The cleanliness, technology, and prices were unbelievablely steep. It felt much like a high tech North America. We took the bus, the cheapest mode of transportation to the city and it came out to be 20 Hong Kong Dollars each or 3 Canadian so not bad for a 45 minute drive. After finding the cheapest room we could for as much as our Christmas room on Koh ... read more
February 18th 2007
Well Phnom Penh was a shocker. On our drive in we were greeted with the smell of burning rubber and a large slum along the Mekong river. Getting off the bus was difficult due to the fact that the exit was crowded by men, woman, and children selling anything and everything. The locals would try to get you to stay at their guesthouse, to take their taxi, buy their food or beg you for money. The city was huge but had nothing a big city should. The whole city had only two ATM's so it was difficult to take money out. It was definately the dirtiest place we had been yet. We lucked out though and found a great guesthouse down a dodgy ally. We were aprehensive at first but the room was big, had a ... read more
February 13th 2007
After our great experience with the sand dunes in Mui Ne, we headed north to the fairly small town of Hue. The journey there consisted of a few stops along the way. Our first stop was at the city of Hoi An. We spent a few hours there waiting for our next bus. I tried the local breakfast dish, which is hard to explain but consisted of cabbage, croutons, pork and a delicious sweet sauce. Afterwards we toured around the town enjoying the scenery and looking in the shops. After finding a pool table and having a few games we decided to head back to the tour agency we booked our ticket with.The bus came shortly and we both eagerly jumped on, excited to explore the north. After an eight hour bus ride we arrived in ... read more
February 11th 2007
After leaving Pai, we decided to make our way down the coast to Phuket. We started our long journey by bus to Chiang Mai down the windiest road any of us had ever seen. It was a beautiful ride through the mountains despite the cramped conditions of our bus. After ariving in Chiang Mai we took a tuk tuk to the the bus station and got our ticket to Bangkok on an over night bus. While Andrew and Nathan were sleep deprived, Trevor was being hit on by a gay bus attendent. All in all it was not a great bus ride. After our 12 hour haul we made it to Bangkok and opted for a more confortable sleeper train down to Surat Thani. The train ride down the coast was a great break because we ... read more
January 27th 2007
Sorry it's been such a long time since we updated, we sure have been around. Kuala Lumpur We spent a couple of days in KL, enjoying the scenery and such. We saw the Petronas twin towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world, and also has the highest skybridge in the world! Our guesthouse was called "Le Village", located in Chinatown, smelled strongly of incense and was very cozy. The only downside to this were the bedbugs and cockroaches at night... We spent a few hours each day just walking around the city seeing the sights. We loved the architecture and modern style of the city. It was a really neat place to see. It was a huge change from Thailand. We decided to journey to the Batu Caves so we took a city ... read more
January 3rd 2007
After Christmas we left for the island of Ko Pha Ngan. Excited to see a new place after a long time spent on Ko Tao, we took the fastest ferry. We lucked out and found a nice room for a great price of 400 baht a night. The island was extremely touristy but very fun. This was the first place we saw large amounts of young travellers. On the first day there we were both tired and Andrew was a little sick so we took it easy and took in our new surroundings. The next day Trev and I went to the party beach to see if what we heard was true and it truly was the biggest party spot we had ever seen. The party beach itself fills up during the day and night. We ... read more
December 25th 2006
Merry Christmas to all! Hopefully everyone had a good time and enjoyed it. Thanks for all the messages as we really enjoy reading them. Andrew and I got a really nice bungalo to stay in for Christmas eve and Christmas, with a great view. It was really big, had airconditioning and even hot water! The beach below was faily nice but the water was even nicer as it's crystal blue. There are large rock formations jutting out of the water, one named Buddha rock. There was a nice pathway through the water where you walk on an elevated path beside the rocks. Did you guys eat lots? Because we ate like four meals a day! The food is so delicious! For Christmas Eve we went to a nice italian restaurant called "Farangos" and ate ourselves to ... read more
December 16th 2006
After Prachuap Khiri Khan we both moved into the small town of Chumphon, where we stayed at a local beach for a few days. It rained a lot and Andrew got food poisoning, so we stayed for a few extra days just hanging out. The beach was alright, but we both wanted to go to the islands at sea for a while, so we are now on Ko Tao. Ko Tao is extremely touristy, although it is very fun as well. We are both currently taking our PADI open water diver course. Diving is very exciting. We finish our course in one day and have two more dives at 18 meters. The time we have spent on Ko Tao has been enjoyable, although we have been very lazy and eat a lot of excellent food. The ... read more
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