Trace n Tash

Beijing, China We were very excited about China given the ball ache it was to get our visa and we were pleased to come somewhere really culturally different from Vietnam which had a heavy western influence, particularly in the south. The subway is excellent and we had no worries finding our hostel - 365 hostel - which is fantastic and highly recommended for anyone visiting Beijing! That first night was the Olympic opening ceremony and we were damned if we were gonna miss it, so we went to bed at 10 and set alarms for 3 am to catch it. We absolutely loved watching it (despite all commentary being in Chinese!!!) but we were able to read the BBC feeds to understand what was going on. We were both swelling with pride and thought it was ... read more

After our little 6 hour journey from Siem Reap, we arrived in driving rain but managed to get a tuk tuk to our hotel - the Okay Hostel. It took ages with cars and tuk tuks going the wrong way down the roads, on the pavements - you name it! Needless to say, road markings, zebra crossings and traffic lights mean absolutely nothing in Asia!! There were thousands of people on mopeds - it's the main form of transport here as parking is limited and they go out in all weathers and with as many as 5people on any one little bike. Babies, shopping and huge boxes are often spotted. Hilarious! One bloke had 8 massive boxes stacked high on the back of his bike - one wobble and it would have been a disaster. Anyway, ... read more

Koh phangnan Firstly, we just want to say that we are writing these blogs as our sort of diary of our trip, so apologies if some of it is a bit dull but we wanted to keep a record of all that we have done so that we can look back at the great times we have had! We hope you enjoy reading it though. We have now also uploaded pictures from the Thailand islands, so take a look if ya wanna! We took the boat (what else) from Koh Samui across the gorgeous gulf of Thailand to Koh phangnan which is home to the Full Moon Party held once a month. Sadly, our timings meant that we were to miss this but I think it's fair to say that we have both partied hard enough ... read more

Koh Phi Phi Upon arrival at Koh phi phi (pp) we noticed just how divine the Indian ocean was - azure blue, emerald and crystal clear warmth. Yum. We weren't sure were to stay so trace suggested Rantee Bay which was quiet and lovely and away from the magaluf feel of the town centre (a posher magaluf mind you). We arrived at Rantee bay and got shown our shack by the sea (Runtee bay sunset resort - resort a loosely described word here!) - it was just that, a shack. We both thought that it was a little under what we could cope with but we would cope, that was until Tash lifted up the mattress cover to find a swarm of ants all over and in the bed... That was it - luxuries we can ... read more