Gordon and Sue Hall
Why Travelwash? It's our own soap...there will be a new story each time but with the same main characters.Travelwash
The story so far...
It is funny how life sometimes takes a hand in sorting out your plans. My name is Gordon and my wife Sue and I were convinced we would go travelling before we had children. We were then certain we would take them with us. The kids left home, we sold the house, we were going to move to France and rebuild a barn but that could take up a lot of time. So I bought Sue a book called 1000 places to see before you die which sounds a bit final so we are going to see how many places we can visit and work in whilst we still have some spring in our step!!
Travel Blog Posts
February 20th 2010
It's funny, I never thought I would write about any of our voyage in retrospect. I thought there was a clear line between travelling, as we did from October till April, and working for 6 months in France. But of course it was just another part of the journey. I guess we have always been tavelling in some way so I intend to keep the journey chronicled, now.... where was I. We arrived in England in April to the same temperature that the air con was set to when we left Mumbai. After some mad frantic days of preparation the van was ready and we set off to France, to sunny Franceuil and our summer job working at Camping Moulin Fort. 34 Euros! That was the first shock 34 Euros for the main toll road to ... read more
August 4th 2009
After a brief visit to England to pick up our camper van we are now working in France. It occurred to me that our journey was similar to an old time voyage and that is where the idea of "The ship without a sail" was born. A SHIP WITHOUT A SAIL Gather round me hearties while a story i'll regale Bout a daring voyage a motley crew and a ship without a sail Twas the end of last September when Jack and Jill set to Gordon the Grey a pirate and his first mate Saucy Sue In the garb of simple travellers cross the continents they strove to the lands of silks and spices, foreign faces, treasure trove After countless leagues they rested on a beach in fair Siam spending time carousing with corsairs from celtic ... read more
April 22nd 2009
Well it's April and the end of the journey is in sight. Met up with George and Sadie, then Steve but Jonno suffered a delayed flight and couldn't join us for the bus/boat to Koh Phangan. However with a bit of help from Robert he was on the island not long after us! When you step off the ferry at Thon Sala you are surrounded by leaflet wielding promoters trying to sell you a room, it seemed that the area around Haad Rin was booked up so we chose to stay at Haad Yao. After rejecting 2 rooms we ambled off along the beach up some stairs and found ourselves living the High Life. We ended up with a hut with view of the sea and the High Life resort also boasted a swimming pool from ... read more
April 13th 2009
We left early the next day and headed by bus to Siem Reap and the ancient remnants of the former Khmer empire at Angkor Wat. When we got off the bus we were met by a tuk tuk driver who drove us to our hotel and then negotiated a deal to be our transport around the temples for the next 3 days. Siem Reap is a small clean town on the banks of a river. It is tourist orientated and you can be forgiven for forgetting exactly where you are in the evenings when the bars are busy and foreigners occupy the streets. The advantage for travellers is the availability of western essentials in the shops and we picked up supplies, had a nice meal and went back to the hotel for an early night. We ... read more
April 9th 2009
We left Ho Chi Minh City at 9.00 am for the 6 hour coach ride to Pnomh Pen in Cambodia; daylight hours allowing us to watch the countryside unroll outside the bus window. The landscape is flat with patchwork fields of rice and a host of other crops in shades of brown and green. Random groups of buildings of wood or brick construction appear, cattle, pigs and chickens scratch and snuffle around as farmers wifes and children play or laze in hammocks away from the heat of the sun. Whilst the landscape remains the same as you drive into Cambodia the poverty becomes apparent as farm houses are more often made from wood or grass, the cattle are more scrawny and the younger children run around barefoot and naked. Every time the bus stops it gets ... read more
April 9th 2009
It was raining when we left Vang Viang that lunchtime, the weather gave a physical attribute to the dampened spirits we experienced leaving George behind. The Gods contrived to spoil our best laid plans meaning we were rushed into (or onto in my case) a tuk tuk to meet our bus before the alloted time, as soon as we arrived at the travel agents office, and before I had a chance to pick up some US dollars to smooth our passage from Laos to Vietnam. I was left hanging onto the back of the tuk tuk complete with rucksack for the 10 minute ride to the bus stop; it was warm but the rain was still wet. The bus duly arrived and we settled down for the first leg of the trip. I met a young ... read more
March 26th 2009
In Thailand everything is negotiable we had haggled for books, food, clothes and we haggled with the tuk tuk driver to take us to the station, it is all good natured fun. Our train was due to leave at 10 p m we arrived in good time and trooped along to the platform to find the train waiting and empty. We were immediately befriended by Tony an effeminate Railway waiter who minced off with our bags, showed us to our seats and took our drinks order including “one for me?” before sashaying off to get them. It is fair to say we had had a couple of drinks and were in festive mood rather than our haggling travellers best when we arrived so overlooked the fact that the drinks were a little expensive, and thought nothing ... read more
March 16th 2009
I think this is the 4th or 5th time we have landed in Bangkok. You feel more at home after so many alien airports and landscapes. We changed spare Singapore and Malaysian currency into Baht checked the exchange rate at around 50 to the £ about 30% less than 4 years ago and looked for the cheapest ticket into town. The air conditioned airport bus is only 150 Baht so we clambered aboard and after 45 minutes were deposited a short walk from the top of Koahsan road (police station end!). Despite my optimism we found most hotels either full or too expensive and I was left with the bags while the girls went off in search of a room. Duly found at just 430 for a triple room with fan, it overlooked the popular busy ... read more
March 6th 2009
Everyone in India has moustaches it seemed to me it's just that the men make more of a spectacle of them. Consequently, when we arrived in Goa I let my face hair grow until I settled on a natural bushy top lip and a semi Brazilian bottom lip. As time progressed I found that the length allowed me to twist the ends at the corners of my mouth achieving a kind of Salvador Dali effect. Sue didn;t like it and when George first saw me she laughed but I soldiered on. With no forward travel booked we arrived in Singapore early in the morning jumped into a cab and arrived at the bus station effortlessly. Except it was the wrong bus station and we endured a 15/20 minute route march with full packs trying to find ... read more
February 27th 2009
Pondicherry when we arrived was quite different again to the other towns visited on this leg of the trip, the riksha drivers tried to charge well over the going rate and there seemed to be more people begging. The Park House hotel belongs to the Sri Aurobindo Society the body formed to run the Auroville project. Our room and the hotel proved to be an oasis of calm by the sea after haggling and battling our way there. The hotel is run by the Ashram and has well kept lawned grounds you are encouraged to walk barefoot upon; the room was spotless with 3 single beds a good bathroom with shower and just 500 rupees a night for 3 of us. Sue and George had not fared well on the journey and took to their beds ... read more
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