This is hard to say, but, we have just got stamped into our last country. Although we’ll be returning to Thailand again, this is our last new country. The border crossing this time wasn’t that bad, but I still cant figure out why you cant just walk up to the counter, the official checks and stamps your passport and you just go on through. Your passport always needs to go through many different hands just to get the stamp. I’m sure there’s a method to their madness, I just haven’t a clue what it is! Ho Chi Minh city formerly known [View Full Entry]

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Our bus journey wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be, though the mini van driver we got to the station was a lunatic. Traffic was bumper to bumper, with traffic coming up and down both sides of the road. Our driver was more what you might call an ass ****. Three times young girls tried to cross the road in front of him and every time he blocked them off or got faster. Each time he only had the space of a person between him and the car in front and when they tried to move through that space [View Full Entry]

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I’m going to try and not dwell for too long on our first impressions of Cambodia as it doesn’t make it sound like a nice place to visit. Saying that, by the time I’m finished typing what I have to say this could 1000’s of words long. Our bus dropped us at the Thai - Cambodia border. Our exit from Thailand was easy and all we had to do next was cross the friendship bridge to the other side. We were warned not to talk to any tout on the way over as they are ‘scum’ (not my words) and scam [View Full Entry]

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To skip over the boring bits this is how we got to Ko Pha-ngan from the 4000 Islands in the south of Laos. We left 4000 Islands on Tuesday morning by boat, then mini van, tuk-tuk and bus to Vientiane. Then we took a public bus to the border of Thailand. Then another across the border and a tuk-tuk to the train station. Then an over night train to Bangkok and that night another over-night train to Surat Thani. Then bus and a ferry to Ko Pha-ngan. So that’s 3 buses, 2 tuk-tuk, 2 train’s, 2 boats and 1 mini-van. We [View Full Entry]

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Meet Bobby the Dog. Bobby came and stayed at our hut on the first day and never really left our sides for 3 days. He slept outside our huts, came for walks when we went exploring and to the restaurant when we were eating. This is Bobby’s blog. Before he starts his blog I’ll do mine first! The journey to the 4000 islands was as much adventurous as it was painful. Let me explain. Firstly we had being out in Vang Vieng the night before. The first bus brought us for about 10 minutes to a so called bus station. It [View Full Entry]

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We were up bright and early to catch a bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. As usual at the bus station we were told everything but the truth from the touts. We eventually found which was the public bus and hit the road at 8am. The journey all the road to Vang Vieng was spectacular. The road side was littered with little villages along the way, all living in very basic accommodation, but with huge satellite dishes and some times flat screen TV’s inside. Dogs lay anywhere on the road, unbothered by the traffic. I can only presume that the [View Full Entry]

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One of the best things the French left behind (for backpackers anyway) was the 10,000kip baguette. 80c in other words for a full baguette. The choice of filling is simple and revolves around chicken or bacon and a bit of simple salad! They fry the bread first before filling it, just to make it extra tasty. Luang Prabang has more baguette roll stands than it needs. This does not take away from the place and this town is an excellent place to introduce yourself to the Laos way of life. We got a really nice room with TV and nice big [View Full Entry]

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We booked our ticket from Pai to Chiang Khong where we would cross the border into Laos. We could have got a ticket the whole way to Luang Prabang (Laos) but decided to DIY it from the Thai border. The bus journey from Pai back to Chiang Mai is an almighty pain in the ass. You are constantly swinging from left to right because of the mountainous area we travelled through. You cant sleep either, for fear of head butting the window or the person beside you. I did both! A quick stop over in Chiang Mai and we were on [View Full Entry]

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Our 2nd class train journey from Phitsanluk was a bit unadventurous. The air-con was flowing and the fans running overtime, so it was a case of trying to keep warm more than anything else. We also got dinner included with our ticket just to make the journey that little bit more unadventurous. The train arrived as usual about an hour late. A nice security man came from his office to tell us this in English as the announcement was made in Thai. He obviously felt sorry for us and said ‘come, VIP room’. We followed and he brought us to a [View Full Entry]

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Remember the last blog where I said 3rd class train to Sukothai would be adventurous? Well it was. It was also torturous and horrendous. We arrived at the train station to find that the next train was fully booked and the next one was three hours later. “Not to worry, I’ll have two of those tickets then please”. As we sat down to get comfortable for our wait, Michelle asked what time we arrive in Phitsanluk at. I had presumed it would only be a four hour journey as the train we wanted to get originally, only took 4hrs. When I [View Full Entry]

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