dave suddaby

davanna

dave suddaby

We are Dave & Anna,been travelling together for quite a few years now and alsways intend to blog as we travel but never find the time.

After years of travelling and writing journals we are determined to write a blog during our next trip. we have bought a new netbook for the purpose and are getting ready for take off on 5th of Jan. we fly form LHR to Bangkok and intend to spend a month in thailand before moving on to Cambodia and vietnam maybe laos if we get time. its a 3 monther the same as last year when we dragged our selves through much of south america. that entailed 5000 miles on over night buses and was quite exhausting as we also did 5 major hikes including the inca trail, torres del paine and mount fitzroy. We hope to see as much as possible this year but do not intend to set ourselves such a daunting schedule. Have really enjoyed Nigel Filer's blog as he is doing the reverse of our trip and hope to meet up with him in Thailand in early Jan.

Mission accomplished!!

Asia » Cambodia » South » Sihanoukville April 8th 2010

s'ville menu

davanna

Helllooo!! Well sorry we are really really late with this final entry, we have been back 3 weeks today, feels like 3 months.......!! Busy , busy, busy, non stop but finally we have got around to sending this out......nice to be not sweating but its a bit chilly in blighty!! This is our blog from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville then on to Bangkok for our flight home. 20th March - 31st march 2010 Up early again for the 0630 pick up - waited until 0715 when we were shuttled around town in a cramped and sweaty “town bus” for 40 minutes. Spat out at a chaotic bus station where we were told our booking was not valid as we only had a receipt and not a ticket. (make sure you don't ever accept anything other than ... read more

Siem Reap

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap March 31st 2010

Hotel room in siem reap

davanna

18 March - 20th March We really liked Phnom Penh and wish that we had had longer to spend here, it will be a stunning city very soon as they are building everywhere and improving the river front, the historical/ religious area in the centre is just stunning. But as usual we had to press on and so feeling travel weary and having reached perceptionary overload we were now even more committed to the idea of hitting Sihanoukville for a week's worth of doing nothing. This would mean getting up to Siem Reap seeing the temples and back down by the 20th giving us time to relax and recharge the batteries before heading back to Bangkok for our flight on the 31st. A great deal of bus travel and grief still lay ahead and also the ... read more

Phnom Penh

Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh March 31st 2010

Butcher at work

davanna

Phnom Phenn 15 march - 18th march After a relatively painless and actually comfortable bus ride and border crossing we arrived in PP at around 9pm not much over the 6 hour advertised journey time (what a refreshing change!). It seems crazy that the best bus service in Vietnam is actually the one that takes you out of the country. I will try to find the name of the operator and post it up. Travel note: Visa prices at this crossing are clearly displayed at $20 and there is no nonsense with greedy guards trying to extort extra cash as they do on the other side at the Thai/Cambodia crossings heading in further north towards Siem Reap. Currency can also be changed with local ladies but watch the rates you get! We hired a pleasant tuk ... read more

Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City March 28th 2010

Electric wire chaos!

davanna

SAIGON 12 - 15 MARCH Although we had to yomp for around 10 minutes from Bui Vien we found good digs on a small cul de sac on Co Bac which is still in district 1 but just far enough away from the noise and chaos of the tourist track. $21 got us a top floor room in the Quynh Kim probably one of our favourite rooms yet. A/C was a must as the temperature seemed to increase the further south we got. As I'm writing this up from our last stop before home, I'll be as brief as I can: HCMC is a bigger, noisier and busier version of Hanoi with maybe a few million more motorbikes. It's a great fun city with excellent bars and restaurants and obviously an awful lot of history ... read more

Windy in Nha Trang

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Khanh Hoa » Nha Trang March 26th 2010

Petrol for sale!

davanna

Nha Trang 10th -11th March Having not booked digs ahead this time we took the easy option and booked into the hotel where the bus spat us out. For $10 it was clean and comfy, excellent value and nicely situated but unfortunately neither of us has a card or can remember the name of the place!! Nha Trang is the seaside city famous for its beaches used by US forces for R&R. It has a good reputation which we think it deserves. The sea front is nicely set out with wide boulevards and walkways and great eateries line the beachfront roads; especially good on Biet Thu.(Try the claypot fish dishes they are unbelievably delicious and great value..) The beach is good but unfortunately for us the weather was not and after our snorkelling trip was cancelled ... read more

Hooley in Hoyan

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Quảng Nam » Hoi An March 26th 2010

The riverside, Hoyan

davanna

7th March - 9th March 2010 Hue to Hoyan Initially this leg didn't sound so bad, “only maybe 4, maybe 5 hours” and as it was a “normal” bus with seats as opposed to a “coffin” bus we boarded just after 9am thinking “piece of cake!”......... WRONG!!!!!! : roads from hell, driver from hell, no a/c, no toilet, no bloody joke!!! I still find it hard to believe that Highway 1 is the main traffic artery linking north to south; it is a pot holed farm track and the vehicles upon it went out with the Ark! Our particular bus of torture was a sweaty “Camel Tour” crate that billowed out clouds of smoke as it growled its way up hills at 15kmph. We were sitting (as usual) over the rear wheels, or where the wheels ... read more

Hanoi to Hue, Vietnam

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Thua Thien - Huế » Hué March 25th 2010

Is that a smile or a grimace?!

davanna

5 Mar 2010 Hanoi - Huey A bad start: We were supposed to be catching the 6pm overnight “sleeper”bus from Hanoi to Hue, which was to take 10 maybe, 12 hours,. We were organised and looking forward to it!! However, our travels down the coast of Vietnam using our “open “ bus ticket started an hour later than advertised when instead of our bus picking us up at the hotel, we were collected by a surly youth and frog marched 500m through the crowded streets to St Josephs cathedral. Once nicely sweaty and stressed, 18 of us and 18 sets of backpacks and various other luggage were squashed into a 12 seater minibus where things got disgustingly intimate. 10 miserable minutes later we were spat out on to a busy road where 20 or 30 other ... read more

Hanging around Hanoi

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi March 24th 2010

On a cyclo rickshaw

davanna

Hanging in Hanoi!!! 1st - 5th March 2010 It has to be said that after the tranquility of Laos, Hanoi and Vietnam in general is quite a culture shock!! One way to put this into perspective is to compare the 2 countries: Laos has just over two thirds of the land mass of Vietnam and has a population of 6.6 million compared to Vietnam's 86 million! From my first hours in Hanoi I guessed that at least 80 million of the population lived in the Old Quarter and rode at least 3 motorcycles at the same time; absolute chaos!!!!! Even after experiencing Bombay at rush hour and some South American Metropolitan nightmares, I was completely unprepared for this motophysco madness. I suppose the first thing we really did was to raise a beer or two ... read more

From Luang Prabang - Laos to Hanoi Vietnam in 5 days

Asia » Laos » West » Luang Prabang March 6th 2010

Our boat up to Nong Kiaw

davanna

Mission statement From LP our plan was to head east to the vietnam border visiting the caves at Vieng Xai on the way. Vieng Xai is the “town” where, during the period 1964-73, USA bombers dropped enormous amounts of ordnance targetting the Ho Chi Minh trail and the Pathet Loa resistance who hid in their thousands in caves which they transformed into an underground city. Although it sounds simple in its concept, this plan would involve long overland journeys which we needed to break up along the way to avoid 12 or 14 hour stints on “chicken” buses. The first option was to take one of these “busathons” over the mountains to Sam Neua which is the last “major” town before Vieng Xai. As we have found since arriving in Laos, travel info is hilariously ... read more

Languishing in Luang Prabang

Asia » Laos » West » Luang Prabang March 3rd 2010

evel knieval or just another bus ride

davanna

Thursday 17th February Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang We awoke to the sound of the cockrel, packed our things, ignored breakfast and headed for the bus station to catch the 0900 bus to Luang Prabang, the old capital. Now Luang Prabang has had varied reports, some fantastic, some say expensive, too touristy, too full of mature tourists with wads of cash, etc etc. We thought it lovely.......the first commercialised-ish place in Laos but not overdone, still quirky but ...ok lets face it we could get the biggest baguette chicken salad sandwhich you have ever seen for 70p and a smoothie for 40p from a lovely lady market style trader who smiled and laughed so much that at first we thought she might be poisoning us but soon realised that she made her living serving great ... read more

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