jamieandlaura

We took an over night sleeper bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An. This was surprisingly comfortable, with the added sleeping tablets that is! Our hotel was a bit out of town but provided a free shuttle bus on the hour, which came to dictate our movements a bit as we would either have to walk very slowly out of town or run to catch the bus. Hoi An is known for its old town as it used to be a large trading post for the Chinese and Japanese, and many of their clan houses and shops still remain. Also its known for its tailoring so now that we are coming towards the end of the trip we planned on having a couple of items tailor made and then carry them all the way home. I ... read more

We haven't spent that long in Cambodia, just over a week. However, its so hot here that any longer would be painful, unless we were doing nothing somewhere on a beach I suppose! Our guesthouse (Prom Roth) in Siem Reap was really nice. The owners were really helpful and would go out their way to help. This even included one guy phoning another one who was enjoying his time off to ask where would be a good place for us to swim. This recommendation was amazing, and we went to this beautiful pool for a relaxing afternoon. We met a nice couple, Helen and Jason, in our guesthouse in Laos. They were getting the same flight as us and we decided to share a taxi at the other end. We then decided to visit the temples ... read more

After leaving the beautiful Luang Prabang, we took a horrendous 6 hour journey (which felt like the world's worst rollercoaster) to a gritty town called Phonsavan. We found out that until a month before we arrived they didn't have streetlamps, and so tourists would often hurt themselves walking back to their hotel at night! During the Vietnam war, the CIA conducted a secret war in Laos, as it bordered Vietnam. During the 15 years it is estimated that the CIA flew a bombing mission over Laos every 9 minutes! This meant that over the bombed areas 12 tonnes of bombs were dropped per square kilometre. There were also lots of CIA officers in Laos, the most famous of which was Colonel Tony Poe, who used to cut off his enemies ears and staple them to reports ... read more

We are getting a little behind because the internet in Laos is not particularly reliable. Phone signal just doesn't exist! We loved Chiang Mai. Here the big highlight was our day at the elephant farm. We went to Patara Elephant farm, which was expensive but worth every baht. When we arrived we were given the clothes of a Mahout (elephant trainer) so that the elephants would see us as a friendly figure. We were then assigned elephants and we would call out their name and they would reply with a trumpet sound. After this we fed them a large basket of fruit, which they wolfed down! We then learnt how to check if an elephant was healthy. This involved checking they were happy, eating and drinking enough, sleeping properly and sweating! Fortunately all our elephants were ... read more

We enjoyed Bangkok more than I thought we would after hearing reports from other people! We had been told to only stay a couple of days, but after handing over our passports to the Vietnamese Embassy on the Thursday (our first full day), we had to stay for 3 working days meaning we had to stay till Monday. Despite what we'd heard we filled our days and enjoyed them! Sorry to those who find the day-to-day commentary boring, but its easier for me to remember that way! We spent the first day navigating the sky train to and from the Vietnamese Embassy. We had a wander round this shopping centre, which was interesting as it was basically like a five-storey indoor market, but didn't buy anything (partly because it was basically like a more-expensive-than-the-outside indoor market). ... read more