The Elephant Sanctuary was the one BIG thing that we wanted to do on this trip.....but we under-estimated just how over-whelming, emotional, enjoyable experience.....we didn't want to leave....and cant wait to go back! From the moment we arrived...the place felt like magic. There is such a sense of safety & happiness in the Elephants who have been rescued there. And so you feek so happy for them....even for the ones who's scars from the abuse they got are still visable...like 'Medo'...a 48 year old female who's back is broken from the enormous tree logs she was forced to carry. The [View Full Entry]

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We decided to travel to Cambodia by boat.....through the lovely Mekong Delta river. It took 4 days in total (getting off the boat & staying to stay overnight in different villages & towns). The most memorable thing about doing the Mekong Delta trip was all the friendly faces (100's of them!!)...familys & young children would rush along side the river when they saw our small boat....running up to shout & wave at us....so nice! [View Full Entry]

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Something Lorna has always wanted to visit....the Ho Chi Minh trail.... On the way to the tunnel's we were fortunate enough to stop by Cao Dai Temple which is home to the Caodaism religion which is mixture of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and other religions into one religion to promote peace. A really nice experience. [View Full Entry]

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So at the crack of dawn...25 odd tired looking backpackers gathered outside to head on a 2 day tour of Halong Bay where we would stay on a cruiser boat....which would run out of alcohol fairly quickly! The trip from Hanoi took around 3 hours to the bay (we we saw a motorbike crash!)...after boarding we had a lovely couple of hours sailing. We then went by the floating village to pick up our kayaks for some kayaking through the amazing caves of the bay. Returning to the boat we all had a beautiful dinner made my the cruiser staff....where the [View Full Entry]

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So we were thinking "Vietnam....nice one.....hot weather at last" - HA! Yeh right! The day we arrived to Hanoi was the 4th day of consecutive rain....which the news reported as the "heaviest flooding in 35 years....killing 22 people in one week".......WHAT THE F??!?!? hehehe! We arrived to our hostel DREEENCHED to the bone....appearing at the door like 2 drownded rats...an aussie guy just laughed and said "great day - aye?" He was one of the owners of the hostel...nice guy! It was in this Hostel that we made such a great bunch of friends, who over the next week we would [View Full Entry]

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While staying in Beijing we were very lucky to be in one of the best hostels in town called "Sitting on the City Walls".....it was 90 dollars cheaper than the hotel we stayed in the first couple of nights!! and way better....proper breakfast with tea! When we were leaving Ric (the guy in charge) have us a big hug & few free bottles of water & orange juice for our trip on the train...so nice! So if you're ever going to Beijing you have to check this place out! The Great Wall was obviously the main thing we wanted to do [View Full Entry]

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Being trekking experts now after Siberia (haha - not!!) instead of doing the normal trip to the closest part of the Wall to Beijing....we travelled nearly 4 hours to Jinshangling to do a 10km hike route to Simatai. We were thinking....'well its a wall....so it couldnt be harder than trekking up a mountain in Siberia'......oh how wrong we were!! There were some incredibly steep parts...over half way through & our legs were actually shaking with tiredness......but even when we were breathess & shattered as we looked up to the next 100 steps we faced we still kept saying "feck....it's deadly t [View Full Entry]

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The last two weeks were certainly an "experience".....we learned a lot about the Russian attitude. So I guess we became sceptical about what other countries would be like.......and Mongolia proved us wrong!!! The moment we stepped off the train people were smiling at us....waving at us. Then this lovely girl came skipping up to us with the biggest grin & shouted "Hey.....I found you!!"........It was Gerlee (or Jenny)...our Mongolian tour guide! Straight away we looked at each other and said "I already love this place".....and from the moment we got there til the moment we left we said th [View Full Entry]

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So having spent the past 4 nights on the train....we weren't exactly smelling of roses! We were really really looking forward to a hot shower.....so when we were told there would be no shower where we were staying....our jaws droppped & we all looked at each other thinking 'what the ....' Little did we realise that we were getting SOO much more than an electric shower......... We had signed up to stay with a Russian family in a traditional log cabin in the beautiful village of Listvyanka! Being traditional meant there was no running water. So our toilet was in a [View Full Entry]

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When booking the trip we signed up for the "Russian Experience"....and we got so much more than that!!! :D We boarded the train in a freezing cold Moscow at 11pm at night. Ploughing along the platform with our light as a feather rucksacks....we bumped into 2 entertaining New Zealanders....Chris & Casey! Who we would get to know much better as they were a few cabins down from us on the train for the next 4 nights! We were kinda nervous who the other 2 people we would be sharing our cabin with....and lucky enough we only had to share with one. [View Full Entry]

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