lornamick

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 happiness we felt the first few hours seeing the elephants play with each other in their natural habitat (or as close as they can possibly get)....was soon overshadowed as we learned more & more the difficulties ... read more

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. ... read more

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 have such a laugh with & leave with some of the best memories from the trip so far! A group of around 25 people we travelled to Halong Bay with....the "Halong Bay Gang" certainley left ... read more

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 though isn't". We literally enjoyed every minute of it......it really felt like we were experiencing the Great Wall & not just visiting it! We crossed 14 towers in total...each tower was different......each part of the wall ... read more

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 little hut at the end of the garden....lovely when you have to pee at 4am......up outta bed.....jacket & shoes on...slipping like an idiot over the icy pathy way leading to the hut!!! Ha....it was comical! ... read more