Ben & Jo
We're about to set off on our very own adventure. Traveling first to Canada we will take a tour into the Rockies and back. Then from Vancouver we will weave our way down the west coast to LA then, time permitting venture into Mexico and hopefully Belize or Gautamala. From LA we will fly to Fiji for a two week break.....It's Jo's BIG birthday and being 30 I couldn't think of a better place to be all depressed!! Christmas will be spent bungy jumping in New Zealand then Sydney for New Year..... : ) can't wait. We'll have nearly 6 months in Oz so we may use our working visa's : S minkies
To finish off we'll have a few weeks to do as much of Malaysia & Idonesia as possible hopefully getting to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand before flying back home from Singapore.
Travel Blog Posts
August 1st 2007
Argh hostels! The only place we could find for under fifty US dollars in Singapore. And it’s a Hostel!! The In Crowd Hostel in Little India is pretty cool though. If you’re coming here for a few days then it’s a great place. Cheap, clean, and close to the main city attractions and it has some good tours of their own. Apart from the cheesy name it's in a great location from which to explore the city and with a bit of money saved on your accommodation you can spend what you’ve saved to your hearts content, because Singapore is definitely a shopper’s paradise. The number of Malls here is incredible. Best bits of our stay were eating at the outdoor hawker stalls on the Esplande, seeing the animals look so happy at the Night Safari ... read more
July 25th 2007
Whatever you do, don't go to the Watercolours Impiani Resort on the small Perhentian Island. It’s terrible. You’ll do the place a favour if you keep away. It’ll give them some much needed time to teach the staff some service skills as well as giving them some time to maintain and update the shabby and dank accommodation and communial facilities. And the food, well the food is just amazing, if you like your food with ants. Just read the reviews on trip advisor this place is terrible we only booked it because we were desperate. Believe me you’ll be tearing your hair out trying to get away from the place. Guess where we spent the first couple of days? #@!%#! After which we transferred to the Patani Beach at the other end of the beach. An ... read more
July 23rd 2007
The bus journey. Yes I know I go on about them, but when you don’t have the pleasure, and believe me it is a real pleasure of having your own transport there’s a good chance you’ll be traveling by bus, coach or minibus or a combination of all three in order to reach your chosen destination. After a while you too would learn to loath buses. Apart from being driven by someone who clearly shouldn’t be given a driving license soley as a potential danger to others health, the constant delays and unscheduled stops (I kid you not. We stopped this one time at what was presumably the drivers home so he could collect in the washing hung out on the line) really add to the experience of never getting where you want to go fast ... read more
July 20th 2007
Peeeeeeeeeeee nang! One of the first trading posts in Asia for the East India Trading company. Strategically placed between China and India, Penang was an ideal stop off on the often long and treacherous trading route. Today it is a self governed state with a diverse and multicultural society and as such has a significant historical importance for visiting tourists from all over the world including China, Japan, The Middle East, India, Burma, Britain and Malaysia. Our time here was spent walking the streets! Not in a sleazy way, but in a touristy way! We stayed at the SD Guesthouse which besides the name suggests, was very clean. Basic, but good value at only 25 Ringit and a great location to explore the many historical attractions in George Town, Penang’s capital. The owner was also good ... read more
July 15th 2007
Twelve hours on a bus is too long! Needs must and everything, but really no more pleeeeeease!! We arrived at Krabi bus terminal at around six in the morning and were greeted by taxi men vying for our business. They’d of got it too if we hadn’t have been so completely brain dead from our never ending bus journey. We pushed past them and got a seat inside to compose ourselves before venturing onto our guesthouse. Note to any fellow travelers to Krabi stopping at the bus terminal. Be warned the taxi driver touts are extreme examples of how to loss friends and alienate people. They hassle and annoy you to a level which will have you wanting to pull their teeth out with pliers! The be all and end all is, they won’t take you ... read more
July 12th 2007
Apologies - currently unable to restore. If you have a backup please edit this entry and save/publish. ... read more
July 9th 2007
No sooner had we arrived in Cambodia than we were jumping on a bus to leave! The majority of westerners come here because of Angkor Wat and that is reason enough for a visit to Cambodia. Bar one or two South American Countries there is no other temple complex quite like it. But in the short time we were in the country we came to realize quite quickly that by visiting Siem Reap you are by no means seeing the real Cambodia. Siem Reap is the town where everyone stays that comes to see Angkor Wat. It was a real surprise to see how westernised it was compared to the places we had visited in Laos and I’m sure compared to other parts of Cambodia too. The town is filled with fresh faced westerners pulling out ... read more
July 4th 2007
By the time our stay in Champasak had drawn to a close we were looking forward to be moving on. There isn’t a great deal to do there once you’ve taken in the sights of Wat Phou. We had intended to leave the previous day but it had rained so hard we thought it better to sit it out. So sods law says that when you leave it a day because of the rain, guess what’s in store for the next morning?? It rained even harder! This time though we were going no matter what! It wasn’t as bad as we’d thought and by the time we had caught the ferry, jumped off by the first bus & jumped into a waiting second bus the rain had stopped! Our second bus shall be forever immortalized as ... read more
July 1st 2007
Champasak was a bit of an experience. Well the getting to and fro bit. It all started with the guy at the travel company in Pakse proclaiming on the day that we had arranged to leave that he had no minibuses today! (NICE ONE MATE!) The only alternative was for us to take the local bus service…… The pictures tell the story. 26 adults and 6 kids, along with the fruit and veg counter of Sainsbury’s all packed into a little van!! It wasn’t as bad as it looked (apart from the sleeping lady on my shoulder!). Even with a pit stop to change a burst rear tyre that would have had Bernie Ecclestone salivating! It was that quick! We got to Champasak a lot faster than we thought. Champasak is a little bit off ... read more
June 24th 2007
Luang Prabang is a very beautiful city surrounded by green mountains and clay coloured waters. The whole city was listed as a world heritage site since 1995 by UNESCO. Consequently it gets a lot of tourists and you can see by the amount of guesthouses being built that those numbers will only increase over the years to come. We spent four days here and really didn’t do a great deal as we were feeling a little rough around the edges from some previous culinary delights consumed across the border. That said we did wonder around a bit enjoying the riverside views. We visited a handful of the 43 temples as well as a couple exhibitions dedicated to the local hill tribe, the “Hmong people” and examples of their textile and woodwork skills. The Hmong people make ... read more
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