Bangkok to Vietnam

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Hello!

wow, I can't believe how behind we are on our blog! We are well, managing to keep up with Wimbledon at the mo and the Lions. We've just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. But first we started in crazy Bangkok...

Arrived after a fantastic flight with Thai Airways, borderline acceptable plane food and some awesome movies, to find that Jens bag hadnt made the flight (some part of Jen is always late) and we had to stick around Bangkok for a coupla days until it came on the next flight. BK is a crazy place, insanely busy and very overwhelming. We spent about 5 days there and did the usual tourist stuff; checked out some temples and Wats, shopped on the touristy Kho San Road and got driven around by the crazy tuk-tuks (moped pulled carriage!) Food was dirt cheap and we had an awesome time in Siam Square, where we shopped (windowed that is) in the expensive shoppung centre, looked at the luxury car showrooms, had dinner in the MBK food market (cheap cheap) and caught a movie on the impressive imax cinema! After 5 days we were alittle bored with the city and decided to head down to the islands. A quick look at the internet told us the full moon party on one of the islands was in a couple of days so we quickly arranged some visas to be arranged in our absence from the capital and booked an overnight 15hr bus down south.

The bus was supposedly a VIP bus and it was pretty empty on the way down so we had a couple of seats each that made sleeping easier. We got to the boat dock early morning and then caught the ferry to our first island; Koh Phangan, home of the full moon party!!! We managed to get a really nice beach front bungalow (basic but livable) for 400bt pn (eight squid). It was about 20mins away from the town but we wanted a quiet place and it was cheaper. To get around on the island and into town we hired a moped for a day whcih was great fun altho the hills and potholes made it more adventurous than we thought it would be. We spent the first day driving around, relaxing on our private beach and swimming in the ridiculously HOT ocean. Then the next day we prepped for the full moon party. Plenty of fluids and bread during the day, we chose our outfits and left all valuables behind and headed into town on the back of a truck. Nothing could have prepared us for the scene which can only be described as the greatest party on earth! Hundreds of bars lined the beach, each with its own spread of beach and differeent music. The towns restaurants and shops were still opened when we arrived (at 11pm) and football and rugby matched could be watched. Vendors were selling buckets!! of alcohol and mixers everywhere we looked. We managed to negotiate a bottle of whisky each, 2 sprites and 2 red bulls for a poultry 350 bt (7 pounds) and headed for the beach. Fullmoon andthe stars were out, as were the tattoists (dont worry guys we werent that drunk) and body painters, as well as the local fire jugglers and crazy drunk tourists playing fire limbo and fire skipping. To allay the fears of the cringing adults reading this; the full moon party at its peak attracts up to 30000 tourists and is very well planned. They have teams of medical staff on call as well as 'drunk areas' on the beach were you can sleep till morning. In addition to the ever present tourist police manning each entrance to the beach are the locals scattered about in the crowd, picking up glass and sterring people away from the sea.

We had a great time but had to leave the party early at 6am as we had to catcha ferry at 10 to get to the next island. Needless to say we were a bit worse for wear in the morning, skipping breakfast and a 2hr ferry trip did not help much either. We were pleased to get to Koh Tao, one of the most beautiful islands on the gulf, were we yet again had cheap accomodation right on the beach. The stretch of island we were on had the most amazing beach and the restaurnat on the sand allowed us to relax on beanbags in the evenings right on the water. Spectacular! Here we had a massive dbate as to whether we should splash out and take a diving course. I, who have dived before and thought Koh Tao would be great for diving, really wanted to. Jen who has never dived before also was really keen. In the end time proved to be a better match for both of us, as the 4 day course would have meant we didnt have time to visit Koh Phi Phi, an island every traveller raves about. So instead we headed back to the mainland and grabbed a long bus to the other side of thailand to Phuket.

With only 4 days until our tour started in Bangkok we didnt have much time so we went straight to Phi Phi and found the most picturesque place we have visited so far. The sea was warm and clear, the beaches sandy, and we had a snorkelling trip here to the place where most of The Beach and Blue Lagoon was filmed! We bagged a nice beach front bungalow again with floor to celing windows that opened out to the beach. Two nights relaxing in paradise and we were off the following day back to Bangkok (18hr bus ride) to begin our tour of SE asia.

On our first night we met our guide for the first leg in Cambodia and the rest of the group. Our tour leader was a cambodian called Poleak and an absoloute legend. He was really friendly and bursting to tell us about his country. Our group was also really good, about half english with some canadians, kiwis and aussies in the mix too. Our first day saw us on a bus to Siem Reap (also Poleaks hometown) for a couple of nights. Accomodation was really nice (hot water!!!!) and we planned our trips/excursionsfor the rest of the fortnight. The main reason for the trip to Siem Reap was for the chance to see Angkor Wat, the largest religious buiding in the world and it didnt disappoint. Rising out of a swamp in the middle of the jungle we saw this massive ancient building and got taken around by a local guide. Unfortunately we didnt get to see the sun set over Angkor like we planned as it was too cloudy but we got to see where they filmed Toomb Raider and some other cool stuff as well. We got an oil painting as a souvenir and then had a fish foot massage in the local market that evening. After siem reap we headed to Kampoon for a bike ride and a homestay.. Unfortunately on the bike ride (fter about 5mins) one of the english girls Chloe, fell off her bke because the pedal fell off and had to go to hospital for tiches. Jen and Ploeak went with her and she was fine in the end. The homestay and dinner was brilliant!. The first dinner was at a locals house and he created a feast for us with several local delicacies including criket, tarantula and tranatula wine. Yum! For the homestay we stayed in a really basic sort of shack (not much fun) but again we got a really good dinner and managed to drink our way through 80 cans of drink between 16 of us!

Next stop was Siounkville, a tourist place right on the coast of Cambodia. We had a few days here but there wasnt much thre beside the beach. We just chilled out here with the group, usually on the beach and we rented loungers and did some watersports. We had some funny experineces with the local children who descend on tourist like locusts in the hope of selling them junk or trinkets for money. We didnt want to buy anything so one of the girls in hhe group told them to leave so they swore and cursed at us in remarably good english lol.A quick stop in the capital Phenom Penh for a couple of days and our first leg was ovver. A couple of people left the tour and we made our by bus to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to begin Vietnam.

More soon...

Lots of Love James and Jen

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