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Published: March 23rd 2010
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Hello ladys and gentlemen,
The time has come for me to write the blog,its a monday evening in a vary warm Siem Reap-Cambodia and Sadie has popped out for a spot of night marketing, i'll try and keep it as brief as possible so excuse my English and pardon my French and i'll begin.
Its been a 3weeks now since we left our good friends and fun times in Canada, I would like to say that after returning to England for eight hours and having a lovely lunch with Joey in ''Windsor darling'' that the transit between Canada and Asia went smoothly without a hitch.........But that would be a lie. Due to some monumental errors from STA travel and the lack of schedual checking on sadie and mines part we had been booked on two flghts in two differnt countries at the same time on the same date, MEGA WHOOPS.Unfortunatly after a long time on the phone and them holding the gate at the airport for us we had to pay for the tickets again, Cue a mad rush being ushered in front of the many many travellers through security and to our gate and on to the plane,PHEEW.
Drama
over, we are off to Asia!!
Arrival in bangkok was, well sweaty and its fair to say exhausting.Two days in we left with our sights on adventure,Heading west for a town called Kanchanaburi, home of 'the bridge over the river Kwai. With lonely planet in hand we were all set to take the road less travelled and go up the rural western border of Thailand with Burma(Myanmar), even seriously toying with the idea of purchasing a motorbike and travelling the open roads of Sotheast Asia Billy Connelly styles (not with a purple beard that is). This very exiting dream was soon cut short after a day trip on a hired 200cc Honda Phantom to an amazing seven tierd waterfall in Erewan National Park,to cut a long story short the day ended with two very sore bums and Sadie incuring a very nasty exhaust pipe burn to the leg. This amoungst other legal issues with buying driving and crossing borders in a foreign countrys meant the bubble was burst,we were doing it the normal way now and we headed back to the beaten track like the good tourists we are.
After a brief visit to Ayathuya where we started
what would be the first of many Wat(Temple) visits we took the night train to Chiang Mai,lets get this show on the road.
Early morning arrival to Chiang Mai is a hectic experiance even if the Bible (read-Lonely Planet) has prepared you for it, battleing through the crowds of hawkers trying to get you to which ever guest house is paying them to do so we found our own way to the lovely SK guest house. A day of relaxing and planning trips led me to getting a much needed hair cut and beard trim where i was consiquently "styled''(see picture). We both spent an amazing week in Chiang Mai where the highlights included a one day Thai cooking course, off road buggying, zorbing, tiger Temple, elephant trekking and learning how to controll them, high wire zip line and abseling through jungle canopy, and even retracing the foot steps of a ten year old Sadie to the house they stayed in also re-visiting the nearby meditation tunnels and low key zoo they frequently visited. Amazing memory on Sadies part as the area had completely changed after 14 years of development and she still found it.
Next stop Laos.
The trip to the laos border crossing was an over night journey on what we thought was going to be a 'V.I.P' bus turns out that V.I.P actually means Virtually Im-Possible to do any of the following:- sleep, get comfortable, overt your eyes from the Collin McRae rally style the driver had adopted, it was an 8seat mini van driven by a loon. The crossing its self seemed to just be one hassle after another but mainly i think we were a little tired and very hungry which reminds me, never order food from a street vendour at six in the morning when tired and hungry because when you ask for sticky rice wraped in a bananna leaf you will get what can only be described as smokey pig grissel.
We got ourselves to Vientiene where Mr howard is currently living and trying to save the world (and doing a good job of both i might add).It was good to see a familiar face and Simon was in good spirits lending us one of his arsenal of motor bikes known as 'My Lover' not a name given by simon but the actuall model of the bike. He also took us
Thai Cooking Course
Chiang Mai Noodle a la Sadie for an amazing slap up Laos style Dinner which nearly blew our socks off with flavour and spice.
Now then, in the next part of our trip we seemed to forget the trials and tribulations of the motor bike trip we first embarked on and followed Simons guidence on an adventure north to Vang Vieng then onto Luang Prabang by ourselves as simon returned home for work. Both halves of the trip had its ups and downs. Up; involving every traveller in laos favorite right of passage, the massive party that is tubing in Vang Vieng. Down; getting a punture on the first day for which we got stiched up with a 250,000kip(20quid) bill, which probably sounds reasonable for an inner tube but here its a massive increase issued to the unsuspecting jolly foreigner, i think the whole village waved us good bye rubbing their hands together and cracking open the best beer lao they had.
Even with sore bottoms and watering eyes from the countries slash and burn agricultural technique we had an enjoyable time on the open road with the freedom to stop and start as we pleased,but after negotiating the non-stop winding mountain roads we decided to
fly to our next destination as we heard horror stories of the return bus journey. Next stop Cambodia.
Here in Cambodia the story is straight forward and simple we arrived, booked ourselves a Tuk-Tuk driver for three days and took a grand tour of Angkors finest temples including a sunrise special at the immense and outstanding Angkor Wat. Toaday we took a river trip to a nearby floating village and then to a silk farm.
Tommorow morning we take to the air for a two week trip around the southern beaches of Thailand to get the all important tan that will make you all jealous. We are really looking forward to seeing and spending the summer with all our family and friends. We look forward to welcoming you to our riverside cottage in Affpuddle.
Lots of Love to one and all.
Sadie and Ben
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Wifey
non-member comment
Amazing
Benji - what an entry! I'm so jealous you two lovebirds seem to have had the best experience... the blog was a compelling read!! Can't wait to come visit you in your house????!!! this is new! You will have to come and visit me and Ollie in ours too.. yes i have NEWS! Biggest kisses and safest journey home. Sadie call me ive missed those tones and wow hasnt it gone quick! Big loves Wifey xxxxxxx