Our first big trip was between April 2010 and March 2011. We visited China, then Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, OZ, New Zealand and finally the USA.
We're now preparing for another 6 month jolly to SE Asia - leaving in September.
When we last spoke we were in the pretty hill town of Ella. I’d love to be able to say we spent a few days going on walks through tea plantations and the surrounding hills, but I can’t. It rained. It rained all the time. We spent a few days hiding out in our guesthouse. A real shame, but not a lot we could do about it. Next we planned to head south to visit Udawalawe National Park. This had posed some logistical problems - it would have required 3 local buses and many uncomfortable hours to get there, so we decided to splurge on a taxi. We got a good price (we think) of 10,000 rupees (£50) for both of us to go to the park, then onto the south coast. Udawalawe National Park is ... read more
After a 2 hour flight delay we arrived in Sri Lanka at 1:30am. Thankfully the driver we had arranged was waiting for us, and quickly whisked us off to our guesthouse in Negombo. The town itself isn’t that great, but it’s close to the airport and suited our needs. We hopped in a tuk tuk the next day to find a sim card for our phone. The driver was really sweet, although communication was an issue. If we asked him a question he didn’t understand (or know the answer to), he would simply wobble his head. Quite endearing. We popped out for dinner to a local restaurant and saw curry and fried rice on the menu so opted for that. Oh my god! The world’s biggest portion of rice appeared on one of those catering trays ... read more
Another overdue blog. Have you noticed how few we’ve posted on this trip? Yes, we have too – we’re lazy, we know. At the end of the last blog we had just arrived in Koh Phangan. As I said before, we didn’t spend much time there on the last trip, so we really wanted to spend a bit more time exploring the island. After we left Ban Kai we headed up to the north east of the island, over the very bumpy mountain pass, to Thong Nai Pan Yai Beach. This is one of the places I’d heard so many good things about – many travellers rate this as the best beach on the island. It’s not. Still damn good though. We spent 5 days here in the excellent Longtail Resort and had a super relaxing ... read more
We haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks, so this one’s a bit of a hodge-podge of places. Hue Our (major) final stop in Vietnam was in the historical city of Hue, which was the imperial seat of power from 1802 to 1945, until Ho Chi Minh’s forces took a stroll into town. Hue sits on the banks of the Perfume River (perfumed by what exactly??) and has quite a few sites to see. We spent a few hours looking around the old city (a.k.a the Citidel) and took a tour out to the tombs & pagoda. All were pretty interesting, but we’ve seen better in other places in Asia. Worth a visit though. We stayed at the fabulous Jade guesthouse – the staff here are probably the most customer-focussed we’ve ever experienced. Nothing is too ... read more
Escape from Mui Ne We’d been holed-up in Mui Ne for about 10 days. We’d begun to go stir-crazy. Somebody once wrote, "Hell is the impossibility of reason." That's what this place felt like. Hell. It was hot man, hotter than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut. Lou was still beaten up bad man, so bad she couldn’t be moved. But, I had taken an oath to look after her, and I knew my duty, even when things got messy. Good job I love the smell of poo-poo in the morning. We were starting to attract too much heat from the locals, so it was time to make our move - to haul ass to Nha Trang for some much needed R&R. I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ... read more
The wrong kind of break Going to begin out of sequence, as something quite dramatic happened. We had just arrived in Mui Ne, which is a beach town in Vietnam. Our room wasn’t ready at the guest house, so we popped over the road for lunch. On our way back Louise slipped off a step and tumbled heavily, after which she couldn’t straighten her arms. So we pop down to the medical clinic where x-rays show two broken elbows. Bugger! Lou has to wear slings for at least three weeks, which means we can’t move on in that time – I can’t carry all the bags and Lou is still in a bit of pain. After the three weeks Lou has to have more x-rays to see how well they’ve healed. If it’s bad news we ... read more
The evening before we left Kuala Lumpur I decided the shave off my beard as it was beginning to annoy me. I shaved the right side off, then my beard trimmer died on me – the blades seized up completely. I had to get the monorail to the KLCC Mall, with half a beard, to find a replacement. I got a few strange looks – maybe they thought I was some kind of hipster starting a new trend. More likely a complete dick. Ah well. I managed to get a replacement and finish the job. Bangkok I love BKK, it’s like a home away from home. Yes it’s loud and a little crazy, but this is why we probably like it so much. We’ve done all the ‘sights’ before, so we’ve spent our time getting drunk ... read more
Bali - Sanur & Lovina After leaving the Gili’s we had less than a week left in Bali. First stop was Sanur, on the south coast. To be honest, there’s not much to love about Sanur. It’s very nice, but definitely a well-developed tourist town. The local ex-pats call it ‘Snooze’, with good reason. A couple of plus points are the long beachside promenade which is quite nice, and Warung Little Bird which does the BEST food in Sanur – the beef redang is highly recommended. After a few days Gill left us (how very dare she!) to go back to Blighty and the exciting, fulfilling world of work. So, just the two of us again. Next stop was Lovina on the north coast, which was a 4 hour bus ride over the mountains (they’re volcanoes ... read more
THE GILI ISLANDS The next stage of our journey was one I’d been looking forward to. The Gili Islands – Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno & Gili Air – are just north-west of Lombok, a 1.5 hour speedboat journey from Bali. These three small islands (Gili literally means “small island”) are where people go to get a taste of the Robinson Crusoe experience. Traveller’s tip: there are a few companies who offer transport to the Gilis. Do not book directly on their website as you’ll end up paying much more - up to 1.4m rupiah for a return ticket. We paid 500k for a return, including transfers to and from Ubud. Check around lots of travel agents in Bali as they offer big discounts. We did a lot of haggling, but I have heard of people getting ... read more
OFF AGAIN Yes we’re back folks. After two long flights (yet again I failed to get a wink of sleep) and a brief stop-over in Kuala Lumpur, then another flight, we finally arrived in Bali. Phew! KUTA This is the main beach town in Bali. It’s overdeveloped, loud, brash and is known as the Aussie version of Magaluf. We opted for just two nights here (at the very nice Tanaya hotel) so we could chill out and rest our heads. Kuta has one of the best beaches in Bali - miles of golden sand (although I have seen many better beaches) and no crowds. Unless you count the numerous hawkers peddling their wares – massage sir? Ice cream sir? Crossbow sir? (who the hell wants to buy a full size crossbow on a beach?!?). They do ... read more
