I can't believe we've reached our last destination - my passport has received it's last stamp (though we will be begging them in London for one more!). It was so strange when we arrived here - especially after the dirty general chaos that is Bangkok. Hong Kong is the opposite of Bangkok - expensive and clean. We're in Kowloon today which is the island over the water (a cheap and quick ferry journey) which is dirtier - but not cheaper than the island itself. There are loads of tailors here - one thing similar to Bangkok, but even they're not as annoying as the tuk tuk drivers! It's crazy here - you get fined for putting rubbish in the baskets that are everywhere and for spitting (not that I'd do that!) and for feeding pigeons (though ... read more
Ko Samui is very much like you'd expect - full of tourists getting drunk and sunburnt. I don't mean this in a condescending way as most of us did both of these things - but it's not the tropical paradise it could be as the tourism that's so important for the economy seems to be ruining it's appearence. I can't judge though, being a tourist myself... The ferry journey took about three hours and was really comfortable - we all sat on the top and either read, listened to music and/or admired the scenery. It is so hot down there though that it was impossible for me to stand in the sun for too long. Our new guide had already warned us about how expensive it'd be down South compared with in the North and she ... read more
This blog writing is becoming trickier with being in a constant group situation and not wating to go off online all of the time - so sorry if I'm missing loads of stuff out. We spent another day in Bangkok after the trek, and went to a big shopping centre. It was unlike shopping centres I've been in before - no map of shop locations saying where to get everything from - just pure confusion! Me and Aaron arrived first (after walking for almost an hour to get there!) and were so tired and confused we just got lunch. Everyone else then arrived after smartly getting a taxi and Martin and Aaron went to look at DVDs and me, Charlotte and Lydia went to look at clothes. I didn't end up buying anything, but it was ... read more
This has taken me longer than planned to get back too. I think the pictures were good enough to cover for my laziness though! You can't beat a Thai hill tribesman wearing an Everton shirt for coolness. The trekking part of our trip was hard work but really fun. The first day we got a tuk tuk to the waterfall and put on our swimming costumes (or 'bathers' as Lydia would say - she's Aussie and I think it sounds better than our word anyway) and dodgy sarongs. This is so as not to show too much flesh and offend anybody. The waterfall was amazing to swim under. It wasn't too hot on this day, so it was freezing in the water. The sarong kept getting blown around and all the rocks were really slippy. I ... read more
Where do I start with Bangkok? It's as far away from the sleepy tranquility of Luang Prabang (with it's midnight curfews) than I can imagine. The first night we arrived it was about 6pm and Khao San Road was already bustling with people selling, buying, drinking and just generally giving me a headache. We found somewhere to stay (200 baht = bargain!) and then went out and got some food and drank some much-needed coffee. There'd been free alcohol on the plane (thank you Bangkok Airways!) so we were reluctant to start drinking again so soon. It's crazy how many people there are trying to convince you to drink their 'extra strong cocktails' and go into their cheapo club (have just heard about an incident in a club there? We're fine - stuck to pubs in ... read more
We've spent quite a while here now. Not as long as your average two-weeks-in-the-sun break, but the longest I think we've stayed put and relaxed anywhere thus far. I really like many things about Luang Prabang, and would heartily reccomend it to other people - but not too many as even since we've arrived here it seems to be filling up with more tourists everyday. I know I'm a big fat hypocritical tourist myself, but it's my blog so it's allowed! I don't feel like listing every day and what we did on that day as usual, I've got all that written down on my paper book and I even bore myself doing it that way all of the time. I'm just going to list some of the things that we've done, places we've visited and ... read more
This entry is officially about the Plain of Jars - but on the 11/8/07 we also had a good day - cheap massages! I had a treatment called 'The Luang Prabang Experience', which involved massage, then a herbal steam and then a seaweed wrap. My skin now feels completely recovered from the Perhentian sunburning incident. On the morning of 12/8/07, our minibus arrived to take us to Phonsavan. We knew there'd be another couple on the trip as the travel company wanted at least 4 people before they'd run it and the date kept changing on the advertisement so they were blatantly waiting. The next couple were picked up after us from a hostel towards the outskirts of the town. It was a Dutch mother and son, called Marianne and Jules. They both spoke really good ... read more
This morning we spent most of our time changing money and sorting book exchanges. Our bus to Chiang Khong left at 12pm, so we had an early lunch and sat outside the hostel and waited. The van was full (with my bag stuffed inbetween the driver and the traveller who'd been sat next to him) and the advertised air con was broken (I didn't mind the aircon - prefer open windows). I sat next to Aaron on one side and a friendly Irish medic on the other (who lived up to both by having a bottle of whisky at the bar in Chiang Khong. She didn't drink it all though, the stuff's just super cheap here). On the 5 hour bus journey I finished my book and admired the scenery. It's very green around here considering ... read more
Today was a strange day - some unfortunate things happened but there was an overall okay vibe. We woke up and had a really good breakfast at the hostel (Eagle House 1) and sorted out our things to send home. We then took it all out and got quite stressed finding the Post Office - as roadnames are very confusing and rarely labelled, there was a market going on and the traffic was crazy. We also had an unhelpful map. When we finally found it our package cost 20GBP, which was more than we thought it'd be! Was nice to offload all of that stuff though, our bags are much easier to carry and less likely to break. This was the day that we spent two hours trying to rescue blog entries - we felt like ... read more
Dear Anybody who may be reading this (especially to anybody who's subscribed - sorry for the influx of alerts) It seems Travelblog has been through some issues, and all of my (and Aaron's) blog entries have been lost. I'm currently trying to locate them, but it's taking ages and they're obviously not 100% the same as before. We're both completely gutted because we've put thought and effort into these - but I just wanted people to know what's going on and know that I'll be adding new blogs asap (and saving all of them elsewhere) We're fine in Thailand btw - it's really nice here. Heading to Laos tomorrow. Love Vicky... read more