Stuff Your Eyes With Wonder

stuffyoureyeswithwonder

Stuff Your Eyes With Wonder

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Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. - Ray Bradbury

Hello, our names are Suu-Min and Scotty and this is our travel blog about our trip to South East Asia & New Zealand. Whilst deciding whether to go to New Zealand to visit Suu-Min’s family we discovered that a RTW ticket is cheaper than a return ticket. Six months later we are about to set off on our travels to South East Asia and then New Zealand. Our aim is not only to see and open our minds by visiting some of the most beautiful continents on this planet, but to experience people in the rawest way by volunteering whilst we are there. We are going to try our best to not turn this into a holiday album, more stories of our experiences and any money saving tips we pick up whilst on the road whilst on a budget. We hope you will enjoy our journey with us.

In search of dolphins

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié March 5th 2013

Koh Phdao 1

stuffyoureyeswithwonder

Unlike Lance Armstrong, the only thing we had running through our veins when heading out on our bikes yesterday was excitement about seeing the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins. We found the bike route through the Mekong Discovery Trail, which is basically just a series of maps outlining different routes that you can bike around the Kratie/Stung Treng area, promoting local tourism. There are two places where you can easily see dolphins around this area - Kampi Rapids, 15km out of town, and the island of Koh Phdao, 35km away. We thought that Koh Phdao would be less busy with tourists than Kampi, and both wanted the chance to get a bit further out into the countryside, so Koh Phdao it was. I was a bit nervous about the bike ride up there, seeing as I tend to ... read more

Kratie Hop

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié March 2nd 2013

Kratie Day 1 1

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When planning your trip you always want to unearth places others haven’t been yet, or are at least less frequented en masse by tourists. So when we discovered Kratie (pronounced kra-chey) in the North East of Cambodia, we thought this is definitely the type of place we want to explore. With it being on the way to the Elephant Valley Project (http://www.elephantvalleyproject.org), which we are visiting after our trip to Kratie, everything slotted into place nicely. Although its only a small town, its most redeeming feature is the french colonial promenade that overlooks the island of Koh Trong, and has a look and feel about it that would sit well in most sea fronted european cities. Nevertheless its still run down like most Cambodian cities and is most noticeable with the amount of litter that is ... read more

The Killing Fields

Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh February 26th 2013

Killing Fields & S21 2

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The only thing we felt we really needed to do while in Phnom Penh was visit the Choeung Ek Memorial (otherwise known as The Killing Fields). Sounds like a strange pastime and odd to have it high on our list as a priority, but as disturbing as it was we wanted to know about the events that have so recently shaped this country’s history. (Warning – don’t read on if you get upset easily) There was probably nothing that could have prepared us for the visit. We listened to the audio guide that we were given as we walked along the path. The birds singing and the sun shining created a peaceful atmosphere that actually seemed to highlight the horrors that we were hearing through the guide. There are signs up all around the fields asking ... read more

Off the beaten track

Asia » Cambodia » North » Battambang February 23rd 2013

Battambang Day 1 1

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As a last minute decision and in the spirit of travelling we decided not to go straight to Phnom Penh from Siem Reap. Instead we decided to go to the small town of Battambang, which incidentally is Cambodia’s second largest city founded in the 11th century in the Northwest of Cambodia. The name Battambang or Batdambang, literally means “loss of stick” referring to a legend of the Preah Bat Dambang Kranhoung (Kranhoung Stick King). The population is nowadays around 250,000 people . It’s a riverside town, home to some of the best-preserved, French colonial architecture in the country. The journey from Siem Reap to Battambang is about 4 hours by coach and in the wet season you can take a boat which takes about 9 hours and is meant to have some of the best scenery ... read more

Ancient Wonders of Angkor Wat

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap February 20th 2013

Temples - Day 1 1

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Brave people will hire a bike to see the temples, Siem Reap’s main attraction. We are not so brave, being brand new and like marshmallows, we haven’t adjusted to the heat yet. We hired a tuk tuk instead, which is another popular way to do it. A tuk tuk driver is around $15/day with an extra $3 if you want to see the sunrise. Tour buses and hired cars are also available. Tickets to the temples come in three different forms – you can get a one day pass for $20, a 3 day pass (valid for a week) for $40, and a 7 day pass (I think valid for 7 consecutive days) for $60. We went for the 3 day pass. They take a photo of you when you buy the ticket, and the lady ... read more

Crossing Borders

Asia » Cambodia » North » Poipet February 17th 2013

Bkk Siem Reap 1

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The train from Hualamphong station in Bangkok to Aranyaprathet on the border of Cambodia leaves at 5:55 in the morning. We got there a little over an hour before as we wanted to leave some time in case we couldn’t find a taxi or had problems getting tickets etc. Turns out we didn’t need to worry, taxis are frequent near Khao San Rd even at 4:30am and the station is easy to navigate. Still struggling with jet lag, and having slept only a tiny amount the night before, I managed to snooze for the first couple of hours and woke as we were travelling through rice paddies covered in morning mist – a beautiful view to wake to. The train is 3rd class only, no A/C but the windows open right up and it makes a ... read more

Train Tracks, River Boats & Fireflies…

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Ampawa February 17th 2013

Train Market 1

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Scotty I don’t know if this is cheating but we looked through the tour book in our room and seen some things we really wanted to see. The tours were really cheap considering it was a full day and most of the night (650 BHT/£13 each). We looked online to see if there was other cheaper, more daring ways to get there, and it turns out there wasn’t. So we booked our trip in the morning and left in the afternoon with a dozen or so other tourists, ranging from Chinese, Japanese and Americans. Everyone was fairly young though, so I blended in with them all It took about an hour and a half to get to the first destination which was something I had seen a long time ago and always ... read more

First Impressions

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok February 14th 2013

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We have really been spoilt by friends and family over the past few weeks. Our last ten days were in Skelmersdale with Scotty’s mum, who has been cooking us lots of lovely food and helping us take care of the last few bits and pieces before we leave. Scotty’s Aunty Irene and Uncle Ian treated us to a couple of days in the beautiful Lake District, which was an awesome way to say goodbye to the UK, and I got pretty spoilt by my workmates, who I’m gonna miss a huge amount while we’re away. We arrived in Bangkok on Thursday morning after nearly 24 hours of travelling. The flight to Bangkok is only around 11 hours from the UK, if you get a direct flight, but we were flying through Amsterdam with a 5 hour ... read more

The Lake District, Windermere, Keswick, Ambleside.

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Lancashire » Skelmersdale February 12th 2013

stuffyoureyeswithwonder

With the whole of South East Asia to choose from, we’re spoilt with places we could explore. But we have managed to narrow it down to these amazing countries. Here is goes; Land in Bangkok then off to Cambodia Vietnam Laos Northern Thailand Southern Thailand Western Malaysia Eastern Malaysia Philippines Indonesia And finally we’re off to see the future ‘in laws’ in New Zealand, which I’ve heard is a fairly good country ? Anyway thats the plan….. For a more visual way of seeing where we are going please look at the map page. Follow us on our website and Facebook page :) Website Blog Facebook Page... read more

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