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Published: August 24th 2007
Hello and welcome along to the first blog update since the 31st July...oh my god, we are really bad at this!
Since then we have covered a lot of ground, seen 4 countries and clocked up quite a few air miles! Yes, we did say air miles, it would be impossible to see what we have seen in less than a month withouth flying...and no, its not cheating, we are ahem "mature" backpackers!
I suppose the best place to start with this is the very beginning, where we left off, just after the full moon.
We departed Koh Phangan the morning after we last blogged and headed, quite excitedly to Koh Tao where we had booked to do some diving with Asia Divers which included free accommodation. Our excitement was quite quickly extinguished when the four of us were put into a room that was meant for one double or two single beds. We had 4 matresses on the floor, no room to walk around, never mind space to put our bags down. Disaster! After quickly pulling ourselves together we got over it and went to find out more about our courses...again, not so good! For starters, it
was raining so poor Jillian couldnt top up her rapidly diminishing suntan. Linno and Lauras Advanced course did however get off to an ok start that evening....Fionas Nitrox course on the other hand was not quite so smooth. For starters, there was no instructor, no book, no nitrox air or tank and...no real intentions of having one by the look of things. Anywho, after a rough start all 3 got their qualifications and got to see so much life and beautiful reefs. The aforementioned bedrooms had life of its own too, lots of lizards who insisted on chatting to us all night and keeping us all (except Linno with her ear plugs!) awake all night!
From Koh Tao we headed back to Bangkok via taxi, boat and bus which dropped us off just beside our hotel, happy days! We decided to stay in Bangkok for 3 days so that we could get our Vietnam Visa in order and see some of the sights. The following morning we headed to some of the most popular sights Bangkok had to offer: The Royal Palace, Reclining Budda, Sitting Budda etc etc, a boat on the river, Chinatown, Wat Arun and most importantly
The Oriental Hotel where we popped in to have a cocktail and where Linno and Jills couldnt resist the food menu so ended up staying for lunch! And what a lunch it was! I will let the pics speak for themselves, what a beautiful place! The following day we headed to Kanchanaburi where we dropped into a Floating Market (which is literally a market on boats and floating dock thingies) and purchased a few essentials to send home. We also went to see the Bridge over the River Kwai which was of course made popular in the Movie of the same name. And the highlight of the day was the Tiger Temple/Sanctuary where we got to see lots of tigers (obviously) and sat with them while having our photos taken with them...again, the photos will tell the tale!
Moving on from Bangkok we took an overnight 18 hour bus journey to Vientiane, Laos. We had psyched ourselves up for one heck of a journey but were there before we knew it! It was ace! From there we headed straight to Vang Vieng where we planned on staying for 2 nights and to try a spot of Tubing! And what
an experience it was! Absolutely without doubt the best day of our trip so far!!! We booked onto a trip to do some caving (which consisted of sitting in a tube with hard hats and lights on our heads, big huge batteries hannging around our necks to light the lights and floating in water while pulling ourselves through a cave with a rope! Really safe, honest!) then a small bit of trekking to see some caves and monks, then a beautiful picnic bbq lunch where we relaxed and chatted before setting off into the madness of the tubing. We sat in our tubes (literally the tubes that you would normally find in the inside of a tractor tyre at home...similar to what you would find in the Lazy River in a water park in the states) and headed peacefully down the river, the current taking us along gently. Then, before we knew what was going on we saw a Tarzan like figure swinging out of a tree and landing in the water on front of us. After a few puzzling looks to our guide we figured out that this was a bar and he was trying to lure us in!
Happy days thought we and allowed him to nearly drown as he swam like Billy-O rounding all 10 or so people in our group up and pulling us all to shore! One drink and about 20 jumps from Tarzans swing later and we made our exit....about 500cms down the river we landed on another bar with the same fun to be had, then another then another! It was sooooo much fun (probably a slightly higher danger level than we would normally subject ourselves to but thats half the fun right?) At about 5.30 as the sun was going down as quick as our drinkies, our guides (sensible men who no doubt had seen it alllll before) decided that we had had enough and literally towed us back to shore where a tuc tuc was waiting to bring us back to the hotel. After such a day one would normally call it a night...ha ha, but not us! Our group arranged to meet up for a bite to eat and a few more drinks after showers where we had a few laughs into the wee hours! (ok, only lasted until about 12 but who is counting!?)
The following day in
The Floating Market 2
Fi and her hat for mammy....Vang Vieng was a bit of a wipe out due to all of the travelling over the previous few days, not to mention all of the aching muscles from the Tarzan swings into the water and of course few sore heads!
The morning after saw our departure of our favourite spot of the trip to travel for 5 hours by Mini Bus to Louang Prabang, Laos. We had heard that the roads were fairly bad but had no idea just how bad! We were literally driving along cliff edges for the entire 5 hours where we often overtook trucks, mopeheads and anything else the driver decided to scare us with! The scenery in Laos as we discovered was absolutely amazing, so lush and so green, it could definitely give Ireland a run for its money in the Green stakes! That evening saw us find accommodation and a bite to eat with our new English bus buddy, Morgan from London.
Our only full day in Louang Prabang took us on a little trip to some waterfalls. Now we had seen a few waterfalls on our trip and were not expecting too much but what we got was beautiful. There
was a nice walk through a small forest where we came up on about 4 different pools where we could swim in freezing cold water, but it was well worth it!! After that we climbed to the top of the visible waterfall where we could sit and have a stunning view down on what we had just come through. It was just fab! Our evenings entertainment included dinner in an ok restaurant near the hotel, a visit to the night market which was really pretty, a few drinks until 12pm closing and then the "must do" thing in Louang Prabang...night bowling! Yes, as there is a 12pm curfew in place for foreigners in Louang Prabang the only place that you can go for fun or a beer is a bowling alley! Its pretty bizarre but fun none the less! We all played brutally and happily blamed our sore limbs from Tubing for it!
Another day another country and today saw us heading to Hanoi, Vietnam. We were on a mission to fit Ha Long Bay, Trekking in Sa Pa and Hanoi all into 5 nights...and we did! We went to the hotel reception and booked ourselves onto a boat
trip to Ha Long Bay and a 3 night trip up north to Sa Pa. Ha Long Bay was absolutely beautiful, the scenery just took your breath away when you opened your cabin doors at 7am having forgotten exactly where you were after a little bit of wine the night before due to a lack of anything else to do on the boat. Despite the lack of electricity on the until we docked for the night and latched onto another boat to use their electricity, we had a lovely time. Sa Pa was another trip that did not lack in problems but overall it was great. We had lots of trekking up and down and over hills and streams and valleys, into and out of Hmong and other Hilltribe Villages, jumping over snakes, trying to decipher the rice fields from the hashish plants that were apparently growing legally! Even the overnight train back to Hanoi was a breeze, we even got the 4 berth soft sleeper cabin with air-con that we paid for!!!! On the way up the the feckers who sold us the tickets tried to put us in a 6 berth sleeper instead of the 4 berth one
that we booked and paid for. When we refused to take the 6 one he basically paid off one of the train people to let us into a 4 berth carriage just as the train was taking off while knowing full well that all of the 4 berths on that carriage were full! When we realised this the train was already moving so we couldnt do anything! Basically we sat in the hallway on our luggage beside the smellliest squat toilets in history for the entire 10pm to 6.30am journey (well, not the entire journey, they eventually found us a smelly 6 berth with 2 strange men already in it...hence not much sleep!) Anywho, you can imagine the heads on us when we arrived in our hotel!
And from the train station we headed straight for the airport and were due to fly to Hoi An at 11.45. Due to the fact that we headed straight we got there well before 6am. We had planned to just hang about and sleep in the airport for a bit but just by chance we noticed that there was a flight at 6.30 and asked if there was any chance that we
could change flights. Luckily they said yeah no probs and we didnt even have to pay for it either! Score! Soooo, we arrived here about 5 hours before we were even due to leave Hanoi and got an early start on what we had planned for today....shopping! He he he, and that we did! Hoi An is famous for its silk and tailoring. We couldnt visit south east Asia without getting "some" tailoring done so this was the place! We were given the name of a Tailor here by one of the Irish gals we met in Thailand, she had gotten stuff made with them and said they were great. We thought cool but do we trust her?....so we asked the hotel for a recommendation. The hotel gave us another name so we checked out both of them....and kinda bought stuff in them both! We all decided that if the clothes were good in each place we would all get more the following day. Then, we went for lunch...and while at lunch we saw another place that just looked out of this world....so went in! And bought more!! You are not getting the full list of the purchases but among
them were
Winter short coats
Dresses
Jeans
Tops
3 piece siut (jackets, skirts, dresses and trousers)
shirts
ballgown dresses
Yes, we are "mature backpackers" and dont forget it! Our lovely purchases are now on their own little journey. We put them on a three month cruise bound for Ireland, we just hope that they get there safe and sound with no little backpackers of their own.
Next desination was Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) were we spent our days lapping it up in a beautiful 3 week old Hotel. Don't get us wrong, it was cheap! It was a steal at $10.00 a night. When we got there we did absolultely noting but watch stuipd movies and talk about getting take away from KFC, which never happened cause no would bother there asses to get off the plush bed and cushions. The day after was more eventful, we hired a taxi for the day so that we could get to see as much of Saigon as posible. On the list was Cu Chi Tunnels, War Rememants Museum and the Jade Emperor Pargoda. In the end all we got to see was the Tunnels and yet another boring Chinese Temple
(same same but no different - will fill you guy's in later). It was an eventful day so yet again we decided to treat ourselves, something different for a change. We beautified ourselves (meaning we actually put on a bit of make up) and headed around the corner to a lovely Italian Bistro, where everyone had a uniform (not a topless man in sight). A three course meal and a few of the best glasses of wine we have tasted so far, that was enough to make us sleepy, so off to bed we went shortly after. Before we left Saigon the next day we made an appointment to stop into the Christina Noble Childrens Foundation, were we spent over an hour with so many amazing kids from all walks of life. It was quite tough to start with. Some of the kids had been orphaned and others had quite severe disabilities. By the time we were leaving we were all resigned to the fact that we wanted to adopt each and every one of them. What made it that little bit easier for us when leaving was the fact that the place was spotless and had all the nessecary
faciliities, lots of capable staff and volunteers and the best of toys. Definitely worth a vist if anyone is ever going to visit Saigon.
And finally after what felt like ten minutes in the air we arrived into Phomn Penh, Cambodia where we have been for the last two days. After lapping it up with our shopping and nice Hotel in Saigon, we have resorted back to the backpacker ways and are sluming it in the backpackers area of " Boeng Kak". Today we saw all the sights, Killing Fields - very chiling and sorbering, The Grand Palace, Independence Monument, Russian Market, S21 Prison and last but not least we visted a shooting range. Yes with real guns! Before you all go mad we are safe and sound... but it will definitley be the frist and last time we hold a gun, not to mention AK 47. Scary Stuff!
The History here in Camboida is by far the most disturbing to date with all the trouble ending less then 30 years ago. We can safely say though that the people are by far the friendliest and smiliest, we only wish that we had more time here.
Tomorrow
we are going to Siem Reap where once again we are lapping it up. Wait...we have just cause - its LINDA'S B-DAY! We have to treat her right? We will be there for 2 nights where we plan to stayin a plush hotel with spa before flying back to Bangkok and on to Hong Kong where we will be spending three nights exploring and seeing everything China has to offer.
Ok, hope we haven't bored you silly, next time we will keep it short and sweet.
Keep up the comments folks, its great to see them!
Missing you all still,
Love from Fi, Linno, Laura and Jill xxxxxxxxx
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kazza wazza
non-member comment
Wow
wow looks fab sounds better