South East Asia

Have a look at our video compilation from the past six weeks

Youtube Link

Homeward bound

We’ve had such an amazing six months; met some fantastic people, stayed with some great friends and seen so many things. We’ve experienced around 12 different modes of transport (I think the elephant still has to be our favourite), seen two of the world’s seven natural wonders, got through six pairs of flip flops, four pairs of sunglasses and countless mozzie bites and beers...time really flies when you’re jet setting around the globe.

 
It’s difficult to think of our main highlights at the moment, as it all seems like only yesterday and too soon to reminisce, but off the top of our heads, our best bits from the last 187 days would have to include:
• Watching the Foo Fighters in Madison Square Gardens.
• Camping in the Grand Canyon in the height of winter!
• Driving and camping along the Pacific Highway.
• Watching the penguins make their way home for the evening, on Philip Island, Australia.
• Watching the sunrise over Black Beach in Mackay.
• Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.

• Driving around Phuket on our scooter.
• A jungle trek with Vern the elephant.
 

Now it’s back to the grindstone and saving for our next big adventure, hopefully in the not too distant future.

 
Although it’s been an absolute blast and a whirlwind of fun and new experiences, there are a lot of things about Scotland we miss and we seriously can’t wait to get home to see family and friends again.

 
As we write in this, in the Bangkok airport, we can think of a number of home comforts we’re looking forward to...
•  Home cooked food – Emily's craving mac n' cheese in particular.
•  Having a nice, normal cup of tea.
•  A full Scottish breakfast.
•  Enjoying the benefits of a shower for more than one hour.
•  Pavements and crossings.
•  Not having to douse ourselves in bug spray before heading out for the evening.
•  Clean, safe tap water (and that reminds me, coming off the malaria tablets).
•  Surprisingly, we are kind of looking forward to the temperate climate.
•  Rediscovering the joy of wearing socks.
•  And finally...meeting Emily’s new niece, who was born just after we left – We can’t wait to meet you Libby!

 Our  next and final stop (for a little while at least) – Edinburgh on Friday morning. 
 

Back to Bangkok

We arrived in a muggy Bangkok around 10am (this train was only running 3 hours late!). The journey from Chang Mai was great. The train was a little different to the overnight trains we’d experienced in Vietnam – this time we didn’t have individual cabins – the whole carriage was open and the seats at your station made up into bunk beds. The train crew come by throughout the evening to make up your beds for you. Despite not having our own, little cabin, we slept really well (we were a little worried when we spotted a little girl getting on the train with a massive Casio keyboard, but she saved her practising for breakfast time). The bunks were so comfortable and apart from the occasional chronic snorer, it was great (pretty much everyone went to bed around 10pm!)

The staff on the train were also noticeably happier and more friendly (they actually took drink orders from your seats, so you didn’t need to walk to the catering car, which was an absolute bonus). We ordered dinner on the train and got an absolute feast for the price of £4 - bargain!

After arriving back at the Bangkok Centre Hotel (where we started our trip), we chilled out for a bit before heading out for shoe shopping (Arran chose to sit this activity out). We had plans to go to the luxurious Sky Bar and catch a show later on, so we desperately needed to buy some "going out" shoes (we didn’t think our flip flops would get us past the front door of the Sky Bar!). Fon took us to the most amazing shopping mall. It’s the largest mall in Thailand and is also a wholesale mall, so the clothes and shoes are already pretty cheap, but if you by multiple items you can negotiate a further discount. Each floor was dedicated to a different item – bags, shoes, clothes etc, so we made our way up to the shoes. It took so long to look round all the shops (easily 2 hours), but in the end we got an absolute bargain - £6 a pair.

After an early dinner we headed out for the Lady Boy Cabaret show. It was great fun, although we were sitting quite close to the front so we did find some of the lady boys more convincing than others – the strong jaw and hands are a big giveaway.

We then headed over to the Sky Bar, the bar used in the Hangover Part 2 movie. It was so busy, obviously the movie has had a big impact on this place. 

Amazing views from the top of the Sky Bar and a really funky jazz band, but at £10-20 for a drink we only stayed to soak up the views and atmosphere, so we headed over to another bar in town for some farewell drinks to Vicki and our tour leader Fon! (Thanks for everything guys, it’s been great).

We’ve now checked into our last hotel, the aptly named Hip Boutique Hotel in the centre of the CBD. We’ll be staying here for the next two nights and we’re planning on just chilling  out at the pool and relaxing in the roof top bar, before we embark on our long haul flight home on Friday morning!

Two nights in Chang Mai

We had a really comfortable drive to Chang Mai in our own, very posh, minibus complete with DVD player and movies (thanks Fon!). It was only a four hour drive from Chiang Khong, but we stopped off at two major attractions en route - Wat Rong Khun and a cashew nut factory!

The Wat Rong Khun temple was spectacular. It was designed by a Thai artist called Chalermchai Kositpipat. It’s a rather unconventional Buddhist and Hindu temple as it’s completely white and constructed mostly from glass (which made it very sparkly in the sunshine).

Even the public toilets, next to the temple were amazing (and probably the nicest toilets we’ve been to in Asia).

The cashew nut factory was pretty interesting too (who knew that cashew nuts came from fruits on trees!) but the shop was even better – so many different flavours of cashew nuts we spent a lot of time tasting before buying.

Chang Mai was a great place. Very much like Bangkok, but not quite as manic. Our best bits would have to be:

• Chilling out by the hotel pool.
• Visiting the old city (surrounded by a huge red brick wall).
• Shopping in the amazing night market on Walking Street.
• Drinking lovely cocktails in the River Bar while listening to a Beatles cover band.
 

We left Chang Mai around in the early evening and boarded our overnight train to our final stop – Bangkok.

Laos

Having not heard much about Laos before our trip, we weren't too sure what to expect, but it might have to be one of the nicest countries we've visted. Such a beautiful place, amazing food and lovely people. Fon had mentioned before we left Vietnam that we’d find that Laos had a bit of slower pace, but it wasn’t until we arrived at our first destination, Vientiane, that we really appreciated it. We had a fantastic seven days in Laos and some of the best memories of our trip. There are only two small things we will not miss about Laos – the abundance of persistent creepy crawlies (it reminded us of camping in Oz!) and the incredibly bumpy, pot-hole filled roads!

We loved Laos, the relaxed pace, the ability to walk on the road and not be beeped at, the siesta in the afternoon, the beautiful scenery and of course, the Lao Beer.

Vientiane
Our flight from Hanoi was a bit rough. It actually felt like we experienced turbulence for most of the one hour flight. I still managed to cram in a half hour power nap though!
Vientiane was our first stop off. We stayed in this sleepy town for just one night and experienced three different weather extremes during this time. We welcomed the slower pace to Hanoi, but we were instantly hit by the temperature – around 40 degrees (we’d just got used to 30 as well!).
It was a small town, but we felt it was a bit too hot to walk around for sightseeing, so we took a tuk tuk around town to see the main sights - the three main temples – Wat Si Saket and Haw Pha Kaew, Pha That Luang and the Patuxai monument (amazing panoramic views from the top of the tower).

By the time we reached our final stop on the tour, the stifling heat had subsided and given into gale force winds. There was actually a mini sand storm taking place just near the river.

We walked up to the statue of King Setthathirat, but the views of the Mekong River were masked by the tornado!

We got back to the hotel just in time to avoid to the thunder and lightning storm.

Vang Vieng
Vang Vieng, is a small town surrounded by incredible mountains, caves and waterfalls. The town was so small, it really only had three main streets which were described as the shopping street, the river street and the pubs and restaurants street. It was an easy place to navigate around.

The pubs in Vang Vieng had such a laid back atmosphere. Most pubs had wooden beds with lots of cushions for groups of people to chill out on with some drinks and food. Also, nearly all pubs were either showing back-to-back episodes of Friends or Family Guy. With the comfy seats and cheap beer, you could easily lose an afternoon in this town.
 

Our highlights from Vang Vieng would have to be:
• Having a few drinks on a pub balcony, with views of the river and surrounding mountains.

•  Quad biking around town and up to the Phu Kham Cave.

•  The beautiful lagoon at the Caves and washing off all the mud from the quad biking!
 

•    Having the most amazing banana and chocolate pancake from a street vendor on “Pub Street!”
 

It was a nice little town, but we felt that two nights was definitely enough time. It was very touristy and mostly catering to Western needs; it felt a little like a club 18-30s holiday at night, with every pub giving away free shots and buckets.

Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang was our favourite place in Laos for two main reasons – the town itself was so picturesque (filled with lots of great restaurants and bars) and also, it’s where we met Vern the elephant.

The drive from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was the bumpiest yet. It was hard to concentrate on anything other than holding on and trying to pop your ears! The winding road to Luang Prabang was incredibly scenic - driving through mountains and small towns. We stopped off at a rest stop en route, for a couple of drinks. And at that point we were 1700 metres above sea level! It was decidedly cooler up in the mountains, which was a welcomed plus!

Luang Prabang was a stark contrast to Vieng Vang, it had a classier, more authentic feel to it, a real diverse mix of tourists and, surprisingly...a curfew! We noticed on the back of our menu one night a warning stating that all pubs close before 11pm and all locals and tourists have to be back at their residences by midnight!
We wish we had a little longer in Luang Prabang; it was really a beautiful town.

Our highlights would definitely be:
• Our elephant trek through the jungle on Vern (and feeding him bananas as a tip afterwards).
• Swimming in the Ho Chi Waterfalls.
• Shopping in the night market and then experiencing a black out! (all the stall traders shared out candles and were back in business fairly quickly).
• The amazing local food and outdoor restaurants.

 

 We left early the next morning we boarded a private slow boat as we made a start on our two day journey up the Mekong River to the Laos/Thailand border.
 

Pak Beng
Our first day on the long boat was around 11 hours long. The long boat was amazing, just as we’d imagined, pretty rustic and authentic looking but surprisingly comfortable (it had a sundeck for sleeping and sunbathing on).
The scenery on the mighty Mekong River was incredible – lots of beautiful beaches and wildlife as well locals panning for gold, buffalos paddling in an attempt to cool off and locals fishing on long boats.
 

As the afternoon worn on the temperature increased and the cooling breeze seemed to disappear, the water we had on the boat had started to heat up too (nothing worse when you’re already really warm). By 5pm we couldn’t wait to get to our hotel for a cold shower and beer!
We arrived in our overnight stopover, Pak Beng around 6.30pm. Pak Beng is more like a small island village, with a population of about 300 people. The walk from the boat up to our taxi was quite interesting – it was in fact, more like a scramble up a rocky hill with backpacks. Just what you need when you’re already overheated. Luckily, it was only a 5 minute drive from the jetty, to our hotel, in the back of a pickup truck (Planes, Trains and Automobiles style.)
Pak Beng was a nice little village. Not much to see, but a great place for a rest stop. We had dinner in a local restaurant nearby. The food was lovely and it was amazingly cheap for dinner and drinks (including a shot of local Rice Whisky). We ended of the night in the only bar in town, The Hive.

We left very early the next morning (around 5.30am) as we had to reach the Thailand border before the Immigration Office closed at 6pm...otherwise we’d be spending the night on the jetty!

Chiang Khong
After another hot day on the slow boat we reached the border just before 5pm. Once we’d checked out of Laos, we hopped on to a long boat and crossed over to Thailand. We checked into Thailand (it was all incredibly quick and easy) before jumping on to a tuk tuk to our hotel in Chiang Khong. It was fantastic sitting with a much needed cold beer while watching the sun set over the Mekong River.

Next stop Chang Mai!

Vietnam - the rest of

We had a blast in Vietnam and we did make some great notes along on the way on places we’d visited and things we'd done, but unfortunately, due to a mysterious computer error, we managed to delete the postings! So instead here is a quick snapshot of the rest of our adventures in ‘Nam:

Ho Chi Minh City
What a crazy place. It’s so busy that somehow the scooters outnumber the population! (apparently there’s 7 million people and 8 million scooters).

Crossing the road is a bit tricky, given there are no pavements or crossings and no real gaps in the traffic. Fon warned us about this beforehand and advised that we should just go for it and ignore the beeps. It took five us a while to pluck up the courage just to cross the road outside our hotel!

We spent our one day in the city visiting the Resurrection Palace and shopping at the indoor market – hands down the busiest and most hectic one we’ve been to yet, but we did successfully manage to haggle on some sleeping bag liners; essential for the next part of our journey.

Nha Trang

We took an overnight train to Nha Trang. We were a little apprehensive at first as Fon had done a good job of lowering our expectations by saying we shouldn’t expect the same level of safety or cleanliness as we would get back home, but the journey was fantastic. We were in first class, four berth cabins and shared with another couple from our group. The cabins were great, they looked like something straight out of Harry Potter or an Agatha Christie novel!

All was well until morning, when Laura, one of roommates, told us she spotted a massive cockroach walking around our cabin last night - eek!

Nha Trang was a lovely seaside town. Pretty touristy, but we had a great (and very relaxing) couple of days there.

Our highlights would have to be chilling out with drinks on the beach and visiting the mud baths and mineral springs!

Hoi An   

The overnight train to Hoi An was as before, although this time, not as clean so our sleeping bag liners came in handy.

No cockroaches in the cabin, but as I was getting up, I did spot another stowaway scampering around...a mouse!

Hoi An is a beautiful, historic town. Fon said when we arrived we wouldn’t want to leave and she was right. Really wish we had longer there.

Some highlights of Hoi An would include:

• Drinking fresh beer for 12p a glass (local beer by the keg that is only fresh for one day so its so cheap!) 
• Getting some clothes tailored made
• Taking a Vietnamese cooking class  
• Taking a bicycle tour around town in the evening and seeing the paddy fields, peanut fields, riding a water buffalo and taking a river boat back along the river. 

Hue 

Another really pretty town, although not as nice as Hoi An (I think that must have to be our favourite town so far). 

When we arrived in Hue, we joined the rest of the group on a motorbike tour of the town. It was a fanstic tour for the price of $10, we managed to pack in a lot of sights on the way including visiting some paddy fields, old American bunkers (which are kept locked and closed to public, just in case they are needed again one day!), visitng a conical hat maker and watching the sunset over the perfume river.

Halong Bay

Our last overnight train in Vietnam was to Hanoi. This time we drew the short straw and ended up sharing our cabin with a couple of locals…that turned out to be a couple of British travelers, so it made for easy conversation and a comfortable journey.

When we arrived in Hanoi it was just a short four hour bus journey to Halong Bay (although it was one of the most dramatic bus journeys to date, with a couple of emergency stops en route…I could have sworn the bus driver hit something at one point).

Halong Bay is an amazing place. It’s now recongised as a natural wonder of the world. It is surrounded by over 3000 islands, rocks and beautiful crystal clear water.

We took an afternoon boat tour with our group on board a junk boat. A junk boat, it turns out, is a very fancy cruise liner!

The best bits would have to include

• The lovely big seafood lunch on board in the fancy dining room. 
• Reaching the floating village and exploring the nearby caves in kayaks. 
• Chilling out on the sundeck with a few Hanoi beers on the way back to the mainland.
  

Hanoi 

We spent our last two days in the Vietnam’s bustling capital city.
Hanoi is far busier than Ho Chi Minh City, so much so in fact that we got stuck in traffic, walking back to our hotel from a nearby restaurant one night!

 

Our highlights in Hanoi would have to include: 

• Visiting the Hanoi Hilton Museum – former POW prison. Interesting place but it feels like you don’t exactly get a balanced view of things. 
• Seeing a water puppet show. 
• Sampling the weasel coffee 

We really loved Vietnam and the people. In fact, I think it is probably one of our favourite places on our trip so far.

Next stop Laos!

Chau Doc, Vietnam

Had an early start today - we jumped in our minibus at 7.30am for the Vietnam border.
When we got to the border, Fon advised that it could take up to 2 hours to pass through immigration. She also warned, that as Vietnam is a communist country and as we would be arriving at lunch time, we may have to wait for the officers to finish their lunch before we’d get seen!
Luckily this didn’t happen and the whole process was pretty quick. As instructed by Fon, we put a $1 in our passport along with our arrival forms. We didn’t realise until later that this was actually a way of speeding up the process - we're so glad Fon knew about this!

When we were over the border and back on the bus we were instantly hit by the poor conditions of the road – it was such a bumpy bus journey for the next 2 hours.
Fon also advised it would take a little longer due to the speed limit in Vietnam being only 40KM an hour.
We were arrived at our hotel in Chau Doc around 4pm and were greeted with a cold cup of ginger type tea, which tasted interesting (it’s a common drink in Vietnam).

Fon had also mentioned that we may noticed a swift change of pace in Vietnam in comparison to Cambodia – it’s meant to be a lot noisier (mainly with traffic) and just generally more hectic. She also mentioned that the Vietnamese tend to shout at you when they talk, not because they’re being aggressive or anything, just because they are used to speaking over traffic. We didn’t find this in Chau Doc at all, in fact, we thought it was more chilled out than the last few places we’d stayed in. 

As Vietnam is a communist country, we discovered a couple of its quirks when we arrived – firstly, you have to leave your passport at reception when you check in (so you have to remember to ask for it when you check out), Facebook is “unofficially” banned here and...they do not have a McDonalds anywhere in the country (not essential, but just a funny fact we discovered online).
In the evening, we joined a few others from the group on a motorbike tour around town. We each got our own driver, so we were just balancing on the back, taking in the views. 

We went up the top of a local mountain to watch the sunset and were surprised to find a small shop selling beers. So we sat for a couple of hours, just chilling out in some hammocks, taking in the sunset with some Saigon beer. 

Scooting around on the motorbikes was a great way to see the town and the people - when we past the locals, they smiled and shouted hello (the kids were especially excited to see us). It was amazing to see the long lines of rice and chillies drying at the side of the road too!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a Chinese temple for a look around. It was a really beautiful building and surprisingly we were the only tourists around. 

We ended the evening with dinner in a local restaurant, down by the river. It was a nice little place that seemed to move from side to side every now and then due to it being on the water! We were treated to some distant carrieoke singing from a nearby bar (apparently there were two weddings on).
A funny thing happened at dinner which really shows the lovely nature of the Vietnamese people – because they were out of a particular starter for one member of our group, they offered us a free riverboat ride back along the canal as an apology! It was a lovely way to end the evening,

Next stop tomorrow – Ho Chi Min City

Sihanoukville

The bus journey from Phnom Penh was comfortable but extremely noisy. This time, the Cambodian pop music was on the TV and when that wasn’t blaring, it was a Cambodian comedy sketch show...it was the worst time for your iPod battery to die!

Still, the scenery was pretty amazing and we had comfortable seats...comfier than a couple of others on our group who had chosen to sit at the front of the bus on the second deck. They initially had a huge amount of leg room in front of them, but this slowly filled up with locals and before they knew it they had a whole family sitting on the floor next to them, eating breakfast (during busy spells, when all seats are taken, the locals can sit on the floor of the bus for a discounted price).
We arrived in a sweltering Sihanoukville just in time for lunch. It reminded us a lot of Phuket - a beautiful seaside town with lots of funky beach bars and restaurants.

Our hotel was great and based on beach road, so it was within easy walking distance of the beach and most bars and restaurants.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing on sun loungers on the beach, with some drinks.

In the evening we headed out for dinner with the group. We went to a fantastic little beach restaurant for bbq seafood, and happy hour beers and cocktails (the beers were only 25 cents each!). It was amazing sitting on the beach, enjoying the food and drink, with fireworks going off in the background.

The next day, we had an early start, as we had decided to take a boat trip to three nearby islands for some snorkelling. The boat ride on the long boat was a little choppy so it didn’t sit too well with my delicate state at first!

The main island we visited was called Bamboo Island and it was an absolute paradise. It was very secluded with only a handful of huts on the beach for holidaymakers. We spent our time before lunch chilling out on the main beach.
After a beautiful lunch of bbq’d barracuda, salad, and fresh fruit, we took a short walk through the jungle to the other side of the island and discovered an even more amazing beach. It was bliss swimming in the clear blue sea with a small beach bar nearby, playing some very apt Jack Johnson!
 

The long boat’s captain, Lee, was a really nice chap, really chatty. When we stopped off for some snorkelling, we spotted some sea urchins, so Lee jumped in with a polystyrene box and a pair of tongs and caught a few. He then took off the spikes and cut it up for some of us try. Apparently it’s a bit of delicacy around these parts and would go for about $6 in a restaurant (which is really expensive for Cambodia). 

Sihanoukville has definitely been our favourite spot in Cambodia so far.
Next stop – Vietnam!

Phnom Phen

I think it was safe to say the whole group was a little anxious about trying the public buses in Asia. Fon had done a good job of lowering our expectations, basically by advising that it won't be what we're used to, so we shouldn’t expect the same level of cleanliness or safety, as we get back home!

 
We weren’t really sure what to expect after that. However, when we arrived at the station we were surprised to be greeted by a shiney new “limousine” coach. 

Fon had also mentioned that we might want to take our IPods with us; in case we didnt fancy listening to Cambodian pop music or watching a Cambodian martial arts film (they tend to show these on full volume on local long bus journeys!), but again, we surprised to find it was actually 80s/90s American and British pop classics instead! Not long into the journey we also received complimentary water and snacks. So far, this beats the Megabus back home.  

The journey to Phnom Penh was pretty smooth, with just a couple of questionable toilet stops (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the public toilets in Asia!). We arrived in a sunny Phnom Penh around 4pm.

 
Again, the hotel was fantastic. As well as free WIFI and a fully stocked beer fridge in reception, it also had a huge DVD library, with mostly brand new movies.

That night we dined in a small funky local restaurant. Fon recommended it as the profits from the restaurant go to the Streets Kids charity. During dinner, the lights went out in the restaurant for about 5 minutes. This, we were finding, was a little quirk of Cambodia. Apparently during the busy season, the electricity trips in a number of places due to the stress put on the grid by the air conditioning etc. It soon comes back on though, but it’s a bit inconvenient if it happens when you’re in the shower!

Phnom Penh was a beautiful city, with some of the friendliest people we’ve met so far. We would have loved an extra day in the city to explore a couple more of the sights – it would have been great to see round the Royal Palace and the Russian Market.

Our main activity during our stay was visiting the S-21 Prison and the Killing Fields. It was a pretty difficult morning visiting both places, it was even more upsetting to see that it was still difficult for our tour guide to talk about it, but we felt it was an important sight to see and we were pleased we did. We actually got to meet one of the survivors of the prison, an artist, and we bought his book.

 
After a heavy morning, we spent the afternoon chilling out in the hotel before taking a walk around the nearby Phnom Ping Temple.

 
Next stop Sihanoukville, this time it’s only a four hour public bus journey!