OFF TO ASIA | TRAVEL BLOG

Our wee trip to SE Asia and Indochina

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KHAO SOK NATIONAL PARK!

After our horrifying last experience of booking onward travel through a travel agency we weren't particularly excited at the idea of doing it again but leaving Samui independently was going to be a lot more expensive and a lot less straight forward than not so we had to put ourselves through it once again.

We got picked up at our guesthouse and were ready for another odyssey but this leg of our journey luckily turned out to be easy and painless. And quite short as well. Our destination: Khao Sok Village, a small quiet hub nestled in the heart of the Khao Sok National Park. Here's a couple of pictures of the place and of our bungalow I wish I had taken but I didn't and googled instead.

The Khao Sok National Park grounds sit halfway between the Andaman and the Gulf coasts and its characteristic dramatic limestone formations and lowland rainforest are over 160 million years old (over 100 million years older than the Amazon rainforest) making it one of the oldest on the planet.

The highlight of this National Park and undoubtedly one of the highlight of our trip (I'm talking Top 3 here...) is the man-made Chiew Lan Lake, one of Thailand's most scenic bodies of fresh water which features limestone karst cliffs that rise dramatically from calm, pristine emerald water.

We went on an overnight tour of the park, sailed through the lake on a long tail boat and spent the night on a floating bungalow.

Waking up with this view.

And swimming in this gorgeous water.

This experience itself was worth all the time and money we spent here in Asia and with so much more to offer such as terrific hikes and waterfalls, caves and viewpoints, unique flora and fauna, the chance to camp in the jungle and kayak its emerald waters it is definitely a place we'll visit again. One day.

Next: Koh Lanta.

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ANG THONG MARINE NATIONAL PARK 🇹🇭🌊🚣

We decided to head to Koh Samui mostly so we could enjoy a day out kayaking in the Mu Ko Ang Thong, the marine national park that surrounds Samui in the Gulf of Thailand, not actually caring much for what Samui had to offer on land.

Samui itself is in fact pretty bad, at least for what we've seen. It looks like sexpat paradise and I don't think there's much else I need to say.

We settled in Lamai Beach in a quiet part of town and near Crystal Bay but unfortunately the weather after weeks of glorious sunshine turned for the worse and we were stuck in our resort for a full day with just a few rainless hours to check out the (disappointing and very much not picture-worthy) beach behind our hut. The following day, on the morning of our boat trip to Ang Thong National Park the sky looked like this.

The day trip and the kayaking still happened in spite of things getting even worse and even though the views of the national park got compromised we actually had loads of fun kayaking in the pouring rain and only really prayed for our lives once when the boat started going all titanic in the middle of a tropical storm two hours away from the coast.

After some more kayaking we reached Mae Koh Island and climbed up and down the steepest stairs ever made in human history to pay a visit to a gorgeous emerald lagoon.

As soon as we left the lagoon and headed to the boat to start our journey back to Samui the weather suddenly changed clearing up in literally less than five minutes and blessing us all with glorious sunshine. Lucky us.

Anyway our two day stop in Samui was pretty much this and even though we had Scottish weather and it rained like there was no tomorrow almost the whole time we were there we enjoyed kayaking around the islands of Ang Thong and are glad we stopped by.

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BACK TO THAILAND, KOH TAO & KOH NANG YUAN! 🇹🇭🐢🏝

Our Sihanoukville-Bangkok journey was already not that promising the moment we bought the tickets at the travel agency in Otres and were told it would take us 12 hours split between two buses to cover 650km and reach our destination, including the border crossing formalities but in hindsight that would have been an ideal trip.

It took us in fact 16 hours. 3 crammed minivans, 1 songthaew, 1 bus, and 2 trains.

And an hour and a half in the scorching sun to get stamped out of Cambodia.

Go travelling they say, it'll be fun they say.

Lies.

Anyway we did eventually get to Bangkok and around midnight finally checked in our room and passed out straight away. Our peaceful and restful sleep didn't last as long as we would have liked it to though the reason being: chest x-Ray exam for our New Zealand visa. Because of our 3 months (so far) spent in high risk TB areas (SE Asia) this exam is mandatory in order to get our Working Holiday Visa and £100 later (each) we were all chest x-rayed and good to go.

We thought.

Yes, because while my visa took less than 12 hours to be granted, Freya's application is still pending. And we don't know why.

With the exciting daunting feeling that Freya's visa may not be granted and the promising sad chance for me to go to New Zealand by myself we left Bangkok and made our way to Koh Tao.

Beautiful Koh Tao.

On this corner of paradise we caught up with Rosie our old flatmate from Sydney whom we hadn't seen in like two years and enjoyed Turtle Island's boozy nightlife.

Between one beer and another we also got our Open Water Scuba Diving Certificate: an amazing 3-day experience that we won't forget.

With over 50 diving schools to choose from we took some time to find the one that suited us best and decided for Roctopus Dive which turned out to be a fantastic choice. Our instructor Kristzina was passionate, funny, patient, clear with instructions and altogether incredibly good at her job, making us feel extremely safe when in the water and constantly challenging us with underwater skills.

Another highlight of this trip was our day out kayaking to Koh Nang Yuan, a gorgeous little island (actually two islands connected by a white sand bridge plus a bigger one a stone throw away).

Now kayaking there wasn't exactly fun (at least for me) but once we got the hang of it (and learnt how to sync our paddling) we were happy we rented one. That was when the kayak stopped spinning around and actually moved in the direction we wanted.

After some snorkelling, loads of sunbathing (more like sun-baking really) and a bit of exploring we made our way back, this time paddling like pros. Sort of.

With Rosie off to Bangkok for a few days and no one to get wasted with we decided to ignore our scuba diving instructor's motto "Fish are friends not food" and indulged in a seafood platter for two that could have fed a family at Barracuda's.

And with that delicious dinner we said goodbye to Koh Tao and hello to our next stop: Koh Samui.

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PHNOM PENH + SIHANOUKVILLE 🇰🇭

We knew before even getting there that Phnom Penh was gonna be tough and indeed it was.

The "Paris of the East" isn't exactly your typical holiday destination in spite of the pretty riverside and the quite large infrastructure catering to tourist. A few days here can be, in fact, quite a challenging experience and it is purely because of its recent past.

While the beautiful Wats, Grand Palace and National Museum would be the top tourist attractions in any other city in Phnom Penh sadly it is Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 Prison) and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek that people come to visit.

We visited both the former school grounds that the Khmer Rouge turned into the S-21 Prison and the Killing Fields, a former Chinese cemetery turned mass grave where over twenty thousand people were brutally executed by Pol Pot’s army. It was an extremely emotional experience, harrowing but essential in order to understand Cambodia's horrific past and difficult present.

Here's a brief paragraph about what happened here and in the rest of Cambodia in the 1970s.

"The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January 1979. The party’s existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the CPK knew who its leaders were (the leaders called themselves “Angkar Padevat”). While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people (a third of the population), including their own members and even some senior leaders."

Or you could read more about it here.

What made this even more heartbreaking for us was that it happened less than 40 years ago and that the rest of the world was completely unaware of it so much so that Khmer Rouge leaders were still to represent Cambodia at the UN over a decade after Pol Pot’s fall.

When the time came to leave PP behind we found it quite hard to feel excited about our next stop Sihanoukville, but once we settled in Otres Beach it was easier to cheer up. At least for me: while Freya decided to read more about the Cambodian Genocide and spent her first days here crying over the pages of two novels written by a survivor I enjoyed doing nothing all day by the beach.

Otres spoiled us with gorgeous sunsets and endless days and nights of staring at the calm and gorgeous ocean plus some authentic delicious Italian food too good to be wasting time taking pictures of. 

Once Freya cheered up we went on a day trip to Koh Ta Kiev, an island off the coast of Sihanoukville and spent the day snorkelling, cliff jumping and drinking.

Leaving Otres took us lots of will-power but we had to eventually so we -reluctantly- got ourselves a ticket for Bangkok and hopped on a minivan. Should we have known in advance what that trip was gonna be like, we would have probably never left Otres.

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SIEM REAP & THE ANGKOR TEMPLES 🇰🇭

The journey from Kampot to Siem Reap was so stupidly long and frustrating that I don't even want to talk about it. It took us 11 hours to cover the 450 km and a picture of the Cambodian National Highway will explain why.

I'm not even joking that's really it.

Anyway we got to Siem Reap, eventually, and settled in a hostel by the night market and pub street. They messed up our booking and the room was a state and it was hot and we were tired so I kicked a wall and bruised my toenail. Pretty badly, in fact. In my defence though I wanted to kick the door but I misjudged the distance between me and the target. Which explains why my football career never really kicked off (pun intended). Anyway that's why you may notice a big white bandage on my big toe in the pictures and no, no close-up of the toenail because it is gross and also let's never talk about it again.

We spent our whole first day in SR planning our three-day of Tomb Raiding and by the end of the day we came up with our own itinerary so that we could enjoy the sites at their quietest. We got ourselves a Tuk-Tuk and a driver at the price we wanted, for the hours we wanted, to go where we wanted instead of following the pre-arranged routes they offer and we're glad we did so because we managed to beat the crowds at almost every stop.

We started with an hour drive to Banteay Srey, a smaller temple quite far from the most popular ones, dedicated to Shiva the Destroyer and home to some of the finest bass-reliefs in the Angkor complex.

We then drove back and started with some more popular sites: Banteay Kdei and Sras Srang.

Pre Rup and East Mebon came next followed by Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Khan.

We decided to stick around for sunset and picked the super popular spot Phnom Bakheng which wasn't bad or anything but not particularly spectacular either. Guess we're not really sunset junkies.

After 12 hours of exploring these magnificent temples we called it a day.

On our second day we got up super early and rushed to enjoy sunrise from outside Angkor Wat and it was wow!

When everyone drove back to their accommodation for breakfast we (and some others) entered Angkor Wat and managed to spend a couple of hours inside this beautiful site without too many people around. It was a wonderful visit and when we left we were really happy with our decision to tailor our own tour of the complex because our experience inside Angkor Wat itself was already more than we could have asked for.

Angkor Thom and what lies within its walls came next. Bayon was a tad busier than we liked but luckily we got to give it another go on day 3 and it was literally deserted then (yay!) whereas Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King were spot on although extremely tiring. 

After 10 hours of exploring we decided to head back and rest.

Day 3 started nice and early with the long-awaited Ta Prom, only this time there was no tuk-tuk taking us places and we had to rely on our own leg muscles and our cycling skills. Having left our hostel at dawn we got here at 7:30AM and enjoyed a few hours inside Ta Prom grounds and left right when the big crowds approached.

We decided to spend the rest of the day cycling around the area and after a more fortunate and extremely quiet visit to Bayon we stopped for some chill-out time outside the main gates of Angkor Wat, not quite ready to say goodbye to this amazing place yet.

On our way back we stumbled upon a bunch of monkeys chilling by the side of the road. Then some guys who also pulled over started feeding them fruit and soon more monkeys came. Like a lot more. While we were taking pictures some of them monkeys took over our bikes and wouldn't let go.

Now we didn't get our rabies shots before this trip so we decided to let them do their thing and not bother them while they tried to go through our bags looking for food, or money or drugs or whatever it was they wanted but when they finally let go of our bikes we hit the road again and made it back to the hostel.

At night we went to the Phare Circus, a short drive from our hostel where we enjoyed an amazing hour long show put together by a young and extremely talented crew whose lives have changed for the better thanks to this organisation whose mission is to provide gainful employment to Cambodian youth from difficult social and economic backgrounds.

On our last night we met up for dinner and drinks with Adam whom we traveled part of North Thailand with and who was also in SR for a couple of days and it was great to meet him again apart from when he decided to eat a tarantula. That was gross.

All templed out and with the disturbing images and sounds in our eyes and ears of Adam chewing on a giant barbecued spider we eventually called it a night and went to bed trying hard to set our scarred minds on our next stop: Phnom Penh.

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KAMPOT + KEP, CAMBODIA! 🇰🇭

Crossing the border coming from Ha Tien, Vietnam was pretty straightforward. After an uneventful hour long journey on the speed catamaran from Phu Quoc to Ha Tien we crashed for a few hours at Oasis Bar where the owner Andy fed us and booked us on the first bus through the border for $12. Another $35 each and two crammed buses later we made our slooow way into Cambodia and settled for a few days in Kampot: the capital of salt, pepper, durian and roundabouts. And bamboo scaffolding, we add.

Kampot is a small laid back river town which many expats now call home and even though it's very much on the beaten track it isn't exactly a party town and maybe that's why we liked it here. 

Locals and expats seemed to have found a peaceful and balanced way to live side by side and neither looked out of place or particularly bothered by one another -or by tourists- unlike other places we had the chance to visit since we landed in Bangkok in November. The chilled atmosphere and the cheap ice cold draft beer helped us relaxing and made our stay in Kampot very enjoyable. 

This massive serving of pork ribs also helped. A lot.

And so did these delicious pulled pork tacos.

After a couple of days of chilling and planning our future steps we rented a scooter and rode it to Kep: capital of Crabs (the crustacean...) and only 25km along the coast from Kampot.

The road wasn't really paved for most of the way but the ride was perfectly fine and gave us the chance to enjoy nice views of both the ocean and the jungle and take some nice picture of my shoulders.

In Kep we had two options for the day: chilling on the beach and stuffing our faces with crab meat or explore Kep National Park. 

To our own surprise our passion for National Parks proved to be stronger than our (my) love for food so we chose the latter.

After a quick and filling breakfast we made our way to the entrance gates of the National Park and a few minutes into the hike we found a chilled cafe with a pretty decent view of Kep Beach: from here, after some delicious pancakes and ice cold lime juice, off we went. Finally.

About an hour into the pleasant and easy hike we decided to leave the main path and follow a much narrower one that cuts trough the jungle and takes you right to the other side of the hill because why not. It sounded like a good idea and it would have given us the chance to see some pretty unexplored bits of the National Park plus we got to the point where we had gone too far to go back so we kept following the narrow path but soon (an hour later, roughly) found ourselves facing a very steep slope looking more like a rock wall really that could only be climbed using a rope (thankfully provided).

The rope climbing went on for a good hour and when we finally reached the top of the hill, tired and sweaty AF we did the only thing we could do: sit for about an hour in the shade fighting a colony of giant mosquitoes and reconsider all the decisions we had made in our lives. 

When our water supplies ran out -and our self-pity as well- we began the way down. Another steep slope awaited us, this time with no ropes and going downhill and another hour of jungle trekking and mosquito killing passed before we could step back onto the main path on the other side of the hilltop.

This large, flat, easy and breezy path simply goes around the hill and offers pretty views of Kep 360degrees. It would have surely been a challenge-free way of exploring the national park but in hindsight we're glad we went all Bear Grylls and our survival mission through tiny jungly paths, fallen trees, rocky walls to climb and nasty mosquitoes wasn't actually that bad. 

Or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves now that it's over.

For the next couple of days we would be simply sipping on ice cold Angkor Draft Beer or iced coffee in this or that cafe and enjoy some more tasty food and walk around this quiet town charging our batteries for our next filled-with-activities destination. 

But mostly we'd be killing mosquitoes, because if there's one true thing Kampot is the capital of, it is fucking mosquitoes.

Next stop: Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples.

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SOUTH VIETNAM PT.2: THE MEKONG DELTA

The Mekong Delta really is a beautiful and quiet corner of Vietnam and we are very happy we've explored it by ourselves rather than with an organised tour: this way we got to move at our own pace, choose our destinations step by step and most of all enjoy Vietnam's finest public transport.

While Freya sat comfortably next to our bulky bags constantly dozing off only to be woken up again by the never ending honking of literally everyone in a ten-mile radius I had the privilege to sit next to a Vietnamese lady who literally stared at me the whole time her face being basically on my left shoulder while I awkwardly looked outside the window on my right hand side for two very long hours plus a half hour stop in the middle of a bridge because of a car hitting a scooter. When we finally reached our destination we settled in the creepiest guesthouse ever because money is loooooow but that didn't even matter because in Vinh Long we got the best Bahn Mi in the whole of Vietnam. A Bahn Mi is just a sandwich but you'll be surprised at how bad a sandwich could be around here. This one was good, like really good, so good that we basically devour it hence no picture. Everything else here was pretty standard (the riverside, the market, the town itself) hence no pictures either.

The day after we made our way to Can Tho, the main town in the Delta and home to the biggest floating market in the area and also to a giant statue of Ho Chi Minh.

We checked in at a nice little place and while Freya passed out in bed making the most of the air con I went for a stroll around the market (the one by the river) and bought a dragon fruit because now that I know what it is I like dragon fruit. 

While I was enjoying my juicy purchase on a bench by the river I met Moi whom I shared this delicious gift of God with right after booking a trip with her to the market for the morning after.

The following morning we boarded Vui’s boat (Moi’s sister) at 5am and off we went along the river and the canals making our way through heaps of boat/stalls full of fruit and veggies and all sorts of other goods.

We also visited a rice noodle factory and thought we'd learn how to make some just in case the incense sticks business didn't work for us.

Our last night in Can Tho we stumbled across this little place packed with locals and enjoyed what turned out to be by far one of the best meals we had in Vietnam: Bo La Lot (minced beef wrapped in betel leaves & char-grilled) and Nem Nuong (grilled meatballs eaten with rice noodle, salad, pineapple and jack fruit wrapped in rice paper and dipped in peanut sauce).

After a pretty uneventful overnight stop in Rach Gia we took a ferry over to Phu Quoc Island and splashed out at a resort for three days of this.

Phu Quoc being the best place in Vietnam for seafood we couldn't miss having dinner at the market where you get to pick your own fish, lobster, squid, snail, frog and even snake. You name it they'll barbecue it.

Being cheapskates and not particularly fancying another visit to the hospital we settled for the biggest prawns we could afford and some delicious BBQ octopus followed by fresh ice cream rolls.

This beautiful life of quiet beaches, fresh seafood and sweet ice coffees with a view couldn't unfortunately last much longer and after three days we had to leave Phu Quoc behind and make our way to Ha Tien from where we would cross into Cambodia. 

Next destination: Kampot.

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SOUTH VIETNAM PT.1

Getting to Ho Chi Minh City international airport at 1:30AM wasn't exactly what we had planned but if there is one thing we've learnt during this trip is how to make incense sticks and another one is that nothing here is ever on time. That's why when we had to choose between a 17 hour train journey and a 1,5 hour flight between Hoi An and HCMC we chose the latter, not being particularly excited about what could have easily become a 24 hour ride down the Vietnamese coast. Of course the flight being half the price helped making our decision and in the end it landed only an hour late and with HCMC being very much alive until the wee hours it wasn't so bad after all.

We weren't particularly thrilled about coming to HCMC and actually considered skipping it altogether at one point but if there is one thing we've learnt during this trip is how to make incense sticks and another one is that the lower the expectation the better.

We decided to stick around District 1: sort of the centre of town and where most museums and attractions, bars, cafes, street food and hostels are. We also decided to stay in a party hostel with scarily tall bunk beds and bathroom doors basically in your bed because it was the cheapest option and to take up part time jobs because money is looooowww but we didn't last very long at it unfortunately.

The party vibe isn't usually our thing but the hostel gave us free beers every night for an hour and round the corner we found a wee spot serving ice cold beer for £0.25 until the last customer left so yeah things got messy. We met a bunch of cool people though and booze definitely helped us being less picky about where to get food from so again not too bad eh. 

When we weren't steaming or hanging we went twice to the War Remnants Museum: an experience that left us shaken and gave us a better idea of what happened all around Vietnam during the American War. Now this blog is no place for politics and history but of all exhibits I personally thought these to be quite self explanatory and decided to share them with you.

In Saigon's District 1 we also came across a cathedral and the fanciest post office ever both build by the French during their centenary occupation of Vietnam and more beer and that's how another day went by.

After a couple of days of chilling we finally recovered from our hangovers and made our way to the Mekong Delta without worrying too much about what we missed in Saigon and focusing instead of how good of a time we had there and how glad we were we came.

Ben Tre was our first stop in the Delta. It is a sleepy little town off the beaten track sitting by one of the smaller rivers that originate from the Mekong and it is famous for its beautiful scenery and it's wet market. 

Upon arrival at our guesthouse we grabbed a scooter and went exploring two small islands a few km south of town getting ourselves into a beautiful jungle-like landscape and providing endless entertainment for the locals: on the tiny ferry across the river to get to the island we got stared at the whole time by the amazed/confused passengers that clearly found us being there weirder than the guy that pulled a massive chicken out of his bamboo bag and started examinating it and then got waved at, shouted at and mostly laughed at by an endless stream of young students getting home from school on the mainland the whole time we drove around. 

On our second day we paid a visit to the wet market and found ourselves awkwardly standing in the (not so clean) way of the locals purchasing all sort of goods that included alive rats, frogs and other animals amongst the usual spices, meats, seafood and fruit and vegetables.

In the afternoon we went for a 3 hour boat trip around the smallest canals in the province: this turned out to be an amazing experience and definitely a major highlight of our trip. 

On board of Mr Lin's tiny boat we explored the area around Ben Tre following the quiet stream through the beautiful jungle making our way through endless mangrove roots and bamboo trees. Ferns and palm trees gave us shelter from the scorching sun and a short visit to a coconut candy factory turned into a long and very interesting conversation with our boat guide giving us the chance to learn more about himself, his dreams for Vietnam's future and what 40 years of independence have made of his country in his opinion. 

It was a great day and we enjoyed every minute of it and are hoping to experience some more of this beautiful part of Vietnam once we reach our next destination: Vinh Long.

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CENTRAL VIETNAM! 🇻🇳

It's been a wee while since our last post so here's a quick recap of our last week in Central Vietnam.

We got to Hue safe and sound after a quite pleasant night train journey from Hanoi and after a much needed coffee break just outside the train station we enjoyed a nice stroll along the river with our bags on our backs because we're cheapskates and £2 for a taxi is a luxury we can't afford just now.

The Imperial City was a nice surprise and on our first day we enjoyed a whole day in the scorching sun exploring what's left of this old citadel hidden behind thick walls and situated right in the heart of Hue.

On our second day we went on a (pretty crappy) tour of Hue's surroundings and visited a quiet garden house where we learned from our old guide a few things about trees and exotic fruit and herbal medicine in Vietnam and that it took him three years to be allowed to hold his girlfriend’s hand and another two to marry her but mostly that it is okay for a Vietnamese man to go and try to have a baby boy with another woman if all he gets from his wife are daughters provided that he doesn't tell her for at least 25 years because she’ll be okay with it by then.

We then visited an old pagoda with a giant marble turtle that if stroked grants you life until you're 100yo and if stroked again when you hit triple figure will grant you ten more years and that's it because 110 is the maximum apparently.

After that it was time to visit the tombs of the Vietnamese emperors. We were taken to three of them (there's thirteen all together but these are the most significant ones) and learnt a bit more about Vietnam's ancient past before the French made it their colony and before the Americans bombed the shit out of it. Freya also learnt how to make incense sticks so if we ever decide to move to this part of the world we're sorted: the incense sticks will make us rich and the plops will make us skinny.

A few hours on a bus on day three and we got to Hoi An: a nice but very touristy little town on the coast.

Beautiful Japanese merchants houses now turned into tacky souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants sit quietly along the river that cut Old Hoi An in half while flocks of tourists roam its streets and an army of street vendors and boat owners try with all their energies to get you to transfer some of your precious dollars into their pockets. There's also a beach just outside the centre of town: we checked it out but it wasn't really beach weather unfortunately. This city more than any other one we've seen so far in Asia I would have really liked to see a few decades ago before us westerners corrupted the locals' way of doing business and poisoned their everyday life.

While in Hoi An we visited the My Son site: once one of the most important temple complexes of the Champa and now -thanks to heavy cannon fire by the French and the Americans blanketing the area in land mines and firing randomly at the constructions- a sad pile of bricks. Because of the lack of information provided together with the arguable decision to move all the best kept ruins to museums all around the country and the fact that none of the profits from this Unesco World Heritage Site go to local communities, we enjoyed this visit more for its outdoors connotation than for the actual content but we knew all of this so we weren't too disappointed.

We're now off to Ho Chi Minh City, former Saigon, looking forward to its famous street food, cheap beer and party vibe and eager to learn more about the American War.

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NORTH VIETNAM! 🇻🇳

As you all know we had to take a massive detour due to unforeseen circumstances and a month and a half into our trip we found ourselves once again in good old Bangkok. Ditching Laos on Christmas Day rushing to the nearest decent hospital which happened to be outside the country aka in the centre of Thailand's capital wasn't an easy decision to make but it was the right thing to do and we stand by it but with Freya's full recovery came a big question: what next?

We considered heading south and quickly pictured ourselves island hopping and sunbathing in Ko Samui, partying/watching the party and moan about it in Ko Phan Gan, scuba diving in Ko Tao and rock climbing in Railay Beach but then realised that January was peak season and that our budget would have evaporate within a week or two if lucky so we decided to get ourselves to Vietnam instead and catch up with our original itinerary skipping what was left of Laos, which we may do some other time. This happened about a week ago and the day after our last update we flew to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital since the year 1010 and home to 7 million people and over 8 million scooters. Maybe more.

Crossing a road in Hanoi's old quarter is borderline suicidal and if you ever find yourself on these loud and crowded street you may as well forget everything you thought you knew about road safety because nothing here makes sense. There are moving vehicles coming from and to every direction. There is no left and right, no red or green man, no giving way or stopping at a junction. People leave cars on the side of the roads, pull over to the other side, reverse and u-turn whenever they want and every gap counts as an overtaking lane. Look it up on YouTube if you don't believe me. Everything that comes with wheels is also constantly honking their horns. ALL THE BLOODY TIME. They just do it, for no reason. You don't even know who just honked because you can't even tell how many horns just went off at the same time and where they came from. Was it that family of four on that tiny scooter on the right? Was it those two electricians carrying their whole shop on that bike on the left? Was it those two twelve-year olds on their Vespa in front of us? Or maybe that pregnant woman with her two older kids on that sidecar there? Or that huge bus of tourist there? Or this truck here?

We once waited four and half hours to cross a road: my beard grew five inches longer and Freya became fluent in Italian while we waited for a gap in the mayhem.

I saw people whose visa ran out while they tried to cross a main road.

So while we walked along Hanoi's pavements trying to cross the city jungle we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda and the outside of the Ho Chi Minh Museum and on the way back to the beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake and the Temple of the Jade Mountain that sit in the heart of the Old Quarter found ourselves in Lenin Square and also in the middle of some random train tracks. All of this with hardly any road-crossing...

Hanoi is a lot more than just traffic and horns honking though: it is also/especially Egg-Coffee and Bia Hoi. But before that here's a picture of Freya eating a weird vanilla and red beans fish shaped ice cream.

Egg-Coffee. This beauty is Hanoi's wee gem and one of the best coffees I've ever come across in my life. It all started in 1946 when Mr. Giang came up with the idea of mixing coffee, egg yolk, butter and cheese to make up for the shortage of milk that struck Vietnam. The result was a delicious sweet cream sitting right on top of the perfect shot of Vietnamese coffee and even though it took time for people to appreciate this man's vision his coffee shop is now a city attraction itself and every other coffee shop in Hanoi has been trying to imitate his egg coffee ever since.

Bia Hoi is also another one of Hanoi's greatest contribution to humanity. It literally translates into fresh beer and it is brewed daily because it's so fresh that it needs drunk within 24 hours. No additives here just barley, water and malt. Every bar at every corner of Vietnam's capital gets it delivered every day and by the end of every night is left with empty barrels, drunk customers and tills full of cash. Oh, and did I mention that it only costs £0,15 per glass?

After meeting the smallest dog in the world we left Hanoi and went on a two-day cruise to Halong Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay.

Even though this part of Vietnam shows its best side in the summer months we still enjoyed the cruise and the views very much and highly recommend a trip here anyway even in winter.

The fog and mist that surround the bay in January do limit the visibility and can be nasty at times and Halong Bay surely is stunning in summer but we sailed around these two bays and got real close to the rock formations and still managed to admire the scenery that this 500 million year-old limestone karsts offer and had a lovely time.

We then got into Sung Sot Cave, also known as Surprising Cave because that how the French felt like when they discovered it and visited a floating fishing village that sits in the middle of the bay before having to say goodbye to this beautiful corner of Vietnam.

Back in Hanoi we enjoyed some more Bia Hoi and then made our way to the train station managing to cross the road not once but twice before finally catching a night train to our next destination: Hue.

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KANCHANABURI AND ERAWAN WATERFALLS

After our adventurous Christmas and the whole hospital thing (Luckily we have travel insurance...) Freya was finally dismissed and we decided to stick around Bangkok for a few days.

Bangkok, the real name being "Krung thep mahanakhon amorn ratanakosin mahintharayutthaya mahadilok popnoparat ratchathani burirom udomratchanivetmahasathan amornpiman avatarnsathit sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit" (the world's longest location name by the Guinness Book of Records), and in English: "The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city of Ayutthaya of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn", it has over 11 million people living in it plus God knows how many tourists roaming its streets every day and I don't even want to know how many hotels, hostels or guesthouses to accommodate us and still, while going down to reception at our hostel I bumped into Debbi coming up the stairs.

Freya and I met her while travelling around New Zealand in March 2014 and shared a good two weeks on the road between both the South and North Islands with her and another bunch of lovely people. And now almost two years later we're staying in the same hostel in Bangkok... Small world? Just wait for the end of this post.

Anyway after going to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX 4D (it was amazing by the way) inside the best shopping centre we've ever been (EM Quartier, in the Sukhumvit area) we left Bangkok and decided to take the chance to tick another thing off our to-do list for Thailand: the Erawan National Park, home of the 7-tier Erawan Waterfalls and only 4 hours north-west of the Capital.

Kanchanaburi, the main city in the province, was going to be our (boring) base for three days and there we spent New Years where - good guess - absolutely nothing happened apart from some fireworks and someone being sick all night in a bungalow next to us (maybe there was a party somewhere after all...). We didn't mind though, after the worst Christmas ever we didn't really feel like partying for NYE anyway and also Freya is off the booze and nobody likes to be the only sober person in town so quiet night for us instead. I got myself a haircut and a large beer in an Australian beer cosy on 1st January though because YOLO.

Before that though on the last day of 2015 we headed to the National Park and reached the waterfalls: now the first few tiers (1 to 4 really) were not that great: the pools and surrounding areas were definitely overcrowded with many families having picnics and loads of kids screaming and running around - and did I say screaming? -, the hike was more like a procession and at times the line along the path would go on real slow and then the waterfalls were actually not that impressive anyway but as of level 5 (half an hour hike) things got better.

Past this point it would have been another 45 minutes to the top level and once to the top we were glad we came.

Most people wouldn't venture up here and even though there was still quite a few of us going up the hill the hike became more of a pleasant walk through the forest with many water crossings, rocky bits and wooden stairs to challenge our (poor) trekking skills. We choose to head straight for level 7 and finally reached the waterfalls and the pool where we enjoyed a freezing cold natural shower and a quick dip (just Freya, I chickened out) amongst some of the same fish we met at that fish spa in Chiang Mai, only these were massive and the tickling was unbearable.

On our way back we were almost out of gas with a good 40 km left to Kanchanaburi and when we finally came across a gas station we had the weirdest petrol-filling experience ever. We only needed half a tank to get back but the kid running the gas station refused to serve us because we weren't going to get enough petrol for his liking. Didn't matter that I said please like a million times and that we hardly had any gas left in the scooter. It wasn't gonna happen. I wanted to go full Italian on him but we kept our cool instead and took our chances and drove off. Luckily, when we were basically ready to push (with pride) for the remaining 30 km we found another gas station a few kilometres down the road, and then another one and then another one and so on all the way to town.

At sunset we went to the Bridge over the River Kwai which is a bridge over a river called Kwai Yai. It was packed with people being New Years Eve so we couldn't fully experience or understand the history of this site which is a pretty sad and interesting one: part of the infamous Death Railway to Burma this iron bridge was built by prisoners of war working in hellish conditions for the Japanese during World War II and some 16000 of them plus another 90000 enslaved Asian workers died during its construction.

We (I) didn't know any of this and unfortunately we (I) just walked up and down it while munching on unbranded and tasteless crackers being that kind of tourists. Oops.

We're now back in Bangkok for the night and while struggling to resist the temptation to go watch Star Wars again we've figured out what to do next: Vietnam. We'll pretend we've done Laos the way we were going to do it (we'll maybe head back there one day) and are now catching up with the original itinerary and starting again from where we should have been anyway which is exactly Hanoi heading south afterwards.

Oh and of course it wouldn't be Bangkok if I didn't accidentally bumped into someone I know, in this case Moreno, an old friend of mine from Milan which I've known for a good fifteen years. We bumped into each other just outside the shopping centre because apparently this is what you do in Bangkok.

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A CHRISTMAS TALE

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the guesthouse, Not a creature was stirring, not even a Laos mouse; The stockings were hung by the bamboo with care In hopes that Santa soon would be there;

Freya was nestled all snug in her bed, While visions of vomiting danced in her head; And Ricky in his singlet and baseball cap Had just settled his brain for a long Laotian nap;

When then in the bathroom arose such a clatter, He sprang out of bed to see what's the matter; Away to the toilet he flew like a comet, Tore open the door and found Freya mid-vomit;

The following morning after a long sleepless night, Her tummy was swollen, her face ghostly white! She had really bad cramps, nausea and the plops, "But when I lay down the pain slightly stops!"

"Let's go back to the hospital" he said "They'll see you once more!" "I'm not going back there" she yelled "There was poop on the floor!" She was suffering loads and could barely talk, "But you need a doctor!" He shouts "We'll go to Bangkok!",

More rapid than eagles to the airport they came, He wheeled her through the gates to catch the last plane; Over the clouds they flew high in the sky, Leaving Laos in a hurry without saying goodbye;

When they landed in Thailand an ambulance waited, It drove fast, siren wailing and through traffic they made it; Now they're in hospital and she's safe and sound, But what a way to spend Christmas these two have just found!

In all seriousness, we had to fly out of Luang Prabang in a hurry on Christmas Day and catch a last minute plane to Bangkok (the last one for that day) in order to get Freya to a decent hospital where she could get treatment for the severe consequences of the food poisoning. We didn't feel comfortable going back to the Luang Prabang Provincial Hospital because sadly it is not up to standards and didn't make us feel safe.

We rushed to the airport and bought plane tickets two hours before take off, luckily our insurance arranged an ambulance waiting for us at Bangkok Airport and checked Freya in the fanciest hospital we've ever seen (more like a 5 star hotel really). Hopefully we don't have to pay the bill for the treatment and the private room otherwise we'll have no money left and will be home for Hogmanay. That is if anyone pays for our flight back of course.

Anyway Freya is now fine, she has fully recovered and will be dismissed from the hospital soon.

We still don't know what will come next though but we'll figure something out.

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LUANG PRABANG

We didn't know much about Laos before crossing its northern border and slowly make or way down the Mighty Mekong apart from the fact that their national beer, curiously named Beerlao wasn't particularly good.

Eight days later we still don't know much about this landlocked country but we've been in Luang Prabang long enough to fall for it. It is a beautiful and charming town surrounded by green hills and both the Mekong River as well as the Nam Khan River that merge on the eastern part of town creating a natural peninsula filled with French cafes, bakeries and bistros. 

This old French colony is very much Laotian: everything moves slowly, at a natural pace but it's architecture and food culture is very much French and it works great. People are friendly and always smiling and in spite of seeing many many travellers roaming its streets day and night, Luang Prabang doesn't have much of that backpacker party vibe which makes it the perfect place to relax and wander its streets and markets without speakers blaring pop music until the wee hours and semi-naked teenagers offering massages. None of that nonsense here, just a quiet town in a beautiful setting and loads of food.

Our guesthouse, sitting by the Nam Khan river, a nice ten minute walk from the night market at the beginning of the peninsula is a freshly renovated place run by a young couple of French expats that managed to create a place that many travellers will call home away from home for many years. It is a lovely place down a little lane, it's quiet and tranquil and it's the perfect spot to chill and do what the Laotians do: relax and slowly let the day go.

We've enjoyed exploring Luang Prabang by foot, walking along the river and through the peninsula, stopping for croissants and pain au chocolates, visiting temples and the former Royal Palace and climbed to the top of the hill at the centre of town to pay a visit to an old temple as well as a Buddhist Monastery where we chatted to a young Buddhist student and learned a bit more about the young boys in the saffron robe.

We reunited with some lovely fruit shakes after the nightmare that was Chiang Rai where there isn't any and enjoyed French baguettes for lunch (and dinner) almost every day. That was until we decided to try a small restaurant by the guesthouse that had always been packed with locals and tourists every time we would walk past it on the way to or back from town. We should have just walk past it and head once more to the night market, but we had a proper Lao dinner instead and then rushed to hospital (again) the morning after when Freya got real sick.

On the 23rd of December we spent the whole afternoon at Luang Prabang Provincial Hospital where Freya was given IV fluids and a whole bunch of medicines to fight the food poisoning and the dehydration. 

The place its hard to describe without sounding nasty or spoiled but after paying a visit there (and indeed we paid) I really do appreciate NHS and will fight for it for the rest of my life. The doctors and nurses were nice and everything (although they did not do a good job with Freya really) but the state of the building... I find it hard to describe it so if you're interested and want to read someone else's experience maybe read this but bear in mind that over 5 years have passed since then and the pictures in the article make it look shiny... https://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-488543.html

Christmas Eve we spent it at the guesthouse: Freya was feeling a bit better and that gave us the chance to relax, lying down in bed and chilling on the balcony facing the river, we listened to some music and enjoyed a bit of reading while I stuffed my face with food and Freya feasted on antibiotics.

Today is the 26th of December, Freya's fine now and she fully recovered from the food poisoning and the stomach pain.

Only we're not in Luang Prabang anymore. We're in Bangkok, again.

I'll update the blog one of these days with our "Christmas Tale" and how we got back here.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with the people you love.

Ciao for now.

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FINALLY LAOS!

I should have posted this a week ago (like on the 18th of December really but things got in the way, I'll explain in future posts...)

We've made it to Laos, finally.

After 33 days through Central and Northern Thailand we’ve left Chiang Rai and crossed the border at Chiang Khong and entered Laos at Huay Xai, or Bokeo. We're still not sure what the actual name of this small town is but that doesn't really matter because there's not much to say about it anyway.

Huay Xai is a small border town only really used by tourists crossing the land border and most people only stay here overnight before catching either a slow or a speed boat southbound along the Mekong. There actually is what is supposed to be a great activity called the Gibbon Experience where you climb up trees and observe the gibbons close up and spend the night in a tree house in the jungle but at $100 each per day it was a wee bit out of budget for us.

We spent the night in town and on the following morning we've boarded the slow boat for our first day cruising down the Mekong River. This is an extremely popular route for tourists and backpackers and it is the least authentic thing we could have possibly done in Asia but the views of both Thailand and Laos on both sides of the river are supposed to be worth the journey and its cost.

The 5 hours along the Mighty Mekong went pretty smooth and even though it was overcast and quite chilly we've enjoyed some decent views and relaxed with our first ever Beerlao which to be completely honest is a pretty crappy beer but when in Laos...

Pakbeng was our stop for the night. This town is halfway between Huay Xai and our destination Luang Prabang and again you just have to stop here, you don't have a choice and that's why the locals are as far as humanly possible from being friendly. They live in "Groundhog Day" dealing with hundreds of tourist getting out of the slow boat at sunset and back into it at dawn. All they (we) need from Pakbeng is a bed for the night and snacks and packed lunch for the boat ride in the morning, nobody stops for more than that and that is way I think it is understandable that nobody here has any interest in going the extra mile for their customers but nevertheless our first impression of Laos was meh.

The second day on the boat was a little longer ride than the first leg but the scenery was incredible: lush green hills and rocky cliffs on both sides of the river, little picturesque river towns (read five or six huts, lots of kids and dogs running along the bank and some cows) and tiny waterfalls here and then and the mountains in the background. Stunning and well worth the journey.

We arrived in Luang Prabang just before sunset on Sunday and shared a tuk-tuk to the centre of town before finding our guesthouse and calling it an early night. We'll have five days to explore this old French colony and keep everyone up to date.

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CHIANG RAI & THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

A month into our trip around Southeast Asia and we've finally found a place that, well, wasn't so great: Chiang Rai.

I would have normally put a picture of the city here but I wanted to make a point of how much we did not like CR so no picture.

This northern city doesn't really have anything to say and it doesn't seem to be particularly warm and friendly either. Its architecture is grey and unappealing, derelict concrete (with bamboo “structure”) buildings just sit half built on the side of pot-holed roads and the Chiang Raians (?) just drive their pick-up trucks around carrying their loads of passengers and their bandana-covered faces from place to place.  Pollution here is really bad and the mountains, just a stone-throw away, can barely be seen by the naked eye because of the tick layer(s) of smog in the air. The night bazaar is just a sad bunch of stalls that systematically appear at dusk and disappear at dawn and the city's main attractions are pretty much a big bluff. And I haven't got the Golden Triangle yet.

The Black House, or Baan Dum, is the dark and ominous vision of a local "artist" and it's a collection of some 30 wooden temple-shaped buildings covered in animal skins, bones and skulls. It's an eerie place that manages to make you feel really uncomfortable just by walking around its grounds and the lack of information provided (no videos, no recorded sounds and no descriptive panels to explain the "creative process" behind this piece) just makes the experience both pointless and confusing.

The White Temple is another "piece of art" rather than an actual temple but unlike the Black House it actually looks good. From outside. Once you go past the bearded goblins' heads hanging from the trees and the weird Ironman thing at the entrance you can admire the temple's bleached white walls and the silver details shining in the sun, the pretty pond thing going on with heaps of colourful and of course white fish swimming in it and the majestic way in.

But then things get creepy again.

The inside could not be photographed and I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing. Anyway it turns out this place is an actual temple, with all the rules about dressing appropriately and making donations and it has its own golden Buddha image but it also has pictures of Spiderman, Neo, the Minions, Doraemon, Michael Jackson, Zidane's head butt during the World Cup Final, Elvis, Hello Kitty and many more. And again no explanations. There were more interesting buildings at the back of the main temple but at that point we (especially me, Freya actually enjoyed her visit) were once again confused, so we hopped back on our pink scooter and head to the Golden Triangle: the bit where Thailand meets Laos but also Myanmar, who also meets Laos, who also meets Thailand.

So yeah, the Golden Triangle: the biggest tourist trap you'll find in Asia.

We were aware of the true nature of this place but decided to check it out anyway and well, we fell in the trap. There's absolutely nothing here and it is not worth driving two hours to get here but at least we didn't spend an outrageous amount of money on an organised tour... The drive is a two-hour journey along the highway with hardly any bend and no views worth stopping for and the final destination itself is a sad plastic and concrete amusement park looking site with a giant plastic Buddha sitting at the top of an even sadder lookout point over the muddiest bit of the Mekong and a million tourist shops. 

We sat there for two minutes, reconsidering the choices we've made in our lives and then drove back to CR planning on leaving the following day.

But we didn't. And neither we did the day after. Or the one after again.

The plops kicked back in and I was forced (by Sergeant Freya) to stay in bed until I fully recovered so that we could cross into Laos and then float along the Mekong for two days on a slow boat to Luang Prabang without problems.

We've crossed the border this afternoon after 33 days through Central and Northern Thailnd and we're now in Huay Xai, in the north of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic where we'll spend the night before boarding the slow boat first thing tomorrow morning, if and when Freya lets go of her new pal.

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CHIANG MAI PT.2

Leaving Pai behind was not easy but it had to be done. The 762 bends of the road back to Chiang Mai were definitely a lot harder to deal with for Freya and her massive hangover than for me although she did steal my travel pillow and that made my sleeping on the bus a lot less pleasant than I expected and hoped but we made it back and that's when we treated ourselves to our first and last ever fish massage.

Our second coming to Chiang Mai had us spending a whole day at an elephant sanctuary a couple of hours out of town. And what an experience this was.

Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in Northern Thailand that has been providing a natural environment for 67 elephants, over 400 dogs, over 400 cats, 100 buffaloes and many other animals under the care of Lek and her team of careers and volunteers since 1995.

After feeding a couple of elephants from a platform we followed our guide through the park and met up close with some of the big guys that call this beautiful valley surrounded by green hills home before having lunch all together and finally jump in the river to bathe Pop, a very friendly and hungry female Asian Elephant that seemed to particularly like this part of the tour.

We then carried on with a tour of the park and got to meet more elephants and learn the sad stories of their lives before being rescued: most of these guys have been at the mercy of humans for years and have been deliberately blinded, mutilated and mistreated by their mahouts, some have fallen victims of land mines or logging accidents and some have been exploited for street begging and all carry physical and emotional scars that will stay with them forever.

It was quite an emotional day and we're really happy to have contributed with our donation to Lek's cause. For more info http://www.elephantnaturepark.org

Next Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle.

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PAI

Last time I had the chance to update the blog we were about to leave Chiang Mai and head to Pai but then I ate some (loads of) dodgy food and ended up in hospital for 24 hours with a pretty severe food poisoning and that's how we ended up staying in CM an extra couple of days.

Nothing to worry about though: it happens to many travellers and £200 later (thanks for nothing, insurance) I was back, hungrier than ever (and 3kg lighter...) and on Sunday we finally made our way to Pai and settled here.

Not too bad eh.

Here we met up with the rest of the gang and over the course of four beautiful days enjoyed all that Pai has to offer (ironically though no pie): we rented scooters and drove around this beautiful quiet province, bathed in natural hot springs, met some local elephants (we have mixed feelings about the way these big guys are treated and feel bad for contributing with our £0.20 worth of bananas but at the same time we gave them cuddles and food and strictly avoided elephant riding so we kept our damage to a minimum), climbed up the mountain to take in the view from the White Buddha's temple, watched the sunset at the Pai Canyon, ate tons of tasty and cheap street food and drank loads of beer by the fire in great company before having to say goodbye and all go different ways.

You can probably tell by the lack of pictures that we were too busy having a great time here in Pai and even though we are extremely excited to carry on with our trip we are sad to leave this magical place tucked away in the mountains and its great views, sweet and juicy watermelon shakes and deliciously addictive (probably MSG'd) corns on the cob.

PAI PAI.