Piccies

Half Moon Party at Hippies Bar on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand - a beach side fire dancing extravaganza! Who needs a whole moon to have a good party??

James Bond Island in Phang Nga National Marine Park, and kayaking around the rock features - an excursion from Phuket, Thailand

The Amazing Cave, which really was amazing, on our Junk trip around Halong Bay, Vietnam

The Temple of Literature and Lenin Park, Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. A welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city and the murderous roads! Candi and Ryan rode a swan around the lake...ahhh

Trekking around beautiful Sapa, Vietnam, meeting the Hmong tribe and looking very fetching in one of their hats. "Thanks bus it's not quite my colour"

Thank Buddha for Sapa

Here we are in the misty mountains of North-West Vietnam, staying in a gorgeous little town called Sapa. The journey here wasn't fun (to cut a long story short, Ryan's camera was stolen by a scamster at Hanoi train station...will our bad luck never end???), but at least the bunks were comfy enough for us to get some sleep (apart from Ryan who was going over the great train robbery in his head). An hours drive along wiggly mountain roads brought us to what feels like a 5* Hotel, the Sapa Summit, where we have duvets! and mountain views! and really good food! Oh the things you come to appreciate when you're backpacking. It's great to be in the countryside where the air is fresh and clean and all you can see for miles is uninterrupted green stuff and hills (I'll post some pictures asap). Yesterday we went for Trek numero 1 to some local hill tribe villages where the Hmong live, accompanied by four young Hmong girls. They are so cute, I want one! They all wear the same traditional handmade outfit and speak scarily good English so we learnt a lot about them. Moon gave me a bracelet that her mother had made but wouldn't accept any money for it, which I later discovered was because she wanted me to buy something else but how can you say no to them? They all made pinky swears with us before lunch that we would see them again later, and after lunch we were mobbed by the whole village selling jewellery, blankets, keyrings and musical instruments. Another hour's trek through even more gorgeous scenery brought us to the end of that day's activities, and now we are preparing for Trek numero 2 to a waterfall. We have the afternoon free to ourselves and then we have to face the overnight train again :S

I'm looking forward to another day's sightseeing in Hanoi because we went to the Temple of Literature and Lenin Park the other day, and once you get off the crazy roads you realise that the city has loads of nice things to offer. We're going to see a dead man (ok, not so nice!) - Ho Chi Min - and the things in his complex, Lenin Park again so we can go on the water ball things that you roll around in on the lake and the Women's Museum.

Baileys saves the day

Once you understand and accept the fact that litter gets thrown on the streets to be brushed up in the evening, pedestrians are invisible when crossing the road, people speak using their horn more often than their mouth and most hotels and travel agents are out to scam you, it's possible to grow quite fond of this city. That's the way it is for me anyway. I think I was still suffering from culture shock during Tet eve but the 30 minutes fireworks display was really cool and we went back to our hotel to find free food and BAILEYS waiting for us at a mini new years party, coutesy of the owner. Someone must have been watching over us! Though they could have removed the plate of chicken on top of which was perched the animal's head!!!

We went to Halong City the next morning to catch a Junk (Pirates of the Carribean-esque boat) around Halong Bay. The drive there took us past some really nice places (paddy fields, narrow houses, mountains and a chinese dragon!) and when the mist cleared the boat showed us some really nice scenery. The Bay has hundreds of small islands dotted everywhere which made for a peaceful afternoon, and we met some really nice people including a really old lady travelling alone who was more than happy to share her life stories with us. We stopped at the gorgeous Amazing Cave which had a ceiling that reminded me of the moon and loads of incredible rock formations to oo and ahh at. We had opted to stay in a hotel on Cat Ba island instead of the boat - big mistake! It was gross, non-english speaking and the food wasn't up to much, and the nightlife was non-existent unless you're into your vietnamese karaoke! We were hoping to go kayaking and swimming the next day as the weather was better but apparently we couldn't because it was Tet (a suspiciously common excuse!), so we made do with some more island spotting before lunch and the journey back to Hanoi.

Our tours package included accommodation for last night but when we saw how skanky it was and the big fat cockroach lying on the floor we quickly found the nicest place we've stayed in yet, which I'm guessing is 4* and has a real shower with a door and hot water and everything! All for only 2 pounds each. Found some nice bars last night and today we hope to see the mueums and mausoleum etc before our night train to Sapa in the highlands of North-West Vietnam. I'm not counting on getting any sleep but hopefully we'll be surprised!

Aaarrgghh!!!!

So we arrived in Vietnam today, and I was so excited about our two weeks here...and then we arrived in Hanoi. Turns out our taxi took us to the wrong hotel, where he had a partner in crime waiting for us, who said the hotel (with which they have no connection) was full and he would take us to another one. At that hotel they fed us a load of crap about when we can do what (I should probably mention it's Vietnamese New Year tomorrow, so it's even busier and weirder than usual), and tried to sell us a bunch of tours for more than we had hoped. We followed our instincts and tried somewhere else and they told us all about the infamous taxi scam and made us a much better offer, which we took. Add to all of this we are dealing with a bizarre currency which we have to get to via the American Dollar and you end up with a very dizzy head!

So the plan is to celebrate Tet tonight (there will be fireworks at Hoam Kiem Lake which is the only thing keeping me from breaking down in a flood of tears right now!), go to Cat Ba for a night tomorrow, go to Sapa for another night on our return, and then head South and away from this crazy city! There's a hop on and off bus that we're using which will allow us to see all of the hot spots on the coast, and hopefully relax on a quiet beach...ahhh

That is if we don't all get run over by a motorbike tonight. You literally have to just take a chance and run for it because the pedestrian crossings mean nothing and they stop for no man! Needless to say I hold Candi's hand when we have finally built up the courage to cross because otherwise she would be stuck in the Hotel. I was enjoying the craziness at first, but now I'm not so sure I can handle it for much longer. Maybe some food will help...Happy New Year!

The Thai Finale

Ao Nang (Krabi beach) was our next stop, though the gods were doing everything in their almighty power to stop us from getting a room. Finally found some nice enough accommodation and rewarded ourselves with many hours on the beach. The best thing about the beach wasn't the sand or palm trees this time, but the monkeys roaming free in the trees at the end! Had one big night out there which was good fun and nice and cheap as the bar kept giving us free tequilas (not my first choice!), and Candi and I got some exercise as we ran the length of the beach, as drunken people do, until we were scared half to death by an unidentified animal in our way and bolted in the other direction!

Koh Phi Phi was next, and again we had a hard time finding a room, so much so that we had to check in two people and sneak candi in for two nights! This island is really small and was practically destroyed by the tsunami, but it seems to be business as usual and it still remains a beautiful place. We may have missed the Full Moon Party the other week but lucky for us Hippies Bar on Phi Phi threw a Half Moon Party while we were there - free bbq, live music, musical chairs and a massive fire show - it more than made up for it! The night before we bumped into some Kiwi guys we had met in Ao Nang so we partied with them all night, in a bar where Che Gevara works!!! No kidding, this guy could have been the man himself! Candi and I now have a few contacts that should save us some money on accommodation here and there, from people we met that night.

We were really sad to leave, but we didn't realise how much until we landed in Phuket. Talk about a hell hole! It's full of 40+ year old package holiday tourists, ageing men with their thai girlfriends, people trying to corrupt us with cigarettes and ping pong shows (no bats involved, just girls - ew!) and the streets smelled even worse than anywhere before. We got away from it all by spending one day in a National Marine Park which was really cool. We took a long tail boat through stunning scenery to James Bond Island, then we were paddled around some other parts in canoes (saw some mud fish amphibian things that look just like the ones in the Guiness advert that spit out the water!), before having lunch at a Muslim Fishing Village that sits on stilts in the middle of the park. After another nice boat trip back to the pier we made one final stop at Monkey Cave where there were more free roaming monkeys, a huge reciling Buddha inside a cave, a Monk concentrating deeply on a game of Sudoku (seriously!) and some bats flying around an impressive network of caves.

Now we're in good old Bangkok again where we have collected our passports (so glad they didn't make off with them!) and Vietnam tickets and visas, and spent pretty much every last baht we own on dinner. We fly tomorrow morning to Hanoi in Vietnam. Apparently it's Vietnamese New Year in a few days so we're bracing ourselves for a very hectic couple of weeks in a very busy but hopefully beautiful country. See you all there!

Nelly the elephant

Koh Samui wasn't as nice an island as Koh Tao, due to the repetitive main strip (fake goods store, fake goods stall, bar, fake goods store, fake...), constant harrassment by thais trying to sell us things on the beach and the smell of sewers wafting through every now and then in the evenings. You can't help but be happy on a beach though! Our best day was our last, when we went on a half day adventure tour around the island. First we learned how to cook a traditional thai red curry (and had a taste!), then we were shown how to harvest and use the green (for drinking) and brown (for cooking) coconuts (more tasting of various things). Next we met a cute little monkey called Troy who we saw getting coconuts from the trees and playing various games on the ground (plenty of photograph opportunities), before going on an elephant trek through the jungle. It was so cool! As you can see in the photo, you couldn't get much closer to an elephant if you tried. You can also see Ryan's elephant's tendency to leave the beaten track in the belief that the grass was greener on the other side. He still had room for bananas at the end, which made him slober all over us! The last stop of the day was a beautiful waterfall where we would have swum if we had had the energy and more time, and if the water wasn't so brown.

Today we have done nothing but travel for 10 hours. We were lied to (again!) by a thai guy which means we are now in Krabi town instead of at the beach where we would rather be. Still the shower in our lovely hotel is being very much appreciated! And the beach can wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned for some more island gossip and keep smiling :)

Finding Nemo...almost

On our last day in Koh Tao we went on a snorkelling trip around the island - it was amazing. We didn't see the little orange guy but we must have seen a hundred or more other types of fish, none of them being sharks thank god, and a lot of coral. The last stop was a group of islands called Koh Nuanguan and it wasn't until Candi and I were in the lagoon that we realised the fish aren't scared to come right up to you, we were surrounded! The photo is the view that made climbing a million dodgy steps well worth the effort. We went on our first big night out that day which, thanks to some suspicious looking alcoholic buckets, guaranteed that we all felt like crap for the journey to Koh Samui the next day. It was fun while the good feeling lasted though! So much for the Full Moon Party whichwe couldn't face the next evening (sorry to disappoint you Phil!). At least we had the excuse that it was raining too (hope one night of rain makes you all feel slightly less jealous!).