Before we go to a new destination we have a quick look online and in our guidebook for accommodation locations and options. This gives us an idea of where to ask around at when we arrive. It was Chris’ turn to do this task before we left to Bagan so it was all in his […]
Bagan: Balcony Views Read More »
Every now and then whilst travelling it’s blatantly obvious that we are getting hugely overcharged for things in comparison to what a local would pay. We generally spot it straight away and barter the price down if we’re unsure what it should be exactly but in some instances we know it’s a flat rate, everyone
Pyin Oo Lwin: Peacock Pattern Read More »
It says a lot about Mandalay that we left feeling positive about the place given our arrival into the city. 4:30am and we were all questioning why the journey (including the enforced half hour stop at a government food park in the middle of the night) was long enough to warrant being made overnight. We
Mandalay: Melting pot Read More »
I think I often place too much emphasis on the journey and not on the destination when describing our travels but from our point of view the journey has to be as important as the destination or I would have got tired of this travelling malarky 6 months ago. The journey from Yangon (Rangoon) to
Nyaung Shwe: Alternative transport Read More »
Frenetic.Condensed.Revered. Travelling from Kyaiktiyo to Yangon provided us with our first taster of the Myanmar train service. It was a little delayed but we got big comfy seats with lots of leg room, the only problem is it was very hot and very slow. However this did give us the opportunity to gaze at the
Yangon: Borrowed longyi Read More »
Chaotic.Exciting.Golden Our initial plan was to enter Myanmar (or Burma, whichever) via the Thai-Mae Sai/ Burmese-Tachilek border crossing located close to Chiang Rai as this would have been most convenient for us after travelling North in Thailand. However after being told that the border is currently shut we did some research and found that whilst
Kyaiktiyo: Ready to Roll Read More »
Wet.Wet.Wet Despite the long list of places we have visited over the past seven months it is always nice to have somewhere to go that feels like you’re returning to the familiar. Bangkok has certainly been our adopted hometown whilst we have been away and it was nice to see the bright lights and tall
Bangkok Pt IV: Aqueos blur Read More »
Surprising.Tranquil.Inviting Our decision to head to Koh Phangan was a spare of the moment one. We had a loose plan to head to the North of Thailand after leaving Nong Khai but we’d made no onward travel arrangements which worked in our favour. The day before leaving Nong Khai Chris had a conversation with his
Koh Phangan: Bugs In Action Read More »
Peaceful.Unspoilt.Calm The town of Nong Khai is conveniently located across the ‘friendship bridge’ on the Thai side of the Mekong. On this occasion it wasn’t so convenient for us as we’d travelled to Thakhek, and crossed over a border further south meaning we didn’t reach the town via the friendship bridge and instead had to
Nong Khai: Balancing planks Read More »
Roasting.Functional.Bare I had been warned beforehand not too expect too much from Laos’ capital city, and in truth, for the majority, it’s not a pretty town. Seemingly it’s construction boom had been during an unfortunate era of architecture where the sum of combining French colonialism with 1970s modernism bestowed upon its inhabitants a city of
Vientiane: Taciturn fowl Read More »
Bucolic.Soothing.Friends. Yet another long bus journey in Laos later and the five of us arrived safely in Vang Vieng where we found some lovely little bungalows to stay in across a questionable bridge over the river. Feeling weary from a long days travel we set out in search of an evening meal and decided to
Vang Vieng: concrete dance floor Read More »
Quaint.Colourful.Unwinding It was another long and painful journey South toward Luang Prabang as we winded our way up and down the bumpy mountain roads, that’s when we weren’t waiting for them to be built! The local bus we opted for wasn’t the comfiest choice as we had the tough decision of having the windows open
Luang Prabang: with scorpion inside Read More »
Steamy.Un-relenting.Thrilling We convinced the cooks to start early so we could dine on the glorious Sapa breakfast buffet one last time before catching the painfully early bus to the town of Dien Bien Phu, heading in the direction of Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Laos to its mates. Our early morning suffering was shared with Iida,
Luang Namtha: Offers of opium Read More »
Vibrant.Crisp.Mountainous Sorry for the lack of recent progress with the blog. We go through periods, mostly when it’s my turn to write, when there’s just not enough time in the day and we’ve recently been travelling through amazing places with a great bunch of people but more of that to come. Our arrival into Sapa
Sapa: Riot of colour Read More »
Restful.Engaging.Diverse We arrived into Hanoi safely after our last long distance journey on the motorbike and settled for one of the most budget hostels we could find within the old town. It reminded us of some rundown student halls we’ve experienced in our time at uni but it was a lot nicer than some places
Hanoi: Cosy little cafes Read More »
Fast.Eerie.Foggy. We made it from Phong Nha to Ha Long Bay on the back of the Honda Win with only a few little hiccups along the way. Hiccups such as a puncture, then a ripped tyre. Running out of petrol (yes that did happen again.) The bike keeling over off its stand and damaging an
Ha Long Bay: Paddling abilities Read More »
Mysterious.Magical.Majestic The journey North from Hoi An was the first of many on the back of our trusty Honda Win, complete with all black paint job and red star decal (because me and Sarah where just not happy until we could share our new-found love of communism with the world, it’s already attracted many approving
Phong Nha: Hot chocolate & whiskey Read More »
We left Dalat bunged with a cold but full of optimism for our next destination Hoi An, a place we have yet to hear a bad review about. We broke the journey up a little by stopping at the entirely Russian dominated Nha Trang, a beach resort city that was nice for the night we
Hoi An: Freedom to roam Read More »
Chilly.Perched.Picturesque. As mentioned in the previous blog we planned our next location to be the Con Dao Islands. We did some research and asked about the ferry whilst in Ho Chi Minh and were told they leave daily at 5pm from Vung Tao. So we left at midday on the 2hour journey there to make
Dalat: Frozen yoghurt Read More »
Rushed.Hectic.Diverse After our encounter with the mental Vietnamese woman on our last night in Cambodia we weren’t expecting to be greeted with open arms as we crossed the Cambodia-Vietnam border. As was the case. There was a group of dodgy men gathering round us eager to rip us off with a motorbike ride to the
Ho Chi Minh: Peculiar characters Read More »