Day 12/13/14 - Cambodia to Vietnam

I am starting to think I should write my own version of the lonely island song "i'm on a boat" as "i'm on a coach". Can you guess where I am right now?
After two days of pretending we went on a normal relaxing beach holiday we are back on a stuffy coach, in the blistering heat, heading to the Vietnam border.

The last few days have been amazing though. The first night out was fantastic, filled with barbeque food on the beach, lots of very cheap drinks, being thrown in the sea fully dressed, ripping it up in the night club, a little bit of pole dancing, burgers on the walk home, and finishing the night in the hotel pool. The next morning consisted of... realising it doesn't matter how cheap the drinks are if you buy too many, trying to wash sea water out of your clothes, doing damage control with photos, disinfecting the cut obtained swinging round a wet sand covered pole, and hoping security don't recognise the people they kicked out of the pool last night. That said, the day quickly improved. We took a boat ride out to the bamboo islands for a bit of snorkelling and a sublime beach with few people, no rubbish, and perfectly clear water :-) We couldn't have asked for better. Its just a shame my pale english skin likes to go tomato red before I can put the sun cream on, i'm in a little bit of pain - also that cut on my foot isn't helping.

The evening then obviously meant more good barbeque food and more drinking. We went easy this time though. At least, some of us did *cough* linda *cough*. For now though I am saying goodbye to Cambodia and hellooooo Vietnam :-)

Day 9/10/11 - Cambodia

I am loosing track of where I am now. We have done so much travelling, seen so many different things and stayed in so many different places it is a bit of anjumble in my head. This blog was suppose to help me keep track of it all but I haven't had time to write anything. Though I can't really complain as every thing has been breathtaking.

Whilst in Siem Reap we got to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, visit all the surrounding temples, and take a balloon ride to get a panoramic view of the temples. In the evening we went to Temple Club on Pub Street for food, drinks, and more dancie dancie :-) It was a great night again. Mum is so funny and all the other people on this trip are amazing. We're all really good friends already :-)

The morning after was less painful than in Bangkok so Linda and I joined two American guys, on a bike ride of the local town, and went to the Market to buy souvenirs. We got to experience a bit more of the flooding as the roads we were cycling along were completely submerged. It was also quite an experience cycling around what we would consider main roads, except here there is no such thing as a traffic light or slip road. So if you want to cross the road younjust have to go and trust that the huge truck heading your way is going to slow down before you become the flattened barbequed meat they sell at the side of the road.

Back at the hotel we had out next bus ride, roughly 7 hours, from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Luckily there were a couple of stops along the way just to stretch our legs etc, and Linda and I may have eaten bugs from a cart at the side of the road. Yes I know, we are both gross, but it was thrilling :-) Our first day in this city we visited the Killing fields. This part of the trip I will leave out, and if people want to know details they can ask me another time. All I will say is it is very moving, very graphic, and I cried quite a few times. In the afternoon we did get to see some happier sights, like, the Russian market, the Royal Palace, and we walked along the river - which by the way is very full! Our meal for the evening was then cooked for us by our Killing field tour guides family, after they had us sit in the school downstairs and help the students with their English. We felt a little used :-P It was great though. I spoke to a 17 year old girl who wants to learn English to be a tour guide herself, and she is going to be adding me on facebook soon :-) Dinner was also great, more Khmer curry, noodles, rice, fruit, tarantula rice wine... oh yeah. They put live tarantulas in a bottle and then drown them in rice wine. It apparently gives it the distinctive taste we all loved... and choked on. For anyone who knows how sacred I am of spiders though should be very proud that I not only had a shot but went back for seconds. Thought, for anyone that knows how much I love alcohol its probably not that surprising. What wasn't so nice was the bowl of tarantukas they brought out. I saw the bowl... and I ran to the other side of the room :-( but I did pull myself together and sit back down. Sadly, one of the boys in our group thought it would be funny to pick up a spider and shove it in my face. I screamed so loud I made evryone else jump! He is not my favourite person, clearly, but he did let us invade his room for a movie night so I forgive him a little.

This morning then we travelled from Phnom Penh to Shianoukville (still in Cambodia), and we arrived in time to have lunch and drinks on the beach, and got off the beach in time for the heavens to open. We would go travelling during rainy season.

Now Linda and I are sat by the pool in our hotel waiting to go for drinks, then a beach barbeque and a beach party. If the weather holds up, or if not, we'll have fun either way :-)

Day 7/8 - Bangkok to Cambodia

The evening of day 7 was the start of our IndoChina Discovery tour, booked with G Adventures. We had a meeting with our tour leader, who we now call Mum and, to give you an idea of what she is like, here are just a few of the rules I must stick to for the next month (in mum's words)...

1) prostitutes are not aloud, but boom boom in your room is ok
2) on the beach please no boobie boobie
3) if we go drinkie drinkie and party party please don't hug mum - drunk hugs scare her
4) some foods might be too much for your tummy so please buy anti poo

She also keeps 'accidentally' refering to the group as G Spot Adventures :-\ and she has the worlds most adorable laugh :-) we all love her to pieces.

After the meeting we headed out to dinner and then for drinkie drinkie in central Bangkok. Mum took us to a couple of bars for shots, cocktails, and buckets :-) and then to a club for dancey dancey, but as mum reminded us "no touchy touchy". It was an amazing night, and naturally Linda and I suffered for it the next day. We were up and out by 8am, on the coach, and then off to Cambodia. Which by the way was roughly an eight hour drive. Hangover + stuffy coach = grumpy Cassie + passed out Linda.

When the drive from hell was over we were able to crash in the hotel for an hour before dinner and I have never appreciated an air conditioned room and a soft pillow more. Also, we are now in Cambodia!

Dinner tonight was free since the restaurant was actually a training restaurant. We were taken to the outskirts of Siem Reap were a charity has set up a school, clinic and resayrant to help the local community. We got to sit in on the english lessons going on the school before some of the class cook and served our dinner. Oh my goodness it was amazing! One course we were given was Khmer curry and it is the best thing I have eaten so far on this trip :-)

I am sure many of you have wondered about the flooding and if we have been affect by it yet. The answer is no. The tourist areas are well protected, and almost all roads are unaffected. However, the tuk tuk rides to and from the restaurant were interesting. The country roads are not so well protected and the water came through the floor of the vehicles :-\ Everyone was very excited by it all.

Anyway that is all for now as yet again we have an early start in the morning :-)

Day 6/7 - Bangkok

Sorry guys, but there will be no pictures for a bit since I can't upload any photos. So you will have to wait until technology and I reconcile.

Anyway, Bangkok is AMAZING!

Since Bangkok has a famous weekend market, and it was the weekend, we just had to go shopping (which i'm sure you can understand) :-) . Also the market is sooooo big we just had to spend the day there :-) . It was a tough day. When I say the market is big though that is an understatement! We started looking at one end and decided to be quite methodical and just do one isle after another. A solid plan, if it doesn't take you forever to walk the length of one isle, and if you don't get distracted by the cutest puppies in the world being sold in the middle of the market. I won't say anymore since i'm sure stories of us shopping isn't going to thrill you much. Still, we had a great day.

In the evening we met up with a friend who lives in Bangkok and she took us out to dinner. The restaurant is called Yum & Tum, and it was apparently very authentic Thai food. It was odd, but still good :-)

Day 7 was yet again more shopping as we went into the heart of Bangkok. Amongst all the gigantic, standard style, shopping malls is Platinum. Another shopping mall in a way but it has stalls rather than separate shops, a floor for each item (clothes, bags, shoes), and you pay one tenth of normal prices. Needless to say we had another lovely day :-)

Day 4/5 - Delhi to Bangkok

To say that day 4 of our trip was long is an understatement. In fact I can't really tell where one day ended and the other began.

Our sightseeing list for Delhi was fairly extensive, and got better as it went on...

Birla Mandir

Red Fort

India Gate

Lotus Temple

Chattarpur Mandir

(obviously we managed to squeeze some food and shopping in between all those sights)

...The Chattarpur Mandir was by far the best sight of the day. It wasn't originally on our to do list but as we had time to spare we asked our driver to take us to the nearest temple - and what we got was spectacular. There were almost no other tourists there, from what we could see, which made looking around so much more pleasant. We removed our shoes before entering each building and the serene atmosphere inside was exactly what we needed at the end of the day. To finish it all off, before we left one of the monks blessed us with good luck.

From there it was straight to the airport for a midnight flight to Bangkok. It was 5am local time when we arrived and we were utterly exhausted, so a very long sleep was in order before we began our Thai adventure.

Bangkok...

Sorry India, but, we love Thailand sooooo much more. The people are more polite, they're not as pushy for you to buy things, and more reliable.

After only starting our day at around 12 we spent the rest of the day being driven around Bangkok in a Tuk Tuk (three wheeled vehicles that are perfect for sightseeing as they don't have any sides to them). A couple of the places we tried were closed so we will try again tomorrow, but just driving around gave us a wonderful feel for the everyday hustle and bustle of the city.

We did however get to see China Town, the Golden Budha, Wat Thai, quite a few shops and tailors that we didn't want to go to, but it seemed the only way to get to our next destination was to just go with it and politely explain we did not want to spend £200 on a dress or suit, Wat Pho, and the Black Budha.

Wat Pho

China Town

Golden Budha

Once again it has been a very busy day, and after getting real Thai take away - and by that I mean we bought food off a stool on the side of the road and took it back to the hostel - we have completely crashed.

Overall though we can say we LOVE Thailand and cannot wait for the rest of the trip to continue :)

Day 3 - Taj Mahal

5:15 am wake up - need I say more?

Ok so I do need to say more - 5 hours in a car!! OUCH

So today was eventful. We got mobbed several times, for several different reasons, Linda got proposed to and a 12 year old boy confessed his love for me. Also, saw the Taj Mahal :)

We began with a 5 hour drive from Delhi to Agra. Perfectly uneventful until the driver stopped for a minute to grab some food. NEVER, and I mean never, wind down the car window when you're stopped at the side of the road. Scenario - I saw a child walking around with a monkey so I took a photo of him which he noticed and turned to smile, so I wound the window down to take a better picture. I then thought I'd give him some money since he was so accommodating, at which point he walked over to the car put his hand inside and demanded 5 times what I was going to give him. I then had to fight him off, plus two other men, an old man selling jewellery, and a guy with no legs who wanted Linda to marry him. Mobbing #1

The Taj Mahal was spectacular - but then who would expect anything less. We also had a very happy tour guide, who also acted as our professional photographer for the day. After taking all our photos and doing the dutiful tourist bit we sat for a rest and were set upon by group after group of school kids, teenagers, and the occasional old lady, as they wanted to have photos taken with us. Mobbing #2

Setting off home also didn't go as planned. We stopped outside an unmarked building and the tour guide asked us to follow him. He sat us in a room with some very pretty embroidered artwork and suddenly we found ourselves in the typical "My cousin has a shop… very good prices… you won't find it anywhere else…" £200 for a piece of carpet - what would Linda and I do with a piece of carpet? So we politely said we weren't interested and left. Slight mobbing #3

The rest of the ride was fine - we slept, and slept, aaaand slept. Dinner was amazing again. On the way a small boy followed me and told me he loved me, and on the way back we were invited to watch ongoing wedding celebrations - or so we thought. They actually wanted us to dance for them and were all rather excited about our arrival. Mobbing #4

After all that we are completely exhausted, but happy :)

This trip is looking up!

Day 1+2 Arrival in India

What a welcome we had... Within an hour of arriving in Delhi we found ourselves with this view...

or rather, this view...

Half way to our hotel our taxi driver tells us he doesn't actually know how to get to the hotel and will take us to a tourist information centre to find out. So Linda rings the hotel to get directions - "What's the reservation number?" ... "Oh sorry Miss we had a large group booking so we decided to give them your room too, we've cancelled your reservation" ... "Don't worry, we will refund your deposit"

Good start to our trip - stranded in Delhi where half the hotels are closed due to it being festival season, and all the men keep trying to sell you holiday packages 5 times what we were originally going to pay. Do not panic though, we have found ourselves a nice hotel to stay in :)

Dinner is served :)

Our first meal was amazing and felt quite authentic, mainly because neither of us could pronounce any of the names on the menu and have no idea what we ate :) but it tasted good and we weren't ill afterwards so a big thumbs up!

All in all, an interesting start to our adventure.

WELCOME

As many of you know, myself and Linda are running off to the other side of the world, and, as promised, our forthcoming adventures are going to be documented for all to see.

The adventure begins on Tuesday (which is in two days, eek!) so I hope you are all looking forward to the first installment of our official travel blog.

Enjoy :)