Travelflavel

Ep. 8 – Cambodia

May 27, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Cambodia, Videos

Hello,

We are currently in Thailand and a little behind schedule but here is our short video of our time in Cambodia! We were a little weary of filming any part of the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng (S21 Prison) in Phnom Penh, hopefully you see this as educational rather than insensitive. If you’d prefer not to see the parts about the Cambodian genocide, skip ahead to 2mins12. The rest of the video is our time exploring the magnificent temples of Angkor in Siem Reap.

Our week volunteering at the Cambodian Wildlife Sanctuary will follow shortly and is in our opinion, the best one yet!

As always don’t forget to watch in 1080p!

Hope you enjoy seeing what we’ve been up to.

Sophie & Dave

Phnom Penh & Siem Reap – Cambodia

May 22, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Cambodia

We left Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on a bus for our first land border crossing in to Cambodia! We weren’t quite sure what to expect but we had our exact USD for the visa ready. The bus driver nor conductor spoke English so it was quite frustrating when they took everyone’s passports and weren’t able to explain what was happening. It all worked out okay though and we were given our passports back and walked through the border crossing checkpoint.

The bus dropped us off and we went to try and withdraw some cash. It was a nail-biting endeavour when the machine froze with Dave’s Monzo card still in it, fortunately it spat it back out in due course. If anyone’s wondering how we’re withdrawing cash/paying for things by the way, we both have Monzo accounts and it has been a literal life saver. They charge 0% on cash withdrawals/payments, plus provide a more favourable exchange rate compared to other highstreet banks and has so far worked in every country. We’d heard that Cambodia used US dollars as well as Cambodian Riel but we didn’t realise the extent that the USD is circulated. The only time we had Cambodian Riel was when we were given change smaller than a 1 dollar note. We didn’t actually manage to withdraw anything when the card froze so we walked to our hostel in the dark which we usually try to avoid. All fine, we just arrived dripping in sweat which I’m sure pleased the receptionist. The hostel was probably one of our most grim we’ve stayed actually but we were surprised at how expensive Cambodia was! Definitely the priciest Asian country we’d encountered so far. Anyway the hostel was grim because we saw numerous large rats when we were playing pool outside and we stayed there a few nights in a dorm and saw no one changed the sheets between new arrivals (hallelujah for the silk liner sleeping bag). Also, we got back one evening and someone had moved in to my bed and reception told me to just move to another bunk. Needless to say, they got a crap rating on Hostelworld.

Now, on to Cambodia. Cambodia was probably my number one country I wanted to visit on my list. I’m not quite sure where the obsession came from but I was so excited. Phnom Penh (pronounced P-nom incase you’re reading it F-nom like I was, oops) is where the Killing Fields are located so we spent our time visiting these historic places to learn more about the genocide in Cambodia committed by the Khmer Rouge between 1975-1979 where millions of innocent people died. We first went to Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre, the main Killing Fields so to speak. We each got an audio tape to guide us. It was the best museum/historical site I had ever been to. I sound insensitive when I say best, what I mean is that it was genuinely one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever listened to or seen but it was so educational and well told. Nothing was sugar-coated. Everything was raw and honest. They had excerpts from trials, stories from survivors and stories from torturers too. They also had lots of propaganda slogans that Pol Pot used that I’d never heard before. Horrific things like “To keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss”, “Better to kill an innocent by mistake, than spare an enemy by mistake”. I think one of the most painful parts was a tree in the site called the killing tree where executioners would kill babies by hitting them against it; another slogan used to justify it went something like “To dig up the grass, one must dig up the roots too” meaning they killed babies to avoid them seeking revenge for their families in later life. As we walked around listening, I kept finding myself trying to conceptualise the timeframe by comparing it to my own life. The liberation from the regime only happened 13 years before I was born and my Dad would have been a teenager! My Grandad was part of the UNBRO (United Nations Border Relief Operation) and organised medical supplies to the refugee camps on the Thai border. What really blew my mind was that the Khmer Rouge trail only became fully operational in 2007 where for the first time, some were held accountable for their heinous crimes. For that, I would have been 15 years old. 15! By which point, Pol Pot had lived a free life and died of old age – outrageous. There’s a Stupa (memorial structure) at the site too. It is filled with the skulls of the dead of all ages. You could see where there were huge cracks and dents from the blunt objects used to murder all of these people, a truly sobering experience.

The second site we visited was Tuol Sleng, S21 prison which was equally bone-chilling. S21 was a converted high school which made the whole experience even more cruel. We went inside the torture rooms and saw all the tools and torture devices used. We saw so many photographs of victims faces and it made the number of around 1.7 million dead even more real. We also saw photographs of the interrogators and they were honestly so young. Apparently they were often handpicked from poorer, rural villages; some didn’t look older than fifteen. The interrogators and torturers were there to force absurd confessions from all the prisoners before execution. There was a really interesting story about an Australian man who was captured and taken to the prison. His forced confession was used in the trial of Duch (leader of S21). We heard his brother read out part of the confession where he’d written his affiliations to the KBG and CIA, citing names from popular culture, I think one example was something like Sergeant Pepper (The Beatles). It really brought home the absurdity of what these innocent people had to do and how they had to sign their own execution warrant. There was also an artist who survived being held at S21 and there were lots of his paintings at the site. The paintings were of the torture that he’d experienced and witnessed and they were some of the most horrific things I’ve ever seen. Anyway, if you ever have the opportunity to visit Cambodia, you must take the time to visit the genocide museums.

After our time in Phnom Penh, we got a bus up to Siem Reap which was one of the best bus rides ever! They said it would be 7 hours but we got there in 5 and there was on board wifi that was so good I managed to watch a film on youtube! The bus company was the Mekong Express (if you ever need it). We found a really good deal on booking.com and we stayed in a fancy hotel. (I swear if you saw the variation of places we’ve stayed, you wouldn’t believe us that all of them were a similar price). Anyway, massive upgrade from rat infested Phnom Penh hostel. It had a salt water pool that we enjoyed when we weren’t out visiting the temples of Angkor.

The temples added to the pricey-ness of Cambodia, a 3 day pass to the temples was $62 each but it was definitely worth it. I also took my favourite photo from our year so far; a Changeable lizard on one of the temple ruins. Apparently the male’s throat becomes a firey orange/red during mating season (see below!). We probably visited over 15 temples throughout our 3 days but have a few favourites for different reasons. Dave’s favourite part was looking for the most intricate stone carvings and I liked when the jungle took the temples and stone and tree roots entwined to become one. The first temple we went to was Angkor Wat at sunrise, even though this had by far the most tourists, it was still really enjoyable to see such an iconic temple. All the temples reminded us very much of Bagan, Myanmar, just on a much larger scale. Bayon temple really stood out as a favourite because of the huge, carved, stone faces. I knew of this temple and had seen pictures but somehow hadn’t clocked that many of the faces were actually smiling. It was just so impressive even now and I couldn’t help wondering how striking it must have looked when it was first built around 1190AD. I bought yet another painting (to Dave’s utter delight – obviously), this time in water colour of one of the faces. Another favourite temple was Ta Prohm. This was the first temple we saw that had been properly consumed by the surrounding jungle. It’s also where Lara Croft – Tomb Raider is filmed, which my sister and I used to rewatch so many times when we were younger. The temple Beng Mealea which is much further afield than the standard temple route was completely in ruins. This was probably one of the biggest temples we visited, or maybe it just felt that way because there was barely anyone there which added to the eeriness of the abandoned, jungle-swallowed ruins. The final favourite, which was the temple we actually ended on, was Banteay Srei. It’s translation is the Citadel of Women and legend has it that the carvings are so intricate, it must have been built by women. It apparently dates as far back as 967AD which makes it all the more mind-blowing. Honestly, the detail in the red sandstone was unparalleled to any of the other temples we’d visited and it’s 1050 years old!!

After Siem Reap, we went to volunteer for a week at the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary! We have so much to say and so many photos of elephants and the most adorable baby monkey that we’ll share next time.

Thanks for reading,

Sophie & Dave

PS – we look dreadful in most temple photos because we were just dripping in sweat. The first day especially was so hot. One of the temple ticket inspectors asked us if we’d been cycling rather than getting a tuk-tuk between temples because Dave was literally drenched. We had to politely laugh and say, nope, just can’t handle the heat!

Banteay Srei

Carvings of Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Wat

Sunrise

Angkor Wat

Angkor

Bayon Temple

Bayon faces

Bayon smiles

Bayon

Terrace of the elephants

Ta Keo

Ta Prohm

Neak Pean

Pre Rup

Us at Pre Rup!

Cloudy temple skies

Sunset at Pre Rup

Fave photo! Changeable Lizard

Changeable Lizard

Beng Mealea

Crazy tree

Beng Mealea ruins

Jungle roots at Being Mealea

Banteay Srei carvings

Citadel of women

Banteay Srei

Killing Tree – Phnom Penh

Stupa – The Killing Fields

Ep. 7 – Vietnam

May 15, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Videos, Vietnam.

Hello!

We’re currently in Cambodia and have just got wifi again. Here is our little video from our two weeks in Vietnam. We didn’t actually get any clips of Hanoi though we started off there. We also didn’t film too much of the war remnants museum as many of the photos were so violent it didn’t seem quite right (not that the photo Napalm Girl isn’t, just I think most people have seen it before).

Don’t forget to watch in 1080p! Our Cambodia blog post will be coming soon.

Thanks for watching,

Sophie & Dave

Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An & Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam

May 5, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Vietnam.

Hello!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted, so here is 2 weeks in Vietnam all in one post!

We flew in to Hanoi and fortunately didn’t need a visa as we weren’t staying longer than 15 days in the country. Hanoi was insanely busy, though a different type of busy to what we’ve experienced before. Hanoi just has THOUSANDS of motorbikes and right of way seemed to be determined by how loud/frequently one beeped. We didn’t do very much exploring in Hanoi really, just a few strolls round the Old quarter as I was quite ill (surprise surprise). We discovered an amazing sandwich cart (in Vietnamese they’re called Bhan Mi) and ate there about 4 times, it was also only 70p, so a good cheap and safe eat for us.

We booked our cruise for Ha Long Bay through our hotel. Though you can get a boat and just choose somewhere to stay, most tourists book a cruise. The youngsters book ‘booze cruises’ and the rest opt for better dining (obviously because I’m a 94 year old trapped in a 24 year old’s body, we opted for the better dining and no booze). Our cruise company was Apricot cruise (though I wouldn’t recommend them) and we went for 3 days and 2 nights, one night on the boat and one night in a bungalow on an island. We were picked up from the hotel by bus and we drove 4 hours to the Ha Long Bay marina. A smaller motorised boat then took our group on to the cruise ship. It slept about 30 people and had a dining room and then a nice deck at the top with sun loungers. Ha Long Bay was jaw droppingly beautiful. Right from the start, the water was a beautiful emerald colour and there were islands everywhere. We had sort of anticipated that we’d see all the islands together at the start and then they would be more sporadic, if any, as we got further out. Absolutely not true, we were in awe of just how many there were, apparently over 1600 (mostly uninhabited)! Definitely the most spectacular seascape either of us had ever seen!

There was quite a mix of people on the boat, we got on especially well with a really inspirational Swedish lady. She was a teacher in Sweden but for the last few years had set up entry education for child refugees coming to Sweden so before they were thrown in to school, they had an 8 week programme where they had language lessons and had time to adapt to their surroundings. On our first day we went to the “surprise cave”. This was a much better cave than the terrifying one in Laos, well lit and full of stalagmites and stalactites. We then went to Titop Island which has a sandy beach but also the best place to get a view of the bay from above. We climbed the steep stone staircase to the top of the island to look over Ha Long Bay. Though it was absolutely rammed with tourists, it was still an impressive sight. Bizarrely there was also the biggest swarm (not sure what the technical term is?) of dragonflies! I mean we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of them. It sort of looks like black dots on the photos but I think you can tell they’re dragon flies if you zoom in a little. The climb took a while and we didn’t have much time before we were due to head back to the boat, Dave still managed to squeeze a cheeky dip in the sea. Back at the boat, we had a nice dinner (huge quantities and good food) and then they had a ‘sunset party’. We came for the free Sangria (well Dave had mine) and then headed back to our cabin soon after. People were also squid fishing from the back of the boat but neither of us wanted to catch them as we felt mean to the poor baby squiddies.

The next day, we got up early but unfortunately it was too cloudy for a good sunrise. Dave joined in a Tai Chi class at 6.30am (it wasn’t a proper one, it was just the tour guide waving his arms telling them all to breathe). Afterwards, as we had breakfast in the dining room, we watched all the other cruise ships move on whilst we stayed stationary and we were then told that our boat had ‘broken’. This is one of the reasons this tour company was shite, they just said the boat broke and then basically walked off. We still have no idea why or the implications of it. The miscommunication was terrible. So because of this, it was all a bit rushed and they changed our plans so that we would disembark to the smaller boat earlier. We had 15 minutes to pack our bag and check out before heading to the Pearl Farm. We were all feeling quite sassy at this point, especially as there wasn’t anywhere to keep our bags safely, so we weren’t too invested in the pearl tour. It was still interesting to hear what they were saying, and I also now understand why pearls are so expensive. The farm had one million oysters growing pearls and we saw workers cracking open the oysters and implanting membranes to help growth. Apparently only 30% actually have a pearl inside when its time to harvest, and only 10% of them are usable in jewellery. Some oysters are left to grow the pearl for up to 8 years and there’s a 70% chance there is nothing inside it!

We were transferred to yet another boat and then we headed towards the island where we’d be staying. We stopped off along the way where everyone was allowed to get off and go kayaking! Dave and I very very rarely argue, but put us in a kayak and we’re at each other’s throats, blaming each other for going the wrong way haha. It was still good fun kayaking with this incredible seascape backdrop. We kayaked to a little island with a tiny beach for a little swim. We headed back to the boat and were then taken to yet another idyllic beach. The water was still this luscious blue and really clean. We also were walking along collecting seashells (one of my fave actives). Around 3pm we were dropped off at Monkey Island where we were to stay the night. Online, it seemed monkey island was riot with monkeys out to steal your things but we didn’t see a single one (I was disappointed, obvs). I have never stayed on such a tiny island. We had a little bungalow with gaps between the walls and the thatched roof (thankfully we sussed out how to use the mosquito net in the evening). We spent the afternoon just chilling by the sea and then we had a buffet dinner. They had the BEST sea food I’d ever tried; I thought I was eating muscles but apparently they were oysters! (Jakie, if you’re reading this, I had my first oyster and loved it!).

The next day, we woke up to a torrential down pour, which didn’t make clambering on and off these slippy boats with rucksacks any easier. We’d been so lucky with the weather for the first few days. We headed back to the big cruise boat and back to Ha Long Bay marina. On the way back, they did a cooking class where they taught us how to make fresh Vietnamese spring rolls (i.e not fried but wrapped in rice paper). Around 12pm, we got back on land and hopped on the 4 hour bus back to the hotel we stayed at in Hanoi and picked up one of the rucksacks we left. We were bricking it a little bit because we had already booked our next overnight bus onwards to Hoi An to save us accommodation for that night. The bus was due to depart an hour after we were meant to be back but we weren’t sure if we’d get back in time. Fortunately we did, with an hour to spare, so we were able to have a little break and brush teeth etc. I am usually never one to complain. If a waiter brought me something under-cooked to the point it was raw, I’m the type of person who’d still just smile and say it was lovely. So, to Dave’s utter disbelief, when our hotel asked us about the cruise, I was honest and said whilst Ha Long Bay was indisputably beautiful, the cruise company themselves were a bit of shambles. I ended up getting us a $20USD refund though! On the boat, loads of people left negative feedback (we didn’t get a form) and were offered a beer as compensation to “forget the bad”. Winning!

The bus arrived and though we’d already been travelling (boat and bus) all day, we then embarked on our 20 hour bus ride Hoi An. It was pretty brutal. Our bus had seats in permanent reclined position, we were able to get a bit of sleep but it was still quite uncomfortable. We were so happy to finally arrive in Hoi An and get to a really nice hotel. We were offered to upgrade to a fancy room for a few extra dollars so we did and we had the nicest room we’ve had yet! Inevitably the germ infested bus ride gave me the flu so I was very happy to have a nice room as I spent most of the time in Hoi An in bed. The hotel had a pool so Dave was still able to enjoy the time there lounging by the pool (even though it turned our swim stuff bright green! Chlorine levels were definitely off). Dave did much more exploring than me and took out the free bikes from the hostel to cycle through the rice paddy fields and round the town. In Hoi An’s old centre, it is pedestrianised which makes a nice change to Vietnam’s madness of motorbikes. I was happy I managed to make it to the old town on our last day. The old town is a UNESCO heritage site with lovely little meandering streets and colourful lanterns hanging everywhere. There was an art gallery and I bought a little oil painting of Ha Long Bay (Dave sat outside the shop with the pet dog in a strop haha). Apparently in Vietnam, if you’re the first customer of the day in any shop, you should always buy even a little something as the people believe it brings luck for a good day of trade. The lady was thrilled I bought the picture and kept holding my hand which was sweet.

When we looked at booking our transport on to Ho Chi Minh city, the bus, train and internal flight were all pretty much the same price. I couldn’t face another 24 hour bus ride so we decided to fly down instead. As we were in a taxi to Da Nang airport, Dave realised he’d left his swim shorts drying outside behind, and was devastated haha. Fortunately that’s the only thing we’ve lost this trip (touch wood!!!!). Our flight was delayed by an hour but there was an amusing sign on the check in desk which read “Status: Delayed. Reason: None”.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, many Vietnamese people still refer to the city as its former name; Saigon. We were staying in a hostel in the backpacker area (a narrow street through the back of a market with loads of hostels). Our first full day was on Friday 28th April which was the day of my Grandma’s funeral back in England. I was sad not to have been back with my family but I think my Grandma would have wanted me to stay out here. We decided to go to the Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral (a replica of sorts of Paris’) so I could say my goodbye. Though I’m not religious, my Grandma was and I think she would have really liked this Cathedral, it had beautiful stained glass windows and it was just really interesting to see it in the middle of a busy Vietnamese city!

As far as big, busy cities go, I actually really liked Ho Chi Minh. Of course, I got heart palpitations every time we tried to cross a road, but the city itself had a great balance of nature and parks within the hustle and bustle. I have a new favourite flower but I haven’t been able to find the name of it. It’s sort of a light blue/purple colour and hangs down often from arch ways and buildings. I’ve seen it a few times in Vietnam and there were paintings of it in the art gallery too. There’s a photo below, let me know if you know the name!

We went to the War Remnants Museum. It was a little bizarre because it was focused so much on bashing America. Of course, its understandable. I suppose it is impossible to tell the story of a war without bias from one angle but this was perhaps the most one-sided museum we’d ever been to. We, ourselves, have a Western bias just in the name of the war! I’ve always referred to it as ‘The Vietnam war’ but the museum called it ’The US aggressive war in Vietnam’. Perhaps there’s the opposite museum in America, I don’t know. All I do know, is that it was still horrific to see so many images of the destruction caused by Agent Orange. They also had the photo of “Napalm girl”, apparently the photographer, Nick Ut, presented the photo to the museum in 2013.

The next day we took a day tour to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, an underground network of tunnels used by the Viet Cong spanning 250km. Again, there was so much bias in the story telling, this time from our tour guide who said he was a veteran but fighting on the American side. We couldn’t really tell what was true and what was embellishment and what was altered to what he thought would appease Westerners. The tunnels themselves were really fascinating. They were SO SO SO small. I was umming and erring about whether I could go in the tunnel and not panic, but in the end I decided against it. I met Dave and the rest of the group the end of the tunnel. It was a 250 metre tunnel that had been widened a bit for tourists with three levels. There was an escape route after 20 metres and quite a lot of the group came out after just that! Dave persevered all the way through and came out the end drenched in sweat. He said the tunnels were so small that they were crawling on hands and knees, there was no light and it was unbearably hot. I definitely think I made the right call not going in haha! We were shown ventilation holes that the Vietnamese disguised round the roots of trees and some of the traps with spikes etc they used against the Americans. They also had a shooting range for tourists to fire old guns used in the war. We thought this was disgustingly disrespectful and distasteful. I realised I’d never actually heard a gun go off in real life but there, it was constant and deafening. I absolutely hated it and I have no personal experience to any war. Imagine what that must be like for a veteran or Vietnamese person with PTSD visiting!

Also worth saying – we had amazing Vietnamese food in Ho Chi Minh. I found my new favourite food of the whole trip, and wait for it, it’s a vegetable! Well, technically flower – stir fried Tonkin Jasmin flowers with garlic. So good! We would love to come back to Vietnam again and maybe do a completely different route! There are still lots of places we’d like to visit like Sappa, Na Trang and Dalat. We met a lot of people who were doing the Top Gear experience as well where you get a scooter and do the same route as the top gear special. Maybe save that one for when I actually get a driving license!

Thanks for reading!

Sophie & Dave

Ha Long Bay

On the boat

The ‘Surprise Cave’

Cave

See the dragon flies?

Titop view point

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Titop island

Cloudy sunsets

Tai Chi morning class

Our bungalow on Monkey Island!

Monkey Island

Our view on Monkey Island

Lanterns in Hoi An

Dave’s friend outside the art gallery

Green parks in Ho Chi Minh City

The mysterious flower

Dave inside a shooting hole at Cu Chi tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnels

Traps from the war

Entrance to a Cu Chi Tunnel

Ep. 6 – Laos

April 19, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Laos, Videos

Here’s our video from our week in Laos. I didn’t take as many photographs in Laos as I normally do (due to our main activities being in/around water) so we are happy to have this little film to capture our memories. Personal highlight was seeing how much water people actually chucked on us in Vientiane during the water festival (you can see why we couldn’t have any camera other than the GoPro)!

Please watch in 1080p and thanks as always for following along.

Sophie & Dave

Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientiane – Laos

April 18, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Laos

We arrived in Laos for our shortest country trip yet, only 8 days. The one hour flight from Chiang Mai was honestly the worst flight either of us had ever been on. The turbulence was insane, we literally flew off our seats and the poor woman in front was in tears. Laos was the one of the places we were dubious about Visas on arrival. We were told it would be $35 each and to pay in USD. We exchanged our cash in Chiang Mai and I insisted we got a tiny bit extra in case. Thankfully we did as they charge an extra dollar per person for ‘processing’. They also charge an extra dollar if you don’t have a passport photo, fortunately we’ve got a whole wad of mug shots in our bags. So those extra $2 made all the difference and we arrived smoothly.

We decided to visit the three main cities for our stay, starting in Luang Prabang and ending in the capital, Vientiane. We still only booked 2 nights for when we arrived and left the rest open. We stayed in the most amazing hotel, a welcomed change considering we now think of having hand soap as a luxury. The room (still less than £10pp a night) can only be described as regal; everything was made from beautiful wood and we had a gorgeous wooden balcony overlooking a tributary of the Mekong river. We loved it so much we decided to stay another night.

On our first day, we went to Kuang Si Falls. There’s also a bear sanctuary at the base that you have to walk through. The bears were all rescued from the Laos bile trade. Though we were assured it was a legitimate sanctuary and the bears were happy now, we still couldn’t help but think their enclosures were quite small. I suppose the better of two evils though. Anyway Kuang Si Falls was absolutely beautiful. I was in awe just at the tiny 1 metre falls and pools at the base but if you continue up a bit further you get to see the main waterfall which was spectacular. I was happy with that and just wanted to swim in the pools at the bottom but Dave insisted we hike up to the top instead. I very bitterly agreed and it was actually quite a hard ascent (well for me at least), the fact that it was 39 degrees didn’t help either! But we made it to the top and had a little swim in the icy pools alongside the little fish that inhabited the waters. We had quite an impressive view from the top looking down on the tree canopies and if we peered over the edge we could see the start of the water falling down. We’d had a great day but sadly when we came back down the waterfall, we saw a horrific accident where a man died of a heart attack and people were trying to resuscitate him.

On our final day in Luang Prabang we went to the UXO visitors centre. The UXO (unexploded ordinance) centre was created by a government charity that strives to educate villagers on the dangers of the bombs and to disable as many of them as they can. It was quite an educational trip; I had no idea Laos has more unexploded bombs than anywhere else in the world. One person dies every day from them.

In the afternoon, we just played in the river. From afar, the current didn’t look too strong but when we actually got close, it was a different story. We stayed quite close to the edge and were very wobbly walking through the river to cross over. As always, there was a bunch of local kids who made it look so easy! We were staying right next to the Bamboo bridge, which is self explanatory but interestingly is only there for a few months of the year during dry season and has to be rebuilt every year. You have to pay a small price (50p) to cross over to help fund the rebuilding. We crossed in the evening looking for a restaurant we’d seen on trip advisor but it was shut and instead we stumbled upon another popular local place. It’s speciality was Laos fondue. Your table opens up and you’re basically given a fire and a barbecue/pot combo to cook your own meal. They give you a basket of fresh raw veg and noodles to put in to the broth and raw seasoned chicken to grill on the barbecue part. An interesting concept and was nice to try something different. We also both said if we get food poisoning, we’ve only got ourselves to blame (fortunately we didn’t!).

The main mode of transport between places in Laos seemed to be minivans and my God, do they get their money’s worth! There would be 15 people packed in to these little mini vans, including 2 sitting next to the driver! Even though the roads were very bumpy and at one point my glasses literally flew off my face as we soared over a pot hole, the journeys were shorter than what we’ve been doing, so only 4 hours was bearable.

Even in Luang Prabang, our first impression of Laos was that it was the Magaluf of South East Asia. When we arrived in Vang Vieng, this impression was immediately solidified. It definitely has the biggest drinking culture (I’m still going well with my alcohol ban) and was full of rowdy tourists, and locals alike. On our first day we decided to get a tuk-tuk to the Blue Lagoon, which was apparently a top destination. I have to say it was not at all the idyllic haven we’d imagined. It was essentially a glorified out-door swimming pool with lots of drunk people partying. The best part of the Lagoon wasn’t the Lagoon at all but rather the half hour ride to get there. The landscape of Laos is truly beautiful. I grew up in Switzerland so I’m used to mountains, but these mountains were like nothing I’d ever seen, they were so tropical. They are what I call David Attenborough mountains.

Vang Vieng is a place for outdoorsy activities so we booked an adventure day (only £7 all in with food) where we went Kayaking and Tubing in a cave. Spoiler alert, I hated the cave! Dave and I have only ever Kayaked on a flat body of water, never on a river with a current so that was quite fun. Loads of people in our group capsized. We tried to help one pair by grabbing their lost oars except we weren’t paying attention and went straight in to a tree hanging over from the bank. We tried to duck but failed miserably and both got smacked in the face by the tree but fortunately we still didn’t capsize!

The cave. Oh the dreadful cave. We had naively assumed that cave tubing would be in a lit cave but we were given head torches as we prepared to get on our rubber tubes. As it got darker in the cave I realised my head torch was crap so Dave kindly swapped. There was a rope through the cave that you pulled yourself through floating on the tube; that was fine and quite enjoyable. The horrific part was when we got inside the cave and were told to dismount and that we were going to walk through. It was pitch black (apart from the shite head torches) and so unbelievably slippy. Absolutely zero health and safety standards. We were also in flip flops which made it so much worse. I ended up having a panic attack and still had to get out the cave whilst in a terrible state. You had to climb through jagged rock holes and I whacked my shoulder (which is now still bruised). Fortunately the walk in the cave wasn’t too long and I managed to get out okay. After I’d stopped hyperventilating, shaking and crying we rejoined the rest of our group for lunch and lazing in a hammock until it was time to kayak back to the town.

Our last city in Laos was Vientiane. We arrived for Lao New Year (Pi Mai)/ the water festival. New year basically means that most of the city shuts down for a three day bender with lots of water fights. There were loads of outdoor clubs blaring drum and bass with sprinklers and hoses everywhere. The streets were lined with people armed with water guns, hose pipes and buckets of water. It was impossible not to go out and get absolutely soaked. Fortunately we bought a water proof bag for wallets/phones.

Thanks for reading, quite a long one, sorry!

Sophie & Dave

Cave Tubing

Head torches for cave tubing

The top of the falls

Kayaking

Kuang Si Falls

Kayaking in Vang Vieng

Waterfall

Luang Prabang, Laos

Bear rescued from the bile trade

Top of Kuang Si

Kuang Si Waterfall

Lao New Year in Vientiane

Golden Orb Weaver

Ep. 5 – Thailand

April 15, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Thailand, Videos

Hello!

If you’ve been reading our blog then you know we went to Bangkok a few weeks before Chiang Mai but we decided to put them together in a video. We’ll actually be back in Thailand next month where we’ll be visiting the Thai Islands. But for now, hope you enjoy seeing what we got up to. The elephants are undoubtedly our favourite part caught on film yet! Remember to watch in 1080p.

Sophie & Dave

Chiang Mai – Thailand

April 11, 2017 by Sophie, posted in Thailand

We were excited to arrive in Chiang Mai where we’d be spending a full five nights in one place, the longest stay we’ve had in the last 2 months! We stayed in a guesthouse just on the outside of Chiang Mai’s centre (a big square) near Chiang Mai Gate. There was an adorable little dog called Chanom (milk tea in Thai apparently). We were glad to be on the road just south of the main square as it was much quieter and more peaceful but within close walking distance to all the restaurants/night market etc. Unfortunately, when we left Myanmar, we said we hoped to be fighting fit. This certainly wasn’t the case. Dave had such bad food poisoning that he most definitely should have seen a doctor (but he is stubborn so obviously didn’t), I’m pretty sure he had salmonella. So for our first couple of days in Chiang Mai, Dave mostly just ran a high fever and slept (amongst other more unpleasant things). I only ventured out on my own for food rather than touristy things.

After a few days when Dave started to feel a bit better, we spent an afternoon at Chiang Mai’s Art in Paradise 3D exhibition. I have tried to drag Dave to numerous art galleries in London in vain but this one, he loved more than me. It was interactive where everything was a huge, 3D, realism painting where you became part of the art. Surprisingly we only saw about 2 kids in the whole place, it was mostly adults running around like toddlers (us included). Our favourite painting was a crocodile coming out the water and where you could lie on the ground and cling on to a branch, then rotate the photo sideways. Genius! (See below).

The next day, we woke up early and full of excitement for our day at the Elephant Nature Park. Though neither of us were 100%, we were determined not to miss this day. We were picked up from our home stay in a minivan with the other 8 people on our tour for the day. We were shown an absolutely harrowing video about the torture these rescued elephants had endured. Naturally, I spent most of the film trying to hold back tears (failing miserably and silently sobbing). Though this film was so hard to watch, it was undoubtedly partly what made the Elephant nature park so great; they really valued educating people. The film showed what they call ‘breaking the elephant’s spirit’ in order to tame them. A baby elephant is separated from their mother at about one year old and taken deep in to the jungle, away from tourists. They are chained, starved, beaten and tortured for a week and forced to obey the command of the Mahout. The Mahout must stay with the elephant 24/7 to stop the elephant trying to commit suicide by standing on its’ own trunk. This horrific process is also to make the baby forget it’s mother. Of course the torture does not end here, for the rest of their domesticated lives, they must always obey their Mahout and will be reprimanded if they don’t. So whether you ever consider going to a circus, an elephant show, or an elephant ride; consider what that elephant went through to turn it from a wild animal to a domesticated one. We will happily tell you we spent 12,000 Baht or £280 combined for this day; a hefty price tag that was worth every penny.

The Elephant Nature park is home to around 70 elephants who have been rescued from the logging trade, circuses, street begging and tourist riding, some elephants are blind and disabled. All of these elephants have been bought; each costs between 1.5 and 2 million Baht (depending on their age) which equates to around £35-50k. We chose to do the day called “Sunshine for Elephants” which entailed spending most of the day with a neighbouring park’s elephants. Lek (the founder) had educated the family who owned these elephants about how to treat them properly and convinced them to follow the lead of the Elephant nature park where there is no riding, no hooks, no chains and freedom. So these elephants are a sort of sub-family to Elephant nature park. Once we’d arrived, we washed our hands thoroughly (suncream/bug spray can contaminate their food) and waited for the elephants to arrive for feeding time. Then four huge, incredible, beautiful elephants slowly trundled over to us. I literally had my jaw to the floor and was in absolute awe. I’d never seen an elephant that close and was completely gob smacked. I’ve only just taken the photos off the memory card and as I was looking through them, I realised how embarrassing the majority of me are; I look like such a dweeb just grinning and staring at the elephants. It was amazing to be in such a small group and spend such intimate time with the elephants. We fed them watermelon and sugar cane; it was mesmerising to watch them curl their trunks gently around the food we handed them and then not so gracefully stuff it into their mouths and chomp it. Some of the elephants didn’t have teeth either – did you know elephants, unlike humans, lose and get new teeth 6 times in their lives – who knew?!

After their breakfast, it was time for a hike/walk through the jungle towards where we would stop for lunch. Now, if there’s ever motivation to keep up with a group, its definitely a 1 tonne elephant on your heels. Maybe we should adopt an elephant and I’d be better at hiking… Dave and I were at the back of the group, funnily enough everyone seemed to be pushing ahead to walk with our guide. We were given a bag of bananas each to walk with and to feed them again during the break. Two of the elephants blocked Dave’s path and wouldn’t let him walk on. The Mahout’s couldn’t really speak English so they didn’t reply to Dave when he asked what he should do (I just filmed him and laughed from a distance). Dave gave most of his bananas to the two and managed to squeeze out between them.

Their second feeding time was even better because we saw their personalities and how fussy they were. They’d only eat the sugar cane once they were sure there were no bananas left in our bags. A couple of the elephants also wandered off at this point to do their own thing; either throw dirt on their backs or rub their arses against trees, all very fascinating to watch. We walked on with the elephants to our lunch spot; where we had a lovely veggie buffet. After lunch, our guide said he had a surprise for us. 2 adults and a baby elephant joined us! We got to feed them more bananas and watch them interact and play with the water from the hand tap. We headed the way we came and then went in to the river to bathe the elephants. We were an even smaller group at this point because half our group didn’t want to get wet?! Basically it was just us and another couple and the elephants’ Mahouts bathing about five of them! I was tragically poor with my water bucket aim but the Mahouts were insanely good at it. It just turned in to a massive water fight where everyone was going for human and elephant alike. After a quick change, we then ended our day at the main Elephant Nature Park, meeting many more of the 70 elephants, watching them play in the mud, or eating (again) and hearing all their different heart breaking stories. Overall, it was an incredible day and we are so glad we chose to go to this genuine sanctuary and meet these fantastic creatures.

On our last full day in Chiang Mai we got a Songthaews (red pickup truck) up the mountain to visit the temple Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. We technically got 2 different Songthaews as we decided to stop off and do a little hike to the Huay Keaw waterfall. We didn’t have high hopes because we’re in the peak of dry season (but we both secretly were hoping there was a decent trickle for us to swim). Definitely not. After a steep climb, there were just lots of rocks… We came back to the main road and drove up to the top. The road had so many hairpin bends whilst we went at full speed in an open back pickup truck that I very nearly vommitted on the poor boy sat next to me, fortunately I held it in. Wat Doi Suthep had two beautiful snake designs guarding each side of the steps leading up to the temple. We enjoyed looking round the temple and its surrounding area where you could look down over Chiang Mai from the mountain top. We headed back to our homestay but got dropped off at the nearby Saturday Night Market because the road was closed. It was the biggest market I’ve ever been to. It was a tourist’s paradise and even I (who has done SO well at not buying things) succumbed to a little bag I liked.

It’s soon Songkran in Thailand, the annual water festival celebrating the start of the new year. Unfortunately due to timings, we couldn’t stay for it. Chiang Mai is meant to be one of the biggest places to celebrate in all of South East Asia. Perhaps a blessing in disguise with all of our electronics, apparently everywhere you go, you’ll get water thrown on you by unsuspecting passers by. But they still celebrate it in Laos (called Pii Mai), our next stop. So we’ll let you know how that goes!

Thanks for reading,

Sophie & Dave