Kho Samed - The End of the Journey

Koh Samet
Originally uploaded by Hol Riz

One more bus and a boat saw us in beautiful Koh Samet, white sandy beaches and dry hot weather. We spent a lovely few days chatting to some Chinese Canadians, watching fire shows, topping up the tan and swimming in the sea. The only complaint were the plagues of mosquitoes the size of dragon flies but a big spray of DEET saw them off and we were able to enjoy our last few days on this paradise island.

Finally we took the very last bus of our journey back to Bangkok for just one night, we walked back along Koh San road picking up a few souvenirs and Becky got her nails done hoping to make a glamorous return despite her scruffy clothes.

The next day feeling elated, sad, excited and tired, and with totally empty pockets we boarded our plane home.

15 Months after leaving the UK we had visited 13 countries, taken 28 Flights and had more awesome experiences than anyone deserves, visited more inspiring places than we could ever have imagined and met some of the most amazing and beautiful people in the world. Definitely one of the best years of our lives.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog of our last 15 months and we are looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Koh Chang

koh Chang
Originally uploaded by Hol Riz

After a horrendous journey from Cambodia that was supposed to only take one day but ended up being two days and finally arriving in torrential rain we were pleased to find Koh Chang has beautiful palm fringed beaches and a lot of tailors! Luckily the rain stopped and Holland set about getting a couple of hand-made suits while Becky set about getting a tan.

Throughout our time here we hired a motorbike and drove along the coastal beaches stopping and swimming whenever we got too hot - hooray island life again! However after 4 days of relaxing we decided to make use of our final few week of traveling and head to another island. Kho Samed.

Cambodia

Angkor Wat
Originally uploaded by Hol Riz

We were a bit worried about Cambodia before we arrived as other travelers had warned us that the poverty and begging were really bad. Upon arrival we got off the bus and we were nearly torn limb from limb by Tuk Tuk drivers wanting our business, but apart from that it wasn't as bad as people had made out. Cambodia is a poor country but it is also a country rich in culture and history, some of which is extremely sad. We felt it was important to know about the history so our first stop in the capital, Pnhom Phen, was the prison S21 which is now a genocide museum dedicated to the more than 800,000 Cambodians who died during the Kmer Rouge reign. From here we also visited the killing fields where many of the prisoners were brutally murdered and buried in mass graves. They have a three-story memorial tower made of the skulls of the dead. It was a sobering experience and we couldn't begin to imagine how horrifying it must have been to be alive in Cambodia during that time. The whole experience made us realize how new peace time is here, anyone older than 30 remembers the times of brutal oppression and murder, which only ended in 1981.

Our next stop was Siam Reap home of the amazing Angor Wat temples, shopping markets and funky nightlife. We spent 2 days exploring the temples which were incredible - the architecture was beyond belief and its hard for even the non devout not to be moved and inspired. We spent two days being driven round the temples on a seat for two pulled by a motorbike. The Temples are spread over several sites and were built over several decades, they include the famous overgrown temple featured in the Tomb Raider film and the massive Angkor Wat secluded by a massive moat - Amazing! There were loads of temples we didn't get round to seeing but we spent our last day in Siam Reap exploring the markets where we managed to buy a lovely painting and as we are nearing the end of our trip we bought a few souvenirs which before now we had refrained from doing as we didn't want to carry them.

Eventually we took a bus piled high with luggage and people for 13 hours back to Thailand intending to get a last few weeks of island sun as our homeward journey looms ever nearer.

Laos

Vang Vieng
Originally uploaded by Hol Riz

Luang Prabang is a charming little town set amongst lush mountains with loads of French influence. We spent our first day just wandering around enjoying being in civilization and the novelty of friendly local people who weren't only trying to get our money. On our Second day we hired a tuk tuk and dove up to a nearby multi-tiered waterfall. The water was bright ice blue and flowing through beautiful green forest. We clambered up a steep path to the very top of the waterfall and after a bit of tarzan-style trekking across the edge of a cliff and down some mini-flumes we found a perfect swimming spot which was wonderfully refreshing after the hot sun, and we spent a fun afternoon with Pam and Rob drinking beer and jumping off smaller falls into the deep pools below.

Our next stop was the small town of Viang Vieng which is famous on the backpacker trail for the awesome river tubing you can do there. Needless to say we spent the next day floating down the fast flowing river in the sunshine on inflated tractor tyre inner tubes. Every few hundred meters or so there are riverside bars where you can land your tyre, have a drink and swing from an assortment of zip-lines and rope swings into the river. Its great fun and you meet loads of people but you have to be careful when you land that you swim hard back towards the shore, or the river will sweep you on to the next bar without your tyre! This becomes more important the more bars you hit and the swings get higher and higher. At the last bar Pam managed to belly flop from 8 Metres..ouch!

Viang Vieng is also set in mountainous green countryside and on our last day we hired motorbikes and negotiated the rough stone roads to visit several caves dotted around the cliffs all of which seemed to have natural turquoise swimming pools near the base. At one we swam all the way into a cave, fighting against a fast flowing current of clear water only to find the biggest spider waiting for us in the darkness.

Our last stop in Laos was the capital Vientiane, we explored the city for 3 days visiting markets, eating great food, watching sunsets and generally enjoying Laos, its a great country with great people, great culture and unbelievably beautiful scenery. It was here, after 2 amazing weeks in Laos, that we said goodbye to our good friends Rob and Pam who flew East to Vietnam while we took a flight South to Pnomh Phen the hectic capital of Cambodia.

The journey into Laos

Tuk Tuk to the border
Originally uploaded by Hol Riz

We set off to Chiang Mai bus station to get the 6 hour AirCon bus direct to the border of Laos, only to be informed we had missed it. We ended up instead getting two local (boneshaker) buses and a 'Tuk Tuk', and eventually got to the border 15 minutes before it closed. The border patrol officer on the Thai side looked at his watch and laughed at us, at which point we realised it was infact the last day of our 30 day Visa and if we didn't leave the county in the next 5 minutes we would be fined 500 Baht per day each. We quickly hopped on a small wooden boat to take us accross the river to the Laos side of the Mekhon. This was the first of 3 days travelling to Luang Prabang and things didn't improve.

Once safely in Laos we stayed one night at the border town before setting off to get the bus to the second stopover of our journey Lam Namtha. The bus station was a shed with a mud floor and the bus was made of mud. Two hours in to the journey the bus got a puncture and we all piled out to wait for it to be changed, an equally flat tyre was put onto the jacked up bus and we finally arrived. We tried to explore the town but with none of the local taxi drivers speaking English and none of us speaking any Laos we gave up, had dinner and went to bed.



The next day was the worst with the boneshaker of a bus throwing us about with each bump in the road. After 3 hours driving we reached the infamous route 13 where apparantly highjackings have occurred, we were inclined to believe this when our driver stopped the bus to hop off and buy a huge knife which he kept close at hand for the rest of the journey. 7 hours on and Becky was starting to feel a bit sick, not helped by the girl infront of her being sick out of the window and the bits blowing back into Becky's face. After 9 hours the bus finally pulled in to Luang Prabang, it took 3 days but we had made it andalthough the beautiful scenery on the way had made the trip worth while, next time we think we will fly.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai
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We flew up to the jungle city of Chang Mai and after the usual fun finding a guesthouse we decided to enrol on a cooking course at 'The Best Thai Cooking School'. After eating so much great food here we wanted to be able to make some at home. Despite Hollands earlier misgivings about cooking, this was a really cool course with a crazy guy called Perm teaching the class and making jokes. It was a hands on course and we all got our own stove and the chance to try 'adventure cooking' which means cooking over a huge flaming wok. We were so stuffed by the end of the day as we got to eat all the food we made but somehow we still managed to find the energy to walk to Chang Mai's huge night market and haggle with the locals for some souvenieurs.

the next day we set off on a two day jungle trek staying overnight at a hill tribe village. We started off by visiting the 'Longneck tribe' so called because they stretch their necks using metal rings from the ages of 5 unil 30 adding a new ring every year until their necks are abnormally long. We then joined the rest of our trekking group to do some elephant riding. Unfortunately as one of the elephants was ill we were told if we wanted to ride the elephants we wouldn't be able to trek with the rest of the group, so we opted for a quick ten minute ride rather than the normal hour ride so we could stay with the group.

The trek was arduous, starting in the midday sun we were all sweating heavily after just a few minutes, the path was steep and for the first 3 hours continually uphill, we also didn't want to stop too long for breaks as that was when the mosquitios swooped in for a feast of 'white legs'. We finally arrived at our destination only to realise it wasn't as remote as we had thought - in fact a main road runs straight past it, however we descended into a valley where all we could see was beautiful forested mountain and could almost imagine we were miles from civilisation. We all stayed in a bamboo hut that night, had our showers in a nearby waterfall then we stayed up late drinking homebrew thai whisky and chatting to our guides.

The next day we set off for some more demanding trekking, this time the walk was broken up by a visit to a georgous double waterfall which you could jump into from some rocks about 7m above if you dared. Holland jumped several times into the frothing pool of death, but Becky decided not to yet still managing to badly bang her knee slipping on some lower rocks.

We then trekked for another hour to the start of a short stretch of water we were to white water raft. Our guide was like a drill sargent, yelling orders and telling us off the whole way whilst steering us into every rock he could, we bravely paddled on, scared to stop while the other raft laughed and joked with their guide and rainbows and bunnies seemed to hang in the air above their raft. After the white water rafting we did a short bamboo raft to get to the pick up point where we would be taken home, stinky, wet, exhusted but happy. It was an awesome trek and we met some cool Scotish guys who we plan to travel through Laos with.

We spent one more day in Chiang Mai enjoying the atmosphere and relaxing with our new friends Pam and Rob and went off to sleep that night not realising it would be 3 long days before we would be at our first stop in Laos

Kanchanaburi

Us on an elephant

Away from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, Kanchanaburi is an oasis of tranquility that sits on the River Kwai. We stayed in a beautiful hut right on the river where we could just sit and watch the river flow by.

Our first tour here was to a Tiger Temple where Buddhist monks and tigers supposedly live as one. This was not the temple we experienced though, rather we were guided through to touch several seemingly drugged tigers, while a helper took our photo and we were then pushed onto the next tiger. The tigers were then 'walked' back to their concrete cages but with several of them it was more like dragging as they were so sleepy. It was pretty sad to see, but the one thing that did make the trip worthwhile was the 2 month old tiger cub they had at the temple which we were able to handle and play with. It took a real liking to Holland biting his nipple and refused to let go. The lady worker yelled at him "don't get tiger bite you have to go to hospital".

In Kanchanaburi we also got to do something Becky has been looking forward to ever since she learned she was going to Asia, elephant riding. We were split into two groups to ride the giant beasts. To get onto our elephants we had to mount a high platform and the elephant is then manoeuvered, with amazing obedience to voice commands, next to the platform so we were able to easily hop on. Being the nice people we are we let the rest of the group hop on first and then realised the elephants had 'run out', "don't worry" shouted our tour guide "they bring out another one". Suddenly, booming through the jungle came the biggest elephant we had ever seen, far bigger then the other ones the rest of the group were on. Slightly nervously we mounted the chair construction that had been tied to the elephants back (one might point out, rather sloppily) then our elephant charged off to follow the others. Once we got used to the lurching movement of the elephants walk we began to relax and enjoy the ride. Our elephant was called 'Channa' or winner in English and he was the naughty one who stopped to grab a trunk full of leaved whenever he thought he could get away with it and also managed to snuffle up the most bananas when we fed the elephants at the end of the ride.

After the elephant riding we went bamboo rafting for about half an hour down a calm river, the river was a bit shallow and we had to jump out at a few points to get the raft over the river bed without our weight on it but it was fun.

Unfortunately Kanchanaburi was not always so idyllic and was actually the scene of some of the worst Japanese caused POW crimes of the second world war. The so called 'death railway' that took the lives of over 200 000 people during construction runs right through Kanchanaburi. We took a trip to see the infamous 'Hellfire Pass' and the 'bridge over the river Kwai' to get some history on the atrocities, it was a sobering experience.

Our last day here was spent organising our travel to Chang Mai in northern Thailand, we wimped out of the train as the flights were nearly the same price and 15 hours quicker!

Holland and Becky

Bangkok

Street food
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The bustling capital of Thailand is an in your face slice of the Thai tourist culture, we stayed just off Khao San road, a notorious backpacker hangout where you can't walk two steps without a local shouting at you to buy something; offering everything from massage to suits to tuk tuks to sex shows (we don't think pussy smoke cigarette refered to a cat!). You really have to firmly say no or you will not be left alone! Most people are also trying to scam you and prices are hiked up to extortionate levels for anyone with white skin and any number of lies are told to get you to spend money with them. However once you get used to the bedlem there is a lot to like about Bangkok, its pace and energy are infectious.

Tuk Tuk

We took a hair-raising tuk tuk ride accross town to watch the thai boxing (muay thai). Terrified, Andrew, Holland and Becky all gripped the sides of the three-wheeled, open-sided taxi as it lurched from one side of the road to the other, overtaking bigger cars and lorries and precariously tipping around corners. At one point the driver casually pointed out that the lights had turned red only to press his foot down on the pedal and weave the tuk tuk across the 4 lanes of fast on-coming traffic from our left.

Muay Thai - Kickboxing

The Thai boxing was expensive (again we had to haggle with numerous touts to get even a half decent price) but worth the money as we were ringside and could see the blood and sweat up close. There were about 10 fights altogether starting from young hopefuls up to the professionals, Holland and Andy even got a photo with the winner of the main fight. By the end of the first fight we all got into the spirit and had visions of showing Rocky a thing or two with our newly learned Thai boxing moves which includes the use of feet, knees and elbows.

That evening we explored Khao San road, eating at stalls, listening to Thai bands sing western songs and drinking at petrol stations which become bars at night, we also managed to combine two of our most favorite drinking experiences from our travels by buying a 'Caiprinhia' bucket (anyone who has been to South America and Thailand will understand).

On our second day in the city we did a walking tour of some of the cities most famous temples. Again, on the way there we were beseiged by con-artists who told us the temple was closed and they could take us somewhere else but luckily we had been warned about this and ignored them. We also walked through a small eclectic colection of street vendors whose stalls were just blankets on the floor which they appeared to have haphazardly tipped their household junk onto and which including such gems as half drunk bottles of baileys and used false teeth.

Reclining Buddah

When we finally got to the temples they were amazing. Our first stop was the Grand Palace, adorned with jewels, glass and gold the buildings are beautifully ornate and we spend a good couple of hours exploring them. We next went to Wat Poh which houses a giant reclining budda - 43m long and 15m high with mother of pearl decoration on his footprint - awesome.

Temple of the dawn

We then grabbed a cheap ferry accross the river to climb the Temple of the Dawn which has a tiered symetrical structure. The temple was very high and the steeps up were frightenly steep but the view from the top was great.

That evening we took a trip to Bangkoks more seedy area, Pangpong to see the night market and go to a few bars. The sleeze hadn't been under-estimated with girls in string bikinis trying to dance you into each bar. Holland and Andrew were in their element in one bar until someone pointed out that the sexy ladies weren't actually ladies atall! Becky had never seen two men leave a bar so fast.

Our last day in Bangkok we said goodbye to Andrew, After travelling with us for two and a half weeks it was strange to be just us two again but we imparted on him the most important travelling lesson and he promised he will be spreading the bat and ball phenomonen throughout Cornwall.

Phi Phi and Phuket

Phi Phi island - long beach
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We flew into Phuket for one night where there was not much going on, except for an enormous all night vegetable market, so the next morning we took an hour and a half boat ride to Koh Phi Phi. It was here that we finally saw the Thailand all the brochures talk about; Koh Phi Phi is beautiful.

Phi Phi island - Hol and Andrew
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The first day we took a nice afternoon walk around the coast path to Long beach. The path weaved over rocks and in and out of several deserted sandy coves where we swam, played bat and ball and Holland and Andrew played the guitars they had rented for the day. When we got to Long Beach Becky had a massage on the beach while the boys entertained the tourists and locals with their music, and drank banana shakes. That evening we went out to the busy bars and fire shows and watched the tourists fight each other in the Muay Thai ring for free buckets.

Phi Phi Lay - "The Beach"

On our second day we chartered a longtail boat to go and explore Phi Phi Lay (the island where they filmed 'The Beach'). The beach itself was great, there are no houses or shops here (or anything that isn't natural) so it felt really peaceful, a real paradise. Our captain took us around the dramatic islands to all the best coral reefs. We did more great snorkelling (it's never going to get boring) and as we weren't on a tour we could spent as long as we wanted where we wanted. One of the best days in Thailand so far!

Railay Beach

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Phi Phi and made our way by a big then a small boat to Railay beach via Krabi. We made the mistake of booking our room in advance through a tout and ended up walking in the blazing sun for half an hour to the highest furthest room from the beach! Railay beach was nice but was no Phi Phi, we spent a relaxing day on the beach and a pleasant evening eating great food, watching movies and partying with the locals in the Reggae bar, before catching our flight to Bangkok the next day.

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Full Moon Party - Thailand

At the Full Moon Party - Kho Phangan

After returning to the mainland of Malaysia from the Perhentian islands we flew from Khota Bahru to one of the main 3 islands off the East coast of Thailand, Koh Samui. One night here was enough as it was very built up, tacky and expensive compared to Malaysia. Becky got food poisoning from a salad washed in local water - that will teach her to eat healthy food! So we made our way to the island of Koh Phangan in time for the legendary "Full Moon Party".

Buckets of joy

We were joined here by Fido, Reza and another friend of Holland's (From University), Cornish Andrew. The next 4-5 days were spent in a hedonistic daze. We discovered the local drink of Sam Sung which combined with concentrated Red Bull (about 100 times stronger than the one at home) in buckets of cola and ice kept us dancing on the beach all night - we named these insomnia inducing concoctions "Buckets of Joy".

Its hard to describe the full moon experience; gargantuan sound systems are lined up along the beach and every night the show commences with such attractions as all night dance parties, fire skipping rope, fire hoop jumping (which Holland did and burnt his leg, again!), fire dancing and snake shows (Holland held a poisonous, angry snake by its head while its body curled round his wrist trying to get free and bite him. The snake charmer got bitten and had to take anti-venom.)

In the day-time we hired mopeds and whizzed around the Northern beaches of the island which was fun, although as it was low-tide season the beaches weren't as spectacular as we had thought they would be. We also took a day snorkeling tip to Anthong reef. We snorkeled with some amazing corals, kayaked around dramatic island cliffs and hiked up to a green lake in the centre of an island, it was good to see beautiful Thailand rather than just party Thailand. We also discovered wonderful Thai massages for just 3 pounds each.

After the full moon party Reza and Fedo went back to Malaysia and we headed over with Andrew to Kho Tao for some R&R. Unfortunately our first hour here was spent trudging up and down looking for rooms in tropical heat with heavy backpacks but we finally found somewhere to stay and booked a snorkelling trip for the morning. The trip was great, perfect weather and we got to snorkel with sharks again, see some beautiful islands, coral and tropical fish as well as jumping off the high old boat that was our tour vessel for the day.

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The Perhentian Islands

Perhentian islands "long beach"

The next stop on our continuing adventures was the Perhentian islands off the North-East coast of Malaysia. With white sandy beaches, crystal clear water and hot hot sun the Perhentians were everything that paradise islands should be. Getting there however, was another matter, and the journey from the mainland was on a terrifyingly overcrowded speedboat with people hanging on to their bags and praying we wouldn't capsize everytime the boat swerved at high speed.

We stayed on the main backpacker area of Long Beach in a wooden beach hut with a fan to help cope with the intense heat, and a net to ward off the evil hordes of mozzies. The electricity switched off at 9am every morning when the hut immediately became a sauna. Not much fun on the mornings after nights out partying!

We spent a relaxing week swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing and eating, and on one particularly energetic day we really pushed the boat out and walked 15 mins across the island to the beach of Coral Bay.

One of the highlights of our time here was a fabulous snorkeling trip where we saw world class coral reefs (almost as good as the Barrier Reef in Oz) and swam with a huge Hawskbill turtle, loads of BIG black tip reef sharks and 2 enormous Napolean fish more than a metre long with giant lumps on their heads. We had a great day including lunch at the local fishing village where we met an Aussie couple (Joel and Tasha) who became our new buddies for the length of our stay. It was Joel's birthday so we got rather merry and then cursed in the morning when the fan went off and left us roasting like potatoes!
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