The roads on the Chinese side of the boarder are quiet and brand new so smooth traveling. Our destination is Laung Nam Tha, a small rural town only 3hrs from the border. On the bus we meet Jurgen, an Austrian traveling alone and after lunch we hire bikes to tour the countryside. “Sabaadee” is the Lao greeting, and it is shouted by kids every few meters. A new Stupa is being built on a hill for the monks to have a place to pray, and watching carvers and painter do there work is very interesting as most temples visited are old. [View Full Entry]

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We arrive safely in Shanghai after a pleasant flight from Hanoi. Shanghai is huge! Massive skyscrapers line the horizon, and everything is illuminated. Catching a taxi is our first challenge. We learn quickly that without having the address written in Chinese it is impossible to get anywhere. Even with a map pointing to the street, the drivers still refuse to drive. Eventually we get one and get dropped off nearby our hotel. First day we navigate our way around the Yu Yuan Gardens, it takes us 2 hours to find the gardens because of all the weird, wacky and wonderful shops [View Full Entry]

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“Hello. Moto?” Bitter, our moto driver greets us as we steep off the boat from Cambodia. After checking in we are picked up by him and his friend who takes us for a wild ride up to Sam Mountain to see the sunset. View from the top is Cambodia and rice fields. On the other side of the mountain is Chau Doc the small town we stay a night. Overhead, pulsing purple fork lightening cracks like we’ve never seen before. We don’t like being so close to the lightening so race back down for dinner on a floating restaurant for fresh [View Full Entry]

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The old Toyota Camery makes light work over the red clay roads, traveling at speeds between 60-110kmh making T a little nervous about not being in control. We fly over hand made bamboo bridges where the kids are collecting toll money. The road resembled a BMX track after heavy rain. Soon enough the boot had flung open again. Bang, bang bang. The driver tries to slam the boot fixed, no luck. Next we try our clothesline. Still no luck. B a n g! b a n g! The boot finally gets secured (only just) with a home made bungee cord. However, [View Full Entry]

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The night train was delayed for 5 hours to Bangkok…Lucky for us we were able to change trains and catch the next one outta there. Not so lucky for us we arrived in Bangkok at 6am on a Sunday morning. Nothing was open. Our first 3 nights were spent out of the city in a serviced apartment which we had to ourselves. Having a full kitchen meant we could make our own food - a roast was on the menu. Bang-khe shopping mall was the biggest we’ve been in (rivals KLCC in size) and it had a theme park on the [View Full Entry]

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On August 8th we make our way from Langkawi to Ko Lanta Island, Thailand. The craziest leg of the journey was taking a big pink double-decker bus from Satun to Trang. Only 5 minutes away from our stop the bus needs to change tires. First we reverse into power lines which get stuck on the air vents and then we try another and wait for half an hour just to get dropped off at the wrong stop, missing our minivan. We grab a late lunch and set off on a 4 hour journey to Ko Lanta which is the second of [View Full Entry]

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The overnight bus is an hour a late…and that’s the good bit because the Air con is broken, and is freezing cold for the next 6 hours. The driver drove like a maniac - we get about 1 hour sleep between us and arrive in Ipoh at 5.30am….Nothing is open until 10am. Great. For breakfast we find dosa, an upside down coffee and kick-a-poo juice. We leave our packs at the hotel and find a taxi driver. The first and only stop is the Hong San Lok Caves which was a place of worship and exercise. Big buddha’s were in the [View Full Entry]

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Out of India and into civilisation...phew!! First 3 days in KL are spent doing city stuff and sorting shit out......and shopping. We headed up the Petronas Towers in the afternoon - having got the tickets at 8am because it's free, the tickets disapear pretty quickly. KL is a very laid back, easy going place we found, everyone is really helpful and the monorail is a wicked way to travel around too - but no day passes which sucked. Thu 17th is Andrea's 25th Birthday! On the Genting bus, about an hour drive from KL. We go after a nice sleep in, [View Full Entry]

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As we write this blog we are sitting on Lucky’s Restaurant rooftop with an unobstructed view of the magnificent Taj Mahal, imposing itself on the horizon. This is almost at the end of our tour in India, only two more nights. A week ago we arrived in Delhi, and found the streets (round Main Bazaar rd, where all the backpackers stay) a shithole. The following morning we get to the railway station, destination Jaipur, with plenty of time to spare only to find out it’s unfortunately the wrong station! So we dash across town to the correct one. Only just make [View Full Entry]

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After an extra night at Munnar, we have headed 130km South to Kumily, where the Peiryar Wildlife Sanctuary is found. Kumily has an aromatic charm - with spice shops and auryveric medicines/massages being every second shop. The town is kept noticeably clean with the town folk ready to help out even with a glance in their direction. We even got to meet Ivan, the jungle man who gave both of us friendship bonding flowers. Arriving at Green View Homestay, friends from JJ’s cottage that we had stayed at the previous night, they arranged activities for our 2 days. On Tuesday evening [View Full Entry]

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