Helllooo everyone,
Very sorry for the lack of updates on the blog, we have still been putting all our photos up here, however we have become somewhat slack when it comes to writing about what we have been doing but we figured that the pictures pretty much tell it!
To summarise the last couple of months...after Laos we headed back to Thailand where we bummed for about 6 weeks-was heaven! Rob and Sarah and Maz and Anne Marie and the kids came out to see us which was amazing. We found a beautiful remote island called Koh Ngai where we stayed for a couple of weeks and then spent a few days on Koh Phi Phi, which was pretty but very commercial. After a tearful farewell we headed to an even more beautiful island called Koh Lipe. We cannot recommend that place enough, it was stunning! White white sandy beaches and the clearest water we had ever seen, hence we stayed there for another couple of weeks! We were there with our good friends Tim and Sophia and the 4 of us had a ball!
After Thailand we headed to Malaysia where the 4 of us met up with another great friend, Tom. The 5 of us where then traveling together for about 4 weeks. We spent a few nights in KL which is a great city and fab shopping before flying over to Borneo. Borneo was probably our highlight of the trip so far, so untouched and the scenery was just stunning. It had the most incredible wildlife, beaches, rain forests...I could go on and on! Our 1st stop was to a place called Sipaden where we did lots of diving, it is one of the top 10 dive sites in the world and my god it was good! We were diving with sharks, turtles, whales, sting rays, just amazing. After Sipaden we headed to the jungle and lived there in an organised tour for 3 days, it was a real experience, living amongst Orangutans, monkeys, crocodiles etc, you really get back down to basics-no washing for 3 days!!From there we traveled to Mount Kinabalu where believe it or not we actually climbed to the top! It was a v v hard couple of days and I don't think we would ever do it again but we're both very glad that we did it. We then flew to Sarawak, the southern provence of Borneo and stayed in a lovely city there called Keching. We met some other great people in the guest house where we were staying and ended up partying very hard with them! We also went to Bako national park whilst we were there which was again, very beautiful.
From Borneo we flew to Singapore where we stayed with some friends for a few days. Singapore is a really great city so we had a lot of fun there. After 3 days in Singapore it was time to say goodbye to Asia and hello to Oz! We arrived into Cairns which is a horrible place so got out of there pretty smartish. We bought a car and drove all the way down the east coast, passing through some amazing places on the way..Whitsundays, Cape Tribulation, Port Douglas, Fraser Island, Byron Bay and many many more! We bought a big estate car which has no back seats just a bed in the back so were able to sleep in the car the whole way down the coast which was handy!
We have now arrived in Melbourne which is a fantastic city, we have fallen in love with it already! Staying with some dear friends of ours, Arj and Phil for a few weeks before we move into our new flat which we just found in Richmond. Watch this space for more photos of our time here in Melbourne.
Hope everyone is well and slightly warmer than we are-it's 5 degrees at the moment!
Lots of love Caroline and Joel xxxx
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Laos
After braving some horrendous bus journeys from Cambodia to the Laos border we found ourselves knocked back by how stunning the Southern region was. We arrived at an area called 4000 islands, an area which geographically fractured by the mighty Mekong river. We stayed for a few days on one of the largest islands called Don Det, where electricity only ran for 4 hours a night and post 10 oclock everything was illuminated by candle. Only here have we found local delicacies such as the "Hang over breakfast", a pancake filled with paracetemol, opium, vallium and magic mushrooms, one for the brave I might add. It aws also here we have seen some rediculously powerfull waterfalls and the nearly extinct Irrawaddy Dolphin.
From there we moved up T'North with Luang Probang in our sights. Though to do this we had a few stop to make. On route we stopped at Pakse, a god awful town where we had an 8 hour wait for a connecting bus. To kill some time we chose to have a 2 hour massage each. My massuer, some bone idle git chose to do mine. He thought nothing of disguising his flactulence or texting all his mates with one hand whilst thumping my back with the other. From there we took the sleeper bus for 12 hours to Vang Vieng, a back packer must where the whole town gets hammered on buckets, go tubing for a few hours down the adjacent river, get more hammered and then trow themselves off back breaking death swings, yup health and safety is a phrase they have never heard of here!!!
We arrived in Luang for their New Year festival and were concerned we would find no lodgings for our stay, still we managed to find a stunning hotel bang in the center. We were bracing ourselves for the festival as it turned out to be a 3 day water fight staring at noon and ending 7pm. Its the only time you would dare to pour a bucket of water over an armed Police man or super soak a Buddist Monk, and this combine with shed loads of Tequilla and a massive water gun proved to be an amazing experience.
From there we had some of our toughest travelling with a 2 day slow boat journey to the Thai border. Seats were planks not wide enough for Posh Spices arse, and we had an Ozzy old boy who just didn't know how to shut up. We were relived to arrive in one piece!!!
From there we moved up T'North with Luang Probang in our sights. Though to do this we had a few stop to make. On route we stopped at Pakse, a god awful town where we had an 8 hour wait for a connecting bus. To kill some time we chose to have a 2 hour massage each. My massuer, some bone idle git chose to do mine. He thought nothing of disguising his flactulence or texting all his mates with one hand whilst thumping my back with the other. From there we took the sleeper bus for 12 hours to Vang Vieng, a back packer must where the whole town gets hammered on buckets, go tubing for a few hours down the adjacent river, get more hammered and then trow themselves off back breaking death swings, yup health and safety is a phrase they have never heard of here!!!
We arrived in Luang for their New Year festival and were concerned we would find no lodgings for our stay, still we managed to find a stunning hotel bang in the center. We were bracing ourselves for the festival as it turned out to be a 3 day water fight staring at noon and ending 7pm. Its the only time you would dare to pour a bucket of water over an armed Police man or super soak a Buddist Monk, and this combine with shed loads of Tequilla and a massive water gun proved to be an amazing experience.
From there we had some of our toughest travelling with a 2 day slow boat journey to the Thai border. Seats were planks not wide enough for Posh Spices arse, and we had an Ozzy old boy who just didn't know how to shut up. We were relived to arrive in one piece!!!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Cambodia
Hello everyone,
Sorry we haven't updated the blog for a while, we have become v lazy travellers and the internet is painfully slow in some parts!
From Vietnam we took a 3 day Mekong tour to Cambodia which was really lovely. We got to see how the people live on the river, with all the markets and stalls etc, really interesting. After the trip through the Mekong we arrived in Phnom Penh and met up with our lovely friends Ben (Schuby) and Kia. It was so so nice to see them as we hadn't seen Ben for 6 years. They are both from Melbourne and got us really really excited about living there! So we spent 5 days with them doing lots of drinking of the local beer and catching up. Besides that we also did some sight seeing, we went to the Killing Fields and S21 which were both very harrowing places but so interesting and gave you a real insight into what the Cambodian people suffered at the hands of the Khumer Rouge-truly shocking. Phnom Penh had a real back packer vibe to it and we liked it a lot more than we had expected.
After Phnom Penh we headed to Siem Reap which was a really beautiful city, full of parks and charm and a lot quiter than Phnom Penh and of course there was Angkor Wat which was really break taking. We did a 3 day tour, i don't think we could have done any less time, there is just so much to see! We did one full day and then the next day we did the sunrise at Angkor Wat (which meant getting up at 4:30) but it was worth it and then the next day we went for sun set. One very random thing that happened to us whilst we were walking around one of the temples ( the ome where they filmed Tomb Raider) we bumped into Andrew, Sarah and Hannah Cheetham. Such a small world, none of us could believe it! So we had a lovely dinner with them that evening and we're looking forward to seeing them again in Singapore. One of Joel's highlights of Siem Reap (apart from the Temples) was meeting a land mine victim on the street. This guy was selling books and as we really don't need anything more to weigh down our books Joel didn't buy one from him but instead bought him several beers! Joel spent the whole afternoon with this guy drinking Angkor beer and hearing all about the history of the country. The man has lost both of his legs and half of his stomach when he was only 24. He was fighting against the Khumer Rouge before he stood on a land mine. Since then he has had 3 more wives and several more children so still makes the most of life, God knows how he got home, Joel struggled on 2 legs!! You do see quite a few landmine victims which is very sad but every body seems quite positive and progressive. We visited a land mines museum which showed how much work has gone into clearing the mines.
We are now in Laos which we are loving so far, we will write again when we have more stories to tell from here.
Love Caroline and Joel xx
Sorry we haven't updated the blog for a while, we have become v lazy travellers and the internet is painfully slow in some parts!
From Vietnam we took a 3 day Mekong tour to Cambodia which was really lovely. We got to see how the people live on the river, with all the markets and stalls etc, really interesting. After the trip through the Mekong we arrived in Phnom Penh and met up with our lovely friends Ben (Schuby) and Kia. It was so so nice to see them as we hadn't seen Ben for 6 years. They are both from Melbourne and got us really really excited about living there! So we spent 5 days with them doing lots of drinking of the local beer and catching up. Besides that we also did some sight seeing, we went to the Killing Fields and S21 which were both very harrowing places but so interesting and gave you a real insight into what the Cambodian people suffered at the hands of the Khumer Rouge-truly shocking. Phnom Penh had a real back packer vibe to it and we liked it a lot more than we had expected.
After Phnom Penh we headed to Siem Reap which was a really beautiful city, full of parks and charm and a lot quiter than Phnom Penh and of course there was Angkor Wat which was really break taking. We did a 3 day tour, i don't think we could have done any less time, there is just so much to see! We did one full day and then the next day we did the sunrise at Angkor Wat (which meant getting up at 4:30) but it was worth it and then the next day we went for sun set. One very random thing that happened to us whilst we were walking around one of the temples ( the ome where they filmed Tomb Raider) we bumped into Andrew, Sarah and Hannah Cheetham. Such a small world, none of us could believe it! So we had a lovely dinner with them that evening and we're looking forward to seeing them again in Singapore. One of Joel's highlights of Siem Reap (apart from the Temples) was meeting a land mine victim on the street. This guy was selling books and as we really don't need anything more to weigh down our books Joel didn't buy one from him but instead bought him several beers! Joel spent the whole afternoon with this guy drinking Angkor beer and hearing all about the history of the country. The man has lost both of his legs and half of his stomach when he was only 24. He was fighting against the Khumer Rouge before he stood on a land mine. Since then he has had 3 more wives and several more children so still makes the most of life, God knows how he got home, Joel struggled on 2 legs!! You do see quite a few landmine victims which is very sad but every body seems quite positive and progressive. We visited a land mines museum which showed how much work has gone into clearing the mines.
We are now in Laos which we are loving so far, we will write again when we have more stories to tell from here.
Love Caroline and Joel xx
Friday, March 21, 2008
Good night Saigon
Well this week has been without a doubt the highlight of our trip so far. After arriving in Dalat, a strange place in terms of its Alpine similarities, we were lucky enough to meet two really cool Ozzies Tim and Ben. Having spent a couple of nights supping the local brew Saigon, and playing cards till the early hours, we were then to set off with our guides, The Easy Riders. We were able to each get a 125cc motor bike accompanied with a driver/guide Mr Quan and Mr Tan, Guess which one Caz went with???
We set off early morning with our rucksacks strapped to the back of our bikes and hit the road. These guys took us on a tailor made trip, and promised us they would show us the real Viet Nam, and thats exactly what we got!! After being surprised that Vietnam is the worlds 2nd biggest producer of coffee, they took us to the mass plantations where they showed us the beans in their harvest period. From there we went on to numerous waterfalls whilst driving on beautiful peaceful roads through the Central highlands. Throughout our trip we were taken to numerous ethnic minority villages includin the M'ho and M'nom . They were all very primitive and interesting in their own unique way. The M'homs live in long houses, so called because everytime they have a kid they elongate their homes. It is normal in Viet Nam that when a man gets married, his wife has to move in with his parents. This is like a strange form of welfare system so that the Grand parents can look after the Grand children whilst the parents can work.
It certainly seems to work, and still in its economic infancy it's probably the only system that could work!
All along our trip, our guides were very conscious of the effects of tourism, therefore they never liked to visit the same families over and over again. Quan bought some candy for the local kids and introduced us to many families. This was for me anyway the best part of the trip. Communicating only through guesture we first entered a home whom only in the last two years had electricity for the first time. Sitting on an old cupboard was an even older Toshiba TV. The father told us how for two weeks the kids were petrified of this machine, but when we enterd they were all glued to it watching some God awfull Vietnamese martial arts movie.
Through out our time riding through the highlands we were overwhelmed by the friendliness of everybody. We couldn't cycle past one kid without them shouting hello and waving to us. For many of them they had never seen a westerner before, and even the elderlys were very curious.
We ended our first day being taken to Dak Lak, an area devastated by Napalm and carpet bombing, it was quite surreal to see the landscape still scarred forty years on.
Our guides themselves were first hand victims of the war. Both being South Vietnamese they told us countless stories of how families were bieng torn apart. One brother being drafted by the South vietnamese army having to fight his own brother who had been forced to fight for the NVA. Stories of friends who cut off eachothers trigger fingers so that they couldn't fight and how after 1975 they were both so hungry for 16 years that they could hardly sleep. It was hard to hear it all, but our guides weren't reluctant to give us an insight to their recent history.
From there on we were shown silk farms, mushroom farms, even had a 20 kilo Python put round our necks, then being shown the cutest little bunny rabbits that fed that fella.
On our last couple of days, more was elllaborated about the Ho Chi Mhin trail and it importance to the NVA. This area was truely ablitorated, and we got to see first hand the effects of agent orange after meeting a farmer who had fought with the SVA. His Son was about eight years old and lives in a tiny hut traditional to his ethnic monority, along with 4 other family members. His father was keen to inform us that when he was fighting he had drunk Dioxin contaminated water and explained how this had caused his Sons severe handicaps, both physically and mentally.He was keen for us to take a photo of him, something i didn't dare asking. But for him it was important for others to see the results of this American defoliant. The Americans flatly refuse to pay any compensation to its victims, and is an ongoing struggle for these poor people. On our last day whilst we having our breakfast in a side road cafe we watched a large dog being first stuffed into a tight metal cage , then into a tight plastic bag. The owners of this pet had decided to send him to market. His meat was popular to this area of Viet Nam, but it was hard to watch.
By the end of our trip we arrived in Mui Ne, a tourist resort. It was a big come down after our experience on the road.
We set off early morning with our rucksacks strapped to the back of our bikes and hit the road. These guys took us on a tailor made trip, and promised us they would show us the real Viet Nam, and thats exactly what we got!! After being surprised that Vietnam is the worlds 2nd biggest producer of coffee, they took us to the mass plantations where they showed us the beans in their harvest period. From there we went on to numerous waterfalls whilst driving on beautiful peaceful roads through the Central highlands. Throughout our trip we were taken to numerous ethnic minority villages includin the M'ho and M'nom . They were all very primitive and interesting in their own unique way. The M'homs live in long houses, so called because everytime they have a kid they elongate their homes. It is normal in Viet Nam that when a man gets married, his wife has to move in with his parents. This is like a strange form of welfare system so that the Grand parents can look after the Grand children whilst the parents can work.
It certainly seems to work, and still in its economic infancy it's probably the only system that could work!
All along our trip, our guides were very conscious of the effects of tourism, therefore they never liked to visit the same families over and over again. Quan bought some candy for the local kids and introduced us to many families. This was for me anyway the best part of the trip. Communicating only through guesture we first entered a home whom only in the last two years had electricity for the first time. Sitting on an old cupboard was an even older Toshiba TV. The father told us how for two weeks the kids were petrified of this machine, but when we enterd they were all glued to it watching some God awfull Vietnamese martial arts movie.
Through out our time riding through the highlands we were overwhelmed by the friendliness of everybody. We couldn't cycle past one kid without them shouting hello and waving to us. For many of them they had never seen a westerner before, and even the elderlys were very curious.
We ended our first day being taken to Dak Lak, an area devastated by Napalm and carpet bombing, it was quite surreal to see the landscape still scarred forty years on.
Our guides themselves were first hand victims of the war. Both being South Vietnamese they told us countless stories of how families were bieng torn apart. One brother being drafted by the South vietnamese army having to fight his own brother who had been forced to fight for the NVA. Stories of friends who cut off eachothers trigger fingers so that they couldn't fight and how after 1975 they were both so hungry for 16 years that they could hardly sleep. It was hard to hear it all, but our guides weren't reluctant to give us an insight to their recent history.
From there on we were shown silk farms, mushroom farms, even had a 20 kilo Python put round our necks, then being shown the cutest little bunny rabbits that fed that fella.
On our last couple of days, more was elllaborated about the Ho Chi Mhin trail and it importance to the NVA. This area was truely ablitorated, and we got to see first hand the effects of agent orange after meeting a farmer who had fought with the SVA. His Son was about eight years old and lives in a tiny hut traditional to his ethnic monority, along with 4 other family members. His father was keen to inform us that when he was fighting he had drunk Dioxin contaminated water and explained how this had caused his Sons severe handicaps, both physically and mentally.He was keen for us to take a photo of him, something i didn't dare asking. But for him it was important for others to see the results of this American defoliant. The Americans flatly refuse to pay any compensation to its victims, and is an ongoing struggle for these poor people. On our last day whilst we having our breakfast in a side road cafe we watched a large dog being first stuffed into a tight metal cage , then into a tight plastic bag. The owners of this pet had decided to send him to market. His meat was popular to this area of Viet Nam, but it was hard to watch.
By the end of our trip we arrived in Mui Ne, a tourist resort. It was a big come down after our experience on the road.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Spam from the Nam
Hello one and all.
Well we are no in to our second week of Viet Nam and oh my god its a tonic to the senses. We have just left our friends Jenni and Dan after spending a week with them on an island off the southern tip of Vietnam bordering Cambodia called Phu Quoc. We arrived at a guest complex which can only be described as an acid trip. Lining the entrance path was 12 foot sculptures of rats, monkeys and a heard of deformed horses. This place was as kitch as Vera Duckworths living room and the locals seemed to love it! It seems quite paradoxical that this Communist country has adopted so many cheesy western elements, and only yesterday I saw a local girl wearing a t shirt saying I love USA. All quite odd after having been to the war rememberence museum and seeing the horrors those Yankers inflicted on this beautiful country, and for the first time in my life I wish I was wearing a Union jack flag. Well for me any way the highlight of Phu Quoc was the markets. We have braved (finally) the local street foods, and they are surprisingly delicious. It seems we are trying out at least one new fruit or vegetable every day. We had a really lovely time with Jenni and Dan, it was really relazing and so nice to catch up with them and sap them of all their SE Asia knowledge! The beaches were stunning and we v much enjoyed sharing lots of beers and card games with them!
We returned to Saigon after Phu quoc. Its one kicking City which makes London look like a wet day in Hightown. Never have I ever had to question green cross code skills till I came to this place. Traffic lights here are merely a gesture and in reality mean you must honk your horn. Whilst first arriving here it took us ten minutes to bottle up the courage to cross the road to our hotel. The trick is to eye ball every motorist heading straight for you and they will swerve around you, but the golden rule is NEVER STOP! After Saigon we boarded a bus for a 8 hour journey to Da Lat in the central highlands. Dalat is so beautiful, it has a vvery french feel to it and it could easily be mistaken for the Alps (mius the snow). It is very high up and surrounded in pine trees with toblerone shaped houese everywhere. It is also a lot cooler here which is actually really nice as it has been so hot for the past few weeks! We met 2 really cool Ozzy paramedics Whom we shared a few shandys with and then had a little meeting with the local motor biking tour group called the Easy Riders. Tomorrow we head off with these very well educated guides into the mountains. Both Caz and I get a guide each and sit on the back of their motorbikes with our rucksacks strapped to the back of them. Its the closest thing we can get to being Ewan McGregor wannabees and we will be taken away from all the tourist spots and into real Viet namese culture. The roads we will be venturing are nice and quiet and we cant wait to hit the road for our four day adventure.
We will update again v soon, we have also put up lots of pics so check them out.
Love to everyone, Joel and Caz xxx
Well we are no in to our second week of Viet Nam and oh my god its a tonic to the senses. We have just left our friends Jenni and Dan after spending a week with them on an island off the southern tip of Vietnam bordering Cambodia called Phu Quoc. We arrived at a guest complex which can only be described as an acid trip. Lining the entrance path was 12 foot sculptures of rats, monkeys and a heard of deformed horses. This place was as kitch as Vera Duckworths living room and the locals seemed to love it! It seems quite paradoxical that this Communist country has adopted so many cheesy western elements, and only yesterday I saw a local girl wearing a t shirt saying I love USA. All quite odd after having been to the war rememberence museum and seeing the horrors those Yankers inflicted on this beautiful country, and for the first time in my life I wish I was wearing a Union jack flag. Well for me any way the highlight of Phu Quoc was the markets. We have braved (finally) the local street foods, and they are surprisingly delicious. It seems we are trying out at least one new fruit or vegetable every day. We had a really lovely time with Jenni and Dan, it was really relazing and so nice to catch up with them and sap them of all their SE Asia knowledge! The beaches were stunning and we v much enjoyed sharing lots of beers and card games with them!
We returned to Saigon after Phu quoc. Its one kicking City which makes London look like a wet day in Hightown. Never have I ever had to question green cross code skills till I came to this place. Traffic lights here are merely a gesture and in reality mean you must honk your horn. Whilst first arriving here it took us ten minutes to bottle up the courage to cross the road to our hotel. The trick is to eye ball every motorist heading straight for you and they will swerve around you, but the golden rule is NEVER STOP! After Saigon we boarded a bus for a 8 hour journey to Da Lat in the central highlands. Dalat is so beautiful, it has a vvery french feel to it and it could easily be mistaken for the Alps (mius the snow). It is very high up and surrounded in pine trees with toblerone shaped houese everywhere. It is also a lot cooler here which is actually really nice as it has been so hot for the past few weeks! We met 2 really cool Ozzy paramedics Whom we shared a few shandys with and then had a little meeting with the local motor biking tour group called the Easy Riders. Tomorrow we head off with these very well educated guides into the mountains. Both Caz and I get a guide each and sit on the back of their motorbikes with our rucksacks strapped to the back of them. Its the closest thing we can get to being Ewan McGregor wannabees and we will be taken away from all the tourist spots and into real Viet namese culture. The roads we will be venturing are nice and quiet and we cant wait to hit the road for our four day adventure.
We will update again v soon, we have also put up lots of pics so check them out.
Love to everyone, Joel and Caz xxx
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Sitting in Bangkok airport waiting for flight to Vietnam
Hello!
We are almost 3 weeks in to our travels and absolutely loving it, we have definately got used to the nomadic lifestyle!
After leaving Haad Yuan in Koh Phagnan we headed for Koh Tao. We had been there before 4 years ago but it was so much prettier than we'd remembered. We found a gorgeous beach called Ban Chalok ( i think!) which had the whitest sands and the clearest turquoise sea. We were so happy to have found it, a little piece of paradise!
Koh Tao is one of the best places in Thailand for diving and snorkelling so we embarked on a 3 day scuba diver course. It was absolutely incredible, one of the bese experiences of my life. I was a bit nervous before hand but once i was in the water all my fears seemed to vanish! It was quite an intense course, we were out from 9 am until 6 om every day and we had to study for an exam too. We dived to 20 metres on our last dive which was amazing. The sea life around there is wonderful, we saw the most colourful fish, a sea snake, barracudas, trigger fish etc etc. We now have our PADI license which means we can dive any where around the world so we are thinking we will dive in Vietnam, Malaysia and Oz, we are hooked now!! I would definately recommend it!
So after a wonderful time in Koh Tao we headed back to Bangkok for one night and met up with our friend Sophia. We had a great night out, went to a fab restaurant and then had a few too many drinks until the wee early hours, hence we are feeling rather fragile whilst waiting for our flight to Hoh Chi Minh City!
We are staying in Ho Chi Minh tonight and then we head to an island just south of Vietnam called Phu Quoc, we are very excited as it is described in the guide books as a little piece of paradise! We are meeting up with Jenni and Dan there and having a little holiday with them before they head back to the UK, we can't wait to see them.
After 5 days in Phu Quoc the roughing it will really start and we will travel up through Vietnam , across to Laos and then through to Cambodia.
Anyways, best run to catch our flight, we will update again soon and upload pics when we can.
Lots of love Caroline and Joel xxxxx
We are almost 3 weeks in to our travels and absolutely loving it, we have definately got used to the nomadic lifestyle!
After leaving Haad Yuan in Koh Phagnan we headed for Koh Tao. We had been there before 4 years ago but it was so much prettier than we'd remembered. We found a gorgeous beach called Ban Chalok ( i think!) which had the whitest sands and the clearest turquoise sea. We were so happy to have found it, a little piece of paradise!
Koh Tao is one of the best places in Thailand for diving and snorkelling so we embarked on a 3 day scuba diver course. It was absolutely incredible, one of the bese experiences of my life. I was a bit nervous before hand but once i was in the water all my fears seemed to vanish! It was quite an intense course, we were out from 9 am until 6 om every day and we had to study for an exam too. We dived to 20 metres on our last dive which was amazing. The sea life around there is wonderful, we saw the most colourful fish, a sea snake, barracudas, trigger fish etc etc. We now have our PADI license which means we can dive any where around the world so we are thinking we will dive in Vietnam, Malaysia and Oz, we are hooked now!! I would definately recommend it!
So after a wonderful time in Koh Tao we headed back to Bangkok for one night and met up with our friend Sophia. We had a great night out, went to a fab restaurant and then had a few too many drinks until the wee early hours, hence we are feeling rather fragile whilst waiting for our flight to Hoh Chi Minh City!
We are staying in Ho Chi Minh tonight and then we head to an island just south of Vietnam called Phu Quoc, we are very excited as it is described in the guide books as a little piece of paradise! We are meeting up with Jenni and Dan there and having a little holiday with them before they head back to the UK, we can't wait to see them.
After 5 days in Phu Quoc the roughing it will really start and we will travel up through Vietnam , across to Laos and then through to Cambodia.
Anyways, best run to catch our flight, we will update again soon and upload pics when we can.
Lots of love Caroline and Joel xxxxx
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
1st post from Thailand
Hi everyone,
Sorry we haven't updated the blog earlier, to be honest we've just been too lazy and getting in to beach mode!
We arrived in Bangkok and stayed in an AMAZING hotel which Joel had kindly booked for us, it was a 5 star design hotel so we lapped up the luxury, we knew we wouldn't be getting any for a while! We had a night in bangkok, buying some bits and bobs from the market, we both bought some fake designer watches, mine is great but Joel's broke after about an hour!! We then took a flight the next morning to Koh Phangnan and headed to a beach that we had been to 4 years ago (Thong nai pan noi). In hindsight we kind of wish we hadn't as it had changed so much, so much busier and more built up-the word obviously got out how nice it was! We stayed there for a few days and then yesterday came to another beach on the island called Haad yuan which is lovely, a small secluded bay with a few bars and restaurants but a lot quieter then the 1st beach. We are going to stay here for a few days and then we are going to Koh Tao where we are hopefully going to learn how to dive.
We are then heading to Vietnam on the 7th March to meet our lovely friends Jenni and Dan, we're going to take a little holiday with them to an island called Phu Quoc which is supposed to be paradise, so v excited about that!
The weather has been a bit mixed, it was torrential rain for 2 days and has been a bit cloudy but today was lovely so we made the most of it and we are both feeling a tad on the pink side now!!
Anyways, i hope you're all well. We will keep you updated on our adventures.
Lots of love Caroline and Joel xxxxx
Sorry we haven't updated the blog earlier, to be honest we've just been too lazy and getting in to beach mode!
We arrived in Bangkok and stayed in an AMAZING hotel which Joel had kindly booked for us, it was a 5 star design hotel so we lapped up the luxury, we knew we wouldn't be getting any for a while! We had a night in bangkok, buying some bits and bobs from the market, we both bought some fake designer watches, mine is great but Joel's broke after about an hour!! We then took a flight the next morning to Koh Phangnan and headed to a beach that we had been to 4 years ago (Thong nai pan noi). In hindsight we kind of wish we hadn't as it had changed so much, so much busier and more built up-the word obviously got out how nice it was! We stayed there for a few days and then yesterday came to another beach on the island called Haad yuan which is lovely, a small secluded bay with a few bars and restaurants but a lot quieter then the 1st beach. We are going to stay here for a few days and then we are going to Koh Tao where we are hopefully going to learn how to dive.
We are then heading to Vietnam on the 7th March to meet our lovely friends Jenni and Dan, we're going to take a little holiday with them to an island called Phu Quoc which is supposed to be paradise, so v excited about that!
The weather has been a bit mixed, it was torrential rain for 2 days and has been a bit cloudy but today was lovely so we made the most of it and we are both feeling a tad on the pink side now!!
Anyways, i hope you're all well. We will keep you updated on our adventures.
Lots of love Caroline and Joel xxxxx
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