Sri Lanka, Scotland and Home!

So as you probably know, I am home!

But I’ll kick off where I left last time. We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka around midnight where we had already organised our hostel to pick us up. Nowhere in the airport would swap our Indian currency which I found weird seeing as they’re next door neighbours! So after finally finding an ATM we sleepily drove to where we were staying. It has been a while since we were in a hostel, but Colombo turned out to be a lot more expensive than we thought! When we arrived, I definitely freaked out a bit. Not really a hostel but more somebody’s apartment on the 5th floor of a dodgy looking complex, we went in to find people sleeping on the floor. There was one girl lying on a double sofa and a spare yoga mat type thing on the floor. And I was like “nuh uh no way are we paying to sleep on the floor of your kitchen/living room no way.” Thankfully we actually had a 4 bed separate room just off of it which at least had bunk beds and clean sheets. However, no air con and a fan that was apparently ‘too squeaky’ for the other boys sharing our room. So the result was a wide open window – this was nice, we were right next to the sea so we could hear the waves crashing in. However, this was nice for all of 5 minutes before we realised we were right next to a very VERY loud railway line. Where these 500 year old trains felt the need to blast their horn every time they went past, every 10 minutes all through the night. Then the people we were sharing with were up at 5am for like an hour getting ready. Needless to say, it wasn’t our best sleep!!

Our plan was to leave Colombo the next day as we had heard it wasn’t that nice and either go further south down to Galle or inland to Kandy. However, travelling about Sri Lanka proved a lot harder than we thought. Trying to get anyone to understand us there was also the biggest mission! (That we failed on). Turns out trains need to be booked further than one day in advance, which is really disappointing because according to online, the views on these journeys are amazing. So we decided to stay one more night in Colombo and try to get ourselves organised. We found the cheapest nice hotel we could and decided that we would maybe get the bus to Kandy. I’ve heard mixed reviews on buses in Sri Lanka but I was willing to brave it to get out of Colombo! So we spent the rest of the day just chilling by the pool and not doing a whole lot. I was up nice and early to leave the next morning when Ste began to get really not well. He managed to avoid Delhi Belly in India but he couldn’t escape Sri Lanka! Going on a bus would’ve been horrendous so we scrapped that. That day we headed to the doctors in a sweat box of a tuk tuk and he got the antibiotics he needed. By this time we were pretty fed up, Sri Lanka wasn’t living up to our expectations, it was becoming near impossible to get around, Steve was ill and with a week to go we just really felt like coming home! So we thought why not! We were desperate for some home comforts.

Our flights are all flexible, so we paid a fee and changed our flight to the next day. As quick as that! At 1am that morning we were on our way to the airport! By 1pm we were in Edinburgh. Our connection was pretty tight, we had to leg it through Doha airport with the final call sign flashing but we made it with everyone else already sat on the plane.

Ste’s stepdad William picked us up from the airport and we drove back to surprise his mum. She was definitely shocked! It was great, she burst into tears but was so happy. It was so cute to see his little niece run up and grab him as we walked in. I had what I can only describe as the best shower of my life. I have never felt so clean and tucked into some PROPER food and meat!! I tried my best to stay awake for as long as possible but when it reached 8pm I was done and out of it. We felt a whole lot better the next morning with some decent food and a long sleep in us! Everyone has said that we look dead skinny so I think it was Marion’s mission this week to fatten us up – I definitely wasn’t complaining.

We have spent this week just taking our time and relaxing – it is so nice to be able just to sit on a clean sofa and watch TV! We went to the Edinburgh festival one day which was really nice, it was actually sunny for once and we walked around all the stalls and just wondered around in the hustle and bustle. And oh my god does it feel nice not to be stared at!! We’ve taken Ste’s dog Bumble on lots of walks and found my new favourite spot in Scotland called the campsies. It has a waterfall if you walk down the creek and if you walk up the hill it is just meadows for miles and miles which is just so peaceful to sit at. I have missed the green of the UK after all the dirt of Asia!

After some tough goodbyes and a fair amount of crying I left Glasgow and headed back home. Mum and Dad were excited picking me up from the airport and I went home to see my Trev! It was an emotional reunion with the dog!

So it’s super strange to be back! Not so much looking forward to the job hunt and getting back into the usual routine but excited for the next chapter to begin.

……Until the next adventure!

Abby x

India Part III

So in my last blog post I got up to Pushkar and after Pushkar we arrived in Jaipur: famous as the Pink City. So now we’ve been to the Golden, Blue, White and Pink Cities! In Jaipur, we visited the famous fort on the top of a huge hill. Last time I came to India we actually got an elephant ride up there! But the whole thing we found out after was pretty cruel and mean for the elephants 😦 so this time we got Shiri to take us up instead. When buying tickets for the fort men and women have to go in separate queues which was odd. It is a popular visitor attraction so the queues were big, I got to the front before Ste and was buying our tickets when a French man starts punching me on the shoulder trying to get me to buy his ticket! Now I had had enough of the Indian people not being aware of personal space and was practically giving a woman a piggy back the whole queue so I was not having some European foreigner trying to push in and get in my space too. I told him where to go and he was not happy, but we finally made it through the madness! The views of the city were impressive, like a mini Great Wall of China, and it was cool to wander the corridors of this huge fort and get lost. Again a lot of Indian tourists so a lot of stares which was becoming really exhausting by this point. I know that culturally in India it’s not considered rude to stare so you just need to accept it but it’s definitely hard to adjust. You stare back and that doesn’t stop them, you point back in return and it doesn’t stop them, you ignore them, pull faces but nothing! Still, we enjoyed the fort and after we visited the famous palace in Jaipur. To the outside it looked like a huge structure but the walls are actually hollow and just a façade which was strange. 
That night we went back to our hotel and that was eventful! I think the main hotel worker was a bit drunk, the wifi only worked in the lobby so Ste was down there and I had gone up to get my phone out of the room. When I came out he was trying to talk to me, gave me a flower and was just a bit awkward. Anyway after a while we came up to bed and Steve got a shower. Now the shower window is frosted glass but goes out into the corridor. Suddenly he turns around and the hotel guy has his face pressed against the window trying to look in! I guess he thought I was in there but who knows he might be into Steve. Anyway Ste went MENTAL. Out in his towel while the guy denied everything. Soooo creepy, I was glad we were leaving the next day! What if it was me in there! We told our driver the next morning and he joined Ste in going crazy at the guy. In the end we got a free room out of it soooo what a pervert but there’s a silver lining!
We also visited some other touristy spots but by this time we were kind of over them. That sounds awful!! But a bit like Thailand, once you’ve seen 5 temples you’ve seen them all; in India once you’ve seen a few forts and city palaces they all kind of blur into one. We did some more shopping in Jaipur, we went to a printing place where they talked us through a method famous in Jaipur called block printing where they basically stamp designs onto huge bits of material. It was interesting to see the old hand crafted methods that are used – common in India but seemingly rare in the rest of the world! Jaipur is also famous for jewellery, mum got a really nice bracelet last time we came which was worth over double when we got home! But this time me and Ste just looked at all the stuff we won’t be affording anytime soon! 
The next morning, we took another long drive to Agra famous for the Taj Mahal. On the way there we stopped off at a really cool place that I totally have forgotten the name of. We had to get a little rickety bus up to it and when you first enter its all big courtyards and ruins. I think where one of the old kings used to live. Then on one side you walk down a long passage and there is a huge mosque. We had to take our shoes off to go in and my God was that ground hot! I honestly thought my feet my burn and blister I don’t know how they walk on it so casually! The structure of the building was incredible and it was nice to get a glimpse into Muslim religion as we have seen so much of Buddhist and Hindu recently. By the time we left and got to Agra it was evening so we just went straight for dinner. Apart from the Taj Mahal, Agra is a bit of a dive so we weren’t fussed about exploring too much. Tora recommended a great restaurant to go to which we went to and stuffed our bellies. 
The next morning we were up at 5:15am to be at the Taj Mahal at 6am in time for it opening. You can see the sunrise, there are fewer crowds and the temperature is a lot cooler. I was really excited to see if it lived up to my memory of it and if anything it was even more spectacular. We had a guide to explain to us the love story behind it and give us some of its history. He was also keen to give us a mini photoshoot which was funny. The building itself is just enormous and entirely symmetrical. It is a mausoleum to the mogul king’s wife who died giving birth to his 16th child (poor woman). The only thing that ruins the symmetry is the king himself, his wife is buried dead centre and when he died they buried him next to her so he ruins it! The four pillars surrounding the main structure are all slightly off 90 degrees so that if there was an earthquake they would not fall onto the mausoleum itself. So much thought and insight for something built like 400 years ago! The whole thing took 22 years to build and over 20,000 men. Interestingly the king actually had 3 wives, but obvs didn’t like the other 2 as much and they got in comparison a shed at either side of the entry way. So after leaving our guide, we explored on our own and had another mini photoshoot. The whole place really is incredible and it’s easy to see why it is one of the 7 wonders of the world. 
After, we were taken to a shop where they showed us how they carve the marble like the Taj Mahal which was really interesting and managed to persuade us to buy more stuff (we have no willpower). After we took the drive back to Delhi where we got some dinner and headed to bed. The next day Shiri took us round the sights of Delhi which were good but unimpressive to us in comparison to what we had seen in Rajasthan! It was nice to be in a car though and not be constantly hassled. After he dropped us at the airport where we said goodbye. It was a great decision to get a driver, especially after the hassle with Varanasi I dread to think what the rest of the trains would be like. We thought we were pretty generous with our tip but he got a bit funny at that point. Oh well! I still thought he was good and he helped us out loads. 
So we flew to Sri Lanka that evening and that’s where we are now. So the next blog post may be the last one! India was amazing and a really fantastic experience, we’re so glad we went.
See you soon! 

   
    
    
  

    
    
    
   

India Part II

So the next bit of our India trip starts with Jodphur. We arrived from Jaisalmer after another long drive in the afternoon. After dumping our bags in the hotel, the driver took us into the town centre. Here we wondered around the streets and climbed up the clock tower. We were more going up the clock tower for the view, but once you get to the top you’re actually in the clock itself. There’s a little old guy up there with bright orange henna hair inviting you to climb up on a dodgy platform made of rickety wood to see all the mechanisms of the clock. It was pretty cool to see all the little ticking bits and be right up there in it – not that I understood what any of the cogs and wheels and other stuff did. After the clock tower, we went to a shop full of spices where we got to smell all different kinds of Indian spice and incense and have a look around buying gifts. We also went to a big textile and stone warehouse where the owner was very proud of himself showing us his picture in an American magazine and all these French catalogues. Trying to sell us scarves that were around £200 were maybe just a bit out of our budget though. We had a browse and it was all fun until we saw a rat running above the shelves!
That evening our driver took us to a pretty posh restaurant by Indian standards which was nice and relaxing having air con and wooden chairs and tables rather than plastic chairs and the odd mouse running about! Though we both agreed that the food wasn’t that great for a place a bit more expensive (more expensive as in we paid about £7 for a 3 course meal) – the food in the places where decor and comfort is questionable has been far far tastier!! The next day we got up and went to one of the main sights in Jodphur, the Mehrangarh Fort. According to Shiri our driver, this is the most impressive fort in Rajasthan and so far I’d have to agree with him. The place is huge and very intricately designed, we got an audio tour around which was good to go our own pace. It poured most of the time though so we were drenched going around! The majority of the people at the fort were Indian tourists, so we got A LOT of stares. Lots of really creepy looking men wanting photos with me which I didn’t really fancy. If it was a woman or some teenage girls (who tend to just giggle and wave) I wouldn’t have minded but after about 10 minutes of some weird looking guy intensely staring at my chest I didn’t really feel too photographic. Celebrity status wears you down! Haha but at least those ones asked, a few took sneaky ones of me while I was standing opposite them only to be caught out when they realised their volume was still on and then received the mother of all evils from Steve and me. It’s kind of creepy! I know it’s innocent enough (I hope) but it’s weird all the same. 

Anyway, Jodphur is known as the Blue City as many of its buildings and houses are a bright blue colour. The view from the fort was incredible and it was amazing to see a whole city so brightly decorated. After our tour of the fort we went to Umaid Bhavan Palace. This palace was built a long time ago by the first king of Jodphur and the current king still lives there. It has also been converted into a 5 star hotel and a museum. So we went and took a look around the museum, seeing the vintage cars and learning the history of its structure. The first maharajah was really into aviation; so Jodphur actually had India’s first international aerodrome, not Delhi. The whole thing didn’t even reach £100,000 in today’s money to build – wonder what it would cost now! 

After looking round the rain was still pouring so we headed back to the hotel for a bit. That evening we had checked for good restaurants in Jodphur on trip advisor so we asked the driver to take us to the no 1 voted place. He didn’t know where it was so we google mapped it and headed off. We didn’t quite realise though that it would be situated down tiny narrow alleyways right in the busy centre. The streets could only really fit a tuk tuk down, so getting the car down there was pretty stressful. After about 20 minutes we were lost, getting beeped at from every angle and then to top it off the car hit a bump and we started to get a flat tyre. Finally, we managed to figure out where we were and Steve and I walked to this restaurant that couldn’t be more difficult to find! After all this faff, we were expecting great things but was definitely a bit disappointed! The restaurant was above a guest house on a dingy rooftop. We were given a soaking wet table and pretty bleh food. But of course we told the driver it was amazing so that the drive was worth the while! No idea how it got voted no 1! 

The next day we started one of the longest drives we’ve had to Udaipur. The last time I came to India, Udaipur was my favourite place that we visited so I was really excited. To break up the long drive we went to a really famous Jain temple about 90km outside of The city. Jains are a form of Hindu religion (I think) that believe every living thing is sacred, practice non violence and in general seem like chilled out people. However when we arrived I don’t think I’ve ever got more death stares! Ste was wearing shorts which wasn’t allowed, after changing twice they finally and reluctantly accepted his outfit. Once again the monsoon was hitting so the driver lent us his broken umbrella which doesn’t go down. Once we got up the temple steps the woman security guard told us to leave it outside, so we placed it down and she picked it back up and practically threw it at me. I told her it was broken and it won’t go down and I literally thought she might punch me in the face. She finally got over it and we went in. The temple itself really was incredible, it was absolutely huge and filled with domed ceilings, pillars and statues all of which were carved to the most amazing detail. We got an audio guide tour around and it explained to us all of the little things, like how the whole thing is perfectly symmetrical but if you look closely there is one pillar that is slightly wonky. You walk past barely giving it a second thought but apparently it is there to act as an evil eye amongst the symmetry as a warning. 

After walking around the temple we got back to driving the last leg of this journey. By now the rain was really pummelling down and as we attempted to drive there I definitely did fear for our lives a bit. The rain was causing waterfalls that you could see gushing down the mountains into the roads and huge chunks of mountain and trees had collapsed into the middle of the roads too. The road itself was narrow and full of sharp bends and blind corners. The windscreen had fully fogged up and our drivers solution was just to wipe the bit in front of his face with his hand. But we made it! We didn’t make it until early evening though so we didn’t do any exploring of Udaipur that night. I hadn’t eaten curry since my last trauma (I’ve been trying the Indian attempts at pastas and soups), the smell of it was enough to make me wretch but once we were at the hotel, curry was all that was on offer. I actually quite fancied a curry now and was feeling brave so we both got one and hurray no illnesses! 

Udaipur is a small city so is easy to walk around and so I was quite excited to have a day away from the driving and do some proper exploring and getting lost ourselves. The next day we first headed to Jagdish Temple which seemed very small in comparison to the one we had seen the day before. But it was a temple in use, not so much a museum which was more fun. We walked up the steps and there are about 30 men and women sitting in the centre. They are dressed in such bright colours (the colours the women wear in Rajasthan are amazing, they are so bright and pretty!) and singing and playing all these instruments. It was really cool to see everything so lively and vibrant. 

Next we went to the City Palace and bought a tour guide to take us round which was really great. This guy even spoke to me too! A privilege. Udaipur is known as the White City and the views from the palace were once again amazing. It looks over Lake Pichola, a huge man made lake with palaces and hotels in the middle and has huge mountain ranges in the distance -probably the most picturesque view we’ve seen. We learnt all about the royal heritage of the palace and saw the most amazing rooms, decorations, designs and paintings. I didn’t really recognise the palace at first but then we walked into certain rooms and it clicked “yep definitely been here before!” “had a picture over there last time!” So that was a bit weird but pretty cool to still remember bits and see them again.

After the city palace we went for lunch on a roof top cafe, got our wifi fix and headed out again. I wanted to go a folk museum where they had different music, instruments, dancing and puppets so we hired a tuk tuk to take us there as it was a bit of a walk. Tuk tuk driving is definitely an experience that I remember from the last time I came! The drivers are insane and this tuk tuk was no exception, we went the wrong way down big highways for short cuts, nearly ran people over and had a few near crashes along the way. It was fun though! But when we arrived the museum was shut. The security guard outside told us it was something to do with the government so we had to head back to where we started – still we got the tuk tuk experience!!

So the rest of the afternoon we spent wondering in and out of shops. Udaipur is famous for its arts and crafts so there was plenty to look around. We went into book binding shops where we bought these handmade books made of camel skin. It’s just fun to see the people actually making them right in front of you. We went into many art shops where the art was amazing, but pretty pricy! Also there were just draws and draws full of the paintings which they had supposedly got from local villagers, we didn’t actually see any of it getting done. Then we walked into a side alley and found this tiny shop hidden behind a curtain. Here there was a husband and wife artist team that were painting away. The paintings were all a bit different too, a bit quirky. For £1.50 I didn’t buy the highest quality thing there but it’s something unique at least! A painted elephant on government paper, so there are all these cool stamps and symbols all over it. Ste bought a few other bits as we went along and I even bought a pair of Indian shoes. Each shoe doesn’t have a certain foot to go on – how weird is that?! After our shopping spree, we got some dinner (another curry, getting brave now!) which was really good. I had a Paneer tikka masala, so like chicken tikka masala but with cottage cheese instead. The only thing I 100% wasn’t keen on was the mouse that kept running about the floor! I screamed like a little girl.

That evening we had planned to go to a haveli in the town and watched some entertainment that is put on daily. However when we got here it had been cancelled which was disappointing. It turns out all these things were shut because India’s old president had just died. Our driver told us about it the day before but we didn’t think much of it, but they must have been in mourning or something I don’t really know. Still we had a great day and Udaipur remains my favourite so far!

So the next morning we started our next trek to Pushkar, a small holy village about 6 hours away. We didn’t arrive until late afternoon and because I had to use up an extra night when I was poorly in Bikaner, we only had 1 night here so we were keen to get going and look around. We were told it would be a nice chilled out town but it certainly wasn’t when we arrived! There were hundreds and hundreds of Indian tourists and it was later explained to us that we had arrived on a very lucky day, it was the full moon and the festival of a Hindu god so celebrations were in full swing. We were warned by Shiri about the Brahmas, holy men who would bless all your family and then ask you for a ridiculous amount of money. We walked into the town and headed towards the lake (there’s only really the lake and temple to see in Pushkar) and fell for the holy men scam straight away haha. It wasn’t too bad though, they separated me and Steve and we each had our own guy to pray for us and our families, make us chant and go through all the flower throwing rituals etc. They also gave us nice massive bindis that you couldn’t miss. After a while of him trying to persuade me to give him £30, we settled for £2.50 instead. After being blessed and cleansed and rid of my karma and all that other junk we went back into the city and tried to weave our way through the crowds to the temple. The whole thing was pretty spectacular when you took a step back, the decorations, the colours – everything was just so vivid and alive. We finally made it to the temple where we had to leave our shoes on the street and I was so convinced that they wouldn’t be there when we returned! We climbed up the steps and saw crowds of people praying, singing, dancing, donating, kissing statues all sorts. There was even a TV crew there! We had been given handfuls of flowers and sugar on the way up that we then had to go round and donate to each statue or symbol. It was quite funny watching some of the Hindus: when we got to the main alter bit (definitely not an alter, but I don’t know what the Hindu kind of word for it is) you gave in your sugar which I think is a sign of good luck and there is a guy there monitoring how much everyone puts in. The old lady in front of me suddenly whips out this giant bag and tries to tip the whole thing out. The guy grabbed the bag and threw it at her, obviously telling her to stop. She looks all sorry and takes the bag back and just as she turns to leave she turns back and pours the rest out before he could do anything. He went mental and she looked so cheeky it was pretty funny! 

We went back down the stairs to find our shoes which were thankfully still there and wondered back down the streets that had now started to quieten down a bit. I really wanted to get some henna painting done and as we walked along we found a barber and massage shop that offered it. I went in and the guy went and grabbed his daughter who got to work on my hand. In the meantime, he kept trying to offer Steve a shave. He refused and so the barber then went on to promoting his massages and eventually Ste gave in and got a head and shoulder massage. In the end he loved it so much he got 2! After, we called our driver who took us back to the hotel where we got some dinner and went to bed before our next drive to Jaipur.

Getting here was our shortest drive so far – only 3 hours! When we arrived we tried to book our train tickets to Varanasi but they’re booked up until the 21st August! We’ve looked at flights and it’s just not possible with our budget so unfortunately that’s off the cards. So rather than hang about in horrible Delhi for 5 days we’ve changed our flights and we’re now heading to Sri Lanka early. I’ll update you on Jaipur and the last leg of our India adventure in the next post. 

Lots of love!

   
    
    

    
    
  

    
    
 

India Part I

So our journey into India has begun! It’s been an interesting and eventful week to say the least!
We arrived in Delhi airport where our airport pick up wasn’t. We started to get a bit concerned but after about 15 minutes the guy from the hotel finally appeared and took us back to our hotel in his metal shell of a car with our bags tied to the roof. Getting there itself was an experience! The night we arrived there was a big market happening on the street that we were staying on, so our driver must have knocked down about 5 people, 2 cows and a few stalls on the way there. People flooded the streets while motorbikes, rickshaws, tuks tuks and cars like ours (if you can call it a car) tried to fit down narrow alleyways. Once we arrived we checked in and headed into the city for some dinner. We were warned by the receptionist at our hotel that many people with good English will come up and try to talk to you, then take you to places where they’ll get commission etc. We weren’t quite expecting HOW many of these people there would be! And how aggressive they were! It was quite scary really, if you ignore them or say no they get so so mad at you as if it is their God given right that you have to follow them – they are relentless and just followed us for streets and streets not leaving us alone. If you tried to exchange in a bit of conversation that only spurred them on and they became even more attached – it was a lose lose situation. Finally we ducked into a cafe and grabbed some dinner before practically running back to the hotel to not get hounded. 

The next day we had planned to sort out the rest of our travel plans and see some sights of Delhi. We sat down with the tour guide at the hotel and he went through our options: trains, flights or car. It took us FOREVER to make a decision on how we would get about Rajasthan. I felt really conflicted; everyone says the trains are such an experience and you HAVE to go on them to really get the full India experience, plus they’re cheaper than all other modes of transport. But, they’re also stinky, stressful, overcrowded and you have to book each one (preferably weeks and months) in advance where as we would only have a few days/week tops. Once the ticket is booked they’re not flexible either but we didn’t want to miss the experience. Flights were way out of our budget so we were torn between hiring a driver. This was a little more expensive and the drives could be sometimes longer than the trains. Plus the driver might be dodgy or work on commission of places he takes us to. But the driver would show us about everywhere in the cities too and we could stay places longer if we wanted or cut time out of other places so it was more flexible. After tons of umming and ahhing we went for the car and I’m so glad we did, it’s worked out so well for us! Always worth checking on trip advisor first though – the reviews for the company we went with were really good. The drives let us see a lot of the countryside too, we’ve seen cows, goats, dogs, peacocks, camels – all sorts of crazy animals blocking up the traffic! Plus we will also be going to Varanasi after Rajasthan so can get our train experience then!

Before we had decided that though, we thought we’d go check the train ticket prices at New Delhi station which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This was a mistake! A notoriously dangerous area (not that we knew it at the time) we were hounded and accosted the moment we got near it. Men grabbing us, telling us we couldn’t go in, that we could only buy tickets on the day, that there was a festival on tomorrow so we better buy our tickets right this second from them (basically every scam in the book). We tried to walk away and make our own way there as we knew there was a tourist office on the first floor for tickets but it was impossible. You try to walk away and they shout at you, saying they’re not taking your money, why don’t you trust them, you’re so rude bla bla bla. They’re disrespect for women (across the whole of India) is also ridiculous. No men here ever acknowledge me, only Steve! One guy hounded us for so long, I tugged Steve’s shirt and said let’s go. Then this man turned around and absolutely screamed in my face, waving his arms about and getting so angry at me. Made me cry! Was so so horrible. We eventually ran away and that pretty much made our decision for us about whether to get the trains or not. Needless to say, we didn’t make it around Delhi at all! I knew from the last time I was in India it isn’t a nice city but this was on another level.

So we met our driver Shiri to check he spoke good English and had a ride in his car to see what it was like and that the air con would work. Both were good so early the next morning he picked us up and we headed to a small village called Mandawa. The journey was long – about 8/9 hours in all because it took 2 hours just to get out of Delhi. Once we arrived, he took us round the village showing us all the different Havelis. Havelis are big houses that are very intricately designed, these ones had amazing paintings all over them and even though they were mostly crumbling to bits it was nice to be somewhere so peaceful and quiet in this rural little town. Most of the Havelis are empty, their owners abandoned them or have moved to bigger cities with more money. We went into one that was looked after by a watchman which was interesting. But I was more gaping at the watchman himself. He only had one eye, but the other one was kind of still there. It was bulging out of its socket and his flesh had completely eaten over it. It was like a big piece of round ham in his eye socket – grim. But how the hell did he get an injury like that?! What kind of pain must he have been in for the only way for it to heal is to wait until your skin grows over it?!

Anyway, we headed back to our hotel and went to the restaurant for some food. We actually felt like some curry so we ordered a veggie biryani and a bombay aloo with some naan bread and it tasted pretty good. After, they made us sit down and watch perhaps the weirdest puppet show of all time – but it was an experience! We went to bed and I started to feel a bit sick, trying to ignore it for fear of Delhi belly I went to sleep for a few hours. That didn’t work so well, I woke up and then continued to be sick the entire night. It was horrible I felt so rough. The next morning we were due to go to our next stop, Bikaner, a 4 hour drive away. After delaying it for a few hours because I felt so disgusting I decided it was probably best to get there, it was a bigger town and so would have better medical facilities if I needed them. The journey there was the worst I’ve had the whole 8 months we have been away. How I managed not to throw up all over our poor drivers car I don’t know. Sobbing my way into the hotel I took the strongest painkillers I could find and managed to fall asleep for a bit. I woke up and felt even worse, the sickness had faded a bit but my body felt like it had been run over. We decided enough was enough and went to ask for the doctor, the hospital was only round the corner so our driver and the hotel staff said he would take us there. I was expecting to get in his car (it was nighttime and the monsoon was hitting hard) but instead got an umbrella put over me (which did nothing) and had to walk there. I walked in to a whole load of stares but went straight into a room with a doctor straight away. Explaining my symptoms, the door was left open and I had an audience of about 10 Indians crowded round the doorway watching me sob and complain – white people entertainment I’m sure! After explaining all of this it turns out the guy I was talking to wasn’t a doctor, so couldn’t actually prescribe me any of the medication I needed. The doctor wouldn’t be coming in for another 2 hours. What kind of hospital doesn’t have a doctor?! Only in India! They tried to get me to wait on some stinky bed, while more and more creepy men stood inches away from me just staring but I was having none of it. So (it gets weirder) we had to go to the doctors HOUSE and he prescribed my antibiotics. Then our poor driver and Steve has to ferry me back to the hospital (each one of us drenched by this point) to pick up the medication. All of this cost a grand total of £4.10!! In Thailand it cost me £100 when I got ill! Anyway, we finally went back to the hotel where I crashed in bed and dosed up on my gazillion different painkillers and antibiotics. The next day I felt a lot better, but my body still ached and the thought of food was not nice. We were meant to leave for our next destination but I wanted to stay another night to just be able to lay in bed all day and recover. Which I did. Ste went for a bit of an explore around Bikaner, looking around the fort and the miniature paintings which they’re famous for. 

The next day I felt a million times better and we woke up early to head to Khuri, a small village 50km outside of Jaisalmer. Here we would go camel riding and spend a night in the desert! It took 6 hours to get there by car and is actually the most westerly point of India that tourists are allowed to go. It is very close to the Pakistani border, only 150km away and our driver was saying that relations between India and Pakistan are not great so it’s not safe to go any closer. Anyway, we arrived and our first thoughts were “oh god”. The village was extremely rural, covered in rubbish and extremely run down. We arrived at the place which organises the trip which was slightly more aesthetic than the rest of the village. Within half an hour we got introduced to our camels and hopped on. Called Siyah and Lah, they were waaaayyy taller than I expected and very bumpy! We each had a guide to walk us up through the sand dunes and into the desert. After a while your legs get really sore so we were kind of relieved when it was time to get off. It was so quiet at the top of the dunes and very picturesque. We just sat and relaxed, it was very cloudy and a bit too early for sunset so after a while we went back to a group of camels and guides to try and find ours. Ours seemed to have disappeared, so we waited half an hour longer hoping they hadn’t deserted us and they’d come back at some point and eventually they did. Only with one camel this time though, so me and Steve had to hop on one together which was a lot harder! Our guide also liked to make this camel run, which becomes very sore on your bum! It was definitely an experience! We arrived back at the main village, and hung around for a few hours before dinner was ready. In the meantime there was some traditional Indian entertainment. Musicians arrived and started playing and singing and then a dancer came dressed in all her traditional Indian gear and performed. Of course she started to get us all involved and within 10 minutes there was a group of about 20 tourists badly attempting to do Indian dance. After the entertainment the food was ready, but the smell of curry was still almost enough to make me puke so I stuck to bread and a banana. So nutritious! 

At around 10.30 it was time to venture into the desert, the temperature had dropped by now and the wind had picked up so it wasn’t going to be boiling which was good. They attached carts onto the backs of the camels and loaded them up with solid plastic bed frames and disgusting sheets and blankets that God knows when they were last clean. Thank god it was dark and I couldn’t really see them! We then had to jump on top of all of this and hold on while the camels took us back up to the sand dunes. Once we arrived, they set out the beds and we tried to get comfy. To be honest, having to pee on the desert was a hell of a lot cleaner, hygienic and bug free than the toilet provided in the village was! I was exhausted by this point, so after wrapping a scarf around my face to protect from the wind I managed to fall asleep for a few hours. Before long though the guides were shining a torch in my eyes and telling me and Steve to get up and move as the rain was coming. Not quite sure what the procedure was for rain when you’re in the middle of the desert, we got up and waited while they sorted out everybody else who was nicely tucked up in bed first. By this time it was pretty cold and they’d forced us up so I was getting a bit annoyed! We watched as their rain proof solution was to wrap massive tarpaulins over the beds and tuck it around you. Definitely wouldn’t be great if you were claustrophobic! The wind was really strong by now so we knew the rain was going to hit any minute, finally they moved our beds next to the camel cart as that was the only thing left available to wrap the tarp around. The camel cart is a hell of a lot taller than our tiny beds though so there were huge gaps either end, the tarp going mental in the wind. Steve had a big hole above his leg and literally just as they finished wrapping it around us it started lashing down. With the exception of Steve’s leg, we actually managed to stay kind of dry and though it was fairly humid under there, we slept solidly until about 6 where we had to get up and go back to the village. So getting back on about 5 hours sleep we were knackered, sandy and absolutely filthy. We ate our breakfast as quick as we could and drove to Jaisalamer, dreaming of showers and comfy beds the whole way. When we arrived, they felt as amazing as we had imagined and we relaxed in our room for a few hours.

After getting some lunch, we hired a tour guide to take us round the city which you can easily walk around. We first of all headed to the Jaisalmer Khaba Fort. Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City as all the bricks and stone structures are a yellowish colour. The guide was informative if not a bit difficult to understand with his accent. But we found out about the history of the city and the fort. 3000 local people actually still live in the fort, which itself is massive. It is also said that Jaisalmer used to be under the sea thousands of years ago and until the 1980’s it got no rain at all. So none of the buildings are made with cement or mortar because they had no water. So the whole thing is made up and built from an interlocking system which is pretty incredible. There was certainly rain there when we were there though! We were drenched within seconds. After the fort we headed down some alleyways where we saw people taking showers under gutters and playing in the rain. Our guide showed us some more Havelis like those in Mandawa but instead of painted, these were intricately carved and the amount of detail was amazing. I expected the tour to go on for about an hour, but 3 hours later we finished and it cost us a grand total of £1.50! Bargain. That evening we didn’t do a whole lot but got up early the next day for our drive to Jodphur, the blue city.

And that’s where we are now, Jodphur is also a really fascinating city but I’ll save that for the next blog instalment as once again this has got crazy long! Speak to you soon 

Xx

   
    
     

  

  

  

   

    
    
    
    
   

Thai Islands

Ah so I know I have been super slacking on my blog recently. I suppose I’ve got too caught up in doing nothing but chilling and moving from island to island in Thailand – a very difficult and stressful few weeks as you can imagine! This post is pretty long but each paragraph is a different island so you can always skip and choose as you please 🙂
So after Ho Chi Minh City we flew to Bangkok where we only spent one night before catching an overnight bus down to the south of Thailand. In Bangkok we met up with another camp friend Carys who was going to be joining us with a few others along the way. Camp reunion in Thailand – why not! The overnight bus was a lot better than expected, we didn’t have the weird kind of bed contraptions you get in Vietnam but the chairs were comfy and reclined enough to get a few hours kip. Only problem was arriving to the dock at 5am when the first boat didn’t leave until 10! Our first stop was Koh Phangan and the famous full moon party. After a lot of waiting around we finally made it to the island (after being scammed first of course – good old Thailand!). Accommodation around the full moon party is a nightmare to find. Either they make you stay a minimum of 5 nights or the hotels tend to be grim and very far from where the main action is. We had managed to book somewhere called Beer Bungalow which its name and reviews online seemed to suggest it wouldn’t be the nicest of places. But I was very pleasantly surprised! The rooms were a good size and clean, we were close to the party but not so much that you could still hear it once you stumbled home. Don’t know what these backpackers are complaining about! 
We arrived the day of the full moon party, so after a brief nap we got on our neon clothes and headed to the beach. Warned not to bring anything because of pickpockets and people generally getting drunk it felt pretty strange going in empty handed. There are stalls selling buckets of alcohol right the way down to the beach. There are also little pop up stands of people charging to body paint you. Steve got a glow in the dark dragon and ‘braveheart’ (everyone has to know that he is Scottish) which looked pretty good. I was sure I could do a better job myself though. Somehow we managed to convince a group of people to lend us their paint pots and I set to work making me and Carys neon. It worked pretty well! The full moon party itself wasn’t as insane as I had imagined but I preferred it this way. The entire party is on the beach which is pretty big, so there are sections where you can dance away in crowds of people but then you can walk 10 seconds and be in an open space where you can get a bit of a breather. The three of us really enjoyed it, especially watching those that had waayy too many buckets just collapse in the sand – a more comfortable bed than the concrete at home at least! We headed back to our room about 4am and crashed. The next day we just sunbathed and chilled and in the evening we went back to the beach for a more relaxed evening, having a few drinks and watching the fire shows which are insane! How they don’t have burn scars all over their bodies I don’t know.

The next morning we got the boat to Koh Tao which was perhaps the most horrendous boat journey of my life. After waiting in a queue with no shade in the blistering heat with my massive backpack on for about an hour and a half we finally made it on the boat. I am quite bad for sea sickness and there wasn’t really anywhere to sit outside so we headed indoors in the air con and grabbed a seat. The boat was only meant to take an hour but 2 hours later we arrived in sight of the pier. By this point my head was between my legs the whole journey had been so rocky I was ready to show my guts any minute. But at last we could see the pier! Only they then made us wait (rocking so so so so soooo much) for another 30 minutes until there was space for the boat to pull up. I could have cried. I have never run faster off something before in my life. I left poor Steve and Carys to find my bag and haul it down while I found somewhere to hide and try to focus my stomach back where it belonged. I charged through the queue of about 30 Thai people offering me taxis and plonked myself down on a step somewhere with my head between my legs. Next minute I hear a lady saying “excuse me Mrs….excuse me Mrs” I don’t even look up and say “no no taxi thank you” but she persists “excuse me Mrs….excuse me Mrs”. I finally look up and she’s trying to put this menthol oil on my fingers. I let her and then she starts actioning to me that I should rub it under my nose and start sniffing. She starts grinning and it does make me feel better. A sweet lady, I shouldn’t be so automatically judgemental! Anyway, after 10 minutes the other 2 arrive hauling my backpack along and we head to our hotel. We have a massive room here as its where we are going to meet Jenny and Katie – another 2 from camp. 

We spent about 5 nights in Koh Tao which were really good. The island itself is tiny but there’s lots of beach bars and places to relax. We made use of our new diving qualification we got in Gili and also took a morning dive session. Having to start at 7am wasn’t so fun but after a massive trek to our starting point (the weather was very choppy so the boat couldn’t come to its usual spot to pick us up) we headed out. Another horrible journey as the waves were so rough but after jumping in the water I felt fine. It was cool to set up our own equipment and just get to explore without doing lots of tests or sticking to our instructor like glue. We saw sting rays, puffer fish and some pretty cool stuff. We did 2 dives, but I think we were both a little disappointed. The visibility in Gili Trawangan is on average 28 meters. In Koh Tao the visibility was just 7 meters. It was very grey, there wasn’t much coral and you couldn’t really see a whole deal to be honest. It was still fun to do but considering it’s supposed to be the best dive site in Thailand we were expecting more! I suppose Gili has given us very high expectations! 

The rest of our time in Koh Tao is kind of a blur – we didn’t really do a whole lot! The other girls decided they wanted to stay a bit longer on the island but we were ready to move on so we got up at 5am to head back to the mainland. We had booked and paid for a taxi for that time which of course never showed, which left us frantically running about at that time in the morning trying to find a taxi that would take us to the ferry pier! We eventually found one and made our boat over to Surat Thani. From there we caught a bus to Krabi – Krabi is where most backpackers stop but we’d done a bit of research and saw that just a 10 minute boat ride away was a place called Railay Beach which seemed to have better stuff going on. It is still part of the mainland of Thailand but because of the huge cliffs that surround it it is only accessible by long tail boat. So we hopped in one of these boats and headed off. Now the water was a bit choppy yes, but we weren’t expecting this ride! It was like a roller coaster! The driver did not care about going slow! Each time the front of the boat hit the water every passenger (all 6 of us that fitted on the boat) got drenched. It was so funny and unexpected, we spent most of the time ducking into the floor and trying to hide behind the person in front! We arrived drenched and to a lot of laughs from the people waiting at the tiny pier. 

Once arriving we found our hotel (typically choosing the one furthest away and getting very lost in the process). It was also up about a million stairs up which is the most soul destroying thing you can see when you already feel like your backpack has crushed parts of your spine. But we eventually made it! There are also SO many cats in Railay Beach. I had not been feeling too well the last few days and after arriving for a few hours the pain reached its peak. Steve dragged a bedraggled and crying me down to the only clinic on Railay Beach where I had blood tests and all sorts to find out what was wrong. I was getting panicky I had appendicitis and that was not something I fancied experiencing in Thailand. It was quite funny in that the doctors would tell me nothing. Doesn’t matter that it’s my body nooooo. Steve or ‘my husband’ as they liked to keep calling him was called out and explained all my results, shown my cells and all sorts! Turned out it wasn’t my appendix thankfully and after a course of antibiotics I’m back to normal again! After that drama we grabbed some food and just went to bed. We were staying in a little bungalow hut which was pretty cute. We were so close to the sea which was nice and the whole place is strange in that the tide comes right up to the raised pavements every evening and in the morning is so far out the motorbikes drive on the surface where the water used to be, to get around. So you get the picture, the water is pretty close. And that night there was a HUGE storm. We literally thought the roof of our little bungalow was going to cave in or the whole thing was going to get swept away it was SO loud. 

The next day we got to explore Railay Beach, we looked around the caves and watched the monkeys play about with each other and steal people’s drinks. I even saw a snake slink its way out of a hollow branch which was pretty cool! We laid on Pranang beach which is beautiful and so picturesque. But before long the tide was way in and we were practically swimming to try to get back to town! The next day we had booked to go rock climbing, the main attraction in Railay Beach. After dragging myself out of bed we met our instructor and headed to some of the cliffs back on Pranang beach as they are sheltered and the rain was intermittent but very heavy! It was really fun, we had the shoes and all the safety gear but it was a hell of a lot harder than I thought! The first few climbs we did were ok – sore on the fingers but it was so cool to be so high up with such an amazing view. And you definitely feel like you’ve accomplished something. The last climb I did though – my god. Half way through there is a huge overhang which you are supposed to somehow haul yourself up. I think by this point our instructor had got a bit bored. Everytime I looked down at him for help he’s just standing there holding my rope but having a good chat to his friend. Then he would look up and say “just stand up!” This really got me going. Gradually half way up this cliff face I was getting so angry at this man I was ready to kill him. “DO YOU THINK IF I COULD ‘JUST’ STAND UP I MIGHT HAVE DONE SO ALREADY?!” He was useless. Steve tried to help but I think by that point I was past taking instruction even if the man had given me some useful tips. In the end I think I pretty much fell off and he hoisted the rope with me attached with it over the overhang. But I made it eventually! Steve did another climb but that was even harder. I was offered it but though mmmmm maybe not. Overall though it was really fun! 

After Railay Beach we hopped on another boat over to Koh Phi Phi where we spent ages. There are no cars or bikes on the island which was a nice change. We hadn’t booked anywhere to stay that night so once we arrived we found somewhere that seemed half decent with a pool. How wrong we were! Our first night we were up from 2am – 5am with a load of drunk idiots screaming their heads off and jumping in the pool. The hotel staff told them to be quiet once, they offered him money and so he grabbed his guitar and joined in! I got so mad. The next day I went and stormed to reception and was met by the horrible owner who put his hand in my face and told me to go to the police if I was bothered. Needless to say we left that hotel pretty quickly! We found one which was so much nicer – a little more expensive but with an amazing pool and incredible views. After a few nights here the girls met us in Koh Phi Phi and spent some time here too. The weather was on and off while we were there and to be honest we didn’t end up doing a whole lot! Just sunbathing or exploring. One day we took a boat trip out which took us to monkey island and the Viking caves.  We went snorkelling which I didn’t like – the fish were right by the surface, there were hundreds of them! They’re all up in your face and in your toes and asdfghjkl no. I like them at a distance where they’re not going to touch me haha. We also went to Maya Beach which was an experience! A famous beach in Thailand it is supposed to be beautiful. No one tells you about the assault course to get in to it though. If you managed to swim through the rough sea and huge rocks scratch free, you then had to climb bare footed up what I can only describe as like a lattice of rope. Not easy! After finally making it there alive and paying an extra 200 baht for the privilege we finally arrived. And the whole place was FULL of rubbish it was disgusting. I was so disappointed! People are saying it’s because of the bad weather recently everything has washed up. I have seen beautiful photos of this place but all we saw was garbage. The scenery was nice, we even walked waayy into the sea to sea if it would get any cleaner but not at all. I think if I came back I’d definitely have to make sure it was better weather! On the way back we found a cut through the rock which meant we didn’t have to brave the ropes down again and the staff from the boat took kayak runs to get us from the shore to the ship as it was now near impossible to swim! We made it and had some fried rice before watching the sunset.

On our final night in Koh Phi Phi we trekked up to the viewpoint, famous for watching the sunset. My god that was a serious hike for someone who has not exercised in 8 months (hence the seriously sweaty photos!) The views at the end were seriously worthwhile though and it was a great end to our trip. We then spent 2 nights in Krabi (where there is nothing to do – don’t go) before flying and having a night in Bangkok. And that is where I am now! Excited but also mildly terrified about the next section of our adventure….INDIA!

Sorry this has been so long – a lot to catch up on! Will update you sooner next time!

Lots of love x

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    
    
    
    
    
   

Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

So after the worst bus journey ever we arrived in Nha Trang. After a morning of sleeping we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed to go and explore the city. I expected it to be just a town but it’s actually quite big. We found it really strange when we first arrived: as we came into Nha Trang about 5.30 we expected it to still be sleepy and very quiet. We were very wrong! We went past the beach on the bus and it was PACKED. There were loads of people in the sea and hundreds of people on the sea front. All of them working out, doing exercise classes and using the funny beach gym equipment. Kind of makes sense that the only time the locals can exercise is that early when the heat isn’t so intense. By the time we were out of bed they had all disappeared and we spent the afternoon just wandering around the town and getting some food. We noticed that lots of people were trying to talk to us in another language (not Vietnamese) outside restaurants and bars to get us in and we were so confused. Then we started to notice that almost every other foreigner here was also speaking it too. We thought it was polish at first – so confused why suddenly there were so many here and not anywhere else in Vietnam! So we googled and it turns out they’re Russian – Nha Trang is a really popular holiday destination for them now because they can get direct flights there. Anyway, we pretty much ended up having to respond to everyone the next few days with “I’m not Russian. I’m not Russian. No Russian. English. I’m not Russian.” Even Russians mistook us for Russians! 

The next day we hired out a motorbike and headed to Thap Ba Mud Spa – considering it is a popular tourist destination it’s very difficult to find. First we went to the wrong spa and it was going to charge us triple the price so instead we used their wifi and google mapped how to get to the other one. We arrived and got in our swim stuff and were then greeted by a hell of a lot of stares from the locals there. We chose the cheap option and shared a big mud bath with a few other tourists but it was still fun. I expected it to be really thick and warm but really it feel like water. After about 20 minutes of covering and scrubbing ourselves in it we showered off and got put in front of a wall of about 50 jets shooting at you. That hurt a bit so we moved onto the mineral baths where we soaked for about half an hour. It’s then recommended to go in the waterfall and pool which is so warm to finish off the session. It was fun! We hopped back on our motorbike and went back to the hotel for a shower before grabbing some dinner (which was served in a pineapple!)

We woke up early (early for me not for any of you) on Tuesday to go to Vinpearl Land, basically Vietnam’s version of Disneyland. It’s on an island just off the mainland so you have to catch a cable car over the sea which was pretty cool to start. We shared with a Vietnamese family who were so worried about getting a tan from the windows of the car that they actually put an umbrella up inside. That morning I was feeling really faint and so by this time I wasn’t feeling too great. We headed for some food for some energy before going to the water park. We spent the morning going down all the flumes, some in our inner tubes, some on mats, some just on your own. Steve forced me to go down one of those like vertical drop ones which destroyed my back and gave us both the biggest wedgie ever! We were like big kids in the wave pool and just chilled down the lazy river. In the afternoon we queued for what felt like forever to go on this alpine coaster. Once strapped in we were taken up to the top of the mountain and then set free with Steve controlling our speed. Of course we went way too fast and the 25m gap between each car turned into about 2m with the car in front. We expected it to be pretty slow and boring but you actually got to go pretty quick so it was fun. We then went on some kind of upside down spinning roller coaster thing which was horrible and fun at the same time. Then were big kids again on the dodgems before setting back home. 

Nha Trang was fun but I think 2/3 days was enough. We woke up super early this time (even for you) and went to the bus stop where we got the bus to Mui Ne. Once arriving we climbed up this steep hill with our massive backpacks to our hotel. We were a bit apprehensive, we usually only book places to stay that have lots of high reviews and a good overall rating. This hotel only had one review (which was pretty good) so we thought we’d risk it. We turned up and it was so nice! It had a really nice pool, bar, restaurant (everything 50% off) and our room and ensuite was huge. Not bad for a fiver each a night! The weather was very cloudy that first afternoon so we spent it just relaxing by the pool. We only had one full day in Mui Ne so we planned what we were going to do the next day. Our hotel ran a jeep trip for 5 hours that goes through all the main sites of Mui Ne – only negative was it started at 4am! 😩

 So we reluctantly set our alarm for 3.30 that morning and were greeted by a jeep with no windows, a huge crack in the windscreen, blasting out some vengaboys. We jumped in and headed off with another couple from our hotel. We had set out so early so that we could see the sunrise and our first stop was at the white sand dunes. At that time in the morning they were pretty impressive and there was barely anyone about. We hired out a quad bike and drove to one of the highest peaks to see the sunrise from the top. The quad bikes were horrible, I had to sit on the little luggage tray on the back and I definitely thought we were going to topple over any second. Steve loved it though! On one side of the sand dunes there is a lake and the other is grasslands so it’s pretty strange. After spending some time here we then went to the red sand dunes. These weren’t quite so impressive as the white but still good to see. We spent most of the time just standing at the top and chatting to the other couple on the trip! We then went to a fishing village, we were meant to stay at least 30 mins here but God it smelt so bad I think we lasted about 5 mins! Next was the fairy stream which was really nice. The water looks deep as it has a red sand bottom but is actually really shallow and you walk through the stream. The rock formations on either side are actually compact sand so it’s strange to be able to break pieces off. They’re also streaked with red sand and the whole thing looks pretty cool. Before heading back we popped into a shop just to get a drink and the whole place smelled amazing. We asked what the lady was cooking and she was making these coconut and peanut pancakes which she folds up and makes crispy. We bought a few and they were really nice. By this time I was definitely feeling the effects of waking up so early, it felt like it was about 3pm but it was only just 8.30am! We went straight back to bed and I slept until early afternoon. The weather was a bit better, so we grabbed some lunch and sat by the pool until it clouded over and the rain hit. We arranged to meet up with the couple we went on the tour with for dinner as we just seemed to get on really well. So we spent the evening eating, drinking and just chatting non stop! It was really nice but we went to bed pretty early to be up for our bus at 8am the next morning to Saigon. 

We arrived in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City as it’s now called) around 1pm, a little bit wet as the air conditioning decided to leak buckets over us half way through the journey. We managed to find our guest house amazingly quickly considering it is tucked away some tiny alley with lots of turns in the middle of the city! After hauling our bags up to the top floor we had a quick change and went off into the city. We stopped off for some Pho Bo, Vietnam’s most famous dish that we still hadn’t tried yet. It’s like a beef noodle soup and was actually pretty nice – even Steve liked it! After we walked to the war remnants museum which was an education in itself. I thought the roads were bad in Hanoi – that was like a small scale version of this! It is actually insane. A local man even helped us cross the road at one point because we must have looked so helpless haha.

I kind of expected it to be a bit boring but it was actually so interesting. I don’t know a whole lot about the Vietnam war but this showed (albeit probably a bit bias) the horror and atrocities of it. We walked around the prison and then most of the museum is dedicated to photos from the archives that were actually painful to look at. Decapitated bodies, explosions, burns, massacres – it’s crazy it only ended 40 years ago. 3 million Vietnamese people died but since 2002 farmers and other people in Vietnam have continued to be victims from the unexploded bombs, mines and other lasting effects of the war. There is also this thing called Agent Orange that I didn’t know about. A lot of phosphorus bombs were dropped during the war and I can’t remember if it was this or something else but it has poisoned water and other substances. It can lie dormant for years but is carried on in the genes. So as the next generation after the war were born, thousands and thousands of babies had deformities and this Agent Orange is still passing on to generations today, seriously affecting birth and development.

After we walked back from the war museum we went to a really fancy French restaurant for dinner where I had a really nice steak and Ste had this amazing chicken for something like £3 each. The next day we got up and started our day by visiting the post office. This might seem a bit random but the post office in Ho Chi Minh City was actually designed by Gustav Eiffel – the same guy who did the Eiffel Tower. The structure is amazing and you can tell very French in comparison to its Vietnamese surroundings. So we sent all our postcards and bits from there before stepping outside to see another example of French architecture in the Notre Dame Cathedral just opposite. It was nice to see couples coming out of their weddings from the cathedral though their photo shoots were on another level! It was getting seriously hot by this point and we had walked for what felt like miles and miles so we got back to the hotel and had a bit of a power nap.

In the evening we went to the Sky Tower in Saigon where we had a drink on the 52nd floor and watched the sun set. The views were incredible as we watched all the lights of the city turn on. The prices were ridiculous so we definitely made our one 7up last! Afterwards we wandered around for somewhere to eat but ended up back in the same nice French restaurant as yesterday.

So now we leave for Bangkok in the morning, where we’ll travel down to Koh Phagnan and the rest of the Thai islands. Overall our time in Vietnam has been amazing, my favourite country so far. The people are so kind, there’s so much to do and the culture and history of the whole place is really interesting. Definitely well worth a visit!

Speak to you all soon

Abby xxx

   
                            

           

Hué and Hoi An, Vietnam

To get from Hanoi to Hué we had booked an overnight sleeper bus. We were very torn between a bus or a train. Most people we talked to were getting buses but everyone online suggested the train. In the end it came down to the price. A single train ticket from Hanoi to Hué cost $50 but it also cost $50 for a hop on hop off bus all the way from Hanoi to Ho Cho Minh City in the south. We arrived at the bus station as another storm hit. In the taxi there the boot managed to fly open and in the 20 second run from the taxi to the bus stop my shoes managed to fall off and we both managed to get drenched. The bus arrived late but in the meantime we spoke to a really nice local girl studying English at university who was able to help us with all our questions about the bus. When it eventually arrived we put our bags in the loading bay and Steve jumped in with them to bike chain them to a pole underneath. He got a few weird looks but I’ve heard enough horror stories about missing bags to risk anything. As we tried to get on we kept getting pushed back while the bus driver only let on the Vietnamese. We had a feeling this might happen! Then as we managed to push ourselves on the conductor started telling us we would need to wait for the next bus. I think me and Steve managed to shout at them loud enough and quick enough about our bags already being in the bus that they gave up and let us on. The bus itself is very strange, it is like bunk beds but individual seats. The do not recline fully flat so that your feet are under the person in front of you – it’s difficult to explain. Everyone says the top bunks are a bit safer so we grabbed them and got comfy. The bus was really new and actually pretty nice so it wasn’t so bad but would be a lot more comfortable if you were only 5ft and not the lanky person I am. We travelled all of 10 meters before our first stop where the driver thought he’d get out and have his dinner. Then we travelled maybe 100 meters before stopping again for an hour. By the time we actually left properly we had been sitting on the bus for 2 hours. It turns out the storm had meant lots of trees had fallen in the roads and the traffic was also a nightmare because of this so I suppose they have some excuse! (But not the driver who just wanted a snack).

Although a bit cramped, I actually managed to sleep not too bad. We arrived at Hué bus station about 10.30 the next morning and was met by a man from our hotel. He put us in a taxi while driving his motorbike along side and after 5 minutes we arrived. The people there were so so nice. Before we even stepped out the taxi they had all our bags, were making us sit down in reception, had given us cold towels to cool down with and made us order some breakfast (all of which was included in the £5 a night price). They let us check in early and took our bags up to the top floor (no lift) where we got to our room. We sat down and the electricity decided not to work. So they ended up moving us to the room next door that had 2 double beds in! Luxury! That day we rested and walked around the city, stopping off for a mango smoothie and looking into shops. In the evening we went to the night market along the river which was very small but I did manage to buy a hat which my mum has been nagging me about since I arrived in New Zealand! (NOT the ridiculous one in the photo!)

The next day we hired a motorbike ready for a busy day of site seeing. We first headed to the Citadel not too far from town which holds the imperial city. You can see a lot of the Chinese influence here in the buildings. A lot is still under restoration after natural disasters and the war, but you can still see some of the ruins of where the royal family once lived. Our motorbike then refused to start up which began an issue for the whole day. Luckily the Vietnamese people were always willing to help even if we couldn’t speak the same language and we managed to always reach the next place. After the imperial city we headed to Khai Dinh tomb and got very very lost (another recurring theme throughout the day). Once we found it, it was probably the most impressive one we visited that day – there were many steps up to the tomb but the whole building inside and out was so intricate. We also visited Ming Manh tomb and Tu Duc tomb. On the way to the second one we ended up in some rural village and as we turned a corner we saw a man with two small elephants. We were so excited we didn’t even care we were lost and we caught up with him. Only to turn another corner and realise that apparently from a distance the backside of elephants and buffalo look very similar! Such an anticlimax it was pretty funny. He managed to point us in the right direction we needed to be though. The day was boiling as always and eventually we were so sweaty and absolutely starving so we headed back to town. 

We ordered some dinner from a restaurant but the food was so bad we ended up sending it back – the waitress was not happy and we left with daggers in our backs I’m sure. So now even more hungry having not eaten since breakfast we finally found somewhere, ordered the biggest meal we could see and stuffed our faces. We drove back to our hotel and finally got a shower before having a rest and driving out for some ice cream. 

So we really enjoyed Hué, we didn’t spend long here – I think we saw all we needed to in that one busy day. Early the next morning we caught another sleeper bus (but only for 4 hours during the day this time) to Hoi An. Everybody we spoke to had been raving about Hoi An saying it was the nicest place in Vietnam so we were really excited. We arrived around midday and were met at the bus station by 2 people from our hotel on motorbikes. They proceeded to put our huge backpacks by their feet so they could barely see over the top while we hopped on the back. A quick 5 minute scoot to the place we were staying – not actually a hotel but a home stay (pretty much like a B&B) and we had arrived. We spent our first day in Hoi An not doing a whole lot but wandering about the old town. I can see why people like it, it’s full of lanterns and old buildings and side streets. Hoi An is famous for its tailoring, there are 300 tailors in the one small town but the lady who ran our hotel explained to us that only 50% of them actually have tailors. While on the bus to Hoi An, a Vietnamese guy with really good English got chatting to Steve. He owned a tailors in Hoi An and gave us his card. So after a mooch about the town we headed there. Steve looked up some materials and they gave me a load of Next catalogues to get ideas from. Although the ladies in the shop were really nice (redoing my mess of a hair and fascinated by Steve’s arm hair!) it was still pretty pricy. We then went and grabbed some dinner and watched as everything went dark and the lanterns all got turned on. During the day in Hoi An there is barely anyone about – the difference at night is crazy! It is packed full of people and the whole town seems to come to life. 

Once we were home I started to sketch a few ideas for my own dress. Then the next day we shopped around a bit more at some of the tailors. We headed to one called BiBo that had good reviews on trip advisor and was considerably cheaper. We spent the morning looking at fabrics and designs. Steve picked out a really nice blue colour for his suit with a grey silk lining, white shirt and burgundy tie – all tailor made to fit him. I spent some time with the sisters who ran the shop explaining my design and working out was possible and what was not. It was so fun! I wanted to go for something a bit cheaper and casual so was aiming for a cotton material but I fell in love with this turquoise lace for the top and they didn’t have the same colour in the cotton for the bottom. They did have it in silk however so for only a few dollars extra I thought it was worth it. They took a million and one measurements and we left them to it. I also gave them my dad and brother’s measurements for tailor made shirts, so they had a lot to do! But they said all of them would be ready by 11am the next day – crazy. We had hired bikes out from our hotel (the standard push kind this time!) and cycled to the beach. By the time we arrived I looked like I had taken a shower I was so sweaty it was disgusting. We picked a sun lounger on the beach and didn’t move for the rest of the afternoon. Around late afternoon we went back to the hotel to get showered and clean before going back into the old town for some dinner. Along the river in Hoi An there are lots of women selling little paper lanterns with tiny candles in that you can buy and drift on the river. It was really cute and the whole scene looked like that one out of Tangled. We bought one each and were given a massive pole with a little basket on the end to put our lantern in and reach over the side of the bridge to let it go. It was all very cute and we watched them drift off, but that all stopped when mine crashed into a hedge not even 5 metres down and got stuck.

The next morning we went back to see our clothes and there they were all ready! I needed a few adjustments to the length of mine and Steve also needed a few alterations. Steve also ordered another shirt and this was all ready 5 hours later. In the meantime we headed back to the beach again and repeated the day before of lying there not doing a whole lot. We did go for a swim though, it was so shallow and at one point I was just sitting there when Ste goes “oh my god get up!” I turn around and there’s like a huge jellyfish next to me! All spotty and probably the size of a cushion. I ran out that water pretty quick. That evening we went for some food which was really tasty, I had a coconut curry thing and was really pleased with my choice. Turns out my stomach definitely did not agree later on. 

We ended up picking everything up the next day – I was really pleased how everything turned out. A silk dress based on my own design made to fit me for something like £30. I’ve paid that for a plain top in topshop before! Steve’s suit looked great too. The weather was pretty meh for the next few days so we didn’t do a whole lot! We spent the time just planning other parts of our trip and going in and out of the old town. We had some amazing chocolate and coconut cakes at one cafe and spent the days drinking enough mango smoothies and chocolate milkshakes to last a lifetime.

After another day in Hoi An we caught another overnight bus to Nha Trang. This journey was horrendous, nothing like the other one we had even though it was shorter. First of all we were assigned seat numbers on this bus so me and Steve of course were sent to the very back of the bus where there weren’t individual seats but 5 in a row…so sharing with strangers this close with no space and all your bags wasn’t fun! We asked to move and the driver just point blank said no and turned away. The back of the bus is also a lot more bumpy and with the engine right below you pretty noisy too. However, I could have handled all of this but the condition of the road the whole way down was terrible. There were potholes literally the size of craters and I’m pretty sure the majority of the road was rubble. At one point my whole body actually flew off my seat! It was like being on a roller coaster. So safe to say I think I got about an hour’s sleep. We arrived in Nha Trang at 6am which meant our room obviously wasn’t ready. After getting some breakfast and sitting like a zombie in the hotel reception for 2 and a half hours they upgraded us and put us in a free room where I ran into the shower and dived into bed where I still am currently! 

Only a week or so left of Vietnam now!

Speak soon and Happy Father’s Day Dad!

Abby x 

   
                                         

Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam

We LOVE Vietnam so far! It’s been so great, the people in this country are some of the friendliest I’ve ever met, the place has so much history and a mixture of cultures and there is so much to see and do. 

We arrived in Hanoi very late and planned to get our visa on arrival. Vietnam visas are a bit strange in that in order to get it on arrival you have to pay an agent to write you a letter from Vietnam confirming you’re ok to be let in. After sifting through the hundreds of companies online we found the cheapest and got it no problem. We also filled out the application form in advance – we were arriving at 11pm so I wanted the whole process done as quickly possible. On all the forms it specifies very clearly that you need a 4x6cm photo – which we didn’t have. So I spent the whole 7 hour wait in Bangkok worrying that I wasn’t going to be let in because my stupid photo was the wrong size. So we turned up in Hanoi and they literally couldn’t care less so that saved any hassle. There were even 2 guys there with NO photo and after some persuading even they managed to get the visa easy! Haha pretty laid back to say the least. So after going through immigration we caught a taxi to our hotel. The taxi driver insisted he knew where it was, of course he didn’t! After getting very lost and making lots of phone calls we finally made it. We crashed into bed pretty quickly after that!

The hotel we were staying in was really nice, proper fancy for us! And for about £6 each a night we couldn’t really complain. In the morning we booked a trip to Halong Bay for the next day which would be an overnight cruise on a boat to the world heritage site where there are about 3,000 separate rock formations/mountains coming out the sea and something like 400 different caves. But for our first day in Vietnam we generally just did some exploring and walked about 100 miles. Everyone talks about the roads in Vietnam, especially its capital Hanoi but you can never really explain it until you’ve experienced it! There are motorbikes just EVERYWHERE as well as cars, buses, rickshaws – everything! And they are just travelling constantly, no one has right of way and there are very few traffic lights and no crossings whatsoever. Because the traffic is relentless it means there are very few opportunities to cross a clear road. So you basically have to just walk and not stop! The bikes will drive by judging where they expect you to be on the road so you can never turn back or stop, you’re far more likely to get hit. It’s so scary at first but you can get more confident with it over time and we managed to survive! So we walked for some lunch then went around all the different side alleys and streets in the old quarter. Each street is named after what it sells and though you can’t read the road sign in Vietnamese you can easily tell by an entire street selling metal or underwear or toys or fabric which is kind of cool. We went to visit –prison, which is now a museum. It was really interesting to learn some of the history of Vietnam that I don’t really know a lot about. Vietnam was a French colony but has also been part of China and you can see throughout the country a lot of these influences (e.g. baguettes everywhere – it’s great!). The prison was run by the French during the occupation to hold the rebels and revolutionaries fighting for the independence of Vietnam. As you can expect, the conditions were horrendous and the torture was pretty bad. There were also American prisoners of war held here but in comparison they were treated like kings – proper beds, clothes, food, games, no torture! Many prisoners managed to escape out of the sewers and all sorts which was grim but the whole place showed the Vietnamese spirit despite the French. 

After visiting the prison we walked to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where the former president of Vietnam who led the revolution is buried. We didn’t stay here long because it was SO hot. We stood still for one photo and I felt like I was cooking. Like when you accidentally touch the hob and burn your hand? That kind of feeling all over! It was unbearable. We were so hot by this point we dragged ourselves back to the hotel where they told us the power was out and so the air conditioning wasn’t working. I though I might cry! I asked for our room key anyway and so we headed upstairs and I sat in the shower in the pitch black to try and cool myself down. Thankfully after only about 10 minutes the power came back on. We checked the forecast and though it said it had only been 37 degrees the “but feels like” said 45 – no wonder we were a bit warm! After cooling down and relaxing for a bit we went into town for some food where I had some really nice Vietnamese spring rolls before going to ‘beer street’. Here you sit outside bars on tiny little stools and drink beer for 45p. It’s ‘fresh’ so is delivered daily and only lasts 24 hours before being chucked out – for someone who doesn’t like beer it was actually pretty nice! We were heading back to the hotel when the hugest thunderstorm hit. We quickly ran under the awning of some garage or something and watched the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen. The wind was insane and the whole thing was relentless. A few Vietnamese girls pulled in next to us and hid with us before disappearing round a corner. Then a minute later one girl pops her head round and beckons us to her. We follow and they are all hiding out in a tiny tiny little alleyway with an old lady. They offer us a tiny stool and we all sit there cramped in this damp dark space but properly sheltered from the rain. They were so nice and friendly, they offered us dried squid, to which we both tried to refuse but after persisting we felt like we had to. It was disgusting, definitely not chewable. Ste managed to discreetly spit his out but all eyes were on my reaction so I had no such luck. We sat with them for about 45 minutes, chatting in broken English and watching the rain pour. It showed no signs of stopping and really our hotel was only a 2 minute run away so we left our lovely local ladies and made a run for it.

The next morning we were up really early for our trip to Halong Bay. It was about a 4 hour drive away on a minibus where we met the other travellers on the same trip and was introduced to our tour guide whose English was just a bit tricky to understand to say the least! Once we arrived we caught a small boat to where our main boat Lemoncruise was anchored up. As we stepped on the heavens opened and once again it absolutely poured. We were given lunch on the boat while we travelled to the actual Halong bay which was still about 2 hours away. The sound of the thunder was some of the loudest I think I’ve ever heard and watching the lightening hit the sea next to the boat was pretty scary! I was worried that this would mean we’d spend our whole trip sat on the boat but thankfully after a few hours it subsided. We visited Sung Sot Cave which was pretty impressive. It was discovered by some fisherman in 1901 and I can only imagine what they must have thought when they first saw it! You go through a small entrance into a small but very tall space where the limestone rock formations dangle in all different shapes and sizes before going through a narrow alleyway into a HUGE space – it was pretty cool. After the cave we got our smaller boat to a place where we could do some kayaking. Me and Steve were keen to have a go and jumped in the first one and went off around one of the mountains. The water was so warm (everyone else managed to get out the kayak bone dry apart from us 2) and it was really cool to get up close to the caves and see all the barnacles and purple crabs scuttling about. We were then taken to a beach where we could just chill or climb the 400 steps to the top of the mountain to get an impressive view of Halong Bay. We opted for the stairs (though it was definitely a struggle!) and then threw ourselves in the water after. Bit like Chiang Mai, it was like swimming in a bath. After a swim we went back to the main boat for some dinner and a chill.

The next day we were up early and out again to visit a Pearl Farm set up on a floating platform in the middle of nowhere in the bay. It was pretty interesting, watching them fish for the oysters and cleaning them before they can check if there is a pearl inside. Our group got to chose one ready for opening to see if there was one. We were lucky and picked one with one in so we were all pretty excited. The locals were not on our same level of enthusiasm haha. Apparently being not quite spherical and a bit dirty means it’s a bit crap and will be crushed up to put in women’s creams and deodorants. It’s also quite interesting because if an oyster doesn’t produce a pearl, they will take the tissue out of a flesh oyster and insert it in the other one with a bit of shell to help it produce one. We were here for about an hour before going back to our main boat where we had a cooking class. In this cooking class we learnt how to fill one spring roll with a mixture of pork and veg that the cooks had already made. Not quite the cooking class I hoped for so I don’t think I’ll really be making you any when I get home! We then started our journey back to Hanoi. Overall the trip was really good but would have been so much better if the weather was sunnier – it was cloudy or rainy the whole time which meant we couldn’t really lie out on the deck or get the amazing photos we’ve see of Halong bay in the sunshine.

That evening we went to the Friday night market in Hanoi. It was mainly just clothes and nothing too exciting but a woman did try to pick pocket my bag! It was sat on my front as well but they’re so sneaky. Luckily Steve saw her open my bag while we were in a big crowd and she disappeared before doing anything more! They’re so clever, I thought I was fine having my bag on my front but clearly need to be a bit more careful! I’ve started walking around with my hand on the zip now or with a lock on.

Overall Hanoi was mental and so busy but really fun to experience and our trip to Halong bay was well worth it.

This blog post turned out to be way longer than planned so I will add Hué (where we have just been) in with the next one. 

Speak soon!

   
                     

Back to Phu Kradueng…

After Chiang Mai we caught a flight to Kohn Kaen where we were picked up at the airport by Ratchanee, her husband Metee and son Ken. It was SO nice to see her again after so long. You could tell she was so excited! YWe hopped in the car and headed to Phu Kradueng, in Loei province where she lives and where the school is. Before that though we had a quick trip to Tesco lotus where we received our fair share of stares before going to a Korean restaurant. I’d been there before when I went a few years ago but it was Steve’s first experience. The table has a big hole cut out and a massive steel pot/grill thing is placed in with a stove underneath. You can then choose what meat/veg/noodles you want to cook for yourself. It tastes pretty good! On the way back to the house the heavens opened and a big thunderstorm hit. Ratchanee got a phone call saying there was no power back at the house but luckily by the time we got there everything was back up and running. We also picked up Saki from his nanny – it was SO weird to see him. The last time I was here I spent 3 months carrying him around as a tiny baby – only 6 months old when I left him and now he’s a big 2 year old running and screaming about!
The next day we were up early to start our first day at school. It felt so strange to be back – the older kids that I had taught moved on to different high schools and the kindergarten kids that I taught were too young to remember me so it was like starting new! If you remember, last time I spent weeks redecorating and cleaning Ratchanee’s classroom – I knew it would be messy again (the woman is filthy messy!) but the whole place was destroyed which was a bit gutting. Everything ripped off the walls and torn down. Nothing I can do about it I suppose – I tried! We spent the first morning back in kindergarten with Oye who’s now 8 months pregnant and literally looked like she was about to pop any second. We stayed with the little ones who were only 5/6 years old teaching them songs like row row row your boat and helping them with different parts of the body. At lunch time we went to the same restaurant me and Ratchanee always went to and Steve finally found some Thai food he liked! Cashew chicken with rice which is made with onion and all sorts of fish and soy sauces. After lunch we taught with Ratchanee in Mathayom with kids who were 13-15. We started off with teaching them about directions – left, right, turn around etc – and they then had to be blindfolded and direct each other across the classroom. It was fun and they seemed to enjoy it! 

The rest of the week was much the same, teaching and playing games with them. Steve got a chance to play football in the blistering heat and in turn they taught him how to play takrow – a Thai sport where you have to kick/chest/header a small hard ball over a net to the opposite team without using your hands. He really enjoyed it and is even bringing one of the balls home with him! One evening we went to the bat cave which was amazing, even the second time around! Millions of small bats streamed out of the cave in the mountain while we watched down below. It was really fun to show Ste these places like I was the expert in the area!

That weekend Ratchanee, her husband and baby saki took us to Dansai where we visited a temple. It was a long old drive (about a 5/6 hour round trip!) for somewhere we only spent 20 minutes but they wanted to show it to us and it is worth seeing (although again my second time!). On Sunday we didn’t do much but play with Saki and get organised for the next leg of our trip. We have decided to miss out Laos and Cambodia – with the way things have worked out in different places we just don’t have enough time which is such a shame. But we decided we would rather do Vietnam properly than rush through the other countries spending only a few days in each one and miss out some of Vietnam. It is just a few more places we’ll have to add to our list to explore in the future! 

So we’re now in Vietnam and having a great time. I’m unsure whether I’ll split it up into a few blogs or stick it in one big one (probably big one as I’m too lazy) but I will update you at some point! 

Hope you’re all well,

Abby x x

   
                       

Chiang Mai

We ended up spending quite a long time in Chiang Mai which was great. Steve had a contact who let us stay in a really nice condo he owns for free the whole time and we had some time to just chill and do nothing for a bit! We left Bangkok around 6am Friday morning, arriving at the airport only about 4 hours early because the Steve-loving-ladyboy told us it would take so long to get there with the Bangkok traffic – lies! Anyway, we caught our flight and we were picked up by Martin, the guy who lives in Chiang Mai and owns the condo. 
We were knackered so we pretty much dumped our bags and slept for a bit. The weather was really bad the first few days we were there, apparently it hasn’t rained for a long time so the weather was pretty torrential! We managed to explore the city for a bit in between the rain and just wander around. One of the main reasons we came to Chiang Mai was to apply for our Indian visa, we arrived too late on the Friday so had to apply on the Monday and then wait 6 days for processing. It meant that we could spend the weekend printing off our application, getting photos done and all that palava. On Saturday evening Martin let us borrow his scooter – it’s the first time I’ve ever been on a scooter/motorbike/moped whatever the hell it was so I was a bit scared, it took a while to get used to! But we had our helmets and Steve had strict instructions that he wasn’t allowed to go fast and so I got used to it pretty quickly. The main centre of Chiang Mai is a perfect square surrounded by a moat – on a map it looks so simple but it was actually stupid the amount of times we managed to get lost! 

On the Sunday we went into a hostel and enquired about some things to do in Chiang Mai – we knew we wanted to spend a day with the elephants and we had done a fair bit of research but we wanted some more help. I didn’t want to pay to go somewhere where they would be tied up and not treated right. They suggested the best place to go to – a small elephant sanctuary with only 8 elephants that don’t let you ride them but let you do all sorts of other cool stuff. So we booked in for Wednesday. That evening was the famous Sunday night street market. I was really excited as this was the one I’d been to before when I came a few years ago and I know it’s just full of stuff that I want to buy but can’t fit in my bag to take home! We arrived when they were still setting up so we decided to get a massage. Thai massages aren’t exactly relaxing but they make you feel really nice afterwards – I’d had loads before from the last time I came but it was Steve’s first time, apart from the touching his feet I think he enjoyed it! After an hour’s massage the market was in full swing. It is absolutely HUGE no way you could even see every stall. We bought loads of cool stuff for presents when we get home. And definitely practiced our bargaining skills it was really fun and a very successful trip! 

Monday morning we were up early to go to the Indian embassy. It started off well by going to completely the wrong place but we managed to get there in the end. After the nightmare of China I was pretty nervous but had heard good things about the embassy here – that they were friendly and a lot more laid back than in Bangkok. The embassy itself looked just like a house and when we arrived a man came out to look over our forms. We had everything but he was not happy that we were applying a month in advance. He kept saying we should apply when we’re in Beijing (we had not printed out our new flight itinerary showing we weren’t going to China anymore – I thought they were just look at the entry and exit date, not even bother where we were coming from!) Obviously this was going to be impossible for us and I thought “oh no not again” as he started with more and more reasons to refuse us. The standard India tourist visa is valid for 6 months so we knew we could apply. We argued our case but he was having none of it. The main guy that decides yes or no was inside with someone else who perfect timing just finished. Exhausted with us the man who kept saying no took us in to the other guy so we would be quiet. The main man looked through our papers, saw our passports had lots of other visas inside and shouted at the other man “WHAT IS THE PROBLEM!?” Then proceeded to yell at him in another language. We sat there just a little bit smug. He said he could only give us a 3 month visa but that wasn’t a problem for us – as long as it covered the time we were there we were happy! So reluctantly the other man processed our application with a list of things that we had to bring when we came back (none of which we needed when we did come back). Thankfully though it was all resolved and we left our passports with them to collect the next week.

The next day we hired out a scooter for ourselves. We wanted to go to a canyon about 30 minutes out of Chiang Mai. We set up google maps on our phones and headed off. Amazingly we managed to get there very smoothly without getting lost. We arrived in the morning and there were very few people there, the water was amazingly blue and there were huge rocks which divided different pools. We were desperate to get in as it was something stupid like 38 degrees by this point. We spoke to one guy who had jumped off one of the cliffs which must have been about 15/20 metres high. The water is supposed be 35 metres deep so it should be easy enough but Thailand is not big on safety and we had heard some horror stories online of jumping off the wrong point in this place so I wasn’t feeling it! We climbed down to the canyon instead and took a swim – not so refreshing more like swimming in bath water it was so warm! But nice all the same even if it did dye everything orange. We met a couple from New Zealand and the girl was a bit braver than us – we watched her jump off the cliff which was definitely a bit scary! But she made it out alive so all is good. By the time the afternoon came around it started to become quite a bit busier so we hopped back on the scooter and back into town for some lunch. We then went back the condo which has a pool and jumped straight in. That evening we drove to the night bazaar which had some more markets to wander around. 

Wednesday came around and it was one of our most exciting days of the whole trip. We were up early to get picked up and taken to the elephant sanctuary. About an hour out of Chiang Mai, we had opted to do the full day experience – double the price but I’m SO glad we did it. We started the day by changing into our Mahout outfits. The elephants are familiar with the smells of this fabric so it comforts them, our guide (who also was a ladyboy but a very nice one this time) explained that if we wore our own clothes the elephants may find it distressing as it is unfamiliar which can lead to them becoming aggressive. There was only a group of 6 of us (plus a 2 year old – why you would bring a baby to play with elephants 20 times the size of it I’m not quite sure) so it was quite nice and we had good opportunities to ask lots of questions. We sat on a mat and were given huge bags of tamarind (full of bugs and flies!) and big bags of salt. We had to squish the sticky tamarind together and cover in salt to make balls that we would feed to the elephants. It acts as a kind of medicine for them that they get apparently every few days. After packing up our tamarind balls we went to visit a female elephant about 19 years old with her two month old baby. Soooo cute! The mum and baby were tied together with a long piece of rope but the Mahout guides explained that this was only because if they didn’t the baby would run off everywhere (imagine an uncontrollable toddler!) into other elephant territory and the mum would get aggressive and the whole thing would be a nightmare! So poor mum had to follow baby around everywhere it wanted to go. The baby could still only have milk so we all fed the mum the tamarind which she loved. We got to stroke them and rub their trunks – our guide took our gopro for practically the whole day which meant we got some amazing photos but got to really enjoy being with the elephants without worrying about capturing any of it on camera! After feeding the mum, the baby decided it wanted to play in the mud bath, which was so funny. Everyone else in our group was a bit wary I think (understandable, you forget how huge elephants actually are and when there’s no fence and they decide to change direction or come near you you have to really run and jump out the way to avoid being squashed!) but me and Steve jumped straight in this horrible groggy mud pool with them. We scrubbed their skin and covered them in mud to keep the mosquitos away. The baby was rolling about everywhere and it was such a great experience. Afterwards we collected some corn for them while the other elephants came to where we are and then left them to go have some lunch of our own.

We were given some nice traditional Thai food and a chance to relax and escape from the heat. (Also to try and attempt to wash off the mud caked top to toe on us). Afterwards we got back into the minivan and were taken to a sugar cane farm. Here we were given a knife and had to chop down the sugar cane which we’d give to the elephants. We also got to chew on a few pieces too which was strange – so sweet! Then we were taken to our next meeting place where we were reunited with mum and baby as well as one more fully grown elephant and a very playful 5 year old elephant. We walked with them through the jungle to a big river which they ran in. It was amazing to see how much they loved it. Elephants don’t sweat like us so they get extremely hot – the river must have felt amazing for them! It was like playing with children they were dunking themselves, falling over sideways, swimming and wallowing while we splashed them and got squirted in return. It was so much fun I can’t even explain! As we headed out of the river though something bit my toe in the water (the water is brown you can’t see anything) and OW I could feel it going through my foot. It hurt so much the guides came running over while Steve held me up dramatically hobbling. After 2 minutes though it faded completely but very strange! Something also wrapped itself around Ste’s foot – God knows what that was! Anyway, after that minor trauma we walked the elephants back up the river again. After a shower and change it was the end of our day and we went back home. An amazing experience that I’ll never forget. 

The next day we laid by the pool and did absolutely nothing – heaven! Thai people avoid the sun at all costs so we basically had it to ourselves. On Friday we hired a scooter again and went to Doi Suthep, a famous temple at the top of a mountain in Chiang Mai. Every monk must visit this temple at some point in their lives so we were keen to see if it was as impressive as it sounded. The road up the mountain was very very windy which took some getting used to but again we made it there no problem. Like everywhere in Thailand, foreigners are charged to get in so we paid (like £1) and had a look around. The detail like most temples was really intricate and the whole place was quite impressive. The views of Chiang Mai from that high up were also really nice. 

We still had a few days until we could collect our visa and leave so we spent most of the time just chilling and exploring. Martin took us to a lake for lunch one day which was very calm and quiet and we visited all the markets again. We booked our flight to the Thai school I stayed at in 2013 for only 4 hours after collecting our visa so I was praying the whole thing would go smoothly. It did and we caught our flight no bother. 

We’re now in Phu Kradueng and it’s been so great to see Ratchanee again and spend time with the kids at school. I’ll let you know about it all soon! 

Chiang Mai I think is one of the nicest places in Thailand – a definite must see if you go! 

Abby x