After much shouting at Qantas, praying to the God of aviation and a nice man at Trailfinders swapping our ticket to British Airways, we have a new flight. We now arrive in the UK a week earlier than we expected. We leave here on Thursday 29th and arrive into Heathrow 06.25 on Friday 30th so we'll see you lovely people at the weekend.
I'll definitely be sorry to leave here, Pete's place is pretty fantastic and along with great weather and decent food, it's not a bad life. That said, the thought of earning some money again is not to be sniffed at.
Looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday.
Mx
p.s. James isn't at all happy with the change of flight and I quote "thanks for ruining my holiday and making me go home" so expect one happy and one grumpy face when you see us.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Could it be Wembley?
Nothing to do with our travels, but I thought you'd all be delighted to know that today Leicester have secured a Play-Off place.
Now, will we be playing Forest or Bluebirds?
Up the City!
Now, will we be playing Forest or Bluebirds?
Up the City!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Explosions in Bangkok
Just to offer some clarification to folks at home, we're no longer in Bangkok [as of last night], and are now enjoying a quiet life in Phuket courtesy of Rik's Dad, Pete.
We heard about the Grenade attacks, but the most we have to contend with for the next few weeks is sun-burn. Hopefully catch some of you on Skype over the next few weeks.
James and Miranda
We heard about the Grenade attacks, but the most we have to contend with for the next few weeks is sun-burn. Hopefully catch some of you on Skype over the next few weeks.
James and Miranda
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Bonus Edition
So as you're all aware, we weren't able to fly back to enjoy Pie Night and company of family. We thought maybe the delay was a small blessing and would buy us a couple of additional sunny days in Bangkok. I don't however think either of us, or indeed yourselves, thought we'd be 'trapped' in Bangkok for another 3 weeks... in fact, we were more than a little startled at the news that Qantas couldn't accommodate us before then.
Looking on the bright side, we get an additional holiday and some serious wind down time, as really we've both finished 'travelling', we're now in holiday mode and plan to make the most of it, doing as little as possible and trying not to make things too costly. Luckily, Rik and his Dad have come to our aid, and tonight we're going to take the sleeper bus down to Phuket, where hopefully we can track Pete's house down and make use of the spare room we've so kindly been offered. Thanks guys!
We'll stay put for as long as possible, and franly hold zero hope of getting an earlier flight home, I just can't see how logistically, even with additional planes, that thinks will move fast enough to see us dumped on an earlier flight. Surely the bottleneck will be the airport parking, air traffic and will mean only a small increase in throughput for those in the queue?
I will say this though, the UK Embassy, were apparently zero help. Basiclly if you're short of cash, or in a spot of bother, you need to call your friends and family for assistance or your travel insurance, zero aid is forthcoming. When you consider how many taxes we pay in the UK, you'd think maybe, just maybe a tin of SPAM or similar would be the least you'd expect. Next up, travel insurance, well we called Go Backpackers/eTravel and basically got told that despite buying a more premium level of insurance from them, that they too will not be putting their hands in their pockets, you see, Section H, point 2b says "if the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] intervene temporarily, or permanently" then we're not covered, even under the Catastrophe cover we have. Useless jobsworth clowns. Finally, Qantas have said they too cannot offer anything, and that our best bet is keeping hold of receipts and sending them to their CS department in Australia, which amounts in my eyes to - go bark up another tree.
Stranded if therefore fairly poignant, or at least we would be if we had children, pets, a mortgage and other obligations. Luckily, aside from money and Miranda's job [who are naturally understanding], we have no such hard wired commitments, or limitations. That said, I'm sure there's people who aren't so fortunate and are right now having to take loans, or worse to pay for medication or deal with other such issues. Hopefully, this will prove to be a valuable lesson in disaster relief, because frankly, from where I'm sitting it has been handled with sheer incompetence with confusion king-of-the-hill.
Anyway, just thought I'd put a little post up to let you know we're OK, and in very good spirits over the whole issue. All being well we'll see thee on May 8th for conclusion and pie, lots of piiiiiiieeeee.
Looking on the bright side, we get an additional holiday and some serious wind down time, as really we've both finished 'travelling', we're now in holiday mode and plan to make the most of it, doing as little as possible and trying not to make things too costly. Luckily, Rik and his Dad have come to our aid, and tonight we're going to take the sleeper bus down to Phuket, where hopefully we can track Pete's house down and make use of the spare room we've so kindly been offered. Thanks guys!
We'll stay put for as long as possible, and franly hold zero hope of getting an earlier flight home, I just can't see how logistically, even with additional planes, that thinks will move fast enough to see us dumped on an earlier flight. Surely the bottleneck will be the airport parking, air traffic and will mean only a small increase in throughput for those in the queue?
I will say this though, the UK Embassy, were apparently zero help. Basiclly if you're short of cash, or in a spot of bother, you need to call your friends and family for assistance or your travel insurance, zero aid is forthcoming. When you consider how many taxes we pay in the UK, you'd think maybe, just maybe a tin of SPAM or similar would be the least you'd expect. Next up, travel insurance, well we called Go Backpackers/eTravel and basically got told that despite buying a more premium level of insurance from them, that they too will not be putting their hands in their pockets, you see, Section H, point 2b says "if the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] intervene temporarily, or permanently" then we're not covered, even under the Catastrophe cover we have. Useless jobsworth clowns. Finally, Qantas have said they too cannot offer anything, and that our best bet is keeping hold of receipts and sending them to their CS department in Australia, which amounts in my eyes to - go bark up another tree.
Stranded if therefore fairly poignant, or at least we would be if we had children, pets, a mortgage and other obligations. Luckily, aside from money and Miranda's job [who are naturally understanding], we have no such hard wired commitments, or limitations. That said, I'm sure there's people who aren't so fortunate and are right now having to take loans, or worse to pay for medication or deal with other such issues. Hopefully, this will prove to be a valuable lesson in disaster relief, because frankly, from where I'm sitting it has been handled with sheer incompetence with confusion king-of-the-hill.
Anyway, just thought I'd put a little post up to let you know we're OK, and in very good spirits over the whole issue. All being well we'll see thee on May 8th for conclusion and pie, lots of piiiiiiieeeee.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Bangkok
Today we're leaving Saigon and flying back to Bangkok for sadly our final stop!
We spent a good few days here with Rik and Rach (who are now engaged, big congratulations there), before heading down to Mui Ne for some much needed "look, I have a drink and a lounger, I'm not moving" time, after some three days of sun, we stayed our final night in Saigon, and will be flying to Bangkok later today.
Fear not, we'll be staying at the Bangkok Cha-Da again, which is out of the way, and therefore no need to worry about the recent problems. The only exception to this is if the airport is closed, and we have to extend our travels for another few weeks... but we have "Pie Night" to look forward to, can't say I won't be sad to see the ugly back of Vietnamese cuisine, give me Thai any day of the week!
Still can't quite compute that we're staring 4 days in the face, as much as i'm looking forward to seeing you all, I'm not sure I'm ready for rip-off Britain and finding a flat, a job and maybe even some new pants. That said, CV is updated, and had a few enquiries from recruiters, hopefully it will be easy.
To aid with the above, we're having some tailor made suits made in Saigon (which will arrive a week after we get home), so we'll both be looking dapper, and sharp.
Anyway, food is on the table, bye for now!
We spent a good few days here with Rik and Rach (who are now engaged, big congratulations there), before heading down to Mui Ne for some much needed "look, I have a drink and a lounger, I'm not moving" time, after some three days of sun, we stayed our final night in Saigon, and will be flying to Bangkok later today.
Fear not, we'll be staying at the Bangkok Cha-Da again, which is out of the way, and therefore no need to worry about the recent problems. The only exception to this is if the airport is closed, and we have to extend our travels for another few weeks... but we have "Pie Night" to look forward to, can't say I won't be sad to see the ugly back of Vietnamese cuisine, give me Thai any day of the week!
Still can't quite compute that we're staring 4 days in the face, as much as i'm looking forward to seeing you all, I'm not sure I'm ready for rip-off Britain and finding a flat, a job and maybe even some new pants. That said, CV is updated, and had a few enquiries from recruiters, hopefully it will be easy.
To aid with the above, we're having some tailor made suits made in Saigon (which will arrive a week after we get home), so we'll both be looking dapper, and sharp.
Anyway, food is on the table, bye for now!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Vietnam, so far.
We landed safely in Hanoi, jumped on a shuttle and met Rik and Rach at the train station. We headed immediately for somewhere serving food, luckily we found a small cheap eatery a minute away. On the menu, a fine selection of foods, ranging from Chickens Stomach, Beef Penis, Steamed Dog, Pigs Trotters and a few other options like Fish, Noodles and some more 'normal' cuts of meat. An hour later, we were on a sleeper train heading to Lao Cai. It was definitely good to see some familiar faces, and enjoy some boy humour [I'm sure Miranda will share the same view], catch up, and enjoy a beer together.
The train itself was fine, not quite up there with the Orient Express, but the beds were comfortable, and we all slept reasonably well after knocking back some Hanoi beer [and Oreo's]. We all woke up to a knock on the cabin door, which meant we'd arrived in Lao Cai, and from there a short 40Km hop on a mini-van to our final destination, Sapa.
Sa Pa is famed for it's location in the hills [altitude of around 1,600M], and the ease of access for meeting the rural hill tribe folk and their villages. We only spent one night there, which is definitely all you need, and having hired some mopeds, we went about our discovery of several villages via some long windy roads/tracks, which was frequently interesting. We passed though the villages of Hau Thao [H'Mong tribe], Su Fan [School photos] and finally into Ban Ho [Zay and Tay tribes]. The highlight I think for all, was visiting a local school, unannounced and armed with sweets for the kids, we got some good pictures, poor things needed a wash. Another thing that did strike us, was how friendly they all were, and certainly got the feeling not many tourists penetrate as far as we got away from Sa Pa, highly rewarding, and very much an inspiring experience.
Reaching Ban Ho with a bit of a thirst and hunger, we decided the settle for lunch [it's the end of the road], and thanks for a language barrier were forced to communicate our wishes by [me alone, ahem] performing a number of drawings, and farm animal movements and noises... *Snoooort*. Soon, we'd communicated we wanted Chicken, and a couple of minutes later, a girl came back with a Chicken, which at this point I wasn't sure if it served purely as clarification, buying a live Chicken to take home, or witnessing a sacrifice. On questioning, I managed to work out this Chicken was going to be putting it's neck on the line for us, and me being somewhat curious, in need of education, or perverse [delete as appropriate] decided to go and witness our lunch being slaughtered - fear not, I have it in glorious HD video. Actually, I think it's something everyone should see, if only to appreciate that meat doesn't grow on tree's, and that it doesn't grow with cling film and a price sticker on it. The Chicken [and associated rice] cost us £6 to feed the four of us.
The reality however was different from my expectations. My thinking was that this would be the freshest Chicken we'd ever eaten, and that it would be a fantastic eat. Wrong. It was awful, on so many levels. Not only was the Chicken basically quartered [minus the Breast, which mysteriously disappeared], therefore, two people had feet in their bowls, one beak and head, 2 kidneys, a liver, some unidentified pieces of meat, and some other typical pieces like wings, drumsticks... pick out the bits we want and man up, right? Wrong. Either they switched our freshly slaughtered Chicken, for something akin to a 2 week old carcass, that had been reheated a dozen times, or it was simply the worst Chicken I [actually all of us] had ever tasted, tough, bland, atrocious.
Throughout my life, I'd always disliked animals around the table during a meal time, however on this occasion, it was an absolutely wonderful, a godsend. The dogs ate well, very well, and we managed to [successfully, I think] pass off our almost unprecedented hunger off with a beaming smile on our face, before promptly leaving. It sounds awful, and the food was, but it sure made for an enjoyable meal, never have I laughed so much in the face of misfortune.
With that out of the way, we headed to a nearby waterfall, where we were told there was a pool for swimming. It was rather spontaneous, and sadly the girls didn't fancy dressing down to their lingerie for a dip. Rik [sporting his UK winter tan] and I however were game, and promptly went about discovering just how cold Vietnamese water can be... breathtaking. This came after trying to scale a wall, and build a bridge to gain access to the upper pool and slide down the waterfall... on reflection, it's probably a good job we failed, it was pretty powerful, albeit small. Rik also performed his signature 'walking on water' miracle, see pics. Did I mention how cold it was?!
That night we headed to a restaurant, grabbed our first decent [mine, average] meal in Vietnam, and basically got a little merry. The following day was spent on another moped road trip, finishing with another local village, called Cat Cat. This one was significantly different, and very disappointing after our experience the previous day. Cat Cat suffers from tourism as much as it probably profits from it, basically here they see so many tourist that nobody is openly friendly [unless they want money for something], and it just feels like an organised tour over an above a discovery of something special. For instance, there's a lovely stone path that would put Jacobs Ladder [it shares the same incline as well] to shame which intricately weaves and meanders it's way through the village and into the next... overall, just disappointing, but to be expected I guess given the proximity to Sa Pa town, which is easily walking distance. Map HERE if you're interested.
Right, I have to dash, we're getting a flight to Saigon tonight [more on that later], and Miranda is giving me the cross-eyed look!
Finally, there's also stacks of photos that I've been uploaded in the last day or so, enjoy.
[probably full of errors, but I have no time to re-read it now]
The train itself was fine, not quite up there with the Orient Express, but the beds were comfortable, and we all slept reasonably well after knocking back some Hanoi beer [and Oreo's]. We all woke up to a knock on the cabin door, which meant we'd arrived in Lao Cai, and from there a short 40Km hop on a mini-van to our final destination, Sapa.
Sa Pa is famed for it's location in the hills [altitude of around 1,600M], and the ease of access for meeting the rural hill tribe folk and their villages. We only spent one night there, which is definitely all you need, and having hired some mopeds, we went about our discovery of several villages via some long windy roads/tracks, which was frequently interesting. We passed though the villages of Hau Thao [H'Mong tribe], Su Fan [School photos] and finally into Ban Ho [Zay and Tay tribes]. The highlight I think for all, was visiting a local school, unannounced and armed with sweets for the kids, we got some good pictures, poor things needed a wash. Another thing that did strike us, was how friendly they all were, and certainly got the feeling not many tourists penetrate as far as we got away from Sa Pa, highly rewarding, and very much an inspiring experience.
Reaching Ban Ho with a bit of a thirst and hunger, we decided the settle for lunch [it's the end of the road], and thanks for a language barrier were forced to communicate our wishes by [me alone, ahem] performing a number of drawings, and farm animal movements and noises... *Snoooort*. Soon, we'd communicated we wanted Chicken, and a couple of minutes later, a girl came back with a Chicken, which at this point I wasn't sure if it served purely as clarification, buying a live Chicken to take home, or witnessing a sacrifice. On questioning, I managed to work out this Chicken was going to be putting it's neck on the line for us, and me being somewhat curious, in need of education, or perverse [delete as appropriate] decided to go and witness our lunch being slaughtered - fear not, I have it in glorious HD video. Actually, I think it's something everyone should see, if only to appreciate that meat doesn't grow on tree's, and that it doesn't grow with cling film and a price sticker on it. The Chicken [and associated rice] cost us £6 to feed the four of us.
The reality however was different from my expectations. My thinking was that this would be the freshest Chicken we'd ever eaten, and that it would be a fantastic eat. Wrong. It was awful, on so many levels. Not only was the Chicken basically quartered [minus the Breast, which mysteriously disappeared], therefore, two people had feet in their bowls, one beak and head, 2 kidneys, a liver, some unidentified pieces of meat, and some other typical pieces like wings, drumsticks... pick out the bits we want and man up, right? Wrong. Either they switched our freshly slaughtered Chicken, for something akin to a 2 week old carcass, that had been reheated a dozen times, or it was simply the worst Chicken I [actually all of us] had ever tasted, tough, bland, atrocious.
Throughout my life, I'd always disliked animals around the table during a meal time, however on this occasion, it was an absolutely wonderful, a godsend. The dogs ate well, very well, and we managed to [successfully, I think] pass off our almost unprecedented hunger off with a beaming smile on our face, before promptly leaving. It sounds awful, and the food was, but it sure made for an enjoyable meal, never have I laughed so much in the face of misfortune.
With that out of the way, we headed to a nearby waterfall, where we were told there was a pool for swimming. It was rather spontaneous, and sadly the girls didn't fancy dressing down to their lingerie for a dip. Rik [sporting his UK winter tan] and I however were game, and promptly went about discovering just how cold Vietnamese water can be... breathtaking. This came after trying to scale a wall, and build a bridge to gain access to the upper pool and slide down the waterfall... on reflection, it's probably a good job we failed, it was pretty powerful, albeit small. Rik also performed his signature 'walking on water' miracle, see pics. Did I mention how cold it was?!
That night we headed to a restaurant, grabbed our first decent [mine, average] meal in Vietnam, and basically got a little merry. The following day was spent on another moped road trip, finishing with another local village, called Cat Cat. This one was significantly different, and very disappointing after our experience the previous day. Cat Cat suffers from tourism as much as it probably profits from it, basically here they see so many tourist that nobody is openly friendly [unless they want money for something], and it just feels like an organised tour over an above a discovery of something special. For instance, there's a lovely stone path that would put Jacobs Ladder [it shares the same incline as well] to shame which intricately weaves and meanders it's way through the village and into the next... overall, just disappointing, but to be expected I guess given the proximity to Sa Pa town, which is easily walking distance. Map HERE if you're interested.
Right, I have to dash, we're getting a flight to Saigon tonight [more on that later], and Miranda is giving me the cross-eyed look!
Finally, there's also stacks of photos that I've been uploaded in the last day or so, enjoy.
[probably full of errors, but I have no time to re-read it now]
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Laos? Done.
After our whistle stop of Laos, we're shortly due to catch our next flight, Lao Airways, for Hanoi... Wish us luck!
In a nutshell then, Laos is a country of diversity. There's a feel of relative western influence, not least the French in the major cities (Vientiane, Luang Prabang). This however seems quite far removed from the population itself. Sure, there's nice buildings, scatter cushions, nice spa's and bakeries, but the people don't live in the colonial towns, they don't own the cushions, and they certainly can't afford treatments and massage - after talking to a girl yesterday, she earns 80p for giving an hour massage, and works a 13 hour day, 7 days a week.
If you look merely 5 minutes away from here, you'll uncover the outlying villages (the real Laos), paved by mud tracks, seemingly ramshackle buildings which shout DIY, and children walking happily amongst livestock.
For me, the best experiences, have been visiting the places where the people live, to see where the locals eat, and where they wash their clothes and themselves in the river. If you look 50 yards upstream, you might see Water Buffalo, or even us washing our Elephants.
The people here, they don't have much, but they don't seem to want it. Family values and friendship are definitely close to the heart, you just have to look in the street at the kids playing with bicycle tyres, or a
mother clutching her baby as she cooks. The saddening part really I guess is not seeing this at home, when was the last time you saw a group of children laughing almost uncontrollably? Maybe the UK lifestyle is too far removed from this for comparison?
I'd definitely like to visit Laos again, the people here are friendly, welcoming and often not hard pressed to throw a smile in your direction. It definitely seems a daunting prospect as London looms wide on the horizon, the city that if you rely on the surly waiting roomesque tube etiquette and common practice (or art) of looking through people, just seems worlds apart, and it is!
Vientiane, not a lot to do there, maybe spend a day, rent a motorbike and take a ride out to a village, meet the local drug smugglers.
Vang Vieng, if you want Marijuana, Opium, Mushrooms or anything else trippy, come here, just don't expect to see any locals. Worth a visit for the Tubing, scenery and eco-trips though. (see pics)
Luang Prabang, for us, it was Elephant riding, Kayaking, Night Market and learning the perils of Pottery making. Lots of temple, and then a few more.
You can't easily summarise Laos (or indeed many of the places we've visited), but hopefully the constant stream of pictures can fill in the holes in my vocabulary.
Anyway, we're off to 'Nam maaaaan, and guess what? You just weren't thereeee maaaan.
We'll be meeting Rik and Rach in a few hours, and Rik has English teabags..... Woooooooooooooeiiiiiii
Cya soon!
In a nutshell then, Laos is a country of diversity. There's a feel of relative western influence, not least the French in the major cities (Vientiane, Luang Prabang). This however seems quite far removed from the population itself. Sure, there's nice buildings, scatter cushions, nice spa's and bakeries, but the people don't live in the colonial towns, they don't own the cushions, and they certainly can't afford treatments and massage - after talking to a girl yesterday, she earns 80p for giving an hour massage, and works a 13 hour day, 7 days a week.
If you look merely 5 minutes away from here, you'll uncover the outlying villages (the real Laos), paved by mud tracks, seemingly ramshackle buildings which shout DIY, and children walking happily amongst livestock.
For me, the best experiences, have been visiting the places where the people live, to see where the locals eat, and where they wash their clothes and themselves in the river. If you look 50 yards upstream, you might see Water Buffalo, or even us washing our Elephants.
The people here, they don't have much, but they don't seem to want it. Family values and friendship are definitely close to the heart, you just have to look in the street at the kids playing with bicycle tyres, or a
mother clutching her baby as she cooks. The saddening part really I guess is not seeing this at home, when was the last time you saw a group of children laughing almost uncontrollably? Maybe the UK lifestyle is too far removed from this for comparison?
I'd definitely like to visit Laos again, the people here are friendly, welcoming and often not hard pressed to throw a smile in your direction. It definitely seems a daunting prospect as London looms wide on the horizon, the city that if you rely on the surly waiting roomesque tube etiquette and common practice (or art) of looking through people, just seems worlds apart, and it is!
Vientiane, not a lot to do there, maybe spend a day, rent a motorbike and take a ride out to a village, meet the local drug smugglers.
Vang Vieng, if you want Marijuana, Opium, Mushrooms or anything else trippy, come here, just don't expect to see any locals. Worth a visit for the Tubing, scenery and eco-trips though. (see pics)
Luang Prabang, for us, it was Elephant riding, Kayaking, Night Market and learning the perils of Pottery making. Lots of temple, and then a few more.
You can't easily summarise Laos (or indeed many of the places we've visited), but hopefully the constant stream of pictures can fill in the holes in my vocabulary.
Anyway, we're off to 'Nam maaaaan, and guess what? You just weren't thereeee maaaan.
We'll be meeting Rik and Rach in a few hours, and Rik has English teabags..... Woooooooooooooeiiiiiii
Cya soon!
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