A huge thankyou to mum for coming and visiting us. She is now officially a traveller!!!
She certainly surprised us all how she took to life on the road. From the moment she arrived into Bangkok...all kitted out with backpack and daypack strapped to the front...she looked right at home. She just got straight into the lifestyle, roughed it with the rest of us and never complained once...I think she must have been a traveller in a former life :)
Looking forward to seeing you in NZ in May. Take good care and give our best wishes to all at home.
All our love, Tom Lynn & Cathy xxx
p.s hope the journey back was ok for you
Sunday, 25 January 2009
MRS P'S BLOG FROM THAILAND!!!
This is Anne (Tom's mum) writing a bit on the blog having now earned the title 'mini-traveller'!
My journey began on Sat 10th Jan from Newcastle airport, an eight hour stop over in Dubai, then finally arriving in Bangkok on Sun night, to hear Tom shouting me from one floor up in the arrivals lounge. After a tearful reunion I cried all over again to see the happy, smiling faces of Lynn & Cathy at the bus stop waiting for us. It was just the best feeling to see them again after 4 long months.
After one great night in Bangkok (got my second wind from God knows where - even managing Khao San Rd) then the real adventure began. A tuk-tuk to the station to catch the overnight train to Surat Thani was a real eye opener. Only managing to brush my teeth, I was now entering the real world of 'travellers' by not being able to wash, sleeping in the same clothes I set off in - the amazing thing was it didn't bother me as we were all the same!
A bus took us to the port where we were taken by ferry to Koh Phangan via Koh Samui, a journey which took 3 hrs across on unusually rough sea. Fortunately I was fine being born of a Royal Marine and a Wren!
Then a taxi to Haad Rin where we picked up the boat to take us to Haad Yuan we set off bouncing over the waves and saw me hanging on for dear life. As we sailed round I saw the most beautiful beach of Haad Yuan come into view - just like how you imagine paradise to be. We landed right on the beach, I was totally drenched from head to foot but happy to be there, I would not have missed that journey for all the world.
I had the pleasure of the Big Blue experience for 7 brilliant nights and am now totally hooked on Massaman curries, tuna melts & Oreo shakes!
It was a bit cloudy for the first 3 days then it just got hotter n hotter.
I'm now the proud owner of 3 pairs of fishermans pants bought from the lovely Samran, father of gorgeous Bon (Cathy's friend!) Our hut, VIP 1 was absolutely great, right on the beach with the most spectacular views and so so peaceful.
Nights were spent laid very comfortably on cushions on the floor watching one or sometimes both of the films shown every night. It was with quite some sadness when I had to leave this amazing place, I promised myself to come back again before not to long.
We are now back in Bangkok for the next part of this great adventure, it's a very lively and colourful place, lots of different smells as you walk past all the open air cooking stalls. Wednesday was spent sightseeing in a couple of tuk-tuks who were supposed to take us to various places. We manged to see the Lucky Buddha & the huge standing Buddha - somehow they managed to drop us at a couple of handmade suit & jewellery shops and at the last temple never returned for us - we'd been dumped! It didn't cost us a single baht so it turned out well in the end.
Thursday was an early start to Kanchanaburi, a brilliant trip which took in the war cemetary, museum, then the very famous bridge over the River Kwai which was a bit hairy when people were crossing in the opposite direction. We then went elephant trekking & were able to feed these quiet, beautiful animals at the end with bunches of bananas. We were then taken to a raft for a leisurely sail, as I was getting on, I stood on what I thought was a rock, sadly it turned out to be a piece of polystyrene - yes you can guess the rest! There's always one but at least I fell in the River Kwai with some grace...think I need to visit Specsavers on my return.
Friday saw lots & lots of shopping in Rambutri and Khao San Road, I had to borrow a couple of times from Tom until finally LloydsTSB took the security block off my card! A visit to the pictures in Siam Square finished off a lovely day, tired out but happy.
I fly home today, it's 8.00am, Cathy is fast asleep beside me, she has been a briiant room mate. A great big thankyou to Tom, Lynn & Cathy who put so much thought and effort into this trip of a lifetime for me, it's been the best holiday ever and I can't wait to met up with them again in New Zealand. Roll on May 16th!!!
mrs p's pics are up on the link above right ......
Monday, 12 January 2009
Best Wishes and Get Well Soon Mr Moseley!!!!
This is jus a little message to wish tom's mate gaz (aideen thats jason orange who attended my 30th in ireland) the very best with his recovery over the next week as he undergoes surgery back home, we'll be thinking of you ... xxx
Friday, 9 January 2009
GOOD MORNING VIETNAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!
So our short trip to Vietnam has just come to an end. It has been a great few days here being immersed in all the Saigon madness! From the minute you arrive you are just completely overwhelmed by the amount of noise and motorbikes, but still manage to settle in.
We found a great little guesthouse called Baka. $15 a night for the room, aircon, fridge, tv and free internet! Naturally we took full advantage of the free internet ('owt for nowt gimme a shout'). Unfortunately this could turn out to be a costly saving...all our photos on the mini hard drive are now reading corrupt!!!! Bloody tinternet! There must have been some form of virus on pc. Lynn was really upset by this but I'm hopeful that these files can be recovered.
If there's any IT experts out there I'm open to suggestions!!
Anyway, not to worry at least we have this blog...which is proving priceless.
Mekong Delta
So aside from all that we have put in most of our time down on a Mekong Delta tour, sailing on the river through narrow canals (wearing Vietnamese lampshade hats), visiting coconut candy factories and eating lots of it, floating fruit & veg markets, rice mills and other bits & pieces. We all enjoyed the trip but must admit there was far too much time waiting around on the bus and not enough time sailing.
On most evenings we could usually be found in District 1 Saigon eating at the same place 'Cappuccino', (Conor we found this place you brought Lynny & Cats to last time around) and the last night having a few local beers...aptly named 'Saigon' with our pal Gavin.
Cu Chi Tunnels
On the last day I took a half day tour to the South Vietnam Cu Chi tunnels. Lynn and Cathy relaxed at the hotel as the completed this tour last time they visited.
These tunnels are unique underground worlds...dug out during the Vietnam war by the locals in reaction to US attack. These acutely narrow tunnel network not only as a secret safe zones but also cunningly linked to US army basecamps allowing the Vietnamese to steal US Weapons!!!!! Very interesting tour guide...a local having been involved with the military and lived through the trauma. The tour culminated in shuffling through about 50 metres which got more narrow as it went on!! I squeezed through...just!!! Believe me I wouldn't want to take on one of these little Vietnamese in this environment...there little bodies just fly through these tunnels like human canon balls!! The misguided US got more than they bargained for...a lot more.
In relation to the Vietnam war we also managed to visit the war memorial museum. This is another must see in Saigon...however much like our experiences in Cambodia...it is informative but quite distressing seeing and reading about what was essentially the mass genocide of innocent people.
Last night we made a crazy journey on the back of 3 motorbikes to Saigon airport (if theres 9 million bicycles in Beijing then theres definately 9 million motorbikes in Saigon!!!!) We flew back into Bangkok just nicely in time to meet mum who arrives in on Sunday. We're all looking forward to the craic.
Check out latest pics on Vietnaaaaaaaaam.....and mums hol in Thailand coming soon!
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Sunday, 4 January 2009
The Long Road to Cambodia
having spent our few days in bangkok eating mc donalds and seeing cathy dye her hair more blonde we then booked a bus to siem reap in cambodia. we left the khao san road at 8am as planned and took a bus to aranyaprathet, the last town jus before the thai cambodia border. we handed over our passports to the driver plus 1200 thai baht for in his words 'a quick under the table service' !! some people also paid an extra 200 baht for passport photos ! without actually filling out a visa application form or for some not even gettin photos taken our passports were returned witha 3 month tourist visa !!!
while waiting for this visa the bus driver had announced that the bus due to take us from poipet, the cambodia side of the border had broken down. he suggested we all stayed in 'his' hotel for a night and guaranteed we would be on a bus by 8 the following morning. even though he offered the room for free we knew all was not sweet. thankfully there was 15 of us there to argue our point and eventually we all walked away from him at the border with our passports and $15 towards the taxi we would now have to get to siem reap.
the taxi driver of course quoted us $50 for a taxi carrying 4 people. at this stage there was jus 12 of us looking for 3 taxi's ... it was so funny because once he announced this fare the 12 of us turned on our heels and walked out the door without saying a word. they ran after us quoting $40 but within minutes we had agreed a $30 taxi fare each and set off on our road trip to siem reap the home of the famous ancient temple ruins of angkor wat. it was 4pm at this stage and we were all a bit apprehensive about the quality of roads and length of journey ahead.fortunately 3 hours in the taxi saw us arrive to the outskirts of the city where we were handed over to the next set of scam artists who haggled with us over tuc tuc prices to the city, the guesthouse we were staying in aswell as a guided tour to the temples. hard as it was we stood our ground and only obliged to the tuc tuc service a short drive to our own chosen guesthouse. by no means fancy but basic enough were the conditions we found. for $3 each a night we could fully accept the things that separate it from the new siam in bangkok !
we really made the most of our time in what turned out to be one of our favourite cities. we spent our time strolling through the streets, sailing through river villages, chilling out down by the lake tonle sap and watching children from a local orphanage dance in a show at the night market.
new years eve at angkor wat
a day to remember was new years eve. we set off at 6.30 am in search of 4 bicycles to carry us to and around the temples of angkor. i say 4 because we met up with a dublin lad called gavin on our last day in thailand and he has been on the road with us since. we cycled the 8km road out to the main gate of angkor, the iconic temple many will be familiar with. this area has an abundance of temples in addition to angkor and we covered the 17km circuit before sunset that evening. after cycling the 8km back to the city centre we all sat down to a well deserved cold beer (except cathy !!) and had a good moan about how sore our ass's were ! the pain was well worth it thou because it was a truly amazing day.the temples and history were jus fascinating. the night of course that followed was super too. we sat at a little cambodian street stall eating local food and anticipating the moment 2009 rang through. but in true asian style at 10.45pm there was a complete power cut in the city and the whole place fell into darkness. after some time we all continued our banter by candlelight. miraculously power was restored within the hour and the place erupted as the new year rang in.
phnom penh
on new years day we moved onto the capital city, phnom penh. really we shouldn't have made it but luckily gavin saved the day when our alarm failed to go off at 6am !!! somehow he managed to talk the bus driver into waiting for us ... thanks again gavin ! we arrived in phnom penh after another long and winding journey and spent the next few days pretty subdued as visited the genocide museum and the killing fields of cambodia. to say it was heartbreaking is an understatement and it's unreal to know how a country steeped in such bitter history can pull itself back together and move on with so much positivity having suffered and lost so much. the only regret is that we didn't give this fantastic country more of our time ...
Coming soon latest link for Cambodia pics ...
while waiting for this visa the bus driver had announced that the bus due to take us from poipet, the cambodia side of the border had broken down. he suggested we all stayed in 'his' hotel for a night and guaranteed we would be on a bus by 8 the following morning. even though he offered the room for free we knew all was not sweet. thankfully there was 15 of us there to argue our point and eventually we all walked away from him at the border with our passports and $15 towards the taxi we would now have to get to siem reap.
the taxi driver of course quoted us $50 for a taxi carrying 4 people. at this stage there was jus 12 of us looking for 3 taxi's ... it was so funny because once he announced this fare the 12 of us turned on our heels and walked out the door without saying a word. they ran after us quoting $40 but within minutes we had agreed a $30 taxi fare each and set off on our road trip to siem reap the home of the famous ancient temple ruins of angkor wat. it was 4pm at this stage and we were all a bit apprehensive about the quality of roads and length of journey ahead.fortunately 3 hours in the taxi saw us arrive to the outskirts of the city where we were handed over to the next set of scam artists who haggled with us over tuc tuc prices to the city, the guesthouse we were staying in aswell as a guided tour to the temples. hard as it was we stood our ground and only obliged to the tuc tuc service a short drive to our own chosen guesthouse. by no means fancy but basic enough were the conditions we found. for $3 each a night we could fully accept the things that separate it from the new siam in bangkok !
we really made the most of our time in what turned out to be one of our favourite cities. we spent our time strolling through the streets, sailing through river villages, chilling out down by the lake tonle sap and watching children from a local orphanage dance in a show at the night market.
new years eve at angkor wat
a day to remember was new years eve. we set off at 6.30 am in search of 4 bicycles to carry us to and around the temples of angkor. i say 4 because we met up with a dublin lad called gavin on our last day in thailand and he has been on the road with us since. we cycled the 8km road out to the main gate of angkor, the iconic temple many will be familiar with. this area has an abundance of temples in addition to angkor and we covered the 17km circuit before sunset that evening. after cycling the 8km back to the city centre we all sat down to a well deserved cold beer (except cathy !!) and had a good moan about how sore our ass's were ! the pain was well worth it thou because it was a truly amazing day.the temples and history were jus fascinating. the night of course that followed was super too. we sat at a little cambodian street stall eating local food and anticipating the moment 2009 rang through. but in true asian style at 10.45pm there was a complete power cut in the city and the whole place fell into darkness. after some time we all continued our banter by candlelight. miraculously power was restored within the hour and the place erupted as the new year rang in.
phnom penh
on new years day we moved onto the capital city, phnom penh. really we shouldn't have made it but luckily gavin saved the day when our alarm failed to go off at 6am !!! somehow he managed to talk the bus driver into waiting for us ... thanks again gavin ! we arrived in phnom penh after another long and winding journey and spent the next few days pretty subdued as visited the genocide museum and the killing fields of cambodia. to say it was heartbreaking is an understatement and it's unreal to know how a country steeped in such bitter history can pull itself back together and move on with so much positivity having suffered and lost so much. the only regret is that we didn't give this fantastic country more of our time ...
Coming soon latest link for Cambodia pics ...
The Christmas Stories...
we finally left haad yuan beach on dec 26th having spent 5 weeks in thailand including 17 days on this one beach ! it was still so hard to leave having had such a blast with a real fun build up to christmas and a fantastic christmas day. during our time here on haad yuan we met so many people but 2 who we joined forces with almost everyday, brentie from adelaide (the toothless nutter in the photos!!) and jaynie from 'luvly leeds' ... two true diamonds ...
together we managed to make the most of our time away from home. on christmas eve we had a balcony party up in our beach hut. brentie perpared all the food, chicken cheese bread olives and he even cooked asparagus in his kettle ! in addition to that we had sweets and treats and plenty of wine to celebrate. we sang christmas carols until the early hours which put us in top form for the big day ...
at 7am on christmas morning we were swimming in the ocean ... it was like a dream but yes we'll confess a storm crept in and the rain poured down on us for the rest of the day. we jus knew all you guys at home wished it upon us !! and yes it felt like we were back home ... jus for a bit !! all in all though we had a real fun filled day. despite the fact that christmas is not a part of thai life they made a huge effort in our resort to make it one to remember for all us westerners there.
bangkok
so as i said we left for the mainland on dec 26th (boxing stephens day !!), a 3 hour ferry followed by a 12 hour overnight train brought us north to bangkok. this was our first time getting an overnight train in thailand, it beats the bus anyday but really it was worth the extra few pound just to see tom so excited when he got to sleep on the top bunk !! we went straight to new siam, a little gem of a guest house off the khao san road. air conditioned rooms, hot showers and a swimming pool was jus the deal we were after for our few nights in the city and at about $10 each a night it's a bargain.
see our photos from christmas on the latest links ...
together we managed to make the most of our time away from home. on christmas eve we had a balcony party up in our beach hut. brentie perpared all the food, chicken cheese bread olives and he even cooked asparagus in his kettle ! in addition to that we had sweets and treats and plenty of wine to celebrate. we sang christmas carols until the early hours which put us in top form for the big day ...
at 7am on christmas morning we were swimming in the ocean ... it was like a dream but yes we'll confess a storm crept in and the rain poured down on us for the rest of the day. we jus knew all you guys at home wished it upon us !! and yes it felt like we were back home ... jus for a bit !! all in all though we had a real fun filled day. despite the fact that christmas is not a part of thai life they made a huge effort in our resort to make it one to remember for all us westerners there.
bangkok
so as i said we left for the mainland on dec 26th (boxing stephens day !!), a 3 hour ferry followed by a 12 hour overnight train brought us north to bangkok. this was our first time getting an overnight train in thailand, it beats the bus anyday but really it was worth the extra few pound just to see tom so excited when he got to sleep on the top bunk !! we went straight to new siam, a little gem of a guest house off the khao san road. air conditioned rooms, hot showers and a swimming pool was jus the deal we were after for our few nights in the city and at about $10 each a night it's a bargain.
see our photos from christmas on the latest links ...
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