Bangkok quickie!!! Haha ha

Heidee ho!

We have been in Bangkok for the past few days now! Bangkok has marked the end of our trip with Ann and the group from GAP adventures. Mixture of sadness and excitement as we are now on our own. Got out of our training pants and off to Vietnam!

Where were we before ...

We left Vientiane on the 24th after a tour around Vientiane to see a few of the many temples (93!!) and historic buildings. Unfortunately for Laos, between the French and its bordering neighbors, many of the original old places have been destroyed so many have been recently rebuilt and dont have the same charm.

We also manged to pop in to a weaving village to see some of the traditional hand weaving going on. We have got some great pictures and will pop them up later.

Departed Vietianne at 6 pm on a Thai sleeper train heading for Bangkok. We have now probably tried most of the types of sleeper train, slept quiet well on this one!



Our first day in Bangkok was ridiculously hot! We started with a high speed long tail boat ride around the canals and river ways in central Bangkok. Incredibly quick for what they are, but then i suppose that is what happens when you attach a 5.6 litre straight 6 turbo diesel engine straight to a propeller! It was both a great way to see the city and refreshing in the heat! Almost had my fingers taken off by "ill-tempered mutated sea bass!!" no...really. More like hungry cat fish who enjoy the pleasures of no fishing zones in front of river facing temples!

We have spent the past couple of days relaxing after the hectic three weeks and planning our next leg! We have been down the infamous Koasan road to have a drinkie or two and to one of the biggest out door markets in the world. Unfortunately one of our friends is now in hospital due to appendicitis, so we are going to visit a new site for us, the inside of Bangkok hospital!

Keep us posted with life back at home,

Bring on "Nam" !

Vang Vieng

So we left and headed to Vang Vien, 7hrs on a bus over much the same as before. This is a much more westernised place (lou nicknamed it Asian Brighton!) It's the first time we've really had any contact with the more loutish westerners and their behaviour was embarrasing. Makes you realise how other countries view us!

That said we've had a great time here. Our room was a small single bed bungalow/hut on the river overlooking limestone kasts on the opposite bank. Beautiful sights to wake up to. We had a night out in a bar which once we got over how many white people there were we had a good time. Lazing on our backs around a small coffee table on a raised deck drinking Vodka and Coke out of a bucket!

Second day we took advantage of the river in the form of a 10Km Kayak trip. 9am start in a TukTuk to the start point up river. In 2 man kayaks to get back to the guesthouse. We went through some small rapids (class 1) and only capsised once! We stopped for lunch at a bar on the river and had a pre lnch hike to a cave. The sleeping cave was found in 1995 by some backpackers who got lost in there for three days!! When we were in side the guide told us a story and then blew out the candles. The darkness was the most oppressive thing I have ever felt!

The bar had a cool rope swing set up about 10m high to the handle. On the outswing I reckon you reached about 15m high and out about 20m!! Of course we had to have a go. After a couple of build up's I managed to let go at the highest point on the swing. The drop felt like forever!!

Today we ahve moved on again to Vientiane. Not feeling to good as we have both managed to get a little travelers tummy! Hence the long catchup. Only taken us 4hrs of internet time!!

Hope all is good back home. Love to all!! Xxxx

Luang Prabang 18/4/2009

Back to the road after a great time in luang nam tra , but this time for 9 hours going up and down in the mountains through proper jungle, never seen anything like it ! Occasionally you will see another truck but maybe one every hour, and go past little hill tribes , and areas of jungle cut down for agriculture. They grow sticky rice out here as they are too high to grow your normal rice, but it tastes great and you have a great excuse to eat with your hands and play with your food . You would think 9 hours on a bus without air con would be really nasty but it was a great journey , spent most of it with my head out of the window saying hello to the locals on the way though, due to the pot holes the size of cars we couldn't go much quicker then 30mph at the most !

It is beginning to sink in where we are , bloody hell it is awesome ! Really getting in to the whole living out of a rucksack and going with the flow eating with the locals , getting by with sign language and being laughed at at our terrible tone and pronunciation of words! One thing nine hours on a bus lets you do is get a thai and laos lesson, ( very similar language! ) Complete tongue work out !

Luang prabang is a UNESCO town , so completely preserved from development. It is an understandably pretty place , very french, very clean and conservative, but we have to say that we prefer the more rural towns though , for character. However on our second day in we went to another waterfall, this time though the waterfall was something out of fiction! Due to mineral contents the water it was a stunning milky blue cascading over many pools with at a huge drop . We hiked up to the source of the drop, a good 200-300 meters up and stood on the top of the waterfall , no joke ! From there we discovered a little secret pool with just a few people in it ( in comparison to the pools below with a fair few people in) We went for a dip ( fully clothed ! boo!) with about 4 other intrepid explorers from our group, the pool was about 10 meters wide and at least 2-3 meters deep in the middle so a bit of cliff jumping was required ! Still cant quite believe that we were swimming in a fresh water fall ! We swam up to the side where it plunges in to the next pool a good 50 + meters down ! Natures own infinity pool ! It was all hot humid jungle around us with bugs the size of baseballs , but it was soo soo amazing.

We managed to grab a sunset over the mountains from the highest point in the centre of Luang prabang ( no photos though cos we left our charger in Chengdu, doh!, have one now though)

Day 18 20/4/2009 Woke up at 5am to go and watch the giving of almes to monks at 5.30am. The monks are as young as 7 years old, and they only live in the food given to them in the morning. in Buddhist countries monks are revered above all else even their royalty ( when they had one). Then we went off to the palace of the old king, with a throne room that never got used because the country turned to communism before he got crowned, gutting huh!

Lou Lou and Ben are in Laos !!

We left on the 16th April to cross the Laos China border by bus and then tuk tuk . What a differnence the two countries are. On one side granadure and pomp of China and on the other, farms rural lsdscape turinging to jungle, house on stilts with bamboo walls, or on the other hand very french colonial houses.

We settelled in to our guest house an hour and a half off the china boarder in Luang nam tra , a little town surrounded by hills and mountains , on the second day there we had on of the best days of the trip ( seems to get better the furhter south we get !) we decided to hire bike and cycle up to a water fall and past a load of local "hill tribes" It was only about 6-10km but is was 40% humididy and 29 degrees in the shade and up hill ! it was a great experince , we met some of the minoity hill tribes onthe way up. the kids were so lovely and very interested in us and what we are doing.

The people of loas in the majority have knocked us out with their friendlyness and generosity, thet are super laid back so we get on well here ! It is a bit of a joke in Thailand about "laos time " they have got a different meaning for LPDR ( laos people democratic republic ) or Laos People Dont Rush !! Very true, we have to leave a good hour for any quick meal or drink !

Happy new year from Jinghong

Sorry we are catching up with ourselves it has been really hectic and no chance to get on the Internet for any sensible amount of time. Currently I ( Lou) am sitting in a Internet cafe in the capital city of Laos Vientiane.

Since our last installment in Chengdu ( which ended a little bit messily in a night club and a bottle of whisky on the house!) We left on the 15th April avec le hangover for two flights, first to Kunming and the second to our destination Jinghong !

First thing to notice was walking off the plane the humidity and temperature had gone to tropical , ouch ! and our timing had landed in the end of the new year water celebrations for this area of the world.

Jinghong is super cool! It is china but not like the china we have seen it is more like Thailand and no where else in china would they be celebrating the new year like this ! We arrived to be greeted by water cannons out of the airport, we couldn't get off the bus without being super soaked !! The whole group was as excited as a bunch of teenagers when we saw the scale of the water fights happening ! Basically the wetter you get the more blessed you are for the new year. Without a joke ( see piccie!!) Within 5 minutes of walking out the hotel i was soaked by a bucket of water chucked at me by a local, unfortunately my colouring of pale skin blonde hair and blue eyes made me a super target, to the extent that no one wanted to stand near me as they would have also got the brunt. We were the only westerners there to experience such an amazing event, and boy did we know it , we bravely walked to the main park with all the lakes and water reserves, we almost got drowned standing up , no joke , we were such an attraction to get soaked ! Luckily we didn't take our camera with us as a few who did , even though they were wrapped up in a plastic bag are now buying new cameras !

These are all in the opposite order so first is last etc. Having a great time, be in touch soon!!! xxxx

PS: Still getting used to the laying out tools...sorry if its random!

And finally...THE MAGNUM!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! A baby!

As below

Oh yeah...we went to a panda reserve today!!!

Some of the group. Chengdu street market

Arty night one

As Below

Opera at the show

Us at cultural show in Chengdu

In the same garden

Tea garden in Chengdu

View from the city wall in Xi'an

Terracotta warriors in Xi'an (yes it is a shot from us and not a postcard!!)

Typical roof art in Shanghai

Arty one in the same garden

Garden in Shanghai

Newer Shanghai skyline (some of the group, Gareth and Lilly

The first overnight train...this one was spacious

Coupley one for you!

The Great wall (part of!)

One for Steph. Loads of these around!

Next instalment

Ok so where are we?

Currently we are in my favorite city so far...Chengdu! It's really hot sunny and the city is lovely. Much less hustle and bustle than the last few cities which suits us fine.

Breif run down of the major events of late...
Left Shanghai by sleeper train (no sleep again) to Xi'an. Quite a nice city but more smoggy and smaller streets gave the impression of being busier. Went to the Terracotta warriors which was amazing...8000 warriors all buried and found in the last 50 years!! Brilliant day.

Bike ride around the wall which was cool but the day was a little soured by one of our mates falling foul to pickpockets and loosing his camera with over 600 shots on it. Left by plane having a bitter taste in our mouths. Did have a good 80min massage tho!! Felt like we'd gone 10 rounds with a kickboxer after!!

Spent the last couple of days drinking tea in the parks and temples around Chengdu and really chilling out. Lou is currently doing a cooking course whilst I'm Netting. Sounds like it's going well.

We are all ok and not in Bangkok yet for those that follow the news so don't worry. Our tour guide is from there and is keeping an eye on whats happening. We still have a week or so till we get there so hopefully things will have calmed down! Will keep you posted.

Hopefully I have a while on here so with any luck here come some pics of the last few weeks....

Hi guys! Still all safe!! :)
Looks like his blog thing is going to be a little sparse at the moment as Internet is hard to get on and when you do its all in foreign!!!

So quick update:

Days are all kinda blurred into one now so it will be a little inaccurate as to the days but...

next day we went to the Summer Palace in Northwest Beijing. Meant catching a bus all on our own but it was cool. 1 1/2 hour journey cost us 2BMD which equates to about 20p each! The Palace is a huge garden and lake with loads of pavilions and pagodas around a big lake. It was beautiful. Couple of pics:...Sorry...they are taking too long and I only have an hour! The upload here is stupidly slow.

Here's a brief synopsis (?) of our next few days, I'll try in Xi'an to borrow a laptop and spend a reasonable amount of time with a couple of pages of pics.

Met the rest of our tour group on the Sunday. It's a mixed age group from 16 to about 50(ish) which is good. We all get on really well, Brits, Aussies, and Canadians (all from Vancouver but don't know each other!)

Had a tour of Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden city on Mon morning. The city is incredible. One of the emperors had over 3000 concubines! That in itself is crazy but then we were told that when the emperor dies...all the concubines have to die as well! Buried dead or alive...sick huh??!
In the afternoon we went to another garden which again was stunning. Superb veiws over the city in all directions.

Went to the Great Wall the next day. I knew that as one of the wonders of the world it would be spectacular but nothing prepares you for the scale of it. It was amazing. Spent most of the day hiking up and along the wall which was a good bonding experience for the group.
Went to see a Kung Fu show in the evening. It was like the Shaolin monks but I'm not sure they were actually. Impresive none the less. Lots of hitting each other with big sticks!

Took a bike tour around the city the following day which had all the locals pointing and shouting at us. They don't see many westeners there!

Overnight train in the evening which was interesting and we are now in Shanghai. The train was not bad really. Bunk beds for the night and sharing with an Aussie couple which was cool. Lot's of chatting and laughing!

Overall, we have fallen in love with China so far. We are seeing lots of differnt sides of life here and the difference betwee the haves and have nots is massive. We went into an area where they sold Porsche's ad Bugatti's not by choice!) and got ripped off at the equivalent of 6pounds per pint and also have been in (most) other bars where we drink for less than 1pound per (Large) bottle!! It's an incredible place.

Well we have to go and catch a 14hr train to Xi'an now so I'll try and get some pics up there.

See you later, Ben and Lou xx

PS: Thanks for all the Birthday wishes and comments. Glad to know were not forgotten!! Miss you all too!!

One of the small parks around The Forbidden City. Was so peaceful and absolutely beautiful!














View from the top of Beihai park over The Forbidden City.

We've arrived!!

Hi all. We're here safe and sound. Got here at 5:45 this morning after a flight of zero sleep! Stayed up all day and did some sightseeing which was cool. Beijing is massive! With huge open areas and lovely parks. I have tried to upload some photos but it hasn't worked (internet i a little slow here!) So I'm posting this and there may or may not follow some pictures...who knows!!??

Speak to you soon x

Nothing interesting to report yet...got to Dagenham OK so thought I'd see if I can remember Cy's tutorial on how to use this stupid thing...if your reading this I guess its all good!!

Thanks to everyone for all the send-offs and we'll be in touch soon!!

Flight is at 12:55pm tomorrow to Beijing. 9hrs 50 flight time and we will be in China!!! Yay!!!