Over and Out!

We're currently sweltering in Singapore, waiting to head out to the airport to get out last flight back to London.
We had an amazing time on Koh Tao - spending more time there than we had done in any other place we visited since the beginning of the trip. We unfortunately didn't get to see any of the reef sharks when we went snorkelling - despite all our flapping around on the surface of the water. I was tempted to scratch Flick's leg to attract them with the scent of blood, but she wouldn't cooperate, the spoilsport.
However, we made up for it on a later dive to a place called Chumpon pinnacle, where we got to see 4 good-sized reef sharks up close.
Apart from the diving, the rest of the time was just spent lying round on the beach, eating and drinking and sleeping. We got to watch some of the world cup, including the England game, of which I will say nothing!
Leaving Koh Tao, we spent one night in Bangkok buying souvenirs, before heading to Singapore 2 days ago. We've spent the few days here exploring the city - visiting the Chinese and Indian quarters, drinking Singapore Slings in Raffles and picking up a few more souvenirs and gadgets before the trip home. We visited the Night Safari last night which was a real highlight - would definitely recommend it.

So the trip is at an end - it's been an amazing time for us both. We've seen so much and met so many great people during the past 6 months that we will take home some incredible memories. We're really looking forward to getting home and seeing family and friends now.

Until the next trip (!), over and out...

Cycling in Vang Vieng, Laos

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Monks in Luang Prabang, Laos

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Our bungalow in Vang Vieng, Laos

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Red Zao woman, Sapa, Vietnam

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Buffalo boy, Sapa, Vietnam

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Vientiane, Laos

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Scenery, Sapa, Vietnam

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Working in the rice fields, Sapa, Vietnam

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Rice fields, Sapa, Vietnam

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Flick and So

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

The girl who adopted us on our walk in Sapa, Vietnam

Flick's brave jump.....

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

...from about 5 feet! in Halong Bay, Vietnam

HRH Princess Felicity

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Showing a nice bit of leg to impress our Thai hosts. Shame about the Hilda Ogden headscarf!

Cooking school garb

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

apparently you have to wear it or the food tastes horrible!

Trekking in Chiang Mai & Getting to Kho Tao

Well the flight on Lao Airways was fine and we arrived in Chiang Mai safely, to find a lovely city - much to our amazement. We were expecting a large dirty place, but it turns out to be a really nice town. We were staying in the old city and went for a wander once we had checked into our hotel. The Sunday market was on and we bought a few bits and pieces while looking for a place to book some trekking. After visiting a few shabby agencies that didn't inspire much confidence, we eventually found a great agency called Northern Trek and Travel. We booked onto a 3 days trek of the Sanpatong area - a mountainous area south of Chiang Mai, sort of off the tourist trail. We would spend the first night in a local village and the second night at a shelter in the forest.
That done, we headed back to the hotel and booked ourselves onto a Thai Cooking course the next day. If we're going to be eating Thai food for 3 weeks, we may as well learn how to cook it when we get home!
The following day we arrived in Baan Thai - a little family home in Chiang Mai where a family has been teaching cookery for years. We got lucky when we arrived as the other 5 people who had booked had cancelled, so we wound up with just our teacher - Tom - and ourselves. After a trip to the market to buy all the ingredients, we went back to the house for fruit tasting before we got down to the cookery. We learned how to make Pad Thai, Tom Yam soup with prawns, Minted Chicken spicy salad, Green curry paste and Green Chicken curry, as well as waterchestnuts in coconut milk for dessert. It all tasted soo good and so fresh that we're looking forward to trying it out when we get home. (Along with our new-found skills in Chinese and Vietnamese cookery too!)
The following day we left early for our trekking and met the others on the trip - Jens and Lisa from Denmark, John from Israel and an Australian family (Andrew and Leanne and their kids Cameron and Ryan - 11 and 8).
Before we stated walking the first day, we went Elephant trekking in the forest. This meant Flick and I sharing the biggest elephant with John as we went for a walk through the trees and the river. It was all quite touristy and we felt concerned that these magnificent animals were being badly treated for the tourists. However, logging is now illegal in northern Thailand and many of the elephants that were used for logging were killed, so at least these ones were being looked after and kept alive, plus they seemed to be in good condition (probably due to all the bananas that the tourists feed them), so maybe it's not so bad.
The 1st day's trekking took us all around the local area - quite hilly and quite off the beaten track - we didn't come across any other people for the whole walk. We eventually arrived at our guide, Sam's, village. Here we found a wooden shelter raised off the ground, with mosquito nets and some bedding. We had a cold shower, found some beers and went for a walk around the village, which was a poor one, but seemed to be making progress. The Thai king is revered in Thailand - unlike anywhere else we've been. You could see why in this village, as the king had introduced schemes such as solar power to help transform the villagers' lives. We heard from one of the villagers how the whole place had gasped the previous year when they got electricity and got the 1st TV set in the vilage! We heard other stories too of the things that the King has introduced to improve the lives of the Thai people - very impressive.
After dinner, Sam told us that he was the chief of the village and as such, was responsible for the well being of all the people - 21 families in total. He dispensed medicine, took people to Chiang Mai if they're sick and had also started the local school. He had a truck and collected kids from surrounding villages when the rains came and they couldn't walk to school.
That evening the local kids came to our shelter and sang for us - in return for a few quid. This, of course, is how they get their pocket money. Because there hadn't been any tourists in over a month, they were delighted to see us.
The following morning we said goodbye to the Aussies who were heading home and we went walking again. We came acrodd beautiful scenery, lots of people working in the rice paddies and some huge spiders! I was on the lookout for snakes all day as we walked through leaf litter, but it turned out that the only wildlife that we had to be careful off was an angry cow that we had to skirt around!
We had lunch at a beautiful 20 metre waterfall and all jumped straight in to swim under it. The force of the water on our heads was so strong that we couldn't actually stay under it for any time! That evening we arrived at our camp - another little wooden hut, by a river, with a freshwater bambo shower! A really nice place, so we hung around in hammocks, gathered firewood, had some dinner and stayed up for a bit playing cards before retiring to our hut.
The final day was a couple of hours walking back to the start - spotting a small snake on the way - where we had a bite to eat and then got on board bamboo rafts for some local style rafting. This was good craic - we took it in turns to stand at the back and punt along with a bamboo pole, but in all honesty, the guy at the front was doing all the work.
Back in Chiang Mai, we were changing our plans. We were due to get an overnight train to Bangkok, then a bus to Ko Chang, but we thought that instead, we would bring our flights to Ko Samui forward, so that we could enjoy 12 days on the beach with no travelling. Luckily, we found a lovely lady in a guesthuose who let us shower, changed our flight details for us and booked us a taxi to the train station. Easy!
The sleeper train to Bangkok was fantastic - had a really nice trip - lots of sleep and arrived in Bangkok feeling fresh. Went back to the hostel that we had stayed in 6 weeks earlier and they let us keep our bags there, so that we could go shopping for souvenirs in Bangkok. We managed to get some stuff and get our hair cut, before making our way out to the airport for the flight to Ko Samui.
Once we arrived we got a taxi van to a place to stay for the night. Flick ran in to see if there were any rooms and the taxi driver started rushing me to get out. I picked up our two big packs and my small pack, thinking that Flick had her small pack. Flick came out, said that they had a room and where was her small pack? We realised that I had left it on the taxi, just as he drove away!! Memories of getting my bag stolen in Argentina came flooding back as we ran up the road to find a taxi to take us back to the airport. We found a guy with a truck who took us a back way to the airport, where, fortunately(!), the driver had just handed Flick's bag in!! Thank God for that!!
We spent the night in Ko Samui and got the ferry over to Kho Tao the following day.
We are now settled into a lovely beach bungalow, 20 metres from the sand and we're passing our time sunning ourselves, snorkelling, diving and getting Thai Massages on the beach.
Only 7 days left here, so probably not much more to report, although we are going snorkelling with Black Tip reef sharks this afternoon!!!

Lazing in Laos

They say that Laos is the sleepiest country in Indochina and its hard to disagree. It's also probably hard to get any Lao person to disagree, as disagreeing would be, well disagreeable, and besides, it would involve some effort, which is not what they're into.
We arrived in the capital, Vientiane, last Monday and we have spent a lovely lazy week making our way from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, via Vang Vieng on the way.
On Monday, once we arrived, we figured out where we would go, and how long we would spend in each place. We also decided that our plan to go up the Mekong into Thailand sounded a bit much like hard work - 2 days sitting on a hard bench outweighed any potential romance that the trip might have had. Instead we bought two flights from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.
Once our travel arrangements were made, we hired some bikes and made our way round Vientiane to see the sights, the most impressive of which was the That Luang golden temple, just outside the centre. When we arrived there it was a beautiful day and the sun made the gold walls and roof of the building shine an incredible colour. We then headed back into town, stopping off at the market on the way, before reaching a few food and drink stalls on the river where we eventually cooled off.
We wanted to visit an Indian restaurant that evening but when we arrived at the address it was no longer there and we were told by some tuk-tuk drivers that they had moved to a new site, jsut outside town. How far, we asked, to be told that it was about 2km outside town. We eventually agreed to get a lift from one of the guys for a dollar and then watched in amazement as he drove us round the block, denying that he was doing so! We said - hey, you're just going round the block! He said - no, no - very far.. We said - no, look there's that shop again! No, no, very far.
We eventually got dropped maybe 500 metres from where we were and the guy drove off, assuring us that we were indeed very far away!
We had a great meal and on the way back Flick got a foot massage, so I went and watched some of the World Cup in a bar across from our guest house and met up with a very nice Aussie/English couple for a few drinks. Australia won and it was weird to be with the only Australian male in the world who wasn't a competitive sports fan!
On Tuesday, we got a bus to Vang Vieng, a tiny town north of Vientiane that has become a travellers' haven - mostly due to the Song River and the tubing that you can do on the river. So, once we were installed in our very nice riverside bungalow, we headed up river, got a big tractor tyre tube each and jumped into the river. It is not yet rainy season (just), so the river wasn't too fast and all that you do for a few hours is cruise down the river, occasionally stopping off at a riverside bar for a beer and a go on the rope swings, flying foxes, trapezes and high wires. All of which wind up with you taking a very refreshing swim in the river.
There was one place in particular that had a huge Flying Fox swing that we spent a couple of hours at - meeting up with some great people including one Norwegian, Magnus, who had spent 10 days in Vang Vieng because he loved the tubing so much!
The last bar had a huge rope swing and a campfire and we spent too much time there and would up making our way down the final section of the river in the dark.
On Wednesday we thought about our options and then went tubing again! It was easy to see why people tend to get stuck in Vang Vieng.
Thursday morning we broke free of the tubes and hired bikes to go and explore the local countryside. We headed north for 10 or 12 kms and then headed down a small track, crossed the river and followed an irrigation channel for a few kms. We were really in the middle of nowhere here and occasionally we came across some kids or their families and from the looks we got you could see that they didn't get to see too many tourists. We did eventually get lost and find ourselves about to try to cycle across paddy fields before we gave up and headed back the way that we had come.
On the way home we stopped off for a drink at an organic farm, where we had some fantastic fresh spring rolls - need to try to make those when we get home!
On Friday we got our bus to Luang Prabang - a rough enough 6 hour trip in a minibus. When we arrived we found Luang Prabang to be a very beautiful, charming and incredibly quiet city. It's actually far more like a small village than a city, with friendly locals, chickens running round everywhere and a very relaxed feel to the place. We had an amazing massage at the local Red Cross place before heading out for a bite to eat, a wander through the night market and an early night.
Yesterday was spent wandering round Luang Prabang - seeing the various temples that exist, meeting some young monks for a chat, visiting the National Museum ,which was excellent, and eating some nice Laos food.
We were going to get up early this morning to go and see the monks accepting alms from the locals, but neither of us slept very well and a lie in was preferable.
We are now heading for our flight to Chiang Mai - with Lao Aviation - who we've heard scary things about! Watch this space for updates...

Scared Shitless in Sapa

Well, well, well - that was a lot of fun!!
To get from Sapa back to Hanoi involves a one hour bus trip to Lao Cai, where you pick up the overnight train to Hanoi. Simple really, hard for anything to go wrong. We duly got the bus, arrived in Lao Cai at 7:30 for our 9:15 train. Had a quick bite to eat and started to watch the England game. We were going to wait for the end of the 1st half, but thought that we'd be good tourists and get on to the train with 30 minutes to spare.
We walked over to the station, presented our tickets and then wondered why they got snatched off us and the carriage and berth details written over with new details.
"Your train cancelled", we were told. "Your new train leaves at 8:35"
"But that's 10 minutes ago", we said.
"Yes. You must catch the train at the next station. Good luck!"
So we were told that we had to catch a train at the next station, 35 kms away. And it had had a 10 minute head start. And the guy at the station wasn't looking too positive.
Up steps our nameless driver, we'll call him Fearless Phuc, with whom we were to spend one of the most terrifying hours of our lives.
Meanwhile, the station guard was saying that he would pay for the taxi, but wasn't giving us any money, or a receipt. After a quick bit of banter, he gave me about $15, bundled us into a small Fiat Panda, along with 2 Spaniards we had met, all our luggage and wished us luck.
The driver then proceeded to give us a lesson in reckless driving that really took the biscuit - and we've seen some reckless driving on this trip. The 1st 10km or so wasn't too bad - it was on a decent dual carriageway, so it was the usual trick of He Who Honks Loudest Wins. We raced past other cars, tore past mopeds and motos and overtook trucks on whichever side looked the least safe. Coming up to every junction, we would see cars and motos crossing in front of us, stuff that would make a normal man slow down. Not our Fearless Phuc. He merely grunted, leaned on the horn and accelerated into them.
Once we had come to the end of the dual carriageway and joined the crappy local road, he really came into his own, pushing the car to its limits. Which, granted, aren't much, but this was on a really crap and unlit road, with an overloaded car.
If that wasn't enough, yesterday was market day, so the road was also full of very pissed people weaving their way home after a hard day selling and drinking.
As we swooped past families sitting on the side of the road having their dinner and threw up mud into their plates, I could feel Flick in the back seat sinking lower and lower, bracing for the seemingly inevitable crash. Fearless Phuc, needless to say, was unperturbed by the amount of traffic on the road and our apparent will to live. He continued to overtake on blind corners, speed into cliff-side turns and at one stage managed to get the tyres on the Panda to properly squeal round a corner.
The weaving revellers continued to present moving obstacles (targets might be more accurate) to Fearless Phuc, but luckily (to his possible dismay) we didn't hit any of them.
At one stage, as we approached the town with our target station, we saw a possibly more terrifying sight - 2 other tourists doing the same trip, at similarly breakneck speed, but on the back of motorbikes! We called out something slightly hysterical to them, like "You're alright, hang in there!", but it could have come out like "HEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!".
Just past the tourists on death bikes came the closest call of the trip. We crested a hill and saw what looked like a sack of potatoes in the road. However, of course in wasn't a sack of potatoes. We knew this when the sack turned groggily towards us and glared at us as we bore down on it at full speed. Luckily Fearless Phuc knew that it was unlikely to be a bag of spuds and had actually slowed down marginally - enough for us to swerve around the drunk in time. Hopefully we didn't disturb him too mcuh and he enjoyed a good night's sleep in the middle of the road.
We finally arrived at the next town with 5 minutes to spare, met up with the death bike tourists and we all thanked our lucky stars that we arrived safely.
Miraculously, we even got beds on the earlier train that we weren't booked onto and once the adrenaline slowed down, we even managed to catch a few winks.
Leaving Hanoi tomorrow morning for Laos....