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Priya&Tim

70 Blog Entries
1 Trip
1357 Photos

Trips:

Cheeky Round The World Trip

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/Priya&Tim




Arriving into Vietnam

Vinh, Vietnam

Country No: 3 We arrived safely in Ha Noi, Vietnam, after a mamoth journey leaving from Phonsavan at 6am. We got on our bus to Vinh and after picking up 15 people in phonsovan - all locals, we set off on our way. We got to the border at around 11.00am, and after a thorough bag inspection, and filling in our details we got into Vietnam ok. The border crossing itself was easy enough: get off the bus; do the official business, and get back on about an hour later. We eventually arrived in Vinh after many winding roads, and near-death experiences at around 8.30pm to be met by a guy called Hai, pronounced Hi, who informed us that we could get a minibus through to Ha Noi at a cost of $10, the 9.30pm minibus would arrive at around 3.00/3.30 in the morning. Yes, we decided to do this as we didnt want the hassle of finding a place to stay in Vinh only to pack and leave early in the morning the next day. So we were picked up at Ha Noi bus station by a guy from the same tour /hotel company who showed us a guest house which was reasonably priced for a nice room. We crashed and burned big time.....never ever take sleep in a nice bed and a hot shower for granted!

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on June 24, 2006 from Vinh, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Beer Lao Beer Lao Beer Lao

Luang Prabang, Laos

Laos is just spectacular....there is no other way to describe it. After much hassle with all the pleasures that come with travelling Thailand, Laos was simply heaven. Louang Phrabang is a beautiful old french colonial town, home to the most prized bhuddha in all of Laos and some of the most nicest sales people you will ever come across in south east asia....no hassle when you walk into a shop and no bother walking down the night market. For once i actually felt very inclined to buy hilltribe handicrafts which are a complete tourist gimmick and I even wouldnt have minded a "same same but different" t-shirt!!!

we spent a good five days here taking in the sights, waterfalls and tigers...yes tigers and the river and trying to get to a museum that was closed on wednesdays, oh and how could i forget watching the world cup with a few Beer Laos in hand....tim's hand that is!

We left the lovely town for Vang Vieng further south where the tourist trap is at the forefront....all you do in this tiny, and i mean tiny place is watch Friends 24/7 at one of the four friends bars and go 'tubing' a recreational sport lets say...where you are placed in a trucks inner tube and float downstream passing bars for beers, jumps and swings and whatever else takes your fancy!

Even though Vang Vieng is a small place it is the most beautiful place to also just hang out and chill to your hearts content....the scenery next to our bangalow says it all!

Moving on to Phonsavan....

We arrived to Phonsavan with one thing on our minds.....what on earth are the Plains of Jars???? Funnily enough when we got there, this is what we found!

These jars are over 2000 years old, and have survived the test of time....including the two million plus bombs that were droppped in the area, of which 127 objects of unexploded ordanance had been removed and destroyed just so that we could see a little of area of the Jars.....Crazy!

No-one has a clear answer as to why the jars are there and what they were used for. Our guide did suggest that in a time of the Giants, these jars were their drinking pots... i think he thought we were foreigners that clearly had a mental age of 7 collectively! Just to give you a scale of these things.....


and the most impressive thing about them is that they are solid stone, and carved out of boulders, making it seemingly impossible to transport from the quarry miles away from the site of the the plains! In all seriousness, the jars are thought to have been used as burial urns, some were found with ashes inside, and many with household/hunting objects placed either underneath the jars or inside them. Nearby is a cave that was used as a cremation site, it also housed the local population in recent times, when the Vietnamese were in hiding bringing the americans and their warfare.

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on June 22, 2006 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Last Stop Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, Thailand

We are currently in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand, and our adventures in this country are at an end. We really enjoyed the south for its people and beautiful scenery especially the beaches in Phuket, and Phi Phi Island! These two islands, especially the latter were hit hardest by the tsunami and you can still see the devestation, but it is amazing to think that it has taken so little time, to get the basics back to 'normal'.

The north has been equally amazing, more for its mountains, and plains in the central part of the country, and particularly for its fantastic temple ruins seen in the old cities of Sukhotai and Ayuthuya


Whilst based in Chiang Mai we took a trek to see a hill tribe in the mountains, where we saw scenery like this:

The trek was only for 2 days and 1 night but this photograph was taken near the end of the trekking part of the trip. I think body language experts can tell you exactly what we are feeling right here.

The day after the trek we got our first Thai Massage and enjoyed a traditional meal with Thai entertainment. Unfortunately the camera did not capture the entertainment very well as it was at night, but take our word for it and believe that it was highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, Tim started to suffer from a case of travellers sickness, and we were in Chiang Mai two days longer than planned due to his inability to stray far from a bathroom. A two day trip on a slow boat was started in caution. Next stop Laos......

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on June 9, 2006 from Chiang Mai, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Heading North

Phuket, Thailand

Phuket was our last Island in the South of Thailand, and the start of our trip North, we stayed ata really nice place on Karon Beach for two days where we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets seen since we have been away.




We then left Phuket for Bangkok by plane, which was easy enough except our flght time had changed and nobody had bothered to inform us! As a result of this, we had three hours to kill which just happened to be enough time to grab a Burger King! It tasted so much better because we knew it was sooooo bad!
We were only in Bangkok for 12 hours as our first train heading North to Ayutthaya was at 8am and we had to pick up our visas before we left.

So visas, sorted, train journey all good, we arrived into Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand and saw the first of many Khmer temple ruins.

Followed by more ruins at Sukhothai - another ex-capital - here we spent two nights enjoying the ruins and the town on our bikes!



permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 29, 2006 from Phuket, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Phi Phi Dreams!

Krabi, Thailand

Still on the Andaman Sea, we arrived on Phi Phi Island ( Tuesday 23rd May) just after midday, and wow, it was beautiful; following the storms of Krabi, this was a pleasant arrival to the most stunning beaches we have experienced in Thailand so far!

Phi Phi was the island famously devasted by the tsunami, and though much work still needs to be done, it has rebuilt a solid basic infrastructure that allows you enjoy Phi Phi at its best! The viewpoint photos just say it all, and when you see the island from that point, it is not difficult to see why it was so devasted by the waves.





permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 23, 2006 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Feeling Krabi

Krabi, Thailand

Krabi, another eventful journey to get to, but again soooooo worth every moment. This time our travels involved the taxi to the port on Ko Samui, then a boat to mainland, from here a bus with a random stop in the middle of an unknown town, our mission we were informed was to find the agency who issued our bus tickets to our bunglalow resort to get the ticket changed to one that was apparantly more aceeptable than the one we had - this turned out to be a piece of paper with writing stating the time of the bus we needed, and the fact that the ticket was for the two of us. That was it, our ticket.

This eventually got us an to a bus, which inceidentally was the same bus that some people before our stop in the random town had gotten onto a couple hours earlier! Grrrr! Anyway we arrived at the wrong bus station ;o) and was picked up by a taxi from Fasai Resort - they are a cool bunch of people! wacky, funny and sweet, and they threw us a great BBQ on our last night as a lot of people just like us were leaving after a long stay.



The weather was not so cool during our stay in Krabi, but still the people and the scenery was as beautiful as ever, with scary limestone rock formations everywhere you went! but it was nice to be out of the main strips where most tourists and backpackers are!




permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 20, 2006 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Gulf of Thailand

Ko Samui, Thailand

Hello everyone!

Its been a while since we last updated the website, as the gulf is so much more expensive than in Bankgkok or the north so time spent on the internet was mainly used for emails! First off on a good note, Tim successfully completed his diving course which he can use internationally to further his experience diving! unfortunately i was unable to complete the course as my sinuses with hayfever was causing me trouble with my breathing underwater and i could not use my nose to clear my mask of water. i have been referred however and i can carry on the course anywhere else, as long as my sinuses are clear, however this isnt going to happen anytime soon, so we left koh tao as planned on the 16th May to arrive on Ko Samui to a beutiful beach bungalow with fantastic views of Lamai Beach.


we checked out the sights and places to eat and found ourselves a great little roadside diner - Ninja Crepes......and oh my god, they do the best food ever and were brilliant hosts! we ended up eating here for breakfast lunch and dinner!

A funny sight on Ko Samui which is often frequented by tourists and locals are the two rock formations that lie south of Lamai Beach. They are supposed to represent the spirits of a couple that lost their lives to the sea and so their spirits took to shapes in the rocks, tims photo next to the lady spirit (for want of a better or rather the more obvious word!!!) is one of the best! the rock in my photo is not so impressive!!!!!



permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 16, 2006 from Ko Samui, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Time to Dive

Ko Samui, Thailand

We left Kanchanburi at 2.30pm on Wednesday, this was a straightoforward minibus back to Bangkok which took 3 hours. Our VIP coach arrived at 7.15pm, but unfortunately it was overbooked, we ended up perching on a bench for 8 hours, which was superior to the alternative offered which was sleeping behind the back seats on the floor! We arrived at the boat harbour at 3.15, and had to wait until the boat left which turned out to be around four hours later. After no sleep we were looking forward to resting on the boat but the air conditioning was set to "freeze" and even though outside was warmer, it was blowing a storm. By the time we arrived at Koh Tao, which is a few hours north of Koh Samui, at 10.30 in the morning we were dispirited to say the least, and not exactly sure what to expect. Well these two photo's will let you know why we've travelled this far, and why at the end of it all we have absolutely no complaints.


We are going to start our 4 day diving course on Saturday in and around the very waters pictured above. We will let you know how that one goes, but we have got to go and do some studying for now. All the best. Tim.

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 12, 2006 from Ko Samui, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Leaving Bangkok

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We left Bangkok today on the start of our 31 day tour of Thailand. We are writing this nearly a weeek later because we were staying on the river Kwai and Internet access was practically non-existant. Obviously we did not stay on the bridge over the river Kwai but this is what it looks like today.
. Later that day as we arrived in Kanchanaburi we went on the railway, and had a walk through a rainforest the emphasis was definately on the RAIN!!

During our time in Kanchanburi we managed to fit in; a few museums. caving, bamboo rafting, elephant riding, waterfalls, and a lot of treks! Check out our photo album under our profile for more photo's. Oh, and we also visited a Buddhist Tiger Temple. The Buddhists are not the guys in blue!

With Kanchanaburi done, al we had to do was get south, which as you will read is easier said than done.

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 8, 2006 from Kanchanaburi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Bangkok or Bust!

Bangkok, Thailand

Hello... This is the two of us outside of Terminal four at Heathrow. We were both tentatively excited about the pending trip and even though it is early days we can scrap tentatively from that phrase.

After the very long flight, on which sleepy head Tim managed to sleep through the most of, we were struck by the heat at Bangkok's airport. Temperatures out here are in the mid to late 30's, so the first couple of days have been a bit tiring but nonetheless worth every second, even if i needed help with my backpack from Tim!

Currently we are more used to the climate, and shall be getting our first taste of the rainy season very soon! The 5th May is the King's coronation and so it is considered a bank holiday, particularly as this year is his 60th anniversay. The next photo is of one of the many Buddha images that are being renovated/polished up ready for the Kings Birthday in June! and check out the "Chillin" buddha (actually know as the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho).


Well time is short and we are both safe and well, and most certainly having the time of our lives out here! So until next time, take care! Dont forget you can post your own messages here too!

Love from us!
x

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on May 4, 2006 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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