mich_and_dan_moors

The North Island

mich_and_dan_moors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We spent our first day in Wellington just wandering, stopping off at the Te Papa Museum for a few hours & then we caught the cable car up to Wellington Botanic Gardens with its magnificent lookout over the City and harbour. But to be honest we thought it was a bit of a weird city? It wasn't as atmospheric as Queenstown and appeared to be quite a big financial area with not much to see or do.

As we felt like we'd seen pretty much all there was to see, we headed on our way North to Lake Taupo & stopped mid way at Tongariro ready for a big walk! We got to our campsite quite late & it was very cold & blustery…..thankfully we had a sheltered area to cook under & we got chatting to 2 other couples who were planning their walk the next day too. Little did we know that this walk required 2 cars, 1 to get to the start at Tongariro crossing & 1 at the finish point which we hadn't researched & knew nothing about. Thankfully these guys were kind enough to suggest we pool all of our cars together so we could all do the walk.

Wed 25th
We got up early at 6.30am, had a big breakfast made our buttes for the day & headed on to our 7hr walk for the day! This was the legendary 'Mount Doom', and Jonathan being a bit of a Lord of the Rings fan meant we had a bit of commentary on the way there ;-)
It was a pretty tough walk in places, parts being quite a steep climb but the views are stunning & for me the highlight was the turquoise pools on the way down. To say we were knackered afterwards was an understatement…….we'd been lucky with good weather so we headed off to a campsite with showers :-)

Over the next few days travelling north we went to Lake Taupo and visited Huka Falls, which are the faster flowing falls - so fast they can fill something like 9 olympic sizes swimming pools in just 6 seconds. And closely to here is the 'Craters of the Moon' attraction, which as the name suggest is a huge area thats full of bubbling mud pools & steam arising from the ground due to the volcano activity in the area.

Sat 28th
After stopping off via Rotorua, we drove up to Coromandel and visited to Sting Ray beach & Catherdral cove. These were both beautiful beaches, very secluded and paradise like and it was fab to have a chill out amongst gorgeous scenery. Then we went to the infamous 'Hot Beach' which was a bit overrated really…….as expected it was very busy as the crowds basically come here with their spades and dig themselves a deep hole in the the beach, where eventually red hot water comes through. It is pretty cool I guess as you're standing next to the cold Pacific sea yet you're standing in a pool of red hot water that's being heated by the thermal volcano activity. We actually cheated a bit & sneaked into somebody elses hot pool & dipped our toes in. We got the same effect without the hard work! !
That evening we stayed at Kanawera valley park & met a very large, wild but friendly, NZ family who were intent on getting wasted & have fun that night. And they did!

The next day we left coromandel early as weather wasn't great & headed towards Auckland. We stopped at great free big campsite that had a bit of a mini farm , and there wasn't really much in the way of sights or things to see or do so we decided as this was nearly the end of our trip together we'd have a party night. So we drank beer. cider & wine & stumbled into bed!

Mon 30th
The boys woke with a massive hangover! Using this as a perfect excuse we headed to a luxury campsite and then drove nto Auckland. It was their holiday weekend & there was a big boat & food festival going on at the marina so we had a good wander around.

So this was our last night in NZ.
It had been an amazing few weeks, to be honest I can't believe I survived camping for so long! But we had such great fun, a real adventure and we loved it so much it's definitely a country we'd love to visit again as 3 weeks is just not long enough.

Chiloe, Castro..........and the penguins

mich_and_dan_moors — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We travelled overnight on the bus from Santiago & arrived on late on 7th Feb.......and compared to beautiful, colourful & sunny Valparaiso to be honest it looked & bit grey & was bloody cold! However as soon as we arrived as usual finding some great local food was first on our agenda- local fish & mashed potatoes which was just amazing. The town was very small, nothing really to visit as such it felt very much like a really old fishing village & that was about all there was to it. Very few tourists and lots of local markets. We weren't really sure what was there so we founds a great tourist info place & booked up a couple of bus trips.
The next day went to Ancud & saw penguins! We also went to a really small village about 2 hours away where they made 'curasco; which was basically a load of fish, sausages and potatoes cooked underground in between hot coals & leaves. It was a fantastic day

Beautiful, beautiful Valparaiso

mich_and_dan_moors — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It was only a couple of hours bus ride into Valparaiso & neither of us really know what to expect as we hadn't done any research on the area, but after just a hour of walking around the streets we immediately loved the place. There's a huge naval base here so it's ovally down by the port. And as you can imagine there are some incredible local fish restaurants here - where of course the menu is only in Spanish so you have to improvise & point at dishes and hope for the best! But that's part of the fun.
There are also lots of little parks and winding, charming streets that makes it such a lovely place to idle hours away. We found a really lovely bar that's themed like a ship (called the Galleon) and the locals were so friendly that we quickly got chatting to Carlos the owner. Who proceeded to take us in person to the Post office after we'd enquired for directions only………..and then he insisted on paying for the tram ride up to an area called 'Conception'
The views here literally took our breath away. You can see for Miles across the city & the sea views, plus many of the houses here are painted beautiful pastel colours - pink, blue, yellow. It's like a fairytale village in the sky. We loved it here! So much in fact one day we just took a picnic & sat in a bench for a few hours & wandrered aroun the streets discovering art galleries & trinket shops

We also visited 'Vina del Mar' which is only a 20 min ride on the local bus, and it has a really nice beachfront. It seem this is the place where most of the locals go to at the weekends as the beach was packed.

Fun with the family- part 2

mich_and_dan_moors — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

So the second leg of my Sis & Brother-in Law's trip was to Phi Phi & we'd all heard so much about it that I personally was just hoping that it would be as perfect & idyllic as I'd hoped.....and thankfully the views from the boat as we arrived didn't disappoint.

That night we pretty much made ourselves familiar with the Island the best way we know how.....by drinking on the beach & eating pizza late after a few too many!

The next day we decided to have a proper wander & so we took a walk up to the Viewpoint. And again the views were just breathtaking.

I love my sis xx

The little wander around in fact turned into about 3 hours of walking, trying to find our way down to a secluded beach cove which we never actually got too. A few wrong turns plus a big family of monkeys with whom we literally had a 'stand off' in the middle of the jungle with prevented us from actually getting to the beach!

The next day we took a snorkelling trip around Bamboo island, Mosquito island, Monkey island & Maya Bay (where the film 'The Beach' was filmed and it was such a fab day. The snorkelling was great, we saw so many fish, but just being out of the boat seeing around all of the Islands was so beautiful. Maya Beach was a little too touristy & very crowded but even so the scenery around there is to die for so it's just something you have to accept & get on with.

"The Beach'

Sunset after a day's snorkelling

The rest of our nights in Phi Phi was pretty much spent drinking too many of the infamous 'buckets' - literally a sandcastle bucket with too much alcohol & too little mixer ;-) Ok so it's not the most glamorous drink ever but it was cheap & it certainly did the trick!

What a classy lot we are

After goodness knows how many buckets!

Another highlight was the early morning boat trip we took at 6.30am to Shark Point where the boys hoped to spot some Black Tip Reef Sharks. And thank goodness they did as me & Jo would never have heard the end of it!!! In the end the saw quite a few but me & Sis were just too scared to get into the water so we left them too it. Afterwards we chilled out on & soaked up the rays at Long Beach.

Guess how many sharks Dan spotted?

We all had such an amazing time in Ko Phi Phi. To be honest it wasn't quite the undiscovered paradise that I'd imagined it to be, it really as become a backpackers haven so its inevitable that there were more than a handful of people on the Island ;-) And I'm sure that the Tsunami has made it more popular now than ever......but none of this spoilt it for us as the sea is truly aqua blue & the views are like paradise. Plus we had our lovely family with us too so that made it extra special! xxx

P.S In the 7 days I think we ate pizza about 6 times (day & night) plus we had 2 curries. Ok, so we didn't go totally native but we had fun. And so this is our little tribute to my sister hubby who we love, and who really does love a curry :-)

A curry? With Bryan? Of course :-)

NZ....the camping fun begins here!

mich_and_dan_moors — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We'd booked into Nomads hostel & met up with Jonathan, our pal from Manchester who'd madly wanted to join us through NZ, who'd already arrived the day before. This was the first chance we'd got to get our heads together & try to plan & organise the next few weeks in NZ. However the most memorable event of that evening was tasting our very first Ferg Burger! Now there's a story behind this…..we'd met a few people in Nepal on the Everest Base Camp Trip who were from NZ & after getting some good tips of where to travel to from them, then then proceeded to tell us in great detail about the best ever burger joint called Ferg Burger. Now bearing in mind at this point we'd been walking for around 9 or 10 days,eaten only basic stuff & had been away from home for a few months so this really got out tastebuds going. So basically we'd been dreaming about having one since Nepal! As were were told to expect, there was a massive queue and about a 15 min wait for our order but it was pretty special to be honest, and so it was a very good first night for us in Queenstown. Oh the simple things!

Thurs 12th
We had a proper wander around the town, which was just beautiful……I can only describe it as being a bit like Windermere or Keswick in the Lake District, stunning moutains & hills all set around Lake Wakatipu. That day we set about doing 2 walks, the first was the Queentown walk and then we went up to the Skyline Gondola. The views were just fab. That evening I cooked for the first time in 10 months and it wasn't too bad! Practising ready for our camping extravaganza I cooked chilli beef pasta :-)
The next day (Friday the 13th!) the poor boys had to go mountain biking in the rain ;-) Well that's what THEY wanted to do……..so I had a bit of a lie in & enjoyed some peace & quiet. JT also did his first ever bungee jump whilst me & Dan tried to be organised & bought all of the camping gear - a 4 man waterproof tent, plates, cups etc, a gas cooking stove, aired mattresses & we also got our first lot of food supplies which was basically, pasta, tinned tomatoes & tuna. Lets get ready to camp!!!!

Sat 14th
We made our way to Milford Sound in our trusty car we'd hired - a very exclusive Gold Nissan Sunny, with the infamous beige interior & retro cassette deck. Nice!. We decided to stay a close as we could to the Sounds, but in a free site. Our strategy being that we'd rough it for 2 nights & stay at the DOC conservation areas which were either free or around $5 each, then every 3rd night we'd book into a serviced campsite. The site was right on the lake & we were bowled over at the setting. It could't have been any more remote or beautiful. So the boys set up camp & I made our first (of many!) camping meal extravaganzas - pasta with tom & veg sauce, with sausage in for the boys :-) I thinks we were all a bit excited as we started drinking & cooking pretty much a s soon as we arrived, so by about 3.30pm were were all a bit drunk! We ate sitting on the lake & it was very squiffy and special.

Sun 15th
We drove into Milford however the weather was a bit rubbish, quite overcast, cold & drizzly so we decided against going for a long trek and instead we took an 1hr 1/2 boat trip on the Sounds which was fab! We saw some incredible waterfalls as well as seas basking on the rocks & a family of dolphins! We stayed at the same campsite that night & I cooked a sausage curry which the boys did appreciate!!

Mon16th
We set off Wanaka, and had our minds set on a 'luxury' campsite! To be honest the last 2 nights had been pretty cold, although the setting was gorgeous is was very windy & a lot colder than we'd anticipated so the thought of a lovely hot shower was just too much to resist. After setting up camp we drove down to see the beautiful lake views….which were so great that we opted to buy some beer wine & cheese & have ourselves a little picnic by the lake

Tues 17th
We had an early start, ate breakfast & made some buttes in preparation for our 3hr walk to Rob Roy Glacier. This was about an hour or so drive from Lake Wanaka, and when we arrived we set off amongst the grassy hills & cows up to the Glacier. I wasn't sure what to expect really as I'd never seen a Glacier up close before, and in contrast to the forest & green hillside we'd just walked up it was incredible to see ice just a few hundred or metres or so above you!. When we got back to campsite we took advantage of the hot showers again before starting the drive towards our next destination - the Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers.

Weds 18th
So today was my Birthday!!! So I opened my lovely cards but then got straight back to business ......cooking breakfast & making butties for the day ahead as usual ;-) However I really couldn't complain because the day was very special. Walking up the glacier was an experience like nothing we'd ever done before. We had all the kit including crampons & ice picks etc and being amongst these huge vast glaciers when only a few hours before we were in the town centre was pretty amazing. My Birthday was topped off my a beautiful bottle of red wine & tuna pasta. Definitely a day I won't forget!

Thurs 19th
We spent the next few days in Kaikoura which is a bit like a seaside resort (but definitely not Blackpool!) and it's famous for whale watching and it's fresh fish. So the first thing we decided to do was head into the town centre and treat ourselves to fish & chips and eat them on the beach. Pure heaven!! Our campsite was right alongside the beach so when we got back to the site we took a few bottles of wine & made ourselves a campfire on the beach which was pretty impressive even if we do say so ourselves.
Unfortunately we weren't able to do a whale watching trip in Kaikora which was a bit disappointing. We went to book it but they told us the likelihood of seeing any whales was so remote we resigned ourselves to the fact that it just wasn't possible. Maybe next time, and we'd live to go back

Sat 21st
We'd made our way to the Abel Tasman national park the night before (which was a bit of a nightmare drive and we didn't get settled until 9.30pm) so that morning we headed into Kaiteriteri as we'd been told by a fellow backpacker that we absolutely must do a trek around this area. From here we booked a boat to Bark Bay & then walked back to Marahau which took us about 6 hours- we were knackered but it was totally worth it. The scenery was like anywhere you could imagine in the Caribbean.....turquoise blue sea & gorgeous little hidden bays.

The next day we drove up to Charlotte Sounds, but on the way we stopped off at Havelock as we'd read this was THE place to buy fresh mussels. We got 2kg (which was about 50 of the buggers!) for only $8, about 4 quid! We checked into campsite about lunchtime and then quickly headed off to do a bit of a trek. The weather wasn't great but we managed to squeeze about a 3hr walk in without getting wet which was v. lucky. We were so looking forward to our feast…I did one batch in white wine & cream sauce, the other in tomato & garlic & I have to say they were absolutely amazing. Such a treat but i'm sure that the 'back to basics' living we'd been doing for the past 8 days meant were were due a bit of luxury ;-)

Mon 23rd
Dan & Jonathan went for a bike ride early at 7am and I had a lie in! We leisurely made our way to the Ferry which we caught across to Wellington then stayed at a campsite about 14k outside of the city. That night was our opportunity to catch up on boring thing like laundry but after all of the walking we'd done we were in desperate need of clean clothes ;-)

Definitely one of our most memorable New Years ever!!!!!

mich_and_dan_moors — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

So we were pretty excited to be going back to Singapore......not only because the lovely Clare had made it so fab for us the first time around, but as a brucey bonus two of our bestest friends Jolene & Phil were flying out to meet us there too with their two kiddies Ed & Elle! So as soon as we met up with them we pretty much didn't stop. We headed straight to 'Little India' which we hadn't managed to get to on our last visit. To say Dan was a happy bunny was an understatement......the fact he was having a curry, his most favourite pasttime no matter where in the world he is), plus drinking beers with friends just topped it for him!

Curry with the boys

It was just so lovely to be with friends & we wanted them to have the best time ever so we'd planned a few places to visit. The first being East Coast park where the kids could enjoy splashing around in the sea (which they did!) & we 'just so happened' to come across a lovely Belgian Beer & Mussels bar :-)

fun in the sun

making sandcastles

Hmmmmm we love Belgian Beer!!!

It was the perfect start & build up to New Year! That night we all got ourselves glammed up, me & Clare shared a few glasses of fizz before we made our way to 'Overeasy restaurant' - our reservation for the big night ahead.

getting ready to P.A.R.T.Y

The location was just fab, it was right on the waters edge opposite the Marina Bay Sands hotel which gave us the best seats in the House for the fireworks

Fab location

Georgetown.......& Little India ;-)

mich_and_dan_moors — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

After the fab time we'd had with our family we were a bit sad to be leaving Thailand, but seeing as Malaysia was so close to us it seemed rude not to make a stoop off there . Plus it was so easy for us, we just caught the Ferry from Phi Phi to Krabi, then took a mini bus straight into Georgetown. Having said that it was about a 15 hour journey' China Town' all within a few blocks of each other so there was plenty to see and do, all of which you can easily walk to as Georgetown isn't that big.
Needless to say we feasted ourselves on the Indian street food which took our memories back to all those moths ago back in March. Although we did have a few curries in Thailand, it made us realise just how much we missed Indian food, as well as the smells & sounds wafting out of the shops.

We also visited a few of the main attractions including the Giant lying Buddha (which does exactly what it says on the tin) , the cannons, and we took the cable car trip up to Penang Hill which was quite picturesque.

There's also a beach resort called Batu Ferringh which is only about an hour bus ride. We actually just missed a beach party that was happening there the next day. But even so we took advantage of the surroundings and spent a few luxurious hours in the Sheraton poolside bar!

It was great to actually get back to doing some 'real' backpacking in Georgetown. Sometimes we do feel like we're cheating a bit when we're enjoying beach resorts & not traipsing around places, visiting temples etc. so it was good to soak up a bit of culture and learn more about the country. Plus it made us feel less guilty about or next trip to Langkawi ;-)

Quote........'It's like Blackpool on Acid!

mich_and_dan_moors — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We missed out on visiting Bangkok because of the terrible flooding, and although we'd heard that it hadn't really hit the centre we just weren't prepared to risk it. So the main agenda here was to meet up with my lovely Sister & her hubby Bryan at Bangkok airport and fly out to Phuket.Exciting!!!

Unfortunately we had a 5 hour delay, and poor Jo & Bry had already been waiting for us for about 5 hours so it was an even longer wait for them. We finally arrived in Phuket at about 11pm and we were all knackered, but what we all agreed on was that we needed a bit of a drink and so we went out to the main Patong Beach area. Which is where my lovely sister described it as being like "Blackpool on Acid'. And to be honest it is!!

It's a mad place full of lots of tattoo covered tourists, pretty much enjoying themselves and the sights of the infamous 'go go girls........who will not only dance for you, but will keep you entertained (and thereby keep you drinking!) by playing bar games with you. So if you take accept the place, and the go go girls, and accept if for the cheesy fun place it is, then you'll probably enjoy it like we did.

One of our must do things was to see a Muay Thai boxing match and so we booked a ringside seat at the Bangla Boxing stadium, which was in fact pretty gruesome but so compelling to watch. As well as seeing boxers as young as around 8yrs old (who were bloody good!) I think the highlight for us was watching the only UK boxer on the bill who proceeded to jump over the ropes, fall flat on his face & then get knocked out in the first round! We were so proud. Not!

So Phuket for us was great fun. Outside of Patong Beach I believe there's a lot more beautiful places to see & visit but we were only here for a few days as a stop over to Phi Phi and so it fitted our purpose just fine.

The family together x

After a few......

.....and a few more!

Dan with the 'Go Go' girls

The sophisticated game of knocking nail into wood....with the wrong end of the hammer. It kept us happy for ages??!!!

My sister - the Connect4 champion!

....and a few more!

Nha Trang

mich_and_dan_moors — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We arrived here after an 8 hour bus journey from Hoi An, at about 6am & it was lovely to see all of the locals, irrelevant of age, either running, doing aerobic exercise or playing Badminton along the promenade! It seemed that this whole stretch alongside the sea was the main hub of activity & luckily our hotel was within just 5 minutes walking distance.
We just pretty much pottered about here - we spent a few days on the gorgeous beach eating fresh seafood that was cooked for us by local ladies on their version of a beach bbq i.e. a bucket full of hot coals!. We also went on a snorkelling trip & swam in beautiful clear blue water & got to seem some of the most amazing fish. It was lke Finding Nemo! And to top it all of we spent a whole day at a spa having a Mineral mud bath, which cost us all of 6 quid each. Life doesn't really get much better than that ;-)

The heart of Pai. We heart Pai!

mich_and_dan_moors — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We'd heard a lot of great things about Pai and so we were desperate to visit. The bus from Chiang Mai took about 4 hours alongs a really windy road, and the great thing was it passed right outside the hotel where we'd booked. So we hopped straight off into 'The Heart of Pai' which is a fab place to stay with a quirky upside-down House as it's trademark.

Pai is only a small village, you can easily walk into the main area & wander around in an hour or so but we absolutely loved it here. It's got a kind of 'hippie' vibe, is very laid back & had some lovely cafes & bars and some funky little shops.. The best thing though to do here is to hire a scooter & just hop around.......there's so much beautiful scenery & some great places to visit. We went to 2 amazing waterfalls, the best being Pambok which you had to swim inside a little cave to get to, and we also boiled an egg in the hot springs!

We met up with some friends from Chiang Mai, Matt & Nadine, & so we spent the days exploring & the evenings drinking amongst great company. It doesn't really get much better!

Amazing times in Chiang Mai & it's incredible jungle

mich_and_dan_moors — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We had such a fab time in Chiang Mai.....the city itself has such a charm about it, so many things to see & do and it seems to have just the perfect mix of traditional/western that we really did fall in love with the place.
We stayed in Somphet Market which is THE place to buy all of your fresh produce, meat & fish etc so walking past here every day was such a treat, seeing all of the locals eating & buying. And the smells we nearly always amazing :-)

We visited quite a few temples, but to be honest by now we were pretty much templed out, and our favourite pastime (as always) was just to wander the streets & find some great local street food.

However the main highlight was our 2 night/3 day trek to the Jungle & Elephant camp. The actual trek was great, the scenery changing between paddy fields & 'in the thick of it' jungle.....but the best bit was rocking up at the Elephant Camp & sleeping literally with them! Our bed for the night was a mattress under a gazebo, about 200 meters away from them, so close that they actually woke us in the night with their trumpeting. It was great!!
We got to bare back ride them and wash them, and then the next day whilst in the jungle we had to hide from a wild one. In between walking we visited some amazing waterfalls that you could actually slide down, and we got to do some white water rafting too. The people we met on this trek made it a fab experience too.

When we got back to Chiang Mai to be honest we were knackered. So the next day we took a visit to the Women's Prison - we'd been recommended to have a massage here as 6 months prior to the women being released they train to become masseurs & receive a percentage of monies taken to set them up in their life after prison. Not only is it a commendable scheme the massage we got was incredible!! They use their elbows, feet, bend you over their knees........all for a grand total of 7 quid for 2 hours massage!! It was so good we went twice :-)

An unexpected night out took us to Doi Suthep lake. We were taken here by some locals, after we'd sampled many glasses of the lethal Sangsom whisky with them! There are lots of food stalls & bamboo huts situated all around the lake & it really is only known by the locals, so much in fact I think we were the only white faces there :-)
It's definitely not a luxury set-up, more like a picnic area but it was great fun just sitting around on mats in these makeshift huts. Was was a bit scary though was the food.....especially what is known as 'dancing shrimp' which is literally a bowl of live shrimp that jumps around in the bowl. So we didn't eat a great deal that night!

I also took a Thai cooking class & I managed to create some of my fave dishes, the more traditional ones like Massaman curry, Tom Yam soup & Pad Thai noodles. Not a shrimp in sight thank goodness! And even if I say so myself they really were as tasty as what i'd ordered in restaurants - so I really don't have any excuse not to cook these when i get back home.

All in all I think we spent about 10 days here in between the jungle trek & our little trip to Pai (see the next instalment!) and to be honest we could have stayed longer.

Ko Samui

mich_and_dan_moors — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Next we hopped on a boat and went across to visit infamous Ko Samui.
To be honest it was ok, just not quite our cup of tea. There are too many McDonalds, Starbucks etc here which takes away any Thai authenticity it probably had a few years ago. However we were still travelling with our friend Jonathan and we found a few cool bars (as well a a few ropey ones that we avoided!) so all in all it was a nice trip. We just wouldn't rush back in a hurry.

Thailand & it's obsession with the Moon!!

mich_and_dan_moors — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

One big event on our trip agenda was to go to the full Moon Party , and so we had to go to Ko Phangan. The actual party is in Had Rin, but we decided to stay somewhere a little more 'sophisticated' (or read 'older'! We were actually worried that the 20 yr olds would get on our nerves too much & so we decided to avoid here) and so we headed to Ban Tai beach near Thong Sala Pier - only a 20 min drive from the parties.

We caught up with our old pal Jonathan here who we hadn't seen since China, and basically just partied for about 10 days!!! We made it to both the Full Moon party & Half Moon party, and typically at both we just consumed the local delicacy of 'Buckets'........basically just sandcastle buckets filled with a quarter bottle of local whisky, which is actually rum ? plus a botlle of coke + red bull. Delicious!
The Half Moon party is a bit more of a club event- it's situated in part of a jungle with loads of DJ booths spotted around which feels a bit more exciting as opposed to just partying on the beach amongst the masses at the Full Moon. But both were fab, definitely an experience not to be missed, but not necessarily to be remembered :-)

As well as the partying we did manage to scoot around & discover the Island which is beautiful. We did an amazing trek up to 'Bottle Beach', and also stayed a few nights in Haad Yao which we loved. The beach was jsut fabulous and it was so, so quiet.
Unfortunately we did come across some quite nasty locals one night, who tried to intimidate & get violent with us when we asked them to give us fresh drinks because they were disgusting. The owner of the restaurant/hotel was just as hideous & rude as her staff (she threw away our drinks!) so that was a bit of a shocker. The only bad experience we've had on our trip really. But thankfully we didn't let that ruin anything for us.
We loved Ko Phangan. And it's Moons!!!

It's all about the temples!

mich_and_dan_moors — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It really is all about the temples here! So as soon as we arrived we struck a deal with a tuk tuk driver and set off to buy our passes for the next day, and went to Phnom Bakheng Temple to see the Sunset. The walk up to the temple was beautiful, it was kind of like being in the middle of an English Forest! And when we arrived there were absolutely hoards of people on their way to do the same………..but the views were stunning & even the crowds didn't spoil it. So we were both excited of the day ahead to see many more.

Unfortunately I was sick that evening (a spot of nasty food poisoning we suspected), so the next morning Danny set off & visit the temples on his own. And I watched cable TV from my sick bed & was well & truly gutted. When he came back that evening & told me they the temples were probably the most amazing he had seen - ever - well I was even more gutted!
We had planned to leave the next day, but I wasn't really well enough to travel, so we stayed an extra day and I managed to pull myself out of bed.
Bless Danny we saw the same temples as he had already seen, but these were the 5 main big ones which included the infamous Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, or better known as the 'Tomb Raider' because they filmed the movie here.

Phnom Penh

mich_and_dan_moors — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The capital of Cambodia, and the main reason we wanted to visit was to see & understand what happened to the country under Pol Pots regime. This meant unfortunately a visit to S21 and the Killing Fields was inevitable.
Neither of these trips were enjoyable. In fact they were truly horrific. To see the actual S11 building (that if fact used to be a school) where prisoners were tortured to death was spine chilling. And being in the rooms & seeing the photographic evidence of what went on in there was so frightening.
We paid for the audio guide at the Killing Fields visit which gave in-depth accounts from various people that were involved. This ranged from victims that had luckily escaped, family member who recounted their horrific stories of how they never saw their loved ones again, right through to those who worked for the Khymer Rouge who were too frightened for their own lives not to kill others as they had been ordered to do so.

It was hard not to want to leave Phnom Penh immediately after seeing these awful places, but the Cambodians are really lovely friendly people, and there are others sights in the capital that we enjoyed, such as the beautiful Royal Palace.

Shady Sihanokville

mich_and_dan_moors — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

There's a really great beach here that seems to be at it's liveliest in the evening. It's lined full of restaurants selling fresh fish & shack like beach bars, and every other establishment seems to sell 'happy' pizza, (better known as marijuana topped pizza) so it's not surprising that its a very relaxed, easy going place ;-)
We did hire a moped and explore other parts of the town, but we really loved just eating & drinking beside the beach so we spent most if the time here just watching the world go by.

Unfortunately the area is quite notorious for sex trafficking & prostitution - although it's not glaringly obvious in the fact there are not people working the streets or coming up to you & offering their services. However after a while you do notice that there are a hell of a lot more western males with VERY young cambodian women (or men) on their arms, in comparison to white/cambodian couples.......which I know might sound like we're either making quite big assumptions that these guys are paying for company, or that we're totally phobic, narrow-minded people. But on both counts I can tell you honestly that we're not, and what we saw with our own eyes was quite disturbing. But there really is no supply without demand, so exactly who is in the wrong here?

Suzhou

mich_and_dan_moors — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Being just a hour away on the train from Shanghai we decided to explore Suzhou which is famed for it's gardens. We were expecting to arrive at a small village, and looked forwards to leisurely wandering the streets………..however after about 2 hours of walking and realising we were absolutely nowhere near where we want dot get to we quickly realised that this was another massive city as all Chinese cities appeared to be. China doesn't do small ;-)

Suzhou is not on the same Grand scale of Beijing or Shanghai, granted, but is it very vast & there are lots of beautiful places to visit - the Tiger Hill Gardens were absolutely gorgeous and we lazed away a few hours here just taking in the views. There's also a canal that runs just outside the Gardens across some of Suzhou city and this was probably the highlight of our trip here…….the stilt houses that sit beside the canal look just charming & it all feels a bit romantic. We loved it!

In the evening we went to a lovely tree-lined street that had some amazing boutique shops ( I am on a budget & I did NOT purchase unfortunately!), a few bars , some yummy street food stalls, and also the evening Theatre. We watched 7 'performances' that included traditional chinese musicians & mini plays set within a Traditional Chinese home. We felt very cultural (get us!) but also it made us really appreciate the traditional art form of China- it was so interesting & so completely different to what we expected to see. It was fab.

Kampot

mich_and_dan_moors — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Kampot has a completely different feel to it than Kep. The centre of town is less green & feels more industrious, & it's It's certainly a lot bigger & more developed - but the 'things to do' list is relatively small. It was until we got to Pnomh Penh that we learned Kampot literally went from being a hub of activity to a ghost town when Pol Pot's army ordered everyone to leave, and to be honest it still has that kind of atmosphere…….a deserted dusty town that you'd expect to see tumble weeds fly past at any minute.

That's not to say that we didn't enjoy ourselves here. We hired a moped and discovered some really lovely places, a few hidden temples and at very pretty area near to the River that seemed to be where the locals picnic-ed. Again, it rained quite a bit but that gave us the chance to watch the England v's Scotland rugby match and re-discover our love for tequila. Oh dear!

Kep

mich_and_dan_moors — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We travelled across the Vietnamese border into Cambodia with no problems, and got taken to the gorgeous bungalows we were staying at for the next 3 days. They were seconds away from the sea (there wasn't really a beach), and only about 15 minutes walk from the infamous Crab Market. Here you can see the locals catching, buying & selling fresh crab (you don't say?!) and other seafood, at a very noisy & frantic pace. We of course sampled the fish, which couldn't have been any more fresh or tasty than it was.

We explored the beautiful lush countryside - there was a 10k walk we did around the national park that had amazing views, and we also hired Mountain bikes & followed the dusty road out of Kep into the next village.
In between all of our sight seeing it did rain quite a lot, but that didn't really stop us from doing anything. In fact on the first day we arrived it gave us an excuse to take refuge in the 'Veranda' hotel, where we'd only really gone to to withdraw some money………but then the rain came down, and they served relatively cheap red wine. And so we stayed put for the next 4 hours :-)

Kep was definitely a highlight of Cambodia for us. Although there was very few sights to visit or 'things to do' the scenery was stunning and kept us very happy.

Hoi An

mich_and_dan_moors — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A charming Riverside city, lots of bustling little streets with food market stalls - and lots of places to shop! Kind of a nightmare when you shouldn't really be purchasing, but here you can have anything you want hand made - ranging from leather sandals & boots, to winter coats & suits. All of which a fraction of the price you pay back at home
Unfortunately Danny got really sick here & spent 4 days in bed, so we didn't really explore the place other than to take a stroll up & down the River. But actually that in itself was lovely, and I felt quite at home just wandering around & browsing, visiting the food markets & eating on my own.

One event that we were lucky enough to see, was the Dragon Dancing festival, which all of the kids in the city would take part in. Around the streets at night they'd be beating their drums & dancing beneath the Dragon suits - putting on a show for everyone to see. It was great fun to watch