The Rock Long Rock Hard Halong Bay Tour

To finish off our trip to Vietnam, James and I signed ourselves up for the Rock Long Rock Hard Halong Bay Tour, a cruise around the scenic shores of Northern Vietnam run by the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel.  Well, I say cruise.  It ended up being more of a booze-cruise, but one of our highlights so far, by a long long way.  The tour gave us a chance to meet up with a lot of backpackers our age from all over the world.  We made friends from England, Ireland, Sweeden, Denmark, Germany, America and Canada to name but a few countries.

The tour itself was amazing.  For the first day and night, we spent our time on a beautiful traditional oriental ship.  We went swimming in the sea, dived off the boat, and even went kayaking to nearby caves.  When we kayaked back to the ship, it was dark.  The water was full of luminescent phosphorus, so as we paddled, the water around the paddles glowed, it was something else!  The majority of the time spent on the boat was spent playing drinking games (as you can see above), so we both have a lot to bring home.  The whole night was crazy, with some insane forefits and a shocking amount of alcohol consumption, but considering nobody knew each other, everyone got on so so well.  The whole crowd were just there to have a good time, which made making friends easy.

The second day and night, we stayed on a private deserted beach called 'Castaway Island', which was equally as fun as the day before!  James and I went rock climbing (one of the few times we were actually sober whilst on the tour) on the karst cliffs the protrude from the sea everywhere you look, so that was good fun and got the heart pumping.  We also played beach volleyball and countless more drinking games.  Also, late in the night (the remainder of this paragraph contains adult material) we all went skinny dipping in the sea, which was a great laugh, and made especially fun what with the glowing phosphorus in the water.  Magical!

Castaway Island

Sadly, on the morning of the third day, we had to return to Hanoi, having had one of the greatest times of our lives.  We made great friends on the trip and we'll never forget it... not even if we wanted to.

Some of the closest friends we made on the trip were Anna, Elie and David (or Gibsy as he became to be known).  We spent the next few days in Hanoi together, exploring the town and going out at night.  Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Gibsy, but we hope to meet up with him again in Bangkok in a few weeks time.  As for the girls, we are due to meet them here in Laos in a few hours.  It's great to meet people the same age as us with similar interests and senses of humour.  Also, who we can meet up with here, and hopefully back at home.

Louis, Anna, David, James, Elie

We'll be back with a post on  Laos shortly.  Until then, cheerio.

Saigon to Hoi An - The Long Way Round

As many of you may know already, James and I have now completed our motorcycle adventure.  Due to shortness of time and for the physical state of our behinds, we have opted to cease in the beautiful town of Hoi An.  It has been a great journey and we did not see a single Westerner until our last day.  We know a total of three Vietnamese words: 'Hello', 'Thankyou' and 'Beef'.  As you can imagine, this made the whole endeavour a whole lot more exciting.

I am saddened to report that we have now parted from our bikes Fergus and Finnegan, selling them for 40% of their original price.  We shall miss them dearly, if they had such intelligence, we would try and stay in contact, but we have agreed that any efforts would be futile (again, too much of a language barrier).

Hoi An is a beautiful place on the central coast of Vietnam.  It is an old port town, full of French architecture with strong influences from China and Japan.  By night, the town is illuminated by Chinese lanterns, both through the streets and floating on the river that bisects the settlement.  We have been very happy spending that last few days here and the surroundings do not cease to enchant us.  Today we have visited the 'Ancient Town' and discovered the herritage of such a place.  We had a traditional Vietnamese tea and observed the flood measure in a museum that informed us that the town has regularly become immersed in water over a metre deep in recent years.  Finger crossed our feet will stay dry!

James again:
Hey guys, I thought I would write another passage seeing as though we have ended our epic biking session. It will be nice to no longer be the 'Whities' (this isn't what they call us but we think they have a similar nickname to this in Vietnamese), and also to know what we are ordering when we visit resauraunts. We have already found our new local and go there for cheap breakfast and lunch everyday, but we venture to the higher end of the market for dinner. Sometimes we pay up to as much as 2 pounds for dinner. Personally to me that is extortionate, but they have to earn their bread and butter somehow.

Hoi An has already been placed high in my list of top places we have visited. The character has clearly been retained from the many years it has stood, and from the many cultures that have passed through the town, but it still bustles and hasn't lost its energy. It will a sad time when we have to leave in a couple of days, but bring on Hanoi!

Motorbiking So Far

Hello World, we thought we'd give you an update on the biking so far.  Since we purchased our bikes, we have travelled over 700km.  Needless to say we are already a hell of a lot more confident than when we first shakily rode through Ho Chi Minh City.

Firstly, we headed down towards the Mekong Delta, a lush green province South of Ho Chi Minh.  We stayed here a few nights, moving around the different towns and cities.  The highlights of our stay here were a boat trip, where we were taken around many floating markets and met lots of friendly locals who politely pretended to understand what we were saying, and a homestay, where we spent a night in a Vietnamese family's home, on a peaceful river island.  It was a treat falling asleep to the sound of the flowing water as oppsed to our usual fight to get to sleep with all the car horns.

The home we stayed in.

The two of us are now making our way to Hoi An, a town on the Central Coast of Vietnam, we travel on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  We tend to ride just over 100km per day, which takes us between three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half hours on average, including petrol stops and lunch stops.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful, it is what you'd expect of rural Italy, with pine trees, and lime groves, with some great aromas.  The roads snake through the countryside and up and down mountains, it truly is breathtaking.  The whole experience is great fun, although hard, tiring work.  It is an adventure stopping to eat, and stopping at hotels, because the area we are in isn't well travelled by tourists, so virtually nobody speaks any English, and we speak even less Vietnamese, but the people are so friendly that everything seems to work out just fine.  We do however feel a little sorry for the owners of hotels when we turn up with our faces coated in dirt and dust.

This photograph does the view NO justice

We expect to arrive on Hoi An within the next five days, until then, we will keep on travelling North along these beatiful roads.  Be warned though, we are both beginning to consider buying motorbikes when we get home, so the roads of Sussex may not be as safe as they are now!

Half Way at Ho Chi Minh

Today we have been travelling for sixty days.  This means that we are exactly half way through our adventure across South East Asia.  We have been talking a lot about the amazing experiences we've had so far, the people we have met, and the awesome things that are yet to happen.  I think it's safe to say that we are just as excited now as when we left home!

Now, to the point, today is very special for another reason.  We have two new members to our team, who will help us travel North through Vietnam.  I'd like to introduce you all to... the Hondas!

James' Badass Bike

Louis' Badass Bike

Tomorrow, we plan to leave Ho Chi Minh City, where we have been staying for the last couple of nights, and head towards the Mekong Delta, which is renowned for it natural beauty.  It is so exciting to know that for the next three weeks, we can go wherever we like, at our own pace.  We have a map, we have bungee cords, we have petrol,  we are ready to go!  Wish us luck, we will keep you posted!

This is James here. Thought I'd input as Louis has been doing all the hard work on this blog and I'm getting credit for it without doing anything. So here goes...

We have been away exactly sixty days out of one hundred and twenty and there have been many culture shocks during that time. I think today has been one of the scariest days personally, as we haven't exactly ever driven proper motorbikes before and yet we are now proud owners of two beautiful(ish), powerful(ish), motorcycles. And we plan to drive them in the busiest city in most of the world. However, we have come this far and we are still alive, so we can't be doing everything wrong, so these next few weeks are going to be pretty exciting as I think Louis will agree.

Next stop, Hanoi!

Full Moon, Phi Phi, Phuket

Well, well, well!  So much to report, so little internet time!

James and I are very happy to be joined by our friends from home, Peter Shelton and Charles Glenn, who flew out for the Full Moon Party and still have a couple of days left with us.  It has been great experiencing the South Islands of Thailand with them and we've had some great times (those of which we can remember).

One of the most memorable, and at the same time least memorable nights so far.

The Full Moon Parties, on Koh Phangan, were definitely worth the wait.  We met a lot of new people there and have both collected many stories of the characters that we became aquainted with (for instance, Canadian Eric, who convinced us all that he was in fact "not a lesbian" as he "did not have three nipples").  We met a few Irish people, embracing their National Holiday in style.  The Full Moon Party itself was noticeably busier than the build up parties on the island, maybe by as much as four times, and drink prices went up too.  However, I can honestly say that you cannot really compare it to any other night out you'll ever experience.  Painted from head to toe in fluorescent body paint, carrying a bucket of some crazy mix of local whiskey and Red Bull syrup, dancing to songs unheard for months, it's an unmisseable event!

We planned to spend the following days allowing our livers to recover from the trauma we had put them through.  The four of us travelled to Koh Phi Phi, an island to the West of Mainland Thailand.  Little did we know, the nightlife on this island was just as fun and good natured as Koh Phangnan and we ended up going out most nights to investigate the local deals on drinking!

At this point, I would like to interject and reassure any readers that James and I have not just given up on life, and adopted the lifestyle of raging alcoholics in an effort to forget our identities and be forced to stay on the islands for the rest of our existance (although that does sound tempting).  In between nights out, we have been exploring the immediate area and relaxing on beaches.  Just a few days ago, Pete, Charles, James and I took a boat trip around the islands of Koh Phi Phi.  At one point, we stopped to do some snorkelling and saw hundereds of tropical fish that would swim inches from our masks, a trully breathtaking experience.  We then continued and stopped for a couple of hours on Maya Beach, a beautiful bay on one the islands that has been kept as a nature reserve so as to retain it's beauty.  This beach was the setting for the film 'The Beach' with Leonardo Dicaprio, so it was an interesting visit for that reason also.

View from 'The Beach'

We have now moved on further, to Phuket, another island joined to the mainland by a bridge.  It is astounding to analyse the price difference between Koh Phi Phi and Phuket.  Although we are staying in very basic accomodation here, it costs us a mere 350Baht for a room of four (that is about £1.90 a night per person) compared to the 1400Baht we were paying in Phi Phi (£7 per person per night) for a similar room.  It is nice to have more money to spend so we can relax a bit more and not have to think about our budget all the time.

Pete and Charles will be staying with us until the end of the month, so we plan to spend a day or two in Bangkok before they leave, at which point James and I will depart for Vietnam!  Plenty to fit in as we near the half-way point of our adventure through South East Asia.

A Taste of Thai Culture

Over the last week or so, James and I have been island-hopping with two guys we met on Koh Tao, Dave and Sam from the UK.  It's been good fun travelling about with them and exploring new places.

We have recently had a few experiences that can truly be classed as Thai Culture.  On our last night on Koh Tao, the four of us went to a Ladyboy Cabaret, which was an interesting experience.  Such an elaborate performance, with infinite feathers, fans and sequins.  It is surprising how 'believable' for want of a better word, some of the ladyboys are, clearly they have been through quite extensve surgery and are passionate about the life they now lead.  The show was a good laugh, with some hilarious audience participation, all in all a great way to end our time in Koh Tao.

Also, just last night, on the island of Koh Samui, the four of us went to a Thai Boxing match in the town centre, such a great experience.  We saw about six fights in total, some lady Thai boxing, some men's Thai boxing.  It's such a skillfull sport, it took us both by surprise, with precise punches and lightning fast kicks, you can almost feel the pain after each hit, but the crowd go wild, and I can understand why.  For such a savage sport, there is such pride and respect amongst the fighters, in one of the fights we saw, the winning fighter knocked his opponent out in the third round, and quickly helped to bring him back round and check if he was okay (fairly odd, but a nice touch).

It has been good dabbling in a bit of traditional Thai culture at last, and meeting some of the locals.  Also, we can count ourselves very lucky that we have not been affected by the recent natural disasters that have happened over the last few days in Japan.

We now have a week ahead of us on Koh Phangan, home of the world famous Full Moon Party, so we shall be out most nights, challenging the power of our livers and adapting to a nocturnal life!  Also, both of us are really looking forward to seeing our friends Charles and Pete, who are flying out from home to enjoy the next few weeks with us!

Koh Tao, the best island in the World

We are currently on the small island of Koh Tao, a beautiful place boasting glorious beaches, calm crystal waters and a brilliant lifestyle.  The island is located off the South East coast of mainland Thailand.

James and I came to Koh Tao at the recommendation of many people we met in Cambodia, each saying that it was the best place that they have been, and so far, I agree with them.  This place is spectacular.  The sun shines throughout the day and the temperature is astounding, reaching the mid-thirties every day, without fail.  On our fist evening, we were welcomed by the most amazing sunset, allowing us to relax into island life straight away.

We have been doing a four day PADI course, which allows us to become qualified scuba divers!  So far, ours days have consisted of walking along the sandy beach in the morning, and catching a boat and scuba diving in the briny in the afternoon.  Diving is relatively cheap here and it has to be one of the most beautiful places to dive in the world.  Below is just a selection of the underwater life we have been rubbing fins with.

Blue Spotted Ribbon Ray

Saddleback Anenomefish

Six Banded Angelfish

Longfin Bannerfish

Wiebel's Butterflyfish

Blue Ringed Angelfish

Moray Eel

So, as you can imagine, Koh Tao seems a million miles from home.  We are both absolutely loving life on the island, and plan to stay for a few more days before moving along.  Tomorrow, we are going to do a deeper dive, down to about 30m, which hopefully will enable us to see some more creatures.