Aranyprathet to Bangkok to Chiang Mai!

After crossing back into Thailand, we headed straight to the train station because our plan was to make it all the way to Chiang Mai in one go! We got to the station in Aranyaprathet very early, so we sat in a cafe for a couple of hours and waited around.

On this train we managed to get some padded seats and were by ourselves for most of the journey so it wasn't too unpleasant! During the journey I insisted on buying a mystery bamboo stick full of rice, which turned out really nice and sweet! While we were trying to eat it and old Thai couple sat near us laughed as we struggled to work out how!

We got to Bangkok with plenty of time before the overnight train to Chiang Mai, but there were no tickets left! There were also no tickets for the next day at first but as we were leaving 2 tickets for the next day were cancelled so we booked those straight away!

Because of the extra day we headed straight to Khao San to the same guesthouse as before and had an early night.

On a whim, we decided to visit Dusit Zoo, which turned out to be really fun! We managed to touch some elephants, see a shark exhibit with only 1 decent shark and a lot of dead fish in tanks and rode a pedalo round the lake with monitor lizards swimming around us!

In the evening we went to our train and struggled to get much sleep overnight. We had breakfast in bed, which was incredibly overpriced and absolutely disgusting! It made me very very sick, including a fever which had us worried!

We wondered around Chiang Mai for what felt like and eternity finding hotels either full or filthy. We eventually settled on a nice enough hotel in a decent location within the city walls.

The next day we stayed in bed with food poisoning, which was very unpleasant! The day after, we planned to explore the city but couldn't be bothered in the end. We bought train tickets to Bangkok, just in case everything was fully booked again and the best we could get was a carriage without air con! Next, me and Imogen shed some hair. Imogen's eyebrows and my beard! It was pretty weird being shaved by someone else! We finished the day at an Italian restaurant where a group of guys were having some kind of backgammon league.

We had booked something called Jungle Flight for the next day, which is just like Go Ape in England! It took us ages to get through the jungle and mountain roads to where it was based but the views on the way made it nicer! We kitted up in some embarrassing gear, including some kind of hair net and set off! Imogen hated the day and was scared of everything, but I definitely enjoyed it lots! The scariest part was a 40m free fall (they called it abseiling) while it was pouring down with rain! We finished with a nice free lunch and free t shirts! Not bad! When we got back to the hotel Imogen decided she needed a manicure and pedicure to cope with the day's trauma but soon regretted it because of the immense pain caused to her by them cutting really deep into her nails! They didn't even apply her nail varnish at all well!

We hadn't seen much of Chiang Mai itself by this point and were so far disappointed so we set out to find the nice bits. During out random walking we found 4 temples, one apparently with aggressive dogs according to a local man! We did find an amazing coffee shop that had recently opened and really reminded us of Workhouse. For lunch we went to a health food cafe (Imogen's idea) where I had a tea made from mushrooms that tasted exactly like cornish cider! I liked it but Imogen hated it. Imogen had carrot, apple and beetroot juice which tasted just like potatoes.

Our train back to Bangkok was next so we packed in the morning and checked out. We went to the amazing coffee shop twice during the day, we definitely wished we found it sooner! We decided not to make the same mistake twice with eating food on Thai trains so got a takeaway pizza ready for our journey! During the night Imogen had cockroaches on her bed and I had a light shining in my face so we both struggled to sleep!

Cambodia

We got up nice and early and met our tuk tuk guy to get to the border. We drove a little way and were dropped off at a "visa office". The guy who met us insisted that we were at the official immigration department, even though we were in a shabby office, then tried to take our passports. Handily, we're not thick and so refused. He then told us that the visa would cost 1200 Baht, when we knew full well it was $20 - we walked out as he was telling us the $20 was for a 3 day visa (which doesn't even exist!) and went to the real border.

We got through immigration smoothly, I even charmed my way out of the bribe the immigration guy tried to make us pay! We got the free bus to Poi Pet then shared a taxi to Siem Riep with a weird guy who was convinced everyone was scamming him.

We were taken to a hotel which seemed nice enough, and I managed to barter our room to 250 Baht/night - bargain!

We hired a driver to drive us around for the next 3 days and spent the evening wandering.

Cambodia was the first place where I got culture shock. Even Siem Riep, an important city, was squalid - it was easily the most poverty-stricken place we've been.

We got up bright and early the next day ready to meet our driver. We drove for about 20 minutes and then got our first sight of Angkor Wat. There is a long walkway leading to the main entrance, and the temple itself is massive; we spent about an hour exploring and we could have stayed much longer.

Next stop was Angkor Thom which was a short drive away. The whole complex is beautiful and perfectly maintained. The areas between the temples have lawns, woods and lakes, and even driving between places was lovely. Angkor Thom is a large area with a few temples and other bits and bobs including the elephant terrace and we spent a long time wandering round and seeing the sights.

The last stop of the day was Ta Prohm, the tomb raider temple. It was just amazing! Definitely my favourite temple, it looked exactly like it had come out of a film about some explorers discovering a lost aztec city.

The next day was John's birthday! I kept telling people but none of the Cambodians cared at all, they didn't even pretend, or say happy birthday!

We spent the day driving around the temples, doing the grand circuit, then spent the evening having a lovely dinner, then drinking at a tiny bar.

The last day we had hired our dude for, we drove through the Cambodian countryside to a temple called something like Banteoy Dewy, which was made of pink stone and very different from the others we'd seen. There was also a lovely nature walk near by, with viewing platforms over the lakes to look at birds.

On the way back, we stopped at the landmine museum, which is run by an ex child soldier who now neutralises land mines and runs a school and home for kids who've been maimed by mines. It was extremely interesting and touching.

We stopped off at a small temple and then took a final look at Angkor Way.

That evening we went to a lovely restaurant and had a delicious sharing plate of curries. At the end of our meal we got into an argument with the staff, who refused to take our $50 note because it was slightly old - even though I'd got it from a cash machine recently! They took it in the end but charged us an extra dollar. We calmed our tempers (ok, my temper) by going to get some ice cream then visiting the night market.

The market was actually rubbish! It was just common souvenir stalls but under one roof. There was a dance act going on, but they were so terrible they were even giggling themselves!

We got up bright and early to get a taxi back to the border, then passed back into Thailand.

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Bangkok, visas and Aranyaprathet

I am doing this post from my phone so expect many mistakes!

Continuing from Hanoi and arriving in Bangkok! We arrived in the early hours so made our way to the departures in Bangkok airport in an effort to not be scammed by taxi drivers. We managed to get a very fast taxi driver for actually a very good price! Obviously by this point we are becoming decent at this travelling thing...

When we arrive at Khao San it was still very busy and bustling despite being about 3 am! We found a decent room and went straight to bed!

We got up quite early (for us) and decided to try and see Harry Potter! We went to Siam Paragon, which is basically a very expensive mall with a lot of high end brands in it! Only window shopping happened for us here! We saw HP that evening at an Imax in the best seats available and loved it!

The start of the day we went to apply for our visas for India. We researched it would take 5 days to process so we had to go in Monday and pick up Friday, a bit inconvenient because we didn't really want to be in Bangkok too long! Spent a lot of the day uploading lots of photos (eventually the staff here would actually recognise us here). The evening somehow ended up with Imogen drinking 3 buckets (very very very etc strong cocktail) and I had beer and sips of the buckets. We ended up absolutely smashed within an hour so went back to the hotel early and ended up pretty poorly! The next day not much happened thanks to the wonders of hangovers.

The next day we adventured out a bit and found the taxi boat pier and did a small sight seeing tour round Bangkok. Our first stop was the Grand Palace, where outside a scammer told us we wouldn't be allowed in because Imogen had flip flops on and it was closed anyway. He did this in front of a sign saying "Beware of wily strangers"! The palace was stunning and Imogen took loads of pictures! The next stop was the Reclining Buddha, which was way bigger than we thought it would be but still amazing. Last stop was Wat Arun, which was beautiful but came with loads of stairs to climb! For lunch on this day we had a small bowl of fried quails' eggs from a street vendor which were actually really nice and perfectly cooked! At the end of the long day we got an hour long foot massage with a free (very painful) back, neck and shoulder massage.

The next day we planned to go to Ayuthaya. I had an amazing plan to save us money which involved taking a taxi boat to the metro and then the metro to the underground to the train station. This ended up taking absolutely ages and costing double what a taxi would anyway! Oops!

Once we arrived in Ayuthaya, we had food tyhen rented some bikes to go around and see the temples and things. We actually managed to sort of find our way around to the main temples despite the very scary traffic!

The next day was the day we picked up our visas for India. We started the day with a trip to MBK to buy some bags on behalf of Mad. Imogen did her best ever bit of haggling to get the price down from 9000THB to 4500THB! It took a while but very impressive! We went to the embassy to pick up our visas, Imogen's was ready when we were first called up but my passport hadn't arrived back yet so we had to wait an hour or so for mine to arrive.

The next day we got a 5 hour long 3rd class train to Aranyaprathet and arrived to an army of tuk tuk drivers! We got out first ever tuk tuk to a hotel and got an early night ready for the border crossing into Cambodia the next day!

Hue

The main memory from Hue for me was the heat. For the 4 or so days we were there it was around 40C every day.

On our first day in Hue after showering and stuff, we went out for dinner but it was dark so we had no idea where anything was. On the way to finding somewhere to eat, we walked past a really creepy looking fairground that probably only looked creepy because of it being night! We ended up finding a place to eat and thanks to language barriers ended up eating rice, vegetables and tofu. It was actually really nice and also really cheap because we only managed to order 1 dish!

The next day we decided to turn the other way out of the hotel, which ended up way more successful because we found actual stuff! We went for a walk along the river, got about 200m and decided it was too hot so we hung out in a cafe for most of the day!

PS Sorry about the ordering of the last 2 posts, I pressed publish on this way before Imogen did on her Hanoi post so don't know what happened there!


The day after, we found a small bakery that runs a school to teach children on the streets to bake, where they then have a skill to gain work. So we did our bit for charity and had some croissants! Next, we went to buy train tickets but the train we wanted was full so we booked tickets for a 2am departure... The rest of the day was spent on the other side of the river where we had lunch and went to the market! Finished the day on the riverside where all the tourist boats park up with coffee and ice cream!

The next day we did a boat tour down the perfume river. The first stop was a nice historical house/garden that we can't identify from our guide books! The next stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda, which is the oldest pagoda in Vietnam! This is also the monastery that the monk who burned himself in protest of the American war came from. We stopped at another temple but were told it was expensive and boring so we sat by the river for a bit! We had lunch on the boat and then stopped at the first of the tombs we would see, which we think was Minh Mang's. During this tomb visit, we took a picture of a dog, which then growled and went for us! A bit later in the same tomb, we looked through an archway towards the river and another dog was there which also came for us! These encounters made us temporarily scared of dogs until just recently! We had an option to see the second tomb but decided against it and then got overcharged for ice creams just outside the tomb instead! The final tomb we think was Tu Duc's. We originally thought this stop was a cafe because we were ushered in by the staff, but then the tour guide came running over telling us that we were at the tomb! While in the tomb, we took it a bit too easy and realised with 10 minutes there was still loads to see so we had to power around to see everything!

For dinner that day we went to an amazing curry place and then for dessert to the bakery again (for charity).

Next day was relaxed at the hotel, Imogen was poorly!

On the next day, we went to the citadel but on the way because it was too hot we stopped at a riverside cafe for water. We ordered what we thought was just normal mineral water but ended up with sweet fizzy water! The water wasn't too bad, but not what we wanted! This was the day of the train so in the evening we hung out at a cafe until it closed at 10:30 then headed to the train station for a very long wait for our train which was only slightly late!

Hue to Hanoi and Hanoi

We quickly found our carriage, our berth mates were already on, a lady on the bottom bunk and a man with his daughter on the top. The man ignored us, but the lady was really nice and helped us work out what we were doing. Neither of us understood the other, but we got round that by chatting anyway and gesticulating wildly.

We settled in to sleep, then were woken up by an extremely loud announcement about the train arriving at a station. We went back to sleep, then woke up again at about 5 or 6. We stayed in bed and snoozed for the rest of the journey (although I kept waking up to find various people were sat at the foot of my bed, which was bizarre!). The beds were really comfy and we both slept really soundly.

As we came out of the station, I was caught behind a ticket dispute, so John ended up ahead of me. The tuk tuk and taxi drivers were very aggressive as I came to the front, they even surrounded me until John noticed I wasn't with him and came back to grab me.

We started off walking to a guest house, but then realised we couldn't be bothered, so we hailed a taxi. We didn't like the one that was recommended, but there was a nicer one down the road so we booked ourselves into that, and booked a cruise through Ha Long Bay while we were checking in.

We spent the next couple of days exploring - we went to the pagoda in the centre of the lake, found a cafe that sold brain and found the nearest post office.

The Ha Long Bay cruise was incredible. It was really poorly organised, which meant lots of waiting around, but the scenery and people more than made up for it. We visited three different caves, one of which was really oddly lit in neon lights and another was just odd in its layout - the path through it took you around the edge, through narrow holes in rocks, under a stage....

We also saw a floating village, which had a school, shops and a bank! Once we reached the place we were stopping for the night we jumped off and had a swim. I just about got the courage up to jump off the lowest floor, but completely chickened out of going off the middle floor. John started off jumping off the roof, to the consternation of all the other guys, who were apparently planning to work their way up, but now couldn't without losing face! We stayed up chatting to everyone, then pottered off to bed, where it was boiling hot!

We woke up to see the sunrise at 5:30, but it was too misty and rainy so we went back to sleep. We were woken up at about 7:30, then we went back to the floating village to do some kayaking in the pools and caves around the village. There was a really narrow split in some rocks, and we decided to try to squeeze through it - was approached really fast, but then I realised close up that we didn't have a chance of making it through with our oars! I braked and we veered off a bit, but then we approached at a more steady pace and just about made it through!

We went back to the boat for lunch, then headed back to Hanoi.

On of our last days, we decided to do some mammoth sight-seeing to feel cultured and work off some of the food and alcohol we'd been eating! We planned out a route through the citadel and to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. When we were half way through the citadel, we realised that it's actually still in use as a military site! There were a load of guys with guns, and signs forbidding photographs. There were signs saying that access to some areas was strictly prohibited, but the arrows to the areas pointed both to where we wanted to go and where we'd just come from. We eventually made it put without being shot, and managed to find the mausoleum, which was very sombre and impressive. We weren't able to get inside, as the tours for the day had finished, so we went to see the museum, the one pillar pagoda and attempted to find Ho Chi Minh's stilt house. It was raining really heavily and we got soaked, so we got a taxi back to the hotel.

The next day we decided to carry on the sightseeing and visited the Temple of Literature, which was smaller than we'd anticipated, but very lovely. Across the road was a park with a lake, so we went for a walk.

We spent our last day visiting all our favourite places and hoping our taxi would turn up on time - which it did! It was actually early, so we breezed through all the airport queues. We had gone with Quatar Airways because it was cheapest and it was lovely, very luxurious, and the journey went really quickly because I was watching telly!

Hoi An

Hoi An is stunning, probably my favourite town we've been to. It's antiquey and has loads of narrow cobbled streets, with little street front restaurants and bars, and a lovely river. We spent about 4/5 days there, and I could have stayed there for much longer!

We went to the tailor for 3 more fittings over the next three days - at the first one I made them adjust everything, but the next two were better! We took all our clothes home on the day before we left, then we went out and bought a giant duffle bag to carry them around in!

We spent a lot of time in the hotel's pool, which was usually deserted, and at bars and restaurants along the river side. We also did a lot of shopping, John bought five ties to go with his new suit, and we bought some souvenirs - I think we were quite restrained though!

We decided to treat ourselves to a nice meal at one of the restaurants recommended in our guidebook - the Mango Room. They gave us free home made crisps and salsa as we browsed the menu, then after we ordered our main courses they brought us free starters too! We had some kind of vegetable tempura to start, which was delicious, then I had tofu with a garlicky sauce and John had Sea Bass.

Since the restaurant was quite expensive, we went to our favourite cafe at the riverside afterwards and had a bottle of local wine, which was nice and cheap! The same cafe had draught beer for about 8p a glass, which John took full advantage of.

We got a bus to Hue (as recommeded by the kid we met at Sea Lake), which was cramped and hot, but only took a couple of hours. John is writing about Hue right now, eventually we will be caught up!!

Bike trip day five - last day!

I was so sad that it was our last day! This last portion of the journey was short but incredibly beautiful. We saw a portion of the original Ho Chi Minh Trail and a beautiful waterfall.

We stopped at a very traditional village, where the elders didn't even speak modern Vietnamese. There was a little girl who loved me and kept following me round smiling! We also went to a bigger pineapple farm and ate some amazing fresh pineapple with salt, as the locals eat it. We also tried some jackfruit, which is basically a big durian, but it was so vile I couldn't even eat it out of politeness!

Our next stop was a beautiful temple, where we got to see some of the service, which was lovely. We also stopped at a house where a lady was making rice paper, she was so mechanical it was hypnotic!

Our final stop was a cafe which had recently been a wedding and still had all the decorations up! From there it was a short ride to Hoi An. The guys found us a lovely cheap hotel with a swimming pool and then took us to the best tailor in town.We spent ages choosing designs and fabricsm then went to a cafe to say goodbye to Tan and Anh. It was really horrible after five days of being with them almost non-stop.

We spent the evening exploring Hoi An, which is amazing!