Nelly the Elephant

Our original plan was to go from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai as this is Elephant trekking central but finance and time constraints simply wouldn't allow it so we went in search for an alternative closer to Bangkok. We found one, the perfect one, that had elephant trekking and bathing along with a trip to the Erawan waterfalls!

On the 21st April we took a three hour journey to Wang-Po Elephant park. We arrived and got to know the elephants, they did all have individual names but they were rather complex Thai names and we didn't think they were really cool enough so naturally we named them all Nelly or Dumbo! Hannah and I along with another German girl (Jessie) climbed aboard the coolest elephant and set off exploring the forest. It wasn't necessarily the smoothest ride but it was definitely wicked to see everything from such a height. After climbing up some very steep steps (oh so fun!) the elephant master (mahout) proceeded to climb off Nelly, telling me to climb onto her head, where he had been sitting. I know, I am basically Dr Dolittle but even I was a bit nervous being in control of this beast! It was very cool though, I felt like Mogli from the jungle book. We all had a go sitting on her head and all thoroughly enjoyed it! We were then taken back to the start and told to walk to the lake. Here, we met another elephant, Dumbo, and stripped to our bikinis for a bathe. It was so much fun. I'm pretty sure we were bathed for longer than everyone else?! Maybe we were smellier? But Hannah was at the front so if that's the case it was all her!

Anyway, we eventually left there and headed for the waterfalls, making a stop at a little roadside 'restaurant' for some pad tai. We got to the waterfalls later than expected so had limited time here but were still able to see the beauty they possessed. We were able to dart through the monster sized fish lurking at the bank to experience the waterfalls full power. It was amazing.

We had such a lovely day. One we will never forget.

Missing you all

Nelly and Dumbo xxxxxxx

Bangkok

In a word Bangkok was cool. It was more developed than Vietnam and Cambodia so it was nice to see a more Western landscape as we near the half way point of the trip. It had all the mod-cons of a capital.. Shopping Malls, McDonalds, Starbucks and some crazy traffic but still retained cool Thai aspects such as pink taxis, endless tuk-tuks and some yummy street food (Pad Tai to be specific!)

Our first day was spent on Khoa San Road, shopping, booking trips and an exit plan. To get there we took the river boat, an excellent mode of transport, it goes right through the centre of Bangkok showing the sites from a cool breezy vessel!

Khoa San is a pretty buzzing place when everyone's around. There are lots of stalls with the infamous 'missy what you like' calls, lots of open bars and restaurants pumping tunes and lots if travel agencies, all giving the 'best deal', obviously! We took full advantage of all Khoa San Road had to offer while in Bangkok, somehow ending up there everyday!

We also ventured into China Town.. Now this was an experience! Not one for the faint hearted, or for those who suffer from heat stroke, claustrophobia, or osmophobia (fear of smells, for those who don't know!). We've been to some places on this trip but I have to say China Town Bangkok had the largest amount of people per cm, the most bizarre smells and a temperature to rival even the Cu Chi Tunnels! We only lasted two hours before getting a tuk tuk to take us to the nearest air conditioned location! But it was still cool to see it all.

Speaking to a Swiss couple we met, they told us about MBK, a large shopping mall that literally had everything in the world.. legitimate or fake. Of course, we had to go. I have to say, being two 19 year old girls, we're pretty good at shopping, but even we were overwhelmed! When I say it had everything.. I mean it had everything! iPads, dog food, jewellery, edible bugs copious amounts of clothes, shoes and handbags (even fake Christian Lousboutins!!) We took advantage of the pirate DVDs on sale but apart from that were a little too shopped out to get anything else!

Our hostel (Saphaipae) was one of the best yet. It had everything a traveller would need, a laundry room, a large socialising area, a restaurant, a TV room and the dorms were extremely clean and spacious.

All in all Bangkok is what you'd expect as the capital! A definite must do if you're ever in the vicinity!

Lots of love

T & H

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Comments!

Waddup! Basically we're trying to sort out this whole commenting situation...

We think Firefox is the answer. At our current hostel they have both Internet Explorer and Firefox. I've been able to post a comment on one of the blogs as an anonymous user on Firefox. I had to answer one of those bizarre security questions before hand, you know the one where they ask you to write what is already written in the little box? Well the comment posted so if you have Firefox or are able to get through on another internet program we'd love to hear from you!

Have a go!...

Peace and love

Two technological geniuses! (Well, I am, Hannah didn't know how to turn the darn computer on but I'll involve her nonetheless!)

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Don't worry peeps!

Well we arrived into Bangkok yesterday at 7:10pm.. Five hours later than anticipated! The journey was interesting to say the least!

We spent two hours waiting for a new bus to arrive in Siem Reap only for our old bus to come and pick us back up! Then spent three hours queuing in the blistering heat to cross the border. We met two chaps though that made our time entirely enjoyable. Adrian and Chris, both seasoned travellers who gave us many pearls of wisdom for the rest of our trip.

Arriving into Bangkok was bliss after 24 hours of travelling. We got to our very cool hostel, had long cold showers, ate and feel straight to sleep!

There aren't any pictures I'm afraid, we were both too hot and grumpy to think about having pictures taken at all yesterday! All part of the experience!

Looking forwards to exploring Bangkok..

Two travelled out girls!

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Just a little snippet

Writing this blog whilst sat on the side of the road, we're not quite sure where we are or when we'll be picked up but we thought we'd share just a little bit of what it's like being a traveller!

We were driven to our bus at 7:00pm last night and left Sihanoukville at 8:00pm we basically had beds on the bus so we did a little bit of sleeping but not a huge amount. We'd been told by the man that arranged the transport that we wouldn't have to change buses until we arrived at the border into Thailand and this wouldn't be until 8:00am. Wellll it's currently 6:30am and we were dropped off to 'change buses' over an hour ago. We're not entirely sure where we are, we think we might be in Siem Reap but we're just hoping our new bus comes pretty pronto as the pavement is not as comfy as you might think!

We'll let you know how we get on! (If you don't hear from us you might want to alert some sort of embassy?! Is that what you do when someone goes missing in a foreign country?!)

Wish us luck!

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Sihanoukville

Sorry for the lack of contact peeps! We've been living in luxury for the last few days you see, so blogging has somewhat slipped our minds!

Arriving here on Saturday after a 4 hour bus ride we weren't exactly thrilled as it chucked it down on our tuk tuk ride. So much so, that our driver had to bring the covers down to protect us from the storm that was brewing outside! Arriving at Indigo On Otres (our home for the next few days) however, made us calm a little. Directly on the beach our accomdation seemed perfect, providing the weather perked up! We sat in the bar/restaurant and overlooked the increasingly angry sea. We ate and the power went, using a candle lit lamp to find our beach hut we got into bed and prayed for better weather!

Our wish was granted and we awoke to paradise. Just take a look at the pictures if you don't believe me! It was lovely, we literally just sunbathed and ate! That has been life for us here! Very difficult as you can imagine!

On our first night we went to a beach party to celebrate Khmer new year. Equipped with some of the most bizarre music I've ever heard we felt somewhat out of place. It was very... Hippy shall we say?! But we soon found two English girls who were on the same playing field as us. We got on really well and when they told us of their awful accommodation we suggested they check out our place. The next morning they pitched up, bags in toe and we all had breakfast together! Bizarrely enough we still, to this day, don't know their full names! That's just a travellers way though I guess! We do, however, know the name of one Bob Metcalfe. A man the tide washed up... Literally...

It was Hannah's birthday and we were both having a dip in the sea when we heard the cries of a man shouting to his friends, 'I can't help it guys! The tides taking me to them!' Oh God.. 'Hi, I'm Bob.. That's my real name!' He said. Well why wouldn't it be?! Anyway, Bob decided to hang with us for the afternoon until his friend came and rescued us from his drunken repetition! Embarrassing as it was for him we thoroughly enjoyed laughing at his oddness.

Whilst we're on the subject, yes it was Hannah's birthday yesterday. Spent on the beach I think she had an okay day. Being in the middle of no where I struggled to find any form of birthday decoration. But my mum had thankfully given me some glow sticks before I left so armed with them and a hand made banner constructed from torn out pages of my journal I set to work decorating our hut before she woke. She had a birthday manicure on the beach and we drank sangria all day, it was pretty sweet!

All in all I'd say our time here has been okay.. JOKES! We've loved it! Even the showering with lizards, rats running through our hut at 7:30 every night, flushing the loo manually and frequent power cuts it's made it all very fun and just added to the character of this place!

Off to Thailand today, bizarre to think we've already done Hong Kong, Vietnam and now Cambodia! Only got Thailand and India left now! Where is the time going??

Missing you all

Two girls in the heart of paradise!

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Phnom Penh

Phomn Penh

We spent a few days in Phomn Penh soaking up the Cambodian culture.
We stayed in 88backpackers. Would recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere to stay in the capital, though their Wifi was not good hence the lack of blogs recently! But the pool made up for it!

We went to the central market and had a gander but I have to say they had nothing on the markets in Siem Reap. They lacked character and so I managed to hold back. We did however have a traditional Cambodian lunch of rice and 'pig' nearby.

We had a ride all round town in a tuk tuk and got to see Wat Phnom, which is a beautiful Buddhist temple. I hasten to add this was entirely by accident and the driver got completely lost and it took us 40 minutes to get back to the hostel, not 10. The scenic route was taken.

One of the main tourist attractions is the Killing Fields, we had been told it was certainly an experience but not necessarily a positive one. Stories of people leaving in tears didn't exactly tempt us...

We liked Phomn Penh but it didn't overwhelm us as a capital. There is a large international community there and we meet two guys who were there on a third visit, perhaps we weren't there long enough to appreciate it. We were glad we went nonetheless as it was still incredibly Cambodian and different from any other city we have been to, that's the beauty of travelling.

Toodles,
Han & Tash XXX

Siem Reap

Ah Siem Reap, lovely little Siem Reap. I will always remember you.

I loved Siem Reap, it had a sort of Hoi An vibe to it; very cute, very chilled and very friendly. Our hostel was situated just outside the night market, perfect walking distance across the bridge from the day market and pub street. Not realising the night market was, in fact, the night market on our first day Han and I started there, wondering why there were stalls that were shut?! Anyway it was nice to mooch... However, after about half an hour of looking round we were, naturally, very tired. As if by magic a small Vietnamese girl popped round asking if we'd like a mani-pedi! Well of course we would for $5 each! We sat being pampered for about an hour and felt significantly refreshed enough to venture across the small wooden bridge to find lunch. 'Central Cafe' was our place of choice and it was great. Serving predominantly western food it was nice to indulge in some English feeling grub! We left there and headed to the day market. Unlike markets back home, the place had dried meat hanging from corner to corner of the food section. This, as you can imagine, gave off a delicious scent! We steered clear of this quarter and headed for the nice girly section; the bags, bracelets, purses etc!

After a bit of shopping we headed make to our boiling room, had a couple of cold showers and made our way out for dinner on pub street. Wandering around we found a place that served tex-mex (Hannah's all time favourite) and simply HAD to eat there.. For this meal and the meal the night after also! The night life on pub street was buzzing, Temple Club was our location of choice and with the crazy Cambodian dancers it did not disappoint!

We really enjoyed our time in Siem Reap, despite the temperature of our room, the hostel (HI Siem Reap) was great and we'd thoroughly recommend it to any fellow travellers, though you might want to ask for a room with functioning aircon!

Off to Phnom Penh now..

Much love

Us!

Xxxxxxxx

The Temples of Angkor

To see the beautiful sunrise over Angkor Wat we had to get up at 4.30am. You can imagine how much of a struggle this was for me. But considering our room was hotter than outside, I had an incentive.

We had booked a tuk tuk driver who would be our 'servant' as he put it, for the day. He would wait for us outside each temple and drive us to the next one. We were wearing clothes to cover our knees and shoulders and we were already hot at 5am. It wasn't looking good.

After a short nice breezy ride we arrived at Angkor Wat in time for the sunrise. We had been told that the best place to see it was next to the pond as we would be able to see the reflection in the water. We waited about an hour and a half for the sun to rise and there were definitely some fed up punters (perhaps including me) thinking that the 4.30 rise wasn't necessary. The rise itself was a bit of an anticlimax. The sun was only brought to our attention when an American women shouted 'THAT'S PATHETIC', and we all noticed a small pink circle through the clouds. We were slightly disappointed at first but as it continued to brighten we got some beautiful pictures and decided that it doesn't get much better than seeing the sunrise over the largest religious monument in the world.
After an interesting breakfast of banana pancakes in 'Tiger Woods' stall we explored inside the temple, we spent a good two hours in Angkor Wat admiring the architecture and taking pictures.

We then moved onto the next temple, Angkor Thom and then the Bayon and then the Baksei Chamkrong, Banteay Kdei, Banteay Samré, Banteay Srei, Baphuon, Chau Say Tevoda, East Baray, East Mebon, Kbal Spean, the Khleangs, Krol Ko, Lolei, Neak Pean, Phimeanakas, Phnom Bakheng, Phnom Krom, Prasat Ak Yum, Prasat Kravan, Preah Khan, Preah Ko, Preah Palilay, Preah Pithu, Pre Rup, Spean Thma, Srah Srang, Ta Nei, Ta Prohm, Ta Som, Ta Keo, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Thommanon, West Baray, West Mebon.

I'm joking, we definitely did not see all of these archeological points of interest in Angkor (who knew there were so many!!) but we definitely covered a lot of the temples! As it started to get hotter our eyes were blurring and they were all starting to look very similar. Templed out may be the phrase we were looking for.

We however did not let this take away from the incredible morning we had had. It is something everyone passing through Cambodia absolutely must see! I would just recommend wearing comfortable shoes, light appropriate clothing and take lots of water!

My favourite temple was Ta Keo as it was like a climbing frame, the steps to get to the top were literally vertical and you could see for miles once up there.
Tash's favourite was Ta Prohm as this is where Tomb Raider was filmed, she relished in pretending to be Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft diving and ducking through the ruins. Who would know she wants to be an actress?

We had a wonderful day and these are some of the stunning snaps we took.

Lotsa lurve
H & T