It's Gili Time

Gili was really pretty and there was a nice (not magaluf style) strip with shops, restaurants and bars. 

After the luxury we had got used to, our dinghy room with no air con felt quite a step down, especially for Sid the new traveller, but other than that the island was perfect! 

We spent our time on Gili lounging on the beach and enjoying the nightlife in the evenings. Some of the restaurants had beds on the sand with lots of little lights, so it was really nice to chill out looking out to see, before heading to the bars and clubs. 

The four of us also decided we couldn't miss the opportunity to go scuba diving, especially as Louise could be our guide. After practicing in the pool I was a little nervous, but once down there in the sea it was so easy and fun. We saw tonnes of fishes and even a turtle! 

The next day we took a day trip to Lombok with our friend Flores from Holland. After our biking experience in Vietnam, we decided to rent mopeds! I had a go with Sid on the back but was wavering everywhere with his big weight off balancing me so I decided to take the easy spot at the back! 

Phoebe and Tristan. 

We drove along a coastal road which had stunning views...

...and then found ourselves a private beach...paradise! 

When we were nearly back to the boat port, Sid and I (slow but steady wins the race) came round a bend to find the other three at the side of the road with a bike on the floor, having skidded on some oil. 

We were sure it was all a big ploy to get money as there was a big section of oil on two big bends yet not a splash in between. There was also a local who helped them up and then disappeared, then when handing our bikes back, the owner mysteriously new exactly what had happened and so demanded 1 mil (£60) for the (very minor) damage. The man then became quite aggressive towards Tristan and despite all three boys being far taller than the tubby little man, we thought it best to pay up rather than evoke a fight which would have resulted in 3 against 100. Not great odds. 

That's the one thing that's driven me mad in South East Asia, the dishonesty, scamming and the fact they will do anything to get our money! 

On our last day in Gili. Tristan, Sid and I went to Sunset bar and played a little volleyball then enjoyed the pretty sunset. It was a great ending to our stay at Gili.

Moving on to the next stop, Bali! 

Ciao x

Reunited at last

Thankfully when I walked through arrivals I still recognised Steve/Sid (we've been through this!) and it was so nice to see him after so many weeks of waiting. 

Singapore have a really good Metro service so we hopped onto a train straight from terminal 2 and started munching on some crisps and chocolate. After wondering why were getting so many weird stares, I suddenly remembered the $500 fine for eating or drinking on the train (oops!)!! Trains are made for eating... imagine imposing that rule on the London Underground, they'd be uproar! 

We checked into our hotel on the prestigious Orhard Road (which had cost me 3 weeks worth of accommodation at the places I've been staying!!!) and it definitely felt like a pretty woman moment as we rocked up wearing backpacks and flip flops. 

That evening we went to the Marina which was just stunning! All of the sky high buildings lit up with lights looked amazing around the water. 

Afterwards we decided it was only right to visit the famous Raffles Long Bar to have a Singapore Sling! On every table there were peanuts and the shells covered the floor as it was traditional to just throw them when your were done.

After getting charged for tax and service (service for a drink...) the grand total was £16 for one cocktail! 

The next day we wandered around Orchard Road looking at everything I couldn't possibly afford, and then visited the botanical gardens which were really pretty.

 

It was so nice after 3 months to be somewhere that felt so westernised and CLEAN! But that evening it was time to say goodbye to Singapore as we had a flight to Bali. After arriving late, we stayed just one night in Talman and then got a fast boat to the island Nusa Lembongan. This was up there with the scariest moment of our trip, the boat sped at ridiculous speed and I was sure it was going to crack in half or flip! 

But it didn't... And after some issues with our reservation, we checked into Bayshore huts. I had been insisted we stayed in huts and these lived up to all expectations. It was paradise!! 

Other than being very lazy for our 3 nights in Lembongan, we had a massage, played pool (I won twice) and went on a snorkelling trip and saw so many amazing, colourful fish and the water was so clear. 

Lembongan was a really quiet island with few shops and restaurants, which was perfect for what we wanted. We even got turned away from a restaurant at 8:40 as they'd stopped serving food at 8:30pm! 

After 5 nights of luxury together, we boarded another fast boat (oh joy) over to Gili Trawangan to meet Phoebe and Tristan (my friends from home) who were staying with Phoebe's friend from Uni, Louise, a dive instructor. 

To be continued... 

X

Angkor What!?

In Siem Reap we checked into the must stay hostel, Mad Monkey. It had a really cool bar/restaurant at the top with sand covering the floor and hammocks. That evening we headed to pub street and met 3 Irish girls and all spent the evening together which was really fun! The buckets were lethal, filled half with vodka and mixed with only one can of red bull!

In the day we went to a floating village which was massive and literally everything; houses, schools, shops etc. were floating on the river and villagers would get from place to place by boat.

We visited an orphanage there but were first taken to a shop and asked to buy food for the children. It was completely over priced and the whole situation felt very strange. Having learnt the amount of corruption that went on in the orphanage in Sri Lanka, I had my doubts. So we settled on just a bag of lolly pops which I ripped open as it wouldn't surprise me If they take the food straight back to the shop after we leave it at the orphanage. 

It was sad to hear that a big reason for the number of orphans is because the parents sometimes go out fishing and then a storm hits, resulting in the them never coming back. As was the case for my tour guide. 

After another night out, the following day we went to Angkor Wat. Being the history expert I am and having done no research, I was actually quite surprised to find out that the temples were only ruins! (Oops). One of them had been where part of Indiana Jones was filmed and was my favourite of them all. After 4 temples (which were all really interesting but extremely similar), by the time we got to Angkor Wat itself, I felt rather templed out! From the front though it did look extremely impressive and it's hard to imagine how they managed to build something like that so many years ago!

After Siem Reap, we moved on to Sihanoukville which is very much a beach town. It was really nice to just relax on the beach, although we were incessantly pestered by people selling bracelets, massages and promoting clubs. There was also an oddly large number of beggars with missing limbs, which was quite upsetting to see.

In the evening, all of the beach restaurants put their tables on the beach with candles and put on beach barbecues. There's also lots of fireworks going off towards the sea as tonnes of children run round selling the fireworks all night (strange combination I know). The kids were so sweet and I ended up arm wrestling one (he was probably about 8) for a free bracelet. Of course I won (after a surprisingly difficult wrestle) but couldn't bare to take one off him! 

Later on, all of the bars put on fire performances. They would never ever pass English health and safety! They would drop the batons of fire here there and everywhere and light up the floor in flames just inches from people. I feared for my life! The night life was really good though, there were so many beach bars, most of which offered free drink deals. We made friends with 3 guys from Manchester Uni and spent our nights with them, so I became one of the lads with 5 guys and just me! 

After 3 nights there, we returned to Phnom Pen as the Danish guys had a flight the day before me. We returned to everything being closed as it was Election Day and it's illegal to not vote so all the workers have to go back to their home towns. After I bid fairwell to Christian and Oliver, I was left all alone and after hearing about a couple of shootings and being advised not to leave the hostel, I made use of the lounge once again in White Rabbit and hid out until my flight the next day! 

Overall I really enjoyed Cambodia and liked that it was a little more of mix of culture and nightlife than Vietnam as there were lots of things to see and do, with there still being the social side. But by now, I could hardly contain my excitement to jump on a plane to Singapore to see my long lost boyfriend after 11 weeks of travelling! 

Adios x

Next stop... Cambodia

Due to my lack of phone throughout Vietnam, there are unfortunately no photos of Cambodia to show for the time being...UPDATED!

I waved goodbye to the girls as it was now time to go are seperate ways and tagged along with two Danish guys to Cambodia, Christian and Oliver who we had met on various occasions in Vietnam.

Of course I couldn't leave Saigon without one more issue so as I walked towards my seat on the sleeper bus to find a couple sat there, I was hardly shocked. They'd kindly left me with their seat to sit in which had suitcases so low above it I would have felt like I was in a coffin and the aircon system so close to it I couldn't have heard myself think. Quite frankly, it shouldn't have been sold as a seat.

Well I wasn't having that, so it turned into a half an hour battle against me and the most arrogant French guy I have ever met and the whole bus watching on as my audience. Felt like A level drama again. Never one to back down or be trampled across, I of course came away victorious and the couple left the bus whilst I received high fives and congratulations from my audience. Well at least that was one way to make friends! 

We arrived in Phnom Pen and checked into the White Rabbit hostel. It had a lounge with TV and tonnes of films to watch so it was really nice to have a chilled night infront of the TV. It felt like a home comfort! 

The next day we went to the S-21 museum which had once been a school and then had been made into a prison by the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot.

It was such an interesting museum, particularly as there were lots of first hand stories from survivors of the prison and those who had worked in the prison and been recruited by the Khemer Rouge. The conditions sounded horrific and some of the cells were so tiny, it's made worse by the fact that most of the prisoners were inprisoned for things they hadn't done but tortured so badly hat eventually they confessed regardless. But despite all this, I still found myself feeling sorry for some of those who had ran the prisoners as many had been teenagers who only worked there as they feared for their own life. 

Afterwards, we went to the killing fields, which is where many of the prisoners from S-21 were taken in crowded vans, unbeknown to them, to be killed. 

We were given head sets which talked us through the killing fields as we walked along and this really set the seen and was far more powerful than just reading information. It's in humane how many people were killed there and they would literally be blindfolded and stood at the edge of a mass grave and then smashed round the head, where they'd then fall straight into the grave.

But what really got me was the grave that was filled with babies. Next to it was a large tree and we were told how the babies would be swung by the feet and smashed against the tree then chucked into the grave. It's disgusting and unimaginable.

We spent the rest of our time in Phom Pen wandering around the town and royal palace which had really nice decorative buildings. As we hid from a rain fall, I saw a woman tucking into an egg which contained a half formed chick, head and all. Apparently it's a delicousu there. One that I didn't try...

As it was the run up to the elections, we saw hundreds of demonstrators everywhere having parties and going past on motorbikes waving flags. The atmosphere there was really postive and I actually thought it was quite a nice town just with not too much to do, so one night was enough.

Onwards to Siem Reap...

X

Oh Vietnam

Dalat is quite an unusual place as there are some really grand French inspired houses (as the French brought civilisation to the place) most of which are unnocupied, yet other parts of the town are too the other extreme.  I thought this felt like the 'real' Vietnam, especially as we didn't bump into bately any other tourists. The centre of the town was like one big (smelly) market, with food stall after food stall! Sounds like heaven, but the animal carcasses, lumps of raw meat (I dread to think from what part of the animal) and chickens in cages weren't exactly what I call a good food spread. 

In contrast, there was a really pretty lake so we decided to rent some tandems off some very dodgy men who first wanted ID (we refused) and then quite openly tried to pick pocket us. It was really good fun though and nice to do some rare exercise! 

The next day we decided to do what every parent dreads, get on the back of motorbikes! The bike tour is called easy rider and despite my concerns, I actually felt really safe (minus the occasional dodgy overtake) and it was an amazing way to explore Dalat as there were some really nice routes we drove with beautiful views. 

Look mum.... No hands! 

Our first stop was a temple. Our guide explained to us that what we view as the Nazi sign, was actually originally a Buddhist symbol which Hitler liked and stole. 

We also went to a coffee plantation as Vietnam is actually the second largest coffee producer in the world. A speciality coffee produced is weasel coffee. They feed weasels coffee wait for them to poo (see above) and then tada, there's the delecatesent you'll find in places like Harrods (so I'm told). 

We also stopped at the K'ha village and met a woman with 11 grand kids! In the village women are really important (the people have sense) and it's actually the women's surname that is kept within a marriage. 

 

There were many flower farms and we visited a greenhouse with red roses. 

We also visited elephant waterfall. The amount of water flooding down was tremendous and we got '100% wet'.

During the war much of the copper train tracks were stolen so you can now only journey a couple of hundred metres as a tourist attraction. 

The day was amazing and riding on the back of the motorbikes was such an experience and such a good way to see so much of Dalat.

The next day we headed of to Mui Ne. We treated ourselves and stayed in a really nice hotel in the hills with a swimming pool and outdoor restaurant... at £6 a night, we really did splash the cash. We spent most of our time making the most of the pool and chilling out but did take a trip to the white sand dunes to do some quad biking! 

The dunes were amazing and I came away unscathed. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Abbie and Siobhan who toppled their quad bike resulting in mild concision and a cut nose! 

After Mui Ne, we moved on to our final stop in Vietnam... Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon) and my oh my I won't forget this place. 

The calm before the storm....

...following this picture, our 3 nights in Saigon went as so...

I got my entire bag cut off me when walking home from a night out, which included my precious iPhone 5 and I did not take it well (imagine if your baby got stolen, how would you react).

Morven arrived home 30 mins later in tears... the same had happened to her. 

The next day we went to the police station and filed the crime, then went to the night market in the evening for a bit of retail therapy to cheer ourselves up. Vannessa and I saw a business opportunity with some cards so in a busy market, sat down for a good two hours and invested in 140 cards (need a card?you know where to come, we have cards for all occasions!)...Then out of nowhere, Vanessa's phone was stolen from her lap, infront of everyone!

Next stop... Police station. 

We then discover bed bugs in our hostel room and move to another room only to discover that room too is infested. At 3am after failing to find another hotel with space, we check out and trail the streets for a new hotel. After resorting to a far too expensive hotel, tired and aggitated, I encounter a pervy concierge. Just what you need! 

To make matters worse, we decided to not go on a trip to the tunnels due to the late night (the only thing worth doing in Saigon) despite already having paid. Then booked again for the next day, but with half of our phones stolen and the others too drunk to set an alarm, we missed the trip yet again! 

It's safe to say that luck was not on our side. However, on the bright side, the night life was so much fun. All of the shops on a street known as pub street put out plastic chairs in the evening and everyone socialises there and then moves on to a club. You've got to take the good with the bad! 

Time to tackle the next country... X