From Cambodia to Thailand, the end of part one of Voyage 3.0

Resting, lost rings and more border crossings!

Our journey from Laos to Cambodia was just as arduous as the ones within Laos. There was a boat trip across the Mekong, a short bus ride to the border, a border crossing (not that scammy though given that we were going into Cambodia and have had past experience here with border scams), a long wait, another bus ride, another long wait and a final bus ride to Phnom Penh!

We visited Cambodia 9 years ago and ticked off the major sites then so this was a chance to visit a couple of new places on our way back to Thailand.

We left Phnom Penh almost as quickly as we arrived, lasting about 13 hours before we hopped on a bus to Kampot. Kampot is on an estuary and we took the opportunity to hire a Kayak and we had a very peaceful and beautiful kayak through some palm fronds. It was an highlight for us and felt so relaxing. We hardly saw anyone else and it was a good workout for the shoulders!

We took it very gently in Kampot and the only other activity we did was a sunset cruise along the Mekong. You get to see the sunset and also some fireflies in the trees. We enjoyed this so much we actually did it two nights in a row!

After Kampot we went to Koh Rong, an island off the Cambodia coast. We took a bus to the pier and the road was as bad as the ones in Laos – it was so rough for an hour it was impossible to read or do anything else! We had a long wait for our speedboat and I have to confess that my patience was running out.

Koh Rong had some nice beaches to chill on but the island itself felt a little grotty. There was rubbish everywhere (I know it’s a remote island but there has to be some better way to clear waste than letting it all pile up) as well as frequent power cuts. The power cuts made it impossible to go back to your accommodation during the day as it was too hot.

This is the only photo I took in Koh Rong

We only spent a week in Cambodia before heading back to Thailand. We woke on the morning of departure to a strong wind and with strong wind comes choppy seas! Our speedboat was flying through the waves and what goes up must apparently slam back into the waves with a force. I felt that I was getting whiplash from being thrown around so much, everyone was holding on for dear life and my stomach was getting churned up. I felt like kissing the ground when we safely made it to shore an hour later. We took a bus to the border and it stopped a couple of times for comfort breaks (with actual toilets – how novel!) but the driver wasn’t great at checking that everyone was back and drove off twice missing passengers! This is my worst nightmare and I was happy to see that everyone was looking out for each other to ensure we were all present. We had to change buses at the border before changing again at Trat for a Songthew. If you don’t know, a Songthew is a pick up truck with a couple of benches in the back, comfortable enough for a short journey, not ideal for a long 45 minute ride to the pier. There was a group of 6 of us heading to Koh Chang so we all stuck together and we were glad we did as we were abandoned at the pier! We asked about the next ferry and were fobbed off before the staff disappeared! One guy abandoned the rest of the group to buy his own ferry ticket but the rest of us were not having it so we protested to the ferry staff before they made a phone call and someone turned up with our tickets! It was a long journey but great to be back on a Thai island.

Koh Chang was very peaceful and restful, the beach was secluded and lovely and we enjoyed some gorgeous sunsets, our last beach sunsets in Asia! We’ve been used to seeing small geckos throughout Asia but here we had Tokay geckos outside our room and they are huge! They are about 30 centimetres long and we had a Mr and Mrs right outside our room.

We headed to Bangkok and for once a very uneventful journey – one bus the whole way, the only thing of note being how many times the driver stopped for fuel and to top up the tyres with air!

We had a brief overnight stop in Khao San Road again before heading to our favourite beach, Cha Am. We spent 2.5 weeks here chilling, hanging with Joey’s family over Christmas and New Year. It was a brilliant way to spend our last couple of weeks of this leg of travels. The days merged into one as we chilled on the beach, topping up tans and planning the next leg of our journey.

Nothing much happens in Cha Am, just the way we like it. Except for one day when it all happened!

We were enjoying a swim in the sea when we saw this horse with a young woman on galloping along the beach and being completely out of control! The poor horse had been spooked by a dog and was running all over the place, rearing up with the girl trying to hang on to him! She made it further down the beach before she tried to get off when the horse decided it had had enough and. just dumped her off into the sand. Luckily she wasn’t injured and landed in soft sand but as it looked scary from where we were I can imagine she must have been quite scared.

Then I took my wedding rings off (they are fake ones) to put some suncream on and somehow without noticing knocked them into the sand. I spent ages sat on the sand digging through trying to find them! I borrowed a rake from the people we hire our sunbeds from but had no luck. Then she suggested calling the ‘machine man’ who owns a metal detector to get him to come and look for them. He only charges if he finds them, so he turned up and managed to find them! I think I paid more for the metal detector man than the rings were worth but they are quite sentimental!

Then just when we thought things had settled down the wind really picked up and a little fishing boat broke free and was sailing down the beach front quite a distance on its own – almost like a ghost ship! Eventually a man started to drag it back up the beach before its owner came to rescue it. Cha Am is normally a very peaceful place so for these things to all happen within a couple of hours was quite exciting.

Cha Am has a forest park and we headed there one morning to see wild gibbons, they hang out in the trees there and it was fantastic to see them in the wild swinging from tree to tree.

We headed back to Bangkok for a final stop before flying back to the UK. This is not the end of our travels, just a little rest before we head to the other other side of the world. It will be a welcome opportunity to change our clothes and eat some cheese!

January 31, 2024 0

Catching the slow boat from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang

The slow boat is an absolute rite of passage for any backpacker wishing to travel between the north of Thailand and Laos, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I first heard about it 9 years ago. There are a couple of starting points for your journey from Northern Thailand to Laos, Chiang Rai is extremely popular as it’s only a couple of hours from the Laos border, but we were starting from Chiang Mai.

Spoiler alert: the boat doesn’t actually start in Chiang Mai, but as I say this is a popular starting point for many backpackers.

We caught the Green Bus from Chiang Mai terminal 3 bus station, going to Chiang Khlong, the Thai border town. It left at 9.30am and we had booked it a few days ahead when we were in Chiang Rai from their bus station. It cost 311 baht each which is roughly £7.50. You can book this bus online for a higher price but we’re more ‘go in person to sort it’ people. Also, if you book online you have to wait until the day to be allocated seats.

The bus was full and the journey took roughly 7 hours and made a couple of short stops. Most of the bus emptied out at a town about an hour from the border and there were mainly backpackers left. It made a stop at the junction for the Friendship bridge outside of the town so we jumped out here and into waiting tuk tuks which took us swiftly to the border point for a fixed fee of 50 baht (£1.15) each. We quickly got our exit stamp, the border was very quiet as it was late in the day. We noticed a sign saying that we would have to pay 10 baht overtime fee as it was after 4pm, but in the end they didn’t charge us.

You walk through the Thai border and to a counter where a woman is selling bus tickets to the Laos border, over the other side of the Mekong river. This cost us 35 baht (80p) each, which included an ‘after hours’ fee. We had to wait for the bus to fill up, but this only took around 10 minutes or so. The bus ticket seller offered to exchange our remaining baht for Laos Kip but as we were returning to Thailand at a later date we didn’t opt for this. You can also pay for a lot of things in Laos in baht (particularly in the border town) so unless you have a lot of leftover baht I wouldn’t bother.

Once you arrive on the Laos side you need to go to a window to collect a set of forms, make sure you have a pen handy to complete these! You will need a passport photo and then hand your forms in to the window along with your passport and then wait by the next window! We had to pay 40 baht (90p) to get our stamp. It’s important to note that when they return your passport to keep the departure slip safe as you will need that when leaving Laos. We left via land border to Cambodia and those who didn’t have this slip had to pay $5.

There’s another window towards the exit where you pay for your visa – ours cost $40 each. Once you’ve done this you just need to grab a tuk tuk to the town of Huay Xai, it’s a short ride and tuk tuks are fixed at 200 baht (£4.05) a person. I’d read a few blogs about this part and I was worried it all sounded a bit complicated but it was incredible straightforward and took very little time.

We stayed at Little Hostel in Huay Xai as I’d read great reviews about the helpfulness of the owner and we weren’t let down. There’s only two 4 bed dorms here so it is (as the name suggests) a small hostel, but the owner sold us our tickets for the slow boat (430,000 Kip each – approx £16.70) for the next day (which included a pick up from the hostel) and also sorted us out with SIM cards. If you buy your tickets direct from the pier it will cost 400,000 Kip (about £15.30, we were happy to pay an extra £1.40 each to save the hassle of going to the pier). We were also able to order breakfast and a takeaway lunch for the boat. We dined next door at Bar How and whilst the food was good, the service was pretty slow!

We were picked up from the hostel the next day at 8.30am and were told the boat would leave at 9.30am. The hostel owner told us our seat numbers for that day but her parting advice for the following day was there were no seat numbers for the following day and to be there early to fight for your seat!

We arrived to the boat in good time and found our seats. The seats are made from old mini van seats and aren’t fixed to the ground so there is a little bit of fighting for leg space. The seats had pieces of paper on them representing numbers so you can do a little bit of switching of you don’t like your seat! We did switch ours slightly so we weren’t next to the doorway leading to the back of the boat. We were happy with our seats on the first day though – we were in the front of the boat about half away from the noise of the engine and on the outside so we had unrestricted views and we were facing into the gangway so we had a bit of leg room.

A selection is of the seats on the boat on the first day – note the plastic seats!

We eventually set sail around 10am and sailed for about 6 hours on the first day. The scenery was beautiful and it was nice to watch the world go by with nothing else to do. The boat was quite large and a bus load of backpackers from Chiang Rai arrived late so were left with the plastic stools and seats at the front of the boat in the blazing sun all day. They didn’t seem to mind though as they made their way through several cases of Lao beer and got louder and louder as the day went on! As we set off to start with on both days the breeze was a little chilly and people were pulling on hoodies to keep this at bay.

We arrived into Pakbeng around 4pm and Joe at some point had managed to climb into the luggage room at the back and reposition our bags at the top so we were able to make a quick getaway! If you can do this I recommend it! We were one of the very few that hadn’t booked accommodation in advance and therefore didn’t have a jeep waiting for us on arrival!

We enquired at a couple of places on our way up the hill but they were full and I started to panic that maybe I’d made a mistake. It wasn’t long before we were approached by someone from Thipphavanh Guesthouse asking if we needed a room. We looked at the room and took it – it wasn’t the most luxurious room we’ve ever stayed in and there wasn’t hot water but for 200,000 Kip (£7.70) we really couldn’t complain. We had dinner that night at Saibaidee restaurant which was definitely the go to place. It overlooked the Mekong and I can thoroughly recommend the buffalo and pumpkin curry! We ordered sandwiches from a place near the pier to pick up the next day.

The next day we got up and went for breakfast before heading down to the pier for around 7.45am. There were lots of slow boats around and we could see the one that we caught the day before. What we didn’t realise was that we wouldn’t be on the same boat so ask around when you arrive. When we realised we made sure we were quick to board and handed our luggage in. We found a semi decent seat (difficult as the boat was much smaller and we had to have a forward facing seat with less leg room). Those who didn’t arrive early were stuck right at the back, almost in the engine room and even a short stop at the toilet in that area was deafening!

The boat set off around 9am and the scenery again was incredible with lots of stops for local people to get on and off. It seemed that more people were getting on than off and after a while there were people standing and sitting in the aisles. It was so crowded it was hard to manoeuvre yourself to the toilet and it definitely felt a little unsafe at times as it was that crowded. Day two was much longer than day one and hard going, the seat felt more uncomfortable and the legroom was small. We were glad to finally disembark around 5pm. There is an office at the port where you queue up and buy a ticket into Luang Prabang which had a set fee of 40,000 Kip (£1.55) each. These drop you at the Night Market so make sure you know where you are staying from here! A lot of people who got on the boat from Chiang Rai didn’t have a Laos SIM cards yet so found themselves a little lost. We had local SIM cards so we were able to give directions in the tuk tuk to the centre but this isn’t something to rely on!

Overall I’m really glad that we did take the slow boat, it was a unique way to travel, but I’m not sure I would do it again! If you do take this journey I would recommend taking a hoodie for first thing and maybe a pillow to help increase comfort levels. There are snacks and beer available on board to buy but these are more expensive than on land so take snacks and lunch. The toilets were pretty clean to start but as the day went on they got a little dirty and were running out of toilet paper. The first day was definitely the worst for the toilets and I put that down to the amount of beer consumed on board!

January 3, 2024 0

Thai Trips

We took an overnight flight from Tokyo to Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur again, and landed around 9.30am so we headed straight to our usual haunt of Khao San Road. We never book ahead and just turn up, this meant we were able to check into a room straight away allowing us to take a short nap before we headed out. We planned two nights here and planned to do a couple of walks around Chinatown and the local area.

One of the places we visited was Wat Traimit Withayaram Worawihan, also known as the Temple of the Golden Buddha and is the world’s largest solid gold Buddha. It was once covered in plaster and no one knew it was solid gold until they went to move it and some of the plaster broke off. It was certainly a very impressive sight.

We had another two days booked in another hotel in Bangkok, this hotel had a jacuzzi bath on the balcony and was where we spent my birthday. We moved here by public bus and whilst we were waiting for the bus there was an almighty thunderstorm and an incredibly large clap of thunder and a flash of lightning happened right in front of us! It was pretty scary.

Following our treat we flew down to Phuket, we were on the descend when the pilot announced over the tannoy that there was ‘some weather’ in Phuket so we needed to hold over Krabi. I’m not a great flyer at the best of times (I hate take offs and turbulence in particular) and those words struck fear into me. I know ‘some weather’ is never good. It felt like we circled for ages and then when we did come into land we could see lightning out of the window and it got REALLY bumpy. I normally start to really freak out during moments like this, and I could feel Joey next to me flinch when there was more lightning, but this time I just went really really quiet and braced myself for a potential go around. Amazingly we landed first time and the guy the other side of me just said ‘finally’ when the wheels touched down. You could sense the relief in the whole plane and I was ready for a drink!

When we arrived at our hotel we dumped our bags and headed straight out. We were staying in the notorious Patong area, famous for its nightlife and girly bars. We wanted to get food at the night market but when we wandered through it, it was like being in a nightmare with all the vendors surrounding you and saying things like ‘I know you’re hungry’ ‘come and eat here’ and it stressed us out! We quickly escaped and I really likened it to a ghost train where everyone jumps out at you! We eventually found a quiet side street for some dinner and afterwards decided we definitely needed a drink so headed to the bar area. There were lots of girls dancing on bars wearing not a lot and lots of drink offers – it felt like Khao San Road on speed. Surprisingly we didn’t find it too seedy, no one seemed to be taking it too seriously and there were families with young children in the area. We spent the next day chilling on the beach before doing it all again.

We took a ferry the following day to Koh Phi Phi. There are two Phi Phis, big and small, you can only stay on big Phi Phi but little Phi Phi is famous for Maya Bay from the film The Beach. I don’t know if we had paid extra for a bouji boat but our ferry included a few brief photo stops around little Phi Phi including Maya Bay so we got to view it for free! I wasn’t terribly interested in visiting it separately as I knew it would be full of influencer types trying to get their IG shots so this was a bonus!

Our free sightseeing tour of little Phi Phi

Phi Phi is a party island but we were savvy enough to book accommodation far away from the parties! We had a good few days on a beautiful beach where you could snorkel off shore. Our accommodation wasn’t amazing and we shared our bathroom with two cockroaches, but in a sign of massive personal growth I didn’t freak out about them at all.

After Phi Phi we headed to Koh Lanta, a more laid back island close to Krabi. We had a pool here and it was right on the beach so perfect for relaxation. Unfortunately night one saw Joey spend most of it with his head in the toilet. I felt awful for him as it’s probably the sickest I have seen him. So whilst I was relaxing enjoying dinner and cocktails on the beach at sunset Joey was sleeping and restricted to the BRAT diet.

We had a mammoth travel day planned, our longest one yet, so Joey needed to recover. We were planning on travelling over 1300km overland without any overnight stops. We had to first get a bus to Krabi, which also involved a short car ferry, before waiting for another bus to Surat Thani. Surat Thani is the main jumping off point for the Gulf islands but this time we were continuing to head north. We’d booked an overnight sleeper train which is one of the ways to travel in Thailand. We were both on top bunks as we booked at short notice but we could at least poke our heads round to the other. We both slept really well thanks to the flat bed and the gentle slow rocking of the train. By a miracle our train arrived into Bang Sue station (I can’t help but have a giggle at some of the Thai names) on time- quite unusual for Thai trains! We caught a local bus to the bus station and went in hunt of our next transport. We were heading to the town of Sukothai, the ancient capital and a place full of ancient ruins. Now if you’re sat there thinking ‘didn’t you already go to the an ancient Thai capital full of ruins?’ Then you’d be correct – that was Ayutthaya!

We were lucky and there was a bus an hour after we arrived so we bought the tickets and headed to 7/11 for breakfast. We then headed off to get our bus, I could see the bus, it wasn’t far, I was excited, our mammoth travel day had one final leg left. The next thing I know I have caught my foot on some uneven ground and right now everything is happening in slow motion – I’m trying to save myself but the weight of my backpack is pulling me down. I can see my left knee twisting under me and I know when I hit the ground I’m going to hurt myself. I’m trying to untwist my knee but I can’t and as I hit the ground I am thinking to myself ‘oh god, that’s it, this is the end of travels now’. Joey has tried to save me but the weight of me, my backpack and his backpack pull him down as well. I sit on the ground for a few seconds and a woman rushes over to help me. I have to take my backpack off to try and get up and I really don’t know how I’m going to feel when I get up. I stand up and my legs hurt but I seem to be able to walk, I’m in shock and our bus is due to leave in about 10 minutes and my illogical thinking is to catch the bus at all costs! So I put my stiff upper lip on and hobble to the bus. As I approach the bus though I start to realise that perhaps I’m only hobbling because I think I should be rather than because I’m injured. I make it onto the bus and into our seat before bursting into tears. I’m still not sure if I’m injured and I’m definitely not sure 7 hours of sitting still is going to do me any good but by some miracle as the journey goes on I realise that I’m ok. Joey puts that down to the yoga we’ve been doing since the start of the year!

The next day I did wake up extremely stiff with some bruised ribs but all in all I considered myself very lucky. We caught a local bus to the ruins and took it very gently, just walking around the central zone. Sukothai is made up of five zones and you can cycle round them but we decided to walk the central zone as a gentle start as it’s the most compact zone. Wat Mahathat is the most famous sight in this zone and it’s the largest and most important temple in Sukothai. There are other temples in the zone which also demonstrate typical Sukothai style with lotus bud chedis. It was definitely worth the few hours we spent here wandering around.

The next day we headed back to the park this time hiring bikes with the intention of exploring the North Zone. The North zone is more spread out and there’s only two temples really worth seeing. The first is Wat Si Chum, this is another incredibly famous temple, as it holds a huge seated Buddha, the whole of which is hard to photograph. The Buddha has very large fingers which are very frequently photographed.

The next temple is Wat Phra Phai Luang. This is Khmer style and so resembles Angkor Wat, although there’s not a lot left! However these ruins were actually my favourite. They are so ruined that some of the plaster has crumbled away to reveal the bricks inside and you can clearly see how the Buddha is shaped from these bricks – I found it fascinating to see the process! There were a few other ruins on our way back to the main park, including this really funky one with lots of elephants around it.

I really enjoyed Sukothai, but was glad that we’d had a couple of months between here and Ayutthaya – it’s common to do them back to back and we definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much.

The next day was a travel day and I was extremely relieved to wake up and my ribs not be hurting! I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to carry my backpack if they were!

We were heading to Chiang Rai and had booked a long but direct bus. Only we were told that our bus had broken down so we now had to get two buses! Still at least we made it.

Chiang Rai was a chance to slow things down a little. We visited the White Temple one day and the Black House the other, both utterly bizarre in their own ways. The White Temple was constructed around 1997 so isn’t as historical as some other Wats we’ve visited and from a distance it is quite stunning. Get a little closer though and things become a little strange. You must walk over a bridge to enter and as you approach the bridge you are met with lots of hands reaching up from the ground towards you apparently representing temptation. There’s also a section with paintings from the matrix and the twin towers from 9/11 but this was closed when we were there. It was very busy but worth a stop. We then visited the cave of art which was also a little bizarre but turned out to be our favourite thing.

The Black House is the work of Thai artist Thawan Duchanee and is housed in several buildings including one that very much resembles a black temple. The art pieces are utterly bizarre and range from cow horns to crocodile skins on tables to lots and lots of phallus! The main building housed several of his paintings and there was an option to use a QR code to view them through a filter which brought them alive. We really enjoyed this stop!

We headed onto Chiang Mai where Joey’s brother lives and where we were due to meet him and Joey’s parents who were flying over from the UK. We have spent a bit of time in Chiang Mai before so we allowed ourselves just one day to revisit some temples before relaxing with the family. It was a big birthday celebration for Dan, Joey’s brother, so lots of good food was consumed!

We always love going back to Thailand and it’s been amazing having these opportunities to explore more of the country and to allow for a bit of culture and a bit of relaxing time on the gorgeous beaches!

December 21, 2023 0

Gliding through the Gilis

Leaving Bali was just as chaotic as the rest of our trip there. Yes we were picked up on time but we got stuck in Bali’s ridiculous traffic and then hung around the port for about 90 minutes with no instructions until we were shepherded towards a series of boats. There were no instructions though, again we just had to wait and eventually we skuttled onto a boat in accordance to the colour sticker we’d all been issued.

The trouble with Indonesia, and Asia as a whole, is that everything takes longer than you’re told it will. I don’t mind that the speedboat takes 3 hours, but tell me it’s going to take 3 hours rather than saying it will take 2! A girl we sat next to on the boat had obviously been told the same thing as she kept getting phone calls from her driver demanding to know where she was!

We were heading to the Gili isles, a set of three main islands, made up of Gili Trawangan(known as the party island), Gili Meno (good for honeymooners) and Gili Air which fell somewhere in the middle. As I was in charge of the Indonesia leg I ummed and ahhed about where we should go and eventually settled for Gili Air, and it was worth it! It’s roughly 5 square kilometres in size and we walked a loop of the island in 90 minutes. It was a little bit of paradise after Bali. There isn’t a lot to do on the island aside from sunbathe and snorkel or dive. We’re not divers so we settled for snorkelling. I spent my whole childhood and early adulthood basically being terrified of water and whilst I’m still not the most confident swimmer this trip has slowly built up my confidence and my skills so I am very proud of the achievements that I made in actually being able to go and snorkel and swim quite far out of my depth away from the shoreline.

There are no motorised vehicles on Gili Air so walking, pushbike or horse and cart (not recommended due to potential ill treatment of the animals) are your only forms of transport. Thankfully it is a tiny island so you don’t need to worry about transportation. Interestingly there are also no dogs on any of the islands to prevent the population getting out of control. There are lots and lots of sweet cats though!

The coral was beautiful! Indonesia is part of the coral triangle and there were so many beautiful fishes of all sizes! It was stunning to see and we had a great time splashing about. Unfortunately the amount of coral means that inevitably dead coral washes up on the beaches which makes getting in and out the sea a challenge! You either have to wear water shoes or choose your path very carefully! I opted for shoes whilst Joey did the ‘try and avoid stepping on stuff’ thing before getting in and swimming as soon as he could!

We had a blissful few days in Gili Air, either hanging around our pool or snorkelling. The size of the island meant that we could watch sunrise from the beach next to us and then in the evening we could walk over to the other side and watch the sunset!

I hope you can gauge the size of the island from these shots

We were headed to Lombok from Gili Air and we booked a boat / bus transfer through our hotel. That was an experience! The boat was fine, it was a very old public boat and the journey itself was only 15 minutes, we were met off the boat and then walked to an office where we were kept waiting for 90 minutes for our bus. In that time the owner was shouting and swearing at various customers which certainly made for an interesting experience! The bus driver asked the name of our hotel and then proceeded to drive right past it!

Lombok was very different to Bali, we were back in Muslim territory so back to the early wake up calls! We stayed at Sengiggi which has definitely seen better days, however let’s not forget that this area was devastated by an earthquake in 2018 and then Covid hit. It had a nice beach with a calm sea and beautiful sunsets though. From one sunset point we were able to clearly see Mount Agung on Bali and it was gorgeous! Finally that dream sunset we were after!

Sunset with Mount Agung in the background

Unfortunately for me I was unable to really enjoy Lombok as much as we would have liked as Bali belly finally caught up with me so there was much resting time!

Indonesia itself was a really varied experience and we were able to experience so many beautiful unique things, such as finally seeing dolphins and climbing an active volcano. It’s a huge country and hard to pick a few things to do in the time the visa allows but I’m content with the choices we made and it gave us lots to talk about!

November 4, 2023 0

Java Jaunt

We arrived safely into Yogyakarta (also referred to as Jogja) on the island of Java. I’d read that 50% of people who make it to Indonesia only ever go to Bali so I was determined that we would not be amongst those! We resisted the urge to get a Grab from the airport and hopped on a shuttle bus instead which allowed me to practice my best Indonesian for ‘here please’ when we neared our stop. Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country and we’d read some reviews of our guesthouse which highlighted that it was located pretty close to a few mosques and every morning and at plenty of other times of the day we were woken to the Adhan at 4.30am. It was so loud we couldn’t help but laugh!

We had two main things that we wanted to see in the region – the Prambanan Hindu temple and the Borobudur Buddhist temple. Borobudur is the world’s largest Buddhist temple so we decided to do that one second, so we headed to Prambanan first, it was the weekend so we expected it to be busy but it wasn’t actually too bad. When we arrived we were stopped by a couple of young lads (we later found out that they were only 16) who explained that they were studying tourism and needed to practice their English and tour guide skills so could show us around the site and explain some things to us. They were so good and I think we were both stunned when they said they were 16 years, they were so mature.

They took us inside the temples and explained some of the stories to us which were really interesting and definitely helped us get more out of the experience. There are three main temples, each one dedicated to one of the following: Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva. The temples were constructed of volcanic rock which gave them a really black appearance, we’ve obviously seen a lot of temples but this made this one particularly unique.

We headed back to the city where crossing the road was an experience. We’ve crossed roads in difficult countries (Hello Vietnam) but this was something else. There are no real pedestrian crossings so you had to run across at a suitable opportunity and hope that you didn’t get hit by a scooter, there were times when we really thought we wouldn’t make it and we actually joked about calling a Grab just to get across the road. At least in Vietnam you could trust the scooters to go around you but we didn’t get the vibe that they would here!

The next day we headed off to Borobudur in a Grab of course! Borobudur is a 90 minute drive from Yogyakarta and our driver offered to wait for us and drive us back which we accepted with great pleasure! As mentioned above Borobudur is the world’s largest Buddhist temple, until only a few months ago you used to be able to climb up it freely and it could get quite crowded but nowadays you need to book a ticket in advance as numbers are limited to 1200 a day. We only discovered this the day before when we were at Prambanan and were advised to try and get some online from 4pm. I did this and didn’t have any luck, I thought we would only be able to walk around the outside as I could see tickets available for later days but not the next day. Just after 6pm I went to look something up on my phone and still had the ticket page open and I was amazed to see tickets available! I didn’t hesitate to book some. We arrived about 50 minutes before our slot thinking it would give us time to walk around the perimeter and take some photos and the people at the check in said we could enter the grounds. So off we headed. We had a great walk round and took some great photos, it was fast approaching the time we needed to be back for our tour and we headed to what we thought was the exit but were told we couldn’t go that way so we spent about 10 minutes trying to find a way out, which was obviously in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to be! We were pretty stressed and ended up walking very quickly to where we needed to be! We did make it and collected our free ‘slippers’ that we needed to wear to climb the temple which were bamboo flip flops that we got to keep. So my top tip if you do go is to not go into the grounds before your tour!

The tour was actually really interesting and there were about 10 groups of 15 people so it wasn’t crowded as everyone went different ways. The carvings on the temple were incredible and the guide told stories the whole way round. There are about 9 levels and it was nice to climb each one knowing you were going to get an impressive view from the top. The final level that you can access is covered in Stupas all containing a Buddha, a handful of these have been damaged so the Buddha is now uncovered. It was a great day out and a highlight from Indonesia.

Borobudur also gave the ultimate masterclass in ‘exit via the gift shop’ as you leave via a row of stalls selling souvenirs. Only this row becomes a maze of stalls and it goes on and on and on and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it went on for about 300 metres. It was so vast I started to think I was stuck in a nightmare of souvenir stalls from which I couldn’t escape from.

The next day we had booked a tour to Mount Bromo, an active volcano in the east of Java. The tour was one of the oddest tours we have ever done. Normally with tours you’re picked up and taken care of from start to finish but this one was quite different. We were picked up from our guesthouse and driven to the train station where we were given our train ticket and left to our own devices! We had to find the train and seats ourselves. The train was fine, pretty slow but it was very clean and I was even happy to use the toilet which was cleaned regularly and kept stocked of toilet roll! About two thirds of the way there the train switched direction and everyone flipped their seat around so we were all facing forwards. 8 hours later we arrived into Probolinggo where we were met by someone who eventually put us on a bus and also then left us! We were driven to a tour office where we were called up individually and told what time we would be picked up in the morning, and about our ongoing transport. We were then driven to our guesthouse and it was all a bit Fawlty Towers, there were lots of staff but when we arrived there was only one other couple. Joey commented that it was like the start of a horror movie. We went to bed around 8.30pm as we were getting up at 2am for a 2.30am pick up. It was a lot cooler in this area as we had gained altitude (something I could tell by ears continually popping on the drive there) so this meant in the morning I could wear my leggings and jacket again- the leggings I’d not worn since Armenia and the jacket I hadn’t worn since our balloon flight in Cappadocia.

We waited in reception at the allocated time and there were a few more guests then but it was about 3.15am before our jeep finally arrived! I was starting to think the sun would rise by the time we got collected! We drove further up the valley to reach a sunrise point and the road was lined with jeep after jeep after jeep. We climbed further up a steep hill in the pitch black grateful that we’d had the foresight to pack our headtorches. We found a good spot to watch the sunrise over the valley and light up Mount Bormo. It was very ethereal and seeing the smoke rise from the volcano during golden hour looked just like a painting – it was beautiful!

After sunrise we headed to the sea of sand to climb the crater itself. It was a tough climb with more steepness followed by 254 steps! It was worth it though to say that we’ve stood on the crater of an active volcano. You could hear the volcano bubbling away and the smoke billowing from it looked just like a cloud! We walked a little way around the crater but chose not to venture where there were no safety railings! You could smell the sulphur and it made quite a few people cough including me.

It was then time to head back to the jeep and whilst we were waiting for the other couple we emptied our shoes which were full of volcanic sand! Our feet were filthy when we later took our socks off.

We headed back to Fawlty Towers for our breakfast only they didn’t seem to know what was going on. We waited ages and were eventually bought some sweet tea and I asked (again in my best Indonesian) to order a coffee and they told me coffee wasn’t included! I needed to head upstairs to the coffee shop for that so that I did. We were eventually bought some Nasi Goreng (fried rice, the Indonesian staple food) and prawn crackers, and honestly it was pretty identical to the dinner I’d had the night before!

We gathered our belongings and headed to reception again for pick up. We had arranged a transfer to Bali and were told we would be collected at 10.30am for a 12 o’clock bus. A minibus turned up at about 10.45am and everyone except us was confirmed as travelling on this bus, they asked us our room number about 3 times and it was only on the third time of asking when I typed the room number into the calculator on my phone and showed it to the driver that he confirmed that we were on that minibus! It was like some sort of test!

We were dropped at the tour office from the day before and he said our bus would be about 12.30, then at 12.30 we were told it would be about another 30 minutes. We were waiting with another two couples so at least we were all together and joking about the situation. When we booked the ticket we were told it would take 8 hours, then the night before we were told it would take 10 hours. We messaged our guesthouse and told them our ETA and didn’t hear anything back.

The bus arrived around 1pm and was actually pretty comfy, the seats reclined quite far and there was a toilet – something we’d not seen since the early Europe days! We were given lunch, fried chicken and rice and then settled down for a nap given we’d been up since 2am. The driver was invincible and just kept on driving without ever stopping until we reached the ferry. We were given more rice and chicken for dinner meaning we ate rice three times that day! We got stuck in heavy traffic which obviously delayed us so I think it was about 7pm before we boarded the ferry, the ferry took about an hour and we welcomed the opportunity for some fresh air on deck and a walk around.

Bali is an hour ahead of Java so we drove off the ferry around 9pm local time. We still had another 3 and a half hours before we reached Denpasar and the bus seemed to stop every 500 metres to let someone off. We were following on Google maps and tried to get off when we were nearish to our hotel only the driver wouldn’t let us! We’ve no idea why as he was letting other people off and only kept saying that we needed to go to their office. We checked the map and the office was miles away and we’d still need to get a taxi from there. By this time it was 1.30am and we really just wanted our bed, so the next time it stopped I decided to lie and say we were close to our hotel so could they please just give us our bags and we’d be on our way. It took a bit of to and fro-ing but we got there! We were at the front of a Circle K convenience store and obviously I called a Grab, it didn’t move on the app and then we were approached by two motorcycle taxi drivers and just ended up negotiating with them. I’ll be honest with you here and say that this was not an ideal situation to be in, we didn’t really want to be separated at 2am on motorbikes we’d not ordered through an app so we had no comeback from them, driving through the back streets of Denpasar with our backpacks on but that’s where we found ourselves! We did make it to our guesthouse safely and felt terrible as we ended up waking the security guard who then had to wake the host but she greeted us with a smile. So we’d been awake for almost 24 hours at this point and we were glad to crawl into bed. As is usual with Asia everything always takes longer than you think or expect! The main thing was that we’d made it and we were going to spending some relaxation time on the paradise island of Bali!

Java was a good cultural stop and I’m glad we made the time to visit and we were so fortunate with our timing as the day after we visited Bormo the park was closed due to wildfires.

September 28, 2023 2

Thailand part 1 – rest and culture!

Much like the last blog, the border crossing / flight to Thailand wasn’t as smooth as it could have been! We had an early flight and an early start but I was awake about 3 hours before I needed to be with a bad stomach. This was not good for flying. So I reverted to the Imodium which I hate doing, I’m a fan of letting nature take its course, and while taking those tablets sorted one problem they left me feeling really queasy. We’d just taken off and hit some turbulence which added to the queasiness and I spent the whole of the first flight (3 hours) with my head in the sick bag dry heaving. Maybe it would have been better if I’d actually managed to be sick, instead of just threatening to. We had a very tight connection at Delhi airport made worse by our plane holding for 15 minutes and we thought it would be ok when our plane pulled in next to our Thai Airways plane, but no! We were sent through security again which was over the other side of the airport! We were picked up by a buggy driver who dropped us there but the security screening was the slowest we have ever experienced. It wasn’t a long queue just slow. When we eventually made it through we started sprinting through the airport as we had about 5 minutes until the gate was due to close and thankfully got picked up by an another buggy driver. That little sprint did not help me feel better and I was certain I really would be sick! Thankfully while we just about made it, we were not convinced that our luggage would! We’d experienced delayed luggage when we were in Thailand on holiday last year so we were more prepared for it this time. We didn’t know when it would arrive if it didn’t make the plane so we decided not book any accommodation for that night before we left Kazakhstan. We sailed through immigration in Bangkok airport with the immigration officer commenting on my place of birth (Yeovil) as he recognised the football team! We went to the luggage carousel more to play the game of waiting, when upon arrival I spotted my rucksack shortly followed by Joey’s! We couldn’t believe it. That meant that we had just had time to catch the last bus of the day to Cha-am, our favourite beach in Thailand, where we had 3 nights booked to stay from the following day! We turned up at our hotel around 10.15pm and asked to extend our booking, it was very straightforward.

As I say we had planned a few nights to rest after The Stans, and we had a great time doing so. It’s rainy season in Thailand at present but we didn’t experience too much rain, just a bit of cloud cover. We had a day doing chores, a day on the beach and then we caught a bus to Hua Hin, a bigger town down the coast with a shopping centre and a cinema so we could finally watch Barbie!

Fully recharged it was time to move on and get some Thai Culture. Cha-am has direct buses to Kanchanaburi in the west, famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai, so that seemed an easy option. We turned up at the bus stop but after the ticket seller made a quick phone call it turned out that the mini van was full! He wasn’t phased though, he bundled us into another mini van, told us to change somewhere but not to worry as the driver would take care of us. And he absolutely did take care of us! We have no idea what town it was we changed in but the driver told us to get out, pointed us to the next van and off we went! It was so easy. We stayed a little bit away from the main sights of Kanchanaburi but that meant we got to do lots of walking! We made the famous bridge our first port of call. It is very touristy around the site of the bridge with many souvenir stalls, drink sellers and even hawkers selling eels on the bridge. You can walk on the railway line across the bridge stopping for your Instagram pictures as you wish, there are a few trains a day so you need to watch out for those but there are places of safety you can wait on if one was to come whilst you were there. We walked the whole way across and were definitely in the minority for doing so! Over the other side is a lovely Buddhist temple which makes a good viewing platform. After seeing the bridge we visited the Death Railway museum, this was definitely worth a stop and it’s very sobering. It puts into perspective the numbers of men killed in the building of the bridge as well as the conditions in which they had to live and work.

In Kanchanaburi there is a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery which holds the graves of many of the men who perished during the construction of the railway. Very close to this is also a Buddhist cemetery; something which we have never come across before so was very interesting to see,

We spent the next day at Erawan falls, a seven tiered waterfall about a 90 minute bus ride away. The falls are in the middle of the jungle and you spend time hiking up steep paths to get to each of the tiers. You can stop and swim in the different tiers, we only went in the second tier and the seventh tier. In order to swim you have to rent a life jacket which I actually appreciated. The waters are full of flesh eating fish so you get your own free pedicure! The fish tickle your feet which takes a little getting used to, we didn’t really enjoy swimming in the pools though when the fish were eating our knees or arms! The seventh tier has a little cave behind the fall which you can swim in and around and back out which I really enjoyed but I wouldn’t recommend if you are claustrophobic

Kanchanaburi has a lively night market which we ate at every evening. It was fun to just go to different stalls and pick something different to try each night. I started off quite safe (pasta!) but got a little more adventurous as time went on.

After Kanchanaburi we went to Ayutthaya, which is 80km north of Bangkok and was the capital of Siam between 1350 and 1767, when it was razed by the Burmese. There are many, many ruined temples there to see so we borrowed a couple of bikes from our guesthouse and set off. Most temples are 50 baht (around £1.10) or you can buy a ticket for the 6 main sights for 220baht (about £4.90). We wanted the 6 temple ticket but upon reaching the first temple I realised that I hadn’t topped up our cash and we didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket! So off we cycled back to our guesthouse to get some from our stash!

One of the things that helps our relationship on the road and to keep us organised is for us to have ‘jobs’ in each country. So one of us will be in charge of the country, by which we mean planning and researching roughly where to go and the other one will be the ‘treasurer’ so dealing with our cash on a day to day basis. I’d been in charge throughout the Stans of planning the countries but for Thailand we didn’t really have anyone in charge! I definitely drove the ‘we should do some Thai culture and not just lie on a beach’ bit though!

Once we’d got our finances sorted we cycled back to our first temple, Wat Phra Sin Sanphet, famous for its three pagodas. This ended up being one of our favourite sights and hopefully the pictures will show you why. Next door to this is the Buddhist temple of Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit which has been heavily restored. Pictures inside show the before and after of the renovations and are worth a look, but what really wows is the huge Buddha inside. After this we cycled to Wat Phra Ram and then to Wat Phra Mahathat which is famous for the sandstone Buddha head in the tree roots. It’s impressive and you’ll easily find it by the massive groups of people gathered to take their pictures!

We decided enough was enough for that day and headed back to the guesthouse. Our guesthouse ran a free shuttle bus to the night market each evening so we caught that for a bit more market food. We didn’t think that the Ayutthaya night market was as good as the one in Kanchanaburi but we still found plenty to eat.

The next day we hopped back on the bikes early to visit Wat Chai Wattanaram, this is one of the busiest sites and we just managed to visit it before the first coach load arrived! We then went to Wat Tha Ka Rong which is really hard to describe, it’s a Buddhist temple but also like a seaside pier – there are weird animated skeletons around the place greeting you with a wai, as well as stalls and bizarrely, very large crows! We didn’t know what to make of it, but again it was definitely worth a visit.

We also saw the reclining Buddha, it’s almost as large as the one in Bangkok, but is no longer covered in gold, it’s probably more impressive it’s fully outside so you can really see the scale and detail.

Our final stop was Wat Ratchaburana where you can actually climb the prang, I popped my head inside but the smell of bat poo was pretty overwhelming so we quickly retreated!

We checked out of the guesthouse and headed to the train station, trains to Bangkok are pretty frequent, if somewhat late, but very, very cheap! We were heading to the Khao San Road area, an area famous for backpackers. It’s a street lined with stalls selling elephant pants, t shirts, cocktail buckets and scorpions on a stick! You either love it or hate it and we love it! We have noticed the change though from when I first visited 8 years ago. Then you had stalls selling old copies of lonely planets and fake driving licenses and dodgy dvds. Those stalls have gone, partly as part of a clean up by the government and partly I guess as time has moved on and the digital world has diminished the need for knock off copies of The Beach.

We had a fun but chilled evening, I went for a foot massage and Joey took some time to just sit and people watch. Obviously I had a couple of large cocktails and Joey some beers. The next day we had booked an overnight bus to the Gulf islands and so we had a day to kill, we headed to a strip of shopping centres on a local bus. In the past we would have taken a taxi there but now it’s easy to find information online about which local bus to catch so catch the bus we did. It was a nice way to spend the day – one of the shopping centres has showrooms for cars such as Bentley, Porsche and Land Rovers – imagine going to the Oracle shopping centre in Reading to pick out your car!

I’m glad that we had some time to explore some of the places in Thailand that I’d wanted to explore and to see some culture rather than just beaches although the beaches will follow!

August 29, 2023 0

FAQs

We get asked SO many questions whenever we tell people what we’re doing so we thought it would be fun to include a selection:

What are you doing about jobs?

I am taking a career break, and am due back on 1 July 2024; Joey was working a Fixed Term Contract which is due to finish on 31st March, so will just look for another job when we get back.

But you’ve just bought a house! What are you doing about that?

We’re letting it out – this will cover our mortgage and the majority of the storage costs.

So what are you doing with all your belongings?

Some things will be stored at Joey’s parents. Some bulky furniture and kitchen stuff is being put into storage and we’re giving some bulky furniture to charity.

How much is this costing you and how are funding it?

We’re planning on a budget of £50 each per day. Obviously some days we will spend less and some more. We have spent over 3 years saving for this trip – we were mortgage free for most of that time and we saved every penny we could. Our mortgage costs will be paid for by letting our house out.

How do you keep to your budget?

We use a travel budget app which we use to track all our expenses. We will cook ourselves where we can, choose reasonably priced accommodation, limit the alcohol we drink 😦 use public transport, taking overnight options where we can and they don’t arrive at 3am. We try and eat and travel like a local so we don’t eat out in swanky restaurants or every night. We’re happy to eat on the street and flag local buses down. We will walk for 30 minutes plus in 30 degree heat with our backpacks on rather than pay £2 for a tuk tuk!

How are you travelling around?

The majority of time will be overland and we want to travel as much as we can overland using public transport but we will take flights where necessary.

What happens if you need to come home?

Then we will come home! See Covid 2020 for an example of this 🙂

How much luggage are you taking with you?

I’m taking a 40 litre bag and Joey has 60 litres. This is all we have! We’re taking enough clothes for 5/6 days. Other countries have washing machines so we will use them or do hand washing.

Are you taking disposable underwear?

ACTUAL QUESTION.

NO. As above – washing machines are not exclusive to the UK.

What happens if it’s cold where you are?

Layers are your friend – a pair of leggings under a pair of trousers will be fine and I’m taking a shirt. We’ll be fine. They also have shops abroad.

Are you staying in hostels?

Yes- hostels will be part of our accommodation options. Even dorms! We’ll stay in a mix of hostels (some private rooms, some dorms), guesthouses, apartments, air bnbs, hotels etc. We’ll aim to get the most for our money but we’ll not stay in complete dives (hopefully).

How do you decide where you’re going?

We read a lot of travel books, watch vlogs, read blogs but our main source of information is probably Lonely Planet! Once we’re away we’ll talk to people and find out about places along the way. We generally have an idea of a rough route but often change as we’re going along.

Where are you flying to first?

We’re not flying! At the moment we don’t have any flights booked. We’re catching the Eurostar and our first stop is Bruges.

Are you working whilst you’re away?

No. We want to enjoy the experience as much as we can. Our work will be this blog 🙂

How will you keep connected?

Back in the dark ages of 2014 we solely relied on wifi and books. These days it’s very easy to pick up local SIM cards very cheaply, for example a month’s SIM card with unlimited data in Thailand costs less than £10.

What about Christmas?!

We actually have our plans for Christmas sorted! Joey’s birthday is 2 days before Christmas and we usually end up travelling on his birthday. Not this time though! We will be in Thailand, on our favourite beach. We have booked 10 days there and all being well Joey’s parents will be there and his brother and family will also join us for a few days.

Do you have any questions for us? Stick them in the comments below!

March 19, 2023 1

Voyage 3.0 – the prelude

We have just over 3 weeks to go so time for an update!

For those new here we are Joey and Becca, we have been together for nine years and married for five years. Very shortly after we met (four months) we were on a plane to Buenos Aires and travelling around South America for 5 months, before we headed to South East Asia for three months. That started our love of long term travel and three and half years ago we set off for India for the start of what we had planned to be a 18 month trip. We managed six months and covered two countries (India and Sri Lanka) before we had to fly back thanks to Covid! This means that we’ve pretty much spent the last three years talking about and planning for when we could go again.

So what’s the plan?

We’re starting in Europe, catching a Eurostar to Bruges, and we’re planning to canter (rather than meander) through Western Europe for the first three weeks until we reach the top of the Balkans. We’re planning on spending a bit of time meandering through the Balkans and into Turkey and onwards to Georgia and Armenia, maybe Azerbaijan if the land border’s open. Then it’s into the the Stans (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan before catching a flight to somewhere in South East Asia. We’ll spend a few months hopping round South East Asia with the plan being to make it to Central America and down to a bit of South America,

When we were away in India we came up with the idea of visiting 40 countries before we were 40, Covid stopped that and the new plan is 44 before we are 44 – we should make this easily but subscribe below to find out how it’s going!

March 18, 2023 3

99 Days to go

We’re back! We kind of left you hanging when we left India in a hurry at the start of the pandemic. At the time we hoped we’d only be back for 3 months, and yet here we are, almost 3 years later making the commitment to travel long term again.

So here it is, we’re putting it out there – in 99 days time we will be hitting the road again for what we’re hoping and planning will be our longest travels yet. Before we tell you more of that, let’s take a step back.

We raced back from India, leaving our last destination of Khajuraho on 16th March, we took an overnight train back to Delhi where we were due to arrive in at 5.25am and at 5am we booked a flight back to the UK leaving at 9am that day so we had a dash to the airport! We grabbed the first taxi driver we saw and made it clear that we were in a hurry so we piled the bags into the cab, hopped in and were ready to yell ‘go go go’ like we were in Race Across the World. Only the driver was outside, casually taking his time blessing his taxi. We’d spent 4 months in India and this was first time we’d seen this happen and we definitely could have done without it then!

We’d rented our flat out so Joey’s parents kindly took us in! Eventually it became clear that we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so we got jobs and saved saved saved. We also sold the flat and bought a bungalow!

I think every single day since we got back we have talked about when we would go travelling again and where we would go. At one point we thought about leaving in September last year but decided with what we wanted to do it might be better to wait til Spring, that and wanting to get through one more winter to make sure covid doesn’t do anything stupid…

So what’s the plan?

Well we have a ticket booked…. To Bruges! Our plan is to travel through Europe overland, to Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and through the Stans. After that (in an ideal world) we would continue overland through China but if that can’t happen then we’ll take a flight and continue overland through South East Asia. We’d also then love to do Central America and we have the funds to be away for at least a year. So yeah, in 99 days time if all is well we will be on the road again.

99 days isn’t that long and we have a lot to do before then, there’s jobs to be done around the bungalow to get it ready to be let and lots of planning and preparation to do. We have fitness and health goals to aim for as well. We want to keep this blog up to date and to share some tips for preparing for long term travel so we will be working on this blog as well. We also have full time jobs so the next few months are going to be jam packed but let the fun begin!

January 2, 2023 1

Welcome to our blog!

This is the very first post of our travel blog. We’ve chosen the name Meandering Maxwells as meandering means ‘to wander aimlessly’ which is exactly what we are likely to end up doing over the next couple of years through South and South East Asia and we’d love to share our adventures, diversions and detours with you.

The main aim of the blog is to do just that, but we’d also like it to be a resource and inspiration to others who may be about to embark on the same thing. So for that reason we have included tips on packing, money and planning – all the things that we get asked about all the time.

We have also included some stories and itineraries from our last travels five years ago which we hope you will find amusing and helpful, or just relieved that it’s not you who’s going through this!

Enjoy, much love Joey and Becca x

August 18, 2019 0