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

A brief introduction to Borneo

Our next travel day was taking us from Singapore to Kuching on the island of Borneo, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. We arrived at Singapore airport with loads of time before our flight as we wanted to have a good look around. I’d been to the airport once before in 2009 and enjoyed the butterfly garden then and was keen for Joey to experience it as well.

We went straight to the Malaysia airlines desk to drop our bags and there wasn’t much of a queue but they were so slow. One desk was manned by someone who was giving out stroppy teenager vibes. There was a problem with her desk and she got out to go and speak to her manager and she did it in a manner that really resembled Kevin the Teenager from Harry Enfield.

We eventually made it to the front and were immediately asked for proof of onward travel which we didn’t have. As usual we only had a vague idea of where we going and when but had nothing solid booked. We explained that we were planning on catching a bus to the Indonesian side of the island and then intended to fly to Java but they wanted proof, so we had to quickly panic buy a bus ticket. We only had WiFi and Joey quickly found a site to book a ticket, only it was such a cumbersome site that it was only when we received the email we realised that we’d booked a ticket from Indonesia to Malaysia. Not what we needed! Now I stood over him whilst he was booking it so I know he put the right information in but somehow a glitch switched it! We tried again and eventually we got a ticket proving our exit. We managed to check in eventually and headed off to see the Jewel. We weren’t lucky enough to see the waterfall in action but it was certainly an impressive structure. We also made it to the sunflower garden but we didn’t want to venture to another terminal as we had less time than expected so we didn’t make it to the butterfly garden.

We arrived into Kuching on a Sunday afternoon and we had booked another apartment with kitchen, washing machine and a balcony overlooking the river and a beautiful pool. It was just what we needed as I was feeling the travel burn in Singapore, my feet were blistered from too much walking and I was exhausted. We had planned to do some cool stuff but we opted to choose things that we really interested in doing and spend some time resting.

The next day we got up to go to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. The centre was established in 1975 to care for orangutans which had previously been kept illegally as pets or had been orphaned and injured. Since then a number have been rehabilitated and released into the forest reserve and some have even had babies, the orangutans are classed as semi-wild and they spend the majority of the time in the forest but some do appear back at the forest twice daily for supplementary feeds. It was fruit season whilst we were there so the chances of seeing some was reduced, however we got lucky and were able to see two guys, an uncle and nephew and they were absolutely fantastic creatures to watch. We made our way to the feeding area and on our way the uncle was also making his way there swinging above our heads in the tree and I swear that was a sight that I will never forget. We spent 40 minutes watching these two guys interact with each other and feed the fruit that was left for them. They had coconuts which were whole and the uncle picked one up, took it and then bashed it to open it before giving it to his nephew. His nephew was pretty lazy – he kept pestering his uncle to get him more food! They were also given bananas and cartons of milk! Watching those guys get the cartons, open them and then pour them into their mouths (but mostly miss) was incredible. I had tears in my eye as it was so joyful to see these creatures. We also got to witness the little guy do his business! It was such a magical experience and chatting to the staff there you could really tell how much they loved the animals and the care they took of them. They talked with particular fondness of the oldest orangutans and how she’d been ill recently and you could tell they loved her so much. It was a shame that they felt that they had to justify the fact that we ‘only’ saw two – we felt lucky as it was fruit season and actually it was better because if they’d been loads we wouldn’t have known where to look.

We had a rest day the next day and then the following day we headed off to Bako national park, to get here you can catch a bus but we opted for a Grab to get us there. Grab is the Asian version of Uber and we have been using it for EVERYTHING in Borneo and subsequently Indonesia! Once you’re at the park entrance you then need to take a boat to the start of the trails. Another couple approached us to share a boat which helped to reduce the costs. There are various trails you can do and we picked one which would give us the best chance of seeing Proboscis monkeys. Spoiler alert: we saw no wildlife on the trail whatsoever! The trail was pretty nice, we were deep in the jungle complete with all the sounds of the insects. It was a hard climb up a hill to a viewpoint and then back down and my knees and thighs were dead! We hitched another trail onto this one which took us to a beach but I wasn’t keen on hanging around too long given all of the ‘beware of crocodiles’ signs. We walked back to the start of the trail and bumped into a ranger who showed us what we think was a flying lemur up a tree and he then led us to a viper in a tree! It was incredible to see it and you’d probably have missed it if you’d walked past and I was not keen on getting too close!

We took the boat back and then got a taxi back. We had a day exploring Kuching itself, Kucing in Malay/Indonesia means cat and they really milk it in the city – there are cat statues everywhere! There’s also a cat museum apparently and I’m gutted that I missed it.

We enjoyed our time in Kuching, the city was nice and there was lots to do on the doorstep, I would love to come back another time and explore more of Malaysian Borneo.

Our time on the island of Borneo wasn’t over though, we had a bus to Indonesia to catch! Our friends Wun and David had told us that the town of Pontianak had an equator monument and we were keen to visit. We have visited the Equator in South America so we wanted to do it in Asia too. Our bus ride was pretty good, it was on time and the seats were comfy, we’d got an E-visa online so the border crossing was pretty straightforward. We arrived into Pontianak in the middle of an almighty thunderstorm, it was torrential rain but everyone was still riding their scooters in flip flops just with ponchos on!

We got a taxi to our hotel and enjoyed a cocktail on the rooftop to toast our first night in Indonesia.

The rain gave way to a very pleasant sunset

The next morning we had a packed agenda, we got a Grab to the equator monument and had fun recreating some of our pictures from when we visited the one in Quito. We’re determined to visit the equator in Africa next! We wanted to head back but didn’t yet have a local SIM card to call a Grab so we asked the very helpful staff to help us only there were no Grabs to be had! We went to the office and he called a friend and then printed out a certificate for us to say that we’d visited the equator!

We made it back to the hotel, packed up our stuff and then called another Grab to take us to St Joseph’s cathedral. The cathedral was very modern and we enjoyed our visit. We met a very enthusiastic lady there who showed us around and then proceeded to give us a thousand warnings about walking back and to be careful of muggers on scooters who would slash our bags etc etc etc. she said it so many times that she put the absolute fear of god into us and we were really stressed as we headed off! We headed to a phone shop so we could get SIM cards and the process took so long. In Indonesia you have to register the SIM card and it took about 40 minutes. It was after 11.30am before we finished and we had a flight to catch at 1.50pm! I called a Grab but the app placed our location in a weird spot and we spent about 10 minutes trying to find our driver. Once we found him we asked him if he’d wait at our hotel and then take us to the airport which he was happy to do! We ran up to get our bags and quickly check out and we did make our flight but my goodness my stress levels were high!

As I say earlier Borneo was really enjoyable and we got to see some good wildlife and I am definitely adding it to my return list for a time when we don’t have a backpacker budget!

September 24, 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

Canyons, lakes and a narrow escape

It feels as though I open every blog with a dramatic border crossing, and today is no different! I was still feeling a bit poorly in Tashkent and it was 40 degrees so we decided that we’d treat ourselves to a taxi to the train station rather than sweat like pigs on the metro. We asked our hotel an hour in advance to arrange one, told him where we were going and which train we were getting so he had all the information to hand. We went downstairs about 10 minutes before we needed to to check out and get our registration slips (Uzbekistan takes foreigner registration very seriously and when you check out of somewhere you have to get a little slip of paper which states how long you stayed somewhere). We got our latest slip and I checked it and the dates were incorrect, I questioned him and he said it would be fine, everything was online etc, etc) this was the first clue that perhaps he wasn’t the best at attention to detail.

Then he ordered our taxi on the Yandex app (the soviet equivalent to Uber) and said it would be 3 minutes, 3 minutes came and went, then another 3 minutes, we kept checking with him and making sure he knew we needed to catch a train. After about 20 minutes I was starting to get a little bit anxious and was saying to Joey that we needed to leave NOW, and we said that to the guy. I then insisted that we go to the street to flag one down and even that took over 5 minutes! We were cutting it fairly fine at this point as Uzbek railways like you to be there to check in for your train 30 minutes in advance. Eventually a cab did stop and he said a price which we just agreed to straightaway, no time for messing and bartering at this point! We had a really nice guy who spoke a little bit of English and who’s sister lives in the UK. We were a way into our journey when Joey checked Google maps and realised we were heading in the wrong direction- the hotel receptionist had told him to go to the wrong train station! The taxi driver wasn’t convinced that we were right until we’d shown him our tickets and all he said was ‘good say’ before making a quick u-turn. He was great though and got us there just after the 30 minute slot and boy did we run with our rucksacks – I felt like we were on the BBC show ‘Race across the world’. It was really stressful thinking we might miss it if they didn’t let us on so we really tried to race through the security checks. Thankfully two very sweaty and stressed people made it!

That was not the end of the stress though! We still had a border crossing to do, and you may remember from the last blog that we were carrying illegal goods with us! Leaving Uzbekistan the train guards came and collected our passports so I thought that might be straightforward and we’d be ok, but then the border guards boarded the train with sniffer dogs and wanted everyone to open their bags. Thankfully Joey had hidden the drone in a packing cube of clothes! They checked the bags a few times and even asked us if we had a ‘helicopter’ before clarifying that they meant a drone and it’s not my proudest moment to admit that I lied to a border official and denied that we did indeed have a drone. Before too long thought the train guards were back with our passports and we were on a short journey to the Kazakhstan border. This time the border guards boarded with a small handheld computer and sat at a table seat with passengers taking it turn to sit opposite them and have their passports scanned, pictures taken and getting the vital stamp. Then the dogs and border guards were back on board for the luggage checks. I found the whole experience so stressful, knowing I’d lied earlier and having everyone in close proximity in the carriage watching the two foreigners was almost too much to bear! Thankfully everything was fine and before we knew it we were In Shymkent, a very narrow escape!

We spent a pleasant morning exploring Shymkent, there were a surprising number of green parks and a lot of WWII memorials. The next day we were catching a night train and so we decided to take ourselves to a town a couple of hours away called Turkestan, which is home to a mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, and is described as Kazakhstan’s most beautiful piece of architecture, the best piece of man-made beauty in the whole of the country! So with those words I was keen to go, and we were a little underwhelmed! Maybe if we’d visited before we went to Uzbekistan it would have been better but the place was half finished! There was wooden scaffolding in place and the tiling hadn’t been finished at the front! Ok, so the guy who commissioned it had died before it was finished but you can see what I mean, the rest of it was nice, but it just didn’t wow us in the same way all the buildings in Uzbekistan had. It was however a good way to spend a homeless day.

You can see the wooden scaffolding on the inside of the arch of this photo

I had pushed the boat out with the finances and booked us a first class cabin on the train, which meant it just had two beds in. This was great for us, it meant we could sleep in peace without well meaning people forcing us to eat meat. We locked the door and both slept fairly well. I got up around 4am to go to the toilet and all was well, a little later, when I wanted to go again I tried the door and it wouldn’t open, at first I thought I was being weak, but it soon became apparent that the door was stuck, possibly locked from the outside, we pressed the attendant’s bell but no one came! I was getting a little panicky at this point, definitely a new fear unlocked of getting stuck in a train carriage! At this point we decided to just hammer on the door and hope someone heard us! We were hammering for a good 5 minutes before someone came to our rescue and it took a little while before we were freed! At that point I decided the door was staying open!

We arrived into our hostel and were able to shower before heading out to explore. Almaty was again full of green parks which surprised us, we also visited a catholic cathedral, which was constructed from wood but you wouldn’t have known this if you hadn’t been told.

We had arranged for a private two day the next day to take us the Charyn Canyon and to the Kolsai lakes, it’s pretty hard to get there on public transport which is why we opted for a tour. We had a great tour guide named Sergey and a very comfy car which was just as well given some of the terrain we went over! We started off going to the main canyon where we walked for 2km down to a river, it was about 31 degrees at the top of the canyon but inside the canyon it felt about 45 degrees so it was hot! We had a little paddle in the river when we got there and then walked back which was hard going due to the heat. It was beautiful down amongst the rocks though, we then walked up to the top to view it from above.

After this we drove on to another canyon, the moon canyon, then stone shelf canyon, the Austrian view and the black canyon! There was a lot of very hot canyons and they were all quite different, we had to go off road across some really rugged terrain to get to these which meant there was no one else but us there. Driving along some of the main roads to get there meant that we encountered lots of animals in the road such as cows and donkeys! Seeing donkeys instantly made me sing the Christmas song ‘little donkey’ and I don’t think Sergey knew what to make of me singing this song and trying to explain that it was a Christmas song.

That evening we were staying in a guesthouse which was probably nicer that a lot of accommodation we’ve stayed in! The thing I liked the though was the dinner, or rather a peculiar element of dinner! We were served what Sergey kept referring to as ‘cookies’ but definitely looked and tasted more like crisps, which you were meant to dip into jam and honestly it was the tasty combination ever! I don’t know if I was just making up for not eating much over the past couple of weeks but I couldn’t get enough of these!

The next day we were headed to the main event, to Kolsoi lakes, the first lake was Kaindy lake, formed about a hundred years after an earthquake. The lake that formed flooded a forest and left lots of tree trunks to form a unique view known as the sunken forest and it was quite beautiful. We had a lovely walk around the lake and dipped our toes into the river again – it was freezing! To get to this lake we had to drive through a river to reach it!

After lunch we headed to Kolsai lakes, which is the most famous lake and has a beautiful view of it between the mountains. It was nice, but overcrowded and we preferred Kaindy lake.

We headed back for a night in Almaty before heading off early the next day to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. We had planned on one night in the capital before heading to Karakol in the mountains. The topography/ public transport system was slightly frustrating as we’d been almost parallel with Karakol when we were at Kolsai lakes but public transport limited us to going via Bishkek (unless you wanted to pay a fortune for a taxi) we were lucky upon arriving into Bishkek though as we met some of the nicest people we’d met so far. We met a Slovenian guy who we spent the evening with drinking beer and hopefully inspiring him to quit his job and travel longer term. We also met Ombi and Alex who we kept in touch with and who ended up in the same hostel as us in Karakol.

The journey to Karakol was pretty uneventful, just long, it we had great views of Lake Issyk-kul along the route. Issyk-Kul is actually the second largest alpine lake in the world, after Lake Titicaca in Bolivia /Peru. Kyrgyzstan is very accessible for many long treks, but we opted out of doing any! We instead had a day padding around the town, visiting the cathedral (again constructed of wood) as well as the Dungan mosque – the Dungans are an ethnic Muslim group originally from China and the Chinese influence was evident in the mosque which resembled more a Chinese temple.

We visited the lake beach two days in a row which was very pleasant. We also went to the hot springs which I’d been looking forward to going to. It was an effort to get to as not all the marshrutkas (local minibuses) went there and when we got the one we wanted it didn’t go to the hot springs so we ended up getting off, walking and waiting and bickering about the whole thing. Then when we made it there the springs were really tiny and the first pool which you had to walk through was SCALDING. It was almost impossible to walk through. Then when we did make it to the main pool there were loads of dead flies. It was such a disappointment! We ended up staying 20 minutes! The only thing that saved the day was when we were waiting for a bus back a car stopped and gave us a free lift back to Karakol. I’m not sure if we had a bad day or something as we heard from Ombi a few days after that they’d had a great time when they went.

We spent our evenings in Karakol strolling round a park, the temperature dropped to about 20 degrees and it felt like an English summer evening – it was so much more pleasant than the high 30s/ low 40s we’d been used to! We also went with Ombi and Alex to an evening at another hostel which put on traditional Kyrgyz music which consisted of low singing and playing an accordion. It was a little bizarre at times but good fun.

We left very early on a Tuesday morning to get back to Bishkek before heading back to Almaty to catch our flight to Thailand. We were on the 8am Marshrutka and us and the driver were the only sober passengers. The bus was full of extremely drunk men who were either passed out or who were bothering us. They kept trying to talk to us or to touch us. At one point one of the men got up and went to the front and ripped the driver’s sunglasses from his head! He was not happy about this but at no point did he threw him off the bus! After a short break he did make him sit in the front next to him, presumably thinking that he’d been able to keep an eye on him from there! We were very glad to reach Bishkek in one piece and we just wanted to make it to Almaty.

We took the first bus we reasonably could the next day and thankfully made it to Almaty without any drama. We had one night in a hotel close to the airport and spent the afternoon messing around in the pool, sauna and steam room to gear ourselves up for our flight to South East Asia.

Central Asia was different to anywhere we’d been and the language barrier made it hard going at times but I’m glad that we went. We had originally intended to visit Tajikistan on this trip but we changed our minds during the planning for a couple of reasons – mainly because we’d have to re-enter Uzbekistan to leave Tajikistan as the border with Kyrgyzstan is currently closed due to their war and we couldn’t face going through the drone drama again! I’m sure we will be back to visit Tajikistan in the not distant future though as we’d love to spend time driving the Pamir highway.

August 8, 2023 2

Under the Uzbek spell

It definitely felt like a bit of a treat to fly. We had to fly to Tashkent international airport, collect our bags, go through customs and then take a taxi to the domestic terminal which is 5km away. It should have been relatively smooth but it was hard work! Our first issue was not being able to use the ATM at the airport to get any cash to get a taxi. A guy behind us said he could never get it to work either and actually offered to give us the money for our taxi, but there was an exchange office so we opted for that rather than taking money from a stranger! Once we had collected our bags Joey’s bag had some customs tape around it which neither of us were really sure about and when we tried to leave the airport we were stopped by customs who insisted on x-raying our bags and then opening Joey’s. This wouldn’t normally cause us any stress as we’re not carrying anything illegal, except for when we were entering Uzbekistan. You cannot import drones into Uzbekistan and we had read stories about them being destroyed at the border so we were semi prepared for this to happen and it looked like this was the moment.

The border guard insisted on getting us to open all the packing cubes and asking what was what ‘what’s that?’ ‘Rain jacket’ ‘open’ ‘what’s that?’ ‘Clothes’ ‘open’. He eventually got to the bag containing the drone and we both thought this was it, but he was too busy wondering what something else was to actually look at it properly and do his job! So we were somewhat relieved and bewildered a few minutes later when we left the terminal with everything still in our possession. I would definitely not recommend chancing this though!

We caught a taxi and actually met a really nice taxi driver, who gifted us a traditional Uzbeki bracelet; our time in India has scarred us and we were both a little sceptical but he was just a really nice man! We arrived at the domestic terminal and had our first massive cultural shock. The language barrier was huge, I had been learning a little Russian in preparation but not nearly enough! Then there was the money situation, the exchange rate was 15,000 to the pound so getting my head around all the notes and their value was huge. Then there were really quirky things such as someone drying their washing on a few seats and there was a washing machine in the toilet! Not sure why there was a washing machine in the airport but there you go.

Uzbekistan was HOT. We got off the plane at Tashkent and were hit by that immediate wall of heat, we were arriving at the hottest time of year were its temperatures regularly reach the high 30s / early 40s so we wanted to move through the country as quickly as reasonably possible. We landed into Nukus in the evening and even in the dark we could tell just how hot it was.

Nukus is in the far west of the country and is the gateway to the Aral Sea, a largely dried up lake, destroyed by mankind when the Soviet started diverting rivers for irrigation purposes. However we were not intending to visit the Aral Sea, instead our reason for visiting the town was to visit the Savitsky museum of art. This museum is home to one of the largest collections of soviet art in the world and remained hidden from the world for many years. Stalin had banned all non socialist realist work and these paintings remained hidden in the middle of nowhere, precisely because they were in the middle of nowhere.

The museum is closed on Mondays and flight timings meant that we had arrived on Sunday evening so we had a day to kill before we could get to the museum. It was a day for adjusting to the culture and climate, and one we needed. We’d only exchanged a small amount of cash and needed to get some more out so off we trotted to find an ATM that worked. We actually found one straight away and managed to withdraw some cash, an old lady was very intrigued by us and was standing right next to me whilst I was doing the transaction, she then wanted to know how much we were getting and looking in my wallet – she was quite excited to see I had a million Som in my wallet (about £67).

The guide books described Nukus as having very little charm, but we actually quite liked the city! It was clean with wide pavements and everyone was friendly. We were pretty bowled away by the museum as well, we’d both imagined that soviet art would be really grey and brutalist but everything was so colourful and modern, it was definitely worth the stop.

Next up was Khiva, which was 2.5 hours away in a taxi. Shared taxis are a great way to get around this area but we splashed out on a private one to take us there. Uzbekistan is huge and as you’re driving or catching a train anywhere the whole amount of nothingness and desert takes your breath away. We were dropped at the door of our guesthouse and had an amazing welcome from our host, we’d booked a budget room but he upgraded us to the best room in the guesthouse- it was huge and had a small balcony but best of all the bathroom had a bath!

Khiva was such a delightful city, our guesthouse was in the city walls and we liked nothing more than wandering round and taking in all the sights. Every building was caked in mud and looked like something out of Aladdin. There were beautiful minarets, and a mosque made of over 200 wooden pillars. You can buy a day ticket which will allow you to enter various museums and palaces, and you do just wander around and go in any building you like the look of. We climbed the city walls at sunset, the gate was locked and there was a guy hanging round the bottom of them offering to let us up for 20,000 soms. We decided to take him up on his offer and we were the only people on the walls at sunset. In one of the museums we visited we met a 15 year old girl who had the courage to approach us and practice her English, you could tell she was really embarrassed about it when she went back to her family but I was so proud of her for having the courage to approach us! She told us it was her dream to visit England so I hope that one day she achieves her dream.

We loved Khiva, we were just so charmed by its beauty. A lot of tourists stick to Bukhara (our next stop), Samarkand and Tashkent but I’m glad we started in the west made our way there.

Our train ride to Bukhara was over 7 hours, in a non air conditioned train, when it was 38degrees outside! The windows were open, which was fine when we were moving but stopping at any station was very hot! As we travelled through the desert a lot of dust made its way into our cabin! We were sharing with two men who insisted on sharing their food with us. The food they wanted to share was meat, some chicken wings and sheep trotters. I was really reluctant to take any, as I say it was 38 degrees outside and our cabin didn’t have any air conditioning and I could foresee some health issues if I ate anything. Unfortunately the men were VERY persistent and it got to the point where it was becoming rude to say no so I took a small amount and tried not to eat too much.

We were grateful to arrive into Bukhara and get into an air conditioned car. Everyone is Uzbekistan drives a white Chevrolet. That’s not even a sweeping statement, it’s a fact, everyone drives a white Chevrolet- finding your car in a car park must be a nightmare!

Bukhara was a nice city but we didn’t love it in the same way that we loved Khiva. We had a wander round at night upon arrival and found some beautiful lit up minarets and mosques. The next day we continued our habit of getting up early and getting out before coming back late morning and staying in until the evening to avoid the worst of the heat. We were at the Ark in Bukhara, it was super hot and the inevitable happened. I needed to get back to the guesthouse NOW. The guesthouse was pretty much where I stayed for the next couple of days feeling a little bit sorry for myself! We tried to console ourselves by reminding us that we’d made it to the three month mark without getting sick and it was going to happen at some point so at least we were somewhere relatively comfortable and had our own bathroom!

We did manage a couple of walks out but were glad to move on to Samarkand. This train ride was only about 4 hours and we had air con this time. Samarkand was an absolutely gorgeous city, we loved it from the moment we arrived. Our guesthouse owner collected us from the train station (in his white Chevrolet), and he said he didn’t speak much English so it allowed me the opportunity to wow him with my Russian. By wow I mean saying all the Russian words I know- which include: cat, dog, mice, flies, car, towel, how much and daughter. At our guesthouse in Khiva I had actually asked for a towel in Russian which impressed me! I will actually say at this point that probably the most useful thing I did was to learn the Cyrillic alphabet which allowed me to be able to read place names (useful for when catching buses) and some things off a menu!

Our guesthouse was a stone throw’s away from the Registan in Samarkand, a collection of three buildings and honestly our favourite thing in Samarkand. The night we arrived we went for a walk and ended up at the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum. It was beautifully lit up and as we arrived so late we were the only ones there! We then wandered back and got to the Registan in time to see some of the light and sound show that happens most evenings in summer. The next day we were up early and headed to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. This mosque is huge (the cupola is 41m high) and it’s so beautiful. It’s also in a bit of a state of disrepair having been damaged by an earthquake and you can see the minarets leaning and huge cracks in the walls. It sparked an interesting discussion though as I realised that the buildings I find the most beautiful and have been moved by, have all been Islamic. There was Humayun’s tomb and the Taj Mahal in India, the Blue Mosque in Turkey and now the Bibi-Khanym mosque and Registan in Samarkand.

After the mosque we headed to another mausoleum before turning back and spending a couple of hours at the Registan. The Registan is so beautiful, as I say earlier it consists of three buildings and the tiling on each of them is very different. One of them has ‘lions’ on the outside – although these lions actually look very much like tigers! Inside the middle building, the Tilla-Kari, is a fascinating photo exhibition of how Samarkand used to look, and how much restoration had taken place at the Registan and the Bibi-Khanym. Perhaps the most fascinating thing of all though was the the ceiling. It is flat, but is painted so as to appear domed – quite exquisite.

We spent every evening at the Registan, watching the light and sound show, it was such a lovely place to hang out and spend our evenings. We also visited the Ulugbek observatory which was really interesting, then we made it to yet another mausoleum! I was all out of clean modest clothes by this point so had to be lent some suitable attire at the front desk to cover my dress!

Our next port of call was Tashkent, the capital. We were able to catch the metro to our hotel which saved a taxi ride. We retreated inside until the early evening when the sun wasn’t beating down on us. We had a walk around the city taking in some famous sights such as Hotel Uzbekistan (as featured on Race Across the World). At some point we reached a fountain and were so hot we joined everyone else and dunked our feet in! The next day we wanted to visit some monuments in a couple of parks but everywhere we tried to go to was closed off and guarded by the police, there had been elections a few days before so perhaps it was connected. We decided that we’d hop on the metro and visit a few stations. The metro stations in Tashkent are really intriguing, everyone is different and they’re all very soviet! We bought a ticket each, went to the next station, hopped off took a few photos, then hopped on to the next train to the next station. This was a good way to pass an hour in the heat of the day – all for about 10p each! We then headed to the Green Bazaar, after about 5 minutes there we vowed to not eat meat whilst we were in the Stans! No wonder we were ill if people bought their meat from here whilst it was lying in 40 degrees heat!

We didn’t enjoy Tashkent as much as the other cities of Uzbekistan but overall we loved Uzbekistan, it surprised us both how much given that it was all about the cities here and I wished we’d actually planned to stay a little longer, however all good things must come to an end.

July 26, 2023 3

Blood, sweat and cheers!

Once upon a time, for a short period of time, there was a direct bus from Kars in Turkey to Tbilisi, Georgia. Nowadays the recommendation is to head west to the border town of Hopa and cross to Batumi in west Georgia before heading east to Tbilisi. We were not having that so we researched hard to find a way to cross to the capital, there really isn’t much information about this route at all; it appears that people do just take the longer easier route! Not us though, we were determined to find a way and it appeared that way would involve 3 buses and a couple of taxis!

We first needed to get to the town of Ardahan – this was easy, we got the first bus at 8am and said to our driver that we wanted to go on to Posof so he kindly dropped us at the next bus station in Ardahan. From there we took a bus to the border town of Posof, this minibus was absolutely packed to the rafters of bags, suitcases and boxes. It looked like one woman and her two children were using the minibus to move house! Once you were in your seat there was no way of moving! It was a very light hearted journey though and just as we left the bus station the woman realised half her stuff was still in the bus station so we stopped and went back for it. Then about two minutes later she realised she’d left another bag behind so phone calls were made and we pulled into a petrol station and waited for someone to bring the bag. Once we got to Posof we got out the minibus and asked about where we could get a taxi to the border and luck was on our side that day as the woman with all her possessions was heading to the border so we paid an extra couple of pounds and hopped back in!

We all piled out at the border and we offered to help her with her belongings over the border but she said her sister was coming so we left her there. We walked over the border to some amusement, it’s mainly a truck border point and I don’t think they get too many backpackers crossing by foot but the border guards were very friendly and laughed as I tried to say thank you in Turkish. The Georgian guards were equally friendly but asked a lot of questions about our plans. They were really helpful though when I asked about money exchange and said it was cheaper to do it at the petrol station rather than at the border. We had to walk about 10/15 minutes to a petrol station and we asked them to call a taxi for us to take us to the nearest town and to change our money and it was very efficient! The taxi driver was great, I asked how much the fare was, he told me, I said I didn’t have that much and he said ‘no problem!’ He stopped right in front of the minibus that we needed to Tbilisi, blocking it in so we could make it! I made a quick dash across the road to the ATM and we were on our way! The days when we improvise our travel, especially when it involves a border crossing, are some of the least stressful, there’s no worries about missing a booked bus and there’s always someone willing to help you.

On the first bus to Georgia surrounded by boxes and bags

We had a very quick one night stop in Tbilisi, just having enough time to orientate ourselves and plan onward journeys. When we arrived in Tbilisi we realised our time there coincided with the Euro Under 21 championship so we immediately booked tickets for the first game that we could attend the following weekend when we would be back in Tbilisi.

For now though we were heading east to Georgian wine country! We arrived into the town of Telavi and immediately arranged a tour through our guesthouse, our guide would be a fellow long term Russian guest. The next day we planned to visit two wineries, but first we stopped by a monastery. It was interesting to see but we were all about the wine that day! The first winery we went to offered a tour into a cave where all their wine is stored, but there was a power cut that day so we had to take a golf buggy and torches to complete the tour! Georgian wine is traditionally made in huge pots called Qvevri with everything left on – stalks and skins. We tasted four different wines, all of which tasted pretty good to us! We headed to the next winery and the guide made a suggestion that maybe we didn’t want to taste any wines as we had already tried some. Imagine how that suggestion went down with us! The grounds were lovely though and once we’d shaken off our guide we sat down to a large tasting menu which involved comparing wines made using the traditional method and some using the non traditional method, we ended up preferring the traditional method on this occasion. Our guide definitely was no Vuk from Montenegro but we did get driven around to drink wine so it wasn’t all bad!

The town of Telavi has a small fortress (and I mean small) so we also visited that and a plane tree that was over 1000 years old – very impressive!

After Telavi we headed up to Kazbegi, a town in the mountains that’s only around 12km from Russia. Kazbegi is surrounded by beautiful mountains, but most of the time they are surrounded by clouds! Mount Kazbegi is apparently also known as the bride of Kazbegi as she’s often hidden by a veil of cloud! There’s a church high on a hill to climb up to – you can climb up a very steep hill or you can take a taxi or car up to the church. We obviously walked. It was worth the climb up but as is always the way it was way harder coming back down! The church itself was a little underwhelming with the best thing being a carving into the stone apparently showing dinosaurs. The church was built in the 14th Century and it was definitely worth stopping to contemplate the effort that went into building it and carrying up the materials required.

We did a couple of other walks in Kazbegi, one we were told about by a Polish couple we met on the way down from the church, where you could reach another church behind some forests and we agreed that we preferred that walk to the famous one.

We headed back down to Tbilisi, the road to and from Kazbegi is busy with trucks heading to Russia and the driving can be a little crazy as there are a lot of bends, on our way back we met an accident where a car had crashed into a lorry – it didn’t look like anyone was hurt, it was just trying to work out how to move the car and the lorry! Our minibus driver had the crazy idea of trying to go round the back of the lorry and of course it didn’t work!

We had another night in Tbilisi, arriving back in time for the Euro U21 match – Netherlands v Portugal. We were staying in the same accommodation as we had previously, it was a great location and clean, it was set up so there was a mezzanine level with a bed and the stairs were in the middle of the room and were perfect for storing my bag under. Unfortunately I forgot about those stairs whilst rooting around for something, stood up with great force and cracked my head on the edge of the stairs! It really hurt! I thought I would end up with a headache for a bit but when I took my hand away it was covered in blood – not what i was expecting to see and I definitely went into shock! Thankfully the bleeding stopped and I didn’t need stitches but I didn’t really fancy going out after that though so we skipped the match. We did however immediately book tickets for the quarter final the following weekend!

Our minibus tried to go round the back of this

The next day we headed to Armenia, we had heard that there were two places you could take a minivan from so we headed to one we had been to before and were told that there wouldn’t be one for three hours so we headed off to the other one and were lucky as it filled up quickly. We were impressed as well, it was a lovely Mercedes minivan, very comfy and with loads more space than all the other minibuses we’d had in the area. We arrived quickly at the border and the border guards seemed to have some sort of problem with me; as we left Georgia they kept me waiting for ages, for no apparent reason! I was eventually let go and eased into Armenia. Once we crossed the border our driver seemed to think he was an F1 driver and needed to drive at twice the speed limit and overtake 5 cars at once. I think he spent more time on the wrong side of the road than the right side and he was beeped at more than once. His driving was honestly the worst we have experienced and we were both genuinely terrified at points.

We did eventually make it to the capital, Yerevan, where we spent 3 days walking round and catching up with admin and laundry etc. Yerevan had a lovely cascade – a set of around 500 steps leading to a great view of the city. You can also take an escalator which is inside an arts museum so that was worth doing.

From Yerevan we headed to Dilijan, a national park where we planned to do a hike from a lake 17 km back to the village of Dilijan. We got a taxi to the lake which was the start of the trail and on our way up there we saw a stray dog in the road who upon seeing our car looked very happy and excited! He headed to the car park and bounded up to us. We tried not to encourage him too much but he decided that he would accompany us. So we set off through some woods which were really muddy, you needed to climb pretty much continuously and the dog headed off in front of us taking short cuts but he kept coming back to check on us and keep us on the right path! It was really reassuring but we kept saying to him, it’s ok you can go back but he kept on with us. We were about two hours in those woods, climbing and trying to avoid mosquitoes and we didn’t particularly enjoy that part, but it was great to have the dog to guide us in the right direction! We eventually reached a beautiful wildflower meadow that we climbed through. We’d been walking for about 8km with the dog at this point and decided he needed a name and so ‘Woody’ was named, we had taken some leftovers with us for lunch and we ended up giving most of it to Woody to say thank you to him. Still he kept on with his as we entered more woods, eventually after about 12km we bumped into a group of German hikers and Woody decided to go back with them. We speculated that perhaps Woody did that every day, and we were glad to have his company, especially when we kept seeing signs warning us of bears, wolves and snakes!

We headed back to Tbilisi, arriving back in the middle of a torrential thunderstorm! We had a full day in Tbilisi and had saved the cable car to the last day but as luck would have it, the cable car was not operating due to the wind! If we ever return we will definitely do it then. That evening we did make it to the football. It was Georgia vs Israel in the quarterfinals and the record was set that night for the highest attendance at an U21s match. The crowd was highly partisan and booed every time the Israelis touched the ball. Georgia had a goal disallowed for offside and the match was 0-0 at full time. After extra time it went to penalties and I so admire the Israelis for keeping their cool and managing to beat Georgia on penalties amongst the booing and general noise. We needed to leave quite sharpishly, as it was almost 11pm and we had to be up at the crack of dawn to catch our first flight of the trip.

Confirmation of the record attendance at the Euro U21s

Georgia and Armenia were an interesting chapter and they both have some stunning scenery, they are both relatively small countries with something for everyone. We had managed to travel overland all the way from the UK to Georgia, a total distance of 10,218 kilometres. We would have liked to have continued overland but the land border to Azerbaijan from Georgia is still closed so the only options were overland via Iran or Russia and we didn’t really fancy either of those options! We will continue to travel as much as we can overland, we love slow travel and the encounters that we have with locals along the way.

July 21, 2023 0

Turkish delights

We arrived into Istanbul in the early evening so all we did was grab some dinner (kebab obviously), and have a wander. We were staying really close to the blue mosque and we found ourselves there around sunset. The mosque itself was closed for prayers but the courtyard was open so we just went and sat down and had our breaths taken away by the beauty of the building in the darkening sky. It really is a stunning building and we were very happy to just sit and look at it. The next day we went to visit the inside of the building and found it equally beautiful inside and in the daylight. We also visited Hagia Sophia, this was not much to look at from the outside but was stunning inside. The Haiga Sophia has had its usage changed a few times, it was originally constructed as an Orthodox Church, before being converted to a mosque in the 15th century before it was museum and then finally reopened as a mosque in 2020.

Istanbul was a very enjoyable city for two people who aren’t massive city fans, we did the obligatory ferry ride over to the Asia side and wandered round there. I was fascinated by the number of fisherman on the side of the Bosporous strait with huge buckets of freshly caught fish. We were also in the city a couple of days before the Champions League final and when we arrived at Taksim Square the city was really gearing up for the game with a giant cup and match ball in place.

Obviously we went to the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar and we actually preferred the Spice Bazaar, not least because we managed to find a replacement fake engagement ring for me!

We also decided that I should experience a traditional Turkish Hamman and massage, I don’t know if you’ve ever had one but it was an experience! I started off with 10 minutes in the sauna and then I was shown to a large marble slab where I had to lie down and had dinner bowl sized bowls of water thrown over me. I then received a very thorough wash and scrub including my hair. After all this I was taken to another room where I had my massage. It was very relaxing and I did thoroughly enjoy the whole experience. We’d heard that hairdressers were pretty cheap in Turkey so I nipped to a hairdresser to get my haircut and it was the most efficient haircut I have ever had! He had washed, cut and dried my hair within 20 minutes!

We spent every evening at the Blue Mosque just admiring the building, watching the sky deepen and people watching. We visited it 5 times in total I believe, going into the building twice. It was definitely one of my favourite things that we have done.

We took a ferry to Bursa – Bursa is a popular day trip from Istanbul, but not exactly on the backpacker route. It felt very much like ‘real’ Turkey, we went to another bazaar which felt very local. Bursa is the end of the Silk Road so there were many silk shops. We only spent one night here and got up early the next day to visit a vast complex of Mausoleums. Some were very ornate and some quite plain, but they were all very old. Bizarrely in the centre of the town is an exact replica of the Ottoman fountain in Sarajevo.

Replica of the Sarajevo Ottoman Fountain

Bursa’s bus station is 13km north of the town and we treated ourselves to a taxi there, our driver thought he was in a race for sure, and as he was hurtling along he was also adjusting his seat with a pair of pliers!

We were heading for Selcuk, home to the famous Ephesus ruins. We arrived early evening again and were planning on visiting them the next morning straight after breakfast. Breakfast was quite the farce, the poor woman at the hostel seemed to panic as everyone arrived at once and it was 45 minutes before anyone got any food! There were a family with young children staying and the daughter was banging her knife and fork on the table demanding her breakfast and I think everyone wanted to join in! We did eventually get fed and were grateful for the really adorable kittens to entertain us whilst we waited.

The ruins were spectacular, we arrived at the lower gate, the opposite to where all the tour groups start from so we had the first few ruins almost to ourselves. As we went further on the place got so packed, it’s been a while since we have been anywhere as packed as that! The famous sights were incredible though, and standing in the grand theatre and stadium made us feel tiny. There are a few very interesting things to see, such as the row of lavatories and the footprint and what looks like a credit card etched into the ground, marking the way to the brothel!

The thing that we liked most about Selcuk though were the stork nests. If you have ever seen a stork’s nest you’ll know that they are huge! They are so big that other small birds actually nest in little corners of them. There were lots of these around, often on giant ruin pillars. It was cute to see them in the nests, sometimes flapping their wings to cool their chicks down. We saw one land and it was amazing, the stork just floated down, almost like it was wearing a parachute!

We took an early morning train to Denizli, completing all modes of transport in Turkey! We think we were a bit scarred from our time in India as we weren’t really sure what to expect from the train, but we were allocated a seat when we booked our tickets and it was comfortable, cheap and on time. We arrived around lunchtime and were catching a night bus from Denizli that evening so we dumped our bags and caught a bus to Pummukale. Pummukale means cotton castle in Turkish and it’s not hard to see why, the site is on a hill and there’s lots of small pools in the hill, surrounded by white landscape.

We got dropped at the northern gate and walked down through the Necropolis ruins which were fascinating. Most people start at the bottom and walk up through the pools and don’t make it that far, so again we had the run of the place. We paid extra to swim in ‘Cleopatra’s pool’ – the only place where you can really submerge yourself in the hot springs. This was off the back of a tip from our old neighbour (and I know he reads this so thank you Dave!). It was worth paying extra for as the pools have several Roman columns at the bottom. We then walked down through the famous white pools. The pools are really shallow, and get cooler as you go down, some are really slippery and others have loads of clay at the bottom! It was a great way to spend a homeless day.

We had another nightmare night bus journey. We’re really not having much luck with these at the moment, I long for South American buses when I would get on and sleep all the way through! This time we had a baby directly behind us who wailed for the first few hours. I think the whole bus was giving this baby dirty looks. It was classic us as we thought we’d booked really good seats with loads of leg room, but instead we were kept awake.

We arrived into Goreme, Cappadocia around 7am, we made our way to our hotel and they actually let us have our room on arrival. We resisted the urge to just go straight to sleep and we headed to the Open Air Museum. Cappadocia is famous for its hot air balloons and weird rock formations and the Open Air museum is a series of churches cut into caves with intricate frescos and definitely worth an early visit as it’s another place that gets packed during the day. That afternoon we set off for a hike through Love Valley, so called because of the shape of some of its rocks! The hike started off brilliantly, we got up close to these rocks and didn’t really see many other people. It then started to get very undulating and some of the paths we had to traverse were near vertical. One of them I decided that the best way down was with a controlled slide on my bum, I wasn’t particularly happy about this and was on the verge of tears but it was the only way I was going to get down without breaking my leg! The rest of the hike continued in much the same way! We both agreed at the end that the first half was much better than the second half!

The next day it was our fifth wedding anniversary and we decided to mark the occasion with a hot air balloon ride. We ummed and ahhed about doing it as it was quite expensive, but we decided it was such a once in a lifetime thing we couldn’t not do it. Balloons take off just before sunrise which meant we got picked up from our hotel at 3.50am. I was really nervous about the whole experience. I’m not great with heights, bit scared of flying (although much better than I was) and when I’d peered down into the Tara Canyon in Montenegro I did think there was no way I could get in a hot air balloon. I surprised myself! It was really relaxing and peaceful. As the balloon moves with the wind you don’t notice yourself going up or down or floating along and I really enjoyed it! It was beautiful watching the sunrise from the air, looking down at the beautiful scenery and seeing all the other balloons was magical. It was definitely an incredible experience that we won’t forget and is currently the best thing we’ve done on this trip so far.

Later that day we went for another hike, much gentler this time and generally took it quite easy given our early start. The following day we took a local bus to the underground city, a complex of houses built in caves under the ground over 7 floors! You have to admire the sheer determination of people to build these in times when there was no electricity. Some of the passageways were very narrow and you almost had to crawl through, again it was packed and there were lots of queues in these narrow passageways. They had thought of everything though and there were plenty of places for wine storage and even a graveyard!

The following day we caught an early bus to Ankara where we were picking up the Dogu Express train, this train journey takes 26.5 hours from Ankara all the way to Kars in Eastern Turkey. It meanders through mountains and valleys with spectacular scenery along the way. It left Ankara at 5.55pm, we had booked our tickets through a travel agency as they are incredibly difficult to get hold of and as we are a mixed sex couple we had to book the entire cabin. This was good for us as it meant we had our own space. We met a guy on the platform who was seeing off some friends who were in the cabin next to us and they were so helpful and friendly towards us the entire journey, they kept bringing us food and the next day they even invited us for traditional Turkish coffee which they made on the floor of the cabin with a gas stove! Despite neither of us speaking the other’s language we were touched by the kindness of these strangers.

The cabin seats turned into flat beds so we managed to get a decent nights sleep and spent the time just gazing out the window at the spectacular scenery. We were about an hour away from Kars when we were looking at a particularly menacing looking cloud when Joey spotted a baby brown bear. It was incredible to see it lollop along just like they do on TV! It moved far too quick to get a photo of it but just seeing it was so special.

As we were approaching Kars we saw a very spectacular thunderstorm and we’re grateful it had stopped by the time we arrived. We arrived at 8.50pm, only 20 minutes late which I think is a miracle given the length of the journey! The Dogu Express was definitely another highlight, Turkey gave us loads of highlights and amazing memories. Unfortunately for Turkey it has been suffering from hyperinflation and the Lira crashed whilst we were there. We found the whole country to be comparatively expensive to other places we have been. You’d look at Google maps to find somewhere for dinner, check out a picture of a menu from 6 months or a year ago only to get there and find that prices have quadrupled since then! I feel for the Turkish people living with these price increases and really hope things settle down for them soon.

July 5, 2023 1

The one where we nearly got arrested

We hadn’t originally planned to go to Greece but with the change of route to visit Kosovo and North Macedonia earlier it made sense to cross from the south of Albania into mainland Greece. We opted for Thessaloniki as a good point between Albania and Bulgaria. There wasn’t a great deal of information about getting between the two countries (unless you wanted to get the ferry from Sarandë to Corfu). I thought we may end up having to cross the border to a small town and then try and find an onward connection. I spotted a travel agency next to where the bus dropped us in Gjirokastër and as luck would happen they ran one bus a day to Thessaloniki at 6am so we booked ourselves onto that.

There was a guy to greet us in the morning who kept us up to date with when the bus was expected and it was all very smooth. We arrived quickly to the border and had to take all our luggage out before crossing into Greece. The border officials were physically searching everyone’s bags and when we arrived to them they asked if we’d got our stamp, asked where we were from and then just waved us on. I later found out that this was a popular route for local drug smuggling hence the checks and probably why we, as ‘foreigners’ were waved on.

We arrived into Thessaloniki around 4pm, the bus had emptied out by this point and it was us and one other person left on it! We dropped our luggage at our apartment and went for an orientation walk to get some supplies and just check out the city.

We spent our time in Thessaloniki exploring the ruins, checking out the famous white tower, the fortress (we just can’t get enough of them) and many churches. We also spent more time than we should have sheltering from a torrential storm in a church porch! We did something In Thessaloniki that we wouldn’t usually do, and that was pay for a nights accommodation that we didn’t use! We’d booked a night bus to Bulgaria that didn’t leave until 00.30 and we couldn’t face being homeless until midnight so we kept our accommodation and honestly, it was the best thing we did! If we were leaving that late again I’d do the same.

We knew we were due to reach the border of Bulgaria around 2am so we didn’t think there was much point trying to get any sleep before then. This was a very efficient border crossing, with the exit and entry windows actually being next to each other! The Bulgarian border guards were pretty tough though and wanted to know where we were staying, how long for and where we were going after that.

We eventually got a couple of hours sleep at around 5am when most people got off the bus at Sofia and I stretched right out, legs across the aisle! We met a really nice Greek guy on the bus who was off to Istanbul and insisted on feeding us lots of snacks.

We had another unexpected bus change and eventually arrived into Burgas at 12noon. We stepped off the bus and we’re greeted by the sound of air raid sirens. This was a little concerning to us and everyone around us stopped and stood still. We had arrived on 2nd June which is the day of Botev, who died for the freedom and independence of Bulgaria.

We had to walk to another bus station to catch a bus to Sozopol and I think i experienced a bit of a culture shock as we walked between the two stations as we were greeted by a completely different alphabet.

We went to Sozopol purely for the beach and it was nice to hear from a few people who when they found out where we were, said that they loved Sozopol! The beaches were sandy and it was great to have a bit of relaxation time and not do anything. One of the days was overcast and very windy but we used that day to check out the old town and catch up on a few things.

We had booked a 12noon bus to Istanbul from the nearby town of Burgas and we’d been trying to get some Turkish Lira in Sozopol to no avail. We changed our leftover Lev into Euros with the plan of trying to get some lira in Burgas. We left our bags at the bus company office and headed off to the exchange office and got what we needed, we headed quickly back to the bus station when we were shouted out by a Public Officer. He motioned for us to come to him and in broken English said ‘red man, no’ it turns out we’d broken the law by crossing the road on a red man! We had checked before crossing and it was clear, but we were obviously in the wrong. He had a colleague with him and we apologised profusely. He then demanded to see our documents so we had to hand over our passports! I was getting worried at this point, would we have to pay a fine or worse, would we have to go to the police station and potentially miss our bus? He glanced at our passports we said sorry again and promised not to do it again and thankfully he let us off. Definitely a lesson learnt there!

We arrived to the Turkish border and I think we were there for over two hours. We were behind a huge bus which had come from Ukraine and was full of women and children. It was noticeable how many vehicles at that border crossing were from Ukraine. I tried not to mind the delay too much knowing what they were fleeing. We had to have our bags x-rayed and they insisted on putting ours through twice. Mine passed second time but they were very interested in Joey’s and gave his a thorough search. They seemed to think that he had two cameras so we had to open up packing cubes to show that we didn’t. Unpacking and repacking your backpack at the border isn’t ideal and we were conscious that we were holding up everyone else on the bus! I really felt for Joey having to repack his backpack under pressure, with the incident in Burgas we were not having a good travel day!

We thankfully arrived into Istanbul without further incident and I had ticked off my 44th country before I am 44! When we were in India we came up with the idea of visiting 40 countries before we were 40 but Covid put paid to that so we set a new goal and I reached that with a year and a bit to go! I need a new goal now, 50 before 50 is probably too easy, as maybe 60 before 60 so maybe I need to aim for 80 before 80?!

June 26, 2023 0

Bobbing around the Balkans part 2

Our border crossing to Albania was very uneventful although the border point was right alongside Lake Skadar so we did have some beautiful views. We had two nights booked in Shkoder and had been hoping to done a 3 day / 2 night trek from nearby Valbone to Theth but the terrible weather that we’d had in Montenegro was following us and the ferry that we needed to catch wasn’t running so we’d agreed that we’d have an excuse to return to Albania in the future.

We borrowed a couple of bikes from our hostel and cycled to the fortress. It was a pretty hairy bike ride along a really busy road with lots of double parking. The fortress itself had amazing views over the lake and town and was a pleasant way to while away a few hours.

Our plan had been to head south in Albania and hit the coast but as the weather was so awful we had a rethink and decided to head east straight away to Kosovo, down into North Macedonia from there and then head back into Albania. Prizren in Kosovo looked to be pretty due east on the map but there are no direct buses from Shkoder. We asked around at a lot of travel agencies and most of them just shrugged their shoulders at us. We went to one which turned out to be shut but the girl next door who was working in an aesthetic beauty place was one of the more helpful people that we met! She called the agency for us and told us to go to Milot, a town halfway between Shkoder and Tirana. We’d heard differing opinions about whether we should go to Tirana or Milot. The tourist information person wasn’t that helpful either but did tell us where we could get a 5.30pm bus from in Milot. So the next day we ummed and ahhed and as we left the hostel we were aiming for Tirana. We even asked a taxi driver if he wanted to drive us (we were often asked if we wanted to go to Montenegro, but he seemed no one wanted to take us to Kosovo!) but he just told us to go to Milot so at that moment we changed our mind and decided that’s what we would do.

The conductor on the bus must have checked about 5 times that we definitely wanted to go to Milot and not Tirana (we were getting the impression that backpackers don’t really ply this route) and after about an hour they left us on what felt like the hard shoulder of an Albanian motorway and pointed us in the direction we needed to go. So not for the first time on this trip we found ourselves walking along the hard shoulder, only this time for 3km with our rucksacks. I had the intention to head for the gas station that the tourist information place had said the 5.30pm bus left from and hope for the best. Worst case scenario we’d only have to wait 8 hours for it. We stopped at another gas station for a coffee and to check we were heading the right way and they seemed to confirm it so we continued our path. We arrived, spoke to the attendant and he confirmed we were in the right place, he pointed out where we should wait and said that the buses would pull in so we just sat and waited. We actually didn’t have to wait too long, probably only 30 minutes until we saw a bus with Pristina on the front, we told them we wanted to go to Prizren, and they ushered us on! We arrived at the border and they took our passports for us and took care of all the formalities for us, we didn’t even need to leave the bus! There was short comfort break after that and everyone took care of us and ensured we didn’t miss the bus. We reached the outskirts of Prizren and we found ourselves again being thrown out at the hard shoulder, only this time the bus company had arranged and paid for a taxi for us to take us into the centre! We had such fun doing this journey, and sometimes we actually find it less stressful to not have anything booked!

Similar to Bosnia the phrase ‘the Kosovo war’ was relatively fresh in our minds, and we weren’t really too sure what to expect. The people were so friendly and helpful always having a smile and saying hello, although we did often get mistaken for being German! The city of Prizren was in excellent condition with hardly any scars. There was a monument to freedom and a Serbian Orthodox Church which was behind barbed wire, but those were the only obvious sides of conflict that we found. Prizren had another fortress which we visited early in the morning for free- it’s open 24 hours a day and we had it to ourselves at 7am.

After Kosovo we headed to North Macedonia, we hadn’t planned on going to Skopje and Joey was almost anti going there as we’re not massive city fans, but Skopje is the birthplace of Mother Teresa and given that we’d visited her grave in India I really wanted to make a quick stop to see her birthplace. We only spent the afternoon there visiting the old town, her Memorial house and around the corner from that there is a plaque and some trees where her house used to stand. It was quite moving to visit and we’re both glad that we did. We also visited the Alexander the Great Statue which was huge, very impressive. We left the next morning on an early bus to Lake Ohrid. One thing we noticed in this area is how poorly signed and named accommodation is here! Our apartment in Skopje was called ‘lovely condo next to Salt room’ on booking.com but luckily the owner had given us excellent directions otherwise we wouldn’t have stood a chance. Ohrid wasn’t quite as clear, the address didn’t have a number, I didn’t think too much of that until we were walking down the road (which had several offshoots) trying to find the unnumbered, unnamed place!

Lake Ohrid was beautiful. The Macedonian side of it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it’s not hard to see why. The lake water is so clear and it’s surrounded by beautiful hills and mountains. It was definitely tempting to stay longer than we’d planned for but we had to press on.

We spent our time walking around the lake, sitting watching the sunset and exploring the old town. We took a bus out to Sveti Naum monastery and walked around the lake and grounds there. There were several peacocks there determined to put on a show and they even gave chase to Joey when they deemed that he got a little too close! By far our favourite thing though was when we hired a guy to row us across the lake to some natural under water springs. The lake water was so clear, in places it’s as deep as 3.5 metres and you can see the bottom. He explained that in that area motorboats are banned and no fishing is allowed in order to protect the lake. He rowed us out to the middle of the lake and pointed out the bubbles in the sand at the bottom of the lake where the natural springs are. We saw lots of tiny ducklings, including some which must have been only a day old. We paid slightly extra to have the boat to ourselves and we were so glad that we did as it really enhanced our experience and we agreed that was definitely one of the best things we have done so far.

From Ohrid we took an early morning bus to Tirana, Albania with the aim of catching an onward bus to Berat. There were two minibuses leaving for Tirana, one left slightly ahead of us but the driver had forgotten to shut the back door, where all the luggage was before driving off at speed. Luckily enough people shouted at him to attract his attention, before any luggage was lost. If we were thought we were in the right minibus we were mistaken. We had driven about 20 minutes before a guy right opposite us, who was dressed in full army fatigues, asked the driver to stop so he could be sick. We could hear him retching at the side of the road and I was not looking forward to him getting back on in case he was sick again. There was quite an intense conversation between him and the driver, the road between Ohrid and Tirana looked windy on the map and I was very fearful. Luckily he disappeared at the border, which I was very grateful for – I am not good around sick, or the sound of someone being sick, or the smell of it.

We made it to Tirana international bus station without further incident, and just needed to change bus terminals, another 2km walk in the searing heat but we’d rather that than pay for a taxi! Once we reached the regional bus terminal (I say terminal; it was just a massive melee of buses) we got spotted, and swept up by a conductor who obviously thought we looked like two people who wanted to go to Berat (we did in fact, want to go to Berat) and 10 minutes later we were on our way to Berat! The terminal at Berat is about 3km outside the centre so we waited for a local, bus, I found some WiFi and messaged the apartment owner to tell him our approximate time of arrival and he messaged straight back and said he would come and pick us up! The hospitality that we have been shown in the Balkans has been second to none, and we’re so grateful to everyone that we have met who has helped us and shown us kindness.

Berat is another UNESCO World Heritage site and is known as the city of windows. It’s not hard to see why! There’s another lovely fortress you can climb (again it’s open 24 hours- people live there!) but if you visit outside the core hours of 9-6pm you don’t need to pay. We climbed the ridiculous hill and arrived around 8.30, beating the crowds and the need to pay! We spent most of the morning walking around a few times and visiting the museum which has a large, impressive iconostasis. Iconostasises are quite the thing in this neck of the woods, and we’ve seen a lot now.

We wanted to head to the beach after Berat, there are a lot to choose from in Albania but we didn’t want to go to beaches that were really touristy so we looked at where we could get a direct bus too and then just picked one. We opted for Vlorë, it wasn’t in the Lonely Planet guide book, but I found a blog that mentioned it had sandy beaches which was good news for us! We were waiting for a local bus to take us to the bus station when we saw a bus approaching to Vlorë so we flagged it down for a free lift to the bus station and the onward journey! Upon arrival at Vlorë the driver asked a local girl who spoke some English to help us with where we wanted to go and she went out of her way to take us to the bus stop. She was training to be a nurse and was on her way to university and at the speed she was walking us I think she was going to be late! The bus arrived, we got off where our host told us too, but again there was no signage. We went into the first place we saw and asked for directions, and would you believe it was actually the right place! Some days travel days are great and work out well and other times they’re a bit rubbish. The good ones definitely leave you on a high.

Vlorë was a great place to relax for a few days and we did nothing but lie on the beach. It was bliss! The sunsets over the sea were beautiful. We decided to head to another beach, called Ksamil, I’d seen an article describing it as the Maldives of Europe so we decided we should go check it out. Our host called the bus station for us and arranged for the bus to stop near us rather than us going all the way back into town to catch it so we stood on the side of the road and flagged the daily bus to Sarandë down. The bus was full, we got on and prepared to stand for the two hours we’d been told it would take. Luckily for me the conductor said something in Albanian and a young man got up and gave me his seat. Joey wasn’t quite as lucky and had to stand. Although the man I was sat next to didn’t really speak any English he motioned that he would move up so I could move up and Joey could have half a seat. The journey was really winding through the mountains, I admit to not knowing that Albania had so many mountains, I obviously knew about the accursed mountains in the north which we’d wanted to hike, but I didn’t realise that most of the country seemed to be covered in them. We stopped after about an hour up a mountain and Joey was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to nab the one spare seat.

Becca clearly not convinced that the bus is going to turn up

Our journey ended up taking four hours rather than two. We were about 20 minutes outside of Sarandë when someone at the back of the bus started to be violently sick. I’m not sure why the locals travel by bus so much if they’re just going to be travel sick on buses! I was really not happy about this so I tried to shut my eyes and hope for the best. The conductor seemed to just be worried about his bus, but someone had handed her a bag in the nick of time. At one point I think I did catch a whiff of it and I was worried it was going to set me off so I whipped out my jar of Vicks that I always carry with me (I find a slather of it under my nose will get me through smelly toilets) and stuck that under my nose. I was glad we were nearly at Sarandë and I made sure we were quick off the bus. After we’d collected our bags we saw the lady walking down the street casually carrying her back of sick and almost swinging it. We had one more bus to Ksamil to catch, and we arrived late in the afternoon. Ksamil was beautiful, lots of hills and clear waters. It’s been a joy to swim in such clear waters and see little fish swim around. Ksamil has several beaches, we decided to aim for one called ‘The last Bay’ purely because it was the last beach and we determined that it wouldn’t be as busy, and we were right! You had to walk down some dirt tracks to get there but it was glorious. We spent two long days just chilling again, we’d been on the go for about 7 weeks at this point and needed a rest as the next two months will be intense and hot with little respite as we venture inland towards Central Asia.

We took another couple of buses to Gjirokastër, another UNESCO world heritage site, also known as Stone City. We only had one night here, but we made the most of our time, we dropped our luggage at the hostel we were staying at and headed straight out. In the Balkans we’ve been using pure WiFi and relying on downloaded Google maps to get us places. We wanted to head to the Cold War Tunnels and Google maps was sending me the most ridiculous way down roads that didn’t seem to exist. It was really hot, the hills were steep and I’d only had one coffee that day so for the first time I lost my shit (good going for 8 weeks in – if you read the India blogs you’ll know how much I lost my shit there!) and wailed ‘I hate this town!’ luckily Joey knows what to do in these situations, he took me into the shade, got me some Pepsi and all was right again.

We did make it to the war tunnels, which were really interesting. Albania’s leader was really paranoid about nuclear war and attacks so he basically bankrupted the country building bunkers that are dotted about all over the country (there’s apparently one bunker for every four people) as well as this secret nuclear bunker that could hold up to 200 people. The rooms that you can see include include the generator room, the conference room, the kitchen and two rooms for the general and the mayor. There’s also a water tank which you can climb a very rickety ladder to peer into- the water naturally pools in from the mountains and the room has stalactites!

The conference room in the Cold War tunnel

We also visited the fortress (i think in total we maybe visited 8 fortresses!) which was probably one of the best with stunning views and the ability to roam free.

Unfortunately our stay in the Balkans ended on the last night with a loss. Somewhere, somehow, in our room my fake engagement ring got knocked off a cupboard and couldn’t be found. It was very sad. Although it was fake, along with my fake wedding ring (I didn’t want to bring the real ones in case they got lost!) we’d bought them before we went to India and they travelled through India and Sri Lanka with us so they were special. Let’s hope that’s the only thing we lose!

We absolutely loved the Balkans and I’m sure there are places that we will return to.

June 15, 2023 1