Category Archives: RTW
The Angkor Temples
The hardest part of this blog post is going to be which of the hundreds of pictures we took to share. Seeing Angkor Wat and it’s surrounding temples was a top five moment for us on our trip. We did our research and took three whole days to explore, so we didn’t feel rushed, too tired, and we had plenty of time left in the day to explore the famous Pub Street in town. Our hotel hooked us up with a tuk tuk driver who picked us up everyday and took us out to the temples we wanted to see. He even had an itinerary in mind that closely mirrored what we wanted to see anyway, so we sat back and let him drive us around, starting with buying our passes into the Temples. A three day pass cost $40 U.S. each and was worth every penny.
Paradise is a cheeseburger in Chiang Rai
It took 8 hours to get from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. When our bus finally rolled into town, I was…..concerned? There was nothing charming about what we were looking at. This was third world country stuff. We were in Guatemala all over again. We knew this would be our last stop in Thailand since our 2 month visa was about to expire and maybe that was clouding our judgement since we had seen some amazing things in this country but with all that being said, guess what? We loved Chiang Rai.
Thailand – Part 4
The line to get off of Koh Tao and onto a boat that would take us to the mainland and then onward to Bangkok was a mile long. It’s controlled chaos. Tourists are freaking out, thinking they’ll miss their boat and so they start doing stupid things like trying to cut the line. The locals are trying to keep everyone calm, but you could tell they were used to this mess. It was so very hot and it didn’t help that you’ve got your bags to carry with you. When the line started moving, we eventually got to a bend in the line where we would find cover from the afternoon sun and a girl tried to cut in front of us. I didn’t mean to yell at her, I promise, but…well she got the idea and headed towards the back of the line. Once we got on the boat it started raining on us, but it was a nice relief from standing in the hot sun for a couple of hours.
Thailand Part 3
Koh Pha Ngan is known around the world for it’s famous full moon parties, but from what we read about them it’s become such a shit show now that we were glad we were not going to be there during the full moon. We were there however for the half moon party which is much more tame and our speed.
Thailand Part 1
If New Zealand and Nepal were on Mandy’s list of places we absolutely could not miss on this trip, Thailand was mine. I’ve been wanting to see this place since I first started reading other bloggers’ posts about it, years ago when we started planning this trip. There was something magical about it. A devoutly buddhist population with a reputation of being the most friendly in Southeast Asia, delicious food you won’t find anywhere else, and, of course, the parties. Full Moon, Half Moon…just because it’s a Tuesday….there’s always something going on in Thailand. I wanted to experience as much of it as I could and that’s why we got our 60 day visas here. We’d use about 53 of those days before we left and it was everything I had hoped it would be and so, so much more.
Malaysia
Our first land border crossing in southeast Asia would happen going from Singapore to Malaysia. The bus pulls up, you get out (don’t forget your passport!) and get in line. What usually happens is the immigration officer looks at your photo, looks at you, looks back at your passport, stamps it, and hands it back to you without saying a word. This would change when we entered England (STAY TUNED!)
The lion fish
The only thing we knew about Singapore before we landed was that it was the most expensive city/state in southeast Asia and that Anthony Bourdain had filmed an episode of no reservations here. We had three days planned before we were going to move on to Malaysia and it turned out to be the perfect amount of time to see the sights and be introduced to the mixed religious community we’d encounter throughout the rest of our time in Asia.
Left turn, Clyde
Going from Brisbane to Bali was a short trip but when we stepped off the plane, like so many other places we’ve traveled to, it was a different world altogether. Bali conjures images of Julia Roberts eating, praying, and loving her way around rice fields and we saw plenty of…well, most of that.
Down Under and Out
I have to start by saying that we did not do Australia correctly. We left our guidebook back home, and we didn’t do a lot of research before we got there. We went back and forth about whether or not to rent a camper van, take busses, drive ourselves in a car, or fly. We thought we would figure it out as we went. It was a strategy that worked for us in Central America (Although the guidebook certainly helped there!). Australia busted our budget and looking back, we wish we would have just flown into Sydney and stayed for a week and then left for Indonesia. We enjoyed our time here, expensive as it was though.
New Zealand – Fin
Three more stops to go in New Zealand and then we fly to Sydney, our favorite city in Australia. One more bus driver change, this time nicknamed Papa G. He’d been driving tour buses for the last 16 years and did one thing I wish the other drivers had done. He stopped the bus frequently to let us take pictures of the beautiful scenery.
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