The north island of New Zealand had a lot to live up to, given the beauty and ease of the south. More people live in the north island so we expected it to be a lot busier and it was. The main reason we came to New Zealand at all was because of Hobbiton, the set for the lord of the rings and hobbit movies, and of course this didn’t disappoint. We didn’t expect to see as many nice places as we did in the South Island but it surprised us with how pretty it actually was. The video kinda says everything we wanted to in this blog post, so there’s nothing else really to say. Oh yeah, and after 30 hours of travelling, WE’RE BACK IN THE UK.
No more hostels, woohoo!! We decided to opt for Van life in NZ. We think it works out a lot cheaper than hostels and it’s so much more fun being able to go wherever we want at any time. We arrived in Christchurch and went to pick up our camper van who we named Valencia (Val for short). She is so shabby and she’s the same age as Kieran but we love her.
Our plan is to travel the South Island, going south of Christchurch then up the west coast and up to the north, and then pop over to the north island. We know that the South Island is much more picturesque and peaceful than the the north and we think we’re much more suited to the south. It was a dream to drive around, and we never got tired of the views. Plus, we have a banging playlist to listen to! The WiFi is truly awful though so we’re sorry that we can’t get in contact as much as we’d like. Now we have the north island to look forward to and then a long travel home!!
We eventually had to leave the wonderful Thailand and head towards the equator to continue our journey. Our next step was KL in Malaysia. We arrived around midday so we still had a lot of the day to explore (although we couldn’t check in to the hostel so apologies for our appearances). We decided to head for Little India to grub. The public transport in KL is super easy, very similar to London Underground, so we explored an awful lot of the city. The food in Little India was awesome; you tend to get a lot for your money in Little India’s than anywhere else, it’s fab.
After that we headed toward KL tower, which is surrounded by a nature reserve and a huge park. We walked around the nature reserve via tree-house-style bridge. Before we got to KL tower we spotted an UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE! Which of course we had to go in! It was done so well, me and Kieran were so impressed. The staff told us how to pose and we just spent time posing like we were diving into baths from the ceiling and holding furniture up etc. We had way too much fun. So after that Kieran had a bit of a worry wether or not he wanted to go up the super high KL tower. He used some profanities but ultimately decided to go for it! YAY! The view was awesome and Kieran loved it :). On the night time we went to Chinatown, where they had a lot of markets and pretty lantern lit streets to walk through. We had some sizzling Chinese food, explored the markets and streets, and then we headed back to our hostel.
After spending a lot of time in parts of South East Asia that were a tad rural, heavily religious and a bit samey, we were really looking forward to a change of pace with a much more modern city. Therefore we decided to wander some shops and malls! Of course we didn’t buy anything but it was fun to spot the American and British chains than we missed from home. This was all well and good but we soon got tired of malls. So we went to another huge park! This one had a little bamboo playhouse area to climb around and small river running through it. It was very pleasant. There was also a planetarium within the park so we went to check that out but it was pretty small and a bit crap so we didn’t stay long.
A few days prior to coming to KL we pre-booked a trip to Petronas Towers and their Sky Bridge! Even though we spontaneously went up KL tower the day before, we were still looking forward to this because we got to walk across the sky bridge and the view was quite a bit higher than the other. Kieran didn’t really handle this one with quite as much poise as KL tower. He went to all the views and scary edges, but had tight hold of my hand the entire time. Took him while to wander all the way around but he still did it and I am very impressed! Well done!!
So we loved KL, it was a lovely change from the rest of South East Asia. Shame we only got 2 days there but we are happy with what we did in our time!
From KL we flew to Singapore! From the start of our trip, Kieran and I have been really excited for Singapore. After seeing pictures of Gardens By the Bay we knew we would love the vibe of Singapore. Upon our arrival, we decided to check our Singapore’s Little India; which ended up being a lot bigger (and better) than KL’s. We instantly loved it and the food is craaazzzy cheap!! Kieran wasn’t feeling too great that day though so we went back to our hostel for a rest. After rejuvenating, we went back out (for more food) to Chinatown, which was also a step up from KL’s. They had a huge Tin Tin store, which was super random, they had pretty cheap and super tasty food, and they had live music and markets! Perfect!
The next day was totally set aside for Gardens by the Bay. It was vast and beautiful, it really didn’t disappoint. Kieran knew a lot about what was there before going in but I didn’t so it was lovely to be surprised by some of the attractions. We were able to walk across Supertree Grove, which is basically lots of eco-friendly ale trees which bridges running through them. We went to the Flowerdome, which is exactly how it sounds. And (by far our favourite) the Cloud Forest! This is a huge climbable waterfall and natural habitat for cloud forests. It was just amazing. At the end of the visit there was a gallery encouraging people to be more eco-friendly, which was lovely :).
After this, we did a lot of wandering. Singapore’s underground is the best! We bought an unlimited tourist pass so we basically rode around, getting off at places that sounded interesting. The next day was spent having a little picnic in the botanic gardens and planning our next trip around New Zealand!! Singapore felt like a little mini break from Asia. It was very modern and quite western but we lively a change from the likes of Thailand and Vietnam.
So now we’re just super exited for our next adventure to NZ. We won’t have amazing internet all the time but will try or best to keep everyone updated!
So, we’ve been really really busy since our last update. The video for this blog is just for Krabi, a town on the mainland of Thailand. After 5 hours of boats and buses we arrived to this extremely hot but beautiful town, we both had the same idea, head to the beach. Krabi is famous for Ao Nang beach, so we headed there on the first day we arrived. The weather was 37 degrees, and although we are used to the weather in Asia, this was just too damn hot. Krabi also has amazing night market and street food, so we took full advantage as we always do.
After our try dive in Koh Tao we were both eager to do our Open Water PADI courses, which would allow us to scuba dive anywhere in the world with a group, so we headed back to Koh Tao as we got a discount on courses and it’s the cheapest place in the world to learn. This course was 3 days long and it absolutely blew our minds, the dive sites around Koh Tao were incredible and packed with wildlife, on top of this we had amazing teachers and peers and most of us decided to stay on and do the Advanced Open Water Course, this course lets us dive to 30metres deep, and also allows us to dive on our own anywhere in the world. This course included a deep dive of 30m, and a night dive which was by far the best experience we have had on this trip. In small groups (ours was me, Rachel and an instructor) we dove down to a dive site at 7pm, just as the sky went dark, we had torches and the colours of the reef and the fish swimming around were stunning. We saw some neon blue stingrays hunting around the coral reef and then, we turned to the side to see a massive Green Turtle swimming right next to us!! It was enough to make Rachel cry, or so she told me.
After this our group headed to the sea bed at 16metres and turned off our torches, our instructor, Frank, started waving his arms around and the sea lit up with neon plankton every time he moved. This looked like a scene from Star Trek, we continued the rest of the dive in complete darkness, lit only by the tiny lights of plankton every time we moved our arms or legs.
We have photos and videos from the diving, taken by our instructors, however we cannot access them yet, but we will put a separate post for them as soon as we can.
After these courses we decided to streamline our trip, so after Koh Tao we flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we are spending two days before heading to Singapore, then New Zealand.
To get from Cambodia to the Thai islands, we first had to head back to Bangkok, somewhere that we did not enjoy and we’re not looking forward to returning to. However, it really wasn’t as bad as we remembered. I think when we first arrived it was a bit of a culture shock, and we were a tad overwhelmed by the busyness; but we are totally used to Asia now and climatized to the weather! So, although it was still not suited to us, it really wasn’t so bad.
The first island we wanted to visit was Koh Tao. It is not too far from the main land and has a reputation for snorkelling and scuba diving!! We had also heard that it was one of the more chilled out islands, as opposed to a lot of the party islands. On our first day we went on a snorkelling trip, where a tour takes us around on a boat to a few different snorkelling sites and then rests on a small island further afield. The water was pretty choppy so snorkelling was harder than anticipated but still really fun! We didn’t see any sharks but we saw some pretty fish!
The next day will be one to remember forever! Kieran really wanted to go scuba diving so we opted to do a try-dive for a day where we learned how to dive in a pool and then headed out on a boat to dive with the fishies! We got one dive included in the price and then could pay to do an extra if we wanted to. In the pool, we had to learn what to do if our masks filled with water, or if our respirators fell out of our mouths, which was a bit scary so I (Rachel) did feel a bit anxious about the dive. But swimming and breathing under the water was totally fine, and Kieran found everything super easy. Once we got into the ocean it was a totally different experience! It was so relaxed and quiet, there was no time to worry about breathing correctly or panic about all of the equipment because there was so much going on that we wanted to see! We spent about 40 minutes underwater and went up to 11 meters on our first ever dive! Which apparently is pretty impressive! We saw some huge trigger fish and lots of little colourful guys. Kieran then opted to do a second dive because he’s such a pro, he reached 13 metres for 40 minutes, but I was content about my first dive so I stayed on the boat and drank tea. Apparently the second dive was prettier but whatever 🙄. Kieran and the instructor saw a blue spotted stingray which they were both over the moon about!
The whole thing was just an awesome experience and something we will never forget! Kieran is really wanting to get certified now so it’s definitely something to think about!
Well, Siem Reap was so much than we thought it would be. It’s no secret that Cambodia hasn’t been amazing to us so far but this place made it so worth it.
We arrived at our hostel in the early hours of the morning and decided to spend the morning wandering around the park in the city. When we checked in to the hostel the management said they were doing a “Wednesday funday” which consisted of a few guests and tuk tuk drivers working for the hostel heading to a local man made lake where all local families were hanging out and playing in the pool. We brought a whole boat load of beer with us and bought food (including crickets which Kieran tried, Rachel refused) and sat for hours drinking, listening to music and messing around in the lake. It was an awesome experience to see how locals hang out in a completely isolated area from tourists (we were the only white people there). After this we headed to a Cambodian carnival where we went on a few rides (in particular the dodgems) before going to a local Khmer restaurant where we had some really lovely food, including some corn and sugar dish which was amazing.
The next day we got up at 4am to head to the temples of Angkor Wat for sunrise. There are hundreds of temples in this area all ruined but amazing to wander around and immerse yourself in, the sunrise was terrible as it was too cloudy but it was nice to beat the big crowds. We visited a load of temples in the area but Rachel was most excited about the Tomb Raider temple, where they filmed some bits from the Angelina Jolie film. The temple itself is falling apart now which is sad but the trees are growing around the ruins so it makes for impressive viewing. We slept for the rest of that day to get rid of the hangover from the night before and the early wake up.
On our last day in Siem Reap, we headed out with one of the tuk tuk drivers from two days previous and went to the land mine museum, where one guy had begun to disarm some of the millions of land mines across Cambodia from the American-Vietnam war, and stored them in this museum for people to see and to raise awareness. Land mines are still being discovered across Cambodia by farmers and children and thousands of Cambodians are being injured by them each year. After this we headed to a butterfly sanctuary where we got to hang out with some butterflies and got a guided tour, looking at caterpillars and larvae (and for some reason stick insects). We have met many people in Siem Reap and we are sad to say goodbye, but we had a few drinks in the hostel and went out for food to say goodbye. We head back to Bangkok tomorrow before heading south the the islands of Thailand.
Aloha amigos! Another stop in Cambodia that we were excited about was Sihanoukville and the surrounding islands. Apparently there is one island that is made for party people and another that is more chilled out and peaceful. Can you guess which one we opted for? Our chilled out, peaceful island is called Koh Rong Samloem and is a small island 45 minutes (boat trip) away from Sihanoukville, with 4 main beaches that tourists stay on.
We stayed at a hostel resort that has their own private beach with bungalow huts. There wasn’t a huge amount to do apart from drink and chill out so we mainly swam in the sea, relaxed on the beach hammocks and took advantage of their paddle boards (Kieran’s new favourite hobby). We made friends with the dogs that the hostel owned and one dog followed us round our whole time there. We also found a Jellyfish who we named Squishy. On a night we were encouraged go swimming in the sea to try and see some glowing Plankton! We saw loads but they didn’t show up on the GoPro at all; very pretty though! Our hostel still had a bit of a party vibe which we didn’t love but the island and the beach itself was awesome.
We are now in Siem Reap, after taking a 12 hour hotel bus with a double bed! Very cosy!
After a rather sucky time in Nha Trang we excitedly boarded a bus to Saigon to spend our last few days in Vietnam there. It’s official name is Ho Chi Minh City but we heard that the locals prefer to call it Saigon, for either political reasons or cause it’s easier to say. So Saigon it is! We asked a few other travellers what it was like before arriving and a lot said it was similar to Bangkok and Hanoi (really busy, as you’d expect from a big city) so we weren’t sure that we’d like it so much. However, when we arrived we didn’t find it was too busy at all, by far one of the more quieter and peaceful big cities we’d been.
We arrived from the sleeper bus at about 6:30am and had planned to get a couple hours sleep before we ventured into the city! But we weren’t allowed in our room yet so we had to start the day there and then. Saigon has 3 large parks through the city so the first thing we did was stroll through them, watching elderly women dance with swords and do what appeared to be a morning yoga. One of the parks included the independence palace, where presidents would stay and work. This was kind of a museum too, showing us where it was bombed in the war and telling us about all the different presidents. After that we wandered the city and stumbled across some cool sites! Including the Central Post Office building and (their own version of) The Norte Dame Cathedral.
We booked a tour for the next day to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We stopped on the way to a ceramic workshop where all the art was made out of eggshells and made by disabled people! The Cu Chi Tunnels are a series of tunnels built by the Vietnamese Army to surprise American Soldiers during battle. The tunnels were less than a metre wide and tall, and we got to in them to see what it was like. We didn’t stay in for long, it wasn’t cool. We were also shown a lot of Vietnamese traps used in the area which was pretty gruesome. There was a shooting range on site where visitors could buy bullets and shoot at a target! You could shoot with any kind of guns you wanted including machine guns! I thought it was a tad crazy (and too darn loud) but Kieran thought it was pretty cool. We visited a lot of places to do with the Vietnam war while we were here but this was probably the most interesting.
That night the atmosphere in Saigon was incredible! Vietnam’s under 23s Football team got into the final of the Asia Cup and the people in Saigon were blummin ecstatic. It was so sweet to see everyone so patriotic and celebratory (and they hadn’t even actually won anything). The streets were filled with mopeds with Vietnamese flags and people were lighting off fireworks in the street! (It probably wasn’t the safest of evenings but the atmosphere was awesome). We didn’t get anything on the GoPro for this because we don’t tend to take it out at night, but we have a few photos. Kieran also met someone from a little village near Filey, where he used to play cricket when we has a junior, small world!
The next day we got a 6 hour bus journey across the border to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. This is the first place that we have been really seriously warned about bag snatchers and motorcycle thieves. There was signs up everywhere and the staff at the hostel were constantly telling us to watch out bags and not have our phones in our hands. For that reason, we didn’t feel like risking Gill’s (the GoPro’s) life, and we left him locked away. However, other than the Royal Palace, we wouldn’t have filmed much anyway. The Royal Palace in the centre of town was huge and grand and beautiful! It was full of temples and Buddha statues and even some ill-looking monkeys. We walked along the huge riverside and relaxed by our hostel pool for the rest of our first day.
The next day we visited the S21 Museum (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) and The Killing Fields. The S21 Museum was formally a prison where the Khmer Rouge regime kept approximately 17,000 prisoners, with only 7 survivors. We didn’t know too much about the museum but I’m really glad that we went there before going to the killing fields so we knew more about what we were seeing. The Killing Fields was where most of the prisoners were taken and executed, and put in mass graves. The whole experience was very informative and I’m really glad we went to see it; something everyone should do if they visit Cambodia.
After peeling ourselves away from Hoi An, we were offered the chance to go to a backpackers resort run by the same company that we had just stayed with. It cost 7 dollars per night for us and that included all the sports and activities we wanted such as volleyball, basketball, kayaking, trekking and paddle boarding, so obviously we took this opportunity and stayed here for 2 nights. It was incredible. We trekked in to the jungle and found a waterfall with a plunge pool so we jumped in, we did kayaking but it was too windy for paddle boarding so we missed out. Kieran got to play football with the locals too which made his day. After our little retreat we headed to Nha Trang, anything we say about Nha Trang would not be nice, so it is best to just say it wasn’t for us. After 1 night here we headed to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) on a 10 hour night bus.
After our bus ride from Danang we arrived in Hoi An and to our hostel which is more like a resort than a hostel, with a private pool and 4 floors of dorms, complete with its own bar and restaurant. This hostel also had bike rental as it was an hour walk from the ancient town.
On our first day we decided to join the hostels daily bike tour to and around Hoi An ancient town. On the way we stopped at a local lantern makers and they showed us how to make lanterns, one of us was more gifted than the other, and the other got laughed at by the lady who makes lanterns for a living and got theirs taken off them and done for them (we will let you decide who that was). After lantern making we went to the centre of the old town to look at the Japanese covered bridge, and then headed to an ancient house. The ancient house was still inhabited by the same family that built it 250 years ago. They let people come visit them free of charge and show them around their house. Most of the people that lived there in the past were carpenters and made their own ornate furniture. They were a lovely family and gave us free tea and homemade frozen yoghurt; then proceeded to tell Kieran and I that we should be getting married and having children by now. They also make their own jewellery and encouraged us to get our jewellery shined and buy some of theirs. So I bought a ring :), which I love. After that we cycled to a beach pub and had a drink and some food with the group by the beach.
The next day we wanted to go back to Hoi An Ancient Town to spend the entire day. We had heard it was beautiful at night so we walked there in the morning with plans to stay there the entire day. For most of the day time we basically wandered around, taking in the sights and beautiful buildings. We visited a famous Bahn Mi (sandwich) shop that apparently some famous American TV chef said was the best sandwich shop in the world. Although we couldn’t catch the Chef’s name 🤔. Kieran really wanted to do a cooking class in Vietnam so we took this opportunity to visit one that was recommended to us. The class was so fun and they gladly substituted meat for veggie ingredients for us. We made steamed mushrooms in banana leaf, veggie spring rolls and a marinated tofu and papaya salad. It was all very yummy.
The evening was more stunning than we imagined. There was hundreds of multi-coloured lanterns lighting up the streets, bridges and river, it was a very nice evening. The GoPro and pictures really don’t do it justice, it is now definitely one of our favourite places.
The next day was very chill. We rented our own bikes and cycled to a secluded beach that our friend recommended to us (cheers David). The sea was crazy choppy but the sun was out so we went in anyhow. We had a lot of fun just lying on the shore and letting the choppy waves drag us into the sea. We have some bruises now but hey ho.
So after this, we’re getting a night bus to another resort called Ninhvana where you can do kayaking, stand up paddle boarding and trekking for free! Very exciting.
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