Flight home...nearly a flight back!

It was a very long day for us...up early to catch our flight which was on time.  A 13 hour flight from Singapore to London Gatwick. We enjoyed our flight watching many flims and playing games, didn't get any sleep but we hoped that would help with the jet lag.

I was so excited to be seeing everyone again and introducing Joaquín, Leo has been super excited about picking us up from the train station.

We get to border control, in I go...Joaquín gets detained! They started by putting Joaquín in a room and then asked me questions and took my passport and documents. Next I see Joaquín walking off and I don't hear from him for hours. I get a call from an officer to ask me a ton questions more to see if our stories match. I had to get my bag and then I found a seat to just wait and wait. I met another man in a similar situation, so we got chatting. His girlfriend comes out and I just hope and hope for the best for Joaquín. Finally I get a call from Joaquín but we don't know any more news, it's just a waiting game! It's gets to the stage that we have been up for 24 hours and I'm hungry.

Still have to wait! After 8 hours of waiting I was told that he will be deported in the morning back to Singapore. He told me that they didn't believe that he was only here as a tourist. I just didn't know what to do, I rang my dad and he was not happy about this decision. He called up immigration and had a word with them. Meanwhile I had spoken to Joaquín and started to make my way in a taxi to Suzy's for the night and hoped I could sort something out in the morning. In the taxi I get a call from my dad to say Joaquín is being let out in the next 20 mins...I had to get the taxi driver to take me back to the airport. He asked me if I had forgotten something! I really don't know how my dad did it. Eventually we made our way to Suzy's for the night as we had missed the train.

After some well needed rest we had a great catch up with Jude and Suzy and finally made our way up on the trains to Peterborough.

Now we were home/in the country we could relax.

Last stop Singapore

This is the last stop on my journey before I head back home.

We spent most of a day travelling early from Thailand to get to Singapore, we didn't do much when we arrived apart from get some dinner and snacks.

Our first full day was spent at Universal Studios. It was a great day out going on rides, watching shows and a lot of waiting in queues.

My favourite ride was the huge and fast Battlestar Galactica Cylon. Plus the Transformers ride was amazing it was done in 3D. We had a very fun day but a tiring one.

The next day was spent at the Gardens by the Bay. First we visited the Red Dot Museum which was very intreresting as it showed many new designs and inventions that are made to help with many problems we have to waste and things to save space.

We took a walk along the Marina and marveled at the architecture of the Art science museum and the wheel.

Then it was on to visit the Gardens of the Bay, first we visited the cloud forest. This was a cool dome with many plants and a waterfall. The supertrees were so beautiful to see, we even saw the light show with music and walked up on the skyway among the tree tops.

Our last stop in the gardens was the flower dome, this had hundreds, maybe even thousands of orchids on display for the flower show.

Back to the hostel to pack and ready to make our way to the UK.

Thailand - week 2

For our last week in Thailand we just decided to chill. We had been travelling around for nearly 3 months and feeling exhausted.

We flew down from Chaing Mai to Phuket, we got a late night flight so upon landing we stayed very close to the airport that evening. We got picked up by our hotel with another couple.

The next morning we made friends with the other couple from the taxi. With our new found friends, RD and Andrea, we got a taxi and made our way down to drop them in Patong Beach while we headed a little further to Karon Beach.

We really didn't do much this week. It was very relaxed...exploring the beach and the next beach (Kata), went to the market, had a meal out with RD and Andrea and then chilled and played monopoly. We spent a lot of time watching Netflix too. Monty spent his time catching up on sleep.

He has also been trying new foods, like the fruit mangosteen. Delicious!

Money was getting low, so down to 2 meals a day...then we realised we were very short on cash for food, luckily we found great cheap market food.

One day was more exciting as we went on an island trip. We started off by heading down the the harbour to catch our speedboat which took us on a bumpy ride over to Coral Island for a spot of snorkeling. Here I thought I saw some rubbish floating around but then on a closer look it was a 100 note swimming passed my face, I quickly grabbed it and thought it was enough money for our last meal!

This is also the site that Joaquín dropped the camera into the ocean...after looking at all the pretty fish it was then time to start the search for that. Don't worry he found it right on the bottom near coral. Time to head over to Racha Island now...the sea was very rough and it was a very very bumpy and wet ride. On the way we spotted a boat in need of our help. Both its engines had broken down and they needed rescuing. We came to their rescue and towed the boat to the Island, this ment we had to go slower so it was even more bumpy and Joaquín was getting sea sick. I was praying we would make it back in one piece.

We had a lovely lunch with an amazing view of the beautiful blue sea and then had sometime to enjoy the beach. Boarding back on the boat for some more snorkeling among the fish, who thought Joaquín's nipples were food! It was time to head back to our hotel, luckily the sea had carmed down and was a smoother ride on the way back.

I also became a hairdresser for the day.

Our last meal with our last 100 Baht...great chicken and rice from the market. Yummy street food! 

Thailand - week 1

We had 2 weeks in Thailand in the first week we got up to all of this;

In Bangkok we visited the Grand palace, this is where the king lives. The detailing in these buildings are astonishing.

Saw a few temples

Sir Mahamariamman Temple

Wat Traimit Wittayaram - this is where the Golden Buddha is, it is made of solid gold worth about 28.5 million pounds.

Saw the 'red light district'

We took a train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. It was a pleasant journey, no cockroachs either! We watched Thailand go by through the window, had some yummy food and got ready for bed. The train guards came along and made our seats into beds.

We visited an elephant sanctuary, fed the elephants and bathed them. One squirted water all over me!

Found a great night market in Chiang Mai, watched the World Cup final.

We joined a tour for the day which took us up to Chiang Rai to visit the white temple. 

This is a Buddhist temple but designed with a modern twist and is really a piece of art which won't be finished for a long time yet. Next we headed up to the Golden Triangle, this is where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet by 3 rivers. It is called the Golden Triangle because there is an island in the middle of the rivers where they used to trade in Opem. As all countries had their own currency trading was done in weight of gold instead. 

After lunch we went to the tip of Thailand and visited the border to Myanmar. Before heading back to Chiang Mai we stopped of at some tribe villages.

A week in Cambodia with Anna-Maria

Day 1
We travelled from Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam to Phnom Penh (said like nom pen) Cambodia. We did a lot of research on what bus company was the best (Giant Ibis), we had a very comfortable coach which took us across the border. First we had to go to the Vietnam border and get stamped out then over to the Cambodian border to get stamped in, we had already sorted our visas to enter so it was easy. We arrived at the hostel and it was then a waiting game for Anna-Maria to get there, she was getting a flight over.

It was so great to see Anna-Maria, we spent the first night chatting and chatting...catching up on all the gossip.

Day 2
Our first full day was a depressing one as we visited the genocide museum and killing fields. It was a great day to learn about what had happened in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime (a good film to watch is 'First they killed my father', a film based on ture events). We learnt that many innocent people were forced to tell lies and admit to crimes they didn't commit, then they were tortured and killed. Others were sent out of their homes and fed lies about what was really happening. Children were brainwashed and forced to fight. The Khmer Rouge regime killed almost a 1/4 of Cambodia's population, about 2 million people over 4 years. The killing fields was a place where they sent people to be brutally murdered and buried in mass graves. It was so shooking what they did to them I just can't write it on here. The killing was done under the cover of darkness so it could remain a secret. The one we visited had over 129 mass graves, 85 have been excavated. Still now their bones, teeth and clothing surface (I saw evidence of this) which is then recorded and put in the Memorial Stpua. The depressing day wasn't over as Anna-Maria had her phone taken right out of her hand by a motorcyclist but we did finish today with a delicious meal at a restaurant which helps street kids and their families.

Day 3
Our second day was a lot happier, we hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day, who took us around the city to see the sights. First with visited the Russian Market and picked up a few goodies, we saw the Independent Monument and visited a temple. We had a look around the National Museum but it was not that interesting after lunch we went to the Royal Palace. This is where the king lives, he is actually a Buddhist so has no children, when he dies the government choose out of his brothers and sisters who be the next ruler. We finished our tour at the Central Market and ended the day with a trip to the cinema to watch Antman and the Wasp.

Day 4
It was time to head out from Phnom Penh and catch a bus to Battambang. We were quite squashed in with our luggage but after being stuck in traffic because of the election day (supporters were out on the streets) we sped along overtaking many vehicles and finally made it to Battambang. We arrived in just enough time to visit the bat cave and watch hundreds even thousands of bats fly out the cave at dusk. We also visited the rice fields and watch the sunset over them before heading out for dinner and watching the semi-finals, England's match.

Day 5
Before leaving in the morning to head to Siem Reap we took a trip on the bamboo train. This was probably one of my favourite things of the whole trip. We sat upon a small bamboo platform on wheels which was powered by a engine that was connected to the axis of the wheels. It was a very bumpy ride we rode all the way to the next small village and then turnt around to come back. We met trains on the way back going the other way so to pass we had to dismantle the train and wait for the others to go pass before putting it back together and continuing. We then had to catch a bus to Siem Reap on a local bus which took us 2 and a half hours longer than expected.

Day 6
Our first day in Siem Reap was an early one! We met our tuk-tuk driver at 4am so we could visit the temples that morning. First we had to go and have our pictures taken for our tickets, very funny photos at 4.30 a.m! Then we drove to Angkor Wat for the sunrise, there were so many people there. I don't think we were quite awake yet, we had some breakfast and visited many temples that day. We visited Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, Terrace of the Elephants, Thommanon Temple and last of all Ta Prohm; this is the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. The afternoon was spent sleeping and it was pizza for dinner, Anna-Maria had a happy one.

Day 7
Last day was spent relaxing by the pool on a sun bed. Anna-Maria had to leave us in the afternoon to catch her flight. It was a great week exploring Cambodia and having a great catch up with one another. Joaquín and I packed ready to catch our bus the next day to Thailand.

Train rides in Vietnam

We took 3 trains in total in Vietnam. This was a great way to travel which didn't involve flying and avoided busses.

Our first train ride was from Hanoi to Da Nang and took us 16 hours. We boarded the train in the evening and found our way to our berth, we had booked a first class sleeper with AC. This had 4 beds, we had 2 of then and we picked up some other guests at the next few stops. We started off watching some programmes and then it was time to get some sleep. It was quite a comfortable night once I had finally got to sleep! I was up on the top bed and had the AC blowing on my directly so I was frozen, I found many layers to pop on. Then at 5am in the morning the man's alarm was going off, he didn't wake up but the rest of us did! I tried to find the phone but had no luck then I poked him but he didn't even move. I thought he many need to get off at the next stop. Joaquín had a go at waking him up, no luck either! Then the other lady was shaking him and he still didn't stir. Finally the alarm just stopped after 10 minutes and we could all get back to sleep. The train didn't arrive until after 1pm, we had snacks for breakfast but we're getting a little hungry by that time. They did have a food trolly but we must have still been sleeping when it came passed in the morning. 

 

Our next train journey was from Da Nang to Nha Trang. This journey wasn't as long as the last one but we still travelled overnight for around 10 hours. This time we had booked a bed in second class sleeper, still with AC. There were now 6 beds in each berth but this was not the journey we were expecting after having such a pleasant one the time before. First when we arrived at our cabin someone had been sleeping in my bed and I was greeted with a cockroach running across my pillow. There was a small child in Joaquín's bed, who had to be woken and moved, she really didn't want to leave. There was no room to put our bags so on the bed they go...already a very small bed to now share it with our luggage! After checking for more cockroachs I got into bed but wrapped up in my sleeping bag liner. It got very hot in the berth as there were 9 people in there...people were sleeping 2 per bed, I really don't know how they managed that! In the night I woke to see the full moon shining over the rice fields and also to meet more cockroachs running all over the cabin. One running down the wall by my head...I grab my flipflop and try to get it but it ran down under my mattress. I lift up my mattress and that was a mistake! Even more of them...I try to put it out of my mind and go back to sleep, still wrapped in my sleeping bag liner. Finally in the morning we arrived and I couldn't get out the train fast enough. 

 

Last train journey was OK from Nah Trang to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon. We caught this one during the day so we only booked a second class seater with AC. We had a pleasant journey...no cockroachs this time! We enjoyed watching locals on the train...one man even put a mat out on the floor and started sleeping in the aisle. The food trolly was interesting to see what they were selling. After a 7 and a half hour journey we had arrived. 

End of train journeys in Vietnam.