Vietnam

Halong Bay

Vietnam was one of the countries that we spent the longest in, just behind Thailand. I suppose the main reason for this is that we had to arrange to get our visas ahead of time when we were back in the UK and visa was the most expensive from our travels around Asia.

During our time in Vietnam we travelled from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in the South to Hanoi in the North stopping at a few towns along the way. Overall we spent a little under the 30 days our visa entitled us to in Vietnam. 

Starting in Saigon, we spent one day walking around to all the sights of the city including the War Museum, the Ho Chi Minh Palace, Notre Dam church, the Post Office and to some of the markets. While we were here we stayed at Diep Ahn Guesthouse, where the owner Anh, gave us a recommended route to walk to see all the sights which was really useful. One day we did a day trip to the Mekong Delta which included seeing some of the locals floating markets and seeing how some of their local snacks are made. I can't remember exactly what they were but one was a coconut candy and another was a sweet rice paper which were both delicious.

On our last day in Saigon we took a half day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels which were impressive to see. There is a 100m stretch of tunnel that has been widened for the average Westerners build with exits every 20m. I managed the first 20m before needing to get out, I actually freaked out just as we got in the tunnel but with tons of people behind me I couldn't get out. I always knew I wasn't keen on confined spaces but this time I was panicking and trying to get out as quickly as possible. Even when I think back about the experience I feel a little funny. After our half day trip to the Tunnels we had a few hours to grab dinner and to have a quick shower as we had booked ourselves onto a sleeper bus to our next destination - Nha Trang.

Nha Trang is a beachy resort, full of bars to visit. We weren't so much there for the bars, I wanted some beach time! In the evenings the beaches would have locals coming with their children for a swim as well which I thought was nice to see. We didn't stay long until we were on another sleeper bus to Hoi An.

Hoi An is a coastal town that everybody should visit when in Vietnam, it is a UNESCO Heritage town with some truly spectacular buildings. It is also beautiful by night, some buildings are lit up in different colours, there are little lanterns floating down the river and lanterns hanging in trees and overhead. Hoi An is well known for tailoring so we decided we wanted to have something tailor made as well - Danny had a suit and I had a playsuit made. It was quite a fun experience! Hoi An also has some lovely local food, there is an abundance of good restaurants and you can also get cooking classes.

After Hoi An we spent a couple of days in Hue - not a stop everyone will make but it has some significant sites from the war. There is a Citadel there that is now in ruins for a large part with beautiful gates riddled with bullet holes. You don't really need long in Hue, but there were some nice restaurants there as well. After a couple of days in Hue we booked ourselves onto a sleeper train to Hanoi. I was really excited about this as I had decided a long time before that I wanted to experience a sleeper train during our travels round Asia and the time was finally here!

I actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep while on the train, getting up once to go to the bathroom. We shared our cabin with an elderly Vietnamese couple who spoke no English. We tried to communicate a few times with them trying to ask where we were from, unfortunately they didn't understand. They were very nice though, and were letting us know when we were close to arriving in Hanoi so we could get our things together.

Once getting into Hanoi station we took a taxi to our hotel. We'd gotten in to Hanoi pretty early so we couldn't check in, but we were able to go to the small dining room at the back of the hotel to have some breakfast which was much needed. Once we were checked in, we were given a map of Hanoi with recommendations of where to go, things to see etc. We were only out for a couple of hours before we had to run back - the heavens opened and did not stop.

We got absolutely drenched. There were a couple of days where it absolutely hammered down with rain, which as it turns out was the back end of a cyclone. We tried to brave the weather one of the days with waterproofs etc, but we ended up seeking refuge in a café overlooking Hoam Kiem lake for a couple of hours before plucking up the courage to get back to the hotel again.

We had been planning a trip to Halong Bay which looked touch and go because of the weather, but fortunately we managed to time it just right and went for a two day one night trip. We booked the trip through our hotel and went for a mid-range offer. We were picked up early by a bus which was already pretty full and were driven to Halong City before being registered and boarding the boat. The first day it was still a little grey, but it was great to be there. We sailed out to the caves where there is a 'surprise'. After the caves, we had time to kayak around the bay which was great to get closer to some of the rock formations.

After kayaking, we took off to where we would be mooring for the night and having dinner. Before getting ready for dinner we all changed into our swimwear to have a little swim, and to watch the gorgeous sunset. That evening was really fun, we had a good dinner followed by playing Uno with the others on the trip and also trying our hands at fishing - none of us caught anything but we weren't using bait so it's not surprising really.

The next day we were taken through some of the little islands on our way back to shore. We were very lucky as the storm seemed to have well and truly cleared which resulted in blue skies and sun. I am so glad we got the opportunity to visit Halong Bay, it was truly beautiful.

Once we got to shore, we got back on a bus and were driven back to Hanoi. We spent a couple more days in Hanoi with some warmer weather, we visited the Water Puppet show which I would highly recommend to anyone who visits Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum which I found a little creepy - you go into a dimmed room and shuffle round Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body. In all honesty, we spent a little bit too long in Hanoi, we should have organised our days better so we could have fitted a trip out to Sapa as well - something we will definitely do when we go back.

After our time in Vietnam came to an end, we flew back to Bangkok to get ready to go down for some Thai Island hopping - the main beachy part of our travels! 

Kate x

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Cambodia

Time has passed so quickly that our time in Cambodia was well over six months ago now. Something I have really learnt whilst being away that time really does go quickly - you don't even realise it until you stop to think how great it was. A year away sounds like a long time, but we've already been in Australia for six months exactly of our one year visa.

I was initially a little hesitant about including Cambodia to our itinerary but I am so glad we did. While there we visited Siem Reap, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. The highlight was most definitely Siem Reap where we spent the majority of our time, this included spending three days at the amazing Angkor Wat temple complex. Somewhere I recommend everyone visiting at some point in their lives. 

Our travel into Cambodia from Thailand was quite long and tiresome, but once we arrived and found our guesthouse we were quite relieved. 

Considering how small Siem Reap really is, it's so busy and I was very surprised to find how many foreigners actually lived and worked there. We met at least 3 Americans there all who worked as English teachers.

Sihanoukville, also known as Snookyville was a little beachy town on the coast of Cambodia. We had one day of sun before torrential rain hit. From Sihanoukville, you can also get transport to some of their islands such as Koh Rong.

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, has a completely different feel to Siem Reap. To be honest, I much preferred Siem Reap. I'm sure some may disagree, but everyone has their preferences.

Phnom Penh has most of the memorial sites where the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge occurred. The two notable ones are the Killing Fields which are a little south of PP and Tuol Sleng Prison (also know as S21) which both now serve to remember those who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and to educate visitors.

Cambodia is truly a wonderful place, we even left Siem Reap with new friends who I hope to visit again one day in the not so distant future.

If anyone has the opportunity to visit Cambodia during time in South East Asia, I would whole heartedly recommend visiting.

Kate x

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Thailand - Bangkok

Hi everyone!

It has been an unbelievably long time since I last posted, I had really hoped I could have posted a couple of things before I left the UK but unfortunately I was incredibly tight for time trying to get loose ends tied before leaving.

We flew out to Bangkok, our first destination, on the 6th July with a 2.5 hour stopover in New Delhi before arriving to Bangkok on the evening of the 7th. We hopped in a taxi and about 30-40 minutes later we were in front of our hotel in Chinatown. When we booked our flights and first couple of nights of accommodation we decided to treat ourselves and not dive straight into budget accommodation. We spent our first three nights at the Shanghai Mansion which is an absolutely lovely hotel with lovely staff. It was a nice way to ease our way into Bangkok. The first evening we just collapsed after a lot of flying.

Wat Pho (Reclining Buddha)

The following day we ventured out with the aim of seeing the Grand Palace and Reclining Buddha, that didn't quite happen and instead we ended up going to the MBK mall to check it out - pretty impressive and very manic, I expected it to be more like Westfields in layout but it was quite cramped and like a little maze. We decided to try the Skytrain to get back to our hotel and we were pretty successful, although we got a little disorientated walking back from the station and stumbled across a nice temple (of which there are many in Bangkok).

Throughout our time in Bangkok we ended up seeing the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, Vimanmek and the Throne Hall. It was all suitably impressive. 

You can climb up Wat Arun from the outside as it has steps leading up to various levels - these steps are incredibly steep and I almost didn't climb up to the highest point as they were so steep going up looked like a mission - however I did it which I regretted later. Now I'm not generally scared of heights, but when you're faced with incredibly steep steps down to the next level - verging on vertical - I was quite nervous. In the end my legs tensed and were shaking so much I actually pulled a muscle in my thigh and was hobbling around a bit for a couple of days afterwards.

Wat Pho

After our three nights in the lovely Shanghai Mansion (which incidentally make the nicest (Strawberry) Mojitos I've had since being in SE Asia) we moved onto a hotel called Buddy Boutique Inn which is pretty much in the 'backpacker' area of Bangkok - Khao San Road which essentially is akin to a 'strip' you'd see in any European party resort - think Kavos, Magaluf etc. It was a change to what was in Chinatown and things seemed a bit more 'familiar' on KSR but I don't think we'll stay there again, maybe to visit though. 

Our initial thoughts on Bangkok are a little indifferent - we were quite happy to see the back of it and from people I know who have been I get the impression it is a bit of a 'marmite' city. We'll be going back there in before heading on down to the Islands so maybe by giving Bangkok a second chance, we'll be pleasantly surprised. 

Kate x

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(This entry was written while I was still travelling around Asia, just in case the last bit confuses anyone!)

Travel Update #3

It is now less than a week until Danny and I leave the UK to embark on our travels around Asia, and I must admit I'm excited but the nervousness is really hitting me now as I've already started to say my goodbyes to friends and family.

I left my job on Thursday which was a big deal to me in itself - I'm now unemployed which is a little scary. 

This week I am focussing on packing, clearing out junk in my room and attempt to throw out some clothes (which is proving to be quite difficult) and buying any last minute supplies.

There are a few products I've bought in the run up to our departure which I will aim to review while away even if I can't publish them until I'm in Australia, I don't care! 

This time next week I'll either be fast asleep in Bangkok or awake due to jet lag, who knows! I have had plenty of entry ideas such as what make up I'm packing and what skincare but I don't know whether I'll realistically have time to write anything or take photos - I'll give it a go but sadly it isn't a priority for me this week. 

Kate x

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Travelling Plans #2

The following post was written in April and has been sitting in my drafts. I thought it still relevant to post.

Following on from my last post a couple of months ago outlining plans to go travelling, things have advanced and changed. 

The most exciting bit of news I have is that we've booked some flights! Danny and I fly out to Thailand on the evening of 6th July. We have a brief stop off in Delhi and then straight onto Bangkok. Now we've got a date we're looking forward to the other things we need to do before leaving, namely vaccinations and visas. We had our Australian visas granted on the 6th May in record speed - we were granted them within 1-2 hours of applying. We had been expecting to hear back about a week later.

In my last post I said we were going to get a multistop flight ticket, well that plan has gone out the window completely, we're now going to book flights as they come - it gives us more freedom and more money to play with while we're out there, especially since when in Australia we'll be earning money which can then be saved. 

On the 13th April we went to London to book our flights and for me to try on rucksacks - I decided to get it while I was there as there was very little difference in price between in store and online. If you saw someone walking around Covent Garden with the biggest carrier bag ever - that was me. 

Hotel wise we've booked 3 nights in an upmarket hotel for a little bit of comfort before venturing into hostels. We're booked in to stay at a hotel called the Shanghai Mansion and it looks absolutely lovely and has good reviews on TripAdvisor (I have been consulting this as though it's the bible for reviews on hotels and reading forums).

For our stop in Asia the rough plan is to start off in Bangkok for a couple of days, then move onto Cambodia (Siem Reap and Phnom Penh), from there onto Vietnam travelling up the coast, across into Laos to dot about there and back into Thailand to work our way down from Chiang Mai down to the Thai Islands (hopefully in time for a Full Moon Party), last stop being Malaysia before hopping on a flight to Melbourne!

Kate x

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A night spent in London

From time to time Danny and I like to treat ourselves to a nice hotel room in London for the night, the first time we did this was last February and we stayed in The Cumberland just next to Marble Arch, it was a great experience and the breakfast was ah-maze-ing. 

Back in July I booked tickets for us to go see Bloc Party at Earls Court on 22nd February, which I was quite looking forward to but dreading the potential crush there could be at an arena gig. I just assumed we'd get the train home afterwards, until Danny suggested we stay overnight. After scouring lastminute.com for a reasonably priced, but nice hotel I stumbled across this beauty. This is The Grosvenor Hotel in Victoria. It is a really nice hotel, in keeping with the area and we were utterly in awe of the building - they had to give us a map, yes a map, to find our way to our room as they have two wings of the hotel. 

The room was amazing, the bathroom was lovely too - although it had a magnifying mirror which I definitely wasn't prepared for. I don't need to see in magnification how large my pores are thank you very much.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bloc Party, it wasn't anywhere near as busy as I thought it would be. I was expecting to be squashed and be thoroughly miserable as is normal when my height in a large crowd of people. This meant there was space to breath, unfortunately there were some guys acting like total idiots to my left which was pretty irritating.

This was the second time I'd seen Bloc Party in my life, however I was fortunate enough to see Kele in a small gig in Berlin, I was standing about two people away from him the entire time. Quite a stark difference to be standing on the opposite side of an arena.

I leave you with a video compiled of lots of peoples footage from that night on their phones of their latest single "Truth". I still love them as much as I did when someone first told me to listen to Helicopter back in 2003 or so.

Kate x

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Travel Plans #1

Following my post last month about the plans my boyfriend and I have to go travelling this summer we went to STA Travel last weekend (while on an overnight stay in London) to find out a little bit more about flights and get a rough cost of how much it will cost us as prices advertised online are "from £x.xx" and bearing in mind that we are looking to leave in July we knew that there may be an additional cost for flying peak time.

After discussing multi-stop flights and destinations etc we have a rough idea of the flights we'll probably take, which fit in nicely with where we'd like the visit:

01. London - Bangkok

02. Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne

03. Sydney - Christchurch

04. Auckland - Bangkok

05. Bangkok - London

Our idea is to go around South East Asia first (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and possibly Cambodia) and then go on to Australia with the working holiday visa, and then on to New Zealand afterwards. Ideally we'd like to fit Fiji in there too somewhere, but that will be something to investigate while we're out there. The price for flights cost the same in the estimate we got to fly from Auckland to London or to have a stop off in Bangkok again, we think we'll probably stop off there again especially if at time of booking it costs the same. 

We're going to go back to STA Travel later this month to book flights and get the ball rolling. I'm getting increasingly excited about our plans. There are still a couple of questions we have to ask before booking but speaking to an advisor in STA has definitely gotten the ball rolling. When we go up to London to book our flights, we're also going to drop by the Berghaus store in Covent Garden at the same time to buy rucksacks. There are two I have my eye on:

Berghaus Women's Torridon 60L Rucksack

Berghaus Women's Cuillin 60+10L Rucksack

I thought I'd go for something a little 'girly', and also I always find it easier to spot my luggage on a carousel at the airport if there is something slightly different about it.

We went into the store while in London and a member of staff mentioned fitting the rucksack to our backs to make sure they are comfortable etc, so we've decided to go in store rather than buying online (for probably only a difference of £5 or so) if we'll get that service.

Once our flights are booked (together with a couple of nights accommodation) we'll really start looking into everywhere we want to visit town wise, and start applying for our visas!

Kate x

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A beauty blogger that doesn't want to spend her money?

Despite reading beauty blogs on a regular basis and having a wish list longer than my arm of makeup and various skincare products I'm finding myself putting off buying any of these products in favour at looking at other kinds of products.

And do you know what they are? Travelling "essentials". I've gone from looking at MAC lipsticks online trying to work out which shade to buy to looking up rucksacks and trying to shop around for the best price.

01. Microfibre travelling towel.

02. Large Berghaus rucksack.

03. Karrimor walking boots.

04. Samsung W150 camera (I don't want to take my SLR with me)

05. Visa costs for the countries we'd like to visit.

I mentioned in my New Years Resolutions post that I would be trying to save more money this year ready to go travelling with Danny, my boyfriend. I kept it quite vague as we haven't really had any set plans until the last couple of weeks. Even now, we don't have anything booked yet, but we have ideas of where we'd like to go, and how much certain things will cost. 

Travelling can be quite a vague term, anything from 4 weeks Interrailing round Europe to 12 months on another continent. Our plan is to go to South East Asia, then onto Australia with the working holiday visa, then onto New Zealand and then either back to the UK or maybe Fiji on the way. We haven't said "we'll be back in 12 months" we're going to take it as it comes, and if we stay the full 12 months (or more) then that's great, if we come back before then then that's great too. 

I'm currently researching what there is to see and do in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and possibly Laos and Cambodia too as well as visa requirements. I am getting ridiculously excited and despite still buying a few beauty bits here and there, I am trying to be very controlled with my spending in favour of things I will need to buy over the next few months in preparation of leaving and generally for money while I'm out there! 

If anybody has already been travelling around Asia and Oceana and has any handy tips or bits of advice on places to avoid/places definitely worth seeing I'd really appreciate it!

Kate x

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Berlin Trip June 2012

Hello!

I hope everybody is well!

So, I am back from my little holiday and very sad about this fact. I had such a wonderful time with my boyfriend and friends that I really didn't want to come back. 

My friends actually surprised me at the airport arrivals gate, I had no idea - one of them had even flown in from France to surprise me for my birthday! 

We saw the majority of the sights and did so much walking that my legs still feel like they are going to drop off - thank god I work in an office and minimal walking is required. Hopefully the walking counteracts all the bad food I ate while I was out there!

Berlin is a city that captured my heart back in 2007, but then my love affair with the city truly started in September 2009 when I moved there. I lived there until July 2010 and studied at one of the Universities, I like to go back when possible to see friends and also because I miss the city, going back to living in a town after living in a Capital is incredibly difficult.

Here are some photos of my trip, I tried to take some of me too but my hay fever flared up and the result was me looking somewhat like Rudolf (very unattractive):

East Side Gallery

Reichstag

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe

Fernsehturm / TV Tower

Olympia Stadion / Olympic Stadium

Kate x

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