I've honestly had the best summer words cannot explain. Before you read, just watch the video above, it's a lot shorter than this!!! You know, during my exams in May/June, I was really stressed and struggling to think, when will things get better? Of course, I knew pretty soon after my last exams things would get better, but at the time it feels like forever and nothing is going to change. But after three months are hardcore day/night revision for 7 A Level exams, on top of two part time jobs, and maintaining my blog (I felt like super woman for a bit), the last day of my exam came with a bang when I passed my driving test as well!!! (To top it off, it ended with me arriving back for my results and finding out I will be studying Law at Southampton). So I was really on a high ready to set of to Asia with my lovely partner Lloyd which we have been planning and saving for since April.
So here is my blog post about my trip, and I'm not sure where to begin? Well, realistically, it all began the night before when I went out with my friends to celebrate the end of exams and to say my last good byes. Sounded like a great idea at first, and well, I had a great night with my friends. Having left the club by 4am after far to many vodka lemonades, I arrived at Lloyd's house by 4.30am which left me a good..... meh two and a half hours before I had to wake up. Long story short, I endured a long haul flight with no sleep, a painful hangover, and the weakest little body you ever saw.... Not pleasant.
We were waiting at the luggage belt, I found my little back pack with my red scarf on it (just so I can tell it's mine as there are many black back packs around) and then we were waiting, and waiting, and waiting, to the point when we realised Lloyd's bag didn't turn up and they turned off the belt. If this has ever happened to you, it's quite annoying, and being in a foreign country, communication with the staff is difficult. But we managed to get his backpack by returning to the airport about 5 hours later to collect it as it was on the next flight in. Then we went back to our guest house and napped for a couple of hours. We paid about £17 for two of us to stay at this place for 3 nights, absolute bargain, but nothing fancy as you'd expect, but comfortable enough.
We spent three days in Phnom Penh. This is the capital of Cambodia where you can find many temples, and most important historical locations, such as the killing fields and war museums which shows you a glimpse of the terror that occurred to this beautiful country less than 50 years ago.
Me and Lloyd were having some yummy cocktails and these kids came by selling bracelets. These children go to school during the week and on the weekends they sell bracelets. A lot of children have to work out here in the tourism industry, and when you have flocks of kids constantly coming up to you selling them, you don't want a whole arm full of bracelets. Just play a game of rock paper scissors best out of three. You win, you don't have to buy one, they win, and you have to buy one. It's a way to get joy out of them. We got talking to this children here, aged 8 and 9. I was amazed that they were pretty much near fluent in speaking English and French (Cambodia is an ex French colony) let alone their native language. We spent about an hour with them playing jenga, happy days.
Around this city, there is plenty small temples you can visit if you ask a tuk tuk driver to give you a tour (I was charged about $10 but try and barter your way down to maybe $6).
Second stop,
CAMBODIA, SIEM REAP
After three days in Phnom Penh, we took a $7 coach about 4/5 hours up North to this beautiful place. Just a quick tap on the Hostel World app, we had booked ourselves in to Mad Monkey Hostel (highly recommend). We had a private room so meeting new people in dorms was not an option, so our first night we started early with drinks by the pool and headed up to the roof top bar/restaurant for some food and more drink... I was pretty smashed by about 7pm so Lloyd bought me a large bottle of water to drink for a while. But when beer is $1 a pint and $3.50 a cocktail who could blame me? Also to add the Grenade Grand Prix, each time you buy and sink a grenade, you get a point for your country, and throughout your stay, if you have 10 grenades, you get a free Mad Monkey vest. What exactly is a grenade? Death if you ask me, it's basically a shot of tequila and a jager bomb, yuck. The roof top bar was great to meet lots of other drunk travellers, and when it hits 12, it shuts down and the party moves a 5 minutes walk down the street to PUB STREET. Imagine like a mini Magaluf strip. My first entrance into Pub Street was a load of people dancing in the middle of the road and Pitbull - Don't Stop the Party blaring out. felt like the cheesy lads holiday with the Inbetweeners, all in all, great night out.
Anyway, the real reason we came to Siem Reap was nothing to do with the mad nights out of partying, it was to visit the popular historical religious temples of the Khmer Empire dating back to the 12th century, the region of temples, Angkor Wat. Absolutely stunning architecture. It costs $20 for a ticket and we had a tuk tuk driver tour guide from outside our hostel for $15, so quite costly, but 100% worth it. However, considering that most tuk tuk drivers charge like $10 for one journey, I thought this was a good price to have a tour of the temples. Anyway, the weather up this way was cloudy, so we didn't bother with waking up at 5am to watch the sunrise, especially not with this hangover, so we went around 10am. There are so many temples to visit but we only visited the main ones, Angkor Wat, Ta Promh and Angkor Thom. If you've watched Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, you will recognise these temples. The craft work is incredibly sustained and still the stories and scriptures on the wall are in tact enough to be able to show you the Khmer history. If you ever go to Cambodia, this is a definite, no question, must go destination.
Third stop, CAMBODIA, SIHANOUKVILLE - OTRES
Rather than staying in the town, we decide to go to the less busy area of Otres, From Siem Reap we got a luxury over night bus (with beds) that took about 11 hours to get down south. A tuk tuk driver from the bus station took us to Mama Clares and offered to pick us up after our stay. and that was probably the best decision we made. We stayed with a lovely woman we call Mama Clare who has a few wooden tree huts made out of leaves by the river in the Otres village only a 5 minute motor bike ride to the beach (we rented a bike for $5 a day). We found her on the Hostel World app being the best reviewed place. At $20 a night, it was quite pricey, but it was completely worth it as you can see from the photos. Otres beach is a long stretch of beach with Otres 1 on the right and Otres 2 on the left which a long empty beach in the middle. Plenty of lovely little bars and restaurants on either side (and accommodation too if you're looking to stay at the beach. It was very quiet, no wild night life which is my ideal place to stay. Every Monday, local children come to Clare's for 2 hours so she can teach them to speak English, which was a lovely experience too if you're there to witness it. Despite there being one storm in the night once, (which I thought the roof of our hut was going to blow off, but it was a lot stronger than I thought), and that we saw two snakes (which we didn't know if they were poisonous or not) I felt very safe in Mama Clare's lovely little home.
Shorts - MOTEL ROCKS £35
Bikini - SOUTH BEACH SWIM £28
Fourth stop,
CAMBODA, KOH RONG ISLAND
After Mama Clares, loyal to his word, the tuk tuk driver who took us from the bus station to Clare's had picked us up on time to take us to Serendipity pier where we were getting a ferry to Koh Rong Island. We were short on time so we only stayed there for two days, in which we missed the jungle party and were just about to miss the full moon party. Nevertheless, the island was still beautiful, very exotic, and full of travellers. We bumped into a couple pals, Charlie, and his friend who I don't remember his name that we met in Siem Reap so had a few drinks and chilled with them. There's so much to do on the Island other than drinking such as snorkelling, swimming with the plankton, go to some other neighbouring islands and so on. I can honestly say, (you can see in the video at the top if you can see) that this beach has the whitest sand and the clearest bluest sea I have ever seen in my life. Literally, paradise! Apart from the sand flies that are worse than mosquitos and no insect repellent will stop them. If you're looking for very basic beach life, Koh Rong is the best place. One long strip of wood made bars on the beach and a couple piers and the fishing boats of the villagers, this is my kind of life. Plus, these bars are always hiring!
After this short trip to this beautiful island, we head back into the capital for a couple nights before our flight to Bangkok.
Fifth stop,
THAILAND, BANGKOK
We came to Bangkok for some mad nights out, just think of the film the hangover. It doesn't disappoint. Khao San road, a road full of travellers hunting for bargains in the day, and the cheapest drinks at night. Our first night was a mad one I must say, but the next day, Lloyd had gotten the worst food poisoning I had ever seen, so we were hotel bound for the day until I ventured out to the roads night life alone (it was find, our hotel was actually on the road, which you wouldn't believe as you can here nothing from it). So that was my only regret, is not exploring the many things in Bangkok I'd had hoped such as seeing the Grand Palace, the floating market, Chao Phraya River, and so on. But the night night is great to dance with some thai strippers, get drunken tattoos if you're that wasted, nitrogen loons etc. You'll never not be bored.
Sixth stop,
THAILAND, CHIANG MAI
We got an over night bus to Chiang Mai, arriving at 7am, we were only staying there for 1 night, so we had two full days to explore Chiang Mai. First, we went to the Tiger Kingdom. Now, I know the whole industry is very controversial for reasons such as drugging the animals to make them tourist friendly, and keeping tigers captive as a whole. I had done research prior to visiting as I am against aspects of the industry such as drugging the animals. From what I saw, these tigers were not drugged, they were fully active, and still very dangerous is provoked. But then questions will be raised, aren't these tigers better off in the wild? In an ideal world yes, but the Sumatran and Siberian tigers are hunted by poachers in the wild for their skin, and both are listed as an endangered species, and that raises another question to whether we need animals in captivity to keep this species alive? The debate is live, and whether you choose to be fore and against, there will always be an equal argument. Whether or not these animals were treated well or not I could not tell from the short time I was there, but i saw a few of the keepers who had stronger relationships with particular tigers. Most of the tigers kept here were born and raised in captivity hence their tame nature and comfort around humans. My main criticism however were the size of the enclosures that were in view. For the size of some of the tigers, it was not near enough. Although, I did take into consideration the location of Tiger Kingdom being quite remote with lots of field around, so I thought of the possibility of there being a bigger enclosure past the back of the enclosures that were perhaps out of view. But don't trust my word, I have no idea myself and I'm still unsure of whether this is an ethical enclosure or not, as you can see, my views are of mixed opinion. However, to see these beautiful creatures so close was an absolute treat. Me and Lloyd are big babies so we only saw the smallest tigers (even though they were the most expensive, about 650 Baht which is about £11), they acted no different to little kittens, playful, adorable and friendly.
That evening, we went to the Art in Fantasy museum. The entry is about 300 Baht so £6 each. Probably one of the coolest places I've been too. It's basically a 3D painting museum which lots of cool different paintings to take cool pictures. The pictures will look better than in real life, but it's still pretty cool. We went about 5pm in the evening so it was really quiet and I didn't have to feel embarrassed about taking silly pictures (as seen below lol)!
Last thing we did in Chiang Mai, which was a MUST DO like number one thing ever on my to do list was ride an elephant bare back (it's better for their back) and bath them. Which I did, eek!!! I did some research on this place, and it sounded absolutely wonderful. Each elephant has their own mahout who they have incredible bonds with. I rode an elephant called Superman, a 16 year old male, and he was the most boisterous elephant in their sanctuary that no mahout apart from his own can control him. His mahout is Burmese, and has grown up with elephants all his life, the way he understands them is incredible. He managed to take a total of 635 photos on my phone (i know!!) so I wasn't short of any good snaps to post. The elephants at this place walk around chain free and are very happy and healthy from what I could see, this place looked wonderful. We learnt what commands to say to make them turn left and right, walk, stop, and lie down (melong, only one i remember) but the elephants won't listen to the tourists cause they don't understand our accents unfortunately, so the mahouts did all that. Me and Lloyd went for the half day program for two of us and one elephant which cost about 1600 Baht each, the cheapest price and a very good program which included meeting and feeding the elephants, learning the commands, trekking up the hill and down, bathing the elephants, showering, and then provided lunch. Perfect day! This included travel, pick up from the hotel and drop off too so it was really worth the price. After this we just chilled at our hotel lobby, as we had no room, until our night bus came to pick us up and take us back to Bangkok ready for our flight to Phuket.
Seventh stop,
THAILAND, PHUKET
We flew to Phuket from Bangkok and got a shared mini bus from the airport to our first hotel in Patong costing about 130 Baht each. It was Lloyd and I, two Korean girls, and 7 men from India, who were the funniest guys ever. They didn't speak much English but tried to talk to us and just laughed every time and their laughs got funnier and funnier until I couldn't stop myself from laughing. I took plenty snapchat videos. Safe to say it was an entertaining journey. So when we got to our, I was just having a browse through facebook and find out that a girl I went to school with a few years ago was staying literally down the road, as it happens. So a quick message and Lloyd and I met up with Amy and her boyf Tylerrrr, (if you're reading this Amy or Tyler, helloooo) at Jungcylon mall. couldn't find eachother for over an hour as we had no wifi and didn't have each other's numbers and we were on seperate ends of the mall haha. We found eachother in the end (found wifi and messaged her dad for her number, how embarrassing), and went for what we planned was a 'few drinks' on Bangla road. Probs not. We found a cheap cocktail bar with this deadly ladyboy juice and well, yeah, it was a crazy night, got lost and me and Lloyd had a disagreement over which way it was back to our hotel.
After one night of madness in Patong, we head further south to Kata beach where we had a lovely 5 days booked at a 4 star spa resort, Andaman Cannacia, a nice break from the hostel traveller life and a lovely way to spend our two year anniversary. It was gorgeous. It was on a hill looking over Kata bay, with a nice quiet pool, spa, gym, everything really. We hired a bike here too, and we were 5 minutes from an incredible view point.
Eighth stop,
INDONESIA, BALI
Words cannot say how much I love this place soooooo much. The island of happy people and of course, bintang beer. It would be sensible (or insensible) to have a few nights in Kuta, the mad busy tourist centre of Bali, within reason, as it's a mad cheap night out. Well, apart from our first night. We arrived at the aiport about 7.30 but had a long wait for the luggage. As soon as we got to our hotel in Kuta, hotel Ida (lovely private location not far from all the shops), we hopped in the shower, hopped back our, and made our way to Double Six, Seminyak to meet Lloyd's friend Mark for his 38th with his wife and two friends. We were asking everyone, where's Sling Bar? We couldn't find it for ages. Until we realised it was at the rooftop of a very large hotel. Very posh, there was toilet waiters, if that's even a thing, and even a powder room for women (what?) !!! I felt so under dressed in frilly shorts and a crochet crop top and sandles compared to our party all nicely dressed in shirts (men), and dressed and heels (the gals). We were drinking expresso martini's which is now my new favourite drink. A few of them had me rather squiffy, and we departed at 11pm heading back to Kuta. We thought we'd go out for one more drink so we walked straight past out hotel and out to find a bar. We settled for this reggae bar, there was a lived reggae band and it sounded like my kind of place. So we sat drinking our bintangs enjoying the nice band singing Bob Marley of course. One beer became five, and we ended up befriending the band and their friends, and more drinks occurred. Before we knew it, we were hopping of the back of their bikes and heading back to Double Six where we were to some club where they bought a massive beer jug for us all to share. After more drinks and dancing, they drove us back to Kuta where we got some nice Indonesian food, at 4am (I know I know, what did my parents say about getting on a drunk strangers bike at this time, but honestly, the kind people drove slowly and safely) and then returned us safely back to our hotel.
Shorts - MOTEL ROCKS £35
Our second mad night out in Kuta, was Sky Garden. Believe it or not, 150,000 rupiahs (£7.50) on the weekend and 100,000 (£5) rupiahs on the week days, for a wristband at entry where you can get unlimited alcohol (yes, unlimited) from 6pm-11pm. The queue was very large but you can get two drinks at a time, so you just down them and queue up again until you're shit faced basically. I can tell you that I don't think I remember anything past 10 o'clock, bearing in mine we got there at half 8 after dinner... BUT it's not just unlimited alcohol. If you get there early there's an unlimited BBQ for the same price!!! And on the plus side, there's a TV in the toilets.
When we left Kuta, the lovely Mark and his lovely wife let us stay in their lovely house (pool and everything), with their two lovely little kiddies. They introduced us to White Sands Cafe and Jimbaran Bay and that became our home. Perfect view and amazing food and bintang bintang bintang. The view from the beach is what I will miss, perfect amazing sunsets and watching planes take off and land across the bay where the airport is looks incredible. This is what I personally think is my happy place on this earth, I hope I end up there one day. Packing up my bags for a life on the beach does sound so tempting doesn't it? When we could bare to be separated from Jimbaran Bay for a day or two we took the time to go see Uluwatu (great for surf) Padang Padang and some secret beach that is unnamed and had no people on it, so basically paradise. We did plenty of other things such as go to water parks (Surf and Turf with a flor rider, or Waterbom), sunday brunch at Laguna Resort, Nusa Dua complex, monkey temple etc. Bali is my happy place end of. My next visit shall see me going to the Gili's and Lembongan.
My last stop of my trip,
INDONESIA, JAVA ISLAND
Here is where my trip ends. Two and a half weeks with my beautiful family who I haven't seen in over 6 years. Most of them live in a town called Majalengka, not a very rich area, but a very happy area. Imagine, no tourists, at all. Me and Lloyd became like celebrities, being crowded and stared at or asked for photos, because no white person really ever goes to the village. But it also gives me an insight of what it's like to be stared at for being different, it can be quite uncomfortable, so remember that next time you see someone who maybe looks different to you. Being the minority is definitely an eye opener. The place itself hadn't changed much, but my biggest struggles were the heat, mosquitos and no wifi. Anywhere. This place is by far the hottest place out of all the placed I've been, and on top of that, the area is Muslim, so out of respect, I covered my body with long clothes despite completely overheating underneath. The funniest thing I noticed was the opposition between my world and their world. English culture is not determined by religion where as culture is. They prefer light skin so use bleaching creams and skin lightening products while we spend all summer trying to get a tan. When the sun is out they cover up where as we where as little as possible. I find it quite funny how different we are but yet we can all get along.
It was an eye opener for Lloyd as well, having seen nothing like this before, this is how you see and experience real culture, away from all the tourism, this is how real people live without working for the tourism business. Incredibly hard working, sometimes suffering people. But never without a smile of their face. Bless to you all and I love you all so much! Bismillah
Here's to planning next years trip, VIETNAM, LAOS, MALAYSIA, INDONESIA
