Showing posts with label Paradise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paradise. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Looking back at Vietnam

So I've been back in England for just over a week now. Time has gone so quick! Really nice being back but at the same time I miss South East Asia so much. I didn't get a chance to write about my time in Vietnam so thought I'd do a quick overview with plenty of pics.

I went to 3 places over there: Ho Chi Minh, Nha Trang and Hanoi. Nha Trang is on the coast with good beaches and the other two are great cities. Vietnam is such a gorgeous country and there's always something interesting happening wherever you go.

The only negative part of my time there which is funny to look back on is a 29 hour train journey from Nha Trang to Hanoi. How to describe it? Imagine a cramped cabin with hard beds, poor air conditioning, no one who speaks English, impossible to order food, screaming babies and some friendly cockroaches in your bed.....heaven.

The highlight of my time there was visiting Ha Long Bay. Thousands of stunning limestone cliffs in the water with amazing caves to discover. It really is amazing and sitting on the top of the boat looking at the scenery is very special.

South East Asia is truly an unforgettable experience and a must for anyone who is keen for adventure and to explore the world. One day in the future I'll be going back there and I'm already looking forward to it

S x

Early morning Ho Chi Minh

On your marks...

Up to no good as usual

Causing mayhem

I love street food

Sleeper bus

Walk to the beach

Gorgeous beach in Nha Trang

Best meal I had. Duck and deep fried prawns, yom

Off to do some snorkeling

On the way to have lunch

Choosing your lunch! 

Someone's home

Fishing - attempting and failing

Time to cool off

Private resort

Enjoying the sun

Little piece of paradise

Just by the lake in Hanoi

Lake

Typical street with lots of cool restaurants

Ha Long Bay!

Walk through the cave

Over 2500 limestone cliffs in Ha Long Bay

Loving life

Rowing boat around the bay

Such a great experience

That stone building on a boat is actually a school!

Amazing

Journey back

Great day

Sunday, 14 April 2013

Krabi - 1237 step mountain climb and cooking class!


My next stop after leaving Koh Phi-Phi was Krabi. I wanted to check it out and spend a couple days there seeing as it was on route to Koh Tao anyway. I stayed in a hostel in Krabi town and met up with two guys and two girls from the UK and we went and did two really cool things while we were there.

The first was Tiger Temple Cave. This is a cool area where there is a giant gold Buddha at the top of a mountain but to get there you have to climb 1237 steps... No escalator sadly. It was easily the most grueling thing I have ever done and I had a hangover too. I definitely deserve some kind of medal! By the time we reached the top it looked as though I had just come out of the shower, I was soaked! Doing that climb in 40 degree heat is brutal. It was all worth it though. The view from the top is stunning. You can see the whole of Krabi and it's something I would recommend doing.  If you don't think you could do it here is some inspiration...I saw a family walking up and their youngest daughter must have been 2 or 3 years old! Incredible.

Scary!

Happy Tiger


Guarding the temple

Little bugger  causing mayhem

Monkeying around

Oh god here we go!

View halfway up

At the top!

Massive gold Buddha

I made it, whoop!

Chilling

Lighting some incense as an offering

Base of the statue

Such a great view

After getting back to the hostel we booked up a Thai cooking class for the evening. I fancy myself as a bit of a Jamie Oliver so it had to be done! We got to make dishes which included hot and sour prawn soup, green curry, pat-thai and spring rolls. The green curry is my favourite dish in Thailand so it was great to make it from scratch. The evening was also really fun because of our instructor called Pear. A great name! She was a nutter. My favourite thing she said (and there were many) was that her son looked like a girl and she hoped that when he grew up he would become a lady boy so that he would never leave her! Ha!

Pear. Such a legend!

Cooking up a storm

The UK team!

Hot and sour prawn soup

Cooking up a pat-thai

Green curry and pat-thai

Two days in Krabi was just the right amount of time and I caught a ferry over to Koh Tao after that. I'll be blogging about this place soon.

S x