Day 73 - The Killing Fields
I don't think any trip to Phnom Penh, or Cambodia in general, would or should be complete without learning a little about the Khmer Rouge and the genocide under their rule. We thought today would be a good day, as we had a meditation practice and a set of Nerd talks planned for the evening, to hopef...
Day 72 - Sunset on the Mekong
We wanted to explore some more of the centre of Psquared, so it was bright and early out of bed (at 8am), coffee on the balcony and then straight to breakfast. We did really have an issue though, the severe lack of bacon (which they did have yesterday). Hannah nearly went full rampage, but we did ha...
Day 71 - Bars, bars everywhere, but not a drop (of good cocktails) to drink
Day 1 in P squared started hard. Boom alarm, boom lie in, boom reading on the balcony. We did make it to the gym in the end though, which is better than most hotel gyms, but still not fantastic. When Hannah was warming down, a bolt came out of the treadmill from somewhere, worrying. From here it was...
Day 70 - 6 Cities
Today marks our end in Siem Reap and our 6th city in our trip (out of 12 in SEA). The flight isn't until 15:30, so we had a bit of time to chill before heading out. When we did go to check out, the hotel had given us an extra 10% off our food, because my travel adaptor was stuck for a few days in th...
Day 69 - Angkor Wat part III
--- Same caveat as parts I and II; loads more photos in the album starting here (it takes ages to insert them into the post itself) https://russ-and-mead.travelmap.net/photos/siem-reap?index=176 --- The day of the big event had finally arrived; after all the weather forecast checking, we were hoping...
Day 68 - The day nothing much happened
Today was pretty quiet and all round uneventful. Food, coffee, swimming, cafe-ing (yes we've created a verb for this), blogging, reading, a little more food. That basically sums it up!
Day 67 - Angkor Wat part II
Second day at the temple complex, with checking the weather forecast we'd decided to leave the main event til the last day (and fingers crossed the weather was clear). We were going to check out a group of temples known as the Rolous group, bit further out than all the standard tourists ones. --- As...
Day 66 - Museuming
In order to learn a bit more about Angkor (and not just spend our day drinking coffee and eating cake) we went to the Angkor National Museum. We'd decided to use our 3 day Angkor Pass on alternate days (one day there, one day doing something else etc.) to not get templed out. We also decided to brav...
Day 65 - Angkor Wat part I
In Siem Reap, the main attraction is a UNESCO world heritage site - the Angkor Archaeological Park, a complex of lots of different temples covering an area of 400km2, containing remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. The most famous is the temple of...
Day 64 - It's like Vegas. With less lights, booze, gambling, glitz, glamour and money
We wanted to spend a bit of time seeing the centre of Siem Reap; what we briefly saw yesterday impressed us. We set out to hit a few of the local markets and get some lunch. First point of call was the central market. Compared to yesterday's, this was more like the Asian markets we were used to. Peo...
Day 63 - Sim cards, lion testicles and passionfruit sodas
First day in Siem Reap, we thought against heading straight to Angkor Wat; we've got plenty of time to see the complex. First thing was a nice early morning swim in the pool. Nice and quiet at 7am and it wasn't heated, so we were awake pretty quickly. After a few laps we got changed and went down fo...
Day 62 - 2 months in
Today was time to leave Hanoi, which I think both of us are ready for. Hanoi is exhausting, not an ideal place for relaxing. It's just very full on. Hopefully Cambodia will be a little bit slower pace. Still this morning is likely to be quite slow, given we don't have to be out the apartment until 1...
Days 55 - 61 (Hanoi week 4)
2nd August - Tonight we were meeting up with Ellie again: she was showing us a good spot where the train tracks pass right by a load of restaurants and stuff i.e. about 2 feet away from the seats, which makes for an interesting view. We started off just getting some noodles from a small street food...
Days 48 - 54 (Hanoi week 3)
25th July - We awoke to absolutely torrential rain (we later found out parts of Hanoi had been flooded), but from our room, looking out onto the bay, it was really quite nice and relaxing. it was supposed to be an early snack breakfast, then onto cycling around one of the islands, but considering th...
Days 40 - 47 (Hanoi week 2)
17th July - There were a few places we wanted to try in the Old Quarter for food, as well as pick up a few bits for the apartment. First things, always food, it was lunchtime, we had found a good restaurant that specialised in Pho, which we had yet to try properly. So we had a little wander around O...
Days 32 - 39 (Hanoi week 1)
We had 31 days in Hanoi - a big focus of this month for us was not just to explore Hanoi, but to enjoy whatever we felt like doing.. eating, gymming and relaxing in any way we felt like - meditating, reading, napping, playing piano, playing chess, watching the entire series of Lucifer.... great for...
Day 31 - Country 2, done!
Last day in Laos and ticking off the fourth city and second country on our trip. A quick pack and settling the bill and we caught a taxi to the airport. Seemed a little bit nicer than the arrivals part of the terminal. Also seemed very much better than LP airport, at least they had the proper check...
Day 30 - Coffee shop day
A pretty lazy day, not much to report. Spent most of the morning back at the good old Tit Kafe, where Hannah had a small (!) tea and I had some fancy iced coffees. Nice to chill out (literally in the air conditioning), read and catch up on some blogging. After a wander round Vientiane during which w...
Day 29 - OMMMMM
Trying to experience some more local things in the region, we read about a Wat in the south of V-town where the novice monks offer a free meditation class in return for helping them with their English by talking to them. It was a pretty decent walk away, about 90 minutes or so. In that time we'd ma...
Day 28 - They just keep getting better...
Today was our second proper day of exploring central V-town, which given it's size should cover it off nicely. First stop was the Patuxai monument, built to commemorate the war for Independence from France. Which is apparently why it looks like the Arc de Triomphe. It was also built with funds and c...
Day 27 - Where's the cake?
The Wats in V-town were very different to Thailand and LP; good for us, don't want to get notmorewats-itis. They were a bit more vibrant and different in colour compared to Thailand; and seemed in a much better state of repair than the ones in LP. Of course, there was always the obligatory Tuk Tuk d...
Day 26 - Tuk-Tuk, more like T-I'mascamyou-uk-Tuk
Today was earmarked to go and see one of the central temples in V-town and explore around that area to the north. Given we were in Asia, hadn't done it yet and they were right outside the hotel, we decided to get there by Tuk Tuk. The staff at the hotel said for this journey (about 25 minutes) we sh...
Day 25 - The (hopefully) dodgiest flight of the trip
Today was the last day in Luang Prabang and onward to Vietiane (V-town), the capital of Laos, hopefully leaving our dodgy stomachs behind. Most of our flights are in the afternoon, so a nice leisurely breakfast before getting the taxi to the airport. It was at this point where the quality of the ai...
Day 24 - A(ss)pocalypse 2
Laos drinking water turns out not to be that drinkable...
Day 23 - A day of learning
We started today heading to do a few of the arts and culture parts of LP. First was the Arts and culture centre, then onto the UXO information centre. The Arts & Culture centre is a little museum outlining the different peoples that live in Laos and giving a few details on there idiosyncrasies. we d...
Day 22 - A(ss)pocalypse Now
Massive change in diet and quality of drinking water requires... adaptation
Day 21 - They didn't call me Masterchef
In each country we are trying to go to a cooking class. Culture and all that. Today was the turn of Laos. We booked with a cooking school / restaurant called Tamarind, which was highly recommended online. First thing in the morning we took the long and arduous journey to the restaurant for our trans...
Day 20 - What's that coming over the hill... It's English tourists
A lazy day overall, with one of us feeling unwell, and the other drinking coffee and reading. We didn't do much until later on. In the middle of LP is Mount Phou Si (Being very generous with the Mount part), which is one of the more sacred places in LP, with a number of temples up it. Furthermore, a...
Day 19 - Getting up at WTF O'Clock
One of the recommended things to see in LP is the Alms giving ceremony. This is a religious daily ritual for the local monks (there are quite a few of them in the 30+ temples in a small area). Basically local citizens get up super early and wait on the pavement from 05:30, then the monks walk around...
Day 18 - Lazying around Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang is a town in Laos famous for being a UNESCO heritage site, due to their culture, history and buildings. As such, as you can imagine, there's not a huge amount going on. Which is so fine. After the 90 mph journey that was Thailand, it's nice to take things slow. As such, a large part o...
Day 17 - Country 1, done.
Our last day in Chiang Mai and Thailand. It's been a great start to the tour, busy and hectic, but nice and authentic for the most part (and we've stayed under budget!) We went for another big old breakfast, considering we wouldn't get to Luang Prabang until much later. When we finally got boarded o...
Day 16 - The Elephant Whisperers
Today was one of the more exciting activities we had planned, going to play around with the elephants and stuff. Hannah did a lot of research, trying to find the most ethical sanctuary to go to. There were a lot of conflicting reviews for almost all of them. but Happy elephant home looked like the b...
Day 15 - They call me Masterchef
Today was our first cooking class. We wanted to try and at least understand the food we were eating, in order to better rub it in peoples noses ;) (and maybe make some when we get back home..). We found a highly rated class called the Basil cooking school ran by a woman called Film (it was a name ea...
Day 14 - Don't go chasing disappointing waterfalls
Today was our last proper day on the bikes, so we wanted to get a longer trip in. We decided on the sticky waterfalls; a set of waterfalls which, because of the mineral deposits, you can walk up fairly easily. However, I hurt my back (add to the list of things i can't do, step over a drain), so thou...
Day 13 - Road Trip
Seeing as we hired the bikes for 3 days, we thought we better make use of them and go on a few road trips. First stop was breakfast (we could do this whole blog as a food blog instead!). Nice little cafe called the Hideout cafe that did great bagels and sandwiches. As a good tester, there was the Ro...
Day 12 - The hogs
We went to the gym! For the first time in Chiang Mai. It was a little bit of a walk, but for about £1 entry fee each, not too bad. This did allow us a very guilt free breakfast at Chiang Mai breakfast world; we both ordered what was called the English 'Superior' breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sau...
Day 11 - What? More Wats?
Today was an exploration of the Old town, to see the Wats and monuments in the walled part of Chiang Mai. But first a big day of exploring requires a winner's breakfast... The Wats themselves seems a lot less for show and actually there to be used as temples, or at least most of them did. Some were...
Day 10 - One down, quite a few more to go
Today is the day we say goodbye to the first city in our trip. Bangkok's been incredible, great way to start. Trial by fire to see if you can get on in Asia. For the first time in a long time, we were actually up at not too ridiculous o'clock, as we had to get to the airport for our flight. We decid...
Day 9 - Big end to Bangkok
After now feeling a little better we wanted to see the Chatuchak weekend market, one of the biggest markets in Thailand. We got a taxi there, as it was reasonably far aware and went in for an explore. For a market, and a weekend one at that, it was really well put together. Proper little shops selli...
Day 8 - The shocking, but inevitable turn of events
Turns out the water from the drinking fountains in Bangkok aren't exactly great on the human body. That is all.
Day 7 - Party time
Today was going to be a day of two halves. First a nice easy day, pretty comfortable having a look around the upmarket district. Then in the evening, heading to the party road of Khao San. We went to the malls owned by the Siam group, which were some of the fancier malls in Bangkok. Turns out they l...
Day 6 - Pretty much just food
Today was a pretty lazy day as we were knackered from all the walking and gymming the day before. After a long lie in, we headed up to explore Kao San road in the daytime and some little markets round there. The main event was a boat ride down the Chao Phraya river, going past all the Wats and vario...
Day 5 - Arts and Culture part 2: the educationing
Today was a very busy day and we flew out of bed... just after 9! The reason we were up so (relatively) early was that we'd planned to go and see the big one: Bangkok's Grand Palace. Given it was only a 25 minute walk away, we thought we should walk. This, we would later realise, was an awful idea,...
Day 4 - I would walk 14km and I would walk not a single step more
We thought last night that we should get up early, head to the gym and get back in time for a nice (ish) breakfast at the hostel. This obviously went straight out the window. Although we did make progress on yesterday, we actually managed to get the breakfast at the hostel...just. (they stop serving...
Day 3 - Lets go to the mall!
Our first proper day in Bangkok and of our amazing trip, we decided to make the most of it... and get up at a spritely 11am. Given the jetlag and time difference, this was actually quite good. In order to ease our way into the time zone and Bangkok, we decided to go explore a few of the malls and t...
Day 2 - Team Mussells has arrived
Disembarkation... After leaving the plane, the first thing we noticed. was O God it was HOT! At least a good 29c and very humid. This made the once leisurely stroll between plane and airport a race to move from one air conditioned room to another (Good thing is I assume this issue will never come...
Day 001
Chris' log, travelling date 001 Quick update - you can follow our map to get an email update when we post something new! On the main map page, follow the arrows below... After waking early to try and acclimatise to the Thai time zone, I stumbled upon a most terrifying creature, a tired Hans Rolus (H...