Our adventures with Jack.

For those of you who don't know Jack is our faithful scooter. He has given us the freedom we need to explore our precious Bali. 

This is jack. 

There have been a few comments made to us, that apparently spending everyday tanning by the pool is not good use of our time. Therefore we have accepted the challenge to go and explore the island and not eat any meals in our Warung (hotel). 

After being laughed at and being told we could not last a day we decided we had to prove them wrong and here are the results! 

  

Our first big challenge was too make our way to this gorgeous beach- Balagan. We'd been here before but this time we made it on our own! 

Our next challenge was to make it to here- Greenbowls beach. We had been teased that this place was impossible to find and we'd be texting the surf camp in minutes asking for directions...they were wrong! 

And here is the proof! 

After having a particularly unadventurous day yesterday, today we decided to be Uber adventurous and just drive and see where we ended up! 

This is what we found...

Padawana beach, a long stretch of beach not very well know! It was stunning, I have to say as adventures go this was an amazing place to end up and a fun drive down. 

We even stopped for a spot of cheeky breakfast on the way. 

After living on egg for the past two weeks this was a real treat. 

Unfortunately, another famous Balianese storm has hit so we've got to sit this one out. Bring on tomorrow and another adventure with Jack! 

Little ones last days.

It's like we lost a limb, our little one has left us. 

This meant Leaving the two of us to face Asia on our own, that meant braving Kuta without supervision. 

Lets just say the less said about Kuta the better, it's the Magaluf of Bali and quite frankly not our cup of tea at all. Though our Maccy D's almost made going there worth it. Plus we have now extended our flights so we have an extra week of Bali. 

Luckily little ones last days were full of sunshine, relaxing and a little bit of drinking and dancing... you can't just have one Bintang now can you. 

We were lucky enough to have bungalows with our own pool before LG leave, which meant the hardest decision we had to make every was whether we went to the beach or pool. We know our lives were hard. 

LG even tried her hand at meditation, in an attempt to have one last Buddha moment...our lecturers would be proud of her.

Even if the meditation did help, a lot of beer and giggling have made us realise a lot about us. You we right little one, we came on this trip As friends and left as best friends, 2 and months together in Asia bonds you like nothing us. 

Bring on the reunion. 

Best morning ever.

It finally happened, one of the main reasons we came to Asia, we finally met elephants - you can see our excitement. 

 

During our time in Ubud, we decided to take a trip to the elephant safari park to meet our giant friends and boy, were they awesome. 

We started the day we and elephant ride though the jungle, before getting to hand feed and cuddle these amazing creatures. There was also a new born baby at the park, who was only 2months old, she was so cute but seemed to have a little trouble swimming.

Photo op...

Our elephant was called Nocci, she was the young age of 25, and was described to us as her trainers "second wife". The trainers travel over to Bali with their elephants from Sumatra and most have been with their elephants for at least 13years. You could see the bond between them. M elephant was called Melanie and was a little big and older than ours, but still just as awesome and maybe a little more sturdy....

 We each had a turn cuddling and feeding the elephants, which was definitely the best part of the whole day, they are all so friendly, especially when you have food.

Mum can we have one...? 

Little one turn 21+1.

First of all for those of you who don't know, little one is LG and she was luck enough to turn 22 (or 21+1 as she calls it) in Bali - lucky sod.

We managed to find ourselves our own little bit of paradise to stay in and settle down for two days of pure relaxation. We had everything we needed: a pool, beach, A/C, coconuts but the sea and wine - what else does a girl need?

We tried our best to even arrange a surprise cake for her, unfortunately the Balinese are not as subtle as we are, and the waiter asking "you want cake now?" Kinda gave our surprise away. Luckily little one managed to laugh it off and we spent the evening drinking wine and stuffing our faces with cake and even planning our imaginary weddings in Bali...we wish.

A perfect few days in a perfect location. Once again Happy Birthday little one, hopefully this will be a birthday that will be hard to top.

Xxx

Hue to Hoi an and the little bit inbetween.

After a week on the manic streets of Hanoi we finally got to head off down south to Hue. We managed to survive our first night train and at 11am the following morning we arrived in Hue.

Since we only had only two days in Hue, we had a lot to cram in in one afternoon and decided the best way to do this was on the back of a motorbike. It was amazing. And definitely the best way to see it all. To be honest I think we would have been happy just driving around on them for 3 hours but I guess we had to do some cultural things too!

In our one full day in Hue we decided to do a tour of the DMZ (demilitarisation zone). I have to say as a first off, history doesn't really excite me and I still don't really get the Vietnam war (even though its been explained to me many times), so in hindsight this tour may not have been for me. Either way we seemed like a lot of driving, with a women who had said her speech so many times she had turned into a robot. The only good bit were the tunnels where people used to hide, I really feel for them because being 23m underground with one toilet for 70 people does not sound fun!

After a long day on a bus, it was time for another bus - 4 hours to Hoi An. It was definitely worth it, Hoi An is lush. It's the perfect combination of small town and a beach and there are no car zones - a big bonus in Vietnam! We spent our first few days renting bikes and cycling to the beach, having lunch, sunbathing and cycling home to spend our evenings with 12p ice cold beers on the riverside -we are literally living the dream. We even allowed ourselves the luxury of getting ourselves so clothes custom made, so excited.

Thank you Hoi An you have made us sane again. 

Ha Long bay.

Apparently we are not very good at cities. And since you really have to see it while in Vietnam, we decided to book ourselves on to a trip to Ha Long Bay.

For the bargain price of $95 we got 2 days and 1 night in Ha Long, including an overnight stay on a boat. I have to admit you could not fault it. The boat was very clean and tidy and they supplied us with endless plates of incredible food - I can definitely see how people come back from Asia fatter than when they came. We were really lucky with our crew members as they were mainly all our age, our crew consisted of: 3 Dutch, 2 Americans, 3 older Brits, a Filipino and us. Luckily we bonded all pretty quickly.

Standing on top of one of the Ha Long bay islands, someone piped up with: "we have seen some many amazing things, that they seem as amazing as they should." Now don't get us wrong, the bay was breath-taking, but after seeing all that we have it just doesn't have the same impact. It is a shame in some ways that we couldn't have seen it earlier in the trip as maybe we would have appreciated it more.

Unfortunately words don't really do the scenery enough justice, so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking and give you a rough outline of what we did during those 36 hours:

- we were picked up by a mini bus for 4 hours journey to Ha long bay and our boat. (Word of advice: don't take random Thai anti-travel sick tablets. They completely knocked us out for the majority of the journey!)
- next was check in and a huge lunch before we headed off for a swim and a hike up some stairs to the best view in Ha long.
- next M and LG headed off for a canoe round the bay, I was jealous but the fear of falling in took over so I didn't want to brave it.
- time to head back to the boat for dinner and squid fishing, which was not only dull but we were appalling at, before bed.
- the next morning we awoke nice and early for breakfast before heading too some caves. They were lovely but it was far to early to appreciate them properly. Then it was time to head home to Hanoi. Shame we could have stayed for longer but that trip was fully booked.

Next we have the excited of a 12hour overnight train to Hue, wish us luck!!!

Songkran

Well firstly let's start by saying what Songkran is. It is the Thai new year and meant to be a holy occasion. Thai's poor water over the Buddha as a sign of respect, then take to the streets for a city wide water fight. We have yet to experience the Buddhist side properly but the water fight, we have definitely encountered!

After spending many walks unarmed through the street of Patong, with people taking full advantage of this, by getting us very wet! We got involved and took to the street with buckets, after taking a lot of abuse, we decided revenge is a dish best served wet!

We may have attacked a lot off innocent bystanders but also soaked many people with water guns and buckets. If you can't beat them soak them!

This is an amazing festival, even for me and I'm not the biggest fan of water. A brilliant was to end two weeks in Thailand.

Happy Songkran everyone, we are off for round two!

The islands.

Firstly let me say we are sorry LG, Thailand is awesome! As most of you know I hate being proved wrong but this is only exceptional. I'm not going to lie I wasn't excited for Thailand at all, but it's amazing and the first place we've been to that I wish we could stay in longer. I really want to come back, summer holiday maybe?

While it is currently snowing in the UK we are in 34 degree heat in the Phi Phi island and its amazing - sorry to rub it in. This is our third stop on our Thai tour, next stop a chill in Koh Lanta.

Not too bore you with too lengthier blog post, I think it's just easy if we high light the main points of this awesome trip.

Phuket- What can I say about Phuket? Well it was an eye opener. Having never been in a 18-30's type holiday, lets call Patong an eye opener. From what I can tell it was Zante on acid. There was a crazy strip full of massive clubs, lady boys and people trying to get you into ping pong shows, definitely an experience. There beaches around Phuket were pretty but not Thailand's best. They were also not the easiest to reach, an elephant blocked our path to one beach - only in Thailand.

James Bond island- We decide to tear ourselves away from Phuket's beaches and went for a day tour of James Bond island - which I think featured in man with the golden gun....
Although the tour guide deserved to be pushed overboard - he was extremely annoying - the tour was amazing. In one day we: swam off an island, went canoeing in caves, saw James Bond island, went to a floating Muslim village and had a sun set cruise home. Brilliant!

Koh Phi Phi - After the James Bond trip we made a slightly impulsive (and partially alcohol fuelled) decision to leave Phuket and head off to the Phi Phi's. Best decision we've made. The Phi Phi were amazing, a tiny island full of beach bars/clubs, diving trips, market stalls and bungalows- a travellers heaven, if your in your twenties!

We spend our days, lazing on beaches and dancing the nights away on the same beach with a Chang in our hands in the evening. These islands allowed us to let our hair down and after Nepal, India and Sri Lanka we deserved it.

The girls got to go on a boat trip to Maya bay snorkelling the next day- unfortunately I was too ill to go so I'll let the girls fill you in on another post.

We are currently in Koh Lanta, for a detox after a crazy start to Thailand. Bring on the beaches and the massages and some cheeky cocktails.

Finally something is going right!