Our adventure in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia...
27-03-2011
THE END... Our trip in a few figures!
We are now back to Belgium Happy to see all of you again but sad that this great experience has come to an end! But we definitely finish this trip with an huge number of great memories (amazing landscapes, moments, people, ) We will miss all of you guys but for sure we will see you again somewhere, you never know! The world is so small ;-)
Our best of is:
-The New Zealand South island for its amazing nature
-Laos for its great people and mountain landscapes (not for its jungle ;-) )
-The Australian Red Centre (Uluru) for its cultural and mystic history
In a summary (as consultants we like figures he):
-We visited 9 countries: Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines and Vietnam and were confronted to 7 different languages.
-We took 19 planes during our trip, the longest one being 13 hours!
-We slept in 81 different beds/hostels during these five months. So on average, we stayed 1,8 days at the same place ;-)We will be happy to find our bed back!
-We had to deal with 12 different currencieseven two in some countries (In Cambodia, you can pay in dollars and rills).Marjan was definitely the best one at this!
-We visited 12 UNESCO world heritage sites!
-And we are proud to announce that during these 5 months we had about 12 days of rain! So we cant complain
Time to give you an update on our experience in North Vietnam
Early arrival in Hanoi Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and the busiest city in the country.Crossing a street is more than a challenge ;-) Best way is to shadow a Vietnamese and always keep the same speed while crossing!We enjoyed a walk in the city passing by Hoan Kiem lake, Ngoc pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Cathedral, After visiting the city we enjoyed a coffee in a bar situated at one of the busiest road crossing in Hanoi A show on its own!
The day after, we enjoyed a day trip to the Halong bay on the rice paddies (Baie dHalong terrestre en français).It was amazing! Imagine a landscape like the Halong bay but with rice paddies all around you.We enjoyed a small boat trip around the paddies.Our captain was an old lovely lady!
The next day we decided to take a three days tour to the Halong Bay With an overnight stay on the boat and a night on Monkey island located in front of Cat Ba island.We clearly double checked the quality of the boat and didnt take the cheapest price on that one ;-) Security before money!!!!
Unfortunately, we had to admire the Halong Bay in the fog and under the rain but still this site remains extraordinary! This site is classified as World heritage by the UNESCO.The boat trip was nice and we met great people A special hello to Camilla and Jenny!
Now, it was time to head to our last Vietnamese destination being Haiphong! Haiphong is a bit out of the beaten tracks! A Vietnamese city of about 2,5 million inhabitants where two of our friends Dorothée and Reggy are expatriated!We relaxed for two days at their place THANKS AGAIN FOR THE WARM WELCOME!And a special thanks to Reggy for the motorcycle course, the visit of the harbor and taking back to Belgium part of our luggage and a special thanks to Dorothée for the movies and series J I enjoyed them in the plane!
While writing this post, we are on the plane back to Europe after two days of shopping in Bangkok.Our backpacks are full of presents and good memories!
The centre of Vietnam just before the Ben Hai river which was the former line between the South and North Vietnam.
First stop in that region is Hoi An which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site Hoi An is in a way similar to Luang Prabang in Laos.A cozy and small city really colorful and particular for its houses architecture but also tailor made clothes.Of course, we could not resist of making dresses, jackets and top First time in our lives, an evening dress was done just for us in a few hours! ;-)
One of the top excursion from Hoi An is My Son An ancient Cham city also recognized as World site by the UNESCO.The ruins are nestled in a valley surrounded by hills A really peaceful place with a lot of history. A pity, the Vietnam war has destroyed a lot of the temples.
After having burdened our backpacks with our new clothes, time to move to the next stop, Hue!Hue is located at about 5 hours drive from Hoi An and is known for its palaces, pagodas and royal tombs.We decided to join a day tour in order to visit the different highlights. We have been particularly surprised by the beauty of the royal tombs dating from the 19th and 20th centuries They look like castles and all have a specific architecture!
Important point just to let you know that since Hue we are under the rain and clouds we are starting our preparation before coming back to our rainy Belgium ;-)Who says it is always sunny in Asia?
See you in the north of Vietnam for our next post! On our agenda Hanoi, Halong Bay and Halong Bay on the rice paddies! J
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong delta and Mui Né!
Vietnam the last destination of our trip unfortunately! Arrival at the Ho Chi Minh City airport from Manila in the middle of the night! First challenge avoid any taxi issue at the airport! Indeed we heard a lot from fellow backpackers that finding a taxi with a proper meter is a bit though But we managed quite well passing the last few months in Asia has definitely helped. We escaped the first weird taxi driver who wanted us to pay before even leaving the airport and found a proper taxi J
In Ho Chi Minh (also known as Saigon), we had the luxury to sleep in an amazing house A BIG THANK YOU to Isabelle and Olivier to warmly welcome us during these few days and making us remember what a cheese tasted! J
Just to give you a flavor, this is what the Lonely Planet is mentioning about Ho Chi Minh City Fasten your seatbelts! Ho Chi Minh City is a metropolis on the move and we are not only talking about the motorbikes that throng the streets.
We walked around Ho chi Minh City for an afternoon visiting the Reunification palace, the cathedral, the central market Crossing a street is indeed a challenge between all the motorcycles. (To give youre an idea, more than one person out of two in Vietnam has a motorcycle!)
The day after we left for a one day excursion to the Mekong delta and more specifically to Vinh Long and Cai Be where you can admire a floating market. We also visited some typical villages well known for preparing coconut candys, rice cookies and honey. A great day even if under the clouds
After spending 3 nights at our friends in Ho Chi Minh, it was time to take the backpack again and head up north to Mui Né which is a coastal city at about 6 hours drive from Saigon. We enjoyed an afternoon at the sea and visited the Mui Né sand dunes quite amazing! You have the impression that you are in the middle of the Sahara but you are in the south of Vietnam. Check the below pictures! We also had the chance to go to one of the close by fishing village. Fisherman have really special boats being in a shape of a bamboo basket!
Again, time to go up north to Hoi An and Hue which are two world heritage cities located in the centre of Vietnam. Of course, we had the luxury to enjoy a 17 hours bus drive ;-)
The Philippines Banaue and the famous Batad rice terraces!
Back to Manila after a flight from Boracay
As we already visited the city upon our arrival we directly booked a night bus to go up North to Banaue which is the starting point for the rice terraces visit.
Long time ago we didnt enjoy a night bus and we know why our sleep was rather limited Music in our ears, stops every 1h to load extra people on the bus and no road in some areas A good cocktail to make it a really short night!We arrived around 7h30 in Banaue where we directly went to our guesthouse for a well-deserved breakfast!
Our plan was to visit the rice terraces World heritage listed, they are impressive not only for their beauty but because they were created around 2000 years by the Ifugao. Batads amphitheatre-like stone-walled rice terraces are widely considered the worlds most striking.
We tried to gather a few people in order to form a group to do a day excursion at a reasonable price for everyone!Again, a special hello to Jess, Ben and Marion with whom we spent the day!
We left the hostel at 7:00 AM (yes, it is not that we are sleeping until 10 AM every day ;-) ) with a jeepney (to give you an idea, it is what you would get if you crossed a jeep with a bus) for a 1h30 drive into the mountains.From there, we had a 1h walk to the Batad amphitheatre and then a 3 hours walk through the rice terraces.The views were a-ma-zing!Now we know why it is listed as UNESCO world heritage!
After this day of hiking, it was time already for us to take a night bus back to Manila as our Philippines journey stops already here!We are currently at the airport of Manila waiting for our flight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city). See you in Vietnam for the next post!
PS/ I nearly lost Marjan during the last night bus trip she got locked into the bus toilets! Fortunately, thanks to the help of the bus driver and a German guy, we got her out! JWe are still two on the road!!!!
We didnt know at all what to expect about Manila we heard so many bad things about this city but at the end, let say that we have been positively surprised.On the opposite of our other destinations, The Philippines are less the place to be for backpackers.It is a bit out of the beaten tracks so you dont meet so many fellow travelers.
What to say about Manila? It is an enormous metropolis counting around 11 million inhabitants so bigger than Belgium!So as mentioned in the Lonely Planet, this is exactly the sort of place in which there is bound to be a good bit of chaos.We are not only talking about the traffic here ;-) The city is composed of different cities, the most touristic ones being Intramuros, Malate, Ermita & Makati.
We have been visiting the three!Intramuros is the historic part of Manila where you can visit the Fort Santiago built by the Spanish in the 16th century.Malate and Ermite is where the most guesthouses are located and Makati is the financial district of the city where most shopping malls are located!
We also had the chance to admire the sunset on Manila from the famous Roxas Boulevard Dont forget that Manila is a seaside city with a big harbor activity.
In a summary, again an Asian controversial city where on the one hand, you have all shopping malls and posh areas and on the other hand, areas with loads of townships.
After passing two days in Manila, we left the famous metropolis to take an internal flight to Kalibo in order to go to Boracay island. Boracay is well known for its glorious White Beach with white sand, turquoise water and amazing sunsets. Check the pictures below you wont be disappointed!
Arriving on the island, the weather was unfortunately not as we expected it but after two days we got one day of sun and a beautiful sunset JI wont be long describing what we did as it can be summarized in a few words being sleeping, eating, sunbathing, swimming and partying! A good program isnt it? ;-) Im sure you are jealous!A special hello to the people we met over there Mike, Alison and Sam J
After relaxing for a few days at the beach, it was time to get back to Manila again to explore the Northern region.We wanted to visit the famous Batad rice terraces classified as world heritage by the UNESCO!See you there
Next country on our list Cambodia! We didnt really know what to expect about this new country except that we could not miss the famous Angkor temples
Our first landing point was Siem Reap the departure city for the visit of the famous Angkor temples! Siem Reap is a two-faced city with on the one hand, the overdevelopment of the city to attract tourists and on the other hand, a city being one of the poorest in Cambodia. To be honest with you we didnt really like it it was too much!
But we enjoyed the Angkor temples We decided to visit the site by bicycle. We got two bicycles for the day for one dollar each, so a real bargain. Definitely, the cheapest way to visit the Angkor temples! ;-)
To give you an idea, Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world, it is the Khmers national symbol, the epicenter of their civilization and a source of fierce national pride (dixit the Lonely Planet).
The Angkor temples regroup more than hundreds temples the most famous ones are Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom, Ta Phrom is one of the only temples being as the European explorers discovered it in the 19th century. Indiana Jones would feel right at home in this temple ;-) We really appreciated it you can really realize the power of the jungle (here we come again ;-) )
We then left Siem Reap to go to Battambang the second largest city in Cambodia and the fourth touristic destination of the country. We wanted first to go there by boat but after checking the length of the trip being 4h to 7h (nobody has been clear) we decided to take the bus, especially that it is here the dry season, this means no water at some places I let you imagine what could have happened! ;-) We have to admit that Battambang is not really the place to be and there is not a lot to see but we enjoyed relaxing on a terrace of one the remaining French colonial houses.
The next day, we enjoyed again a six hours bus drive to Phnom Penh, the capital of the country!We had a chock arriving at the final bus station.The police had to put barriers to let us go out of the bus as a wild group of tuk tuk drivers was literally shouting at the arriving tourists for a tuk tuk ride! Oh my God, the tone was given! We finally ended up on one of these crazy machines in order to reach one of the city centre guesthouses.
The day after we have enjoyed a tour around the city passing by the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, the Independence monument, different temples, the central market, The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda are particularly impressive! Check the pictures below.So as a summary, great monuments but a crazy city where below rules apply:
·Dont look twice but FIVE times if you want to cross the street!
·Never look at a tuk tuk waiting along the road otherwise he will follow you being sure you want to jump on his crazy machine!
·Dont wear skirts I pass you the details on this one!
·
After another 5 hours bus drive, we are now at the Cambodian seaside Not yet Ibiza but here this is the place To Be for holidays. The most famous city is Sihanoukville!We nearly slept on the beach as all hostels were full This is the start of the week of the Chinese New year and it seems all Cambodian wanted to enjoy a sunbath at the seaside! After checking about 10 accommodations, we found out one of the last rooms available! After a well deserved night, we enjoyed an afternoon at the beach! Key word was RELAXING before taking a night bus to Bangkok where we have our flight to our next destination the Philippines (See the PS for details).
AGAIN our bus trip turns into a kind of unexpected journey Instead of taking 12 hours as originally announced, it took us exactly 23 hours to reach Bangkok!!!! The southern border between Cambodia and Thailand being closed at night, we had to go up north to reach another border.
PS/ Important thing to mention we wanted to avoid the Chinese New Year week in Vietnam (week of the 3rd Feb) as all prices are triple and all Vietnamese are on holidays so everything is closed in the country! So after investigating different possibilities we have decided to go to the Philippines to discover the rice terraces of Banaue and the famous sunset of Boracay J
Our next destination was Vang Vieng a city well-known on the one hand for its parties and tubing activities and on the other hand, for its amazing mountain landscapes. As mentioned in the Lonely Planet, you like it or you hate it ;-) For us, let say that we didnt fall in love with the city but we enjoyed a 35km bicycle ride in the surroundings.We drove through local villages, rice paddies, Really nice landscapes but the last kilometers have been a bit though as again we were riding on paths with hundreds of stones no roads!
In the evening, we joined two Quebecois, Jasmin and Charles, in order to practice our Old French expressions ;-) We had a good time laughing around a Lao Fondue We definitely ate too much but it was sooooo good! J
In Laos, you have to know that most of the backpackers are heading to the same cities so we had the pleasure to share again the same minibus/hostel as Rachel, Joe, Fabien and Matt J Patrik did not follow us as he felt in love with the famous plain of jaaaaars ;-)
After two days in Vang Vieng, it was time again to take a bus (this time a bigger one) to Vientiane the capital of Laos. This is the most industrialized city of the country We enjoyed a walk around the city passing by the Morning market (lasting until 5PM) where Marjan bought a watch, some temples, a duplicate of the Paris Arc de Triomphe,
In the afternoon, by chance, we met again our backpackers friends on a terrace.We shared a tuk tuk with Joe and Rachel to go to the Buddha Park This park is located at about 25km from Vientiane and is full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures. Check the pictures below quite fascinating!
Our Laos experience has already come to its end L We are currently in the plane for Siem Reap in Cambodia!See you there for new adventures
Below some updates about the two next cities/sites we have been visiting after leaving the famous jungle Luang Prabang and the Plain of jars.
What to say about Luang Prabang in the Lonely Planet, the city is described as the most sophisticated, photogenic city in the whole of South East Asia. The tone is given The city atmosphere is really nice.Relaxing on a terrace is a sport on its own in Luang Prabang ;-)
Luang Prabang is also an old French settlement so you can easily find there: croissants, baguettes, cakes, Mmmmhhhh. Things that we didnt eat for a while but we definitely did a big catch up in a few days ;-)
In the evening, the main street of the city is transformed into a great colorful night market again extra kilos in the backpack especially for Isa!
After our jungle experience, we were a bit afraid to join any guided tour again but we decided to do a half day elephant trekking! We were this time with a group of 10 people and had really good fun.The elephants are great animals Check the pictures below!
After a few days in Luang Prabang where we completely recover from our jungle experience, we took a bus to Phonsavan which is the starting city to visit the mysterious Plain of jars. The Plain of jars is a large area where huge jars of unknown origin are scattered about in dozen of groupings. We got lucky and met on the minibus to Phonsavan, a group of nice backpackers with whom we spent the next days.A special hello to Rachel, Joe, Fabien, Matt and Patrik! J
Within the region, there are also several fascinating sites related to the CIA Secret War (from 1965 to 1973) during which the US devastated Eastern and North Eastern Laos with no stop carpet-bombing to counter the presence of the North Vietnamese in the country.
We have been visiting a Russian tank, a US Lima S108 airstrip, two hospital caves, and a UXO site (Unexploded ordnance site) full of unexploded bombs.No worries, this time we had a BRILLIANT guide ;-)
It is now time to jump on a minibus AGAIN in order to reach our next destination. Please take into account that in Laos, roads are not existing and turning without an end! So on average, you drive 35km/h trying to avoid anything that could be on your way: cows, pigs, chickens, kids, other vehicles,
Laos not a lot to say about this country yet as we spent (unfortunately) most of our time in the jungle!
You might have heard about our crazy experience into the Lao jungle but let start from the beginning again it is worth to spend some time explaining to you what really happened!
After crossing the Mekong to come to Laos, we took a bus up North to reach Luang Nam Tha, a village into the mountains. This village is well-known to start a trekking into the jungle. You can find there a lot of agencies proposing one, two or three days treks into the jungle.
We subscribed for a GUIDED 2 days trek where we had to walk about 6h the first day in order to arrive to a remote village, spent the night into the village and walk about 4h on the second day in order to come back to civilization. Until there everything seems to be under control
We left at 8:30AM and went first to the local market in order to grab some food for our trek cabbage, tomatoes, chicken, rice, bananas, We left the civilization around 10AM! We walked for 6 hours before our guide turned to us and announced us that we were lost into the jungle. He lost the path and could not find it back Knowing that it is dark at 6PM, there was only 2 hours left to find our way! At that point he told us that the river that we were seeing far away at the bottom of the valley was next to the village we had to go we then decided to follow his advice and cut through the jungle in order to get as fast as possible to the village Problem is that after 2 hours walking, no sign of the river nor the village at all and no daylight anymore The guide kindly proposes us to continue walking with our flashlights into the dark (as he didnt had one of course) But we told him this was just crazy and that we would better quickly build a shelter with the last ray of lights and spent the night where we were. Of course, no need to mention that there was no phone connection at all in the jungle so no way that we could talk to anyone!
We spent the night completely wet squeezed to each other in order to try to keep warm Daylight only came back around 6:30AM so we spent a 12h night in our shelter. We didnt sleep at all jungle is quite scary at night a lot of strange and unidentified noise
At 7:15AM we decided to start the walking again problem was we were in the middle of nowhere so what was the best option going back and try to find back the point we got lost meaning at least 3h walk going back up through the jungle OR continuing going down hoping the river that we saw the day before will appeared at some point The guide convinced us to continue walking down! But again, around 10AM, still no sign of any village nor river L and we were even further into the jungle . No way to contact anyone and that anyone could find us!
So at that point, we shouted at the guide and told him, the only way to get out of this sh*** was to come back on our paces . Meaning about 5 hours of walk up the hill again! I still dont know how we did it but WE DID IT! We reached the summit of a hill (we didnt know which one yet) around 2PM! (Oh yes I also forgot to tell you that we had 2 tomatoes as food that day as all the rest had to be cooked or had been lost the day before due to the difficult walk into the jungle ).
At that point, we asked our guide to put on his mobile but of course, just to make the story a little bit more spicy his mobile was empty! Grrr Fortunately, we had our Belgian mobiles with us and we could put his SIM card in our mobile The connection was really limited but existing J Our goal was to call the office of the agency we booked at in order to let them know we were completely lost. Problem is all phone numbers were stored on the mobile of the guide and not his SIM card But you know, when the situation starts to be completely desperate, something always happens and for us, the guy of the agency tried to call us J YOUHOU we could talk to him but of course we could not tell him where we were as we didnt know
How did we find our way back? We found back on the way 2 tomatoes that we lost the day before and the sticker of my backpack that I lost the day before falling in a big whole . (falling is good sometimes ;-) )! So we walked until 6PM (meaning 11h of walk) where we met the guy from the agency who came to us with some food!
From there, we still had to walk 3 hours in the dark with our mobiles as light in order to reach a remote village in the mountains where they could offer us a bed, a fire and some food!
We spent a great night even if sleeping between the pigs and the dogs Thanks to all these local tribes that really helped us!
The day after, around 11AM, we took our backpack again to walk the last 2 hours to reach civilization again!
So as a summary, we walked 24 hours from which 22h on two days with as food one lunch, some bananas and 2 tomatoes and a night in the jungle! A bit tough isnt it?...
We are currently recovering from our wounds, bites, fever, at the hostel: ZUELA Guesthouse in Luang Nam Tha (an address to definitely recommend!). The people here are really nice and helped us a lot!
Tomorrow, it is time to take our backpacks again and leave the jungle for Luang Prabang! J