Dear family, friends, blogosphere, I'm sorry I have been neglecting you.
Here's where, how and why:
2016 continued
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| Bangkok Songkran water fight! |
After Koh Kood we spent a week in Bangkok getting soaked at Songkran, getting our Vietnamese visas and discovering we had overstayed by two days - fine duly paid.
From there we went to the Philippines - don't ask. I stopped writing about the trip because I was too busy at times enjoying it and at others learning more about myself and my partner sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
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| Worker's transport, Philippines |
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| Beach for 2? Perhentian Islands |
So we flip flopped to Krabi a great base to mooch about in and from. We made the mistake of going to Koh Phi Phi Don for a weekend - think Magaluf on speed and despite my best efforts the beachfront tsunami memorial was nowhere to be found.
Then oh oh! Remember we had overstayed once already and what with our sailing schedule, it was time for a visa run. Thus, we headed north to Chang Mai - beautiful temples, great coffee and shopping. After enjoying the city for a night or two we took as The Beard likes to refer to it, "the slow boat to China" a two day, 18 hour boat ride along the mighty Mekong into Laos.
Luang Prabang is a bit like Stratford Upon Avon as in it has been 'preserved or restored' to be exactly as it was or some would say as it is expected to be seen. Anyhow, I loved it although I found the night market not to my taste, especially as in the same street you can find many little boutiques selling interesting clothes and jewellery. Alas, we didn't make it to the late night bowling (drinking) alley.
Vientiane is a working city with views across the water straight into Thailand, if you have a Thai sim, stand near the water and you can connect to your network.
Then it was back to Thailand to Phuket to be exact. On my previous trip to Thailand I vowed never to set foot on the island as it was just to commercialised. Well Patong and Kata may be but there are plenty of other places to discover including Phuket town.
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| Graffiti, Phuket Town |
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| Phuket Town |
We stayed in Ao Long, our friend's parents live there and we were invited to take part in their local yacht club's regatta. Much fun was had with Bob and the rest of the Allegro team.
Cape Panwa raceweek was next, The Beard sailed with team Hurricane, whilst I enjoyed our near deserted resort and the gala parties. Many thanks to June and Alan for their hospitality.
We left Phuket for what we thought would be the highlight of our trip, Myanmar. Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake, Yangon. We had planned to stay longer but the traveller fatigue had set in, we were done attempting to barter, checking for pristine dollar notes in the exact denomination and having paid to get somewhere only to have to pay again for entry - we don't mind, just tell us beforehand.
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| Bagan, Myanmar |
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| Inle Lake, Myanmar |
With a few weeks left, we decided to take a holiday within our "holiday". Where to go?!
Where we started, Ko Chang. The island welcomed us back with open arms and hearts. Thanks to Mo, we found a lovely apartment in Kai Bae and for the first time in over 5 months, we unpacked.
2 weeks and several hangovers later, we started the journey home. Thanks Emirates for letting us drink the bar dry BKK - DXB, and also the Travelodge at terminal 3 for having a surprisingly good bar/restaurant allowing us to continue our home coming party. Alas, when we came round for our DXB - BCN flight the next day, we discovered that I had left all chargers and headphones onboard the previous aircraft. Hey ho, we'd managed 6 months without losing anything!
Then just like that, we were home in time for a paella lunch.
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| At the end of our street |
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