We’ve been back for over a week now but as we won’t be seeing a few of you for a while and for our own memories I though I’d finish off the last 3 weeks of our travels.

I think the last place we wrote about was Vientiane and from there we went onto Vang Vieng. The bus ride here was horrendous as the ‘main’ road in Laos is still pretty much a dirt track which winds up into the hills but is apparently much improved. It didn’t help that the bus driver was a bit kamikaze, with both a speedometer and petrol gauge which didn’t work (I was sat far too close to the front!). Despite the guys speed we though we were never going to get there as this woman kept making the bus stop so she could go to the loo. He kept stopping just near bushes so she didn’t have much privacy and there were a load of gap year students on the back of the bus who thought it was hilarious. Poor woman.

Once we finally got to Vang Vieng it was a bit of a culture shock due to the sheer tackiness of the place. It’s quite a small town but totally geared to tourists with Friends (or occasionally Family Guy) on constant re run in the cafes and restaurants with rows and rows of reclining seats. The main reason to come here is to go tubing down the river and stop at the many bars along the way. Unfortunately there was torrential rain for most of the time we were there so the river level was stupidly high and fast! After getting the tuk tuk up to the start I have never felt so old! The start is just a line of bars/shacks pumping out (crap) music and offering various different buckets of drink, plus lots of rope swings (only Sam dared to try) and bar workers trying to get you to play beer pong etc. After a few drinks we finally plucked up the courage to get on the river and it was actually more fun that I thought it would be. After a few buckets of drinks, some swings and slides it resulted in me being passed out face down at 7pm – as I suspected def far too old for this stuff!

Anyway after a surprising lack of hangover the next day we made our long journey to the island of Koh Phi Phi in Thailand via Vientiane, Bangkok and Phuket. Just to say that Phuket is horrid and we only stayed there because we missed the last ferry to Koh Phi Phi. However, Koh Phi Phi is beautiful – a place of white beaches and turquoise seas. We stayed in a bungalow on stilts on the gorgeous Long Beach with a balcony with the most amazing view back of the bay and over to Koh Phi Phi Leh. As there are no real roads on Koh Phi Phi we had to get a Long Boat there which made it feel quite magical. We didn’t do a lot on Koh Phi Phi apart from relax, sunbathe, sleep, drink and I even went into the sea up to my shoulders. It was the perfect relaxation place and a stark contrast to our next place – Bangkok!

They say you either love or hate Bangkok and I think you can say we fall more on the side of hate it. Maybe it’s because the first time we were there it was just a visa run and the second time was after the peaceful Koh Phi Phi. We stayed in a lovely hotel suite that had this star trek style remote that controlled everything in the room. As we didn’t see too much last time we were here we decided to start with a trip down the famous Koh San Road which is horrid. Really really horrid. One of the first things we saw was a big group of English lads working their way through giant pitcher things of beer at 10.30 in the morning. They were surrounded by other people that looked and sounded like they had been awake all night and there were people trying to sell you stuff everywhere. Needless to say we quickly left there and went to see the array of different Buddha’s in Bangkok. We saw the big reclining one, the solid gold one and the emerald one.
Next was the mammoth trip to Beijing. Essentially we ended up being awake for 36 hours missing our connecting flight in Shanghai, travelling across Shanghai to the other airport for an hour then finally getting to Beijing to find that the hotel we booked months in advance hand no room for us but they could put us in a sister hotel round the corner. This turned out to be a grotty hostel 10 min drive away and there is currently a complaints email with STA as when they tried to move us back to our original hotel they could only put us in a bunk bed – not a happy Stacey. Despite this Beijing is amazing!!

The Great Wall of China is more astounding than I could ever have imagined. We went to do a 10k trek on a part of the wall 3 hours from Beijing. This bit of wall is good to see as part of it is renovated but the rest isn’t. Once you get there it’s just weird to see ho it literally just seems to go on for ever and ever and ever. For as far as you can see there are turrets on the horizon. Truly amazing. Apparently, there are so many bricks in the wall that they could wrap around the world if you built the wall 5m high and 1m thick, but you can’t see it from space.

The next day we did a city tour and saw the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, silk maker, pearl maker, tea ceremony and Chinese hospital. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen as many people in one place as we saw at the Forbidden City – it was horrid and due to the Chinese dislike of forming any kind of queue meant it was an all out fight to see anything. The Summer Palace was amazing especially all the Chinese OAPs, who come there to exercise in the gardens, dance or sing in the choir. The Chinese hospital followed by a tea ceremony was a great end to the day. We got a foot massage at the hospital which meant it felt like we were walking on jelly after and then a cup of tea after can’t be beaten! Another thing that kept us entertained throughout the day was the guide trying to chat up the Russian girl on our tour. Personally Sam and I thought she looked a little like Spock (she had weird tattooed eyebrows). She barely spoke English but he kept trying with one of his opening lines being ‘it’s very beautiful here and so are you’. Puke.

We then decided to add to the 9 million bicycles in Beijing by doing a bike tour. I think we were given the most uncomfortable bikes we’d ever been on as by the end of our 8 hour day we had super bruised bums and hands. Highlights on the tour were crossing what looked like a motorway (thank god for the guide), bell tower (was used to wake up the city), drum tower (was used to close the city), National Theatre (big dome that made a circle when reflected in the surrounding lake), Bei Hei park, Houhai lake, culture street (full of brushes and books) and a visit to a Hutong house (the traditional alleyways). They’re tiny and they just extend into the courtyard in a higgledy piggledy way. We were treated to lots of Jasmine tea and various treats including some toasted seed, which were only told after we’d eaten them you were supposed to peel! They must have thought we were idiots!

For our final day in Beijing we visited the Lama temple and saw an 18m high Buddha. Tiananmen Square was oddly oppressive and covered in security. We also went to the silk market which is essentially 7 floors of fake goods. There is a floor for everything including bags, clothes, and watches. After the time we’d spent in SE Asia we were getting good at bartering so managed to decrease the price of two pairs of trainers from £200 to £20!

By this time we’d also got used to being minor celebrities as we constantly got our picture taken by the Chinese. Apparently as per one of our guides in the provinces they see v few Western people so they like to go home with a picture of themselves with a Westerner. This resulted in many occasions where we would be stood there admiring a Buddha and would feel someone sidling up next to us and then a flash going off. Quite funny really. They also like to inspect you if they sit next to you from the colour of your hair to the size of your feet (mainly Stacey’s enormous feet - Sam).

And then it was time to come home :-(. We’ve really had the most amazing time and seen so much and had so much fun.

See you all soon.

S&S