The caves at vang vieng
The bike ride to the caves....my lovely pink bike with basket!!
Me, Manon, Keiron, & Nadja
The waterfalls at luang Prabang
Thursday 29 January 2009
Sally arrived!
Just a quickie to let everyone know sally arrived safe and sound. We are just looking for a luxury spa in manila to get relaxed for the day!!
Tomorrow we fly down to Boracay island, which is the backpackers beaches and activities (surfing, diving, snorkelling and of course partying!)
Lots of love
Hayley & sister Sal
Tomorrow we fly down to Boracay island, which is the backpackers beaches and activities (surfing, diving, snorkelling and of course partying!)
Lots of love
Hayley & sister Sal
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Lakon to Laos
I have finally come to the end of my first little solo stint, and have had a great time. We left Vang vieng for the capital city- vientiane on sunday, then spent the day eating fantastic food and enjoying our last few hours together.
The rest of the group have now headed down to the south of Laos and I took the overnight bus to Bangkok- not the best nights sleep I have ever had....I woke up in the night to find the guy next to me dribbling on my shoulder!! He bought me breakfast when we arrived in Bangkok though, so thats ok!
I am now at the airport and ready to leave for Phillippines, but got sent back by immigration as I have not yet purchased my ticket back out of philli....emergency trip to the internet to get something booked.
I have decided to flay back to kuala lumpur as that is the cheapest thing I can find, then I will fly back to the south of Thailand to meet with the girls I was travelling with in Laos.
Keep bumping into people I know everywhere which is a nice feeling, so off for a coffee with some lovely aussies I met on the slow boat!
Lots of love
Hayleyx
The rest of the group have now headed down to the south of Laos and I took the overnight bus to Bangkok- not the best nights sleep I have ever had....I woke up in the night to find the guy next to me dribbling on my shoulder!! He bought me breakfast when we arrived in Bangkok though, so thats ok!
I am now at the airport and ready to leave for Phillippines, but got sent back by immigration as I have not yet purchased my ticket back out of philli....emergency trip to the internet to get something booked.
I have decided to flay back to kuala lumpur as that is the cheapest thing I can find, then I will fly back to the south of Thailand to meet with the girls I was travelling with in Laos.
Keep bumping into people I know everywhere which is a nice feeling, so off for a coffee with some lovely aussies I met on the slow boat!
Lots of love
Hayleyx
Saturday 24 January 2009
try again
Me on the zip wire while tubing!
People floating to the next bar
Catching the slow boat to laosBusy busy bee
Hello!
How is everyone? Thanks for all your messages, I love getting them, but I have hardly had any time to reply to them.
I have been very busy the last couple of weeks. Started off with the trek into the jungle for a couple of days, which was a hard going mountain climb for 1 day then an overnight stay at a hill tribe community, then downhill the 2nd day. The trip ended with some white water rafting, but the water was slow as it is the dry season here, so not really one for the adrenaline junkies!
I then made some friends in chiang mai, 2 girls who I spent the next couple of days with. From there we took a marathon journey over to Laos, which involved a days bus ride, and 2 days on a slowwwwww boat into luang prabang. The boat was pretty tough, they crammed 100 people onto a tiny boat so you could only sit on a wooden bench with no legroom for 7 hours, then they stopped over night in a little village for some rest. The 2nd day they bought an even smaller boat for us all to get on, and we got on last so had to sit on top of the engine (but inside) and the smeall and noise was awful!! We managed to make some friends though and the scenery on the river was amazing.
By the time we made it to luang prabang we are travelling in a group of 6 people (all lone travellers). All of them are lovely and range from 22 to 30 in age (3 guys, 3 girls). We planned to travel all of laos together. The city was lovely, lots of temples, and a few nights bowling (as thats the only place they serve booze!).
From there we took the bus round the mountians down to vang vieng where we have been for 5 days. Its on the bank of the namkong river, and is a beautiful setting. The town is full of backpackers, and we keep bumping into the same people from the slow boat which is nice! The main activity here is tubing. This involves floating down the namkong on a tyre and as you pass bars on the river banks they pull you in on a rope. There are heaps of swings, slides and zipwires that all dunk you right back into the water. Its so much fun. We have spent 3 days doing this, and have a day off today for some R&R before we hit the nam again tomorrow!
From there its down to vientiane (capital) for 1 day, then off to meet sally in philli!
My friends here are great, and I expect I will meet many of them again after philli back in thailand.
Laos is so cheap, so I am living in a private room with daily massages, a few beers and lovely food for about 15 quid per day, so it doesnt get any better than this!!
Lots of love to everyone, apologies for going AWOL for a couple of weeks!
Hayleyxx
How is everyone? Thanks for all your messages, I love getting them, but I have hardly had any time to reply to them.
I have been very busy the last couple of weeks. Started off with the trek into the jungle for a couple of days, which was a hard going mountain climb for 1 day then an overnight stay at a hill tribe community, then downhill the 2nd day. The trip ended with some white water rafting, but the water was slow as it is the dry season here, so not really one for the adrenaline junkies!
I then made some friends in chiang mai, 2 girls who I spent the next couple of days with. From there we took a marathon journey over to Laos, which involved a days bus ride, and 2 days on a slowwwwww boat into luang prabang. The boat was pretty tough, they crammed 100 people onto a tiny boat so you could only sit on a wooden bench with no legroom for 7 hours, then they stopped over night in a little village for some rest. The 2nd day they bought an even smaller boat for us all to get on, and we got on last so had to sit on top of the engine (but inside) and the smeall and noise was awful!! We managed to make some friends though and the scenery on the river was amazing.
By the time we made it to luang prabang we are travelling in a group of 6 people (all lone travellers). All of them are lovely and range from 22 to 30 in age (3 guys, 3 girls). We planned to travel all of laos together. The city was lovely, lots of temples, and a few nights bowling (as thats the only place they serve booze!).
From there we took the bus round the mountians down to vang vieng where we have been for 5 days. Its on the bank of the namkong river, and is a beautiful setting. The town is full of backpackers, and we keep bumping into the same people from the slow boat which is nice! The main activity here is tubing. This involves floating down the namkong on a tyre and as you pass bars on the river banks they pull you in on a rope. There are heaps of swings, slides and zipwires that all dunk you right back into the water. Its so much fun. We have spent 3 days doing this, and have a day off today for some R&R before we hit the nam again tomorrow!
From there its down to vientiane (capital) for 1 day, then off to meet sally in philli!
My friends here are great, and I expect I will meet many of them again after philli back in thailand.
Laos is so cheap, so I am living in a private room with daily massages, a few beers and lovely food for about 15 quid per day, so it doesnt get any better than this!!
Lots of love to everyone, apologies for going AWOL for a couple of weeks!
Hayleyxx
Saturday 10 January 2009
Going solo
Hello.
Hope all is well at home, I keep hearing what amazing weather you are all having!!
The past week has been lovely, enjoying the sunshine, snorkelling and diving. Fianlly we left Koh Tao (only 7 days later than planned!!) and Vix, Vincent and Sam left yesterday to fly back to london. I flew up to Chiang Mai to start my first solo stint of the trip!!
Spent my first evening drinking whisky with some locals and an old japanese guy. I have been invited to visit the bar owners other bar which is apparently made out of papier mashie...I think there was a communication breakdown somewhere!
I have some accomodation sorted now, and am off to do a cooking course this afternoon. You are able to choose what we learn, so a bit of papaya salad and pad thai is in order!
Tomorrow I am thinking of heading into the jungle, where we will do a bit of trekking, rafting & elephant riding.....Sounds interesting.....
Fianlly found some cheap and fast internet cafes, so I will try and upload some pics soon
Lots of love
Hayley
Hope all is well at home, I keep hearing what amazing weather you are all having!!
The past week has been lovely, enjoying the sunshine, snorkelling and diving. Fianlly we left Koh Tao (only 7 days later than planned!!) and Vix, Vincent and Sam left yesterday to fly back to london. I flew up to Chiang Mai to start my first solo stint of the trip!!
Spent my first evening drinking whisky with some locals and an old japanese guy. I have been invited to visit the bar owners other bar which is apparently made out of papier mashie...I think there was a communication breakdown somewhere!
I have some accomodation sorted now, and am off to do a cooking course this afternoon. You are able to choose what we learn, so a bit of papaya salad and pad thai is in order!
Tomorrow I am thinking of heading into the jungle, where we will do a bit of trekking, rafting & elephant riding.....Sounds interesting.....
Fianlly found some cheap and fast internet cafes, so I will try and upload some pics soon
Lots of love
Hayley
Wednesday 7 January 2009
Hey Y'all
Hope everyone is well.
I have been spending the last 10 days in Koh Tao. We had planned to move on and go to Koh Phi phi on the west coast, but the weather just got good so we are enjoying the sunshine here for a change!
We have spent several days diving (not much to do in the rain!!) and I have now completed my advanced divers course. I have done 9 dives in all. They have been great, doing deep dives, nigth diving and shark diving. I am really enjoying it and trying to resist doing some more while I am here, as it one of the best places in the world to dive, and I have the bug. Its draining me of money though!! I didnt manage to see any sharks to other day so I might go back out to see what we can find tomorrow. They are mostly reef, white tip and bull sharks (which i am told rarely attack divers!).
Other than that, the nightlife is good, we have met some friends and we are now a group of 6 staying together. The other 5 all leave on saturday, when I venture out on my own to Chang mai in the north of thailand.
Lots of massages, cheap beers and sun cream for the next few days... hope you are all enjoying the snow :-)
Lots of love
hayley
PS trying to upload phots takes ages, so I will do some more when I am off the island!
I have been spending the last 10 days in Koh Tao. We had planned to move on and go to Koh Phi phi on the west coast, but the weather just got good so we are enjoying the sunshine here for a change!
We have spent several days diving (not much to do in the rain!!) and I have now completed my advanced divers course. I have done 9 dives in all. They have been great, doing deep dives, nigth diving and shark diving. I am really enjoying it and trying to resist doing some more while I am here, as it one of the best places in the world to dive, and I have the bug. Its draining me of money though!! I didnt manage to see any sharks to other day so I might go back out to see what we can find tomorrow. They are mostly reef, white tip and bull sharks (which i am told rarely attack divers!).
Other than that, the nightlife is good, we have met some friends and we are now a group of 6 staying together. The other 5 all leave on saturday, when I venture out on my own to Chang mai in the north of thailand.
Lots of massages, cheap beers and sun cream for the next few days... hope you are all enjoying the snow :-)
Lots of love
hayley
PS trying to upload phots takes ages, so I will do some more when I am off the island!
Thursday 1 January 2009
Some pics!
My lovely hut on the beach in bamboo island. Paradise!!
Still not got a tan- but cant be helped when it keeps raining.
Still not got a tan- but cant be helped when it keeps raining.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
