Travellers in Dubai

Bangkok —> Dubai

Following what can only be described as the loudest taxi ride to an airport ever…the taxi rider certainly loved his hard core drum n bass!! We said farewell to Asia for the last time and boarded the rather turbulent 6hr flight to Dubai…snagged exit seats and the food was ace! Lloyd kept trying to fall asleep on me again…cheeky!

Stepped off the plane to see my super great friend from uni, Holli and her boyfriend, Marc waiting for us with a ‘Welcome to Dubai’ laminated sign (teacher alert)!! Here we were, excited to have our 2 day adventure in Dubai! Back to Hol’s beaut flat for drinkies, chatsies and the most delicious Middle Eastern takeaway! Really enjoyed trying a different cuisine after months of Asian food…

So, Dubai is notoriously expensive to visit and we were right at the end of our trip (and budget) so Hol had designed a ‘Dubai on a shoestring’ type itinerary. It was also insanely warm so ‘sight seeing by car’ suited us very well, ahhhh thank goodness for air conditioning! We cruised through the desert and into the metropolis that is Dubai, passing through Jumeirah Beach Residence en route to The Palm and up to The Atlantis where we ventured out of the car, started sweating profusely and my camera got all steamed up inside the lens – boy, is Dubai humid! Sports cars, super yachts and designer clothing is EVERYWHERE…Lloyd and I certainly stood out as scruffy travellers!

After all the sweating we were all in desperate need of some sustenance so we all jumped back into the air conditioned car and sped off to one of Hol and Marc’s favourite restaurant in Pier 7, The Scene! Totally delish and lovely and refreshing to have good service and a battered sausage back in our lives!

‘Dubai Brunch’

Holli explained that you cannot come to Dubai and not experience a ‘brunch’…I had no idea what this was but it was totally brilliant! Basically, its all you can eat and drink for 4 hours…everyone gets dressed up and sits on fancy tables getting smashed and eating loads of incredible food! I ate an obscene amount of salad (rock on!) and by the time it was time to leave we ordered 4 more drinks each so our table looked like this…

Someone fell off a bar stool, there was also almost a fight over one of our group playing with a trendy dudes man bun and there was a lot of laughter… Great night!

Up and out for our last day travelling (sob, sob!), off to Dubai Creek to experience ‘Old Dubai’, ride on a fun water taxi and visit the souks before heading to do some obligatory jump pictures in front of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world!!

               

Managed to buy some bacon in the pork section of the supermarket before heading back to the flat to make a scrummy supper for Hol…the Last Supper!

Big thanks to Holli and Marc for their hospitality and for being the best tour guides EVER…we will be back!

Hilarious flight home on the best airline, Emirates (never want to fly anything else!), getting totally boozy on red wine with the hilarious Irish dude sat next to me (whilst Lloyd slept). Great flight to end the trip…

 

And here concludes the first Chones Adventures tale…we hope you have all enjoyed reading the blog as much as we have had experiencing our adventures!!

#chonesadventures

Bangkok…Take II

Hanoi –> Bangkok

First flight we had taken since we had arrived in Malaysia 3 months before!! Pretty nuts how far we had travelled without flying…Thanks Lloyd for putting up with my irrational fear of flying!

Lloyd being a little scrimpy saver, we opted for the metro into Bangkok Central before hailing a tuk-tuk to take us to our next hotel!

Rambuttri Village Inn & Plaza – 6/10

Ok hotel but huge, good central location right next to Khoa San road, rooftop pool but most importantly we were here to meet our Swedish buddies, Fanny and Oliver!! Yippeeeee

Some seriously biblical rain that evening so stuck close to the hotel chatting and listening to the music blaring at the VW camper van come cocktail bar…some random girl who looked like a china doll kept trying to talk to us and completely ignored her friend, pretty annoying! She left after a while to go ‘clubbing’, before running back soaking, make up all down her face desperately searching for her purse! Gutted for her!

Went for an incredible breakfast at this amazing pastry place where I had about 4 chocolatines before heading for a gift shopping expedition and the obligatory eating of a fried scorpion! Norms! Quick freezing cold dip in the rooftop pool before it started raining again…the joys of visiting Thailand during the wet season!

Off to our favourite Bangkok restaurant, Peeps! The owners remembered us from the last time we were there and we had a great time eating, drinking, playing dominoes and coming up with hilarious taglines for our polaroid picture ‘we love it in the peeps’, which is now hanging proudly on the Peeps wall!!

Next stop, Good Story, a quirky bar with AMAZING live music, then back to the VW Bar for more drinkies before getting a taxi to Soi Cowboy!! Excited to see our first (Lloyd’s 2^nd) ping pong show…turns out they are not so fun!!

Found ‘Fanny’s’ and had some pics..obvs! Hilarious at first and then the more we stayed there the more we found it pretty grim! Very young girls being man handled (literally) by aging dudes! The music was pretty good and I was shimmying my shoulders before some strippers tried to get me on stage…in retrospect, I kind of wish I had!! Back to the less seedy khoa san road for some kebabs and a big mac before the boys had another jug of beer!

 

We were all pretty jaded the next morning and so had a late wake up, another delicious pastry extravaganza before jumping on the water taxi over the river to go to the Siriraj medical museum to see an embalmed serial killer! Pretty weird idea but seemed good at the time…unfortunately, there were loads of dead babies in jars too…I probably would not recommend this to many people. Definitely needed a drink after that experience…after finding an amazing dress in a vintage shop we drank some super cheap beers and played shit head and Kabu (thanks Chris the German) into the night. Thankfully, this managed to erase the pretty horrifying scenes of the day. After a few hours we headed for supper and then back to the VW bar which was now our local, where Fanny and I left the boys to have a street foot massage! Divine! More drinking and general silliness before heading to the hotel to have Lloyd serenade us all with his travel guitar.  Off to bed for the last time in Asia. Sad times…

Time to say goodbye to our buddies…’we always have Stockholm’ See you there!

Next stop…Dubai!

#chonesadventures

Good Morning Vietnam!!

Amazing sunrise from the train

Goodbye Vietnam

Hanoi –> Halong Bay

After a pretty horrifically uncomfortable 6hr mini bus journey, sat next to an EXTREMELY chatty Australian lady (luckily, I had my headphones)…and with a mega dick for a driver who refused to let me go pee pee!! Finally made it to the docks to head out on our epic Halong Bay boat journey but before we got on the junk boat, Lloyd obviously ran off to buy the necessary bottle of gin for the 2night trip!! Excited!!!

The Royal Palace Cruise – 10/10

Beautiful wooden ship, super friendly staff, Insane amount of totally delicious food, great group of people on board, pretty hectic schedule (‘right, now you have 10mins to relax’) but definitely recommend everyone to visit Halong Bay.

Stepping onto the boat and we were greeted by rose petals falling from the skies as we walked up the stairs to the main galley…pretty hilarious!! Amazing room…

We had opted for the 3day/2night halong bay trip for $300 USD…somehow blagged a cheeky upgrade to a 4*boat! Winning!

The weather wasn’t the best but the views were insane…

Halong Bay translates into ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’ and is where you find over 2000 karst mountains erupting from the ocean. BEAUTIFUL!

Went canoeing as the sun started setting and then canoed our way over to visit a pearl farm! Some of our group had never canoed before so that was pretty fun to watch! Following the canoe fun we all jumped off the cruise boat into the sea among the mountains, then drinkies on deck watching the sun set and waiting for the stars come out…

Had the most hilarious evening eating a lot of food, drinking our illegal gin and having some pretty ridiculous chatsies with our 2 new Australian buddies, Liana and Danni from Adelaide! Too much gin for me… whirlies on a boat, not so fun! Lovely to meet these Adelaidian ladies!

Woke up hungover to hell…who wants breakfast at 7am! Not me or Lloyd! We then had a very generous 10mins to relax again before heading to ‘surprising cave’…gawdddd there were 1000s of people there and I was feeling ropey so Lloyd and I excused ourselves before I was sick!  Popped to the loo where there were no doors and some poor unsuspecting girl came in and saw me peeing! Not ideal! Bustled onto our small boat before packing to leave on yet another boat to head to a remote island to stay in a beach side hut for the night…it’s a hard life!!!

Chilled afternoon, swimming, sunbathing and then we went for the best kayak around the bay and stopped on a deserted beach where Lloyd got to get his Bear Grylls on…yep, we built a fire with drift wood! A great way to say goodbye to our Vietnam adventure…

     

Evening of more gins and lots more food…Lloyd woke to watch the devastating England vs Australia RWC match at 2am…no internet, roads, fresh water or cars, but yeah of course there is cable tv!

Next day was pretty eventful as turns out there was a typhoon headed straight for us and we had to leave pretty sharpish to get back to the mainland, yet more beautiful scenery and pretty amazing views of life on the water…Goodbye Halong Bay, hello hideously small bus and longest journey back to Hanoi! All fun and games!

Massive thanks to Liana and Danni for recommending the best place for supper that night, Xuan Xuan! A brilliant DIY BBQ on the street sat on plastic chairs drinking beer! Bliss!

Back to Bangkok tomorrow…

#chonesadventures

Hanoi

HUE –> HANOI

Our last overnight bus journey completed, the stupid bus driver decided to chuck all the bags onto the pavement that was covered in stinky bin juice…great!!  So now we had to traipse across Hanoi to find our hotel stinking of bins and possibly urine!! Not the best after a night on a 12hr bumpy bus with no toilet!! Ahhh the joys of travelling… Oh well, a quick hot beverage in a local coffee shop to refuel was a welcome break before finding our hotel.

Rising Dragon – 7/10

Tiny room, good location to Old Quarter of Hanoi, strange breakfast but super friendly staff.

The main reason for heading to Hanoi was actually to use it as a spring board to transport us to the infamous Halong Bay…so we were super quick to book our 3 day/2 night trip with Imperial Cruise Company for $300 but first to explore the delights of Hanoi for 2 days.

What a fun city!! Very busy, lots of people, shops, motorbikes everywhere! The Old Quarter, which is to the north of Hoan Kiem Lake is brilliant…they have specific districts dedicated to different trades, silks, electricals, coffee, plastic boxes, shoes…you name it, there is a shop for it!

So, I had read about this 6ft + giant turtle that had been stuffed in 1967 and was on show in a temple on Jade Island in the lake so obviously we had to visit!  Beautiful temple, beautiful day and ENORMOUS turtle!!

    Turns out there was a pretty epic tale from the 15^th century where a giant turtle stole a sword and was never found…norms!! We were told that to see a turtle in the lake was extremely rare and if you do, then you’re very lucky…as we were leaving, we saw 2 of these jokers casually swimming by! 

Very disappointing supper at a supposedly good restaurant, Quan An Ngon…perhaps we just choice the wrong dishes on the extremely sizeable menu but it was not good! We had a really sweet waiter though and we picked up a delish icecream from a street vendor to get rid of the taste!!

 

The other main sight on our Hanoi list was Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and his embalmed body inside it…frustratingly, we walked all the way to find the mausoleum in the wrong direction in the boiling heat, ate some super tasty fried rice in a bizarre restaurant with some locals getting hammered on straight vodka whilst casually throwing everything on the floor, cigarettes, prawns, glasses before leaving very amused to walk in the right direction to then find out that the Mausoleum was closed and that Ho’s body was on holiday in Russia being embalmed!! Fail! Had a quick look around Ho’s wooden house (built behind the official Presidential Palace) 

Yet another disappointing evening trying to find some good food, in the pissing rain and so we ended up ordering pizza and watched the rugby world cup in bed with pizza!! Bliss!

Fingers crossed we find some good food on the cruise…Next stop…Halong Bay!!

Hip Hip Hue…

Hai Van Pass

Sadly, we had our last meal with our favourite German, Chris and it was time to leave the wonderful Hoi An. Although sad to leave, we were ridiculously excited about our Top Gear experience on a scooter through the Hai Van Pass!

We booked a scooter at our local pub, Paddy’s who offered a Top Gear Trip: $35 a bike and they drove our luggage up to Hue whilst we drove the beautiful scenic route! Great!

The first hour was spent riding very straight, boring roads out of the town of Da Nang (except for the bridge, of course), then finally we hit the mountains and stunning countryside!

The views were fantastic and fair play to the bike, it had climbed stupidly steep hills with us on it, two bags and a guitar!

At the very top we stopped, got stalked by a shop owner lady who we bought some sprite from, took in the sights, did a jump picture and gave our backsides a break!

The owner of Paddy’s warned us about purposely placed broken glass on the way down from the Pass, put there by mechanics waiting at the bottom to fix punctures! Cheeky as hell but all we saw was incredible views! Totally recommended!

We were eager to reach Hue before it got dark so apart from stopping to watch the sunset we scooter-ed on…into the dark of the night! Oh well, the roads were busy, pretty dicey at times but very straight.  Our bums were now completely numb…we don’t know how the locals do it!?!

Finally after 5 hrs of riding we had reached our hotel…Hip Hip Hue!

Hue

CHARMING HOTEL 8.5/10

Good location, amazingly friendly staff, upgraded room and excellent restaurant recommendations!

After dismounting the bike my body felt like I had played a game of Rugby, no jokes!! Nickie felt the same if not worse so we dined at a great Italian called Risotto (original!) and then got into bed, totally cream cracker-ed!!

The Imperial City 

Our stop in Hue would be brief so we decided on one thing to visit, the Imperial City. This is where the Emperor once lived and the city had been renovated since being bombed during the American War. 

Having decided to visit in the late afternoon,it was utterly tranquil and peaceful… and hardly any tourists!! Just perfect, not too hot but still light!

At the end we grabbed a Cyclo (peddle Rickshaw) and headed back to our area for some drinks, a game of pool and some food!

The next day we walked to the Big C supermarket because I NEEDED to find some squash to drink and hadn’t found anything that resembled squash for weeks now (I’m obsessed!!) And I also wanted to make sandwiches for our last long bus journey to Hanoi!

Sandwiches and squash prepared we headed to our night bus which apparently had toilets on them? Lies! But, off we went anyway… 12 hours to our next stop, Hanoi!

#chonesadventures

Can we live here…???

Ho Chi Minh City —> Da Nang —> Hoi An

We opted to do the 19hr train journey from HCMC to Hoi An…this was definitely an experience! Walked onto the train and saw the pretty shoddy chairs that we would be sat on for 19hrs!!! Holy Moly! At least they reclined quite far! The best bit about travelling by train in Vietnam was the food… A lovely Vietnamese lady every so often would walk through the carriage selling corn on the cob and boiled eggs served with a little pot of salt and pepper!! There is also a hot water tank at the end of the carriage so we bought a few Vietnamese pot noodles for lunch and supper!! The scenery in Vietnam is BEAUTIFUL and travelling by train we sped (slowly!) past rice paddies, small villages, large towns, karst mountains and rivers! We would definitely recommend the train as hardly any other tourists seem to do it and you get to view Vietnamese train life.

So, Hoi An does not have a train station and so we got the train to Da Nang and then a very expensive taxi to Hoi An (30min drive away)…oh well, found our hotel and it was gorgeous!

PHUC THAO VILLA – 10/10
Beaut room, hotel and pool area, rugby world cup on tv (happy Lloyce!), BEST breakfast, free bikes, and perfect location to the beach and town!

Hoi An is a beautiful town, all the buildings are painted a deep yellow, with shutters and verandas and all with wooden signs! Loads of creeping plants and trees line the streets and there are lanterns everywhere strung across roads, between trees and in the bushes! Looks incredible at night! There is also a beaut beach only 7min bike ride away…perfect holiday location!

It is a very touristy place now but still a must visit in Vietnam! We could easily have stayed here for months…

 

 

TAILORING
Hoi An is the home of tailoring in Vietnam…if you want a suit, dress, shorts, shoes, bag, literally anything, this is where you can get it made and the price is extremely reasonable!

Lloyds parents, my parents and my brother and his fiancée had kindly given us quite a bit of money for our birthdays and so we went a bit crazy getting tailor made stuff!!! It is important to look around for the right tailor, we settled on Ngu Thoi Five Seasons which is a little out of the main area of tailors and doesn’t look super fancy but the ladies were lovely and very patient (especially with me!)

Lloyd ordered a 3 piece suit and I ordered 2 dresses and a coat all tailor made and all for $280!! We chose all the fabrics, colours and linings, they took our measurements and told us to come back the next day (under 24hrs!) to try them all on! So speedy!

Lloyd’s suit was done in 1 day my clothes unfortunately took a few more alterations! At one point I had to scoot off with the owner, Ro to the seamstress lair to try to sort out my dress! Really interesting insight into the tailoring world in Hoi An…all made in tiny little rooms on old school singer type sewing machines, fabric and thread everywhere! Here, I had 3 non-English speaking seamstresses man handling my boobs to try to make them fit into the dress…they got right in there! Ha! Every so often they would laugh! Hmmmm…

FOOD

The food in Hoi An is AMAZING! The best food we’ve had in ages… which was so refreshing!
Top restaurants we ate in were:-
Nu Eatery – our favourite! Simple looking restaurant and its tiny but the food is simply incredible. Best thing there is definitely the Steamed Buns! INCREDIBLE!
The Streets – recommendation from our friend James. Delicious food and all prepared and served by trainees learning the restaurant trade through a scheme to help Vietnamese children better themselves! Great cause and yummy food.
Dingo’s Deli – delicious deli set up by an australian couple. Good for a tasty western meal when feeling a bit nostalgic! Love a deli!
Red Dragon – close to our hotel but quite far from the town, yummy vietnamese curry’s and fried rice and amazing slow cooked pork belly!
Gold Moon – cracking Gin&Tonic’s and its always happy hour so they are crazy cheap!

We also had AMAZING crispy wontons at the restaurant directly oposite the main Hoi An – An Hoi bridge! They are a must try!

RWC2015
We arrived in Hoi An on the Saturday the Rugby World Cup started…Big day!! So, a lot of our time in Hoi An was spent watching the rugby which was super fun! We found an amazing Irish Pub on the road to the beach called Paddys (obvs!) – incred food, a rugby menu which lloyd loved as had chips, cheese and gravy (Chips Poutine)! Met some fun Australians, Kiwi’s and Irish people here all keen on the rugby world cup so a really fun environment! AMAZING dog called Polly and a tiny kitten! Felt like a home away from home!

FUN WITH CHRIS THE GERMAN

We had met Chris in Laos and Cambodia before not to mention the eventful border crossing and seeing as he was determined to follow us around we met him again in Hoi An and had a great time beaching, Gin drinking, Kabu playing, rugby watching, cycling, visiting tiny terracotta villages, steamed bun eating at Nu Eatery (I got the recipe!!) and finally Lantern Festivaling.

Sadly, it was time to leave after the best 10 days in Hoi An… next stop Hue on the Top Gear bike tour of Vietnam! 

#chonesadventures

Good Morning Vietnam…

Phnom Penh, Cambodia —> Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

We had thoroughly enjoyed our time in Cambodia, our next stop was HCMC via a 7hr uneventful bus journey…

THAI BINH HOTEL 7.5/10

Super friendly staff, a free upgrade to a bigger & better room and close proximity to the main area!

Having fully rested, we set out to book a trip to Cu Chi Tunnels!

Tickets booked we decided to wander around the city, taking pictures, visiting some sights and partake in some light shopping before it started to piss it down!

This was biblical rain…We walked back to our hotel looking like drowned rats and showered quickly before heading back out to have dinner at a place my cousin, Daniel, had recommended we visit, a Vietnamese BBQ called 3T Quan Nuong.

Situated on a rooftop (with a roof…Thank God) a quirky restaurant with a mini BBQ stove on each table. It’s great because you just order a selection of raw meats, fish & vegetables to cook yourself to your liking!

Cracking idea! We had two different types of beef, vegetables and a hand full of king prawns! It was great fun and a fantastic recommendation! Thanks Daniel!

CU CHI TUNNELS

The Cu Chi Tunnels were used by the Vietnamese to elude the US troops during the Vietnam War. We had a guided tour for about an hour and were shown the different types of weapons they used, the numerous different traps that were used to kill the US soldiers and then finally we had the chance to crawl through the tunnels them self.

Luckily for me they had increased the size of the tunnel by 30% for tourists to fit through, I cant imagine how it would have been before that, it was already tighter than a mouses ear! Not for the claustrophobic!

We did have the opportunity to shoot the guns that they used to use during the war but it was too expensive and really bloody loud so we skipped that one out! All in all we had enjoyed the trip, it was quite far to travel for a tour that actually lasted about 1hr 1/2 but at least it wasn’t raining!

After a long day of travelling and learning we rewarded ourselves with a slap up meal in the city, a few glasses of beer & wine and a number of games of shithead! Our city break was already at an end, but we were excited to move along because the weather had been horrific and there was just too many mopeds in this city! Next stop…Hoi An!!!

#chonesadventures

Phnom Penh, Birthday again!

OTRES BEACH —> PHNOM PENH

Our new buddies were also headed for Phnom Penh so we all decided to travel together in a private taxi and not a bus for once! Although comfier the rain was pissing it down and our driver was going a bit too fast for our liking, so after a nerve racking 5 hours we were there!

ROYAL MEKONG BOUTIQUE 7/10

 

 

Nice staff, decent breakfast, a little bit shabby but good enough!

Our main reason for visiting was to learn about the shocking history of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge under the leader Pol Pot, 1975-1979.

 

Tuol Sleng Museum – S21

S21 was the major prison for “enemies”against the Khmer Rouge which were predominantly intellectuals, teachers, doctors, engineers etc. Our guide was very informative and the tour was an emotional rollercoaster, we were all shocked and disgusted at what had taken place here, and only 30 odd years ago!

 

Choeung EK Geological Centre – The Killing Fields

From S21 the prisoners were sent here to be murdered by the Khmer Rouge, about 20,000 Cambodians in this one location. We wandered the fields with audio guides and listened to what had taken place here, it was just shocking, confusing and depressing. At the end of the tour was a memorial which held 9000 skulls of the victims, it was extremely graphic and portrayed the savage past of this country in a nut shell.

 

 

 

 

Quite the depressing day…seeing it was Nickies Birthday the next day we had a few drinks at a bar called Duplex where the owner gave Nickie a birthday drink with flames and all of the works!

 

 

 

 

Nickies Birthday!!!

Feeling slightly ropey we dragged ourselves to breakfast where Fanny had organised a selection of Birthday cake slices with candles!

4 spoons, 4 cake slices, we proceeded to score the cakes out of 10, the cheesecake won!

Dinner that evening would be a little bit different to usual…Dine In The Dark! Yes, a three course meal in complete darkness with a waitress with impaired vision, it was so wired/fun/interesting! All of our other senses were enhanced and it was a great insight into how it would be to be blind! Totally recommend doing this!

 

The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was spent in a great Russian Market (more than once), the girls had a massage whilst Oli and I played darts and pool, and we also went to the old olympic stadium where we watched a local football match…

 

 

Our time in Cambodia had sadly come to an end and it was also time for us to say goodbye to our buddies Oliver & Fanny, sad times! Off to Vietnam next, our final leg of our Asian journey!

 

#chonesadventures

Sun, Sea and September Birthdays!

SIEM REAP —> OTRES BEACH

LLOYD’S BIRTHDAY

Yet another over 12 hour sleeper bus down to a town in South Cambodia called Sihanoukville. Woke at 8.30am on a bus…HAPPY BIRTHDAY LLOYD!! We were accosted by tuk-tuk drivers all vying for our business…boy, do they get annoying!! I would say that they are fast becoming the worst part of travelling! One guy literally walked off with Lloyd’s bag and put it in his tuk-tuk!! Guess, we found our driver…headed off to our hotel on the beach, Otres II

THE SECRET GARDEN – 9/10
Beautiful location right on the white sandy beach with views of the archipelago, nice big room, super friendly staff, beaut pool and delicious food!! Over budget but both our families had kindly given some money for us to have a special birthday so opted for some luxury! Thanks family!

Instantly had our welcome drinks of G&T and Bloody Mary at 10am! Bliss! Then pretty much stayed in the hotel bar all day, drinking, chilling, eating and taking dips in the crystal blue sea!! No monsoons in sight! Lloyd had a special birthday brownie!

BOAT TRIP

Up early, we were late for the trip…everyone was waiting for us! Oops! We were just enjoying our tasty breakie!

Another beautiful day spent with some lovely people…Oliver, Fanny (Sweden), James, Chloe (UK), Jan and Mark (Germany)

Snorkelling, swimming in the sea, cliff jumping, chilling on a secluded beach, eating our lunch on the boat and more snorkelling…(much to Lloyd and I’s dismay, we were promised fishing but no bait apparently so no fishing for us!) For $12 each, it was a great day and we made some good friends who we spent a lot of time with after the trip!

 

 

 

Met our new buddies for drinkies and supper later that night at Otres I, a short bike ride away at a great Italian called Papa Pippo’s. The bike broke as soon as we got to the restaurant! Oh well, lots of Gin, some super delicious Italian food and some interesting, rather racy and extremely funny chats!!! Lloyd and the boys bonded playing pool whilst us girls chatted and drank more spirits!!

OLD FRIENDS REUNITED
The next day saw Fanny and Oliver come to our hotel for drinkies, which is where we stayed until we rang a bar on Otres I to encourage them to show the rugby warm up match…so, off we went, arrived at Sea Garden bar and this proper bellend behind the bar literally said to our faces ‘I’d rather watch tiddly winks than rugby!!’ Dick!! Our German friends from the boat were there too and then, my old friend, Alice arrived with her boyfriend, Mo (the wonders of Instagram telling us where each other was!) So good to see Alice again and we all had another cracking night!

THE DAY NOTHING WENT RIGHT
Fanny, Oliver, Lloyd and I rented 2 bikes and decided to explore the local area…error! We set off to find a children’s chaarity, M’Lop Tapang, that Oliver had read about where we could buy art created by street children that would feed the child for a week! Firstly, Oliver and Fanny got pulled over by the police and were made to pay money for not having an International Driving Licence…Oliver had to go and sit in the office and explain that he only had $2!! Finally, they were allowed to leave and then…BAM…we all got stopped 5 mins later by more police again demanding money! Balls!
Oliver: ‘We’ve already paid the police’
Police: ‘How much did you pay?’
Oliver: ‘$20’
Police:’Are you lying to me?’
Oliver: ‘Nope’ (as if he would say, ‘yep, I’m lying, please take more money from me!’)

Both Fanny and I were anxious that we would be stopped again…urgh, get us out of Sihanoukville!

Having found M’Lop Tapang which looked like an empty school, tried to speak with a smiley Cambodian man, he didn’t speak English, he let us into the office and made us sit for 10mins whilst we read a pamphlet and then left – no art, no children – FAIL

Saw on the map that we were pretty close to the Angkor brewery (we’ve drunk a lot of their beer!) so headed there! Dodging and speeding past at least 4 more police patrols…nightmare! Found the brewery and hoped to have a tour – Nope, not open – FAIL

DO NOT rent scooters in Sihanoukville, you will get stopped by police and you will be intimidated and then made to pay!!

Fanny and I were definitely ready to go back to the police free, dirt roads of Otres…back to a lovely beach bar, where we drank away the traumatic and failed trips of the day!!!

Lots of pool playing and sunset watching before James, Chloe, Alice and Mo arrived for more larks!! Fanny, Oliver, Lloyd and I had stayed for 7hrs and drank 10 jugs of beer and copious amounts of gin before we begged the waiter, who looked like a Cambodian member of the Rolling Stones, to make us some cracking warm baguettes! Legend!!

OTRES II —> OTRES I
Having decided to move from our expensive but beaut hotel to the cheaper area of Otres I, hungover Lloyd went temporarily nuts and said yes, to the first place – Error!! After one night in this mosquito infested shed, I forced Lloyd to move next door to the beautiful bungalows and our buddies, Fanny and Oliver came too!!

SEABREEZE 8/10
Cracking room, lovely big pool, negotiated a deal for 2 rooms and no mozzy’s!

Drank gin by the pool, met a hilarious oversharing, emotional Norwegian who was held up at gun point near the border (alarming) and obviously watched yet another beautiful sunset…

Next stop…Phnom Penh

#chonesadventures