Koh Tao

Christian and I had a great time in Bangkok, and our cooking class was a success! We started by going to the market to pick our food, and then our group started cookin up a storm at the little school in the city centre. The food was fantastic! (if I do say so myself) and we're looking forward to making more in England!
I'm now in Koh Tao and having a great time. I started my PADI scooba diving course half an hour after getting here and have fallen in love with it! I've met some interesting people on my course, and its been great fun spending time with them. I've also spent lots of time with Finbow which has been great, and lovely to see a familiar face. The course takes four days, and then I'm a qualified open water diver...but only down to 18 metres. So I started my advanced course the 5th day which means I can now go down 30 metres! I had a great diving buddy for the open water course, Swedish Emily, and we had lots of fun together. My diving buddy for the advanced was Swedish Ricardo who was lovely and we had some great dives. We did our underwater photography dives today which was lots of fun and slightly more challenging than being in a studio! I also lucked out with a lovely roomate, Palestinian Lanna who lives in Israel. She was great fun! I'm staying at Ban's which is the largest dive school in the world. Everyone here seems to LOVE diving, and its pretty much all anyone talks about. The island is really lovely, but I haven't exactly had much time to explore! I think I'll be staying a couple more days to see what else this one has to offer before moving on. The weather hasn't been very good, which doesn't matter when you're already in the sea, but not ideal for the beach!

our St. Patricks day Guinnesses!

one year after Bangkok riots

My buddy Emily!

rockin the wet suit

I HEART DIVING!

...MORE PICTURES TO COME!

Cambodia Continued!

Christian and I had the most amazing time in Cambodia! After a good relax on Monkey Island, we returned to Phnom Penh to check out more of the city. We went to the Killing Fields and S21 which I found really hard as they are the places Pol Pot and others imprisoned and killed a lot of the Cambodian people. We also got to see more of the city and had some fantastic food at a couple of restaurants that employ and support street children. One of our starters was tarantulas!! MMmmm! The next morning we jumped on a bus to Siem Reap and instantly warmed to the town. We were greeted at our hotel by a golden retriever named Pickles and a cat named Branston...so cute. Its run by an English guy named Smiley who was really helpful for suggesting things for us to do which was great because we probably saw more than we would have otherwise. Our first day we rented a dune buggy and set off to explore the backroads of the Siem Reap countryside. We were out all day with two guides and got to see some fantastic stuff, including a family making fresh rice noodles, a BEAUTIFUL waterfall, some great stone statues dating back before Angkor Wat, a bat cave, and MILLIONS of smiley waving children! The next day we went up to see the temples of Angkor which was totally breathtaking. They are absolutely enormous and obviously a fantastic site to see! That evening we headed to the floating village which was a nice surprise and was like nothing I'd ever seen before. We were hoping to catch the sunset on the water, but it was a bit too cloudy for that...despite the extreme heat during the day! Next we decided to see more of the temples in a different way...birds eye view! We each went on microlite flights over the temples and Siem Reap which was incredible!!!! Our pilot, Eddie, is an American guy from Virginia and was lots of fun and very informative up in the air! Along with having a lot to say about George Bush, he also filled me in on a lot of the Cambodian culture. Siem Reap as a town is really great, and we both really enjoyed our stay. Like Hanoi, it has a Parisian feel to it with little alleys and side streets, along with a great night market. People were incredibly friendly, especially in the countryside.
We're in Bangkok now after a fun minivan journey with 11 other backpackers. We celebrated St. Patrick's day last night with lots of delicious Thai food and a guiness of course! We went "temple-ing" today and saw more of the centre of Bangkok. We booked in a Thai cooking class tomorrow morning which I'm really excited for!! Unfortunately Christian has to fly back to London tomorrow night :( but we've had a super time!

Tomb Raiders, Angkor Thom

On our way to the floating village

House boat on the lake

floating village

field of lotus flowers

microlite over Siem Reap with Eddie

floating village

Bye Christian!

National Museum in Phnom Penh

crushing rice to make yummy noodles!

mmmm noodles

in our dune buggy

who needs fake tan when you're covered in dust?

mmmm tarantulas!!!

Cambodia!!

I left my room of 9 boys in Saigon on the 5th and caught an early bus to Phnom Penh. There was lovely Irish Stephen, English Alex, Swedish Daniel and Swedish Johan who both taught me a lot of Swedish. Then there were the two Danish boys who sat around in their tighty whities a lot. Norwegian Robin and Norwegian Anders who were awesome and have been traveling for a LONG time. And the nice Malaysian boy who had the unfortunate luck of being a horrendous snorer and sleeping next to me, which, in turn, meant that he got a few good whollops during the night.
Christian arrived the next morning after a loooong journey from London! We spent the day exploring the city of Phnom Penh while trying to get used to the intense heat! The next day we booked our tickets straight for the beaches of Sihanoukville to relax and chillout (more for Christian as I've been doing that very thing for over a month now). Sihanoukville is great, and most certainly relaxing! We stayed near Independence Beach along with all the other backpackers, and spent some time on the beach and Otres Beach. The beaches are lined with comfy chairs outside bars and seafood restaurants, so a yummy dinner is never far away!
We spent the last two days on Monkey Island which is a two hour boat trip from Sihanoukville, and definitely worth the trip! The island is incredible. We stayed in a little hut right on the water, on a lovely white sandy beach. Yesterday we did a little jungle hike across the island to the most beautiful beach I've ever seen...and we had it pretty much to ourselves!! I couldn't believe how remote it was, but apparently the owner doesn't advertise it because he likes it quiet...fair enough as it was lovely! Totally bummed that I can't go in the water because of my motorcycle burn, but its hard to complain when you're in the most beautiful place in the world!
We're off to Phnom Penh in a bit to do some more exploring and site seeing, and then to Siem Reap! x

monkeys everywhere! Phnom Penh

before and after...Phnom Penh

view from our hut

Christian on our beach!

our hut!

the most amazing beach

...and we had it all to ourselves!

aww sunsets

Saigon

Apart from getting attacked by a dog and burning my leg getting off a motorcycle, I've had a blast in Saigon. My first day here I had a wander around and a much needed rest! The month's traveling and lack of sleep has definitely caught up with me, and I'm feeling the need for sleep! Wednesday I took myself off and got totally lost which I loved! The city is completely packed full of motorbikes (5 million) and the traffic is totally nuts. Once again there are no traffic rules per say, and the lanes are relatively non existent, but people rely more on their horns. Realising I was far away from where I wanted to be, I hopped on a motorbike and away I went to Distric 3 to a restaurant I had heard good things about. The rest of the day was dampened by the muffler burn I got on my way back to District 1, but nevermind. I met some cool people in my room, and also bumped into the guys I traveled down to Nha Trang with. The food here is fantastic, and you honestly can't swing a cat for noodle soup stalls...which suits me just fine!

Yesterday I went on a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels which was really interesting. In the afternoon I visited the War Remnants Museum, but only briefly as I couldn't actually handle how graphic the images are. The museum is definitely one sided, and put Americans in a very bad light which unfortunately (I feel) affects how Vietnamese people feel about Americans today. Maybe one day I'll return to see more at the museum, but yesterday I was more in the mood for ice cream. I had a great walk back to the hotel and then went out to dinner with the guys from my room. Today I went to a cooking class which was fantastic, and I can't wait to get home to cook up a Vietnamese feast (everyday). It was only myself and Hungarian Lonzo, so it was a very private class indeed!
Off to Cambodia tomorrow morning, and I can't wait! I've heard only good things about Cambodia...along with the fact that CHRISTIAN IS COMING! YAY!
You've probably guessed by now that I'm a big fan of Vietnam, and I'm sad to leave. But I know that I'll be back with a good idea of what I want to do.

guide showing us how small the tunnels are!

chillin out with some sweet models

"Notre Dame"

SO MANY MOTORCYCLES!

...chihuahua on a motorcycle

Getting ready for my cooking lesson!

my feast!

The chef really wasn't this miserable