20th March -Swayambhunath 'Monkey temple' Kathmandu

This was our first real day exploring the city. We were advised to go and see the monkey temple. Sabeen told us to walk east in a straight line and we would find the temple no problem. The thing is..there are no straight lines in Kathmandu!


one minute we're walking a road you wouldn't see on a building site..

and then we are alongside some beautiful allotments..the contrast is unbelievable

Each road meanders into another splitting again, side streets leading in different directions again..it is an absolute maze!

Luke, using his Bear Grylls

The climb to the temple was pretty big, we took our time and eventually came face to face with the gigantic shrine.

 We were greated by bright colour prayer flags dancing in the sky, 'Om Mani Padme Hum' mantra echoing all around, a spectacular view of the urban chaos of the city surrounded by breathtaking mountains, the pictures will tell the rest...

March 18th - Kathamandu

We just arrived in Nepal. The journey went so smooth too..for once!! The 16hr stop over flew by and we got to Kathmandu airport, got our visas, collected our baggage, all so easily. Too easily! We got outside and are met with as barrage of taxi guys. Our guest house came with free airport transfer, wasn't sure if they would actually meet us though.

After about thirty seconds outside some random Nepalese guy turns to me and asks if I'm Lisa? After my response there is a Chinese whispers...or more like shouts, "hey, I found Lisa," "Lisa's over here," and so on until it reaches the guy who's picking us up holding a handwritten sign with my name! I felt like a bloody movie star!

He brought us to his miniature van and off we set for the guest house. The roads, buildings, streets and people are like nothing I saw in Thailand, it is completely completely authentic. No high rises, brightly coloured block buildings stacked on top of one another. Rubbish piled high in the river. Amazing Indian dress and colourful jewelry. No 7/11's!

We got to our lovely little guest house, looks like something I'd imagine to find in Russia?! We are welcomed with Nepalese tea and told about the area and what we should do.
Oh I never mentioned.....ITS ALMOST COLD HERE!! Well 21 degrees but it is the most refreshing air we have felt since the 31st of January!

We went outside to explore. I have never never never experienced such a sensory overload. The photos will have to explain...







these are pictures of the main river than runs through the city..

 We got back and met the guys who own the guest house, Amit and Sabeen. They are amazingly welcoming and extremely cool, down to earth guys. We stayed up late drinking in their chill out room.

Nepal....you are our new love..............

March 17th Bangkok/Bangladesh

This has to be the most random Paddy's day yet!!!

beginning of day in Bangkok

Today we flew from Bangkok to Bangladesh. We flew with Bangladesh airlines and were pretty sure we were going to die! The flight was actually perfect, far superior to ryanair and we arrived safe and sound!

We had a 16hr stop over in Dhaka before our flight to Kathmandu. The airport was tiny. Seeing as it was Paddy's Day we got ourselves all psyched up for some drinking..to pass the time. Went to the duty free, big bottle of Captain Morgan in hand. We are asked for our boarding cards, and then refused purchase because we are in transit!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

What do we do now?!

The seats were so uncomfortable and the place was generally not so nice. We spotted this Indian restaurant so said we'd chance out luck and see if we could sit in there. We bought one plate of chips and a coffee and stayed there for six hours!!! Our laptop and phone was dead and we even found somewhere in the restaurant to charge them!!

At 4am we were finally asked to leave..but they said we could come back at 8am for free breakfast!!!!

The night flew and before we knew it we were in Kathmandu. 

March 16th bangkok

We found a new hostel, this time we made sure to inspect the room before checking in!

Todays mission was to sort out our flights to Kathmandu. The only benefit of being on Ko San road is the amount of travel agents located there so we spent a couple of hours visiting each one trying to get the best deal.

We had two options. Leave tomorrow and take a 16hour stop over in Bangladesh or wait until Monday and fly direct to Kathmandu. We didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in Ko San so we opted for the stop over flight...we leave tomorrow :)

We were unsure of any safe/relaxing haven in the city so we headed for the MBK shopping complex. We went to the cinema there, it was so so nice. Sitting in that box we could have easily been at home, it was a nice feeling. The cinema was very superistic in style and I have to say the seats were one of the most comfortable I've ever sat on!!

We watched Big Miracle, it's a film about wales trapped beneath the ice in the artic. It was a little cheesy but still enjoyable. It was also in English with Thai subtitles so it suited us perfectly!

Afterwards, we went guitar shopping. Luke has been lost without his instruments since leaving. He got a beautiful acoustic in the only music shop in the centre, for 2000baht (€50) and it sounds like a dream!
　

March 15th return to bangkok

So we arrived in Bangkok just two hours later than expected, which is fantastic considering our luck with trains here! We made our way to Ko San road to find a hostel. Neither of us were prepared for the awful sensory overload of this road. We got there at 9pm, in the middle of the chaos of the night market/party pubs. We were pretty tired at this stage and battled our way through the crowds to find some place to sleep.
We took the first reasonably priced place we came across.

We checked in and found our room. I went into the bathroom and as I came out I met Luke standing in front of we holding a towel like a weapon with a wild look in his eyes. What are you at? He pointed at the wall behind me and there sat a cockroach almost the size of my hand.

It was completely repulsive. We spent about 15minutes trying to lure it away from our room. Eventually it worked and he ran down the hallway.

We went to the night market and had some food, so so tired so came back to hit the hay. As I lat down on the bed I could see all these tiny black bugs crawling around. I've never seen anything like them. I pointed them out to Luke and he squashed a few, which left blood stains on the mattress. Lovely, these were blood suckers.

The reception was closed at this stage so there was no one to confront about them. We wrapped ourselves tight in our sleeping bags, hoping it would keep them out. I felt like I didn't sleep a wink that night, I lay looking at the window wishing for daylight. As soon as it was bright we fled the hostel.

I dread to think what those bugs were. Considering the amount of places we've stayed so far it's pretty good going that that was the first manky one.

15th March - last day in Hua Hin

We have had such a lovely week here in Hua Hin. We did very little and finally took a little rest from the yoyo-ing we've been doing around the country for the past few weeks. It is actually so nice to just - stop -!!! Whenever we arrive at a new destination we're like lunatics trying to get around and see as much as possible. However, we are starting to learn that the time we take to ourselves is just as important as the time we spend exploring.

We spent each day chilling out in the Hilton (so undeserving of their luxury!) or just relaxing at our humble guest house. It's great to have company from home too, we can sit around, talk about familiar things and have the craic. We went out for the nicest food each night, costing next to nothing and had drinks on their 8th floor balcony overlooking the sea from one side and the city from the other. We were spoiled rotten!!
We ventured into the Karaoke style bars a couple of nights and sat around laughing and commenting on almost everyone, especially the creepy western men and their Thai ladies. No harm was done and they certainly kept us entertained! We especially enjoyed the music of Lady Bla Bla, she had a massive habit of forgetting the words and replacing them with bla....we laughed and laughed and laughed, she was a true super star!

Carol works for an airline and has done a lot of travelling throughout her life. She backpacked around India alone in the 70's, in a time where so little was known of the country, there were no atm's so she carried literally every penny she had on her. There were no telephones so she would have to write letters home to say she was okay, they wouldn't arrive for about three months! I could not imagine travelling like that now, it's very admirable that she did that and we really enjoyed listening to all her stories from the places she's been.

I have to say we will miss their company now that they've left. We will also miss the slide into the Hilton pool!!!!

We're leaving for Bangkok now, I'm writing this at Hua Hin station. It's a five hour journey and we paid 88baht for the two of us to travel, that's about €2.50! The train's been delayed though so who knows when we'll eventually get on it, although as long as its not a 25hr bus journey to flippin Kuala Lumpar I do not care!!!!!!

13th March - Phraya Nakhon Cave Hua Hin

Maria's travelling buddy and best friend Carol has been to Hua Hin before. When she visited, she went to see Phraya Nakhon cave. It's about an hour outside the city, housed in their national park. We set off today to see it. We hired a taxi driver who took us directly to the park. As we left the car he was laughing about how tough the walk is and told us he'd done it once before but would never do it again! Lovely!

We took a long tail boat to the other side of the beach and began our adventure there. The climb was quite steep at 460m, we slowly tackled the steps, trying not to look ahead at the incline! It took about forty minutes to reach the entrance to the cave, then we began the descent to reach the entrance.

I can't explain what awaited us! You climb through this narrow passage and emerge in the centre of a gigantic open top cave. Mia walked in first and by the time I caught up to her she was overcome by tears. Neither of us could speak. It is by far the most amazing thing we've seen since leaving for our travels. The light shines into the cave at an angle and hits this beautifully ornate Buddhist shrine which sits in the centre of the huge space. The cave stretched high into the sky, decorated with vegetation and tangled in vines.

We all walked in separate directions and the four of us wandered around the space in awe.

We spent about an hour there and just as we left, a huge tour of Japanese school kids entered the cave, obnoxious and loud, like most teenagers. We were grateful we had the cave to ourselves for that brief time and go to experience it as it should be.