Koh Tao

One of my favourite places on our trip so far.

I got my Open Water diver training and cert here with Scuba Junction. Ko Tao is pretty much just diving and partying. There are some schools on the island that churn out students like a factory. Scuba J was a good wee school, with max of 4 students per instructor. We stayed at their accommodation for a discounted student price but I understand some schools will provide you with free accomm if you take a course with them.

'Class' started at 9am. The only place around open for breakfast was the Coffee boat. They must coat the tables in syrup because there is so many FLIES. Pretty gross and a wee shame because the food is ok.

Class (theory and videos), lunch, dive and practise skills, cold shower, dinner, homework.

Our 1st visit to Koh Tao was all about diving. Maybe because it was where I first got diving but its definitely one of my favourite places. The sites were all beautiful. Most memorable was my 4th dive. The waters were rough and before the 3rd dive I was already thinking I can't wait to get back to the mainland. My instructor Linzi asked if I wanted a sea sick pill. 'Will it not make me drowsy?' I ask. 'I dunno, probably not.' I went without. 'As soon as you get in the water its okay.' while she was briefing us I had to go be sick over the side of the boat !! Not nice.

Dive 3 was good. Still looking for a turtle though.

Dive 4 we moved to calmer waters. I was warying of eating anything on the break but also realised my lunch had gone so hopefully I'd be ok. I'm still not sure whether diving is a strenuous activity or not... The site was called 'white rock', really pretty. Near the end of the dive Linzi made the hand gesture for a turtle, and I put out my hands like where?!?! And flippered quickly over to her forgetting that turtles are slow creatures. He was just hanging out. It was ace. And the perfect end to the diving, after feeling so horrible earlier too. It seemed all the dive schools had groups surrounding him but he was just minding his own business.

Koh Tao means turtle island and I assumed that was because there was lots of turtles there but apparently its because the island is shaped like a turtle shell. Our video was shown at Hippo restaurant/bar and I guy said he had been on over 100 dives and still hadn't seen a turtle... I guess we were lucky!

Crossing the road

We're in Hanoi.

We booked a taxi through a private airport company because apparently there's lots of scams at Hanoi airport. Our flight was 1 hr delayed from Vientiane- I won't miss Laos time. I hoped the driver was still going to be waiting there with his sign. He was there. No worries. His taxi was unmarked which I thought was unusual because their website makes them out to be a big airport taxi company.

The roads in Hanoi are crazy. There is constant honking from all the traffic, and there is HUNNERDS of motorbikes and scooters. Weaving in and out. He was driving on the wrong side of the road at one point! Just cruising towards oncoming traffic. $16, fixed.

Our hostel had free bicycle hire so we decided to try them out the next day. The first street we came to was a crossroad with just one way of solid traffic so we were like oh. There was motorbikes in the same position as us but they would just nip to the middle and then edge their way to the other side. We got off our bikes and decided to walk them across the zebra crossing. The traffic didn't stop at first so we just waited. Meanwhile motorbikes are still edging their way across the road so we're like oh no we're just going to have to go for it and right enough you just cross slowly and the bikes weave round you. The cars you have to wait for, obviously. Crossing the road on foot is much the same. Just walk slow and watch out for the cars; the bikes will work around you...

Traffic in all directions but it works.

THAILAND

Bangkok was just as busy but not as many bikes. There is a 2 minute countdown for the green man (if you can find one) but locals just walk out, stick up their hand to stop the traffic. I saw it work a few times. I didn't try it or see any tourists brave enough to imitate this procedure!

Stick with a local and use them as a shield,ie with them between you and the traffic. Or wait for the green man.

HONG KONG

Its fine here.

BEIJING

There's green men but that doesn't mean anything. Cars drive through red lights. We found the best way was just to RUN.

JAPAN

Zebra crossings are everywhere. Its great. As soon as you walk up to one all the traffic will stop. The first place I've been where pedestrians seem to rule the road if that makes sense?? We were here before Beijing and nearly got killed the first time we tried to cross the road in Beijing.

That's all for now. Safe.

Slowboat to Luang Prabang

Laos was our next stop. To get there we would have to get a 2 day slow boat from the Thai border.

We booked through our hostel so everything was sorted. In the morning we were picked up by a mini bus and from there we set off on the 6 or so hr journey to Chiang Khong. I slept a bit but soon I realised that the Thai countryside, and the fields with the farmers was too beautiful to sleep through. There were traditional house on stilts, bamboo huts. It definitely felt like I was in a foreign country- I guess a strange thing to say considering I had been in Thailand for 10 or so days before then.

The hotel was ok. At check in they took our passports away to make our Laos visas. It was our first experience sleeping with a mosquito net. We took half a room each and sprayed every hole we could see in the floorboards, walls (it was a cabin room) so the mossies had no chance! Cabin rooms also meant outdoor showers. There was at least two mosquitos waiting in each shower cubicle so I passed.

At 8.30am the next day we were driven down to the river to get on a longboat across the river to collect our passports. I thought since we had handed them in the night before it would be quite an easy process... When we got there there was a hoard of about 80 people all trying to get to the front. Some people still had to hand in their passports to make the visas but there was only one window so we were all just waiting together. Word got round that the immigration officer just flashes the photo page of the passport up to the window and if that's you, you have to run up to get it before she puts it down and picks up another one. And yeh, this actually happened. Some guys at the front started calling out the names to speed up the process so that was good because me and Pete would have never been able to see over all the heads! Meanwhile another traveler had been given about 15 passports and was told to hand them back to the owners... It was crazy.

I thought I was never getting my passport back because there was so many people there. Eventually my name was called and I pushed my way to the front. It cost 35 USD (with a British passport). While I was waiting for the others to get theirs back, a local man came up to me and asked me what I sell? I was like, um no, nothing. He was like, I saw your passport, you sell things. What do you sell? (I put sales assistant as my occupation). I had no idea who this guy was and why he got to see my passport. On reflection, I should have checked his ID badge- I don't think any of us did but he soon had a group of us, all with the yellow badges which were given out at the hotel. He popped us in a truck and told the driver to take us to a restaurant next to the boats.

It was like 9.45am by now. We asked what time the boat was. He started to explain to us about Laos time- 'the boat will probably leave at 11am, maybe 11.30. Its supposed to leave at 9.30 but it never does. We're in Laos. Its called Laos time.'

The boat takes two days. On the first day it stops for the night in a small village called Pak Beng. He asked us if we had booked accommodation and if not we should book through him because it was going to be really busy. At our last hostel, the owner, Pong said we just turn up and pay about 150 baht. He was asking for 500. I didn't trust him. He then said that they only accept kip in Pak Beng because its just a little village. I luckily exchanged enough for a nights stay back at the hotel. One of the other travelers was like why didn't you tell us this before where there was an ATM, and bureau de change. He said, its ok, we can change for you- the minimum is 1000 baht. There was a group of like 12 of us and about a 3/4 just handed him money, and his wee pal went off to exchange it. Out of curiousity, I asked him how much he would exchange British sterling for and he said 6,000 kip. Last time I checked it was about 12,500 ! Hahah. Half the value. Expensive commission! He must have been laughing inside- he just got handed all this money and no one asked him for an exchange rate. People started getting their iPhones out and using their exchange apps. He had just made up the exchange rates. People were raging: 'Call your friend and tell her the actual rate!' so he called her- oh moneys already exchanged, sorry...

Hustler.

He then got everyone to give his pal our passports so she could go get the boat tickets. I'm not sure why he needed our passports because there was no reference to our passports, or names on our tickets. Hopefully no one had their identity copied or anything... It was a strange couple of hours.

We walked down to the already packed boat. People had been waiting on the boat since 9.30am so they weren't too pleased when we showed up and made them squash up. Buy a cushion. The seats are just wooden, wobbly benches. Really thin too. Not comfy at all. About 6hrs to Pak Beng. You'll occasionally see people waving a white tshirt to flag down the boat so it pulls over a few times on the way.

Pak Beng is just hotels and restaurants. We paid 400 baht for a twin room which is probably still too much but we just wanted a room after the boat. The bars will all offer free Laos whisky. Its pretty sick, but free.

Next day, we got down to the pier for 8.30 since we were told the boats leave at 9. Ours left at about 9.50 but it was much smaller than the day before, and it was one of the last ones to leave so I wonder where everyone went? From here it was another 7 or so hours to Luang Prabang. There is speed boats as well that only take 1 day but there is a lot of accidents on them. When you are on the slow boat you will see them whizzing past- some passengers wear motorbike helmets.

Get to Luang Prabang, find a hostel.