Bangkok

I’d visited Thailand before, around seven years ago with my friend Sally and her then boyfriend, now husband, Miles.  I had an absolute blast, and was thoroughly looking forward to going back.  I went just after the Tsunami, there weren’t many tourists around which could have added to the enjoyment of my experience.  I was also a lot younger, enthusiastic and more up for a party.  The local people were very friendly, the food was excellent, and we met loads of interesting people along the way. 

We had around two weeks in Thailand, and apart from two of Nev’s wonders in and around Bangkok, he left it up to me to plan what we were to do for the rest of our time there.  Our time was fairly short, and I opted for some R & R at the beach.  I fell in love with the beaches in Thailand last time I was there, Thailand has the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen, and last time I visited they were fairly quiet.  Things were to be different this time round though.

We opted to start off at Koh Tao, move on to Koh Phi Phi and finish off in Bangkok.  My original plan was to spend most of our time on the Andaman coast, but I changed my mind after I got my diving certificate and Valerie suggested Koh Tao, describing it as a Mecca for scuba enthusiasts, and a diver’s paradise.

We arrived in Bangkok late at night and had to queue for around two hours for a taxi.  When we finally got one, the driver was a total prick.  He said that his taxi wasn’t a taxi meter, and suggested a fare.  We had just been standing in a taxi meter queue for two hours, with signs everywhere noting that the queue was indeed for metered taxis.  His taxi had “taxi meter” written all over the outside of the taxi, and his taxi had a meter inside it which was highly visible, and we could see it was working!  When we insisted on using the meter, after Nev got unusually angry, the driver turned into a grumpy git, with various irritated conversational exchanges along the way.  Not a good introduction to Thaliand.

We arrived at our pre-booked guest house at around 3am.  We had to wake up a member of staff before we could gain entry.  I was shattered after travelling since 8am the previous day and got to sleep as soon my head hit the pillow. 

We initially planned to go to Koh Tao the next day, but after arriving in the middle of night and having little sleep, we decided to stay for an extra day in Bangkok and recharge our batteries.  That day we didn’t do very much, I showed Nev the chaotic backpacker district of Khao San, we booked our bus ticket for Koh Tao and went out for a few drinks in the evening.

Khao San Road

I was a bit hungover the next day and left Nev to check out The Temple of the Emerald Buddha on his own.  I’d seen it before and we were going to pay it another visit on our return to Bangkok.  I chilled in our guesthouse until it was time for our night bus to Koh Tao. 

Malapascua

We had ten days in the Philippines, myself and Nev had made an agreement that after he’d seen his wonder of the Banaue rice terraces, I could plan the rest of our time in the Philippines.  I decided upon trying to find a remote island paradise for a few days then maybe check out the famous ‘Chocolate Hills’.  Our lonely planet, which was a few years old, described an island of the Northern tip of Cebu, Malapascua, as ‘having long white unspoilt beaches, great food and a low–key approach to tourism ‘, in other words my dream island paradise.  There were warning signs though, it seems that the unspoilt paradise could have changed in the few years since our copy of the lonely planet was written.  New roads and major developments were in the pipeline but still to be approved by local government.  The photos of the guesthouse I chose and subsequently booked did not show any signs of the change with the resort seeming to have a private beach, it looked amazing. 

When we arrived in Cebu, we were initially going to get a bus to Maya, where you catch the boat to Malapascua.  I was a bit nervous about making the last boat so we haggled with the taxi driver until we got a decent price and then he drove us straight to Maya.  We had to wait until they had enough people to fill a boat before they would do the crossing, which gave us enough time to grab a quick bite to eat.

When we arrived on the island my heart sank, the local government had given the go ahead and the resorts had spread like wild fire.  There wasn’t a spare inch of beach without a hotel or beach hut on it.  I was incredibly disappointed.  I still had hope though of finding a remote spot with a private beach.  Our booking for the idyllic looking resort, White Sands, was for the next day, as they were fully booked for our arrival.  We eventually found somewhere within our budget then I went to check out White Sands.  Their private beach was no longer private, and had in fact been turned into a building sight, with the noise of hammering and drilling destroying the peaceful beach atmosphere.

I was saddened, after all our travelling we’d managed to find the Philippines equivalent of a half finished Benidorm.   I was so aggrieved that I suggested to Nev that we should only stay the one night then move onto somewhere else.  But after ten consecutive nights spending in different places, he point blank refused, which was fairly understandable. 

After the first night of disappointment I started to regain a bit of enthusiasm.  The beach was nice, and the food on the island was rather good too.  We checked out of our accommodation to move onto White Sands to find out they’d double booked us.  We eventually found accommodation which was attached to a diving resort.  Over lunch we talked about the possibility of moving onto the chocolate hills the next day.  In reality it was just way too much travelling, and we really were in dire need of a break.  I decided at this point that I might as well make some good come out of our bad situation and do my PADI open water scuba diving course.  I was planning on doing it in Thailand, but if I could do it in Malapascua it meant that I could go straight in the water when I arrived in the North Gulf without any further training.

I spoke with the diving instructors, they told me it was possible, I could start the next day and do a three day course, but it would be intense.  They weren’t wrong.  They gave me the text book I was to read just to have a flick over and help make up my mind.  We didn’t have A/C in our accommodation and it was roasting, too hot for me to sleep.  I was planning to get up early and read the first chapter and watch the video during breakfast.  But at 9 o’clock a night club just behind our hut started banging out cheesy dance tunes until it closed at 2am.  There was no way I was getting to sleep so I ended up reading the first chapter, it wasn’t easy to concentrate what with the noise coupled with the fact that I’d had a fair few beers beforehand.

The next few days of the course were amongst the most stressful and tiring of my life.  We had moved out of our noisy beach hut into a small hotel room but again with no A/C.  I had major struggle sleeping getting around 4 hours a night.  I’d then be up early every day to do diving exercises, get a short break for lunch, go for some dives, which I did really enjoy, have dinner and then do homework until about 9 or 10pm.  It certainly wasn’t a relaxing beach holiday, but it was worth it to get my diving qualification.  Nev was happy too, he had time to relax, read, and catch up with writing.

 

My instructor Valerie, a French Canadian, was excellent though.  She was bouncing with enthusiasm and a great instructor.  She was also good fun and was staying at the same resort along with her boyfriend, who was another instructor.  This gave the dive shop an intimate family atmosphere.  We would chat to them over lunch and dinner and they were good crack.  Because of this I have fond memories of Malapascua, even though the course was stressful and the island didn’t live up to my expectations. 

We left Malapascua for Cebu city where we were to catch our flight to Manila, then finally Bangkok.  Our flight departed on time with no hick ups along the way until we got to Bangkok Airport.

Banaue

Banaue is famous for its rice terraces, and was the reason why we were visiting the small town.  In itself the village is nothing to look at, but the surroundings are spectacular.  Thousands of rice terraces which are over 2000 years old line the mountains for as far as the eye can see.  It was fairly misty when we arrived in the morning and we weren’t able to see the terraces in all their glory as the mountain peaks were draped in fog. 

We checked into a guesthouse we’d picked from the lonely planet named the Banue View Inn.  It was on a hill with amazing views of the terraces and a good choice.  We had a short rest before lunch, after which we set about exploring.  It was great being in the mountains with the cool air, and in a small peaceful town.  The previous few months of heat and hectic city life was fairly wearing and an escape to the highland countryside was a welcome break.

After a shower and some lunch, we decided to take a walk up to the viewpoint.  We weren’t successful in finding the it but I don’t think there would have been much of a view anyway as we would have been shrouded in mist  We had to walk through a small village where every house kept livestock, mainly chickens and pigs, and the occasional territorial dog that would bark like crazy at us during our approach then run and hide as soon as we got close.  The main path seemed to pass straight through the local people’s houses and barns.  It felt a bit intrusive, but the local people didn’t seem to mind and were very friendly.

We eventually passed through the village and reached the first of the rice terraces.  The path continued along the top of the walled rice terraces snaking its way up the mountainside.  At some points the path was very narrow and we had to use both arms outstretched for balance, as if we were walking a tightrope.  If we’d slipped we’d have ended up either foot deep in the terrace encased in the wall we were walking on, or even worse in the terrace below where we would have fallen head first into the muddy water with a resounding soaking.     

We clambered around the rice terraces not knowing exactly where the viewpoint was until the visibility became poor with the fog and it was also starting to get a bit late.  We descended and went back to our guesthouse. 

I wasn’t overly enamoured with the town, apart from the rice terraces it really was nothing to look at.  The town consisted of a collection of cheaply constructed houses with corrugated iron roofs, dispersed with a handful of hotels and restaurants.  As with most of our destinations on our travels our time in Banaue was short.  I knew there were trekking opportunities in the area which sounded amazing and I wasn’t too keen on hanging around Banaue town.  After discussing with Nev we decided to book a three day trek for the next day.  

We woke up early, met with our guide and then got a Tricycle (a kind of Phillipines tuk tuk) up to the viewpoint.  It was a much clearer day and the terraces looked a lot more impressive when we could see the full range of them.   

We moved on from the view point, found the start of the trail, which is pretty high at around 2000m, then started the trek.  The first part of our trek was to be around a four hour walk through jungle like terrain until we would reach a small village called Pula.  The rainy season, or should I say cyclone season, had just past (the Philippines is subject to around 80 a year).  There were many fallen trees we had to scramble over, and a lot of the muddy trail had been washed away.  This meant that we had to take some minor detours climbing up or down muddy cliff faces with shear drops to a river seemingly miles below.  Along with having to jump from stepping stones to cross rivers, and cross waterfalls using bridges made out of the narrowest pieces of extremely slippery wood, it made for a fairly harrowing, but thrilling experience.

When we arrived at Pula I was quite surprised.  It’s pretty remote, the nearest road is a four hour walk and they don’t have electricity, but they had a big school with an attached concrete baskeball/football pitch.   Bizarrely, all the writing around the school was in English, including a list of the school rules.  Everybody was at church when we arrived.  We’d worked up a fair appetite after our walk, our guide managed to get one women to open the local shop for us to have some snacks.  Not only did she open the shop but she offered to cook us some food, pasta and a choice of the tinned meat that they had available.  We went for sardines in the end. 

It was a very interesting experience watching her prepare the food in an old fashioned wood fired stove, and just seeing how they lived without electricity, a commodity that we take for granted in the west.  The children were very curious with their visitors.  We were offered a kind of water melon as a starter along with salt which we were to smother the fruit with.  Our amateur peeling and smothering technique seemed to entertain the kids, receiving smiles and stifled giggles from our audience.

After lunch it was time to move onto Cambulo, another small village without electricity, where we were to stay the night.  It was a short two hour walk to Cambulo through rice terraces.  The views were absolutely breath taking, we were encircled by mountains and each mountain was sculpted with stepped terraces, some inconceivably high.  The people who work the upper terraces must have to walk for hours every day.  It’s a mesmerising sight, the rolling hills alone are spectacular, but add the chiselled beauty of the ancient 2000 year old terraces and you have an awe inspiring scene.      

After taking plenty of breaks to take in the view, we finally arrived at Cambulo.  Our guest house was nice, but basic.  I had to make do with a bucket of freezing water to wash myself.  Myself and Nev played a bit of scrabble until dinner, then after dinner we had some entertainment provided by the kids of the village.  They did a little bit of a song and dance routine, finishing up with a few of the boys getting dressed up in their traditional tribal gear and dancing around.  After they were finished, we were met with a chorus from the children of, ‘we want to hear your voice’.  After much persuasion I managed to get Nev to do a duet with me of ‘O Flower of Scotland’.  We sang it with patriotic gusto, and frankly, I think we scared the children a bit.  Probably for the best though as we didn’t get an encore.

Playing Scrabble with an Audience

The Local kids

The next day we had a short trek to Batad where we were to stay the night.  It was similar to the previous afternoon’s trek, both in the terrain, and in the breath taking beauty.  As we approached Batad one view point was particularly special.  We could see the spectacular walled rice terraces of Batad, with the village in the valley and other small houses dotted around the mountains.  It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and commanding views of the mountains beyond with layer upon layer of rice terraces.

 

Our guesthouse in Batad was another belter.  It was high up in the town with a restaurant with prime position of the terraces.  We had lunch and had a short rest before our afternoon activity of visiting the Tappia waterfall.

It’s a 40 minute trek downhill all the way to the falls, which makes for a steep climb back to Batad, but it was definitely worth it.  The falls are 30m high with a big pool for swimming at the bottom.  I stripped down to my swimming shorts and went straight in.  The water was fairly chilly, but nothing like some of the rivers I’ve experienced in Scotland.  I swam around for half an hour, which was about all I could manage.  It was exhausting, the torrent of water and the height of the falls gave the pool a very strong current, with big waves.  It was almost like swimming in a pool with a wave machine, but with freezing cold water.  

Our trek on the way back up was fairly demanding and after a cold shower, myself and Nev rewarded ourselves with some ice cold beers (Batad has recently installed electricity).

We had dinner, played some more scrabble and cards, and ended up having another early night.  It was great not having to use A/C and I slept a lot more soundly than I had been, although ear plugs were still required as the animals of the village woke early, and when they did they produced an almighty racket.

The next morning after breakfast I went down to the waterfall on my own for a morning dip.  It was very exhilarating and a perfect way to start your day.  It certainly wakes you up swimming in chilly waters with a pounding waterfall in front of you. 

We left for Banaue after my return.  It was a short one hour hike to the main road where we were met with our Tricycle driver who took us back to town.

 At this point I really should mention how great our guide was.  His family actually owned rice terraces, and he’s worked in the paddy fields all his life.  He’s also built new terraces from scratch, and has a wealth of knowledge about rice farming, which was handy as we had a lot of questions to ask him.  He was quietly spoken and a tad shy, but really friendly and helpful and opened up the more he got to know us.  All in all the trekking experience was fantastic, and this was partly due to our guides expertise and knowledge.

We were getting the night bus back to Manila that night so we checked into Banaue View Hotel again just for a few hours so we could dump our stuff, get changed and have a shower.  We were a bit smelly after trekking for three days without a proper wash.  We had dinner then went to the bus station.

The bus got in at 5am, and we had a connecting flight to Cebu at 9am, the timings worked out perfectly.  After getting a taxi to the airport we only had a couple of hours to kill before we got our flight.

Manila

Manila is a very discombobulated place.  It doesn’t really have a centre and doesn’t feel like a city but more a sprawling mass of connecting towns.  It’s not pretty, and feels slightly dangerous with armed security guards at every shop, fast food restaurant and ATM.  My introduction to the city certainly played up to its reputation.  I took my luggage from the taxi and put it on the ground.  I picked up my rucksack, and a little kid tried to make a grab for a painting in a wicker carrier I had bought in Combodia.  I put my foot on it and told him to get lost.  

A Jeepney in Manila

We were really shattered after our flight and checked into a Hotel to get some rest.  Our time was short in the Philippines and we didn’t really fancy hanging around Manila any longer than necessary, so we planned to get a night bus to Banaue in the evening.

We got an interesting Filipino lunch at a nearby restaurant complete with a live Mexican style band wearing cowboy hats and playing maracas.  They were working their way round the tables crooning away, we managed to gobble up our lunch before they made it round to us.

We didn’t do much the rest of the day partly down to the fact we were exhausted, and also as I don’t think there are many sights to see in Manila.

We arrived at the bus station a couple of hours early, and luckily managed to secure the last two seats on the bus to Banaue.  We put our bags on the bus then found a nearby bar/restaurant to have some dinner and a couple of beers before our journey.

The journey wasn’t too bad.  I managed to get a fairly decent kip, it probably helped that I was absolutely shattered from the previous travel day.  When I awoke I was in the wonderful highlands of North Luzon. 

Manila is a very discombobulated place.  It doesn’t really have a centre and doesn’t feel like a city but more a sprawling mass of connecting towns.  It’s not pretty, and feels slightly dangerous with armed security guards at every shop, fast food restaurant and ATM.  My introduction to the city certainly played up to its reputation.  I took my luggage from the taxi and put it on the ground.  I picked up my rucksack, and a little kid tried to make a grab for a painting in a wicker carrier I had bought in Combodia.  I put my foot on it and told him to get lost. 

We were really shattered after our flight and checked into a Hotel to get some rest.  Our time was short in the Philippines and we didn’t really fancy hanging around Manila any longer than necessary, so we planned to get a night bus to Banaue in the evening.

We got an interesting Filipino lunch at a nearby restaurant complete with a live Mexican style band wearing cowboy hats and playing maracas.  They were working their way round the tables crooning away, we managed to gobble up our lunch before they made it round to us.

We didn’t do much the rest of the day partly down to the fact we were exhausted, and also as I don’t think there are many sights to see in Manila.

We arrived at the bus station a couple of hours early, and luckily managed to secure the last two seats on the bus to Banaue.  We put our bags on the bus then found a nearby bar/restaurant to have some dinner and a couple of beers before our journey.

The journey wasn’t too bad.  I managed to get a fairly decent kip, it probably helped that I was absolutely shattered from the previous travel day.  When I awoke I was in the wonderful highlands of North Luzon. 

Hue & Saigon

After all the frantic activity in Hanoi and Halong Bay we were very tired and were looking forward to the overnight train to Hue to get a good night rest.  When we arrived in our carriage we met two English guys, Steve and Luke.  They were totally sound, we got chatting and started drinking, and our good night rest plans were thrown out the window.  We ended up getting rather inebriated with them, finishing off the night with some Cambodian whisky that Nev had fallen in love with, called the Grade of Baroso.  It didn’t taste good, but the peculiar name and the bizarre photo of an Italian dude with a world class trout pout on the bottle sticker was enough to capture Nev’s heart. 

Steve and Luke hadn’t booked any accommodation in Hue and decided to come along with us to our Hotel and see if there were any rooms available.  There were and after check in we decided to meet up for lunch.  We had a few beers with our lunch then went off to visit the Royal palace.  It wasn’t really anything to write home about, so I won’t go into detail.  Hue is a walled city, and the Royal Palace is like a citadel within a citadel.  It has a fascinating history but it just hasn’t been taken care of well, with overgrown gardens, and paint peeling of the buildings.  It’s in dire need of a refurbishment.

Myself and Nev at the Royal Palace

Luke and Steve on a Cycle Rickshaw

 After the Royal Palace we went back to the pub.  We played pool for hours, and ended up having a very long drawn out England vs. Scotland contest.  We were 8-2 up at one point until Steve and Luke made a whirlwind comeback beating us something like 8-11. 

The next day we woke up and went down for breakfast to be met with Jamie and Heather at reception.  We had a rather late breakfast and decided to meet up with them at dinner time.  It was the night before my birthday and we planned to have a big night out to celebrate.

Myself and Nev hired some bikes and went about exploring.  We visited some interesting temples, and cycled about some small towns and little back streets after we finally managed to get out of Hue.  We were having a good time until the con happened. 

We were getting hungry, we’d been cycling for hours and it was lunch time.  A guy on a motorbike, with his wife on the back, started talking to us as we were cycling.  He got us to stop cycling and started to have a proper chat.  He told us he was an English teacher, he was keen to practice his English and asked us if we wanted to join him for lunch at a local Vietnamese place.  He seemed trustworthy, he was with his wife, and we were very hungry, so we went for it. 

He took us to a great restaurant, the food was excellent, bbq style with seafood and beef.  They both seemed very nice and the lunch was going well.  The guy proceeded to get us rather drunk.  We were drinking beer from small glasses, every time he said cheers, which was about every 5 minutes, we were not only meant to clink our glasses together but to down the contents.

Myself and Nev have a few code words, we were slightly unsure how the arrangement of paying the bill was going to work out.  We started getting suspicious when they told us how much money they earned and asked us what our salary was.  So I asked Nev, in code, if we should offer to pay for the whole bill.  He agreed up to a certain amount.  When we had finished and were ready to go they said they would pay the bill as they would get the Vietnamese rate, then we could pay them back.  In our fairly tipsy state we agreed, we crucially never actually saw a copy of the bill.  When they told us the full amount it was at least double what we were expecting, clearly they were at it.  We were really disappointed, because they seemed nice, and what’s more we’d fallen for a scam.  When we asked how much we should pay, the couple said, “it’s up to you”.  But when we offered two thirds of the bill we could see the guy wasn’t happy.

The couple had invited us back to their house after the meal to meet their children, to have a shot on their piano, and drink some Vietnamese whisky.  We had agreed initially but obviously we were now having second thoughts.  On the way back, eventually we stopped them to tell them we weren’t interested.  On the news the guy was furious and demanded the rest of the cash for the meal.  We gave him it just to keep the peace, after which they sped off into the distance.

The Con Artists

It’s not nice falling for a con, but myself and Nev should have known better, we have travelled extensively.  We were kind off kicking ourselves afterwards, and it put us in a wee bit of a foul mood.  But, sometimes you have to take these risks when travelling and sometimes they pay off.  On this occasion though it restored my cynicism, and I’ll now be less open for offers from seemingly friendly strangers.  Och well, at least we had a good, albeit expensive meal out of it.

We met up with Jamie, Steve and Luke at reception.  Heather had decided to stay in, to let us have a boys night out.  We went out for dinner, then onto a few pubs then onto a club called Brown Eyes.  They had an amusing slogan on their flyers, ‘the bar doesn’t shut until the last person passes out’.  We were on our way when we arrived in Brown Eyes, then Steve started buying shots.  Unlike the rest of us, he was on a three week holiday and had no real budget.  After my third sambuca, everything from then on became a bit hazy.  I remember visiting another club with a crazy neon light display, I have flash backs of dancing enthusiastically on my own on the dance flower.  We then returned to Brown Eyes and lost Steve and Luke in the process.  Jamie went home around 2ish, and Nev hit the wall by 3 and was falling asleep at the bar, I told him he should go home.  I remained in the bar, playing pool, I vaguely remember swaying around not even being able to hit the cue ball in my drunken stupor. I'll let the photos do the talking.

I left to go back to the Hotel around 5ish I think.   I couldn’t find the Hotel for love nor money.  Hue can be quite confusing with a maze of back streets, it was especially confusing when I was steamboats.  I refused to get a motorbike taxi because I knew I was so close so I kept on walking around trying to find it.  I staggered around for 2 hours, knowing at every point I was only a 5 minute walk away.  I finally cracked and got somebody from another Hotel to write down the name and address in Vietnamese.  I jumped on a motor bike taxi and gave him the slip of paper with the name and address on it.  He didn’t have a Scooby where it was, even though he told me he did initially.  It took him nearly an hour to find the Hotel, after stopping to ask numerous people en-route. 

I finally got to the Hotel around 8am.  Once I got to my room I realised I’d lost my iPhone somewhere.  It was a bit of a downer, but not the end of the world, it was nearly out of contract and I was insured.  I certainly didn’t lose any sleep over it and was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.

 I woke up at lunch time and went out for food with Nev.  Heather, Jamie, Steve and Luke were at reception, they were all off to Hoi An.  We said our goodbyes and got some lunch.  After lunch the hangover started to kick in, so I ended up going to bed.  I was awoken with a knock at the door around 4pm.  The girls at the Hotel had bought a birthday cake for me complete with a candle.  Unfortunately I was so hung over I couldn’t really express my gratitude, or look happy.  I just managed to muster enough energy to blow the candle out.  I was really touched though.  The Hotel staff were amazing!

Myself and Nev had a train to catch to Saigon that night.  I managed to get a good sleep on the train and woke up feeling fresh.  It was a long journey, around 22hrs, we finally arrived in Saigon in the late afternoon.

I’ve been to Saigon before and had a plan in place for what we should do for our few hours in the city.  There’s a great bar at the Sheraton, about 40 stories high, with amazing views of Saigon and 2 for 1 cocktails between 5-7pm.  We left our luggage at the train station and jumped in a Taxi straight to the Sheraton.  It wasn’t quite 5pm when we arrived so we wandered around for a while until the start of happy hour.  The cocktails were sublime, as was the view, we were perfectly positioned for sunset. 

We had some food then got another taxi to the airport.  Our flight to Manila was at the most anti social time, departing at 3am and arriving at 6am.  As you can imagine it was the cheapest option which is why we took it.  We hung around the airport until we could board the plane.  I managed to get about 30 minutes sleep on the flight arriving in Manila absolutely shattered.