Riding the waves & slides in Kuta, Bali

We arrived in Kuta knowing it would effectively be the last leg of our tour of Asia (bar a day stopover in China en route to Europe) and we had 10 days here to chill out as well as take in my birthday!

Before we came, the place had been described to us as "an Australian ghetto not located in Australia" - it's reputation due to the beach for good waves for surfing and cheap bars which together with the fact it's pretty close to Australia all mean that this is a pretty popular destination for them. Much in the same way Ibiza and Malaga are for us Brits due to proximity and cost.
Having spent the previous week in tranquil Ubud, Kuta seemed a world away despite being only an hours drive. The streets were jam packed, hawkers hassling you at every moment selling anything from clothes, sunglasses, jewellery, crossbows (doubt I'll get that through customs) and sometimes other banned items...in Kuta you've also so many branded shops and fast food restaurants around that you certainly don't feel as if you're removed from your normal culture to come to 'paradise'.

Kuta beach

Aside from that however, it has a great, long and sweeping beach with shallow clear waters and good waves that appeal to all types from your wave jumpers, bodyboarders and of course the surfers. Plus with all the commercialism you can at least rest assured that you can get anything you need!

We spent the first few days lazing on the beach, jumping in the waves before hiring out a body board for the day - I had only surfed once as a kid so wanted to build up to a full surf board - and we both had a great time with the body board. I got a real buzz out of it, especially when you discover that sensation of catching a wave just right and gliding along with it effortlessly. Come the end of the day I'd enjoyed it so much that I had rashes all over my torso, arms and even my chin! So that's what those t shirts are for....

Beginner coming through!

Wipeout!

My birthday

May 10th was my birthday and I started the day with my birthday tradition: every year I wake up and do a ninja flip (where you lie on your back and flip to standing), the reason being that as long as I can still do it, I'll still feel young. This was yet another successful year I'm glad to say - the day I fail I think I'll descend into a life crisis!

Having researched what there was to do here, nothing piqued my interest like the local waterpark called Waterbom. It boasted it was the best in all of Asia too, so despite a less than reasonable entrance fee I was in no doubt where I wanted to go.

The park itself was immaculately clean and well run, I really was surprised. There were all sorts of things to do such as different sized slides, a lazy river, swim up bars and more. I went on all rides at least twice, as did Claire for all but one - the scariest called climax where you stand upright in a booth before having the floor fall away from your feet after a fear inducing countdown, after that you proceed to fly around in the tube at high speed. Our overall favourite was called boomerang where you both got onto a double inflatable sled, went down a steep drop, up a large wall and then backwards on yourself to the finish. I don't have any pictures of all this yet as we took our water camera and haven't developed it yet so this stock image of boomerang will have to do:

Later on we headed out to a place called Havana club that had tempted me to come the night before with it's "spicy chicken wing challenge" where you win a t shirt and a place on their wall of fame for finishing all the wings and sauce. I'm someone who loves his spice - despite having IBS - and I had actually failed to be blown away by spice so far in south east Asia, which really surprised me, so I thought this "challenge" would be nothing. I was wrong. Boy was I wrong! I've had spicy curries, Mexican and the like, I've even withstood phall (hottest curry you can usually get in the UK), but this bowl of chicken wings was a different level! They were nearly pure chilli and I needed a constant beer supply to help me through it. What didn't help was the waitress bringing them over, pouring a shot of tequila over them, then setting the lot on fire! I wasn't sure if I could finish them as I had tears running down my face and my tears felt like they were on fire too! With the coaching of Claire though I did it and claimed my prize as well as my place on their wall of fame; challenge complete. Although I did fear repercussions the next day...

The spiciest wings I think I'll ever have, fully underestimated them

Feeling the burn...

Following our meal we headed to one of the big clubs where we'd been offered free entry and free drinks for an hour, although when we got there the blue drinks put us right off as Claire had heard not to trust the local vodka. After all this we decided to head home as the chicken wing challenge had taken a lot out of me.

The rest of our time in Kuta

The remainder was spent mostly sunbathing on the beach or by the pool. Knowing the rest of our trip in Italy would be lacking beach time we took the chance to top up our tans while we still could. We wanted to surf as well, but the waves became too volatile for the rest of the week for beginners to dare try surfing, which was a shame but I've resolved to try my hand at it more upon our return to Bournemouth!

The sunsets here are stunning. Perfect to sit and watch with a cold one!

At this point we were both very much looking forward to reaching Italy and Rome in particular as it is our favourite city in the world, plus we both felt we'd had enough of Asia for now.
The last few nights of our stay we would wander down to the beach at sunset before dinner as the view was incredible down there. Half the population did the same thing however which made it busy, but it also meant there was no shortage of popup beach bars to get a bintang (fantastic local beer) and enjoy the view.

The other main highlights of our stay was some of the food we ate, we found two particularly great places; an authentic pizzeria with a wood fired oven called pronto pizza (on poppies 1 and ran by an Italian too, so you know it's good) and a hip, Asian restaurant called fat chows that did Vietnamese, Thai as well as Balinese cuisine. At fat chows (on poppies lane 2) we had amazing lumpia (local spring rolls) and had better Thai curries than we did in 2.5 weeks in Thailand itself!

In all, I'd return to Kuta for the surf, that's for sure but we were told that better spots can be found further south at Uluwatu etc. It may be that we've done our time here, but there's still plenty in Bali we didn't do as well as the rest of Indonesia. Of all the places we've visited, Bali is definitely the one we'd most likely return to, we would revisit Ubud plus we would go to the volcano and head to the gili islands.

Our stay here showed us the different sides of Bali, the old cultural part in Ubud that has done remarkably well to retain it's character and identity, and then Kuta which was only built for tourism anyway - and it shows.

I read somewhere that people think Bali has declined due to too much tourism since the film 'Eat, pray, love" was released and inspired the world to visit Bali and if that's true then that is a shame as it would've been nice to see it beforehand. That said, the trick is to head off the beaten track here and you'll find that it still can be that place over the rainbow.

We left Bali on a 8am flight to Shanghai, stayed there for a night and then flew 14 hours to Rome on a plane watching movie after movie to keep us entertained whilst being surrounded by Chinese in matching tracksuits doing exercises up and down the plane. So now we get to spend the rest of our time away in Italy feasting on pizza, pasta, gelato and wine!

Asia has been a real experience, one that pushed us to our limits at times, but it also gave us unforgettable memories too, so it's goodbye for now and ciao Italia!!

Koh Phangan and the pilgrimage to Bali

Koh phangan

Haad salad beach

We spent our second full week in Thailand on Koh Phangan, which was the neighbouring island to where we'd been staying: Koh Samui. We took a ferry there (once again waiting longer than we were being transported) and arrived at our accommodation during a heavy downpour.

The place we stayed at was a proper resort hotel, which was a whole different feeling to the beach bungalows we'd had the week before. Beach bungalows are great because they have a great vibe - especially if there's a hammock - but there are some things they lack which is why we were glad to be at the hotel. A pool being one: whilst I love the sea, I think Claire's fear of being bitten etc by anything I'm the sea has rubbed off on me down the years and as a result I too now freak out if something even brushes past me, meaning that being in an empty pool is a lot more reassuring! Also regular cleaning of rooms is another commodity you don't realise you miss until it's absent.

The week on Koh Phangan itself was actually pretty uneventful - which I didn't care about in the slightest! We mostly lazed by or near the pool, jumped/bombed into it and splashed everyone else in it. We also frequently walked to the village nearby to take advantage of cheap prices at the 7-11 to keep costs low (theory being, spend less in Asia, spend more in Italy!)

Pool life

Haad yao beach

We were on the beach of Haad Yao, which was absolutely gorgeous - especially at low tide and during sunsets. We did often get bombarded by insects just before sunset a few times which meant we often had either very early or late dinners!
We also visited the nearby beach of Haad Salad after we found out Claire's brother stayed there when he visited a few years ago - so we replicated the photo he took there! There were loads of sea cucumbers at the beach there, which while isn't threatening is weird simply as to their numbers, but the beach is really good there too.

Beers at sunset

I spent one day dreaming about running the London marathon again (as it'd just happened that week and all the Facebook posts were making me very inspired to do it again) - and I was so motivated I went for my first run in months even though I had no proper running gear. I did 4 laps of the beach in about 25 minutes (no idea on length), which wasn't bad as I've never ran in 36 degree heat before and I'm out of shape! Plus my trek shoes gave me blisters so I felt my running urge might be satisfied until we return to Europe (where I plan to run regularly when we stay with our host family).

Come the end of the week we had both really unwound, but that was soon to end: ahead of us was an energy sapping, sleep deprived journey via planes, trains, automobiles and ferries to Bali.

The long, long journey

We went there via Kuala Lumpur as the flight from there (air Asia) was the cheapest option by far even with the costs of getting from the Thai islands to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The shipping container accommodation in Surat Thani

To get there we took a ferry to mainland Thailand and stayed overnight in converted storage containers in Surat Thani, then got the 8am train to hat yai, where we had to wait and switch trains (and worry if they'd accept our e ticket as it is clear as mud whether they do - but they do thankfully), we were then on another train at 4pm from there and rode that until 5:30am the next morning when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur sentral station after only about 3 hours completely interrupted sleep (you have to get off and get back on the train at the border). Then we had a Macdonalds for breakfast as nothing else was open, we got to the airport by coach to wait quite a few hours for our 3:45pm flight (having a SECOND Macdonalds for lunch - none for months then two in one day!), we then finally realised an ambition in crossing the equator on that flight before touching down in Bali. We then got picked up and taken to our place in Ubud by car and finally arrived at 9pm local time.

Safe to say the journey was exhausting, but we've finally hit Bali - a place we've both long heard stories of and dreamt of and the last major leg of our south east Asia tour before we head back west (via a one day stopover in China). We've got 17 days here and we can't wait to see if it really is the paradise we've always heard of.

Songkran and soul searching on Koh Samui

We arrived into Koh Samui over 24 hours after checking out of our last place and a gruelling 16 hour journey via all night bus and 2 ferries (and a 3 hour wait inbetween), so by the time we arrived at our beach bungalows we were shattered.

There wasn't much time to rest though as the owner was quick to brief us about the events thar would likely unfold the very next day - for the next day was Songkran, which is Thai new year to you and me.

This is a massively busy time here as it's traditionally when the locals take their holidays - which is why we had to take the hellacious bus and ferry route rather than the comfier train option as they'd all been booked weeks in advance - and for one day in particular barely anything is open, think of it like Christmas.

The owner Shahin (pronounced Sean) told us to not step foot outside unless we wanted to get wet, so any money we had needed to be wrapped in a bag and we shouldn't bring anything electronic as people will just soak us. You see, they celebrate songkran with basically the biggest water fight you've ever seen in your life, with the objective to spend all day soaking everyone and anyone.

Two people had a week before described the event to me in strangely similar words: "it's like call of duty with water pistols". And they weren't wrong...

Songkran

As we feared for our gear we didn't take photos during songkran, but this one here is exactly what it would look like if I did have one on the back of the pickup truck!

We awoke and prepared ourselves and saw nothing. Maybe it was all hype? So we laid on the beach for half an hour until we heard the neighbours pumping really loud music, at which point we thought we should check it out - particularly as I'd bought a gun the day before in preparation!

My gun for songkran, suffice to say... She didn't survive the day.

Outside there was a main road where dozens of cars and bikes were going by and the neighbours were soaking them as they went. The bikes were waved down so they could receive a face full of talcum powder as well as a soaking (dangerous? Absolutely, but that's not the point here!).

Soon enough we were invited to join the neighbours, drinking beers with them and eating some spicy noodles (so fresh) - whilst I also went the whole hog and ate chicken feet with them as Claire passed - I seem willing to try anything at the moment!
The hoses were constantly filling up buckets for us to reload, ice was brought out to give the victims a blast and powder was flying everywhere - it was SO much fun. One neighbour told us they call this day the "free day" where people just do things for free and grant things to others for free - hence why they wouldn't let us pay for the food and beer we drank, but I had my own beers which I did at least insist on contributing to the pile.

The fun then cranked up a notch as some of them were loading up garbage bins full of water (bins were clean) onto the back of a pickup truck ready to cruise round the island and do "drive-bys", which we had seen others doing all morning - and when the pickup trucks stop, that's when the battle really intensifies with everyone firing on them from all angles, but the pickup truck themselves have plenty more ammo.

Sensing an opportunity for more fun, I asked if we could join them to which they were glad to have us and off we went! We drove most of the island through maenam and chaweng (chaweng is the main town), during which the water fights really kicked up a notch! Standstill traffic, people of all ages soaking you and covering your face in dyed powder at every angle (they do lovingly put the powder on as they wish you new year, not just slapping at on you!) - it was absolute carnage of the like I've never seen in my life. I took great delight in flinging a bucket of water into someone's face as they scooted by - sounds harsh but they all knew what they were in for! And when else can you get away with that?!

We spent roughly 3-4 hours driving around doing this, filling up at places they had hoses - even using a fire truck's water to refill at one point. Come the end of it we were shattered having ran on adrenaline all day and having been sunburned and having sore behinds from hanging off the back of the pickup truck all afternoon. Everywhere we went, the party showed no sign of stopping.

When we returned we waves goodbye to collapse back at our bungalow while they went back to drinking - ableit more quietly. Man do they celebrate songkran hard out here and man did we have the time of our lives.

The rest of our time on Koh Samui
Having spent a few weeks on the road, spending barely a day in some places before moving on, we had long been looking forward to spending a week in one place to relax and above all else - fully unpack! With Songkran following the next day, we were then more knackered than ever come our 2nd full day in Koh Samui and more than ready to do sod all!

Claire awoke feeling poorly - the likely result of involuntary ingesting water during the water fights of the day before - so it took her a good couple of days to recover before she could fully relax herself.

The majority of our time here was spent like we would a normal beach holiday; reading, sunbathing, swimming in the sea (and freaking out at anything that touched us), having a brooski or two and writing. The weather held 99% of the time too so the week was total bliss.

The beach at bang po 

We did rent a scooter one of the days, which Claire drove as she used to have one and I have a history of breaking teeth on bikes! On this day we explored some of the island and took the chance to go shopping, plus Claire occupied herself while I had a long overdue haircut with a 3 week old kitten.

Claire gets reacquainted with riding a scooter

After a couple of days of recouperation, both of our thoughts began to wander to the future: as we know this amazing time will finish in August and we will return to the UK, we both began to think about life back home and more importantly: what we want from it.

I think I will return to the same line of work - marketing - but I'm going to aim to do it somewhere I can really get behind the cause and make a difference, like at a charity perhaps. Working somewhere I can work on campaigns with real motivation is what appeals to me and is exactly what I'm going to aim for. Beyond that we've both began to think further into the future: like saving for a house, pets, kids - but all in due time of course!
Part of me felt guilty for thinking about this stuff whilst in a paradise, but as I mentioned in my first blog - I came here to try and figure out exactly these types of things and I think that's what I'm finally doing.

I left so that when I return to the UK, I'll be ready to live there for the rest of my life without the need to break out like I did before - and I can certainly feel myself preparing for that mentally with each passing week. In the meantime there's still plenty to discover and experience, but this week on Kho Samui has been massively important for the both of us to not only have some of the best fun we've ever had, but to also search into our souls and figure it out for ourselves.

Next up - another week of beach bumming on Koh Phangan. Such a tough life I know!

Island hopping in Nha Trang

We arrived after another 5 hour coach journey and we couldn't find our hotel to begin with, the street numbers were confusing but after nearly half an hour of walking around we eventually found it.

The woman at the hotel was really friendly and helpful and when we mentioned our next destination was Hoi An via the train, she offered to sort our train tickets for us to which we gladly accepted to avoid the hassle!

Nha Trang itself is a real beach destination, unlike Mui Ne it has been receiving tourism for a lot longer so is a lot more built up. As a result, there's a superb selection of places to eat and drink there, by far the best range we've seen so far in Vietnam. The beach itself is relatively clean and the sea is a little cool, but when your used to the English channel then it's positively balmy! There's a real beachfront vibe here too, with parks just off the promenade and watersports on offer.

We had 1.5 days in Nha Trang (half due to travelling from Da Lat) and the first day was spent getting our bearings, lazing on the beach and then relaxing in the hotel before some cheap eats.
The 2nd day was what we'd been looking forward to; we'd booked a boat trip to see 4 of the surrounding islands.

We set off with the sea mist still rising and our first stop was the worst - a tiny island where all there was to see was an aquarium. Annoyingly the price to enter wasn't included in our boat ticket price so we decided against going in and sat outside until it was time to leave.

The next island we didn't set foot on but we went to the diving village alongside it and did some snorkeling as there was a mini reef there. Not much other than some very little fish and one or two sea snakes but it was still nice to be in the lovely blue sea and especially to jump off the roof of the boat (something I always have to do!).

The next stop was a fishing village off another island where they had little enclosures for fish they'd caught that you could also eat if you chose. There were lobsters, cuttlefish, squid (hate those things with a passion!), little sharks, boxfish and more. It was great to see these fish up close and we watched as a squid was taken out to be someones dinner - I would pity it usually as it inked everywhere to avoid being caught, but as mentioned I hate squids so I had no sympathy I'm afraid, otherwise I'd feel very sorry for it.

We then had a veritable feast on board the boat and a French couple next to us almost ate their body weight in spring rolls and omelets. Afterwards we were all put on another boat to join another tour for 'happy hour' and that's when things kicked up a notch...

All of a sudden there was a live band playing in front of us, beer flowing and people getting up to sing from different countries (what did the English sing? Wonderwall of course!), the party had truly started! After a while we came to another island and loads of us jumped off the boat to join one of the crew in the sea who had set up a bar on his rubber ring! So we all swam in the sea drinking cocktails (massive measures too) and soaked up the rays before getting back on board and heading to the last island where we just sat on the beach for an hour or so.

We headed back to port having had a great time, although thankfully we weren't as worse for wear as most. We had to be up ridiculously early the next day to get the train for Da Nang so we decided to have an early dinner and drinks to keep the party going in the hope we'd sleep easily. It certainly worked, after more cocktails, beers, mains and pudding, we slept soundly when we eventually went to bed.

In all, Nha Trang has the vibe that anyone can enjoy, you could come here as a family and enjoy the beaches, you can also come here with friends and party your ass off (if you're after something Ibiza-esque, then you'll love it here). Due to our schedule our stay was short but sweet, but we definitely thoroughly enjoyed it here and would've gladly spent more time here.

Next up: a simple matter of a 5:30am train for over 8 hours to Da Nang and then a coach to the historical city of Hoi An for some ancient culture.

Mui Ne

Back to Ho Chi Minh City

After quitting our jobs and leaving the Mekong delta behind us, we headed back to Ho Chi Minh City for a couple of days as we finalised our travels beyond.

After my previous encounter of this city left me relieved to leave, this time I was glad to be back compared to where we'd been! We stayed right in the heart of the backpacker district this time and so were much happier.

The time in HCMC was spent planning where to go, where to stay and how to get about on our travels ahead of us. We also sent some clothes back to England to make our bags lighter - which was always the plan when we went travelling - and we sent 2.5kilos for about £20 which wasn't too bad (but it'll take 3 months!). Other than that we frequented our favourite rooftop bar again and again for the best value meals and drinks we've seen yet.

Mui Ne

Sunday morning we set out for Mui Ne on the coach at 7:15am. The journey took 5.5 hours and we did manage some sleep on board. We then arrived at Mui Ne and headed up to our resort - Mui Ne hills. We could've stayed in a cheaper guesthouse than this but it was still low price enough, plus it has 3 pools and after the time we'd had recently we thought it would be worth it just to get our happiness back.

Claire gets stuck into life by the pool!

After dumping our bags we checked out the beach, which is lovely but not the best I've been to by far - there are black bits everywhere (assume its rock), it's only a couple of kilometers long, there's a bit of litter and the place is absolutely overrun by kitesurfers. This place is paradise for them as the winds are strong enough for them to get good air, but not dangerous. As a result we think our time here will be spent poolside rather than beachside.

Mui Ne beach - nice, but I've seen a lot better.

The room and hotel are both great, considerably the best we've stayed in so far. The weather here is glorious - blue skies, hot (35 mostly), but enough breeze to take the edge off the heat.

We have 4 nights here and the majority of them are spent sunbathing by the pool, having a dip, drying off and then repeating the cycle again until lunch or dinner. It's great to have that holiday feeling, something I've been crying out for ever since we left England.

At night we tried a few places to eat, having mainly local dishes and  most are unspectacular. I couldn't bring myself to try this local delight though: (even though I've had it before!)

Tonights special is.... Nah you're alright

One place three doors down from our hotel tempted us in though with a really good price for a burger, and after loads of local cuisine lately I couldn't help but succumb to something familiar! The place had a real beach vibe to it and I was so surprised at how good the burgers were too, top notch!

There are tours we could go on - to nearby sand dunes and to a "fairy spring", but we don't think they sound good enough to drag us away from the pool (seen sand dunes before, and the spring sounds naff).

Inbetween sunbathing and swimming, we also apply for a few jobs as we prepare for the next steps - working outside of Vietnam is now becoming a more likely possibility by the day.

Mui Ne - a summary

Mui Ne is a lovely place and is clearly on the up, there's plenty that's recently been built and seemingly more on the way. As mentioned, if you're a kitesurfer then this place is for you, otherwise the beach is nice but I'm sure some of the lovely hotels are even better than the beach.

Mui Ne reminds us of a Spanish tourist resorts in many ways, the look and feel mainly, but again that's been kind of welcome as it's at least felt a bit more familiar! There's also a particular foible to this place that we've noticed - there's a HELL of a lot of Russians here, so much so that lots of signs even have Russian on them. Maybe this is their version of Malaga??

So in all, our last few days have been fairly uneventful, but they've been critical to getting our state of mind back in the right place - if a bit of R&R can't do that for you, then what will?
Tomorrow we leave with fresh tans to the hills of Da Lat for something very different. I'm not sure I've had enough of sunbathing and swimming yet, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.

Relaxation time at the pool