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South East Asia & New Zealand
  • Juliet Edwards
  • Juliet Edwards

South East Asia & New Zealand

A 168-day adventure by Juliet Read more
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  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Mt Cook to Christchurch

    January 10, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Shortly after leaving Twizel, we stopped at Tekapo. The small town is popular with visitors and has a lake (of course), tiny church, a statue to dogs and an observatory with a nice cafe. We carried on driving to Christchurch, leaving behind the scenic mountain views. We arrived in Christchurch in time for an evening stroll. Seemingly it's a very quiet city and I barely saw anyone outside of the row of restaurants.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Akaroa

    January 11, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Forty minutes west of Christchurch is the little French town of Akaroa. The French landed here long ago and it continues to have French road names, a French food market and colourful houses. Akaroa is popular for its wildlife, especially the penguins. We only had one penguin sighting but we did get to see the rare Hector's dolphins and stingray on our boat trip in the bay. We met Donny and Robyn again for dinner in a trendy indoor food market.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Morning walking tour of Christchurch

    January 12, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    For our final full day in NZ we took a walking tour of Christchurch. It was a really emotive tour and we learnt a lot about the earthquakes and aftershocks which wrecked the city in 2011. It was hugely interesting, especially as our tour guide had been there at the time, and we saw old and new elements of the city and two memorials. The city has found new ideals for city planning out of the earthquake which is inspirational and they've taken the opportunity to rebuild as a modern, green, arty and pedestrian friendly city.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Afternoon in Christchurch

    January 12, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    The city’s street art scene also flourished after the earthquake as the residents utilised empty or damaged buildings. The city still runs the cute and traditional cable cars which brighten up the streets. We also saw Fred and Myrtle's Paua Shell House which has been moved to the museum. In the evening we fly back to Auckland, ready for our flight Bangkok tomorrow.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Exploring Chiang Mai

    January 14, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After hearing that the city was a peaceful alternative to Bangkok, I was surprised to find it was so large, with sprawling suburbs, full of traffic and that the centre was chocked full of low-rise buildings around a series of pools near the old city walls. There are of course some lovely temples and lots of decorative features around the city. It's also blessed with great food.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Doi Inthanon National Park

    January 15, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Took a tour to the Chiang Mai countryside. First up is Thailand's highest point, which you get to via a nature trail led by someone from the local indigenous tribes. From the top, the views stretch for miles and disappear into a haze. There is a popular forest memorial shrine to King Inthanon (the last King of Chaing Mai) which is being taken over by nature, adding to its charm. From the top we also had views of the King and Queen pagodas (most recent royals) which we went down to visit up close. The building here is new and set in ornate gardens. After this we took a quick visit to Wachirathan waterfall before heading to a local village for homemade coffee.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Hiking the Monk's Trail

    January 16, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Caught a motorbike taxi to the bottom of the Monk's trail, just on the edge of the city. From here you can walk to the highly popular Doi Suthep Temple. You walk up through the forest and suddenly come across Wat Pha Lat. The temples are covered in plants and crawling vines and you can sit on the edge of the waterfall/canal and look down the hill to the city and enjoy the peace. As you carry on up the steep hillside behind the temple you come to Doi Suthep. It's packed with people and there are lots of different temples, shrines, flower arrangements and viewing platform over the city.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    White Temple, Chiang Rai

    January 17, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today I start the three-day journey to Luang Prabang in Laos. The tour company picked our little group of 10 up from Chiang Mai and we started the long drive to the border town of Chiang Khong. The people on my mini bus were a fun little group and we all got to know each other over lunch and the long drive. We stopped at the White Temple for a very rushed visit. It's a strange temple to say the least, focused on horror and gore. You couldn't take pictures inside the main building but the inside of the building was painted with murals of hell. We stopped for the evening in a fairly awful guesthouse but the owner was nice an explained how the rest of the journey would work. From the guesthouse balcony we could see across the river to Laos. The small town had a surprisingly good evening food market.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Laos

    January 18, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today our little troupe went the short distance to the boarder, got ourselves stamped out, hopped on the bus over the Thai-Laos friendship bridge, paid for our visas, which took a lot of stamps and windows, before getting dropped on the edge of the Mekong at Huay Xai. Here we boarded a large long tail boat which held about 100 passengers, almost all tourists sitting on ex-bus seats and prepared for the two-day low boat journey. As forewarned I had snacks and entertainment to hand but mostly I just enjoyed watching the little villages float past. The river was surprisingly shallow in places and we had to avoid many rocks. The natural beaches were a surprise.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Slow Boat - Day 2

    January 19, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We spent the night in Pak Beng, essentially a giant service station for the slow boat guests. Had a room to myself and a fun night playing games in the bar with fellow passengers. I woke up early, as I heard you could see the Elephants from the local sanctuary coming to drink and I wasn't disappointed. A 9.30am we were back on the boat for another slow day of floating down the river, just before Luang Prabang we went passed the Pak Ou caves and then finally docked. Quick check in to the hostel before heading out to see the highly touristy night market and enjoy some fab food.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Luang Prabang

    January 20, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The whole city is a UNESCO site and despite being touristy it has charm with cute French inspired buildings, the huge riverside, daytime wet market, lots of handicraft gift shops, bakeries and many many temples. The top temple, Wat Xieng Thong (Temple of the Golden City), is covered in the most amazing detailed mosaic, including a replica of the tree of life. I headed up Phousi Hill for sunset with pretty much every other tourist; it was rammed.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Kuang Si Falls

    January 21, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    This morning I went to the Royal Palace (no photos allowed); it was surprisingly small but it was built around a courtyard and the throne room is completed in the same mosaic style as yesterday's temple. The temple also has their retro cars (in bad condition) and pond surrounded by palms. In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours at Kuang Si Falls. I walked to the top and looked over the top of the fall, which is surprisingly small considering the amount of water at the falls at the bottom. On your way to the falls you walk through a bear sanctuary.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Nong Khiaw

    January 22, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Today I took the minibus with one of the girls from the slow boat three hours north to the countryside retreat of Nong Khiaw. It's a tiny town with plenty of hiking opportunities and sitting by the river enjoying the weather. It was surprisingly cold this far north and I had to sleep in socks and long sleeves! Today's sunset was held at Pha Daeng Peak.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Trek & village homestay - Day 1

    January 23, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    I joined a couple and our slightly condescending tour guide for a two-day experience in the countryside with an overnight stay in a local Hmong village. On the first day we hiked all day through different kinds of forests, including bamboo, rubber, banana and primary forest with huge trees and farmland. We stopped in a village for a break and enjoyed watching them go about their lives. The houses don't have running water, but instead they use several village taps for everything. They did however have one washing machine in the shared bathrooms. We stayed overnight in a similar local Hmong village. We stayed in a traditional bamboo house which had been divided into little rooms. Usually the houses are just one room and the family eat, sleep and relax in that room. Apart from serving us dinner the owners and other in the village essentially ignored us. There were lots of kids in the village and they played outside with the animals, helped with chores and looked after the babies. The secondary school children go to Nong Khiaw for school and stay there during the week.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Muang Ngow & Kayaking - Day 2

    January 24, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After a hearty breakfast in the village we waved all the children goodbye and left for our hours hike to the river. On the riverbank there was a boat waiting to take us along the river surrounded by limestone karsts to Mong Ngoi. The village is essentially a smaller version of Nong Khiaw, and we had a little wonder around, went to the viewpoint and explored a large cave. We got back on the boat and had lunch at another village before getting in our kayaks to paddle back to Nong Khiaw. Mine seemed to have a hole and filled up with water but just about made it back, with the boat following alongside us.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Sleeping women viewpoint

    January 25, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Got up early while it was still relatively cool and hiked to my second viewpoint. I had read about it online, but everyone had failed to mention that it was less of a hike and more of a scramble/climb. There was a defined path, with homemade handrails, but it was still pretty vertical which made it really fun. The views were some of the best and I enjoyed my breakfast sitting on the platform hovering over the edge of the cliff.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Weaving

    January 26, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Had a great day at Ban Lue Handicrafts Center on the outskirts of Nong Khiaw. I spent the whole day with them learning about the process of creating cotton yarn from the plant and then weaving my own scarf on a loom. I had my own teacher who demonstrated each step of the cotton process and then I had ago before beginning on the loom. She had the loom all set up and demonstrated how it worked but after that I was left to myself to finish it, apart from the tassels, I couldn't get the hang of it. They also served a delicious lunch.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Phra Khoa Viewpoint

    January 27, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    My last morning in Nong Khiaw, and just time to fit in another hike, although it almost didn't happen due to the giant water buffalo which blocked my path and wouldn't move. Being the only person on the track I had to double back and luckily met a couple of other girls, with three of us the buffalos gave way and we could proceed. By far the longest hike and I was short on time so I only had a few minutes at the top and then had to run back down. It was worth it though, great views. This afternoon I caught the bus back to Luang Prabang for one night and a sunset over the river.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Morning at the Plain of Jars

    January 29, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The Plain of Jars is spread out over three main sites but there are fields of them all over the region, the sites are protected by UNESCO, and no one really knows why they are there. I went on a tour with the infamous Mr. Kong and we started with the UXO museum. He gave us lots of information on the background of the silent war, the horrific numbers of bombs dropped, still in the ground, the impact to local populations, why they risk diffusing them themselves and the role of the MAG. The information is overwhelming but he's good at cheering us up with a joke or two.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Vang Vieng - Epic bike ride

    January 30, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    I met Dakota at the hostel and we went on an unexpectedly torturous bike ride. I had read that you could cycle to the blue lagoons but we decided to visit a further, better lagoon and then made a wrong turn... the "road" was also gravel most of the way and made for really hard cycling. We did however make it to Lagoon 2 and enjoyed swimming in the blue water, using the rope swings and lunch. We carried on cycling, through villages and past waving kids to Lagoon 3, which was pretty much the same so we just had a quick stop. Finally, we cycled to Nam Xay Viewpoint, which has motorcycles perched on top for photos and has a spectacular 180 view of the sunset. We just about made it back to the town and dumped our bikes in relief after 40km of cycling. The worse thing about the trip is the dune buggies which are popular to hire and use the same roads, kicking up tons of dust. Proper bonding experience.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    Tubing

    January 31, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    After a morning lazing by the pool, we spent the afternoon completing "the" activity of Vang Vieng, tubing. This is essentially a bar crawl along the river. The company dropped us at the edge of the river with our tubes and drove off, so we followed another group and got into the river and started our floating procession. When you get near the first bar, there are boys on the edge with long robes with a coke bottle tied to the end which they lob at you, if you successfully catch it they pull you in and help you on the bar pontoon. They have well practised aim. You go to two more bars in a similar fashion, it takes us about an hour to float between the first and second bar as the river is low, but this gave us time to get to know some other people and we created a floating chain while we drank and chatted.Read more

  • Juliet EdwardsSouth East Asia & New ZealandTraveler

    The Red Bridge

    February 1, 2020 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Vang Vieng has its own Instagram spot, the Red Bridge. It's a short walk from the town and actually quite a short bridge but still we got our photos. On the other side of the bridge is a park with tree-lined walkway, cafe, a small blue pool and a huge cave. The cave is up a staircase and then you go in there are several different rooms and levels that you can go around. Its illuminated to show the stalactites and stalagmites and there are little shrines in some parts.Read more