Reset search
Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
SatelliteEdit route

Southeast Asia

September - November 2017
A 35-day adventure by Kerry and David Read more
  • 36footprints
  • 6countries
  • 35days
  • 169photos
  • 0videos
  • 24.3kkilometers
  • 21.6kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 1

    And we are off...

    September 29, 2017 in England ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    After some teary goodbyes to friends and family we are finally at the airport to begin the start of a very long journey! What this really means is a long food and drink tour of the world, therefore we thought the only way to start was breakfast.Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 2

    Kuala Lumpur International Airport

    September 30, 2017 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    13 hours later (and 2 meals) we have arrived in KL. The flight was surprisingly comfortable as there was 126 empty seats which meant (unfortunately no upgrade) we had a spare seat on our row to lounge across.
    In KL we discovered we needed to be in the opposite terminal to the one we landed in. We got a quick train for the total of 71p (Hello SE Asia!) to the right terminal giving us four hours to search for some good grub. After fleeting past 4 McDonalds, 3 Burger Kings, 2 Starbucks and a Nandos, we finally found meal number 4 - a shared chicken and rice dish.    Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 2

    Siem Reap

    September 30, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ 🌙 30 °C

    Another 2 hour flight (and another meal) later we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We hopped in a taxi to get to our first home of the trip "The Happy Guesthouse". It is a cute little place with a relaxed restaurant/reception which we had dinner in. We had a little wander around to get our bearings, found a bar and some refreshing drinks. The bar owner gave us some hints and tips about the area. We are now heading to bed, at 8pm, ready for our first exploring day tomorrow.Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 3

    Angkor Wat

    October 1, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Up at 4:15am to get a tuk tuk to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We would love to say at this point we got the perfect picture of the sun rising above the huge temple, but it actually just looked like this (see below). We gave up trying to get the perfect picture and found Chow, our tour guide for Angkor Wat. It was well worth it as he gave us the background history of the temple as well as the religions and Khmer empire. We finished the tour at around 8am just as the sun was burning the clouds away, walked up the top level and heading down for a quick breakfast.Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 3

    The Other Temples

    October 1, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    After our first temple experience at Angkor Wat we thought by 9am it was time for a well earned breakfast at the "James Bond Cafe". Then, after a game of hide and seek with our tuk tuk driver we moved on to see 5 more temples, including the ones used in Indiana Jones and Lara Croft! The first was within Angkor Thom (not Uncle Tom as Kerry always thought) which was jam-packed of tourists and the odd kitten. On the way to the next one there was a police "check point" which consisted of each tuk tuk driver paying some notes into a secret book on the back of the police motorbike.
    The third temple was mostly under restorations but having accidentally acquired a tour guide we found out that it was the oldest of all, around 1000 years old!
    We finished the tour just as the rain started to pelt and took the sound of thunder as a sign for us to head back with our trusty tuk tuk driver.
    We then spent the afternoon catching up on lost sleep, eating and generally hiding indoors from the thunderstorm. Guess we chose to come in the monsoon season!    Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 4

    Exploring Siem Reap

    October 2, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Today we decided to see a bit of the city we are staying in. We started after a hearty breakfast (pancakes and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich) with "Pub street". This is the main tourist street of the town having everything from foot massages to 50 cent beers on tap (David might have suffered a beer).
    We had a wander down by the river and through the old market. Kerry got a cheap top and we shared some spring rolls; the first of many. We found a social enterprise offering free tours around their workshop where they work with villages to offer jobs to the locals in a sustainable manner. There were over 100 people working to create everything from natural soaps to candles and oils. We enjoyed some free samples of Cambodian iced ginger tea, hot kaffir lime leaf tea and a sugar cane drink before buying ourselves some souvenirs made in front of us. Then after a quick tuk tuk back to town we walked over to take a photo at the Hard Rock Cafe before heading back to a restaurant opposite our guesthouse. Here Kerry destroyed David at chess over some noodle soup and pork and bean rice.
    After lunch, and feeling a little guilty about our food obsession, we did a quick and sweaty workout to burn some of it off. After cooling down and watched a film before dinner. We dressed up for a nice last dinner in Siem Reap and walked up the road to find out our hopeful dinner place was fully booked so headed back to Pub Street to see what it could offer us by night. By this time, Cambodia was trying to prove again it was monsoon season so we ate Mexican and drank margaritas watching the sky light up with lightning and the rain pour down on the streets around us.    Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 5

    Butterflies, landmines & overnight buses

    October 3, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Our last day in Siem Reap we got a tuk tuk ride up to a butterfly farm. The rain continued until we arrived, allowing us to see the locals catching fish and the children playing in the floods. The butterfly centre is a conservation site with profits going to support sustainable farming and ecotourism as well as the butterflies. We got a tour which included seeing all the stages of the lifecycle as well as an enthusiastic tour guide pointing out all the butterflies.
    After spotting all the large and beautiful butterflies we continued onto the landline museum. This was set up by a ex-child soldier who was conscripted by the Khmer Rouge at aged 10 after they killed his parents. He later fought against the Khmer with the Vietnamese army. Since then he has dedicated his life to de-mining unexploded ordinances around Cambodia and set up an NGO to achieve this as well as the museum to raise awareness. We learnt a lot about the Cambodian war, political history and the impact the landmines are still having on the local people.
    We reflected on the ride back to the city after the emotional, hard-hitting tour. We did a mandatory "Yodaiken food hunt" and walked past a perfectly good local restaurant in search of something cheaper or better. We actually ended up walking miles to have a mediocre pizza and coffee. The hotel had kindly looked after our bags since we checked out in the morning, so we spent the late afternoon catching up with family in the bar and having dinner.
    We then caught our final tuk tuk in Siem Reap to the bus station, dropping our bags to have a quick peruse around the night market. We were back in time to board the overnight bus, which although looked like a regular bus from the outside, once on you saw bunk beds instead of seats. We made ourselves at home on the hard floor of a double bunk for the long trip ahead.    Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 6

    Crab town

    October 4, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The bus journey was surprisingly uneventful until David panicked, having realised we had underestimated how far we had to travel once getting off the bus by a margin of around 100km. We buried our heads in the sand and went back to sleep to then be woken in Sihanoukville by 4 locals crammed in the single bed opposite. We departed the bus in the pouring rain with the plan to find another bus to get to Kampot, part of the way we needed to go. Due to being tired and wet we instead bartered with the local taxi mafia and secured what we thought was an aircon car. As we were led to our next mode of transport we realised the last 5 dollars we bartered got us the downgrade to a new form of tuk tuk - the modified car tuk tuk - for the three hour drive, which included a stop to pick up a mysterious white bag from a lady and a second to drop it off next to a temple, at this point realising it was a large dead bird in the bag. No words were exchanged to explain this.
    We finally arrived to our next home, a wooden shack on stilts with open windows and cracks, only cold water and a non-flushing toilet. The bed had holey mosquito net around it which we hid our bags under. We headed for the shower to find a family of frogs occupying it...we were unsure if we were laughing or crying.
    After cooling and cleaning off we headed out to explore the new town. Kep is a cute sleepy seaside town famous for its crab market. We wandered through the main stretch of the town to find breakfast/lunch - stopping at the first decent place this time, filled with locals watching a Chinese movie and one other tourist group.
    By the time we got to the end of town we had acquired a young follower - a local girl obsessed with saying hello and goodbye to us - who we said our final bye to as we hopped into a tuk tuk back to our bungalow. Despite our bodies begging for rest, we then headed back out on a hike through the national park to a temple on a hill which gave us a perfect view over the town and sea. We got back before dark to cool off again before having a drink before dinner. The owner of the place arranged for us to get a free pick up to one if the famous crab restaurants that had a seaview. David got 3 crabs with local black pepper and sweet chilli sauces, which he smoothly ate with a little help from wikipedia. Kerry was more cautious and got the chicken with the local green pepper sauce. We headed back to our wooden shack to get some shut eye ready for next day of surprises.    Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 7

    Countryside Touring

    October 5, 2017 in Cambodia

    We had a lazy morning consisting of an English and a French breakfast (the owner of the place we are staying is French, as are most of the other guests we have met). She kindly helped us to organise renting a scooter for the day ($6 including two helmets) which arrived just after 10am ready for our day to start, and also a handwritten map of the best route to follow.
    We headed straight to the gas station to fill up $3 of fuel (we asked for 5 but no more would fit) and then onto the quiet backstreets of Kep, through fishing villages and into the countryside. The scenery was beautiful with salt fields and distant mountains to our left and mangroves and the sea to our right. We followed the road past rice paddies until we got to the main road where after some confusion we headed in the wrong direction for 10km before realising and heading straight back the way we came, then back on the small roads to find our first stop.
    Here, a deaf local assumed the tour guide position and led us up what felt like thousands of stairs, stopping only at two "offering stations" (aka tip-for-later stations) before leading us down into a cave with hundred of bats on the roof and "elephant" stalagmites. He explained with actions something about fighting in the cave. Next he took us up more steps to another, smaller cave to show us more bats. Here David faced his nemesis, the huge millipede. Finally he took us to a small temple where we got a perfect view across the landscape and hid in the shade for a few moments before handing the guy his dues and heading back down to the bike.
    We continued via the rice paddies, crossing a railway line and headed towards the "secret" lake. We stopped for some local grub and a pineapple shake overlooking the lake before arriving at "La Plantation", a pepper farm. The Kampot area of Cambodia is famous for its pepper production and even has a protected designation of origin (PDO) by EU. We had a explanation of the different types of pepper (green, red, white and black as well as the long pepper, flower of the salt (Fleur de sel) and turmeric that they also produce). We were able to taste the different types before having a tour around the plantation.
    By this time it was late afternoon and we were slightly concerned about getting back before dark so headed straight back, no detours this time. The countryside seemed to get even more beautiful under the colour of the setting sun. We got back a little quicker than expected so Kerry had a go at riding the scooter outside of our place under close instruction of David.
    We have spent the evening chilling out in the restaurant, having dinner and unfortunately filling in forms - though it does mean that Kerry has another job offer to consider in NZ!    Read more

  • Kerry and DavidSoutheast Asia
    Day 8

    Phnom Penh

    October 6, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We said goodbye to the friendly frog family and our shack this morning as we were picked up for our 'big' bus transfer to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The minibus, as it actually was, headed an hour detour via Kampot to pick up another two tourists and some locals before heading in the right direction. The traffic coming into the city was much worse than we have previously experienced here with truck-loads of lorries being replaced by multiplying motorbikes as we got closer to the centre. We were dropped off somewhere in the middle of the chaos and bartered to get a tuk tuk to our next hotel, this time an actual hotel with hot water and air con again! Once settled, we set out to find some lunch, a surprisingly pricey but filling Vietnamese meal.
    In the evening we decided to use some of our birthday money to treat ourselves to a sunset boat trip on the Mekong River. We got picked up from our hotel by a tuk tuk chauffeur and taken to the riverbank to board the cruise boat. There were only around 15 of us onboard a boat made for 160. We set off with our welcome sunset cocktails in hand. It was a beautiful evening, despite being a little too cloudy for the perfect sunset. The boat meandered down the river, past some local fishing villages and back up towards the lit up city. We had a local buffet meal onboard to satisfy are appetite. Once back on land we marched back to our hotel via military patrolled streets (army soldiers lying in temporary hammocks along the roadsides).

    (Please note lack of photos of city itself due to constant warnings of petty crimes and therefore we carried very little on us and did not want to get our phones out too much)    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English