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Her and Her TravelsHer and Her Travels
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Hi,
Myself and my partner Katie are off on our travels around south east asia together!
It's our first time backpacking and we are both excited and nervous! We have been together over three years and can't wait to share this experience together! Read more
  • Her and Her TravelsVietnam
    Day 29

    Scenery in Hoi An

    April 2, 2017 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    From Da Nang we headed a hour drive away to the lovely area of Hoi An. In this quaint area was lakes, boats, lanterns and lights, very beautiful and very peaceful. We arrived on St Patrick's day so set off on a mission to find Guinness. We thought we had struck lucky when there was an Irish pub a few minutes down the road from our hotel. We pulled up a chair in the Irish pub and ordered our guinnesses excitedly. This was however short lived as the waitress came to us and said they had run out of Guinness! We was gutted and also confused as to how an Irish pub could run out of Guinness at 3 pm in the afternoon on St Patrick's day! So we set off again and tracked down another irish pub by the river. Though a bit pricey we finally got a Guinness (no draught unfortunately) and sat and sipped it with great pleasure. Taking in the scenery all the while. Hoi An also housed some lovely dishes. We had many of the local food and it was yummy! We took a stroll down the old town and the market. Lounged about and had a swim at the hotel swimming pool which gave some relief from the scorching heat! Another night we went to a sports bar to watch some footie. We headed back to our hotel around 11ish and to our astonishment was locked out! The hotel was all closed up and no staff were around to let us in. We was panicked and when round the side of the hotel to find another way. We had to climb over the barriers they had up and luckily found an unlocked door to the hotel! What a relief! But what a scare it was!Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsVietnam
    Day 17

    Da Nang Beach stay

    March 21, 2017 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    After all the cities and all the go go go, we arrived in Da Nang at the lovely boutique hotel which was a 5 min walk to the beach! And thankfully the weather was beautiful for us all week, staying at a high level of 30 degrees. The beach was pretty, we also went for a few swims even though the sea was a bit choppy! Those waves were a work out haha but fun all in all. When we wasn't swimming we were laying on the beach catching the sun while listening to music on our phones while watching the happenings around us. While we was there we saw a bunch of people pulling on a long rope which went all the way to sea and out onto the sand. It took a while but finally they did the last pull and low and behold...fish! Loads of fish! Alongside this was the many chinese tourist who like we experienced in china, loved taking a picture with a westerner. They spotted a white baby and couldn't get enough of him, they flocked around him with excitement and wonder. The mum handled it all pretty well even when the Chinese lady decided to pick the baby up and attempt to take it with her to the sea, the mum hurried to grab her baby back and just smiled and laughed it off. All seemingly too use to it.
    We also went to watch the fire and water show at the dragon bridge. The bridge is like any other bridge accept it's in the shape of a dragon and every weekend, fire and water come out of its mouth! It's crazy but very cool. Ya wouldn't wanna be driving on the bridge when that happens ey.
    We then took a trip to the lady buddha and marble mountains. The lady buddha was just that, a huge statue of a lady buddha which could be seen from miles away. Up close it was grand and the surrounding area was very scenic. Then there was marble mountains which had so many steps! We walked for ages and climbed to the highest peak on the most narrow of stairs in the most scorching of heats. We was sweaty little bugs when we reached the top.    Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsVietnam
    12
    Day 3

    BaBe National Park

    March 7, 2017 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌫 16 °C

    Our second tour departing from hanoi was BaBe national park. The drive there was....slightly terrifying. The speed the driver was going at felt like my insides would pop out of my mouth at any point. The roads are not smooth either so it was bumpy journey which would send ya off ya seat into the air ever so slightly. Luckily there was seat belts! Anyway we arrived at this...well...what looked like a nature reserve. Interestingly and unexpectedly people lived here! It was way out in the sticks and it didn't look like they had very much other then crops, animals ranging from chickens to dogs to goats and a lake. The views were nice from the homestay we slept at. We did the boat trip which took us into a cave. It was a huge cave and was pretty cool. In one bit you could hear the squeeking of bats as they rest above our heads. It was quite scary and I was a bit jumpy at the prospect of them flying down in a pact and swarming all of over. Though would be cool if a bite from a bat could turn me into a vampire (my long life dream! Lol).Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsVietnam
    Day 1

    Hanoi

    March 5, 2017 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    It was goodbye to China and hello Vietnam. First stop...Hanoi. Our hostel is located right in the old quarter so right in the middle of all the action! Our first stroll around we was pretty much dodging the shit load of bikes that zoom past. And the problem is that the bikes are parked on the pavement so there's pretty much no choice but to walk on the roads where the bikes are zipping past. It took us ages just to pop down the road to the shop though there is no 'popping' anywhere in the old quarter. More like slowly maneuvering around parked and moving metal (mopeds). The first impression we got was chaotic and very different to china. Had a very different feel and look and much more Westerners here. The food in Hanoi is good ...unlike china where we struggled slightly with the food. We have ate vietnamese each day...trying the rice noodle, sandwiches and smoothies. Oh and not forgetting the delicious banana pancake we get served for breakfast every morning. We have also done some sightseeing
    ..visiting Hoan kiem lake and the Prison. The prison was very sad but also interesting to hear about some of the history of vietnam.

    Within our Hanoi trip we booked two tours. One to halong bay on a cruise and then to BaBe national park. The cruise was truly amazing! Great food, good facilities and the kayaking was so much fun! Proper was a highlight of our travelling - kayaking and then the lil beach trip in the middle where we got to swim was nice. Overall great experience. The range of food they served us was expansive....had beef chicken and a lot of fish. The prawns were the freshest prawns I've tasted.    Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsChina
    Day 26

    Big City, Lovely beach

    February 27, 2017 in Hong Kong ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    We left mainland china for hong kong not knowing what to expect. Would it be similar or different? Well we found it to be pretty different from mainland china...sharing similarities with London actually. Big city, loads of shopping districts like Oxford Street. Much more 'Western' food and much more of a 'western' feel as seemingly has an American influence. We started by visiting the park. It had lovely scenery with lakes and colourful flowers. Was like a painting! Though we got told no selfie sticks when we tried to snap a cute picture of ourselves with a even cuter background. Then that evening we tried authentic chinese at a somewhat questionable setting. It was in what looked like a car park, you wouldnt know it if ya didnt research it first. But the food was good and it was very very busy! We traveled to see the big buddha which was quite the journey weaving in and out and up and down on the bus to get there. But it was good...grand...though very misty! The wandering cows and dogs were cute...so many cows just proper bopping around like nobody's bussiness! And then there was the peak which started of stressful due to lack of money, need for a toilet, long queues and purchasing of wrong tickets. But once we were up on the skyline it was absolutely stunning! The view was nothing like I had seen before. High rise buildings, clusters of greenery and vast blue sea and sky which looked like fresh slates you could walk on. In the evening we also managed to catch the Tottenham v stoke match at an Irish pub though only had the one pint as the price was jaw dropping! Bloody 7 or there's about quid for a carlbergs and about 9 squids for a guiness! And I thought London was bad. Anywhoot we spent our last day on the beach in Hong Kong which was lovely. The weather was the best we had since being here which was good as we had sent our coats and fleece back by this point. The sand was clean clear and soft and the sea was blue and crisp. We got a couple beers in and a tuna sandwich and just chilled. Tommorow we say goodbye to china and hello to Vietnam.Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsChina
    Day 22

    All of the Lights

    February 23, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Shanghai was just as we expected. Big city, tall buildings and lots of lights! We visited the bund in both the morning and night. It was definitely much prettier in the night. We took a stroll through yu gardens which had beautiful lakes, big fish and was generally very relaxing. And though we are not massively into musuems we thought we would check out shanghai museum as it was free! It was a big musuem with many floors and many artifacts. Overall it was a good experience and also ate some nice food...we tried the dumplings which were flavoursome.Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsChina
    Day 13

    PANDAS!

    February 14, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We finally arrived at chengdu...after a long 16 hour sleeper train! But Katie was gleaming with excitement for the pandas so it was all worth it. We arrived at the panda base when it opened 7.30am...at first there were no pandas in sight. But not long in and they started waking up and appearing. Small ones...big ones....lone ones...grouped ones...and red pandas...they were all so cute. And to see a panda for real life and not just on TV was a lovely experience. They were so slow in their movement but also very playful (the younger ones anyway). They climbed on each other, tugged at each others fur with their teeth and did what looked like rollie pollies. And watching them eat the bamboo was even cuter, chewing slowly while clawing down more bamboo before even finishing the one they had. It was overall a sweet experience besides having no facilities to eat! We was proper hungry and only managed to get our hands on a mango smoothie. However the smoothie was not what we thought...it was more like a mango sorbet in a bowl and it was sooooo cold and may have been responsible for the cold I caught not long after. Also in chengdu we went to people's park which was an interesting experience. We saw chinese people dancing singing exercising and playing sport and it was all very entertaining to watch.Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsChina
    Day 12

    Chill time

    February 13, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    After a busy few days in beijing and harbin, we were thankful for the less packed schedule we had planned in xian. We took it more slow, going to see the terracotta warriors. We leisurely strolled around it taking in the vast size of the pits. We also went to see the big wild goose pagoda which showcased a musical water fountain show. The show was good, the water flickered and danced along with the music while the pagoda stood long and tall above it all. We got to see it all as it got darker so the pagoda lit up which made it look even more cool. Apart from these two activities we chilled mainly in the hostel bar and restrurant which was such a lovely needed break. The food was nice, the beer was good and cheap!Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsChina
    Day 12

    Ice and Snow world

    February 13, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Harbin was a hard city to navigate, the roads were manic, the beeping was constant and we had some unpleasant experiences in our short time there. However it was all worth it for the ice and snow world which was colourful, majestic, creative and just overall nothing like we had ever seen. The whole place lit up and was made of ice. Ice sculptures stood tall with such detail. Even walking in the snow was nice as we don't get much snow in london.
    Plus on top...we got a free coach to and from the snow world from our hotel....though it was one hell of a... odd ride. There was us and a bunch of other people on the coach, the coach stopped at about two other hotels to pick up various people and all along we had a tour guide. Now on our way back from the snow world, the coach stopped outside a shop and everyone got off accept us. We didn't really know what was going on. Anyway they returned and the coach started driving off...to our suprise the tour guide and a couple other people were still in the shop, he had left without them! One guy who's friend was left started shouting in Chinese at the driver who then pulled off and let the friend off. Can you belive, he didn't go back for them he just left them! And then he stopped again and everyone got off who was left accept us again. He then started to drive off again with just me and katie in the coach, we were confused as we recognised a few people from the hotel we was staying at so thought they would get off with us. At this point I started to panic and sort of froze up not knowing what to do. Luckily he let us off on a road by our hotel. It was nuts! To leave people who were promised a ride to and from their hotel and even worse...to leave the tour guide behind! We was just happy we got back to our hotel as it would of been a nightmare if we got dropped off in an unknown place!    Read more

  • Her and Her TravelsChina
    Day 6

    Cold in Harbin

    February 7, 2017 in China ⋅ ⛅ -6 °C

    We travelled to Harbin on our first sleeper train, we opted for the soft sleeper. It was surprisingly quite a pleasant experience despite the long-ness of it with no wifi! We had two others in the compartment with us who were relaxed and no issues at all. When we arrived in harbin we were hit by the bitter cold. Wandering around looking for a taxi we finally jumped in one only to be ripped off once dropped off at our hotel...but we was too tired and cold to dispute the large sum he requested for such a short journey.
    That evening we went out for dinner...now this place was self proclaimed top notch dumpling restaurant. We went for the beef dumpling only to be told they have no beef...then we settled for the 'three fresh' which apparently came with pork and shrimp dumplings only to be told again...that they had run out. We then...hoping...third time lucky asked about the fried dumplings on offer and they said they are not cooking fried dumplings (bare in mind we were only asking for what was on their menu). After three attempts of trying to order dumplings in a dumpling restaurant..out of frustration we just asked for the french fries. Now sitting there with our beers awaiting our chips ..feeling awkward...they served us...Mccain oven chips! Yep folks...Mccain chips on a plate with mayo and ketchup...greasy and undercooked. We ate the chips quick and drank the beer even faster...then left. We were cold and hungry and tired from our long 11 hour journey...we struggled to order in the first place because the language barrier...in the end we went McDonald's and got a big Mac.    Read more

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