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  • Vera and Tom

Asia

Our super extended honeymoon all around the far east. Leia mais
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    Hualien

    6 de outubro de 2019, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Hualien is on the east coast right accross from Taichung. We thought it would be no more than an hour to cross this small country from west to east but the middle part is full of mountains without public transport (the advised way of travelling is hitchhiking) so we decided to go all the way back to Taipei and then continue on the other side of the country, still no more than 4 hours though.
    Hualien is where to stay if you want to visit the Taroko national park (which we did).
    On our second day we walked down to a park by the beach with massive rocks, it looked so cool and finally it was a bit more breezy there, as usual the weather was humid and we were so sticky. We saw some more beautiful, colorful temples and had some amazing wonton (Chinese dumplings) on the way home.
    Then we were back in Taipei for a day before catching our flight to the next adventure. Back in the same dorm hostel where we couldn't sleep last time. Well, the same happened this time. Do we need our comfort more nowadays? In Hualien we met a group of exchange students who said "It is great you are doing backpacking at your age!" maybe there is some truth in it... :D
    All in all Taiwan was great with fantastic nature, scenery, night markets, street food and Buddist/Taoist/Conficius temples, we are so glad we came.    Leia mais

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    Ubud Part 1

    9 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    We finally arrived to Bali, a place which we dreamed of visiting for a long time, and headed straight for Ubud, an inland town famous for yoga retreats, rice terraces and arty types.
    On the drive from the airport we saw dozens of shops selling big statues along the road and we couldn't imagine who buys them all.
    Once we arrived in Ubud we discovered that there are statues everywhere, Buddhas, monsters, naked people, lions, and lots more. They are often positioned guarding the elaborate gates which can be equally as grand for a small hotel as a palace or temple.
    Our hotel has a small but beautiful pool which we had mostly to ourselves and was so good for lounging around and relaxing.
    Vera got a weekly pass for a yoga school which has amazing views over the jungle and lots of classes every day which meant she could plan her own DIY yoga retreat.
    We really enjoyed slowing down to a nice lazy pace, wandering around town and all the arty shops, and eating delicious things in the 'warung' restaurants.
    We did manage to be a bit more active one afternoon and did a walk along the Campuhan Ridge which passes the Pura Gunung Lebah temple, built where two rivers meet. At the end of the walk we arrived at a beautiful area of rice terraces and had a coconut water from the coconut with a bamboo straw.    Leia mais

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    Ubud Part 2

    12 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Bali is a mostly hindu island full of beautiful temples and palaces. We have visited the Royal Palace and the Water Palace and saw some temples from outside (entering these require a special type of clothes which we didn't have at the time, other times they are closed for prayer or ceremonies).
    One evening we went back to the Water Palace for a traditional Balinese music and dance performance. It was amazing, like nothing we have seen before. The dancers start learning these complex movies in their early years. It seemed to us that all their body parts, eyes, neck, head, toes, fingers everything! was moving seperately. We were especially impressed by the facial expressions and eyes movements which were extreme, crazy, sometimes scary or funny.    Leia mais

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    Ubud Part 3

    14 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    After a week it was time to leave Ubud but we had a fantastic and relaxing time here. The lush green surroundings, special hindu buildings, fresh healthy-tasty food, friendly locals in traditional clothing, beautiful flowers and weird plants and the smell of incense makes this place special. It is very touristy and westernised in some places, only white people sit in bars and american pop songs are played at most restaurants but if you leave the crazy main roads which are full of cars and scooters you can find more peaceful and traditional places. We had lots of great local food; fried rice with pork or chicken, fried banana, tofu, tempe (fermented soy beans, similar to tofu but more chunky) lots of weird vegetables and fruits, balinese omlette, fish sate, delicious sauces with seeds or peanuts, fresh vegetable and noodle soup, fruit juices, banana panckes and lots of rice! We accidently became almost vegan/vegetarian for most of the time because a lot of the best dishes dont have meat. Once we bought some food from a stall wrapped in massive banana leaves including the spiciest rice dish ever, our faces were tingly all over for minutes after we finished.
    In front of every house and temple, on statues and even cars you see offerings to Hindu gods put out by locals on a daily basis. Flowers, incense, cookies, sweeties, rice or even cigarettes. They are beautifully presented in little trays made from leaves and you have to be careful not to step on any as you walk down the street.
    On our last day we visited the monkey sanctuary just outside of town. We went in the early afternoon as we heard that was when the monkeys are fed so they are less likely to be aggressive or want to steal your stuff! The monkeys live semi wild in an area of forest around a valley with steep sides and a couple of temples. They climb and run around all over the walls and statues and even swing accross the valley like Tarzan.    Leia mais

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    Sanur

    17 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Our second destination in Bali was Sanur, a beach town on the south-east coast. We didn't really want a party town but also not one of the 5 star resort towns and Sanur seemed like a good option for a laid back place, especially as it is the departure point for boats to Nusa Lembongan where we planned to go after.
    We had some long walks along the beach road where we saw lots of hotels and restaurants from really fancy ones to simple warung places. The beach was interesting because there were lots of boats shaped like spiders, we guessed to keep them stable when the sea is rough. Actually the water is extremely calm at the beach, a reef about 100 metres out breaks the waves long before they reach the shore. We could see surfers in the distance following along the line of the reef.
    In the evenings we went to the night market, the first one we found in Bali. It was much smaller and calmer than the Taiwanese or Korean versions but we found some very nice food including some great chocolate and coconut desserts and chicken/beef meatballs soup.    Leia mais

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    Nusa Lembongan

    19 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Nusa Lembongan ticks all the boxes for a paradise island. It has beautiful beaches perfect for sunset beers, amazing views, clear blue sea, and laid-back locals. Lots of the people we saw around seemed to be surfers or divers, the reefs around the island make great conditions for both.
    We enthusiastically adjusted to the chilled out lifestyle and spent most of our time between beaches, bars and restaurants. We did go for a longer walk to one end of the island where mangrove trees are growing out into the sea.
    We heard that this island is 'what Bali used to be like', we could only compare to today's Bali but it definitely seemed believable. Tourism is a big deal but it didn't seem as sophisticated and polished as some places we saw in Bali.    Leia mais

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    Nusa Lembongan - West Coast

    20 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    One day we rented bikes to visit the west side of the island which is full of beautuful costaline and beaches. We didnt expect to bike up on a bigger hill in order to get to the other side, it was a super hot day and we were sweating a lot. We certainly got some looks from people in their taxis and on their motorbikes thinking we were crazy. The way there was interesting with some building sites for new hotels, temples and shrines, areas felt more local, unfortunately some hidden corners were covered with rubbish. Our first stop was the Mushroom Bay, nice but packed little place so after some red rice, fritters and vegetables, a local "breakfast", we headed off to some more quiet places.
    First we came to The Edge, some cliffs of black and red rock where you can see the waves smashing into the island in both directions.
    Then we found Dream Beach which was a beautiful small stretch of white sand between the rocks.
    Our last stop was Devil's Tear, a really interesting part of the coast where waves are funneled into a cave and then a few seconds later water vapour explodes out like a dragon's nose!    Leia mais

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    Yogjakarta

    23 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    After a short plane journey we arrived to Yogjakarta, the culture capital of Indonesia on Central Java. We spent a couple of amazing and interesting days there, far away from mass tourism. In fact on a bus a secret video was taken of us and some other locals also asked us for photos with them. Yogja or Djogja is a student town which keeps the prices low but full of authentic experiences and food. People are lovely and friendly, children and adults said hello to us everywhere we went. They are also not pushy when it comes to taxi drivers and selling things, and every conversation is with a smile. We got into talking to a musician who plays at the Royal Sultan Palace, called Keraton. He told us all about his job, showed us one of the princess palaces where his instruments were and taught Tom how to play it. He suggested to check out a batik gallery/workshop closeby so we got in a "helicopter" as they call it which is a reverse tuk tuk, the motorbike or pushbike is at the back.
    Batik seemes to be a really big deal here, they might even have invented it?! The process can take for days and involves lots of planning ahead and layers of wax. There we bought our first art masterpiece for our future living room, how adult! Spent the rest of the evening at the main road which turns into a food and clothes market in the evening.    Leia mais

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    Yogjakarta Palaces

    24 de outubro de 2019, Indonésia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Yogjakarta has a strange political status as it is part of Indonesia and controlled by the national government but also has a Sultan and royal family of its own.
    After waking up early (even earlier than intended due to a forgotten time zone change) we went to the main royal palace, the Keraton Yogyakarta. Inside we wandered around the old buildings and rooms with old photos and objects with lots of batik clothes and costumes. We also watched the musicians play traditional Javanese music for a little while.
    After that we went to another palace nearby called the water palace. This one isn't in use these days and we were warned that it had been badly damaged by earthquake. To us it still seemed quite well preserved and was definitely a really interesting place. The building is built around several big pools and we could walk around them and go up to the top floor to look down. It used to be a bathing and relaxation place for the Sultan and his family.
    When we finished with the palaces we went to a puppet workshop where a puppet maker told us about how they use bison leather to make the puppets to tell old folk stories about heroes and ancient gods. There were lots of different coloured puppets and some really cool masks for sale but unfortunately our baggage allowance meant that we had to control our souvenir buying!
    All in all Yogjakarta was unexpectedly one of our favourite and most interesting places we've visited in Asia so far and we are really glad we came, even for just a short time.    Leia mais

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    Kuala Lumpur

    26 de outubro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon which gave us a little time to explore Chinatown, where we were staying, and also walk to the Petronas Towers. They are a vey impressive pair of skyscrapers in an area of giant buildings. The weather forecast wasn't promising but before a massive storm with lots of rain arrived we had a lovely, sunny morning. Then we headed to the airport to meet our new backpacking partner for our Malaysia travels, Julie.
    The next day we got out and about early to make the most of the morning sunshine. Within a few minutes walk of our hotel we found a Buddhist temple, a mosque and a Hindhu temple which was in the middle of Deepawali celebrations (although we didn't realise at the time). Then we walked over to Independence Square where we saw the Sultan's Palace and an old cricket pitch from British colonial times. We had a long walk past the botanical gardens which took us by lots of Islamic architecture including a huge museum and the old train station.
    In the evening we found a restaurant where we could try some Malaysian food including blue rice and beef rendang while surrounded by a teenage halloween party.    Leia mais

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    Ipoh

    28 de outubro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Ipoh is one of the closest big cities to the Cameron highlands and we based ourselves there for two nights. The old town is full of restaurants, cafes and street art. As we were wandering a Korean chef invited us to try some kimchi pancake which he was practicing to make for his restaurant opening. Followed by some more food and drinks at a Chinese restaurant we had an early evening as we had a big day ahead of us.Leia mais

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    Cameron Highlands

    29 de outubro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    As a birthday month present for Vera, Julie treated us all to a tour of the Cameron Highlands, an area in the mountainous centre of Malaysia, famous for its cool climate and tea plantations.
    Our driver, Prakash, picked us up from our hotel in the morning and we had a quick stop for coffee and breakfast before we started the drive out of Ipoh and up into the hills. The first stop was at a small tea plantation where we could walk around in between the bushes and we tried some iced tea with honey and ginger.
    Next we went to a Lavender farm. This was quite a strange place, a cross between a garden centre and a novelty tourist attraction. Although there were some unusual flowers the main focus seemed to be selfie opportunities, those were very popular but not really our thing so we moved on quite quickly.
    We also saw a bee farm with lots of hives and different types of honey to try and a much bigger tea plantation where we could walk through the processing factory and look out over the tea plants from a high up balcony. The views of the plantations are really interesting because of the way the tea is grown, with space to walk around each plant and to reach over to pick the top leaves.
    The plantations date back to the British colonial times and there are clues to the history dotted around, like scones with jam on sale in the cafes. At the last plantation we did stop for dessert but went for chocolate cake instead of the scones.
    Some other, more unusual foods which we tried were deep fried pumpkin leaves, some orange and purple roasted potatoes, and wax apples which tasted like melon.
    In the afternoon we started heading back down the mountains on the other side and we thought the tour was pretty much finished. However, we still had time to visit an aboriginal Malaysian (whose brother was called Michael Jackson apparently) who demonstrated his poison dart blow pipe for us and let Tom have a go (not very successfully).
    One last stop off at a waterfall which was way more impressive than we had expected and then Prakash drove us back to Ipoh to a pub for some well earned drinks and dinner after a long, eventful and brilliant day.    Leia mais

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    Penang Hill

    30 de outubro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Penang Island is in the north west of Malaysia, it took two buses and a ferry to reach our next quirky hostel in Georgetown. Dropped our bags off and ordered a Grab (Asian Uber) for the funicular which takes you up to the Penang Hill with extra speed. On the top there were beautiful views, a mosque, a Hindu Temple and some coconut ice cream was waiting for us. After a brave decision we started to walk down from the hill. Later we found out we were the only ones choosing the jeep road to descend which was probably due to the steep, long, asphalt road which caused us massive pain in our legs and bums the next day. As we walked in the jungle we saw giant ants and many monkeys playing on the trees, some came real close to us. When we arrived at the bottom on the other side of the hill we were ready to get on a bus. But it never came so after a coconut milkshake we ended up walking another 6 km to home. Although at the time the flat surfice almost felt like a relief we still decided not to walk much the next day.Leia mais

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    Georgetown

    1 de novembro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Over a couple of days we explored all around Georgetown and made a short trip to Batu Ferringhi beach.
    We had heard that this was the busiest beach on Penang so it was a nice surprise to arrive and find that we had it mostly to ourselves. We enjoyed a drink and some lunch in a bar right on the the beach and a bit of swimming in the warm Indian Ocean water. We also had a look around an art shop and ended up getting a tour of a batik art studio from the very talkative artist himself.
    Back in Georgetown we found a lively area where the old fashioned shop houses are mostly converted into bars, cafes and restaurants and there are street food sellers lining the pavement in front.
    The next day we found a lot of the street art which Georgetown is known for. We also went to the Clan Jetties where settlers from China set up their family homes and businesses along the coast and competed with each other for the shipping trade. Nowadays the jetties are full of souvenir shops but some of the old homes are still occupied and there were some small shrines still in use.
    Having seen durian fruit and all its many products all over Malaysia, we decided to try out durian ice cream. One spoonful later we rushed to get a coconut milkshake to help recover from the awful armpit/foot taste, durian is not sonething we're likely to try again!    Leia mais

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    Batu Caves

    2 de novembro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Half an hour from Kuala Lumpur is the Batu Caves - a Hindu Temple which attracts many believers and tourists. Next to an impressive huge gold Murugan statue are the 272 steps up to the caves with the the temples inside. Some sort of celebration, music, chanting and food distribution was happening which made our visit even more special.
    In the afternoon we returned to the Petrona Towers and checked out the gallery inside full of Malay, Indian, Chinese and Indonesian objects, hats, materials, pottery, pictures etc.
    For our last dinner with Julie we had Biriyani Indian food, we ordered many weird but amazing things to share.    Leia mais

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    Malacca

    4 de novembro de 2019, Malásia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our last stop in Malaysia before heading south for Singapore is Malacca. A beautiful relaxed small colonial town by a river, perfect for evening beers and strolling. We much liked our breakfasts, egg roti in a small Indian street restaurant closeby and lunch in a vintage antique shop which sells healthy food and amazing juices. Some fairly familiar meals were necessary as we had many crazy, unusual, (also fantastic) food recently which caused some tummy problems.Leia mais

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    Singapore

    7 de novembro de 2019, Cingapura ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    In Singapore we were very lucky to be hosted by Oli (an old friend of Tom's) and his family. They have been living in Singapore for a couple of years and have a lovely house where we could experience some home comforts and luxuries and a break from our usual hostel routine.
    During the days we explored the marina bay area, downtown and Chinatown. We tried a couple of 'hawker centres', like food courts where lots of tiny kitchens share a big area of tables and chairs.
    It was interesting to see how few other people we saw on the streets during the day. Despite the weather being no hotter or more humid than we experienced in Kuala Lumpur or Tokyo, everybody here sticks to the air-conditioned places whenever possible and seemed surprised that we would walk a few hundred metres rather than wait for a bus.
    In the evenings Oli and Coysi took us to some amazing roof-top bars including the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the one with the boat shape) to have Singapore slings and other cocktails with amazing views of the bay and the other skyscrapers. We also went to see the super trees in the evening for a light show set to music.    Leia mais

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    Hanoi

    9 de novembro de 2019, Vietnã ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We landed in Hanoi, north Vietnam to discover the capital before starting heading down in this long country. What catches your attention first is the traffic, people really can't or don't want to drive anywhere near safe. Red lamps or zebras mean nothing and we were quicker as32 pedestrians than an ambulance with their lights and sirens on. Thousands and thousands of motorbikes on the road and it can take double amount of time to get somewhere than google says just beacuse road crossing can take long minutes.
    We had an amazing kick start with long awaited local food such as quang (beef noodle) soup, banhmi sandwiches, pho soup, cheese and coffee bun, cheese icecream, and of course fried rice! As Vietnam used to be a french colony there are bread, baguette, bakeries and patisseries with full
    of amazing cakes. It was interesting to think that we havent had any bread for months (apart from roti in Malayasia).
    The old town is full of bars, restaurants and most importantly cheap beer, we arrived to the heaven of backpackers. So many of them are around, such as Flora's ex! A couple of french girls gave us some good tips for Cambodia too.
    We visited an old prison built and used by the French and then later by the Vietnamese in the war with the Americans. The exhibition was rather biased, which maybe isn't suprising, being in one of the only remaining one party socialist countries in the world. At the end many countries opinion was presented of the Vietnamese war in the 60s - 70s, marches, protests and speeches all over the world against the war. However they were all shown as supporting the North Vietnamese communists rather than the hippie peace and love movement.    Leia mais

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    Ha Long Bay

    10 de novembro de 2019, Vietnã ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We booked ourselves onto a tour to visit probably Vietnam's most famous destination.
    We had an early start to walk into town and meet the tour guide and board the little bus for the 3/4 hour journey to Ha Long.
    Arriving at the coast around lunchtime, we boarded our boat for the day and were served a seafood feast (veggie option for Vera), it was really quite good with loads of variety, and even better was that the others sharing our table didn't eat much which left more for us :)
    While we'd been busy eating, the boat had left the harbour and was well on the way. We went outside on the deck and watched the famous limestone islands pass by. We were surprised to see how big the area of Ha Long Bay is, we had already been through a few miles of it and there was plenty left.
    Our first stop was at Titop Island. Here we had the choice of spending half an hour on the beach or climbing the hill for a panoramic view. We decided to try the climb but, after queueing behind several thousand Chinese tourists for 10 minutes to move about 10 metres, we abandoned that idea and hung out on the beach instead.
    Next up we were dropped off at a jetty to go kayaking. We paddled off through a tunnel and spent a while in a kind of closed lake within one of the bigger limestone island
    Lastly we visited Surprising Cave. A big name to live up to but it actually was surprisingly surprising. The cave is huge and full of cool rock formations and would be worth a trip to see in its own right, even without being squeezed on the end of a tour of the bay.
    The trip back to the harbour was maybe the most beautiful part of the tour. We watched the sun setting over the sea and the islands on one side of the boat and the moon rising on the other side. While the area can feel like a production line of tourism at some times, the place really is amazing and we felt very lucky to see it for ourselves.    Leia mais

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    Hue

    12 de novembro de 2019, Vietnã ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Our 13 hour overnight train journey to Hue was rather chaotic and memorable. A party was going on all night in the last carriage which somehow everybody seemed to know about. People were arriving with beers and cake, shouting and screaming (later vomiting) including those who worked on the train. It wasn't much fun for us and with this going on and the light being switched on all night we couldn't get much sleep at all.
    Finally, we gratefully arrived in Hue, a historic town in central Vietnam, home of an Imperial City, the Perfume River, Ho Chi Minh's school and many restaurants with fantastic foods. In spite of all the wars the Viatnamese try to preserve and rebuild the old Imperial city which is an impressive and massive area with a palace, theatre, buildings introducing different crafts and trades, temples, lake etc. It was really interesting to explore and the rainy weather only added to the atmosphere.    Leia mais

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    Da Nang

    18 de novembro de 2019, Vietnã ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Da Nang for us was a place to relax and slow down from our usual high speed travel routine.
    We booked a mini apartment in a nice hotel with a swimming pool on the roof and enjoyed some easy days of eating, sleeping, relaxing and even getting a massage.
    One day we went for a walk to the other side of the river, we crossed on a bridge whith a giant dragon on. We visited the Museum of Military Zone 5, which is still an active military base but one building is open for visitors. Hardly anyone seems to know about it which makes it extra spooky when you walk by military planes, helicopters and tanks, it is a strange feeling to be the only people in this big building of communist propaganda.
    While relaxing, we thought through what we want from our really last month of travelling and we decided to go back to Thailand for some less "backpacking style - constantly moving" holiday. We bought a plane ticket and left for the airport with excitment. At the check in desk we were informed that we can only enter Thailand for 30 days but the time between this ticket and our ticket back to London is 31 days...
    We were told that probably we only need to pay some money for the extra day once we land in Bangkok but we didn't want to risk it.
    So we bought a new ticket in 3 days time and as we left the airport building a bird pooed on Tom's head. What a lucky day?!    Leia mais

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    Bangkok again

    25 de novembro de 2019, Tailândia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Back in Bangkok after a short flight from Vietnam. Our little apartmant is a bit outside of the city but has its own beautiful pool and a gym. A couple of times we went into downtown to see a temple, the "giant swing", camera shop and Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre which currently has an exhibition on LGBTQ. We could cook at home or buy our dinner from the local street food market. We had time for dying Vera's hair to PINK and Tom to take photos. Lovely relaxing days mostly by or in the pool.Leia mais

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    Ayutthaya

    30 de novembro de 2019, Tailândia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Ayutthaya is an ancient city on an island surrounded by three rivers. In the olden days it was the Siamese capital until the attacking Burmese destroyed most of it. Now a modern town has grown up around the island but there are still ruins everywhere from the old palaces and temples.
    We spent three days exploring the ruins and parks. You can get right in to most of the ruins, climb up the towers which are still intact, walk through the old foundations and get close to the statues and parts of smashed up Buddhas which are everywhere.
    Just outside of town we visited an Elephant village. We had been meaning to go to see some elephants for ages but were waiting for somewhere which sounded nice. Here the elephants seemed healthy and well looked after but you never really know. It was good to see them even if it's a bit sad to see them kept in a little farm instead of in the wild.
    In the evenings there was a fantastic night market and we always went home far too full with fincsi things.    Leia mais

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    Kanchanaburi

    4 de dezembro de 2019, Tailândia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We headed towards the Myanmarian boarder to Kanchanaburi, which is famous of its war museums, war cemetaries and the bridge over the Kwai river. Over a few days we spent there we found out that it is more than just its dark WW II. history. The town is visited mostly by "day tourists" and less and less backpackers stay over night - this was also confirmed by a couple of Danish expats over some super icy (as always in Thailand) smoothies - but we think they are missing out on a really nice town to spend a few days in.
    The most touristy area is by the famous bridge - no suprise - with many shops and restaurants. Our accomodation was on the other side of the town (a good half an hour by bicycles) where we hardly saw any tourists. Instead an authentic food market and a fantastic beach by the river. On the way back we had a few beers and wine and we happily continued our way to the beach which has deck chairs and many locals who gather in the evening for some Thai BBQ. Fantastic food and experience!    Leia mais

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    Around the River Kwai

    6 de dezembro de 2019, Tailândia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We rented bikes again from the guesthouse and set off across the river and into the countryside.
    After a while we came across a tea shop next to a pond with benches and deck chairs around for families to sit and have a picnic. We tried their mulberry tea, which was pretty good, and had very nice iced coffees and a rest from cycling.
    Once back on the bikes we began to leave the jungle scenery behind and ended up in a hot, flat and dry area which looked more like the wild west than the typical lush Thai countryside. The area was full of horse farms and some kind of military base. By now there was hardly anyone else on the roads and it was very quiet and peaceful.
    We eventually found where everyone else was... at the Giant Rain Tree of course! A surprising number of other tourists had made the trip to see the 26 metre wide tree and there was a wooden walkway around the trunk and a small market to enjoy.
    There was an interesting temple nearby which we were going to visit but quickly changed our minds when the local dogs chased us out and along the road! Lucky we had the bikes or we would almost certainly have been eaten.
    On the way home we took a different and slightly longer route which took us past lots of farms and crossed over a few bridges where we could see fishing boats and get great views down the river. 30km later, and with very sore bums, we arrived back in town and bought a feast at the street food market to take home with us.    Leia mais

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