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septembre - décembre 2019
Our super extended honeymoon all around the far east. En savoir plus
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  • 54empreintes
  • 9pays
  • 111jours
  • 321photos
  • 0vidéos
  • 29,3kkilomètres
  • 23,0kkilomètres
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  • Vera and TomAsia
    Jour 65

    Malacca

    4 novembre 2019, Malaisie ⋅ ⛅ 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.En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    1
    1113
    Jour 68

    Singapore

    7 novembre 2019, Singapour ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    1111
    Jour 70

    Hanoi

    9 novembre 2019, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    Jour 71

    Ha Long Bay

    10 novembre 2019, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    1
    11111
    Jour 73

    Hue

    12 novembre 2019, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    11
    Jour 79

    Da Nang

    18 novembre 2019, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 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?!    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    1
    11
    Jour 86

    Bangkok again

    25 novembre 2019, Thaïlande ⋅ ⛅ 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.En savoir plus

  • Vera and TomAsia
    Jour 91

    Ayutthaya

    30 novembre 2019, Thaïlande ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    1
    1111
    Jour 95

    Kanchanaburi

    4 décembre 2019, Thaïlande ⋅ ⛅ 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!    En savoir plus

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  • Vera and TomAsia
    1
    11
    Jour 97

    Around the River Kwai

    6 décembre 2019, Thaïlande ⋅ ☀️ 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.    En savoir plus

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