Siem Reap

Where we stayed - Encore Angkor

You certainly know you've entered a country which has seen tough times when you cross the border into Cambodia from Thailand. You can visibly see the differences, straight away. Smoothly tarmaced roads give way to dusty roads with potholes and brick houses suddenly disappear and wooded houses built upon stilts pop up amongst the trees which line the roads. The scenery though is breathtaking, it almost looks surreal and more like a movie set built in Hollywood. We decided on this trip to Cambodia that we'd only go to Siem Reap, we are going to save the rest of the country for when we return to visit Vietnam, seeing as we cancelled that part of our trip due to the typhoons.

Siem Reap is a great little town, full of fabulous restaurants, wonderful markets (which all pretty much sell the same thing) and the main road is a dusty bumpy pot-holed mess. Everyday you see at least 5 or so people who have had limbs blown off due to landmines and UXO's and there are quite a lot of beggars on the streets too. Nonetheless, we found Siem Reap to be a charming wee town, full of genuinely kind people. I'd go as far to say, it is one of my favourite places we've visited on our trip so far...

The temples of Angkor are stunning and everyone should try and see them. We spent a day doing the 'small circuit' and visited the main sights, which included the immense and beautiful Angkor Wat, Bayon with it's 216 faces and eerie Ta Prohm which is getting swallowed up and overtaken by massive tree roots (It was also the place where Tomb Raider was filmed).

While we were in Cambodia we really wanted to visit one of the numerous orphanages and take some supplies which we had bought in large quantities (toothbrushes, toothpaste, shoes, washing powder and rice). One morning we were trying to figure where to take them and we met a fellow guest from our guesthouse (Anthony, whom was also from Hamilton) who had been in Cambodia for a few months trying to set up and sort out an orphanage. He invited us to join him on a visit to his orphanage, so we jumped at the opportunity and what an amazing experience it was.

32 children aged from less than 1 to 17 years of age lived at the orphange. They were so pleased to see us and happily practiced their english on us and eagerly posed for photos. At first Mia was a little intimidated by them, but it didn't take long until Dallas started acting the clown and had all the kids laughing... These kids were just amazing and I really wished we could have done more for them.

Alain's Khmer BBQ, no it didn't consist of dog, cat, rat or worm, but it did have snake, crocodile and two other mystery meats.

Bangkok - Part 2

Where we stayed - Lamphu Tree House

On our second stay in Bangkok, we decided to stay in a different part of town. We stay in a lovely hotel which was within walking distance to the backpacker ghetto on Khao San Road (which is just a dodgy, sleazy boozy street full of pissed foreigners being knobheads, it's pretty pathetic really).

The only redeeming thing was that the hotel was also close to the beautiful Wat Prad Kaew and the Grand Palace. The whole complex is just amazing and the temples, monuments and shrines are intricately decorated. Just a word of warning if you do go there though, is make sure your dressed for the occasion. If you turn up with a singlet (sleeveless t-shirts seemed ok, but not singlets), or shorts/skirt you'll need to hire some hideous clothing, which you will sweat like a pig in...

We also visited the HUGE Chatuchak Weekend Market. This is one of the largest markets in the world, and it really is overwhelming and disorientating. You can literally buy anything and everything here, from a kitten, to dinner plates, to scary monster face masks. I think we were quite possibly the only people who went to the market that day who didn't buy anything...

Chiang Mai

Where we stayed - Chiang Mai Thai House

There is just so much to see and do, in and around Chiang Mai, that it didn't take long for our week long stay to pass by.

We spent our first day visiting a few of the numerous temples within the Old City. These temples are simply amazing, the craftmanship and detail of the temples is astounding, as are the shrines housed inside.

One day we hired ourselves a driver to take us to the Tiger Farm, where we had the emense pleasure of playing and patting three adorable 3 month old tiger cubs. Alain was even brave enough (and stupid enough) to go into the 'big' tiger enclosure to get up close and personal with them. The tigers in there weighed up to 200kgs each!!

Afterwards, we headed to the Monkey Centre where the kids enjoyed the monkey show, as well as getting the opportuntiy to shake hands with the cutes little hypo monkey ever...

Following that, we were taken to one of the local Karon Long-neck villages, where we had the opportunity to wander around their village and rice paddy fields (which amazingly smell like rice) and witness their way of life. We even met a little girl the same age as Mia, who had already been wearing her neck rings for a few year... These two girls couldn't come from more different worlds, but they still managed to make each other giggle and laugh.

On another day out, we headed up the hill to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, which is one of northern Thailands most sacred temples. The view from the temple is amazing, you can see right across Chiang Mai and into the surrounding area. After the temple we headed back down the hill to the Zoo, to see the Panda bears. They have two playful adults and one baby, who unfortunately was a little shy the day we visited and he didn't make an appearance.

We also visited Maesa Elephant Camp, where we watched elephants bathing in the nearby river before they headed to the showgrounds. The kids loved watching the elephant show, which consisted of elephants playing football, playing harmonicas and painting. Alain and Dallas also went for a ride on one of the elephants, Mia and I wouldn't have a bar of it though... I mean, elephants are nice and all, but damn, they are bloody freaky too and riding upon one just wasn't something I was gonna do... EVER!

Alain took advantage of the cheap dental treatments offered here in Thailand, and got his teeth whitened using the Beyond method. The difference in his teeth is just amazing, after years of drinking coffee, red wine and smoking, he still managed to change his teeth colour by 7 shades. Even the dentist was hugely surprised by the difference and regretted not taking before and after photos...

Bangkok

Where we stayed - Legacy Suites Bangkok

Arriving in Bangkok after nearly a month in India was pure bliss. Everything seems sparkling clean and orderly. Even the traffic jam's are orderly, people don't try to cut the queue and noone honks their horns... It was such a shock!

We stayed at the beautiful Legacy Suites, just off Sukhumvit. This place is fantastic! The rooms are huge and are more like apartments, rather than hotel rooms. The rooms have luxury bathrooms and even a proper working kitchen!! We delighted in being able to cook proper meals for ourselves for the first time in nearly 5 months... It was bliss!

One day we took the kids to the Children's Discovery Museum, it's a place where kids rule and touching and interacting with the displays is what it's all about. It was a whole heap of fun watching the kids discovering new things, and hearing their squeals of delight when Alain put them in the bubble machine and made a huge bubble around them. Or my fits of laughter when Alain tried to cram himself into the womb of the 'reproductive' Mummy's body...

We truely didn't do a hell of a lot on our first trip to Bangkok. The most exciting thing we did (and by far the most important) was that we discovered the wonderful food hall in the Siam Paragon shopping centre. There is one whole floor of the shopping centre dedicated entirely to food, it was AMAZING! There was the most wonderful gourmet supermarket, which had a huge selection of free food sampling stations (much to our delight) and there are numerous food stalls selling everything imaginable from the most delicate french inspired pastries, to the most pungent fermented fish eggs (and everything else in between). Alain and I were both completely blown away by the variety and quality of foods on offer here, it truely is a foodies paradise!

After a few days in Bangkok we took the very rocky/swaying overnight train up to Chiang Mai. It was a long trip, but the kids though it was fantastic that we were going to be sleeping on the train and we were grateful that they sold alcohol onboard.

New Delhi

Where we stayed - Palace Heights Hotel

We decided that since we were only staying in New Delhi for a few days, we'd base ourselves right in the city centre, in Connaught Place. It is a huge roundabout which is divided up into about 8 different blocks and they are lined with shops, and restaurants. There is even a huge underground market, which we spent alot of time wandering around in whilst picking up some lovely bits and bobs.

One afternoon, when it wasn't so unbearably hot we took the kids to a huge playground which is located close to India Gate. The kids had an absolute ball playing here, as it was the first playground we'd come across in weeks. It was great watching them run around like idiots while letting off a bit of steam.

One of the highlights of our time in New Delhi (as sad as this is going to sound), was going to Macca's for lunch. For some reason you don't really think that the Macca's menus will be all that different in other countries, but boy the menu here in India is tiny (minuscule even). Hindu's don't eat beef, as the cow is sacred to them and Muslims don't eat pork, so you can almost imagine how limited the menu is... Honestly, they have 3 types of chicken burger (including the rather funky tasting McMaharaja - imagine a processed chicken/curry Big Mac and you've got yourself a McMaharaja), they have a fish burger, a vege burger and chicken nuggets and that's it... It's weird!

Agra

Where we stayed -

We hired ourselves a driver to take us from Jaipur to New Delhi, via an overnight stay in Agra. The journey was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Agra in the early afternoon. I'd heard from other travellers, that Agra was a pretty crappy town and it sure is. It looks like the cesspool of India. It's disgustingly polluted and just plain old horrible... It's really hard to believe that something as beautiful ass the Taj Mahal can be in a town as shitty as Agra.

We arranged for our driver to pick us up at 7am the next morning to take us to the Taj, as we wanted to arrive before all the tour groups did. I'm glad we did because it was relatively quite, by Indian standards when we arrived.

The Taj Mahal is beautiful. When you catch your first glimpse, it quite literally takes your breath away. It is quite simply amazing...

While we were walking around the most bizarre thing happened!! We spotted an American guy, JR, whom we'd met in Cairo 3 weeks earlier. He had only arrived in India and we were nearly leaving, but what are the chances of us running into each other again, in India, at the Taj Mahal at 7am? Coincidence, perhaps? We mentioned to JR that were heading to South East Asia after India, and he said he'd be heading that way a few weeks later, and he looked forward to bumping into us again... Seriously, if that happens, I'll be freakin' out!

Jaipur

Where we stayed - Jas Vilas

After our long journey from Bikaner, it was pure bliss to finally arrive at Jas Vilas. This hotel is simply beautiful, if you ever find yourself in Jaipur, you really should stay here! The rooms are beautifully decorated and have every creature comfort you could desire, the staff are attentative, and the food they serve is divine.

We were supposed to do quite a bit of sightseeing whist in Jaipur (the Pink City), but all of us ere feeling rather fatigued, so we simply hung out at the hotel... It was great and exactly what we needed to revive ourselves.

When we did manage to peel ourselves away from the hotels swimming pool, we went and visited Jaipurs beautiful palace, which is located within the old city limits. Shamefully though, we didn't go and see Amber Fort, nor the monkey temple, both of which are pretty high on most peoples 'must see' lists.