Sun, sea, sand, beaches, cocktails, sleeper trains, tuk tuks...Thailand!

On Tuesday, we left for our 6 day trip to Thailand. We started by flying to Bangkok, where we stayed at Hotel Chillax. It did what it said on the tin...especially with the free upgrade we were given! 

We enjoyed the following day chilling by the pool, before getting an overnight sleeper train from Bangkok to Surat Thani.

From there, we got a bus, tro tro, bus, tro tro, and finally boat...to reach our destination...Railley Beach! What a mammoth journey! 

The hotel, after our amazing last minute surprise in Mui Ne, was a bit of a let down, but the place itself was beautiful...clear turquoise water, sparkly rainbow-coloured fish, and a gorgeous backdrop of rock-cliffs and islands.

Other than sunbathing and drinking cocktails, we enjoyed visiting the monkeys, learning about the random penis shrines (!) and doing a 5 island tour.

At the end of the trip, we opted out of another crazy 2 day journey with the overnight sleeper train etc, and instead flew from Krabi direct to Bangkok. We had one last night in Bangkok (luckily avoiding the protests which were going on), before flying back to HCMC on Monday afternoon.

A fab week away, with great food (lots of Thai curries, Pad Thai noodles and spring rolls), gorgeous cocktails, blue skies, clear waters, amazing coastlines, interesting transport, and fab company!

A weekend in Mui Ne

We we're all booked up to leave for Thailand on the Tuesday of the holidays...but having a free long weekend meant one thing...another holiday was essential! So off we went to Mui Ne, a coastal resort about five/six hours away from HCMC. We'd been before briefly on an Easyrider tour, but due to arriving late and leaving early, we hadn't had much time to enjoy the beaches, cocktails and chill by the pools. The hotel, which we booked last minute, turned out to be amazing...and the 6 hour bus journey there all of a sudden seemed worth it! The 'sleeper' bus home, however, had a lot to be desired! I'll definitely be avoiding it when I hopefully return with Mum at Easter.

 The infinity pool overlooking the sea.

View from the bedroom!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

The Vietnamese celebrate their New Year at the end of January. It's a huge festival, like our Christmas, Easter and New Year all rolled in to one! The streets are decorated, homes are filled with scrummy foods, the children all get new clothes, and 'lucky money' is given to the young and old. In school, we celebrated by wearing the traditional clothes, watching the children perform songs and dances, and giving the children their lucky money.

For more pics and info about what we've been doing at school, visit our class blog by clicking here.

A magical day in Sri Lanka!

So...if a week long holiday in England wasn't mad enough...my best friend got married in Sri Lanka and I decided I couldn't miss it for the world...so I went...for a day! A mental weekend of planes, taxis, tuk tuks etc...but all totally worth it for a magical day! Congratulations Shanika and Sandun!

Christmas at home

I crazily booked flights to go home for just a week over Christmas! Seeing my family, friends, but most of all, how much my niece had grown, made the crazy travel plans and whistle stop tour all worthwhile! I was back in HCMC in time for New Year, to celebrate on a river cruise with friends...a fab holiday!