Ben & Jenny Abroad
In and around Southeast Asia
Hello friends and family! Welcome to our travel journal/blog where we will share with you stories and photos of some of the things we do and try to make you jealous. We will be traveling in Southeast Asia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, and eventually India. We are very excited, and hope to keep this site posted as often as possible. We make no claims that reading our entries will actually be interesting or informative, but perhaps a step above what you should be doing at work right now, so you may as well have a look.
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Ben & Jenny
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1
US Tour
For nearly a month we pranced around the United States, packing up our things, saying quick hellos and see-you-laters to friends and family and cat... Continue reading »
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2
And the adventure begins!
Well we just flew into Manila, and boy are our arms tired! Manila was a whirlwind of things, from seeing Kyla for the first time in near... Continue reading »
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3
The Outdoor Capital of the Philippines
Sagada is beautiful. Lots of wacky people here, like a French expat who bakes wholewheat bread and a thousand friendly locals who want to gra... Continue reading »
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4
Nightlife, and the world's longest sausage
After a long stay in Sagada packed with rugged outdoor activities, we ventured down to the big city of the north, Baguio. It turned out to be... Continue reading »
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5
Kyla's Island
We just arrived in Naval, which is the "big" city nearest to where Kyla lives. So far, it is wet. We are looking forward to spending a... Continue reading »
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6
the bizarrely placed city state full of malls (ugh) and potable tap water (ahh!)
Well we made it out of the Philippines and feel like we are finally starting this trip now, for real, for about the 5th time. Now we are on o... Continue reading »
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7
A tourist city, with a twist
We knew we had to leave Singapore, but we weren't quite sure where to go. So we caught a bus to Melaka (or Malacca, depending on where you're... Continue reading »
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8
Hope you brought a good book and some sunscreen
Fortunately, we brought several good books and lots of sunscreen. Which means we were all set for the beautiful Pulau Tioman, a resort island... Continue reading »
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9
Kuantan, Cherating, Terengganu, and Kota Bharu
Ok so to be fair these several days are kind of a blur, as we were moving so frequently and not finding much spectacular. We moved up the Eas... Continue reading »
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10
A Jungle Adventure, Almost
Our big adventure into the jungle begins... with a tummy ache. Followed by an extremely high fever, muscle aches, and a visit to the 24 hour... Continue reading »
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11
A real city, finally
Now I'll go ahead and say straight out that a city ain't a city unless it's got skyscrapers. And KL succeeds in this, claiming that the Petro... Continue reading »
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12
Tea and Strawberries
Ah, the lovely Cameron Highlands, totally unlike any other part of Malaysia... in climate. Yes, we broke out our fleeces and hats, because we... Continue reading »
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13
An International Thanksgiving
Why did we go to Pinang (Penang), a small island off the Northwest edge of Malaysia? Because just about 10 years ago, when she was in 8th gra... Continue reading »
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14
Welcome to the Thai tourism machine
Ko Tao is freakin beautiful. Sure, we were weirded out by the foreign script on all the signs, and dealing with a new language, and being in... Continue reading »
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15
Meditation, Monks, and Monkey-Minds
If you are a backpacker traveling through Southern Thailand in early December, there are 2 places you might be:
1) Koh Phangan, for the wild... Continue reading »
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16
If we were Swedish, we'd be home now
Now this is why we travel- to find out how other people around the world live. Of all the different stories we expected to hear from people o... Continue reading »
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17
We're down with Koh Phi Phi (yeah you know me)
Our Lonely Planet book said that this was the prettiest place on Earth, so we had to stop by and check it out. It was in fact very pretty.&nbs... Continue reading »
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18
Bangkok, Part 1
Disclaimer: This is not us visiting Bangkok! This is us just passing through. This is us trying to find presents for Jenny's parents and... Continue reading »
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19
Christmas in Cambodia
Hooray! Family!!!
Jenny's parents (Donna and Paul, or as they will be referred to from here on: Mom and Dad) realized that they were mi... Continue reading »
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20
Happy New Year (relatively speaking)
Well this was a big one. We have the coming of a new year. We have family, and and also loss of family. We have bombs in a nearby... Continue reading »
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21
Even the locals enjoy beaches and coconut shakes
We only had 4 days to kill in Cambodia, and fittingly we went to the beach and took a total of 3 photos. Surprisingly, this was one of the be... Continue reading »
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22
Bangkok, Part 2
This time around we were sure we were gonna hit up the major sites we missed the last time. Turns out there are a LOT of sites, and we still... Continue reading »
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23
Brim full of Ashhurst
OK, Ashhurst was not our first stop. First we arrived at Wellington airport in the afteroon, hopped a bus and another bus to Palmerston North... Continue reading »
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24
Wwoof, wwoof!
We got to Hastings with family, and then they went home and left us on our own. Ben and Jenny left to fend for ourselves... how would we cope?<... Continue reading » -
25
Lots of vitamin C
Here we meet our 2nd Wwoofing hosts at Lancaster Citrus in Wairoa. And we thought we ate a lot of citrus at the last spot with their le... Continue reading »
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26
"Land ho!"
This is the part of our journey where we stay in a different town every single night for a week. Gisborne, Anaura Bay, Te Kaha, Whakatane, M... Continue reading »
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27
An Eggsentric Slice of Heaven
WWOOFing keeps getting better and better. So far we've stayed with three hosts, and although they've all been completely different, we have... Continue reading »
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28
I Like J.A.F.A.s
"Now why would you go to Auckland? All they have are big buildings and a lot of Asian people." But, for two people who have recently lived in New Y... Continue reading »
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29
I love the smell of geothermal activity in the morning
Rotorua, Waikite, Wai-O-Tapu, Taupo, Tongariro
Now we realize what all those volcanoes in Auckland were about! If you didn't already know, NZ... Continue reading »
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30
Southern Comfort
More familiar turf. More family. And it doesn't hurt if there are also home-cooked meals, plentiful baked goods, a spa tub under the stars, and a l... Continue reading »
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31
Wwoofing isn't always perfect
The stories in this blog entry are true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Remember the good old days of Wwoofing? Where... Continue reading »
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32
Dog Oven and Septic Worms
It's not what you know, it's who you know. That's why it's sooooooo deliciously good to travel around a country littered with Ben's family. Arrivin... Continue reading »
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33
Sisters by birth, Mouseheads by choice
OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY, my sister is coming, Lee is coming, and we're gonna see her. I know it hurts to prolong the excitement, but we had to spend t... Continue reading »
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34
Radio Twizel
This page is temporarily under construction until our super secret guest author can get her friggin act together. Continue reading » -
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Eatin' in Dunedin
Question: Where do you go when an entire country shuts down for 3 days? Answer: A University town! Because a university town never cl... Continue reading »
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36
No, we did not go bungee-jumping
On our way to the last city in our Lee adventure, we stopped at the Strath Taieri A&P show where we enjoyed a picnic lunch and some wholesome... Continue reading »
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37
Pear Tree Cottage
When Lee left she took the sunshine with her, leaving us with a cold rainy day. We trudged sadly to our next (and probably last) WWOOF hosts of the... Continue reading »
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38
Go West (Life is Peaceful There)
This is the checklist part of the trip. Everyone says that the west coast is a beautiful drive, and of course there are a ton of natural wonders to... Continue reading »
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39
Fare-Well-ington, NZ
Wellington, again. This time we planned to stay a while longer, enjoy the city that Ben lived in, and see friends and family at our leisure. Bu... Continue reading »
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40
Oz
Yes, we admit it, we added this entry simply to add another country to our list. But I do think it should count, because we did get stamps in... Continue reading »
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41
It's Mr. Minh, but my friends call me Ho.
Good Morning! (Sorry, sooooo cheesy).
Alright, picture the intersection of 42nd street and Broadway, at rush hour. No... Continue reading »
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42
Castles Made of Sand
Ok, this time we're serious. This is the best beach, ever. Don't attempt to understand the persistant popularity of Southern Thailand,... Continue reading »
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43
It rains a lot in Da Lat
We know you love reading our blog, and we do love writing it (what could be more fun than talking about yourself?). But sometimes, we must ad... Continue reading »
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44
*Insert corny beach and rain joke here*
When we were in Mui Ne, everyone we met said "we were just in Nha Trang and Mui Ne is soooooo much better," so we came here with low expectations.&... Continue reading »
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45
Hoi An (No, it's not the capital, but it is the capital's anagram!)
First of all, we are sorry. We've been lazy with the blog. A lot has been going on, and we've been distracted. Please forgive us.... Continue reading »
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46
Hue - a pun-ny town
Every morning we wake up and ask ourselves, "What do we want to do today?" Usually there's a long list of tourist sites to choose from, plus... Continue reading »
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47
"Hanoi's Noisy Too (but we're used to it by now)" OR "Ho Chi Minh - Not the City, the Man"
Let's start with the best part of Hanoi up front: We saw Ho Chi Minh. Not a statue, not a memorial, but the man himself, in a mausoleum. ... Continue reading »
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48
Soc 101 Field Trip
Some overnight transportation to pack in more sights. This time we did trains, lovely and aircon, and made it into the mountains by early mor... Continue reading »
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49
Lao is Cool
We made it to Vientiane, Laos safely, which is more of an accomplishment than it may sound like due to the broken bus we were in for 20 hours (not... Continue reading »
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50
BeerLao T-Shirts Anyone?
This is a pretty popular place to visit on the backpacker route, but when we ran into another couple on our first day, finding shelter from a rains... Continue reading »
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51
A Long Day's Journey Into Jars
A lot of big jars (see pictures).
Ok, just kidding. But if we're gonna talk about the Plain of Jars, then we're gonna have to ta... Continue reading »
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52
A Town's Secret
There's not much to say about a day-long slow boat trip up the Mekong. We sat, we read, we ate some snacks that we had packed. Occasion... Continue reading »
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53
Sweet, Sweet Developed Nation
Did we complain before about the over-commercialization of Thailand? Did we say that the sealed roads made transportation dull and unexciting... Continue reading »
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54
Maybe there IS such a thing as too many temples
Ok, we take it back again. Chiang Mai was a little more of the built-up tourism infrastructure than we have been used to, and it kind of caug... Continue reading »
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55
The littlest big city I ever seen
Why did we choose to catch that overnight bus to Khorat? Because nobody told us to go here. Not the lady at the tourism office, not Lon... Continue reading »
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56
Bangkok, Part 3
Time is officially running short, so we're gonna have to start being a bit more organized. Here we have Bangkok for exactly 3 days, through t... Continue reading »
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57
Miami Beach, Thailand
All we wanted was a couple days of sun before heading back home, so we didn't really care where we went. Rhian had a few days to kill before... Continue reading »
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58
Banquet: Bangkok
And here we are, back in the 24 hour internet cafe, taking turns running to the 7-11 for snacks to keep us awake as we spend our last night in Asia... Continue reading »
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