Susan and Michelle's Excellent Adventure -- TRIP PHASE
In and around Southeast Asia
After four months of intense preparation and learning to use this travel "blog" Susan and Michelle are on their way!
Updates are optimistically expected every week or so, depending on funds and electricity. Track the beautiful, intrepid, intelligent travellers across whatever countries will give them Visitor's Visas! Please comment at will, Michelle and Susan are going to miss everyone and would love to hear what you think!
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Michelle and Susan
-
1
Here at last! (almost)
Singapore has the most relaxing, Zen airport Susan and Michelle have ever experienced. After the last 48 hours, they are officially airport e... Continue reading »
-
2
On the beach in Kuta
We didn't see much of Kuta our first night. After stumbling off the plane, handing money and passports over to any number of government offic... Continue reading »
-
3
Happy Galungan from Ubud!
After we were through with Kuta, we took a fantastic tour to Bali's volcano, Butur, and then to Ubud, which turned into one of our Bali highlights.... Continue reading »
-
4
Black Sand Beaches in Lovina
It was difficult to leave Ubud, but if we didn't we would have stayed there forever. We continued on to the black sand beaches of Lovina, on... Continue reading »
-
5
Sanur - Resort capital if you're rich (fun if you're poor too)
From Lovina we took a bus ride with some other backpackers, and had a great chat throughout the bumpy, windy, three-hour ride. Seatbelts are... Continue reading »
-
6
Scared in Singapore - We need CutieCook!
Wow. After the pace of life in Bali, Singapore was SCARY. We were so caught up in the free internet at the airport that we forgot to cl... Continue reading »
-
7
Historical Melaka
We crossed from Singapore to Malaysia via the Causeway, which is basically just a big pile of rocks in the strait with a road on top. Since w... Continue reading »
-
8
The Cameron Highlands...about time we hit some mountains!
We were both feeling a little homesick for some serious trekking on a mountain. The mountains in SE Asia are not the Rockies, but they defini... Continue reading »
-
9
A big city - the second attempt in Kuala Lumpur
After our relaxing stay in Melaka, gettin' cultured up, we decided we were prime for some Capital City. We were pretty confident that we now... Continue reading »
-
10
A city named "Cat"! Michelle HAD TO STOP HERE!
Kuching is the capital of Malaysian Borneo, and the name really does translate directly to "Cat" in Bahasa Malay. Fortunately for Susan, the... Continue reading »
-
11
Michelle's birthday in Miri
Our plans sure change a lot. We came to Miri planning to visit some caves and then fly north to climb the highest mountain in SE Asia...we le... Continue reading »
-
12
Voyage on the express boat...to the park!
The next few entries can't even begin to do justice to the things we saw, the people we met and the feelings we experienced in the Bornean wilderne... Continue reading »
-
13
Hiking the Caves
After an early start, we cruised upriver in a now very snug longboat. Willie pointed out all kinds of things along the way and gave us the sa... Continue reading »
-
14
The Pinnacles - Susan sweat out twice her body weight
Okay, so this trip is all about educational, life-changing experiences. The Pinnacles hike was a big one of those. Michelle found out t... Continue reading »
-
15
Gawai in the longhouse
We travelled with Willie, Darren and Catherine from our hike, as well as Charlie from the UK and Tony, our much abused driver, by 4WD to a Ber... Continue reading »
-
16
Back on the beach-Thailand
Thailand's island beach was everything we'd hoped it would be and more. We showed up to a resort around six in the morning and woke... Continue reading »
-
17
Tigers, Vespas and lady-boys -- all in a day's work on Koh Samui
From Koh Phangan we took a high speed, brand new, sparkly catamaran to the more tourist-infested Koh Samui. Deserted beaches were nice, but s... Continue reading »
-
18
We're in Cambodia, and we've met our FIRST Prince Edward Islanders
Picture if you will a Cambodian bus. Now take away the bus suspension system, and add about 250% more red dust. Now you've got our ri... Continue reading »
-
19
The Cambodian transport entry - Kratie, Phnom Penh and Banlung
We had a busy few days touring Cambodia in every mode of transport available. The sights were interesting, but easily summed up: dusty, hot,... Continue reading »
-
20
Jungle trekking - Villages in Northeastern Cambodia
After three days travelling North from Phnom Penh (the capital), we arrived in an area that offered actual trekking. We felt pretty good abou... Continue reading »
-
21
Tourists in the capital - Phnom Penh's greatest hits
After selecting a reasonable hostel that had three actual separate beds for us (as opposed to two that we could "push together, make big"), Paige s... Continue reading »
-
22
The Haa-pie Tour Bus - Saigon, Vietnam
The voyage from Phnom Penh to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was fairly typical on the Cambodian end. A minibus crammed full of tourists and 4 "dr... Continue reading »
-
23
Mekong Delta Cruise - cone hats abound!
After our wonderful Hah-pie Tour welcome, we decided to take one of their "cultural adventures", a cruise in the Mekong River Delta, south of Saigo... Continue reading »
-
24
Susan's request - Hue, the food capital of Vietnam
After the shopping blitz in Saigon, Susan felt it was time to engage in other pursuits, and we decided to head to Hue, billed as the "culinary capi... Continue reading »
-
25
Hanoi - home of the water puppets!
Hanoi is a great city! We arrived at 5am fresh off the sleeper train and stumbled around a bit until we found a Vietnamese coffee shop that w... Continue reading »
-
26
Ha Long Bay - The kayaking trip that wasn't
So begins the first chapter in the "Binh's Tours" saga...an epic tale that culminates with Michelle yelling and pounding tables to good effect... Continue reading »
-
27
Trekking in Sapa - Monsoon POWER
Sapa turned out to be more like home than any other place we've visited so far. Cooler temperatures and pygmy-sized Rocky Mountains helped to... Continue reading »
-
28
Border Crossing - Vietnam to Laos
Well. Binh's Tours. Well. We got back to the office after our enjoyable stay in Sapa to find that forgetful-guy had not really do... Continue reading »
-
29
Vientiane - pronounced "Wieng Chan". Viva la France.
Vientiane was a fantastic introduction to Laos. The capital is beautiful, full of temples and French-y architecture. One of our first s... Continue reading »
-
30
Trekking in Luang Nam Tha - Akha Village
We set out with Green Discovery Tours on a cultural trek of one of Laos' northernmost provinces. The company turned out to be fantastic, resp... Continue reading »
-
31
Trekking in Pak Ou - A little of everything
After our excellent trip with Green Discovery in the North, we decided to take another in the slightly-less-north. Our five-day expedition pr... Continue reading »
-
32
Meeting mom! - Bangkok
Happily, our bus ride from Vientiane was less eventful than the one from Hanoi. We sat in the front row of the top deck of a REAL "Super VIP"... Continue reading »
-
33
CutieCook shows us the REAL Singapore
After a bit of confusion at the airport (DrLynne flew first-class, we flew budget to the budget terminal) we met up with CutieCook and AuntieP.&nbs... Continue reading »
Would you like to comment or ask a question?