All good things must come to an end.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I didn't have much spare time while visiting with family and in Iceland our van didn't have an outlet where I could charge my laptop. I was also pretty busy climbing on glaciers, walking behind waterfalls and hiking through the wilderness. I'll edit and post as soon as possible but I felt like I needed to make a quick post to mark the end of our trip.

These last three months have been the best time of my life and I couldn't have done it without Charlie. Clichéd as it sounds, I really do feel like the luckiest person in the world. No matter what comes next in our lives I know it'll be ok if I've got Charlie in my corner.

This trip is over, but this adventure is just beginning.

Bridges, Dams & Castles, Oh My!

Chatsworth House

A Hike in the Peak District

We made it to England and brought all the good weather with us. It's rained once while we were here but otherwise it's been warm and sunny. 

Blue John Vein (it's a mineral that's only found in this cave)

Fossils in the Blue John cave. 

Walked all the way up...

Took a picture...

...And walked all the way back down.

Cambodia - Part 2

Cambodia - Part 1

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

To get to Cambodia we took a bus from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Phen. The ride itself was pretty boring but podcasts kept me pacified for the most part. We were more interested in getting to Siem Reap ASAP so we only stayed for one night. We got up pretty early, had our last breakfast at Joma Cafe (think Starbucks but better and owned by Canadians,) and hit the tourist highlights. I wish we had more time because PP is definitely a city I’d like to go back and spend so more time in.


The ride to Siem Reap was a little more interesting. We had booked a VIP bus for the early afternoon and the driver was terrible.  He destroyed the clutch driving out of station and we had to swap it out for a slightly less than VIP bus. After another 5 minutes of driving I bet Charlie that he would either keep the bus under 50 KPH or that he would fry the second bus as well. I lost the bet I’m pretty sure the driver took a good 5 years off the life of that bus’s engine. Later on while we were still 90 minutes away from Siem Reap one of the passengers had some kind of significant medical episode. He lost consciousness and his girlfriend completely lost her cool. I know a little bit of first aid so I went to the back to try and help but there was already a big crowd of people trying to assist so I figured it would be better to stay back. Someone tried to give him CPR but he regained consciousness as soon as they started (from what I saw they didn’t check to see if he had a pulse…) The guy said he was fine but Charlie and I offered up our seats at the front of the bus where there was a bit more fresh air. The rest of the ride had no other issues. (PSA: Here’s a video of Vinnie Jones explains how to actually do CPR) 

Charlie, Phi and Me

We spend the next three days checking out all the temples of Siem Reap with the assistance of our amazing Tuk Tuk driver, Phi. Phi gave us pointers of the best ways to walk around the temples and he also came to drive us at 5am on our last day so we could get some pictures of the sunrise at Ankor Wat. Another great part about our time in Siem Reap was the dog who hung out near our hotel who we nick-named Lady. We fed her some ham and she became our best friend and we became the givers of belly rubs.

Lady

On our last day we saw Ankor Wat at sunrise and then spent the rest of the day getting ready for the next leg of the trip. Most of the beer is ~ 0.50 cents so we also went out for a few drinks and a foot massage at a VERY up-scale massage parlor.

Shots from HCMC

Ninhvana

(Note: this post contains some NSFW items)

After Hoi An Charlie and I took a night bus to a beach hostel called Ninhvana which is about two hours outside of Nha Trang. The bus ride was a bit harsh because just like most things in SE Asia, everything is built with people much shorter than me in mind and I totally didn't fit in the bed. The ride also got off to a rough start due to the obnoxiously rude passengers in the back. "WOTS THE WIFI PASSWOOOOOORD" rang out from the back of the bus constantly for the first 20 minutes (I guess at that point they figured that the bus didn't actually have any wifi.) Hind sight is 20/20 because I had a great idea to create a hotspot with my phone and make the network name "The wifi password is 'kindly shut the hell up" 5 minutes after we got off the bus.

Our bus dropped us off at 4:30 near a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Waiting on the side of a Vietnamese highway would have been worrisome but there was ~10 other people waiting with us, so we felt pretty safe. Unfortunately, "WOTS THE WIFI" was with us and some crazy old lady wouldn't stop talking to me. She eventually lost interest and left me alone (woohoo!). Eventually the connecting bus came to collect us and we drove the for a hour along the coast and arrived at the hostel just after sun rise. This trip has really fostered a deep love of watching sunrises in me. There's nothing quite like watching a sunrise.

For our accommodations we splurged again and got a private bungalow. It sounded pretty cool online but holy crap, this place was amazing. It was clean, had good water pressure, was right beside the ocean and far away from the main party area. We checked in and tended to our creature-comforts.

The view from our room

As I'm sure you can imagine, after being on a bus for about 12 hours I needed a bit of time in the bathroom. So I went and did what needed doing and proceeded to flush the toilet. After doing so, I politely exclaimed "AHHHHHHHHH, WHAT THE F***, WHAT THE F*** WAS THAT???!!!!" A giant frog (who I assume at this point was now eternally traumatized,) LEAPED out of the toilet and clambered behind a shelf. I'd say that it scared the crap out me but... yeah... you get the joke. Anyways, in honor of John Dunsworth we named him Kermit the Shit frog. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the weather, chatting, enjoying beers and food. There was also a easter egg hunt and a pig roast but we didn't find any eggs and the pork made me pretty sick.

On the second day we relaxed all morning and went for one of the group hikes in the afternoon. The hike was a short-ish walk up the road followed by a slightly longer climb up the side of one of the mountains to a waterfall. When we reached the top a couple of guys were peacocking pretty hard for WOTS THE WIFI. First was a push-up completion between two guys who were vying for her attention. I think one of them did 50 push-ups but the terrain was a bit uneven, so charlie and I suggested a "best two out of three" completion and suggested they do a plank completion next.  The winner of the pushups won again and the winner walked over to WOTS THE wifi, flexed his abs as hard as he could and said "common, y'now y'wanna touch these baaad boyz." I'm a terrible writer, but believe me, it was one of the funniest things that happened on the trip.