Shopping at AEON - and relaxing in Hanoi

This morning was kind of slow. We had one thing on the list - going shopping at the AEON mall just outside the city centre. Walking wasn't an option so once we were ready to leave for the mall we took a taxi - and got scammed the usual way. Our taxi driver doing a huge detour conveniently "missing" the exit on the freeway and then turning the GPS on just afterwards.

AEON is a huge new mall, all new shops, prices like in most Western cities. The place was quite empty when we were there. We did buy a few things though. It was kind of funny to find a Danish furniture shop in the middle of Hanoi.

Going back we knew we had to "guide" our taxi driver a bit harder, so he did another slightly shorter detour, we got back to the hostel, had a quiet afternoon and walked a bit around town in the evening, picking up a few cold beers and some sushi and went home to our balcony and had dinner there. Nice and quiet and just what we felt like.

Slow morning coffee

Shopping

Danish furniture shop in Hanoi

Nitrogen ice cream

Sure is cold

One thing less on the to-do list

Dinner on our balcony. 

Last day at the beach on Phu Quoc

We booked a ticket for a flight to Da Lat leaving tomorrow morning. It is actually two flights, with a connection in HCMC but we'll try our luck. Today we were a bit hung over so we had a quiet morning, said goodbye to some of the guys leaving for Europe and in the afternoon we went to our "own" beach on the other side of the big road.

No doubt - the resorts down there are really nice and the beach is a bit narrow but really good which is improving our impression of the island since yesterdays garbage chock. We stayed on the beach until sunset, just going to one of the restaurants for nice lunch, and then we headed back to our own place, packed our stuff, had a couple of beers with the others and left for some BBQ fish at one of the local restaurants. The one with the "cheap rice" sign at the road side. Good fish and shrimp from the BBQ and rice and veggies on the side. The right meal to finish our trip on the island this time.

Breakfast

One big construction site

The view from Long Beach

We like fresh rolls

Afternoon sunset

Dinner with lots of sea food

What's not to like about this place

Nice day on the beach then on the road towards Bangkok (Koh Phayam to Bangkok)

Our scooter taxi would pick us up this afternoon at 4 PM so we had plenty of time to stay on the beach and do practical stuff before leaving the island. It's going to be a long trip to Mandalay and Myanmar so better relax a bit this morning - which we did.

Pick up as agreed, 15 minutes to go to the pier, then wait a while and then do the 5 PM, 40 minute speed boat back to the main land. A mini bus to the main bus station and then we could luckily get rid of our big bags since the bus was already there.

We had two hours to spend before departure and just around the corner was a nice street with plenty of small stalls selling food. So we went from shop to shop, trying out some of the food and finishing off with our last meal in Thailand - a Som Tum salad.

Then it was back to the bus station and a whole night of driving towards Bangkok. We should be there at 4 AM - or something like that.

6:35 AM sunrise from the hammock

One last swim in the ocean

Scooter taxi pick up

At the pier in Koh Phayam

Bangkok bus waiting for us

Check in

Street food for dinner

Warm fish balls

The final Som Tum salad

The monk's on board - ready to go

Koh Phayam Scooter sightseeing - and we have been on the road for 11 months

Today we've been on the road for 11 months straight. It doesn't feel like that and yet again it does. Seen lots of places, done lots of things, met many people, still looking to do some more travelling.

Today it was supposed to be local travelling though. We had enquired about scooters in town yesterday but they had none available. We tried once more today with luck. So at 10 AM we set off to go island sightseeing looking to go to some of the other beaches on the island and relax there a bit.

We stopped a few times on the way, read our books and enjoyed the island before making it to one of the beaches on the north part of the island. There was a nice restaurant so we had lunch there, found a hammock and just relaxed.

Then we headed to the beach on the other side of the bay, had a drink there, checked out a couple of other beaches on the way home before we made it back to the scooter rental place and dropped off our trusty horse and headed to our own beach just making it for the last sunset swim in a while.

We are off to Bangkok and Myanmar tomorrow so this will be our last evening on the island, so we had sunset beer and shared a Nicaraguan cigar on the beach.

Our "resort"

Giving the scooter a bit of fuel

That's us

On the road

First frappé on Koh Phayam - it took some time to explain to the woman with the blender

Another nice place on the beach

Off road scooter

Malene hitting the road

Farewell cigar