The rural north of Vietnam was spectacular, so we didn’t hesitate to explore the northern most region in Thailand. Our base for this loop was Chiang Rai. I recommend ST Rental for a motorbike. They have serious bikes too. I was batting eyelids at an all matte army green 250cc Honda off-road bike, but at 1000baht per day, that would leave nothing of our budget for food and other essentials. Maybe another time. Anyway, we got a Honda Wave S 125, which seemed to have lost a few cc in its many years of service. We packed one green bag plus the small dry bag and set off, dodging the…
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One Month in Cambodia – Photo Gallery
We have put together a travel photo gallery of our favourite photos from Cambodia. They are unedited photos and a collection of our impressions and memories. Please enjoy! TWOGREENBACKPACKS.COM/CAMBODIA
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Tesco Feast – Not Another Noodle Soup
For a while now we have been unexcited to try yet another variation of noodle soup and have been craving some real Western food. The options in places like Phayao are very limited and if there are options, they are usually way overpriced and not very good at all. Laying on the bed hungry, we decided that we had completely run out of appetite for noodle soups, mystery meats, coconut flavoured stuff, salty deserts, durian ice cream, sweet bread, MSG, pork floss, Mekong river crab, chilli, pickled cabbage, unrefridgerated meats, rice, soy sauce, fish sauce, mystery sauce, things we just don’t recognise, cinnamon beef stock… and we came up with…
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Upstream Color (2013) Movie Review
WARNING SPOILERS BELOW Upstream Color is an epic trailer of very internal emotions, experimental expressions and sensual feelings. There seem to be more lens flares than plot points and actors often looked as confused as I was. Sporadic focus drowns most of the movie in shallow depth of field and Upstream Color is further estranged from convention as it was seemingly edited by a very angry Edward Scissorhands. For a movie with colour in the title, there is very little colour in it and at times it seems to be more about sound. I still don’t know if avoiding to sync dialogue creates more depth, but I have found more…
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Image Size Management
For the first few months of our blog, we used to upload images in their native size, which is 4K. This is rather insane and I have now decided that it is not something we want to do for several reasons: 1. Upload & download bandwidth cost 2. Upload time 3. Readers really don’t need 4K images The first step was to stop the madness. So, since late August we have been batch re-sizing our images using the Photo Editor app for Android. We copy the images we have selected to add to the blog into an upload/ folder. Then we batch process them to a maximum width or height…
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Off The Grid In Northern Thailand
There’s a reason why the blog has been quiet. We have been heading further north from Chiang Mai after saying goodbye to our friends Scott and Sarah. It is a very special little world up here. Sometimes we go days without spotting another tourist or meeting anyone that speaks English. We order food and bargain room rates by pointing at things and using our little Thai which consists of numbers and “thank you”. The people here are very honest, open and most welcoming. Most places require a bike to get around and it’s best not to expect or research and just go. It is a great adventure. So here’s a…
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It Stings
Getting stung in the face by a vicious Thai insect at 6am while riding a motorbike – check. Now I have to deal with the aftermath of the pain, swelling and mostly looking silly. The guesthouse staff woman thought it looked hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing. Over the last two days we nearly hit two dogs and both got stung on the bike, Emma on the finger and me in the face.
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1864 Corners In North-West Thailand
The Mae Hong Son loop in north-west Thailand is known for its many bends. It is claimed there are 1864 of them. In Mae Hong Son itself there is a shop dedicated to 1864 branded souvenirs! I didn’t count them, however I can confirm that there are many, many corners. Some are very sharp and steep. Unfortunately, the benefit of less tourists during the low season means that we got caught in the rain every riding day. Here is how we broke up the ride. Day 1 – Chiang Mai to Mae Sariang The roads are very good during this leg. The main danger being the first half of highway…
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Data Management – Photo Backup While Traveling
When we set off on our several months long trip to south-east Asia, I always expected us to take A LOT of photos. I had heard horror stories of people that lose or have their SD cards stolen during the last week of traveling, loosing all of their photos. This was not a risk I was willing to take, so I planned for some redundancy. After just over 5 months, naturally the megabytes are mounting up and we are getting low storage warnings on our TF700 Asus tablet, Emma’s iPhone and sometimes even the camera’s SD cards. In total that is 16GB (iPhone), 64GB (tablet) and 64GB (2x 32GB SD…
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Mae Sa Valley Loop – Take One
After our 10 day motorbike adventure in Mae Hong Son, we returned to Chiang Mai yesterday. We still had our bike today and decided to do the 100km Mae Sa Valley loop, before we return our trusty Honda Dream. This is apparently one of the most picturesque 100km you can ride in northern Thailand. So, after an early breakfast, we set off. Unfortunately for us, the weather had other ideas. It was raining the entire time and it got quite cold. That meant that the stunning views of the valley were lost on us. It didn’t help that both our ponchos have been ripped to shreds over the past weeks…
