Tom Moody and Alicia Kayll are the epitome of a “perfect couple”. You name a date, they’ve been on it. You name a gift, they’ve bought it. You name an argument, they’ve had it. In fact, if life was loosely based on “How I Met Your Mother”, they would undoubtedly tick all the boxes for Lily and Marshal. So, when they decided to spend six weeks of their 2014 summer vacation travelling around Southeast Asia together it came as no surprise. I was waiting when they returned to lousy British weather, bland food and copious amounts of Uni work to ask the important question … WHY DID YOU COME BACK HERE? However, their reasons for returning would never be as interesting as their experiences whilst away:
What was your favourite activity?
Liss: Elephant riding… well… because we rode an elephant. Enough said.
Elephant trekking is a very popular activity in Southeast Asia. It’s a wonderful way to take in some stunning views and get up close and personal with one of the world’s largest land animals.
Tom: ……. other than that; motorbike riding. We did the Hai Van pass. We replicated a Top Gear special, where for a day we went riding across a mountain road and did activities along the way.
If you want to view parts of Vietnam on something slightly quicker, this is a superb alternative.
What was your favourite city?
Tom: I would say a place called Hoi An because we got to make suits. I managed to bag a red velvet dinner jacket.
Hoi An is well known for its tailoring, apparently tailors outnumber street vendors. I look forward to seeing Tom in his suit at Graduation??
Liss: l’d have to say Vang Vieng, because it was super chilled out. We did an activity called Tubing, where you float down the river on a large tyre, as the current takes you, and if you want to stop at one of the bars dotted along the river they would just throw you a rope and drag you in.
What was the best feature about the whole experience?
Tom: 8p Beers!
This answer is not as daft as it seems. Budget is an important factor so 8p for a beer is well worth considering, especially as it leaves more funds to visit different sites.
Liss: … The different sites. Some places seemed quite surreal and that was new and exciting for me.
That’s what your budget is really for.
What kept you sane when on the road?
Liss: Cocktails! The Cocktails were really cheap as well.
Not sure how sane Alicia was after several cocktails but I can’t fault her reasoning.
Tom: Ritz and Oreos, (Liss wholeheartedly agrees) we ate SOOO many Ritz and Oreos.
What was the weirdest thing you took home?
Strange question I know, but it’s good to know how trustworthy your mates are!
Liss: We took some chopsticks from a restaurant but to be fair there was hardly a shortage. They had billions.
Tom: We were staying in hostels so let’s be honest they had limited freebies. We can’t really steal stuff from hostels beacuse they’re other people’s things. “Oh look! It provides really nice jumpers and passports.”
Best place you spent the night?
Tom: Best place we stayed was definitely the Island. There were about 30 people on. It was named Halong Bay. It was a tiny island where we stayed in what was essentially our own bungalow.
What was most useful/useless item you packed?
Tom: I would say Flip flops, I wore them every day and it was absolute bliss.
Liss: I’m going to be boring and say camera.
Not boring, I would agree a good camera is a must; you can’t rely on your memory especially after all those 8p beers and cocktails.
Liss: I shouldn’t have taken so many clothes.
Now they have a little argument over who took more clothes, with Tom dealing the winning blow as Liss took 4 pairs of footwear and he only took 3. Well played Tom, but it does beg the question why did you take three pairs when you wore flip-flops every day?
Tom: The most pointless thing you brought was that water bottle. Liss took a special water bottle which had a filtration device.
Liss: Only to humour my mum.
Where next?
South America! Peru.
There we have it. If they haven’t convinced you to pack your bags and book your ticket, I don’t know what will. Next time I’ll be hiding in their rucksack amongst the special filtration bottle and Tom’s surplus footwear.