Active Em

Time of year visited: Mid October Favourite place visited: Klong Khong Beach Favourite food: Vegetarian Med Brunch at Kunda Restaurant Favourite activity: Snorkelling (apart from when I thought I might die) Most random thing that happened: The host at our hostel rubbing talcum powder on our hands to make us better at pool (whilst he was wearing a towel) There’s a strong chance that you might get this blog post quite soon after the Krabi post because this weekend we are at the Kuala Lumpur Major Dota 2 Competition (video game). Ant has dragged me a long and as much as I try and watch the games I just can’t get into it so I’ll just sit here and write while he watches magical heroes fight... So! We travelled to the Thai island of Koh Lanta by mini bus from Ao Nang. Our hotel offered better prices than the numerous tourist offices in the town. It took about three hours and was a really easy way to get there. We stayed at a hostel/ guesthouse type place called ‘Peace Lanta M...

When did we visit? : Mid October Favourite Place: Railay Beach Favourite Food: Sweet Corn Friiters Most random thing that happened: accidentally getting caught up in a religious procession Railay Beach Also Railay... We flew from Bangkok to Krabi airport, arriving at our guesthouse ‘Talardkao Balcony’ at around 9pm. We had planned to visit Krabi in advance because it is home to some of the best outdoor rock climbing in Thailand. Talardkao Balcony is in Krabi Old Town and so a little way out from the tourist bars and restaurants. This had both negatives and positives. To be able to get to the main town we had a few options; hire a moped, pay for a taxi or get the local public taxi/bus service a Song Thawe (which is essentially two benches in the back of a pick up truck with a tarpaulin over the top). Well neither of us know how to ride a moped and the traffic is so ridiculous we thought best not. We’ve met a lot of people who have fallen off mopeds, I know I sound boring but I don’t see...

Hi! So here am I, writing this blog post on my tablet in Ho Chi Minh City airport, waiting to board a flight to Da Nang. It seems like I will be writing the blog posts about countries a little while after I have left them. Mostly because I don’t know what I really think of a place until I’ve left it and most of the time I’m too busy trying to get my head around where I am to be able to write about it! We arrived in Bangkok on 10th October, after making our way down to Heathrow, onto the 12 hour flight, after figuring out the airport link train and to our hostel via a dodgy, definitely overpriced taxi. My initial thoughts on Bangkok; humid, chaotic, colourful and smelly. We stayed in the old quater of the city, which is the most popular location for budget hotels and hostels. We were too exhausted to be interesting on our first night in the city but we did make it out for some Thai street food. We found that in every case in Thailand, the cheaper the food, the more tasty it was. On our ...

13.1 miles, more than your average jog around the block but not quite your elite long distance runner’s distance. On Sunday, Anthony and I ran the Great Scottish Run, otherwise known as the Glasgow Half Marathon. We ran it in 2 hours and 45 seconds. This wasn’t our first half marathon and it probably won’t be our last. Going into the morning of the race I had almost done everything right(ish), having built up our distance, rested in the week leading up to the race, carb loaded the day before, got a nice early night and then a decent breakfast and lots of hydration in the morning before the race. I donned my dual branded BTRS-Leeds Girls Can running t-shirt and was set to go. I think that even if you’ve prepared well you will always be a little nervous on a race day, there are so many factors that are out of your control and there is always a chance that something could go wrong.  After the run Anthony and I were talking about some of the things that we hadn’t really properly though...

By Liz Stephenson-Payne On a rainy, cold Thursday I arrived at the Roundhay Park Boathouse. The rain was bouncing down and I have to admit my Leeds Girls Can do attitude was a bit dampened. I was here for a GoTri 'Tri Something New Beginners Open Water session'. I was met by the 'Tri Something New' team who were going to be guiding us through getting in and out of wet suits, entering the water safely, adjusting to the temperature, sighting from the water so you know where you are and getting out of the water. The boathouse was a bright warm refuge out of the cold rain and the team welcoming. One of the team suggested the session would probably be cancelled because of weather conditions as they were concerned about putting beginners into the cold water whilst it was raining. Much to the teams' surprise, when the rest of the group arrived we voted to go in. We were a ladies group as no men appeared, we certainly showed a #thisgirlcan attitude We first went through th...

Last week Ant and I moved out of Leeds and back to Cheshire. We were living in Leeds on a short term summer let whilst I worked for BTRS and Ant finished his Maths Masters. Now, we are 3 weeks away from our adventure off around the world (not the entire world, just some of it). We have lots planned before we go, visiting friends, family and puppies, climbing and running. We have been trying to keep up with our running training as we are now 10 days away from The Great Scottish Run aka the Glasgow Half Marathon. The training is going reasonably well at the moment. We are definitely on track with our pacing and providing that we eat the right things and get enough sleep in the few days before Glasgow we should be okay. Ant has managed to injure himself just yesterday, banging his knee whilst we were climbing so today he has been hobbling around. We were planning on doing our long pre-race run tomorrow but it looks like I might be doing that on my own now. It’s always best to res...