There is always time for a good read when we’re on the road and so we wanted to share with you a list of the books that journeyed with us and kept our imaginations going. Some of which we have carried around the world because we wanted to have them on our bookshelf when we got back home.

We did often find time to swap books at various book exchanges which tend to be more available throughout popular backpacker’s destinations in Asia and South-East Asia, although we did find a nice book exchange in Wellington, New Zealand.

When we fist started getting into our reading days Dave bought a photo-copied version of Stieg Laarson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Little did we know just how epic this was going to be, we simply couldn’t wait to get onto The Girl Who Played with Fire and then the finale The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. The Millennium trilogy as it is now known is a must in everyone’s crime fiction lives!

The millennium trilogy certainly got into our psyche, we talked about Salander like we knew her, like we wanted to be in the novels, Helen even dreamed it all out. Very bizarre how books become buried deep into the subconscious when you’re traveling!

It took us a while to find anything that really had the same level of anticipation, thrill and story as the trilogy but eventually after some recommendations we found Jo Nesbo.

Nesbo, another Scandinavian crime novelist has created detective Harry Hole, who after the first two novels really grows as an addictive troubled yet very successful character. By the time we’d managed to find more of the Nesbo novels we’d reached Nepal and so we got our mitts onto a copy of The Leopard which continued to inspire and grab our attention.

Aside from thrilling fiction we found delight and imagination in The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger,  it even provoked a few tears from Helen, but in all honesty that doesn’t take much. We got down to raw facts with Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, which after our trekking in Nepal really struck a chord with both of us, we don’t think we’ll be attempting to summit Everest at any stage.

To bring in some interesting facts Dave started reading Superfreakonomics by Levitt & Dubner, whilst Helen got stuck into the fascinating Indian tale of The White Tiger by Arvinda Adiga. And we both got to grips with George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother is watching you!

So we had quite a mixture of crime writing, thrillers, romantic novels, fun carefree novels and more factual informative writing. Along with the Lonely Planet travel guides at various stages we may have carried up to 5 books which did made us think about purchasing a Kindle next time we go away! However we do love something about the physicality of a book, an object containing thousands of written words within which we were able to lose ourselves and become a part of, tucked nicely into our day packs.

Here’s a list of the more memorable travel reads whilst we were on the road:

The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Yoga School Drop Out by Lucy Edge
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Laarson
The Girl who Played with Fire; Laarson
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest; Laarson
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Rain
1984 by George Orwell
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
Nemesis; Nesbo
The Leopard; Nesbo
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Super Freakonimcs by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
The White Tiger by Arvinda Adiga

This was to be 3 days of sheer relaxation and fun with Vic and Dave. Starting early we all piled into “Po” along with bedding, food, booze and games and set off for Picton. Dave G had arranged with his brother for a boat taxi to meet us at a pier east of Picton, so thanks to his brother’s boss we got a free taxi ride out to their bach in the Malborough Sounds. This would have cost $90 between us if we hadn’t had this ride! It took around 15 minutes in the speed boat to get to the Gillan bach house and we realised we would have passed the area the day before when we were on the ferry coming in. Dave’s brother was waiting for us at the jetty as he was then getting in the boat to go to work.

For the first part of the day we just chilled out, sat around the decking area, chatting, drinking tea, eating lunch and reading. The boys rigged up the fishing rods and the girls had a good catch up. We went out in their fishing boat for a few hours in the late afternoon, early evening with each of us having our own rod. This was Helen’s first stint at fishing and it was pretty unsuccessful, but for Dave G he got a trout and another mean looking fish. The trout went back in the sea and we kept the bigger fish for dinner later on. Vic and Dave R caught some spotties whilst Dave G kept on bringing in the fish, they were all small so we had to put them back in the sea. It was a lovely day weather wise and it was fun being out in the boat.

Back at the bach Dave G got the barbecue sizzling and we opened the wine. We enjoyed a fishy dinner, more wine and more of Vic’s birthday cake. It was a very funny evening indeed ending in part 1 of Cranium taking place.

The next day was equally as relaxing and hot. So after a lazy start we enjoyed more tea, more chat and a dive off the jetty into the freezing waters of the Malborough Sounds. We couldn’t quite manage the full swim out to the buoy but it was refreshing enough for us to spend a little while in the water before getting out. Back on deck we enjoyed lunch, relaxation and reading.

Later on we went out in the boat again and this time round Helen did catch some fish, she managed to get about 4 whilst Dave caught about 7, Vic 3 and Dave G got quite a few too. We weren’t counting but we caught a lot of spotties and as they are so small we just let them back into the sea again. Not pleasant but it’s better than killing them.

We went a little further in the boat around to Lochmara Bay and had a hot drink stop at the Lochmara Lodge. The day before a pod of dolphins were making their way around the Sounds so we kept our eyes open but there were none to be seen. Alas the chai and hot chocolate’s were a very good distraction. Back for our last night at the Gillan bach Vic cooked a lovely lentil and pasta dish and we finished Cranium, only to be defeated! The following day we helped to tidy the bach in preparation for the Gillan family Christmas holidays, we read and just enjoyed being outside in the warmth.

To sum up our experience we really enjoyed the Malborough Sauvignon Blanc wines, we loved just relaxing in the sun, reading and chatting with friends and it was so good to have a taste of home. The Malborough Sounds are pretty idyllic and the idea of a bach by the sea is very tempting indeed.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

The next morning we got up early and arranged for Balcony to get us some bikes for the day, they do a rental at $1.50 a day. We knew we could get them cheaper in town but couldn’t find the man who was recommended to us so opted for the guesthouse ones. To be fair they were two of the best city bikes we’ve yet had on our travels. Our destination was to head north up the river towards the Kampi Rapids and see if we could spot any of the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins along the way. It took around an hour to get to the main viewing point on this part of the Mekong, however if we wanted to sit and watch the dolphins from the land we would have to pay $6 each and if we wanted to get a boat $10 each. We decided we didn’t want to spend this kind of money and opted for a little further up the road where we could stand and watch some of the rare dolphins rise to the surface. They don’t have a lot of space in this pool and there are around 90 dolphins there at the moment so if you hang around long enough they have to come up for air eventually!! Many people opt for the boat tour option but you can only get upto 100 meters from the dolphins, if you’re a keen spotter then we’d say do it.

Moving on from this point we cycled for a further 5 minutes or so and landed at the Kampi Rapids, a local bathing spot. We had been told about this place the day before and thought it would be worth checking out. The local community have built long wooden huts built on stilts, sitting around half a meter above the river level. They appear to be sectioned off so that each family who works there has a strip to rent out for those of us wanting to relax for the afternoon. The locals use it as a popular bathing and meeting place, families gather together, splash around in the rapid-like current, eat food cooked by the hut owners, sit around and drink, sleep in hammocks and so on. It’s more of a place for them to relax and take time out from work. We paid a dollar each to have our own little space in the huts and we both had a hammock to relax and read on. The owner of our plot kept pestering us to buy some food but we decided to wait until around midday to leave and get some grub at a nearby recommended family run restaurant. Before leaving we bathed our feet in the water, read our books and Helen practised some yoga, it was starting to get a little busier as we left at midday. The restaurant is just as you walk out of the rapids area on the left hand side, we didn’t pay much and each had noodles and stir-fried vegetables, an in-offensive meal that is a little bland.

On our way back to Kratie we stopped off at a temple on the mountain…a mountain that is all of 93m high!! They do have some warped ideas as to scale over here, but it is the highest point in the area so we were a little rewarded by views and bizarre hell vs heaven like paintings in the temples. Back in Kratie we organised our transport to Laos for the next day, we booked a minivan for $14 each which would fingers crossed take us all the way to Don Det at the 4000 Islands with a few en-route transport changes.

One night left in Cambodia, we will go away with fond memories of this beautiful country having both had a wonderful and heart warming experience here.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)