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All the best moments from the trip of a lifetime! On July 15th 2019, I left Melbourne to start a three month adventure around South East Asia! Over 89 days, I travelled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and even managed to squeeze in visits to Tokyo for the Rugby World Cup, Las Vegas and New Orleans, and a quick trip home to Ireland before landing back in Melbourne on October 12t... more
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Rachael Cairns Everything safely in storage! All I need is my backpack for the next three months
Rachael Cairns This might look like I had a big plan but actually I set off with just the first week booked, the hotels in Las Vegas and New Orleans, and a promise to my boss that I would be back in work by October 14th! I kept this shared excel doc updated as I went as 1) a way to capture all the movements of my trip so I would never forget them; and 2) my parents also had access and so could see where I was staying as I went! I didn’t want them worrying about their little princess 👸🏻
Rachael Cairns Waiting on my flight to HCMC at Melbourne Airport! Red wine and tapas at Movida is an international flight tradition for me 🍷
Rachael Cairns Me and my backpack!
Rachael Cairns Straight into the vodka caprioskas. At the bar. The bar at the pool. I mean the bar in the pool 🤤 So good
Rachael Cairns La vie en rose🌹
Rachael Cairns One of the best bars in all of HCMC randomly happened to be in the same building as my hostel. Perfect!! Mani and I at Layla enjoying cocktails 🍸
Rachael Cairns Loving my banh mi for breakfast on a street corner in HCMC
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Rachael Cairns Buying a coconut at the floating markets at Cai Be
Rachael Cairns Tastes like fried chicken 🕷 😆
Rachael Cairns About to transfer from a little wooden boat into something more sturdy that will take me from Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia (5 hour trip)
Rachael Cairns Sunset at Siem Reap really got me 😧
Rachael Cairns Sunrise at Angkor Wat
Rachael Cairns Me with Yvonne who I met in Phnom Penh and Mr Ne who was our tuk tuk driver for our two days temple running in Siem Reap
Rachael Cairns The beautiful town of Luang Prabang in Laos
Rachael Cairns Overlooking the Mekong River
Rachael Cairns Day trip to Kuang Si Falls near Luang Prabang in Laos
Rachael Cairns Myanmar was an interesting place to visit. I met my great friend Michael Tran there in Yangon and we travelled to Bagan for a couple of days to see a breathtaking amount of temples! In Yangon, we visited the restaurant with the blue front. There was a young boy working there and he was the only one that spoke any English. He served us and worked the room with a bit of swagger. Our bill for two people for dinner came to US$6. We left a US$4 tip which he tried to give back to us. We insisted absolutely not and that he deserved the money for his great service. The poor kid was nearly welling up and as I walked away he was dancing behind me. Of course I found out later from a documentary that child labour is extremely common in the cities in Myanmar as rural families send their kids to the city where they make US$2 a day. That made the whole thing a lot more eye opening for me.
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Rachael Cairns Zero stress sitting in Pai
Rachael Cairns Flying from Bagan back to Yangon was fun! Handwritten boarding pass, a sticker to put on your t-shirt to show you were checked in, and an airport where the electricity cut out every 20-30 minutes!
Rachael Cairns The sweatiest afternoon of my life!
Rachael Cairns Elephant Sanctuary
Rachael Cairns A one night treat at the Lebua in Bangkok (definitely not backpacker budget!) - but it was so worth it! The hotel features in The Hangover 2!
Rachael Cairns Tubing on the Khao Sok river with the staff from where I was staying (I was one of a handful of tourists in the town - low season!)
Rachael Cairns It was all fun and games with the monkeys until one of them slapped my hand and then I low key panicked for the next few days about rabies (even though I had had my shots and the slap didn’t break my skin)🙈
Rachael Cairns Visited the Khao Sok National Park in Thailand which included an overnight stay in a floating bungalow! More like a hut, it came with free ants, geckos, frogs and cockroaches as well as an environmentally friendly lack of electricity 😊 Fun times 😆
Rachael Cairns Literally climbed a waterfall!
Rachael Cairns Morning on the lake
Rachael Cairns VBH Hoi An... Probably the biggest week of my life 😂
Rachael Cairns Me and my cousin Barry on our first drink of many after meeting at Danang airport and travelling to VBH in Hoi An
Rachael Cairns Dinner and cocktails in Hoi An
Rachael Cairns Margaritas 😋
Rachael Cairns Hair of the dog! Last night in Hoi An, might as well make it a big one 🥳
Rachael Cairns 3 day hangover in the tackiest hotel in Da Nang (it had a gold plated swimming pool) before venturing on to the next stop... 😂
Rachael Cairns Too funny not to share. My face leaving Vietnam Backpackers Hostel after 6 nights on the tear!
Rachael Cairns En route: Da Nang -> Hue via motorbike
Rachael Cairns Random pit stop on the way to Hue!
Rachael Cairns Imperial City in Hue. Home of the Nguyen Dynasty.
Rachael Cairns Next stop Tam Coc, Ninh Binh... via a 12-hour overnight train. You could book a 4 or 6-berth cabin. Luckily, I found some random luxury option online for an extra $5 and ended up with my own cabin 🥳 Brought snacks and drinks but once I saw the toilets on the train I decided I would refrain from drinking any liquids 😂
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Rachael Cairns Trang An Boat Ride
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Rachael Cairns Halong Bay trip
Rachael Cairns Got very comfortable on the bike very fast!
Rachael Cairns Sa Pa took my breath away! I was after having a few crazy days of being a tourist and was running out of steam. I was leaving Vietnam in 2 days and I could have got really lazy and stayed in Hanoi but I made myself go to Sa Pa. It was so worth it. The scenery, the people, the fun I had... Roughly 30km of trekking over a couple of days up and down rice fields with a local guide was really special 💚
Rachael Cairns Rice wine shots and grasshoppers 😋
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Rachael Cairns Me and my cousin Frank - first night in Koh Samui so we thought we would just have a quiet one and kick things off with a jaegarbomb 😬 😂
Rachael Cairns Lapping up the luxury of the Vana Belle resort in Koh Samui keeping an eye on the best boy in the pool
Rachael Cairns At ArkBar
Rachael Cairns Out for dinner in Bangkok...just a quiet one? 🤦🏻♀️
Rachael Cairns Just 3 hours sleep after going a bit mental in Bangkok (unplanned!) and we are on our way to Tokyo for a big weekend!
Rachael Cairns Karaoke with Barry!!! I shall not go home “I’m not going home, you can go home!”
Rachael Cairns Street drinking in Tokyo (no room in the pub!)
Rachael Cairns Shibuya Crossing
Rachael Cairns Rugby World Cup 2019: Ireland vs Scotland
Rachael Cairns Scottish or Irish... who knows
Rachael Cairns Pre-match drinks
Rachael Cairns The colourful world of Harajuku 😘
Rachael Cairns Yoyogi park for some downtime
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Rachael Cairns Bellagio fountain 🥰
Rachael Cairns Thelma’s hen party night
Rachael Cairns In a helicopter over the Grand Canyon with my mam 🥰
Rachael Cairns The cousins photo at Rob and Thelma’s wedding
Rachael Cairns Champagne breakfast in the Grand Canyon!
Rachael Cairns Fremont Street in Vegas
Rachael Cairns Bourbon Street party time
Rachael Cairns Mam and I on the Creole Queen sailing along on the Mississippi River
Rachael Cairns One of the best decisions I made was to go back to Melbourne via Ireland (yep - the long way!). I will never forget calling my Dad once I had it booked to tell him I would be home in a couple of weeks. He thought I was joking with him. It was so nice to be home to recover after almost three months of partying. I only had a few days but it was worth it. 💚💙
Rachael Cairns Trip of a lifetime all wrapped up in one video!