vegan.in.brighton

I don't consider myself to be a make up person. I gave up wearing make up years and years ago just to see if I could, and because in summer my allergies are so bad that I'd spend 90% of the time looking like a panda anyway, and I went years without it. Now I occasionally wear a little eye sparkle, mascara or lip colour for fun but it's nice to not feel like I need it y'know. Nail polish is a whole 'nother thing, I don't really even see nail polish as make up, it's just another way to add a pop of colour to my day to day look and I love colours and patterns and glitter! Nail polish is totally one of the things I'm going to miss whilst I'm travelling as those little glass bottles aren't carry-on compatible...I totally stashed a couple of bottles of polish and a box of Superdrug's nail polish removing wipes amongst the extra stuff I'll be taking in the van though and boy was picking those two colours a challenge!

I'm super conscientious when I'm choosing nail products because animal testing was at the forefront of my veganism. For me veganism definitely isn't just about what I'm eating, it's what I'm wearing and where my money's going when I shop too. I actually stopped buying animal tested household, make up & personal care products years before I quit dairy, eggs and honey but I would still say that it's the the most challenging part about being vegan. Why? Because big companies and corporations are shady as hell when it comes to animal testing! They make confusing statements which will insist that they didn't test the product on animals (so, they paid someone else to) or that the final product wasn't tested (read: but we did test the individual ingredients / paid someone else to do so on our behalf) and then there are the parent company issues which mean that even Vegan Society certified products like Original Source aren't actually cruelty free because they're owned by PZ Cuzzons one of the worlds biggest animal testers. Amimals die in horrific ways in laboratories every day and buying products from a company who are owned by someone who tests on animals, like with The Body Shop and L'oreal or Tom's of Maine and Colgate, means that your money is supporting that. Same in the case of companies like Urban Decay who recently made the decision to sell in China despite knowing it meant that they would need to test on animals, to simplify that decision they basically chose profits over bunnies which isn't cool at all.

I definitely know vegans who think that these parent company issues don't matter and I think it's up to you as an individual to draw your own line but these issues matter to me and I think I'm showing that it is possible to avoid giving money to these companies if that's what you want to do. I'm not claiming to be perfect (I still haven't found an acceptable alternative to Mitchum's antiperspirant deodorant) but this is an ideal that I strive towards. To find out more check out this guide from Uncaged or come and chat to the beauty obsessed peep's in The Mall area of The PPK forums.

The reasons I've just laid out are why I was so happy when I got an e-mail from local salon The Final Nail a few days ago letting me know that after 6 months of research and sourcing products they are now the place to go in Brighton if you want a 100% vegan & cruelty free manicure or pedicure. How awesome! I've actually e-mailed many local salons in the last two or three years trying to find someone to fancy up my nails and had come up with nothing, sure there are some places with vegan nail polishes if you're willing to let the cruelty free thing slide or places where yep they know what's in the polishes and they're ok from a cruelty free perspective but they have no idea about polish removers, hand creams etc. The Final Nail is refreshingly different and I could tell after a quick e-mail convo that they knew what they were talking about, excitingly they also use Floss Gloss, a brand I'd been dying to try for a while.

I went in yesterday for a complimentary mani pedi from Alex and Lilli the ladies behind this alternative salon where piercings and coloured hair are a-ok.

We started with the manicure and after Alex put on the Orly base coat I picked Floss Gloss's Con Limon which I luuurve. It's SO BRIGHT which is getting me extra excited about it only being six days until I'll be lying on a beach in the sun. It was topped off with Seche Vite's topcoat which is what I use at home thanks to my make up loving buddy Sal's expert recommendation.

Tofu 4 Lyfe

Having a pedicure was just as lovely as getting a manicure and I chose Floss Gloss's Wet which just so happens to match the flowers I have tattooed on my feet. Perfect.

Despite having wanted to give having a mani pedi a go for a while I was a little nervous about the whole experience but Alex and Lilli were ridiculously easy to talk to and soon an hour and a half had whizzed by and my nails had been all fancied up!

The Final Nail is located below PORTA at 4 Bond Street which is wonderfully close to all sorts of vegan eateries including Catwalk Cakes, Infinity Foods Kitchen and Moshimo. Vegan manicures start at £25 and they also do vegan & cruelty free Gelicure manicures and nail art. You can find The Final Nail on Twitter, Instagram& Facebook.

I sat down to write this blog post and ended up in a BABYMETAL You Tube hole so here's one of their songs, Gimme Chocolate, which is a great soundtrack to this post as well as being one of my favourite songs of the moment.

I first discovered Pana Chocolate a week after London Veg Fest (this is not a VegFest endorsement, just a fact) when I went to my friend Justine's house to hang out and play with her kitties. She was kind enough to share a bar of Orange Pana Chocolate with me and "OMG yum" were the first two words out of my mouth after taking a bite. I'm not usually a huge raw chocolate fan, most of it is either too bitter, too coconutty or the texture is off but this chocolate is seriously great. You definitely wouldn't mistake it for regular chocolate, this is new and different and my favourite flavours were texturally reminiscent of the insides of a gooey brownie.

After I was unable to find any Pana Chocolate in my local health food store, Infinity Foods, I contacted Pana Chocolate themselves to see if they'd consider sending me any to review and to my delight they not only said yes but sent me a whole box full with 8 new flavours to try (alongside my favourite orange bar) all the way from Australia.

I decided not to dig into these alone and over the last month I've invited all sorts of people over to try them, vegans, vegetarians, and even a health conscious gluten free omnivore. Across the board people were seriously impressed. Okay, my vegan chocolate obsessed friend Josh wasn't won over but that's only one person out of ten or so people. I'd say if you've liked any raw chocolate in the past or are a dark chocolate fan then you'll love these. As well as being delicious the packaging's gorgeous dontcha think?

I enjoyed almost all of the flavours (I still hate goji berries!) but Orange and Sour Cherry & Vanilla were definitely my favourites closely followed by Mint and then Raw Cacao which all sit at the 60% cacao mark. The Sour Cherry & Vanilla bar is full of big cherry chunks which I loved and they aren't kidding about the sour part. I could have easily eaten the whole bar in one go. Mint on the other hand packs such an intensely minty punch that one square makes the most perfect after dinner nibble.

Pana Chocolate's motto is "Love Your Insides, Love The Earth" and it's stamped all over their bars, they take the motto seriously and all of their packaging is recycled or recyclable and printed with vegetable inks. Everything they make is vegan and their chocolate bars are made from fair trade certified, raw, organic ingredients with no refined sugars.

Pana Chocolate can be found at Brighton's Sunny Foods and Eastbourne's Pathway Pantry as well as at As Nature Intended and Planet Organic stores in London and all over Australia. I'm really hoping to be able to visit one of the Pana Chocolate stores in Sydney or Melbourne next year especially as I just noticed they make a rose flavour, yum!

I made it! Everything I own is in storage, there are officially people living in mine & Nick's house (which totally feels weird!) and for the next four months I'll be exploring SE Asia!!! The jet lag has subsided and given away to a cold but what better place to have a cold than in the hammock of a gorgeous bungalow on a beautiful island? No complaints here!

Despite the plan for the majority of this part of the trip being There is No Plan Nick and I spent a fairly decent amount of time researching our first stop. As well as wanting to strike the right balance between having some infrastructure (a hospital!) and not being overdeveloped (full of teenage backpackers!) we wanted pretty beaches and some shops where we'd be fairly certain we could stock up on snacks. Thanks 7/11! Koh Yao Noi really seemed like it would hit that sweet spot and we haven't been disappointed. Just in case you haven't heard of it (I had a lot of blank looks when I was telling people where we were headed first) Koh Yao Noi (or Ko Yao Noi as Lonely Planet would have it) is a small island off of the Andaman Coast closet to Phuket and not too far from Ao Nang and Krabi. We arrived by boat from Phuket's Bang Rong Pier which you can get to by taking a taxi ride (around 600THB / £12 / $18) from Phuket airport. The boat thankfully only costs 200THB / £4 / $6.

The island's population is mostly muslim meaning that a lot of the stores don't sell alcohol and there's no real nightlife to speak of - perfect for us! It also means that you need to dress conservatively away from the beaches which is something some of our fellow travellers seem to be having issues with - seeing people wandering around the town centre topless or in short shorts and bikini tops when the majority of the locals are covered from head to toe or at least shoulder to ankle is pretty icky to say the least. We've heard from locals and people living here a long time that the island's much busier than it used to be and you can see that it's rapidly changing just because of the amount of construction happening on the west coast but it does't seem busy at all. We've spent most of our time on deserted beaches and the roads were even quiet enough for Nick to brave learning to ride a scooter (I don't have a driving licence) and for me to give in and just hop on the back despite my fears / abject terror after seeing him try to stop once already...let's just say we got off to a wobbly start & now I only think we're going to crash into the bushes once a day!

Despite there being no Happy Cow listings for Ko Yao Noi (don't worry, I'm on it!) vegan restaurant eats have been relatively easy to come by although we have become obsessed with the vegan Jay labelled frozen ready meals from 7/11 to the extent that we've actually eaten them all. Not all as in we've tried them all, all as in there are none left on the island. Oops.

We're especially loving the Vegetarian Fried Rice but the mock meat and tofu filled vegetarian Chinese Five Spice Stewed with Rice is also a fun meal. There are a couple of others, including Red Curry and Stir Fried Basil with Vegetarian Protein, but being allergic to chilli means I have to pass on them. They're pretty simple meals but at around 38THB / 80p / $1.20 each they're budget friendly as well as tasty and filling.

Rice Paddy was one of the first restaurants we tried as it had both good reviews and was listed as having veggie options on Trip Advisor. The German owner totally understood both veganism and my allergies and was able to recommend dishes from their vegetarian menu. The veg menu includes both oyster and fish sauce as they're considered veggie here but there's a note at the top of the menu reminding you to specify if you want to avoid fish, oyster or eggs.

We picked the Pad Pak Ruam, vegetable stir fry, which we had stir fried in soy sauce. We also ordered a Sweet & Sour Seafood dish minus the peppers and a couple of sides of rice.

On one visit I also tried the vegetarian lamb which is made from mushrooms rather than wheat gluten. It was peppery and delicious but no good for Nick who may be the world's biggest mushroom hater - this works out well for me though!

The Pad Pak Ruam was our favourite dish overall and I especially loved the freshness of the snap peas and the inclusion of so many kinds of mushroom. The Sweet & Sour Seafood was fun, and I loved the prawns themselves, but I don't think I'll ever be a huge fan of warm cucumber.

A classic vegan treat in Thailand is mango sticky rice that, as far as my research tells me, needs no modifications. I wasn't in love with this version as I found the addition of coconut cream a little cloying but Nick loved it.

If you're on Koh Yao I would definitely recommend Rice Paddy especially as it actually overlooks a rice paddy. We saw water buffalo there one afternoon and on another there were loads of fun birds doing their thang.

We ended up at Italian run spot La Luna for dinner one night mainly because it was the only place with obviously veganisable food within walking distance of where we were staying. It's only around 15 minutes away which at night, as there are no pavements or lights, is about as far as I'd like to venture on foot. The pizza wasn't exceptional, the crust was a little on the thin side and they could have ladled on a little more tomato, but I was pleased that they were pretty generous with the veggie toppings.

One thing we did get excited about was the dessert menu, we assumed we wouldn't be ordering anything but a whole page of it was devoted to homemade, fruit based, vegan ice cream! Now I know that I've ranted about frozen banana not being ice cream in the past, and I do still stand by that, but this raw banana based sorbet / gelato hybrid was totally refreshing and actually quite delicious as well as being unexpected. We tried banana strawberry and banana raspberry and the raspberry was my favourite. No pictures because it was really dark by then and slightly melty fruit doesn't look good after dusk!

Pyramid Bar was another easy but western leaning place to get a vegan meal. Pizza without cheese again as their pasta is made with egg, I preferred the pizza from La Luna because they had more plentiful toppings but we loved the side of chips we ordered (they reminded me of the ones from Voner in Berlin!) and were excited that they were happy to whip us up some garlic bread with olive oil rather than the usual butter.

It was SUPER garlicky, we rode home on the scooter we hired and with the visor of my helmet down I felt like I was in a delicious garlic bubble!

Chaba Cafe and Gallery is a veg friendly spot that we ended up visiting a couple of times after I was originally lured in by the "Vegetarian Food" sign outside!

When we went for lunch earlier I had a big mixed salad with a slice of bread on the side (they make their own) and some fried potatoes with tomatoes and onion. Nick had fried potatoes too as well as some toast with peanut butter.

The salad was epic, I'm not usually a huge salad person but this was so fresh and delicious and totally different to anything else we'd eaten since we arrived. It came with lettuce, shredded red cabbage, grated carrot, cucumber and two types of tomato and I added olives and went with the olive oil mustard balsamic dressing which was perfect. Sadly I think the potatoes were cooked in paprika or maybe even a really mild chilli oil which I can't eat so as soon as I realised I handed them over to Nick. Sadness. They were delicious! I had a little nibble of Nick's PB Toast to make up for it which was really great. I totally miss toast already and I think we'll probably head there for breakfast tomorrow before we leave the island.

Chaba also sell raw energy + protein bars which are actually made on the island and you can grab them to go from the fridge in the little shop onsite.

Unsurprisingly I much preferred the date, cacao, almond and cinnamon to the broccoli, quinoa and chia seed one - I frankly don't know what I was thinking when I picked it! Too healthy for me I think. Speaking of healthy I've been eating SO MUCH fruit since we got here. I'm in love with mangoes. They taste a million times better here than they do in the UK (duh!) and there's a fruit stall opposite 7/11 where we've been stocking up on bananas, oranges and the aforementioned mangoes daily. I'm yet to be convinced about starfruit though and I feel pretty meh about dragon fruit - it's so pretty but there's something about it that I'm not quite feeling yet.

I'll be back soon with a review of our guesthouse, Hill House, and the vegan food they've been making us as well as some fun pictures from our kayaking excursion.

After settling on Koh Yao Noi as our first stop in Thailand we wanted to find somewhere comfortable, convenient and affordable to spend the first week. Our accommodation budget for SE Asia taps out at around 1100THB which works out at around £21 / $32. I'm sure we'll spend less a lot of the time, I'm writing this from a 700THB / £14 / $21 room by the beach in Koh Lanta, and a little more on occasion when we're feeling the need for a fancier bathroom or hear of somewhere spectacular or with great vegan breakfast options. We stumbled upon Hill House during one of many Google / Trip Advisor searches and it sounded perfect and just squeezed within the confines of the budget.

It was exactly as beautiful as it looked online. Oh how I love it when that happens! We stayed in Bungalow Lek 1 which is located right at the top of the hill meaning it has truly amazing views out across the bay. I spent a lot of time reading in the hammock on our balcony or just watching the squirrels running, and in some cases flying, in-between the trees.

The room itself is pretty open to the elements with open walls in the bathroom as well as slatted windows and sliding doors. We loved this after we got over the initial five minutes of mosquito / bug panic. The bed was huge and comfortable despite being quite hard and the mosquito net they provide is great and more like a tent than a regular mozzie net. We liked that there were curtains across the back of the room separating the bathroom and wardrobe area from the rest of the space which meant that you could get dressed without worrying about shutting all of the other windows, doors and curtains.

Breakfast isn't included in the room rate but it is available for 160THB / £3 / $4.50 and for vegans it includes fresh fruit, mango sticky rice and unlimited tea or coffee.

Sadly all of the bread on the island (and almost everywhere else in Thailand so far) seems to have eggs, milk or honey so there was no toast for us. We only partook in breakfast a couple of times because as non coffee / tea drinkers (I tried that first day as you can see in the picture!) it worked out a little better for us to buy fruit in town. The mango sticky rice was totally delicious though and these breakfasts definitely sparked a new love affair for me.

The view from the cafe area is ridiculously beautiful whether the tide is in or out. In this photo the tide is in but sometimes it goes all the way out to the little island you can see in the middle of the picture.

One thing I read over and over in guidebooks and on websites before visiting Koh Yao Noi was that the beaches aren't that great. We thought they were pretty epic especially the one right outside Hill House, yes sometimes you had to walk quite far to reach the sea but it's all sand and not stone or rocks like on some of Koh Yao Noi's other beaches so it's totally walkable and I had one of the most serene and breathtaking moments ever when I floated out there in the shallows with Nick at dusk one evening. The sea was super still and there was just something amazing about the light and the way that it illuminated the limestone karsts that dotted the horizon. It was almost unbelievably beautiful. You'll have to go and check it out for yourself one day.

The lovely people at Hill House were also happy to rent us a scooter for 200THB / £4 / $6 a day despite seeing Nick get off to a pretty shaky start trying to ride the thing. I braved getting on the back and aside from some minor incidents (You totally cannot put your feet down to stop when travelling at speed on a scooter, it is not like a bicycle! Dirt tracks are dangerously bumpy! ) it wasn't too terrifying and it made getting around the island super easy. Koh Yao Noi is actually a great place to learn to ride a scooter because it's relatively quiet and there aren't that many other new-to-scootering tourists haring about the place. Here's Nick getting gas...

One day they also organised for us to borrow a kayak for a super reasonable 500THB / £9 / $15 for the whole day.

We set off around 9am and kayaked both into the wind and against the tide for a couple of hours before stopping at a secluded beach which also happened to be a- totally empty and b- a nature reserve. It was covered in crabs, big and small, and it was so fun to watch them scurrying about doing whatever it is that crabs do.

After a quick dip in the sea to cool off we were off to the next beach which was just around the corner and again it was not only mind blowingly beautiful but almost totally empty. There was one other couple at the far end of the beach but we couldn't even see them from where we were sitting. It was the perfect place to enjoy the lunch our hosts had made us. They totally understood our request for a strict vegetarian meal with no egg, fish sauce, oyster sauce or shrimp and clarified that soy was okay. This simple looking veggie fried rice dish was super delicious, seasoned with white pepper and lime juice it's one of the best things we've eaten on the trip so far.

It was so good that we decided to eat dinner at the Hill House cafe one night, they do food to order but you need to let them know what you'd like for dinner at breakfast or lunch if you want dinner that day and at dinner time if you'd like lunch the next day. The menu is in the pink folder under the desk in reception. We wished we'd eaten dinner there sooner because the veggie fried rice and veganised Pad See Ew meal we shared was wonderful and I could have happily eaten there night after night.

As you can tell I really loved Hill House, our stay there was the perfect welcome to Thailand and we'd love to return one day. If you'd like to read more about our experiences in Koh Yao Noi you can check out my earlier blog post here.

After a brief stop on the beautiful and super quiet northern edge of Koh Pu Nick and I arrived on Koh Lanta last Tuesday and are loving it so much that we've already extended our stay twice. There's great food to be found and beautiful beaches to chill out on but one place that we've really fallen in love with is Lanta Animal Welfare. We'd read about both Lanta Animal Welfare and their partner restaurant / cooking school Time For Lime before we left the UK and were excited to check them out. We decided that we couldn't squeeze a stint volunteering into our travels at this early stage so we were excited to note that you can just rock up and take a tour, cuddle some kitties or walk a dog so we headed down there as soon as we could.

The tours run every hour on the hour but we made sure to arrive early enough that we were able to squeeze in a whole lot of kitten cuddling beforehand. Lanta Animal Welfare have over 20 cats looking for homes right now and every single one of them is beautiful. ACAB!

Jasmine was the friendliest out of this bunch of super affectionate cats and as soon as I sat down in the shade of the van she climbed onto my lap and then up onto my shoulder. She stayed there and snuggled me for a full 30 minutes until the tour began and I sadly had to put her down.

Despite the fact that the stories of how some of the dogs and cats ended up at Lanta Animal Welfare saddened me to my core I really enjoyed looking around, seeing how the sanctuary is run and hearing about all of the amazing work they do there. They have a wonderful spay & neuter programme which includes a mobile clinic that not only travels around Koh Lanta but has also travelled to the neighbouring islands of Koh Jum, Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lipe. Every animal that passes through the clinic gets a free rabies vaccination which is wonderful; the island hasn't had a single case of rabies in 15 years. Amazing. They also reach out to children with their Education Programme which teaches local kids about the needs of animals through the mediums of interactive games and role playing - it's such a great idea to start teaching compassion from an early age.

If you're considering volunteering with animals this would be a wonderful place to do it, they have some space for volunteers onsite and the shortest amount of time you can sign up for is a month. Nick and I are already working out when we'll be able to come back and do this as it seems like the perfect volunteer opportunity for us. We love the island, we adore cats and I know I'd love to spend some time getting to know dogs better.

One of the ways we were able to get involved during our short stay was by taking dogs for walks either in the morning or afternoon, the dogs like the hot part of the day about as much as I do! The rescue centre is located near Relax Bay beach which is where we took these two cuties.

They wanted to sniff every single thing along the way!

Pin was the first dog we walked and Nick and I are both a little (a lot) in love with him. If we were nearing the end of our travels we'd have totally offered him a forever home. Look at those ears!

Pin arrived at Lanta Animal Welfare after being hit by a car and then abandoned by his owners but thanks to their help he's now happily walking again - we scamped all over the beach with him! Pin loves chasing crabs (which are thankfully pretty great at making a fast getaway!) and walking in the shallows (no waves though please!) and LAW's description of him on their site is spot on, sweet, playful and affectionate. Please do get in touch with Lanta Animal Welfare if you could offer him or any of the other dogs and cats on their site a home. Thanks to the wonderful Flight Volunteer Programme, where people travelling home from Bangkok or Phuket can accompany an animal friend on the plane on their way to their forever home, the cats and dogs from Lanta Animal Welfare have been able to find homes all over the world.

If you aren't considering a rescue cat or dog as your forever friend you need to. For every animal bought from a breeder, pet store or puppy farm another one dies in a shelter. That's a straight up fact. Not every shelter is no-kill and not every animal gets to find that perfect home before their time runs out. I cannot for one second comprehend how anyone could make the decision to buy an animal when there are literally hundreds of thousands or amazing ones waiting for homes.

If you're visiting Koh Lanta and are unable to take a new friend home with you (like us) then a visit to Time For Lime is probably in order. They do a six course tasting menu every evening and all of their profits go towards helping the animals at Lanta Animal Welfare. They're able to accommodate vegans and even (to a slightly lesser extent) someone with an allergy to peppers! Nick and I dined on spring rolls (the best I've ever eaten), red and green curry (Nick not me!), beautiful fresh mango summer rolls and fresh fruit. It was a really fun experience and it was great to be able to watch the cooking classes taking place just below us. Time For Lime also make excellent cocktails which, if you visit during Happy Hour, you can enjoy from the comfort of a deckchair on the beach for only 99THB / £2 / $3. Get some spring rolls to go with them and I call that a party!

If you're interested in supporting Lanta Animal Welfare's amazing work from wherever you are you can make a donation here.

I'm totally in love with the pace of island life! Koh Lanta was our third island stop after Koh Yao Noi, which I loved, and Koh Pu, which was perhaps a little slow paced even for me but we did see a monkey scampering about in the jungle so that was awesome. We booked this pretty but basic 700THB / £14 / $21 fan bungalow at Mook Lanta for four nights and quickly extended it to six.

Koh Lanta showed immediate promise when we were able to hop off of the boat at Saladan Pier and walk for around two minutes before hitting the first veg friendly spot marked on vegan dining app Happy Cow's map of the island. Catfish Book Cafe is right on the pier itself and there are in fact books and cats everywhere. I assume the fish in question were underneath us and shall ignore their appearance on the menu.

Nick and I both went for variations on the hummus, falafel and salad wrap and mine was build your own which was fun and came with three wraps rather than the two on the ready made plate. I'm slowly learning to remember to flick my phone's camera from photo to square but on this occasion I forgot so you'll have to make do with this Instagram ready snapshot.

Everything about this meal hit the spot after three days of eating either fruit plates or the same fried rice dish for every meal. The salad was especially good as it was flavoured with dill which I adore.

One place both Nick and I become totally obsessed with is the noodle spot with no name. Their wifi network is SUNUNTHA which should give you a clue as to it's whereabouts if you're strolling near the Long Beach 7/11. They also have a tofu food page on the menu - this doesn't indicate vegan or even veggie foods as Thai cuisine is heavy on the fish sauce but if you ask for the stir fried noodles with tofu and vegetables with no fish sauce, no egg and no oyster sauce (in Thai, if you can't remember it all write it down or take a screen shot of google translate on your phone) you'll get a super cheap vegan meal that'll knock your socks off. We ate this almost every day during our eleven day sojourn on the island.

Almost exactly opposite the noodle place is a restaurant that has become know in our minds as The Mango Sticky Rice Place. It's all we've ever ordered there, well that and a big water, and I super love it because the coconut cream comes on the side so you get to decide exactly how much to add.

A little further south from the mango sticky rice place is Faim De Loup a French bakery and cafe where you can buy bread without egg or milk products which is something of a rarity in Thailand.

Be warned that whilst the wholewheat baguette is vegan the ciabatta contains egg (I don't know what recipe they're following!) and there was a definite language barrier between some of the staff and I (probably because my Thai is still dreadful but I'm getting closer to nailing the pronunciation which is helping me communicate better) and this was the first vegan fuck up of the trip - it happens, ascertaining what's vegan on your home turf is always going to be easier than when you travel and even after nine years of veganism and many trips abroad these things happen and you just need to dust yourself off, move forward and learn to communicate more successfully next time. We ate the WW baguette with the peanut butter and jam we picked up at Lanta Mart which is near the pier in Saladan.

After six noodle fuelled days on Koh Lanta we weren't able to stay at Mook Lanta any longer, we wanted to, they just had no space for us, so we moved next door to the similarly priced but slightly louder Angel Lanta. It's a teeny bit closer the the main road and the windows are just fly screens but there was a hammock for me to read and write in so I was happy.

One of our very favourite spots on the island was Kunda Anti-Pop Cafe. Located around a kilometre south of Lanta Animal Welfare (you checked out the cats and dogs in my last post right?) it's just about walkable from there and you really feel like you've earned the right to lounge on their comfy patio for the rest of the afternoon.

First things first, drinks. Get the mango shake, no sugar added. If the totally bad ass proprietress Lena is in the house get her to whip you up one with added sweet basil. It's not on the menu but it should be. It's mind blowingly good.

Not one to order salad often I relented after I saw Giselle from Mindful Wanderlust's lunch choice one day (what a cool coincidence that these travel blogging vegans were on the island at the same time as us) so I ordered it on my next visit.

Kunda's carrot salad is mad garlicky and comes with lettuce, black rice and peanuts. Love!

Pasta is a definite Jojo fave and I was pleased to see two delicious options on the menu, pasta pesto and pasta with tomato, garlic and basil.

Both were delicious and I only slightly preferred the tomato pasta because the tomatoes themselves were barely cooked and oh so fresh.

As well as whipping up some of the best food I've ever eaten owner and chef Lena is eccentric, hilarious, only the tiniest bit intimidating and adds sparkle to every visit. This is the place to go if you can spend a little time lingering over your meal in true island style.

The Sanctuary was another Happy Cow recommendation, added to the shortlist long before our trip even started, but after our new vegan buddies Giselle and Cody told me there was a cashew cheese dish on the menu wild horses couldn't have held me back. The mild creamy cashew cheese dip is the centrepiece of a crudités plate that's described on the menu as a salad and comes served with a flatbread described as a naan. We also ordered the Tofu Burger made vegan which was like a huge free form tofu scramble formed into a burger.

I adored the burger, chips are always a winning side, and we thought the whole cashew cheese plate was wonderful (okay, okay, not the snap peas. I hate them raw!), the flatbread was super fresh and slightly warmed and the burger bun was lightly toasted. Unfortunately on our second visit the bread was a little stale (probably because it hadn't been warmed) and the Tofu Burger that we loved was completely different... I think I got a vegetable burger instead.

Like a good food blogger I went back a third time to see what the deal was and the tofu burger was back on form. We also tried the yummy spring rolls and a couple of juices which are freshly pressed and super delicious.

The other great thing about The Sanctuary is that there are dogs and cats all over the shop which is adorable. This is Gizmo who sat on my lap whilst I enjoyed my carrot and orange juice last week. Cute!

Located at the southern end of Long Beach and just a stones throw from where we were staying The Sanctuary have a gorgeous view of the beach, especially at sunset, and if you want somewhere to sit with a cool drink the beach bar's a pretty chilled out spot with some excellently placed deck chairs.

In-between meals and dog walking at Lanta Animal Welfare I enjoyed a whole lot of beach time, my favourites are Long Beach and Relax Bay Beach, both during the day and at sunset. It really is a beautiful place and one that Nick and I are already planning to return to.

After a bumpy four hour mini bus ride from Koh Lanta I arrived in Trang slightly the worse for wear (I get bus sick as well as sea sick apparently!) and super glad that Nick and I decided to spend a night there before hopping onto the 15 hour overnight train to Bangkok.

The first place I was determined to visit was Kit Pung Vegetarian, an all vegan Jay restaurant located pretty close to the train station, but as fate would have it we arrived 10 minutes after they closed up for the day so it had to wait. Luckily I had plenty of bus ride snacks leftover and I was very happy to sit still and read for a while before heading out to explore Trang's bustling night markets. On Friday and Saturday nights there are not one but two night markets in this small town. One in front of the train station and one just off of Th Praram VI, the road that runs north from the station. At the non-station night market I hit the jackpot and finally found something I'd heard a whole lot about, Kanom Krok (sometimes spelt Khanom Krok). The stall selling these sweet and salty traditional Thai coconut rice pancakes was nestled right in the back corner of the market and was run by two incredibly friendly people who were fairly amused by my (over)excitement.

The Kanom Krok I found were topped with sweetcorn and something that looked like bacon but that in hindsight (and after asking the peeps from Vegan Food Quest who adore these treats) was probably taro although I didn't risk eating them at the time.

These were just as delicious as I'd been led to believe they would be and Nick and I scoffed the whole portion in record time. Our hands were covered in sweet coconutty batter by the end. My only word of warning is that you need to know what you're looking for when you're searching for these (maybe a screenshot of a photo would be helpful) because they do look an awful lot like the little fried quails eggs that are another night market fave' - I definitely wandered back and forth past a few stalls muttering egg or pancake to Nick!

Fruit is another night market classic and I went OTT with the mango as always. I love it.

The next day we woke up bright and early because Jay eateries start serving around 7am and we both wanted to make damned sure that we got enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the train. I had no idea what would be in store as we hadn't hit up a Jay eatery on our travels yet.

There were plenty of choices and the idea was to pick two dishes to go with rice. I have no idea what any of the things Nick and I ate were but I was super happy that despite finding my chilli allergy highly amusing they were able to point out about five things I could choose from.

The result was a slightly bland meal but at breakfast I'm totally cool with that as long as it involves carbs and I liked the pieces of mock meat in one of my dishes enough that I filled my tupperware with that and more rice for dinner on the train.

Jay eateries are entirely vegan which is pretty cool but it does also mean no onion nor garlic. I'm pretty okay with this on occasion if it means I can get vegan food easily and I was happy to see the shelves were full of vegan products that you could take away.

I was especially intrigued by this five spice gluten stew. If I had had access to a microwave I'd have totally bought it and given it a whirl and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for it on my travels.

I did pick up this tasty ham and coleslaw sandwich for lunch, I'm a huge bread fan and it's hard to find it vegan style in Thailand so I snapped one up along with a few steamed barbeque faux pork buns which made an amazing train dinner alongside the tupperware box of rice and faux meat stew.

I discovered the joy of steamed buns or bao in San Francisco a couple of years ago and I love them so much. They're doughy, a little sweet and jam packed with faux meaty wonderfulness.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around markets with Nick marvelling at all of the different types of mushrooms and the size of the rats and trying to spot cats leaping between stalls.

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I also bought a huge bag of oranges for the sleeper train journey to Bangkok.

Nick and I travelled in the first class compartment between Trang and BKK because we were feeling fancy and it was fun to have our own little room. It was super cosy and the time flew by really fast. I read a whole book, slept for hours and then arrived in Bangkok raring to go.

Oh hey, I'm on a train!

You just know somewhere's going to be amazing when there's a huge buzz surrounding them and I feel like there's been no louder a buzz recently than the one surrounding Veganerie. If you haven't heard of them yet where have you been? Do you live under a rock?! I feel like so many vegan bloggers and IGers managed to get there before me and they've only been open since October!

This shiny beacon of sugary vegan deliciousness is located in the MercuryVille Mall which means that you don't even need to step out of the station to get there. You can just stroll right in from the BTS Skytrain walkway, pop up one floor on the escalator and you're there. It literally couldn't be more perfect.

I headed here immediately after getting off of the overnight train from Trang and the very first thing I was drawn towards was the Chocolate Waffle Plate because god damn, look at this thing. It is perfection. This is the large size and the lovely ladies behind the counter were visibly shocked when Nick and I ordered one each. I'm one of those people who could eat the vegan equivalent of a horse at breakfast time so it was okay, we killed both plates easily and didn't show ourselves up as amateur eaters!

This is right up there on my list of dream breakfasts. Not only are the waffles chocolatey but you can add chocolate ice cream (I also added matcha) and then the whole thing's finished off with a drizzle of chocolate sauce just in case you haven't imploded from all of the deliciousness already. The whipped cream that accompanies it is the only whipped cream I've ever liked. There was an almost whipped cream thing in Stockholm once but that's it. Usually cream is on my list of no-go's but this, wow, it's so light and fluffy and not too sweet because who needs it to be when it's accompanying waffles and ice cream y'know? Apparently it's made of coconut and I totally want the recipe. Oh and that cute lil' thing that says Veganerie? You can eat that! It's really just too much.

They were also so happy that we were enjoying our food that they gave us some free granola to take away. I ate it with a pot of strawberry soy yoghurt for breakfast one morning and it was totally amazing. Super chocolatey, not overly sweet and really crunchy. I'd have totally bought more if it came in something more sensible than a glass jar because when you're travelling they just aren't practical.

The French Toast plate was the second thing on the must eat list and I can say that it didn't disappoint. I probably wouldn't pick it over the waffles again but it was great nonetheless and there was more of that amazing whipped cream which I swear you could put on a shoe and it would make it taste great. Maybe they should sell it by the jar? I'd totally buy that.

If you're in the market for something small or, in my case, a side to your French Toast plate you can't go wrong with the chocolate chip banana bread. Banana bread has always been a favourite and this is A+.

Another delightful free gift came along in the form of this matcha slice which could totally be renamed matcha shortbread because it has that perfect melt in your mouth texture and the flavours were spot on.

I have to be honest and say that the matcha ice cream accompanying the waffle plate was almost too matcha-ey for my (silly western) palate but this was perfect for me. I loved the chocolate chunks too especially as they'd gotten a little melty by the time I chowed down. I bought several more of these which goes to show that giving people free samples of new products can be a genius idea!

Another dessert that deserves an A+ rating is the Brownie Sundae and not just because of the truly epic amount of vegan whipped cream ontop of it. Again I had chocolate ice cream because I find it hard to pick other flavours when this classic is being offered up and there was a frankly ridic amount of chocolate sauce going on. It was outstanding.

The brownie itself was on the fudgey end of the spectrum and held up perfectly when topped with sundae fixings. Both this and the chocolate waffle plate were probably my absolute favourites if you're forcing me to pick. I think I uttered the words "best thing I've ever eaten" on more than one occasion during this visit!

The Pizzookie, Veganerie's cleverly named cookie sundae, is another strong option. Just look at the amount of stuff going on here. Chopped fruit, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, ice cream and underneath all of that is a choc chip oatmeal cookie the size of the bowl itself.

Lastly I picked up a loaf of Veganerie's pumpkin bread and I wished that I'd done it sooner. The only dairy and egg free bread I'd found in Bangkok up until this point was a baguette from the gourmet food court at the Siam Paragon mall and my words upon trying to tear into it were "Holy hell, this is a crime against bread" which I think tells you everything you need to know. This bread on the other hand was a dream especially when paired with PB & J, the dream combo! If you're a hotel room breakfast fan I would strongly recommend a purchase.

As well as being 100% vegan and 100% delicious Veganerie is also owned and operated by vegan activists who are helping to spread the vegan message with their delicious baked goods. In my experience this is one of the best methods, win people over with food, show them that being vegan isn't a hardship and help open their eyes to animal suffering along the way. Classy move Veganerie.

Let's get real for a second, Thailand is hot. Bangkok is hotter. I'm not a person who is particularly good at dealing with the heat. Having grown up in the UK you might expect this but before I embarked upon this adventure other Brit's kept telling me that I'd acclimatise. I am still waiting for the magical acclimatisation date (40 days and counting!) and I'll share just one story with you lest you think I'm exaggerating... When I arrived at the check in desk of a hotel a week or so ago the receptionist looked at me wide eyed and enquired as to whether it was currently raining? Nope, I'm just that sweaty! Good times! My bright red face and I are happily persevering with the heat sitch but in the meantime I have grown to love malls. I know right! Malls! I never thought I'd say it either, I hate shopping, but in Bangkok malls are different. In Bangkok malls are special. Air con aside some malls, like Siam Paragon, are so upscale they're verging on the ridiculous and some, like the fantastic Terminal 21, have amazing concepts. Terminal 21 is like an airport and boy have they committed to that theme, each floor has a city theme with accompanying models and signage, pertinent mall info is displayed on departure boards and even the information assistants are dressed like cabin crew. It's so fun!

Am I in Japan? No! I'm at Terminal 21!

The other great thing about the malls here is that there's vegan food everywhere! There are gourmet markets, supermarkets, food halls and restaurants and as someone who can happily wander around supermarkets for hours on end marvelling at new and exciting fruits and veggies and reading the ingredients on the most implausible things (I've hit the jackpot doing this on so many occasions that I will never stop!) they're a pretty fun place to be.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my guide to Bangkok's malls which are all conveniently located in the Sukhumvit area along the BTS Skytrain line.

Mercury Ville

As well as being the location of Veganerie vegan bakery (which I blogged about here) you can also grab a a soya based milkshake (you just need to ask about honey) from Soya Soyum or a pre-dessert salad at Dressed. I went off menu at Dressed and used the fun salad creating device to throw together a salad that included two types of greens, mandarins, almonds, tofu, grated carrot and avocado. I also went with a blueberry vinegarette dressing that complimented my salad choices nicely. The only downside being that it was freaking expensive, like, 300THB / £6 / $9 expensive which for Bangkok is a little ridic. Also the tofu was plain, cubed and silken which I'm okay with but I know a lot of people would be hating. I'd probably eat it again despite the price because it was super fresh and totally cured my weird salad craving.

Central World

Talalask in the food court (back left hand corner) of Central World Mall was listed on Happy Cow as vegan until I rocked up and saw them making spaghetti carbonara with cows milk. Everything else was vegan though and it's your classic cheap Thai fare - fried rice, pad thai and, oddly, some Japanese gyoza which I loved and ordered every time we swung by.

Both the Pad Thai and Pad See Ew were good, I've definitely had better but this place wins points for both convenience and people watching.

The Central Food Hall here is also pretty great especially if you're craving the taste of home. I found these Fox's Chunkie Cookies there and daaaaamn are they good cookies! I also picked up some Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter granola bars which are the kind without the honey. Yay!

MBK Centre

I wasn't a huge fan of the veggie place located in the food court at the MBK Centre but that had a lot to do with me hardly having any choices due to my allergies and the things I chose were definitely on the bland side. If you're looking for the cheapest plate of food this is the one for you.

Terminal 21

Okay so Pala Pizza Romana isn't exactly in Teminal 21 but it is attached to the outside so I'm totally counting it. I discovered this place when I googled "vegan pizza Bangkok" after listening to Nick whinge about his pizza craving for about an hour. I totally get weird cravings too and I'll never say no to pizza so we headed one sky train stop away to Pala and fell in love. I adore faux cheeses and mock meats but sometimes a simple marinara pizza is so perfect that it's hard to fault it. This place is generous with the garlic and they serve by the slice, half meter or meter. Geniuses!

There are also vegan labelled salads on the menu as well as a bean soup although I was sad to hear that the marinara slice topped with truffle oil had been discontinued.

The Gourmet Market located on the ground floor of T21, otherwise known as Rome, is the only place I've found in Thailand selling soy yoghurts. Joya brand were already a favourite of mine after trips to Vienna and I'd have bought many more of these for in-room breakfasts if the place I was staying in had had a fridge.

Siam Paragon

This is the spot where I bought some egg and dairy free bread that I described as "a crime against bread" in my last post. Sadness. As an aside Veganerie is the spot for all of your bread based needs. Siam Paragon isn't all shiny cars and sad bread though and I managed to hunt down some vegan umeboshi onigiri from a little Japanese stand opposite the Gourmet Food Court's checkouts.

Siam Paragon also has a Dressed if you're in the market for some (expensive) veggies.

I even managed to find Mintons in the imported gluten free foods section here. Mintons! I've never seen these in a store before. Sadly this traveller is now on a budget and I couldn't justify what works out at £4.20 for a pack despite these essentially being a vegan yoyo!

I did of course scope out Bangkok's non mall based vegan food scene but that's a whole 'nother post.

I'm currently writing this from Chiang Mai where I've just returned from spending a week volunteering at Elephant Nature Park so expect some seriously squee-worthy animal pictures in my next post. If you want to keep 100% up to date with my travels I'm trying to post to my Instagram daily when wifi will allow.

I was recently lucky enough to spend a week volunteering at Elephant Nature Park just north of Chiang Mai in Thailand and I can honestly say that it was one of the best weeks of my life. ENP is a sanctuary for elephants who have been abused, mistreated and oppressed at the hands of humans. I went into my week at the park knowing that I wholeheartedly disagreed with riding elephants, elephant painting, the circus, and using elephants for logging but I didn't comprehend the full extent of what these beautiful creatures go through to end up in these situations. The process of breaking an elephant, otherwise known as phajaan or crushing the elephant's spirit, is crueler than you could ever imagine and this is coming from someone who has watched many videos of how cows are treated in dairy farms and what happens to the baby chicks who are ground up whilst they're still alive just so that humans can consume eggs. Watching the videos, this one especially, was incredibly difficult and I have spent hours and hours trying to process my feelings of sadness. Rage came next and, in the long run, I hope to turn my feelings into productivity which I guess is what's happening right now! I am really glad that I was able to gain this insight into an area of animal rights that I wasn't previously well versed on and I hope to be a better ambassador for elephants from now on.

Days at ENP start at 7am with breakfast which means setting an alarm for 6:30 and there was no snoozing because the walls were so thin that I'd have felt like the rudest asshole alive if someone had been forced to listen to Radar more than once. I'd heard that breakfast was the most challenging meal for vegans at the sanctuary so I came well prepared with a stash of bars and crackers. The daily vegan fare at breakfast consisted of cornflakes (the bad D vit's haven't made it over here yet!), soya or rice milk, peanut butter and fruit. One day there were sausages too which I got pretty overexcited about.

The week's large group of volunteers were split into four teams and daily tasks included scooping poop, quite a big task when an elephant's involved; elephant food which meant unloading and washing truck after truck of watermelons, pumpkins and bananas; cutting grass and banana trees down at the roadside; helping to create a fire break and cleaning up the park. Fire break was by far the hardest task as it meant clearing a huge swathe of forest in the heat of the day with various tools, I think hoeing or raking were my favourite tasks but hacking down bushes with a machete was also kinda fun. Overall working in the ele' kitchen was my absolute favourite task, passing the fruit and veg down the line from the truck is the kind of repetitive task I can totally get down with and I liked that you got a real idea of just how much food it takes to feed an elephant.

Human food wise everything at the park is vegetarian and if you can find a volunteer co-ordinator who gets your veganism they'll be able to tell you which things on the buffet to avoid. Pro-tips: the bread at ENP contains egg and dairy and you'll need to be on the look out for sneaky egg in both the pad thai and pad see ew, there are also some obvious yellow noodles that contain egg. Here are a few examples of the meals I ate from the amazing lunch buffet. The food would have definitely been more varied if I wasn't contending with a chilli allergy but the fact that even I could eat this well says a lot.

Once our work for the day was done we were lucky enough to be able to take part in fun activities like washing the elephants. We learnt a lot about how to go about this before we were let loose with buckets of water. Pouring water down the elephants' face is a huge no-no as is getting water into the ears... this makes so much sense. I certainly wouldn't enjoy someone throwing water at my face!

One afternoon after our chores were done a small group of volunteers were lucky enough to sit with ENP founder Lek and hear her speak about not only the process of breaking an elephant but also the hideousness of forced breeding programs. It didn't surprise me to hear that Lek is vegan herself as this process is not dissimilar to the the one dairy cows are forced to go through when their calves are ripped away from them and shoved into veal crates. Elephants and cows, just like humans, mourn the loss of their babies and it makes me so angry that humans are willing to put animals through this stuff for their own gratification.

Hearing the elephant's stories was a definite highlight of my time there despite how harrowing the majority of them are, remember that almost every elephant here has been through the breaking process and much more in their pre-ENP lives. Jokia's story was one that hit me the hardest. Rescued from a heartbreaking and tortuous existence at an illegal logging operation in 1999 she came to ENP after being deliberately blinded in both eyes by her mahout for refusing to work after miscarrying whilst dragging a log uphill. On arrival at the park Mae Perm, the first elephant ever rescued by Lek, took her under her wing and became her best friend. They go everywhere together and Mae Perm acts as Jokia's eyes leading her to play and towards food.

We were also able to spend time sitting beneath an elephant to feed her which, Lek explained, she encouraged us to do to help to show people that elephants are gentle creatures who, when they aren't being abused and when they are in the sanctuary environment, see humans as friends - especially when we're accompanied by a bag of tamarind. Getting to sit underneath this beautiful lady was one of the most amazing moments of the week and, believe me, there were many!

One evening Lek spoke with us about her life and her journey to build ENP up to what it is today and wow, I have been around many inspiring feminists in my time but Lek kinda blew my mind. As well as selflessly working to make life better for all elephants with her brand of positive, patient and passionate activism she has also made a world of difference to the lives of women from local hill tribe villages by employing them in her kitchen, as massage therapists for the guests of ENP and much more. The amount of positive change one woman has created is truly inspiring.

I loved being surrounded by all of the animals that call ENP their home. There are cats and dogs everywhere as well as elephants, water buffalo and cows. Cat Kingdom was a great place to chill and there was one kitty who came to our room to hang out (and to try to climb our mosquito net) daily. What a beauty.

One day when we were taking a fire break break a dog came to hang with us, (s)he seemed super thirsty so I offered up some water in the cap of my bottle and they lapped it up. I think I shared it 50/50 in the end and was rewarded with a lot of face licks from my new pup friend.

As well as loving being surrounded by animals and having a chance to connect with and understand elephants to a greater extent I also enjoyed the peace and beauty of the surrounding countryside and getting to meet wonderful like minded people. I even managed to tune out the people moaning about the lack of meat without shouting "it's for a week, shut up and deal with it" at them which I thought was rather restrained!

Elephants are a much loved part of Thai culture and Elephant Nature Park is the perfect place to connect with them without causing them any harm so whether you're vegan, vegetarian, or neither (yet!) I'd say volunteering here is a must during your time in Thailand.

Oh hello! I'm in Chiang Mai right now and despite the temperature gauge hitting 43˚C yesterday I am loving it here.

Some cities have a pull about them that just keep me wanting more, NYC, Portland, Tokyo to name a few, and now I can add Chiang Mai to the ever-growing list. Nick and I were here for one night before our amazing week at Elephant Nature Park and then for four nights afterwards. That should've been it if we had stuck to our super-vague plan but after leaving to check out Pai (more about that adventure soon) we then came right back here again for what we'd initially decided would be just a couple more nights and has swiftly turned into a week. This is without a doubt the best thing about long term travel, if I don't want to leave somewhere I don't have to. Within reason of course, other cities and countries are calling my name and my visa totally expires soon so I know that moving on has to happen eventually.

How walkable Chiang Mai is is definitely a big draw, despite the heat city explorations on foot have been a breeze (Oh, if only there were a real breeze!) and I love (LOVE!) seeing Wats popping up from behind brick walls as I aimlessly wander the city streets.

Stumbling upon somewhere fun and unexpected whilst walking without a destination in mind is one of my favourite travel activities and Ung Polaroid, Handmade Shop and Gallery was one of these finds.

Ung is located at one end of Khang Ruan Jum Road and is the home to photography exhibits, a store with some great polaroid postcards, and much more. There was even a cat to play with.

Food wise the city has been treating us right and I am over the moon with the range of options available. Taste From Heaven was our first stop as it was located near the first place we stayed and right next to this book store which we were more than happy to browse in.

Of course I ordered the Pad See Ew. I almost always order the Pad See Ew! It's been my favourite Thai dish since I first tasted it at Pukk in New York City and I've never regretted an order of the sweet noodles. Taste From Heaven's take includes TVP and whilst I would prefer tofu or perhaps mock duck it's still beyond decent.

I have since tried other things including this plate of Rard-Na Noodles with veggies and textured soya protein in a soya bean sauce which was the perfect comfort foodie meal on a day where I woke up with an inexplicable craving for biscuits and gravy. I blame Instagram.

The Fresh Spring Rolls are another of my go-to orders, I've ordered them literally every single time I've visited (Oh Parks and Rec I'm gonna miss you). Crisp lettuce and crunchy veggies paired with fresh flavourful herbs will always be a favourite of mine and I loooove that these come with a sweet tamarind sauce. Also, tofu. Love.

I'm always pleased when somewhere does a great job with a vegan dessert and oh boy does Taste From Heaven do it well. This is described on the menu as a brownie but it's really more like a superb slab of chocolate cake.

It's served hot so the chocolate chips are all melty and perfect, it's sharable but if you're hungry I'd strongly recommend keeping it to yourself.

Amrita Garden is one of my very favourite place in Chiang Mai. I'm a huge Japanese food aficionado, my travels there last year just amplified the situation, and I love Amrita Garden's take on everything from the super traditional to the Japanese twists on Western classics. Their burger, for example, is made up of a delicately flavoured vegetable patty topped with homemade tofu mayo, ketchup and mustard.

I feel bad showing you this next (terrible) picture but the fried tempeh is just so outstanding that I had to share, it's lightly flavoured with a shio-kouji sauce, made from fermented rice and salt, that tastes a lot better than the sum of it's parts. The cucumber on the side actually compliments the dish rather than being a random garnish.

The cold soba broth is delicately flavoured with kombu, shiitake, soy sauce and sweet rice wine, it's absolute perfection in a bowl. I've never had quite such amazing noodles, they must be homemade.

Dessert wise they've got it going on and the green tea brownie is pretty much the best ever. Matcha and Almond are a dream team and I've been eating more of these than I could possibly count.

They also sell a Dark Cacao brownie topped with cashews which I don't love as much as the matcha brownie but Nick wanted me to let you know that it's his fave'. If cookies are more your scene Amrita Garden have you sorted on that front too with Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Pim or Bitter Chocolate Cookies from Healthy Sweets.

These are both delicious and hit very different spots, the oatmeal raisin are your straight up classic cookie whilst the bitter chocolate biccies hover at the more sophisticated end of the spectrum. You need to watch out here because some of the goodies on sale at Amrita Garden have the vegan label but contain honey, just flip them over and read the ingredients before you buy. I wonder when everyone'll understand that if it came from an animal (including a bee!) that it just Is. Not. Vegan. Full stop. No further discussion.

One afternoon, fuelled up with plenty of energy from all of the delicious food, Nick and I made the trip out to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep which is 15km outside of the city with a couple of the new friends we made at Elephant Nature Park. It's truly stunning up there, especially on a clear day, and it's the perfect spot to avoid the hustle and bustle of the city below and to breathe some cleaner, fresher air.

At the end of our adventures we were rewarded with this wonderful surprise as we were leaving, a tiny puppy chewing a tiny shoe. Good lard. It really was too much.

Until next time friends! I'll catch you for part two soon.

As I said in my last post Chiang Mai is hard to leave but leave I did because Laos is right across the boarder and I just needed to keep on adventuring. I know that I'll be back sooner rather than later though so I'm not feeling too sad. One place that kept me sticking around for so long was Blue Diamond Breakfast Club. For an omni spot their vegan options are plentiful and more varied than I've seen in some vegan establishments. The pancakes are the real draw and after a bit of a wobble with a gluten free apple pancake that was a little on the gummy side I hit the jackpot with the chocolate pancake.

Breakfast items really are Blue Diamond's strong point, hence the name, and this couldn't be more obvious than right here with their vegan croissant choices. Choices people! You can go for the full on white flour, high fat croissant or dial it back with a wholewheat version. You know me, I'm not one for dialling it back, and I ate the proper version almost daily.

Muffins and other sweet treats were my main reason for visiting this relaxed spot over and over and I found myself using this self serve area on so many occasions that myself, the plastic bags and the tape dispenser are practically bff's. The choc chip and blueberry muffins are my strongest recommendations whilst Nick prefers the cinnamon rolls.

We hit this place up for dinner on a couple of occasions and both the Avocado Tempeh Salad and the Pad See Ew (what did I tell you last time!) are great choices although my tempeh was a little bitter on one occasion. The fresh juices are another of the club's specialities and the orange is a boring sounding but delicious choice.

Blue Diamond is also pretty close to the Women's Massage Centre where you can get a traditional Thai or foot massage by ex-prisoners from the women's prison.

I personally do not love a massage; okay, truth time, I hate them. Do not try to convince me otherwise, I've tried enough of them to know. Despite my issues with massages I went ahead and tried again because I do seriously love the concept of this place and I wanted to support it. I would also like to be one of those normal people who finds massages relaxing but nope! I would encourage anyone to visit this place. If you must incarcerate people it is so necessary to teach them new skills and to help them to find jobs at the end.

Ice Love You was somewhere that I was so goddamned excited about. Vegan ice cream right here in Thailand? Yes please. We took a highly amusing (sometimes you just have to find situations funny to deal with them y'know) songthaew journey beyond the old city walls and out towards the sprawling university campus and were excited to spot this adorable place on a side street off of Suthep Road.

We'd read that all of the ice creams but one were vegan but to double check that the cookies were a-ok so we asked questions and were happy with our order of three scoops and a roti with two scoops. Who goes to an vegan ice cream spot for the first time in months and only dips in a toe? Not me!

I won't be showing you a picture of our bloody delicious trio of scoops in adorable bunny shaped bowls though because I think that this place has a long way to go when it comes to understanding what veganism is. As soon as we'd finished eating an Aussie vegan came in with some friends and asked the exact same questions as we did but her vegan alarm was set of when she was told that all but one of the ice creams (the cheese one) were vegan because she'd heard of something called Milo, one of the flavours available, and pointed out that Milo contains milk and asked further questions. "Does it have real Milo in it?", the answer? "Yes, Milo". The convo continued and she didn't order that flavour but we'd already eaten it which I was beginning to get super irritated about. Back in the UK when I got told by a local ice cream spot that the Guinness sorbet was vegan I know that it wasn't and was able to point it out to the owners but here, with an ingredient I've never heard of, it's more difficult to be so on-top of things. There are definite language barriers involved in travelling but on top of those there are cultural barriers too. Here, for example, I work pretty hard to avoid causing anyone to loose face, smiling when you know someones trying to give you a terrible deal for example, so I left without saying anything. But I felt super mad. Ugh. I can't say for sure whether that ice cream had actual Milo in it because the words yes and vegan were repeated over and over confusing the Aussie vegan just as much as it was confusing me but I do now know that Milo is a malted drink that contains milk products so I'll let you make up your own minds. I am satisfied that the other two scoops we ordered and that the Roti with Matcha and Mango Sticky Rice ice creams were vegan so I intend to look on the bright side and remember that this was freaking delicious.

I specified vegan all the way through the ordering process (as did the Aussie!) and this definitely can be made 100% milk free. The mango sticky rice ice cream was a real joy and I adored the puffy roti. The whole thing was excellent and one of the most ridiculous things I've had the pleasure of eating since Veganerie.

After this roller coaster of an afternoon I wanted to hide somewhere air conditioned so we took a short and thankfully uneventful songthaew ride to local mall Central Airport Plaza to see if the food court held any hidden gems that we could add to Happy Cow. The mall's Food Pavillion is on the top floor and there was a nameless but all vegan Jay food stall right there waiting for us to sample their cheap eats. You'll be able to spot it because it's covered in yellow and red Jay flags! We ordered the Pad See Ew because we always order the Pad See Ew and it was one of the best we've had. Mock meat, tofu, plenty of veggies, delicious.

We also gave these super fresh summer rolls a whirl and we enjoyed them almost as much.

I wouldn't made the trip out there just to eat here or anything but it's a great option if you're in or near the mall already.

Freebird Cafe is somewhere I ended up visiting for the first time quite late on in my stay in Chiang Mai, not for lack of trying I just kept on forgetting that they shut at 5 and thinking that I'd have dinner there. Doh! The all veggie Freebird Cafe is just one part of Thai Freedom House, a not-for-profit language and arts community centre dedicated to helping refugees from Burma and members of other Thai minority groups. Inside the cafe there's a charity shop where they sell, among other things, donated clothes that are too big or too revealing for the refugees for whom they were intended. Jackpot! I scored this bright, bold flowery tee which is so light that I hardly feel like I'm wearing anything, and a gorgeous acid green dress that's cut too low to wear anywhere but at the beach here but that will be totally appropriate in the US of A or Europe.

Determined not to miss out again I dragged Nick there for opening time on this occasion which meant one thing, pancakes, and boy were we glad we finally made it.

The pancakes, served with golden syrup and fresh fruit, were gorgeous, light and super puffy. They kept me full for ages. I also tried one of their smoothies which had apple, lime and mint and reminded me of a non-alcoholic Mojito. So refreshing, just as the menu said it would be. I didn't try Nick's pineapple, apple, banana and ginger smoothie because uncooked pineapple makes my mouth itch but he assured me it was delicious and that he'd order it again.

On our second visit I had the Green Tea Leaf Salad in mind because everyone had told me that I just had to try it. I'm not really one to order a salad so when I spotted that there was a new Green Tea Leaf Fried Rice dish on the menu I opted for that instead. Nick went with Pad Thai and we got some Musroom and Vegetable Spring Rolls to share.

The Pad Thai was a little unusual as there was no chilli or sugar in sight but the garlic soy sauce and the lime that accompanied it made a tasty dish nonetheless. My fried rice dish was full of bold flavours and fun textures from the pickled tea leaves themselves to the crunch of the fried soy beans and onward to the generous helping of black pepper. This was hot, hot, hot and I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

I totally couldn't resist dessert when I saw that there was a Raw Key Lime Pie on the menu and I loved that it was served super cold so that it was like a creamy ice cream to begin with and then, as it thawed, it softened into a delightful avocado lime pie with an almost mousse like texture.

Raw desserts can be super hit or miss for me but this one was totally spot on and might just pip the matcha brownie from Amrita Garden to the post for the title of best dessert in Chiang Mai. Definitely a winner. Freebird is a total must-visit if you're in the city but do go when you have time to spare as the service is super relaxed. If you'd like to help Freebird by doing more than just eating and shopping you can take donations of gently used clothes there or volunteer to be an English teacher in their learning centre, more info here. Oh and if you didn't already read part one of my Chiang Mai series here it is.

Oh Pai, I can't say that I loved you but it wasn't a straight up hate sitch' either. Everyone I spoke to at length about travelling in Thailand told me that I'd just love it there but I really, really didn't. It I think my new friend Sarah said it best when she described it as feeling like being at a festival and I agree although I'd never go to a festival with such terrible music or so many hippy stoner types. Basically Pai wasn't my favourite and I definitely can't say that I thought it was worth the super bumpy and sickness inducing three hour mini bus ride along the windiest roads I've ever had the displeasure to be driven around; especially as I had to add an extra three hours onto that to sleep off the anti sickness meds! If Pai still appeals (as it does to almost everyone else ever) then here's my take on it's vegan friendliness so that my time there can at least be useful!

My first stop in town was Chew Xin Jai a vegan buffet-style Chinese spot located pretty close to the main drag.

If you don't have allergies to contend with then the cheapest way to eat here is to pick from the buffet. You can get rice and one, two or three curries for 30-40 THB / 70p / $1 which is a mega bargain. We ordered from the menu which was definitely more expensive especially when you're adding in the fun fake meat products but it was still pretty damn cheap.

Nick and I decided to share a few things because we were starving and couldn't make sensible ordering decisions. We eventually settled upon the Pad See Ew, the Vegan Chicken with Rice and a Mock Meat Selection.

A mock meat platter is ALWAYS a good idea, it means that you get to try all of the faux meaty options before deciding on a favourite. The pink imitation pork (your computer isn't making it look weird, that's the real colour) turned out to be the standout closely followed by the mock duck and the fried tofu. The chicken balls and fried mushrooms were okay but I think I prefer my faux meats without the batter. Pad See Ew is always a joy and this one was particularly good due to the variety of veggies and the generous amount of tofu. The chicken dish was just okay, a little dry, and not something I'd order again.

On our next visit we did the sharing thing again but this time with a stir fried rice, veg and mock meat dish that was super peppery and enjoyable.

We also ordered more faux pork. Vegetarian Rad Pork in fact! Who could say no to rad pork?!

It's up there with my fave' mock meats ever and I'd consider going back to Pai just to eat it. I kid. I'm never going back to Pai.

Art in Chai was another Happy Cow find and we enjoyed our time sitting outside drinking tea (Nick) and eating cake (both of us). Apparently the Chai is excellent which is good to hear because otherwise they picked the wrong moniker.

The chocolate cake had a dense crumb and was super chocolatey as was the fudge icing. I'd go as far as to say that it's some of the best chocolate cake I've eaten.

It's also what every single other person in the place was ordering which is always a good way to get a recommendation when you're somewhere new.

We did a lot of walking in Pai. I know that we'd have enjoyed the region more, and been able to check out highly rated vegan spot Earth Tone, if we'd been willing to rent a scooter but seriously 90% of the westerners riding scooters here are high / drunk / don't have licenses and we witnessed more than one accident including a terrifying moment where a woman drove past us, careered off of the road and down a ravine only narrowly escaping serious injury / death thanks to a well placed tree that she rode directly into. Terrifying.

This cat was one of my favourite things about Pai!

Fluid Pool is my top Pai recommendation, get there early if you want to avoid the crowds and the loud, and awful, music...I mean who's still seriously listening to Travis?! Barf. The 25m pool is super beautiful though and your 60THB / £1.20 / $1.80 gets you in for the whole day. I spent an enjoyable morning here swimming lengths, reading in the sun, and wishing that the rest of Pai was this peaceful.

Witching Well was our chosen spot for dinner on our last evening as it's right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of walking street and they label vegan stuff on the menu which is super helpful.

The service here was suspiciously fast, I got my pasta pesto faster than you can say pasta pesto. I have no hesitation suggesting that the food here is clearly pre-cooked and re-heated but it was fine.

Nick's roasted potatoes with seasonal vegetables were heavy on the veggies and light on the potatoes. He wasn't amused but I enjoyed stealing the majority of his veggies.

Pai and it's environs are pretty, that's for sure, but I can't help wondering how much the people living here can enjoy their small town being completely taken over by stoned hippies and traveller types. I don't think I saw more than a handful of Thai people doing anything other than working in town and when we ventured off of the beaten track to a more local market we were not greeted with friendliness. I'm sure Pai was quieter, nicer, better etc etc years ago but the tourist dollar seems to have completely engulfed the town which has surely destroyed some of the things that were great about it in the first place.

Before coming to Thailand I had an ever growing list of must-do activities and right at the top was "Take a Cooking Class", more specifically a May Kaidee cooking class, which had been recommended to me by two experts in the cuisine, Kip from Messy Vegetarian Cook and Jess of Get Sconed / Vida Vegan Con fame. There was only one small hiccup in my plan to take the class, last autumn I was diagnosed with an allergy to peppers. After almost two years of struggling with worsening joint pain issues that doctors were finally associating with my stomach / digestive concerns, a combination of tests and an elimination diet that saw me quitting potatoes for a month, resulted in me feeling a million times better. Almost as soon as I quit peppers, including chilli peppers and paprika as well as the classic bell pepper, I was able to exercise again, I could sit cross legged, I could type for more than five minutes at a time and I could walk up and down the stairs of my own house without being in excruciating pain. It was a pretty amazing transformation and after months and months of worry I was honestly pretty okay with the diagnosis - when words like Lupus are being thrown around an allergy doesn't seem so bad. But then I remembered Thailand. Thailand without chilli was surely going to be impossible / boring but there was no way I was cancelling or changing plans. This trip, and the beginning of a whole new life on the road, had been in the works for so damn long that nothing was going to hold me back. There have definitely been a few chilli mishaps resulting in some less than fun pain issues but on the whole I've been managing... I've been a little sad to have more of a limited eating scope because when you want to order the Thai green curry you can't just ask them to hold the chilli because it's the base of the dish, it would be impossible. I was basically totally over the moon when a quick e-mail exchange with May Kaidee confirmed that they'd be able to modify a class for me using peppercorns instead of chilli. Amazing. I could finally get stuck into Thai cuisine.

Nick and I showed up at the class not quite knowing what to expect and were greeted by Duan, May Kaidee's sister, at the meeting point just across from her restaurant Morning Glory. She's super friendly and a joy to be taught by and we dived straight into an introduction to the flavours needed to make some classic Thai dishes, minus the chilli of course! Kafir lime leaves. Galangal. Lemongrass. Garlic. Thai basil. Coriander. Lime. All flavours that I love but that have always been overpowered by chilli before. We used fresh green and red peppercorns to create something a little left of mainstream that was perfectly suited to me.

Next we met the veggies and I learnt some valuable chopping skills, I cook but I've never paid attention to the knife skills and now I can cut a squash with confidence. Pro tip: you need a crazy sharp knife, it does't even need to be that big, just sharp. Also am I the only vegan on earth that didn't know you could steam both pumpkin and potato?! I've always seen these as things that needed roasting, or boiling in the case of the potato. I am very excited to have learnt that there'll be a way for me to enjoy pumpkin whilst I'm living the van dwelling vegan hippy life this summer.

Apologies for this horrific picture, but how cool is that steamer?!

After a swift lesson in fresh peppercorn filled red and green curry pastes, the base of so many of the foods we created in class, we whipped up a quick batch of pumpkin hummus in the pestle and mortar.

I was blown away by the fact that we could create something so delicious so quickly and this feeling quickly became a constant during the class!

Pumpkin soup two ways came next followed by peanut sauce and fresh spring rolls. The spring rolls were filled with crunchy veggies and the freshest herbs and we ate them dipped in the peanut sauce. I've never worked with fresh spring roll wrappers before, they're definitely slightly superior texture wise, but Duan insisted that the dried kind we can find at home are a-ok.

Next up a fast Pad Thai and some fried veggies with cashew nuts. Again I was blown away by how fast these came together!

Soups were next and we created two variations of Tom Yam soup to illustrate how one small change of herb can greatly impact the flavours, as well as Tom Kha soup from one base recipe. The creamy Tom Kha was my favourite and I pretty much devoured the whole bowl right there and then.

Now I have pretty much never eaten curry, I've always been super sensitive to chilli (now I know why) so it's not something I've ever really enjoyed and when making curry at home I always just left out the chilli paste entirely and added a tiny splash of über mild chilli garlic sauce which, of course, resulted in super bland uninspiring dishes. We made both Masaman Curry and Green Thai Curry and whilst I enjoyed both dishes the Green Thai Curry blew me away with it's depth of flavour. I've always been a pumpkin fan so I guess it's no surprise that this was my favourite but it was so good that I've been craving it almost constantly ever since.

We went on to make a beautiful fresh crunchy Green Papaya Salad, something else I've always wanted to try, and not one but two desserts. Mango Sticky Rice and Pumpkin in Sweet Coconut Milk. My pictures of these are best left in my iPhoto library rather than out there in the world but rest assured that they were delicious.

The class was an absolute joy and I'm adding myself to the chorus of endorsers. At the time of booking I wasn't aware that we'd be in a class on our own or that we'd be cooking in a real restaurant kitchen rather than a test kitchen set up for students and I'm not sure if these things are the norm or the luck of the draw.

As we decided to hang around Chiang Mai for just a little longer we were lucky not to have to miss the amazing food we cooked for too long because a day later we paid another visit to Morning Glory for dinner where Duan thankfully still had fresh peppercorns knocking around. She was able to make us another perfect Green Thai Curry and she even insisted I come back into the kitchen again to help pound the green peppercorn paste!

It's perfection in a bowl and I finally understand what people have been raving about all this time. I can't wait until I have a kitchen again so that I can make Green Thai Curry over and over.

We also ate fried and fresh Spring Rolls with the latter being served with Peanut Sauce.

I looooved the tomato based peanut sauce we whipped up in class and this one was no different, I could eat it by the spoonful but I think a fresh spring roll is probably a more polite instrument! The fried rolls were great too but I'm totally on team fresh if you're going to make me choose.

Morning Glory is definitely on my must-visit list for Chiang Mai and the class, as well as being a whole lot of fun, was a totally transformative experience for me. Ten out of ten!

Well, I finally left Thailand! I wrote this whilst I was in Laos and now I'm hitting publish from Vietnam. Phew! Apologies for getting a little behind with the blogging from the road thang but terrible wifi connections followed by a bad cold and a two day long migraine killed my blogging mojo. I think having to get a flight from Luang Prabang to Hanoi with a migraine might just have been my worst travel experience ever. Bright airport lights, dealing with people, the worst turbulence I've ever felt... it wasn't a great day. Back to the fun side of my travels though, let's talk Laos!

Rather than choosing the (probably sensible) option of travelling from Chiang Mai via bus and slow boat to Luang Prabang Nick and I decided to get one overnight train to Bangkok and then another overnight train (that same night) to Vientiane. Well to Nong Khai really where we changed to a train bound for Thanalang where we grabbed a tuk tuk to Vientiane. So many steps in that journey! A whole lot of things played into this decision, firstly I get incredibly bus sick so I wanted to minimise the amount of bus travel I had to deal with and secondly we were planning on going from Luang Prabang onto Hanoi so going from Luang Prabang down to Vientiane and back again just seemed silly. Lastly the idea of spending two days on the deck of a slow boat when it was hitting 40˚C most days just didn't sound all that fun. I get that travel is sometimes all about the journey and from all accounts the slow boat is a great way to see the countryside but I know myself well enough to know when I'm just going to be putting myself through 48 hours of hating everything.

What probably tipped this idea over the edge from a thought to a full blown plan is that I loooove taking the train, it's always so much fun and these journeys were no exception. Apparently I'm like some kinda human tourist attraction over here, everywhere I go people stop me and ask to have their picture taken with me... it felt awkward at first especially as when it first happened I tried to take the ladies' camera off of her to take a picture of her when what she wanted was a picture of me. Ooops! Anyway, now I'm just rolling with it and Nick's trying to take pictures of all of the people taking pictures with me. So meta. Even these law enforcement dudes got in on the action!

Nick's blinking was kinda ruining this already outs focus picture so I've starred him out. I'm ruthless like that! Oh and he wants me to let y'all know that he didn't ask me to do that!

One of the main places Nick and I were interested in visiting during our stay in Vientiane was the COPE Visitor Centre. COPE are an organisation who help people with disabilities by providing them with prosthetics and orthotics as well as physical and occupational therapy.

We learnt a lot about the UXO (unexploded ordnance) problem in rural Laos during our morning at the museum. I knew a little bit about it already from reading Nick's sister's friend Ant's book A Short Ride in the Jungle last year but I hadn't realised the full extent of the problem or delved into the effects on real people like those I read about in the exhibits at the museum. A lot of the people hurt by UXO are children as they are often used to seeing parts of bombs in their day to day lives, perhaps repurposed as a kitchen implement or other household item, so when they see them whilst they're working or playing they can often pick them up resulting in horrific injuries. One of the things COPE is committed to is educating kids in rural areas about the dangers of UXO with their outreach and education programme. They also help to support MAG (the Mines Advisory Group) who travel all over the country carrying out controlled explosions on unexploded cluster bombs.

If you'd like to Stand Up For COPE with me you can help by writing to your government and asking them to sign the Convention of Cluster Munitions to ban cluster bombs (if they haven't already, the UK has), by donating via the website (or even buying a leg), or by visiting COPE whilst you're in Vientiane and then spreading the word once you're home or via social media. I know that a lot of people believe that charitable giving should be some silent behind-closed-doors thing but often getting the word out about a charity or an issue is as important as whatever donation you can make. I know that I've discovered so many great causes through blogs and via the people I follow on social media.

To keep myself going on my adventures around Vientiane I, of course, sought out some delicious vegan eats. I actually got a little obsessed with Reunion Cafe and ended up eating there at least once a day. This friendly little spot is definitely one of those vegan gems that takes you a little off of the well worn tourist path which is a bonus. The first thing I had to try was the Pad See Ew, which, if you've been reading about the trip so far, shouldn't be a big surprise.

It was delicious, I really don't think you can go wrong with Pad See Ew. The Duck Teriyaki became one of both mine and Nick's favourite dishes at the cafe and we ordered it over and over again. Saucy delicious mock meat over rice. What more could you want?!

I also branched out on our final day in the city and tried the Tofu in Special Sauce and I totally wished I'd ordered it sooner, it was delicious and tofu is my faaaave.

Fried sides were another must at Reunion and and I tried both the Deep Fried Fish and the Grilled Chicken.

If you're a mock meat fan one thing you have to order at Reunion Cafe is the Grilled Chicken. My photo doesn't really do it justice but this stuff is creepily real right down to the "skin". If reading that grossed you out you definitely shouldn't order it! The reminiscence to the chicken my parents used to barbecue for my brother and I on summer weekends was eerie. I loved it!

Oh and if you want something bland and crunchy to snack on (which I often do!) then this place has you covered. These crispy things, that's totally their real name (it isn't!), are yummy. My guess would be that they're a vegan take on pork scratchings but way less disgusting.

There was plenty to see on our whirlwind tour of the city from the Victory Gate, which was built with American funds and cement donated to Laos to help them build a new airport hence it's nickname "The Vertical Runway", to the many wats dotted about the place.

It was definitely an interesting city to explore mainly because it was so incredibly different from anywhere else I'd ever been. As well as exploring I did some chores whilst I was in town, that's one of the big differences between a short trip and this travel thing just being my life now - I need to try to fit in things like exercise and cutting and dying my hair alongside the fun times. Nick and I sorted out our Vietnamese visas because it takes 24(ish) hours in Vientiane compared to three days in Luang Prabang, we went to the gym (I loved the brand new machines and the large rooftop pool at Sengdara Fitness) and payed a visit to the local swimming pool which was a wonderful peek into life in Vientiane.

It was hot, hot, hot in the city and this is clearly where all of the local kids come to cool off. The place was rammed. Aside from a mixed group of kids from a French Korean school who were attempting a swimming class we were definitely the only westerners taking a dip. I kept the majority of my clothes on as I would have felt super out of place even in my pretty modest one piece. I didn't get any lengths in but it was fun nonetheless, watching kids dive-bombing and splashing about in hoodies and jeans was pretty cool.

Another decent spot for vegan eats in the city is Noy's Fruit Heaven. Their mango shakes were a favourite of ours and I can't resist sharing this picture that Nick photobombed. He does this a lot whilst I'm taking food pictures!

The falafel sandwich was our go-to order because their pita bread was oh so fresh and delicious and I hadn't eaten chips for a while. I've heard that the fresh spring rolls are good too but you need to remember to order them without the egg.

Joma was another regular stop because they had the holy trifecta of air con, wifi and soya milk. Perfect. I'm pretty sure that Joma is the most westernised coffee shop in all of Laos but as someone who can only handle a latte I needed to find somewhere with vegan soya milk.

I can't really comment on the quality of the coffee because this was my first time dipping my toe back into the caffeine pool since, oh, 2011? Caffeine hasn't always had the best effect on me but I wanted to give it another whirl as sitting in the window of a coffee shop watching the world go by seems like a nice way to pass time in a new city. I also think that my palate is becoming more sophisticated as I age because I didn't even need to add sugar!

This is the soya milk they use at Joma. Did you know that a lot of soya milk in Asia contains dairy? I didn't until I was researching my trip to Japan last year and it's the reason why I sometimes break my Starbucks boycott when I'm travelling here - they're one of the few places I trust to have vegan soya milk. Sadly none of the food at Joma is vegan but it's still an excellent place to stop, take a load off and, if you're also blogging from the road, write.

Snack wise Vientiane had us covered with a scattering of air conditioned marts. I found all of these goodies in Homeideal on Rue Hengboun I didn't pick any of these up because of my ever growing snack pile (coming up!) but they're all vegan and I am totally kicking myself for not buying the apple pie cookies, they're actually a UK import but I've never seen them there.

One treat I did grab was this pack of Oat Krunch cookies from M-Point Mart which have to be the most exciting accidentally vegan treat I've found in a while. I almost always pick up one wildcard item when I'm in a new store in a new country, city or town. That one thing I spot and think "Wouldn't it be so cool if these were vegan?". Quite often this ends in laughter at my own hopefulness as I read out the myriad non-vegan ingredients to Nick but sometimes, sometimes I hit the jackpot!

Not only were these cookies delicious but they were also individually wrapped! Individually wrapped stuff is often a bit of a peeve at home as I hate the waste but when you're travelling individually packaged items are a major win. Mainly because you can stash them in every available space in your luggage rather than trying to find space for one large item.

This brand of crisps was another M-Point Mart find, crab shaped and seaweed flavoured these became a firm favourite pretty fast. Before my trip to Thailand I kept hearing about all of the vegan seaweed flavoured crisps (or chips!) I'd be finding on my travels but this is the first time I've seen any that had the seasonings broken down by ingredient. My trip to Japan taught me that with something seaweed flavoured the seasonings often contain fish bits, gross.

There is one small health food store in Vientiane if you're after snacks that hover at the healthy end of the spectrum or if, like me, you just want to support a small business. Agroasie is located at the end of Chao Anou Road right near the night market but I popped down one morning to check it out. The shelves aren't exactly heaving with product but they do have a decent selection of organic fruit and veg as well as skincare products (look out for beeswax) and snacks. I just grabbed these GrainNY bars which were a little too healthy tasting and low sugar to be a repeat purchase but they were okay.

I'll leave you with this street kitty and next time I'll be back with stories and pictures from my time in Vang Vieng. Spoiler alert - it might be billed as a party town but it's so much better than Pai!

The bus ride between Vientiane and Vang Vieng was certainly less harrowing than the one I took to Pai a little earlier in my South East Asian adventure but I still didn't love it despite enjoying the company of a group of fun and chatty youngsters (oh gawd, I just typed youngsters! Does that mean I'm old?!) from Taiwan. It was great to be dropped off at our guesthouse this time too because, and trust me here, navigating anywhere after taking anti sickness meds is hard. They make you so sleepy! I stayed at the Laos Haven Hotel which is on one of the main roads but at the end away from all of the bars which was why Nick and I picked it. This was the view from our balcony. Wowza.

Despite the fog it totally took my breath away and I knew I was going to like Vang Vieng. We had an incredibly laid back first day in town, mainly chilling out in one of the many Friends bars, yeah, you read that right, dotted around town. Vang Vieng is a very traveller orientated town and what do travellers like to do? Lounge around eating, drinking beer and watching TV apparently. After two whole months away from TV I couldn't resist. Friends is one of my favourite shows and these places also sell fresh mango shakes. Yum town!

That evening I watched the sun set from the balcony and marvelled at the fact that the sky can be such a ridiculous colour. So pretty.

Our hotel were pretty wonderful when it came to breakfast and they happily whipped us up some egg free fried rice (it was already meat/fish sauce free) to go with the vegan baguettes, jam and bananas that were available. This is definitely going above and beyond what most of the places we've stayed at so far have managed.

They did the same with a noodle dish the next morning which was a great start to the day. If your hotel has breakfast included in the room rate I'd definitely recommend letting them know your dietary requirements either in advance via email or at check in, that way they have time to help you if they want to and you have nothing to lose, you're paying for it anyway! Laos Haven also have a pair of pretty kitties living at the hotel. They weren't into being petted but they were beautiful to look at and enjoyed playing with our keys and headphone cords whilst we were checking in!

On our first full day in Vang Vieng we got up semi-early to beat the crowds going tubing. Our guide book said that the party on the river starts around midday so we figured 10am would be a better time to go and we were so right!

After a couple of false starts Nick and I managed to get our shit together so that we were tubing in-sync rather than floating quickly downstream meters apart. It's actually surprisingly hard to do and involved me falling out of my tube and Nick holding onto a bridge for dear life waiting for me to catch up. I am not coordinated at all so I'll bet this was pretty hilarious to watch!

Once we'd mastered holding onto each others tubes / hands we spent the most gorgeous few hours tubing down the river. Vang Vieng is SO stunning and I can't believe anyone thinks that drinking at the bars dotted along the river is a necessary or enhancing part of this experience.

Vegan food wise Vang Vieng is pretty meh but you aren't going to starve. We pretty much just ate at Veggie Tables, the only veg spot in town, every time we fancied cooked food and otherwise relied on fruit and snacks from local marts.

We tried a couple of Thai dishes for dinner one night, a fried rice dish and this noodle dish with veggies and mushrooms.

These were both filling but kinda bland, heavy on the rice / noodles and pretty light on the veggies. The falafel and pita plate we tried there was okay, good bread, semi-decent hummus and it's best that we don't talk about the falafel themselves.

This breakfast plate turned out to be the best thing they make IMO which is not a great compliment when the meal in question involves heating up packaged food.

I do love a veggie sausage though and this was good fuel for mine and Nick's afternoon adventure to the Blue Lagoon. Our tuk tuk journey there was fun and it was enjoyable going through villages and peeking into local life. If it had been less hot we'd definitely have rented mountain bikes to do the 7km journey.

The blue lagoon is fun from a people watching perspective and less fun from an actually swimming perspective. There really isn't any room to swim because there are people freaking everywhere!

I bobbed about in the water for a bit whilst I mustered the courage to join in with the excitement of jumping off of the tree's branches into the water.

Everyone was doing it, small kids, older Chinese tourists, people who clearly couldn't swim, women in cute dresses who'd just kick off their shoes, throw their handbags on the ground and go for it, but I'm still a bit of a wuss when it comes to anything involving water. It probably took me about an hour to work up the courage! I was super glad that I did it though, mainly because it proves that I'm chipping away at my water phobia bit by bit. I'm remembering to be proud of that rather than annoyed that I haven't plucked up the courage to learn to dive yet. I'll get there!

One minor phobia I've nailed is going to the hairdresser! I couldn't justify bringing my clippers along on this trip because I'm only travelling with a hand luggage sized backpack so I've had to brave a couple of barbers along the way. I'm glad my hairstyle's pretty low maintenance!

Post-hair cut street snacks, this actually might have been the best thing I ate in Vang Vieng. I love corn on the cob and this was super simple, straight up BBQ'd, husks on, no embellishments. Yum.

I would definitely recommend swinging through Vang Vieng if you're travelling in Laos. Even if participating in abhorrent drinking culture isn't your thing (one bar actually has a sign outside that says "Drink Triple, See Double, Act Single". Gross.) the natural beauty of the area is unmissable and it seems far less destroyed by tourism than Pai in Thailand. I'll be back next time with my take on Luang Prabang and some tips on how to get there from Vang Vieng in the least barf inducing way. Oh and, speaking of barf inducing things, if you've been following my adventures in getting sick abroad on Instagram I'm totally getting better and hope to be continuing the adventure soon!

Time for some real talk, Luang Prabang is freaking beautiful. If you were only going to check out one place in Laos this would be my recommendation. No hesitation. We arrived here fresh off of a mini bus from Vang Vieng and were immediately under the impression that we'd left the best of Laos 'til last.

Backtracking a just a little Nick and I managed to find THE BEST way to get from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. Most of the mini busses and all of the regular sized busses are still taking the old road between the two but we managed to find a couple of companies that run one or two busses a day to Luang Prabang using the newly resurfaced road that forks left instead of right about halfway through the journey. This cuts out a huge swathe of road that's full of potholes, hairpin bends, huge drops and is prone to landslides. I'm so happy that we discovered it! We booked the 9am Japanese bus (it has seat belts!) from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang with a tour operator on Ban Savang. (Directions: Starting at the place you rent tubes from because everyone knows it walk towards the river, follow the road around to the right past a few air conditioned mini marts and two bars showing Friends and it's there on the right opposite the Domon Guesthouse.) I would strongly suggest that it's the only way to do this journey! Everyone I've ever spoken to or read about who's taken the other road has hated it, why would you do that to yourself?!

Back to Luang Prabang and the first place Nick and I ate was Indigo Cafe which we chose because they actually have a vegan page in their menu.

Whilst our first visit was farcical due to a huge language barrier between us and our waiter, who kept bringing us beer no matter how many times we asked for water, the food we ate hit the spot. Nick went with the Indigo Fried Noodles, no egg, which is a little like a room temperature pad thai and, despite the silly plating, is apparently tasty enough to order more than once.

I wanted something that I could be assured didn't have chilli so I chose the Khoa Khng Taohu which is a coconut based sauté flavoured with ginger and lemongrass.

This was actually kinda bland the first time I ate it and then intensely gingery the second time around. The third time I ordered it my cold was so bad that I couldnt really taste anything but it made great comfort food. On our final visit I decided to branch out and try the Lap Hmak Kheua with no chilli which kinda worked in that the chilli was there on the side and I could move it.

Now from what I know about the traditional Laotian minced meat salad Larb I think that this was Indigo Cafe's vegan take on it. I was excited to have finally found somewhere I could try it sans chilli and it was definitely enjoyable, it came with a side of rice but I wished there had been more lettuce to make little crunchy salad pouches with!

I had been warned by a Happy Cow reviewer to avoid the spring rolls as they were served a pork filled variety and I can definitely see how that mix up could happen here, the menu item "spring rolls" is in both the meat and vegan sections of the menu and, having been in a hidden pork situation before years ago, I decide to skip them.

As with almost every other city I've visited in Laos or Thailand there are beautiful Buddhist temples and Monasteries all over the place. The French influenced architecture is gorgeous too and there's a really special feel about the city. I don't really know how to explain it, it's kinda peaceful whilst being busy and despite being packed full of tourists it didn't seem like they were over-running the city and ruining everything. I might have felt differently about this if I hadn't decided to skip watching the monks receiving alms early in the mornings, the more I read about how they feel about this tradition and how much tourists have ruined it I just didn't want to play any part in it. Not everything is for westerners to gawp over.

We chose our hotel really well, it was in the perfect location right by the morning market which is just one street south of the night market. It was also right by Wat Mai at one end of the street and the Mekong at the other. Lao Lu Lodge has cute rooms which are a little noisy in the mornings but they have air con and everyone working at the hotel was super lovely. After we extended our stay we ended up in a twin room which was kinda cute and turned out to be a good thing when I got sick during our last couple of days!

Breakfast every day was bread and jam with fresh fruit and juice. I usually subsidised this with Peanut Butter from my stash or something from one of the many juice spots around the corner.

The night market quickly became our go-to for dinner once we'd realised that you can't rock up 30 minutes before closing and expect there to be any food left. This all vegan buffet is a fill your plate as high as you can deal and it costs 10,000 kip which is about 80p / $1. Crazy.

First night plate, I think I did a pretty good job of piling my plate high with delicious noodle dishes, tofu dishes, rice and deep fry. They even had deep fried bread. Like, battered and fried. It was great! I think my second night plate was more impressive though.

I really enjoyed their fresh spring rolls, the macaroni style pasta dish, the steamed butternut squash and the veggie fried rice. Oh and the deep fried bread of course. I didnt take third or fourth night pictures because we ended up there after dark but rest assured that I made the most of the buffet! If spicy food is your jam then everything here will probably be a little bland but they have you sorted and the long communal tables have a variety of hot sauces for you to choose from.

Just down the road at the beginning of the street the night market is on is a whole row of juice and baguette sandwich places. We came here a lot so that we could offset the deep fry with 80p fruit juices. Our favourite stall was Nancy's whose stall we went back to over and over both in the evenings and at breakfast.

Both the Apple, Lime and Mint and my own off-menu creation, Orange and Mango, were my favourites and Nick loved Orange and Pineapple.

Our week in Luang Prabang was totally like doing a juice cleanse just one where you intersperse the juices with deep fried bread. I think this could totally catch on.

I don't often drink booze but I find it hard to resist quirky bars and drinks that are delicious so when the two come together I tend to cave. As soon as I spotted a mojito on the menu of this pop up bar in the middle of the night market I couldn't resist.

Yum town.

Food and drink aside Luang Prabang's environs are gorgeous and we knew we had to take a trip out to Kuang Si Falls because holy wow is this place gorgeous. It totally lived up to every picture I'd seen of it on the internet, it makes the Blue Lagoon from my last post look like a random puddle.

You reach the falls via a trail and even thought the first two pools look beautiful keep going all the way to the bridge. It just gets more gorgeous. You can swim in the majority of the pools although some are closed because they're sacred sights.

This was yet anther place where other tourists wanted to take pictures with me, this lady was hilarious. She'd just taken about a million highly posed pictures on her own and then she insisted that I joined her!

Another reason to visit Kuang Si falls is that right there at the entrance is Tat Kuang Si bear rescue centre. Now I didn't take many bear pictures, certainly none that are good enough to share, because I was far too busy squeaking internally to focus my iPhone. This place is small but really wonderful.

Tat Kuang Si bear rescue is run by Free the Bears and is a haven for both Malaysian Sun Bears and Asiatic Black Bears who have been rescued from the illegal bear bile trade which I didn't know a whole lot about before my visit. Nick and I were actually really lucky because we arrived at just the right time to watch two bears playing together in a small pool. At one point one of the bears left and came back with a snack for their bear friend. It was an amazing moment to witness especially knowing what kind of lives the bears would otherwise have been living if Free the Bears hadn't intervened. Laos Free the Bears work really hard to improve the effectiveness of the response towards the illegal wildlife trade which is sadly still rife in Laos as well as working to increase environmental awareness among local communities and school kids. If you're in a place to help a bear in need you can make a donation here.

Overall I really enjoyed travelling through Laos, as a country it was super different to anywhere I'd been before and I definitely found some aspects, like the fact that there isn't a train system, challenging but it's totally a good thing to push your boundaries now and again to see which things are just deal breakers. I also liked that every place we visited was totally different from the last which kept me on my toes and made the whole journey super interesting.

Despite spending almost two weeks in Hanoi I was sick for almost the entire time which a) totally sucked and b) means that I have far less fun stuff to tell you about than if I'd been on top of my eating 'n exploring game. So sad! I've never really been sick whilst travelling before and it was definitely challenging. It was the first time since leaving Brighton that I wished I had a home to go back to... one with fluffy blankets and my panda and a fridge full of comfort food. I actually left Luang Prabang with what I thought was the end of a cold which morphed into an intense headache at the (very brightly lit) airport. That calmed a little and I managed to pop out and eat and then boom, food poisoning that lasted a whole week. I ended up visiting a doctor at Family Medical Practice who ran some tests and confirmed that as well as food poisoning I also had a sinus infection. Both are apparently common amongst westerners in Hanoi because of both food hygiene and air quality issues. I feel pretty lucky that this happened in a city where bottled water and vegan baguettes are easy to come by and I was super grateful that we'd chosen to stay somewhere with air con. We actually upgraded to a bigger, nicer and less damp room after six nights because I literally couldn't handle staring at the same four walls any longer!

During those first few hours where I felt okay enough to explore Nick and I walked around a small section of the city. We checked out the Old Quarter and Hoàn Kiem Lake where Nick bought me a balloon to cheer me up! I love balloons!

We ate at Zenith Yoga Cafe about 24 hours before I got sick and I'm pretty sure it was their salad rolls that got me because they were literally the only thing that I'd eaten and Nick hadn't for days. The service there was awful too (and I'm British so trust me, I'm used to a certain level of crappy service!) and Nick said that his burger tasted like it had been grilled the day before and then microwaved. I assumed he was exaggerating and took a bite and had to agree, it was the kind of thing that I'd have thrown away if I'd made it at home! It was such a shame because Zenith is a cute, chilled out space in the midst of a loud and busy city and it could have been a nice place to spend more time. It was also the only all veg place super close to where we were staying so it was definitely frustrating that I didn't trust their food enough to venture back there. We also managed to check out Bo De Chay where we shared one order of Salted Chicken with a side of white rice and another of Seafood Spring Rolls. Neither dish was what we were expecting but they were enjoyable none-the-less.

Despite not being able to eat anything other than plain baguette for three whole days I did manage to pop out for some walks around the neighbourhood. We were staying in the Old Quarter so the streets were bustling at all times of day with motorbikes and street vendors.

Did I mention that I love balloons? Seeing whole bunches of them being transported is my fave'.

These train tracks run right inbetween the houses, so close.

Once I was feeling 95% again (it took another week or so for my appetite and energy levels to hit 100% again!) Nick and I knew we only had two days left so we needed to prioritise! We went on one whirlwind sightseeing day fuelled by the blandest food we could find for my poor stomach, the veggie fried rice with tofu from Cari Truong in the Old Quarter which, whilst not being the best food ever, was a great option. Oh and if you can sit on the balcony upstairs it's a really fun place to watch the world go by whilst you enjoy your meal.

The next day we met up with Cici from Vietnamese + Vegan. I love meeting other vegans when I travel and I discovered Cici's blog thanks to a guest post she wrote for Vegan Miam. Coincidentally I just wrote a guest post for her too proving that it really is a small vegan world! We met up at Loving Hut because it's one of the few places that you can be guaranteed some fun Vietnamese eats minus the animal products. Cici ordered some Bánh Xèo for us to share as well as some delicious fresh spring rolls that I forgot to photograph. Nick and I also couldn't resist the Beef Pho.

The Pho was delicious, I like mine with plenty of lime squeezed in, but the Bánh Xèo was the star of the show. The Vietnamese pancake is stuffed with lightly cooked veggies and mock chicken and you pop a piece of that and some salad leaves and herbs into a rice flour pancake before dipping it into the mock fish sauce to get the full on taste sensation. So delicious.

After lunch we took a walk to West Lake where Cici introduced us to Bò Bía Ngot (my computer just won't do the proper i in bia but you can see it below) which are simple rice flour pancakes filled with pulled sugar, toasted coconut and black sesame seeds. We stopped and watched to make sure this was what was going into the rolls (My googling tells me that there are also non-vegan savoury Bo Bia) and then went for it.

This is one treat that is more delicious than the sum of it's parts. I am genuinely quite sad that I discovered these on my last day in Hanoi and have been looking out for them ever since.

Cici also told us about bánh rán mat which are Vietnamese doughnuts filled with mung bean paste sold by street vendors all over the Old Quarter.

The salespeople can be a little pushy and we found it impossible to stop the woman we were dealing with from putting a non vegan fried pineapple thing into our bag. These were incredibly sweet and whilst I'm not at all averse to a sugar hit these were a little much. If I'd had the chance I would have liked to try their sesame covered counterparts bánh rán vùng which I would assume would be a little less sugartastic.

I also found some decent things to snack on in Hanoi, this haul was from QT Mart (such an adorable name!) on Pho Quán Thánh just down the road from the Loving Hut. Peanut Butter is quickly becoming one of my travel essentials especially in a country where the baguettes are almost always vegan. Nick also found some of his fave' accidentally vegan Lindt chocolate.

The biscuits pictured are on the not-too-sweet side and are flavoured with butter aroma which I hate the smell of but they made a great kinda bland snack. Nuts are always a vegan mainstay (cashews forever!) and Nick and I were both excited to find these Oreo Wafers (the pink filled one's aren't vegan but these are) and some knock off Pringles-style crisps which turned out to be kinda gross because sugar shouldn't be in crisps. We also grabbed cereal and soy milk from the Intimex supermarket by Hoàn Kiem Lake.

On our last night we popped out to vegan friendly restaurant Aubergine for dinner where I obviously had to order the fried aubergine with garlic.

This place was on the expensive side for Hanoi but it was still really cheap from a western perspective, the portions were large and delivered exactly what the menu description said they would which is something I always appreciate. Everyone there spoke ridiculously good English so we had quite a lot of options as they were able to understand veganism and could have modified dishes from all over the menu not just from the vegetarian section. The slightly caramelised and super tender aubergine was delicious and I really wished I hadn't only discovered it on my final night in the city.

I was a little sad to be saying goodbye to Hanoi just as I felt that I was getting to know it but cleaner air and adventure were calling us and we decided to make our way to Cat Ba Island. To get there we took the train from Long Biên station in Hanoi to Hai Phong, walked across town to the port and then took the fast boat to Cat Ba.

The whole journey was surprisingly simple and problem free despite a screaming child in the seat behind me on the train kicking me in the back for three whole hours followed by my realisation that I hate hydrofoils (it got super bumpy as soon as we hit open waters) about 10 minutes into the crossing. Once we arrived on Cat Ba we checked out the beaches and then booked a day trip on a boat out to Halong Bay which was something I'd wanted to do for so long, more on that next time!

I'd been dreaming of visiting Halong Bay for years before visiting Vietnam. It was high up on the must-do list for this trip, my first ever to South East Asia, but for some reason I hadn't really thought about the logistics. One of the things I've discovered about long term travel is that you kinda have to plan as you're going along which is a huge change from my usual super well researched three week sojourns to countries around the world. There really is only much planning you can get done in advance when the length of your trip is indefinite and this is especially true if you're also in the midst of packing up / selling everything you own and saying "See ya later" to most of the people you love. This meant that a few days before Nick and I were due to leave Hanoi I started frantically googling trips to Halong Bay and wowza, they're expensive! Not ridiculously so, on a short trip we coulda made it work, but the prices were way outa the ballpark for our new lives as a full time travellers. The majority of the trips were also overnight (I get SO sea sick) and included visiting pearl farms and fishing villages as well as providing all meals. I really wanted to find a way for us to do this without compromising our ethics or paying for a trip that included meals and ending up hiding our cabin scarfing Clif bars after another unsatisfying meal of plain steamed rice. I found one company, Indochina Junk, who said they could cater to vegans and who we would definitely have taken the trip with if we were working with a more generous budget; even with their 20% media promotions package discount it was still well out of our price bracket so we moved onto the next idea. We eventually settled on basing ourselves on Cat Ba island (there's even a veg spot listed there on Happy Cow) and taking a day tour with Cat Ba Ventures, one of the companies recommended in Lonely Planet, to both Lan Ha Bay and Halong Bay.

The day began at Cat Ba Ventures centrally located office at 8:30am sharp where everyone from our small tour group collected their complimentary 1.5L bottles of water before hopping into a mini van for the short journey to the pier. We were almost the only people who hadn't also brought along copious amounts of whisky and wine which I honestly found a bit baffling. Yet again I found myself asking the question "Why does everything have to revolve around booze?!". I do drink alcohol but I can't comprehend why everything has to be all about it all the damn time. Ugh. There was also free coffee but soya lattes aside I'm still not sold on the whole caffeine buzz thing.

We were soon sailing away from Cat Ba and out into the dramatic limestone karst filled seascape.

First we first passed through a floating fishing village located just off the island. It seems that every single tour in the area goes through a floating fishing village but we were assured that we wouldn't have to deal with any awkward "having to turn down seafood in someone's home" moments and this turned out to be true. I also chose this tour because it didn't stop at a pearl farm something that it's even harder to explain your objections to than the meat industry! The boat did stop at one floating house / fishery to pick up our kayaks and people were able to get off of the boat and look around the guy's small fish farm if they wanted to.

Nick and I did hop off of the boat because there was a cute dog and I just had to pet him! We learnt that the dogs that live in the floating fishing villages are treated better than a lot of dogs in Vietnam because the people there have no need to use them for food, enjoy having them around for protection and see them as part of the family, There was a great moment when we were sailing by and I saw some pups jumping from house to house to play with each other.

Once we'd collected our kayaks the boat continued through the stunning seascape and I soon realised that we'd totally lucked out with our tour guide because he used to be a teacher. That meant that he knew a whole lot about rocks which may not sound that great but I loved geeking out and learning how the karsts were formed and the differences between a grotto and a cave. Yeah, I know that that's kinda basic shit but I didn't pay much attention during geography at school because my teacher was a total arsehole.

The karsts were beautiful and I loved gazing out at them from the top deck of the boat. The morning mist made me feel a little like I was in some kinda old world pirate adventure which was pretty cool.

Once we were far enough out in the bay we hopped off of the boat to do a spot of kayaking through some grottos. Our guide prided himself on being a bit of a renegade but also having a lot of local knowledge and understanding of the tides which meant that we went through grottos with signs saying stuff like "DANGER DO NOT ENTER"! I was a little unsure about this at first but his explanations made total sense so I went with it and it was super cool. We ended up exploring some secluded lagoons that were super peaceful and free from boats and other tour groups.

The person in the back of the kayak had to be the torch wearer and I think Nick looks rather fetching in a massive head torch!

This was the first time I'd ever been in a sit in kayak, it was a lot easier to hop into from the ladder of a boat than a sit on kayak but I think they're harder to deal with if you end up capsizing. Luckily we avoided that disaster but we did manage to get stuck on a huge rock at one point which was pretty silly, we were bringing up the rear of a small group (our kayaking group halved after about an hour because the whisky was calling) and nobody noticed that we were stuck! Thankfully Nick's great at staying calm in a crisis and managed to get us off of the rock and back to the boat in time for lunch, what a legend!

Lunch itself was a tad uninspiring but with about 12 hours notice I wasn't expecting a whole lot. We were sat at a table with some meat eaters and I couldn't get any non-meaty pic's but we ate deep fried tofu, steamed white rice, sautéed potatoes, mushrooms with sesame seeds and some of the worst spring rolls I've ever eaten. Seriously, I didn't know it was possible to screw up a spring roll that much! Oh and there were bananas. It was fine though and I didn't need to dig into my emergency snacks so I'm calling it a vegan win.

Towards the end of the day we had time to do a spot of swimming and some lounging on this secluded patch of sand, the water was a little cool and choppy due both to the time of year and global warming so I didn't spend a tonne of time in the water but it was nice to ease my diminishing but nevertheless always present sea sickness by hopping off of the boat again!

The only small issue I had with this trip was that because of the lower than average price and the fact that the tour group are mentioned in the Lonely Planet South East Asia on a Shoestring guide book a lot of the other people taking the tour were booze focussed 20-something year old Western backpackers. There's definitely enough space on the boat to get a little distance from this malarky but it's a downside I feel is worth mentioning. Overall though I definitely rate the experience I had on the trip and I'd recommend the one day Lan Ha to Halong Bay sailing and kayaking expedition as a good budget friendly (632,826 VND / $29 / £20) way to check out the area.

I really started to bond with Vietnam during my time in Hue, the air seemed clearer there than in Hanoi, it was certainly less humid and I was finally feeling 100% again. Yay! It was still ridiculously hot every day of course, it hit 38˚C on the day we explored the Imperial City, but when there's exploring to do you have to push through it, ignore the sweat running down your back, and get out there!

The vegan food sitch' in Hue was pretty damned amazing, we just kept getting hit after hit and we didn't even come close to checking out all of the options the city has to offer. First up was Quan Chay Tam Thien which we chose because of it's proximity to the Imperial City. The change in atmosphere couldn't have been much greater though, as soon as we stepped out of the north east gate and crossed the road away from the taxis and cyclos vying for our business we were in a quiet local neighbourhood dotted with houses and street stands selling banh mi sandwiches. There were no other tourists anywhere which was a nice change from being surrounded by tour groups tramping in unison all over the imperial city itself.

The menu was, of course, only in Vietnamese but we picked really well and ended up with a noodle dish and a fried pancake thing that was ridiculously delicious.

The noodle dish was my favourite part of the meal and I was actually grateful that the owner was happy to get all up in my business to show me how to eat it. I poured on some sesame sauce, she poured on more sesame sauce, I nibbled on a mouthful of noodles, she took my chopsticks, mixed the whole plate up for me and made me try again so that I got a mouthful with noodles, peanuts, tofu, lettuce, coriander, basil and faux prawn crackers. It was wonderful. She genuinely seemed to love having two clueless foreigners in her restaurant and I wish that we'd had a chance to return. One day.

We were still a little stuffed from our late lunch by the time dinner rolled around so we opted to stop off at Bo De during our evening promenade along the south bank of the Perfume River. Oddly certain parts of this walk reminded us of London's South Bank with pavement cafes and book stalls lining the walkway but of course it was incredibly different in pretty much every other way imaginable.

We went for a couple of super simple tofu dishes at Bo De because I just looove tofu. The steamed tofu with salt, pepper and lime was my fave' because it's so simple and so damn good. I'm pretty sure tofu's my favourite food. I genuinely don't know what I'd do without it. It's super versatile and whilst I don't often nibble on it raw I'm totally happy to which I am fully aware makes me a little odd even in the vegan world. I read this great article about the health benefits of soy foods, including tofu, written by The Vegan RD the other day, I haaaate it when people talk about how unhealthy soy products are because I know that that's some straight up bullshit but until now I'd never armed myself with enough facts to rebut people's stupidity. Now I have all of the facts so tofu haters can come at me with their frankly ridiculous questions about soy boobs and I can kill their stupidity with my words! Yeah!

Back to Hue and Nick and I managed to dine at Lien Hoa on only our second attempt. I'm not sure what the deal was the first time but we arrived a couple of hours before close and found the doors firmly shut and locked. Maybe they'd run out of food? This time we went at lunch time because who could run out of food by midday.

We were in luck and took full advantage ordering almost everything that took our fancy on the vast menu. Nick chose a fried mecan dish with rice which, thanks to a helpful Happy Cow reviewer, we knew was the translation for wheat gluten, or seitan, and I chose the aubergine with ginger and some summer rolls. I was also really excited to spot fermented tofu "cheese" on the menu so I ordered a small portion of that too.

My excitement was unfortunately tempered when the food arrived and it was packed full of chilli. I'm definitely finding Vietnam to be the place where upon telling someone "no chilli" my food comes covered in chilli. Every time I order I say "I can't eat chilli" and I accompany that with it written on paper because I'm aware that my Vietnamese pronunciation sucks but still, it just keeps on happening. My stomach is pissed and my joint pain is flaring up which is frustrating. Telling people I'm allergic is even worse as I just get blank looks, I'm guessing the concept of a chilli allergy isn't really a thing here because, well, it's not really a thing anywhere! As well as trying super hard to get my point across I'm also trying to order things that I think probably won't have chilli, hence the aubergine with ginger and the fresh spring rolls, but of course, as you can see, that isn't always working. Thankfully I'm travelling with the best dude ever who is happy to take one for the team and eat far more than his fare share of spicy food about 90% of the time (he's never gonna eat my too spicy aubergine!) whilst I chow down on the steamed rice we always try to remember to order just in case. Sometimes I just have to eat some food with chilli in to avoid being horribly rude, putting us in an awkward situation or ending up starving. I have on more than one occasion tried pointing at the dishes on the table and asking again whether there is chilli and I still get the same answer. There is no chilli! But there is! I can taste it! I can see it! Damn my stupid allergy for making travelling in Asia more challenging than it would be otherwise. I do feel lucky that it's an allergy that affects me slowly and builds up the more I eat of the foods that I have issues with rather than one where I can go into anaphylactic shock. That would be much worse so I'm counting myself lucky and looking on the bright side!

If you're thinking of dining at Lien Hoa I would highly recommend the fresh spring rolls if you're a friend of chilli as the wrappers were obviously super fresh and the peanut dip they came with was glorious. The fermented tofu cheese was a huge win and I kinda want to make it my go-to condiment for everything always. I found the smell totally off-putting but the texture was silky soft and flavour wise it was strong, bold and cheesy and I loved it. The steamed rice was also very nice!

I did manage to kick our vegan foodie experience of Hue up a notch on the last night when I took Nick on a long walk down a dark alleyway to find vegan hot pot at Thanh Lieu.

This was our first ever hot pot experience anywhere in the world and boy was it a good 'un. Firstly this restaurant was massive and packed and every single group of people was devouring steaming, bubbling pans of hot pot. I knew this was a good sign as soon as we arrived. It also had the added bonus that we were able to watch what everyone else was doing with their hot pot so that we didn't make some kind of hideous faux pas.

I totally would have thrown the noodles into the pot because I'm an uncultured fool but no, you put the noodles into your dish and then ladle the hot soup over them so that they are perfectly cooked and not ruined like all of the pasta I made those first few years (ahem, 10 years) of cooking for myself. The broth was rich and tomatoey and waiting for it to boil before we could pop the lid off and add handfuls of greens was kinda torturous. I also felt like a food witch with my little bubbling cauldron of soup which I loved. As you can see in the top picture our hot pot came with a little side of fermented tofu which by this point was swiftly becoming my favourite food. I think this is up there with the best things I've eaten all year and I would be surprised if it doesn't make it onto my Top Ten List for 2015.

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