Vietnam

Hanoi
21/02/2011

The plane was so small, I panicked as we took of as we had propellers not a jet engine and sitting next to the propeller I had a few disgusting panicked thoughts of it all going wrong. We made it, noisily though, into cold Vietnam. Although it was 16degrees I was pretty being used to late 30s and didn't have the clothes for cold weather really.We were picked up by a suited and booted Vietnamese driver who drove us in his leather seated car- what luxury- to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel (the new one). Such a great hostel. It's clean and quiet which is a contrast to the city. The city reminds me more of India that Asia with the cars, the noise and the dirt. The damp air didn't help this. There is a restaurant/bar and a chillax pool, computer, TV area where you can do whatever to relax after being in the city. In the dorm we met a great guy starting TEFL here called Jonna (Aussie),an Irish couple and a bit of a crazy Cambodian girl who called herself Mary. We all went for food and drink. Mary claiming she could speak Vietnamese made life quite a lot more difficult when it came to getting food. They didn't really understand her, it was easier in English. Discovering veggie food was pretty hard to come by, especially with the street food, Shav went hungry. We drank at Beer Hoi- this corner on a street that sells beer. You sit on plastic tiny stools (everywhere is Asia loves these seats) and you get kegged, pretty bad but very cheap (6p) beer. Here we met the car manager who took us to another bar.

The next day Jonno, having been here a little while, took us on a walking city tour where we ate some amazing food and met two Americans who have lived here for 5months. They took us to an awesome area of town where we had some great coffee- I had Coke of course!

Not sleeping well thanks to some  people coming and going all night in the room we got up to go and see Ho Chi Minh- the Mausoleum. He is here, like a china doll in perfect dead form despite the fact he wanted to be cremated. Getting there was interesting. It's only open in the morning. You try to get to the building by crossing a path, but you get whistled at by guards constantly. They have some unwritten rules that were somehow supposed to guess because they never say not to walk on the path, or the foot path yet you are constantly shuffled around and whistled at making you move only is certain areas. After getting through the security and cueing in single file, the security for this was more secure than the airport, we had to get rid of our cameras and water, then we were told to stand on a spot 2-by-2. You can't really talk much either. Then you walk 2-by-2 down the red carpet passed guards. I, of course, get pulled out of the line by a guard who yells at me saying I have a camera, but Siobhan had the little tag saying the camera had been handed in but she was shouted at to walk on. The guard didn't really speak English so I started to panic a little insisting I didn't have a camera until Shav shook the key from a distance and I made the guard see it. Quite scary. Finally inside you are shuffled around the square around his open coffin thing in silence, you can't laugh or even smile properly. Very bizarre experience. I didn't really like seeing a dead body. In the rain we tried to holler a tuk-tuk or anything but there were none. Only bikes stopping trying to get us to donate to random charities. Walking to Ho Hoan Kiem Lake we met some English 18 year olds and went for coffee, got money and returned to the hostel. In the evening Jonna took us to a nice place for dinner and spring rolls then to LP Cafe where you can Shisha and play your own music. We talked to one of the workers, 'Kong' there, he spoke the best English I have ever heard. He used the word diagonal as we played connect 4! He offered Jonno a TEFL job with his friend and he showed us some great beautiful spots that get missed by tourists that we are going to see. The next day we did nothing really. We again, with Jonno, walked around town seeing some more sight- I forgot to mention- every street in Hanoi has a theme- every shop will be the same on a street- chicken street, dog street (as they eat dog here), shoe street, sweet street, helmet street etc. Its really odd but great! We also discovered a shop that just sells one brand of milk as it's sole product!! It's quite strange. I also bought a huge collection of Disney as it is nothing here. I now own almost all Disney films WOO!! Now just relaxing waiting for our night train to go to Hue. We decided, after the boat accident in Halong Bay earlier this week not to go. :( The weather is awful so we wouldn't see anything but also the boats all have to be checked (Government orders) one by one so you cannot sleep on the boats meaning EVERYONE is on the small island, ruining the island experience and also meaning you spend your whole day getting to the island drinking and coming back the next morning. That's a very expensive night out to not see anything or do anything. I'll just have to come back, what a shame!

Hue
A much needed refreshing change from Hanoi. After a long train ride, but pretty decent train, we arrived in Hue however the hostel was not there to collect us as promised so we walked. It was not too far and along the way we met a cycling old man who read his poem to me. I was pretty nice to him so he said I had a kind heart so he gave me his poem that he'd written. It wasn't the best I've ever read but very sweet. The hostel, not as nice as the Hanoi one but still good. We went for a wander around town, crossing theSong Huong river to the old part of town. Here we walked around inside the Citadel (Kinh Thanh) and learnt about the old way of life when the city lived within the walls. The second day we wanted to find the beach so we set off on a bike ride along with a guy we'd met called Alex. This turned out to be pretty long and took us about 3 hours. The journey was amazing though, glad to be out of the town. We cycled through the 'real' Vietnam, through the rice paddies watching children ride Buffalo, sing songs in their school and all the locals saying hi to the random Westerners who are obviously, clearly lost! This was the best day. We eventually made it to the beach which was a complete disappointment. We were going to try some of the famous local sea food however after order a drink which came with a used straw we decided best not to eat there instead buying snacks from the local 'supermarket'. The ride back was just as beautiful, a lot of thinking time, but also extremelly hot!! No shade along the fields. The next day we couldn't walk properly so we relaxed. We had found a restaurant up the road which sold THE best spring rolls-I may have had 3 plates full and had a pool table, excellent for passing the time. We then went drinking and I met some awesome Vietnamese girls on the dance floor who I spent the rest of the night with. They both had long distance foreign boyfriends. As there is very little do to in Hue we decided to move on to Hoi An the next day.

Hoi An
LOVE HOI AN!! Stunning old little streets and back alleyways and amazing old architecture along the river. The river is decorated and the quaint little bridges going over have brightly coloured lanterns lighting the way. It feels like a Disney park almost. The bus jourey down was pretty good as we were in the amazing bed coach. We did, unfortunately meet some people who we would rather we hadn't on this ride though. We spent the morning trying to find accomodaton, Hoi An is a lot more expensive. We eventually found a decent enough place. We bumped into the bus people again and went for dinner with them. The guy was quite nice however his friend, not so much, so I tried to ditch them but we ended up going for dinner and for a drink in the smokiest, most horrible bar, then we ditched them. The dinner was great, the restaurant was one long table with one woman cooking on her one stove. Great food! The next day we looked in shops to decide what we wanted to have made- Hoi An is the Tailor Town, you can get anything tailor made, including shoes and swimming costumes! We ended up being accosted in one shop and before we knew it we were being measured and choosing fabrics- these ladies know how to upsell! I ended up with a dress and a suit whilst Shav who wanted nothing got a dress, some shorts and a shirt! HAHA sucked in! I went for a dress design I had seen everywhere in Bangkok however they seemed very confused, and the next day at the fitting it was obvious they hadn't understood ad the dress was very wrong. To make us feel better about our choices we went for some nice food where I ordered some safe Carbonara however this was no carbonara, it was buttered spaghetti with egg and small bits of bacon, no cream or sauce, it was discusting. THe next day the clothes shop did manage to fix the dress though and it looks great, it just isn't the best made underneath. Shavs clothes looked awesome though, even though she'd been taken by scooter to the ladies house as she wanted more 'wild' designs'. She basically picked out the ugliest fabrics, the women found it histerical, but her taste paid off and she looked like a true lady from the 60s/70s in the end! We changed hostel after the first night to our most luxurious of the whole trip, Sunshine Hostel- en-suite and a tiny balcony and they cleaned every day!! We spent the evening in a restaurant we had found that had good food and good drink. We watched the competition they have every night as well. They sing whilst people vote and the winner gets a lantern, strange. The waiter knew us in this restaurant though as it was the third time there and he was pretty chatty and eventually persuaded us to wait for him to finish so he could drive us to the hotel as we had missed the last pick up- this was a kind favour not a sleezy favour- however it was pretty terrifying as he thought it would be fun to show off his motorbike skills weaving from side to side and bending, not fun! We spent a day at the beach as well where I very happily bumped into my Dutch friends who I'd met in Cambodia. We had a catch up and we also made friends with a lovely couple, Scotsman and Irish girl, who refused to wear sunscreen. We met up with my Dutch friends for dinner along with a GREAT girl we met. She was the best story teller I've ever met and a make-up artist to the stars! The next day we went for a bikini wax- the most torturous, embarrasing and regrettable experience of our lives. Never trust a shop which has the selling point, 'we can do discount as we hae NO customers'- read between the lines people! After sharing this experience and probably frightening our new Irish/Scot friends we had dinner. That night we shared a taxi with the couple to Danang to get the train to Nha Trang. Hoi An was lovely and a great little place to be.

Nha Trang
The couple had been given a heads up about a fantastic hostel so we followed them. We turned out to be the only guests apart from the owners future family once their daughter married, so it felt kike we were crashing a family party. this was the best hostel I think we stayed in though. So clean, comfortable bed and really friendly owners. They were surprised we were there as they only advertise on the Vietnamese travel website. We arrived to very bad weather as we we didn't sleep at ALL on the train thanks to some 'lovely' South Africans, we slept a lot. We did get some see some amazing waves on the beach though from the strong wind. We got absolutely drenched too. Deciding to wander around we treated ourselves in a supposed Irish bar. However it clearly wasn't in the end. I ordered off the menu some 'cheese and chips' which you would think as it was on the menu would be cheesy chips (it was rainging and cold I wanted a treat), but we had 4 different waiters come over asking in broken English if we were sure I didn't want bread with that. In the end what came was about 10 skinny cold Frech Fries and a slab of plastic cheese on the side. Not cheesy chips at all. So ended up ordering bread which came and was sweet!! Not a great day. The next day we wandered up to the 'Giant Seated Buddha' which was ok. There isn't so much to see in Nha Trang when it's bad weather. We wanted to go over to the islands but it was horrible. Eventually we, and the couple decided to leave for the South for, hopefully, better weather.

Mui Ne
Ridiculously hot here so we just stumbled into one of the first hostels we saw so as not to be in the sun too long. It was pretty nice. Mui Ne is basically a beach resort and water sports area. It is Kite Surfing mad but was also hosting the world Windsurfing Championship which we got to watch. We were quite a walk from the restaurant, beach and bar areas so we got a fair bit of excercise and it was great watching the kite surfers! The next day we tried to hire motorbikes. Shav wouldn't drive so I had a go however with broken English I was confused by the clutch situation and the owner had to physically hold the bike back from me zooming off forward at 60miles and hour. Scary! I got the hang of it in the end and could drive however I was terrified of starting the engine again so we decided to hire drivers (it's cheapish). We had a bike each and rode the long distance at a scaruily fast speed, to the white sand dunes. These were stunning but we'd left it late and it was getting ludicrously hot. The idea is to slide (like sledging) down the dunes. Turns out this is quite difficult and we weren't good at it and couldn't see how you could possibly go fast. As it was really tiring walking on the sinking sand in the heat we gave up and went to the yellow sand dunes. Along the way though Shavs bike broke down but mine had already sped off. She was left in the middle of nowhere with the driver whilst young Vietnamese mocked her- not fun! The driver got petrol, a small drinks bottles worth, from another driver and he seemed to think that would fix the problem so they drove on, and then his tire burst. My driver then got a phone call (I didn't know waht was goin on) and he ditched me at the side of the road and drove back. I was a little worried but eventually Shav arrived and all was good. We went to the yellow dunes to slide buying a sledge off a cute girl practising her English. However, it was the heat of the day and as I slid I sank into the sand and my feet started to burn then I lost my shoe but I couldn't walk as it was too hot and I was now covered in sand. I started to panic a little as it was really painful and there was no easy route back up the dune so the little girl came to my rescue directing me up an easier path and helping me with my shoe. Not an experience I want to repeat. Back at the hostel I clanber off the bike and immediately put my leg on the engine of another, gaining the classic Asia Traveller burn on the back of my knee. The owner went a put toothpaste on it to cool it down! This was pretty painful and became a conversation topic a lot for me and Shav as I liked to give her updates on the state of the swelling. :)

Phu Quok Island
We travelled to Ho Chi Minh city for a very short night before flying early to Phu Quok. We had to buy different plane tickets strangely so were on different flights but after we had both arrived we took a taxi to the hostel area. We found one where we stayed in a hut on the beach. Great place. We spent out time here relaxing, however the beach hut stank so we moved into a much city garden hut that smelt less. We spent a lot of time on the stunning beach, reading and eated AMAZING food in this Italian restaurant we found. We spent the 3rd day on a trip. We hired a taxi for the day and it took us to a lot of the island, it is a very small island. We visited the Pearl Farm and saw how they get pearls, visited another beautiful beach, but full of rubbish, in a different area and he took us to a Pepper Farm where we saw a lot of pepper plants. It was quite bizarre. But I cannot forget the waterfall he took us too which was out of season so there was no water. We spent the time walking up the path until we found a little bit of water. Good exercise and fun to play in the woods. We did meet some Vietnamese who were pickining in the middle of where the water should have been but who mocked us for looking. The island is stunning and a very nice relaxing holiday place where you don't have to do anything.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
We stayed in the Pham Ngu Lao district of the city as this city is massive. Here it is a very busy place but with little side streets full of nice restaurants and hotels. We spent our first full day doing the tourist thing and visiting Reunification Palace and the War Remnants museaum. This was pretty intense as, just like Cambodia, we don't hear much about the wars hear or we are taught a very different version, i.e. the Vietnam War rather than the 'American War' as they call it. After a long walk around the park, as we got lost, we found the Palace. It is incredible and it's great to see how the President lived and the amazing rooms they have there, along with the 'war room' they have in the basement. The Palace was seized by the communists as they crashed through in 1975 when the South surrendered. The War Remnants museum is very humbling, some horrible images and stories of what happened then. I realise it is very biased in the way it is portrayed but pictures don't lie and the facts about the chemical weapons and lack of monetary support for the surviving families and victims of the brutality and the gases doesn't lie. Families are still devastated generations later from the chemical weapons the Americans experimented on the country. Horrible stuff. After this we were pretty stumped so went for tea to pirk up.
- Mekong Delta (My Tho) The next day we went on opur first official 'tour'. Boy do I not like tours. Your moved around from place to place, waiting for people, going to preplanned 'tourist' spots that pretend not to be, very strange. However, you can't really go around the Mekong Delta without a tour, especially if you're short on time. It was fun though, we rode on the river as this is the only mode of transport round there, wore the Vietnamese hats, had a ride on a horse and cart, saw how they make these coconut sweets and made things with the shell. All in all it was good fun and an experience. This area is stunning though, pretty untouched as it is so inaccessible and has been fought over for so long. I wouldbn want to go back for a better look next time and go deeper in.

Off to Thailand again...

LAOS

Vientiane

Waking earlish we got the through the boder over the Friendship Bridge without any hastle- very easy! In fact, we had been told we needed exact dollars which we didn't have so we thought we'd have to pay the higher Baht price but they easily changed my $100 to our relief. On the longer TukTuk ride at the Laos side we met a man who hadn't spoked to a Western woman for over a year. He had moved 10 years ago to Tailand with his son. His son now speaks English, Chinese, Thai and Laos- all of which without an accent! Very impressive! Arriving in Vientiene we found quite a good guesthouse and wandered to the bowling alley!! Here it was real old-school bowling, old computer screens that you type your name into... it was like being back when I was 8 years old again! We had a great time but discovered neither of us are particularly good at bowling without bumpers! Then we headed to some food and had a couple of Beer Laos- this does not sit well!

14/02/2011- Valentines Day
I was rudely awoken by Shav throwing a card into my face which was from John- so organised sending it before she left! So very happy start to the day. We hired bikes and cycled around town. We headed to the VISA office for Vietnam first thing. Bit of a mission but we eventually found it. As we were early there was hardly anyone there. We charmed the guy into giving us a visa that day so we got one immediately having been told we'd have to wait 2 days. We luckily cycled past the Patuxai, Laos Cultural Hall and the That Dam on route. Now quite excited we went to see their That Luang. This is the national symbol of Laos- its a big gold stupa. Quite interesting but was a little underwhelming after Angkor Wat and Bankgok. I did try some sort of local dish though, it was like mini very sweet pancakes with syrup and with savory chives etc in them. Very tasty. We also saw some sort of cultural dance that was being filmed! We decided to get massages. We both got a Laos massage- way better than both my Thai and Oil massage- they properly stretched you and pushed those knots out. Being quite hungry we thought we'd head for a fancy valentines meal, having embarrasingly left one place due to the price we picked up 2 margaritas in happy hour then headed for food. Unfortunately for Shav, first her margarita pizza cam plastered with Thai basil- basically anacede tasting- yak! Then her 'vegetable noodles' had beef in them!


Vang Vieng

The next day we headed off on the local bus- not too comfy but very cheap- to Vang Vieng. This is where the famous 'Tubing' is. Luckily we found a really cheap hostel for the area run by a family, they didn't even have a recpetion area or anything. STUNNING place, these pointed kind of mountain formations everywhere with the Mekong going through. on arrival day we watched a lot of Friends. This along with Family Guy and South Park are played constantly in all bars with lay down cushion sits- very nice. Tubing was great fun though we weren't on the tube for long. Having met, very randomly, two girls from Wolthamstow (Shavs home arear). Meredith was life long friends with Shavs best friend from home. They knew of each other but had never met! Strange! With these girls we drank quite a few 'buckets' and Beer Laos along the river. We met some awesome people, did a lot of PENCIL ROLLS and had the best time. Spaghetti Carbonara! We even went out that night like the crazy cats we are and I danced a lot whilst the girls met some Australians and an Irish. Next morning we felt the effects of the M150- the Asian version of Red Bull, though I think it has something other than caffeine in as no sleep was had what so ever. Deciding not to tube again we just took it a little easier and the girls all walked whilst I decided I wanted to swim the river, unfortunately it was not wet season so I hit a few rocks on the way... still fun though! A few more pencil rolls later we watched everyone (mainly guys) just off the crazy swings and zip wires into the river- which is quite shallow in a lot of places- a few people whilst we were there had a few injuries, luckily we didn't see anything nasty though. Dangerous sport. We had a much more laid back third night.

The next day we got the bus early with April and Meredith. This was a small minibus with 13 people in it. We were quite lucky as our driver was relatively sensible but we were dangerously close to other trucks and buses as some points. Maniac drivers. The drive is around 7 hours winding through the mountains of Laos only seeing the smallest of town and villages that literally live along the road side. The rest of the land is unspoiled the whole way! AMAZING! The ride itself was a little stressful as the road was an interesting surface and you could never relax into your seat. The back row often flew up and smacked their heads on the roof. En-route I did get to try a Tamarin- I didn't enjoy it as it tastes a a more sticky sweet prune.


Luang Prabang

Arriving in Luang Prabang we all had to get on a tuk-tuk and the wheel burst. After switching tuktuks and getting totown we walked around for probably about an hour asking various hostel prices- $25, $100, $20! Knackered with our bags I asked a random tourist in the street that looked quite young where the cheap hostels were. He walked us there whilst the heavens opened on us. The cheap hostel was great, we had quite a few mossys the girls had a dusty blower but there's always compromise. We ate a fantastic meal along the river side, I had more Thai Green Curry- again the Mekong- we may as well have tubed the whole way and avoided the horrible bus ride!

The next day we headed to the waterfall- CRAZY tuk-tuk driver, very moody and decided he had to drive faster and overtake every other vehicle on the road- pretty scary. We didn't know before but we also saw a bear park- sun bears! SO cute!!! Rolling around in their hammocks and getting food out of balls. This was a bear conservation camp as they are hunted for their pile and parts for Chinese medicines. :( The waterfall though was stunning, it looked fake as the water was too blue and the rocks were all perfectly placed. Incredible. We decided to do the practically vertical climb to the top (in flip-flops- big mistake) but there was basically no view at the top, bit of a disappointment so clambered down on our bums and practically crawling. Now, we were hot so swam in the waterfall. So nice. Playing Yanif passed the time. Back to town with out mad tuk-tuk driver (:s) we found our favourite restaurant- Laos Laos Gardens. The girls found the best veggie burgewr (apparently) and I had some amazing Red Laos Curry (with coconut milk) and I also tried Buffalo Laap with sticky rice the next night. Breakfast was great too!!! The waiter knew us by the end. They also gave 2-4-1 cocktails!!. We went to the night market which had some lovely things in it and to a local pool as the girls hadn't seen sun yet really!

After hearing complete horror stories from everyone who knew people to have done the Luang Prabang to Hanoi bus ride I decided to pay for the flight with Siobhan. This also took 1 hour as opposed to 30! The Luang Probang airport is the smallest I've ever been too- but iobhan assures me there are smaller. The check in was all manual and the security was this one pretty old x-ray machine. A man beeped constantly at every part of his body and they let him through. I got through with my big opened bottle of water as well. Crazy. We'd been told there was an airport tax but there it was actually included in our ticket so we bought some rubbish food to use some of our remainder Kip.

Nong Kai

Beautiful little border town. Great for a bit of R & R after a long bus ride. We stayed in a great hostel that had huts and which felt a bit like a resort, a little surreal! Had great apple pie and ice-cream though! The only negative to the beautiful 4-poster bed hut was the bathroom. Although in design it was great, higgledy paved floor with stones for the shower and tiled toilet, the walls were thatched. This means a mossy haven apparently. As soon as you turn the shower on a few hundred mosquitoes fly out of the wall, they especially like to hide on your towel! NOT nice! Even still, we weren't bitten- weird. We hired bikes from the hostel and cycled down the pier as the town is, of course as everywhere is, on the Mekong River. We ended up in the 'Sculpture Park' which is basically a small park filled with sculptures of all the beasts from a merge of Hindi and Buddhist stories. Very bizarre! One is the mouth of a snake that you have to climb through the (we think) were the sinners (or whatever they should be called) skeletons etc. On the way back we were chased by a crazy dog- Shav was pretty scared as she isn't a dog fan, I had to shout the dog away so he left.

Chiang Mai

07/02/2011

Arriving in Chiang Mai we had to get a red sawngthaew which is effectively a small truck that you sit on the back of to town then found a hostel. We were so early that we had to wait til people had checked out to get a room. SUCH a nice guesthouse though- Libra Guesthouse. It is run by the nicest family Dao espcially- she helped us all the time speaking great English and cracking jokes. We wadnered around the city a lot, feeling very hot. We saw the market, the moat around the town and the 'touristl little square' with a Boots, McDonalds and Starbucks!! They've infiltrated the world! It was great to wander the town, and we ate some great Pat Thai and green curry, yumm! We met some Canadians a girl called Alex and two guys Lee and Brent. We spent the night with them drinking, then I went home to try to Skype John and they continued on to a club called 'Spicy'--- I shall say no more.

As the guys were all hung over I went for an Oil Massage- which you have to go naked with a little towel for! Eeek... really good though except she wasn't very tough on me like the Bangkok Thai massage had been.  We then spent the day eating and not doing very much, wandering round a bit. That night we drank with Nu (our future guide and the Canadians previous guide) and he wanted to see the Irish bar as he'd never been. He tried his first Guiness - he wasn't too keen- and the Canadians gave him thi sdisgusting shot. Great guy!!

The next day they persuaded us to go on a trek as they raved constantly about it. This was up in the National park to the village where Nu lived (our hilarious guide). This was a 5 hour trek up practically vertical mountains and then back down again, over and over. This meant great views but very painful legs!! I am so unfit! You pass through 4 viallages out of (I think he said) 8 villages that still live in this national park. Nu had some stories, apparenlty the army lay traps along the border with Myanmar to kill or mame anyone who goes over as it is an illegal boder crossing mainly transporting Opium. So everyone who is in the park is watched by villagers as there is always someone on guard to check for soldiers to see where traps are. There was another Canadian in our group, Regan, not so nice. Just very awkward with his social skills and views on life. Made for some interesting chat. We did meet some awesome girls from England- one Yorkshire (yes!) the other London- we thought about trading travel buddies! The villages we went trhough were lovely, very small, all on stilts with cows underneath, chickens running wild and gorgous babies! The final village where we slept had a purpose built stilt buidling for us. We slept on the floor with a thin bit of paddingand a mosquito net, funnily enough we didn't sleep very well- but this was mainly due to it being abolutely freezing at night. Before bed though, Nu and his friends and cooked us the the best dinner and then we sat round a camp fire whilst he gave us Rice Wine (disgusting tasting spirit- 50% DANGER) In the morning the elephants arrived. They were supposedly free elephants but owned by the village. One was chained though which I din't like, apparently he runs off so they chain his legs to control him when they walk with them. Siophan and I shared an elephant. I, after 5 mins, moved to ride bareback on the nect, they have very spikey hairs. Such huge amazing animals though. We rode for an hour down and through the river, our elephant was hungry so kept eatingalong the way, at one point she climbed up the back a little to get the tree and I thought we were going to fall off. Then we bamboo rafter down the river. I steered a lot at the end as Nu decided! It was good fun especially on the more rapid parts. Then I got thrown in and everyoone went in. Unfortunately this was the end of the trek, :(, we had some more yummy food and got the TukTuk back to town- which was a really long and dusty ride!

Feeling pretty tired, the girls and us went for a pedicure to make our feet better after the hike. This was so good. We were leaving that night so we just relaxed a bit.

We headed off on our night bus to go to Laos- and Nu booked and paid for a TukTuk for us to get to the bus station- such a star!

The night bus was amazing, blankets, water, buscuits!! They know how to travel, such a good sleep. We got to Udon Thani and had to get another bus out to Nong Khai. The second was a very rickety local bus with sunken seats- not deliberately sunken! As we were really tired by this point we decided to stay in Nong Khai as the Lonely Planet said it was a great place, and it was right.

Ayuthaya

05/02/2011-06/02/2011

This is the 'Fallen City' which used to reign at the time of the Ankor in Cambodia. Great little place. The first night we went on a river trip where you stop off at temples and the night market. Saw some more Buddhas. The second day we hired bikes and cycled round the temples seeing the town. There was some great places, especially the massive golden sitting Buddha. I tried a local ice-cream- not so good, it looked like a mini milk but did NOT taste like it. After sweltering in the heat on the bikes we went to get a train ticket to leave. They have this great little taxi boad that takes you over the river. As Chinese new year was still being celebrated there were huge stalls everywhere and people partying in the street. It was great to watch! Near out hostel we ate at the jazz bar. The waiter was funny, determined to befriend all the customers. He made us think of the 10 countries that all had 4 letters. Quite difficult when you're very tired.

The night train was great, thwey served you on trolleys and it was really clean and shiny- but again they kept the lights on all night- they occasionally went off randomly then would come back on. The station was interesting though no obvious other platform however the guards told all westerners what to do as we had to cross thetrain tracks and stand in a really specific place. So glad they helped us, you would never know otherwise.

Bangkok- AGAIN

SO here in Bangkok again I decided to stay near to Koh San road area to really see what it was like and find cheaper hostels. However it was Chinese new year so everywhere was full or only had very expensive rooms left. I eventually found a place after going to 10 places with my bags.

In the morning I switched acomodation to a dirt cheap place. Koh San Road is such a tourist haven, the only locals are the stall holders. It was fun though. I met a girl over lunch and then I wandered round by myself taking it all in- so many nice things you could buy- then for dinner I bumped into the girl again and we met some other people. We decided to go out. After buying a musical elephant guiro esk thing and bracelets of a funny craxy Thai lady we went dancing- free cocktails for girls- this was so much fun as I met 2 great Thai girls who I danced withall night.

The next day I woke up late so missed my meeting time with the girls again but went anyway. SWe were meeting at a pool in the hotel nearby but they weren't there. I spent a couple of hours by the pool anyway then later... Siobhan arrived.

We went out for welcome drinks, had a little more than we thought drinking the local beer and the most garlicky garlic bread imaginable. The next day we left to go to Ayuthaya. We got ourselves to the bus station and made our way on the fun local bus!

The rest of Cambodia...

So after the temples I had a day I didn't really do much until getting the bus over to Sihanoukville. Unfortunately the pick iup driver was 2 hours late after we had been waiting since 0700! We got to the bus station and got the bus however it mean I missed the connection bus to Sihanoukville from Phnom Penh so stayed with the French couple for the night. We wandered around Phnom Penh along the river and ate a kebab! We tried to be cultured but the food was expensive everywhere we'd looked. We wandered some more, round the temple and outside the National Museum. There are some very nice places here! The next day I went to Sihanoukville. After meeting a girl on the bus we tried to find accomodation but unfortunately everywhere was full except one bed in the Monkey Republic (where I stayed) and beds in Utopia. Utopia is a COMPLETE dive. It's quite good fun to drik for a little bit but other than that, not nice to sleep in! Monkey was quite nice though there we beach shacks made of wicker and wood however the dorm, the door didin't close so it was mosquito heaven. After being bitten alive on the first night I got up and bought a mosquito net from the town the next day. Serendipity beach was the beach I stayed at however this beach is full of bars all along with very little sand that hasn't been taken over. That night though I went out with the dorm people (especially two crazy Preston girls) and we went to JoJo's which was literally on the sea. You had to walk through the water to get in the front porch. After painting ourselves with UV and doing the 'free' bar run- using vouchers all along so paying nothing or very little in every bar- cheapest night ever! We then headed to the main beach bars where people were jumping through hoops of fire- not a good idea whilst drunk- so a guy had an accident, but NOONE went over, everyone kept partying even his mates. Just myself and one girl went over after realising noone was helping. He'd burnt all the skin off his foot and some off his leg but luckily for his he was drunk and not really feeling the pain so we found his girlfriend and packed him off to hospital. The area was naturally stunning but was a bit ruined by all the building work right on the waterfront- I suppose it's inevitable though. The next day we'd met a really nice guy, and went to a beach further away called Sokha beach. This was a privately owned beach which we didn't realise and had to pay. HOWEVER it was the quitest most beautiful beach, a clean view of the sea and we got to use the hotel pool. The sea was the warmest sea I've ever gone in, you could just sit and lay and not get cold at all. Amazing day. After more eating, drinking and beaching with the guys I left to Phnom Penh.

I stayed in Okay Guesthouse. The first night I stayed in a broken bed in a corridor which was their 'dorm' room so moved into a room by myself which had no windows or anything so was a bit of a sauna but still nice enough. I spent a lot of time alone in Phnom Penh which was quite nice after such a manic Sihanoukville. I got up the first day and walked to the S-21 Touel Sleng Museum (the Kmer Rouge main prison). This was such a humbling experience. After reading, 'First they Killed my Father' (good book) I knew a bit more about the war. Such a horrid regime which we know nothing about in the west! I then got a moto (loving riding the bikes) to the Killing Fields- where every single prisoner of the Touel Sleng was taken and killed. Mass graves everywhere with material from clothing still visible coming out of the ground or stuck in bits of wood and rocks. The worst parts was the huge memorial they have built which is filled to the top with the skulls of the victims. But then you discover the killing tree- this tree was used as they flung babies by their arms into it to smash their skulls. It was a very hard day. I don't understand why we don't learn about it inthe West though? After this I went to the National Museum for some nicer thoughts, here they have a lot of the old Ankor statues and anime scultures. Interesting and in a very nice building.

The hostel showed films constantly so their was alwas something to do to kill time. Luckily through perfect timing Grace had replied to my e-mail and I rang to organise to meet the family the next day. I went swimming with the girls and Grace whilst Paul played basketball, all at a local newly built school. It was lovely to finally meet them, the girls were beautiful and bright. Then we went to their house and they filled me in on Cambodia and what it was like to live and speak the language and culture- very interesting. I also got to try the BEST fish rice dish (can't remember the name) I've ever had made by their house help lady. So good. Then Paul rode me home on his scooter.

Flying out the next day I wandered town and visited the 'Daughters' foundation which was an amazing place teaching young women to get out of the sex trade and teaching them professions and giving them a fair wage so they learn to respect themselves again. A lot of the women were raped or told to become sex workers by their families as they could not marry. Shame and loosing face is the main drive here which effects everything they do. I then visited the trust giving trades to street children and bought some of their goods. Great schemes, definitely worth seeing. I was with another lady who bought me a drink in this posh hotel with a view of the river, then I went to get my flight. Beware though, the airport has a sneaky tax of $25 which you have to pay which I did not know about, making my flight not so cheap! But I needed to fly in order to get a 30day visa again.