21st - 29th June - Vietnam
Never judge a book by its cover.Never judge a country by your journey to get there - no matter how heinous!Vietnam is fab!We have been quite overwhelmed by how relaxing it is to be here, especially after listening to others who are doing our trip the other way round. The towns are bustling with life - mopeds, markets and hawkers (old ladies - little children) everywhere, but it's fun to stroll through and not at all hassling. The people all seem to be very friendly (even though they are trying to sell us stuff) and fun with smiles all round. The ladies seem especially tactile and seem to like stroking my little white western bottom when trying to sell me stuff!! (Pol here by the way! - James seems to have dipped out on this local habit - a part for the hairy molers on the bus!!)After a fairly decent lie-in in Hue, we did the sights. Bikes were incredibly hot work - I'm still amazed how such a gentile princess-like creature such as my dainty self can sweat like a sumo wrestler, stuck in the ring with a pregnant rhino and her babies, for hours at a time! It's minging. We had planned a civilised boat trip to see the royal mausoleums, but after a night on the beers in a small bar we were convinced by the owner that we should go on their motorbike tour instead. It was a good move! We had a great day zooming through rice fields (which smell sweet!) and strolling through all the sights that the boat would have taken us to, but quicker! We had a good time with a Dutch couple doing it too - the boys had their own bike while us girlies hung onto the back of the guides. I was pretty glad James didn't have to negotiate the mad roads with me on the back wining in his ear, as I'm sure he was too! And I felt perfectly happy trusting the local who has done the same trip everyday for the last 10 years - although I did get white knuckles a couple of times as he played silly buggers with a little Auzzie lad on the back of one of their other bikes! We finished the day off in the same little bar with a small crowd drinking too many beers - again.P.S. Daddy check out the beer labels in the phots! Barge - hoover - get it?To keep up with our main mission of this whole adventure we were obliged to try the local delicasies - yum funny crispy panckes folded over with huge shrimps, pork, bean sprouts - served with a runny 'chilli condiment' and a plateful of fresh herbs to scoff. yum.Vietnamese buses rock! (Am currently touching cloth - sorry, I mean wood) ...All journeys here have been extremely uneventful a part from the fab views. The buses have picked us up where they should, when they should and taken us to where they should and even used their air-con! Hooo-bloody-ray!!!Hoi An was our next stop. A lush heritage town on the river and fairly near the coast, so lots of lush sea food - huge fat prawns Daise!! One of the best finds has been fresh spring rolls (not deep fried!) Big fat juicy prawns wrapped with lots of fresh herbs and greens in fresh rice paper, of course served with a 'chilli condiment'. (NB 'Chilli condiment' is a Jamesism frquently used at home when he sticks chilli with anything he can! And is certainly relevant later...) James also had a fantastic 5 course lunch for 2 quid - fat shrimps, juicy squid, white roses, fish steamed in banana leaves etc etc.The town was really pretty to cycle round, loads of very old merchant houses and a complete haven for me as they are now filled with locally made bags, shoes and fabric ready to be stitched into anything you want. Not such a haven for James! However, getting into the swing of things - when in Rome afterall - he swiftly managed to arrange a made to measure black silk kimono, complete with tasteful red dragons roaming across his chest! Nice! He says feels distinguished along with his super long hair swept back Richard E Grant stylee. Alarmingly he looks quite good in it!!The market was wonderful to mooch round. Filled with all sorts of yum smells and sights as well as more touristy things I wanted to buy but couldn't fit in my bag! Will defo have to come back!Before we arrived in Nha Trang someone had told us to expect Blackpool. Fortunately our night bus was worth it as it must be low season there. It was great! Huge empty yellow sand beach, soft cushioned loungers under palm fringed sun shades, clean gentle sea - not at all unpleasant! In fact so deliciously un-unpleasant that we were forced to loaf for quite some time on said soft cushioned loungers! Oh - we got off to go diving twice and of course when it was beer o'clock! More lush beach at our next stop - Mui Ne. Had a pretty luxurius hotel too! Hired a moped to do the sights ourselves and James is now planning to get his own funky Vespa when we're back in London. Am not sure that being cut up by dodgy cabs in the rain will be quite so appealing as empty coastal roads though! We found the fishing village which was fascinating. In amongst some fairly quiet residential streets we wound down to the sea where we came across hoards of people racing around with boats, baskets and racks of billions and billions of tiny silver fish. Everyone seemed quite interested in us - smiling and waving, and children jumping up and grinning trying to get in the way of my artistic phots! Later we stopped off at the local sand dunes where a gaggle of kids raced towards us with their homemade sand sledges! We set off up the dunes with them and James had a race down with a couple of the boys while I nattered to two chirpy little girls - for a fee of course!We're now in Saigon. Sadly our last stop in Vietnam before heading on to Cambodia. We're planning the nitty gritty tours over the next day or so, The Chu Chi Tunnels and the War Museums. We've heard they're graphic and harrowing. With all the smiles and hustle and bustle of life here, it's easy to forget that not long ago this country was not the happy place we've found now.We've spent today strolling round the city, eating and drinking (needs must!), posting birthday gizzits (long boring story taking up most of the day) and generally letting James recover from his rather alarming wake up during breakfast this morning.I'll keep it brief. Boys prepare to wince.Scene 1: At the cafe.James orders pork porridge for breakfast (odd, but not the point of the story) which is served with yet another 'chilli condiment'. Nice breakkie eh!?James merrily tears up whole fresh chillies to add to odd choice of breakkie but thoroughly enjoyed it all the same and was declaring it a great one to start a day skiing on, when he rubbed his face. Poor wee lamb forgot Thai cooking rule no.1. Never touch your face after handling chillies.Scene 2: James heads to loos to wash stinging face.Men these days are able to multitask so James decides to have a quick pee first. Clever huh!Duh uh!Scene 3: James rushes out to greet me with urgent need to leave cafe and return to hotel. Clutching his pants he admits to forgetting Thai cooking rule no. 2. Never touch your bits after handling chillies.Poor wee lamb! But made me chortle!!
20th June - into Vietnam
We made it! - what a horrendous nightmare journey from hell that we don't want to repeat ever!! Definitely were on holiday by mistake for a while!Leaving Vientiane at 6.30pm aboard an ok bus with reclining, but sweaty, seats, air con, a few other tourists and some chain-smoking Vietnamese we thought the predicted 19hr journey might be bearable. Not to be. It went something like this:1830 - bus leaves on time heading the right direction2030 - two hours to travel about 5km stopping at every shop in Vientiane suburbs to collect random packages, bags, fruit and other unidentified goods2200 - stop at roadsode eaterie for smoking Vietnamese to have a break from smoking and get some dinner. We stood around, had a wee and didn't have a clue how long we were stopping or what was actually happening - contrary to our ticket sellers information, nobody on the bus spoke a word of English - not even 'Hue' the name of our destination, which in fact is not English anyway, it's Vietnamese!2230 - back on road, still heading the right direction0000 - woken from dribbling and neck straining doze as bus is jolting 45 degress left, right, forwards and backwards as we make some impressive four wheel drive Alton Towers type manoevres through what look like ploughed fields0300 - bus stops, lights go out and Vientamese stop smoking to start snoring - not sure which is worse. We guess this is the border as it doesn't open till 7am. We also contemplate why the bus didn't leave 4hrs later to time the arrival at the border more appropriately. Piss up, brewery and organise spring to mind!0600 - get off the bus for some fresh air, another pee and generally to remind ourselves that we are still alive.0700 - all the Vietnamese dissapear off the bus towards a building. We assume this is for passport control so follow suit with the other 6 bewildered tourists.0730 - eventually get passports stamped (for an unexplained $1 payment) after Canadian couple have a fight with the Vietnamese travellers who don't seem to understand the queuing concept....are you bored yet?? - imagine being there! - we have to write this down as a kind of therapy...maybe nobody is even reading it?! - i think the experience has made us paranoid!...oh dear...anyway:0745 - walking back to where the bus was we discover the bus has dissapeared, along with our big bags, and more disconcertingly, some of the other tourists!!0800 - after walking across a bridge and over a small hill we thankfully find the bus - how silly to think the bus might leave us in the middle of nowhere not knowing what to do next! (if you're still bothering to ead this rant then see later for context...)0815 - fill out 317 forms for Vietnam immigration and pay another unexplained fee so some uniformed man doesn't stamp 'BIRD FLU' on our passports0845 - get told to change bus to another shabby looking contraption to take us to Hue as our bus is going to Hanoi (obviously somebody did understand the word Hue).0900 - after unloading all our baggage we get told that we need to get back on the original bus and change in Vinh (about 2 hours away) as the dodgy bus isn't really going to Hue.1100 - bus flagged down by random child shouting loudly and waving his arms about in the middle of the road. This turns out to be standard advertising mechanism for Vietnamese roadside cafes!1105 - get charged a $1 for a small bottle of Pepsi.1130 - get told that this is where we change bus so unload bags and reluctantly watch the bus dissapear down the dusty highway. I try to ask when the other bus will arrive and the guy points to the 12 on his watch.1140 - nice ladies from cafe take some interest in us and give us two small stools to sit on. They also try to reassure us by nodding and smiling when we point to Hue on our tickets.1230 - still no bus. More people in the cafe looking at us and semi smiling.1245 - mini bus full of Monks leaves and driver shakes his head and wiggles his hands whilst saying 'Hue'. Still not really sure what this meant.1300 - nice smiling ladies talk to random child who then flags down a passing local bus. 4 men run towards us shouting 'Hue! Hue!'. After a loud discussion between the drivers and the nice smiling cafe ladies we hand over some cash - about $2 - although we had already paid for a through ticket???1305 - deeply regret getting on the bus as we are wedged between sacks of rice and sweaty men who are amazed at the site of two westerners on their bus. Not as amazed as we were. My hairy arms were a source of much amusement to them as they incessantly touched and stroked me - recoiling was not really an option as there was nowhere to move to! I felt it might be rude to repay the affection by stroking the 4 inch cluster of hairs they were cultivating from chin based moles. We say 'they' since they did ALL have these distinctly unattractive appendages. 1335 - after 30 minutes we all agree that none of us can speak the other's language very well despite pointing at things in our phrasebook. We're also still not convinced that we're going to get dropped in Hue.1400 - the boundaries of humour were almost passed when the same guys started stroking my legs. 1405 - luckily somebody gets off the bus so we can we move towards the back!1406 - realise that this might not have been such a good move as the guy next to me trys to loll all over me whilst oggling Polly and the old guys in front start smoking a big bong type pipe!1407 - realise that there is no way I can get either of my legs behind the seat that is about 2 inches in front1408 - definitely on holiday by mistake as we estimate another 6 or 7 hours to Hue!ok, we're now getting bored reliving this - as I'm sure you are if you're not asleep yet.After about 4 other stops for grazing and widdling etc and we found ourselves within 20 or so km of Hue - yeah! We couldn't feel our arses or feet but that was not important anymore. To reassure us one of the busmen said 'Hue!' to us and put his thumb up.2000 - (it's very dark now) our joy of being near Hue was shortlived and rudely interupted when the bus pulled up to a halt and we were ushered off the bus next to some small wooden huts and a few locals. I tried to say that Hue was another 17km away - the drivers just smiled and pointed down a dark road holding up 6 fingers! Bollocks.2010 - we turn to the locals as the bus disappears and hopelessly say 'taxi?'2020 - we are somehow on the back of two mopeds with all our gear buzzing towards Hue (we hope) after bartering an $8 fee! An experience to remember but not to repeat.2100 - (26.5 hrs from starting) standing in a clean hotel lobby with smiley people.2110 - standing in the shower drinking cold beer from the mini bar in our air con room! - heaven!After a good night's sleep it all seems a long way away and you're probably thinking we're moaning jessies! - yes - you're right. We are!But if we'd wanted a journey like that we could have arranged it quite easily instead of spending a day in Vientiane trawling round all the travel agents and choosing to book an $18, air-con direct tourist bus service with English speaking driver. To think we were not looking forward to a mear 19hrs in even those conditions!Now in Hue we love it! Hired bikes for exploring and found some good local foods. Always makes us feel better!!
11th - 19th June - Laos
The minibus ride to Chiang Khong at the Thai/Laos border was fairly uneventful - which was good! Our guesthouse was included in the ticket and was pretty crumby, but somewhere to put our sweaty swedes down for the night and try some Thai whiskey.Unfortunately our sweaty swedes remained sweaty all night and I even started shivering I was so sweaty!However, the next morning we were off to Laos via a short journey over the Mekong river to the border control. One girl was sure she saw an enormous snake weaving its way alongside our rickety little thing so defo no plans for swimming!!After border control and the bank running out of money for all us tourists, we boarded our slow boat for the two day trip down the river to Louang Prabang. It was totally unlike the image we had in our heads - it was full of others like us with only a few sacks of local produce going with us and we could buy ice cold beer on board!! Something told us the two days would be fairly easy going!! The boat stopped at villages on the way, picking up / dropping off people, chillies, coconuts and big ugly spiders..... must dash to catch happy hour - back soon!Hmmm - good beers and good nosh had last night!! (trust us!)However, despite the views and the cold beer we were glad to rescue our numb bums from the hard wooden benches, when we finally arrived in Luang Phrabang. It is a beautiful town, protected and being restored by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Its streets are really pretty and very French in architecture, with lovely old colonial houses in amongst traditional Lao temples and monks, surrounded by lots of beautiful trees. Pavements are lined with eateries which obviously impressed us immediately!! Lots of bakeries also have fresh baguettes, croissants but no fougasse! After a day on bikes sightseeing we went on an organised tour - mountain biking along the Mekong through villages selling local handicrafts (beautiful silks and gopping whisky!) Luckily for James, we didn't have any bags big enough for me to do any serious shopping! 30km later we had numb bums again!!We arrived at an enormous cave where old and knackered Buddhas go when they've seen better days, and then canoed back down the river - stopping off at local bar for a bottle of chilled Beer Lao to keep us going. James had a quick swim, luckily the anacondas where obviously not interested in him as they let him back in the canoe to continue the journey. We also learned from our local guide that the Lao eat practically anything that moves; rats, squirrels, monkeys, cats, dogs and even live cicadas. He described with great sound effects, the chc chc chcing as they go down, but it didn't convince us that we'd want to try them. They definitely sound better in the French countryside as a holiday sound!.We've spent the last couple of days in Vientiane, the capital, after an eventful 10hr bus journey. This seems to be a pattern in our travels as the journeys seem to double in the advertised length - this time a couple of other buses had had a dink on a mountain corner which held us up as the police took 3 hours to draw a detailed scaled map in pencil, in the rain, including distances and angles from all points of view!! The scenery in the journey made up for this (and James cramped up folded legs in seats designed for little people) though, as we passed mist covered rugged mountains covered in thick jungle and the odd village too. Sadly, the atmosphere was trashed by the terrible Lao karaoke DVDs they played us at full volume - defo a torture technique! But in Western style, someone had got a rip off Fat Boy Slim in Brighton DVD from the market. It was a 'if you can't beat 'em' moment as we merrily disturbed the peace with that instead for a while!!We've done the sites of Vientiane now and have booked our bus journey onto Hue in Vietnam leaving on Sunday night. This they claim will be a murderous journey of 19 hrs including a few hours stopped on the side of the road before the border opens at 8am and also arsing around at the border which others say is an event in itself - if past experience is anything to go by we'll still be on the damn thing on Wednesday!!!!! Wish us luck - our patience will defo be tested this time!
8th June - 11th June - Chiang Mai, Thailand
We had settled ourselves into a v. "plush" (according to The Rough Guide) guesthouse by 8am and after a quick shower were ready to explore. The place we've stayed really is a beaut! Really lovely gardens with all sorts of amazing plants growing jungle style so you can't see the sky once you're inside. Lots of places for big hairy spiders to hide though! The room is defo more pamper holiday than backpacker but we're not complaing and it's rather nice to have some luxuary!!We hired bikes and saw all the main sights (temples and markets) and came across an annual festival at one where all the locals come to pray for peace and prosperity for Chiang Mai. We slipped in another massage. Feet this time - luuuuvely! James was slightly anxious that his beautiful sweet smelling delights would overcome the poor girl so asked for back, arms and neck instead. Unfortunately the lady for that hadn't arrived yet so he had to join me with the feet. But part way through the other lady arrived - tiny and dressed all in a white uniform. Hearing that James had originally wanted the other she set to work at the same time. He winced as she prodded and poked and then when she popped him up on a bamboo bed she tried to dislocate his face from his neck!! I didn't really realise why James was gurning quite so much until she did it to me afterwards!! Still, we're both still moving and they were very sweet!! On the advice of come locals we went back during the evening when it was even busier. People were queing at every important part of the temple grounds offering beautiful flowers, candle and incense sticks. To our delight there were also heaps of fantastic food stalls!! Toes curled in glee as we made our way round sampling all sorted of goodies. We had crispy prawns, pad thai, crab sausage, fried quails eggs, balck bean omlette, black bean huge dim sum donut thing, lanna noodle curry soup, a funny icey sweet dish of pud and some yum fresh sweets made from mini pancake and meringue. All for about two quid!!We've spent the last two days doing a Thai cookery course which was fab! We booked for one day and had such a good time that we went back for more! The ladies teaching us were great fun and made everything look so easy and not at all fiddly. The only problem was that we got to scoff everything we made ( which was lots!) and groaned around all evening with tummies like drums. And I over did the chilli which was eventful!!Thailand has been excellent!! Would defo come back!!Off to the Laos border shortly by minibus. Then planning a two day slow boat ride down the Mekong River to Louang Phabang. Mosi-Guard, and camera ready!
1st June - 7th June - Bangkok & Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Well, sadly we were just too lazy to get up for the early meditation session - so our evil materialisitc ways are still currently embedded! However, the sad knowledge of how small by backpack is, is enough to curb my whims - so far!! But we did fit in a traditional Thai massage at one of the temples. Lush.
Bangkok was fantastic fun! And we're looking forward to getting back there before our flight to Singapore in a month (or so) - (have stopped counting the days!!) We have been surprised by the number of people we've heard saying didn't like Bangkok as it is too busy, dirty and smelly. They obviously didn't come via Delhi as we've decided it's postivitely lush: tuktuks that don't threaten your life with every movement, food that smells wonderful and definitely edible and people that do not hassle your every step along a road! We also stayed in an area just outside of the main backpacker street which probably helped.
We spent the first couple of days visiting the Grand Palace (which is utterly stunning) and other great Buddha's, scattered about the city. Each place we visited was equally beautiful and the people there were all welcoming and very smiley. Random people have stopped us in the street to ask is what we've seen, to tell us where we should go and to ask us what footie team we support. I've always been hyper-alert watching our wallets and bags, and waiting for them to offer to take us to their friends gem shop to buy cheap cheap, special price jewellry - but none of them have! In fact they have all told us not to buy at the tourist markets, pointing out the markets and places they shop in, as tourist place bad quality and too expenship!!
We got quite used to all the transport which is dead easy to use - tuktuks, aircon taxis (which are cheaper!), sky train, river and smelly canal boats, so were able to fit lots in around sorting our visas.
One evening we went for a wax! (Yes - we!!!)
The place looked great - clean and well run but after being ushered behind a curtain in the corner and shown to a newspaper covered bed I began to question my need to be hair-free. When I saw the guide-camp style saucepan (wobbly wooden handle and all) on a funny little camping stove loaded up with (possibly old and scanky) lumps of wax, I began to question whether I'd be left with any skin from which to grow unwanted hair!!!! For some reason I let them carry on. I say "them" as two ladies then swarmed around me, twirling the dripping wax around wooden spoons, blowing on it as if the were about to gobble it down like spaghetti but suddenly smearing it on me and then yanking it off! Nice! But it worked and I do have my skin left to continue growing the unwanted hair so am quite chuffed that we'll be back there in - oh about 6 weeks! Handy!
Another evening was spent cruising the red light district and night market. Here we were hassled (but only in a pleasant way) with offers of ping pong shows and other such shows to ponder over what they actually entailed!! We politely declined and stopped for a beer or two and some serious people watching. Fascinating!!
For the weekend we headed out to Kanchanaburi - the town where the bridge goes over the River Kwai. Ignoramous me obviously hadn't listened in history as I hadn't a clue why James had been talking about the significance of visiting this town and was quite intrigued when I saw masses of tourists marching over the bridge and taking lots of photos. However, we went to the local museum which was absolutely brilliant and it certainly opened my eyes to the importance of this place we were visiting. It was very moving to read all the accounts of what had happened there and very strange to see it now as a bustling tourist destination. We spent Monday and Tuesday pottering about Bangkok again while we got the final visas sorted. On Monday night James whisked us off in a TukTuk to the Thai boxing stadium. Although it hadn't been top on my ' mustdo' list, it was definately worth going to see. It was pretty grusume at times as they just seemed to kick, knee and elbow wherever they could (and one poor wee lamb got carried off on a stretcher) but it was also fascinating to watch all the locals getting excited with some strange betting process. It seemed more complicated than the dogs at Walthamstow!Tuesday night we got comphy in our first class sleeper up to Chaing Mai. It was great and we arrived at 7am the next morning almost fresh as a daisy!
! More Thailand Photos !
Following a day honing our Thai cooking skills (and eating skills) we managed to stick a few more photos up:www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2125849498Hope to write a bit more blog in the next day or so before we head into Laos on Saturday...
!!!! hurrah - phots uploaded !!!!
1st June - Bangkok, Thailand
After about 3 days of travelling (8hours from Chitwan to Kathmandu, Flight to Delhi the next day, 12 hours in Delhi's visitor lounge as we couldn't be arsed risking our lives to get into town for a couple of hours sweaty kip in a dirty hotel, 5 hours to Hong Kong, 2 hours transit in Hong Kong - at least the loos were clean, 2 and a half hours to Bangkok) we arrived in warm and humid Thailand. Hurrah - Bangkok is fab!After too many beers celebrating our safe arrival on the first night we visited the emabassies to sort visas for the next leg of travels - overland through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.Streets are from our dreams as they're lined with food stalls smelling totally lush! - wahey! Can barely walk in a straight line as our toes keep curling in glee with every sniff we take! Brekky of noodle soup with fish balls doesn't sound that appealing but was bloody lovely - especially at 35p a pop!! Pol started off with a healthy lychee crush but soon caved in and got her own bowl of fishy soup! We're also back onto fresh fruit as everything is so good here - lychees the size of apricots, banans grilled with sesame seeds...yum... the next month and a half should be alright!!Walked through miles of wholesale street markets selling everything you can imagine and more. Seem to have lingered around the ones focusing there trade on jewellry and flowery girly stuff - but we've also been allowed to have a quick look at the air compressors, ninja death stars and copy watches - 'same same good price for you sir!'.Off for meditation and massages tomorrow to rid ourselves of the evil materialisiticness that seems to have suddenly come back to us.
