Bangkok
We’d opted to buy an extra flight from Luang Prabang to Bangkok, so that we could get a 30 day visa on entry to Thailand. After the short flight we got the 30 day visa no problem, and then got the airport express bus straight to Koh San road, and walked to our hotel around the corner. After check in we went for a walk up Koh San road itself, which wasn’t actually as long as I had envisioned, but was teeming with tourists, street vendors and bars blaring their music. The Koh San road came as a bit of a shock after the comparatively quiet, laid back way of life we’d seen in Laos. However it was a great place to do a bit of cheap shopping from the vendors (swimming trunks and shorts for the warmer weather), and I could see that if we were looking to party (all night long) with a load of other tourists, this would be the ideal place to do it. Saying that we had come to Thailand with visions of gorgeous beaches in mind, so with time now running out on our trip, we quickly decided that 2 nights would be enough in the busy city of Bangkok, before we headed out again.
The following day I went to get my hair braided on Koh San road, and I mean this very literally - I sat on a plastic chair in the street for 3 hours whilst 2 people stood behind me plaiting my hair. As you can probably imagine whilst this was going on, many a curious tourist stopped to watch and some even took photos of me, although Im not sure what they are going to do with a photo of a complete stranger getting their hair braided lol. Anyway the results made me feel more like I was ready for a beach holiday in Thailand, although my head was suddenly a lot heavier and my neck was taking a bit of strain.
We had planned to try and get our PADI open water diving certification in Thailand, and had read in the guidebook that Koh Tao island off the East coast was the place to do it cheaply, so while I was getting my hair done Steve got us some bus tickets and found a travel agency that was offering a good deal with a dive centre on Koh Toa (result). We did a bit of research on the dive centre, which had some great recent reviews, and went ahead and made the booking to go to Koh Tao the following morning.
Koh Tao
We met the transfer at 05h30 and were taken to the travel agency office, where we were given stickers with a number on them (which would become how seat numbers on the bus, how quaint). The bus took around 6 hours to get to Champon (pretty uneventful), and then we got on to a big catamaran for the 3 hour transfer to Koh Tao island (not too choppy yay). The dive resort met us at the pier, put us and our bags in the back of their sungthaw and drove us to the dive centre to check in.
Our first view of the island was excellent, this is more like it, a small island with a sandy beach and some pale green warm water - lovely! Definitely much more like the Thailand we had pictured than the hubbub of Bangkok.
We arrived on the island around 4pm and had paid for one extra nights accommodation before the 4 day dive course was due to start the following day. So we had a day to go for a walk around and get to know it a bit before the course would begin. Koh Tao turned out to be a beautiful island with a row of beach bars / restaurants and dive centres along the water, and then one road up from the beach a kind of ‘centre of town’ with more restaurants bars and shops (clearly aimed at tourists) and all they would need on a beach holiday. At night a couple of the beach bars had shows of men twirling fire sticks in circles, which was completely mesmerising to watch, and a couple of bars had live music on. It had a pretty laid back feel about it. After the super cheap prices in Laos, the prices of accommodation and food were a bit surprising though. Where were the cheap beach huts and food we’d heard so much about in Thailand? Well I suppose compared to London the prices on Koh Tao were cheap, but nowhere near as cheap as Laos had just been.
But I digress back to the dive centre, where we were taken up to our fan room, which turned out to be a bit of a dive (if you’ll pardon the pun), clearly in need of a refresh with a toilet cistern that leaked water all over the bathroom floor whenever you flushed it (class). Saying that we didn’t spend very much time in our room, as the dive course turned out to be pretty intense.
The following afternoon we went down to the dive centre to start our course, the first day was just orientation and we did some paperwork and then watched 2 videos, before breaking at 5pm. Steve had to run around trying 2 different doctors on the island for a medical history letter to be allowed to take part in the course, and eventually even had to fax our doctor back in London but managed to get it in the end, so the course was on. We also had to read a couple of chapters from the manual for our homework, so we had a pretty late night.
The following morning at 09h00 we met our instructor for the first time and went straight to the kit room to suit up and get in the pool for the confined water work. Now I had been worried that I might not make it off the starting blocks (as those of you who have ever seen me in a pool will understand), and this was very nearly the case, as the first requirement was to get in and swim 8 lengths of their little pool, which was a BIG ask for me, but I managed to do that with a little help from Steve. I’ve always been a pretty weak swimmer and by the end my lungs were on fire and my legs had turned to jelly, but that was the swimming requirement out of the way. Only to be asked to get in and float for 10 minutes. I explained that I can’t actually float, and the instructor kindly said that I could try floating the following day in the sea, as I would be more buoyant there. However as I’d never floated before in my life, I thought this was a pretty unlikely scenario.
But for the time being I had bought myself a bit more time, and it was straight on to the open water skills in the pool. We got in to our wetsuits, weigh belts, masks, snorkels, fins and BCDs, complete with tanks and got in to the pool. The first thing he asked us to do was to take our masks off, put our faces in to the water and breathe through the regulator (ie do not breathe through your exposed nose) and when I managed to do this without choking myself, my confidence grew a little. We spent the next three hours working through all the skills in the pool, which included swimming around underwater without the mask on (thankfully I didn’t have to open my eyes), and by the time lunch time rolled around we were pretty tired out from all the swimming, but had both done very well with the pool skills. Our instructor was very patient and easy going and made us feel at ease with the pool skills. After a quick lunch we had another classroom session to cover another couple of chapters, and we had some more homework to do that night. However having spent the whole morning passing all the pool skills, I needed to learn to float ASAP, so Steve and I headed down to the sea to give it a go. As it turned out I was indeed able to float on my back in the totally flat, salty water by the beach, so I managed to pass the flat requirement afterall.
On the morning of day 3 we were up at 9h00 to fetch our gear and got a boat out to the 12metre dive site for our first dive in the sea (well technically second if you count the intro we did in Sharm years ago). Unfortunately the waves were pretty big and the boat was rocking and rolling, so it wasn’t long before I was feeling nauseous and throwing up over the side of the boat. I felt a bit better about this as I was in good company with 2 other dutch girls. We did 2 dives that day and then went back to the dive centre for some more theory and did the final exam in the afternoon to get it out of the way (only 1 question wrong what winners we are!). Day 4 we got up early and met our instructor at the kit room at 6h30 AM. Then it was on to our third and fourth dives. Again the waves were big and I got seasick, but we managed to complete all our skills, and our instructor gave us congrats on our Open Water qualification on the slate board underwater as soon as we were done. We had a new videographer come along with us for the dives, and as it was Valentines Day he asked us to add a bit of cheese to the tape - it is hilarious. That evening we met up with our instructor and his girlfriend, and had a couple of drinks while we watched the video and congratulated ourselves on getting our PADI Open Water qualifications. Then we had one night in another beach bungalow before we caught a ferry across to Koh Phangan island (2.5 hours). The boat was really busy and we had to hustle to get a seat, as there were a load of people that ended up on deck in the sun.
Koh Phangan (the island of the Full Moon Party)
We arrived in Koh Phangan and got on a sungthaw with a group of other people, and for a 100 baht each we got transferred in to the centre of Haad Rin. Fortunately we had found a website specialising in Full moon party accommodation and prebooked, as walking along the main road all the hostels had already put signs up saying they were fully booked, 3 days before the event. There was a minimum 5 night stay over the period of the party, which was a bit longer than we had wanted, but meant we had more time to party. Our accommodation was a shocker, probably the worst place we stayed in over our whole trip - with ants on the walls and holes in the ceiling boards. There was also a sign asking people not to store their things above the ceiling boards but rather to use the lockers provided. 2 Separate people had already warned us about the rampant theft from bungalows during the party so we stowed our electronics in the lockers at reception.
We had one day lying on the beach, which was surprisingly beautiful. Haad Rin sunrise beach is in a little bay with some restaurants and accomodation that open straight out on to the beach, white sand and again some pretty gorgeous water. Then we had a warm up party on the 17th were we made it to 4am (pretty close) and had a fab time as it wasn’t as busy and you could relatively easily move between bars. At one bar they have 2 guys standing on chairs swinging a long burning rope, with people trying to jump rope underneath. It is actually pretty dangerous because you see a load of peole walking around with their feet and ankles bandaged, where the skin has been burnt off, however again it makes for entertaining viewing and apparently people will try anything when they’re drunk. Then we had one day for recovery on the 18th (we‘re not as young as we used to be), before the actual Full moon party on the 19th (it was moved out 1 day due to a holiday). For some reason Koh Phangan is all about the neon. Its like walking around a permanent 80s revival with neon t shirst, hats and paint in all the shops. I didn’t fancy a neon t shirt as I could ever see myself wearin that back in my real life, but we bought some of the little neon paint pots and Steve painted some flowers on my arm (very impressive), whilst I did a big yellow smiley on Steve’s back that said full moon party (probably easier to see the pictures). During the day there were quite a lot of people walking around, but not spans and we thought it probably wouldn’t be all that busy at the party. We were wrong. It was heaving. I reckon because there are so many taxi boats that bring boat loads of tourists in from the nearby islands (so the amount of accommodation available doesn’t limit the number of people attending). We had a great time at the party, where each bar plays its own music and everyone dances on the beach. There are loads of little stalls along the sand that sell buckets of alcohol (the drink of choice) and we spent a couple of hours at a drum and bass bar which we hadn’t done in years. The funniest / grossest thing is that around 2am the ocean turns in to the worlds largest toilet, and you can see a row of men lined up standing ankle deep in the waves! We did manage to stay on the beach long enough to see the sunrise (as opposed to some revellers that had crashed out in the sleep space provided). However the sunrise itself was a bit disappointing. We had expected the sun to come up over the horizon above the sea, but it actually came up behind a mountain so you don’t so much see it rising, as see it getting lighter if that makes sense. Then back to our luxurious (not) accommodation to get some kip in to the afternoon. By the time we got back to the beach later that afternoon we were surprised to find how quickly and how well the clean up operation had gone. When we left the beach was full of general debris, empty buckets, straws etc, and people still dancing, but by the time we returned the same afternoon that had all been swept away apart from the odd straw here and there. Very impressive. I guess they do it every month so they are used to the aftermath by now. It is a bit strange how this whole beach just revolves around people partying. Its not just the one night of the full moon party, there always seems to be some sort of party going on.
Then we had one more day to try and get the lumo paint off ourselves and then sit on the beach in the recovery position, before we caught the ferry to Koh Samui. I’m pleased to report that we didn’t seem to get broken in to while we were out, although that could have been because we were the furthest bungalow up a pretty steep climb.
Koh Samui
We had to get a private taxi from the pier to Chaweng beach where we were staying. The bungalow was clean (a relief after the last place) but it was a bit out to the way and a long walk to the main road and the beach. We went for a look around though, and it was a nice enough beach, with a main road that sold lots of fake bags and fake jewellery (again very touristy). So on the second day we hired a scooter from the hostel (no licenses required it would seem) and we scooted to Lamai beach for a look around. We decided to book a beach bungalow as the beach was a bit quieter and we would be right on the beach as opposed to a good walk away. Then back to Chaweng for a while longer.
As it was our anniversary the next day we went for an oil massage on the beach, which involved a lot of stretching, and was a bit scary in parts, but was rather good. I wasn’t brave enough to go for the thai massage as it looked like they were trying to hurt people. Later we went for a very expensive steak dinner which was good too, so all in all not a bad way to spend a wedding anniversary on an island in Thailand!
The following day we got a sungthaw across to Lamai beach and moved in to our new beach bungalow (definitely an upgrade). We could hear the waves crashing from our beach bungalow and even had an aircon unit - whoop whoop! So we spent a couple of days sitting by the sea and getting some more sun (or in my case shade). On the last night we hired a scooter and headed back to Chaweng beach for drinks with Connie and Loz (that we met on the Gap tour) and a couple of their mates which was great. Although as we had to be up at 6am the following morning we didn’t stay out late.
Looking back, having been to Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui on the East coast I have to say that Koh Tao was by far my favourite, as it was the smaller of the three islands and was less developed. You get more of a feeling that you were on an island in the middle of nowhere, and less of the feeling that youre in a tourist trap where everyone is trying to make money out of you. Anyway, Mom C had kindly given us a weeks accommodation in Phuket, so we were looking forward to a weeks worth of luxury, which would make a real change after all the beach huts, so we’d booked our tickets to leave the following morning.
Phuket
We were ready and waiting for the transfer outside our hotel at 6h30 AM however, the minibus only came at 7AM, and had to make about 5 stops for other passengers, before driving us over to the other side of the island to catch the ferry. We snoozed through the ferry ride, and then got a bus on the other side, for what turned in to rather Epic and painful journey to Phuket town. We had thought we were getting a direct bus (as we normally do), but after about an hour on the bus they pulled in to a transfer point, and we all had to get off and wait around. They said we’d wait 40 minutes for the Phuket bus, but it turned out to be more like 2 hours before they got us back on the sungthaw and took us to another bus bound for Phuket. I tried asking the guy at the transfer point how many hours it would take once we got on the bus and he said 5 or 6, which meant a 18h00 or 19h00 pm arrival. I told him we‘d been promised a 15h30 arrival by the travel agent that sold us the tickets. To which he just replied, okay you’ll get there at 15h30 then if that’s what you want to hear. Urgh very frustrating! He basically blamed the travel agent for giving out incorrect information and was in no way apologetic, but I think we had missed the earlier bus, or it was full, so they made us wait until the afternoon one instead (there should have been 2). He also wanted to sell us a minibus transfer from Phuket Town to our hotel for 600 Baht which turned out to be a rip off, so it was good we didn’t buy it from him. What a con artisit and a rather unpleasant man. Anyway Phuket was to be the final stop on the bus. But it turned out to be more of a taxi than a bus, as it stopped for everyone and anyone that wanted a ride, however short along the way. Even though the bus was full and there were no seats. At one point they actually stopped to let a load of school children on to the bus, for about a 100 baht each, and then dropped them off further up the road, so we were getting pretty annoyed, seeing as the bus was already running over 2 hours late for us. By the time we eventually arrived in Phuket town it was 19h00 PM, so we were 3.5 hours late! We got in a a taxi and went straight to the hotel. It was fabulous to get a luxury room (space!), some room service and a comfortable bed (no ants!), and it wasn’t long before we were asleep, exhausted from the epic journey.
We revelled in the fact that the room had a TV (with English channels) and a DVD player (it’s the small things!), and the reception had a box full of DVDs that you could watch for free. We made good use of the couch and the DVD player lol. The only trouble was where the hotel was situated, on a road that wasn’t within walking distance of the beach, or the local restaurants (the restaurant in the hotel was very expensive). However there was a free shuttle bus to the beach, so the following day we caught the bus to the beach and there weren’t may people there (great), with a little restaurant where you could get some lunch just behind you. The beach was pretty hidden down a path so people wouldn’t really go there unless they knew about it (hence quiet). The deckchairs were free, the water was warm, calm and beautiful (my kind of ocean). The perfect place to practice my new float! Thanks again Mom C for a great gift. Just what we needed towards the end of our trip.
The next day we hired a scooter and scooted the 40 minutes to Patong to have a look at the beaches on the West coast. Patong beach was manic with side to side sunloungers, and the water was a dirty brown colour (cant see the bottom) where the waves were churning up the sand (yuck). Also no shade on the beach unless you are prepared to pay B300 for a sunlounger. So not particularly impressed with that beach. Just up the road Karon beach was nicer. There were still lots of people and millions of sun loungers but the beach was a bit quieter and the water a bit clearer. Patong is clearly the main tourist strip for Phuket, as the area is heaving with tourists and agencies, which is good if you are looking to book a tour. So we decided to have the scooter for another day and buy some Muay Thai tickets for the Friday night fights.
On the Friday we spent the day around Patong and then went to the fight early to get some good seats. As it was, the ring was practically empty when we arrived so we got to sit exactly where we liked. We were due to see 9 fights that night, and frankly I was a bit concerned that it would be all bloody and gruesome, in which case I might not make it all the way through. However I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually pretty exciting stuff and not as gory as I’d anticipated. I think the dance music they play between rounds has something to do with it. Lol. We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves in for, when the first fight was between two 10 year old boys. No jokes, we saw two ten year olds with six packs really go for one another. Then we saw a couple of, probably sixteen year olds, and then a ladies fight which was pretty good. Before getting on to the main events. There were a couple of foreigners fighting thai guys, and surprisingly some of the foreign guys even won their fights. There were people taking bets, but we didn’t place any. I figured I’d already paid for the ticket, never mind spending more money on fighters that they would know a lot better than I do. In one fight we got to see a knock out. Although it did happen really fast, and I didn’t think the guy looked like he’d been hit that hard, but on the TV replay he’d actually been hit twice from 2 different sides. We did see a couple of people with welts developing on their foreheads were they had been punched. And I was also surprised that we didn’t hear anyone screaming out in pain. But then I guess they have their adrenalin flowing and will probably feel it later. They just carry on fighting as though they havent just been hit in the ribs. Im sure if it was me Id be whining and clutching my side lol. Then it was a rather hairy 40 minute scoot back to the hotel in Panwa, as it had starting raining during the fights (fortunately it stopped before we had to leave), and we didn’t really know the roads, but we managed to find our way back after stopping for directions at a street side café.
We had another day at the beach in Panwa and then decided to book a cabaret show with an agency there. Which meant another big scoot to Patong, but by this point we were getting better at the directions. The cabaret show was surprisingly good. Or should I say that the ladyboys in the show made very convincing women. At one point when there were only 3 woman on stage I found myself wondering if they really were woman afterall, and the joke was on us. They don’t really dance very well (a bit stiff) and their lip synching was off in parts, but the costumes and make up where amazing and it was entertaining stuff. I don’t know where they were hiding their manbits in those little g string feathered outfits, and they’d clearly spent a lot of money on a good surgeon. Actually it was a bit sad to think that all those people on stage had paid a load of money to have their bodies changed, but I suppose that’s their bag and they are proud of their bodies now. After the show all the cast lined up outside for photos with the audience, although that part was really a money making scheme, as they demand cash from you afterwards, so we avoided that and managed to snap a couple of pics from afar. Its only when you see them outside in the normal lights, that you realise they really were men. Even the ones you thought might actually be women on stage. That was our last night in Phuket, as we’d booked a ferry to Koh Phi Phi.
The next morning we were up early and got a transfer to Phuket town at 07h30, and then the ferry to Koh Phi Phi (only 1.5 hours). We decided not to book our accommodation in advance, as the places were very expensive online, and we just arrived with our backpacks on our backs. This turned out to be a good strategy as there are loads of ‘tourist info’ places offering spans of accomnodation as you get off the pier. Koh Phi Phi is really beautiful and I could then see what all the fuss had been about re Thailand. I mean we’d been to some pretty beautiful beaches before then, but nothing compared with Phi Phi. The water was chrystal clear, turquoise, bath water warm, and flat as a pancake. In the distance there were tall limestone cliffs covered in green. Just gorgeous and exactly what we had imagined when thinking about Thailand. Clearly the place were all the travel brochures are shot.
The beaches on Phi Phi were a bit quieter than Phuket, which suited me although if you walk into the main tourist area there are still plenty of restaurants and places to stay for backpackers. The accommodation wasn’t cheap though, as we wanted air con in the heat, so we ended up staying in a not so nice shoe box of a guesthouse rather than a beach bungalow. Still we were only a very short walk to the beach. Steve had food poisoning for the first 2 days (we were starting to get used to the regular bouts of food poisoning, there didn’t seem any way to avoid it really).
On the third day we went on the 4 islands boat trip, which involved snorkelling off a long tail boat (with a car engine strapped to the back) and stopping at some REALLY gorgeous unspoilt white sandy beaches, practically deserted except for a couple of long tail boats. The water in Phi Phi is teeming with life, including sandworms, hermit crabs, snails and schools of tiny fishes swimming around your legs in the shallows. On our boat trip we also stopped at ‘The Beach’ where the movie was shot, but by that point the weather had turned so it was unfortunately overcast. It was still great to see it and recognise the cliffs from the movie. Just behind the greenery was a beach bar and a full on toilet lol. One night we went in to the main backpackers strip for a drink and found the Reggae Bar that Connie and Loz had recommended and it was hilarious. They have set up a muay thai ring in the middle of the bar, and any 2 tourists can get up and have a fight. They give you the minimal of protective gear, and a free bucket at the end which seemed to be enough to tempt people in. We saw a couple of girls fighting, one of whom was absolutely plastered and staggering all over the ring in a white t shirt. The referee took great pleasure in giving her a drink from a water bottle and then ‘accidentally’ spilling half of it down her top! We also saw some guys go at it hell for leather, apparently there is no such thing as ‘going easy’ when 2 drunken men get on stage for a fight and one guy even ended up with his eye swelling shut. Needless to say we weren’t very keen to fight ourselves, but it made for very entertaining viewing. The kind of thing that would never be allowed in the UK due to the health and safety regulations!
We could only stay 3 days on Phi Phi, as we had to get to Koh Lanta, to do our visa run from there, so we got the short ferry ride across for 250 baht each. Not bad apart from the fact that there was a strong smell (and smoke) downstairs where the seating was, so we had to sit upstairs on the deck for duration of the journey.
Koh Lanta
We got off at the pier and Steve was immediately approached by a couple of different men trying to sell their various guest houses. He found one guy who was saying 800 baht for an A/C room on Long Beach, so we got in to his bucky for the free 10 min transfer to Long Beach. When we arrived the bungalow wasn’t quite on the beach, but rather their last remaining bungalow at the back by the garden, but we decided to take it, as we could move to the very front bungalow the following morning (sweet).
Koh Lanta had a very relaxed feel to it, and featured more families with young children pushing prams along the sand, and didn’t really have any big resorts with their loungers out. We had planned to stay a week and then possibly head on to Krabi / Railay island, but as it turned out we ended up extending our stay as it was a very laid back, relaxing sort of place with a nice beach and good food on the cheap. We were also staying at a nice family run set of bungalows with some pretty atmospheric tables out on the beach, that played some chilled out music. We came to realise that pretty much every other beach we’d been to had played dance / pop music, rather than the mellowed strains of Jack Johnson et al, so it was a nice change of pace.
After we’d checked in to our bungalow, we went back to reception and asked if there was a visa run the following day (the day our current visa expired). However we were a bit alarmed to find out that they didn’t actually do the visa runs every day, and the next one was scheduled in 6 days time (ouch). We were concerned that we might not be let back in to Thailand for overrunning by that long, not to mention the size of the hefty fine on exit, so we opted to take a moto taxi in to town to look for another travel agency.
As it turned out we found another agency that was doing a visa run in 2 days time (one days overrun) which wasn’t too bad. So we took it easy for a day and also had a look around the night market, which had some very convincing fake designer bags and as much fake Tiffany as you could shake a stick at. 2 Days later it was on to the nightmare visa run minibus. It collected us around 07h30 and after 4 ferry trips and more than 10 hours sitting in the little van, we returned from Malaysia around 19h00 pm! It was totally uncomfortable as there was no legroom at all, and the aircon was practically non existant in the stifling heat. Not to mention the fact that the breaks off the bus lasted around 20 mins in total all day. By the time we pulled back in to Koh Lanta I had total cabin fever and couldn’t wait to get out of that minivan. That’s one day of my life I’ll never get back. However we did manage to get a new Thailand visa for 14 days that would allow us to stay legally until our flight home on the 23rd March. We did get fined 500 baht each for 1 days overrun, but that worked out cheaper than hiring a private minivan to do the visa run ourselves, or the fine we would have had otherwise upon exit. The actual process at the border is a bit of a farce as you simply Exit Thailand, walk over the road to enter Malaysia, and then walk around the building to exit Malaysia again (2 stamps in hand) you then walk back over the road to Enter Thailand again to get your new visa. Still it has to be done as they will only give tourists a 30 day visa for entry by air, or 14 days for entry overland.
So new visas in hand we had a walk around town and made enquiries about some fun diving off Koh Lanta. We were surprised to find out the cost of the fun dives in Koh Lanta as compared with the prices on Koh Tao (much more expensive) and Phi Phi (slightly more expensive), as most of the dive boats make at least a 2 hour journey back towards Phi Phi to reach the dive spots. However we decided to book a dive with the dive centre that was attached to our hostel, as they rather conveniently left right from the beach outside, rather than having to transfer in to town. We had been to the pharmacy to get some sea sickness tablets for me (eager to avoid a repeat of my open water dives) and were set to go at 07h30 at the dive centre.
It was a pretty comfortable boat (big boat with 2 levels so you could sit upstairs away from the dive gear) and it was to be my first dive after finishing our open water qualification so I was a bit nervous about how it was going to go.
After about 2 hours on the boat, we arrived at Koh Haa (the divespot) and our instructor briefed us and we started kitting up for the dive. However it turned out my BCD (inflatable vest) wasn’t working properly (didn’t actually inflate when you pushed the button), so at the last minute they had to take the BCD off and replace it with another one. After which we were hustled in to the water before we could finish our checks (so not terribly impressed with that). However when we got in to the water we had a fab dive and saw a giant puffer fish and a hawsbill turtle (amongst other things). The water is really teeming with life out there. During the dive I was swimming along and the instructor came over to me, went around the back and felt like he was tugging my BCD from side to side. I didn’t understand why, but after we got up the others told me that my tank had come loose and was floating up behind me in the water (clearly as a result of them having swapped the BCD out in a hurry). We had a small lunch on the boat and the second dive was without incident, with us seeing loads more cool stuff in the water including a pair of lion fish and a very cute baby yellow cube fish (darn, no underwater camera). I had a bit of a buoyancy issue when we got nearer the surface (5m) as I just started floating up to the top when I inhaled despite having no air in the BCD, which was a bit scary, as it can be difficult to get yourself to sink down again, and you are warned about the dangers of popping up to the top like a cork. Basically I need 5 weights instead of 4 for any future dives there. Saying that we have seen more sealife on the West coast, than on the East coast of Thailand and we were keen to do one more dive before heading back home.
One of our days on Koh Lanta we hired a scooter and tried to scoot down south to find the national park. We got a bit lost and ended up at a restaurant called the Panorama. The owner was quite lovely and very helpful, and we could see an island across the water and asked where we could rent a kayak to get there. He said how much you want to pay and we got a kayak from him for 100b and paddled across to our private beach for the afternoon. I mean how cool is that, we were the only ones on the island! Then back on the scooter to see the terminal point of koh lanta, where we got ripped off at 100 baht for a fruit shake as we didn’t ask the price before we drank it (it was about 40 B everywhere else) so they doubled the price.
It was around this time that we met up with the Owens again (that we met in the Galapagos) and we spent our last couple of nights having dinner with them. It was great to have some company for our last couple of days and catch up with them about their travels. We also arranged some diving together to another dive spot in Koh Haa called the chimney. I didn’t like trying to swim through the hole, as my tank was scraping against the rocks and there was a bit of a diver pile up, however you could then swim up to the top and out of the chimney, and the light was very pretty when you go to the top.
That day we saw a yellow seahorse which was awesome and stacks of baby clown fish. Also loads of moray eels, which seems to be in every hole and a ghost pipefish which is apparently quite rare, and would have been impossible to spot had it not been for the instructor. The diving really takes it out of me so I was knackered that evening when we got back. Great to be able to have a second dive day though, which brings my total dives up to 8 now, and steve has done 10.
The next day we took a morning Thai cookery class which was really good. He showed us how to make Pad Thai, Green Thai Curry (and paste) and Chicken with cashew nuts, which have been firm favourites of ours whilst in Thailand, and gave us a little recipe book to take away afterwards.
On our last day in Koh Lanta we hired a scooter again and drove towards the national park, where we found a little beach hidden down a hillside, that only had 6 people on it. It was awesome. That night the Owens were very kind and bought us a farewell dinner, so we said our sad goodbyes to them. They are travelling for another couple of months, with the last stop in London so we are hoping to see them again then.
The next morning we set off on the long journey back to Bangkok. We got a minibus to Krabi, and then another minivan to Surathani (which we weren’t told about), before getting the overnight bus to Bangkok. The bus wasn’t too bad for me as I got a bit of sleep, but Steve was awake the whole way as he just doesn’t fit behind those little seats. Steve had emailed the suit shop in Bangkok, so we had arranged to fetch his suit and my coat before we left.
The bus arrived in to Bangkok at 5am, and we walked back to the same hotel near Koh San road, where fortunately our room was ready so we could get a couple of hours sleep. Then we went for a final suit / coat fitting, and also went to see the MBK shopping centre. Which is a bit bizarre in that it’s a bit like a flea market with little stalls, but inside a shopping centre. We did a bit of last minute shopping and then met up again for the sung thaw back to the hotel.
Then we did the last big repack (whoop whoop) of our backpacks (bursting at the seams, and in Steves case literally), before catching a minibus transfer to the airport for our return flight to London.
And so we came to the end of our 9 month trip around the world! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the blog, as this is the last instalment!
Love to all our friends and family around the world.
Kirst x
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Laos - Don Det, Pakse, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang
Don Det
We caught a bus from Siem Reap to Don Dhet, and we were lucky enough to find 2 seats next to one another. The people that got on after us weren’t as lucky, and we had a couple of people standing in the aisle and one man sitting on the stairs for a while, until someone got off the bus and they could have the empty seat. Unfortunately Steve had a dodgy stomach on that bus, so it wasn’t a very pleasant journey for him, but he managed to hold it together okay. The road between Cambodia and Loas wasn’t very good, and although part of it was tarred, it still felt as bumpy as a dirt road. After an otherwise uneventful journey we finally arrived at the Loas border. A guy came around on the bus (that worked for the bus company) and showed us a printout that said a UK passport would have to pay $40 for a Laos visa, which was about double what we were expecting to pay. However he swore blind that as it was an on arrival visa that required immediate processing, it did cost more. I’m still not sure whether to believe him. I reckon he probably paid $20 for the visa and pocketed the other half, but who’s to know. Everyone else on the bus handed over their passports , visa application forms and fees, and rather than bucking the trend, so did we. When we got to the border we didn’t even have to get off the bus, the guy just went inside, sorted out our visas and came back with them inside our passports. Then it was another hour on the bus before we reached the 4000 Islands stop.
We got off the bus in the middle of nowhere and transferred in to a small minivan, which drove us to a port. Actually we were pretty lucky to get in the minivan as the other guys were crammed in to an open backed sungthaw, with their luggage on the roof, and the last couple of brave aussies were on top of that. By this point it was pitch dark and the minivan took us down a little road to a port where we would get on a small boat to transfer across to the island of Don Det. We couldn’t get very much of a feel for where we had landed, as it was pitch dark, apart from a couple of lights on the edge of the river.
I might mention that we’d tried our best the day before to pre book some accommodation in Don Det. However as the online booking website that all the hostels shared wasn’t working, and the phone numbers listed in the guidebook were no longer in service, we had no choice but to arrive in the dark, and walk around with our luggage looking for somewhere to stay.
Steve had read up and found one place that was recommended by a number of travellers, so we asked the guy that was dropping us all off, which direction it was in, and off we raced with our backpacks, leaving the group behind. There is a definite sense of urgency / competition at these sorts of times, when a large number of people are dropped off in a new place, and you are all competing for the same rooms. Nobody really knows just how many rooms there are available, and whether everyone will be accommodated (also the nicest ones go first), so its every man / woman for themselves, and the faster you get cracking to find a room the better.
After asking for directions 2 more times, we managed to find it, and thankfully they did have a room available, although unfortunately not with a river view. The room was very basic, a wooden bungalow up on stilts with a mosquito net over the bed and a floor of wooden planks that you could see through to the ground through. There was also an old fan to stave off the sweltering heat. Oh and an ensuite bathroom (what luxury lol!) with a hand shower that only had 1 cold water tap, and a toilet (not a squat one so again what luxury) that you need to ’flush’ by pouring a jug of water down it from a big bucket! Rustic was not the word. After seeing the basic accommodation, I was wondering what in the world we had come to.
However the next morning when we got up and went to see the view of the river just a couple of doors down, we understood what all the fuss was about. The island is really beautiful and the views out and down the Mekong river are fantastic. We decided to hire a couple of bicycles, so that we could cycle around the island and we got as far as the old French bridge, where we crossed over to Don Khon island to go and see the waterfall there. Although it wasn’t a very tall one there was actually quite a lot of water moving through the crevice which was cool.
On our way to the bridge, we noticed that there were bungalows all the way along the river, although they all looked just as rustic as the place we were staying in. That night we headed back to the hostel for sunset over the river, which was really beautiful. Afterwards we went for dinner in a restaurant overlooking the river and got chatting to some people that were sitting next to us. We ended up spending the night with them, chatting and drinking which was fun. The next day we’d booked to go kayaking, and we did manage to get there for the 9h00 start. In fact, we can proudly say that we haven’t actually missed a plane / bus / train / tour that we’ve booked on the whole trip as yet.
The guide gave us a dry bag to transfer all our stuff in to, a helmet, a life jacket and a paddle and off we went to find our kayaks. Unfortunately our guide didn’t really speak any English (contrary to the advert for the tour I might add). At one point we tried asking ‘So what are we going to see next?’ which was met with a blank look, so we stopped trying to speak to ask questions, and just had a quiet day paddling along the river instead.
It did turn out to be a long day of paddling, and although it was downriver, the water was pretty low so there were long stretches without much current where we were paddling for ages and it was pretty exhausting stuff. Saying that the views were fantastic, and when we stopped for a packed lunch on a big rock in the middle of the river we got to see a number of Irrawaddy river dolphins swimming past us. I might mention that the packed lunch consisted of beef with fried rice in a styrophome container, that had been sweating in the guide’s drybag for a couple of hours ( you might be able to guess where this is going?).
After lunch on the rock it was back in the kayaks, with the sun beating down on us for a bit more paddling punishment, although we were rewarded with a stop at a big waterfall (most volume of water in South East Asia), before they loaded the kayaks in to the back of a sungthaw and started us on the drive back. However we didn’t actually drive all the way back to Don Det as I’d thought we would, the guide had one final surprise in store for us. We were actually dropped off on the far side of the river, so we had to do one final paddle to get ourselves back to Don Det (groan). I have decided that a full days kayaking is not really for me - its somewhat beyond my fitness levels and the novelty wears off around the time your shoulders start to ache and the blister on your thumb starts to set in. Saying that we had some beautiful views and I’m glad we got to see the dolphins.
That night we were pretty exhausted from all the paddling, and tried to get an early night. However following the sweaty beef I’d dared eat for lunch, it was my turn to get food poisoning and I was up all night throwing up - yuck. We did decide to stay an extra day on Don Det, before getting the bus on to Pakse, as it was very quiet and relaxing after the madness of Siem Reap and felt like more of a hidden backpacker destination than a lot of the places we‘d visited. We spent the extra day pretty much lying in a hammock, then eating, followed by some lying around at a low end table with those typically South East Asian triangular floor cushions. We did manage a brief swim in the Mekong in the afternoon which was refreshing in the sweltering heat before returning to the low end table where we met an English couple on a RTW trip and sat chatting to them.
The next day we queued up to get the small boat over to the mainland, and we only just managed to get the first boat out before it filled up. Then we were virtually dumped on the other side of the river to walk ourselves up the hill with our backpacks and find the bus. We managed to find a queue of people sitting outside a shop and showed a man our bus tickets, but he just shook his head and walked away (not to helpful then). We asked another man and he pointed us back down the road we had just come from. Organised chaos!
Eventually we found the right shop we should have been waiting at, and then after an hour or so of sitting around in the sun (Laos time) on the side of the road, a small minivan arrived. After he‘d loaded all the people for the other destinations, he asked the Pakse people to fill up the remaining space. So we climbed in to the back of the minivan, and the guy in front of Steve folded his little seat back down, so that it leaned against his legs (oh dear). About 2.5 hours later (only half an hour late result) we arrived at Pakse and were once again dumped outside a travel agency, with the bus speeding away. So we went inside and asked them to point out exactly where we where on the map in our guidebook. We managed to walk and found a hostel (one of the few times we hadn’t pre booked as there weren’t any hostels on the web). The first hostel we went to that was recommended in the book was fully booked, but the second one we found had space so we were relieved to put our bags down rather than walking around in the heat. I must say I much prefer to have a hostel booked and go straight to it, than wander around the streets carrying all your bags in the heat.
We only had one night in Pakse to break the journey to the capital city of Vientiane, as we didn’t fancy the 6 hour wait in Pakse on the ‘direct’ bus service. There wasn’t really very much to do in Pakse, so the following evening we caught the night bus to Vientiane. It was a sleeper bus and our first and only one in Laos. It was a little different to the sleeper buses we’d taken in South America, in that a ‘double’ bed wasn’t really wide enough for the two of us to lie down shoulder to shoulder, so one of us had to lie on our side to fit in. Thank goodness we weren’t on a ‘double’ sharing with a local stranger as that would have been awful. Apparently they do fill up the bunks, whether you know one another or not. We ran in to an aussie girl that we had met on Don Det, as she was on the same bus (bunk across the aisle) so we caught up with her a bit before settling in. We were pretty much in bed with the covers pulled up by 20h30 as it turned out there were no overhead lights on the bus, so you couldn’t read or play cards. So once we’d run out of conversation it was bed time. The bus did have air con and a nasty little toilet (I suppose better than none) along with a kind of bus hostess that handed out water, juice and biscuits (which we were very surprised with). Despite the cramped accommodation we did manage to get a little bit of sleep before the bus pulled in to Vientiane at 07h00 (only 1 hour late, not too bad). We had booked for one night in a cheap hotel (the guest houses weren’t on the hostel websites again) so we had something to go to. But basically everyone got off the bus, picked up their bags and then transferred over to a sungthaw, which then took us to the centre of town for $2 each. Well they said 15,000 kip each before we got in, and then when we got out and gave them a 50,000 kip note the guy tried to short change us with a 10,000 note for change. We noticed they were trying to extort more money out of nearly every passenger that got off the truck regardless of how much had been agreed upfront.
Then we walked the wrong way for about half an hour, until we eventually got our bearings and made our way to the cheap hotel we‘d booked. It wasn’t too bad, apart from the smell of damp and all the mosquitos (lol) but it turned out to be quite expensive compared with many of the guest houses in the area. So we went looking for a guest house that had a room available for our second night and prepaid so they would keep us a room. Vientiane turned out to be really busy with most of the guest houses fully booked (despite the fact that hardly any have pre booking on the internet). So we had 2 days in Vientiane and I’d like to say that we did something really touristy and went to see their temples etc, but we were a bit templed out, so we tried to get tickets for a local traditional dance performance, but that theatre had closed down (cant have been very good then) so we never did see that. Instead we went for a walk along the new riverfront promenade they are building and later on we tried some street food. This was the first time we were brave enough to have some genuine street food, where they actually cook on the streets, and you sit at little tables on the pavement in the middle of nowhere. I had the thai beef noodle which was very tasty (no resulting stomach sickness either) and Steve had the chicken cashew which was good as well. Its amazing that they can actually cook there in the middle of nowhere, and they even had electric lights hanging from poles above our tables! After dinner we went for a walk along the night market that mysteriously shoots up along the road side come nightfall and looked at their wares, which mostly consisted of very loud travellers handbags, cushion covers and slippers so we didn’t fancy anything.
On the second day we moved to the guest house we‘d paid for (slight downgrade as we lost the TV, but not too bad considering so much cheaper) and full of good intentions, we hired a couple of bicycles and went for a ride around town. We are finding that hiring a bicycle is really a great way to get out and explore a city. However we didn’t make it to a temple, instead we went to a local shopping centre to have a look around which was an experience. We cycled around the shopping centre, which looked like a building sight (we weren’t even sure it was open), until we found a place to tie up our bikes, and then found a tiny entrance between some stalls. It turned out there were 3 floors of little market like stalls inside, so we perused all the fake goods they had on offer. Then we went for a cycle to Laos’ version of the Arc de Triomph which interestingly was built with the cement donated to build an airstrip, and then managed to find our way back home again in time for dinner. Who needs a map when you’ve got a large river running down one side of the city for direction!
The following morning we caught the 09h30 bus to Vang Vieng, which is where people go for the tubing on the river. The whole way along our travels in S.E.A we have seen guys with vest tops for the tubing in Vang Vieng, so we had high expectations of a fun time. Well either that, or one company was handing out a lot of free t shirts! Thankfully it was only 4 hours on the bus to Vang Vieng. We decided not to book a hostel for the night, as the website only had 1 hostel available there and it got some really bad reviews. We would just have to turn up and walk door to door. We were arriving in the afternoon (1pm) so at least we’d be walking around in the daylight.
Vang Vieng
We got off the bus and managed to find a cheap hostel pretty quickly which was good. Then we went for a walk around and found the road that leads down to the river. There were some really beautiful views of the wide shallow river rushing over the stones, with the mountains looming on either side. It was clear that regardless of the beautiful setting, Vang Vieng is a party place for the young backpacking crowd. As it was filled with twenty year olds walking around with writing on their arms (from the previous days tubing), and a number of backpacker aimed bars and restaurants that were playing Friends episodes almost 24/7. That night we booked on to a tour for the following day that went to 4 caves, a Hmong village walk through, and ended with tubing for a couple of hours. The tubing is great fun. You are basically given a large tractor sized inner tube and you climb inside that and float down the river at your leisure, until you come across a bar that you like the look of. Of which point you put your hand up and a barman throws out a plastic bottle on the end of a rope, and pulls you in to their bar for a drink. There’s also music blaring out of each bar (the bars run down both sides the length of the river) and there are rope swings and slides that hang out over the river that make for interesting entertainment. We did see a couple of people in town with their legs / arms in splints, and I’ve no doubt that the low level of the water combined with the buckets of alcohol and the rope swings had something to do with that. We had a fun time, although the weather was a little overcast that day and the tubing was over all too quickly. We met a nice English couple (newly weds) on the tubing tour and decided to stay another night in Vang Vieng, so we could meet them the following day and go tubing again, in the hope of sunnier weather.
The next day we met up with the English couple again at 12h00 but it was still pretty overcast so we decided not to go tubing again afterall. Instead we booked a minivan to go to Luang Prabang that very afternoon. It turned out to be a private minivan journey as there was just nobody else booked on that day. It was a very winding bus journey and we arrived in Luang Prabang around 7pm in the dark, and went looking for a guest house. It turned out there were loads, but a number of them were fully booked or very expensive. After walking around for a while we were relieved to find one with a free room and put our bags down.
Luang Prabang
The next day we walked around Luang Prabang and went down to where the two rivers met which was very pretty. The town is situated on peninsula which makes it easy to navigate and it is an unusual mix of rather cosmopolitan western cafes and Buddhist temples, which means there are a lot of orange robed monks walking around. That afternoon we booked a 2 day Mahout tour, with one night in the elephant camp which I was looking forward to. We’d realised that we weren’t going to have enough time to go to Chiang Mai where the elephant treks normally run from, so I was happy to be able to fit in the asian elepahant trekking in Laos. Luang Prabang also has a great night market so later we had a walk around there and stopped insie for some street food, which was really tasty. It was basically a long corridor filled with different vendors‘ tables of food (with people making or braaing the food right there), and you would buy your food on one side and then sit down at their benches on the opposite side to eat it. The food was so tasty that we went back and ate there again the following night.
The next morning we got up at 6am to see the monks taking alms (rice) from the local people. It was interesting to see the local people kneeling down on mats and holding up chunks of cooked rice to the passing monks (who were all in a long line in their orange robes), and the monk would put it in to a kind of basket they were carrying and rapidly move on. Apparently the donated rice is the monks’ main diet. However it was really early, so we headed back to bed afterwards for some more kip. Later we booked a flight to Bangkok and then we’d arranged to meet up with the guys from the tubing tour (the glory of email), so that we could share a tuk tuk to a massive waterfall for the day. The colour of the water at the waterfall turned out to be really beautiful and it had multiple levels with pools that you could swim in (although a touch cold). There was also a bear sanctuary there were we got to see some black moon bears which was pretty cool.
The following morning we went on the mahout course. They were meant to pick us up at 8h00, and at 08h30 a man rolled up, whereupon he just walked us down road to their offices, with us carrying our bag - humph. After another wait we got a minivan to the elephant training camp, where we checked in to our rooms overlooking the river (great views) and got changed in to our standard issue blue denim mahout outfits (hilarious). Later we got to ride on the back of an elephant in one of those big box seats. Then we got to learn some of the Laos mahout commands (Bai means go!) before riding on the back of the elephants necks which was great fun if a little scary. I half expected the elephant to shake their head, or put their head down suddenly which would have resulted in a big fall, but they were very well behaved and did none of the sort. Steve and I were riding on the biggest (lead) elephant of the group knicknamed Katoey. Katoey is the word for ladyboy, as although he was the biggest male in the heard apparenty he showed no interest in the ladies lol. Later we went to see Henri Mahouts grave site which was a total non event and after a spot of lunch were in for some real fun. We got back on the elephants necks and rode them down to the river, were it was their bath time. Or our bath time depending on how you look at it. You are sitting on the elephats neck and their mahout is standing on their back behind you, shouting commands like Bon Bon, which basically causes the elephant to dip down in to the water or spray water over its head from its trunk, totally soaking you. It came as a bit of a surprise that my elephant was a snorkelled and insisted on dipping his head completely underwater each time, rather than just spraying water. I actually fell off the elephant a number of times and the trainer had to drag me back on to his back again. At this point Steve was on another elephant next to me, and his clearly loved the water and was going mental throwing his trunk in to the water and liberally spraying water over Steve - awesome fun.
The next morning we got up at 06h00 to meet the elephants and take them back down to the river. They were covered in sand from having chucked it on to their own heads the night before. So we had one last ride on the elephants necks in the early morning light. However we opted out of bathing them as it was just too cold and we couldn’t face the freezing river water that early in the morning. We had some brekky and lay about until 11h00, before we we kayaked back to Luang Probing ( I know, I know more kayaking but they promised me a shorter easier paddle this time lol). We stopped at a couple of villages and saw blacksmiths making knifes and cow bells out of steel and some women weaving with wooden looms which was pretty cool.
When we got back to Luang Prabang we picked up our bags at the travel agency and took a tuk tuk to a new hostel (cheaper and on the river), that some friends had recommended. That evening we met up with the Owens family, who we’d met in the Galapagos and had a great time catching up over dinner in the night market.
The following day we put a load of laundry in, and then visited the national musuem which is the old kings palace. The mosaics in the throne room made of Japanese glass on red painted walls are really beautiful. There was also a gorgeous gold temple at the entrance of the museum with the usual pink borganvillia tree flowering outside. Then we went to a Wat (temple) overlooking the river, which was beautiful too and had more of the glass mosaics, and the funerary building which was painted in gold. We saw some monks that were resident at the temples looking out of the windows, and some of them are pretty young. Apparently most men in Laos will spent at least a few months in a temple as a monk at some point in their lives.
That was pretty much it for our time in Luang Prabang, and Laos for that matter, as the following day we had a 05h30 pickup for the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok. Our next and final country stop would be Thailand! Bring on the relaxing time in the sunshine with the beautiful beaches!
Love to all at home,
Kirst x
We caught a bus from Siem Reap to Don Dhet, and we were lucky enough to find 2 seats next to one another. The people that got on after us weren’t as lucky, and we had a couple of people standing in the aisle and one man sitting on the stairs for a while, until someone got off the bus and they could have the empty seat. Unfortunately Steve had a dodgy stomach on that bus, so it wasn’t a very pleasant journey for him, but he managed to hold it together okay. The road between Cambodia and Loas wasn’t very good, and although part of it was tarred, it still felt as bumpy as a dirt road. After an otherwise uneventful journey we finally arrived at the Loas border. A guy came around on the bus (that worked for the bus company) and showed us a printout that said a UK passport would have to pay $40 for a Laos visa, which was about double what we were expecting to pay. However he swore blind that as it was an on arrival visa that required immediate processing, it did cost more. I’m still not sure whether to believe him. I reckon he probably paid $20 for the visa and pocketed the other half, but who’s to know. Everyone else on the bus handed over their passports , visa application forms and fees, and rather than bucking the trend, so did we. When we got to the border we didn’t even have to get off the bus, the guy just went inside, sorted out our visas and came back with them inside our passports. Then it was another hour on the bus before we reached the 4000 Islands stop.
We got off the bus in the middle of nowhere and transferred in to a small minivan, which drove us to a port. Actually we were pretty lucky to get in the minivan as the other guys were crammed in to an open backed sungthaw, with their luggage on the roof, and the last couple of brave aussies were on top of that. By this point it was pitch dark and the minivan took us down a little road to a port where we would get on a small boat to transfer across to the island of Don Det. We couldn’t get very much of a feel for where we had landed, as it was pitch dark, apart from a couple of lights on the edge of the river.
I might mention that we’d tried our best the day before to pre book some accommodation in Don Det. However as the online booking website that all the hostels shared wasn’t working, and the phone numbers listed in the guidebook were no longer in service, we had no choice but to arrive in the dark, and walk around with our luggage looking for somewhere to stay.
Steve had read up and found one place that was recommended by a number of travellers, so we asked the guy that was dropping us all off, which direction it was in, and off we raced with our backpacks, leaving the group behind. There is a definite sense of urgency / competition at these sorts of times, when a large number of people are dropped off in a new place, and you are all competing for the same rooms. Nobody really knows just how many rooms there are available, and whether everyone will be accommodated (also the nicest ones go first), so its every man / woman for themselves, and the faster you get cracking to find a room the better.
After asking for directions 2 more times, we managed to find it, and thankfully they did have a room available, although unfortunately not with a river view. The room was very basic, a wooden bungalow up on stilts with a mosquito net over the bed and a floor of wooden planks that you could see through to the ground through. There was also an old fan to stave off the sweltering heat. Oh and an ensuite bathroom (what luxury lol!) with a hand shower that only had 1 cold water tap, and a toilet (not a squat one so again what luxury) that you need to ’flush’ by pouring a jug of water down it from a big bucket! Rustic was not the word. After seeing the basic accommodation, I was wondering what in the world we had come to.
However the next morning when we got up and went to see the view of the river just a couple of doors down, we understood what all the fuss was about. The island is really beautiful and the views out and down the Mekong river are fantastic. We decided to hire a couple of bicycles, so that we could cycle around the island and we got as far as the old French bridge, where we crossed over to Don Khon island to go and see the waterfall there. Although it wasn’t a very tall one there was actually quite a lot of water moving through the crevice which was cool.
On our way to the bridge, we noticed that there were bungalows all the way along the river, although they all looked just as rustic as the place we were staying in. That night we headed back to the hostel for sunset over the river, which was really beautiful. Afterwards we went for dinner in a restaurant overlooking the river and got chatting to some people that were sitting next to us. We ended up spending the night with them, chatting and drinking which was fun. The next day we’d booked to go kayaking, and we did manage to get there for the 9h00 start. In fact, we can proudly say that we haven’t actually missed a plane / bus / train / tour that we’ve booked on the whole trip as yet.
The guide gave us a dry bag to transfer all our stuff in to, a helmet, a life jacket and a paddle and off we went to find our kayaks. Unfortunately our guide didn’t really speak any English (contrary to the advert for the tour I might add). At one point we tried asking ‘So what are we going to see next?’ which was met with a blank look, so we stopped trying to speak to ask questions, and just had a quiet day paddling along the river instead.
It did turn out to be a long day of paddling, and although it was downriver, the water was pretty low so there were long stretches without much current where we were paddling for ages and it was pretty exhausting stuff. Saying that the views were fantastic, and when we stopped for a packed lunch on a big rock in the middle of the river we got to see a number of Irrawaddy river dolphins swimming past us. I might mention that the packed lunch consisted of beef with fried rice in a styrophome container, that had been sweating in the guide’s drybag for a couple of hours ( you might be able to guess where this is going?).
After lunch on the rock it was back in the kayaks, with the sun beating down on us for a bit more paddling punishment, although we were rewarded with a stop at a big waterfall (most volume of water in South East Asia), before they loaded the kayaks in to the back of a sungthaw and started us on the drive back. However we didn’t actually drive all the way back to Don Det as I’d thought we would, the guide had one final surprise in store for us. We were actually dropped off on the far side of the river, so we had to do one final paddle to get ourselves back to Don Det (groan). I have decided that a full days kayaking is not really for me - its somewhat beyond my fitness levels and the novelty wears off around the time your shoulders start to ache and the blister on your thumb starts to set in. Saying that we had some beautiful views and I’m glad we got to see the dolphins.
That night we were pretty exhausted from all the paddling, and tried to get an early night. However following the sweaty beef I’d dared eat for lunch, it was my turn to get food poisoning and I was up all night throwing up - yuck. We did decide to stay an extra day on Don Det, before getting the bus on to Pakse, as it was very quiet and relaxing after the madness of Siem Reap and felt like more of a hidden backpacker destination than a lot of the places we‘d visited. We spent the extra day pretty much lying in a hammock, then eating, followed by some lying around at a low end table with those typically South East Asian triangular floor cushions. We did manage a brief swim in the Mekong in the afternoon which was refreshing in the sweltering heat before returning to the low end table where we met an English couple on a RTW trip and sat chatting to them.
The next day we queued up to get the small boat over to the mainland, and we only just managed to get the first boat out before it filled up. Then we were virtually dumped on the other side of the river to walk ourselves up the hill with our backpacks and find the bus. We managed to find a queue of people sitting outside a shop and showed a man our bus tickets, but he just shook his head and walked away (not to helpful then). We asked another man and he pointed us back down the road we had just come from. Organised chaos!
Eventually we found the right shop we should have been waiting at, and then after an hour or so of sitting around in the sun (Laos time) on the side of the road, a small minivan arrived. After he‘d loaded all the people for the other destinations, he asked the Pakse people to fill up the remaining space. So we climbed in to the back of the minivan, and the guy in front of Steve folded his little seat back down, so that it leaned against his legs (oh dear). About 2.5 hours later (only half an hour late result) we arrived at Pakse and were once again dumped outside a travel agency, with the bus speeding away. So we went inside and asked them to point out exactly where we where on the map in our guidebook. We managed to walk and found a hostel (one of the few times we hadn’t pre booked as there weren’t any hostels on the web). The first hostel we went to that was recommended in the book was fully booked, but the second one we found had space so we were relieved to put our bags down rather than walking around in the heat. I must say I much prefer to have a hostel booked and go straight to it, than wander around the streets carrying all your bags in the heat.
We only had one night in Pakse to break the journey to the capital city of Vientiane, as we didn’t fancy the 6 hour wait in Pakse on the ‘direct’ bus service. There wasn’t really very much to do in Pakse, so the following evening we caught the night bus to Vientiane. It was a sleeper bus and our first and only one in Laos. It was a little different to the sleeper buses we’d taken in South America, in that a ‘double’ bed wasn’t really wide enough for the two of us to lie down shoulder to shoulder, so one of us had to lie on our side to fit in. Thank goodness we weren’t on a ‘double’ sharing with a local stranger as that would have been awful. Apparently they do fill up the bunks, whether you know one another or not. We ran in to an aussie girl that we had met on Don Det, as she was on the same bus (bunk across the aisle) so we caught up with her a bit before settling in. We were pretty much in bed with the covers pulled up by 20h30 as it turned out there were no overhead lights on the bus, so you couldn’t read or play cards. So once we’d run out of conversation it was bed time. The bus did have air con and a nasty little toilet (I suppose better than none) along with a kind of bus hostess that handed out water, juice and biscuits (which we were very surprised with). Despite the cramped accommodation we did manage to get a little bit of sleep before the bus pulled in to Vientiane at 07h00 (only 1 hour late, not too bad). We had booked for one night in a cheap hotel (the guest houses weren’t on the hostel websites again) so we had something to go to. But basically everyone got off the bus, picked up their bags and then transferred over to a sungthaw, which then took us to the centre of town for $2 each. Well they said 15,000 kip each before we got in, and then when we got out and gave them a 50,000 kip note the guy tried to short change us with a 10,000 note for change. We noticed they were trying to extort more money out of nearly every passenger that got off the truck regardless of how much had been agreed upfront.
Then we walked the wrong way for about half an hour, until we eventually got our bearings and made our way to the cheap hotel we‘d booked. It wasn’t too bad, apart from the smell of damp and all the mosquitos (lol) but it turned out to be quite expensive compared with many of the guest houses in the area. So we went looking for a guest house that had a room available for our second night and prepaid so they would keep us a room. Vientiane turned out to be really busy with most of the guest houses fully booked (despite the fact that hardly any have pre booking on the internet). So we had 2 days in Vientiane and I’d like to say that we did something really touristy and went to see their temples etc, but we were a bit templed out, so we tried to get tickets for a local traditional dance performance, but that theatre had closed down (cant have been very good then) so we never did see that. Instead we went for a walk along the new riverfront promenade they are building and later on we tried some street food. This was the first time we were brave enough to have some genuine street food, where they actually cook on the streets, and you sit at little tables on the pavement in the middle of nowhere. I had the thai beef noodle which was very tasty (no resulting stomach sickness either) and Steve had the chicken cashew which was good as well. Its amazing that they can actually cook there in the middle of nowhere, and they even had electric lights hanging from poles above our tables! After dinner we went for a walk along the night market that mysteriously shoots up along the road side come nightfall and looked at their wares, which mostly consisted of very loud travellers handbags, cushion covers and slippers so we didn’t fancy anything.
On the second day we moved to the guest house we‘d paid for (slight downgrade as we lost the TV, but not too bad considering so much cheaper) and full of good intentions, we hired a couple of bicycles and went for a ride around town. We are finding that hiring a bicycle is really a great way to get out and explore a city. However we didn’t make it to a temple, instead we went to a local shopping centre to have a look around which was an experience. We cycled around the shopping centre, which looked like a building sight (we weren’t even sure it was open), until we found a place to tie up our bikes, and then found a tiny entrance between some stalls. It turned out there were 3 floors of little market like stalls inside, so we perused all the fake goods they had on offer. Then we went for a cycle to Laos’ version of the Arc de Triomph which interestingly was built with the cement donated to build an airstrip, and then managed to find our way back home again in time for dinner. Who needs a map when you’ve got a large river running down one side of the city for direction!
The following morning we caught the 09h30 bus to Vang Vieng, which is where people go for the tubing on the river. The whole way along our travels in S.E.A we have seen guys with vest tops for the tubing in Vang Vieng, so we had high expectations of a fun time. Well either that, or one company was handing out a lot of free t shirts! Thankfully it was only 4 hours on the bus to Vang Vieng. We decided not to book a hostel for the night, as the website only had 1 hostel available there and it got some really bad reviews. We would just have to turn up and walk door to door. We were arriving in the afternoon (1pm) so at least we’d be walking around in the daylight.
Vang Vieng
We got off the bus and managed to find a cheap hostel pretty quickly which was good. Then we went for a walk around and found the road that leads down to the river. There were some really beautiful views of the wide shallow river rushing over the stones, with the mountains looming on either side. It was clear that regardless of the beautiful setting, Vang Vieng is a party place for the young backpacking crowd. As it was filled with twenty year olds walking around with writing on their arms (from the previous days tubing), and a number of backpacker aimed bars and restaurants that were playing Friends episodes almost 24/7. That night we booked on to a tour for the following day that went to 4 caves, a Hmong village walk through, and ended with tubing for a couple of hours. The tubing is great fun. You are basically given a large tractor sized inner tube and you climb inside that and float down the river at your leisure, until you come across a bar that you like the look of. Of which point you put your hand up and a barman throws out a plastic bottle on the end of a rope, and pulls you in to their bar for a drink. There’s also music blaring out of each bar (the bars run down both sides the length of the river) and there are rope swings and slides that hang out over the river that make for interesting entertainment. We did see a couple of people in town with their legs / arms in splints, and I’ve no doubt that the low level of the water combined with the buckets of alcohol and the rope swings had something to do with that. We had a fun time, although the weather was a little overcast that day and the tubing was over all too quickly. We met a nice English couple (newly weds) on the tubing tour and decided to stay another night in Vang Vieng, so we could meet them the following day and go tubing again, in the hope of sunnier weather.
The next day we met up with the English couple again at 12h00 but it was still pretty overcast so we decided not to go tubing again afterall. Instead we booked a minivan to go to Luang Prabang that very afternoon. It turned out to be a private minivan journey as there was just nobody else booked on that day. It was a very winding bus journey and we arrived in Luang Prabang around 7pm in the dark, and went looking for a guest house. It turned out there were loads, but a number of them were fully booked or very expensive. After walking around for a while we were relieved to find one with a free room and put our bags down.
Luang Prabang
The next day we walked around Luang Prabang and went down to where the two rivers met which was very pretty. The town is situated on peninsula which makes it easy to navigate and it is an unusual mix of rather cosmopolitan western cafes and Buddhist temples, which means there are a lot of orange robed monks walking around. That afternoon we booked a 2 day Mahout tour, with one night in the elephant camp which I was looking forward to. We’d realised that we weren’t going to have enough time to go to Chiang Mai where the elephant treks normally run from, so I was happy to be able to fit in the asian elepahant trekking in Laos. Luang Prabang also has a great night market so later we had a walk around there and stopped insie for some street food, which was really tasty. It was basically a long corridor filled with different vendors‘ tables of food (with people making or braaing the food right there), and you would buy your food on one side and then sit down at their benches on the opposite side to eat it. The food was so tasty that we went back and ate there again the following night.
The next morning we got up at 6am to see the monks taking alms (rice) from the local people. It was interesting to see the local people kneeling down on mats and holding up chunks of cooked rice to the passing monks (who were all in a long line in their orange robes), and the monk would put it in to a kind of basket they were carrying and rapidly move on. Apparently the donated rice is the monks’ main diet. However it was really early, so we headed back to bed afterwards for some more kip. Later we booked a flight to Bangkok and then we’d arranged to meet up with the guys from the tubing tour (the glory of email), so that we could share a tuk tuk to a massive waterfall for the day. The colour of the water at the waterfall turned out to be really beautiful and it had multiple levels with pools that you could swim in (although a touch cold). There was also a bear sanctuary there were we got to see some black moon bears which was pretty cool.
The following morning we went on the mahout course. They were meant to pick us up at 8h00, and at 08h30 a man rolled up, whereupon he just walked us down road to their offices, with us carrying our bag - humph. After another wait we got a minivan to the elephant training camp, where we checked in to our rooms overlooking the river (great views) and got changed in to our standard issue blue denim mahout outfits (hilarious). Later we got to ride on the back of an elephant in one of those big box seats. Then we got to learn some of the Laos mahout commands (Bai means go!) before riding on the back of the elephants necks which was great fun if a little scary. I half expected the elephant to shake their head, or put their head down suddenly which would have resulted in a big fall, but they were very well behaved and did none of the sort. Steve and I were riding on the biggest (lead) elephant of the group knicknamed Katoey. Katoey is the word for ladyboy, as although he was the biggest male in the heard apparenty he showed no interest in the ladies lol. Later we went to see Henri Mahouts grave site which was a total non event and after a spot of lunch were in for some real fun. We got back on the elephants necks and rode them down to the river, were it was their bath time. Or our bath time depending on how you look at it. You are sitting on the elephats neck and their mahout is standing on their back behind you, shouting commands like Bon Bon, which basically causes the elephant to dip down in to the water or spray water over its head from its trunk, totally soaking you. It came as a bit of a surprise that my elephant was a snorkelled and insisted on dipping his head completely underwater each time, rather than just spraying water. I actually fell off the elephant a number of times and the trainer had to drag me back on to his back again. At this point Steve was on another elephant next to me, and his clearly loved the water and was going mental throwing his trunk in to the water and liberally spraying water over Steve - awesome fun.
The next morning we got up at 06h00 to meet the elephants and take them back down to the river. They were covered in sand from having chucked it on to their own heads the night before. So we had one last ride on the elephants necks in the early morning light. However we opted out of bathing them as it was just too cold and we couldn’t face the freezing river water that early in the morning. We had some brekky and lay about until 11h00, before we we kayaked back to Luang Probing ( I know, I know more kayaking but they promised me a shorter easier paddle this time lol). We stopped at a couple of villages and saw blacksmiths making knifes and cow bells out of steel and some women weaving with wooden looms which was pretty cool.
When we got back to Luang Prabang we picked up our bags at the travel agency and took a tuk tuk to a new hostel (cheaper and on the river), that some friends had recommended. That evening we met up with the Owens family, who we’d met in the Galapagos and had a great time catching up over dinner in the night market.
The following day we put a load of laundry in, and then visited the national musuem which is the old kings palace. The mosaics in the throne room made of Japanese glass on red painted walls are really beautiful. There was also a gorgeous gold temple at the entrance of the museum with the usual pink borganvillia tree flowering outside. Then we went to a Wat (temple) overlooking the river, which was beautiful too and had more of the glass mosaics, and the funerary building which was painted in gold. We saw some monks that were resident at the temples looking out of the windows, and some of them are pretty young. Apparently most men in Laos will spent at least a few months in a temple as a monk at some point in their lives.
That was pretty much it for our time in Luang Prabang, and Laos for that matter, as the following day we had a 05h30 pickup for the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok. Our next and final country stop would be Thailand! Bring on the relaxing time in the sunshine with the beautiful beaches!
Love to all at home,
Kirst x
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Cambodia - Mekong, Penom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap
Mekong Delta
We caught a boat downriver to the Mekong on our way in to Cambodia, as we figured a boat cruise would be more interesting than a bus ride. During the boat cruise we got off and went to see a Coconut Candy Factory, where you can see them making candy out of condensed coconut milk and sugar molasses (it makes for some very tasty candy). While we were there we saw some weird amphibious tadpole like creatures on the muddy banks of the river, we never did find out what they were as when I asked the guide just said fiss, meaning fish. We went to see a Floating Market, which was different to what I had imagined. I was expecting one massive floating area that we could get off and walk around on. It actually turned out to be a load of different boats that were all floating in one area selling their wares which seemed to be primarily fruit and veg. You could tell what they were selling by looking at the pole strung up at the front of the boat, which would for example have a pineapple tied to the top of it, if they were selling pineapples. It was incredible to think that families actually lived on these boats full time (it was their home), and you could see their clothes hung up outside / inside the boat.
While we were travelling along the river it was great to see all the woman sitting on the front of their boats wearing the traditional conical hats, and we got to see people that lived along the river going about there daily business. It is pretty unbelievable to see people that are still living in a small grass covered hut up on stilts over the river, with their toilet a small cubicle that hangs over the river, washing their clothes in the water as you go by. I had that Phil Collins number running through my head for most of the time ‘Oh think twice, its just anther day for you and me in paradise’. It had never seemed more true.
That night we stayed in a cheap hotel in Ban Tre that the tour company had arranged, and went for a walk to the nearby night markets. I bought a pair of jeans shorts for $3, and got the biggest size they had on the racks (29) although when I got it home I still couldn’t get it up my legs lol. I have since been to three other stores, and a size 29 is the biggest size they do in Cambodia. So I ask you, where do all the fat Cambodians shop? And the answer is, there are no fat Cambodians of course.
The following day we went to see a rice noodle factory which was pretty cool, where we saw them turning rice in to rice noodles. Afterwards we went to see a rice factory even though it was closed as they had no rice crop to process lol. Afterwards we got a bus on to Can Tho (we spent a lot of time on buses despite it being a Mekong tour) and spent the night in a floating hotel, which was pretty cool. We got chatting to a friendly English couple that had taken a year off to go travelling. As the floating hotel was moored, it was much like staying in a regular hotel (no waves) except that when we woke up in the morning we got a view out over the water.
The next morning we went to see a fish farm, which lasted about 10 minutes (we saw a man feed some fish) and then got on another boat bound for the Cambodian border. The border crossing was interesting as we basically pulled up to a small building along the side of the river in Vietnam, then got back in another boat and went upriver for 5 minutes, only to stop at another building to get the Cambodian visa. Then after another couple of hours on the fast boat we finally arrived in Penom Penh. It was a long journey as we were on boats for 8 hours that day and by the time we arrived we were pretty knackered. So we got a tuk tuk to the hostel we had booked, only to be greeted by some very loud construction noise right outside our window. It was around 16h45 PM and we just wanted to get some sleep, but couldn’t do that with the jackhammers and buzz saws outside which was very annoying. We asked the hostel if they could change our room to be on the other side of the building, and they just replied that everyone asks for the same thing, and it would depend on who checked out the following day (charming).
Cambodia - Penom Penh
So the following morning we walked up the road and found another hostel with a room available that we could move to (much farther away from the construction noise). We had to fight to get most of our money back from the first one though. The guy on reception said that only his manager could give refunds, and he didn’t know when he would be back in, nor did he have his own managers phone number so that we could call him - I mean really!? We walked off with their set of room keys and oddly enough when Steve went back after breakfast the reception guy had completely changed his tune, and was suddenly allowed to provide the refund himself.
The new hostel was very helpful and had various tours on offer, so after breakfast there we got a tuk tuk driver for the day (at $12) and went to see the Killing Fields and the S21 Prison Museum. To be honest it was pretty depressing stuff, although I suppose that is the point really - to remind people of the atrocities in the hope of preventing it from ever happening again. I was expecting the Killing Fields site to have been sanitised as it has been turned in to a tourist site, and there is a kind of tall temple that is filled with the recovered skulls and bones of the victims. However there were actually still human teeth and bones lying on the ground on a path that anyone could walk over and bits of clothes sticking out of the dirt. Grim. I am told that it would be impossible to clear the whole area, without removing all the soil and sifting through it, as there were so many killed that their bones etc are just scattered all over the place, and every time it rains some new stuff comes to the surface. It is hard to believe that people could plot to do this to one another. Although saying that I couldn’t help but think of the similarities with the Holocaust when I saw the mass graves of the victims. In one cell at the prison you could actually see a bloody handprint on the wall, which really made it hit home that people were brutally tortured there. The scariest part is that the murders didn’t happen all that long ago, and that the people that committed the crimes are still alive today, and bar a handful they were never prosecuted, they just melted back in to society! Afterwards the tuk tuk driver had been waiting for us and took us on to a market where we got some lunch, and went for a walk around (anything to lighten the mood after walking around S21). Again the driver just waited for us, and then took us back to the hostel afterwards. It amazed me to see that you that you can get a driver’s services for a whole day for just 12 USD and competition is pretty fierce between the drivers, that will tout for your business when you walk out of the hostel.
The next day we booked our bus tickets to Battanbang, handed in some much needed laundry and then walked to the Royal Palace which was nearby. The gardens there were immaculate and the buildings were very ornate with the typical Cambodian dragon shapes on the rooves. There was also a building filled with silver and gold ornaments. One of which was a life size gold Buddha that weighed 90 kgs and was covered in around 7000 diamonds. It had big diamonds for eyes and in the palms of its hands, and it was only kept in a regular old glass box, which I thought was a bit of a security risk, but maybe that’s the saffer in me talking lol. It was interesting to see that the buddhas here are quite different to the buddhas we’d seen in China. In China they were fat with a big round belly and usually laughing. In Cambodia they tend to be skinny and have more serious expressions on their faces. When we came out of the palace one tuk tuk driver asked if we had a driver and when we said No we would walk, he looked incredulous. It was like ‘ what do you mean you’re walking, it’s the law for all tourists to take tuk tuks here’.
That night we took a tuk tuk to the Happy Herb Pizza restaurant (yes it’s exactly what you think it is) and ordered two pizzas. After a couple of slices of happy pizza we were laughing at the geckos on the walls. All in all a good night out with no hangover the following morning.
The next day wasn’t terribly touristy as we got some admin done. We went to the post office and booked our onward hostel in Battambang, then went shopping for some bus snacks.
Battambang
The following morning we were up early to meet our transfer at 07h15. They took us to the bus station, where they pointed at a bus and said ‘its that one’. They also put our bags next to the bus loading door. As it turned out I was actually up the stairs and inside the bus before someone fetched me out again and told me that that bus was not going to Battambang (close call). So we dragged our bags over to the other bus (unfortunately slightly less good looking), watched our bags go in to the hold and then boarded the bus again.
It was the oldest bus we had been on to date. The walls were pretty dirty and the seats and curtains had definitely seen better days. However we were relieved to have seats, and they were even next to one another so we shouldn’t complain. We have heard about other travellers that had paid for seats, only to end up sitting on the floor for the entire journey. Along those lines I will mention that there were a number of locals that got on the fully loaded bus along the way, and sat on little plastic chairs in the middle of the aisle (who needs a fire exit unless there’s a fire anyway?!).
But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, the bus was due to leave at 07h45, so with the bus fully loaded, the driver finally sashayed onboard around 08h10 and at last got us on our way (Cambodian time yeah baby). The journey was meant to last 5 hours and although there was no toilet on board we had been assured that the bus would make toilet stops along the way. So after about an hour the bus does indeed stop, except it has stopped along the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Half the bus gets off and walks off in to the grass / bushes (there weren’t many bushes) to relieve themselves in the open air! It was at this point that I decided against drinking the can of Pepsi I had brought along in my supplies. However as it turned out there was actually a genuine lunch / toilet stop around 11h00.
After a rather uneventful journey, we arrived in Battambang only a half an hour behind schedule (result!) and a man from the new hostel was there to meet us with a sign (another result). We loaded our backpacks in to his tuk tuk and were transferred to the hostel, which was okay. No Wifi in the room, an internal window and a slight plumbing problem, however the reception guy was very helpful and booked us a tuk tuk for the following morning to take us to the bamboo train. We also booked our boat tickets to Siem Reap on the Sunday, before the boat got booked up. There wasn’t really much we wanted to see in Battambang other than the bamboo train, and as it looked like a one horse town, we weren’t keen to linger. The one thing we had noticed in moving from China (where it was low season) to South East Asia (where it is high season) is that there are a lot more tourists about and it has become necessary to try and book accommodation a little further than 1 day in advance.
We spent the rest of the day walking around Battambang, and went to the markets (which seemed to contain a lot of gold jewellery, clothing, food and hairdressers), and then took a walk along the river to try and see the French architecture the guidebook mentioned. Now not being any sort of expert on what French architecture is meant to look like it is hard to say whether we actually saw the intended buildings. However we did see a couple of houses with shuttered windows which didn’t look very Cambodian, but at the same time they weren’t really anything to write home about. We finished our walk at a temple, that had loads of monks streaming out of it in their orange robes. That is one thing that has surprised me about Cambodia, I wasn’t really expecting to see so many monks around. We also saw 4 young local boys, buck naked, playing in the river below. They had clearly come off a house boat that was docked nearby and were having an awesome time splashing about in the water and mud below us.
The next day we took a tuk tuk to the train station to catch the bamboo train. On arrival what looked like a policeman called us over and told us a bit about the train and got us to pay a woman $5 each for the journey. He then arranged for a driver and we clambered on to the train carriage. Now I use the words ‘train carriage’ very loosely. It was basically more like a wooden raft on train wheels, without a roof or sides, powered by a diesel engine. A man got on the back to work the engine and away we went up the single track. It was fantastic fun, a bit like a rollercoaster but without any seats or seatbelts. You just sit on a woven mat. A little ways up the track we came upon another carriage going in the opposite direction. This meant that one of us would have to give way. It turned out to be them. The tourists climbed off the carriage, and their driver and our driver picked up the whole ‘carriage’ and placed it on the ground next to the tracks. Then we pulled forward a bit and they reassembled their‘carriage’ on their other side of us lol. The rails themselves were not exactly straight, so the ride was a little bumpy, which only added to the fun. We only went as far as the next stop, which took about 20 minutes with the wind rushing in our faces, and it was nice to see a bit of the passing countryside. We got off and sat at a roadside ‘café’ to have a drink for a bit and chatted to some other irish tourists. After a bit our driver waived us over and it was time to head back down the other way again.
We arranged with the same tuk tuk driver to take us on an excursion to see a couple of temples the following day. We would later find out that the bamboo train should have cost us $5 for the carriage ie both of us, and the officer had pocketed the other $5 for his trouble.
The next morning we met our tuk tuk driver at 10h00, and he drove us about 18km out of town to the first temple (phnom sampouv). We went along a dirt road for a bit and when other motorbikes or cars passed us I was glad of the traditional scarf that I’d bought from the market for $1.50, as it definitely helped to keep the dust out of my lungs. We arrived at a little rural town of sorts, paid an entrance fee of $2 each, and then went on a bit of a walk up a road, and some steps to find the Killing Cave. Similar to the Killing Fields of Penom Penh, the KR threw people (some dead / some alive) down in to this cave, to the tune of 10,000 people, and some of their skeletons can still be seen there (again pretty grim, although not as grim as the Killing Fields as there was not as much information in the cave about what went on). Then we took another short walk uphill to find a beautiful temple covered in gold paint, which was very ornate. The temple was on the highest hill / mountain in Battambang (which is pretty flat otherwise) and we had some great views from the top. Just before we were about to walk down again, I put my camera, water and a muffin I’d been carrying in a bag, down on a seat to take a photo and before you could say ‘what the?’ a rather large monkey came walking along and snatched my muffin away. He promptly took it out of the bag and climbed up a tree to eat my own muffin in front of me, the cheeky bugger. However I was just glad that he hadn’t decided to make off with my camera, which he could easily have done.
Afterwards the tuk tuk driver drove us across another dirt road to get to a second temple (wat banon). He said that one was from the 11th century and pre dated Angkor Wat. We arrived to see a very steep set of 300 plus steps going straight up, but could not see the temple as it was set back a bit from the stairs. So up we went, a few steps at a time, until we got a view of the temples which were awesome, and a lot like what I expected Angkor Wat to look like. We wandered around taking a couple of photos, and then sat looking out at the views over Battambang which was fab. There weren’t many other tourists about which was nice. Then we wandered down all the steps again and saw a couple of French tourists climbing up with 2 locals that were fanning them as they walked lol. Our driver was waiting for us at the bottom and drove us back to the hostel again. By the time we got back it was 16h00, so it only cost us $15 for a day of his time. Cambodia is cheap. Well I suppose Vietnam was cheap as well, but I am noticing it more here. $10 a night for a double room in a hostel with TV, AC and a private bathroom. $2 for a meal. 50 cents for a coke. It came as a pleasant change after the expense of Japan and the US.
The following day we left at 06h30 to get the Angkor Express boat to Siem Reap, which was due to arrive at 15h30. It turned out the express boat was actually a rather slow service, as the water level in the river was very low, so the driver had to negotiate the way carefully. The boat was also quite small, and full of tourists which meant that it wasn’t the most comfortable of journeys. As there was no real space for our luggage the guys had packed our backpacks underneath the chairs in front of us, which also meant reduced legroom. However it was quite a scenic journey along the river as we got to see a lot of people bringing in their fishing nets first thing in the morning, and we also saw a floating village on our way in to Siem Reap. I made some good progress on my book ‘The Girl in the Picture’ that I started in Nha Trang, and Steve managed to finish The Killing Fields that he bought there as well. Anyway back to our arrival in Siem Reap.
Siem Reap
The hostel we had booked in Siem Reap had promised to send a tuk tuk, as the port is a good 16km from the town, and much to our surprise the boat actually arrived on time, and there was a man holding up a sign with our names on it (result). However the tuk tuk driver immediately asked us whether we planned to go and see the temples the following day, and wanted us to promise to use him if we did. Apparently the tuk tuk to the hostel comes free, but with the understanding that you will use him again during your stay. As we didn’t know his day rate, we didn’t make any promises and he dropped us at the hostel without an issue. The hostel was an upgrade on the Battambang one, which was nice. That first evening we just had dinner in the hostel restaurant as we were pretty tired after the epic boat journey.
The following day we woke up late and went for a walk around Siem Reap to get the lay of the land. Our hotel was about a 10 min walk from the main street, where all the bars and restaurants where, and we found a recommended restaurant and went for lunch. I had the fish amok, with a side order of morning glory (yes they actually do have a dish with this name and it is slightly garlicky, somewhat oily green vegetables) and Steve had a chicken cashew nut, both with steamed rice and they were both very good. Again we ate with chopsticks, and I must say that after about 6 weeks of eating with chopsticks non stop we have become quite adept at it, and it now feels strange to eat with a knife and fork. A bit like I am stabbing my food unnecessarily, the knife and fork are far more brutal implements than chopsticks! We also found the local market and went for a walk around to see what they were selling. Again we were surprised to find how cheap everything is in Cambodia - $3 for a pair of silk cushion covers, or £3.50 for a pair of fake Ray Bans. Of course you have to barter for everything, but we seem to be getting better at that. The best tactic seems to be to walk away from their stall and see whether they shout their best price after you.
That night we arranged with the hostel for our tuk tuk driver (yes the same one that did the pier transfer, his day rate was $12 per day) to meet us at 05h10 AM to take us to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. I do feel sorry for the tuk tuk drivers here as they must get up before 05h00 most days to ferry tourists in to see the sunrise. Then again I suppose there are a lot of people here that are worse off and make even less money than a tuk tuk driver.
So the next morning we woke up at 04h45 and shuffled downstairs to meet our driver. It was still pitch dark (good as we didn’t want to miss the sunrise) when we got in his tuk tuk and off we went down the potholed dirt road outside the hostel, bouncing about in the back with the wind cutting through our clothes. We hadn’t factored in that it would be pretty cold in the back of the tuk tuk in the middle of the night, and were dressed in shorts and t shirts (it would be 33 degrees later in the day).
After a quick stop for a litre of gas from a lady with a filled plastic bottle and a funnel (I was left wondering if the street vendors just sleep at their stalls?) we were on our way and about 20 minutes later we arrived at the Angkor Wat ticket booth. We were surprised to find the tickets cost $40 per person, which was double the price in the guide book and we had our pictures taken for the tickets at 05h30. Then he drove us on to the entrance, although we couldn’t see much of anything yet as it was still pitch dark. However as always, there was one industrious man trying to sell us a cup of hot coffee (no thanks my eyes havent actually opened yet). So our tuk tuk driver pointed over to the right handside, and said to follow the other tourists, and he would be waiting for us over on the left by the restaurant when we were done. So off we went in to the pitch darkness, following the dim light of a torch that a guide in front was carrying. It was clear that we were passing over some sort of bridge, with water on either side (no rails), which would turn out to be the moat. Then we found the spot by the lake where the other tourists were gathered in the dark, and found our posse to wait for sunrise. When the sun finally started to rise we could at last see the familiar outline of the massive temple of Angkor Wat which was fantastic, and by the time the sun got up above the temple it was really beautiful with the full reflection of the temple in the still lake. There was also another benefit to being there super early, which was that we got to walk around Angkor Wat when there were less tourists there, so we had less of a queue to climb the ladder and get up to the inner temple. We took our time walking around the temple and were amazed with the intricate carvings over pretty much every surface in there. Afterwards our tuk tuk driver took us to Angkor Tom which includes Bayon that has all the statues with the multiple faces, which was fantastic. Again you could climb up a ladder to get to a top level and walk around there, although by that time of day it was heaving with other tourists, so it was difficult to get any photos. Lastly that day we went to the Elephant Terrace, is like a long walkway with loads of sculptures of elephants carved in to the sides, and a load of Apsala (mythical dancing nymphs) carved in to it. It was absolutely boiling in the afternoon, so we just got a bit of lunch and then were to knackered to do anymore so we just went home for an afternoon kip (getting up at 4h45 will really take it out of you). That evening we went to the night market for a walk around and saw a load of outdoor massage places and fish foot massage parlours.
The following morning we got up early again and met the tuk tuk driver at 07h00 to go and see Ta Prohm which is the temple where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed. I was glad that we decided to leave it until the next day and get an early start, as there were only a handful of other people around and we practically got to walk around the temple on our own. It was a really magical place and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves walking around each new corner to find another part of the temple overgrown by some enormous tree roots. For me it was actually better than Angkor Wat and has to be one of the most awesome places I have ever been to. No wonder they used it as a film set.
Afterwards the driver took us for some breakfast and then on to a couple of nearby lesser temples, however by that point it was nearing mid day and the sun was absolutely scorching, so we were melting a bit with our Cambodian scarves pulled up over our heads for a bit of relief. Well at least we looked the part. After an afternoon of looking around the lesser temples and climbing up lots of Angkorian stairways, we had had enough and asked the tuk tuk to drop us back near Bar Street where we could get some lunch. We ended up back at the market looking for an Angkor Wat souvenir at another bargain price.
The next day we still had a temple pass (it was three days), but we were pretty much templed out after 2 days, so we decided to run a couple of errands before our bus out. We managed to find a Fujifilm and had a couple of passport photos taken for our Laos visa, and then went to the post office again. This is the first parcel that we’ve actually sent to ourselves at our own address in London, as we have sadly realised that by the time it arrives we should be back there. Then we went to the Angkor National Musuem, which wasn’t cheap at $12 entrance each. However we saw some great examples of the carvings that had all but warn away at Angkor Wat, and understood a bit more about what we had seen there. Apparently a lot of the stories / people and animals engraved at the temples have come from Hinduism / Buddhism. There was one Hindu lady there from India that was walking around smiling and saying, yes I recognise this story, it is the same as the one we tell back home.
We also found this awesome shop where you can have music transferred on to your ipod at a cheap rate, so we spent a bit of time there perusing their catalogue. Then we went to the shops and bought some supplies for the bus to Laos the following day. We were due to leave at 05h00 and arrive at 15h30, so it was going to be a long ride.
One more note about Cambodia, is that much like Vietnam, the local people seem to like sitting on or near the floor. We saw a couple of people at our hostel that had clearly finished work and were lying on a tiled floor by the stairs with only a small cushion under their heads and they looked quite at home there. A lot of people seem to sleep at their place of work (we saw hammocks strung up in some local restaurants, and people doing their make up at the side of the tables).
Apart from that I have to say that I was starting to get quite irritated in Siem Reap with the number of people approaching us to sell us something ‘Laddeeeee, you buy from me?’ or just ‘You buy!’, so I was ready to head for somewhere a bit less touristy…Laos here we come.
After speaking to the lady at the hostel re what buses they had on offer going to Laos, it turned out that the bus to Vientiane was going to take more than 24 hours, so we opted for the next best thing, she suggested a bus to the 4000 Islands, which we had never even heard of, but it would get us over the border and was only a 12 hour bus ride away which sounded a lot more doable, and so the decision was made - the next stop would be Don Dhet, a small island in the Mekong River.
And that was pretty much it for Cambodia.
Love to all at home,
Kirst x
We caught a boat downriver to the Mekong on our way in to Cambodia, as we figured a boat cruise would be more interesting than a bus ride. During the boat cruise we got off and went to see a Coconut Candy Factory, where you can see them making candy out of condensed coconut milk and sugar molasses (it makes for some very tasty candy). While we were there we saw some weird amphibious tadpole like creatures on the muddy banks of the river, we never did find out what they were as when I asked the guide just said fiss, meaning fish. We went to see a Floating Market, which was different to what I had imagined. I was expecting one massive floating area that we could get off and walk around on. It actually turned out to be a load of different boats that were all floating in one area selling their wares which seemed to be primarily fruit and veg. You could tell what they were selling by looking at the pole strung up at the front of the boat, which would for example have a pineapple tied to the top of it, if they were selling pineapples. It was incredible to think that families actually lived on these boats full time (it was their home), and you could see their clothes hung up outside / inside the boat.
While we were travelling along the river it was great to see all the woman sitting on the front of their boats wearing the traditional conical hats, and we got to see people that lived along the river going about there daily business. It is pretty unbelievable to see people that are still living in a small grass covered hut up on stilts over the river, with their toilet a small cubicle that hangs over the river, washing their clothes in the water as you go by. I had that Phil Collins number running through my head for most of the time ‘Oh think twice, its just anther day for you and me in paradise’. It had never seemed more true.
That night we stayed in a cheap hotel in Ban Tre that the tour company had arranged, and went for a walk to the nearby night markets. I bought a pair of jeans shorts for $3, and got the biggest size they had on the racks (29) although when I got it home I still couldn’t get it up my legs lol. I have since been to three other stores, and a size 29 is the biggest size they do in Cambodia. So I ask you, where do all the fat Cambodians shop? And the answer is, there are no fat Cambodians of course.
The following day we went to see a rice noodle factory which was pretty cool, where we saw them turning rice in to rice noodles. Afterwards we went to see a rice factory even though it was closed as they had no rice crop to process lol. Afterwards we got a bus on to Can Tho (we spent a lot of time on buses despite it being a Mekong tour) and spent the night in a floating hotel, which was pretty cool. We got chatting to a friendly English couple that had taken a year off to go travelling. As the floating hotel was moored, it was much like staying in a regular hotel (no waves) except that when we woke up in the morning we got a view out over the water.
The next morning we went to see a fish farm, which lasted about 10 minutes (we saw a man feed some fish) and then got on another boat bound for the Cambodian border. The border crossing was interesting as we basically pulled up to a small building along the side of the river in Vietnam, then got back in another boat and went upriver for 5 minutes, only to stop at another building to get the Cambodian visa. Then after another couple of hours on the fast boat we finally arrived in Penom Penh. It was a long journey as we were on boats for 8 hours that day and by the time we arrived we were pretty knackered. So we got a tuk tuk to the hostel we had booked, only to be greeted by some very loud construction noise right outside our window. It was around 16h45 PM and we just wanted to get some sleep, but couldn’t do that with the jackhammers and buzz saws outside which was very annoying. We asked the hostel if they could change our room to be on the other side of the building, and they just replied that everyone asks for the same thing, and it would depend on who checked out the following day (charming).
Cambodia - Penom Penh
So the following morning we walked up the road and found another hostel with a room available that we could move to (much farther away from the construction noise). We had to fight to get most of our money back from the first one though. The guy on reception said that only his manager could give refunds, and he didn’t know when he would be back in, nor did he have his own managers phone number so that we could call him - I mean really!? We walked off with their set of room keys and oddly enough when Steve went back after breakfast the reception guy had completely changed his tune, and was suddenly allowed to provide the refund himself.
The new hostel was very helpful and had various tours on offer, so after breakfast there we got a tuk tuk driver for the day (at $12) and went to see the Killing Fields and the S21 Prison Museum. To be honest it was pretty depressing stuff, although I suppose that is the point really - to remind people of the atrocities in the hope of preventing it from ever happening again. I was expecting the Killing Fields site to have been sanitised as it has been turned in to a tourist site, and there is a kind of tall temple that is filled with the recovered skulls and bones of the victims. However there were actually still human teeth and bones lying on the ground on a path that anyone could walk over and bits of clothes sticking out of the dirt. Grim. I am told that it would be impossible to clear the whole area, without removing all the soil and sifting through it, as there were so many killed that their bones etc are just scattered all over the place, and every time it rains some new stuff comes to the surface. It is hard to believe that people could plot to do this to one another. Although saying that I couldn’t help but think of the similarities with the Holocaust when I saw the mass graves of the victims. In one cell at the prison you could actually see a bloody handprint on the wall, which really made it hit home that people were brutally tortured there. The scariest part is that the murders didn’t happen all that long ago, and that the people that committed the crimes are still alive today, and bar a handful they were never prosecuted, they just melted back in to society! Afterwards the tuk tuk driver had been waiting for us and took us on to a market where we got some lunch, and went for a walk around (anything to lighten the mood after walking around S21). Again the driver just waited for us, and then took us back to the hostel afterwards. It amazed me to see that you that you can get a driver’s services for a whole day for just 12 USD and competition is pretty fierce between the drivers, that will tout for your business when you walk out of the hostel.
The next day we booked our bus tickets to Battanbang, handed in some much needed laundry and then walked to the Royal Palace which was nearby. The gardens there were immaculate and the buildings were very ornate with the typical Cambodian dragon shapes on the rooves. There was also a building filled with silver and gold ornaments. One of which was a life size gold Buddha that weighed 90 kgs and was covered in around 7000 diamonds. It had big diamonds for eyes and in the palms of its hands, and it was only kept in a regular old glass box, which I thought was a bit of a security risk, but maybe that’s the saffer in me talking lol. It was interesting to see that the buddhas here are quite different to the buddhas we’d seen in China. In China they were fat with a big round belly and usually laughing. In Cambodia they tend to be skinny and have more serious expressions on their faces. When we came out of the palace one tuk tuk driver asked if we had a driver and when we said No we would walk, he looked incredulous. It was like ‘ what do you mean you’re walking, it’s the law for all tourists to take tuk tuks here’.
That night we took a tuk tuk to the Happy Herb Pizza restaurant (yes it’s exactly what you think it is) and ordered two pizzas. After a couple of slices of happy pizza we were laughing at the geckos on the walls. All in all a good night out with no hangover the following morning.
The next day wasn’t terribly touristy as we got some admin done. We went to the post office and booked our onward hostel in Battambang, then went shopping for some bus snacks.
Battambang
The following morning we were up early to meet our transfer at 07h15. They took us to the bus station, where they pointed at a bus and said ‘its that one’. They also put our bags next to the bus loading door. As it turned out I was actually up the stairs and inside the bus before someone fetched me out again and told me that that bus was not going to Battambang (close call). So we dragged our bags over to the other bus (unfortunately slightly less good looking), watched our bags go in to the hold and then boarded the bus again.
It was the oldest bus we had been on to date. The walls were pretty dirty and the seats and curtains had definitely seen better days. However we were relieved to have seats, and they were even next to one another so we shouldn’t complain. We have heard about other travellers that had paid for seats, only to end up sitting on the floor for the entire journey. Along those lines I will mention that there were a number of locals that got on the fully loaded bus along the way, and sat on little plastic chairs in the middle of the aisle (who needs a fire exit unless there’s a fire anyway?!).
But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, the bus was due to leave at 07h45, so with the bus fully loaded, the driver finally sashayed onboard around 08h10 and at last got us on our way (Cambodian time yeah baby). The journey was meant to last 5 hours and although there was no toilet on board we had been assured that the bus would make toilet stops along the way. So after about an hour the bus does indeed stop, except it has stopped along the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Half the bus gets off and walks off in to the grass / bushes (there weren’t many bushes) to relieve themselves in the open air! It was at this point that I decided against drinking the can of Pepsi I had brought along in my supplies. However as it turned out there was actually a genuine lunch / toilet stop around 11h00.
After a rather uneventful journey, we arrived in Battambang only a half an hour behind schedule (result!) and a man from the new hostel was there to meet us with a sign (another result). We loaded our backpacks in to his tuk tuk and were transferred to the hostel, which was okay. No Wifi in the room, an internal window and a slight plumbing problem, however the reception guy was very helpful and booked us a tuk tuk for the following morning to take us to the bamboo train. We also booked our boat tickets to Siem Reap on the Sunday, before the boat got booked up. There wasn’t really much we wanted to see in Battambang other than the bamboo train, and as it looked like a one horse town, we weren’t keen to linger. The one thing we had noticed in moving from China (where it was low season) to South East Asia (where it is high season) is that there are a lot more tourists about and it has become necessary to try and book accommodation a little further than 1 day in advance.
We spent the rest of the day walking around Battambang, and went to the markets (which seemed to contain a lot of gold jewellery, clothing, food and hairdressers), and then took a walk along the river to try and see the French architecture the guidebook mentioned. Now not being any sort of expert on what French architecture is meant to look like it is hard to say whether we actually saw the intended buildings. However we did see a couple of houses with shuttered windows which didn’t look very Cambodian, but at the same time they weren’t really anything to write home about. We finished our walk at a temple, that had loads of monks streaming out of it in their orange robes. That is one thing that has surprised me about Cambodia, I wasn’t really expecting to see so many monks around. We also saw 4 young local boys, buck naked, playing in the river below. They had clearly come off a house boat that was docked nearby and were having an awesome time splashing about in the water and mud below us.
The next day we took a tuk tuk to the train station to catch the bamboo train. On arrival what looked like a policeman called us over and told us a bit about the train and got us to pay a woman $5 each for the journey. He then arranged for a driver and we clambered on to the train carriage. Now I use the words ‘train carriage’ very loosely. It was basically more like a wooden raft on train wheels, without a roof or sides, powered by a diesel engine. A man got on the back to work the engine and away we went up the single track. It was fantastic fun, a bit like a rollercoaster but without any seats or seatbelts. You just sit on a woven mat. A little ways up the track we came upon another carriage going in the opposite direction. This meant that one of us would have to give way. It turned out to be them. The tourists climbed off the carriage, and their driver and our driver picked up the whole ‘carriage’ and placed it on the ground next to the tracks. Then we pulled forward a bit and they reassembled their‘carriage’ on their other side of us lol. The rails themselves were not exactly straight, so the ride was a little bumpy, which only added to the fun. We only went as far as the next stop, which took about 20 minutes with the wind rushing in our faces, and it was nice to see a bit of the passing countryside. We got off and sat at a roadside ‘café’ to have a drink for a bit and chatted to some other irish tourists. After a bit our driver waived us over and it was time to head back down the other way again.
We arranged with the same tuk tuk driver to take us on an excursion to see a couple of temples the following day. We would later find out that the bamboo train should have cost us $5 for the carriage ie both of us, and the officer had pocketed the other $5 for his trouble.
The next morning we met our tuk tuk driver at 10h00, and he drove us about 18km out of town to the first temple (phnom sampouv). We went along a dirt road for a bit and when other motorbikes or cars passed us I was glad of the traditional scarf that I’d bought from the market for $1.50, as it definitely helped to keep the dust out of my lungs. We arrived at a little rural town of sorts, paid an entrance fee of $2 each, and then went on a bit of a walk up a road, and some steps to find the Killing Cave. Similar to the Killing Fields of Penom Penh, the KR threw people (some dead / some alive) down in to this cave, to the tune of 10,000 people, and some of their skeletons can still be seen there (again pretty grim, although not as grim as the Killing Fields as there was not as much information in the cave about what went on). Then we took another short walk uphill to find a beautiful temple covered in gold paint, which was very ornate. The temple was on the highest hill / mountain in Battambang (which is pretty flat otherwise) and we had some great views from the top. Just before we were about to walk down again, I put my camera, water and a muffin I’d been carrying in a bag, down on a seat to take a photo and before you could say ‘what the?’ a rather large monkey came walking along and snatched my muffin away. He promptly took it out of the bag and climbed up a tree to eat my own muffin in front of me, the cheeky bugger. However I was just glad that he hadn’t decided to make off with my camera, which he could easily have done.
Afterwards the tuk tuk driver drove us across another dirt road to get to a second temple (wat banon). He said that one was from the 11th century and pre dated Angkor Wat. We arrived to see a very steep set of 300 plus steps going straight up, but could not see the temple as it was set back a bit from the stairs. So up we went, a few steps at a time, until we got a view of the temples which were awesome, and a lot like what I expected Angkor Wat to look like. We wandered around taking a couple of photos, and then sat looking out at the views over Battambang which was fab. There weren’t many other tourists about which was nice. Then we wandered down all the steps again and saw a couple of French tourists climbing up with 2 locals that were fanning them as they walked lol. Our driver was waiting for us at the bottom and drove us back to the hostel again. By the time we got back it was 16h00, so it only cost us $15 for a day of his time. Cambodia is cheap. Well I suppose Vietnam was cheap as well, but I am noticing it more here. $10 a night for a double room in a hostel with TV, AC and a private bathroom. $2 for a meal. 50 cents for a coke. It came as a pleasant change after the expense of Japan and the US.
The following day we left at 06h30 to get the Angkor Express boat to Siem Reap, which was due to arrive at 15h30. It turned out the express boat was actually a rather slow service, as the water level in the river was very low, so the driver had to negotiate the way carefully. The boat was also quite small, and full of tourists which meant that it wasn’t the most comfortable of journeys. As there was no real space for our luggage the guys had packed our backpacks underneath the chairs in front of us, which also meant reduced legroom. However it was quite a scenic journey along the river as we got to see a lot of people bringing in their fishing nets first thing in the morning, and we also saw a floating village on our way in to Siem Reap. I made some good progress on my book ‘The Girl in the Picture’ that I started in Nha Trang, and Steve managed to finish The Killing Fields that he bought there as well. Anyway back to our arrival in Siem Reap.
Siem Reap
The hostel we had booked in Siem Reap had promised to send a tuk tuk, as the port is a good 16km from the town, and much to our surprise the boat actually arrived on time, and there was a man holding up a sign with our names on it (result). However the tuk tuk driver immediately asked us whether we planned to go and see the temples the following day, and wanted us to promise to use him if we did. Apparently the tuk tuk to the hostel comes free, but with the understanding that you will use him again during your stay. As we didn’t know his day rate, we didn’t make any promises and he dropped us at the hostel without an issue. The hostel was an upgrade on the Battambang one, which was nice. That first evening we just had dinner in the hostel restaurant as we were pretty tired after the epic boat journey.
The following day we woke up late and went for a walk around Siem Reap to get the lay of the land. Our hotel was about a 10 min walk from the main street, where all the bars and restaurants where, and we found a recommended restaurant and went for lunch. I had the fish amok, with a side order of morning glory (yes they actually do have a dish with this name and it is slightly garlicky, somewhat oily green vegetables) and Steve had a chicken cashew nut, both with steamed rice and they were both very good. Again we ate with chopsticks, and I must say that after about 6 weeks of eating with chopsticks non stop we have become quite adept at it, and it now feels strange to eat with a knife and fork. A bit like I am stabbing my food unnecessarily, the knife and fork are far more brutal implements than chopsticks! We also found the local market and went for a walk around to see what they were selling. Again we were surprised to find how cheap everything is in Cambodia - $3 for a pair of silk cushion covers, or £3.50 for a pair of fake Ray Bans. Of course you have to barter for everything, but we seem to be getting better at that. The best tactic seems to be to walk away from their stall and see whether they shout their best price after you.
That night we arranged with the hostel for our tuk tuk driver (yes the same one that did the pier transfer, his day rate was $12 per day) to meet us at 05h10 AM to take us to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. I do feel sorry for the tuk tuk drivers here as they must get up before 05h00 most days to ferry tourists in to see the sunrise. Then again I suppose there are a lot of people here that are worse off and make even less money than a tuk tuk driver.
So the next morning we woke up at 04h45 and shuffled downstairs to meet our driver. It was still pitch dark (good as we didn’t want to miss the sunrise) when we got in his tuk tuk and off we went down the potholed dirt road outside the hostel, bouncing about in the back with the wind cutting through our clothes. We hadn’t factored in that it would be pretty cold in the back of the tuk tuk in the middle of the night, and were dressed in shorts and t shirts (it would be 33 degrees later in the day).
After a quick stop for a litre of gas from a lady with a filled plastic bottle and a funnel (I was left wondering if the street vendors just sleep at their stalls?) we were on our way and about 20 minutes later we arrived at the Angkor Wat ticket booth. We were surprised to find the tickets cost $40 per person, which was double the price in the guide book and we had our pictures taken for the tickets at 05h30. Then he drove us on to the entrance, although we couldn’t see much of anything yet as it was still pitch dark. However as always, there was one industrious man trying to sell us a cup of hot coffee (no thanks my eyes havent actually opened yet). So our tuk tuk driver pointed over to the right handside, and said to follow the other tourists, and he would be waiting for us over on the left by the restaurant when we were done. So off we went in to the pitch darkness, following the dim light of a torch that a guide in front was carrying. It was clear that we were passing over some sort of bridge, with water on either side (no rails), which would turn out to be the moat. Then we found the spot by the lake where the other tourists were gathered in the dark, and found our posse to wait for sunrise. When the sun finally started to rise we could at last see the familiar outline of the massive temple of Angkor Wat which was fantastic, and by the time the sun got up above the temple it was really beautiful with the full reflection of the temple in the still lake. There was also another benefit to being there super early, which was that we got to walk around Angkor Wat when there were less tourists there, so we had less of a queue to climb the ladder and get up to the inner temple. We took our time walking around the temple and were amazed with the intricate carvings over pretty much every surface in there. Afterwards our tuk tuk driver took us to Angkor Tom which includes Bayon that has all the statues with the multiple faces, which was fantastic. Again you could climb up a ladder to get to a top level and walk around there, although by that time of day it was heaving with other tourists, so it was difficult to get any photos. Lastly that day we went to the Elephant Terrace, is like a long walkway with loads of sculptures of elephants carved in to the sides, and a load of Apsala (mythical dancing nymphs) carved in to it. It was absolutely boiling in the afternoon, so we just got a bit of lunch and then were to knackered to do anymore so we just went home for an afternoon kip (getting up at 4h45 will really take it out of you). That evening we went to the night market for a walk around and saw a load of outdoor massage places and fish foot massage parlours.
The following morning we got up early again and met the tuk tuk driver at 07h00 to go and see Ta Prohm which is the temple where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed. I was glad that we decided to leave it until the next day and get an early start, as there were only a handful of other people around and we practically got to walk around the temple on our own. It was a really magical place and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves walking around each new corner to find another part of the temple overgrown by some enormous tree roots. For me it was actually better than Angkor Wat and has to be one of the most awesome places I have ever been to. No wonder they used it as a film set.
Afterwards the driver took us for some breakfast and then on to a couple of nearby lesser temples, however by that point it was nearing mid day and the sun was absolutely scorching, so we were melting a bit with our Cambodian scarves pulled up over our heads for a bit of relief. Well at least we looked the part. After an afternoon of looking around the lesser temples and climbing up lots of Angkorian stairways, we had had enough and asked the tuk tuk to drop us back near Bar Street where we could get some lunch. We ended up back at the market looking for an Angkor Wat souvenir at another bargain price.
The next day we still had a temple pass (it was three days), but we were pretty much templed out after 2 days, so we decided to run a couple of errands before our bus out. We managed to find a Fujifilm and had a couple of passport photos taken for our Laos visa, and then went to the post office again. This is the first parcel that we’ve actually sent to ourselves at our own address in London, as we have sadly realised that by the time it arrives we should be back there. Then we went to the Angkor National Musuem, which wasn’t cheap at $12 entrance each. However we saw some great examples of the carvings that had all but warn away at Angkor Wat, and understood a bit more about what we had seen there. Apparently a lot of the stories / people and animals engraved at the temples have come from Hinduism / Buddhism. There was one Hindu lady there from India that was walking around smiling and saying, yes I recognise this story, it is the same as the one we tell back home.
We also found this awesome shop where you can have music transferred on to your ipod at a cheap rate, so we spent a bit of time there perusing their catalogue. Then we went to the shops and bought some supplies for the bus to Laos the following day. We were due to leave at 05h00 and arrive at 15h30, so it was going to be a long ride.
One more note about Cambodia, is that much like Vietnam, the local people seem to like sitting on or near the floor. We saw a couple of people at our hostel that had clearly finished work and were lying on a tiled floor by the stairs with only a small cushion under their heads and they looked quite at home there. A lot of people seem to sleep at their place of work (we saw hammocks strung up in some local restaurants, and people doing their make up at the side of the tables).
Apart from that I have to say that I was starting to get quite irritated in Siem Reap with the number of people approaching us to sell us something ‘Laddeeeee, you buy from me?’ or just ‘You buy!’, so I was ready to head for somewhere a bit less touristy…Laos here we come.
After speaking to the lady at the hostel re what buses they had on offer going to Laos, it turned out that the bus to Vientiane was going to take more than 24 hours, so we opted for the next best thing, she suggested a bus to the 4000 Islands, which we had never even heard of, but it would get us over the border and was only a 12 hour bus ride away which sounded a lot more doable, and so the decision was made - the next stop would be Don Dhet, a small island in the Mekong River.
And that was pretty much it for Cambodia.
Love to all at home,
Kirst x
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Vietnam - Hanoi, Halong Bay, Nha Trang and Saigon
Hanoi
We arrived at Hanoi airport, handed in our pre approval letters and got our Vietnam visas no probs (or should I say Viet Nam as its actually 2 words there) . Then we walked through customs and were delighted to find a man from the hostel holding up a board with our name on it, as it would have been a very long drive to the Old Quarter in a taxi.
My first impression of Hanoi was that it is really manic. There are scooters everywhere and people have actually built little scooter ramps so that they can get their scooters up on to the pavements (clearly the person that allowed this move should be taken out and shot). There are so many scooters parked on the pavements that you are forced to try and walk in the road (not a good idea). I hadn’t seen any photos of Hanoi prior to arriving and I was just not mentally prepared for the onslaught of scooters at every turn. It seemed as though if they were not driving at you, they were hooting at you, or something else nearby. It is loud, very loud.
We spent the first day trying to walk around town to get our bearings, which isn’t really possible in Hanoi. You have to relearn how to cross the road if you are going to get anywhere. We were told it is not a good idea to try and run across as its too unpredictable. However it is very hard to resist the temptation when you’ve got scooters coming at you from all sides. In the end you just step out, walk slowly and hope that the scooters will magically part around you. I found myself choosing places to eat, based on the number of streets we would have to cross to get there. I found the first day quite frustrating, probably worsened by the fact that we spent a fair amount of time looking for an English bookshop, which had actually moved address (thanks guidebook once again for the outdated information). However we did have a tasty stir fry for lunch, and frankly after three weeks of trying to eat in mainland China, the food in Vietnam was a complete God send. It was great to be able to sit in a restaurant, read the menu and actually want to eat more than one of the options available.
We had also managed to pick a hostel in a good location, which was across the road from a lake, so we spent a bit of time walking around there (no roads to cross yippee) as it was very scenic, with a couple of weeping willows hanging over the lake and a temple in the middle of it.
Another note about Vietnam is that the local people like to stay close to the ground. By which I mean that people either sit on the ground, or they sit on little child sized plastic chairs close to the ground. Its no wonder you’ve got to take your shoes off before you enter anyone’s house. I’m afraid to say that cooking in a pot on the ground offends my delicate Western sensibilities, and we were afraid of trying the true Vietnamese street food for fear of ending up with food poisoning again. However it is amazing to see how anyone can produce a meal (albeit a simple noodle soup) in the middle of a pavement with no access to electricity, or running water.
On our second day we took a rickshaw (much better than walking) to the tour agency to pay for our tour of Halong Bay, and then went for a look around the silk shops. They have some beautiful silk in Vietnam and I could have bought loads, if only the budget had allowed. That evening we went to see the new H.P. film (you need a little fix of reality every now and again when you’re travelling) although I’m afraid to say it wasn’t very good. Saying that it was amazing to find a cinema that played English movies, within easy walking distance of our hostel after our experience in China.
On the third day Steve was rather brave and went for a haircut at a local hairdresser, which did a good job. We also went to buy some tickets for the water puppet theatre later that night, before getting a taxi to the museum of Ethnology (so not worth the trip). However it is worth mentioning that on the way back from the museum to the hostel, the metered taxi fare ended up being more than double what it had cost us to get there. Funny that considering we should have gone the same distance. Steve had a go at the female taxi driver, who suddenly pretended that she didn’t speak any English and had no idea what we were going on about. We made a show of looking at her ID badge and said we would phone the taxi company to complain about her taking us on a joy ride, which of course we never got around to actually doing. It is just annoying when you feel like you are getting ripped off all the time just because you‘re a visitor. That evening we went for a nice dinner at a restaurant that was recommended in the guidebook (sometimes it is useful), which was inside a traditional Vietnamese long house. That’s another strange thing about Vietnam, no matter how much land seems to be around the house, the houses are always tall and thin. You can practically reach out and touch both walls with your hands and when a son gets married, they just built another level on top of the house, which makes for some tall houses.
After dinner we went to see the show at the water puppet theatre, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Water puppet theatre is pretty unique to Vietnam as it was developed in the rice paddies and needs a special water stage for the performance. The puppet masters stay behind a screen and the puppets come out on to the water on these long sticks. The show was accompanied by some traditional Vietnamese singing and music and it was definitely the highlight of Hanoi for me, on the last evening before we were due to leave. We had booked to stay at a resort on Monkey Island over Christmas to get away from the craziness of Hanoi.
Monkey Island
So at 08h30 the following morning we were all packed and ready to go. The transfer turned out to be somewhat of an epic journey. Really we should have taken the transfer offered by the resort on Monkey Island, rather than arranging it with the Hanoi hostel ourselves, but who was to know. At 08h30 we took a bus from the hostel to Halong City, which took us about 3 hours. Then we waited around 2 hours on the pier while various people argued with the boat guide, that they wanted a direct transfer to Cat Ba island, rather than taking a slow but scenic tourist boat there. One Canadian man that had booked a sleep aboard tour point blank refused to handover his passport, and they wouldn’t refund his money, so in the end he just walked away. Eventually we got on the boat which very slowly made its way around Halong Bay (it even stopped for people to see a cave) and it took another 2 hours to get to Cat Ba island.
Unfortunately our first views of Halong Bay weren’t great as the weather was overcast and it rained a bit, but I could imagine what all the fuss would be about on a clear day. The cliffs towering up into the mist where massive and we hoped that as we were spending a bit more time in Halong, we would get some better views on another day.
By the time we arrived on Cat Ba island it was around 5h30pm. Then we had to get a bus 20 mins across the island to Cat Ba city, where they tried to get us in to a hotel for $5 a night. We asked the bus driver to call the monkey island transfer guy, and he said why you didn’t call earlier, now there will be no boats to monkey island as it is too late! At this point it was already dark and we were pretty knackered, so not great news, however he called Monkey Island and they confirmed they had a boat waiting for us at the pier.
Then 2 guys on motorbikes arrived to collect us with all our baggage, so we clambered on with our backpacks still on and they took us for a short (no helmets ride) down to the pier to get the boat. Hilarious. PS Its incredible what people will actually attempt to carry on a scooter or motorbike in Vietnam. At one point we actually saw a man with four massive vases tied to the sides of his bike. Anyway, we headed out in to the pitch black night on the bay, just us two and the driver, until after a 15 minute transfer we eventually saw a light we must be heading towards - and at last arrived at the resort. Exciting stuff. We arrived just in time for dinner (rather good, loads of seafood) and dropped our bags in our ocean front room. It was a relief to get out of the hubbub of Hanoi and get to somewhere quieter. We’d arrived on the evening of the 23rd, so the following day would be Christmas Eve.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, we awoke to the sound of waves crashing and a rooster crowing (no jokes) and we looked outside to see a beautiful white sandy beach and a great view of Halong Bay from our beach bungalow window. This was going to be an awesome, if unorthodox, way to spend our Christmas while we were away travelling.
The only strange thing about the resort is that everyone else we met there was only spending the one night, as they were on a boat cruise stopover, so it was a bit like groundhog day for us. We would make friends with a group 1 night, only to find that the following morning they had gone, and there was a new group of recruits waiting for us again.
On our way out that morning we walked past 2 geese tethered to a tree behind the main house and we didn’t think too much of it. After breakfast we took a short 30 min hike over the top of the island and went to the beach on the far side to see the monkeys (yes its called monkey island for good reason).
The first couple of hours on the beach were pretty uneventful and we didn’t see much of the monkeys. We did have a couple of tourist boats that stopped to offload people that came for a walk around. Then around 15h00 a couple of monkeys came down on to the beach and starting walking around us. Then one cheeky monkey stole one of Steve;s socks out of his shoe, and started to run off with it. Steve gave chase, whereupon the monkey called for a number of reinforcements and they started coming after him, teeth and nails out, ready for a fight. Steve did somehow manage to get his sock back before high tailing it down to the sea (they didn’t seem keen on going in to the water), only to then have this kikoy stolen by another monkey who promptly ran up a tree and then on to a roof top with it. It was around this time that I decided I should probably pick up the backpack, as one nearby monkey had looked at it with some interest (I reckon he would have been clever enough to unzip it), so I grabbed it and then he came after me, teeth and nails out, ready for a bite as though I‘d stolen his bag! I backed up down the beach as quickly as possible and he came after me, again eventually giving up when I neared the water. Pretty scary stuff. The last thing you want on an island in the middle of nowhere is a bite from a rabid monkey. Not that they were frothing at the mouth, but you never know. Fortunately we both came out unscathed. Then at around 16h00 the owner of the resort appeared with a couple of day trippers to feed the monkeys. We later found out that the owner comes out to feed the monkeys at the same time every day, which is why they had come down to the beach for a look around. We also found its not a good idea to bring any food along with you as they can sniff it out (there was a half open packet of Oreos in the backpack) so we’d been asking for trouble.
I was surprised to see one monkey pick up a small plastic water bottle that a tourist must have dropped, bite a hole in the end and tip it up to drink out of it (I reckon he might have done that before!). It was also hilarious to see how schizophrenic the little buggers were, as one minute they were ready to chew our heads off and the next they were sweet as pie, eating peanuts out of the resort owners hand and posing for pictures. Needless to say we kept our distance after that as we knew their true natures!
We made our way back over to the resort and that evening they cooked us a massive feast for Christmas Eve dinner, which just happened to include 2 spit roasted geese (yes the same ones we’d seen earlier that day had honked their final honk), along with a load of various different types of braaied seafood - delicious and way more food than we could possibly eat. They’d also put up a Christmas tree complete with tinsel and baubles, so we ate like kings and made friends with a group of people on a tour, and had a great night telling travel stories.
Xmas morning we woke up and opened our cards and presents to one another (the smart phones we picked up in Hong Kong). We had planned to go kayaking from the beach on Xmas day, but the wind was quite strong, so we ended up having a lazy day instead playing with our new gadgets and later a bit of beach football. Another tour group arrived, and that evening after dinner we ended up playing a fantastic new card game with them (Bang) over some local vodka (the 7 of us finished 4 bottles). We stopped play for a couple of welcome phonecalls from our families at home wishing us a Merry Christmas across the miles. It was a bit sad to be spending Xmas so far away from our families, but we had some good company that were in the same boat, and we ended up getting totally plastered. Neither of us had been that drunk in a very long time and we had great fun playing Bang!
Boxing day morning we woke up with the most G-d awful hangovers (not surprise there then). However it was a sunny day, so we took the kayaks for a paddle around Halong Bay and stopped at a small island where we had the beach all to ourselves - sweet! We pulled in our kayak, got our kikoys out (half monkey eaten) and lay around on the beach in the sun, nursing our hangovers with the cokes we had brought along. Unfortunately despite our best efforts we didn’t manage to hook up with Zuzana who also happened to be on a boat cruise of Halong Bay around the same time. So close yet so far! That night there were 2 new recruits from Hungary at the resort, and they were really friendly as well. So after dinner we sat by the fire outside and chatted about our travels. They were keen to have a couple of drinks, but we were still feeling rough from Xmas day, so we weren’t keen to jump back on the wagon that quickly.
Halong Bay
The next day we needed to catch our Halong Bay cruise. We caught a small boat to Cat Ba island and then transferred to a bigger boat that would take us to Halong. According to the email from the travel agent we were due to meet the cruise at Chuan Tua port. So at around 11h20 (10 minutes early) we arrived at Chun Tua port and got off the boat to start looking around for our cruise boat. Luckily we happened to ask the man on the boat to call Mr Dong to check where we could meet him in the port. Mr Dong then said we were in the wrong port, so we had to catch a taxi over to Halong City port which was very annoying. However once there we found another friendly local that was prepared to call Mr Dong again, to arrange a place to meet up at the city port.
Then we got on a small boat to transfer across to the cruise ship and we were surprised at the quality of the boat. We had opted to pay a bit more to have a slightly more luxurious cruise, to try and get away from the little boats we had seen in the bay. However the one we got on to was very luxurious, and our room was bigger than a lot of hostels we had stayed in. We had lunch immediately (mostly seafood) and then spent the rest of the day touring Halong Bay and visiting a cave (well lit with different colours pretty impressive). We were racing to get to the little beach for sunset, but unfortunately just managed to miss it. Steve did climb to the top of the hill to get some pictures and the views were awesome, but I just got some pictures from the beach. Then it was back to the boat for another seafood dinner and afterwards some squid fishing off the back of the boat, while the more cultured listened to the traditional music in the restaurant. Actually it was easier to scoop the fish out of the water with the net, than to try and catch anything with the rod and lure. Steve stayed out there for hours and finally managed to catch a squid using a lure, which was more than any of the rest of us caught! We were really lucky with the weather that day (it had been hit and miss over Xmas) as we got some great views off Halong Bay. The bay is really beautiful and I can see why it’s a Unesco world heritage site. I was glad we’d opted for the boat cruse after Monkey Island as we managed to see other parts of the bay that we hadn’t seen before. We also saw a couple of the tourist junk boats with their sails up, which was great.
We had opted for the 3 day, 2 night cruise option which basically meant that we would have a 2 day tour, and disembark on the morning of the 3rd day. However the vast majority of the people onboard were only spending 1 night onboard and getting off the next day. So on the morning of day 2 we transferred over to a small boat which took us down to the Cat Ba area. There we went on an awesome kayaking trip to a lagoon, which was very quiet / peaceful and away from the madding crowds which was a relief after the queuing at yesterdays cave. Then we had some time on the boat for lunch, and later went on another kayak expedition in to a long cave, which ended in another hidden lagoon. The lagoon was beautiful but the cave trip in the pitch back was quite scary as you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, and every now and then there would be a long stalactite coming down from the ceiling. Fortunately I had been given one of the 2 torches, so we could see a little better than the 2 boats in the middle, definitely an adventure! Later we visited another cave, and this one involved a bit of climbing under and over things to get inside, where it was pitch black. However when the guide shone his torch on some of the rock formations, they glittered like diamonds, very cool. Later we joined the big boat again for dinner and listened to the traditional music they had onboard. One man was playing something that looked like it was made of a number of pieces of slate strung together like a keyboard, and each piece of stone made a different note when he hit it. Very Flintstone! Now I should note that that night Steve was up at least 5 times being sick and generally feeling unwell, probably due to the seafood we had for dinner the night before.
The following morning we packed our bags and waited a while for the boat transfer back to Halong City. While we were waiting we met a South African couple who were on holiday from Joeys. It was nice to hear some saffer accents again, as we haven’t had many on our trip, and they were positive about the situation back in SA which was good to hear. Then we had a quick lunch in Halong City before catching the 4 hour bus back to Hanoi.
Nha Trang
We had one night in the same hostel in Hanoi before we were due to fly down to Nha Trang for New Year’s Eve and it was another restless / stomach cramping night for Steve. However he trooped on and the following morning we packed up again and got the hostel’s transfer to the airport (the owners brother), as it was a good 1 hour drive away. When we tried to check in, the lady behind the counter kindly informed us that our flight (which was only meant to be 1.5 hours long) had been delayed by 5 hours! So we ended up sitting in Nha Trang airport for most of the day which was a pain. We considered getting a taxi back in to the city to see the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum, but it would have taken at least 2 hours return, so we decided against it and just found a coffee shop with some free Wifi instead.
When we eventually got on the plane, the flight was mercifully short, so we arrived in Nha Trang not long after, and found a taxi to take us in to our hostel in Nha Trang. As we arrived around 6h30pm on the 30th, we were keen to find out if there were still any tickets left for the New Year’s Eve Party at the Sailing Club. So we went for a walk to find the place. Unfortunately all the tables were already reserved, but the lady assured us that if we arrived around 6h30pm the following day, we could choose one of the unreserved tables and keep that for the rest of the night. Night three wasn’t much better for poor Steve’s stomach.
So the following morning (our first full day in Nha Trang) we found the address of the local general hospital online, and went looking for A&E (although it wasn’t strictly an emergency we figured they were bound to have a doctor, albeit Sunday the 31st Dec, besides the website had claimed that they had English speaking doctors). After the taxi dropped us at the address we had written down, we realised the website must have been wrong as the hospital was definitely not at no. 19 and so we walked up and down the street until we found it. It was just a little farther along the same road. Then the fun began. We walked in to what looked like the main entrance, and started walking around inside looking for a sort of Reception / Registration area. There were plenty of signs up overhead, but they were all in Vietnamese only, so they weren’t much good to us. Eventually we found a woman sitting near a door that spoke some English, and she took us to a couple of seats to wait for the doctor to be available (no pre registration necessary it would seem). After a short wait we went in to see her, and she did fortunately speak some English and managed to diagnose food poisoning (probable) and gave us a prescription to fill at their clinic. Then we paid for the consult at a desk outside (still no details of who we were required), and went on to find the clinic. Fortunately on our earlier roaming around the hospital we had seen a queue of people at what looked a lot like a pharmacy, and it turned out to be the right place (big red sign with arrow all in Vietnamese probably said Pharmacy!). So we got the meds and then headed outside. Steve was fine once he took the meds, but it sure made for an interesting experience in Nha Trang.
Afterwards we had a walk around Nha Trang and checked out the beach. Nha Trang is a small beach town, filled with tourist travel agencies and dive centres, and for us it was a relief to be back near the sea again, as we’ve been travelling through cities for so long.. It was also a relief to finally have some warmer weather. As soon as we arrived we had to change in to shorts and flip flops as it was really warm and humid. That evening as was suggested we got to the Sailing Club around 6h30pm and managed to find a table for two near the bar where we could have dinner (great food there although quite dear) and waited for the celebrations to begin. Frankly we were surprised at how organised their New Year’s Eve party was for a small beach town in Vietnam. We had a fabulous time dancing the night away on the beach to an ex Ministry of Sound DJ, and stumbled home around 3am. Happy New Year everyone!
The next day was a bit of a right off (hangovers from hell), however we did manage to book ourselves on a snorkelling trip for the 2nd Jan, as Nha Trang is supposed to be Vietnams top diving destination. I should also mention that there are a lot of vendors trying to sell you everything on the street, from sunglassses to photocopied books (yay I found the Girl in the Picture at last), and it does get a bit annoying saying no thanks every ten minutes. However there are less scooters on the streets than in Hanoi which was a definite bonus.
So around 8h30am the following morning a man arrived at the hostel saying something or other, in what sounded to me a lot like Vietnamese (unintelligible). However it turned out he was saying ‘Snorkelling tour’ so after repeating it about 3 times we eventually got up and followed him to the bus. We spent the day cruising around Nha Trang on their boat, and stopped at 2 spots to go snorkelling. We did see a number of different sorts of fish, but the visibility wasn’t great and the water was pretty cold, so we didn’t spend that long looking. The coral wasn’t particularly colourful, except for one big bright green coral that we found that was cool. Basically I think it was the wrong time of year for snorkelling, but it was still nice to get out and in to the sea for the day.
That night we went for a walk around the shops (everything is open late in Nha Trang) and then ended up in a backpackers bar and had a couple of drinks, whilst listening to some western music (yay even though it was just on a CD its funny the things you miss). I had left a note for the woman at our hostel to try and arrange some train tickets for us, and although we didn’t get to see her, she assured me on the phone that she had our tickets to Saigon.
So the following morning (our last night in the hostel), we packed our bags, had the free breakfast in the hostel (first time in 3 days) and then went and sat on the beach for a couple of hours. It is worth mentioning that the beach in Nha Trang is quite short, and that the waves are massive and break just on the beach, so it pretty much impossible to swim. Although we laughed at a couple of people that were trying. Then we went back to the hostel at 4pm to meet the owner, pickup our train tickets and passports, and arrange to get to the train station for our train to Saigon that night. Nothing like a bit of last minute organisation. We ended up getting ripped on the train tickets at 24 dollars each, as she said she had to get them on the black market as the train tickets were officially ‘sold out‘, my fault for leaving a note and not checking the price I guess.
Saigon
We got the train to Saigon (aka HCMC) which was an interesting experience. I’m afraid the train in Vietnam was just not up to the same standard as the ones we’d grown used to in China. The sheets in our hard sleeper bunks were a bit dirty and the train was old and a bit worn out. However the train arrived early at 3h30am which was too early for the hostel check in, so we waited around in the train station until 5am before getting the taxi to the hostel to drop off our bags. Then we had to hang out at an open bar until 8am for a room to be ready and they put us in to a sister hotel on the fifth floor (no lift) in a tiny room with an internally facing window. So the following morning we asked to be moved back to the hotel we had actually booked in to, to which they responded they would see what they could do. Which was an interseting reaction given that we had actually made a booking with them. In the end we did get moved so it all worked out okay, but we had to push to get it.
The first day in Saigon was pretty much a write off as we were knackered after the 3h30 wake up and needed more sleep. However we booked to go and see the Cu Chi tunnels the following day. So we got to see the scary man traps (bamboo spikes in a loosey covered hole in the ground), and then crawled through the little tunnel. Actually the tunnel was not as small as I’d thought it would be, although the one we went in to has been widened for the tourists. However as Steves legs are longer than mine, it wasn’t long before he wanted out, and it was stiflingly hot, so we didn’t stay under there very long. Its hard to believe that Viet Cong families lived underground for months on end. Actually the highlight of our day there was that we got to shoot guns at a firing range (you pay for your 3 bullets, they set up the gun and then you pull the trigger). Of course I didn’t actually hit the target, but as I’d never fired a gun before, it was an interesting experience. The guide had to put his hand up against the back of my shoulder to prevent me from falling back when it went off! Later that day we went to see the War Remnants Museum with the photography exhibits on Vietnam, which were really really good. They will have an amazing picture and then underneath a caption saying that this was the photographers last roll of film before he died. Really moving stuff and of course they had the picture of Kim Phuc there (from the book I was busy reading) running from the napalm attack on her village.
The following day we met up with Connie and Loz and spent the day with them generally eating, drinking and catching up. It was great to see them after all that time, and is so nice to see some familiar faces when you’ve been travelling for a while. We also tried to play a bit of foot shuttle cock in the park with the locals, but its harder than it looks. I think the guys were the best and managed a rally of about 3 kicks lol.
The following day we were due to get a boat to the Mekong Delta for 3 days, which would end up in Penom Penh in Cambodia. Steve had already started reading the book The Killing Fields about the Khmer Rouge in preparation for our arrival there.
It was also around this time that our thoughts started to turn to our return home, as we had to give notice on our flat on the 1st January…it really felt like the last 6 months had flown by and we couldn’t believe that we only had 2 months left of our trip - eeek!
I think that’s about all for Vietnam.
Love to all at home, Kirst x
We arrived at Hanoi airport, handed in our pre approval letters and got our Vietnam visas no probs (or should I say Viet Nam as its actually 2 words there) . Then we walked through customs and were delighted to find a man from the hostel holding up a board with our name on it, as it would have been a very long drive to the Old Quarter in a taxi.
My first impression of Hanoi was that it is really manic. There are scooters everywhere and people have actually built little scooter ramps so that they can get their scooters up on to the pavements (clearly the person that allowed this move should be taken out and shot). There are so many scooters parked on the pavements that you are forced to try and walk in the road (not a good idea). I hadn’t seen any photos of Hanoi prior to arriving and I was just not mentally prepared for the onslaught of scooters at every turn. It seemed as though if they were not driving at you, they were hooting at you, or something else nearby. It is loud, very loud.
We spent the first day trying to walk around town to get our bearings, which isn’t really possible in Hanoi. You have to relearn how to cross the road if you are going to get anywhere. We were told it is not a good idea to try and run across as its too unpredictable. However it is very hard to resist the temptation when you’ve got scooters coming at you from all sides. In the end you just step out, walk slowly and hope that the scooters will magically part around you. I found myself choosing places to eat, based on the number of streets we would have to cross to get there. I found the first day quite frustrating, probably worsened by the fact that we spent a fair amount of time looking for an English bookshop, which had actually moved address (thanks guidebook once again for the outdated information). However we did have a tasty stir fry for lunch, and frankly after three weeks of trying to eat in mainland China, the food in Vietnam was a complete God send. It was great to be able to sit in a restaurant, read the menu and actually want to eat more than one of the options available.
We had also managed to pick a hostel in a good location, which was across the road from a lake, so we spent a bit of time walking around there (no roads to cross yippee) as it was very scenic, with a couple of weeping willows hanging over the lake and a temple in the middle of it.
Another note about Vietnam is that the local people like to stay close to the ground. By which I mean that people either sit on the ground, or they sit on little child sized plastic chairs close to the ground. Its no wonder you’ve got to take your shoes off before you enter anyone’s house. I’m afraid to say that cooking in a pot on the ground offends my delicate Western sensibilities, and we were afraid of trying the true Vietnamese street food for fear of ending up with food poisoning again. However it is amazing to see how anyone can produce a meal (albeit a simple noodle soup) in the middle of a pavement with no access to electricity, or running water.
On our second day we took a rickshaw (much better than walking) to the tour agency to pay for our tour of Halong Bay, and then went for a look around the silk shops. They have some beautiful silk in Vietnam and I could have bought loads, if only the budget had allowed. That evening we went to see the new H.P. film (you need a little fix of reality every now and again when you’re travelling) although I’m afraid to say it wasn’t very good. Saying that it was amazing to find a cinema that played English movies, within easy walking distance of our hostel after our experience in China.
On the third day Steve was rather brave and went for a haircut at a local hairdresser, which did a good job. We also went to buy some tickets for the water puppet theatre later that night, before getting a taxi to the museum of Ethnology (so not worth the trip). However it is worth mentioning that on the way back from the museum to the hostel, the metered taxi fare ended up being more than double what it had cost us to get there. Funny that considering we should have gone the same distance. Steve had a go at the female taxi driver, who suddenly pretended that she didn’t speak any English and had no idea what we were going on about. We made a show of looking at her ID badge and said we would phone the taxi company to complain about her taking us on a joy ride, which of course we never got around to actually doing. It is just annoying when you feel like you are getting ripped off all the time just because you‘re a visitor. That evening we went for a nice dinner at a restaurant that was recommended in the guidebook (sometimes it is useful), which was inside a traditional Vietnamese long house. That’s another strange thing about Vietnam, no matter how much land seems to be around the house, the houses are always tall and thin. You can practically reach out and touch both walls with your hands and when a son gets married, they just built another level on top of the house, which makes for some tall houses.
After dinner we went to see the show at the water puppet theatre, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Water puppet theatre is pretty unique to Vietnam as it was developed in the rice paddies and needs a special water stage for the performance. The puppet masters stay behind a screen and the puppets come out on to the water on these long sticks. The show was accompanied by some traditional Vietnamese singing and music and it was definitely the highlight of Hanoi for me, on the last evening before we were due to leave. We had booked to stay at a resort on Monkey Island over Christmas to get away from the craziness of Hanoi.
Monkey Island
So at 08h30 the following morning we were all packed and ready to go. The transfer turned out to be somewhat of an epic journey. Really we should have taken the transfer offered by the resort on Monkey Island, rather than arranging it with the Hanoi hostel ourselves, but who was to know. At 08h30 we took a bus from the hostel to Halong City, which took us about 3 hours. Then we waited around 2 hours on the pier while various people argued with the boat guide, that they wanted a direct transfer to Cat Ba island, rather than taking a slow but scenic tourist boat there. One Canadian man that had booked a sleep aboard tour point blank refused to handover his passport, and they wouldn’t refund his money, so in the end he just walked away. Eventually we got on the boat which very slowly made its way around Halong Bay (it even stopped for people to see a cave) and it took another 2 hours to get to Cat Ba island.
Unfortunately our first views of Halong Bay weren’t great as the weather was overcast and it rained a bit, but I could imagine what all the fuss would be about on a clear day. The cliffs towering up into the mist where massive and we hoped that as we were spending a bit more time in Halong, we would get some better views on another day.
By the time we arrived on Cat Ba island it was around 5h30pm. Then we had to get a bus 20 mins across the island to Cat Ba city, where they tried to get us in to a hotel for $5 a night. We asked the bus driver to call the monkey island transfer guy, and he said why you didn’t call earlier, now there will be no boats to monkey island as it is too late! At this point it was already dark and we were pretty knackered, so not great news, however he called Monkey Island and they confirmed they had a boat waiting for us at the pier.
Then 2 guys on motorbikes arrived to collect us with all our baggage, so we clambered on with our backpacks still on and they took us for a short (no helmets ride) down to the pier to get the boat. Hilarious. PS Its incredible what people will actually attempt to carry on a scooter or motorbike in Vietnam. At one point we actually saw a man with four massive vases tied to the sides of his bike. Anyway, we headed out in to the pitch black night on the bay, just us two and the driver, until after a 15 minute transfer we eventually saw a light we must be heading towards - and at last arrived at the resort. Exciting stuff. We arrived just in time for dinner (rather good, loads of seafood) and dropped our bags in our ocean front room. It was a relief to get out of the hubbub of Hanoi and get to somewhere quieter. We’d arrived on the evening of the 23rd, so the following day would be Christmas Eve.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, we awoke to the sound of waves crashing and a rooster crowing (no jokes) and we looked outside to see a beautiful white sandy beach and a great view of Halong Bay from our beach bungalow window. This was going to be an awesome, if unorthodox, way to spend our Christmas while we were away travelling.
The only strange thing about the resort is that everyone else we met there was only spending the one night, as they were on a boat cruise stopover, so it was a bit like groundhog day for us. We would make friends with a group 1 night, only to find that the following morning they had gone, and there was a new group of recruits waiting for us again.
On our way out that morning we walked past 2 geese tethered to a tree behind the main house and we didn’t think too much of it. After breakfast we took a short 30 min hike over the top of the island and went to the beach on the far side to see the monkeys (yes its called monkey island for good reason).
The first couple of hours on the beach were pretty uneventful and we didn’t see much of the monkeys. We did have a couple of tourist boats that stopped to offload people that came for a walk around. Then around 15h00 a couple of monkeys came down on to the beach and starting walking around us. Then one cheeky monkey stole one of Steve;s socks out of his shoe, and started to run off with it. Steve gave chase, whereupon the monkey called for a number of reinforcements and they started coming after him, teeth and nails out, ready for a fight. Steve did somehow manage to get his sock back before high tailing it down to the sea (they didn’t seem keen on going in to the water), only to then have this kikoy stolen by another monkey who promptly ran up a tree and then on to a roof top with it. It was around this time that I decided I should probably pick up the backpack, as one nearby monkey had looked at it with some interest (I reckon he would have been clever enough to unzip it), so I grabbed it and then he came after me, teeth and nails out, ready for a bite as though I‘d stolen his bag! I backed up down the beach as quickly as possible and he came after me, again eventually giving up when I neared the water. Pretty scary stuff. The last thing you want on an island in the middle of nowhere is a bite from a rabid monkey. Not that they were frothing at the mouth, but you never know. Fortunately we both came out unscathed. Then at around 16h00 the owner of the resort appeared with a couple of day trippers to feed the monkeys. We later found out that the owner comes out to feed the monkeys at the same time every day, which is why they had come down to the beach for a look around. We also found its not a good idea to bring any food along with you as they can sniff it out (there was a half open packet of Oreos in the backpack) so we’d been asking for trouble.
I was surprised to see one monkey pick up a small plastic water bottle that a tourist must have dropped, bite a hole in the end and tip it up to drink out of it (I reckon he might have done that before!). It was also hilarious to see how schizophrenic the little buggers were, as one minute they were ready to chew our heads off and the next they were sweet as pie, eating peanuts out of the resort owners hand and posing for pictures. Needless to say we kept our distance after that as we knew their true natures!
We made our way back over to the resort and that evening they cooked us a massive feast for Christmas Eve dinner, which just happened to include 2 spit roasted geese (yes the same ones we’d seen earlier that day had honked their final honk), along with a load of various different types of braaied seafood - delicious and way more food than we could possibly eat. They’d also put up a Christmas tree complete with tinsel and baubles, so we ate like kings and made friends with a group of people on a tour, and had a great night telling travel stories.
Xmas morning we woke up and opened our cards and presents to one another (the smart phones we picked up in Hong Kong). We had planned to go kayaking from the beach on Xmas day, but the wind was quite strong, so we ended up having a lazy day instead playing with our new gadgets and later a bit of beach football. Another tour group arrived, and that evening after dinner we ended up playing a fantastic new card game with them (Bang) over some local vodka (the 7 of us finished 4 bottles). We stopped play for a couple of welcome phonecalls from our families at home wishing us a Merry Christmas across the miles. It was a bit sad to be spending Xmas so far away from our families, but we had some good company that were in the same boat, and we ended up getting totally plastered. Neither of us had been that drunk in a very long time and we had great fun playing Bang!
Boxing day morning we woke up with the most G-d awful hangovers (not surprise there then). However it was a sunny day, so we took the kayaks for a paddle around Halong Bay and stopped at a small island where we had the beach all to ourselves - sweet! We pulled in our kayak, got our kikoys out (half monkey eaten) and lay around on the beach in the sun, nursing our hangovers with the cokes we had brought along. Unfortunately despite our best efforts we didn’t manage to hook up with Zuzana who also happened to be on a boat cruise of Halong Bay around the same time. So close yet so far! That night there were 2 new recruits from Hungary at the resort, and they were really friendly as well. So after dinner we sat by the fire outside and chatted about our travels. They were keen to have a couple of drinks, but we were still feeling rough from Xmas day, so we weren’t keen to jump back on the wagon that quickly.
Halong Bay
The next day we needed to catch our Halong Bay cruise. We caught a small boat to Cat Ba island and then transferred to a bigger boat that would take us to Halong. According to the email from the travel agent we were due to meet the cruise at Chuan Tua port. So at around 11h20 (10 minutes early) we arrived at Chun Tua port and got off the boat to start looking around for our cruise boat. Luckily we happened to ask the man on the boat to call Mr Dong to check where we could meet him in the port. Mr Dong then said we were in the wrong port, so we had to catch a taxi over to Halong City port which was very annoying. However once there we found another friendly local that was prepared to call Mr Dong again, to arrange a place to meet up at the city port.
Then we got on a small boat to transfer across to the cruise ship and we were surprised at the quality of the boat. We had opted to pay a bit more to have a slightly more luxurious cruise, to try and get away from the little boats we had seen in the bay. However the one we got on to was very luxurious, and our room was bigger than a lot of hostels we had stayed in. We had lunch immediately (mostly seafood) and then spent the rest of the day touring Halong Bay and visiting a cave (well lit with different colours pretty impressive). We were racing to get to the little beach for sunset, but unfortunately just managed to miss it. Steve did climb to the top of the hill to get some pictures and the views were awesome, but I just got some pictures from the beach. Then it was back to the boat for another seafood dinner and afterwards some squid fishing off the back of the boat, while the more cultured listened to the traditional music in the restaurant. Actually it was easier to scoop the fish out of the water with the net, than to try and catch anything with the rod and lure. Steve stayed out there for hours and finally managed to catch a squid using a lure, which was more than any of the rest of us caught! We were really lucky with the weather that day (it had been hit and miss over Xmas) as we got some great views off Halong Bay. The bay is really beautiful and I can see why it’s a Unesco world heritage site. I was glad we’d opted for the boat cruse after Monkey Island as we managed to see other parts of the bay that we hadn’t seen before. We also saw a couple of the tourist junk boats with their sails up, which was great.
We had opted for the 3 day, 2 night cruise option which basically meant that we would have a 2 day tour, and disembark on the morning of the 3rd day. However the vast majority of the people onboard were only spending 1 night onboard and getting off the next day. So on the morning of day 2 we transferred over to a small boat which took us down to the Cat Ba area. There we went on an awesome kayaking trip to a lagoon, which was very quiet / peaceful and away from the madding crowds which was a relief after the queuing at yesterdays cave. Then we had some time on the boat for lunch, and later went on another kayak expedition in to a long cave, which ended in another hidden lagoon. The lagoon was beautiful but the cave trip in the pitch back was quite scary as you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, and every now and then there would be a long stalactite coming down from the ceiling. Fortunately I had been given one of the 2 torches, so we could see a little better than the 2 boats in the middle, definitely an adventure! Later we visited another cave, and this one involved a bit of climbing under and over things to get inside, where it was pitch black. However when the guide shone his torch on some of the rock formations, they glittered like diamonds, very cool. Later we joined the big boat again for dinner and listened to the traditional music they had onboard. One man was playing something that looked like it was made of a number of pieces of slate strung together like a keyboard, and each piece of stone made a different note when he hit it. Very Flintstone! Now I should note that that night Steve was up at least 5 times being sick and generally feeling unwell, probably due to the seafood we had for dinner the night before.
The following morning we packed our bags and waited a while for the boat transfer back to Halong City. While we were waiting we met a South African couple who were on holiday from Joeys. It was nice to hear some saffer accents again, as we haven’t had many on our trip, and they were positive about the situation back in SA which was good to hear. Then we had a quick lunch in Halong City before catching the 4 hour bus back to Hanoi.
Nha Trang
We had one night in the same hostel in Hanoi before we were due to fly down to Nha Trang for New Year’s Eve and it was another restless / stomach cramping night for Steve. However he trooped on and the following morning we packed up again and got the hostel’s transfer to the airport (the owners brother), as it was a good 1 hour drive away. When we tried to check in, the lady behind the counter kindly informed us that our flight (which was only meant to be 1.5 hours long) had been delayed by 5 hours! So we ended up sitting in Nha Trang airport for most of the day which was a pain. We considered getting a taxi back in to the city to see the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum, but it would have taken at least 2 hours return, so we decided against it and just found a coffee shop with some free Wifi instead.
When we eventually got on the plane, the flight was mercifully short, so we arrived in Nha Trang not long after, and found a taxi to take us in to our hostel in Nha Trang. As we arrived around 6h30pm on the 30th, we were keen to find out if there were still any tickets left for the New Year’s Eve Party at the Sailing Club. So we went for a walk to find the place. Unfortunately all the tables were already reserved, but the lady assured us that if we arrived around 6h30pm the following day, we could choose one of the unreserved tables and keep that for the rest of the night. Night three wasn’t much better for poor Steve’s stomach.
So the following morning (our first full day in Nha Trang) we found the address of the local general hospital online, and went looking for A&E (although it wasn’t strictly an emergency we figured they were bound to have a doctor, albeit Sunday the 31st Dec, besides the website had claimed that they had English speaking doctors). After the taxi dropped us at the address we had written down, we realised the website must have been wrong as the hospital was definitely not at no. 19 and so we walked up and down the street until we found it. It was just a little farther along the same road. Then the fun began. We walked in to what looked like the main entrance, and started walking around inside looking for a sort of Reception / Registration area. There were plenty of signs up overhead, but they were all in Vietnamese only, so they weren’t much good to us. Eventually we found a woman sitting near a door that spoke some English, and she took us to a couple of seats to wait for the doctor to be available (no pre registration necessary it would seem). After a short wait we went in to see her, and she did fortunately speak some English and managed to diagnose food poisoning (probable) and gave us a prescription to fill at their clinic. Then we paid for the consult at a desk outside (still no details of who we were required), and went on to find the clinic. Fortunately on our earlier roaming around the hospital we had seen a queue of people at what looked a lot like a pharmacy, and it turned out to be the right place (big red sign with arrow all in Vietnamese probably said Pharmacy!). So we got the meds and then headed outside. Steve was fine once he took the meds, but it sure made for an interesting experience in Nha Trang.
Afterwards we had a walk around Nha Trang and checked out the beach. Nha Trang is a small beach town, filled with tourist travel agencies and dive centres, and for us it was a relief to be back near the sea again, as we’ve been travelling through cities for so long.. It was also a relief to finally have some warmer weather. As soon as we arrived we had to change in to shorts and flip flops as it was really warm and humid. That evening as was suggested we got to the Sailing Club around 6h30pm and managed to find a table for two near the bar where we could have dinner (great food there although quite dear) and waited for the celebrations to begin. Frankly we were surprised at how organised their New Year’s Eve party was for a small beach town in Vietnam. We had a fabulous time dancing the night away on the beach to an ex Ministry of Sound DJ, and stumbled home around 3am. Happy New Year everyone!
The next day was a bit of a right off (hangovers from hell), however we did manage to book ourselves on a snorkelling trip for the 2nd Jan, as Nha Trang is supposed to be Vietnams top diving destination. I should also mention that there are a lot of vendors trying to sell you everything on the street, from sunglassses to photocopied books (yay I found the Girl in the Picture at last), and it does get a bit annoying saying no thanks every ten minutes. However there are less scooters on the streets than in Hanoi which was a definite bonus.
So around 8h30am the following morning a man arrived at the hostel saying something or other, in what sounded to me a lot like Vietnamese (unintelligible). However it turned out he was saying ‘Snorkelling tour’ so after repeating it about 3 times we eventually got up and followed him to the bus. We spent the day cruising around Nha Trang on their boat, and stopped at 2 spots to go snorkelling. We did see a number of different sorts of fish, but the visibility wasn’t great and the water was pretty cold, so we didn’t spend that long looking. The coral wasn’t particularly colourful, except for one big bright green coral that we found that was cool. Basically I think it was the wrong time of year for snorkelling, but it was still nice to get out and in to the sea for the day.
That night we went for a walk around the shops (everything is open late in Nha Trang) and then ended up in a backpackers bar and had a couple of drinks, whilst listening to some western music (yay even though it was just on a CD its funny the things you miss). I had left a note for the woman at our hostel to try and arrange some train tickets for us, and although we didn’t get to see her, she assured me on the phone that she had our tickets to Saigon.
So the following morning (our last night in the hostel), we packed our bags, had the free breakfast in the hostel (first time in 3 days) and then went and sat on the beach for a couple of hours. It is worth mentioning that the beach in Nha Trang is quite short, and that the waves are massive and break just on the beach, so it pretty much impossible to swim. Although we laughed at a couple of people that were trying. Then we went back to the hostel at 4pm to meet the owner, pickup our train tickets and passports, and arrange to get to the train station for our train to Saigon that night. Nothing like a bit of last minute organisation. We ended up getting ripped on the train tickets at 24 dollars each, as she said she had to get them on the black market as the train tickets were officially ‘sold out‘, my fault for leaving a note and not checking the price I guess.
Saigon
We got the train to Saigon (aka HCMC) which was an interesting experience. I’m afraid the train in Vietnam was just not up to the same standard as the ones we’d grown used to in China. The sheets in our hard sleeper bunks were a bit dirty and the train was old and a bit worn out. However the train arrived early at 3h30am which was too early for the hostel check in, so we waited around in the train station until 5am before getting the taxi to the hostel to drop off our bags. Then we had to hang out at an open bar until 8am for a room to be ready and they put us in to a sister hotel on the fifth floor (no lift) in a tiny room with an internally facing window. So the following morning we asked to be moved back to the hotel we had actually booked in to, to which they responded they would see what they could do. Which was an interseting reaction given that we had actually made a booking with them. In the end we did get moved so it all worked out okay, but we had to push to get it.
The first day in Saigon was pretty much a write off as we were knackered after the 3h30 wake up and needed more sleep. However we booked to go and see the Cu Chi tunnels the following day. So we got to see the scary man traps (bamboo spikes in a loosey covered hole in the ground), and then crawled through the little tunnel. Actually the tunnel was not as small as I’d thought it would be, although the one we went in to has been widened for the tourists. However as Steves legs are longer than mine, it wasn’t long before he wanted out, and it was stiflingly hot, so we didn’t stay under there very long. Its hard to believe that Viet Cong families lived underground for months on end. Actually the highlight of our day there was that we got to shoot guns at a firing range (you pay for your 3 bullets, they set up the gun and then you pull the trigger). Of course I didn’t actually hit the target, but as I’d never fired a gun before, it was an interesting experience. The guide had to put his hand up against the back of my shoulder to prevent me from falling back when it went off! Later that day we went to see the War Remnants Museum with the photography exhibits on Vietnam, which were really really good. They will have an amazing picture and then underneath a caption saying that this was the photographers last roll of film before he died. Really moving stuff and of course they had the picture of Kim Phuc there (from the book I was busy reading) running from the napalm attack on her village.
The following day we met up with Connie and Loz and spent the day with them generally eating, drinking and catching up. It was great to see them after all that time, and is so nice to see some familiar faces when you’ve been travelling for a while. We also tried to play a bit of foot shuttle cock in the park with the locals, but its harder than it looks. I think the guys were the best and managed a rally of about 3 kicks lol.
The following day we were due to get a boat to the Mekong Delta for 3 days, which would end up in Penom Penh in Cambodia. Steve had already started reading the book The Killing Fields about the Khmer Rouge in preparation for our arrival there.
It was also around this time that our thoughts started to turn to our return home, as we had to give notice on our flat on the 1st January…it really felt like the last 6 months had flown by and we couldn’t believe that we only had 2 months left of our trip - eeek!
I think that’s about all for Vietnam.
Love to all at home, Kirst x
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