23/5/2012
So I have now reached Cambodia and heading into Vietnam today. On the 11th May I flew into Bangkok from Singapore after saying goodbye to Jude the previous evening. I arrived in Bangkok and headed to my hotel - Rambuttri Village Inn and Plaza, just off the Khao San Road. I had a lovely room (with air con!!) and the hotel even had a pool which was useful for killing some time before the tour started around Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. That evening I headed out for dinner and came back to the hotel. The next morning I had a wander around the Khao San Road and bought a few bits and pieces along the way - including some super baggy trousers :) The following day was Sunday and there was a weekend market on, Chatuchack, so I hopped into a tuktuk which was about 5km away for less that £2! Chatuchack was massive, possibly the biggest market I've ever seen!! In the three hours that I was there I didn't even make it around all of the stalls and they sold everything from meat and fish to statues and household goods. I did get some jewellery and had a really good fruit shake. The last two days on the Khao San Road were spent by the pool and wandering around the local shops...and enjoying the amazing Thai food. Massaman curry has to be my favourite!!
On the 16th the tour began. I got a tuktuk (much prefer these to taxis!) over to Chinatown to find the hotel. I checked in and had the room to myself until around 4:30pm when Jay arrived. Jay and I got chatting straight away and it wasn't until it got to 5:45pm that we realised we needed to get ready and go down to meet the rest of the group and our guide, Kim. That evening we headed out as a group for dinner and a few drinks. Some of us then headed back to the Khao San Road for some more drinks and Jay and I finally stumbled back to our room at 3am. The next morning we had the bus into Cambodia to Siem Reap at 7am, not fun when still drunk from all the Mai Tai's from the night before. I really wasn't feeling my best and after taking my antimalarials that was it and we had to stop the bus....several times. We finally made it to the Thailand-Cambodian border and began was feeling much better. Once we were stamped into Cambodia (starting to run out of space in my passport now) we checked into our accommodation in Siem Reap and got tuktuks to New Hope, a Cambodian School where they teach English and helped the locals with medical care. The tuktuks in Cambodia are very different to in Thailand - literally just a motorbike with a trailer that you sit on attached to the back. New Hope was great to see, Cambodia has a LOT of poverty but the school is for the poorest families so that they are able to send their children to learn English for free. We got to sit in on an older class (12 to 24 year olds) and got to see a Cambodian lesson in full swing. After the lesson had finished we had dinner, Khmer style - including crickets (rather nutty!) and 5 courses! The food was lovely and even the crickets weren't that bad.
The evening after we visited New Hope was pretty tame seeing as we had to be up at 4am the next morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We got to Angkor Wat in the dark and found a spot right next to the lake. Unfortunately it was a little bit too cloudy but we still saw the sunrise and come up over the temple which was lovely. We then spent a few hours exploring the temple before heading back for breakfast. After breakfast we did a few more temples including Bayon, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm (the jungle temple in Tomb Raider). That evening, after some market shopping and dinner, we had several drinks...we started at a Cambodian Fun Fair with all the locals and got to go on bumper cars and a mini rollercoaster - brilliant fun. :) There was also the optional choice of beetles as a snack, something I declined - the crickets were enough for me! After that we headed back to the 'Pub Street' in Siem Reap and to 'Angkor What!?' Bar. Several buckets and shots later we tuktuked back to the hotel to bed. The next day we had yet another early bus to Phnom Penh and this time I was wise enough to wait until after we had arrived to take my antimalarial tablet. We arrived in Phnom Penh
After the rather morbid morning Elody , Hannah (two british girls on the tour), Jay and I went for fruit smoothies and killed some time wandering around before meeting up with everyone that evening for dinner and then back to the hotel to pack ready to head to Sihanoukville the next day. We arrived in Sihanoukville at around 2pm ish. We stayed at Beach Road which was a lovely hotel with a swimming pool and a bar with really comfy chairs. Jay and I booked onto a dive for the following morning and then we sat in the bar with some of the others playing cards and jenga. That evening we had dinner on the beach - seafood BBQ with squid, prawns and barracuda, SO good! Then we moved onto a bar and started on the buckets. As we were walking into a bar I spotted a friend that I had met in New Zealand which was really random and completely out of the blue. After several buckets later I decided that it really was time for bed seeing as we had to be up and at the dive centre for 7am the following morning. Getting up the next day was a bit of a challenge but we made it over the road to 'The Dive Shop' and got the tuktuk down to the marina, followed by a 2 hour boat over to the Koh Tong. Once we got to the island we got our wetsuits, fins, weight belts and masks ready before heading out on another boat to the dive site. Jay was doing a refresher course in the morning but there were 3 other divers and I was buddied with one of these. The visibility wasn't amazing but we did see lots of marine life including a giant puffer fish and a little box fish. We had a bottom time of 61 minutes and by the end I still had 100 bar of air left - the longest dive I've ever done so far...it still flew by though. After resurfacing we headed back for lunch and then it was back on the boat to the next dive site. This time I was buddied with Jay and it was just the two of us with a dive instructor. We saw loads of Blue Spotted Stingrays and a baby moray eel but visibility again really wasn't that great, we still had fun and again were down for an hour. After the diving and boat trip we arrived back at 7pm for a quick shower and then headed to the beach for another seafood BBQ.
This morning we have a 5 hour bus ride to Chau Doc in Vietnam where tonight we can go on the back of motorbikes to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset :) I'm really enjoying the tour but missing the freedom of travelling alone slightly and not sure I'd opt for a tour around these countries if I were to do repeat the trip...but after my Dengue episode I really wasn't keen on getting sick all alone in Asia again!
30/05/12
We didn't end up getting up to much in Chau Doc mainly because we were not there for very long as it was a bit of a stopover on the way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We arrived in Ho Chi Minh in the early afternoon so headed out to the markets after lunch, before dinner and a few drinks that evening. Ho Chi Minh was really nice but pretty hectic with thousands of motorbikes everywhere! With a population of around 9 million people there are apparently almost as many motorbikes! The following day we went to see Cu Chi tunnels which were pretty incredible. The tunnels were built for the Vietnamese to hide and move around in during the war. The actual tunnels are absolutely tiny, but they have made larger 'western' sized ones for tourists to go in, twice the size of the originals. These are still minute and you have to bend over and shuffle to get through. At the tunnels I got to shoot an M30 machine gun which adds to my rifle and shotgun list :) That evening we had a sleeper train to Nha Trang. The train was surprisingly lovely with 4 bed cabins, free water, and pretty comfy (slightly narrow) beds. By 9:30pm we were asleep ready to wake up at 5am to get off at Nha Trang. We arrived to our hotel at 6am ish and because we couldn't check in headed down to the beach to sleep before going for breakfast. It was quite strange to get down to the beach at 6am to see it full of people! The Vietnamese go to the beach from around 4am until the sunrises to avoid being in the sun - they like to be white (and even have skin whitener as opposed to fake tan) which is the complete opposite of most tourists...grass is always greener! That evening dinner was followed by a drunken night out where we even managed to get our way into the posh sailing club by asking for 'Richard'...still have no clue as to who Richard actually is! Due to the previous night's drunken antics the following day was spent recovering on the beach and swimming in the sea preparing for another night train to Hoi An the following evening. This night train however was not quite on the same standards as the previous one. We had mouse droppings in our cabin along with baby preying mantis' and cockroaches, although I think we did well getting the mouse as he seemed to reduce the number of insects and bugs in our cabin...some of the others were not so lucky and didn't get much sleep at all!
Hoi An is possibly one of my favourite places in Asia. It is really pretty and has the added bonus of hundreds of tailoring shops offering tailor made clothes at super cheap prices! We went out on a boat to watch the sunset on our first evening with a few beers before Jay and I headed off to get some dresses made. I went with a turquoise dress with a black band around the middle and Jay got a lovely green one. The next morning we went back for a fitting (after getting ridiculously lost trying to find the shop). The dresses were lovely and just needed minor alterations, we also decided to get more clothes tailored - Jay went for another dress and jacket and I opted for a coat. After some time at the hotel pool sunbathing we headed back that afternoon for the fittings. My coat is perfect, even if it is a bit of a bulk to carry around for the next two months. That evening we headed out for dinner for Elody's birthday. We gave her the rather artistic card that Jay and I had made and the Vietnamese doll that we bought (as a bit of a joke present). Kim, our guide, organised a cake and it was a really nice meal. After that it was the usual drinks...in an Australian bar, in Vietnam(!?). I headed back at around 1am and woke to a missing roommate who eventually rocked up at 6am still drunk which was pretty hilarious. We frantically packed Jay's backpack and headed down to breakfast to sober her up. After that we had a 4 hour bus journey to Hue which is where I'm writing this. The bus journey was really uncomfortable and hot but we did stop on the way to see a pagoda and some caves...although climbing lots of steps in the boiling heat and humidity here (even at 9am) was not ideal! We now have one night in Hue and this afternoon Claire (another girl on the tour) and I went on a motorbike tour. We saw paddy fields, a rice museum where we learnt how rice is grown and processed, the oldest Buddhist monastery in Vietnam, we learnt how incense and conical hats are made, and also visited the burial site of a Vietnamese Emperor. It was pretty fun, if not a bit scary at times, driving around on the back of a motorbike seeing the countryside areas surrounding Hue. Driving in Vietnam (or Asia in general) is definitely very different to at home - the art is to never stop for anyone and just beep your horn at everyone.Tomorrow we are off on yet another train, 15 hours this time, from Hue to Hanoi where we head to Halong Bay.
7/6/2012
The train to Hanoi was much better than the previous one, only one baby cockroach this time! The train was delayed by an hour but we still made it to Hanoi early and arrived at 4:30am. We got onto our transfer bus and headed to Halong Bay arriving at 8am. We couldn't check in until 9am so sat around the hotel until check in time and then headed to the rooms to change and get ready to go on the boat at 12pm. The boat was really lovely and we had amazing seafood for lunch - crab, squid, prawns and whole BBQ fish. We stopped off to see a floating village where Jay and I shared a kayak and set off (bumping into a lot of other boats and rocks) around Halong Bay in and out of caves. It was stunning! After half an hour of kayaking it was time to head back to the floating village, we got lost on the way back but eventually found our group and we all piled back onto the boat to the next stop, some caves in the limestone karsts. The caves were really humid and damp and cement had been put on the ceiling to prevent stalactites from forming which was a bit of a shame, it was also lit with multicoloured lights. After the caves it was back on the boat to sail to the mainland. First of all we crashed into another boat (they drive their boats just the same way as the cars here - stopping is not an option, no matter what). After that we ran aground and broken the steering. Another boat came to our rescue and tied us alongside it so that we could be dragged back to land. It was a bit of an exciting journey back but we made it in the end, only an hour or so late. That evening we had a look around the night markets before bed...I'm not sure I've ever seen so many tacky items in one place, however all the locals seemed to love it (there we not many western tourists doing any shopping!).
The next morning at 9am we headed back to Hanoi where we checked in and had a wander around more markets. Jay and I then went for coffee by the lake before meeting up with the group for diner that evening. After dinner we headed out for drinks but it started to rain and we got absolutely soaked so ran into a bar - 'Half Man Half Noodle (!?). In here we got chatting to some guys from Ireland who told us about the Vietnamese music festival and an after party that was going on that evening. We ended up getting a taxi to the after party and had a great night - there were live bands and it was really good fun. We finally stumbled back to our hotel at 3:30am where Jay and I sat chatting for another couple of hours before we finally went to bed. We didn't get up until 12pm the following day and went for (a very hungover) lunch before getting taxi bikes to Hanoi Prison. The prison was pretty interesting and we wandered round for an hour or so, there just wasn't that much information about it. So once we had had a wander round we decided it was time to head back to the hotel to sleep for a few hours before dinner and an early night. The next day was our flight to Laos with Vietnam Airlines. The flight to Vientiane was only about 50 minutes and we soon arrived at our hotel and checked in. After lunch we went on a city tour, it was great...but our guide/driver couldn't speak any English so we weren't really sure what we were looking at. After seeing a few temples, a lot of Buddhas, and a monument we didn't fancy putting on any more wrap skirts to cover up (it was SO hot) so went back to the hotel. The following day we got a 4 hour bus to Vang Vieng and after checking into the hotel and going for lunch we hired motorbikes with Kim (our tour guide). We each got a bike and had great fun practising changing gear up and down the road until we realised that we needed to top them up with fuel. We split into several groups to go and get fuel but unfortunately didn't all make it to the petrol station...mine, Elody's and Noah's bikes ran out half way and so we had to wait beside the road for the others. Eventually Noah headed off to get us some fuel and came back with two water bottles full. After refuelling we were all good to go and set off behind Kim to the caves. Along the way two of the bikes got punctures so had to be lifted onto a truck for repairs whilst we climbed the many steps up to the cave in the boiling heat and humidity. The caves were great, just pretty dark and damp so very slippery. We also had a bit of a treacherous climb back down the steps to reach our bikes but it was really fun. Jay and I made it down before the others so set off back to the hotel because it looked like rain was on its way. We made it back to the main road before it poured down and we got soaked running back to the hotel after dropping the bikes off, by that point we decided we may as well play in the rain given how wet we were. After we got bored of jumping in puddles we headed up for a shower when the others finally made it back - Elody and her motorbike had a bit of an argument with a ditch and her bike hadn't fared up too well but she made it back in one piece with the others. That evening we went out for a few drinks but didn't want to over do it because we had a big day of tubing planned. The next morning we got up for breakfast and then set off to the shops to stock up on clothes, flip flops, waterproof bags and other essentials for tubing. We then changed and headed down to the tubing station to grab some tubes (55,000 kip for a tube and 60,000 kip deposit which gets returned if you bring back your tube before 6pm otherwise it drops to 40,00 before 8:30pm and then nothing after that), sign a piece of paper (something about tubing being dangerous...) and then got the tuktuk up to the first bar.
We had a couple of drinks in a 'mini' bar when we got off the tuktuk (where we were told by a volunteer in a nearby school that one tourist every 2 weeks dies tubing...!!) before getting a make-shift boat over to the first bar. There had been a bridge until the rain washed it away the previous week. At that point we did worry that there had been a lot of rain the day before and the river was much wider and flowing a LOT faster that we expected. We got over to the first bar and had one of the many free whisky shots (which often contain some sort of massive centipede type bug) and got our first 'friendship' bracelet. We stayed at the first bar for quite a while and it gradually got busier, we also entertained ourselves with a marker pen drawing all over each other (I still have remnants of the blue ink on my skin now). Once we were ready to leave the first bar we grabbed our tubes (before the Laos guys could steal them and take them back to Vang Vieng so that you lose the 60,000 deposit!) and floated down to the bar. The guys managed to grab the bottles attached to rope that reel you into the bar but all of the girls missed and we got pulled into a bar on the opposite side of the river. We had our free shot there and then got the tubes and walked back to the boat where we had started and tried all over again to reach the boys in the bar. Second time round we made it and headed straight to the bar for more beer (and free shots)...by this time we had begun quite a collection of bracelets - the typical tubing souvenir! The second bar was great fun and we danced away for a while, soaking wet from the river, before decided it was time to tube onto the next stop. This time it was only Jay who didn't make it and ended up clinging to a branch until she was rescued, however her t-shirt and waterproof bag were swept away and so she was left with no money. By this point we really didn't need any more drinks so just stuck to the free shots and soon moved onto yet another bar. This time they had a swing into the river...possibly not the most sensible idea but we all had a go and as I landed it felt like I'd been slapped in the face by the water, but other from that great fun! Again we didn't stop long at this bar and soon floated down to one that had a slide - this was brilliant fun as you went down a tiled chute before flying into the river where a ring was thrown at you to get you back into the bar. After that we headed to a couple more bars but the group got split into three - Me, Hannah, Elody and Noah; Jay and Greg; Jenny and Joel. Hannah, Elody, Noah and I floated on until we realised we had gone past the last bar and had to get our way across the river to the correct side and pull ourselves out onto the land and climb through some bushes where we found a tuktuk to take us back into town. We did well with 3 tubes between the four of us, it was 7pm so only ended up with 40,000 kip back for each tube...pretty good result for tubing and I still had my original flip flops (almost unheard of!)! We finally found the others after dinner that evening and decided to head to 'Bucket Bar' where they were handing out free (very strong) whisky buckets. After a few sips of a bucket Jay and I had really had enough and stumbled back to our hotel, collecting a banana, chocolate and coconut pancake to share along the way. Tubing was AMAZING!!! This morning at 9am we got a 6 hour bus to Luang Prabang where we are now staying for two nights and off elephant trekking tomorrow which should be great fun! :)
Latest Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150844453061491.403065.516011490&type=3&l=0afa28273f
E
X
No comments:
Post a Comment