Our Trip

Over and Out!

2006-07-08T08:59:00.000Z

We're currently sweltering in Singapore, waiting to head out to the airport to get out last flight back to London.
We had an amazing time on Koh Tao - spending more time there than we had done in any other place we visited since the beginning of the trip. We unfortunately didn't get to see any of the reef sharks when we went snorkelling - despite all our flapping around on the surface of the water. I was tempted to scratch Flick's leg to attract them with the scent of blood, but she wouldn't cooperate, the spoilsport.
However, we made up for it on a later dive to a place called Chumpon pinnacle, where we got to see 4 good-sized reef sharks up close.
Apart from the diving, the rest of the time was just spent lying round on the beach, eating and drinking and sleeping. We got to watch some of the world cup, including the England game, of which I will say nothing!
Leaving Koh Tao, we spent one night in Bangkok buying souvenirs, before heading to Singapore 2 days ago. We've spent the few days here exploring the city - visiting the Chinese and Indian quarters, drinking Singapore Slings in Raffles and picking up a few more souvenirs and gadgets before the trip home. We visited the Night Safari last night which was a real highlight - would definitely recommend it.

So the trip is at an end - it's been an amazing time for us both. We've seen so much and met so many great people during the past 6 months that we will take home some incredible memories. We're really looking forward to getting home and seeing family and friends now.

Until the next trip (!), over and out...

Cycling in Vang Vieng, Laos

2006-07-05T16:34:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Monks in Luang Prabang, Laos

2006-07-05T16:32:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Our bungalow in Vang Vieng, Laos

2006-07-05T16:29:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Red Zao woman, Sapa, Vietnam

2006-07-05T07:31:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos

2006-07-05T07:29:00.000Z

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Buffalo boy, Sapa, Vietnam

2006-07-04T12:08:00.000Z

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Vientiane, Laos

2006-07-04T12:05:00.000Z

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Scenery, Sapa, Vietnam

2006-07-04T12:03:00.000Z

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Working in the rice fields, Sapa, Vietnam

2006-07-04T12:01:00.000Z

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Rice fields, Sapa, Vietnam

2006-07-04T12:00:00.000Z

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Flick and So

2006-07-04T11:58:00.000Z

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The girl who adopted us on our walk in Sapa, Vietnam

Flick's brave jump.....

2006-07-04T11:55:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

...from about 5 feet! in Halong Bay, Vietnam

HRH Princess Felicity

2006-07-02T08:09:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Showing a nice bit of leg to impress our Thai hosts. Shame about the Hilda Ogden headscarf!

Cooking school garb

2006-07-02T08:08:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

apparently you have to wear it or the food tastes horrible!

Trekking in Chiang Mai & Getting to Kho Tao

2006-06-28T03:32:00.000Z

Well the flight on Lao Airways was fine and we arrived in Chiang Mai safely, to find a lovely city - much to our amazement. We were expecting a large dirty place, but it turns out to be a really nice town. We were staying in the old city and went for a wander once we had checked into our hotel. The Sunday market was on and we bought a few bits and pieces while looking for a place to book some trekking. After visiting a few shabby agencies that didn't inspire much confidence, we eventually found a great agency called Northern Trek and Travel. We booked onto a 3 days trek of the Sanpatong area - a mountainous area south of Chiang Mai, sort of off the tourist trail. We would spend the first night in a local village and the second night at a shelter in the forest.
That done, we headed back to the hotel and booked ourselves onto a Thai Cooking course the next day. If we're going to be eating Thai food for 3 weeks, we may as well learn how to cook it when we get home!
The following day we arrived in Baan Thai - a little family home in Chiang Mai where a family has been teaching cookery for years. We got lucky when we arrived as the other 5 people who had booked had cancelled, so we wound up with just our teacher - Tom - and ourselves. After a trip to the market to buy all the ingredients, we went back to the house for fruit tasting before we got down to the cookery. We learned how to make Pad Thai, Tom Yam soup with prawns, Minted Chicken spicy salad, Green curry paste and Green Chicken curry, as well as waterchestnuts in coconut milk for dessert. It all tasted soo good and so fresh that we're looking forward to trying it out when we get home. (Along with our new-found skills in Chinese and Vietnamese cookery too!)
The following day we left early for our trekking and met the others on the trip - Jens and Lisa from Denmark, John from Israel and an Australian family (Andrew and Leanne and their kids Cameron and Ryan - 11 and 8).
Before we stated walking the first day, we went Elephant trekking in the forest. This meant Flick and I sharing the biggest elephant with John as we went for a walk through the trees and the river. It was all quite touristy and we felt concerned that these magnificent animals were being badly treated for the tourists. However, logging is now illegal in northern Thailand and many of the elephants that were used for logging were killed, so at least these ones were being looked after and kept alive, plus they seemed to be in good condition (probably due to all the bananas that the tourists feed them), so maybe it's not so bad.
The 1st day's trekking took us all around the local area - quite hilly and quite off the beaten track - we didn't come across any other people for the whole walk. We eventually arrived at our guide, Sam's, village. Here we found a wooden shelter raised off the ground, with mosquito nets and some bedding. We had a cold shower, found some beers and went for a walk around the village, which was a poor one, but seemed to be making progress. The Thai king is revered in Thailand - unlike anywhere else we've been. You could see why in this village, as the king had introduced schemes such as solar power to help transform the villagers' lives. We heard from one of the villagers how the whole place had gasped the previous year when they got electricity and got the 1st TV set in the vilage! We heard other stories too of the things that the King has introduced to improve the lives of the Thai people - very impressive.
After dinner, Sam told us that he was the chief of the village and as such, was responsible for the well being of all the people - 21 families in total. He dispensed medicine, took people to Chiang Mai if they're sick and had also started the local school. He had a truck and collected kids from surrounding villages when the rains came and they couldn't walk to school.
That evening the local kids came to our shelter and sang for us - in return for a few quid. This, of course, is how they get their pocket money. Because there hadn't been any tourists in over a month, they were delighted to see us.
The following morning we said goodbye to the Aussies who were heading home and we went walking again. We came acrodd beautiful scenery, lots of people working in the rice paddies and some huge spiders! I was on the lookout for snakes all day as we walked through leaf litter, but it turned out that the only wildlife that we had to be careful off was an angry cow that we had to skirt around!
We had lunch at a beautiful 20 metre waterfall and all jumped straight in to swim under it. The force of the water on our heads was so strong that we couldn't actually stay under it for any time! That evening we arrived at our camp - another little wooden hut, by a river, with a freshwater bambo shower! A really nice place, so we hung around in hammocks, gathered firewood, had some dinner and stayed up for a bit playing cards before retiring to our hut.
The final day was a couple of hours walking back to the start - spotting a small snake on the way - where we had a bite to eat and then got on board bamboo rafts for some local style rafting. This was good craic - we took it in turns to stand at the back and punt along with a bamboo pole, but in all honesty, the guy at the front was doing all the work.
Back in Chiang Mai, we were changing our plans. We were due to get an overnight train to Bangkok, then a bus to Ko Chang, but we thought that instead, we would bring our flights to Ko Samui forward, so that we could enjoy 12 days on the beach with no travelling. Luckily, we found a lovely lady in a guesthuose who let us shower, changed our flight details for us and booked us a taxi to the train station. Easy!
The sleeper train to Bangkok was fantastic - had a really nice trip - lots of sleep and arrived in Bangkok feeling fresh. Went back to the hostel that we had stayed in 6 weeks earlier and they let us keep our bags there, so that we could go shopping for souvenirs in Bangkok. We managed to get some stuff and get our hair cut, before making our way out to the airport for the flight to Ko Samui.
Once we arrived we got a taxi van to a place to stay for the night. Flick ran in to see if there were any rooms and the taxi driver started rushing me to get out. I picked up our two big packs and my small pack, thinking that Flick had her small pack. Flick came out, said that they had a room and where was her small pack? We realised that I had left it on the taxi, just as he drove away!! Memories of getting my bag stolen in Argentina came flooding back as we ran up the road to find a taxi to take us back to the airport. We found a guy with a truck who took us a back way to the airport, where, fortunately(!), the driver had just handed Flick's bag in!! Thank God for that!!
We spent the night in Ko Samui and got the ferry over to Kho Tao the following day.
We are now settled into a lovely beach bungalow, 20 metres from the sand and we're passing our time sunning ourselves, snorkelling, diving and getting Thai Massages on the beach.
Only 7 days left here, so probably not much more to report, although we are going snorkelling with Black Tip reef sharks this afternoon!!!

Lazing in Laos

2006-06-18T04:10:00.000Z

They say that Laos is the sleepiest country in Indochina and its hard to disagree. It's also probably hard to get any Lao person to disagree, as disagreeing would be, well disagreeable, and besides, it would involve some effort, which is not what they're into.
We arrived in the capital, Vientiane, last Monday and we have spent a lovely lazy week making our way from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, via Vang Vieng on the way.
On Monday, once we arrived, we figured out where we would go, and how long we would spend in each place. We also decided that our plan to go up the Mekong into Thailand sounded a bit much like hard work - 2 days sitting on a hard bench outweighed any potential romance that the trip might have had. Instead we bought two flights from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.
Once our travel arrangements were made, we hired some bikes and made our way round Vientiane to see the sights, the most impressive of which was the That Luang golden temple, just outside the centre. When we arrived there it was a beautiful day and the sun made the gold walls and roof of the building shine an incredible colour. We then headed back into town, stopping off at the market on the way, before reaching a few food and drink stalls on the river where we eventually cooled off.
We wanted to visit an Indian restaurant that evening but when we arrived at the address it was no longer there and we were told by some tuk-tuk drivers that they had moved to a new site, jsut outside town. How far, we asked, to be told that it was about 2km outside town. We eventually agreed to get a lift from one of the guys for a dollar and then watched in amazement as he drove us round the block, denying that he was doing so! We said - hey, you're just going round the block! He said - no, no - very far.. We said - no, look there's that shop again! No, no, very far.
We eventually got dropped maybe 500 metres from where we were and the guy drove off, assuring us that we were indeed very far away!
We had a great meal and on the way back Flick got a foot massage, so I went and watched some of the World Cup in a bar across from our guest house and met up with a very nice Aussie/English couple for a few drinks. Australia won and it was weird to be with the only Australian male in the world who wasn't a competitive sports fan!
On Tuesday, we got a bus to Vang Vieng, a tiny town north of Vientiane that has become a travellers' haven - mostly due to the Song River and the tubing that you can do on the river. So, once we were installed in our very nice riverside bungalow, we headed up river, got a big tractor tyre tube each and jumped into the river. It is not yet rainy season (just), so the river wasn't too fast and all that you do for a few hours is cruise down the river, occasionally stopping off at a riverside bar for a beer and a go on the rope swings, flying foxes, trapezes and high wires. All of which wind up with you taking a very refreshing swim in the river.
There was one place in particular that had a huge Flying Fox swing that we spent a couple of hours at - meeting up with some great people including one Norwegian, Magnus, who had spent 10 days in Vang Vieng because he loved the tubing so much!
The last bar had a huge rope swing and a campfire and we spent too much time there and would up making our way down the final section of the river in the dark.
On Wednesday we thought about our options and then went tubing again! It was easy to see why people tend to get stuck in Vang Vieng.
Thursday morning we broke free of the tubes and hired bikes to go and explore the local countryside. We headed north for 10 or 12 kms and then headed down a small track, crossed the river and followed an irrigation channel for a few kms. We were really in the middle of nowhere here and occasionally we came across some kids or their families and from the looks we got you could see that they didn't get to see too many tourists. We did eventually get lost and find ourselves about to try to cycle across paddy fields before we gave up and headed back the way that we had come.
On the way home we stopped off for a drink at an organic farm, where we had some fantastic fresh spring rolls - need to try to make those when we get home!
On Friday we got our bus to Luang Prabang - a rough enough 6 hour trip in a minibus. When we arrived we found Luang Prabang to be a very beautiful, charming and incredibly quiet city. It's actually far more like a small village than a city, with friendly locals, chickens running round everywhere and a very relaxed feel to the place. We had an amazing massage at the local Red Cross place before heading out for a bite to eat, a wander through the night market and an early night.
Yesterday was spent wandering round Luang Prabang - seeing the various temples that exist, meeting some young monks for a chat, visiting the National Museum ,which was excellent, and eating some nice Laos food.
We were going to get up early this morning to go and see the monks accepting alms from the locals, but neither of us slept very well and a lie in was preferable.
We are now heading for our flight to Chiang Mai - with Lao Aviation - who we've heard scary things about! Watch this space for updates...

Scared Shitless in Sapa

2006-06-11T13:39:00.000Z

Well, well, well - that was a lot of fun!!
To get from Sapa back to Hanoi involves a one hour bus trip to Lao Cai, where you pick up the overnight train to Hanoi. Simple really, hard for anything to go wrong. We duly got the bus, arrived in Lao Cai at 7:30 for our 9:15 train. Had a quick bite to eat and started to watch the England game. We were going to wait for the end of the 1st half, but thought that we'd be good tourists and get on to the train with 30 minutes to spare.
We walked over to the station, presented our tickets and then wondered why they got snatched off us and the carriage and berth details written over with new details.
"Your train cancelled", we were told. "Your new train leaves at 8:35"
"But that's 10 minutes ago", we said.
"Yes. You must catch the train at the next station. Good luck!"
So we were told that we had to catch a train at the next station, 35 kms away. And it had had a 10 minute head start. And the guy at the station wasn't looking too positive.
Up steps our nameless driver, we'll call him Fearless Phuc, with whom we were to spend one of the most terrifying hours of our lives.
Meanwhile, the station guard was saying that he would pay for the taxi, but wasn't giving us any money, or a receipt. After a quick bit of banter, he gave me about $15, bundled us into a small Fiat Panda, along with 2 Spaniards we had met, all our luggage and wished us luck.
The driver then proceeded to give us a lesson in reckless driving that really took the biscuit - and we've seen some reckless driving on this trip. The 1st 10km or so wasn't too bad - it was on a decent dual carriageway, so it was the usual trick of He Who Honks Loudest Wins. We raced past other cars, tore past mopeds and motos and overtook trucks on whichever side looked the least safe. Coming up to every junction, we would see cars and motos crossing in front of us, stuff that would make a normal man slow down. Not our Fearless Phuc. He merely grunted, leaned on the horn and accelerated into them.
Once we had come to the end of the dual carriageway and joined the crappy local road, he really came into his own, pushing the car to its limits. Which, granted, aren't much, but this was on a really crap and unlit road, with an overloaded car.
If that wasn't enough, yesterday was market day, so the road was also full of very pissed people weaving their way home after a hard day selling and drinking.
As we swooped past families sitting on the side of the road having their dinner and threw up mud into their plates, I could feel Flick in the back seat sinking lower and lower, bracing for the seemingly inevitable crash. Fearless Phuc, needless to say, was unperturbed by the amount of traffic on the road and our apparent will to live. He continued to overtake on blind corners, speed into cliff-side turns and at one stage managed to get the tyres on the Panda to properly squeal round a corner.
The weaving revellers continued to present moving obstacles (targets might be more accurate) to Fearless Phuc, but luckily (to his possible dismay) we didn't hit any of them.
At one stage, as we approached the town with our target station, we saw a possibly more terrifying sight - 2 other tourists doing the same trip, at similarly breakneck speed, but on the back of motorbikes! We called out something slightly hysterical to them, like "You're alright, hang in there!", but it could have come out like "HEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!".
Just past the tourists on death bikes came the closest call of the trip. We crested a hill and saw what looked like a sack of potatoes in the road. However, of course in wasn't a sack of potatoes. We knew this when the sack turned groggily towards us and glared at us as we bore down on it at full speed. Luckily Fearless Phuc knew that it was unlikely to be a bag of spuds and had actually slowed down marginally - enough for us to swerve around the drunk in time. Hopefully we didn't disturb him too mcuh and he enjoyed a good night's sleep in the middle of the road.
We finally arrived at the next town with 5 minutes to spare, met up with the death bike tourists and we all thanked our lucky stars that we arrived safely.
Miraculously, we even got beds on the earlier train that we weren't booked onto and once the adrenaline slowed down, we even managed to catch a few winks.
Leaving Hanoi tomorrow morning for Laos....

Little boy, Hue

2006-06-10T09:15:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Floating village, Hue

2006-06-10T09:14:00.000Z

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Schoolkids on bikes, Hue

2006-06-10T09:13:00.000Z

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Local on the Perfume River, Hue

2006-06-10T09:12:00.000Z

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Flick at the Minh Mang tomb, Hue

2006-06-10T09:11:00.000Z

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Artist's shop, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:10:00.000Z

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Riverfront, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:09:00.000Z

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Street scene, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:07:00.001Z

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Street vendor, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:07:00.000Z

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Our attempts to make Hoi An pancakes

2006-06-10T09:06:00.000Z

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mine on the left, Flick's on the right!

My fresh spring rolls

2006-06-10T09:05:00.000Z

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My first attempt - note the torn rice paper!

Scenery between Nha Trang and Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:03:00.000Z

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Market vendor waits, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:02:00.001Z

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Market scene, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:02:00.000Z

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Before the storm, Hoi An

2006-06-10T09:00:00.000Z

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After the storm, Hoi An

2006-06-10T08:59:00.000Z

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Cham Towers, Nha Trang

2006-06-10T08:57:00.001Z

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Our Easy Riders, Mr Sinh and Mr Phuoc (Sin and Fuck!)

2006-06-10T08:57:00.000Z

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Just before the storm, Dalat

2006-06-10T08:54:00.000Z

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View from the dive boat, Nha Trang

2006-06-10T08:53:00.000Z

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Buddha at pagoda, Nha Trang

2006-06-10T08:52:00.001Z

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Me on the beast, Nha Trang!

2006-06-10T08:52:00.000Z

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Dalat mushrooms growing

2006-06-10T08:51:00.000Z

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Chocolate mud waterfall, Dalat

2006-06-10T08:50:00.000Z

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Flick at the Elephant Falls, Dalat

2006-06-10T08:49:00.000Z

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Local scene, Dalat

2006-06-10T08:47:00.000Z

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Flick and her Easy Rider, Dalat!

2006-06-10T08:46:00.000Z

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Hanging out in Halong Bay & Sapa

2006-06-10T05:39:00.000Z

So our last day in Hanoi (our anniversary) was spent recovering from our anniversary celebrations! After a slow afternoon, we went to visit the famous Water Puppet theatre - a mixture of Thunderbirds, wailing music and water fights! It was actually very interesting to see how all of the puppets were moved around so well to create a good show.
That evening, after finding a French cafe to satisfy Flick's craving for Camembert cheese, we settled down to a quiet evening, watching a bootleg version of the Da Vinci code in the hotel.
On Monday morning, we were picked up at 8:30 and taken to Halong Bay where we were spending the next 3 days exploring this beautiful place. Halong Bay is made up of thousands of small limestone karst islands, making for a very scenic view.
In the afternoon, we visited some famous local caves that were impressive, but which had been very artificially illuminated, making for a bit of a Las Vegas feel to the place. This, however, didn't stop Flick from marveling at the natural "cock rock" formation - a 3 metre high bright pink phallus, complete with illuminated scrotum!
We also visited a local island, climbing to its peak for great views of the Bay, and went swimming off the boat when it got too hot. Dinner on board was fantastic and we had a few drinks on the deck under the stars before heading to bed in our cabin.
The next day we found out that some of the other guys had had "visitors" in their cabins the previous night, in the form of friendly cockroaches, which fortunately we had managed to avoid!
We took out some kayaks that morning and went exploring the bay. At one stage, we came across an archway that led into a beautiful isolated lagoon, where we abandoned kayaks and went for a swim.
That afternoon, we changed boats and went onto Cat Ba island, where we stayed in the local Fawlty Towers-type hotel, complete with bumbling "Manuel" character! We looked around for the Major and the Germans to complete the scene, but they were nowhere to be seen.
That afternoon we went for a walk around the island with our guide, Smiley, who took us through stunning countryside and told us lots about local life and Vietnamese traditions. He also told us about when he had been bitten by a King Cobra when he was a kid and showed us the scar on his foot - he was lucky to be alive. Our walk finished up in a lychee orchard and we wandered from tree to tree, picking the ripest fruit for a quick snack.
That evening we had dinner in the hotel before heading out to sample the local nightlife. Unfortunately, there wasn't much life, but fortunately we did find some Smirnoff Ice on special offer - 9 bottles for the price of 1 back home!
On Wednesday we got back on the boat and headed back to Halong City where we took the 3.5 hour bus back to Hanoi. Once back in Hanoi, we wandered around for a while as we had to get an overnight train that evening. One local tradition that we hadn't tried yet was Bia Hoi - local fresh draught beer. It's basically home brew, and it's sold on street corners from little carts, for practically nothing. It's something of an institution and we had seen lots of these places full to overflowing with locals meeting and gossiping about the days affairs, sitting on tiny plastic chairs. It is, however, a little bit different from home brew, in that it's nice.
We found a busy little place and had just found a seat when some local guy bought us a beer and showed us what remained of his dinner - just the head of a snake! He couldn't speak any English so we both smiled at him, had a drink and bought him one back before we met an Kiwi guy who told us some interesting stories of being on the jury for one of New Zealand's most famous murder trial. So it was that we passed the time very easily before getting a lift to the train station for the overnight trip.
Once settled into our 4-berth cabin, we thought that we might get lucky and get the place to ourselves, when to our horror, in came a lady with her 2 babies and their nanny. Any thoughts of sleeping were quickly banished! However, the kids were very tired and the 4 of them managed to sleep all the way through to our stop on the 2 tiny beds.
Once we arrived in Lao Cai, we were picked up and brought to Sapa. We had thought about grabbing a few hours sleep, but we heard that there was a walking tour leaving in 30 minutes so we had some breakfast and got ready.
The trekking that day was superb. Sapa is famous for its beautiful mountain scenery of lush rice paddies and for its local populations of ethnic tribes - called Minority People. We covered 16 kms that day and visited 3 Minority villages including the Black H'Mong and Red Dzao people. Flick almost managed to adopt one of the local kids too - a very sweet little girl called So, who was trying to sell some of the local jewelry. Instead of actually adopting her, she settled in the end for simply buying some of her stuff!
We were walking with 2 others - Sam from Malaysia and Lily from Taiwan - along with our guide Thang. We had a great day walking in the mountains and managed to get sunburned, despite the cloud that threatened to rain all day. We found a local Bia Hoi place at the end of the day and had a drink with Sam and met up with a few more local lads over the 10p beers.
Yesterday we joined another tour to visit some different villages. We covered around 10 kms in the morning and got back to the hotel at around 2pm. We then went for a wander to a small village below Sapa called Cat Cat. Last night we had a nice meal while watching an impressive lightning storm break over the hills.
Today is our last day in Sapa and we're waiting for the weather to clear, so that we can visit a waterfall in the area. We take the overnight train this evening back to Hanoi and on Monday am we fly into Vientiane, Laos.
One month to go and desperately trying not to count down the days!

Getting to Hanoi

2006-06-04T05:17:00.000Z

We left Hoi An on Friday morning and took a 6 hour bus to Hue, further up the coast. We had been planning on spending a day or two here, but we had gotten carried away in Hoi An, and so we were now simply passing through Hue on our way to Hanoi. As a result, we only had 5 hours to spend in the city, so we had to do some turbo tourism. Hue is situated on the Perfume River and is famous for its walled citadel and the tombs of previous emperors. We had a quick bite to eat, found 2 motorbike drivers and got them to take us out to the furthest of the tombs - Minh Mang. The ride out to the tomb was great fun - the drivers took us through some very small little villages on some tiny little back roads, past some beautiful scenery. We had a (very speedy) look around the tomb, took some pictures and jumped back onto the bikes to visit a famous Pagoda. A few more pictures and we were soon zooming back into town. Once back in town, we picked up a cyclo (like a wheelbarrow attached to the front of a bike) and got a quick 1 hour tour of the citadel. We arrived back in the bus operators office with 10 minutes to go and after a bit of chaos (losing the tickets, almost missing the bus, finding the tickets again), we settled down for another horrendous 12 hours on the bus to Hanoi. I didn't get much sleep on the bus - particularly after I realised that there was a cockroach crawling on my leg at about 2am. I didn't say anything to Flick, as she would have freaked out, but it made me pretty jumpy for the rest of the trip!
We arrived in Hanoi yesterday at 6am and checked into a nice hotel, as we wanted to splash out more than $8 for our 1st year wedding anniversary! We are staying in the old quarter and we spent yesterday pottering around, visiting the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (which was closed, doh!) and eyeing up restaurants for our anniversary dinner! We finally decided on a lovely place called the Opera Club and we had the best meal in ages last night - a real treat.
Today is going to be a lazy day in Hanoi, with a trip to the water puppet theatre tonight, before we head off on a 3 day tour of Halong Bay tomorrow morning.

Shopping Madness in Hoi An

2006-06-04T04:57:00.000Z

We have now remortgaged the flat in Bermondsey in an effort to extend the tailor-shop madness that has consumed us for the past 4 days! At least that's what it feels like! After laughing at the posh English girls' intentions, we found ourselves slipping into a downward spiral of retail therapy. Hoi An, as it turns out, is a beautiful town - with by far the most character of any of the places that we've seen in Vietnam. Plus, it's choc-a-bloc with tailors shops, all vying for business with tourists, all of whom can knock up anything you like, from any catalogue or picture that you show them, all in under 24 hours.
First, the excuses:

I hadn't got Flick anything for her 30th birthday in Feb (we were in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia at the time).
We had said that we would get her some stuff made in Vietnam.
It was almost our wedding anniversary.
My birthday is a mere 2 and a half months away.
Erm, it was hot outside and the shops were cool....

Second, the damage:

Flick got a grand total of 22 items made up for her (dresses, skirts, tops....) plus 4 pairs of shoes!
I got 2 suits, 2 jackets, jeans and some sandals.

Finally, the justification: It all cost less than one decent suit in the UK. Sure why wouldn't you!

During the shameful tailor-made indulgence we also found time to rent a motorbike and visit the beach - which is beautiful. The first time we did it, we got caught in a torrential downpour on the way back into town, so we had to take shelter in a tailors (I know, it's embarassing). The second time we hired a bike we got a puncture on the way back to town and almost missed our final fitting for a suit and a pair of jeans (I'm so sorry about this!).
We also did a cookery course in a beautiful place on the river, where we learned how to make, amongst other things, rice paper, fresh spring rolls and decorative flowers from vegetables. This however was a mere distraction from the main event and we were soon back in the tailors, getting 16 different measurements, checking for bum creases in trousers and blissfully stripping in the back of shops, much to the embarassment of the locals!
We finally posted all 15 kilos of our purchases home and we have agreed not to speak about it again. Until the parcel arrives.

Chilling in Nha Trang

2006-06-04T04:29:00.000Z

Well not quite chilling, as it was somewhere in the mid 30's, but it was very nice to arrive somewhere hot and beachy. We found a really nice little guest house called Phong Lan, run by a very sweet little lady who promised us the best breakfast in Nha Trang for a dollar - that sealed the deal!
We hit the beach that afternoon very briefly, before shopping around for some diving. We found a place that did 3 dives for $37, which sounded too good to be true, only to find that they had been taken off the list of PADI approved shops for dodgy safety practices. Instead. we signed up with Octopus for 2 dives the next day.
Nha Trang is a nice little beach town - fairly buzzy, with some nice bars and restaurants and a place on the beach called the Sailing Club, where everyone goes for late night drinks.
The first night in Nha Trang, we were having dinner in a small restaurant when we bumped into Alan and Stuart, 2 guys from Northern Ireland who we had met in Siem Reap - we wound up having a few drinks with them and Alan, who's a DJ, managed to get himself a job playing in the same bar the following night.
Diving the next day was great - we dived in 2 spots about a 45 minute sail from Nha Trang harbour - on Hon Mun - and they were both really nice dives. Nothing too big to see, but we did spot an enormous moray eel and saw some beautiful coral and smaller reef fish.
That evening, we headed to a local restaurant a bit out of the centre of town, where we had a mix of fish and seafood that we bbq'd ourselves on a small pot on the table. We had a great meal there before heading back into the centre to meet up with the guys and hear Alan DJing. We had a quick visit to the Sailing Club before heading back to the hotel.
The next day was spent lounging on the beach, reading books and nothing else. We watched some movies in our hotel and had a quiet night.
On Saturday, we got up early to head out on a dive boat - not diving this time, as we had decided to just go for some snorkelling. A nice bunch of people on the boat - most of whom seemed to be struggling after about 3 hours sleep on a lot of vodka - not the best prep for a dive. The snorkelling in the first site wasn't great, but when we got to the 2nd site, it was the best that we've ever done. Endless coral, all around 3 to 8 metres deep and full of fish. We even found an octopus and spent some time watching it as it changed colour trying to hide from us.
That evening was spent back in Guava bar with the lads as Alan was DJing again, before we headed to the Sailing Club (bit of a pattern emerging here....). The way home was interesting as we got accosted by some lady boys on mopeds. They are famous for giving guys big hugs and in the process lightening them of things like wallets and watches, so we told them to get lost (Flick was feeling very protective!) and in the process made one of them quite upset so that he/she zoomed towards us on a moped to scare us!
The following day we got up late and decided that we should do some sight-seeing, as we had simply lounged on the beach since we arrived in Nha Trang. We decided to rent a motorbike, which was interesting as I had to learn how to ride it first! After a few jumpy starts (!) we got the hang of it and headed out the coast road into the hills, before visiting Long Son Pagoda with a giant buddha and then the Cham Towers, which wasn't all that impressive - think we've been spoiled by Angkor Wat.
That evening we got on a 12 hour overnight bus to Hoi An which turned out to be cramped and hot, full of people with all of the aisle full of luggage or people. We were initially concerned that security on the bus might be an issue until we realised that all of the people around us were posh English girls. At that stage one of them said in perfect public school tones that she was simply dying to go shopping the next day in Hoi An and we thought to ourselves "safe as houses"!

Me on a tank

2006-05-27T11:01:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Rambo

2006-05-27T11:00:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Elephant in Phnom Penh, as you do!

2006-05-27T11:00:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Kids in the orphanage, Phnom Penh

2006-05-27T10:59:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

National Museum, Phnom Penh

2006-05-27T10:58:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Tuol Sleng, Phnom Penh

2006-05-27T10:57:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

typical cell in Tuol Sleng (S-21), the notorious school-turned-prison of the Khmer Rouge

2006-05-27T10:57:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Shelves of skulls from mass graves, Killing Fields

2006-05-27T10:56:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Mass Graves, in front of the tower with the skulls at the Killing Fields, Phnom Penh

2006-05-27T10:56:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Monks at Angkor Wat

2006-05-27T10:53:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Angkor Wat

2006-05-27T10:53:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Us at Angkor Wat

2006-05-27T10:52:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Her Royal Highness, Pricess Felicity, with some kids

2006-05-27T10:52:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Easy Ridin' in Dalat

2006-05-23T14:22:00.000Z

Arrived in Dalat yesterday and pottered round for a while - it's a nice mountain town in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, famous for its lakes, waterfalls and the fact that everyone in Vietnam seems to come here for their honeymoon.
We had a nice meal in a local restaurant which was memorable not for the number of mosquitoes, but rather for the manner of getting rid of them. The waiter followed us to our table, where he gleefully pointed out that the place was swarming with mossies and then produced a thing that looked like a plastic child's tennis racket. Which is what it was, except that it was also electrified and he then proceeded to swat everything that moved, producing lots of blue sparks, plumes of smoke and a pile of smouldering mossies beside our plates! Top class!
We had read about the Easy Riders - a group of local motorcyclists who act as tour guides for people, whisking them round on the back of their ancient bikes. We had also read that we didn't need to know where they were, as they would find us. So it was no surprise when a guy popped up this morning on our way to get some breakfast and we had soon negotiated a good rate and itinerary for the day on board 2 old clapped out motor bikes.
We visited lots of the local region, including the Elephant waterfalls, saw a mushroom farm, saw some kids making bamboo furniture, a silkworm farm and stopped off to see various vegetable and flower farms. All along the way, the 2 drivers, Sinh and Mr Phouc, were really nice to us, chatting away, telling us their history and various local stories as we gradually got used to the bikes, relaxed and finally got really into the bike ride itself. Lunch was at a local place, where we had a banquet meal for a dollar each! We arrived back in Dalat just before a huge storm - which there are a lot of at the moment, as we are in the mountains and rainy season is just round the corner.
Dinner was in a nice place called the Art Cafe, with possibly the most attentive staff we have ever seen. So much so that I dropped stuff on the floor just to time their response (2.5 seconds for a basic knife retrieval manoeuvre!).
We were planning on staying another day and renting bikes, but we've just changed our minds and decided to leave the rain and head back to the sun and the beach! So tomorrow we are getting the 7:30 am bus to Nha Trang for some more lying about, perhaps some diving and probably some island exploring!

Good Morning Vietnam!

2006-05-22T14:12:00.000Z

The trip to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was pretty uneventful, until we reached the outskirts of the town and the tour agent, keen to impress us so that we would stay at his recommended hotel, started to sing. It was a beautiful song about the traditional life of the Vietnamese people, or something, he said. It was actually awful and got a bit more embarassing when he sang it again, in English, for our benefit!
The novelty act over, we arrived and set about looking for a place to stay. We eventually got whizzed around on the back of some mopeds to a little place in the backpacker area, where we found a double room for $5. I then went back to the tour agent to pick up our two large packs and came back on the moped, one pack on my back, hanging onto the driver as he balanced the other pack in the middle and weaved in and out of the traffic! Once we had climbed the 6 floors to the room it turned out to be ok, save for the lack of natural light!
That evening we found a post office to send home yet more stuff (really making room for all those pressies now!) and headed off to try "Pho", the noodle soup that the Vietnamese live on. We went to "pho 2000", as it's where Bill Clinton went when he visited HCMC and if it's good enough for Bill....
After dinner we found a small bar with a pool table and played for a while, before hitting the sack.
The next day, we were planning on walking round HCMC, but we came across a cyclo driver, called Son, who reeled us in with his stories and his testimonies from previous clients. One guy was from Pine Valley Avenue, where I first lived in Dublin, so how could we say no.
A cyclo is basically a bike with a basket on the front where normally one person will sit, but two can squeeze. We perched on the front, with Flick sitting on my knees and we headed off around the city. We headed into Cholon, where we visited some markets, ate some very tasty local fruits and saw a beautiful pagoda, before stopping off for lunch in a place that Son knew. After lunch we visited the War Remnants museum, which contains many pictures of and testimonials to the the devastation that the war caused to the country. We watched a particularly harrowing video detailing the ongoing damage that the various chemicals dropped by the US are having on the Vietnamese people. Apart from the destruction that they caused when they were dropped, chemicals like Agent Orange appear to have had a lasting legacy in the form of cancers, leukaemias and horrible deformities.
The final stop for us was the Jade Pagoda - slightly disappointing - before we said goodbye to Son. Little did we realise that he was fleecing us and we wound up paying him almost twice the going rate!!
That evening we were planning on taking it easy but we ran into 2 Irish folks - Declan and Jean - and went out for a drink with them, which turned into a few drinks, then the band came on and next thing we knew it was late and we had to get up early in the morning to visit the Cu Chi tunnels.
The following morning when we woke, Flick realised that local vodka didn't agree with her and she struggled for a while to get her stuff together before we got into the bus to go visit the tunnels!
The Cu Chi tunnels is a huge and ingenious 250 km network of tunnels that was used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War to evade the Americans and South Vietnamese army. The tunnels are very tiny, with lots of tiny hidden entrances into them, allowing the Viet Cong to disappear from under the noses of the enemy whenever they wanted. We also got to see the booby traps that they constructed and each one was demonstrated with what we thought was a bit too much enthusiasm by our guide!
One of the highlights was when we got to the shooting range and we got to fire an AK47! I don't think that I hit any of the targets, but it was great fun, and was made all the funnier by the look of terror on Flick's face as she prepared for the bang and the recoil during her shots!!
We were due to leave for Mui Ne on a bus at 2:30 that afternoon, but it was cancelled and we had to wait around for the 7:30 bus that night. Fortunately two of the girls from the Cu Chi tunnels trip let us borrow their shower as we were pretty messy after the sweaty tunnels. That evening we left for Mui Ne and arrived at almost 1am. Fortunately we had booked ahead, so we went straight to the hotel and crashed.
The following morning we woke to find that our guest house was situated on a gorgeous strip of beach in Mui Ne Bay. We set about doing exactly what we had planned for this part of the trip - lying on the beach, reading, swimming and basically not doing very much at all for 2 days! Apart from meeting up with Declan and Jean again, along with 2 other Irish guys, Eoin and Lorraine, we took it easy and recharged the batteries, before heading for Dalat, where we arrived a few hours ago.

(p.s. there has been a problem uploading photos to the blog, but I think I've sorted it now and will stick a few more on very soon!)

Phnom Penh

2006-05-17T15:34:00.000Z

We put the grim episode of Siem Reap behind us and travelled to Phnom Penh the next day. All in all, despite the occasional grimness, we really enjoyed Siem Reap and really love the people that we've metin Cambodia.
Our bus to Phnom Penh got us into the city in early afternoon, and we quickly headed off to the local Russian Market, where we had been promised much loveliness and cheapness. However, to be honest, there was much cheap crap and not much worth buying, but we persevered and managed to pick up some souvenirs. Cheap crap is on us!!
That evening we had a bite to eat on the river - not realising that we had arrived the day before the Kings birthday. As we were waiting for the food a fireworks display kicked off. It was funny enough in that there was no obvious climax and every time you thought that they had sent up their best fireworks to finish, another little rocket would splutter into the air! Not sure how long it lasted but i think it was a few minutes more than our attention span!
After dinner we took a walk along the quay, where we came across lots of cool bars and restaurants and some of the most vivid poverty that we have seen yet. We have seen lots of poor people on our trip, but the sight of a young 6/7 year old girl asleep on the concrete path holding her naked younger brother of 1 or 2 years old was particularly disturbing.
We ducked into a small restaurant for a drink and got chatting to the waitress. As it turned out, the restaurant was a not-for-profit place that sponsored a local orphanage for street kids. We had a good chat with Nari, the waitress and promised to come back the following evening to see the kids performing Khmer dancing in the restaurant. We also found out that we could help out with the orphanage and decided that that would be a good investment of our time, rather than trying to give to every poor kid on the street.
That said, we did get some rice and water for the girl and her brother that we had seen. We found them some time later and gave her the food. The poor thing looked almost too tired to eat and we left feeling pretty low.
The next day we went to visit Tuol Sleng - the site of the former Secondary school that became the home of the legendary S-21 camp during the madness of the Khmer Rouge. We took a guided tour of the place and saw the former classrooms that had been divided into cells where thousands of people were tortured prior to being sent to the Killing Fields for "liquidation". The cells contain photos of both the victims and the perpetrators and the very normality of the setting, in a bleak school yard, adds to the disturbing sense of the place. In some cells, the beds and shackles remain as they were found when the place was liberated by the Vietnamese in 79. Pictures show the bodies of the dead who had not lasted through their last torture, some of the corpses being pecked at by birds. It's a very depressing place, but something that is important to see, if only to question the depths of depravity that so-called ordinary people will descend to when led by a leader like Pol Pot. Many of the prison guards escaped and fled before the arrival of the Vietnamese and now live somewhere in Cambodia. We can only imagine the nightmares that they must face every day. There is an exhibition in S-21 of photos and interviews with previous Khmer Rouge officials and victims of the Khmer Rouge that gives a shocking insight of what actually happened. Disturbingly, many of the violent acts were carried out by youths of 13 or 14 years, who were "brainwashed" by the Khmer Rouge.
After Tuol Sleng, we took a dusty tuk-tuk ride out to Ek Cheuong, or the Killing Fields, where ordinary people were taken after interrogation at Tuol Sleng, to be killed. Many of them were budgeoned to death, to save bullets. There is a "killing tree", which was apparently used for killing babies by bashing them against it, along with the "magic tree", from which loudspeakers were hung to play music to drown out the noise of the killing.
It was a very hard hitting morning and the tuk-tuk ride back into town was quiet. We arrived back at the Russian Market where we picked up a few more bits and pieces and and headed back to the hotel.
That evening we went to the same restaurant as the previous evening to see the kids performing Khmer Dance. It was a really good evening - the kids were really good and clearly loved dancing and performing. One of them even looked like a Cambodian version of Rian, my nephew!
We learned a bit more about the charity, which is run by one guy who is an orphan himself. He and his wife run the restaurant and use 100% of the money from it to fund the orphange with 24 kids. He told me that there were 27 kids, but that 3 of them had HIV/AIDS and died.
On Tuesday, we were supposed to visit the Royal Palace and the famous Silver Pagoda, but it was another national holiday and they were closed! Still - you've seen one pagoda, you've seen them all, we consoled each other! Instead we went to the Central Market, where we picked up, amongst other things, some pens and English schoolbooks for the orphanage.
We spent a few hours that afternoon at the orphanage, where we met all the kids and found them to be very sweet and very dedicated to their singing and dancing! They didn't have much to play with and they seemed very happy with our gifts. We spent a few hours chatting to them, taking their photos and playing games, before they started to watch a Scooby Doo DVD and the foreigners weren't as much of a distraction! We were really impressed with the orphanage and we are full of admiration for the guys who run it and dedicate their lives to the kids.
That night we had a local meal and a drink in a local bar, where we managed to find a backgammon board to feed our new found addiction since our trip round China!
Left Phnom Penh this morning for Ho Chi Minh City, as Saigon is now known!

A Grim Day

2006-05-14T13:55:00.000Z

So yesterday was our last day in Siem Reap and we had finished visiting the temples, so we decided to take it easy in the morning and then head out to see the local crocodile farm (I thought I'd be like the Crocodile Hunter - "you're alright mate, I'm not gonna hurt ya!") and then visit a silk farm to see how silk is produced.
The croc farm was, perhaps not surprisingly, a bit of a downer - far too many crocs in dirty cramped enclosures with dirty water. We didn't stay too long.
The trip to the silk farm was much more interesting - we saw the silk worms at each stage of their growth, saw how their cocoons are harvested for raw or fine silk and the whole spinning, looming and dying process. It was all very professionally done, as the silk farm is sponsored by a French company called Artisans dÁngkor who have built this fantastic facility and are retraining Cambodians in the profession.
The grimness started on the way back into town in our tuk-tuk, when we came across a terrible road accident that had just occured. It looked like 2 guys on a motorbike had crashed into a large 4x4 and had both been killed instantly, one of whom had clearly been driven over. We must have arrived on the scene immediately after it had happened, before the emergency services had arrived, as the bodies had been covered partially in mats, but not enough to prevent us from seeing the disturbing sight of one man's crushed head. It was a terrible thing to see and left us both quite shook on the way back to town. We see gruesome images on TV every day, but actually seeing it up close in real life was a grim reminder of our own mortality as we weaved in and out of the traffic in our tuk-tuk.
That evening we went to visit a local charity called Seeing Hands - who train local blind people to learn the art of massage and we had a very good massage from the blind masseurs there.
The grimness continued when we went out for dinner. We were sitting outside a restaurant when a middle aged, fat and sweaty white guy sat down near us, accompanied by a local cambodian boy of about 12. We had read that child sex-tourism is prevalent in this region and had seen the signs around town warning of harsh sentences for people caught engaging in this depravity. We both thought that it didn't seem right for this guy to be with this young boy, but almost immediately felt bad that we had jumped to the conclusion that he was a paedophile. We wondered if maybe he was a local charity worker, feeding the hungry locals ( we had done something similar the previous evening, buying rice for some kids on the street and giving it to their dad).
We needn't have been so concerned for his sensibilities as it became more and more obvious that the guy was clearly enjoying having the attention of this boy and to make matters worse, the kid had obviously told his mates that the guy was a soft touch, as soon 2 more kids arrived.
We were disgusted at the thought of what this guy was thinking of doing and we were thinking of things that we could do, but what do you do? He hadn't broken any laws and the kids were there on the naive promise of easy money or food. I wanted to find out if he was a local guy, but when I asked, he said that he was here on a holiday. I pointed out that he was attracting lots of kids and that he should either give them money or food or tell them to go away. He said that he was going to feed them. It was now clear that he was just enjoying their company.
He was also attracting the attention of other diners, one of whom came up and told him that he should be fucking ashamed of himself and called him an animal.
We finished our meal feeling sick and angry that we couldn't do anything and disgusted at this man who continued to play up to the kids.
He paid his bill and left, at which stage we realised that he had been lying - he hadn't even given the kids any of the food that he had ordered.
We left the restaurant and started to head home, but I wanted to find the guy and say something to him. We saw him a few moments later and I approached him and asked him if he liked kids. He said that he loved kids and was in fact a teacher back home. I asked him if he liked kids sexually, to which he calmly replied that he had a kid himself.
It was his complete lack of surprise or indignation that I had asked him if he was a paedophile that conviced us both that this man was pure evil.
But what can you do? The guy hadn't done anything wrong (yet). We told him that if he was caught doing anything in Cambodia that they wouldn't be kind to him and left, seething.
I don't know if it was anything to do with us confronting him (probably not), but a few minutes into our walk home we saw him go home in a tuk-tuk. He was alone.

So all in all a day of pondering - we went to bed sick to our stomachs at what we had witnessed and I have to admit to thinking that maybe that fat sweaty man should have been on that motorbike out near the silk farm earlier on that day.

Hongkers to Angkors

2006-05-13T02:31:00.000Z

Ok we didn't actually do anymore sight seeing - the hotel was too nice, so we just got a dvd from the hotel library and stayed in - much more enjoyable!
The following day we got up early to post more stuff home - Flick had decided that she didn't actually want her sleeping bag for the tropics! We got a bus to the airport and took our flight to Bangkok. Once arrived, we had to track down the Bangkok airways office to get my stolen tickets reprinted, which we managed to do fairly easily - thanks to Sue for patiently arranging this for us from London! We spent that night near the Khao San Road in Bangkok - backpacker paradise in Bangkok. We only had the one night but we really liked the feel of Bangkok and we're looking forward to spending some time there in about 6 weeks time (close to the end of the trip - ARGHH!).
We took the short flight to Siem Reap the following morning, arriving at around 12:30, to be greeted by our tuk-tuk driver, Mr Phouart, from the Jasmine guest house. We love the tuk-tuks here - they're open on all sides, unlike the ones that we've seen to date. This led to Flick feeling like Princess Di and waving royally to all the kids we passed on the road, calling hello to them in her best posh English accent. (i know - I didn't think it was possible either). Naturally, I felt a more like Pope John Paul II in his popemobile!
From our very first introduction to the people of Siem Reap we have found them to be the most wonderfully sweet and smiley people ever. It's hard to imagine the horrors that anyone over the age of 8 has had to go through in their history of the Khmer Rouge, but it seems like they are revelling in their new found peace and are delighted to be able to live normal lives today. Tourism, although growing, is relatively new to them on a large scale and as a result they haven't developed the hard shell that we've seen elsewhere. Instead, people ask if you want a tuk-tuk ride, or a beer or a tour of the temples and if you say no, they just smile and say 'ok' and 'have a nice day' and 'good luck to you'.
That afternoon we wandered round the town of Siem Reap, where we found a nice bar to have a drink and plan the following few days. One thing that struck us immedately is the number of victims of land mines making their way around the town. The area around Siem Reap was heavily landmined in the recent past and many mines still exist today. The shocking effects of these mines can be seen very graphically in the men, women and children without one, two or more limbs in Siem Reap today. The other thing that is immediately apparent is the scale of poverty - especially when you are surrounded by begging children on every trip over 100 metres. Some of the kids look very malnourished and some carry younger siblings no more than 1 or 2 years old.
That afternoon, we headed out to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset over the Tonle Sap lake and catch our first glimpse of Angkor Wat. Unfortunately the sunset wasn't great, but we got a feel for what the Angkor Wat area is all about. All of the temples are surrounded by deep jungle (and some of them are more embedded in jungle than others) but are well linked by paved roads, which means that you can feel like you are travelling through the jungle without the hassle of hacking through it! We also came across the elephants that take tourists up the hill and spent a bit of time playing with them.
Dinner that night was in a place that was reputedly where Mick Jagger ate when he came to Siem Reap. The food is delicious here - much like the the rich flavours of Thailand without the same chilli kick. For the princely sum of $5 it's possible for 2 to eat well and have a drink - can't complain about that!
The following morning, we got picked up by our tuk-tuk driver as we had decided to visit the furthest temples first and we needed the tuk-tuk for the 100km round trip. We visited Banteay Srei, with its exquisite carvings and tried to take some pictures of some monks with their colourful robes. Unfortunately they were with a large sweaty Thai professor who wanted to take our photo. It was shortly after he had put his arm round me and told me that I was his son now that we decided to leave and head for the next sight.
We headed out to Kbal Spean, where we saw some of the 1000 lingas (phallic symbols) in the river and visited the waterfall. This involved a really nice hike up the hill through the forest, which we really enjoyed, despite the truly sweltering heat, as we felt like we were away from everyone. The trip in the tuk-tuk was excellent fun - not only did it create a very welcome breeze, but we got to go through some very remote villages and continue with the Princess Di/Pope JP II thing.
On the way back we visited Ta Phrom - which is fairly unique among the temples in that the jungle is slowly winning the battle to reclaim the building. Most of the walls have huge trees and creepers growing out of them and the temple as a result is largely crumbling away. This temple was the site for much of the filming of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film, presumably because it looks the most ancient.
We had lunch with our driver at a local restaurant, where he told us a little of what life in present day Cambodia is like. We were shocked to hear how people are effectively forced to vote for the incumbent Cambodia Peoples Party, for fear of what might happen if they don't. It was a disturbing insight into their so-called democracy that makes you wonder about what the future may hold for Cambodia.
In the afternoon we visited Angkor Wat - the main temple of the area. It's hard to decribe the place adequately, as it is so vast, but it is famous for being the largest and the most breathtaking of the Angkor momuments and is believed to be the largest religious structure in the world.
We spent a little bit of time wandering around the site, as we were planning on visiting it properly the following day, before taking some pictures of Angkor Wat in the setting sun and heading back to Siem Reap.
For dinner that night we both had a local speciality called Amok - like a thai curry, but less spice, more flavour and it's served inside a coconut!
The following day it was lashing rain when we woke, so we had a lazy morning, but when the weather broke at around 12, we rented bikes and took to the temples. Going by bike has to be the best way to visit Angkor Wat, as all the roads are in good nick and most of the temples are within easy distance of each other.
We spent the first few hours exploring Angkor Wat - particularly the bas-reliefs depicting scenes from ancient Khmer life and Buddhist mythology. We then headed on to Angkor Thom and spent some time at Bayon, where huge statues of Khmer faces stare down at you from all angles - an impressive place. That evening we took in sunset at Angkor Wat again before heading back into town in the semi dark - an experience in itself due to the hordes of motorbikes, tuk-tuks and cars all with their own view of what the rules of the road are!
Dinner that night was in a fantastic restaurant called the Dead Fish Tower - mostly Thai food served up in a cross between a barn and a restaurant, where you choose to sit at a low table, sitting on your legs, or a normal Western table. They even had traditional dancing going on during the meal, which was fairly novel.
Yesterday was our final day in the temples and we cycled the Big Circuit - around 40 km, taking in more of Angkor Thom, including the Royal Palace, the Elephant Terrace, the Leper King statue and headed on to Preah Khan before hoofing it to Pre Rup for a glorious sunset and a frenetic cycle back to town trying to beat the fading light.

Yangshuo Scenery - limestone karsts

2006-05-09T03:15:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Gorging on the Yantze River

2006-05-09T03:13:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Sweltering on our 17hr Overnight Train!

2006-05-09T03:12:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Waterfall - Leshan, China

2006-05-09T03:00:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Flick - post "cupping"

2006-05-09T02:59:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

All healed up now!

Giant Buddha of Leshan

2006-05-09T02:58:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

He's a big 'un

Tai Chi with Zebedee and the monks - Emei Shan

2006-05-09T02:57:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Buddha - top of Emei Shan

2006-05-09T02:57:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Behind the Green Dragon falls

2006-05-09T02:56:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Green Dragon waterfall

2006-05-09T02:55:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Somewhere along the Yangtze

Flick handing out stickers to kids in Emei Shan

2006-05-09T02:54:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Picking tea in Emei Shan, China

2006-05-09T02:54:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Flick appreciating the local music on the Yangtze

2006-05-09T02:53:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Yangtze 3 Gorges - the 2nd Gorge

2006-05-09T02:53:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Fishing on the Yangtze

2006-05-09T02:52:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Working the paddy

2006-05-09T02:50:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

"All our own work"

2006-05-09T02:50:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Getting ready to eat our own cooking in Yangshuo

Flick - just before the fall!

2006-05-09T02:48:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Farmer Tang

2006-05-09T02:48:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Peppers in Yangshuo market

2006-05-09T02:47:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Veg Market, Yangshuo

2006-05-09T02:47:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Flickster cooking in Yangshuo

2006-05-09T02:46:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Working the Paddies!

2006-05-09T02:46:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Yangshuo scenery, China

2006-05-09T02:45:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Forbidden City, Beijing

2006-05-07T09:46:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

The gang

2006-05-07T03:31:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

(clockwise): me, John, Brendan, Nicola, Anastasia, Julie, Rob, Ann, Don.

Hong kong skyline

2006-05-07T03:30:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Hong Kong by Night 2

2006-05-07T03:29:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Hong Kong by Night

2006-05-07T03:29:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Hong Kong and Kowloon from the Peak

2006-05-07T03:28:00.001Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

Hong Kong Light Show

2006-05-07T03:28:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.

From Countryside Cookery to 5 Star City Living

2006-05-07T02:57:00.000Z

To start off the cookery class, we went to visit the local market in Yangshuo, where there was a huge array of colourful fruit, veg and live meat - lots of chickens, geese, ducks in baskets waiting to get picked and get chopped. In more unusual stalls, they were preparing frogs - huge ones - by skinning them - lovely.
I took a wander with the cook over to see one of the more gruesome parts of the market - the dog area. They eat dogs for special occasions here - normally in winter, as they say that the meat is good for keeping you warm. They also eat cats, during the spring, but I didn't see any of them. Not a pretty sight - prepared or waiting to be prepared - but it's their culture, so I wanted to see what it was like. I explained to the cook that it was hard for me to see dogs ready for eating, as we see them as pets and "man's best friend", but she didn't get it.
Flick and I were doing the course with Nicola and Brendan and 2 Israeli girls and we headed out into the countryside outside Yangshuo and found the school set amongst beautiful farmland, surrounded by the huge green pinnacle-like hills that the area is famous for. We got a quick introduction and we were off! We cooked egg dumplings with pork and mint - delicious; steamed chicken with ginseng, wolfberries and chinese dates - nice, but won't be getting those ingredients at home; spicy pork and veg which was great; green vegetables and garlic; aubergine "yangshou" style, which was fantastic. The cooking was great fun - we basically watched the teacher do her course, then we copied it - all pretty easy and really tasty. We then took all the food up to the top floor and ate our meals looking out over the farmland.
The following day we were all met by Farmer Tang who was to bring us on our bike trip round the area. He was the lovliest little man we've met - a tiny little guy, full of smiles and dying to talk to us all. We spent a few hours cycling in the countryside with him - passing paddy fields with farmers and buffalo, beautiful mountains and rivers, stopping at the famous Moon Hill and finally getting to his farm, where his wife cooked us some of the best Chinese food that we've had in our time in China. (Even better than our own the previous day!). After the meal Farmer Tang produced a bottle of sunscreen that a previous group had left. He hadn't ever seen it before and didn't know what to do. We showed him how to put it on and explained that it would protect him and his kids from getting burned. We watched him tentatively apply some sunscreen to his arm for the first time and Flick thought it was so cute that she was practically crying!
On the way back to Yangshuo, Nicola's bike got a puncture and of course Farmer Tang didn't have a repair kit, so we found a farm where lots of people gathered and spent a very long time fixing the tyre. Meanwhile, Flick was navigating a tricky route through some of the paddy fields when she lost control, skidded and landed up to her thighs in the stagnant water of the paddy field! She wasn't too happy and wound up having a bit of a paddy, with me the paddy, in a paddy!
The locals finally fixed the puncture and we headed off only to find that they probably should have spent a bit more time working on it, as the tyre puntured shortly afterwards, about 3km outside town. I volunteered to run with the bike back to town and so I sweated and huffed is the sweltering heat for about 30 mins through the countryside with all of the Chinese looking at me pushing the bike, thinking "why doesn't he just get on and cycle?".
The following morning we pottered around the markets in Yangshuo and picked up a few gifts for people, before meeting up with everyone to get the bus and train to Hong Kong. The train was another overnight one, but was an improvement on our last trip thankfully. We arrived in Shenzen and cleared customs before heading into Hong Kong.
We stayed on Kowloon with the group the first night and had a great farewell dinner and lots of farewell drinks in Soho on Hong Kong that night - drinking cans from 7-11 outside the expensive and cool pubs of the area, just like being a student again. Or being Mitchell.
On Saturday we checked out of the West Hotel and walked up to the Langham Place Hotel, also in Kowloon. We're staying in this beautiful 5 star hotel as a gift from dad, who we just missed by a few days in Hong Kong. We arrived to find a stunning lobby and some bemused porters - i don't think that they get many backpackers! We had underestimated the walk from our old hotel and of course it's sweltering in Hong Kong, so we arrived a bit sweaty, to say the least. In the lift on the way up to the room with the porter, he looked at us and said "you both look, really, eh, erm, ... sporty"! Which I think is a nice way of welcoming sweaty knackers in Hong Kong.
Last night we met up with the group for the last time - to watch the light show on the Hong Kong skyline and have a bite to eat. We said our goodbyes to the group last night - a great bunch of people who we've really enjoyed spending the last 3 weeks with. It's important on a trip like that that everyone gets on and is reasonably laid back and flexible and I think we got very lucky.
Today we're going to explore some more local markets, check out Stanley and Aberdeen and try to enjoy all the hotel facilities before we leave tomorrow for Bangkok (for 1 night) and Cambodia.

Great Wall

2006-05-02T07:34:00.000Z

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Originally uploaded by gavin orourke.