The picturesque Halong Bay...

I soon forgot about my 'delightful' meal when we were out in the ocean going between all the hundreds of Islets that are dotted around Halong Bay! Absolutely beautiful! Although it is obviously a big tourist attraction once we were actually out on the water you felt like you were the only boat for miles.... it was perfect!

For 2 days we just lay out on deck taking in the amazing views, dived off into the great open water, stopped off at a tiny floating village, and kayaked in and out of mini mini caves/tunnels. It really was pure bliss! I just wish we could have spent longer out there.

Hue

Hue really was just a fly by stop-off where Cindy nearly lost her backpack, we took a boat trip down the 'Perfume River', and to save us getting soaked right through when visiting the Tu Duc Tomb we purchased 3 bright purple matching rain ponchos... very sexy i must say! Ha ha!
So that was pretty much Hue in a nutshell, as we then had to quickly continue on up to Hanoi with just enough time to squeeze in a very brief trip out to the beautiful Halong Bay and then trek across the mountains of Sapa in the very north! Oh yes, and of course, to unknowingly eat fish ovaries, which i actually enjoyed until i found out afterwards exactly what i'd eaten! Yikes!

Hoi An, Hue, and Hanoi in a quick 5 days!

Ok, so now we're past the half way point on our visa deadlines so time to quicken the pace a tad...!! Next stop was a couple of days where everyone goes to have clothes tailor-made - Hoi An! Another lovely little Vietnamese town sitting by the river, with quaint small french streets and courtyards amongst the endless tailor shops all fighting for your business... how do you choose!?!?! It's a tricky one i can tell you but we found one good and one VERY bad!!!

Due to my indefinite travel plans i could hardly justify having a load of nice suits or fancy clothes made as who knows when i'll actually get to wear them, so i just opted for a simple pair of trousers to tide me over for now. Really just for the novelty of having them tailor-made.... all very exciting, and for a whole $8 you can hardly complain! :)

We also dragged ourselves out of bed to get to see the hustle and bustle of the morning fish market at 5am where you really do get to see where the term 'angry fish wife' came from... hee hee! Was a brilliant sight and atmosphere though - all the women selling and buying, lifting and carting their fish and pushing each other out of the way in the process while the men having been out all night fishing would now sit back and relax, watching the madness all around them! Fantastic! :)

We also tested our cooking skills in the Vietnamese kitchen which was entertaining in itself, and of course meant that we well and truly stuffed ourselves with all the lovely food that we'd prepared.... papaya salad, noodle soup, fish wrapped in banana leaf... you name it - we cooked it!!!! And it even tasted good too, somehow!?! That would probably be due to the help from our little lady. ;) My gosh we certainly got our moneys worth - i reckon we ate enough to keep us going for the next week!

Further up the coast to Nha Trang...

As you can see, Cindy and I are now soaking here in the glorious deep sea mineral mud at a 'Hot Springs and Deep Sea Mineral Mud Spa' just outside the city of Nha Trang, which was our next stop up the coast of Vietnam. This was a rather blissful and luxurious day without the usual 'luxury prices' hee hee! I was actually a little apprehensive as to how good soaking in mud(!) would actually feel but it felt great, and i'd recommend it to anyone! :) The swimming pool on the other hand, being a 'hot spring pool' (obviously!) was not on the overly relaxing and 'feel good' side as to start with - it was a boiling hot sunny day so generally you jump into a pool to cool off, not completely scold yourself (ok - so slight exaggeration but it was crazily intense!).

Nha Trang was also a place of us having heaps of fun, and of course taking in some of the sights alaong the way! We met up with an English girl (Sarah) that we had briefly met in Saigon and a friend of hers (Huan), and spent a few days there altogether which was cool.

We spent many a nights in the Red Apple Bar which then lead us nicely on to Why Not?, both of which i'd recommend to anyone heading to Nha Trang! :)

One way to see four of the islands off the Vietnamese coast is by hopping on board one of the very popular 'Booze Cruises'... Maybe not the best way to actually 'see' the Islands, as all tends to become a bit hazy, but certainly the way to have a laugh whilst 'sight-seeing'!!! :)

Hmm... Beer in the morning followed by a floating bar of copious amounts of free(!!) local rice liquor, then Ella insisting on attempting to kayak out to one of the islands is maybe not the safest mix but boy it was fun! The boat alos provided an interesting array of entertainment - with their own version of a Vietnamese Boy Band (yikes!), then audience participation in a session of karaoke! Eeek! All extremely cheesy but naturally helped keep the alcohol flowing! ;)

Beautiful Mui Ne...

After the madness of Saigon, we then had a few more quieter days along the sea front at Mui Ne which was just beautiful, and the perfect place for a bit of a detox! On the left is the view from the back of my motorbike as we drove along the coast watching the sunrise(!), to the right is as the sun was setting from our beach ...

From here we had a go at sand sliding which was wicked fun but actually pretty tiring, especially with a still rather 'wonky' leg. One may forget that after you've had the fun of sliding down the dunes you then have the joy of climbing back up them again...!!! Hmm... where's the chair lift i ask myself! hee hee!

We also took our tour on the back of 2 motorbikes to visit the rather impressive Red Canyon that has been formed simply by rainfall over many many years... so our guide told us anyhow! :)

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

From the tiny Island of Ben Tre, Cindy and i then started to head North after many a trips along the Mekong and visiting the more rural parts of Vietnam, up to the vibrant city of Ho Chi Minh... a fantastic city! We stayed right in the middle of 'backpacker central' and behaved just like all the others arriving in Ho Chi Minh. Partying the night away in the local bars and suddenly finding yourself sat outside a bar as the sun started to come up and the city around us was waking up and getting ready for the day ahead...!

We went from one extreme to another during our stay here. One minute we would be up partying and singing and dancing, and the next we were walking around the War Remnants Museum seeing some of the most horrific sights i have seen (as i am sure you can imagine). Certainly moments where i just had to walk on by as it became too much.

We also clambered through the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, which in their day stretched out for more than 200km... (not one for the claustrophobic!!!). Pretty amazing to see how the Vietnamese planned it all out... a clever old bunch!

The small Island of Ben Tre

After Can Tho we decided to take the road a little less travelled and visit the slightly sleepy island of Ben Tre where we stayed in a guest house over looking what basically resembled an empty concrete swimming pool which really was nothing to look at during the day but almost came alive at night. It was lit up beautifully and became the spot where an array of locals would take their evening power-walk (in their pyjama's!) around the lake while catching up on all the latest gossip with their friends! Was a great scene, which we enjoyed over a bottle of wine from our balcony.

I hasten to add that Ben Tre is also where we went on a rather touristy day trip along another part of the Mekong where i am sure our guide was determined to get us drunk; starting at 9am on the spirits was a little early even for me! :) Very entertaining though - sampling all the local liquors such as rice wine, coconut liquor, banana liquor, you name it we tried it! We even went a little too far and sampled the local, very specially made, snake wine!!!!!!! Ewwww! Certainly not one i EVER had any intention of trying. Cindy and i had seen it on a few occasions prior to this particular tour, and both decided it was one of the few indiginous liquors we would give a miss....!!! Hmmm.... so that didn't last long. Unsuprisingly i did not feel 100% after i had drunk the stuff, when it really sunk in (literally i guess!), what i had actually just consumed! Yuck! As you will see below, we also complied with 'the role of the tourist' by wearing our 'local hats' while sitting on the back of a horse and cart.... couldn't really decide whether to cringe or laugh!

All in all it wasn't a bad tour really, we got to see some more of the nearby Islands, and take a walk through fruit orchards, that then lead to some traditional singing and dancing... all good fun! :)

Gooooooooooood Morning VIETNAM...!!!!!

Oh yes, so having recovered enough from my accident to get back on the road again Cindy and i took a bus then 2 small boats along the Mekong River to cross the border into Vietnam on the 18th April.

We started off in the very south at Chau Doc, a small town which introduced us nicely to the local life in Vietnam. We spent a few days here just getting a feel for the country, eating at the local markets and visiting Sam Mountain, before taking another small boat out to the fish farm and floating village as we continued on to a lovely slightly larger town/city - Can Tho.

From here we spent a really wonderful day where we hired a guide and a long-tail boat with a woman we'd met from Germany, to give us a real taster of life along the Mekong River. We started off on the water in time to see the sun rise through our sleepy eyes before arriving at the hustle and bustle of the great floating markets...

Here we saw every type of fruit and vegetable that you could imagine, being passed and sold between their wobbly little wooden boats... this really was where all the local business took place! Such a fantastic experience! After taking in all the sights of the market we then floated along the very narrow, and rather shallow canals, where we kept getting caught up and stuck in all the weeds and plants along the way. At one point we thought we were going to be wading back home but our fantastic little man got us back still nice and dry! ;)

The Killing Fields and Motorbike accident all in one day....

Unfortunately this is also the city where i got hit by a car... I was on the back of a motorbike and a car reversed straight into my left leg! Ouch! Bloody killed and was a major shock even though it was one of those scenarios when you can see it happening but just pray that it doesn't, and that the car is going to stop just in time but no, it didn't. So that was our evening spent in a Cambodian hospital which i would not reccommend to anyone!!! Thank god Cindy was with me though (cheers hun!).

Of course no-one spoke a word of English until we got to eventually see the doc who spoke just enough to tell me he was worried by the lump that had come up on my leg and that i needed to have it x-rayed in case it was broken! Yikes! Now i'm scared. This was also while we were in the 'Accident & Emergency' Unit of a Cambodian Hospital so lots(!) of blood, and people in seriously bad conditions all around us. Also, having spent the day visiting the 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek', which is the memorial ground for the thousands of people who were executed by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1978, it was all just a bit too much and a little 'real' to be honest!

The nurse then made me hop(!!) half way across the hospital to the x-ray room where we waited for a while with all the locals sat there staring and laughing of course, Cindy (bless her!) then appeared with a wheelchair that she'd stolen, as she wasn't having me hobble all the way back again and there was no way i was going to be given anything by the docs/nurse, adn then continued to steel my x-rays as we were waiting for so long, before wheeling me back to the doc! X-rays came back all fine - no broken bones or anything just very bad bruising (and swelling) so just had to take it easy for a few days. Put a little delay on our movements but we still got to Vietnam at a not too later date....

Phnom Penh

Cambodia's capital, that sits on the edge of the Tonle Sap and Basaac Rivers, where all kinds of bugs imaginable are eaten as 'snacks'.... yum yum!!! Anyone for a cockroach!?! Or maybe you'd prefer a chicken foetus if insects aren't your cup of tea...! eeek! Couldn't quite believe my eyes when i saw it in front of me!!!
We arrived here on the 14th April having left Tom to continue driving around on his dirt-bike out in the hills of Sen Monorom. We spent nearly a week here pretty much being very classic tourists - bit of drinking and partying at night, then taking in some of the sights during the day. All done at a fairly leisurely pace... just as the guide book told us too! ;)

Sen Monorom in the Mondulkiri Province

After a few days in Ban Lung the 3 of us then headed south a little to the Mondulkiri Province where we continued to mess around on motorbikes along the red dirt tracks of Cambodia, sampled the local rice wine (an interesting one!), and stopped off in minority villages home to the Pnong minority where their homes were either built on stilts or very low straw huts (the name i have forgotten... again, oops!).

Waterfalls, lakes and the beautiful open countryside...!

We based ourselves in a small very rural and untouristy town (Ban Lung) where the locals hardly spoke a word of English, and you could buy fresh clams by the bucket load from the local market! (something i didn't partake in i'm afraid).

The best way to explore the countryside of Cambodia is by hiring motorbikes so this is just what we did...! Great fun riding along the red sand dirt tracks out across the hills visiting the unspoilt volcanic lakes and waterfalls as we went. We swung from the vines, 'like tarzan', under Ka Tieng waterfall, which our arms took a long time to recover from!! Then had power showers under Chaa Ong waterfall where we were swimming and diving off the rocks, visiting the local villages and getting covered from head to to in red sand!!!

Thank god Cindy and I had at least purchased a local Khmer scarf each that managed to just about stop us from actually eating the dirt! :)

Heading north-east of Cambodia...

After spending a few days in Siem Reap we then took a very bumpy and fairly untravelled route - heading east to the Ratanakiri province stopping off in a small town called Kratie along the way... Here we cycled through villages and past paddy fields to take a boat out to see some of the few remaining freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins.

The journey from Kratie to Ban Lung (Ratanakiri province) was an interesting one - 8 of us all squeezed into a toyota corola!!! No joke - 4 in the back, 2 in the passenger seat, and oh yes - the final 2 in the drivers seat!!!! How we ever made it in one piece we'll never know....! I guess just like we do everytime we get in a vehicle in Asia! hee hee! All good fun. Also, such a small world as one of the 8 was a guy we'd met briefly in Rajhastan (Tom from England), such a small world! So the 3 of travelled together for the next week or so which was cool.

The Angkor Wat

Of course, just like the Taj Mahal - you can't really visit Cambodia without taking a peak at the monumental Angkor Wat so here it is...! I have to admit, Cindy and i were a little templed out by this point but we still managed to just about appreciate the wonders of the Angkor temples. I think one of our favourites was Bayon though, which consists of 216 giant gargantuan faces adn was just an amazing one to walk around.

CAMBODIA.... my ideal country - everyone wears pyjamas all day every day!!! :)

Above is a picture taken in Siem Reap where we begun our travels around Cambodia. A classic scene on the streets of Cambodia - going off to work, shopping, a family day out, whatever, you can guarentee that they'll be wearing their pyjamas....!!! Something that completely boggled us the whole time we were in Cambodia, but also something i loved, and feel that i would fit in well in this country as i'd certainly live in my pyjamas if i had the chance! hee hee! Actually quite a boggling country in many ways, and there were many a times that Cindy and i had been dropped off in 'fake cambodia'...! :) I guess we didn't really know what to expect but it sure wasn't what we saw.

The country certainly presents the 2 extremes of the rich v's the poor.....

This really is how it is, you have the very wealthy families stepping out of there Lexus with all the 'mod cons', and then in the same street virtually you'll have families living in wooden huts on stilts with not even a bicycle between them.

Next stop THAILAND.... (for 1 day!)

Yeah - sounds kind of crazy i know but i literally flew into Bangkok in the late hours of March the 28th and was straight out again by the 30th...! It was too much! After the chilled outness of Nepal and the waaah of India, Bangkok was just the biggest shock to the system, and something i just wasn't ready for! Even the flight in itself was enough to make me 'freak' - we were flying in to all the lights and flashing neon advertisments, huge grand highways and much more, all staring up at me... Yikes! I was just sat there thinking 'where the hell am i arriving into!??' Thankfully i wasn't the only one thinking this - i met a lovely German lady who was going through exactly the same as me, having also just spent the last few months travelling around India and Nepal. We were both stood in the airport in a complete and utter daze without a clue of what to do, where to go, or anything. Then i made the big mistake of checking into a hotel on Khao San Road - backpacker/prostitute/'Ibiza uncovered' hang-out! Omigod! Anyway, i just about survived the one day i had there before i got the bus over the border and into Cambodia where Cindy and i were reunited.... (canadian i travelled with for 6 weeks in India).

My last night in Kathmandu/Nepal...

Here's just a couple of pics of 'me and my 2 boys' (Mischa from Switzerland & Jean from France) that i had met before in Pokhara and Chitwan, then we all hung out together in Kathmandu. They made my last night in Nepal truly perfect!!! We started the night with my last Everest beer and Dal Bhat (dal, veg curry, pickles and rice), then carried on to see some very good live bands at a local bar, and then finished up in our favourite place - 'the Tom & Jerry bar' where we danced and drank the night away... perfic! What more could you want for a last night in Kathmandu. (cheers guys - you're the best!) :)

What to do in Kathmandu.....!

With it coming to the end of my time in Nepal, with my flight booked out to Bangkok it was time for Steph and i to go our separate ways as i head on to Kathmandu...! What a brilliant city! Unfortunately i only got to spend a few days here as time just ran out, but i had a great few days! I took a wander around the city, to visit all the old parts and see a few more Pagodas and temples... the usual! :) But all very interesting still and wonderful to see. Walked through the markets, had a glass of chai amongst all the pigeons in one of the old squares and witnessed the many pilgrims visiting Dubar Square leading up to another one of the many festivals that take place in Nepal (sorry completely forgotten the name of this particular one!).