Bangkok

Bangkok

That's right it's been over three year's since I was in South East Asia but I never got around to doing my last entry on the trip. It may not be as detailed for obvious reasons but this post will be testament to my memory.

Wednesday 9th

Today was basically a day dedicated to travelling to Bangkok from Suhkothai. We arrived in Bangkok sometime in the afternoon. The [Northern] bus station is not in the centre of Bangkok so we had to get a taxi to the Khao San rd area (real name Banglamphu). It took ages, I think close to an hour. We landed in the heart of Khao San, the street literally and went from hotel to hotel but one after the other were booked out. So we ended up at the worst place of our trip and one of the most expensive to boot!

Very very touristy area, lots of restaurants, massage places, bars and shops selling fake t-shirts and souvenirs, and worst of all - the suit shops! These people do not leave you alone and they are so bad at getting you into the store, "Hey you!", how are you going to bait me with a line like this?

Most hotels were full so we ended up at this piece of shit place. Wasn't fun lugging two bags up 5 flights of stairs either.
We knew we didn't wanna stay at this joint any longer than we have to so we went for a much longer walk to find more suitable accommodation, which we did and booked it for the next few nights. Much easier to do without dragging our luggage.


Thursday 10th

Interesting day to say the least. Eventhough we'd both been to the Palace and Emerald Buddha on our trips to Bangkok with our parents we still wanted to do it again. We decided to walk there because it seemed not too far and we'd rather not deal with tuk-tuks. It was a big walk, so deceiving on the map. Within 5 minutes (when we were looking at the map) we were approached by a man telling us all these things that we should see blah blah blah, he seemed genuine and just wanting to help us, until he started saying the Palace is closed and we should take a tuk-tuk to this place and that place - immediately we knew this bloke was full of shit and was trying to scam us, we read all about this. So we said no thank you and walked off.

He wasn't the only one who tried it on us, two more tried for fucks sake.

We knew there was a dress code about going there and even enquired beforehand at our hotel asking if we were suitably dressed and they said yes. I had shorts that went past my knees and I even cranked them down a bit more before we went in and Kay had leggings on with a top going past her bum. However, once we got in Kay was rejected for not being properly dressed, they wanted her to go and hire some pants to wear, what a load of shit. We said "fuck this" and left. It was ok because we were going to Wat Pho (where I hadn't been) anyway and it's down the road from the Palace. Very annoying to say the least especially because we took precautions.

Wat Pho has the same dress code yet there was no problem! Anyway, it was a lovely pagoda. Not too crowded considering. On the way back I decided to have a bite to eat, I got what I thought was a meat wonton on a skewer, I ate one and was chewing wondering what is this? So we cracked the next one open and it was a quail egg inside, I don't really eat eggs!!!! It was ok, but not my thing. Kay however loves quail eggs.

Interestingly all of the restaurants in the area all have Isan (Northern Thai) style roast chicken, which was beautiful, I had it a few times; yet I never saw this dish in Northern Thailand.


Friday 11th

Huge huge day! We were up very early to be picked up for a day to the floating markets of Damnoansadauk which is just outside Bangkok. It was a little disappointing to be honest, I found it's primary function was for the tourists, it wasn't very big and there weren't that many boats in the canal selling stuff. We also went on a boat ride through the canals, nothing special. It was a very hot day as well.

After the floating markets we got to Kanchanaburi which was the sight of the Burma [Death] Railway built during WWII. We went to the museum about it and had a look at the train that goes of the 'River Kwai Bridge'.

It was mid afternoon by now, it would seem we were running late because by the time we got to the Tiger Temple we had less than an hour to spend there. We were faced with a choice, view both the adult tigers and the cubs or touch one or the other since we were short of time. We chose the touch the adult tigers. The Tiger Temple had a very strict dress code which was enforced, these two silly English women weren't allowed in for their lack of clothing and another girl was lucky she could borrow a sarong to wrap around her legs.

It was a surreal experience to be able to touch real life tigers one after the other. I don't know how they get them so docile. The tiger's fur was quite rough and very thick. A very good experience. Although I wish we had more time there.

I'd recommend that you don't do this tour and that you make your own way to Kanchanaburi to see the railway and Tiger Temple. Probably best to spend a night because it was at least 3 hours each way in the mini-bus, hence the early start and late return.
As such upon our return we were starving!!!


Saturday 12th

Today was dedicated to one thing - Chatuchak weekend market - the largest market in Thailand and the largest weekend market in the world. I had accumulated a bunch of clothes along the way (found Vietnam to be the cheapest) but I still wanted some more items and Kay wanted clothes as well.

Since we had to go to the main Bangkok train station and decided to get a tuk-tuk to Chinatown so we could have lunch then walk to the station from there. The traffic was terrible, the ride took ages. It was probably 10-11am and alot of the restaurants weren't open, we were in despair! But we found one and it was great, really good price as well.

Chatuchak was huge, so many stalls and sections. Probably spent a good 5-6 hours here and it resulted in absolutely nothing for me. I'd say it's more of a local market, I was after fake clothing and it had none. Kay bought one or two dresses. That was it!!!! The pet section was cute, fun playing with the kittens and puppies.


Sunday 13th

Another day dedicated to shopping although this time it actually was fruitful. We went to the MBK Center in Pathum Wan. Finally got what we wanted (for the most part) and I would think so because we spent 5-6 hours here. Structurally it's a modern shopping center but inside it's like a market where there are stalls all over the place, it's packed with them.

I got a bunch of shirts and t-shirts and a R4 card for my mum and sister's Nintendo DS with a whole bunch of games, it was around the $30 mark if I remember correctly. Kay bought an external hard drive, it seemed to be a good deal but when we got home it was pretty much the same price, so no loss really but not a great deal.


Monday 14th

We went to the old Thai capital of Ayutthaya today, which was sacked by the invading Burmese in 1767 after which the Thai's moved their capital to present day Bangkok. I loved reminding Kay about how her ancestors could've been involved in this event.

The main station was a bit of a walk from our Silom hotel, we decided to walk there but be open to getting a tuk-tuk along the way, hence not appear desperate and if we were pissed off with them then we'd already be on our way. Drivers asked us but of course wanted too much so we just walked it, probably took half an hour. We had to wait a bit for our train so we ate at the station, I wanted some noodles and choose a picture as they didn't speak English but I ended up with the typical thick Thai style rice noodles, which i'm not fond of.


The train took around 2 hours, we were a little lost when we arrived because we didn't know where to go, but we could see that alot of people were going in a general direction so we followed and finally found a sign pointing the way. The old city is actually and island situated in a wide moat so you have to get a boat across, it didn't cost much.

When we got to the other side we hired some push bikes to ride around the sign and a couple of bottles of water (February+Bangkok = fucking hot!). We had a map to guide us although we did lose our bearings at one stage and had to ask a local for help, which we received so warmly, this shop keeper was so good to me, they even gave me a bottle of water for free because they could see I was hot and didn't have a water bottle with me (it was with the bike), they flatly refused any money.

The site was much larger than we had expected and unfortunately we couldn't spend as much time there as we would've liked because we had to be back at the station for our train back to Bangkok. We did see everything though, just not in depth and thoroughly rushed. Will definitely return for a proper day next time! I'd even say spent the night in the new city so you're not rushed like we were.

Well didn't we have a fun trip back to Bangkok, the train got delayed on the outskirts for an hour, now this was a normal Thai train, no air con, which is fine when it's moving and wind is coming in but when it's not oh my god, it was terrible! When we were sitting waiting I realised that I had the red dust from Ayutthaya all over my skin, we used some wet wipes to  clean ourselves but even more came out that night in the shower, it was crazy.

We eventually arrived home and went straight to dinner. We got a tuk-tuk back but not without dealing with some arseholes, we got picked up on our way walking back. After dinner we explored Pat Pong, Kay bought some fake handbags, finally after so much looking and bargaining. She got a very good deal.

So we were in Pat Pong and what's it famous for? The infamous ping pong show, of which we indulged. The things they did were crazy but the place was a complete rort, they said drinks were 50B, which was semi true, the first drink was 50B then it went up and up for each drink after that. You only find this out when you get the enormous bill at the end. It was a fucked up situation, I could just see that if we didn't pay that sum then suddenly a couple of blokes with weapons would appear and we would be paying. So we just paid, it left a huge sour taste in my mouth. Probably cost us $100 for the half an hour experience. I'd certainly recommend that you ask for the price list before you sit down, make sure you know as much as possible.

The show isn't full of dirty old men as you'd expect, it was couples and more girls than guys watching. I dare say it's a typical touristy thing to do, without the kids that is.


Tuesday 15th

Our flight home was at 6:20pm so we had a bit of time to just relax and walk around Silom.
I didn't sleep at all on the flight home, I was completely fucked when I arrived home. Thai Airways is very good, I'd definitely fly with them again and would recommend them.



Overall I found Bangkok to be good and bad. It's a big busy dirty city on the whole. The worst thing was the amount of people wanting to blatantly rip you off and waste your time. It's a shame because Thailand is a great country and for the most part the people are amazing.

Sukhothai

Monday 7th

The original plan was to go to Phitsanulok, about an hour from Sukhothai and on the main train line. When we arrived at Chiang Mai station we had missed the 9:30am train and the next one was at 3pm, arriving at 11pm, if it wasn't delayed. So we decided to change plans, go to the bus station (more money on tuk tuks) and stay in Sukhothai instead of Phitsanulok as we would be travelling to Sukhothai as a day trip.

We choose to go to Sukhothai for a few reasons. Firstly, it is halfway between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, saving us from a 12 hour bus ride or longer train ride. Secondly, we had two days to spare in a sense and lastly it is an old capital of Thailand and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We arrived around 4pm and were approached by a hotel employee about his place. It ticked all the boxes so we decided to stay there. We put our stuff in our room and immediately went out for dinner as we were starving. It was quite hard to find a restaurant but we did. Dinner was disappointing and small so we both got more food from street stalls along the way back to the hotel. We planned on using the internet but the only net cafe we could find was full of school children.

The hotel room had a t.v with 136 channels but alas only two English channels, both of which were Christian channels. The entrance to the bathroom was ridiculously short, level with my nose. Eventhough i bowed my head each time i still managed to hit the top of my head twice.


Tuesday 8th

Since Sukhothai is a small town we decided that to rent a motorbike was the best option to see Old Sukhothai. Old Sukhothai is around 12km from New Sukhothai where we were staying. It was a kick start bike which i had never used so it wasn't always the easiest thing to start but i managed. On the way to the old city we stopped off at the bus station to see when the bus comes and to buy our tickets. 

The old city was said to be similar to those of Angkor although i didn't notice too much similarity. The easy way to describe most of the ruins is that they were simply ruins. Some of the sites we didn't even bother to get off the bike and see in person. It was quite hot out in the sun but we managed to find one spot next to a pool of water which was so nice to sit next to.

At dusk we went to the small night food stalls and market, although we ate at a restaurant call 'Poo Restaurant'. However it had a picture of Winnie the Pooh but the signs had the unfortunate typo.

All in all Sukhothai isn't really worth visiting unless you have the time and want to have a break between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai

Thursday 3rd


Before we left Chiang Rai we wanted to go to this Chinese-Thai place for cheap dumplings but as it was Chinese New Year they were closed. We settled for this other place near our hotel where i had lots of Chinese bread and a noodle dish which was alright but not what i wanted.

We then went to the bus station on foot only to find out that Chiang Mai buses leave from a different station. Luckily there was a shared tuk tuk for 10B each that we just filled up. We had to wait 30mins before we could leave but that was alright.

On the bus they played an Australian movie we had never heard of but it was dubbed in Thai so it was no good to us. After that they played Thai comedy, similar to the Cambodian style. The bus ride took four hours and was pretty smooth.

We had tried to book places but they were all full so we had to tuk tuk driver in Chiang Mai take us to places he knew, it was about four places before we found one which wasn't full and didn't involve me lugging our bags up four flights of stairs.


Friday 4th


We got up late and went out to eat. Today was all about booking a trek and going to the night bazaar. After eating it was way too hot to be out and about when we could do it later so we went back to our room and watched tv. Most places were offering the same two day one night trek for the same price (1200B), but we found one for 1000B, the travel agent asked us to tell the other trekkers that we paid 1300B as they were not the company running the trek and it could cause issues blah blah blah. Fine by us.

As it was the time of the 'flower festival' in Chiang Mai we got to see some floats and listen to some Thai singing. This part was outside the old main gate to the old city. We didn't have time to walk in the opposite direction from the night bazaar to see the actual parade.

The night bazaar was outside the old city and about 30mins walk for us. It was a whole lot of street stalls and a bunch of food inside a building. I got myself a wallet along the way. There were alot of things to see and buy but it was hard because it was on the footpath and there were people everywhere.


Saturday 5th

We were picked up at 9:30am and got all the others (10 others) along the way. On the way to the elephant camp to ride an elephant, we went to a butterfly and orchid farm which was really nice. We also stopped off at a market so our guide could buy food for our dinner. It was midday by the time we actually got to the elephant camp, we had a crappy tofu and fried rice lunch when we got there. After we ate we went down to see two elephants, one was in labour (elephant labour lasts 5 days) and the other had a two day old calf. It was so nice to see a baby elephant so young and up close, although not too close. The mahout (trainer/carer) was from Burma, although not Burmese (Kachin ethnic group) and was able to speak to Kay though.

We bought some sugarcane for our elephant who was ever so glad to have it, even when it was gone it would put it's trunk back for more. Our mahout was another Burmese ethinic group - Kayah or Red Karen. We basically just did a circle round the camp on the elephant but it was alright because riding an elephant isn't the most comfortable thing to do.

From the camp we started our 3 hour, 7km trek to the Lahu village we would be spending the night at. Unfortunately we didn't have a big enough backpack so we had to use Kay's sports bag, which you can only really have slung over one shoulder and is not the most comfortable bag to carry. The trek was easier than Sapa but as the route wasn't as difficult it was at a very fast pace with minimal breaks. I had fried rice for breakfast and only ate one small plate of it for lunch as i didn't really want it. As such by the 2 hour mark and most difficult part i was exhausted. I felt like throwing up, i felt faint and was trailing the group.

It was one of the worst feelings in the world, compounded more so by the fact you know there is no other option but to soldier on. It wasn't as though i was sore, i felt completely drained and it was like my legs weighed a tonne each. I reached the village without anything going wrong thankfully.

Our village had electricity but not in our house. We were all dying for a shower, no hot water. So everyone had to have a cold shower at sunset. Once the sun was down we had only candles and a large fire as light. The bedroom was for everyone, no privacy, eight double beds, rather thin mattresses on the floor with mossie nets next to each other.

We had yellow curry and a chicken stir fry for dinner, i made sure i ate properly so there would be no repeat tomorrow. At dinner time we got to know our fellow trekkers better.


Sunday 6th

We officially woke up at 8am but the roosters made sure we were awake much earlier. Breakfast consisted of toast with butter (the butter is terrible), scrambled eggs (i don't eat) and fruit. So i had dry toast and fruit for breakfast. Today was all downhill and about two hours of trekking before white water rafting and bamboo rafting. I felt much better and the walk was absolutely fine, hard but fine. The first hour downhill to a waterfall was quite hard. We were able to swim at the waterfall but the water was freezing cold eventhough it was a hot day.

We continued walking, went past some villages, stopped at one and fired some slingshots. Our guide was very good at it. We got to our base for white water rafting, i actually thought it would be quite gentle. Well i suppose it was but it wasn't at the same time. It was such a good experience, i can't wait to do it again. Straight after we got onto some bamboo rafts, the raft was just afloat with Kay and two other girls on it, once i got on it went under the water so we were slightly submerged.

After the bamboo rafting we had lunch, a noodle dish with bloody tofu. Straight after we got in our big tuk tuk, which barely got all 12 of us inside it. As it was the weekend in Chiang Mai there are a number of streets blocked off for what is called the 'walking market', this made it hard for some people to be dropped off and for us to pick up our bags from the travel agent.

We decided to have McDonalds for dinner. Surprising the servings were bigger than in Australia and of course cheaper. It was pretty much exactly the same as home. On the way back we went through the walking market which was absolutely packed. It was like every tourist in town and half of the locals were on these streets.



I would've liked to spent one more day in Chiang Mai eventhough we had done most things but we didn't have the time. We definitely come back though. Unfortunately Northern Thai food was very hard to find so we didn't get to try any here or in Chiang Rai.

Huay Xai and Chiang Rai

Saturday night into Sunday 30th

When you cross into Thailand overland you are only allowed a 15 day visa, hence we had to stay in Huay Xai for one night, although it still means we will be overstaying our visas by one day. Lonely Planet seems to think that we won't get fined as they allow for an extra day, but worst case scenario we have to pay a ~$15 fine each.

As per normal we were left waiting at the bus station for some unknown reason, after thirty minutes we were off for our '12' hour overnight trip to the Thai-Lao border town of Huay Xai. Eventhough i had previously said that we would not do another overnight bus, we decided it was the better option over the two day one night slow boat ride up the Mekong. Big mistake.

The ride was so much worse than the one we had from Hoi An to Nha Trang. For one we didn't have a sleeper option so it was just the slight recline of your chair. The driver seemed to be driving slower than he should've at some parts of the trip. After our first stop at 10:30pm, it seemed like we were stopping every 15 minutes for some reason or another, be it dropping people off, province border crossing or smokos.

The entire night i felt i only got two hours sleep. I literally watched the sun rise. With all of the stopping and the like, we arrived two hours late in Huay Xai at 9:30am. We got in a larger tuk tuk to get into town with some of the other passengers. On arrival most of them headed for the border but we went to our guesthouse. We put our stuff in our room and went for breakfast. Then we had a little walk (not much to do in Huay Xai) and went back to the hotel room, watched 'red dragon' on tv and slept until dinner time.


Monday 31st

We got up, had breakfast and headed for the border crossing. Very easy to do, we filled out our departure forms, they stamped our passports and we were off on a boat to Chiang Khong in Thailand. Another easy process on the Thai side, as Australians are exempt from needing a visa per say, we didn't have to pay anything.

We then got a tuk tuk to the bus station for our trip to Chiang Rai. It was a local bus with all local people and no  air con, although it wasn't really necessary since all the windows were open. It took about two hours, thankfully Thai roads are so much better than our previous countries.

Arrived in Chiang Rai at the bus station, thankfully it's in the middle of town. We didn't know how far to our guesthouse so we got a tuk tuk, we bargained it down to 30baht, as it turned out, we were 5 minutes walk away, so we got ripped hard. As it was afternoon we didn't do much but walk up the main streets and have dinner - our first Thai food. Thai food was readily available in Laos and Cambodia but we shunned it knowing we would be having it everyday in Thailand. It was very good, we would return to this restaurant the following night.


Tuesday 1st

We decided to leave our guesthouse for a number of reasons: one the bed was so incredibly hard we both woke up sore, two, there was broken glass in the shower, lucky we wear thongs and three the bathroom roof was leaking water.

Kay was very low on money so we had to find a bank. According to the map there was four banks on this one street, we figured we would kill two birds with one stone and get something to eat there. We found no food on the entire walk to the last bank on this street. There were some places but they had no English menus and no English speaking staff. We ended up walking back to our area to eat. We also had trouble at the banks before we left, very hard to get our query across.

After lunch the first bank we went to had an acceptable exchange rate and charged no commission on the cash advance. Unfortunately the Australian dollar has since shot up a few more cents.

The bank was near the market so we had a little look there, didn't get anything but some fruit and sticky rice. There were plenty of Wats in Chiang Rai so we only went to the main one - Wat Phra Kaew. It had very nice paintings on the inside and a large number of turtles in the pools before you got to it's stairs.

Our day was also made up of going to travel agents to get quotes for a golden triangle tour. For the most part they offered the same things at the same price - 1400b ($47) each. Very expensive, but we figured we didn't do any tours in Laos because they were too pricy for what they offered and we did want to do this.

At night we had a look at the Chiang Rai night market but didn't buy anything, we would return tomorrow night.


Wednesday 2nd

As it turned out no one else booked the tour so it was effectively a private tour for us, if two others had of then it would've been 1200b (~$40each). Our first stop was a hill tribe village with two different tribes living together, the main reason we were going was to see the Padong tribe (part of the Karen). This is the tribe with the long necks (brass rings around the girl's necks). They originally come from Burma but left because of the hardships at home.

Second stop was the monkey and fish caves. Basically it's on the edge of a mountain where there's alot of monkeys to feed and fish in a mini lake. We walked up to the buddha inside the mountain. I had to take a stick to fend of the monkeys, we were fine on the way up but i had to use it to scare an aggressive monkey on the way down. I gave my stick to some Thais who were being harassed and grabbed by the same monkey after we passed.

We next arrived at the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot, Thailand's most Northern point. First we went to a Jade factory, didn't get anything of course. The best Jade comes from Burma. They was a Burmese girl working there that Kay had a chat to, turns out a Burmese bloke owns the factory.

After the factory we went up to Scorpion Hill where we were able to look in Burma. There are no casinos in Thailand so there are alot in the Burmese side of the border to service Thailand's gambling needs. We also got to have a look through the market on the way down. There was an array of b.b guns for sale (pellet guns), very tempting. Throughout Kay picked up on many Burmese voices.

We had lunch at a mediocre buffet in town and then headed for the golden triangle - the point where Thailand, Burma and Laos all meet. The Lao side also has casinos, bankrolled by the Chinese we were told. After we saw the viewing point we went to the Opium museum, which gave some history on the drug and it's cultivation in the golden triangle region.

Our final stop was the old capital of Chiang Saen, from over 1000 years ago. As such it is not in the best of condition and was not cared for soon enough like Sukothai and Ayuthaya (old capitals). Then we journeyed home. A positive of having an effective private tour was that i was able to ask our guide many questions about Thailand and the Thai people.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang seems to do things differently to the rest of Laos. You have to purchase maps instead of them being made available for free and hotel check out is 11am not 12 noon.

I forgot to mention earlier that in Laos, rice is sticky rice unless you ask for it steamed, or you get given the option. I had never had sticky rice with a meal before and i love it. Even with a stir fry it is very nice, the thing it does make you do is to eat slower. Because it is sticky you need to chew it more, slowing down the process of eating.


Monday 24th

We chose to get the mini-bus instead of the normal size bus as it took two hours less and only cost 10 000kip more. We left at 9:30am, there were six other travellers with us on the bus, although it wasn't full. Along the way two Laotians were picked up. The whole trip was up and down through windy mountains. We only stopped for a break once, which was fine by everyone it would seem. I wasn't feeling very good when we stopped and made myself throw up for good measure.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at 1:30pm at the bus station to awaiting tuk tuk drivers. They all seemed to work together as all of the passengers bar us were piled into one tuk tuk at 15 000kip each. We refused and walked off to the main road, along the way another driver asked us and accepted 10 000kip each. So we paid less than everyone else, got dropped off where we wanted to and weren't crammed in with five other people.

Arrived at our hotel of choice to find it was booked out. We went up the main street but found nothing adequate, we then went towards the Mekong side where we found our first hotel (more on this later) for 100 000kip. We had a rest and went out for an early dinner as I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and I felt much better.


Tuesday 25th

We didn't notice it earlier because we had the t.v on but when we were in bed and the room was silent, it was not silent. Firstly, there was a dripping noise coming from our drain in the bathroom, eventhough our tap and toilet weren't leaking and as we found out later, a water pump connected to a water tank was right outside our window, thus making noises constantly. We were too lazy to get up early and find another hotel so we slept in, found another one in the afternoon for our next three nights. It was two minutes up the room, a nicer room and the same price. As a bonus it has computers which are not meant to be free but we've never been asked to pay for any usage. Although it didn't have a t.v, however it didn't really matter.

We had dinner at sunset at one of the many restaurants lining the Mekong River.


Wednesday 26th

We left our first hotel this morning, went to our new hotel, put our stuff in and went out for lunch. After lunch we went up to Phu Si, which is a 100m high hill in the middle of Luang Prabang with many Wats on it. Up and down involved 800 steps, although the first set of steps were the hardest. The peak gave an impressive view of the town.

On our way down on the other side i saw two novice monks and decided to ask one of them some questions. He said he spoke a little bit of English but it turned out to be alot and pretty good. He told me that there's an Australian woman who teaches English to the monks at his monastery. He told me what a monk's day involved, what food is donated and that he wanted to be a monk for life as opposed to someone who takes it up for a period of time.

After dinner we had a look though the Hmong night market, which opens up in front of the old palace on the main street. We didn't purchase anything other than a fruit shake.


Thursday 27th

We decided to get the overnight bus to Huay Xai instead of the slow boat (2 days, 1 night) so we booked that. It cost us 180 000kip ($22.50) each. We noticed that in terms of both time and distance, Laos is much much more expensive than Vietnam and Cambodia.  After doing this we went to the old palace, which is now a museum. When the Communists took over Laos the Royal family were removed from power and escaped to some caves in the North.

The palace wasn't as grand as the Cambodian equivalent but in the main rooms it had stories on the walls with the main aspects have coloured glass on them, it looked very nice and certainly unique. Part of the museam was the King's old cars, basically four old cars in a garage. There was also a photo exhibition of monks in various states of meditation.

The cost of entry into the sights of Luang Prabang was also excessive, with the palace costing 30 000kip and Phu Si costing 20 000kip.


Friday 28th

The other downside about our second hotel was that the walls were fairly thin and we could here snoring on both sides. It wasn't over the top and at times quite funny, particularly to Kay.

Today we went down to the Nam Khan side of the town and walked all the way to the tip of the peninsula and returned back down the Mekong side. Whilst near the tip we had a look at the most famous Wat - Wat Xieng Thong. There was an admission fee of 20 000kip so we didn't go in. It's not right that you should have to pay to see what is an active religious site, oh that's right, only foreigners have to pay. We wanted to be extra tight as not to have to buy more Kip, although this didn't quite work out.

We ate at the Hmong night market for dinner, having various noodles and char grilled chicken, Kay had a papaya salad aswell (not my thing). Kay purchased a cotton and silk table runner for her mum and i got what i dubbed 'my nut bowl' - a wooden bowl.


Saturday 29th

We had to be up before 11am so that we could check out today, we heard our neighbours leave earlier so we suspected that our power had been turned off instead of theirs. We didn't mind as we had plenty of natural light in the room bar the bathroom. As it turned out there was a black out in the whole town.

We went to the Scandinavian bakery for lunch, i had what was similar to a subway chicken sub. Unfortunately for alot of people they couldn't enjoy a coffee. We then went to go to the internet cafe to use Skype but of course we couldn't do this without electricity. We then went down to the Nam Khan and sat there opposite a makeshift beach for almost an hour. When we went back into town we saw the power was back so we called home and booked our hotel in Huay Xai (not wanting any difficulties on arrival).

After that we went for a walk to the opposite part of town that we hadn't been to. I saw a soup place so we sat down and i had a beef noodle soup. The fruit man came past and Kay got some watermelon for us. The watermelon in Luang Prabang (we had some before) was so good, best fruit of the trip. On the other occasion Kay bought some fruit that i don't know the name of and she only knows the Burmese name (which is Burmese for balls, as in a man's balls), that was very sour to me.

Pick up is at 6pm so it's purely killing time up until then, hence i'm writing this now.

Vang Vieng

Thursday 20th

We were due to depart for Vang Vieng at 9:30am but it was an hour of delays before we finally took off. The trip to Vang Vieng involved alot of mountain driving, meaning ascends and descends combined with lots of twists and turns. The roads were somewhat bumpy aswell.

We arrived around 2pm at a guesthouse car park. We were approached by someone with a guesthouse up the road for 60 000kip so we checked it out and that's where we stayed. We were starving as we only had a bread roll (plain) for breakfast so we had lunch and went for a walk around the main streets. We looked in alot of shops as Kay wanted a sarong, but we didn't find the right one.


Friday 21st

The objective of today was to find out the specifics about tubing, to book our next leg, call home and to write up my blog. We had decided against going to Phonsavan for a couple of reasons. Firstly it would be an eight hour bus ride from Vang Vieng, then we would need another eight hour trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang. So effectively we would spend two days on a bus to only spend one proper day in Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars.


Saturday 22nd

Today was our first day of tubing. Tubing involves floating down the Nam Song river in a tyre like blow up tube, making stops at bars along the way. We got up, had lunch and went to the tubing shop. It's 55 000kip ($6-7) plus a 60 000kip deposit. They then take you along with others up to the tubing launch point around 4km upriver in a tuk tuk. Funnily enough the bulk of the bars were at the launch point or there about. This explains why we see so many people coming back when we're having dinner, yet they don't have tubes with them, meaning they just go up there to drink all day.

First thought was the river is so dirty, it's a reddish brown colour. Not very appealing that's for sure. The riverbed was all stones so trying to get in the tube was hard at first, i fell and cut/bruised my elbow a little bit in the process. Along with the water colour was the fact that the mud was that colour. At the end of the day, Kay had to scrub my boardshorts for me (i asked).

We weren't going to stop off for a drink so soon but when there was a sign saying 'only three bars left', we decided to stop. The section before this bar was very shallow so we had to walk along the rocks to get there. Alot of the locals were looking at me, i think because of my white skin. I almost lost my thongs in this part, not the first time. I was lucky that one of them got stuck on a pole and didn't go down the river. We didn't really want to drink so we just shared a vodka bucket and had a shot of liquor with bees inside it.

We had to walk down the river til we got to deep enough water then we took off properly. As we were passing our unopened bottle of water, 'we' dropped it in the river. We floated for who knows how long until there were some large rocks protruding out of the water. As we split up i ended up hitting the first big one and effectively crawling my way through the others. I came out of it unscathed luckily. In the town we had seen many people with battle scars from the river, be it scabs and bruises or one particular girl having a limp, tape and cotton on her chin and wound dressing on her shoulder.

We came along more rocky parts but they weren't as bad as the first. Another nuisance on the river was boat after boat with tourist going up and down the river, creating waves along the way. They liked to come fairly close to your tube aswell.

As we did not have a watch on our person, we did not know what time it was, but we did know the sun was going down and we weren't anywhere near the end. So we followed numerous others as they disembarked at a specific point where tuk tuks were waiting to take people back to town.

We were originally planning to tube on Sunday aswell but we felt it wasn't worth doing again. It wasn't a let down either that we didn't finish because you get a bit sore from the way you have to lie in the tube.


Sunday 23rd

The only real thing we did today other than go out and eat was to get a massage. We found a place, they took us upstairs where there were three rooms. We were led into one where there were four mattresses on the floor, two occupied by half naked Japanese men getting massages. We were led into another room where there was one European bloke getting a massage...with just a towel on. We had originally wanted oil massages but not like this. So we ended up getting Lao massages, which meant our cloathes stayed on. I'd say it was better than the shiatsu one we had better, not so many elbows in the back.

Vientiane

Saturday 15th

We were picked up at 7:30am for our 10:00am flight to Vientiane (Laos), as it is an international flight we did the norm and got there two hours early. We took note of the 100ml of liquids not being on board but we neglected our brand new 160g toothpaste, customs pulled us up and we had to throw it away.

The plane was very small and took us first to Pakse in Southern Laos where no one got off but some people did get on. We had to get off the plane to go inside and get our visas. I was confused reading the guide as it stated that Lao visas are between $30 and $42. We found out that different nationalities had to pay different prices. Australia was $30, China was $20 and Canada was $42, don't know what they did wrong. The majority of the plane had to get visas so it took about 30 minutes. It's very easy and cheaper to get visas on arrival we have found so i would recommend doing this to everyone.

We arrived in Vientiane around 1pm and straight off the plane we were hit with a cool breeze, which was a pleasant change from the heat of Cambodia. Whereas Phnom Penh will be 33 degrees max and Vientiane 29 degrees max, the difference is in the minimums - Phnom Penh will be 23 degrees and Vientiane 13 degrees. Much better sleeping weather.

We got in a taxi and went into the centre of town. We tried a few places but the only rooms they had available were with shared bathrooms and certainly overpriced for that. We let the driver take us to one and that was the winner. 100 000 kip per night ($12.50) with air con (which we didn't need) and our own bathroom. It was much easier going in Vietnam and Cambodia when it came to figuring out how much things truly cost. For Vietnam you divided by 20 (20 000), Cambodia mostly used the US dollar, which is basically the same as ours at the moment, but in Laos you have to divide by 8 (8 000), which is as friendly a number for quick calculations.

Maria and Bronwyn were in Vientiane for our first three days so we met up with them for dinner. We decided to go to Nazim Indian restaurant, to pay homage to our friend. Not as good as Indian should be but it was decent. I also had my first Beer Lao, which comes in a long neck bottle (unless you want a can).


Sunday 16th

We met up with Maria and Bronwyn to go to the national symbol of Laos - Pha That Luang. It's a big golden Wat a few kms from the centre of town. As far as national symbols go, it wasn't that grand. We paid to get in and literally could only walk around it. We went to the Wat next door and had a look around. The National Assembly is just up the road so we went and got a photo of that. We went back to town together and had a break before meeting up for dinner.

We went to the Lebanese place next door to the girl's hotel for dinner, it was very disappointing for all of us.


Monday 17th

Kay and I went to the Scandinavian Bakery for lunch/brunch. I had tzatiki with bread, which was very nice. We went to an internet cafe as i had to write my Siem Reap post (which took two days and three hours to do). After that we went to That Luang market (which was really a shopping centre) where i bought a new luggage bag - in Siem Reap i locked the keys inside my bag so we tried to get the padlock off but broke one of the zips in the process. I was still able to lock my bad but it was on a different zip and not completely safe.

We went round to the girl's hotel before dinner but Maria wasn't feeling well so we Kay and I went out for dinner ourselves. Whilst near the river we had a look at the stalls step up and one of the stores on the main road. This was a legitimate store selling all illegitimate items. Nothing tickled our fancy, well nothing that we could take home. They had nun chucks, retractable batons and switchblades for sale.


Tuesday 18th 

We had lunch at this place which was always packed and they offered a lunch buffet, which gave us a good chance to try many Lao dishes. I had a kebab stick which had what looked like a small capsicum on it, it turned out to be the hottest chilli i've ever had. My mouth was on fire for 20 minutes and i had to have water constantly in my mouth as it feel slightly better.

We went to the internet cafe, where for another two hours i got my blog done and we uploaded our photos to facebook. After finishing there we went to the Wat Si Saket, Vientiane's oldest Wat. It wasn't that good to be honest.


Wednesday 19th

We had seen a Chinese restaurant with a Peking Duck set for 98 000kip ($12) so we decided to go there for lunch. The whole trip i had wanted to have Peking Duck since it's cheaper than home and i like duck. It involved some duck with the wrappers, stir fried duck (though mostly bones) and a duck soup. It was very nice but certainly not worth the amount it costs in Australia.

We walked along the river front and took photos of some monuments and the presidential palace. Alot of the streets in Vientiane are one way - but not all. As such, i didn't look both ways crossing the road and i was almost hit by a tuk tuk, literally centremetres away from hitting me. So i was very lucky. No more being complacent, that's for sure.


One of the unfortunate things about t.v in Laos is that unlike Cambodia and Vietnam, they dub English channels instead of subtitles. This effectively meant we only have four channels to watch, two of which are BBC world news and CNN.

Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor

Saturday 8th

It was a six hour ride from  Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, eventhough we were picked up at 8:10am for an 8:45am bus, our mini bus got to the station last and the cargo hold was full. My bag at to sit at the front of the bus along with two others. At least this meant we wouldn't be picking up people along the way, surely? Well we did get a few but they only had hand luggage.

We had organised a guesthouse through our one in Phnom Penh because it was the same sort of room for the same price and included free pick up from the bus station. Although the driver didn't take us to the one we thought we were going to, it turned out to be better because this place was close to the centre of town and was still the same price. The tuk tuk driver asked us about going to the temples, we hadn't decided where we were going or how much so we said he can come back tomorrow if he wants and we can discuss a price.


Sunday 9th

Looking at both the 'LP South East Asia on a shoestring' and the 'LP Cambodia' guide we decided to go with the latter's three day itinerary. We met the driver downstairs and presented him with this itinerary, he gave us a price of $65, which we got down to $62 as a final price. However as we had told him, we were not 100% about doing it with him because we had not got any other quotes from tuk tuk drivers or any other source for that matter. So we said we would take his offer into consideration and call him later in the afternoon if we were to go with him. At this stage we didn't know you couldn't rent motorbikes in Siem Reap so we were keeping in mind we could do that for ~$8 a day.

He was not happy, he even said himself "that is not good for me"and that we WILL find a cheaper price from someone else. Poor justification for us to go with him that's for sure. We still would not accept and he absolutely cracked the shits, throwing a pool cue across the pool table and swearing in a mix of English (fuck) and Khmer. We simply walked away from him at this point, why should we put up with this nonsense. As we were walking away he called out to give a better price but Kay simply said "why would we go with you when we can see you're not a very nice person".

We explored the centre of town including the Psar Cha (Central Market), had lunch at the Mandalay Inn as they served Burmese food and i was craving a particular dish (pepeo). However they didn't have it, we ate there anyway. Whilst in the area we got airfare quotes for our flight to Laos, the Mandalay turned out to be the cheapest ($127 each) so we booked there. We originally wanted to go on Friday but it was booked out so we booked for Saturday, which turned out to be better anyway as we had more rest time from doing the temples.

As we headed back from dinner we asked a tuk tuk driver and got a price for our temple tours. We had found out it was prohibited to rent motorbikes in Siem Reap so we had no other option, unless we wanted to do countless kilometres on a push bike ($1/day). We got it down to $42, which was pretty good and much better than the arsehole. The guidebook said it should be $12-15 per day excluding temples out of town. We got it for $14/day and that included going out of town twice for temples, one in particular as it's 30km from town. Our first day would be Monday and we would do the temples in chronological order by their period of construction.


Monday 10th

Today was our first day of doing temples, we headed out at 7:30am but stopped for breakfast along the way. It was a bit chilly, particularly when you were driving along in the tuk tuk, but it was not enough to have to take more clothing, particularly since by 9am you would not need it. We had to head towards Angkor to get our tickets ($40 for three days) eventhough we were to head in the opposite direction.

First was the Roulos group - Lolei, Bakong and Preah Ko. The Roulos group are 13km eat of Siem Reap and are not in the main Angkor area, they are the oldest temples, dating from the ninth century A.D. As such, Lolei in particular, they are not in the best of condition. Bakong was surrounded by a large moat and had an active monastery next to it on the 'island'.

After the Roulos group we headed back to Angkor to complete what is called the 'grand circuit' - Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som and Eastern Mebon. Preah Khan (sacred sword) is one of the largest temples in Angkor as well as being in pretty good condition. As is the norm, our driver was supposed to drop us at the West gate so that we would walk to the East and meet him at the North gate. However we were dropped off at the North unknowingly, we realised this when we walked all the way to the South gate to find it wasn't worth looking at and no one else had been that way.

When we got back inside i asked a Cambodian security guard which way was North, he did not understand but a little boy did. He told us to go to the East as it is the most beautiful way. I had asked him why some door ways were very short but some so large, he said it was so you were forced to bow, we found this very interesting. Although the average Cambodian wouldn't have had to bow as it fitted them, but certainly not Westerners.

Although we did not ask, the little boy took us all through the East side and back through the North explaining everything about the temple. His English was some of the best we had heard and he was only 10! By the end i went to give him some money as we thought he did deserve it. He asked for more though, but i met him halfway. I believe that you can't give something to someone that didn't ask for it and then expect money, but i suppose there's no such thing as a free lunch. We've basically learnt that if we're ever offered something to just not accept, incense for a Buddha is an example.

We went for lunch to the restaurant our driver asked us to go to. We realised that it is because he got a free feed out of it but it was fine by us. Lunch was pretty basic and quite pricey at $5 for a noodle dish, it would be $3 back in town. The roads were very dusty so i bought a krama (traditional Cambodian scarf) to keep the dust off my face and out of my nose, mouth and throat.

Preah Neak Pean was our next temple, it was very different to Preah Khan. It was a large pool of water surrounded by four smaller pools. More of a swimming complex you would think, however, the pools were used for ritual purification rites not recreation. At the spout from the central pool to each smaller pool were different heads - elephant, lion, man and a horse.

Ta Som is East of Preah Neak Pean, it is not in that good condition and not that big, it is most known for the huge tree completely overwhelming the eastern gopura and is a very popular photo spot.

Eventhough it wasn't planned it was along the way and we had time to kill, so we went to Eastern Mebon. It would've once been on an islet in the centre of what was called the Eastern Baray (kind of like a lake/dam) it was now on dry land. This temple is a smaller version of Pre Rup and was built 15 to 20 years after it. It is quite high and has five towers, the corners had guard elephants, which were in pretty good shape.

We were supposed to do sunset at Pre Rup but it was 3pm (sunset at 6pm) and we were ready to head there, which was pointless as we weren't going to hang around for three hours so we decided to add it to our second day (Wednesday).


Tuesday 11th

We went back into the centre of town today and went around the central market again, we didn't buy anything though. We went back to the Mandalay Inn to collect our ticket and went to several banks to inquire about how much they charge for a cash advance on Kay's credit card, we tried so many but either their ATMs and/or their in bank EFTPOS machine would not read the card. Very very weird considering it's a Visa card and it is accepted at all of banks. We had success at the very last bank we went to (ANZ Royal Bank) but it still took 20 odd minutes to get the cash, alot of red tape involved.

Previously we had seen a restaurant that offered an Apsara performance (traditional Cambodian dance) for $6 but we had seen on the main street (Pub St) that a place called Temple restaurant and nightclub had it for free so we headed here for dinner. I had Khmer roast duck for dinner, it was very very nice. The dance itself was very slow moving with an emphasise on the wrist and ankle movement.

After dinner we went to the night market which covers a few streets and an open area. There were lots of tanks full of fish that eat your dead skin cells along the way but we had found one for $2 and an unlimited amount of time. We both tried it but i couldn't stand them biting my feet, it was way to ticklish. Kay did it for about 20 minutes, she said she noticed a difference in the way her feet felt. The night market was nothing special and we didn't get anything.


Wednesday 12th
We had breakfast at the hotel and were picked up at 9am. Our first temple would be Banteay Srei, which is around 30 km from Siem Reap. Banteay Srei is considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art as it has the finest stone carving out of all the Angkor temples. It is believed that women did the stone carving as it is too fine for the hand of a man. Banteay Srei was also not commissioned by the King at the time but one of his advisers. It was quite packed at the temple and as it was not very big, it made it a bit hard to move around freely. The stone carvings were very nice.

Our second temple was back in the Angkor area - Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is known for the fact that the jungle has had much more influence on it. It is covered in huge trees growing on it's ruins. It's big but alot is in ruin. Ta Prohm is a temple of towers. close courtyards and narrow corridors, many of which you can not enter.

Next was the 'small circuit' consisting of Banteay Samre, Ta Keo, Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon, Banteay Kdei and Sras Srang. Banteay Samre is in good condition due to some extensive restoration, however it has been ravaged by looters over the years. It is another temple that was once surrounded by water but no more.

Ta Keo is an undecorated temple as it was unfinished, possibly because the King died during it's construction. Ta Keo consists of five towers, a high central one surrounded by four smaller towers. It's summit is 50m high and didn't we know it. You could walk right up to the main tower in the middle. The stairs were very steep and not always even. We then went to Chau Say Tevoda and Thommanon, these two temples are twins and are across the road from each other. Chau Say Tevoda is not in as good condition as it's twin, although there is restoration ongoing to bring it up to scratch.

Banteay Kdei is a huge temple complex surrounded by four concentric walls. It is in a ruinous state due to it's hasty construction. There are garudas (bird/human creatures) at the entrances. Across the road is Sras Srang, it is more of a what used to be. It's simply a large lake which once had a temple on an island in the middle. All that's left is the island, bare of any temple.

We had used our day well and were at Pre Rup for the beginning of the sunset. The only problem was that it was an extremely overcast day and you could not see what you wanted to see. However it didn't stop scores of people crowding around the tallest tower to see (nothing). Pre Rup is very much like Ta Keo although not as big although the towers are not in as good shape.


Thursday 13th

Big big day today, we were up at 4:30am to be picked up at 5am to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. It was quite chilly as expected and very dark. We got something to eat before we crossed the moat, although all i had was a bread roll and a red bull. We could not see a thing all the way to Angkor Wat, i say this now because on the way out in the day light we could see how the causeway was all over the place in terms of places to trip up or roll your ankle.

Unfortunately it was another overcast day so we did not see the beautiful sunrise we were supposed to see, luck of the draw. On the plus side the temple was not busy, there were alot of people but the tour groups were starting to roll in when we left at 9:30am. The other bummer was that the front of the temple has scaffolding over it in the middle section, necessary i suppose but frustrating.

Angkor Wat on it's first level surrounding the temple has huge and detailed 3D carvings depicting historical Cambodian events and Hindu stories, they're called bas-reliefs. The Cambodia guidebook was enough for us to get the jist of what was depicted on the bas-reliefs. 

We were able to go all the way to the top of the highest Angkor Wat tower but it had proper wooden stairs built over it's old stone stairs. You can see the old stairs they used to use, i can remember when i went to Angkor Wat with my family that Heather and I went up and came down on a different side and it was very hard to do. All of these staircases have been blocked off.

We then met up with our driver and had breakfast, it was good value this time. Next stop was Angkor Thom, the largest complex at Angkor, it's more like a citadel, with many things inside it's walls. We started at the Bayon, the second most famous temple after Angkor Wat. It's where all of the towers have faces on them, 216 faces to be exact.

Second was the Baphoun, which you can only view as it is not safe to go up and is closed off. The Baphoun is a pyramidal representation of Mt. Meru (think Mt. Olympus in Greek Mythology), the rear of the temple has an unfinished reclining Buddha carved into the wall, this was done hundreds of years later.

We walked from the Baphoun to the Phimeanakas, another pyramid looking temple representing Mt. Meru. It was around midday at this time and the heat did not help the way we felt. We had a look at the temple but did not climb the steep stairs. We soldiered on and walked to Preah Palilay and what's left of Tep Pranam, which isn't much more than some stone slabs. We went across to road to our tuk tuk and i ran over to get a picture of the Preah Pithu group. On the way out we saw the terrace of the lepers, the terrace of the elephants and the Kleangs on the other side, which are big towers.

Unfortunately since we had to get up so early to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise it made us so tired and we really didn't want to do anything. Eventhough we started small and built up, i feel it's probably best to do Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom on your first day if you're going to do three days. It would also seem possible to do alot around the Angkor temples if you only had one day and you started at Angkor Wat for sunrise and finished off at sunset. It was still 1pm by the time we left Angkor Thom so we had still had near to a full day (5am-1pm) eventhough we didn't look at all of Angkor Thom's temples properly.


Friday 14th

We didn't particularly sleep in as we went to bed early but we didn't get out of bed til 11am. We went back to the other market where Kay got quoted the best price for the bracelet she wanted. The bracelet in question she did not get, but bought two others instead. I had a look at the t-shirts but they were not as good quality as the Vietnamese ones and i bought some reed/silk placemats and coasters for home. Basically every place in the market sold the same things. DVDs are $2 each, whereas we paid between $0.50 and 0.75 in Vietnam so we didn't get any.

Phnom Penh

Tuesday 4th

We were told to be ready by 8:30am, we were eating our breakfast at the place next door to our hotel when the bus turned up at 8:15am to collect us, so we didn't get to finish our food. Worst of all i was having a soup so i couldn't take it with me and i hadn't had much as it was still hot. Waste of money that was.We left Sianoukville at 9:30am, eventhough we were on the bus waiting, there were people who came late and we had to pick up more people from another bus office.

We arrived four hours later in Phnom Penh to a horde of tuk tuk drivers wanting us business. We went to our hotel of choice (Spring Guesthouse), which the tuk tuk driver insisted was no good (opposite to Lonely Planet's view) and that we should go to his suggestion, love the feeling of proving them wrong, $9 a night, beautiful. The plan was to have yum cha for dinner, well at least some dumplings, as we had two Chinese restaurants close by, neither had any. We went to a Khmer restaurant instead.


Wednesday 5th

Kay was still wanting prawn dumplings, luckily Monivong Blvd. which leads to the central market had many Chinese restaurants, including one that sold dumplings.

We got to the market and had  a look around, pretty much the same stuff you see everywhere, although there were a heap of watch stores in the centre and jewellery stores down another side. We had decided to get a watch since Kay's phone is our only source of the time and we have had it die on us previously. I'm not a watch person (although i might get one in Bangkok) so it was a watch for Kay. We looked at so many from the one store, after half an hour of deciding and bargaining we got a very nice '(and i mean very nice) 'Rado' watch for $20, down from $35.

I wasn't particularly after anything as i got what i immediately needed in Vietnam but i did finally find a belt that i wanted. After very hard bargaining, more so because i wasn't fussed if i got it or not, meaning i was a real hard arse, i got my 'Louis Vuitton' belt for $10, down from $25. They played the "i make no profit"card yet still gave it to me for that price as i walked away, fancy selling something for no profit.

Once again most of the day was consumed by shopping, i can't imagine what it's going to be like in Bangkok when we really plan to shop.


Thursday 6th

Today was dedicated to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda (next door to one another). We didn't realise that the Palace had a siesta so we had to wait 45 minutes to get in, which wasn't too bad as it allowed us to rest after our long walk in the middle of the day heat. It was quite hot today, however when you found some shade, combined with a nice breeze, it was not too bad. The main thing when it comes to the heat in Cambodia is the sun, when you're directly in it, you really feel it.

There was a whole bunch of people waiting to get it, some women were rejected for being under-dressed (idiots), it's common knowledge that you (boys included) must cover the shoulders and knees (shorts ok, not short shorts) in Buddhist countries before entering a pagoda or respectful sight like a Palace. The guidebook which was printed in March '09 stated $3 for entry and $2 for a camera, entry was $6.25 regardless of camera or not, talk about a price hike.

I suppose the Palace is one of those things you do in Phnom Penh, but you can't really see much and the entry fee in no way reflects what you do see. On the way back we stopped off at a Belgian chocolate shop for a rest and nibble. It was very nice. We also found a proper dim sum place on our way back and had a few things to eat (not a full meal) as the other Chinese place didn't suffice.


Friday 7th

We went to the Killing Fields of  Choeng Ek and S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison today. We started at the killing fields, which are located 13km out of Phnom Penh. We considered renting a bike but the traffic within Phnom Penh is pretty bad, although not as many people as Saigon, there are many more cars. Although it worked out fine because we got a tuk tuk driver to take us to the killing fields and drop us at Tuol Sleng for $8 (he opened at $13).

If you know about this period in Cambodian history then you can skip this paragraph and the next. In 1975 a group called the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia. Soon after taking Phnom Penh from the Lon Nol regime they moved everyone out of the city. This was Year Zero, a fresh start for Pol Pot's utopia. Over the next three and a bit year's millions of Cambodians were used as slave labour on projects and rice fields. About two million people were either killed or starved to death during this period. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 and liberated  it's people.

The irony is that the West (mainly the US) helped the Khmer Rouge take power and did nothing to help the people of Cambodia. In fact they condemned Vietnam for invading Cambodia. It must be said that Vietnam's main reason for invading was that the Khmer Rouge were causing problems on the border and the war hardened Vietnamese had had enough. Pol Pot was never brought to justice for his crimes, he died of old age in 1998. Many of his comrades have been charged, thirty year's too late though.

Tuol Sleng was a once a school before it became S-21. The killing field of Choeng Ek was the principal killing field for prisoners from S-21, there are many more like it all over the country. Over 20 000 people went through S-21 during it's operation, all but seven ended up in the killing field. When it was abandoned due to the coming Vietnamese forces, there were fourteen dead people and the aforementioned seven survivors left in Tuol Sleng. The Khmer Rouge, like the Nazi's were meticulous record keepers, every person that went through S-21 had their photo taken and a file kept on them. Some of the photos are displayed on giant boards at the prison now.

The killing field contains over 100 mass graves, although not all have been exhumed, the largest had over 300 bodies inside it. At the site is a memorial stupa, which contains the skulls of thousands of the people that died there. If you look carefully you can see how some of them died, be it a hole from a bullet or a 'cut' from a knife (well machete). In an effort to save bullets not all were shot. Many were killed with primitive instruments such as hoes, axe handles and even palm leaves (the sharp ones).



There were constant hassles in Phnom Penh, we were been asked if we wanted a tuk tuk or moto a hundred times a day, it became really annoying. The other thing bout Phnom Penh is the volume of cars and the fact that there is no on-street parking, rather they park on the FOOTpath, facing the shops of course. Phnom Penh is definitely not pedestrian friendly. Walks become so much longer because you're constantly side stepping cars, bikes and the wares of shops. It's actually easier to walk on the side of the road, albeit more dangerous.

Sianoukville

Friday 31st

We thought we better book ahead since we had trouble in Kampot with finding accommodation and the fact that we would be getting in on NYE, we called about 20 places on the 29th and the only one that actually had a room was charging $40 and it was only a fan room. We took this as we had no other option.

We got into Sianoukville around 2pm, put our stuff in our rooms and immediately went out to look for our next hotel. Straight away we were hassled by tuk tuk drivers, one said that everyone was booked and that he could take us to the other side of town to a place that might not be full, oh yeah...for $5. No thanks. The entire beach area was covered in hotels so we figured we'd try there first. We asked at a few and they had rooms but wanted way too much, the third try had a room and we got it down to $20 (on arrival she gave us air con as well). So we booked there for the next three nights, so much for everything being full. I should note that they wanted $40 for NYE as well, so it would appear everyone hiked they're prices up. It was basically across the road which was very convenient.The area we stayed in was called Occhuteal Beach. The hotels were less than 100m away.


Before dinner we went to the mini mart where we got a bottle of vodka and coke for $7.50. The mart also had fireworks so i indulged myself. We had dinner at the place next door to our next hotel as well as NYE drinks. $2 buckets, $2 cocktails and $1 mixers. We went to the beach after dinner, it's not a very big beach in terms of depth, it is however 4km long. The sand was full of revellers letting off fireworks, although they all seemed to have the same shitty ones. We went back to the restaurant to sit and drink some more as they were cheaper than the beach side establishments. In hindsight this was not a god move, considering we had a bottle of vodka to drink.

Before heading to the beach i got some more fireworks. There was no countdown (even in Khmer) and no official fireworks. Since people were constantly letting them of it was hard to tell when new year's was without looking at the time. By 1:30am we weren't in the best of shape, Kay felt sick so we headed back, along the way i was talking shit to anyone who would listen, or not listen. Like clockwork after going inside our room, Kay was throwing up in the toilet and i followed in the sink. Overall a good night, bar that.


Saturday 1st

We had to get up to move hotels, which wasn't very pleasant to do. We went straight to bed, i wasn't feeling good and threw up again after midday. We didn't go out for lunch, i tend not to be hungry when hungover. We did a combination of sleeping and watching t.v all afternoon. Went out for dinner, did nothing more.

Sunday 2nd

We got up very late, went out for lunch and went along the beach. Surprisingly the beach was full of locals, not tourists. The street we were on was full of restaurants and at night they all had a bbq out the front. We went to a place that was full of people for dinner, it was pretty good as well.

Monday 3rd

We went to the same restaurant that we had dinner at for lunch. Today was the day that we would finally go to the beach!! The nicest beach (Otres Beach) was 7km away so we decided to go there instead of the packed Occhuteal or Serendipity beaches. We rented bicycles for the trip, the bikes were pretty crap, hard seats, bad brakes and both were to tall for Kay. Weird considering she's the same height as the average Cambodian girl.

The ride was fine (other than the seat) until we got to a dirt road, which is very hard on a non-mountain bike. We eventually got to Otres Beach, the water was crystal clear and the sand was an off-white colour. The water was very shallow, we had to go in so far just to get shoulder deep. It was the typical Cambodian day - 30+ degrees and the water was warm but very very nice. We spent a few hours here. Unfortunately, eventhough we charged Kay's camera the night before, the battery was dead so we could not take any photos. 

We went to the beach for dinner, although they were doing the same things as everywhere else. It was annoying on the beach as we had beggers and people selling shit constantly asking us. Some kids actually took some bread of the guy on the table next to us.


Sianoukville was a place where we were meant to do things, particularly since we didn't do much in Kep and Kampot. We decided against renting a motorbike since the police like to 'fine' tourists, we saw many being pulled over. Prices for tours in Cambodia are so much more expensive than in Vietnam, just to go to Ream National Park was $22 and snorkeling trips were $15+. Nha Trang was better than Sianoukville, although Otres Beach was very very nice and the perfect place for a relaxing dip. I would say Sianoukville is worth visiting, we just didn't ultilise our time here effectively, although NYE was to blame.

Sianoukville was annoying in terms of touts. We were constantly bombarded with offers of moto and tuk-tuk rides. You couldn't walk out of your hotel without someone asking you.They don't seem to realise that if we want to go somewhere, we will ask. You shouldn't bother asking when you can see we've walked past five who asked us already. Even if we wanted to go on a tuk-tuk, they simply asked way to much for the distance and time of your trip.

Kampot

Tuesday 28th

We were due to leave Kep for Kampot at 11:30am, we waited on the side of the road for two hours!!! And still no bus came, well not our bus. We went up to the hotel to enquire, he made some phone calls and refunded our money. Great. We got a tuk-tuk to the main part of town where a travel agent was, we booked another company and were off to Kampot finally at 2:30pm. The Kep tuk-tuk drivers were very greedy, wanting $2 to literally go 1km down the road and would not go below $1. Put it this way, it's $4 for a four hour bus ride. The wait was further compounded by the fact that neither of us had eaten anything all day.

We arrived in Kampot within an hour and went to The Magic Sponge for our first night as they only had one night available. We put our stuff in our room and went searching for our next hotel. Our street was full of them but the first four we went to were fully booked!!!! Luckily we found one which wasn't, same price as the Sponge so it was fine. The Sponge had a mini golf course so we played two games as Kay beat me the first time and i could not let that stand lol. I won the second game, with a much better score than her winning score. By this stage we discovered my arms and neck were sunburnt. This was considering we were in partial shade waiting for the bus. I didn't wear sunsceen as i thought i would just be on the bus and wouldn't be waiting too long.

We went for a walk along the riverside for dinner and ate there.


Wednesday 29th

Very lazy day, we got up, went to our new guesthouse and watched t.v. We then had lunch, went to a massage by the blind place and got shiatshu massages ($4/hr), which was painful in some parts of my back but i didn't wake up sore the next day so it was ultimately fine.

Eventhough we didn't do much the time seems to fly when you've got cable t.v with lots of things on, we particularly watch national geographic and discovery channel. The movie channels are constantly repeating the same movies.



Thursday 30th

Today we went for a big walk around town, we decided not to get a motorbike or bikes, which in hindsight was silly. The map we had and the few streets surrounding our street made the whole place seem quite small, but it wasn't.

The plan was to cross the river and go to the zoo, we crossed the river and when we saw the next major point of the railway was ages away we decided to turn back. On the way back we went through the market, which was quite crappy. It was very cramped, the roof was so low in some parts that i had to duck my head and...it smelt. By this time we had been out and about for hours so we headed back.



All in all Kampot isn't worth visiting unless like us, you have the time. The guide describes it as a place "you come and feel, not do", but we already did that in Kep. The other main attraction is the nearby Bokor Hill station, but that was $22 for a tour there, which is very pricey considering what it involves - not that much. It turned out to be a good decision because on our way to Sianoukville the travelers sitting behind us were talking about it and they weren't saying anything good at all.

Kep

Saturday 25th

We left Phnom Penh at 9:30am for our 3 hour trip to Kep on Cambodia's South Coast, very close to the Vietnam border. Cambodia's roads have one of the worst reputations in South East Asia but it wasn't too bad on the way to Kep. I would say it was better than Vietnam simply because there wasn't so many people on the road and so many villages/towns along the way. The bus was 50/50 Cambodians and foreigners, with several locals getting off at stops along the way.

We got off in the centre of town and got a tuk-tuk to take us to our hotel of choice - it was only available for tonight, booked out thereafter. So we went to a some places up the road. One was the same situation, another was absolutely terrible (fit for a dog) and others too pricy. We decided to check out the place that our driver recommended, we tend not to listen to them because they get commissions to do so. It was suitable, only $10 with a fan but no hot water and no tv. Alot of places didn't have it so we had to settle.

Small town, buddhist country = nothing for Christmas.

Sunday 26th


Had a very lazy day today. Went for a walk for lunch and did alot of reading, which was good because i haven't done any and now i've got right into it - The Silmarillion (again, very difficult and confusing book the first time). We had dinner at the crab market restaurants again at sunset, took some great photos. The water looked like liquid silver (think Stargate portal/event horizon). We had Kampot pepper crab, fried squid and grilled fish. The other thing about Kep is that you can see the stars so clearly at night.


Monday 27th


Hired a bike today and went all around Kep.We went down to the market, which was so small, not worth it at all. We went to a Wat up in the mountains, it was very hard going up steep dirt roads on a 110cc bike with Kay and I on board, i had to go into first at one stage.

We then went to a small village off the main road where i helped a man get the rice out of the rice plant, ten locals came to watch (and laugh). Next stop on the other side of Kep was a Cham village. The Cham are a minority in Cambodia, you can tell because they're Muslims. Saw a far few (of the women) around Kep.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Sunday 19th

We were on the bus at 7:45am to leave for Saigon but we didn't leave til 8:15am for some reason, if we knew this, we would've had breakfast. About an hour from Dalat I realised that i didn't have my passport, Kay didn't have hers or mine either...the Dalat hotel forgot to give them to us and it didn't cross our minds. Not good. We had their card so we rang and they would send it to Saigon to arrive tomorrow.

The ride wasn't too bad but it was quite long considering the distance we needed to travel, particularly as we got close to Saigon where the traffic was very heavy and slow. We arrived around 3pm, went to our hotel of choice and relaxed. We went out for dinner in the area, hit up by several people asking if i wanted (low voice) "marijuana" and plenty of sunglasses and book salespersons.

Monday 20th

We slept in and headed to Ben Thanh market to have lunch and shop. There were many street style stores within the market. The one we ate at tried to rip us off, our meals were 35 000VND each and we had a drink each plus Kay had some Durian. They wanted 210 000VND, how is it that two drinks and some fruit could cost 140 000VND? We debated this and they gave us a better price, although i still feel we were ripped off. We informed some German girls who sat down as we were leaving about the rout.

We spent 2.5 hours shopping! I got some shirts, hunted for a gucci bag but the belts were two short, Kay got sunglasses, make up and some bangles. There was alot more touting from the shopkeepers than in previous markets, some were very forceful. One lady actually grabbed my forearm with some force trying to get me in. Once again the t-shirt person tried to rip me off. First offer was 950 000VND, i stayed firm on 300 000VND and we finished on 310 000VND. They always try to tell you how it's better quality and all that bullshit.

On the way back we went round the travel agencies to get quotes for  Mekong and Cu Chi tours plus our ticket to Cambodia. We got our Mekong tour for $7, Cu Chi for $4 and our ticket to Phnom Penh for $10. We also got a $2 discount overall. We wanted to go straight to Vietnam's lowest border crossing since we wanted to start off on Cambodia's southern coast but we had to go to Phnom Penh first and connect from there. We could've done what we wanted but it would mean a combination of local transport on both sides of the border and would certainly cost more than $10 each.

Tuesday 21st

We went to the Mekong Delta today, left early in the morning, almost missed our bus due to bit of a stuff up but the agency. It felt like we never left Saigon because they was continual shops and houses on the road all the way to the Delta.

Once we arrived we got on a boat and headed to Tortoise Island where we had lunch. Lunch was fairly poor. The set lunch was fried pork with rice, funny considering there was a group of 10 Malaysian Muslims within our group. 14 people ended up not getting pork and had to settle for good 'ol tofu, unless you wanted to buy something else of course. Kay doesn't like pork so we had a beef dish to share.

From there we got back on the water and went to a place that made coconut lollies, which were pretty nice. We also had coconut whiskey and lemon honey tea (really nice). They had a python which people were allowed to have on there shoulders (15kgs) . It was an interesting experience since it wrapped itself around 80% of my neck and was either looking at me or trying to, not a nice feeling. It was incredible to feel the snake's muscles move.

We got onto smaller boats this time and got to our bus. The day went so fast, it would seem that half the time was actually travelling to and from the Delta. No wonder they offer two and three day trips. I think it was better the last time i did it.

Wednesday 22nd

Today we went to the Cu Chi tunnels which were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Another long journey considering it wasn't too far away. On the we way we stopped at a factory where disabled people made handicrafts, a good cause yes, but $20 for a wooden card holder? I can bet that the workers don't get even half of that.

For some reason our group of 20 became 40 as we merged with another group. It was our tour guide who was 'guiding' everyone. This was absolutely terrible. Imagine trying to listen to someone with an accent and see what he is pointing out when you are surrounded by 40 odd people. By the time you could have a look and/or a picture he would be onto the next item.

I was expecting not to go into the tunnels because i was just small enough when i was 15 let alone now. However since then the first tunnel had been widened and made higher. It was still had for me, at some points my shoulders were wall to wall. It was very hot and yucky inside, quite tiring aswell.

Surprisingly when we got to the gun range i was the only person who wanted to shoot. It was $13 for 10 bullets on the AK-47. I did 6 shots on semi-automatic trying to hit the target then the last 4 on automatic. I remember the gun being alot stronger last time. Kay couldn't handle the gun fire at the range, it's loud but bearable.

We were there two hours and we were already returning to Saigon. We decided to go to the War Remnants museum on the way back since it was offered to us. It was now 3pm and we had not eaten since breakfast, we found a place called Latino bar and restaurant, it sold no Latin/Spanish food at all. By the time we ate, we didn't have time to go to the palace as it closed at 4pm, we would do that tomorrow. We went straight to the War Museum, which worked out fine as we were there til it almost closed at 5pm.

It had been done up since i was last there, it actually had a proper building and you could call it a proper museum, another notable absence was the still born babies that were preserved in jars, although there were pictures of them. The museum contained old weapons, artillery, tanks, planes and many photos of the War. A must see in Saigon.

Thursday 23rd

Slept in til 10am today, had lunch (left hotel at 12) and headed for the palace. We arrived after 1pm, which was when it reopened after the Vietnamese siesta from 11:30am-1pm. The clouds looked stormy but it was still very hot. The Reunification Palace as it is called now was the old South Vietnamese Presidential Palace pre-1975. We explored all the levels, it wasn't much to be honest. Alot of rooms for hosting people etc. When we were in the lower ground floor we heard rain, so we headed into a video room about the Vietnam War. We spent around 25 minutes watching and headed out. It had stopped raining thank god (alot of walking still to come).

We headed to the near by Notre Dame Cathedral, wanted to see the People's Committee Building but we got lost. This part of town is very fancy with Louis Vuitton and Rolex shops (real ones), as well as top 5 star hotels. We walked way too far and ended up at the Saigon River. So we double backed a bit and finally got to the market where we knew our way back.

I spoke to Steven Vo from school, who is back living in Vietnam now about meeting up. We had dinner with him and his girlfriend (yum cha) and went to a coffee shop where they were having a fashion show at the time. We didn't have long together because the traffic was hell (Steven has a car) and we had to be back before 12 midnight as we were to get up at 6am to get ready to go to Cambodia. Good to see him nonetheless.

It was very hot in Saigon the whole time. Would've been above 30 degrees without a doubt combined with humidity.

Friday 24th

Another early start for our journey to Phnom Penh. The bus was absolutely pumping the air con, everyone had shoved something in there air vents to stop it. Getting through the border was a breeze, they had x-rays and the sort but didn't use them at all.

We arrived in Phnom Penh around 2:30pm, got a tuk tuk to our hotel of choice and went straight to bed. Woke up before 6pm and headed out for dinner. The dinner was at a place full of Cambodians and a few tourists. The meals were huge and the Angkor beer very nice.

We leave for Kep tomorrow morning.

p.s already Kay has been mistaken for a Khmer three times!

Dalat

I forgot to mention in my last entry that i got sunburnt on the top and bottom of my back (the middle was fine) whilst snorkeling in Nha Trang, the top wasn't too bad, the bottom was quite red.


Thursday 16th

Left Nha Trang at 7:45am for our journey into the Central Highlands. It was a slow trip and we were winding up and down mountains and had to deal with dirt, pot-holed roads along the way. We arrived in Dalat around 12:30pm at a hotel/Sinh Cafe travel agency office. We went across the road and decided to stay at the Hang Nga Guesthouse, pretty big room, bathroom a little shabby and only $7 a night!.

We went to the market to have a look and have lunch as they had a proper food section upstairs. We were approached by many vendors wanting us to eat with them but all spoke little English and the signs/menus were in Vietnamese. Sure i could make out the key words of the meat but we had no idea what else it entailed, we could've chosen cow's heart soup. We found a place with a full English menu, but it was still a quasi-street stall. We ended up having all lunch here three times. For both of us having food and drink it was only 90 000VND ($4.50). It was good, didn't make us sick, cheap and had variety, so why not? :)

We went down to the lake, which was empty, so much for going on a paddle boat. They seemed to be building a bridge across it which required it to be dammed. It got chilly at night but nothing like Sapa. The locals all have coats and jackets on but i was out in shorts and a t-shirt. We went to V Cafe (two doors down) for dinner. Full of Westerners, over-priced but not too bad. The mashed potato was great.

Friday 17th

Just had a lazy day today. Went through the market for a better look, got some cashews and lollies. The lolly shops mostly sold dried fruits as opposed to the lollies we think off, although it was gummys that we bought. We tried some dried/sweet flower petals/buds, it was alright but i wouldn't buy it. We booked our ticket to leave for Saigon on Sunday and enquired about tours around Dalat. I would've preferred not to do a tour but Dalat's sights are not within walking distance and the streets are all over the place, not a grid like Nha Trang, so renting a motorbike was out of the question.

A tour would be $12 each and included alot of crap we didn't want to do. Whilst looking for more agencies we were approached by a local motorbike guide belonging to the 'Easy Rider' group, who have a good reputation. We negotiated with him to do what we wanted, it would cost $7.50 each and would take three hours. So we booked for tomorrow morning.

We went to a Korean place for dinner (first we've seen), they didn't have much on the menu and it was quite pricy for some of the meals. We both ordered Bulgogyi but both ended up with some soup, which luckily was pretty good. The lady's here had no English at all. I wanted to try Soju (Korean rice wine) since it was only $5 for a bottle (it's about $15 in Sydney). Wasn't that nice, luckily Kay helped to drink it, otherwise i would've been drunk. It was 19.5% and 365ml. Basically equivilant to eight shots of hard 40% liquor. Would not do it again unless it was shared among four people.

Saturday 18th

We meet our guides at 9am, grabbed some banh mi ga (Chicken rolls) for breakfast and were on our way to the 'Crazy House'. The whole house looks kind of like a tree, it's likened to Alice in Wonderland. There was giant spiderwebs, fake tigers and eagles in the bedrooms too. Weird but not worth seeing to be honest.

Second stop was Bao Dai's summer palace. Bao Dai was the last emperor of Vietnam. By palace standards it wasn't that big or grand at all. It looked more like a Government building inside and out. Another place that wasn't really worth seeing. There were alot of Vietnamese here so it holds some significance for them it would seem.

The third place we went to was Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) monastry which was situated next to a huge lake. It was the best monastry/pagoda by far that we have seen. Lots of flowers and a beautiful garden. Some hedges were even shaped into dragons. We both makes wishes and leaft incense at the Buddha. It was very busy here, our guides said that it is popular with Saigonese during the dry season on weekends.

Our final destination was Datania falls. We got the tabogen down to the falls. It was not a good experience. The idiots behind us were so stupid that they didn't look at ahead to see that the ride was over and crashed into us at full speed whilst we were stationary. My hat flew off and fell down into the bush. Both Kay and I had whiplash in our necks, it was not a nice feeling. I was in complete shock. The guy went and got my hat for me, although a punch to the back of his and his mate's necks would've sufficed. It ruined the whole experience for us. The falls were nice but not big by waterfall standards. We left and were dropped off at the market where we had lunch.

Overall Dalat doesn't really have that much to offer, it is different from other places in Vietnam. I would say it is worth visiting but only once.

Nha Trang

The bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang (12 hours overnight) was absolutely terrible! Much worse than the train to and from Sapa. At least with the train the bumps and jolts were consistent, this ride was so bad. I probably got four hours of sleep the whole night. I would recommend any future Vietnam travelers to fly to Nha Trang, it's worth the extra ~$40.

Monday 13th

As an introduction, think of Nha Trang as the Gold Coast of Vietnam - all about the beach and water based activities.

Arrived in Nha Trang around 7am, went into the backpacker alley (64 Tran Phu st) and went to our hotel of choice to find a room would not be available til 9am, we were not going to wait, no way. In this alley there is about 6-8 different hotels, all of which had people out the front wanting our business. The other hotel there which was in the LP guide was the An Hoa, which had rooms and it was only $8 a night! (No brekky though). We stayed here, only downside was the 63 steps up to the room (yes i counted), not nice when i've got to carry two ~20kg bags up (and down).

We did absolutely nothing today. Slept til midday, went to lunch, walked along the beach (right across the road) and had dinner at a grillhouse. It was a good meal although the most expensive so far for us, ~$24. Although the mixed grill i got would cost $30 minimum at any Hog's Breath style place in Australia.

There was very heavy rain and thunder overnight, but didn't last more than an hour.

Tuesday 14th

Today was another lazy day, we got our laundry done (100 000VND for 6.5 kg, which they ironed as well) and went to several travel agencies to inquire about tours. There was one called a "boat tour" which took you to the islands that lie off Nha Trang, but we found out this was like a "party" sort of thing and often had upto 40 people on board, no wonder it was only $5 p.p.

We thought about doing some diving ($38 one day, $60 for two) but decided we'll do it in Cambodia. The weather was quite gloomy in Nha Trang so we settled for snorkeling, the best price we found was $12 each and no more than 15 in the group. We booked for Wednesday.

In the afternoon we went to the beach, lazed on some armchairs (30 000VND each) and had a swim. The water was really nice, although there was rubbish in the water close to shore. Waves were not big and the water got deep enough for my feet not to touch the bottom around 10m in. We left just before sunset and found a lobster lady which we had been looking for. We had a lobster and a crab for 300 000VND ($15) on the beach, we both hadn't tried it before so what better opportunity, eventhough it was still expensive for something that had so little meat inside, it was undoubtedly cheaper than in Sydney i'm sure. We also bought a whole pineapple, mango and 6 bananas for 50 000VND ($2.50) just before we left.

Wednesday 15th

Up early to be picked up at 8am, had the pineapple for breakfast, got on a boat, the ride lasted 40 minutes during which time i put my sunscreen on. It was an absolutely beautiful day, hadn't seen the sun out like this for weeks, probably mid 20s with a nice breeze. Got to our first spot called Mun Island where we first dived off the top of the boat then got our gear on. Snorkeling was hard to get used to at first, i felt like i was at the dentist with the mouthpiece in my mouth. Getting water in your breathing thing wasn't nice either. It was a very good experience, will definitely snorkel in the future. We saw lots of coral (although not colourful) and lots of small fish. The second spot was Mot Island, not as nice as Mun, couldn't see as much in the water. For some reason alot of people didn't go in this time. The tour guides went fishing for sea cucumbers but found none.

We had a seafood lunch, although i didn't eat any of the seafood. Having had mouthfuls and nosefuls of sea water, which was the most 'sea' tasting i've ever experienced for a few hours put me off seafood well and truly for the day. On the way back to Nha Trang we went to a fishing village and had a look at what they were farming.

Arrived back around 3pm and decided to hire a motorbike before the sun went down and go to the Cham Towers and Long Son Pagoda. We got so lost on the way to the pagoda, it was alot busier on the road than Hoi An and some of the round abouts were quite odd, i almost went into on coming traffic 'cause i wanted to go straight but we had to go right to go straight ???.

Finally got there, we were greeted by four 'tour guides' who told us all about the pagoda. They were orphans who lived at the pagoda, although they were all young adults. They were so friendly...until we didn't want to pay $10 for a pack of postcards (the going rate is $1). We were willing to donate money to their orphanage but they wouldn't have a bar of it. After 5 minutes of discussion and us still not accepting a pack for $5 they stormed off, swearing at us in English and Vietnamese (i picked up on a "Du Ma"). It was quite disgusting behaviour. Mind you the money was for them - to pay for English lessons. Not in fact for the orphanage. It left a very sour taste in our mouths.

We soldiered on and got to the Cham towers. Very bad time on the roads not, parents were picking up their kids from school and whenever you got to a school you could see the traffic jam from 50m away. The towers are very much like the ruins at My Son but it was fully in tact and the tallest by far, there was a great view of the city from here. Got back to the hotel safely. Went to Bar Oz (run by an Aussie) for dinner, cheap but not that good (or filling). We packed our bags for Dalat, would be leaving at 8am the next day.

To add to a new pair of Canterbury pants that i need to buy back in Oz, i dropped my electric toothbrush and broke half of the metal part that moves, it still works fine but i might as well get a new one when i get back home.

In Dalat now but i'll keep that for a separate post.