asia-ash

North Vietnam

da_misfit — Tue, 6 May 2008 14:28:00 GMT

After a long train ride, where we had to get off for border checks at 1am and 4am, we got into Hanoi at 8am. Not much else was on the agenda for that day as we were pretty buggered.

The next morning we got up bright and early and did a walking tour around the old quarter where we were staying. That took the best part of the day visiting such areas as the lake. All the streets in the old quarter are named after the product in which they used to sell (and some still do)for example cotton street, aluminium street, herb street.

We really noticed the humidity coming back into Vietnam, so we had a bit of rest time in the afternoon.

Over the next couple of days in Hanoi it rained on and off. We did go to an australian run street kid restaurant called Koto. It had really great food there. There was a tour group there also from Australia, there tour leader was a vietnamese chef who used to appear on the bert newton show (I cant remember her name).

We booked a trip to Halong Bay through our hotel (we shouldn't have booked it through them in the end.) So the next morning we got a very bumpy minibus ride to Halong City at 8am.

We boarded our boat at around 11am and our group consisted of 16 of us. 10 of which were Aussies. We settled in for an early lunch we were seated with a Swiss couple in their 40's who turned out not to eat meat or seafood so we had a lot of food to eat.

We headed off cruising out to Halong Bay for the next couple of hours. We got off to have a look at the suprising cave and then an hour of sea kayaking before settling in for some beers. The Kayaking was fun but limited to where we could go.

We all got to know each other a little better after some dinner and drinks. Only one brave soul did kareoke, some people went squid fishing the rest of us just chatted and drank.

The next morning we left a majority of the group and were left with us,the swiss couple and another young australian couple. We were headed to Cat Ba Island. Our days activities included a 20k bike ride, which turned out to be 6k's. A trek of Cat Ba national park, which ended up being a stroll on a track into the start of the forest. It was pretty disappointing. In the afternoon we were dropped at our hotel and left to our own devices.

Matt and I showered and rested before heading off to explore the esplanade. We enjoyed a 2000 dong bia hoi (draft beer in a mug- $1 is around 15,000, very cheap beer.) Which we followed off with a $5 cocktail overlooking the ocean.

We caught up with the swiss once more over dinner and then said our goodbyes as we were heading off in our own direction the next day.

The last of China

da_misfit — Fri, 2 May 2008 14:46:00 GMT

Today is our last day in China. We catch a sleeper train this afternoon bound for Vietnam. While there has been some really enjoyable parts of China. It has been our least favourite and has many times been a struggle. So we are really excited to be heading to Vietnam. The rest of our stay has been in Guilin. As they have had there may labour day holidays we struggled to get accommodation initially. We stayed near the train station on our first night to get to the station early to purchase our tickets. After this time succeeding we decided to move into the centre of town at a hostel near the mall. We really wanted to make a day trip to Longsheng to see the rice terraces but it has rained the whole time while we have been here (the umbrella pad gave me has really come in handy). So we have mainly just hung around town, looked at the shops walked around the river etc. We did however, take in another show! This one was held in a theatre a block away from where we are staying. This one was also spectacular. This one was a more cultural story about how the rice terraces came to be. It was a dance, music and acrobatic performance and was just amazing. The money we spent on these show was well worth it. And so cheap, if you went to one of these type performances in Australia they would cost hundreds of $. We spent about $20aud on each. So its good bye to China. We have about one month left to go.

Yungshuo

da_misfit — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:13:00 GMT

From Kunming we took a soft sleeper train to Gulin. The trip was pretty uneventful except the man across from me snored so loudly. We decided to head straight to Yungshuo from Gulin instead of sticking around. We had booked our accommodation outside of town, like we did in Dali so we would have more countryside around us. The guesthouse was nice and only a year old. Our first afternoon/night we had a quiet one and just ate at our accommodation and watched a dvd. The next morning we hired mountain bikes and decided to go off in search for the most famous sight in the area "moon hill'. It was a fun ride out there and for once a fairly easy place to find. We walked the 1000+ stairs (apparently someone has counted them) and got to the main area. This is where we got pretty much mobbed by young chinese tourists asking for a photo with us. It happens quite a bit and is just plain strange. But we obliged. We got told about a track that took you to the absolute peak of the hill. We made our way up this fairly steep and slippery track but the views were definately worth it. We rode into town after we finished there and had a massive lunch and a couple of beers. The next day we thought we should purchase our train ticket to Vietnam so we could have that sorted out. We took the local bus to Guilin to do just that. We arrived at the train station to see that the ticket area was absolutely packed. We jumped into a line and waited... And waited and waited. After many people pushed in we finally got to the counter 45 minutes later. We started to tell the lady what ticket we wanted and she simply wrote on a piece of paper counter 7 at 3pm. We weren't sure why but thought it must be because it was an international ticket. We were a little annoyed but went and got some lunch until 3pm. We got there at 2:45 and already the line was huge. After another 30 minutes we got to the front of the counter to be told that they could only sell those tickets 3 days in advance. So by this stage we were pretty pissed off. Particularly when we found out that the other lady didn't serve us because we were foriegners and that only line 7 did. But she could have at least told us we wouldn't be able to purchase that ticket anyway... Our next day in Yungshuo we were back into the mountain biking. We decided to explore the area and try and find a few more sights. After about 1 hour into our riding we were approached by a lady offering to show us to the dragon bridge. We tried to decline but in the end had no choice really. We were quite lucky we did follow her because there were so many little tracks in every direction we would never have found our way. We had a really enjoyable ride through little villages and around rice paddies in a very scenic area near the river. Around another hour later we got to the dragon bridge which was built in the 1400's. From there we took a bamboo raft downstream to about 10k's outside Yungshuo town. We rode into town and had another big lunch there. We decided to spend a couple of nights in Yungshuo town to experience more of the town life. We got a nice place to stay that had internet access in the room! It was located on the main street which was blocked off to traffic. It was a nice area but rained most of the time so we didn't do very much. The last good thing we did in yungshuo was went to a show on the water. It was held at night and directed by a famous chinese director. It was show with 600 performers and was mainly a visual performance of colours lights and dance. It was called Impressions and was awesome. We had great seats and really really enjoyed it.

Back to Kunming

da_misfit — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:01:00 GMT

Well have started this journal a number of times and the computer has crashed so will just see how this one goes.

After a 5 hour bus trip we arrived back from Dali and had planned to stay in a hostel near Green Lake. We hadn't booked but had a brochure. We took a taxi right there and little did we know but it had closed down. So we checked our guide and found another place around the area, a little more expensive and set out on foot to find it.

After one hour we decided that the map was wrong and we couldn't find the university let alone the hotel we would once again cab it. We arrived at this hotel for it to be double the price that the guide book said- out of our price range. This sets the scene for a fairly frustrating 5 following days.

We cabbed back into the town area and chose a well known guesthouse near where we had stayed before. Basically we found Kunming to just be a big city with not much substance. The people weren't at all friendly or helpful (mostly).

We spent alot of time not achieving very much and when we did some things weren't that pleasant. Take the zoo for example. What a hideous, depressing place. The animals aren't kept very well. Anyway just not nice. By the end of Kunming we were busting to leave.

The best part of the place was the lake which was bustling with life and was very pleasant to walk around.

Dali- old town

da_misfit — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:36:00 GMT

We caught an 8 hour train to Dali the very next day and looked forward to settling somewhere for a little while. Derrick, from the Irish bar in Kampot, advised us on a guesthouse a little outside Dali. We arrived to find an Australian barman and a very lovely clean guesthouse.

We got given the best room - the one with an awesome view of the mountain range. We settled in with a beer or two and some chinese food. We had a quiet and early night.

The next day we set off into town to see some of the sights. Dali old town has city walls and has gates to the north, east, south and west. That and the cobblestoned roads makes it a very pretty and interesting place.

After much discussion and getting ourselves lost several times we caught a mini bus to the chairlift up the mountain we could see from our bedroom window. It was a long way up and had the most stunning views. We did a 5 km round walking trip across valleys and a river. The tops of part of this mountain range had visible snow which was exciting for us. We took many photos of the view that just kept getting better and better the more we walked.

Over the next few days we headed into the city most days and just wondered and checked out other sights. We also got well acquainted with others at our guesthouse and the bar.

About a 5 minute walk from our guesthouse there was part of the massive lake that sits over the other side of town and we found ourselves spending alot of afternoons walking down to the jetty.

Dali was one of our highlights, such a nice, scenic and friendly town. It seems that people often get sort of 'stuck' there because of its atmosphere. If we didn't have a time limit I could see us doing the same thing. The travellers there were also of a similar mind set and personalities as us.

One funny thing about Dali is, there are these older women who dress up in the traditional Bai (local village) clothes and then approach the tourists (us included) and ask 'you want to buy the gungas'. These innocent looking ladies, who look so cute, are peddling drugs!

Matt's birthday

da_misfit — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:26:00 GMT

We got into Kunming on the morning of Matt's birthday. After 32hours on the bus, in the same clothes without showering or even brushing our teeth we were in desperate need of a wash and change.

Thanks to Pad, Matt decided that we should upgrade to some nice accommodation for the night and treat ourselves. We checked in to one of the best hotels in Kunming (Kunming Hotel). We got in just in time to be allowed to go straight into the room. After both having the longest and best showers of our lives we rested and watched some tv for a short time.

We had a couple of jobs to do afterwards. We went to the hospital, which after a few false starts worked out excellent. We went and got our tickets for the next day for a train to Dali. We were quickly learning that China was going to be harder work than we previously had experienced on the trip. It was also going to take twice as long to accomplish anything due to having no mandarin.

For the rest of the day we rested and appreciated our hotel. They visited us with fruit and water. We ordered room service for lunch and really relaxed. We also treated ourselves to dinner and drinks that night at the hotel across the road. We had a thai dinner on the 18th floor that overlooked the city. We felt very spoilt.

A long journey

da_misfit — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:15:00 GMT

We were to leave Laos at 10pm to go to China on a sleeper bus. The bus station was a fair way out of town and at a sort of Lao diner. There were 2 other westerners(americans) waiting as well.

When we booked our bus ticket the lady at the travel agent told us we could only book a ticket to just over the border (Mohan) and then would have to get a new bus and ticket there. Very easy she says.

We get talking to the Americans and they have been sold a ticket all the way to Kunming- which was where we intended to go. We were a little perplexed at this stage. Anyway we waited and waited for the bus. It arrived a little after 11pm. Then everyone got off for a dinner break. Half an hour later we were on our way.

The first thing we noticed about the bus was that it said it was going all the way to Kunming. Thankfully our new American friends knew Mandarin and asked the driver if we could change our ticket to get to Kunming. Eventually, its a long story, but we were allowed to stay on the bus and made it the whole way.

It was a long, long trip and 32 hours after boarding the bus we arrived at our destination. The border crossing was a lot easier than I imagined. However, we were to stay at the border for around 3 hours. This is where we got to taste our first real chinese food. It was quite an experience because we know none of the language. So it was a pointing affair. We pointed at a vegetable and a meat and the next thing you know we had a stirfry before us!

The food we had on the trip was some of the best chinese we have had so far.

Bit more on Laos

da_misfit — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:05:00 GMT

So the last Lao blog was a bit rushed and not done in the best conditions. A bit more to add- in Luang Nam Tha we met up again with the English couple that we met in Cambodia. That was such a nice suprise. We had a beer and a catch up and this time remembered to get email addresses.

One of our last days in Luang Prabang we also did a Lao cooking course. It was run by the 3 elephant cafe and was heaps of fun. We cooked 5 different dishes and learnt a 6th. There were only 4 of us on the course which was good. An American guy from Washington who was working at a school in Bangladesh and a Japanese girl who had done lots of travelling.

We started out by going to the market and checking out the main fresh ingrediants used in lao cooking. We also saw somethings there that made your stomach turn - like blood jelly.

The Lao food was really easy to make and very tasty. They included in the class a recipe book to bring home. I look forward to testing my new skills on family and friends.

The rest of Laos

da_misfit — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 16:07:00 GMT

Because I am so far behind, I will sum up the rest of our time in Laos in this one blog.

After Hauy Xai we headed to Luang Nam Tha. We didn't much like Hauy Xai the town in itself. Luang Nam Tha seemed quite small but we liked it. We found a really great place to stay. We hired a moto one day and crusied around finding adventures for ourselves. We went to this boat house place for lunch and it had really great Lao food. Tried to find a village that makes bamboo paper but couldn't.

Another day there we did a kayaking day trip. It was really fun. They had some small rapids and that was the best bit. Along the way we also stopped in to two villages and met some ladies from the Lantern tribe (including the cheifs wife). Also went to a Khmu village.

After Luang Nam Tha we headed north east to Nong Kiaw. It was a really beautiful town surrounded by mountains and limestone krasts. We hired push bikes here and once again did our own exploring. We checked out some caves and rode through some small villages until the heat got us and we headed home. We stayed there a couple of days in some really nice bungalows. We then got a boat an hour up river to a town that could only be reached by boat as there are no roads to it and it is also surrounded by mountains. So it sounded pretty unreal. And we had met so many people that said it was great. We were disappointed with it and didn't really enjoy it. We thought Nong Kiaw was much nicer.

It may have been more enjoyable if it hadn't been to hot to do a trek or something.

Anyway we are now back in Luang Prabang and have been for a couple of days. We leave on a sleeper bus tonight for China. We wrote ourselves off last night for our last night in Laos. We were ridiculously drunk and are surely paying for it today. Especially since we have had to check out of our accommodation and basically have no where to go until 9pm. Warning Beer Bomb Buckets are alot stronger than they seem.

The Gibbons

da_misfit — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:07:00 GMT

This blog will probably be a bit dull since I am well hung over today and have are so far behind in my blog updates.

We headed off with a group of 6 others about 30km outside of Hauy xai. We reached a small village off the main road and waited to meet our guides for the experience. I was so nervous about the zip lines. Once we swapped a couple of people with the other group heading out we started the first of many treks.

This first trek we knew would be around 2 hours, what I didn't figure but should have since the cables are very high, is that it was 2 hours mostly up very steep hills. Our first night we were to stay at the treehouse right near the waterfall so that was where our journey was headed.

After around 3 hours we made it to the waterfall and rewarded ourselves with a swim and a rest. Not too much later we got a taste of our first cable. I was so so scared I kept checking that I remembered what to do and that all my cables were attached etc. Then it was time. The first cable was about 500m long and over a valley. It was just awesome, the view and the experience of flying through the sky.

It really was a blast and although every morning when we got up I had the fear all over again, as soon as the first cable was done I couldn't wait for more.

We set ourselves up in our tree house at about 4pm and then had time for ourselves. We ended up playing cards for a few hours with the 2 Canadian girls. That night it ended up thunderstorming, and what they didn't tell us but we found in the book in the treehouse that if the lighting and thunder were 7 seconds apart we would have to evacuate. On the zip lines, in the dark. We were not keen. Thankfully we didn't have to do that.

The next morning we hiked to our new treehouse. Because of the rain the night before, it was a lot more slippery. And there were leeches, hundreds and hundreds of them. The second day hike was more hard core than the first. We got to the treehouse about lunch time after many more cables. Some really good, some not so good.

The problem with the second treehouse was that there appeared to be a bee infestation. In the toilet. When I say toilet, I mean an area with a hole underneath. Until it became dark, it was a real mission to try and use the bathroom. Suprisingly enough, noone got stung. We had a decision to make that day about our last day. Did we a)want to have a short 2 hour hike on the way back to leave with no cables or b)have a 7 hour trek but have the use of about 10 cables. We were addicted. We opted for b. Many of us would later wonder if we were crazy.

More cards were in store for the nights activities but most of us were buggered and headed for bed reasonably early.

We had an 8 am start the next day and headed off on our journey. The first 4 hours went by with out to much hassle. At least most of it this time wasn't vertical but horizontal. We stopped off for lunch after the first 4 hours. Some swam, others rested underneath trees.

The next 2 or so hours were pretty much hell. We all ran out of water and we also ran out of shade. So the next two hours were in full sun. But we made it and had a great sense of accomplishment when it was complete. When we reached our final destination we swam while waiting for the truck to pick us up.

The ride back into town was an adventure in itself. The roads were barely that and there was alot of bumping into one another and being thrown around.

The whole experience was probably my favourite thing so far. It was a great experience.

Oh, your probably wondering if we saw any gibbons. Not one, in fact the only wild life we saw was a monster rat in our tree house. And a squirell about 100m away!

We are headed to the Gibbons

da_misfit — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:40:00 GMT

The next two days we have spent going up the Mekong on a slow boat. Each day we have travelled about 9 hours to get to Huay Xia where we currently are.

Tomorrow we head off to the Bokeo national Park to trek, swim in waterfalls and sleep in tree top canopy houses 150m up in the air. As scared as we are we are so excited. So until we have stories about that, Thats all folks.

More Luang Prabang

da_misfit — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:30:00 GMT

We fell in love with Luang Prabang and decided to stay for a bit. For the rest of our time we did little more than hang around town, the rivers, and eat and drink.

We went to Martins Pub and watched another movie, American Gangster, and met a south african, an aussie girl and a dutch guy. We visited other temples, went to a Mekong 'beach' and watched locals play in the water. We had a Lao BBQ which consisted of cooking meat and veges on a concave type stove on top of a coal fire at your table. That night we also went to our first sort of Lao night club, Hive. (Although, by government restrictions everything closes by 11:30pm for people to be at their residence by 12.

We went to an experiemental lao restaurant and had lunch there one day, which was weird and wonderful. We tried river weed and also buffalo jerky.

Our last night we found a place by the river as we knew we had to catch a boat upstream the next day. After we settled in we headed out for more night market action. Then a fantastic food massage, followed by a great japanese/korean restaurant for sushi and fresh spring rolls which were suprisingly and exceptionally good.

Elephants and more

da_misfit — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:19:00 GMT

We awoke early this morning in anticipation for our visit to the elephants. We headed out east of Luang Prabang to a reserve that acted as a retirement village for ex-working elephants.

When we arrived we were amazed how big the elephants actually felt being right next to us. Our elephant was a female named Buller, she was gentle and obedient. We did an hour and a half ride through the bush. Going downhill was rather scary and since we were the only aussies. We felt a bit sorry for our elephant as the others had either one japanese or some skinny europeans on board.

During our ride we crossed Nam Ou (River Ou) and arrived at the Lodge where people can stay overgnight. Here we got to bathe the elephants. We bathed Bon Swar, the oldest of the eight, he was 49. When he got to the bank to let me off, he sort of sat like a dog and then fully laid his body down for me to slide off. It was the best. I was giggling the whole time.

After the elephant ride we drove to Khang Si a big waterfall. We had lunch here then hiked the way up to the top and across the top all the way back down the opposite side. It was hard work!!

By the end of that we needed a swim. The water was so clear, like an icy blue colour and soo soo cold. But it was great.

That night we headed down to the closest pub, which became our local, Martins Pub and watched a free movie, Juno. It was an excellent end to an awesome day.

The journey north

da_misfit — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:08:00 GMT

Firstly, it was an 8 hour bus trip north from Vang Vieng to the Ancient capital of Luang Prabang. But only about 200kms. It was up and down hills and around many a winding road.

We arrived late in the afternoon so we didn't feel like doing much but showering and having a little to eat. We checked into our guesthouse then headed a little down the road to a chinese restaurant. After that a quiet night and bed.

The next day we set off exploring the town. We headed to some temples and wats. We looked at one inside the town that still had a monk school. Then we crossed the road to an area up the hill. On the first level was a wat that has just been reopened. It had murals all over the wall and though the building itself was not that impressive the temple was one of my favourites.

Then we went to the top of Phou Si where there is another temple. But atop that hill you can view the whole of Luang Prabang. Next we took ourselves along the Mekong and walked up and down town checking out all the french buildings, new and old.

We went to the National Muesum which is also the old palace after it reopened after lunch. On our walk back home we walked along the river bank of the Nam Khan.

That night we went into town and to our suprise there was a night market so we walked along looking at all the local and tribal crafts. The best markets we have come across all trip.

Sai ba dee

da_misfit — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:31:00 GMT

So more from Laos... We headed north from Vientiene the capital, to Vang Vieng. We were warned by Derick in Cambodia that it attracted a lot of yobbos and he was right.

But the town itself was something I had been looking forward to on our whole trip. Somewhere that was something out of the norm and with out finding a better word for it awe-some. .

Vang Vieng is situated on the Nam Song (Song River) and all around are limestone krasts. So it sits in the middle of all these massive hill type things jutting out.

We stayed in bungalows again, these were a little more upper class than we were used to and about 5 minutes out of the centre of town. Once we checked in, we were in dire need of a beverage. So we found 'the island', which is a river island across a bamboo bridge on the nam song with many a bar. When I say bar they have a little hut serving alcohol among other things. These are surrounded by other hut with cushions and hammocks where you set yourself up.

We decided to take part in the ritual of Vang Vieng the next day. And that is taking an inflated tractor tyre tube down the Nam Song. This, if you float down without stopping in dry season will take 2 hours. However, there are bars all along the river bed with jumps and lots of alcohol. So it can take as long as you want.

So it took us 7 hours and we didn't even get to the end by dark. It was pretty awesome fun. It would have been a great singles thing as there was many youngins trying to pick up and impress.

Also the local barmen are way to happy to give everyone free lao lao ( local rice whiskey) so you need to pace yourself. I will know for next time. That night we went into town had a couple more drinks and food and then bed.

Needless to say the next day we did very little. In fact matt felt he had sore ribs from jumping from the jumps into the water. And I was a little hung over.

The rest of our time in Vang Vieng we went exploring caves on bicycles, which I preceded to crash and hurt myself. The first cave was great, a small ride but a big hike up to it. The second cave was a horrific ride over dirt roads and then a road made up of just rocks. And that was where I had my stack. The second cave was also disappointing since we were led to believie it had a lagoon in side. We later worked out that we were scammed into a cave having a sign that wasn't for that actual cave.

The rest of the time in Vang Vieng we just chilled and hung around the town. And tried to avoid most of the yobbos and the "friends" bars!

Laos begins

da_misfit — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:33:00 GMT

So we raced back to Phnom Penh from Kampot in the hope that we could get a flight the same day to Laos. When we arrived in Phnom Penh we got a tuk tuk straight to the Lao airline office. But much to our dismay- the Cambodian lunch break was on for 2 hours. We knew we would be pushing it to get a flight that day but still needed to book one regardless. We stuck around the area, got ourselves some lunch and waited.

In the end we did get a ticket to leave the same day and it was a race to the airport but the tuk tuk driver who stuck out the wait with us got us there in great time.

It was quite a full on day and when we got into Laos we just wanted to get a place and chill out. Well that wasn't as easy as it seemed either. We walked around and around but all the affordable places were booked out. Eventually we got a crappy place but it was somewhere to sleep for the night.

The next day our first mission was to get our Chinese visa. Which also seemed simple enough- if only we had taken a passport photo with us. We should have known better and wasted time going out there and back twice that day.

Vientine did get better for us from there on in. We moved our lugguge and selves to a nice guesthouse on the riverfront for upgraded and cheaper digs.

The river front was an excellent place to be. It always had something going on- markets, bands, jumping castles, boxing and sideshow alley type games. We spent alot of time just walking around and hanging out there at night. We watched a Thai band there one night and they sang for us the only two English songs they knew - Hotel California and Still got the Blues for you. Matt had a turn at a dart throwing game and we had some local made whiskey - Lao Lao with a market seller.

We did do some other things in Vientine though- we hired bikes and went to Patuxai- which is the Lao version of the Arc de Triumph (Patu means arch and xai means victory). Matt was less than impressed than me. I thought it was quite a nice place with surrounding gardens and good views of the city. We also checked out the presidential palace (from the outside) and went to a shooting range.

Matt had a go on two guns me just one. We both shot the .22 automatic hand gun. We got 5 bullets each, I didn't even get one into the target. It was really loud! Matt did ok with that, and was inspired to have another turn this time on a rifle. The target was much further away and the gun much quieter. Matt did excellent with that one and got a bullseye. (Debbie and Harvey, this was done at a proper shooting range in a controlled environment, nothing dodgy. Although there is plenty of those around).

A really lovely place

da_misfit — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 21:19:00 GMT

Our next stop from the beach was Kampot. I forgot to mention that we met this great English couple in Sihanoukville who we happened to get on the same bus as, going to Kampot.

We caught up with them a few times over the next couple of days. The trip to Kampot went smoothly and only took about an hour. We took the first guesthouse we could find because many were booked out.

We thought we should get in sightseeing almost straight away and booked a day trip to the Bokor National Park for the next day.

Kampot was a small town and very easy to get around and get familiar with. We really loved it there. In the early evening we caught up with the English two for drinks and then again with them after dinner.

For dinner we went to a place called the Green Man, where we met the owner who was a Irishman called Derrick. Derrick had had the bar for a month and had moved from Southern China, needless to say we got some good tips from him. He advised us also about some places to go in Laos.

We got up reasonably early the next morning to go to Bokor National Park. When our vehicle arrived it was a dual cab ute. We thought, ok so there is only going to be a couple of us. Then more and more people turned up. So 10 of us to one ute, you guessed it we were traveling Cambodia style, piled in the back.

7 in the back and 3 inside. I took the first shift on the back for the trip up there and Matt had inside and we swapped for the rest of the trip. It wasn't so bad in fact a bit of fun.

The main part of the trip was to see an old run down casino, school, hotel,post office and church. The french built them up there as a retreat to get away from the heat. During the Khmer Rouge time and then the Vietnamese warring with them, they were partially ruined.

What makes them so appealing now is that the mountain they are on stayed covered in fog for most of the day, making it feel very eiree and intriguing. The group with us were all very nice and we had some good conversations also.

The rest of the day consisted of lunch, a visit to King Sihanaukville's old palace, a jungle trek and a boat trip back to Kampot.

We moved hotel in Kampot to be closer to the river. We moved to a place called the Little Garden Guesthouse and Bar. It was really nice. For the rest of our time we explored the town, exchanged our books organised our trip back to Phnom Penh and hired a moto.

We went for a drive to a coastal fishing town called Kep. It was a nice drive and we had some seafood meals along the water. After lunch we headed back to Kampot. On the way back we saw an elephant by the roadside. I was so excited i made matt turn around and go back. We hopped off and watched it for a while (it had people on it).

Kampot came to an end all to soon and with the end of Kampot we knew we were spending our last days in Cambodia.

Our trip into Cambodia started with the distrubing sights and ended with one as well. The guesthouse we stayed at had a little puppy, who was so playful and cute. We always gave him a pat and play. Anyway, the morning we left he followed us out onto the street. We were waiting for our bus and he ran across the road and was playing with a lady street sweeping. The next thing you know I looked up to see a 4WD and him under the back wheel. It was a horrific sight. He was yelping and we didnt' know what to do. We ran over and he was looking so sad and didn't get up. I tried to tell the people around where he was from. In the end the street sweeper picked him up and took him to the gate of the guesthouse.

His leg was badly injured. It was suprising he even survived the impact at all, he was so little and the car so big. I cried and kept picturing the scene all day and it made me sad. Hopefully only his leg was injured and he will be ok.

Lazy days

da_misfit — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:05:00 GMT

We stayed at Cloud nine for four days and nights. We did very little during this time but eat, drink, relax, read and swim. We did go to a bonfire on the beach but it was pretty lame. We saw a fire right at the other end of the beach one night and the next day set off to explore but there was nothing to see, it had either already been cleaned up or it was a controlled burn.

We attempted to walk around to another beach over the rocks but didn't quite get there. We did go out for an excellent meal at Sokha beach resort which was one beach along. Its a five star resort and was pristine but was quite empty and just didn't seem to have the 'life' or atmosphere the other beaches did. The restaurant though was right over the water and had so much to offer for still really cheap prices.

After these days of relaxation we decided to go on a boat trip to a nearby island and stay overnight. The island we stayed on, Bamboo Island only has 30 inhabitants and about 12 bungalows for guests. It has 4 places to eat and drink and the power goes out at about 9:30pm.

We spent two nights here. On the first we stayed at a place that only had the one bungalow to rent and we found later that the family actually slept in it but were letting it out to us. It was all a bit strange and we were a bit isolated from everyone. That night we had a big storm and we were both just hoping that the roof wouldn't leak, it didn't.

For our next night we decided to move up the beach more to a bungalow that wasn't just made out of bark but actual wood.

There was not much to do on the island but swim and read. It was nice but two nights was long enough. We attempted snorkelling but the sky was overcast and the goggles were all scratched. I did see a few colourful fish but it was average.

Last beach for a long time

da_misfit — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:40:00 GMT

We had an afternoon/night stay in Phnom Penh as a stop over point to Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville is a seaside town on the southern coast of Cambodia.

When we got into Phnom Penh we found a place to stay organised our bus ticket for the next day and decided to get some lunch. We went to a place called Friends which is a training restaurant for disadvantaged youths. Since it was for cause we treated ourselves to a big lunch and cocktails. The food was tapas style and was amazing. Things like mango coleslaw, bbq meatballs, spicy fish cakes and a home made dip. The rest of the day consisted of little else since we were so full.

The next morning we waited at our guesthouse for our bus to pick us up. It was due at 8:15 to 8:30 so at 8:35 we were getting a little worried. By 9 we knew something was wrong.

Matt walked around to the travel agent and they told us that new staff were on and that we would have to get the next bus at 12:30. We were a little annoyed as we had already checked out and had no where to go. We managed to pass the time and eventually got on the bus and headed south.

We arrived in Sihanoukville at about 4pm and headed straight for our place to stay on 'Serendipity Beach' called Tranquility Bungalows. Tranquil they were not, they were not bungalows but a set of tiny rooms with thin walls and a small fan. We decided to make do for the night but to make it our mission to find a better place to set up for a few days.

We walked up the beach to the last stop on that part of the beach (which would have been only 300m from tranquility.) A place called Cloud 9 and we wanted to stay there, for the same price it was a beautiful place with actual bungalows with ocean views. It also had a great little bar right on the water.

The barman told us that the rooms were all booked out but if we came back later that night or in the morning he would be able to let us know if anything was available. After dinner we thought we would set up at the cloud nine bar for our beverages.

We had many a cocktail and ended up meeting the owners- who were an Australian guy and his German wife. We had a blast chatting to them and proceeded to get very drunk, but then so did they. We mustn't have left to bad of an impression because the next day we moved in!

back on track

da_misfit — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:07:00 GMT

So things got a bit worse before they got better. We decided to go out in the afternoon as Matt didn't feel so bad and hadn't thrown up for hours. We got downstairs and he said he needed to go back up again as he thought he needed to throw up so as i turned around to walk back up I heard a sound and turned back to see Matt almost on the ground with two of the staff holding him up. He had fainted and he looked awful, I freaked out but he came around soon enough. But that was it, we knew he needed to go to the doctors/hospital.

From all the throwing up etc, Matt had severe dehydration but the clinic looked after him well and got him rehydrated and gave him anti-biotics for the bacteria that had caused the sickness. Needless to say he had a couple of recovery days before we hit the temples.

We got back on track though eventually and spent two days exploring the temples. The first day we took a tuk tuk to the further out temples. The next day we hired push bikes and explored the ones closer to town but did about a thirty km round trip as well as walking around the temples. So by the end of this day we were buggered. I will go in depth further about the temples and wats when I have more time. But we did have a great time.

We left Siem Reap after the days of the temples as we had to get moving. We got a bus to Battembang north west of Siem Reap. We got in about mid afternoon and didn't get up to much. We did get organised a day of exploring the next day. We got two local moto riders to take us around.

We had a brilliant day the next day. We started our trip at around 8:30 so it was nice and cool. We didn't take any major roads so our trip was all through small local villages. It was great to see areas away from the city. We saw lots of small farms, rice paddies, went to a rice winery and saw drunk pigs!

We drove for a long time and all the while, my driver was telling me about the local areas and parts of his story. The first place we really stopped for some time was to go to a hill top to see the Khmer Rouge killing caves and the temples around them. My driver walked up this massive inclining hill with us. Along the way he stopped to tell us about the Khmer Rouge times through his eyes. He had been a boy at the beginning of these times.

When we reached the top he showed us the caves and told us more. His story was heartbreaking but good to hear about this, rather than reading it from a book.

We had an early lunch after spending an hour or so with my driver on the hill top. Next they took us to a wat that once again sat on the top of a hill. This one had stairs, hundreds and hundreds of them. We certainly were getting a work out.

The highlight of the day was taking a bamboo train. This is a vehicle that travels along the regular rail line that they assemble in around a minute. They certainly cruise along! If you see another bamboo train coming towards you, the vehicle with the least amount of weight has to disassemble to let the other pass. And as Matt's driver said if you see a real train you bail.

All in all, we had a great day and enjoyed the company of our drivers.