Tales from Here?!

Home!

mattandnetty — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 01:16:00 GMT

Okay, feeling a little guilty that I didn't finish the end of the travel story very well! Last in Goa, which is now some 8+ months ago, can you believe?

Goa was amazing (from what I can remember!). The villa Kirsty wangled with us, was fantastic. We had a very relaxing few weeks there, then stayed with her for a week or so, as we were struggling to get a flight home. Well, we could get one, but at a price - 700 pounds!! so we bidded our time, (which wasn't difficult) and eventually got one booked for 300+.

Whilst we were in Goa, we rented a bike and traveled south to Agonda, rated India's top 10 beach by Trip Advisor. It did not disappoint! We spent 3 days lazying around, watching the cows bathing on the beach! Not a lot to there, which made us very happy!

Anyway, we have now been home for 8 months. Matt is back on the carpentry tools and is happy doing what he does. I have opened a shop in Ironbridge, with a lady whom I have known for about 17 years. We opened it in July, selling products/crafts made in Shropshire. Unfortunately for me, I'm not so happy, doing what I am doing, so will be moving onto pastures new, in the new year. I don't know where or what I'll be doing, but I'm sure another chapter of my life will be starting!

We both still get pangs of wanderlust, so last month we bought a campervan, as one of our many highlights of our 13 months away was travelling around OZ for 5 weeks in the camper we hired!

Thank you to every one who read our blog!

Meeting friends in India.

mattandnetty — Sat, 9 Feb 2013 16:58:00 GMT

1st February 2013

Arrive in fog at Delhi airport at 3.15 am local time. We have decided to be 'lazy' travellers and fly to Chandigarh, as we really want to get to the Shimla Hills to meet our friends Skinny & Myra, who arrive there tomorrow. We book the 10 am flight for 60.00p each, we will then get the train (or bus) the rest of the way.

I'll cut a long story short, our flight is canceled, due to the fog. We can either get on the bus that they are providing, which theoretically will cost us 60.00 each or we can have a refund. We go for the refund option, which takes nearly 2 hours to sort out. They are very quick to take your cash, but not so quick to return it. After talking to two Indian people, one local and one from Canada, we arrange to share a taxi with them to Chandigarh. It costs us 35.00p so divided between the four of us, it's not to bad. The young lads father, then also arranges a taxi for us to go straight to Shimla. Our first taxi driver gets us out of Delhi safely, which is amazing, considering he looks like he may fall asleep at any time!

The road from Chandigarh is very mountainous, so although it is not that far, it is very slow. We arrive at Shimla, which is high up in the mountains, at around 8.30 p.m. When we arrive it is cold & wet. A porter appears from nowhere and offers to show us where our hotel is, for 50 rupees, thank God he did, we never would have found it. It was up a very steep rubble track, (I think would be the best way to describe it). The hotel does not seem to have a record of our booking, which is not a good start. The room is....basic, cold and dirty, we are not impressed, but we are to tired to be bothered to complain tonight. I get the 'emergency' sheets out of our bag, there is no way we are sleeping on their sheets. The next morning we go in search of a better room. We decide to find Myra & Skinnys 5* hotel, then get a room near to theirs. (They are on a tour with the Great Rail Journeys, hence their 5* accommodation). We find a better room. What we have realised , very quickly, is that in India, you pay more, but get less for your money.

We get back to the Hotel Prestige and tell them that we are going to check out, a night early. The manager seems surprised! We tell him the room is not clean enough, he offers to move us to a better room. I ask him to come up to the room with us, so we can show him how dirty it is. He is reluctant, but agrees, in the end. I could carry on whining about this room and the 'better' room, but I won't bore you with it! Needless to say we move rooms, but they will not give us a refund, as I had booked through Agoda. Lesson learnt, only ever book for one night, then if it is OK, book for longer!

Time to meet up with Skinny & My at their hotel. It is great to see them both after one year. We catch up on all their local gossip (very disappointing), and arrange to meet up with them over the next few days. They have lots of tours arranged, but have one full day free. We arrange to meet them, to go for a good walk, unfortunately, it is pouring with rain and the wind is bitterly cold. They end up 'slumming' it, in our hotel for the afternoon, drinking tea and chatting.

We spend four nights in Shimla, then get the 'Toy Train' to Kalka (5+ hours), this is one of the 'Great Train Journeys' in the world, apparently. Maybe if the rain is coming down the inside of the train, wetting us and our bags, it is. Unfortunately, it really wasn't that 'great' for us! Then the express train to Delhi.

What a 'shit-hole' Delhi is. Couldn't get out of there quick enough. Dirty, dirty, dirty!

Onto Agra, to visit the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. Our hotel rooms are improving, you'll be pleased to hear, and our next one even has a roof terrace. We arrange to meet the girls at the Taj. This may seem like an impossible task, seen as there are thousands of visitors here every day. We arrive there mid afternoon and they are due to arrive late afternoon. We have the most perfect weather, blue skies, but not to hot. We start looking out for the girls. Matt has our trusty monocular (a going away gift from the Clark's) that goes everywhere with us, and amazingly he spots them. What a great way to spend our 'one year away anniversary'. FABULOUS!

On to Jaipur to visit more forts, palaces and temples. Unfortunately, Matt gets 'Delhi-belly', on our first night here. He had a sore throat, so had some ice-cream, big mistake. Our sight-seeing is curtailed, somewhat. Never mind, I sit in the garden of our very nice hotel, while Matt tries to catch up in the sleep he missed in the night!

Sunday 10th is the last day with Skinny & My. We hire a tuk-tuk for the afternoon and visit Jaigarth Fort with them. it's very high up and has the largest canon in the world at the top. The views over the city are fabulous. The ride to and from the fort is fascinating in it's self. Ali, our 20 year old driver, takes us down the side streets, where the local kids all shout and wave at us. We pass pigs, cows, camels, horses, goats in coats (no I'm not joking) and even elephants along the way, yet another great day out.

Tomorrow we fly to Goa, to meet up with our friend Kirsty, who is now living there with her Indian husband Pammy and 3 year old daughter Latika. It should be the perfect end to our travels, as she has managed to get us a villa to stay in for a couple of weeks, while we get our heads around the fact that we are heading home, very soon!

Last few days in Thailand

mattandnetty — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:15:00 GMT

29th January 2013

Having a lazy few days before India. I think it may be a little more hectic there, so make the most of our time here.

Before we head into town, we have some lunch in the basement of the shopping centre, where they do good, local fast food, very cheap. I don't normally fill you in on our lunches, but this one was so entertaining! We tuck into our spicy, noodle fish soup, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the man at the table next to ours, has his bowl of food tipped down his front, by a very anger young lady, who then proceeds to throw her shoe at his head! It may have had something to do with fact that he was sat with another young lady, in a very short skirt and tight top! I have to say, she didn't bat an eyelid. She just gestured that the man should go after the 'one shoed' women, then carried on wiping the food off her phone!

We head to Kao San Road, (the tourist area), as we need a Lonely Planet book for India. But first I want to post some birthday cards. This proves easier said, than done! I really hope friends and family appreciate the fact that it took us over an hour to find a post office!!

We eventually find a half decent, second-hand Lonely Planet. We couldn't find a new one, unless we were happy with a photocopied rip-off one! We have a couple of drinks to recover from our days walking for hours, (yet again), then I decide to go and get my nose pierced! I have been thinking about it for a couple of years (would you believe?). Couldn't believe how little it hurt.

30th - We decide that we can't miss out on seeing 'The Bridge over the River Kwai' whislt we are here, so decide not to do the tourist package, but get the train ourselves and just do a day trip. The train leaves at 7.50 am so we get in a taxi at 7.15 to Thonburi station, but because of the rush-our traffic, we get to the station 25 minutes late, as luck would have it, so was the train. It was literally pulling out of the station, the man behind the ticket counter, got on his walky-talky and stopped the train for us!! The ticket costs us 100 Bart each for the four & a half journey to Nam Tok. We are not going to stop at the River Kwai, but carry on over the bridge to this destination, as it is the most scenic part of the journey, apparently! Here, we will just get the train to Bangkok again.

The train is not overcrowded and we have a window seat each. We soon realise why the train was so late leaving the station. It is very old and seems to be having engine problems, up hills are a bit of a challange for it. I will cut what could be a very long story short, by telling you that the engine packed in altogether an hour after the River Kwai bridge, so we were 3 hours later than we should have been.

There is not a lot I can tell you about the River Kwai, other than the fact that, it only became famous after the film was made and that at that time, the river was not the Kwai, they had to rename it when the film become so popular! (and the film was actually shot in Sri Lanka not Thailand!). It is extremely touristy and would I do it again....No, not the way we did anyway. We would do an overnight trip there though. We got home after 9.30.

We leave Thailand later today. We have the hotel room until 6 pm, as our flight isn't until 1 am. We are repacking, as our cold weather gear needs to be at the top for Shimla. (Just looked on the internet, it is 10 degrees there and it is 32 here!!) It could be interesting at the airport, as Matt has just realised that our visa ran our yesterday!!

India - country number 15 coming up!!

Bangkok & Ko Si Chang

mattandnetty — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:19:00 GMT

17th January 2013

Off to the Indian Consulate today, to apply for our visa's. There is a lot of form filing and waiting around, good job we have no other plans for the day.

We have a mooch around the Koasan Road on the way back to our room, (which is miles out of town, but on the rail link, it literally passes our front door!!). Koasan Road is the main tourist area of the city, loads of eateries, bars and shops. A few hours here is enough for me.

We have eight days to wait, before our visa's will be ready. We don't want to stay in Bangkok that long, it would drive us mad. Matt made the mistake when Lucy & Rhian were with us, of giving them our Thailand Lonely Planet to bring home. So we are now book-less!! To the Internet it is!!

We decide to head for the island of Ko Si Chang. Not a well know island for western tourists, but it is where the local Thia's go, because it is only an hour & a half south from Bangkok, so weekends are very busy with people escaping the city.

We get the local bus for 100 Bart each (2 quid) and then the ferry (45 minutes) for 50 Bart. We have booked in at the Ban Kunning Resort (a Resort, it is not), but it is a very nice guest house, with large rooms and patio garden.

We spend the afternoon wondering around the top end of the island, the Chinese Temple and the Buddha's footprint, which is on top of the hill. It has amazing views of the island and is well worth the climb, although it is extremely hot.

We hire a bike on day 2, well a scooter actually, that is covered in Liverpool football stickers (mother would be so proud!). It doesn't take long to do a tour of the island - 2 hours at the most and that is with photo stops. It's a good way to get our bearings though and to see what there is to do. We soon realize that we have probably done most of it already. Oh dear, that means we'll just have to spend a few days on the beach!

We have the scooter for a second day. Kunning, our land lady has put a beach mat on the bike for us and offers us beach towels. She has also upgraded our room, as we have booked in for another 4 days.

There is no Koasan Road here, there aren't any bars here, juice or other wise. It's great, we have only seen a dozen or so tourists in the few days we are here. (One couple we spoke to were from Lyme Regis, where Matt's brother-in law, Kevin is from.)

After a few days at the beach and a day wondering around the Royal Palace Gardens, which also has a view point, with lovely views over the bay, we get an email to say that our visa's are ready to collect.

On Saturday we say our farewells to Kunning, who gets her cleaning lady to take us the the ferry, free of charge, in a motorbike side cart! Another first in the travels of Matt & Netty. We must have now covered every mode of transport possible(?)

When we arrive in the tiny port of Sriracha, a man approaches us and asks where we are going. When we tell him Bangkok, he tells us that there is a mini bus going from the pier in 1 hours time. This seems to good to be true, especially as he says it will only cost 120 Bart each. We wait the hour and true to his word, we get in the minibus and are taken to Victory Square in Bangkok. We were the only people on the bus. We can only assume that the bus had brought people from Bangkok that morning and would be heading back there anyway. Brilliant service, for a change.

We find our new digs, again it is slightly our of town. We can't believe our luck this time. The room is large with a full size fridge and it even has a kettle and kitchen sink! It's brilliant! A lot of the room are actually classed as 'serviced apartments', normally done on monthly lets, but when they are not full, they sell the rooms on Agoada. It's 17.00p a night and although it's more than what we have been paying, it's still good value for money. We make the most of the facilities and go shopping for teabags, bread, cheese and red wine! Oh, the simple pleasures in life!

We collected our visa's yesterday, so we are now ready to fly to India on the 1st. All we have to do now, is to try, yet again, to sort out how to buy our train tickets. This is proving to be one of our biggest stumbling blocks of our travels so far and even with Kirstys help, it is not going to plan!!

We are planning a day out to the 'Bridge over the River Kwai' tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes.

'Thanks' once again folks, for reading my drivel. Nearly had 11,000 hits - UNBELIEVABLE!

Cambodia to Thailand-Worst border crossing to date!

mattandnetty — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:24:00 GMT

16 January 2013

Time to head to Thailand or we won't get our visa's for India in time to meet Skinny & Myra on the 2nd Feb.

The nice lady in the tourist office tells us it takes 7 hours to get to Bangkok - big bus to the border, then mini bus to Bangkok for $10 each. We get on the 8 a.m. bus, so we should be in Bangkok by mid afternoon.

The first leg of our journey was a bit tense. We sat near the front, (as we usually do, if we can) but we could see that the driver looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open! We get to the border crossing in good time, we are about half way. Then comes the fun part, where we all stand around queuing to get out of Cambodia for a good hour & a half in the midday heat, with our backpacks. There are 3 border control officers checking bus loads of tourists out of their country. Then we walk 5 minutes minutes to the Thai border, where we queue again for another hour outside, then another half hour inside the terminal building, before being stamped with visa. We have now visited 14 countries, that that has to be the worst crossing to date. We then have to sit around to wait for the minibus to take us to Bangkok. It is overfull with backpacks, that fall out every top we stop for refueling! We are sat in the front, which sounds great, except that Matt is in the middle seat, which is over the engine, so it is really hot. We eventually get dropped off in Khoasan Road at 8P.M!! In Matt's words - 'F***ing liar"!

Photos: Cambodia

mattandnetty — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:17:00 GMT

Five Days in Cambodia!

mattandnetty — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:09:00 GMT

11th January 2013

We have decided to take the 'fast' boat into Cambodia (roughly 7 hours). Much to our surprise, it is very clean and tidy little boat. We have paid an extra $5 to have the boatman sort out the visa's. The Vietnam border crossing is not far and before long, we are all piling off the boat to into a small room and decked area, where we wait for the boatman to return with our 'used' visa stamp in our passports. Back onto the boat for 5 minutes and up to the Cambodian border crossing. We couldn't believe it! We got off the boat on to the ricketiest, tiniest jetty we have ever seen. It was made out of bamboo and sticks (no joke!). All goes smoothly and we get our months visa with no problems.

We arrive in Phnom Penh early afternoon. We have a room booked, so walk in the midday heat. with our rucksacks, to it!! (will we never learn?) it is so hot here, compared to the Vietnam. Our time is Cambodia is going to be short, as we have arranged to meet our friends Anne & Myra in India on the 2 Feb and we need 8 days in Bangkok to sort our visa's out. So on our first full day in PP we head out to the Killings Fields. We are both so glad that we had read the book, 'Stay Alive My Son' some months ago, as what we saw and heard here, was not the shock it would have been, otherwise. The tour is a very good audio one, telling stories of the atrocities of the war in the 70's. It's really hard to believe it was so recent. In the afternoon we look at the Silver Pagoda and the Royal Palace.

Move on to Siem Reap by bus, it takes about 7 hours, so again arrive mid afternoon. There is no electricity on in our hotel when we arrive, so head in to town to explore and find out about the best way to visit Angkor Wat, this we will do tomorrow.

We decide to cycle to Angkor Wat (40 minutes) at 5 a.m. to see sunrise! Well, at least that was our plan, unfortunately there was some cloud cover, so sunrise was a disappointment for us and the 1000 or so others, who had got there at the crack of dawn!

We walk & cycle to as many sites in the area that we can manage in a day, which was quite a few, it has to be said and we finish off the day by treating ourselves to a static balloon ride, (it rises 200 metres to get a birds-eye view of Angkor for $15), which was great to watch the sunset. We get back home at 7 p.m. what a day!

Have a lazy 2nd day here, in a very smart hotel (for a change). Much to our amazement, we have no aches or pains from the previous days exercise. There are so many night markets, pubs and restaurants here, it is untrue, we are spoilt for choice as to what to do. We just go for a beer and mojito to think about it!!

16th January - time to head back to Thailand to get our visa's for India sorted.

Photos: Vietnam

mattandnetty — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:42:00 GMT

Vietnam

mattandnetty — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:55:00 GMT

26th December 2012

We leave Sapa and head back to Hanoi, we have decided to miss out Ha Long Bay, time and weather are not our our side.

We head for Dong Hoi to do the caves that are in this area. Matt & I visited Dong Hoi on our way up to meet the girls, so know that Dong Hoi it's self, is not worth a visit, but everyone we have spoke to, say the caves are a must!

We get our first night bus. What an experience that was. The buses have what could be described as 'reclining bunk beds'. The only problem is that they are made for Asian's, who are in general, about 5ft 5"! So I 'rest' (can't say sleep really!) with my knees bent, for 12 hours.

The caves are 'AMAZING'. They are definitely worth a visit. The first is Phong Nha cave, which you get to by boat. It is pretty impressive, but Paradise cave is even more so. You walk 1 kilometre into it, I can only describe it as like being in a Cathedral. It was huge and the stalagmites etc, were enormous.

Next we get the train to Hue. We think Rhian & Lucy will like it here, so thought it would be a good place to be for New Year. New Years eve morning, we are up at 6 a.m. to do a day tour to the DMZ tunnels, which was a good, but very long day out. We return home at 7 p.m. We meet up with a lady that we met in Dong Hoi and invite her to join us for a meal, as she is travelling on her own. She's a lovely lady, in her late 60's called Ursula. Our meal is fine and we ask for the bill at 11.35 so we have time to move on somewhere a bit busier, as we are now the only table left in the restaurant. Five minutes to midnight and we are still waiting for the bill! Midnight comes and goes, we pay our bill eventually, all feeling a little flat (especially Matt, who loves New Year), and that the moment has passed and we may as well go back to the hotel. It had been a long day.

1st January 2013

Off to the beautiful town of Hoi An today, a 4 hour bus ride away. It lyes on a river and is full of narrow streets, lined with wooden buildings. It's very touristy, but wander down the side roads and you see the locals going about their daily routines.

Rhian wants to do a cooking class, so I agree to do it with her. We choose one that has a 2 hour bike ride around some herb gardens to start with and en route we also stop at a noodle making shop, it has been run from a family home for the last 5 generations. It was very interesting. To be honest the actual 'cooking' class was a bit of a let down, compared to the one we did in Chiang Mai. The teacher had 5 restaurants and apparently we were honoured to be taught by her! She was the lady who showed Gorden Ramsay around, when he did his program's on cooking in Asia.

Hoi An is the sort of town you could easily spend a week or so in, but unfortunately, time doesn't allow us this privilege. The girls have to be Ho Chi Minh City on the 10th for their flight home. So, after just 2 days here we have to move on again. Nha Trang is calling. Well, I think the beach is calling. The girls only have 3 weeks in Vietnam and so far, they have had a couple of hours on the beach. (The weather has not been kind). Nha Trang is suppose to have a nice beach, so we get on the night bus (12 hours) to see what it has to offer. The girls head off to the beach for the day! The hotel recommend a place to eat at the other end of town. We are only here for one night, so we walk down there for supper. It is a 'cook your own'. You order your meat and veggies which come to the table raw and then you get your mini BBQ placed on the table with your cooked rice. n It's such a fun way to eat. This place is particularly famous for it's beef, which was very good. (Tried my first mouthful of red meat in 6 months!) Lucy ordered a vodka and got half a bottle delivered to the table! Her face was a picture and it was so cheap.

5th January

We get the early train to HCM city, it's another 8 hours travelling, so arrive mid afternoon. Our hotel is in District 1, a very busy part of the city. (Manic, might be another word for it!). We spend a day walking to and around China Town, in search of Pagoda's for Lucy to look at! We also find "Herb Street". A whole street selling sackfuls dried herbs, the smell was unbelievable. Then we just have enough energy left to have a wander around the night market. I must say, the girls know how to shop!! We have booked a one night tour to the Mekong Delta for the following day, so we have decided that we will take our rucksacks with us and we'll carry on to Cambodia from there, rather than travelling back with the girls.

The tour guide was a nice chap called Gung. The tour was 'OK'! - Very touristy, as these things always are. First stop, an island where they make coconut candy and snake wine! The second island we have lunch and then get taken down the river on a narrow rowing boat, this was only spoiled by the passing boat people asking for tips! The floating market was interesting and manic. Kids jumping on & off our boat trying to sell us fruit and drinks. Lucy summed up our trip by saying that she felt like she had been on a school trip. This was so true.

We say our farewells to the girls. They will have two nights in HCM city before flying home. Time for them to do more shopping!

We have had a great few weeks with them, it has been good to share a part of our travels with someone else. Thanks girls!

CCountry 14 - Cambodia here we come!

Photos: Sapa - Christmas Day

mattandnetty — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:48:00 GMT

Sapa - Christmas Day 2012

mattandnetty — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 12:16:00 GMT

Normally, I write the blog and Matt writes the diary, that's the deal we have! But this is going to be Matt's page today, as I was poorly on Christmas day. Yes, it was self inflicted, with the help of the hotel owner, who kept plying me with homemade rice and apple wines, that, and the Bailey's hot chocolate for a nightcap!

So, Matt, Lucy & Rhain's Christmas Day:-

Start the day by opening more presents from home (Jane, Al & Gail all sent things out, with the girls). Netty still to poorly to be out all day. I really don't want to leave her, especially on Christmas day, but she doesn't want me to miss out.

We meet June (made up name we think!), in the square at 10 a.m.and set out to her village. A lot of people are doing the same thing with local women, so June takes us a different way to escape the tourist's. Another young local girl has joined our trip. She is carrying her small baby on her back in the traditional shawl-like papoose. It is very, very misty and we have no amazing views, but the walk in the country side and the company are great.

Our 'guide', June, is 33 years old, has had no education and can not read or write. She speaks English very well though. She has learned it just from listening and talking to tourists in town.

She and her friend wear their traditional dress still, which consists of black knee length shorts with a black apron style dress, of the same length over the shorts. The short sleeve top is embroidered with bright red and yellow cross-stitch, very similar to that of the South American Hill Tribes that we saw. It is all homemade. They dye their own material using the Indigo plant, thus the name 'Black Hmong' tribe.

We soon turn off the road on to a rough slippery and often very steep track, that winds it's way across the hills towards Junes house. As we go, she points out the indigo plants that they use for dying their fabrics and other plants of interest. It's a good 2 hour walk to her village and the family home is quite is shock.

It is a large wooden shed with a dirt (soil) floor. There are big gaps between the wooden boards and the cooking is all done on an open fire-pit at one end. 11 people live in this small space. It has 3 bedrooms, a centre dining area with a small table and squat little bench seats. There is no toilet and their water supply constantly runs through a concrete holding tank outside. This is where the food is washed and prepared on a concrete slab, with water constantly running across it. (It was surprisingly clean).

Lunch took a long time to prepare and cook, so we talked to some of the members of the family. Junes father was very drunk, as he had been out all night, drinking rice wine with his mates! He went to bed after a few puffs on his bamboo pipe. Junes sister-in-law helped with the cooking, while keeping her 3 young children amused. The dogs and puppies trotted in occasionally looking for food scraps. The pigs and chickens milled around the small muddy yard outside the front door and Junes young sister (11) made us horses from thin green bamboo (See photo's).

The (Christmas) lunch was served - pork, watercress, onions, tomatoes, tofu, rice and plenty of it! We all ate well and it was very tasty. Time to say our goodbyes to the family and head down into the bottom of the valley, but before we do, it's time for the sale pitch! Out comes all sorts of handmade material based crafts with fancy stitching and having seen what a hard existence they have, it would be very mean not to buy something from them and besides, it was really nice stuff. I was only sorry that we couldn't have bought more.

It takes 1 and a half hours to walk back through the villages in the valley, with June pointing out different crafts and trades as we went. We were met by Junes younger brother and two friends on motor bikes, who rode us back to Sapa 15 minutes away (a first for Lucy & Rhian). I gave my 'bike taxi' driver my gloves, as he looked frozen. He was very grateful.

Netty has recovered enough to go out for supper, so we head for 'Little Italy' for our evening meal. We fill her in on our day out. It will be a life time memory and one that cost us $10 each! Not much to us, but an enormous amount to these poor families.

Week 2 in Vietnam

mattandnetty — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:34:00 GMT

21st December 2012 Exchange Rate 10,000 Dong = just over 30p

Right, the world hasn't ended, so we go to the airport to meet Rhian and Lucy, our friends that are flying in from England to travel with us for 3 weeks. We are really looking forward to seeing them after 10 and a half months! (Matt's been great company, but it will be nice to have someone else to talk to!!).

We catch the Vietnam Airlines minibus taxi from town to the airport for 40,000 dong, it's about a 50 minute ride away. Their flight arrives on time and we have an emotional meeting, well, 'I' had an emotional meeting, but I don't think anyone noticed - too much. (Watch out Skinny & My!).

We get back to town for mid-day, then we head straight for the train station, to book our tickets for Sapa, on Sunday. I have booked 3 nights in a hotel there for Christmas. It's right up high in the North of the country, not far from the Chinese border in the mountains, so it will be quite cold, but it's suppose to be very beautiful, (especially if the mist raises and the sun shines, fingers crossed). We then take them to 'Com Chay Nanh Tam', the vegetarian restaurant, that we went to yesterday. We had a great selection of food, a lot of which, looked and tasted like fish & meat! (it's very clever!), but Luce thought it was really 'weird'!

Lucy is pretty much falling asleep in her lunch, (literally), so they go back to their room for a couple of hours sleep. We pick them up again at 7 p.m. and walk to a market that is not far from their hotel. It's not very touristy in this part of town and now that there are 4 'whities' (as Matt & I call ourselves), we are getting even more 'looks' (especially, the lovely Luce!). One girl behind a book stall, even takes a photo of us and tells us that we are beautiful, - she was wearing glasses, I hasten to add!

From here we walk across town to the 'old quarter' and the mayhem of Hanoi. Rhian is made up, - shops galore! We have a couple of beers (or very strong 'long island iced tea' cocktails, in my case, well, I am celebrating the fact that I have someone else to talk to!) and return to our hotels at midnight.

Matt has a walking tour planned for the day, unfortunately, it doesn't quite go to plan, as the girls spend to much time shopping! We have a fairly chilled (and chilly) day though and find a great little café for a leisurely lunch (and Bailey's coffees!). We go the night market and get some goodies for our 11 hour train journey the following day.

We meet Rhian & Luce at 5.30 a.m. and walk to the train station. The journey to Sapa is pretty uneventful, but scenic,- rice paddy fields, mountains and rivers. The 11 hours go pretty quickly. When we get off the train we then have to negotiate a price for a mini bus to Sapa it's self. We manage to get the robbing little bastard (excuse my language) down from 200,000 dong to 100,000 dong for the 50 minute journey. Its only about 30 miles away, but because its a mountain road up to Sapa, it takes ages.

Our hotel is perched up on a mountain side. We have log fires in the rooms and electric blankets on the beds! I now have 4 layers of clothes on. Matt and I haven't been this cold since New Zealand, back in April.

We go and get some supper in a restaurant called 'Nature', it is so cold, that the staff are wearing woolly hats and outdoor coats. We get as near to the log fire as possible and crack open a bottle of local red wine! After we eat, we walk around the town and I start talking to 2 hill-tribe village sellers, they tell me they are called June & Su, (well at least we can remember their names), they are a good laugh and June, (the more outgoing of the 2), say that she will do a trek to their village for us and will cook us lunch. I ask her how much she will charge (there is nothing for free in Asia!), she has the good grace, to look a little embarrassed and say's she doesn't know. After some more chat, it turns out that she did the same for some Americans not long ago, so I ask what she charged them, $10 was the reply (around 6.00p), so a deal was done. Christmas Day will be spent in the hill-tribe villages!

Christmas Eve - Matt & I wake at 5 a.m. we are so cold. Matt lights the fire & we put the electric blanket back on and doze back to sleep until 8! We spend the day mooching around town. The mist lifts and the sun shines enough for us to see the amazing views of mountains and terraced paddy fields. The owner of the hotel, as invited us to join them for a barbecue and drinks at 8.30 p.m. for free! We have a lovely night with them, we all had slightly to much homemade rice and apple wine! and in my tipsy state, I proceed to tell the owner how he could improve his business. Well to be honest, I do think Matt & I are qualified to give advise on the 'perfect room', for example. what's the point in providing mugs and tea bags, but no teaspoons for example? or having no hooks in the bathroom and so on! He did seem grateful (honest)!

We look forward to Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for reading our blog.

Week 1 in Vietnam

mattandnetty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:28:00 GMT

13th December 2012

After a horrible day on the bus from Laos to Vietnam, we finally arrive at our hotel and get possibly the best welcome to date. We are staying at the Watererland (booked through Agoda) and we get welcomed with the strongest cup of ginger tea I have ever tasted, (not that I have ever drank ginger tea, it has to be said), we also get offered fruit, followed by a banana milkshake. They were defiantly trying to 'up' their review score on the website, that and trying to talk us into doing one of their tours around Hue. Our room is on the top floor (5th) so it is nice and quite and it is a good size, unfortunately, we have only booked it for one night and they are full the following night, so we will have to move across the road tomorrow for a night. We are only going to be here for 2 days as we have to head North pretty quick, as we need to be in Hanoi for the 20th to meet our friends Rhain and Lucy, who are meeting up with us for 3 weeks over Christmas, after 10 months, we can't wait to see someone from home! We will be heading back this way, as they fly out of Ho Chi Min City on the 10th of January.

We go out for supper and soon realise that people in Vietnam are a lot friendlier, than they are in Laos. We have a good chat and laugh with the young waitresses at the bar we popped into on the way home. We instantly know we are going to like it here.

We make inquiries about the train to Dong Hoi. Everywhere we ask, says that there is only a night train there. We ask about 6 different agency's and they all say the same. Before we book, we decide to walk down to the train station ourselves and find out that they are all lying! There are 7 trains a day that go there! so we book our ticket direct at the station. On the way back into town, we walk around part of the citadel, it is massive and have decided that we could spend a whole day there with the girls, so amble our way back to our room having a leisurely late lunch en route!

On to Dong Hoi 3 and a half hours away. The train is not as good as we had hoped. Air-con is struggling with the heat and so are we! but it is on time, for a change. We share a taxi into town with a guy called Simon from Leeds that was on the train, (it always amazes me, how much I miss a British accent!). We have a quick walk around town to try to find somewhere to eat, this is easier said than done and we end up going back to our hotel to eat there, it's pretty basic but OK.

On Sunday we walk across the bridge to the beach, we haven't seen the sea for 2 months and are really starting to miss it. There is not a soul on the beach (it is their winter) although it must be high 20's at least! We walk around the sand-spit and back through the back streets. Children shout hello and ask for money, cheeky little gits, they aren't even poor, so I asked them for some as well. One kids runs down the street after us, with a note in his hand, he either thought I was serious or had a very good sense of humour!

Our train to our next destination of Ninh Binh is 7 and a half hours way and leaves at 5.30 a.m. - oh the joys of travel, so we are up at 4.30. There is some nice scenery, especially early morning when the farmers are walking their cattle to the rice paddies, carrying their wooden ploughs. We arrive mid afternoon and soon discover that Ninh Binh city it's self is a pretty boring grey town, We struggle to find anywhere to eat and when we do, the girl takes our order and then gets on the phone. Five minutes later, she leaves us sat in the café on our own, while she pops out on her scooter to collect our meal, she arrives 10 minutes later with an elderly lady sat on the back of the bike holding a tray with 2 plates and a glass of fruit shake on it, I wish I'd had the camera out!

We were going to stay 2 nights here, so we could hire a bike and go up into the mountains and to some caves, but the weather has changed from being in the high 20's down to about 18 and it is windy and rainy. We decide to see if can get on the afternoon train to Hanoi. Its only 2 and a half hours away. We can, but our seats are not together, in fact, they are not even in the same carriage. I convince Matt that I will be fine on my own, (his promise to my brother Ric, that he will 'look after me', has been taken extremely seriously, so I don't think he has taken his eyes off me in the last 10 months). We get a free lift to the train station by the staff from the hotel, on the back of 2 scooters, it's quite difficult to balance while carrying a large rucksack and a day bag with your arms (and legs for that matter) around a total stranger!

An uneventful journey and Matt and I are reunited on the platform! We walk to our hotel, which is called Lake View, yes, it is right in front of the lake but our room does not have a view of any description (other than next doors brick wall!), never mind, the room it's self is OK.

We have a walk around and find Rhian & Lucy's hotel, it looks very nice and is only about a 10 minute walk from ours. Next we walk to the 'old quarters' and have a look around It is chaos, 100's of scooters and cars whizzing through the streets, not seeming to pay any (or little) attention to traffic lights and certainly not paying any attention to the pedestrian crossings. We got some very good advice of someone in Hue the other day on a crossing, he said, 'just walk slow and they will go around you'. This has proved to be very good advice!

Today, Matt agreed to go a vegetarian rrestaurantand he actually really enjoyed it. It is run by Buddhists, who have the culinary skill to make vvegetarianfood look and taste like meat! It was really very clever and very tasty too! We had a set menu of soup with rice, some really meaty mushrooms, something that resembled pork on skewers, some (fake) crispy chicken and some seaweed wrapped tofu, that tasted of fish. All this for 2.40p each. I was slightly pissed off when the bill came and there was a charge of 4000 dong for something(?) when I asked what it was for she said it was the napkins (the wet wipes, you get in the Moon Hon - for nothing) I'm sorry, as nice as the food was, I had to tell her that, a, we didn't ask for them and b, you can't charge for a napkin that Matt hadn't even opened!. It is only 12p by the way, but it is the principle. So many times we have checked the bill and it has been wrong, but surprise, surprise, it's ALWAYS in their favour! So now I always check and I tell them if it is wrong, even if we leave it as a tip anyway. Why do they think, just because we are tourists, they can rip us off? (Last night it was being charged 40,000 dong instead of 25,000 dong for a can of coke).

We are now excitedly awaiting the arrival of Rhian and Lucy, whom we are going to meet off the plane tomorrow morning. Can't wait!

Photos: Last week in Laos

mattandnetty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:57:00 GMT

Last week in Laos

mattandnetty — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:31:00 GMT

4th December 2012

We head to Vientiane in a mini-bus, which the hotel has arranged for us. The young man on reception, has told us that the bus will drop us by his friends guest house in the capital. This will be useful, as we have not booked a room. Needless to say, he lied! (they all lie, all of the time). The bus drops us in a back street. We get the Lonely Planet out and head for the centre. Finding a room in the capital, is proving more difficult than we thought. In the end, I sit at a café with the rucksacks, while Matt goes in search of a room (that we can afford). It takes him about 30 minutes to find one, it is way more expensive, than what we have been paying, but, I guess we are in the capital, so it will be more expensive. We get a windowless room in the Souphaphone Guest House for 170.000 kip.

We soon realise that although we are in the capital, there is not a awful lot to do here. We have done our share of temples, so decide to walk to the Laos equivalent of the 'Arc de Triomphe' the 'Patuxai'. For 3000 kip, you can climb to the top and have really nice views over the city. (God it's hot!) We have decided that one full day here is enough for us, so make so enquiries about the bus to Tha Khek. We are heading to Pakse, where we will cross the border into Vietnam, but want to break the journey up. Our hotel is quoting 140,000 kip, we ask around other ticket sellers and get a ticket for 100,000 kip, (a saving of 3.20p each. It's funny, at home 3.20p doesn't seem much, but here it's a supper, or even 2!)

The 7 hour journey is pretty average, a crap bus, honking horns, people sitting in the isle on plastic stools, the usual! I have pre-booked a room, so when we arrive at the bus station, we ask a tuk-tuk driver to take us to the hotel. We know it isn't right in the town centre, but where he takes us is way out. I get out to confirm we are at the correct hotel, before we pay him and let him go. The people on reception look at me like I am mad, when I say I have a room booked through Agoda. They look at us blankly and shake their heads, not speaking a word of English. There is no sign of a computer behind reception, so we figure that we are not in the correct place, but no-one has a clue of where we should go next. We end up in a fairly grotty, but popular back-packer place, as everywhere in town is full. We decide to move on again tomorrow to Savannakhet, a 3 hour bus journey away. We find a nice room in Leena's Guest House. There is not a lot to do here either, but it is on the Mekong and does have some character, as far as the buildings go. We find a nice restaurant in an old neglected plaza and have a very grown-up lunch, - bruschetta, tortilla and a large glass of red wine, (despite what you may all think, this is unusual for us!).

Another 7 hour bus journey to Pakse. The bus looks quite good, (for a change), but as usual, it is never as good as it first seems. It stops at every possible stop and squeezes as many people on as possible (including the isle, of course). Every stop gets more and more painful, as they start loading things on the roof now, there is no space left inside. They even manage to get a scooter up there!!

We get dropped off at the edge of town, with one other tourist. This is always slightly worrying, as you have know idea where you are, but there is a tuk-tuk waiting to take us the couple of Km's to the centre. We get a room in the Sabaidy Guest House 2, a busy backpacker type place. We opt for the cheaper of the double rooms on offer, but realise that this is probably a mistake, when the people next door return to their room and we can hear them peeing!! (The bathrooms backed onto one another), so we decide to pay the extra 20,000 kip (1.60p) and get a room in the new building and we even had a balcony!

Paske is full of eateries and tourist offices and not a lot else. We decide to book on a day trip to go to the Bolevan Plateau. We are spending the day with a French couple (who speak very little English) and a English lady called Jane, (who incidentally, has a brother who has just bought a piece of land near Ironbridge, small world). First we go to a tea plantation, then a coffee plantation. Matt, who hates coffee, surprises himself (and me), by trying some and actually said that it was OK! We visit some local ethnic minority villages, which were interesting, especially the second one where the kids actually looked and acted worse off, than the kids in the orphanage in Luang Prabang. (Its' amazing how they can always can ask for 'money' in English!) Most were very sweet though, especially one little girl, who looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, but the smile she gave us when we gave her some bananas was unbelievable. All in all, it was a good day out and worth the 180,000 kip (22.50p) each. You definitely get more from a visit when you have an English speaking guide.

From Pakse we are heading into Vietnam, so we go to the Consulate, which happens to be about 50 metres from where we are staying and get our 30 day visa sorted, very easily for 400,000 kip.

Our last day in Laos was a good one. We hired a scooter and headed south 30K or so, to an ancient temple site (dating back to the 5th century) called Phou Vat. It is set up high in a hillside and had the most amazing views, but boy, it was hot!

We are almost embarrassed to admit that our last dinner in Laos was an Indian. We found a great one down a side alley, called Nazims. It had plastic chairs and no decor to speak of, but the food was real and authentic! The owner was Indian and his wife was Thai, they were some of the friendliest people we had spoken to in Laos!

Our bus journey to Vietnam, is one that Matt would like to erase from his memory, if he could. I will quickly tell you that we had a terrible bus, and driver, he had his hand on the horn for 90% of the 10 hours. The border crossing was not too bad and we managed to get away without having to pay any bribes! The real bad thing was seeing a scooter accident, where a young girl of about 12 was fighting for her life on the roadside, because she wasn't wearing a helmet. Fortunately, because I was sat in the isle seat, I didn't get to see this, but it really shook Matt up, for several days.

All in all, Laos was mostly very scenic and beautiful, although we didn't enjoy it as much as we thought we would, it has to be said. The people were no where near as friendly as the Thia's and I think because everyone we had spoken to had really enjoyed it, maybe, we were expecting a bit too much!

Photos: Vang Vieng

mattandnetty — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:18:00 GMT

Balloon Flight & caves in Vang Vieng

mattandnetty — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:49:00 GMT

30th November 0212

We take a mini bus 6-7 hours to Vang Vieng. Again a very mountainous, but scenic route.

We get a nice room at the Phonsevanh Guest House 60,000 kip (4.80p) just on the outskirts of town. The town sits in a small plain, surrounded by mountains and most tourists come here to float down the river on an inner tube. It's quite small and very touristy, but has a really nice feel about it, we know we are going to enjoy it here and there's plenty of things to do.

We start by hiring some bikes and cycling to the local caves, from here we follow signs to some more, less touristy caves, which are over fields and dirt tracks, on the way, a child appears from nowhere, and starts leading the way for us. The caves are over the other side of a big stream. We cross on a very dodgy bridge, made out of a couple of bamboo poles. The caves themselves, have some bamboo ladders to help you get in and out. My brother-in-law, Alan (a cave and mine rescue member), would have had a nervous breakdown if he'd seen us. I'm wearing flip-flops and we are following a young child down slippery bamboo ladders into... we don't know where! These caves were OK, but not overly big or exciting, so we tell the boy, via sign language as he doesn't speak a word of English, that we have seen enough and are going to go back out. When we surface, we find that the young boy does know English, - "Tip the guide" were his words. Cheeky little sod. He had been as miserable as sin and we had already had to pay to enter the cave anyway. We wouldn't have minded tipping him if, a, he had of been smiley and pleasant and b, he hadn't asked for the tip in the first place, then, when Matt offered him the 2000 kip he asked for 10,000 (He didn't get it!).

We carry on cycling across fields, to get on to a road. We know there is a waterfall some where! As we are cycling up the road,( I say road, it's actually more of a dirt track), we see a sign for a village and a 20 minute mountain walk, so decide to do this instead. The village is one of the very basic villages, wooded huts, chickens and pigs roaming free and dirty, happy kids everywhere. We are greeted by a group of about 6 kids, one of which takes 10,000 kip from us, entrance fee. We then start on our walk up a very steep hill, we are being guided by 2 small boys (aged about 8 or 10, I guess, they are always older than they look), here we go again we thought. But what a pleasure these two chaps were. Shy at first, we ask their names and gradually they become more smiley. They don't speak English, but try to communicate (unlike our other miserable, little chap) and are thrilled when we get to the top and let them use our monocular and camera. The views were amazing, (see the photo's). If the boys hadn't of come with us, we would have actually missed the very highest point of the mountain. On the way back down, Matt was reciting the alphabet and counting with them. It really was a very special walk. We tipped them 10,000 kip (80p) each at the end, their faces were a picture as they ran ahead giggling. We were wondering, if they would have to give it to the money their parents, (as these really are 'poor' kids), but as we rounded the corner, we saw them coming back from the local shop, eating sweets and drinking fizzy pop, it was great!

We have decided to treat ourselves to a balloon flight. It is supposed to be the cheapest place (in the world) to do one from and at 53.00p each, why not? We are going to do a morning flight. We are ready to be picked up at 6 a.m. The transport arrives at 6.45, Laos time - not impressed, as we have now missed sunrise, which was the whole point! It was the best 45 minutes of our holiday! The weather was perfect, the scenery stunning, soaring over the mountains, paddy fields and river, what a brilliant way to start the day!

4th December - time to move on the Vientiane, the capital.

Phonsavan - Plain of Jars and MAG

mattandnetty — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:18:00 GMT

We reluctantly leave Luang Prabang on the 28th November and head to the town of Phonsavan. After an eventful journey on scenic, mountainous roads, only having to stop twice to tighten the wheel nuts on the mini van! we arrive in the dreary looking town.

We find a (overpriced) room, then go in search of, a, a cheaper room and b, some supper. We literally walk 20 metres down the lane and find a brand new guest house, for nearly half the price (4 quid), so book ourselves in here for tomorrow night.

We walk into the town and see a shop called MAG (this gets our attention, as one of our dearest friends is called Mags!), but this is the British 'Mines Advisory Group'. They raise awareness of the 1964-73 American bombing campaign on Laos. They have been helping (and training locals) in the clearance of bombs since 1994. We enter and are very shocked to see, and read what has happened in Laos, in our lifetime. I'm possibly going to bore you now, but we found this to be more interesting than the Plain of Jars it's self, (which is really the only thing you come to Phonsavan to see).

The beautiful countryside of Laos, is the mostly heavily bombed country in the world, ever! It is still littered with UXO (Unexploded ordnance) of the worst kind. Anti-personnel mostly and some big bombs. Both are still killing and maiming locals, as they go about their daily routines. Mainly farmers working the fields and children. As the soil washes away, the bombs surface. To the kids, the 'bombies' look like a toy or a round fruit, that grows locally, but they are deadly. We watched an hour long film in the shop (that brought me to tears, I'm not ashamed to say), about how bad this war was. The Americans dropped over 2 million tonnes of bombs, a plane load every 9 minutes, at a cost of 2.2 million dollars, - a day! 30% of these bombs never went off! It was known as 'the secret war', as no-one else knew it was happening. All this, had a great affect on Matt & I. Matt asked if we could join the bomb squad, but they wouldn't let us, so we bought a tee-shirt and a couple of bits and bobs from the shop, as our donation!

On Thursday we move to our cheap digs and decide to hire a scooter to visit the Plain of Jars site. There are 3 sites, but because of the recent rain, only site no. 1 was open. The site is basically several acres of land, with very large limestone jars littered around the place. They are of 'undetermined' age (possibly 2000 years old) and are believed to be funerary urns. The site has been cleared of UXO's and white brick markers are laid out, to stop you wandering off the pathway (see photo's).

Two nights in Phonsavan is enough, with it's drunken scooter riders and begging kids, we were glad to leave.

On another 6-7 bus journey Vang Vieng.

Photos: Deak Kum Pa Orphanage School. Luang Prabang

mattandnetty — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:37:00 GMT

Deak Kum Pa Orphanage School, Luang Prabang.

mattandnetty — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:05:00 GMT

Saturday 24th November 2012

We hire a couple of push-bikes from our hotel (Philaylack Villas), and cycle the 3 or 4km out of town to the Orphanage School. We have arranged to meet Andrew Brown, an Australian, who has been helping and fund-raising for this orphanage for the past 5 years. There are 600 children here, aged between 6 to 18 (but some stay to the age of 21). Although it is a government funded orphanage, the country is so poor, (1 of the top 20 poorest, in the world), that the funding only really covers the cost of the teaching staff, (school is run daily from 8am - 4pm with a 2 hour lunch-break) and rice! Andrew has managed in the past 5 years to get sponsors to raise funds for the rest of the food needed -US$40,000, per year, so the children here, now have a fairly balance diet. They grow their own vegetables, - when I say 'they', I do mean the kids, we saw kids as young as 6, picking veg for their lunch. At weekends, the kids pretty much fend for themselves. They work in little groups together, building fires and cooking their own food. From what we can see, there is one big room, (difficult to call it a kitchen) where the sticky rice is cooked, then they add to it what they want. Empty tins of mackerel are seen everywhere, although, getting into them is interesting! - we saw one girl of about 14, trying to open one with a machete! Matt opened it for her, with his Swiss army knife.

This week, Andrew has a group of Australian school girls aged around 16-18 and a couple of doctors helping, for 10 days. The doctors have been coming for the last few years, and Evey year he gets students in to help. This week they were digging holes for new washing lines. The children all have to do their own washing, even the 6 year olds.

Andrew gives us a quick guided tour. While we are walking around, he asks one young girl how old she is, (she looks about 8,) she tells us that she is 10. Apparently, her father died, then her mother just left her, looking after her 5 year old sister and 18 month old brother! Often in these circumstances, the villagers look after the family, but not is this case, so she they had been in the orphanage for the past year. He then leaves us to wander around on our own, as he has to supervise the Ozzy help.

We wander around for an hour or so, then agree to go back the following day to help erect the washing lines.

The one thing we notice while we are wandering is that it's very peaceful considering there are 600 kids here. Admittedly, some have gone into town, as it's the weekend, but even so(?). With no adult supervision, they play ball games, lounge around on their very uncomfortable looking wooden beds, some of the girls are sewing and doing cross-stitch and we hear a guitar being played somewhere. Some are doing their washing and showering (they don't have showers as we do, they have what is called a 'dip and pour' - jug's of water (cold) that they pour over themselves) and some are gardening. No-one needs to be told what to do, they just get on with it. Can you imagine that in the UK? Children being left to their own devices, they would have the place burned to the ground, in no time! The fact that they are Buddhist's, has a big influence on the atmosphere, they do not believe in aggression or arguments and they are all fairly shy.

We have an awful lot to think about that evening, as you can imagine, but we are looking forward to going there again.

Sunday 25th

I'm in fund-raising mode already! I have had a thought to make some Christmas and Birthday cards when we return, to sell for the orphans. So on our way to Deak Kum Pa, we stop at the stationary shop and buy some paper and coloured pencils. We get the children to colour in the letters that spell 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy Birthday', then get them to hold them up, (which was a challenge to get them all to stay still), then we take loads of photo's, thus, - the makings of our cards!

We get to work putting in the posts for the washing lines, a job that would take a couple of hours at home, takes us all day here. The orphanage (and Andrew) have limited tools and what they do have, are pretty inadequate. We have to wait for the local builder to bring some cement. While we are waiting, I go and sit in the boys dorm, there are about 6 younger boys in there, some drawing and a couple playing a game on a small white-board with some stones. I teach them how to play naughts and crosses, they pick it up really quickly. There are some bright kids here. Andrew has set up some scholarship programs for kids to go to Uni, (if you know of anyone who would like to sponsor one, get in touch, I think he said it's about US$600 a year) and he has also got some young people on sponsored work programs, where they get support for 3 months, while they settled into a new home and job.

I watch kids gardening, washing clothes, lighting fires to cook their meals, climbing trees barefoot to hang their washing out to dry!! (which was pretty scary, as they were only about 7). We were there for 7 hours, and I didn't see or hear one child cry.

The cement eventually arrives, so Matt gets to work with the help of some of the boys. They are a whiz with their machetes, seriously, it's amazing. They are fascinated watching Matt use a (very crappy) circular-saw, I don't think they have seen one before. We do as much as we can, with the equipment we have. Matt cuts some new seats for the swings that have broken too, so we didn't do to bad with our day, really.

Andrew asks if we can come again the next day, but we really want to go to see another orphanage that he's trying to get involved with. Its a lot, lot poorer than DKP, with their dorms virtually falling down and they only have rice to eat, most days. Andrew has visited them in the past, when they were eating bamboo shoots, that had been boiled to a mush. The kids, unsurprisingly, wouldn't eat it! He is having to be very careful not to upset or tread on anyone's toes though, but he feels a urgent need to get in there, to help them. They are using river water here, so he is desperate to get some water purifiers in there, like he has done at DKP, they cost $300 (I think). There are 600+ kids here too.

We only have a 30 day visa and have already been here for 10 days, but we are still in the North of Laos, so we really need to get on the move again. I really don't think that this will be the last time we will be here!

Unfortunately, Matt gets violently ill in the night, so our trip to the orphanage is postponed, we will have to book in for one more night, as we really feel the need to see the other orphanage. We'll let you know how it goes.