All Hallows Eve

Dear all

Happy All Hallows Eve to you all !

We are on our way to Siem Reap today which is published to take around 9 hours (but we have bets on 12 - that's Cambodia for you!!).

Despite the journey from hell I will not be missing being in England because:

- I don't have to keep bowls of chocolate to avoid the guilt if some kids knock & I don't have any goodies......
-Then feel guilty about eating whats left cos I've bought too much .....
- We avoid all the fancy dress parties (Angela I do enjoys yours........& I know this is more to keep H happy!)
- & finally don't have to wake up in the dark tomorrow morning knowing it will probably be dark when we get home from work despite having an extra hour in bed!!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Mekong Discovery Trail

 Hi all

We spent another day around Kratie today, but rather that have someone drive us we decided to hire a couple of bikes and cycle some of the Mekong Discovery Trail, which is a 190km trail linking Kratie with Stung Treng & then on to the Lao border. The particular section we did was a trial around Koh Trong as the Island is accessible by ferry from just outside our hotel. The weather was overcast yet still pleasantly warm as we took the ferry over so it wasn't too onerous as we set off on the circular tour of the island. All along the path were traditional  stilt houses and all the kids came running out as we cycled by to say hello. Of course we stopped to talk to them, but most of them had no English and we had very limited Khmer so it ended up being lots of smiles and laughter as we realised our dilemma.

 The island community were mostly fisherman and farmers so electricity was mainly provided by a car battery & a couple of the richer individuals had a generator & their main crop was Pomellos which are very large citrus fruits. Of course the heavens decided to open up half way around so the locals took great delight in laughing at us cycling in the rain!

Despite our wet surroundings we had a great time and thoroughly recommend this area if you ever venture this way.

Thanks for looking

Hugs
Sara xx

Irrawaddy Dolphins

Hi all

Today we travelled up from PP to Kratie (pronounced kra-cheh) which is a lovely riverside town in the northern part of Cambodia and it is alleged some of the best Mekong sunsets in Cambodia. There is a rich legacy of French-era architecture, as it was spared the war-time bombing that destroyed so many other provincial centres. It was one of the first towns to be ‘liberated’ by the Khmer Rouge (actually it was the North Vietnamese, but the Khmer Rouge later took the credit) in the summer of 1970.

The journey up was uneventful, but proved to us that Khmers  are all deaf and have to be entertained at the highest volume... Even with my earplugs in my eardrums still hurt! Thankfully this torture was over within 7 hours and we gratefully found our hotel for some R&R. Oh no that was to not to be. Our friendly guesthouse owner had all our activities planned and actioned before we had even finished registering!. So within 20 mins of arriving we were off to Kampi about 16km north of Kratie to see one of the small remaining pods of Fresh Irrawaddy Dolphins left on the Mekong.
Unlike the more common dolphins this critically endangered species have no snouts, so they look more like Orca's than dolphins. The number of Irrawaddy has decreased dramatically in the last few decades because they were hunted for their oil during the Pol Pot regime and locals used dynamite fishing (throwing grenades - how charming) to catch them. We went out to the middle of the mighty Mekong river where the boat drivers switched off their engines and before long the dolphins appeared on the surface of their feeding ground. Now, these dolphins were not the kind that jump out of the water in high loops as you would find at Disney world. They simply came up every now and then for a quick intake of air. Too short and far away to take good pictures, but long and close enough to clearly see them.The photo above is a cheat from the www as we really struggled to catch them on camera  The closest ones were less than  20 feet from the boat, but the whole experience was magical and finished off with the Tuk Tuk driver taking us to Sambok Wat which is perched on top of a hill and we watched the ruby red sun descend over the Mekong just as we got to the top. It has to be the best sunset to date. Although we haven't seem many due to the fact we are in rainy season.

We also had a a great local Khmer meal of spicy curry (me) and Dean had a Loc Lac a local dish which is a spicy beef casserole with Lemongrass & Chips!!!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara 

Phnom Pehn

Dear all

Much as I love our time in SE Asia there are some things that really do annoy you after a while..... A parade of tuk tuk driver that ask you one by one if you want to hire they (are they deaf), The constant tourist tax of about 100% uplift (don't get me wrong I don't mind paying for good value its just when they change the rules) & finally other travellers that seem to have this incessant need to wear a singlet publicising the local beer as if its the compulsory uniform of the traveller............ Right got that off my chest so now I can explain where we have been for the last four days. Well I have spent most of it in bed with some sort of virus - yawn.... all OK now. The journey by boat from Chau Doc to the border was a relaxing way to spend three hours, the river was extremely flooded so all the surrounding fields were being used as flood plains or to farm for fish & ducks (don't ask!). The border control had already been taken care of by our guide who took a moto ahead of us & did all the admin. Then we boarded a second boat over the border which only had wooden seats and the journey took on a new dynamic as we fidgeted from one bum check to the other in an attempt to keep the circulation going......... However the one highlight was that the boat tended to hug the riverbank, which meant that we could see all the locals as play/work the kids all ran down to the banks to wave as we passed and Dean spent the rest of the journey making it his mission to wave at every one ( bless!).

We finally arrived at our destination and had a very bumpy ride to the city ( the roads are not as good here). Once we had our digs secured we sped out to discover the delights of PP. First stop was the Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia an enclave for most of the expats of the city, but at western prices. It had great views and some eclectic patrons which passed the time, then we decided to walk off dinner and bumped in to an American & a dutch guy who had been on the first two days of  our Mekong tour. A few Anchors later and I was finished.... Dean nobly took me home in in a tuk tuk then 'disappeared' off to check out the bars on our street.....

He finally got back at 6.00 am having been locked out of the guest house and had slept outside (sound familiar boys.... ). A local street kid had taken pity on him and lent him a coat as once again it was lashing down. The security guard kindly showed Dean the buzzer above his head as he let him in.............

Dean woke up as fresh as a daisy & I had the shivers, and was not well at all, so we had a lazy day..... Yesterday we tried to venture out and I struggled around Tuol Sleng Museum which was originally a school but Pol Pot had transformed it into S21, a high security prison, where about 20,000 people were tortured and interrogated as part of atrocities. Only 7 prisoners managed to survive, mainly due to their resourcefulness in painting or photography. Next stop was a journey to the Killing fields of Choeung. This former orchard was one of the 189 'killing' fields located around Cambodia that were the scenes of over 1 million deaths, many of which were savage in their execution. It was another of those very sobering moments , more so for me as I actually remember some of this being relayed on the news when I was young. 

Today, we wondered & took tuk tuk's around the city and the Russian market - of course I had a little spend despite my still being rather shaky.

Tomorrow we are off to Kratie in the north to (hopefully) see some river Dolphins. When I get some decent time & connection on the Internet  I will update the photos.

But as always thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara xx

Get your cabbages here............

Hi All

Up at stupid o'clock this morning ( well it is when your not working!) to visit the famous floating market at Cai Rang. We took a boat up and down through the the market which originated as a way for the locals to sell their produce from the delta (ie before the bridges linked everywhere) and they publicise their goods by hanging it from the top of a long bamboo pole hoisted up high so you can see from quite a distance who has what you want. The market is still thriving, but has as many tourist boats as there are barges selling goods, however it was fun albeit a little long. Next stop was brick factory, which was not, but that's what you get as a time filler on these little package trips.......

We then travelled over to Vihn Long, to visit the local market, which was bustling with locals and full of exotics fruits and loads of different fish and produce including snakes & frogs for sale............. We found it a little too raw as some of the 'live'produce was barely alive as they were crammed into small cages or in the case of the fish were in about half and inch of water. I know they were for sale as food, but even so...... makes you want to turn vegetarian sometimes.... Thank god for Waitrose!!
We then spent the rest of the day travelling up to Chau Doc on the border ready for our trip across the border to Cambodia. We had the most fabulous meal in a restaurant Bay Bong near our hotel and now we are slinking off to as we have another early start in the morning.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

The land of the nine dragons

Hi All

We have just spent our first of two days in the Mekong Delta, which was sold to us as the 'rice bowl' bowl of Vietnam, yet we haven't seen a paddy field to date................. Boo! That said it is the place where the mighty Mekong splits into nine main arteries (hence the name) and numerous canals and streams which are the lifeblood of the area.  The first area we visited is Ben Tre one if the 'Islands' created by the Delta, but now linked via a 15 km bridge system. This area is famous for its coconut candy, which we manged to see being made and had a 'few' samples-  it is delicious. We had previously taken a rowing boat down one of  the canals for lunch where we had our first sample of elephant fish - yum. We then travelled up some of the other streams and canals just taking in everyone just getting on with their lives although the children always have time to stop with their games to wave and say hello. Back at our hotel in Cantho Dean treated himself to Chicken and chips on the riverfront (for once I was good and had some local Chicken & mushroom stir fry with Streamed rice) and we watched the world go by. I have to say this is one of my favourite things about SE Asia. The people watching is amazing, in the evening, once the sun goes down. Once the locals  finish work they take to the streets to eat at the local stalls with friends, play football, badminton or this game which involves an elongated shuttlecock which you have to keep in the air with your feet or some part of you body (like volley ball without the net!) Its all fascinating stuff and its so nice to see compared to the UK where most people just go home to crash in front of the telly.......

Early to bed tonight as up at 6.00am (I'm supposed to be on holiday!) for the floating markets.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW

Thanks for looking

Hugs
Sara xx

Uncle Ho .....

Hi All
Today we had a fun packed day around HCMC aka Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon. This place is a busy as Hanoi but its not just the thousands of motorbikes packing the streets, the whole place is on some sort of high speed journey as if its drunk a thousand red bulls or some sort of other stimulant!!!  Our first stop today was the Reunification Palace that was the South Vietnam Presidential palace prior to the 'reunification' of North & South Vietnam on 30th April 1975. The building is still in use by the government today, but some of the floors have been left as they were on that day as a memorial. This includes the two level basement bomb shelters. Next stop was the War remnants museum, which some friends had warned us would be quite sad, but in actual fact I found it pretty must a great big propaganda campaign and all had the desired affect in making me quite angry many towards the Americans. True these people suffered at the hands of the US and their use of chemical agents such as Agent Orange, but it was all a bit to brutal and obviously one sided to me. Anyone thinking of visiting should still visit as the second floor memorial exhibition created from the work by the photo journalists who died during the conflict. The photography was emotional and very raw a fitting tribute I thought.

To lighten the mood we finished off at the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre, which even though the songs were all in Vietnamese was very entertaining. It was a bit like a neutered Punch and Judy on water............and very funny, plus all for less than a fiver for both of us... Bargain!

Our next post will be from the Mekong Delta as we are now off on a three day trip which concludes with a boat ride across the border into Cambodia.

Thanks for looking
Hugs
Sara xx

Saigon

Hi all 

AS PREVIOUS POSTS PHOTOS TO FOLLOW

Sorry we haven't posted for a while but I had such a backlog of posts that said they were posted but didn't show up on the  I gave up and just sat by the pool of our hotel for two days sulking ( OK I didn't really as I was having such a relaxing time). We have just spend the last two days at Mui Ne a tropical beach resort which was so quiet compared to other places we have been to recently. The first day was blissfully hot and we bumped into a couple from Wales in the swimming pool as we cooled off that we met at the station in Bangkok waiting for the train to Chaing Mai - its a small world........... & I won't go on as I know its freezing at home...
However we woke up yesterday, to find that the waves were quite a bit higher and somewhat more playful, (which the boys enjoyed body boarding on). The wind started to pick up, but by mid afternoon it was raining intermittently. Then about 5.00pm we started to hear thunder and had the odd flash of lightening. By 6.15 as it was getting dark the heavens opened and the monsoon rains were with us again so we thought.... No more was to come the thunder and lightening got progressively nearer and then all of a sudden the power the whole strip went and the hotel was plunged into darkness. Dean was more cross that the TV was off than the fact that the lightening was now right above us and sounding like it was hitting the ground very close by (Two coconut trees to be precise on the other side of the road went to an early grave!) There was nothing for it we had to make our way to the restaurant with everyone else and drink until the power came back on.............. The main road was under 6 inches of water within 20 minutes and everyone was rushing on their moped for cover, we later found out that the whole coast had been hit by the storms (apparently part of typhoon Magi) & 41 people had died along the coast.... Big gulps.

Today we travelled to Saigon and are now ensconced in a lovely hotel imaginatively named 70hotel (guess what street number it has!!). Not much to tell yet as we only arrived at 6.00pm but we did manage to find the most amazing Indian restaurant - well at least its Asian cuisine so it still counts .......................

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

The story so far.....

Having a cracking time!!!! :-)

Deano

Nha Trang

Dear all

Not much to say today as all we had our first proper R&R day for a while. We visited a private beach area right in the middle of Nha Trang called Louiseana Brewhouse, which also has a brewery, bar, bakery & restaurant. All we needed was a pool - oh yes they had one of those too.......... bliss with an umbrella on top.............

I forgot to tell you yesterday that Nha Trang is surrounded on all three sides by mountains with Vinpearl and a number of small islands on the fourth side, blocking major storms from potentially damaging the city. This meant we didn't expect any of the bad weather we had experienced in the last few days to reach us, but oh how wrong we were. The heavens thankfully waited until we were back in the guest house , but my did it pelt down and once again the roads were flooded before you knew it.

We are off to Mui Ne tomorrow, which is a lovely beach resort to carry on with some more R&R

So thanks for looking a catch you soon.

Hugs

Sara

VinPearl

Hi All

As we didn't have much sleep last night we decided to have power nap this morning once we got to the Hotel just outside the centre of Nha Trang and didn't wake up until 11.00! As we were starving we grabbed a bus (3000D or 10p) and headed down to the tourist area craving some western delight - well a sandwich and chips anyway. Driven with guilt (ha ha) we decided to walk to the cable car to make our visit to Vinpearl, an Island which is the local version of Disney World complete with Hollywood letters on the hillside. 

Suffice to way we underestimated the size and length of the cable car so we eb\nded up walking about 4km to get to it.... phew. Any way the cable car was great over 3km long and 60m above the sea at the highest part. It took about 12 minutes to get to the Island and was worth the entrance fee alone for the views of the other Islands and back to Nha Trang. On the Island there was a veritable feast of tacky attractions all for free, plus a great waterpark, aquarium & as the day drew to a close a trip around the arcades which kept Dean happy until 9pm. Back on the cable car the view of the town all lit up in its finery was better than the lack of a sunset, which I'm not sure will be there to see at the rate that the hotel skyscrapers are being built.

Any thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Around Hoi An

Hi All

The gods were with us today as the sun was shining when we woke up this morning. We quickly grabbed our breakfast and then some bikes and cycled down to the old town which is located on the Thu Bon river which was not far off bursting its banks after all of the rain, but we travelled over the little wooden bridges onto the An Hoi peninsular an area renowned for its seafood restaurants/fishermen and boat builders which I suppose are pretty much all complementary professions!

             Once we had exhausted ourselves cycling in the heat  we pulled over to one one of the little trolley kitchens and filled ourselves on Wantons & a fabulous baked fish (Yes, Dean is now eating fish and has even started eating some veggies - as long as they are covered in loads of Chili sauce!!). The little kitchen was as most places full of family members and friends making the place look busy! One of them was making and frying these delicious banana & potato concoctions yes, you heard right), which they gave us to try after our feast. I could see why all the locals were snapping them up, but what a deep fried cholesterol overload!!.

To work it all off we then cycled our way over to nearby Cam Island  which was  much more representational of normal Vietnamese life. Before we knew it we had to be back at the hotel to catch our night bus to Nah Trang. This was our first ever night bus ( & hopefully our last!!). Vietnam has a number of coach operators who operate these very cost effective buses They are all much of a muchness, so you are really reliant on the driver. So of course yet again we managed to get the rally driving version, who to top that waited until everyone was settled and then repeatedly switched on all of the lights. If that didn't work then he tried Vietnamese Karaoke over the speakers, which drove the German couple in front of us into orbit well before my normal intolerance levels had even got to midway! Suffice to say that night buses they are, but 'sleeper' buses I think not for 1 hours sleep in an 11 hour journey is not for me. At least I knew I didn't have to get up for work !!

Any way hope you are well

Thanks for looking

Sara xx

It never rains it pours....................

Dear all

Well the rain that started yesterday was still pouring down when we woke up the following morning. We had all good intentions of hiring bicycles for the day, and although we booked them we ended up taking the free shuttle to the old town so we didn't get drenched before we had actually arrived. The place was pretty much deserted as firstly it was lunchtime and secondly all the roads were impassable to mopeds the only form of motorised transports allowed within the old city walls.

We followed everyone elses example and dived into a restaurant and cheered ourselves up with a naughty western lunch. We have been pretty good at eating local food to date and last night we we had a sublime Hoi An tasting banquet of White Rose - a little delicate steamed dumpling stuffed with shrimp, Hoi An wantons which are similar to most wontons in the world but are laden with a local mango salsa. The local spring rolls were wrapped in a lattice rather than the usual rice papers and finally the most famous dish Cao Lau - flat noodles mixed with a flat crouton, bean sprouts, topped with sliced  Pork and served in a savoury broth. Yum...... Any way I digress , whilst we were having a our naughty lunch the rains stopped and the roads began to dry up.

As we emerged in to the street so did everyone else! The shop-keepers sprang to life and suddenly everyone was a tailor vying for your business!! The old town is like stepping back in time to over 150 years ago with narrow streets and ochre washed architecture influenced by all of its passing inhabitants Chinese, Japanese & European. We spent the whole day dodging seamstresses & sampling the local hostelries until we found one that had a happy hour until 11.00pm & all the beer was 33p per bottle. Plus they had a lap-top jammed packed full of music and we spent the evening selecting all the tracks  - the other punters must have hated us........

Thanks for looking

Sara

The road to Hoi An

Dear all

Today we had a little splurge and hired ourselves a private driver to take us down the very picturesque coast to Hoi An (yes I know all these places do sound similar!) The first stop was Lang Co Beach which is just North of the demilitarised zone the Truong Son Mountains, which stretch all the way to the coast between the two former countries. This fabulous beach was absolutely deserted and we spent a good hour walking along it just enjoying the moment. We then climbed over the Hai Van Pass, whihc predictably was ocvered in low cloud, but we were relaibly informed that on a good day you have fantastic views of the South over Danang right down to Hoi An ,but it wasn't to be.........

We stopped in Danang for lunch at a great little place called Bread for Life which is a bakery and cafe entirely staffed by deaf people (who get treated very badly in Vietnam). We had a bit of culture at the Cham Museum before we left for our penultime stop the marble mountains,  a cluster of five marble and limestone hills. The five 'mountains' are named after the five elements; Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth).

All of the mountains have cave entrances and numerous tunnels, and it is possible to climb to the summit of one of the peaks, which is exactly what we did  to enable us to see some of the buddhist temples and pagodas on the summit. The first signs of rains started as we approached the ticket kiosk, but we assumed that it would just be a quick shower and all would be well. How wrong we were....

By the time we were halfway up, the stairs were more like a waterfall than marble steps. The top was no better and we had the ability to see that there were rain clouds all around us in every direction. We had a quick look around but just had to cut the visit short as the rain was so relentlous... The steps down were even more water laden so we were glad to ge back to the safety of the car and finish our journey to Hoi An albeit the roads were now about 4-5 inches of muddy water! It carried on raining for the rest of the night...... Little did wee we know but this was going to be our 'wet' part of the tour.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara xx

Hue & the Easy riders...............

Hi all

We have been desperately trying to post to the blog since we got to Vietnam, but the Internet here does not like us publishing anything. I had hoped that this was just a Hanoi thing, but here in Hue we have the same problem. We can do email & write a post, but try to publish or go on Facebook the system just crashes and burns. So at some point all of these posts will find their way onto the www, & you will all know we are still alive and  working on the local beer lake!.

Today we arrived in Hue after a ridiculously long train journey from Hanoi. As always we were told it would arrive at 7.00 am and it finally pulled in at 12.20!! However unlike a bus the train does afford you the luxury of walking around without having to stop and if you position yourself carefully a fantastic view of the countryside. Most of the countryside was still flooded following the monsoon storms two weeks earlier, but it was still great to see everyday life just happening............

Luckily we had already booked a hotel with a pick up at the station so managed to avoid the inevitable hotel scrum & once we had stocked up on some carbs decided the only way to get our sightseeing finished in the reduced time we had left available was to enlist the help of an easy rider. These are basically local guys who you can hire with their motorbikes to take you sightseeing & it really is on a 1-2-1 basis and its really cheap at around $9 per day or part thereof! First stop was the temple of the last emperor & I have to say they really go to town... A huge series of buildings, which are usually laid out in a similar configuration to the palace they live in with the living quarters serving as the tomb and the alter. It was so detailed with loads of Chinese influences, the replica representation of the army & the 3 dimensional porcelain friezes inside the tomb and alter. The next stop was the tomb of Tu Doc who ruled from 1820 to 1840  much older and had suffered the ignominy of being bombed first by the French and then by the Americans. The other problem facing it was the craftsmanship, although it was painstakingly put together in infinite detail the timescale for obvious reasons was quite rushed and therefore the standard of the materials were not really sustainable. There was quite a lot of renovation work being carried out,which was great to see.....  The penultimate stop was the citadel itself or rather the citadel within the citadel, luckily for Dean the rules of entry no longer required all the males entering the palace to be Eunuchs!!

So thanks for looking when we finally get this on-line.....

Hugs Sara

Herd of Cattle...............

Hi all

 Although the romantic thoughts that surrounded our trip to Halong Bay were slightly realised in that the views are absolutely stunning, it is marred by the fact that you are literally part of a floating village The draw of Halong Bay has not gone unnoticed by the Vietnamese and everyone runs exactly the same tour at the same time each day, even down to the route! On the plus side you think that at least the rest of the bay is relatively free of the polluting effects of the tourism, but conversely you feel that you are on a floating city of boats. This explains the somewhat military timetable that we under went during our tour... The notion of the waves gently lulling you to sleep last night were disturbed by the sounds of the 'party boat' two hundred yards away and the mornings dreams were rudely interrupted by the staff preparing breakfast at 4.00am!! (Don't people in SE Asia realise that that's the middle of the night!) We tried to doze, but finally gave up and just as well as we got the 20 minute, 15 minute and the 5 minute warning knock that breakfast was to be served! As with all our meals it was varied, plentiful & delicious. However on schedule as soon as it finished we were off for kayaking - slotted in between the other boats of  tourists! They were Canadian canoes and Dean & I made an incongruous pairing with his dodgy shoulder and my gimpy back, but we managed to manoeuvre ourselves around the nearby islands including a little cave through the side of one of the cliff sides. On schedule we were back on the boat, cast off whilst we checked out, then we had 30 minutes as rest time before our final lunch another sublime seafood banquet. by the time we had finished we were back at the dock. Phew I needed a rest after all of that. Don;t get me wrong I am sure plenty of people like a bit of organisation on their trips, but a bit of breathing space between each even would have been so much better as it would have helped maintain some of the romantic nature of the trip. However the people we met were great including a couple from Bath & a convict from Sydney called Rob & that really is what makes these things special after all........

After all our sea air that night we gratefully sank onto our rock hard seats on the sleeper train for our overnight trip to Hue.......

Halong Bay

 Hi all

Today we managed to escape the hustle and bustle of Hanoi for a two day trip to Halong Bay. The journey takes about 3 hours from the capital, but is worth the effort of booking as to do it independently requires a stay in Halong City, where most hotels are for rent by the hour and nearly all have in-house 'massage' !

We reached the dock along with a few hundred other 'farang' and were transported to our selected boat a very well equipped converted Junk 'hotel' for the rest of our trip. The karst limestone islands are all partially submerged mountains and number 3000+  with only approximately 900 having been named. No sooner were we settled in our cabin, then we got the knock for lunch, which really set the tone for the rest of the trip! Lunch was a sumptuous seafood feast, which we just had time to finish before we arrived at our first destination, a series of enormous caves set within one of the closest islands. No sooner had we been 'herded' around with the masses, and taken the launch back to the junk then we were informed that it was now time to swim....... The water was incredibly warm, & very salty but had a fierce undercurrent which meant you were swimming pretty hard to stay still. I'm glad that the weaker swimmers admitted this prior to jumping in with life jackets on because I'm not sure how we would have managed a rescue. However it was lovely, and Dean and another guy even braved the overhangs of the boat to jump off the top deck which was a good 30 feet. All it leaves me to say was sun downers were great, dinner was sumptuous and the beers never tasted so good..........

Thanks for looking

Sara

City of the Soaring Dragon

Dear all

.....& Happy 1000 years to Han Oi or Thanh Long as it was previously more romantically known - The City of the soaring dragon. It certainly is a city on the up! The place is swarming with motorbike's from dawn until dusk and beyond and they are constantly on their horns letting each other know that they are there! Thank god that most of the streets in the old quarter ban cars cos it would really be mayhem. We managed to get moved back into our original hotel today (had to hump our own bags through the throngs ourselves!!) & then went off for an explore of the area. We wondered back down to the lake and found ourselves a nice table overlooking the throngs of people. Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the old city and legend says that heaven gave Emperor Ly Thai a magical sword that he used to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. The day following the victory he came across a giant  golden tortoise who grabbed the said sword and disappeared into the depths of the lake to restore the sword to its divine owners. Any way the whole place was still thronged with wandering Vietnamese so we didn't linger too long.

Next stop was the oldest temple in Hanoi, Bach Ma Temple, which has a very Chinese theme, next stop was a recreation of an old Chinese style merchants house, which was very basic, but beautiful. We were not able to visit the two most popular sites, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum - Massive parade & the Museum of Ethnology - taxi issues returning to town! but still feel we managed to get a understanding of this growing vibrant city. The only point that did tickle us is that the 'official' date of the 'creation' of Hanoi was 10-10-1010 how lucky was that all those 10's !!! Me thinks someone has been using a bit of historical license!!

Next stop  Halong Bay ......

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

1000 years old ........................

Dear all

Today we said goodbye to Loas and boarded a flight to the Hanoi, capital city of Vietnam.

The journey was fine, but the real fun started once we landed & we found out that Hanoi was in the middle of its main 10 day celebrations of 1000 existence .................. Great.......

No one wanted to take us into the city, where we had a room already booked.  Once we got there we found that our room had 'gone' and we were moved to some grotty room in their 'sister hotel'! Next we went out to find somewhere for dinner, but the streets were mobbed with people and finding a seat let alone someone to serve you was preety impossible. We found a roof terrace restaurant that was doing a roaring trade for all the bemused 'farangs' (foreigners to you and I ) and we watched the merriment form above.

Following dinner we tried to walk around the lake in the middle of the old quarter, but there were just so many people we just gave up and went back to our room.

Hanoi is busy at the best of time with nearly 4 million inhabitants,who seem to all have a moped! However, it transpired that a further 2 million 'locals' visited for the event, which sort of explains why the little streets of the area became so conjested. They were all pretty much 'promenading' around the area taking in the atmospher of squashed hot people. Not my idea of fun, but what ever does it for people.......

As always thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

The vertical runway!

Hi All...

Our second day in Vientiane was pretty much another walking tour of the city. First stop was the Patuxai, Vientiane's Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the Lao who died in the pre-revolutionary wars. They started building it towards the end of the 60's using cement donated by the US to build a new airport!! (Like it!). It is therefore widely known in the city as the vertical runway! It is pretty gaudy with quite a few areas of over decoration, but has never actually been finished and officially opened as they ran out of money!!

Next stop was the Pha That Luang -  'another temple' Dean moaned, 'they all look the same' and to some extent he is correct, but they all have a different story to tell & everyone looks pleased when you make the effort to visit them. - although my cynical head might say its the 5,000Kip we pay to get in that they like more........




This is the most important temple in Laos & is seen as a symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty which seems a little strange for a communist country, but hey ho whatever works......
Anyway as it was lunchtime and the place was over run with Chinese tours, we were actually restricted in what we could see (much to Deans relief) so we wondered the 4km back to the centre of town and had lunch in a little restaurant by the national stadium, which was the location of the SE Asia Games last year and is now being ripped down.........

Our final stop was the Lao National Museum, which was formerly known as the Lao Revolutionary Museum and has a real communist feel..................  It was interesting if a little one sided, but hey maybe that's because I am a little ...........

 So as this is our last night in Laos we are going out to sample some of Vientiane's finest food and enjoy our last Beer Lao.

Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi - we chickened out of the 30 hour + bus journey  mainly due to the horror stories of issues of being dumped at the border or in the middle of no where etc

So thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara

Vientiane

Hi all

I'm back from the land of grumps now and my head is back where it should be......
Today we walked our way around most of the centre of the capital, which is not hard when you think that the population of this tiny city is only 300,000!

We spent an extraordinary large amount of time trying to find the COPE centre which helps victims of UXO make the limbs they so desperately need, but we got completely & utterly lost. (we will try again tomorrow!). We had more success with the next place on our list  the very old and beautiful Wat Si Sake, which is the oldest temple in Vientiane some of it dating back to the15th century. It was full of over 2000 buddhas in little niches around the courtyard and another 300+ which were either standing or sitting, which had been donated from different provinces and neighbouring countries over the years.

Off for a beer Lao now ...............


Hugs
Sara

Bad Head Day

Not much to say today except somehow we travelled from Vang Vieng to Vientiane the capital of Laos in a bus.
Issue 1- I had the hangover from another world following yesterdays Lao Lao & Beer Lao escapades
Issue 2 - The journey took 4 hours instead of the published 3, as the driver kept stopping to do his shopping and errends
Issue 3  - The bus had no aircon & was overcrowded!

Moan Moan winge winge my head hurts!.... Dean thinks it's hilarious.

I would love to say I'm never drinking again but that would be a lie

Bed for me I think.......

Vang Vieng and the world of tubing!

Today we went a little off our normal 'modus operandi' to indulge in a well travelled route down the Nam Song river using an old tractor inner tube....

The draw of this pastime is that there are countless bars strategically placed along the river with young guys throwing ropes out into the river with the hope that you grab them and visit their bar. We met Matt, Mariska & Sofia at the first bar so it pretty much descended into mayhem from there on.
It is great fun, but can be dangerous if you don't keep an eye on the time and get back before dark after which it is difficult to see the rocks and other things sticking out of the river to knock you off the tube into the strong currents. The killer photos are on Facebook (sorry mum there are some things yu never want your parents to see no matter how old you are.........) but here are a couple of the highlights!

Thanks for looking
Hugs
Sara

Phonsavan to Vang Vieng

 Dear all

 Today we travelled South from Phonsavan  and left the forests behind for dramatic Karst cliffs and mountains, passing through tiny villages getting on with their subsistence faring lives until we reached Muang Phu Khoun where we stopped once again at the local market which was selling everything you can imagine including these very tasty flame grilled frogs - Yuch!!Next stop was lunch at Kasi where we also indulging in some of the local delicacies....... Yes they are worms and they taste just like Satay.... Honestly! Suffice to say Dean passed on the tasting..........

Finally after about 6 hours we finally arrived at our destination Vang Vieng . This town is the must stop for every traveller in Laos to take in the views and the other 'delights' of the area, including Tubing, kayaking, climbing and other outdoor sports. We will let you know what we end up doing tomorrow!

Thanks for looking as always

Hugs

Sara