Jamie and his magic... Adventures

It was a long (12 hours), bumpy, noisy and very wet journey to Hanoi. We left a flooded Hue behind us (some parts of the streets were a meter deep in water) and arrived feeling wiped out in the capital city. As usual the tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and hotel touts are waiting to mob their prey in a vulnerable state. Had a good idea where to go from our bible The Lonely Planet so jumped in cab to take us over to the Old Quarter part of the city and to an ok guest house to crash. There are a lot of problems with the hotels in Hanoi because often they will only let you stay if you promise to book a tour through them, if you don't their suddenly full or cost double, luckily this one was not one of those. We passed out until lunchtime and went off, still in a bit of daze to have lunch and a bit of a wander.

The Old Quarter is Hanoi's historic part of town. The many narrow and maze like roads are buzzing with shops and stalls selling everything imaginable, cheap eats on every corner, motorbikes zipping around the streets with horns blazing and frightened tourists attempting to cross them.

The rain confined us to our room for the rest of the afternoon, luckily we had tv with sky to keep us occupied. Finally stopped that evening to give us chance to get some food and call in at a few ticket offices to get some prices on the Halong Bay trip. Most offer pretty much the same deal consisting of 3 days and 2 nights but only varying in class of boat and hotel which we weren't that fussed about paying extra for. Managed to haggle down one place to a good price so booked to go on the Friday.

Decided the next morning the best way to see more of the city was to hire scooters again. This time I opted for a manual just to make things easier. Typically as soon as we'd hired the things the heavens opened and didn't stop all afternoon. It made it very difficult to see where I and everyone else was going, but like true brits we battled through it. The Vietnamese certainly deal with it, as on come their rain coats covering everything from themselves to the piles of goods their carrying - very amusing though because looks like their wearing superhero capes!

Took a drive through the Old Quarter with our horns at the ready and keeping a very close eye out for everyone else. It was much busier than Hue, but at least it had slightly better road rules and signs (people still drive wrong way up one way street and ignore traffic lights!) All was going well, the rain had stopped, but then all of a sudden Dave, who I was following decided to go a different way and I didn't have time to get across all the traffic so lost them. With no map, no idea where I was or what the hotel was called I ended up getting completely lost. To make things worse, the traffic was building up, so making sure I didn't get squished by the traffic I randomly went down streets trying to find some that looked familiar... Someone was obviously looking down on me as I managed to find the road where we'd hired the bikes from and from there find my way back to the guest house, an hour later. Wasn't that impressed with Dave's plan, had already had found it very difficult following him as he kept changing his mind, but was able to laugh about it once finally back. The rain was like something I've never seen or heard that night so we weren't feeling very hopefull about our trip to Halong Bay the next day...

It was certainly a sight looking out of the window the next morning to see cars almost swimming up the street! The coach wasn't able to get down to pick us up so we had a bit of a paddle with our backpacks to the tour office. The drive took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Halong city and fortunately about half way there the rain eased and practically stopped by time we got there.
Halong city is an awful place - very over developed due to huge number of tourists coming this way but still looks run down. Luckily we weren't hanging around this area and went straight to the dock where the boats were fighting for every inch of space possible on the water. Was a little difficult finding the right boat as they all looked the same and our tour guide didn't exactly seem to know what he was doing.

We were in a group of about 15, mostly older than us and all couples. Me being the only singleton had a room to myself which was nice. The rooms were downstairs, dinning area in the middle and on the upper decking outside was the sun (or in our case rain) deck. Stayed anchored down to have lunch and then set off on our trip around the huge bay. It's a very impressive natural wonder of the world with 3000 or more limestone islands ranging in size rising up from the sea. The rain had stopped so we could atleast sit on top deck to take in the scenery as we moved through the islands.

Our first stop was to visit one of the largest caves in the area and explore. Our useless tour guide made some excuse that he was ill so we just had to wander around ourselves. It was ginormous cave with lots of smaller ones coming off it. Stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere you looked and even some strange looking things (shame we didn't have a guide to tell us about them) it took us about 40 mins to walk around in total.

The boat had parked up in a nice bay by the caves so we had an hour or so here to do some kyaking and even swimming but it was too cold. After a bit of a drive we anchored up with all the other boats for the night. Wasn't really a lot for us to do after dinner so just sat on top deck with couple of beers and some music and got early night.

Next morning we headed to Cat Ba island which is one of the largest islands and looks like something out of Jurrasic Park!

We were staying in a hotel that night in the town, but the misserable tour guide hadn't bothered to tell us what else we were doing... a two hour trek through the jungle was what it was - didn't have a problem with that, it was just the fact we were in flip-flops I had problem with! Didn't have any other footwear with us, so it made the somewhat slippy climb to the summat of a rather large mountain a little more tricky! Was good fun though and even better that the rain held off. Arriving hot and sweaty at the top made it all worth while for some very impressive views over the national park. After sliding most of the way down the path back to the van, we were then taken to the touristy fishing village by the harbour which seemed nice enough. As with most of the towns on the island, this was once a sleepy village but after being discovered as a tourist spot it had been filled with hotels and eateries. After lunch and a well earned sleep we had another trip out on a boat to Monkey island. I'm sure on a sunny, warm day it would be nice to be here for two hours, but on a grey, cooler day it wasn't! Not really sure what they expected us to do, but the kyaking and swimming certainly wasn't an option so we just sat around. Did actually get to see a few monkeys, hence the name, but they were a bit crazy and didn't hang around long.

I think the best part of the day was seeing the amazing sunset over the bay...

It was an early start the next morning to start our journey back. We were leaving from the harbour by the hotel on a very small looking boat which was due to link up with the original boat in an hours time. After about 20 minutes a loud clunk brought the boat to a stop and the guys on board couldn't get the thing started again. Fortunately the driver had his mobile to get another boat sent out to pick us up. Another one finally arrived half an hour later and didn't look much better! We eventually made it to the main boat after a few close calls. The weather was better today so had nicer views of the bay but the long journey back to mainland was too much. We'd enjoyed the trip but was definatley long enough and there's only so much you can get out of it, especially with a useless tour guide!

Once back on dry land, we had some food prepared for us by a nearby restaurant and set off back to Hanoi. Didn't take long for the rain to start up and we overheard people talking about a lot of the city being flooded over the weekend. We started to see the effects as we got closer and even saw a few tin boats going up and down the roads! Luckily in the Old Quarter part of town it wasn't as badly affected, we found ourselves a nicer guest house for the next three nights. Got a good deal on the room for the three of us and it was probably the best bed I'd slept in so far!

The next few days were spent trying to avoid the rain and catch up on some souvenier shopping. The Old Quarter really is shoppers paradise with it's maze of roads full of stalls and shops selling everything from clothes, fake goods, musical instruments, silk and wooden gifts and pretty much anything else you could think of. It was good fun wandering around seeing the bustle of it all and practising our bartering techniques to get some good bargains.

We'd not been out of the Old Quarter, so decided to hire a couple of bikes the day before we left to explore Hanoi. It was all going well especially as we had a map, but then the rain came down, away went the map and lost we got! I think it's an understatement to say that we probably saw more of Hanoi than we expected to and on many occassions saw parts numerous times as we went round in circles. The traffic was so busy in parts and actually a bit frightening especially when we were driving knee deep in water! Saw loads of flood damaged homes and restuarants and even a rather wet looking wedding party!

We were completely off our map area so had no idea where we were and attempting to get any help off people was near impossible - they either just pointed or wanted paying! Finally made it back into the city late afternoon, although it had been a little hair raising at time it had been fun to see what we had. I think we were the only westerners crazy enough to hire bikes in Vietnam as we saw none on the roads and many of my friends who had visited thought we were mental! I would have to agree on many occassions, for example shutting our eyes and hoping for the best when trying to get across a busy junction - well if you can't beat them you may as well join them!

So after nearly 3 and half weeks in Vietnam we were pleased to be moving onto Laos. The weather had put a downer on things so we had our fingers crossed. Time for new adventures, nicer weather and a much more relaxed lifestyle in Laos...

We must be getting used to the long coach journeys now because the 6hr trip to Ho Chi Min City (or Saigon as it's also know as) didn't seem too bad. There were no problems crossing the boarder which was a straightforward and official procedure and thankfully our visas were processed without any complications.

HCMC is the largest city in Vietnam and is a very metropolitan city where most of the population lives. The craziest thing to see is the huge volume of motorbikes (about 4 million in total) that congest the roads, apparently it’s the worlds motorbike capital.

We got a cab to the main touristy area and got a nice guest house for a couple of nights. I got my own room as well so it was nice to get away from the couple and chill out with the tv.

There isn’t a great deal to see in the city and is pretty much like any city really, so decided to book a couple of tours up for the next few days to keep us busy. There is a lot of history here mainly due to the war, so we went and took a look at the War Remnants Museum in town. It primarily contains exhibits relating to the American phase of the Vietnamese war including military equipment i.e. tanks, helicopters, fighter planes and bombs. There were photos taken during the war from correspondents, a few displays detailing the effects to the victims and those born with birth defects caused by Agent Orange which the US during the war, the photos were horrible! One building contained a reproduction of the Tiger cages that had been used to house political prisoners.

On the Thursday we headed out of the city on our first tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. On route we had a few places to visit – a factory and a Cao Dai temple. First of all the factory was one that had been set up for disabled people (many of those affected by the war) to enable them to earn some money. Most of the things they made were done using eggshells or scratching Mother of Pearl. It was really amazing to see the intricate work that was being carried out and the patience it must take to do it everyday. There was a large gallery with many items available to buy, so I bought a couple of nice egg shell pictures as a way of helping raise money for victims of war and pay the workers (hopefully!)

The next place was to the Cao Dai temple. The religion worships a number of religions including Buddhism, Caodaiism and Christianity. We got to see a ceremony take place with the various ranking and titles of the members (highlighted by different coloured robes), which was interesting but a little strange!

After a lunch stop we finally got to Cu Chi - home of the tunnel network built around the 1960s by the Viet Cong guerrillas during war. They served as hiding spots during combat as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The reason Cu Chi came under fire was due to the location of the district - both the Saigon River and Route 1 passed through and served as a major supply route in and out of Saigon during the war. The tunnels played a great role in resisting American operations and protracting the war. There was about 200kms of complex connecting tunnels in the area. Many contained sleeping chambers, kitchens and supplies. The guerrillas would often spend days in the cramp narrow tunnels with little air supply, food, water and often infested by insects, some poisonous. We were given the opportunity to see the remaining 75 mile long complex which has been turned into a memorial park. Displayed were examples of the effective booby traps used and figures of the guerrillas in action. Many of the tunnel entrances have been preserved so we could see just how tight a squeeze it would be. In fact they had to purpose built a western size mock-up tunnel just so we could fit and experience what it would be like crawling through - hot, sweaty and dusty to say the least!

Our next day trip was to the Mekong Delta - described as watery rice fields surrounded by chocolate coloured canals from the Mekong River. It is one of the worlds major rivers, estimated at a size of 4,350kms, and it is in this region in Vietnam where it approaches and empties into the sea. It actually just looks dirty brown, but is coloured due to silt not pollution and rubbish as one would first think.

After a 3hr coach journey we arrived at the gateway to the Delta to board a boat that would take us around the river for the day. It was interesting to see how busy the river was and how it is used to transport and provide so many resources to the countries the Mekong passes through. We visited various places of interest on the way - a coconut candy workshop which showed us how sweets were made; sample some delicious local fresh fruit; a short trip on a horse and cart to where we had honey tea and listen to local music and best part was we got to hold a huge python! We had a nice ride back to the boat on a narrow boat through the channels of the river wearing traditional Vietnamese hats.

It was time to get out of the busy congested city and head upwards along to the coast. Mui Ne is a beach town about 3hrs from HCMC and hopefully the perfect place to relax and get some sunshine. We had booked a hop on/off coach trip all the way up to Hanoi, stopping about 4 times on route at various key tourist places. All of the journey would be done on a sleeper coach that was a strange set up. A basic coach but makeshift bunk beds lined the length of the coach - about 3 rows of 4 beds.

It was lovely to finally be leaving the city and see some of the real Vietnam landscape that makes up the south part of the country. It wasn't long before the sun came out and the sea came into view - felt more relaxed already. After arriving in the town we sorted ourselves out with a guesthouse that was pretty cheap and even had it's own patch of the beach, so was more like a mini resort. The beach was lovely - long stretch of sand lined with palm trees and funny looking fishing boats - not quite Fiji but it would do for the next few days.

We ended up staying until Monday just so we could have a couple of full days in the sun. Foolishly Dave and Karin didn't put sun cream on the first day so spent the rest of the time out of the sun. That gave me some nice time on my own to catch up with some well earned R & R. It's very hard travelling with a couple and it's something I'll never do again, but at least they weren't arguing.

Our next stop further up the coast was Nha Trang, about 5hrs by sleeper coach again. We were picked up about 1.30 and looked like we were going to be leaving the sun behind us... Nha Trang is much much bigger than Mui Ne and very popular with the tourists due to lovely beaches and excellent scuba diving. Unfortunately in the rain the next day it didn't seem to be that appealing to us. Our hotel wasn't really in the best of spots and took us a while to find any life in the town. We didn't really want to stick around for the sake of it, so the only thing we wanted to do was visit Thap Ba Hot Springs which we did that afternoon. Strange little place - had a very bumpy drive through a run down village, then right at the end of the wet potholed road was this luxury spa resort. We paid to have our own mud bath and mineral pool which were nice but a bit of a bizarre experience.

We thought we might as well make the most of the other appealing feature to the place - the nightlife... went for a nice meal that night then wandered over to the 'Why Not' bar for some drinks, mainly very cheap and very strong buckets - basically a concoction of alcohol in a plastic bucket! We got chatting to a nice couple who were coming down the coast and they gave us a few tips, as well as warning us about the typhoon hitting the coast (yep we were right about seeing the last of the sun!) After several games of free pool and buckets we stumbled back to the hotel. Felt pretty rough the next morning, I'd passed out but Dave and Karin managed to find some random garage to watch the Liverpool game and carry on drinking so they felt even worse. It didn't help that we knew that evening we were going to have to travel 11 hours on a coach to get to Hoi An. Decided to pay to keep the room on until that evening so we could at least rest and recover before the journey.

The journey to Hoi An was probably one of the worst I'd done so far... the rain was torrential and the driver didn't seem to care that it was dangerous to drive fast! Didn't stop him from beeping his horn either which, when your trying to sleep really doesn't help! The fold back beds weren't really that uncomfortable, but there wasn't much leg room and couldn't really spread out. I actually felt safer with my eyes closed so I couldn't see what was going on so did manage to get some sleep. We stumbled off the coach the next morning at the hotel and was annoyed to find our luggage had got soaked (nothing ruined luckily) whilst in transit. I had my own room so it was nice to be able to crash out and get some proper sleep in a bed - it really takes it out of you being on a coach that long. One of the main reasons for me wanted to come here was to get a suit made. It's one of the best and cheapest in Asia, and there's none of this forced hassle you get in Bangkok. There are so many places to choose from, so I just went to one the hotel recommended for a look. After getting some prices at a few other places, the original one seemed to be one of the better ones. There are so many options to choose from i.e material colour, fabric, how many buttons etc. Amusingly they give you a copy of The Next Directory so you can get some ideas! Got a good deal on two suits, two shirts (also fitted) and two ties all to be shipped back home. After being measured up I arranged to go back the next morning for a fitting and it would be ready that afternoon. It didn't stop raining until the evening when we were finally able to get out of the hotel to have a wander around. It's a fairly small town, but has a wonderful old town part that we wandered around and got some food. It used to be an international trading port in the 17th century and therefore has a lot of influences from the Chinese, Japanese and Europeans that can be seen in the buildings and artwork. Wandering around the narrow lanes there were many rustic looking shops selling everything from silk, artwork, suits, lanterns and various tempting gifts - could feel some shopping coming on the next day. We got to take part in a reinactment of 'Singing in the rain' on the way back to the hotel that night as it hammered it down. We were that drenched we didn't care so just enjoyed it - much to the amusement of the same locals in their houses!

The rain and storms hadn't stopped all night so it was a very soggy walk to the tailors the next morning. Pleasingly my suits and shirts only needed a few minor adjustments, but other than that looked great. They promised to have them all finished by the afternoon so that meant we could leave the next morning to our next destination. It had stopped raining so we took advantage and went for some breaki and a wander round the old town to stock up on some bits and bobs. Set along the river, it really is a lovely town with a lot of character both a night and in the day light. It was so lovely to get a feel for the real Vietnam instead of crazy big cities and probably one of my favourite places so far in the country. That and having wonderfully fitting clothes which were ready as promised, I was able to leave feeling very happy to of stopped by.

The coach came early the next morning to drive us the 4hrs up to Hue. It had actually stopped raining and the sun had even come out which made it a nice drive through the valleys. The sun even stayed when we got to Hue, so it makes such a big difference to feelings of a place. Not really a lot to do or see here, more of just a stop off before the long journey to Hanoi. It was a shame we didn’t get to see much of the town that day because Dave and Karin couldn’t be bothered going anywhere but the hotel. Finally got them out to go find some food, which proved difficult and ended up eating some horrible stuff at a huge but empty restaurant by the Perfume River. Sods law the next day was dull and miserable, so after a measly breakfast in the hotel we hired a couple of scooters for the day. The main attractions in Hue are the historic monuments and tombs of several emperors, so we thought we go check them out to give us something to do. Dave was driving an automatic with Karin on the back and I had a manual to figure out on my own. After fighting our way through the congested city traffic that appeared to have no road rules or road signs, we found our way and headed through some smaller towns with Karin attempting to map read with a useless map! Eventually found one of the tombs that was off the beaten track and well and truly hidden in the mountainside. It was interesting to see and wander around the surrounding buildings and statues but not really that exciting.

Couldn't find the main tomb location and like I said, the map was a waste of time so decided to head back to the city. We ended up having much more fun just driving around there, found where main bars and restaurants were for that evening and went for a random drive. Went down these small tracks to where tiny little villages were scattered around and by the surprised looks on their faces I don't think they got many tourists driving through. They were all waving and smiling so we knew it was ok. Drove through rice fields, run down little shacks and little old ladies with fags hanging out their mouths – it was just great to see real life. Once back on the main roads it had started getting busy with rush hour traffic so didn't want to get stuck in it. One guy didn't look where he was going and reversed straight into me, I had to swerve to avoid him but ended up toppling over with bike landing on me. Luckily wasn't going fast so ended up with just a graze on my leg and fortunately the bike was ok. Dave and Karin's remarks were “trust it to be you something happens to!”

We'd been thinking a lot about how we were going to get to our next country, Laos and being so short on time, we decided to fly there a week on Wednesday (5th Nov). It's also one of the worst journeys due to time it takes, unreliability and even stories of being abandoned by the driver!

The notorious journey from Bangkok to Cambodia was one of the most problematic in Asia. I’d read many stories about terrible, cramped bus journeys down potholed filled roads and scams coming at you in all directions, so felt a little apprehensive to say the least...

We were up at 4.30am to get taxi to bus station and managed to get ticket for the 6am bus. Going by government bus was advised the best way to travel as if you went by some of the street dealers god knows what you’d end up in. Made the right choice as it had air con, comfy seats and was even given a muffin and water – all for £4! It took us about 4hours to get to Aranyapathet which is the nearest town to the boarder where the bus drops you. You are then bombarded by tuk-tuk drivers offering to take you to the boarder. Even though I instructed for him to take us straight there, he still tried to pull the wool over our eyes by taking us to the Cambodian consult first – I’d read about this and how they charge you double for visa! After refusing to get out he then took us to boarder, he dropped us conveniently at the spot where all the touts were mulling around, so again you get mobbed by people trying to make you pay for them to help you and to complete visa there because that was where you supposed to do and because the form is so complicated. After arguing and making sure they didn’t grab out bags, we walked to first visa check point to get stamped through with no problems. Luckily there wasn’t much of a queue for this and it was one of the reasons we left so early. Effectively once you’re through there your in no mans land in between the two countries, so surrounded by beggars and touts trying to mislead us we fought our way through. I had looked into where we actually had to go so just ignored everyone and kept walking, even an official looking guard tried to fob us off! Once we got to second check point and filled out the very un-complicated form, you have to argue a bit about price of visa due to extreme over charging but then of course they take extra long processing your passport. After hanging around for 20 minutes we were finally in Cambodia.

The fun doesn’t stop there though… the first impression you get of Cambodia is the delightfully revolting town called Poipet where they say the best thing about it is leaving! Potholed filled dusty roads, rubbish everywhere, poor people lugging carts filled to the brim with all sorts, kids wearing next to nothing… but then if you look again, it’s a town full of casinos and dirty old western men with Asian brides!! We trudged through to get to the third and thankfully final checkpoint where I’m not exactly sure what we had to do apart from have out pictures taken. We were directed towards a hot and stuffy bus which took us the very short ride to the transport office which is where we got the taxi from to take us to Siem Reap. Again we had to argue down the price to about $60USD, but it was a 4 hour drive and if you kick up too much fuss you get put in a terrible taxi. We were glad we didn’t argue too much after seeing the state of our car – the windscreen looked like it was about to crack in various places and was lots of dints everywhere, at least it had air con though! The sorry excuse for a road was what we would have to put up with for pretty much the entire trip and at some points we were even lucky to have anything to drive on at all! It took us a while to get out of Poipet due to the state of the road plus animals, people and motorbikes getting in our way. Once out of the place surprisingly we found tarmac so started to get my hopes us a little, but it wasn’t long before we were back on the track. One good thing was that it wasn’t raining as the muddy road can get clogged and you get stuck, but that left us with dry dust which I’m not sure was any better. We had the Cambodian version of Nigel Mansell who, armed with his horn, was ready to take on any driver who dared get in his way, regardless what side of the road they were on (he was often on wrong side anyway!) – I was so glad I was sat in the passenger seat! I take back what I said about fearing for my life in Bangkok after riding upfront with this nutter! The journey seemed to take forever, we passed bikes carrying dead pigs on the back, pick up trucks filled to the brim with people, and what with the driver tearing up the track it certainly wasn’t uneventful!

We arrived just outside Siem Reap about 3ish and for some reason you are handed over to the tuk-tuks to take you rest of way in (knew this would happen as they try and take you to their guest house of choice & book your tours with them) turned out to be ok so just for ease and the fact we were exhausted booked in there. All in all the journey hadn’t been as bad as I thought, but was glad I had prepared myself for what could happen. Surprisingly after our very long and roller coaster day we armed ourselves with a few beers and chilled out in our nice air coned room. We did eventually make it out of the hotel to find some food, and after getting a bit lost, we managed to find the Old Market part of town which had plenty of bars and restaurants. It's such a contrasting town, the poor, run down part we stumbled upon, compared to the westernised touristy Old Town literally round the corner. Siem Reap has grown dramatically over the last 10 years or so due to tourists flocking to see the Angkor temples, which is exactly what we were going to do the next day.

The next morning our tuk-tuk man picked us up from hotel, and after taking us to a nice spot for breakfast we headed off to Angkor. The ruins are located amongst forest and farmland on the outskirts of Siem Reap, and as we drove through the town seeing all the posh fancy hotels, it was hard to believe I was in Cambodia. The temples are considered the 8th wonder of the world, with over 1000 temples in the area ranging from piles of rubble to the famous Angkor Wat, which is said to be the world's largest single religious monument. The main temple, Angkor Wat was built for the king in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city by the Khmer empire, and then resorted in the 20th century. It's incredible to think that all these years ago something as magnificent as this could have been built. (Boring facts out of the way now I promise!!)

The first sight we visited was Ta Prohm which was used in Tomb Raider film. It's easy to see why when you check the place out. It's one of the few sights that have been left in much the same condition in which it was found. Another fascinating sight it the tree trunks growing out of the ruins with their roots wrapping around the stone.

Our driver took us to see loads more other temples including Angkor Thom which is famous for its 54 towers of smiling faces, but it was so hot it made it difficult to keep going.

There are so many children around the place as well from the local villages within the area constantly trying to sell you things from water, bracelets and amusingly at one place a live dung beetle! Their really persistent and certainly aren't stupid if you try and fob them off, at one point they did get quite angry when we refused to buy anything.
Due to the size of the area, most people actually take about 2-3 days to see everything. We were only really interested in the main attraction - Angkor Wat. It is the best preserved temple at the sight and still retains its religious significance today - so much so it has become the symbol on the Cambodia national flag. The impressive structures are built within a moat which you cross over by bridge to get into the grounds. We were really flacking by this point so took our time wandering around trying to find shade from the very hot sun. It was really amazing to see the place and wonder what it must have been like all those thousands of years ago.

The last temple on the list was Phnom Bakheng where you can get views of the sunset and Angkor Wat. We got up there fairly early to avoid the crowds, but meant we had to sit around for a while trying to avoid the rain showers. The crowds of tourist eventually grew (it's amazing how annoying you can find people who just constantly take photos of nothing, seriously their photo albums must be soooo long and boring!) anyway, after all that, the sun went behind the clouds and was a bit of an anticlimax. It had been a good day though but I think we were all templed out by the end of it. There was nothing else to keep us Siam Reap for, so decided to book the coach for the next day - Sunday to take us to the capital - Phnom Penh.

It was about a 5hr bus journey down to the city, compared to the last one it was a very smooth trouble free journey. The only interesting thing was when we stopped for a break and was offered and politely declined a lovely plate of cooked spiders - yum! It was evening time by the time we arrived, feeling tired we got off the coach to be completely surrounded by tuk-tuk drivers, they were literally fighting over us and it was really starting to annoy me. We wanted food first and one of them even started following us in the restaurant! Karin had stayed in the city before in a ok guest house by the lake, so luckily after dinner we were free to flag one down. We agreed to use him the next couple of days to take us around the places, but our main priority was sorting out the visas for Vietnam, unfortunately that would have to wait until Monday as embassy shuts on Sundays.

We hired a tuk-tuk for the day to take us to the main sights in and around the city. It was nice to get out of the busy centre and start to see what the real Cambodia was made out of.

The first one was to visit a shooting range about 30 minutes out of town. We'd heard from a few people that it was quite good fun and was probably one of the better places to shoot the likes of a shotgun and AK47s. We'd also heard from our mates girlfriend that for a tidy sum of $300 USD you could take a rocket launcher up into the mountains along with a cow and well... blow it up!!!! Apparently they did discounts if you took your own cow! Not being the sadistic type of guys we settled for buying coconuts at the local market to play with. For $40 we bought a magazine of AK47 rifle bullets and got to fire them at a target in a barn. I was a little dubious about the whole operation after hearing the stories, but it was surprisingly organised, well they didn't just hand us the guns and say "off you go". We had ear and eye protectors and the gun was fastened down so felt a bit better. Dave was really enjoying it, so I agreed to go halves on a mag of rifle bullets and shoot our coconuts in the field. Once I'd finally worked out how I supposed to aim, I shot mine first time. I wouldn't say the experience was my cup of tea, but it was still cool to think I'd shot a couple of guns.

Now that the fun was out of the way, it was time to experience the horrors that tarnished the history of Cambodia…

The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. At least 200,000 people were executed (probably around 2 million died through other mean) by the Khmer Rouge and in order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. The executed were buried in mass graves which we got to walk around when visiting the sights. Didn't look much, just holes in the ground but it was sickening to imagine what must of been found there. Also at the sight was the commemorative monument that was filled with the skulls and some of the clothing of the victims found at the sight. I think the worse thing I found out was that the whole massacre was on a worse cruelty scale than the Hitler regime!!

The next place to visit was the S21 Tuol Sleng Genocide museum. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime.

From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. Most of the prisoners were those deemed as intelligent or were from the previous regime. Upon arrival at the prison, prisoners were photographed and required to give detailed biographies, beginning with their childhood and ending with their arrest. After that, they were forced to strip to their underwear, and their possessions were confiscated. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the walls or the concrete floor. Those who were held in the large mass cells were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The shackles were fixed to alternating bars and the prisoners slept with their heads in opposite directions. They slept on the floor without mats, mosquito nets, or blankets and were forbidden to talk to each other.
The school is now open to the public and we were able to walk around the buildings viewing many of the haunting remains. The school rooms which had been converted into cells (many with torture weapons and bars remaining, or photos of the bodies.)

Rooms filled with the photos of the prisoners which was enough to give you nightmares due to the fear in their eyes.

Many stories about the men/women involved in the regime – mainly Pol Pot, and remains of the famous “skull map” which was a huge map of Cambodia made out of 300 skulls and bones. It is a strange area because there are many houses around the school building, we thought must be awful waking up every day reminded of what happened there.

It was really really interesting seeing and learning about the history, but on the other hand I couldn’t seem to get rid of the chill and sickness I was feeling about it all.

That night we headed into the city to try and lift our spirits which it did. Found a nice place to eat and have a few drinks, then had a wander around the main touristy part which certainly had more life compared to where we were staying. Cheered myself by seeing the folks on Skype which I hadn't done since before Fiji.

We found out on the Monday that by going through the embassy it would take 3 days for our visa and we really didn't want to hang around much longer. The guy at the hostel said he would take us to a place that would do the 30 day visa in 24hrs. We were a little dubious about doing this as can be a bit dodgy in some places but didn't really have much choice. The guys at the guest house seemed pretty sound so would just have to keep our fingers crossed. Vietnam is the only country we would be going to where you need a visa on arrival. We'd talked about visiting an orphanage whilst in the country, especially due to all the problems the country had had, our driver knew of one well so agreed to take us there. We wanted to take something with us for the kids, it's not advisable to take money or gifts so instead we paid for a huge bag of rice that would feed them all for 3 days. Their faces lit up when we arrived, and were soon flying around on the tuk-tuk obviously enjoying the ride.

We were taken around by the owner who showed us their rooms, where they had lessons and told us there was about 45 kids varying in age. The girls dragged Karin off by the hang to go play and show her jewelry, whilst me and Dave were ambushed by the boys to go play volleyball and a sweaty game of football.

They were adorable, one little boy who must of only been about 5 wouldn't leave me alone, I had him on my feet walking around with him which he loved. They all wanted to see our camera pictures and surprisingly a couple of them knew how to use the cameras so were busy taking pictures of each other loving that they could see them instantly. We fell in love with them instantly, they were all adorable and I think we wanted to adopt them all straight away.

We managed to tear ourselves away after an hour or so, then went to visit the Grand Palace. It wasn't anywhere near as impressive as the Bangkok one, and it also didn't help that we were hungry, hot and sweaty from playing with kids so didn't hang around long. We were very relieved to find our visas had been done, so all that was left was to book the bus for the next day and hope that it all went smoothly and have no problems entering the country...

Bangkok is the kind of place people recommend seeing for a few days and then getting out! It's crazy, smoggy, humid and pretty much everyone is out to rip you off - sounds good eh?! In a strange way it actually is! You could say the place was alive and that your surroundings can change simply by walking down a different alley way or street. Things certainly aren't boring here and you could people watch the day away very easily. Saying all this, you really have to have your wits about you and eyes peeled for everything, so it was certainly going to be a very different experience to all the other countries I'd been to on this trip.

After having a nice few days in Sydney, I eventually left the place for the last time on the Wednesday and landed midnight that night in Bangkok. I'd read up quite a bit about what to expect at the airport and due to the time I got through customs the only option was a taxi. You get mobbed as soon as you walk out the main doors by unlicensed drivers who will try and take you to accommodation of their choice and at the fair of their choice, luckily found the proper airport metered taxi, but conveniently it still took him ages to find hostel and apparently didn't have change, but at that time in the morning I didn't really care!

The hostel I was in was great, fairly new and had everything you could ask for. I'd booked myself a private room for couple of night so could adjust and get sleep which made a big difference. There was free internet there so was able to get up to date will the rest of my photos from NZ and catch up with people. I didn't do anything but this on the Thursday as it was quite stormy outside. Finally ventured out to get some food about 3ish and a bit of a wander around Silom which was the area I was staying in. Got a very very cheap Pad Thai (didn't know how to pronounce anything else!) from markets round corner, full plate for about £1!! Got chatting to few people around the hostel to get some ideas of what to do and arranged to do something over weekend with them.

Rained again most of the next morning and was really big storm over lunch so got my washing done and spent more time on net. Ventured bit further a field to check the place out and get some food, found yummy ice cream shop, and some more cheap food, could get used to this! One of the lads I'd met had been for Thai massage near hostel and highly recommended it, so off I went. For £4 I got an hour long amazing massage. My arms, legs and back were bent, rubbed, pulled and twisted in ways I didn't know they could, it was pure heaven. I certainly don't think that will be my last massage whilst I'm in Thailand.

On Saturday I went to Chatuchak markets with few people I'd got chatting to in hostel. Got there nice and early so to avoid the heat and all the crowds. My first proper experience in a taxi in Bangkok and it was certainly a hair raising one! Chatuchak market is one of the largest in Thailand, with over 15,000 stalls over 35 acres with so much cheap stuff being sold, especially t-shirts which are my weakness. Was adamant I wasn't going to buy anything, but ended up being the only one who did - a nice t-shirt (surprisingly) with a mini cooper on it. Was a big storm whilst we were there so had more time wandering around but started to get really busy so got a cab to china town. That was crazy as well, Coco, one of the girls I was with had been before so she took us through a market and got some nice dim sum and fought our way through the crowds. Was good being in the middle of things but very draining because of the heat and bustle about the place. Once we got back I went to the main shopping centres in the town to have a wander and get a couple of bits.

Went to the Grand Palace on Sunday on a nice trip by river boat down the Chao Phrya river. The Grand Palace is huge; it’s a complex of buildings that served as the official residence of the king of Thailand from the 18th to the 20th century. Most of the palace is now open to explore the grounds and is very impressive. The detail that is in the design of the buildings and statues is amazing.

The sun was beating down so made it very hot walking around, especially as had to keep legs covered with trousers. Unfortunately my camera died on me towards the end, so the other stuff I had planned to do I put on hold. Wandered up to Khao San Road to check place out the famous crazy backpacker street selling all sorts of stuff from tailors to fake everything.

Chilled in hostel rest of day because it was too hot to wander around, decided to book a tour to go to floating markets and tiger temple the next day.

Bus picked me up at 6.30am, and once it had picked up few more people from other hotels, we set off on the hour and half drive out of Bangkok to the floating markets. A little speed boat took us through the waterways to get to the actual markets. Many people still live around the canals and use them as a means of transport. The maze of inlets and waterways are referred to as the 'Venice of the East'. Due to the waters rising during wet season, villages were forced to build their houses on stands. Once in the market area, we hired a small boat to take us around the market which gave us a good chance to see how it all worked. Many of the stalls are on the side of the water, or actually floating past you on another boat. If you so much as glance at a stall you are hooked by pole and pulled over to it where they shove all sorts of stuff in your face - some good, most pretty bad!

After the 30 min boat trip around the markets, had a quick wander around and then back on the bus to continue trip. The tour guide tried to take us to some snake show which I wasn't that fussed about, so just stayed and chatted to a couple who I’d got friendly. Next place was the JEATH War Museum in Kanchanaburi and to see the Death Railway over the River Khwae. The museum details the construction of the Dealth railway that was built under the direction of the Japanese to transfer supplies to Burma. The Acronym JEATH stands for the nationalites involved - Japanese, English, Australian and Thai. About 160,000 people died during the construction of the bridge and the museum shows what conditions and treatment would have been like for the Prisoners of War.

On way to tiger temple stopped for lunch and then had hours drive. The Tiger Temple - a Buddest temple which is a refuse for animals including Tigers. There is a lot of controversy around how the tigers are obtained, treated and bread. The majority of the ones were asleep (some recon drugged),apparently they have been raised from cubs so are used to human presence. We were lead around by hand and instructed to sit by them for picture which was still an incredible experience. Then went to see the baby cubs that were unfortunately tied up around a tree which looked cruel and they looked scared at having so many people around them. They were then taken to another spot where we could play with them and attempt to have picture near them but had to fight through crowds. Loads other animals were fed then which was crazy and looked scene out of Lion King!

Checked out of the hostel on Tuesday as Dave (mate who I traveled Oz with) and his Swedish girlfriend Cariin were arriving today - yay! I'd got us a guest house booked near Khao San Road as they wanted to experience the backpacker scene. Got a taxi over there and attempted to find the place in the lunchtime heat with my backpack on. Was a sweaty mess by time eventually found it - funny how helpful people can be i.e tuk-tuk drivers when you give them money! Decided had enough of sweaty hair doing my head in so went and found nearest hair dressers and got a grade 3 on it! Ahhh much better. Got taxi to airport to meet them, so looking forward to seeing Dave and traveling with him again. We had two months together to do Asia, and had already planned where we were going to go - Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and then the rest of Thailand. Went for some beers and food in evening, felt surreal sat there with them - chatted about what we were going to do and decided to head to Cambodia on the Thursday.

Dave and Cariin have already been to Bangkok but they wanted to see the Grand Palace again. Met some guy on street who seemed nice and helpful but told us GP was shut till 1pm and gave us a list of things we should go see in a tuk-tuk (I was dubious because I'd read stories about them saying this just to get you to go in tuk-tuk) but he'd said he was a teacher at the school so kinda believed him. Wandered over to tuk-tuk who also said same thing about GP being shut, so decided to go off with him on his 'tour'. Going in a tuk-tuk is one of the highlights of being in Bangkok, that is if you survive to tell the tail!!

They are motorised 3 wheel carts which bomb around the city. Unlike taxis, the drivers will take you on detours to their friends shops i.e. Gems, tailors, dodgy tour booking places as it earns them some commission. The noise of these things is immense due to the engine, and as you don't have any doors your effectively in the heart of the cites pollution. He took us to see a standing buddha which is huge statue, then he took us to a tailors shop (there are millions in city) but said we didn't have to buy anything just look in brochures, luckily weren't pestered too much by owner. Then he took us to a pretend tour shop and they wanted us to book tickets to Cambodia through them but dodgy as hell and because i'd looked into it, I knew best way was from bus station only. Persuaded him to take us back to hostel via no more shops and got some food and chilled out after out adventure. Decided to go to bus station to buy tickets, only once we got there said we had to buy on day - at least we knew where it was. Went to GP (which surprise surprise hadn't been shut!!) and had wander around, then went to reclining buddha at Wat Pho temple. The impressive gold plated buddha is 46 meters long and 12 meters high and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana.

After managing to persuade tuk-tuk to take us back to hostel via no shops (have to pay extra for this). Had bit of wander around Koh San Road and didn't really do much rest of evening except go for few beers as had very early start next day to go on new adventures to Cambodia.

We made it over to Wellington around lunchtime after a rather choppy (but lucky not too much) crossing to the capital. Didn't really want to spend too long here, as really it was just another city. Went to the Te Papa museum which was huge! Took a good couple of hours to walk around, had loads about volcanoes, earthquakes, and animals, and a lot of it was really interactive - great for kids. After a bit of a wander around the city, we set off to drive up north towards Tongariro NP which is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed. Was quite a long drive so stayed in a place called Taihpe that night which was about an hour away or so.

Really nice weather the next day, so we decided that we would try and do a few walks around the NP. Once we got to the area, well called in at the i-Site place to find out that most of the walks were 3-4 day ones (not quite what we had in mind!) We just wanted to see the volcanoes that had featured in the films - Mt. Ngauruhoe is Mordor's Mt Doom and Mt. Ruapehu also used.

Got some photos of the snow capped mountains, then just did a little walk to a really nice waterfall - Taranki Falls in the park before setting off to drive to Taupo. Lake Taupo is the largest lake (by surface area - 616 sq km) in New Zealand. It sits in a volcanic crater which was formed about 26,000 years ago, where the ground collapsed due to a volcanic eruption.

As we'd pulled up by the side of the lake to get some pics, it was so nice we decided to stay for a while and drink one of our nice bottles of wine by the lake side. With a little bit of alcohol inside her, we managed to convince Louise that she should really do a bungy, so off we went to do yet another one! This one was 47 meters over a river just outside the town. Lou didn't want to do it on her own, so her and Lisa did a tandem one which was great to watch, and I think it helped Lou because Lisa had done one before so almost pulled her off with her! I decided to spice things up a bit and opt for falling off backwards and then having a little dip at the bottom - you could choose how much you wanted to be submersed in water as you plummeted to the ground, so I went up to my ankles! A real buzz doing it again, and esp doing it backwards this time.

You have to fall as if you flopping onto a bed and watch the bungy platform get smaller, then tuck you head in as you dive into the water - awesome!! Lou was so pleased she'd done it, so in honor of her achievement we went for a couple of drinks in a nice bar by the lakeside watching the sun set.

It was Lisa's last night in the van as me and her were going to stay in hostel for couple of nights in Auckland (we were getting on very well), so had a nice spag boll which I cooked and some more nice wine.

On Sunday lunchtime we drove to Auckland which took couple of hours. We said good bye to the girls and had a bit of a wander around the town. Went to a really nice little restaurant for a lovely meal, so was nice to spend some time together. We were meeting up with the girls for a farewell meal and drinks the next night, so had another look around the city, had nice mexican lunch down by the Quay side and then met up with Lou and Cat. Was nice to have some drinks and good food, but think we were all shattered so didn't stay out too long. We were meeting up again anyway the next day for breakfast and to hang out before I dropped Lisa off at airport that afternoon for a sad farewell. Things had gone really well between us so it was hard saying goodbye, but would be seeing her as soon as she got back from South America early January.

So... then there were three. Felt strange Lisa not being there, she'd kinda looked after us a bit on the trip so here we were left to fend for ourselves. Didn't have long left to see the north, so picked out the main things we wanted to do. First thing was the Lord of the Rings 'Hobbiton' tour which was in a small town called Matamata about 2hrs south of Auckland.

Did the Hobitton tour in the morning which was pretty good actually, even if did feel a bit cheesy at first due to some right geeks on trip! The scenes filmed here were from the first and last part of the trilogy, probably about 20 minutes worth and took about 2 and 1/2 months to film. All that remains is some of the hobbit holes in the hills that the owners of the farm could keep and were used for the tour.

They are just shells but were photos around where you could see how it looked in film. The huge 'party tree' is there by the lake which was used in the film as well.

Was interesting learning how effects were used to create the impression the hobbits were small but others were tall, and learning about what things were changed/brought in to re-create the book, including aerial search to find the perfect location for film which closely resembled the book i.e rolling hills and the tree by the lake, moving and rebuilding a tree including sewing on leaves, and all the secrecy behind everything until films were released. Back at the farm we then got to see sheep shearing demonstration which was funny to watch and then feed some lambs. Decided to eat some lamb after seeing them so got delicious lamb roast dinner in a roll (aren't we cruel!) and then drove to Waitomo so we could do cave trip next day. The camp site we booked into had a giant jumping pillow (bit like a bouncy castle) which was great fun to jump on. Also was a gym which we used for an hour which nearly killed us!

I had booked on the Abyss tour which was a 5 hour black water rafting caving trip. Two girls went off to do their smaller trip just to see the glow worms. Was just me and 2 american lads, so got geared up in wetsuits, funky white plastic boots, harness gear, helmet and was good to go. Short drive to caves where we were shown how to use the abseiling/tomo equipment, then had a 35 meters decent down into the caves. A flying fox through the dark, jumping into water with a rubber inner tube round us to then tube down the underground river in the dark seeing all the glow worms. They are actually maggots and the thing that glows in their poo! Wouldn't sound as attractive if they put that on their brochures! They have a very short life once they turn into flies, basically reproduce as much as they can and then the males die or get eaten by females - nice! Climbed through mud tunnels, climbed up waterfalls and overall had really good experience.

No time to hang around, and nothing else to see so drove to Rotarua (stinky sulphur city!), went to i-site to book up activities for next couple of days, then had nice spag boll in a rest stop near to Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland.

Wai-O-Tapu has the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in the Taupo Volcanic zone. Area covered in collapsed craters, cold and boiling pools of mud, water and steaming fumaroles. The rotten egg smell is due to the geothermal area associated with 'hydrogen sulphide". Saw Lady Know geyser being erupted by adding soap to the geyser. Had lunch in car park then went to see some other mud pools in the area.

It was apparently done all that time ago by prisoners who accidentally dropped their soap down there and it caused the hot and cold chambers to mix together and erupt. Pretty impressive but stunk!! Then went back to main place to do couple of hours walk around the reserve. Saw craters, mud pools, funny coloured pools due to different mineral elements and lots of steam.

Drove to Hells Gate (another thermal site) where we'd got free entry and also thought about having a spa and mud bath session, but when we got there it wasn't worth the money. The place we walked round was even more stinky than the last place and definitely not as good so glad we'd not had to pay. Went to the park which was nice, had bottle of wine on bench and listened to classical music - very posh chavs!
Went on net for an hour or so then went to do the Tamaki Heritage Maori experience. Got bus ride over to place, I was chosen to be chief mainly by girls and fact I was only bloke sat on my own. Obviously lots of characteristics were called out like handsome, smart, strong, wisely etc etc that fit me like a glove, so I didn't mind it so much! I had to go to the front of the coach to introduce myself and was given instructions about what the 'Chief' was supposed to do during the duration of the evening. First of all, when we got to the place, I had to stand with the other chiefs from the 3 other coaches whilst everyone else stood round the edge. Then the show started and lots of screaming, shouting, strange facial expressions and dancing took place in front of us. We were instructed on no circumstances could we laugh as this was a serious way that the Maori tribe would behave when accepting new people to their village. Once that was over with (it was very good by the way), I had to lead my 'tribe' through to the main village where there was quite a few separate sections each with members of the tribe demonstrating various things. I.e. how the weapons were used, what the customs were and explanations of their dress. We then got to watch a very good performance from the tribe detailing dress, games and dance, we even got to see the famous Haka being performed.

After half an hour or so, I had to lead everyone through to dinning area where we would eat the food cooked by hangi method (food i.e fish, chicken and root veg cooked underground) it was delicious.

After dinner I had to stand at the front, was given gift and then had to attempt (badly) to do the Haka dance! On coach ride home was given round of applause then had to go to front again and try and get people to sing which was terrible and glad my chiefly duties finished once I got off the coach!

We had one last silly thing to do and that was called zorbing. Basically this involves rolled down hill in sphere with some warm water in, bit like being on a waterslide, for about 20 seconds - great silly fun!

All this rushing around was making us tired, so to treat ourselves we went to Polynesian springs after which had about 6 different types of pools which was lovely and relaxing. Didn't have much time left and not much else really to see in north so drove back to Auckland that night to place called Takapuna which is on the north shore of the city. Was nice to be able to chill out on our last proper day and get all our stuff packed up and sorted. Most of my clothes I was either going to send home or give away as the climate would be slightly hotter in Asia! Was a lovely little place with nice beach, so in afternoon took a couple of bottles of wine near beach and sat in sun. Went out for our last meal in evening which was very nice and a good way to finish off the trip.

It really had flown by, but think due to the amount we'd seen and done it was bound to. Think I pretty much did everything I wanted to do and more I recon so was definitely money well spent. I'd originally booked to fly to Asia that Monday, but decided that having that long time in Bangkok was not good idea as not loads to see, so changed my plans and went back to Sydney! Can't get enough of the place!! Good to catch up with everyone again and chill out for a few days before flying to a whole new experience that was Asia.