Bridge over the River Kwai.

Brian at Bridge

Arrived at River Kwai after a 2 hour bus journey from Bangkok. We were taken to our hotel by a very friendly pick up truck driver who was out of his brains on Rice Wine, but no matter ... Our hotel is lovely, enormous glass sliding doors onto a lovely verandah with views over the pool and lush green garden ..

We dumped the bags and walked down the road to see the famous bridge ... It is very beautiful here.. and I am telling you 'it's a jungle out there' .. the bridge was very historic and I was very excited .. you can walk over it on the tracks and jump in to view points when a train is coming ... I of course had to lay across the track ... Brian threatened to tie me down ..... we are very happy here, had a lovely swim in pool and then went across the road to a restaurant for dinner.. life is good..
The next day we hired two bikes and headed out to the Thai and Burmese War Museum ... our bikes had no brakes but hey ... that's what your feet are for .. The museum was one of the best I have ever been in.

Brian reflective !!

Fish massage

Hellfire pass

The 415 km of rail track was built by allied prisoners, in 20 months... 12,000 British POW died building this track and overall 100,000 men died , they died from starvation, exhaustion and tropical disease, a horrible way to die, hard to understand , most soldiers I guess when going to war think they may get shot or injured but to die by pure brutality  is utter disregard for human life..... those pesky Japanese wanted a track built from Thailand to Burma as it was a long way round in a boat, they used Prisoners of war to build this track, in dense jungle , through mountains,on one  cup of rice a day and no days off for 3 months ... horrific..no machinery just a hammer . After this humbling tour we decided to cheer ourselves up in the War Cemetery, which was beautifully maintained and again humbling to see how old some of these soldiers were..  From here we rode along the river, it was so nice to be pedalling along under our own steam , we took a ferry over to the other side, well I say ferry, more like a metal raft, it pulls up you ride on .. it put puts across , no life jackets, no sides  to it no jetty, then you ride off... fab... rode along country lanes , in the jungle, children came running out of houses waving, cows grazing , men ploughing fields with oxen .. I was really happy.. really getting into the trip now, you soon forget about money and getting to places, you have to eat and stay somewhere, and try and do as many things you can whilst here, so that means hard cash ...
Back for a lovely swim, and logged on to find my dear friend Pip has had to have her dog put down, Maya the Doberman, she has come to stay with us many times, and was very sweet.. we knew she was poorly but to read it made us both very sad, and very very homesick, we are here having a great time, and peoples lives are going on back home, good and bad... I was wallowing in self pity and wished I could come home and give Pip a great big hug... it really made me think about the poor POW building this sodding train track and how homesick they must have been and not receiving any information about home for years, and wondering when or if they would ever get home .. only 7 men actually survived.....
So I dried my eyes.. said a prayer for Maya and everyone else and bucked myself up ... the next day we headed out to these amazing waterfalls, 7 tiers high , they were so beautiful, clear blue water, perfect cascades.. I decided to take the plunge and have a swim... OMG ... think cartoon character being chased by sharks ... as I entered these shimmering pools I was unaware that skin eating fish were waiting for their breakfast, no sooner had I submerged , they took their first nibble ( bite ) some of them were huge ,  the fatty boom boom of the scaly world .. It was the fastest swim I have ever done... Step aside Ian Thorpe ... I swam under and back from those falls  so fast Brian couldn 't focus my high speed zoom camera on me .... I was in and out in a trice... yelling and hollering ... the most stressful swim ever .. however it made for an amusing hour watching innocent swimmers enter piranha infested water and swim out then the frenzy started  these fish hang out in 'shoal gangs'.... a lot of splashing of water and shrieking ... a nice fish massage !!!!
After this free ex foliation, it was back on the bus and off to Hellfire Pass... this is where the POW had to cut through the mountain to make way for the track. there was a great museum there, and then a very peaceful, thought provoking walk along the old track through the pass... you can only imagine what the brave men had to endure... we then got onto a train which takes you on part of the track over a wooden viaduct which is still standing.. a fab day, overwhelmingly sad but so interesting , we headed back , me with my nice smooth feet ... and Brian very hot and jumped into our pool, for a game of who can swim the farthest under water...

Next day brought with it  more cycling ... I love it here, it is so lush and jungly.. I am waiting for Tarzan to make an appearance  in his hots pants any minute ( are they leopard or tiger skin ?) .. so we rode out to the Chungkai War Cemetery... you know Brian he just loves a cemetery... this one was again very peaceful , line after line of soldiers.. it is right on the river... the peacefulness was punctured by a Karaoke boat filled with Japanese tourists drunk and singing at the top of their voices.. having a great time. in a place where their ancestors had caused so much misery and death at their mercy, seemed a little distasteful .... from here I made Brian ride up a very steep hill to some caves I wanted to see....... he just raises his eyebrows now and says.. 'of course my darling ' this was one dilapidated temple, that has caves attached to it ... you pay a monk on the door and in you go , into these eerie caves... for those that know me .. I have a vivid imagination .. and can get a bit jumpy as my imagination gets the better of me ... this was one of those situations ... now then , bear with me ... in 1996 a British tourist was murdered in these caves by a drug addicted Thai Monk ... this can only make one assume even monks have their off day... god knows what she was doing whilst he was meditating to make him lose the plot.. well we climbed down and down  through tunnels and caves, slid through tight crevices following the arrows !!!! it was very very dark .. and I was freaking out at the thought of a saffron robe coming at me... we eventually came to the middle of the cave and a huge Buddha was waiting for us , god knows how he got there... well I had calmed down a bit ( still worrying about the lights going out ) and ventured off on my own ... HUGE mistake ,I went into another cave, and a bat flew at me , I screamed which set all his mates off, they were all flapping about my head and I thought I saw a flash of  saffron , in my haste to escape nearly brained myself on a stalactite ..Brian was just waiting patiently and casually asked ' al right ' !!!!' lets get the F@@K out of here .'.... we were the only ones there ... I wonder why ...
After this it was time for a leisurely ride back ... I mentioned maybe another temple the other side of the river .... so we got the metal raft over and rode to another temple... not just another temple ..It is the devils own work to find a floating nun these days.. but no matter .. I found one  the temple of  'the floating nun ' and I could barely wait.... We arrived ... it was a scruffy looking temple .. when we enquired about the nun we were pointed in the direction of a shack with a concrete pool ... we sat and waited for the miracle ( basically a nun floating around on her back meditating ) you can only imagine our disappointment when that darn pool was empty... not a nun in sight .... Brian was a picture .. " I have ridden 12 miles for this  " blah blah !!! he called her every nun under the sun, eventually a women came over to us and said the nun would 'get in ' for 200 baht about £5 ... Brian said he can watch wizen old women float on their backs down at Whitstable pool for free so she can 'get teh ' !!!!! if she wants to meditate , meditate away she is not getting her holy hand on  my baht !! so we rode home laughing and singing all the way ... a fab day .. really really funny..

The next day I went for my first run.. it was lovely , great to be pounding away again .. I ran all the way over the Bridge over the River Kwai.. not every day a jog takes you there ... Run 1 done .. back for a dip , pack, then onto the station for our overnight sleeper train to Malaysia .. I can't wait.. we really loved River Kwai . Came for 2 days stayed for 5 !! if people are coming this way , get straight out of Bangkok and get the bus here, it is fantastic...

Koh Chang and Bangkok

Anywhere when it is tipping down with rain is fairly miserable I have discovered.. even in paradise.... Koh Chang is very beautiful, pure white sand, palm fringed beaches, bamboo thatched bungalows on stilts framing the shore... rivers of rain running down the middle of streets, sandbags everywhere, people dashing through puddles of water, umbrellas propped up outside all bars and hotels... bliss !!!  This also seems a very popular destination for anyone married to a Thai bride... old fat ugly men married to lovely young Thai women ... I am sure they are very happy ... I just don't get it . Click on Video to see miracle .

The bungalow next to us ( it is pretty empty here ) has the ugliest sock wearing, fat Hawaiian shirt clad  repulsive guy in it , with the loveliest young handsome 17 year old Thai boy in it ... As I casually mentioned it to Brian in as you can imagine my unbiased self-opinionated way .. he said .. it's probably his adopted son !!!!!! God love his naivety .. So we didn't do much in Koh Chang.. slept, swam, drank, wrote, read. Freaked myself out everynight that someone was trying to break in   It rained so hard we thought about building an ark.. took lots of photos of us !! I realised Brian was my god when he could actually walk on water ... another miracle occured when I realised I could turn alcohol into urine ...(not sure what the role the elephants trunk played in it ) We were so bored by day 3 we decided to head back to Bangkok...

So onto a mini bus , back on rusty old  woolwich ferry. onto a big bus and 6 hours later arrived at Bangkok station where we got into a tuk tuk and taken back to the hotel we started in The Shanghai Mansions ... when we were very green and bewildered.. now we are hard nosed Olfactory desensitised , bartering experts ..
This room is exactly the same as the last room except we have to sleep in a cage !!! now , I know Brian snores a lot and sounds like an animal , but a cage !! I also realise we are in Bangkok the 'sex capital of the world ' but a cage .. Brian looked quite pleased.. I told him to forget it , he is thinking bondage I am thinking WWF !!! no not WTF .. WWF ! jesus man .. only joking, it was a mammoth task climbing into bed, a shimmying up and down the mattress..  now I have seen Ceide (our mutt) slide her but up and down the carpet .. think of that and think of Brian dragging himself up and down the mattress.... I have just reread that . eeewww ... enjoy being on the end of that sentence !!! you don't have to read this you know !! you can read the paper or hello magazine....

The next day bought with it more rain.. Bankok is not nice in the rain, greasy roads.. too much traffic, filthy water running off everything.. so we decided to go to MBK .this is like Bluewater but with a heavier waft of garlic in the air, and clothes which seemingly only go upto a size 8 , to fit the lovely skinny Thai girls / and boys !
I was on a mission to buy a new pair of trainers and start training again as I am beginning to look like Dawn French, ( No offence Dawn ) we shopped and shopped ... we eventually found, ( I think I lost 10 pounds just walking the 6 floors of crap ) and I love them , we are going to run across the world together, and I can't wait ... I am going to eat up some Asian Tarmac, or muddy road, or pot holed gravelly road, well what ever road surface it is I am going to do it some damage... to be fair , my plodding in this earthquake sensitive part of the world could start another Tsunami ... get those sandbags ready and head for higher ground ..
So after an exhausting days shop we wearily headed back in the rain in a tuk tuk in the rush hour for an early night in our cage ..

The next day we packed our rucks , and got a cab to the southern bus terminal... destination Kancharburi, or the The Bridge Over The River Kwai to you and me ..

Across the border !!

I knew it was going to be a bad day when I woke with the most dreadful hangover .... courtesy of Karl and Julie, our new best Aussie friends..... we had the pleasure of meeting this couple ( Winsor Davies and Bubbles De Vere ) in Siem Reap, where we strategically avoided them, having heard them going on and on at the pool to another couple...Imagine our joy at meeting them again in Phnom Pehn, at another hotel, where we were spoke at for hours on end about their trip, ( it was if they had discovered Ankor Wat themselves.).. boy were we pleased to leave them ..... so you can only even begin to think of the delight of hearing " Hey guys , how ya going ? " as we checked into Sihanoukville.... arrggghhhhh
Of course Julie and Karl make best friends with all staff and owners, Julie even played the guitar and sang to us every night... I would have rather been on a walking holiday in the Helmand province .. of course Brian thought it was very funny, with my face like thunder every time Julie and Karl, pulled their chairs over to join us at OUR table ... I then had to endure her wailing and torturing songs I used to love ...
Our last night there, and I was being very sensible, glass of wine at dinner, sensible food for long journey ... I don't know why I was dying the next day as I only had a few ... seriously... they have invited us to stay when we are in Oz... would rather be a guest of Gaddafi ....
So up and ready for 7am !!  bus picked us up, and we headed for the border ... very mountainous journey , with one road .. the rest inpenetrable jungle ... you can only imagine the refugees tying to escape to the Thai border and having to try and pick their way through this dense unhospitable place... We arrived at the border and as we got off the bus in the boiling heat our 'hostage situation' began .. locals were grabbing our bags and putting them in a wheelbarrow and running across the border with them, people shouting in your face  where you going ?, you want ticket . I help you fill in forms ... Brian and I had braced ourselves for it, and we grabbed our own bags and ignored everyone .. it was pandamonium ... we were made to wait in a queue for 40 mins in the heat with our rucks on !!! whilst one official stamped and checked visas.. we also had to have our fingerprints taken and a photo... to leave.... hilarious as the government would not even kow how many street children lived on the streets ....we then had to walk across a bridge into Thailand... more filling in forms, more waiting in sun,  unofficial looking officials wanting to 'help' , some travellers having their temperature taken then told they had malaria and having to buy anti malarials !!! all well dodgy ...
so we made it through, and this is where we were at the mercy of our captors... the interrogation started .."where you go ? you give me money i give you express ticket ( with last week date on ) I can get you all way to destination with your own seat ! ( we have had to share with 3/4people and a clutch of chickens )  it was absolutely roasting, I was really dying by now, no food , no water ... all there was to buy in this wild west of a border town run by pirates with blood shot eyes ... was pink cuddly toy monkeys that squeek when you push their tummy...now after the 'monkey island' incident where my husband was savagely attacked by a primate , I most certainly did not want one ...
So in the one monkey stall town, we had no choice but to wait , follow orders from our captors and pay our ransom! Eventually after 45 minutes of not knowing what was going on, and afraid to ask as if you were being 'difficult' they seemed to put other people on the bus before you ... we climbed into a mini bus, not sure where we were going,, didn't care by now... a mother and daughter got on as well , ( daughter had 6 toes ... weird ) she threw up on the bus .. which didn't help my situation.... but we were  on a bus ... or so I thought... 10 minutes later we were in a backstreet somewhere, ordered off and told to wait on a wooden plank in the boiling sun... the little girl clearly feeling better , squeaked that ruddy pink monkey in my overly sensitive ears for a sodding hour !!! I was beginning to wish I was back on 'monkey island' .. I was really dying by now, no food, no water .. I found a crumbled biscuit as the bottom of my bag and as I went to eat it I dropped it on the floor.... I actually picked it up.. Brian mentioned the 3 second rule.... (if its on the floor for longer leave it ) Don't worry Tina , I left it....Eventually we were ordered back on another mini bus , dropped at a bus station.. into a tut tut , 30 minutes later arrived at a rusty old ferry , waited for that ... limped aboard... 30 minutes later in another tut tut and 30 minutes later arrived at our lovely hotel in Koh Chang ... Man alive I was pleased our ordeal was over ....
Brian was amazing all day, tolerant, resilient, patient ... he could have really lost it, he has learnt a lot from these people .... What a day ...all we needed was a blindfold and a gun to the back of the head ... we got here, never doubted it , but did it have to be so traumatic, at the mercy of the middle man, we had no control, but didn't lose control....

Kampot and Sihanoukville.

We left Phnom Penh in the most horrendous traffic jam ... I can't tell you what kind of life you see from the height of the bus , everything is piled onto the back of 'the moped ' ... we saw a young girl holding her own IV fluid bag up, whilst hanging onto the guy in front, coming home from hospital... life is very raw here..
As we were behind time, the coach driver , whose life and ours quite clearly depended on him getting to Kampot on time , put his foot to the metal, ( no excuse needed for that over here ) ... It was horrendous, the overtaking alone was ridiculous, it had been raining heavily and the holes in the road meant people were driving on the wrong side and there were many land slides .... it was inevitable then when we eventually were hit by a huge articulated army truck and the wing mirror was taken clean off ... I was sitting that side and saw it happening in slow motion, and threw myself over Brian's lap .. all very dramatic, you half expected to see Tom Cruise running very fast in a singlet at any point...   Everyone was very dazed after it and we limped into a very damp Kampot...

Kampot is very famous for its wonderful pepper which graces most French restaurant tables  , ( try it, crunched black peppercorns, salt and lime juice ) as a dip for your chicken skewers yum yum... it is also famous for Jack fruit.... this fruit is adored over here, you also see it on the streets in London .. It smells like vomit ... and is of a custard  consistency and is very sweet.. have you finished retching yet ... they love it here.. so much so ... they decided to make a statue of one.. this is in a town where most of the buildings are still burnt out from when the Kymer Rouge were here !!!

It rained and rained whilst we were here... We had booked ourselves into the Kampot Diamond Hotel... Brand new , looked nice enough and was reasonable.. if only we had known it was run by a collection of kids from some kind of Rudolph Steiner School.. but hey made the stay more entertaining ... We spent a lot of time at Rikitikitavi , which amused me , just the name alone .We found an amazing restaurant called The Rusty Keyhole - thanks Kate and Dave , they do the most amazing ribs , so after a big amount of meat and red wine, and chatting to 2 guys who were doing Cambodia on Mopeds they had bought, who were really interesting we ended up on a sunset river cruise ... it was lovely whiling away a couple of hours on a boat , watching this sleepy riverside towns world carry on , men washing their cows in the river,  kids swimming and waving, it seemed with the weather we had been experiencing with the amount of rain even the clouds were giving us the 'up yours '... Not much else happened in Kampot .Skyped and emailed everyone, wrote letters and updated blog... chilled out

Well that's once I had finished scratching myself to death.. I have become a walking blood bank for mosquitoes, a restaurant for these nightly feeders... She !! comes in the night , alights on an exposed patch of flesh... the head lowered posture of a sprinter. Then she plunges her stiletto mouth - parts into my skin.... bitch ... I feel like I need a dose of Frontline....

We left Kampot for a fairly uneventful journey to the seaside resort of Sihanoukville, where our residence was Coolabah Hotel .. it is lovely and very friendly ... the beach is / was beautiful but has been ruined by so much hurried development .. concrete poured into sandy foundations and being washed away... grungy bars all offering the same grungy wicker chairs and happy hour cocktail, blind singers , hawkers selling anything from bracelets, massage, lobster, leg shaves !! pedicures !! it was awful... Raw sewage being pumped into the sea, and people gorging themselves on crab ! ( bottom feeders !!) lovely.. we feel desperately sorry that a country in such a race to glean our Greenback,( US dollar rules over here)  an environmental disaster is waiting to happen, with so much development going on mainly by Russian/Chinese investors, if the basic infrastructure is not in place it will become another scar on this already scarred country... our days here have been spent going to different beaches, Victory beach had a bar called aeroport , ( one should be open here in Dec ) inside this bar was a real Russian Aeroflot
Airplane that you could climb up into and flick its switches and dials and pretend to fly...  today we got a tuk tuk to another beach and asked the driver to come back if it rained .... now he must have been sleeping as we had the most dreadful squall... I decided to make a dash for it whilst we could .. no driver... so made Brian walk the whole 4km home along the most beautiful beach.... we are leaving Cambodia tomorrow,  It has been the most emotional experience so far, the beauty of Siem Reap and the orphanage, the horrors of the Killing Fields, the optimism of the beach resorts, the friendliness of the people, and the rawness of the poverty have made these weeks an unforgettable memory,  I am delighted to have seen it in its infancy, this county can only succeed as it has all the right ingredients, unfortunately exploitation and greed always muddies clear water ....

Phnom Penh

Having left reluctantly Siem Reap , we were on our way to Phnom Penh - the hopeful capital... it was a 6 hour bus journey , so we stopped half way at a town for a snack stop ..... oh you know the usual, grilled spiders, newts, ants, locusts and fried cockroaches.... now as our calorific content per day is mainly beer , I resisted the fried cockroaches... if they had been grilled different story... these big metal platters are piled high with our 8 legged friends, and all the hawkers are offering them up every where you go ... ( I think they are good value for money as you get 8 legs ) always looking for a bargain !!

So we arrived in the Capital and checked into our hotel , and decided on a walk along the delightful riverfront, we stopped at the famous Foreign Correspondents Club ( FCC to you and me ) for a sunset cocktail, this is the famous colonial bar where, journalists, photographers and politicians met during the coup to exchange stories etc..

The next day we went to S21 - Tuol Sleng Museum, this was a High school in 1975 , but the Kymer Rouge took it over and used it as a torture and interrogation chamber... a very very sombre place, you can only try and imagine what atrocities these people must have had to endure, some for 6-7 months, these were educated people and the paradox of using a school as a vehicle to torture the educated was very disturbing, the place which had given them a future became their nemesis ... and a very painful one at that...  20,000 people went to this torture chamber .... to cheer ourselves up we took the hour drive out to 'the killing fields ' !!  a very serene place away from the chaos of the capital, this is where after having tortured the people they then bought them out here and executed them and threw them into mass graves... it is hard to even comprehend, this was not a war , or about communism or religion , just a genocide, Pol Pot ideology , eliminating anyone who would challenge his authority and paranoia ... wanting to go back to Day 1 .. books were burnt, temples were destroyed he wanted rid of every scrap of history...  as we wandered bewildered amongst the mass graves it had rained and rags of clothes and teeth and bones were brought upto the surface.. a stark reminder that yes it did really happen and only 30 years ago...  sadly it has taken upto 2009 to trial the war ciminals and crimes against humanity.... well after such a great day out, we stopped at the russsian market in torrentual rain and bought a DVD to relax in our room with , yep " the killing fields " which I am reading at the moment .... how can these wonderful people beam you such a genuine smile when they have endured so much ?

The next day we went to The Royal Place... wow , silver floor tiles, golden thrones, might do Westcliff lounge up like this when we get back ....the sky was amazing, really high cloud against brilliant blue ,  then onto Wat Ounalom... Brian wasn't keen , he has seen more than enough temples... I was ... apparently it houses a hair from the famous Buddha Monk... I know immediatly what you are thinking as I thought the same !!! where did this hair come from !!! they all shave their heads.... a temple built for a pube ?! it was very beautiful and the biggest in Cambodia, I was shown around by my own monk who wanted to practice his English .. he was very muscular ... I asked him about the Monks hair and showed him the story in my guide book, he looked bewildered as he nonchalantly scratched his nuts ...... I rest my case.......

How can we save Cambodia ?

We have arrived in Cambodia, and just when we thought we could experience no more !! BOOM ... the nicest people we have met so far... even getting our visa at the airport was a joy !! and that's a first , most officials seem to think I am going to declare War on their country, rob, steal and pillage their country of all mineral wealth, then give them back their independence with absolutely no infrastructure whatsoever ... I mean for god sake I am British ...   So was picked up by 'our driver ' in a motorbike with a trailer which you sit in !! and arrived at another amazing hotel.. Sonalong Boutique Hotel - Siem Reap... have a look on google ... yes of course you all by know everyday is our wedding anniversary and the bed was covered in flowers in the shape of hearts and etc etc ... huge room with huge verandah ... it will quite frankly have to do ....
So next day up and at it with so much to see and do .. Sopa our guide that we had booked to show us the temples was wonderful, we managed to beat the crowds at every temple she showed us ... The first one was Ta prohm.. ( tomb raider film ) It is a temple over 1000 years old... built for a god ,  it was left to ruin and it is as if the jungle has crawled back over it and reclaiming it, huge trunks and creepers wrapped around whole columns and tree roots and trunks growing up through whole temples , almost a bit eerie , you feel a root is going to come up out of the ground and swallow you up, very atmospheric, lichen and moss growing over perfectly built walls... how they built this way back then is a mystery ..... you can only imagine, elephants dragging huge rocks , slaves chiselling away at the rock with the most intricate designs and stories on them, then ropes and pulleys and more elephants hoisting the rocks into place, no cement was used  and the contact surface between the bricks is absolutely sound... unbelievable. I was pretending to be russian posing for photos against this tree in a shaft of light ... when we looked back at the photos ... DAD had been etched into the tree stump..... weird huh ...

The next temple was Bayon.. this is the one where every tower has four faces looking at you.., big smiling buddha faces,  not ideal if you are paranoid about people looking at you, or you have just enjoyed a sneaky joint ... you can't move for buddha smiling at you..  The temples went on and on , almost too much ... Ankgor Wat the temple of all temples didn't disappoint , but by now , we didnt care who, why , what or when .  Just more oh my god ..... back to the hotel, to rest up before our big night out .. whoop whoop .. we get well excited about going out as believe it or not , there isn't much to do apart from clubbing everynight.. I mean after dinner and a few drinks ... you know what I mean.. But tonight was traditional Apsara dance night, with a buffet meal thrown in... woo hoo... it was actually really good , these girls can bend there fingers right back.. I am struggling to think of a good reason to do that .. Waiters carry big trays maybe ... anyway they can and all seem chuffed to bits with this skill... the buffet was good, but hey you know me ... crap with food.. too much choice.. up and bloody down you use more calories going from buffet to table than you do actually eating the fish , beef  and carbonora you have decided to put all on one plate !!!!

The next day brought with it ... guess what ... more sodding temples .... these guys LOVE the temples ,, so many in such a small place .. if you were a stone mason in 800 c you would have been turning work down...
Whilst here and falling in love with the people and the country and their hardships they have had to endure , I or we decided to visit and orphanage ... they were doing a performance and we decided to go along... we were the only guests there ... ( until 2 S.Africans turned up later on) the children showed us there home, a corrugated barn type building with a stage , a few chairs, a dog eared poster on the wall, and a stove . They sleep on the floor in thatched buildings....  they have no shoes, rags to wear, no toys just each other.. they looked well fed and happy...

The show was fabulous.. traditional dance with the odd child making a dash across the stage for laughs or two of them fighting at the side.. a hip hop dance which was really good and the 2-3 year olds copying the bigger kids.. hilarious... we were whooping and whistling, they loved it ... most of the performance was watched with a couple of kids on your lap and a old mutt under your chair.. they even fed us ... at the end we all got up and danced with them , swinging them around and showing them crazy arsed moves .... it was a magical evening , and we all had a great time, we donated very generously and wished them all well,  as we clambered back into our trailer and left our new friends behind with a challenging future in front of them,  we didn't leave empty handed ..... we were hopping with fleas and mossies, and very heavy hearts.... they have nothing , I am not entirely sure even hope.. we left feeling very benevolent but are we really ??? we can all do so much more... so after a reflective over priced bottle of wine later we went back to our lovely hotel...... it's just doesn't make any sense ......

So next day was the floating village day, and as we made our way through jungle villages, and pigs strapped to bikes upside down and cows on the back of bikes going to market we arrived at the port which is really a swollen massive paddy field which is drowned in the rainy season.. even the road runs out and people leave their bike and walk in the water.. After an hour boat ride.. ( he hot wired the boat to start it and it was steered with rope tied around the steering wheel column) we arrived at the floating village.... everything is built on bamboo stilts and they move the house to more water during the rainy season ....  the school, the monastery , the shop, women go from house to house with a floating supermarket, kids swim from house to house to see friends and family... pigs and chickens are kept on floating bamboo cages, dogs swim from house to house... this is not the place to live if you don't like getting your hair wet !!!!! there is no electricity so everything is done by car battery, all lights are strip lights for low voltage, one house has a generator which charges all the batteries, no running water, they all go to a pump and fill jerry cans.. we had a drink in one of the houses and watched from their verandah this watery existence... amazing...

We love Siem Reap ... everyone must try and get here once in their life... the town is hopping, markets, bars, restaurants, it is danger of becoming a Costa del Siem but I hope they make every buck they can in the meantime because they really deserve it ..

Sappa, The jewel of Vietnam

Man alive have we been busy . We arrived back in Horrible Hanoi, from our cruise and jumped straight on the Orient Express Train... - destination Sappa... I tell you, this backpacking malarkey is a walk in the park ... After much jostling and total chaos and a walk across 10 railway tracks .. no platforms here, we finally found our carriage and our cabin , and were both praying it really was only for 2 as per our ticket... We had heard horror stories of the 4 berth cabin, with people smoking all night and on their phones and being charged for bunks they had n't used.. We were very surprised..  wooden panelled cabin with two single beds, duvet, pillow, fake vase of flowers.. Don't get me wrong it was no Pullman carriage but this is Vietnam and it was fine...After a fitful nights sleep !! ( kept thinking someone was going to gas me and steal my things ) even after Brian's complicated man trap he had set up , which involved a kind of cats cradle of string around the door... SAS training .. we arrived at Lai Cai and hopped in a bus to take us the 40 mins up the mountain !! a very hairy journey .... lots of S bends... a local girl in front of us was extremely bus sick !!! and I very kindly gave her my sick bag stolen from the plane , and gently slid the window shut ... didn't need that in my lap at 6am thanks very much .....

Anyway the journey was just eye watering.... felt like we had arrived in heaven, we were dropped off in town and hiked our way to our 4 star hotel ... followed very closely by two local village people ( no they were not doing YMCA ) but they were wearing some crazy gear !!! and carrying wicker baskets on their back.....they just follow you.... very very closely, when you stop they stop... they try and chat " where you from, how old are you " but thats about it..
Our hotel is like an Alpine chalet and or room has the most amazing vista over the mountains and valley which is stepped with paddy fields some 100 steps high... they look like a wedding cake all tiered and very lush green.. after the journey we relaxed on our balcony in the boiling sun, mooched around the town , with our new best local friends and booked a trek for the following day .... i love it here...

The next day with bottle of water we were ready for our 16 km trek .. I was really excited.. whilst we waited for the other two trekkers .. the village people made there move and were trying to befriend us.. the mini bus arrived to take us to the start and we were closely followed by 20 motorbikes with a villager on the back, wicker basket blowing in the wind.. we were in hot pursuit and I felt like easy meat for the predator ... When we got to the start before the door had even opened they made there kill.. they had already decided who was there victim, and two villagers per trekker were allocated... after ignoring them for 10 mins and trying not to step on them as they all jostled for position it was clear they were joining us for the whole 16km !!! once that had been established we all relaxed and they were great fun, there English was good considering they had never been to school and could not read or write... they told me loads of info on their village, life, farm and were a real help climbing up and down the paddy fields.. the trek was awesome.. paddy fields, waterfalls, suspension bridges.. they smiled and helped us the whole way.. I got Dong and Meung two lovely young girls.. Brian got fatty fatty boom boom and a toothless old hag who kept hoiking and spitting the whole way round, but he seemed entertained... He spent a lot of the time looking through his binoculars which the villagers had never seen before and when they had a go there faces were a picture.. we came to a group of boys and Brian let them have a go... there faces were a pure elation they spent a lot of time looking at the mountain which through the naked eye had never seen before.. it was a lovely moment. We carried on walking in the boiling heat through villages with pigs and chickens and water buffalo in the houses !!! many kids just playing with sticks and leaves , amazing .. it was fab ..

All the way the villages were picking flowers for us and making things out of grass and being an absolute delight, we knew the score and would have to buy something at the end, but for a few quid they were very much worth it... we bought from as many as we could and after an almost tearful goodbye we hopped in our bus with much waving goodbye and made our way exhausted back to Sappa... From being pesky bees at the start they turned the trek into pure honey.. I wish them good luck for the future in there very contented simple way of life..  Our last day in Vietnam and the best one ... Back to the hotel for a quick shower and the 10 hour journey on the sleeper train for our flight to Cambodia... Goodbye Vietnam..

Hue, Hanoi and Halong ... all the aitches.....

Hello blog followers... that sounds a bit naff doesn't it,a bit conceited... oh well. sorry not been around for a while, the Vietnamese government banned Facebook and Gmail for some reason, plus we have had limited WiFi .. but we are back and with lots of news, so get comfy and enjoy our ride...
Left Hoi An for a relatively non eventful 5 hour bus journey .... it was the most stunning one yet, hugged the coast line all the way up and the beaches and vistas were jaw breaking.... it was a mountainous journey with many switch backs but hey ..  I don't see any reason why in an underpowered , bald tyres , 40 year old bus you shouldn't overtake on a corner... now man up !!

Arrived in Hue' and walked to our 4 star hotel overlooking a beautiful river with mountains in the distance.. this hotel won awards in 2005... it was obviously chuffed to bits and hung up its paint brushes as it look very tired, but the view was amazing and we watched the sun go down from our balcony over the river.. very lovely..
The next day we decided to charter our own boat for a trip down the perfume river ... just the 2 of us on a families boat for £3 ... it was perfect chugging along watching babies being washed in the river, old ladies rowing their boats to the market, men in hammocks sleeping.... they do a lot of sleeping and in the strangest places.... , she dropped us off at the market which was the best one yet, and clearly only for locals, I don't think they many foreigners they looked very surprised to see me walking through there.it is so so hot we got back to the hotel and swam in the pool all afternoon, watching the sun go down....

The next day we visited the Imperial city, it is or was a walled city with a 5 mile wall around it and the emperor and his wives, and his eunoch mates all lived here... ( they didn't look very happy in the photos and I can't think for the life of me why ) it was very very hot and a lot of the city has of course been heavily bombed by the US during the war so there was not a great deal to see... in fact it looked very tired , sad and neglected, a little bit Brian does having been dragged around now for 2 months from temple to temple, pile of rock to pile of rocks...never a complaint from that clenched jaw, teeth grinding , eye popping , pursed lipped lovely face. just a " whatever you want my darling " ... god love him !!!!!

25th Aug - Hue to Hanoi.... Off to the airport for a very pleasant flight to Hanoi the capital....our hotel is lovely, but , they have mistaken our wedding anniversry blag for our "honeymoon" oh dear... all the other residents were congratulating us and slapping Briaan on the back, we had been upgraded and a red rose and a cake was on our bed with "hapi hani mun" written on it .... covered in ants ... lovely ..

Hanoi the capital is very very noisy, mopeds everywhere all tooting their horns, chaotic, boiling hot, pavements are full of motorbikes or street restaurants on very tiny plastic stools which just get set up for the day.. so you have no choice but to walk in the roads which are horrendous.... it is like letting 300 six year old children drive electric bikes around a city, no rules do what you want, park where you like and make as much noise as you possible can .... it is hell and scary , especially at night when you can't see them just headlights coming at you.....You actually psyche yourself out from crossing a road... we were crossing a big busy road and it was about 10 lanes deep both sides.. and you weave and keep walking... Brian made a dash for it and made it and was waiting for me the other side.. there was a bar there and everyone was watching me.... panic started to set in a a good 10 mins later I had made it to the middle .... everyone was willing me on, I saw my opportunity made a weave for it, threw my arms in the air like Bolt crossing the 100m finish line and was clipped by a bike driving the WRONG way up a 10 lane road.......my language was ripe .....
We walked and walked from market selling counterfeit money to market selling chicken feet.. war museums, the photos show a mangled B52 plane , but all other hardware fully intatct .lakes, beautiful old tunnel building which are very narrow but long to save on frontage tax, all looking very run down but amazing in their day... this city is exhausting, just crossing a road... you feel you want to lay in a dark silent room for days or just shouting " shut the F**k up " ..
The following day we checked out and hopped on a bus , destination Halong bay .... so pleased to be leaving Hanoi, Yet I wander around this country arguing over 30 p getting cross with motorbikes and people eating dinner on the street getting in my way, sleeping 5 to a room on the floor, strip lighting, plastic chairs... I can escape , they have this never ending noise ,human escalator they on on , living breathing , surviving this noisy heartbeat of a city.. and I feel pity... well I did until someone hoicked up Phlegm and spat it on my shoe !!!!

So off to halong bay and very excited.. it was a longer bus journey than we had anticipated but eventually climbed aboard our vessel .... "sunrise cruise " and yes she had seen a fair few..... clapped out old junk.. but who cares for one night... Halong bay is famous for its limestone islands.. they are so beautiful , they look like jungle clad icebergs all just floating about, where the top looks bigger the bottom, we laid anchor and kayaked through some caves and a floating fishing village then parked our boats and climbed up into these huge caves with stalagmites and stalagtites in.. the VC hid here during the war, it was lovely and cool and cathedralesqe !!!! back in the kayaks and back to "sunrise"... i think it's sun has set but never mind..  we all jumped off our cruiser into the sea which was fab and we were in the middle of the china sea.. surrounded by islands very surreal.. we had dinner with the other guests... ours were a French / Vietnamese family.. the mother shouted into her phone for most of the meal.. ( they are drug manufacturers.. joy ) the very elderly father had bad dementia and kept asking who his daughter in law was and the son looked embarrassed and grinned at us a lot. After the mother had spat most of her meal over me , I eventually piped up and sighed " do you ever switch off .. " she barked back " never " and a watermelon pip flew out of her mouth into my beer...

 An early night for an early start !! breakfast at 7am ...this trip is like an endurance test ... we then.. got in a tender, got on a bus ( this  is with all our packs ) walked 200 m to bus !! then drove to shack, picked up bike , no brakes and only first gear... rode in boiling hot sun for 3 miles to hospital cave, climbed up mountain to get to it, a local unlocked this metal door in the side of the mountain to reveal this huge cave on 3 levels ... it was amazing, it took 5 years to excavate, and was used as an officers hopital, it had an operating theatre, physio pool, cinema, escape water tanks, kitchens, bedrooms ... the local kept turning on lights for us to see.... unbelievable.... we then rode back.. I rode over a snake !!! back on bus, more walking , onto another small boat then onto Monkey Island... a paradise uninhabited island, well apart from guess what !!!! we have our own thatched cottage on the beach, the sea is crystal clear and lovely and warm... nice bunch to have dinner with, but everyone is exhausted after the challenge of today..

Everyone left this morning except us !!! we are staying an extra night and have the island to ourselves... we jumped in a kayak with a bag of peanuts and paddled around to monkey beach.. landed our craft and lay in wait.... they came at us like a sketch from planet of the apes... taking peanuts out of our hands and mothers with babies around their waists taking food.... until.... the red faced monkey appeared... vicious little thing... he went for Brians leg and bit him and clawed him.. Brian was trying to kick him off .. it was all pretty savage , very quick and a bit scary.... Brian is fine, a little red faced himself... keeps picking nits out of my hair and walking on his fists but fine... he is on the anti B thanks for them, ( you know who you are ) so hopefully all ok.....it is so so hot.. after more swimming and sitting on our lovely verandah it was time for dinner on our own and and early night.. it is back to Horrible Hanoi tomorrow away from the silence of Halong Bay and Brian thumping his chest at me ..... xx