Thursday 7 February 2013

Tea for two? Pah, pass me the Daquiries!!

It has been a few days since last I blogged. To be honest with you I have been so busy lying on the beach in Koh Lanta and getting pampered that I just haven't had the time or energy to write. It's a hard life I know!

Anyway, before I fill you in on my time on this lovey little island off the mainland of Thailand, I need to take you back just over a week to continue from whence I left off ...

We had stayed the night at The Home-stay, where everyone made us feel very welcome, especially the Mosquitos! Our guide's brother in law had told us a little bit about his childhood during the war; how he had never gone to school because he had to spend nearly every day hiding in holes in the ground with his family in case the Khmer Rouge should find them and then they would surely have been killed. He told us how that there was no food left, they were all being starved out and so they had to learn how to eat insects and to be careful about which unknown fruits to pick as many were poisonous. He said his stomach was so swollen from malnutrition and worms that it hurt every day.

We all went to bed that night feeling very humbled.

After a night of practically no sleep, due to the hard floor, the intense heat, Sergio snoring and the TV blaring downstairs, (electricity runs off a car battery for a few hours in the night), we gathered all our belongings and had breakfast together around the big table outside. The grandma came and sat with us and our guide translated any questions we wanted to ask her. When it was her turn to ask us questions, she only had one: "When Westerners come to visit us, why are they always so white? And what long noses you all have!"

Interesting?! Well I am sure there are a few plastic surgeons specialising in Rhinoplasty that will be benefiting from her observations!

We bade our farewells and piled onto the coach to set off for our final leg of the tour to Siem Reap, within minutes everyone was fast asleep!

Siem Reap is the home of Angkor and its many ancient temples. And not forgetting Pub Street and the three vast night markets!!

We arrived at our destination formerly known as The Angkor Way but now it's name has been changed to something to do with a Chinese airline, however no one refers to it as anything but The Angkor Way!? After dropping our ages into our respective rooms, Karen and I along with Nicola went for a walk to try and suss out the local shops and buy an ice cream. There didn't seem to be much in the way of mini marts, there was however a cute little shop that sold some charming nick-backs, clothes and bags. For once I managed to refrain from diving into my purse, however Karen bought a rather fetching bag made from Cambodian silk.

Later on that afternoon, when I was lounging around the pool with Nicola and Andrea, my iPad started to ring; it was Karen 'Face-timing' me from the balcony just above. Apparently, she didn't want to alarm me by screaming across the pool area, but she wanted to let me know that she had been given an added extra in her new bag! On reaching in to it to take out the newspaper stuffing, she noticed some movement and stepped back just as a lizard leapt out from within. I told her not to worry, that it was quite harmless. Then she informed me it was heading towards my back pack!!

Within seconds I had sent Nicola (our resident vet) up to our room to deal with the situation!

That night, all Lizard free - thanks to Nicola - four of us decided to go and check out Siem Reap's FCC (Foreign Correspondence Centre), then Sam and the rest of the group were going to pick us up on route to dinner.

Caroline, Nicola, Karen and myself piled into the waiting Tuk Tuk and a couple of minutes later stepped out in front of a stunning French Colonial building, beautifully lit up by lanterns and a tiny footpath over a little pond. And to top it all, it was Happy Hour until 7! Two cocktails for the price of one! That was two cocktails each! Generally not a good idea for me as I rarely drink.

By the time the group came to fetch us, I was two Daiquiries down and had started to lose sensation in my knees and tongue!? (Yes I know, it's pathetic! But I hadn't eaten either!!)

We got to the restaurant Sam had booked for us. I think it was lovely, I don't really remember?! But I do vaguely remember ordering my dinner and just playing with it when it arrived. I think I may have had what I thought was an in depth conversation with Sergio (74 year old University lecturer on Engineering from Chile), about leg waxing and eyelash tinting?!

Dinner was almost finished when the stage dancing started. And no, thank goodness, that wasn't me - though I was tempted. We sat and watched a group of dancers performing traditional Cambodian Dancing, known as Apsara Dancing.

The costumes were beautiful as was the dancing, tho it has to be said, the dancers were quite young and not too professional. You see their faces are supposed to look unemotional and still so as not to distract the audience allowing them to concentrate on the dance. However, a couple kept 'corpsing' (those of you not in the know with us 'luvvies' that means laughing or grinning) and unfortunately that's where most of our attention went. (Mind you my attention span was pretty short that night due to the cocktail consumption earlier).

And that was the end of our first evening in Siem Reap. The others went off to the night market and I crawled into bed and slept really well ... Had to prepare for two days worth of Temple watching!!



Monday 4 February 2013

Would you like some black pepper or Parmesan with your tarantula?

And so we were all up early and sat on the private bus on our way to The Homestay in Kampong Thom. It was a five hour drive down through the countryside, but we did manage to stop off for our 'Happy Toilet Stop' at a little lay by, packed with traders selling fruit, souvenirs and other snacks. Primarily having the choice of either deep fried tarantulas, deep fried crickets, deep fried water beetles or deep fried WHOLE sparrows!

My gag reflex started to kick in as I stared with morbid fascination at the trader while he showed us how to peel and eat the insects. And even then I can assure you they didn't look appetising!

Sam walked over and smiled, he told us they were ok to eat, nothing special, except that the water beetles were kind of creamy when you bite into their bodies ... That was just a little too much information for me and I stepped back and wretched quite loudly! Luckily we were in Asia where a little bit of public flatulence is quite common, so no one even batted an eyelid at me!!

(Apparently eating insects dates back to the war when food was very rare to find, so the people had to resort to eating insects.)

We all piled back onto the bus and travelled along for another couple of hours before stopping off at a market and restaurant area for lunch. I wasn't hungry, I still had insects flying through my mind, so I settled for a bag full of Rambutan, (tropical fruit that looks similar to Lychee) and slowly picked at them for the rest of the journey.

A few hours later we stopped off at Sambor Prei Kuk, to take a look at a few of the 100 ancient brick temples scattered around the forest. These temples and monuments were built approximately five centuries before those down in Angkor. Looking around at them, stood amongst the trees in the forest, they looked like something out of an Indiana Jones film.

Our guide met us as we disembarked from the bus and within a few minutes we were surrounded by the most gorgeous, cute looking children aged between five and eleven. All grinning up at us and chatting away as they held out various bright coloured scarves to sell for $1 each. (The currency in Cambodia are Reils and/or American dollars!) They impressed us with their grasp of basic English, as well as French and German!

They followed us around as we were taken to see a few of the larger temples; Prasat Sambor - a group of temples dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Then there was Prasat Yeay Poeun, whose Eastern Gate is supported by a strangling fig tree, it's roots having wound their way through and around the brickwork.

The children pointed out bomb craters that were quite close to some of the temples. The craters yet another permanent reminder of the war against the Khmer Rouge.

I smiled down at one of the little girls as she held out her scarves, suddenly there was another standing on my other side. Her little face looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. To quote from The Lonely Planet: " Some travellers find them (the children) a distraction. But others, after warming to their smiles, have been known to leave with a pile of cheap textiles". Guess which category I fell in to?!

The days Temple Tour reached its end and the ten of us - and our scarves - climbed on board the waiting bus and we were taken off to the Home-stay in a nearby village.

This particular home stay belonged to our guides mother in law and her seven children! It was a large wooden building built on stilts and when the temperatures got too high, the family would sleep in their hammocks underneath. In fact both the kitchen and living areas were all under the house too.

Chickens ran around freely, cows were grazing in the yard nearby and one of the locals was climbing up a palm tree to collect the sweet syrupy juice from its flowers.

I climbed the outside stairs and went up to inspect where we were going to be sleeping for the night. There was a set of double doors on the side of the building, I opened the, and entered.

Inside was one extremely large room. There were thin mattresses with a pillow lying on the floor, running either side of the room, sectioned off by curtains made from sheets. It probably sounds quite ghastly, but actually looked quite fun - particularly the ones with the pink mosquito nets!

Downstairs in the main courtyard was a brick building divided into two rooms, in one room was the toilet, (luckily a western style one) and the other was the shower room, which basically consisted of a large trough filled with water and a plastic pan to scoop the water with. THIS probably sounds quite ghastly, but it looked quite interesting! (I was quite pleased I had washed my hair at the hotel the night before, cause there was no way I would be able to shampoo and condition my frizz with a plastic saucepan!!

Sam was cooking dinner that night, the choice was chicken and beef or vegetarian curries. Like most men, he made a big deal about the fact that he was the chef for the night and that we should watch him at work and admire his culinary talents. (I know I am being sexist, but lets face it, it's bloody true!). But first, our guide walked us through a large field of grazing cows, so that we could watch the sunset over the lake. It was absolutely stunning to see.

By the time we got back to the Home stay, the cooking was well under way and Sam was hard at work on his chicken curry, bubbling away in a pot over the fire. I nervously asked the guide if the chicken was one of the ones running around the Home-stay. He smiled at me and said "Yes". My face dropped and I responded "You could have said no!" He smiled at me and said "No".

I turned to Nicola (the vet brought up on a farm) stood next to me and said in a shocked tone, "They've just killed one of these chickens!" she smiled and nodded "I know, I think that's why we were taken for a walk just before".

I had the vegetarian meal that night.














Sunday 3 February 2013

The 1970's, known for flares, hippies, bad hair dos and GENOCIDE!

Today was an extremely harrowing day! First stop was The Tuol Sieng Genocide Museum followed by The Killing Fields.

And so on a serious note, I would like to point out that some of you may not want to read today's blog, as it contains some upsetting material, but also know that what I have been able to write about, only touches the surface of what went on during Pol Pot's reign in Cambodia ...

The Museum is housed at what used to be Security Prison-21 (S-21), which prior to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, was in fact Tuol Svay Prey high School!

S-21 became the largest of the detention centres in Cambodia, where millions of 'Political' prisoners were brutally tortured and once they finally gave in and made their enforced confessions of spying and betrayal, (even though these were untrue!!!), they were taken to The Killing Fields and executed. And that was if they were not fortunate to have died or managed to commit suicide before! (Eventually barbed wire was nailed across the front of some of the buildings to prevent prisoners jumping to their deaths over the balconies).

We walked through the old school rooms, disgusted and sickened at the photographic evidence on display, shocked at the tiny bricked cells built into each classroom, each cell just big enough to hold one inmate shackled in solitary confinement with nothing but an old metal first aid box for a toilet! There was no bed, no mattress, no window and in some cases no door! Each prisoner lived on a bowl of rice porridge a day, in which they were lucky to find more than two grains of rice! And when I say Prisoners I mean, men, women AND children of ALL ages!!

The Khmer Rouge kept records of everything, photographs of every prisoner, both before and after torture and even had artists paint scenes of some of the brutalities that took place.

As Pol Pot's terror continued to reign, so did his paranoia and it wasn't long before many Khmer Rouge members started to find themselves joining the other prisoners in being tortured and murdered.

By 1977 it was said that an average of 100 people a day were being killed at S-21 alone!

In 1979, the Vietnamese finally liberated Phenom Penh, they stormed S-21 and found only 7 prisoners still alive; the group consisted of photographers and artists. Another 14 prisoners were found dead in different torture rooms. Each one still bound to their respective beds, nothing about them recognisable apart from the fact that they were all adults; thirteen male and one female. I couldn't look at the photos hanging in each room, the images my mind was creating was enough to make my stomach churn.

We walked through a room filled with torture equipment on display, again more photographs and again more parallels with The Holocaust!

The final room contained a small altar on which sat a little gold stupor. Incense sticks were smouldering around it as people lit them in respect of the millions murdered. High on the wall hung a large framed photograph of the map of Cambodia, but this was no ordinary map. It was made up from hundreds of human skulls, skulls of Pol Pot's victims!

The gruesome map had been devised by the Vietnamese in memory of the dead, however The Cambodians understandably found it offensive and after much discussion it was dismantled!

To the left of the stupor stood a large glass cabinet that housed the hundreds of skulls originally used to make the map along with other human bones. I stared at them in disbelief and turned to our guide for the day. My Western way of thinking kicked in and I asked him why they hadn't been buried, it seemed like an incredibly macabre thing to have them on display. He explained to me that the majority of Cambodians are Buddhists and therefore would have been cremated on a funeral pyre. However, because there were millions of bodies, many of the Cambodian people were in conflict as to what to do, seeing as there was no way to tell who each bone belonged to. And so it was agreed that this was in act, the most respectful thing to do.

I turned away feeling deeply distraught that these people had suffered so much and in my Western eyes had not been properly laid to rest. I lit an incense stick and prayed for all of them and the victims of other Genocides that had taken place before, since and probably in the future. And then I cried ... I sobbed ...

I stepped out into the sunshine and as I cried I looked around at this ordinary looking place, a place built to educate and protect children, a place where children would play together and forge new friendships. An ordinary looking place that was turned into a hell hole. And I continued to cry.

Bob walked over to me and held me as I sobbed and begged the question: "Why?" All he could do was shake his head. "I don't understand, I don't understand!" Was all I could manage to stutter. He looked at me and said: "I know, this is the kind of thing that makes you question your faith in god". "No", I said, "This is the kind of thing that makes me question my faith in mankind!"

I had to question whether or not to join the others as they left to go and visit The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and decided it was important to go. Just as I believe it is important for people to go visit The Concentration Camps from the Second World War and remember the millions murdered then.

From 1975 to 1978 approx 17,000 men, women and children, all torture victims from S-21 were executed at Choeung Ek. The majority of them bludgeoned to death with whatever could be found, the children picked up and their heads smashed against "The Killing Tree" and all because it was thought to be a waste of money to use bullets! (Again reminiscent of the Nazis). The bodies were left in mass graves where DDT was poured over them to speed up decomposition, poison anyone still barely alive and to cover up the smell!

In 1980, 129 mass graves were found, as were the remains of 8985 people. Every year during monsoon season, the rain draws more bones, teeth and ragged clothing to the surface.

In 1988 a memorial stupor was erected near the exit of what was once the beautiful orchard of Choeung Ek. Behind the glass panels, than 8000 skulls, separated by age and sex can be seen carefully and respectfully arranged.

It was almost just gone lunchtime by the time we left, but I was in no mood for eating and so I went back to the hotel and slept for an hour. After which I met up with Caroline for a nice peaceful walk around The Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace was closed due to the preparations for the Kings funeral next week. Only Cambodians were allowed through to pay their respects and so we went off to see The Silver Pagoda - so named because of the floor covered in over 5000 silver tiles.

Preserved by the Khmer Rouge to "demonstrate its concern for the conservation of Cambodia's riches to the rest of the world". The main thing that stood out for me in The Silver Pagoda was that it was the only place during the whole of our tour where the Buddha statues had not had the gems stolen from their eye sockets. They were quite beautiful and it was a perfect serene place to visit after the horrors of the morning.

Particularly entertaining was the family of monkeys playing around outside, looking very cute and cuddly. That is until a French tourist got a bit too close to one of the baby monkeys and offered it a flower to eat. The mother monkey barred her teeth and hissed at the poor French Man as she ran towards him. He turned on his heel and tried to hurry away in a casual and cool type manner. Boy did we laugh!

That evening Karen, Liz, Jamilla, Caroline and myself took a Tuk Tuk over to The Foreign Correspondence Club - or FCC as it is known - for a cocktail. This was where the foreign journalists used to 'hang out' during the war. We climbed the steps to the roof bar and looked out over the city of Phenom Pen as we supped on our Mojitos, daiquiris and margaritas. Unable to fathom what had happened in this lovely country, not even forty years ago ...

An apt way to spend a morning on a day that was coincidentally enough, World Holocaust Memorial Day!

It was early to bed that night, after all it had been a full on day and we had to be up early the following day to head off to a home stay in Kampong Thom, but not before stopping off at a little cafe, where the speciality was ... Deep fried tarantulas!
















Thursday 31 January 2013

Goodbye Vietnam, Cambodia here we come!

This morning we were up at 7 to get a PUBLIC BUS over the border to Cambodia!

We had visions of the ten of us, plus Sam, squashed inside a knackered out old rickety bus with local Cambodians, their chickens and pigs, clambering along the dirt road, holding on for dear life, while all our bags were loosely strapped to the roof and sides, barely hanging on. Oh and by this point I had two bags, having bought another one the night before to accommodate all my latest purchases and any others I may be tempted to buy!

So you can imagine what a relief it was when a large coach pulled up outside our hotel and Sam told us that we had seats booked on it!

We climbed on board, it was packed with other travellers and a film was being shown to help pass the time on our long journey. The film was in English, but it had been dubbed in Cambodian (Khmer)! But luckily there were English sub-titles, but half them were missing as the picture was too big for the screen!

And we were off, heading towards the border. It took over an hour just to get out of Saigon whilst trying to avoid all the oncoming motorbikes and then we finally reached the edge of Vietnam. We climbed off the coach, got our passports stamped as we were checked out of the country, then piled back on the bus for literally one minute as we passed through 'No Mans Land' and entered Cambodia, then we clambered off the bus, bought our visas, got our finger prints taken and climbed back on the bus for another two minutes, when we had to get off the bus put on a life jacket walk onto a car ferry and wait in 36 degrees of heat and watch as our coach pulled up and parked beside us.

The ferry crossed over the Mekong River, the coach pulled off the ferry and we were allowed back on - sans Life Jacket - and travelled another fifteen minutes to our hotel.

By this point we had already been approached by quite a few people begging for money, of which a large proportion were children. This was something that had not been that obvious on our trip so far. And we all immediately realised, with sadness, that Cambodia must be the poorest of all the Indo-China countries.

We got to our hotel and immediately embarked on our Cyclo city tour of the capital - Phnom Penh. And just as in Vietnam, we had to avoid the onslaught of motorbikes firing up and down the roads.

Phnom Penh (Hill of Penh) was named after a dear old lady, who, as legend has it, discovered four Buddha images along the bank of The Mekong River. She placed them on a nearby hill and from there the city grew.

Sat on the front of our cyclos, we were taken past The Royal Palace and The Silver Pagoda. The palace was a hive of activity as the King of Cambodia had passed away, back in October and his funeral was to be held next week in February! As we passed by we couldn't help but notice the hundreds of people gathered on the grass outside the palace gates, all crouched down in prayer. Sam told us they were 'moaning' over the late king. Which wasn't totally wrong as that is what their group chanting did sound like, however what he did in fact mean was that they were 'mourning' over the King!

We went fleetingly past the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument built in 1979, which depicts a young woman standing with her child while two soldiers loom over them from behind - very 'friendly'!

We saw about a hundred Cambodians gathered in the park being led by a rather over weight, breathless Cambodian Man in their daily aerobics class, that is held every morning and evening all over the city!

We glanced over at Wat Phenom and even got out near the palace and looked up at a huge framed picture of the 'cuddly' looking King, surrounded by a black and a white ribbon. As we turned back to our cyclos we caught sight of a couple of Asian Tourists taking pictures of us, thinking we wouldn't notice!

Exhausted from our busy day, we all went out together for dinner and after a quick meal we were all ready for bed ... As we made our way over to the night market for a little bit of shopping!

Unfortunately, the market wasn't up to our usual standards and with a difficult day ahead of us visiting The Killing Fields, we decided it was time to say goodnight.





Wednesday 30 January 2013

Mosquitos and a little bit of tunnelling?

This morning I woke up with a bite on my right eyelid that had caused it to swell up so much, I looked like Karen had punched me in the eye. But alls quite fair really as the little bastard mosquito had also bitten her across her left cheek, which has swollen enough to make it look as though I slapped her back. So it was no surprise that we got strange looks from the others when we went down for breakfast!

Today we were off to the Cu Chi Tunnels and having been so upset the day before at the War Memorial Museum, I was a bit nervous to actually go ahead with the tour - a couple of people from our group had decided they would prefer to do their own exploring of the city that day. But at the same time I was intrigued.

You see the tunnels were dug out by the Cu Chi villagers (who were all farmers) and used by the Viet Cong guerrillas during combat to hide out in, as well as to serve as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for many.

The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, who would describe the conditions in the tunnels as "Black echo".

Life in said tunnels was far from easy. Air, food and water were scarce and there was constant infestations of ants, poisonous centipedes, scorpions, spiders and vermin.

The guerrillas would usually spend the majority of the day in the tunnels working or resting and then come out at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would have no choice but to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness and disease was rampant among the people living in them, including malaria and intestinal parasites. However, the tunnels played a major role in the Vietnamese winning the war.

The Americans launched several major campaigns to find and obliterate the tunnel system as well as anyone found living in them. However this was not a simple task.

On the occasion when troops found a tunnel, they would often underestimate its size, the tunnels were tiny and narrow, as were most of the Vietnamese - particularly as their food was in short supply.

We stared down at one of the camouflaged openings! There was no way I was going to get in there, I mean literally! I'd be lucky to get my thighs past the entrance let alone my hips!! But both Nicola and Andrea - the skinniest in our group - showed us how it could be done.

Searching the tunnels during war time would prove pretty hazardous - often they were rigged with explosive booby traps or punji stake pits. Thankfully these had been removed from the ones we inspected! However there was a nice little display of the various 'Punji stake Pits' devised during this time. Each involved a trap door over a hole big enough for a man to either step or fall into with numerous BARBED spikes sticking up through the hole, be they lying vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Which ever way, they were generally meant to seriously maim as opposed to kill the US Soldiers.

Ironically it seemed that all the weapons/traps that the Viet Cong used were made out of those left behind or dropped by the US!

We were then offered the opportunity to climb through one of the tunnels -allegedly some of them had been modified to allow the slightly 'wider' tourists through!

I agreed to give it a go under the proviso that I did the short one, with a torch and someone had to come with me. Nicola seemed quite relieved as she was thinking the same thing. And so we climbed down the steps and entered the dark tunnel.

Nicola was ahead of me, shining the torch, crouched down on her haunches and waddling through like a duck. I was close behind and obviously not as fit as her; my thigh muscles didn't seem to be able to do what my brain was telling them to do (even though I've been doing yoga for the past few months!) and I kept falling forward every time I tried to waddle. And so instead I had to resort to crawling on my hands and knees, hoping that I wasn't going to break any of my nails that had been growing so well since I got out here.

The torch went out and I screamed, so did Karen who was suddenly right behind me. Nicola apologised explaining that her finger had come off the button and she switched the torch back on again. But by this point I had already conjured up various horrible images in my head of how we were going to be trapped down there in the dark and I advised Karen that it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to stick too close behind me! My heart was pounding, the sweat started to drip down my forehead, I could hear the blood rushing through my head and my heavy breathing. Were we ever going to reach the end? I heard Nicola call out: "I can see a light, I can see a light". Then we heard Andrea calling through to us from the exit. "Don't worry you're nearly here, not long now". I heaved a sigh of relief, it was nearly over ... Finally we were out, I was exhausted, it seemed to take forever, a lifetime ... I looked at my watch, it had taken us three minutes!!!

The temperature was getting hotter and I think we had all seen enough to know that for either side, The Vietnam War was horrific and shocking.

It seems to me that Vietnam has been a country constantly at war be it with the French, Chinese, French again, the USA or even themselves. Lets just hope that from here on in it will experience a future of peace and harmony. But then again, who knows what the people really think. I mean they still don't have the freedom to say!

And so this was our last tourist stop in Vietnam, the following day we were off to Cambodia. Another country torn apart by war ... And apparently good for shopping!





Tuesday 29 January 2013

War ... What is it good for?

Up at 5 30am!! I didn't even know that time existed! We had an early morning plane to catch and I had to finish off my packing. Er, on the way back to the hotel last night I kind of bought another two pashminas?! My back pack was bursting at the seams and I still had my pyjamas to squeeze in. I thought it could be a case of the "One wafer thin mint" sketch from Monty Python. Luckily, Andrea came to my aid and offered to pack my new coat in her bag whilst she still had some space.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and joined the queue for our check in. An elderly Vietnamese couple seemed to be trying to subtly push in! Caroline (French girl) turned to me and said. "Come on Ros, you are British, are you really going to let this happen?" The other nationalities in our group all agreed in unison.

I was under pressure, what was I to do? Yes it's true, as far as us Brits are concerned, queue jumping is the worse thing anyone could do. But at the same time us Brits don't generally like to complain and cause a fuss. I was stuck in some kind of paradox! I turned to my fellow Brits, who just stared back at me. I looked around for Liz, she's a Northern lass from Manchester, she wouldn't have a problem confronting this poor little defenceless Vietnamese couple, not like us soft Southerners. But she was outside smoking!

It was up to me now; I took a deep breath, then turned towards the couple and threw them a look of distaste as I squeezed my trolley in front of them and allowed the rest of my group in front of me. That showed them! I smiled smugly at my friends, then we all watched as this little Vietnamese couple smiled at us and continued on their way over to the First Class check in desk next door!

A few hours later I stepped off the plane in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh city). The weather was hot and humid and we were yet again confronted with roads filled with speeding motorbikes. To give you an idea of how busy I mean; apparently the city has a population of 9,000,000 of which 7,000,000 ride motorbikes!!

The roads were just as scary to cross as the ones in Hanoi, maybe slightly worse as they were much wider. And as seems to be the trend in Asian countries; even though vehicles are supposed to be driven on the right hand side of the road, the general rule of thumb is, just drive on whatever available space can be found - and out here that includes the pavement! As far as zebra crossings go, I think they are purely there for decoration as are roundabouts and even the traffic lights! Or as Sam(bo) pointed out: "Green is for; go, amber is for; quick before it changes to red and red is for; oh who cares I'll just go anyway".

And so our tour in Saigon (the old capital of the south) began with a cyclo tour.

Now a cyclo is not like a tandem as some of us originally assumed. A cyclo is in fact a bicycle that has a front facing passenger seat with foot rest attached to the front wheel.

We all nervously climbed into our respective seats knowing our lives were in the hands of the Cyclo drivers who were whizzing in and out of the oncoming traffic! We had been warned that if we got scared, not to scream or jump about as that was more likely to cause our driver to crash, plus we were advised to strap our cameras to our wrists and hold onto them with both hands when taking pictures as there were a few unsavoury characters that would snatch them and our bags as they sped by.

Boy, was I looking forward to this part of the tour?!

In fact, it turned out to be quite exciting and much more fun than being stuck on a bus. My driver pointed out various landmarks to me in his broken English and I only had to catch my breath once as we suddenly cycled diagonally across a triple carriageway, with oncoming traffic, just to park up on the other side of the road!

We were dropped off outside The War Memorial Museum and looked up at the building looming just in front, each of us wondering what horrors were in store. We took a deep breath and went inside.

Horror does not even come close to describing even half the images on display. Images from The Vietnam War and interviews so shocking that everyone walked around the rooms in total silence. Some of the photos reminded me of pictures I had seen of the Concentration Camps from the Second World War that had taken place only a couple of decades before! Begging the question, 'Will things ever change?'

The second floor was an exhibition of photographs and interviews from survivors and victims of Agent Orange - a most deadly dioxide found in the herbicide that the US Military used during their chemical warfare programme against Vietnam. Used as a 'defoliant' to destroy crops, it is estimated that 400,000 people were killed or maimed by it. And still it's legacy lives on with thousands of children still being born with horrendous physical and mental disabilities due to their parents now carrying faulty DNA due to exposure to Agent Orange.

I was quite relieved to have run out of time before being able to look around the upper floor. I had seen enough and even though I was fully aware we were being informed by 'One side' I was still disgusted.

We left on our cyclos in contemplative silence.

Our next stop was the old Post Office, a large and beautiful piece of architecture. Built in typical French style, still containing the telephone booths, which no one seems to need anymore since the invention of mobile phones.

And our final visit for that day was a Christian sight, it was a cathedral, known as Notre Dam! Although I am not Christian, it was nice to finish off at such a serene place after such an upsetting afternoon. I even said a little prayer ... At The Notre Dam in Vietnam.









Sunday 27 January 2013

To shop or not to shop, that is the question ...

First things first: I found some hair mousse! I can't tell you how excited I am about that as I was starting to worry about the size of frizz slowly developing on my head, which isn't exactly the coolest (talking temperature not fashion) thing to be wearing!!

As per usual I am few days behind on writing this blog, so I am going to go back to last Monday, when I was still in Vietnam. We had just left Hue (pronounced "Huey") and on our way to Hoi An (pronounced "best place for shopping").

We had three nights and four days in this town and the weather was hot and sunny and we planned to make the most of all of it!

On our way down we stopped off at a beach resort to have a quick swim in the Ocean. I changed into my swimming cossie and ran along the warm sand, giggling into the blue South Indian Ocean. I got in as far as up to my knees before I quickly turned round and made a hasty retreat out of the freezing cold water back up towards were Karen was sat under an umbrella keeping an eye on our belongings.

Before I managed to reach my little travel companion I was accosted by a lady of mature years asking if I would like a back massage. I politely declined the offer and she kept on insisting as I kept on refusing. The out of nowhere a younger woman approached me with a basket fill of beaded jewellery asking me to buy some. I politely declined and she kept on insisting. Finally I agreed to take a look and she carefully placed the basket down at her feet on the warm sand.

I crouched down to take a closer look at her wares and the elderly lady kindly slipped a little stool under my bottom for me to sit on. I smiled as I made myself comfortable and said thank you to her and the next thing I knew, my back and shoulders were being pummelled by her boney fingers while the young girl and her brother dangled various bracelets under my nose and started slipping them on my wrists.

Ten minutes and £10 later I was walking on up the beach wearing a strange looking wooden bracelet and some very relaxed shoulders.

We arrived at the Hoi An Golf hotel about an hour later and Sam(bo) took us into town. The first thing we noticed was that the streets were much safer to cross! Although busy, the whole place seemed calmer and friendlier. And practically every shop was a tailor's or shoemaker's!! Apparently, if a shop doesn't have what you want, they can take your measurements and have it made up within 24 hours!

By the end of the day I had bought two pashminas and was having a coat made at a total cost of £30!

The following day was spent on the beach, typically though it was the only day to be cloudy and extremely windy. But we, (Caroline, Jamilla, Nicola, Andrea and Myself) were all determined to have a good time relaxing. We laid there pretending it was really warm, or at least that it would be at any moment until eventually I declared that even my goosebumps were complaining and so we went for lunch. After eating what can only be described as an unappetising meal, Caroline and I went off to the toilet. (You know us ladies have to go in pairs), where we had the delight of meeting Roland Rat and his wife on the way out of the kitchen!!

We both screamed and agreed it was time to get the others, leave the beach and go shopping, but not before stopping off at 'the best bakery in town' for a cup of tea and a huge slice of cake - each!

That evening I returned to the hotel about a stone heavier and with a new dress being made for my sisters up coming wedding.

It was our final day in Hoi An and the weather was gloriously hot! A few of us gathered together and mooched around town, going for final fittings and a little bit of sight seeing. That evening I returned to the hotel having arranged for yet another dress to be made!

With only a few hours left in Hoi An, I knew I had to get out of this place fast, I was becoming addicted! Those that know me well, will also know how much I usually loath shopping. So this was totally out of character for me and getting out of hand. I had to do something drastic, but what? Oh screw that, there is only one thing I can do and that is to go and buy myself a large bag, big enough to put all my new purchases in and more! Saigon here I come ...


Friday 25 January 2013

A Hue, Hue ....

Our train approached the station just after 8 30am, by this point my room mates Jamilla and Caroline and I were squashed onto one bunk while our hero Nicola (the vet) kindly escorted the uninvited cockroach out of our cabin!

Finally, we arrived in Hue, the weather was warm and dry, (apparently if the temperature reaches lower than 10 degrees the schools are closed because it is too cold for them!?!) and after checking into our hotel we set off on our city tour.

Hue is a city located in the South of Vietnam, close to the border with the North. Up until 1945, it was the national capital, then Emperor Bao Dai abdicated, leaving a communist government in power in Hanoi.

Bao Dai was briefly proclaimed "Head of State" by the returning French colonialists in 1949, in the Southern capital - Saigon - but this was never to be acknowledged in the North, by the communists.

Then during the Tet (New Year) Offensive of 1968, the Battle of Hue took place and the city suffered severe damages, most of it from US firepower, particularly on the historical buildings as well as the massacre at Huế committed by the communist forces.

Our first port of call was the Citadel, now a UNESCO world heritage. This Imperial City was surrounded by a wall measuring 2 x 2 kilometres, which in turn was surrounded by a moat.

Only a tenth of this huge city has survived, the rest was destroyed during The Tet Offensive, but are very slowly being restored.

As we walked around this vast Citadel, I could feel myself withering in the heat, even so I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I was in gorgeous sunshine in the middle of January, whilst all my friends and family had been e mailing me complaining about the snow back in London Town, shame ...

Our next little trip was a 20 minute ride up The Perfume River on another Junk. I have been given various explanations as to why this vast body of water was named so, from the one about the Princess who would get her hand maidens to spray the water before she bathed in it, to the one about the autumn flowers from the orchards up river dropping from the trees and filling the water with their aroma. But like so many things in this country, I realise there are many answers depending on who you speak to.

Either way, the journey along this calm stretch of water was lovely and peaceful, with the sun glistening off the ripples around us. We (the 10 of us) had the boat to ourselves and we sat back in our seats to look out at the wonderful quiet nature around us ... unfortunately this was interrupted by the lady on the boat trying to sell us all sorts: jewellery, 'silk' kimonos, toys, Buddhas blah, blah, blah ... As far as she was concerned we were a captive audience, trapped on the boat. Finally, after a chorus of "No thank you ... Yes it's lovely but no thank you ... I have one already ... Hmm, lovely but no than you". She finally got the message!

Our last stop in Hue was The Pagoda and Royal Tomb of Duc Durc in which 11 emperors from the Nguyen dynasty are buried. It was interesting to see all the Chinese writing instead of Vietnamese script. I asked the guide we had that day why this was and he explained that when the French Missionaries came over to teach the people about Christianity, learning the Chinese alphabet was too difficult. So they wrote everything in French phonetics. Hence, out of the three IndoChina Countries Vietnam is the only one to use the French alphabet. I should however point out, that another member of our group was told a totally different story?!

That evening we were taken to a restaurant to have some traditional Hue food. But I am kind of reaching that point of "not more rice ... Oh not noodles again" and so I was delighted to see 'Egg and Chips' on the menu!! But Karen looked at me with horror and so I changed my order to Chicken and chips instead?!

And so that was our day in Hue, short and sweet, but we were all gearing ourselves up for our next stop! Three nights in Hoi An! Sun, sea, sand and ........ Shopping!

Monday 21 January 2013

"I see dead people".

This morning I woke up thinking about the rude old git at the Water Puppet show and all the things I could have said to him! He would have got a shock if I HAD let my hair down out of the pony tail and revealed my crowning glory in true 'sadhu style' then he would have had something to complain about!

Anyway, I was soon distracted by the busy day we had ahead of us going to visit The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Museum, Presidential Palace, One Pilllar Pagoda, Hanoi Hilton (a prison!) and Temple of Literature, whilst avoiding the onslaught of motorbikes and bicycles every time we crossed a road! (I think it would probably be easier to swim thorough an ocean full of sharks!!)

First stop; The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum ... Where "Uncle Ho" - as he like to be referred to by his adoring people - has been Lying in State since his death in September 1969!!

His granite mausoleum was inspired by that of Lenin's in Moscow, despite the fact that he requested to be cremated after his death. State Officials decided to embalm his body and have it on display for all to come and pay their respects forever more!

There are strict rules when going to visit 'Uncle Ho'! We joined the end of the long line of visitors and were told to stand two by two and NO talking! It felt like I was going on a school outing. Then slowly we made our way inside, past the various uniformed guards, with their stern faces and clean white uniforms. They were so still that they looked as if they could have been embalmed too, that was until one hissed "shhhh" at Karen who was whispering to her neighbour and another tapped me on the shoulder and showed me that my arms had to be straight down by my side - I had dared to walk in with mine crossed!

We walked past the dead body, lying in a glass case and lit from above; dressed in simple clothes, his hair neatly combed, nails manicured and guarded by four bayoneted Military Honoured Guards. It was quite eerie, all were silent and for some strange reason I kept expecting him to suddenly sit up, start dancing and singing " Putting On The Ritz"?! (I think I may have seen Mel Brooke's 'Young Frankenstein' a few times too many?!)

Apparently once a year Ho Chi Minh's body is flown over to Russia to be cleaned and tidied up! One may wonder why all that expense to send it to Russia, why not save the money and do it at home, where he can be attended to by his own people ... Don't you just love conspiracy theories?!

Second stop; Ho Chi Minh Museum ... It does everything that it says on the tin! A museum to reflect the life of the big man himself and his struggle to lead the revolution in Vietnam.

The building was filled with interesting facts and displays, which would probably make more sense to those who have studied the History of Vietnam and therefore have more back ground knowledge, particularly those that have studied it all over here?

Stop three; the Presidential Palace ... Originally built by the French Colonialists, Ho Chi Minh refused to live in the main building, though still receiving state guests there. He had too many memories of French overlordship. And so he chose to stay in the palace electrician's former quarters behind the building, where he lived from 1954 to 1958, until finally having a traditional Vietnamese stilt house which allegedly reminded him of the houses he used to hide out in from the French during the revolution.

Fourth stop; (are you tired yet, cause I was knackered by this point!) the One Pillar Pagoda - one of two Iconic temples in Vietnam. Built by the Emperor Ly Thai Thong, in 1049, in the shape of a Lotus Blossom and stood in the middle of a lotus pond. You see the Emperor had no children and one night he had a dream that he was visited by a Buddhist enlightened being, sat on a lotus flower, who handed him a baby boy.

A short while later Ly married a peasant girl who bore him a son.

Fifth stop was the infamous Hao Lo Prison aka - The Hanoi Hilton. Originally built by French colonialists to house (torture) Vietnamese political prisoners, then later POWs from the Vietnam War. As we walked around this large complex, we were all quite shocked and appalled at the pictures and information given about the torture and executions of all the Vietnamese prisoners. Many of them were women. The guillotine took pride of place in the main hall, next to which was a photograph of three executed Vietnamese women's heads in baskets! However, once the French were ousted and the Vietnamese took control, the accommodation was made more 'comfortable' for the American POWs caught during The Vietnamese War and there was no more mention of torture or executions being performed(!?)

And finally after a lunch of energising noodles we went to visit The Temple of Literature - Vietnams first National University, dedicated to students of Confucius.

The temple layout is similar to that of the temple at Qufu, Shandong, Confuscius' birthplace. Covering 54000 square metres; the Literature lake, Giam park and the interior courtyards - surrounded by a brick wall. Four pillars are stood at the front gate, on either side stand two commanding horsemen. The gate then opens onto three pathways travelling through the complex: The centre path was reserved for the monarch, the left for the administrative Mandarins and the right for military Mandarins. The interior of the site is divided into five courtyards. It kind of makes Middlesex University where I studied, seem like a little shack!

Having practically worn my feet to the bone with all that walking. We rushed back to our hotel, again avoiding all the charging motorbikes and cars, to get ready for our thirteen hour over night train ride to Hue (pronounced Huay) ... at least we were booked into first class ...

FIRST CLASS?!?! I hate to think what third class was like?

We had to stock up on snacks before hand as Sam had advised us strongly against eating any train food - apparently it's worse than that in the UK! And so I climbed on board with my bulging back pack strapped to my back, my day pack filled with overnight necessities including the Tibetan blanket I had bought in India strapped to my front - Sam had warned us that the sheets and pillows were probably not the cleanest to be found - and a carrier bag filled with crisps, chocolates and biscuits to accompany my Vietnamese style falafel sandwich that I had bought earlier.

The cabins slept four people and I shared mine with Nicola, Jamilla, Caroline and a cockroach called 'Stupid Bastard sat behind me at the water puppet show' or 'a*%e hole' for short!

And so, it was finally goodbye to Hanoi ... Not sure I would rush back there again ... The rain was starting as the train set off down South, hopefully to a bit of sunshine and friendlier people - but then again, this wasn't Laos ....








Sunday 20 January 2013

The Dragons tale ...

Ok so it's been a few days since I last blogged and I do apologise profusely for the fact that I may not remember everything that has happened since Thursday, but I will try to recall the most salient facts. However, the most important things to know are:

1) I have been taking my anti malaria drugs for a couple of weeks and still haven't started hallucinating!
2) Finally succumbed to taking anti-biotics for my stomach after 5 days of eating boiled rice and veg!
3) Having a problem accessing Facebook whilst in Vietnam! It seems to be highly monitored and restricted! In fact we have been warned that if we try to access it too many times there is a chance our computers may crash! 'They' are watching us.
4) Despite my bad stomach, I still haven't lost any weight!
5) There are some very interesting facts our Guides have told us about many of the sights we have visited out here ... and then there's the truth!?
6) I still haven't managed to find any hair gel!!!

Right, now lets go back to last Thursday ...

We had arrived in the Capital city of Hanoi where we spent the night at The Hong Ngoc Hotel in the Old Quarter.

Our tour guide for the next few days, was a lovely guy called Trang (pronounced Chang) who gave us a brief bit of history on our 5 hour coach ride down to the boat. Apparently, there are four 'spiritual' animals in Vietnam: The Giant Turtle, The Unicorn, The Phoenix and The Dragon. Legend has it that after King Ly Thai Lo, defeated the Chinese, he stepped from his Royal Barge onto the River bank and a golden dragon flew past him and up towards the heavens.

Thus he named the city Thang Long (City of the Ascending Dragon), a name still often used in poetry, however after many changes through the ages, we now know it as the city of Ha noi (City within the Rivers). Because The Red River runs surrounds it; the biggest River in the north and second biggest in Vietnam (remember The Mekong?)

After stopping off at a Craft Village for a 'Happy Break' as a previous guide called it, we arrived down at the port and boarded the waiting Junk (Chinese sailing ship) and set off along the South China Sea towards Ha Long (Descending Dragon) Bay.

Legend has it that the gods sent down a family of dragons to protect the Vietnamese people at the beginning of the country's development. These dragons spat out jewels into the water which in turn grew into tiny islands dotted around the bay, but when linked together, formed a protective wall against any invading enemies.

Halong Bay is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and as we sailed along we passed by many of the tiny limestone islands, all of different shapes and sizes. There are approximately 3,000 of these scattered around the bay, some totally hollowed out inside, creating enormous grottos.

Our Junk pulled up along side a couple of others that were also off loading their cargo of tourists onto one of the Island. And we proceeded to climb the steps into Hang Sung Spot, also known as 'the surprise cave'. It was enormous inside and seemed to go on forever - apparently a sum total of 1,000 steps from one end to the other!

Whilst walking through and admiring the unique surroundings; appreciating the beautiful shapes and markings made by centuries of waves washing in and out and the huge stalactites and stalagmites that are still growing. I took the opportunity to educate Caroline (from Paris now moving to London) on the finer colloquialisms used in the UK. For example, she was telling Jamilla (from Germany) and I about a young gentleman that had walked past and caught her eye. She tried to describe how he looked: "In France we say 'Une armoire a glacé', you know, like a wardrobe of Ice", I looked over at the male in question then turned back to the girls and said "In the UK we say 'Built like a brick shit house' and don't ask me to explain why". They both laughed, looked very impressed and have managed to use the expression on various occasions since - along with 'totes appropes', 'well jel' and 'amaze balls'. Nowadays, these conversational phrases will get you far, hanging out with 'the youth' on the streets of London.

Thoroughly knackered having walked through the giant cave and trying not to lash out at the various tourists pushing past to get to a strange formation of rocks that look like a giant tortoise, in the hope they could rub its head and have all their wishes come true. We finally made it back to our boat, where we were staying for the night.

The rooms, sorry I should say cabins, were great: twin beds with ensuite bathroom and air con! So after dinner and a few rounds of Karaoke, (and I was sober!!) it was off to bed. All was quiet and calm.

Friday we were up and sailing back by 8am and within a few hours had returned to the The Hong Ngoc Hotel in The middle of the old quarter, with hundreds of motor bikes zooming up and down the streets, honking their horns, while street sellers would come rushing over to us, selling their latest batch of doughnuts, fruits, t shirts etc ...

Everyone in the group were impressed with how well Karen and I coped with crossing the road and avoiding the looming bikers, we just looked at them and said 'we live in London' they all nodded in agreement.

That night we were off to see the local puppet show! But not what you would expect. This was a WATER puppet show. A form of entertainment that has been a tradition in Vietnam from the
Red River Delta, for centuries. It all came about in the Rice Fields when the farmers put on these little show to try to keep the spirits entertained and therefore have an abundance of crops that year.

Tough originally performed in the pools and flooded rice paddies, this was in a theatre. The stage filled with a waist deep pool and surrounded by bamboo screens behind which the 8 puppeteers would stand and operate their puppets from the end of long bamboo sticks.

The show was quite entertaining, it told us various little stories about life in the fields, courting and their way of life.

However, as soon as it ended some old bastard sat behind, leaned forward and said very loudly in my ear: "fucking hair!" I turned and looked at him, he repeated himself, then made some gesture with his hand of cutting my hair off!

I looked at him in shock and he did it again, then his wife turned to me and said in broken English "he hardly saw any of the show cause your hair was in the way", then her husband repeated his earlier comment and gesture!

Trying not to cry or even shout, I looked at him calmly and explained that he didn't have to be so rude, all he had to do was ask me to slink down in my chair and I would have.

Then he repeated his one line and gesture. I told him he didn't have to be so disrespectful ... He repeated his one line and gesture and so I tried to explain to him that in the end it was his fault he lost out. You may be surprised to hear that his response was exactly the same as his previous ones!!

I walked off, feeling pleased with myself that I didn't do the British thing and apologise for something that wasn't my fault. But that night I couldn't sleep as I kept going over and over in my head, all the other things I could and should have said!











Thursday 17 January 2013

Bye bye Laos, hello Vietnam!

According to Taio, our Singing Tour Guide, there are 10 "precepts" in Buddhism; we were all to choose a number between one and ten and I chose five. My mantra is "Vinya Barami" which means "perfection in energy"... And energy is what I needed this morning as we had a lot to squeeze in before catching our flight out of Laos this afternoon.

We arrived at our hotel in Vientiane yesterday afternoon. It was a four hour drive from Vang Vieng, with a new tour guide, that couldn't be more opposite to Taio if he tried. I can't remember his name or really what he looked like as he sat in the front seat of the coach, throughout the whole journey, listening to music on his iPod! You see, as I have mentioned before, it is the law in Laos that a local Lao tour guide is to accompany all visiting groups and as Sam(bo) is Cambodian he doesn't count. And so we had just that, literally, a local Lao tour guide who accompanied us on the coach and nothing more ... Oh well, I slept!

Vientiane is a city that didn't seem too frenetic considering it is the Capital of Laos, which was quite nice, apart from the fact that we still had problems crossing the busy roads. But I guess that was all good practise for when we reach Vietnam!

The afternoon was spent visiting The COPE Centre, (The Co-operative Orthotic Prosthetic Enterprise). It was quite a moving experience looking around at the various sculptures made from pieces of bombs found over the country from 'The Secret War', when America dropped millions of cluster bombs from 1964 - 1975! There are still approx 8 million unexploded still scattered and hidden deep in the ground, causing innumerable deaths and serious injuries amongst the locals, both young and old.

COPE was set up to help these victims and other amputees. Some of the stories are just too harrowing to repeat, we all left there in total silence.

Today we were leaving for Vietnam at 1 30, so Karen and I were up early to meet up with Nicola (Vet from Oxford) and Andrea (ex stunt lady from New Zealand) and explore as much as we could in 3 hours and 30 degrees of heat!

Our first stop was The Presidential Palace, but the gates were locked and I didn't think it would have been appreciated if we knocked on the door saying that we were just in the neighbourhood and thought we would pop in for a cup of tea. So instead we settled for trying to squeeze our camera lenses through the tiny gaps in the gates design and taking a photograph of the rather large and magnificent building.

Our next trial was to cross the road, which we finally managed to do and went to take a look at Wat Sisaket - the oldest temple in Vientiane. It was originally the site where an annual ceremony was held for the Nobles of Laos to pledge their oath of loyalty to the Laos King, then the Siamese King, then the French ...

The Buddhas here were in abundance, hundreds of them neatly laid out in the cloisters that surrounded the main temple. Many of them had been found buried underground, or hidden/damaged by debris after 'The Secret War'. Each of the larger Buddhas had a gold sash placed around them, even the battered empty plinths who's Buddha had been totally destroyed.

Our next pit stop was Haw Pha Kaew. This was originally built to be the Kings personal temple and housed The Emerald Buddha, which was later stolen by the Siamese when they invaded and now found in Bangkok.

With an hour to spare we thought we might try to see Pha That Wang, also known as The Golden Stupor. It is Laos most important religious building and its national symbol. So we flagged down a Tuk-Tuk driver and he happily drove us over. We got there to find that it had just closed for lunch! And so we settled for taking pictures from afar ... And received a bit of interest from a couple of giggling school girls who kept coming up to us to say hello.

We had 45 minutes left before our coach left for the airport, which gave us enough time to stop off at The Scandinavian Bakery for a quick cake and cup of tea. It's quite surprising considering all the guide books point out that Laos isn't really big on puddings and cakes and yet everywhere we have been in this tiny country there has been no shortage of bakeries ... And good ones at that!

And so we made it to The airport in Vientiane and it was time to say goodbye to Laos. A loveLY country, filled with extremely friendly and happy people, it was such a pleasure spending time there ... Saway dee.

Bit of a culture shock getting into Hanoi! Not only was it misty and cold, but it was noisy and bustley and the roads were packed with motorbikes! A few cars too, but the most common form of transport is motorbikes with all and sundry tied firmly to the back and just enough room for the driver!

The perpetual honking of the car horns and different smells in the air reminded me of Delhi, the only difference was, no cows!

So this was our first experience of Vietnam ... I was a bit concerned with the dogs I saw running around; worried for their fate. But it turns out, pet dogs aren't eaten only the ones bred for it! And all of these had collars on!!

Tomorrow we are off to Halong Bay by boat, where we will be spending the night. I have seen pictures and it looks just like paradise ......






Tuesday 15 January 2013

The returning Sadhu ... And that's not all.

Well I have to say none of us were really inspired about going to Vang Vieng, there didn't seem to be any sights to go and see and none of us were really that keen on going kayaking or tubing. But we had two days booked in this strange town, so the only thing to do, was to ... Book a massage!

Our coach trip down was an interesting one, Laos law orders that a Laos tour guide should accompany us on our trips and seeing as Sam(bo) is Cambodian we had Taio to entertain us on the long, bumpy 7 hour drive to Vang Vieng! And I mean entertaining in the true style! All I can say is Jane MacDonald eat your heart out, you ain't heard nothing til you've heard a rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Peace Song' or Celine Dion's theme tune from Titanic sung in a strong Laos accent, to a group of travellers trying desperately to get to sleep in order to ignore the tight hair pin bends our driver was taking us along the steep hill side! And then ... And then we were encouraged to join in a little ditty called ' welcome to Vang Vieng, welcome to Vang Vieng' in high soprano voices!

And so we arrived at our guest house and I started to unpack ... Sacre Bleu! Streuth! Shizen! Bloody Hell! I was traumatised!! My hair serum had exploded in my washing bag! What was I to do? There wasn't even a tiny drop left in the bottle! I even tried to scrape off serum residue from the lining of my wash bag, but to no avail! All I had left was a half tube of travel size hair gel, which probably won't last me more than two washes and then the frizz will start to kick in!

Images from last years travels through India came rushing back; where no one uses hair gel and the humid temperatures played havoc with my dry curls causing them to frizz out to maximum capacity and I ended up looking like a throw back from the 1970's!

I had already told my group how Claudine had resorted to calling me 'Sadhu' because my dreadlocked, frizzed hair had started to resemble that of the strange looking Holy Men found wandering the streets of India and now it looks as though 'Sadhu' may be returning.

Please pray that there are some curly haired, gel using people living in Vietnam! We arrive there on Wednesday!

And so Vang Vieng wasn't starting on a positive vibe and that vibe was about to get slightly worse!

That afternoon was spent going on a reckie of the area, which basically consisted of a couple of streets filled with restaurants and bars, shops selling t shirts and various equipment for tubing and a couple of hardware stores.

It turns out that tubing was a big sport along that part of the Mekong river, however it also involved inordinate amounts of drinking and smoking illegal substances,resulting in 20 deaths last year, as well young tourists walking the streets wearing tiny bikinis and trunks, (offensive dress out here in Laos). And so the government stepped in and closed down the bars along the river front and basically ruined the whole scene.

And so now this once vibrant town is looking pretty sorry for itself, struggling to get by and resembling something out of a Stephen King novel!

But that didn't stop us booking our massage. I chose an aromatherapy one, in the hope that no bones would be cracked, popped, crunched or dislocated!

That night we all went out for dinner to a great place that came highly recommended by trip advisor and them, feeling tired I turned in for an earlyish night.

I climbed into bed, got all nice and comfy and then my stomach started to make a strange kind of gurgling sound. Or should I say a 'strangely familiar' gurgling sound. (remember I mentioned earlier that the vibe would get worse).

Ignoring any ideas with regard to the rumblings in my belly, I went to sleep. A few hours later I woke up and ran for the bathroom; not only was Sadhu returning, but he was bringing Delhi Belly with him, just for old times sake!

I'm sure you will all be relieved to hear that so far things have not got as bad as they did in India and so you are saved from my graphic descriptions this time round. (See last years post 'Strike back 2 - Project Immodium' - if you dare).

My stomach was kind to me, especially as I had my Aromatherapy body massage booked! And apart from the cracking of my toes at the end, it was very relaxing.

The day ended with a lovely meal of rice and plain veg - hmm.





Monday 14 January 2013

Luang Prabang and the dating game ...

So here we were in Luang Prabang for three nights and two whole days! What is there possibly to do in all that time, you may ask? Well let me see ...

The first day after a delicious breakfast of three whole bananas wrapped in crepes and a DECENT cup of tea - finally! We piled into out Tuk Tuks and were taken along to The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, to learn about the many ethnic groups living in this tiny country. with all the information there is i could probably write a whole tome, so i will try to be concise: three main groups depending on whether you come from the upper, middle or lower lands, then within each group are more sub groups, which basically work out at 43 different 'tribes', all speaking their own language, (remember the population is tiny), but when the government came to power they passed a law that everyone has to learn to speak Lao as a second language.

Exhibited in the cabinets were the multi-coloured clothes worn by the Akha, Hmong and Khum people, to name but a few. (They made 'Joseph's technicolor dream coat' seem quite bland!).

And then we were educated on some of the courting rituals used by some of these groups. The main one that stuck out for me was a system whereby a young girl looking for her husband would sew together a little red shoulder type bag, place a cooked chicken she had prepared in it, then hand it to the family of the boy that she is interested in.

If it was returned the following day, filled with nothing but jewellery, she would know that her proposal had been accepted and the courting would begin. However, if the bag was returned empty, then she would know she had been refused. (Or maybe they just didn't like her haberdashery and culinary skills?) All I can say is, that coming from a traditional Jewish family as I do, where Roast chicken is practically the staple diet, (as well as smoked salmon of course!), if my chicken in a bag was refused, I think my nana would turn in her grave!

Our next stop was the Kuang Si Falls. I know I mentioned to a couple of people in my emails that I was off to see a couple of FOUNTAINS, but I was slightly mistaken! The Kuang Si Falls are in fact the most magnificent water falls that spill out into natural crystal blue pools!! (Yes I know a slight mistake on my behalf). People come here to picnic, take photos or swim - which includes swinging into the water from a knotted rope hanging above from one of the trees.

I didn't participate but had great fun watching the men/boys doing their 'Peacock' thing in front of the girls, by swinging Tarzan like and plunging (often belly flopping) into the freezing water below. Grinning like Cheshire cats as they puffed out their chests and flex their arm muscles whilst trying not to slip on the rocks as they 'coolly' step out of the water, trying to stop their teeth chattering and ignoring the goosebumps appearing all over their bodies! And although ere were signs advising people to respect Laos modesty by not wearing bikinis or trunks, but instead to wear t shirts and shorts. We could still spot the Italian male striding around in his little speedos (or Budgie smugglers as they are affectionately known)!

Before returning to the bungalows we stopped off at the Bear sanctuary, where bears of all ages had been rescued from poachers who like to cut off their paws for ornaments or drain the bile from the live bears bile duct to be used in Chinese medicine!

I found it quite distressing so had to treat myself to some more shopping that night!

The following day was a 'free day' and while a small group from our crew went off to ride the elephants I just wanted some time to myself to potter around. In the afternoon I met up with Karen, Nicola (vet from Oxford), Andrea (ex stunt woman from New Zealand) and Sergio (retired University Lecturer from Chile) to go and see some traditional dance at the Royal Ballet Theatre. They were performing Chapter 4 (Offering the ring to Sida), from Phralak Phralam - the National Epic of the Lao people, adapted from the Hindu epic Ramayana.

The story follows the usual line that involves rescuing a princess held by an evil man who wants her for himself. She considers suicide in order to preserve her purity but is rescued at the last minute by the Monkey god Hunaman. You know how it goes.

The performance was quite mesmerising, the costumes even more so which transported back to a childhood memory of watching The King and I with my grandparents.

After the show, it was time to go back and pack for the next leg of our trip. The following day it was going to be goodbye to Luang Prabang and hello Vang Vieng ... After an 8 hour bus ride along a windy and pot holed road - hmmmm.



Sunday 13 January 2013

Moving on down The Mekong.

Laos is the smallest country at the top end of Indochina (Vietnam and Cambodia being the other two countries). In fact, considering it is such a tiny country with a population of just under 7000, it is the most bombed country per capita, in the whole of Asia. And unfortunately to this day, there are still thousands of unexploded land mines hidden around the countryside.

Breakfast was a delight, especially as I have now set up a system whereby anyone else from the group drinking tea, passes their used bag down to me, so that I can 'strengthen' mine up. It's ridiculous this bloody Lipton tea that everyone seems to drink abroad! It's so weak it doesn't even stain the cup, let alone my insides!

Today was the first part of our two day trip down the Mekong River - the heart and soul of Laos' freshwater ecosystem and the longest river in South East Asia; beginning high up in the plateaus of Tibet, traveling through Laos and Cambodia and fanning out into seven deltas in Vietnam.

The boat we travelled in was a house boat, one of many found taking tourists up and down the river. It was very spacious and the waters calm with stunning views on either side, but unfortunately no wild life to be seen.

We stopped off at a small Hillside farming village - 73% of the population are farmers - where the children were running around and playing, laughing and giggling at us. Especially when they agreed to have their photos taken and due to the digital age we live in, we were able to show them the images immediately.

All the huts are built high up on stilts, as life continues below. There is electricity cabled through and plenty of satellite dishes to allow a TV in every home.

I walked past one hut, a little girl was sat in the doorway with her mother, the child just sat and stared at me, eyes as wide as saucers. Her mother smiled, then pointed to her daughter and then to my hair. I obviously was the only curly red head in the village!

Some of the children were walking up the steep river bank carrying hessian bags filled with pebbles on their backs or shoulders. Apparently they were in training for carrying sacks of rice up to the village when they were slightly older. (Sticky Rice being the traditional rice grown in Laos, with steamed rice next in line).

I have to say I did feel awkward walking through taking snapshots. I mean if a group of tourists turned up in my little road in North London and started walking round the cul de sac taking photos of me and my neighbours, I am not sure I would be too impressed!

After our brief education on village life, we climbed back on board our boat and set of for another four hours til we got to Pak Beng; the halfway point between Houay Xai and Luang Prabang.

Pak Beng gives the discerning traveller a taste of the back country with its Hill Tribes and basic accomodation in this ramshackle little town.

Even before we had time to fully moor the boat, a group of local men and young boys jumped on and picked up our heavy cases and rucksacks and carried them off for us. One skinny teenager managed three heavy bags, one on each arm and another across his shoulders! But this was their living and at 10,000Kip a bag, (48p), there was heavy competition!!

We arrived at our evenings lodgings, chilled out for a bit then went to check out the local town, had dinner and ended up at a little Karaoke bar, where there were only three tables. One was empty, one was occupied by a group of Laos teenagers and the other one we grabbed. And by we I mean myself, Karen, Caroline, Jamilla, Andrea, Nicola and Liz.

Finally, after a few too many Laos songs we were allowed our turn and we showed them! Without the use of a microphone our rendition of 'I Will Survive' (sung to a dance beat!!) could probably be heard all the way to China.

We left after that, the Laos group had started singing some kind of love song, well at least that's what it sounded like, however the accompanying video was of a young man forcing himself on his girlfriend!!

The following day was our final one on the river and after a few hours, on a very cold day, with us all wrapped up in towels and blankets to keep warm, we arrived at the Pak Ou Buddha caves. There are many little caves scattered along the side of this cliff but the two important ones are Tham Ting and Tham Phoun, because for centuries they have been used as a 'safe haven' for thousands of Buddha images that can no longer be used due to damage and disfigurement. It would be as religious to throw them away. For many years, on Laos New Year, hundreds of Laos would make their pilgrimage to the caves to bathe some of the Buddhas chosen for cleaning - a huge honour.

Tham Ting is the lower cave, that looks more like a grotto when you enter it and see the tiny gold and wooden figures scattered all around. Then I took a deep breath and climbed the 250 steps up and into the depths of Tham Phoun to look at the remaining Buddhas by torchlight. Though obviously it took me a few minutes to appreciate the splendour of it all as I needed to get my breath back and hopefully not pass out from the strenuous exercise I had just done!

And then we were back on the boat and on our way to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang has been described as a "Tiny Mountain Kingdom" in The Rough Guide and they are not wrong. UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage Site in 1995 and as you walk through and admire all the old French-Colonnial buildings you can understand why. It actually reminded me of Pondicherry in India, (also Colonised by the French), but with nicer food and much better shopping!!

We arrived at The Thongbay Guesthouse, where we were going to be staying for the following three nights and as we walked into the beautiful grounds, huge smiles filled our faces! This was by far the nicest place we had stayed in so far.

We were each shown into our bungalows, Karen and I had one with two for poster beds in it, that each had fully operational mosquito nets and an ensuite bathroom that was so big you could probably fit another bed in it! There was a verandah to sit and eat on, whilst looking out over the surrounding luscious gardens, where a couple of roosters and hens were running around quite happily AND there was free wifi in the rooms!!

That night we took the free shuttle bus into town to wander through the night market, where all sorts of delightful ethnic and colourful wares were being sold - I think I may have to buy another bag soon! Oh and some more earrings ... Perhaps a necklace ... Maybe a purse .... A couple more baggy trousers, a t shirt, some tea ...

Dinner was right in the heart of the market.

Tables were laid out with various meats being barbecued and other, tables laden with salads, noodle and rice dishes. For less than £2, you take a plate and load it up, then take a seat at one of the packed tables and 'chow down' with the locals.

After dinner, well there was more shopping to do!