Monks and croissants in Luang Prabang...

As usual, after dropping our gear off in the hotel (very hard to find!) and after managing to completely perplex a laos hotelier with my bolsover brogue, we headed out into the chilly night air to finally explore luang prabang. Although we only saw a couple of streets we instantly got the feeling that we were somewhere special. Luang Prabang is unesco listed which means, thankfully, the town has a ban on cars and busses after 6pm which makes it one of the nicest places you can think of to stroll around. Again, it could be argued, much like Hoi An in Vietnam, Yangshuo in China or Siem Reap in Cambodia, that this is not a fair representation of the wider area, just an artificial tourist bubble. You know what, screw it, it's just bloody great, nevermind if some 'seasoned' travellers say it's not an authentic Laos experience, what do they want? To scrap that in favour of smothering ourselves in mud and eating weeds, just to be 'authentic'. I sound like a bitter old fool but some other travellers you meet are about as annoying as being made to sit in a room with Nigella Lawson or Fearne Cotton, always looking down on other travellers for not fitting into this archetypal traveller who strives to make life as hard for themselves as is humanly possibly....

After eating a traditional Laos meal of Luang Prabang sausage (think coarse sausage meat with a massive hint of lemongrass-truly delicious) and stir-fried beef, we headed back to the hotel, a 15mins walk out of town. Although in Laos, Luang Prabang, by south-east Asian standards anyway, is an expensive place. Due to it's beauty and unesco status it happens to attract an older, more wealthy crowd which in turn has pushed the price of accommodation through the roof. We were staying in a nice place run by lovely people but the best we could do on our budget was quite a walk away. We probably need the exercise after 2 months eating baguettes!

Anyway, the next day, after an incredible sleep, we decided to go exploring, to really get a feel of the place. After stopping for an overpriced and disappointing breakfast we headed off into the ever-warming day. We walked up the large central hill to take in the views and to try and release some birds! Basically lots of women have tiny birds in extremely small wicker cages, hundreds of them, for you to buy and then release at the top, for good luck. It's a terrible sight, these birds can't even flap it's so small. Just another small example of asia's complete disregard for animal rights, it truly is non-existent! I had to fight back the urge to 'liberate' the poor things in a swift but ultimately bold move. Shell told me I couldn't...

After climbing back down we then hit the streets, to search out the river and the numerous temples that surround the old town. As we strolled along the river the smells were unbelievable, like sitting in an English garden on a hot summers day, maybe pint in hand. It's the first time we have been in a climate cool enough for smells like that to appear, it's usually been suffocatingly hot.

Making our way around another huge wat, luang prabang's largest, we were amazed at the intricacy of the tile mosaics that adorned the several temples. We saw yet more giant buddha's (I have a feeling it won't be the last) all in different positions, something we have learned the meaning of. If you have a Buddha at home with arms open, placed on legs, this is meditation. If he has his arms folded, this be enlightenment. And so on...

After catching a very rickety bamboo raft over to the other side of the river we had a drink at a very very cool place that had individual candlelit bamboo huts, almost like tree houses, for you to drink in. We stayed there a while before heading back to the hostel just before dark (bamboo rafts-fast flowing river-the dark-2 Laos teenagers as captain-no ta!). After a good old day sight seeing we grabbed some quick Laos curry, similar to Thai i.e with coconut milk, before heading around the myriad stalls of the nightmarket on the way back to the hotel.

The following morning we were picked up at around 11, along with an english-indian couple from Nottingham, to go to luang prabangs most famous waterfall, around 30kms away. As we drove through the lush Laos countryside it dawned on you just how pretty this country can be. It's almost, I guess, much like being back in an old English countryside summer, in say 1876. Almost like jumping head first into a Constable painting. The waterfalls themselves were immense, around eight different levels in total, slowly climbing to the 45 metre falls at the top of the gorge. It produced the bluest water imaginable and although ice cold, lots of people braved the conditions to jump in! The only thing wrong I guess were the crowds, some of them the most annoying type i.e loud, obnoxious and generally have no clue whereabouts they are. Despite the crowds we had an awesome time which was reinforced by the adjoining bear sanctuary. The bears, all moon bears due to their crescent markings on their chest, have been confiscated from poachers who had used the bears to farm their bile, a popular ingredient in Chinese medicine. Another caring plus point for the medievally insane superpower-to-be. In fact, by reading bits and pieces whilst being here it becomes increasingly apparent that the Chinese play a big part in pretty much all negative aspects of Laos natural environment as millions of hectares of pristine forest are illegally logged every day to satisfy china's ever increasing demand for natural resources. It's an atrocious state of affairs.

Back in town we searched out the same central restaurant for Laos curry before heading back to the hotel to pack and huhum...watch football. It's a sad state of affairs in a way that I've been able to watch more football here in Asia than I ever would have at home. We haven't planned our days around fixtures or anything but because of the time difference we have been able to get back after a packed day and watch a game late at night, I say we I mean me, firmly me...

In the morning we waited outside for our tuk-tuk to the airport but were to be surprised when a small black sports car pulled up playing adele at it's highest volume possible. We were duly told to put our bags in and off we went to the airport! On the way I tried to tell him that a guy his age needed to replace his god awful noise with a bit of rolling stones or at least the Beatles but he was having none of it! Why do we have to export all of our crap!

Arriving at the airport we checked in with no hassles before boarding our propellered plane of dreams that would take us over the border and to chiang Mai, to begin our two month Thailand adventure!

We wish we had spent more time in Laos but I guess we saw the highlights. It's hard but Laos biggest attraction is surely it's natural beauty, which to truly appreciate means heading out into the countryside. Due to Laos having the unenviable title of having the most unexploded bombs and mines of any country in the world, to head out into the interior without proper knowledge and guides is suicidal.

Laos other great asset, it's incredibly mellow people, is something you can experience anywhere. This we did in abundance.

Anyway, onwards!! Feels as though we are late to the Thailand party as lots of friends have been here before to this greatly visited country but we are truly excited about the months ahead!

Love as always, Tommo (with ever increasing mouth pain)

Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang...

Day two of the vang vieng tubing experience began in much the same fashion as the first. Heading out into the ghost town that is vang vieng before 11am in the morning you could have heard a pin drop as the previous nights exploits take their toll on the temporary population. The town itself is ok, it's relatively compact and filled to the brim with only two kinds of establishments, shops selling the obligatory vang-vieng merchandise (vests, fake ray bans etc) and bar-come restaurants. In fact these places are famous in their own right due to an odd insistence for playing either friends or family guy non-stop, 24 hours a day, all on big screens. We aren't just talking about a couple of bars here, we are talking about possibly fifty of them, all next to each other essentially providing the same freakish service. Thing is, along with exactly the same menus, are catering, in their eyes anyway, for what westerners are used to back home. It's a strange proposition that these people think that all we do back home is watch cartoons and eat cheese toasties.

Anyway, as we prepared to head down for more tubing fun it started to dawn on me, with a little help from mum, just how much my brother Ady would have loved this kind of thing. You could just imagine him now, hands flayling, head stuck in one of the whisky buckets, dancing like he'd put his hands and feet in a campfire and was trying to cool them down. I think in a way he was there, he must have been to see me struggling to get to grips with quite possibly the worst music and worlds thickest people all in one spot. You see I'm trying not to be one of those bitter snobs stood on the sidelines, we actually met some top people on both days, but it's hard to imagine how some of these lads got here if they have the inability to produce speech. Anyway, despite some initial sadness we attempted to lift ourselves by ordering a 'bucket' of gin and tonic. A classy green bucket full of half a bottle of gin and seemingly, nothing much else, after we gave ady a good old toast the bucket, in about thirty minutes, was gone. As the day progressed and as we loosened up both the people and the music started to become intoxicating. After a blur of five hours dancing on a bamboo dancefloor, almost in the middle of the jungle, we found ourselves in the back of a tuk-tuk with two other Aussies sat discussing our impressive moustaches in aid of Movember, to promote testicular cancer awareness. Shell, alas, had shaved hers off just a couple of days before...

Back in town we drank a couple more beers before eating something (we don't really have any recollection of what it was) before heading back to our room to try and sleep before our seven hour journey up over the mountains towards luang prabang, in the morning.

For some reason, unbeknown to us really, we felt quite apprehensive about coming to vang vieng. We'd heard all the stories and read everything about it before we came so I don't know whether we thought we were too old, wouldn't enjoy it being in a couple or just wasn't our scene. In the end we had a great time. You can see why some people despise it though. You couldn't be further away from Laos if you tried, but for a couple of days it's fine. Besides, when would you be able to ride a tractor inner tube Down a river whilst having whiskey poured into your mouth again? Vang vieng itself has somehow managed to be transformed into some kind of inland magaluf, but with even more mentalists. You have to feel for the locals but by speaking to a few the influx of farang has brought with it great wealth. Read a bit further and you find the town completely unified in how it's all run, by combining all tubing profits into large cartel type organisation. Which in itself, is kind of refreshing. Compared to something like halong bay in Vietnam which has at least a hundred operators all working the route at the same time, destroying any sense of being somewhere far removed.

In the morning we packed in preparation for another bus journey. This time to the UNESCO listed city of luang prabang, 160kms to the north. To get there we would have to drive along, apparently, one of the most beautiful and dramatic roads not just in Laos but anywhere in the world. They would not by lying.

As we headed north out of vang vieng the road continued to wind itself up into the lush green mountains, passing small bamboo houses every now and again that seemed to be held up by nothing more than small twigs that supported the whole structure from falling 1000 feet below. The scenery was, even this early on, quite spectacular. After stopping briefly so the driver could eat we were on our way once more convinced that we had probably gone about half way. Oh how wrong two people can be. The journey was epic, in every way. For eight hours the poor bus wound up and over mountains as large as Ben Nevis but along roads that if were a dog, would be one of those vicious strays with bits of fur and skin missing. As soon as you think you are maybe just a few miles away, because your at the bottom of another valley, the bus begins it's long and arduous journey back over the mountain, all to the collective sighs of the people on the bus.

After seven long and ultimately frustrating hours we arrived in luang prabang in the dark and jumped onto one of the waiting tuk-tuks to take us to our hotel.

We are looking forward to the next few days and what this supposedly beautiful town has to offer. We have also decided to splash out and buy a couple of plane tickets to chiang Mai and the start of our thai adventure.

Mucho lovo, Tommo xxxx

Tubing in Vang Vieng...

After a long and bumpy journey from Vientiane (Shell went green at one point) we touched down in Vang Vieng, apprehensive about what the following days may bring in this part of the world. Strangely, even though we are still firmly in our twenties, doing some of the things that people get up to in Vang Vieng just seemed completely beyond us, I think mainly because we come as a couple but also because we aren't eighteen and on a 'gap year man' from University. You get a lot of these. In reality, we should never have worried, maybe misplaced apprehension?

Arriving in Vang Vieng, we were almost immediately steered towards accommodation in the centre of town that despite the risk of being criminally noisy throughout the night would set us back no more than £5 per night. After getting grips with the town we spent the first of our days indoors as I unfortunately regained a similar stomach bug that I first encountered in Bali, falling just short of the 'Shell, am I going to die' feeling that I had two months ago! This time, the constant diarrhea would just mean that a day spent in our hotel room watching HBO for 13 hours straight would just give us an excuse to watch seven movies back to back (Mean Machine, Red, Trading Places, The Invention of lying, Extraordinary Measures, You Don't know Jack and Four Christmases!), much needed after nearly three weeks of being constantly on the move.

The next day we rose early enough and headed straight out for breakfast before paying our money for a our tubes before heading, with four guys from Tasmania, down to the start of the Tubing bar mile! As you stroll across the flimsy wooden bridge to the first bar you instantly get the feeling that this is something slightly more manic than even Friday night along Albert Road in Southsea. True, the predictable but inaudible sound of the local mush isn't found but is replaced by the incoherent screams of a group of girls all vying to bounce their ping pong ball in a glass of beer placed on the next table (it's not what you think). This 'bar' on the side of the river, was packed to the rafters with people playing drinking games, necking whiskey, jumping up and down to trance music and generally enjoying the free alcohol and sun mixture. We bought our first beers, sat down on one of the bamboo rafts that double for dancing podiums and started to take in our first experience of Vang Vieng's famous Tubing. You couldn't help but be sucked in.

You see, all you want to do in these situations is completely let go, and this you do, that's why you spend the day drinking, dancing and meeting the kind of people you only used to see on 'Ibiza Uncovered'. The thing is though, however much you try to fight it, you can't help but see things from a sociological perspective, to sit there, beer in hand, watching these people of maybe thirty different nationalities having the time of their lives. Although mainly alcohol induced, these people all respond to each other and their surroundings in such different ways. It's great to watch and even better to be a part of as you sit their in the scorching sun, surrounded by verdant forest, dramatic karsts and raised bamboo dancefloors populated by people of all ages gyrating to New York techno. In a way, it's hard to imagine a more surreal sight, try to remember the helicopter scene in Apocolypse Now with Marlon Brando and you'll have some idea.

Although firmly entrenched as part of the South-East-Asia backpacker rights-of-passage, it nevertheless conjours up images of mystical hedonism in it's purest form, maybe somewhere Indiana Jones would find at the bottom of steep ravine only for it to be populated by four guys from Coventry wearing fluorescent paint, on their nipples. It's a strange one, something that if your not fully prepared for, can in some ways intimidate. In other respects though, as long as you take it all with a firm pinch of salt, can be one of the last vestiges of pure, unadulterated hedonism that if were placed in the UK, maybe somewhere downstream on the Thames, would be closed down in about, well, four and a half minutes.

Jumping on the tube we sailed downstream for all of twenty-five seconds before a plastic bottle tied to a massive length of rope came hurtling towards us so we could grasp hold and be winched in to the next bar. This one called, synonymously, the Bucket Bar. After being 'made' to down shots of whiskey by a couple of guys we were then told to tie headbands around our head which we duly stuck on without noticing what was written on them. Sorry mum and sorry Linda but mine read 'I got fucked in the Bucket Bar for 10,000 kip' and Shells' read 'I got fucked by Justin Bieber.....in the Bucket Bar', classy...

In the end we stayed in there for most of the afternoon, watching the loons dive off a bamboo tower into the river below, intermittently being made to down some whiskey and then hopping off to play volleyball on a batch of sand after being rounded up by a crazy Canadian girl (pesky Canadians) who insisted on calling everyone by the country they were from (she hated first names apparently). God help the guy from The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia....

Anyway back on the river we bobbed around for a while before passing various other bars before deciding as we had no clue of the time we would ride the current all the way back into town where we would hand back our tubes to collect our deposits. On the way back to the hotel we popped into a bar for food where, as a ferocious storm rolled in, the opening of The Smiths 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out' came through the speakers. I know it's tourists a town but sat here, in a bar in the middle of Laos, after a day spent drinking whiskey in the sun, watching lightning bright up the night sky, and without trying to sound like Pop Larkin... things just couldn't be any more perfict....

So Laos then....

Amazingly, after the previous days hellish travel we actually had a great nights keep despite sleeping in a bungalow with a tin roof. We woke up feeling much more refreshed and so after chilling out on the two hammocks on the porch for an hour, we went off in search of the small harbour where a boat would take us back over to the mainland so we could catch a bus up to pakse. On the boat we sat with two lads who we had met in china and along with the two young Canadian girls, formed a good little group for our onwards trip. At the bus station we were once again hoarded into a van which was such a tight squeeze with everyone inside that poor shell had to sit on the wheel arch, I did swap with her after it started to burn her bum though! A few minutes earlier we had paid an extra 20 dollars each for a night bus journey to take us onwards to Vientiane meaning we should have around 6 hours in Pakse before moving on yet again.

After three hours the van pulled into pakse but we felt instantly that things seemed a tad strange. Four guys who were apparently on the night bus too were dropped off first but the driver took us on and dropped us outside a restaurant in the middle of town. Upon arriving, a girl who we think was the contact for the company told us, no jokes here, that our night bus had crashed during the night and that her husband, presumably the driver, had been taken away early in the morning by the police. All of this, after being scammed, conned and laughed at for the past few days nearly pushed us over the edge. The four of us stood there demanding answers from anyone who we could collar before the driver of the minivan made a call and we were picked up to leave for yet another location, this time the bus station. After being led around on amerry old goose chase for two days we were then miraculously presented with two tickets, both with bed numbers, things were looking up just to make things even better, a large green night bus with the letters VIP were inscribed on the side! We felt ecstatic.

Leaving at 8pm the bus was unlike the others we had been on so far in the trip. It only had two rows of beds which were themselves doubles. We settled down, watched a film on the laptop, ate crisps, it was bliss! Thing is though, when it came to sleeping it was impossible. The double shocker of poor Laos roads and a girlfriend who spends the whole night shuffling around meant that as we pulled into Vientiane at 6am, neither of us had had a second of sleep. not a sausage.

As the bus piled onto a giant tuk-tuk we were taken to the centre where half the bus got off and went straight on to vang vieng, a place further north, without actually seeing anything here in Vientiane, the Laos capital.

Whether there was anything to see in Vientiane was a different matter. For us, tiredness had completely overcome us so we sat down, had some breakfast ( unbelievable coffee and croissant's in vientiane, another French gift to the region). I then left shell to go and find is a room and after an hour or so had found us the last room in a cheap hotel. Dumping our bags we went off into the city to explore, noting almost instantly that for a capital city, this place us as mellow as mellow gets...

We saw various ornate monasteries and a replica of the arc d'triomphe that was both impressive and hideous. It is almost an exact replica of the one in Paris but has distinct griminess about it that makes unmistakably Asian. It also has an inscription on the side of it in both Lao and English which read something like, 'this concrete was donated by the Americans to build an airport runway, we decided to build the arc d'triumpth instead. We know it's awful, you know it's awful but let's forget all that and focus on the view from the top'. It's something we are definitely picking up in Laos, just how mellow and self deprecating they can be.

Anyway for the rest of the day we sat around in some of hundreds of coffee shops and ate cake, thinking about how we are going to get to Thailand, our choices are another 24 hour journey by bus and van or an expensive but short 1 hour flight to chiang mai. Decisions decisions,

That night we booked onwards tickets to vang vieng, a 'backpackers' enclave famed for it's 'tubing', riding an inflated tractor inner tube 4 kms down a river lined with a shocking array of bars and dancing youngsters on bamboo dance floors. Although we are keen to check it out I've got to be honest here (even to myself) that this just isn't me. I don't think shells too up for it either. It's supposedly one of those places you will either love or absolutely despise. Vang vieng itself, or at least the surroundings, look beautiful. Which is why we may just book a room away from the carnage and take time to relax after being constantly on the move now for nearly three weeks.

But hey, we haven't been to vang vieng yet so we will make our minds up when we get there, you never know, we could be downing shots on a riverbank with the mushties before you know it!

Much love, Tommo xxxx

From the sublime to the shit in 24 hours...

Today would be the last day of our three day Angkor Wat experience and in a way, despite being by far the shortest trip, was in some respects the best. For this day we would be getting picked up at around 5am, meaning getting up ridiculously early. Getting into the tuk-tuk in the dark you could almost be back at home on a dark winters morning, on our way to work. Just without the tuk-tuks, although southsea is definitely missing them.

Arriving at Angkor wat we knew immediately that we were vastly under prepared. Surrounding by people with tripods, telephonic lenses and torches the sight of the two of us in vests and flip flops must have seemed a tad strange, if not expected...

As we walked over the large moat towards the temple entrance you began to get a sense of just how popular and busy this sacred place can get. Here, at five in the morning, stood literally hundreds of people all gathered around the pond adjacent to the temple jostling to take their perfect shot of this impressive sight. Thing is, much like any other arresting tourist sight, people take so long jockeying for that perfect snap that they miss the whole point of the experience. At one point a german woman, with typical german chivalry, stood about a centimetre away from our ears whilst she snapped away on a contraption that if pointed at the moon above us would possibly have seen Neil Armstrong's footprint.

In the end the wait was worth it as we were presented with a beautiful red sky indented by the silhouette of Angkor wat in front. We hung around for a while, trying to take it all in before heading back in the tuk-tuk to catch an hours sleep before our next adventure of the day, a cambodian cooking class!

Upon arriving, the pupils were split into three groups of five and told to follow our teacher into the adjacent Market to buy the produce for the days lesson. I picked fresh spring rolls (comprising rice paper, lettuce, snake beans, sweet basil, cucumber, carrots, beansprouts and prawns) and chicken amok (amok paste, carrots, onions, stock and coconut milk). Shell picked the deep fried pork spring rolls (that's her Scottish half) and Khmer curry. We had an awesome day here, the teacher was great and the choice of things to learn to cook was extraordinary. Unlike the cooking 'class' that we attended in bali this was a full on experience, really helping you to memorise these dishes for future use. Both shell and I were in our element and after two and a half months on the road was a welcome change to being cooked for, having the ability to be fully self-sufficient is something I don't ever want to take for granted...

After sitting down and both trying and failing to eat through the mountain of food in front of us we were on our way to sort our tickets for our mammoth journey north to Laos in the morning. We got a number of quotes from a fair few travel agents and in the end plumped for the most expensive as it was, apparently, both a direct bus and also VIP, meaning that we were 100% certain to at least have the obligatory air conditioning. Oh how wrong we would be.

Back at the hotel we spent the afternoon relaxing in our room as we had had a maximum of three hours sleep for the past few nights. During this time we found accommodation in pakse and, foolishly in hindsight, paid the total before we set off. I don't quite know why we did this, maybe due to it being a strange new country?

That night we only had a small bite in town before saying our last proper goodbyes to Cambodia before heading into Laos. Although we have only been here for 7 days, I don't think I have been to a place which dishes out the beautiful and the blatantly messed up in such equal quantities.

After only another three or four hours sleep we were up at 4am once again in preparation to be picked up at 5am. After waiting for an hour we were suddenly told to get into a big mercedes which then proceeded to take us all of twenty metres down the road, stopping next to a decrepit old bus and hauling our bags onboard. We thought this was quite normal, apart from the mercedes bit, as we have boarded other buses like this which have then taken us to another bigger bus, plus we had also paid extra money for a VIP bus! After being driven around siem reap by cambodia's answer to the chuckle brothers for an hour we were then on our way, without any sign of a change in bus.

After around three hours the lack of any a/c started to become a problem. Everyone on there, mainly brit's and a smattering of French, were driven insane both by the heat and also the idiot driver's use of the horn. It was as loud as one of those they use to start a race sometimes, in fact it was one of those! He also insisted on travelling the whole way, nine hours in the end, with door wide open! All so he could smoke, and throw foreigners off the bus when he wanted, probably.

Anyway, after passing a town called kampang cham which we thought was to be our place to change busses, we started to feel the opening pangs of anger. Eventually we stopped, nine hours later at a place called memot where were told to 'get off', in those words. He also said we would be changing buses although nothing 'resembling' a bus was anywhere to be found. After fifteen minutes or so an even smaller vehicle arrived (think people carrier) and started, no jokes here, to tie our luggage onto the back with small pieces of rope. To top our joy off the two guys who were given the task of taking us onwards looked about as suspicious as a couple of Khmer rouge soldiers left over to make westerners lives as miserable as possible. After remonstrating, quite loudly, with the first driver, I was from that point on, in their eyes anyway, group spokesman. As we set off it became completely apparent that these jokers were having the time of their lives transporting this car full of cattle, sorry tourists, on into Laos. Unfortunately for us they insisted on stopping every hour, for no apparent reason. In the end it became clear that they were taking their time for a more sinister reason. We all knew that the border closes at 5pm and although leaving at 5.30am had taken every opportunity to hold up our journey to make sure that when we got to stung treng, the closest town to the border, we would either have to stay in one of their hotels and leave the next day or, as on our case, kick up a massive fuss so that they make a couple of corrupt phone calls to get us over the border after hours, all with an added bribe of course. Thing is, even before I spoke to the 'border official' on the phone, passed from the bossman, another van (smaller again) had pulled up alongside. As if by magic we no longer had to stay in stung treng but could pay an extra 'charge' to the border officials and go over the border. After arriving at the border and doing the first dodgy officialities we were then told that the officials, this time on the Laos side, wanted an extra three dollars each. So after being scammed, conned and whittled down to angry westerners in an otherwise peaceful country we were then faced with the grim proposition of paying over $100 for two visa's that we knew over half of which would go in the back pocket of some official or another. Managing to organise another small bus to take us onwards into Laos we were then told that we wouldn't be going onwards to pakse and that we would have to stay in the village where we had stopped or get on a boat to go to Don Det, an island where four of the eight guys on the bus were heading. This was the last straw. I went beserk, along with a few other guys. I have not been that angry since I was an angry, naive teenager.

In the end the owner of the company, who had virtually been killed upon us learning of his position within the company, scampered away, throwing our bags off the bus in the process. This left us, along with two young American girls effectively stuck in the dark, in the middle of nowhere with no place to go. In the end we followed the other guys by paying yet more money for a boat to take us to don det, a place we could stay the night before carrying onto pakse in the morning. Although we now knew we had lost the money we paid for the hotel in pakse we managed to find a small bungalow which, for 2 pounds a night, wouldn't break the bank. Despite a couple of large cockroaches it wasn't too bad and we were thankful for a place we could finally lay our heads after a day that in anyone's eyes was sent straight from hell.

We had a good time in Cambodia but the corruption is mind-blowing, not just in our experience. If you are flying into siem reap, having a few days in Angkor before flying out again, I can think of few better places but to scratch below the surface, by travelling over land and you are faced with almost endless scams. Makes for a great experience though!

Anyway, tomorrow we go onto pakse then get straight on a night bus to take us all the way to Vientiane! A plane ride is most certainly on the horizon though.....

Much love, tommo xxxx

Temples & Tuks Tuks in Siem Reap.....

After an agonisingly slow bus journey through the heart of Cambodia, we arrived to a very dark and dusty Siem Reap. As happens wherever we go, we were instantly surrounded by tuk tuk drivers offering to drive us into town. I still cannot get used to this - arriving somewhere new (in the dark) feeling very disorientated and confused, the last thing you need is a Cambodian man in your face yelling "tuk-tuk?"

We did however, agree to a ride with a very 'special' Cambodian guy, who then tried to get us to agree to hire him for the next few days to take us around the temples of Angkor. We had both lost patience by this point and told him sorry no, we didn't need a driver. He then started to mutter under his breath, no doubt something offensive about tourists (this is turning out to be another of my pet hates!)

On the plus side, our guesthouse was lovely and we were greeted by friendly staff with cold water and towels. They also arranged our next three days for us, planning daily tours of the best temples to see in Angkor and a tuk tuk driver for each day. For this, we were so grateful and eager to get started the following morning.

Now I might seem a bit 'special' but before arriving in Siem Reap, we were under the impression that Angkor Wat was the only temple to visit here. Turns out that we couldn't have been more wrong! There are lots (not sure of the exact number!) of temples in the Angkor grounds, which is why more than a day visit is recommended so that you can see as many temples as possible. Which is why we both decided on a three day pass so that we could take our time.

We began the 'mini tour' the following morning with a tuk tuk driver named 'Spider'! He drove us to the ticketing booths on the outskirts of Siem Reap where we had our photographs taken and scanned onto our passes (very technical). Having gained our entry stamp for day one, we drove on towards the major atraction, Angkor Wat. Spider dropped us off and pointed out where he would wait for us - these guys are the kings of waiting! They do so much waiting around whilst tourists are in the temples, they have hammocks to hang up inside their tuk tuks to get some sleep!

So we headed into Angkor Wat and the photographing frenzy began, mostly by me I should add! The place is just amazing to look at and the carvings and detail in the various buildings are so well preserved you just had to take pictures! You just can't imagine how such huge, intricate buildings were built or how much time it took either. We had opted to not join a tour or have a guide to show us around. Instead, we went DIY - we bought a guide book to all the temples and became our very own tour guides! Tom mostly reading aloud as we wandered around - I think he secretly enjoyed it, maybe he has found a new calling in life!! We eventually made it to the top of Angkor Wat, where the 5 tall towers are. There was a queue to enter the middle tower so like typical Brits we joined the queue! Only to be told that we were not wearing the appropriate clothing to enter the sacred temple - school boy error really but on a day so hot, the prospect of wearing trousers and a t-shirt with sleeves had not even entered our heads. So we had to miss out on what lurked inside! We explored almost every inch of Angkor Wat and took a shed load of photographs to prove it. After a couple of hours, dripping with sweat (I honestly think we chose the hottest possible day), we walked back to our waiting tuk tuk and headed off to the next temple.

The Bayon group of temples, including Angkor Thom is just as impressive as Angkor Wat. In actual fact, I think we both preferred these. They were more 'ruin like' but still had the detailed stone carvings intact. My favourite was at Angkor Thom, where Buddha faces are carved into the huge blocks that make up the towers at the top. There are four faces on each side of the tower, which again made for some fab photographs! I was refused entry again to one of the temples (my shorts needed to be knee length!), so Tom went in alone to check it out. Throughout the day, we were plagued by small children carrying baskets full of bracelets, postcards, magnets (everything really) to sell, mostly for 'one dollar'. We caved in on a few occasions, buying fruit and a pretty cool bamboo flute from two small boys. They even gave us a demonstration! We just couldn't buy something from everyone, no matter how much you want to and the children are just so cute it makes it even harder to say no. I suppose that's why they do it though. We finished in the final temple for the day as the sun was beginning to set, perfect timing! Hungry from all our 'templing' we headed out for some yummy Khmer curries and local beer, both well deserved after a busy day!

Our second day of 'templing' followed a similar pattern of being driven around in a tuk tuk (no Spider this time!) The 'big tour' took us to temples further out of the park but again, were equally as fascinating to stroll around and explore. Several of the temples had been turned into ruins due to trees and their roots. We took some amazing pictures of walls with trees growing over them and in one case, out the top of the wall! Huge piles of rubble, carefully numbered, were piled up, ready for the restoration that appeared to be happening at most of the temples. For most of the day, we felt as though we were wandering through the set of Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones - awesome! As there were fewer temples to visit today, we had half a day left to fill. After lunch, we went for a wander around the centre of Siem Reap, stocking up on postcards and nosing through the many alleys of shops and street stalls.

That evening, we made it to one of the night markets and found an outdoor bar with a pool table lurking at the very back! We chilled out here for a while, reminding ourselves how rubbish we are at pool then callled it a night as we need some well deserved sleep before our 4am start tomorrow to see sunrise at Angkor - I'm sure it will be worth it but I miss my lay ins!!

Much love Shell xxxx

We've come a long long way baby...

more...

We thought you may want to check out where we have been so far as stupid blogger doesn't allow us to out this map up anywhere permanently. We have a map that you may notice just to the right but unfortunately it has us down as being in cities hundreds of miles away! xxx

Being shocked in Phnom Penh....

After our two day jaunt down the mighty Mekong we arrived starving and tired into Phnom Penh and into our hotel room at the strangely named Velkommen Inn. After dumping our bags we were off out again to an Italian restaurant that we had spied earlier in the evening that according to some reviews, was as good, if not better than a restaurant actually in Italy. We ordered a stone baked pizza and a lasagne to share and also had our very first wine of the trip, more than 2 months in! I'd have to say that this was probably one of the best Italian meals we have ever had and made such a change to some of the more traditional meals we have had in our time in Asia so far. I know it was only pizza and lasagne but it was homemade and tasted as fresh as possible, especially on the hot and sticky streets of Phnom Penh! We also had chilled red wine for the first time too, not conventional by any means but tasted delicious! Think I may copy at home.

Anyway, rising the next morning we knew that today would be 1 part interesting to 2 parts depressing as we hopped on the tuk-tuk to take us to three destinations. A giant pagoda that represents the city's spritual past, the infamous high school-turned prison of death and torture, Tuol Sleng (otherwise known as S-21) and the truly horrific killing fields fifteen kms outside of town.

The Pagodas were a nice sight, surrounded by lush and manicured lawns but all around you could see the harsh reality of Cambodian poverty as children seemingly as young as three and four begged on the dirty floors. You see, you have to try to be cynical in these situations because if you let your emotions take over, and they really try hard to do so, you would want to give every bit of money and possession away that you possess. Unfortunately, common sense must prevail. On the one hand if you give to one child, sure enough you would have another fifty swarming around you expecting the same thing, you can also never know if the children are part of a syndicate, led by a boss overseeing his 'employees', which has been suggested by some. On the other, a small amount of money could go an incredibly long way to ensuring this child eats today, which reverbarates around your head as soon as you start to walk away.

From there we headed through the dusty streets to Tuol Sleng, a place I've been interested in seeing for a while due to learning about the Khmer Rouge's barbarity a few years ago. The place, converted from a high school in 1975 is appalling. In fact everything that we would see and experience over the next five hours would be truly horrific. All you can do is shake your head in misbelief at the fact that man has the capability to inflict these atrocities on his fellow man but also the fact that this was all so very recent. Not some medieval form of barbarism that you maybe visited on school trips as part of your history lessons but thirty years ago, about the time when people were mourning the death of Elvis or watching Jaws in the cinema. Unlike the Nazi's or Stalin's Soviet purges the Khmer Rouge perpatrated these murders in a very swift two year span which means, killing just short of two million people, men, women and incredibly thousands upon thousands of children in a matter of months.

I won't go into gory detail but if the prison opened your eyes to the barbarism that unfolded here then the killing fields completely underlined it. No one knows the true figures but these half dead people, some as young as nine, who had been tortured beyond comprehension were then blindfolded and packed into vans which shut on all sides, squeezed in until they couldn't move an inch. Once at the killing fields they would be marched one by one to mass graves where they would be executed in the most brutal way imaginable. In fact as bullets would be too expensive, the Khmer Rouge, much like the SS would find other, cheaper methods to execute in vast numbers. Most executors in fact would use blunt instruments or farming equipment. Imagine all of this whilst Communist propoganda music is blurted out of speakers to cover the screams and you can just imagine, maybe only slightly, what the last few moments would have felt like. This truly is a terrible place but one that has to be witnessed, much like Auschwitz, to both pay your respects and also to acknowledge that this must never happen again.

Once we had navigated the busy and very dusty roads back into town we needed cheering up so decided to make good use of the 1 dollar margherita's at a Mexican place round the corner! Just to add to the confusion and errr, fusion?, we ordered the Cambodian sharing platter and were amazed that the food was incredibly good. We ate chicken Amok, Khmer curry, Morning Glory and an assortment of other tit-bits. What made things even more surreal was that in this Mexican restaurant, eating Cambodian food, surrounded by Americans, Newport County were playing Shrewsbury in the FA cup on the big screen. Once again, you just have to pinch yourself to make sure this is all going on! What we did decide over dinner is that we would like to go to Mexico when we are in the States, so making good use of more free Wifi, we did some research and found some cheapish flights! Awesome!

So, the following day we would be off to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat! That night the noise was unbearable! If it wasn't for the fact that we both have amazing ear plugs I would have gone downstairs and started pointing wobbly fingers. Thing is, the hotel is above a pub, which in itself is on a very loud street full of perverse old Western men with suspiciously young Asian girls, not the nicest place! In fact. let's be honest here, you want to throw hot gravel and wasps at these old bastards....

So there we go, Phnom Penh was supposedly a mellow place full of colonial architecture. Although I think we saw it at it's busiest (they were celebrating a national festival) it wasn't the place I think we thought it was. Saying that, the people seem fantastic, a lot more open than in Vietnam but viciously poor. It is definitely the poorest place we have been to. Still, despite the chequered history, we had two fantastic days here, the tuk-tuks are mental!

I hope that wasn't too depressing, I'm re-reading it but I don't want to leave anything out though! I can only say that my words will never do the history side any justice and if you have some time to check out the websites dedicated to the carnage, you must. That is all.

Muchos love, Tommo xxxxx

Floating along the Mekong River.....

So the day finally arrived when we had to say goodbye to Vietnam. We've both become strangely attached and neither one of us know what to expect when we arrive in Cambodia. Instead of rushing there, we decided to take a 2 day leisurely boat tour along the Mekong River to take in the last of the very South of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta. It's a maze of waterways and floating villages so we were looking forward to checking it out.

Having been picked up by a cheerful tour guide, we climbed aboard the bus and settled down to a lengthy drive before arriving at a place called Cai Be, where we transferred onto a fairly large wooden boat. I'm still forgetting how much smaller the Vietnamese are and whacked my head on the entrance to the boat - a classic way to start! The guide was very concerned but told me, whilst pointing to my head 'your electronics will be fine its (the boat) only made out of bamboo'! That said, my head still hurt.

After popping some painkillers, I was able to take in the views from the boat. There were many houses on stilts lining the sides of the river, some of which looked in a pretty bad way due to the floods they have just had to endure. In the centre of the river, there was a cluster of boats which formed a floating market (much more organised than the 'floating shop' we came across in Halong Bay! It was mostly fruit and fish on sale, with smaller boats darting between the larger to collect their goods. Many people seemed to be taking it easy on the boats, lying in hammocks and watching the world (or rather tourists) float on by!

We carried on down the river until we came to a local factory I suppose, where they made popped rice and coconut candy. I'm still not entirely sure how the popped rice was made but it was quite a technical process of heating the rice with sugar, sieving it, then rolling it out before cutting it and leaving it to cool. We got to try some freshly made whilst it was still hot - it was suprisingly good so we got some from the shop to munch on for the rest of our journey. The coconut candy was pretty tasty too but got stuck in my teeth way to much for liking so I avoided any more! Tom was very adventurous for ten thirty in the morning and gave the 45% proof rice wine a try - it's not a wonder they call it 'happy juice'. Apparently they only serve it in small shot glasses as it would burn the insides of your nose - nice!!

We piled back onto the boat for an hour long journey along the river before stopping for lunch. It was pretty relaxing chugging along through a maze of waterways that at one point felt as though we were in a jungle. The engine did cut out half way through and was promptly dismantled and fixed in a bizarre sort of way. Turns out, the boat had hit the bottom of the river as the tide was changing, so half the people on the boat got shunted up to the front and pretty much had to sit on top of one another so that the boat could continue on its journey - very cozy! At least we managed to make it to lunch though.

Lunch was included in our tour but was a tiny portion of curry and rice. Fine if you weren't particularly hungry but as usual, we were both starving! Strangely, you could BUY plenty of extra food, including a pretty weird looking Elephant Ear fish, which is a delicacy in this part of the country. The women that eat this fish every day live to be a least 90 years old we were told. Sitting with a German couple at our table, we decided to give the elephant fish a try. It came in a special stand and we had our very own Vietnamese lady to create the rice paper rolls for us(see the pictures on flickr). Pretty tasty!

The boat continued along the river to a place called Vinh Long, where we had to change to a bus for the remainder of our journey to our overnight stop at a floating hotel - exciting! We stopped at a crocodile farm as our rest stop, very weird. They farm the crocodiles for both their meat and skin, both of which they sold here. There were hundreds of crocodiles and most of them were HUGE seriously obese if there is such a thing. They were all just lying there barely able to support their own body weight so there was not chance of them moving anywhere fast from what we saw. Not a great place to wander around but it made what was a pretty boring bus journey just a little bit more exciting.

The floating hotel was generally a bit of a let down. There was a mix up with the rooms, shards of plastic in our beef noodles and pretty scary staff to top it all off! We were both relieved to leave the next day and head off to the Cambodian border. Having upgraded ourselves to the fast boat tickets (I know, check us out!) we were looking forward to a fairly speedy 5 hour journey through both borders to Phnom Penh - oh how wrong we were!!

In actually fact, the first boat we travelling on was pretty speedy. Border control was not. Hardly suprising really when one of them is floating in the middle of the Mekong River! After an hour wait to clear the Vietnamese border, we climbed back onto the boat and quickly arrived at the Cambodian border (on dry land!). During the hottest part of the day, we waited for 2 hours whilst our visa applications were stamped and processed. Painful, considering how many border officials there were. There was some excitment though when a snake slithered across the path in front of us, making one of the Cambodian officials yelp and run away! We took that as a sign to get out of the way too!!

We switched boats after this and began a somewhat slower journey along the river but it gave us a good chance to check out the new country that we were in. Many houses lined the sides of the river and the damage caused by recent flooding was clear to see. Yet the people were so excited to see our boat go past and were stood on the sides of the river waving to us with huge smiles on their faces! So we spent the rest of our journey sat on the roof of our boat, soaking in the suns rays and waving - not bad really!

After such a long journey, we were grateful to roll into the passenger port in Phomn Penh. The city was celebrating a water festival so was jam packed with people and bikes everywhere! We seem to manage to find ourselves in the middle of crazy festivals wherever we go but thankfully it finishes tomorrow so we can explore the city properly.

Much love,
Shell xxxx

Saigon, will love you long time...

Arriving into Saigon several hours after leaving Mui Ne, you were presented almost immediately with the overopowering sense of being somewhere completely huge. Already, having spent the best part of two hours crawling through the endless city suburbs we were mentally prepared for what waited for us inside the city, but the hustle and bustle of the city just seemed to envelope around you. Bounding off the bus, we headed straight for our guesthouse and were greeted, yet again, by unbelievably friendly and warm hosts. For 18 dollars a night we were put in a nice room with a huge bed, but the hosts just went completely out of their way to make us feel at home. It's almost as if you were staying with your favourite aunty and uncle, the ones who let you eat chocolate digestives all day and torment the dog. If we were not looking forward to Saigoin initially, all worries seemed to disappear.

That night, after grabbing yet more noodle soup (pho), we headed out onto the main tourist drag and settled down on one of the small (very) plastic chairs and ordered a round of beers. After having our first real conversation about wedding guest lists (oh no!) we bumped into Derek and Yulia, the guys we had met in China over a month before. To be honest it was great to see familiar faces, even if we had met them on the trip. After Yulia went off to bed, Shell, Derek and myself carried on knocking back the cheap beers until the small hours. At some point during the night we even managed to bump into a guy wearing one of the famous 'Southsea Bronx' t-shirts, turns out their was a small group of guys who had studied at Portsmouth Uni! Although you are always going to bump into fellow Brits, we are indeed everywhere, this was slightly more surreal given were we were, and after many cheap beers, made us all pretty excited. We also managed to taste one of the many interesting snacks that are on offer from the multitude of different sellers, this time we opted for the dried squid. If you can imagine the worst smell you can possibly imagine, multiply that by infinity and you are somewhere close. The taste is, naturally, pretty foul.

We had planned to be up early the next morning in preperation to visit all of Saigon's inner-city attractions, unfortunately when we arrived back at the guesthouse at 2am, the doors were firmly locked and the lights were off. This meant shouting up to the old hotel owners to get them to come down and let us in. To be fair to them they were fine, but as they bolted the door back up and went to sleep we remembered that we had literally a mouth full of water left in the room. Both feeling very drunk, and massively dehydrated because of the high humidity, this wouldn't be the best preperation for an early start.

After eating a good breakfast in the morning, we headed towards the Notre Dame Cathedral, as the museums closed of lunch. Although not as charasmatic as it's Parisian counterpart, it still holds it own among the newly built skyscpaers. After stopping briefly for a much needed coffee, we headed towards the War Remnants Museum to learn everything there is to know about the famous American War, all gloriously provided in the finest Vietnamese propaganda four pounds can buy. In fairness, the museum leaves nothing out and every piece of history is retold in minute detail. Although in large part dedicated to the inhumane and illegal use of aggressive force by the States, arguably the best section was the story of the brave men and women of the press who risked life and limb to photograph and report the war in it's truest form. Some of the most evocative photo's of the 20th century were taken in Vietnam in the sixties and all were on show here. By far the most gruesome spectacle though was yet again the treatment of prisoners. Retelling thier stories in horiffic detail, you have to keep telling yourself that this will surely never happen whilst being constantly aware that these inhumane acts were purpotrated only 40 years ago. All in all a great museum but you leave wanting to cry for the state of mankind.

After treating ourselves to an amazing burger to cheer oursleves up we had an early night in preperation to be picked up by a tour that would be taking us to the Cu Chi Tunnels the following day. Waking up at six, we wandered outside and found a bakery that did 9p baguettes (warm ones) to settle our hunger for the 70km drive out the city. On the way we were astonished to be part of a bus group that was 100% British. It was an odd feeling to be behind two Essex boys constantly talking about the Thailand Full Moon Parties and a group at the back all complaining of being hungover in their grating home-counties slang.

Half way to the tunnels the bus stopped at a workshop run by the government that acts as an opportunity for people with special needs to work in full employment. Something which is very rare in Vietnam. Due to the devestating effects of 'Agent Orange' and other chemical defoliants used by the US in the war, many people have suffered horrific deformities as a result. Without the protection of a recognised welfare system behind them these people, in many cases, are completely alienated within society. This place then gives them something to do other than beg. You can't help but feel though that you are kind of being shown around on a government tour, you know, someth8ing which ignores the obvious corruption, the choking traffic and huge rich-poor divide and just focuses on the good things they are doing for the special people. You don't fool me Uncle Ho!

Anyway, the tunnels! They were Ok I suppose, the story is amazing. 250 kms of tunnels built under a large swathe of Vietnamese countryside that the Americans, with their vastly superior firepower, just couldn't defeat. Some of the tunnels are absolutely tiny and we at least got to travel for 5-10 minutes underground but it was, naturally, a claustrophobic nightmare. Overall, I guess the worst part was the guns. For 20-30,000 Dong per bullet you could fire anyone of an AK-47, M-16, Shotgun and a few others on an adjacent range. We just felt lost and did not understand why this had anything to with, you know, anything. It's as if people had come here not to hear the amazing story, but to tell their mates they had fired Rambo's gun.

Fortunately for us the day's highlight was meeting Toby and Helen. A couple from Manchester who were coming to the end of a three week holiday in Vietnam. After meeting them earlier in the day it felt as though we had a lot in common and spent the rest of the day with them, arranging to meet up later for food and maybe a beer a or two. Before we did we managed to film two massive rats chilling on the top of a coffee bar. They were as big as badgers! The rest of the night we spent with Toby and Helen, a fantastic couple of people who seemed to have so much in common with our lives. You kind of meet a lot of different people whilst travelling, I guess it's probably the highlight, with these guys though it was as if we had been hanging out with some of our best friends back home. Both of us hope that we can stay in touch and hopefully see them when we return for some Manchester action, it would be a shame if we didn't. In a way, I guess it's probably the worst thing about travelling too, the fact that you have to say goodbye far too quickly. I hate saying goodbyes.

Next stop, Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia and another different country. This means we have to say our farewells to Vietnam, a country we have fallen head over heels for. It has it's problems, some of them are pretty obvious but what it does have, it makes you crazy for more. The food and the people make this country and their work-ethic and determination to better themselves by getting their sleeves dirty has to be admired, in fact scrap that, it's what we should aspire to...

A little place called Mui Ne....

So on the journey goes, after venturing inland for a brief two-day sojourn into the mountains to Dalat, we were on our way once more to the coast and a small beach resort called Mui Ne. Before we arrived however, we would first have to contend with the four and a half hour journey back down through the mountains. A route made even more impossible by the driver's irritating decision to take a seemingly 'more scenic' route, that according to the map on the iphone, didn't even exist! Even though we were the only westerners on the decrepid old bus, each and every passenger looked as bewildered as each other as the bus struggled through mudslides, part-destroyed roads, herds of buffalo and hare-pin bends that wouldn't look out of place in a James Bond movie. Why this madman couldn't have gone the more conventional route along the highway, we will never know. Even so, we arrived shaken but in one piece in Mui Ne nearly five hours later, where we waited patiently for yet more motorbikes to pick us up to take us to our guesthouse.

After finding the hotel on the internet by accident really (saying that it was #1 on trip advisor) I phoned the owner where we had a long conversation where he told me that the guesthouse was actually closed for renovation but they were building another, very similar one right across the road. He said we could stay there, as it was 90% complete and he would put us in a proper suite with stunning views of the pool downstairs and also, stunningly, the sea in the distance from our terrace. Apparently the offer is called a 'soft opening' (don't think about the name too much) due to it not being complete, but whatever it is, it is good! We managed to haggle him down to 20 dollars a night when they will be going for around 70 dollars in a few weeks time.

To match the beauty of our surroundings the guys that own and run the place like everyone to mix together, to create a real family vibe. This they have in abundance. We met some really great guys there and decided to book another couple of nights on the back of our welcome alone. That night we dumped the bags and went out for food, noticing straight away that the tempreture must have been a good fifteen degrees hotter than in Da Lat, absolutely crazy.

The next morning we woke fairly late for a change, had yet another beautiful breakfast made freshly for us and got talking to the guys about what to do over the next two days. We decided that as the weather was so good we would take advantage of the beach and the fact that the guys here have a special 'partnership' with one of the huge, mega-resorts on the beach. Basically for 4 dollars each we could spend the whole day using their facilities, making use of the pool etc. After walking through the grounds we hit an amazing stretch of beach, Skegness this certainly isn't. The sand powdery white, the sea bath-like warm and hardly a Russian in sight. Oh yeh, the Russians! Forgot to mention this. Bascially Mui Ne is Russia's biggest foreign holiday destination outside of the Black Sea resorts of the Ukraine. Which kind of puts a very surreal spin on things given the fact that every shop in Vietnam sells bucket-loads of Red Star adorned memorabilia and the equally interesting fact that the Russians like to wear said Red Star memorabilia. In essence, as you witness large groups of Russian blokes walking around wearing red stars and singing in Russian, you could be back in the height of the Cold War in Moscow, but by the seaside. Very strange.

Anyway, the beach was perfect and so we spent the whole day there, only sidetracked once by a game of beach football involving around twenty Vietnamese and a couple of Aussies, who in true Antipodean Style, just ran around kicking everyone. Without sounding like Roy of the Rovers I scored a hat-trick and the winning goal, celebrated with my adopted team and then fell into the sea in a sweaty ball of mess. I don't think Shell had known where I had gone for an hour or so but it's the first football I have seen in months and I was truly mesmerised.

Back at the hotel, we were preparing to head out for food when all of a sudden the power completely went out followed by a rainstorm of vicious proportions, causing a literal river to form outside of our room. It never really stopped all night so we were kindly offered to have take away brought up the hill to us from the restaurant which is fortunately owned by the same guys. For the first time in a couple of months we gorged on take-away food but take-away food of the freshest Vietnamese fare you could imagine. I have said this many times already on this blog over the past few weeks but Vietnamese food is to die for. By far the tastiest and most varied I have had the good fortune to experience.

The next day we awoke to a bit of a grey start but with the promise of the weather clearing to create yet another perfect beach day, it wasn't to be. Although we spent the whole morning on the beach, we had to run and take cover at about 2pm as another giant rain cloud approached. Crashing into the beach bar we sat and thought we would wait it out by playing draughts, the poor man's chess. In true Shell style, she ended up being silently amazing at a game she never plays. You see this is the thing with Shell, vastly understated and relatively introverted, she is enormously intelligent without ever wanting or needing anyone to know that she is. Which is why after three hours of tense, Gary Gasparov style draughts I was comprehensively and humiliatingly defeated. Never really winning a draught piece and outhought at pretty much every turn. Not happy. But well done Miss Fleming, chess next time. (We just have to learn how to play it).

That night we hung out with some of the guys from the hotel, one of the girls, called Olivia, comes from Chichester no less! Very small world indeed. (Could be Olivia Mastrolonardo in twenty years!-If Vito let's her?). After ordering yet more food to be delivered by the restaurant we headed to bed early in hope that tomorrow the weather would clear.

As the weather was still overcast the following morning we decided to opt out of the kite-surfing lessons and hire a motorbike! Now I have never ridden a motorbike before, in fact I have never really driven anything motorised before so I was determined to do both of us proud by conquering at least some demons of mine. After a brief lesson from Jake outside the hotel we were on our way to the sand dunes to the north-east, some 40kms away! Not a bad baptism! After some initial wobbleyness and being squeezed off the road by an apologetic bus driver we were on our way, and I felt as high as a kite! (I'm thinking Vespa or Lambretta when we get back!).

Finally arriving at the dunes, we were once again blown away by the sheer size and magnitude of them. Parking up we were then convinced to hire two wobbly peices of plastic that we were informed you could sit on and sledge down the dunes. In reality they wouldn't budge, even though we walked 10 minutes to the top of the highest point. Daylight robbery. I tried to remonstrate with the kid who hired them to us but I think he just thought I was excited. We spent a good 2 hours there before riding all the way back to Mui Ne where we had just enough time to visit the Fairy Springs, a river which you actually walk in barefoot, all the way to a waterfall, half a km away. All the time you are surrounded by vibrant red cliffs and rock formations, giving the whole experience some what of a Bear Grylls edge, half expecting a snake to jump out at you! Half way we did notice a place where you could ride an ostrich the rest of the way, now that would have been an experience. I think my dad would have loved that...

The next morning we woke to glorious blue skies! Typical. The previous day we had booked tickets to Saigon, a journey of some five hours as our visa ends on Saturday and to be honest if the weather isn't great then Mui Ne offers very little itself. It was just our luck then that the weather is amazing. As I type away here on the bus as we roll around the endless roads of Saigon I am not looking forward to the hustle and bustle of a city that is home to over 10 million people! We have been warned what to expect but I don't think anything can prepare you for 12 million scooters!

We have offcially been gone two months today. I can't quite believe it really. In some ways I guess it has flown by but then I think back to what we have already seen and done and I just feel dizzy. Let's just hope the next few weeks are equally as impressive as we head away from the coast and into Cambodia and Laos, may even try deep-fried spider!
Much love, Tommo xxx

Mountain life in Dalat

Having had some chilled out beach action in Nha Trang, we were ready for change of scenery. Where better to head for than the mountain city of Dalat in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam. Another bus journey awaited us but a mere 4 hours compared to the dreaded 12 hour stints on night buses. I was really looking forward to checking out the views from the bus in daylight, especially as we were heading up into the mountains.

The bus crawled through many a sleepy town and village before making a slow, steady progress towards the mountains. The views were amazing as we climbed higher and higher and soon we were as high as the clouds. It was such a nice change to be able to look at the scenery as we travelled on the bus. Our usual journeys happen in the dead of night! My journey was somewhat spoilt however after our rest stop, as a small boy proceeded to throw up his noodles in the aisle right next to me! Soon the mountain city of Dalat came into sight and on first viewing I was not overly impressed. The guide book had described the city as 'little Paris' so I expected quaint French architecture and pretty little streets. We found small parts of the city like this but on the whole, it's not a very pretty city. However, it was a nice change from the places we had been previously and had a totally different climate - we had to wear a jumper! At times it felt as though we could have been in any city in Europe rather than in Central Vietnam.

On the plus side, we had struck gold with our accommodation here. We stayed in an amazing guesthouse called 'Dreams' with the lovely Mrs Duong as our host. She made the most AMAZING breakfast ever, a real family affair with all the guests sat round the same table and a jaccuzzi, steam room and sauna on a rooftop terrace - what more could you need! Having not been overly impressed after our wander round Dalat, she advised us to take a tour around the sights and surrounding areas with the 'Easy Riders'! Originating in Dalat, the Easy Riders spend their time riding around with tourists, showing them the 'real Vietnam'. What a life hey? We were both unsure what to expect from the Easy Riders but it sounded like fun so we agreed to a tour the next day. I think that this was quite possibly the best decision we have made on our trip so far!

At 8.30am the following day, we were greeted by two smiling Vietnamese bikers - Joseph and Ted (yes they really were Vietnamese!) As soon as the intoductions were over, we had helmets fitted to our head (Joseph found it very funny how small my head was - rude!) and we were off! I was actually really comfy on the back of my bike as it had a small seat and back rest so I could sit back easily and definately wasn't going to fall off. Tom was not so lucky and had to hold on tight!

We rode through the streets of Dalat, pretty slowly if I'm honest (they weren't speed demons, thank god!) and soon arrived at our first stop for the day, the Dragon Pagoda. Now we've seen a fair few pagodas in our time away so far but these were pretty different. Imagine the Disneyland of pagodas and you're half way there! There was also a temple, which Ted took great detail in showing us round and also told us about 'bell mail'. Basically, every temple has a huge bell that the monks generally use to communicate with Buddha. Ted told us to have a look underneath the bell to see the hundereds of letters stuck to the inside - 'bell mail to Buddha', brilliant!

We climbed back on the bikes and headed out into the countryside, it was beautiful. There are fields, not rice paddies, growing friut, vegetables and coffee - a totally different side to Vietnam. We stopped to admire the view and for Joseph to give us some history about the area, especially about the war. These guys were brilliant for explaining everything about their country, in great detail. From politics and religions to mountain tribes and village life, they knew absolutely everything and were only too happy to talk about it. Tom was in his element, especially when talk turned to the history and politics of the country! I'm sad to say that I knew very little about Vietnam before coming away but thanks to these guys, I've learnt a great deal.

Further on, we were given some time off the bikes to climb a hill and take in the view of Dalat city. It looked pretty impressive from the top so I set about taking some pictures and got the fright of my life when Ted appeared through the trees to give us some more history about the war. Turns out, the hill we were on was a major look out point for the South Vietnamese army and he was able to point out the trenches and bunkers to us. He was able to give amazing detail and some personal experience as he served during the war under the South Vietnamese Army.

Back on the bikes, we headed further into the country, riding past giant greenhouses full of flowers and many coffee plantations. We stopped at one plantation and Joseph told us about the different types of coffee that they grow (robusta and mocha were the two we saw) and watched the beans being expertly picked from the plants. Later in the day, we had the slightly disturbing experience of seeing weasels (trapped in tiny cages) being fed coffee beans, they poo them out and they are collected to make really expensive (and pretty disgusting in my opinion) coffee. Much like we saw in Bali with the mongoose. Neither were treated particularly nicely and I'm really unsure as to why anyone would want to drink this coffee anyway?

Our next stop was quite possibly my favourite of the day, Elephant waterfalls. No, there were no real elephants to be seen but the formation of the rocks at the base of the waterfall are said to look like elephants. They just looked like rocks to me but hey, I'm not going to argue! The waterfall was pretty difficult to get to so Ted came down with us to show us the way. The guy is incredibly fit and at times I struggled to keep up. I'm sure that my wearing sandals to scale the side of a waterfall was part of my downfall - I managed it though and the sandals survived too! I felt a bit like Tarzan at times holding onto vines and clinging onto exposed tree roots but it was so much fun and totally worth it when we made it to the bottom. Ted was so excitable and took my camera from me and insisted on taking photos of us. He took us right to the base of the waterfall and we got absolutely soaked, slipping and sliding everywhere! Wet through, we climbed up alongside the waterfall for more photos. Ted continued to snap away with the camera as we climbed back up to the top, shouting "no one else will ever have photos like these!" He truly is a madman! On reaching the top, we posed for some more photos with stone elephants (classy!) then went to check out the 'happy Buddha'. I have to say that it was by far my favourite Buddha that I've seen so far - all Buddha's should be that happy and smiley!!

When we eventually returned to the bikes, the guys ushered us into a local cafe across the road for some lunch. The four of us sat down at a table together and they ordered a small feast for us. There was so much food and it was all really tasty - they both made sure that we try a bit of everything. A total bargain for all the food that we ate and it was really nice to sit down with our guides and find out a bit more about them.

After lunch, we were whisked away to a local house to see silkworms and boy did we see some silkworms. Literally hundreds of them on bamboo frames outside their house, spinning small silk cocoons around themselves. Once the cocoons had formed, they are collected and sent to the silk factory. That was our next stop, where we saw the cocoons being washed and the now dead silk worm being removed. The silk is then fed through a machine and spun into huge reels to create any number of silk products. We saw a pretty ancient wooden machine weaving a pattern onto the silk. To be honest it looked as though it may have fallen apart any second but the finished products were beautiful!

We climbed back onto the bikes and headed to our last stop for the day, the 'Crazy House'. It is a pretty surreal Gaudi-esque building, with weird and wonderful rooms and staircases to wander around. I suppose it's a bit like a messed up Alice in Wonderland - we climbed up a giraffes back, walked through giant cobwebs, sat at the worlds smallest table and chairs, had our photo taken with a giant eagle and egg and climbed to the top of a Hansel and Gretel style house (Dan Clarke this is the place for you!!) A truly bizzare end to the most amazing day!

We both felt really sad when we arrived back at the hotel. I can really see why so many people pay these guys to take them all across Vietnam for weeks on their motorbikes. They were both fantastic and gave us both a day we will never forget! Despite first impressions, we had a great time here. Another bus journey awaits to take us back down to the coast - bring on the beach!!

Lots of love, Shell xxxx