No money, no honey.

I'm now in Cambodia, we had a very eventful few weeks in Vietnam. I'd definitely say to anyone that plans to travel South East Asia, 'forget everywhere else, head straight to Vietnam'

I've had a very educational last week. When we arrived in Saigon we went to the war museum and saw all the gruesome photos. Oh and learned a lot. The following day we went to the Cu Chi tunnels which are all the underground walkways/hideouts built by the soldiers in the war. We went inside the tunnels and they are tiny, and very hot. We also got a good tour around all the different traps that had been set in the ground. I didn't feel 100% confident that they had actually got around to digging out all the traps but no one else questioned it so I pretended I didn't care and slyly stuck to the paths. I didn't want to portray any wimp like traits.

We left Vietnam the day after and headed to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. The first day we went to see the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum a.k.a - torture prisons, which were truly horrific. The Cambodians have managed to leave everything exactly how it was, the walls are covered in blood stains, the cells and torture equipment are all still there, in place. The only difference is that they have filled some of the rooms with pictures or stories of all the people that were tortured and killed. That brightened things up.... NOT.
To really top off our previous few days we ended with the killing fields. Basically, it's exactly what it sounds like. Fields for killing. Anyone who knows a lot about the Vietnam/ Cambodia war will know all about this but for those of you who don't: - people were taken from the aforementioned prison, in the dead of night, to these fields where they were killed and buried, some not killed, just buried, in mass graves. It's very eerie, even though all the bodies have been dug up, there are bits of clothing sticking out of the ground from where the rain has brought it up. Oh and on top of that there is a big glass memorial full of skulls and bones.

On a lighter note, I learned how to Kite surf in Vietnam. It is so much fun I could've quite easily put travelling to an end and stayed on Mui Ne for the rest of my time/ life. The only problem was (I say "problem") that some days there was no wind and I couldn't stay there just waiting around.
We've also been sailing, I sat at the front. It wasn't till near the end that I realised I had been acting as everyone else's shield so I came off looking like a drowned rat whilst everyone else was bone dry. Deceiving "comfy" seats.

Cambodian people seem a lot more full sized if you know what I mean. Everywhere else we have been the people are very small and skinny, I was beginning to feel like a giant. The Asian girls love Lordan. Everywhere we go they burst into fits of giggles and stare and point. I'm assuming its because of him. If they're laughing at me then I've really misunderstood.
The young children speak perfect English too. On the rare occasion that I've managed to look past their cute, smiling, innocent, clearly not very well off, dirty faces, and say no I don't want, what will essentially be my 64th friendship bracelet, especially when I can see you haven't put half as much effort in as you could have. They will offer to rock paper scissors me for it?? It's like someone has informed them that I cannot resist a good game of Roshambo !!!!

I'm getting a bit annoyed about the fact that the entire time I've been away, I have only found one place that sells Salt & Vinegar crisps. The thing is, I can understand that certain things aren't available in Asia, I really can. However, when one walks through a supermarket, I say supermarket, what I mean is someones front room, in a shack, with a mattress on the floor where maybe 5 people sleep, anyway, when one is perusing the shelves and sees flavours such as Pad Thai, shrimp, spinach, beef stir fry, seaweed, fish, squid, cheese and onion, ready salted and even bbq pringles??? I'm sure you get where I'm going with this. They have no excuse.

Take care. X

Finally found a supermarket

Week? I don't know. Date? no idea. Time? Couldn't tell you. That's a lie I'm wearing a watch, its 2.09pm.

I am now in Nha Trang, Vietnam. We've been in Vietnam for just over 2 weeks now I think. Its brilliant here so we're changing our route so we can come back here after Cambodia instead of going back to Thailand.

Here's a taste of why......

Opposite Nha Trang there's a little Island called Vinpearl or as I like to call it - The Island of never ending fun. Basically you pay the equivalent of about 10 pounds and take a cable car across to the Island (of never ending fun). Once you get there everything is free. This includes:
Waterpark, but not just any waterpark a fantastic one with about 50 000 000 slides and not to mention, a wave pool.
Themepark...tick
Funfair
2 Storey amusement arcade, with bumper cars... tick tick.
Aquarium
4D cinemas and
various shows including monkey's riding bicycles. (They appeared very well looked after)

So strange, a whole island dedicated to all of this.

As anyone who has been to Vietnam can tell you there is no such thing as "Road Rules" here. I have taken my life in my hands a few times a day since being here. You just have to walk and hope for the best. We saw an accident the other day, 2 mo peds, each one had a baby on it, as well as adults, one went into the back of the other. There was mayhem. It got pretty nasty. I think one woman lost a sandal. I saw here get off the moped and actually slip her sandal back on before she continued. In a place like this you just never know what's going to happen.

We're going to the beach to see if we can get some Kite surfing lessons set up and then we'll probably end up staying in Nha Trang for a week or so.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could say but everything just seems to be a blur at the moment. Today I had to find my password to get back into writing this. I couldn't remember a simple password. It's the heat.

So I'm going to the beach now to take a dip in the clear blue water which contains many exotic fish in order to provide entertainment whilst one is relaxing and cooling themselves down. ( or in my case practising fake tumble turns under water and thinking I can do handstands)

Until next time.

Why d all the men here have long fingernails????

Week 4. I think. I'm losing track of time and I haven't read a newspaper or watched the news since I've been here, through no fault of my own, I feel....lost. I need a metro, the most reliable news source, of course.

What I have experienced since last writing:
1) What it feels like to withdraw money from an ATM when one has just won the lottery.
2) Without a doubt the most humiliating time of my entire life
3) Severe numb bum syndrome.

I'll start with number 2.
Before we left Chang Mai we had arranged to do this "activity day."

we had already booked to do this trekking and white water rafting experience. So we were up at 7.30am got picked up, taken to a butterly orchard first of all then elephant trekking and then we had to walk across the "jungle" for an hour but our guide was telling us all these different plant facts along the way which took your mind of the actual walking in the baking hot sun with no shade. There were 3 Canadian girls and 2 German girls but the German girls didn't want to white water raft so we split up after the waterfall. So we arrive at the river (I am uber excited at this point, this is what I have been sooo looking forward too) get all geared up, helmet, life jacket etc. Carry the boat down to the water, the rafting guide or teacher, don't know what he was really, makes sure we all get in the boat. All usual procedure. What no one had bothered to tell us, just a minor detail, was that there was no water. yeah. no water. The river wasn't even a foot deep. I could touch the the bottom with my little finger. /// Now, at this point I'm sure you're thinking, 'oh no, how disappointing, so you'd gone all that way and didn't get to do it' Wrong. The guide/teacher still made us attempt this. Honestly they will do anything for your money here it's unbelievable. So we're trying to paddle even though our oars are scraping the bottom. Every time we even get near a rock our boat beaches and the guide has to get out and pull the boat over the rocks, don't worry we did offer to help but he wouldn't have it, he would obviously rather have us sit and look like idiots. (I hope you're understanding at this point that white water rafting is done in what is essentially a really big rubber dingy so its not exactly going to withstand rocks) To add insult to injury, it must have been the weekend and so the whole way along the river. on either side were the Thai locals in their bamboo huts, hundreds of them swimming and playing in the water. It felt like the whole of Thailand was there to see the show. Picture this: 5 Westerners wearing life jackets and helmets trying to paddle down a river, being pulled over rocks by their guide (who is not wearing any safety gear I might add) mean while in the same river, 2 year olds walking alongside their boat, splashing them. And the whole of the Thai population laughing at them. For an hour and a half.

IT might not sound like it, but it was the most embarrassing experience.

The thing is, although its was so embarrassing (and at some points I wanted to cry), it was also extremely funny. It was so bad you just had to laugh.

So after that we headed home, exhausted unfortunately not from fighting our way through rapids.

I'm in Laos at the moment I think we've been here for about 2 weeks? There's something like 12,000 kip to a pound so it was really satisfying being able to say "shall I withdraw 700,000 or 1,000,000 today " Laos is very strange place. There is a lot of diversity between each town. One minute you're in a small town straight out of the movie 28 days later in which the only people that you come into contact with are the ones offering you opium and weed and other than that you're too scared to do anything in case you go missing for the rest of your life. Next you are in the most beautiful, idyllic haven where everyone is super friendly and kind, where you don't get an hassle as you wonder around contemplating whether or not to spend 30p on a meal or whether that's too expensive (???) And then, well then you end up in crazy town. I'll say no more.

We are currently in Vientiane, the Capital of Laos. We went to a water park today and were the only 4 people there. Quite nice having an entire water park to yourself.
We are off to Vietnam tomorrow.

I'm getting rubbish at writing, it's so hard! But I'll try and write again soon.

Week 1

Hello everyone, or just one, I don't know how many people will read this

Let me start by saying that anyone I mention in my blog has had the first letter of their name replaced by a letter of my choice as I didn't tell them I am writing this blog and they may wish to remain unnamed, you never know.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at about 2pm and headed straight to China town. I hadn't managed to get any sleep on the whole flight even when we were upgraded to Business class on the second leg from Kuwait to KL. By the way, I wouldn' t recommend the pizza hut in Kuwait airport.

Anyway, get a place in China town and head straight out to look at the market. Actually can't believe how hot it is here, it's ridiculous. Anyway next day head to the Petronas towers they have a brilliant mall there, shame I couldn't afford anything, and I don't mean because I'm travelling, it's just way out of my league. I bought a juice though, I think even though I said I didn't want any, they still put wheat grass in it.
Then went to see the aquarium underneath, Shark eggs are actually flat, 2D flat. I don't know if any of you knew that but I didn't.
When I'm in a nice, cool air-conditioned place I completely forget how hot it is outside so it's like a shocker every time. That evening we end up in a bar called La Rumba and end up making some excellent friends, really nice they were. There was Lanjit who was about 55, Glarence who was about 50, Old Wise Man (I never found out his name but that's what he looked like) and Jimmy Woo (also not his real name but if you could see him you would agree that's suitable). Jimmy Woo was a singer, the singer. He was on stage for most of the night and only joined us and the gang when he finished his set. He could sing anything and I mean anything and Old Wise man, although very old and frail was dancing up a storm. Anyway these guys paid for our drinks all night for some reason, that was good.

Next day after being completely ripped off, get on the coach to Kuala Perlis which is a 7 hour drive and that's where we get the ferry to Langawi from. I'm not even going to talk about the fact that the coach dropped us off in the middle of nowhere at 2am and I'm certainly not going to mention the hell hole we stayed in. We were lucky to find somewhere but quite frankly I would have preferred to sleep in a Colombian prison.
Now still in Langkawi, where it's definitely hotter than the sun. We would like to go to the beautiful beaches but the water is too warm and the heat is a bit too much, we're hoping we'll get used to it. we were only going to stay here for 2 nights but because of all the trouble in Bangkok we decided to re think our plan before we leave. We met the 2 people staying the room next to us, they're from Sweden, Lita and Grederick. They are coming to the end of their travels and told us that they are not very sociable and that they have spend most of their travels in the Cinema. Great. Langkawi is beautiful, and tax free so everything is dirt cheap. yesterday we went island hopping and saw loads of massive eagles all in the same place. At first I thought this was just their hangout but turns out this is where they get fed.

They only really have 2 good bars here so we've been going to Babylon bar for the reggae, and the added entertainment which is girls on their gap years suddenly thinking they can sing and getting up on stage (even though it's not Karaoke). That's always a laugh.

Tomorrow we're heading for Thailand. I do like coming to Internet cafes as it means being cool for a little while so I'll try and update at least every week.

But for now I will leave you with the wise words of Lanjit..... "Lions roar, birds sing, snakes hissss and sheep baaa. So why are humans racist towards each other"