South Africa & SE Asia 2008

Ho Chi Minh City – Nha Trang – Hoi An – Hue – Hanoi

Days 84 -89

With not very much time left until we fly home from Hong Kong, unfortunatly the last week seems to have been taken up by a lot of time on coaches making a speedy journey north.  The coaches vary significantly in quality and we seemed to miss out on the luxury that others have had with their open bus tickets. Firstly, despite confirming our connecting bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An, they insisted we hadn’t and so we got stuck in Nha Trang for a night a day that was not planned.  This involved us having an arguement with officialy the worst manager and the rudest man we have encountered on our trip.  I wont bother explaining any further, it is still too raw.

When we made it to Hoi An we were not dissapointed.  Having loved Luang Prabang, Hoi An overtook it as our favourite old town. With tree lined streets, crumbling architectural features, yellow painted colonial buildings, and attractive small river front cafes, Hoi An is very pretty and very enjoyable. Admitedly we were there for a day and a half and there is not much to do in the town itself, but we were very contented.

 We found Hue not as interesting or charming and were dissapointed by the Forbidden Purple City – that still remains all very vague to us still. The moat and walled city are attractive enough, but inside the structures were lacking and not very well maintained. I felt a little lost in my purpose walking around the area…

Now we are in Hanoi, and within a few hours of arrival have booked our train to the Chinese border. It all seems to have come round so fast. 

to be edited

 Day 79 – 83

We were lured to stay longer in a city once again…Phnom Penh didnt feel entirely like a city, so it had been a long time since a Bangkok scale of things  We busied ourselves in between a lot of chill out cafe time seeing the sites.  The War Remnants Museum had an excellent and vast collection of war photography but the Cu Chi tunnels wasnt a great experience.  This was perhaps due to our guide quote “look at this metal trap put down by the Viet Cong, it folds up and is portable so they could put it in rivers to injur American soliders, this is my favourite!” and “look take souvenir photo by war tank, American solider died here and here and over there”.  There seemed to be no mention of what awful things American soldiers did to Viet Cong soldiers if there were found, nothing about their condition of living just glorification and celebration of their heroism.  Admittly the 250km of underground tunnel network is pretty fantasitc but the whole presentation by our guide on all the traps and fighting strategies was very distasteful.

The Museum of Fine Art was OK, although there was an odd visiting exhibition of Koonsesque monk statues with lovely paint effect.  The Reunification Palace gives you a tour included in your ticket and that was pretty good, particularly seeing the rooms with maps all over the walls from the 1970s where they discussed fighting strategies. 

We had a good day at the Dam Sen Park (which we didnt realise was a theme park) and headed for the Ice Palace, which was freezer temperature inside, and despite the lovely pink padded jackets we were given i started to panic when i couldnt find the exit.  Its a small exhit of ice sculptures and mini buildings impersonating, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal etc…with brightly coloured tube lights around the blocks of ice.

So time to head up north Hoi An is our next stop, that is if the open our company we bought our ticket with actually decide to let us have a seat tonight.

Day 72 – 78 Phnom Penh – Siem Reap – Battambang – Pursat – Kompong Luong – Kompong Chhnang – Phnom Penh

Firstly, this route was going to be done in reverse but the buses from Phnom Penh towards Kompong Chhnang only go early in the morning so we ended up going to the only place we could get a bus to at midday – Siem Reap. 

Siem Reap has defintily been developed to cater for tourists, but in quite a sophistocated way. In the main town there are dozens of very attractive looking restaurants and cafes with international food and there are boutique gift shops and galleries everywhere.  Blue Pumpkin is a pretty cool place upstairs to have a coffee, and Angkor Wat seems to be one of the busiest and cheapest places to drink.  There river running through the town make it a picturesque place to wander happily.

We spent 2 days seeing Angkor Wat temples, which was great but definitly enough.  We did the main small circuit on the first day and then Banteay Srei, the Landmine museum and the Rolous group on the second. My favourite temple was the Ta Prohm  (also known as the Lara Croft temple) – it is all ruined by tree overgrowth, trunks grown through walls and ceilings. Interesting how something so natural looks so much like a film set (even if you havent seen the film).

Next we headed to Battambang, a dusty town and spent the afternoon napping in our not so “Royal Hotel” room, but i did make one circuit of the market square in search of Lays crisps. Well Battambang was only a stop of point for us anyway due to the lack of afternoon buses in Cambodia… 

Pursat was our next destination so we got an early bus there the next morning.  We wanted to stop hear in order to see the floating village of Kompong Luong, which you get to by tuk tuk (45mins) and then take a boat around the village charged per hour. Apparently in the past there have been some problems with the locals there towards tourists they can get quite aggressive about the price of the boat, and accounts of being robbed, but there are police patrols now (which we saw) so i think its stopped.  We really enjoyed the trip though, despite the very unfriendly boat driver, we sat in a friendly woman’s house and briefly chatted to her.  The village is made up of a large proportion of Vietnamese who live on boats and houses floating on steel drums and wooden rafts.  Intially a floating village conjoured up images of primative houses in my head but it is quite developed. There is a petrol station, a mobile phone shop, beauticians, mobile fruit sellers, chicken coups all floating and an enormous amount of friendly children playing in their paddle boats.  Pursat itself is just another dusty town…

Next we headed to Kompong Chhnang paying the cost of the fair to Phnom Penh (?) and you have to apparently say you want to get off there otherwise they wont stop.  So we found our guesthouse, thanks Lonely Planet – another real gem which looked and smelt circa 1960, and went in search of a moto driver who had heard of Ondong Rossey – a nearby village who make clay pots.  After having no luck , the only English speaking tourist orientated moto driver in town managed to find us. We headed for the hills on the back of his moto and had a lovely drive down dirt roads, clay red in colour, through fields with the hills in the distance. We stopped at a couple of houses to see some pot making action and went on to an excellent look out point, where all you could see was green far into the distance.

Several questions have been raised during our time in Cambodia. Why do women wear mathcing trouser and button up top pyjama sets as day wear. Why do male Cambodian grow their fingernails? And why does one country need so many egg pots we saw being made the clay pot village (definitly not for export as explained to us) – when no one really eats boiled eggs, and even if you do get one in a cafe you rarely get an egg pot…

We headed back to Phnom Penh to collect our passports from the Chinese Embassy and to go to Ho Chi Minh City the next day.  A cold drink and some food other than rice and vegetables was welcomed in the capital after our dusty town tour. It was worth it though  to go to places with only a few or now tourist visible.

Days 66 – 71 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The journey from Don Det to Phnom Penh was certainly memorable.  We were so closely packed, uncomfortable and so sweaty it was impossible not to make friends on that trip and boost morale.  There was the mutiny-bonding early on when we intitally refused to squeeze another person onto the row of seats in the minivan.  Seriously how many people do you want to fit in, “we’re twice your size” the south London boy and i were telling the driver – knees banging.  But we got there in the end, after changing mini buses about 4 times (i lost count) and eating several baguettes through the day.

 It was great to be in Phnom Penh and we went to the riverside to find a bed, finally getting into it at 1am after some hot food.  We had a lovely room…which we left after 2 nights to go somewhere more affortable…which apparently means a room with a low ceiling you can’t stand up in, and an awful fan. It was nice, clean and cosy though…

In Phnom Penh, we made the most of being in a city and went all over in tuk-tuks, glad to have so much to explore.  We went to several bars and restaurants along the riverside, the Heart of Darkness Club (which was a last resort as the Salt Lounge was definitly not a club as suggested), we went to a shadow puppet performance, the top of the shopping centre (view from the restaurant is good), the central & russian markets, the Killing Fields and the S-21 museum, and off course 2 trips and several hours at the Chinese Embassy…

All in all it was enjoyed.  Note – there dont seem to be any buses in the afternoon in order to leave Phnom Penh, so we ended up getting the only bus at 12.45 to Siem Reap even though that wasnt our plan. 

Day 55 – 65 Luang Prabang / Vang Vieng / Vientiane / Ba Na Hin / Pakse / Don Det

It has been a long time since i wrote this so ill recall the most memorable event…

The Buddha Park an hour outside Vientiane (Bus 14 from the local bus st.) was really worth while seeing.  It is a small enclosed park area with a vast collection of stone statues of spirtual, mythical, human and animal figures.  The majority of statues are of Buddhas, but there there are also Hindu gods, and probably others that i didnt recognise.  They are mostly huge, as in tripple life size, but they range from life size to collosal. There is a stone building near the entrance and climbing through the animal mouth opening you enter a dark center where you can spiral your way up (a bit hands and knees at times) to the opening at the top to get a view of the park.

Ba Na Hin was worth going out of our way for, at least for the jourmey through the countryside, undisturbed rural villages and as a base to visit the 7m long cave it is known for.  The day we took to visit the cave, was memorable firstly for the experience of the local transport, when the bridge hasnt been built and there has been too much rain to drive through the river – that doenst stop you, just wade through. But bless the drivers who took us as they guided us through the waist high water with care.  So with no vechile, the 4 of us heading for the cave and 1 of our drivers waited in a small village for an age while the other driver headed of to the next town on a bike to get us some transport. I love the way the drivers just weren’t fazed by the disturbance.  When we finally got there the cave was really good fun, and to state the obvious: very dark, wet and enormous inside.  But no it isnt a normal cave, the whole thing was a little surreal actually, the time you spend inside, and the vastness of the cave makes you a little disorientated.  The boatmen have to keep stopping and get you to wade because it is too shallow in parts, which is all the more fun with limited torch light.  Particularly my recently bought non-branded batteries, which meant i couldnt see past my own nose using my own torch.

The Jounrey to Pakse characteristically Laos – the rule is there is always room for one more person. From Ba Na Hin we went to Tha Kek in the back of a pick up bus (well half my body hung outside because it was a bit full) then waited for the afternoon bus of unspecified arrival/departure time to Pakse. Where we sat ourselves at the station was so full of petrol fumes i decided to move away, but didnt realise i eneded up sitting next to a stand selling bbq’d rats.   So this coach, i wish i had got a picture of becuase the gang way was waist high of luggage, boxes, food, and of course a motorbike, leaving passengers to Indiana Jones it stepping on the arms rests holding the over head rail.  It was a squeeze even on the seats…but an entertaining jounrey with our little off roading side trip to a village to drop off what we think were a football team (who laughed at emily for her refusal to accept their Lao Lao whiskey).  Even the coach load of people seemed entertained by the coach going down the pot-holed dirt road – pointing and talking loudly about our little diversion. 

Don Det – i wouldnt say this was a highlight exactly – it was memorable however and certainly made us appreciate our next stop in Phnom Penh.  We had a no electricity 80p bungalow each (bed bugs and all) and a lack of sleep due to the heat.  We only stayed 2 nights and spent most of our time cafe crawling down the dirt road in search of cold drinks. There is a bakery (of course a western owner) that did fresh bread and cakes in the afternoon, and that was welcomed by Emily and I.  Don Det was not as developed and touristy as i had expected despite having given up a very long time ago on paying attention to any description Lonely Planet gives on a place.  There is a nice terrace restaurant run by a Belgian guy – people tend to congregate here at sunset, it certainly is a good place to be.

Onwards to Cambodia…

Day 50 – 54 Chiang Mai/Chiang Kong/Huay Xai/Pak Beng/Luang Prabang

There is a  direct bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Kong, which prior to arriving at the station we didnt know (we were expecting to change in Chiang Rai).  If you do want to go via Chiang Rai, book the day before as they were booked up that morning we arrived and i dont think they go every hour as we heard and the buses to Chiang Rai.  It was of course an uncomfortable 7hr trip but as we got off the bus we greeted by a woman from a guesthouse with her truck (i will add the name later as i recommend this place).  Nearly a dozen of us packed into the truck and were taken to her lovely guesthouse overlooking the river.  It was clean, cheap, good food, big portions, nice atmosphere and she was really helpful and chatted to us about places to go.

The slow boat left from Huay Xai at 10.30am so she took those of us heading across the border in her truck to the river crossing.  You go through Thai passport control, cross the river and a minute later are at Laos passport control filling out visas forms ($35 for UK).  Then you have a short tuk tuk ride to the ferry port and note they will tell you the boat has left already to try and get you to take the speed boat!  We were slightly confused as to where all the backpackers were…thinking ah this will be sweet – a spacious 2 day journey. No. They were all on the boat already and had been for a good hour at least…well we managed to get seats at least.  They are cruel benches, tiny seats and a single slat for the upper back, but hey whatever.  The view was good, the same over the 2 two days but nontheless it felt like you were surrounded by so much land and space, seeing only bamboo huts every now and then, and a few villages.  As for comfort it wasnt too bad actually, but i did spend the 2nd day on the floor.  Bring something to sit on, a good book and some water as it is expensive on the boat.  The night stop in Pak Beng was fine, we found a cheap guesthouse with disney princess bedlinen (?!) oh yeah, and had a dinner with the 3 Chileans from our hostel. 

Luang Prabang is a great place and we are happy to be here, and because it is a World Heritage site and apparently the best preserved city in South East Asia the pavements are mostly intact, which is nice.  No more than that obviously, it just has a certain feel about it, the buildings are pretty, nice architectural detailing, the place has charm, and it is completely different from being in Thailand.  We spent our first day exploring, sat in a couple of cafes, and went to the night market. 

Today we went to Tat Kuang Si for 130,000 Kip return for 2 of us (7/8 quid), which is where you will find an absolutely beautiful waterfall, with many tiers and small areas of gorgeous blue water to swim in, and a one with a tree you can jump from.  We walked to the top of the waterfall, I say walk, scramble or climb are more appropriate for some parts.  It was well worth it as between all the trees you could just see down to bottom and out across the landcape of the wooded mountaneous hills fading with the distance.  Needing to cool down headed for one of the pools, which was full of monks by the time we arrived there.  The orange of there robes, which had been thrown over branches while they wore fabric tied into shorts, was striking against the blue of the pool.  It was not a sight or sound we had expected, 30 odd young monks jumping from the tree trunk into the pool, some shouting laughing, and the crash of the landing in the water.  It took me one failed attempt and then Emily standing next to me to get me to jump in.  Emily took a jump from the mini waterfall on the other side with a monk who was chatting to us earlier.  Intially we felt slightly uncomfortable about being in swim wear but i guess it didnt really matter in the end.  Although a very young monk with his camera phone was a little suspect. 

It was a fine and memorable outing.

Day 49 – Wat U Mong

I took a pick-up truck/bus to this Wat which is about 5km out of town and explored this temple nestled in the jungle woodland landscape. Walking through to the temple there are painted signs in Thai, some with English translations, of what i assume to be Buddhist proverbs which are tacked to tree trunks everywhere you look.  In the temple surrounds there are plaques and stone relief slabs propped up against trees.  In a grass clearing there are a few dozen Buddha statues in lines, all made of stone, some missing arms, many missing heads.  In another area there are 100s of tiny statues made from different materials, depicting the Buddha and  a seated figure (the King?). 

The temple itself has a brick wall, there is little ornamentation here, and you enter the dark tunnels within guided by floor lamps.  Seemingly empty, you turn a corner and find an alcove with a shrine, a statue, a basket for offerings and other small items.  There are several of these alcoves, some larger and more important. I watched as small children kneeled praying and running their hands over their heads.

Days 43 – 46 – Chiang Mai

We got the night train from Bangkok, which was a different night train experience from anything else i’ve used before – there is an open carriage with bunk beds and curtains rather than cabins. It was on the whole a very comfortable experience. Book ahead is recommended to get a sleeper ticket – we bought our tickets from Kanchanaburi train station. 

It feels like we have done a lot since being in Chiang Mai – which i guess we have.  We stayed the first night in Happy House – dont do it – beds not nice, and moved swiftly to T-Room, (350 bht) TV, hot shower etc. We have explored the Night Bazaar, which was lovely to wander around, more peaceful indoors and with some different stalls other than the usual items sold. 

We did a day trip with a tour company – which was surprisingly good, lots of the tours seem to cram in a lot in one day. We went with 4 others in our group to go elephant riding which we had been debating about for ages, but it was good in the end, the elephants seemed to be from our inexperienced eye well looked after, and it wasnt a massive tourist farm or anything.  Im not sure how i feel about the whole training them to ride people though…From there we went on to do a 2 hour trek which was fantastic and stopped at a waterfall half way to take a shower, which was also great.  In the afternoon we had a short session of white water rafting.  That involved some team bonding thats for sure – it was a rough start – even the instructor with us looked concerned at our potential to flip the raft, but it all turned out well…

Today i have been on a cooking course, which if you have any interest in cooking – do it! Really really fun, I went with Pad Thai cookery school, 800 bht where you cook 6 meals, a breakfast, starter, curry, soup/salad, stir fry, and dessert. In each meal there are 6 choices, and you can do it veggie only if wanted.  We made a pit stop to the market so they can show you ingredients.  The teachers that run it have excellent english and a really good sense of humour.  They give you a small reciepe book so i can make some attempts at home – i think my favourite dishes were Prawns in Coconut Milk soup and fried bananas. As there were 8 of us of course you try other dishes because people are making different things.  Im just so full…

Days 39 – 43

Our coach from Phuket went to the Bangkok Southern Bus Terminal and from there we got a bus straight to Damnoen Saduak, where the floating market is.  We thought it might be a good idea to stay the night in the town so we could get an early boat ride before all the tourists arrived. If you are planning on doing the same there are 2 guesthouses, that are walking distance from the bus station in Damnoen Saduak.  Coming out, turn right, walk up to the junction 50 m (under a couple of arch ways) and turn left past the “tourist office”/police station (which consists of a sleeping policeman on a fold up chair and one stack of leaflets in Thai) then walk up a 300m ish past the bridge and you will see a sign for Nok Noi (i think) aka Little Bird and its about 100m down a street on the left.  It is fine there,  if a little odd.  There is not really much there, one main street with Thai street eating places etc, normal Thai shops and a 7/11.  The market tour (organised from the hotel) took us round the back streets for ages and only through the main floating market for a short while not long enough to have imprinted so well on my memory.  Even at 8am there were loads and loads of tourists and the canal was water logged with boats.  Some of the boats had old women selling food and a couple of times the water got a bit choppy and their boats got a soaking… 

We got 2 buses to Kanchanaburi (a English speaking lady at Little Bird reception helped us out) the bus stop is right by the hotel, just under the bridge.  (a 78 to Bang Phae and the a 461 to Kanchanaburi, but dont quote me).  On arrival we made a stop to the tourist office to get some info, and got a useful brochure – but just to warn you it is out of date, some of the bus numbers, train times, bus times are incorrect.  We stayed in Sam’s House off of Mae Nam Kwae Rd where lots of the guesthouses are.  Sam’s House is nice they are bungalows are on water facing each other, in a small, really pretty setting and the rooms are decorated nicely (450 bht for air-con and hot water). 

In Kanchanburi we went to the Death Railway Museum near the train station, which was a really good museum with excellent english translations. You dont really need to go there if you are making the trip to the Hellfire Pass Memorial, as there is a museum covering the same information there.  You can get a bus to the Pass, it is a couple of hours but is worth it.  The memorial is dedicated to the POWs and asian labourers who died during the construction of the Thai-Burmese railway line.  The construction was ordered by the Japanese during WW2 in order to access Burma and beyond, as the water way was taken by the Allies.  We picked up the free audio guide and took a walked around for a couple of hours in the woodland area (wear good shoes and bring food as nothing to buy) and it was a good thing to do i think to just listen to the stories from survivers while walking round where they carved into the mountain and through the jungle in order to construct the railway.   Emily and I were glad we made the trip there and would recommend it if you are into History.  We also spent a day taking the train which today only runs from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok, which was fun, and seemed circa 1942 itself. Going over the death bridge was cool and the scenery was nice. If you timed you day right you could go one way on the train and one way on the bus and combine the Hellfire Pass Memorial.

In Kanchanburi – the bar/restaurant with the Corona umbrellas does good stone baked pizzas if you like them very thin.  The Safari bar does good breakfasts, and is owned by an English man so they understood my want of a hard boiled egg.  We happened to be there during the local elections so there was a 48hr alcohol ban, presumably so you dont turn up drunk to vote ?! I just wanted a cold beer.  Most of the bars were closed and it was quiet when we were there although there seem to tons of places to go, but with a more chilled atmosphere than Bangkok. 

On to Chiang Mai…

Days 30 – 38

We were only 5 mins into our Krabi experience when i told a rude man that he was ripping us off as he refused any kind of bartering.  He then proceeded to lecture me on how it as cheap for me, i stopped listening.  He, off course said there is no bus for 3 hours.  Well how are the other 20 Thai people who got off the Bangkok coach going to get to their homes eh?! We weren’t in best spirits as on the coach jounrney Emily had covered her whole body in blanket to stop the air-con dripping on her, i just fidgeted and fidgeted constantly as is normal on overnight coaches.  The best bit was when they put on loud Thai love ballad music videos on the coach TV really loudly “to wake” us all up at about 4.30am or whatever time it was. 

Anyway…of course there was a bus, which once we got on, for 20 Baht each instead of 150 Baht (which im sure was destined for a hotel of there desire), they still tried to get us to get off by signalling no Krabi, get Tuk tuk.  No i’m not getting off this bus.  Anyway thats enought of my ranting about Thai transport.  I have to get it in 5 1/2 hours i dont want to live it now.

 Anyway we spent a night in Krabi town, suitably named, and we would recommend don’t go to the town.  The next morning, feeling more human we headed to Ko Phi Phi on the ferry, which cost 400 bht, we werent expecting the cost to be so high…  We arrived at the port on and walked around Ton Sai village to find the only affordable accomodation there – The Rock.  What can i say, it was cheap, 200 bht and the dorm and bathrooms were of a standard grottiness but nonetheless it was a fun and friendly place.  It was nice to chat to some travellers again, although there were of course the obligiatory obnoxious ones.  One guy, and we still cant get over this, who seemed like a well adjusted and nice guy from England had spent 3 months in that dorm room, and worked every night a bar, seemingly paid in alcohol.  By the time we left after 2 nights, 4 people from our dorm were working in the bar. Ton Sai village, and most of Phi Phi is pricey for Thailand, even our tri-daily pit stop to the 7/11 put their price up compared to mainland.  There are a number of bars, Jordan’s Irish Bar (seemed to be happenin’) and Tiger Bar – which played quite good music, good atmosphere, with a second floor balcony and a few sofas.

We were again shocked at the cost of a long tail boat to get round to Ao Toh Ko bungalows, a small section of isolated beach round the coast line about 10 mins.  They wanted us to pay 500 bht, eventually we paid 400 bht, really hard work…but it was actaully only 200bht on the return from the bungalow long tail boat.  We wanted a bit of peace and went to the very quiet place (there were only 1/2 dozen people there when we arrived)run by great people.  The food is pretty good and reasonably priced for Phi Phi.  We spent our few days there chilling out, sitting in the restaurant, a little sun bathing, sitting in the hammock of our bungalow, reading magazines from their stock, and snorkelling.  Our bungalow was a bit grotty and not that comfortable and unbearably hot under the mosi net, which seemed to be made of fabric that let no air through, huh?  Anyway the night before we left i got very ill and it wasnt the nicest place to be ill in thats for sure.

The next day we made the decision to go to Phuket, which was an absolute mission with my state but i couldnt stand to stay in that room being ill, i wanted clean, i wanted a flush toilet and air-con. So thats what we got, a downhill walk, a longtail boat, a ferry, and a mini bus later we were in Phuket town in a guesthouse, and there we stayed for 3 nights.

On to Kanchanaburi next…