Angkor Wat

It is very difficult to describe Angkor Wat and give it true justice - it is truly an amazing glimpse of ancient and remarkable civilizations and craftmanship, ultimately you really have to go there yourselves to see why you can spend three days walking around temples and still feel as though there is more to see.



We had really been looking forward to our trip here and it did not disappoint. The Angkors were an amazing people - they occupied large tracts of South East Asia a thousand years ago, and built these quite awesome temples. Whilst the population of London was under 50,000 people, the City of Angkor contained over 1 million people.
(Many scenes from Tomb Raider were filmed amongst the temples)


Angkor was not just a cultural and architectural experience for us. Although the area was less devastated by the Khmer Rouge than some other parts of Cambodia, there are still many remanants from the war, including unexploded ordnance (UXO) - We visited the Landmine museum run by a former Khmer Rouge explosives expert who has now devoted his life to defusing the many dangerous items littering the fields, farmlands etc... It was very informative and has some excellent displays about landmines and some personal stories about victims of landmines and their lives.

Phnom Penh - Hello Cambodia

Crossing the land border from Vietnam into Cambodia is an unforgettable experience. Almost as soon as we crossed the border, there is a signficant change in the landscape and level of development. Whereas on the vietnamese side, although poor, there are many signs of commerce and development with motos, concrete buildings etc. whereas on the Cambodia side, the road is more rutted and the houses are fewer and traditional bamboo or wood - much less concrete and electricity and running water here.



We had been prepared by many other travellers to expect to be greatly saddened by Cambodia, but I'm not sure we were really ready. It truly has been a heart-wrenching place for us. Despite having been in Asia for nearly 3 months now and very used to seeing poverty, beggars etc. (as much as you ever can be used to such things). Cambodia really is another level of tragedy. Having lost a quarter of its population (approx 2 million people) due to either starvation, dysentry and other diseases or murdered during the Khmer Rouge regime, this country faces such a challenge in picking itself up and moving on. To compound history, the sheer volume of landmines littering the country (estimated at 3 to 6 million) continues to cause misery and makes it difficult for families to farm the land, as each new rainy season shifts the soil and potentially unearthes yet more landmines.






Yet, gladly we did see signs of hope. Putting aside the many begging children being exploited by adults who should know better, we saw numerous schools filled with happy school children, and the tourist industry is booming which brings much needed dollars to the Cambodian people.

In Phnom Penh, the capital, we visited some harrowing places of historical importance. S21 is a former prison from the Khmer Rouge regime where thousands of civilians, teachers, doctors etc. were held in inhumane conditions suffering torture and worse prior to being sent to one of the many so-called Killing Fields. A visit to the Killing fields is a disarming experience - it is in a beautiful location amongst rice fields, and there are is covered with flowers at this time of year and you can smell the fragipani from the trees and hear children playing in the school less than 100 metres away. But this is where Pol Pot's men killed and dumped into mass graves over 20,000 people. Unfortunately, not all of the remains have been recovered due to lack of funds which means that the site is still littered with human bones.

It was with heavy hearts that we made the journey back into the city after visiting the Killing Fields, however, it was with great joy that we visited the national museum to find beatufilly preserved ancient Khmer sculpture, mainly Buddhist statues and the like.

Saigon and the Mekong - Farewell Vietnam

We really liked Saigon (apparently no-one calls it Ho Chi Minh City, its official name, except government officals and tourists)! Compared to Hanoi, it is a very cosmopolitan city and a bit easier to get around on foot (wide pavements, free of motos - what a luxury).





We had a rather exhausting 90 minutes in the searing heat looking for acceptable and within budget accommodation until we fortunately stumbled across a fabulous new little guesthouse down a side street. We visited the very interesting, but somber, Museum of War Remnants which was previously called a war crimes museum - its former title was perhaps a bit more instructive as to its contents, which were a very unpleasant reminder of the many landmines dropped on vietnam and its neighbours which continue to kill and maim, as well as the terrible consequences of the use of Agent Orange and some disturbing photography of scenes from the War.

On a cheerier note, we had the best, and most expensive, coffee and cake at Highlands Cafe - it was like being back in San Francisco or London at a good coffee shop.



Our day trip to the Mekong River was a pleasant day out (if a little bit touristy) and was slightly enhanced or ruined, depending on how you look at it, by the truly awful "äuthentic" Vietnamese singing and dancing that they insisted on subjecting us to after lunch.

Phu Quoc - Island bliss

(this is not a fake backdrop ! or fake tan ! )

Phu Quoc is an Island close to the Vietnam Cambodia border. We were looking forward to a few days of relaxing on the beach with no hawkers, touts etc...

We stayed at a fabulous mini resort "Sea Star" (the most expensive accommodation so far in Asia at a whopping $25 / night). The location is right on the beach, they serve excellent seafood and after a quick morning dip in the warm ocean we passed the hours away reading and snoozing on sun loungers. To break up a laborious day we would avail ourselves of an afternoon beach massage (a bargain at $4 for 1 hour) and a fresh fruit selection from the super strong ladies on the beach who carry marathon loads of fruit along the sandy beaches and expertly carve the pineapple in front of you.

We would then welcome in the sunset with a bottle of Dalat wine in the early evening - just bliss !

Dalat - Central Highlands

The journey to Dalat was absolutely beautiful (although slightly marred by a fight with the restaurant owner at our lunch stop - but that's another story).
Our arrival in Dalat was a little underwhelmeing- we'd expected it to be a cute little quiet alpine town (as the Lonely Planet led us to believe) instead, it is packed full of traffic and quite ugly at first glance.

However, our faith was restored pretty quickly as our recommended Hotel - Dreams (1 for anyone planning to go there, 2 is more expensive), very much lived up to the good things that we had heard. The owner is a lovely friendly Vietnamese lady who speaks superb English, offers helpful advice (rather than the usual "very-good-tour-please-buy-from-me-then-i-get-my-commission-too"). More importantly, we had been promised great things from the breakfast buffet and it was every bit what we had been promised. A generous spread of bread and fruits (and in particular large quantities of mango - Caroline's favorite), as well as coffee, juices, and wait for it - peanut butter and vegemite - oh, such treats!

The thing with Dalat is to get out of the town - so off we went on 2 brilliant day trips: The first day we cycled with our guide out to the local mountain, and then hiked to the top and back again, and then cycyled back to town. It was a great way to see the local countryside and get great views from the mountain. The second day we went with the same guide for an 18k hike among rice fields, coffee planatations, a local tribe village, along the river etc. We really hadn't seen scenery like it anywhere in Vietnam.

Nha Trang - some well deserved beach rest

We took a pretty comfortable night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang, a beach resort town. We needed a bit of R&R after so many weeks on the road now with so little rest time (although I don't expect any of the folks back home to feel sorry for us)

Not much to report of our time in Nha Trang, except to say that it made for a pretty tough day moving from hotel to breakfast to beach lounger from where we could summon hawkers to ply us with fresh mangoes and pineapple....until late in the day when it was time to move back to hotel to shower before heading out to dinner. Tough life.

Unfortunatly, as Gary got sick again after finishing the antibiotics from the hospital, we had to find our way back to the clinic, this time the Pasteur Institute where they insisted on doing blood tests before sending us along our way with another voluminous list of medications including a further 2 courses of antibiotics. Fingers crossed they work this time.

Hoi An - Tailor central

Hoi An is a town very close to the coast in the center of Vietnam. It has a mix of Northern and Southern influences, but probably most apparent is the very commercial and enterprising streak that has developed with a plethora of tailors. It is famed as the best place in Vietnam to have high quality garments made to order literally overnight - we had even heard of someone taking in an old pair of trainers (sneakers for our US friends) and having them replicated overnight!

The choice of tailors is immense with varying prices and the competition fierce - so much so that when we decided to have garments made at two different places we were accosted by one of the shops that had seen us go into the other and then quite rudely berate us. Anyway, we became utterly addicted to have clothes made so we ended up with a large package of suits, winter coats, shirts, skirt etc mailed back to England.



As for food we were completely spoiled in Hoi An. We had lunch in a cafe overlooking the river on a couple of occasions and had some of the best squid , and other seafood was just as exceptional. One meal did stand out as on a top 5 list so far - Cafe des Amis: the French chef has no menu but decides what to cook each day. The deal is a 5 course meal (seafood, meat or vegetarian). We had one vegetarian meal and one seafood - whilst we can't detail what exactly we had for each course, we can say that is was truly amazing. Along with our favorite local Vang Dalat wine, we had an outstanding culinary experience for less than $20.





We attended the Red Bridge cooking school for a half day course - after taking a charming boat trip out to the school, we were sat down class-room style to watch our cheeky happy chef "teacher" demonstrate the techniques we were going to learn on our own at our own little cooking station. We made some really interesting dishes - egg plant claypot being our favorite, and attempted to master the technique of making rice pancakes (with limited success), and finally attempted some vegetable decorations - Her attempts were pretty lame compared to His.

Hue - Ancient citadel

Hue, ancient citadel, was bombed very heavily during the "american war" (as they refer to it here - not so much in an anti american sense, but more to identify it from the many other wars preceding it). The city was pretty much razed to the ground, so our expectations were not high of finding much historical architecture intact. However we were to be pleasantly surprised by the state of restoration.

But before we could take in such sights we had to make a little detour to our plans - as soon as we had disembarked from our overnight train and checked into our hotel, we were off in a taxi to take Gary to find an English-speaking doctor. The usually fairly trusty Lonely Planet (or "LP") unfortunately let us down here - after wandering around several back streets in search of the elusive Dr. Doung we finally headed off to the hospital to try our luck there. It turned out to be a fascinating opportunity to see how healthcare operates in developing countries. Not so well.

We thought it seemed very promising at first that all the signs had English translations, but as soon as we were in the door, we found that not a soul spoke English. After much wandering around the wards and sitting for a while mistakenly outside the orthopedic department, and being stared at in bemusement by the locals, we tried one last attempt by trying to communicate with a chap in the accounting department (oh those useful accountants!!) using the very limited language section of our guidebook to explain that we needed to see a doctor. Although he didn't speak English, he did understand us, and marched us into the ER to an English-speaking doctor who promptly saw to us right away. It was all a little embarrassing being put ahead of all the critically ill people on the ER ward for what turned out to be a throat infection, but nonetheless, he saw us off with a dizzying array of prescription medicines and a charge of $10 for the hospital's services.

After that, things moved along very smoothly. Gary slowly got better and we found the city to be lovely and a nice break from being hassled by the tourist touts for a couple of days. Hue is also famed as the city where the most beautiful of Vietnamese women reside, and certainly our hotel was run by very charming and elegant ladies.

We spent a full day exploring the ancient citadel which, although badly bombed in the war, they have done significant work restoring the temples and royal buildings. We also spent a day trip visiting the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the war - most interesting of all was the tunnels where civilians from a local village holed up for protection in the war - the tunnels were so extensive to even contain a hospital ward where 17 babies were born.

Sapa - Vietnam highlands

Nestled on the border with China, Sapa is a refreshing highland retreat in more than one sense. This was an area initially developed by the French as a summer getaway in the 1920s, due to its cooler climate, and so has a distinctly european swiss alpsy type feeling.

The cooler climate must also effect the local temperament as we noted the people to be far more friendly and relaxed than Hanoi. The local Black Hmong tribe people provide vibrancy and color to the town in their traditional garb and the older women prowl the streets like hawks decending on the tourists with familiar "buy from me" squarks. Indeed we were tracked for almost 10km on a hike through the valley by a couple of very determined hawkers, but in the end Caroline couldn't resist the charm of the lovely 10 year old girl who had helped her whilst navigating the balancing act required to cross the rice fields without falling into the knee high mud - so ended up buying a cute bracelet from her at the end of the day.

We took the night sleeper train to and from Sapa from Hanoi. This was an experience in itself - our first train of our trip. We shared a 4 berth cabin in both directions. A bit of challenge figuring out how the whole system works, but in the end everything falls into place, we got on the train and off we went. The train was not quite as smooth as I had expected - kind of like as you are pulling out of charing cross, when you are crossing the numerous tracks with all the bumps and turns and going at slow speed - it's kind of like that the entire way. However, definitely worth it since it saves a day or traveling and the cost of one night in hotel.

Halong bay

We spent a significant amount of time and effort doing reasearch into selecting the right tour company - we had been warned that there are many places with same name trying to sponge off the original location with a good reputation and many horror stories of bad boats, rats, etc... However, our reseach paid off and we found ourselves on a fantastic tour with a great group of people (Ocean Tours for anyone interested)

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Halong Bay is a stunning setting with over 1,000 karst islands. There are hoards of tourist boats and so unfortunately lots of litter and diesel on the water, definitely not a place to take a nice swim (although the booze-cruise we saw later didn't seem to care as at least 10 people dived off their boat after more than a couple of beers from the looks of things).

The Vietnamese hopes for Halong Bay to become one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world will mostly likely be unsucessful because despite the fact that it certainly has the dramatic landscape, it would be a poor embassador for natural beauty given the bad liter and pollution problem.

The first night of our trip we stayed on a lovely private island in a very nice bungalow. The food was fantastic - 5 or 7 courses, we lost count! On our way to the island, our boat broke down and as we bumped off nearby island rock outscrops the captain feared mutiny and offered a free bottle of 'Dalat' vietnamese wine - tasted great and shared between the 14 of us.

The second night was spent aboard a boat - we all had our own cabins with bathroom (even a hot shower!) and as we luckily weren't near the engine, as some had been, we had a blissfully peaceful nights sleep.
The weather was rather hazy but it added to moody effect of the islands. Luckily no rain though.

Hanoi - welcome to Vietnam

After quiet, tame, friendly and beautful Laos, Hanoi was an extreme shock to the senses. Hanoi is a pretty hectic city and the Old Quarter is a maze of tiny streets. The only way to get around is to dodge your way around the motos parked on the sidewalk/pavement, and in order to cross the road you need to shuffle across the street fingers crossed praying the motorbikes, cars and cyclos swerve around you - hesitancy can kill you, or at least result in a bruised foot.

The old quarter is set out in 36 street each one specializing in the products for sale there - for example, silk street, painting street, bra and sock street (the latter providing much amusement since nothing fitted either of us, and they even sold padded underpants for women - as if us English girls need any more padding!). We soon realized that it was pointless trying to buy clothes as they are made for ultraslim vietnamese, even the buttons on jeans are undone to fit the manequins (which are already tiny)

The biggest culture shock for us coming from Laos is that the Vietnamese are much more agressive on selling you everything - one "no, thankyou" doesn't usually cut it for them to stop pestering you. Much to Gary's annoyance, he has been chased by numerous young boys who seem intent on glueing his North Face shoes back together (thanks a lot North Face!).

A couple of our favorite cultural sites in Hanoi was the Museum of Fine Arts which is a beautiful French Colonial building filled with numerous beautiful treasures. Across the street, we also liked the Temple of Literature - which interestingly is not a place of worship in a religious sense, but instead a place to pay respect to men who have made significant contributions to literature or arts, or knowledge - it is a confucian temple.

Vientianne - Laos capital

We had not been told great things about Vientiane (pronounced Vienchan - Laos was transliterated into French, not English), however, we were pleasantly surprised by the city.

Vientiane is extremely small, but is packed with charming french cafes with great pastries. We enjoyed latte and pain au chocolat more than once for breakfast.... and had a superd dinner of filet mignon (such bliss as a change from our usual travel diet of only vegetarian food) and red wine at a french restaurant where the service was truly French (I'll leave that one for readers to figure out)

We took a very interesting trip around the Museum of Culture - it presents a very one-sided and very soviet style view of the more recent history of Laos in the 20th century, but it's emotive style is quite understandable (and very sad) given the suffering and pain this small country has been through. Very amusingly, a real favorite of the museum is showing photos and artefacts along the lines of "Here is the toothbrush and haircomb used by Comrade so-and-so the day of his important speech on such-and-such historical occasion".
The city also contains a rather grotty version of the Arc de Triomphe which was allegedly built using concrete donated by the Americans for building an airport. A Although never finished, the view from the top is quite pleasant, and there was some superb tourist tat for purchase (finally found a fridge magnet of Laos for the collection!)
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