Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur & Taman Negara National Park

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, stumbling off our night bus and blearily wandered into the night to the cheapest available backpackers, at 4.30am on the 21^st January. We had just 5 days to spend in the last of 7 countries we had (rather optimistically!) planned to see in 14 weeks. After a few hours catch-up sleep we went off to see the main tourist sites – the iconic two Petronas towers - tall city skyscrapers towers linked by a bridge used as the HQ of a large petroleum company. It was described on a plaque outside as a: ‘steel and glass monument which weaves together Islamic symbolism with modern sophistication’ although I am not exactly sure how. We also went to the top of the 276m Menara viewing tower which has a design like a spinning top and is on one of the Malaysian Ringgit coins. We ate a variety of tasty Malaysian dishes for lunch and walked through China Town (which city in the world doesn’t have one?) encountered a vast number of snakes and tarantulas (eek!) and a two-headed terrapin (alive) in a reptile sanctuary /zoo, tried more street-food and ended the night having drinks with a Canadian backpacking couple Neil had met in Cambodia. 
 

We set off to the world’s oldest, 130 MILLION year old primary rainforest: the Taman Negara National Park, on the 22^ndJanuary. This was enough excitement for us quite apart from a minor coach accident we had along the way: It was raining, we were going downhill round a sharp bend and the coach just veered off the highway into a wall. No one was hurt. The bus got a bad scrape and the doors were initially jammed shut from the buckled metal but we were just thankful it was nothing worse. We then went on a small wooden boat for three hours which took us up river right into Taman Negara National Park. Before we had even entered the park Neil had already spotted a croc in the river, I saw a hornbill fly right over our heads and Neil handled an apparently harmless wild ‘green snake’ in front an impressed crowd of tourists. We counted a total of 30 different animals over the journeys to and from, and the 2 days 3 nights we spent in the national park.

Neil and I went on our own four hour trek in the rainforest the following morning, including an exhausting climb of the Tohan mountains to the viewpoint at 344metres. We experienced our first ever leech bites (pulled them off immediately even though we both knew full well we weren’t supposed to), saw butterflies, ants, termites, stag beetles, several spiders (yuk) and 2 Crested Pibeck on the forest floor. These are large partridge sized birds, the female in browns and the male black and white with a startling peacock-blue head and neck). We ended the trek with a treetop canopy, at 40m high and 500m long it is the longest in the world. This offered great views across the park and the river and whilst we were up there we even made friends with 2 European girls who were on holiday here. In the afternoon we went on a boat-trip through rapids on the river which got us all screaming and soaking wet! We stopped off for a swim and a rope-swing on the river bank and Neil did summersaults into the water in attempt to win some beers.

The next excursion was to see the native tribes people of the Taman Negara rainforest: the Orang Asli. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I was most surprised as to how they looked. They could have been African. Their skin was black, the women’s afro hair was kept back with wooden combs, their noses flat and wide- they even wore cloth wrapped around them (like you would wear a sarong on the beach) but just like they do in Africa! They carried their babies in a cloth swung across their bodies, and had very small huts with woven rattan walls and palm fronds roofs, outside of which they would gather to sit around, or cook over a wood fire. It was much like a typical Ghanaian village I had been to. There was maybe a dozen or so of mostly women and children who wandered around listlessly, clearly not interested in the group of tourists who regularly came to visit their small community on the riverbank, despite the monetary returns we were assured that they received from the tour guide operators. This ensured that a small group would always stay there for the benefit of tourism and meant they could not live in the depths of the rainforest like the other 600 Orang Asli, all that now remain.

We learnt of how they are a typically nomadic tribe, moving from one place to the next every 3 or 4 months, rebuilding their huts as they go, which takes about a day. The most ritualistic event is if there is a death. The person’s body is carefully prepared then placed in the uppermost branches of tree, the height of which is denoted by the age – the older the person, the higher they go, to as high as 25m off the ground. This is because they believe the spirit leaves the body and rises up to the sky. No one can go within a 2km radius of this tree; if they do, they will die. They tribe must then leave after a death. The men hunt and make the fire, the women’s ‘role’ is simply to cook and to reproduce. They may have up to 16 children, and ‘marry’ from as young as 14 for girls, a few years older for the men. I was fascinated by coming so close to such a hidden away a race, with such primitive ways of life and belief systems, so simple and so far removed from ours.  It was also so special to see people representing an ethnicity with just 600 people remaining – no thanks to the rapid speed of their natural habitat being depleted from deforestation for rubber and palm oil plantations which dominate much of Malaysia’s landscapes.

We were given demonstrations and had the chance to try their more superior/quicker way to make a fire, and even more impressively, how to use the bamboo blow-pipe. This is used by the men to hunt, mostly monkeys. It is a long piece of rare hollow bamboo with a rounded resin mouthpiece which they put to their mouth and shoot out poison-tipped arrows to kill. The source of the poison can vary from the sap of a tree to the poison coated on the skin of frog. It takes 10 days to make the blow-pipes by hand. I was very impressed, having seen tribes from South America to Papua New Guinea use this weapon on David Attenborough documentaries, and I bought one as a souvenir; slightly shortened but nonetheless identical to theirs. That evening we watched a large pack of monkeys including several young, cross around the back of the building where our dorm rooms were into the undergrowth, as close as 5 meters from us. We also saw 2 large tapia’s feeding from right outside the Park’s Information Centre. These are large mammals similar to a hog, completely black apart from a large block of white on their middle – they have a long snuffling snout like an anteater and were so used to people they let me sit right by them and stroke them.

On our second day in the park we decided we would trek to a hide and spend the night there, in hope of seeing larger mammals. So we spent most of the morning preparing, and Neil then went off for a couple of hours of fishing. We set off early afternoon, our small backpacks laden down with tins of fish, beans, sleeping bags and plenty of water. After trekking for 2 or 3 hours we took the wrong path and found ourselves pushing through foliage growing over a hardly used path. Pushing aside vines and scrambling over fallen trees we walked into more spider webs than I care to remember! We finally got back to the original path and then faced our major obstacle to the hide. Crossing a fast flowing, rapid filled river – no bridge, no boats, and we were carrying cameras we didn’t want getting wet. So Neil intrepidly crossed the river first– waist deep and wading slowly using a stick! I managed to cross, very slowly, carrying our shoes and precious water supply whilst leaning very heavily on a stick to support myself – without which, I know that at I would not have managed to cross. I was truly facing the full force of nature, the power of the water surging down the river banks and cascading over boulders in its path made me feel so meek and powerless by this oppression of water. I knew if I fell or tripped, I would be helplessly dragged down and under the water. We managed to cross safely, with all our possessions intact and mostly dry, but the crossing took us about an hour and a half.

We were greeted in our hide by a young European couple and an enthusiastic Chinese man, about half as skinny as me, who presented us with oranges and bid us Happy (Chinese) New Year. After unpacking our things onto the hard wooden raised platforms that were to be our beds for the night, we rustled up some baked bean sandwiches and tinned sardines on crackers for dinner – it wasn’t as bad as it sounds! At nightfall we did glimpse the bright lights of animal eyes across the clearing which Neil believes could have been a jennet cat. We saw a small striped deer through the undergrowth when we went off for a night stroll around the hide, but best of all, a large east-asian porcupine just 10 meters from us, 2 meters from snout to tail, black in body with long white spines from halfway down its back. Unfortunately I had one too many close encounters with some exceptionally large and hairy spiders so I am not sure if I would do it again…..but it was a great experience to be that close with these animals in their natural habitat.

On the 25^th January we took the rickety old train from KL down to Singapore where we stayed for a couple of days with my brother and sister-in-law until our outbound flight to Brisbane on the 27^th. My parents were also visiting for a week so it was brief family reunion, a few thousand miles from my Oxfordshire family home. We shared stories and photos and of course I had to show them my bamboo spear gun! We had a safe and comfortable night flight with Qantas from Singapore, touching down at 7am in Brisbane, Australia. As promised, our friend Heath from Thailand (see Thailand blog) met Neil and I at the airport and us and our luggage and we were off, our Australia adventure just beginning.

Thailand – Bangkok, & Koh Phi-Phi, Koh Lanta & Koh Ngahi islands

On the 6^th January we travelled for 10 hours out of Cambodia and across to the border to Thailand, where we planned to spend much of our two weeks exploring the best of Thailand’s beaches and islands. We had the good fortune to bump into Heath and Lexi who we got chatting to on the 4 hour bus ride into Bangkok. Not your usual backpackers, they are a friendly 33 year old Australian mother and 14 year old daughter travelling for 5 weeks in Asia. We were taken aback when out of the blue Heath kindly offered a room in her house in Brisbane for our first week in Oz as we fly to Brisbane, and had not yet made any plans. She even offered to pick us up from the airport, so we gladly exchanged contact details!

We spent three days in Bangkok from the 7^th – 9^th January and enjoyed a small variety of what the city had to offer. In the daytime we took boat rides down the river and wandered around the quieter shadier streets to escape the tourists and the heat of the daytime sun. We went to the overflowing Chatuchak Market where I bought silver stone-studded jewellery and Neil got shorts for bargain prices. We also visited Wat Pho, which has the largest collection of Buddha’s in the world, including the world-famous 15m high and 46 metre long gold-leaf ‘Reclining Buddha’, complete with mother-of-pearl inlay in its feet, displaying 108 characteristics of Buddha. We indulged in well-earnt foot and back massages and colourful cocktails in the evenings after trudging around the city in 30 degree plus heat. It goes without saying that we walked down the infamous ‘Koh San Road’ - the hotspot destination where backpackers have been heading to for more than 20 years for its purely hedonistic atmosphere. Amongst bright lights and deafening music you will find gaudy bars selling overpriced drinks, bamboo tattoo parlour’s, stalls selling Thai fisherman pants, slogan string vests for the men and tiny bikini’s for the ladies. There are hotels and restaurants and Ladyboys a-plenty. You can buy pirate copies of practically any music or film of your choice; as well as a multitude of smoking paraphernalia and fake ID cards for anything! We refreshed ourselves with fresh coconuts and smoothies and some excellent red Thai curries, but gave the dried grasshoppers and live maggot entree on offer a miss. Buskers, street performers and young kids break-dancing kept us well entertained until the late evening hours.

On the 10^th January we took the night bus and boat ride out to the first of our Thai islands, Koh Phi-Phi, which is located on the South West coast of the Thai peninsula in the Andaman Sea. On first glimpses from the boat the island looked beautiful with rising green mountains, ringed with beaches and turquoise waters, spilling out into the deep blue ocean depths. However on arrival it was much more touristified than we had realised it would be, and we paid sky-high prices for a very budget room a few minutes’ walk from an over-crowded beach littered with well, litter, and young, over-enthusiastic teenagers out to impress. We were struggling to conceal our disappointment, especially when I discovered 10,000 Thai Baht (roughly equivalent to £250) had been stolen from my bag on the night bus. At night time the beach transformed into party central, with fire poi and fire staff performers on stages, clubbing music cranked up to the max, buckets of alcohol for sale and giant glowing skipping ropes outside bars that had seemingly popped out from nowhere. Reluctantly we decided to give the party scene a try and after a few go’s on the giant skipping rope we ended up having a great time and dancing the night away until the early hours.

The next day we did a snorkeling and island-hopping boat tour and went to the truly most stunning beaches and islands – in the world. Turquoise waters, shimmering crystal clear on powder soft white sands fringed with palm trees and tropical fish galore, all under a the beating sun – we were in heaven. We went to the famous Maya bay where ‘The Beach’ was filmed, and monkey island, where I was robbed of my hot, buttered corn-on-the-cob by an apparently fearless monkey. On the boat we met a young, friendly Ozzie couple from Melbourne who invited us onto their private resort’s beach and so spent the next day on a much nicer beach with barely a dozen people on it, and managed to swim and snorkel with a load of fish and wildlife including starfish, moray eels, a sea snake and oh, did I not mention it already..? Black-tipped reef sharks!! What an experience! These inquisitive and people-friendly sharks ranging in size of up to a meter and a half swam right by us, several of them, as they tend to swim up near the reefs for their prey. They are not dangerous and stay close to the bottom of the sea bed so you cannot sight them from above, only below the water’s surface.

On the 13^th of January we caught a boat onto our next island, Koh Lanta. With a 27km coast on the West lined with beaches and chilled out resorts this island had a much quieter vibe, perfectly located to enjoy the sunsets over the sea.  We stayed in three different places on the north, middle and south part of the coast. On our first night in a palm fringed beach hut at Blue Andaman Lanta Resort bungalows, Neil swam far out in the sea and caught a small lobster with his bare hands! Nonetheless, after a few chuckles the restaurant staff cooked it up for us and we ate it with our supper after a beautiful sunset over the rocks. During the day we swam and snorkeled, and explored the island by moped, discovering empty beaches, past mountains and through leafy rainforest. One day Neil spent an afternoon on a fishing boat – deep-sea fishing, and I went out on another snorkeling boat trip where I swam through caves into Emerald Cave and lagoon – an enclosed beach with towering high rocks that apparently were once used by pirates for hiding their loot! It was on this boat trip that I discovered our third and final island we were to stay on– the beautiful, barely touched beach of Mai Pai Bay had just one resort named Paradise Resort on Koh Nghai island (pronounced as Ko-Hi).

We got to Koh Nghai on the 18^th January and completely relaxed for two days. Paradise by name and Paradise by nature it was in a remote location with no other resorts or bars or resturaunts. There was no blaring music, no shops, and barely any other guests. The accommodation was very simple, individual bamboo woven huts with wooden balconies on a nice grassy area facing out to the sea. The dozen or so bungalows were nicely spaced out and just set 20m back from the deserted beach. It was exactly what we were looking for; it was perfect. We put up the hammock and drank from fresh coconuts, whilst watching the sea gently lapping the shoreline. We swam far out past the reef out to the drop-out and snorkeled with hundreds of colourful fish surrounding us. I had an unforgettable experience practically engulfed in a cloud of tiny clownfish who were following me wherever I swam brushing close to my skin and almost blocking my vision with their volume. This was probably one of the very best snorkeling experiences I have yet to have, it was absolutely magical. I described this beach in diary in the following words:

‘It is green, grassy and relaxing. The sun is shining hot, the sea is a shimmering blue and the palm-fringed sands are deserted. A peaceful, undisturbed tranquility….it is everything we wanted! It is silent here apart from the sound of birds, cicadas, the sea and the occasional motor of a passing fishing boat.’

Sadly we had to leave our paradise on the 20th, vowing we would return again and stay for more than just 2 days. We had a full day of travel by boat to take us to another bigger boat, then bus, to take us to another town to end up taking a further three buses, until we finally got our night bus (2 hours late no suprises there) that would arrive at Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia at 4.30am. I am sure you can imagine how well that journey went, and yes we did have to get out of the bus twice for the border crossing (for exiting Thailand and then entering Malaysia). And no we did not get any sleep. And yes I managed to leave something behind on the bus this time – my book.

Cambodia - Choeung Ek, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap & Ankor Wat

The Kingdom of Cambodia, or Kampuchea as it is called in the Khmer language, was our next country. Cambodia has a population of 14 million consisting of 95% Khmer and some ethnic-Chinese, Cham and ethnic-Vietnamese, and a country motto of: Nation-Religion-King. We were here to unearth Cambodia’s history and culture, and to visit the famous temple ruins of Ankor Wat once ruled by Kings, Ankor Wat meaning: ‘Holy City’.

After the peace and tranquillity we found in the rivers and waterfalls in southern Laos, we had to quickly readjust to the populated and newly rebuilt cities of Cambodia; beginning with Phnom Penh, the capital. On our first day we travelled just outside the city to the burial site of Choeung Ek– or ‘the Killing Fields of Cambodia’; a painful but crucial historical site which remains from the cruel regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s. During their four year reign led by dictator Saloth Sar or ‘Pol Pot’, as he was then known, genocide destroyed the country killing one third of Cambodians, destroying schools, hospitals, temples and scarring the lives of the few who remained. The regime wanted to eliminate all foreign influence whatsoever and return Cambodia to the year zero. Through the most barbaric and brutal means possible, women, children and even babies were not spared from horrible deaths. It was a very harrowing experience to walk around the site listening to our audio headsets retelling the history and individual testimonials. As this is a burial site where three thousand people had been unearthered, teeth, bones and scraps of clothing which constantly rise up from the soil when it rains were present on the ground where we walked, making the experience so much more real than if you were looking at artefacts in a museum. In the centre of the site a tall glass monument has been erected with all three thousand skulls from the site scientifically categorised according to age, gender and so on. Offerings of flowers, prayers and burning incenses are left here. At present, UN High Commission trials continue to try some of the remaining regime leaders for Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes to bring some justice for the atrocities committed.

Whilst Neil headed on westwards to a small riverside town called Battambang for boat rides and bamboo trains, I stayed on in the city for a couple of days to soak up some of the culture, history and religion that Cambodia is so entrenched in.  I met a couple of Ozzie’s in the grounds of a particularly grand monastery which I happened to just wander into, we then went to the newly rebuilt Royal Palace grounds where many beautiful buildings and temples decorated in Hindu-Buddhist style were located amongst fountains and gardens. A faded murial which ran on all four walls surrounding the palace was all that remained from its original site before its destruction under the Khmer Rouge.

We spent New Years Eve on the packed out streets of Siem Reap, dancing to Western music blaring from towering speakers till the early hours amongst Cambodians and backpackers from all over. Siem Reap is a riverside town with markets and traditional dancing and food stalls galore and there is also an excess of Westernised bars, restaurants and souvenir stalls to accommodate all the tourist’ needs. We enjoyed many a fruit shake, massages and Aspara dance performances. But for us, the main reason for going to Siem Reap was to see the ancient temples of Ankor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of dozens of temples sprawled out amongst forests and by lakes and moats, dating back to the 9^th –12^th centuries, only recently discovered by the French in the 19^th century. I found the temples absolutely incredibly, and took several hundred photos! There is a huge amount of detail on every crevice, corner and pillar of the temples that were painstakingly carved in bas-relief (meaning they are raised out of the stone work, almost three-dimensional). Popular images are of the Aspara dancers, (the many concubines and wives of the Kings) bejewelled in necklaces, belts and head-dresses). But the walls also depict battles of war; everyday scenes of village life; the sacred three headed elephants showing the influence of Hinduism; deities and Gods; animals; and intricate patterns ornately decorating walls, ceilings and doorways. The temples were originally lived in by the ancient Kings who once ruled Kampuchea, and are made of stone such as limestone and laterite which vary in colour from shades of grey and brown to orange and even pinkey hues.

We spent three days over the New Year period exploring the temples. On our second morning we rose at 4.30am to watch the sun rise over the ‘magnificent 3-tiered pyramid crowned with 5 lotus like flowers’ of Ankor Wat, beautifully silhouetted against the glowing sky. We saw the towering, smiling faces of the famous 12^th century temples of Bayon; another favourite of mine were the temple ruins of 13^th century Ta Prohm (famous for being the site of where scenes of ‘Tomb Raider’ were filmed). To me this was a magical place where towering trees grew above and over the temples, with big, thick roots and tangled vines intertwining with the stones creating a spectacular synergy of the wonders of nature and man. On our third day we travelled an hour north of the main temple site by rickshaw to the countryside where, after a half an hour or so walk along a path through forest and up hills we followed a stream to the 11-13^th century site of ‘1000 lingas’. By walking closely to the streams banks we saw Buddhist depictions carved into the rocks alongside the river, and ancient linga symbols of pattern and symmetry carved into the stone river bed! We also went to a Banteay Srey, a 10^th century Hindu-influenced temple which translates as ‘citadel of the women’, with pinkey coloured rocks with the probably the most preserved intricate carvings of all of Ankor Wat.

Laos – Luang Probang, Vang Viene, Tad Lo, Four Thousand Islands

Our first destination in Laos was Luang Probang where we arrived on the 16th. It is a lovely provincial city – surrounded by lush green vegetation and mountains, the perfect place to relax by the river and watch the world go by. We visited beautiful temples – very different to the one’s we had seen in Vietnam which had far more Chinese influence in their designs – and went to the night markets to see all the beautiful cloth and artwork and jewellery. We spent an afternoon hiring bicycles and cruising along the Mekong river that meanders through the town, stopping for an ice cold fruit shake or just to enjoy the views….we came across a bamboo bridge which crossed at quite a wide part of the river. It was skillfully made by a local family, and there was a polite notice asking for 5,000 KIP (about 60p) to cross, stating that the bridge had to be rebuilt every 6 months as the water level of the river rises so high during the rainy season each year it is washed away and has to be rebuilt! The highlight for us was going to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls which were the most beautiful cascading waterfalls tumbling over limestone rocks in a forest that have been eroded into smooth rounded boulders and formed into deep pools you could swim in. The water was a beautiful light turquoise colour and icy cold! But we jumped in anyway and reveled being the only tourists there as we had set of early in the morning. It was magical!

After a couple of days in Luang Probang we reluctantly left this beautiful place on the 18th to travel on to Vang Viene, 7 hours south – now globally known for its ‘tubing’ experience. For those of you who have not heard someone at some point rave about tubing in Laos:  it simply involves an inner tube (big inflatable ring) and a flowing river that meanders through mountains and beautiful countryside for a few hours, a truly relaxing experience. Apart from when the current picks up. Or you head straight toward the bank headfirst, or you don’t notice those sharp pointy rocks sticking up in the middle of the river till a bit too late (thanks for the warning Neil!) No it was fine! Only 16 deaths so far this year…Along the way you can stop off at a bar and enjoy fresh juice drink or a beer, or a not so innocent ‘happy shake’, opium bong or tea!….Anyway enough of that my parents are reading this – SO JUST TO CLARIFY WE DID NOT DO ANY OF THAT! Actually mum I think you would love it – not the happy shakes, the tubing!! There are also slides and rope swings into the river and hammocks and all sorts to keep you entertained along the way and Bob Marley blaring from speakers so there is something for everyone. Well we had fun, and mingled with a range of people - from a group of ‘typical’ British lads enjoying the booze as much as the tubes, and a three generations (they had kids young) family who peacefully floated alongside us for much of the ride. I was impressed to see the grandfather (58 years old) give the 15 foot high rope swing into the river a go, I onlyhope I'm still that youthful when I get to that age!

On the 21^st of December after an afternoon and a night of travel by bus we finally arrived in the south of Laos where we planned to stay three days in TatdLo, in an area called the Bolavian Plateau. After lugging our backpacks along a dusty road for a mile or so in blazing sunshine in the middle of the day we rounded a corner and there before us was a beautiful blue river shimmering in the sun’s rays, and perfectly in harmony with the villagers who were peacefully washing their clothes or hair on its banks. As soon as we arrived at our guest house perfectly located next to the waterfall that the river gently flowed from I changed into my swimsuit and jumped straight into to its cooling waters. Ah bliss, to wash off all the dust and dirt of almost two days travelling! I swam around contentedly. For the next couple of days Neil and I trekked along the river through forest/bush following it upstream to pass its three beautiful waterfalls. We met a great Israeli couple who joined us along the way and we spent the day jumping in the rivers and waterfalls, then making small fires to keep warm.

We also enjoyed an elephant ride lumbering through the bush and across the streams from a nearby resort which had tamed elephants to feed and ride. Neil and I took turns to sit on the elephants head (where the rider usually sits) whilst he kindly hoped about on rocks to take photos of us wading majestically through the water. Interestingly the rider controls the elephant by kicking his heels gently behind the elephant’s ears. Also, as well as bananas, elephants also eat sugar canes which they angle in their trunks and snap off what they want to eat with their feet (hooves?!). Okay well I was impressed. Sugar cane is pretty strong, it was about 4cm in diameter and 3 meters long.

The next day Neil tested his moped skills (no license needed here just brovado) which he apparently honed a few years ago in Kenya, and after a a few wobbly starts the two of us and our new friends set off to see more of this lushly green and lowly populated region. We passed through (literally – and no one said a word!) coffee plantations, and saw a tiny “factory” where the beans where picked, sorted, dried and roasted right alongside a road. Obviously it was small scale, about 10 young lads working in a small hut with the basic equipment. They were happy for us to look around and take a few photos. We then passed through villages with children besides themselves with joy to see 4 Westerners whizzing by on bikes and waving and smiling till our arms/jaws ached at these beautiful, innocent children. The beauty of Laos is that it has not been plagued with tourists the way Vietnam so sadly has. Here children are still happy and excited to see you as foreigners are still few, especially in the Southern, more remote and less travelled parts of Laos that the average backpacker doesn’t usually bother to travel to.

I really didn’t want to leave the beauty and serenity of this place, so few tourists, so many waterfalls, but we were onto a place called Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands for Christmas, so we could hardly complain, and moved on without trouble. Well actually we did have a bit of trouble getting there. We got on the wrong bus and ended up travelling on 5 different forms of transport that day to finally get there – first in the back of a pick up truck, then by local bus, then tuck-tuck, then we had to get driven all the way back to where we went wrong by moped, then boat, then finally our own two feet. It was worth it in the end! We stayed on an island called Don Khong which is the biggest of the islands that sits on the Mekong river where it reaches its widest point. On Christmas day we chilled on some tubes (like in Vang Vieng but much more peaceful – without the booze and the bars) and cruised on down the river for a couple of hours with a very nice boatman. We spotted an eagle soaring in the skies above us!We then hditched the tubes and hopped onto the boat and whilst Neil did some fishing (ledgering so I’m told) I kicked back and relaxed with my book until sundown…

Sadly I got sick as soon as we got onto dry land and had a minor 24-hour tummy bug so I spent Christmas day evening in bed. The next day when I had perked up a tad, we got some bikes and explored the island the next afternoon. We saw more stunning waterfalls and stumbled upon a secret hidden beach where we saw the sun sink down into scenic landscape of mountains, forest, jagged rocks, cascading rivers, a deep rock pool and soft white sands. It was as beautiful as it sounds, unfortunatly our cameras just couldn't do it justice.

On the 27^th of December we left Laos onto Cambodia and thankfully had a hassle-free boarder crossing. We are now in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital and it is a beautiful place. The people here are very kind and gentle and helpful, and they all have warm, smiling faces. We feel truly welcome here.

For now, Happy Christmas and Seasons Greetings from myself and Neil,

Xxx

Northern Vietnam – Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, 3 day travel to Laos

Hello, we spent a week or so of early December in the Northern parts of Vietnam. Having moved away from sunshine and blue skies, we shivered in our raincoats and under our layers of jumpers. It felt more like a typical winter's day in England than the tropical climates of South East Asia, and  I was glad I had packed my Marino wool socks!

We didn’t see much of Hanoi (the capital city) beyond the hustle and bustle of the streets around our hotel, but we did enjoy watching a traditional Water Puppetry performance in a theatre, an art which has been performed in Northern Vietnam for thousands of years. The performance was accompanied by traditional singing and very beautiful musical accompaniment on Vietnamese wind, and string instruments and percussion. The wooden puppets were manned from behind a screen of a temple by long wooden sticks and the various puppets enacted simple scenes of traditional life in Vietnam like a man ploughing his rice fields with a buffalo, or oriental dragons dancing around and even one scene had horses jumping through rings of fire! The stage was 3 feet deep in water allowing the puppets to go under and above the surface! It was fascinating to watch something so different from what we are used to seeing at the theatre at home.

We travelled to the east coast on the 8^th December where we spent three days on a wooden ship cruising around Halong Bay islands – one night sleeping on the boat and one night staying in a wooden hut on stilts above the water of a small island. It was a lovely relaxing trip, with delicious food and great scenery but sadly the weather was a bit bleak and cold and didn’t really encourage us to disrobe and jump into the emerald waters below us. (I was wearing as many layers of clothing as I could pile on underneath my jacket,, and thick merino wool socks….) We made friends with some really nice people on the trip– a German couple, a Canadian guy, and two Aussie girls who have already insisted we come out to visit them in Adelaide and enjoyed hanging out with them. As part of the three day tour we did some exploring by bicycle on Cat Ba island, visited caves and kayaked around the large rock formations. On the island where we slept on the second night we paddled out in low tide where we found hundreds of tiny starfish –which some locals were tossing into large baskets…for eating!! Don’t ask me what they taste like, it wasn’t on the menu for us!

We headed on by night-bus on the 11^th to Sapa in the very north-west of Vietnam for trekking and seeing local hill-tribes in the mountains. When we sleepily stepped off the bus at 7am we were immediately woken by the icy cold air that was like a slap in the face, and the fog which surrounded us. If we thought Halong Bay was cold, Sapa was even colder: it went down to 2 degrees at night. We were whisked off to a hotel on the back of mopeds (standard transport for us now) which we were promised had hot water and electric blankets – both facilities we immediately made use of! When we reluctantly stepped back out into the cold we sought out woolly gloves, scarves and some very nice North Face, (or should I say ‘North Fake’) jackets which were roughly £30 each – a bargain as the UK equivalent would probably be 5 or 10x that price. So we were finally prepared for our 15km trek the next day.

We arranged our trek with a local guide called Chai who our Aussie buddies had recommended and passed on her mobile number. Chai was so sweet and so lovely and the trek was arduous at times but made so enjoyable by Chai and her her two friends who accompanied us. May I just say at this point that Chai is an amazing woman:  She is 27 years old and already has 4 children – was married at 14 and had her first child at 16. She speaks her local H’Mong tribe dialect, Vietnamese and a good level of English – which she taught herself a year ago simply from listening to tourists talking in the town and markets and by starting conversations with them! She could understand us and answered all our questions; we were very impressed. Oh, and she also speaks a little French too! So we are glad she can do these tours for tourists and earn a good wage to send her children to the local school, we even got a few photos of us altogether printed that evening and gave them to her the next day to keep. She was so, so happy and said she will remember us forever!

We trekked uphill for the first few hours, passing teak tree plantations, bamboo forests and small scale Vietnamese tea plantations, the occasional house, buffalos, and to my surprise large pumpkins growing over roofs. We then went to Chai’s village where we met Chai’s family and were cooked a delicious meal of many dishes prepared by her in front of us over a wooden in her simple but welcoming family home. After lunch we continued down the mountain, slipping and sliding as the ground was muddy and slippery – but Chai’s friends from the villages all the time. We enjoyed views of rice terraces all the way down and Chai and her friends wove us little things out of the plants – such as a heart woven out of ferns and decorated with tiny pink flowers which they put in my hair!

We left Sapa on the 13^th and had an epic 3 day overland journey to our destination Luang Probang in Laos that was memorable but for all the wrong reasons! On our second day of travelling things got a bit hairy when we were due to get the 5.30am bus but missed it when our alarm didn’t go off. After some initial panicking (as there is only about 3 buses a week that go across the border into Laos) we grabbed our things and ran to the bus station anyway.  After being persuaded by two local drivers that they could take us the 30km to the border crossing Neil and I ended up on the back of 2 mopeds with our big bags precariously balanced on the back – and clinging on for dear life as we ventured through thick fog, down roads with more pot holes than actual road.

We ended up catching up with the bus before the boarder and in our gratitude and still half dazed state (as you would expect before 7am in the morning) we handed over far too much money in a mixture of dollars and VND (Vietnam Dong) to the moped drivers who then sped off. We gratefully took our seats on the bus ready to relax but in true money-grabbing Vietnamese style, no sooner had we sat our bums on the seats of the bus, we were asked to hand over yet more money – even though we had already paid for the journey and had the tickets to prove it! We were then hassled for the next couple of hours of the journey and threatened that our bags wil be thrown off the bus if we did not pay. Irritatingly, we had to pay up as we weren’t faced with many other options, and the Laos border crossing was fast approaching and we didn’t want any trouble kicking off as we entered another country. The next worry for us was that we had exactly enough money for our ‘bribe’ payment and visas, but no more, and with a long day ahead of travelling and no idea where another cashpoint would be, we started thinking about what items we could sell to raise some money for us to continue our journey to the next town in Laos another 6 hours away. Luckily a kind Spanish couple who had learned of our troubles that morning leant us 10 dollars so we could take the bus onwards to the next town. Phew.

Well all I can say is it’s a good thing travelers stick together and generally will always help one another out. But it was just one of those days for us and luckily we managed to continue our jouney safely on into Laos with no further troubles. :-)

Vietnam 06/12/11 Ho Chi Min City, The Mekong Delta, Mui Ne, Hoi An, Hue

Ah Vietnam! So much to see and so little time! We arrived at Ho Chi Min City on 22/11 by plane at 1.30am, half asleep and weary from our journey, knowing worryingly little about our new destination. However, 2 weeks on and we are well accustomed with visiting the local markets, sampling the tasty cuisine, and taking in all the tourist sights. We are (slightly) better at haggling, and I am much improved in eating with chopsticks.  The city and country at large is surprisingly well – developed (much more so than the Philippines which I hadn’t anticipated). This is largely due to a massive boom in tourism since the 1990’s. Vietnam has a population of 85 million, and Ho Chi Min itself is a large sprawling city with 16 districts. 
We spent 2 days in Hoi chi Min City – one of Vietnam’s biggest cities which is in the very south of Vietnam. We went to The War Museum where we were saddened and shocked to learn more of the graphic details of the Vietnam war that divided the country for over two decades. We also visited a nearby site called the Cu Chi tunnels where a village community took to living underground in very narrow self-dug tunnels for 3 years whilst the Americans dropped bombs and the horrific Agent Orange chemicals onto all the crops and towns. during the war. We visited the usual museums, temples, pagodas, a botanical garden, food and textile markets and generally enjoyed observing life passing by all around us. The Vietnamese are very keen on babminton and volleyball; they also play a game with a special kind of shuttlecock which they hit to each other with their feet! Neil and I decided to buy one and joined the many people playing this in the park – much to their amusement – as I am sure you can imagine we weren’t quite as well-practiced as them!

One afternoon we whizzed around a few of the city’s sites on the back of mopeds - which is the dominant mode of transport here (city population of 9 million, 3 million mopeds – and no road rules – literally anything goes – it’s a nightmare as both pedestrian and on a vehicle!) This was courtesy of Mr Chow and his friend, and Neil and I enjoyed a local beer with them afterwards (I stuck with coke). We generally enjoy looking at all the foods for sale in the markets wherever we are and sampling whatever we dare to. For example the local fruits such as custard apple, dragon fruit, jackfruit, chinese pear, mangostine and pomello. Along the way we have observed frogs, chicken feet, chickens heads and eels but politely refused any offers of these! On the subject of food, to our amusement we have discovered Vietnam’s take on Western products: Wrigley’s do a cinnamon flavor chewing gum, Galaxy chocolate over here is called ‘Dove’ and it tastes different too – not as milky smooth, and just 10 minutes ago Neil popped open a tube of pringles and they are in fact slightly smaller! Neil says that it is because as the Vietnamese are small they must have smaller mouths and therefore pringles have to be made smaller….personally I’m not so sure….maybe they are just not as greedy as us Brits!

We then travelled along the Mekong Delta for 3 days – this is the main river which flows through many countries throughout South-East Asia and has its final tributaries and mouth in the south of Vietnam. We went on different boat tours and saw a range of local traditional ways of life in towns in the Mekong area: Ben Tre, Van Tho, My Tho, Chau Doc. We also saw and tasted the water coconut – a palm which as the name suggests grows in the river along the smaller tributaries and is a large and beautiful nut that looks a bit like a flower – you will see what I mean from our photos! Some of the highlights included visiting a floating fish farm where their houses are built to float on the river and house vast quantities of fish caged underneath. We have also seen many houses built on stilts, and seen local production of coconut sweets and silk scarfs handmade on a loom and Vietnamese honey. The women throughout Vietnam wear conical hats made out of woven fibres (bamboo?) tied under their chin with a ribbon – in the cities and the villages. We also saw the region’s largest floating markets where they sell their fruit and veg produce on boats on the river. You will see pictures of Neil and I enjoying pineapple beautifully spiraled for us to eat, and wearing the local hats they gave to us for our boat ride.

We have met some really nice travelers along our way, mostly couples, a few lone travelers and a couple of girls also from England who we have bumped into a couple of times along the way. It’s great to share stories, exchange information and laugh (or complain) about our experiences of the country and its people. It’s also great to meet people of all nationalities from different backgrounds and different ages.

We headed on up north from the Mekong, following the main coastal road to Mui Ne where we stayed in a nice hotel (but still within budget!) with a  garden and a pool (yay!) next to the beach for a couple of days. It was great to relax by the pool, work on our tans and live at a slower pace than in the city, or when touring the Mekong delta, where our day trips sometimes started at 6.30am! Much to our surprise one afternoon we were taken to visit some really beautiful sand dunes and limestone rock formations along a stream ‘fairy stream’ which consisted of red, yellow and white sands! We then went on to marvel at rolling hills of what looked like Saharan desert and watched a magnificent sunset over the dunes. We were given no explanation as to how this bizarre topology came into existence but enjoyed it all the same.

Even in the rain, Hoi An is a very pretty place. On old town that survived the war, Hoi An, our next main destination is now a UNESCO heritage site due to its distinctive French architecture of the 17^th century that remains from the influence of French rule and missionaries who brought Christianity to the town. It was also a famous port even centuries before when the Chinese ruled for silk, mother-of pearl, tusk, fabrics, tea, beeswax, paper and porcelain. Hundreds of years on and every other shop is desperate to sell you silk paintings, tailor-made clothes, kimonos or porcelain tea sets. Whilst Neil and I resolutely stuck to our guns and were not persuaded to buy any of the usual tourist trinkets at massively inflated prices, I confess I fell for some beautiful pieces of local art which we bought directly from the artists’ galleries. Charcoal drawings, ink paintings on rice paper and photographs. Well at least they don’t weigh much and are a lot easier to carry! At night time the town is lit up by colourful paper lanterns all along the river, and in the day you can stroll along the streets which are lined with mustard yellow and white French buildings complete with archways, pillars and oriental yin and yang roof tiles! On our last evening we even stumbled upon a beautiful patisserie with the most exquisite selection of beautifully crafted cakes – even Neil was tempted – and we were instantly transported to Paris!

We are now travelling on from Hue where we have just spent 2 days admiring many more pagodas, temples and tombs of previous kings. I am now officially templed out. I really cannot see another one. Ever again. Well at least not until we are in Cambodia. We also were pedaled around a Citadel – a sort of walled fortress with beautiful old buildings from the 18^th and 17^th centuries where Emperors and Kings ruled. The temples are beautiful here, don’t get me wrong, they are intricately detailed inside and out, and almost every town we pass through on our seemingly endless bus journeys seems to have one. You occasionally see a Church. Although the country is Communist (Facebook is officially banned but apparently people seem to find ways to access it anyway) four religions and philosophies are practiced here: Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Christianity. Over time the first three of these have fused together with other Chinese beliefs and Vietnamese animism. Every home and place of work has a small shrine with offerings – be it hairdresser, boat, coach or the pavement next to their stall. The offerings include flowers, incense sticks and fruits. Although one offering we passed on the street was such a contrast to the sweet scents and fruits I found it very funny and mused that the person must be feeling pretty pissed off with God that day. Why? Their offering consisted of garlic and instead of incense sticks they were burning cigarettes.

Well, back to the present: Neil and I only a few hours into a 14 hour night bus journey up to Hanoi and it is time now for me to rest my head on my tiny, luminous pink, quilted cushion, stretch out on my 1 and a half foot wide bed, and try to catch some quality sleep.

From Neil and myself, goodnight, x

28/11/11 - El Nido & islands, Honda Bay islands, Puerto Princessa - Philippines

We sped off from Sabang on the 8^th Nov on to the popular destination of El Nido which is further north in the Palawan island. It has been described as a chilled out backpackers heaven with a bar lined beach and islands galore for snorkelling, diving and sunbathing. We were promised a 5 hour journey, and for about the first time ever this journey estimate was actually correct. However, as we hurtled round corners and accelerated through tiny rural villages dodging pedestrians, sleeping dogs and  fruit stalls, we realised that this journey would have been far more comfortable for all involved if done in half the speed. The driver found great pleasure in driving into pot-holes  when the roads got bumpy, throwing us and our luggage around in this sardine-packed van, and speeding up when approaching any people, sharp bends or ‘ slow, school ahead’ warning signs. Regrettably, a very small chick fell victim to the driver’s reckless driving. As it scurried across the road following mum and its siblings, it did not quite make it in time and was far too insignificant for the driver to bother swerving for….     
                                                                                                                                      

Anyway, moving on from that rather somber note - El Nido was just as delightful as promised and being further away from the mountains the weather was perfect – blue skies and sunshine. And very hot! We stayed there for a week and indulged ourselves in good food, island hopping and sunbathing. We stayed at a very nice family run guest house set back in the quieter, leafier part of the town. We took full advantage of the provisions on offer in the town – including back massages (Neil) and hand-washing service where for just a couple of pounds our towels and clothes were handed back to us clean, neatly folded and smelling lovely. Ahhh, backpackers delight after weeks of wearing crumpled, damp, and slightly smelly clothes. Evenings were spent at any one of the candle-lit restaurants lining the beach front – with the water lapping at our feet as we sat admiring the silhouetted islands across the bay. Local entertainment in the form of acoustic guitar and singing and cheap beer accompanied the meals.

Our days were spent visiting various small islands and beaches all within half an hour boat ride with lovely white sands, swaying palms and clear turquoise waters where we lolled about snorkeling, swimming and browning/burning nicely in the 31 degrees sun. We befriended some local fishermen who took us out on their boat for free on our first day (remember the True Manilla story from a couple of posts back? The guys recognised our bracelets we are wearing that we had been given from Edwin whom they also knew!) We also hired a kayak and made our own discoveries of deserted beaches for one afternoon. J Neil completed his full PADI Open Water Scuba Diving course in a record 3 days which I am very impressed with, having done this course myself a few years back in Egypt in about double that time. While Neil was stuck inside with his head in a book I did my Scuba Diving Refresher and day trip of three lovely dives. There can be found some fantastic corals varying massively in colour, shape and size from the very tiny and delicate up to a coral the size of a car! We dived through corals in giant cabbages/flower shapes, and some shaped just like mushrooms  but 2-3 meters in diameter! Oranges, brown, pinks, purples, black, luminous yellow and greens –  and yes that is about the most scientific identification you’re going to get! We swam around in reefs with such an array of giant clams, starfish, tiny, completely clear floating jellyfish; huge purple starfish the size of dinner plates which soon became commonplace; black, spikey sea urchins, morray eels, clown fish, parrot fish, large barracuda, eagle ray and blue-spotted rays, lionfish -  just some of the many we saw. (On another island further south in Palawan Neil’s sharp eye’s spotted a large, clear jellyfish floating in the water with long dark tentacle’s– see our photos.  Our boat man quickly retrieved it from the water and confirmed to us that yes, this was a Box Jellyfish  - one of the world’s most deadly jellyfish, with enough poison to kill or severely injure a human! Gulp!)

Unfortunately for the last 2 days here we fell quite violently sick. We don’t know how it came about as my symptoms started 12 hours after Neil’s did but we think it was some kind of traveller’s sickness bug. It was very unpleasant but not serious, and luckily one of our neighbours at the guest house was a doctor and she kept an eye on us. By night time when we both were sick, the lovely Mr Marikit who ran our guest house took over caring duties and went out of his way to make us feel better fetching us ice and cold water, tissues and setting up a fan on his generator especially for us when there was no electricity. I thanked him profusely for this and will never forget his kindness (see the photo of me with him and his son and an employer in the doorway next to a Christmas tree).

The following week we travelled back down to Puerto Princessa and saw a few more touristy sights. We went to a crocodile rescue center and sanctuary which ironically sold crocodile meat at their shop and served various crocodile meat dishes on the menu at their resturaunt!! I found their poster rather amusing so you will see that in our photos. Another highlight was some close encounter’s Neil and I had with a very lovely mammal called a Palawan bear-cat by the locals, otherwise known as s Binturong. Resident only to Palawan island and nowhere else in the Philippines, a local had rescued two from being put in cages and kept them as pets so the locals could see them. He took them out in the village regularly so the local children could also pet them as there isn’t really a concept of pets here which the gentleman said was a real shame. They have a very sweet Meercat-like face, are ­­­­­furry with soft padded paws and a long tail like a monkey they use to hold onto branches (or alternatively an arm!) You will see from our faces how happy we were to hold them and feed them banana and let them climb all over us. The female took a liking to Neil’s air and chewed it gently, whilst the male licked my face in cat-like kisses!

During our month in the Philippines we observed the following: They love Karaoke. Whether city or village you are always sure to hear the wailing singing of a karaoke bar well into the late hours of the night. Cockerels – they are everywhere. To the average tourist they are detested: wherever you are you can be sure there will always be several pecking around outside your room to wake you up at 5am and crow continuously all day, but to the Philippino’s they are a prized possession – groomed, and tied up with string round the foot and ready to compete in their cockfighting events._­­­­­ The boys play basketball everywhere; meanwhile the men chew a peculiar combination of a beetle nut, a fresh green tobacco leave and a crushed up snails shell (lime) into a fine white powder, which when chewed up altogether in their mouth turns red! Apparently it creates a caffeine/stimulant effect – like coffee - which they claim helps them if they have to work late at night. It becomes a blood red colour when chewed and so their teeth look all red and they spit red on the floor and walls everywhere! – Yuk!

So. We have said goodbye to the Philippines now, and will remember the Filipino’s as quiet but friendly and caring, gentle people. They will go out of their way to help you, make you feel more comfortable and explain things to you. Everywhere we went they spoke very good English, they took pride in their homes and worked hard at what they did. Adults and children will always smile and greet you when you pass their home or shop and are happy to chat and interact with us. Sometimes you will see Filipino’s who look very Hispanic – from their Spanish roots of previous colonization perhaps, and you can see an a real similarity to Latin American’s in terms of facial features, skin colour and in their music too. We have enjoyed the islands and the beaches, the mountains and the rice-terraces, made friends with Filipinos in the villages and the city and leave with many sweet memories of this lovely country. I would definitely like to go back and continue to explore these seemingly endless beautiful islands, but for now we head onwards to mainland Asia…to Vietnam.

Goodbye for now,
Phe and Neil x