odohertyelaine

I love the feeling stepping off a plane in a new country… excitement mixed with a little anxiety of what might lie ahead….. Arriving in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo was easy peasy. There were no crowds, the building was air conditioned, a very pleasant man greeted me at immigration and any worker I passed by smiled and said hello. I’m off to a good start! As you make your way to baggage reclaim there’s a duty free shopping area on one side and on the other a row of electrical shops selling TVs and washing machines.. quite bizarre!

Day 1 of the tour is the arrival day and as I arrive late I just about make our welcome meeting, have a quick look at the beach and hotel and then head to bed in the hope of a good nights sleep. In reception a wedding couple were having some photos taken:

Day 2: Our tour group is 14 mostly Australian and British (Welsh in fact) and we have two main guides with extra drivers and support team. Everyone seems lovely so far. Our first day starts with a cycle to the beach beside the fish market. The market is closed on Sundays but you can see all the dried fish laid out… delightful smell as you can imagine!

Leaving Negombo we cycle 42 km to a town called Chilaw. It’s a pretty cycle with some parts by the beach and some through nice neighborhoods by the Dutch canal.

Our lunch stop is at a huge home with traditional Sri Lankan food – namely curry, rice and veg followed by pineapple and banana.

From here we take the bus to Anuradhapura and get some chill out time at the hotel. Time for a dip in the pool, a beverage and some mingling with my new friends!

Later we went to a local hole in the wall restaurant and although the place was really basic (and there was no alcohol) the food was amazing. We had hoppers along with curry, rice and veg.

Day 2 we set off at 8am to explore the ancient city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Anuradhapura. It’s a vast area like visiting the Angkor temples but not as splendid (I think I’ve been spoiled) it has a very different style and many ruins. Cycling is definitely the best way to get around and it feels great with the wind blowing as we whizz around.

The first stop is at the huge Ruwanwelisaya stupa surrounded by elephants:

We walk barefoot around the stupa (clockwise of course) and make our way, still barefoot to the bodhi tree temple to see the sacred old bo tree which is 2,000 years old and the oldest tree on record in the world. It’s a fig tree and said to be where Buddha attained enlightenment. We get a blessing from the family who are the original keepers of the tree.

I’m not a fan of walking barefoot when there’s gravel and sand, have you ever seen me on a beach?!! I’m slowly tip toeing my way between sites which suits me fine as there are monkeys everywhere to see. Lots of baby ones playing in the trees:

And bigger ones sitting in our pathway:

On the way back to the starting point and toward our shoes (thank God!) a young local girl approaches me in an attempt to try out her English. She asks where I’m from and what I’m doing here and giggles when she hears I’m by myself (well I’m kinda by myself … at this stage there’s thirteen others waiting on me further ahead) and wants to know if she could have my email so we could be pen pals or email pals I suppose. I gladly give it to her… hopefully she’ll drop me a note and try out her English, which by the way was excellent.

Lunch was an outdoor picnic by an ancient bridge with more delicious curry, this time with jackfruit, beetroot, aubergine and of course rice. Followed yet again my pineapple and banana. The cook also gave us fresh lime juice which was delicious.

In the afternoon we visit other parts of Anuradhapura including the museum and Abhayagiri stupa

After a busy day some pool time was on the cards and another enjoyable meal and drinks was had.

This post is from my last adventure and I had intended to post over Christmas but you know how it is with intentions over Christmas so I’m updating in Abu Dhabi en route to Sri Lanka…..

This one is for my foodie friends – you know who you are! And the good news is this is not going to be a rant about getting a good cup of tea… that continues to be a bit of a nightmare.. although in fairness it wasn’t too bad in Nepal and it was hot but pissy in Cambodia. Bhutan was also pissy but again if you got the right person you got a hot cup.. ok ok sorry this post is NOT about tea it’s about the all the yummy delicious food we tried…

NEPAL:

For our first meal in Nepal we threw ourselves straight into a traditional Newari meal. The restaurant was called Bhojan Griha and it was a set menu of about 6 courses, starting with popcorn (yep popcorn!) it and included a curry, momo and lots of vegetables – it was very tasty. We sat on cushions, traditional style and were entertained by a band and dancers.

The only thing I didn’t like was the rice wine poured in this crazy fashion :

One thing I wasn’t mad about was that everywhere you ordered chicken it was on the bone. No breast of chicken.. half the time it was hard to find any chicken on the bone in the curry dish! We had a nice meal in a place local to our hotel in Patan that was highly recommended by trip advisor : it was called El Mediterranean and the food was decent but the staff were fab. It also had great wifi so we relaxed and planned some future adventures while having a nice glass of wine.

Another restaurant we happened upon while looking for somewhere else in our neighbourhood was “Vesper”. It was really a wine bar that looked like they added food later. It was an outside bar with wicker chairs and low tables.. not ideal for dining. The food was served on fancy plates but was just ok. The bathroom was the nicest we saw on our whole trip and I told the waitress who appeared to be thrilled!!!

Our final lunch in Nepal was at a place called Lahkpa’s Chulo. It was actually the place we’d tried to find for dinner the night before.. no wonder we couldn’t find it – it was down a dirt road and very much off the beaten track but we were so pleased we found it. It was an oasis away from the dirty road and the food was great

We had some guacamole to start .. sure you couldn’t pass up those avocados which were massive and really delicious. Then I had a local dish that was very spicy called chhoyela – it’s meat marinated in Nepalese spices and served cold. It was really hot (spicy not temperature) but very nice. Suzanne had the fish.

TIBET:

In Tibet we had a home cooked meal in someone’s house which was interesting.. the food was great (although I wasn’t eating much) but I did taste a dish with potato and yak which was really good. It was called Lhasa Kitchen.

The breakfast at the hotel was awful – it was in a big half empty hall which was cold and miserable. It was very much a “Chinese breakfast” with mostly noodles and vegetables. Bread was sparse, the toaster was broken and there were no utensils!! Luckily I was on bug killing starvation rations and Suzanne found yogurt at the store next door that she liked!

BHUTAN:

The food in Bhutan was served buffet style 90% of the time – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast was nice – there was always eggs and some cereal and always veg!!! There was a really delicious home made apple and citrus jam in Paro that everyone loved.

Lunch and dinner were identical. Soup to start and then the buffet. There was always vegetables in soy sauce, some sort of chicken and rice. They do a “red” rice which was actually more like brown rice and it was really nice. They also served a chilli and cheese dish that was super spicy and had a bowl of hot sauce (like salsa) available so you could spice up a bland meal. I think this one was called eazy! In fact a lot of the dishes we had were spicy. In general the buffet food was good but often it was cold (well let’s say not hot!) and served on cold plates (arghh!). By about day eight I was losing my mind with the want for something different ….. so I bugged the guide to find us somewhere with a yak burger and of course he did. In Thimphu, the capital, we found a restaurant called Zone One which apparently had the best yak in town! Oh my goodness it was so worth it – I was happy out after my burger and chips and was able to skip the buffet that night.

The next day low and behold we had our first non buffet dinner at a restaurant where we could order pizza.. woo hooo.. I shared a local specialty spicy meat pizza and spicy beef fries – they were spicy hot and delicious!

I did love the little mini bananas that we got everywhere and it was fascinating seeing all the chillis getting dried on the roofs of houses and sold at the market:

Our guide never let us go hungry.. he always had snacks for us on the bus – chocolate bars including kit Kat and cadburys dairy milk (these were usually produced just before a hike – I think he was afraid we might not have enough energy for the climbs!), also delicious oranges. We also tried a couple of fruit growing on trees at various places we visited – guava and some others I can’t remember the name of!!

CAMBODIA:

The food in Cambodia was fantastic. From our first dinner in Phnom Penh to our last lunch in Siem Reap. We tasted amazing Khmer food…We went to a number of “responsible dining” restaurants (listed by lonely planet) and I had my first chance to taste Crocodile burger. I loved it!

In Phnom Penh airport there was a Krispy Creme donut counter.. get in there – had a sneaky little custard filled chocolate (aka Boston Creme) that was an unexpected treat.

In Siem Reap we had surprisingly good food and even more surprisingly good wine in a place on the very busy Pub street beside the night market.

We had a wonderful meal at Maram where we were served by disadvantaged kids getting training and support from an organization running various restaurants across the country.

“Nest” recommended by our hotel was a trendy bar with loud music.. great cocktails but not really our kind of dinner spot so we headed to FFC which although more up our street there was some kind of teenagers party on so that was interesting! There was a live singer and then more loud music as they played party games.. most entertaining to watch from the balcony!

Our last meal in Cambodia was our favourite.. and that’s saying something as we had a lot of good meals. We had wanted to go to a restaurant called Haven (another responsible dining opportunity where disadvantaged kids are taken in and trained for jobs in the hospitality industry) but it was booked solid for dinner so we were delighted to get a spot for a late lunch before heading to the airport for Vietnam.

VIETNAM:

Oh wow the food just got better and better on this trip.

Hanoi : The breakfast at our hotel in Hanoi served mini ban mih sandwiches so I was in heaven. On our first day exploring, for lunch although we could have stopped at a place a bit more authentic I had the most delicious papaya salad. The mango salads, papaya salads and Vietnamese fresh spring rolls were amazing everywhere we went. Around the corner from the Hilton we found a really good low key place called Vi Quang. I had a recommended local dish which I think was banh hom noi liu (or something like that) – it was a plate of salad, meat and rice paper that after some basic instruction I turned into really tasty wraps. Not sure what happened to the photo of the food but here I am looking delighted with myself!

During a visit to the old town oI tried some local fried dough…. not quite the donut I’d hoped for and definitely not worth the calories. It was more fun buying them than eating them!

HOI AN: Amazing food in Hoi An especially the famous banh mi… it was truly the best. I think the photos say it all!

The food on the cruise in Halong Bay was outstanding and there was a lot of it!

SAIGON: My final meal of the trip was a banh mi from a takeaway joint. It wasn’t the best one I’d had but it was pretty good and I just love a takeaway sambo!

• Everyone has a motorbike or scooter… seriously there are millions of them.
• You can get an uber bike or a “grab” – you jump on the back of a motorcycle!
• You have to walk out in front of traffic to get across the road and trust that the scooters will go around you!! You also have to be brave and walk in front of cars… the trick is to put your hand out so they know you’re going to keep walk, then just hope for the best!!!
• A lot of houses have a tap outside the front door where you see people washing stuff.
• Apparently people stand on the toilet as there are signs in a lot of the toilets saying “Don’t stand on the toilet” – I can only assume it’s for our squatting neighbors!
• My UK plug worked and again US works.
• You will be a millionaire! 50 Euro got me 1.3million local VND!
• The accent was the hardest so far to understand as the Vietnamese struggle to pronounce a number of letters. I also felt myself wanting to say “sank you” every time they said it to me!!
• The people of Saigon prefer that name over Ho Chi Minh city.
• There is definitely a more liberal feel to Saigon than Hanoi and the people from the south (i.e. Saigon) are very clear that they are different to most from the North!
• Motorbikes don’t follow the rules of the road – they will go straight through a red light – they do this all the time.
• Motorbikes park on the footpaths.. not just one or two but rows of them and they take up most of the space so a lot of times you have to walk on the road… by the last day in Vietnam I had a little rant shouting at traffic and people lying on their motorbikes on the footpath!
• People drive their motorbikes on footpaths (not the ones covered in parked motorbikes) and they will beep you to get out of their way… you, the pedestrian on the footpath.. arghhhhhhh… OK enough on the motorbikes.
• My hair is still bad in Vietnam!
• In north Vietnam they eat cho…. that’s dog!!

Another short 1.5 hour flight and we were back in dry, hot country and away from Hoi An’s rain! Saigon is a big city with a population of approximately ten million. We were met at the airport by our guide who I could only describe as flamboyant. We caught about half of what he said in between his smiles and giggles… this was going to be fun!

As we were fairly late arriving we just had time to explore our local neighbourhood and grab a bite to eat. Our hotel (Silverland jolie) is in District 1 which is the centre of the city and where most of the action is, so a great location. We walked along the river and found a nice restaurant for a glass of wine and yet again some great Vietnamese food. On the walk back we took a different street and appeared to be walking through a red light district. There was massage parlour after massage parlour with young girls dressed in very fancy dresses and high heels sitting or standing around the doors.. it looked very dodgy!! When I asked our guide the next morning if we were staying in the red light district, he said “there is no red light district in Saigon, prostitution is illegal, yes I agree these girls are trying to attract men (in particular western white men) but we just don’t know what goes on in there”…. hmmm I think we do!!!

Next morning we were picked up to start our tour. We started with a drive out to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is where the Viet Cong (also known as the national liberation front), the army of the communist political organisation fought the US troops in the Vietnam war or as they call it here the American war.

On the nearly two hour drive from the city our guide gave us some information on how the tunnels were built and how they were used. In fairness the 250km of tunnels is ingenious. He kept mentioning the trunkle and it took me a while to realise he was referring to the jungle! He talked fast and got very excited about certain things so it was hard to catch it all but it was highly entertaining considering it was a very dark topic we were discussing.

When we got there we were shown a 15 minute video, made in 1968 with a voiceover of a particularly well spoken British woman! I found the video almost comical…. obviously it was very much from the Vietnamese point of view and the communist point of view so it was all very “hooray for the amazing communist soldiers”… I lost count of the amount of times it mentioned a soldier who was a hero for “killing Americans” … and “this young soldier, she got a medal for her role in killing x number of Americans”.. it was very bizarre. Another piece of footage showed how the soldiers enjoyed living in the tunnel “setting traps and playing around by day and killing Americans by night”.. honest to God, no joke – they were the words!! Even the music in the background was jubilant and very jolly hockey sticks!

It was all fun and games until we got inside the grounds. We were shown the famous tunnel entrances which would fit a tiny person and had a chance to walk into one to experience how small and claustrophobic they were. How people survived for weeks on end is hard to believe.

Another part of the grounds showed the various methods the Viet Cong used to capture the enemy (which was always referred to as the Americans even though the civil war went on for a lot longer than the Americans were involved) . They had all sorts of contraptions leading to holes in the grounds with stakes to trap legs etc… it’s no wonder there were so many wounded after this war with lost arms and legs.

There was an original tank and a display of guns and it seemed odd to me that anyone would want to pose for a holiday snap but sure enough, people posed at the tanks and guns smiling and giving thumbs up…. you’d have to wonder if they really understood what happened here.

As we made our way through the “trunkle” I could hear gun shots in the distance which seemed very peculiar so I asked the guide what it was. He explained that there is a shooting range where visitors can try out a gun that was used in the war – you just have to buy the bullet!!!! The sound of the gun shots, as we got closer, was so loud and honestly I found it terrifying – it totally freaked me out and I was horrified by the fact that no one seemed to think this was inappropriate. We were standing were people were shot and killed all around us.. not that long ago… and everyone was talking as normal (well loudly over the sound of the shots) and behaving like this was just another fun tourist attraction. I had a bit of a meltdown. I was surprised at how upset I got but I realised later that was the first time I’d ever heard a gun shot for real …. it frightened the crap out of me, my heart was pounding and I instantly started crying and wanted to get out of there. We continued through the exhibit but I couldn’t get far enough away from those gunshots quick enough. On reflection I think the other reason it upset me so much was that the whole thing was presented like a celebration. No matter which side you’re on I don’t believe that killing people should ever be celebrated, but that’s just me. In the words of Barret Strong & Norman Whitfield “WAR, HUH, GOOD GOD, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, SAY IT AGAIN”

Before we left the grounds we tasted tapioca – fresh from the local trees. It didn’t have any great flavour:

Back in the car we continued to have great chats with our guide who continued to get very excited about all sorts of things. As we drove past some Christmas decorations he let a roar “Merry Christmas” out of nowhere.. it was hysterical – he’d cheer up anyone! He was really knowledgeable and was able to answer all of our questions, all of which he prefaced with “thank you for your question”.

Back in the city we had an amazing lunch and then it was off to see the city highlights. We started with the Reunification Palace. Not a palace like we saw elsewhere, more like a 60’s soviet building.

Very interesting to walk around and see all the differooms where meetings took place and guests were entertained.

Including the secret bunker in the basement – I don’t think they’ll be using this equipment any time soon:

Next was the post office a striking French building allegedly designed by Gustav Eiffel but the locals say that’s rubbish!

Opposite the post office is Notre Dame Cathedral which is closed for refurbishment but still a popular photo stop:

Next stop Ben Thanh market which had everything from clothes, shoes and souvenirs to fruit, veg, coffee, lots of dried fruits, nuts etc and fish.. the smells (as you can imagine) were delightful!!!

As an added bonus, as it was just around the corner from the market we stopped for a quick look at the Mariamman Hindu temple – really colourful:

We were so full from the lunch that we ended up going for cocktails that evening… again!! Sure why wouldn’t you.. only a short time left on the trip!! We went to the famous Caravelle hotels’ rooftop bar which had great views of the city. View of Bitexco building where we had a drink the next night!

On our last full day in Saigon I started out with crocodile for breakfast and as yesterday the tiniest cup of tea was put in front of me (and nearly brought me to tears) I was armed with a takeaway cup and a Lyons teabag… aha… best cup of tea of the entire trip (39 days in!!!)

After a quick stop at The People’s Committee Building:

We set off for the museum of fine arts. The building itself is quite unusual – in parts it was beautiful but along the side corridors it looked like a prison. It had a lovely air flow as all the windows were open so was very comfortable to walk through the rooms. It was all relatively modern art, a lot of it revolutionary and then post revolution (their words, not mine). Ho Chi Minh was referred to as Uncle Ho when he inevitably turned up in some of the paintings!

In the afternoon we had a cooking lesson at The Saigon Cookery School. It was great fun. There were six of us getting instructions from the chef and we made fresh spring roles, green mango salad and fried rice in lotus leaf. Then we got to eat it… delicious!

Considering we were fed we decided to head for some early cocktails and hit a couple more rooftop/sky bars. (There are a lot in Saigon) Firstly the Bitexco building which is the tallest in Saigon. It was really far looking down from the 50th floor.

Then we hit the Grand which had a lovely view of the river with some nicely lit up boats:

Last day before flying home we hit a couple of final tourist spots. First the Emperor Jade Pagoda which is a Taoist temple, built in 1909.

It had the strangest menacing looking statues

Unlike Tibet where there’s money all over the statues here they have a safe in front of each alter!

They had a separate security guard in the room with the Buddha:

Outside the temple was a pond with a lot of turtles:

Last on our list was the Vietnam History museum. There are a number of museums in Saigon most notably the war remnants museum and another Ho Chi Minh museum but I couldn’t face anymore that so we opted for the wonderfully charming and interesting antiquities museum:

On the walk back to the hotel I had a final banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) and we said our goodbyes to Vietnam.

I’m typing this as I sit on the plane heading for Abu Dhabi. I can’t believe I’ve been six weeks on this amazing trip through six countries. I had a wonderful partner in crime to share it all with – thanks Suzanne! We had a great time from start to finish with no flight issues or major problems along the way just fun and adventure the whole time.

Goodbye Saigon, I hope to be back again some day (in my head I’m already planning a return trip to Vietnam).

Bye for now everyone – I hope I didn’t bore you all too much. Now that I’ve got the hang of this blogging – I literally got up to date yesterday so getting this done by the skin of my teeth – I’ll try it again on my next adventure starting in January. Until then…

So I love a good massage or spa treatment and try to have something done whenever I visit new countries.. here’s what I had done on the Southeast Asia trip.

Deep tissue Massage in Nepal:

The hotel recommended a local massage place so I went along one afternoon to check it out. A young girl with surprisingly strong hands beat the crap out of me for an hour and I felt great after it. She started by climbing onto the table as I lay on my belly and cracking my back – she was like a ninja! It was a full body massage and when I was lying on my back and she’d done my arms and front of legs she asked “would you like me to do your belly and breasts?”… eh no thank you!!

Banana Facial in Bhutan:

Ah lads this was one of the nicest facials I’ve ever had. The banana products were amazing and felt great and she spent over an hour massaging my face. It was heavenly. When she put the mask on (on me not her performing a ritual in costume!!) she gave me the option to have my feet or head massaged.. I went for feet. It was just fantastic and cost me all of about 8 euros!

Dewa Ekkazatti Hot Compression Herbal Leaves Massage in Bhutan:

This started out as a normal massage and then the therapist pounded me with what I could only describe as a large sponge on the end of a mallot!! In reality it was a bundle of herbal leaves and flowers steamed in local oils! She laid it on certain parts of the body – feet, shoulder, calf and then hit me with it until it got cooler and then she swapped it for another one. I’d never had this kind of a treatment before so it was really interesting and very enjoyable. My skin felt very smooth and I smelt gorgeous after it!

Papaya Facial in Bhutan:

After the success of the banana facial I went back for more .. this time I chose papaya it was as lovely a face massage but I didn’t like the papaya products as much as the banana.. still fabulous and still only 8 euros though!

Thai Massage in Cambodia:

This was amazing… this tiny little woman stretched and bent me to within an inch of my life. They gave me pyjamas which I kept on – no oil on the skin. She was on the bed with me through 90% of the massage – it was amazing. It was very funny, she had very little English and when she needed to ask me something (like can you turn over) she tipped me and said “It’s just me mam, can you turn over” and “it’s just me mam, is this ok”.. who else could it have been!!! At one point she was kneeling on my thighs (I was lying face down) and her whole body weight was on my back.. that was a first! She also stretched me out like crazy and used her feet to dig into my inner thighs – I know you’re thinking how’d she do that well it was like doing see-saw – she was holding my hands and more or less kicking me!! She had a lot of moves I’d never seen before!

Pedicure in Vietnam:

I badly needed this after nearly 6 weeks traveling. It was as expected with a nice scrub and extra massage – great foot massage!

Traditional Vietnamese Massage in Vietnam:

Similar to the massage in Cambodia I was given pyjama type clothes to put on but this time short shorts and a robe. The bed was huge but she was only on it to do my back, robe off, shorts on! It was more of a traditional massage with oil on skin and it was more gentle than the Thai massage but it was really good. She pressed certain pressure points and used a lot of elbow and knuckles!! Bliss!

We arrived in Hoi An late at night but already the temperature was significantly higher than Halong Bay and Hanoi.. hopefully our few days at the beach would be sunny! Next morning it was warm but overcast.. we checked out the resort (Hoi An Boutique Resort) which is really nice and spent the morning at the beach.

In the afternoon we decided to explore Hoi An old town. The old town is 5km away and the hotel had a free shuttle so it was easy peasy! We walked around the streets which are full of brightly coloured lanterns hanging everywhere. There are lots of shops, spas, bars and restaurants but the pace is easy going and relaxed. We did some nice shopping and had friendly chats with the shopkeepers, even when we were bargaining! I really like the people here, they seem very genuine and maybe they were a bit bored but they were loving to have a little chat.

There are also lots of tourists going around, usually in a convoy, on these:

Hoi An is the place to have clothes tailored so I decided I could do with another couple of dresses!! It was a whole new experience to chose fabric and then work with someone to finalise a design. I got measured and told there’d be 2 more fittings all within 24 hours.. very exciting stuff.

We had a great meal at a really cool restaurant recommended to us called Ms Vys Marketplace. It was this huge open space with benches and lots of different stalls around the edge cooking different types of food. The menu was a large touchscreen tablet in a wooden casing. We tried a number of small plates so we could taste different things. I got my pork bun which I’d been craving and we had some very nice cocktails!

We toyed with the idea of doing another tour as there’s a temple an hour away (My Son) that would have been a good visit but then decided we’d just relax and have some nice downtime. So day two was spent by the pool and the beach in the morning and exploring the old town in the afternoon.

There are lots of historical buildings to see around the old town. The Assembly Hall:

Japanese Bridge

But the best thing to do is just walk around the town and see the lanterns:

The lanterns look amazing at night but the photo doesn’t quite capture the colours. We had the final fitting and collected my dress (ok dresses!) and had another great meal in a restaurant called Home Hoi An.

Oh I nearly forgot earlier in the day I had the best banh mi sandwich.. for 20,000 VND ($1). The momma collects the money and there’s no messing (a bit like Seinfelds soup nazi).. it was quite an experience…

The town has so many shops with stuff that I just wanted to buy.. I bought way more than I should have and just hope I can fit it all in to get home!!

On our last day (well half day as we had a pickup for the airport at 2:30) it was lashing rain and very windy. So much for my idea of lazing by the pool for the morning instead I decided to hit the gym which I hadn’t bothered doing for the whole time I’d been away (37 days!) and then go to the spa for a massage and pedicure. The rest of the time I’d need to pack so maybe it was just as well it rained.

Next stop Saigon….

An easy one and a half hour flight from Siem Reap and we were in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. This feels like the biggest city we’ve been in so far – huge motorway with 4 lanes going in each direction. As we got closer to the city the scooters and motorbikes appeared – there are a lot! There was also a lot of road works as apparently they are building a metro.

We arrived at our hotel around 8pm – The Hilton no less – our fanciest hotel of the trip. It was in a really central location beside the opera house and was nicely decorated for Christmas which we hadn’t seem a huge amount of. We took a walk around the neighbourhood and found a cosy little spot for a drink and a nibble and made a plan for the next day to see the sites of Hanoi.

Breakfast was amazing – I went full Asian – dim sum and mini banh mi sandwiches – delighted with life as we jumped in a cab, in the rain to get to the Ho Chin Minh mausoleum. The weather was unseasonably cool for Hanoi – it was approx 10 degrees colder than Cambodia (16-18c) so it was a nice respite from the heat – the rain we could have done without it was only light showers and considering they had recently had a typhoon we considered ourselves very lucky.

Things get serious at Ho Chi Minhs’ mausoleum! You need to follow the instructions of the guards and abide by the rules. As the recorded announcement repeats “if you have bad manners towards the rules you will not be allowed in”. There are long queues but they move fast and are very orderly!! No chewing gum, no cameras, no water, no hats, no sunglasses, no talking. You’re motioned in, walk around the body laid out in a glass case, no stopping just keep moving and the visit is all over in about two minutes. I have to say he looked very well – possibly better than he did toward the end of his life. He didn’t look so skinny and still has the beard! The regular maintenance is obviously working – it seems he goes for touch ups quite regularly so we were lucky to get to see him. It was exactly the same as seeing Lenin in Moscow which I thought was a one-off but apparently this is how the communist leaders are revered. Now I’m gonna have to see Mau!

Once we were inside the grounds we could then visit the museum, palace and house where he lived. The yellow palace is where he received foreign dignitaries:

The cars used to drive him around:

House 54 where he did a lot of his work:

The Stilt house where he actually lived:

The museum was interesting. There is a huge statue at the top of the staircase as you enter. Most of the exhibits feature photos of Hi Chi Minh visiting parts of Vietnam and meeting with all the different people in the country or receiving them in Hanoi. There are lots of photos and even some video footage of him meeting leaders and members of communist parties from all different countries. I was looking out for some evidence of the relationship with Cambodia (their neighbors) but couldn’t see anything.

There were lots and lots of letters and quotes from him and again more photos of him writing poetry or speaking at a rally or meeting more people but I didn’t see anything that told me what he did in the 20 odd years after the country become a republic. We did have to leave as the museum was closing at 12 so maybe I missed a section… There was a really interesting exhibit on how the Bolshevik revolution inspired the Vietnamese.

Next we headed toward the old quarter and Hoan Kiem lake. There’s a very pretty red bridge which we walked across to visit the temple and the famous turtle on there:

We spent quite a bit of time walking around the old quarter. It’s an interesting place – chaotic small streets and alleys packed with people working, selling fruit or clothes, making food, washing dishes in basins on the footpath… there are people eating in tiny little cafes (if you could even call them that – some are actually just someone’s little space where they’ve set up a fryer and are serving something on a stick) and drinking tea and coffee sitting on tiny low chairs. There are a huge amount of tea shops – not coffee, tea… so you can imagine how excited I was that I could get a good cup of tea but no.. I tried about 6 of them and they had the weirdest tea concoctions I’d ever come across – cheesy tea (yes tea with cheese!!), banana tea, grapefruit tea and when I asked for just black tea they said “oh no, no black tea”!!!!

Every second place is a spa so you are never far away from a massage and there’s the odd temple here and there. We visited the oldest one in Hanoi. We also visited the Hanoi cathedral which was having some work done on the inside but badly needs a facelift on the outside and we had a delicious gin cocktail (mine was cinnamon and orange peel infused) at the Mad Botanist (shout out Lynny Kramm) overlooking it:

Lightly oiled with gin we headed to the water puppet show at Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre by Hoan Kiem lake. The people controlling these puppets are clearly very talented and the musical instruments and singing seemed very authentic. It was a nice way to spend just under an hour and only cost $100,000 VND (that’s about $5)

Time for another cocktail we stopped at the Metropole hotel which is a famous French colonial hotel where lots of famous people have stayed since 1901. Charlie Chaplin spent his honeymoon here and there is lots of interesting history and photos on the walls. As you’d imagine the drinks were pricy – half a million!!!!

Some local grub finished off the busy day in Hanoi and although it wouldn’t be one of my favourite places we visited it was a good day and a good intro to Vietnam.

HALONG BAY

leaving Hanoi city we drove along a road that has the biggest mural in the world. It’s 6km long and it was really cool to look at while in the crazy traffic.

On the 4 hour drive to Halong bay it is misty, overcast and raining.. not boding well for our cruise. We set off in the mist hoping to see this:

But we actually see this:

Still it was very cool and added an atmospheric feel to the place. At any moment you’d expect King Kong to jump from one of the islands!!

Our ship, Halong Jasmine was very old school with wooden corridors and old lampshades – it was really nice. Surrounded by the fog it felt like we were on an equivalent of murder on the orient express! With just 13 passengers on board we’d see who survive the night!!

After a lengthy lunch of no less than 6 courses (soup, salad. 2 appetisers a main and dessert!) we headed out on a small boat to visit the floating fishing village called Cua Van . There’s a lot less families living here now- about 200 compared to 1,000 some years back but the fishing people have been living this way for over 200 years. Seeing the tiny houses they live in made me feel very lucky to be coming home to the grandeur of Glen Ellan!

Next stop the Tien Ong cave. Fascinating to walk through and see the stalagmites and stalactites. Archeologists, in fairly recent excavations, reckon they have found human bones from 8,000 to,10,000 BC.

They kept us busy on the boat with activities.. next up a cookery demonstration! The chef showed us (with the help of a translator) how to make fried spring roles and of course we got to eat them. We later sat down to another huge meal of 5 courses and it was really delicious. We got chatting to a group of Americans on our tour and enjoyed a few drinks.

The next morning we got up with the sun and headed for tai chi class on the sun deck. There wasn’t much sun to see but the maintenance guy turned up and took us through our tai chi moves. It was mild weather with a little mist falling on us – ideal conditions for outside tai chi!

Our last excursion from the cruise was a visit to Tip Top island where we climbed 400 steps to look at the beautiful views of the bay – they were still beautiful even though we had no sunshine and most of the islands were in fog! There is also a little beach on this island so although it wasn’t quite swimming weather we did go in for a little paddle!

Breakfast and then back to the mainland for the journey back to Hanoi. Goodbye Halong Bay I will have to visit another time and pray for better weather.

On the way back to Hanoi we stopped at the temple of Mon Chau who was a famous academic who was a friend of the king hundreds of years ago. Rumour had it that his wife had an affair with the king and he was accused of murdering the king and exterminated (in the words of our guide) for the crime but later was found innocent. He looks a bit like Confuscious and is still revered today.

Our very cute little guide also pointed out a statue of a unicorn which is completely different to what we know a unicorn to be…

Back in Hanoi we had two places left on our list. Firstly we went to the temple of literature. It’s made up of four courtyards with a temple at the end. It used to be a college but now students come to look for inspiration and pray for good luck in their exams!

There are turtle monuments for each professor/doctor who qualified over the years:

Before heading back to the Hilton to pick up our bags we headed to the “Hanoi Hilton” aka Ho Loa prison where political prisoners were held in the colonial times and then more recently where US pilots where detained.

There was a very interesting exhibit about the relationship with the US and there was quite a bit of footage of John McCain who was imprisoned here for five and a half years. This was the uniform he was wearing when he was captured.

Bags collected it was off to the airport for our next flight….

• Food is amazing!
• Everyone is very pleasant and say thank you a lot.
• There are HUGE billboards on the main roads into the capital, Phnom Penh – I’m not sure I’ve seen any bigger.. or less they were in Bangkok and I’m confused… which is very possible!
• You can travel pretty much anywhere around Siem Reap on a tuk tuk for $2
• You will be demented saying “no thank you” to tuk tuk drivers.. they’ll even offer to take you to the shops for free!!!
• Don’t be surprised if your flight leaves early.. our flight from Phnom Penh left 15 minutes ahead of schedule and from Siem Reap nearly 30!! It seems once you’re on it’ll go..
• Tampons are expensive – $12.50 at the airport!!!
• In Siem Reap, be prepared to see a lot of tour buses and try to keep away from the crazy ones – you know who they are!!!
• The majority of tourists are Chinese (not linked to above bullet 😉)
• There is a widespread campaign to be a responsible traveller and in particular to treat kids appropriately. We kept seeing this poster everywhere:
• In general the Cambodian people feel hard done by by the Vietnamese – they are definitely not friendly neighbours.
• When visiting the Angkor temples expect to hear a lot of “mind head, mind step”.
• My hair is bad in this country!

A short flight and we are in Siem Reap – it is HOT!! We are staying at a really nice hotel called Tara Angkor Wat. It has a great pool (which will be needed) and is nicely decorated for Christmas:

A leisurely lunch at the hotel produces more delicious Khmer food and then it’s off to the night market and a few drinks on Pub Street!

Being chauffeured around in an air conditioned car is just what the doctor ordered in the 30c degree heat of Siem Reap. After smiling for a photo which appears on your ticket (1 day = $37), we headed for Angkor Thom. The entrance and gate is very impressive and is lined with statues:

On the other side of the entrance gate we we’re greeted by lots of monkeys.

You could also chose to get to the temple by elephant (for $20) but those elephants looked exhausted.

Onward to the Bayon temple:

This is “the one with the faces” – if you zoom in you’ll see them…

This place is magnificent and even though it’s our first temple to visit it may just end up being my favourite. I could look at it all day and keep taking photos.. amazing!

We had some free time to walk around and check out the different faces from different angles

There was also lots of interesting carvings:

From there we walked to another temple – Phimeanakus and climbed to the top:

This next one we viewed but weren’t allowed to climb:

Then it was on to the elephants terrace, where back in the day it was like a colosseum where the royals watched sport, not killings thank goodness.

Next we headed for Ta Phrom aka The Tomb Raider temple. I’ve never seen the movie with Angelina Jolie and don’t really have any interest but I might have to watch it just to see the location.

The way the trees have taken route on the temple walls is fascinating and it was really cool to see.

Most of the trees are “spueng” trees – It’s amazing to see their sprawl and how they’ve basically swallowed up the temple!

Next was the big kahuna.. Angkor Wat. Our guide, Mike (not his real name) brought us to the back entrance initially and we made our way through the temple to the front. View from the back:

This turned out to be a great idea as we were at the front for sunset. It did mean that we didn’t see the amazing full-on view until the end of our day though so the suspense was terrible!! Worth it for this though:

Walking through the temple there are amazing carvings that have survived and there is lots of restoration going on.

The climb to the very top was steep but gave more great views of the temple and a sense of how big it was – literally awesome!

It happened to be the 25th anniversary of the site becoming a UNESCO world heritage site so there was a big celebration going on outside that it was hard not to get pulled into. Kids dancing and waving and marching with a band.. it was great fun.

The money shot!

It was a long day and we were tired but we rallied for a tuk tuk ride and another great dinner.

Day 2 we were picked up again and drove about an hour outside of the city to the floating villages on the largest fresh water lake in Asia – Sap Tonle lake. First we saw houses on stilts that are in the more shallow part of the lake which crazily will be dried up in a few months.

This was where our guide was raised. He pointed out his old house and his school (photo below):

As we sailed out further into the deeper water the houses became floating houses. A lot of people live out here and there was plenty of busy life going on. As the water dries up the houses up and move to the deeper parts of the lake.

Local shop:

We had a packed lunch with us and we stopped to have it in someone’s house – it was kind of bizarre but the family were very welcoming and it was nice to see the houses they live in – this one was very fancy with tiled floors! We had a great view out to the lake too.

On the boat ride out, Suzanne and Mike were standing out front and I was happily sitting looking out the side. I noticed a kind of burning smell and was wondering how people managed to cook on their boats and in these small homes. Next thing the driver makes a run past me to the back where the engine is and I can see smoke bellowing out the back. He leans down and pulls out what looks like a pink cardigan which is in flames and he throws it into the lake behind him… holy smoke.. it could have been the end of us and I was totally oblivious enjoying the calm surroundings!!!

After the lake visit we went to see another temple. Beng Mealea is known as one of the more mysterious temples. Apparently it was built to the same floor plan as Angkor Wat and it was consumed by jungle until recently some was cleared away. It is full of piles of huge stones with no major plan to restore them to their former glory.

And again there are trees growing all over it

On our last full day we had no organised tour so we picked a couple more temples to visit and headed off by tuk tuk:

First we headed to Phnom Bakheng which sits on a steep hill with a view (somewhat limited) of Angkor Wat

Then it was on to Preah Khan which was way bigger than we were expecting. It was a huge temple and there was lots of hallways to either side branching off the main walk way. Another very impressive feat of architecture! We walked from east to west so we had a nice view of the sun shining on it and met our tuk tuk driver on the west side to take us to lunch.

After lunch and a spot of shopping we hit the pool for an hour and then I had a massage before going for our final dinner. The next day we had only half a day to say our goodbyes to Siem Reap .. we did some shopping at the local artisan shops close to the hotel – Christmas presents sorted – and had a final lunch – our best in Cambodia at Haven and that wasn’t just because they played Morrissey!

A couple of glasses of wine and a fond farewell we set off for Vietnam…

We arrived to Phnom Penh in the evening, tired after a busy half day in Bangkok. Our hotel – Villa Langka was a cute boutique hotel with an open air reception and restaurant area. We relaxed on the comfy sofa with a cocktail and a nibble and geared ourselves up for a full day of touring the next day.

Our day started with a visit to the royal palace where the king currently resides. It is colourful, sparkly and bright but much calmer and less cluttered than the royal palace in Bangkok. The current king is in his 60’s and not married. He was a ballet dancer in Paris and is very interested in the arts. It’s unlikely he’ll ever marry so they’ll have to look to a different line of the royal family when he’s gone. The locals appear to be fans but he has no power over government and doesn’t seem to do much in the way of helping or inspiring the local people.

On the grounds of the palace is the silver pagoda which inside has a floor completely made of silver (over 5,000 silver tiles), although most of it is covered in carpet. They have a jade Buddha which is an exact replica of the emerald Buddha that we saw in Bangkok and apparently the emerald Buddha was Cambodian and the Thais stole it!!! The pagoda is full of Buddha statues and other deities.

There are two main stupas one containing the ashes of the former king (current kinds father) and the other the kind before that (the current kings grandfather):

There were some very interesting trees and flowers around the grounds. This is the beautiful lotus tree:

We also got the chance to see some local musicians play traditional music:

Next we headed to the killing fields at Choeung Ek. This was a really tough place to visit and this is not going to be a fun post. I am going to post photos so be warned.. it’s upsetting – THIS IS NOT A FUN POST.

On the 13km drive from Phnom Penh to the killing fields, our tour guide gave us some history of Cambodia. It’s definitely been a nation with its troubles and you’ve got to feel sorry for the regular people trying to live a normal life and get by. After a civil war that killed approx one million people the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 under the leadership of Pol Pot. He, along with his Khmer cadres set in motion a plan to purge the country of educated people and then families and bring the country back to a peasant based idyllic (in their eyes) society. Approximately two million people were killed during their time in power. If there was an enemy of the state to be killed (let’s say a teacher), they killed everyone connected to them including babies so as to avoid any future chance of revenge.

It’s really hard to fathom that so many people were killed like this in my lifetime. I was 3 years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. I know there have been other genocides in my lifetime and I know this kind of thing is happening today but this is the closest I came to seeing the evidence and really feeling it and it was horrific. At this specific place which became known as the killing fields, prisoners who had been tortured at a prison in Phnom Penh were brought to be murdered and thrown into mass graves. We walked around the fields and the mass graves are clearly obvious with some bone and clothes still visible as you walk by.

Our guide pointed out a tree that had been covered with blood from where babies heads were bashed and another tree where a speaker was placed with loud music to drown out the screams and roars.

Around 20,000 people were killed in this one spot… I wondered where the other million plus bodies are and the answer is all over the country. There is a small museum with some interesting photos and information on the Khmer leaders. It’s tough to read and generates so many emotions – sadness, disgust, anger…

There is a memorial stupa in the centre of the area. It contains glass shelves with layers of skulls, bones and clothes of the victims killed here. They are organised by sex and age. You can lay flowers and light incense to pay your respects and oddly enough they allow photographs to be taken. I got the sense that they want the world to see these pictures and to ask questions so that people can be educated and hopefully this doesn’t happen again (will we ever learn).

It was a quiet somber journey back to the city. This has to be tough on the guide, a young lady, who takes tourists here regularly. She told us that most of her mothers family were killed and that her Dad was nearly arrested but for some reason another guard let him go… scary stuff.

Continuing the horror we headed to Tuol Sleng prison also known as S-21. This was equally if not more horrific a place to visit. We walked through cells were prisoners were tortured and killed. There were photos taken on the day of liberation showing dead and half dead bodies as they’d been left, chained to beds, shackled to chairs with blood etc. It was truly horrific. This place had formerly been a school but the Khmer Rouge did not believe in educating children other than to brainwash them about their ideals. It closed lots of schools and made this one its most notorious prison.

On our way out we met with two survivors of this horrific place. It was such an honour to meet them and shake their hand.

In an effort to shake off the doom and gloom of the earlier part of the day we headed to the national museum for a bit of Angkor culture. A lovely old red building, it housed mostly stone statues and carvings from the Angkor temples.

Last stop on the tour was the Wot Phnom temple. Up on a hill looking over Phnom Penh it houses a statue of Madame Penh who allegedly found the city and of course some Buddha statues. Oh and did I mention I got a great takeaway tea!!

With our lovely guide – Pique – the diamond of Phnom Penh

Before we left the temple I had my fortune read by shaking some prayer sticks in front of the alter:

I was told that as long as I remained good (and you know I always try to be good) I will have happiness, good health, wealth and honour… I like the honour bit!

Back to the hotel for a drink after a very somber day and a trip to a “good cause dining” restaurant which was delicious (more of that on a separate blog post). Next morning off to Siem Reap!