#AnExpectedJourney

[kingmaker-thac0hno]

An Expected Journey: Letter to House Garess

25 Desnus, 4710 AR

To the Honorable House Garess:

I deeply regret to inform you that Kesten Garess has died. Enclosed with this letter is his signet ring, along with a locket that was removed from his person. I did not know Kesten for long, though having known his nephew, Handor, for several years at the Aldori Academy, I felt it was incumbent upon me to make your noble house aware of Kesten’s demise. Please know that Kesten died honorably. He helped my small party lead a charge against a small army of bandits, and continued to fight bravely after taking many blows to his person. 

Though I did not see him fall with my own eyes, I was aware that he was taking an offensive position against the bandit leader, and when the battle was finally over and we were accounting of the dead, I believe it was a well-placed arrow that finally brought him down. Kesten’s presence was instrumental in the party’s ultimate victory, and we will do our best to honor his memory in the months to follow. I cannot say where I will be upon your receipt of this message, but should you wish to contact me further regarding Kesten’s death, the Aldori Academy should have the best idea of my future whereabouts. You have my most profound condolences.

Your humble servant,

Evrin Brazenbrook Aldori

[world-storyteller]

I’m going on an adventure! 

[craigabi]

Sihanoukville – 08/10/14 – 10/10/14

Sihanoukville is basically a town that’s just a tourist destination, with western bars, restaurants and more foreigners than locals. It’s got a beach front, which was getting set up for a full moon party when we arrived (as it was the full moon that night).

We stopped at the Hibiscus Garden Hotel, which was a bit grotty and required the Mozzy net to be put up (there was one already there but only over one bed and it was a twin room…work that out). But it was a handy location and only for one night so we made do.

In the evening we wandered along Serendipity Beach, which was getting ready for the Full Moon Party and looked like it was going to be a good night! So we went back up Serendipity Road and got some tea at the Big Easy, Abi had a pulled pork enchilada and it was tremendous! She won with the food choice, again! My Korma was ok, but nothing special.

During our walks we had picked up a free drink leaflet for the Led Zephyr bar, which apparently was having an open-mic night. So we went there after our food and it was a disaster. The only good bit was the free drink. Those with the bravery to get up really shouldn’t have. Never in my life have I heard such an atrocious rendition of Hurt, I don’t know if he was going for the Nine Inch Nails version or the Johnny Cash one, but either way it was nothing like either and ultimately a failure. We finished the drink and left.

Giving up on the town bars we walked back to the beach to see what was happening with the Full Moon party. Essentially nothing. We were maybe an hour early, as I know these things kick off late, but the only people about were old western perverts with their young Cambodian “girlfriends” and a group of locals having a rather strange birthday party/ceremony. Other than that it was dead, and due to the lack of people in town we guessed it wasn’t going to get much busier. So we gave up and went to bed. As our hotel was near the beach and had paper thin walls, we expected we’d be woken up if the party got started, since we didn’t and it was quiet all night we assume nothing really occurred.

We woke early the next morning to get a ferry across to one of the islands. There are a couple just off the coast, the two main ones are Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem. Koh Rong is the busy touristy/hedonistic one, and Samloem is pretty much empty. We, being the boring farts we are, went to the empty one. We were essentially stopping at a place for divers, the Eco Sea Dive Bungalows, but it had a private beach with only us and four other people there. It was very peaceful and we had a lovely time splashing in the warm sea on the deserted beach.

On the first day there we relaxed on the beach, doing a little bit of swimming and snorkelling, which was nice! We had food that night in the restaurant with a German couple and a guy from Singapore, which was all going well until a rather large spider descended on some web right next to Abi. It was like the tale of Little Miss Muffet! To those who don’t know, Abi is terrified of spiders so it had picked the right person to drop down next to. She was traumatised! Luckily we had already eaten, so we just relocated to the bar, which was spider free due to two rather large lizards living in the roof space. We had a couple of drinks and then went to sleep in our Jungle Bungalow. This was a little hut in the trees just off the beach, with a fan and a toilet out the back. I’m not sure why there was a fan, the power was only on between 6pm and 11pm, so it cut off not long after we went to bed.

The following morning we got up at 5am to watch the sunrise, which was really pretty. The dogs that lived about the lodge came charging barking at us as we walked to the beach, however they are possibly the softest bunch of guard dogs on the planet, as they just licked our feet and legs when they got to us!

While on the subject of animals, I forgot to mention the other inhabitants of the lodge area, a local herd of cows! Now I’m not sure where these came from, but there were a few of them and they enjoyed mooching about the lodge, especially around the hammock area. The hammock area was a cheap bit of accommodation that you could sleep in for $3 a night, however the downside (or upside if you are my dad) is that the cows like to use that area as shelter, meaning you wake up, climb out of your hammock and potentially stand in a nice lump of ankle warming cow dung. The employees of the lodge were constantly trying to chase them away but they repeatedly returned. A very random addition to a paradise island!

After the sunrise we had breakfast and then went back to the beach. I’d gotten about knee deep in the water when I spotted a nasty looking jellyfish swimming about, so gave up on the swimming that day. The tide then came in quite high, washing the beach out! This was all a little disappointing, as we only had the bar area left to chill in, but it was relaxing having a bit down time in a hammock (not the cow hammocks) and cuddling the cat that hung around. She actually enjoyed curling up on me while I was snoozing in the hammock!

Eventually the ferry came for us and we had a rather choppy journey back to the mainland. We had different accommodation for that night, at a place called Mick & Craig’s (it was always going to get some sort of visit with that name), where we had a great BBQ tea. Lots of ribs, steak and chicken skewers, mmm!

That was it for Snooky, the next day was going to be a crazy long bus journey to Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat, the thing I was most looking forward to in all of Cambodia! Trust me, any length of journey is worth it to go there!

[fireandbloodtargaryenn]

"I am fire!" "I am Death!" "Come now, Don't Be Shy" - Smaug. Limited Edition Smaug 6 Inches, gold. #DesolationOfSmaug #Smaug #AnExpectedJourney #TheHobbit #TheBattleOfTheFiveArmies #OneLastTime #LimitedEdition #Golden

[craigabi]

Kampot – 04/10/14 – 07/10/14

Upon arriving at the Raksmey we were greeted by a nice young boy (probably about 10) who was behind the front desk. His English was really superb and he sorted our check-in in a very professional manner, watched over by his mother who ran the place and was laughing and smiling about him taking over. I jokingly asked if he was the manager, causing more smiles and laughs. Child labour at its best.

The place was pleasant and was clearly going to be a nice comfortable stay. So we got freshened up and made our way out into town for a look about. There’s not a great deal to do and see in Kampot, but it was another one of those places that we enjoyed just walking round and sitting having a drink by the river.

We had lunch at a place called the Rusty Keyhole, where Abi had the most incredible half rack of ribs ever!! There was a challenge to eat a 1.5kg rack of ribs, called the Dino Rib, something I probably would have managed a couple of years ago, but my stomach has shrunk so much (believe it or not) that it would have just been a waste of money. Although I’m sure it still would have tasted lovely! I just stuck with a cheeseburger, which was great in itself!

After a little more walk about the town (there really isn’t much to see), we sat at a place called Veronica’s Kitchen, making use of the entire Happy Hour time (5pm – 7pm) to drink ourselves silly on 2 for 1 cocktails and $0.75 beers. Great stuff! We rolled back to the room and did some rather merry Skyping to my parents and our friends David and Sarah, who were at Louise’s house, another friend! So it was nice to see them, even if we can’t really recall the conversation…

We had a lazy morning (no hangover!) and after having a coffee at Veronica’s Kitchen (this became our local) the owner’s brother, Naal, drove us in his tuk-tuk to Kep, a nearby town. We’d had this place recommended to us by my sister and her boyfriend, Renish, after their trip here, purely because of the Crab Market. Within minutes of arriving at the market, which is actually just before you reach the town, I knew exactly why they had liked it. $8 for 1kg of crab. Now, I thought the crab we had back in Vietnam on the way to Hoi An was fresh, but when I told the woman we only wanted one crab each she said ok, went over to the sea, picked two big crabs out, then put them in a steam pot on a fire for a few minutes and presented them to us for $1 each. These were pretty big crabs for 60p, I honestly don’t think there is a better deal on crabs anywhere in the world (if anyone knows of one please tell me)! We then picked up a skewer of big shrimps and another with a squid on it, bought some sugarcane juice (which is just a sugar cane that has been squeezed and you get the juice, don’t think my teeth will ever recover) and sat and stuffed our faces. All for about $5!

Now we could have stayed there and ate all day, but we’d arranged for Naal to pick us back up and when he arrived so did the rain. Driving anywhere in a tuk-tuk during a downpour is not the nicest, it has to be said. Even with the side covers down we still got wet, but not as wet as Naal on the bike at the front, he was soaked through! He took us back to Veronica’s and guess what? It was Happy Hour! Our excuse for staying was due to the rain, honestly.

We did some more Skyping that night, which was nice as my family were with all of my extended family, so we got to speak with my Aunty Ann and Co. although it was a bizarre experience as, for some reason, the call took place in the downstairs toilet. Our Andrew couldn’t get the camera to swap round either, so they could see us and we could see their feet. But it was still lovely speaking with them.  

The next day was our last in the centre of Kampot, so we checked out from the hotel and went on what is possibly the most disappointing tour I’ve ever been on in my life. We had booked the trip the day before, through our hotel, as the general crack on both Trip Advisor and in the LP was that it was a great thing to do here. Well for anyone coming to Kampot, you’d be better off just sitting in Veronica’s or the Rusty Keyhole.

It started off badly, it was raining torrentially, something we, and the other folk on the tour, thought would clear. The aim of the tour was to go up the mountain in Bokor National Park, have a look at some abandoned buildings there and get some great scenic views. Well we kind of guessed the views would be out due to the rain, but thought the buildings would be quite cool as they were apparently the way they had been left when the Khmer Rouge came to power.

Halfway up the mountain the bus broke down with a large plume of steam issuing from under the bonnet. They let the engine cool down and topped up the radiator with water from a stream, then got us on the way again. As predicted we got some great views of the inside of a cloud and nothing else. We were dropped at the first building, the King’s old summer palace, which was just an empty concrete shell with nothing in it except for a little guard guy living there. It wasn’t big, it wasn’t grand and it was pretty rubbish for a summer palace. I’m sure the view from the veranda would have been good on a nice day, but as I’ve already said, this was not a nice day.

We had to wait here for a bit as the bus was deemed too broken to carry on, so a new one was coming to get us. After about 40 minutes the new one turned up and we were back on the road. Our next stop was the abandoned casino. During our research we had gotten the impression that this was going to be a big lavish casino, complete with tables and machines, but that it had been left to the elements and overgrown. No, this too was just an empty concrete shell with nothing inside. Here we also had our lunch, which was just a polystyrene container with some rice in, apparently the company was supposed to supply two vegetarian meals and the rest chicken, but they got mixed up. So the guide and a Cambodian guy got the two chicken meals and we all got the vegetarian options (just rice). As the building was empty we had nowhere to sit so just had to stand and eat, as the floor was wet off the rain getting in.

Next up we went to an actual casino, which was incredibly random. The place must have been quite new, but was empty except for us and three people at a gambling table, however it was staffed to the max. Every table had a dealer sat at it, there was even an attendant in the toilet to turn the tap on! I’m not an expert when it comes to corruption and money laundering, but there must have been something dodgy going on here. Apparently it was a hotel as well, but there was no sign of any guests. Just so random!

Finally we went to see a waterfall, which had been advertised as a place you could go for a swim. Now even if it hadn’t been bucketing down and (relatively) cold, none of us could work out where you would have gone for a swim. This thing was raging! It made the ones we abseiled down in Dalat look like garden water features! The pool at the bottom looked like a violent, churning, maelstrom of death, not a relaxing natural swimming pool. We left the swimming costumes in the bag and kept the umbrellas and waterproofs out.

So that was the end of the tour. We could have continued on to a boat to watch the sunset, but with the weather the way it was, there was just no point really. The bus dropped us off at a hotel where most of the people were staying, we hopped out as well and had a drink with a nice couple from Lancashire. After a quick bite to eat we got a tuk-tuk to Arcadia.

It took about twenty minutes to get there and as we approached we passed various bits of spray-painted signs and artwork showing us we were arriving at somewhere a bit different to all our previous accommodation. We got dropped off and made our way to the clubhouse area, where the reception, bar and social area was. Here we were greeted by an Australian girl called Kiki, and taken to our room, the Leprechaun Lair, which was just off the main social area. It was essentially a wooden box with a bed in it, a mosquito net, a fan that didn’t work and a light that had as much power as a birthday cake candle. Still, we guessed we wouldn’t be spending much time in there, so weren’t too bothered.

The place is built on the riverbank and comes complete with rope-swings and various platforms to jump in from. However the weather hadn’t really improved much so we gave all that a miss. It is also ran by two Aussie guys and an Irish bloke, so by about 7pm the party was on. We got sat at the bar with a nice Kiwi fella called Carl and made quite a few friends, including Liam, a British lad behind the bar, and Kieran, a crazy Mackem from Shildon. It didn’t take long for the jagerbombs and tequila to start flowing and the drinking games to start. We also all had a Baby Guinness, which was a shot of Kahlua mixed with Baileys. Dangerous!

The next morning everyone was in a very sorry state. I think we’d eventually gone to bed at about 3am, although some stayed up longer. So we lounged about the place the next day all with bad heads, doing not a great deal. That night was a bit quieter, with just a few beers consumed and we crashed out relatively early, mainly because we were to be up the next day for a bus to Sihanoukville, something we did not want to do with a hangover.

And so that was Kampot. We had a nice chilled time in the town, then a bit of a crazy party at Arcadia, enjoying both sides of the place. Although Bokor was a massive let down, we’d definitely recommend Kampot, including the Crab Market at Kep.

[craigabi]

Phnom Penh – 01/10/14 – 03/10/14

As soon as he said it, my mind flagged the scenario up as “SCAM!”, as it sounded like such a standard ploy. There was a bit of an argument and he insisted he was not a liar, but I gave him $50 and said I had no more on me as that was how much I was told it would be. He agreed to put in the extra $20 himself under the guise I would pay him back when we got to an ATM in Phnom Penh.

In the end I looked the mug as we got to the border and it was indeed the case that on October 1st the fee changed to $30, I even double checked when I got some wi-fi. So, I went to a cash point and gave the guy the extra money. I did actually have the extra, I just kept up the act that I didn’t so that I didn’t seem like a liar myself.

Upon reaching Phnom Penh we went for our first taste of Khmer cuisine at a place called the Pepper Tree on the river. I had chicken Amok, which is like a coconut curry a bit like a korma but not as sweet, while Abi ate beef Lok Lak, which is a darker curry that looked a bit more like a thick gravy and had a bit of a smoky, peppery taste to it.

We then had a bit of a walk up and down the riverside, which has lots of bars, restaurants, hotels and droves of perverts. I’d say 90% of the westerners that we saw were old white guys with a young (some very young) Cambodian on their arm, the sort of thing that puts you off a place. So before we brought our food back up, we headed off to bed.

The next morning we got a wakeup call at 7am courtesy of the hotel next door. It turns out they are getting a bit of work done there and apparently 7am is a perfectly reasonable time to start hammering, banging and drilling. This may have been somewhat reasonable had it just been one or two people working, but they had a huge squad in effectively tearing the whole place down ready to build it back up again. The work was so intense that the plaster in our hotel was actually falling off the walls! That is not an exaggeration! Also, the noise was so loud that Abi and I couldn’t hear each other at any more than a distance of two feet apart, even if we shouted. This is also not an exaggeration.

We considered packing up and leaving, in fact we did pack up, but then we wouldn’t have got our money back (due to Agoda’s no refund policy) and we were going to be up early the next two mornings anyway. Therefore, we just got up and left for the day, deciding to continue our stay there. The place is called the Local Riverside Hotel, it was ok and it was cheap, but they are seriously losing out on business due to the reconstruction of Angkor Wat next door, which is a shame because the guys there are a nice bunch. I feel a bit sorry for them for it, particularly since they can’t escape the noise during the day and have to endure it. It must be driving them nuts!

For breakfast we went to a place called Paddy Rice, an Irish bar on the riverfront, treating ourselves to a good English breakfast for the first time in an age! We then spent the day walking around the city doing some of the sites near the river. There were a few nice temples that we passed, including Wat Ounalom, which apparently has one of Buddha’s eyebrow hairs in it (although we didn’t pay to go into that bit), and then we passed one called Wat Bottom Fatty. That’s clearly not the correct spelling, but it’s something like that and that version is funnier.

We visited the National Museum, displaying some nice Khmer art and relics from the age when Angkor Wat was built (more on this in later posts). After dinner we went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, which was nice for a bit of a walk around inside the palace area; there are some pretty cool murals around the walls of the courtyards depicting scenes from Hindu myths and legends, stuff I got quite into in India and it was enjoyable revisiting it. I’m fond of the tales of the likes of Vishnu and Krishna battling with demons, they’re quite fun and imaginative!

The Silver Pagoda is named so due to the floor being made entirely out of silver plating, however it’s all covered up with carpet to protect it so you don’t actually get to see any of it. There wasn’t even a roped off area that was revealed so you could get an idea, which is a shame if you ask me! But all is not lost inside, as there is a huge collection of small Buddha statues made out of gold, silver or gems that have all been donated to the temple. The centre piece being a large statue of gold, behind which sits a Buddha made entirely out of emerald and it’s very pretty.

All of this added up to quite a long busy day in rather high temperatures. Couple all of this with our abrupt awakening and we were both left feeling pretty tired. We were also planning on going to Tuol Sleng prison and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields the next day, a day we both knew would require some emotional strength, as they are two sites from the time of the insane genocidal rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. I warn you, the rest of this post isn’t light hearted and a big 12A stamp is probably required.

So after being woken up by our alarm clock provided by our neighbours, we went and got a tuk-tuk to Tuol Sleng. This was formerly a high school in the middle of Phnom Penh that was turned into a prison during the reign of Pol Pot, renamed S-21. Here they imprisoned and tortured those they deemed to be enemies of the regime, making up all sorts of allegations and torturing people until they confessed to crimes that were completely fictitious.

Nowadays it is a museum highlighting the insanity and brutality of the genocide that took place in Cambodia from 1975 until 1979, with photographs of the victims as well as copies of the information that the Khmer Rouge gathered about each person. We actually found that a guy from Newcastle, John Dewhirst, had been imprisoned here and was accused of being an agent of the CIA. He was tortured and eventually executed for his crimes.

Where some of the rooms have been turned into photo-galleries, others have been left as they were found. Some were big classrooms that had had makeshift cells built in them out of bricks or wood, while others were torture chambers that still had the bloodstains on the floors, ceilings and walls.

From Tuol Sleng we followed the same road as the prisoners would have, to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Here, after their torture and imprisonment, the victims would be brought to meet their final end and be buried in mass graves.

These days it’s a large memorial site to those victims and the other 2.2 million people who died during that era. Upon entering the site there is a large memorial stupa that houses the skulls and other bones of 5000 people. Before approaching that monument though, we walked around the rest of the fields, where there are a number of ditches that had previously been mass graves. Since the atrocities occurred, the government and other NGOs had dug up many of the graves to piece together evidence of the crimes committed here to bring justice to the Khmer Rouge leaders. But from 2005 the government ruled that the remaining graves were not to be touched and the bones were to be left to rest.

All in all it was a pretty harrowing day. I won’t go into all the details as it was incredibly gruesome and they weren’t exactly nice places to visit. However, those coming to Cambodia must come to them, not only do you learn lessons of the hell these people went through (in living memory) but you also learn the depths that humanity can sink to. I finished the day with the same sickening feeling as after my trip to Auschwitz in 2006.  

On that evening we sat by the river back in the city and watched as a group of teenage Aussies played a hacky-sack type game and were joined by some of the local youngsters. There was also an old guy who was fishing for plastic bottles along the river on a little wooden boat, I guess they must get a little bit of money for each bottle they take to wherever. He beamed at me when I climbed down the river bank and gave him our empty bottle of coke, with genuine thanks in his eyes.

We then sat and had a couple of drinks with the guy from our hotel, who was grateful of the business as the place was dead (the place is pretty much hidden due to the destruction next door). It was nice to sit and have a bit laugh with him, what with that and the joy by the riverside it certainly brightened our day.

The next morning we were to be getting a bus to Kampot, our next destination. We went to bed feeling like we had already learnt a lot about the Cambodian people, that despite (or perhaps because of) the hell their country went through in the ‘70’s, they are determined to be friendly and are equally determined to work hard and continue with rebuilding their beautiful country - and they start at 7am!

[craigabi]

Mekong Delta & Ho Chi Minh City Part 2 – 28/09/14 – 30/09/14

The first day in the Delta area was nice, although it started off with the sound of a dying cat, sorry, I mean some Vietnamese folk music. A live band of ancient guys with a couple singing provided some fantastic entertainment, although probably not in the way they intended. I’m sure some folk music is quite nice, like the stuff that accompanied the water puppet show in Hanoi, but no one on this planet could have found the singing here pleasant. It was only made worse when one of the Vietnamese women on the trip also got up and joined in. My ears were bleeding, but we laughed.

After this was a little canoe ride through some of the mangrove areas, which was made enjoyable by the rain that kept us cool on the ride (clouds and silver linings anyone?). The boat took us to a little area where we were presented with a cup of honey tea, which was nice, were allowed to try some coconut candy, which was also nice, and we were then able to try shots of snake wine or coconut wine. Both wines gave us the shudders and made us pull very strange faces, but the taste wasn’t too bad. The coconut wine is made from the coconut water but the snake wine is made from the venom of the snake, the dead body of which is coiled nicely inside the bottle to remind you what it is.

Next was a motor boat to a little place to have some lunch, which was basic but tasty. There was an old dog that looked pretty blind sniffing round the tables. Where its eyesight had failed clearly its nose had increased in power as he followed plates of food when they were brought out and pestered everyone for a morsel of anything.

Another boat then took us to see a big Buddha, which we’ve seen a few of now! Although this one was different, as this one was a big Happy Buddha (that’s the fat bald one with the big grin)! This was mainly done as a toilet stop before a bus journey to Can Tho city. Our journey here was quite comfortable as a lot of the Vietnamese had left us, giving a lot more room on the bus and a double seat each.

On my last visit to the Delta we spent a night in Can Tho that time as well. My memories were of a dirty little room with only a ceiling fan and mosquitos flying around (think the opening scene of Apocalypse Now with Martin Sheen and the fan). Well this time was pretty much the same, but with the added bonus of an air con unit on the wall! As it happens, I think we’ve stayed in worse accommodation on this trip, so the room in Can Tho didn’t seem so bad.

That night we had a bit of a walk around the town, looking at the night market and also going for food at a local restaurant. When I asked the young waitress what she recommended from the menu her suggestion was the snake. Well I’m not one to turn down a recommendation and I thought why not!  

Essentially the snake meat itself wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t keen on the curry sauce that it came in, as it was very sour. We had some vegetables in a lemon grass and garlic sauce, if the snake had been in that it would have been much better! Regardless, I did have a crazy dream that night in which I had snakes wriggling around inside of me!

Day two in the Mekong was an early start to see the floating market. Here there were lots of boats that were floating along selling all sorts of fruit and veg, with whatever item it was that they were selling displayed on a big bamboo pole. The most impressive part was watching people throwing items from boat to boat; two guys were passing big watermelons to each other, two at a time!

We then motor boated our way to our next stop, which was a rice noodle factory. I say factory, but it was just a wooden hut where they turned the rice milk into big sheets of paper, which was dried in the sunlight and then ran through a shredder. The result was some nice long strips of rice noodles. Unfortunately we weren’t provided with a bowl of rice noodle soup to try them out, which would have been a great little touch, if you ask me!

Next stop was a little plantation that was growing Jack fruit, guava, durian and frogs. That wasn’t a mistype; they were breeding some big frogs in a pond covered by a net so they couldn’t escape. They also had their prize fighting cockerels kept in separate little pens, while the rest of their chickens were just wandering about.

Here you could have had barbequed snake, rat or frogs as a snack. As I had tried the snake the night before we gave this a miss and stuck with mangos, dragon fruit and a coconut. If you’ve never heard of dragon fruit before, well I’ll tell you it is very nice! The outside is incredibly dramatic for the plain inside, which is just white with little black seeds, but the taste is good!

After a bit time relaxing in hammocks we then got the boat back to Can Tho. After a quick and disappointing lunch at the restaurant next to the hotel, it was back on to the bus and we were on our return trip to Saigon.

Once we were back we went for tea in a pizza restaurant with a woodfired oven, which was labelled as the “best pizza in Saigon”. Not the best I’ve ever had and the only ones we’ve had in HCMC, but I have to admit they were pretty good!

The next day was our final one in Saigon and with that our final day in Vietnam, as we would be getting a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the following morning. We didn’t do a great deal to be honest, had a nice walk by the river and looked at Stark Tower, then sent a package home, stuff we have collected over the past couple of months that will no longer allow our bags to shut. We sat and had a nice couple of iced coffees in the Coffee Factory, making use of their fast and free wi-fi!

Then we had a bit walk around Notre Dame Cathedral (not the Notre Dame, just Vietnam’s equivalent). It was dark and we had thought it may have been nicely lit up, which it wasn’t. We’d hoped to get back to the Hard Rock to see Jogadanz again, but we also wanted a final hotpot before leaving the country, so we had to make a hard decision and our stomachs got the better of us! We went for one at a little local restaurant near our hotel, but it was a tad disappointing as it wasn’t as good as we had hoped it would be. A shame that in a country where we’ve had great food all the time, our final meal was a let-down, but never mind!

Like I said, it was up early the next morning for our bus to Cambodia. Final thoughts on Vietnam? Well it’s changed a lot since I was last here in some ways, western companies have invaded big style and a lot more successfully than the last attempt by the American government. Tourism has obviously brought in a huge flow of money, the marina at Ha Long Bay being the biggest single piece of evidence of this. Yet, as things stand, the country hasn’t been spoilt. The people are great, the landscape gets more lush with every year of regrowth and the food is (generally) incredible.

After two trips to ‘Nam I would definitely go back for a third. There’s a magical draw about the country that I think will always drag me back here. For Abi, well she’s been captured by the same magic, I almost had to drag her away. We’ll definitely be back!

[craigabi]

Dalat – 23/09/14 – 25/09/14

Eventually we bounced to a stop in Dalat. We hadn’t booked anywhere to stay, but we had shortlisted a few options from the internet, the number one being Mr. Peace Backpacker’s House. It wasn’t far from where the bus stopped, so we walked off to find it, down a little back street which was quite steep. As we trekked up towards it a young Vietnamese guy came running wildly down the street crying “hello! I’m Mr. Peace! Do you have a booking?” to which we replied with, “no” expecting him to turn us away. But he didn’t, he just exclaimed that that was great news and that he had a room and then gave us both big hugs. Crazy, but in a good way, just how we like it.

We were introduced to his wife, Strawberry, and their adorable 9 month old daughter, Laura. Both mother and daughter were very small and very cute, we knew they were going to be a lovely family to stay with.

The room was ok, but anything would struggle to look good after our stay in Hoi An, however the lounge area upstairs and the kitchen were where we spent most of our time anyway. It was such a great social place, Peace really did an excellent job of bringing all the hostel guests together and creating a fun and enjoyable atmosphere.

On our first afternoon Abi and I had a bit walk into town around the lake. There wasn’t much to see, but we had some nice food for lunch and it was a pleasant enough walk.

When we arrived back at the hostel in the evening Mr. P took us and some other guests down to the market to get some food for the BBQ party he had planned for that night. It was a bit like shopping at the market in Yangshuo, but with no dogs hanging up and this time the market was spread along the roadside. We also had Mr. Peace with us this time, adding to the entertainment. He bought Abi a lovely bunch of flowers, just because we’d had to wait half an hour while they finished cleaning our room when we first arrived. That was nice, but I’m not sure what he expected us to do with them on our travels (we gave them to Strawberry in the end).

Back at the house we all pitched in and gave Strawberry a hand preparing the tea, chopping the squid, meat and vegetables, then putting them all on skewers ready to cook on the coals. It was all a good laugh; a Scottish lad who was with us, Michael, who is the son of a butcher, thought gutting the squid was gross! Apparently he can handle cutting up meat but not seafood.

We then sat on the balcony area with a couple of BBQs and a few (maybe quite a few) beers, cooking the skewers and feasting on the food. I didn’t count but I think there were over twenty of us from all over the world, mainly Germans mind. I’m seriously starting to wonder if there are any young Germans left in Germany, we’ve met so many over here! Not that that is a problem of course.

With the food consumed Abi and I went to bed, we needed to recover from our journey from Hoi An! The others were talking of heading to a night club or karaoke bar, but next morning we found this hadn’t happened due to a lot of people leaving early the next morning.

Speaking of the next morning, that was another reason we wanted an early night, we had our canyoning trip to go on! Now in case you missed any of the photos on Facebook, the canyoning trip turned out to be the most fun and crazy thing we did in Vietnam. Basically it involved trekking through the jungle, swimming down a river, jumping into pools oh and erm…abseiling down waterfalls. You know, as you do.

We went with Michael and Hannah from our hostel and were joined by two Aussies, Peter and Catherine (I think that was her name). We got to the canyoning area and were taken by our two guides/instructors, Mr Win and Dragon (yes, Dragon was his name, Fly was his surname), into the jungle. We were given our harness, helmet, life jacket and a pair of thick woollen gloves then climbed up to the top of a 5 meter cliff where we were shown the essentials in abseiling and allowed a few goes up and down.

To those who don’t know, Abi is terrified of heights, especially after a nasty experience while rock climbing when she was dropped quite a way by her belay partner and crashed into the ground, luckily avoiding serious injury. As you can probably imagine, stood at the top of the cliff face she was just a little bit terrified. But she took a big deep breath and gave it a go, actually quite enjoying it after a couple of attempts!

After the practice one we then did an 18m dry abseil, which was down a dry cliff face next to a waterfall and ended with a drop into a pool at the bottom. That was our first taste of getting wet, the water was cool and refreshing but gave you quite a shock when you were all of a sudden submerged in it. We then swam under the waterfall, something I’ve never done before and I have to say the power of the water dragging you towards it was pretty incredible! You just had to let it suck you in and spit you back out! Mad.

We trekked a bit through the jungle, which was cool in itself, to our next destination, a natural water slide! This sounds like it would be quite fun, which it was, but it was also a lot more frightening than any waterslide at Wet ‘N’ Wild or Blizzard Beach! Essentially you lie down at the top of some rapids and let the current drag you through them. You just bounce down the rapids in a few short seconds and come out in a pool at the end not really knowing what the hell just happened!

As if to give us time to recover from the rapids, we then just floated along in our life jackets, trying to get our breath back. This led us to the last dry cliff, it was only 16 meters high and ended up with us stepping in a shallow bit of the river at the bottom, nothing fancy! But after a little more walk through the trees we got to the second water slide, which was just brutal. Not only were we thrown about like rag dolls down the rapids, but we then got thrown off a small waterfall at the end and well and truly dunked under the water. Normally when you jump/drop into water you are under for a bit and then you either pop back up or swim back up. With this you were thrown in and because of the power of the waterfall you kind of get pushed down deeper for a longer time than is actually comfortable. Me being the wally I am, I’d given a scream of “kowabunga” as I’d dropped off the end, something I regretted due to the fact I no longer had any air left in my lungs during the submerged period, adding to the uncomfortable feeling.

Once we had battled through the jungle a bit more we came to the Big One, the 25 meter-high abseil down the waterfall itself. I took one look over the edge and for the first time thought, “what am I doing?” so I volunteered to go first. Strange how my mind works, right?

There were three parts to the route, the first you walk backwards and then go over the edge, feeling the full power of the river pushing against your legs as you shuffle along with your back to the drop. During this stage Mr. Win is visible at the top indicating if you needed to go left, right or keep going straight. I can’t stress enough the power of the water on your legs at this point, the Aussie guy actually lost his footing and slipped against the rock because it’s just so strong!

The second part you go over a ridge and can no longer see Mr. Win, so instead you have to look at Dragon who is on dry land at the side. This is pretty much vertical and the water is hitting you in the face, making seeing anything seem difficult. At this point I heard Dragon shout “Stop!” he then said something else, which I didn’t hear, then he counted “one, two, THREE!” so what did I do? I smiled, thinking he wanted to take a photo of me in the rushing water (as he had our camera). What had I forgotten? Well Mr. Win had said at the top that at this point we were to just let go, but with the chaos of the water this had slipped my mind. Until Dragon imitated letting go. “Oh…yeah” I thought. So without even looking backwards I trusted the mighty Dragon and let go with both hands. I can tell you falling backwards 7 meters takes quite a long time, just when you think you’re never going to hit the water you feel the slap against your back and the rush of wind explode from your mouth. Christ On A Bike.

I swam to the surface, let Dragon help me out and I think my words were along the line of “Holy sh*t! Can I do it again?” So once everyone else had had their turn, me and Michael rushed back to the top to go again. Might as well get our monies worth right?

Abi did the thing no bother, like a pro! She even thought ahead and managed to hold her nose as she dropped off the end! Turns out she had tried to chicken out and climb back up from the end of the first part, stopped by Mr Win declaring she couldn’t turn back now.

My second time round was much more enjoyable, I was a bit more relaxed and ready for the drop, making it awesome fun!

After a bit more trekking and a couple of jumps off a 7 meter cliff into a lovely pool below we then arrived at the final abseil, the Washing Machine. To sum it up, you go over the edge down the dry cliff face, which has a water fall crashing down the cliff face opposite with a gap of about three feet between each side. At a certain point the water from the other side starts to grab hold of you and you run out of dry face on your side to put your feet on, so what do you have to do? Give up and let the waterfall drag you down, once more demonstrating the sheer power of the river.

The instructions were to let go once you were waist deep in the river at the bottom and let the current drag you under and then away. This was all well and good, but I think I may have let go a tad too soon, as I dropped into the river and was pushed right under. The next few seconds were probably the most terrifying of my life as my knee got wedged between some rocks with my head completely under water. I say a few seconds, but my word it felt like a life time! Eventually I wiggled my knee free and was instantly dragged away by the flow, my head popping up again in moments. As I say, it felt like an age but was probably only seconds. Even so, it was enough for me to think “oh my God I’m going to die”. It wasn’t enough to stop me doing it a second time though, as I ran back to the top wanting to do it all again. Abi didn’t bother with this one. To be honest, she would have hated it so it was probably better she left on happy memories of the 25m one and not this. Second time round, I did it fine and didn’t nearly die!

So that was the canyoning. By far one of the craziest things we’ve done so far, but my word it was awesome fun and a great day! Anyone looking to do it, we went with Dalat Passion, Mr. Win and Dragon were great fun but also very good with demonstrations and explanations. Mr Dragon also took some great photos for us! Thank you to them!

Back with Mr Peace and Strawberry we all made spring rolls together, with a fresh intake of meat for the Mr. Peace house grinder (new guests) who all helped as well. Strawberry fried the rolls in a pan while also making a mean chicken curry! So tea was again quite simple, curry, spring rolls and bread, but it was lovely and great fun getting involved!

After tea everyone in the house went to the local karaoke bar, including Strawberry and baby Laura! It was a great night, Mr. Peace is quite the performer! You can tell he really, really wants to be in One Direction! He’s probably a better singer than them as well! I’ll post the video of him in action again after this.

As everyone knows that reads this, I’m the shy and retiring type that likes to keep my voice to myself and doesn’t like performing in public. So my first song was Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff, purely because the German guy who started it gave up after the first couple of lines, so I helped out and picked up the microphone! I then sang the Rollin’ Stones’ Satisfaction with Rema from Australia, Abi then did her karaoke song I Love Rock and Roll, then we did Crazy Little Thing Called Love together. My highlight of the whole night was when the group of Germans all got together and sang Nina’s, 99 Red Balloons (obviously the German version)! Although Mr. Peace and Cha Cha Cha will stay with me forever.

We left Dalat the next day after an amazing stay, the canyoning, the company and the karaoke were all great fun and I’d go back there in a heartbeat! Mr. Peace was amazing, Strawberry was a saint to put up with his hyperactivity and also very lovely herself, and baby Laura was just the cutest. She was (like most babies) obsessed with my glasses and even gave me a kiss and a wave goodbye!

Next post we travelled to Ho Chi Minh City, or as everyone in the world knows it (through both fame and infamy) Saigon, and yes, the Heat truly was on!

[craigabi]

Hong Kong – 05/09/14 – 10/09/14

We walked down from our hotel, the West Street Hotel near Jordan MTR (metro) station, to the Star Ferry at Victoria Harbour. The ferry was a bit bouncy as we sailed across the harbour, with lots of swell and the wake of big ships to contend with, but the views of the skyline of both Kowloon and HK Island were pretty cool. For those that don’t know, Kowloon is the part of Hong Kong that is attached to mainland China, Hong Kong Island is…well an island, just off the mainland. HK used to be owned by the British but we gave it back to China at the end of the ‘90’s, but it’s still very westernised compared to the rest of China. They also drive on our side of the road and have UK-style plug sockets, handy! They also have HK Dollars instead of Chinese Yuan, but it’s about the same rate. It’s tricky though because the notes are different colours depending on which bank printed them, as in different colour $10 notes for example and a $10 coin.

Anyway, back to the plot! So we crossed over the harbour and got the number 15 bus all the way up to The Peak. You can get the 15C and get a tram up to The Peak, but we didn’t (at this point). So, what’s The Peak? Basically it’s a mountain with a shopping mall on the top that has a viewing platform and a tower that also has shops, entertainment facilities and a viewing platform as well. For time we did the cheaper option in the afternoon and went to the shopping mall’s roof, as that doesn’t cost. The view over HK, the harbour and Kowloon was nice, you really could see for miles! It’s a bit of a tourist tick-listy thing, but it was nice to do and quite peaceful up there.

We came down from the mall and got the tram back down the hill. As trams go, this one is quite extreme. It descends at one heck of an angle, at times it felt like we were on a theme park ride and it was going to drop at any moment! But it didn’t, it was gentle! Worth the ride!

After disembarking from the tram we got a little bit lost trying to find the MTR station, mainly because Hong Kong pedestrian sign posts are terrible. I’d rather there hadn’t been any if I’m honest, as these would point you in a direction, which you would follow, but then there would be no more sign posts and you would have to guess. At least if there hadn’t been any you would have to have the map out straight away. We managed to get directions off a British businessman and found our way to the station. During our time there we got duped by another couple of sets of sign posts, so for reference just take a map and don’t bother with the signs!

Once we made it back to the hotel we got washed and changed ready for our final night as a group. We hot-footed it down to the water front to watch the night time skyline display, I have to be honest here and say it was really rubbish. Nothing on Shanghai! Before it started the announcer listed off the names of what felt like 100 buildings that had contributed to the display (which happens every night) so we all got excited that it was going to be something really exciting, but really it was a let-down. About half a dozen buildings flashed and had laser lights shining from their tops, but other than that there was nothing else. Yes it was free, but it wasn’t even worth the effort walking to see it. We all felt like that as well by the way, it’s not just me being a grump!

Lily then led us along the avenue of stars, which is a bit like LA with the stars and handprints of famous Hong Kongese film stars lining the water front. I only knew Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, surprisingly!  Then we headed back up towards the hotel and went to the Garden Restaurant for our final group meal. It was entertaining because I’m guessing there was some sort of freshers event or something, as there was huge group of Chinese teens all dressed as either Ronald McDonald or a Minion from Despicable Me. They held their drink as well as the youngsters in Pizza Hut back in Chengdu! I went to the toilet and one of the sinks was blocked with sick, delightful. We had a great meal and a good laugh, then said our final goodbye to Lily.

We had all decided to go for a drink together, but she was to be up early the next day to fly back to Beijing and start the whole thing again with another group! She was a really lovely person and (without sounding too cheesy) we do feel like we made a friend in China!

After a bit of walking about we ended up in an incredibly random seedy bar, drinking some god-awful beer called Blue Girl, I would not recommend! We said our final goodbye to Sean and Chiara then headed off to sleep. Abi and I were changing hotels the next day for the rest of our time in HK (downgrading shall we say) but we arranged to meet up with Tony, Vicky, Babsi and Corinna the next night for tea and an evening together.          

In the morning we then moved base. Our chief accommodation booker back home (my mother) had booked us the next hotel while we were in China, due to our internet restrictions we had left the decision to her, “it looks ok and should be easy to find” was what she said to me. It was not easy to find. We walked round and round the block that our hotel was supposed to be on (the Dragon Hostel) and eventually we found a cheeky little entrance that led to a little cubbyhole with some elevators in it. On the label for the 7th floor had “Dragon Hostel – Room 707” written on it. Up we went, through a few corridors and eventually found Room 707 and the reception for our hostel. Check in was straight forward and we were then taken down a dodgy stairwell to level 6 and Room 614. Inside Room 614 was another corridor with other rooms attached to it, ours was room number 98. I say room. We had two less-than single beds, a cupboard with a toilet in it (with a shower above the loo), a TV (like something from the ‘80’s) and some coat hooks on the door with coat hangers on as the wardrobe. All crammed into a space about the size of a shoebox. The bed was about 5 foot long, not good for someone of 6 foot in height, especially when the bottom had a wooden footboard, it was also about two foot wide, making the foetal position as uncomfortable as laying out straight. On a plus side the mattress was more comfortable than anything we had slept in through the whole of China! The air con was also spot on, probably because it didn’t have much space to cool. Nevertheless it had a certain charm to it and we made it home for the next few nights.

The evening of our first night after the tour we met up with the last of the gang back at their hotel and went to Outback Steakhouse for a nice bit of cow and a blooming onion. It was amazing! AND it was the first time since arriving in India that we had a meal and used both a fork AND a knife! India was mainly forks and bread, then China was chopsticks, so having two bits of metal in our hands was a novelty!

Afterwards we went back to the Peak to see it at night and went up in the tram, pretty cool, then paid to go to the top of the Peak Tower to get a view of the city at night and my, what a view! The twinkling and jazzy light provided quite an impressive display and was much better than the day time view. My advice here is that if you want to see the city from the top in the day, just do the free bit like we did, that’s all it’s really worth, and then pay to go on top of the tower at night. It costs very little but it’s pretty priceless really.

We then said our goodbyes to the last of the gang, Babsi, Vicky and Corinna, who got off the MTR at the stop for the West Street hotel. Tony hadn’t come with us to the Peak but had instead gone to the Temple street night market, but he was going on to Vietnam and we’d arranged to meet him up with him in Hanoi.

Now it was back to just us! The G Adventure was over and it was back to making decisions by ourselves and having to sort everything off our own backs. The trip around China was nice for a few reasons: First of all we got to meet some great people, which has got to be the biggest pro of the whole trip! Second, trying to do China on your own backpacking would be more hassle and hard work than what it was worth, we learnt that our first night in Beijing! Third, it was quite nice to have a bit of a holiday after the chaos of India, having everything organised for us made it so easy! Finally, with China being the size it is, we probably wouldn’t have gone to some of the places we did in the trip had we been organising it ourselves, due to the fact that time budgeting would have been tricky without really knowing the place and we may have missed some little gems like Emei Shan or Yangshuo.

But although the tour was over, we still had time left in Hong Kong. On our first day alone we had a bit explore around the Stanley area, including Stanley market (absolutely nothing like the Stanley in County Durham). As we had been wearing the same clothes for a while now, we took the time to replenish our t-shirt stocks, spending about £15 on 7 tops between us, which were all pretty good quality for such a low price! We had a bit walk along the promenade by the sea and went for a drink in the Smugglers Inn, paying far too much money for a couple of soft drinks but never mind. The best bit about the day was in the evening, having a fantastic Japanese near Temple street, I had a sea food delight of noodles with a tiger prawn, muscles, squid and scallops, with some beautiful sushi on the side of octopus, squid, tuna, salmon and prawn. As HK goes, it wasn’t badly priced and it was amazing!

The next day was the main reason we had really hung around in Hong Kong, we went to Disneyland! We got the MTR there, and the last shuttle train you get is on a metro train that is all Disney themed, even having Mickey shaped windows. The park is quite small in comparison to other Disney parks, even compared with Paris, but it was the first day back at school, so it was really quiet! Not empty, we weren’t the only people there, but the longest we had to queue was for about 5 or 10 minutes, and there were enough people to give it some atmosphere. There aren’t many rides and there isn’t a great deal to do, so we managed to do all the main rides two or three times (we even did the Big Thunder Mountain-style “Grizzly Gulch” four times) as well as seeing all of the shows. For those that know Disney, the Grizzly Gulch is like Big Thunder but with a bit more Oomph! If you’ve been on the Everest ride at Animal Kingdom, well it’s a bit like that with a Wild West theme.

We did the Stitch experience, which is when an audience is sat in front of a huge screen talking to a computer image of Stitch, who moves around and speaks with the audience. It’s very fun and very interactive as he picks two or three members of the audience to have a conversation with and, in fact, the little guy zoned in on Abi and started asking her questions! After a few ice breakers he asked if she had a boyfriend, to which she said yes and he was next to her, so I now had the mic! To cut a long story short, he ended up naming a planet after us, the Abi and Craig Love Planet, how sweet...

The day was great fun, the staff were very friendly and the attractions were very entertaining! We stayed until closing time, doing Grizzly Gulch twice in the dark (a Big Thunder family tradition) and then watched the fireworks display above the castle, which was the usual, impressive Disney standard. The difference between here and the other parks in the world, was that the castle is tiny, so the fantastic projection work you get at the others wasn’t really workable here. But the flashes and bangs with pretty colours in the sky were good enough for me!

With the Star Ferry, Peak and Disney now all done there were only two things left that we really wanted to do in HK, the big Buddha at Tian Tan and the Temple Street night Market. So on our last day we made the trip to the big Buddha. This is quite a cool journey, which is worth doing in itself, as you have to go on a cable car over the mountains to the Buddha and it takes about 25 minutes, reaching incredible heights! If my dad wasn’t so afraid of heights he would love it as it sweeps up the mountains alongside the airport (if you don’t know, he’s a plane spotter). But it was really cool, although a little bit wobbly when the wind picked up at one point, I must admit it made me a little nervous when the car was swaying about in the gusts!

The Buddha is a commanding bronze statue at about 34meters in height, but sitting up on top of the mountain it feels a lot bigger. It was only constructed at the beginning of the 90’s so the whole thing is designed as a tourist trap, with shops and hawkers all the way from getting off the cable car to the top of the Buddha. But it was quite a remarkable piece of construction and engineering, with a timeless feeling about it.

After this we made our way to Temple Street, stopping first for some tea at a place called the Dragon Restaurant, which was nice but disappointing as a final meal in China. So we went to the market and had a bit potter about. My phone cover is just about destroyed, so we tried to procure a new one, yet one of the women we tried to haggle with didn’t seem to quite get haggling. She wanted HK$60 and we offered HK$20 to start with (which is just under £2 as my current one had cost that much off the internet). However rather than even trying to negotiate the woman lost her temper, threw the phone case down and screamed for us to get away from her stall. Now I know haggling is a game and a lot of acting, but this was ridiculous. If she was acting or was being serious there was no way we were going to entertain that kind of attitude so we did as she ordered and left her stall without buying anything, crazy!

The rest of the stuff at the market was just touristy souvenir stuff, which was actually quite pricey for what we had seen in China and for what we knew we would be able to get it for in South East Asia (not that we are getting anything, we aren’t carrying a ton of tat around the world with us after all)! So we made our way back to the shoebox to get sorted and packed ready to leave for Vietnam the next day.

To summarise Hong Kong, personally I wouldn’t rush back. The Chinese bits weren’t as Chinese as the likes of Beijing and the ex-pat bits were just too expensive and not my cup of tea. It would be worth going as a stopover but for me it’s not worthy of a destination in itself, unless you are in the area.

As for China, since this is my last post about the place, well what can I say? The tour was great, the food was great, the people were odd and the culture is very different from what we know. I felt the majority of Chinese people were rude and intolerant of foreign people, but those few that were accepting of tourists were absolutely lovely and were very welcoming to us. To call the country a developing nation is probably a massive underestimation of it. Economically the place is booming, with signs of growth and money everywhere. Yet for a population that is so big and so uneducated it is maybe growing too quickly to educate them on the wrongs and rights of a modern world. Not that there is anything anyone can do about that, I think it is what it is and it will have to learn through its own mistakes like the western world has done (and still does), as no one will convince the country or the people there, to do otherwise.     

From Hong Kong we flew to Hanoi in Vietnam, I was there 8 years ago and had an amazing time so we both had high expectations. In the next post you’ll begin to find out if my memory was correct or if it had just been rose-tinted glasses clouding my judgment. For now though, bye bye China!

[craigabi]

Yangshuo – 02/09/14 – 04/09/14

In the time we were there we did a Kung Fu lesson, a cooking lesson, a bike ride around the existing rice fields and the karsts, as well as visiting a local market and spending a lot of time at Lucy’s (a nice local café/restaurant that had cheap food and even cheaper beer). The Kung Fu was a hit with those of us who did it, we learned 10 moves and although I don’t think they would be enough to impress Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves, it was a good laugh anyway!

The cooking lesson was really good, I already enjoy cooking Oriental dishes back home, I’m quite good at it as well, even if I do say so myself! But we were given some great little tips and the food we produced was awesome! Before the lesson the teacher, Amy (adopted name I’m guessing) took us to the local market to buy some fresh veg. It was interesting but also not the most pleasant experience. There were ducks, rabbits and chickens in tiny cages; bull frogs in little net bags; eels swimming around in buckets; fish in small tanks; and from out the back you could hear the final demise of a dog every now and then. There were in fact full dog corpses that had been gutted and then hung up from hooks on display at the back of the market, which stirred the emotions of some of those in the group, but over there the dogs are farmed just like pigs and cows back home. Although, admittedly, it will be crueller conditions, but that goes with all the animals here, there’s not much care gone into how they are kept as long as they turn out edible in the end. Thankfully though, dog wasn’t one of the dishes we learned to cook!

The bike ride was brilliant, although the suspension wasn’t great and my chain kept coming off, but that all adds to the experience, right? The views were fab and the food we had at a local farmer’s house was some of the best we’ve had in the whole of China; stewed aubergine, stir fried chicken and beef with veggies, a salad with nuts, some taro French fries. With sticky rice of course! All very, very good!

Lucy’s Café & Bar was our most visited place in Yangshuo, the food was great and the staff were very friendly. The service was a little slow, but always with a smile. For the low price you can’t really complain. Lucy herself was really nice and clearly an ambitious business woman (you wouldn’t think it to look at her). She’s young and cheery but with great customer care and her mind set on expansion. Tony was chatting with her and she showed him photographs of the new hotel she has just opened, which he said looked very nice and indeed, after a quick look on Trip Advisor, it does look good. If it’s anything like her restaurant it will be service with a smile and good value for money!

In Yangshuo we also waved goodbye to Matt and Alan, as they were not coming to Hong Kong and were flying back from Beijing (some poor buggers have to work I suppose). We had a night out there at a couple of clubs to say goodbye and it was strange when they had gone. Guys, you really were missed! It confused Lily from then on every time she did a head count and was two people short.

So we left Yangshuo on September 4th on a sleeper train bound for Shenzhen, our gateway to Hong Kong and our final sleeper train in China. We were all together on this train and had a good bit crack, using the time to exchange email addresses and contact details. We pulled up in Shenzhen with Hong Kong in sight (or at least signposts to it in sight), but also with the end of the tour at our feet as well!

[craigabi]

Leaving on a jet plane...

So the bags are dropped off and on their way to the plane. Just having a final coffee with my mam, dad and sister before going through security. Well I say my dad, but I think he's disappeared to do a bit plane spotting.... So as we spend our last few moments on British soil I'm going to say a quick thank you to all those who have wished us well and for the lovely cards, gifts and money! We've had quite a few send offs and they've all been great! Thanks again and we'll see you next year! Now for the first step...