Hong Kong

Originally, we chose to start our china adventure in Hong Kong as felt it would be a good way to dip our toe in without the full culture shock. Hong Kong was amazing for this; a melting pot of Chinese, Western and Indian culture all coming together in a busy hive of business, leisure and food.

Hong Kong was majorly expensive, so we opted to stay at  ‘The Mansions’ which had received some very interesting reviews.

However, upon arriving we found it easy enough to get in and the room, while literally only big enough for the bed and a child sized bath/shower, was actually comfy and felt like your own little pod where the craziness of Hong Kong couldn’t reach you.

The first day we really just took our time and orientated ourselves to our new surroundings. We found everywhere was exceptionally expensive for food, so we chose to just suck it up and head for bagels and coffee at N1 Coffee co despite the 30+ bill that we incurred for it. The bagels where really good, with an array of toppings bound to suit anyone and the coffee was amazing.

Breakfast done, I had wanted to go and hunt down the cheap shopping as I had heard Hong Kong was famous for as I was desperate for some shoes that weren’t flip flops, and all my clothes were pretty much ruined from the hard water and hand washing they had endured in the last 3 months so a few new things wouldn’t hurt.

We wandered around to where a few blogs and google maps suggested were the main shopping areas. Unfortunately though, the cheapest thing we found was HnM and we were left completely confused as to what these blogs were talking about, to me HnM isn’t cheap, its just standard.

Never a quite moment in central Hong Kong.

We looked around for a few hours, but the hustle and bustle got to be too much. Eventually decided to head home to get a sim card sorted, get some washing done and figure out where the Temple street food market was so we could head out for a few beers and some good, relatively cheap food.

The market is full of many weird and wonderful foods, but as it does get tourists you are able to find some places with english which helps greatly. Stu and I grabbed two big beers and two spicy noodle dishes and it all come to just under 20aud which we thought was great. Hoping to sightsee and shop the next day, we then opted for a quick walk around the streets before heading home.

The next morning saw us grabbing some fruit and a cheap coffee from the local shops. After our small breakfast we set off to the warf to take in the Hong Kong Skyline. The views were pretty impressive – High-rises of all shapes and sizes jutting out against the mountains in the distance. After taking this in I took a deep breath and agreed that the time had come to once again try and find what felt by now like the mythical shooting malls that made Hong Kong famous.

It took another half day of searching, but at the point where I wanted to cry and give up for good I saw it – a sign pointing to the second floor – a sign for a mall.

New Town mall. While the sign was clear, the next problem was how to enter. This mall didn’t start on the first floor, and none of the shops below had a way in. 20 minutes so searching however, turned up a small door that led up narrow, grimy steps. We decided to try it. Bingo! the stairs opened up into a rabbit warren of small clothing shops spread over 5 stories! I felt a wave of relief – and also stupidity as a realised this is probably how all these cheap malls are set up. I just hadn’t thought to look for something like this.

Shops galore. Cheap. Stylish. I was super excited. While I’m not a good shopper (I normally walk into a place, if I don’t immediately see what I want I’m out again. I don’t like hunting for things etc.) with Stu’s help I was soon finding many bits and pieces that I liked. By the end of two hours (I cannot shop longer then that without melting down) I had a haul of: Boots (7aud), Denim Jacket (12aud), jeans (10aud) and a couple of new t-shirts (5aud max.) If I was more inclined to like shopping I could have easily spent a whole day there and found a whole new, amazing wardrobe for less then 100. Definitely worth the search hours.

That night we had food from the cheapish stalls on the third floor of the market, before buying a few drinks and making our way back to the harbour to watch the light show of the Hong Kong Skyline.

While the show itself was a little lack lustre, but hey, its free and just seeing the skyline all lit up afterwards was a treat. Well worth the hour if you have the time. Pretty tired from another day of non stop being on our feet, we finished our drinks and headed home to bed in preparation for the dreaded travel day the next day.

 

What we wish we knew before: Vietnam.

Costs:

Food: Unless you’re eating at super fancy places, meals will cost between 2 – 7 AUD. (45,000 and 140,000)

Drinks: Water should always be around .25cents, or 5,000 dong. Soft drinks etc are around the same and beers 15,00 to 30,000 with cocktails around 50,000. Some places like Hoi An are a little more expensive then this.

Accommodation: Really depends on where you are. We never really paid over 20aud and in some places like Dong Hoi it was maybe 10aud for a private room per night.

Sightseeing: average cost is between 50,000 and 300,000 depending on how popular a sight is, how many people you are with (many with boat rides have a cost per boat, not per person, so prices can be steep if solo). For example the Phong Nha cave is one of the more expensive tickets at 150,000 (7 aud). You then also need to pay for a 14 person boat (360,000 or 20 aud). If alone, you pay that whole cost: if you can grab some strangers not already in a group and join forces, it drastically reduces your entry fee.

Transport:

Night buses: approximately 15 aud for the Sapa to Hanoi trip each way. We took no other buses.

Sleeper class trains: can be expensive, depending on distance. Look at prices for sleeper trains and normal hard seat and day trains at https://vietnam-railway.com

PT: Local buses are cheap and usually comfortable. Prices once again very on distance, but the only two buses we took were for journeys under 4 hours, and the cost was less the 10 aud.

Scooters: Hiring scooters is easy and dirt cheap, with prices around 3 aud a day. Fuel is also cheap here. Push bike hire is usually 1-2 aud.

Cabs: Get places to call them for you so you get a legit, metered cab. Journeys in town never added up to more then 5 aud for us.

Average spend daily: 60 aud for two people. The train journeys, entrance fees and rooms do add up in Vietnam, bringing our average up.

1. Scooters are the best.

   

As mentioned above, scooters are cheap, readily available and provide freedom to see Vietnam at your own pace. We chose to hire scooters as we went, taking trains between towns and using scooters for day trips. We met people who bought bikes for cheap and were riding between each destination and this seemed cheap and easy to do, but with me never having ridden, all our luggage and some rainy days we felt our way worked best for us and our travelling situation Cat Ba Island vs Ha Long Bay

2. Cat Ba is a handy base.

If coming from Ninh Bihn as we were, finding a Ha long bay tour is hard. We ended up heading to Cat Ba and while our experience wasn’t so great (read the Cat Ba post to see why), for those not on a tour this seemed like a great little hub in which to base yourself for Ha Long bay and surrounding day trips.

If you want to do a Ha Long bay only thing, with nights spent on boats and an all inclusive feel, from what we have spoken about with others, it is key to head to Hanoi and book there. There’s a lot of competition there, so trips are cheaper and you have far more choice in what you get for what money you want to spend.

3. Street food is delicious!

Best meal for the trip had to be our street hot pot. We also had many skewers, Bahn Mi, noodles and more from stalls and each was dirt cheap and delicious.

4. Do a homestay.

All the homestay we did were great. You really get a better sense of the culture and the deep love and generosity the people of Vietnam foster. They really are some of the kindest souls I’ve met, and homestay mean you get to really understand this.

Overall, Vietnam is cheap, cheerful and easy to navigate, so really I don’t have a whole lot of advice I feel I need to give! So get out there and enjoy this amazing country!

Hanoi

For us, Hanoi was to be a quick stop of two nights. We had booked into a hostel called Daisy, after reading reviews that it felt homely and was social but not party central.

The night bus from Sapa left around 9, and we assumed the arrangement would be similar to when we travelled the opposite way; bus arriving early, but allowing us to sleep until sunrise. Unfortunately this didn’t happen and by 230am we were in Hanoi and being asked off the bus.

We were not prepared at all for this, but figured we would try our hostel and see if we could check in early and just pay of this night. Problem was our hostel was small, and while there was someone on night duty, he had no authority and therefore was unwilling to give us a bed. Feeling lost, we wandered back into town and decided to try one of the bigger hostels for a bed. At a hostel that asked we not write there name, we explained our predicament. They were very kind and said that rather then make us pay for a bed, they would allow us to sleep in the common area upstairs on the couches, as long a we paid for breakfast in the morning. We gratefully headed upstairs and curled up on the couches for a few hours until early morning.

After a breakfast at this hostel, we walked to the one we had booked. Again, the guy was very unsure, and didn’t want to do anything until his boss came in. We asked hime to ring her, as we at least wanted to leave our bags there until check in. He hesitantly called, and Daisy, the owner, said it would be fine. With our bags finally dumped, we set off to explore the city.

Hanoi had many amazing place for street food, clothing and coffee, and before we knew it we had wandered around eating and shopping for the whole day. We went back to the hostel to finally check in and have a shower before heading back out for dinner. For dinner we found a local spot serving little tapas style plates of local food and super cheap beer. they also served 3aud bottles of vodka for which you then bought the mixers. We tucked in to 5 different dishes the locals sitting near us recommended and some vodka and beer for good measure. The food was pretty good, the chicken feet were hard to stomach, and so was the pigs tail, but it was more because of our brains then the actual taste – the taste was pretty good.

Bellies full, we headed back to our hostel to sleep. The next day passed much the same as the previous, with some sight seeing thrown in, before a dinner of amazing noodles and early bed ready for our flight to Hong Kong the next morning.

Sapa

Arriving in Sapa at 5am, we were worried that we would all be asked to get off the bus, however the drivers simply parked us and let us sleep until we were ready to get up. Stu and I managed to rouse ourselves around 630, and wearily got off the bus. As we disembarked we were met by many local women, hoping that we may want to go for a trek/homestay starting that day.

Two young women approached us and said a two day, one night stay with them would be 30 American. They were both smiley and happy, so we asked them if they could allow us time to go have a coffee first and then come and find them and they agreed. We found a hotel selling good coffee so we went there and asked him if he thought the trek was a good price and if it was fine to go with people from the street rather then through a company. He said he knew the women and it was a fair price, and he also gave us the number of another women who was his friend who did homestays. We thanked him, but seeing our two ladies down the road we decided to go with them and flagged them down.

Everything then happened very quickly. The womans’ husband came down and got our packs to take to the house, and then we were off to the market for breakfast.

The market was a little daunting and I wouldn’t suggest it to vegetarians as you dine on the same table as a meat they have cut that morning. I had beef pho and it was the most amazing pho I think I’ve had. And you defiantly knew it was fresh!

Breakfast done and finally feeling awake and ready for the 17km hike, we headed off.

The hike itself was quite nice. Our guide let us set the pace, so we walked at a brisk, but not overly exhausting rhythm. The path took you up through the town, into the mountains where you could see over the various valleys where the local groups lived. Our guide, Tu, was from a tribe that was a good 3 or four valleys away, but she said it was not a too harder walk as we mainly stayed high up and so once the initial climb was done it was smooth sailing.

We hiked for a few hours, often running into other groups who we would join for a time so that our guides could chat and enjoy some company and so could we before we came to our first rest. From here, you were standing high on a peak in the mountains and could see over Sapa. Many groups arrived here at the same time, so we stopped for a good half hour.

Break done, we headed off towards the mountains with a few other little groups.

We walked through farms and through forest for another couple of hours before starting to desend into a valley. Once into the valley we had another short climb before coming to a small restaurant where all the groups heading this way came to stop for food and a break. the guides gave us about an hour to eat and relax, so we spoke with other travellers for a bit and then i snuck off to have a 20 minute cat nap.

Lunch done and everyone feeling rested, we set off for the last 4 hours of our walk. There was a little more uphill, before the land opened out to a flatter, more farmed part of the valley. We walked with two Dutch girls and and American guy for most of this section, chatting about our favourite parts of vietnam and our plans after Sapa. The conversation made the walk go quickly, and soon we were saying goodbye to the girls as their path deviated further into the mountains.

Our guide and the Americans’ turned out to be sisters, so we walked the whole way to his homestay and hung around there for an hour or so, meeting their parents and taking a break from the sun. Our guide helped her mother with some wood and a little sewing while we were there, and after she was finished she signalled to us that it was time to go, else we would get caught in the rain that was meant to come in an hour. We said goodbye and started out on the last 40 minutes of our journey.

The house we were staying in was traditional, but with a few mod cons that other surrounding houses didn’t seem to have. The house had brick walls up to about waist high, then wooden slats up to the roof. A gap between the slats and roof was the only form of window and ventilation for the house came from the hole above the fire pit over which they cooked and the gaps in the slats.

Due to being a homestay, our guides house had to have a working toilet and some form of lighting and running water. This meant that around the back of the house they had installed a modern toilet and had a generator for lighting the house and running an old TV they had recently acquired.

While we chilled out before dinner (I was shooed away from helping, she was insistent I rest), a Russian couple rocked up out of the blue. A short conversation later and they were also stay the night. The couple spoke good English so they joined us for a chat and around an hour later a feast was put before us.

The food we received at the homestay we by far the best Vietnamese food we had for the trip, it was worth the homestay just for the food! We feasted until we could eat no more and still there was food left over.

The family and their children ate with us and it was a good chance to talk to them about their lives. While they had limited English, it was still a fascinating conversation that gave insight into the increasing divide in how the indigenous folk of the area live compared to their counterparts in town. With many of them still not speaking Vietnamese but instead their ancient tongue, it was hard for them to move out of rural areas, and family and cultural expectation saw women in these areas leaving school very young, or never going, and becoming mothers in their late teens. There was also resistance to modern farming techniques which meant many were never producing a surplus of food and therefore not gaining wealth at the same rate as other areas in Vietnam.

Dinner and conversation done, we went towards our bed: a soft pad with a duvet over it for warmth and softness, and multiple fluffy blankets to snuggle in under. The Russian couple weren’t keen on sleeping on the floor as we were, and ended up taking the children’s shared bed, while the kids took the second pad near us.

In the morning the weather was grim, so our hosts left us to sleep until 9am before starting to make breakfast. Breakfast was a delicious meal of pancakes and fruit, and once again there was excess.

Breakfast done, we had an hour to play with the kids before it was time to set off. The Russian couple left early as they were not walking back with us, and we were very disappointed to see them trying to get out of paying as ‘they hadn’t had a guided walk, only the homestay’. I didn’t see if they ended up paying anything, but from the sad face of our guide I’m very sure they left her short changed.

The walk back was uneventful but pleasant, with us talking to our guide a little more about her life. The walk on this day was shorter, only 10km, as we went via the highway and got a lift the last few kilometres with her husband and his friend.

Back in town we paid our guide and gave her a big hug she gave us a big smile and then left us to head back home to have the rest of the day as a rest day.

We really liked Sapa, so we decided to find a hotel and stay another night before heading back to Hanoi. Thanks to being so last minute, we were able to book a super nice room for 10 aud. It had an amazing shower, Tv and hairdryer so we felt like we were living it up.

That night we explored around town, found and inexpensive but delicious restaurant and went to a couple of the local bars. We got to chat mainly to Vietnamese people which was really lovely and made our Sapa experience feel even more special.

The next day we booked onto the night bus, giving us the whole day to explore and chill out. We found many shops selling great comparing gear for super cheap, so Stu and I both invested in a small day bag each as mine was falling apart and Stu wanted a more comfortable day bag that would fit his camera etc in a better manner. We then went and have coffees, walked though the markets, chowed down on street food and wandered around the local park and city square.

locals comparing their birds and trying on costumes.

The day was cold and foggy, so by 3pm we found ourselves a cozy day and sat inside for an hour, drinking coffee and eating delicious bbq skewers. As darkness started to fall, we heard music and decided to go to the square to see what was happening. People were out socialising despite the weather and women and children dressed in traditional clothing had set up many small market stalls. We wandered through them for a bit, taking in the colour but soon it was time to leave and make our way to the bus station for our night bus back to Hanoi.

 

 

Cat Ba Island.

After finishing our time in Ninh Binh we found ourselves with a dilemma; we wanted to go straight to Ha Long bay but from Ninh Binh it seemed that this was difficult to impossible, especially if you wanted to do a two day sail package as these all left from Hanoi. We looked up many companies online trying to get an idea of how to do a package if starting in Ninh Binh but really found nothing.

Our hotel owner saw us looking and suggested we go with a local company that did tours starting from Ninh Binh. Feeling unsure on what else we could do we took up the offer. As it turns out, this was our biggest mistake for Vietnam so far…

At first everything went smoothly: we paid for the 3 days at our hotel, and the price seemed very similar to offers we had seen online. The morning the tour started we were picked up promptly and taken on a bus with others who we assumed were on tour with us. We smiled and chatted and secretly thought to ourselves it was lucky we had chosen to go this way.

The bus dropped us off at the boats that would take us out to Cat Ba, our base for Ha Long bay. There was some confusion with the boats, but eventually we got tickets given to us and were able to board. Once off the boats, buses loaded us on and took us the rest of the way onto the main part of the island. So far, so good.

When we got off the buses, everyone else was greeted by people running their tours, or wandered off to their hostels, as they had been smart and not pre booked anything and simply made their way to the island. We stood there for 20 minutes and then realised no one was coming for us.

I went and found a tourist info centre and asked her to ring our tour company to see what was happening. She did, and our tour company said she would call our hostel now and get us a lift. 20 minutes later and thankfully someone came to get us, however they seemed completely confused as to what was happening; at this point, so were we.

We arrived at the hostel and were greeted by the owner, he checked us in and offered us a meal. We checked in and ate, thankful it seemed to be working out. After lunch I asked about our Ha Long boat ride that we were meant to have and if the rest of the group was here yet. He looked at me funnily, and I had to explain yet again we had bought a package and were meant to be doing the following itinerary etc. He looked a little panicked, then asked us to wait a few minutes while he made some calls.

Half an hour passed and he came back to let us know our boat was ready. I looked around expecting others to be here for it also, but it was just us. We were driven down to the boating dock, where we were introduced to a nice middle aged man with little to no english, who smiled and took us over to his mates and gave us a beer.

Soon, through broken conversation we gathered he was our boat captain and he asked us if he could take his mates out with us. We figured why not, as we were the only two on the trip.

In the brochure our tour company gave us it had said we would be on a ‘sail boat’ with others from our group. I’ll let you decide if this was what we got…

Stu, myself and the four rather intoxicated locals we had just met loaded onto the small fishing boat and soon we were all sat comfortably with beer in hand. It was not what we had expected, but the guys seemed fun and like they really wanted us to have a good time, so we smiled and figured ‘lets just go with it and see what happens’.

We sat and chatted in broken english as we sailed through the bay. The captain pointed out where each of the boys lived amongst the floating houses that make up the small fishing village. The boys kept handing us more and more beer while getting increasingly giddy themselves, even our captain was a little worse for wear by the time we had cruised to the other side of the bay, confessing he may have also had a smoke of something that was making him giggle.

Once across, the boys docked the boat at the floating house, where we were able to grab a canoe and head out in the bay for an hour paddle or so.

The paddle was good fun, but once again not what was promised. On the brochure the large sail boat would have had the canoes with it, and dropped us at certain locations so that we could paddle through caves etc to little secluded beaches. Where we were we could do none of this, so we paddled around one island and poked around to see if we could find some caves, but overall found nothing of particular interest.

Paddle done, we returned to the floating hose to find our guides even more drunk then before. They handed us another beer and soon we were back on the boat, laughing as the guys sang and joked in drunken frivolity.

Our next stop was an island where you could climb a small mountain to watch the sunset. The boys dropped us off and settled back onto the boat for a few more drinks while we explored. While on the island we met a french couple who were looking for a lift off the island. We chatted and shared our beer and then as the sunset we took them with us to the boat and asked to take them with us.

Our guide seemed excited by the prospect of more people to drink with, so he agreed and soon we were all drinking, playing music and heading back towards Cat Ba.

The local boys loved the cy-trance on the steel drum.

The ride home was fun, and while we had not done what we had expected we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On getting back to the dock our captain begged his wife to let us come for dinner, but seeing him and his mates drunk seemed to make her feel less inclined towards guests, so we excused ourselves and went back to the hostel.

At the hostel we were greeted by a pre arranged meal, but the food was so bad we ate hardly any of it. We checked with the owner about what would be happening tomorrow and he assured us it was all arranged. Tired, and knowing we had an early start we headed to bed.

The next day we woke early and had a light breakfast, then we jumped into a car that took us to the Cat Ba National park where we were to do a hike. We met our guide there, and soon we were off, hiking through the forest as our guide pointed out different plants and animals.

The hike was good, but what was sold to us as a ‘jungle adventure’ was more an hour walk up to a view point and back down. Sweaty and puffed, we bundled back into our car and headed for town.

Lunch was again pre arranged and was some of the most foul seafood I have had; either undercooked or so overcooked it was like leather. We ate what we could and then checked what we were meant to do next. The owner shrugged and said he though it was free time this afternoon, so we could do our own thing. We decided to head for the beach, but the weather soon turned and cold rain poured down, so we spent most of the afternoon at the hostel reading.

Dinner time came and once again the food was terrible. We decided that even though it would cost us, we would head into town and try some food elsewhere. We ended up at a small restaurant in town, chowing down on a spicy mango curry and ice cold beer.

While in town we checked around to see what prices were for the activities we had been doing; this is when we realised how over priced our trip was. Even with food and accomodation included, it was a good 50 – 100 american dollars cheaper to have simply come to Cat Ba ourselves and then arrange everything on the spot. Especially as we had not really got what we had expected, it felt a little like salt in the wounds.

Regardless, the next day we woke up, ready early to go the the gunnery and be taken around the island. The owner explained they had forgotten to organise this, so instead gave us a scooter to drive around the island on for the morning.

From the gunnery there were good views of the bay and we hiked around the area, making our own fun by playing with the statues and taking a tonne of photos. We the took the scooter around the island for a few hours, but soon tired of this and headed back to the hostel a little before lunch.

Lunch was served and once again it was not the greatest, so we ate what we could and washed it down with a beer. After lunch it came time to check out so that we could catch a boat/bus to Hanoi and this was when our next shock came.

I went up to thank the owner and pay for our beer (as alcohol was not included) when he  asked me for over 200 American! I looked at him dumbfounded, and again pointed out we were doing a package and all of it, minus the few beers we had was included. He shook his head and asked again, but I said that if he wanted that money it was with our tour company and he best ring them. A heated 10 minute phone call between the owner and our tour company and he finally accepted that we were not to pay anything to him.

We jumped on the bus, half glad to get away from Cat Ba.

Overall, the experience was not bad, but the knowledge that for a far cheaper price we could have more fun lingered over our heads for a few days. It seemed like the tour we landed on was not really a tour at all, and that it was last minute thrust upon our poor hostel owner to organise, so in no way do I blame him. However, if you are heading to Cat Ba from Ninh Binh, don’t take an organised tour; buy tickets to Cat Ba and arrange the rest yourself, your wallet and experience will thank you.

Dong Hoi

While the plan had been to wake up fresh and early to catch a bus, we found our rather late night had caught up with us. There was instead a train a little later so we took our time, went into town for breakfast and left made our way to the train early afternoon. The train took a little over 3 hours, much the same as the bus, and was once again comfortable and pain free. Around 630pm we got off the train in Dong Hoi and were soon in a short taxi to our accomodation.

Our accomodation here was another homestay at Tung Homestay, and it was the best homestay of the trip! Upon arrival we were met by board smiles, broken but enthusiastic English and amazing coffees. Our hosts Tung and Candy wanted to know all about us and to learn english through conversation. We sat with them for an hour joking and chatting about our travels before even going into the room! They took our luggage up despite Candy hardly being able to lift it and us protesting, made sure everything was perfect and left us to settle in. The room was clean and cool, the beds more comfortable than most in Vietnam and they had really tried to think of every small detail to make the room feel homely. Now pretty hungry we quickly changed into some warmer clothes as the nights in Dong Hoi are sometimes a little crisp and went downstairs again. There we found our hosts now with friends drinking coffee, so we asked for a recommendation for dinner. They suggested the hostel down the road, the Buffalo Pub and Hostel or the pho shop next door. We were a little too hungry for soup, so headed to the hostel.

The food at the hostel was a little pricey by Vietnamese standards, but it was well worth it. Massive portions of food the were delicious were served quickly, and the bar/restaurant area was buzzing nicely with chatter and music. We practically inhaled our food and a beer and then sat watching people play pool as our dinner settled. We wanted to be up early the next day as we were planning to head to the Phong Na and Paradise Caves and didn’t want to be rusty for what was meant to be some of the best caves in Vietnam.

We slept well, with full bellies and on what for Vietnam was a luxurious bed. We rose at 7and were greeted with warm smiles and hot coffee. Candy then made us her breakfast version of Bahn Mi, which was delicious. Food and coffee done, they made sure we knew where we were going, gave us ponchos and wished us farewell for the day.

Outside Phong Na caves.

The ride to Phong Na was a little wet, and therefore a little cold. I had expected Vietnam to be hot, but i was soon wiping for even more layers then my singlet, t-shirt, jacket combo could provide. We got to Phong Na and found a place to park the bike, then went to the ticket booth thinking you could just buy a ticket for yourself and jump in a boat. As we approached though we saw that you had to hire the whole boat, and pay an individual entrance fee. For the two of us this was looking like 70+ usd, so we waited around and recruited people for our boat and after half an hour we had enough people together that it was an almost full boat and down to 15 per person.

Farmers working on the river – Phong Na.

The boat was a row boat that sat 10, and our two rowers seemed very adept at the activity. They navigated us down the river with speed and ease, and soon we were at the mouth of the cave.

Enter a caption

The inside of the cave was stunning – stalagmites in various colours and shapes jutted out from every side. In the dimly lit space it felt other worldly to me, especially as my only other experience in caves was wriggling through claustrophobic holes underground in Budapest a year before. This in contrast was a lovely, open cave with great natural colours and shapes to every surface you glanced upon.

We were taken around 20 minutes into the cave, before we turned around and came back towards the entrance. Near the entrance we were able to disembark and wander around on the shore and look more closely at the stalagmites.

Once out of the caves we were paddled back down the river to where we began, and Stu and I stopped in one of the local cafes where we parked the bike and had a massive bowl of Pho to warm us up before the next bike leg of our journey.

looking glamorous in the cold.

I was still cold, but Stu was as usually not feeling it, so he gave me his extra flannel before we left which I used as a beanie/ scarf combo in the hope of keeping the wind at bay. Thankfully it worked quite well. The next leg of the day took us through beautiful countryside with winding roads, small villages and more mountains. After an hour or so of driving we came to our second cave system for the day, Paradise Cave.

Parking the bike at the entrance, it was then a 30 minute walk uphill to the mouth of the cave. As we first entered, I was let down – the cave was vast and you walked down quite a way, but from the entrance there where no colours, no exciting formations and compared to the last cave I wasn’t sure why people recommended it. But, as we got to the bottom of the cave and went through to the next chamber I was blown away. The next chamber looked like something out of the little mermaid. Brightly colour stalagmites and other rock formations as tall as city buildings were all around you and the way they had chosen to light up each of the key features of the cave added greatly to the drama of the space. Stu and I spent of an hour wandering around and marvelling at caves features before reluctantly leaving in the hope of making it home before sun fall.

On the ride home we made a few stops to take in the life of the villagers and the beautiful scenery of the area. Darkness fell an hour before home and Stu rode as quickly as was safe as it became cold and uncomfortable on our scooter. Arriving home we had coffees with our host family before showering, changing into warmer clothes and heading back to the hostel again for burgers and beers.

The next day was meant to be a day for heading to the beach and chilling out around town. It started off well, with a delicious breakfast from 7th Heaven (amazing food, big portions and great teas and coffees for reasonable prices), but a few hours later my stomach bug was back and instead of the beach we spent the day hunting down a pharmacy and resting up. By the next morning my stomach was responding to the antibiotics and I had to laugh at myself for putting off taking them for so long. We had a train booked for 8am, so Candy made us breakfast again and an Iced coffee and sandwich to go and had us fed and ready in good time. Lots of hugs and thankyous later we were in a taxi to the train bound for our next stop, Nihn Bihn.

Hue

We arrived in Hue as the sun was starting to get low. The drive the had been beautiful, going past the lakes where people still lived in small huts on stilts and fished from there houses. The bus dropped us in the centre of Hue and our hostel/homestay was a bit too far to walk from there so we decided to grab cab. The cab dropped us there in no time.

The hostel, as it had described itself on booking.com, was definetly more a home stay than a hostel, with 6 rooms that were all privates with mainly couples or families staying. Our room was on the top floor and had a nice view of an old town bath, clean bathroom with good, hot showers and a tv. The only issue was the bed; the mattress seemed to be made of compressed cardboard and was so hard that it felt like you were sleeping on a cement floor.

After not eating all day I was more than ready for food, but wasn’t feeling up to anything too adventurous that night, so we hired a scooter from the hostel and headed into town for some Italian.

As you can imagine, the Italian wasn’t the best, but it was all my stomach could handle that night. It was also swamped with English tourists who were raving about how good it was which we both had a good giggle at before vowing to find a decent Vietnamese place the next night that didn’t have so many tourists about. Dinner eaten, we quickly walked around the centre of town before heading home to watch a movie and get a decent nights sleep.

The next day we woke to find the weather was going to be extremely hot. We decided to therefore spend the day in town rather than heading out on the scooter. We hired push bikes for the day and made our way into the town for breakfast. We ate breakfast at the cowboy themed (tacky, but cute) bar on the main pub road, and despite our misgivings due to decor it was delicious. I had pancakes with pineapple cooked into them and Stu had a Western style brekkie as it had been a while since he had found somewhere to get a decent bacon eggs type fare. Even as we finished eating the weather was getting so warm that we were sweating despite the fans and shade. But, not wanting to waste the day, we pushed through our food and heat induced coma states and got back on the bikes and headed for the cities ancient capital.

The old capital is definelty worth a look. A lot of it was bombed as was almost the whole of Hue in the Vietnam war, so a lot of the features you see now are reconstructions of the old palace, but there is still enough of a balance between original and rebuilt to get a good idea of what the place was/is all about. We spent the morning exploring the palace and some of the old government buildings before finding we were a little defeated by the heat. We stopped in some shade next to the river where we ended up chatting with an English couple for a half hour or so. They had just come from China so we had lots of questions for them. Unfortunately, they hadn’t enjoyed China, so all that was achieved from our chat was us feeling very unsure about our decision to dedicated 5 weeks to the place. We parted ways with plans to try and catch up the night then headed into town to grab lunch.

Lunch was great, finding a little store that sold great pho and spring rolls from the front room of a couples home. We sat there for a fair while, enjoying the food and the relative cool of their small shop. Feeling we had done enough touristing for the day, we headed for the supermarket to shop for tomorrow as we planned to take a picnic and explore Hue’s surrounding areas on the scooter. The supermarket was air-conditioned so we spent quite a while in there before buying cider and heading back to our accomodation for a much needed shower and cheeky drink as the sunset.

Once the sun was down it cooled enough for us to head out for dinner. We had seen a lot of small local places along the river near our accomodation, so we figured we would take the push bikes and see what they had to offer rather than going back into town where everything was very touristy. Everything was in Vietnamese so it was a little hard to decide where to go as we had not idea what they were selling. In the end we stopped at one as we could see that they were serving some pretty good looking hotpots and cheap beers. The girl serving spoke no English, so we pointed at what others were eating and she smiled and went away to get our food. We didn’t know what we were really getting but we just rolled with it, and boy were we glad we did – the hot pot we ended up with was delicious! Fresh seafood (mussels, squid and prawns), beef, fresh veggies, noodles, bok choy, coriander and chillies were given to us along with a massive bowl of broth on a burner. We then added things to the broth as we wanted and cooked it as we liked. It was the best meal and most authentic meal we had had in Vietnam so far. The locals loved it too, giving us massive grins and thumbs up as we inhaled our dinner. The locals at our dinner place were also some of the drunkest we had seen on our trip so far, with a young group of men finishing a slab of beer as we ate, one of them then abruptly vomiting it back up again as the others swayed and tried to carry him off home – lucky for the staff the restaurant was outside and they could just hose it away! We laughed and then tried a few local beers ourselves to wash dinner down and we felt very content and ready to head home to sleep off our food comas.

Day 2 saw us rise early in the hope of beating the heat. We packed our picnic stuff and plenty of water into our bags and jumped on the scooter by 7am. We had our day planned out and our first stop was to be Princess temple. We punched it into Google maps, but google wasn’t so sure on the ‘Princess temple’, and for some reason it took us to a golf course? The detour was funny, but it meant we were now a good half hour from anything we wanted to see, out of reception and not sure on what to do. We rode back towards town until we had reception again and tried a second time. This time it found the right place and by 9am we were at the princess temple.

 

The princess temple was not exactly what we expected. As we got there we realised we were the only people there, which was nice, but we soon saw why… the temple and its surrounds felt like a giant Buddhist theme park that no-one ever came to. Nothing felt very authentic and seemed geared towards tourism rather than the local people. We walked around for a while but it was not the kind of thing we had been hoping to see, so soon we were back on the bike and headed for the next destination on our list.

__________________, had appeared to be an island with a giant Buddha, temple and lots of places to swim. It was almost 38c by this time so we figured this was a great choice. The ride to the island took around an hour and when we got there once again we were the only ones. We went down to see how we were to get across to the island. The boats were around 15 dollars each and it was pay per boat, not person, so we waited a while hoping others would come, but no luck so we forked out the boat hire price and were ferried across.

Once again we seemed to have got our wires crossed. While the island was lovely, it was not at all what we expected. Getting off the boat we realised we were the only visitors to the island that day, on top of that a long, tall set of stair rose out of the vegetation as we rounded the corner from the dock. Stairs at the best of my times are enemies, but when its also 38 degrees and humid it’s overwhelming.

Stairs finally mastered we were met by a working monastery. Lush gardens, ponds and well kept traditional style buildings took up the whole of the top of the very small island. We looked around for a while but realising this was simply where monks lived and not somewhere for tourists we felt it was time to leave. We went back down the steps and looked for a place to swim, but the edges of the island were inaccessible due to the thick foliage so despite the water being crystal clear and inviting we were unable to take a dip.

It was now past midday and at the peak of heat so we waved down the boat to ferry us back across to the mainland. We drove around on the scooter looking for a spot where we would access the water safely, but to no avail – sheer cliffs of often debris of sunken boats meant it was too hard to get in. It was therefore cooler to keep moving as riding meant we had a breeze, so we headed for our next desitination and hoped blindly that this last one would work out.

Our last destination was Bach Ma National park where you could hike into the mountains and get great views. There was also meant to be many places to swim and chill out as you walked. We got to the park around 2pm and were really not sure at the point if we were up for hiking. Just before the entrance to the park there was a visitor centre of sorts which had a variety of maps up outside. We had a look at them and found that just outside of the park there was a road that looked like it was quite solid and ended at a waterfall. We decided to ride over there instead and have a quick swim before deciding our next move.

The drive up to the waterfall was a little hairy as the road was undergoing works, but at the end we were rewarded by an oasis on such a hot day. The area around the waterfall was shaded by beautiful trees and small rocky areas for sitting. A group of local guys were drinking and playing cards at the waters edge and a family sat devouring watermelon not far from them. We found ourselves a spot in the shade and made ourselves a snack.

Snack completed we alternated between snoozing and swimming for the next few hours. The sun started to dip low and we reluctantly left our retreat as we wanted to get home, or at least back onto main roads before sundown as we wanted to get home and changed so we could check out the night life.

The nightlife in this town is worth checking out. A little pricier than some there places, but you can find everything from quite bars with cocktails to themed bars and the local favourite the karaoke bars. We tried all three types that night and had a  blast, but we headed home by 2am so that we wouldn’t be too hung over to check out by 11am the next day.

Hoi An

Getting off the train I didn’t feel well, so we checked in and watched a movie at our guest house before finally finding the courage to venture out.

It was almost sunset as we got into Hoi An and we instantly fell in love with the beauty and charm of it. The streets were all clean and lined with Tailors, small restaurants and leather good stores. The people greeted you with broad smiles and didn’t simply push past you on the street as they had in Ho Chi Minh. Added to this was the classical music that played gently in each street and the abundance of multi coloured lanterns and fairy lights that glittered above your head, creating a magically warm feeling.

We looked around until it grew fully dark and then ventured across the river towards the main hub of restaurants. I still felt unwell, so opted for a clear soup and Stu tried something more fun and traditional as his stomach woes were now pretty much over thanks to his antibiotics. The food was good, but nothing to write home about. The night was balmy but pleasant so we headed down the road a little and grabbed a drink and cake from a bar down the road. The drink seemed to tip my stomach over the edge, so we walked the 30 minute walk back to our guest house with me dragging my feet and poor Stu wishing he could have stayed in town a little longer.

The next morning the weather was warm but not too hot, so we figured we would use this day to head to the beach and later explore the town further.

What Stu gets up to when I’m not around.

Stu headed into the town early to get a coffee and look around, but I opted to stay in bed a little longer and meet him in town later when I felt better. I eventually caught up with Stu and we had another walk around the town as to take it in during the day. A few happy snaps and a look at a few shops and we were hot and ready to head for the beach.

The beach in Hoi An was a good 20 minute ride out of town, but a good road and the cooler weather made it not too bad. The beach itself was quite nice, white sand and clean but freezing water. As with many places in Asia, shops had claimed nearly every inch of the beach and put up umbrellas and deck chairs, so there was no chance of just finding a quiet spot for free unless you went a long way from the main beach. Still not feeling great, I was for once happy to buy a beach lounge so the I could curl up and read for the day. The chairs were only a few dollars each, or free with food, so it was a fair deal for a day of relaxation.

We spent the best part of the day on the chairs, sun baking or laying under the shade of the umbrellas playing cards or reading and every now and then jumping into the water to reset. As the day started to get late we jumped on our bikes and rode home for a quick shower before heading out to town for an early dinner and another round of exploring the town.

We explored all of the tailor shops, looking through all the fabrics and designs that Hoi An had to offer. The leather shops were my favourite, and with my little bag still leaving stains all over my clothes and starting to come apart it was hard to resist replacing it with a custom made one.  We wandered along the river banks and checked out the market stalls, trying different bits and pieces of street food as we went. The lantern stores at the entry to the markets were stunning, and one of them was even being used as a backdrop for a couples wedding shots as we got there. We spent a good half hour in the markets, but they were quite small and part from very touristy stuff for sale there wasn’t much to choose from.

 

I had been messaging my family all day and had received an order for a shirt for Dad, so we wandered back to the tailors to send him pics of materials before the stores closed. As we rode around looking for the best shop for the job we ran into two of the girls who we had travelled with in India. They were staying at a hostel in town and were about to head out for a big night. We were keen to join, as we hadn’t been too social in the last week or so, so we said we would meet them after dinner and went our seperate ways. Only problem was that dinner seemed to make me feel 100% worse and I knew drinking and dancing were no option for me. Stu wasn’t super keen to go out either, so instead of  social night we headed home to watch movies and get a good nights sleep.

As the sun rose on our last day in Hoi An I was feeling somewhat better, assuming the worst of it had hit me the night before. Finally feeling hungry and ready for a decent meal we headed for the Banh Mi queen. The Banh Mi queen had been recommended to Stu by a mate who is known to have a great love for all things delicious, so we jumped on our bikes and made our way to the Queens store. The food didn’t dissapoint; a creamy, spicy, meaty sandwich at a very reasonable price, what more could you want really? Stu ended up having two, such was his like for the sandwich. Food eaten and bellies full we headed down to the beach again for a morning swim and relax.

The beach was pretty much the same as the day before, swimming, reading and playing cards. We also met a lovely guy who was travelling the world now that his daughters had both finally moved out. His stories and travel tips were great, so we ended up staying at the beach and chatting until almost dark. Hungry and wanting to do one last lap around the town to take in the beauty of the lanterns and the charm of the place, and to pick up my Dads shirts and grab a few other trinkets and presents for people back home.

For dinner we headed to White rose restaurant, which was somewhat famous in Vietnam for its particular type of dumpling. The dumplings are called, as the name of the place suggests, white roses, and are named this way due to the way they are shaped. The experience of eating them is also enhanced by the fact that you can watch as the women make them while you wait for your order. We ordered a few plates worth, but kept some room for there food as we had a few more things we wanted to try back in the markets. The dumplings were delicious and I would recommend trying them if you’re every in Hoi An.

The ladies making the dumplings

We headed back through the lantern lit streets to the markets snapping photos and stopping in the shops where we had eyed off items for presents over the last few days. Shopping complete and food eaten, we went for a quick drink. The drink was, again, a bad idea. I was soon feeling worse then I had in any day so far and had to rush home.

That night it was my turn to be consistently sick and when the morning came and we were meant to catch a bus at 8 am I had to throw in the towel; there was no way I could leave the room, let alone take a bus. The family we were homesteading with were amazing. He said not to worry about checking out until 2pm, as his next guests were coming late, he then called the bus company for us and arranged for our ticket to be made good for the bus that afternoon. Stu headed out for the morning while a stayed in the room and tried to get a little sleep. The father at the homestay also found me some whiz bang Vietnamese pills (no idea what they were, but I didn’t care by this point) that saw me feeling almost back to my old self by the time the afternoon rolled around. By 2, I was feeling up to the bus, so we checked out and the family gave us a ride for free to the bus to save me walking. We thanked them and jumped on the bus bound for our next destination; Hue.

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh ended up not being the warm welcome to Vietnam we had hoped for. After a rather sleepless night on the nighbus, we were dropped 3km from our accomodation. We never jump straight in a Cab that is waiting for the bus, as, in our experience at least they are the Cabs most likely to try and fleece you.

We started to walk away from the bus to try to figure out the best plan. It was too far to walk, but we thought we should move a bit further from the bus area before accepting a Cab.

While we looked at directions, a driver from near the buses approached us. We said no, but he persisted and promised the use of his metre. We decided to not judge Vietnam on the other countries we had visited, so we agreed. We got into the Cab and he started the metre from 6,000 – all seemed well. However, he must have rigged his metre and within the 3km ride the price had swelled to 500,000! We were still not 100% sure on the exchange rate and thought maybe we had the amount of 0’s wrong and that this was meant to be the price. When Stu tried to give him less (around 200,000 which was still triple what it should be) he pointed at the metre and suddenly his English he had spoken before faded. We paid, unsure if we had been fleeced, or didn’t understand the currency. When we got to our accomodation and saw it was only 640 for 3 nights we realised we’d been done.

With this sour taste already in our mouths we decided it was best to go for a wander, get our bearings and get a sim card and food. Our guesthouse had good wifi and we were able to look up a few main points of interest easily before we headed out.

Day one saw us wander towards the backpackers district, a couple of long streets lined with bars, hostels and restaurants. We had read on trip advisor that Royal Saigon was a good place to hit for authentic Vietnamese food, so we headed there for a late lunch.

We ordered spring rolls both fresh and fried and two noodle dishes. The food was really good and would end up being some of the better food we would have in Vietnam. Stu also ordered his first Vietnamese ice coffee and the boy was hooked! He contemplated a second straight away but was feeling a little under the weather and figured another drink filled with condensed milk may not help the situation so he let it go for the day.

Lunch done we figured we’d best book ourselves in for the Tunnel tour. The tunnel tour goes to the most famous tunnels and a guide takes you through the story of the war. There are many tourist offices in the backpacker district, but we opted for the one across the road from where we ate lunch for pure convenience. They offered the whole tour package (bus there and back, guide and entry) for $5 american. We had been told that this was the standard price for this tour so we singed ourselves up for the day after the next as it was forecast for heavy rain until then.

The air started to feel thick and grey clouds loomed overhead, so we decided to head back to the hostel and spend the late afternoon planning our route through the rest of Vietnam.

Our afternoon of planning saw us draw a rough plan of how to spend our month in Vietnam. With the route agreed upon, we decided to skip the south and head from Ho Chi Minh directly to Hoi An, giving us over almost 4 weeks to crawl from there to Hanoi to meet our flight to China. It saw us skipping over places like Dalat and Trang An, but we felt that the type of Vietnam we were there to experience way mainly north so it was worth sacrificing those places.

We looked up buses, trains and flights to Hoi An and the train seemed to come out as the winner in relation to a balance between price and comfort. Other backpackers did say they had bused and felt this was better as it was cheaper and you still got a sleeper, so we decided to spend the next morning finding a travel agent to discuss the options further.

With rain still pouring, we opted for dinner across the road from the hostel. It saw us have a great bowl of rice noodle, meat and herbs for under $5 USD for the two of us. Full and tired, we headed home for an early bed.

Day 2

“The best laid plans of mice and men do always go awry”

The next morning I woke feeling fantastic after a very comfy, peaceful sleep. Stu however was not feeling so chirpy. As I climbed down from my bunk to say a bright good morning I found a disheveled, feverish Stu who was unable to even muster much of a smile. It seemed his bug had come back and he had spent nearly all of the night glued to the toilet.

So the plan for the day now became: Find a doctor, see what else, if anything Stu was feeling up for.

Thankfully, the guy who owned the hostel was able to point us in the direction of the closest doctor who saw expats. We thanked him and after checking Stu was up for it, we walked the 4km to the doctors.

The doctors were unable to see Stu that day, but booked him in for the next. By this point, Stu was feeling a little better and was after some comfort food so we made a V – line for Maccas and chowed down on all the naughty western food we try to avoid as often as possible in favour for local cuisine.

Maccas seemed to do the trick, and while not 100%, Stu felt well enough to do a little more exploring for the day.

We headed for a travel agent as it was directly across from Maccas and seemed like a logical next step in the day. We went in and asked if they could compare the prices of trains and buses for us, but they said they could not. Aparently the travel agencies don’t have access to the bus details. They told us however that the train was going to be 25aud each, so we figured rather than chase our tail it may just be easiest to go with that, so we grabbed a taxi and made our way across town to the train station. Once there, buying tickets was easy, you simply pressed a button on a ticketing machine for a number, waited around 20 to see a girl who then printed off your tickets. (You do need your passport for purchase). The train station was across the road from one of the big markets in town, so we figured we would walk across and have browse while Stu was still feeling well enough.

There is pretty much every kind of fake thing you could possibly want stuffed into one marketplace. Fake converses, nikes and every other type of shoe. Every kind of active wear and other outdoor goods as well as bags, hats, trinkets and more. We were there mainly to find some cheap sneakers, a quick dry shirt for Stu and hiking appropriate bottoms for me. We were spoiled for choice. We walked around to different vendors and got our haggle on. We managed to get and idea for the real price of things, but knew there was another market across town, so we held off buying just on the off chance prices were even better there.

The second market had almost identical wares and prices, but tired and not wanting to push stu too far, we headed home for dinner and an early night before the tunnels.

 

Day 3

Stu thankfully woke feeling much better, and an ice coffee and some sandwiches saw us ready to go. Stu had already done the tunnels before, and warned me that they were somewhat touristy. And touristy they were… buses of tourists were led in by guides, ushered to a video screening area and then led around the complex in a very formal manner. while we also followed the route, our guide was young and open minded and she was able to tell us the history of the war as someone who had grown up to understand both side of the war and was willing to discuss it.

Tunnel tour done, we headed back to town with the plan of walking to the markets for a quick shop and dinner, but to our surprise the markets were shutting. We realised that these markets must not also serve as the night ones as we had thought. A quick walk around and we found the ‘night market’. We had heard the food was good, so we decided to eat there, but the food seemed nothing special. Talking to others on our arrival back at the hostel we realised this was because we had still not been at the official night markets! make sure you check with people in the know about these things to avoid the slightly disapointing night we ended up having!

Day 4

Day four saw us once again at the markets, this time to finally make our purchases. only 40aud later and I had sneakers, a top and tights for hiking and Stu was set with a new top too. The day half done, we meandered through town once more, before making our way to the night train. Hunger saw us almost miss said train as Stu waited for the worst chicken in his life for over half an hour, but we just got on, and we were off towards Hoi An for the northern part of our adventure.

Night train blues:

As we got on the night train, we were surprised to find that we were unfortunately seated in two of only eight seats that faced towards the people opposite! And, to make matters more annoying, the old guy cross from us thought he was the class clown and made joke after joke at our expense (or so it seemed) trying to draw everyone else in.

After an hour or so he half quietened down, but seemed to feel like he should try and engage everyone in conversation at every moment. We did our best to ignore him, and settled in. It wasn’t long after we had finally relaxed that the two train conductors approached us and asked us if we wanted a sleeping cabin. Thinking they were taking us to two beds in the sleeper class that were free, we decided the extra money for that would be well worth it.

We followed the conductors to a small room that seemed to already have peoples possessions in it. Confused I sat down and asked how much. Prices double the price of our tickets, or even the sleeper class should have cost started flying. Thats when I realised, this was the conductors’ quarters and they wanted us to stay so they could make a little cash. I said no, and prices kept dropping until they were cheaper than sleeper class, but stupid me is not good at bring tricked, and regardless of a good deal or not for everyone involved, I wanted to bolt. I left, and poor Stu was made to follow, despite wanting to go through with the deal as it would have helped us out and given the conductors a little bonus for their nights work.

So there we were, back to where we had started, across from the never quite old Vietnamese guy.

Midnight came, and lights in the cabin dimmed and soon turned off. Our old man was now content in singing himself loudly to sleep. Finally asleep, he then snored. Somehow, however, Stu and I managed to fall into a kind of sleep.

4am rolled in and I woke to the sounds of laughter and lights now brightly on. It seemed our old friend had awoken, and so had the oldies across the way, and they felt 4am was the perfect time to get up, turn on light and eat breakfast while talking and joking loudly. I wrapped a scarf around my eyes and tried to sleep again. Half an hour and they seemed to have died off and decided to nap again, but left lights on. Having had enough, I got up and turned them off again, frustrated at this mans lack of social awareness.

530am saw him and his friends up and talking loudly again. Furious looks from myself and others seemed to only make him laugh louder, and I gave up on sleep and attempted to read. From then on, sleep cam in small intervals, normally when the oldies fell into a nap and allowed everyone else some peace and quiet.

Needless to say, our first night train left us feeling a little worse for wear and not too sure that we wanted to do that again for a while!

 

Cambodia: Siem Reap.

Originally we had planned to spend 3 weeks in Cambodia, skip over Thailand and then do three weeks in Vietnam. As we researched further however, we started to wonder if this was the best plan. While I had seen pictures of the beaches in Cambodia and was desperate to go, I had not read up much on what was there. As we looked for accomodation and recommendations it started to seem like while the beaches were beautiful, noisy high rise developments were starting to be built on the islands meant that it was not the ideal place to visit at this time.

Whether that was really the case, I’ll never know. We panicked and decided instead to do the following: Visit Cambodia and do Siem Reap, head to Thailand and do Bangkok and Krabi for 2 weeks and then spend the bulk of our time in Vietnam. We’ve debated many times since if this was the best plan, but in the end its what we did and overall there’s only a few choices I might chance if I did it again.

But I digress, back to the topic at hand, Siem Reap, undoubtedly the best known place in Cambodia. I had never been, but Stu had been almost 7 years ago and had only fond memories of the place and its people.

The flight there was not one of Stu fondest moments in the trip. Once again sick with his on again, off again stomach bug he found it hell. At least when we landed there were clean toilets and the line for Visa’s was short and very straightforward.

Visas sorted, we opted for a Tuk Tuk into town. At 8aud, it was cheap and by far the easiest way to get to our hostel as there was no train or public bus. Our driver was lovely, and soon had us parked up outside our accomodation. He was keen to take us around the ruins the next day and his was fair, but we opted out was we wanted to hire a bike and go around at our own pace.

Being already afternoon and with Stu not feeling too great, we explored town only a little that night and had early dinner before heading to bed.

Stu thankfully woke up feeling pretty good the next day, so we got up at a decent time, had breakfast and then hired a scooter for the day. Armed with a map of the ruins, we headed out firstly to the office to buy our pass.

The office was hard to find, but there were no lines and the pass was easy to buy. The pass is now quite expensive, so you are looking at around 100 dollars for the day with the bike included. Passes bought, we decided to do the circle of ruins backwards so that we would arrive at Angkor Wat as the sun was getting low.

 

Some of my favourite ruins were the ones not necessarily on the tourist trail. Many of them seemed to not even require the pass, or there was no-one there to check as they were less popular. This meant these ruins were far more peaceful and you could take your time going through them. There was also more of a feeling of being an Indiana Jones type, discovering lost worlds for yourself.We spent the whole morning looking at the smaller ruins, spending roughly a half hour to hour at each before driving on. We took advantage of the many locals selling fruit and ice creams along the way, with prices being very fair and the food delicious.

As the afternoon started to get late, we hit the start of the more visited ruins. Our gamble of doing them backwards seemed to pay off, as even these ruins were not too busy.  As these were bigger, we allowed and hour at least for each and having that time to really walk through each complex meant we felt we have really experienced them rather than just seeing them.

By 5pm we had seen around 7 ruins so we made the call that we would miss a few of the other larger ruins and head to Angkor Wat. And boy this ruin didn’t disappoint. While rather busy, it was vast and therefore not crowded and walking into it up the large stone path you really got the sense of how grand it would have been in its glory.

The complex was beautiful and we spent an hour and a half exploring within the old city walls. Monks sat praying and blessing those who wished for it as you walked through creating a quiet calm amongst visitors. The halls were still decorated in bright coloured but faded paints and flecks of gold and intricate carvings.  No matter where you looked you were greeted by some small detail that added to your understanding and awe of the place.

The last ruins for the day were atop a hill just down the road from the main ruins. Stu had gone there years before and said they were a great place for the sunset. When he had gone you could clamour up them yourself and they were not ones you needed a pass for. So we were shocked when we got there to find that there was a line half an hour to an hour long, guards and ticket inspection. We joined the line and debated what to do, we didn’t want to be in line for the sunset, but we were early enough that the line may just move enough for us to make it. We decided to give it 40 minutes and if not up on the ruins by then we would duck off quickly and see the sunset back at Angkor Wat.

Right on 40 minutes we found ourselves being amongst the last group to be let up for the day. The wait was worth it – a vista of the water, jungle and other ruins as the sunset.

The day done, we headed back to town. Apart from a funny incident with a locust it was the quietest night we would have in Siem Reap – dinner down pub street and a quick visit to the local markets saw out the night as we were truly tired. Our little pod rooms at our hostel were a welcome sight and the seclusion they offered a treat in our weary states.

The next morning saw us wake late. We had no real plan, be knew we needed to figure out visas for Vietnam. The morning saw us head out for a late brunch, then we went to numerous travel agents, finding all to charge the same for a rushed visa. We opted for the one closest to our accomodation, and left our passports with them before heading to the main streets of Siem Reap. The day was especially hot and after a few hours of exploring we were done. We headed to a bar in the hope of cool drinks and shade. The bars on Pub street were quite expensive, so we tried to find one nearby but just far enough away to combat this. In the end we found ourselves at a small bar with only one other patron, a Canadian soldier named Cam. Drinks were cheap and soon we were chatting away about travel, hearing stories of Cam’s life and experiences in war. The afternoon wore into early night so we moved to pub street for the happy hours and some food. The night was a little cooler than the last and we all took advantage and partied until the wee hours before crawling home.

The next day was a very quiet one. We rose late and had a decent Brunch near our hostel before having one last walk around the markets and surrounding areas. By 5pm we headed back towards the hostel, collected our passports from the travel agents, got our bag and by 6pm we were being picked up by the bus to make the long journey into Vietnam.