Tuesday 9th Nov 2010

Well we finally made it to Hue. We were really late so we missed out on a few things but we were still supposed to go on a cyclo tour. Cyclo’s are like adult buggies propelled by a man on a bike. But surprise!! A load of motorbikes showed up instead. The mode of transport I fear most. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun, terrifying but fun! The next day it was off to Hoi An a place I definitely will return to with an empty suitcase. Its the tailor capital of the world. We found ourselves  a tailor we liked and went to town. It was so much fun picking out clothes and then picking the material. I got three dresses one coat and two pairs of short for €150 but I would have loved more. The next day was Halloween and also Gemma’s happy birthday.We went on a 40km cycle which has been one of the highlights of the trip. We saw a lot of the Hoi An’s sites and scenery. It was a glorious day as well to make it even better. One downside though was we called into a few  of the local farms and I’m not entirely convinced the animals are being treated well. After the cycle we surprised the birthday girl with a party and BBQ. It was a great night especially since there was a free keg of beer!! Our last night there was spent shopping and going to tailor fittings. A word of advice on shipping stuff home from here is don’t use the hotel service go to the post office directly its much cheaper and their English is perfect. The following day we flew to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) for a couple of days. We finally got to do our cyclo tour here which was hilarious. It pissed rain the whole time but that made it even funnier it looked we were in buggies with rain gear over us. It was a strange city with a really big contrast between the super rich and extremely poor. I had a funny moment when a Vietnamese preacher that said Jesus wanted to save me! I told him I’d already been saved. When he realised I was Irish he said “Ah Ireland, Bertie Ahearn! He got out before all the corruption”. Picture someone saying that in a Vietnamese accent. I nearly wet myself laughing. 

Our next port of call was Cambodia. This is an amazing country my favourite of all the countries we’ve visited. First we went by public bus to Phnom Penh which isn’t as bad as it sounds. They are air conditioned coaches and your fed plus they take care of all the visa stuff at the border. While there we went to the killings fields, not for the faint of heart. After that we all had to part-take in the €1.50 cocktails for medicinal purposes. Then we stayed in Siem Reap for a few days also well worth the visit  but there are way too many temples and don,t bother with Ankor Wat at sunrise its a waste of sleep. The highlight here for me was micro lighting. This is a tiny two-seater plane just you and the pilot. We flew over Siem Reap so you get to see all the temples from the sky. Now this was worth the early morning!! On our last night here we went for a traditional feast which resulted in me eating eel and frog. Both of which were really tasty.

All too quickly our Indochina tour was over and we found ourselves back in Bangkok for a few days. Khao Sarn Road is the only way to go. From morning to night its jam packed but its true what they say about this street “anything goes”! Including me eating scorpion which actually does taste as disgusting as you would imagine. Anyway we all made it back safely and now we just have to wait for our next adventure to start. I hope its as amazing as this one has been :)

Friday 29th Oct 2010

Did I say the overnight train was the worst sleep ever? I take it back! Hin Boun was far worse. Its a tiny village one of the poorest places I’ve ever been to including Sheepmore (only joking). Everybody lives in wooden houses on stilts. They were some of the happiest people we’ve met though. The kids were mesmerised by us. Our tour guide doubled up as a chef and cooked us a local dinner. The fun really started when it was time to go to bed! We were split into groups of four and taken away into the pitch black night (no street lights because there are no streets!!) with our crappy rechargeable torches. We walked up to what I thought was a barn only to find out it was where we’d be sleeping. The woman that owned the house found my attempts at climbing the ladder to bed hilarious because I was bricking it that it would collapse under my weight! It was wafer thin! She even called people over to point and laugh! Our bed consisted of mats on the floor with faulty mosquito net. We had a chorus of crickets all night long plus the loudest gecko in the world decided to take up residence right beside my ear. The cockerels partied all night long and didn't stop just because the sun was up. They were hardcore. The next day a bus of zombies crossed the Vietnam border. We had one night in Ninh Binn then it was off to our cruise liner in Halong Bay. After checking out the caves we spent the night anchored amongst the cliffs. The amazing views were totally ruined by our brutal karaoke singing but we had fun trying. Then it was off to Hanoi for a few days. I loved this city it was a weird mix of old style markets and modern shops. The traffic is mental though. We became expert Vespa dodgers quite quickly. We had another over night train to Hue. Our carriage was delightful and all the cockroaches made it really cosy!! I managed to sleep a bit better on this one but we were delayed for six hours due to flooring along the tracks. Considering we just missed out on a typhoon we should count ourselves lucky!

Saturday 23rd Oct 2010

Another mad week in Asia! After our two day cruise along the Mekong and an overnight stop in Pakbeng (a tiny town of 2,000 people) we finally got to Luang Prabang. If you’re coming to Laos you have to visit this place its amazing. My favourite part of the trip so far has to be swimming in the Kuang Sii waterfalls here. It was beautiful. There’s also a bear rescue centre here and we just happened to be there at feeding time. We also went elephant trekking here the following day but to be honest I didn't like the way the elephants were treated by the trainers so I didn't part-take in the training. Afterwards we went kayaking down the Nam Khan river. That was an experience I’ll never forget and will never do again. We all needed a drink after that so the Lao Lao raised its ugly head again!! The hotel we stayed in there was fantastic like something you’d see on a tropical beach. Although I nearly destroyed our room when a rouge bra ended up in the roof fan due to a laundry malfunction!! We flew to Vientiane  and stayed there for a couple of days. Its the capital but not the best place to go. The best part was Sticky Fingers & Joma’s because they did western food. We were all in our element since rice was getting old at this point! Next stop Hin Boun for one night then its ‘Good Morning Vietnam’.

Sunday 17th Oct 2010

What a first week! After being sexually harassed by a crazy South African (only joking V) we decided to go exploring to get our bearings before the intrepid tour began. It took us about 30mins to find a temple on the map that we wanted to see so we took a stroll through the smog encrusted streets of Bangkok. We rocked up to Wat Po ready to get our tourism on then this crazy guy called Som in a tuk-tuk pulled up in front of us and offered us a trip to see four temples for 20Baht (50c). Too good to be true I hear you say! It was. Its a scam to get you to go to dodgy jewellery shops and tailors. But he didn't know who he was dealing with and we got to see our temples all for 20Baht. The next day we took a boat tour of Bangkok  and a tour of Wat Po in end. That night we took an over night train to Chiang Mai. Worst nights sleep ever!!! Don't do this trip without earplugs and eye masks. Once there we split up to do our own thing so me and a couple of the girls decided to do a Thai cooking class. It was fantastic. I made the mildest red curry known to man since I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to spice. That evening we went to Doi Suthep and climbed up all 300 steps to the temple. We got a blessing from the monks while we were there as you do! The next day we set of on a long drive to Laos and stopped off at the White Temple. This was the best one so far. It looked like the Snow Queens palace but inside was a epic mural portraying modern day evil. George Bush was in it and Avatar and Superman to name but a few. It was cool. Once in Laos it didn't take long for us to mix with the locals and their love of Lao Lao their crazy homemade Whiskey. It was a crazy night as well. We spent the following two days sailing up the Mekong river to recover.

Tuesday 12th Oct 2010

Well here it goes finally. I’ve set off on my travels. After all the tears, snots and tantrums when I couldn’t get everything into my miniscule backpack, I made it to the airport with hours to spare only to find out my 6pm flight was cancelled. They put me on the delayed 3:50pm flight instead which meant a mad dash to to the gate. TGI’s in Heathrow cheered me up even though my flight to Bangkok was delayed too.  I had a touchy feely Scottish creep beside me which made it hard to sleep for fear of being groped. Once I got to Bangkok everything started going right. I sailed through immigration and baggage but when it came to finding my transfer to the hotel it was like mission impossible. It took three hours to find someone who knew what I was talking about but I got there in the end. I also met someone from my group at the airport so I had a friend from the start.