Yangon

We had heard great things about Myanmar, and I have a friend (Thinzar) who lives in Yangon, so we decided to add this to our route. It is a little bit out of the way, but we are flying there and back so pretty easy really. The only slight challenge is that it is illegal to take drones into Myanmar (possible 3 year prison sentence). I researched online and a lot of people had their bags scanned as they left the airport and their drone confiscated (to be collected when they left the country), but this was not an option for us as we’d be flying out of a different airport. Realistically there’s not a risk of prison, I’ve only seen them use that when someone has done something silly like fly an illegally imported drone over a government building. Either way, we didn’t want to lose the drone, so I went through immigration at our layover in Bangkok and stored it in left luggage. Now I just have to hope our flight back to Bangkok isn’t delayed so I have time to pick it back up before we catch our connecting flight to Krabi!

Day 1

We stayed in downtown Yangon (district 1), which I think was the perfect choice. I loved the vibe around this area, it had a typical Asian feel to it, but a much slower pace than somewhere like Bangkok or Hanoi. It was so nice to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. Also motorbikes are banned in Yangon, so it was really strange to see the streets full of cars for a change!

First we visited Sule Pagoda, which was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It is a Burmese Stupa in the middle of a roundabout, and apparently over 2,600 years old. We had to pay about $5 to get in, which I thought was quite expensive, but I was keen to see it. Inside a young local man started talking to us and telling us about the pagoda. He asked what day we were born on, and took us to the Buddha that represents that day. We had to pour holy water over the buddha, the animal underneath, brush the metal ornaments, and then hit a bell three times. Whenever someone in Asia starts being nice to you, it does usually mean the start of a scam or they are expecting some money in my experience, but it felt rude to to say we didn’t want to talk to him, and it was interesting, so we let him continue. At the end he said we needed to make a donation to the buddha, and then said our donation was very small and we should put more money in (to which we said no). Anyway, about 5 minutes later when he thought we had gone, he went back to the buddha and took the money for himself. Ironically I was going to tip him more than I donated to the buddha so he lost out there! We told one of the security guards what he was doing, but they didn’t seem to care, I think they are all in on it to be honest. Then when we left the pagoda we couldn’t get our shoes back unless we gave the lady 1000 Kyat. When we’d arrived, there was nothing to say we had to pay for storing our shoes, she just pointed to some shelves and said we should leave them there. The pagoda was lovely, but the locals trying to fleece the tourists does ruin the experience a bit.

It gets really hot in Yangon (over 40 degrees), so we timed our day to be somewhere air conditioned early afternoon. There was a big shopping centre not far called Junction City, so we headed here next and spent some time browsing the shops. We went into a restaurant Thinzar recommended here called ‘YKKO’ and tried some Pork Kyay Oh. It’s a pork soup which is popular amongst local people (also recommended by Thinzar). It was really tasty, although it did have quite a bit of offal in which I didn’t finish.

From there we crossed the road to Bogyoke Aung San Market. This is such a cool place, I loved walking around here. We try not to buy too many souvenirs as they’re just another thing to carry, but couldn’t resist buying some locally made place mats from one of the vendors. We were really surprised how dark it was inside the market, you could barely see in the middle of it. Later in the day all the lights turned on and everyone cheered, so we realised it had been a power cut (which we have since learned happens fairly regularly in Yangon). We stopped for an iced coffee here and Lisa also bought a longyi which is a traditional Burmese skirt.

In the evening, Thinzar and her husband (Sai) picked us up from the hotel. I used to work with Thinzar at JJB Sports over 13 years ago, so it was lovely to see her again after all these years. First they took us to see Shwedagon Pagoda, which I think is one of the most iconic pagodas in the country. It is approximately 2600 years old, and although is a tourist attraction, the locals still use it as a place to relax and pay their respect to buddha. The whole pagoda is covered with gold leaf, and although unfortunately it is currently covered in scaffolding for refurbishment, it still looks absolutely incredible. The scaffolding has been put up very tastefully, I didn’t even realise it was being refurbished at first. While we were here we saw a lot of very young monks. Sai explained to us these are orphaned children who live at the monastery and are looked after by the monks. As I understood it, many of the orphaned children lost their parents in the civil conflicts which are taking place in various parts of Myanmar between the government and certain ethnic minorities. We saw a lot of these young monks around Yangon, usually walking in a line chanting and collecting donations. The girl monks we learned are called nuns and dress in pink robes.

Thinzar and Sai then took us to a local restaurant for dinner. Here we tried Myanmar curry (chicken and mutton), mohinga and some local deserts. The curries were so tasty, with a nice spice to them. Mohinga is a fish noodle soup, this was quite nice and not at all offensive, but I don’t think I’d have it again (I liked it, I just didn’t love it). The deserts were some delicious coconut things (I have no idea what they were) and some small pancakes made with rice.

Day 2

We had another stroll around downtown today. We went to Maha Bandula Park to see the Independence Monument and City Hall. This was a beautiful little park, and you can really see the British influence on the architecture from the days this was a British colony. The Independence Monument was put up in 1948, replacing a statue of Queen Victoria. Apparently the statue of Queen Victoria came back to England, but I’m not sure what happened to it!

We then went to the Rangoon Teahouse for lunch (Rangoon is the old British colony name for Yangon). We shared a tea leaf salad and a chai tea cheesecake here. The tea leaf salad is a traditional Burmese dish, we made the mistake of ordering the spicy version! I don’t know what a lot of the ingredients were, but it’s quite nutty, so very different to a salad we’d have. They take their tea-making very seriously here, even more seriously than the British! You have a couple of types of leaf to choose from, then a choice of 16 ways to have your milk (various strengths and ratios of condensed and evaporated milk).

After this we wandered into Chinatown, soaked up the atmosphere and then had a traditional Burmese massage. We are enjoying trying the local massages in each country! Burmese was my favourite so far, it was much more gentle than the others! At the end of our massages they painted our cheeks with thanaka. This is a tree bark that is rubbed in water to make a paste, then smeared on peoples faces. The Burmese use this to protect their faces from the sun (we’ve seen a lot of locals wearing it), but apparently it is also very good for the skin. Some of the locals did think it was funny seeing us walk around with this on!

To end the day we walked back up to Junction City and watched Pet Cemetery at the cinema. We were a bit surprised, as before the film starts the Myanmar national flag is displayed on the screen while the national anthem plays. We looked behind and noticed everyone had stood up for this, and felt a bit awkward as we weren’t sure what to do. Thinzar told us after than foreigners are not expected to stand, which was lucky, as we didn’t! Pet Cemetery probably wasn’t the best choice of film here, as Yangon does have a problem with stray dogs (and rabies). After being chased by the dogs in Cambodia we are quite scared of them so the walk home was a bit tense. We made it all the way to the street our hotel is on, before coming across a dog standing in our way. We waited for a little while until some locals appeared, and walked past the dog with them. I do think the danger of dogs in Yangon is real, with 1,394 dog bites recorded at Yangon hospital last October (and 25 deaths from rabies between Jan-Oct that year), however, we didn’t see that many dogs, and all the ones we did see were not interested in us at all. The thing that is sad is that rabies deaths are totally avoidable with vaccine (it doesn’t even exist in the UK!), whereas here, people are still regularly dying from it. Being in these countries (especially Cambodia) really has made me so grateful of the healthcare we have in the UK. In these places if you don’t have money, you are pretty much left to die.

Day 3

We had a bit of a lazy morning, and then took a Grab up to another shopping centre called Junction Square. We had a browse around here and stopped at KFC for lunch. Amazingly, this was Lisa’s first ever KFC. It was different to at home, the batter on the outside was much more crunchy. I haven’t been used to such heavy meals, so felt a bit sick after this. We then went to the National Museum where we saw lots of old artefacts from ancient Myanmar, dinosaur bones and a huge throne from one of the old kings. There was no air con in the museum and it was very hot, so we didn’t spend too long in there.

In the evening we met with Thinzar and Sai and they took us to a lovely restaurant which overlooked Inya Lake. It was such a peaceful and relaxing place, they said they go there quite often on a Friday evening. We had another really nice evening with them enjoying the local food and the views across the lake.

Day 4

We had an early start as Thinzar and Sai took us to their local market to do their weekly shop at about 7.30am. Life starts early at the weekends here as it’s too hot later in the day. It was so interesting for us to see some real Yangon life, and I think it was also quite interesting for some of the locals to see white people walking through the market, as some ladies were shouting ‘Mingalabar’ (hello in Burmese) and pointing at us shouting ‘oh my god!!’ – it was quite funny!

We went to Thinzar and Sai’s house after this for lunch. Thinzar made us some tea leaf salad (not spicy so we could enjoy this one more) and ohn no khauk swe, which is a coconut noodle dish (and quite similar to the khao soi we ate in Chiang Mai). It was so tasty – we have loved trying all of the local food, especially when it’s home made! We also saw some more of the young monks walk up the street collecting donations.

As it was so hot, we just relaxed inside during the afternoon. We had an overnight bus to Bagan at 8.30, so at around 6pm Thinzar and Sai took us to see another pagoda near their home, this was called Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda. Again, it was really interesting to see a beautiful temple which is used by local people and away from the tourist hot spots. In this temple there is a huge buddha which was carved out of a single 600 ton block of marble from Mandalay (now weighing over 500 tons after the carving).

We have had a lovely time in Yangon. I have really loved this city, and would go so far to say it is my favourite city in Asia so far. I would also like to say a massive thank you to Thinzar and Sai who have been the most amazing and generous hosts during our stay in their city.

Chris and Lisa x

Battambang

We took the Mekong Express bus from Siem Reap to Battambang which although was advertised at 3 hours it was actually 4. We have come to expect the advertised times for travel are incorrect and usually at least an hour longer. As we are sleepy people and try not to get up too early, we booked the afternoon bus so arrived at 6pm. During a service stop on the bus I had bought us both an iced coffee, Chris didn’t want his as he’s been suffering with a dodgy tummy. So I ended up drinking them both and regretted it when I was busting for the loo for the last hour of the journey and had to run off the bus when we arrived to find the nearest toilet! 

We had a free pick up to take us to our hotel, we realised that these ‘free pick ups’ were actually the tuk tuk’s offering a free service for the hotel, in order to gain access to westerners in hope that you then book a tour with them whilst your visiting. However we had already arranged for a tuk tuk the following day through a facebook group recommendation so did feel a little guilty. Accommodation in Battambang was quite reasonable at $20 for a private room with private bathroom for 2 nights. We have found the accommodation in Cambodia to be very similar to the rest of the places we have visited so far. We walked the 1km into the centre and headed straight for the night market, we walked up and down and soon realised that there were no English menus, so we found a place that was busy and had pictures of their food and did a little point and order, we got what we asked for and it was delicious. It was $2 for each meal and $1 for each drink which is the cheapest we have had in Cambodia as places are usually between $3-$6 for meals and around $2 for drinks.

In the morning we were woken up at around 6am to some kind of religious ceremony which involved someone chanting and singing on a microphone, luckily we did manage to snooze a bit through the morning. We headed out for breakfast and after a bit of researched we came across a Battambang waffle café so headed straight there, but it was closed which was so annoying as we were both craving waffles after reading all the reviews online. However, there was plenty of other options near by and we headed to one of those. Quite a lot of the cafes are social enterprises so they give back to the local community, either by way of employing disabled or underprivileged young people or by doing aid work in the villages. So its win-win, great coffee and that feel-good feeling knowing your money is going to a great cause.

In the afternoon we had arranged for a tuk tuk to visit some of the attractions in the local area. I think this is really important to get out and see the surrounding areas as Battambang itself wasn’t anything special, but the area in which is sits has a lot to offer.  Something that is unique to Cambodia is there isn’t really any big tour companies, it’s a case of hiring a tuk tuk driver for the day (we paid $15 + $5 tip) and they tailor make the tour to suit you. 

Bamboo Train

First stop for us was the bamboo train, this was really the main reason we decided to come to Battambang. Although the bamboo train is rarely used by locals today it was the main way of transport for them connecting the villages to the market (our guide said he used it when he was younger, and locals stopped using it about 10 years ago). The railway is a single track and the ‘trains’ are flat platforms made out of bamboo sat on two sets of wheels and powered by a motor. We had the train to ourselves but I think they would have squeezed a lot of people (and animals) on them back in the day. The train travelled at about 25 miles per hour and felt very fast when you sat crossed legged in the open air whizzing past the fields. Like a runaway train at a theme park, luckily without the twists and turns! On the trip you travel 7km to a small village and then turn around and come back, as I mentioned it’s on a single track so when you meet a train coming the other way one of the trains has to come off the track to allow the other past and then reassemble back on the track. When we met our first train we jumped off and our driver and the driver of the other train quickly moved the train out the way and put it back together again (the wheels/axles aren’t actually fixed to the bamboo platform, it just rests on top). We then headed back on our way. We were soon faced with another train coming towards us and the drivers appeared to have a disagreement on who would come off so we ended up being pushed backwards by the other train for a while, until a train was behind us, which then became a 2 against 1 situation and the train that had pushed us backwards had to back down. We arrived at the ‘village’ which was just a load of shops selling anything from drinks to clothes to souvenirs. They went in for the hard sell and we spent 10 minutes constantly having to say no thankyou to everything being offered to us. I then noticed some children with ice cream and thought to give them a little of our money I would buy one, she had just ran out but said she would will get some more. She jumped on her motorbike and then returned 5 minutes later with ice creams. It was a strange ice cream with little kidney type beans in, but was surprisingly good and certainly refreshing when you’re sat out in the 40 degree heat. As we got back on the train she said don’t forget to tip your driver. It’s so annoying when they ask for a tip, we have only seen this is Vietnam so far so was a bit disappointed to hear this in Cambodia too. The train is $5 each, they should just charge more rather then ask for a tip afterwards. 

Bat Cave and Cambodian delicacies

After the train we then headed to the bat caves, on the way the wind picked up and the little tuk tuk was blowing everywhere, then the heavens opened and it bucketed down. Our driver got soaked whilst he was putting the covers on the tuk tuk and drove to the caves. We took shelter at one of his friend’s house, we were there for about an hour whilst we waited for the storm to pass. We had never heard thunder so loud and seen rain so heavy! We had planned to get a motorbike ride up the mountain to see the killing cave and then after see the bats, but because of the rain we had to skip the killing cave. Whilst we were waiting for the bats to make an appearance our tuk tuk driver asked us if we had tried the eggs in Cambodia. We had heard about the fertilised eggs but hadn’t seen any (however, we soon realised that every egg you see on a street vender stall is actually these eggs). He showed us how to eat them by taking off the top and then adding in some pepper or garlic and chilli and then eating it just like a normal hard boiled egg, the yolk tasted just like a normal egg however it was abit unsettling seeing what else was in there. After our Cambodian egg snack we headed to see the bats. Every night at sundown thousands and thousands of bats leave the cave for feeding it takes about an hour for them all to leave and its very impressive to see, apparently, they head to a nearby lake and then return at around 4am.

On the way home we drove past loads of people selling BBQ rats (from the rice fields) on the side of the road. Savet, our driver asked if we wanted to try so we thought we might as well give it a go. It does taste like chicken when you get a nice meaty part, however, the less meaty parts were not that nice and the smell wasn’t great, I don’t think either of these new dishes we tried today will be making it into our usual diet. 

In the evening we headed out to meet the lovely Welsh couple, Dan & Adele who we had met on the boat from Koh Rong Samloem. Its great meeting other travellers sharing experiences and future plans. 

It was only a short visit to Battambang and to be honest that’s all it really needed, we love seeing different parts of a country. For example the island and this city are totally chalk and cheese (umm cheese). On the bus back to Siem Reap I watched a Cambodian film on Netflix called ‘First they killed my father’ it’s a harrowing story about a little girl and her family through the Khmer Rouge regime, it is worth a watch for sure (reminded me a lot of the boy in the stripped pyjamas) it really did bring to life for me what an awful recent history Cambodia has had. 

We only stayed in Siem Reap for one more night as our flight to Yangon in Myanmar was the next day, we picked a city centre hotel and although it wasn’t as nice as the one we had stayed in just outside of the city, the service was very good. About 5 members of staff waved us off when we left in the tuk tuk for the airport was bit odd and over the top, but we felt like royalty lol. 

Goodbye Cambodia

This is the last of the Cambodian blogs. Cambodia for us was really interesting, it truly did feel like an underdeveloped country, but with the happiest people. It was a shame to see litter everywhere, towns being destroyed by Chinese investors building hotels and casinos without considering sanitation solutions or the local community and traditions. Contrast to the beauty of the untouched beaches on the islands. Learning about the Pol Pots Khmer Rouge genocide and seeing all the orphaned children begging, hearing about the government corruption and all about the Khmer empire and Angkor Wat means Cambodia has been a very interesting place for us. We did find it to be the most expensive country we have visited in South East Asia so far and we were both poorly a lot of the time. Our favourite place was Kep with the amazing fresh crab market and the flavours of the local pepper all mixed in with locals enjoying the little seaside town, it really did feel like the holiday place for the city dwellers of Cambodia. Everyone was so friendly saying hello to you in the street and children waving at you from the back of motorbikes. Cambodia has been the country with the biggest smile.  

We’ve been traveling for 11 weeks now, taken 6 flights, 6 trains, 20 buses, stayed in 30 different hotels/hostels, slept on 3 different trains, and 1 bus & 1 cruise boat. Taken too many boats to even count, crossed borders via land, sea and air. Visited 5 countries and we’re not event half way through yet.

We’re at the airport now traveling to our 6th country of the trip, so see you in Myanmar where our adventure continues!

Lisa & Chris xx

Siem Reap

So our last blog left you with us in Sihanoukville waiting to get our night bus to Siem Reap. We had been waiting in a bar just around the corner from the bus stop, however, when we walked to where the bus stop should have been we soon realised that maps.me had it marked in the wrong place. Luckily, I had google maps downloaded offline for the area and was able to search to try and find the correct place, however, two different locations came up so we asked a couple of people but no-one was able to help us. We then found a tuk tuk driver and when I showed him both places on the map he told us which one he thinks it was (it was the further of the two so I think it was more luck then anything else). We were in a panic that we would miss our bus, but not sure what would be worse – having to pay again to get the bus the next day or spend longer in Sihanoukville! We negotiated a price with the tuk tuk driver and he drove us to the stop. Success – it was the right one, the bus was there waiting! We handed him a $20 bill but he didn’t have any change so Chris went to grab some change but couldn’t get any. Luckily this lovely welsh couple we had met on the boat off the island shouted us the $2 so got us out of a sticky situation there! We got onto the air-conditioned bus which was amazing as we had spent the last 8 days without any air con and had been struggling (first world problems). We hadn’t realised when we booked that the bus actually had a row of double beds and then the aisle and a row of singles, so luckily we had booked the ones next to each other. The bus wasn’t actually as bad as expected and way better than traveling the 10 hours during the day but we didn’t really sleep too well at all. I just felt sticky and horrible and Chris woke up covered in bites.

Our hotel included a pick up, it’s great not having to worry where our hotel is and how to get to it at that time in the morning. We were greeted at the hotel with a welcome drink and cold towels, these were amazing after feeling so hot and sticky from the bus! We booked 3 nights in Siem Reap with the plan to spend 2 days exploring the temples of Angkor and 1 day relaxing, we also upped our budget for the hotel so after exploring temples in the heat we could relax in the pool and some luxury back at the hotel. As the national park where the temples are is so big you need to hire a tuk tuk for the day, we found a guy who came recommended on one of the traveling forums we’re on and arranged for 2 days. The prices seem to be pretty consistent at the $20 a day mark. He was picking us up at 9.30am for our first day of exploring the temples, plenty of time for us to enjoy breakfast and take a swim in the pool. Also the hotel got our room ready and let us check in super early too.

Day one

We visited 4 temples (Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Bayon and Angkor Wat). It was so interesting to see how the trees were now just part of the structures, and the faces of the Bayon temple were so interesting. Also I noticed on signs that different countries are responsible for different temples. As we were walking around the first three temples we had regretted not researching more about them, so when we arrived at Angkor Wat our last temple of the day and were offered a guided tour I jumped at the chance. We managed to get him down to $10 and he was very interesting and informative. He told us how Angkor was a mega city of the Khmer empire built in the 12th century, used for many years and then abandoned in the 15th century due to war when the kingdom fell to Ayutthaya (which we visited in Thailand). After they were abandoned the forest then took over and they were hidden until early in the 1800’s when the French found them. It was only in 1992 they were listed as world heritage sites and restoration started and people could visit. The entry price is pretty steep at $37 for 1 day or $62 for 3 days, however, Cambodian people can come for free. The restoration is all about maintaining access and safety, not about rebuilding broken structures which is beautiful. We have visited some places on this trip where stuff has been completely rebuilt. On the tour we also learnt about how Angkor Wat was the first temple built in Angkor by the King Jayavarman II for a place for him to come to pray as he had declared himself as a ‘god-king’, and how it was actually built from the top down. A moat around the temple was dug and the earth from that was piled into a hill, then the first stones where laid and then the earth removed underneath as more stones were laid. I’m guessing it was easier to walk stones up the hill with the elephants then to lift them up back then. Apparently 300,000 slaves and 6,000 elephants were involved with the building of Angkor Wat and it was never actually finished. He also pointed out holes in the lime stones which were used to carry them from the holy mountain 50km away by putting bamboo through them and either floated on the river or carried by the elephants. The building is so impressive and massive, with so much detail in the carvings. We also found out Cambodia was actually called Khmer (that explains why they are called Khmer people), a Hindu country and Angkor Wat was actually originally built as a Hindu temple (as were many of the other temples) then later changed to a Buddhist temple. The name of the country changed at this time to Kampuchea (which is where we get the word Cambodia from). The other temples were commissioned by the kings for them to use to then become God Kings themselves. It was hot and very busy around the temples on the first day we got back to the hotel at around 3pm. Headed straight for the pool bar and had some iced coffees and a pizza!

Day Two

We got up at 5am so we could catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. This was so impressive and a must if you’re visiting the temples. After the sunrise we headed back to the tuk tuk and he drove us to the first temple of the day, Preah Khan. As the others don’t open until 7.30am we stopped off at a restaurant for some coffee and tucked into our hotel breakfast box (this was very disappointing a couple of boiled eggs and bread and some bananas but we’re on a budget and it was included in the hotel). We sat chatting to our tuk tuk driver and shared pictures of our trip around Cambodia, he hasn’t been out of his providence so was interested to see pictures of the island and the salt fields etc. He told us he has 2 little boys one of 3 and one of 6 months, I said I bet it’s hard at night to keep them cool, then then said last night they both were up all night crying and had a temperature and he would need to take them to the hospital when he dropped us off. We instantly felt awful and told him if he needed to head home earlier that’s fine by us. His family clearly rely on his income and had no choice but to come to work to get the $20 for the day. We headed into the temple, we had it to ourselves and it was so much cooler in the morning. We also visited Ta Som and East Mebon and by 8am the sun was really starting to heat up. After the 3rd temple our driver asked us if we wanted to go to the 4th or not as it was actually the same because it was built by the same King, we said no it was ok to take us back. I think that was his way of saying he needed to get home quickly and to be honest we were bit templed out by this point. We got back to the hotel at 9am, headed straight for a nap and then had a pool day! We then have enjoyed another relaxing day by the pool today, so pleased with our choice of hotel the staff are so friendly and its so quiet we have had the pool to ourselves and it’s felt like a proper holiday, although we are already used to luxury again.

Highlight video of our time exploring the temples of Angkor

We are off to Battambang tomorrow for 2 nights then back to Siem Reap for the evening before we fly to our next country – Myanmar!

Catch you soon

Lisa & Chris

Kampot and Koh Rong Samloem

Kampot

We arrived at the pepper plantation (La Plantation) at around 10am for our guided tour. Our guide showed us around the plantation and we saw all the different types of pepper they grow. Apparently Kampot pepper is one of the world’s best and has a PGI, so only pepper grown here can be labelled as such. We tried the pepper straight from the plants, I really liked it, but some were a bit hot for Lisa! The guide made us laugh with his translations as he explained they use ‘animal sh*t’ to help grow the pepper. Some of the most expensive pepper is actually one that is excreted by a bird!

We then took a cooking class at La Plantation. We made beef lok lak and fish amok which are arguable the two main national dishes. The beef lok lak is beef in a pepper sauce and was delicious. The fish amok I really didn’t like, but Lisa enjoyed it. The fish amok had coconut cream in which we made ourselves. First I cracked open a coconut and collected the water, then shredded the coconut flesh into it. I then kept squeezing the flesh to get all of the juice out of it, then sieved the flesh out – the remaining juice is coconut milk! We also made a vegetable curry, the sauce was so tasty, but I’d have preferred to replace some of the veggies with meat.

We were staying in some little huts in Kampot about a 10-15 minute walk out of town. There was a tiny little pool which was so nice to cool down in. I didn’t think Kampot was particularly amazing, but we took a tuk tuk out to visit the salt fields which was interesting. They let the river water flood into the fields (it’s an estuary so very salty water), let it evaporate and then collect the salt. It’s near end of hot season now, so there were only a couple of people in the fields collecting the salt.

  • Our accommodation – hut in the background!
  • Our tuk tuk driver

In the afternoon we walked into town and had a wander around. There wasn’t much to do really so we just chilled out. Early evening we went on a sunset cruise up the river. The sunsets are always amazing out here and this didn’t disappoint! Once the sun had set our driver (captain?) pulled up against the jungle at the side of the river and we saw some fire flies glowing. It was so cool to see them twinkling in the dark! Once back on land we found a nice night market full of locals for some food before heading home.

  • Fire flies
  • Bokor night market

One thing I have really not liked about Asia is all of the stray dogs. Especially after the angry dogs chased us in Kep! We made the mistake of walking back to our accommodation out-of-town in the dark and spent most of the journey terrified of the barking dogs. They have no neutering or vaccination programmes out here for the dogs (or cats), so it really is no joke when they start acting aggressive. It is quite strange seeing cute little cats walking along with two massive balls sticking out behind them! I read that most of the dogs in Kampot are not strays, but pets used as burglar deterrents, and people leave their gates open so the dogs can get out and wander around. When you’re a tourist they are not used to the smell of, you obviously don’t get a warm welcome! I’ve heard the locals throw rocks at them, so the best thing to do is pretend to pick something up and they usually run off.

Koh Rong Samloem

This is a small island about 15 miles off the south coast of Cambodia. We stayed in M’Pai Bay which is where the cheaper accommodation is, and very popular with back packers. We arrived via boat, and had about a 10 minute walk to our accommodation, although took longer as a local thought we said Bay View, rather than Baloo so started leading us to the wrong place in the middle of nowhere. I’m not sure if she genuinely misheard, or was just trying to get us to stay at her hotel. Our accommodation was very basic, and a little bit out of the way, but still only about 5 mins down to the beach and the owner (Simon) was very nice and helpful. We have decided we need rooms with A/C though, as it was way too hot to just have a fan, I’ve felt hot and sweaty almost my whole time on the island.

The next morning we headed to the beach about 15 mins around the coast. It was so beautiful and quiet, and I cannot believe how warm the sea is! We had the beach pretty much to ourselves most of the morning, but later in the day a few more people came down. We just spent the day chilling on the beach and floating around in the sea.

On the second day we took the ‘driftwood path’ around to Clearwater Bay. It was not a driftwood path, it was a trek through the jungle! We had to walk up over a massive hill and were quite hot and exhausted when we arrived, so went straight into the sea to cool down. This beach was paradise. Beautiful white sand, turquoise waters, totally deserted! The only thing with a deserted beach is that there are no facilities and barely any shade. We took about 5 litres of water with us, and were down to our last bottle so thought we better walk back (plus Lisa wasn’t feeling very well and had been sick in the sea). The walk back was pretty hard work to be honest, it was so hot and the sun is brutal here. By the time we got back to our accommodation we were both feeling quite ill so went to bed around 4pm. I think it was a combination of the heat, exhaustion, not much food, and also no caffeine. I do drink a lot of coffee and hadn’t had any caffeine today, and I do usually get a headache if I go cold turkey. I bought a coke later in the evening and did feel a little bit better after that.

We also found that lots of the bars and restaurants are closed as it’s Khmer New Year. This last for three days, and they partake in water fights, throw white powder over each other and sing karaoke. It was a little bit sad that mainly the western-owned places closed to enjoy new year, while the local restaurants stayed open (I’m presuming the Khmer people can’t afford to close). Simon who owns our accommodation said there isn’t a great relationship between the locals and ex-pats on the island (his wife is Khmer so he does have a good relationship with the locals). I noticed the bars/restaurants owned by expats quite often had signs outside saying ‘looking for volunteers’, so presume backpackers work for free in exchange for accommodation. I can understand why the locals wouldn’t be happy with westerners opening business competition against them, without giving anything back to the community in the way of employment opportunities.

The next morning we were still feeling a bit delicate (and scared of the sun) so spent the day chilling out at a beach bar in the shade. It has been a bit hot here for me to be honest, with no A/C it feels like there is no escape and the only time I feel refreshed is immediately after a shower or while I’m in the sea. In the evening we went to a restaurant which looks out of the west side of the island, so enjoyed another lovely sunset. After this we wanted to try and see the glowing plankton around the island, but unfortunately the moon was a bit bright. We guessed it might be, so Lisa waded into the night sea first to check if we could see them while I waited on the beach. I know that might seem a bit un-gentlemanly, but we’d heard there were lots of jellyfish at night and I didn’t want to get stung for no reason! Ok, that sounds very un-gentlemanly, but Lisa had leggings on so was protected, whereas I only had shorts!

On our last day we again chilled out in the morning, staying at the same beach bar for breakfast all the way through to lunch. After lunch i used the restaurant toilet (which is just their family bathroom next to the kitchen), and noticed the kitchen was filthy – then I saw a rat running across the work surface. Hygiene in many parts of SE Asia is very different to home – no wonder we both were ill! At around 3pm we took a boat to Sihanoukville (which is a complete dive – it is the Luton of Cambodia!). I heard it was nice a few years ago, but the Chinese are turning it into a massive resort so it’s a huge construction site. We’re only here for a few hours before we take the night bus to Siem Reap – I’m so excited to visit Angkor Wat!


Chris and Lisa x

Phnom Penh and Kep

Phnom Penh

So this is the first of our Cambodia blogs, we arrived fresh off the boat in Phnom Penh and was greeted with the standard Tuk Tuk welcome. We knew we only had a short walk so politely said ‘no thank you’ and headed to our hotel. Its strange over here as the Cambodian currency is Riel, however, you can only get US Dollars from the ATMs so you often pay with Dollars and then get change in Riel. This makes getting used to the currency really hard – at least they don’t have coins! We only had $100 notes and our hotel didn’t have enough change to give us. When you hear the average salary of a Cambodian in the city is $200 a month it’s a lot of money I guess.

We checked in to our room and the hotel very kindly had a list of helpful security advice, one of which was beware of monkeys. We did know we needed to be careful of bag snatching over here, but didn’t realise we would need to be worrying about monkeys stealing stuff too! We had two nights in the capital and plans to head to Kep next, but nothing booked, so we took some time to do some research on how to get there. We have found some very helpful websites Rome2rio & 12goasia for arranging transport, however, found the information on these not complete. A quick google did the trick and a couple of great websites have been Camboticket & Movetocambodia. These gave us more information and we found a very popular company called Giant Ibis who are a little more expensive, but have a fantastic reputation. We found their office and headed there to book our transport to Kep. Due to the Cambodian New Year we have made sure we have all our transport planned and hotels booked as we had heard stuff shuts down.

In the evening we found a bar that had happy hour with 75 Cent local beer on the river front to take in the atmosphere of the city. We were soon joined by children begging, some with baskets selling items and some just simply walking around with a cup saying hungry and putting their hands to their mouths. I felt like a monster saying no, I don’t think they could have been much older than 5.

The next day Chris arranged for a Tuk Tuk driver for the day ($20) to take us to the Killing Fields ($6pp entry) and then the S21 Prison ($8pp entry). I didn’t really know too much about the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia in the 70’s and who were responsible for mass genocide of 2 million people ( a quarter of the population at the time). When I had shared my travel plans with work, my boss Mark had mentioned it to me so we knew we needed to visit these museums.

The Khmer Rouge lead by Pol Pot during 1975-1979 had an ideology that the Khmer people (this is the name of people living in Cambodia, the name of the language and the cuisine too), should go back to their agricultural routes and create a ‘master race’ which would just live off the land and not be spoilt by money and wealth. He set out to kill anyone that didn’t agree with this, mainly targeting the educated – wearing glasses or speaking another language was enough for you to be a target. The Killing fields we visited just outside Phnom Penh was one of the 231 that were set up around Cambodia at the time. We did a walking tour of the area listening to an audio guide, it was so sad to listen to what took place there. People were brought here to be killed and laid in mass graves, you can see scraps of material in the routes of trees which were the victim clothes (when it rains, more come up to the surface). We saw the ‘killing tree’, the locals were confused when they first saw this as it had shards of bone and blood stains on the side. Their fears were realised when they uncovered a mass grave next to it full of children and women. One of Pol Pot’s approaches was to kill from the roots, so the whole family would be murdered. There is a stupa that houses 5,000 sculls as monument of remembrance of those murdered at the killing fields, the sculls were labelled with the method they would have been murdered. They all had some kind or trauma from an axe of similar – this was to save on bullets. This was our final stop and a true memory of the horrors that took place some 40 years ago and the 17,000+ people killed and buried at this site.

After this we then went to S21. Prior to the invasion of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge this was a school, which they turned it into a prison. People were tortured into making false confessions so the Khmer Rouge had a paper trail to sentence people to death. 12,000-18,000 people were thought to have come through the prison and there is only 12 known survivors, again we walked through the prison and listened to an audio guide. It was awful listening to the stories of what went on here. One that stood out for me was about a Cambodian doctor living in Europe (the west had no idea what was going on inside Cambodia at the time) who was written to several times by the Khmer Rouge asking for him to come back stating he was needed by his country, the doctor instructed his family he would go ahead and settle and then they would come and join him. They never saw him again. In 1980 his wife went to the prison and found he had been a prisoner there. We saw details on the torture it was just awful. We then got back to the hotel and when Andy who worked there asked us about our day he shared his own Khmer Rouge story with us. He was about 2 at the time and was dying from a flesh eating disease (he has scars all over his body from this) – his mother trekked for days to get to a hospital just in time. They then made it to the Thailand border as a refugee, I’m not sure how long he was here but he said his earliest memories involved seeing all the white refugee tents. His family were then lucky enough to be sponsored and they moved to America. His family were poor and his childhood involved caring for his younger brothers and sisters whilst his parents worked to keep them going. We then found out that the new government that was set up following the fall of Pol Pot actually contains members from the Khmer Rouge. It’s quite hard to learn about what is happening here now, as people are too scared to talk about the government. The people of Cambodia have a very awful recent history however they are so friendly and welcoming to tourists.

Kep

We arrived in Kep after the 4 hour bus journey and headed straight to our hotel (which is beautiful). We were too early to check in so dropped our bags off and headed to the crab market (the area is famous for pepper and crabs), our hotel recommended ‘So Kheang’ as the best restaurant near by so headed there for a spot of lunch. The restaurant opened up straight on the water and it was so fun watching the fishermen from the market wade out to their crab baskets to bring in their crabs for buyers. As we decided we would get crab from the market the next day, Chris ordered grilled prawns and I ordered squid. Both dishes came with a special pepper dipping sauce which was fantastic and the seafood was just divine. I realised I didn’t have my phone and after a quick ‘find my friend’ search on Chris’ phone we saw it was on the way back to Phnom Penh so I must have left it on the bus. We contacted Giant Ibis via live chat on their website (relieved we paid extra for this company now to have this luxury communication method). They said the attended looked and couldn’t find a phone, we explained we could tell it was on the bus so it was 100% there. After it arrived in Phnom Penh they had a better look and found it wedged between the seats and said they would bring it to Kep on the bus the following day.

After a full english breakfast at the hotel (it had baked beans and everything!) we headed to wait for the bus to arrive, and success, I got my phone back – so lucky! Chris all day has been joking saying ‘have you got your phone?’ every time we leave somewhere, I think he’s forgotten already he left our bank card in the ATM in Laos. Our hotel gave us free bikes to explore Kep and we headed to the centre of town, to Kep Coffee, where Victoria (the friends we met doing the Sapa trek – The Video is here) had told us about these amazing cinnamon buns. We then went to the ghost town area where there are abandoned homes everywhere from the Khmer Rouge time. We didn’t explore it much as there are a few stray dogs around, we were chased by some very angry ones yesterday so little scared of them now the last thing we want is to be bitten!

We then headed back along the coast to the crab market to get our crab for lunch. At the market you find a seller, pick your crabs (they bring them straight out of the sea in baskets) and then they cook them for you. It was so much fun and a lot of people come just for these, it’s like their version of seaside fish and chips! We then picked up some sugarcane juice and cycled back up the coast to find a shady area to enjoy our feast. We got a Kilo of crabs for $8 and they cooked them in an amazing Kampot pepper sauce for an extra $2 – such a bargain for about 8 crabs and what an experience.

After our messy lunch we headed to the beach and had a dip in the sea… It was so warm! All of the locals were just in the sea in their clothes as the women dress very conservatively here, they must have thought I had stripped down to my bra and pants to be in the sea in my bikini. We then headed back towards the crab market to enjoy the sunset and we were followed by some monkeys again, we were a little worried we would get scratched or bitten so tried to keep our distance (they can carry rabies here as well as the dogs).

Tomorrow we are visiting a pepper plantation and heading to Kampot for a couple of days. Kep has been amazing, it’s so beautiful and quaint. Kep is the proud owner of a clean area award, however, there was still litter everywhere which is very sad to see. I dread to think what the non clean areas look like! Having said that, Kep should be on your visit list – for me it’s one of the favourite of the trip.

Lisa & Chris xxx

Mekong Delta

We’d been recommended to visit Can Tho in the Mekong Delta by Andreas and Victoria (the couple we met in Sapa), so decided to book an organised tour to this area to give us a bit of break from planning transport, accommodation etc. (first world problem, I know!). We spoke to the owner of our hotel in Ho Chi Min City and she recommended a 3-day tour to us which ended with a speed boat up the Mekong River to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. This sounded ideal as we initially thought we’d have to return to Ho Chi Min City to catch a bus over the border. 

Day one

We had a great start to the day as our hotel surprised us with Xoi Xeo for breakfast. This is the sticky rice / mung bean dish we ate in Hanoi and loved. It is a Hanoi speciality, so you can’t usually get it down south, however, we’d seen a hawker stall on google maps near the hotel that sold it. Unfortunately, it was always closed when we went there, as we were either up to late, or too short of time in the morning. As we mentioned this to the hotel owner a few times, her husband got up early and picked us up some to enjoy before we were collected at 7.40. As breakfast wasn’t included in the room rate, how lovely is that!

Day 1 of this tour was a very strange day! Basically, we were taken from shop-to-shop on our way down to Can Tho. The local Vietnamese music which was included, ended with them coming around table-by-table for tips at the end. The river boat ride which was included, had the other rowers shouting ‘tip your lady’ as they passed us, and then the lady stopping rowing about 20 meters from the end and asking us all for tip as we floated around. The local honey tea included was actually a tiny glass, followed by a sales pitch and opportunity to buy the honey, pollen and related products. The weirdest one was learning about how bamboo is used by the locals, which involved arriving at a big unit, being shepherded into a classroom where we were given a sales pitch, and then an Ikea-style maze through the shop with sales people on every turn. Sales techniques in Vietnam are not subtle, they just follow you saying, “you buy? you buy?”, whether in a shop or even on the street. It’s impossible to have a leisurely browse in Vietnam!

The island we stopped at for lunch was very odd. The food was cold, and we had quite a lot of time spare. There was a crocodile farm here where some tourists were dangling food teasing the crocs. There was also a Takeshi Castle style water course, but it all seemed to be closed. Our itinerary said we could relax in the hammocks for a while, but of course we found you have to pay extra for them when we got there.

We had paid extra for a home-stay in the evening, and as we were dropped off and sat on a tiny boat in the dark waiting to be taken to our accommodation, we were definitely thinking we’d made a mistake with this tour. Luckily, the homestay was great. The host cooked us an amazing meal with banh xeo (Vietnamese crispy pancakes) and a catfish hotpot. 

  • Boat to homestay
  • View from our homestay

Day two

At breakfast the next morning (6am bleughh) we were talking to an Israeli lady who had shared a room with a French woman (they didn’t know each other before this tour), we asked if she slept ok and she said there was a noisy frog in the room which kept waking her up. I asked if the French lady snored, but apparently there actually was a frog in the room in the middle of the night – chased in by a barking dog!

We took the boat back down towards the Mekong River, where we visited the floating market. I expected this to be a really peaceful market with floating stalls, and people rowing around visiting them. It is actually very noisy and busy, with the sellers on motor boats driving around, latching onto the tourist boats to sell us stuff. I think you can buy all sorts here, but we mainly saw fruit and drink vendors, with the occasional BBQ boat. It was quite cool to see! We bought a couple of iced coffees from a small boat, and a pineapple from a much bigger boat which Lisa went on to. The market is traditionally wholesale, based on the bigger boats which do not move. However, the smaller boats which roam around were first there to serve the people working in the wholesale market, and more recently selling to tourists.

We also visited an eco-park, which really was very nice! We took a motorboat through the park, and then transferred to a rowing boat for a peaceful ride through the jungle. We saw lots of storks flying between the trees, for whom I think this eco-park has been created to conserve.

  • We bought iced coffees from this trader
  • Lisa on the pineapple boat

Day three

This was another early start; breakfast at 6.20am, pickup at 6.40am and speedboat to Phnom Penh at 7am (on which I am writing this). We were collected from our hotel on rickshaws which was a pretty cool experience. We were the last ones on the speedboat so were in the back which was noisy with the engine, so pleased we packed the noise canceling headphones! Shortly after leaving we had to stop at Vietnam immigration to officially leave, back on the boat for 5 minutes, then Cambodia immigration to get our visas before we continued the rest of the journey. We’re quite lucky to be on the boat actually, as when we were sat outside waiting for the visa to be processed we saw our boat leave. A few of us were there and jumped up looking at the boat a bit confused. It then did a U-turn to come back and collect us after they realised there were some empty seats. When we got on the guide just smiled and said, “sometimes we forget to shout”. 

We bought a couple of coffees while we waited, 20k Dong he said for a hot coffee and 25k for iced, we ordered one of each, and when I gave him 50k Dong they were suddenly 25k Dong each. This is one of the worst things I have found about Vietnam, as soon as they see a western person a lot of them will instantly try and rip you off. In their culture I don’t think they see it like that, they just think we must be rich and can afford it, so of course they should try and get as much money from us as possible. I actually don’t mind that western people get charged more than locals, I think that’s fair enough really, but people trying to rip you off does get a bit tiring. In Sapa we actually had a person about to give us our change, and a local (who didn’t even know her or work there) put her hand out and told her not to give us any! I do find haggling a bit of a moral dilemma here. Part of me wants the best price, the other part of me thinks I am lucky to be from a wealthy western country and I’m trying to get another 30p off this bloke who is genuinely trying to feed his family. 30p is 10,000 Dong though, so it doesn’t feel like such a small amount! That’s why although it’s annoying the guy selling the coffee had changed the price by 5k Dong, in reality, is it worth getting upset about 15p? It is the principle though!

I will say this is contrasted by some of the nicest people I have ever met. In Hoi An while we were writing postcards some locals shared their mango with us. And on this tour, we have had other locals on the tour share fruit and drinks with us. One lady kept giving me dried whole frogs, I have to admit I didn’t really want these, but it felt rude to say no! Plus of course the lovely gesture of our hotel to go out early and get our fave street food for breakfast. The students we met in Hanoi and Hue were also lovely, and it was so nice getting to know them and learning about their lives.

We’ve spent about a month in Vietnam and I am really sad to leave, it has been an amazing country. We have loved the scenery, the people, the culture and especially the food. 

And now I get to start all my stories “back in ‘Nam…”.

Chris and Lisa x

PS check out our instagram (if you haven’t already), as we’re posting daily stories on there of what we are up to.

Ho Chi Minh City

We decided to spend 5 nights in Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon), so we would have 4 full days to explore the city. We arrived at our hotel after catching the bus from the airport, it was only 20,000 Dong for both of us. We were shown to our room and they brought us some ice-cold grape juice – this was so refreshing after walking from the bus drop-off point in the evening heat with all our bags. I love how welcoming all of the accommodations have been, from welcome drinks to helping with plans for the area and onward travel. The owner at Bao Anh Hostel prepared a colour-coded map of the city with all the best spots marked and ideas of daily itineraries. We went for an Indian a soon as we had settled in, but Chris was tired and had a headache, so we headed back straight after for an early night.

Bitexco Financial tower 

Our host recommended we visit the Bitexco tower at sunset to get the best views of the city. Rather than paying for the viewing deck at floor 59, she recommended we get some drinks in the Heli Bar. Although these are pretty pricy for Vietnamese standards, it was still cheaper than the viewing platform (and three floors higher on 62). Although it was a cloudy evening, so not much of a sunset, we had a great couple of hours up here (yes, we managed to make our drinks last that long, this is usual drinking speed for Chris to be fair, but I did have to drag out my espresso martini). We enjoyed the live music and watched the city views change from day to night. As we were leaving the building we noticed a band were performing outside, so walked over and noticed it was a Heineken PR event. We were given two cans of Heineken for free each, so sat and listening to the band for a while (in true budget backpacker style, we went back the following night and got two more free beers each!). After that we headed back into the building to use the toilet and Chris noticed an 8K Samsung TV and wanted to have a look, so we headed into the store. We ended up both having a go on some of the VR games – a snowboarding and skiing simulator, and a roller-coaster. After that I noticed they were giving away drinks too, so cheekily went and got a couple of free coffees – RESULT!  

Vietnamese Bamboo Circus 

We booked tickets to see ‘Teh Dar’, a show performed by the Vietnamese Bamboo Circus in the Saigon Opera House. We booked the ‘cheap’ seats at £20 each, and when we arrived we got shown to the reception area where they had complementary iced and hot teas on offer. If you had the most expensive seats (double the price) we would have been treated to wine and cocktails. I noticed our tickets said 20D & 20E and thought how odd the rows and seats must be! However, stupid me, I booked the seats on different rows (I don’t think Chris will let me organise anything else after this and the Hong Kong accommodation). Luckily there was a couple in the seats next to us, so we swapped and they were grateful to be able to sit next to each other too. The show was incredible. I would highly recommend seeing them if you get the opportunity. Apparently, it does tell the story of the history of Vietnam, but I mostly just enjoyed all of the amazing acrobatics.

War Museum 

Although we had visited the war museum in Hanoi, we thought with the cheap entrance price (50,000 VND) it was worth a visit. The museum was actually very different than the one in Hanoi as it was more about the effects of the war in the South rather than the North’s approach to the war. The pictures were awful and really sad to see what these people went through during what they call ‘the horrible time’. We learnt about ‘agent orange’ which is a chemical compound that was dropped in the jungle by the Americans. This agent was designed to kill the jungle, so the Viet Cong couldn’t sneak up on the American forces and continue with their guerrilla war fare. There were a lot of side-effects on the population and people are still living with these, as it has passed on through generations of those exposed causing severe body mutilations and even death. In the museum there was a little craft shop with some of the people living with the effects of agent orange, so we bought a Christmas decoration from them. We also saw a replica of the prison where the Viet Cong were held. It looks similar to the Hanoi Hilton (where the Viet Cong imprisoned the Americans), although they say the Viet Cong treated the American prisoners much better than the other way around. I’m not sure if I believe that, and some Americans we saw at the museum didn’t either. The Americans were first allowed to use force as the Viet Cong attached some American ships, although the Viet Cong say the Americans made this up so they could start the war against communism. The war seems a very complex and particularly nasty one – we still have a lot to learn about it and I’m not sure we’ll ever know the truth about many parts.

Cu Chi Tunnels

We arranged a trip through our hotel – the guide and transport were only 100,000 VND each (£3.30) and then an entrance fee of 110,000 VND on top. The tunnels are 50KM out of the city and on the way we stopped at a ‘agent orange’ victim workshop where we saw them working on crafts & paintings. We then went on to the Cu Chi tunnels, this is a museum around the original tunnels the Vietcong dug to hide from the American forces. They did this for protection, but also so they could ambush and surprise the American army (you can read more about the tunnels here). The Viet Cong would live in these tunnels and only come out at night. We heard stories about the awful conditions and how so many of the Viet Cong died from diseases whilst living in these tunnels. Sometimes mothers would gag their babies so their cries wouldn’t be heard, but sometimes for too long and they would die. We saw examples of the boobie traps they set up around the jungle to thwart the American soldiers. They knew the couldn’t wipe out the army with these trips, but they were designed to be more psychological to make the Americans scared. I went down one of the original entrance holes, I was worried my arse wouldn’t fit into such a small space and I’d get stuck. but I thought I would give it a go. When I closed the lid I did feel like I was doing a bush tucker trial and deserved to win a meal for camp! We also ventured into one of the tunnels and both of us exited after just 20 meters it was very narrow and dark in there you had to bend over to make your way through we learnt that these tunnels had actually been made wider and taller for western tourists and if you went on further they got smaller to more the original sizing where you would be moving through them on your bum. They made them very small on purpose, so although a small Vietnamese man could go through them, a western soldier wouldn’t have been able to follow.

FITO Museum

The Fito museum is a museum of traditional Vietnamese medicine, it is rated highly on trip advisor so we thought it was worth a visit. It was 120,000 VND so little more expensive than the others, however, this did include a guided tour throughout the whole museum. I found it very interesting to hear about the history of traditional medicine and how they use the 5 key elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wood & Metal to ensure the balance is maintained (the ying and the yang). In the museum they have the ancient recipe books stored; our guide explained that students today use these old books as an encyclopaedia, as not only do they include the success’, but also the failures too. We got the opportunity to ‘play doctor’ and clearly I was in my element. I made Chris get dressed up too and have a go much to his initial reluctance.

We have enjoyed some more Vietnamese delights here in Ho Chi Minh with Banh Mi being the stand out, although it did contain a very spicy sausage which numbed your mouth for a bit. I haven’t been able to satisfy my coconut coffee addiction quite as easily here, but have had plenty of lovely drinks. The city is very different to Hanoi, the traffic is little better but I’m not sure if that’s because we are used to it so it’s not so much of a shock, or there is more control here. Saying that, we did witness a crash between two motorbikes, but they both got up, jumped back on their bikes and rode off without barely exchanging a word. Chris got his hair cut here at a barber shop Andrea had recommended to him, for the bargain price of £2! I had a coffee while I waited and was wondering what he’d come back looking like, but I think they did a good job. We also tried a Vietnamese massage, this was a foot and hot-stones back massage. The hot-stones were super-hot, and the Vietnamese massage was very deep. Chris felt like he had been beaten up, and to be fair I did notice the lady kneeling on his back so there is no wonder. Next we are heading to the Mekong Delta which will be the final leg of our Vietnam adventure.

Here is a link to our instagram highlights of the city.

Until next time, Lisa & Chris xx

Hoi An

Old City

The old city is absolutely beautiful, it has a real charm about it with classic French architecture, colourful buildings and lanterns hanging across the streets. A lot of the old city is walking only, which makes a nice change from dodging traffic all day. We both absolutely loved Hoi An, it’s our favourite place in Vietnam so far and this is mainly due to the charm of the old city area. We spent a lot of time walking around here, stopping for coffees and looking around the shops. We try not to buy (m)any souvenirs as they’re just another thing to carry, but here I have bought a wallet, a belt and some shirts (more on that later). Lisa has also bought a couple of dresses. Most places in Asia so far are good if you want to buy cheap (for a reason) clothing, but here most things are actually really nice and locally made!

Along the edge of the old city is a river, boat trips are very popular along here and as the sun sets the river is full of boats and lit lanterns floating (lighting a lantern and letting it go in to the river is said to bring good luck from the gods). Like most places in Vietnam you do have to constantly fob off locals trying to flog you these boat trips (amongst other things).

We also met up with Pedro and Maria (who we met in Pai, and then again in Luang Prabang) for a meal and some drinks, as they are currently travelling Vietnam in the reverse direction to us. It was great to see them again, maybe next time we will meet in London or Porto!

Cooking class

We booked this as a tour through our hotel, which included a few other things during the day. We were picked up in the morning and taken to a local market, where our guide (Annie) introduced us to some of the ingredients we’d be using and we tried a few Vietnamese treats – the candied coconut and ginger was so good! After this we took a boat trip down the river to the cookery school, but on the way anchored up and transferred to some basket boats for a little ride and to do some crab fishing (these were first used by local fisherman to avoid taxes, as they were classed as baskets rather than boats!). The basket boats were so much fun and the locals were mad spinning them around and from side to side. The local rowing our boat tied us up to some mangroves and showed us how to catch crabs. Neither of us caught any, but it was good fun trying. I did have a couple of crabs nibbling at my fish, but every time I went to pull away they gripped onto the rocks and let go.

After this it was back onto the big boat and down the river to the cookery school. Here we learnt how to make spring rolls, papaya salad, Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crispy pancakes) and a hotpot. We worked in a group for some parts, and pairs for others. We got a little cook book to take away so we can make these at home, which is great as we have both absolutely loved Vietnamese food and didn’t know much about it at all before we left the UK (apart from eating Pho at Cay Tre in London – maybe next time I visit I’ll recognise more of the menu!).

BeBe Tailor

I didn’t know this before, but apparently Hoi An is very famous for it’s tailors – I’ve read it is the tailoring capital of the world! I had already been tempted to get some shirts made in Bangkok as I’ve heard of people doing that in the past, but when I researched online quite a lot of the reviews were not good. So now I was in Hoi An and the reviews were great, it seemed the perfect opportunity. Our hotel recommended BeBe Tailor to us, and after a bit of research online it looked like a good choice. You can get cheaper, but I’d rather pay more and be confident I’ll get something decent (and not be ripped off as they know tourists will be leaving in a few days anyway).

When we arrived at BeBe they gave us a bottle of water each (gratefully received when it’s over 30 degrees out) and asked what we were looking for. I wanted some shirts, and Lisa a dress, so they gave us an iPad each loaded with some pinterest pages and asked us to have a little look through to choose the type of thing we wanted made. My tailor was called Nu and she was great. I showed her a shirt style I liked, then she asked me a few questions around the type of cuffs I wanted and whether I’d be wearing a tie (so she could recommend collar type). After this I had to pick some fabrics, there was literally hundreds to choose from, it was almost too much choice and I’m sure she was wondering why I was taking so long. Nu then took a load of measurements and asked me to come back the next afternoon for my first fitting.

The next afternoon we both returned excited (and a little bit nervous!) for our first fitting. BeBe make the first fitting loose so they can then fine tune the cut. I have to admit I was a bit worried after the first fitting because of this, but Lisa absolutely loved her dress straight away. Another lady took care of my fitting (whilst Nu watched) and she was pulling bits of the shirt together and tacking bits together / marking things up. We then had to return again early in the evening for another fitting, my shirts were fitting so much better now! They made a few alterations while I waited, then another fitting, then the were pretty much done! Lisa needed a few more bits done to her dress (pockets added, hems done), so she needed to come back the next day for her final fitting. The next day we popped back and Lisa was absolutely delighted with her dress (it does look amazing!). The garments then go through quality control and were delivered to our hotel that evening. Lisa did notice a few small pulls on her dress so messaged the store, and they couldn’t have been more helpful. They offered her a few options, including a $50 refund (bearing in mind the dress was $85, that is massive) and drove to our hotel straight away to give her the money. The pulls are pretty small and not very noticeable, but they thanked Lisa for raising and said it shouldn’t have got through quality control. Because of the quality of the product, service and experience, I couldn’t recommend BeBe enough if you ever want to get some tailoring done in Hoi An. Now I just need to hope I don’t put on any weight before I go back to work at the end of July…


Next stop is Ho Chi Min City (formerly called Saigon), we decided to fly as the train journey is about 20 hours. The flights were £35 each, so seemed a no brainer!

Chris and Lisa x

Hue and Da Nang

Hue

We arrived in Hue on Saturday 23rd March on an overnight train, Chris had worked out it was only 1Km to get to our hotel, so we decided to walk. There were a few reasons for this: 1) to save money, 2) some of the taxis here in Vietnam have fake meters and scam tourist, 3) we don’t have data on our phones so can’t just order Grabs unless we have Wifi, and 4) stepping off a train into the touts can be quite overwhelming so good to walk away a bit.  Now 1Km doesn’t seem too bad a distance until you’re carrying your bags and also the 1km turns out to be 3 miles! My shoulder and neck were killing me by the time we got half way, so we stopped for a coconut coffee (I fear I am becoming addicted to these!). We arrived at our £9.50 a night hotel, which was in a great location. We have both been shocked at what £10 gets you a night, accommodation is very cheap here in Vietnam. We thought we would be slumming it on that budget, but we are staying in some lovely places. I think if you were to slum it you could get a bed in a shared dorm for around £2 a night. 

Hue (pronounced Hway) was the imperial capital of Vietnam from 1802 until Indochina was colonised by the French in the 1880’s. It then existed mostly to carry on symbolic traditions until the monarchy was ousted in 1945 – when Japan took over Vietnam during World War 2 (Vietnam’s history is a very complicated one). I have read that Hue was bombed during the Vietnam war and much of the citadel (the historic walled city within a walled city, containing the palace) was destroyed. We expected to see ruins in the citadel, but they actually have rebuilt a lot of it. Which in a way is a bit of a shame, as the original buildings that still stood and the ruins had the most character. 

The next day we visited an abandoned waterpark (Ho Thuy Tien). It was a little way out of the city so we tried to order a Grab, then realised they don’t actually have Grab in Hue. We did some research and found the green taxi’s (a company called Mai Linh) have a good reputation, so we spoke to a driver and told him where we wanted to go. He told us it would be on the meter and gave us a rough idea of the price. Although we couldn’t actually order a Grab we were able to see what the journey should cost so knew this was about right. He said he would wait 90 minutes for us whist we were in the park which was perfect. We had seen online there would be guards at the waterpark, as it’s actually closed to the public. However, a suggested bribe of 20,000 VND (66p) each would get you through if you’re lucky. When the taxi driver dropped us off we walked to the path and the ‘guard’ came to meet us. We soon realised he was more of a local then a ‘guard’. He held out a paper basically saying it is dangerous inside, so we were like ok we will be careful and tried to walk off, he then smiled and said ok 10,000 VND per person, we just handed him the money. We noticed our taxi driver jump out to make sure he wasn’t causing us any trouble. 

Exploring this waterpark was amazing, there was a fair amount of people inside, so not a hidden gem as such (I don’t think there really is such a thing anymore, especially not with Instagram). The waterpark was opened in 2004 (unfinished) and then closed a few years later because it wasn’t making enough money, so it is like they just closed the gates one day and everything has just been left. Apparently, there were crocodiles in the lake until a couple of years ago when they were rescued. The main attraction was a giant dragon, it was breath taking, and the fact that the park is abandoned adds to the enchantment. After the dragon we walked around the lake to the water slides and the amphitheatre, it felt very apocalyptic walking around these attractions – such a fun experience. We then headed out the park to our taxi driver, who had waited for us as promised (good old green taxi’s). 

We had some great food in Hue. We have found our best meals have come from places recommended either from google, other peoples’ blogs, Trip Advisor or some of the food review shows we watch. Chris found a restaurant called Quan Hanh, which did a tasting menu of 5 dishes for 120,000 VND (£4) each, a little more than we would usually spend each on a meal, but this was a feast and it didn’t disappoint. We had to ask the waiter to show us how to eat a couple of the dishes, as you need to combine various ingredients and wrap them to eat as the locals do. As I’m sure you can imagine, with a country spreading 1,650 km north-to-south, the cuisine can be different region-to-region and food is such a big part of the traveling experience for us. We also tried Bo Ne which is a dish of beef, pate and egg served in a cow shaped skillet with a baguette (I’m sure introduced from its French colonisation) and Bun Bo Hue which is a beef noodle soup. 

The promenade along the Perfume River transforms into a market at night. We took a stroll along and stopped for a ‘sweet soup’ – a mix of sweet fruit, beans and jelly with ice in a cup, it’s so colourful and popular with the locals. We also got asked by some students to help then with their English. As we were still feeling guilty for ignoring the children in Hanoi we sat down and had a chat with them. We were on guard a bit to make sure our bags and pockets were safe, but these university students were just genuinely trying to improve their English. Chris was talking to a guy who is training to become a doctor and whose English was very basic. I was talking to a girl who is studying tourism and whose English was a lot more advanced, she told me how the school system in Vietnam is very poor and how all day, no matter the subject, they just copy the board or read from text books. No opportunity for them to question if they don’t understand and no practical exercises for them to embed the learning, so they take it upon themselves to get out and talk to tourists, which I think is very brave. She also was advising me on some scams and how always to ask the price first, and if you know the price give correct money, for example if the bus is 20k don’t give them a 100k as they won’t give you change, its not just tourists they scam, it’s also local people. She told me about this time she had a coconut on the beach and had to pay 150K for it when its only 15k in the supermarket but because she had drunk it before agreeing a price they pretty much charged what they liked. I think the majority of the people know tourism is good for the economy and if you scam people it will prevent them from coming, but there are people who are in it for themselves and to earn a quick buck. We, however, have been cautious and not had any problems whilst we have been here. 

Da Nang 

We got the train to Da Nang which was two and half hours (to drive it’s only an hour and half, but we prefer rail travel). When we got to the station, we walked out a bit and found our trusty green taxi (we have noticed they don’t tout like the other companies and wait further outside the hustle of the exit). We dropped our bags off and headed straight to the beach, we had mainly stopped off at Da Nang for the beach and to give us a chance to relax. It was pretty empty when we arrived at 2pm and didn’t really get busy until after 4pm. We got some snacks and beers from the shop to enjoy on the beach and had a relaxing afternoon soaking up the sun. As the sun went in we then walked along the beach and came across what we thought was a little stream running into the sea, I tried to jump it and failed and basically landed straight in it, luckily on my feet. We soon realised it was more than likely sewage (gross!). We walked a bit further along and I washed myself off in the sea. The following day we headed to the beach again and after a few hours realised we both were burnt to a crisp! In the afternoon we headed to a shopping mall so I could buy some sun glasses (as I have been using broken ones for over a week now!). As we came out of the shopping mall we bumped into a local Vietnamese man we had actually met 2 weeks before on the Ha Long bay cruise!  Da Nang has a population of 1.2m and is over 850Km from Ha Long Bay – what are the chances of that! We then headed to the River Han and had some freshly pressed sugarcane juice, it wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting it to be and had a slight earthy taste to it. It was really refreshing and super cheap – you can see why it’s popular. 

We have just arrived in Hoi An so will fill you in about our adventures on our next blog. 

Lisa & Chris x


Ninh Binh

Day 1

We enjoyed not setting an alarm clock this morning! We have breakfast included at our homestay and sat on the patio outside our little bungalow in the sun for this. It was the biggest breakfast ever, they just kept bringing out food! We (each) had a baguette with jam and laughing cow cheese, a fried egg, a swiss roll, tomato and cucumber salad, pancake with condensed milk, a pineapple, a banana, fresh orange juice and a coffee! The room was only £11 per night with this included, such good value! Being budget conscious (tight!), we took half the baguette and the swiss roll back to our room to save for lunch.

We decided to visit Bich Dong (a temple) and Thung Nham Bird Park today, so hired some bikes as it’s a popular way of getting around the area. Bich Dong is a temple built into the side of a cliff, we had to take it in turns to go up here as I was wearing a vest so had to borrow Lisa’s shawl to cover my shoulders (which she took great delight in taking pictures of for Instagram!). We had to pay to park our bikes at the bottom, although I’m pretty sure you don’t actually have to pay and it’s just a local trying to make a bit of cash from the tourists (he was in an official looking uniform, but I noticed it said ‘US Army’ on it haha). Thung Nham Bird Park was beautiful and there’s so much more to see here than birds. It’s 100,000 Dong to enter (just over £3), and we spent the afternoon cycling around the lake visiting a cave, orchard, 1000 year old tree and a viewpoint . We saw a few young couples in here having their wedding photos taken as the views were so good.

Day 2

Today we went a bit further away to Trang An. We took a boat ride through the caves and in between the mountains jutting out of the water. I can see why they call this the Halong Bay of the land! We chose this boat ride as the reviews online were much better than the other popular ride at Tam Coc. At Tam Coc the people rowing the boats stop at other boats with ladies selling things, and pressure you to buy. On the way back it’s common for them to stop rowing and demand tips before dropping you back off at land – we really didn’t fancy that! I’m glad we chose the Trang An trip as the lady rowing our boat was lovely and it was a very peaceful trip with amazing views. On the trip we stopped at a few islands to see some temples, but by far the coolest was stopping at Skull Island where the recent Kong movie was filmed! Here they had something that looked like a mix between a crashed plane and a boat, and also some little huts – I’ll have to watch Kong to see if there is any relevance! I had quite a strange experience on one of the islands when a Chinese tourist grabbed my arm and beckoned me over. It turns out he wanted a picture with me – I don’t think he’s seen many white people! 

After the boat trip we walked to Hang Mua (not the best walk, but the taxis wanted to overcharge us) to see the view point from which most of the iconic photos of the area are taken. We arrived at about 5.30, so not too long before sunset. It was a short climb to the top, but so steep we were very worn out and sweaty by the time we reached the top – my legs were burning! The view was one of the best we’ve seen so far, on one side there was rice fields in between the mountains, on the other a single mountain with a pagoda on top and miles of rice fields in the distance. We posted a picture on Instagram, and my friend Karl actually commented that it was his screensaver at work that day! We sat up here for a while and enjoyed the view whilst eating some cake we’d saved from breakfast. It was interesting to watch the other tourists strive for their perfect Instagram photo. It seems so many people are more bothered about getting that perfect Instagram photo than actually enjoying the view. I’ve seen people change clothes for their photos, climb out onto precarious ledges which would mean instant death if they slipped, 5 minutes of photos in various poses, change back into normal clothes, then straight back down again!

There is no public transport around here, so we had about an hour walk back to our homestay. Maps.me took us on backroads through the rice fields, which I’m sure would have given beautiful views if the sun wasn’t on its way down. In the end it was pretty much pitch black as we used our phone torches to navigate our way home.

  • Skull Island
  • Hang Mua
  • Hang Mua

Day 3

We had seen everything we wanted to, so had a chill out day. It was quite nice as we are usually so busy travelling or seeing things! After a lazy morning we popped to a local restaurant and spent a few hours here drinking coffee/beer and then had some lunch. We then went for a little walk around the lake (got a little bit lost) and headed back into town for a drink. We found a bar with fresh beer (this is a daily brewed beer that costs about 30p a glass, known locally as Bia Hoi), started writing the blog and researched where to go for dinner. We found an Indian restaurant and although only had half an hour, fancied a change from Vietnamese food so headed there. It was my choice to go here and I was in the dog house with Lisa when half an hour later we were still waiting for our food. Luckily we messaged the host at our guest stay and he moved our taxi to the station back 15 mins (to get our overnight train to Hue).

Annoyingly we missed out on the 1st class carriage (4 to a cabin, soft bed), so travelled 2nd class (6 to a cabin, hard bed). I wouldn’t be too bothered, but with big rucksacks you can end up with them on your bed if the floor space is taken with luggage already. Me and Lisa were on the top bunks (they are 3 high) and there wasn’t much room between the mattress and the ceiling! The train left Ninh Binh at 9.44pm and heads all the way south to Ho Chi Min City, with stops on the way. We stopped a few times in the night and were woken by people getting on and off from our cabin (and we did notice the bed sheets are not changed for the new people boarding!), this also meant we needed to make sure we didn’t sleep through our stop. At just after 8am some really weird loud music was played through the carriage which woke us up, so we had around half an hour awake before we arrived in Hue. As I climbed down from my 3 story bunk bed I realised how bad our cabin smelt – it was pretty small with 6 people crammed in there! It is really hard to sleep on the night train as they are fairly noisy and not particularly smooth, but although you get woken up a fair amount, in the morning you do feel you’ve had a better night sleep than you’d expect.

Chris and Lisa x