Well I’m back in New Zealand… after roughly 26 hours of flying and stop overs (Hanoi -> Bangkok -> Sydney -> Auckland) I landed back home… to be greeted by a selection of my family (Parents, Brother, Nieces and grand parents no less) – which was all good.

My last few days in Hanoi were great – didn’t really do much sight seeing... just enjoyed the good food and beverages on offer in Hanoi and generally relaxed as well as I could – was lots of fun – and put me in a good frame of mind to head home.

The trip out to the airport in Hanoi was also pretty cool – there’s a funky bridge you have to travel over... wish I’d got some pictures of it, pretty impressive.

And now that I’m home… well I’ve got the winter blues a little – to come from 36 degrees and  doing whatever I pleased all day long… to 16 degrees, GST and income tax waiting in the wings and a town full of generally unfriendly and distant people (in comparison to most parts of Asia I visited).. It did/has left me in a bit of a daze – though only temporary I’m sure.

Oh, and for the curious... If I was to list my favourite countries, it would be in this order:

• China
• Vietnam
• Laos
• Thailand
• Cambodia

Which isn't to say I hated any of them... but I did definitely loved China just that little bit more then the others... if there was a place I'd head back to for another visit (or to work...hmmm)... probably Beijing or Hangzhou for a city.

Oh and as for some myths dispelled... I remember at first thinking that woman were wearing masks perhaps because of fears of bird flu or SARS... and I think Nikolai commented that it was probably because of air pollution? Well we were both wrong, it was because the woman wanted to hide from the sun and keep their faces as white as possible... they even have shirts with extra long sleeves that button up/down (makeshift gloves) and attached bonnets and face masks that look like giant collars - just to hide from the sun when riding around on bikes.  Asian woman want to be white with big breasts (loads of adverts for breast enlarging "cream" on the local TV)... Western woman want tan's... cest la vie.

Another thing that puzzled me at first was the Cambodian kid I saw with what looked like lash marks and scars on his back (who's family I got a ride with over the Laos/Cambodia border)... It was actually just a bad reaction to a big dose of tiger balm "stripes" - which they normally apply when someone has a dose of the flu - saw loads of people like this in Vietnam and Cambodia, that and people covered in lots of black/purple round spots where they've been using vacuum "therapy" to suck the "poisons" out of their blood... fun stuff.

Guess my next blog post will probably be a technical one – should make for a change!

Well I survived the 4 hour ride in Ninh Binh... it's a pretty flat town :) so it's not exactly taxing... though "Buck" (Clint, but we call him buck.. as he's a respected elder) did somehow cause his back tire to explode...

At any rate, after Ninh Binh I headed out to halong bay... went out overnight on a "chinese junk" like ship... which is pretty damn slow... hardly surprising for a 60 foot 3 story boat that only has a 4 litre nissan diesel motor pushing it along - Sadly it was overcast all day, so my pictures probably dont do it credit at all.. but this place is stunningly beautiful (and even hauntingly so when it's raining)... basically it's Yangshou/Guilin in China, but reproduced in the middle of the ocean - i.e. thousands of limestone peaks of various sizes that are amazingly steep and jagged.

After going for a bit of a swim in the sea.. and a kayak around some islands (even went through a cave and popped out in a completely enclosed lagoon in the middle of an island... stunning).. oh and visiting "surprising" cave.. which is surprising, in that ships ram each other for a chance to unload passengers on the island (bloody funny to watch) .. and that the cave from the outside looks "tasteful" - yet inside it's like some kind of really repetative disneyland.. coloured lights.. the odd sound effect... oh la la!

That evening I got myself a tad laquered... wine.. beer.. "hanoi" vodka.. and even some scotch.. needless to say it was an amusing evening.. and ended up spending a good four hours cloud watching with Helen out on deck and discussing the why's and where for's of being "barren" *snigger*... It's funny that because you generally bump into people with very diverse backgrounds and interests that inevitably discussions always end up going back to "people" and "relationships" as opposed to things - which, though it passes the time, slowly liquifies my brain... I can't wait to get back into some coding.

The following day we departed from Halong bay and headed up to Hanoi... ye olde capital of Vietnam - which is where I am now (sitting in the old quarter thinking how I really need some bia hoi and a shower).. for the ummm... 2nd day?

At any rate - I've been binging on western "treats" for the last 2 days... Tastey bbq ribs at Al'frescos last night... tastey lunch at Koto's  (Koto stands for Know one, teach one... which is a restaurant started by an australian dude who trains street kids).. Halida beer - which only seems available up here in the north - and tastes pretty good... and I even sat down and watched a DVD this afternoon (the life and death of peter sellers... not that bad actually) while eating a take away "caramel cream" and some "tizzarisu" from the bakery down the street.. (poorly spelt tirramisu I suspect it was, damn tasty).

All in all, hanoi is treating me pretty damn well.. though being overcast here seems to make absoloutely no difference to this sodding heat and the humidity is sky high - so I just spend all day with my shirt soaking wet with sweat... I hope it's bloody miserable and freezing cold when I get home - that first kiss of cool eye should be brilliant!

On the cultural side of things... I've been to see Uncle Ho this morning.. so I can scratch another dead preserved communist/socialist leaders body of the list... it's actually pretty good, I think the setup and surrounding buildings and museum are a lot "nicer" then the tacky shit they try to sell as you depart from chairman Mao's mousaleum..  that probably only leaves Lenin? Unless I've forgotten someone else.

At any rate, couple more days and I'll be flying home.. for the curious I'm expecting to touch down at around 12:30pm on the 16th of June... And I figure that friday I'll probably head out for some drinks or a meal somewhere if anyone in the Auckland region is keen.

Oh and tomorrow night in Hanoi, the Culi Cafe is opening there downstairs italian cafe... and it's free beer and wine for all... if you can make it, I'll see you there!

Leaving Hoi An

Well I left for Hue from Hoi An around 2pm - the drive took us past the Marble mountains and china beach.. pretty much a non-event other then there being a lot of domestic tourists... and then the bus crawled it's way up the gorgeous Hoi van pass - if I was to start a love affair with  Vietnam, this would be the place to initiate it.

At this point I should probably make a note about vehicles in vietnam ... the speed limit is generally 50 km/h (rumour has it it's 60km/h for bikes?) on the open road and 30km/h in the city limits.  Needless to say road trips can take longer then you would initially think!  But after having driven on the roads around here I hope they never change that limitation, because it would just be a death sentence for so many more drivers... it's hard enough at 30km/h and I've already had to duck through peoples car ports to avoid hitting cars and performing various other cunning slow-speed manouvers ;o)

The current statistics suggest that for the 80+ million population there is about 44 million registered bikes... remove the elderly and kids and you have a huuuge vehicle owning population (not to mention all the non-registered bikes out in the countryside).  And whats even better is that a number of the bikes are being "riced" up... I've seen spinners on the wheels, respray jobs and neon underlighting... though no one seems interested in squeezing additional performance out of those 110 cc engines.

Arriving at Hue

I got to Hue about 6pm.. and ended up going out to dinner at a french vietnamese restaurant and then drinks at the DMZ bar - which is a mix of locals and expats... met a couple of expat friends of Marks, Darra and Jim...Jim has the honour of being a 3rd place winner in the "Minsk olympics" of vietnam... basically making him an expert at drunk russian motorbike piloting, as far as I could tell.

In fact I think the club has a website (http://www.minskclubvietnam.com/) for the curious... it seems to be the popular choice of vehicle if you want to tour through Vietnam.

I actually ended up getting a lift home on his "Minky"... they're a pretty funny old beast... smokey...heavy... gutless... a perfect example of russian 1950's engineering - and the expats can't seem to get enough of them in vietnam, it seems to offer them a bit of identity in a country which could no doubt do your head in after a few years - the fact that the vietnamese hate them because they're "old" and "uncool" only seems to reinforce the appeal - like most expats, they dont so much want to integrate (or can't, it's easier said then done).. as create a niche for themselves to inhabit.

The following day I went on a motorbike tour with crazy Mr Than, a martial arts master (of some vietnamese variant of karate?) who is also a keen photographer... I think he stopped to take more photos then we did... but it was a great morning of exploring Hue's back roads... even visited some chanting monks (and chanted with them... because it seemed the right thing to do) and a nunnery..  I have a soft spot for Buddhist nun's - they're always a little cheaky - and often get inducted from a very young age.. so other then the odd tourist to giggle with, there lives can be quite sterile from an outsiders perspective - I can't imagine being 10 years old and seeing your entire life pre-planned for you... They cooked an awesome vegetarian meal for us as well... perhaps the best vegetarian meal I've ever had in fact... mmmmm

Some other stuff happened.. blah blah blah... then that evening I attempted to go see a motorbike stunt show... however I was a little too late, as they had already oversold the show and a small riot of a thousand or so people was starting up outside as the security tried to pull the doors shut :) absoloute chaos, so it was worth the effort just to see that... but still a little dissapointing.. The reports from some attendees was that they played about an hours music (mostly vietnamese battle hymns.. heheh) and then had a michael jackson "impressionistic" act followed by half an hour or so of motorbike stunts... with half of them done on the little 110cc scooters, which must've been funny to see.

The following day I visited the Citadel... basically a walled in fort with an inner forbidden purple city (ah la Beijings "forbidden city") where the emperor lived... a huge amount of this site is completely obliterated by various conflicts (French, American and allies ..and of course the north vietnamese themselves who during the "good times" of communism took it upon themselves to burn all the ancient texts in the libraries here). 

None the less, it's a beautiful spot and well worth a look around .. especially if you haven't been to China (the further north we go, the more chinese influence I keep seeing).

The D.M.Z

After Hue we headed to Dong Ha and spent the night there so we could leave early to explore the DMZ that seperated north and south vietnam "back in the day"... while around the DMZ I visited the Vinh Moc Tunnels, the old and new bridges across the river that seperated north and south plus some other random nearby sights...very cool, then tunnels were inhabited by about 300 people and are situated near the coast.. I think they were formed around 1965/1966 during the height of war time... the deepest tunnels are about 23 metres below the surface, and alot of the network survived repeated carpet bombing from the U.S.  The text on the entry ticket reads:

"Visiting Vinh Moc today, you will feel as you lived back in the glorious time with the historical heroes who made these exploits"

heh... "keep living the dream" springs to mind.

Also visited the Phong Nha Cave(s) later in the afternoon... this is a boat trip for half an hour, followed by looking at some caves lit with red, green and blue flourescent lights... the best bit is the english guide they supply you for free.. who's obsessed with seeing things in the  deposits... of course, because he's asian they all happen to be either a dragon, water buffalo, elephant, tiger or turtle... but at times he seemed melancholoy if you didn't see it too (which was often) - I kept having flash backs to the "cave guy" in the League of gentleman series...
"child killed in cave tragedy, local man blamed..".. at any rate, it's probably not a reference many people will get... so, moving right along.

Had a good hot pot for dinner in Dong Hoi (squid, prawns, meat and fish...) that though expensive (about $6 NZ) .. was enough food to feed four people, though I had a good go at eating it all myself... That evening we jumped a night train (after stopping briefly at Bia Hoi, which had sadly "run dry"...Bia Hoi [beer hoy! sounds like a piratical drinkery nyarr] is locally brewed beer... about 120,000 dong for a 22 litre keg (about $8 US dollars)... I'm definitely keen to give it a lash - its what most expats hit if they're planning to drink alot.

The overnight train was surprisingly comfy... I'd heard that hard sleepers on this route weren't that shit hot (ie. no padding) .. but these 6 bunk cabins even had a door you could pull shut... we hit the "Lum Noi" (basically vietnamese vodka) .. which goes down ok with a bit of Da/Nook Da (ice) and Soda Chang (soda water and fresh lime) and cranked out some rather tragic guns and roses to listen too.

Today I'm in "Ninh Binh" .. basically it's another 200,000 population viet town, like all the rest... I've wandered through the market this mornin' to have one of my last "fills" of open air butcheries... this afternoon I'm gonna jump a bicycle and have a cruise round the town.. apparently there's a quite good 24km ride around this area - though the clouds are lifiting so it's probably going to end up being bloody 38 or 40 degrees again.. bleh, tomorrow I'm off to Halong bay... which I'm looking forward too, boats are my preferred way to travel :)

Nah Trang

Ok, well we arrived in Nah Trang at about 6:30am, got to the hotel and just crashed.. slept till about 12:30 then went for a walk up the beach.. this was back on the 27th of may.. interesting walk.

Nah Trang seems to have dual personalities.. one a cute fishing village/town, the other a beach resort "hell on earth" (to my way of thinking...) - think deck chairs, fat men getting massaged and half the beach being "private" so that a stroll ends up with you being chased off... heh - oh and I did I forget to mention the couple of syringes I almost stepped on up the far end of the beach.. woot ;o)

At 2pm I headed up to some local Cham era ruins which are amazingly well preserved (compared to other Cham ruins I've seen) and then onto the local "attraction" - some medicinal mud baths - which was nice, so I soaked in hot mineral water, mud baths, steam rooms and got an hour of full body massage all for the princely sum of around $10 US.  If your in Nah Trang it's well worth it, and the one thing we all noticed was how good your hair feels afterwards...mmm

That night we hit some of the local iconic spots.. drinks at the sailing club (nice view, hugely overpriced beers) - then hit the best little seafood restaurant in town for a 100,000 dong bbq... which included 4 lobsters, scallops, mussels, squid (which was gorgeous), fish... the list goes on, it was a truely huge ammount of food.. and the fun thing is that it's just an outdoor restuarant that sets itself up in a bus stop on a road corner - classy!

Later that night I made myself "comfortable" in the Red Sun bar.. had 3 "zombie" buckets made with the local rice rum.. each bucket is about a litre... kinda catches up with you after an hour though.. like any cheap spirits I guess.

The following day we went for a "cruise" on the harbour with dodgy old Papa Langs "second best island tour" - visited an Island that was half fishing village, half "super" aquarium.. shaped like a giant gallion made from coral.. it was truely awe inspiringly tacky... I loved it... played with some turtles... watched kids tormenting the turtles... (Vietnamese aren't too clued up on animal cruelty) and went on our merry way.

That afternoon we did some swimming/snorkeling over some reefs... had a nice lunch that the crew of the boat prepared "on the fly" with a little gas cooker (more squid, honestly the squid in vietnam is the best I've ever had... mmmm) - and then got dropped off on an island beach (Mimi?) that was deserted.. so I lay around listening to music while watching the world go by, and interspersed it with cooling off in the sea.  Pretty damn sweet.

Burgers and beer for dinner... *bliss*... yes it's not traditional vietnamese fair, but to be honest .. most vietnamese food is pretty boring and bland compared to their surrounding cousins (other then the seafood).

Off to the Central Highlands

Grabbed a bus to the central highlands.. Dropped our big packs at Buon Ma Thuot to drove out into the country side... originally there was going to be a 1km walk to a local E-de minority peoples village, but there's a big hydro dam project taking place thats ripped all the roads to shit (and though providing work for the local tribes people is probably going to displace them all once it's complete) - this is the difference between vietnam and it's neighbours (excluding china obviously)... it's just a buzz with industrial projects - the entire country is like one giant roadworks project.

So... the big hydro project meant big bulldozers on muddy roads.. which also meant our bus wasn't going to get very close to the village... so we ended up walking about 3 km's through the hydro project (which I quite enjoyed) before we finally got to the village/farm stay.  The E-de village was an interesting spot... the people weren't particularly engaging.. I didn't mind but some of my fellow travellers thought they were rude and unfriendly people (the fact that they didn't attempt to engage them and of course that all these people had just worked 16 hour days didn't really enter there minds I suspect...) - though it was a lovely spot and I got to play with some pigs - the next day we had an 18km trek up through vietnamese jungle to a M'nong village called Buon Triet.. This was a nice walk, though about half way through it we suddenly entered leach country... A new experience for me - and not that pleasant.. the little fuckers get into everything... climb up your shoes, and can even slide through alot of fabricks weaves ie. socks - I had to keep nocking them off every 5 or so minutes for about 3 hours, and still ended up with 8 of them attached to me...

..a couple got really big before I finally got rid of them (wish I'd taken a picture) - at which point you look like you've been mortally wounded because your blood wont clot (due to the anti-coagulent they secrete) - kinda creepy, but pretty harmless in small doses.

That afternoon/night I got on the piss with the locals... After my experiences in Lao I'm pretty "ok" with rice wine... we did it the "traditional" way where by you do shots and have some cooked meet and greenery to chew on in between - I love drinking with locals, even though of course I get far too loud (A drunk Henderson is a loud person, even to the vietnamese ;o) but it was loads of fun and the older and more respected men of the M'nong villages (ie. Buck's and up.. me being just a lowly "em") are hilarious to watch.

The next day we got up and walked out to where a bus should've been to pick us up.. on the way we got to see a motorbike accident and get some first hand experience as to east meets west first aid..

The accident

this kid came hooning down past us, then turned sharply into a narrow driveway at about 40kms and missed it completely running into the deep ditch next to it.  He was nocked unconcious and may have sustained spinal injuries... so (probably incorrectly) two of our fellow travellers first on the scene helped pull him out of the ditch and lay him on the ground... Then mark (our guide at the time) turned up and attempted to assess the situation... but at about this point an argument ensued with the local family that had come out because they believed he needed to be rushed to hospital... on the back of a motorbike... at this point as a westerner there's really nothing you can do accept close your eyes and let it take it's course... but they proceeded to lift the unconcious guy up (without supporting his head which flopped back and assumed a rather sickening angle) and then sandwiched him in between two other people on a motorbike as he flopped around... they then started to take off and after a couple of metres noticed his feet were dragging on the ground and decided it might be a good idea to pick them up... erk...

After the incident Mark talked about a sweedish guy who had hit a logging truck while on a bike in vietnam... he survived (amazingly).. and woke up in a sweedish hospital with massive facial reconstruction and most toes missing from either foot... ground off on his rushed trip from the scene of the accident to hospital on the back of a bike... hmmm... the moral of the story is dont get injured in these countries if at all possible.

At any rate.. after that our trip to the bus continued.. but it had broken down, so we hung around with some local kids playing "photographer" and then eventually got some "local" transport to the next town where our bus was.  Local transport consisted of an old jeep that had no clutch and no brakes... needless to say the trip was pretty amusing (they'd start then thing in first gear and god help you when you needed to stop!)

After all the mornings activities I had a lazy afternoon as I borrowed Helens portable DVD player (will have to take one of these next time I travel ;o) and watched a couple of random things... Love Actually and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind... I kinda enjoyed the later, though that could just be because I like girls with blue hair that wear hoodies.

Hoi Ain Ho!

On the 1st I flew to Hoi An (Well to Danang from Buon Ma Thuot, then took a bus to Hoi An) - the flight was short (just under an hour) .. and it's the first time I've been in a turbo prop aircraft... there a little bumpier, which is fun.  Hoi An is a unesco protected world heritage sight.. with a lovely "old town" sector, a nearby beach, rivers and some good eating spots - all in all it's a lovely spot to chill out for a couple of days.

After arriving in the early afternoon I went for a cycle round town.. had lunch in the cargo room (lamb rack...mmmm...) then retired back to my room for a brief nap, swim and then headed out to Tam Tam's for dinner and drinks... being Low season most of the night spots aren't exactly going "off" - but personally I think that makes it better... I'm into just chilling out at the moment and squeezing as much relaxation as possible into my last few weeks of tripping around.

The following morning I decided to go see woman slapping eachother with fish in the local fish market... which is pretty funny as the old ladies get fairly heated in their negotiations :) ... bought myself a vietnamese coffee dripper and some coffee (they do gooood coffee in vietnam...).. Walked around the old town, hilight being the Fujian Assembly hall which is a very cool old building.  Did a little shopping and had a quiet'ish night of drinking, eating and savouring the delights of a local patisserie ;o)

On my 3rd day in Hoi An I took a motorbike out for a bit of a ride (with roger on the back) and visited a local orphanage and got shown around by a volunteer coordinator (Nicole Woods, a laywer from Australia) who's been there since october last year.. it's interesting to get the "low down" on the rather depressing circumstances that result in kids getting shipped off from home - often they aren't so much orphans in the traditional sense but the refuse from a widowed wife, who upon remarrying, the new husband doesn't want the children - either because of financial reasons, or that it might discourage the woman from wanting to have children to him - sometimes the parents just cant afford to keep the children, this is especially common with the subsistance fisherman in the near by Cham islands. 

The kids in the orphanage are currently being fed on about 5000 dong a day per child... $0.33 US cents a day :( - and these aren't small kids, they range from 7 to 20 years of age. Even in the local market I could only buy a small bottle of water and baguette with animal parts pate' for that... hardly 3 square meals - needless to say they eat a lot of plain rice.

That night I'd arranged to do a cooking class with Mr Hai... Mr Hai is umm... interesting :) he was completely sozzled at 6am before he'd even started to do our 2 hour cooking class... very very funny - I'm not sure what I learnt about vietnamese cooking ;o) but I had a good laugh - and ended up drinking with him for a few hours afterwards - he definitely seems like a bit of institution in Hoi An, and until the 11th of this month he was one of Vietnams oldest (and dodgiest) bachelors.. but alas no more, as he's marrying a woman who doesn't look good but smells great... or something to that effect, I couldn't really understand him alot of the time.  Finished off the night drinking Majitos in the "Then an Now" - probably the mintiest one I've ever had.

And today (the 4th) I'm leaving Hoi An for my next destination in an hour or so... Hue.. should be interesting... Though the heat in Vietnam is pretty nasty at the moment, seems to be averaging a very uncomfortable 40 degrees... the real problem though is the humidity.. as your sweat just doesn't evaporate... fun and games, ugh!

Fun on the Mekong

Well the last few days on the Mekong delta have been great - especially yesterday as we jumped a boat to take us eastwards down the mekong to Can Tho where we stayed in a local farm stay (basically just somebodies house converted to allow for visitor accomodation). 

The boat trip took about 8 hours, and I spent most of it a hamock reading a book or listening to music...  there is such an abundance of things to look at! So much is going on in the Mekong delta - I've seen brick factories, loads of family owned live aboard cargo boats, floating fish farms (basically houses with netting cages underneath housing the fish), barges dredging the harbour of transporting fertilizer and all sorts of other random things.   It's definitely my favourite part of the Mekong that I've seen so far - I'd love to come back with my own boat and explore the region thoroughly one day - it's simply stunning.

This'morning we got up early and headed to the floating markets in Can Tho by boat - the markets setup every morning, selling food predominiately, but also covering things such as porcelain, fuel and building materials - all from boats floating 50 or so yards off shore.. I would estimate that there was at least 200 boats there this morning - fascinating stuff to watch, especially as just about every boat over 6 or 7 metres doubles as a family home.. so you have mum, dad and the kids all helping out.. some more then others (the woman here seem to get worked bloody hard).

Also while in Chau Doc we headed up the Sam mountains to watch sun set over the amazingly fertile Mekong delta (I've never seen any place greener) - and headed out to a village near the Khmer border which had all but 3 of it's occupants slaughtered by the Khmer rouge - and amazingly one of the 3 survivers runs the local drinks shop, so you can talk to her (via a translator) - what a tough old bugger she is too - shot in the neck and beaten over the head - she lost conciousness only to awake 3 hours later and discover everyone else in the town dead (I think it was aproximately 3000 killed?) - and somehow she just kept of living ever since.

Back to Saigon, The War Remnants museum

This afternoon we headed back to Saigon, where I am now.. and decided to visit the war remnants museum... which is basically the American/Japanese war crimes museum.. the museum seems to be split into 4 sections.  The first is a number of war artificats - including tanks, fighters, helicopters and artillery from the vietnam war... which was quite interesting, to me at least.. second section is a wonderful array of war time photography done by american and japanese war correspondents that provides an insight into the photographers themselves as opposed to what they were capturing on film, included in this section is a book listing a page long history of each photographer who lost his life (or just went missing) during the conflict.. I never realised just how many war correspondents perished in the conflict.. there are a lot of pages.

After that we have the war crimes sections, which I see as two - basically the first one you hit is what generally horrifies most people - which details the devestation caused by defoliants, such as agent orange, and phosphor based bombs dropped on villages. If the photos on the walls aren't bad enough (people with skin falling off, disfigured and humongous birth defects) - they also have fouetuses in jars showing massive deformities as a result of gross dioxin poisoning in their mothers.

The second section is the more traditional war crimes - documenting the wholesale slaughter of men, woman and children.. with some truely horrific pictures of American soldiers looking pretty pleased with themselves as they proudly show off corpses (and in some cases partial corpses) of their victims.

I think the museum in itself is interesting for two very different reason, one because of the truely amazing photographs that are on display, and secondly because it is truely a product of propoganda fueled from the north - displaying a particularly one sided view of a tragic and drawn out conflict - a good reminder of whoever wins the war, writes the history books... but regardless of bias, the end result is that a lot of people died on both sides, most of them needlessly. 

Off The Nah Trang

Tonight we jump onto an overnight train at 11:00pm to take us up to Nha Trang ... it will be interesting to see how the trains are in Vietnam, compared to China and Thailand - Looking forward to it, definitely been too long since I've been able to catch a train (seeing as Laos has none, and Cambodia has one or two (depending on who you talk too) .. but it's only capable of travelling at ~20km/hr!)

Incidentally Nah Trang used to be the traditional R&R spot for american soldiers, and still carries a very dodgy reputation after dark - it should be good for a laugh, though my guide warned that they've had cases of men being chased by prostitutes - even all the way into elevators in hotels.

Just a quick post...

Well I met up with my tour group yesterday... there's 6 people total including myself.. a lady from NZ (trish), a bloke from Australia (roger), a couple of girls from England (Louise and Hellena) and a guy from the states, Clint. After doing the general introductions thing we did Dinner down in the market (I had soft shelled crab with Tamarind sauce.. it was bueno! nice to eat crab without all the anoying work to shell it) and then headed out for a few drinks in a local expat bar, which though hardly an "authentic" vietnamese experience it did offer some amusing opportunities to watch drunken hash house harrier members failing badly at pool.

Our guide is an Australian guy who used to be a beef/sheep farmer in Aussie (by the name of Mark) who gave it all away and relocated to Hanoi in vietnam after holidaying here a few years back... obviously with his most recent job being that of a intrepid guide for the south east asian area.

Today we jumped a bus and headed to the border town (with Cambodia) of Chau Doc.. where I'll be hanging for a couple of days and then eventually will go for a bit of jaunt on the Mekong in a boat equipped with Hamocks.. which sounds pleasant enough ;o)

On the way out of Saigon/HCMC we popped into the interesting and rather daft looking Cao Dai temple, Cao Dai being a rather unique religion encompassing another of other religions and our special friend the all seeing eye of illuminati fame ;o) (http://www.laze.net/papers/caodai.php).

So far the scenery in the south of Vietnam is great.. there are hundreds of canals and waterways weaving across this area and all connecting with the Mekong, being plied by various live-aboard ships carrying all manor of things from fish to fertiliser.. very cool.

Hi all, well my border crossing at Moc Bai was easy.. if not long winded (took about an hour and a half just to get stamped out in Cambodia and back in at Vietnam) - so I didn't end up in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City till about 4 in the afternoon (left Phnom Penh at about 7:30am).

First Impressions

First impressions of Vietnam are... well, great!  I wasn't really knowing what to expect.. but so far it seems like a fusion of everything I've seen in asia so far, but with a personality all of it's own.

There's a strong chinese influence, a bit of the pushy cambodian spirit for tourism and definitely a fading french colonial (like Laos) look to alot of the buildings - and so far the people themselves are lovely, the foods not too pricey and the digs are nice - I've set myself up in a swish $8/night room which has air-con, TV with cable, fridge, warm shower.. nice bed.. all the mod cons - I even indulged in watching TV in bed this morning (they had a 2 hour animated "star wars - the clone wars" on, it was tolerable... probably because I've had TV in so long).

Poverty seems less "in your face" here then anywhere else I've been except maybe Thailand, the streets are all very clean and though many still wear traditional clothes, carry baskets on their heads and ride bicycles there is a definite abundance of technology in many peoples hands - obviously this is a bustling city, with me in the heart of it (well the stomach probably) - so my first impressions are really of HCMC as opposed to Vietnam, but I feel strangely at home here - maybe it's just because it reminds me a little of China (Which has been my favourite country so far) - but I really don't feel any culture shock - I definitely think I'll enjoy my last 3 or so weeks of travel here, and my stomach is back on form so that will hopefully include loads of local cuisine :)

Rain and art museums

Well today I decided to go and check out the art museum... it was pretty cool - an interesting mix of war related art, with uncle Ho featuring in many aspects (I love his goatee)... ancient artifacts from the last 1800 years and some pretty cool pieces of porcelain, bronze work.. oh and some modern'ish artwork, of umm... varying qualities, but it was insightful to see how various techiques and styles have been adopted and changed/chanelled into truely vietnamese works.

The museum is set in a old french colonial building with stained glass windows, dusty tiled floors and poor lighting... but it's truely gorgeous it's own quaint way - I probably spent as much time looking at the bulding itself as the exhibits... which was enhanced by the amazing electrical storm taking place outside - mucho goodness - then again I'm always happy when it rains.

Fruit vendors

Oh.. and early this morning I bought some fruit (granny smith apples from NZ, and oranges from California.. apparently) - I'm not sure quite how, but the lady at the market somehow managed to sell me almost entirely bad fruit... but I would've sworn as I watched her pick them that they looked great, I'd even inspected them earlier.. which leads me to believe I was actually attacked by some harpy who hexed me into buying her foul and fetid produce... I'll have to be on my guard next time - maybe I should've taken a 20?

Oh and tomorrow I start my tour of Vietnam with intrepid, so that should be interesting - hopefully the group is as good as It was in China.

I'm heading for vietnam tomorrow morning - fingers crossed it all goes smoothely. Apparently it's only an 8 hour bus ride, sounds piss easy.

At any rate, had a swell time in Cambodia the last few days - been relaxing, watching movies (Saw Kung Fu Hustle on DVD... not bad for a chinese comedy martial arts flick, though it aint not "Hero" either)...

...And... I'm getting used to the place (Cambodia), just as I'm about to leave... heh, cest la vie!

At any rate.. I went to the russian markets for some clothes. They have everything there... including a delightful semi-sweat shop setup in the middle of the clothes department (watch the nock off nike apparel appear before your very eyes!)... a cool engineering section with a surprisingly wide selection of precision tools - loads of acessories for lathes and milling machines... and of course parts for every 100cc motorbike ever built by asian hands.

All in all it's good fun - loads of weird smells and a lot of people manufacturing goods on site which kept me entertained (I get pretty bored wandering markets look at tat, being a lad 'n all)... so I got to watch jewelers working on custom pieces, a guy doing a valve grind, woman making clothes and carving/varnishing wood items - a smidgen of open air butchery... all the good stuff.

After that I wandered my way back, skirting past a load of engineering firms for a bit of a butchers hook (it's funny how the smell of dust and oil reminds me of my childhood) and generally letting my mind wander, eventually turning onto Molivong boulevard... which pretty much runs from one end of Phnom Penh to the other... half way along I stopped in an optometrist to get my glasses fixed (I broke them back in Pakse a few weeks ago) which was free, a pleasant surprise!

After a bit more walking I decided I best get a haircut (been putting it off for weeks) - so I popped into a local barbers for a $2 cambodian special... I haven't got a mirror in my current room so I don't really remember what it looked like - nor did I care - I'm on holiday - all I know is it's now less hot.

Had to get some more reading material, decided for some fantasy to counter the rather depressing (and relevant) no-logo as I work my way through prime sweat shop country... but after searching one store only to discover they only had an almost complete set of L.Ron Hubbard books including his mission to earth bollix.. which though strictly you could call it "fantasy".. I wasn't really prepared to waste any more of my time (then I already have in the past ;o) plumbing the depths of scientological scat.  Long story short It took me a couple of stores till I bought a  Terry Goodkind book, "Wizards First Rule" - I'm sure Ben or Lyle will fill me on wether it's a series, and of course if it's shite or not, at some point in the future... for the first 300 pages it seems like a pleasant enough read.

The one advantage of a toilet/shower combination is that you can keep cool while on the can.

Angkor Temples, round 2

On the 16th I had my second go at Angkor wat, with much greater sucess as my antibiotics seemed to be doing the trick.. so I went and saw the remaining temples I had missed the first time ... mostly similar to what I'd seen already, I like east Mabon - had nice elephants - and Tah Prohm is a gorgeous temple that the surrounding jungle has overwhelmed.. they've (who ever "they" are... probably the "man") even filmed a scene in tomb raider there... but don't let that put you off.

I had fun with my driver who seemed to be obsessed with me eating "at the temple" - in particular where we ate on my first day - no doubt there's some kind of kick back in it for him - and he seemed annoyed when I denied him the pleasure, but by then I was kind of annoyed with him - too cocky and in your face, he tried to stop me even visiting one of the temples because it was "same same"... and it wasn't.

But I digress, so the temples were good... my visiting was rounded off by about 1pm, and then I headed back to Angkor wat after an extended lunch to catch sun down on the big one again - which afforded some nice people watching time - and a few conversations with the locals who seemed to find me curious - apparently Angkor wat has more stone in it then the great pyramids - I said "all of them?" - and they said "yes!" with chests that almost seemed puffed out. 

I haven't got a clue if it's true though ;o)

The unamed girl at Ta Keo

Though of course I couldn't visit Angkor without having a run in with the local street kids.. in this case a girl who I'd estimate at about 7 or 8 years old, with empeccable english considering she obviously wasn't attending school (though submersed in this archealogical pseudo amusement park for most of her life she was probably going to have a hard time not becoming multilingual). 

At any rate.. as I was skirting around Ta Keo the little girl approached almost on the verge of tears and asked for some food - I didn't have any food and she looked about to cry after I said as much, so I started chatting to her, as much to distract her as anything else. We headed around the base of the temple and suddenly her whole attitude changed and she ducked out of site from 3 children above, and signaled me to be quiet... I wandered up beside her and she said "bullies" - and wouldn't budge any further, and started sniffling - so I suggested to her that perhaps we could walk round the other side - her little face lit up and so we turned round.  On the way she played tour guide, as older boys in the area normally do to try and ensure you'll be guilted into giving them some money - but by this point I wasn't really sure of the little girls motivations... 

"This is limestone" she proclaimed, followed by "this is sandstone, it's better against rain" - she pointed to collapsed statues of nagas and snakes, she was pretty damn good actually. After a while we talked about her parents, mother dead (of course) and her father is a cripple from a mine accident and plays music at one of the other temples (mine victims play music for donations all around the angkor temples) - all a bit grim for a kid that should by all rights have been in school.

After a while we came to some steps, and she motioned up - "theres a buddah at the top, if you want to go have a look" - at which point she mumbled "money?" - and I replied "of course, when I come back down ok?"  (I find this is a good way to pick the greedy kids, as they wont trust you) and she smiled and seemed pretty happy at the thought and waved me goodbye.  So I clambered up and came back down 10 minutes later, she was hiding around another corner this time because the bullies had relocated.  I followed her along then she disappeared completely, so I fished my wallet out and starting grabbing all my low-order cambodian riel, till I had a fistfull, probably about $1 US - more then enough for some food and water - later on I caught site of her again and she walked up looking sheepish and whispered me to be quiet again, so I stood there and then casually tried to hand her the money I'd got out... and a wave of panic and anger flashed across her face, like I'd do her a mortal wound and she started weeping and pleading that riel was worth so little and that all she wanted was US dollars. 

At this point my charitable spirit left me and my critical re-evaluation of the situation kicked in, "are you sure you dont want it? I have no US dollars", she shook her head, so I started walking away.. after I had all but left the temple grounds I heard a whimpered "okay mister" from an alcove as she crouched out of site.. so I gave her the cash and tried to see what kind of facial expression she adopted - but it was just blank, like I no longer existed... as I got back on the tuk tuk I'm pretty sure I saw her chatting to all the "bullies".

And..

And this is why I like watching people from a distance - up close it's hard to get any kind of focus, and it's also why my time spent exploring these temples isn't how I'd imagined it to be in my head before coming here.

Back to Phnom Penh

And so today I jumped the bus back to Phnom Penh.. it wasn't bad, I was greatful for my faltering sense of smell and fully charged I-Pod as I was seated next to a mum with bub of about 6 months and another girl of probably about 3 years of age.. The problem with alot of asia is that nappies are non existent - so when a baby shits, it's potentially rather... exposed.. as it was today, thankfully I managed to dodge it :) and drowned out the hurrendous Hang Meas Karaoke VCD volume 59 (I mean 59, I can't believe there are at least 58 more of these... ugh!) which was playing on the T.V up front. 

When the bus stopped briefly at some unknown village I got to watch one of the local kids wander round with an empty Tora air pellets box over his head.. he even bumped into things... umm... random?

And this afternoon I plowed through another 100 pages of "No Logo".. which is a good read, until finally retiring to my room for a quick freshen up before dinner only to get a call on my cellphone from Mum & Dad.. which has been only the second call I've got since leaving NZ (the first being from Mark Skinner while in the Beijing airport) - must say I was quite surprised!

I'd almost forgotten how it works (the phone that is) - in fact the only reason I keep it charged now is because it acts as my alarm clock.

At any rate, I'm kicking it for a few days here and then will make my 3rd and final border crossing in south east asia...into vietnam no less.. first stop, Saigon! 

Phnom Penh

Well, lets see... where did I leave off.. ahh yes, having lunch in Phnom Penh on the 12th.. right so, after lunch I bought some books - namely "No Logo", which I've been meaning to read since I read the "fences and windows" also by Naomi Klein, "Ancestral Vices" by Tom Sharpe and finally the "Curious incident of the dog in the night time" by Mark Haddon.

So I headed back to my guesthouse and layed around reading the "Curious incident of the dog in the night time" - which is a very quick read, depressingly so, as I finished it later that same afternoon.. but I really liked the book - most good, and made for a nice break away from the reality of Cambodian street life that gets me down after a couple of hours.

At any rate, I was feeling antisocial that evening and decided to go find some dinner for myself at the quietest restuarant I could locate... found an indian joint that looked well abandoned and decided it was the ticket.. but after sitting down, ordering my meal and reading my book while consuming an Angkor beer (which is shite, in fact I dont like any of the beers in south east asia.. god I miss dark beer!) a mad kenyan woman sat at my table and just started talking to me... other then her name being Anna I really didn't understand much of what she was saying.. apparently she was married, but was seeing a friend of a friend who she'd told everything yet never met and that africans open there hearts to other africans yet white people are always suspicious (at this point I mumbled "and with good reason you mad wench" but she continued merrily on with her monologue) and evntually movied onto talking about someone named Lee Vuthy who she thought worked for the Cambodian daily.  It was all complete nonsense and once my meal was finished I escaped.

Incidentally the Cambodian daily seems to be the only english language paper here... and it has a great couple of pages called the 'police blotter' which lists all the major crimes for the last few days... talk about depressing, but I digress.

Off to Siem Reap

The next day I checked out and grabbed the bus up to Siem Reap... this was a thrilling trip, especially the stop in a town I think was called Stung sen, where there were so many street kids begging for food ... it really does your head in when your eating a packet of chips and kids are pulling at your shirt to have some, I cant even equate this to the greed exuded by most of the older street kids here (who only ever want cash) - it really does suck, and the local Cambodian adults are largely desensitized to it - in fact I guess they would have to be - but it does my head in.

At any rate, I met a girl named "sky" from the states who suggested a guesthouse to stay at (the garden village) - which is reasonably central and stocked with loads of boys, like every other guesthouse, who just wander around like they're A.D.D - fiddling and fidgeting, because other then the little bit of driving work they do, they have absoloutely zero stimulus.  Personally though I find most of the boys to be generally dishonest, full of shit (sob stories that don't line up with everyone elses sob stories) and greedy (average income is $20 US a month here, yet I would estimate that most of these boys earn that in a week or so) ... some people discribe tourism in Cambodia as a gold rush, and I think that's quite accurate - things will no doubt change over time, but at the moment it definitely seems a bit cheeky and ruthless.

So I grabbed one of the boys, "we", as a drive for Angkor wat. and headed out to catch sun down from the hill... which was good, met a couple up there I'd hung out with in Savanaket in Laos, so that was amusing.. exchanged stories etc.  That night I had dinner at the Dead fish tower, which did a really nice thai meal (the restuarant has free live music and crocodiles.. *shrug*).. very tastey - and then headed to bed because I had to get up early (5am!) to catch the sun rise at Angkor wat.

Throwing up on Angkor temples

So I got up that morning (the 14th) and was feeling a bit dodgy... nothing out of the ordinary... and then headed out to Angkor Wat, got some nice pictures... felt a bit more dodgy... had some breakfast... complete loss of appetite... felt even more dodgy... had some water... and then had waves of Nausea and eventually threw up in the middle of the Bayon temples... thankfully nobody saw me do it, as it really does seem a little disrespectful.. not to mention gross... And after that it was all down hill, I started overheating, couldn't keep water down and so around mid day I decided it was a bust and got my driver to head back to the guest house...

On the way back I stopped off at the chemist and got some electrolytes to help with dehydration, and some antibitoics (Ciprofloxacin, well Neocip-500 which appears to be the same thing) which seems to be doing the trick as I feel a lot better today... hopefully tomorrow everything will be back on form and I can continue my exploration of the Angkor wat temples.. on the down side, it means buying another $20 US ticket :(

Right, time for some lunch - hopefully I can keep it down!