Thoughts on leaving SE Asia

When we left Nepal, I wrote up a list of things that had either amused us, or kept cropping up in conversation. It's really a list for ourselves, but you may find it an interesting read.

1. cambodia - pyjamas as day leisure wear (just like Liverpool but choice of design different) .
2.Cambodia and Vietnam - everything everywhere has a security guard outside. Either it's some sort of philinthropic employment or there was a big need.
3. Scooters everywhere serving the role of family car. I saw father, mother newborn babe in arms and toddler standing at from all on one back. Not a helmet between them. Started to get used to sights like this everywhere.
4. TV shows on bus videos of variety show style entertainment in a UK 1970s Saturday night kind of style. Much rehearsed talking through microphones inbetween musical interludes. Drum rols obviously sounding off a joke!
5. Some Cambodian men really had faces shaped like the ones at The Bayon (but smaller of course).
6. Lots of single Western men over 40 holidaying alone!
7. Skinny cows in Cambodia. The government were so concerned they have issued directives to get them fattened up.
8. Vietnam - skinny parents with really fat kids.
9. Vehicles - it's either a scooter or a proper drug dealer (because that's what they would be in Liverpool) SUV. Someone around here has got money!
10.Communism - what communism? If you mean one party rule and no elections with announcers on loud speakers in the streets at 6am (Vietnam and Laos).
11. "Where are you from?" question back to people not taken as a funny joke as found in Nepal.
12. Red circular marks on people's bodies. Greg thought they were former victims of torture, but it turns out that it's a local remedy (Vietnam & Cambodia) for pressing a hot cup against body if not feeling well. It expresses badness.
13. Little shrines outside houses/developments for the spirits to live in when you disturb them by building your house or making a car park etc.
14. Denomonations of money with just too many 0 numbers in for me (Liz) to comprehend. I know this won't be a surprise to you.
15.Liverpool FC shirts everywhere. They love British football here and we were great disappointments to the football fans who tried to engage us in conversations on it. Fernando who?
16. Just hot hot hot (except northern Vietnam) 30C average daytime temps.

Crazy Horse Buttress - climbing in Northern Thailand

Picture credit Jussi Heinonen.

We arrived back in Northen Thailand in Chang Mai. A city of leafy streets and quiet cafes. We were headed though to Crazy Horse Butress and the climbing on offer. It was nice to stay static for 5 days after a lot of travelling. We stayed in a family run teak built hotel. We had a huge room which as usual Liz managed to make very small by spreading her stuff over every available surface. She did leave me half a chair to use though.
The crag was about 30 minutes out of town so we went in a pick up from the local climbing shop with other climbers both independent and on courses. With lunch and water re-fills it was 5 quid a day. We shared over a few days with Finnish Geologists, French Rope Access Workers and Melbourne health policy writers, plus a few weird Americans.
The climbing was good, about 10 seperate areas to choose from and quiet. The facilities were great, shelters to hide from the sun, good loos, trails through the bamboo forests and a tame chicken to play with! No route we tried had any polish and certainly no queing up. I think this was my favourite place to climb as it was mostly in the shade and quiet. You made it back to town and could have a pleasant night with plenty of choice over what to do though I mostly ate and slept. We had 3 days here which if you climb the lower grades is probably enough. If you climb hard you should have been here to lead me up tougher routes! I really enjoyed the sport climbing but am still either you get up or you don't. All this working a 20m route for an hour is just not my bag and not good for your belayers neck! Coming back from the crag and having a Thai massage for an hour at the end of the day is great though. The amount of cracking and creaking I was doing though seemed to alarm the masseur more than me. I think I just mumbled climbing at them whilst I tried not to fall asleep on the table.
Greg

Luang Prabang and slow boat up the Mekong

Well, in comparison to "Party Central" Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang was much more sophisticated and up-market (with prices to match). After a bus ride through amazing highland scenery, the road dips downhill to the town. Luang Prabang is a small northern Laos town of beautiful riverside colonial buildings, top notch restaurants, art galleries and masses of sparkling temples. This was definitely the place you could take your mum for a long weekend (relaxing in the shade of course). The main part of the town itself if on a river peninsular (like the Wirral), but only about 500m width. Shopping heaven. It was killing me as the night market was amazing. Silks, bedding, clothing, metalwork etc all produced by the local villagers who were mostly Hmong. Also, like our whole Laos experience, no crazy road crossings and urban maddness. Laos has a much smaller population than the other SE Asia countries and this really made everything feel calmer.
Anyhow, after great self discipline on my part (Greg of course totally unaffected),I managed not to buy anything, telling myself to wait until Thailand again. I'd definitely like to come back here and stay in a top spa hotel and dine out in the luxurious restaurants. However, best to get here before 2013 when the Chinese are financing the redevelopment of the airport runway and I beieve Jumbos will be landing!
The main reason for travelling here was to take the slow boat up the Mekong river to the Thai border at Chiang Khong. The boat was similar to the one posted here. Long with seating at the front, engines, loos, and owner's family living area at the rear. The journey was to take two days with an overnight stop in Pak Beng. Thus began two 10.5hr days chugging our way upstream against the current. Yes, those days were a bit too long really, but we could walk around, and circulate in a sociable mannner with our fellow passengers (hello to Matt from Bristol and Mo and Vern from Vancouver). The other bonus to this form of travel was the amazing mountainous countryside we travelled through, so green - just how i like it (often with no road conection) and the privilage of seeing Laoations (people of Laos) going about their daily business. The jungle either side of the river was really dense and I couldn't help thinking about the secret war that Laos was caught up in over 30 years ago. The local Hmong people sided with the US against communism, and unofficially the US sent in undercover CIA agents to train up the Hmong people as guerrilla fighters. One of these undercover agents was partly the inspiration for Colonel Kurtz in Apocolyse Now (Yes that film again - a personal obsession - " Oh the horror, horror, horror").Another dodgy thing about this area was that it was part of the "golden triangle" of drug smuggling (opium and marajuana) which fed this US interst in the area. Saying al that, it was really beautiful and I would love to explore some of the more remote valleys os Northern Laos if I ever get a chance.
Postcript: Our camera died at Luang Prabang and so unfortunally no pictures of the river journey. I'm hoping some of our fellow passenger send some over and I will add them to the blog and gallery for continuity and the fact that the photo opportunities from the boat were magnificent.
Liz

Laos

It was 12 years since I was last in Laos, "tribes people" were a common sight on the street as were opium and marajuana for sale and street money changers hungry for dollars with all deals done on a calculator as no one spoke a common language. Guest houses and restaurants were few and far between and if you got on a bus or boat that had no chickes on board you knew you'd crossed back to Thailand.

2011 and this time we flew into Vientiene. A very mellow airport and a completely confused immigration official as my 6 week beard was not on the passport photo. This seemed to worry him a lot. It was hot hot hot again and funky cafes abound with expensive hotels to back them up. It was still a mellow place but not much to do apart from hang out in the shade and enjoy the very relaxed atmosphere of a naturally laid back country.
We headed up to Vang Vieng which had changed from a 2 street town to a 10 street town ful of cafes showing endless loops of old Friends episodes. It was crap the first time round and it ain't improved with age. By 5 o'clock it was full of pissed backpackers collapsing in the street and screaming a lot. They'd all been tubing- floating down the river on a car inner tube stopping off at bars along the way. I gave it a miss, it looked so boring I was afraid of falling asleep and drowning myself. A once sleepy town was now mostly full of knob heads but it's the locals who are selling them the alcahol so the double edged sword of the tourist dollar.
However hire a bike and ride for 5 minutes and its back to serenity in the countryside. We rode a few km's out of town over a bamboo bridge were some women were slaughtering a water buffalo. On through banana trees and a bit of jungle to reach Secret Canyon and the sport climbing routes. Great position and great routes, good posotive rock and a smattering of climbers from Ameria, Poland and Canada. We had 2 days here then climbed at Na Pha Daeng Mountain about 20 km out of town. We hired a pick-up to take us there. Cross a field of cabbages and follow a few jungle trails to reach the routes. Some hard vertical rock is here. Much harder than the previous 2 days.
We helped the local guy who looks after the place and whose land you cross wash out a nasty machete wound in his hand. Iodine, clean bandage and spare for him was our good deed of the day. He still charged us the 5000 kip to cross his land,about 50p but I guess we are rich beyond his wildest dreams.
We had a day off and rode out to some caves for a look around. A huge thunderstorm erupted as we peddaled down roads of blood red dirt. Pretty dramatic hey! This time we had to pay to go in. On my previous visit we just turned up and nosed about.

We were now headed up to Luang Prabang the UNESCO town and apparently a haunt of celeb types these days. The prices of hotels certainly proved this and no bargains were to be found. The trendy cafes were charging more than restaurants at home for a meal and the amount of well heeled tourists walking around certainly will strike it off the budget list soon. A night market was set up every night selling clothes etc. The LonelyPlanet assuring at least the money goes straight to the locals. The amount of people I saw unloading their goods from 4 wheel drives though I reckon me and Liz need the money more than them. Plenty of "eco-tours" are offered to visit hill tribes thoughh the only thing eco about them I think is the name. I passed on this as the last time the tribe people were walking down the street ignoring you not setting themselves up in human zoos waiting for a fleet of mini buses and zoom lenses to arrive. With an airport being built by the Chinese going to be ready by 2013 and big enough to accept jumbo jets the days of peace are numbered I would say. It will become a peninsula of overpriced cafes surrounded by concrete hotels and thronged by tourists. However if you want a place to saty for a fwew days in a swanky hotel and sit in a posh Frech colonial era cafe I couldn't reccomend anywhere better.

We took a boat to Huay Xai on the Thai border from here, a 2 day ride down the Mekong with an overnight stop in Pakbeng. Last time it was wait for a cargo boat to head down river. Now you pile on the tourist boat and make sure you get a seat away from the engine at the back. As we were heading against the current each day took about 10 hours but it was pleasent to watch the river glide by and see villages up on the banks and occasional other boats floating by. Weird limestone formations and what looked like slate rise out the river and whirlpools hug the banks. A great trip but a lot quicker coming the other way.

Laos is a really relaxed place. Perhaps the most laid back Asian country I've been to . I was really torn between going back as it was perhaps one of the best travel experiences I have ever had. Last time I travelled with my mate Stuart. Our only guide was a map drawn on the back of a fag packet. This was from some random traveller we met who had just come back from up north. We used this for 3 weeks as our guide. The food was awful and so were the buses. River travel was a lot more common and traditional dress was the norm rather than the exception. We broke down in buses and boats and ate food I could not describe or name. With sounding like a moaning old cynic yes it was a lot better then and although I enjoyed it this time I wish I hadn't gone back. Mass tourism and globalisation plus satellite telly and internet I think is leading to a more uniform and boring world. Yes everyone deserves to make money and have a good as life as possible and I wish them all the best but on a purely selfish level it makes travelling a lot less fun.
Greg.

Climbing on Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

So we've got to Hanoi at Tet and now we've got to make our way to Cat Ba Island which is in the Halong Bay area.
Ha Long Bay region is a vast expanse of uniquie karst limestone towers that rise from the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. I believe there are over 2000 of these craggy islands, some of which have vegetation free faces, and so are suitable for climbing. Many of these faces rise directly from the sea, so are really popular for deep water soloing (DWS). This is free climbing (without a rope or protection) and dropping into the water when finished or falling off. This is not quite our bag yet, as these routes tend to be overhanging and quite difficult in order to safely clear the rock face on your way down.However, other faces can be accessed from sandy beaches, and there was one developed inland crag at Butterfly valley.
So off we set using the very good directions from the Slo Pony website (local climbing agency who set up all the routes in area and provide tuition). Basically, the travel was a bus from Hanoi to Hai Phong, then a shuttle bus to the ferry, followed by another bus to Cat Ba Town where we planned to base ourselves. It being Tet, we got badly stung at the shuttle bus connection and were charged around 400,000 each when it sould have been 160,000 dong to get to the island. We were told that this was the last bus of the day! The same woman tried it again on the return journey and told us we had to get on the back of a motorbike to take us to the connecting bus to Hanoi. I got stroppy (yes me - can you believe it?) and said there was no way I was getting on the back of a motorbike and my ticket was clearly bus-boat-bus!After much standing off, she spoke to the driver of the bus we had just alighted, there was an exchange of money from her to the driver, and we were taken to our connecting bus. Needless to say, we found Vietnam tiring because of this and always having to be vigilant.
Cat Ba Town at Tet was like arriving at Scarborough on Boxing day. However, although not too pretty on the eye, the surroundings were impressive as you can see on the pictures. To keep up the holiday spirit we had our first night out on the razzle dazzle with a bunch of ex-pats all working in China and on their holiday. The alcohol helped to blur the fact that the cafes and food were pretty shoddy, with local wildlife (rats) playing close by on the central reservation or under the freezer in the cafe. Hello to Jacob, John and Happy Jack, who looks good in everything he wears. We had some very interesting conversations on the psyche of the Chinese nation.
So off to Slo Pony to get the "beta" on the climbing. For around 15 pounds each we've booked onto a boat (junk) to take us out to Lan Ho Bay to do some kayaking in the morning, lunch on the boat and then to be be dropped off on Moody's beach for the afternoon to climb.
Now it's all getting better! Lan Ho bay was beautiful - just as I wanted it to be as I'd never been in that kind of landscape before. We passed masses of floating villages, all with skinny dogs marooned as protectors. I was quite surpried at just how populated an area it was as my experience of sea kayaking has been one of a greater distance from people and settlements. Greg and I shared a double kayak and I'm surprised I could climb after as the weight of the paddle was tiring me out to lift , never mind actually paddle. We had a great morning on "flat as a pancake sea" - not a bouyancy aid in sight! Lunch was great and really chilled out and we swapped stories and travel tales with our fellow customers. Turned out we had mutual friends - bizzare.
Now for some climbing! The routes at Moody's Beach were excellent, it's just a pity there was only 5 of them there.Really sharp positive rock that was finger cutting. We both admited to be concerned about slipping as it would macerate as opposed to scratch! Really attentive about watching that the rope didn't rub against sharp edges as we lowered each other off. Check out the pictures on the Picasa gallery. We both knocked off three 5as and one 6a - great climbing and our confidence is building. The next day we hired push bikes and rode out to Butterfly Valley which was around 16Km inland. Here's a link to a picture of the crag.

www.27crags.com/crags/butterfly-valley-cat-ba-vietnam/topos.

This is where we sort of got our arses whipped.Much stiffer climbing we felt for the grade, longer routes and a bit more rambling. The rock was great, however, and the location peaceful with cows grazing in the meadow below. Not much in the lower grades, so we were climbing mostly 6A and a few 5s. Needless to say, out of 6 routes attempted, we only managed to complete 2 There's a maillon there of ours on Hanoi to Rome Express if anyone is going?
Here's a U-Tube link to to one of the routes that was comp0leted and not fallen off as in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vVPz0-jqAM&feature=player_embedded

Woops!We didn't take pictures on this day, hence all the links to other people's sites.
Overall, Butterfly Valley was the only climbing venue that could be reached independantly without chartering a boat, even then you need transport of some form. Although, there was loads of climbing on selected karst islands and beaches, it would turn into a very expensive week trying to pick them all off. We both felt that if you were operating at 6C above (French) then there would be a much wider selection and more to do.
Anyhow, at least we can say we have climbed in Vietnam!

The Reunification Express (Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi)

I wanted to call this bit "But Sir, Charlie don't surf," as quoted by a GI in the film Apocalypse Now when dropping troops off on the Vietnamese beaches for a spot of pre-fighting surfing. However, our friend, Neal Short, said we should try and fit in a classic train journey into our itinery and I think this was it. The plan was to travel to the north of Vietnam so we could get to Cat Ba Island as we'd heard there was climbing to be had there and it was not far from Halong Bay, but possibly a bit quieter. The Reunification Express does as it says on the ticket, it joins together the two ends of Vietnam formally torn apart by the war. and crosses over the former Demilitarised Zone line. It's a long journey along the whole of the Eastern Vietnamese Coast from south to north following the shore of the South China Sea.
Due to our poor preparation we arrived in HCM City (Saigon) just as everything was about to kick off/close down for the Vietnamese New Year called Tet. This was definitely their equivalent to Christmas in the West. Businesses close and people travel home to spend the time (mostly drinking I believe) with their families. When we arrived in HCM there were no train tickets available for four four days so we just had to be patient and ride it out. This is why you can see we visited lots of museums and war related stuff to pass time (see Picasa gallery). Greg also insisted on the pictures so we saw the most awful film ever made, "The Green Hornet" or something like that. I fell asleep anyhow!
Lots of flower fairs about the city and people carrying baby (half grown)apricot trees in blossom back home on the back of scooters for home decoration (these were then lit up with fairy lights just like Xmas trees). There really was a sense of hustle and bustle and I was starting to get a bit worried as we heard rumours that that there would be no open hotels of eateries in Hanoi once we arrived on the 3rd February - Tet Day itsef.
8pm on the 1st February saw us mingling in with a very excited crowd on the platform at HCN. Kids tearing around, obviously very excited. Lots of big packages that I guessed could have been presents. Must be the equivalent to the last train to Liverpool from London on Christmas Eve!
We could only get a "hard sleeper" bed in a cabin of 6 berths, so were a bit worried what this would actually be. We'd read that there could be problems with security and to watch your belongings. A great way to prepare yourself for 32 hrs journey with a bunch of strangers.
So we began with Greg and myself in our cabin shared with a husband & wife, sister and 4yr old boy called An who was very cute- all one big happy family. The bed was far from "hard" and was in fact a fairly decent mattress provided with pillow, sheets and a sort of cotton sleeping liner with a bit of padding. Reasonably clean too. (For point of information a "soft sleeper" is 4 in a cabin and presumably a better bed. We could have also booked seats soft of hard, but after 32 hrs we would probably have ended up with chronic back problems. You sit on your bed during the day or on you cabin mate's bottom bunk).
After introductions (dad spoke good English) we all mutally agreed on a common bedtime ie we just all crawled into bed. We stuffed our huge sacks under our bottom bunks and put our ear plugs in. On the whole I had a really good night's sleep. You are aware of stopping in stations and to help you wake up they play really loud music on the train's intercom system. Ahhhh! Fortunally, this only seemed to happen about two times during the night.
Morning and oh what a sight. Clouds, greyness and drizzle. The temperature had dropped too and, sadly, this actually pleased us.
The route is 1726km long and the train chugs along at an average 50km/hr, so you do get a chance to take in the sights. Much greener and hilly than the south. We were a community on the move. Kids playing in the corridors (we were a novelty item to practise English on), families camping out in corners of corridors sitting on tiny plastic chairs, adults playin betting games and of course a bit of drinking too. The train was really long. It took about 20 minutes to walk down to the restaurant car at the opposite end. Cold and boiling water drink stations were at the end of each carriage so we could even make our own tea. The toilets and wash area were kept clean and really took us by surprise as we're not all that impressed with the usual UK standard of train loo.
The long journey also gave us a chance to chat to the locals. The train announcer was keen to chat and practice his English as he also made his annuncements in English too. We discussed the country's apparent love for Uncle Ho (HCM himself. Evidently, this was no apparent love, it was real. He explained that although HCM had died before he was born, he felt a strong affection (gesturing towards his heart) for Uncle Ho and the committment and dedication he had had for his people. Strong stuff indeed. Greg also got chatting to a Vietnamese Army helicopter pilot who was on his way home for Tet following an intensive English course in Singapore. Evidently, they were due to order new stock and this would be coming from I think he said Ukraine, so English was needed in order to be able to follow the instructions. We wwere very impressed by this inteligent young man who could have been earning a fortune if based in the West.
The costline becomes more winding and rugged. I took pictures of that infamous surf and our cabin mates left to join their family for the holiday. Bliss - we now have a whole comparment to ourselves for the rest of the day and second night.
4am in the morning we crawl into a ghost-town version of Hanoi. A taxi into town, a walk around to find a few open backpackers and breakfast. Not so bad as anticipated.
Hitting town after we sorted ourselves out was quite surreal really. The streets were deserted and we were not seeing Hanoi as it really is - but this was great and we didn't care! We'd seen busy HCM City so our imaginations didn't need much help. Browsing along was so peaceful. Yes, pretty much everything was closed, but this city has many fine former colonial buildings and leafy boulevards - how I imagine a sleepy subhurb of Paris could be.
We even paid our respects to Uncle Ho as he was open for business!

Pictures at https://picasaweb.google.com/lizzypatkay/qxjWxH#

Cambodia



Hot and flat then it gets hotter and flatter.

We took a bus from Bangkok to a very hectic border crossing. The scams start as soon as you arrive. Fake offices charging for forms and who knows what. We ignored it all and went to see the men in pointy hats and funky uniforms who sternly warn you not to give money to anyone and then try and overcharge you but we had visas already.

Lots of people trying to help you get on a very expensive bus. They offer a free shuttle to a way out bus station to trap you in their prices. Nothing like a stress free arrival. Liz threw a wobbler and beat the tout down so much in price his cronies were all laughing at him. We still had to pay the guy a $2 bribe for his service. For me Liz and 2 girls from Hong Kong we met it was $40 for about a 300km taxi ride.

We sorted a hotel and went for dinner. Liz got extras as a beetle crawled out from under her noodles as she was about to start eating.

We tootled about on bikes for a day and came across a crocodile farm and gift shop.

"Helping us to preserve nature"

By turning crocs into handbags for you.



The Temples of Angkor was our aim so back on bikes past a man with three pigs tied to the back of his moped. They were magnificent set in lush jungle and straight out the Lara Croft movie but for me, a must if you're passing but not worth a specific trip. I enjoyed riding round on the bike the most but if old temples are you're thing you'll love it. It's busy though so don't expect tranquility.



We headed to the capital Phnom Penh which seemed quite chilled out for a capital city in Asia. We had cable TV so went to a supermarket to make cheese butties, hurray for the French Empire and leaving behind their skills in bread making, buy a quart bottle of something pretending to be whiskey and lots of coke. TV a drink and no mopeds trying to run you over. Bliss believe me. It ended badly though as I thought Liz was helping out on the drinking front though as I finished the bottle she told me she had drunk non of it. It wasn't pretty.

We headed off to S21 the next day. A school Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had converted into a prison. You were sent there if you were a

"counter revolutionary Imperialist"

wore glasses, were educated, or they didn't like the look of you. Also all of Cambodia's thriving bands and singers ended up here.

Of the 20,000 people who passed through the gates 6 survived. Inside are the cells and torture instuments which are mainly hammers, clubs and garden spades. When shooting them at the end became too expensive they beat them to death which was probably a relief looking at the place. There are countless photo's taken of the victims upon arrival. Faces looking confused, resigned to their fate and sheer terror. The guards were all young as they were easier to manipulate and most of them ended up being killed as well. Insanity on a depressingly common scale for our species. The Killing Fileds are near by, the mass collection of skulls of some 15000 people. I was planning on going but knew it would now be to see a grizzly spectacle and not for any better reason. I decided it would be better for myself and my soul not to. You find yourself looking at older people wondering what did you do when all this was going on, anything to survive I imagine. As we left we saw our first motorbike crash which is suprising considering the organised chaos. Although we had no hassle here and we only visited 2 towns I'd have to say I wont be back, too hot too flat.



Vietnam



Saigon city of 10 million people and 5 million mopeds all driving down the street you need to cross. Step off a curb and walk across. No one slows down but they do swerve around you, running is a bad idea and roundabouts are just utter chaos. On one insanely busy road we had been dithering on for a while a pensioner helped us across laughing at us all the while. Im not proud and was desperate to get to the cinema for a few hours of air-conditioning and relative calm. Paying for dinner with a half million dong note and our train tickets cost 2890000 dong. Thats a lot of Dong and not many dollars!

A day out to the Chi Cu tunnels were the Vietnamese hid underground,16000 of them, while fighting the Americans. The locals dont call it the Vietnam War but the American War. A grissly array of man traps and hideholes to shoot people from. We went down a 200m long tunnel to see what it was like. Small dark and hot. It had also been made bigger for fat westerners to get through, it was still small.

Yes you can also go on the shooting range. Machine gun anyone. I opted for the infamous AK-47. 10 bullets for $10. Fun to try but disturbingly there was a few backpackers all glassy eyed and over excited after firing a gun. Maybe they dont get enough excitement at the weekend or have never been around guns before, a bit disturbing after S 21 really.

Visited a few war museums very patriotic and propogandist but after seeing how they fought and for how long against Chinese,French then American forces I don't blame them.



On a lighter note they have great coffee here and some fantastic food. My tender beef soup was the tenderest beef I have ever eaten. I passed on the frog porridge and pig offal stew though. Off on a train tonight for a 2 day ride to Hanoi and a lovely 13 degrees. We arrive on Chinese New Year the same as landing in London on Xmas Day. Its going tobe interesting especially as it will be 4 a.m.when we get there.

Bangkok

Maybe it's something about arriving in a place at 5.30 in the morning that kind of takes away all the extras, so what you are left with is the two diametrically opposed facets of the place. Monks waling barefoot on the city streets colecting their alms for the day from the cafes and restaurants juxtaposed against the revellers from the night of the day before unable to walk in a straight line and still on a mission to drink until it gets light. Welcome to Khao San Road area - backpacker's ghetto land! We walked and walked until we found an empty roon, which ended up being pretty decent compared to the original one offered near the foyer (noisy) with a sign in it telling us it was forbidden to bring "prostitutes" back to the room (that scuppered that plan then).
Eating from street stalls, navigating our way through all the windy streets was hard work in the heat. Taking the express ferry up the Chao Phraya River was brilliant and from it you can see a plethora of temples and pagodas. Another good day was visiting the Wat Pho temple which boasts the biggest lying down Buddha (golden)statue in Asia. Check out the pictures on Picasa as it was really big. All very clean and well looked after, unlike Nepal where there would be someone selling vegetables on it's steps! Then, unplanned and to our surprise, we ended up at the National Theatre sitting on the grass watching a traditional singing concert followed by a dance/drama show. All very, very camp. If I hadn't have know that this was the traditional form of performance (ie men dressed as women) I would have thought it was just an excuse (mind Shakespeare was performed by an all male cast wasn't it at time of writing).
A lovely interlude to all this tourism was traveling out of the Khao San area to go for dinner with Greg's cousin, Cliff, his wife, Dumpna (have I spelt this correctly?) and their beautiful daughter, Charlotte. We had a brilliant evening at Dumpna's brother's restaurant and it was really interesting for us to be able to talk to Cliff and Dumpna about what Thailand is actually like to live in as opposed to whizzing through as a tourist. They showed us pictures of their house out east near the Cambodian border and I had to admit it looked idyllic and so peaceful.
Visas for Cambodia sorted....it's now over to Greg.
Liz