Forty frivolous facts/findings/feelings:

I keep seeing random one off things that I doubt I will ever see again so I thought I would share them in one complete list of the Asia part of the trip.  Mixed in are my random feelings that occur to me every now and again!!

This blog could probably be ignored but its really just for fun and because I am bored on a 6 hour bus journey.   James says it has turned into observations of Asia.

1. 1.       In North Vietnam traffic lights do not matter/do not exist
2. 2.       There is no maximum number of people you can fit on a motorcycle
3. 3.       Motorcycles are a good way of transporting live animals – we have seen pigs, ducks, chickens, a cow
4. 4.       You can drive on any side of the road going in any direction as long as you beep your horn louder and longer than the person coming towards you/the person you are passing.
5. 5.       Young children running around naked of any age are probably part of a group trying to steal from you!
6. 6.       Massages for £3/4 are absolutely amazing – 10 times better than anything you will find at home.
7. 7.       Buffalo/cows can walk freely along any road or highway.
8. 8.       I am ‘pretty good at pool for a girl’ – current score me v James is 4.3 to him BUT it was 3.1 to me until he caught me when I was tired and he overtook!! I will be victorious in the end!
9. 9.       The Tv/Film options on Emirates are very good!!
10. 10.   Do not visit Dubai during Ramadan if you like to eat as much as James does!
11. 11.   The ‘boring’ stereotype of accountants goes around the world...if we tell anyone what we do they all have the same reaction...oooh ok lucky u no wonder you needed a break!
12. 12.   There are alot of rumours and myths about tubing in Laos (Which we didn’t do!) – the latest one we heard was that 57 people were killed since January on rope swings alone!!!!!! (also if you don’t know to always go left you will die!!!) Doesnt sound like we missed much!!
13. 13.   Whatsapp and skype are great – helps me miss my family less – its still alot but at least some chat makes it easier!! Everyone should get whatsapp and message me for free!!
14. 14.   The Chu Chi tunnels are very very small and very dark!
15. 15.   Free wifi in every Asian hotel is great!
16. 16.   The ‘fantastic’ new road to Phnom Phen is neither tarmaced nor level...I would hate to see what the old one was like!
17. 17.   ‘’Cheap price for youuu madam sir...special price for you today’’ is universal market language! I am special wherever I go it seems!
18. 18.   If I never heard another horn beep again it would be too soon.
19. 19.   Sandfly bites hurt
20. 20.   Facebook is brilliant for keeping in touch with people.
21. 21.   The story about the war in Vietnam is very one-sided but still very interesting to someone who knew nothing!! 
22. 22.   I am very pleased/surprised by the number of people who seem to be reading and enjoying my blog – thanks everyone J
23. 23.   James can eat 2 main courses of Vietnam food and still not be full!
24. 24.   I miss girly chats and banter from all my best buds; lovely ladies and bmaids, LHC ladies, PWC girlies, cool cousins and most of all of course my partner in crime Mrs J!!!
25. 25.   You can sweat 24/7 for 4 weeks and still not be a size 0 much to my disappointment!!
26. 26.   James is a pro skier in the making – bring on NZ!!
27. 27.   4.5 hours on a bus with no air conditioning is one of the least fun things I have ever done!
28. 28.   To get through the Cambodian border they take your head temperature!!
29. 29.   We have been offered help with no ulterior motive twice in Cambodia and were shocked...you become very sceptical and wary of people in Asia so this was a welcome novelty.
30. 30.   Ankor Watt is amazing and definitely worth a trip although unfortunately arriving at 5.30am in rainy season didn’t give us much of a sunrise!
31. 31.   The LeBua hotel where the Hangover2 was filmed is out of this world amazing, the sky bar on the 64^th floor has views around the whole city – it is the tallest bar of its kind! Roll on  a lifestyle where we can afford to visit places like this around the world!!
32. 32.   You know you have been in Asia for too long when a beer for $1 and cocktails for $2 make you think twice about visiting that bar!!! $0.50 beers are going to be hard to beat!
33. 33.   At one of the bus stops we went to buy an icelolly/ice cream and the lady asked James would he like a family tub because ‘he vewwy big’ HAHA!! They are so impressed with how big he is – James takes this to mean muscley and thinks it’s brilliant!!
34. 34.   27kg will not slip through as 20kg on most low cost airlines!!! Oops!
35. 35.   In Siam Reap they take the piss out of themselves by having t-shirts which say ‘No tuk tuk, not today not tomorrow!’ – hilarious as every time you go past a driver he  says ‘You like tuk tuk Sir Madam...No thanks.....Ok how about tomorrow I collect you take you to temples....No thanks...aww yes Sir Madam good price for you, special price!’  Its STILL a NO!
36. 36.   I miss playing hockey!
37. 37.   The novelty of living out of a bag is wearing off – 1 month down haha!!
38. 38.   Strange the things you miss eating – we are looking for to cereal, milk and potatoes in NZ haha!!
39. 39.   Travelling with your fiancé and best bud is definitely the way to do things, loving it!!
40. 40.   Career breaks are the way forward – I highly recommend some travelling for everyone, its tough missing people but the experiences and memories which will last a life time make it all worthwhile and so far we have had so much fun and we are only ¼ of the way through!!

Thanks for listening/reading people and I hope that throughout our time in NZ I will be able to continue to update the blog and keep you all posted with our news.  I really appreciate all the emails and messages from people – its great hearing the news from home – you know I don’t like to be out of the loop hehe!!

I hope that September treats everyone well and that the weather back home is not too awful, hockey girls lets kick off the season to a good start J

Lots and lots of love from a happy adventurer!! 

Siam Reap and Bangkok

Another 6 hour bus journey later we arrived in Siam Reap and we loved it.  The town is all focused around a couple of main streets called Pub Street and the Alley which are filled with bars and restaurants and fish massage places!! It has a fantastic atmosphere in the evening and it allows great competition in prices as the bars are on top of each other – we regularly visited the 0.50c beer and 1.50 cocktails – YUM!!

We bumped into friends from Halong Bay and spent a couple of evenings having dinner and drinks with them which was good fun.  We revisited our uni days from when we were in Thailand and had a few ‘buckets’ which was good fun!

James and Dan with their free Ankor What? Tshirts

Me and Urshula enjoying our buckets!

We were total keen beans and got up at 4.45am to be at Ankor Watt for sunrise.  A fantastic experience and a lovely atmosphere around the place but unfortunately due to it being rainy season we didn’t get a great sun.  Even still it was nice to see the temples early in the morning as it was less busy and less hot.  The architecture and sculpture work inside the walls is unbelievable.  We visited the top turret of the temple which now has artificial steps to get up to it because in 2007 a Korean tourist died coming down the original stone steps – there is no chance of Health and Safety going mad in Asia its basically every man for himself!!  We got some lovely pictures and enjoyed hearing the origin and history of the temples.

Ankor Wat at sunrise

Yay for us at AW!!

More Ankor Wat pics!

The stones to the stone turret - James not enjoying coming down!

Tree growing sideways!

Trees growing through the temple (where tomb raider was!)

Close up example of the trees over the temples

Our tuk-tuk driver (who we had for the day) took us around the other temples, Watt-Thom, Bayonne and finally the temples where Tomb Raider was filmed.  It was really impressive, I haven’t seen the film but the temple itself has so many massive trees growing over and through the temple, it really is class to look at and this is its key feature.  The large roots growing through holes in the temple walls etc  were really different and showed how old both the temples and the trees are. (See pics above!!)

The rest of our couple of days was spent chilling out and wandering through the town.  One evening we watched the Liverpool match on the big screen on pub street which was great fun and a nice atmosphere.  The same night we sampled snake...I do not recommend it haha! James enjoyed it but I found it very chewy!  Basically just did it to say I’ve done it haha!

James decided to be brave and have a fish massage...with Piranhas...not quite the Piranhas that we would visualise but they were still pretty massive and went mad around James feet.  It was absolutely hilarious he laughed the whole time as it was so tickly, the massage attendants thought it was the funniest thing ever...’you scared man haha’. 

Working up the courage to put his feet in!

Laughing his head off!!

A LOT of fish!!! 

We spent a fabulous afternoon having high tea in Raffles, a nice treat for our last day in Cambodia.  £8 for a typical English high tea with finger sandwiches, scones, traybakes and unlimited proper tea (amazing!!) and coffee in stunning surroundings.  We loved it!  Such a nice afternoon out.

High tea at Raffles

Me enjoying a proper cup of tea!

James enjoying his coffee and buns!

On Monday we had an early start to catch the bus back to Phnom Pehn in time for our flight to Bangkok.  We are getting used to these 6 hour buses.  We eventually arrived in Bangkok about 7pm and got across to our hotel.  Back in May time we had found a special offer online for the Hangover2 Hotel called the LeBua State Tower....it was a fantastic offer for an amazing hotel and we feel like we have landed in hotel paradise for a complete bargain!!! Love a good deal haha!! We are staying in a suite overlooking Bangkok city skyline – stunning views.  Our suite has a living area, kitchen and huge bedroom part – it’s actually unreal – this is definitely the life!!! We almost feel like thieves being here for so cheap and they have given us a late checkout today before our international flight so we can enjoy it for longer.  We had a drink in the Skybar...where the Hangover scene was filmed, the 64^th floor on the top of the building with 360 degree views of the city from the highest bar in Bangkok...one of the best experiences of our trip so far.  It was so nice to get all dressed up and have such a special treat for our last evening in Asia and definitely something we will talk about for years to come.  It was simply breathtaking!

Our living room!

The bedroom with view over the balcony!

Our balcony and the view!

J on our balcony!

Me posing on our balcony

View from the sky bar! Unreal - 64th floor!

J on the sky bar!

2 of us enjoying our cocktails in the skybar!

My attempt at an artistic photo, our cocktails at the skybar!

Fantastic evening and view!

View from our balcony in daylight!

So now we move onto the next part of our adventure.  It’s hard to believe that we have been away for a month now...in some ways it has totally flown but in other ways it feels like we were in Asia for so long but we are definitely pleased with how much we have achieved in a short space of time!! I am so excited for NZ and all the fun and adventures it will bring as well as the no doubt fantastic atmosphere around the rugby world cup.  This week we will be skiing in Queenstown which I can not wait for.  So I will write again soon from the land down under...bring on the Kiwis!!

Love and miss you all!

xxxx

Tuk Tuks are back!!

Our entrance into Cambodia at the border crossing was a much less stressful  experience than lonely planet and people we met had lead us to believe – maybe we were just lucky.  The only strange thing was they held a scanner type thing to our heads with a buzzy noise – we had NO idea what they were doing – James joked that maybe we had been barcoded....a joke that could easily have been a reality lol!! Thankfully we later found out that they were taking your head temperature as no sickness will be allowed in!! Strange but we survived.

We got off the bus and were swarmed with tuk tuk drivers with varying degrees of English and demands – so we picked ‘Number 8’ and it all turned out very well.  He became our tuk tuk driver for the 2.5 days we were here, he spoke very good English, gave us what seemed to be a reasonable deal and was very keen to keep us happy, shaking our hands at every available opportunity and smiling the whole time!!  We met some people who hadn’t been so fortunate so we were pleased with our luck! See pictures of ‘number8’ and us in his tuk tuk below!!

Driver in the rain!

Tuk Tuk passengers!

The first day sight seeing was a reasonably depressing and humbling day and not something I am going to elaborate on too much. We visited the killing fields and tuol sleng museum.  This was a secondary school which was turned into a prison during the Pol Pot regime.  The stories, pictures and evidence of the torture and killing which went on at both locations was horrific and very sad.  It is certainly a large part of the history of this country so it was important to see it and understand it but it was an eerie and shocking experience.  I have included a few pictures that give a rough impression, it didn’t feel right to be taking pictures of any of the graphic stuff and really it wasn’t something I wanted to have photographic memories of.

A selection of mass graves

The size of a cell in S21

Tuol Sleng Prison

The second day we visited the Royal Palace and the National Museum.  The first was gorgeous and lots of nice pictures, the second well...that was 2 hours of my life I am never going to get back – I blame James!! I am not a museum girl at the best of times but I have been quite good here trying to learn and understand the history of the country in which we are visiting, and the ones we have been to so far have been interesting and a learning experience.  This one – not so much!!!! Its the type of museum that isn’t telling a story its just filled with old stuff that has been found and preserved and put in glass cabinets haha!! James said I was like a child.  Seriously though there was so many pieces of stone, rock, wood, metal, carvings, sculptures etc etc etc all in glass cabinets with little labels.  Boring!! Then there was a whole section dedicated to lifesize sculptures of budda and other such gods, some with 8 arms, animal heads on human bodies, female gods etc etc!! Really they all looked kinda the same haha!!! When we eventually left (once james made sure he read EVERY single little sign and label) we went outside and our driver was sound asleep in the back of the tuk tuk – mega jealous I didn’t just stay there hahah!!!

Royal Palace

James at the edge of the Tonle Sap which leads to the Mekong Delta

My friend the lion!!

Sleeping tuk tuk driver - v jealous!! 

We had some lovely meals in PP, it has a lovely Riverfront strip with lots of restaurants and bars so we headed there each night.  The first night we ate in the Friends restaurant which is a charity type thing similar to Jamie Oliver style again.  The food was lovely and the strawberry daiquiri was so good!! It was slightly more expensive than other restaurants but when it was going to a good cause we didn’t mind!

The second night the tuk tuk driver recommended a Khymer restaurant so we checked out some reviews online and decided to give it a try.  Apart from unfortunately placing our order behind 25/30 Leonora style ‘Intrepid’ travellers meaning that the food was very slow it was very tasty and nice to eat somewhere serving local cuisine again.  I tried the Kymer curry and James had a local speciality called Lok Lak.

On the final night mum and dad and lonely planet recommended the FCC restaurant (Foreign Correspondance Cambodia) so we went there. YUM!! Definately one of our best meals in Asia so good, we both went for the tasting option which gave you three tapas style dishes for a set fee, although it turned out they were not tapas size so we were well filled hehe!! I had calamari, crab cakes and king prawns, J had crab cakes, lamb koftas and tuna sashimi.  We both loved it so it was a great success and a lovely final evening in Phnom Phen.

Yumm daquiri!

We stayed in a really cool funky hotel called Le Biz, everything was uber modern and we really enjoyed it – a nice place to chill out after a warm day sight seeing before heading out for tea etc, and a yummy breakfast which was an added bonus!!

Next stop Siam Reap and Ankor Watt – very much looking forward to this.

4 nights left in Asia...how time flies!!

Another blog in 2/3 days to update on Siam Reap....

Until then J

xx

This was walking down the street on our last day!! 

Mui Ne

 So we left Siagon and spent 4.5 hours on a bus heading to Mui Ne.  We had chosen to stay at a nice beach side resort so were very excited for some more relaxation and doing very little.

The place was lovely and the first evening we were invited to a wine and cheese welcome with the manager – an American guy named Steve.  Apart from the fact that the wine tasted like syrup it was a nice evening and he gave us a nice introduction to the village etc.

Pool view leading down to the beach

The red sand dunes!

The beach

Check him out!!! 

Posing!!

Mui Ne was much quieter than we expected with very few restaurants and definitely no night life.

We enjoyed the quietness and made the most of it, lying by the pool all morning until the daily heavy thunder and lightening rain storm at 3.30pm ish for a couple of hours.  The breakfast at this resort was also lovely – a fresh omelette made to order was a very welcome start to the day.

One evening we went to a Mexican restaurant recommended by the owner and we really enjoyed it – I was very pleased to have some fajitas as I thought I had waved goodbye to those until NZ.

The hotel put on a buffet bbq on the Saturday night – it was fantastic.  All fresh raw fish and meat on display and you select what you want and they bbq it for you, accompanied by a very extensive salad, rice etc buffet.  A very enjoyable evening and the start of our pool championship.  It was 1.0 to me very quickly haha!!

Seabass!

Crabs and oysters!

Shrimps, steak, chicken etc!! all yum!

The food being bbq'd!

My selection - YUM!! 

We braved a very early start 1 morning (6.30am) to go on a free walking tour run by our hotel.  Mui Ne is a fishing village so the walk took us down to the beach where the boats were being docked and the fish brought in to be sold to people for their market stall/restaurants etc. The volume of shrimps and crabs of all sorts was unbelievable – see the pics below.

Buffalo pulling the fish out of the water!

A collection of shrimps!! 

Early morning walkers at the market!

6.30am fish market barely a free space on the beach!

Buffalo!

Our resort was surrounded by red sand dunes which was a bit of a novelty and tourist attraction but due to the heat during the day and the rain during the early evening before dark, we didn’t manage to venture to the top but it was nice to look at.

We had a nice relaxing few days then headed back to Siagon 4 days later...probably our worst experience so far.  The ‘coach’ we had paid for and were supposed to be getting turned out to be a small mini bus (about the size of a school mini bus) so it was very squashed and worst of all the air conditioning was broken.  4.5hours with no air conditioning in 35 degree heat outside is really not fun.  The driver told us to open the window (Which we did) but this resulted in hot musty humid air...which was better than no air at all.  Arriving in Siagon very weary and not very happy we looked for the first pub and James tucked into a large Tiger and me a large Strawberry smoothy – strange the things you want after sweating half your body weight for 4.5 hours lol!!

We had our final afternoon in Siagon mostly spent wondering about taking pictures, I bought a new book and then dinner.

We were up this morning at 6.30am for the 6 hour bus to Cambodia...looking forward to seeing Phnom Phen and Siam Reap, Ankor Watt etc.

1 week today left in Asia (Monday)............

xx

One of the daily storms coming in!!! 

Our gecko/lizard friend who was MASSIVE and followed us around the pool!!