A Blast of Wind in your Ear

Well…i’ve done it again, I keep planning to get updates out but that just hasn’t happened…just too many things going on..I’m way behind so I’ll try and get up to date as soon as possible…
After the nightmares of travel to Kuala Lumpur, I needed something relaxing…In a previous drunken haze in Vietnam, Dan and I both agreed that we needed to do a detox to cleanse ourselves of the excesses of Vietnam…as that was two months previous I had more or less forgotten about it. Then when Dan met up with us again in Koh Phi Phi, he had remembered and wanted to get it all sorted out…I was all up for the detox but didn’t want to know what it entailed…better off getting the surprise when I got there rather than over-thinking it and possibly chickening out..

As I said in the last mail, Dan collected me from the ferry and after a white knuckle ride to the resort we were ready to start. We met the course director, a greek guy called Vangellis who talked us through what was going to be our life for the next 7 and a half days…he explained what our day would be and what the program involved and gave us our daily schedule…the worst of which being 2 colemas per day (one morning and one in the evening) that were to be performed by yourself… he provided us with a tube the size of a drinking straw and a little tub of lube..then he made us watch someone having a colema on video…it was a disturbing experience and made me want to run there and then.. even being told that we were not allowed any food from when the program started the following morning for 7 and a half days… with our straws in hand and lube in pocket we ran back to our room, rented a pair of scooters and drove like lunatics til we found a decent restaurant and we got some food…it must have been the slowest I have ever eaten in my life. Every last bite was savoured…i guess it was the last meal for 7 and a half days so it had to be enjoyed..

The day began at 7.30 with a herbal shake (Psyllium and Bentonate) which was disgusting…I just tasted like slimey goo and was god-awful to drink, the only way was down in one which then had to be followed by a pint of water. At 9am it was down for herbal pills, 6 of them to be taken, they were even worse as they would repeat on you all day long…and you had to take them 4 times a day….then at 9.45am it was time for the first colema, we were shown how to massage your gut to keep the flow going and then told what to do…I won’t go into details but it was not fun…the mixture in the 5 gallon bucket was basically coffee and water…still 2 months on and I cannot stand the smell of coffee…at 12 then it was more pills washed down with carrot juice…i never had carrot juice before but it was lovely.. followed by a massage at 12.15…this was definitely the best part of the day..the carrot juice (carrot and pineapple after 3rd day) and the massage made it the most enjoyable parts of the course…out from that then for another herbal shake.., followed by soup at 6pm…well they called it soup but it was basically cabbage water and badly needed cayenne pepper and lime juice to make it palatable.. this was then followed by the second colema…finally last shake at 7.30pm and final pills at 9pm with a special pill containing special bacteria that apparently would help you have pleasant dreams (didn’t work for me)

So how did it feel, well it wasn’t so bad…at no stage in the 7 days did I ever feel hungry…the course was ran very well by 2 burmese brothers (Tzo and Noah), I was shocked to find out from Tzo that they were paid the equivalent of £60 each per month…most of which was sent home to their parents…you couldn’t ask for 2 nicer lads, they were really bubbly and full of laughs all the time…the first day was ok..the second day you just felt tired all the time…the third day you felt completely knackered with zero energy, standing up would leave you dizzy and light-headed..Apparently this is because this is the day that your systems toxins level is at its highest…but then the change happened on the fourth day..all of a sudden you wake up and you have more energy, you feel so much better… by the end of it you feel really good, very clear headed and full of energy…when you finally start eating again you can only start with watermelon and then you have to stick to steamed veg and fruit for another 4 days…after this you can introduce meat…it sounds tough…but it actually it isn’t at all…after 7 and a half days without food you cannot eat that much anyways…

During the days you are kept so busy you don’t think about food that much.. Dan and I would go for burns on the scooters…the roads on Koh Pha Ngan are pretty good…its a hairy ride though from where we were in Thong Sala to Haad Rin where the full moon party was on…the hills are crazy steep…cars and trucks can only go up one at a time..on the day of the full moon party (4th day in) John arrived on the island..i collected him and drove him to Haad Rin to meet the rest of the crew…it was an interesting ride…having the extra weight on the back was killing the scooter ability to make the hills…we got there in one piece though but unfortunately I had a puncture..pain in the ass…it was good enough to make it all the way back and it cost me the princely sum of 120 baht (£2.50) to get it fixed….then after all our commitments were done for the course, Dan and I headed down to meet John and the crew…and I had to bring John back to the night ferry for the long and horrible journey back to the auld sod.. for those that don’t know of it, Haad Rin is famous for its full moon parties…the whole town is built around the full moon parties and it’s here they are at their most insane..the party was wild but after about an hour or so I had enough with the smell of food driving me mental…i just wanted one chicken skewer.. thankfully it was time to hit the road..and a night time scooter ride back to the night ferry..

It was here that John and I went our separate ways for the last time.. it was 5 and a half months of a rollercoaster ride.. and apart from one incident in Moscow we didn’t have any hard words (twas after an overnight train from St Petersburg where we, rather than sleep, went boozing in the restaurant car for the entire journey (8 hours) and arrived in Moscow during morning rush hour, inebriated and knackered and completely lost).. we had a blast through the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.. we were lucky in the fact that we were able to agree on most things relatively easily and unlike a lot of friends that go travelling, it probably made our friendship stronger..i couldn’t have asked for a better travel buddy…well maybe Duibhir…but that would completely have been for comic effect (no offence Taoiseach), trying to find him places to eat in China would have been hilarious  , everything there comes with sauce of some kind!!! It was sad to say goodbye..

Anyways at the end of the detox, I felt great..the last thing that they get you to do before you leave is a weigh-in.. over the 7 and a half days I lost 5.4 kilos… almost a stone…not bad…would I do it again…ah..no.. no matter how good I felt at the end, I just love food way way way too much.. to go 7 and a half days without was way too long…some people there were doing 11 days of a detox..not for me..

From here now its onto Koh Tao…my plan was to spend 6 weeks or so there learning Muay Thai (thai kick boxing)..more on that next time..

Fyi..i am way behind on emails…the above all happened at the start of march…I am currently in New Zealand…I will try and get another update out this week..

Talk soon
hughie

Where to begin…its been so long since I have done an update I don’t know where to start..after Bangkok, it came time to do some island hopping…the first place we all decided to visit was Koh Phi Phi…its apparently one of the most beautiful islands and one that was most devastated by the Tsunami…not that you would know it when you got there..we took a train from BKK to Surit Thani…possibly the worst trip so far…what a nightmare…the train was comfortable and you had your own private bunk but when I decided to go to bed and closed up the curtain, it appears that a little bugger of a mosquito got trapped inside my boudoir. It took 10 minutes before I realised what a pissed off little bugger he was when he had taken about 20 bites out of me…I got munched…the train staff after much forced encouragement changed the sheets (in case of bed bugs)…luckily Jess had industrial strength anti histamines and magic sleeping pills which helped me get to sleep afterwards..

After arriving on Phi Phi, I realised fairly quickly it was not the place for me…it’s no longer an island paradise but a place filled more bars that you could shake a stick at…the island is now so commercialised that it has ruined which I am sure used to be an idyllic paradise..the one thing that really hit everybody was when going to the beach, the heat of the water was unbelievable, hot enough to have a bath in 

At this stage it was time to move on, as John, Jonny and I came in by land we only had a 15 day visa so we needed to go to Phuket to try and get our visas extended. As the lads were leaving Thailand before myself and I needed longer I had to make the trip to Kuala Lumpur to try and get a proper visa..the beginnings of a nightmare trip not helped by the fact that our comrades in arms for the previous 6 weeks (the Jamies, Celine and Jess) were being going elsewhere and we wouldn’t meet again…I flew there and straight to the embassy..it was a Friday and it turned out the lazy buggers wouldn’t accept a visa application after 11.30…and they only opened at 9..i arrived at 12.15…hell, damn, crap…cue having to stay in KL for the weekend to try and get a visa on the Monday morning…one thing I have to say for KL…the local food was bloody crap…of everywhere else in Asia I have been it was by far and away the worst..horrible…I ended up in McDonalds…and I hate McDonalds…that’ll tell you how bad it was… also as it was in the middle of the 6 nations I had the awkward task of finding a pub which was showing the game..finally found a bar called Finnegan’s Irish bar….it was a lifesaver…..

I was staying in an area of Chinatown..the cheapest part of KL…basically it’s a street packed..and I mean packed with stalls…it’s a shopping street..4 stalls deep by about a bazillion stalls long..and they are really persistent..almost up there with the Chinese in the silk markets…it was a nightmare trying to find the hotel there as the stalls were covered and blocked out all signs and encroached onto the pavement outside the hotels..you could nearly never find the damn place where you were no matter where you were dropped off… the other major league culture shock after being in south east asia was how expensive everything was compared to everywhere else…nothing was cheap..taxis expensive, food expensive and hotels bloody expensive…just what I needed…a couple of nights in an expensive dump…and the bloody rain…it rained all the time…and not like the weedy rain that we get at home…proper bucketing it down…the first rain I had seen in god knows how many months…the first night it was a novelty..the second night it got to be a pain..you couldn’t go anywhere…and all I had with me was shorts and t-shirts and flip-flops…I hadn’t banked on the damn embassy closing applications so early and only brought enough for one night…adding to my nightmare… at the same time some things in KL are very impressive..the Petronas Towers are massive..people may remember them from the movie Entrapment (I think)…but you can only go up to the 42nd floor…of 100 odd…another place was the tv/radio tower…but it put me off when I heard that at the very top they have a bloody McDonalds…is nowhere sacred anymore..I thought that the Coca-Cola sponsored benches in Vietnam beside the temple were bad but a McDonalds at the top of a really impressive building was a joke..

Anyways I went back to the embassy on Monday morning early…applied for the visa and got told it would take 3 days…that was the final straw…i took my application back and took a taxi straight to the airport…by flying back I would get a 1 month visa automatically….that would do…screw it…the journey back from Phuket was then a pain in the ass…the travel agent sold me a one day trip back to Koh Tao where John and Jonny were, who had my backpack with all my stuff…then I get the ferry and get to Koh Pha Ngan by ferry…I got told then that there was no more ferries to Koh Tao until the next day…that travel agent will get his ass kicked if I ever go back to Phuket again…on top of that John had booked me a room on Koh Tao…again a bloody nightmare, more money down the drain…anyways I stayed on Pha Ngan for the night and got the first ferry in the morning…finally to Koh Tao and clean clothes…unfortunately it was for only one night…I had to get back to Koh Pha Ngan to meet up with Dan for a weeks detox….yeah you read right…a weeks detox…I agreed with Dan back in Vietnam in a drunken stupor I might add, to do a weeks detox once we reached Thailand…and the deal included a no back out clause..so again it was another ferry back to Koh Pha Ngan where Dan met me off of the ferry, then it was a scary and I mean scary ride on the back of Dans moped with a 20 kilo backpack on my back to the little resort where the detox was happening….more about the detox next time…

Hope all is well
hughie

Next time someone asks me where should they go if they just want to have fun in a surreal environment…there is only one answer I can possibly give and that is Laos..what a place…Laos was an ex-french colony (or so I believe) caters for everything a fun seeker would be looking for…Luang Prabang is like a picture postcard of what you would expect a French colony to look like…the architecture was completely unexpected…I wouldn’t know the first place to begin as to how to describe it…it was just a pretty village more than anything but everything there was directed towards tourism.. stalls sold baguettes with whatever you wanted in them…you could play Petanqué (a French game of bowls) in some bars…a bar called Utopia with gazebos on the banks of the river with spectacular views that definitely merited the name Utopia for the bar..strangely though everything bar the bowling alley closed down at 11PM…its commonplace in the whole country apparently…

The two Jamies and myself spent a day mountain biking (about 50KM or so) around Luang Prabang…going to and swimming in waterfalls, more elephant riding…these elephants were more working beasts and not as playful as the ones in Chiang Mai…but overall better, they went into the river and one even trumpeted..with Jaime on its neck..she reckoned the whole beast shook for a few seconds before it blasted out a call…we saw and swam in waterfalls…and cycled roads that tractors would struggle on…we went to a blacksmith village where they just made machetes…

Everyone we have met that has been there told us to go to Vang Vieng in Laos to go tubing…that it was insane fun…so that was our next stopping point…the journey there was the most harrowing of the trip..we got a minibus to take us there…the roads winding constantly..it took many hours before we got a stretch of 100 metres or more without a bend…the views were amazing…high mountains on all sides…allied to that cattle seem to own the roads walking across in front of vehicles without a care in the world..

whats the best way to describe Vang Vieng…I can think of many words…nuts, insane, surreal, painful, enjoyable, addictive etc..etc..etc.. our first day we decided that rather than rent tubes (tractor tyre inner tubes) that we would swim along the river…its basically a stretch of river that’s about 7-800 metres in length…there are 5 bars on different sides of the river…the idea is to tube/swim between bars…this is probably the only country in the world where you can go boozing and then swim in the river…but that’s not the insane part…NOT EVEN CLOSE…they have erected ziplines over the river beside each bar which drop you from varying degrees of height into the river…the worst one has a spring half way down it which flips you upside down into the river at an alarming speed…I have uploaded a video of me doing it to YouTube so you can have a laugh at me being battered..the link is at the bottom…it hurt like hell…I wrenched my shoulder and I think I got whiplash…but if I was told that was going to happen before doing it, would I still have done it???…hell yeah I would..it was crazy…my mistake was closing my eyes…many people before and after me would let go prior to hitting the spring and would get booed..so rather than suffer that fate I closed my eyes…therefore I didn’t relax as the pulley hit the spring and was flipped unmercifully into the water…it was the only one of the ziplines that I attempted..the others were from way too crazy a height…I just didn’t have the cojonés for it…and mother before you go bananas…they have people there watching every flip to make sure that nothing goes wrong..you just end up bruised and battered with hopefully a video to remember it by…the Jamies did a tandem which was even more impressive…Dan and Jonny also did it with similar hilarious results…seeing two people flipped simultaneously is hilarious…the biggest cheer of the day was for a guy that I would guess was at least in his late 50s who got flipped…what a lunatic..

About the village…well…its completely setup for tubing…the whole towns industry is built around it…there are friends, Simpsons and family guy bars that show those TV shows on repeat all day long…bars are setup in the town along the river for post-tubing enjoyment…every couple of metres there are baguette stands to feed you…tons of internet cafes for keeping in contact (the internet speeds are rubbish though and useless for phone calls)…we managed to see the Ireland vs Italy game here as well…it was also the first time in ages that we managed to meet Irish people…every other person was from home…we went a second day tubing…with a day off in-between…to try and get rid of the aches and pains…it was a struggle leaving the place but the islands off Thailand are the next destination for a reunion with all of the crew we met in Vietnam and Cambodia…its been a magical experience…we keep running into people that we met in previous countries…even people that we only met in passing..

The next stop was the capital, Vientiane. There are many ways to get there but we took the more strenuous one of kayaking down the river..we got driven 40K down the road (the most crazy journey ever as our driver thought that passing out 3 trucks on every bend was a good idea) and then entered the river…we kayaked for a couple of hours, had lunch on the bank of the river where our guides built a mini barbeque out of wood and cooked us the most delicious meal ever, skewers of chicken and veg…with the obligatory baguette and rice…its one thing that has been really surprising…every trip we have done we have been fed like kings by our guides…and most of them just use local skills to build a fire and bbq…John and I were in one boat and got hammered on the one decent rapid on the river…still it was great fun and a way nicer way to make the journey that being stuck on a bus for 4 hours winding through the local roads..

As I am writing this we are currently in Vientiane, the capital of Laos..the guys are gone to look at temples…I’m completely templed out and so far behind on emails and stuff I stayed behind…the weather here is tormenting as well…its roasting…no..correction…its beyond roasting..the guy here in the hotel is complaining about the heat…it’s a dry heavy heat..you have a shower…and within 5 minutes you need another…the air-conditioning in the rooms are unable to keep the rooms at a bearable temperature…to be out in that for the day was not something I wanted to do so am here writing an update…

We get the bus this evening to Bangkok…a delightful journey of about 12-13 hours…and then…the islands…I cannot wait…

I am going to try now and get more photos up…fingers crossed…otherwise it will be the islands before I get them all up…and I can’t believe it that I am finally up to date…Laos is a magic place…next time you are considering somewhere to go…put it at the top of the list…you will not regret it..

Me getting flipped!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9gln8mPf4

Talk to you soon
Hughie
www.hughie.eu

As the bus started reaching the outskirts of Bangkok, it because obvious to all of us that Bangkok was a different ball-game to the rest of the places we had been to so far…its an international hub…it’s a relatively wealthy city and for me was just a stepping stone to our next destination…we spent maybe 2 days there…it was good for one reason for me..it reunited me with my favourite thai dish; Phad Thai…it just doesn’t taste the same unless its served from a stall on the side of the road…

the plan now was to try and organise some trekking up in Chiang Mai with Elephant riding, trekking and bamboo rafting top of the agenda…we found a wee place just off the infamous Khoa San road…everything was organised…we managed to get the bus for free as well…its probably Johns favourite journey so far…being a long fellow he needs leg room…he got the front seat of the bus where even the tallest would have leg room…at this stage we also got another two additions to the crazy gang…Celine (a French girl we met at the border that worked in Dublin for three years and could out swear any Irish man) and Steve (a Coventry lad met on the bus to Chiang Mai that was trekking as well)..the travelling contingent was now a respectable 7 people which meant that in a trekking group of 10-11 we would have the majority rule, and allied to that we would be able to dictate when we wanted to go trekking…

we arrived in Chiang Mai and took a down day…12 hours on a bus is knackering…we were planning to go trekking the following day but then a valid point was made that the 6 nations was starting the next day…so as 5 out of the 7 were interested in watching the rugby we changed our plans by two days…the girls went back to confirm with the trekking company that we were going to be changing the date of trekking…next thing we know..they didn’t come back but John did telling us that the two girls (Celine and Jaime) were now recruited to take part in the Chiang Mai international flower beauty pageant and had been spirited away to learn what they needed to do and to get ready…all previous plans for the evening were shelved and getting to the pageant was now top priority…each girl had to come out and tell about themselves and display a talent…unfortunately I had a hand in both the girls talents with Celine singing Molly Malone and Jaime singing “Apple Bottomed Jeans” (Low by Flo-Rida featuring T-Pain – don’t ask…long story)…they were amazing…most of the other girls never bothered display any talent and the performances by the two girls received the biggest applause…Jaime even had her own thai support group who decided they wanted her to win…unfortunately the girls didn’t make the top three…it was discovered afterwards that apparently the judges were looking for the pure and demure girls and those who carried themselves like boring old ladies…the girls were ruled out then…but one girl made it to the top three that quickly became public enemy one (for us anyways)…she spoke thai and didn’t have the same spirit of fun the other girls had..winning was only in her mind…she was beaten into second place by a Swedish girl…we were delighted as the Swedish girl was great fun…

The next night we went to the famous night market…it was another thing that has changed for the worst…it was like a funeral procession there were so many people there…it was extremely difficult to get through the crowds to see what was available..only an hour or so was spent there due to this frustration… but now onto Monday and trekking..

Our trekking company spent ages trying to convince us that the trek that were had booked was crap and wanted us to change and go to Pai…a group decision was made to stick with the program and that they were only trying to get more money out of us…definitely the best decision that has ever been made on the trip as the 3 day trek could not have been any better…our guide Si-Com was an absolute hero…he amazed us every second of the day and did everything he could to make sure we had a phenomenal time…we got 4 more people added to the group…and again as if by pure luck we got 4 great people…3 more Canadians girls and a half-Australian/Canadian lad…we went Elephant riding…they are officially my favourite animal…huge and gentle..all they want to do is eat…a bag of bananas lasts no time…on then trekking to our first village..Si-com put us in his awe very quickly at our first rest stop…he put a 7up tin on top of a branch about 70-80 feet away and gave us catapults to try and hit it…not a chance…then as we gave up he walked away from it..then turned and smacked that can up in the air from about 100 feet away first time…he then proceeded to show that it was no fluke and did it many other times…he even threw the can in the air and hit it repeatedly with the catapult without effort…John in an effort to test him put the can about 150 feet away in the middle of a pile of brush…after a couple of misses he smacked that can around the place…it was amazing to see the accuracy he had..he then took a bamboo branch and hitting it off his machete showed even scarier accuracy…what a legend..and that was only the start…

Onto the village then on a night of a full moon, a couple of us played football barefoot with the local kids and got the shins kicked off of us…it was worse than being caught with a hob-nailed boot….well almost …then all the local kids came around to sing us songs around a campfire…what a magic night…Si-com came out with a guitar that he could barely play…but he did his best to entertain us…he came out at one stage dressed and made up like Bob Marley..hilarious……the food he cooked was phenomenal as well…

The next day Si-com completely wowed us…whilst walking he went off and carved out of wood, a walking stick…one with a proper handle..it was magic..further down the trail he cleared an area of the ground and dug a small hole…all of us didn’t know what he was at but waited to see anyways…next he carved a small ball and made us all feel sheepish when it turned out that the “walking stick” was actually a golf club….he was making us something to play with while he got down to making some other stuff out of bamboo….he ended up carving us each a pair of chop sticks and a knife…for our dinner that night..he showed us how a certain leaf when pressed onto of a fist and hit with an open hand would make a loud popping noise…he showed us a tree that when you cracked the branch the sap on it could be blown into bubbles through the branch…he shows us the leaf from which tiger balm was made and other leaves from which tea was made…the guy was a phenomenon… he made the trip unforgettable…the last night was spent at his in-laws house..he cooked us up a feast and entertained us for the night…his son Deetha played around with us for hours as well…he especially enjoyed playing with Steve who was sad saying good bye the following day..

The last day was a trek in the morning with bamboo rafting in the evening…we had to say goodbye after the hike to Si-com which was a sad affair…the man gave each and every one of the 11 of us magical memories never to be forgotten…the bamboo rafting gave me bruises never to be forgotten…it was crazy fun…I must have ended up in the water a dozen times…the last one succeeding in busting the raft, it got hit with such force…when you have three teams of rafts all trying to out-pirate the other, you are going to have casualties…

Finally back to Chiang Mai and it turned out that our decision to stick rather than change the trek was the right one..the people did not enjoy their trek as it was all uphill and they had to trek through the hottest part of the day and spent most of the time trekking…added to that they had a disjointed group and didn’t have half the fun that we did…

Next on the agenda is Luang Prabang in Laos…the end goal of our powering through Cambodia was now going to be realised…we managed to get a cheap flight and were on our way..

Talk soon
Hughie
www.hughie.eu

Yet again another bus was required to get from one place to another, such a change from Russia and China where we used trains to get everywhere…buses while reasonable forms of transport are completely horrible ways to travel in hot countries. The heat is god awful, the air-conditioning, if it works, is always too cold and cannot be regulated. This journey was no different.. travelling the whole day during the heat also didn’t make things easy..but we were heading to Siem Reap, a place which is definitely way more upbeat than the last couple of places we have been. I think the landmine museum is probably the only place there that can bring you down…with this in mind everyone was in a buoyant mood…

Arrival in Siem Reap is approximately 5K outside the city itself…as Tim and myself were here 4 years previous I almost felt like a local…we got the tuk-tuk to bring us to the same guesthouse as Tim and I had stayed in previously and booked in…it had changed since I had been there before but was still 100 times better than anything we had stayed in for the past couple of months or so…things were looking up…a quick shower and out the door for food and the obligatory visit to the Angkor What! bar…You would not believe how much Siem Reap has changed in the last 4 years…it was a completely different place than when I was there previously there…there was one bar….now there were what felt like hundreds…the street where the Angkor Wat bar was is now called Bar Street…so you can guess what was on it…what was also previously a chilled out bar was now a crazy nightclub like madhouse..packed to the doors and beyond selling the obligatory buckets of whiskey & coke or gin and tonic or worst of all vodka and red bull…buying two buckets got you a free t-shirt…the entire place was in uniform…it was insane…typically we had a great night and were in flying form the following morning for our first day of templing…

We hired a tuk-tuk for the day for the princely sum of 12 dollars a day..it took a lot of bargaining…we eventually promised that if the guy treated us well and made sure we got to everything we wanted that we would look after him… Cambodia is one of those weird countries where they don’t use their own currency…everything is quoted in dollars and you pay in dollars…you might get some of your change in Riel but in the main its dollars and dollars only…the bank machines even dispense dollars…a three day ticket to the Angkor Wat and temples area cost 40 dollars…not the cheapest…they even take your photo so that you cannot give your ticket to someone else…as expected Angkor Wat was impressive as always…but again…4 years has changed the place…temples that you could previously climb to the top of were now deemed to be unsafe for tourists…it’s the first time in Asia that I have seen somewhere where health and safety is actually considered…China possibly being the worst…for me the most impressive part of the whole Angkor Wat region of temples is the Bayong…this is a place where all of the temple walls have enormous faces on them…blocked of limestone carved and fitted together to form the most impressive faces…one facing each direction, north, south, east and west…another temple that is a must see is the one where the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie was filmed…massive trees have grown up through the temples construction and the walls rely on the trees to keep the structure intact…however I do think that in a couple of years it will become off-limits..it’s already almost too dangerous.. the one thing that you have to get used to around Angkor Wat is the number of people trying to sell you trinkets of all kinds…one little kid was selling Buddha trinkets…when you would tell him that you didn’t want one he would suggest you buy two…

Back then in the evening to our hotel…our tuk-tuk driver failed our expectations and didn’t get himself a tip…we had asked to be brought to a decent cheap restaurant for lunch..he brought us to a place that while at the time appeared reasonable, when we arrived back to the same area a couple of hours later a cheaper menu appeared…scams everywhere you go…a visit to the night market was next on the list…John noticed an advertisement for a service called doctor fish and was duly interested…all of us went…it has to go down as one of the weirdest but in the end extremely enjoyable experiences of Siem Reap…in the end we went back three times!!!…basically, there is a massive circular bath filled with fish…you put your feet into the bath and the fish nibble at your feet…eating any dead skin they can find…when they start it is such an odd feeling that all you can do is cringe, curl up your toes and hope it stops…but after a while, once the initial strange sensations become familiar, it is possibly one of the most relaxing and actually enjoyable experiences…at the end of the session..(you pay three dollars for 15 minutes but they leave you there as long as you want as long as people are not waiting)…your feet feel as smooth as a babies bottom…its great after spending the previous month in sandals…I did however discover a drawback…the fish ate away the calluses that were preventing me from getting blisters…so it was back to sore feet for a couple of days after..still it should definitely be on your list of things to do in Siem Reap….again another night in the Angkor What! Bar…the second day of temples was bypassed…people were just not up for it…and with a three day ticket the final day was pinpointed as a big day…everyone at this stage was completely knackered so everyone took a personal day…just relax, kick back…most of it spent just wandering around Siem Reap….Jonny discovered the joys of this shuttle cock keepy-uppy game that you see everywhere in Cambodia so a couple were bought and hours whiled away in front of the hotel kicking it around…the locals have some serious skills with the thing….some of the lads did a Cambodian cooking course..learning how to cook Amok, Lok Lak and Spring Rolls..the kitchen isn’t my forte so I dodged that one…at the end of the day we all went to a restaurant called Dead Fish…its memorable because it’s of a mezzanine construction with floating mezzanines with just one table on them all over the place at different levels…food is delivered to the tables through a tray and pulley system…a local provided music that was just brilliant…he even did an more than acceptable version of U2s with or without you..

Last day of the temples was a bit of a bring you back down to earth…part of the last day was to include the Land Mine Museum…to explain it would take forever but basically it was setup by a Cambodian guy named Aki Ra (the guy doesn’t know his name but as he was in the army he took the name that the platoon he was with called him)…he was inducted into the Khmer Rouge at the age of 10 as a kid soldier..he was trained to lay land mines…he reckons he laid hundreds of thousands while with them…he and defected to the Vietnamese army and worked with them defusing mines..now through guilt I guess more than anything he dedicates all his time to defusing Land Mines all over Cambodia…official estimates are that there are still between 6-7 MILLION land mines in the jungles of Cambodia..Aki Ra estimates that he personally clears up to 50,000 land mines a year…the Land Mine Museum shows a DVD on entry of the effect of the land mines and is quite harrowing..the guy at least is paying his bit back to Cambodia by setting up school/home for kids that are victims of land mines and giving them something to live for..he gives his time freely to educate other people on how to defuse land mines and defuses them himself…he didn’t know what he was doing as a kid..but once he realised he make it his life’s mission to make amends…the rest of the temples were interesting but nothing can match Angkor Wat…

Now completely templed out we caught the early bus to Bangkok, a short trip only though this time as a quick spin up north has been planned for some trekking and then off to Laos for the serious fun of tubing..

Talk soon
Hughie
www.hughie.eu

After a couple of crazy days in Nha Trang, we moved on to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)..the plan now to try and include a wee bit of culture in our lives. The journey there was fine..for once we got a sleeper bus with decent sized sleeper bed and the exertions of the new year’s celebrations meant that sleep came a little easier…we arrived in Saigon at 5.30 in the morning and as we had decided not to bother booking anywhere to stay we were a little bit up the creek…anyways we wandered down a few streets until an old dear stuck out her head and asked if we needed somewhere to stay,…it was a wee guesthouse and was just what we needed. We also managed to pick up another pair of Canadians to add to the entourage, a pair of girls that were meant to get off at an earlier stop but slept through.. The 6 of us then got sorted and hit the hay… as you can imagine people were a wee bit lethargic after the journey…so rather than waste a day we decided to go to the war museum in the evening to begin our cultural experience..

It was horrible, I don’t claim to know much (if anything!!) about the Vietnam War but what I saw was some of the most disturbing scenes I have ever seen. Granted the Vietnamese are probably showing the absolute worst of the atrocities that the Americans committed and showing them in the worst light but it was beyond my comprehension what they did. They dropped napalm bombs but worse they used bio-warfare through a herbicide nicknamed agent orange which caused severe health issues for the Vietnamese. The amount of people born with deformities out begging on the streets is startling. It is no wonder then why they defended their country with such undying ferocity to ensure that the invading force was defeated. The war museum contained photos of some of the atrocities, people maimed and mutilated…the worst thing that it included was pictures drawn by kids…they drew pictures of them and their families with a big giant orange devil menacing down upon them…Dan lasted about 2-3 minutes and after 5 minutes after I was done..I couldn’t look at it any more…the American soldiers would rape the Vietnamese women and kill defenseless children in the most inhumane ways. One picture showed an American GI throwing a child up in the air and aiming to catch it on a bayonet on the way down…I know I said that the mood was going to slide when we reached Saigon but I didn’t realize it would be this bad…the worst part is that outside a lot of the implements of war were on show, a plethora of boys toys, planes, anti-tank guns and tanks…which obviously caught the eye of the boys…going inside and seeing the actual damage inflicted by those devices made me feel sick…I hope in 30 years time there will not be similar museums in Iraq or Afghanistan.

After that you can imagine that people wanted a pick me up. We met up again with Jess and two of her friends and went out that night…going crazy along the way..staying out till all hours of the morning. We had booked as well to go on the Cu Chi tunnels excursion the following morning leaving at 8am so it was horrible getting up for that. It has to be said though that it was amazing and well worth the experience. The Vietnamese had nothing bar some basic weaponry but the way they took the fight to the Americans and used the terrain and their ingenuity was incredible. The tunnels that they built were phenomenal examples of engineering. How they disguised them and used them to survive. Everyone was part of the army…one girl who received many awards was dubbed the “Hero American Killer” due to her exploits during the war…one of the many traps they invented was this contraption in the shape of a cross with nails on it. It was hung behind the door and when the American GIs were trying to break in to rape the Vietnamese women, it would drop…the result…no more children…once I get a chance to sort through photos I will put up photos of it…they had so many crazy traps that would maim the American GIs…before anyone thinks that I am all about the Vietnamese…well..they were no angels either and the Americans were definitely not as bad as made out..Some were…some were not….it’s fair enough I guess for the Vietnamese to portray the Americans as devils…it’s to be expected.

We got to crawl through some of their tunnels as well..they have been widened for the slightly more rotund people such as myself..that and the fact that the Vietnamese at the time were tiny..the tunnels had to be crawled through on their bellies more or less. Even though we could hunker down and go through them, it was not a pleasant experience even then…it was dark and disconcerting..they used to have a room every so often where they could store food, weapons, sleep etc.…they also had a shooting range where you could go fire some of the weapons used in the war…I passed on that one…

Whilst it may sound that I didn’t like Saigon, well, it’s tough to enjoy things like the war museum and the Cu Chi tunnels, the war museum in particular. The Cu Chi tunnels on the other hand were just an education in ingenuity. These people did not have any formal education yet through the knowledge of the local terrain and use of their simple tools they managed to repel the invading force and they did it without tanks..the way that they used guerilla tactics was ingenious and their organization was phenomenal.

A decision was made on our last night in Saigon that Laos has to be visited, so this means that we are going to have to burn a trail through Cambodia. Again another late night was had…which turned out not to be the best idea especially with a 6.50 start the following morning, an alarm call that was missed by myself and Jonny resulting in us nearly missing the bus to Cambodia….thankfully John, Jaime and Jamie managed to convince the bus to wait while John went to get us…sneaking into our room and nearly making us lose our lives with the roar he let…..

Next on the list is Phnom Penh, Cambodia…more from there..

Hughie
www.hughie.eu

p.s. I have just re-read over this and realize how miserable it sounds…but I defy anyone to be able to visit the likes of the war museum and come out of it unscathed…some of the Americans within the group said they felt embarrassed and ashamed by what they saw and how it was so different to the version that they have been taught…I have to say as well that I am delighted to have managed to get in with such a really good group of people…it makes such a difference when you have people around that can lift your mood…as this is the final Vietnam email, I just want to let people know that it is probably one of the best places I have ever been… The people are so funny, the children selling the books on the street have such a command of English at such a young age that they can banter with you on a level that’s scary…one girl in Nha Trang was the cheekiest monkey I have ever met…she had the lot of us in stitches with her sales pitches and smart-ass comments…its worth seeing as well just for what they can manage to pack onto a motorbike..the craziest we have seen would be an orange (mandarin) tree (a common site that is used as a new year’s tree, the highest one being about 10 feet high), a coffin and a picture frame…overall though an amazing place..and one I will definitely be going back to..

Arrival in Nha Trang was probably the best thing ever to happen to us..10 hours or so in a cramped space was horrible and being stuck so close to the lads made me feel claustrophobic…personal space is definitely one thing I have learned to appreciate since arriving in Asia..the Russian and Chinese don’t think twice about standing so close to you that you are physically touching them… Anyways we had decided to hit Nha Trang due to the New Year festival of Tét (pronounced tit so you can imagine that we had fun with that one), which meant that everywhere was closed and as its considered a time for families to be together, it can be nigh on impossible to get a bus or a train ticket anywhere.. we were decidedly suspicious on arrival as some aussie lads we had met that were there before hated the place. One of them got mugged and the weather was overcast and they just were unable to feel the love for the place..thankfully our experience was completely different.

As I mentioned due to the new year celebrations there was not a lot to do but go to the beach and socialize..we found a little restaurant from which we based ourselves…the group now had by grown pretty large… Team Ireland (John, Jonny and I), Team North America (Jaime, Jamie and Jess), Team South West UK (Dan), Team Italia ( Gea and Marta), Team Norway (Inga and Pia) and Team Central Europe (Bai Da and Seline) not forgetting team Oz (Turtle)..so as you can imagine we were safe as houses from any dodgy elements….John did have a close call but being a big tall angry Irishman can be quite scary to even the most hardened Vietnamese wannabe mugger. We spent most of the first day relaxing and taking it easy…I can’t stress enough how tiring the bus journey was..especially when one of the Chinese girls beside us thought that hacking up her lungs every 20 minutes and then spitting into a bag was enough to wake you from any depths of slumber…we also discovered the best drunk food ever…an lady that goes by the name Mama Tae sets up a stall with little plastic tables on the side of the street from midnight to 6am. She then serves up on a sizzling platter pieces of steak and a fried egg and if you ask her nicely she will put the whole lot into a baguette for you all for the princely sum of 35,000 dong (£1.30)..she then sits down telling stories..of what..well..the alcohol put paid to those memories…I do remember one of them was about her taking in a wee boy that was 8 years old…he slept on a rug on the ground behind her stall.

The next day whilst sitting around, a group decision was reached that we had to do something productive..so an excursion to the local mud baths and hot springs was deemed the best way to get over hangovers and relax…John declined on the ground that it was for faeries..it was great craic..for 4 pounds you got into mud baths..cold but weird.. the mud actually did feel quite good, it was greasy and gritty and they only filled it up just above bellybutton level when sitting down so you had to pour over yourself..sat there feeling strangely good for 15 minutes then off for a shower to clean up..then the fun part..walking through a corridor of jets getting pummeled by hot water and then into a hot tub…the water was roasting…they recommended staying in for 45 minutes but after about 15 everyone was pink and from my perspective if you stuck a fork in me I reckon it would have shown that I was cooked. Then under the waterfall for a wee while , finishing off in the swimming pool that had a jet at one end that was extremely powerful..it was like a massage the way it would pound your back…back then to the beach for a tan top-up..I know, I know…it’s a hard life..but I am sure you’ll be glad to know that I am making the best of it and struggling through it 

That night was new years eve. It has to have been the more impressive celebration I have ever seen from a people perspective. In Vietnam Tét is seen as a family celebration..on walking down to the beach just before midnight we were greeted with a crazy scene…the streets were wall to wall with motorbikes…thousands of them…most parked up..until we got to the main street..there on a street about 2KM long was a 100 metre clear area into which we walked..the rest of the street was a sea of motorbike helmets… motorbikes with 4,5,6 people upon, entire families.. the fireworks starts and then continued for what felt like an hour…then at the end it finished and the motorbikes started up..it was crazy…there is no louder sound than a couple of thousand motorbikes starting in unison and all the families dispersing to go and have a celebratory dinner together…as they flew by us they all wanted to high five the foreigner whilst shouting Chuk Mung Nam Moi (happy new year) at you..

We headed down to the Sail Club where we were the night previous..the owner met us on the door and recognizing us from the night before took us in a side door..free entry…it was a great start to the new year..its also the best night club I have been to, due to the fact that its right on the beach…a dancefloor inside with steps down onto the beach..the most intense waves you are ever likely to see…they would break literally 4-5 metres from shore and churn up the sand as they hit..it was surreal but every club should have one…the night ended with our new tradition of a feed from Mama Tae..

On a more serious note, Vietnam has a serious problem with child labour. Most of the kids from 5 upwards are put out on the streets selling postcards and books. We were warned that under no circumstances should we buy anything from them as it would just perpetuate the problem. They wanted people to stop buying and then maybe the parents would send the kids to school rather than out onto the streets as if a kid was good at selling then school would be neglected..one in particular seemed to have a grasp of everyones heart strings and was quite literally swinging from them…Dú was her name, she went away at one stage and brought back her little brother, Gú, who was about 2-3 years old…her English was excellent for a kid of about 8 years old…it was soul destroying..her day consisted of getting up, going to school from 12 to 4, home by 5. Homework done and food eaten by 6.30 and then out onto the streets from 7 – 10 selling postcards…just to make a small change, we handed her the food menu and got the waitress to explain to her that she was to pick something to eat..whatever she wanted…she wanted it for takeaway but we made her sit and eat..she said she would share half with her brother and then bring the rest home to her mother…but when she got started eating..nothing was going to stop her savaging the lot…Gú sat on my lap and was fed chip after chip..he would look at it..take it from me and then stuff it into his mouth whole…we may not have been able to make a long term difference in their lives but one thing for sure is that those kids went to bed that night and were not hungry…after that everyone at the table was in a great mood especially myself…I was as high as a kite for hours afterwards…saving the world one child at a time might not work but it feels good..another one of them…a real cheeky monkey she was with a strut like a catwalk model..stopped by and called out to one of the girls..hey lady lovely jubbly..we had some craic with her and she decided to christen me Buddha…it made me the brunt of many jokes for the rest of the night!!!

As we were freewheeling through Vietnam without any onward plans per se.. along with the Canudians a plan was formed…hit Saigon and burn a path through Cambodia..this would allow us to reclaim 5 days which we could use to go to Laos. ..new years day was relaxing on the beach and ended with a sleeper bus to Saigon…the scary part of Vietnam was awaiting us with War Museums and the Tunnels to be seen..I think we all know that the mood is definitely going to slide over the next couple of days…

Happy New Year
Hughie
www.hughie.eu

I’m now way behind so over the next day or so updates are going to have to come out quicker…sorry about that..

Leaving Hanoi was difficult..our hostel made it into a 24 hour party and after being starved of people to go out and play with, we probably over extended ourselves..still its been magic..we are meeting people from everywhere..but I have to say the Canudians are by far and away the most chilled out and fun..it’s actually refreshing to hear people that actually like where they are from (despite of the fact that its -25 or so there now)…due to the downturn in Ireland and the UK there isn’t really that much you can say to people to encourage them that it’s a place worth going to..sad but at unfortunately at this time true…next would be the australians…they just want to party the whole time…and their don’t give a damn about anything attitude is appealing…

Anyways Hanoi to Hoi’an was the first flight we have taken since leaving home..it was cheaper than taking the train to fly so off we went..we flew into Da Nang and grabbed a taxi from there to Hoi’an. Luckily people we met in Hanoi were there before us and sorted out rooms for us to crash in…this has been one of the best things so far in the trip…the people that we have met in Hanoi that are ahead of us book us into rooms in the next place and we do the same for those following..i guess it’s a kind of pay-it-forward system that so far has worked well..also it means that wherever we go, the crew gets reunited for a short period before moving on again. We’ve travelling in convoy down through Vietnam having so much fun…it has now meant that it has most definitely surpassed Mongolia as the place I most want to go back to..

For those that don’t know about it, Hoi’an is regarded as having some of the best tailors in all of South East Asia and the number of tailor shops in the place lay testament to that. Almost everyone we met was getting suits, shoes, dresses & throws for the beach, you name it made..if you could describe it or show a picture representing it then they could make it..its a crazy process..you walk in…flip through GQ magazine or something like that, pick out a style you like (everyone picking the James Bond suit out of Quantum of Solace), then you select the material..probably the most painful part…you get 6 lads getting suits and each wondering if this colour suits me??? should I get a wide or narrow pin-stripe or just go for a solid colour? what colour shirts and suit lining to get? Should I get the trousers lined and what kind of cuffs to get??…I was expecting one of them to ask me if their ass looked big in the trousers they got made…next was the fittings…some were perfect…others went back what felt like a hundred times in an effort to get each little detail perfect..sitting outside a bar near the tailors with someone coming along every hour to bring a lad back for another fitting became a common occurrence over the next two days..

Hoi’an is only a small place (pop 80K or so) and was not as crazy as anywhere else.. you could walk most places but as Scooters were only 4 dollars a day..with none of us ever being on a motorbike or any kind before it was an educating experience..whilst I am in the Jeremy Clarkson school of thought when it comes to motorbikes (burn them, burn them and burn them again!!!!) Vietnam couldn’t function without them, but I tell you what…it’s the best fun you can have with your clothes on..when in traffic your heart is pounding at an extraordinary rate..cruising along a quiet road by the beach is the most relaxing..they use the horn here to notify the person in from that you are coming up on their left side and they are to keep going straight..when you look at it from the pavement the constant sounding of horns is extremely annoying…when on a bike in the middle of a tiny street with hundreds of bikes around you it’s a godsend…the only rule of the road observed here is that you have to wear a helmet (100 dollars fine if you are caught without)..unfortunately for me, with the Vietnamese being tiny, my helmet was like a thimble on top of my head..completely useless..photos will be uploaded when I get somewhere with a decent internet connection…we spun to the beach a couple of times and on our last day went on a big burn to Da Nang (35 KM) away….everyone loved the bikes…we were lucky and had no serious accidents…I broke the gear lever off…and it only cost me 4 dollars to have it replaced…one person who shall not be named (Canadian girl Jaime) rented a bike outside the hotel, started it and went straight across the street and smashed into a freshly painted set of picnic tables..just missing a telegraph pole..thankfully the only damage done was a few scratches to her and the bike and 2 destroyed tables…and paint on her clothes which distressed her the most. I would love to say that her confidence was dented but no she wanted back on straight away…her husband though had different ideas and thankfully for once a man won an argument with a woman and she rode pillion on the back of his bike..

While on the bikes we went spinning out into the country for a test run…some people think that Ireland is green…but the green of the paddy fields is intense..its hard to describe but its such a strong bright consistent shade of green…it looks weird…the rest of the country is as you can imagine rocky, covered in trees, brown and burned by the hot, hot sun..

After we gave back the bikes we did see something horrifying..two locals crashed head-on…one was knocked cold and had blood streaming down the side of his face..the other was quite obviously concussed and when trying to stand collapsed in a crumpled heap…this happened in the middle of a busy intersection and the locals jumped in to clear it away…after a few seconds it was obvious t what the guy that was knocked cold was in an extremely bad way…the panic in the locals was clearly evident when they saw that he was completely limp and unresponsive..they grabbed him in the roughest way I have ever seen an injured person treated and he was put over the shoulder of another guy who jumped on the back of a scooter and raced away to the hospital…from the noise of the accident, (the most horrible and gut-wrenching screech of tires following by huge crashing noise) and the state the guy was in after, I can’t imagine he made it.. all ideas of renting bikes further along in the trip were immediately scrapped. We had 2 great days on them and other than paint on clothes and a few bruises everyone was fine…

the time to leave Hoi’an arrived and we were getting a sleeper bus to Nha Trang where we were going to celebrate the Lunar new year (it’s a beach town)…this was possibly the most intimate journey I have ever had in my life (and not in a good way)…because we were not assigned seats, when we bought the tickets, John, Jonny and I were assigned the back row..5 beds across the back of the bus…I was at the window, John beside me and Jonny next to him with two Chinese girls in the other two places…shoulders touching shoulders, knees touching knees..with no space to move..the beds were also built for the Vietnamese..only 5 and a half foot or so long..needless to say sleep did not come easy and most definitely did not linger…we arrived in Nha Trang wrecked…but that story is for the next update..

hope all is well…god bless

talk soon
hughie
www.hughie.eu

We landed in Hanoi not really expecting a whole lot…but it is possibly the craziest place on earth. For those that saw the recent Top Gear Xmas Special that was based in Vietnam, it didn’t completely capture the quantity of motorbikes buzzing around. Our arrival to our hostel was hectic..the roads were packed..and I mean packed with motorbike after motorbike. Cars are few and far between. During our journey to the hostel, a reasonably short trip our taxi got rammed by a moped, the driver jumped out to check the damage and decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and drove on again.. There appears to be no rules of the road other than the fact that a helmet must be worn when on a bike, otherwise a $100 fine is imposed. It’s a weird thing to see up to 5 people on a scooter, entire families with the youngest in the arms of the mother and one of the kids standing between the father and the handlebars..these people have no fear on motorbikes at all..the complete disregard for the rules of the road are also mindboggling..the easiest way to describe it is as organized kaos

We got to our hostel (the Hanoi backpackers hostel) that was recommended to us by a pair of Canadian girls we had met in China and we immediately signed up to go on a 3 day Ha Long Bay trip..a quiet night was had and onto the trip. This was the start of an all out assault on our livers as the trip turned into a complete party. We landed in Ha Long City and got aboard a old Chinese style junk which took us across the bay. Then we docked and spent 3 hours kayaking around the bay. The weather was fantastic and quite a few ppl managed to get scorched. Back to the boat, what are you to do on a boat in the middle of the bay with a load of people who just want to party…well..you party..it was great fun and we made many many new friends. The second day whilst extremely broken we went to Cat Ba Island and trekked for a couple of hours up to the top of a mountain where they had a lookout tower at the top where you could get a phenomenal view. It was a scary climb up the tower which was made of rusted scaffolding and floored at the top with warped timber that wasn’t even nailed down..

From there we left and travelled to another part of Cat Ba Island where we went rock climbing.. thinking that we were big strong men (us, one english and 3 aussie lads) we went immediately for the toughest part. What a mistake..we ended up looking like a group of losers!!! Only Jock made it to the top and only 2 made it past the first shelf. Needless to say neither myself or John got that far. For me I just wasn’t feeling the love for rock climbing and with shredded hands and feet and extremely bruised egos we were glad to get back to the main town of Cat Ba for a hoolie. More liver abuse and overnighting in a nice hotel did little to relieve sore limbs and heads. Back to the boat in the morning and we cruised back to Ha Long City and got the bus back to Hanoi.

As if our livers hadn’t suffered enough, a group of us decided that a visit to the snake village the next day was a good idea. What started out with a group of 6 ended up with 28 heading out. As I have a morbid fear of snakes I had thought it may be a good way to conquer that fear..I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO WRONG IN MY ENTIRE LIFE…it scared the crap outta me, I was hiding behind chairs most of the time. In the snake village they kill the snakes in front of you, bleed them out into glasses, and then remove the heart. The heart is placed in a shot glass, while still beating with some blood and is then swallowed by people who are off their heads..John being one of them. The remaining blood and bile is then combined with Vodka to create a snake wine. The snake blood wine was actually alright but the bile wine was foul. The shots of snake blood were ok but again the bile was disgusting. Apparently its meant to make you more virile..the jury is still out on that but one interesting side effect was the fact that everyone that swallowed the snake heart was visibly shaking for up to 15-20 minutes afterwards. The remainder of the snake is then cooked in many different ways and then served up as a feast..it actually tasted really nice surprising. If I had to equate it to something common at home I would suggest it was like pork. From the snake village back to the hostel for a BBQ and another late night hoolie..

We’ve also met a pair of dutch guys that, never before having been on motorbikes, bought a pair of old Russian minsks (like the one Hammond had in the top gear xmas special) and were planning to ride all the way to Saigon…hardcore or what..when they returned from their first spin around the city, and in the Hanoi traffic, the two of them were saturated in sweat. They reckoned it was more the fear that caused it than anything else..

Next is a spin down to Hoi’an, the famous city where apparently the best tailors in South East Asia exist..

Last email we were just on our way to Hainan Island for Xmas and New Years…we had our fill of cold weather and just wanted to be somewhere that the sun would be shining…we travelled by train to Haikou, the capital city on the island..the train itself even went on the ferry which was kinda mad. It took 3 hours for the train to be separated into 4 sections and parked up on the train.. we arrived and it was not exactly warm..we were starving as well with the train taking 6 hours longer than scheduled to make the trip…but it was all good…sunshine was in front of us..

We staying in Haikou for a night and then left for SanYa in the south. How we got there was weird..we went to the bus station where this guy met us outside and asked if we wanted to go to SanYa..we did so we followed him…he led us to a bus, charged us half the price of a normal ticket..and we hopped on the bus…it left a couple of minutes later…the bus was packed with people sitting on stools down the middle of the bus..the 3.5 hour journey took almost 6 hours…I guess that’s what we get for going on the local rather than the proper bus..

SanYa rained for the first 8 days we were there…it was not the best but then the sun came out and it was magic..it was nice to be able to lie on the beach for a while during the day and go for a run in the mornings..unfortunately there were not as many other backpackers around..SanYa was more a holiday destination for Russian and because of that the area had a vaguely Russian feel to it.. It was actually really weird there as well…upon entering into a pub or a club the manager would be over in a few seconds to welcome you and would assign a member of staff to look after you and make sure that you are having a good night…one particular place had a rota of staff looking after us who spent the night giving us free beer, popcorn and fruit..we ended up having a monster game of rock, paper, scissors for about an hour and a half..we later found out that in Hainan Island it is seen as a mark of prestige depending on how many foreigners are in the place..therefore they do their best to look after you when you come it..

In terms of doing things we haven’t really done a lot in SanYa…after 3 and a half months on the road, the idea of stopping in one place for a short while appealed to allow batteries to recharge. We must have walked a 1000 miles around the city…it was strange in some places where the people chew betel nuts…they then spit out on the street which is blood red…disgusting…another place had a guy with 3 monkeys…the funniest part was when he got the monkey to smoke a cigarette, then a second monkey would go over, cuff the smoking monkey over the head, pull the cigarette out of the others mouth and threw it away.. One other thing we have learned in China is that they pride themselves on 100% employment..so this means that rather than using machines for jobs they use people. For example, the don’t use trucks to transport rubbish to the tip, they have people that cycle bikes with trailers with bins on it…they ring a bell as they cycle and people bring out whatever rubbish they have…they have people that go around washing away the betel nut stains..supermarkets are weird as anything…they have 5-6 people in each aisle, their job to help you find what you need and try and get you to buy other stuff.

We travelled from Hainan Island to Hanoi, probably the worst journey for John so far, we went by sleeper bus which was built for smurfs…with a howling cold breeze going through the bus..we left Haikou around 4 in the day, a 10 hour journey that took 12 hours so we arrived in Nanning around 4am, had to then get a taxi to the other station across the other side of the city, got bus tickets then from there to Hanoi..

Anyways we are now in Vietnam…its nuts, crazy, mental and has to be seen to be believed but more on that next week…

happy new year to all of ye as well…hope santy was good..