Lots of people will ask what was your favourite this? And your best that? Well here are are out top 5 lists to answer those questions. The items in the lists are in no particular order.

TLC in South Africa was one of the best and most worthwhile parts of the trip but we haven’t included it in these lists. Ok here goes:

Top 5 Countries

• Argentina
• South africa
• Vietnam
• Laos
• Cambodia

Top 5 Cities

• New York
• Buenos Aires
• Rio
• Beijing
• Cusco

Top 5 Local Food

• Bhun, Vietnam
• Phad Thai, Thailand
• Amok, Cambodia
• Argentinian Steak, Argentina
• Peking Duck, China

Top 5 Natural Sites

• Perito Moreno Glacier
• Iguazu Falls
• Victoria Falls
• Torres Del Paine National Park
• Ha Long Bay

Top 5 Experiences

• Inca Trail
• Perito Moreno Ice Fall
• Treking on the Great wall of China
• W Trek
• Iguazu Falls Boat

Top 5 Adrenaline Rushes

• Soweto bungee jump
• Heidi swept down rapids
• Rides at Florida
• Iguazu boat waterfall
• Cuchi tunnels

Top 5 Trips

• Hue Motorbikes
• Robben Island
• Cuchi Tunnels
• Macchu Pichu
• Sunset River Safari

Top 5 Theme Park Attraction

• Harry potter world
• Manta ray seaworld
• Golden loop Gold Reef
• Space mountain
• The Hulk Ride

Top 5 Viewing Spectacles

• Super Classico
• New York Nicks
• Kaiser Chiefs
• Disney fireworks
• Seaworld Dolphin show

Selection of Our Favourite Photos

From Hong Kong to our final destination. China! The main purpose of our visit to Beijing was to visit the Great Wall of China, one of my life TO DOs!

We caught a cab to our hotel from Beijing airport. It took nearly three hours! This weekend was the Chinese May Day holiday and so the streets were jammed! When we arrived at the hotel we sat back and watched some of the Royal Wedding.

Saturday

Our first day in Beijing. It was quite chilly too! We were used to the hot temperatures of South East Asia and now the cold Siberian wind made it colder than we were used to. It turned out only to be this day though, the rest of the week would be warm and sunny!

We walked for an hour to a bar owned by an Australian called Zef who Mark, the guide on our tour, recommended we spoke to so we could find out where and what to do in the city. He wasn’t around today as he was returning from a wedding in Bangkok. The street the bar was on, although busy with Chinese tourists, was actually very nice with hostels, bars, restaurants, shops and local take away food e.g. Squid Ball things!

The street was very busy with Chinese tourists due to it being the May Day holidays. This Churros shop was particularly busy.

We ate some weird squid ball things! They were ok actually.

It was interesting being in Beijing to say the least. As we were used to being in touristy areas this was completely different. Hardly anyone speaks English and lots of things aren’t written in English so it makes it a bit more difficult doing simple tasks like choosing food from a menu or finding directions to places.
The Chinese seem friendly. As you walk the streets most people stare at you as if they haven’t seen a Westerner before. One funny chinese boy came up to us shouting “I am friendly, I am friendly, I want photo” and promtly positioned his girlfriend in between us and took a photo.
One habit of Chinese culture we haven’t yet come to understand though is the constant honking in the street by both men and women clearing their throats before gobbing a big greeny on the floor. Nice.

Beijing is really laid back, modern and very very big!! As of writing, we’ve walked miles and miles. The metro is awesome though and very cheap…only 20p to go anywhere on the system! The huge wide avenues stretch as far as the eye can see and are flanked by big office blocks, hotels, shops and restaurants.

Sunday

We visited a beautiful park called BeiHai today. A huge central lake filled with enthusiastic chinese people on pedalos and rowing boats was sorrounded by a nice walkway and a massive temple like structure. We walked all the way around and then walked for miles to our venue for the evening, DaDong Restaurant.

Couples dancing in the pagodas.

Pedalo boats for hire.

Beautiful walkways and corridors adorned the park.

The lake with just some of the hundreds of boats on it.

When you come to Beijing you have to eat Peking Duck. Zef had recommended a couple of places and we chose DaDong as it was meant to be one of the best. When we finally found it we got a ticket and waited for about an hour for our table. It looked quite classy and we were in our travelling clothes, oh well!

When we finally got seated we were given a huge catalogue which was the menu. All we wanted was duck though but we weren’t sure even after we’d ordered whether the waitress understood our order. It all turned out well, very well! A chef came our with a whole roasted duck and began carving it before our very eyes. It was beautifully golden and this restaurant was famous for serving lean duck without lots of the fat that duck usually has.
The pankakes and condiments came out just as the chef finished carving our meat. The meal was delicious!!! A great experience!

You could see the chefs in a kitchen through a glass window.

Our chopsticks and condiments.

A chef came out and carved the duck infront of us.

The gorgeous lean duck and pancakes.

The restaurant’s decor was beautiful, this is just the stair case.

Monday

Today we visited the Temple of Heaven, a park which contains different temples used by the Chinese Emperors of the past for sacrificial purposes. The huge park and different temples were really nice and it was a very relaxing afternoon spent in the warm sunshine.

Cypress trees and heather in part of the park.

One of the temples.

Where’s wally? Try and spot the Westener in this group of Chinese folk.

In the evening we visited Ghost Street, which is literally a street full of restaurants. We ate some really spicy Chinese dishes but they were tasty nonetheless.

This spicy chicken dish looks like potpourri

A few of the many red lanterns that line Ghost Street.

Tuesday

A three hour bus ride and we were at the Great Wall of China. We had booked a tour with a youth hostel to a section of the wall recommended to us by Zef and ex tour leader Mark. The tour included two guides, entrance fees and a 7km hike along the Great Wall from Jin Shan Ling to Si Ma Tai.

It was unbeliavable and lived up to my expectations!! The Wall is so amazing. It’s incredible to think that this wall stretches for so many thousands of miles (5,500.3 miles to be exact).

Our tour group was left to walk this challenging stretch at our own pace. We walked up and down the steep then shallow steps passing 22 of the wall’s towers in total. Most of this stretch of the wall is in its original conditions so parts were crumbling away and you had to be careful walking across it.

Tick…Hicking on The Great Wall, done!.

Heidi on one of the restored sections of the wall.

Wall through a window.

The views were stunning!! In the distance was the wall snaking its way across the mountain ranges. In any other direction were the green hills and mountains rolling into the distance. It was unforgettable!

Every direction you looked had incredible views of mountains and green hills.

Amazing views of The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

Amazing views of The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

Amazing views of The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

This part was incredibly steep and took a real effort to climb.

Amazing views of The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

Amazing views of us and The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

Amazing views of The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

Amazing views of The Great Wall snaking into the distance.

One of the towers and the crumbling original wall before it.

We really enjoyed every minute of it. We also met some friendly Kiwis, Richard and Aleisha, who are travelling like us and then finishing in London where they hope to live and find work. They got engaged in Hoi An, Vietnam, so congratulations guys!!

A great day!!

Wednesday

Today we visited one of Beijing’s most popular tourist attractions, The Forbidden City. This gigantic palace was home to many Chinese Emperors and with over 800 buildings and 9000 rooms, it is blinking massive!! We walked from one end to the other passing through loads of courtyards and past beautiful buildings. At the North end we strolled around the Imperial Gardens before returning via the backstreets and courtyards located at the edges of the Forbidden City. We were most imprest by the size of the place but in terms of architecture and the look and feel of the place it was very similar to the many temples and palaces we have visited in South East Asia.

The huge entrance to the Forbidden City.

National Guard marched across the entrance.

Heidi was asked by some nice Chinese people for a photo. This happened a lot during our time in Beijing.

Behind us is a just a tiny part of the inside, it was monstrously big!

A rock wall in the Imperial Gardens.

We went out the entrance and a few hundred metres South until we came to Tian’anmen Square, the biggest public square in the world. And very big it is too! This square became famous in the when a load of student protesters ended up fighting against the authorities and many were shot by the police.

The front of Tian’anmen Square.

It literally is a huge square!

In the evening we walked a short walk to Donghuamen Night Market which is a street food market that sells all sorts of typical Chinese snacks like squid, scorpions, shrimp, dumplings etc etc We had some delicious meat bun thing and delicious pork noodle wrap. For desert we had these incredible strawberries on a stick that had been caramelised. They were so juice and amazing!

Getting stuck in to our chicken and herb patty thing.

The delicious sugar glaced fruit on a stick.

Mmmmm, juicy strawberries.

Thursday

Remember the Beijing Olympics in 2008? Of course you do. Today we met up with Richard and Aleisha (from the Wall) and visited the Olympic venues. WOW!! The area it covers is ginourmous!! They must have demolished a quarter of the city to make way for this area. It consists of one very very very long strip with a huge green park at one end and a few enourmous stadiums in between.

The huge walkway that stretches forever through the middle of the Olympic site.

We first visited the National Aquatic Centre more commonly known as The Water Cube. It’s a beautiful building which looks like a huge cell with its membrane exterior. Inside was a cool water park which looked great fun. Some of the slides weren’t working though so we decided not to go to it. The main 50m pool and diving boards where the Olympic events took place was beautiful!

The Water Cube.

The Water Park inside.

The competition pool and diving boards.

Next we visited The Nest. The main stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies took place as well as the Atheltics events. From the outside it looks superb with an amazing nest like structure. When we went inside, although impressive, it looked a bit worn mainly due to concert rigging which was being dismantled in the middle of the stadium. Even so it was a great experience to see it.

Outside the Birds Nest stadium.

A sad Panda outside the Birds Nest stadium.

View inside with the concert stage being dismantled.

The view to the outside from the top of the Birds Nest.

This is what it looks like at night…this is a picture of a poster though.

Heidi holds up the Olympic torch.

After that we walked North along the strip passing many parks and experimental architecture which were all eerily quiet (maybe because it was a weekday). This area must have been amazing during the Games with a buzzing atmosphere but most of the facilities don’t get used a lot now except by tourists. I wonder how the locals feel about this area and whether London’s Olympic venue will be effectively utilised after the Games.

Random wide open spaces like these….

and these, stand quiet and unused.

Overall though, we were highly impressed by this Olympic venue and it was a great experience to see locations from the Games such as the 100m track where Usain Bolt broke the 100m record and the pool where Micheal Phelpes won all those Gold medals.

In the evening we visited Ghost Street once again for yet another delicious meal in a courtyard restaurant.

Friday

Our last day travelling! Sigh!
We had a beautiful sunny day to finish off our incredible 6 months!!

We visited the Summer Palace today, a bit of a way out of central Beijing on the subway. The subways have been great to get around on. They are fast and frequent, clean and airconditioned and best of all they are so cheap as I’ve mentioned.

The Summer Palace is a huge former Royal Garden made up of gardens, temples, lakes and walkways. It was very nice strolling about at a leisurely pace in the sunshine. Like everything else in the city, it is very big and it would have taken all day to walk around the whole of it.

View across the lake to one of the temples.

There were lots of tiny bridges like these…

and ponds like these too.

In case you’ve forgotten after 6 months, that’s what Heidi looks like…

And that’s what Christian’s looks like.

In the evening we had our final meal out. We discovered that there was another DaDong restaurant just yards from our hotel. Cool! So for our last meal we had more of the wonderful Peking Duck that we tried previously in the week. Once again it didn’t disappoint. It was delicious. We also got lots of free dishes that kept coming out including fruit on a bed of dry ice , some simple soup and a sorbet the flavour of which we still don’t know, but it was very nice!

The restaurant was very flash with this kitchen sorrounded by a moat full of goldfish.

Once again the duck was fantastic.

Our complimentary bowl of fruit on smoking dry ice, yum!

And that’s it. Tomorrow is our last couple of flights back home to England via Russia! Hope to see you all soon! We hope you have enojoyed this blog and look out for our next post coming soon summarising our best bits

Heidi and Christian x x x

We arrived at the airport early afternoon and met a lovey tourist information lady who pretty much helped plan our 3 days in Hong Kong!

After catching the airport bus right to our hotel we sorted our stuff out and headed straight out to the Chinese Visa place. This was the main reason for our visit to Hong Kong to enable us to get to Beijing! We found the agency at the top of a very narrow hallway on the 9th floor. We filled in the paper work without any problems and were off again.

With the VISAs in the bag (well we had to wait 24 hours to collect them) we could then set about enjoying Hong Kong. We had recieved lots of recommendations about where we should go from people on the tour.

We started with the Ladies market and the Mongkok Computer Centre. The Ladies market sounds like it sells women but it is just a normal market so I’m not sure why it has that name.

The Ladies market.

Mongkok Computer Centre was my kind of shopping arena! Tons of tiny shops all selling loads of gadgets, computers, mobiles and cool electronics. I managed to resist buying anything though even though I was tempted.

After this we headed to Chungking Mansions to find a curry house form the Rough Guide reputedly the best curryhouse in the area. I will try my best to explain what this area is like. It is a nosiy, overcrowded hodge podge of shops, restaurants, guesthouses, street vendors swarming with people from all over the world. You can buy anything from a new sim card to a garlic naan, from a iphone to an onion baji! It took us a long time
to find the restaurant which ended up being on the 7th floor of Block E (took us ages to realise there were different blocks) to get up to this you had to use a small stuffy lift!! But it was worth it in the end as the food was great and the service lovely we are now proud members of the Khyber Pass Curry House.

Our delicious authentic curry.

Wednesday

Today we caught the short journey on the Star Ferry across from Kowloon where we are staying to Hong Kong Island.

Hong Kong Island’s business district with its towering skyscrapers.

From here it was a short walk through the business district underneath the towering sky scrapers to the tram station. Using the tram we were taken up high to Victoria Peak, the highest point, with panoramic views over the cityscape. The views were spectacular but it was quite misty so we couldn’t see for miles.

The narrow trams reminded us of the night bus in Harry Potter.

The tram that took us high into the mountains to Victoria Peak.

At the top. Yes that is masking tape holding my fake pair of Oakley sunglasses together.

View from the top.

After successfully picking up our Visas, we visited the nearby Science Museum. It looked really good but I think the whole of China was visiting since it’s free on Wednesdays. We did manage to see the awesome life size marble run. It’s much bigger and elaborate than what this video shows but here’s a taster:

*Sorry we can’t upload the video as sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter are banned in China!*

After another delicious curry at a Pakistani restaurant in Chungking Mansions we headed for the Symphony of Lights show. We arrived early and managed to get a seat. Infront of us was the most beautiful night time scenery I have ever seen. The skyline with its lit up buildings was hugely impressive!!

An amazing panorama.

In the bright lights of Hong Kong.

A little chinese junk boat with its red sails lit up.

Even a huge cruise liner sailed past.

After an hour with my jaw open gawping at the scenery, the 14 minute laser show began. I was expecting big things so perhaps was a little disappointed by the end. All it was, was a few buildings on the other side of the river that had lights or green lasers on top and randomly shone them into the sky all along to some dramatic music. It was nice, but just the scenery itself is incredible. The laser show didn’t add anything to it and it could have been much more spectacular in my opinion.

As part of the show a spot light shines from a skyscraper into the sky.

Green lasers point into the sky.

We like Hong Kong!

Thursday

This morning we got on the nice wifi enabled and air conditioned underground to Ocean Park, Hong Kong’s rival theme park to HK’s Disney World. It was a really good theme park that focused more on the animal and aquatic shows than the rides. The park is actually on two levels and to get between them you can take an incredibly long cable ride over the mountain amongst eagles soaring high.

Loads of little cable car pods floating above the mountain.

On the cablecar. Yes, I’m still wearing the same -t-shirt. So what? I’m travelling!

The lower level of the park at the end of the cable car.

The most impressive ride was the runaway train, one of the best we’ve been on. In terms of the animals, the Giant Panda display was good (they are so cute!) and the aquarium was huge!! My favourite was the sea jelly fish encounter. There were loads of tanks full of jelly fish floating about like they do with their tentacles. They were beautiful!

The runaway train. A lot of the rides had a drop on one side into the South China Sea.

A Red Panda

Mr Cute Panda

Stuffing his mouth! Greedy Panda!!

Jelly Fish!

The Dolphin Show

Friday

We are off, for our midday flight to Beijing.

We arrived in Bangkok after a long bus journey and a very warm border crossing including a walk across no mans land late afternoon.

Having already seen the Bangkok sights we decided to stay at the hotel in the swimming pool enjoying the last few hours with our tour companions (sniff sniff!)

We then headed out in tuktuks to our riverside restauarant for our final meal together. After this we enjoyed a banana chocolate pancake from a street vendor on the way home and then some lovely mango cocktails at the hotel.

Our last day with our full tour companion, Rhonda.

Heidi, not me, had this girly looking cocktail.

Saying goodbye to Aussies Peta and Meghan.

Our final group meal together.

It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone as we really did enjoy getting to know everyone and experiencing our Indochina adventure together.

We miss you all and hope you can keep in touch through the blog or facebook!

Here are some farewell shots we took !

The girls show off their souvenir Vietnamese pointy hats including the baby ones on Michelle and Heidi’s heads.

Peta, Meghan and Rhonda.

Our Aussie Mate Michelle.

Monday

We spent the morning with Michelle and then caught a taxi together to the airport where we then got our free transfer to our lovely airport hotel for the night.

Tuesday

We had an early start today our alarm woke us up at 3:30 am ready to catch our early morning flight to Hong Kong.

Another morning bus journey, this time to Siem Reap, its prime attraction? The Angkor Wat temples.

The countryside here in Cambodia is stunning.

On the way we stopped at a Silk makers farm. It was set up by a former US soldier who fought in Vietnam then afterwards returned, fell in love with Cambodia and is now married and living here. In order to do some good, he has started a local project making silk scarves. He has trained and emplyed around 20 local people providing them with jobs and an income.

US war veteran Bud and his wife.

His wife made us a delicious lunch including an amazing fish soup! Before that though Bud explained and showed us the whole process of producing silk, which was fascinating! I can’t believe they can make such a strong material out of these furry cocoons.

Some tiny worms make these furry cocoons.

The cocoons are then put in hot water and the fur is turned into the silk threads using this wooden contraption..amazing!

Once we had arrived in Siem Reap and checked in we did the orientation walk into the main town. In the evening we had a nice meal at a restaurant which included traditional dancing. Everyone was aware that we had an early start the next day though, so we all went back and to bed fairly early.

Traditional dancers whos fingers bend backwards unusually far.

Friday

We woke at 4.30am to drive the short distance to the Angkor Wat temples and see the sun rise. It was beautiful and quite busy for this time of the morning. The Angkor Wat complex is huge, about 200km worth. There are lots of temples and ruins that you can visit but we watched the sunrise from the main temple.

Gorgeous!

Goooood morning Vietnam!! I mean Cambodia.

The girls watching the sun rise.

The huge and impressive Angkor Wat.

After sitting watching the sun come up infront of the lake, we headed back to breafast before coming back to visit the temples. The first gate we went through was my favourite. It was covered by trees and routes and you really felt like you were in an Indiana Jones film. Walking further through the jungle we arrived at our first temple nicknamed Tomb Raider. This is because Angelina Jolie actually filmed parts of the Tomb Raider film here.

I could have been in a movie!

The impressive stone head at the top of the gate.

This part of the temple was in a movie, apparently Angelina Jolie ran through here in the film Tomb Raider.

Our guide Mark clowning about.

The next couple of temples were magnificent also. Huge well preserved stone buildings built over 1000 years ago. They used to be Hindu and then Buddhist temples. The detail is amazing. Incredible carvings in almost every stone and wall. Huge stone faces adorn the towers making these ruins really unique and unlike anything we’ve seen.

Stone carvings cover almost every wall and rock.

A Buddha carving peers out from under the roots.

There were over 50 faces in the towers at this temple.

Faces merge into the rock.

A close-up of one of the faces.

More stone faces.

The photos make it hard to tell the scale of these buildings. Some pyramid like temples required us to climb really steep steps to reach the top. It’s amazing how they were able to achieve this engineering feat so many years ago.

Heidi at the top of the steep stairs.

Hundreds of columns create this long corridor.

Lots of the buildings need restoration work as they slowly crumble away and get taken over by tree roots.

Another of the main gates with a main road passing underneath it..

After lunch we visited the main Angkor Wat temple which was also very impressive. The only problem was the heat! It’s 40 40 degrees here and quite humid too. Its been by far the most uncomfortable heat we have experienced on the trip.
Luckily we were soon back in our air conditioned room having a refreshing shower.

A Monk visiting them temples, fans himself to keep cool in the sticky heat.

In the evening we did another home visit just as we did in Laos. We travelled by TukTuk into the countryside where we were welcomed into a Cambodian family’s home. Lots of cushions were laid out where we could all sit crossed leg and have our delicious traditional meal of curries, ginger chicken, soup and vegetables. Mmmmm! Previous to the food we were given a small tour around the village. It was really nice. All the children would run to the dirt track and wave and smile to us walking past and in their best English shout “hallo!”. The countryside setting was really nice with palm trees and lush green trees everywhere.

Our table where we would eat.

The beautiful Cambodian countryside.

Sitting aroud the table enjoying our meal.

Saturday

This morning we relaxed by the pool. We had a nice lunch at Blue Pumpkin, the popular ice cream shop come bakery. IN the morning we had some barbecue style street food and then visited the night market which was beautifully lit and sold lots of souvenir type goods.

It was a nice relaxing day on our last main day of this tour. Next place? Back to Bangkok.

It’s a bit of a gruesome blog post today, not only because we ate a tarantula, but there are some awful stories from Cambodia’s history.

Anyway, we left Saigon in the morning for our 6 hour trip across the Vietnam border into our next country, Cambodia. The journey was ok and border crossing was fairly painless.

As we entered Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh, I noticed the wide boulevards and streets that were so different to the countries we had recently visited. The reason for these wide streets are the French actually planned the city when they colonised Cambodia.

Once we had checked into our hotel, we had a bit of a different type of orientation of the city. Instead of walking, we had an army of what looked like wheelchairs for a cyclo tour of the city. These special bikes had a seat at the front and the cyclists that did the hard work were all being helped by a charity. It was great fun lying bck and taking in the city as we all overtook one another on the busy motorbike filled streets.

Riding along in our cyclones.

My cyclist started off quite young but this is what he looked like after we finished!

Heidi with her driver.

Our cyclists were excellent!

We stopped off at this round about with this cool building in the middle.

We got dropped off by the river which was a really nice area. All these tourist orientated areas have only been developed in the last few years. Dinner was at a local restaurant where we ate some nice Cambodian food including crispy rice with a yummy coconut curry sauce. It was strange but very very tasty. We also watched a documentary in a small cinema room all about the genocide that took place just over 30 years ago. It was a good introduction to what we would learn about the next day.

Down by the river. It was ligned with loads of flags representing all the different embassies in the city.

Wednesday

Today we learnt a lot about Cambodia’s tragic past. It was fascinating but distressing at the same time. As well as covering much of the last century, the focus was mainly on the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 70s. A man called Pol Pot became the leader of the country and imposed a lot of his really strange communist ideas. He wanted Cambodia to start from scratch and become a classless society so he created the “year zero”. Phnom Penh was evacuated with everyone being made to move to the country side where they would be forced into slave labour.

Anybody that resisted Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge was killed. Anybody that was educated or skilled was wiped out in an attempt to start the country from new. Soon, thousands of people were being murdered across the country. It was clear that Pol Pot’s regime was not working and he started to blame innocent people for his failure. The Khmer Rouge started to imprison people and iterrogate them accusing them of being spys or coming up with false statements about them. People were being tortured and murdered in their thousands. After 4 years or so of Pol Pot’s reign, over 3 million people had been cruely murdered. This was nearly half the population of Cambodia at the time! This is a short summary, it’s a bit more complicated and disturbing than this.

After meeting our local guide we first set off to S-21. This was one of the prisons in Phnom Penh where tortures took place. There were 167 of these around the country.

S-21

It was horrific. The guide told us about all the things that went on as we visited the prison cells. The torture that went on was horrendous. Not much has changed in this prison which used to be a school before the regime. Although its now a museum siteits been pretty much untouched. There are splatters of blood across the ceilings and walls. Even the electric cables where electrocutions took place are still attached to the walls. It was very hard being there and hearing the stories. There are also black and white mug shots that were taken by the prison guards of all the prisoners that were tortured and executed.

One of the VIP cells where a senior official would be kept and tortured. Prisoners were shakled to this bed and had only a petrol can as a toilet.

Prisoners would be hung upside down and interrogated until they fell unconsious. Their heads would then be dipped in the pots full of excrement so they would regain consiousness. Yikes!

Barbed wire prevented the desperate prisoners from jumping and commiting suicide.

Many people died at the prison and there was soon little room to keep the dead bodies. Eventually they started transporting prisoners out into the country side where they were killed and buried in mass pits. This is where we visited next.

Now known as the killing fields, they were used by the Khmer Rouge as a mass genocide centre. Thousands of bodies were found here. We walked along side the mass graves hearing some terrible stories of how men, women and children were killed. I will not go into detail because its too horrible to describe. Clothes and bones of those murdered still rise to the surface during the wet season and are fully visible. It really is a depressing place.

Just some of the pits which are mass graves.

Victim’s clothes rise up to the surface during the rainy seasons.

As well as this tooth there are many bones that rise to the surface. It really is shocking.

During big excavations it was decided that all the bones would be collected, studied (to find out how people were killed) and placed in a memorial at the center. The building is tall and contains a sealed glass enclosure where all the bones are kept. Seeing all those skulls was quite shocking!

The memorial housing the remains of the murdered.

Just one of the platforms that held the remains of those killed. There were several more of these rising up the building.

That was the end of an eye opening morning. You really have to come here to experience it and appreciate what these people went through. We learnt a lot and we appreciate even more what we have today in terms of our family, friends, material possesions and peaceful lives.

The afternoon’s sight seeing was much more light hearted. After a little shopping and an amazing lunch at the Russian Market we visited the beautiful Royal Palace with its grand buildings and gold and emerald buddha statues. It was quite similar to the palace in Bangkok but very nice nonetheless.

Part of the huge complex that is the ROyal Palace.

A closeup view of one of the temples.

A turtle looks over the fish in one of the fountains at the palace.

In the evening we went to eat some street food at the local market. I had some amazing marinated squid that was chopped up and had along side some rice and salad. Delicious!

Barbecued Squid!!

Next we went to Chivas. A bar which serves bugs!!

Our late night snack beer and bugs! Crickets and Tarantulas were on the menu.

Heidi and I were the most brave out of everyone. Most of the group managed to eat a cricket but Heidi, Rhonda and I were the only three to eat a whole tarantula!! That’s right! The spider along with the crickets was actually quite tasty and it was all a good laugh. I’ll let the pictures and videos do the talking…

I was the first to put the tarantula in my mouth as all the girls gasped in horror.

Heidi and I tuck in. Both the spiders and crickets were quite tasty for me although a little bit crunchy.

Some special messages this week. Happy Birthday to Heidi’s Mum Jan!! She turned 63 on Sunday! (He he, not really!!)
Also, congratulations to Heidi’s cousin Stuart who’s wife Jo has had baby number 2, a girl called Maya Josie. Congrats!

We arrived at Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) after our comfortable flight on Vietnam Airlines.
As the flight was slightly delayed we didn’t have much free time so we went straight out to eat.

Sunday

Today we would learn a lot about the Vietnamese war. It was a really interesting day. First we boarded a bus where met our local guide for the day. His name was Mr Hi and he was a really fascinating man.

Mr Hi.

Now in his early 60s he was a veteran of the Vietnamese War and he fought for Southern Vietnam alongside the US troops. They were of course the losing side and after the North took over he was made to spend 5 years in an ‘education camp’ where former Southern Vietnamese soldiers were fed propaganda and forced to agree with communism and the politics and ideas of the now ruling party. Of course, he only pretended to agree so that he could be released early.

It was very interesting hearing all his stories about the war and we were able to ask lots of questions. Within the last few months he has actually come into contact for the first time with one of the American GIs who he fought with. He remembers helping the US soldier after their truck hit a landmine. They’ve exchanged many letters and Mr Hi has now organised for the American veteran to return to Vietnam and revisit where everything took place.

Our destination for the day was the Cuchi Tunnels. Cuchi was an area just North of Saigon that was held by the Viet Cong, Southern Vietnamese peasants and farmers who rebelled against the South and fought for the North. AS Saigon is in South Vietnam, Cuchi was an important strategic point for the Viet Cong to maintain control over. They managed to do this in secret by building many many underground tunnels where they could hide for up to 7 hours. The US and Southern Vietnamese troops had no idea they were there for a long time. Even when they did find out, the huge network of tunnels, trenches and booby traps meant that it was extremely difficult for the US to liberate the area.

Finally after carpet bombing the area, the Viet Cong were eventually defeated. The bombing destroyed most of the tunnels but some of the original once still survive today which you are able to visit.

The first thing we saw was a typical entrance to a tunnel. It was tiny! One of the guides demonstrated how the Viet Cong would get in and out of the camouflaged entrances. We were then able to give it a go. It was a bit of a struggle for my Western frame to get in and out but I and Heidi managed to do it. Here’s a video:

It was a tight squeeze and I had to breath out a bit…

…but I made it. But then my head got stuck…only joking.

We then got to see working versions of all the different types o booby traps. As groosome as they were, the Viet Cong were very clever when it came to these things. I can’t imagine how much pain and suffering these traps caused the US troops, who no real experience in guerilla warfare.

This huge trap had this revolving door camouflaged with leaves and twigs. In the pit were lots of sharpened bamboo sticks which would have been tipped with feaces to cause infection to the wounded soldier.

Clipping armpit trap…nuff said

We then had a traditional meal of Tapioca and green tea. This is what the Viet Cong would have suvived on during their time here.

Green tea and tapioca with some peanut and salt mix. The staple of the Viet Cong living in the Cuchi tunnels.

On display was this American tank destroyed in the war by a delay mine.

A collection of bomb shells. Just a tiny proportion of the millions of tons that fell during the war

Finally we were able to crawl 80m through one of the original tiny tunnels. This tunnel had been widened slightly for tourists but nonetheless it was very tight, hot, dark and claustrophobic down there. Only a few of us went into the tunnels as most of the group didn’t fancy it. I don’t know how the Viet Cong could live like they did, it must have been very uncomfortable.

The entrance to the tiny tunnel. (It was actually really dark down here but my flash went off)

Back in central Saigon we visited the War Remnants Museum, a collection of stories, facts, photographs and artefacts from the war. It did a very good job of explaining the history and politics of the war.

The front of the 3 floor museum

Outside were lots of US tanks and planes and this huge Chinook.

It was also very disturbing and sad particularly when depicting and explaining the war crimes commited by US soliders as well as the aftermath of agent orange. Agent orange was a chemical used by the US to defoliate the jungle and forests to make it easier for combat. Unfortunately the harmful substances in these chemicals has left a devasting lasting legacy causing illness and severe deformations and disabilities to many generations of Vietnamese living in those areas.

In the evening we met the new group of people starting the tour to Cambodia. They were two English girls about our age and an older couple from Lison, Portugal. Unfortunately we had to say by to the Aussie family (we’ll miss you!) and Bristolians Lee and Paula (we’ll miss you too!), who finished their 10 day tour of Vietnam.

Bye Peter, Marcus, Bridget, Paula and Lee, we’ll miss you.

We had a nice meal together at a barbecue where you cook your food on the grill that sits in the middle of the table. I was a bit keen and hungry when our food came out and forgot you had to cook it so I ate a chunk raw of pork, oops. Tasty though!

Monday

A visit of the Mekong Delta was the activity of the day. Once again Mr Hi was the interesting guide as we set off on a long boat to visit the beautiful area. As well as floating markets, floating lillies and lots of rivers we had a little ride on a small long boat paddled by one of the locals. Plus we all got point hats to wear!! We also visited a local handycraft place where they make souveniers and also food like rice paper, puffed rice and coconut sweets. It was a nice trip where we saw lots of beautiful scenery, sat in a hammock and drank coconut juice, can’t complain!

The beautiful Mekong Delta.

Boats on the delta.

Houses on stilts.

Boat selling coconuts.

A lady in the water. I think she was doing something useful, I don’t think we needed to rescue her, I hope.

Eating a Rose Apple (tasted of celerey, apple and cucumber) on a hammock.

Heidi Hammock.

Locals make puffed rice

After flatting it down, it gets cut into pieces.

Mr Hi holds up an Elelphant Ear fish, which we could have had for lunch.

The rowers coming to pick us up for a boat ride.

On the row boat. Yey, we got to weat pointy hats!

Peta, Meghan, Michelle and Heidi

The trip took most of the day and when we arrived back we had just enough time for some Fanny’s ice cream before our tasty meal in the evening. We both ate Bhun, a delicious Vietnamese dish of noodles, herbs and meat. It just tasted amazing! It was also Aussie Michelle’s Birthday so Mark had organised a cake, which was nice. Happy Birthday mate (say in Aussie accent)!

Heidi’s banana split at Fannys.

mmmmm, Bhun.

Michelle’s chocolate Birthday cake

One of my last pictures in Vietnam. Motorbikes of course! We’ve seen millions of them!

The bus ride to Hoi An was beautiful passing through the Vietnamese countryside and coastline. We passed China Beach, a gorgeous beach stretching into the distance. We also made a stop at another bunker used during the war.

Passing the gorgeous China Beach

The view from the top of the hill where the bunker was.

Approaching Hoi An we went through a really developed coastal town with new high luxury beach side hotels being built everywhere. Some of the famous golfers have huge developments here too.

Our hotel in Hoi An was very nice with the rooms overlooking a pool. Hoi An itself is a very beautiful town. Strolling through the markets and along the river side was beautiful, particularly in the evening when the colourful lights create gorgeous views and reflections on the river.

Another great hotel!

We walked around the town and afterwards since it was so hot, we spent a couple of hours of our free time by the swimming pool.

View over the river.

Lady on bike dressed in red.

Lady with two bikes…greedy.

Heidi gets squirted in the ear by little girl with water gun.

The canvass over the market was so low I got a crooked neck walking through it. Heidi was ok, she loves being in a country where the everage height is shorter than her!

Vietnamese women sitting at the market.

Lots of these sellers would shout: “Hawo, yoo wana buy somefing?”.

Our group meal in the evening was at a restaurant called Green Chilly. The Italian trained chef welcomed us and served us a mixture of Italian, Vietnamese and Mexican meals. I had a lasagne and it was delicious since the pasta was nice and fersh. Heidi had a traditional Vietnamese dish called Cau Lat, which is almost like a soup with the ingredients like vegetables and meat but none of the liquid.

Walking along the river was magical at night.

Lots of the shops and restuarants were lit up with lanterns.

Thursday

Today we hired a bicycle (complete with basket and bell) from across the road from our hotel and cycled 15 minutes through the beautiful town and countryside. Our destination? The beach! It was a very nice palm fringed beach and we sat on a lounger under a shade and had a very nice beach day!!

The palm trees made it seem very tropical!

Lifes a beach! Sipping on a coconut whilst lounging on the beach.

The beach was very nice and very quiet, perfect!

In the evening we had a Vietnamese cooking class. I don’t think it was as elborate as the one in Thailand but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. We made some delicious dishes too, which we shared with our group later. Doing the class was us, Bridget, Paula, Mark (our guide) and Michelle as well as two very friendly kiwis Matt and Anna. They are doing a similar circuit to us so we may meet up with them in Beijing as we are there at the same time.
We made tons of shrimp and vegetable spring rolls, which were delicious. We barbecued a delicious fish stuffed with lemon grass, garlic, chilly and ginger. Finally chopped a chop stick in half vertically to act as a skewer and we rolled beef on to it. This was then marinated in more lemon grass, garlic and oil before being barbecued. It was amazing!

Rolling and tying our spring rolls

Marinading our skewers

Fish!

Our finished spring rolls. They were nice!!

Chopping Chop Sticks

Say Chee..I mean Chicken Fried Rice

In the evening we strolled around admiring the lights and the colourful lanterns that adorn the town.
We also stopped by a delicious bakery come cafe come restaurant that made delicious cakes. We had a chocolate mousse cake and a chocolate truffle cake!!

Mmmm, Chocolate Mousse Cake. Nom Nom Nom!

Beautiful Lanterns.

More Beautiful Lanterns.

Even More Beautiful Lanterns. Don’t moan that I don’t give you many pictures of beautiful lanterns, because I do.

Having a beer. This one was 3000 Dong which is like 11 pence. Barry Argain!!

Friday

Another beach day! Since we enjoyed the gorgeous beach so much and the weather these last few days was so hot and sunny we cycled down again stopping by a lovely river side restaurant for a drink. Cycling was a bit hair raising at times due to the motorbikes and other cyclists that seem to suddenly ride towards you but generally it was really enjoyable and it was nice getting some exercise.

Posing on the beach at Han Oi.

Me and my girlie bike!

Heidi and her girlie bike.

In the evening we went to a restaurant where Andrea and Tonia were also doing cooking class and had invited us to share their creations. They also made some lovely food. A very nice fish stew, shrimp salad and some nice noodles. Plus Mango Lassie served in huge jugs so 4 of us could get stuck in at a time. Lassie is like a milky yoghurt and makes great smoothies.

We had some desert back in Green Chilly with Rhonda and Michelle. I had snickers tart!

Heidi eating cake with Aussie Michelle.

Lots of the others in the group were still in the taylor shops. Hoi An is famous for having lots of clothes shops which make any sorts of clothes tailored specific to your size. We didn’t really have space in our luggage for loads more clothes so we gave it a miss. We’re glad we did because the group seemed to spend a long time in the shops getting measurements and alterations done.

Just one of the many clothes shops.

Saturday

Our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was delayed by a couple of hours so we checked out late from our hotel. We used our spare time to have some lunch from Cargo (the cake shop) and sit by the pool before heading to the airport and catching our flight. It was a much better plane this time and although it was delayed by a few hours we were soon off to our next city.

Our train arrived at Hue about 8ish in the morning. We were transferred to our very nice hotel in this unexpectedly beautiful town.

Morning! Waking up on the sleeper train.

Nice welcome at our hotel.

The afternoon provided us with one of the highlights of the South East trip so far. We all got on the back of motorbikes and sped off around town visiting all the sites. It was such great fun!! The motorbike drivers were one big well organised group with great commaraderie between them. It all felt very safe even though we were speeding along roads, country paths and through forest trails.

Heidi had the lead driver who was a very good driver. My motorbike was a few behind. With all of us on bikes tearing around the city, it must have been quite intimidating for people. We must have looked like the hells angels or something!

Heidi with her driver.

Me pretending to drive..we weren’t allowed really.

Our first site was a big temple and pagoda. We then went deeper into the countryside to visit an arena where years and years ago Elephants used to fight (and beat) Tigers. After, we visited a US Bunker used during the war in Vietnam. In the distance was the infamous Hamburger Hill.

Right at the start we had to go across this scary bridge along a really narrow path.

Thien Mu Pagoda.

Heidi up ahead speeding through the forest.

View of the river from the bunker.

Hamburger Hill.

Hell’s Angels. Heidi and I are on the far left.

Our last stops included the Minh Mang Tombs, an incent stick maker and a one armed lady (lost her arm during the US bombing campaign) who makes the conical hats, famous here in Vietnam. We also drove deep into thelush green countryside to view the farmers at work planting rice in the paddy fields.

Minh Mang Tombs.

Racing through narrow streets.

Be careful lady in floral pyjamas and pointy hat!.

This lady was amazing and famous in her area. She make the conical hats and is so skilled at it! Plus she only has one hand! Puts me to shame.

Cute girl.

Cute old lady.

Cute cow.

Incent stick maker.

Incent sticks.

When I think of Vietnam, this is the image I have in my head.

Riding back into the city.

Hang on a minute, is Heidi hugging him? Hmmmm.

The whole thing was brilliantly run and Bobby our guide did an excellent job of explaining everything.

Our guide Bobby.

In the evening we went for a meal at the Mandarin Cafe owned and ran by photographer Mr Cu. His work is on display around the restaurant and you can buy any of his work on postcards or large prints. He was a very friendly man and showed me all his really nice expensive cameras and equipment which I was very jealous of!

Wednesday

We checked out of our hotel before driving to a site called the Imperial Citadel which is similar to the forbidden city in Beijing. The area was huge and beautiful but it was very hot and were soon off to our next destination Hoi An.

The imperial Citadel.

With our new group we departed early Sunday on a 4 hour bus journey to Ha Long Bay where we boarded our beautiful Junk boat, which would be our accomodation for the night. Ha Long Bay is a beautiful natural bay made of hundreds of lime stone outcrops and islands. Our journey on the boat would be for 24 hours, sailing out before anchoring for the night in the bay.

Our Chinese Junk boat.

The harbour where we boarded our boat.

The service on the boat was amazing. As soon as we boarded the boat we had lunch given to us. Our other meals were dinner that evening and breakfast and lunch the next day. The food was delicious and plentiful (8 course meals!) and mainly consisted of fresh seafood. Clams, shrimp, crab, fish…you name it, it was served up, mmmmm!

The dining room looked like it was decorated for a wedding day.

Eating with Michelle and Andrea.

Mmmm, shrimp.

Mmmmm, elephant clams.

Mmmm, Dragon Fruit.

The scenery itself was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky to have a warm sunny day as 2 thirds of the time it rains or clouds over. The sun meant we all sat on the top deck on the sun loungers admiring the scenery as it drifted slowly past.

Chilling on the sun deck.

Gorgeous scenery.

A floating village. I think Top Gear went here when the did that Vietnam episode.

Pretty junk boat.

Did I mention the scenery was amazing?

Nice scenery again.

Our cabins were also gorgeous. Two little beds and a bathroom with power and air con. It was really nice and nothing like we had expected.

Our cute little cabin.

Life jacket Heidi.

In the afternoon we docked on one of the islands where we got to visit a very big cave. Unlike the pitch black ones we ventured into in Vang Vieng this one was a bit more disneyfied with pretty lighting, lots of tourists and even music. It was very nice nonetheless and it was very very big inside! THe outside of the cave also gave spectacular views over the bay.

Big cave!

Outside of the cave.

Great views of the bay.

More nice views.

Monkey parking!

After the cave we were conviced by the guide to have another go at kayaking. After our last incident on the river I’m not sure why we decided too but we are glad we did as it was amazing. It seemed to be far easier to paddle along the sea water than it was down the slow river. Perhaps it was a different type of kayak, I’m not sure, but it was very enyoyable.

Kayak Heidi.

Backseat driver Christian.

HeHe I’m not doing any of the paddling!

It was us two then Rhonda and Megan in the other kayak and led by one of the boats crew who guided us around. It was so cool! We went through tiny gaps in the rocks and we were taken through a cave in one of the limestone outcrops. On the other side was this big lagoon completely sorrounded by rock. Wow! A secret lagoon only accessible by this cave.
We then paddled to a place where we could watch the sunset. Awesome!

The little cave at the bottom of the rock is the only entrance to the lagoon.

Watching the sunset go down.

Nice!

That night we slept really well in our cute cabin.

Boats parked up at night.

Monday

After breakfast we sailed back to port.

On the way we stopped at Ti Top island. This was the only island we came across where you could ge on and walk around. We climbed the hundreds of stairs to the viewing point at the top before fell running down and jumping into the cold sea for a quick swim.

The view from the top of Ti Top island.

Us under the pagoda at the top.

Our whole group got to the top!

Having a swim in Ha Long Bay.

We had our farewell brunch before our bus ride back to Hanoi. We had just enough tie to walk into town to have some more Fannys ice cream. My Chocolate Ligeoise was out of this world.

In the afternoon we caught the bus to the train station where we boarded our overnight train to Huey. This train was not as good in my opinion as the one in Thailand to Chiang Mai. The cabins had 4 people in each on two bunk beds either side. The beds were a bit small (built for Asian and Heidi sized people) but it was fine and we slept ok. We shared with Paula and Lee both from England, and it was nice to chat with them and get to know them a little better.