My Birthday and a not so Merry Christmas!

Spending my birthday and 3 days on a tropical island is just as good as it sounds. After waiting months to go to Koh Rong it certainly did not disappoint! We had our own beach front bungalow which was only a few metres from the sea.


Our bungalow

 On our first full day on the island, which we are told is roughly the size of Hong Kong, we decided to trek across to the other side to what was apparently an almost deserted beach. Asking for directions at the bar we were told it was about 45 mins and to follow the white marks on the trees. Easy. Turns out it was a bit more difficult than we thought. Flip flops weren't the best choice of footwear and made the journey a bit harder. To get to the beach we had to climb down a steep, stoney path, it was that steep that at some points there were ropes to help us hold on.

The descent

It was all worth it though when we got to the beach...

We spent the morning swimming, relaxing and walking on the beach. It was probably the best beach we have ever been on, it stretched for miles, was almost deserted, beautiful white sand and clear turquoise waters. Paradise. On the way back along the beach we met 4 girls who we met in the bar the previous evening. We all decided that rather than hike back up we would wait for sunset and then get a boat back. The evening turned cloudy and we didn't see much of a sunset but that didn't matter after the day we had.

Leanne's Birthday - We spent most of the day lazing in hammocks, lying on the beach and eating Wie's food(the head chef at the restaurant, this is possibly the best place we have eaten at so far on our trip).

Leanne enjoying the hammock - I attempt to sit in my hammock half way through but miss it and fall on the sand

In the evening we had more food and a few drinks with the girls. They all bought Leanne a bottle of Champagne and sang Happy Birthday to celebrate. Also one of the staff was a fire thrower so he treated us to a show on the beach in front of the Christmas tree.

'T' fire throwing

As we were about to leave some of the bar staff at Monkey Island called us over and gave us a birthday shot, Absinthe and Sambuca Needless to say we had to then buy another drink to wash away the taste so we ended up staying for a couple of hours chatting to the bar staff who were all really friendly.

We left Koh Rong feeling disappointed to be leaving such a beautiful place but we soon forgot all about it as we had to focus on staying alive during a boat ride from hell. The boat was pretty small and the waves were huge. Luckily we put our bags in their waterproof covers, we did not have such a luxury for ourselves. Unfortunately we do not have pictures of this event, firstly because we don't want to remember the experience and secondly because we were too scared to take our cameras out!

We then spent a night back in Phnom Penh before heading to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This is where things took a turn for the worse. We arrived on Christmas eve and Leanne didn't feel well on the bus  journey. She got worse as the night went on and apart from a quick venture out for food we spent the whole afternoon and night in bed. Unfortunately the big guy didn't bring Leanne what she wanted - to feel better. Luckily we had cable TV in our room so watched Miracle on 34th Street and The Santa Claus which made us a bit more festive. Other than that and a few random Christmas decorations you would have no idea it was Christmas day. Leanne managed to get enough energy to go to an internet cafe where we skyped our parents before accompanying me to my Christmas dinner which was beef noodles. How festive!

Anyway the next morning I felt much better, regrettably it was Rob's turn to be ill! Instead of wasting another day in bed, I decided to leave Rob ill in bed (even though he stayed with me the day before) and explore the city. I was a little scared to go out by myself especially as I wasn't 100% but I am 23 and a big girl now! I went to see the Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum, both very interesting and an insight into Vietnam war.

Outside the War Remnants museum

The traffic in Saigon is unbelievable, there are so many scooters. I captured this as I was walking back to check on the patient.

The next day we were both feeling well enough to get up so we booked a tour to go to the Mekong river delta (the ricebowl of Vietnam). To sum it up in one word: Disappointing. We were expecting a busy, colourful floating market instead we were faced with this:

Meh

Despite the tour guides insisting that it was a busy beautiful day and that the water was very clean, there were hardly any boats, the weather was cloudy and the water was filthy. We may be being a bit harsh and some parts were interesting to see, but as we were with a tour most of the day was filled with touristy money making opportunities. It was just annoying that after 3 days of us being stuck in bed this was our first outing.

Having had a few wasted days in Ho Chi Minh it meant that we would either have to extend our stay there by a few more days than planned or move on without seeing much of the city or doing a few other things we would have liked such as the Cu Chi tunnels. We decided that there was lots more to see in Vietnam and we had seen some of Ho Chi Minh so we would leave today, the 28th as planned and travel to Mui Ne.

We got the bus this morning and we arrived in Mui Ne early afternoon. It is a seaside town, well more of a long strip than a town. It has many more upmarket beach resorts than we were expecting, in the end we found a place for pretty cheap, it is just a room with a bed though literally nothing else almost reminiscent of a prison cell. It is weird that this is the same price we paid in HCMC but there we had an en suite, hot water, fridge and cable TV. Anyway we left our room sharpish and went to Fairy Spring (sounds like a manly place).

Seriously if anyone know how to rotate these let us know

At first we were a little unimpressed with walking up a dirty stream but as we followed the meandering river it revealed a vivid landscape of red sand and chalky, craggy rocks. It was very peaceful and relaxing to walk in the stream up to a waterfall at the end. At some points it was only a few metres wide with rocks jutting up either side.

Tomorrow we plan to go to some sand dunes where you can slide down them. We are only spending one more night in Mui Ne before heading further north up the coast. The weather is likely to turn a bit colder something we won't be used to, having been in sweltering heat for 4 weeks now (we left 4 weeks ago today).

If we don't post another blog before the new year then we wish you all a Happy New Year!!!

A capital, a sleepy riverside town and the beach!

Note: Some of the following may have been altered for entertainment purposes.

On the bus journey to Phnom Penh we stopped off at a service station, well by the side of a road of stalls in a small town. One of the delicacies on offer were bugs and lots of them. Huge barbequed spiders, spiced crickets and cockroaches.

Mmmmmm

 They looked delicious, I couldn't wait to try them so we ordered a bagful of each and proceeded to munch and crunch our way through the whole selection in less than 20 minutes. The spiders were the real treat, Thai Sweet Chilli Sensations step aside as my favourite snack Spiders and bugs are now number 1. 


Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and lies where the Tonle Sap river meets the Mekong. It is a much bigger and busier city then the small town of Siem Reap we came from. We arrived early afternoon and after a quick stop for some street food we went to our guesthouse where I luckily caught a rerun of the Chelsea Man City match, good result for us (shame about the Wigan game). For dinner we visited 'Friends' a restaurant that is run by a charity and all the employees are kids taken from a life on the street and taught a trade. Once they become trained they turn teacher to the new intake and then most graduate to hotels and restaurants in the area. As well as being a good cause the food was amazing and the main reason for its popularity.

Half eaten meal

The food was that good we forgot to take a photo till half way through, at which point we had already demolished the beef tacos.

There isn't a great deal to do in Phnom Penh sight seeing wise. We spent our first day there walking around the city, we visited a market where we bought a memory card reader to make updating our blog quicker...Doesnt work, two cheap watches...The water resistant marking on the back had already smudged and stained Leanne's wrist after 5 minutes, safe to say they will be going nowhere near water. After our shopping trip we had some street food and then Pandan cake. Those of you unawares to the joys of Pandan cake are seriously missing out.

Now those of you who know me know how much I love chocolate cake but this is a serious contender to best cake (Obviously a Sara Lee Gateau would still be the best) and at only 25p we couldn't resist one each day we were in Phnom Penh.

On our walk down the river we came across this street side 'gym'. I gave some of the machines a go, trying to keep my body in its peak physical condition, whilst working out a little child began using them and started to compete with me. Leanne claims he won but it was an unfair contest as he was on home soil!

Anyway on a more serious note the next day we visited the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison. We explained in the previous blog about Cambodia's recent history and the Killing Fields were where thousands of innocent civilians were executed. On the surface it seems like such a peaceful place, long grasses, a lake and an orchard but when you know what it really it then is anything but. You can still see the depressions in the earth where mass graves once were and in rainy season it is not uncommon for bones and rags to get washed up in the graves. The worst part was a huge tree that, in order to save on expensive ammunition, children and babies were smashed against and then tossed in the grave. The first people to find this site claim that there was still blood, brains, hair and tooth fragments on the bark of the tree. There is now a memorial building here to remember all those that lost their lives, inside it stands a 30ft glass case which houses thousands of skulls, bones and rags that have been found here. We only took one picture here as it isn't really the place to go snap happy but we thought one of the memorial would give an indication of the place.

The Prison was where the Khmer Rouge kept their prisoners before transporting them to the Killing Fields. It was another chilling place, once a school it was transformed into something a lot darker. The classrooms became many cells measuring only a 4ft by 8ft that housed the prisoners and exercise yards were used as arenas for torture. Now half a museum there are many photographs of all the prisoners, when they arrived they all had to get one taken. The most disturbing ones are of small children and ones showing tortured bodies.

Now back to a lighter tone, we headed to the small riverside town of Kampot. It is a world away from all we saw in Phnom Penh, a peaceful place a relaxed feel about it. We spend two days here not doing much, we rented bicycles one day to ride around and explore the town. After a night out at a bar further up river with some live music recommend to us by our tuk tuk driver. We met him there later on with his english girlfriend who just graduated from Cambridge and moved to Cambodia against her parents will while they were on holiday. Getting back at 1am we found the gates to our guesthouse closed and locked. We had no alternative but to scale the wall, I was impressed with Leanne's never before seen climbing ability. One wrong move could have proved fatal!

The Wall - It seemed a lot bigger in the dark and the tiles on top were loose.

 We are now in the seaside town of Sihanoukville and we have spent the last two days doing nothing but lying on the beach, swimming and relaxing...it feels so good! We sat and watched the sunset on the beach the first night with 30p beers and barbequed barracuda, not often you get the chance to do that in December.

A panoramic view of the beach

Leanne enjoying a mid-afternoon dip

Another beautiful sunset - The best yet!

Tomorrow we are off to a tropical island 2 hours off the coast of Cambodia called Koh Rong/Rung. So we will be spending the next 3 nights in a beach front bungalow, our last night being Leanne's Birthday. We then head to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam on Christmas eve so this is probably our last blog before Christmas so we wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope St Nick is good to you all. We have sent all of you presents in the post but I have heard some stories about the Cambodia postal service being a bit dodgy during the festive period so lets hope they reach you (;

Bangkok and Siem Reap

It's Leanne and its my turn to post a blog, for those that know me you will know that I love my food so this will be very food centric. And Bangkok and Cambodia have been great for food.

We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, early evening on 8th December after making our way to our Guest House (it was very basic, there wasn't even a toilet paper!) as we were famished we started on our quest for food. Luckily we were staying near the infamous Khao San Road so we didn't need to walk far. The streets were bustling with loads of people and we chose one busy street stall that was full of Thais and Westerners.

Rob with our first Bangkok-ian meal, looking very tired

We don't know what our first meal was, we were kind of given it but it tasted good. It was rice noodles (vermecilli), chicken and chinese leaf, it was yum -even Rob liked it I mean it doesn't look that appealing does it! Afterwards we had some Pad Thai but just ate that walking through the streets- very classy! It is the nation's most popular dish so had to be tried! But don't have a picture to show you.

After much needed sleep (travelling makes you very tired) we decided to use our only day in Bangkok to see some sights. Our first stop was Wat Phra Keow which is home to The Grand Palace amongst other temples. This place was amazing, no words will do it justice, not even our pictures, but here are a few:

In front of the Grand Palace

Rob in front of one of the many temples

This place was so bling, P Diddy/Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs would have felt well at home here. We also got chatting to Estelle, a lovely French lady whom we walked around the site with (Bangkok friend!!).
After that we had more street food (Rob's new fave), two can dine for 2 pounds, beats M&S anyday!

Still haven't managed to rotate photos

With full bellies we went to Wat Pho, the reclining Buddha, it was massive, no seriously this baby was nearly 50m long and 20m high.

Reclining Buddha with 2 randoms

We then visited Wat Arun before watching the sunset across the River Chao Phraya:

More street food, with a magician followed. We enjoyed our short stay in Bangkok, and are looking forward to returning in a month or so. Even with the recent flooding it was much cleaner than India.

We woke the next day to travel to Siem Reap. We heard a lot of horror stories about this journey, but we got through no trouble, only a bit of waiting. Rob even had time to try his first Snickers bar on the journey!

The main reason we went to Siem Reap is to see the Temples of Angkor, however our first port of call was to satistfy our rumbling tummies.

Beef and noodles for me and beef and rice for Rob, you can tell we missed beef after India!

Still not satisfied with that we had some dessert of banana and chocolate pancakes on the walk back to the Guest House.

He pulled the dough like pizza, a little different but they  were so good though and we are definitely having these again!

The Angkor Temples were unbelievable. Built by the Khmers they were a series of temples which are now mainly ruins. There are in the middle of the countryside and have been there so long the trees and stone are as one. One of many examples below:

Rob says: Unbelievable Jeff

It took 2 days to explore the site. On the first we had a tuk tuk to take us around to the more further afield temples. One exit of the temple brought us to this:

Not bad, eh?

The second day we rented bicycles and woke up at 4am to see Angkor Wat (the biggest religious structure in the world) for sunrise.

After sunrise we got to explore Angkor Wat, Rob was allowed up to the top of the Temple, but didn't let me in because I was dressed too provacatively, I think she was just jealous of my legs.

That's me in the gateway below... for riel!

The only bad side of our experience was the frequent hassling of sellers trying to get us to buy books, bracelets and scarves. However some of the kids were so cute! Rob made friends with Sia who was selling bracelets. As they were 2 for a dollar I picked my favourite one and we asked her to pick her favourite one and gave that to her. She was really loud and confident when trying to get us to buy her stuff, then turned shy and seemed confused when we asking her favourite one but she was happy when we gave it to her.

Me and Sia

Whilst cycling to see a more remote temple we befriended some local Camobian school boys keen to practise their English, they took us to a viewing platform that gave a spectacular view of the surrounding scenery.

Me with my new friends

This is just an example of the kind nature of the Cambodian people we have experienced. Everyone is very friendly and happy which is surprising given their horrific recent history (if you don't know what this is, read up on the Pol Pot regime. I might have to read this myself  but  Rob told me they killed up to 5 million people, simply  being being deemed intellectual was deemed a reason to be killed. Some of the criteria for being 'intellectual' included wearing glasses or knowing another language. Frighteningly all this happened only 30 years ago!) The children also explained that Cambodia is still very corrupt, they told us that if they haven't got enough money to pay the teachers then they will fail their exams even if they get 100%. And even if they manage to do this and get good grades they will more than likely need to bribe someone to get a good job. Makes you realise how lucky we are.

That takes us to now, we leave for Phnom Penh tomorrow morning. Then plan to head south to Sihanoukville for some much needed beach time - It is soo hot here I can't wait for a refreshing dip in the sea!

Agra and Delhi (second time lucky)

Our first stop in Agra was the Taj Mahal. This was the place we were most looking forward to visiting in India and it didn't disappoint. It really is a beautiful as everyone says it is, the only downside was the number of people there but I guess when you visit a place such as this then you can't expect much else.

The Taj Mahal (and us)



Leanne jumping for joy!


We spent a an hour walking around the site, when you get up close you really appreciate the intricate detail and workmanship, its no surprise it took about 20000 people and 22 years to build. We were hoping to see it at sunrise when it is meant to appear a different colour but apparently at this time of the year it is too foggy in the morning. Whether this is true or if it was just our driver wanting a lie in we aren't sure!

Agra isn't a very nice place to visit and other than the Taj Mahal the only other place worth visiting is Agra Fort. We weren't expecting much but we were impressed. It offered some fantastic views of the Taj Mahal and we had a more relaxing walk around the ruins of the old fort.




A courtyard in Agra Fort ( I am not at all jealous of Leanne's new camera and all its features)



 The next day we made our way back to Delhi. It is a 2 hour train journey but it takes 6 hours in a car. We couldn't really understand why this would be but we soon reaslised. Traffic was horredous, as always in India. To make matters worse there was a festival in a temple which we passed. I have never seen so many people along one road before. And it as just as bad on it, buses with people on the roof, tractors, rickshaws, taxis, cars, trucks, horses, cows, camel and elephants you name it it was on our road! People seemed to be camping out near the temple but it was in  horrible state, there was rubbish everywhere, at one point I saw a small child having a poo a metre away from a mother and baby eating. Makes you appreciate what we have back home.

(A video of the traffic should go here but these computers are prehistoric and would not load it even though we have been here almost 3 hours. (sorry Army no videos but just use your imagination instead))

So the journey pretty much took up our whole day. Our hotel in Delhi is a bit of a dump. Old, smelly and dirty. Needless to say we whacked out our silk sleeping bag liners to protect us from the sheets. Not wanting to spend too much time in our hole we went out for food. It was possibly one of the nicest meals so far and it only cost about 4 quid for both of us. 

Mmmmmm Dosai

 We visited Arkshadam Temple the next day after surviving our first night in Delhi. Unfortunately we weren't allowed any bags or cameras in so we don't have any photos but it was beautiful. It was built only 30 years ago (I think) so it doesn't have the same history as some other places but it was still magnificent. It was however a bit too touristy as there was 3 exihibitions which I thought were a waste of time. One of them proclaimed that India or an Indian invented/discovered:

1. The laws of gravity before Newton.

2. Pi

3. Trigonometry before Pythagoras (even though he is the father of trigonometry)

4. Chess

5. University

6. Plastic Surgery and Vetinary science

7. And aeroplanes and spaceships

I find this hard to believe!

Anyway back to the real world, (and what Leanne wants to talk about) the food court there was amazing. We had a Thali and samosas. I am happy to accept that Indians invented these.

On the way back to our hotel we visited India Gate at sunset. 

India Gate

There was lots of people and hawkers here and Leanne was set upon by three Henna 'artists'.

Today was our last day in India and we visited Qutab Minar (a big column). Again it was a really beautiful place but our experience there was somewhat tainted by the hoards of school children harrasing us for handshakes and photos. At one point I was sure they mistook us for Brad and Angelina but then I realised Leanne was Chinese so that couldn't have been the case. (maybe Brad and Lucy Liu). We literally couldn't get away from them at one point a security guard had to come and tell them to go away!

A small group attacking Leanne ( we can't figure out how to rotate)

Rob with Qutab Minar

We also seen these two green birds amongst the stone monuments, 10 points to whoever can tell us what type of bird they are. It also gave me a chance to play Leanne's camera.

Possible wildlife photograph of the year I think!

On the way back to the city centre we visited Dilli Haat, a bazaar with non-pushy sellers and the last and best curry we have had in India.

The photo does not do it justice

We lethargically ambled around the market with our full bellies before coming to this internet cafe.

We fly out of Delhi tomorrow for Bangkok. Our time in India didn't start well but it really picked up and was a good introduction for our 8 months away. Our overall impressions of India are busy, loud, dirty, colourful and friendly. India has a rich history and some of the sights we have seen were amazing, we are sad to leave (but relieved to leave our hotel).

We hope this blog wasn't too long but we felt we had so much to share, we really enjoy reading your comments so please keep them coming.

Fun Fact (keeping with bird theme) : India's national bird is the Peacock!



The Two Sides of India: Part 2

We awoke the second morning hoping that our second day in India would be more enjoyable than the first... it was! After our ordeal the night before we didn't meet Rajan (our driver) until 1pm. We had woken up for breakfast earlier before we went back to bed, this consisted of toast, eggs and cornflakes, I opted for eggs but Rob went for the cornflakes with hot milk... the look on his face when the milk scolded his cornflakes was hilarious!

Our first stop in Jaipur was Amber Fort. It is a red sandstone fort, built in the 17th Century, by Raja Man Singh. It was a beautiful mix of the Inidan and Mogul heritage. We wondered around for a couple of hours, there were lots of stairwells and different rooms and corridors to explore, so we had a lot of fun discovering new places.

Gardens in front of Shesh Mahal (Hall of mirrors)

The Hall of Mirrors

The most impressive was the hall the mirrors and garden in front of it. There were lots more to see, including good views of the surrounding landscape and the city of Jaipur. After the day we had yesterday we were glad to be doing something enjoyable.

Next we went to the Jal Mahal (Water Palace), I wasn't too fussed about this, basically a bog standard "palace" in the middle of the lake, Rob raved about this, which is why I added this photo



Rob raving in front of the Water Palace


That evening we went back to the hotel and then went to the shops, here we got chatting to a couple of local Indian boys around our age. They invited us to see their friends' elephants down the road, not something you hear everyday. We were alittle wary considering the day before but they seemed genuine and they just wanted to practise their English. We were really sad to see these 6 elephants chained in a barn, the elephants were impressive but it was depressing to see them tied up. We chatted for a while and they invited us to a wedding along the road, we were intrigued and took them up on their offer.

We were a little cautious about gatecrashing the wedding, but everyone was very friendly and treated us like celebrities, they invited us to go up on stage on and get a picture taken with the bride and groom. They were the only people that were not so happy to see us, but wouldn't you be if some random foreigners came to your wedding! We even plucked up the courage to dance on the dancefloor to some Bhangra Beats. Rob claims to have been offered a part as a Bollywood extra due to his killer moves. His dancing was a sight to behold... not a good one!

Do they look like the moves of a Bollywood dancer?

This massively changed our perspective of India. This day was so much better than the first and we finally got to interact with some nice honest Inidan locals.

Today we woke up earlier and checked out of hotel and had a look around Jaipur city centre (the Pink City). We visited the City Palace, Jantar Mantar ( an amazing observatory built in the 10th Century) and Hawa Mahal (a wall basically). None of these sights were as impressive as the Amber Fort, but we still enjoyed it, the stand out part of the day was when we were walking around a local market with monkeys (Rob wanted me to mention the monkeys) and we were kindly offered some street food, we offered to pay but they wouldn't accept anything.

Amazing Street food

We are now in a hotel in Agra, we drove here from Jaipur in the heat of the day. To say I sweated in the back of the car would be an understatement. My trousers were literally drenched!! The last two days have definitely been enjoyable and restored our opinion of India. Hopefully the rest of our stay here is just as good!!