"the alternative was much worse..."

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and have plans for new year well in hand! We are in Hanoi and unsure of our plans, the Vietnamese apparently go totally crazy for the lunar new year, but that's about a fortnight away and we will sadly have left so not sure what will happen tomorrow (probably cocoa in bed by 9!)

Cambodia is a country with a difficult past, for anyone who doesn't know then Wikipedia is a better bet than us for detailed history... a communist revolution led by Pol Pot and the Kmer Rouge in the 1970's attempted to make the entire country an agricultural socialist state. People were forcibly marched out of towns to the country to become farmers leaving ghost towns behind them. The state set massive targets for increasing rice production, these were missed but overseers claimed they were met and sent off the agreed portion to market whilst the workers were left without food or seed stock. Millions died of starvation or through persecution, torture and murder as enemies of the state. The country exported rice whilst people starved and educated people, those who wore glasses or percieved enemies of the revolution were rounded up and removed to torture camps or just dissapeared.

We visited a museum based in a former school that was converted into a prison and torture camp, we also intended to visit the so called 'killing fields' where mass graves have been partially excavated and where most of the former prisioners of the camp ended up. We didn't make the trip to the killing fields as there is only so much you can take in or experience of mans ability to inflict misery and suffering on eachother, I think if you read what we saw below then you'll understand.

The museum itself is excellent although not for those of a delicate disposition, there are cells left as they were when in use with pictures of what was found following the overthrow of the regime (some very graphic but important so people aren't allowed to forget what happened... it's a chilling experience to see a photo of a man who had been tortured to death in a room you are standing in, the body chained to the same bed that is the only furniture that remains in the room) there are rooms filled with photos of every person recorded as coming through the camp together with photos of the guards. The guards and the prisoners were often so young... it's hard to look into the eyes of a boy of 13 or 14 and know that they were a guard here and therefore guilty of killing and torturing the people in the neighbouring photos. The photos of the guards and the prisoners are displayed side by side and you try unconciously to see some difference between them, something in the guards photos that shows them as being capable of evil acts, some sneer or darkened look but it's not there. The only way you can identify the guards is that they are wearing hats.

In another room there are interviews with some of the former guards now working as housewives, fishermen or farmers... they don't display remorse for their role in the prison saying generally that they were following orders or feared for their own lives if they refused to work there. They blame the rulers of the Kmer rouge and call for them to be prosecuted... it's hard to accept that they haven't been punished for their part in what happened but few others have either.

Away from the dark stories of the Kmer rouge the city of Phom Penh is hard to love, you can't really walk anywhere, the polution and rubbish are amongst the worst we've experienced on the trip and to be perfectly honest we didn't really enjoy the city as we have with other cities on this trip (the exception being an excellent restaurant run by a non profit organisation that trains street kids to be chefs... zuchini and cheddar fritters... yum), we left after few days and visited a town on the south west coast where we hung out on the beach eating fresh seafood and enjoying our first sight of the sea since the islands right back at the start of the trip!

Cambodia has many of the same problems with UXOs as Laos but it is slightly wealthier and has better healthcare (it's a relative position but still better) which means more people survive an encounter with a land mine, we saw this first hand on the beach as we encountered a large number of land mine victims asking for alms (pun not intended and only spotted on review I promise) on the beach together with the usual hawkers of beads, fruit, and hair removal. It's a strange experience to look a man in the eye and shake him firmly by the stump, but not as uncomfortable as you might imagine.

It is strange to western eyes to see so many disfigured people but as there is no social security for some people begging from tourists is one of the few ways they can make a living. We made a point of buying bracelets and books from the disabled hawkers (at inflated prices... shaking arms is one thing, you try out-bargaining a man with no legs) and kept change to give out as well, when a girl who looks about 4 or 5 asks shyly to take the left over food from your plate it is very difficult to stop yourself from handing over the contents of your wallet or ordering them half the menu from wherever you happen to be... but local advice books ask tourists not to give to children at all as they are often controlled by adults and made to work as beggars or peddlars when they should be at school, it's sound advice but it doesn't make it easy.

Other than the beach peddlars our time at the beach was notable mainly for the sunsets which were fantastic, the seafood fresh off the boat, and the illness that befell one of our party who shall remain nameless. It was a classic travellers mallaise that allowed this person to demonstrate their resiliance and quick thinking under the worst kind of pressure... they emerged greenly from the bathroom and muttered "I'm sorry if the bathroom smells funny, I was on the toilet and had to vomit on the floor, I've cleaned it up but the alternative was much worse"... we're thinking of getting it printed on a t-shirt. Once all illness had left the camp we packed up and boarded a bus direct for Vietnam.

Food for thought

Hello again,

Well we felt like this was becoming a big captains log of where we have been and how we got there... and it will be again but that gets a bit tiring to write and I'm sure a bit tiring to read... to be honest we were never sure what we wanted this blog to be for or about... initially we thought of it as a postcard to whoever wanted to read it, then it became a place to tell stories that we wanted to remember and something we would look back on as a way to remember the trip... we're still not sure what it is but we'll carry on regardless :) .

Well the subject of this entry is markets. Markets in this part of the world are generally the social and commercial centre of any town or village. The range of produce is often overwhelming and it feels like the whole town is there bartering loudly and examining various items for sale. When we first started this trip we were a bit timid in these places, we felt a bit out of place and frankly couldn't identify some of the things for sale (when was the last time you played 'what animal is that' at the butchers counter in Tesco or Sainsburys?). Over time we've come to feel more comfortable and have tried things and chatted to people and have fun guessing at least whether something is animal, vegetable or mineral... so now whenever we get to a new town one of the things we want to see and explore are the markets, whether it's textiles in Laos, military surplus in Vietnam or frogs, strange cat like creatures and live fish in buckets in Cambodia it's been a good way to get the feel for town and watch people bustle around like the cultural voyeurs that we have become.

This fascination with markets has another advantage besides allowing us to peer into the lives of the people around us...when we first started this trip we would board buses or boats clutching a couple of packets of crisps, some oreos and a couple of bottles of water all purchased from a 7-11 or similar, now we head to the market if we can and clamber aboard clutching lychee like things, some small bananas and green oranges having spent the afternoon trying to barter away the inevitable tourist tax! A lot healthier, cheaper and more satisfying :) (we tried a mango once but if anyone knows how to eat one of those on a bus with a penknife without covering yourself and those around you in juice please let us know!)

The colours, smells, sounds and life of an Asian market has to be seen to be believed, all the exotic fruits from the supermarkets back home actually grow here and a heaving fruit or vegetable stall just looks like something put together for a photo shoot, not sure if I'd trade in supermarkets just yet, you'd never get a trolley down the aisles here and some of the smells would probably get them shut down in a second... but I think whilst we gained in hygene and convenience we lost something as well (botulism probably).

Next update will finish of our Cambodian adventure and see us into Vietnam where we've been for the last week already.

How many buses does it take to get to Angkor Wat?

Well since the last entry we visited a place called the 4,000 Islands where the Mekong spreads out out to a width of 14km and there are a lot of islands. It was very peaceful and picturesque but also a little light on things to blog about. One of the 'things to see' on the island we stayed on was a rusting French locomotive interesting only as this was the only train line that the French ever built in Laos and it went between two islands, wasn't attached to the mainland and no longer runs at all. People took multiple pictures of this whilst we wondered what they would say to their friends "Wait 'til you see this picture I took in Laos of this rusted train" one presumes.

The islands were very peaceful however and we spent a nice couple of days lying in hammocks watching the water buffalo graze on the island opposite and making small talk with an exhuberant Romanian who had spent a day being smuggled over the border to Cambodia where he got drunk with a load of fishermen and ate bbq'd cockroaches... oh and a few raw ones as well... he admitted to being 'pretty drunk, and really hungry.' We've thought about it and we don't think we've ever been that drunk or that hungry but is it really worse than a kebab?

The islands were our last stop in Laos and we arranged onward transportation to Siem Reap in Cambodia, the trip involved one boat, 7 buses, one hotel that let out rooms by the hour (our very own Aussie thunderbolt battled with the manager who tried to overcharge the entire bus!) and at one point had 18 people plus luggage crammed into a bus that even the Cambodians said would normally only take 14 but all this is normal now and we exchanged tales with fellow passengers sipped our water and ate bananas to pass the time.

Angkor Wat is the most famous of a series of large and ornate palaces built by a series of God Kings who ruled a massive empire during the 12th century, there was also an ancient city that once contained over 1 million people but as only the Gods were allowed to live in houses made of stone there are no remains of the city.

We were told that if you bought a ticket after 4pm for the next day then you could get in and watch sunset the night before... we did this but frankly the sunset was not that impressive, the sun went down over the countryside rather than any temples and the countryside is somewhat remeniscent of Kent. We spent most of our time people watching and wondering what people were getting excited about and taking photos of? (French train syndrome) In the end we took a few to show willing but our hearts weren't in it (we admired the group who had brought pizza and beer with them though... clever buggers).

The next day we had arranged a tuk tuk driver to take us around the major sights and temple complexes including the giant faces of the Bayon Temple, the famous tree root covered ruins of Ta Prohm and the crown jewel of Angkor Wat... we also agreed to go and watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat... anyone who has seen our photos knows that we do like sunsets as a rule, possibly like them too much, but that there is a notable lack of sunrises. Well this time would be different! We arranged to be picked up together with our travelling companions at 5am the next day.

Well it was worth it, we turned left when everyone else turned right (a tactic from the L Foster school of crown avoidance and queue optimisation strategy) and had a section of the grounds all to ourselves, we watched the sun rise over one of the most stunning temples of SE Asia, the jewel of Cambodia. It was an amazing experience and the rest of the day didn't dissapoint either. We found the temples, carvings, giant moats and general grandeur of the place a real highlight, I don't think I have the words to do this place justice (although we certainly took enough photos to paint several million words) it was magnificent and blew away any fears we had that perhaps the hype and guide book descriptions had been over generous in their praise. It was outstanding.

At the end of our time in Siem Reap the time had come to part company with David and Martine who we had been travelling with for the previous 2 weeks, we went out for nice meal and, much as we had for the past fortnight passed the time talking like old friends and greatly enjoying each others company, as we have just left behind a number of very old and very dear friends it was really nice to find people who we felt so comfortable with and it was sad to see them go but also exciting to be on our own again and facing the challenges of the trip and making decisions on what to do and where to go as a twosome! We were leaving for Pnom Penh in the morning and they were headed to Thailand.

Travels in Laos with the Dutch

Hello again.



Well we have now been at this trip for nearly 2 months which means we are nearly half way through! We're having a great time, but also feeling quite tired of constantly moving on and not having a base of our own... one of us (you'll never guess...) has developed a fixation on Vegemite on toast and it's lack of availability :)





When last we wrote we were still in Laos in the Capital Vientiane, we headed south from there through Laos stopping at Pakse (a town notable mainly for the number of bus stops... or not as the case may be, but more on that later) where we decided to take a side trip together with a Dutch couple we were travelling with to look at a couple of waterfalls and Champasak, an ancient city and temple complex related to Angkor Wat which we were intending to visit in Cambodia.





We hired mopeds to visit the temple, the only bikes available had gears which our cool Dutch colleagues had no trouble with as one of them was taking their bike test... your Anglo-Australian correspondents were not quite so confident but after first stalling 5 or 6 times, we managed to get the hang of it. It's a great way to see bits of Laos as there are very few cars and on this area at least the roads are pretty good... until they suddenly end... on the wrong side of the river...





It turned out there was a ferry which consisted of two small fishermans boats tied together... oh, and you have to ride onto it over a plank of wood about 4 inches wide... and then stop, quickly, before the boat ends.





Needless to say we allowed our friends to go up first, and having watched their faultless boarding, and decided that driving into the Mekong would be better than the humiliation of admitting that we were scared we sailed on board, remembered to brake... but not how to change gear and stalled the bike to a standstill... much to the amusement of the fishermen trying to move it into a more useful position... oh well.





We actually saw a more conventional ferry later on, with buses on it etc. but the admiring looks we got from the tourists on the other boat made it all worth it, we were cool dangerous kind of tourists... or mental possibly... people took photos of us :)





Champasak itself was well worth the trip, the final temple was set at the end of a long ancient road, past two identical palaces (thought to be one for the girls, one for the boys) and then atop a series of very steep steps taking you to a series of different levels... pilgrims were made to work for their blessings. A photo from the top is below but it is pretty amazing, your final destination is about a mile from the start of the ancient road.




The next day we decided that as the ride had been further than it looked we would get the bus to a couple of nearby waterfalls as this would be "easier" ... well we got a tuk tuk driver to take us to the bus station which turned out to be under construction (but it looked nice if you are in the area in 6 months or so...



Undeterred we wandered around until we found the right road and joined what passes for a local bus (an old pick up truck with seats down both sides and a roof strapped on) together with half a dozen locals, a dozen sacks of rice and a large assortment of fruit and vegetables. We made stops all along the way, weren't totally sure that we were headed in the right direction, dropped people and shopping orders from the market off along the way and helped load and unload and were cheerfully charged 4 times what everyone else had been paying at the end (one passenger openly laughed aloud when they saw how much we had agreed to pay) but we didn't mind as it was a great experience, one old lady gave us bananas and made friends with a couple of the kids (a digitalo camera looks like magic if you've never seen one) :)



The waterfalls were pretty but again further away than we thought and we ended up walking 5km in the heat and the dust (unsealed roads) whilst people who had booked bus tours drove past us. Great fun again actually, we had EARNED our swim at the falls damnit... although we had taken too long to get there and the pool was in shade and bloody freezing... so we err.... took photos instead... oh well can't win them all and it was very pretty.



Right we will let you know about leaving Laos and our experiences so far in Cambodia next time and add the photos as well! Cheers



B&D

Caption competition

As promised to someone some time ago... leave captions in the comments section.

Laos... WITH photos hurrah!

We flew into Laos direct from Thailand, we passed up the opportunity to do the trip overland by boat as the LP book used the phrase 'fatalities are not uncommon' and having debated exactly what this might mean, we decided that we'd take the trip in such a way that fatalities would be most definitely uncommon. We've spoken to a few people since then and it looks like it could have ben a good experience but one couple ended up sharing a boat with 80 people (capacity 60 painted on the side) and what felt like several tonnes of rice so we don't feel to bad about it.

We spent a week in Luang Prubang, another world heritage site, although it appears to be for the way of life rather than any particular landmark. The village was very nice and Debs greatly enjoyed the night markets... we are now the proud owners of bed covers and a table runner (I don't know, I'd never heard of it before either), all we need now are matching bed and table accessories but I'm sure we'll get around to that eventually. We are getting better at haggling although we still feel a bit guilty when we make a stand over 50p or something...

The food & coffee was particularly good (former french colony, credit where it's due) and we enjoyed the baguettes (Vive la France!) together with BBQ chicken and sticky rice in the night market.

We also took a trip to a waterfall, swam in limestone pools with turquoise water and climbed to the top of the main falls (having taken a few wrong turns and confronted a water buffalow or two... signs are not a strong point of Laos) it was pretty strenuous, especially in flip flops again (thanks Kev, they have taken some punishment!) but the wooden staircase with water flowing all around it and the stepping stones across the river that went over the edge made it well worth the effort.










We have now made our way south and visited the plain of jars at Phonsavan. The Jars are actually large carved urn like things scattered around the hillside, no-one really knows what they are but theories range from burial rites to containers for brewing rice whisky to fuel a conquering army's celebrations. The jars are in a variety of different conditions and are about 2,000 years old and are quite impressive as a monument to a lost civilisation. What made the jars so poignant was that they rest in one of the most bombed places on earth, during the secret war the US dropped 2 tonnes of bombs on Laos for every person that lived there and there are still thousands of unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered around the countryside, the areas of the plain of jars that you can visit have been cleared of bombs but you can still see the craters in some case right next to, or in the middle of a collection of jars.















http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-12-11-laos-bombs_x.htm - An article on the UXO problem in Laos.

http://www.theintrepidfoundation.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18_9&products_id=23 - A foundation that matches donations made towards clearing of UXO in Laos.


We are now in the middle of Laos, about 3 hours by road north form the capital in a place called Vang Vieng which is very different from Phonsavan... it is famous for "tubing" and bars playing Friends on constant rotation. Tubing involves hiring a tractor tire... being driven up the river for 5km... and then floating down... oh, and there may be a few bars with rope swings, zip lines and water slides along the way... To just drift down the river would take 2 hours... with the stops it can take all day. It is a fantastic way to spend a couple of lazy days and the mountain scenery is fantastic. These photos probably tell the story better :)

In case it all sounds too good to be true we should also share a couple of other things about the trip... firstly the actual travelling... no-one ever really tells you about it when they get back because it's not the thing they want to focus on... we have made a number of trips now that have involved 8+ hours on either a coach or minibus, often the state of the roads mean that the average speed is ussually around 40km an hour and the size of the seats is distinctly sub Ryanair. The world going past you is usually very pretty and we stock up with books, but if the heat and winding roads make you feel ill then it can be a very long trip. You get a bit stir crazy on some trips and you get to thinking about all sorts of strange things... We actually developed a theory on the relative strengths and capacity (based on number of stops per trip) of the Thai and Laos bladder, the Thais will generally only stop once no matter how long the journey (we don't pack water for those trips!) whilst the Laos will happily stop every hour or so and half the bus will head off into the bamboo...

Oh, and we also had a hired bike stolen which cost us 40 quid to replace... this was pretty bad as we had seen the bikes unlocked all over town and we were about 3km from where we lived and hired the bikes... all I can say is that I don't know where Debbie learnt those words, but if the little chap who stole her bike knew what they meant then he better wash his ears out. We considered chasing on the remaining bike but frankly it wasn't worth getting hurt over... still hope he fell off and broke something important or painful though... but not permanent damage despite what we may have wished fervently at the time.

Right we've whittered on enough for now I think! We are up to date which is good.

Right, now where were we...

G'day once again.


When last we wrote Debs and I were leaving Ayathaya having had a not so wonderful day... well we climbed aboard the train to find our seats were full with a mother and two children... I was all for turfing them out but Debs is a kinder more charitable soul than I (especially as it was a 4 hour journey...) luckily there was space in another carriage and we settled in for the trip.


We went to Phitsanulok which was a town within striking distance of Sukhothai which is a UNESCO world heritage site (like Stonehenge) and is a former capital of Thailand dating back to ages ago... (1257, I checked) the city is now in ruins but is in much better shape than Ayuthaya and is outside any urban centres so is a lot more peaceful. We hired bikes and cycled round most of the sight which contains 26 different buddist sites and temples including an amazing sitting buddha. Again the place was really pretty deserted, we saw about a half dozen other tourists and two of those had arrived on the bus with us. There are some photos of the temples below, it's hard to explain just how impressive the place is and I don't think it comes over in the photos but it was amazing to see the number and variety of beautiful buildings and structures that are now being properly restored and protected, at one point we assumed we were on a natural island, only to realise that we were surrounded on all sides by 4 huge man made moats.


The strange thing about Sukhothai was that so many of the buildings were in ruins, and as they came from a completely different culture we found it difficult to imagine what the original would have looked like, I would imagine a Thai person looking at a ruined castle or church in the UK would have a similar problem... I suppose we lacked the history to put flesh to the architectural bones... fortunaltely a solution to this problem was to be found in the next stop on our journey, another former capital of Thailand, Chiang Mai.



Chiang Mai has more temples than anywhere else in Thailand except Bangkok, it also has many temples from the same era as Sukhothai and so we were able to fill in the gaps and actually came to appreciate the sites we had seen earlier even more as we were able to see just how ornately temples from the same period were decorated and imagine just how magnificent the much larger ruined temples of Sukhothai must have been, it was great to see the connections between ancient and very modern Thailand.


Whilst in Chiang Mai we went on a one day trek out to an Elephant camp where we were able to play with elephants and go on a trek through the jungle on the back of one. Debs has her eye on bringing a baby elephant back as a pet, but having seen how much they eat I don't think even grandad Hendry's veggie patch could take the punishment... We bought a bunch of bananas to feed the elephants... and we first peeled them, until we were told that really wasn't neccesary... and then we continued to feed them one by one... we later saw them being fed whole bunches at a time... I have a feeling the poor elephant thought we were teasing it with our one banana at a time feeding strategy... frankly we were really doing it to get bang for our banana buck! We are on a backpackers budget!


OK, I've wittered on for ages already and there is still so much to tell you... hmmm we're in a whole different country now and have been for a week...


To sum up... whilst in Chiang Mai we had intended to leave after 3 or 4 days as our visa was almost up but we heard about a festival that was taking place in a few days and we decided to stay and check it out and maybe hire a moped to see some sights a bit further out... we ended up in the middle of a massive street party with everyone letting of fireworks, often inches away from our heads or feet and thousands of floating lanterns being released into the sky... We got stuck in and let of a few ourselves (having first checked that they were biodegradeable, our guilt about potential dead turtles would have been to high otherwise) and wandered through the night markets eating spring rolls, fresh corn on the cob and trying to wipe the grins from our sweet chilli encrusted faces. This came at the end of a day in which we had visited a Tiger sanctuary, some royal botanical gardens with orchids and lillies, booked our flight to Laos and just about pursuaded a scooter to struggle to the top of of a mountain to visit one of the most holy sites in Chiang Mai in time to watch the sun go down over the city before a slightly nervous descent in the dark dodging lightless bikes as the first lanterns were starting to rise over the city... it was good one.



Next stop Laos.

North my friends, to temples, ruined cities and elephants

Hello again,

We are currently lost in Chang Mai which is the former capital of Thailand and home to many trekking companies catering to backpackers and other tourists.

Our route north took us once again through Bangkok where a night on the notorious Koh San Road ended in us meeting some Irish chaps who had spent the last 18 months as illegal immigrants in Perth!

We traded stories of customs officers, beard growth and Bangkok traffic for a couple of hours, tried out what appeared to be hand rolled burmese cigars from a street vendor and Debbie sheparded me home a little after midnight with promises to e-mail ringing in our ears... Here our versions of the night differ... Debbie claims I woke up around 3am and stood on a chair in the corner of the room and dropped my shorts... when questioned as to what the hell I thought I was doing I apparently replied 'I'm going for a pee, what does it look like?!' Debs then claims she shouted loudly enough to ensure I removed myself to the bathroom...

Now I will leave it up to you to decide if this is a true story as I don't remember a thing of this and put it down to an overactive imagination, possibly cheese before bedtime rather than my failure to adjust to the 1 litre bottles of beer we had been enjoying earlier in the evening. It had been a good night and it was good to meet some new people following the lovely but strangely empty islands.

In the morning we dodged the cries of 'Where you go?' from the herd of tuk tuk drivers and battled our way to the train station to begin our slow trip north. For the princely sum of 15 baht each (a little more than 25p) we got a train to Ayuthaya which was about 1.5 hours away and a former capital of Thailand.

On arrival in Ayuthaya our previous good fortune deserted us...(see photos of previous accommodation that Debbie has posted on facebook) we found a cheap place near the train station with a friendly chap standing outside welcoming us in, the room was basic but seemed ok... it was only later that we noticed that the walls were made of reed mats and didn't reach the ceiling and the toilet in the shared bathroom had no lid or manual flush, but on the upside there was hot water...

We could hear everything from the rooms next door and their light was shared with us as well! When the chap next door fell asleep with the light and a portable DVD player left on, and started to snore loudly we realised that we were in for a long night... still it was cheap and we weren't going to be there long! Fortunately the chap woke up around 1am and turned his light off... Debbie had managed to drift off but I had lain awake idly wondering if it would be weird to go and wake the guy up, or if I could risk knocking on the wall without punching through it, and indeed if that might not be a reasonable tactic as well... I really was tired in my defence and the only reason I didn't go and knock was that it had been going on for a few hours and it felt like it was now too late to complain... how English is that?

The ruins of Ayuthaya are best explored by bike and are famous for the overgrown buddha surrounded by tree roots, we managed to see this, and the most celebrated of the ruins before we were hit by a double whammy of traveller complaints. Debbie began to feel unwell, and my bike developed a puncture whilst we were 3k from our guesthouse and during the hottest part of the day :( we managed to limp back home with the help of a motorbike mechanic who helped to re-inflate my tire but after the hot sweaty journey back we didn't feel like venturing out again and so the rest of Ayuthaya would have to be missed, we weren't going to endure another night at the guesthouse and we had an appointment further north with another ruined capital city that was supposed to be better preserved in any case, we packed our bags without shedding too many tears, noted the chewing gum pushced into the wall cracks and departed for the train station.

The rest of our trip north will have to wait for next time as we have to go and explore Chiang Mai! No sign of temple fatigue yet but it will set in eventually I'm sure... photos of temples and Buhhda will surely replace sunsets as our new photo-obsession. We are off to Laos in a couple of nights having extended our stay here on the basis that there is a big festival that starts today. If people want to see photos then check out Debbie's albums on facebook or look at 'photo's of ben' on my profile and you'll get access to the albums. We tried to post albums on here but we can't seem to do it.

Bye for now.

Island hopping & reptile visitors

G'day...Deb here (obviously)! Well, we have not managed to do anything stupid since Ben's last entry, so another conventional blog entry..

Since the last entry, we've moved to Koh Pha Ngang, an island about an hour's ferry ride from Koh Samui. The first 4 nights we stayed at another LP recommendation 'Cookies Bungalows' (chosen based on my friends car number plates!) and it turned out to be pretty awesome...our little bungalow was literally a few metres from the beach with a porch and a hammock. The morning routine involved waking up to the sound of the waves lapping on the shore and going straight in for a swim. Not a bad way to start the day and we found this also helped make the cold shower easier to take. My only 'small' reservation with the place was the fact that the roof didn't meet the walls - obviously for ventilation but on the first night we had a visitor in the form of a rather large lizard - aside from the monitor lizards swimming in the river, it was the biggest we've seen, so I was 'a little' worried about what might come in through the roof at night as we slept, but I live to tell the tale that nothing 'ate' me..

We hired a moped for a day and took a ride up the coast to explore a bit further, all the way singing 'Born to be Miiiild'. On our travels we found a place called Haad Yao and one of the resort style places was advertising rooms that were within our backpackers budget. So after a few nights at Cookies, we've now moved on to a room with a/c, hot water....and best of all a pool where we've spent the last 2 days, today we had it completely to ourselves as the resort is not at all busy. We're feeling energetic, so tomorrow we're planing on checking out the resorts private beach! We're also planning to hire a moped and find our way to a smaller island that is connected by a sand bar where the snorkling is said to be amazing.

In a few days we're planning to head back north to Bangkok and then on to Kanchanaburi. I'll try to post some photos of the islands soon. Ciao for now.

Wicked innit...

Hello once again,

At the end of the last entry we referred to Jason and speculated whether or not he was employed for the atmosphere... well we were to learn more about Jason before we left Koh Samui...

Jason does eat... in fact he is regularly forced to eat by the bungalow staff as "we've had to take him to hospital too often when he drinks but doesn't eat"

Jason's leaving gift from his last job was Rogers Profanisaurus... look it up if you don't know what it is. (Nan, you shouldn't, it's a book with rude words in it.)

Our final encounter with Jason began, as we knew it would, in the bar... Jason walked towards us with a swagger and told us he'd been shopping and did we want to see what he'd bought? Without waiting for an answer he produced and held to the back of Debbie's neck an electric pink vibrating willy.

All eyes were on this thing, it was about 4 inches long from... err... anatomically accurate base to tip... and as we all wondered what on earth he had bought this thing for (apart from tickling girlish necks)... he made me wince, and gave Freud enough material for a whole new theory as he snapped the bottom from his still vibrating purchase and, with a leery smile dipped his head, lit a cigarette, and said "wicked innit"

Feeling the pressure, and meeting some cliches.

Hello again. Debs and I have been feeling the pressure since the last entry, to be honest it's possible that we have already peaked and we have been wandering around trying to get into merry japes purely for the purpose of this blog... our wide eyed 'we're gullible please take us on an adventure' look has not been a success... what follows is therefore a more conventional travel blog entry. We will try and do something a bit stupid for the next entry.

Since our last update we went to visit the floating markets south of Bangkok, we stayed overnight in a hotel recommended by the LP which was refreshingly free from bulding regulation and 'red tape,' it was also free of other guests and light bulbs above 40 watts. We are beginning to doubt how wise we were to get the 'on a shoe string' version of a travel guide but it can't all be bungalows on beaches.

We had travelled the night before in order to be the first to arrive at the floating markets and that turned out to be worth the effort, we were up at the crack of dawn and were amongst the first on the waiting boats, we saw monitor lizards swimming across the rivers, had coconut patties, noodles and spring rolls for breakfast and had a fantastic time, we refrained from buying anything big however as we have a long time to go yet.

Back in Bangkok we had a few hours to kill before getting a bus overnight to the South of Thailand and Koh Samui and so visited Chinatown and the Thieves market... A word to the wise, if you come to Bangkok be sure to have tight security around your bootleg dvd's and err... adult entertainment goods as judging from the goods on sale the Thieves target these almost to the exclusion of everything else.

On the way to the Thieves market we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a huge long food market on both sides of a long alleyway, not marked on the map or mentioned in any guides, it was loud, crowded, and absolutely fantastic... I suspect we were complete pains to the other patrons as we wandered around mouths open and camera at the ready trying to identify what the various goods on sale were, onbe of our favourite experiences so far.

We've been in Koh Samui for a couple of nights and have already met a chap who seems to exist entirely on booze and Marlboro reds and who has been coming here for the last couple of decades... it is such a cliche we had wondered if the hotel hired him for the ambiance... he is impossible to age and we have seldom seen him away from his barstool, he has an opinion on everything and frankly we're not quite sure what to make of him...

We're staying in a little bungalow thing about 20 metres from the beach, it's basic but functional, last night we ate fish grilled on a bbq right on the beach and ended up sipping drinks and listening to Bob Marley at a beach bar whilst a tropical storm gave an impressive light show on the horizon... we could get used to this.

What canny travellers we are!

Welcome friends, Ben here again. Well Debs and I arrived in Bangkok yesterday, the gateway to SE Asia and we bore in our sweaty clutches the travellers bible, a near mint, latest edition of the Lonely planet guide to SE Asia on a shoestring... yes we prided ourselves on being well prepared travellers who were forewarned and forewarned about the dangers and pitfalls endemic in any large city, well we had mostly survived London and so surely Bangkok should hold no fears for us!

Well not only were we well prepared my friends, we were also lucky! For not 5 minutes after leaving our guesthouse for the Khao San road, shiny faced and with a tourist map held proudly in front of us than we met a really friendly Thai chap who was able to warn us that our intended destination was not only 3k away (far further away than it seemed on our inadequate map) but that it was also closed until 2pm! How had the Lonely Planet omitted to mention this fact?! We were shocked to say the least, but our new best friend knew of some alternative attractions including the elusive 'Lucky Buddha" and as long as we bargained hard then a tuk tuk driver would take us to all of them for a mere 40 Baht! In fact we were not to accept anything more than this and we would only pay the driver at the end and so he would wait for us at each attraction! Well what a bargain! And clearly not a scam as the price quoted was twice that the Lonely Planet had warned us would be quoted by 'Dodgy' tuk tuk drivers! What luck!

We were intially sceptical that we would really get this price and probably wouldn't have taken the tour... but then our friend hailed a tuk tuk entirely at random and bargained on our behalf! I know! What a hero! We waved him off with sorrow and joy in our hearts, with people like this around our travels would be fab :)

Well the first stop "The standing Buddha" was pretty impressive and erased a few nagging doubts that had crept into our cynical London hearts and we both started to relax a bit, the second stop "The Black Buddha" was less impressive, indeed you could say it looked a little like a number of slightly shabby statues in a dingy room... but every trip has it's disappointments... and the Lucky Buddha was next and that would bring us good fortune!

The Lucky Buddha could apparently only be found through the entrance of a tailors, although our driver was unsure which one so we tried a few... sadly we couldn't find it so our driver took us to a tourist centre that spookily resembled a tour operator to see if they could help... alas they were also at a loss! After a fruitless 40 minute search around the less salubrious neighborhoods of Bangkok we were forced to admit defeat and our driver eventually agreed (after we had uttered the magic words "if you don't take us to the Khao San road now we will cry") to take us to our original destination for the agreed fee.

Well we never did find the lucky Buddha, despite a long and fruitless search through any number of commercial premises, but as I sit here in my remarkably shiny new suit (50:50 Nylon:Rayon mix, pricey but unique) and wait for our coach to the Mo'ron river (already 2 hours late but LP says we have to understand that the pace of life is different here) I can't help thinking that we did find our own 'Lucky Buddha' in the kindness of strangers, so if you meet a strange man on the street who goes out of his way to be helpfull and seems really nice. Kick him in the nuts. Hard.

Editors note - Yes, we really were that dim. We didn't spend any money, and actually the 40 minute hare around Bagkok was kind of fun and actually good value at 40B... We realised we had been a bit dim about 2 minutes into the journey and just had a bit of a giggle. When we finally located a real tourist office they had a big sign up basically saying that there was no such think as a 'Lucky Buddha' and would you all please stop being so stupid.

It was actually really usefull as it gave us cynical edge we needed for the rest of the day and meant we persevered in finding the ferry dock with all the Thai's passengers for 40B as opposed to paying 700B for a private boat. We live and learn I guess :)

Bangkok is noisy and polluted and just as we expected really, it has some beautiful temples and Buddha statues and we'll post some photos etc. in the next few days or whenever we get access to internet again.

Currently lost in Melbourne Airport

Ben here. We've spent the last 4 weeks with Debbie's family and I am pleased to report that the family welcomed us in at every opportunity and we are now properly stocked up with barbequed meat and salad (I am storing mine in a spare tyre configeration) so we should survive any bouts of... err travelers indigestion.

We're just one flight away from our true destination, a whole new continent to get lost in! We were pleased to read that there have been recent riots and border disputes in Thailand as surely this means there will be many gentlemen in uniform to aks for direction when we do end up standing in the middle of a busy intersection, holding our guidebook upsidedown whilst buying fake gems and getting a tuk tuk to the drivers cousins carpet shop for an amazing bargain.. I can't wait.

All for now. Ben & Deb