VENTURE INTO VIETNAM, CONCLUDING IN CAMBODIA

Arriving across the border from Laos it’s hot and we have to walk the 500 metres from Laos to the swanky Vietnam border control point, all goes smoothly and we are soon on our way to find a bus to take us to Hue about two hours away, after several minutes of negotiation to agree a price which changed several times even after initial agreement we are on our way but only as far as the nearest town where we pick up several electrical appliances that the coach driver can deliver on our way to Hue, also spot our first cashpoint machine and top up with a couple of million dong to keep us going the exchange rate being 30,000 dong to the pound about 66 pounds. This is also the point we discover the driver has a horn that when you sound it not only sounds once but repeats itself several times getting quieter each time this is quite novel at first but after a few miles of repeated usage the novelty soon wears off and we all wish we had earplugs before we even get halfway, thoughts of India and the constant sound of horns coming flooding back. Hue is our first experience of Vietnam and very nice it is too, Hue comprises of a modern town sat around the citadel which is the walled old town and palace, this is one of the places the Americans were based during the Vietnam war and some fierce fighting took place inside the citadel between the viet kong and the US, we agree a price and take a one hour tour around the old town in a peddle driven rickshaw it was much to hot too walk, the tour in the end takes about two hours and the drivers want extra money because of this, I remember the difficulty we had in agreeing a price for the coach the day before so we leave some disgruntled drivers with the tip to peddle a bit faster the next time they do the tour, it appears that in Vietnam the starting price is never meant to be the final price. We stop for lunch at a nice restaurant down by the river and end up watching the local firefighters doing hose running drills on the road outside, this brings home to me that the decision to retire at 50 was certainly the right decision as I sat there sipping a nice cold Singha beer. Hoi An is our next stop a small quaint old town with a beach just a few kilometres away, the weathers hot and sunny the bars are plentiful and so too the restaurants, on the second day we hire pushbikes and cycle (well it’s probably time I done a bit of exercise) to the beach, time to top up the tan, the air temperature is in the mid 30’s and the South China Sea temperature is 30, paradise has finally arrived along with the sunburn must cover up sooner next time. An overnight bus takes us down the coast to Nhatrang a beach resort where the weather is still hot and sunny don’t they know the EOE trip is in town have we finally given the rain the slip. Jan, John and me shoot off to the opticians where we all get glasses made up at a third of the price of what we pay back in the UK within the hour Jan has her glasses, John and me because we ordered varifocals have to wait until the next day but still very impressed with the service Jan even has some prescription sunglasses made up the next day while I was picking up my glasses. In the evening we went out for a nice meal next to the beach and under the palm trees with a live group playing, it’s confirmed, paradise has definitely arrived. The next day we decided it was time to get back to our youth and a group of us went across to Vinpearl Island which has a water park and amusements on it, WHO SAYS I CAN'T DO TWO THINGS AT ONCEyou pay the equivalent of eight pounds get on the cable car which takes you across and can then spend the rest of the day there playing happily unlike in the UK where you would have spent half the day in queues just waiting around. Mind you Jan & I didn’t stop at the bottom of one of the big slides and ended up jamming our ring in the air bag safety stop at the end, after a couple of minutes of disengaging the ring with the help of the park staff Jan mentioned something about too much weight, I like to think it was just good technique on our behalf “bum off the chute rubber ring pulled up at edges” must remember to lower our rears next time, mind you nobody else managed to jam their rings in the end stops and there were several attempts by some committed kamikaze ring pilots. Now we were well and truly in holiday mode (well we have been away 5 months now) and booked a trip for the following day on a boat snorkelling, great snorkelling and then a spot of lunch where the crew formed a band (loose term) and invited people from different countries to get up and sing with them, thankfully Jane from our group volunteered and we had a fine recital of yellow submarine was this boats crew trying to tell us something! Then for the good bit the floating bar where everybody jumps in the water swims up and starts drinking wine while holding on to a ring, could you imagine trying to do something like this in England the conversation with your insurers and Health & Safety would go probably something like this: Health & Safety Executive : So what is your business exactly, I would like to do a boat trip that involves having a floating bar in the sea where people can jump in and swim up and drink red wine, Health & Safety Exe: what safety measures would you have in place ie lifejackets & lifeguards, oh no but the sea is wet and the drink is free and you wouldn’t have that problem of falling over after you’ve had a few, what could possibly go wrong, and we did all survive to tell the tale. Next day we move onto Hoi Chi Ming City used to be called Saigon we liked this place it had clean big wide streets, the only problem being, is the number of little 125cc motorbikes apparently everybody in Vietnam owns at least one,
THE EOE's PRE DINNER DRINKS BEING DELIVERED
not that this stops families of five from cramming all five onto just one bike, it made crossing the roads quite an adventure we had got the hang of it by the second day.
We visited the Cu Chi tunnels from here,
IT'S A TIGHT FIT "JANE TRYING TO EXIT ONE OF THE TUNNELS"

IT'S A TIGHT FIT DOWN HEREthere about 60km’s outside the city where the Viet Kong lived and fought the Americans during the Vietnam war, visiting the war museum in the afternoon where you could read about the reasons for the war and the atrocities that were committed by the Americans during the war was quite an eye opener, the similarities between this conflict and what has and is going on in Iraq this day just goes to show that the lessons are not being learnt from our previous mistakes. We have a spare day and the last time we went to Australia the chap at Hong Kong airport informed us that we had a visa valid for two years which we assumed we would get again this time, but after checking online about Australian visas it turns out that we will only get the three month standard one which is no good to us, so we decide that we had better visit the Australian consulate to check that we can get a visa for a year (otherwise our plans might be curtailed) it was looking like we had to pay $100 each, and make a special application which as it turns out was true, as the very nice man from the Australian embassy informed us when we got there in the morning, but he was very helpful and with proof of funds an ATM receipt & online print off of bank account plus several forms later we have our visa safely in our passports something that usually takes three weeks he sorted out in three hours and we are very grateful to him for his help, if all Australians turn out to be as half as helpful, we will have a wonderful time in OZ. Finished off our visit to Saigon with a drink on the rooftop bar at the Sheraton Hotel with lovely views over the city, JOHN, ROB AND JAN ENJOYING COCKTAILS ON THE ROOFTOP BARwe have enjoyed Vietnam it’s cheap which always helps, its clean and the people are friendly this is actually the first country that we could give some serious consideration to living in, the first so far !!!
Saturday 6th September we board the bus to cross over into Cambodia all the bus journeys in Vietnam have been good which makes up for some of the memories in Laos, this journey is no exception with the bus officials even collecting our passports to handle all the border crossing administration which they do very well, we stop and have lunch while our Cambodian visas are processed and then we are back on the road to Phnom Penh the capital where we have a day to explore. We visit Toul Sleung Genocide Museum (S21 prison) & the killing fields, where during the reign of the Khmer Rouge 1975-79, 17,000 men women and children were tortured and then took out to the killing fields and executed, only a dozen people survived. This again is another difficult one to visit as we can remember them in power and being on the news but we were never totally aware of the pain and suffering that the people were going through under this regime, the fact is though that this is still going on around the world today but we never get the details until it is too late. Siem Reap is our next stop, famous for Angkor Wat the largest religious temple in the world, we take a guide for the day and visit that and also a couple of the other temples the one where they filmed “tomb Raider” unfortunately Angeline Jolie wasn’t about to chat with, although the trees are still growing out of the top of the temple, after a couple of days here we are well and truly cultured out, now all we have to do is try and remember some of it.

FOR ALL YOU TREE SURGEONS OUT THERE NOTE THE SCAFFOLDING TO TAKE DOWN THIS TREE

ONE FOR THE LEAN FAMILYAfter remarking on how good the bus journeys have been not only in Vietnam but also in Cambodia we start our last trip back to Bangkok on a bus, now this is supposed to be a 10 hour journey starting at eight in the morning but it’s not long before things are not quite right well about a minute past eight actually, this bus has no under floor storage and so all the backpacks have to come into the coach with us, after filling the space behind the back seats up to the ceiling the only place is down the aisle so backpacks two deep on the floor for the length of the coach LOO STOPS ARE ALWAYS FUNthis plus a couple of people because there’s no seat for them, makes getting out at loo stops fun, climbing over all the seats and yes we were sat right at the back, good exercise. The next problem was the lack of road they had started a road rebuilding project back in 2005 due for completion in Oct 08 unfortunately they were doing the first 100km’s all in one go ,bridges and road surface we were basically driving on road hoggin for the first 100km’s and you have to remember this is monsoon season all the bridges were being rebuilt so you kept having to divert down to a low river crossing to the side, needless to say the going was heavy and when a coach in front of us became stuck we spent two hours stuck in the coach very hot you couldn’t get out because of the bags in the coach and the mud outside of it, mind you this didn’t stop the locals from trying to get passed the blockage by any lane that happened to be free so it wasn’t long before we were four abreast with no way of the oncoming traffic ever getting passed us, even if they had got passed the stuck coach.

OVERLOADED WHAT ME !

It’s rumoured that the airline companies are giving the government some financial sweeteners not to finish the road because they are getting so much business from it probably very true, anyway eventually at 11.30 at night in the pouring and I mean pouring rain we arrive in Bangkok some five and half hours late yet another memory to take with us, but on the bright side the England/Croatia match was on at the hotel so a couple of beers and watch England win by a few goals for a change means life’s not so bad after all. Coming back to the Star Dome Inn is like going home this is the first place in the whole trip that we have actually stayed at twice and its an odd feeling knowing exactly what your accommodation is going to be like before you arrive, we have one day in Bangkok before leaving for Katchinburi (Bridge over the river Kwai), I needed to retrieve my Ipod which I put in for repair the last time we were in Bangkok because it packed up working, they unfortunately couldn’t repair it and so have replaced it under warranty which is all very well but all my music is at home on my desktop so I have one nice new quiet Ipod ( thanks rob for letting me copy your music until I can get mine sent out). The Bridge over the river Kwai was our next stop, some interesting accommodation comprising of floating barges with rooms on the top (cabins),

EOE's ACCOMMODATION ON THE RIVER KWAI, NOTE THE FIRST ONES "BUDGET"

Jan was a tad nervous which meant red wine was definitely required that night to aid a peaceful night for both of us !!!. The bridge itself is quite small, much smaller than I was expecting but still very good you were allowed to walk across it even though trains still used it, the only proviso being you had to get out of the way when one came, understandable really and we certainly complied, again this is another one of those attractions that in England you wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near because of Health & Safety,

what with large gaps in the bridge and moving trains it was refreshing to see that if you were prepared to take responsibility for your actions then you can access the sights, something we seemed to have lost in England and some of the reasoning behind us travelling and seeing some more of this rich wide world. From here we are down to the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Tao by overnight coach and early morning ferry, the best coach so far even I managed to sleep most of the way, although afterwards we found out that a couple of members of the group had had cameras and other items pinched from there bags during this journey which did take the shine off it. For one night we stayed at Shambala on Koh Samui a beach side bungalow set on a lovely beach it was a shame to leave it but I was booked on my open water diving course the next day at Davey Jones Locker on Koh Tao,
I'M STARTING TO GET USED TO THIS LIFE

THE EDITOR HARD AT WORK ON THE LATEST EDITIONand this is where we are at the moment in yet another beach side bungalow with me having just successfully completed my PADI open water divers course along with Kat & Mo which was awesome so now I'm safe to dive to 18m let's hope someone has told the sharks that!,

DOES MY BUM LOOK BIG IN THIS

OUR FIRST DIVE TRIPI can see how this sport becomes so additive looking forward to our next Malaysian Island in the Indian Ocean where we arrive on Tuesday for three nights, we hope to go diving there as well as in Indonesia and then the great barrier reef, at least I’ve worked out that I definitely don’t have time to go work anymore. Not only did I get my open water ticket but Jan after special tuition from Jo ( who we met on the boat down the Mekong river with her partner John who also has just successfully completed his open water course), Jo is a special needs swimming teacher and has finally got Jan to breathe out under water so that her swimming technique has improved dramatically we have both got something out of our few days on Koh Tao not to mention Jan’s new tops and shorts. Hope everything’s well, back in the UK the economic news doesn’t sound to good, but we hear your apparently having an Indian summer back there lets hope it lasts to the weekend !!!!!!!!!!
The Jells now in Thailand soon to be Malaysia.