Have been rather busy this weekend - my weekends are usually measured in how many movies and TV shows I'm able to watch and this weekend has been a grand total of zero!

Yesterday I got up early (for a Saturday!) to go meet Tuan and help him with his marketing job (tho I think really all I did was talk a lot and keep him entertained - is that helping?) which was actually rather nice! We went for some noodles first at a place where the customers got to start their day with a good long stare at the white girl, then we took his bike and drove here there and everywhere to pick up and drop off things. Started in the Old Quarter on calendar street to get some calendars, then loaded them onto the bike and drove out to some industrial estate to get stickers. As weird as this might sound, the industrial park was quite a nice place to read my book for a bit while waiting for him to get things done! Not much traffic and no horns! I could actually hear birds, and there were trees and flowers around at the side of the roads, and I guess as it was so far out on the outskirts of Hanoi it was pretty peaceful. Next up we went through some winding lanes to a printing place that was again rather peaceful before finally heading many many kilometres out of Hanoi. The main highway of doom wasn't exactly fun, but then we turned off onto the smaller roads past rice fields and stuff and that was cool. Once the stuff had been delivered we went to some chicken place that sells really fresh, good quality chicken (I guess as they get to grow up eating real chicken-friendly foods they're tastier and less scrawny than the ones roaming the streets of Hanoi!) and had quite a feast of rice, vegetables and assorted chicken bits. There was boiled chicken, fried chicken and a selection of dodgy parts:





Neither of us went for the fried chicken head, and I didn't really fancy chicken feet, especially after all the crunching that happened when Tuan ate one. The regular chicken meat was very tasty though! After that we headed back into Hanoi and he took me to a decent currency shop to get some dollars for my trip to Laos (yeah, another holiday! Just for a week at Tet to get some peace and quiet) then I spent ages trying to decide which fancy quilt to buy in teh quilt shop. It gets kinda chilly at night right now so I decided it was time to invest in a quilt so I don't have to shiver myself to sleep any more. It's been a little cold recently (apparently due to a Siberian breeze?!?) and I've taken to wearing real shoes rather than flip flops when riding around. Even had to get some gloves out the other day it was so cold on the bike! When you get some speed up your fingers get pretty chilly from the breeze. Thankfully yesterday wasn't such a cold day though as several hours on a motorbike wouldn't be nearly as tolerable in the cold!

Once back home one housemate was leaving and another was moving in so I had a brief chat with them, then got in touch with Alison to find out about our plans for dinner. Was told that after heading to a wedding party at 11am and drinking all day (at this point it was 4) dinner probably wouldn't be happening. Went to join her and Calder, Emma and Russell and the new boy at ACET, Mark, for some drinks at a new bar. About 6.30 people decided it was time to eat so we went back to Emma and Russell's just down the road for pizza, and of course more booze. They have a dog that was shut in the bathroom while the pizza was being eaten but somehow Emma accidentally locked him in. This being Vietnam, of course the screws are all on the inside of the locked bathroom door and there appeared to be no way to get in so it took quite an effort to get the door open again. My hair grips were sacrificed for the cause, though I don't know if they opened the door in the end as by the time the dog was freed I'd got bored standing round listening to drunks discussing the problem so was sitting in the lounge having a chat!

Today just seemed to be a day of errands, and then I ended up at the gym as the step class was starting. Got talked into joining and it was hell!!! Probably good for me though.

I don't even get my relaxing start to the week, working just 2 hours each evening for the first 3 days as I've agreed to cover for another teacher so will be at work every day for an afternoon and evening shift. It is the last week of this term though so it's not too hard, particularly at the end of the week when it's just exams and a movie!

Things I've done recently -

Went for a somewhat international Thanksgiving dinner at Alison and Calder's place with Nat. Turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding! Had pumpkin pie for dessert - not sure if I like it or not. Perhaps I just need to eat more of it!



Also went for dinner at their place last weekend and stole their toaster oven to make a syrup sponge with custard. It was an interesting experience baking in a toaster oven but it worked out right in the end!

Sampled some random Vietnamese food. Met Tuan for lunch a couple of weeks ago and we went to some restaurant in Hanoi that serves a whole range of Vietnamese food. Most stuff I knew but we had some weird deep fried rice paper thing with meat and bean sprouts in the middle that was then broken up and rolled in fresh rice paper sheets and dipped into a fish sauce of some description. Despite sounding rather strange, it was pretty tasty. He also took me to what is apparently the best pho shop in the Old Quarter one evening when he was killing time between tours. It was certainly very tasty, but I don't think I"m enough of an expert to judge if it is the best!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to walk into the Old Quarter on Saturday evening and see what was happening in the city. I'd gone in the week before to meet Tuan briefly and forgot how mentalist it can get on a Saturday evening so I decided to venture out (on foot - driving the Saturday before to get there had been horiffic. I was quite glad that when I met him he insisted on riding my bike. Realised that I suck at being a passenger though as I'm used to being in control of my bike!) and see what I could find.


Exercising by Uncle Ho.


Stopping for corn at the side of the road.


Hoan Kiem Lake at night - it's nicer then coz you can't see all the crap floating in it.


She's dressed in her finest Saturday night pyjamas for a night on the town!

The rest of the photos are here

I might get round to writing something this weekend!

Finally writing about my trip home! (Even though most of the people reading this are people who saw me...)

Apart from overindulging in ridiculous amounts of food and going crazy with the shopping, I visited a whole bunch of places and saw heaps of cool people.

I spent a few days in London and went to the Imperial War Museum (yet again) because I love the place

and then spent the rest of the time catching up with Gemma. We mainly shopped and gossiped, and it was fun!

After that was my trip to Brighton which was awesome.


Stayed in a flat there with Liz and due to access to a kitchen got stupidly excited in ASDA about simple things and the ability to buy everything you could ever possibly want to eat under one roof. After doing this I think I cooked twice (if you count a fry up as cooking!) and spent the rest of the time eating out. We indulged in chips on the beach which is aways a good experience, and went to the Chinese place for a feast. Also spent an afternoon in a pub in Lewes where there was good pub grub to be had. The other gastronomic delight was a feast of dubious snacks from China that I'd sent to Kyle, Mary and Liz back in February but they had been too scared (:op) to try. There was of course some more shopping to be done, and a couple of walks along the pier,

as well as lots of time spent generally just catching up with people. Shockingly there was no trip to Audio - we were unsure about the DJ playing there on the Wednesday I was in town so instead we opted instead for a trip to Digital to see what the cheap student night was like. We came to the conclusion that if it sucked we could always leave a go check out Audio but the cheap drinks plus (and I'm surprised to admit this) good fun music meant that we stayed put and had a merry old time,

topped off with a trip to the all night diner for a late night grease injection afterwards. We also went to a second night at Digital, the incredibly lame sounding shades rave

and I was not nearly as impressed by that one. Gem came down on that day so the trip to the pub beforehand was far more exciting as even smelly Mary came along and there was good company with kiwi fruit vodka. What more could you want?! After the lame shades rave Gem and Kyle stayed at the flat with us and then we got up at stupid o'clock to catch a bus to the station for an adventure in Wales.

Wales was far more sedate than Brighton but still good fun! Liz put Kyle and me up in her house, and I finally got to meet Mr Liz. He made an excellent first impression by cooking an awesome roast which was welcome after a long train ride following a night of little sleep! We went to Cardiff for the day and Kyle suggested getting a face pack so we spent one evening beautifying

and the other evenings were just rather chilled out at (Liz's) home. We also got shown the sights of Newport as well as getting lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was pretty tasty stuff and close to the real deal that I can get here.

Another weekend, another trip, this time to Birmingham to see Nina. Lots of shopping was done, as well as lots of movies watched. Of course there was a trip to the cinema, and we watched some movies at her flat too. She lives close to a canal that's been tarted up and turned into a dining and shopping place. It has a branch of the Gourmet Burger Kitchen that she took me to for some L&P (I hadn't realised this place stocked L&P otherwise I'd have been there a long time ago!) and a place that did ace breakfasts that were two for one on a Sunday so we spent a lot of time being lazy and not venturing very far from her place unless absolutely necessary.

The final weekend was filled with a trip up to Derby with the parents and the sister. We went for dinner with Dad's family at a pub (pubs featured heavily in the month or so I was home - you can't beat good pub grub!) on Saturday night and went to the cemetery to see the plaque for my grandparents. Also spent some time with Mum's family - some came to visit for a day soon after I was home,

and we went to visit my Grandfather as well as taking another trip to London to meet my uncle. Saw some truly spectacular (!) works of art at the Tate modern and walked around the place a bit. It was a really nice day - one of those days with a super blue sky and it was all very pretty - much more so than Hanoi ever is!

Also spent some time at home and went to a few places nearby like Lacock

and Avebury. Met Jen a few times to go out for dinner locally (more pubs) and did a pub quiz with her and her friends. It was nice to spend some time at home in a familiar place doing familiar things, and it was great to see people again after so long.




Was not that impressed with coming back to Hanoi and kinda wanted to stay in the U.K., but I know that the reality of staying at home would be very different to the holiday I had. For starters I spent all my money pretty much and so would be flat broke, plus I would probably have found myself in the same situation as my sister, trying desperately to find a job.

Now I'm back into the swing of things here it's not so bad. After our failed attempt at visiting the citadel in that first week back, I went back with Alison and Calder and this time we got to see it. One side is a large pit where they have found the remains of a king's old palace and it's really just a series of small walls (:op) that you can walk past on an elevated platform, and across the street on the other side is the complex with a temple or two and a bunch of random buildings that seem to now be offices. Not the most exciting of places, but apparently it recently became a UNESCO world heritage site so we thought we should check it out.

Last weekend I went to the wedding of a couple from work. The Vietnamese side of things had happened earlier in the week in Dung's hometown and the thing on Sunday night was more the British side of things for Simon's family. It started with a long time spent standing outside the venue waiting for things to start, and then there was a ceremony inside with the usual vows, also translated into Vietnamese for Dung's family, followed by the toast and a buffet meal.

The citadel and the wedding

A ton of photos from home

I do intend to write about what I got up to in the UK, I've just been rather busy since getting back to Vietnam - so much so that I haven't watched even one episode of a TV show since I've been back - before I left I was watching several a day from one of my many box sets!

I got back on Friday and Calder and Alison kept me awake by taking me for a manicure and pedicure and then a drink or two in the evening. On Saturday I stupidly gave in to the jet lag and slept til late and so didn't have that much of a day! What i did have was spent trying to unpack and then in the evening I met my mum's cousin's daughter, Basmah and her friend Louise. We went for some Pho in the Old Quarter then to Bia Minh's for a milkshake or two - they're not normally very nice in this country but those ones were good! I managed to get things done the next day after sleeping til stupidly late again and then on Monday I went to meet Basmah before work and gave her a lift on my bike round to the Temple of Literature. We had a drink at KOTO and then I had to work. After work I saw my friend Tuan for a couple of hours, and then on Tuesday after work I took Basmah round to Derry's and we had a curry and a drink or two. Wednesday I actually wasn't very social, and then on Thursday I attempted to be a tourist with Alison and Calder. I only work evenings on Thursday and Friday so have the day free to do things. As it was such a nice day they decided to get out and about so we met at the citadel and were going to go and have a look around, but of course it wasn't open. They'd even got someone to phone ahead and find out if it was open but of course as this is Vietnam the info was wrong! We walked up to the top of the citadel and went to the gate tower thing that was open, then Calder declared it beer o'clock and so we went to the pub for a few hours. On Friday after work I went to the beer hall the next street over with some of the other teachers to get some dinner, and then yesterday I went to a pot luck supper that a guy from work was having. Spent most of the evening with Alison and Calder, and my boss Emma and her husband as we didn't really know many of the other people. It was a fun night tho as now the weather is cooling a bit so we sat outside in their nice courtyard, and there was lots of nice food. I'm not normally this social tho!

Shiny new laptop is now being used to write this...

Oh, Vietnam :o/

Am in the UK! Have spent some time with the family, and went to London to see Gemma for a couple of days, then tomorrow I'm going to Brighton followed by Newport for some munter times. Woohoo!!!!

Had a nice last day at work today. Got a free lunch at a teacher development workshop and then as it was the lst day of term today all I had to do with my afternoon class was give them their results, but they seemed quite keen to talk so I stuck around for a while. They got me flowers, and a few hours later a couple of them came back and gave me a gift and a card saying that I was the best teacher they had ever had. That was nice! Had to teach my evening class, but it was quite a fun lesson, and they bought cakes and threw me a little party at the end. It's nice to know my students will miss me!

Spent a while trying to pack tonight. I'm trying to take some stuff back home but I had far too much so I had to take stuff out and repack a few times. Think I have managed to do it, but my bag is probably over the weight limit. Lets hope that's not a problem! I still have some time tomorrow to pack and repack but hopefully nothing else needs to go in as there is not an inch of spare space.

In 24 hours I'll be on the way home!

Failed to have a productive weekend this weekend. On Friday night we ended up going to Derry's for a curry and a drink that became several. I had to drive home slowly again, this time so Eva could follow me on her bicycle as she didn't know how to get home. Got up late on Saturday and went to the Old Quarter but didn't really achieve anything that I was supposed to. In the evening I drove round to Alison and Calder's place and left my bike there to get a taxi with them to the work summer party. The food was OK but the booze was free so a good time was had. About halfway through the event all the Vietnamese left to get children to bed and only the diehard foreign staff remained to finish off all the booze. Then wound up at Derry's again with Alison, Calder and Eva and let Alison order me strange drinks. One was a mouldy blue/green colour and I have no idea what was in it! This morning Alison came by to give me a lift back to hers to get my bike and I managed to make my way to West Lake to do my shopping for the week (about the only thing I managed to do this weekend!) Went to the gym this afternoon to meet some personal trainer guy who made me lift weights and stuff to see how fit (or not) I was. Need to get back into going to the gym as I've been a bit lazy recently, and it was closed for a few days last week while they renovated. I only have 2 more full weekends left before I head back to the UK so I have to be more on the ball next weekend to get stuff done. The weekend after that hopefully Tuan will be coming to Hanoi from Ha Long Bay so we have a chance to catch up before my trip as it's been far too long since he last made it to Hanoi, and the weekend after that is when I fly! I guess I kinda have the Saturday day time to do stuff, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually achieve so I've gotta do it all before then. Must be more proactive!

I'm slack at updating!!

So flood day ended with me riding home through some floods but thankfully I managed not to kill my motorbike. I had to go round the long way as I came to a flood that was pretty deep and had vehicles abandoned in it but on the route I took the water only reached up to my footpegs once and the part where the flood water was green and slimy (and probably full of turds from the sewerage canal) was thankfully shallow enough for me not to make contact with the mank. Had to go to the pharmacy once I was home tho and the part of Doi Can near my house was still pretty flooded:



This dude is awsome. He's rolled up his pants to keep them nice and dry and yet hasn't replaced his fancy black work shoes with some cheap plastic sandals. Why?!



Some people enjoyed the flood more than others!



Glad that I didn't have to push a dead bike home through the flooded streets!



Life has been pretty uneventful since then. What was supposed to be an easy week without too much work last week turned into a horrible week as I did a whole bunch of covers for people. Thursday and Friday ended up being 12 hour days with stupid early starts which was horrible, plus I was the only person teaching on Friday morning so the place was empty and kinda eery. It's also meant that this weekend which was supposed to be a nice relaxing one is now busy as I have to do all the stuff I couldn't do during the week :o( LAME!

Day off! The first monsoon of the year hit last night and is still chucking down over hanoi. Half the roads in the city, including the one outside the school, are flooded and so classes were cancelled! Sadly this means (presumably) teaching a make up class one weekend. Unfortunately with flooding in my part of town comes power cuts and after a couple of hours I decided to try and escape to get some air con and light asmy house is pretty dingy. Doi can itself is knee high in water so I had to find another way out of the lanes. I tried two or three routes but kept meeting a wall of water before finally my last possible route out of the lane maze was dry enough for me to drive along without killing my motorbike. Am now settled in at Joma with air con, light and hot food. Fingers crossed the route I took to get here doesn't flood in the meantime as I really don't fancy pushing my bike home through deep dirty water!

Have now booked some plane tickets for my trip home! I'll be in the UK from the 12th Sept til the 14th Oct and hope to see lots of important people and eat some good British food! Ended up booking with Thai all the way as the travel agent managed to get the return ticket for $1200, which was a pretty sweet deal as on the web it was coming up at nearly £2000, so getting the same flight for less than half the price was good. Plus this way I only have a couple of hours in Bangkok each way and don't have to deal with Thai immigration whereas most of the other options I looked at involved flying out of Hanoi on Air Asia to other Asian cities at ridiculously early times and then waitng for several hours in most locations to connect. Also a lot of the deals (stuff like supposed £500 returns between London and Hong Kong) either didn't seem to really exist or were't happening when I wanted to fly. The only cheaper option I could find was a combination of Vietnam Airways and British Airways. Not gonna be doing that any time soon as I actually want to get home!

Alison and Calder are leaving Vietnam for good a couple of days after I leave so we're all counting down to our departure. 9 weeks! I will have to return though and without Alison and Calder will probably become something of a hermit because they are my main partners in crime. Nat and I usually only make it our with their encouragement so who knows how social we will be once they have gone. My trips to Derry's probably won't be as frequent after they've left either. I went there on Thursday with them for what was supposed to be just a quick drink so we could discuss the end of Dexter (no one else at work has seen it and so we weren't allowed to talk about it in the teacher's room!) but it turned into several drinks which probably didn't help my current insomnia. I got talked into covering a morning class on Friday morning (I went for my break on Thursday and Alison starts with "Nic do you love me?" followed by "YOu know you just bought that expensive ticket home? How would you like to earn $80 by covering an easy class?" and I couldn't say no!) so it sucked waking up at 6am. Haven't been up that early for a long time! It was an easy class though (exactly the same as my afternoon class so minimal prep was required) and as an added bonus the power was cut at about 10.30. The school policy says that if it's not gonna come back on any time soon we finish class early as without air con the place basically becomes an oven and so all I had to do in the morning was watch some presentations and give some feedback. An easy $80! It does make it along day though and unlike the long days I did in place like ASDA it is pretty tiring, as you actually have to use your brain for 8 hours rather than daydreaming for 8 hours whilst carrying out simple repetitive tasks. Thankfully both the classes were full or noce students.

Went to Derry's last night too with Alison, Calder, Nat and a new teacher, Poor Steve. Nat seemed to be in the mood for drinking and so was I (normally we have a drink or two each then stop) so at one point we ended up with tequila, and Poor Steve sampled some potent homebrew so it was a rather merry evening. Poor Steve wasn't entirely sure of the way back home from Derry's as it was his first time there and so at the end of the night I had to lead him back to a familiar part of town. He was on a bicycle so I had to drive along really slowly for him to follow making it an intersting journey home!

9 weeks to go!

This month has been birthday month in Hanoi. A few days after I got back from my holiday it was Alison's birthday and we went to Derry's for the evening. We ordered in some Indian food from the place next door and then had champagne and strange Vietnamese birthday cake.

A few days later it was Nat's birthday and we went to Alison and Calder's place for dinner. We had home-made hamburgers and a spam birthday cake. Apparently Hawaiians love spam so Alison put together a cake of sorts consisting of crakers with spam and pineapple. There were even some candles in the pineapple! It was very bizzare.

The last birthday was mine. As it was on a Saturday I didn't have to work (woohoo!) and I skived off from the gym. My friend Tuan was in town and he took me out for lunch at the training place, KOTO. Was presented with a passionfruit cheesecake with candles in it (who knew candles would work in cheesecake?!) and we had a nice lunch in the bar part upstairs with the really comfy sofas. In the evening I met Nat, Alison and Calder at Kamon for some Japanese food and then we went on to Derry's where there was another fancy vina birthday cake.


A great deal of effort seemed to be required to light the candles:


The cake came complete with an umbrella with Alison insisted on placing behind my ear:


Special candles for special people:

Update is coming soon, I promise! Have started writing it and will try and finish it some time this weekend.

Things I did with my sister:

Vietnam -


• On her first day in the city I threw her into the madess of Hanoi on the back of my motorbike and we went for breakfast at Joma, took a walk over to see Mr Le Nin, headed to the Old Quarter for a bit and then went for a Vietnamese lunch at cafe smile. After lunch I had to go to work briefly so I left her to check out the Temple of Literature then when I was done at work we came back to my house for a bit before going for some sushi and other Japanese goodness for dinner.




• We went to West Lake and went to the froufy Love Chocolate cafe (for breakfast. Is chocolate cake with cream cheese icing a bad idea for breakfast?!) and ended up not only eating lots there but also taking some of their awesome cookies away with us. It's probably a good thing I usually do my West Lake shopping on a Sunday when the place is shut or I'd be there a lot more often I think!




• I attempted my longest ride through the mental Hanoi traffic to go to the silk village. In the past I've always gone by bus, or got a lift from Minh but I finally work up the courage to attempt a long ride on one of the really busy roads in Hanoi *proud*


• Bec experienced the joy of climbing 5 flights of stairs to Alison and Calder's place as Nat was being taught how to cook Mexican food by Alison and we were invited over to sample the end results before heading to Derry's for a drink or two.


• I talked her into joining me for a yoga class at the gym. I don't think she'll be seeking out a class back home! As a reward for all the effort (it's so much harder than it looks!!) we went to the Melia for the champagne brunch.


• I went to see the water puppets for the third time. As a result I knew exactly when they missed stuff out like the cat running up the tree!


• We went to Ha Long Bay with the same company that I used with the parents, but this time we didn't have our very own private boat :o( Still, the boat was very nice and there was still lots of yummy food. Went to the same floating village and cave as last time but as the place is so peaceful it's a nice break from Hanoi, even if it's not as exciting as the first time I went there.


• Finally went to see the war wreckage that is just a few minutes walk away from my house. I've often walked past and thought about going in and I finally did it!




• Went for my second viewing of Uncle Ho as my sister was keen to go and have a look at him.


• Next up we spent a few days in Hoi An where we ate lots of good food (pancakes, good Italian food and some really nice and dirt cheep Vietnamese food) and got several items of clothing made (well I did anyway). Went back to the same tailors that I've used the past 2 times and one of them invited me to join her family for coffee and breakfast one morning which was cool.


• Went for a bicycle tour on some of the islands around Hoi An which was much better than I thought it was going to be. We went down the river on a boat to our destination then cycled through the countryside (the proper countryside, not the one laid on for tourists) and saw lots of local life. Took another boat back to Hoi An as the sun was setting. It was really good fun and I like that I can still find new things to do around Hoi An as this was my 4th trip there.




• We hired a motorbike for a day and shot up the highway to Marble Mountain and China Beach where we went to the funky hill temple and a nice empty beach.




• The last place we went to in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City and for me a trip to HCMC generally consists of eating food that can't be found in Hanoi so we went to lots of nice places to eat, including the New York Dessert Cafe which served ace apple crumble!


• Went for another visit to the Independence Palace and this time made it as far up as the roof and down into the basement tunnels.




• We booked a trip to the Cu Chi tunnes through the same company as last time and ended up with the same crazy guide, but this time there were no other tourists so it was our own private tour! As my ankle didn't hurt this time I actually managed to go into the tunnels and it's not nice at all. The tunnels have been widened for fat foreigners so I can only imagine how horribly tiny the original tunnels are!



Rest of the 'Nam pics here.

Next stop, Cambodia!


• Took forever to get there as we spent three goddam hours waiting to get stamped out of Vietnam and one hour getting into Cambodia as everyone in Vietnam had decided to go to Cambodia that day to gamble away their 4 day weekend. Plus the bus broke down on the way for some added fun. As a result we ended up in a more expensive hotel than we'd originally planned as a tuk tuk driver took us to one at the waterfront and after managing to get $10 a night knocked off the price we decided to just stay there as the thought of trying to find a hotel in the evening after that rubbish journey was just too much. Turned out to be a great hotel for watching the nightly dancing and aerobics classes by the river though! The day improved greatly with some authentic Thai food for dinner.


• Did a fair bit of shopping in Phnom Penh as the tourist tat that is available there is different to the tourist tat in Hanoi. There are also some cool boutiquey shops so I indulged in a little shopping. The same is also true of Siem Reap. Oops!


• We went to the royal palace and checked out the colouful buildings and temples, and died a little in the heat.




• We ended up hiring a tuk tuk driver for the day one day. He took us out to the killing fields at Choeung Ek where there is a small museum and then you walk around the mass graves. There are still bits of bone, teeth and clothing lying buried in the ground and in the centre there is a stupa filled with skulls of the victims so it's a little different to many other memorials/battle sites/etc as you can still see the human remains right there. After that the tuk tuk dropped us at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum which was a school that had been turned into a prison. Finally the driver took us to the Russian Market for a bit of a break from death.




• In Phnom Penh we went on a boat trip on the river. We went to a silk factory and a temple, then we sailed past a Vietnamese floating village that was pretty much identical to the ones on Ha Long Bay.




• Next up we spent a few days by the beach in Sihanoukville. It was low season so there was quite a strange atmosphere to the place - lots of sex-pats and few tourists. It was nice to do nothing for a few days though, plus there were lots of places selling British food (sausages!!) and good cheap Cambodian food. We went to a national park and sailed down a river to a beach, and we also booked a boat trip to one of the near-by islands which was really good. The boat was nice and there was lots of good food, and on the way to the island we stopped to go snorkelling over a mini coral reef. On the island we went wading throuh a river past some mangroves. I was wary at first as the water was murky so I couldn't see the bottom but it turned out to be really fun. We also went on what was billed as a jungle trek but anything that can be done in a swimsuit and flip-flops isn't really a jungle trek in my mind!





• Saw lots of good sunsets in Sihanoukville as we were staying at the beach facing to the west. There were hammocks on the beach so we spent lots of time lying in them in the evening or walking along the pier as the sun set.





• We took a long bus ride up to Siem Reap and checked into our awesome hotel, then went out for a roast dinner. ROAST CHICKEN AND STUFFING!!!!! It's been a while since I've had a roast and I enjoyed it very much.




• The main reason for a trip to Siem Reap is of course to go to Angkor Wat and we spent a couple of days checking out some of the temples. It was stupidly hot and hard work clambering up heaps of steps but it was very impressive. The advantage to going at the hottest time of the year was that there were fewer tourists so most places weren't too packed. We went to watch sunrise one morning but it wasn't the best time of year for an amazing sunrise so it wasn't as spectacular as some of the photos would have you believe, however it was still pretty sweet. We also tried to go for sunset but the sun didn't really seem to set that night.




• The least impressive thing I did in Cambodia was get my feet nibbled by fish. It was such a strange experience and I can't say I'd go back for more!



Some more photos from Cambodia.

We flew from Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur and then got another flight across to Borneo.


• Went back to Koto Kinabalu and just like last time it rained every single day. Spent a lot of the rainy time in the shopping centres all around the city!


• We took a trip to Kinabalu national park (in the rain) and just like last time it wasn't possible to actually see the mountain. We also went to Poring Hot Springs and went on the tree-top canopy walkway which was pretty cool.




• Spent a day at one of the islands close to the city but sadly unlike last time the tide was in so after sweating our way to the end of the island we couldn't walk back along the shore and had to go back the way we came. It was nice to chill out on the beach after our sweaty walk across the island.




• We left Malaysian Borneo for a couple of days in Brunei, which doesn't seem to have changed one bit since I was last there, apart from the Thai food stall at the food court apparently closing down and the great Indian restaurant no longer offering blueberry juice. Just like last time every evening apart from the one with the torrential rain was spent at the mosque watching the sun set as it's aways impressive




• Took another trip down the river to see the funky monkeys and the water village, and this time the tour continued on land to take in a couple of the mosques in the city. After this tour we were dropped back at the youth hostel and an ice cream van was set up just down the road selling the Brunei equivalent to Mr. Whippy. YES!




• We went by speedboat to Bangar and found a local dude to drive us out to Bukit Patoi and made our way to the top of the monster hill to take in the view. It seemed easier this time than last time and I'd like to think this is due to going to the gym heaps rather than just knowing what is ahead this time!



Some pictures of Malaysia and Brunei.

After Borneo we flew to Kuala Lumpur (after spending 3 extra hours waiting at Brunei airport and getting free but disgusting food whilst waiting) and after a few days there went to Singapore.


• In both places we did pretty much the same things - shopping, eating a whole range of good food from all over the world and (on my part anyway) making the most of being in modern cities.


• In Kuala Lumpur we went out to Batu Caves with the bajillion stairs and insane monkeys and we also went up the Petronas Towers, whilst in Singapore we went on the Singapore Flyer (or London Eye, according to the taxi driver who took us from the train station to the hotel!) so we squeezed in some tourist activities. We went for a drink at Raffles too for a bit of sophistication.






• On the last day in Singapore we walked past a British pub so I convinced my sister that was where she wanted to have lunch so I got a taste of home to end the trip with!




A few snaps from Singapore.

Finally after all that we headed our separate ways home at Singapore airport :o(