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(