My cousin came to visit so I've been busy this past week!

Met Ashley at the airport on Monday evening and we headed in to the Old Quarter to his hotel to find they had no idea about his reservation. Thankfully Tuan was with us and we went across the road to a hotel where he knew the dudes and we managed to get Ashley sorted with a decent room. The next day I met him for lunch then sent him off into the wilds of Hanoi, and then successfully met him a few hours later in a bar close to where I work. After he got a couple of beers in him I got him on the back of my bike to drive him through the mental rush hour to the Old Quarter to arrange the rest of his trip.

As I had to work in the days I didn't see much of him, only meeting him for dinner, and he went to Ha Long Bay too but on Friday we went out to the North Korean restaurant. Food was as strange as last time, but this time the entertainment was happening. The waitresses got up on stage and sang some songs, much to the delight of the South Korean businessmen!



On Saturday Tuan came to meet us and we went for some noodles for breakfast at a popular place. Some TV people were there and wanted to interview some white people. Of course as they were Vietnamese they refused to accept it when I said no so kept pointing the camera in my direction even after I made it clear I didn't want that. A camera isn't subtle so when they point it right in my direction when standing in the queue it's pretty obvious what they're up to! Not the smartest people those ones. Was tempted to smash their camera so they would finally get the hint! Ashley didn't mind though so they got some film of him. After that we went for some coffee on midget stools then went out to Bat Trang pottery village and had a look around.



We then drove out to But Thap Pagoda and stopped for guava on the way



This turned out to be a good thing as the guy selling them pointed us in the direction of a short cut through the countryside. It was a bit of a drive to get there but it was quite nice driving through some of the small villages and countryside. Couldn't look at too much as I was focusing on not killing myself, but what I did see was very pretty! We got to the pagoda and walked around - not many tourists make it out there so it was pretty quiet, but it did start to rain halfway round.



We had to drive back to Hanoi in the rain which was not nice once we hit the main road. Ended up covered in muddy spray.



Once back in Hanoi we went for some Bun Cha at the place Tuan took me before and then went to sit at Bia Hoi corner until it was time for Ashley to leave to go get ready for his overnight bus down to Hue.

Pics are here!

It's always nice to have someone visiting and it gets me out doing things. More of you need to come and visit!

In other exciting news the Communists finally let me receive a package from home! Now have a sock puppet sitting on top of my TV courtesy of Mr Morris!

From the fancy pants hotel onwards!!

We got to Sihanoukville as the heavens opened but as checking in took so long (fancy welcome drinks!) it had pretty much cleared by the time we were ready to explore. We walked along the private hotel beach to a nice restaurant by the sea which had amazing food on offer. We were very lazy in Sihanoukville and other than a brief trip into the town to get supplies and enjoy (real) bangers and mash we stayed at the resort using the peach, the pool and the spa. From there we had a crappy overnight bus ride to Siem Reap on a bus with broken air con (couldn't turn it off and they had it set to blast out all night long so we pretty much froze) but once there we checked in to another nice hotel, the one I stayed at last time with my sister. We didn't do much the day we arrived other than shop and swim in the pool but as there are lots of shops and a big market in Siem Reap this meant we were busy for most of the day! The next day we went out to Angkor Wat and saw some of the temples on the circuit. Just as we came out of the second to last temple a monster storm rolled in so we left actual Angkor Wat for the next day and headed back to the hotel for some relaxing. We got up early the next day and went to Angkor for sunrise, then as Nina had never ridden an elephant before we had to do that! We then ventured further afield in our tuk tuk to another temple then stopped at the landmine museum on the way back to Siem Reap - it was less depressing than you'd imagine it being! On our final day in Siem Reap we intended to go out to see the sunset but there was another major storm raging so we stopped at the museum instead. Sadly the storm cleared while we were inside so sunset probably would have been nice after all, but you can pretty much guarantee that had we gone it would have just rained on us.

After Siem Reap we headed back to Phnom Penh and on the last day we went to the Palace and had a nice meal by the river before we had to head to the airport for Nina to get her flight. Once she'd gone I was rather lonely and bored! Went for a massage and a facial to try to alleviate that boredom and then the next day in the afternoon I flew to KL. Spent the majority of my time there shopping and indulging in good food (including an awesome roast with real Yorkshire puds!) but I did head up to the Genting Highlands for a day trip. It is about an hour from KL and is up in the mountains (as the name would suggest :op) but I picked the worst day to go. Woke up to rain and although it had stopped by the time I got there it was still pretty cloudy. Made the cable car ride to the top of the hills a bit spooky as at one point the clouds were so thick you couldn't see the car in front or behind so the only way to be sure you were actually moving was when a car would pass by in the opposite direction. At the top of the hill there is a resort with a bunch of casinos and an indoor theme park/shopping centre thing going on and there is also an outdoor theme park. When i first got there pretty much every ride was shut because the clouds were so bad but gradually they started to open and there was some fun to be had! I don't think I'd bother going back there again as it was pretty tacky and full to bursting with Chinese people who had come to gamble but it gave me something new to do this trip. Have been to KL several times now but I can still find something new each time!

Got back to Hanoi last week with a massive bout of food poisoning so suffered with that for a couple of days, then went back to work. I now have a full time post so have a bunch of induction sessions to go to over lunchtime this week and I have to get back in to the world of full time work. That's gonna be hard!

The pictures are here!