Photos from Cambodia - Angkor Tom - Bayon

Bayon

Photos from Cambodia - Angkor Tom - South Gate

South Gate

Goodbye Viet Nam - Hello Cambodia

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all your well wishes for the New Year!

We have had an absolute blast so far.. Last email we had just come back from Halong Bay to Hanoi. Well we picked up our guide 'Coung' (the buddist wordfor Strong), a 30 year old guy with an excellent sense of humour, and toured around a pottery village, rice paper paint village, and silk weaving village. Extremely interesting especially since some families have been making the same stuff for 15 centuries!!

We caught the overnight train (no throwing up this time!) down to Hue. The afternoon and evening was spent on a tiny boat travelling down the Perfume River to the temples of the late Emperors! (Man, those guys knew how to live and die in style!).. Then to the temple of the buddist monk who set himself on fire to protest the government of the time. An extremely sobering experience.

Evidence of the American war is everywhere.. From bunkers in the fields.. to bullet holes in the most beautiful of relics.. to shell holes in temple walls..to people deformed from Agent Orange.. or with lost limbs or scars from the war.. It's sad to see.. but the strength of the people around here is amazing..they have totally moved on.. Interesting that people insist on doing a V for victory sign when having their photos taken.. They say they are strong because they have repelled the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Cambodians and of course, the Americans (and us)..

From Hue we drove down the coast and over the mountains to Hoi An. This is the most beautiful of old towns and is famous for the Japanese bridge andTailors. I had two suits made in 24 hrs, plus some shirts and shoes!.. So Cheap!!.. Suitcase is definately heavier. This is also the start of our 5 star trip.. are we staying in the best hotels.. washing our clothes and live like gentry..

We did a cooking school here, were we learnt how to make rice paper rolls (and the paper too) and Hoi An pancakes.. Watch out folks..we will be experimenting on you when we get back!!..

The food in Hoi An was something amazing.. One resturant (the Mango Room) was so good.. that on our last day there.. you saw us at 11am sitting on the pavement sipping Mango Daquiries and eating the most exquisite food of the trip (on the first vist there..we had 14 mango daquiries between 4 of us!!)..

Food has never cost us more than $10 NZ for 3 people including beer ( $1.50 NZ for half a litre.. yahooo)..

From Hoi An we caught a flight down to Nha Trang..which is a beachside resort. The temperature has changed drastically (now around 27-30 degrees and bloody humid!). We took a boat trip around the islands and out to a fishing village.. where Mich hada paddle around in a basket boat (round and made from platted bamboo).. Heavy old me.. had broken a wooden step getting into the main boat.. fallen and bruised myself from ar*ehole to breakfast.. so that is number 3 bad thing to happen.. It was the worst trip we have done so far!! Stuck on a boat.. very unhappy.. forced to listen to karoke for 8 hrs.. Arrrggghhhhhhh..

Anyhow we have spent the last couple of days in Ho ChiMinh City (Siagon), travelling out the the Cu Ch iTunnels (where the Viet Cong hid and attacked during the war) and yesterday the Mekong Delta. An amazing trip paddling through little canals, with water coconut trees on both sides!!..

We are now heading off to Cambodia this afternoon.. and are very sad to say good bye to our guide and toViet Nam.

Love to you all!!

Mel and Mich

Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy New Year)

Hi Folks and CHUC MUNG NAM MOI to you all,

We are back in Hanoi for a few hours before catching the overnight train (and missing the New Year's Festivities) down south to Hue.

Thank-you all for your well wishes and for your thoughts of safety with the advent of the tsunami. It's been extremely sad and frightening to hear the news of so many deaths. My thoughts are for their loved ones at this time.

Today has been spent out in a few of the local handicraft villages. The first specialised in making pottery.. really interesting.. especially when Mich started getting involved in pouring the moulds!

Next was a paper printing village where the artist was 15th generation with his family performing the same art from the 16th centuary. We got some lovely prints depicting the local sumo wrestling (for me!) and a scholar returning home (for Mich). The rice paper is made out of tree bark, and brushed with ground seashells and rice gluten for the luminesence.

Lastly we went to a silk weaving village and watch the coccoons being unravelled, spun, and woven into amazing fabrics!.. The scarfs, handbags, dresses, etc were so beautiful.

The last few days have been spent on the coast cruising the 3000 islands of Ha Long Bay. Unfortunately it has only been 6 degrees, so a wonderful romantic cruise around the limestone islands was a little chilly (though extremely beautiful).

Since my last email I have been extremely ill, coming down with a stomach virus, but have now bounced back to 110%. It was heaps of fun puking my guts out inthe most rank toilet I have seen in my life for 12 hours on the train back from Lao Cai!! Then spending 24 hrs delerious in the hotel room whilst Mich was out with the credit card and the shops of Ha Noi (don't worry, she looked after me well too!). Hence, am not looking foward to spending another 18hrs on the train tonight!

I hope that this email finds you all safe and happy!!.. Make lots of promises you cannot keep for the New Year!

Love to you all.Mich and Mel

Merry Christmas from Viet Nam

Hi Folks and a very Merry Christmas,

Man, this place is one absolutely mind blowing experience! Currently we are in Lao Cai awaiting the overnight train back to Hanoi. To kill time.. we walked to CHINA!!!

Let's start at the beginning... After an overnight inSingapore, we arrived in Hanoi four days ago. We were met by our guides at the airport and changed ourAussie money into Dong... $100 Aus = $1,196,000.00 Dong.. WAHOOOOO A MILLONAIRE in the first 60 minutes of being in Viet Nam!

The ride to the hotel scared the living SH*T out of me.. Let me give you an overview of driving in VietNam..

1. Never use your breaks
2. You may pass on the inside or the outside
3. Don't drive in your lane, drive in the center
4. Toot your horn constantly if overtaking
5. Toot your horn if going around a corner
6. Toot your horn if you are bored
7. Toot, toot, bloody toot
8. If all lanes on your side of the road are full, feel free to cross the double yellow lines into oncoming traffic (tooting loudly)

Our hotel was in the old Ministry of Defence buildings, behind the Hanoi Hilton! For all you history buffs.. that might mean something.. for the rest of you.. google it!.. Hanoi is an interesting city build around a lake which legend says contains a large turtle to which the king returned a magic sword after winning an important battle (just like the legend of King Arthur!). First night there we saw the most beautiful 'Water Puppet' show.. Just how you control puppets in water is something to be seen! The colours and laquerware were beautiful.

One important thing to mention is crossing the road.. the motor bike, bikes, buses, cars come at you thick and fast.. You close your eyes, take a deep breath,tell your mother your love her, and then walk slowly into the traffic! Amazingly you feel like Moses parting the red sea!

There is so much to tell, but the highlights wereUncle Ho (he had just come back from a touchup inRussia and is looking pretty good for 120 years old), Ho's Humble little cottage, Ho's museum, the Temple of Literature (note I need to spend more time there!), and the Women's Museum.

We caught the overnight train up to Lao Cai, and thena 2 hr bus ride up to Sapa Village.. Note, the road rules above still apply on one lane dirt roads on thesides of very steep mountains.

Sapa is a village in and above the clouds. Our accommodation was up 172 stairs to a room which had the most amazing views across the valley filled with rice paddies and to the mountains.

Christmas Eve the hotel put on a wee celebration with home made apple rice wine (aka rocket fuel, or "Happy Water"), and the traditional roasting marinated pork on bamboo skewers over an open fire. They tried to get us to sing christmas carols, but we only knew the chorus to a few.

Christmas Morning we awoke to a total white out.. We had gotten the white christmas we were asking for!! We had breakfast and met our H'moung guides for a 6 hour hike into the villages. The beauty of the place was astounding.. we will bore you all with the photos when we get back. Each village we passed through the ladies were trying to sell us blankets, or pillowcases (all hand made, blankets taking up to a year tocross-stitch)... The hills were alive with "Buy from Meeee"... "Buy from Meeeee"... We were taught the word Gu-chi-si-yo (pronounced "Gucci Sale") meaning we weren't buying...

The poverty of the place is heartbreaking, but we see so many happy children, and people living just has they have for thousands of years. It is amazing the effect tourism is having, and the change it is making to the people and what they want.. most villages have a TV.. but it is powered by water.. forced down a bamboo pipe and into a wooden bucket type hydro-generator!

If you are contemplating a visit to Viet nam come now, before the simplicity of life is lost. The ride back to Sapa was in an old russian jeep, over roads which were just dynamited hours before we got there. I can honestly say, old russian jeeps have great shock absorbers.

Today we drove 3 hours (40km) to the markets in M'oung Hum.. This is where many different hill tribe meet to trade.. Because it was so far out (and high up), not many tourist go there.. and we were the people on show! Ladies wearing the most colourful traditional costumes would happily pose for a photo, and giggle with amazement when you showed them it on the digital screen. The mix of traditional dresses, vegetables ,meats, all in a small wooden, dusty village really touched the senses.

And that leaves us now in Lao Cai, waiting to go backt o Hanoi to continue our adventure on down the rest of the length of Viet Nam!! We are both well and extremely happy (don't worry Mum!!)..

Hope that you all had a great Christmas, ate a lot, and drank more!..

Send our love to everyone.

Love Mich and Mel