Malaysia and Singapore

The night train to Butterworth in Malaysia was mostly comfortable but we didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy our beds as the train was running late and didn’t collect us until nearly 3am, we then had to get back out of bed for the border crossing at 9am. It was one of the smoothest border crossings yet, a stamp out of Thailand and a stamp into Malaysia all within the same office and back on the train to find, most disappointedly, that the beds had magically turned back into seats and so the rest of the journey was a more normal train sleep, drooling against the window! From Butterworth we took a ferry across to Penang Island to spend the night in Georgetown. As a former colony it has some nice buildings, a nice park area at the waterside and a few bars to keep us entertained. With only one night here we didn’t get to see it all but we got a taste of Penang which was good as it’s another place I know my parents visited nearly 40 years ago!

The following day involved boat and bus to reach Kuala Lumpur, the exciting big city of Malaysia and home of the beautiful Petronas Towers. Arriving in the evening we headed straight out for a walk through the city, past the KL Tower and arriving ultimately at the beautiful twin towers. I was taken aback by their beauty, I’ve seen many fabulous buildings which stop you in your tracks (or not) and this one is definitely a highlight and a sight to behold, the lights shining out, the elegance, the way they command your attention and hold it. I couldn’t just take a photo and walk away; I had to allow my eyes to saviour it. The city is so clean and accessible, it was lovely to walk around at night time, I really enjoyed listening to the live music and taking in the lights and the atmosphere, Kuala Lumpur scored a lot of points that night.

After enjoying the towers so much in the dark I was keen for a daytime visit not to end as a disappointment, and I am pleased to say there was no disappointment in store for me. As stunning as they are lit up at night, the towers are equally eye-catching in the daylight, so much glass and silver metal draws the eye right in and once again I am captivated by the presence of something very attractive! Such a beautiful building! Walking around them also holds various pleasures, from the small lake to the fountains to the flashes of air conditioning blasting you as you walk past the doorways of the very expensive shops housed within. It’s like a small burst of heaven when you walk past an air conditioned doorway, a small but very enjoyable blast of freezing air to break up the monotony of constantly sweating! We’ve been sweating for a long time now, the last time I remember not sweating was China, there was actually a point in China when I had a fleece on!! That seems a long time ago now.

The rest of my Kuala Lumpur experience involved wondering around the city, and what a lovely city it is. It’s such a clean place, seems very orderly, there is of course a China Town and lots of Chinese food on offer all around the city, the Malaysian food is either well hidden, not advertised as Malaysian or it’s just a combination of Asian foods, I can’t quite decide.  We also spent a night in the nearby shopping centres theme park with all sorts of fun stomach-churning rides to play on, it was a lot of fun.

From KL we headed to Malacca for a couple of days of exciting discovery, and discover we did, mostly though we discovered that this seems to be a very odd place and I’m not entirely sure why so many tourists come to visit this town! There are fort remnants, and canons and a variety of churches and temples and of course a China Town but most of these we discovered on the first few hours of being in the town. As our time there expanded we then discovered that the pavements are a little secret known only to the lucky few, in the middle of China Town there’s a garden devoted to some brass animals and a brass statue of Mr Malacca (also Mr Asia, Mr World and Mr Universe, though who competes in that that didn’t compete in Mr World I do not know!!) and then there were the cyclos or rickshaws with their over-the-top flowers and flashing lights turning a normal mode of transport into something really quite different!  The best part for me was a beautiful church up on a hill, St Paul’s, which is the roofless remains of a church lending itself as a fantastic outdoor performance area.  There was some dancing on while we were there and what a great place to enjoy some visual arts, under the stars.  With some time to spare we took a wander along the sea front to take in the sights of the nearby boats afloat in the Malacca Straits, there weren’t loads to watch but I still like to see the huge barges being pulled by tugs and any container ships that might be at sea at the time.

The following day we took a bus to Singapore and that was the end of our time in Malaysia, a country which hasn’t lived up to expectations in my mind. I have enjoyed my time here and Kuala Lumpur was an easy winner as my favourite part but overall I am leaving Malaysia a little bit disappointed by my inability to match it with a fantasy.

Singapore is well known for all its rules and cleanliness but I think this time around (I visited Singapore briefly in 1999) I found it to be a little more relaxed and Kuala Lumpur had raised the bar with cleanliness leaving Singapore behind in second place. The highlight of Singapore was the coincidental occurrence of the Grand Prix which was taking place during our visit, this immediately gave the city an extra buzz and the atmosphere was easily passed on to the rest of the city. A stroll along the busy shopping area of Orchard Street proved to us the wealth of the city, we were passed by Lamborghinis, Porches, all sorts of fancy cars in among all the fancy hotels and posh shops there’s a lot of money floating around. Between the shops were formula one cars on display, podiums to have your photo taken on and temporary shops selling merchandise.

On the night of the final race two of us took a walk into the city centre, it’s about a 45 minute walk and along the way we became aware of a kind of buzzing noise, of course it was the sound of racing cars in the distance. As we neared the race circuit the noise got louder and louder and it was quite eerie walking a city at night with the background soundtrack. Eventually we reached the closed roads of the race course, we could stand just metres from the road and while we couldn’t see the cars the sound of them tearing past was immense, and very exciting, it soon became our mission to see the cars! The whole place is well sealed but we managed to find a building with a fairly climbable wall, a metre up and hello! There go the cars! It was too much for us, we both actually squealed with delight every time one went past! We lasted in our spot for a couple of minutes before security moved us along, but by then we didn’t mind we were elated with our success. Eventually we found a pedestrian bridge right next to a bridge the cars race across and we sat there for the rest of the race watching them flash past us, we then had a perfect view of the end fireworks. Sitting on the bridge, listening to the cars zooming past with the backdrop of a beautiful city, followed by a walk along the riverside, what a gorgeous night, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out in Singapore.

The next day was just as exciting, we walking into the city again and headed around the riverside towards the marina. There are some really lovely buildings here painting a cityscape befitting of such a rich capital. Fortunately the route we walked was similar to that of the Grand Prix and so it was natural for us to walk the empty streets of the race-course while they dismantle the masses of concrete and iron in place. It was really quite special to have this opportunity to see the marks on the walls where wheels have connected, to see the skid marks and crash marks where a car had smashed into a wall and to stand in the place where Michael Schumacher had taken out another car and come to a skidding halt. Pieces of rubber remain strewn around the place and only a handful of tourists have taken to the race-course like we have, making it a pleasant dander around. These things generally wouldn’t be all that interesting to me, but it all added up to a far more enjoyable Singapore adventure than I had bargained for, I thoroughly excited myself and can declare quite truthfully that without the Grand Prix Singapore would not have scored nearly as high on the smile test. I leave here with a far more positive view of the place and can’t help thinking of it with a gentle buzz in my heart.

Sa-Wat-Dee Thailand

The journey into Thailand was uneventful, the main difference between this and any other was the sheer number of people at the border, I don’t think we’ve had any queues this long before, it’s funny to think that back in Pakistan, crossing into India we were the only people at the border crossing, we also had to sit around for over half an hour as they waited for the power to come back on so that they could process our passports! It was also the busiest no-mans-land we’ve passed through as there were people everywhere! Once through the border we were not able to continue on the same bus as we were then transferred to minibuses which made the country seem instantly posher!

It was with an air of excitement that we arrived in Bangkok, so much to see, so much to do and only 3 nights and 2 days to do it in. What a great city, I so enjoyed wandering around, passing through all the different markets, seeing all the various street foods on offer, wandering through our own touristy area with its busy market and pub life, Khao San Road is another fantastic place to sit and people watch. Especially as day turns into night and the scenes in front of you change accordingly, the people get drunker and some of the street vendors start to offer a different variety of wares, none of which you would want in your bag for any Asian border crossing!!

We took a trip out to the popular floating market near to Bangkok, and it was nice to be taken around the canals in a little boat, surrounded by other little boats, some full of tourists, others selling food and souvenirs, sometimes congestion halted our progress but any boat is always fun for me. What wasn’t fun? This is not what we all come to see! The place is packed to the hilt with tourists and tourist tat, all the stalls selling the same things (at bumped up prices) and sometimes when you don’t buy they don’t like it. Places like this make me wish I was not a cog in the tourism machine, what was once an amazing little local market is now yet another place in the world where the tourists provide the money and the locals are just slaves to the industry. Their previous way of life has disappeared and in its place they find themselves practically begging people to buy their goods, they get haggled down and get angry at tourists, tourists become unfriendly in return and the atmosphere is tainted. The whole thing is tainted and I hate being a part of it. These are the kind of places I sometimes want to avoid on my journey, but I have to experience this to appreciate the other places a little more, and like a good little tourist... I still took a photo!

That night we went in search of a ladyboy drag show, the best known and most talked about one is not open as they move venues so the only one we’ve found takes place in a nightclub and we have to entertain ourselves until it opens. We headed to the touristy area of Patpong, a great wee night market is in full swing and we headed to one of the local gay bars where we passed a few hours with some lively karaoke! After that with still a few hours to kill we headed for the tourist attraction (I use the word very loosely) of a ping pong show! Girls shooting ping pong balls and various other bits and bobs out of their bits and bobs! Here, the ladyboys only dance as clearly they cannot partake in the main attraction! It was a bit cringe-worthy, but funny also, best when the girls were laughing and looking like they don’t hate their job. The funniest part being when a ping pong ball hit me in the chest and stuck to me!! I had goo in my hair!! Once that was done we headed to our drag show and weren’t disappointed, several ladies took the stage in amazing make-up and sparkly dresses, miming their hearts out as others danced in the background. I really enjoyed my night. At the end of that the lovely sparkly compeer must embarrass some audience members and who better to choose than our very own baby-faced Dan! ‘Are you sure you’re not gay, are you sure?’ they taunt as they take him on stage and physically molest him! I take my hat off to him as not once did he let out his girlish squeal as he stood there, hands in the air, taking the various stages of fondling like a man! Bangkok lived up to its reputation that night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The next day we took a map and conducted a self made walking tour of the city, passing the palace, wats, gardens, Chinatown, bridges, various monuments and sitting Buddha’s. I’m delighted to see how much character Bangkok still has, it’s still very much an Asian city despite its richer areas with high rise buildings and fancy restaurants there are still loads of lovely little cute parts of the city bustling with locals. The highlight was the Sky Bar, though it wasn’t open. Once of the poshest high rise buildings in the centre is home to a 65^th floor restaurant and outdoor bar and there is a strict dress code that we failed as backpackers for several reasons! As the bar has been made famous in the film ‘Hangover 2’ the owners are happy to allow visitors up to that floor to take photos from inside and despite our current attire the lift attendant kindly points out that they open at 6pm should we wish to change and return, it’s lovely to not be judged ‘not good enough’ by someone in such a posh place. From there we headed down to the river to catch a ferry back up to our part of the city and got to enjoy the pleasures of another boat journey, seeing the city from another angle and passing yet more buildings which demonstrate the variety in wealth on display here. That evening was spent people-watching on Khao San road while trying and failing to find another show to go to. A fantastic day in a fantastic city, another couple of days would not have been wasted here.

We left Bangkok to travel to Kanchanaburi, home of the Bridge over the River Khwae and various museums dedicated to the Death Railway and war cemeteries. Another story which came as new to me, prisoners of war and citizens were used to build a very tough 415km stretch of railway linking Thailand and Burma during World War II by order of the Japanese. In the building of this around 100,000 people died from starvation, disease, accidents and mistreatment. The Japanese were fierce slave-drivers who forced people to work without enough food or medical supplies, even when someone was literally dying and could barely stand up from exhaustion, malaria, dengue fever, they were still forced out to help with the railway. Over 400km of railway including hundreds of bridges were completed within 16 months! While the original bridge was bombed parts of it have been used in the rebuild and the one that stands there today takes both pedestrians and trains across it.

We hired bikes to cycle around the area and ended up at some more Buddha caves, the best Bhudda caves we’ve visited yet. The path took us about 30 or 40 feet underground into deep caves which were great fun to explore, made better by the fact that around every corner there was a Buddha wedged into a crevice! Stalagmites and stalactites create beautiful surroundings as we clamber over and under the rocks. Nearing the end it opens into a large cave with a couple of bats flying around, off this is a smaller cave with even more bats flying around our heads! We’re then taken up steps and pop out into the real world again, sweat pouring off us but all the happier for finding such a fun little place to explore. Next stop was one of the 3 war cemeteries, they’re well kept, beautiful gardens and it’s really nice to see such care is still taken over them, there’s even a dog that seems happy to stay here and watch over the place.

We also hired a couple of small but fast boats to take us up and down the river for an hour. We split into two groups and raced each other along the River Khwea Yoi having a great time to ourselves, it was only lunchtime and yet we passed much bigger boats with parties going on aboard, loud music and dancing!! We hovered nearby to poach some music and then zoomed away on our fun boats.

Kanchanaburi is the first taste of really amazing Thai food. I am in love! The curries and the soups are just so delicious, while they’re all similar in that they have many of the same ingredients; they are all very different too. Tom Yum is the spicier coconut soup, Tom Kha is not spicy but a slightly sweet coconut soup, Massamai curry is a coconut curry, Patang curry is a more aniseedy flavoured coconut curry using an aniseed flavoured leaf we’ve found in a couple of other dishes. I was so preoccupied with these dishes it took me until the last night in Thailand to remember to try any of their better known coloured curries, the red the green or the yellow, tastes of which have left me wanting more! As far as culinary delights are concerned two weeks in Thailand is just not long enough, I cannot eat enough to fulfil my required intake of Thai flavours, I must endeavour to learn more about these dishes when I return home. Even my beloved pork porridge has been dumped at breakfast time in favour of Tom Kha! How can I ever go back to the western world where we don’t have rice for breakfast?!

Kanchanaburi  to Ko Samui was a longer journey with an overnight train, a bus, a ferry and then a minibus. Once we arrive though we have 5 days on this holiday island to relax, recharge and explore, relaxing being top of the list as we’ve been on the go quite a lot lately. The island has a ring road of about 100km and various other small roads branching off it, beaches dotted around, forested hills in the middle and various towns spread around, it’s fairly built up and there are plenty tourists. The nearest beach to us is a nice little bay with another small island at the end which you can walk to at low tide. Once again, the food adventure continues and we are lucky to be staying near a variety of street vendors who all serve fantastic local food usually between 50p and 2 GBP, I wish I could eat more than two meals a day while I’m here, but I am just never hungry enough!

We hired mopeds for a day to go around the island and see the local sights; the big Buddha (one of them) stands tall overlooking a gorgeous blue/green bay. The mummified monk, who is not mummified at all, is a dead body propped into a sitting position as was his wish, on display in a glass box outside his temple, it’s not an attractive sight made worse by the Rayban sunglasses covering his eye sockets! Continuing our moped tour we climbed hills, explored some forest tracks and got soaked at an alarming rate when we got caught out in a down pour. We then visited some well known rock formations of Ko Samui, the Grandpa and Grandma Rocks which are really just rude shapes found on the shoreline and turned into a must see tourist attraction.

For our last night in Ko Samui some of us went in search of some more ladyboy and drag shows. The nearby tourist haunt of Chewang provided us with a selection of shows to choose from and so we opted for two. The first was a tongue in cheek show on a tiny stage with all the feathers and sparkles we could ever have dreamed of. The second was a scaled up version of this on a proper stage with proper seating and beautiful flirtatious waitresses trying to woo the men into spending more money. It was a really great night, we sang our hearts out as they mimed at the top of their lungs and it fulfilled our need for Thai ladyboy entertainment. It was also interesting to see all their different glitzy costumes and to note how they have been adapted depending on what stage of physical alteration each dancer has reached, for example some have their cleavage out while others have it completely covered as maybe no operations have taken place. No matter, they all put a lot of effort into their performances and made our night amazing!

Leaving Ko Samui we get back in our minibus, onto the ferry and then board a bus to Surat Thani where we stop for a few hours to await our night train to Malaysia. A busy hotel housed us for those few hours where I sat people watching in the lobby and noticing all the single ladies arriving to keep people company for a few hours and then leaving later on, once again the adult industry is showing its face as night time calls to the lonely.

Asian Photos

 Mount Everest or Sagarmatha is the central mountain, Nepal

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an, China 

The Bayan, Angkor Thom at Angkor Wat site, Cambodia 

Ta Prom Temple, Angkor Wat site, Cambodia

Helicoptering out of Lukla, Himalayas, Nepal

Sour Sdey Cambodia

What a pleasure the drive to Cambodia was! The driver and his crew were the friendliest ever and they took all our paperwork from us and filled in our departure and arrival cards for the border and handled everything for us, all we had to do was show up and wait for it to be processed. It was such a joy and made up for many of the grumpy bus drivers we’ve had in Vietnam. Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital city where there’s a bustling night market, a busy river side touristy street and as much people watching as you can stand. I thoroughly enjoy people watching and took an afternoon out to sit outside a cafe, write a blog, and partake in that very activity. The odd thing about this city though is that many of the westerners appear to be ageing single men, some of whom have a young local girl on their arm, some of whom gather together with other single ageing men through the day and then the night time would be anyone’s guess, mine being the adult industry which would appear to be in full swing in this place! I never expected it to be so obvious. All through South East Asia we have seen the occasional older white man with a young local lady but here there are way more of these men, and I’m trying hard not to judge what I see.

Our first day out here had to be to the Killing Fields, another country with an horrific story to tell, and so recent as it only happened in the late 70s. Cambodians flooded the streets in April 1975 to celebrate the end of the war when Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) came into power, just hours later they were being evicted from their homes and sent to work in the fields. Over the next 3 years this regime massacred around 2 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population, and threw their bodies into mass graves, 129 of which are spread across the country, they also terrorised those who remained. A school in Phnom Penh was turned into an interrogation centre known as S-21 where people were brought in and tortured for several months before being taken to the killing fields. S-21 housed around 20,000 people and I believe that only 7 people survived this by becoming useful to the Khmer Rouge. This place is now the main museum and walking around it is eerie and sad, makeshift cells still exist, blood can still be seen on the floors and photographs and paintings help us to understand some of the horrors that took place. Outside the city is the site of one of the killing fields or mass graves which is now an open air museum come park with an audio guide telling stories and a memorial stupa which has 9 floors of human skulls displayed within. Walking around what is now a beautiful memorial park gives us time to listen to the stories and reflect peacefully on the disturbing things we are hearing. When the rains come and shift the soil, relics continue to rise up out of the ground, as we walk around there are loads of rags coming through as well as some human bones poking out and once a month the staff collect them and care for them. The Khmer Rouge considered bullets to be too expensive and so used farming equipment from a nearby shed to kill the prisoners. These poor men, women and children were taken from S-21 blindfolded; they had already been tortured, they were thin and weak and scared, they were brought to the mass grave and made to line up along the edge of it where they were battered until they fell in. In the worst section the ‘killing tree’ existed next to the grave of hundreds of children as they had been hit against the tree and then thrown into the pit. The Khmer Rouge then sprayed the graves with chemicals, this would help kill those who were about to be buried alive but it also masked the smell of the graves which were surrounded by land mines in an effort to hide the evidence. Pol Pot was afraid of anyone who might rise against him and so killed anyone with an education; this meant that once it was all over rebuilding the city was very slow as there were no architects or engineers left in the country to do the work. Today the leaders of the Khmer Rouge are in custody and awaiting trial, Pol Pot died too soon to face charges and the others are so old they will never face the punishment they deserve. A terribly sad and tragic tale of needless suffering and death in an otherwise peaceful society.

A walk around Phnom Penh brought us to markets, indoor and outdoor, wats, lots of cafes and eateries, the river and the palace. It’s a nice city, small and lively and I enjoyed my time here but I’ve arrived at that awful place where I have little interest in the temples and the wats and the stupas. I still love the look of them and I still get a wee kick from seeing the monks walking around in their orange robes, it’s such a special sight for a westerner, but I have no desire to enter the temples or spend any time around them, I am becoming indifferent to them. After the killing fields my favourite part of this city has been the busy night market near our hostel, selling loads of food. There’re many types of fish, whole or chopped, buy a bag of fish heads? Crabs all bound up with reeds, giant (and I mean giant!!) prawns, eels, alive and dead. I couldn’t resist a skewer of barbecued chicken which the vendor then dusted with a salt and squeezed lime juice over, that was really tasty!

We moved on from here to Siem Reap, another fairly touristy town but that is mainly due to its close proximity to Angkor Wat (city of temples), the largest Hindu temple complex in the world dating back to around the 12^th century.  A sleepy 5am start to the day ensured we were there in time for a non-existent sunrise and able to start the long day of exploring ancient ruins and temples. The Angkor Wat building itself is recognised the world over by its 5 towers which also feature on the Cambodian flag. Along with Angkor Wat we also visited Angkor Thom and Ta Prom Temple, only 3 out of the many that are situated here. Angkor Thom is a small(ish) city containing many different buildings including the Bayon which is incredible, several rock peaks stand tall each with different faces looking out over the area. Ta Prom is also known as the jungle temple as the trees have grown into the building making it such a magical place to roam around, it all looks like something created by the imaginations of the film industry, such a fantastic place to spend the day. We spent around 7-8hours wandering around the sites, once again thanking the lack of Health and Safety for enabling us to rummage about in places deemed too dangerous in other countries, up and down ridiculously steep steps, under semi-collapsed archways, it’s the kind of place that makes you wish you were a child again because adventures here would be the best! What a fantastic day out, and like everywhere else, there’s food stalls dotted about selling their wonderful food! What more could I ask for?

Like Phnom Penh the rest of the visit involved markets and food stalls and wondering about. I treated myself here to a reflexology foot, hand and shoulder massage and what a treat it was at the bargain price of about 3 GBP for an hour. After he’d done my feet, my legs, my hands, arms, head, neck, shoulders and back I couldn’t help wondering what the full body massage involves?!

Along the road to the Thai border the Cambodian dream draws to a close, looking out the window of the bus the land is flat and there are miles of paddy fields and people working the land. I’d love to return to this country, I feel there is a lot more to explore here and it would be really great to get away from the touristy spots and get a better feel for the place. The people are smiling and friendly, the food is tasty and cheap and the land is green and fresh. With such a sad history I am interested to see how it continues to develop.

Sing Chao Vietnam

Crossing the border into Vietnam I felt so lucky to have got over whatever illness I had as this is the first border we’ve come across where the officials scanned us to test out body temperature. Had I still been unwell and measured an unhealthy temperature I wonder where I would be right now as we had already officially left Laos and if Vietnam wouldn’t let me in I might be taking up residence in No-Mans-Land! But all’s well that ends well and so none of that matters.

Out first stop was the town of Hue (pronounced hway) where we were only staying for one day so we spent it on a boat and took a cruise up the Perfume River to see a temple and a tomb and enjoy a day out on the river. We passed many fields and paddies where people were working away but all along the river we passed many small boats, low to the water and filled with sand or gravel, heading in the direction of the city. Further up the river we found where they had come from as the river was alive with activity, lots of boats working the same part of the river dredging the sand, separating it from the water, loading it on to boats and sending it homeward for use as building materials. Most of the workers we have seen wear the cone shaped hats made from reeds that we have all seen on the tv, I had wondered if this was now just a tourist gimmick but they’re still very much in use by locals, they must be cheap and effective. The language barrier became more apparent on this day out as the tour guide’s English was good but he couldn’t grasp our use of tact or consideration, he looked around us all so he could compare someone’s belly to Buddha’s, he read a girls palm and told that she’s stupid and soft in the head and then he said we all have big bums! It was really quite funny; we wonder how aware he was of the offensive way this had been put across.

Our next stop in Vietnam was a town called Hoi An, best known it would seem for making clothes for people, every second shop is a tailor keen to make a made-to-measure dress of jacket or shoes at a very reasonable price. While I didn’t have anything made many other people were unable to leave Hoi An without something new for their wardrobe. Other than that it was a lovely little town to walk around, ignoring the tourist shops there are some lovely old buildings to look at, it’s a very pleasant place to wander and soak up. A huge market on the riverside sells everything from fresh seafood to all fruit and vegetable varieties you can think of to household goods. Some of the stalls had a load of vegetarian alternatives, vegetarian meat slices, vegetarian beef chunks and even vegetarian pigs ears! Why any vegetarian would look for them I never did find out though as asking a question means getting chased around the market by the stall owner offering you a better price or asking why you don’t want to buy the thing you showed an interest in! It’s a nightmare, running away from them, and it also means we are back in the tourist hell of being asked every 5 minutes if you want to buy something, very annoying!

The main historic tourist attraction is the Japanese Bridge, just a small bridge over a small part of the river, it’s a covered bridge and very quaint and also has the alternative name of the Faraway People’s bridge which is my personal favourite. This part of the river is where a lot of international trade took place and so boats arrived here from many different countries leading the locals to name the bridge after the ‘faraway people’, how lovely is that?

While I’m so far enjoying my time in Vietnam I have to say that it hasn’t yet lit any fires in my soul and I’m keen to see other parts of the country that I might find more interesting. I know the north is far more enchanting but we aren’t heading in that direction, we’re heading south towards Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) via the beach, so I’m sure the landscape will appeal to me more soon. In the mean time, I am just making the most of their food and soaking up what is left of their culture through the tourist haze. The food is not bland but a curry I recently ordered had little in the way of flavour, it was more like a chicken soup, it tasted lovely but it never would have entered my mind to have compared it to a curry. The other dishes I’ve had have all been delicious though, very typically Asian with rice, noodles, soups and spiced meat, very nice, but once again the tourist trail shows its face as we are being given cutlery rather than chopsticks which we have to ask for.

Heading to the beach now on a sleeper bus, I miss seeing the countryside out the window but I enjoy the night buses, I still find it a novelty to have a bed on a bus!! After all the times I’ve slept on buses and trains these sleepers are just genius and I doubt I could get bored of them. Next stop Nha Trang.

Sa-bai-dee Laos

 Our first sleeper bus was taking us from Kunming in China across the border into Laos to Luang Prabang, it had 2 aisles and 3 lines of slim line bunk beds, complete with little Snoopy (well, Snopy) duvet and pillow sets. Travelling through the last of China we passed mile on mile of poly tunnels, at one point there was nothing else as far as my spectacled eyes could see, when China do something they do it on a grand scale! I didn’t even try to sleep until well into the night, even after dark the views were enjoyable and I could still make out the hills and see low lying cloud covering the bottoms of the valleys. We crossed the border in the morning and were immediately greeted by two enormous butterflies fluttering around a nearby bush; they looked the size of a small garden bird, one plain black and the other black with a yellow tip on its bum. Welcome to Laos!

Once in Laos it was as if China had never happened, the people disappeared, the cultivation relaxed, the roads became bendy and eventually more potholed and I felt like we were back in Nepal again. The road continued to worsen and the drive got slower as we hit more landslides, more mud and bigger potholes. The landscape outside was now wild in comparison to China, the forests were thick and hiding all sorts of secrets right in front of us. Driving through it my lasting memory is of the whispy dainty little leaves from various types of bamboo trees hanging out over the road, they’re so elegant and pretty, these are the details that remind me what part of the world I am in as I gaze at any mountains in sight and compare them to Scotland’s.

Our first stop was the city of Luang Prabang, hard to believe with a population of only 50,000 that this quiet little place could be classed as a city. Such a lovely place to wander around, the main street is home to temples, a monastery, a stoopa, a market, a night market and various other beautiful sights. At the end of it we join the river Nam Kan just as it meets the Mekong river. We took a couple of tours up the river on a wee local boat, the first being to a waterfall, the Kuang Si Falls. We got a few hours cruising on the Mekong River, then a 20 minute ride in the back of someone’s pickup up to the falls, its then a short walk to reach the bottom and the pools that you are welcome to swim in or use the tree swing. The main waterfall itself is a gorgeous tropical sight, it looks like it’s come right out of a Disney film set as it cascades down over the rocks. We climbed the hill to the side of the falls, a steep climb of 20-30 minutes up the muddy hillside, not ideal in flipflops. Once you reach the top though you are rewarded by the opportunity to walk across the top of the falls, about 1-2 metres from the edge of the drop. This was the most exhilarating experience, we waded knee deep or deeper through the river, near the edge I could hold on to the bamboo fence for support against the current and the slippery rocks. At some point I could look right over and see the pool below, at other times only the other side of the valley was visible, but the whole time I was thanking my lucky stars that I have the opportunity to be in a country where the health and safety rules are relaxed enough to allow this little adventure to take place. Even going down the other side was exciting, the path was very steep and at times the best way down involved holding on to some creepers or branches, I’m sure Tarzan wasn’t far away! Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better we then had to go down some wooden stairs that were built in to the side of the waterfall and get soaked all over again! The best waterfall to visit, I had a great day, and still had a further couple of hours cruise on the river left to get home.

The next outing was to some caves near the town, the Pak Ou caves were once home to monks as well as places of worship although now they exist only as shrines to their much loved Buddha. There are two caves which are thought to contain over 2500 Buddha’s, many different kinds and sizes of Buddha’s hiding in the nooks and crannies of the rocks or taking pride of place around the centred large Buddha. You need a torch to enter one of the caves as its deep and pitch black with some Buddha’s hiding in the corners! It’s another interesting place to visit and another excellent excuse to take a few hours cruise on the Mekong.

Up and down the river there’s evidence of how much it is used in local life. There are people fishing from it and all along the edge there are bottles floating marking where a fisherman has some nets down. At other points we passed people sawing wood, loading boats with logs, transporting other goods or just parking up their canoes to go to work. All the boats are fairly basic, long thin canoes with a tiny motor attached or longer larger boats that carry passengers. The bigger boats, ones which might carry goods a greater distance have a house on board and washing hanging out to dry. The most interesting boat for me was the fuel station, moored at the side of the river this boat has one side fairly open and two pumps within, we pulled alongside and the boy jumped aboard to fill us up! When another boat pulled up alongside us he made sure that its occupant extinguished his cigarette before coming too close which was a relief to all of us, some rules really need to be applied!

The final point of interest for us was the march of the monks. This takes place every morning around sunrise every day; the monks walk up the street in single file and get their food from the locals who take a space at the side of the pavement to offer the monks some rice and some bananas. The march here is the longest of its kind in the world. The monks here wear bright orange clothing and so it cuts a fine picture to watch them making their way up the main street, some with umbrellas up against the morning drizzle. We kept a fair distance from them, I feel they are due respect however I was disappointed (though sadly not surprised) to see how many tourists didn’t seem to mind getting in their faces and even flashing cameras right up close, you can see they are shy people and some look uncomfortable at being the object of so much attention.

The nest stop in Laos is Vang Vieng, a town which has placed itself well and truly on the backpacker circuit as it is home to the craze of tubing. This would involve a lorry tyre inner tube and several bars to stop at along the way. First stop we rented out tubes for the day, then get a tuctuc up to the starting point of an organic farm just outside the town. The first bar offered us a free shot of whisky and a wee friendship bracelet and this seemed to be the norm for most of the bars. The drinks on offer are buckets of cocktails which are pretty cheap when they use their local whisky. In these unusual pub circumstances we would be jumping in a river at every opportunity and so a new game was developed for our entertainment that day, we’ve named it Cocktail Bucket Blowback and basically one person fills their straw with the cocktail and then fires it across the at anyone with their mouth open! Naturally most of this is sprayed across the other person’s face but if some lands in their mouth it’s considered a success! Throughout the bars we had swings to play on and a slingshot game and twister and various other games intended to keep you at the current bar but we kept moving on, aware that there are over a dozen bars to get through. In between times it’s a lovely gentle ride down the river floating in our inner tube and then as you approach a bar they throw a bottle on a rope out to pull you in with. It was a really great day, we had so much fun and despite a few cuts and bruises no one was badly damaged in any way, which came as a great relief as the tubing has a terrible reputation for being very dangerous. I think the worst thing to happen was when I half disappeared through a floorboard!! The bars are wooden decking and some parts may be a little rotten, it was the funniest thing to be walking along and then one leg disappears down a hole! Big bruise to show for it but no real harm done!

The rest of Laos was a bit of a blur for me. We had a day of recovery from the tubing and then took a couple of buses to a place called Savannakhet which we stayed in on the way to the border of Vietnam. I don’t know what my sickness was but I slept for the best part of two days and therefore missed the latter part of the country. I’ve really enjoyed Laos and I love how wild the countryside is, it’s so thick with trees and bushes and really rustic looking, it’s such a pleasure to drive through it and daydream into the hills and forests, and so quiet you feel like you’re really getting into the country when you drive through. The food's been nice too, I had one of the nicest curries yet here in Laos and while it said it was local it tasted like a Thai dish, really tasty coco-nutty flavour, yum! Next stop, Vietnam!!

China, the Sequel

The main attraction of Chengdu is the panda breeding centre where most people head off to but I decided instead to hire a bike and take a small city tour. I had a lovely day cycling through the city to the main square, the local monastery, the Tibetan quarter, across the rivers, through parks and in among the contrasting old and new buildings. At most of the hostels here you can hire a bike for the bargain price of one pound for the day, so it was a cheap day but full of pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed Chengdu.

The next day we were back on the train for the long journey to Lijang. A small town popular with Chinese tourists, Lijang’s big attraction is the old town with its winding cobbled streets and beautiful old buildings. It’s so easy to get lost as there is such a maze of streets all looking fairly similar to each other. At night the restaurants all light up their red lanterns outside the doors and the town becomes most enchanting. Through the day you can see that the whole place is surrounded by beautiful big green hills, and when the haze really clears up even bigger mountains capped with snow come into view.  The train journeys are taking us through gorgeous mountain scenery, the water from these are used for China’s hydro power and we’ve passed several places where the gathered water is shooting through enormous gates or crashing down their purpose built waterways, what a spectacle! As with the truck though it’s very difficult to capture photographs while moving along, the perfect shot will suddenly have a stray tree blocking the entire image or else it’s all just one big blur!

We also had a quick stop in Dali, another Chinese tourist town whose main attraction is their old town. It’s very similar to Lijang but without the old town being quite as quaint and unlike Lijang it’s not pedestrianised. In an effort to get out of the town and see some scenery I agreed to go horse-riding up to a hillside temple from where we could get views of the whole town. It wasn’t really the best introduction to horse-riding for a beginner, the path was so incredibly steep and so muddy the horses kept slipping and it was really quite frightening, not just for our safety but that of the poor horses, especially mine which seemed to be a bit of an oaf and kept tripping and stumbling. All the way up we had the extra fear of knowing that we must also come back down this way but I needn’t have worried as going down the horse showed far more control and gave me a lot more confidence. While he continued to stumble and got a little bit stuck almost throwing me off (the owner quickly grabbed me and held me on the horse!!) I had by then been shown how to steer him and slow him down and I soon felt like I was Robert Redford in ‘The Horse Whisperer’ riding along with the reigns in one hand, feeling quite in charge of my steed! It turned out to be really good fun and the cold beer I had earned tasted all the better for it even though I continued shaking for a good half an hour!

The next and final stop in China is in Kunming, a fairly large city with all the expected High St goodies on our doorstep. I didn’t find many amazing things to go and visit here so decided on a fairly relaxed couple of days, except for our night out to the Chinese karaoke or KTV. The Chinese are reportedly crazy about karaoke and there are KTV places dotted about all over the place so we had to go and experience this! It was of course necessary to ensure a suitably drunken state was achieved before unleashing the beasts of karaoke and I feel we managed this exceptionally well. We arrived at the KTV to find it really quite posh; the staff all wore smart uniforms with little waistcoats and smart trousers. The KTV room we were given was a very smart little living room with a leather corner sofa built in, a glass coffee table (full of beer and popcorn!) and a big flat screen TV. We wasted no time at all in getting the party under way and gave it our all, singing and dancing and having a great time. I looked in other booths to see the Chinese people all sitting sensibly on their sofas and singing from there, the contrast to ours was extreme, if you looked in ours there was carnage! Dancing on the sofa, beer bottles everywhere, everyone was on their feet dancing and singing except one person who was asleep in the corner and the floor was awash with spilled drinks! It was so ironic, we had come here to laugh at the Chinese people’s karaoke, but the Chinese people were all looking in our windows and laughing at us! It was the best time, and as a karaoke hater I am converted!

The food so far has been delicious; the Chinese like their food hot though especially in the Szechuan region where the Szechuan peppers add a real tingle to your mouth. One of our truckers had spicy pasta and afterwards had a visible facial twitch for a good 15 minutes. Not many of the dishes are like those from home (in my limited experience) except the Cantonese style sweet and sour which have been similar. Outside the main dishes we’ve ventured into the world of strange Chinese foods and have tried many different things including pigs ear, chickens foot, pig trotters and some kind of treated egg. The pigs ear was in a very spicy sauce and mostly just tasted of fat and gristle, the worst part was crunching through cartilage which I didn’t enjoy. The chickens foot smelled amazing, the skin tasted good but the bones and toenail, while soft, were still a little crunchy for my liking. The pig trotter was also in a very spicy sauce but it was mostly just skin, there was some meat on it though which tasted delicious. The egg was brown the whole way through, from the outside it looked like a chocolate egg but it tasted a bit salty, not egg-like at all, we think it was possible boiled in soy sauce but haven’t managed to get it confirmed. The other interesting foods are the crisps, cucumber flavour, corn flavour, lime flavour which were really nice and of course chilli flavour which were hot hot! Everything is also served with chopsticks which is a great way to eat, much nicer than the Indian and Nepali way of just using your fingers!

The school holidays in China are the same as the British ones and so this is high season for Chinese tourism. At home this would mean there are children everywhere and it took a while for it to dawn on us that this isn’t the case here, the one child rule has kept a lid on this and suddenly I’m far more aware of the fact there are hardly any children around. It’s rare to be bothered by children playing loudly or even to see children together as all the children are solitary and will be paired with an adult. It’s so sad to think of an entire generation of children who will grow up without siblings and therefore lead to a further generation without cousins or aunts and uncles. It makes me wonder if India would ever consider such restrictions or have the control to implement them.

Chinese toilets have surprised me given how clean and structured the rest of the country seems to be. In one of the train stations the public toilet consisted of nothing more than a length of trough and sections like cubicles but without doors. The people inside are clearly seen in their squatting position with absolutely no privacy whatsoever. While one girl was in a cubicle another lady came in and stood watching her, at point blank range, while she wiped herself and got dressed again, it all seemed so indecent and made us feel uncomfortable. I’m quite used to the squat toilets now and will occasionally even choose one over a throne depending on my mood, but when it comes to public transport I would definitely prefer a throne!  All the trains have squats and I don’t enjoy this balancing act, maybe this is why locals find it acceptable to use the bins instead?! A lady on the train held her child over the bin while he pooed into it, as if that’s not bad enough they were standing next to a vacant toilet at the time! Everything seems so normal here until you just have a little scratch at the surface!

Next stop is Laos, we have a week there and while I’ve enjoyed China and all it’s quirks I’m quite looking forward to the next stage of the adventure.