Fi & Bryn's Big Trip

Finally had to leave the wonderful Philippines with time ticking on and a RTW flight schedule to try and keep to.

Flew into the capital, Kota Kinabalu, and Bryn struggled on and off the full public bus into town at every stop with our full rucksacks in order to make room for people....not good in the searing humidity! Got our first taste of Malaysian food since a trip to Penang 6 years ago - as good as we remembered. We loved the Philippines, but the food really is poor (thank you America!)

We had a lovely trip to see the fireflies and Proboscis monkeys on a jungle river just outside KK, courtesy of Pip and Colin's wedding present - thank you! It was great to see the trees lit up like christmas, which considering it was lashing with rain was quite impressive, even if we were cowering under our lifejackets. Photos impossible though

On to Sepilok for the Orangutans at the rehab centre, which we thought was really good (others thought a little to captive). They really are all characters! They all live alone though which is wierd - what do they do each day?

Also came face to face with a roaming green viper!

Again - the heavy rain was a little frustrating but you just have to go with it.

On to our Jungle Lodge in Kinabatangan - The Last Frontier - which Bryn had booked up in advance....a bit of a treat really....a couple of slightly more luxurious days than many backpackers have in the jungle! French cuisine, ensuite bathroom, air con private 4wd transfer, private wildlife spotting boat cruises. Its a tough flashpacking life!

We got a better look at the human-like proboscis monkeys; plus got to see hornbills and eagles. The long lens came in handy....finally worth lugging it round for 5 months!

We went on a short jungle walk tracking animals and were upset to see palm plantations as far as the eye could see instead of pristine jungle

The pre-dawn boat cruise was all a bit much for some........

Our final destination in Sabah, Semporna, aimed to further capitalise on Bryn's newly acquired scuba skills and Fi's newly acquired dive buddy. We did three days diving at various islands, based from our resort on a wooden platform in the ocean - Singamata. Our resosrt had it's own aquarium which we could snorkel in....it had some really giant fish which was great fun.

Off on our dive trip, our boat actually got lost in the middle of the ocean on the first day as the rains came in and we weren't able to see more than a few hundred metres. We were literally going round in circles in the mist for an hour!

It was hilarious to see the fishermen fishing in their pants as it rained - although the dancing guy complete with Peter Stringfellow g-string and posing pouch was a little too much!

And although we're not complaining It was so cold from the constant rain that between dives we had to sit in the water to keep warm!

The coral wasn't as good as in the Philippines but we got to see massive turtles from a couple of inches away! Also saw schools of Jackfish, Devil Scorpionfish, an Octopus etc etc (god we are turning into dive bores! Bryn and Fi felt pretty good now buddying up together with perfect buoyancy.....a lot better than poor old Marco, the nice Italian in the group, who refused to let go of his inflator and shot up and down clattering coral left right and centre! Big let down was that we were unable to get permits for Sipadan, which is the premier dive spot (only a limited number of divers are allowed per day), but together with Mount Kinabalu, which we were also unable to get permits for, they will make for a great future 2-3 week holiday.

After a 10 hour night bus, and 7 hour boat trip we were now in Brunei, oil country! Picked up some duty free wine on the way and nearly got into problems at customs for not declaring it in a Dry State ..ooops.

This Sultan is seriously wealthy. Checked into the only cheap hotel in the country - the youth hostel....separate dorm rooms for Bryn and Fi. The capital BSB is immaculately designed and cared for, with immaculte roads, flower border, gleaming mosques and no crime issues. The problem is, it is a bit boring after a couple of days - even the locals say so! Dry state and everything closes at 6pm, even the buses stop running. However, the salaries are good and as the Sultan provides free education and healthcare, cheap efficient public transport and subsidised pilgrimages to Mecca(!) people seem to stay. Virtually all the museums and sights are free which is nice, as tourism revenue is small fry next to oil money. Don't know what will happen when the oil runs out in 10 years if predictions are correct?!?!

The beautiful main mosque..........

Over half of the capital's population live on the river villages - a complex network of stilt houses, so we thought we would hire a boat and get a better look........

Not quite a Barratt new build development, but similar.....

The villages are all fully self sufficient, complete with their own....

satellite tv, parking spots

schools

gas stations (possible the most scenic in the world!)

rubbish collection

exposed electrical switchgear!

Also good to watch all the locals having some banter down at the market....

Our main reason for staying so long in Brunei was actually to get our Chinese visa for Tibet. We'd been warned not to tell the embassy that we were planning on going to Tibet.....but the problem was they asked for our flight details out of China so we had to fess up. We had a tense half hour as the head honcho explained that we were supposed to have a pre-visa authorisation from officials in China. After some whining and glum faces, they eventually agreed to process our visas without this form...phew!

Off now to see the largest cave in the world and hike to 2500m at Mulu National Park in Sarawak - will keep you posted!

Our flight to Boracay really got us in the mood for more beach time as we had fun spotting numerous desert islands from the plane. The key attraction on Boracay is White Beach where we were busy relaxing approximately 30 minutes after touch down.

The sand really was beautifully soft and white and the waters were perfectly clear. All 4km of White Beach are covered end to end in bars / restaurants / shops....so we took it for what it was and spent a relaxing couple of days lounging round pretending we were on a package holiday....sipping cocktails at sunset and scoffing down all you can eat seafood buffets.

We then travelled down to Guimares (via a stop in IloIlo) a small island in between Panay and Negros. We ended up at the Valle Verde Mountain Resort in the middle of the island which is set in a lush jungle valley complete with it's own spring fed swimming pool. There's only 5 huts there so it was very peaceful and we got plently of reading and DVD watching done. It was a lovely family run business and their home cooking went down a treat.

We did set out on a walk into the jungle one morning before breakfast which didn't bode well for future walks!! Within 15 minutes we were covered in sweat, had lost the trail and our heads were spinning.

After Guimares we got the boat over to the large island of Negros where we planned to climb Mt Kanalaon which is in the top 6 active volcanoes in the Philippines. We visited the Department of Environment Office in Bacolod where we were able to get a permit to climb it. They only allow one group per day so we felt lucky to get our permit. We spent a busy day in Bacolod buying provisions for the trip and equipment. We needed our own tent so Bargain Bryn picked us one up for $12. For some reason we were in charge of providing food for our guide so we picked up a load of tins and hoped we'd be able to whip something up with them. We stayed the night before at a thermal hot springs resort on the slopes of the volcano.

The alarm clock buzzed into life at 5am and to be honest shouldering our full 75 litre packs (we hadn't opted for a porter) at that time in the morning seemed very hard work. We were puffed and sweating by the time we'd crossed the resort for our rendez-vous with our guide! The first couple of hours were extremely tough going....quite steep uphill and with the biggest packs we'd ever walked with in our lives. When we'd booked the trip they hadn't been too keen to let us walk this route due to the thermal power company activity in the national park. Unsurprisingly they have a few issues with green activists upsetting the ongoing activity. However, we passed by the works unscathed and the security guards even smiled at us. A definite blot on the landscape however as we could hear the hum of the thermal plant most of the day. As we ascended though it did gradually get cooler.....and after a long old day walking we finally hit an old crater at the top....1800m higher than we'd started that morning. Our campsite was inside this old crater which is now full of swamp. We explored the swamp swinging through the trees between the dry spots...

We got an early night as it was so cold - and got into our sleeping bags to scoff oreos and try out our new headtorches

The next day was less uphill but provided more jungle challenges for us. But it did give us our first view.....

We spent the whole day ducking, weaving and climbing over things.

At some stages we even had to conduct vertical ascents with our packs on!!

We passed by many pretty lagoons.....

Before we came upon our target.....Mount Kanalaon

We had to camp in the trees near the crater so that they would provide shelter from any ash that was erupted during the night. We tried not to think how our $12 tent would hold up in those circumstances. By this stage the guy ropes were all frayed and the poles were splitting! Goodness knows how Fi managed to fit in there too......!

However, after setting up camp, we made our final ascent up to the crater's edge. It really was a breathtaking moment looking over that crater rim for the first time.

Over the edge it dropped vertically off....straight down a few hundred metres to a pile of ash....and then a large tunnel ominously heading off into the bowels of the earth. We stood staring down at this for quite some time.....it was truly awesome.

Successful team on the top of Negros Island.....

Heading down to our camp for dinner there was a truly spectacular sunset over the crater.....even Bryn was impressed

The next day heading downhill our thoughts had turned to getting to the beach as quickly as possible. Tracker Fi spotted our first wild snake (which Bryn has since identified as a deadly Black Mamba) slithering across our path before settling behind a foothold. We scuttled quickly by! We were back in Bacolod for lunch where we amazed the McDonalds employees with our burger eating capacities before heading to Dunkin Donut for desert. We have built up quite a penchant for donuts - Dunkin Donuts, Mister Donut, Krispy Kreme Donut etc etc!

We then had to spend a whole day on a bus before we arrived at Sipalay where Sugar Beach is billed as Boracay without the crowds. Bryn quite rightly pointed out that it was more like demerara sugar but either way it was pretty nice.

We were staying at Takatuka Lodge which is run by a couple of Swiss guys with an eclectic sense of interior design. We were in the Superstar Suite.....complete with a pink cadillac bed with working headlights

And a movietime balcony

Yes, the light is a video camera and the light switch was a camera!

However, keen to do some diving we soon headed on...spending a night in Dumaguete complete with it's floral wastewater treatment works in the centre of town. Definitely puts Thames Water to shame.

We got the ferry over to Bohol Island where we had a short tuk-tuk transfer over to Panglao Island and the diving. We found the cheapest dive operator in town and headed off in a boat the next day to Balicasag Island where we did two amazing dives spotting the black coral which is a local speciality and also 2 turtles which was an amazing moment The next day saw a spectacular wall dive, us swimming through a coral arch and also our first drift dives where Bryn enjoyed sitting in his Buddha position, not moving a muscle, showing excellent buoyancy control and watching the coral pass by.

We transfered back to Bohol Island and hired two motorbikes the next day and set out on a day trip to see the local sights. It's great that everyone speaks English but a few road signs wouldn't go amiss. Within 10 minutes we were lost and were directed to our destination via some pretty small pot-holed roads. Bryn had to regularly stop for 15 mins or so to wait for 'Hells Angel' Fifi to come roaring round the bends....putt putt putt putt! The child riding the BMX was even suprised to be overtaking her down a hill!

Note the unplanned matching biker outfits........

We made it to the Tarsier Centre mid morning and had a personal tour around the Tarsier enclosure. Tarsier's are one of the world's smallest primates and can fit in the palm of a human hand....their heads can turn almost 360 degrees and their eyes are 125 times bigger in relation to their head size than a humans. All in all pretty cute.

We stopped at the Butterfly Farm for a quick tour. Didnt realise you could touch moths' wings - but we touched this one's............

Before heading to the Chocolate Hills which are a spectacular formation of coral deposits which have eroded into perfect little chocolate drops - during the dry season the vegetation roasts to a chocolate brown colour. Having spent some time negotiating some pretty tough roads we were glad to find a nice flat straight road with perfect tarmac.....but unfortunately the heavens opened and we were completely soaked by the time we arrived at the viewing area! Luckily though we were pretty impressed by the views

Then it was time to leave the Philippines where we'd felt pretty at home for the last month. We hopped on a ferry to Cebu - admiring the wonderful nautical scenery?......

Played a couple of games of bowling and had our first starbucks for nearly 6 months - caramel machiatos all round!

And jumped on our plane to Borneo!

Sadly enough, getting on our Thai Airways flight was an exciting experience for us. We thought our meal was amazing and we loved the unlimited wine served with it even though it was 10am.

Arriving in Manila, we took a taxi to Malate – a relatively salubrious part of town where we hoped we could get a cheap room. No such luck…we viewed some of the smallest coffins of the trip before finding a relatively OK one above Starbucks. It was just a pity that it was Saturday night and and at times it actually felt like some carnival was processing through our room.

However, the next day we were still up bright and early for our city tour.

We walked to Intramuros, the Spanish walled town, and had a potter round a few churches and the cathedral which had been rebuilt about five times due to earthquakes.

Then we went over to Fort Santiago which the Spanish had originally built but had been occupied by the US, the Japanese and even the British for a short period.

The Filipinos don't believe in wasting a good castle moat...and have turned it into a golf course....

Then in classic Bryn and Fi style we decided to walk to China town ignoring the numerous taxis and jeepneys that were beeping us for a lift as we proceeded over a huge multi-lane bridge which clearly wasn’t used to seeing many pedestrians. We then found ourselves in the middle of a slum next to the port. However, people were very friendly and Bryn had an offer to play basketball.
We were very excited to catch a jeepney later in the day. Jeepney's are modified US Army jeeps - but now the jeepney drivers try to outdo each other competing for the gaudiest decorations...

We then spent the rest of the day camped out in Burger King which offered free wifi and tried to decide which way to go from Manila. Eventually after an awful lot of trauma we got a flight booked to the Calamian Islands off the coast of Palawan so that Bryn could do his PADI course. But not before a day spent chilling out and watching more movies inc popcorn…..note the rather unusual lights in our room!

The next day we boarded our tiny plane for the 40 minute hop over to Busuanga Island.

We met up with Gerd from Rocksteady Diving who had agreed to take Bryn on. It’s a new dive operation so we were the only customers of the day and had a great time on the boat on the way to the dive site. We were really lucky to not be just one of the crowd with the other ‘fastfood dive operations’ on the island. After a few basics it was time to put the kit on! Bryn seemed to have a lot of fun doing this....the regulator providing particular entertainment...

Then the wetsuit...

Fins...

And mask...

Before preparing to jump...

And then jumping!!

We both had a fantastic 4 days. Fi joined in on day 1 as she was having her refresher course. Gerd couldn’t believe that she actually hadn’t dived in the sea before having only done 10 dives in England’s dark and cold reservoirs and quarries. Bryn got his Open Water PADI qualification on day 4 - he did very well, although our instructor did admit to us that he didn't think Bryn would make it after the first day. Unfortunately Bryn's biggest problem on day 1 had been the fins - he'd been given the biggest clown feet fins you've ever seen and as he’d never snorkeled before his pin legs struggled somewhat with them!

Fi also got in on the action for a few of the dives once Bryn had qualified and we loved Barracuda Lake...which is a really special dive. First of all, you have to do a 25m ascent in full scuba gear over big jagged boulders to get from the sea to the lake.

Everyone was impressed that Fi managed it as normally the boatmen carry the gear for the women - but we explained that 17kg of scuba gear is nothing compared to our rucksacs! Once we made it over to the lake we descended down into brackish water and at about 10m we hit a layer of hot seawater....about the temperature of bathwater. Just as we were about to overheat we found a layer of much cooler water. It was so wierd swimming through all the different layers...at times we couldn't see due to the heat haze. It was really quite amazing.

The main reason divers come to Coron is to do wreck diving - and after a day of rest we were off to dive two of them. The wrecks are mainly the Japanese fleet which was seeking shelter in WWII when the US bombed and sunk most of them. Unfortunately the warships are all mainly at a depth of 30m+ so being novices we decided to give them a miss. The 2 ships we got to dive were auxillary ships mainly carrying cargo. Despite being stripped by salvage teams there was still plenty to look at on them. It really was spine tingling seeing them looming up for the first time. Visibility wasn't great but it kind of added to the eeriness of the situation. They were both covered in coral with lots of bright fishes eyeing us up as we explored. We were able to penetrate the second wreck and were amazed to swim along corridors and into the engine room. We felt quite James Bond, brandishing our torches, as other dive groups would suddenly loom out of the gloom. With both dives reaching a bottom point of 25m it was an impressive set of dives for Bryn’s sixth and seventh dives of his career.

One evening we visited the local hot springs where Bryn was befriended by the local youths who wanted him to sing love ballads with them. Filippinos love to sing and in Coron Town there is a constant background noise of karaoke bars and they think nothing of striking up in public…..

We were sad to leave Coron as we’d grown quite at home there after a week but we were also glad to board our first Philippines ferry which seemed to exist just to ferry backpackers to El Nido. We were glad to get off the Jessabel after 8 hours on board and arrive at the picture postcard town of El Nido which is the gateway town to the Bacuit Archepelego - a series of jagged limestone karst islands just off the coast interspersed with beautiful beaches.

We had two days of activities lined up courtesy of Gem and Phil’s wedding present. Day 1 was spent on a small boat touring the local sights such as lagoons, beaches and snorkel spots…..the seascape really is stunning……

Promising to keep the Secret Lagoon secret…..

On Day 2 we had our own two person kayak and set off on our own into the open sea.

We headed over to a tiny island with a beach and had thought we had it to ourselves before a boat of Filippinos turned up to cook their lunch! We pushed on and found a picture postcard beach for our lunch complete with coconut trees and hoardes of scuttling crabs. It really was a treat to kayak along the island coast and to spot an enticing beach and to paddle over and pull up! Only a handful of people live on the island so it really was our own piece of paradise for the day! Sea kayaking is particularly tough against the waves and by the afternoon we were knackered!! But we needed to push on as otherwise they’d send out the rescue boat. Fi was glad to not be left behind as usual and will lobby for a two person kayak in future. We did make it back to El Nido and quickly turned around to head out for a slap up meal, including a bottle of wine, to celebrate a fantastic two days – thanks Gem and Phil!!

We got the bus down Palawan to Puerto Princesa in a rush to find the Immigration Office so that we could extend our visas. After 7 hours on our bus there we realised it was a Saturday....doh!

So we went off on a day trip to the Sabang caves....the longest caves in the world which we were able to take a boat trip in them for 2km. They were pretty amazing....and home to lots of bats. It was slightly disconcerting to feel drops of water or bat poo land on us throughout the trip.

When we came out of the caves we were amazed to find monitor lizards roaming the picnic area and gangs of ninja monkeys making raids on people's lunches....

Surprisingly we’ve almost stayed three weeks in the Philippines and it’s totally whizzed by. We really are enjoying the country and its people. It’s a strange mix of contrasts….some of the nicest people we’ve met on our trip so far but also a country with a security guard stationed outside each and every shop in the cities. We're starting to get used to the politeness - everywhere we go we are greeted by Ma'am and Sir which makes a change from the snotty nosed teenagers in the UK. Christianity is big here and instead of commercial billboards lining the road on the way to Puerto Princesa it was nice to see the Lord’s Prayer spelt out….phrase by phrase over a kilometre. The American influence is strong and the malls in the cities are full of American fast food chains. It’s also really nice being able to chat with people, something we were really starting to miss on mainland SE Asia….as everyone speaks great English (not just people working in tourism).

But anyways.....off to catch our flight to Boracay.....one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Backpacking is a tough life

In the jungle Bryn had had a bit of a platypus incident and his passport had got wet - unfortunately the entry stamp for Cambodia had washed off so we were a bit nervous as we approached the border with Laos to make our exit. We were glad to make it across the border into Laos - paying the same bribes as everyone else

We were heading to Si Phan Don or 4000 Islands which is an archipelago of islands in the middle of the Mekong where we were looking forward to some much needed relax time after the jungle. 4000 Islands is one of two destinations in Laos that the Thailand party crowd visit and we approached with some trepidation.

The groups of 18 yr olds grinning inanely and waving peace signs at us didn’t help matters as our boat took us over to Don Khon – the quieter of the two islands which we hoped was more our scene. However disaster struck as it turned out that everywhere on the island was full aside from a coffin room which wasn’t Fi’s ideal scenario to see in her 30th birthday. So we headed over to Don Det, paying the extortionate boat fee on our way – they unfortunately know you are trapped on the island and take advantage of that.

We arrived onto Don Det and were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t all party central – and due to the late hour we headed to a basic bamboo shack to look for accommodation the next day. 90% of the accommodation on Don Det doesn’t have electricity or running water so we (and Fi in particular) were ecstatic to find the poshest place on the island had a room free for us. Little Eden was a lovely little hotel with only five rooms and was the perfect place for Fi’s birthday We spent most our time there relaxing in hammocks and taking dips in the Mekong. There was a lovely terrace overlooking the river which was perfect to sip a Laos Mohito and watch the sun dip down.

On Fi’s birthday we took a walk across the island and over the bridge to Don Khon along the old French railway line. What the French were doing building a railway across two islands barely 10km long was beyond us. Unsurprisingly it has fallen into disrepair and we had fun exploring the rusting locomotives scattered around.

We also visited Li Phi Falls where the Mekong churns through a few narrow gorges – it’s quite a spectacular sight.

Then unfortunately we had to head off….. and despite only 3 days in Laos we were heading to Thailand. We’d have liked to spend longer in Laos but our overstays had cost us and after 2 months in SE Asia it’s perhaps time to explore somewhere different.

However…not before a touch of Western luxury in Bangkok. After a rather unpleasant 24 hour bus ride from Si Phan Don to Bangkok we were glad to arrive and find a hotel pretty quickly. Even better it was no where near the Kho Sanh road and we were in the middle of mall-land. We got stuck straight in and after a stop at McDonalds Bryn was in his element heading round the electronics shops and comparing prices and Fi was off spending the entire daily budget at Boots. On the electronics front, the original scope that had been agreed with all stakeholders was that we buy a DVD player as Bryn reckoned we could get one for $50. However, things changed quickly and before Fi knew it we had bought a little Lenovo laptop. We spent the rest of our time in Bangkok watching movies that we probably should have had to buy cinema tickets for and searching out wifi spots

Oh and we did see some of the sights that Bangkok has to offer! A cruise down the Chao Praya and then a baking couple of hours round the Grand Palace trying to avoid the sun’s rays reflecting off all the bling.

And we got sucked into the Kho Sanh road to try and swap some books….but we departed swiftly before any young ladies touting ping pong balls got us.

And we also did a fantastic cookery course – a wedding present from Sarah and Matt – many thanks it was fantastic!!! We went to the market to buy our ingredients

And then set about cooking fried rice, red coconut curry, fried bananas, spring rolls and green papaya salad. The best bit was eating our dishes and we’re determined when we get home to track the ingredients down!

Then it was time to move on again and off to the excitement of the airport and our flight to Manila!

Phnom Penh - City Time

Arriving into Phnom Penh we were really quite excited to be in a new country and we had high hopes for not just being seen as walking $'s. Phnom Penh is actually quite a nice city on the river and we spent a few days doing the local sights - albeit mostly related to the Pol Pot genocide years. We were also dead excited at getting our first tuk-tuk of the journey...

We visited Security Prison 21 which used to be a secondary school before the Khmer Rouge came to town. It was really spine chilling....a totally normal school turned into the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. The exhibitions were hugely informative and gave us a start at understanding these years......such as trying to understand why on earth the UN let the Khmer Rouge genocide perpetrators keep their seat on the UN general assembly until a staggering 1991.

The Khmer Rouge like the Nazis kept detailled records of their victims and it was sad to see the faces and their expressions of the S21 detainees staring out at us....some of sheer horror, saddness, resignation and defiance....

We also visited the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek - the extermination camp where the detainees from S21 were transported. Sobering stuff.

And of course we had a drink in the Foreign Correspondent's Club where the journalists hung out back in the 70's and now tourists pay lots of money for smoothies

Sihanoukville - Beach Time

We were then delighted to head off to Sihanoukville where the beach was beckoning us. We stayed in a lovely stilt bungalow looking down on Otres Beach (away from the oykes in the seedy main town). The water was blue, clear and calm, with the temperature of bath water and we loved swimming and sipping fruit shakes It was sad to see the darker side of tourism in SE Asia of the Gary Glitter variety and we picked our bars carefully after day 1.

Bokor Hill Station

We travelled down the coast to the peaceful river town of Kampot where we found the Sisters cafe run by an inspiring lady who was sold by her family as a child, lost a leg and now also runs an orphanage. The cafe provides jobs for the orphans when they grow up. We were able to help fund her good works by eating large portions of her lemon meringue pie and apple pie with ice cream (taught by the US NGO that rescued her - trust me a real treat in Cambodia! Yum-yum

However, we were glad of having eaten so much pie as we set off on our 2 day hike to the Bokor Hill Station in the National Park. Bokor is at approx 1000m and was where the French colonials holidayed to escape from the heat. It's now a ghost town as it got caught in the battle between the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese. This was our first group walk and not wishing to let the side down we duely turned up in full hiking gear and our matching Deuter rucksacs. At the other end of the scale were a couple of girls in summer dresses, flip flops and handbags.

However, setting off it became clear that we'd dressed appropriately as we staggered up through the jungle in the stifling humid heat.

At the top we were treated to the run down buildings such as the king's old palace...

The catholic church

We loved exploring the old casino and hotel...

And sunset

Before settling into our basic accomodation for the night. There was uproar in the group the following day when it became apparent that the guides hadn't brought enough food for breakfast let alone lunch! We'd of course brought loads of snacks and goodies with us....but they didn't stretch too far in our group of 12.

Back in Kampot we met up with the group at an expat bar called the Rusty Keyhole (run by a mancunian bricklayer who serves the best sticky ribs and mash in SE Asia - a whole piglet's back apparently) and played cards late into the night - too late! Fi and Max gave Bryn and Ryhs a tough time...

And of course there was the post-game analysis

But Bryn was happy when he realised that despite losing he could still keep drinking beer....

Temple Time

Then we were off to Sian Reap and our 3 day temple tour. Bryn could scarely believe that we had to pay $40 each for our 3 day passes but amazingly we both totally enjoyed the entire 3 days worth of temples (well Fi a little more than Bryn)! We hired a tuk-tuk to take us round each day as the baking heat wasn't conducive to our bicycle touring ideas.

Our first stop was Banteay Srei where the tourist hoarded worried us somewhat...

But thankfully after a Red Bull to keep Bryn going we were able to view most the other temples without the tourist circus

We visited the Tombraider temple where the jungle has encroached somewhat....

And we saved the spectacular Angkor Wat for day 2.....we really were impressed at the sheer scale of it. Fi went for the burka look to ensure she kept cool!

Our tuk tuk driver working hard for his tip.....!

And we had to love the huge faces staring down at us from everywhere at The Bayon

Kompong Cham

We arrived at the sleepy Mekong town of Kompong Cham to try and get a better insight into rural Cambodian life.....but not before a nice bit of refreshment,......

We organised a homestay with Don (a 65 yr old American guy), his Cambodian wife Kyeung and their son and daughter Na and Ra. Their dog Mreck, had just had a puppy and therefore saw Bryn as a threat (?) and decided to savagely bark at every move I made - I am sure they can just sense our fear and play on it! We even saw our first wild snake which slithered in one morning whilst we were eating breakfast - apparantly it was not one of the cobras and just eats frogs!

Despite the basic accomodation, we experienced amazing home cooking for a couple of days - all rural delicacies and were treated very well.......although Fi wasnt convinced about the field snails for a light snack.....

We went on bike rides....

Mind the cows!

And walks to speak with locals working the rice paddies....

Go on, have a go Fi.........!

Pathetic! This lad was much better!

And extracting palm sap to then turn into palm sugar...

We even had a guest speaker each night (well family actually) who we could ask about anything including the Pol Pot era. During those years despite her mother's protestations Kyeung had 'volunteered' for school and had instead been sent to the children's work camp to build a dam. We learnt a lot from them all about Cambodia today and it helped us understand why it's only now that the first trial of the Khmer Rouge is starting in Phnom Penh.

Kyeung also runs an English school and one afternoon we were able to join in and be their guest speakers for the lesson. It was funny though how their simplest of questions could launch us into the longest of explanations...I'm still not sure that they really understood what I was going on about when I explained the concept of eBay to them.

Life in rural Cambodia is often a life without electricity. To keep anything cool the entire country depends on icemaking centres and then the big ice blocks are distributed on the back of motorcycles to everyone's cool boxes. Bryn caused chaos one morning when he didn't see the candle in the bathroom and put his synthetic top down on it causing it to melt somewhat....

Kratie - dolphins

We stopped at another Mekong Riverside town to see the legendary freshwater irrawaddy dolphins! There are now only 100 or so left after little conservation. It was a baking hot day so we rented a moto and headed off to the river. We quickly saw the dolphins coming up for air - but they disappeared so quickly again it was a case of watch and enjoy or try and take impossible photos (Bryn did the latter!)

Banlung - into the jungle!!

After some internet research, Banlung seemed ideal for our first lengthy jungle trek - an organised government trekking facility in the National Park and not ridiculously priced. We felt pretty hardy after outperforming many of the others at Bokor, so signed up for the longest trek (8 days) deep into the jungle and to the wilderness grasslands of Virachey National Park.

But before our trek we had a day on a moto round the local sites such as crater lake where we had had great fun swimming and jumping in

And numerous waterfalls

On the way back into town Bryn had to take evasive action on the bike from a mini tornado that was gathering steam ahead of us on the road!! No, unfortunately there wasn't time to take a picture

And after a last Western meal involving a huge pizza we were off into the jungle! It was just the two of us and a Ranger, assistant ranger and local minority guide and despite carrying all our own stuff, the other people had to take the food and had double our loads! We really felt like Bruce Parry on our way to the village on our tiny little boat heading along the river....

We spent the first night in a minority village where we were definitely the local attraction for the night. But we did get to try some rice wine...

Unfortunately our guides didn't decide to translate for us so we were left with most the village watching our every move. They were fascinated by our card games

Ducking and diving in the jungle was tough work with a big pack - Bryn managed to saturate his top with sweat after 3 minutes and was wet through from then on!

Did some great river swimming and slept in hammocks out in the open at a different camp each night.

Food was suprisingly good considering - there was always enough which is our key criteria - although the tinned pilchard and rice 4 day home streach did start to grate! For water we drank boiled river water - don't know how we didnt get sick as some of the streams were more muddy stagnant pools! The water also tasted of bbq pork from the saucepan and had sediment floaters - oh well, when you are thirsty, you are thirsty!

We reached the grassland on day 3 after having insisted on walking a double day as we'd been surprised at reaching our camp on day 2 after only 4 hours walking. The grasslands are Cambodia's own mini African savannah. As it was the dry season there weren't any animals at the watering hole sadly. But we did have a great couple of days wandering around the top spotting a selection of poos....leopard, wildcat, deer etc

We also went to a bat cave where Bryn bravely wriggled in to take some fantastic photos...emerging covered and stiking of bat poo later....

We had to chuckle one day when we pitched camp and then went off for a swim in the river only to find that the river was dry....so everything got packed up again and off we went to find a camp near some water!

After the grasslands we started to look forward to getting back to Banlung....the way down was easy until we reached the river where we spent half a day slithering and sliding along. There wasn't a set route and we would be on land forging a way through the jungle with a machete and the next second wading through water up to our waists. The key thing in our minds was to not fall over and ruin our cameras and also our beloved goose down sleeping bags!

We reached another minority village on day 7 and found out that we, or rather the rangers, weren't welcome there. Some men from the village had been caught illegally hunting by the park rangers a few days previously. No one would sell us any food!! So it was an easy decision to endure the crampt 2 hour boat ride back to town for a celebratory beer!!

Woohoo - 7 days survived in the jungle!! But slightly concerned that we've spent yet another month in a country when Bryn's planning spreadsheet had only allocated 12 days....but anyways Laos here we come!!!

Mui Ne

Arrived at our first beach for three years!!!! Another classic Lonely Planet 'unknown sleepy gem' that everyone therefore now goes to and hotels are up everywhere! We splashed out and stayed at a place with a swimming pool and spent a few days having some much needed R&R time, swimming and reading (yes Bryn was reading books - novels as well!)

The beach was ok, but the hotels have been built too close to the sea and the beach disappears at midday - a bit of a let down. Bryn did nearly caused an international incident as his milky white body was revealed for the first time and started to divert the planes overhead!

Also had an afternoon trip to see the local sights...

The Fairy Stream which you walk along barefoot to see sand formations....

Had to share with the local cow herd...

Off to the local fishing harbour

Then the Red Canyon

And the White Sand Dunes....

And the Red Sand Dunes....

Also enjoyed loads of fresh squid, fish and prawns each day in true roughing it, backpacker lifestyle!

Saigon

We went to Saigon briefly in the end after realising it would be too difficult to bypass (we were getting a bit sick of doing city stuff and wanted some trekking). Got one of our worst, but cheapest rooms to date and explored for a day and a half.....

War Remnants Museum.....even worse propaganda than before - although all the agent orange deformity photos were gut-wrenching. They also love the photos of woman and children capturing american GIs. The ''tiger cages'' (cells) where the French used to keep their prisoners through to the 50s were pretty appalling.

Walking tour of the city taking in some of the most impressive buildings and parks.

Mekong Delta

As our 30 day visa was running out (we were well behind on Bryn's itinerary spreadsheet) we bit the bullet and did the Mekong Delta region on a 3 day tour which would take us into Cambodia. The Mekong is the most fertile area of the country , they get 3 rice harvests annually - and so most people want to live there. This means pretty packed floating markets - with everyone trading their crops by boat. Lots of genuine smiley kids all saying 'hello'' with big teethy grins.

Was good fun seeing the locals making the local foods - although it was a bit touristy (but a day off from thinking isn't always a bad thing).

Rice papermaking....

Rice candy making....

Coconut candy making...

Local spirits (snake and scorpions included!) were also being made - go on, down in one Fi!......

Stayed overnight on the boat one night in a room with 12 others - a bit like school camp - luckily no heavy snorers! Another day stayed in a floating hotel which was really pretty for sunset. Went on lots of different size boats.....

Did some biking...

Relaxing....

And visited a local child sweatshop aka Silk Factory - where actually the kids seemed to be having a right laugh - albeit they probably should have been reading books or learning a language or something. Bryn went down a treat with the girls, as he had learned some basic Vietnamese phrases by now - heard the giggling fits down the street!

All that was left was a nice meal with a drunk frenchman......

All ready now to take the boat over the border into Cambodia. Cant wait for something a bit more off the beaten track......fingers crossed! tbc......

Kon Tum

Kon Tum is supposedly the friendliest town in Vietnam - think probably because it is not famous for anything else! However, we immediately noticed the lack of people selling to us and the amount of kids shouting ''hello, hello, hello' with big smiles was drastically on the increase. We checked into the nice Family Hotel, with a balcony room overlooking the garden - perfect place for getting our smalls dry! We started to feel the baking heat of SE Asia for the first time and a planned hike became more of a gentle meander as our bodies waned. Walked through one of the traditional villages with a communal Rong House where all the villagers meet up. Good bit of banter with the bakery boys as they realised they were pretty short next to Bryn....and Fi! Discovered excellent egg, dried fish and salad baguettes at roadside stalls for only 15p - nice!

Buon Ma Thout
Headed on to the home of rubber plantations in Vietnam and also the coffee capital ...Buon Ma Thout. Tried to organise a national park trek in town through an agent but were being quoted $100 a day without transport and sleeping in a tent - they had gotta be having a laugh! Headed to the village of Ban Don ourselves, where the national park HQ is base to try and cut out the middle men (Bryn likes lean supply chains!). Got a 'local' bus, which was hilariously packed, and we kept knocking people out with our big rucsacks. However, the locals found us very amusing and were very friendly - albeit with limited comms. Stayed in a basic stilt hut which was fun - although not the most comfortable environment for washing and relieving! Lots of dogs with scars and a monkey in a small cage Headed off the next morning to play negotiating hardball with the park ranger. He was not budging on price even though when he tried to break it down at our request it made no sense. We later found out that the government runs all tourism in the province and so it is basically take it or leave it - which is why they never get any damn tourists! (I would love to see their business plan!). The only other tourists we met also walked away based on the ridiculouus prices levied - oh well, still nice to have some adventure again for the first time since China. Did manage to have our frst ever elephant ride (see piccy below!) - Fi got rather excited.

[b]Dalat[/b]

Arriving into Dalat we commenced our biggest accomodation search trek to date. We were convinced that there must be some lovely place to stay in this colonial French hillside town. Sadly we couldn't find it! Heading out that night Fi was amazed to run into an eBay colleague from Richmond who we had dinner with and shared flashpacking stories.

Dalat is the home to vietnamese wine, because of its elevated cool climate so it was perfect for apair of wine bores from the UK! We splashed out on the top wine made in partenrship with a french cooperative - if that is the best they make they should stick to the rice spirits! Bit of subtelty with the oak would have been nice - felt like we were licking the barrell!

Dalat was perfect for doing our own thing and we immediately hired a tandem bicycle and set off round the lake. An interesting experience...particularly the hills.

Visited the local flower garden...

Loved Emperor Bao Dai's art deco palace....

The cable car ride.....

The reservoir....

And some waterfalls....

Bravely hired a motorbike and set off to climb a mountain - and were glad to suffer just a flat tyre on the way there. Couldn't believe our luck when we discovered this next to garage....which only charged us 40p for the fix! We loved a day walking up Lang Bian through the jungle up into the clouds.....

And then we were on the bus....quickly descending down out of the hills down to the beach

Hue
Arrived into Hue and it was pouring.....! We stubbornly pushed past the tuk-tuks etc and walked out into the downpour - arriving like drowned rats into our hotel later! Hue is a pretty town with a river flowing through - the main attraction being the Imperial Enclosure area which is the Vietnam version of the Forbidden City. Sad though to see the amount of decay happening to it - the wet season is pretty tough on wooden buildings.

New Year was pretty low key and we scuttled back to our hotel as soon as the new year started as we needed to be up at 6am for our Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) tour. We'd splashed out and hired our very own South Vietnam army veteran for the day to show us round the locations. The DMZ was the area between North and South Vietnam and
many of the key battles in the American War were fought here.

Stopping at a catholic church riddled with holes on the way to the zone it was sad when he broke down in tears, as he lost a lot of good friends during the American War.

He had lots of good stories such as at Khe Sanh Combat Base - otherwise known as Hell to the US GIs. It sounded absolutely horrendous...with the Viet Cong regularly sending in missiles. Our guide really brought it to life for us with his tales....drug taking was a regular occurence here with many perishing because they didn't react to the air raid sirens. The GIs had only 2 minutes a week to speak to their families in the US and he told us that often they never actually managed to get any words across to their families as they couldn't stop the sobs....

Also went to the Vinh Moc tunnels....these tunnels weren't fighting tunnels like the Cui Chi tunnels in the South.....these were built next to the China sea and was the main inward location for the VC arms from Russia.

From here the arms would be transported down the Ho Chi Minh trail to the south. We had a fabulous time scurrying through the tunnels appreciating being on a private tour and ignoring the signs saying 'No Entry' and heading off down unlit tunnels with only our torches! Despite the massive bomb craters we saw, from the extensive US bombing campaigns, the US never managed to penetrate these tunnels. Amazing ingenuity.

Because he fought with the US, our guide has been treated harshly by the government/police, monitored ever since leaving a 'reconditioning unit' following the war. Getting work was very difficult. He has written 15 letters to the US to try and get recompense or move across, but apparently they had all been ignored. In fact, our tour was conducted under a shroud of secrecy as officially he was just our non English speaking driver.

Also went off to the Royal Tombs of the Nguyen emporers and the infamous Thien Mu Pagoda....

Hoi An
Hoi-An was a bit of a tourist circus - just a town of silk shops (check out the exact replica of Fi's Ted Baker dress below!), tailors and cafes and restaurants - not much for us hardy backpackers.

Nonetheless a pretty riverside town full of canals and flooding roads....

Nearby are the mystical ruins of My Son which we were lucky enough to arrive at for sunrise thereby beating the tour buses. Sadly the site did suffer in the war, and the area is still mined.

Everything in Vietnam is separated into 'Tourist'' and 'Non-tourist' - public transport, hotels, restaurants, prices, areas of town etc etc. This is good in that everything is very easy for the tourist and you dont have to think much. However, it was starting to irritate the hell out of us, as we were not speaking with any locals unless they wanted to sell us something, were subjected to attempted overcharging a lot, were not seeing the real Vietnam and generally our minds were getting stale and bored with the ease of each day. I know this sounds odd - but when you backpack the day-to-day logistics and banter with the locals is great fun! Decided to take action and rerouted away from the tourist run along the coast and headed into the Central Highlands instead. The bus ride to Kon Tum was fabulous...in with the locals and the scenery was stunning. We were actually following the Ho Chi Minh trail up, climbing up through winding valleys and through small villages. The foliage was lush, green and dense and we did wonder how the US GIs must have felt heading off on their patrols in terrain such as this.

Arriving into Hanoi at a 'bus stop' outside the city centre, we were forced to jump in a taxi - which then proceeded to take us on the 'tourist' route to our hotel. Once we had him going the right way he then decided to go nice and slowly so that the meter further racked up the Dong. The golden rule - never trust anyone with a dodgy eye or a very hairy mole (in this case the latter). Walking out that evening into the Old Town quarter of Hanoi was quite a different experience.....motorbikes everywhere!! Unfortunately they tend to either set up restaurants or park their bikes on the pavements so we were stuck dodging bikes in the narrow roads. Welcome to Vietnam!

Then it was a frenzied day of culture! First stop was Uncle Ho...who's corpse was illuminated by a strange orange light but all in all...suprisingly small Communist leader. Then on to the Army Museum to pose with the military hardware outside. We both really enjoyed the main exhibition though which helped us understand recent Vietnamese history but also left us wanting to understand a slightly more balanced picture - ie without the vietnamese propaganda.

Upset with the hotel as they tried to kick us out that night so they could accept a booking from a large group. We stood our ground but were too scared to go out for long for dinner and ended up pacsafing our luggage to the room in the event that they tried to get rid of us whilst we were gone! Ended up watching a Vietnam - Singapore football match (ASEAN Cup semi-final for those interested) which the Vietnamese won - party time in the streets!

And then we were off on our Christmas holiday trip to Cat Ba Island and on to the Ocean Beach resort on it's own private island. Cat Ba Island is in the spectacular, if a little misty, Halong Bay....

However, arriving onto Cat Ba Island we made a major mistake and didn't get the shuttle bus to Cat Ba town as we thought we were in the right place for our pick up to the island. Spent an age trying to negotiate a decent moto rate to the other side of the island from the greedy locals who seem to love seeing a foreinger in a pickle. Bryn insisted we stand our ground and start to walk the 40 km in midday sun to the correct collection point. Eventually after we'd walked about 5km through the middle of nowhere with our full packs we stopped in a restaurant and, the angels must have been looking down on us, as we ran into a tour guide from Ocean Tours who'd been asked to look out for 2 lost Westerners on the island.

We finally arrived at Ocean Beach and were met with welcome drinks and escorted to our beach bungalow - woohooo! The holiday had finally begun!! The slight disappointment was that it wasn't sunny and despite meticulous planning on Bryn's spreadsheet we'd failed to spot that North Vietnam would be experiencing their rainy season whilst we were there!

Christmas Eve was spent taking a quick dip in the sea and heading off round our island on kayaks. Due to low tide, we weren't able to make it directly round our island and ended up going round quite a few islands and navigating through a narrow channel of churning water!

In the evening we headed to the restaurant and joined the BBQ party set up on the beach. When we headed up after dinner to the bar we were amazed to discover the staff had transformed the bar and were all ready for a big party!

The fact that we were celebrating on the wrong day didn't perturb us overly. And despite us having eaten our fill at the BBQ we managed to find room for all the goodies they'd laid out for us all. Steered clear of the karaoke after our experiences in China and made sure we made use of the free beer keg they'd laid on.

Unsurprisingly Christmas Day was a very quiet affair for us and we settled for a fresh seafood spread for lunch

Begrudglingly we had to abandon Ocean Beach... and headed over to Cat Ba Island for our trip to the National Park. We hired two motorbikes and after Fi's initial kangaroo bucks we were off across the island! First stop was Hospital Cave, which was an impressive feat of wartime engineering - it was built so that it was safe from the US bombs. Not quite certain about all the rooms....there seemed to be more swimming pools, cinemas, games rooms than places for sick people.

Second stop was the national park where we had a very quick 8km march to reach Frog Pond through Jurassic Park terrain. A shallow stagnant pond home to many mosquitoes and not many frogs as far as we could see.

We beat a hasty retreat through the jungle underneath the ever darkening canopy in an effort to get back before dark.

Ten minutes in and Fi was distraught to turn a corner and find that Bryn had skidded his bike and was examining both himself and the bike for injuries at the side of the road. It would appear that Bryn had found the only bit of gravel, on a road, on a corner on Cat Ba Island. Bryn suffered a bruised hip, grazed elbow and knee, sore ribs and a yanked thumb. The bike suffered extensive scratching, cracked body work and a bent gear lever. It was the gear lever that was to cause us most grief on the way back to town....eventually the bike got stuck in 1st gear which is not the ideal one to be in at all. We stopped and scratched our heads...no traffic passed....and then a friendly farmer appeared on the horizon and managed to bend the gear lever, enough for the bike to function, with his massive machete. It was a very slow 20km back into town particularly as we lost the daylight and had to go even slower so as to not compound the situation. Back in town we psyched ourselves up to take the bikes back to their owner wondering what our strategy was in a situation where we didn't have a signed rental agreement. It turns out that he really didn't expect anything...he realised he had no right to demand anything so Bryn agreed to pay $30 which the chap seemed relatively happy with. Fi procured a big block of ice from the hotel to treat Bryn's injuries and we went out for some Western comfort food and an early night.

Back in Hanoi we had a few days waiting round to get our passports back from the Cambodian embassy and we perhaps fell off the backpacker boat a little and for some reason ended up treating ourselves to an all you can eat buffet in a French colonial house . BBQ'd prawns, seafood, steak etc

Street party time again as VietNam beat Thailand in the final of ASEAN cup, in Hanoi - tickets for the game were 200 quid on the black market - which is a lot for these folks. Street food and street party commenced......all through the night.

Monday involved finding a clinic to see Bryn's thumb which had swelled up somewhat, was clicking and didn't seem to want to move that much. Big palava trying to contact our insurance company who seemed to think they required a police report of the incident for us to be covered, despite that fact that Bryn was the only person involved! A big learning for us though on insurance companies. However, in the event the clinic forgot to charge for the X-rays which thankfully came back with no breaks. Phew!

Decided to take the relaxing sleeper train 12 hours south to Hue. Arrived in enough time to be first into our cabin and find good spots for our giant bags and continued our strategy of taking the top two bunks in a cabin of 6 so that Fi didn't have strange men looking at her in her sleep. Train left and we all settled down to sleep.

We Flew to Xian on Bryn's persuasion as only 42 quid and we get the airmiles (very important!). Very easy and comfortable (except the 'walking bags' Bryn and Fi trying to get on the Beijing metro at rush hour!) Fi enjoyed 'testing' the perfumes in Duty Free.

We quickly notice people stare a lot more here than Beijing - especially at Fifi. Walked/marched around half of the 14km city walls - amazing 18m thick and very high.

Walk through the muslim quarter and a enjoy a big Hans beer in a bar- has 12 beers on the menu but says they have none except Hans! We go for dinner and end up ordering a second main as we are still hungry, and go for the crispy chicken (no chilli as fi feeling dicky). What comes.......deep fried misc meat (prob dog) in the most chillis you have ever seen!

Get the bus to the Terracotta warriors fairly easily - no need to cough up for a tour. Didint realise that the tombs were still largely unexcavated but still an amazing find - definitely the 8th wonder of the world.

Although starting to get hacked off by the walking, shouting, spitting, chain smoking machines flag bearing machines i.e. chinese tour groups....

On the bus on the wayback the bus is hot and Bryn falls asleep and wakes to a guy trying to unzip his pocket and pinch his wallet! Straight stare down and the guy gets off shortly after pretending he was bending down to look at something - reminder that budget travel options do come with more risks and to always be on guard! Wandered out at night and stumble across Tenerife-style Bar St with people trying to persuade us to come in. Bryn mistakenly (!) nearly takes us into a strip joint!

Up at the crack of dawn to head off to Hua Shan - 2200m sacred mountain. Started off and tough going as usual for Fi at the start...

.....but happy when she noticed the km markers and began to notice the KM starting to tick off. Start of the steps was a bit tough but made steady progress until the start of the chains. Very scary series of notches cut into the cliff which you have to haul yourself up with a chain......

Stupid chinese signs as usual....."No Striding Bryn"

Made it up to North Peak for 12:30pm which was the 6km mark - 1600m high...and where most of the chinese get the cable car to begin their walk! Finally shook off the hoardes and enjoyed a slightly more level final walk over to South Peak (2200m). Elation at making it there!!

Chongqing and Three Gorges Yangtze River Cruise

Catch the soft sleeper train (carriage of 4 bunks) and Bryn strikes up a rapport with a furniture salesmen - Bowah.com - very limited conversation, just the usual pretending nods of acknowledgement totally unaware of what is being said, but Bryn spotted an importing business opportunity!

In Chongqing we are amazed at the tall skyscrappers, posh shopping malls full of Armani, Prada etc - can't believe this is double the size of Brum and we haven't even heard of it! Not quite sure about our shower over a squat toilet which comprises our bathroom though Smog everywhere - never seen somewhere so bad.....

3 Gorges Museum - Good insight into the dam and the cultures of the people who lived in the area. Slight overplay I feel by the chinese government saying that the 1.5m people had been dying to be relocated from their homes in order for this proud national project to go ahead!

Push on to the Stillwell museum. Get off at the right stop and spend a while traversing up and down the hill through the hutongs, surprising locals, looking for it. Not many people to ask! Stumble upon it! All set up for tour parties - except that they only get 10,000 visitors a year! It's a museum commerating the work of General Stillwell who led the US effort during WW2 to aid the Chinese resistance to the Japanese.

Get back and decide we are both coming down with colds. Keep our meeting with Nick and Hope for us all to go our for famous 'Chongqing Hot Pot' - mega mega spicy bubbling pot of hot chillis to which you add anything from fish lips to pig brain. Bryn tucks in thinking that the spices will ward off his impending cold. Fi can hardly eat anything not just due to the spices. Go home and Fi vomits. Bryn follows shortly after. Both paralysed in bed for the next two days. When Fi feels better she goes to get a cheeseburger and gets stalked by a inanely smiling Chinese lesbian!

Join our cruise ship at night to see the city lit up.....

Arrive in our cabin to interrupt a portly Chinese man's pot noodle dinner and throwing orange peel over the floor. Pop into the main function room to find wierd karoke dancing going on...and not that many people in there at all.

Early nights sleep with funny cabin occupants. Start having issues with the portly one...who thinks nothing of getting up in the middle of the night and turning the lights on to visit the bathroom. Dislike of the portly one intensifies as he gets up at 6am to get ready for the 7am trip. Slurps down a pot noodle, spends forever in the bathroom...and then bizarrely puts his clothes on top of his thermal pyjamas. Christened 'Pyjama Bottom' from then on.

Very impressive - 3rd largest river in the world, surrounded by high narrow gorges....

Stop for the Ghost City, but its really a crap Disney World sight with no English - cable car was nice though.

Settle into the cruise and crack open a bottle of 'Great Wall Red Wine' - Chinese Cab Sauv - really is not too bad and can't get any other wine anywhere.

Finish the 4 day cruise at the Three Gorges Dam..

Yangshuo

3rd class sleeper to Yangshuo, where we would stay for a week - heading south and getting hotter For 13 GB per night we had a suite with a lovely balcony overlooking the road and Li river, a bath, a massive double bed, a sofa area and best of all our own computer!!!

The karst scenery is amazing here - best we have seen in China. Went out in the evening, however, and amazed by the transformation in the streets. Bars pumping out beating music and touts trying to usher us inside - Magalouf meets China!!

We had a day like a normal short holiday - ice cream , bamboo raft on the Li River and the Impressions of Li light show in the evening. A 70 minute show involving 600 performers which happens on the Li river with rafts, boats, booms etc Quite impressive...loved the silver light outfits that flashed on and off. Afterwards had the local speciality Beer Fish which is carp, chillies, tomatoes, chives, ginger, beer....yum!

Really nice to get on the mountain bikes and get out amongst the karst scenery. Although Fi started to moan about sore back after 15 mins and Bryn thought he would be in for a tough day! To be fair I was a bit John Wayne after the rocky tracks with ropey suspension!

Started biking back along the other side of the river and then we got cocky and decided we wanted to be closer to the river....suddenly the track become a narrow ridge in between the rice paddies! And then, wobble wobble and Fi was off her bike and down into a ditch

Picked up in the evening for our cormorant fishing trip and joined the Chinese tourists on our noisy narrow boat. Met up with our 79 year old fisherman on his motor powered bamboo raft complete with powerful light at the front so that his cormorants could see the fish. Bryn had seen the very same man before on one of Palin's adventures! Motored along with the cormorants diving down for fish....mostly finding fish small enough to get past their cord throat restricters. Every once in a while the fisherman would yank one out by the string on their feet and empty the fish in their throats into his basket. Amazingly clever but reckon that it would take him a while to get any serious volume of fish in!

Went up in a hot air balloon, a wedding gift courtesy of Colin, Cargill and John & Isobel. Amazing, although it was the tiniest of baskets and went up very quick - before we knew it we were up at 500m!

This was followed by boating into 150m tall water caves where we took the obligatory silly westerner mud bath.

Went off on a 2 day trip to the Longshan rice terraces. What a mission trying to figure out the best way to get there. Managed to book ourselves onto a tour group in order to get there and then to come back with another tour the next day. After an early start and 3 hours in our minibus we were all dropped at the corny tourist village where you were supposed to pay 5 GB to see a 'cultural display'. We just wanted to get off on our walk! Had to wait on the tour group but eventually we made it to Ping An...a nice little Chinese village reminiscent of an Austrian ski village.

Shook off the tour group, who were off for their lunch and then a 20 minute trip along the rice terraces and then back on the bus to Yanghshuo! Seemed like a waste of a journey to us! We knew we'd made the right choice to stay and walk when we saw the views...hardly any westerners around and soon we'd left the tourist villages behind and were seeing a bit of real China

Found a tiny to village to spend the night in and were surprised to find a Chinese film crew in our hotel. They didn't seem to mind us wandering round their film set! They were filming the local women doing their dancing...so we had a smug chuckle at everyone else who'd coughed up for their touristic display....we were being treated to the real thing!

Onwards to Vietnam!