Koh Tao

We're recruited into Big Blue Diving school as we get off the boat, with the bonus of free accommodation as we want to do our PADI Open Water course. We're told they have a mosquito problem (actually bed bugs! urgh!) and are given a concrete apartment a 2 minute walk away rather than a beachside bungalow. Fine by us. After dumping our bags we head back to the bar for our induction and meet up with Rach & Emma, they're staying at the same place & doing the same course! Yey! The sixth member of our group is a Swedish girl called Ida. The next morning we start our theory work and in the afternoon head out into the water with the gear on to do some skills. One of the first is breathing underwater without the mask & i just can't do it, the bubbles against my shut eyes are freaking me out, so we move on for now and do some other skills, which I'm fine with apart from completely filling the mask then clearing it. As we're all getting cold we finish off and I'm to try again tomorrow. Not such a late night as we've homework to do and the same pattern is repeated, theory in the morning then practical. It quickly becomes clear while Ally, our instructor and I, have started ahead of the rest of the group, that I'm not going to be able to complete the skill. So we decide I'm to give up and stick to snorkeling. I was pretty annoyed with myself and very disappointed, I'm not going to be able to see the great barrier reef in the same detail as the boys. From then on my days were taken up with reading on the beach, and going for little swims to cool off. Drinking beer to make the boys jealous in the evenings (not advised with diving). On the last day, after 2 dives and their graduation we all went out for a few drinks on a beachside pub crawl. The vodka & redbulls ensured I didn't have much sleep and I was still drunk & chatty eating breakfast, soon passed out on the boat later that afternoon on our way to Koh Phan Ngan for the full moon party. Quote of the last night in Koh Tao goes to Innes who after being snogged/pounced on by a good-looking Scandinavian bloke says "sorry mate- I'm not your man!" Good job Rachel was there to fill us in on that, damn memory loss.

Ko Samui

We spend 21 hours in Bangkok and a large proportion is on the internet (updating blog!) We go for the cheapest overnight bus option and are fortunate that its only an hour late and its a VIP bus, DVD player, a loo & super posh reclining seats. At 5am we're kicked off and told we have to wait for another bus, we're herded inside the travel agents and another DVD is put on. The bus arrives at 7 & we're taken to the boat, its a super fast one. We're being spoilt. We arrive by 11 as promised and catch a songathew to Lamai beach. The next couple of hours is a hell of lugging our bags in the sweltering heat, looking for something in our price range. The afternoon spent on the gorgeous beach and swimming in the sea is ample compensation though. Its Innes' birthday so we head out for a nice meal and a few drinks, its UK prices though as theres so many non backpacker tourists around, still we manage to squeeze in a 2 litre tower of chang, and feel a lil fuzzy the next morning. After a hearty English breakfast at Sir Winston Churchill's (yes its that touristy) we head out to look for the grandmother and grandfather rocks, which are rude shapes. Then lounge on the beach til the sun goes in. Tomorrow we set sail for Ko Tao.

Siem Reap & Angkor

Tuk Tuk drivers are clamouring for our business as the bus pulls up at the station. They're hammering on the windows calling "madame", holding up cards with the names of guesthouses, telling you they speak good english. They wait at the entrance to the bus, pulling at you, trying to help you with your bag, trying to get your business. We hurry as quickly as we can to the minibus provided by the travel company, to take us to their suggested hotel. One tuk tuk driver is particularly irate, telling me its a scam, asking if I know what that means. We're not that naive, but it turns out he was right- the hotel is not in the location we wanted, the only triple room they have in our price range is across the road in a slightly skankier building, its a shared bathroom, the beds haven't been made, and its still a bit pricey. We hop in a tuk tuk to our preferred location, he gets his opinion in and takes us to a hotel he recommends. The room they offer smells of the sewers and we move on, the next place is way too expensive. We part with our driver, agreeing to meet him in an hour for our sunset from Angkor Wat. Shoulder our bags towards the European Guesthouse, the room is really lovely, clean with an en-suite and only $7. Cold shower though. We gobble some food, find our driver and buy 3 day tickets for the archaeological site, the pass starts tomorrow but we can start using it this evening.

The ladies running our guesthouse arrange a guide and tuk tuk driver for us the next day. We start with sunrise at Phnom Bakheng. Climbing the steep steps with our torches we sit at the top looking at the stars, we're the first there. Before sunrise we're joined by more people but not more than 15 in total. Once we've got our sunrise shots we move on to the huge Angkor Thom, crossing a stone causeway lined with gods and demons churning the ocean of milk, lots of them were beheaded by the Khmer Rouge in the 70's. In the middle of the walled city is the Bayon temple, we can explore all 3 levels, getting quite close to the 4 faces adorning each tower. We walk the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King and the boys climb the Phimeanakas. I don't fancy that as it looks a bit sheer for flip flops- Didn't realise there were proper wooden stairs the other side! We then head for Ta Phrom, which has been cleared a little to allow access but still has trees growing through it, looking like its only just been rediscovered, cue some impressive piccies. We then go to Banteay Kdei which is a 12th century Buddhist temple with some carvings still visible inside the enclosures. The day is getting a lot hotter, we're getting slower and more lethargic so we break for lunch and meet up again at 2, spending a lot of time examining bas reliefs depicting battle scenes and religious stories in Angkor Wat, we then head back to Phnon Bakheng for sunset, its absolutely rammed with tourists, all vying for a good spot for a photo. At the end of the day we're absolutely knackered and have a very early night.

We arrange for the same driver to pick us up the next day at 6 and head 30km ish towards Banteay Srei, going early to avoid the crowds. It takes about an hour and a half and until the sun is properly up is freezing. We have to keep stopping for our driver to fill the water bottle that's connected to the engine somehow. Charming scenes of typical Cambodian life follow the road, its really dusty and bumpy for most of the way, but I still manage to sleep for some of it. Banteay Srei is a wonderfully well preserved 10th century temple whose carvings were particularly deep and detailed. Its really small compared to the other temples, and wouldn't take many tourists to appear crowded, the sandstone here is a pinkish colour. Our driver then takes us to a waterfall with Angkor carvings in the river bed above and below the falls, its a bit of a trek to get there but well worth it. We then head to Neak Pean. We finish the day off at Preah Khan, where piles of stone push against remaining walls, the encroaching forrest crushing the building, v impressive. We head for dinner to a place recommended in the book, all ordering Amoks which are served in a coconut. Yum!

The next day our driver picks us up at 5.15 and we head to Angkor Wat for sunrise. The sky turns some very pretty colours but we're doubtful the sun itself will rise behind the temple so start heading back to the tuk tuk. As we're crossing the causeway we spot the sun to the right of the site and get a few nice shots. We pop back to the guesthouse for our bags and head to the bus station which turns out to be a travel agents. We're in plenty of time for our 8 o'clock bus as it doesn't set off til 9. Every single seat is taken, our bags fill the back window, are squished under the seats and fill the aisle, 4 people sit in the aisle at the front on plastic chairs. The air con is sparodic and the people sat at the back are slowly being poisoned with fumes from the engine but are banned from opening the window by the driver, every time they do he turns the air con off and the bus roasts. The roads are really dusty and bumpy dirt tracks, every time we approach a bridge under construction there's a sharp detour around it. A 4 hour trip turns into 7.

Sihanoukville

Our bus drops us at the bus station and we're immediately bombarded with offers of motos. We're not too sure where we are on the map though so we walk off for a bit, get talking to an English chap who's promoting his guesthouse, he's not pushy though so we grab a tuk tuk to check it out. Its full though so we stay next door at Mick& Craig's. 5 minutes walk and you're on the beach, you have to walk past an awful lot of rubbish to get there though. Not having landfill all the rubbish ends up on the street or in the sea. This does spoil sections of the beach, but parts of it are really lovely and the sea is gorgeous. The bars are pretty good too and loads of places served english breakfasts, sating Mark's desire for Heinz beans. Heaven! 2 days of R&R.

Phom Penh, Cambodia

We stay at the hotel we're dropped at, after the long journey we've had. $11 for a room with 5 beds (although they're only charging 3 bed rate), we head out for some food and book a trip for the next day, the city tour taking in the killing fields, Russian market, Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (s21), Wat Phnom, The Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda and the National Museum. Leaving the hotel proves difficult. We stop on our way our and ask to access our parcel we deposited in the safe last night (due to advice in book- wouldn't want to lose passport in a mugging) we're after some dollars from our moneybelts. There's a lot of confused Cambodian conversation between the guy at the desk and his Dad, eventually a woman goes into the room next door and comes back very quickly with our parcel, its probably been bunged on a shelf overnight. While this is going on the guy is trying to sell us tour tickets, which we've already bought from a different company, and dragging out the time so we'll miss our bus, his Dad thinks we're trying to check out without paying (and without our luggage?!?) and he's also asking what's in the parcel in the "safe". We decide it'll be safer to take our moneybelts with us and hurry off.

The tour is excellent, our guide speaks very good english and its quite a small group. The killing fields for Phnom Penh were a Chinese cemetary, these graves were desecrated to dig mass graves for the thousands of men, women and children killed here, lots of the graves have been opened by the Cambodian people and scraps of clothes can still be seen half buried, their skulls, some of their other bones and some clothes make up the memorial in the centre. The men and women were first tortured for up to 2 months in S21 before being brought here and were beaten to death rather than being shot as bullets were scarce, children were grabbed by their ankles, their heads slammed into a certain tree, or thrown into the air and stabbed by bayonets. One of the graves contained Khymer Rouge soldiers who tried to defect. The Genocide Museum is pretty harrowing too, an ex secondary school converted into prison cells, each cell containing a bed and shackles. The walls are painted sunshine yellow and the ceilings are splattered with blood. There are photos of some of the victims on display, Pol Pot's soldiers destroyed others as the Vietnamese were liberating Cambodia. Also 14 people were found dead, shackled to beds and a photo of how they were found hangs on the wall of the room they were in, they're buried in the yard outside.

The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda are nice, it takes us ages to work out the Silver Pagoda is so named because the floor is made from sheets of silver. The National Museum has some of the more precious Khymer statues (so they're not stolen from Ankor) also some pre-Ankor statues, the guide is difficult to follow as she speaks really quickly and its the end of the day. As we're there lots of people start milling around in traditional dress and there's a TV crewe outside, some Khymer artefacts in American possesion are being returned tonight. We buy our bus tickets to Sihanoukville for the next day from the same company as our tour- Capitol, and check out Phenom Penh's nightlife. The security check to get in to the heart of darkness is like an airport pat-down! Predictably our man on reception is reluctant for us to leave the next day as we've not bought our tickets from him, he's helpless to stop us as I had him the correct money and we shout "thank you, bye" as we head for the door.

Mekong Delta

Early the next morning we're sitting in STA waiting for our bus with our cheese baguettes on our laps. When the bus does pick us up theres a lot of phaff about whether we're on the 2 day or 3 day trip and whether we're staying on the boat overnight. The whole busload seems to be on the same wavelength but the guides are clueless. Again it takes forever to pick everyone up, trudging through roads packed with mopeds. Eventually we're off, we get to the river and the boat takes us to a little island for our lunch, we get to try some Vietnamese lychees. We hop back on the boat and head up the river visiting the vestiges of the floating market- not much left at this time of day, and passing cargo boats loaded with sand to use for building. The boat drops us in Can Tho and the bus takes us to our hotel. We head out and explore the city as far as a nice restaurant, then play bananagrams and drink beer in our room. A mini-bus takes us to the ferry port where we have to carry our bags on to the boat and get on a different minibus on the other side. The logistics of getting enough small boats for us all and our bags seems to baffle our guides. We actually have to get on and off ours a couple of times while they decide which end to load our bags into. We're taken to a fish farm then a local tribe's village, our boat lands us in Chau Doc where we get our Cambodian Visas and cross the border on foot, getting on a bigger boat with deckchairs on the deck for a while, getting off to get our entry stamp a little further up river, changing boat again, before getting on a bus which takes us to Phnom Penh. This option felt a little rushed and I'd recommend anyone to go for the 3 day option or just get the bus across the border.

Saigon

Or Ho Chi Minh City, same same but different. The locals use both, Saigon usually refers to the central part. We have some difficulty finding a room as all the hotels are full, the Vietnamese head to Saigon for New Year too. We meet the girls who arrived the day before and are looking for a new place as they are currently in dorms run by a relgious cult! We're eventually rescued by a lady who hears us asking for a triple room, she has one room left to rent in her guesthouse- its a triple. We twist and turn down some narrow back alleys in a v central location and quickly arrive at her house. The stairs are unbelievable, they might as well be a ladder they're so steep. The room is nice though big and clean with an en-suite. We explore a little and end the night in a bia hoi, it tastes a little odd though not a patch on Hanoi bia hoi. The locals are really friendly and quickly strike up conversations, recommending places to visit and trips to go on, in exchange for editing their CV's!

The next day we're on a tour to see the Cu Chi tunnels, the bus takes forever to get there, it doesn't help that we drive past our pick up point 4 times, gradually adding more passengers, in Saigon's rush hour. Our guide is called Buli, his mother was Vietnamese and his father was a Philipino diplomat in America. During the war in Vietnam he was an officer for the Americans working as a coastguard on the river (think Apocalypse Now), when America pulled out of Vietnam he stayed behind to look after his mother and spent 4 years imprisoned, clearing mines and being re-educated as a communist. We see new foliage which is only just starting to recover after chemicals such as agent orange blanketed the land, mock-ups of classrooms and work rooms making weapons. Innes climbs down a sniper hole and we all crawl through a section of tunnel 100m long, which had been widened for tourists but was still really claustrophobic, we climbed down to the third level and came out at the hospital at the far end. There's actually lights down there now but the tunnels twist and turn and are so narrow most of it is almost complete darkness, the best way to get through it is to keep crawling. The boys head for the firing range as I head for an ice-cream, and jump out of my skin every time a shot is fired. Innes, the bugger, buys 10 rounds and goes for a semi-automatic option, I almost dropped my ice-cream! The rest of the afternoon is spent sight-seeing in the city. We visit the War Remnants Museum which has lots of photographs of napalm victims, and the effects on their children. There are even some tiny malformed foetuses pickled in jars. It also has an extensive section on photojournalists who lost their lives documenting the war, their most moving pictures and the last shots they took.

New Year's Eve and we spend quite a long time filling in forms to send parcels home, hopefully the boat won't sink! A bit more sightseeing at the Reunification Palace which was built as Diem's presidential palace and has remained pretty much unchanged. Huge 60's and 70's style rooms and kitsch office space with world maps on the walls and lots of phones. It feels like you've walked on to a James Bond set and might bump into the evil genius at any moment, or his fluffy kitty. We hook up with Rachel, the 2 Emmas and Neil for the evening celebrations, meeting up at the bar on the corner with bottles of rum and coke in my bag. As it gets towards midnight we head out on to the street where a stage has been set up. There's loads of Vietnamese bands with dancers playing pop music, some of it familiar. We dance to what we recognise and get singled out by the singers, obviously the locals aren't dancing. Our watches are saying its gone midnight, but we haven't heard a countdown, cue a minute of confusion before we hear "5,4,3..." Happy New Year! We pop our bags of confetti, watch a bit of the strange catwalk show going on then head back to the bar. Cheekily buying beer from the shop across the road. Mark heads to bed a little before Innes and I who decide food is needed. As its so late we have to go to lotteria (Korean maccy d's) our first fast food joint of the trip, oh the shame. It tastes good though. I drink my coke for breakfast (although its more mid afternoon when we wake up), not sure how I didn't spill any of it on the way up those stairs! The 1st is a bleary haze of hungoverness and junk food, mostly for me.

Mui Ne

We snaffle a "beach bungalow" where the bus dumps us in Mui Ne. Not as glamourous as it sounds but affordable. The town is basically one long road which stretches for miles parallel to the beach, all the hotels are on the beach side and restaurants and shops on the other. We decide to explore this shortly after arriving on foot, judging by the number of offers of "moto" we got the locals obviously thought we were bonkers, they'd be right as it did take a long time. We walked til the shops ran out then turned back, stopped for an ice-cream & a drink then carried on til an internet cafe. Mark and I leave Innes there (he was sneaky enough to bring USB cables etc without telling us) and we head back to get our stuff. We think we're about halfway back when we realise Innes has the room key, we carry on in the hope that we'll be let in with the spare key/ we'll give up and drink some beers. Unfortunately our guesthouse is set back from the road and in the twilight must've looked a lot different- we walk straight past it and walk for ages in the other direction, coming right out of the built up area, up a small hill with a view of a different beach. We have another problem which is neither of us can remember the name, so we can't even hail a moto! With the help of a map in the reception of a posh hotel we narrow our choices to 2 that sound familiar and eventually arrive back an hour after Innes, with really tired feet.

The next day we wake at 4.30 (argh!) and creep into our jeep to watch the sun rise over the white sand dunes, the peacefulness is soon shattered when he starts the engine and his radio kicks in- we're like a mobile rave. Our driver drops us in a dark car park, points towards some trees and says "that way" then says "sunset over there" we get our torches out and follow the little path through the forrest, picking up some little kids on our way. I settle on the top of the first big dune we climb and the boys head to the second, its a while before I notice the sky behind me is pretty colours as I'm looking in the opposite direction to the "sunset" waiting for sunrise! opps! After that we get a bit of sand sledging done- lying on the plastic mats the little boys hand us and waiting for them to push us off the top. Next our driver takes us to the red dunes, we pass on the sledging here as the dunes aren't as steep (& I'm a bit knackered) then head to the fishing village. Women are sorting shellfish on the beach and men & boys are steering coracles out to sea, small children wander over to try and sell us postcards and bracelets but don't pester us too much, they ask where we're from and are very curious about my freckles- they don't like them! (Everybody wants pale skin out here, women especially are very covered up, skin whiteners can be bought in shops and the lowest factor suncream is 40) Next we're dropped off at the fairy stream. We leave our flipflops with our driver and climb into the shallow stream, its like a path made from sand with a thin film of water on top. We soon acquire a child guide although the way is pretty obvious, where the water gets deep we climb out and walk along the bank until we see the waterfall. Walking back we see loads of tourists coming the other way, good timing. Our driver has gone and left our flipflops behind, another driver loads us into his jeep and bombs it back to our guesthouse. We spend the rest of the day chilling on loungers on the beach, the sea is very close and loud as it crashes on the sand.

Nha Trang

As the bus arrives in Nha Trang the sun is rising over the sea. What a welcome! We stop to view rooms in a hotel the bus stops at, feel sure we can get somewhere better, pick up our bags and head off around town. Guys on bikes keep showing us leaflets of guesthouses/ hotels that they're pushing. Each look the same with photoshopped views. Eventually we settle at the Nice hotel, a dorm room at $2 a night each. Its the poshest dorm I've ever been in with its own cable TV and as there's only 4 beds we have it to ourselves. Shared bathroom with the rest of the floor though and the not-very-frosted glass panel in the door means there's not much left to the imagination when the light's on. We head to the beach for the rest of the day. The sand is coarser than it was in Hoi An. That night we head out for some "research" before Christmas day. Ending up in Bar Why Not? several bucketfuls of cocktail later we stagger home via a roadside restaurant that did an amazing steak and egg sandwich for 60p and its fun sitting on tiny plastic stools. Tinsy bit hungover the next day. The beach and bars formula is repeated the next day which is Christmas Eve, its a big day for Jasper as Christmas Eve is the biggest celebration in Denmark. We meet up with the gang and hit the Sailing Club, as its full moon so should be spent on a beach. Jasper starts feeling worse for wear & when he starts falling asleep Mark & I decide to take him back. Slight problem is he can't walk so we have to carry him across the dancefloor & out the front, dumping him in a strategically placed cyclo, perfect vehicle for drunk people. The hotel staff move very quickly when we arrive, throwing our key over the reception desk as we carry him up the stairs. Mark wins the prize for Jasper not losing his flip flops that night. We dump him on his bed & he throws up. A lot. Yuk! There's obviously no justice as the next morning he wolfs down some breakfast and opens a can of beer as soon as we arrive on the boat for our "booze cruise". Mama Lyn's crewe take us to 3 islands for some swimming, snorkling, sitting in rubber rings drinking free shot glasses of wine, sunbathing & parasailing. For the latter I tandem with Neil & they dunk our legs in the water twice, before speeding off and giving us more height. Bit scarry as I didn't realise they did that (you can't see it from the beach) and a few people before us the couple ended up being rescued by jetski and the sail being dried on the beach. The view was amazing, but it was over way too quickly. Mark & Innes lived out their topgun volleyball fantasy with half the people on the beach. We also had a seafood lunch on the boat, a fruit party (?!?) and some musical entertainment from the enthusiastic crewe, normal guitars and bass but a v improvised drum-kit- various plastic containers and an old symbol, it had a good sound though! They played a few songs, including we wish you a merry christmas, of course! Then they started asking where people were from, calling them up on stage and getting them to sing along to a song of their nationality. Neil was first, then Jasper with another Danish guy, then me. They ask where I'm from I say "Wales", they say "Ah sex bomb!" but when I get up there start playing yellow submarine! Mark & Innes escaped this embarressment as there were too many English people on the boat- not interesting enough. Back on dry land we all meet up after some dinner for a few drinks in the Why Not? Bar. Neil's up for a bender but we're really tired so head back around 1, missing out the club. Boxing day is spent in a mud spa, as recommended by Rach. Its 2 quid and we're there for around 4 hours, there's various stages of washing after the mud bath and a huge pool, all is heated geothermally. The next day us 3 musketeers catch an early morning bus to Mui Ne, leaving Jasper to start a diving course in Nha Trang.