Vientiene Laos

Our plane was delayed in Phnom Penh so we did not arrive in Vientiane until it was dark. Our first taste of Laos was getting a taxi at the airport. Our experience so far has been that you emerge from a terminal with a $ sign on your forehead, you are seen as easy bait and the negotiations start from there. We came out prepared for this and... there was nothing, no taxi, no tuc tuc drivers, nothing. We then realised you have to go back inside to book and pay for the taxi first. There is a fixed price for the trip into town regardless of where your hotel is - what a change. This sense of order has, in many ways, continued.

The roads here are not so crowded and much to our surprise some people do use their indicators and they also obey the traffic lights. There seems to be an understanding, too, that the traffic keeps to one side of the road rather than just taking to the piece of road ( or pavement! ) with the fewest vehicles. We actually felt that we could hire a car here and drive comfortably, not a feeling we have felt anywhere else.

I know I have bored you by saying we 'love this place' before. Well we really really love Vientiane. Before we came we had read that a couple of days here is enough so that is all we have booked in for. We deeply regret this as this last two days has been so interesting and rewarding.

Yesterday we took our 'Lonely Planet' guide and started one of the suggested walks. First stop, the local market. The interesting bit is always the food section and this was no exception. To see all the meat laid out is enough to confirm my vegetarianism and to enhance John's love of a pork chop. However, even the committed carnivore did draw the line at the sight of this very large bowl full of hundreds of live toads which were destined for the dinner table!

We visited two of the Wats near to the hotel: That Dam and Wat That Fume. We did not stay long at the latter as there was a funeral taking place, the mother of a Governement minister apparently and we felt we were intruding.


We then wandered up the road to the monument Patuxai, which means Arch of Victory. It was built in the late 50's and has a strong resemblance to the Arc De Triumph, with an oriental flavour. It commemorates those who died in the independence struggle with France - strange then that it should be modelled on one of the most famous Parisian landmarks. If you were feeling energetic you could climb to the top, we decided on a leisurely lunch at a pavement cafe instead.

With regard to the above I should point out that French is the second language here and the city does have a French feel. Lots of old colonial buildings line the streets and the Presidential palace is a rather grand chateau. There are good cafes and restaurants, many of them tucked away in secluded locations where it is a pleasure to eat.

Yesterday evening we ate at one of the open air street restaurants and took a stroll along the riverside where the handicrafts and mementos on sale - just irresistable and so cheap.

This morning was more sightseeing, the Palace, a museum and another Wat.

This afternoon we've had a real treat and visited a silk weaving and dyeing workshop. This workshop trains women from the villages who have not had the benefit of education so have no trade. After several months they can master the basics and work up to be really skilled weavers. Initial training is free and once they are competent they are paid a wage. If they have very young children they bring them along to work, there was a ten month old little girl asleep on the floor at the side of her mother's loom, later I saw several on the women sat on the floor playing with the children, it all felt just so right for everyone.

To get there, they came and collected us from our hotel in a lorry, in which we had to sit on benches in the back. The worksop was a good 20 minutes drive from town and along an unmade road, a very jiggly experience. Only John and I were there, so we had a private guided tour and saw the women weaving the most intricate patterns on ancient manual looms. We were shown how the silk is dyed prior to being woven and then were given our own raw silk scarves to dye ourselves. I was hoping that John would have a go too and he did and really enjoyed it. We made two scarves each which, for a modest sum, we have kept. We are both very proud of our efforts.

It is with regret that we leave Vientiane tomorrow and travel to Luang Prabang. If you are thinking of coming to Laos I would suggest you do it soon. Tourism here is not well developed and so many of the things we have found so annoying in other cities are largely absent. Not once have I been asked to buy post cards, I haven't been bothered by anyone trying to sell things, and the cost of things for sale is very reasonable. Vientianne is highly recommended.

Sihanoukville Cambodia

We are in Sihanoukville and have been for the last three days, today is our last day here. I know I have said it before but we love it here! We are having a particularly lazy few days, there are quite a few things we could be doing and we decided it was time just to recharge batteries.
To give you a picture, I am sat on the small veranda of our beach side bungalow, I am in a circular cane chair which is padded and very comfortable. If I wanted to I could climb into the hammock which is by my side but this would make doing the blog quite difficult. Our veranda overlooks the garden and the sea, In front of me is a large fan palm, some coconut palms, a pink hibiscus and an aloe vera type plant and through all this foliage I can see the sea.
The bungalows are all built up a hillside so everyone has a perfect view. The accommodation has its own bathroom, is built from wood, is pretty basic, and very rustic - but then so is the price of £20 a night for us both. I think they make up their money on the food, which is quite pricy for here at about £3 each. We were just saying we have been in South East Asia too long as we are starting to think that is expensive!
We have just been for breakfast in the dining area by the sea, I had fruit salad and yogurt, perfect. (John had a full English, you can't change a man overnight). The other guests are the usual mix of Europeans and Americans but all are friendly and fun. I think we are the oldest ones here.
Yesterday we broke our pledge of just lazing around and reading books and went out on a boat to the Islands which are about two or three miles away. There were six of us in the boat, us and two German couples who were really chatty and nice. (I am amazed at the good level of English spoken by all the non-English people we meet, I can't think that we have ever been in the company of anyone who did not have a decent grasp of English.) We had an excellent day on the boat and spent some time snorkling around two of the islands. The snorkling was good but not brilliant, there were some lovely corals but also some which had been badly broken, I don't think the boat owners take a lot of care when they drop their anchors as I think these do quite a bit of damage. John also thinks that they may have been using explosives to stun the fish to make them easy to catch, this too has caused damage. The fish were few but lovely, I think I was spoiled for snorkling in Oman where the fish and coral are plentiful.
We landed on Bamboo Island, the boat driver said it should be called 'No Bamboo Island' as there actually isn't any bamboo, seems logical to me. We lazed on the beach and had a swim then climbed back on the boat and had a delicious lunch of fish and salad and french bread with fruit salad for pudding, it was just lovely.
I just mentioned climbing back on the boat, well, that is exactly what you had to do. When we were going out towards the Islands I had scanned around the decks looking for a ladder as I could see that there was quite a drop into the water. I had asked to John if he had seen one, as the eternal optimist he said he felt sure there was one. The first time we stopped and the snorkeling equipment was handed out, I casually asked if there was a ladder. Of course there wasn't but I was assured that there were ledges along the side of the boat to help you get in. Ever the pessimist, or should I say realist, I didn't believe this and getting into the water was difficult enough.
All the time we were snorkeling I kept thinking of how I was going to get back in the boat. With dread we approached the boat and, to my horror, I saw the others were already on board - I was at least hoping I could be undignified in private. My first attempt to lift my leg to my shoulder height to get a grip on this so called ledge failed miserably and my suggestion that they tow me along was not taken seriously, although I was deadly serious. After a series of contortions that Houdini would have been proud of I eventually landed on the deck like a dead fish being slapped on a plate. This manouevre was repeated on three occasions during the day. You would have thought my technique would have improved but in fact the last attempt was the worst. I am just pleased there was nobody in the water viewing me from behind! Just as a footnote the other two women on board were in their late 20's with bodies to die for, I think you get the picture.
Tomorrow we are off to Laos. So we leave here early in the morning to go the Phnom Penh airport to fly to Vientiane which is the Laos capital so more blog from there later.

Phnomn Penh and the Boat Festival

We arrived back in Phnom Penh from Siem Reap and are staying at the Manor House again. We really like it here, at the moment I am sat by the pool with a gin and tonic, with the scent of Frangipani in the air writing this blog, life doesn't get much better than this. But I suppose I am going to have to tell you about the water festival so I shall make a start.

We spent the whole of Saturday at the river side watching the start of the festival. We were fortunate, as there is a pavilion for non-Cambodians which is run by the department of tourism, all very civilised for us. The pavilion is right next the King's Royal Enclosure so, as you can imagine, the view is terrific.

Day one is the day for eliminations to see who goes into the next round, consequently we saw all the boats and all the crews. There were 423 boats with an average of 50 rowers to each boat (that is more than 20,000 rowers!). The boats are dragon boats holding up to about 80, mostly rowers but there is a chap who sits on the front and seems to be the stroke master, but he gets so excited there is no way any of the rowers could keep up with his time. There is also someone in the middle who bails out all the time and is obviously crucial to the success of the whole enterprise. Finally, the chaps at the back are the ones who steer the boat, one or two of them getting so involved in winning that they started rowing too, often resulting in chaos. Keeping 70 or so people rowing at the same pace must be difficult and where some of the crews lost their rhythm the boats were starting to flex in the middle and looked quite unstable. There was an interesting pattern of placement within the boat. As a general rule the first third sat down to row, the second third knelt and the final third stood up. There were a few boats where they all the rowers were standing, facing forward, using oars on what resembled a platform. It all looked most unstable as the boats had a very little clearance above the water. I think these boats must have been in a different strand of the competition but it was difficut to tell.

All the boats were highly decorated, usually with some sort of serpent or dragon. The crews, too, were colour coordinated: there were blues, greens, oranges, reds, pinks, infact all the colours of the rainbow - quite a sight.

The boats raced in pairs and the finishing post was between two canoes, moored to buoys, in which judges sat with a large drum in front of them. Each boat was bonged in on the drums as they crossed the line. All very high tech.

In the evening the King took his place and switched on the illuminated floats which came up the river. These floats depicted his coat of arms and the emblems of all the Ministries. Once these were underway there was an amazing firework display. What an incredible experience.

After all this we had to walk back to the hotel; not easy as the crowds were immense and it was difficult to move. Astonishingly, amongst the pedestrians, shuffling along shoulder to shoulder, were motorcyclists beeping and trying to make their way.

Apparently the population of Phnom Penh is swelled by a million during the time of the festival. I can well believe this, We encountered them all that night, or thought we had.

When I got this far with the blog I saved what I had written, intending to write more today.

You may have heard on the news that there was a dreadful incident at the end of the final day, Monday, when over 300 died and many were injured. Fortunately, we had decided not to go out that evening, as the day before the crowds had been so dense and it did feel unsafe. This sad event has rather taken the joy out of what was an amazing experience, I hope the following

pictures give you a flavour of the event in the first two days.

Lake Tonle Sap

To give ourselves a bit of a change from temples we decided to take a trip out to Lake Tonle Sap. This is the largest Lake in Cambodia and could be likened to a huge reservoir of water for the Mekong. We had heard that it was well worth a visit so off we went.

I have already mentioned Hat, our Tuc Tuc driver. Well, he was keen to have as much time as possible with us (there is fierce competition amongst the drivers and several days can go by without a fare). He told us that he would take us in his Tuc Tuc. If you have ever travelled for two or three hours in a Tuc Tuc you will be able to imagine how wind-swept we were on arrival. It was a great adventure though, because you are open to the elements and travelling at quite a slow pace you get to see everything. We stopped and watched the harvesting of rice; stopped to buy tubes of bamboo stuffed with sticky rice, black beans and coconut juice, and then barbequed (scrummy); we brought sweets made at the roadside from palm sugar and just watched the world go by, it was fabulous.

It was amazing to watch the traffic go by and to see the strangest things on the back of motorbikes. We saw several bikes going in the opposite direction with really strange looking loads. It was only on closer inspection we realised that on the pillion seat, cross-wise, was a live pig, trussed up and lying on its back being taken to market I presume. When we saw this we thought we had just about seen it all until we saw one bike with three trussed up pigs on the back. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of the trio but we did of the one pig.

We saw trucks piled high with people going into town, flat bed carts being towed by rotavators and carts being pulled by buffalo, there were cows everywhere, it was a real experience.

When we arrived at the lake, a couple of tourist buses were just decanting their loads on to boats. Not the easy way for the Pointons - we were led to 'our own boat', and had a private tour of the lake. No luxury yacht, John kept looking at the steering mechanism of the boat, which had an old car steering wheel and a couple of ropes coming from either side of the rudder at the stern to the front, where there were a couple of turns around the steering column. There was another slack piece of rope tied to a bracket by the steering wheel which disappeared into a box at the stern. This was the throttle; driver rested his foot on it to take up the slack and pressed to go faster. All very high tech!!

The floating villages on the lake were extensive, all built on very high stilts and about ten foot clear of the water. They have to be built this high as the lake can swell dramatically in the wet season. Some of the houses looked quite affluent and others quite poor. What was very noticeable was the lack of rubbish in the water, clearly relying on the water for their livelihood has led them to respect this environment, I can't remember seeing one piece of plastic or paper or detritus of any sort.

Our boat took us past a school which was supported by the State of Carolina in the USA, there was also a US aid building, and a school run by Buddist Monks. We landed on an Island which has a small market and a Buddist temple. As we approached the Island it was obviously time for the primary children to go home. All these children got into boats to go home, there was no adult to take them, no life jackets, just half a dozen of them in the boat all rowing off to their homes, perhaps we don't give our own children enough freedom and responsibility.

Hat was very good and told us about the different people who populate the river, some were from Cambodia and had worked the river for generations, others were locals who picked up work when ever they could and some were from Vietnam who came on a seasonal basis to catch fish. We had a great day and then had our journey back to town in the Tuc Tuc again ...I loved it

Angkor Wat and the temples

I have seen photos of Angkor Wat so had some idea of what I was going to see but no picture can prepare you for the reality. Adjectives to describe the experience, the beauty and sheer scale of things are lacking but I will do my best.

To start with, our Tuc Tuc driver, Hat, said the best time to see Angkor Wat was first thing in the morning so I was mentally preparing myself for an early start of about 8am, well it is a holiday! The reality was somewhat different, he said he would pick us up at 5.15 to see the sunrise over the temple. After doing a quick rethink we agreed this was a good idea. It really was amazing. Crossing the moat to get to the main gate was an experience alone, the moat was the size of a small lake and the first of what we kept remarking on as extreme engineering.

Despite there being several hundred other stalwarts who had also got up at this ungodly hour, it was peaceful and serene and a magical experience. Overnight it had rained and the sun reflecting on the few remaining clouds just added to the experience. After about an hour of just standing and wondering at the beauty of the exterior of the temple, and taking loads of photos we crossed the enormous outer area, and entered the temple.

The temple complex is vast and covers an area of 400 square kilometers and has 200 monuments, I was unprepared for the size and complexity of the site. It is remarkably well preserved considering that much of the building dates back to the seventh century. It was possible to walk round the whole of the temple, go inside most of the rooms and climb the steps to the top of the temple tower. This was my initiation into stairs and steps in all the monuments. To say they are steep is an understatement, some of them are virtually vertical. I think they must all have had very small feet too, as the depth of the step is really narrow, so much so that in some cases it was easier to 'climb' down backwards - inelegant but necessary. Not only was it steep and small but in places some of the stone had broken away so it was a bit scary, but worth it every time.

The picture (left) may give you some idea of the steepness of the steps

The steps at Angkor Wat and also other temples were as steep, if not steeper, at times. Angkor Wat was originally dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu and most of the Bas relief around the temple tells the stories, and depicts the characters from Hindu mythology. There are numerous aspara carvings, who were again mythological celestial nymphs, these carvings replicated in just about all the temples. In the 12th Century, Buddhism became the Cambodian main religion and it was then that Buddhist features appeared in the Temples. It is interesting that in most cases the Hindu carvings have been preserved and maintained. Angkor Wat is a must for any traveller to Asia.

This was not the end of our day of temples for we then visited the group at Angkor Thom and Bayon, another vast complex and from where the picture of the scary face above was taken. We ended this first day at the temple at Ta Prohm, which is where 'Tomb Raider' was partly filmed. (Angelina Jolie is very popular here!). Despite the fact that they have had to construct wooden walkways through the temple you still have the feeling that it is still partly absorbed by the jungle. For me, this has to be the most atmospheric of all the temples and we felt absorbed into the history and atmosphere of the buildings.







By the end of two days of visiting temples we were beginning to get 'templed out'. There are two main 'temple circuits' the inner and the outer. We have visited all of the inner and most of the outer circuits with Angkor Wat the most famous and well preserved of them all. What was so impressive to me was the hugeness of everything and the state of preservation of most of the carvings, some looking so well preserved that they could have been tens of years old rather than hundreds. One essential for the visit is a good reliable Tuc Tuc driver and we were very lucky with Hat (we have his phone number if you are thinking of visiting Siem Reap). The temples are far apart but there are a couple of short cuts to some of them which Hat knew about. He was also a bit of a guide in that he knew some of the background and history and so could prepare us for things to look out for. We did not have a guide at any of the temples but we did quite a bit of reading beforehand and eavesdropped on the guides of other visitors. The benefit of not having a guide was we were able to go at our own pace, spend time exploring and sit and take in the views when the fancy took us. It was an experience to treasure for the rest of our lives. We have loads of pictures but hope these give you a taste of what we saw.



(Remember you can click on the thumbnail pictures for a better view)

Phnom Penh and throught to Siem Reap

This first part of our stay in Phnom Penh is just for one day, we are then going to Siem Reap to see the temples and then back to Phnom Penh again for the boat festival.

When we arrived at the bus station in Phnom Penh it felt busy and confusing as do most places when you arrive for the first time. We settled on one chap and told him where we wanted to go. He looked rather puzzled and asked if we had a reservation as he knew a really good hotel we could go to. We said we were sure, so off we went. When we arrived he said we should go in and look first and he would wait for us in case we changed our mind. As I had booked this place I was feeling a bit nervous at the Tuc Tuc driver's behaviour, though discounted it as we thought he was touting for business elsewhere. We went to the reception and met Long, with whom I had been in email contact, and he was absolutely charming. We then met other staff and were shown to our room which was just lovely with an enormous bathroom. We were delighted with everything.

We knew that the hotel was owned by a gay couple and it became clear that most of the residents had chosen this hotel for exactly that reason. On reflection, we deduced that the Tuc Tuc driver knew this and thought that perhaps we were unaware.

The hotel is in a great central location, is very comfortably furnished and has some homely touches like a choice of reading materials, books and magazines, and feels more like staying in a friend's house. The pool is surrounded by lush green vegetation and just like a little jungle. It is really lovely and we will be staying there again once we return from Siem Reap.

The following morning it was up early to be collected from the hotel to get to the bus station to start our six hour drive to Siem Reap

We had elected to go by Mekong Express luxury coach ($11!) and were not disappointed. Whilst long, the drive from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was comfortable and the time just whizzed past as the scenery is so interesting. There were paddy fields ready for harvesting and some in the process of being harvested. Nearly all this work is done by hand, many of the fields were busy with people bringing in the crop. There were water buffalo soaking in pools, cows grazing at the roadside, children waving at the bus and motor bikes , with anything between one and five people on board and very often with a load of some sort or other too. It is supposed to be the end of the wet season (I don't believe this), the water was high and along the road there were quite a few pools with fish and ducks. There was also a profusion of water lilies in white, dark pink and pale pink. It was truly beautiful - a super journey.

On arrival in Siem Reap we looked around, a sea of faces again, many of whom were Tuc Tuc drivers trying to get us to hire them. John was cornered by one of them who agreed to take us to our hotel for $2. Everything here is in US dollars. This driver's name is Hat and he quickly made an effort to befriend us. I suppose we were a bit wary as it's so easy to get taken for a ride in more senses than one, and we'd had a couple of experiences of rip off scams. As it turned out, this chap is an absolute treasure. He took us to our hotel and was then keen to get us to engage him for the following day for a trip to the temples, this is what we did, more about that in the next blog.

The hotel in Siem Reap is a real find. We booked on the internet after checking it out on 'trip advisor', a useful web site for reviewing hotels. It had a good write up from past guests and we can see why. It is ridiculously cheap, we have a great room with lots of space and a lovely little balcony overlooking the garden. The garden is quite exotic with tropical fruit plants and shrubs, including beautiful orchids in flower. There is even a secluded pool. The restaurant serves excellent food all reasonably priced and the staff are just so helpful. We are very comfortable here. The following day it is our first experience of temples and what and experience!!

Across the border into Cambodia

We enjoyed our free day in Can Tho: got up late, went out and found a nice cafe for breakfast, sat by the waterside and watched the world go by for a a while. A nice relaxing start for the day. After a wait and a few phonecalls, we were eventually collected at about 3pm to join the boat which was taking us to the floating hotel, where we were to spend the night prior to our journey up the Mekong and crossing over into Cambodia. Before I tell you of the delights of the floating hotel just a few very personal reflections on Vietnam.

I have to say Vietnam was not, on the whole, what I was expecting. It is very fair to say that our journey has only been along the coast and not always with the best of weather; both factors which can colour impressions of a country. We have had some wonderful experiences, visited amazing places, now the 'but', but somehow there was a lack of 'beauty'. When I say beauty I don't necessarily mean Temples and Pagodas and manufactured buildings and artifacts but just scenery and people going about their everyday business. It is true the women, especially the young girls, have graceful lithe bodies and look enchanting just riding a bicycle. The people themselves, so dignified and so keen to be friendly, emphasised to me that there was just something lacking in the everyday scenery.

I have told you all that, before telling you about the floating hotel, so you don't think that the experience has coloured my view of Vietnam. This place has to be seen to be believed. I know we were on a budget trip but it was something else. It was apparent from the minute we docked that we were in for an interesting experience - I thought we were approaching a ship wreck!! We were shown to our cabin which had three beds, all of which had previously been slept in - I was pleased I had my silk sleeping bag liner. Over each bed there was a mosquito net which I later established had less to do with mosquitos than keeping the cockroaches out of the bed. The walls of the room looked like children had been let loose with a paintball machine as the 'decor' was white walls with green splodges, all hand done. The less said about the bathroom the better, suffice it to say that we both used wet wipes rather than water and John had to check it out for me before I could use the loo - and then only in hover mode (all the women who read this will know about hover mode!). We slept very little and it was a relief when morning came. After a skimpy breakfast, that we had to pay for, we departed this no-star accommodation.

In contrast, our trip by 'fast' boat up the river across the border into Cambodia was another good experience. On the way we stopped at a fish farm and saw how fish that we can now buy in our supermarkets are managed. Basa fish, that I have bought in Sainsburys (it's delicious!), is mostly farmed along the Mekong River.

It was a first for me to cross a border from one country to another by boat and I now have even more rubber stamps in my passport; border guards just seem to love rubber stamps.

It is unteresting that the minute we were through the border the scenery changed and became much more how I imagined Vietnam was going to be. The banks of the river seemed much less populated and the land was clearly given over to farming. There were cows and water buffalo by the river banks, small villages which were obviously poor but where there was a small temple for the village. There were decorations on some of the rooves, it was all simple but had a feeling of identity and aesthetics which Vietnam lacked.

This impression continued after our boat journey ended just about an hours drive from the capital Phonm Penh.

Mekong Delta days one and two

We keep pinching ourselves to really believe that it is us who are doing this trip. As we set off on a boat along the Mekong Delta we just looked at each other and said "who would have thought that we would be here" It is just amazing, we are having the experiences of a lifetime.

The Mekong Delta has to be seen to be believed. Our boat trip is very much a tourist tour but we thought the best (and cheapest) way of doing it. I think we were right. Within a very short time of leaving Saigon on the boat, we were in wonderful waterways which could be wide or narrow, depending on the number of small streams and rivers flowing into the main river. At one point the river was so wide it was impossible to see the far bank. We are on the river at the end of the rainy season so it is swollen to capacity, so we are seeing it at its best. Apparently the farmers rely on the volume of water to wash the silt down the river as this is what makes the land so fertile.

In many places the sides of the river are lined with ramshackle housing. People, who's livelihood comes from the river, tend to be poor, it is impossible for them to afford the price of land to build a home so they build in the water. The photo shows what some of these homes look like. What was unsettling, is the level of pollution of the river, which in places is used as a rubbish dump. In the local paper they were saying that Vietnam is going to experience a water shortage in 10 years time because many of their water reserves are so polluted. With this recognition it is hoped they address the dumping of rubbish soon.

Once away from the densely populated river banks, the waterway is a hive of activity with large boats delivering containers of goods, small boats transporting people, water taxis buzzing around and tourist boats taking in all the atmosphere. It is really exciting and you cannot help but be involved in all the goings on.

At just over 80 kilometers from Saigon we stopped for lunch and a trip round a coconut candy factory. As with lots of things here a health and safety person from anywhere in Eurpoe would have had kittens if they could have seen the shed in which these toffees were being made. I think it was the rolling of the sticky toffee on a piece of tarpauline which rather took my breath away. However, we did accept the offer of a piece of the toffee from the tarpauline and it was yummy - and with no after effects!!

We stopped at another Island where we had a boat trip in a canoe rowed by what looked like a husband and wife team. It was along a narrow stream between dense foliage, it felt a bit like a lazy river theme park ride but it went on for quite some way. Clearly the villagers make their livelihood from taking tourists along this waterway, it was quite an experience for us and we also felt we were aiding the income of these families by enjoying ourselves.

After a good meal at a pavement 'restaurant' by the riverside, we had a reasonably early night as we had an early start this morning and with another early start tomorrow as we are off exploring again.

Today's trip on the Mekong took us to the largest floating market in the delta. People come from miles around to sell their fruit and vegetables from the boats. This is a wholesale market where the produce is sold in huge quantities, purchased by retailers who sell to the public. To advertise what is for sale, they have a pole on which are tied sample items of produce. So some poles had an onion and a cabbage, others a squash and onion and so on. It was a hive of activity. One enterprising lady had realised that tourists might fancy a piece of fruit so, for 40 pence, she would sell you a pineapple which in front of you she trimmed off the outside and all those little fibrous bits, cut it in half down the middle almost to the bottom but left a 'handle' on the bottom made from the trimmed crown of the fruit, it was just delicious.

Afterwards, we were taken to a rice noodle making family business. The equipment was pretty basic and it was hot and humid work. The rice flour was mixed with water and tapioca flour, left to ferment overnight. The mixture is then made into huge pancakes by spreading it on silk and then steamed for about a couple of minutes. It is then laid on bamboo racks and dried in the sun. Once dried, it is cut into narrow strips (the noodles) with a rather ancient loking machine, packaged up and sent off to market. It was clear the noodles had been made in this way for generations and I am sure on the same equipment.

Tomorrow is our last day in Can Tho, we are off again further up the Mekong to stay the night in a floating hotel. Is this the simple old Pointons' doing all this, I can't believe it!!!

Siagon

The weather has broken and we are now having some sunshine, this does make life easier getting around and it does mean I can leave the trusty poncho mac behind for once. We have had a good couple of days. Yesterday we went to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple. It was an organised tour and yet again a marvellous mix of nationalities, with us the only British people. That is not exactly true, there was a chap who had lived in new Zealand for 30 years, he believed that he had lost his northern accent but all I could hear was a broad accent which just said the north of England. The rest were from the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand (or so he claimed), America and a very noisy group of teenagers from Singapore. It was an early start as our first stop was the Cao Dai Temple about 3 hours from the city.

The Cao Dai Temple, and the community which surrounds it, is, I understand, unique to Vietnam. It is a religion which takes aspects of Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism and Confucian and was started at the beginning of the last centuary. The temple is highly decorated with dragons bright paintings, some of the worshippers wear robes which signify the religious root they follow; for example, white for Catholicism and yellow for Buddhist. We arrived in time for the midday service, music and singing was performed by some of the worshippers, this had a rythmic rather spell-binding rhythm which was clearly linked to meditation. At intervals a bell was sounded which provoked the worshippers to bow. It was fascinatinationg to watch and had a certain spirituality. The photo was taken from the balcony where we were able to observe the service.

From this peaceful episode in the day, we then proceeded to the Ch Chi tunnels from where the viet cong, and residents of the nearby village who supported the viet cong, hid out and attacked the American service men. It was amazing to see the tiny tunnels in which they made their way undergound. The ingenuity of some of the steps they took to remain secret was incredible. Of course, the Vietnamese are slight people, the entraces and exits to the tunnels were tiny, far too small for any of the Americans to use. There were a couple of boys in our group who were about 10 or 12 and they were the only ones who would have been able to go through most of the entrances. We were also shown some of the booby traps they laid, most of which were made from shrapnel from American ordnance, they were simple in their constuction but lethal in their impact, all rather scarey.

Today was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City. We walked for miles, really enjoyed the city. There is a beautiful Botanical Gardens, which has a not quite so beautiful Zoo. It was good to see that they were making changes to some of the compounds in which the animals were kept to make them more interesting and stimulating but there is still some way to go. The plants and trees were excellent, well established and it was apparent that there has been a long term commitment to ensuring this garden is kept well for the enjoyment of visitors.

Today we sent home some stuff we know we will no longer need, (cold weather stuff - sorry all of you in England!) it is good to empty some of our luggage to make way for a couple of new acquisitions on our travels (don't tell John!)

We are off on a boat tomorrow on the Mekong Delta so may be out of contact for a few days.

Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh

The weather has not improved and from the forecast it looks as if the whole of the coastal area of Vietnam is effected by this unseasonal weather. Our plan was to go to Nha Trang which is one of Vietnam's most beautiful beach resorts. We decided, however, that this was not such a good idea as there is little as depressing as a wet beach. We then looked at the possibility of Da Lat, which is inland but up in the mountains. Again we decided that this was a non-starter as our trip to Sapa was not brilliant and demonstrated to us that mountains and wet weather are not the most congenial of combinations. So we decided to make our way directly to Saigon as that would be far enough south to escape the worst of the weather. We were reluctant to leave Hoi An as it is such a lovely place, we had made contact with some great people and the accommodation and location were just perfect. We were going to have to make our move or we could see ourselves just settling into a lazy, but rather damp life in Hoi An.

Because of the distance and the weather, we had little alternative other than flying to Saigon. We booked with JetStar, which is a good cheap airline (part of Qantas), booked our hotel in Saigon and off we went.

Landing in Saigon was a real culture shock. Hoi An was so quiet and Saigon is just the opposite. There are as many, if not more bikes here than in Hanoi. It is said there are 5 million motorcycles in a population of 10 million! Quite believable - the traffic has to be seen to be believed. The driving is, shall we say, creative - the notion of stopping at traffic lights seems to apply to some people but not everyone. Although there are crossings marked on the road there might as well not be as neither pedestrian nor driver takes any notice.

We are staying in a really centrally located hotel which is functional without being luxurious. The attraction is the convenient location where we just have to walk out the back door and we are straight into the Market, which is a wonder at night as the street food is just delicious. We have had what is known here as a 'hot pot'. It is a pot of soup liquid, heavily flavoured with garlic, chilli and lemon grass, over an open burner There is a tray around the edge of the pot with seafood and vegetables, which are scraped into and cooked in the soup. Put some noodles in your bowl, ladle on some hot soup to warm it up, add seafood and veg and then eat the whole lot.....absolutely delicious and for about £6 for both of us.

We have done a city tour which included China Town, a market, the Independence Palace, the Post Office(an amazing late victorian building) and the War Remnants Museum. You need a strong stomach to go to the latter as it tells the story of the Vietnam War (or as they call it here the American War) from the Vietnamese point of view. However you look at it, this war was an absolute disaster. The museum clearly demonstrated the inhumanity of war in uncompromising horrific terms, not something which I have much capacity to take on board. After a brief visit to a small part of the exhibition I decided that I had seen enough, John felt the same, so a bench under a shady tree was a calmer place to sit in reflection while we waited for the rest of our group.

One of the things I am really enjoying about this whole trip is the wide variety of people we are meeting and this city tour encapsulated that mix of nationalities. There were Germans, Japanese, Spanish, Australian, Turkish,Indian, British and this was a group of just 16 people and it is like that everywhere we go. By the way, one of our group works for the BBC as a news programme editor. Those who know me well will appreciate my liking for "Strictly Come Dancing", so I was keen to find out why this is not available on iPlayer. Poor chap didn't know what he was letting himself in for, I now have a promise that this will be investigated on his return to the UK.

One of the highlights of this tour was our guide who clearly wished to demonstrate his male credentials at every opportunity. When we were on the way to China Town he was keen to let all the guys know that Chinese Medicine was, as he put it, "very good when the male battery was run down". He was quick to point out, though, that his battery was fully charged!

The company who ran this tour was called "Kim Tours" so when we stopped at Kim Restaurant we all assumed that the two were linked but it turns out that the restaurant was so named because it was next door to the Kim Tour office, a good example of everything not always being what it seems. We have another couple of days in Saigon so more on this amazing place soon. now

Hue to Hoi An

As you can see we have discovered how to add photos to the blog, more about what this is later.

We decided to take life easy and took a taxi from the Hotel in Hue to Hoi An. The weather had not been good and the trains were unpredictable so we thought in a car we could have a bit of control, where we could stop and what we could do on the way. Our driver was really good and stopped whenever we wanted, he also took a diversion on the way to show us a picturesque inlet where fishermen kept their boats and the waterside was lovely. The boats resembled kayaks (took me back to Halong Bay) and were constructed from woven palm fronds covered in pitch. We later saw some others made in the same way but just the same shape as coracles. On the way, we went past Marble Mountain which as it says is made from marble. There was a small village just given over to sculptors and stone masons who were making the most amazing statuary, too big to bring back home.

We also saw some truly wonderful beaches, one of them, China Beach. was where the American soldiers would go for a break during the Vietnam War. This area is now under a huge amount of development with hotels and apartments being built. How they are going to sell them all in this economic climate is uncertain.

We arrived in Hoi An and checked into our hotel which is very smart. It is a riverside hotel and a spa resort. We have a lovely room overlooking the pool and it is just so peaceful. There are just delicious little touches like pottery urns filled with water with flowers floating on the surface. There are small ponds with water llies in and the whole place is just a delight.

Hoi An is a world Heritage Site and to preserve the town they limit the traffic to essential vehicles and deliveries. There are signs at the start of some of the roads which say 'walkers and primitive vehicles only'. By primitive they mean simple (cycles). Our guide said they told the authorities it was the wrong word but they took no notice. You can walk down the centre of the road without any fear, a real contrast after Hanoi and Hue.

We have been on a guided walk through the town and been in old buildings where the family still lived and where generations of their family had always lived. They showed us where the water had come up to when the river flooded. All the old houses have an internal pulley system to move the furniture quickly to the upper floor, something we could do with in some parts of the UK.

The whole town has had a mixture of cultures influencing the architecture. There is a Japanese bridge, French influence in the shutters on the houses and Chinese influence in many of the roofs, this eclectic mix just works somehow . The buildings are just lovely and are protected. If any restoration takes place it has to be approved by the local planning authority and to conform to the style of the town. It is reassuring that this level of interest is being taken in such a lovely , historical place.

The picture at the top of this page is of one of the temples of My Son which is a Hindu temple complex, unusual in this part of the country. It was the Champa people who passed through this area and built the temples. They are in poor repair and were clearly heavily damaged in the Vietnam war. There is evidence of bullet holes in many of the walls and some old ordnance is on display which must have been found on the site. It was an interesting trip, the rain has persisted so my pink poncho came in very handy.

On the subject of the pink poncho I need to give you my side of the story as John is threatening to put a post on this blog as I have avoided telling you this bit. It is while we were in Hue. John thought I was taking a disproportionate interest in the pavements. All I can say is, I am sure I do not suffer from Osteoporosis. For some reason I had difficulty in staying upright. It was raining and the hotel had lent us pink umbrellas, this in combination with the poncho meant that I was a bit of a study in pink. It seemed that every time John and our guide got a few steps ahead of me I would trip or slip on something, apparently when ever John looked round all he could see was this pink mound of plastic with a lump in the middle which was me.

To add insult to injury, John now calls this not my packamac, but my flashamac. The poncho is designed to be worn on a bike. So you can use it at night, there is a clear panel in the front to be draped over the handle bars and over the light. A good idea except when you wear this while walking around you have to ensure you have your trouser zip is done up or it looks like ...... well I shall leave it to you to decide!

Hue

We arrived in Hue and went straight to our hotel where fortunately we could book in early as we were feeling a little travel weary. The Hotel is only three star but our room is really spacious with a sofa and arm chair, feels like a little suite. The sink was full of water with Jasmine flowers and flowers on the bed, it was lovely and the staff great too. We quickly settled in. After a bit of a rest and a shower it was off exploring. We decided to take a cyclo ride to the Market but were talked into going to the Citadel. This was where we had our first really unhappy experience, the cyclo chaps who had agreed on one dollar for the market were now adding on 4 dollars for an extra 5 minute ride. We were not happy but gave them the money and put this down to experience. The Citadel surprised us, it is vast. Much of it is a very sad state with significant damage inflicted in both the war with the French in 1946 and again by the Americans in the 60s. There was also a devastating tornado in the 80s which inflicted even more damage. Restoration is taking place but it all looks a bit haphazard. They also need to restrict some of the more bizarre activities like riding your motor scooter down the newly restored corridors! A lot of what has been preserved is really interesting, the last Emperor to live there was in 1925 and there is quite a bit of photographic evidence of his life there at that time, it really made the place come alive. We had a wonderful afternoon, I took loads of photos, walked for miles and had a great time appreciating the place. We were now tired so we decided to get a taxi back to the Hotel, remembering how earlier we had been ripped off we were very careful to ensure the meter was used and the correct route taken back to the hotel. We were so focused on this that I left my camera in the back of the taxi. We have tried everything to get it back without success so I am going to have to rely on getting some photos from people we met on the boat in Halong bay and postcards of other places. Fortunateley we had downloaded a lot of our earlier photos on to the lap top but some are now lost for ever.

The following day John went out looking for a new camera and I had a Vietnamese cookery lesson. The lesson started with me having to climb on the back of a motor bike and ride to the market to buy the ingredients. The crash helmet I was given perched on the top of my head like a pimple, the chin strap held for the journey there but on the way back it gave up on me so I rode along with my hand holding the crash helmet on my head. The market was amazing with just about everything you could imagine on sale from fish heads to conical hats and silk by the yard. We got our cooking ingredients and returned to Missy Roo's restaurant where the lesson took place. It was great fun. As soon as I cooked something I had to sample what I had made so by lunchtime I was full and had a take-away ready for John. There were a couple of times during the lesson when I had to remember the saying 'you have to eat a ton of muck before you die', there was this dish cloth..... I shall leave it to your imagination, start with a grotty floor cloth then double it. The Imodium is still in its packet so it can't have been that bad.

We are now the owners of a new camera, a neat little Canon whch does all sorts of whizzy things, John is in his element playing with this.

Our last day in Hue was pouring with rain and we had a trip planned to go round the tombs of the Emperors, the Pagoda and the Mandarin's Garden culminating in a trip down the Perfumed River on a Dragon Boat. You will be pleased to learn that your intrepid friends decided that a tropical monsoon was not going to put us off. We purchased a couple of pochos, one pink and the other blue (just in case we forgot) and off we went with our guide and driver for the day. The tombs in Hue are marvelous, even in the rain. Our guide was great, spoke good English and was able to give us the history of the tombs and also some amusing stories about the people who had them built. The Mandarin's garden was a bit of a high spot, this Vietnamese woman showed us all the plants, knew what they were and even broke off a piece of bark of a cinnamon tree so that we could recognise the scent.

The trip on the Dragon Boat would have been great in good weather but in the rain it lacked a certain charm. The boat owners wife had laid out lots of things to sell and I think was disappointed that I only bought some cards, it is difficult when we have so much travelling in front of us to collect too many souvenirs. I did compensate by paying the fullprice and not bargaining which clearly surprised her.

I am a convert to plastic ponchos, we stayed quite dry from the knees up, from the knees down, that's a different story.

Tomorrow it is off to Hoi An which is supposed to be beautiful, the weather is set in to be rainey so I shall ensure I take the trusty poncho with me.