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Published: March 24th 2006
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Well after our last episode we left you somewhere in Vietnam probably running from dodgy taxis and scooters honking at every opportunity.
Keen to leave the chaos of Saigon we headed to the Mekong Delta and went on a lovely wooden canoe to tour the floating markets. It was really bizarre seeing boats of potatoes and pineapples floating past, not sure it will catch on at the Thames, think Sainsbury’s can breathe easy!
From there we took the fast boat to Cambodia, although fast was a rather inaccurate description of the journey which seemed to take the best part of a day! The border crossing was quite smooth and straightforward (especially after we had been told to slip a $5 note inside our passports - who said anything about corruption?).
We arrived in the capital Phnom Penh which was pretty fun especially when we found a nice ex-pat bar which had amazing passion fruit smoothies yumm! Had a quick tour of the sights including the rather sobering Killing Fields where so many people had been murdered by the Khmer Rouge.
From the capital we took another boat to avoid the notoriously bad Cambodia roads to Siem Reap
and to the City of Angkor. This boat was even slower than the earlier one and the company had managed to cram on at least double the capacity of passengers with no lifejackets in sight. With the inside of the boat full we had to settle for the roof and we soon realized that Cambodia was scorcheo!! For the next few days we visited the amazing sights of Angkor on a mixture of foot, bike and tuk-tuk and despite the heat Gilly managed to run around for the afternoon (Mad dogs and Englishwomen hey?).
After completing the main sights of Angkor we decided to set our sights to a more extreme temple where the road had just been completed. Our guide book gave us a bit of alarm as the temple was expected to contain some landmines and the temple was rather dilapidated after being caught up in the last war with the Vietnamese. Undeterred we found ourselves a guide who looked like a retired army general who took us on an adventure course a la Indiana Jones/Lara Croft through the temple which was stunning and exhilarating!
The searing Cambodian heat was soon sapping our strength so we
decided to quick step it over to Thailand and to have some well deserved beach action. A quick stop in Bangkok enabled me to pop into my tailors (sounds good hey?) to have a final fitting on a suit and a selection of shirts for the day when we begrudgingly return to work.
Our first stop was Krabbi and a chance for real R&R in a rather plush hotel where we watched the amazing sun sets whilst munching on nutella pancakes and sipping Chang beer!
Gilly and I went rock climbing (for me it was more like rock clinging!) and she came back grinning from ear to ear. Next up we went to Ko Phi Phi for a taste of island life. It was good to see the island getting back on its feet after the Tsunami but there were clear signs of the carnage caused just over a year ago. We found ourselves idyllic (read Spartan) bungalows at the end of a lovely beach and did a spot of scuba diving with the local dive school that seemed to only employ old, white, bald -headed men covered in tattoos, it probably was some front for drug gangsters or
something!
Our adventures continued as we headed to Phuket (not just to add to our collection of amusing travel destinations!) where Gilly’s parents had arranged for her to learn to sail for her Christmas present. While she was learning how to be an able seaman I went off to a remote island to do some more scuba diving which was amazing. I returned to land impressed to see Gilly happily sailing around the lovely bays after only 2 days. On our last day we took out a really fast boat to see if she would be up for the challenge. After a rather unsteady beginning we were soon hurtling along at rate of knots in a semi-controlled manner! We thought before saying farewell to Thailand we should do something cultural, but instead opted for a round of Crazy Golf at an amazing Jarrasic Park/Flinstones themed park - what fun!
Suitably rested, it was time to move on for a short stop in Singapore and a tour of the City. It was a bit of a shock and unsettling to see everything so clean, quiet and civilized. Still we consoled ourselves with an obligatory stop at Raffles Hotel and
gaped at the amazing PROPER SHOPS without fake goods!!
We were slightly apprehensive of our next destination, Bali, Indonesia especially after meeting aussies with various horror stories of bombs and people being planted with drugs. However our arrival in the religious melting pot of Indonesia was rather uneventful as we were picked up at the airport and whisked to our hotel in the middle of the night. We awoke in Bali to find that everywhere was dead quiet with virtually no travellers around, apart from the odd packaged holiday makers. That said we found our feet and made a plan to venture to the next Island Java to see the volcanoes around Mount Bromo.
The journey was certainly an adventure and started out a bit like Bali’s answer to Pop Idol with half the bus standing in the aisle taking turns to strum, sing and clap along to their allotted songs before passing around a hat for change! The next day we started our ascent into the mountains and we finally escaped the heat (I’m not just saying this to wind you up about the weather back home!) which was lovely! I decided that I had best sample
some Java coffee which was rather disappointing, tasting vaguely like mud mixed with dirty dishwasher water! Our hotel owner somehow persuaded us that we should walk to a viewpoint for sunrise which sounded nice enough, except the part about starting walking at 3:30am! Bleary eyed we set off with our torches and staggered up an very ascending path to reach the viewpoint, which was breathtaking - not least because of the hard 2 hour walk up near vertical terrain!
Leaving the volcanoes behind we headed back to Bali and then onto Lombok where we had one of our key trip milestones - going to the “Gilly” Islands (now why did we go there?). After a bus, boat, bus, boat combo we final reached the largest Island which was divine and did the name justice! We met some cool English people (the 1st of our trip) and went snorkeling where we saw loads of turtles up close - wow! Next we celebrated St Patrick’s Day in the Islands Irish Bar! (Supposedly the smallest Island in the world with an Irish bar) playing darts, table football and avoiding Guinness!
Back in Bali we ventured off to a few more sites
saw a cool religious celebration involving dancing lions (not the real ones only people in costumes) and went to see some Bali Art which was rather cool.
Well today is our last day in Asia, after 4 months of being away. Asia has been good to us and despite the heat, hassle and poor transport we have loved our adventures here meeting many friendly people on the way. We will say farewell to pad thai gods and smoothie shivas and to the 3rd world as we head to Oz, but it will be with a heavy heart! Thanks for all your continued emails and comments on the webste, we love reading them so keep them coming. x x x
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Dave Futcher
non-member comment
Wow great news and great pics
Great to have some more news on the TravelBlog Some great pics Love the Gilly climbing and sailing ones particularly What a great sunset picture. The light look tremendous Take care and keep in touch guys