Oh the regret! As Amy indicated in our previous post, we had a rather amusing bus journey from Bac Ha to Lao Cai, and it just so happened that I slept through the majority of it! I’m still not quite sure how, since I spent the better part of three hours with my knees propping up my chin, but doze off I did, only to wake up to Ste bemusedly surveying the bus and Amy huddled in her corner, covering her face for reasons I only discovered later. It was only when we emerged from the bus that I was told of what had been happening, with some (almost all) of the locals vomiting into bags along our route and then tossing them out of the window! As revolting as that sounds (and smelled), local buses ... read more

Expectations can often be capricious things. Habitually, they can exist to set a ceiling of expectancy simply too high to realize, such that we are destined for disappointment. Of course, there is that wonderfully unforeseen opposite; where a place or event holds modest promise in our anticipatory minds, yet surpasses any and all preconceived notions to provide us with an experience all the more extraordinary, precisely because of how it came to pass. During our time on the road, we’ve had numerous experiences which could fall into either category (often depending on who you ask!). Well, for Amy and I, Halong Bay fell into neither class! This particular archipelago illicited excited expectations and subsequently followed through on its promise, leaving us simply astounded! Halong Bay is a place which inspires wonderment and awe amongst all who ... read more

Well, not quite deserts but vast collections of sand, which when encountered from their respective centres, give the distinct feeling of what it would be like to be stranded in the middle of an arid abyss; tiny grains of sand whipping into your eyes, nose and mouth at speeds fast enough to inflict a decent amount of pain on your skin! And then of course there’s the heat! But, I’m getting ahead of myself in this tale... A few days earlier We left Cambodia with torn feelings; sadness at saying goodbye to friends, co-workers and students who we had grown very fond of over the previous three months – but also excitement, not just with the prospect of entering a new country on our horizon after months of relative standstill, but also with Amy’s father again ... read more

We set out for Siem Reap with the aims of ending our enjoyable three month stay here in Cambodia on a high note. Both Amy and I had been excited about this excursion for a few weeks prior, which is somewhat unusual for us as we’d been suffering from a bit of an ‘enthusiasm crisis’ when it came to visiting temples before we arrived in Cambodia – I mean really, there are only so many temples in the world that you can observe and explore before hitting the proverbial wall. However, we have found Cambodia to be surprisingly fulfilling in the temple department throughout our stay. Ok so perhaps our visit to Oudong Mountain a few months back was less about the temple and more about the experience we had there, getting to know some of ... read more

It’s wedding season in Phnom Penh. For the last week we have listened the festivities taking place in celebration of a couple of newly-weds as they pitched a great tent behind our house which has barricaded the whole street this past seven days. These billowing structures have sprouted like weeds around Phnom Penh. Usually florescent, always noisy. Some containing as many as 1,000 guests! We’ve been learning things re: Cambodian Wedding Tradition, in dribs and drabs from our Khmer friends and students. For example, as we passed a “smaller” wedding in the province yesterday Soriya told us how the music playing at that time indicated how the wedding party were acting out the cutting of the bride’s hair. So, it is early morning as I sit in bed writing this now, sweating and itching sat under ... read more