http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Dan n Nic/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Dan n Nic en-us Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:02:45 BST Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:02:45 BST Hello allWe wanted remote Cambodia...........and guess what we got it....In total we bussed for about 15 hours all the way across Cambodia from Siem Reap to Ban Lung good journey but the last 3 hours or so were the bumpiest yet due to the area being so remote and no proper roads have been built in this neck of the woods.So where do I start ok well our first day here we spend at Yeak Laom lake http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/East/Banlung/blog-317464.html Thunder....Thunder...Thunder Cats...........HooooooooOk not quite Thundercats but walking around these ancient temples I thought an encounter with Mumrar could be possible.So here we are Siem Reap one of the highlights of our trip around South East Asia. Siem Reap is home to The Ancient temples of Angkor and the mighty Angkor Wat the mother of all religous monuments.The town of Siem Reap its http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-315504.html Hi FolksFirst question..........How many people can you fit an a Small Hatch back car...........10 We flagged a ride to Sihanoukville in a taxi that pulled up already containing 8 people anyway it was going to be the cheapest option so we jammed our bags in the boot and hopped in the front which already had two blokes in. see pics for an insight.We came to Sihanoukville purely to laze http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Sihanoukville/blog-314963.html HelloSurprisingly road travel in Cambodia is quite easy We hopped straight on a bus from Phnom Penh to Kampot and arrived within 4 hours Cambodia has very beautiful countryside so went quick. There's no real public buses here so a few private companies operate certain routes.Nic We chose to visit Kampot as it's very close to Bokor National Park home to a ghost town of old Colonial French bu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Kampot/blog-314223.html Hello again readersYet another country to add to the list Plus we made it through our first land border crossing. Nic We left Chau Doc in Vietnam via slow boat up the mighty Mekong River which originates in Tibet past some lovely looking villages made up of a combination of floating houses and those built on stilts we couldn't help wishing that these beautiful places had been a bit more a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-313487.html SAIGON MEKONG DELTAThe word 'Busy' is an under statement to describe this city Trillions of bikes cars buses Quadillions of people...... I love the name 'SAIGON' though has a important historical ring to it.End of the day a city is still a city busy and chaotic so the point of filing through here was to vist the sites surrounding Saigon in fact most of the history of the 196070's http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-310780.html At last.....The beach And one where a bikini is acceptable...not like India.......And some DivingAs soon as we stepped out onto the sand we felt the previous stress of the last few days lifting from our shoulders....phewDan Yes definitely relieved......After finding a room which was a mission yet again had to settle for 10 but for that we got a balcony fridge and TV.........We didn't http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-310078.html HUE HOI ANWell I don't really want to bore you with the details of these two places as in our opinion they were shite but sorry folks I have to as other travelers rely on our information...building up a nice number of unknown subscribers to our blog thanks guys it's nice that you seek our wisdom...LOLHue was the first stop and we arrived again to a posse of motorbike taxi drivers let me http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-309733.html At last an uneventful bus journey...and we were in Ninh Binh a small town with nothing to do but a great base to visit the surrounding area.We hired a scooter for a couple of days and set about exploring Our first stop was TamCoc described as Halong Bay in the rice paddies and they weren't wrong......only this place in our humble opinions was much nicer We hired a boat and were rowe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Ninh-Binh/blog-308943.html The bus back to Hanoi was fortunately quite uneventful....appart from confirming our suspicions of being ripped off on the way here...the comfy minibus on return was almost half the price and took half the timeAnyway our next stop was Halong Bay a world heritage sight and potentially one of 2009's new 7 wonders of the World....We'll explain a little more about that in a mo'. Our journey had http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Halong-Bay/blog-307741.html Sorry to confuse....Pics from this and the Halong Bay blog are the wrong way round....ooooppss Shouldn't try to be clever after too many beersHi allOk so we experienced our first Vietnamese scam while jumping on the bus to get here Let me explain when we arrived at the bus station in Hanoi the bus for Mai Chau was just leaving and so we didnt have time to check any deatails on pric http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Mai-Chau/blog-307731.html So another day another countryFlew from Bangkok to Hanoi the start of a new adventure we hoped.......Northern Thailand was lovely but compared to our time in India faaaarrrr too easy and not enough of a challengeWell you hope for something enough and it comes right round and bights you on the bum......I'll explainWe'd read a lot about the touts and hassle for your money in Vietnam and so http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-307444.html HiAn overnight bus and we've arrived in Kanchanaburi home to the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai and the ThailandBurma Death Railway.....A place with lots of history. It is also conveniently close to the controversial Tiger Temple just what it says on the tin....a temple and lots of tigers so we obviously had to take a trip there to see what it was all about.....Dan I know I was b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central/Kanchanaburi/blog-304214.html A 6hr bus ride and we're making our way South again. In its prime this city was the centre of rule in Thailand. These days it's a city of ruins that stretch over a vast area. Fortunately you can hire bikes to get around and see everything......Dan insisted that we have the Turbo Choppers and not just the standard shoppers The turbo on mine didn't seem to be working after the previous 2 da http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North/Sukhothai/blog-302609.html When we arrived at Chiang Mai we were a little disappointed with the area as it was not what we expected it to be we expected wooden huts and jungle scenery. we found big roads large hotels and more tourists than a 19.00 Easy Jet flight bound for Benidorm however we were told the jungles awaited us to the North outside the town.I was confident we were prepared for such a trek as firstly I h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North/Chiang-Mai/blog-302600.html Welcome allFast forward from landing in Bangkok to arriving on Khao San Road The supposed backpacker hub in central Bangkok 2.00am It's like walking down the street in Luton after all the bars and clubs kick out Girls chucking up in the street take away food dropped everywhere people zigzagging down the street and of course the odd place actually lots still banging on you get the pict http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central/Bangkok/blog-300488.html So here we are again you wait for 1 bus and then they all turn up at once we haven't blogged for ages and now you've got an overdose of usWe returned to Tokyo before flying out....earlier than expected as we came up with the master plan of returning one night early in order to squeeze in a night in a capsule hotel......and when I say squeeze in it's meant quite literally Probably th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-299029.html Up early and we took the shinkansen again....oh yes want to get our monies worth to Nikko a small town North of Tokyo. We were unsure about trapsing all the way up here as we were starting to feel the strain of rushing around but made the effort and we're very glad we did. Nikko was deffinately the best place we visited in Japan the temples and shrines were out of this world....all set http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tochigi/Nikko/blog-298704.html Nara was an easy day trip on the shinkansen from Kyoto. Most of the important sights are in an area called Narakoen which is home to hundreds of supposedly wild Deer. Deer are considered sacred and are believed to be messengers from the gods and so are treated with upmost respect. You can even buy crackers to feed to them which Dan thought was a brilliant idea....until he was surrounded by http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-298699.html Hello again...........So we touched down in Tokyo spent the night there in a very cliquey hostel as soon as we walked in the record stopped and we got the impression that they were all thinking How dare these people walk into our hostel Bare in mind alot of people who work in Japan live in hostels to cut costs so have been there a long time..................Pricks nowt worse than being made http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kyoto/Kyoto/blog-298689.html