JayZee

We arrived in Battambang in the evening after a 5 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh, we were the only westerner's on the bus and it was our first local bus ride. We managed to score a mean deal at the Lux Guesthoue $10 a night and the room was up to hotel standards. Battambang is Cambodia's third largest town but it is really quite small so we only planned to stay for two nights. The next morning we organised a tuk tuk for the day, we planned on visiting some hill top temples, check out the country side and ride the bamboo train. The first stop was the infamous bamboo train and we had no idea what we were in for. The "train" was epic, it is made up of two axels that look like ... read more

After seeing all the sights in Saigon it was time to move on, we found a 3 day 2 night tour of the Mekong Delta that would finish in Phnom Penh, Cambodia so we booked it. The Mekong River is approx 4,900 km long making it the 10th longest river in the world. It begins in Tibet and travels through Burma, China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam making it an important life source for the people of these countries. A river this large must have a huge catchment area, the delta's total catchment area is 39,000 square km so its absolutely massive and the amount of land covered by water depends on the season. The first day of the tour we took a bus from Saigon to a town in the delta called Ben Tre. We ... read more

Nha Trang By the time we got off the sleeper bus in Nha Trang Jono was crook, we are not too sure what caused it as he was eating the same food as Cia and I except for one meal he ate when we stopped for a break on the sleeper bus trip! I found the sleeper bus sweet as, we had heard so many bad stories about them but apparentely we had a mint bus according to the others. We arrived at 6am and found accommodation up an alley across the road from the beach, Cia shared a room with us again (we shared in Hoi An as well). Nha Trang is well known for its beaches although I rekon there are better in NZ and Aus but for peeps who dont have that novelty ... read more

So after our mucking round at the airport we walked outside grabbed a taxi and headed to Hoa's place. We hadn't been able to get hold of anyone there so we were winging it. Rocked on up to this gravel street and started asking where Hoa was and if anyone new him. With some nodding of the head and repeating of the name "Hoa Hoa Hoa" and a pretty obvious pointing down the street we found a little slice of heaven. This little Vietnmese man came bounding out the door "Hello Hello im Hoa come in for a feed sit down sit down" and that was our room booked, then we rested for a while and went and inspected the beach which was 60m from our room which was costing a reasonable $7 a night. ... read more

So we have spent the last 2 days cruising round Hanoi in the old quarter it's been a hoot. We have had it pretty cruisy just relaxing while the city is doing the same because of the 3 days of Tet. We watched the new years fireworks display the other night which was pretty impressive apart fro the trees in the way. I have really enjoyed the slower pace of things not sure bout Zania though although she has well and truly overcome her fear of eating at street stalls. Unfortunately there is not a lot to do in the way of Museums and the like as everything is closed. So we make our own fun by watching the traffic it is quite entertaining to see what and how many people you can get on ... read more