Advertisement
Published: December 19th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Greetings from good old London!!!
I cannot believe we are finally home!!! We landed this morning after a final 24 hour travel day and thought we'd better publish our blog from our last couple of countries before the mince pies and Christmas presents take over our thoughts! We completed our whistle-stop and incredible tour of South Esat Asia with Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam was definitely a country of contrasts... We adored Hoi An and our boat trips on the Mekong Delta and in Halong Bay were very special, but Hanoi was one of our least favourite places, and gave us a serious dose of home-sickness!
After crazy, dirty and scam-filled Hanoi, we took our beautiful boat trip in Halong Bay - we visited huge caves and a gorgeous beach area with hundreds of stairs up to a magnificent viewpoint over the Bay. We stayed overnight on a cute little boat, and enjoyed some tasty seafood, and a romantic sunset on deck. After our trip, we took an overnight train down to Hue, and unfortunately into the torrential rain that didn't let up from the minute we arrived to the minute we left. We just about managed cyclo-rides to try
and at least see some of the city, but we were thoroughly drowned out very quickly and finished off our quick visit with some gorgeous Vietnamese food.
Next, we set off to Hoi An - famous for its silk-tailoring and clothes making. Every other shop is another custom-made clothes shop, and the town itself is stunning - with cute restaurants and bars, and stunning temples and architecture. We stayed just long enough to have suits made to measure!! And then we were off again, further South, this time we took a plane and landed in Saigon, with great hopes of an improvement from second biggest city, Hanoi!! We weren't disappointed. Despite still being hassled by shop-keepers and market-sellers wherever we went, (something that interestingly we haven't really had to deal with too much on our whole trip), Saigon was a vast improvement on Hanoi, and we enjoyed visiting the sights - especially the Palaces and controversial Vietnam War museum.
We booked our transportation to Cambodia and decided on taking a boat through the Mekong Delta to the border and across to the capital, Phnom Penh. Another beautfiul boat trip filled with traditional Vietnamese scenery of rice fields and
floating markets. We slept aboard a 20 bunk boat and woke up to the peaceful sounds of the Delta in the morning as the sun was rising. We crossed the Cambodian border by boat and continued up to Phnom Penh. In two days, we'd taken three buses and 4 boats and had been travelling non-stop for 36 hours. We had booked another bus to take us straight up to Siem Reap, but the idea of another 6 hour journey filled us with dread, and we were secretly very pleased when our boat was late and we were 30 mins delayed. Unfortunately, when we pulled up to the city at 3pm, the bus was there!! Waiting for us!! and we were hoarded onto the bus (having not eaten since breakfast) and off we went on the next leg of our never-ending journey. We were starving and had no food, until suddenly Albert remembered that we had bought my dad some Vietnamese caramel and peanut sweets as a Christmas present - they were quickly devoured (sorry dad...!!) making the rest of the trip slightly more endurable!
Once in Siem Reap, we checked into a lovely little guest house and explored the
town. It was much more developed than we had imagined and very tourist-firendly. We rented bikes and cycled to watch the sun set over Angkor Wat, and then returned the next day for a tuk-tuk ride around the rest of the temples. They were stunning, and we were exhausted, so headed off to a new hotel just outside the town with a pool to relax...
After another 6 hour bus back to the capital city, unfortunately we had only one night and one morning in Phnom Penh to visit the sights. We had lovely dinner with Alberts aunt's brother and his family and then yesterday booked a tuk-tuk to take us around the city for the day before boarding our flight to Bangkok. We toured the city and the Russian Market, "Killing Fields" and S-21 prison, making the day both enjoyable and harrowing at times. After flying from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, we had a six hour lay-over and then 12 hour flight - plenty of time to reflect on everything we had seen, experienced and enjoyed since August 8th....
Our last blog contains our thoughts and conclusions from our final Bangkok - Heathrow flight. We hope you
enjoy them....
Lots of love
A and A xxxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0229s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Claire H
non-member comment
The end is here
I can't believe thats the end of your trip, its gone so quickly! Be great to see you again though. xx