The rest of Asia

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So guys, part three has arrived! We know it’s what you’ve all been waiting for! And we can assure you it will not disappoint!

Kates’ friend Sarah joined us for the last six weeks. We started in style in Kanternaburi riding an elephant and stroking tigers! Lauras’ dad has stocked up on cat food in preparation for a new family pet!! On the train ride there, Kate made the very intelligent comment of “ if the train went faster, we’d get there quicker!” talk about stating the obvious!

Next stop was Cambodia… for 10 solid days, it pissed it down! We have never seen rain like it! But we were determined to continue! We visited Angkor Wot, this was a rather early start at 5 am but it was worth it! We thought we may need a few days to see the ancient architectures of angkor wot! But by 10 a.m we were in the café with a beer and done!!

We went onto Sianukville, (a beach) however the rain continued! So we decided to get a massage! This did not bode well with Kates’ prudishness as it started with pulling our pants down and massaging our bum cheeks!! (she didn’t get another one!) We spent our days in the rain watching pirate films and drinking beer! As part of the culture it is essential to be able to distinguish local beers… perfect excuse!!! Top comment from a little girl trying to sell us bracelets “ Do you have a boyfriend?” “No” we replied, “that’s because you don’t have a bracelet!”

Due to Cambodias’ bad weather, we decided to check the weather for Vietnam… not a good idea as we discovered there was a hurricane called Nock Tem in North Vietnam, which had killed people in the Phillipines and the North was being evacuated! ….. Plan B- back to Bangkok, with the thought of going to Indonesia, plan C – looked at flight prices! No Indonesia! No plan D!!

So in Bangkok! …… we decided to make the most of seeing the temples. This being the second attempt to see the Grand Palace and reclining Buddha! Last time we tried, a tuk tuk driver told us they were not open due to a Buddhist day, because he wanted to take us on a tuk tuk tour! Turns out this was a load of rubbish! Sarahs’ comment was the highlight in the temples, “ what lovely incest sticks!” Next day we did an amazing cookery course. Kate was in heaven as we ate 5 main dishes!

In Bangkok we found out the hurricane had subsided! So plan A, fly to Vietnam! Our alarms set for 8am…At 5.30am Kate and Sarah were woken up to Laura up, showered and changed and getting annoyed that we were still asleep….she had dreamt the alarm had gone off!!!…she did say it was a particularly cold and painful shower!

On the way to Vietnam we looked at all the cultural sites to do. Therefore first day, we ended up in a waterpark!!! When trying to put our stuff away in the park, we encountered a sign saying “foreigners on the 1^st floor only!” (weird!) We proceeded to go to the war museum (very anti-american) the tunnels in the war fields, and the Mekong Delta … unbeknown to Sarah and Laura (vegetarian) they drank a shot of fermented snake vodka! Yuk!

We decided to go to Vuag Tau as it was on the way to Mui Ne. This was a little seaside village, with not a lot of tourists! Consequently we had our picture taken a lot! (even if we wanted to or not!) We arrived at our hostel, and decided to have a beer on the balcony of our room! We closed the door of the balcony behind us! It then started to rain… so we tried to get back inside! Slight problem! The catch had slid down! We were stuck on a 3^rd floor balcony in the rain! Laura kept trying to wave to the landlady on the floor below, who happily kept waving back!

Next stop.. Mui Ne.. all was going well until we realised we were on the bus back to Hoi Chi Minn City!!! Slight detour from the 1 hr anticipated journey to 9 hrs! The bus to Mui Ne was the worst of our lives, it consisted of pervy men, 30 people in a 15 man bus and mushrooms under our feet!

In Mui Ne, we met a nice group of lads who took us on the back of their motobikes to see the sandunes and go sandboarding. We became slightly lost and it took us 3 hrs rather than ½ hour to get there! However, the ride was awesome and views amazing. Laura received a war wound..lets just say it’s probably not the best idea to put your leg on a hot exhaust pipe! Laura continued that night to a club of all of 20 people and couldn’t move the next day!

We then carried onto Na Trang, this was another beautiful beach. We went on a boat trip where Laura met two people, who lived down her road and went to the same school!! We had two really good nights out, the first ended up being completely free due to 8 bankers paying for everything! After the second night out, it was Kates’ turn not to move…until 5pm!!

Then onto Hoi An…OH MY GOD…the shopping was immense. Kate and Sarah went a little bit mad…Kate brought a winter coat…why??? This was a lovely quaint town where we did our exercise for the day by cycling to the beach.

We took a sleeper bus from Hue to Hanoi from 5.30pm to 7am….that was the plan….3am after the third time it had broken down we were stranded at the roadside!!!!! We remained here until 7am with no sign of the ‘parts’ arriving!! We jumped onto another bus and arrived at 1.30pm! I think we may be jinxed with our transport breaking down!!

We decided to go on a three day Halong Bay trip…this turned out to be a 48 hour booze cruise! However we met some really nice people. Sarah didn’t feel too good after the first night. Kate felt awful after the second night due to being completely rubbish at drinking games. The game was to have four cards you couldn’t see in front of you. She firstly screwed up by looking at the cards! Then all she had to do was look at her first two cards then say if the next card she turned over was going to be in between these cards or outside! (ace was high!) she had an ace and a two! Then guessed the next card as outside! What a plonker! She deserved the vodka shot! She decided on her really bad hangover that rather the problem being that she drank too much. The problem was that she had a bad reaction to vodka!!... I guess this is added onto the list of a bad reaction to rum too!! Hmmm!!

We’ve had a brilliant time in South East Asia. I think we left our mark! It’s been really fun with Cent and Sarah joining us in parts. Now it’s off to Austrailia… what will happen next!!

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