Good Morning (from) Vietnam!

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Oh my goodness, I was aware that I hadn't written my blog in quite some time, well a very long time really, but I was really shocked when I logged on today and the system flashed up that it had been 122 days! How have I been so lax? And more importantly how am I ever going to fill everyone in on what I've been doing for that period of time? 4 Countries, 1 Professional Qualification, a highly amusing boobs incident and even an exploding toilet!! Well, here goes ...

Koh Tao
I finally gained my Dive Master Qualification after stringing out my course for as long as seemed humanly possible, almost 4 months to be correct. I had an amazing time in Koh Tao, met some fabulous people some who I hope will be friends for life and they gave me a brilliant 'Come Dancing' style send off which consisted of me having to dance with various members of the audience and be marked by the dive instructors holding up 'drink fine' score cards. As you can imagine it was great fun and ever so slightly (OK Very) messy!

During my time on Koh Tao, I even managed to squeeze in a holiday to Malaysia, where Mer, Donna and I got some well deserved (??) R & R and dived pretty much all day every day.

I was really sad to leave Koh Tao and hopefully will try to go back before I return to the UK, but it was time for me to start the next part of my adventures ....

Bangkok
After an over night ferry and 10 hour bus ride I finally arrived in Bangkok on the 16th of October where I met my friend Kirsty (Yes another one!) who flew out from the UK to do some travelling with me.

After the sleepy pace of Island life Bangkok was a bit of a shock, brash and noisy, full of cars and shopping centres, it was a long way removed from what I had been used to, but considering that when I spent a day in Koh Samui I was shocked to see a dual carriageway, I really shouldn't have been suprised. All the same I really enjoyed it, we spent some time wandering around the city and far too much time in the shopping centre trying to get my iPod fixed. We even had Starbucks!!
For anyone who has been following the news you'll know that there were protests in Bagkok around the time that we were there, some of them not as peaceful as they should have been, with wide spread run ins with the Thailand police. Wandering down the street one day we met a guy hurrying in the opossite direction who told us we were about to walk into the middle of these protests, not sure what to do we started to turn back but were stopped by a doorman from the hotel we were passing who insisted that we were OK to stay where we were. So we stopped and watched as thoasands of people walked past chanting and handing out leaflets, they even gave us a funny plastic clappy hand so that we could join in. Just goes to show that they only ever show the bad stuff on the news!!

Cambodia
From Bagkok we flew to Phenom Penn in Cambodia. I've always wanted to go to Cambodia so I was really excited.
Whilst there we visited the Killing Fields and S21 both of which are dedicated to showing the atrocities commited by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war in cambodia. The Killing Fields are where they unearthed thoasands of bodies buried in shallow graves by the Khmer Rouge and S21 was formally one of the "re-education facilities", or torture jails to you and I, now turned into a museum. Although really hard to see it was a real eye opener both in terms of the brutality that people are able to inflict on one another when left with few other choices and also into the strength of a nation of people to pull through such a horrible event and live in peace again, considering this happened a meer 20 years ago!! It also made me think much harder and want to look into what else is going on in the world right now in places such as Zimbabwe.

You'll be happy to know that it wasn't all doom and gloom though, we probably spent a little more time than we needed to in Phenom Penn as we were still finding our feet but we got a good chance to look around, we found a tiny kitten which we had to trick (sorry) a vet into taking and caring for (cats aren't a favourite out here), Elephants walking randomly down the street during rush hour and a very funny afternoon sitting in a cafe where all of the street children were fascinated in Kirsty's boobs which were well hidden I'd like to add! I presume that her ample bosum isn't very common in Cambodia who are a nation of very slight people and the street children kept running off and finding their friends so they could all stand and stare at her chest. At one point she had about 7 children all standing in a semi circle gawping ... sorry Kirsty but it was very very funny!!!

After Phenom Penn we took a 6 hour bus ride to Siam Reap home to the famous Angkor Wat, A collection of the most amazing temples I've ever seen and possibly in the world! We spent 1 whole day and 2 half days exploring the temples with the help of our Tuk Tuk driver Tee Tee. I'm not going to try and describe them to you but then that's OK because I have soooo many photos I'm going to bore you all showing them to you instead :o)

After Siem Reap it was off to the coast for some R&R and a bit of diving for me. I haven't persuaded Kirsty to don a wet suit yet but don't worry I'm working on it :o) I had a really great day diving, although the scope and visibility don't come close to that of Thailand, I was so happy to be back under the water I could have been diving on mud for all I cared!

Vietnam
From Cambodia we took a boat down the Mekong River into Vietnam and then through the Mekong Delta waterways to Cau Doc. Journeying through the Mekong Delta was beautiful, we travelled past paddy fields with women rowing small canoes whilst wearing the traditional wooden pointed hats, all the children ran out to the waters edge to wave and shout hello. Throughout both Cambodia and Vietnam it has never ceased to amaze me that the people with the least are always the happiest and most content. The people of the Mekong Delta live mainly in wooden huts which are ravished by the rainy season with little to no money and yet they are always smiling and happy. At home it only takes a spot of rain to ruin our day.
In Cau Doc we were invited by the woman travelling with us to attend an English class that evening so that the students got a chance to practice conversing with Westerners. Personally I think that with my accent I probably did more harm than good! We were picked up in cyclos which are bikes with what look like slightly tipped up over-grown prams on the front and taken to a very small school on the outskirts of town. Here Kirsty and I were introduced to a different class each and we spent the next hour and a half speaking to the students who ranged from 13 to 30 about everything from how many brothers and sisters they had to whether I liked Elton John (Random question!). As we realised when Kirsty and I spoke to each other when we came out both groups were most shocked that we weren't married ... "You're how old and not married?" I was asked ... thanks guys :o)
The following morning we went on the river again and visited a floating village where each house is built on stilts in the river and has a trap door in the floor. Beneath the house is a net which reaches to the river bed and inside the net they breed fish for selling, they feed them every day and when they are big enough they are sold. How lazy is that? No going out each day fishing, they just open the trap door and throw in some food ... Brilliant!!
After that we visited a Cham minority village where we watched them making the most beasutiful silk scarves, table runners etc.
Then it was onto Can Tho further up the Mekong Delta where we visited the floating markets. Unlike those found in Thailand these are not touristy at all, its where people buy there fruit and veg mainly. The boats are laden with goods which the farmers have rowed out and sold them early in the morning and then the boats sell the produce onto the locals. Easch boat has a pole attached and on top they hang what they are selling (carrotts, pineapple etc) so that as people row along they can see where to go. The reason for doing business this way? You only pay tax on business done on land, not on the water ... genius again!

After Can Tho we took the bus to Saigon or Hoi Chin Minh City as it is now called. This was very much back to the kind of civilisation we know. So much so that Kirsty and my finely tuned homing beacons lead us straight to Gucci! No we didn't buy anything!
We did a lot of wandering around Saigon, its a great city to explore in, a total mixture of old and new. We visited the Re-unification museum and the War Museum and I have to admit that I am quite intrigued by the Vietnamese War (or as they call it out here the American War) and am desperately trying to find a book written in English so I can learn more. They say that the victors can write their own history and they certainly have here. For all the museums and monuments you very very rarely hear anything of the fact that the Americans were actually fighting along side the South Vietnamese against the North. I suppose the best way to reunite a country is to find a common outside enemy to blame and in Vietnam that is very much the Americans. Not that what the Americans subjected the Vietnames people to can be condoned but some recognition that they were initially invited would, in my opinion, be a more correct way of remembering what happened.

After Saigon we took what should have been a 6 hour but ended up being a 9 hour bus ride to Dalat which is the Central Highlands in the Mountains and where I am writting from at the moment. We arrived yesterday evening and had heard that it was extremely beautiful up here, which in fact it is. Its very different from anywhere else we have seen in Vietnam, almost like being in the alps, with lots of chalet style villas and buildings, very french colonial and what I hear is a beautiful lake and waterfalls. Unfortunately we haven't got to see any of this as it has been peeing it down all day today! Its not only non-stop raining but also cold! I had to go and buy a proper pair of shoes earlier and went out in my jeans, two jumpers and a waterproof jacket. I have to admit though that it is nice to be wrapped up warm rather than continuously sweating in 35 degree sunshine. We did make it to the local market though and wandered around there for a few hours, the fresh produce looked delicious, so many colours and smells, it was enough to make even the most dedicated easy pasta cook (me!) want to throw a 6 course dinner party.

So that's it, up to date for now although there are lots of other little stories that I'll save until I get home. If you are still reading at this point ... thank you, I never knew anyone liked me enough to get to the end of all that. From now on I will definitely write more often, I have to I don't think my fingers can take much more :o)

Speak to you soon (promise) xxx Kirsty xxx

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