Vietnam, Cambodia and back to Bangkok

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Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City about 10pm. My taxi driver was very helpful, he dropped me off just opposite the alleyway to my hostel. I was just trying to cross the road, which was full (9 million motorbikes and 11 million population!!) and he said you just need to walk, they won’t stop for you on a crossing.. rather daunting to say the least! So I checked in and went to get a quick bite to eat, pizza slice and a can of coke – cultural I know! Went back and slept, was cold in the night, needed a jumper on.. just a downside to hostel can’t just turn the air con if you’re cold. Next day got up and had the free breakfast. Decided to head out and walk in search of the palace and the war museum, only got a little lost, but was able to negotiate the roads ok. Found the palace, there was an event going on where a big band was on, then found myself in front of the Notre damn instead of the war memorial, where I was trying to find. I got there in the end, however did have to stop in a café just for aircon for a while, I was so tired I could’ve easily fell asleep in there. The Museum had some really harrowing stuff, finding out about the Vietnam war etc. very interesting though.

Next day I had a chance to sit and do nothing after an exhausting day in the sun the day before. I went for a short walk to the Main market where I bought a bracelet to add to my collection. Up to 10 now, however I have lost one and another has broken. But I am doing pretty well so far really! I was getting pretty excited now to see my grandma and cousin Adam who arrived the next night.. Wow seeing people from home and real life! Spent the evening in a local restaurant and had a local beer called 333, didn’t like it.. dinner wasn’t too great either, disappointing. Went to the hostel and chilled out looking forward to my famlilies impending visit!!

Next day I checked out the hostel after complimentary breakfast and packing. I had googled the hotel where gma and adam were meeting me later that night and it happened to be about 5-7 minute walk away!! What are the chances? So I got my bag and walked it, checked in early and chilled in the AC room for a bit. When I checked in I met a lady called Janey who was Australian and also on the Intrepid trip to Bangkok via Cambodia. Eventually went out for a late lunch in a café above a bakery on the same road of the Family Inn hotel. It was a lovely place with a balcony area overlooking the chaotic traffic and yet was still pretty peaceful. Lunch was gorgeous and they gave you an ice tea which they kept filling up, could have stayed there all day, and seriously regretted not taking my book! After this I went for a wonder to get my bearings for when they arrived, went in search of a rooftop bar about a 20 minute walk away in case they wanted a drink when they got here. Also bought different cans of local beer for their arrival. Chlled out some more in the AC and at about 6/7 I went for dinner in the same place as lunchtime! Terrible I know! But I loved it so much! It was called Ly’s Café and Bakery (just googled it) the food was lovely, much better than what I had eaten previously. Put my faith back into Vietnamese food. Headed back to the hotel and sat in the lobby for about 30 minutes reading my book before gma and Adam turned up! Was so good to see them and yet a little weird, brought me back to real life a bit. Gma first gave me a hug from my mum! Then a hug from her, and Adam hugged me from him! Lol!

They were both quite awake so we got Adams room sorted, then drank the cans I had bought and then headed out for a drink as they were full on plane food. We walked to a main roundabout with a starbucks on and found a bar that had only locals in that overlooked the crazy roundabout. They could not get over the traffic! Gma kept saying ‘where are all these people going?’ we had a few local beers and headed back to a bar just near the hotel for another. It was good to talk to people I knew and update them on some of the things I have been getting up to. It was still very surreal though. We headed home after having a good old fashioned laugh.

Next day we headed out to see a few bits, it was hot, and Adam wasn’t used to it, I was hot but I had obviously gotten more used to it than I thought. He was walking his normal fast stride, I said you have to train yourself to walk slower or you’ll just be sweating even more when we stop. The roads were even worse in the day, I had to hold Gma’s hand whenever we crossed a road and she said ‘I’m not even looking’ ha! Definitely going to heaven! (Favourite granddaughter yet Gma?) We headed to the river but on the way we went to the central market, where I had bought my bracelet, Adam got some ‘Ray Bans’ and Gma got a new bag. We stopped in a café and had a cold coffee, Gma’s had caramel jelly in.. as you do! We continued down to the river, but it wasn’t a picturesque as I thought it would be, i think we were at the wrong bit, it was far too hot so we headed straight to a restaurant with aircon for a spot of lunch. After small lunch of spring rolls and sweet and sour chicken etc between us, we found a taxi rank outside a hotel nearby and took it to the War Memorial Museum as I knew Adam and Gma had to see it too. Bit of a fiasco with the taxi, he took us to the palace, good job I knew my stuff as he was swindling us. Eventually got to the right place and there was a power cut in the Museum. We could see the things downstairs and outside but not the two floors upstairs. There was a mock up bit like an old prison set up outside, I hadn’t seen that bit last time! So it was educational to me too! It was very hot so after this we headed to the hotel and got showered and chilled for a bit after a hot day before heading to the meeting for the tour. We met the rest of the group and we each to say a bit about ourselves, Gma went first and even stood up, introduced me and Adam and said that I was travelling etc, ‘Grandma! You’ve stolen my bit!!!’ ha ha! We all then went out for dinner afterwards, well a few of us, as some people had been on a tour through Vietnam so went out for their last meal. At this meal we met Beckie (not with a common ‘Y’). From there we adopted her! The four of us got drunk on MaiTai cocktails and had some lovely food! Sovann – our tour guide was there too, turned out to be a right legend! After the meal on the walk home we crashed a game of ‘keepy upy’ that the locals where playing gma was like ‘I play badminton you know’ but missed every shot. Then me and beckie walked past a shop with a man in a fishtank.. it was an eventful yet funny walk home.

Next morning we leave early for Cambodia. There was only one lift and it was taking ages, breakfast was on the top floor to me and Adam decide to walk down, I also decide to press the button on the lift on every floor! I know! I’m hilarious, until someone was late for the bus cos they were waiting for the lift!! Ha ha! Set me and Adam in fits of giggles whenever we discussed it. Long bus journey to Cambodia, we were on a public bus, which was classed as a limousine, they sort out you visa’s for Cambodia for you. There was a small piece of paperwork to fill in, which I did just as we were setting off, but I wished I hadn’t, I then felt very ill the rest of the way. I had to sleep as much as possible and listen to music. Occasionally we got off for lunch and also to cross the border. All seemed a good system, just a basic place. Lots of casinos when we crossed the border, but after that I didn’t see one, no idea why. We stopped for lunch and Sovann told us to just eat from one side of the food court as they cook it fresh, and the other didn’t. Adam was instantly put off Cambodian food, and was paranoid about mozzies. The traffic was much better after we crossed the border, a lot less motorbikes, but still people standing in the back of pick up trucks etc, stuff you would never get at home.

We had to cross a river on a ferry, Sovann told us all to get off the bus and wear life jackets for the duration of the boat trip. Which was about 10 minutes. Adam asked why we had to get off – as people that weren’t on our tour stayed on the bus – Sovann said that a few years ago the ferry sank and everyone dies that stayed on the bus, ‘fair enough’ Adam said! I like the honesty!

We arrived in Pnomn Pehn about 8-9 hours after setting off. The next hotel was really nice too, grandma wasn’t expecting the hotels to be so nice. We had a balcony in our room, I say balcony it was about 2 feet wide, I could just about stand on it, and then it was just the aircon machine! But we still impressed Adam enough over the phone to come down and check it out! As soon as we got there we just about had time to shower/get ready before meeting for an optional extra that everyone had opted for, first a tour of the local markets and trying some different fruits. As simple as that sounds.. oh my god, never seen a market like it. there was just basically rotting food everywhere, we had arrived about 5.30/6pm and I can only assume the meat/veg/fish had been there the whole day. The meat had gone crusty and there were fish flapping around next to the bloody head of its mate. And the flies. Oh jesus. The amount of flies everywhere, the food was covered in it, we were only walking through, there’s no way we would have been stopping to buy things. Next to a stall with fly ridden fish there would be a stall with piles and piles of second hand shoes, some even in pairs! It was shocking to say the least. Some of the sights and indeed smells will be ingrained in my mind forever, take a look at the pictures and try to comprehend the smells. Luckily we had eaten the fruit before we saw much of the market, as afterwards we had all lost our appetites.

After the market we headed in the tuk tuks to a variety of buildings and monuments in City, including a hill, which Phnom Penh was named after. Lastly we arrived at a place to have dinner, I went with a few others to get some cash and Adam and Gma saved me a seat. Sovann suggested some nice Cambodian dishes, which felt bad about ignoring and had steak, I don’t know when I’m gonna have steak next! But most importantly we had a few jugs of beer! Was a lovely dinner, people began to leave our end of the table to speak to some others and eventually we were the only three at one end, quite funny really! Then Beckie and Peter came down to see us, turned out Beckie had eaten peters meal by accident, accepted the first meal that came to her.. oops!

After this we headed up to the rooftop bar at the hotel and proceeded to drink more beer! Hard life! Good group to be honest, was a good night not too late but good.

Next morning we were up relatively early again to head to the Killing Fields, on the way we had to pass through mud road villages and also a main road, where they had only built the middle of the road! So the outside was just gravel and mud, there had been quite a lot of rain the night before! At one point the guide Sovann even said ‘oh my god’ and ‘this is crazy’! We were like you’re supposed to say that!! Ha ha! Once we got to the killing fields we had a tour of the main areas including the mass graves and places where awful things happened, as well as places where there were lots of human bones. Again some harrowing stuff.

Next stop was an old school which was turned into a prison in the war. Of all the thing I saw this shocked me the most, I’m sure its got nothing on Auschwich but it still shocked me none the less. It was basically the step before the killing fields. If Pol Pot decided he didn’t like you then he would not only kill you but also everyone you knew, family, friends, colleagues, including children, up to 200 people! In this prison they starved people to death and did all kind of horrible actions to torture the prisoners. There were 5 survivors and 2 are alive today, both were there selling books and paintings of what happened, I would recommend anyone to look into this as it is very interesting, I won’t go into too much detail know that my little sister reads these blogs.

Next stop was the Royal Palace, this was our own free time before heading out on another option extra that evening. The Royal Palace was beautiful, however it was so darn hot! It was easily the hottest I have been since being away. I cannot describe the level of heat my body was at. We saw as much as we could before passing out, so we headed back. We did nothing and just chilled in the Aircon room for a while. Then we all met again for a boat trip on the river, it was sold to us as $2 beers.. so it ended up as a ‘rock and roll’ night as Sovann calls it. We even got gma on the tequilas! The boat was slow and only went up a small part of the Mekong river and then back down. The sunset was beautiful, however was just behind some buildings, but still made she sky look amazing. I have definitely become obsessed with the sky since being away, it is constantly different, and there are slight differences in each country I have been. This is why there might be some random shots of the sky in my photos.

Anyway after the boat trip we went for some dinner in a local type restaurant where Adam and Beckie had ‘the best curry of their lives’ called the Khmer Curry – which literally translated means Cambodian Curry. It was a funny night, by this time we had created a tradition to have spring rolls between us on every meal. We were the last ones to leave the restaurant and we headed back on a tuk tuk, even though they are built for 4 people, the 5 of us got on and I sat up front, it was great! We of course headed up to the rooftop bar and there were a few people there already, it started to rain pretty heavily to the point where we had to move to get away from the rain coming in. Then the rain got much worse, to the point of nearly being a monsoon. We had a few more drinks then I headed down when I realised my feet were in water! It was a very good night and we were very grateful that we didn’t have to catch a tuk tuk in that weather!

Next morning, up early to catch bus to Siam Reap. Everyone hungover.. so the bus was quiet. We had a few stops along the way, first was at a market where they sold fresh fruit and also fried bugs, Sovann had a tarantula crawl over him, and we even had an opportunity to eat part of a fried tarantula. And I did it – I ate a leg of it! crazy! It just tasted like a fried piece of something crunchy, you could really only taste the oil in it. There were some nutters – Patrick – who ate a whole one! There were also a variety of other bugs available, including cockroaches, crickets, tiny birds and even tiny red frogs! Apparently the tarantulas are bred just for this market. Next stop was a silk farm where we learnt how silk is made, it was fascinating! We saw the worms themselves and how fast they grow, then when the worm is dead in the cocoon the tiny little threads are ran together into one piece of string. An American guy ran the place and he said that he only makes 5 scarves a year from these worms, so he buys the silk in and hires local women to work the ?????? to make the scarves, they even dye the vivid colours too. We then had lunch on the silk worm farm cooked by the owners wife and everything was delicious! I the proceeded to sleep on the bus again until we hit Siam Reap, the road wasn’t as bad as some we had been on, but still full of crazy sights.

When we got to Siam Reap, which is where Sovann actually lives he announces he is not staying with us for dinner as he has a problem he need to sort out, which is not a problem, we got a chance to chill out and do nothing before meeting Janey for dinner in the hotel, some went off to the markets and had dinner there. Dinner was nice again and Grandma had the Amok curry, which is another Cambodian curry and is very nice. It was nice to do nothing really, no time limits etc. after dinner me and gma skyped dad, rach and mia.. very great stuff this technology!

Next morning we were up and out to see Angkor Wat! Big day! We got our photos taken for the 3 day pass. We went in the back entrance of the temple as it was less busy. It was beautiful. I was very happy to be there! Surrounded by my family. The rocks were transported from 70km away by elephant when it was built. It was not designed for anyone to live in it but just as a temple for the gods. It was about 9am when we first got in there and it was already very hot. The lesson lost my attention when a jumping spider attacked a guy in our group then once it was off went straight for another guy! Me and Adam were stood there shaking our legs afterwards incase something crawled up. Shudder. We then got into the temple itself and learnt about the carvings that were on the walls. One side demons, the other were not demons all pulling a snake, or the arm of a sea creature in honour of the gods (I think). We then got up to the main temple, where we had to wear something over our shoulders, the stairs were very steep and we had to help gma up and down them, as the ‘credit card isn’t paid off yet’, so we had to keep her alive really! :P it was beautiful, unlike nothing I have seen before. The carvings and shapes where amazing. We were then left to wander the temple and meet back at the bus at the front of the temple. I bought a bracelet there. Then we lost Janey, she couldn’t see the bus. Eventually we found her and we went off to the next Temple – Bayon Temple, the one with all the faces. The next one was the Lady Temple, even more detailed carvings, by this time the group were getting on really well. In the evening there was no optional extra again so we just chilled out, me and Beckie went to the pool in the hotel and Gma and Adam slept. We were becoming very fast friends. After a bit of a chill out we met for dinner, again in the restaurant, we went for a walk around the hotel area to see if there was anywhere else, but there wasn’t. We all ummed and arghed what to have for dinner, but in the end we all ordered the Amok Curry! And the token Spring rolls to start. Was a good night, in bed early as the next day we had to be up very early!

Woke at 4am to be downstairs for 4.30am to go back to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. We got there and to the prime location for photos, we got there in plenty of time, which was god as it got very busy, I took a picture of the crowd. The photos were amazing (Jim Oswald – beat that sunrise) and me and Beckie walked along a bit so we didn’t get all the same pictures. I was very happy in that moment, it was one of my ‘stop and think’ minutes, made me realise that I was travelling the world, seeing world wonders. I am a very lucky person, but I had worked dead hard to get where I was. After this amazing morning we then went to the temple where tomb raider for filmed! Some more great shots! We then went back to the hotel to have breakfast as it obviously wasn’t available at 4.30 in the morning. We were all starving so we got all fed up and had a small rest before going back out again to see the floating village where basically me and Beckie just sat at the back of the boat and talked about boys! We stopped at a floating restaurant to look around the fish farm and shops, there were alligators and everything. Next thing I hear is Adam saying ‘shall we have a beer? I’m having a beer, when’s the next time I am gonna have a beer on a floating restaurant?’ we obviously all jumped on that suggestion. There was also a hammock, and I had discovered that gma had never sat in one! ‘Gerrin that ‘ammock Gma!’ I helped her in and out and she was laughing! I was just about to get in one but then we were leaving, gutted,, love a good hammock. Gma adam and Janey got another beer for the boat (or booze cruise as it was now called) when we got back we jumped in a tuk tuk and went to the markets, first stop a pub for the toilet and a beer! Then we decided we could meet back there after a bit of shopping, we all got a few bits, I got two tops and a headband. We stayed and had some lunch after this – a late lunch though. I wasn’t even slightly hungry to I ate a few bits of everyone elses. It was lovely food! This is where adam had some mini burgers, delish! At night we went out for dinner and started on the cocktails as we were going to have a ‘rock and roll night’ which it was! Gma went home after the meal, which turned out to be good as the music in the next place (called Angkor What) was rather loud and we all instantly started dancing in the street – called Pub Street! There were two bars opposite from eachother and if you stepped on one side of the white line on the road you could hear the other bar, so there was normally always a song on you liked, with only a foot from where you were just standing. It was a very funny night!

Next day we were up and ready for a bus ride to Battambang, which for the most part was a dirt road, so Sovann told us if we want to sleep do it at the beginning of the bus trip. We had two stops on the way, 1^st one was a roadside fruit market which also sold fried insects to eat. Me and Gma ate the leg of a tarantula! It tasted like something that had been fried for too long, however the crunchy leg skin was something that wasn’t going away no matter how much we chewed, so we both spat it out. Beckie and Adam were too hungover to even try it! Next stop was a silk worm farm where we learnt how silk worms work and the manufacture of the silk scarves. We also had lunch there which was lovely! They only did scarves, it would have been nice to get a bracelet.. oh well. The next stop was battambang itself, the hotel again was very nice, even though it was a small place. We headed out for a group lunch at this little place where you had to walk through a shop and up the stairs to find it. It was very hot that’s where the saying ‘Gerrit on oscillate’ came from. Seeing as we were still pretty hungover we opted for the burger (me and adam) there was a choice of toppings and we were told we go down to the burger bar and we put our own on! Adam said ‘that the best news I’ve ‘eard all day, you’re gonna regret that!’ we devoured it, the cheese was in a slow cooker and already melted, WOW. We all paid for the optional extra for a tour on the tuk tuks and then dinner at the local guides house. We went to see how rice noodles were made! From there we went on a bamboo train! Jesus! Here’s me thinking it would be a train with bamboo carriages, but no – it was just a sheet of thin bamboo on top 4 wheels on train tracks. It went up to 40 mph and was scary as hell! We lived though! We then had a short time before we met for dinner as the local guides house, which again was lovely!

Next day was travel across the Thailand border, which could take anything from 1-4 hours depending on the queue, we wernt allowed to speak to Sovann in the passport control room as he was Cambodian, bit strange, we got through and it had taken 2 hours – including everyone stopping at the 7eleven for lunch. It was a long drive to Bangkok and I tried to sleep for the most of it but eventually we played cards on the final straight into Bangkok. We were originally leaning on my rucksack to play but then I saw a hard backed atlas in the drivers seat pocket, so we got that out and started playing, but then gma realised she had melted chocolate all over her hands, it looked she had had an accident and we took the mick out of that for a while! the chocolate had come from the atlas, quickly put that back and carried on playing, after we’d cleaned gma up! We finally got to Bangkok and decided to meet for our last meal as a group and last rock and roll night. We ate in a place where, again, you had to go up some stairs, which we would never have found on your own. I got on the litre of beers and we had a lovely last dinner, gave Sovann a tip and thanked him for all his help and brilliant tour guide skills. He was a very very good guide, always smiling and happy. Even though he had some terrible news during the start of the tour, he was super professional and never let it stop his work and made sure we all had a very good time! After dinner we headed to a bar on Khosan Road and had a few drinks, people started to leave including Adam and Gma as they had had enough, it ended up with just me Beckie and Sovann. Was a good night again. Not as crazy as the others nights, but still a goodun.

Next day we had booked an extra few nights in Bangkok as we were meeting Dad, Rach and syster Mia in the same hotel the next morning. We had heard about the Songkran festival that was due to begin the day they arrived, which basically consists of people having a massive water fight in the streets! We were looking forward to that and we had already decided we were going to get involved by buying a water gun! However we got up the next day had breakfast in a nice place down the road from our hotel. They had started shutting the roads down due to the amount of people they were expecting for Songkran. Breakfast was nice then we headed to have a look around Khoasan road in the daytime, as that was where the centre of the festival was going to be. It was only about 11am and the vibe that was around the area was amazing! We had already made sure we had all of our valuables in plastic zip bags etc as apparently no one holds back. So we are walking down Khoasan on the way to the other end to get a taxi to a shopping centre. However the next minute we had bought waterguns and were just filling them up with freezing cold water when a TV company called TNN (Thai version of CNN) came up to us and interviewed us! Surreal much! We then just walked up and down the road, having water fights with whoever else had a water gun, and also whoever got gma! It was already turning out to be a great day, we were wanting a beer but gma would let us cos it was too early, ‘not till 12 oclock!’ so at 5 to 12 we got the beers in from a 7 eleven and had a Chang beer in one hand and a watergun in the other! Day was getting even better! The fun just continued, the later it got the more people turned up, we sat outside a bar and squirted people from affar. Then the busier it got we went into the road and got people there, there was music, beer and laughs had all round. At one point me and Adam said to eachother ‘I genuinely think this is the greatest day of my life’ it was hilarious. Between me Adam and Beckie we were a team. We started choosing one person each (the drier the better as we were already sodden) and squirting the heck out of them. The funniest was when I was just explaining how I got someone in a tuk tuk cos they cant run away to Beckie and these girls (dry as a bone) came and got in the tuk tuk next to us and said ‘quick GO!’ me and beckie started squirting like never before! ‘where you going?!?’ absolutely hilarious, then people realised what we were doing and the tuk tuk had stopped to have his photo taken and EVERYONE just started soaking them! I am not kidding there were about 15 people then squirting them and one bloke tipped a whole bucket over them!! I am laughing while I am writing this. So so funny!

We were getting through the beer and gma was sitting in the bar, however she had people behind squirting people in front, so she was soaked anyway! Hilarious! There was also a bar opposite ours so obviously it became war! There was one guy that was getting everyone so after a few hours I rallied about 10 people together from our side just to get him! It was a brilliantly executed mission! I cannot describe how much fun it was, I really want to go next year too. I had to take some pictures through the plastic bag which is why they are a bit blurry. When gma said she wanted to go it was probably the right time for us to go. We got some food (including the infamous spring rolls) and were in bed for 7pm! Dad, Rach and Mia were coming the next morning! I was soo excited to see them, especially my little legend of a sister Mia! The noise that was coming from the street below our hotel room was insane, if we hadn’t have been drunk I don’t think we would have been able to sleep!

I woke early the next day, about 4am as dad was due in about 7.30am, but I was checking the flight status and realised it was due in early about 6.30am! Oh god I was so excited! I let gma sleep a bit more then when she started stirring I told her it had landed. We got dressed and waited for them, Adam was drunk so stayed in bed for a bit longer. Within about 10 minutes they were here! Very emotional welcome! I was obviously crying! After all that we got sorted with the rooms, which weren’t ready yet, so they dumped everything in our rooms and we headed out for breakfast after introducing Beckie to her new family members. We went to the same place as yesterday and also that we went for dinner the previous night. After breakfast and a catch up Dad Rach and Mia went to sleep after the hours of travel, and Adam went back to bed after the night before! Ha ha! Me Beckie and Gma went to the weekend market for a spot of shopping, it was the best market I’ve ever been too – even though most places were shut due to the festival – a lot of the stalls were original things, like t-shirts that were original prints, with the designer sitting there selling them, also a little couple where one made and sold little satchel handbags and the other made and sold wood carvings. It was a beautiful little place, and the main reason I went is because I needed some sunglasses but there was not a pair in sight, unlike all the other markets full of tat I had been to. When we got back we woke the others up and went to a cooking course we had booked the day before.

The cooking course was great, we couldn’t be picked up as the road was closed so a guy came from an alley and we followed him to this kitchen area, it was the first official day of Songkran and already notably busier than the previous day. It was Dad Rach and Mia’s first experience of it as we got wet just on the way to the kitchen! We learnt about the ingredients we were using and made curry paste from scratch with a pestle and mortar, it was very interesting! We cooked green thai curry, hot and sour soup, pad thai and cooked pumpkin and coconut milk all in a few hours. However it was very hot in the kitchen. The next challenge was getting back to the hotel, it was unbelievably busy, shoulder to shoulder the whole way, people wetting you and putting flour mixture on your face. The crowds were stressing me out, and we didn’t really know the way, plus we had Mia to take care of. Eventually when we were on our hotels road I took Mia’s hand and just barged my way all the way through to the hotel to make sure she was safe. The others followed shortly. We all said how different it was from the day before and that we should have a quiet night as it was their first night and also Beckie’s last – sob L! So we went to the same place again and sat and drank beer and had a general chat about life and caught up etc. Me Beckie and Adam stayed for another tower of beer or two, we didn’t have any desire to leave the place, even though Dad etc suspected we would go out after that. We had a good catch up to be honest, then we ordered a lot of food and I devoured most of it, Adam was too drunk to eat, there’s quite a spectacular video of him once we got in, but I’ll leave that off here!

Next morning we had to be up early to move rooms and also we had booked to go to a floating Market, pick up was 7.15am, and we had to say bye to Beckie too! Luckily me and Beckie were in the discussion of meeting up when I was in Oz! Anywho.. we headed to the floating market on a bus load of people, next stop was a large canoe to the floating market, which was quite fast and rocky! Eventually we got there and opted to go on another smaller boat to have a look at the actual floating market stalls on boats, there was some great stuff, but again quite samey, but that can be good as you can find the cheapest stall and still bargain them down. I got some bracelets for me Mia and Adam. Getting quite a collection now! But oh wow it was so hot! It was hot for me and I had been more used to than the others, especially Dad etc as they only arrived the day before! Anyway we headed back on the bus (not the rocky canoe thank god) and slept on the way back too as it was quite a long way away really, didn’t realise. Adam and Gma had to leave that night so we got packed – as I was sending things home with them – Dad Rach and Mia went to the pool and after we had packed I thrashed Adam and Gma at card 11 – 2 at Rummey! However they were leaving that evening which meant they had to get there cases to the end of the road where the taxis were in the middle of Songkran! We all walked with them after saying our goodbyes in the Hotel. We managed to take them though the back exit, which was much better then through a main area, but luckily it wasn’t as bad as we all thought it would be. On the walk back dad used my water gun and turned into an absolute child. We decided to go back and get Adams watergun and come back and eat some street food. At one point dad had two waterguns and turned into some kind of water shooting ninja. It was annoyingly funny, only annoying because I hate admitting that my dad is occasionally funny.



We stopped at a bar for a drink where the staff said ‘no food, only beer’ dad was like ‘its not a bad problem to have is it?’ Again annoyingly funny :P. we had a bit of a walk around got a bit wet, Mia was loving it, obviously! A 10 year old kid in a city wide waterfight! Rach was loving it too, as we were also going around the local street food vendors. After a short time we were just heading back and then all of sudden a lot of people started running, it looked like the start of a horror film or disaster movie as people where just running in any direction. We got hold of Mia and walked to the side of the road out of the way. It was weird because some people where still laughing and others were just running. We didn’t know what had happened, if anything, but it shook us up, someone tried to put flour stuff on my face and it freaked me out and I forcefully got his hand away from my face. It was strange. We walked back the way we came and one of the bars that was raving away on the way had shut down completely and Rach was told to ‘keep walking’ as we passed it. I still don’t know what happened at all. Oh well we were all fine. We thought it best to go to bed early as we had a long day the next day.

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