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Published: November 27th 2007
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Hi everyone. Sorry we haven't written in a while, it's been nearly 3 months since the last blog and this is most likely the penultimate( for this trip anyway). Heres a quick you overview of where we have been and as usual loads of pictures. So enjoy...
On landing in Cambodia we were taken by surprize by all the tourists in Phnom Pehn and the contrast with the many places around Phnom Penh that are all linked to the attrocities of the Pol Pot regime. It was fascinating and harrowing visiting The Killing Fields and S21 -The Re-education Centre. Within the 5 years of Poll Pot's regime he had wiped out 40% of his own population.
From Phenom Pehn we travelled north to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Watt. Its scale is awesome, covering 10kms, the temples are huge and so many of them. We travelled by tuk tuk from sunrise to sunset for the first day then 2 half days after that. Magnificant structures with early hindu themes; carved into the walls entangled in hundreds of years of roots from still growing trees. By the end of 3 days we were feeling a bit of Temple
overload so spent a day soaking up the city ,walking along the river, and around the market
.
We then headed for the beach, the main reason was to get our Vietnamese Visa (issued in the office there in 10 minutes instead of 3 days). The visa application was fine, though the beach trip was rained off by a typhoon.
We entered Vietnam by boat on the Mighty Meekong River. This was a great 3 day trip down the Delta visiting floating sea gysey villages, floating markets, fish farms and rice noodle factories as we headed to Ho Chi Minh. A great bustling city, in a controlled chaos kind of way. One of the scarriest parts of HCMC was crossing the huge roads. There are no pedestrian crossings and the 6 laned roads are filled with swarming masses of mopeds all beeping. On the first attempt we were nearly taken out by the bikes but after watching some local folk we got the idea. The techinque is simple -keep a steady pace, don't look anyone in the eye (they seem to wobble when you look) and just let the bike flow round you like water.
Next stop Hoi
Bayon
Siem Reap, Cambodia Ann an ancient trading City with a great chinese influence, this place was extreme tailoring!
Then Hanoi another hectic vietnamese city and a lot more cramped; old french buildings with tiny narrow streets and the unstoppable river of mopeds. From Hanoi we did 2 trips one to the hill tribes of Sapa and another to Hao Long Bay. Sapa is beautiful however the lofty views down across the platos (which we saw on postcards) were mostly hidden by mist. While there we did a 2 day walk through spectacular hill side rice terraces, led by Lang our Hmong guide.
The weather in Hoa long was kind for the start so the views from our boat were amazing. The bay is made up of thousands of limestone pillars and islands towering out of the water, we cruised around for 2 days on our tour boat taking in the views and watching the local fishermen getting on with their lives in this awesome setting.
Back in Hanoi Caroline and I spent 2 days together and then parted company for a month. Caroline went to do a month of yoga in Thailand, Yoga not being for me really I decided to
play in Lao for a month.
After a 23 hr very cramped bus journey to Vientenne Laos capital I headed to the touristy but adrenalin filled town of Vien Veng. While there I tubed down the river and swang from the many trapeeze swings and zip wires over the water. I climbed on the massive limstone rock formations and hired motorcross bikes and headed into the mountains on my own.
On one of the days on the bike I went through a village and had to turn back due to a big impassable landslide, back at the village I was stopped by 4 gun men all pointing AK47s at me. On trying to explain that the track was impassable and I had just come from the other direction, they motioned with there guns that they were not letting me go passed them and I had to go over the landslide. Well obviously they won and with a giant knot in stomach I rode on. I reached the landslide and rode over it untill I fell off, I then dragged the bike by its front wheel to the other side all the time thinking am I about to be robbed round
river life
Boat women the corner. Well I wasn't robbed and I made it to the back to the main road ok so all was good.
Well I told you I went to play I wasnt expecting that kind of adrenalin though.
My next stop was the cultural city of Luang Prabang where there are so many Budhist temples its untrue, a really great place to unwind after the thrills and splills of the previous week.
From there I met travelled with a group of Isrelis and did a great hilltribe trek on the border region with China. The views here were stunning and spending a night with the Akka tribe was a great experience. the tail was pretty harsh though the paths were very slippy and again with the same worn out boots it was a bit of a comedy to see me flying through the air and landing on my backside.
Fro I spent the next week travelling to the border of Thailand and flew to Krabi to meet up with Caroline.
See some fo you soon.
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Jamie
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swines
It's time you stopped being happy and came home. Looking at the photo's of Krabi, Angkor and Hoi An..... aaaah beautiful memories. Still, we've got good stuff over here, foot and mouth, blue tongue and H5M1 all coming and going. Just organising the mountaineering trip for next year - Ladakh triology, 6100 to 6700 metres. Nigel has just completed the 7X7 challenge becoming the first brit to do so. He's coming so we've got some company. Fancy a trip out there?? Tek care now, see ya soon. Jamie and Clare