Vietnam

I didn't spend long enough in Vietnam, only made it to one tiny little corner in the south, Ho Chi Minh City. I need to go back and travel into the north to Hanoi; Ha Long Bay because I've heard they are incredibly beautiful and Ha Long Bay is the favourite of everyone I've spoken to. 

Being in Ho Chi Min City was being in a city. They are all very similar with their own little quirks. HCM I quickly found is all about the mopeds. There's an insane amount of them and they drive like a murmuration of starlings, constantly moving around one another, speeding up, slowing down, turning in or turning off but never crashing. It's actually quite remarkable. I've never seen anything like it. 

I crossed into Vietnam overland from Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the border in Moc Bai. There's no tuktuks in Vietnam like the other SEAsian countries I've visited so I very quickly ended up on the back of a moped, giant backpack and all, to my hostel. Way to get integrated into HCMC life!!

I headed north to explore the Cu Chi tunnels, a vast network of tiny underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used to hide in during the Vietnam War. They were ridiculously small.

We could stumble through a widened version of the tunnels, the originals are far too tiny. Even in the widened ones you have to crouch really low and keep your elbow tucked in. There are lots of different levels too so all of a sudden there would be a hole dropping down to the level below.

They have dug ventilation holes and exits every 20m because people used to keep passing out! Now you can get out easily if you start to get claustrophobic. They're lit by regular lamps now too. I made it the whole hundred meters - last man standing. The last 20m I had to crawl on my hands and knees. It was ok with lighting and good ventilation, if incredibly hot, but I can't imagine being in there as it originally was, with no lighting, no air and the oppressive heat!

I went to Golden Dragon Water Puppet Show. That was definitely something different! All these wooden puppets moving through the water telling traditional stories. Musicians lined the sides of the stage playing traditional instruments, but I still can't work out where the puppet masters were hiding, I never saw sign of a string or a stick!

My favourite part of Vietnam was the Mekong Delta. I travelled south from HCMC for 2 days to visit the land where hundreds of tributaries run into the Mekong as it runs into the sea. The abundance of life there was amazing. Small shacks on stilts line the edges of the river in the north and further south it becomes a mass of ship yards and industrial shipping buildings.

Our first stop was through the mangroves in Can Tho province in traditional dugout canoes. Wearing non la of course - traditional Vietnamese conical hats.

 We travelled by boat around the rivers to a rice paper making factory where I had a not awful go at it. Rice is milled and mixed with water then spread in a circle onto a pancake type hot plate. Left for 20 seconds then peeled off with a wicker rounders bat shaped tool and placed onto a drying mat in the sun. It can then go through a shredder that turns it into rice noodles, or be used to wrap vegetables for spring rolls. We tried rice pizza while we were there, a strange sweet crispy cake type thing that was delicious. 

That night I stayed at Hung's Homestay. We used rice paper to wrap our own spring rolls and fried them in a wok before eating an incredible spread of wonderful Vietnamese cuisine.

And once we'd finished dinner the rice wine came out. Weirdly, I assume because they make it themselves, it was served in a bag. A chopstick is pushed all the way through, then slowly pulled out to leave a spout in the bottom, pushed back in to reseal. If you're wondering, rice wine tastes like vodka. Straight, raw and burning. It's about 25%...

Day 2 on the Delta took us to Cai Be Floating Market. Now this was something different!! Vendor after vendor pulled up alongside us toting their wares and offering sharp deals. Payment is taken and the items handed over, all without anyone leaving their seat. It's mostly fruit and vegetables, and everyone seems to have the same ones; whatever is in season I assume. I can't quite figure out how people can make a profit when so many have the same things...

The highlight of my trip has to be my visit to the Saigon Opera House to see Teh Dar, an extravaganza of tribal music, acrobatics and gigantic bamboo structures. I'm talking grease monkey like climbing on hanging bamboo; diving and somersaulting over an enormous bowl with bamboo spokes that rolled around the floor; and my favourite, playing an incredibly fast beat on djembe type drums with balls that they threw at the drums and each other with serious timing and precision. 

With just a few days in the city I definitely saw a lot of amazing things!

Things You Should Know About Cambodia

1. There are A Lot of tuktuks. Be prepared to say "no thank you" on average 500 times per day. Or buy a t-shirt that says NO TUKTUK though I doubt they actually work.
2. You can also get t-shirts for No Massage because like all SEA countries every third store is a massage parlour or spa and every member of staff is waiting outside to hand you flyers and drag you in.
3. Cambodian currency is crazy. There are no coins, only notes. You pay in US Dollars and receive small change (anything less than $1) in Cambodian Riel. 2000 Riel = 50 Cent.
4. The majority of the population is under 30 due to the horrific Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s. 50% of the population is under 15.
5. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum on the site of the S21 prison is harrowing. You should definitely visit it to understand what happened there (although I don't think it's possible to understand!), but it will be difficult. And the Killing Fields even more so. 
6. On a lighter note, King Norodom Sihamoni is a former ballet dancer. This made me so happy when I found out. =]
7. Angkor Wat is the biggest religious structure ever built. It's grounds extend over 500 acres.
8. Angkor Wat, often touted as the 8th Wonder of the World, is so crucial to Cambodian culture they named their national beer after it. 
9. It also features on the Cambodian flag, the only country in the world to display a building on it's flag.
10. Tarantualas are a popular snack here. 
11. Once again there are no road rules. Choose whichever side of the road you like to drive on and stop in the middle of the street if you fancy it.
12. The Tonle Sap lake is pretty cool. In the dry season it flows out into the Mekong while in the wet season the river changes direction and flows back into the lake. Sometimes the Tonle Sap is the largest lake in Asia, sometimes it's just another average sized lake.
13. It is rude to point the soles of your feet towards someone.
14. Cambodia currently has the worlds highest rate of deforestation at 2000 sq km per year.

Cambodia

I'm a country behind already!!! Time is flying.

Cambodia makes country number 4 on my great tour. I visited the Angkor Temples, spent time in Siem Reap and explored the capital Phnom Penh.

I've dreamed of visiting Angkor for years. It was the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th - 15th centuries, built by Jayavarman III who declared himself a god king and eventually destroyed and abandoned in 1431 by the Siamese. Angkor was the largest city in the world, covering over 1,000 square kilometres with a huge water network, and was home to at least 0.1% of the world's population.

Angkor lay abandoned and slowly the wilderness reclaimed it. It wasn't until the 1900s that it was rediscovered and protection and restorations began.

I visited some of the Angkor temples along with a lot of other people. Angkor has become Cambodia's biggest tourist attraction and pulls in over 2.6 million people from around the world every year. I'll be honest, that's why I went to Cambodia.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

One of my favourite temples was Bayon, or the Temple of the Smiling Buddahs. I liked the Buddahs here so much that I even Eskimo nose kissed one =] Though the temperature is definitely not Eskimo weather!!! Averages around 38/39 degrees C but with the humidity it's pushing into the mid 40s!

 My other favourite temple was Ta Phrom, also known as the Tomb Raider temple. This is where they shot the scenes for the Lara Croft movie in the early 2000s. Here the trees have really gone to work. They've topped walls and grown through doorways and windows, great arching vines and twisted roots. 

 Walking around inside the ruins is pretty mind blowing, thinking of the people who'd walked those hallways centuries ago and how different life would have been back then. It's also a stark contrast to British heritage where we'd have a rope 10 feet back saying Do Not Cross and you'd be given a hard hat and steel toe capped boots. Or maybe the entire site would be closed to the public due to trip hazards and safety concerns.

One of the things that amazed me the most was the intricate detail in the stone that still exists. Every bit of wall or column is perfectly inscribed with decorative patterns and in many places there's ancient script too.

From Siem Reap I headed to the capital, Phnom Penh. I wish I'd explored more of the wild rather than just the two biggest tourist towns, as it definitely left me with a jaded view of the country - one of people everywhere, noise and motion and bright lights. Both towns were full of Western bars and restaurants all promoting their drink deals and night life scenes. Loud music and flashing lights attempted to drag people in to shiny dance floors and rooftop bars. And there are tuk-tuks EVERYWHERE! You can't walk three meters without hearing another shout of 'lady you wanna tuk-tuk?' 'tuk-tuk lady?' It doesn't matter that my hostel is barely a minute's walk from the street where everything is, or 30 seconds later when I'm about to walk under the archway proclaiming I am Where It's Going On, they still want to take me somewhere..! I saw t-shirts for sale on the market that just said No Tuk-tuk on the front. 

Things You Should Know About Laos

1. Everyone, everyone, everyone I have spoken to wishes they had more time to spend in Laos.
2. Don't be fooled by beautiful photos of the Kuang Si Falls - the photographer has waited for at least 10 minutes to get a shot over the heads of twelve other people at the precise moment that someone conveniently disappeared behind a tree and another crouched down to get an artistic shot.
3. Missing those fish spas that graced the malls in England a few years ago? Head to Kuang Si.
4. There's a curfew that states all businesses must close at 11:30pm.
5. Driving licences are brought. No lessons or tests are required, yet it's the most peaceful driving experience. Everyone weaves around everyone else and just goes with the flow. 
6. Luang Prabang translates to Land Of A Million Elephants.
7. There are currently around 400 elephants left in the wild in Laos, and 400 domesticated, working in logging or tourist attractions. Many of these provide unethical experiences based on what the tourist wants, not what the elephant wants. For a true interaction with elephants in their natural habitat visit MandaLao Conservation; game changers in elephant conservation.
8. From 1964 to 73 the US dropped 260 million cluster bombs on Laos as part of the Laos Secret War. 2.5 million tonnes of munitions. The equivalent of a plane load of bombs being unloaded every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day for 9 years. 7 bombs for every person living in Laos. More than all the bombs dropped on Europe during WWII.
9. A third of the bombs dropped on Laos did not explode. Large areas of land remain unexploited due to the risk of land mines, however over 20,000 people have died since the war ended as a result.
10. There are exactly 200 steps to the top of Mount Phousi, the mountain in the city centre, and 8 down into the cave at the top.

Loving the Laos!!

Laos is definitely the best spot yet. I absolutely loved it. There's something about the vibe, the chilled out atmosphere and the happy-go-lucky charm that just makes you smile here. Everybody I've spoken to on my travels has lamented not having enough time to spend here.

I crossed the border into the country at Chiang Khong and caught a slowboat down the Mekong for a 2 day journey to Luang Prabang. What an experience cruising down the big ol' Mekong in an old fashioned longboat where the chairs are old car seats.

It was pretty cosy inside, the whole boat was full, but locals hopped on and off along the way. I was with a group from another hostel in Chiang Rai and we all got the 2 hour bus to the border together. There was 2 from England, 1 Australian, 3 from Norway and 1 from France. It took us 2 days to get to Luang Prabang, with a stopover in Pakbeng. 

It was quite an extraordinary adventure, though not at all what I was expecting, and I'm not actually sure what I was expecting. The slowboat was more a fastboat with a speedy motor which noisily chugged us down the river. The river was very polluted and filled with litter, mostly plastic bottles and bags, much worse in the north. And every half an hour we'd pass another huge fire where the forest was burning, as part of the slash and burn agriculture widely practised here. This is part of the reason for the dense fog that's been carpeting the last few areas I've been in. 

This is a pretty standard daytime shot. The sky was very hazy and you couldn't see the hills in the distance as more than a smudge in the background,

There were masses of water buffalo. I didn't know these guys were even in this part of the world!

I had one of the greatest experiences of my life out of Luang Prabang. And that was hanging out with Peng and Kham.

Meet Peng

And Kham

These girls are brilliant. So beautiful and so calm. 

I visited MandaLao Elephant Conservation Park. This is a Really Good place. There are a lot of elephant experiences in Asia and a lot of them are not good for the elephants. Many promote riding the elephants which damage their backs, and others have very cruel taming procedures and control them with hooks and chains. It's very bad, but people are taking notice now and saying that it is not ok which is a really good move. 

MandaLao is one of the original reserves. They rescue elephants from bad environments in both the tourist and logging trade and care for them in a wonderfully big park where they are left to their own devices. If people want to visit them they do so on the elephant's terms. And that's what I did. I visited them in their natural environment and just hung out. 

They come moseying along in the morning to see if there's anyone to feed them some bananas and there I was so I instantly became their best friend. Kham (on the left) will take her bananas in her trunk and push them into her mouth herself, while Peng (right) has a tickly trunk. She likes the 'nanas plopped straight into her mouth.

After breakfast we headed out for a walk. In the wild elephants spend most of their time on the move searching for good grazing so I went along for the journey.

Of course they found the mud. They use their trunks to flick it on themselves to cool down. Elephants don't have sweat glands so they use this technique as well as flapping their ears. You'll never guess which little human stood a bit too close and got muddy...

I was amazed at how easily they could scale the steep hillside and how easy it was for such big creatures to move through the bushes and scrub. Because they are huge. It doesn't matter how often you see one on tv or at a distance in the zoo, you don't understand until you're stood right beside one just how immensely huge they are. 

If anyone ever wants to have an authentic, natural experience with elephants in their own space under their own terms, visit MandaLao. You won't regret it. And you won't ever forget it.

The Kuang Si waterfalls are also a must see spot. I hired a moped with my slowboat friends and we drove there from the town. It's one of the most popular tourist destinations so it's full of people. Most of them are just there to take selfies because it's such a gorgeous place with shocking blue water, so there's plenty of space to swim and shower under one of the many falls. And in the water there's the little dead-skin-sucky-fish that used to be in all the shopping malls in England a few years ago. So while you swim you get a foot spa. Win win.

Don't be fooled by the emptiness of the photos...

Kuang Si is a busy place!

Things You Should Know About Thailand

1. There are lots of ornate and intricately decorative temples. Lots and lots. And then some more.
2. There are even more ornate and intricately decorative shrines than there are temples. Each house has one, and each park, and alcove in the street. 
3. You don't wear shoes inside.
4. When you are driving whichever lane you are in has the right of way. 
5. It is HOT! Imagine that feeling when you get in a bath that's too hot; it's heavenly for 30 seconds and then your insides start to boil.
6. There's larger than life pictures of the king on every street, bordered by huge ornate gold frames.
7. Many roads are 3 - 4 lanes wide. And you can go any direction from any lane. Don't know if you're supposed to, but everyone does.
8. It really doesn't matter which side of the road you're driving on. On corners it matters even less.
9. There is a McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks on every touristy street. Sometimes two.
10. Get off the tourist trail and you'll struggle to find English speakers. You will however develop your mime skills into a fine art.
11. Monks are forbidden to touch a women. Don't sit next to one on the bus.
12. It appears that everybody and their dog is competing in the How-Many-People-Can-You-Fit-On-A-Moped contest. 
13. The north is currently to most polluted place in the world. 

Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

The north of Thailand is just as amazing as the centre, though the air quality is much worse. Chiang Mai is currently the most polluted city in the world. There's a dense cloud hanging over the town which obscures the view in the distance. I went on a trek with Ethnic Hilltribes and driving out of the town in the truck bed it was really difficult to breathe, especcially with the dust blowing up. The problem mostly comes from the burning of the forest for plantations, and though we expected it to get better as we left civilisation behind it didn't ever really let up.

The trek itself was gorgeous. Led by a local hilltribe guide he took us through his village and his local forests, all - believe it or not - on a hill. A very steep one! We stopped by a waterfall for lunch and received banana leaf parcels of pad thai tied with grass, and leafy bowls of spring rolls, pineapple and watermelon. Jungle luxury!

Chiang Mai itself is pretty cool. I spent a long time wandering the rambling streets of the old town, still mostly protected by the original city walls and moat. There's lots to see, treehouses to relax in and endless quirky little stalls, cafes and bars.

Chiang Rai is much smaller, and everything you want to see is out of town. So I joined a tour. A crazy, mega, ridiculously long and detailed tour that lasted over 100km and almost 11hours.

# 1 White Temple

# 2 Blue Temple

# 3 Baandam - Black House.

A bizarre house and art gallery full of animal horns, skins and bones. 

# 4 Long Neck Karen refugee village. 

I was quite dubious about this, didn't like the idea of going to gawp at people as if they were in a zoo, but I'm glad I went to this village. The Karen people are refugees from Myanmar and have been in Thailand for 30 years. King Bhumibol Adulyadej gave land to the Karen and several other tribes and they have been here ever since. There are other Karen people who are paraded in a tourist line up, but we went to the outback village. Here we could wander around, watch the women as they weaved beautiful scarves and talk with them as they did. They were happy to tell us about their culture and make us try wearing the heavy rings that push down the shoulders to make the neck appear longer and more beautiful.

# 5 Choui Fong Tea Plantation

# 6 Monkey cave and temple

# 7 Mai Sai border town between Thailand and Myanmar.

# 8 Golden Triangle where the river borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos all meet.

# 9 Chiang Saen, another temple that saw destruction at the hands of the Burmese.