Big hello to everyone!
 
We are currently in Siem Reap in Cambodia, and are to see the famous Angkor Wat tomorrow. It will be our last day travelling alone as we meet up with friends on Friday and even more friends in a few weeks. Our last few weeks of travel together have been both tireing and amazing. We’ve been on the road a very long time and its very difficult to keep up the motivation! It will be good to be travelling with friends and have other people to talk to again. Before we know it we will be back home. Thats in 5 weeks…the 13th of December just to jog your memories!
 
After Sapa in Northern Vietnam, we took another hellish sleeper train back to Hanoi, arrived at about 6am, paid a pittance to have some washing done and then headed out to the airport to fly down to HCMC. I’d heard that HCMC is even more crazy than Hanoi, but I tend to disagree. I felt it was alot more laid back and while everyone is focused on taking your money in the north it was nowhere near as bad in the south, which was a huge relief! There was, however, alot more begging and the affects of the war were so present. So many people missing limbs, blind, etc. We headed out to the CuChi tunnels which would have been a great experience had it not been teaming down with rain and we couldnt hear anything our guide was saying! We did get to see all the bamboo handmade booby traps, and got to crawl through the tunnels which were increadibly clustrophobic! We also stopped off at a handicraft workshop which is funded by the government for victums of agentorange. We also headed to the massage centre for the blind, where for $4 we got a blind Vietmanese person to give us an hour long massage! Very nice! Mind the groping received by Ben…
 
After HCMC we headed to the Mekong Delta where we got round in tiny, barely floating boats rowed by little old ladies and visited coconut workshops, honey farms, I got to hold a python (which a local lady thought would be fantastic to put her 3yr old daughter next to and we got to listen to blood curdling screams), visited floating markets, and see the way of life on the river. Which is basically go to the markets, collect as many plastic bags as possible, dump them in the river along with your raw sewage, left over food and any other nasties you can round up and then bathe. In the river. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen and it does not surprise me to hear that there are parts of the ocean where there are so many plastic bags that you can walk on them like an island. If only they could have a little education on this issue! Anyway, that argument could go on for a very long time…
 
We were also fortunate enough to stay in a local house. They have these places set up throughout SE Asia. Local families set up rooms for foreign guests and register to have people stay. We were picked up from the town and taken by boat far, far away from civilisation. We got away from city lights, and then away from built up housing and were weaving our way through canals in the dark, watching the fireflies in the riverbank trees for about 50 minutes before we arrived at our house where we were presented with local beers, taught how to make spring rolls (with fish from the river…), and serenaded with song and dance from the 2 youngest daughters who were 7 and 10 and could tell they had been practicing all day! It was so cute.
 
We took a boat from Vietnam up the Mekong to Cambodia to arrive in Phnom Penh. The trip was supposed to take 6 hours, but in actual fact took about 11! Not so bad as it was a pretty ride if you ignored the river and we got to do alot of people watching. In Phnom Pehn we headed out to S-21 prison and then to the killing fields which was so horrific. They have made S21 into a very good museum and haven’t sensitised it which is a really good thing, as we should never forget the past and should always learn from it.
 
I was feeling really crook all day but kept popping down Ibufrofen and Immodium as I didnt want to miss out on the day. When we got home I got progressively worse and started fevering really badly, wont go too far into but I thought I was going to die from malaria or denuge fever and ended up at the doctors having blood extracted from me and had an ultra sound. I got an armfull of drugs and was on my way home for a terrible night, but started to get better quickly with all the drugs. I was bed ridden for a few days and didnt get to do too much else! As soon as I was feeling decent enough we headed out to the beach town of Sihanoukville for some sun and fun. In true SE Asian style, the beach was absolutely FILTHY! And I just cant wait to get into the water at a beach back home!!!! All was not bad, we got to laze around in sunchairs, sipping happy hour cocktails and eating fresh seafood BBQs in satellite chairs and hammocks. Very relaxing.
 
2 buses and many hours later (1 bus not air con, no windows = death) we arrive in Siem Reap where we are now. We have been chilling out and sipping on fresh fruit shakes. Did a cooking course today, which saw me cook the “best meal you have ever made”(thanks ben).
 
Now looking forward to Angkor Wat tomorrow, and seeing Rani and Dane the following day!
 
Best wishes to all. Take care. Sorry this one is so long! I would love to hear some stories from home!
 
Lots of love
 
Therese xx
 
P.S. DAD - I found a book written by the HASH HOUSE HARRIERS!! Check out Bens photos!

Its in Cambodia, very grand, nice, beautiful and I wont bore you with any more.

All I can say is that is sits beside anthing Tee and I have seen in the 30 odd countires we have been to in terms of the marvels of granduer that man can make.

Enough with my stuff and nonesense, check the pictures part of the site for pics, or go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_wat or for more on the other areas visited today go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Thom which should in total  be about 6 minutes reading.3

Enjoy…

Oh we were up at 4Am to make the sunrise, hence the short email.

Ben

have not typed in so long I cannot feel my left hand…

 some pics of me and tee up, we did a cooking course today for about 4 hours ein Cambodia awesome!

How could I forget my blind friend the massage guy who gave me an hour long body massage for the princely sum of 4 bucks Australia.

Basically, lots of people are handicapped through the American (we call it the American war) and those who have lost their sight, but retain their limbs are trained to massage and work with tourists.

My guy (the song is now in my head even as I listen to the Artic Monkeys - oh the shame of both) was brilliant. His English was about as good as “Ok, ok?” to which I would groan my approval.

Once he had conquored my back and arms he rolled me over for the fronts of my legs. After having the ‘beat the back rub’ and the ‘chinese arm burn hands of gold’ what more could I expect form a blind man but to ‘accidentally’ get his gear on my gear ‘accidently’ not once but twice. I swear if he got my wedding tackle and asked ‘Ok, ok?” I would have been 1-0 vs. blind opponents.

Anyways, I feel its a small price to pay to give back to a little blind man.

Benno

P.S Funny how he could tell me and point at the note that he wanted as a tip when he wouldnt be able to walk into the great wall of china if you stood him ten feet from it?

Tee and I were really lucky and got to do a home stay in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

This is where you go and live with a local family for the day/ night and see what it is they in fact do when they are not peddling their wares to the unsuspecting, always rich and over paying tourists.

It was a great, albeit late starting event.

We boarded a very thin, very unsafe and very clumsy long boat and headed off down the Mekong Delata for a good fourty five minute float into wilderness. Without the others from our tour in the boat I would have swallowed our passposrts and jumped overboard - with no apparent destination, and a captain who was either drunk, stoned, horney or more likely all of the above whom could not speak English I was a little worried, at the very least.

Turns out that the place we stayed at was fantastic!

What a family they were.

We prepared dinner with the family and then feasted on hand made (by US) spring rolles, with salas and freshly prepared fish. We got to wash this down with the loacal beverage whilst entertaining death with helpful portions of rice wine, the loacal moonshine.

WOW - pucnhes like Mayweather!

We then got serinaded by their daughters for about 20 minutes which would have been great if we actually knew what the hell they were saying… the only words I can remember go Vietnam, ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam, ho Chi Minh,Vietnam…. repaeta

We stayed at their place over night and the nexxt morning the family took us to the local floating markets, the biggets floating markets in wait for it, the Mekong Delta.

Simply brilliant, I wont bore you with how they live, but they do drink a lot of rice wine, sing poorly (it adds to it I promise) and have satellite tv but no car or any other ‘material possessions’.

Tee and I flew from Hanoi on Vietnam’s north to the southern Vietnamese city of Ho Chi Minh City.I cannot say why the city was named after Uncle Ho, the communist leader of the Northern Vietnamese during (and before and after) the American War. Note that Vietnamese refer t the Vietnam War as the American war… of course.

Upon arrival we met a lovely lady from South America somewhere and she let us know we were on the right bus and where we should be getting off.

Its a bustling, hectic, chaotic, carzy Vietnamese city… but arnt they all?

We found some quality accomodation at a good price right in the heart of BackPackerVille and had three main goals for the city…

1. Visit he city and get a feel for the place.

2. Visit Cu Chi (said likeyou say cu-chi-koo to kids) Tunnells.

3. Arrange a trip into the Mekong Delta

The city was easy enough…we wandered around seeing the old palace (sacked when the Northen Vietnamese won the American war) as well as all of the standard and obligatory stops that you should see when there…although truth be told it was a city with very little to visit.

This is somthing that we are realising can be a reality in Asia… when a country has had a contempory history of civil unrest or even wagged war against their own neighbours or other international forces there is still a lot of rebuilding going on… in fact, maybe it is simply building as a lot of people live in less than desireable conditions.

EG Every hotel we stay at has staff whom all sleep together on the fpyer floor once the last of the hotel patrons has made it to bed.

Cu Chi Tunnells was terrific, with rolling, angry thunder sounding out it dissaproving tone over head we were treated to a real American-Vietnam war scenario… it also pissed down with rain for the entire thing.

The tunnells are set up as a tourist attraction very well considering the part of the world that we are in when often it is enought to simply have a man at a gate charging entry into tha plcae and othing more.

You can actually get intothe tunnels and have a hands onVC experience by getting in there and climbing around in the hjot and sweatty tunnels. Whats more there are a few great practicle displays of the Guerilla Style measures which they used to mame the enemy.

Its amazing what type of havoc you can raise against the worlds greatest military machine with some bamboo, some sharp metal, a shovel and a dashof inginuity.

The start of Cu Chi was a classic communist propoganda piece about how great UNcle Ho was and how appaling terrible the US are… I wonder to myself if anyone will ever tell the war story how it really is…bloody terrible for everyone.

On the war out to the tunells we also got to stop and have a chat with some local people whom were disabled during American Agent Orange attacks. Altenativlly they maye have been the children of women or men whom were the targets of these attacks. They make loads of local goods to be sold at local markets and the prices are truely of the hand  made variety.

All in all it was a great day.

Tee and I also spent plenty of time shooting the breeze and enjoying coffe at great prices as wellas more local food which we cannot get enough off… I am in fact starting to put weight on again which is nice.

We also found our Mekong Delta tour and decided as we hate tours to stay with them long enought to complete the home stay portion of the trip and then bugger off and do it alone.

We love it!

Ben

Tee and I were lucky enough to make it to Sapa in Northen Vietnam which is only 30 kms from the Chinese boarder. As such Tee and I scoured the country side looking for the famed holes ‘dug through to China’ made by some wayward enthusiatic child digger - alas there was none.

The trip there was an experience itself. Leaving Hanoi at 9.55PM in the dark with another million Vietnamese we had purchased some pretty cheap tickets in the six berth hard sleeper cabins. Upon arrival to our cabin our berths were occupied by about 74 Vietnamese men with cards and beer who had turned our cabin into a casino. I wondered out loud how long until the hookers arrived and with that comment everyone was gone, like the 3 storms they had magially dissapeared.

Tee and I were left with only those staying in our cabin thing. Four other Vietnamese men whom were all very friendly and eager to ecperiment with their 15 sevtences in English which they and in fact almost every Vietnamese person knows. A sample conversation which occurs with almost every one below note Vietnamese Italicised

Hawaoooow (Hello)

G’day How you going?

Wha use fwom? (What Nationality are you)

Me and my wife (point at Tee) are from Cupcake!

Ahh, yezz, yezz!

By ones from meeee!(higher inflection at end suggests question although it might as well be command as they continue with this line for next twenty minutes without even offering what in fact it is that they want you to buy)

No thankyou!

At 6 in the morning Tee and I arrived at the train station and were jostled, grabbed and attacked by every man and his motor bike asking if we needed a moto to get to Sapa.

We jumped into a mini bus and headed off, great fun indeed. As in most Asian countries lanes or your lane for driving is somthing which is not needed. Simply is there is a place for you spot on the road that you vehicle can fit to pass, then it is on fact, fit for passing.

Not to say that the drivers do not drive defensivly…they all have there effects horns. Imagine a guitars Wha Wha peddle on the horn. There is almost a unique ound effect for every car or moto, bus or truckout there. What this in fact means is that even if there were not 15 horns going off per second, the average horn will sound for about 5 seconds so there is NEVER a moments peace.

But what a place Sapa is. It is lovely with traditional, minority tribes people everywhere. They sell you there hand made trinkets on very corner and every stretch of anything in between and can chase you for miles to make a sale. Tee and I were followd about 2 KMS down a very steep stretch of road as we were heading of to a minority viliiage for a look.

We didnt buy anything, but after 30 minutes of saying no thank you the ladies got the idea and left us alone. They had to walk back up the hill and I would have dreaded it. Especially with children strappped to my back like these mothers did in fact have… check the photos.

Tee and I khad a good old squizz at the township and payed about 3 bucks each for the 6km moto ride up the hill.

Little did we know that our Vietnamese friends lie in wait and they hasselled Tee until she purchased a whopping 1 dollar worth of items from them.

Now the topography of the place is fantastic with rice patty fields everywhere built up on terraces into the very steep mountainour terrain. It really is postcard stuff and worth every minute of time you spend there. Truelly a beautiful and magnbificent place and I would encourage anyone to visit.

The next day Tee and I went on an organised hike to two of the minoirty villages. As we have discovered here it is great to have a guide. We were lucky enough to get an insight into these wonderful and simplypeople lives.

The living conditions would be appaling compared to ours but the children have smiles and no one seems oh to stressed about the water buffalo which has just been mounted by the naked 6 year old boy and whipped with a piece of bamboo. I kept saying the word mortgage and no one was too worried except one lady who seemed to be telling me they took out a mortgage for their satellite TV.

We viewed lots about their lives, how they eat, sleep and make a living.

It was meaningful and wonderful and something that I will not easily forget.

We purchsed a lot of little things from the locals and it was all excellent.

We then jumoed on a train after 4 days 2 nights and headed back to Hanoi where we would fly to Saigon to continue our adventures.

Wow.  Amazing how different cultures live. I guess Indian’s would be mortified to see us eating cows. Love Mum

What a question that is. You hear about it back home. You make jokes about it and you always think that whatever truth might be found in it, it would be a thing of the past.

I can however, after being here for over a week confirm that dog eating is still a very large part of the Vietnamese diet.

As one Vietnamese person put it they can eat anything from the sky, except for planes. They can eat anything on land, except for humans and they can eat anything from the water except for boats.

Another Vietnamese person put it simply this way… Dogs are great because you can have them as friends who guard your home and then when the time comes provide for you and your family.

I am a dog lover, even so I cannot say a bad word about it all.

I suppose in some ways that it what culture is all about… finding out that your different and embracing differences just the same.

Enough of the old-person talk or I will start doing the when I was a boy lines

There now we love it… gonna go and get some dinner for about 1.70 Australpian that is so good its stupid and so big I cannot finsh it even after not eating lunch today.

I will tell you all about it later no doubt!