Hong Kong

It's foggy here in HK so not the best weather for sightseeing! We had a harbour boat ride though and could see most of the buildings, we think, but not the hills!

It's a great city with some impressive and weird and wonderful skyscrapers, a tube system that's like a city beneath the city (with trains that arrive every 2 minutes,) and LOTS of shops! Visited a lovely Chinese garden yesterday. Our hotel has a wonderful city view and a beautiful flower mosaic in the bathroom!

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year!

 

 

Siem Reap

Apart of course from the Angkor temples, the best thing about staying here is the daily laundry service! Though I don't expect they were too amused by the amount we gave in on our first day here!

We booked a two day tour here as we thought it would be best to get some details about the history and meaning behind the main temples. We had a good guide and very importantly, an air conditioned car with lots of water doled out. It was 35c and you started sweating as soon as you left the car!

Angkor Wat, a temple complex to honour the gods (Hindu when first built and later used by Buddhists too, with the addition of Buddha statues) and Angkor Thom (for the king and his entourage) were v impressive, with great bas-reliefs and big statues and carvings. We're getting quite good now at recognising some of the Hindu Gods and story characters! Another temple complex that was definitely worth the visit was Banteay Srei, also called the woman's temple as the people thought it must have been carved by women it was so delicately done. The stone used here was very good quality and has a slightly pinkish hue.

 

 

Angkor Wat

 

 

 

 

Angkor Thom

 

 

 

 

Ta Prohm, or the tomb raider temple!

 

 

 

 

Banteay Srei or angry bird temple!

The Killing Fields

Sunday meant a speedboat ride up the Mekong to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. There was lots to look at as we zoomed along and it was great to have the boat guide's help to cross the border. Saw some boys riding their water buffalo out of the river!

On Monday we took a tuk-tuk to the killing fields from Phnom Penh. Of course, it was awful but it's something you really have to make yourself do while you're here. There was an audio tour which was very good, with first hand stories, info about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and a guide around the site. That terrible man was responsible for killing 25% of the Cambodian population and as bullets were deemed too expensive you can imagine some of the ways the people died.

In the afternoon we walked around the Royal Palace buildings. They were similar in style to the Thai Palace and temples, set in lovely gardens.

 

 

Starting point of the boat trip

 

 

 

 

Monument at the killing fields

 

 

 

Valentine's Day

Best Valentine's I've had for years!

Took a local boat (with a lady with teeth to turn dentists in their graves) to the floating market at Can Tho. It was fascinating watching the boats full of produce selling to shop and market traders and really felt like a real life experience of Vietnam. Not too many tourists either. Called in to a rice noodle factory and watched them being made- it only takes a minute to cook them once the mixture is made up and then they are left out in the sun for half a day and then noodled through the cutting machine. We tasted a speciality; rice noodle pancake with banana and sesame seeds. It was delicious!

Later caught the bus to Chau Doc and arrived at a lovely hotel by the river where we've just had cocktails and are booked in for a Valentine's dinner!

Can't fault your brother this year Grant!

Best things about Ho Chi Minh City: juice bar, American cake, Indian curry!

Holding a gift from the boat lady of flowers and I think grasshoppers made from water coconut leaves! 

 

As well as fruit and veg at this time of year there are flowers too for "tet", the lunar new year.

Hoi An

It was an interesting trip from Hue to here on a dilapidated bus. About half the seats were broken! Luckily we were one of the earlier pick ups so managed to get vaguely OK seats that we perched on with our fingers crossed!

Hoi An has a pedestrianized (heaven!) historic centre which is especially pretty at night with its lantern decorations. It used to be a major trading centre, before the river silted up and has many old houses and meeting halls, some which were built by other nationalities, mostly Chinese and Japanese, who often traded here.

We visited "My Son" temple which was a 4th to 10th century Hindu royal complex in a jungley area. It was badly bombed in the war and you could easily make out big craters as you walked around.

 

a lantern shop

 

Lady keeping the silk weaving traditions alive

 

The Japanese bridge in the old town

Hue

Quite a lot quieter than Hanoi, Hue sits prettily on the Perfume river and is the former royal capital where the last Emperors of Vietnam ruled before Ho Chi Minh. We visited the Citadel where the royals lived with their entourage of mandarins, concubines etc. There was a lot of interesting information about how they lived. The Emperors had about 100 wives and were presented with 50 or so dishes at mealtimes of which they chose what they fancied, of course with an underling always having the first taste just in case it was poisoned!

Also had a taxi tour of the royal tombs, two of them set in lovely grounds with lakes. The traditional decoration here is ceramic and glass mosaic and there were some impressive ones today, particularly in the third tomb, some parts almost 3D.

 

Motorbike madness in Hanoi

Never seen so many motorbikes in our lives; riding along the pavements (you need your wits about you), down the wrong side of the road, with a huge amount of goods, with the whole family on board...you imagine it we might have seen it! Today one with loads of bags of goldfish just like we used to see at fairs! There is an art to crossing the road which apparently we need to master before we get to Ho Chi Minh where it's even more mad.

Visited the first university of Vietnam here, set up in the 10th century. If you trained as a doctor, to reach the highest level you had to face the Emperor and answer his questions- Scary stuff I should think! Your name was then immortalised on a big stele which balanced on a tortoise's shell (a stone one) We saw about 20 of the steles here. Quite a sight.

 

 

Dragons are a protective force

 

 

 

Ha Long Bay boat trip

We've had a lovely couple of days enjoying the limestone formations of this bay in Vietnam. Weather could have been better but it didn't rain. We convinced ourselves the grey, slight mistiness was atmospheric! We spent the night on the boat with eight others, and were embarrassingly beaten at scrabble by the Vietnamese tour leader! Yesterday we took kayaks for an hour and paddled around a floating fishing village, getting up close to the rocks. I spotted a crab with purple pincers, some oyster shells and bits of coral on them. Feeling energetic later we climbed up 400 + steps to get a misty view.

 

Our "junk" No sails up unfortunately, too windy.

 

 

 

Vientiane

Flew here yesterday, probably the shortest flight we've ever taken, about 35 mins. Joined the locals for a proper Lao coffee this morning (strong stuff with a dash of condensed milk, nice too, much easier to face than the meat and noodle soup breakfast we tried a couple of days ago!) This was followed by a few more temples and buddhas in case we'd forgotten what they looked like! To be honest though they have all been worth visiting and have a lovely, peaceful feeling. Saw another couple having pre-wedding photos (you do this in various places if you have enough money) at the monument below, beautifully dressed in traditional clothes. Visited a charity that supports people who've lost limbs mostly to accidents with landmines left from the Vietnam war. They call it the secret war, as the huge damage and loss of life here was hushed up for years. It was very inspiring and humbling. Photos included a lady with no legs and no real fingers producing beautiful embroideries. That's determination.

 

Luang Prabang

This is a lovely serene town still with a bit of a French feel (they took over the country, twice) and quite a lot of French tourists. It lies at the confluence of two rivers, the Mekong and the Khan, and the prettiest part of town is on the "panhandle" surrounded by the rivers. Lots of restaurants and bars with river views. We got up early to watch the monks collect alms, mostly of sticky rice, the staple diet here. You roll it into a ball and eat it with your fingers. Also visited a beautiful waterfall here and a moon bear sanctuary. The Chinese use the bears' gall bladders for medicines, keeping them alive in awful conditions. Neil is helping to spread the word with a T-shirt he bought there. Wonderful banana cake and fruit shakes. Don't know how but have managed to get myself a reputation as a good eater amongst the tour group!!

 

River view from L.P.

 

 

 

 

Neil cooking! We helped make our meal one night.

 

Mosaics on the outside of a temple