Vietnam: Stories from a soggy country

Water, water; everywhere. The lives of the Vietnamese and the country itself are dominated by the wet stuff. From the Mekong Delta in the south to Halong Bay in the north; from the beaches along the coast to the paddy fields that cover the rest of the country, from Pho Bo (a traditional beef noodle soup) to the cocktails and the many rivers that lace the hills and flats of the landscape, there is water everywhere. Admittedly, it is currently coming to the end of the rainy season, but I think the lifestyles of the people here are the same in the drier seasons - just with a bit less rain to deal with.

Overall, I have to admit that I preferred Cambodia to Vietnam. The Khmer people are a lot more friendly than the Vietnamese, who are generally more aggressive and confrontational, from the market traders to the staff at restaurants and hotels. The Vietnamese are also more likely to try and scam money from you, or more blatantly try to steal from you, so you need to be a bit more on guard. Vietnam is relatively more wealthy than Cambodia too, so there is more development and billboard advertisements line the roads rather than palm trees. At least that is part of the story; some areas are really beautiful and picturesque and, in the countryside, people farm their crops using traditional methods and greet you with a smile.

Chau Doc

After crossing the border, our first port of call was Chau Doc, a small town situated in the Mekong Delta. The visit was just a stopover before a long day of travelling, but we did have some time to explore.

After lunch, we took a boat trip through one of the floating villages and called in at a couple of the workshops that are dotted throughout the village. The wooden homes are a bit ramshackle, with great big rats running along under the floors, and existence there is pretty much hand-to-mouth, but all the homes have TV aerials and one or two even have satellite dishes!

Following the boat trip, the group took a cavalcade of scooters up one of the surrounding hills to catch a view of the sunset, looking back over Cambodia, and saw how the built up areas and connecting roads around Chau Doc are really just islands amidst vast stretches of water.

Saigon

The next day, an eight-hour coach journey, broken by a ferry across the Mekong river and lunch at a roadside restaurant, took us to the main city in southern Vietnam, Saigon. (It's formal name is Ho Chi Minh City, but that is really only for Sunday best, and everybody who lives there still calls it Saigon.) 

After the long coach trip, it was good to be able to walk around the city and stretch our legs. Compared to the previous places on the tour, Saigon is a big city and has that big city feel to it. In truth, it is much like any other big Asian city and in the city centre there is nothing that really distinguishes it. Perhaps the exception to this is the number of motorbikes that weave through the streets. There are cars; there are buses and trucks; there are pedal bikes; but the vast majority of vehicles on the road are motorbikes. There are hundreds of them coming from all directions, channeling across the big intersections in big packs or snaking down the narrow backstreets. One of the most important lessons here is how to cross the road, and there is a knack: you simply need to step out into the traffic (open eyes are optional) and keep walking, as the bikes flow around you, and because they are so used to it, they do manage to avoid you (and each other!). At night, the city buzzes with neon and headlights dazzle everywhere you look.

Our one night in Saigon was the last night of the trip for Marlen, Nathan and Jo, and it had a bit of everything. It started normally enough, with dinner at an Italian restaurant in the backpackers district, followed by beers and cocktails (served in jam-jars, naturally), before things started to get a bit more unusual. Our search for a dance floor took us from one empty bar to another, before we decided to turn that to our advantage and get one of the DJs to play just our requests, dancing all over the bar while at the same time playing a game of darts with darts that were so blunt, you had to hurl them like a javelin to have any chance of making them stick. Afterwards, in search of somewhere else to drink, we accidentally ended up in a brothel, where a man-mountain of an Aussie offered us free vodka to stay for a while. We politely declined and instead stumbled across a flashy night club with hard core dance music; which was full of locals who wanted to either dance with us, sell us marijuana or hear our views on communism! Amongst the suits and designer dresses, we looked a bit out of place in our travellers garb, so we eventually left and found ourselves in a local "bar", which was nothing more than a few tiny plastic chairs on the roadside and cans of beer from the fridge. Everything was closing up by now, but there was still time for Marlen to join in the road races with the street kids, running barefoot through the backstreets of Saigon in the early hours of the morning.

The following day, along with Kelly, Susan and Mike who had joined our merry band for the Vietnam portion of the tour, we headed out of the city to see the Cu Chi tunnels. As we passed the parks and open areas that are sprinkled around the city, there were lots of people getting their daily morning exercise: tai chi formations, jogging and games of badminton or jianzi (kicking a shuttlecock to each other) were the most common activities. 

The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the Viet Cong in their war against South Vietnam and the Americans. If you don't know, the Viet Cong are the southern Vietnamese who sided with the communist north in the war.  You hear lots about the Vietnam war, and there are countless films about it, but being from a western country, I always hear the US version and it was interesting to get another take on it.

The Cu Chi tunnels are a network of over 200km of connected tunnels (obviously) on three levels, with fighting trenches and booby traps above ground. Whenever enemy troops came close by, the entire community hid in the tunnels or used them to get behind the advancing enemy and attack from the rear. The tunnels and entrances were tiny and the living conditions must have been atrocious, but because the Viet Cong were fighting for a cause and their country, their dedication, alongside inventive guerilla tactics (booby traps made from bamboo spikes, using human faeces to poison the tips) and industrious work ethic (fighting by day, farming by night) led them to their eventual victory. And rather than being communist propaganda, this view was from our tour guide, who was in the South Vietnam army during the war, working with the US in the Cu Chi area and, after the US withdrew, fighting in the Mekong Delta.

I don't know how widespread this view is within Vietnam, but our guide thinks that everybody who was in the war was a victim, and there is no animosity towards the Americans or between the opposite sides within Vietnam. Nowadays, he and an ex-Viet Cong general drink together, laughing about how lucky they were not to meet in the war because they were both crack shots! 

Back in Saigon, we spent the rest of the day sight-seeing although, to be fair, there wasn't that much to see.  The Reunification Palace was disappointing, a time-warp from when the north stormed the palace at the end of the war, and has been left pretty much as it was found that day, with lots of 1970s dullness! The central post office is an impressive building, with a giant picture of Ho Chi Minh looking down over the grand hall and next to it is the pretty Notre-Dame Basilica (a relic from when Vietnam was a French colony), but apart from that there is nothing particularly noteworthy. Given the short stay in Saigon, I didn't get the chance to explore any of the museums, but perhaps they would have been a better bet.

Nha Trang

That evening, we took our first night train of the trip to the beach resort of Nha Trang. Nominally four to a cabin, we spent the evening with ten crammed into one (twelve including the mice!), playing cards and chatting. The beds, when they eventually called, were surprisingly comfortable, although perhaps less so for the taller members of the group, as I only just fit into the sleeping space.

We arrived early morning and after a quick walk around the town (similar to many other beach resorts, with a slight Mediterranean feel and lots of tourists, bars and restaurants) we had a day of pampering. Heading out of the town centre to a natural spa in the hills for a (foul-smelling) mud bath and soak in the mineral waters, before returning to the town for a massage.

My dive master confirmation also came through in the afternoon and, as Nha Trang has some of the best diving in Vietnam, I celebrated with a couple of dives around the islands that are scattered off the coast. A six-thirty start was hampered by the more traditional celebration of beers and cocktails the night before (Why Not? as the name of the bar suggests), but the diving was quite good - not much coral, but lots of crustaceans, octopus and reef fish amongst the rocks.

Hoi An

After the diving, our second night train took us to Da Nang, where a three hour bus ride to Hoi An waited for us. The train journey was supposed to be 11 hours, but a couple of delays stretched that to 13, so the drinks before and during the journey, which helped make the time fly, were a good idea. They also made sleeping a bit easier, as the carriage we had on this leg was from older stock and not nearly as comfortable as the first night train.

We eventually arrived in Hoi An in time for lunch at one of the local restaurants. There has been mainly good food throughout Vietnam, although not quite as good as Cambodia and there have been a couple of awful meals, with a mix of Asian and western meals (and, contrary to popular (i.e. my) belief, there are more dogs on the streets than on the menus). However, lunch in Hoi An was probably the most fun, with possibly the most friendly restaurant host in the world. The food was basic, salad, spring rolls and pork skewers wrapped in rice paper and dipped in a chilli beef sauce, but was eaten by hand and the hostess decided that I clearly couldn't manage that by myself, so started hand feeding me and a couple of the others. Then, she took the view that I was also unable to drink by myself or use a serviette. It's a strange experience being hand feed by a complete stranger, but she was relentless and the food kept coming until I was full to bursting. The table after everybody had finished was a scene of carnage!

In the afternoon, we took a bike ride and it was nice to get out of town and not be on a bus. Only 1km out of town, we started riding through the paddy fields and vegetable patches, with farmers working using age old methods, kids playing and waving at us as we passed, cows and water buffalo munching on the verges paying us no attention whatsoever and hundreds of dragonflies buzzing around. The bikes had no gears, hardly any brakes and saddles that felt like they were made out of wood, but we went at such a leisurely pace, none of that mattered. Having been out for a couple of hours, we took a boat ride back to Hoi An centre on Hoi An river. It is such a very slow way of life, and a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of Saigon and tourist traps of Nha Trang.

The hotel we stayed in had a swimming pool, so after the bike ride we relaxed by the pool until the rain came and then spent the rest of the day playing pool in the bars (pool tables are everywhere here and we've played a lot in the evenings).

So the first week in Vietnam was a bit of a mixed bag: nondescript cities and unremarkable (but nice) beach resorts, alongside interesting history lessons and, in Hoi An, a beautiful insight into a different way of life.

In the next post, I'll have an update from the northern part of the country.

Ta ta for now.

Cambodia: Horrors, history and hanging-out

Sorry guys and gals, it's a long one! Hope you are sitting comfortably. Perhaps you should get a nice cup of tea before you start reading!

Siem Reap

After arriving in Siem Reap, the first evening was spent visiting a project that GAP supports: www.newhopecambodia.com where they have been building a school and clinic to help the very poor.

I didn't see the worst of the poverty in Zanzibar, although I know it exists. Here, though, it is very evident, especially in the villages and it is difficult to grasp just how little these people have. It is also uncomfortable going on trips to see the worst areas; it feels like the villagers are a tourist attraction, as if they some kind of poverty freak show. However, I don't think the villagers see it like that. The Khmer have a similar outlook to life as Zanzibaris, as the children's faces light up with a smile when they see you, waving at you and trying out their English, and the people you meet in hotels, restaurants or around town (beggars aside) always seem happy. (There's that word again - desperate poverty and happiness seem to be perversely good bedfellows.) The joyful demeanour of the people is all the more surprising when you consider the recent history of this country, with its unwanted involvement in the Vietnam war and then suffering long-running civil wars, including the Pol Pot regime of the late seventies. It is amazing to think that this country was in the midst of a bloody civil war just 12/13 years ago. As this trip involves moving around from place to place, I haven't got to know any Khmer like I got to know the Zanzibaris, but if happiness is measured in smiles, then they are doing ok on that front.

The first day of the tour started with a 6:00 pick-up for the drive to Cambodia. The second day was even earlier, boarding our minibus at 4:45 to head to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, the gods had other plans and the sunrise over Angkor Wat was scuppered by rain clouds, but the sight is impressive nonetheless.

Angkor Wat is the most famous of several temples in an enormous complex.   It does not have the most intricate carving of temples I have seen, but the sheet scale of it and its age (built in the early 12th century) makes it very impressive. For one of the more famous wonders of the world, the crowds were actually rather sparse. Of course, tourism is still fairly new here, so this means that the infrastructure around the temple (the paths, the kiosks etc.) is very basic and the tour guides are still learning their trade. Our guide wanted us to ask questions rather than have a pre-prepared brief and, when we didn't, he would put people on the spot to come up with a question. At the end, we were told off because we didn't ask the right questions to get the information he wanted to tell us! One of the bonuses of not having swarming throngs of people is that, as the temple is surrounded by forests, we shared the sightseeing with a family of monkeys who were quite content running up and down the steps and walls of the temple. (A couple of the monkeys were clearly very happy, as we were treated to an impromptu sex show on the steps of the temple!) The lack of commercialisation and relative isolation that you get to wander around the grounds adds to the charm of the place.

After the visit to Angkor Wat, we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring three of the other temples: Ta Prohm, Ta Keo and Bayon.

Ta Prohm is known colloquially as the  jungle temple. For those of you that have seen the film, it is the one used in the making of Tomb Raider. It is unusual; the surrounding forest has devoured parts of the temple and the walls are draped with roots and branches. Because it is so unusual, I think I preferred this temple to Angkor Wat, although it is much smaller so the tourists were more concentrated.

Ta Keo is one of the oldest temples in the complex, built around the start of the 11th century. Unbelievably, after who-knows how many years building the site, it was left unfinished after a lightning strike hit it and the locals considered it to be unlucky to continue with it! The steps that lead up the temple were so steep, they would not be allowed in the UK and I'm sure that when tourism does take off here, there will be restrictions on where you can go.

The final temple that we visited was Bayon, in the ancient capital city of Angkor Thom. The temple is famous for the hundreds of Buddha faces which decorate the towers and, as an ex-monastery, there were several monks there which gave the place an added sense of authenticity.

After spending half the day exploring temples, we had a change of pace on the late afternoon, going on a cruise on Tonle Sap lake.  We were told it is the second biggest lake in the world, although I'm not sure this is correct. The lake is very shallow - it is at its biggest in the wet season (naturally) but even then it is only ever 10m deep. In the dry season, the majority of the lake is less than a couple of meters deep. I would have believed them if they said it was the world's biggest puddle! Having said that, it is currently the rainy season here and so a few of the group went for a swim in the warm waters. After a quick dip, we headed to the floating villages to watch the sunset, visit a floating crocodile farm and try some of the local delicacies, like fried snake (which is quite salty, but nice).  Like the sunrise, the sunset was almost spoilt by clouds again, but it eventually broke through before we set off back to town for a night out.

Because we had had two early starts on the trip, it was the first time the group had gone out for a party and it was a really fun night out. We went to the appropriately, but unimaginatively, named Pub Street, where cocktails were two dollars a throw, so we started to work our way down the list, before having a bit of a boogie. It was good to start to get to know the rest of the group better, including discovering that 21 year olds can't drink as much as they used to! Sorry Kio! And I must admit, to my disgust, my tolerance of shit dance music is improving.

In the morning, after the biggest mango smoothie in the history of mankind, Marlen and I went for a massage. In a virtually open plan parlour, the modesty towel lasted about five minutes before being whipped away as it was getting in the way - Cambodia is a lot more liberal than I imagined! I thought it would be the perfect preparation for the seven hour bus ride to Phnom Penh but actually, as far as massages go, it wasn't the most relaxing. I don't think it helped having the two girls who were giving me a massage constantly chatting with each other and to the two that were with Marlen.  But the aches and pains the following day must mean that it was good for me. Right?!

Phnom Penh

The landscape between Siem Reap and the capital is very flat, with endless farms stretching as far as the eye can see. Alongside the road, the people live in basic huts, built on stilts to keep the homes out of the water in the wet season. My first impression of Phnom Penh was that it is very busy, with lots of people, bikes and vehicles crisscrossing on the roads and pavements, but this is mainly due to the fact that we arrived in the city when the annual water festival was on, which also coincided with a full moon celebration (I'm not sure if that happens every year). The government had decided that they would not have a big festival this year, with the money saved going to help those affected by the floods, but there were still lots of people out celebrating. The only organised entertainment I saw was a firework display and some live music but, much like Forodhani at Eid, the celebrations seemed to be people meeting up with their families, sitting on rugs by the river eating together.

S21 and the Killing Fields
Hmmm. Where to start? The story of what happened during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 is horrific beyond comprehension. Our tour guide on the day had lived through it, as a boy forced to work in the fields, so the stories were delivered with an added poignancy.

I do not intend to tell the story of the Khmer Rouge here; there are better informed reports available elsewhere and I could not do it justice in such a brief note. Suffice to say, 2 to 3 million Khmer (from a population of 7 million) were killed in under five years. Anybody who was regarded as a threat to the regime was killed. This includes soldiers from the previous regime, soldiers from the Khmer Rouge regime who knew too much or started to question orders and the country's intelligentsia who may challenge the regime or start an uprising. Everybody from the cities was driven from their homes to work in the fields, so how did the soldiers identify the educated classes? It was by taking a no-risk approach: if you wore glasses, you were deemed a threat; if you could speak a foreign language, a threat; if you had soft hands, a threat; if you had paler skin (indicating you spent time working in an office rather than fields), a threat. And if one member of a family was regarded as a threat, the rest of the family was also condemned by association - even the babies.  All were killed. The country's population is now about 14 million and the fact that over half are under 18 highlights how the country had to rebuild itself following the years of civil wars.

Tuol Sleng or Section 21 (S-21) is one of the prisons in Phnom Penh used to incarcerate and interrogate people before they were taken to the Killing Fields to be murdered. S-21 used to be a school and, from the outside, it is not very foreboding. However, for  17,000 people it was their torture chamber and final home. There is  barbed wire covering the front of the buildings, but it was not to prevent escape. No one escaped. It was put in place to prevent suicides, as the prisoners would rather die than endure the rape and torture that waiting for them inside. Of the 17,000 that were taken in for interrogation, not one was released and, when the city was liberated by the Vietnamese in 1979, there were just 7 survivors. Two of those survivors are still alive today and we met them. They work at the site of their torture in S21, selling books that tell their stories, explaining to tourists in broken English the horrors that they went through. It made the experience very, very real and helped you realise how recently these atrocities took place.  

After the visit to S-21, we took a short drive to an area called Choeung Ek just outside town where the prisoners were taken on their final journey. At this site, there are over 100 mass graves. Around 80 have been excavated, but the rest are being left - the survivors do not need any more reminders. There is no mawkish sentimentality at the site - everything is just presented as matters-of-fact. The focal point is a giant stupa, where the skulls and bones of the excavated graves have been collected. The bones are stored in an enormous cabinet, perhaps ten meters square, with over 15 shelves, each shelf about 2 meters deep and stacked with skulls. The skulls have been separated into various categories: 15-20 year old females; 20-40 year old males etc. It is not a sight for the faint of heart.

The most disturbing aspect of the tour is that, as you walk around the site, you are walking over teeth and bones of the dead. Quite literally. As the rains wash away top soil, bone fragments and teeth rise to the surface on the paths around the site, and they are everywhere. There are also partially buried rags - the clothing that the murdered were wearing when they were sent to their death. And this is just one of the killing fields - there are over 300 throughout the country, with 20,000 mass graves in total.

And of all the horrific aspects, the most shocking is still taking place today. The killers have had an amnesty and are free to walk the sites, selling their stories to journalists. Others have positions high up in the current government. Only four of the highest command from the Khmer Rouge regime are facing trial for crimes against humanity (and this only after having an initial amnesty, where for 10 years they lived a life of luxury in the city where they were responsible for the deaths of so many) and Pol Pot himself died without being captured. The tour guide was not able to talk freely about politics when we were outside the coach, because there is still a fear of those in power. The scars on this country will take some time to heal.

As we left, the group was understandably very quiet, driving back to the city each with their own thoughts.

Rest of Phnom Penh

It was a day of contrasts, straight from the Killing Fields, we went to the Russian Market where the girls tried their best to buy one of everything. After that, we went to the national museum (which to be fair was not that great, lots of statutes of Buddha and Hindu deities and some artefacts, but compared to Siem Reap it wasn't too interesting). After a late lunch overlooking the river, we went to a local tv station to watch some kick boxing. As the only foreigners in town, the cameras were trained on us half the time! It was strange to mingle with the boxers as they came out of the ring, with one of the victors posing for photos with Sabine and Camilla. It sums up the openness and welcoming nature of the country.

Tuk-tuks have been the mode of transport here for all journeys up to about 45 minutes. It's funny how the local cheap transport varies from country to country. Same same, but different. They are a great way to see a new city and the several rides we had give a real insight to how the locals live their lives.

Sihanoukville

As we headed south to the coast of the Gulf of Thailand at Sihanoukville, the landscape changed. Endless flat plains were replaced by rolling hills, paddy fields disappeared and in their place were rows of palm trees and other fruit trees. 

Our first day in Sihanoukville was spent playing pool, walking down the beach and drinking in the bars; because, to be honest, there is not much else to do there. It is a bit if a tourist place, bar after bar after bar lined the beach (which is not the most pretty I've seen) and kids and traders wander along trying to sell various souvenirs and snacks. The beach was very busy by the bars and restaurants and, perhaps surprisingly, the customers were mainly locals. The water festival was still going on, so lots of families were out celebrating.

On our second day, we took a boat to visit three of the islands in the bay. The snorkelling was the worst I have ever seen: next to no visibility, next to no fish and the water was full of all kinds of rubbish. After the snorkelling, we had lunch on another island and spent a few hours chilling on the beach or playing games in the sea. After the hectic and non-stop start to the tour, it was a nice break.

After two nights in Sihanoukville, it was time to head over to Vietnam at the border crossing at Phnom Den. The border is just a bridge with a few wooden shacks for immigration, customs etc. I hadn't previously crossed an international boundary on foot before this trip and now have done it twice in a week. It is remarkably straightforward, even in the more restrictive countries, despite a hiccup with the visa for one of the group.

That's it for now. The next blog will be full of stories from Vietnam.

Bye!

Bangkok and the road to Cambodia

Getting there

The round-the-world part of my sabbatical did not get off to the most auspicious of starts. My night-time London to Bangkok flight was brought forward by about one hour, so STA kindly decided that I would appreciate eight hours shopping at Heathrow and switched me from an evening flight from Manchester to London to a lunchtime one. The main problem was, by the time I found this out (by trying to check-in to the evening flight online) I had only just got back from the wedding in Sheffield. I still needed to pack and the early flight was already taking off! Cue a bit of a mad panic and a hurridly drawn up contingency plan to drive to London for the Bangkok flight, before a quick dash to Manchester airport sorted it all out, as the BA staff were able to get me another seat on my original evening flight. Not the most relaxing last day in the UK, but it was pretty much in keeping with the rest of my brief visit!

Although I have been "travelling" for three months, I have only been in one place so far and it was actually a bit daunting to head off again, not knowing who I will meet or what lies ahead at the other end of the flight. Daunting, but also exciting: countries I have not seen before, new cultures to be experienced and new sights to see, new stories to tell and new photos to take! And I was also looking forward to starting to say "hello" to people again. It had felt like the previous week had all been about goodbyes, both in Zanzibar and the UK, so I was ready for a change. I had also said goodbye to technology (or at least some of it). I am now sans computer, so will be relying on internet cafes and whatever mobile coverage I can get to keep in touch with the rest of the world. I know how disappointed you would be if I could not keep my blog updated! 

Bangkok and joining the tour

After a 19 hour journey, the last 90 minutes of which were spent in a taxi crawling through Bangkok's rush hour traffic, I arrived at my hotel just in time for the final five minutes of the tour briefing. Ten minutes later, we were heading out to a local restaurant.

I admit that starting my proper travels on an organised tour is a bit of a coward's way of doing it. Having a ready made group of friends sounds so much easier than pitching up at one of the many hostels in Bangkok and having to work to get to know people. The group seems like a good mix; everybody is in  their 20s or 30s and quite a few different countries are represented. It is mainly solo travellers in the group, like me, plus three couples and a couple of girls travelling together from Denmark (Sabine and Camilla). The three solo blokes on the trip, (me, Jon (Canadian) and Kio (English)) will be alternating shared room and private room. The are also four girls travelling alone (Abbey and Tasmine, both English, Marlen (Swiss, but currently lives in Moscow) and Stine (Danish)). Of the couples, Nathan and Jo are from Melbourne, while Dennis and Janine & Peter and Stefanie are all from Germany. I'm not certain yet, but think I am the eldest. Again! But as I already knew and was confirmed in Zanzibar, age is just a number! 

Once we get to Vietnam, some of this group will leave and other people will join our party. I think throughout the trip, there will be about 15 people on the tour, which seems like a good size.  

On the second day of the tour, we set off at 7.00 on the four hour bus ride to the Cambodian border at Poipet  (in case the floods had made travelling even more difficult than usual). As it turned out, on the route we took there were very few signs of the floods, apart from sandbags piled up outside shops and restaurants and lines of parked cars on the freeway (one of the highest points in the city). The floods have been a disaster though and Amy, our tour guide, who lives on the outskirts of Bangkok currently has her car underwater. The journey itself was very straightforward: tarmac roads, roadsigns showing the way, lanes being used properly; I must admit I thought I had gone deaf at one point when we hit some traffic and I did not hear a single car horn. The surrounding countryside in Thailand was made up of thick clumps of trees and lush green fields, with the paddy fields of the rice farms dotted here and there by the roadside.

Cambodia border crossing

Seven days. Five flights. Four countries. Three continents. One wedding. My body clock lost three hours for three days, then gained seven. No wonder I was so bloody knackered by the time we reached Cambodia! 

In Cambodia, we had another 2.5 hours to travel to reach Siem Reap, our first port of call. Here, there have been die straight roads that stretch for miles flanked by vast plains of rice fields, with local farmers up to their waist in the water or children swimming, with the odd shrine or temple scattered among the populated areas alongside cattle and water buffalo grazing at the verges.  

I thought the accommodation on the tour was going to be very basic, but the the first two hotels we have stayed in have been good. Let's hope this is a good sign for the rest of the tour. 

Sorry, there are not many photos just yet, but I promise I'll make it up in the coming weeks! 

Sawadee khráp. 

Back to Blighty

The last few days


My final week in Zanzibar turned out to be a bit of a topsy-turvy one. As well as having mixed feelings about leaving the island and going on the next leg of my trip, the week just had a strange feel about it. There were some good nights out (and accompanying recovery mornings) and the sunset cruise was really good, but I managed to catch a bug that was going round, so diving opportunities were limited, and a couple of other things didn't turn out quite how I hoped or planned. On top of that, the floods in Bangkok and Qantas's decision to ground its flights meant that the Indochina part of my trip was in jeopardy for a while. I did, though, finish the diving course which was my main goal for my stay here.  

The sunset cruise was a great night, although the lack of wind was a bit of a worry as we gently drifted towards the container ships moored at the docks, and a big ugly ship blocked the last few moments of the sunset, but it was a fun leaving do (and, to be honest, big ugly ships are just as typical of Zanzibar as beautiful sunsets).  

The Halloween party was a drunken affair, with some very inventive costumes, especially given how difficult it can be to get unusual things here (and I must give a special mention to Len/Tim who went dressed as a condom), and lots of cat outfits. After failing to find what I was looking for in Darajani (which in no way was due to Steffi and Uli browsing for shoes and dresses), my costume was quite a tame one (for me!) and I had to settle for a face painted with various eye-shadow colours.

One of the things you are taught very early in your diving education is that you shouldn't dive with a cold or blocked sinuses. But it was the last few days of my stay, so what did I do? Of course I did. Equalising my ears on the way down was actually fine, but the blood streaming from my nose after surfacing was a bit more of a worry! It stopped (eventually) but lessons have been learnt! The two stamina tests that I had been dreading, the 800m snorkel and 100m tired diver tow, were saved for my last few days, but I surprised myself and managed to score 4 out of 5 on both, even beating the time of the new, 18-year old, dive master trainee. There's life in the old dog yet! And with those stamina tests completed, so too was the dive master course, so now I am a fully fledged professional scuba diver. Poa sana! 


With the course completed and my sinuses not up to diving, I stayed out of the water on my last day on the island. I did, though, have a lovely day, returning to Paje for a day at the beach with Steffi, before a farewell dinner at La Taverna with lots of the friends from my stay. Steffi had an hilariously wonderful "Do you know who I am?!" moment on the way back from Paje, berating and shouting at the police officer who dared to stop her and ask for her driving papers. I think news of her mood must have travelled quickly, because when we were stopped a second time nearing Stone Town, the officer just wished us (me?!) good luck and waved us on!  

My final day would not have been complete without visits to Tatu and Livingstones, so we duly obliged, although this time some of the more dedicated fun-seekers topped the night off with a trip to Bwani for (yet) more drink and a boogie, eventually leaving at about 3:00. Getting in at 3:30 in the morning, not absolutely sober, does not make for the best packing, but I somehow managed. I really should be well practiced at it by now!    

Speaking of packing, I found an ideal solution to the problem of avoiding ridiculous excess luggage fees on the return trip. I have simply left half my gear in Zanzibar! More specifically, I have left all my heavy diving equipment. Although I generally prefer visiting new places rather than returning to previous destinations, I decided a few weeks ago that I would be going back to Zanzibar next year and this saves me having to carry it out again. Besides which, I cannot take it with me on the rest of my travels and, when I'm back in the UK, I would need to be really desperate for a dive to force me to face the icy waters, so I'm not going to need any of it in the meantime. So, for all the adopted Zanzibaris reading this, sorry, but you've not got rid of me yet!


I was a bit subdued in the final few days as my time on the island drew to a close, but actually leaving was an unexpectedly unemotional affair. I'll confess to a couple of tears when I was dropped off after Bwani, but leaving day itself and the flights home were fine. Laura and Nell were at the airport to wave me off and I managed to get the co-pilot seat on the Zanzibar to Dar flight (courtesy of Iain). I met up with David for lunch in Dar before heading to the airport. And when I was on the Dar to Doha flight (which, I kid you not, left about 30 minutes early - not very Tanzanian at all!) it felt like I was going away to somewhere, rather than returning from somewhere. Whilst it was sad to think about the people I won't see for a while, I think that knowing I am returning soon means it is only a temporary farewell and not a final goodbye - which is so much easier. 


And so to England

Cold. Wet. And, most of all, grey. From the grey-green grass to the grey-blue sky, with its watery grey sun and (mainly) grey clouds. Grey. But it is also home; and I have had a great time seeing my family and people I love, catching up with friends who I have missed while in Africa and who I will miss again when I head off to Asia. It has also been nice to hear the birdsong in the garden, which even under the heavy November skies are much more melodic than the screeching crows which abound in Zanzibar. 


The three and half days spent back in England involved a lot of rushing around. I managed to head down to London to get my visa for Vietnam, pick up some money for travelling, visit Helen and her beautiful new baby boy, finish all my laundry, arrange house insurance, download all my photos, do a bit of shopping, pack (again) and see lots of family and friends, as well as celebrate Matt and Jon's wedding. At least all that rushing helped to keep me warm!


One thing that wasn't grey was the celebration for Matt and Jon's wedding. It was a gloriously colourful affair, although not quite extravagantly camp as I expected (music aside). I think I surprised a few people with the amount of time I spent on the dance floor - it's a good job they didn't play Rihanna, or I think they may have had even more of a shock! 


It has been really good seeing my family again. I know it has been said many times before, but babies grow up fast and Jack, Harry and Poppy have all changed in the three months I have been away, so it was nice to see them a little bit older. 


On the road again

For those of you that have travelled with me before, you know that I am not a particularly light traveller. Too many cameras and other toys! So you will be impressed at the backpack I am taking for the next three months (or at least I am impressed!). Everything I am taking fits into my hand luggage, so I can avoid wasting time at airport carousels, reduce the chance of losing my stuff in transit and make moving around cities much simpler. It waits to be seen whether I can cope like this, and there is a chance I will be buying another bag before too long!

One thing I will have to stop doing, is using my pidgin Swahili with everybody that I meet. That, and greeting people with a fist pump, which is all very natural in Zanzibar but gets you a very strange look from the ticket collector on the train to London! In fact, fuck them, I don't think I will stop - there is a little piece of Zanzibar inside me now so they will just have to deal with it!

Ta ta for now

Next stop Bangkok and the floods...