Please close the door - its freezing!

For the past 6 months we've had our return flights booked from China on
the basis that we would sort out the travel arrangements on the way. It
was looking likely we would need to rearrange our flights as web
searches indicated we needed to apply for the China visa from our home
country, and the Chinese embassy in Hanoi said we had no chance (in a
nice way!) Getting back to the hostel in Hanoi after visiting the
embassy, we said in a more or less last resort way that were trying to
get into China, when the hostel staff replied that it would be no
problem, and that they could book us a train ticket (1st class
sleeeper) and a taxi to the train station. All we had to do was hand
over the passports, and five days later they came back with all visa's
stuck to the relevant pages - easy!

The train left Hanoi late in
the evening, and we found that we were sharing the four berth cabin
with a Chinese lady from Beijing , who's English was perfect. It turned
out she had lived in Vancouver for 10 years, before returning to China,
no doubt to take part in the exceptional growth that the country is
enjoying at the moment. She gave us some excellent tips for places to
go and things to do, as well as helping us through immigration in China
(at 2 in the morning after 3 hours sleep). This was a trend that was
set to continue as all the Chinese people we have met (bar one) have
been exceptionally helpful, and are very keen that foreign tourists
like us enjoy their trip.

The train terminated in Nanning, which is
as the guidebook says a provincial town with little to do other than
ramble around. Its also massive, and crowded (perhaps not surprising in
a country with 1.3 billion residents), but perhaps the greatest
surprise to us was being openly stared at. This is common for western
tourists in China, but seemed especially true in Nanning where few
tourists visit. Its not an aggressive or unpleasant stare, just a look
of curiosity, which if met with a smile is usually returned the same
way.

We'd heard lots of stories of difficulties with communication in
China, and we found our experiences no different. We booked our onward
train travel without too much of a problem (after working out which of
the endless halls of the massive station sold tickets) by simply
writing down the name of the town we wanted to travel to (Gui Lin) and
then a date and a time, but finding food was more tricky. Lunch was ok,
as we found a noodle shop in one of the endless shopping malls that had
pictures on the wall we could point at, but dinner proved difficult.
Eventually we found a restaraunt which had quite a few people eating,
and prepared to point at what they were having, when we were
unexpectedly handed a menu with english text (even restaraunts in some
of the hotels we had visited didn't have this). We wouldn't have
starved of course, as Pepsi co and Macdonalds seem to be on a mission
to take China's high streets over, with fast food everywhere.

Getting
to the relatively close town of Gui Lin (a modest 6 hour train ride
away - China is the size of the USA after all), we checked in to the
friendly "Wada hostel" and walked around the city which has stunning
"Karst" mountains everywhere. From here we carried out two excursions:

The imaginatively titled Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces are an amazing
feat of engineering where "steps" have been cut into hillsides (some of
which are 1000m high) to allow rice to cultivated. The effect is both
impressive and beautiful, even in the misty conditions we saw. To get
there we had to take a couple of local buses, and were met by a local
lady who ran a hotel on the side of a mountain, who helped us get on
the right bus. Needless to say part of the deal was that we followed
her to the hotel, but as everyone seems so trustworthy we went with it.
The bus journey was quite an experience, as to get to all the local
villages, it made a frankly terrifying detour up a series of crumbling
dirt roads improbably cut into some of the most unstable hill sides I'
ve seen in a while.....

The Tian Ti hotel turned out to be one of our
favourite stops. The lady who bought us there proved to be a real human
dynamo, who led us up the hill, cooked our massive dinner, sorted the
rooms and made us breakfast, all for less than £20. The only problem
was the cold, as like almost everywhere in China, it appeared that
heating as well as sealed doors and windows are a scandalous western
bourjois invention, and the whole place was constantly freezing. All we
could do was put on all our clothes, and borrow duvets and blankets
from the unused other bedrooms.

Our other excursion was to the town of
Yuangshou, which has perhaps the most scenic location for a town I've
ever seen. We had a great time here despite the constant hassle from
touts, and everything here was easy, as to suit the many tourists there
are western menus and food everywhere. Sadly on the bus back to Gui Lin
we had our worst local encounter on the trip so far. As I moved my
backpack half way through the journey, I saw the hand of the youth in
front of us slipped between the seat in front, evidently having been in
my backpack. After a slightly heated exchange with neither of us
understood what the other was saying, my camera which had been in the
backpack "accidentally" dropped on the floor (as well as the travel
power adaptor rather surprsingly). At the next stop he got off the bus,
along with the person who had been sat behind, evidently they had been
working as a team.

Chinglish

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of China......

Too Many Zeros

Singapore and NZ - about 2 currency : 1 GBP
Auz and USA - about 1.6ish
dollar : 1GBP
Malaysia - about 5 Ringits : 1 GBP
Thailand - about 50
Baht : 1 GBP
Camodia - everyone uses dollars, the Riel is fixed to the
dollar at approx 4000 R : 1US

So far its been pretty easy to do a
quick bit of mental arithmetic to get and idea of costs, so its a bit
of a shock when arriving in Vietnam to find that there are approx 31
000 Dong to the pound. Simply ordering a coffee entails counting the
zero's on the menu, a situation not helped when some cafe's and
shopkeepers "help" by ignoring the last three zero's on the ubiquotous
pocket calculators that are used to show the prices of goods to the
linguistically challenged tourists. Even the shortlived thrill of
becoming a millionaire every time you visit a cashpoint wanes as you
try and count a thick wadge of 50K notes.....

Much as its great to
immerse ourselves in a dynamic and exciting city like Hanoi, sometimes
the frenetic pace of life can get a bit too much. The city is home to
what seems like millions of scooters, and it becomes almost impossible
to even cross the road. The only resort left is to do as the locals do,
and cross the roads one lane at a time, often with cars and bikes
whizzing past on all sides. Several times we ended up being helped
across the road by friendly locals without whom we might never have
made it back to the hostel!

Vietnam has taken to selling tourism with
a zeal that is remarkable, even by the high standards set in other
parts of south east asia. Every other business seems to be a tourist
biased restaraunt, tour company or trinket shop, and the sales
techniques are undeniably pushy, with touts making the presence felt
virtually 24/7. At one stage Ursh was even offered a small (surprised
looking) child, to take home as a souvenir!

Through the deservedly
highly rated "Little Hanoi Hostel", we booked our onward travel to
China and the relevant Visa's. As scams are rife, we decided to use our
trusted hostel to book everything, so while waiting for the visa's to
be processed, they also arranged our three day tour to Ha Long bay
marine park.

Ha Long Bay is home to thousands of islands, the vast
mojority of which take them form of peaks that seem to rise vertically
from the sea (Karst geography apparently). There are also endless caves
present, and whole area is simply stunning, especially when viewed from
on board one of the boats that tourists can stay on. In addition to
staying on the very comfortable boat, we got to do some canoeing, and
also managed to get some walking in on the mountains, all of which was
a great antidote to Hanoi's mania.

More than worth the hype

Cambodias Angkor Wat and adjacent temples are by far and away the
countries biggest tourist draw, and we were keen to put the irritations
of the border crossing behind us and get to the town of Siem Reap
(following a 3 hour bus journey) which everyone uses as a base for
visiting the temples.

Siem Reap is an unashamedly touristy town, with
lots of accomodation (we stayed at the excellent, friendly Rosy's Guest
house), and stacks of ood value places to eat, with Kymer (ethnic
Cambodian) and Western options on every street.

The temples
themselves are of largely Hindu origin, and range from 900 AD to about
1200AD. There are hundreds things that set them apart from other temple
visits but the most noticeable are the size of the temples, and the
number of them. I'm sure that it would be possible to spend weeks in
the area and not see the same temple twice.

Needless to say the most
centrepiece of the area is the Angkor Wat temple, which is of course
massive in floor plan, and is also set of four levels, which are
accessible via seeming vertical staircases. For many however the most
impressive feature are the wall carvings on the interior of the temple,
which feature scenes from Hindu Legends.

As well as battle scenes,
there is also a depiction of the "Churning of the Sea of Milk". In this
scene, a giant serpent is used to churn a sea of milk into an elixir of
life (there are hundreds of people holding it either end, and the sea
is full of fish and crocodile like animals). Its such a far out story
you can't help but wonder if it has been concocted by some over zealous
tourism officials......

After visiting Angkor Wat, the next big
tourist draw is Ta Phrom, which is a temple that has been partially
restored, but also where much of the forest vegetation has been left
insitu. The result is that there are enormous trees everywhere, growing
in a scarcely credible manner around the rocks placed by people almost
a millenia ago.

To get around we hired a couple of bikes from the
guest house, and not only did we get very cheap transport, but we also
got some excercise as well. To get to the further temples we travelled
with Mr Thorne, who expertly drove his lightweight 125cc "moto",
complete with trailer and three westerners on board for $30 for an all
day trip. He also took us to the Cambodian Landmine Musuem, which
proved to be a very moving tribute to victims of the "Killing field"
period of Cambodian history, and also to the victims of the legacy left
behind in the form of still present land mines and unexploded
ordinance. The museums founder is a Cambodian called "Aki Ra", who as a
child in the 1970's was a Kymer Rouge soldier (whilst I was having fun
in london at a similar age....), and has spent the past twenty years or
so trying to rid Cambodia of the mines. As you can imagine the "I'm not
worthy" feeling was difficult to avoid.

A couple of thanks are also
due now:

Elisabeth who was also staying at Rosy's Guest house allowed
us to tag along on a couple of days, and proved to be an excellent
impromptu tour guide, much more organized and knowledgeable than either
of us!

Chuckles - thanks for sorting out the remote link to the blog.

Bl0g temporarily on hold.......

After another few thousand Km's added to the trip, and some of the worlds most scenic
locations photographed, I was ready for a marathon bl0gging session.
Unfortunately I hadn't counted on the Peoples Republic of China deeming
my bl0g site (and all others it seems) unsuitable for its comrades, and
therefore disallowing access.....

Had they let me, I would have been
banging on about how we've been enjoying our travels in China, with
friendly people, a surprisingly easy border crossing, and bargain
prices everywhere.

I'll stick as much as I can on the bl0g when we
leave, probably in early April.

PS - Thanks to Chuckles for the remote
bl0g posting!

Border towns - arrrrgggghhhh!

For many travellers, Burma (Myanmar) was a no go zone following a request by imprisoned pro democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2009 however, she suggested that tourism to Burma is now OK, provided it is not government co-ordinated.


Our location in Chiang Mai allowed us access to an area south east asia which is labelled the "golden triangle", and it includes the point at which the Thai, Burma and Laos borders meet. 30 years ago this would have been a hazardous location to visit, largely due to the area being a massive producer of Opiates. As the Thai security forces have largely eradicated this (so they say) the area is now safe and tourism is big business here.


Getting on a mini bus tour in the very early morning, we headed first to a hot springs (turned out to be a dull collection of gift shops surrounded by a couple of small pools for warming feet in), and then onto Chiang Rai's new Buddhist temple. To be honest we were a little templed out this point, but the temple did feature some unexpected oddities:

• Many 3+ foot long catfish in a depressingly small pool
• Weird plaster cast devil heads hanging from trees
• Murals of hollywood cinema, and uncomfortable images representing 9/11 inside the temple

Chiang Rai's new Temple

The next stop was a boat trip on the mighty Mekong river, where we got a look at Burma, and then a short trip into Laos. As these are two of the poorest countries in the region (and the world), you can imagine everyones surprise to see vast casinos on the banks, which are placed there for rich Thai and for jet setting Chinese to fly into, as gambling is illegal in their home countries. I hope that the locals get to see some return from the presence of these casinos (seems doubtful, as in Laos for example the government has sold a 100 year lease on the land to a private Chinese casino owner), but from a tourism point of view it was a pointless trip, as we didn't get to see any "real" parts of Burma, and we only stopped off in a "special economic zone" of Laos (read - crappy tourist gift shop area).

Paradise Casino - In Burma????

Laos children - desperate for any Thai Baht or food they can get

Sadly time constraints meant that this was as close as we got to either country, which is a big shame as fellow travellers have often reported that despite the poverty, Laos and Burma have often been the highlights of their trips. I can't really recommend the golden triangle trip as a day excursion from Chiang Mai, as it was a long (600km) day, with little to show for it in terms of sights and experiences.

After leaving Chiang Mai, we headed on a bus scheduled to travel from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  Although scams in Thailand are rife, we seemed to have done quite well in avoiding them, but this was not to last. The bus dropped us off near the border, where it was announced we would need to pay 1200 Baht ($32US) each for our visas, when we knew we should only be paying $20 US. When we refused it became clear we were on our own, so we walked off to the border (it seemed afterwards we started a mini exodus which was quite pleasing), only to find that none of the cash machines would give us any dollars, so we couldn't pay for the fee to get into Cambodia.

It was soon clear that I would have to swallow my pride, and head to one of the obiquitous casions, where I had to buy some chips with my Credit Card, and then sell them (ungambled....) to raise some cash. To make the experience just that bit more fun, the croupiers all found the site of the sweaty stressed westerner one of the funniest things they had ever seen! Following a couple of hefty queues, and very questionable exchange rates levied by the Cambodian officials, we got through the border, only to have to dodge an army of touts who seemed to ambush every westerner present.

Dog tired

As with Malaysia, the heat in Thailand can become overwhelming, so as we did further south we headed up to the hill country. Chiang Mai is Thailands second city, and perhaps more than Bangkok is very traveller friendly, perhaps as much down to its available activities as its scenery and city scape.

After an OK overnight bus journey, we arrived at 4am, and immediately checked in to a hotel for a few hours kip. Chiang Mai was refreshing after Bangkok, it feels much more relaxed, and had a low rise less corporate vibe.

Wat Thra Singh Temple- Chiang Mai

Prayer Flags

The first activity we booked on was the confidently named "Thailands best cookery school", run by the amusingly un PC "Perm". We had a great time learning to make Tofu Pad Thai, Mixed Veg Soup, Green Curry and Chicken and Cashew Nuts.

 The highlight of the day was the chance to set fire to the hot oil in the wok, something one of our fellow students was able to video

As we now only have limited time left for our travels, we are on a bit of a mission to cram activities and destinations into a short time span, so the next day we went straight into a three day jungle trek.

Unlike the Keppler track in NZ, this trek was guided, and included organised accomodation and food. The trek was led by Yai, who managed to combine impressive fitness and cooking with a remarkable intake of the local moonshine and cigarettes. How he managed to avoid coma inducing hangovers I really don't know!

Feeling quite fresh on the first day

In addition to Yai, we were motivated by a local dog, who has adopted a nomadic lifetstyle where he follows along with random groups of hikers, including sleeping outside of the huts at nightime. We named him Dog (#1), and he provided endless entertainment with his almost limitless energy. Each time we walked through a new village, he had to run the gauntlet of local dogs fighting him to protect their territory, but he seemed to come through ok.

Ursh and Dog1 at the bat cave

The accommodation was quite basic, but fortunately all the hikers got on well, and also we were so knackered we slept ok despite thin matresses and cold temperatures. On the second night we were woken early by the plethora of animals that surrounded the hill tribe village where we were staying. I think we all hoped that the cockerell who started the noise at 4am would be on someones menu soon!

"Compact" Accomodation

Pre programmed alarm call for 4, 4:45, 5:30 etc

Anna and Torben for Germany were delighted to hear that "mini pigs" are called Piglets in English

Although the scenery was more rolling hills than sharp mountains, we both felt we had had a good workout, and three days was certainly enough. It was also great fun to be able to swim in the waterfall pools, and also great that we got to meet some excellent fellow hikers, as the group got on really well.

Back L-R: Mike, Ruth, Adrien, Chris, Torben,Yai, Mickhal
Front: Anna, Ursh

Dog 1, ate anything put in front of him, including biscuits, veg and spicy soup