HCMC aka Saigon

After the rough ride there, we found Ho Chi Minh City aka HCMC aka Saigon really quite pleasant. We met Tony on the bus from Phnom Panh and bonded over our shell-shock, we were also staying at the same cheap-but-alright Hotel. So we did some sightseeing together, visited the market and the War Remnants Museum and park, we also ate at ‘Pho 2000’ where Bill Clinton ate (!!), it had tacky pictures of him sitting there and eating his pho, but it was actually really nice cheapish food which we enjoyed (although note, the free wet towels they put on your table at the start are not free!).

The city itself was much cleaner than anything in Cambodia, it felt a lot more developed and we certainly got hassled much less (no ‘tuk tuk sir! Lady!’ when we walked down the street). The parks were lovely and always had people in them doing exercises or dances or strange slow sword dancing! There are lots of people in conical hats in Vietnam, it makes for lovely pictures! There are also lots of girls wearing traditional long dresses with floaty trousers, its really pretty and the school uniform (I think its for older girls) is the same but completely white and its so nice to see them cycling down the street. The most noticeable thing about Saigon was the motorbikes everywhere! There are 6 million people in the city and 3 million motorbikes and you know it is you ever try to cross the roads on foot. Everyone wears helmets which they don’t in all of the other countries we have been to nearby and they have the coolest helmets ever! They have whole helmet shops and they look like pretty cloth hats in every style of hat you can think of, but there’s a helmet underneath!
We also took a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. Our guide (Mr Bean is apparently the best was to pronounce his name in English) was a Vietnamese veteran who had worked on the American side during the war. It was really interesting to hear his point of view as he was still troubled by the fact that he is not accepted by the Americans or the Vietnamese any longer, he had worked at the same base as Oliver Stone (who later made lots of war films), he didn’t like him though and ranted about how bad the films were and said he didn’t like him. He worked helping the Americans fight the Viet Cong as he knew the land and he recovered bodies from the field, he later spent years in prison where the communists ‘f**cked with his brain’. He was quite messed up, but his tour was excellent (if a little intimidating!). We saw the multitude of traps that the VC created in the jungle and the teeny holes that snipers hid in. There was also a chance to fire real guns, Tony had a go and I couldn’t even watch because once you got anywhere near the guns the noise was deafening, it was really scary! At the end of the tour we got to go down into the tunnels themselves, they were so small that we had to crouch down and sometimes crawl the whole way, they were hot and sticky and mostly pitch black, it was really scary and we were all shouting down the line to each other to warn of what was coming next. We were glad to be out of them at the end, but more glad that we had done the whole stretch without coming out of any of the emergency exits!

Other than sightseeing we made the most of the happy hour at one of the rooftop bars overlooking the busy streets, and ate lots of cheese sandwiches.

Cambodia-Vietnam Border Crossing Fun

So we got the bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City direct, although we ended up booking the cheapest bus as all of the others were full, we thought this may have been a bit of a scam at first, but once we hit the traffic miles and miles from the border and found out that it was the first day of the last week of a month-long festival in both Cambodia and Vietnam we realised we had really chosen the wrong day to go! The journey was horrible! Our bus had a nice mix of tourists – English, Australian, Finnish, Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese and also some Cambodians. The traffic jam at first was quite jolly, there was the usual amount of interesting stalls by the roadside selling food (and scarily spare parts for vehicles), there were loads of smiley people crammed into vans who smiles and waved each time they pulled up beside us, but then we saw a sign that said that Phnom Penh was still really near and then, at the hottest point in the day, our bus broke down in the middle of two lanes in an already hectic road. We waited hours for them to fix it and when they gave up we waited for another bus to come from the other direction. The bus was over 40 degrees inside and I’m sure it was hotter outside in the sun. The poor people from the other bus were kicked off their bus and we got on and traveled back for about half an hour (against the traffic that was moving about a metre and hour (no joking), and then, with the help of the police, did a u-turn after halting all of the traffic and bumping into a van containing about 50 people. We didn’t reach our abandoned bus again for another few hours and a journey that should have taken 6 hours, actually took 17 hours! We got to the border after it had closed at about midnight after a ferry ride in the dark. At the border some of the people didn’t get off to go through customs, in the end we heard rumours that they didn’t have passports or visas and so were being smuggled illegally into Vietnam. Once in Vietnam we speeded to HCMC. When we got to the city we were all half asleep after the awful journey when we were woken by a bang, screams and a terrible grinding crushing noise from under the bus. I looked out of my window to see a motorcyclist in the road with blood everywhere. I have to say that then I became a total loser girl and almost fainted and cried. It was the early hours of the morning and it was chaos. Friends of the victim rushed out from nearby and screamed with shock, he was then rushed away and carried by loads of people (each grabbing a limb or a handful of his clothing) and bundled into a taxi. The police soon arrived and the people without passports made a quick exit while the drivers hauled all of their illegally imported beer off the bus and hid it in the dark of the street.

All of the backpackers also made quick exits by taxi to the backpackers area. It was a crazy night and after we re-grouped we all found places to stay and slept off the awful day!

Phnom Penh

We didn’t enjoy Cambodia’s capital, we got a cheap slow bus with lots of locals who offered us food (especially these cool small packages made of bamboo leaves which contained rice in coconut juice and beans) we also went with a Vietnamese couple who we met at our guesthouse in Siem Reap, they were lovely and we stayed at a nice(ish) riverside area guesthouse with them. We didn’t ever get to the backpacker area of the town, but what we saw we didn’t like, there was the strip of riverside that was really touristy – relatively expensive restaurants and internet cafes with Westerners inside, and then the surrounding streets which were very busy with lots of street stalls selling various things and lots and lots of barbers cutting hair by the roadside, but there were also piles and piles of rubbish everywhere. We’ve smelt some bad things, but walking down some of those streets was so revolting. It drew our attention once again to the lack on understanding the people have about their environment. It makes sense really because when they country has struggled through such hardships and is still so poor, I suppose the environment doesn’t really seem like an important issue. But it was so sad to see, even in the rural areas, people just throwing rubbish into the street, or worse, people eating food out of plastic bags (in SE asia everything is eaten out of a plastic bags – rice, soup, drinks…) in boats and then dropping the bag overboard. Its such a pity that such a beautiful country is getting spoilt so quickly.
Anyway, we did visit the museum which was lovely and situated in a very well-kept area along with the Royal Palace and independence monument and other important buildings situated on open boulevards with grassy parks which people fly kites in and have picnics. It was a very strange contrast to the people living in shacks in the nearby market and families sleeping rough by the river. We took a tuk tuk out to visit the killing fields, it was so harrowing. Probably the most shocking thing we have seen in all of our travels. The first thing you see is a huge monument, must be about 100ft tall which is packed with hundreds of human skulls which were found in the pits. The scale of the killing was terrifying. As we started walking through the fields we could see pieces of bone and lots and lots of clothes sticking out through the soil as not all of the site ha been excavated yet. It was so disturbing as it only happened 30 years ago and it was awful to see bits of Khymer scarves poking out as everywhere you go in Cambodia the people have their scarves around their necks, on their heads, tying up baskets or hats. I was going to buy a scarf as a useful souvenir, but after that I couldn’t look at them without thinking of all the people in those pits. We learnt how the Khymer Rouge (mostly made of boys aged under 15) poured DDT onto the heaps of bodies so that local people wouldn’t smell the stench and to kill those who were buried alive, they also had a magic tree’whefre they hung a loudspeaker which played sounds to drown out the wailing of the people. If that wasn’t sad enough we then visited the Tuol Sleng Museum (S21), which was a former school that the Khymer Rouge used as a torture chamber. It was so harrowing seeing the photos of all the poor ordinary people who died there and then worse, seeing the vile tortures they were put through and the photos they then took of them dead. We walked through the torture rooms where the last victims were found and then saw the tiny cells where the people being questioned were kept. I have to say I knew nothing about the rule of Pol Pot and the Kymer Rouge before I visited Cambodia. But learnt that the Khymer Rouge led by Pol Pot were mainly little boys who first scared all of the people out of the cities (Phnom Penh was deserted for decades) and then tried to kill anyone who had any sort of intelligence or education and favoured the people from the countryside who could work the land. They then put the whole country into slave labour and tried to make everyone s illiterate and unknowing as possible. It must have been an awful time to live in and it seemed like the rest of the world did nothing to help. Theres still lots of landmines and victims of the war and of the landmines left and its all so sad.

There were parts of Cambodia that we really loved, but it’s such a difficult country and once we had got our Vietnamese visas back, we left straight away. I would like to go back and see more of the country one day, but not for a while, it was too sad!

Cambodia – Battambang and Siem Reap

From the islands we went back to Bangkok and then flew to Siem Reap. We then ended up in Battambang (pronounced battambong) due to a series of unfortunate incidents. We didn’t like it, it was grotty and dirty with too many motorbikes and we might have liked it more had the lonely planet not made it sound like a picturesque colonial riverside town. We did have a really cool (but very expensive) journey there by a long dusty unmade road. It was bumpy and chaotic but we saw so much cool stuff like live pigs, chickens, ducks and even calves being transported by motorbike and millions of people crowded into cars and trucks. It was amazing to see how people transport themselves and all their belongings along such a crap road! We also saw people selling loads of cool food and lots of houses on stilts that had been flooded. The people of Cambodia (apart from the evil touts and rip-off merchants) are such amazing people. They have been through so much awfulness in their lives and yet they can give you the most warmest smiles that make you want to cry with joy (seriously) and they love laughing and joking.
We stayed in an awful place (Bus Stop guesthouse) with an owner who wanted to rip us off more than we already had been. We did, however, have a brilliant tuk tuk ride out into the countryside surrounding Battambang. Along the red mud roads and rice fields children ran out of their houses waving and smiling at us and shouting ‘hello! hello!’and ‘bye bye!’. It was so sweet, we loved it. We visited Phnom Sampeon, a wat on a mountain. Our guide was a little boy named Pee, he took us up the beautifully scenic mountain telling us stories all the way up without looking slightly out of breath and refusing any drinks or snacks we had whilst we died of exhaustion. He was a really intelligent little boy who knew lots about the area and about Cambodia politics and was working as a guide to fund extra lessons on English grammar, he also spent the summer working in the rice fields. He looked so young but he was actually 12, just tiny! I don’t know how ethical it was to pay him as our guide, but he sounded like he was doing it out of his own initiative and I hope our money went to his education in the end. At the top of the mountain there was a great view of the other mountains nearby (chicken mountain, duck mountain etc), and the wat which had been used as a prison during the Khymer Rouge rule. We then visited the nearby cave which had been used to kill and ‘dispose’ of the unwanted prisoners. There was an alter in the cave and a pile of skulls of the dead. It was quite disturbing. Pee taught us lots about his country and we sadly said goodbye as we left in our tuk tuk.
We then drove to Wat Banan (Banana to the locals), which was some impressive Angkorian ruins on a hill up some impressively long steps. Our driver then took us to a monastery which had a large Banyan tree in its grounds. We didn’t understand why we had stopped until he gestured to the trees and we saw hundreds of large fruit bats roosting there. It started to rain and a few of them flew about, their wing spans were immense and it was an amazing sight. Our driver told us that the only reason they are there is that the Cambodian people (who will eat anything) catch the bats and eat them (taste good – better than chicken apparently) but due to Buddhist monks not being about to kill things, they are safe in the grounds of the monastery. Also the Banyan tree was the species that Buddah found enlightenment under (I may have got the tree name wrong, but it was that sort of tree anyway). We then went to see the bamboo railway which is a kind of makeshift form of transport made of a bamboo platform on wheels which drove along the mainly disused railway track powered by a small engine. It was amazing to see so many people crammed onto it with all of their animals on their way to the city.
Back in Battambang proper we dined at the White Rose and the Smokin’ Pot. There were lots of NGO-types there and it was really sad to see little street kids begging for food. One little girl waited until the waiters had turned their backs and then went around empty table emptying half finished drinks into a little plastic cup and then sharing it with the younger children. I saw her mix beer and coconut milkshake together. It was heartbreaking how hungry she was and so I gave her half of my food which she wolfed down.

The best part of being in Battambang was the 7 hour bat ride along the Tonle Sap (and part of the Mekong I think) to Siem Reap. It was brilliant, a few tourists and a lotof locals crammed on to a tny boat. It had been raining lots so the river was high and we passed villagers fishing and washing in the rivers, small villages in the water with their houses on stilts. Their inhabitants relaxing in their front rooms on hammocks as it rained and traveling about by boat. Children ran out of their houses to wave and shout hello and we stopped to eat at a small shop in the water. As the course narrowed the drowned tree and foliage ended up in the boat as the boat struggled though, the crew had to get machetes out to cut a path out for us and had to dive into the water a few times to untangle the rudders from the lotus plants. It was raining a lot by then and the branches splashed water into the boat which made us all laugh. It was loads of fun.
When we landed at Siem Reap the ground had turned to mud. We slipped and slid up the muddy banks with our rucksacks until one of the tuk tuk drivers who descended on the boat as it docked, told us it was easier if we took our shoes off. So we did, and it was and it was really funny squelching through the ankle deep read mud as fast as we could to avoid the rain.
We were staying at the charming Palm Garden Lodge, we were welcomed with wet towels and a welcome drink, all the staff wore pretty uniforms and it was like a proper hotel (even though we were paying a pittance to stay there). The only downside was that it was just out of town on a muddy track, it was hilarious trying to navigate its slipper self with all its pot holes and bumps especially in the dark because there were no street lamps! Although they did actually offer a free tuk tuk so everything was great!
Siem Reap was brilliant! It has a couple of reeeeally touristy streets, which are actually really nice and there are loads of nice restaurants and bars and many happy hours (a jug of beer for about a quid!). There were also some street stalls where a delicious meal can be bought for a dollar! Theres a huge day market selling everything from strange food to silks and clothes and a night market which has a small cinema where we watched a documentary about the Kymer Rouge.
We splashed out on the three day ticket to Angkor Wat, on the first day we hired a tuk tuk and did the ‘mini tour’, we started off with Angkor Wat itself, we didn’t really find it that impressive, although it is very beautiful, set behind its immense moat. We then visited Angkor Thom and absolutely loved Bayon (the one with all the faces), it was so vast and beautiful and its hard to think that they’re so old. It started raining really heavily when we were at the Elephant terrace and soon the place as deserted, but we were hardcore and carried on looking at the temples and reading our guide book with only a flimsy parasol to protect us. We sort refuge in one of the Prasats sour Prats, there were a few other people perched in other prasat doorways hiding from the rain and we had one to ourselves. We then went to eat on at a stall nearby. I forgot to mention, every time you stop at a wat millions of kids rush out with silks, fruit, umbrellas, drinks and books to you. All you can hear is ‘Lady! You buy! Only one dollar, only one dollar!’ ‘Sir! Cold drink! You like cold drink? Where you from? England, capital London, Lovely Jubbly’. Its awful on so many levels, its annoying after a time and makes you feel really bad because we’re not rich but they think all Westeners are rich and you feel bad for not buying something because they are so happy when you do, but mainly its really heart-wrenching because most of these families are so poor and instead of begging they’re selling stuff and when you buy something it really seems to make a difference I you. They know that you’re more likely to give in to a small child so they’re made to do it young and some of them are so hard and ruthless and sometimes fiercely competitive for your custom and you wonder where their childhood has gone. Its also quite amusing because they only seem to know money in one dollars, so as you walk away apologizing that you cant buy whatever is on offer instead of lowering the price, you get offered more and more for one dollar, one little boy offered Liam 6 wooden flutes for one dollar! We did get some good bargains from them though, stuff that is sold in town for much much more. It was really lovely when we got a chance to chat with the kids (usually if you bought something and they calmed down), they were really smiley kids and once these two girls who looked poorer than most, walked down the road with us for ages and at one point their different chants ‘buy my post cards, only one dollar’ ‘you want cold drink? Buy my cold drink lady’ combined into a sort of little song which they sang together but didn’t find funny, but we did. It was quite distressing that they were so desperate for us to buy something and they kept lowering their prices, but we really didn’t want anymore postcards and I think its really bad to give them money for nothing (begging) so I eventually offered them some sweets which they were shocked but very happy to receive for nothing in return. I later realized that this was probably a bad idea as I doubt they brush their teeth ever, but at least they had a little niceness that day!
After Angkor Thom we visited Spean Thma, a really cool ancient bridge which had been overgrown with trees, Ka Teo, a hill wat which was really scary to climb and then Ta Phrom, our unrivalled favourite. It’s all overgrown with huge ancient trees and its where Tomb Raider was filmed. It was raining so the next day we geekily came back to take better pictures! Then we went to Bantey Kdei and then back to the guesthouse.
The next day we ventured out on bicycles, we realized that this is a much better, cheaper, more fun option to getting a tuk tuk. We started at 4.30am so we could get to Angkor Wat in time for sunrise. Of course, our rusty hired bicycles didn’t have headlamps and it was terrifying navigating the roads in the pitch black! We reached Angkor just in time for sunrise, it was packed with tourists from tour buses, but we only spotted one other person who came by bike. Sunrise was a bit cloudy, but still cool. We headed off soon after to climb Phnom Bakheng – a mountain temple up a windy path and some steep steps, it was so early it was deserted and there was only a few groups of college kids practicing their English in groups at the top. We continued on the ‘grand tour’ through Angkor Thom to Thommanom (again empty but us) and its sister Chausay Tevod, we then went to Krol Romeas, Preah Khan, Krol Ko, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, Pre Rup, Sras Srang and then back to Ta Phrom. We then ate a traditional Cambodian stew/curry which was sort of sweet with white noodles and lots of offal in it (we feared for food poisoning) and then climbed back up Phnom Bakheng for sunset. It was packed, and the road leading up to it was so full with tuk tusk, motos and coaches that we didn’t even recognize it as the same place! We followed the procession up to the top and perched ourselves on the walls at the top and waited for the sunset. The place was so crowded that it wasn’t a very romantic setting, it was much nicer seeing the views alone in the daytime without all the cameras beeping everywhere! It was still pretty cool and weird though that there were so many people on an ancient monument all waiting for the sun.

The way back was much, much scarier than the way there! Lots of tuk tuk drivers offered us lifts before it got dark and we laughed them off and gestured to our bikes and they laughed back and said they meant with our bikes as well. We thought that was a silly idea, but when everyone from the Angkor park vacated at the same time by car, coach, tuk tuk and motorbike and it was pitch black again, we realized that we really should have took the tuk tuk back! It was a long and scary journey, but after arriving and leaving in the dark and seeing so much by ourselves we were so proud of ourselves and it was a great day overall!

The next day we ventured out on our bicycles further to the Roulos group, about 13km away from town on the hottest day in Cambodia so far. The journey was excellent, we saw the more local side of Siem Reap and loads more of the countryside, we had the usual cheers from children and saw lots of small villages and cool local stuff. The Roulos group was alright, nothing too special, we visited Preah Ko (where my chain fell off and we had to repair it with twigs, kids came out and watched us and brought us water to wash our black oily hands, I gave them sweets in return), Bakong, tried to find Prasat Prei Monti but instead found more small villages and some small (I believe) hospital chapels hidden behind huts, we also saw a girl herding a huge flock of ducklings which was cool. There was also a procession of female monks (dressed in white, I don’t know if they’re called nuns?). We then cycled to Lolei where we picked up loads of cool snacks like bananas and tasty bread things all for one dollar for the journey back.

The next few days we enjoyed Siem Reap town in a leisurely sort of way before catching the bus to Phnom Penh. It was uneventful apart from that one night a man on the roadside rather sinisterly commented on my engagement ring, I felt a bit wierded out about it so we decided I should take it off and we’d buy something cheaply to replace it. On the way back that night a tiny child grabbed my left hand in the same road the man had been. She wouldn’t let go and kept asking for food We had nothing on us and we were quite far away from any shops (we were about to approach the dreaded dark muddy street), we were really freaked out and she was so persistent and was nearly crying and we had no idea what to do with her because she walked really far with us and we felt awful that she was far away from town and all alone. We decided to give her a tiny amount of money and I put it in her hand but she looked frightened and wouldn’t accept it and so we walked and she followed us. Eventually we got to the muddy road and we told her once again that we had no food and she should go back to town and she reluctantly took the money and trotted off back. It all seemed so weird, but we think that maybe she was told to get my ring off me, but since I didn’t have it on she would have gone back empty handed and god knows what would have happened to her, she looked so frightened. Cambodia is so lovely, but so sad and it leaves you feeling so crap because there doesn’t seem to be much that you can do to help!

Thailand Islands

On the last day at Kanchanaburi we cycled to the Chung Kai war cemetery and Wat Tham Khao Pan, it was a beautiful cycle through paddy fields and small villages. We were guided through the cave silently by our guide who showed us the many rooms including one large reclining gold Buddha with little grace and no words! It was still cool though and we ate some delicious fried banana there.

We have done a lot since Kanchanaburi! We had another night in Bangkok before heading to the station to get the night train to Chumphon to get the ferry to Koh Tao. That was the plan anyhow, it didn’t work out anything like that! Firstly, we nearly drowned on Khao San road trying to buy some waterproof backpack covers (irony). We were wading up to our calves in rainwater and god knows what else and everyone was taking pictures of us because no one else dared to go in, but we were on a mission so we had to!
We got to Hualanphong station at about 10pm and waited for our train, the station was cool in a Michael Palin sort of way. Lots of people waiting on the floor, eating picnics and stuff. When the time came we went to check our platform to find out that our train had been cancelled because of the protesting in the South. We later found out that all trains had been cancelled in the whole of South Thailand as the people of the South are against the stuff that’s going on with the government and had all come up to Bangkok (we heard some ridiculous figure like 80% of one town) to protest and riot. We met up with a French couple who’s plan was to catch the local train to Prachaup Kiri Khan (half way down) and then work out the rest from there, although the train didn’t leave until the morning, so we had to sleep rough! Oh us poor flashpackers sleeping rough! They closed the station so we slept outside, all four of us huddled around our backpacks with the cockroaches and rats (seriously, we had to keep throwing the cockroaches away from us!). It was horrible, but in a fun way. There were lots of local people there too including grannies and kids, so it wasn’t actually so like sleeping rough, more like a smelly, dirty sleepover kind of thing….Anyway, after about half an hours sleep (between us) we headed to Thonburi station at about 5am and got onto our train (3rd class hard seats all the way!) to Prachaup Kiri Khan. Six hours later and through some wicked scenery (really cool journey worth doing – it only costed less than a pound for the whole journey and there was not one other tourist on the train and it was packed with happy Thais going to the beach and ladies walking up and down the carriage with fruit and snacks and sticky rice in bags! ) we arrived in Prachaup. If you go to Thailand go here! It was beautiful! A pristine white sand beach, little islands in the sea (look a bit like halong bay - not that’s we’ve seen it yet - on a small scale), theres a small mountain dominating the town which is called Mirror mountain and had a wat and a mirror on the top and hundreds of monkeys who came down to the beach in the evenings to play and to splash in the water and stop traffic on the road. We walked up and down the empty streets along a strip of beach on an island haggling at the empty guesthouses for bungalows. We stayed in a lovely little bungalow run by an old couple. The French couple went elsewhere as our bungalow was about 20p out of their budget and they had plans to sleep in their tent (they quite riled us…quite a lot, but I wont go into it - they protected us from the cockroaches at night!). We loved Prachaup and almost stayed there instead of going to the islands, it was sunny and beautiful and deserted and the people were so utterly lovely and friendly! If you want to go there you don’t have to get the poor peoples train, you can also get a luxury bus, but I think its so unfair because its hardly mentioned in the lonely planet and I think that’s why no one is there (everyone walks around with their copy like it’s the bible, I cant say we’re much different) its also really cheap contrary to the LP. The next day we set of in the morning (in the dark) for the local bus to take us to Chumphon.

We got the ferry to Koh Tao. The catamaran was fun, to get to it there was a deserted beach we got a bus to and crystal clear waters with a long, long, thin wooden walkway that we walked for miles down in the middle of the sea. It was so funny because it was just full of backpackers and all you can see in front of you is a backpack and then the sea to either side.
We stayed in a little bungalow off the beach on the island on Sairee beach. It as very nice and relaxed, but quite expensive with lots of real holiday makers about and lots of luxury resorts. We spent the days on the beach (near deserted as most of the people come to dive so they’re in the water all day), eating banana pancakes and listening to Jack Johnson over and over and over on comfy pillow on the beach enjoying the various happy hours and the evenings snuggled up in a bar watching films on their big screens. One even had a friendly cat who slept on my lap. The sand on Koh Tao was so lovely, the softest and whitest we had ever seen and the water was crystal clear, there were hammocks in the palm trees and coconuts to sip, it was lovely.

After a few days we headed to Koh Samui, the stretch if water between Koh Pha-ngan and Samui was awful! They handed out sick bags when we started to go which was not a good sign. The waves were so huge and our boat seemed very tiny and likely to sink at any moment, people kept running to the deck to be sick and they played the same DVD twice!

Koh Samui was pretty much same same to Koh Tao, we stayed in another lovely bungalow (Free House Bungalows) and lazed on the beach and did pretty much nothing again! The most we did was have a traditional Thai massage on the beach, it was so lovely and relaxing.

Kanchanburi

So here we are in Kanchanburi! Its really nice, very touristy, but there is a lot to do. We are staying at the Sugar Cane guesthouse, which is as sweet as its name, and we are also treating ourselves to their best rooms - floating on the kwai! We have visited the war cemetaries and museums (some very very odd!) and also the bridge again. This morning we had a cookery lesson where we learnt how to make Pad Thai, Green curry (spicy!!!!!) and spring rolls, it was fun especially because our teacher was a ladyboy! Sugar took us to the market in the morning and we learnt loads and loads and then we cooked loads of food and ate it for lunch! We cant wait to get back and cook it for everyone!
Tomorrow we are off to see the elephants and some other stuff (we booked a tour...).
xxx

An adventure...we think

So we set off from Bangkok really really early in the morning and headed for the northern train station. We had directions to get a train to one place, a bus to another and to ask in at a cafe to visit the 'amazing' ganesha park.
The station was straight out of a Michael Palin documentary (the old ones where he actually travelled and didnt have everything arranged already), it was full of local Thai people and next to a market and even early in the morning there were so many smells and sounds from the food being prepared for the day. We were in 3rd class (wooden seats and no air conditioning, but all the windows open and some fans), it was so cool, we loved it! We bought snacks along the way like barbequed chicked on squewers with bags of sticky rice and fruit. The scenery was immense! It went from the suburbs of Bangkok to little slums by the river to small villiages to fields (most of them - think of The Beach), to jungle. It was brilliant! Suddenly the train stopped and loads and loads of tourists got on, we were a little bemused until we remembered that we were travelling along the same line that was built by the POWs under the Japanese invasion of SE Asia and we would eventually cross over 'the bridge over the river kwai'. It was bizarre, the train slowed at scenic points for them and then after about half an hour they all disappeared and got back on their tour buses. It became a local train again and we got off at our destination NamTok. Namtok is a small town in Kanchanaburi province, nevertheless, we were pestered by touts as we got off asking us to get in their taxis so they could drive us to their guesthouses in the middle of nowhere and take all our money. It was also pouring with rain and we were soaked with our backpacks on, and we didnt know where the bus stop was and no one would tell us, they just directed us to the touts, we were feeling a bit miserable to say the least!
Anyway, we escaped down a random road and asked some normal local people who directed us to the bus stop (on big lady even offered to tak us on the back of her bike, we didnt think there would be enough room even for one of us, let along with our big bags too!). We got to the bus stop and met a lovely lovely man who wanted to practice his english with us. He helped us to ring our guesthouse (there was no answer) and wrote down our destination (Dawadung) in our book in Thai so we could show the driver, he also told the driver and some other people where we were going, so we had lots of help! He also told us that we were just 1km from the Burmese border and that it was very dangerous in the jungle because there are some minority groups there who are recognised by no one so have to live in no mans land and train their kids up as child soldiers. It was all very interesting. Anyway, we got the bus and got off by the restaurnat in Dawadung. We got there and a French guy greeted us and told us that the owners had just disappeared that morning after telling him to look after the place and that there was little point in us staying more than a night. We were so disappointed as there were supposed to be elephants there! Anyway, we slept in a cool raft house on the River Kwai, in the middle of the jungle, it would have been beautifully peaceful were it not for the kids of the cook (they cooked us heaps and heaps of food) who were so loud and stayed up drinking and diving off the raft all night, there was also the biggest thunderstorm ever! It was crap and soggy, but the next day the french guy told us not to bother paying, so we were happy!
We took the bus to Kanchanburi (where we are now), it was really nice taking the bus again, and again felt very off the beaten track, the locals looked at us strangely and a lady kept giving us sweets, it was nice!

Bangkok part 2

I found it incredibly surprising that we really loved Bangkok, but we did! We were staying in the nicest hostel which was mercifully no where near Khao San Road, but on an amazing street which looked like a scruffy slum by day but turned in to a (still scruffy) food market at night, we dined there nearly every night on delicious and very cheap (usually about 60p) meals including Liam's new favourite Pan Siew and Pad Thai and my new favourite Sticky rice with Mango and sweet coconut sauce... that has made me so hungry and I cant find it outside of Bangkok!! It was right new to the cool sky train, so we used that a lot to get everywhere.
We did loads in Bangkok, we did nearly everything in the guide book and were very touristy tourists! We took many trips up and down the Chao Phraya river to visit the three main temples (Wot Phoh, Wot Prah Kaew and the the Emerald Palace and Wot Arun - temple of Dawn), they were really impressive and beautiful (see facebook pictures). We worked out that the tourist ticket to go on the river is extortionate and so if anyone is going to Bangkok just get on a boat and pay the flat rate, its sooooo much cheaper!
We went to some of the shopping centres, but felt way to scruffy to be browsing Louis Vuiton and Gucci, so didnt spend too long there! We also went to the cinema because they are renouned for their luxury, they were very luxurious, and we saw a Thai film (I think it was Thai, although it was dubbed in Thai from English and then subtitled in English) called the Coffin (We didnt know what it would be called until we got in! It was a bit spooky but a bit crap. The best thing about the cinema was that before it starts the screen asks you to pay respect to the king (The Thais adore their king so much, you cant go far without seeing a picture of his bespecticled self, I think its really sweet), we had to stand up and watch a film of him doing stuff while the national anthem played. Of course, the more I thought about what we were doing and that you can go to prison for treason, the more giggly I got, it was so awful, luckily I managed to keep it in and Liam didnt even notice (because he was keeping his own giggles in!).
We also visited Jim Thomson's house - I still dont really know why, hes supposed to have brought Thai culture to the world, but his house was ridiculously un-Thai, even though its advertised as being the opposite. He had this big mansion in a time when Thais lived in teeny houses, and he didnt seem to follow any of their customs. It was all a bit wierd.
We also visited Khao San road by boat one afternoon, at first we were laughing at the awful western tackyness of the road - really, its much much more expensive than the rest of the city and the stuff they sell there is the sort of stuff you could probably pick up in Benidorm or probably even in Camden. I dont think the smelly backpackers realised how much they're being ripped off because they dont visit the rest of the city, which is a shame. Anyway, after all this critisism we sat down at a pub on the front of the road and didnt get up again until the middle of the night. We had a lot of Chang beer and decided that Khao San road wasnt so bad after all and even bought some fake sunglasses which we badly haggled for. We ended up eating our dinner on the pavement there too! Ah well!
After that amazing night out, I got the flu so we had to laze around our hostel for a day or two, and then we said a sad goodbye to Bangkok (although we're coming back) and headed for some random place in the middle of nowhere...

Japan - The End

Well, I think Liam was a bit hasty to write about Bangkok as we hadn't really finished with Tokyo yet. We visited Shibuya again in the dark, ate at our favourite restaurant one last time (I wish I knew what it was called, but its name was written in Japanese), we also took a tip from our guidebook and travelled to the business part of the city at night to view the city from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building - its free and has brilliant views of the city and of course many key rings to purchase (and also lots of Totoro and Moomin merchandise!). I'm sure we did some more stuff now, but I have forgotten now!
On our last day we headed to the station and picked up the most expensive bento box we could find to spend our last yen (en) on. It was wicked! It was had two layers of goodness and was wrapped in a cool cloth! It had all sort of wierd and wonderful fishy treats in it - we didnt know what they were but ate them all the same.
Then we set off to Thailand!

Bangkok

Just a quick note from me (Liam) to say that we arrived safely in Thailand and both loving Bangkok and the Thai food. We move on north in a few days to a national park where we will be sharing our accomodation with some elephants. For you fellow history lovers we will also be crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai.

We will post more on here soon including our itinary for the next few months of our travels.

X

p.s we are not near the demonstrations

Tokyo part 2

I thought I`d (hannah) write about the Tokyo mishaps Liam mentioned. Well it was awful! We were both so excited about Tokyo and when we saw rain from the train window (we rode all the from Hiroshima and it rained the whole way there, I think the whole of Japan was in that storm!), we were even quite excited about getting to use our raincoats for the first time in the trip. We were jumping about and splashing in the deep puddles with our rucksacks on for the first few minutes, but then we realised that our bags were getting wetter and wetter and then wondered if they were waterproof enough to withstand the downpour, they got heavier and heavier as our map turned to pulp and we got loster and loster! We walked around the surrounding streets for ages until I turned round to talk to shout to Liam over the rain and slipped on a grid in the pavement. It wouldnt have been so bad if I hadnt have had my super heavy wet bag on my back, but I did and so I was then limping. We asked a man in a little Mr Miagi-esque shop for directions and he got out his monacle and an antique map and pointed us back where we came from, we finally got to the hostel but realised that our bags werent waterproof enough and everything was soaked through including our passports which we dont normally keep in our bags, but did just this once! My raincoat wasnt even enough for the rain! Anyway, we`re here now and we couldnt face a dorm after the harrowing day, so paid extra for a private room.
Today we went to see the Palace and the Sony building which had an AMAZING 3d aquarium in it, its all for free, because you have to pass through floors of their merchandise (amazing new cameras and tvs and wierd new earphones) to get to the extra special 3D cinema aquarium where you wear 3d glasses and it was really cool and very 3D!
We also visited Shibuya where we saw the famous Shibuya crossing where hundreds of people cross paths at the traffic lights of a junction (its quite immense), we even did the extra extra touristy thing and watched it ffrom Starbucks with an overpriced coffee. We also went to Harijuku (yay!), which wasnt a very good idea because we went when all the kids were still at school, so we didnt see much dressing up, but it was still cool, although a little (a lot) like Camden. We also found the biggest Daiso (100 yen) store in Japan, it was great!
Well thats all from Tokyo for now, from Hannah with a sore toe
xxx

Tokyo!!

We have arrived in Tokyo and are both enjoying ourselves in this amazing city. But before we write about our Tokyo adventures I (Liam) will update the blog.

On our second full day in Nagasaki we visited this little Peace Museum which has been set up by volunteers and advocated on-going peace. Hannah brought a post card and one of the volunteers gave us both a War-Brush (to sweep away wars) and Peace-Box (a small origami cube). This was also a free museum and one which is not mentioned in the guide books but worth a visit. Before we found the museum we walked to Hollande Slope, this was the area where the Europeans used to live and contains European style buildings. I really enjoyed Nagasaki, finding it a humbling place to be, but also interesting, I recommend the hostel we stayed at.

From Nagasaki we headed to Kumamoto for one night. We visited the castle and strolled around the streets enjoying the Japanese atmosphere. We also found our favourite cheap ticket vending machine restaurant. These places are really cheap to eat at and the food is pretty good. You get a good bowl full of food and also miso soup for free. We have found this chain in a few towns and cities now and keep looking for them.

We took the train the following day to Beppu past some amazing mountains and landscapes. Beppu is famous for its spa`s and is also a seaside resort. I was not impressed with Beppu and thought it was a little shabby for Japan. With our full day we headed out to Mount Aso which was about 2 hours away by train towards Kumamoto. Mount Aso is Japan`s and one of the worlds largest calderas, which is also an active volcano. You take a cable car to the crater and walk around while the green sulphur lake in the crater steams, it was a magnificant sight and very impressive. We took many pictures of the crater and surrounding landscapes.

From Beppu we took the train to Tokyo, the journey in total was around 5 hours and the trains were packed because of the end of the Oban festival (where relatives return to their homes and celebrate the rising of their deceased relative`s spirits) but we were lucky to get seats and was able to eat our lunch. I was really looking forward to getting to Tokyo and was not disappointed when we arrived. From Tokyo station we took a further train and metro and arrived at Asakusa and was confronted by torrential rain and after a few mishaps, we finally arrived at our hostel.

Mongolian Engagement - Living in a Ger

I thought whilst I wait for these photos to load on to Facebook I`d update you all on our engagement which we didnt have time to blog about before.

Well it was amazing! We drove out to Terelj National Park in the morning with our guide, our guesthouse owners daughter, and three English kids who had just finished teaching in China and were doing an exciting Trans-Mongolian/Russian/European adveture home.

It was a beautiful clear day and we stopped off at some sights along the way. First was a pole decorated in blue material and other bits of coloured cloth (blue cloth represents `blue sky` which I believe is a shamanistic thing, although there was lots of blue in the Buddhist temples too), it was on top of a huge pile of stones and we had to walk round three times whilst throwing more stones onto the pile for safe travels and peace. We then climbed up 100 monks rock, which is a cave through a tiny crack in a huge big rock which alledgedly hid 100 monks during the Russian occupation when Buddhism was banned. It felt quite dangerous to climb up, but it was fun anyhow!
The we visited turtle rock which we climbed up into. At the top there was another cave and in that another very small crack which didnt look big enough even for a skinny child to climb through. Our guide insisted that she`d led rugby players through it so I had a go (no one else did and I felt brave like Indiana Jones!), I managed it aftre helping a small Mongolian child scramble back through the other way. The view from the other side was incredible and well worth it. I stayed there a while taking pictures and chatting to our guide. When I went back through I realised it was harder to get back up, but there waiting for me was the little boy I had helped through, he gestured that he wanted to help me up (instead of Liam who was also waiting there), so he did! He practically lifted me up, it was incredibly sweet of him, he must have only been about 6 (although Mongolian kids are teeny weeny).
The we went up to the temple which was so incredibly picturesque, and was across a very Dr Jones-esque rope bridge over a ravine that only 4 people were allowed on at a time. It was gorgeous and wasnt as garish and scarey as some of the other monsateries in Mongolia.

We then drove to our ger through the wilderness. We ended up sharing with the three English kids (I think this was the plan of our host in the first place), but it was fine, they only stayed one night anyhow and we were staying two. The Ger was set on a hillside overlooking the river Terelj and some woodland. There were horses and yaks wandering about and it all felt very Mongolian. Our ger was dressed up inside like a dolls house with pretty painted furnture and wall hangings. We had a traditional outdoor pit toilet, but after the pit toilets in our guesthouse and the awful toilets of the Trans-Siberian, we were fine with that!
We explored the surrounding countryside and washed in the river, it was very peaceful and lovely. Before dinner (our mutton-based food was cooked by a Mongolian family who lived on the next door ger), we were wandeing along a pebble beach by the river when we heard drumming. We went to explore and peeped through a fence surrounding some more gers. We saw some dancing going on and a lady beckoned for us to come in. We went in and it turned out to be a large group of Korean holiday makers who were performing traditional Korean dancing and Tae-Kwon-Do. It was bizarre and lovely and after ending with a song about how much they loved Mongolia including the waving of Mongolian and Korean flags and a banner saying `we love Mongolia`, they all surrounded us and shook our hands and said `god bless you`, it was lovely!

We ended the night with some beer and Mutton and star gazing.

The next day we went out horse riding. I didnt like it at all! The Mongolian saddles are really uncomfortable and the horses jump about, but the scenery was fantastic and I was appauled the we forgot to bring our camera because we saw some amazing things! There were so many beautiful herds of horses and little gers scattered around and we rode though shady little glades and through rivers. We then stopped and went to visit a Mongilan family. There was a mum and dad and a little baby and a small boy and girl. They offered us bowls of airag (fermented milk - very Mongilian, but tasted exactly like bile), creamy fresh yoghurt, which the children showed us to eat with spoon fulls of sugar and a sweet milky pudding which was nice. The family were very nice and ther house was beautiful with the traditional brightly coloured furniture and a small family shrine with pictures and candles and ornaments. It was lovely to see how simply people live. Then we rode back through a big big river.

Later on the other English people left and after a little wander around the village and some stone skimming competitions we went back to our ger to find that some Mongolian holiday makers had moved in next door. They came and sat on the steps to our ger and a very intoxicated girl with her baby brother befriended us and chatted to us in Mongolian for a bit.

When the sun started to set we walked up to the back of our ger which was on a hill, so we were attempting to catch the sun from the top. The hill turned out to be full of meadow and alpine flowers and we saw many strange and wonderful birds flying about and singing their evening choruses.

The hill was steeper than we thought and we kept stoppiong off out of breath and in wonderment at the amazing views around us and the changing light. We stopped off at a little outcrop of rocks and as I sat down to take a breather thats when Liam proposed! Of course I said yes and my ring is beautiful and I was so happy I cried! We walked back to our ger hand in hand and sat by the fire (ireally cold at nights in Mongolia even though its boiling in the day), and toasted our engagement with some Mongolian vodka!

It was such a happy and wonderful day that we will remember it forever.
xxx

Nagasaki

Well, we`re almost up to date now thanks to the wonderful internet and the lovely Akari International Hostel in Nagasaki, which is where I am now.
We arrives yesterday, its actually really lovely to be back at a hostel and meeting fellow travellers again, staying in (albeit budget) hotels in Japan can get a bit lonely. This hostel is fantastic though and we`ve been making our own food (we bith admitted to each other yesterday that we were growing a little tired of sushi and soba!).

Today we visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb museum, peace park and hypocentre of where the bomb went off. It was really harrowing and we both feel very reflective and sad now. I can`t believe such a thing happened and also that England had in some part something to do with it. I couldn`t help crying when reading a story about a child who was trying to rescue its 2 year old sister from being trapped under a pillar, everyone, including the fire brigade, had tried to remove the pole, but had given up. Then they spotted a lady running over, completely naked and burned all over, the child realised it was her mother and knew that everything would be ok. Her mother looked at the pole and then lifted it up with some kind of superhuman strength. The child was rescued but then they realised that the mother was in an awful state and that she was bleeding from where her skin had stuck to the pole. She died that night.
There were so many awful stories like that, it was so so sad. The worst part was that the second half of the museum focused on how atomic weapons are still being tested and built around the world to this day, and on the peace efforts which are trying to irradicate it. It just makes no sense after seeing the devastation it causes and I feel so cross about it now!
Well, sorry for the depressing post, but thats been the mood of today (in the best possible way), its even rained a little bit.
Peace park was lovely though, there is a beautiful fountain in the shape of doves wings so that you remember all of the people who died longing for water. There was also hundreds and hundreds of paper cranes everywhere, some in garlands and others making beautiful pictures. There was lots of peace art and the whole place ha d avery peaceful and reflective feel about it.

I echo Hannah`s comments about the museum. It was probably the best museum i have been to and it is very thought provoking. It seems strange that after such a horrific event we still are determined to destroy humanity in a similar fashion.

xxx

Himeji

Himeji was lovely, We stopped here just as a stopping off point between Osaka and Nagasaki because they are so far apart, but it was well worth it just for the cheap(er) shops. We made our way to the castle (as ever!) after checking in, it was really really impressive. You can see it on its hill when you pull into the station. Its one of the only castles in Japan that hasnt been entirely rebuilt and it was beautifully repaired. The views from the top were stunning and we had a lovely time exploring its many many floors.
Later on I found some Yukatas on sale, this is very exciting as they are normally very expensive, so I bought one, yay! I also bought a new top, yay!
After the excting shopping experience, we tried to find some kind of night life, but the streets were deserted, we did find a little row of buskers though with many trendy young things as their audience. We then treated ourselves to doughnuts and tea (with milk!).
Then we stayed up to watch I am Legend in Japanese, it was interesting!
xxx

Osaka

We were staying at a Toyoko Inn in Osaka, it was very exciting because we got a free gift because we booked online! That was about the most exciting thing we saw in Osaka. Its a big city with some impressive buildings, but we didnt have very long there and it was very very extra super hot! We did manage to get the train to the castle though, it is another reconstruction, although it was very impressively on a big hill with a huge moat, we didnt pay to go in (castled out!!), but we did stroll around the surrounding park which made me (hannah) very jealous as there were about a million children coming out of Disney on Ice with armfuls of Disney merchandise and excited little faces.
We bought a banquet of pick and mix fried food, including tempura squid and small eggs from the supermarket and had our first night in in front of the Olympics (what a strange and bizzarely impressive opening ceremony!). We have since watched a little of the Olympics at our hostel in Nagasaki, but they concentrate almost solely on Japan so its a bit boring - doubly boring for those of us who detest sports!).
The next day we headed for Himeji.

Sad news

I just thought I`d let you all know that we can`t go to the beloved Studio Ghibli Museum because its all booked up and you can only book it here in Japan, so we never would have got tickets unless we booked it ages ago! Its really sad (especially considering our blog`s title), but on the same day we realised this, we also found a shop selling loads of Ghibli merchandise, and so we did find Totoro in a way! We also found loads and loads of things for Kiki`s special delivery (sorry if you`re out of the loop here!), but they really love it here and so I so I`m really happy and may be able to afford to buy myself a keyring or something!

Ooooh! Also, theres a new Ghibli film out here, it looks amazing! All the kids love it and there are posters everywhere, we`re considering seeing it in Japanese, we watched `i am legend` in Japanese last night and kind of understood it, so maybe it will work?
xxx

Kyoto - Geisha land!!!

After a sad goodbye to Tom (who is now somewhere in Russia having also taken the amazing Fushiki ferry and Trans-Siberian back). We caught the train to Kyoto. Again we seemed to land another wicked cheap hotel (who needs hostels?) near the impressive Nijo castle.
Kyoto was fantastic! I know I have already been quite excitedly raving about Japan, but Kyoto really was cool.
We got bikes free from our hotel and cycled round to the castle and to Kinkakuji (The famous Golden Pavillion) and Rioanji (The most famous rock garden in the world apparently). My personal best part (Hannah - and I wrote the last two posts as well) has to have been going to the Gion distric of Kyoto where we went Geisha (or rather Maiko) spotting along Hanamachi-Dori (not sure if thats the right spelling)!!
It was amazing, the streets are really old-style and feel like a film set even more than Matsumoto, they are dimly lit and full of screen doors. Round each corner will be a couple of tourists with cameras at the ready and when you hear a door slide, or some wooden shoes clopping then you quickly head there to take a picture. Its a bit strange really, and I felt so bad for the Geishas, especially as the first Maiko we saw looked so tranquil and lovely, and me and Liam just stood there in wonderment as she walked past us , and then two american girls spotted her and pounced and ran after har flashing her with their cameras and shouting at her. I couldnt help taking a few pictures too though after I got over the shock and I think they`re used to is anyway, they probably like it, they cant really dress that way and not expect attention! Anyway, it was magical!
Later on we wandered down an alley that turned out to house a `love hotel`, look it up! It was really seedy and we saw loads of couples coming out and going in, and they say they`re supposed to be for married couples, but they are certainly not! It was very bizarre as so far we had only seen the happy, smiley sweet saide of Japan!

Anyway, Kyoto was amazing, it was just the right mix of new and trendy and old and traditonal. I`m sure I`ve missed so much out, but those we`re the memorable parts!
We`ve also been to Osaka and Himeji and are now in Nagasaki, but we must eat now!
xxx

Tom`s Place!

We arrived at Shizuoka and met the lovely Tom at the station. Shizuoka is a busy little town near to Tokyo, it had just the right mix of not being to big, but have a really nice and compact little town centre, with nice shops and places to eat and a reconstructed castle.
Tom`s house was a bit out of town and he took us on a bus (a new experience in Japan!) after a lovely cheap but very tasty meal. Tom`s apartment was lovely and had views of mt Fuji (we were told, but it was too hazy!), it even had a 100 yen shop nearby (Thankyou thank you Tom for showing us the wonders of 100 yen shops!). We bought some amazing bargains and then headed back to town where we had another lovely (this time chinese) meal and then played in the arcades!! We played this drumming game that aparently is a big craze, and loved it, we may become addicted now! We also had our pocture taken in this cool cool booth where you can hang on ladders and have different scenery and then you get the see the pictures on a screen and doodle on them and then they get made into stickers!! It was so much fun, after and ice cream and a beer on Tom`s balcony we went to sleep!
xxx

Nagoya and Gero

Sorry! Its been a while, but we`ve been doing so much! Nagoya was a sprawling hub of a city, I believe it is Japans 3rd largest.
It was very very hot, but we managed to take a side-trip to Matsumoto (see Liam`s previous post), which was absolutely stunning, Matsumoto had some kind of frog theme going on and there were little frogs everywhere, there was a shrine with a similar name to the frog thing in supermario...so that must mean something! Anyway, it was incredible picturesque and some of the little alleyways with shops in them were so typically Japanese that they felt like being on a film set. I was very excited about buying a parasol/umberella, its the best thing in the world!

From Nagoya we were due to head to Gifu as I had heard that we could watch cormorant fishing from there, however, I messed up the booking and actually booked a night in Gero (a small spa town in the Gifu prefecture). It was an amazingly happy mistake! In our guide book there is barely a line on Gero, it says that it is a spa town and that old Japanese people go there. The book is so misleading! It was the most beauiful town set on two sides of the Hida river in a valley surrounded by Japans famour green green hills. We were lucky enough to be there on the day of their dragon fireworks festival. The town was full of Japanese people on their holidays (we didn`t see one other western tourist there), they were all dressed in traditional dress, yukatas and kimonos and there was festival food everywhere. There was so many young people and it had such a vibrant happy feel about it. We arrived at our hotel and found that there was a free bus from the station, when we got there we were sure that we still had the wrong place. We found it on `hosteworld.com` and it was down as a budget hotel, and we had paid a pittance for it. We arrived at what looked like a 5 star hotel, with a huge ornate traditional japanese-style lobby with hot spring water fountains which lead into a free footbath with rose petals in it. No one spoke english, so we explained that we were early, but they didnt undertand and were apologetic that they hadn`t prepared our room yet. So instead of the western-style, shared bathroom room we had booked, they really really apologetically lead us to a palace of a Japanese-style room with an ensuite and free tea and traditionally Geroian delicacies free! It was amazing!
After a shocked wander through Geros streets, where we met a lovely lady who ran an art gallery and couldnt speak a word of english but still kep us there and wouldnt stop chatting away and who asked us to paint pictures for her - which we did! We got our Yukatas on and, after readung the instructions again and again, headed to the hotels Onsen.
Men and women are separate, so we parted and got naked! Onsens are like huge baths of hot water which you relax in, its a strange concept because its already 35 degrees outside and then you get into scalding water, but it was great! Liam even went into the male outside one where everyone could see his nakedness! (the womens one was screened off). It was actually an amazing experience and we both enjoyed it loads!
Later on the fireworks started (after we ate some bananas on sticks covered in blue sweet stuff?!), everyone gathered by the banks of the river (there were thousands for such a tiny town!). The fireworks were spectactular and lasted for over an hour!
After that some music started in the street and everyone started dancing the same dance in a circle, we were told it was a summer dance, traditionally done because the heat of summer is so intense that you need some kind of escape in the cooler evenings. It was so beautiful to watch and it lasted well into the night (we could see it from our luxury hotel window).
The next day (after running out of the hotel in excitement because it REALLY was that cheap in the end!), we headed for the bullet train to take us to Shizuoka.

Day 3 - Matsumoto

Just a quick update from me (Liam) as to what we got up too today. We ventured out from Nagoya to Matsumoto to visit the castle there. The castle is only one of a few castles left in Japan in its original state apart from a few repairs. Its is a beautiful castle which was built not on a hill as castles normally are. The ticket for the castle also gave us access to the near by Matsumoto City Museum.
We have just got into our hotel from gorging at a nearby restaurant and now looking at hostels to book or a few days.

X

konbanwa!

I thought I'd also update you all since Liam is in the amazing Japanese bath now!
I can't say that Russia was not up to my expectations, as I didnt really have any expectations for it, however, I didn't love it! It was certainly an amazing experience, the Trans-siberian is awesome in so many ways and I'm so glad that we did it and its so amazing to look at how far we've been on a map, the sense of achievement is incredible! But there was something that I can't really explain that I didn't like about it, I think a lot of it was to do with us not staying any where for too long and therefore dealing with Provindistas (train ladies) and customs officials more than with actual local people. In Russia's favour, all of the normal people (not officials) were lovely and nearly always helped us out when we needed it, we also had an excellent time at out homestay where we stayed with a really nice lady. It was brilliant buying food from the Babushkas at the stations along the way and haggling for cake and dumplings and seeing how simply some people live.
The ferry from vladivostok to Fushiki was an adventure! It is primarily a boat for gold-teethed Russian car dealers to ship second hand Japanese cars back to Russia. As 'foreigners' all the people who weren't Russian were treated like second class citizens, but we all (about 10 of us including a couple of Japanese people!) banded together and in the end had a really fun time! There were a couple of bars and a club and some cabaret, as well as a swimming pool (which we didnt venture into due to a little bit of spitting that went on in there). As ever on this trip we heard amazing stories of other peoples travels, probably some of the best were from a Dutch couple who were travelling for 2 years by car to everywhere! (www.chindia.tk ) This morning, despite arriving early, we ended up spending most of the morning waiting for the Russians to pass through customs before we could get in the queue. We even had lunch onboard the ship in the harbour, it was quite bizarre!
Once finally off the ship we were straight into a Japanese port town, I was so excited and squealed lots at everything I saw for the first few hours (well havent really stopped yet!). The vending machines was the first cool thing we experiences, and the excitement was doubled due to the finding of grape flavoured fanta (a favourite we found in Mongolia-its amazing). We caught the train back with some of the other foreign crew and sadly said goodbye at Takaoka station. Takaoka is beautiful! We are living on the same street as one of the biggest Buddah statues in Japan and near many beautiful monasteries and parks. Its also a festival here so the streets are decorated.
Our Ryokan is AMAZING! Its traditionally Japanese, so we have to abide by all the customs (http://www1.coralnet.or.jp/buddha/etips/index.html), we have to wear different shoes for the house, the toilet, the garden and no shoes in our rooms. We had special sweets and tea on arrival and after both having the most amazing Japanese baths ever (we have only had showers or sinks for the last month!) we are both relaxing in our yukatas and looking very Japanese! I think we have the most spectacular room in the Ryokan which overlooks the little garden, so that outside the sliding doors of our room is a beautiful ornamental pond with carp in it- the view is spectacular!
I was getting a bit peckish on our way into get some dinner and magically we were browsing a sushi stall and the lady just gave me a bag of some delicious snack thing for no reason! Japan is very magical so far and we are so excited about the rest of the month.
We will now attempt to post some of our pictures!
xxx

Konichiwa from Japan

Just a quick note from me (Liam) before i have my bath in the tradional Ryokan we are staying in. We arrived safely after an interesting ferry crossing. We will explain more in another blog. We are both well and so excited at being in Japan at last. It is so amazing and cool and friendly and a complete change from Russia.

Sayonara
x

The End of the Line

We have finally reached Vladivostok, its a strange but cool place! There are many sailors about (We think its some kind of special day here) and there are fun fairs and rides and lots of beer being drunk! We're feeling excited about Japan but also a little apprehensive about the ferry, we're sharing a 4-berth cabin, so fingers crossed we dont get any wierdos. We'll get to eat loads of food though for free and theres a pool and a sauna!!

See you in Japan xxx

Ulan Ude

I (Hannah) thought we could update you on the (amazing) first leg of our journey another time and I'd tell you about where we are now, now!
Well, we arrived in Ulan Ude yesterday, its a small city near(ish) to Lake Baikal, which is this huge expanse of water, which we saw from the window of the first train- pretty impressive. Its been really hot everywhere we've been so far, and here is no different. Its a really interesting town, the people living here are a mix of all different races, theres some Russians, some Mongolians and some Buryat people. It has a really nice feel to it, its laid back and quiet.
Yesterday, after having a night of virtually no sleep due to a 7 hour border crossing which started at about 10 at night, we dropped our stuff off at our homestay (Olga's homestay) and headed out to the Ethnological Museum, which is supposed to be the top attraction here.

The bus ride was quite an adventure! We knew we had to get the no 8 bus, but had no other knowledge of how the buses work! They are amazing, they are little mini-buses/large cars which stop if you wave at them and you're in the right place. Once you're on the passengers work between them to do everything, its so friendly and cooperative! You pass your money down the bus and the driver passes back the change (whilst driving), if more people get on then the passengers pull down new seats for them and open up the doors. To stop you shout out and someone passes the message down and you get off. I just think its so lovely and makes me feel so ashamed of London where we all ignore each other on public transport for some bizarre and unknown reason. We mentioned to some passengers that we were going to the museum and they told the driver and they detoured to take us right there!

The museum itself is supposed to be the best museum of the different ethnicities of Russia in Russia. It was pretty awful! It was an outdoor set-up, with lots of full-scale replicas of the houses of different cultures, there was even a fake monastary. The houses weren't that bad, you could peep into each door and see some traditional furniture and clothes. Then at the end there is a 'zoo'. I dont really want to say anything too bad about it because we are still in Russia for a while, but it really distressed me. There were huge big bears in tiny cages, camels, eagles and other birds of prey and lynxs and foxes all in teeny cages with nothing really to amuse themselves with. They were all skinny and unfed so that I didnt even begrudge the Russian tourists who fed them cheese biscuits through the bars. It was very sad. I really think something should be done about it.

Anyway, we're all stocked up on noodles and canned fish and bread for the final leg of our trans-siberian foray which begins in a couple of hours. We're in first class, yay!

If we find the internet in Vladivostok we will report back, if not then see you in Japan! (OMG I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT JAPAN!!!!!!)
xxx

p.s. Mongolia was so amazing and getting engaged there was just awesome, I'll do a little essay on it another time (and WILL include pictures, somehow)
xxx

From Russia with Love

Just a quick note from me (Liam) to say that we are back in Russia after spending the night crossing the border from Mongolia. We are spending the day and night in Ulan Ude before heading off to Vladivostok on the train tomorrow. Ulan Ude seems a relaxed town compared to hectic Moscow. The famous attraction here is a large statue of Lenin's head!!

Hopefully we will get to update about everything we have done so far later.

We are both really excited about Japan and obviously the good news.

We are both having a great time and looking forward to the rest of our travels.

Hello to everyone back home.

X

Kings Cross to Mongolia

I (Hannah) am wrtiting this post from an interent cafe in Mongolia, I am going to attempt to write about our adventures so far and add pictures too. Hopefully this will work!

....Well, its a lot harder to download to this than I thought and due to the immense volume of of photos we have, I think it would take all week! We're going to have to think of a better way to share our photos, we have done so much and have sooo much to tell you and show you all!

Will write again soon

xxx

An update from Mongolia

Today we arrived in Ulan Baatar after travelling from London with only one night not on the train. The Trans-Mongolian was quite an mixture of experiences from amazing views to going stir crazy. But it was worth it in the end and we met loads of people all doing their own exciting adventures. Mongolia is a definite hidden gem.

Further updates to come (including pictures).

Hello to everyone back home.

Liam
x

Itinerary

We thought we'd write something on here before we go, and since we havent been anywhere yet, here's our itinierary as we have planned it so far (its a rough guide)...

London
July 5 - Leave London St Pancreas
Poland
July 6 - Arrive in Warsaw for the night
Russia
July 7 - Leave Warsaw for Moscow
Mongolia
July 8 - Leave Moscow for Mongolia
July 13 - Arrive in Ulan Bataar (Mongolia)
Russia
July 21 - Leave Ulan Bataar for Ulan Ude
July 22 - Arrive in Ulan Ude
July 23 - Leave Ulan Ude for Vladivostok
July 27 - Arrive in Vladivostok
Japan
July 28 - Set sail from Vladivostok for Japan
July 30 - Arrive in Fushiki (Japan)
S.E. Asia
August 28 - Tokyo to Bangkok
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos
(No set dates for these places so far)

India
November 25 - fly to Chennai from Bangkok

We're very excited at the moment! Soaking up the London sun (it is so good not having to go to work on a Monday!). Had a wicked leaving party on Friday, all of our lovelies were there.
I think our next update will come from somewhere far, far, away (after Hannah has watched Doctor Who).
xxx

In progress

This will soon be the home of Hannah and Liam's little blog of their travels which commence in July. As soon as we've worked out how, we'll start to use this!
Love x