Our final photos to view

Here's the link to our final photos-Europe, Russia, Siberia and Mongolia:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=daywaat.secw6lp&x=0&y=-vz43ql&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button

Our Nepal trek photos

Here's the link to our Annapurna circuit trek photos in Nepal-
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.ttnqibh&Uy=k97bqn&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&localeid=en_US

More photos to follow soon-Europe, Russia, Siberia and Mongolia.

Our return home! Yippee!

We have 2 more days left in Nepal before we fly back to Delhi on Friday (oh no!!!!!) We really don't want to go back to India but it's the only way home. We are going to take a picnic from a Nepalese supermarket so that we don't have to eat for the 24 hours we are in smelly Delhi! (After talking to the Dutch girl from the rafting who had got Typhoid from India! and the Greek guy, Paris from our trek who had been poisoned in Calcutta and lost feeling in his arm for a week! it has reassured us that we were not paranoid about India!)

On Saturday we fly from Delhi to Manchester via Abu Dhabi returning home on Sunday. Yippee! We will post the rest of our Nepal photos when we get home as there are so many of the Himalayas that it will take forever without Broadband!

Looking forward to seeing everyone and hope everyone's enjoyed following our little circle of Asia which has been a massive education to us.

Rafting

We booked a 3 day rafting trip down the Kali Gandiki river, which we ended up cramming into 2 days which meant a 5 o'clock start on the 1st day. It was fantastic! Rachel was a little scared at the thought of it, but ended up loving it, even when she got chucked out in the middle of a rapid! We had a great guide who steered while we and a dutch couple paddled like mad. Unfortunately the dutch man was a bit clumsy and ended up pushing Craig's face about 5 foot under the water with his foot in the middle of a rapid! The dutch guy was oblivious to this as he swam to safety. We capsised on the 2nd day over a massive rapid (a 4 apparently?) and we all ended up in the water. Craig floated down the river and was picked up by the other raft and Rachel ended up balance on a rock with the catamaran carrying the camping gear picking her up. The water was rather cold! But is was all great fun and we ended up camping on a beach with a hole in the sand for a loo and a campfire to keep us warm.

The great Annapurna walk! 20 days in the Himalayas

Arrived in Pokhara over 3 weeks ago after a very ropey bus journey. Pokhara is a very nice relaxed and touristy town at the foot hills of the Himalayas set on a 5km long lake with a string of nice tea shops with cake! fab. We went to the permit office after deciding to attempt the 20 day Annapurna circuit trek that climbs up to 5400 metres through the widest pass in the world apparently. A real test after our Indian experience, never mind the fact Rachel has never attempted anything like this before! Although it is only a walk, just a very long one. The only thing I was concerned with was the effect the altitude would have on us all. As it happened we were very short of breath at top (not surprising really), but we survived the pass and came back down after taking a couple of acclimatisation days.

We went to a trekking company and booked ourselves a porter called Gazindra Rai. It cost 10 dollars per day for him to carry our rucksack. Well worth it! Gazindra proved to be great company and very good at chess, and gave me a few lessons in loosing gracefully. I cannot remember the last time I played so many card games, as getting to bed by 8 o'clock was a impressive feat. We got up at 6 am and had breakfast at 6.30 and were on the road by 7 am after porridge and apple. We loved it. The diet consisted of Dal-Baht, the local staple diet of rice and a soup of lentils along side a chapati and spicy pickle that Rachel was a little sensitive to. The consequence of this was that Craig had to walk at the back making music out the way of the rest of us! It was like a wild west movie. chuckle.

The photos from the walk tell the story, but we cannot down load them yet.

By the way Mozza, the Him-al's means mountains in Nepali, so you were right you weirdo! chuckle.

We met lots of nice people (Paris from Greece, Jez from England and a Spanish and Israeli couple) along the way and hooked up with Shelly from Utah, in the U.S. It was a stroke of luck as her guide Ramish got along with our porter Gazindra and we got along with Shelly who was great company. We decided to do the walk at the same pace and lodge in the same guest houses.
The rooms varied from ensuite to under the stairs with the spiders, never mind the night we swapped with the cattle in a converted shed. A hot bucket of water was the order of the day for showers, chuckle.

Oh...Nepalese fresh air

We are pleased to say we are nearly 100 percent now and the doctor and chemist did good. We headed south from Kathmandu down to the Chitwan National Park, on the Indian border. They have the largest population of Asian rhinos in the world. They also have over 100 wild tigers and over 50 wild elephants. Although all these are hard to spot.

We are spending 3 nights here staying in Eden Jungle resort (some huts and a restaurant in the village at the edge of the National Park). We have had a guide called Dan who has been brilliant and showed us real tiger tracks on a walk through the forest. We have been on an elephant ride and spotted a rhino with her baby and some antelope. Afterwards we went down to the river and bathed the elephants. This meant we had to climb onto the back of an elephant and get dunked in the river. The elephant kept squirting water at us too with his trunk. Great fun for the kids in you!

Nepal-the last country.

Arrived in Nepal a few days ago and we are glad to say it is very different from India-clean streets, clean food (so far anyway!) and very little harassment from touts and beggars. We went straight to the doctors because we attempted to go in India, but once arriving at the gate we turned quickly round at the site of a variety of ill looking people in dirty conditions. We decided if we entered, we would make ourselves more ill. Anyway, the doctor here established that we had food poisoning and mild dysentry and handed out 4 tablets, 3 times a day for 5 days. He thought it was very amusing by cracking jokes about not being able to have a cake on Craig's birthday.
We are sorted for the rest of our 5 weeks here. Tomorrow we leave for a 4 day trip to the Royal Chitwan National Park and then on to Pokhara to hopefully do a 3 week hike around the Annapurna circuit (depending on our strength, now we are getting better).

Our escape from India

A big congratulations to Mike and Mandy, Gandhi and Leanne and Pash and Karen for the new arrivals! Plus everyone else in Guisborough who is having babies. We won't be able to move when we get home.

Hello Clivey baby Donaldson, please email me on your private email as I cannot reply on the works email. Hope things are going well.

After one day in Delhi we were struck down with Delhi belly for 8 days! Possibly food poisoning! We were unable to eat anything for 48 hours and even after 10 litres of water we were still dehydrated! We will save you the grim details, but our time in Delhi has only allowed us one trip to the National museum. Unfortunately it is very hard to get better in India once you are ill due to the smell of open sewers and the fear of eating the food. The majority of the food here is unhygienic so the only way we can get better is to jump in a tuk tuk everyday and head to the main shopping area, Connaught place were we have to buy a meal at a trusted source e.g. TGI Fridays. We also had to change hotels to aid our recovery as the previous hotel was down a dingy alleyway with open sewers and a urinal at the end of the street. When it rained you had to wade through the open sewerage or try and hail a tuk tuk to take you over it! Plenty of the locals have warned us about the food and we have talked to some nice people including a group of students in the Taj Mahal of which one of them casually told us that the water didn't agree with him in Agra as it had given him Typhoid! So he drinks his regional bottled water instead. Even water here isn't as safe as it may appear. Some brands of water have 100 times as many the level of pesticides as they do at home!

Due to all this we have booked a flight to Kathmandu (we hope it's cleaner there) on Thursday and we must say we cannot wait! That means we have got 5 weeks in Nepal before we fly home from Delhi (again-oh no!) on the 2nd November. This will complete our circle of Asia adventure. Heading off to the mountains now for some fresh air!

We've seen some awful things in India, considering this country wants to be the new industrial giant of the world it has people that are classed with no more rights than the dogs that roam the streets. The cow, the goats and the monkeys the wander the streets seem to be more recognised than the people of a lower class. This country has got a lot of work to do, but no one seems interested in doing it. The harassment by touts and beggars plus cab drivers are endless even when you explain you know the scam, they still persist.

Arrived in Delhi and all OK

Just a quick message to tell everyone where we are incase you have seen the news-as there have been some bomb blasts in Delhi. Just arrived in Delhi after a 30 hour train journey from Goa and saw the news on the TV as we were checking in. There was some bombs in Connaught place the shopping area and there may have been one at the train station, but not the one we came in on. So anyway, we are OK and will be stepping out carefully in the next few days.
Spent the 30 hours on the train having very interesting conversations with a retired Indian Orthodontist who's grandfather was a brigadier and his son's are studying engineering in America. He gave us a real insight into India never mind our mouths, chuckle.
We also had the pleasure of a pleasant young English man from Bristol who had just given up 6 years of being a Buddhist monk in Thailand and Australia. Being a monk almost starved him to death due to the fact that they were only allowed one meal a day! He also had previously gone on a package trip! from Delhi to Kashmir!!!!!! Where he was held to ransom with death threats until he paid for another package tour. He escaped by hiring a taxi at 5am over the mountains for a 2 day journey reaching 5000 metres (the height of Everest base camp!)!!!!! Bless him, how on earth he got roped into it! He is flying home in 2 days and I don't think he'll be returning! God bless him.

Poon and then another 'sort of' holiday in Goa!

After a night in Mumbai we decided it wasn't the nicest place in the world! So headed on the 4 hour train to Pune to research where Craig's grandad was in the 1930's in the army. Only to find that Pune was no better than Mumbai if not worse! Leaving the train station we had to climb a muddy waterlogged bank where they were in the middle of building a road. There wasn't a modern building in sight and very few places to eat. We managed to find an expensive hotel for the night which was NOT good value for money. It was like going back to Russia- a room that had not changed for 50 years. It had smelly drains and it was falling to pieces. Oh well, never mind. The poverty is in your face in India particularly when you get out into the sticks. There are women with stumps as legs and hands! not nice.

The next morning we booked a taxi to take us round Pune for the day. First we went to the army base up in the hills nearby. The country side is not much different to the Lake District, complete with a huge reservoir. We even saw what looked like a mongoose, I think!
After an hours drive we arrived at the entrance to be told by the sentry that if we rang back at 3pm the station commander may be able to get someone to show us round. We tried to ring later, but unfortunately the number we were given would not work so that was the end of that, although at least we got to see the area around the NDA (National Defence Academy).
We had a grand tour of Pune by the taxi driver!!!!!! The first stop was a fort/palace that was crumbling and everyone liked to stare at us under our brolly! chuckle. The second stop was a park that turned out to be closed due to flooding! And the final stop was a museum that the taxi driver could not find as he didn't speak English! Typical! And that was our grand tour of Pune!
Has this place changed since my Grandad was there? not a lot I think. They have not even discovered that laying paths along the side of the roads is a good idea. It seems to be popular walking in the gutters with the rubbish!

We caught the bus that night to Goa for some sanity and the hope of a nice hotel room at a reasonable rate. It was a 10 hour bus journey and good apart from the smelly blanket and the freezing air con that kept us awake shivering! We arrived in Goa bus station-Pianjim town and caught the local bus to Baga (supposedly a busy holiday resort, but as it was out of season it turned out to be dead). The bus driver put our bags in a caged area at the front of the bus near him and we were told to join the bags. We felt very lucky however after 10 minutes when we saw the rest of the passengers on the bus squashed in tight with their arms hanging through the bars to us like they were imprisoned!

We found a really nice hotel in Baga and have been staying here for the past week. As there are no other tourists about a lot of the shops and restaurants are closed down and there is a lot of hassle on the beaches from people trying to sell things. But at least we have a nice room complete with TV! Which is a good job as it has rained non stop for 3 days and 3 nights! We have had to walk through the streets at times ankle deep in mucky water.

Here is the link to our India photos-
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.e4mpgh5&Uy=5fr6pd&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=9639790159_27925066713&localeid=en_US

Survived the Thailand coup and now in India.

Spent our last day in Thailand visiting Kanchanaburi (the bridge over the river Kwai). Very interesting place where the museum explained that the death railway built by the Japanese using Indonesian and Allied PO W's as forced labour to build a railway from Thailand to Burma. This would provide supplies to take Burma and attack India in the second world war. Thousands died, including the Japanese soldiers.

We managed to get out of Thailand the day the Prime Minister announced a state of emergency

but it sounded like CNN made it sound much worse than it was. We caught a flight from Bangkok to Bombay (Mumbai) arriving late into the city and ending up in a right doss hole. The taxis are old 1950's Citroen's and there are thousands of them! It took us 2 hours through thick traffic dodging people sleeping on the side/or the central reservation of the road. Ended up walking through the streets followed by a comical drunken tramp who insisted he was going to try and find us a hotel, even though we were trying to ignore him. It turns out he does this to everybody and demands a tip at the end of it! The streets are dirty, scruffy and lined with people sleeping on them. A real eye opener. It's a good job Craig's got his brolly!

Spent today with a hired taxi driver on a grand tour of Mumbai. Apparently it is an island once 7 islands which the Brits reclaimed the land and made one. We visited hanging gardens, The Gateway to India (where the last British troops left India, looks a bit like the Arc de Triomphe beside the sea), Gandhi's residence and museum, a Jainism temple (they don't even eat potatoes as they believe food grown in the ground will harm the worms!-hard core) and finally Victoria station where we took the 1st class train to Pune.

Strange fact-A certain religion originating from Persia (Iran) has a temple next to the hanging gardens called Tower of Silence. When a person dies, their body is hung from a tree in the grounds and is slitted and human blood is poured into the slits. It is left to hang until it is eaten by vultures and eagles and then the bones that are left are put in the neighbouring sea! They don't have a God and believe in fire, sea and earth. When we visited the hanging gardens we wondered why there was more than a dozen massive eagles swooping in the sky!

Cambodian sand filters-Corus doing good.

Here's one for the piping department Romney and Clive!

Just a photo from our snorkelling (you liar Craig).


Well, Craig finally spent his leaving collection on something good. He spent it on 2 sand filters which have just been commissioned to two different villages in Cambodia. One of these went to Chong Khneas village, the floating village around Tonle Sap Great lake and the other one went to the remote village school for children named Tbeng village. Here are the pictures that we got sent by Trailblazer.
Here's their website-www.thetrailblazerfoundation.org

Travel plan

Well, we've finished our sailing course and Rachel knows the difference between a fisherman's knot and a bowline. We are now competent crew so if anyone has a spare ship out there that wants sailing we're ready. Chuckle.
Having a few lazy days on the beach before we go back to Bangkok on Thursday. Been nice to recharge the batteries and now we're ready for the cities again. Managed to fit a few massages in too. Highly recommended.
The next plan is on to Bangkok to see some Thai boxing and visit the bridge over the River Kwai. We're picking our Indian visa up on Friday and then we will arrange a flight to Bombay to say hello to Mr Ta ta. And it will be Ta ta to Thailand (bad joke Craig).
Planning to spend one month in India researching where Craig's grandad Oswald was posted in the 1930's in the army for 7 years. Might see a few lookalikes! Then it's off to Nepal for a month to see the 'Him ar lee as' (Is that the correct pronunciation Mozza?!) We'll call in on Mr Ta ta and tell him what a sterling job you do in steel house!
Planning to head back to Guisy for November and hopefully for Christmas so don't forget us on the Christmas invites.

Sailing course or free work party?

Craig eating a massive prawn!
Sunset photo-Koh Tao island.
Back on the trains-Thai railway station.

Like a sunset shot! arty ha!
Random shrine shop in Bangkok!
Our house-Koh Tao island.

Like a motor or 2, don't we.
Shot from our none sailing boat!

Sailing is proving to more tricky than I first thought!

I didn't realise that I had to spend 3 days getting the boat out of the bay! because the engine mounts had to be replaced!, the gear cable snapped! the cooling pump impeller needed replacing and the drive coupling had bent!

Here's the link for our Thailand photos-

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.cmb01kh&Uy=dlg5ap&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=681638907012_52725781713&localeid=en_US

Made it to Thailand

Congratulations Stu and Tracey on the new arrival-Charlotte Eve! Wishing you all the best.

Well the crossing from Cambodia to the Thailand border is unusual!
We booked our $12 dollar (note they wanted to charge us $15) trip from Siam Reap to Bangkok, but soon found out there was another little scam going on. The back street or bus station told us on arrival that the bus had broken down and we all had to pay another 3 dollars to the border by Taxi. Although once we set off we knew why. A taxi would be better, as the road had deliberately been reduced to a dirt road in the name of progress, because the Bangkok airline has quietly been re-housing the local government officials to keep the progress slow.

Anyway, we found Bangkok very modern and quite impressive. The Metro is small but the newest we have seen up to now, and the sky train is very good and efficient. We stayed at Khaoson Road (this road is another world just for hippy holiday makers) any where else in the city they would stand out like sore thumbs. We visted the super new malls and had the day in the super new aquarium were you dive with the sharks. We only stayed for 3 nights so we could get down to Koa Tao Island and book into a sailing course. We organised our Indian Visa in Bangkok too, so we can pick it up on the 29th ($130). Well here's the web site for the sailing:
http://www.island-cruises.org/
It turns out that the business is being run by an East German guy in his 40's who found a half completed boat project in Australia and spent all his money and time for a year getting it afloat then sailing it to Thailand back in 2000.

Hello Clive Bostock - we are finally getting that course under our belt so we will hopefully be some use on the sailing front in a couple of weeks time if you want a crew.
By the way I hope the Croatian cruise went well and all is well with you and the family.

Unfortunately we would have put some photos on, but we put our camera case down and turned around in Bangkok Its acts like a magic trick! It disappears! Luckily we only lost the card reader to add photos on to the Blog. Thailand is quite open about corruption, its seems the in thing.
Thailand is open about alot of things! and if you are a man of any age and you like wearing ladies clothes then its ok. Buddhists preech that as long as you don't kill anyone then its up to you how you live your life, as long as you feel it is not harming anybody. Seems a reasonable policy, although I have been quite confused a few times who is who? chuckle.

We have had 2 days on the boat and a day doing chart work - Remember that Clive Donaldson! Hope things are good?
We are living in a wooden shack on the beach with a fan and our own mosquito nets for 400 Bhats a night ( 6 pounds ) and have a choice of going to see the Thai boxing or the drag show! he he.

Angkor Wat

One of the many overgrown trees that have grown into the ruins plus 3 of the hundreds of ankle biters (children) that try to sell you everything for "1 dollar!''

Arty Leather. What do you think Joe?

An Angkor carving, don't we love it.
One of the gates somewhere.

Killing fields memorial-full of human skulls-victims from the mass killings.
Human bones and teeth picked up by visitors. The fields around where were all the bodies were buried. When you walk in the paths there are bones and clothes poking out from underneath the soil.
A tuk tuk van full of monks going to the monastery in Phonm Penh.
Monsoon rain. Sat in an Irish bar having a Guinness and a Baileys.
Craig and his millipede friend.

Here is the link to our Cambodia photos-
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.lhz6dxx&Uy=4gyvyg&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=680552740331_14814538613&localeid=en_US


Hope the pictures are easy reading Woggy! Chuckle. Happy biking.

Visited Angkor Wat for 3 days on a tuk tuk. It is like a huge National Park with temples and ruins dotted throughout. It was unbelievably big. It was typical that the tuk tuk driver we had booked for the 2nd day arranged a price with us before we set off and then announced once we got there (in the middle of nowhere) that he was going to charge us double! Hard luck to him and a long walk back for us! 5 hours to be exact in the scorching heat (but at least we had Craig's umbrella to keep us cool). The place is fantastic and is where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones was filmed.

We also visited the Landmine museum which is in the same grounds. The man who created the museum is a former child Khmer Rouge soldier who was trained to plant landmines. He now clears landmines throughout Cambodia. It is incredible that the government hasn't supported him until now, trying to deny the fact that the most dangerous areas in the world for mines are in the west of Cambodia.

The trip to Cambodia has been incredibly educational. The fact that Pol pot was to blame for 3 million deaths in the 70's, the amount of disabled people and eerily the lack of old people is eye opening. Never mind the thousand year complexes of Angkor Wat that have still survived.

Siem Reap has been converted to tourist central. On the plus, there is loads of charities here doing work for the area. We have been to a few 'dining for a cause' restaurants were the street children live in orphanages in the grounds and are trained in the hospitality industry by working in the restaurant. All the profit goes to housing and paying for the orphans and to getting more children off the streets. A perfect place to come if you wanted to spend some time doing charitable work.

The rest of Vietnam and into Cambodia

We arrived in Hoi An-the town of paper lanterns. It was a very pretty town, a hippy oasis with a riverfront very very nice restaurants and shops. Here we bought ourselves a large box of paper lanterns to post home. After a couple of days of chilling out we headed on the bus to Dalat (a mountain town in the Central highlands). Dalat was a bit of a surprise as the weather was the coolest we have experienced since arriving in Beijing, just like a British summer complete with rain showers. Here they even grew strawberries and broccoli! The hillsides were pine forests as far as you could see, just like the French Alps complete with French style villas (very unlike the rest of Vietnam). The French obviously loved it here and as they occupied the country for 80 years they built plenty of places to live.

In Dalat we visited a back street hairdresser for Craig to have a trim, but he ended up having a shave and his ears cleaned too with what we can only describe as tools found in a dentist.A good job really as the girl jumped in joy after extracting a lump of wax out of Craig's right ear the size of a peanut-yuck! It must have been the 20 years of Corus that he had collected it from! We also went on an elephant ride, which surprisingly wasn't that high, with the elephant taking us on a walk through a river.

We left Dalat and headed on the bus to find the Cat Tien National Park. The bus to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) dropped us at the end of a dirt track where we had to find our own way to the National Park. The only way was to get a motorbike through the country lanes. The first night in the National Park we went on a night watch which consisted of about 15 people sitting on the back of a truck whilst the warden shone a torch into the fields and jungle to see what animals we could spot. We saw plenty of dear, an owl and a porcupine. There are also elephants and a rare breed of Rhino living in the park, but they are very rare to spot.

The second day we hiked up to the crocodile lake through the jungle for 2 hours. The lake has had crocodiles reintroduced and now has approximately 150. We chilled out for 2 days bird watching (seeing kingfishers, herons, horn bills and loads of different finches). Craig loved it! I slept a lot in the hammock! We went for a row on the lake for 2 hours and heard a female crocodile making breathing noises. We were told that it was to tell us not to come near her as she had babies. We shared the lodge with the resident wardens and 2 Russian ant experts who had come to study ants!!!! The food was very basic, with the wardens collecting leaves and herbs to eat and fishing in the lake. There was even fish gut soup for tea! Unfortunately no one told us that there was no drinks up at the lodge so we had to ration our 2 bottles of water until our return. We also saw loads of monkeys in the wild playing around the lake and swimming from the trees.

Rachel did not find staying at the lodge to be a nice experience and I don't know how she managed to get 9 hours sleep. There were the biggest spiders she has ever encountered including one very large hairy tarantula looking type hiding above the bathroom mirror and another that crawled across her foot in the bedroom! Fortunately there was a mosquito net there which also doubles as a spider net to stop unwanted spiders from entering your bed. Craig had a horrible experience too, his second leech experience!

We left the National Park on the local minibus to Saigon, which stopped at every village in sight to pick people up. The driver tried to charge us double because we were foreigners, but when we realised how much the locals were giving him we tried to give him the same, but he would not accept. The whole bus joined in sticking up for us and one man pointed to a poster on the bus wall telling us to ring the number to complain! We finally came to an agreement much to drivers disgust and Craig offered him a banana as compensation.

We arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), a rather bustling and smelly city. We ended up in the local bus station, not knowing where on earth we were. We caught the local bus to the hotel after having a well deserved burger (the bus ride was rather hair raising!). We stayed in Saigon 3 nights, visiting the War Remnants museum and the Reunification palace. The palace took about 10 minutes to look round but we were in the museum for 3 hours as it was so interesting (all about agent Orange and torture devices-learnt a lot).

From here we caught a 3 day (17 pound bargain trip) to the Mekong Delta. We visited a fish farm, coconut candy factory, rice noodle factory (more like a scraggy hut in the middle of a banana plantation) and a few local villages. We also visited the floating markets on our boat which can't have changed for hundreds of years.

We left the Mekong Delta at a small border town called Chau Doc and caught the boat up the Mekong to Cambodia. Cambodia is a lot poorer than Vietnam and everyone still lives in wooden houses on stilts. There is a lot of poverty and harassment of beggars and street sellers, but Rachel handles them with ease. We arrived in the capital Phonm Phen and stayed in a hotel that looked like it hadn't changed since the 60's. There was not a lot there except a very interesting museum (Pol pots S21 prison, which was converted from a school). It was a very eerie place and practically untouched since the 70's. You can even walk into the prison cells which still have the chains attached. We also visited the Killing Fields were they have dug up thousands of skulls which you can see and where you walked you can see human bones and old clothes that are being washed out of the ground under your feet. We learnt so much about this atrocity that we didn't really comprehend before. The estimated that 3 million people died during Pol Pots reign.

We have now arrived in Siem Reap and have spent the first day visiting Angkor Wat, an absolutely huge area of temples almost 1000 years old. There are so many to see that we have got a 3 day pass and are going back again for the next 2 days. Craig couldn't resist buying everything off all the street selling kids from postcards to pineapples.

Vietnam photos

Craig's artistic shot in the Mausoleum grounds.
Another artistic shot by Craig of the lake in the old quarter of Hanoi (he takes far too many photos).
Halong Bay (a view from the caves).
Halong bay sunset (unfortunately though. no sun, just a bit dark).
Vietnamese boat people around Halong bays 3000 islands.

Craig + brolley escaping from the Vinh Moch tunnels (Craig thought Moch meant made up just for tourists! Durrr!)
Rachel and Ebony (an Australian) outside the tunnels which led onto the beach (Ebony was emigrating back to Oz with her Burnley husband).
The Army museum in Hanoi. Rachel sat and had a rest while Craig had a nosey.
Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum in Hanoi (from the write ups, he didn't seem a bad guy).
The 4 Australians + their token Spanish man (chuckle) we met on the Halong bay trip. Cheers guys for a great time!

Here's the link to our Vietnam photos-

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=daywaat.137odvlx&Uy=6n4hkr&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=364983211171_83309262613&localeid=en_US

Hi Josie and Gerry. Hope things are good with you lot and I hope Josie has a great birthday on Thursday. We'll have a really cheap bottle of Vietnamese beer to celebrate. Have you changed jobs yet? And Gerry, have you had any adventures lately?

Into Vietnam

After leaving Nanning in China we caught the bus to the Vietnamese border. The border (Friendship pass) is set between gorgeous mountains were you get transported on and off with your bags on a 'golf type trolley' car. The Vietnam border crossing was definately more disorgansied than those in China.
No wonder the Chinese and Vietnamese made this the boundary, as it would be extremely difficult to hike over. I just didn't realise how mountainous most of Vietnam is! It never made it clear to me in Rambo III, chuckle.
Once through the border we continued on the bus down to Hanoi. The journey to Hanoi passed lots of nice and very mountainous countryside. Vietnam is much greener than China, has much more paddy fields (second only to Thialand on the world production of rice - did you know that Mozza) and all the buildings are in a French style and are brightly coloured, tall and narrow. The Vietnamese people are much better off than what we expected as there is a lot more tourism here than in China but they are busying themselves by making new road systems.
Once we reached Hanoi we had a wander through the narrow streets of the Old town where there were so many motorbikes that it was extremely difficult to cross the street. The restaurants in Hanoi (and throughout the rest of Vietnam) all sell Western food (a complete change to China-were it was very difficult to find anything!) After living on a diet of rice, vegetables and fish for the last 3 months, we finally had a tuna baguette for dinner! We had to take it easy though as the food was so different to what we had been used to that we couldn't eat a lot and felt as if we were going to explode!
In Hanoi we went to a Water puppet theatre where you sit inside an indoor theatre and watch puppets dancing in traditional costumes with traditional stories on the water (which is in place of the stage). A local guy walked us around the lake, well tagged along, and told us the whole history of the place which was nice. Although the parting gesture was would we consider kindly donating to his living costs as he was a engineering student ! (well, poor sod, I had to give a little money).
Then we went off on a 3 day trip to Halong Bay (on the coast of the South China sea). Here we sailed for 2 days round the 3000 islands, kayaking, cycling, swimming off the side of the boat and visited some caves. The Aussie group we met were great company and we hope Kiki had not too tiring of a birthday. Hi gang.
I only remembered this place because my mate Brian Simpson told me about it -Hi Bry -I hope you and the wife are fine!
Once we returned to Hanoi we went to visit Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh looked rather pasty! We had to queue for 1 hour as it was the school holidays and a Sunday so we spent the time talking to 2 Vietnamese girls who wanted to practise their English. We then spent 2 hours sat under a tree in the grounds rereading our book on Vietnamese history which was very long and complicated, but we got there in the end!

We left Hanoi and caught the overnight bus to Hue (in Central Vietnam). The bus ended up being 2 and a half hours late arriving in Hue as the bus driver was very annoying, picking up local people to make more money for himself. He also spent the whole night beeping his horn very loudly and the toilet was overflowing as it did not flush. Not a nice trip!
Hue is near the former North/South Vietnam border. There is a lot of history there from the Vietnam war. We visited the DMZ (Demilitarised zone) where we went inside the Vinh Moc Tunnels were 300 people and soldiers lived during the war. Inside the tunnels it was very tiny and damp and they went on for ever. We also visited numerous bridges and places were events happened. It really brought it home how much damage Agent orange and Napalm (Saul, could you check the spelling!) did to the people and land. There is still a few people kicking around bearing the scares.
We have even been reading up on Vietnam history and actually can name a few dates! he he.

Hue has an old citadel wall which we decided to ride on bikes to. We managed to make it through the city and across the bridge to the old town with some rather scary crossings at the traffic lights and junctions! However we arrived safely and spent the afternoon wandering around the inside of the citadel.
We also went on a boat ride down the river in our own private boat for 2.50 each! The local woman who owned the boat drove us mad trying to sell us all sorts of weird sovenirs and drinks, even to the point of holding them up to our faces whilst we were trying to enjoy the view (without much success because of her!)
After 6 days in Hue 2 of which we spent never a few feet from the toilet! yuk, I blamed it on the heat (at steady 38 oC for a week). With our fingers crossed and a fresh toilet roll we caught the bus to Hoi An this morning. As we have not left the hotel yet there is nothing to report here as yet!

The Li river and random meeting of Olympic torch

Trained cormorants for a bit of fishing.
Bamboo rafts on the Li river.
Typical ! Craigs still got his brolly!

The Torch. Craig loves his brolly!

Random ribbon shot on the railings of a temple!

Took our first flight of the trip a few days ago and flew the whole 45 minute flight from Haikou to Nanning! Definetly a quicker option than the 12 hour boat ride + 4 hour train ride. The reason why we flew was because the boat was overnight and we wouldn't have seen a thing. It was a reminder of how luxurious and quick a flight is! No wonder everyone flies! The only down side is the body search and putting your boots through x-ray machines. But back on track now after taking a 5 hour double decker train to Guilin to see the Li river.

After speaking to the lady in the office in Nanning where we have left our passports to get our Vietnamese visas, she told us that the Li river was no longer 10 feet deep in floods as seen on the TV earlier that week, so we decided that we would head off there as Nanning was pretty dull.

Guilin is an amazing place nestled by surrounding oddly shaped mountains and separated by a substantial river. The locals even use it as a swimming pool on the night, complete with swimming pool steps and flood lighting.

Today we went on a cruise down the Li river to Yangshou. We had the option of a Chinese or Western cruise, but decided to save 7 pound each by going on the Chinese one. Much more fun anyway! And then we can use our very limited Mandarin. They like to practice their English on us anyway and impress their children. The cruise was fantastic and Craig as usual got carried away with the camera. The scenery was dramatic and it didn't rain for a change. Afterwards we got a photo with comorant fisherman and then headed off to see some caves, a temple and a 1400 year old Banyan tree. As per usual, the Chinese love to cram everything into one day, as this would take us 3 days if we did it ourselves by taking a breath between venues.

Yesterday we were walking through the park in Guilin on a town walk around when we bumped into a random group of people taking photos of each other. We suddenly realised that it was infact Olympic runner number 66 of the torch relay complete with his torch! He had obviously done the run somewhere else and got to keep his torch and do a tour of his local park. Check the photos out!!!! Cannot believe we got to hold one of the real Olympic torches!

Our new plans

Rachel is a saviour of lunch! only kidding! this is the hotel pet.

Leech ! I don't like them ! especially when they are hanging from your leg.

Some one else's dinner!

Josie and Anna. Cheers guys for all the help.

Well, we are starting out on our exit out of china!

Met a Dutch guy called Bart, yesterday (yes Bart! chuckle) and he had just secured a 6 million euro order of 1.5 m dia API tube to Holland for a dry dock. The land of quality and opportunity is here as he proves. They just need a lot of management, because the quality is OK he says. We love a pipe or 2! Could of bored each other for hours,he he. By the way, the south of the Island gets lots of Russian tourists and they were happily celebrating the defeat of the Dutch in the Euros. chuckle...but at least they were there!
The last 8 weeks has been a definite education. We have found the Chinese people as a land of the young, friendly to the point of over helpfulness, generous, open, innocent and naive but not to point of being push overs. Then again, the authorities act as the parents. We have had time to hang around a while housed at a Hainan university campus soaking up a little of the local culture. This is thanks to the fact our new friend Josie made good friends with Anna (a charming Chinese school teacher). We met Josie Ellis (Londoner-Kingston) the first day of our training and went on to travel the Island together. Thanks Josie for the help and talking girl talk with Rachel when my ears closed down for a sleep! chuckle. Anna has allowed Josie to stay in her flat for a spell whilst she is living with the in laws before or during her wedding. Chinese people get married in a registry office on a low key basis then have a fabulous wedding photo shoot which takes a full day before saving up for a big flash wedding months later. Thanks Anna for telling us how to order up a meal that actually goes together rather than our random selections.

Unfortunately China is having a terrible year! The flooding in the south has been extra bad and the earthquake that has created land slides to block up rivers to create new dams that break and cause flooding for all the poor homeless farmers. There is even typhoons hitting the coast to create more problems. Lets hope they have a great Olympics.

This afternoon we we will be flying to Nanning on the 20.50 flight (Nanning is in Southern China). We will be staying there for a few days and then going to the Vietnamese consulate there to get a visa which should take a few days. Then we are getting the 4 hour train to the Vietnam border and getting the train to Hanoi. We are not sure after that where we are going but will probably head down the coast of Vietnam. We're hoping to spend about 7 weeks in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and then fly from Bangkok to Kathmundu and spend 7 weeks in Nepal.

We would like to congratulate the lads from Guisborough who did the Hadrian's wall walk. We saw Joe Shutts photos and it looked a grueller! Count me in next years plan, how about that kayak trip Pee? or what ever else you can dream up, I will be up for it.

Stu, we will be planning to be home for most of October if you need a push on with the garage roof! I'm sure I can find time between visiting new little people, he he.

Here is the link to our Hainan photos-
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.x82agdl&Uy=wqr9i3&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=179735814423_89149946513&localeid=en_US

P.S We had a nice meal in a very newly opened posh restaurant this lunch time (for a whole 8 pounds for 4 people) and on the way back to pick up our bags and via a trip to the bank so Josie could cash in her travellers cheques, we watched a naked man walk all the way up the street in a rain shower not even getting a second glance from the numerous people in the street! Did that really happen? Rachel and Josie had a chuckle!

Latest in China

As you can see we have put our photos on the Kodak site but we have got lots more to come soon. Had a good first month training and have learnt a little Mandarin. We can now count to 100 and get by with simple words/phrases e.g. how much is it? too expensive and cheaper. Craig is walking around with a Chinese umbrella that cost him 90p. Everyone uses them here for sun and rain. Rachel has bought too dresses as Chinese women walk round all day in dresses and high heels.

Unfortunately we were unable to teach in a school as the company we came with sent us at the wrong time of year! It only allows 4 weeks of teaching until the end of term which is more of revision time. The schools would find it too difficult to program us in for that short period and regrettably after having a fun 4 weeks learning Mandarin and Craig learning how to plan lessons, chuckle we are disappointed but are making the most of our time left here. We are travelling the island at the moment and are in Wuzishan visiting other teacher friends.

We are about to go out for lunch where dog is on the menu and is hanging in the window of the restaurant! Yuck! We met lots of Chinese people in English corner last night (a place where people gather to talk English in the open air) and Rachel had some tricky questions on what type of hair styles English people have. Someone said that Craig looked like a short version of Nicholas Cage and was told not to speak slowly as they are not in Kindergarten. Craig explained that he always speaks this slowly! Poor Craig was asked his opinions on sex before marriage and casual relationships in the West! The Chinese people are very open with questions and are not afraid to get to the point.

We visited the rain forest after getting 5 buses and a tuk tuk van into the mountains. The return journey was even more interesting as there was no transport on the roads so we had to ask the local shop keeper to take us down on his open back tuk tuk motorbike-not a comfortable ride for 1.5 hours! , but he was pleased to earn the money. The rain forest was fantastic and we stayed in a chalet under our mosquito nets. They were also used to stop the bugs, lizards and spiders in the room from getting into our beds. We have never seen so many butterflies and large bugs. There were praying mantis, massive millipedes that curled up, fire flys and the punk versions of caterpillars that looked really funny and extremely hairy.

It was the dragon boat festival at the weekend but we managed to be sent the wrong way by a Chinese friend so never made it. It is another lesson in never believing the directions from a Chinese person as the don't have a clue! They are so nice they never feel they can say they don't know, so instead they make something up!

More to follow later as have to rush off for dinner now.

Back on TV-this time with Rachel

A bit of an odd night tonight. We were invited to a violin and piano concert at the TV studio because 2 of our English friends had done an interview about the earthquake yesterday, so the TV company wanted to say thankyou. It was a concert to raise money for the earthquake and we were the only weterners in the audience apart from 2 blokes who waved at us with great excitement when they saw us. Rachel wore her new red dress to the show, but was approached by the TV presenter holding her white shirt, asking her to wear it. We could not understand why at first, then realised it was because red is lucky in China and is linked to celebration. Not the best colour to be wearing for an earthquake concert! Our English friend, Rebecca was interviewed as we all stood round staring into the camera.

Our photos

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=daywaat.y2hc085&Uy=tqjtl&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=708557705794_23299856413&localeid=en_US
To view our photos, please click on the above link. There will be more to follow soon.

Managed to go down to Sanya for the weekend. It was a proper holiday resort, complete with white people, but unfortunately they were all Russian. Treat ourselves including Martin and our driver to a 5 star breakfast in a 5 star hotel. Real coffee, toast, egg, bacon and roast potatoes. Yum yum.

Great to speak to Nige and George at work and a shame Mark was too busy. Chuckle.

Another way to look at our photos 'fingers crossed'.

We hopefully have created a photo gallery on Kodakgallery.com
The album is called Gibba2china
There is some problems with the speed of down load though! so fingers crossed.

In Hainan with no affects from the earthquake!

Luckily we have not been affected by the earthquake here in Hainan. The TV has been full of stories and pictures. It's a major disaster on the main land, with the whole country being given a 3 day national grieving period where all types of entertainment have been closed down in respect to the dead. There was a 3 minute silence at 2.28 today where the street was full with noises of sirens and car horns beeping, whilst everyone stood in silence. Everyone is donating money and a collection has been set up at our school. It is a bit strange here as the Chinese like to take records of everything, there is no such thing as a anonymous donation and people have to be careful not to give more than their boss because he would 'lose face.' Maybe they have got it right. We were warned about the earthquake on the day, but like everything in China, it turned out to be half an hour after the actual quake had happened that we evacuated the building.
The news stories here are more graphical than at home. Yesterday we were watching as a man was pulled from underneath some rubble and then resuscitated unsuccessfully on live tv. The tv coverage was slow to pick up on the immensity of it and we didn't realise that there had been a major earthquake until we rang home on the night it happened. We were there only 4 weeks ago and a lot of the new tower blocks of concrete to rehouse the farmers did not look like they were designed to withstand earthquakes. We feel very powerless, but the Chinese army and rescue workers seem to be doing all they can. The Panda reserve we visited is very close to the epi centre so no doubt there is more tragedy there.
The people across China have been so nice and friendly and this year does not seem to have been very lucky for them. In China the numbers 2,6 and 8 are lucky numbers especially 8. The Olympics starts at 8 o'clock on the 8th of the 8th 2008.

We have been on quite an intense training regime and have learnt loads of Mandarin and teaching games. We have completed 2 weeks out of 4 and our Chinese teacher called Tiffany is an absolute scream. She is full of beans and loves taking us shopping so we can bargain in Chinese. Craig has been busy setting rat traps and has only caught 2 so far with another 7 to go! We have found that Chinese people class the floor as a rubbish tip and don't seem to be worried about rats and cockroaches. But when they start coming in your dining room on the 4th floor, we had to do something about it.

We hope Jamsie and Cath have a great wedding next week!

Hong Kong - one of the best places yet!

We know what you mean Rachel- Hong Kong is fantastic with so much to do. We ended up staying 6 days and left just an hour before the Olympic torch started its run through the streets. Mind you, we expected more crowds, the Honkanese must be a bit more laid back about these things.
We took Rachel's advice and went up Victoria peak-although it was very misty, so we could not see a lot. Wandered into a Kashmir clothes shop to our error and discovered the owner was a Muslim preacher and decided that selling clothes was only secondary to converting customers to Islam. Had a lovely walk down to the harbour in the pitch black and found the bar street. Drinks were 4 pounds, so carried onto the ferry.
Had plenty of trips on the star ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island (about 15p a trip). This is certainly a highlight of the old colonial feel.
Had 2 island trips-one to Lamma island for our seafood meal, where Rachel discovered Shrimp, oysters and the freshest fish straight from the tank. Hiked across the island from one side to the other, taking about 1 hour ( a extremely short walk for us these days!) and bumped into a tipsy retired British couple who didn't have a lot of good to say about anything and an Associated board examer/professional piano player.
The second island we visited was Cheung Chau were we had another hike around, this time Craig got us lost and took us up a very steep hill. We also tasted our first dim sum meal here (shrimp dumplings and chicken dumplings).
The final day we visited the Happy Valley racecourse, but unfortuantely there were no horses as we got the wrong course! Should have been on the New Terrotories-typical of Craig's planning! It actually turned out for the best as we got food and endless drinks included in our ticket price (100 HK dollars, about 3.50 each). and watched the horse racing on a big screen from a balcony on the stand. The stand was still three quarters full, given it a nice feel. We understand the Hong Kong love of gambling now and blew a whole 10 pounds on 10 races!
Didn't realise what Hong Kong was all about and would love to go again, as we could have spent much longer there. Saying that, it would have to be in better accomodation! Craig didn't work out how to turn the air conditioning on until after 3 days, so we wondered why we were so sleepy! (stayed in Mirador Mansions, if you know it Rachel? With every nationality you could name, even a naked man at reception negotiating a room rate!)
The next day we headed to Macau (Las Vegas of Asia!) on the 1 hour ferry crossing from Hong Kong, complete with free upgrade! We arrived in Macau with no accomodation on a public holiday, so were wondering if we were actually going to be able to stay, but managed to find a hotel, complete with rat poison in the hallway! OK for 1 night I guess! Ended up gambling the night away in The MGM and the Casino Lisboa. We gambled a whole 500 HK dollars, about 30 pounds and won it all back on the last dice throw of the night on lucky 13! Hooray!!!!!! Got all the free drinks you could think of all night long-red bull, beer, ovaltine, tea, coffee and juice and watched a lot of either very rich or stupid chinese punters gambling their money away. The casino was livened up with dance groups and mimers on stage (Chicago style).
Macau was small and bustling and we found some fantastic furniture shops, well worth a weekend, but you could easily lose your house!
Caught the bus from Macau to Guanghou this morning (Saturday), it broke down half way here and we have finally arrived after hopping on a 2nd bus and then taxi. Waiting in the local youth hostel, which looks like a 4 star hotel as we wait for the overnight train to Haikou in Hainan (the finale in our train/bus/boat journey! -at least for now!). Now the dreaded 4 letter word?

Shanghai and on to Hong Kong

Survived a night in Wuhan and arrived in Shanghai the next day. A sad highlight-found a bakers in the tube station selling real bread! A luxury we have missed. Wandered the Bund and looked across at the Shanghai skyine at night. The next day we met Paul from Peterlee beside the internet at the hostel. He came with us and we went on a 3 hour cruise down the Huang Po river to the mouth of the Yangtze. Craig loved looking at the millions of boats, tankers and frigets. Rachel was not so impressed, but enjoyed the munchies that we were given for free. Some were rather odd however-including some queer beef gerkin which she spat out and some strange vegetable sweets (the chinese have a strange idea of sweet things). On the cruise we met a Canadian from Vancouver called Peter and afterwards we went back to his hotel for cup of tea and a nosy in his 5 star hotel room (Art deco). We spent the evening with Peter and Paul, visiting a barbecue restaurant where you barbecued your own food in the middle of the table. Then we went on to a bar for a few beers.
The following day we wandered the Shanghai streets in search of a park, but as Craig had read the map wrong, we never found it until it was too late and it had closed! Never mind, we got plenty of exercise! and saw the football stadium and sat in a nice park. Cheated today and had a KFC!
The next day we visited the Shanghai museum-and it was actually our first freebie of the entire trip! Free entry-we could not believe it! Later we left for the station to catch the train to Hong Kong. A 20 hour journey this time, but most of it was overnight. We had top bunk beds this time, 3 beds high, so quite a climb to get on! We met a couple from Dublin and ate in the restaurant car with them.
Arrived in Hong Kong this morning (Saturday). Found a double room in a hostel for about 7 pound a night each, which is very good for here. Very small and a bit scabby with shower over the toilet, but it doesn't matter as it is so warm and humid here that we will hardly be in it. We can always sit in the park all day!!! Had a good wander round with a girl from Slovenia who was also on our train. We saw the Hong Kong skyline at night and the sound and light show, which is on dislay from all the buildings both sides of the river at 8pm each night. We are staying here for 5 nights until Thurs, then may go to Macau by ferry and stay 2 nights til Sat before getting the train to our final destination - Hainan. So glad to finally be in the heat, the skys here are clear and there is no smog so the sun finally gets through. Hong Kong is very impressive and ultra modern.
Having a few problems getting the pictures on at the moment, will hopefully be adding some soon.