I've Finally Reached Vietnam!

12th to 18th November - Ho Chi Minh City & Mui Ne

Tired and disorientated our bus dropped us off in the epicentre of Ho Chi Minh, the second largest city and Vietnam, with lights glowing everywhere and people all sat around on little stools sharing food, i instantly got a great vibe from the street and couldn’t wait to explore. The people spewed out onto the streets at night time and it was exactly what i was expecting from Vietnam. Straight away we were mobbed by a taxi driver, pushy, but nothing out of the ordinary, we decided to take a risk and go with him along with having the meter running. Anybody thats visited out here will tell you thats a mistake, we had no idea where our hotel was and i should of got wifi or a simcard before making any moves. Our new driver went around the city for a good 15 minutes with what, at the time, looked like a direct route, he completely fooled us! Turns out the hotel was only a two minute walk from where the bus dropped us off! Fair enough to the guy, if tourists are daft enough to fall for it, who’s to blame him?

This was Bens last night on our Asia adventure, he had been here since the beginning and it began dawning on us that our group of six would soon become five. With this on the mind we headed out for a couple of quiet drinks, trying different places and generally walking the hustling streets. It was nice and relaxed, another great place for people watching, and before long we headed back for an early night. In the morning we moved hotel as our numbers were changing, Ben followed for some breakfast at a little cafe before a taxi was ordered and we reluctantly said our goodbyes. We knew we would see him in only a matter of weeks but it definitely felt different without him. High spirits soon returned and we began walking the streets looking in shops and generally exploring before grabbing a few coffees and playing cards. The next couple of days in Ho Chi Minh followed a very similar suit but yet it was great! Being able to sit around on the busy streets and watch the world go by without being overly hassled. 

With one more full day i re-motivated most of the team to come and visit the war museum based just on the outside of town, there are memorials and museums scattered around the entire country as a reminder to the war that happened here. The war museum was incredibly graphic and details which at times left me feeling both shocked and sickened by what had happened here. There was even American tanks, helicopters and planes that had been left here from the war shown on exhibition at the front, a plaque explained how many of each had been used during the war and the numbers often reached much higher than i was expecting. On our way around the museum i saw a room titled “Agent Orange”, i’d previously heard about what this bioweapon had been used for and that it still damaged Vietnam and surrounding countries to this day, however after walking through a gallery filled with huge portraits of the men, women and children that were hit by the gas i realised how much worse it actually was, it was catastrophic. The gas had even been used across farming land to destroy crops and children were still being born with defects. That was more than enough horror for one day and after debating the war we all headed back to the busy streets.

We jumped onto our bus the next morning and headed up to Mui Ne, a small town that was known for its red sand dunes. We had missed out on a desert during our time in India so we decided this would suffice. With our bags dropped off with instantly hired scooters for the day and with sunset quickly approaching we shot off up the road to a little lay by overlooking the sea. The scene was an array of boats gently moving with the waves and the sun dropped slowing over the horizon after lighting the entire area in a deep orange glow. Definitely a worthwhile sunset to see. That night, whilst we had transport we decided to attempt photographing the stars at Mui Ne’s sand dunes. We blasted down the deserted roads and pulled up somewhere at the side of the road, with very little idea of which direction we should head we simply walking onto the sand and heading forwards. After 15 or so minutes we arrived at some much larger dunes and began setting up camp for the few hours we stayed. The vision of stars was unfortunately not great, however, it was still loads of fun experimenting with the camera and generally exploring at night time.

Awaking really early has never been our groups strong point but sure enough we arose and opted to begin with the nearby fairy pool walk, something i thought would be good to just pass some time. It surprisingly entertaining! You got to walk down this very slow paced stream with no shoes on and great scenery, we kept stopping to play in the diluted clay which was acting more like quick sand. With a bit of climbing fallen trees and sitting at some chairs that appeared very out of place, we decided to head back and bike onwards to the sand dunes we visited the night before. On our arrival we were bombarded by kids selling these sheets of plastic used to 'surf' down the dunes, we decided it  would be fun and with a little bit of money thrown their way we were off into the desert. We started on the biggest dune within sight and soon realised the sand was far too soft and we literally just got covered head to toe! I ended up looking like the guy from 72 Hours. We managed to get the technique down and eventually got some distance and speed on these things. 
     Our time in Mui Ne was quite short but we made the most of it, the only bizarre thing about the area was that most of the eateries were owned by Russians and in turn, this was mostly the cuisine that was on offer! The food definitely wasn't good for the few days. At one point i ordered a sweet and sour, it arrived covered in cucumber and rather than the traditional red sauce it was see-through and white... Not for me thanks. Vietnam so far had been brilliant, we we're looking forward to continuing our journey up the country.

 Streets of Ho Chi Minh City 

  Streets of Ho Chi Minh City  2

 Street hawkers

 War Museum

  War Museum 2

  War Museum 3

 Guns.. Many guns

 The effects from Agent Orange

 Ho Chi Minh City Markets

 The crazy streets below our hotel

 And one more!

 Near the beach in Mui Ne

 Our first sunset in Mue Ne

 Red Sanddunes at night

 Fairy Pools walk

 Fairy Pools walk 2

I've lost my feet!

Cambodian History

3rd to 11th November - Siem Reap & Phnom Penh

Straight out of the airport and after a short drive through the bustling streets of Siem Reap we arrived at our hostel, Funky Flashpackers. We hadn’t slept properly and mourned for somewhere to lay horizontal, our beds wouldn’t be ready until 1:00PM and we had arrived for 8:00AM! We headed to the rooftop bar and were completely made up with a huge seating area of sofas and cushions along with a free pool table and for myself, a full English breakfast. We killed these hours lounging around, half of us slept and eventually we got our rooms, a shower was needed. All the residents of our new hostel were definitely here to party, 1$ beers and pool volley ball, so with that in mind i decided to skip sleeping once more and jump into the pool with a cold beer, most of the guys joined as well and we got talking to people which was great as recently we’ve been so busy getting the sight seeing done we’ve not spent time at hostels.

That evening we all headed to the notorious ‘Pub street’ which turned out to be a much calmer version of Khoa San Road in Bangkok. Our tuk tuk drive there was hilarious, our driver called himself ‘Batman’ and swerved all over the road purposely whilst shouting to random people, probably not the safest mode of transport but luckily it was only around the corner and he was cheap. We went to several bars chatting to other people and figured out the pub crawl hosted by stay and work travellers is definitely not one to miss. We had been previously told about it by Josh and Jenna who we travelled with in Thailand, they agreed that it was a brilliant night. 

We had booked four nights at this hostel with only Angkor Wat to see and with that in mind we woke up the next morning, relaxed on the sofas, played volley ball and decided to get involved with the evenings drinking games that were organised by the staff. Beer pong it was. After reluctantly getting our groups together i was teamed with Ingham and confidence began to sky rockets after the first or second beer, i’ve always considered confidence to be the most important factor in competitions and this time it worked! The first two matches nobody scored against us, we were both shooting cup after cup and it emitted a great atmosphere on the roof top bar with the crowd getting involved. We arrived at the final without evening knowing it and probably because we didn’t have the pressure we beat the final team with no problems, screaming in victory we prepared for what we believed to be the last match completely unknowing we had just won two front seat tickets to a local Cambodian circus! It wasn’t until the next jug of beer was bought that the staff/rivals informed me they already lost a previous game and this was only a friendly, me and Ingham were in a poor way with vision impaired and movements slowed but the game started well, for half of the shots i had to pick Ingham up from against the wall but somehow he still managed to score! I had to begin drinking his drinks which pushed me further over the edge and after a tense match we were finally beat by a single cup. The staff let out a huge cry of relief but were still happy to admit it was anyones game and with that finished, we went straight to the room before the floor became our beds.

The pub crawl had come around the day afterwards so off we headed to X-Bar to book ourselves a place on the event, with a 10$ cost and a fairly quiet bar when we first arrived we almost didn’t do it. However we took a gamble and it definitely paid off, we got a free t-shirt straight away and the staff seemed brilliant, really easy to get on with and more importantly, a sense of humour. Straight away during the staffs introductions on stage a game began, flipping a coin, choose heads or tails. Very simple however we’re fairly sure its a trick coin and over 6 tries it always landed on heads and luckily both Ingham and Ben realised and ended up being two of four up on stage. Their next challenge was to down a pint and beat the others, the rest of the group felt confident we’d succeed and sure enough Ingham won yet more circus tickets which made us all burst into laughter, that was a total of four free tickets now! The crawl continued with some live music and then off to the first bar where we started with beer pong once more, in all honesty me and Ingham shouldn’t of mentioned our previous victories as we won the first match quite easily but the second was a complete wipe out against an American guy, he obviously plays far too much! 

Within moments of beer pong coming to an end, Henry, one of the staff jumped up onto a bench and announced the next game would be beginning, out of nowhere he shouts "the first 5 people to sit down on the bench are in", somehow i managed it! One person would be knocked out each round of the game, Henry would ask us to retrieve one item from the audience at a time, first ones sat back down continued. They started with a dollar note, done. Then a pub crawl t-shirt, no problem. Next was more difficult and problematic as at this point i was against two girls and we needed to bring back a bra that wasn’t our own! With some pleading from myself and a bit of charm i managed to be first back to the bench, bra in hand! The final dawned upon me and this other girl where we were asked to bring a sock back to the bench, i reluctantly got Dan’s, he assured my they were clean on thank god and this was then placed over a pint of beer. The challenge was to finish the beer first through the ‘used’ sock. I’ve never been a huge drinker and definitely not one to down a drink but with the guys screaming and chanting i managed to pull it off and win. That was a total of two games played through the pub crawl and our group had won both.

The next morning we revelled in how great the night was and laughed about what had happened throughout, mostly we once more relaxed and chatted with people before the evening came once more and we decided to finally go to the circus, with four tickets we invited Dan and Robin to come along. It was quite good as we weren’t expecting anything amazing, The majority was very impressive gymnastics with a storyline splashed with a bit of comedy, not bad for completely free and it filled the evening nicely. 

Our final day, we packed and left our bags downstairs ready to start Angkor Wat before our night bus which was set to leave at midnight. In true form of our luck it began to rain heavily, and we had to postpone our temple viewings until midday, thankfully it actually cleared up and the sun came out, we hopped into our tuk tuks and set sail. We reached the complex and visited Angkor Wat first where we ventured around the grounds and inside the amazing temple, it was like travelling back in time by hundreds of years, this whole religious site was built during the 12th century and is still, considering, in brilliant condition. We continued onto two more of the iconic temples including Angkor Thom which rose to fame for being the location used in the first Tomb Raider film. The tree’s here have overgrown their place, twisting and rooting into the temple creating these incredible scenes, nature had fought back. I learnt from eves dropping on a tour guide that the tree’s grew their branches downwards to increase their surface area on the ground in an attempt to drink more water. After a quick stop off for some food, the place was owned by one of our tuk tuk drivers so how could we refuse? We began a short 15 minute walk uphill to try and overlook Angkor Wat for sunset, we realised pretty early on that the place was heaving with people and our chances were quite slim of seeing anything. We got to the top to find a huge queue for the vantage spot and we decided against the wait, within minutes of being there the heavens opened up and the heavy rain began! A brisk walk back down in the crowd and we shot off back to the hostel. 

Later that evening we jumped onto our night bus waving good bye to Siem Reap, unfortunately we had never got one of these buses with actual beds, turns out its the equivalent of a bad quality single bed between two people! Me and dan were in each others way for the entire night, very poor sleep for the two of us. We arrived in Phnom Penh early again and our new hostel wasn’t ready, just our luck. I was horribly tired so i opted to fall asleep on the sofa whilst half the group split off and decided to do the Cambodian Killing Fields straight away. That day, after finally getting some rest, we ventured and explored the local area but overall didn’t get up to much! 

Me and Robin got up early the next day and set off to the Killing Fields after arguing with a tuk tuk driver for a cheaper price, he explained since we're paying less he's going to drive like a maniac to save time, thats fine by me, anything for an extra dollar in my pocket! We arrived and opted to get the audio whilst walking around the site, i'd hugely recommend doing the same as it was incredibly insightful. Everybody was in silence walking around, viewing each section of the site is disbelief that a single man could do this to a country, i won't explain on here what happened but if you don't know, please give it a 'google'. The thing that stuck in my head and probably will do for many years to come is the 'magic tree', a place where unthinkable horror took place to both children and even babies. It was tragic to think i was stood right where this had happened only 35 years ago, it is still incredibly recent. The tree now is covered in small, colourful ribbons in respect to those who lost their lives. We discussed Cambodian history on our way back to the hostel and truly felt for the country that lost so much, but yet, reaches out as a friendly and culturally rich place to visit.

Cambodian Circus, I could do that...

I wouldn't dare do that!

Inside Angkor Wat

View from inside Angkor Wat

The guys walking through the grounds

One of the structures inside the grounds

The main photograph of Angkor Wat from the lily ponds

Finally another group shot, not done enough of these!

Our trusted tuk tuks

Angkor Thom crazy tree 1

Angkor Thom crazy tree 2

Close up of the roots

Angkor Thom crazy tree 3

Another structure within Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom crazy tree 4

Band photograph...

Not a bad drive around the complex

Cambodian Killing Fields

Huge case filled with the skulls of those who lost their lives

The 'Magic Tree'

Ubud - The Cultural Hub of Indonesia

25th October to 2nd November - Ubud & East Java (Mt Bromo)

The ferry back to the island Bali was a good time to sit back and reflect on Indonesia so far, we were on top of the boat in the baking sun with a chilled beer in hand. I’d so far loved this beautiful country with the friendliest people, they were always up for a laugh and a conversation, the fact everybody smiles always puts you in an optimistic mindset. sometimes on this trip this can be rare to find, often you’re seen simply as another person in the crowd or a tourist willing to part with some money. Ubud was a place i had never really considered visiting until my previous house mate Shauna talked to me about it, convincing me one day we should visit. I felt it a shame she wasn’t with us but i already knew i would happily revisit this part of the world without a moments hesitation. Ubud is known for being the cultural hub on Bali, filled with scenic landscapes and a laid back attitude. 

Our hotel was fairly incredible for the cost, comfortable beds and very spacious. The shower had a pebble flooring to exfoliate your feet, what more can you ask for? We ventured out shortly after arriving to grab some food, little did we know when we walked into a small restaurant five minutes from our accommodation that we would taste some of the best food we’ve had out here. I’ve never had spring rolls that delicious and the variety of mains we had over the next few days were incredibly well crafted. Gordon Ramsey would struggle faulting their culinary expertise. They asked with confidence after each meal “How was your dinner Sir?”, they knew full well that a compliment was to follow. The next morning we grabbed ourselves some scooters after struggling to find someone with six and after a few minor navigation problems we arrived at the monkey forest, within seconds of being inside we were quite literally surrounded by monkeys scanning us from top to bottom, trying to locate any kind of fruits we had on us. With some crafty hiding skills several of us had grapes, bananas etc which we threw out into the crowds or passed them out, it was quite fun to see the monkeys trying to climb peoples legs and even sitting on their shoulders. There was one that actually went into Ben’s pocket and stole his water bottle, managed to open it as well! We wondered around this forest for a few hours watching the monkeys running about and kept our distance from the bigger ones, clearly the dominant males which looked untrustworthy. The location itself was very serine with huge vine trees and old looking stone work that nature had taken back.

Our next stop was a rush to the rice fields attempting to capture sunset however we didn’t realise the distance and arrived when the sun had almost completely gone behind the horizon line. With our short 20 minutes of daylight left we ventured through the valley taking some snap shots and taking in the scenery. It was the first one we could actually walk around and see close up how they were created so it was worth doing. I kept promising myself i would return during our stay in Ubud to capture a sunrise however it never quite came around as we were too busy. We awoke early the next morning and all had breakfast on our veranda, the service was great and more importantly included in the room price! 

We had been told about the worlds most expensive coffee, kopi luwak, and that one of the plantations was right here in Ubud so with my new fondness to the drink we agreed we couldn’t miss it. The coffee beans are actually fed to civets, cat like ferrets, then when the beans pass through the animal they’re recollected! Sounds horrendous i know… We jumped off our bikes at the plantations and instantly began a tour with a friendly guy, we expected to pay, or at least a tip, however he showed us around then within a moments notice pass us onto a colleague of his and wondered off! We were shown how the beans were roasted and prepared then asked to take a seat. Couple of minutes pass and the lady reappears with 12 different taster sized coffees and teas and to our surprise completely free. They were all absolutely incredible, if i was a rich man, i’d of bought boxes of the stuff. She then offered us the kopi luwak, typically its $50 a cup anywhere else in the world, however, right here it was the equivalent of $5 if i remember correctly so we bought a cup each. Awful. I actually couldn’t stand the taste! A few others in the group liked it but it was just far too bitter, even attempting to put palm sugar in fixed nothing. The poor lady seemed almost offended by the fact i couldn’t finish it but none the less on leaving i bought myself a favourite from the tasting set, a coffee made mainly from the root of the plant. The name escapes me currently.

Afterwards we jumped back onto our trusted scooters and headed North to see sunset over the volcano at lake Batur, it was a long, zig-zagged journey of around two hours before we came over the horizon and feasted our eyes upon the low laying valley where just one volcano stood, it looked superb, surrounded by flat land and the lake. We drove down to the waterfront where a local man suggested we checked out a small fishing village further down the lake side so we followed up and down this hilly dirt track. I decided to pull over at some point to get a quick picture, the group continued onwards. After the photograph i jumped back on the bike and set off down this dirt hill, the back breaks on this bike hardly worked as it was and within seconds i was going to quick thanks to gravity, i began having to tap the front break and before long the back wheel slid from underneath me. Straight over the handle bars, quick front roll and boom i’d come to a halt. Just typical it would happen to me, luckily no serious injuries just a couple of bruises and a scrape down my left arm. The worst injury was my pride when the guys found out, i’d been the most sensible and then this happens! They will never let this slide now. The village was ok but not much to see so after that me and Ronchetti headed back towards a spot i’d seen earlier for sunset, the others set sail for a drive to the other side of the lake. The sunset was beautiful with an amber glow in the clouds and Mt Batur along my horizon line. 

The next morning we moved hotel as they were fully booked and decided on two more days in Ubud. This was our final day with the bikes and even with being tired from loads of driving we set sail North-West to the three lakes, i wanted to mainly see Lake Buyan as i’d researched them prior to arranging the trip, there was great vantage spots from hills nearby so that was the target. We weren’t disappointed with the views, as we came closer a gigantic mountain became visible, it was shrouded in clouds and towered over other, close by mountains. We pulled up at several places to take in the view but i finally chose a spot overlooking the lake with mountains in the background, as previously, some of the group fled to drive around the great roads whilst me and Ronchetti waited for sunset. Bali has been the best place so far for landscapes, in other countries i’d struggled to actually get out to specific locations, it had been more about the people and culture.

We didn’t want to leave Ubud but unfortunately our final day had arrived, we had booked white water rafting for myself, Dan, Ben and Ronchetti, the other two didn’t quite feel up to it so with an early start we arrived at the starting point and jumped into our boat after being informed we must travel 18km to the finish line! The river took us through a superb valley riddled with waterfalls, exposed rock faces and foliage, at the times we weren’t battling to keep the right way up in the water it was actually peaceful and tranquil. The rapids at times were forceful and great fun, but as expected half of it was quieter and too easy. At one point the front of our raft smashed into this huge boulder which almost sent me head first straight out! So i can’t complain at the difficulty too much. We got to do a five meter straight drop which was definitely nerve racking, we had to lay down and brace for what was definitely an impact at the bottom. After missing the water rafting in Pai, Thailand, i was very glad to have done it, hopefully there will be another chance again during our travels. 

Drying our eyes we left the place we began to love knowing soon we will be hiking Mt Bromo in East Java. The journey started just as any other, a long haul bus expecting to take a short 11 hours including the ferry ride however with just a few hours until we reached the town we planned on staying all six of us had fallen asleep and awoke in worry that we were now actually a further 3 hours down the route! Luckily i’d known about Malang and we opted to jump off and set up camp at the first hotel we found. We desperately needed showers and some real sleep so we booked the cheapest rooms and headed upstairs only to find the rooms don’t have showers, not even communal ones! I’d never heard of such ludicrous rooms so unfortunately we marched back downstairs and had to book the most expensive rooms! If you ask me, its done on purpose. We finally got outside to explore where we had landed to find the place had absolutely zero tourists, which is perfectly fine, if anything i usually prefer it, however everybody kept staring at us. We got use to it after a while but still there was absolutely nothing to do in the area until Mt Bromo the next day. We got what we imagined at the time to be a decent deal from our hotel, a taxi would take us all the way to the walking point of Mt Bromo then we could explore on our own. The five hour journey by car took us through some amazing scenery surrounded by flush mountains until all of a sudden our driver pulls over near a couple of small shacks and loads of locals. He told us we must pay the entrance fee and hire a jeep from here! This was an absolute tourist trap and we knew it, they attempted to charge us near £15 per entry and a further £30 for the jeep hire. We had read online loads of travel blogs explaining how you can do this journey without any of this however our driver who spoke very little English anyway was adamant we paid only to get here and refused to drive us any further. Even if we wanted to pay the extortionate prices, we couldn’t, it was our last day in Indonesia and we lacked the funds. Reluctantly and with our now grumpy driver we demanded to be taken back to the hotel. It was a huge disappointment to have travelled so far just to see this volcano and we failed at the absolute last hurdle. East Java had been very uneventful and we were glad to be leaving the following morning, but it absolutely hasn’t tainted my love for Indonesia. 

 Our first steps into the Monkey Forest

 Small monkey perched on a statue

 "Whats in the pocket sir?"

 My favourite monkey shot from the day

 One of the babies on some branches

 Deeper into the jungle

 Wouldn't usually photograph someone swearing, but.. It's behind you Robin

 The bridge in the monkey forest

 Amazing tree's!

 Ubud rice fields

 One more from the plantation

 Luwak coffee beans

 The amazing variety of coffee and tea we got for free!

 The small fishing village i photographed literally 30 seconds before falling off my bike

 The boats from said fishing village

 A worker on the rice fields with Mt Batur as the backdrop

 Lake Batur sunset

 Lake Batur twilight hour

Lake Buyan sunset