Hong “Look at the size of that building” Kong

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog - yes I know you’ve all been holding your breath to see what mad cap capers we’ve gotten into now - but the problem being these aforementioned capers have taken up all our time!

So Hong Kong - our 2nd last destination before Australia - our fifth country thus far, the passport pages are beginning to fill up now! We decided to pamper ourselves a bit also because we’ve been “slumming it” a lot of the time with accommodation over price. But in Hong Kong everything is expensive anyway so a quick check on latestays.com and Gareth found a really nice hotel for only €50 a night - very good by Hong Kong prices. And completely work it - I know I like to exaggerate a lot but I don’t kid when I say that our beds were THE MOST COMFORTABLE HEAVEN-LIKE BEDS WE HAVE EVER SLEPT IN!! Dear Lord! We arrived in late in the evening to the city so we took huge delight in wrapping ourselves into bed and passing out in a peaceful, air-conditioned, feather pillowed slumber!

Now I’ve been to a lot of cities around the world, done my fair share of travelling but never have I been in a city with such impressively sized buildings - pardon me for sounding like an architect nerd but these buildings, in structure and pure height just blew me away. We spent our first day just taking it all in - strolling around the bustling streets, the modern commercial feel juxtaposed with a real sense of heritage, of not forgetting their roots. One of the most impressive buildings is the IFC 2 (the taller brother of IFC 1) - made famous by a scene in The Dark Knight where Batman jumps from the roof of IFC 2, flying around the building, across the stunning Hong Kong skyline, and crashing through the window of IFC 1 (ok so now I sound like a comic book nerd!). You are allowed to go up to the 55 (of 80 floors) of the building so we marked that down as a “must-do” on our itinerary. As part of our pampering we decided to clean ourselves up - haircuts and shaves for both of us. We were recommended an old school hot towel shaving barbers which was a great experience - and strange to see my full face again after 7 months or so!






So feeling all clean and tidy we went for our first few drinks in Hong Kong that night and couldn’t believe it when walking down the main street we hear our names being called out by a pair of Danes we had met a few weeks previous - it really is crazy how we keep seeing people again! The next morning we had planned to go to Ocean World, a theme park/zoo but Gareth was struck with a bout of food poisoning, not nice on the stomach! Thankfully he couldn’t be in a more comfortable place (yes, I’m still talking about the beds!) so he took the day of while I did some more wandering around the island. I swear I had a crick in my neck from craning skywards as I walked all day. In the evening, with Gareth feeling more lively, we went up the IFC 2 building and almost got nose bleeds from the height we were at - great view though. We then got a ferry over to Kowloon, another island just across the bay, in anticipation of the Guinness Book of Records “World’s largest permanent light and sound show” which was scheduled to light up the already breath-taking view of Hong Kong’s profile (I’m running out of superlatives to describe the view!). The 15 minute show was the perfect example of showing how much pride the locals in their city and left us with dropped jaws!





So after another fun night out we made our way to the other side of the island for roller coaster fun. The weather had turned a little soured with ominous dark clouds gathering, but we weren’t going to let that dampen our fun! If you didn’t know already, Gareth has a big fear of heights and our first ride was a 60 metre freefall drop - Elvis Presley couldn’t shake as much as Gareth was! But fair play to him, he did the ride and actually enjoyed it! It had started raining by this stage and our main fear was that the rides would be shut down for safety reasons so we quickly made our way from ride to ride, making two of them just in time before being shut. On our way back out we stopped off at the panda enclosure to say hello. By this stage it was really pouring rain so we ran to our bus but couldn’t stop getting absolutely soaked! We made it back to our hotel room with ideas of going out that night but we’d squeeze in a quick power nap first as it was only 6.30pm…we woke the next morning at 10am - damn those beds were just too comfortable!! I even contemplated emptying out half my bag to fit the pillow in!

Headed to the airport (Hong Kong airport has won “World’s Best Airport” 7 years in the last 8, impressive) full of excitement as Gareth was about to realise a childhood dream of his - to fly Cathay Pacific. And with good reason too - the plane was very comfortable and spacious, the in-flight entertainment was fantastic and the food was above average for a plane. From really not knowing what to expect in Hong Kong I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh in 10 days

So we arrived safely onto the bustling streets of Hanoi - took us awhile to get our bearings as it seemed like all around us was moving - scooters flying down narrow streets, fruit and book sellers swinging the merchandise from one side of the street to the next, a constant throng that made the streets themselves feel alive. Accompanied by some Irish people we shared a taxi with we eventually found somewhere to stay at a decent price - all that was on our minds was food! We set off initially in search of some good sea food but with angry bellies calling out to us we settled on easier Western cuisine. With the hunger satisfied we could enjoy our stroll around the city more - and once you get used to taking your life in your hands when crossing any road you begin to un-earth Hanoi's real charms - fantastic little local restaurants, street corner vendors selling home brewed beer for 3,000 Dong (about €0.12!) which actually wasn't too bad - really enjoyed sitting on the street, chatting to the locals and just taking the passing sights in.


We decided to spend the next day with our tourist hats on - check out some museums, the Ho Chi Minh tomb etc etc but we were hampered by poor weather the next day (rain wasn't supposed to be in the script for the trip!) so all we managed to do was visit Cam Chi, the specialist food quarter of Hanoi where we had a fantastic meal of local dishes - Gareth had lovely duck and I had pigeon...yes, pigeon! And it was actually tasty too! Granted there was alot of work getting some decent chunks of meat off the bones but nice all the same - the only drawback was finding the head on the plate...was a little too real!



With the storm worsening we retreated to our hotel, the most comfortable beds we've had thus far so we weren't too upset about that! That night we booked tickets to see the famous Vietnamese water puppet show - an hour of excellent Vietnamese music and talented puppeteers. I ended the night with a visit to Hanoi's famous jazz club and really enjoyed just sitting back with a beer listening to some great music. On our schedule for the morning we had booked a one day trip to Halong Bay and then the overnight train down to Hoi An as we were very conscious of our dwindling South East Asia clock - we needed to be as efficient as possible. The one day trip was great - Halong Bay is a beautiful place although with overcast weather conditions fighting the horizon making it difficult to fully appreciate it. The highlight of the day for us was a visit to a floating fresh fish market where Gareth and I picked out a nice 2.5kg fish (he told us the name but god knows I couldn't pronounce it so we called him Sprinkles). He went from being a happy swimming fish to our plate in front us, steamed with vegatables in less than 45 minutes - you can't really get fresher than that! And as some of you may know I'm not a huge fish fan but I couldn't turn down this opportunity so I threw caution into the wind with it - and delighted I did, it was so delicious!





So with our bellies full we headed back to Hanoi to catch our 13 hour train to Da Nang and get from there to Hoi An. It was actually one of the best sleeper transits we've had thus far - a four bed secure compartment and the train wasn't too bad for rattling or banging. The main attraction of Hoi An is its tailor made clothing shops where you can get anything from underwear to full suits or jackets perfectly tailor made to your own design and size for a fraction of what you would pay back home. We wanted to take more advantage of being here but with small bags and an unknown return date etc we keep our custom designs to a minimum - we did splurge a little on some impluse shoes (ok I'm aware of gay that sounds but bear with me here!). We stumbled across one shop that had a pair of shoes in the window that caught my eye - we went in and were shown two huge books of fabric designs and templates to choose from - both myself and Gareth picked out two pairs each - obnoxiously loud but I am not kidding when I say they are the GREATEST pairs of shoes ever made! And they only cost €10 each! Gareth also got some cowboy boots made, amazing!

***WARNING - YOU MAY NEED TO SHIELD YOUR EYES FROM THE BEAUTY OF THE FOLLOWING PICTURE***





We also both got two casual shirts made up for us, again only €10 each - you could very easily spend a lot of money in these places. Hoi An Town itself is a small but pretty place, a huge notch down in the tempo from Hanoi but again lovely food to be had, most notably local specialities Cau Lao and Wantons. We booked ourselves on a tour for the next morning to see the My Son Cham ruins and take a boat ride back up the river stopping off at a wood carving village. The tour was interesting and we met a nice bunch of English, American and Kiwi travellers in our group - but honestly, we were most looking forward to collecting our shoes (yes, the gay alert is ringing again!). We arrived back into the town and headed straight for the shoe shop...and my god we weren't disappointed! We equated the feeling of collecting the shoes to the birth of our first born child! That evening we hopped on an overnight bus down to Na Thrang - a 12 hour journey made slightly more comfortable as we managed to wrangle ourselves the back 5 beds of the bus to ourselves so we could just pan out!

Na Thrang, or as it should be called "Re-union City" is the party capital of Vietnam perched on the edge of the South China Sea. I refer to it as Re-union City because we, both planned and unplanned, met so many people from different stages of our trip so far, as well as some friends of mine from home. My good friend Jen and Erin, who had been in Australia but were making there way home had arrived the day before so I excitedly went looking for them and as I thought, found them flaked out on the beach, hungover! Great to see some things just don't change! We made our plans for that night and walking into our first bar (run by a guy from Tallaght!) we bumped into one of the first people we met on the trip - a Dutch girl called Julia who was now the Promotions Manager for Red Apple, the bar we were in. A small world! Over the next 4 nights we enjoyed some great nights out, and slept off some great hangovers on the beach. Other random run-ins included Canadian Steve, again from the first week of our trip who we randonly bumped into outside our hotel - again, great to see him again! The majority of the Swedes from our tubing adventure also came down for a few days and also my friend Toto from Paris who is discovering her family tree here in Vietnam arrived, so this all just fuelled some really fun nights out - with the only sour point being the theft of Toto's bag from the beach which had her cards, money, phone and camera in it - an absolute nightmare for someone travelling alone. The next day we had planned to go to Ho Chi Minh City for our last day to see the war reminants museum and war tunnels but I stayed back to help Toto sort out her credit card cancellations and police reports etc - as I said its the worst thing that can happen to someone travelling alone so it was the least I could do - R.A.K's as my mother always advocated.. Must admit though it was odd going to bed without Gareth in the room for the first time in 2 months!



(Toto giving us her best "I'm French and I love it" look)

With everything sorted out for Toto I made my lonesome way down to Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon). The journey wasn't too bad however, managed to sleep most of the way and didn't have to deal with looking for a hotel as Gareth had sorted it all out the night before. We were flying to Hong Kong the next morning, via Bangkok, against the many wishes of people due to the state of emergency announced there earlier in the week but unfortunately we didn't have any other option. We would only have to stay in the airport for 4 hours so we weren't too worried. For our last night in Vietnam Gareth, myself and Julia (who had travelled down herself that morning) went for a nice dinner (fish again...look at me go!) - but again a sour end to the night - as we walked back to the hotel Julia's purse was snatched by a passed scooter driver who sped off into the melee of other drivers. Thankfully she only had some cash in it and no cards - but a bitter end to our time in Vietnam. No point in reporting it to the police..."Hello yes, we're looking for a Vietnamese man on a scooter..." - way to narrow it down there! We shared one final beer and said our goodbyes to Vietnam - we had an amazing time - highs, lows and downright strange at some times but all part of the adventure!

Dolphins, Blue Lagoons and Giant Rubber Rings

So we managed to cross the border into Laos - our 3rd country so far and again we held only rough plans of what we wanted to do - choosing a more "take it as it comes approach" which has really worked for us already. If you make too strict a plan you are forced to stick to it - and on a journey like this you really don't know what is going to be around the corner! Our first destination waa Don Det, a small island in Si Phan Don (The 4,000 Islands) in Southern Laos and as I mentioned before our main objective here was dolphin watching (rockstar, I know). It is a beautiful area, 100s of small mainly unihabited islands nestled in the current of the Mekong, fishermen throwing our their nets, water buffalo silently watching you float past on your long boat - seems a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of places like Bangkok or Phnom Penh. We rented a small riverside bungalow, basic being the only polite term coming to mind but it did have two nice hammocks for chilling in. We managed to book ourselves on a tour that afternoon to go dolphin spotting and also take in a huge waterfall close by. We headed back up the Mekong to a prime dolphin viewing spot - it was a nice boat along the river although it got a little cramped in the skinny long boat with 10 people in it! We reached a stoney outcrop in which we jumped up on to and with cameras ready, fingers on the button, we waited...

and waited....

and waited...

"OH WAIT....IS THAT ONE....no, just a plant..."

and waited....

FINALLY after some painstakingly slow waiting, in the blast of the heat, the rare dolphins peaked out their fins (personally I think its because I had perfected my dolphin mating call!). Slowly the dolphins became a little more adventurous and came closer to us - very hard to get a good photo however - my best shot resembles someones poor attempt at a Loch Ness Monster sighting...

With the dolphin box ticked we set off for the waterfall, a pretty spectacular water cascade but with our energy fast draining from the morning's travels we did not spend too long there. That evening we made good use of our riverside hammocks, having a quiet beer and watching our family of geckos chow down on the frenzy of flys on our porch. The is not much in the way of night life on the islands,mainly due to the fact that all power shuts off at 11pm (so much for our fan room!). We both decided that with our main objective complete here it was time to move on - our South East Asia clock beginning to tick down and bear weight on our minds.

We were heading north to a small town called Vang Vieng where take part in a timeless ritual called TUBING!! It was going to be a long journey up however - small 5 hour bus to Pakse, 4 hour layover, overnight 13 hour bus to Vientiene, 5 hour lay over, 6 hour bus to Vang Vieng - fun times! Thankfully we got catching to two Canadians who were on the same journey north from Don Det so we were able to share in our misery! The overnight sleeper bus was a joke - we were shown to our "beds" - a top bunk that was both too short for us and so narrow that we both could not lie on our backs at the same time - cosy to say the least! I drew the short straw and was on the outside, i.e. the death seat! Laos drivers like to see themselves as formula one drivers, whipping around corners, in and out of traffic at speed - I almost nose dived about 20 times throughout the night! Eventually we reached Vang Vieng, much to the delight of our aching back and Sam's travel sickness! We found ourselves a small riverside bungalow for about $3 a night - nothing fancy but we weren't planning on spending alot of time there! As it was too late to go tubing for the day we decided to take in some of the surrounding sights - namely the Blue Lagoon and Poukham Caves. We wrapped ourselves a picnic (ok well not so much a picnic as some beers and crisps!) and hit the rocky rough road out. The lagoon was beautiful, a crystal clear blue - deep, cold and refreshing. And before anyone starts

panicking I know the limits of my swimming abilities so didn't do anything too crazy

(I went off the hign branch - Gareth went off the middle one...we met on the way down!)

(It's ok...I've got it all under control...)

We dried off and went exploring the hillside cave...which was all going well until we realised two very important points

a) Caves are dark,,,very very dark

b) We had no torch.

So with that, our cave expedition was over and we went back to town to concentrate on the evening's festivities - we were invited to the official opening of our guesthouse (an Aussie and German couple had just taken over the running of it that day) so we had a lovely local meal of sticky rice with chicken and spices - lovely, but hot! A lightning storm was electrifying the sky around us as we hit the Bucket Bar for, yes you guessed it, BUCKETS! Our excitement was building for our first day on the river...it felt like Christmas Eve except with more debauchery (although in saying that, alot of you have never seen a Tully Christmas...). We had planned two days of tubing before going to Luang Prabang so we really wanted to make the most of it. We rented our tubes the next morning and were driven out of town up to the drop off point - now for those of you who have the misfortune not to know what tubing is please let me explain...

The main idea is that you rent a giant rubber ring (although you don't have to, you can walk or swim it) and are brought up river where there are a number of bamboo constructed bars lining the riverside. You arrive around midday to the first bar, enjoy a few beers and banter there before hopping in your tube and floating down the river. As you pass another bar they toss out a weighted rope and pull you in.

Every bar has some sort of rope swing or zip line, pumping music and an unfortunately large amount of free laos whiskey given in shots to anyone willing. It culminates in the final bar between 6pm and 8pm as the sun sets and the bonfire rages skyward. From there you take your tube and any belongings you haven't lost in a tuk tuk back to town. A seriously fun day! Now, again I know what you're thinking (yes, I'm talking mainly to you here mother!) - your wonderful darling son is what some might call "aquatically challenged" - so with that in mind I came to the river prepared...

(River Lifeguard...on the job...saving lives)

(I can FFFLLLLLLYYYYY!!!)

I struggle though to put into words how much fun it is - the whole vibe on the river is infectious - everyone is out to have a good time, with no shortage of people to banter with from all corners of the world - including one girl I met who lives on the same road as me! Random! Gareth and I were enjoying it so much we quickly waved farewell to our Luang Prabang plans in place of more days on the river. We were joined in our adventures by a group of English guys we had met in Ko Phangan - a fantastic bunch of lads, I don't think I;ve ever laughed so much the few days we were with them! Tom, Jon, Rob and Chris, we love you! A ton of other people we had met along the way were drawn by the lure of the tubing including half of our adopted family, Team Sweden (Denize and Kim), Johanna and Lauren Thorp-edo - by the end of the week we were sitting down for our first beers with a group of about 25 of us! We tubed for 6 days straight - every morning we would wake up, body aching, head thumping, covered in marker slogans ("Property of Dr. Gareth Anderson") but ready for another day! I honestly think it was the most fun week I've evr had - even small upsets like my first bout of travel sickness couldn't dampen the enjoyment! Every day held its own little charms - whether it was the day we had a beer fight...or abusing Tron and my scar...or convincing everyone Gareth was a doctor and I had just had a heart transplant so we were on a life changing mission to the South Pole to wash seals (called Operation Barbossa) - everyday was just as good as the last.

We eventually had to call it a day as again we became aware of our dwindling time in S.E. Asia. We left it until the last possible moment, and much to the abuse of Kim and Denize (thanks guys!) we left for Luang Prabang where we had booked a flight to Hanoi the next day (there was no way we were going to do the journey by bus - a 28 hour NIGHTMARE journey...best $130 I've ever spent!). So sad goodbyes again to all the guys - although our paths will hopefully be crossing in Southern Vietnam aswell as Australia. So we spent a pretty uneventful night in Luang Prabang where the was a power shortage for most of our time there. We now have the task of getting from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in 11 days - while trying to maximise our "tourist time". Well, no one said it was going to be easy...

Angkor What?

After a few days in Phnom Penh we headed north to Siem Reap, famous for its UNESCO World Heritage site - Angkor Wat - the largest religious structure in the world. The bus journey up was a bit of a nightmare, hungover (ok thats our fault), incredibly bumping dirt roads (the road was still being BUILT in some places but they just drive over), Cambodian kareoke music on replay on the bus tv and the worst thing of all....incessant horn blowing from the driver. It turns out they don't bother with indicators so when approaching a scooter, slower vehicle, walker, farmer...even roadside animals the driver would blast to indicate he was coming and you sure as hell better get out of the way (this goes for on-coming traffic too!). A nice 7 hour trip!

We arrived in Siem Reap and had a driver from our guesthouse pick us up (posh eh?). We checked in and inquired about trips to Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples - an area literally covered in temples (interestingly enough it is where they filmed Tomb Raider). We decided on a 1 day trip out and around the area - including a 5am start in order to get out to see the sun rise, seemingly stunning.

We lazily scraped ourselves out of bed and into our tuk tuk with Fook our driver (his name wasn't Fook but he wanted it to be his nickname - really nice guy). We got out to Angkor Wat and even in the darkness it is hard to avoid sheer size of the structure. We made our way into the grounds to pick a good photo spot and waited...


and waited....


and waited....



It basically went from being dark out, to being slightly brighter, to being daytime. To say we felt a bit hard done by is a huge understatement! The only silver lining being meeting a pair of Americans who were on the same sunrise "adventure" as us, part of a larger group of people travelling so we arranged some boozing for later with them. After some brekkie Fook took us to a number of different temple sites, some still standing strong against the errosion of time, others succumbing to inquistive roots of trees intertwining themselves around temple walls with pretty cool results. Again the fingerprint of the Khymer Rouge was ever present - they had invaded the area and decapitated every statue they could get their hands on. Being the educated (and cheap) men that we are we decided to buy the guide book and be our own guides, instead of dishing out the full whack for an actual guide (who knows what they are talking about!)...let's just say we won't be getting called in for job openings! While it was nice strolling (and in some parts, swinging like a monkey) around the temples, we quickly became tired and irritated by the large groups of Japanese tourists taking over ever nice picture spot with their umbrellas and huge cameras (not bitter at all!). We ended our tour with a walk around the main Angkor Wat area, a very impressive area but I think my best memory of it will be taking the greatest photo of all time...a monk flashing...


(doirty monks!)

We returned to the guesthouse, our beds calling out to us for power naps. We were asleep before the door had closed behind us! I got up a little earlier to go in search of a massage parlour - my back had been hurting me ever since the uncomfortable Ko Tao to Bangkok journey, so Fook brought be to a local place where a full body massage for an hour set me back the MASSIVE sum of $5 - where back home you would pay anything upwards of €70-80, probably more! Very relaxing even if at some parts of it she was literally walking all over me. But came out feeling alot better, the back knot well worked out. I decided to spoil ourselves and buy some shower gel AND some shampoo, a luxury not afforded to us yet on the trip (we don't smell that bad...). We headed out for dinner and drinks, accompanied by one of the guesthouse workers, nice to chat to some local people about the history of the town instead of just reading what Lonely Planet has to say. The Americans came in later with their group and some good old fashioned partying ensued - Gareth and I both wanted the free t-shirt they were offering, it just meant having to order two cocktail pitchers at a time, we were only too happy to oblige! They were a good interesting bunch - including the first Dominican (not Dominican Republican!) I've ever met and after hearing more about DR it just re-confirmed my desire to go there at some stage. Ended the night getting lost in a tuk tuk on the way home, eventually making it back to the safety of Yellow Guesthouse.

After ticking the Angkor Wat box there was not a whole load of other things we wanted to do here - we scheduled a DHD for the next day. Gareth slept most of the day - I went out and invented some new rules to pool before coming home with the intention for both of us to power nap and head out again - at 6pm we went asleep, thinking a good 3 hours will sort us out - woke up at 10am the next morning! Out like lights! Made the decision then to get back to Phnom Penh were we would sort out our visas for Laos and most importantly, find somewhere to watch the rugby! It turned out Fook was on the bus with us, he was going to his home town along the route and he begged us if we would come stay a night in the town, his cousin was getting married the next day and he said he would love to have us see it....decision time...an amazing, unique and cultural experience...or potentially watching Ireland win a Grand Slam - yep that's right...an easy choice...


No description of what the night of the game was like as for the majority of people reading this I assume went through the exact same heart-in-mouth feelings as we did! When the final whistle blew and Ireland lifted the trophy the singing blasted the rafters, so much so that we were eventually warned that if we did not stop singing men with AK-47s would be coming down to quieten us...one more blast of Molly Malone and we were gone. Two days of serious flaking followed as we waited for our Laos visas to arrive. We were heading for the islands in the south of Laos, a place called Si Phan Don, with our one and only mission being the sighting of the rare Irrawaddy River Dolphins. It did mean however that we had to break our journey up into two stints - forcing us to spend a night in the, for want of a better phrase, the ass crack of Cambodia - Stung Treng, an outpost town about the size of my foot - the only bright point being a nice sunset over the Mekong before a storm rolled into town and washed the place out.

As we left the next morning to attempt a dubious border crossing in to Laos Gareth and I looked at each other - "Hey, whats the best thing about Stung Treng? Leaving it,"

Thankfully the border crossing went smooth enough, a $1 dollar "greasing" either side of the barrier and we were through. So our short but enjoyable stint in Cambodia was over - Bang straw lang oon!

A very different St. Patrick's Day

So Phnom Penh on St. Patrick's Day was never going to be the hot bed of Irish cultural activity - we had managed to find the only Irish bar in town the previous day so we scheduled that for the evening's drinking. To take up the day though we decided in the morning to visit one of the many orphanages in town after being stricken by guilt the night before by the amount of street kids around.

We arranged a tuk-tuk to take us to a rice shop where we picked up a 25 kilo bag of rice for $20 (no Uncle Ben's but it would do!) and was then brought to a small orphanage in a run down part of town. The welcome we got was warmer than the 36 degree heat outside - the kids running up to us with excited smiles, books and games in hand. The people who run the place were just as happy to see us and happily accepted our rice donation. The children pulled up chairs for us and we helped them match up shapes, join the dots and colour in clowns.

The children ranged from about 1 year old to 14, about 15-20 children in total - all living in this small orphanage on large stacked bunk beds. And while this kids, many orphaned by the Khymer Rouge regime genocide, shouldn't have alot to smile about - I honestly don't think I've ever seen a more excited bunch of children in my life. After awhile it was time for their midday nap so we said our goodbyes to huge hugs from the children.

We tuk-tukked back to the guesthouse when I realised I had left my bag in the orphanage (idiot!) - so our driver borrowed a scooter and took me with him back there...I honestly don't think I've ever been as scared in my life...driving 80 miles an hour down the wrong side of the road, nipping in and out of on-coming traffic, beeping incessantly at other drivers - and all of this is normal driving behaviour! Traffic lights are few and far between, which makes crossroads an interesting junction! We got their in one piece and arrived back at the guesthouse a shaken man!

Next on the itinerary for our alternative Paddy's day was a trip to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda - a stunningly built palace for the King. Every building is ornately decorated, inside and out - however alot of the statues of Buddha were decapitated by the Khymer Rouge as a two fingers up to religion (they REALLY weren't nice people!). We enjoyed the walk around the grounds, alot it was very hot. The palace is still used by the King, the royal blue flag flying when he is in residence, but we were informed he is in China on a trip at the moment - gutted, would have been nice to say hi! Eventually the heat got too much for us, with the only solution being some nicely chilled Beer Lao!


So after a few beers we made a quick pitstop back to the guesthouse to clean up and head back out to Rory's to join in the patriotic festivities. To our surprise the bar was actually were busy, full of people claiming various percentages of Irish heritage. A good lively place with the pints flowing so we were only too happy to indulge. Meet some pretty interesting people - a group of 5 American guys who are on a year long worldwide missionary trip, and some pretty dull people - two Irish and a Kiwi, didn't stay chatting too long with them! We eventually ending up playing cards with an international bunch comprising of Irish, Welsh, English, Dutch, American and Canadian. After eventually being kicked out of the closing bar we hit the warangs (street meat vendors) for late night snacking. Back to the guesthouse Gareth and I scheduled the next day as an official DHD (designated hangover day - where we are under no obligation to do anything except be hungover!)



A diiferent St. Patrick's Day but memorable in its own right - while we missed the inevitable banter back home we had a really interesting day here - who knows where we'll be for next Paddy's Day!

A sobering look at the dark trenches of inhumanity

Cambodia - 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge kill almost 2 million Cambodians in an effort to create the "perfect" agrarian society.

Now far be it for me to give you a history lesson (never one of my strong subjects in school!) - I can only tell you what we saw and heard today...a brief glimpse into horror in its purest form. A menace that worked its way through 40% of Cambodia's population completely under the radar of all the world;s superpowers.

Admittedly my knowledge of the Khmer Rouge was minimal before this trip and only a quick read of our Lonely Planet bible did I begin to get an idea of what went on. From our guesthouse in Phnom Penh we organised a trip out to Cheoung Eok, better known as the Killing Fields along with two Americans we met. The site is located about 25km outside of Phnom Penh, a 40 minute tuk tuk journey through the crazy streets of the city - let's just say not alot of these drivers would pass their Theory test back in Ireland! Arriving at the Killing Fields you are straight away hit with a somber air. the noisy clatter of Phnom Penh and its street sellers respectfully overwhelmed by the silence here. We organised a tour guide to show us around the site - beginning with the 17 floor "strupa" or monument to the dead - 17 levels of skulls and bones uncovered from the mass graves on this site. 17 levels represent the date Pol Pot came to power, the 17th of August 1975. Our guide, who spoke with a noticeable and understandable distain, told us how prisoners were driven here from S-21 in the middle of the night, after they had spent days or weeks being tortured in order to sign a confession for a fictious crime they had not committed. The educated members of society were targetted first - the doctors, teachers, journalists...even anyone who wore glasses. Foreign embassy workers were given 24 hours to leave the country. When the prisoners arrived, shackled and blindfolded, they were led to the sign in building. Chillingly reminiscent of the astrocities committed in Auschwitz the prisoners were told they were being led to new homes and new jobs. When their name was called they were led out back to one of the many mass graves, and kneeling on the ground they received a swift but blunt hit to the head with a bamboo stick or axe, their throat was then slight and body dumped on top of their fellow countrymen - bullets were not used as they were considered a preciouis commodity and not to be "wasted". We were taken around to the graves where some 20,000 Cambodians lay - one of 229 similiar Killing Fields around the country. Sunken earth indicates where the ground holds its prisoners...and most shocking are the tattered remains of clothing and bone still peaking up from the ground where the rain has washed away the dirt.

None of us could even mutter a word as we silently walked around the grounds. Our guide told us how poison was used to defer the rotting smell of the bodies so it was up to two years after the regime had ended that fields were still being discovered. In the 4 years of terror in Cheoung Eok only one person managed to escape with his life - one of three truckdrivers who ferried the prisoners from S-21 to Cheoung Eok - not wanting to leave too many traces of the killing the Khmer Rouge would themselves kill the executioners, truck drivers and any of their own who showed even slight signs of weakness. It can be hard to relate and connect with such a tragedy in one respect as I believe we have become desensitised to violence through modern movies, video games etc, where seeing skull and bones no longer has the same impact. But the magnitude of what went on here cannot be ignored.

After lunch we were taken to Tong Seul (S-21) - the torture camp in Phnom Penh that had previously been a highschool. Four buildings taken over with the purpose of torturing, harassing and breaking the spirit of Cambodians. When the camp was discovered by the invading Vietnamese in 1979 14 bodies were found dead, twisted in an agonising portrait of their final moments - their bodies were buried in memory on the grounds of S-21. Our guide, a woman who herself had parents and brothers killed by Pol Pot told us how she, at the age of 5, had to walk from Phnom Penh to Battamberg to escape the death herself - a 300km, 3 month walk across a country plagued with starvation and death. We were shown various rooms and exhibitions of the equipment they used to torture the inmates. We were also shown hundreds of "mugshots" of both the prisoners upon arrival and their captures - what struck us all was the age of the Khmer Rouge soldiers - merely boys of 10-15 years old. They were used as it was alot easier to brainwash them into believing what they were doing was right.

The countrywide starvation also helped flood the ranks of the Khmer Rouge with people willing to do anything for a promised meal. Seeing pictures of these children holding the responsibility of the lives of thousands in their prepubescent hands is not soon forgotten. We then watched an hour long film documenting one woman's struggle against the Khmer Rouge - most interesting about the film was an interview with the escaped truck driver who described in detail how he would bring the prisoners over to the graves and sometimes,when goaded,execute some prisoners himself - the man himself is protected by the government as he waits to testify against the Khmer Rouge. We left the museum still wondering how this could have happened, and in such recent history too...I don't think anyone can possibly offer up an explanation.

It was certainly an eye opening day for me, as I mentioned, not knowing much about this tragedy before. We would wish and hope that events like this would never happen again but unfortunately we do not have the luxury of choice.

Hop Hop Hop

Ok so I realise I haven't updated this blog as much as I had hoped but the only solace I can take is because we have been doing so much that we struggle for time to sit and type. But I find myself with such time now, on a 7 hour overnight bus to Bangkok - not exactly great sleeping conditions but just write for blogging!

So we're hitting 6 destinations in two and a half weeks - alot to be done and seen but it has been AMAZING.

Phuket was next on the list after Phi Phi - we were however very conscious of our timings - needing to be in Ko Phangan for the 6th ish in order to be able to have accomadation sorted ahead of the full moon party on the 10th. Due to shocking weather conditions - severe lightning storms and rain, forecast for the whole week, Phuket was a flying visit - lovely hostel where we met some nice people and went for dinner with them but we booked ourselves onto an early ferry and bus over to Ko Samui - after a total of 17 hours in Phuket! Another time maybe!

Ko Samui was another classic paradise location - sights becoming all too familiar with us now, although you'd be hard pushed to hear any complaints out of either of us! On the journey over we made the acquaintance of a famous Korean tv star - a Canadian brother of a once very popular UFC fighter Denis Kang. Nice guy but his girlfriend, a Korean woman was quite the opposite - we got the feeling that she knew perfectly well how to speak English but just chose not to! Her loss! Julian told us a great story about being on a celebrity boxing show where he was matched up against a Korean pop star - before the fight the pop star asked me to hit him only in the body, he could take them...just not to hit his face! Julian dutifully obliged by pounding his body and knocking him out with a liver shot! We found ourselves a nice bungalow right on the beach, a very romantic setting! The main area in Ko Samui is Chaweng beach - a 6km stretch of resorts one end, beach bars and restaurants in the middle and bungalows at the other. We had a nice 15 minute walk down towards the bars along the white sand water's edge (again very romantic for us...starting to get worried...). We really liked the buzz of the bars on the beach, low sitting tables laid out all along the stretch with music pumping and Chiang in mighty supply! In yet MORE cases of small world syndrome we met two Finnish girls from Chiang Mai (go Jonas!) and also a bunch of lads from Dublin who I used to play hurling against! We debated whether or not to do some touristy visitis during the day...or to just flake on the beach - no prizes for guessing which one won out! This tan isn't going to colour itself! There was no debate about what to do in the evenings - our romantic 15 minute stroll down to the bars for some drinks and banter. Turns out not everyone we meet is fantastic - got chatting to a Canadian guy one night who seemed at first to be good fun and a laugh - but he quickly descended into an annoying drunk who was just looking for trouble, not for us! We ditched him and had our faith restored by a table of Swedes - a fantastically fun bunch who we quickly got in to a bucket race with over conversation of how unbelievably rockstar Gareth and myself are. A great night was had by all and the best thing about it was that they, like so many, were heading to Ko Phangan for the full moon.

Ko Phangan....Hat Rin....Full Moon Party....the countdown had begun! We arrived on the 6th, giving us what we had hoped would be plenty time to sort out accomadation. On the advice of many people we looked for accomadation away from Hat Rin where the party is held - between noise, security and price is wasn't worth it. So we went in search of Eden Garden, one beach up in a place called Hat Yuan. The accomodation gods had been good to us so far - without booking anything in advance we've been landing in places and get sorted out. Luck ran out in Hat Yuan - Eden Garden was all booked out and so was the place beside it, but they would really nice and said they may be able to sort something out for us in an hour or so and thankfully he came through for us, a nice little bamboo hut in the hills over looking the beach. We were sharing with 3 of us having picked up Jonas the Great Dane (from Chiang Mai) and it was only a double bed so I had myself some hammock sleeping for a few nights - not too bad though because the mosquitos don't come out at night. So it was really nice to have our quiet beach away from the noise and madness of Hat Rin - we would spend the days chilling in the sun and sea, then hop on a water taxi around to the next beach for partying during the night. We would begin most nights in the same fashion - pad thai from our favourite spot (50 baht/€1.25 for a filling plate), then hit our local and loyal bucket vendor Joe for some of Samsung's finest rum. Pre drinking would take place on the Swedes porch - drinking games, Pontus serenading us with his songs, handing out rockstar points (Alex becoming the first certified rockstar of the Swedes - well done son!) and learning some Swedish - we spent so much time with the guys that I'm pretty certain I now fully understand Swedish....Hall Kaften!! Hilaaaaarious :) One of the best nights was Kim-Day - one of the girls had been sick and on anti-biotics so this was her first night on the tear - dutifully celebrated with a day in her honour! Buckets and body paint dominated the evening! One disaster to report...my camera was stolen from the beach and with it 300 photos that I had yet to back up....absolutely gutted about it. So I'm camera-less until Bangkok when hopefully I will pick one up cheap enough. The week in Ko Phangan culminated in the Full Moon party on the 10th of March...we had hoped that it would live up to the hype - we had heard so much about it. And every word about it was true!! One of the best nights either of us have ever had - around 10,000 people descended upon Hat Rin which meant we bumped into a ton of people we had met along the way. The beach was insanity...everyone dancing, bucketing and in some cases sand wrestling! We were having a great time until we met the two young English lads from Phi Phi - one of whom was very worse for wear. After some unsuccessful attempts to get him home, we carried him to a medical centre to be looked after. With our good deed done for the day we went back in search of our buzz, dangerously close to being dead after seeing the lads. Thankfully 45 minutes of the funniest dancing ever in a jungle drum and bass bar sorted it out for us - the three of us hopping about the place like crazies! Heading back down to the main dance area of the beach we picked up some more people and danced until the sun came up, and longer still! My head finally hit the pillow at about 10.30am - tired but content! Spent the evening regalling stories of the night gone - absolutely hilaaaaarious! Had to say goodbye to Alex/Benny, Ponty and Bjorn - sad to see them go but delighted to have met them.

Our final stop in the islands was Ko Tao for the all too short spell of one night - we would loved to have stayed and done a diving course but we had to be in Bangkok for the 14th as we were flying to Cambodia the next day. We spent the day still recovering from the full moon on the beach and swimming - Jonas booked himself into a diving course so we were able to get cheap accomodation where alot of the other guys had trouble finding a place. That night we had our "going away" party - we would be leaving Jonas, Team Sweden and the English look-a-likes in Ko Tao - a sad farewell but a great session with a serious Chiangover the next day. So here we find ourselves...another nasty night bus...won't be getting any sleep - that I can promise. Our adventure in Thailand has all but come to an end - one month since we left Ireland and already countless memories. If next month is half as fun as the last we are in for a serious treat - very excited to see Cambodia...a place steeped in history...tragic and triumphant.



(Thanks Kim for the pictures...like)