Phuket, Thailand 12-15 May

We really lived the highlife for a few days hanging out at Am and Steve’s resort. We swam in the pool, watched cable in their air conditioned room, had access to their stocked fridge and generally got spoilt rotten! Steve’s Mum, Dad, Aunty and Uncle were also there so was nice to hang out with them for a bit too. Jay could remember a few of the places he’d been on their footy trip but his memory was pretty hazy! Phuket was massive and very developed… especially the sex tourism, if jay and steve walked by themselves they would get groped by girls on the street. Overall, it was the perfect way to relax before our adventure to India.

Bangkok, Thailand 11-12 May

Aaargh back to the world of green curries! Jayden lost so much drool walking past shops in order to get the perfect green curry!! Kho San road was extremely quiet as the protesting continues to keep travellers away. At no stage did we feel unsafe or see any commotion, but we were keeping a very close eye on the news. A brief trip down memory lane before we flew down to Phuket to catch up with Katie’s sister (Anne-Maree) and her partner (Steve).

Siem Reap, Cambodia 9-11 May

We met another lovely pommy couple (Dan and Beccy) who are doing the exact opposite of our trip! So we organised a trip together the next day to see the great Ankgor Wat. We are not big temple fans but these just blew our minds. It was an early start as we had to get there for sunrise and we are glad we did. The building are simply amazing, the size and the fine detailed work that has been carved out would have taken hundreds of years. We visited four of the main temples, each having their own amazing characteristics. We were really impressed with the Ta Prohm temple, where the movie Tomb Raider was shot. The trees are taking over the historic building. It was a long day as it took hrs to walk around each temple, but something very worth while. At the second temple, Dan had a slight accident-he split his shorts right through and was not wearing any underwear, which ended his day of looking at temples!!

Sihnouk Ville, Cambodia 5-8 May

Sihnouk Ville was relax and chill-out time. We lazed by the beach, played thousands of games of pool, read books, got massages, played cards… was very, very tough!! The nightlife was great with UV parties, fire-twirling, killer Mekong Buckets (local whisky), and different themes each night. They do hair removal on the beach by winding a piece of cotton around their fingers and it pulls the hair out- which was pretty cool novelty but freakin painful aswell!!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia 4-5 May

We visited the Killing fields and the S21 prison both on the same day. This day was gut wrenching and traumatic. We began at The Killing Fields where thousands of Cambodians were slaughtered everyday. The Temple has almost 20000 skulls which are layered over 17 stories. Men, women, children and babies were found throughout the fields along with a variety of weapons i.e picks, machetes and hoe’s. The Khmer Rhouge Regime didn’t want to “waste bullets” so the Army used blunt force. We left with so many negative emotions, only to walk into the Tuol Sloeng prison. The building was originally a school, which was later turned into the S21 prison. The torturing that took place was simply inhumane. Each room has a metal bed, shackles and photos of the tortured prisoners. They photographed all the prisoners and there would be three rooms full of faces, from babies to the elderly, and the majority of them were executed at The Killing Fields if they survived the torture. Everyone we met had lost a family member and spoke openly about the genocide. It is hard to believe it was only thirty years ago.

A more positive experience in Phnom Penh was meeting Jackie, a local at the guesthouse. He decided to take us under his wing and show us the ropes! We had bbq bird (like a sparrow- head and all) and some other Khmer food LakLoc which was delicious! Afterwards he took us to his house where we met his wife, daughter and two brothers and drank beers on the floor (Jay struggled crossing his legs of course!).

Mekong Delta, Vietnam 1-3 May

We took a 3 day boat ride up the Mekong Delta to enable us to enter Cambodia. The boats were extremely slow and uncomfortable but it was very relaxing at the same time. We stopped in at the coconut candy making factory-Katie’s eyes were way too big for her belly!! We camped a night at Can Tho then got on the early morning slow boat to visit the floating markets and the floating fish farmers (the video shows the crazy fish feeding, approx 120,000 fish bred a yr). Jayden was uneasy after the markets as the boat driver bought a bag full of sea snakes and left them near our feet!! All along the Mekong children were waving, swimming, playing and fishing.

Dalat, Vietnam 26-29 April

After getting off the bus we were immediately greeted by the easy riders group (which are a motor bike tour company, who do tours all over Vietnam). They took us to a hotel, told us the places to eat and were bugging us to take a local bike tour around Dalat.

We decided on the places we wanted to go and set off on the backs of their big Honda bikes with Harley-like handlebars. We were very impressed by the dragon pagoda, which we didn’t think was possible after declaring ourselves “pagoda-ed out”. We also saw some nice waterfall which had this cool toboggan/rollercoaster ride which we flew down the hill in.

Our departure from Dalat went horribly wrong, most things that could go wrong did, and now we are killing time waiting for another bus. In spite of getting screwed over by a few very unhelpful people, we also had other people from the street go out of their way to help us, for which we were very grateful.

Saigon, Vietnam 24-26 April and 29-2 May

We began by heading to the War Museum. It was pretty difficult to handle, the photos and information, especially regarding the extreme torture tactics and Agent Orange effects on the Vietnamese people for the decades to follow. We walked away feeling very un-easy in the stomach.

The next day was extremely long as we sat up and played cards until 2am, waiting for our hire car to pick us up and drive us to Long Tan for the Dawn ANZAC Ceremony. The event was a bit surreal as we were in the rubber plantation where the Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought and lost their lives. There was really nowhere for them to hide. Katie was unfortunately quite ill, so following the ceremony we jumped straight back in the car and headed back to Saigon, where we slept pretty much the whole day!

Saigon or now known as Ho Chi Minh City is quite charming, even though it is a city. The streets light up at night with locals being very pleasant, stopping for a quick chat or even a wave as we strolled through the park.

Hoi An, Vietnam 19-23 April

Hoi An is a small and gorgeous place that we really loved! It was a bit like being in Albury… you would walk three steps and run into someone you knew, stop and have a chat… it would take us twenty minutes to walk down the street (I blamed Jay for being a chatterbox and he blamed me- of course noone won!)

We enjoyed catching up with four of our friends from Halong Bay (Emma and Tom, eigh and Danny)and the Polish couple from Sapa (Darek and Kate)and met many more nice people there. There are more tailor shops in Hoi An than pubs in Ballarat, one every two steps. We didn’t actually “shop it up”- which is almost sacreligious in Hoi An.

We have had great food, pedalled our way round town, beached it up (and a decent bout of sunburn for Jay), and visited some ancient ruins (My Son) dating from 4-14th century that were heavily bombed by the US.