My Son

We got up on time at 5am.
We were dressed and ready 10 whole minutes early.
We broke out of the hotel by 5.25am (it was all locked up and no-one to let us out)
We sat on the steps for 1.5 hours for the taxi to arrive.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

An hour later we got to My Son although the world contained one less chicken.

Fortunately (although not for the chicken) it was entirely worth it.

My Son is a site of Champa ruins. The site dated from about the 6/7th century but was developed during the Champa empire until 13th century. The Champas reigned in what is now South Vietnam and had strong links with India. Hence, the Sanskrit inscriptions on the fallen tomb stones and Hindu style statues.

It reminded us of Macchu Pichu in many ways: decaying ruins in the middle of a jungle with cloud creeping around the base of the nearby mountains. The architecture was significantly different however and much more elaborate in places. And of course you didn't get bomb craters in Peru. Having our own taxi meant that we beat the throngs of tourists who were arriving just as we left at 10am. Being on your own in such a historical site made it much more atmospheric.

We now have to go through the process of deleting tens of pictures of stones and grass.

Censorship

Internet censorship comes to markandkate.blogspot.com.

After a bit of research, we've finally come to the conclusion that certain websites are censored here. Apparantly, it's been like this in China for quite some time but on the web there is very little about Vietnam restricting access. It's quite surprising as up until now there's been remarkably little evidence of Vietnam's communist roots.

It's only some websites and the reason we've noticed it is that we can't access our blog anymore. We can still post messages to it, but we have no way of reading them afterwards.

Of course, we could be completely wrong but in every internet cafe throughout Vietnam, it's failed. It's not just our site but all the other .blogspots are blocked too.

Tailor Made

We've just come back from our second fitting session for our tailor-made suits! We have to go back in a few hours for the last one.

160USD for two suits, made of Italian wool with an extra pair of trousers each...what a bargain!

Hoi An is famous for its tailors. Every other shop is a 'Cloth Shop' with rolls of fabrics lining the walls. You go in, point at the fabrics you like, browse the latest Next catalogue or fashion magazine for the design you want and in two days time and three fittings later you have a beautifully fitted suit.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (Happy New Year!)

"Welcome to the year of the lovely dog."

Celebrating two New Years in the space of one month is a little strange but fun nonetheless.

We've been in Hoi An for a couple of days. It's a lovely, world-heritage protected town and spending New Year's Eve here was certainly an experience. Floating candles drifted along the river and Chinese lanterns lit up the ancient house fascias. The tranquility was then shattered by some of the worst singing I have ever heard. It even beat the Thais doing karaoke or watching A1 in Battersea Park on Bonfire Night.

They played bingo. Every number that was picked up had to be sung about for five minutes. Same song, same duff notes, every time.

Midnight arrived with a speech from Hoi An's Communist Party's general secretary. Not what one could call rousing stuff but he welcomed us to the year of the lovely dog. We couldn't find out what made the dog so lovely.

And finally, it all finished with a traditional parade of dancing dragons around the streets of the old-town.

Today, the town is dead. Most places are shut up. In theory, things return to life tomorrow although that might not include us: we're leaving at 5.30am to get to My Son (that's a place name, not something that we've not told anyone about). A few old ruins but they say it's worth seeing...we'll let you know.

Cafe on Thu Wheels

This place has become our second home: it's just opposite our hotel and Thu, the owner, is completely mad but extremely friendly and funny (she keeps talking about bananas and coconuts!). Plus, beer is only 7000 dong (about 30p).

They run a motorbike tour which took us around Hue and its various historic sites which was fantastic. The guide knew all the best times to be at the different places so we avoided all the tour groups going around the pagodas and saw the monks come out to sing in their temple, as well as stand on a french bunker, looking across the Perfume River at Hamburger Hill which is still inaccessible due to the unexploded ordnance there.

One pagoda was the home of a monk who, in 1963, drove in an Austin to Saigon to protest against the Buddhist persecution of General Diem, the leader of southern Vietnam at the time. He poured petrol over himself and then set fire to his body. The photos on the walls at Hue are gruesome but the tales say that although his flesh was burnt, his heart was untouched.

The weather is finally meant to start improving tomorrow...it's been cold and drizzly for days.

DMZ

Sooooooooooooo much driving (400km in a day) and a ridiculously early start (5.30am) but the trip around the demilitarised zone was well worth it.

The history is incredible and although many of the sites aren't much to look at now (The Rock Pile really is what it says on the tin) it was sobering to learn more about the war and look at the areas which even today are still recovering from Agent Orange and the napalm which obliterated huge areas.

The Vinh Moc tunnels are outstanding and were certainly the highlight: kilometres of tunnels dug through the clay to hide the villagers and help the Viet Cong travel undetected. Living there for days on end to escape the American bombing must have been horrendous. There was even a maternity ward, a film room and one toilet to serve the 400 people living there at any one time...

Halong Bay

We're just back from a stunning, three day boat trip around Halong Bay: about 3 hours drive east of Hanoi.

It's amazingly beautiful with limestone rocks jutting out of the water for 500 square kilometres. We explored "The Surprising Cave" which wasn't very surprising but pretty nonetheless. It's 3 huge connected caverns with one rock formation lit up to resemble a certain male fertility symbol which the guide thought was hilarious and another which really did look like a huge turtle. Kate patted its head which apparently means we are now blessed with good luck and will have a baby boy...hmmmmmm...

The weather wasn't great and when the sun wasn't shining it was really cold and we huddled together in the boat for warmth. When the sun came out Kate braved the waters for a swim and we went kayaking around a few lagoons.

Dotted around are amazing sea villages where people live on floating platforms and farm fish and try and sell tourists chocolate biscuits at massively inflated prices. When you've been out on the water for two days, an Oreo is worth a fortune!

Motorbike Mayhem

We safely arrived in Hanoi to the HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK of a thousand motorbikes which zoom past you mercilessly.

After the tranquility of Laos it seemed absolutely crazy, much worse than London. Chaos everywhere.

We were greeted off our flight by a bloke in a suit and two others in casual clothes holding up a board with our names on, along with the name of our pre-booked hotel. They hussled us through the crowds, into an unmarked car and sped off. We weren't sure if were being abducted or being taken to the hotel!

We blitzed Hanoi in a day, doing most of the main tourist sites and narrowly escaping death by marauding scooters on numerous occasions.

Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and museum were fascinating. We got chased by several harpoon weilding, whistle blowing guards as we ran across the grass. Sorry Ho Chi Minh...we didn't realise it was sacred.

After taking the proper 1km walk around the side to the entrance, we traipsed through the mausoleum with many sombre Vietnamese to gaze upon the emblamed body of Ho Chi Minh. Embalmed, or made by Madame Tussauds: it's hard to tell which. At the museum we found out what a lovely, wonderful person Ho Chi Minh is (the North Vietnamese revere him, the Southern Vietnamese who fought against him still can't get good jobs, pensions, education...).

The Temple of Literature was a beautiful haven from the noise with stunning architecture.

Lunch consisted of pointing at unknown food and saying "we'll try that". It turned out to be delicious although we're still not sure what we ate.

In the evening, we visited the water puppets for an unusual tale of Vietnamese legends and history. It was all in Vietnamese so we didn't have a clue what was going on but it looked impressive.

Laos

Sunset over the Mekong


Monks in Luang Prabang... trying on Mark's glasses!

Chaing Mai

Trekking - call this a bridge?


Dinner?!



Typical Kate performance in the kitchen (don't try this at home!!)

Photo Highlights (Bangkok)

Tuk tuks at Khao San Road:


Grand Palace:

Laos: heaven for Gordon T?

Laos is lovely for so many reasons... amongst our favourites are gorgeous fruit shakes, big bottles of Lao beer for less than 50p, and sunsets over the Mekong river.

One thing that gets annoying at times is the fascination with taking your shoes off before you go in anywhere - not just temples, but shops, restaurants, guest houses etc. Gordon - it's perfect for you!

Captain Disaster

Apparently, that's my new name according to Kate. Five minutes in a two-person kayak with myself as the skipper at the helm and I capsize us both into the rapids!!

It was getting too hot anyway.

Indiana Goddard

It was like something in the movies: hunched over, walking through a pitch black cave with just the flickering light from your head torch. Awesome stalactites and stalagmites lining the walls and not a soul in sight. And then, as you navigate the treacherous drops, you see an eye glinting in the darkness. Jumping, you bang your head as you realise it's just a gold Buddha perching on a rock. You don't get anything like that in safety-conscious England! Apart from the buddhas, it was as if we were the first people in the cave. You could travel for 2 days into the mountain apparently, but we didn't fancy putting that to the test.

The other cave had to be entered through a 1 foot high gap. The only catch being it had a river flowing out of it. For the princely sum of 10,000 kip (one dollar) we hired a big inner tube and floated into the cave, hauling ourselves along a rope that had been kindly placed along the way.

Not having lights, safety ropes and easy walking routes made it so much more impressive.

Vang Vieng

From quaint, friendly Luang Prabang we travelled yesterday down route 13, successfully avoiding the local bandits (the last recorded hijacking was over 2 years ago so we felt fairly safe!). You can see why it takes twice as long in the wet season: much of the road was full of enormous ruts and holes. It would have also been quicker were it not for our bus driver stopping at every cafe/drinking establishment on the way to collect his commission...

We arrived at Vang Vieng with the temperature hitting 35 degrees. The scenery takes your breath away. It's so beautiful with a river winding through huge karst mountains. We sat on the grassy slopes, sipping a Beer Lao watching the sunset.

There are numerous limestone caves here to explore or you can go kayaking down the river. The big 'rite of passage' though that everyone does in Vang Vieng is to hire a tractor's inner tube for $3 and float down the river, taking in the scenery, occasionally stopping at the shore to climb up a set of wooden/bamboo scaffolding and jump off a ludicrously high platform into the water or zoom down a deathslide. Great fun!!!

Sadly, night-time transforms Vang Vieng into a trashy street with 'TV-bars' which show episode after episode of Friends. But, we've found a few hang outs which are less touristy and let you soak up the atmosphere without too many noisy tourists from certain countries which we won't mention...

We're going to stay here for a bit longer than planned before heading off to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Lazing around

We haven't done much in Luang Prabang, but it's been great. Just wondered around the town, chatting to locals and other travellers we've met on the way.

A bike ride in the sweltering heat took us out of the town along dirt roads to see where they took us.

It would have been easier if it weren't for the $1-a-day lady-style bikes without any gears.

Cruising the Mekong

The 6 hour bus ride to Chiang Kong on the eastern border of Thailand was uneventful. I finished reading my first book: The Kite Runner which was absolutely superb. The best I've read in a long time.

The border crossing was easy too but we had to slip the immigration officers 20 baht to work overtime as it was past 5pm! A quick ferry ride across the Mekong River and we were in Huay Xia, Laos.

We were up early to make sure we got our boat tickets. Despite being told to meet at 8.30am at a certain guesthouse we didn't leave until 11. The Laos people are very laid back!

The slow boat trip was similar to travelling on the London Underground in some ways: we were stuffed in the boat like cattle and the heat was sweltering. But, once we started moving the breeze lowered the temperature significantly. Our numb bums from the hard wooden benches and virtually no leg room soon faded into the background: the scenery was stunning. We meandered through jungles, small villages, were surrounded by mountains and weaved in and out of huge rocks that stabbed out of the water. Sailing into the sunset was beautiful.

The stop-over on the first night was forgettable: a town called Pak Beng which only exists to serve as a one-night stay for the tourists.

The second day was much the same as the first although the autumnal colours of the trees made the views more impressive.

We finally hit Luang Prabang: a laid-back, old French colonial town, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The people are wonderfully friendly; this morning we spent 30 minutes chatting to some trainee monks in a nearby Wat (temple). They study for 6 years, learning about Buddhism as well as more academic subjects. Their training includes 3 ten day trips to the jungle where they learn to meditate and eat only once a day. Every morning they wake at 5 and go and collect alms in the town. We're thinking about trying to get up to see it tomorrow although I'm not sure if we'll get up in time!

Lost in the jungle

We're waiting for our bus to the Thailand/Laos border, so there's just about time to give you a quick taster of the last three days we spent trekking through the Doi Inthanon national park:

• Having a shower under a waterfall


• Crossing rapids by walking over a fallen tree


• Barbecuing and eating wild frog


• Eating flying squirrel soup, with the head sticking out over the edge of the bowl (photo to follow!)


• The guide getting lost in the middle of the jungle and marking trees in case we needed to backtrack on ourselves


• Climbing to the highest peak in Thailand and looking out over the clouds


• Being lulled to sleep in a bamboo hut by the sounds of a waterfall


• Riding on an elephant's neck.

Snowing?

What's the weather like in Chaing Mai? Click here

Congratulations!

Big congratulations to Debs & Steve who got engaged on New Year's Day!!!

Champagne's in the fridge at home, waiting to share when we get back.

Gordon Ramsey, here we come!

We've just had our first Thai cooking lesson. Absolutely amazing, although it was a very long day.

It started with a tour round the local food markets and then a "10 minute" (1 hour) bus ride to a house on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. The lessons lasted a whole day and we cooked and ate about 8 courses. Kate nearly burnt down the kitchen with her version of a chicken and basil dish but did win the prize for the best spring rolls.

We're off on a 3 day trek tomorrow to Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain (2500m) and then it's a 6 hour bus drive to the Thai/Laos border followed by a 2 day slow boat ride to Luang Prabang in the heart of Laos. We'll be out of touch for a while!!

Lady Boys

We've only seen one lady boy so far, plodding along in a dodgy dress.

But, following Mark's first attempt at saying thank you in Thai he was told by the taxi driver that he said it like a lady boy would.

Must remember to pronounce the male pronouns properly!!!

Prodded and pummelled

The night bus from Bangkok got in early: 5.30am on a cold, dark, Northern Thailand morning.

We wandered into Chiang Mai as the sun rose. It's very touristy - with travel agents, internet cafes and guest houses lining the streets. Still, it's kept some of its original character with a moat and city wall ruins surrounding the centre. A bustling night market...Kate was in heaven.

We're staying in a small guest house, with a swimming pool for 350 baht a night - about 5 pounds. It used to be a safe house for one of the city mafia bosses.

Yesterday we were pummelled and stretched by two Thai ladies, allegedly in the name of relaxation. It didn't bode well when at the beginning of the massage each of Mark's toes let out resoundingly large pops as they were pulled.

Saying that, it was amazing. They weren't too rough on us as we were first timers and afterwards (but not at the time) we felt very relaxed. It certainly got rid of those knots in our shoulders.

There are 300 Wats (temples) to see here. 298 to go.

Pushing back the culinary boundaries

Some of the delicacies we have tried so far...

Very dodgy loofah-type seaweed stuff in soup (at Bangkok market stall - not sure how long it had been stewing for!)

Mini dried fishes, complete with heads and beady eyes, with lemongrass and lots of chilli (we were expecting a salad!) Fairly chewy, and a bit hot, but not too unpleasant!

The quintessential Thai pudding (not that they have many sweet things) - mango and sticky rice

Various unknown fried meats, bought fromm stall holders...

PLUS, even more groundbreaking, Mark has delved into pineapple and oranges! Wonders never cease!

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW 2549!

Our New Year's Eve was fairly low key but good fun...we had an amazing meal in a restaurant by the Chao Praya river and then investigated several of the bars between Pr Arthit (the arty area of Bangkok) and Khao San Road (trashy backpackers' ghetto). After midnight we headed back to the hotel only to find there was a full-on Thai party in the side street next to us...Thankfully we had ear plugs with us to block out their terrible attempts at karaoke! They certainly know how to party as it went on until after 7am. It's now 3.50pm and it's just kicking off again for another night of frivolities. We might try and gatecrash...after all, if you can't beat them, join them!

We get the night bus tomorrow to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Bangkok's been great but I wouldn't want to stay here much longer than our 5 planned days. There's lots to see and do and the people are remarkably friendly but it's still a loud, polluted city where for every beautiful temple there are streets of poor run-down shacks.