Tomb rader!

What a sight, 6:20am in front of a thousand year old temple in the Cambodian jungle the sun rose. Reflecting its warm light on the moat below and out towards me with two of my best friends Alex and Gill Hay.

After sunrise and a pancake (the two are apparently synonymous, we took a tuk tuk tour around the outer temples of Angkor. The temples were very beautiful. They were covered in ancient intricate engraving, some of them had trees growing out of their roofs/walls.

We had a great time topping up on some culture. After lunch we drove out to a floating village. This was also really cool, it looked like any other street in Cambodia, except the fact it was on a river! This 8 year old lad came strolling out of his house stark naked, saw the tourist boat right by his door and dropped to the deck covering up. Once he had got over the shock I clearly thought better of his shyness, stood up boldly, and leaped into the water.

We then popped back to the temple complex for sunset before heading out for dinner.

The next day I went back to the temple complex with the girls from my dorm, Laura, Laura and sylvie. We went to the bigger temples today, which were breathtaking before gathering up 16 people from the hostel to go out for dinner and drinks.

This morning I reluctantly crawled out of my Pitt at 6:30am to get back to the temples and complete the Angkor half marathon circuit. The humidity nearly killed me, I just couldn't breath!

Saigon Shopping Spree!

So in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh city I quite literally shopped till I dropped!

On the first day I took on Ben thanh market for a browse and price check on the way to the war reminants museum. The museum was pretty cool, giving a very biased view of the American occupation. There were some particularly harrowing photos of US Marines holding up bomb decimated corpses and decapitated children. There was also an exhibit on the victims of agent orange, a chemical weapon which left generations being born either significantly mutated or physically or mentally handicapped.

On the way to the museum I found the best bakery ever! All I'm saying is that blackberry bread and bitter pudding is the future!

After the museum and a swift nap I met Helly and Liv for diner. It sounds like hey have had a great trip. They even got me an early birthday present, a Halong bay shirt to comemerate our lovely bout trip.

Over the next two days I spent most of my time in Saigon square, a shopping market buying tons of fake designer shirts. Enough to rival Cian! I also organised my own walking tour taking in the notredam cathedral, opera house and the Gustoff Eiffel designed post office. I also treated my sore neck to a massage wihich was very good!

After some goodbye beers with Paul and Dori I got on my 15 hour bus to Siem Riep.

At 3pm we stopped, exactly 15 hours after we departed. I collected my bag. Checked my things and strides from the bus. To a collection of very confused and surprised faces... "Where are you off to?" "We're here aren't we?" "Ha ha ha ha haa! Another 6 hours yet. Get back on the bus." "........"

At hour 20 I started to loose my mind. The song 'the road' by tenacious D came on which cheered me up a bit but it was still a horrible amount of time.

Moped adventures 3: the loooong road home

Ok, so I didn't check the distance!

I vetted the ride on how long google maps says it takes to get places. That was three hours for today.

Unfortunately that was if you were in a car taveling a minimum of 100kmph. Not on a moped doing 50.

The start of the day was glorious. Was saw hundreds of ships in the harbour, drove past the biggest Lilly pond/lake and saw some sand dunes.

Unfortunately it was hard work after that! We drove for 8 hours on a straight road with the world conspiring against us.

Stopping only once at a stretch of golden beach that was too inviting to turn down.

Although we had inconsistent cross winds, craters of pot holes and other drivers to contend with; I nearly crashed twice, once into a orange truck on two wheels and once into a moped stocked 7 foot high and four foot wide with caged birds!

Paul had the worst of it though. As we were driving his fan belt snapped, leaving him a crowd of bikes with no acceleration. Somehow he rolled straight into a mechanics and got fixed up. 

Meanwhile Dori was attacked by a frog.

Paul also had to drive most of the day with no glasses as a bug hit his and knocked a lense clean out by cracking the frame. After 5 hours he finally found a pair, was massively over charged. Then the sun went down and he had to take them off anyway!

After a stint doing racing lines down a deserted highway we made it back just in time for our bus.

What a great adventure!

Moped adventures 2: Delat to Mui Ne

After a leasurely wake up and breakfast we checked out of our hostel and got back on the road. This time I very nearly took us the right way straight away! Only one wrong turning! Unfortunately that one wrong turn did take us right back to the city centre...

We headed south with the rest of the commuter traffic. Hundreds of mopeds carrying everything you could imagine. My favorite was one that would look at home in dad's army. A guy basically driving a giant bush!

As we drove along Dori kindly not only cut me up but drove through a huge pile of shit as she did so, splattering my entire right side in it.

Our first stop was the pongour falls. Magnificent. We explored the base of the falls and jumped around rock to rock over the river. Then Paul and I met a Vietnamese family and after we got chatting we decided to climb up the waterfall together. The waterfall had four tiers we crossed behind and under the falls then scrambled up to the higher tiers snaking our way up to below the top tier. It was quality, the water was so powerful and graceful at the same time. Getting behind the falls was amazing as well, as was sitting in the rock pools on the highest tier and looking out over the basin below.

After a quick kebab roll we got back on our bikes and carried on our mountain highway. The scenery was again different from the day before. The hills were sweeping gently and where the valleys were filled with vast navy lakes complimenting the rich green foliage.

I was so impressed with this scenery I stopped to take a couple of pictures, allowing the others to go on without me. After I had my shots I zoomed off, camera still in hand to catch the others up. I reached the brow of a hill and was greeted by the most amazing vista. You could see for miles and miles. Lush green hillsides, rivers and lakes all flanked by the mountain range. Dori and Paul were waiting for me just a little further down. As I was distracted by the view, holding my camera in my back break hand and speeding massively to catch up I didn't see the gravel in the road.

I pulled my breaks, I slowed a little but not by too much. I hit the gravel and stuck my feet down digging in my heels at about 5 meters from the cliff edge, at 3 meters I was still skidding. I pulled hard to the left to avoid the ledge. This caused the back wheel to skid round and down I went. I hit the floor hard with my left side. 

I'm so lucky I was wearing jeans as I would have definitely torn my leg up otherwise. After I lied on the floor for a couple of seconds. Listening to the others laughing 'sympathetically' I simply said "ouch" getting a few more laughs.

Aside from a few scratches my only injury was a deep cut on my left hand as I sacrificed it to save my watch and camera.

  

The rest of the ride I was really cautious, putting an end to my video diary! 

We passed through loads of small towns and villages on the way to Mui Ne. When we arrived we found that our hostel was fully booked. After sharing around we found a private 4 person room for half the price of the hostel anyway! £4! Bargain!

I had another great dinner, consisting of a whole red snapper fish, seasoned to perfection!

That evening we had a few beers and a few more shots in a rather trendy beach front bar before being ushered into 'the best night club in town' there where two people inside...

That didn't stop us, and neither did the lack of aircon or any air circulation. I pulled some siiiick moves that would make your hair curl. A young Swedish girl got friged (a dance move, nothing naughty).

We then retired to our room to start the drive again the next day. After the obligatory dip in the sea of course!

Moped adventures day 1: Nha Trang to Dalat

Off on the road we went!

Obviously this straight forward 180km drive to Delat did not go smoothly.

First we wandered over to the moped rental to sign for and pick up our bikes. The lady behind the counter seemed to be asking an aweful lot of questions about our driving experiance and if we would be safe on the roads. At first I thought she was being a bit rude, assuming we couldn't drive. That was until I looked over and Paul was resting his head on the counter, too many shots last night!

Anyway we finally got out on the road, I loved it. Out on a crazy busy street, the wind in my face, the promise of adventure just over the horizon. When 'cough, splutter' dead. In the middle of a busy street - we're talking 10-20 mopeds in a 10 meter radius- my bike died, no fuel. Well at least I enjoyed 25 seconds on the bike first!

So I pushed the bike to a petrol station for a fill up.

We then all got on the road with me leading the way. I had studied the maps, memorised the directions, there was no way we could get lost.... 20km later we turned around as we were going completely the wrong direction.

After this little blunder and we were back on the mountain pass to Delat we stopped at a small shop for some food. I have never seen meat like what was in my bowl. I used my top detective skills to try and figure out what it was. I said to the lady "mooooooo!" She laughed and shook her head. I said "buck buck bucurk!" Again she laughed and shook again. I went for a "oink oink oink!" Still not on the money. Dori went for "woof woof woof!" There was a bit of a pause after this one which made us a bit apprehensive! But eventually she shook her head, beaming. We settled for we think it was goat... Maybe.

After lunch we climbed back on our mighty steads and continued through the astounding hillside. I have never seen scenery like it. It was a rolling, smooth hillside. But the hills where so small and steep. Like driving through giant bubble wrap covered in dense vegetation.

After a few hours of the glorious scenery we made a petrol stop. 

Paul went off to the loo while Dori and I filled up. Dori and I then waited for ages but still no sign of Paul.I then figured I would go to the loo as well and hurry him up a bit as well. 

I got destructed by some squirrell monkeys out in the yard space so as I turned the corner I positively shat myself when a huuuuge doberman jumped up towards me barking like it was going to rip my gizzard out! On it's back legs it towered over me by at least a foot and a half, it nearly leaped out of its small pen as I scurried off!

I then went for a pee, where I heard a faint voice shouting "help! Help! Gary?" Paul had got stuck in the toilet cubicle. So I kicked the door open. Regaining some manliness following my pathetic swearing and cowering from the giant dog.

We then played a bit of football with the petrol station staff, after me and Paul nearly took out a POS and a window we decided to move on.

The scenery changed as we got higher into the mountain pass, the rolling green undergrowth gave way to bigger mountains and wooded areas.

After we (finally) found our hostel in Delat we went for a walk around the big lake where we met some people fishing with an electric probe and a net. We then went to a cafe overlooking the city, here I had one of the best cups of tea ever. Hint of vanilla, magnificent.

Halloween party!!

Today I feel very worse for wear.

But it's well worth it for the cracking night out last night!

We arrived in Nha Trang by night bus at 6am and after checking in, Paul and I headed down to the beach to catch some rays!

After a day out on the beach we started preparing for the spooky Halloween night out.

Being halfway around the world we decided to really embrace local cuisine, so I had an authentic, Vietnamese mixed grill with ketchup. Paul had a pizza!

After dinner we got our faces painted, I was done up like a skeleton. Trying to play with the local kids I roared at a toddler who then looked more terrified than I had ever seen anyone and started crying uncontrollably. Whoops!

I did Paul's paint for him, but after half way through it Vietnamese parents kept pushing there children at me to paint theirs! I gave it a punt but the third kid who was given a joker style grin was not content (as it was a bit shit) so I bolted!

I then cracked out the chinease fire water, shared it around and after crawling a couple of pubs and meeting loads of people I went down to a beach rave, lasers, base, it had it all!

I did make a special friend on the way down to the beach. As I was walking down a lady came straight up to me, grabbed my groin, and kept shouting " me sucky sucky! Me sucky sucky!" I tried to escape but she was having none of it! "Sucky sucky!" In the end I had to punch her in the arm and run away!

She was nothing if not persistent.

Suit you sir

After another full day traveling from Phong Nha all the way down to Hoi An, via Hue, where I met up with Paul again. The guy I met with Helly and Liv when I was in Hanoi.

We travelled down together and decided to stick together for the rest of Vietnam.

Hoi An was really nice. Faded yellow painted buildings and a beautiful river running through the centre of town made for a very nice, relaxed few days. 

I got fitted up for a few custom shirts and suit trousers, by a very handy tailor! She was smacking my backside and feeling me up at every opportunity! As she was an absolute stunner I didn't complain too much though!

I also went for a cruise up the river with Dori, a nice Belgian girl and a old Vietnamese man with one leg. Cracking trio!

On my last night Paul and I went on the piss and boogied down till dawn!