So, with Vietnam 'done' (taking the piss) I had planned to be entering the UK tanned golden brown and verging on a size 6 (yeah right), but thanks to all the drinking efforts, lazy afternoons and sleep-ins it so happens I am arriving as white and flabby as the Poms are! Well, at least I will fit in, finally no more stress from the thousands of street hawlkers ····

We arrived into Earl's Court a good 30 hours after leaving Hanoi. We stank real bad. I had a pale drawn face, baggy eyes and oily drab hair, the look of a smaky without a hit. Desperate to hit the bed, so relieved to be at the last leg of our journey, only to be told our room was not ready yet! to wait half and hour and to come back! (big sigh) We wandered about the main strip in the shitty rain getting mud spashed up the backs of my jeans, found some great restaurants, too bad we can never afford to go to them with the pound and all. We trogged back to the hotel only to discover more bad news of an early checkout time, a rediculous breakfast slot and the smallest room in the word, so small I could touch both wall with my feet and hands. I lugged my 20kg worth of luggage up the millions of stairs and forced in a couple of hours of snoozing, we where anxious to see what all this London fuss is about.....

The London Eye

With our drooping puppy dog eyes, we where determined to get the most out of todays Underground Pass, we braved the London chill and doned our coats and umbrella. 1st stop, Westminster, we galwked the at the impressive London Eye and took a few snaps at the massive Big Ben. The wind was so strong we where being literally blown off our feet. Street performers where 'frozen' all along the dirty Thames as we made our way to Trafalgar Square where I desperately tried to convince Sam to ride the Loins cause thats what you do at Trafalgar Sqaure, you havent been to London is you havent ridden the Lions at Trafalgar Square. Sam climbed up, its harder than it looks, he gave one of the Lions a quick pat on its butt and scrambled down with just enough time for me to take a photo. We made our way towards Leicester Square passing the famous Sherlock Holmes pub on the way.
London is so big and beautiful, full of giant impossing architecture, cobblestoned streets and beautiful old English pubs on almost every corner. Flea markets, flowers in the streets, masses of restaurant, sandwich joints and bars. We walked for hours checking the phenomanal british prices along the way....it converts to....$7 for a cup of coffee, $10 for a beer, at least $50 for a main meal and $10 or more for a sandwich... everything slaughtered our poor Aussie dollar.

Leicester Square, the broadway strip, choked full of theatre ticket offices, cheap pizza, cimemas and resturants. After an extensive search for the best and most budget comedy play we decided on 39 steps at the Criterion theatre in Piccadilly for only 19 Pounds. The show was pretty funny with only four actors playing at least 140 roles, it kept us laughing all the way though. We made our way along Convent garden, stopped to watch a street performer ride a one-wheeler whilst juggling a machetti, a bowling pin and eating an apple all at once, bits of apple slobber dribbled all over his face, of course he couldnt whipe it off, very funny. Convent Garden is a pretty place, a lady sang opera in one of the little stairwells, echoing all though the streets.
We ate our lunch in the park (marked down sangas from the supermarket) before whipping thought the National Gallery spotting some Monet and Renoir and then detoured home for a good nights sleep.

The next day I awoke, a little brighter than yesterday. my watch read 11.30am, Oh my gawd, we've missed half the day! Gotta get up only in London for three days! I showered, stirred Sam and we were both dressed and ready and f#*k it was cold! We trogged down stairs and stepped out into the frosty air.....and stopped. We both just stopped and looked about. Then we looked at each other. Bikes where still tied to the railings, last nights garbage still lay in the gutter, the street a little desolate with a few people passing the closed shops on their way for their mornings coffee.

"What time is it?"says Sam

I check my watch.... 7.30am.
This morning in my comorised slumber I must have checked my watch upsidedown. I though it said 11.3o when in fact it read 5.30! I now feel like a dickhead. Big sigh, at least we made breakfast. : )

London starts last and finishes late, the sun goes down past 8pm and stuffs up my body clock... nothing was open yet, we wondered about until 10am waiting for some action, found a cute little flea market in a georgous old church near piccadilly where thay sell antique jewelry, stamps and all sorts of second hand goods. along the same street is the largest bookstore in the world. On the 5th level is a trendy looking bar, we spent a good hour and a half flicking though travel guides, photography and of course cook books.
Today we did the most walking in a day on this whole trip. We where out for 12 hours and at least 8 of them where spent walking about. Staint Pauls and along the Millenium bridge to the Tate modern to look at some amazing art and film, ants scattering around with peices of confetti, cameras attached to bike wheels riding though the city. We also looked at some not so interesting art such as fluorescent lights arranged in the shape of a rocket, a poo brown canvas of seemingly nothing and a couple of kindergarden look alike paintings (Sam mumbling - even I could do that!)

Tate Modern

The afternoon was spent in the Sussex pub scoffing down some very fat and homemade wedges with sourcream and tomato sauce and the night was spent in a pub in Earl's Court. It was filling up quite quickly, we where lucky to find a seat. I looked around to notice it was filling up rapidly with only with men, although I didnt feel uncomfortable, the percentage of men to women was 20 to 1.
By now the pub was completely chokked, a man from Perth who grew up in London told us it was Chelsea V Manchester United tonight and that he was lucky enough to score some tickets. His 'cringo' friend from up north who was speaking fluent english (though we could understand a word of from his thick accent, only 'sheep shagger' every now and then and I had to keep reminding him that was the Kiwi's) He spent most of his time uncontrolably slobbering and laughing in my ear in his foul English and I tired of it quite quickly.
But our Perth friend saved us, said it was time to go to the game. he warmed us to watch for fights, red against blue. Him and mates where going for red, Man.United. Apparently it gets quite violent, they bash the shit out of each other just for the simple fact the other guy is baracking for the other team (boys eh) They wear 'microbadges' showing support for their team, no other colours at all, no scarfs, no hats with the teams colours, just plain clothing and 'microbadges' so when a brawl breaks out they clip off there badge rendoring them neutral do the other team doesnt know who to bash.
We move futher to the seats on the outskirts of the pub, thinking he must be over-reacting but anyhow. But when looking out the window I find a convoy of police wagons, and then more police.., then more.., and then more with full raid uniforms...., and then police horses...!

The next day we did skip breakfast and had a good sleep in cuddled within my red silk sleeping bag I bought in hanoi, turning the sheets pink. Today we are ditching the idea of the Underground. We walked up through Boxtom to south Kensington to the natural Museum.
Sam had left his stinking shoes on the windowsill along with the Camembert cheese the birds had picked to death. His shoes where soaked through (not used to the shitty weather yet) so today he sported about in shorts and his 50 cent thongs bought in vietnam in the drizzling 11 degree London weather. Our feet where aching, so sore from the hours of walking over the last couple of days. feels like I have a broken big toe, shin splints and a ripped tendon in my right hip.
The Natural History Museum felt like that new movie that is out, cant remeber the name, where at night all the dinosuars come to life. It was housed a massive old beautiful church and had such things as a 1300 year old tree trunk, human skulls and a life sized moving model of T-Rex.
We though we might as well drop into the Science Museum, its just next door. Its filled with old gadgets, rocket cars and trains...our favourite exhibit was the hands on flushing toilet sectioned to see all the inner workings. After the first flush I was astonished to find a turd in there! Sitting right down at the bottom of the S-bend. And I even more astionished when Sam had successfully flushed him away! Anxiously awaiting for the refill to deposit Mr.Hanky again for a second go... it took too long. (I´ll get him on the way back) After playing with all the gadgets, the fat and skinny mirrors, the electricity orb we headed back to the hotel. Raining and Sams feet frozen and ready to snap off we managed to get lost after I discovered the map had wriggled out of my back pocket.
Tired and completely stuffed we decided to stay in the night. Shopped at Marks and Spencer for a whole chicken and colesaw, we laid back to watch Home and Away on the tellie as the screen did laps over and over again f@#king with our eyes until we felt like we'd had a large mushy shake and the curtains where sucking us in and the light shade was moving across the ceiling......

London remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we did a trip to the markets to buy some veggies for a sanga, it has been very quiet on the island, but now the tourist season is just kicking in we are starting to see more 'farangs' showing up. Anyhow, the market ladies rise their prices rediculously high to any farang. One lady tried to sell us a cucumber for $2.40! I mean, I wouldn´t pay $2.40 in any country! We ditched her buisness and spent up at the store across the street. Today we have been very lazy, watching the movie channel and drinking beer in our hotel room out of tiny glass teacups. So, in the end we played some shithead at the kiwi bar and watched sleezebags looking for STD´s hovering around the brothel next door.

18th april
Today we hired a moto and rode through the lush national park in the middle of the island and then rode up through the mini farms and the flocks of goats and followed the coast half way around the island. The Island landscape is very rugged, a cross between Jarasic Park and Lost, eagels circle above and you see tiny glimpes of weird little animals scrurring off the road at the last minute. We parked the bike to have some lunch, again fried rice, shrimp Pho and some tofu (which they had to drive to the markets to get) The guy who lent us his moto left his hat clipped into the front of the bike and it was stolen while we where eating lunch. We didn´t say anything about it when we gave the bike back.

22 april
Its a glary hazey day today on CatBa, mostly the island carries a permanent creepy haze across its mountain tops and along the bay giving it an eerie effect. Last night the island had come to life. Outdoor 20 cent beer stalls had set up with their little plastic chairs along the main strip, selling peanuts and pineapples. The ladies pulling the trolleys where about selling clothes and bits n pieces. The corn lady was full up, also selling bags of fairy floss. Thousands of Japanese tourists were riding up and down the strip on gay looking double seated bicycles but they normally dissapear by 8 oclock. We are noticing the light cargo wearing, strappy sandle, day packers who are usually sporting a guidebook looking lost. They are typically of English decent, but also some Swiss and German,..and of course the place is filling with the unwashed bed bug, dready, scarf wearing traveller who gets by on two pairs of undies and 1 pair of trousers of which the crutch hangs loosely down near their knees to give a 'I just shit myself' appearance. (Why do they do that?) Generally they identify themselves with masses of cheap jewelery knotted and twisted at every link of their body and cling to their once colourful woven moinority sholder bags. Help!! They are taking over the island! My beautiful peacefull Cat Ba! We hid away at the 'Green Mango', a more upmarket bar and restuarant where thay scatter rose pettles across your table before ordering. But tonight we just wanted to laze in their lounge area and drink their very potent long Cat Ba island iced teas, although their Cuban bean soup is very tastey.

23 april
This morning, headache and all, I am awoken by open air opera style kareoke coming from one of the floating restaurants on the bay. Hmm, kareoke at 9 in the morning? They just love it, dont they. I poke my head out to see what all the fuss is about and i am suprised to find in the middle of the main road that runs along the bay, right on the grassy patch in the medium strip, a circle of Vietnamese men -with some open jawed farangs hanging about with their cameras falling out onto the road - egging on two ugly and very angry looking birds trying to rip each others heads off! I am more shocked to find they even have their own corners. At the end of a round they grab the cocks and wash them down and pat them with towel and prop them up again making them seem refreshed and ready for the next round. I had they best seats for the fight, seated on my little stool, 9 floors above all the action. I soon get bored and scramble off to find some lunch, but 6 hours later they are still going! Cruel I say.

24th
Back at the Green Mango for more Cat Ba island iced teas. We just hung about in a daze and chatted about animals walking through the kitchens and what we'll be doing in Barcelona. We ended the night getting kicked out of the dingy nightclub at the end of the street that we swore we'd never step foot in, and ended up back on the baguette ladies street corner drinking pissweek homemade beer and stuffing our faces with sausage and quail eggs. The tasteless beer was so flat and horrible but we kept on drinking it.

Its now 3.30 in the afternoon, we've pigged out for lunch and Sam has gone back to bed and will probably stay there for the rest of the day. We will probably be doing nothing at all for a while as we have spent our quota all on food and grog. we are staying on catba for another 2 nights and then are heading back to hanoi and then Sapa for a bit of trekking, need to get some exercise.

25th
It stormed last night and we sat out on the roof top, 12 stories up, and watched the lighting crack over the bay while chugging down some cold tigers. So today is not humid at all and even though I'd planned a day at the beach, the weather is a refreshing change. Tonight is our last night on the island and I´m sorta glad we are leaving as I have become amazingly lazy on this island. We spent the day walking about the boardwalks before it started raining giant freezing cold drops of icey rain. Oh well, will have to sit down at one of the 40 cent beer stalls at the western end of the beach up near the markets. We have made it a bit of a habit. We love sitting there in the arvos spending next to nothing cracking peanuts with the locals. We just begin to relax, soaking up the last of our Cat Ba island atmosphere and just as we sat back we noticed the crazy Vietnamese chick who lives in Newtown and supposively teaches French. We saw her on the back of a moto and just when we had though she haddn´t seen us....

'HEY FRIEND!' ..'HA'

She is so loud and continuosly laughs at absoluely nothingto the point where you just have to stare at her and you feel a little uncomfortable. She raves on in spasmotic fits of excitement about the cost of living just like and Australian pensioner living in the back of Warrawong, she blabbs on about the 5 cent bargin peanuts, and that we had paid double for the same boat fair as her the other day.
We met her in HaiPhong on one of those alful slow boats, we actually, we met her in the boat directors office while waiting for the slow boat for two hours drinking shout after shout of the directors homemade family recipe rice wine (that blew your head off) Then, she was with Albert, an unfortunate German man, triple her age who had a child and a girlfiend up in Sapa. He says Mika (the crazy lady) only travells with him for his money. Mika tells me she dumped him because he shoots up, which looked pretty obvious to us. Anyhow, we where just kicking back and she shows up with a much younger German character who turned out to be quite nice... if only we could have warned him!

The beer stalls on the street dont have any toilets so we waddled up to the kiwi bar and had two shots of vodka just to use the loo and then set out to find a restaurant. It turns out we always seem to find the best restaurant on the last night of our stay. it was called Vien Dong, up past the main supermarket. It was jam packed with fish tanks full of fresh seafood. There didnt seem to be any menu, and the family where all sitting around a large table eating there dinner. We looked in and when they all gave us a friendly smile we sat down to order.

The beer was average, sometimes it tastes like soap, so was the restaurant - filled with petrified frog and snakes in jars - but the food was amazing. saute squid, tender in a spicey tomato sauce with chunky onions and a hint of confit garlic. We were not very hungry but we just had to try another dish. More squid in a delish garlicey sauce. Mmm. They where obviously proud of there cooking, they keep on asking us 'if we like' smiles, more smiles, and we told them is was the best food in Vietnam.

We left for the supermarket for some beer and chocolate to help us in packing tonight. I would have changed my mind to stay another night just to eat in that restaurant again, but we have already organised to check out. Tomorrow we join the end of another tour group, our way of getting back to Hanoi, so we have to tolerate fellow travellers again and be polite and have meaningless converstation with strangers - 'I dont know you, and I'm particularly not interested to hear about all your travelling tales, how you concured the world, your 'living the dream', giving your 20 cents to the locals, making all the difference to their economy'
How rude of me...!

My favourite photo this far. I call it 'Corn Lady' She walks the strip selling loads corn steamed fresh on the cob, this is her stopping for buisness out the front of the beer stalls late one night.

Island Life remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The next day we hired a moto to explore the outer areas. First we asked if anybody ever gets lost.

"NO, Never!, NEVER!" he laughed

With our new found confidence and our crap map we were lost just after the first 100 meters. I was the elected driver as I was the small bit a farm girl and all....but with Sam on the back and with gravity taking hold, I simply could not hold the thing up at the lights!
Sam took over the reins and did a stella job driving though the stinking over-populated traffic combined with the clear lack of road rules, helmets and indicators.
He sped through the streets with on the wrong side of the road (well, for us Aussies it is) with his cranky girlfriend screaming orders from all sides! The traffic was freakishly amazing. We managed two laps of the city in peak hour knowing our soul aim was to exit and find the peacefull backroads. We almost died. No exaggeration! We almost did! A crazy pink bus emitting an illegal amount of toxic waste was frantically swerving in and out of the traffic trying to kill us. After sucking in the clouds of black smog left in its trail, the air finally lifted and we found ourselves being comfronted with on-coming traffic.(AAAAHHHH)The bus swerved 3 or 4 more times I think, I dont know now, it all seems like blur , but it was definately trying to kill us.
We now consider our lives much more precious as most people do once they have a brush with death. Three days later and I am still in shock and am experiencing reoccuring dreams of my helmetless head being squashed under a crazed truck drivers wheel at the intersection where the policeman in the peach uniform was seriously pointing at Sam for running red lights and for god know what else! I mean, who is going to take him seriouly when he is wearing a pastle pink uniform? I mean really.

Tam Coc was absolutely beautiful. They called it the Halong Bay on land with giant bolders rising out of the paddy fields. At first I was dissopointed we had to drive all the way along the highway to find it instead of going the senic route, but later a lady kindly pointed us in the right direction though the dirt tracks and under the caves to find Hoa Lu. The main attractions in Hoa Lu are the Pagodas and the temples. We drove out following all the signs and ended up on a desolate dirt track in the middle of nowhere. Oh well, we checked out the goats and the women with shaved heads and then finally found our way to the temple. The temples where the same as every other temple we have seen so far. At this point we decided temples arnt for us. No more temples.
We found a little cove where the locals paddle you along the river inbetween all the paddys and under the caves. It was very beautiful except you can expect to run into hordes of other tourists that do a day trips from Hanoi. They row you about 6 to 7 kilometers under 3 massive caves, the largest one being 137 meters long where the tempature can drop 5 degrees! On the way back they try to flog you their embroidery and postcards then then ask for tips. All in all it was a great day.

Nimh Binh remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I have never in my life walked down the street and have everybody look. Not only did they look, but they stared. Not only did they stare but they stared for a very very long time. The children yelled 'hello, hellooo' causing more attention and the young boys pointed and laughed. A lady even picked up her small child so she could see me from a higher view!
Whats wrong with us! Are we ugly? Maybe its our clothes? We asked the taxi driver who spoke english just fine but he avoided the question. Maybe he didn't want to be rude.
So with this constant awkward attention I gradually became very uncomfortable. I tried to make light of it, being overly nice to people, and smiling a lot, poking my tongue out at the kids, most of the time it worked, but as the sun went down we really started to dislike being the oddballs in a strange city.

The supermarket as our safeguard, we dawdled about in hope to find something agreeable so we could go back to our hotel room and hide hideous bodies from the rest of the world.
The supermarket was the best one yet. We spent a total of $12 and that included pate, 4 breadrolls, a small loaf of bread, salami, sweets and a bottle of vodka! Barginatious. Still, we couldnt make our breadrolls without tomato, which the supermarket, inconveniently, did not stock.
Lucky us, we stumbled upon the market street. Sam keenly spotted some sausage from a lady across the road. It was dark now and she was set up under a torch light. She looked like she had been standing there for a week. She held out her arm to offer us some stuffed pork trotter from a grimey rusted up cleaver. It wasnt bad. We opted for the pork belly with cripsy skin and the greasy grisly black sausage which she erratically smached into pieces on her festering chopping board before stuffing it into reused plastic bags for us to take home.
Happy with our purchases we finally headed back to our cheap and musty hotel room, hoping our passport and money was still there. It was. We played canasta, ate sausage sangas and went to sleep.

The morning after.......
I guess your waiting to hear of some horrible food poisioning story, how very shamefull of you sitting on the edge of your seat eagerly waiting to hear how I was bent over the toilet bowl all night and twisting and turning in bed with excruciating pain, well ha HA. Sam and I can survive ANYTHING. We have stomachs of STEEL. We are masters of our of intestines. We have successfully adapted our systems to prolonged feeding of unidentifiable phenomenon. We reign SUPREME.

I am deffinately starting to look like a traveller. Dirty clothes, dirty hair, thong tan. But gosh, I am really starting to smell like a traveller. Phew. My shorts smelt so bad yesterday that I almost threw up! At home, I would have soaked them for a week. I wore them today anyway. I figure everything around me smells much much worse so nobody will know the better.

We managed to catch the bus to Nimh Bimh, so happy not to be staying in HaiPhong another night. It was a local bus, filled with local people. One lady couldnt give me the peace sign enough and of course everybody else was picking their nose. When the lady with the bad teeth boarded we started to worry we would miss our stop but then we saw the driver throw a man off followed by his bike being pegged from the roof. I guess they will tell us when its our stop.
He did, and after all my freaking out from the dirty curtains touching my head and suffocation from grotesque Vietnamese flatulence I was more than glad when we finally arrived into Nimh Bimh.

The White Aliens remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We loved the feel of Cat Ba Island and have decided to come and chill out on the island for a few days. The Junk was happy to drop us off, just give them a call and they'll pick us up and take us back to Hanoi.

We have discovered new drinking spots on the island and have found a NZ run bar called 'The Flightless Bird' where I swapped my book and had my first Vodka. Dissapointed with the lack of a pool table we walked along the bay and found the 'Koala Bar', of course an Australian run bar run by a guy from Sydney who sports the most ridiculous haircut. I won the first game of pool and looking forward to not being 'game bitch' if I win. Two half Aussie and half Pom Harry Potter lookalike kids from Hong Kong took over our game halfway through! They kept us entertained for a while until sam eyed the Wild Turkey up high on the shelf. We haven´t seen a sight like that for a while. The next thing I know I´m drinking 20c beers with the locals, peeing in the gutter and eating 4 dollar baguettes full of diahorrea bugs.

Today we spent most of it bed watching crappy MTV shows. We finally felt well enough to walk up and down the strip cheaking out some of the menus. We spotted some Goat and Sea Snails, couldn't do that today. Fried noodles and Springrolls. We checked out the markets and found the strangest creature in a tank in a dodgy restaurant nearby. Looked like an Armadillo cross stringray. Very strange, I've never seen anything like it. We came across some IPOD speakers although the lady tried to charge us $90 US! We told her we saw them for $10 in Hanoi and when we went to walk away she said OK $10, $10! We said no way!, Look at your profit margin! Im sure she doesn't know what a profit margin is. She had the shits anyhow.

So, now Ím on a detox. I have successfully grown a beer belly and now sleep thoughout the day. If we stop drinking so much we might see more of the island. No more grog for me!

Cat Ba nightlife remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sam hated it straight away. We sat on the bed and suddenly I spotted a hair! and then another one! and then I started counting them! Horrified as memories came flooding back at thought of lice scratching about on my head and bumps showing up all over my body. I was absolutely distraught and thought about checking out right then and there. Sam calmed me down, said I was tired from all the travelling and that I am probably sensitive and over reacting. Ok. I asked for new sheets, they had hairs on them too. I stole fresh pillows from the open room up the hall. I wish I had bought those silk sleeping bags I saw in hanoi. I remade the beds and we decided we would check out in the morning. It will be Ok I told myself, have a shower, have a bite to eat and it will all be over soon.
I had a shower and started drying my face with the towel, PHEW! It stunk like it had been in a mouldy cupboard for a year. I had to dry myself with the emergency chamios we bought in Australia. After my shower it got worse! Much much worse! The pipes started emitting the foulest sewerage smell! Disgusted we went for a walk, perhaps it will go away. We went out to a cute little restaurant and tried the Sea Mantis. They were really nice, but not much meat on them. We bought some beer and came back to our hotel to sit on the balcony and play cards. After a couple hands of Euka the smell was unbearable! How can we sleep with that smell! It even stunk from out on the balcony! Inside the room was like sticking your head in a feasting toilet bowl.
We packed up and stormed downstairs. Half drunk and very angry I interupted the two men in the reception giving each other a full body massage to damand our passports whilst decribing the stinking state of the room was not fit for animals to live in.

Now we are staying in a perfect hotel called Hoang Ngoc. It has all the creature comforts and happens to be brand new and sparkling clean. Fluffy fluffy towels and floppy quilts and fresh rooms that get made up every day. Ahhh, finally.

Back to Cat Ba remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Teaming up with our German/Irish friend Carson, we wondered out to see what this place has on offer. The first place was closed. The second had 3 pool tables and absolutely no women. The 3rd seem ok 'Blue Note'. We all sat lined up at the bar and ordered longneck sized Tigers and had a laugh about the Vietnamese way of doing things, the copious nose picking addictions, public transport and food. Our converstaion was abruptly cut off by the rude interuption of ear peircing 80's ballads! Oh my gward! Never thought it would happen to me, but yes, here I am in a desolate bar in the middle of the South China Sea, on a Jurrassic Park like island drinking longnecks, listening to 'Time of my life!' Yes I am a victim of true Vietnamese Karaoke!

But we couldn't stay to hear it, the pain was just to much and we moved on to a much larger bar with 90's thumping music and no karaoke. I hated it, Sam hated it and Carson hated it, and after visiting the worst toilet in the word (think of the scene out of Train Spotting) I was more than happy to head back to our hotel.

Our hotel was ok, not exactly what I would call a 3 star. Much excitement with the high pressure shower. Too bad that it was salt water though. They had cheap coconut nuts and bottled tiger (canned tastes like ashtrays) and the beds were comfy and i could have slept in but have to get up at 6.30am to climb up a stupid mountain (tours not for me)

6am: The morning was difficult. Very difficult, getting up I mean. We have decided tours are not for us. No more tours.

I loved the trek, apart for the fact no-one bothered to tell me to leave all my luggage at the hotel and I had to lug all my books up the mountain with me, most of which are 10 pages from being finished.
100% of the way was a steep incline and 90% of the group wore the wrong shoes. One girl had very bad asthma and our guide who had spent 12 years in the army and smoked alot did a weird acupuncture thing on her, I dont thing she appreciated it but she put up with it anyhow.

The island was very beautiful from the top, I spent most of my time wondering how the lady from NZ can breathe inbetween all that jabbering, and the rest of the time trying to squash a killer bee.
Sam wore his footy jersy and sweated to death, not matter, we were on the decline and before we knew it we were in familliar territory where strangers force you to buy things you do not want. We climbed into our mini bus, the whole 18 of us, somehow we fit, they made us fit.
The NZ lady gabbed all the way back and I wondered if she was going to be sleeping on the Junk tonight.

Lunch was at a fish farm come restaurant at the port. The chunky fish they served us was delishously crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, mmm haddn´t had a nice piece of fresh fish in a while. Carson is allergic to seafood, so more for me.

The rest of afternoon was filled with listening to Modonna songs skipping along to the same verse for 2 hours, to the point where I had to walk up to the fish farmer with my hands over my ears frantically pointing towards the speakers. We taught Carson to play Shithead (which he calls Shitface, very funny) and after that I spent time discovering tiny shards of fibreglass sticking out of the backs of my calves (from the kayaks)
The bus was 3 hours late to take us back to the boat and I was getting bored. Tonight we were going to be sleeping on the boat. The driver finally showed up and he certainly made up for it with hairiest mini bus ride of my life to the other side of the island slightly missing a dog and a small child.

Cat Ba Island remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we borded our Junk and sailed into the floggy haze over Halong Bay.The bay has an errie feeling, a sorta 'priates of the carribean' feel with the hundreds of other Junk boats cruising by.
Halong Bay was just breathtaking, the tourist offices say its 'The jewel of North Vietnam', and everything the guidebooks said it would be.

We never realised just how massive and beautiful Halong Bay is. It seemed never ending. Halong" translates into "where the dragon descends into the sea and there are hundreds of ghostly islands that look like they are floating on top of the calm bay, the edges have eroded away with the tides creating little caves to the otherside. Halong Bay is world heritage listed and now I can see why.

After a relaxing sail, we stopped to admire one of the many limestone caves in the area. The caves have a bumpy mattress effect on the roof where the water had been dripping for many years and there are some very amusing rock formations of a budda, a turtle, jesus and yes, even a penis. (he he)

The afternoon was spent kayaking in these beautiful waters ...The kayaking was it highlight of the day and I'm really anoyed that I have used up all my photo memory because words just cannot describe it.

Our guide asked us if we could swim then sent us out into the waters and told us not to get lost. Meanwhile other professional looking groups with guides and life jackets purposely weaved their way through the islands off to somewhere special. Its just funny really, I´m not complaining, thats the way we like it (tours not for us) We followed the other group some of the way paddling though the floating villages, the water warmish and the weather had cleared. Sam spotted a little cave under a small island and with his excellent steering technique we made it through without bashing the sides. Inside the cave was dark and echoie and the water the most beautiful emerald green. On the other side we were surprised to find a gorgeous secluded beach where we trod on oyster shells, examined a piece of foam stuck in the rock and re-enacted a 'Wilson' sceen. It was so private and I wonder how many 'The Beach' type places exist out here in Halong Bay.

The Junks are all wooden traditional boats with enormous sweeping burnt orange sails. The sleeping berths are along the bottom of the boat, the restuarant on the second level and the open air deck on the 3rd where you just sit back with your beer and watch the thin mist settle on the bay in the lazy afternoon. I rest my legs on the deckchair while enjoying the view. Ahh, if only everyday could be like this …

After visiting the caves the boat churned along towards Cat Ba Island. Suprisingly it took 2 1/2 hours. As we started to sail into choppy waters I spent half of that 2 1/s hours turning blue and resisting chucking over the edge.

Unforgettable Halong Bay remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Old Quarter is very conjested. There are shops just 2 meters wide that have been selling the same produce for 5 generations. Apparently the taxes where so high for shop front that they cut their shops in half. the smaller the width of the shop the smaller the tax. They call them tube houses, they can sometimes be one block deep.

After trekking the city for a beer and a small bite to eat we settled on a small plastic chair place next to the flower markets. No menu and no english and with no Vietnamese and alot of pointing we were served little clams in a lemongrass ginger stock. We were given little side dishes of shrimp salt, fresh chilli, ginger and garlic and tiny limes with the tops cut off. Didn't know we were supposed to squirt the lime into the other spices to make a quick sauce. The chef was quick to show us, everything had to be right. They armed us with plastic gloves, the same ones you use to dye your hair with, and we went mad peeling our bbq'd prawns.

Hanoi is the easiest city to get lost in making it the hardest city to find your way around. Its bloody frustrating, thats what it is! Every street changes its name on every corner, one long street could change its name 5 times and to make thing harder all the street names start with Hung! So, we spent the rest of the night getting lost around the streets before heading home. We found a steamed bun lady, she puts quail eggs inside, thats the shit, but we probably wont remember where she is. Most streets have their own merchandice themes, a shoe street, a jewellery street, a toy street and even a kareoke street. We tried looking for bars recommended in the Roughguide. Cant believe some of their recomendations! Crappy, festy bars where I wouldn't let my dog eat. One was right on the outskirts of town next to the smoggy highway. Yeah, kick back on the balcony and suck in all those fumes!

Its Friday night and the markets are on, I was lucky enough to find a pair of Amarni sunglasses. I tried to barter them down, the guy says "But they're Amarni"......I got them for $4 US. There were heaps of little pokemon type things and jewellery, it was mainly a tourist market and we became bored.

We found a bar overlooking the lake where we had a couple Vodkas. We asked some random guy where there was somewhere good to go for a drink. He turned out to be the owner (opps) anyway, he told to go to 'Salace' nightclub which opens at 1.30 but its a bit of a trip across town, but everyone goes there. It was still only 11.30. I dont know what happened between 11.30 and 1.30 but the next thing I know we are at Solace dancing to OK music put on by a crap DJ. Solace turned out to be a boat moored on the river and has that same tacky feel about it like the pubs on the Thames except for the endless hordes of stag nights. The Vodka was expensive but it was free to get in. I dont know how we survived that long, we were having a great time....5am and we are fanging along on the back of a moto through the desolate city back to our hotel room.

Get lost in Hanoi remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I had to cut my hair with the nail clippers before I came out. I wanted a fringe and it seemed like too much of a hassel to find a hairdressers and try to painfully express to them in my best sigh language exactly what I wanted. So instead, I cut my own fringe with the nail clippers and it was very frustrating but I did a really good job at it. The problem is now, I really dont think I suit a fringe at all, and wish it was the way it was before I had tried to cut it off.

Been seeing a few rats running around late at night. Apparently April is peek month for rat harvesting in the Mekong Delta, when some 2 tonnes of rodants are delievered to Urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City every day. I didn't know about this until I read it in a local magazine at the pub today. I am completely shocked! But its not at all uncommon, in fact, rat meat is almost available in every local restaurant in Siagon and the reccommendation is for it to be cooked in coconut milk. Gee... what have I really been eating all this time???

Flying out of Hue today, flying to Hanoi. Thank god we are not travelling on one of those horrible buses again. Our flight has been delayed, so now we are sitting in a French bakery passing time. We went back to the same restaurant for dinner again last night, we just had to try the deep-fried eel, deep-fried with butter sauce. Sam ate around it avoiding the bones and I just crunched into it, its just like eating prawn tails. I liked the eel. I cant say I noticed any distinct flavour, but thats probably because it was deep-fried and probably because I've only eaten it once. They do the best fried rice there. We ordered some more to take-away and went back to our hotel room to drink Hanoi Vodka with 7-up and watch movies.

I cant say I like Hue all to much. The rain might not help. The clothes are overpriced, restaurants minimal and there are not to many places to drink and when you do find one, its like drinking in my nans kitchen (no offense nan) Overall, its quite an ugly place, not very touristy with not much to do.

Tiger beer and coconut nuts.

Beer and rats remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I try over and over again to convince them that I can walk. That my legs work ok, in fact, I want to walk. I tell them over and over that my hotel is just around the corner and that I am not illiterate, I can read maps just fine. I´ve tried different languages, pretending I dont speak English, putting on a very thick and very bad German accent. I´ve tried ingoring them, staring competitions, and saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, over and over again like Bart Simpson, no matter what they say I just answer them with 'no'. I´ve tried walking into them, sign language and sometimes I even bite my lip and just get on the back of the bike and pay the man some money just so they will leave me the hell alone! (aaaahhhh!!!)
.....But, there is some good news, dont dispair my fellow travellers, as I am about to past on my proven tried and tested best method of ridding you of these tourists sharks.....
Give them a mouthfull of totally incomprehensible gibberish and flap your hands around like a nutter. They tend to back away nevervously and look at you sideways too scared to look you in the eye, you can even get them to start avoiding you if you stay in one place for one enough. You never know, you might have fun doing it.

Today I was not feeling to well though due to lastnights evens I had no energy to use my primo tactics. So today I decided to venture outside in disguise. I pulled on long pants, slipped into a long sleeve jacket and pulled the hood right up over my face and I tucked my 'yellow' hair right in behind my ears. On went the big sunnies and off I went confident, knowing my cover would be a success.....

"Lady, where you go?", "Cheap, cheap", "You go now", "How much you pay?" "Lady, lady!" "Where you from?, Ah, Australia, G'day mate!"

They followed me for the whole block, then when I finally lost'em, more came. I just wanna be invisable, just for one day please!

Almost home..... "Lady, where you go?", "Cheap, cheap", "You go now"

"JUST PISS OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE"

........I couldn't help it, it just came out...

"Alright, thats all you had to say..."

(aahhhhh!)

Aahhhhh, not more moto drivers.... remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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5 minutes on.......

Sam is still perched on the edge of the bed wide-eyed and open-jawed. I suspect he is in a state of shock or something of the sort as he is frantically flicking at the remote over and over again and swearing profusely. Sometimes his eyes gaze over and his face goes blank and occasionally he leers at me with pleading eyes looking for emotional support.
Gosh, I hope he's ok.
So I dont know what we are going to do now. Throwing the telle out of the window isnt an option because then we'd have to pay for it. I really dont think he will ever fully recover, he was already in a sorry state of depression from missing the whole season and now this has damaged his fagile soul even more. Poor thing. He'll just have to pull through.

Today it is stinking hot, I went for a walk to the Japanese Bridge to take some photos and then joined the back of a French tour group into a Chinese Assembly Hall. They were speaking to me French, explaining the details of the architecture, all I could do was nod and occasionally acknowledge them with a 'bien bien'. They started staring at me, I think I blew my cover, I turned beetroot and hightailed it out of there! 'Merci beaucoup¡', 'Au revoir'! I couldn't understand a word of it anyhow!

In the hot stinking afternoon Sam and I ended up taking motos to a beach bar to cool off. We found a place called Zero Seamile, I saw the flyer on the table at a bar I was having a drink at last night. They have an awesome infinity pool and long lazy sunbeds with pull out drink trays that the staff always keep full. Thats the life. They have the sharpest pool table in Vietnam and Sam was cleaning up which meant I was loosing. Tonight they are putting on a bonfire but dont think we will stay, its not that cheap here and they are really stingy with the food. And I mean really stingy.

The beach is pretty in Hoi An, lots and lots of umbrellas and restuarants along the sand. There are ladies walking up and down the beach with baskets of fresh fruit, a girl named 'Song' told me to only by from her, not the others. I didnt see her again.

Life in a sun bed remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Its stinking hot and I´m still on my quest to find the pork steamed bum man, I love those things. I´ve been looking for him since Cambodia. I see little flashes of him every now and then. He rides past playing his pixie music when I have no money on me, or I see him through the window when I'm trapped inside a bus or he is within reaching distance when I am stuffed full of noodles.

Hoi An is a beautiful little town, especially at night, the whole town lights up with lanterns of all different colours over looking the river. Most people go to Hoi An to have clothes and shoes taylor made for a miniscule prices and the skinny little streets are just littered with taylors, one after the other.

We had dinner at a cute little restaurant along the river. Sam ordered the most beautiful duck soup, probably the best soup we have ever tasted. Lots of garlic, broken down rice, duck stock, onion and corriander. I had squid in claypot, they love their claypots over here. So do I.

In Hoi An they have their own traditional local dishes such as 'White rose', its shrimp and pork steamed in rice paper folded into a rose shape then lightly sprinkled with chives and fried shallots and sits in a sweet vinegary sauce. Mmmm

Wish I could add lot more photos but I've used my month quota!

Hoi An remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Chicken feet remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I´m still not used to the currency, thinking 2000 is a worth a small car, not two breadrolls with pork and salad.
Anyhow, I was on a mission. I was on a mission to go out and get 2 plain breadrolls and knowing they tend to charge westerners more I was determined not to get ripped off (again)

I used by best sign language and asked the lady for 2 breadrolls, no salad. Just plain breadrolls.
She said '2000' showing 2 fingers clearly indicacting 2.
'2000!' I said.
'2000' she said.
'2000!' I said.
'yes', '2000' she said.

Sick off all the rip-off´s lately I was furious, 'What a ripoff' I said and stormed off with a 'don't worry about it' up in the air hand gesture.

I later passed on my proud story to Sam expressing my abiltly to sick up for myself,.... he tells me the lady was really only asking for 20c a breadroll! OOpps!

A 2000 dollar breadroll! remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The highlight in Nha Trang was deffinately the snorkelling, seeing all the little Nemos, it wasn´t even cold, and you just have to visit the mudbaths and spend a few hours there being pampered in a completely bizzare way.

Shell soaking in the mud bath.

Sam being sprayed by high pressure natural spring water.

Nha Trang remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we hired bikes and rode all day and all night. We went on a bike bar crawl. Most places have a happy hour that goes for at least 10 hours and double vodkas for just one buck. This suited us fine.

We ended up maggot at the Sailing club, the beachside resort with the sunchairs and umbrellas. The Sailing Club and the Lousianna are both very nice but tend to be full of 'western' men picking up 'non-western' women. Although tradgically but unconsciously we ended up in the other bars like 'Zippos and Crazy Kims' we had more fun, where you have giant sized cocktails, wear stupid hats and dance on the bar.

We made it back to our hotel that night. In the morning our bikes luckily were chained up together. I have a faint recollection of Sam having a collision with a moto on the highway in the early hours, causing a awkward smash into the gutter,..... but you'll have to ask him about that......

Rooms for $5! remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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This morning I´m keeping in out of the sun, I've been burnt real bad and now look like a diseased patchy dog. My skin has blistered and there was some puss and then eventually it peeled off in big long strips. Nice I know.

So now we are in Nha Trang. I like this place. It has a lot of cheap hotels and heaps of restaurants with fresh seafood, lots of bars and a large stretch of white sandy beach.

The bus was supposed to take 5 hours from Mui Ne. It took 7. It was shit. And I'm not surprised.
I mean,... if the Vietnamese are advanced enough to have roads, buses, cars and bikes...., then you would think they could at least implement some simple road rules.

No,

instead they sit on the horn for 7 hours!!!!!!!, AND I'M NOT KIDDING ONE BIT!

They literally sit on the horn the entire time they drive. It is hell on earth. The most f@#k'd up method of transport on the entire planet and I have never before experienced such mental and physical pain over one long period of time before in my life.

So after being squashed into the Asian sized seats and my earballs being repeatively tortured by the horn, I then have to put up with the Vietnamese way of speed control. No, its not speed cameras, not police or round abouts.....
They flatten out and tar their roads like everybody else in the world, but get this.... they then corrigate them up again! Just like the freaking Nerriga road! Why bother taring them in the first place!
Leave it bumpy if you dont want us going fast, it dont slow anybody down anyhow!...

In the end, its on my 'Never to do again list' Enduring a thumping horn headache, my poor sweating body hating the warm air-conditioner and my painfull bladder almost bursting because I'm being jarred to the point where it jolts everything out of my pockets and grinds my teeth together. I've been driven to the point of insanity and I´m justabout to kill someone with a blunt spoon. Its no way to travel I tell ya. Take the boat if you can. Thank god for those plastic spoons they give you on the airplanes.

Moving on... remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We found another good and cheap local restaurant today, and even though the husband and wife owners have intense screaming matches in the kitchen out back, we still really like it. I call it the 'blue-plastic-chair-place' . It doesn´t mean we are ditching the 'red-plastic-chair-place', we still love the red-plastic-chair-place.

The blue-plastic-chair-place is cheaper than the red-plastic-chair-place, although its pretty much the same except it has blue plastic chairs instead of red ones and it not right on the beach like the red-plactic-chair-place.

The lady that runs it (the blue-plastic-chair-place) waves her hands at everyone getting off the buses across the street going into the resorts. It does no good. She has bad teeth but thats ok, we are going back for dinner tonight. For lunch today it only cost us $5! Five bucks!
Five bucks for fried noodles with veggies and fish in claypot, steamed rice, lemonade, watermelon juice and a very yummy thick and tastey mango shake. How good that eh?

Things that make us smile about Mui Ne

- The beach, its just beautiful here. In the afternoons we wait for the tide to go down to go for a walk otherwise the waves crash right up against the breakwall of our resort.

- Our resort, the umbrellas, the lazy sunbeds and the pool

- The friendly locals at the grocery store down the street

- The NZ gelato, it's everywhere, I haven't had any yet, but I know it will be good. 28 flavours.

- Cheap bananas and mangoes

- No postcard hawlkers in Mui Ne

Things that dont make me smile about Mui Ne

- Overpriced thongs, I mean $42 for reefs! please!

- Our resort restaurant, not only do they serve shit food, but they trick you into thinking you have free breakfasts and then slowly start charging you for them.

- The stinking red brick shack half way down the street. What is it!? It f"@k'n stinks!! What is it!!??

- The moto guys asking you one hundred and seventy two times a day at least, if you would like a ride down to the other side of the beach which looks exactly the same as the side of the beach we are on.

- The padantic Canadian in the room next door who tacks away at his lap top all day and night and orders coconuts and coffee for breakfast and just has to watch the sunset everyday or he will die. Get out of his way.

- The unbelievably stupid TV channels with repeats of the making of American golf courses.

Just lazing about.... remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Yesterday Sam got a really bad haircut from the local Mui Ne barber who sported a very bad haircut himself. At first I really freaked out, it looked as though Sam was going to be running around with an awesome flat top for the rest of the day, but after much fussing and reassurance from the anonymous heads poking through the windowless hole in the wall. ....and after more trimming, more razoring, more brushing, the barber finally tamed down the top and pulled out his scarey looking flip blade. As I heard the razor scrape down on dry skin I flinched slightly at the thought of Sam loosing his head in the flick of a hand movement. At this point we were both thinking we would be happy with the job, no matter what it looks like, just pay the man and get out of there!

So Sam now looks like he is joining the army. We both keep trying to convince ourselves that it looks ok, smoothing it down with some water every now and then...

We have hit the a record level of laziness. We have been so lazy lately, we get out of bed at 3 in the arvo. It´s just so hard to walk out to the pool (right outside our door) and the biggest decisions we have to make are if we should play cards first or go for a swim first. I have slowly been learning to sleep in the middle of the day.
We are so lazy that we get so tired and we are so lazy that last night we were in bed by 7.30. Thats lazy.

Pic taken on our afternoon cruise along Mui Ne beach.

Me using the local kids swing hanging from a coconut tree.

Last night I was rudely awaken by being repeatively biten on my head by an anonymous abusive creature. My eye puffed out to double its normal size and I had an engorged forehead. I franically searched around for giant mozzies or bull ants, whatever it was, it had to be enormous! Then the swelling puffed out to massive proportions and I started to panic (aahhh!!!)... What are the doctors like in Vietnam?, How do I tell them this is not what I really look like, and how far are they from Mui Ne beach?
And then I had thoughts of staying like this forever! What if it never goes down! After desperate attemps, I couldn´t find the bitee and have come to the conclusion that it must be a strange and very rare Vietnamese microscopic bug with great face swelling properties.

............By morning my face was back to normal.

Bad Haircut remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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In Vietnam when you order entrees, they always come out with mains, and mains always come out in two halves. I dont like this restaurant, they dont have any tofu and we are not eating here again, only for the free breakfasts. And then only the noodles or the pancakes because you only get one egg when you order eggs.

Sam is very seedy today. We drank the bottle of vodka last night and played cards. We had a fight which resulted in Sam spitting toothpaste in my eye and me pulling his hair and kicking his sunburn. It wasn't funny last night but it is now.

We spent most of the day in bed but eventually we got hungry and had to do a food run. We walked down to the street shop and bought what they would probably sell in one week, we bought in one pop. We ended up with chocy milks and plastic wrapped sausages that tasted like catfood and prawn crackers and lots of other random unidentified foodstuffs.

We ate our sandwiches under the umbrellas and went for a swim and then an old man from Canada came over to talk to us and stared at my tits the hole time.
Tonight we are having dinner at the red plastic chair place because we know the food is good. I hope they have fish coconut curyy because thats what i want. Give it to me. I want it now.

Sam is sleeping again and I am watching the garden guy hose the chickens. Theres not much to do around here but thats ok with me.

my sandwich

I'm never drinking again! remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Vietnamese people are professional loiters. They casually make it their sole purpose in life to do absoluely nothing at every given chance.

And I like it.

90% of the people pick their nose in public and 100% of them have no problem with it. 9 times out of 10 they will try to sell you something and mostly it's of absolute no interest to you, like a pair of scizzors when you are about to travel through 5 of the most top security airports in the world.
They will sell you lighters, sunglasses, crappy bracelets, earbuds, anything! And if you want something they dont have, they will find someone who does and they will sell it to you. Most often they will try to sell you a trip on their bike and when they are not selling you a trip on their bike they are most likely sitting on it, loitering and picking their nose.

Yeah, they do some odd things, as I´m writting this a women walked into the ocean in her pajamas. I would normally put an exclaimation point at the end of a sentence like that, but this time I didn´t because I´m not really suprised, things like that happen all the time in Vietnam and I am becoming immune to it. Who knows, by the end of this holiday I might be walking into the ocean in my pajamas without even giving it a second thought.

I do love their honesty towards life, I mean, 'who cares if someone is watching, who cares if I have two different shoes on and I´m eating my dinner in a very very tiny plastic chair next to the gutter in a thick cloud of bus smog. Who cares if I sit in the middle of the footpath and I pick my feet, eat my noodles and then try to sell you pineapples, who cares!!!'

just hanging around

Strange Vietnamese observations remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We have spent the last two days living on buses (grrrrr)but now we are finally at the lovely Mui Ne. Mui Ne is a long stretch of beach filled with expensive resorts priced right up to $300 per night or even more. We found a cosy little resort further up the beach, it's right on the water and has a restaurant, a pool, and lots of places to laze about. Mui Ne is on the south east tip of Vietnam, it gets quite breezy after 11am and the place swams with wind surfers and kite surfers. There are massive burnt orange sand dunes at either end of the beach that you can fly down on a piece of cardboard

Today I had a banana and condensed milk pancake for breakfast and Sam some noodles with egg. We spent the morning soaking up the sun, jumping in and out of the pool and reading our books under the thatched umbrellas. This is my sorts holiday.
In the middle of the day we went for a walk to the other end of the beach. It didn´t look that long from here. By the time we reached the southern end we were absolutely roasting. Our skin was red raw!
We bumped into another Aussie along the beach who told us the restaurant with the red plastic chairs in the sand was the place to eat. So we gave it a go. The springrolls were so yummy and they have cheap bottled tiger.
By now I was stinging to get back in the pool and we hopped on the back of a couple of motos to take us home. We stopped to buy some Vodka and I burnt my leg on the exhaust pipe. Ouch!

Minh Tam Resort

Now I'm sitting by the pool nursing my full body burns, I´m lobster red from top to bottom, beetroot Shell!

THE BEACH remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We've been sitting on the balcony watching the sun go down, our mission tonight is to find the cheapest restaurant in town cause we spent all our money on those temples! We ate a $2 Panang curry which has been the cheapest and best yet, we had Phat Thai, that's right Phat Thai, not Padd Thai, I guess it's the same thing and a really yummy Cambodian oily fried rice, it had egg, sausage, spinach, shallots, bok choy and cabbage. Yum!

Life is cheap remains copyright of the author shellieb, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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