Happy New Year

It's finally here and this year and we are celebrating in a different way. We will be somewhere over the Timon Sea when the clock strikes 12. This was not our original plan as we had some visa issues keeping us here until now but Celia & I will ensure we have a glass of champagne (or the cheap stuff) in our hands toasting you all.

We have had a great 4 days with the lovely Tim and he has been more than hospitable as always. Taking us to all the great bars near his house drinking asahi, massive pints of Hoegaarden and my favourite Sam Adams. Sadly i think this will be the last time we visit Singapore for a while so it is a bit of a double whammy. You can't beat a warm 27 deg all year round with good food and great shopping.

Hope you all have a fantastic evening wherever the party leads you.

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Phuket - hell on earth

Christmas day was not as I had expected it would be, but Celia & I were together, enjoying another day on our awesome trip, so not all so bad.

We had to catch a flight from Phuket to Singapore which left early in the morning so sadly we had to be in Phuket the evening before. If the ferry ride was unbelievable, what awaited us was even worse. Granted we did go to the worst part of Phuket, Patong Beach, as we wanted to stock up on some good cheap clothes and possibly a movie or two, but oh my word, I beg you to give it a miss on your next trip in Thailand.

The streets by day are mostly empty (in comparison) as most of the seedy bars have closed but when the sun sets as in some kind of zombie movie all the lady boys and sex tourists come out to play. The bars are steaming with loud music, men with boobs / woman, gyrating around street side stripper poles. This seems to go on all night as when i woke up in the morning to get a taxi the bars were still serving and i was still getting propositioned by men / momen - not sure...

Couldn't wait to get back to our happy place, the lovely Singapore!!

Feliz Natal from Ko Lanta

Firstly don't get confused as my last blog entry was about a month ago, but as you can see by this amazing beach and sunshine its really tough to seat myself in front of a PC when the prefect day is passing me by outside.

Well its finally here again for another year and it is a really strange day for us. Once again Christmas without our families and its our last day with all our great friends we have made in Thailand as we are leaving for Phuket and off to Singapore the following day, so excuse me if i sound like i am on the verge of getting a little choked up.

I built a little Christmas tree today out of branches and Celia is about to go into town so we can get some decorations for it. Ko Lanta in Thailand has been a fantastic and really memorable place for us. Celias birthday was fantastic, then our German friends proposed to get married and today Christmas eve.

Love and miss all of very much like you cannot believe and have a very merry Christmas, feliz Natal, and frohes Weinachten.

Heres a couple more pics if you would like to check them out

Lets get Narc'ed

So over the next two days we had four great dives, King Cruiser ship wreck, Hind Daeng, Hin Maoung and Phi Phi Lay.. Best diving i have done in my whole life (I have now done 10 dives) and one of the most jaw dropping moments was not the magnificent Manta Rays or various species of sharks we saw, but when we dropped down to the sea bed at 30m and stared right at this ship wreck. Its amazing to see such a large structure ahead of you in the water, hard to describe unless you have been there yourself.

I'm hooked now and realyl lookiing forward to dive in Australia at the great barrier reef.

Sadly we never experienced toxic narcosis at 30m from having too much nitrogen in our system, i was looking forward to a little disorientated and a drunk. Guess i'll have to save that for the bar this evening.

Diving good, food good

The diving on day one was fantastic, unfortunately we had to do some exercises for our advanced diver qualification which limited our time to see fish. Sadly for Celia Koh Ha is a great place to see turtles but we were underwater practising our bouyancy (yawn) so no turtles for us.

The food on the boat was superb. Great breakfasts, good lunch between dives and fruit at the end of the day on our way back to Ko Lanta. Diving makes you unusually hungry as you dont think you are actually doing any work because it is so relaxing, but you come up with a devilish hunger.

I went for a run after the dive in the evening and it was my first since Hong Kong. I'm dreading how i'll feel tomorrow, need to keep this up or the amount we have been drinking and eating here in Ko Lanta with ze Germans and Swedes.

One of the guys that works at Suza, is this Thai guy called Rin. Every evening he goes fishing with my hand line on the beach and manages to bring back some crab or tiny fish. I usually just attempt to fish with him and catch nothing. I'm sure he's thinking, dumb tourist...

Job done: Great Success!!

That evening when we went to sleep not only was I itching from the killer mozzies that devoured me a couple weeks ago, but I was itching to finish this damn deck. I did get up before eight the following morning and by the time everyone arrived for breakfast i was halfway to finishing it.

Jay and I managed to finish our master design by midday and admired it for the next hour or so. Sadly Celia & I had to go into town to book our diving course so the deck will have to be confined to memory.

Bin Saladan is the only town in Ko Lanta and has many great shops with good knock offs and i so wanted to get myself a Breitling or Tag Heuer watch but we had to spend our hard earned money on the diving course which was fine with me. I'm super excited because we are going on a wreck dive and going to this underwater pinnacle called Hin Daeng which is meant to be one of the best dive sites in the Andaman sea. Our friends were all pretty sad because we would be away from them for three days, not too sure what they are going to do without us really?

Had another great meal at Suza hut in the evening. I have now only had a third of the great selection of Thai curries on the menu. Best food I have had in Thailand bar none. I go to sleep content.

Men at work

We arrive at Suza Hut in the morning, if you didn't know by now we spend at least 10 hours of the day there as well as most meals, and they are building a deck in front on the bar. I ignored them for a while and let them get on with it but my fingers were starting to itch and soon I was investigating what was going on. They were doing okay, but my many years of carpentry were telling me they could do a little better so i started throwing in a few suggestions. I'm sure they hated it though, but were doing what i suggested. You see they needed more support under the main beams, this was killing me so i took the tools myself. Jay (Johan) walks past and he's no slouch with the hammer either as he's busy remodeling his house and together we have in the space of twenty minutes taken over the show and the rest are just watching. Marco warns us that he has two left hands and it would be dangerous for him to help, so we assign him the knife and fork work like sawing and hammering while the two big boss boys do all the thinking. This was a great idea as after 10 minutes of digging in the sand for the supports and i had a blister on my thumb. What a pansy!

Within no time we had the base boards all nailed down and were busy formulating a plan to build back supports. I was naturally trying to make it as complicated as possible and my design was taking considerably longer to build than I imagined. It was not aided by the drill that kept dying on us due to a dodgy internal connection. The rain timed it perfectly as the wind had finally left our sails and we could call it quits for the evening and blame it on something else. Our job, half done.

Let's get a drink!!

New Friends

Day two in Koh Lanta arrives and we have made new friends. We met the new Team Sweden, Johan & Linda. They are an awesome couple and Johan does a great Borat impression, so him and I start speaking in our best Kazakh, great success!

Its a pretty lazy day as everyone is suffering the effects of last nights party except me of course as I am still made of steel and under 30, so.. indestructible.

The only thing to note that day was I had to rescue ze Germans from the cockroaches in their room. They had now moved into the same resort as us and had a bit of an infestation in their closet (they were moving back out). I learned that they lay thousands of eggs when they are killed too (cockroaches - not Germans), well due to me tens of thousands of cockroaches were given life that evening. I believe that to be very noble... Noe?

Happy Börsday Strelitzia

So we arrived in Ko Lanta and after a bit of a struggle and a refund managed to get a room at the 'Sea Pearl Bungalows' which are right next to our dinner venue at the 'Suza Hut'. We had a veeerrry relaxing afternoon. I did a bit of a reconnaissance mission to see what was happening up and down the beach and Celia got some rest, I'll allow her cause its her birthday. She's now feeling loads better and excited about the evenings festivities.

Dinner time arrived and we are sitting at Suza Hut waiting for ze Germans but they were late. Can you not see the issue already. Germans are never late so we knew something was amis. Can you believe they arrived over 15 min late, if that had happened in Germany you would have gotten a black stamp in your passport and 3 points on your drivers license. Turns out they were so delayed on the ferries that they had to beg their way on private transport to be there at that time. Well done, you have done your nation proud.

The staff and owners at Suza hut recognized ze Germans at once and i never realized that they had been there so often. Great news for us as our fantastic dinners were followed by a complimentary birthday cake. Good start to the evening. The wine and beers were flowing well at this point and we needed another couple to get over the size of the bill, yes - even in Thai Baht. We went to the beach bar a short walk down the beach, I think it was called Funk Fish and the girls tucked into a few cocktails. Marco introduced me to my first bucket in Thailand which consists of a bottle of their locally brewed rum Sangsom, loads of ice, a bit of Coke and a Red Bull. After two of these its generally time to go to bed or take off your shorts and shirt and jump in the ocean. We all chose the latter. It was loads of fun because as well as being naked in the sea (always fun), the plankton shimmers and shines when you disturb it in the water which makes for minutes of endless fun when you are feeling mellow due to the effects of over celebration (is there such a thing).

Time for bed!

Bon Voyage Ko Tao

We decided to skip the sea sickness causing ferry and caught the overnight car ferry to Surrathani as we were heading onwards for Rai Leh beach. Little did i know that this would be a disappointing day.

We caught a longtail boat to Rai Leh beach which as the postcards depict, present you with absolutely breathtaking views. I dunno what is was, I think I was just "travelled out", but the limestone cliffs emerging from the aquamarine sea, looked like just another beach to me and equaled another picture on the camera.

Off the boat and we needed to get some accommodation but the east side, the affordable side is so run down and literally smells. We did eventually find a room that was nice and affordable but was not ready and we could only get it in a half hour. We went over to West Rai Leh and it is spectacular, really a pity there are only 5 star resorts on that side, i suppose they try keep the rubbish like me off there.

We got back to our hotel and they told us it was full for the night, i stood there in shock, as we had just gone off, left our bags with them and now they had give our rooms to someone else. This was a blessing in disguise as now we could get the hell off the island. We'll leave the sandstone cliffs and world renowned rock climbing to someone else. We had the next day to look forward to as it is Celias birthday on the 15th and ze Germans we met in Cambodia, Marco and Sonia, are meeting us in Ko Lanta to celebrate.

All done

So with the final dives come and gone, test passed and a PADI open water dive card in the pocket, i was ready to tackle the graduation party. Not quite - on this final day of the course i had woken up up with some sort of vicious fever and a terrible stomach which plagued me throughout my dives. Too scared to let one out or i might fill my wetsuit, i had to press on (for search of a better word), but that night my drinking shoes were not polished and I faded after just a few quiet Changs.

One thing they did on our last day was film our dives and package it all up for us so we could one day bore our friends and relatives with the experience. Its fun watching the whole thing underwater, but not so much when you see yourself still learning how to dive and flapping your arms around violently when you should be looking pretty graceful

Tonight our chef was so wasted on something. Don't know if it was the the local weed or local rum, but he had no idea. I had to ask him many times to put my food on the grill as during the walk from it to the fish tray he would forget that he had spoken to me. Naturally he burnt everything as all time frames were completely lost in his mind. It was hilarious to watch though.

Celia and I booked out of our dodgy free room at the dive school and into a cabin on the rocks in Shark Bay. It was fantastic and we relaxed there all day the night after with the sound of the waves at our feet. Pure paradise. Sadly we did not see any sharks in Shark bay but then there we're no turtles on Turtle island either...

So far so good

We have done 2 days of open water diving now and I'm loving it, although this "vis" (visibility), you see i am getting into this diving lingo, has not been so good, there is still much to see underwater. So far we've seen loads of varieties of fish, but one of my favorite things to see are the Christmas tree worms which recoil as you swim by. To experience weightlessness once you have mastered your buoyancy is another art which when practices correctly gives much joy.

Tomorrow will be our final dive and along with our test, will be a good end to these lazy days. Celia is still a bit under the weather, but i have been making her get out of the room and guzzle down some food and electrolyte.

Being out on the dive boats is great fun, getting your gear prepared, munching on the unlimited supply of yummy biscuits, slowly descending into the water, this all still makes me smile as i write this and can't wait to dive again. Unfortunately you do run out of air at some time and can't always stay under water :( Gotto practise my underwater breathing. I'm sucking air at the same speed I drink beer.

Back to school

Everyone who has done their Open Water dive course knows that some days are boring to say the least. Reading text books and watching videos in class, we unfortunately had such a morning. We were were also introduced to all our dive buddies and instructors. Jasper the Dane was our instructor and due to years of practice knows all the jokes and tricks in the book. Very funny for us but how boring it must be for him to recite those old gags year after year.

That afternoon we packed on our dive gear and tried breathing with scuba gear for the first time. A great experience even if it was only in 4 feet of water. We even did the feared 'clearing your mask underwater' which is so simple but often manages to go wrong somehow. We also had to tread water for 10 minutes as part of the course training which is bloody tough after a good lunch. Remember what your mom always said, " don't swim for an hour and a half after lunch". Cannot wait until tomorrow when we get to dive in the sea for the first time!

Ran into some more Dutchies, many Swedes, ze Germans and some Spaniards. Got chatting to the one of the Spaniards who is on his way to SA in May, so I think we will definitely catch up with him then. Good humour followed as usual and in the short time I realised this Valencian is a really nice guy and I will enjoy many good beers with him even if he does sound like Enrique Eglesias.

Another great fish barbecue went on that evening and some good beers with our new friends. We stayed up till some hour as roll call was only at noon. Richard the Kiwi, Team Spain and Thomas my dive buddy were left to the end as Celia's mysterious illness drew her back to bed before the rest of us were done. Miguel (Enrique Eglesias) popped up with a pearler that I "drink with a good rhythm". The Latinos do have a way of putting it sometimes, and he is right, i too have a tendency to gulp down my beers, and why not? No one enjoys a warm beer do they?

Navy diver here we come

So Celia seems to have picked up something in Cambodia and is bed ridden, this sucks as I have to go exploring on my own because you all know I cant sit still for a minute. I forget that i am not in Kansas anymore and the sun here on the islands in Thailand is unbelievably hot and a swim in Shark bay was on the cards to rejuvenate my sizzling skin. Ko Tao seems to be a beautiful place with many pristine bays, all with resorts kitted out for diving.

Enough walking now, I headed back home for a cold Chang and wait for the barbecue that Buddha View dive resort put on every evening. The food really is fantastic. Many different types of fish and meat or Thai specialties all cooked to perfection.

Tomorrow, dive course.

Outbreak

After the overnight bus to Chumpon where i was devoured my killer mozzies, jeeeeeesssshhhh the bites are irritating me, we had to hop on this ferry to Ko Tao which was the most unbelievable trip ever. Rough seas and high winds make for green faces. After about an hour of rocking up and down on the bow, Celia and I decided to see if it would be less volatile at the stern. No chance. The people we saw there looked like they were straight from the set of a zombie movie or Outbreak 3: The virus takes Thailand. I have never seen such a collection of green faces in my life. By now the crew had begun handing out sick bags which were filled to the brim... yeach.

The key to my success, praying my hardest and staring at the horizon. This fortunately worked and 5 minutes prior to getting there i went to fetch Celia inside from the morgue. On my way i bumped into Richard, an old friend from our horror bus trip to Bangkok, he's and old hand at ferries so no illness there either. The faces of the other passengers were lime green though, about 90% sea sickness success rate. Next time we take the overnight ferry. I'll write that down.

Two nights in Bangkok

So Bangkok is not that offensive. After hearing such bad reports, i had awful visions of the place, but Celia and I really enjoyed it. Key is to not stay on Kao San Road unless you would like to easy access to great fake clothes, a press pass, NY State drivers license or any other qualification you seek, the Thai's have copied it. Incredible....

The road side food just off Kao San road is some of the best we have eaten in a while and full of healthy foreigners so we know it must be vaguely safe to eat. The vibe there is unbeatable and the banter between the cooks and the guests makes it quite special. Although their addition often leaves something to be desired, always erring in their favour, you still have to love them.

Finally i got to go to the floating market i had been hoping to see since Vietnam. I knew it would be overrun with tourists but it was still great to see the images that have ordained postcards for years and with a couple days work on photoshop, my pictures will look exactly the same. Celia was not feeling well so I went myself and had a great time people watching, eating some noodle soup on the banks of the river and generally having some good alone time. We had an option of going to see the Cobra show on the way back which included showing how they retrieve the venon (interresting) and a man who catches 3 cobras - one with each hand and one with the mouth... ridiculous. That was my queue. I'll leave that one to those who enjoy those types of sensational money grabbing techniques while i go back and watch some Orangutan boxing.

Our transport to and back from the market was via longtail boat which is hilarious. I do have a couple pics. These small little wooden boats mostly have reused car engines on them, sometimes up to 1600cc. I was canning myself as they screamed by.. what next.

One of the main objectives of Thailand was me getting my PADI dive qualification. So off to Ko Tao where the cheapest dive schools exist. They even throw in accommodation for every night that you are on the course. Great success!! Unfortunately this involved being scammed by the tourist agengy again.. Getting tired of this... But we got it booked at the 11th hour and were ready for the overnight bus trip which now do not phase me anymore. Before this trip if i had to travel longer than 2 hours you would see me start to sulk, but 11 hours is more than acceptable. Shup

Confucious say, man who walk through airport door sideways

So last night we had to introduce the Germans to the Von Trap family. Can you believe it, never heard of the "Sound of Music". Celia and I were singing it up at the top of our lungs with ze Germans staring at us like we were crazy. The hills are aliiiiiiiiiiivvve with the sound of Lehmannnnnnnnnnnns.

We we're finally on our way to Thailand, great as this may seem, it was unfortunately time to say goodbye to some great friends we made.

Wait one sec.. just imagine some great music montage (prob. Barry Manilow - Trying to get that feeling again) going on in the background ala "Friends" with all our magic moments together rolling over in background.

Got the mood..?

Marco & Sonia were off to Laos, Isabella and Heindrick to Perth, The Dutchies off to Aus and more of Cambodia and Simon & Sarah the English couple now off to ... not sure.

We jumped on the 10h bus trip which as i found out later was actually called the "Siem Riep to Bangkok bus scam". Aptly named as the drivers stretch a 6h trip into about 15 hours so that when you get to your destination you are so exhausted and it's so late that you end up booking into the guest house they drop you off in front of. They end up with the commission, so great success for them. Unfortunately this time the drivers were as tired as us and we just ended up finding our own spot to stay for the night.

Exhausted, we headed straight to bed. A little disappointed we missed the Kings birthday celebrations though. He's is the longest serving monarch in the world and is very loved by all the Thai people.

Good night

Before i forget

One night in Hoi An we(kiwis, aussies, saffers and a couple germans) spent the evening at our hotel bar sharpening up our pool skills. The poor barman was trying for hours to get rid of us as it was way past closing time but was so polite that he kept seving us drinks. He got his point across when he brought out his mattress which he uses to sleep on behind the bar. Drinks done.

Celia decided the evening was not yet done had another skinny dipping session jumping from the balcony into our pool. I had to keep watch while the man at reception had his back turned. When he heard the splash he came running but Celia was already gone and in the shower. Portugeezer

The Temples of Angkor

We travelled to Siem Riep in the morning and arrived at our guesthouse along with ze Germans. We would all be touring the Wat together. Now you ask Wat i am talking about. This is my latest attempt at cheap humour as I neve meant 'what' only that a 'Wat' is a temple in Cambodia/Thailand etc.

We took a trip up to the temples, Wat temple you ask? Well i do not know - there are so many (you see what i did there) . Spent sunset on the first evening on top of one trying to get a decent pic for the millions of tourists, everone with a camera fancier thatn the next. I tell you cameras are bragging rights theses days, its so ridiculous, most people do not even know how to use any of the features, nevermind the manual focus...

Oh yes. That evening i say a horrific bike accident in which a bike with 2 passengers sans helmets hit a car head on. It was horrific, i had to stop and help as everyone was just driving by, i will not go into details, but needless to say i will bot be hiring a bike in Cambodia.

The following day we tried our best to do all the majot temples in Angkor in a day. Many said it could not be done, but after spending 2 weeks in Egypt looking at them, don't aske me what any are called, this is the only way i would want to do it.

The day was great and we saw just enough for me to remember what they are all called.. bonus! I really did like Ta Prohm where they filmed Tomb Raider. This temple has roots growing all over the walls, but not mini ones, big ass roots. Its fairly magical to see and makes you realise how old these structures are.
Picture of team Angkor at Ta Prohm. From left to right. Heindrick, Isabella, Dieter, Celia, Sonia, Marco

The afternoon that followed

We headed from the shooting range, my mind still going a million miles an hour and off to the killing fields (Choeung Ek). Let me first give you a short history lesson.

The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Communist regime Khmer Rouge, which had ruled the country since 1975. The massacres ended in 1979, when Communist Vietnam invaded the country, which at that time was officially called Democratic Kampuchea , and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime. Estimates of the number of dead range from 1.7 to 2.3 million out of a population of around 7 million.

(I did not steal that from Wikipedia)

The 25 min we spent there was quite chilling as the guide explained to us where and how everything on the site unfolded. The pits where the bodies were buried are still visible as is the lake where many more uncovered bodies still lay. The have built this shrine in the center of the site which houses 100's of skulls they have dug up. The majority of these contain cracks from being struck with blunt objects or axes. They used this method as they did not want to waste bullets.

Many say the regime of Pol Pot was more worse than that of Adolf Hitler as he use more torture. I say they were both silly.

We went from here to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21)

(again - no Wikipedia)

When we were in Lithuania for the second best wedding of the year we went to see the KGB prison that is there and this has a very similar feel to it. Many torture chambers, horrendous living conditions, no cable and a horrible atmosphere.

Walking through there you can hear a pin drop, and everyones mind is working overtime as they read the testimonies of the guards and other people that survived the atrocities.

There was prisoner during this time that did not get executed and he has painted what he witnessed of the atrocities. These pictures are hanging throughout the cells and are extremely gruesome.

I could not wait to get out of there and meet up with old friends (a whole 3 days now) and have a cold cold beer. What a day!!

A taste of Russia

So over breakfast we organised our days activities. Visit S21 prison, the Killing Fields, and due to my morbid curiosity, a shooting range to fire the 'Avtomat Kalashnikova' 47. I was not prepared.

We got to the shooting range and the guy explained how the gun works and that the majority of these guns are reclaimed from the war in Cambodia. They also had Rocket Propelled Grenades, anti aircraft guns, tommy guns, uzzy, M-16 and AK-57's. Again... unbelievable. I went to shoot, dressed in my camo overalls and sporting my gun, i had 25 rounds. They took the longest time, first on single shot, but with a break between each shot to wipe the sweat and then we put it on automatic. I quickly got rid of the rest of the bullets. I was glad when i heard the final empty click.

It might sound a bit soft but this was not a happy experience, i really wanted to feel what it means to shoot this gun as it has caused so many deaths worldwide and is the favoured weapon in guerilla warefare.

Ticked that box. Done.

Delta dawn

Well the sunrise that awaited us on the morning of our trip was amazing. We had not yet seen a great sunrise and i think this one would be hard to beat. The floating market we were about to visit on the other hand was nothing like i imagined or had seen in the postcards. Another disappointment.

The day had just begun and we had a long boat journey ahead to get to Phnom Penh. We stopped off at a fishing village which was quite interesting as the whole house (which floats on water)  has cages underneath full of ravenous fish which they feed multiple times a day (i was great at feeding them too).  

The border crossing into Cambodia was a good laugh, we did all our Vietnamese exiting stuff and were queueing up for our entry stamps in Cambodia when the chap at the counter stops Celia and asks her with a serious look on his face if this was her in the picture. I realised what had happened and cracked up laughing, Celia had given him my passport and he thought she was a lady boy post sex change. In stitches.

We arrived a good hour and a bit out of Phnom Penh and the bus was there to pick us up as arranged. Here we go.. After about 45 min driving on the worst roads i have ever, ever been on. I mean we were hitting our heads on the bus roof after some of the bumps we went over to bus trickled to a halt on the side of the road. All amazed, but not surprised,  by what was going on we calmly got out and started taking pictures of the locals who were just as interested in us. Word came though after the bus drivers boss handed one of us the phone to ask us if we could loan the driver money for petrol. I know.. unbelievable. After we all refused as we knew he had money on him somewhere, he went to get petrol on the back of someones bike. We were on on our way again but no sooner had we picked up speed than the bus ground to a halt again. This time it was serious, possibly terminal. They tried in vain to resuscitate it, but no luck. We got in one more time but it again splattered to a halt.

We had had enough as night was falling and no one had any accommodation booked. We decided to seek alternate modes of transport. I put my head torch on flashing mode and hoped a car would stop. Some of us managed to flag down a double cab, others got in another bus but us, the lucky ones, flagged down a motor bike propelled proper local cart with some planks on the top that we could sit on. We negotiated the price to around 10US and headed the 20km into town. Quick point - in Cambodia nobody used their own currency as it is worthless so the dollar has basically been adopted. We arrived in town to rousing applause similar to the queen when she arrives in her gold gilded horse card. Ours was not gold but i still managed to give my best wave when required.

We eventually found a guest house and who happened to be there? The dirty Germans and the cheap Dutch (only joking) so all the crew were together once again by complete chance after going our separate ways after the bus disaster 

Mekong Delta

Well we booked a overnight stay on a houseboat cruising from near HCMC in Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia which turned out to be another great scam, but no major loss so we fought bravely on.

There more disapointments on this trip than i'd like to mention but we did manage to do a couple really cool things on the first day. At one time we got dropped off on this island and the rowed us to our destination on these really diny vietnamese rowing boats through narrow canals. We learnt how to make their local type of pancakes (Gordon Ramsay watch out - i was amazing), pop rice (like popcorn) and other local confectionery. 

At one point we took these bikes to cycle round the island and one of the guides, mesmerised by my size jumped on a bike with us and kept saying "who win, who win". I finally gathered that he wanted to race so the two of us were going hell for leather on these really old Vietnamese bikes where i felt something could break off at any time, but I'm glad to say that "I win, I win". These Asians are not built for cycling, i could have told him that and saved him the calories. 

When we eventually got onto our overnight boat, after another bulls@#t story about it breaking down so we had to jump in another bus for an hour to get to it, it was working fine. Unbelievable.

I managed to meet a great bunch of guys over some beers after dinner and we got chatting as usual about our forthcoming travel plans. There happened to be some Germans and some Dutch which was the standard mix in Asia, little did i know that we would spend many more days with this lot which made our evenings loads of fun.