Laos...Into the 4000 Islands

Travel

We used AVT to take us from Stung Treng (nearest town to the eco village) to Don Det. It cost $14 and included the bus, boarder crossing and the boat. The boarder crossing was smooth but be prepared to pay all of the official bribes if you want to enter laos. Ours was $2 to Cambodian police to stamp us out. $1 processing fee for visa and $2 for them to stamp our laos visa.

We hadn't planned to visit Don Det but after hearing good things from other travellers we decided to take a trip there. We only stayed 2 nights so it was short and sweet.

We spent most of our time there relaxing in a hammock or meandering around.  There are lots of restaurants, bars and cafes. All selling cheap alcohol and lots of 'happy' shakes / cookies / hooka pipes. So there were lots of very relaxed people around!

We spent our 2 nights in 'oi sunset bungalows'. They were 50,000 a night with your own bathroom and veranda. The restaurant there was lovely and had great views of the Mekong.

Most of the prices on the island are set and there are no atm's so its important to be prepared and take enough cash!

Don't expect a mind-blowing meal on the island, the food is perfectly fine but nothing special and you don't have too much of a choice! We had western food at Adam's (massive portions) an indian at Jasmin's (slow service but tasty) and Laos food at Kea's Backpackers Paradise Restaurant/bar (small place and great service).
Lots of people rent bikes for the day and go over to Don Khon where there is a big waterfall. We didn't do this as we plan to see lots of other waterfalls during our time in Laos so just chilled and enjoyed the scenery!

Sunset on the Mekong....view from the bungalow veranda

Eco Village in Preah rumkel

We got to this place on the border of Cambodia and Laos on the information given to us by AVT. They arranged everything for us to get to this little known eco village. This Village is 40KM north of Stung Treng. We were taken to Stung Treng and transferred by the village minibus full of people and supplies back tot he Eco Village on a very bumpy road. This felt like travelling, there was no phone signal, no road signs, just a dusty road. 

After around 1 hour we were at the eco village and shown to our bungalow. It looked straight over the Mekong river, and had a dolphin watching platform. (We never saw any dolphins from the platform) We arrived at the village which should have been a quiet eutopia, with nothing to do but watch the river, and the little boats, but when we arrived there was a huge village party happening. The Khmer new year gets celebrated for between 7 and 9 days in the villages, and showed no sign of stopping. Music was played all day, and it was about 4 songs in a cycle. (We could sign these to you if you wanted without even speaking Khmer) There was only one person in the viillage that spoke english, but they were unavailable so we had fun asking for lunch and drinks etc. 

The weather was hot, and sunny, and the river was gorgeous. At sunset we got a little local boat out to see the rare Irawuddy Dolphin. We were lucky to see them because they think there is less than 30 in the wild now, and their numbers are dropping. Two of the dolphins live near the Eco village and dont move too far, we stayed two night in our bamboo hut on thin matress on the floor. Both nights we took a bot trip, and both nights we saw the dolphins. They were quite shy and hid from the camera, with the rubbish cameraman (Me) only managed to snap a few dorsal fins.

The Khmer New year celebrations went on long into the night, and the Village people played the perfect hosts. We had to play drinking games, and drink beer with them. Some were a little worse for wear after drinking in the sun all day, but they were still very kind.  

The next day we visited a huge waterfall, although it was dry season it was still an impressive sight. Sadly the area surrounding the waterfall was full of litter, which spoiled such a beautiful sight. We dipped our feet in, and spent around an hour or so here before heading back to the village.

This place was not what we expected, we were expecting to have nothing to do but read our books by the river. Our room didn't even have electricity. But we were blasted by a celebration, and were very much involved. We were playing drinking games, and dancing with the locals. This is when we really saw the smiles of Cambodia, and the charm of the country. 

The next morning it was back on the village minibus at 7am for the ride to Stung Treng. It took a long time as our driver stopped at every house in the village and picked up parcels, and packed more and more people in to the van. But we made it with Plenty of time before our connecting Bus to 4000 Islands in Laos.   

Sunset over the Mekong River at Preah Rumkel

The Huge Waterfall ( We forgot to write down the name)

The RARE Irawuddy Dolphin

Another Sunset Mekong river shot!

Siem Reap

Transport
We took the bus from Phnom Penh Straight to Siem Reap it cost 11$ each (more expensive due to festival) and took around 7 hours with the mass of traffic! We both had dodgy stomachs so were thankful of the regular stops! We wanted to be in Siem Reap for the Khmer New Year as there were supposed to be lots of street parties, fairs and just generally a good feel about the place!

Accommodation
We stayed in HI Siem Reap 2 (Deluxe) it's an upmarket hostel at 7$ a night including breakfast. They make your beds every day, provide fresh towels and the best bit is the pool! It was very much necessary in the 40°C heat! The staff were helpful and the location great.

Day 1
After arriving from our long bus journey we searched our bags for our swimwear and kindles to chill on the roof. This was a bad moment...realising one of our kindles had gone and then on further inspection also our action camera...it seemed someone had been riffling through our bags. So on discovering this gutting news and feeling very deflated we went to the roof catching the last of the sun before heading out for dinner. We didn't venture far, just down the road we went to Abba Cafe...not the cheesefest we'd hoped for, but actually a beautiful place with excellent staff who have a great attention to detail  and of course delish foods!

Day 2
We had a relaxing pool day today, taking care of ourselves as Abi still was sick and we both still felt pretty deflated from the earlier days discovery. We treated ourselves to pure comfort food for lunch...we went to a recommended Italian 'IL forno' and ordered a lasagna and margarita pizza with a nice glass of white wine and beer. It was exactly what we needed and we both felt much happier after. Outside the streets were already filling with water fights, so obviously I joined in! That evening we ate noodles from a street cart (making up for our expensive lunch ) and observed the streets festivities before heading to bed!

Day 3
Today we woke up late and took bicycles into the Ankor Park. We bought a 3 day pass at $40 each so we coukd really see the temples properly. The whole place was heaving with locals for the festival. It meant we took so long to get in and the temples were even more overcrowded than usual.
We managed to look superficially around Angkor (due to crowds) and then, Bayan before heading to Phnom Bakheng (on top of a big hill) to watch sunset. It did unfortunately take us nearly 2 hours to get home due to traffic ehich meant riding our bicycles in the dark...not the easiest thing to do without lights and very bumpy roads!

Day 4
Due to the festival still being on, we had a chill day by the pool and wandering the streets of Siem Reap avoiding crowds! We had a nice lunch and planned upcoming days travel. We also went into town at night to join in with the new year celebrations, getting thoroughly soaked and covered in baby powder!

Day 5
We awoke very early to be picked up by our tuk tuk driver (04.30am) for a Sunrise at Angkor Wat, followed by the small loop. This cost $20 (extra for sunrise) and we were kept suitably refreshed by our driver who had a very efficient cool box and plenty of water and wet hand towels. 
The Small loop included; Angkor Wat Bayan, takeo, ta prohm, banteay kdei. A good selection of different temples and thankfully we were able to see a couple before the temperatures became too unbearable.  We arrived back at the hostel around 2 having spent time looking round each properly. It was spectacular. We really couldnt believe how well preserved the temples were and how many there were for us to see!

Day 6
On our last day in Siem Reap we took advantage of our 3rd day on our pass and visited the Large loop- this cost $15 and included;  preah khan, neak pean, ta som, east mebon, pre rup. We left at 7.30am and were back by midday. Many of these temples are smaller so took less time to wander around, whic we were thankful for as the temperatures again soared to 40+oc!

Day 7
Today we took the Bus (organised by AVT travel very helpful company!) to an eco village near the boarder of Laos for a few days in a bamboo hut on the Mekong where we could see the very rare Mekong Irrawady Dolphins. 

Early AM Sunruse at Angkor Wat

Sunrise over the Temple

Intricately carved door frames!

A tree growing right out of the temple!

The Lepur King - 

The many faces of Bayon Temple

Sunset at Bayon

Cambodia; its capital Phnom Penh

Getting There

We took a bus from Ho Chi Minh City, which we booked from the Sinh Cafe in HCMC. It cost us 165,000 VND and then we had to give our passports and $35 to our driver who helped whisk us through the border as quickly as possible. the journey was pretty easy and took 7 hours.  

We arrived to a very warm Phnom Penh, it was 40°C during the day, and didn't cool off too much in the evenings, by the time we arrived in our hotel it was around 6 pm and we took a stroll too the night market. We were very excited as this is a great way to try local cuisine, but SHOCK, there was none of the local cuisine that we had read about, we ended up eating Thai green Curry. the night market is right next to the river front, so we took a leisurely stroll back to the guesthouse for the night. 

The National Museum

We woke up not having a plan on this day, so we looked at the city map, and decided to take a look at the National Museum, thinking it would give us some good information before heading to S21 and the Killing Fields the following day. 

We paid our entry $5, and went inside, To which we found it to be one of the worst museums we had visited, there was no information on the recent history, only artefacts found at the temples of Angkor in Siem Reap. The museum was poorly laid out, and contained very little information. After an hour of looking at carvings of statues with barely any info of what we were looking at we left.


S21 and the Killing Fields
Phnom Penh is famous for this dark tourism attractions. It is the history of the Khmer Rouge era of Cambodia. The party ruled the country for 4 years in which time they killed nearly 3 million people in a population of 8 million. It was interesting to learn about this dark period of Cambodian rule, and gave us an
insight as to why Cambodia seemed a bit less developed than its neighbours Vietnam and Thailand.

After a bit of reading it was suggested that we could see both sights in around 6 hours by Tuk Tuk, This turned out to be if you sped through the attractions. We first went to the killing fields where it is estimated 20,000 people were killed in mass graves in a very small area. There are killing fields all over Cambodia, but this one is the most famous. People were killed here for various reasons, they were new people from the city,, they spoke more than one language they had studied to a high level, or they just wore glasses. SO 20,000 people were killed here and the sadness continues when you find out that bullets were too valuable to waste on killing these people so they soldiers doing the killing had to do it in very primitive ways. (I will spare you the details, you can find it on Google if your interested) There is a memorial on the site which from a distance looks like an ornamental Stupa, then on closer inspection it contains some of the skulls they have excavated from the mass graves. They still have not excavated all the graves, and with that one of the things you can see as you walk around is fragments of bone and clothing in the soil which has risen over the years, and there are plenty of signs asking you to avoid standing on the bones.

After a few hours hear listening to a very informative audio guide we headed back to our Tuk Tuk for the drive back to the centre of Phnom Penh where the S21 prison is based. The prison is in a former school, and this is adds to the horrors. the place was full of death and torture, people were tortured here up to 3 times a day, and were chained up the rest of the day. although there appears no official number they estimate around 12,000 people went into the prison and there are only 7 known survivors. The prisoners here were repeatedly tortured until they would sign a confession, that was completely fictional. Once the Khmer rouge had this signed confession the victim was sent to the Killing Fields to be executed. Many people died at the prison, and its exhibits are full of pictures of the victims faces. This place was in the centre of Phnom Penh, and now it seems impossible that this could occur in such a busy city. However in the first few days of the Khmer Rouge rule, Phnom Penh was evacuated and the people that lived there were forced to go to the "labour camps".

Both of these places were very interesting, and visiting the two took us the whole day to listen to both audio guides fully as well as read all the information available.

The following morning this our hotel sorted us a bus to Siem Reap to go and Celebrate the Khmer New Year.

Mass Grave of 450 Victims at the Killing Fields

The Stupa containing the skulls of the excavated victims

The School block turned S21 torture prison

Some of the prisoners who "passed through"

The Cells where the prisoners were locked up individually.

Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived late in the evening (10.30pm) so took an airport taxi to hotel (100,000vnd).

Day 1
We started our day having breakfast at the little local market opposite our hotel, we had great fun chatting with locals. After we set off on a walking tour around the city, trying to see most of the monuments and sights as well as the market. We then found our way to the war remnants museum. We had a quick veggie lunch in a lovely little restaurant almost opposite the entrance before heading in at about 3pm. We massively underestimated the time it would take and ended up not finishing before the place was due to shut! Thankfully they let you come back the next day to finish it off! 

Day 2
We woke up and walked in search of the place voted no.1 for breakfast. A great street stall selling a posh banh mi opla(fried eggs and bread). It comes in a pan and has been cooked with with meats. Its a great filling breakfast and the coffee is cheap too.
We went back to the war museum to finish off the exhibition. It really is a great museum. We learnt a lot about the Vietnam war and its consequences- not only for Vietnam but surrounding countries too. We also learnt about the after affects of the chemicals used still affecting people being born today.

We then had a look around a few of the shopping centres before heading to our couch surfing host. We stayed with her for 2 nights in her traditional Vietnamese house with her family, both nights we had dinner with her. She showed us amazing hospitality and help us with booking tours for the next 2 days!

Day 3
We did a morning tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, arranged through Singh Tourist.It was very cheap; only 89,000 each including the bus, tour guide, water etc. We just had to pay entry on arrival (110,000) The tour was very interesting, we learnt a lot and crawling through the tunnels was especially fun! Seeing all of the traps they used and how they used the tunnels helped us to understand how these people were able to fight the American forces so well.

We arrived back in town around 2pm so went for a late lunch at Saigon Vegan. We had a very tasty noodle soup as well as a curry noodle dish!

Day 4

We had another early morning for a full day tour of the Mekong Delta. It was an exceptionally cheap tour, costing only 189,000 each including all food, drinks snacks etc!

We took a boat ride along the river, learnt about the nature and people living on the river, before stopping for a very tasty lunch. We then returned onto the boat to see some of the swamp areas before being taken to a honey farm where we could see how they collected honey traditionally and sample honey tea. We were then transferred into smaller boats which were paddled by the locals. We then went on land for a horse and cart ride to a local village where we listened to traditional music and tasted local fruits. Finally before heading back to our bus we stopped in a coconut processing plant where we were able to see the many uses of the fruit as well as sample and buy some treats! We were both stuffed by the end of the day!

On our way to our hotel for the night we were stopped by an Australian guy asking us to come and watch a cultural show at the theatre...for free...Our luck was in, we were given copious amounts of coconut wine, tapioca and cashews before being ushered into the show. It was great fun and even better for being free! There really was NO catch (other than asking us for a tripadvisor review)

It was then a quick turnaround before we headed out for dinner with a friend of a friend, where we were taken to the best local Vietnamese restaurant as well as some of the very cool bars...needless to say it ended up being a very late night!

Day 5 

Unfortunately we had to be up reasonably early for our bus to Cambodia at 11.00am again booked through Sinh travel costing 178,000.

The Notre Dame Cathedral

Gary Stooping in the Cu Chi Tunnels

A hidden entrance to the Vietcong Tunnels

One of the hidden swing traps

The Cultural show

Gary the Beekeeper!!

Hoi An; Mesmerising streets, bargain beer and the sunshine!!!

Getting There - 
So to get there we hired a motorbike from our hotel and rode the Ha Van Pass which was ridden by Jeremy Clarkson and co. in the Vietnam Special of Top Gear.

The start of the ride was quite easy. but pretty busy as we were in Hue, but not for long, We were driving through small villages in about 30 mins watching the locals go about their daily business. After an hour and a half on this road we were approaching the Ha Van Pass, the weather was quite overcast, and on occasion it was drizzlin, but never that heavy!

On the pass was beautiful scenery, very little traffic and stunning views, the roads are new and nice and easy to ride, at the top was a little old ruin, and a service area to get some lunch, and be generally pestered so we looked at the ruins and rode on. These roads were stunning and easy to ride with jus tthe two of us, the Motorbike company transfered our bags to their office in Hoi An. after the Ha Van pass you head into Danang which is another nice area, although there is a lot more bikes here! We stopped for lunch, then rode on to the Marble Mountain. It is a mountain on the edge of the city with carved temples, cut into caves, it is very beautiful (There are loads of steps and we were pretty tired)

Where we stayed
 We were transferred to our Hotel Song Thanh Homestay by the motorbike company. When we arrived the staff were helpful and showed us to the room which was very clean. The lady at the front desk gave us a map and directions to the centre of town. It is about a 30 minute walk from the centre of the old town, but we didn't mind too much, They also hire bikes for 30,000 vnd a day.

Hoi An Ancient Town
The receptionist at our homestay gave us a tip for where to eat. It was right in the heart of The Old Town, and was good food at fair prices. We had the Cao Lao, and the Banh Bao roses, the two most famous dishes in Hoi An. the restaurant was called Trung Bac.

An apparent thing to do in Hoi An  is get a suit tailored, there are more tailor shops than anything else in Hoi An, and they all want your money. Its not a huge chore as the stuff they make is good quality, high standard and cheaper than off the shelf clothing back in the UK. Tripadvisor reviews the tailors, but our frineds had been in one, and recommended Hoang Kim tailors. so we used them. It is said that Tailors in Hoi An can make a suit in 24 Hours, but I wouldn't like to run that risk, or you might be leaing with an ill fitting suit. It took us 3 trials before we were satisfied with the fit completely. Gary had a suit, 2 shirts, and 2 ties made, Abi had a top, a dress and a skirt. this stuff fitted well, and was cheaper than good quality stuff at home. The secret cost is to get it home. The shop were great at helping us, but when it come to shipping it home, it would have cost about £70 to ship it via Airmail, so we opted for Seamail at about £30 but this will take around 3-4 months. this is the tailor we used, their service was great, and we left happy with the goods we had ordered.

In Hoi An there are a few attractions which require a ticket, the ticket is 120,000 VND and allows you into 5 attractions including a cultural show. This ticket pays towards upkeep and restoration of the ancient town, they also give you a map, there are many things to see in Hoi An, and not all require a ticket, but the main sites, they will check your ticket before entering.

We found a great street food vendor next to the river, Her stall was called Mrs Hat, and she served up Cao Lao noodles and another noodle dish, they were bargain prices and the best we'd had in Hoi An. It was delicious and nice to sit beside the river, albeit on the tiny stalls that line the pavements in Vietnam. The food was delicious and we would go there again.

Hoi An is famous for Banh Mi sandwiches, and there was one shop written about in Lonely Planet and given many awards for their sandwiches and they did not dissappoint.The shop was called Banh Mi Phuong They had an army of staff working the counter, and a bigger army of tourists and locals queuing for the best sandwiches in town, and the best we had in Vietnam.  These were so good, we had one everyday in Hoi An. and no Banh Mi came close afterward.

Another place to mention was the food in Anan Vegetarian restaurant, it was tasty, affordable, and had good service.

Another important point from Hoi An is Beer Hoi. Its unfermented lager, so must be sold quickly, so it is usually sold very cheap, prices ranging from 5000VND to 10000VND a glass. We did find one that was 5000VND and BOGOF So we spent an afternoon on the balcony of the restaurant watching over the river.

The river through the town

Beer Hoi

A wedding photoshoot on the river

The stunning Lanterns of Hoi An

Another wedding photoshoot

The view from the silent tea room

Dong Hoi and the caves!

Transport

We took the night train from Ninh Bình to Dong Hoi. We booked 'hard sleeper' beds at (357,000vnd) which were in a cabin of 4 beds and included bed linen etc. It was incredibly comfortable despite the train being a little bumpy! So if you went for soft sleeper I can only imagine it would be very nice! We were shocked by the quality in comparison to the Indian and thai sleeper trains. Another thing we learnt is that they are very good at time keeping and we arrived in Dong Hoi 30mins early; sending us into a blind panic before we realised that the train would stop at the platform and wait until it's scheduled departure time.

 So we arrived at 5.30 and we're able to get a taxi to our hotel (Than Loi Hostel) for 50,000. Thankfully the hotel owners were already up and we're kind enough to let us into our room early so we could catch up on a few hours sleep and take hot showers. The hotel owners didn't speak English but we're proficient with Google translate and we're excellent hosts.

After a strong coffee and some ban mui (egg sandwich) we decided to take a walk around despite the persistant spitting rain. 

We found a small market selling local fruits, vegetables, meat and flowers. We kept walking along the coast but didn't see an awful lot and it began raining quite heavy, so we headed back to the hotel for a change of footwear!

Thankfully the rain subsided and we rented a motorcycle from our hotel in order to drive to Paradise caves. Initially having typed it into Google maps we thought it was a 40minute journey but soon discovered it had taken us to the wrong place and we arrived at Phong Nha Farmstay. A beautiful looking homestay ontheedge of the national park. We took a break for a hot drink and some chips next to an open fire to defrost our fingers and toes ready to continue our journey. The staff here were great and gave us a map and lots of info on the best direction to go although we were incredibly disheartened to discover we had the same distance again to travel!

Normally we enjoyed motorbiking and this wouldn't be a problem, but it was very cold and windy on the bike with some rain showers.

Finally we arrived at Paradise Cave 2 hrs prior to closing. It was empty as all of the tour buses had left and it was amazing to practically have the cave to ourselves! The cave is 250,000 vnd, expensive but definately worth it! We loved it, it was almost unbelievable everytime you thought you must be nearly at the end you turned the corner and there was more cave as far as your eyes could see.

After this we had to face the realisty of the drive home..while it stayed dry for the first 15 mins it soon began to hammer it down and we were both soaked through!! We were so thankful when we arrived back to the hotel and were able to take hot showers! we then just nipped to a street stall for some cheeky noodles before bed!

The following morning we were still struggling with a plan and couldnt work out how best to go to dong hoi and see the vin moc tunnels and then head to hue. We were both cold and defeated by the rain and outside the window wasnt looking any kinder. In the end our hotel was able to book a privat taxi to hue with a break at the vin moc tunnels en route (it cost 1,240,000) the best $50 we could have spent as it saved us staying in dong ha and struggling with the non existant public transport and got us to hue at our hotel doorway a night earlier than expected!

The vin moc tunnels were so interesting.We couldnt belive that the people had lived down there for almost 6 years! It was incredibly informative although the museam and video playing room could do with a little updating! 

Mini Paris...Dalat

To get there we took a 3 hour bus from Nha Trang arriving around 4pm. Our Hotel was called City Pass, and wasn't far to walk, Da lat is cooler temps than Nha Trang so it wasn't too hard. It took a but of finding as the addresses can be a bit strange in Vietnam, and it was down a small side road not listed. We got there and the hotel manager was very nice and very enthusiastic. 

We arrived on Sunday and decided to go the weekend night market for dinner, it was very busy, but enjoyable, we had a selection of food, including coconut on rice paper, a pizza made on rice paper and peanuts wrapped in sticky rice.

The next morning we went for a walking tour of Da lat, firstly visiting the crazy house. A house made by an artist, it was indeed crazy, there were concrete painted animals everywhere, the building was designed to look like a tree so was covered in artificial vines and creeper trees. This place didn't really excited us too much, we arrived at a point when a few bus tours arrived and you couldn't turn a corner without banging your head on a selfie stick! 

We walked up to the nearby church and onto the kings Palace, whilst the kings Palace isn't much to look at, in comparison to the crazy house it was very peaceful. We walked around inside and it was like a 70's timewarp with dark hardwood furniture everywhere and orange and brown patterned curtains against yellow walls. From here we talked to the vintage train station via a lunch stop. The train is at an old station and takes you to a beautiful colourful temple on the edge of Da lat, it was very nice and had glass mosaic and lots of the famous Vietnamese blue and white China. Definitely worth the trip. 

Back to our hotel for dinner with the enthusiastic host and a chat with other guests who were taking different routes around SE Asia so gave us tips for Laos and Cambodia. 

The next morning we were off to explore a waterfall around 60km away from Da  Lat so we hired a motorbike and set off. It took a long time to get there because of traffic and roadworks, but it was worth it, the waterfall was stunning and you could count the visitors on one hand. We spent about 2 hours here, unfortunately you aren't allowed to swim there because it is too dangerous, but there are plenty of places to dip your feet in too cool off! 

Then it was back to Da Lat to find dinner and after we found a dessert shop called Che Chuoi. it was so good and so cheap, near our hotel we had a bbq'd banana wrapped in sticky rice, covered in coconut tapioca. This is served hot and cost 10k VND (30p) leaving us no option but to swing past every night.

After the busy day we got a taxi to the airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) the airport was tiny, it took about 40 mins from Dalat and about 5 mins to get checked in and through security.

We were air for about 30 mins and there we were in Saigon.

The Crazy House - Da lat Vietnam 

The vintage train from Da Lat station to the Trai Mat Temples

One of the two Pagoda's at Trai Mat Remples

One of the most colourful Temples we have ever visited

This Huge statue is entirely made of yellow flowers

Famous Vietnamese pottery used on a bannister mosaic

Pangour waterfalls - Very Peaceful place off the tourist trail

Pangour waterfalls - Looking like a staircase 

More of the waterfall