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Cheeky Round The World Trip

a travel blog by Priya&Tim

The time has finally come, for Mister Brown and his sidekick, the wonderful and brilliant Miss Patel to embark on their travels. So, to keep you informed with what we are up to and where we are going, here is what is essentially a diary for the next few months! Enjoy!

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Arriving into Vietnam

Vinh, Vietnam

Country No: 3 We arrived safely in Ha Noi, Vietnam, after a mamoth journey leaving from Phonsavan at 6am. We got on our bus to Vinh and after picking up 15 people in phonsovan - all locals, we set off on our way. We got to the border at around 11.00am, and after a thorough bag inspection, and filling in our details we got into Vietnam ok. The border crossing itself was easy enough: get off the bus; do the official business, and get back on about an hour later. We eventually arrived in Vinh after many winding roads, and near-death experiences at around 8.30pm to be met by a guy called Hai, pronounced Hi, who informed us that we could get a minibus through to Ha Noi at a cost of $10, the 9.30pm minibus would arrive at around 3.00/3.30 in the morning. Yes, we decided to do this as we didnt want the hassle of finding a place to stay in Vinh only to pack and leave early in the morning the next day. So we were picked up at Ha Noi bus station by a guy from the same tour /hotel company who showed us a guest house which was reasonably priced for a nice room. We crashed and burned big time.....never ever take sleep in a nice bed and a hot shower for granted!

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on June 24, 2006 from Vinh, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Early doors at Hanoi

Hanoi, Vietnam

So Hanoi began as early start from our trip up across the border from Laos and into Vinh, and it wasn't quite what we expected when we woke up in the morning. The noise of the traffic is immense and it never stops! Forget Milan or Paris or any other city in Europe, Hanoi is the king of motorcycle heaven. Every inch of the roads and even the pavements are covered with bikes! Hoever we managed to stay alive crossing the roads and explored the lake, the History Museum and the markets. After which we decided that a trip to Ha Long Bay was much needed. This is what this part of the world is famous for in terms of landscape.

The hills and the limestone formations are something out of a fantasy; and the surealness of staying on the boat and watching the stars so clear above structures that seems to rise out of nowhere in the dark.

Unfortunately you are quickly removed from the fantasy and brought back to the crass reality of Cat Ba Island. Imagine a Vietnamese Blackpool (No images neccesary!). Need I say more? And so back to Hanoi it was.

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on June 28, 2006 from Hanoi, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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The city of Hue

Hue, Vietnam

We booked our open bus tickets to travel through Vietnam on the East coast and stopped next at Hue. Getting hold of a Belgian beer. Mission impossible in Vietnam? Not really! We quickly located the Belgian Bar, the B4 Bar and enjoyed a couple of cheeky G&T's with the lovely barman and was given good advice to eat at the Riverside restaurant which served up a fantastic banana-flower salad and great BBQ skewers.

The old citadel of Hue gives a glimpse of the country's reagl history and is a beatiful ruined moat city.



We reached the citadel after crossing the river to the other half of Hue, and it is was well worth the walk to find the gate through the walled city which we actually walked past the first time round! Whoops!

Next was the DMZ tour where north meets south Vietnam. We spent the day on the motorbikes of our tourguides who were from our guesthouse. This really was a great way to see this part of Vietnam. We saw the effecs and the damage that still remains from the Vietnamese war.



The images are only a small insight, but nonetheless stil provides a huge understanding of somethig you only normally read about in books or watch in movies.

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 4, 2006 from Hue, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Clothes....Lots of Clothes

Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An , the fisherman village, is our next destination. There is one word for this place: CLOTHES. There are over 500 tailors in this tiny village so imagine the competition faced for a tailor to get the business of every foreigner in town! We took a walk to a Riverside restaurant and on the way past 50 of the 500 tailors, every colour and type of material and every design and cut of different clothes were bombarded on us. I thought it was great! Even Tim managed to get involved and had a few threads tailored for himself!

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 8, 2006 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Back to the Beach

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Next stop Nha Trang, another seaside resort town but with a very lively nightlife and wonderful beach chillout retreats!

From Nha Trang our first mission was to do the Island tour around the coast which in the end entailed of more snorkelling, swimming and drinking than it did of island sightseeing. Still we jad a lot of fun and stopped off at the aquarium too to see the sharks and the coral centrepiece.



Nha Trang also saw the last nights spent with our wonderful fellow travelling friends: Stace from New Zealand; Kirsten from S.Africa and Trish from Canada. So we couldn't leave them without having a big night out... Brit style! Even Tim managed to dance the night away until we all needed to be tucked up in bed! Of course the whole of the next day was spent recovering. Especially for Stace who put his health at risk to come out for a few drinks even though he was ill!

So now we were on our own again to make a quick journey through the rest of Vietnam and across to Cambodia, then down to Malaysia and Singapore to get our flights for the UK to return for a wedding in France. Sounds simple doesn't it!

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 12, 2006 from Nha Trang, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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So Long Vietnam, last stop Saigon (AKA Ho Chi Minh City)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Upon arrival in Saigon we had some difficulty in finding a place, this was due to the fact that most guesthouses are not open at 6.00am-weird that. A nice (but strange) lady helped us find a room above a bar, no guesthouse for us, but a spare room over a pub. We were guaranteed that the noise would not be a problem, in fact we were told "no sleep, you get money back", this relaxed us a lot. So much so that we spent most of the rest of the day asleep.

Saigon was a nice place to end our stay in Vietnam, it was just as hectic as Hanoi but more relaxed at the same time. We spent a good few hours in a lovely park where we reviewed our time in the country. Overall, it was a good country to visit and we were both glad to have seen it, but I think some of the problems we experienced here soured the enjoyment a little. On a more positive note, the bar we stayed over was definately one of the most entertaining places to stay in - EVER! Next stop Cambodia...

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 14, 2006 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Phnom Penh, A Sobering City

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Another new country and another new attrocity to learn about. Cambodia was initially on our list of places to visit because of Angkor Watt. During the course of our travels a lot of people had let us know that Phnom Penh contained some interesting but harrowing things to see. After a day getting settled and arranging transport we decided that we should visit the Killing Fields and S21, a former primary school turned prison/interrogation camp. Some of the things that we learned were horrific to say the least, and the images that we have cannot do justice to the scale of destruction that was inflicted upon the Cambodian people in the late 1970's.

The photo to the right is of a shrine to commemorate some of those people slaughtered in and around Phnom Penh. Within this shrine there are a number of levels, each of which contains human remains dug up from the shallow graves discovered surrounding the area. As I said before, this place was harrowing...

permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 19, 2006 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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The Temples of Angkor

Siemreab, Cambodia

After spending a quick but very interesting few days in Phnom Penh we high-tailed it to Siem Reap to see what we hoped would be one of the highlights of our trip - Angkor Wat. It is difficult to put into words exactly what to say about this place, so I will be brief. WOW! The whole place is an insight into the past that books, tv programs and even websites cannot dare to emulate. We were both incredibly amazed from the minute we entered the area to the minute we left, I think this can be demonstrated by the number of photo's we took. Angor Wat is just one of the many temples within Angkor, it is the most easily recognisable. You have probably seen the following photo somewhere before. But obviously without Priya in it!

Our favourite temple was Ta Phrom, this is because it is the only temple that has not been cleared properly since its discovery. We managed to get lost in here for quite some time so we had plenty of opportunities to take photo's. After much deliberation this is our favourite.



permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 21, 2006 from Siemreab, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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Country No 5 : Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur is truly a wonderful city and a far cry from what we had been used to in all the previous countries we had been to. The shopping malls are one of the first things that strike you as first enter KL and also the fantastic road conditions and public transport systems which are comparable to the UK in terms of standards. Combined with the low costs, reliability, cleanliness and ease of navigating, this really was a breath of fresh air! First stop in KL was to Chinatown where we got ourselves booked into a sweet hotel and lived it up for a night before getting down to business in a smaller Chinese establishment where we based ourselves for the next night. Chinatown is a bustling hub-bub of market stalls, restaurants and shops and has a great atmosphere except for the sometimes unbearable stench in the midday heat when every restaurant is brimming with customers and the smell of the kitchens become quite unbearable! Besides the chaos and fun in Chinatown, we headed towards the city centre and found ourselves (without a map) walking in the general direction of the Petronas Towers which can be virtually seen from any location within the city centre. Once we got there, our every expectation of the towers were fully satisfied. They really are as tall you can imagine, and with a shopping mall on the bottom floors full of every designer label store that you could care to think of, it was great fun spending a good few hours there!



Finally we spent our last night watching the fireworks display, which were coming from a promotion stand in a nearby plaza before hitting the Fun-theque! And no….it wasn’t really all that fun. It should have been called the Amusing-theque because it was certainly different let’s say! Curiosity always kills the cat!


permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 23, 2006 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Melaka

Melaka, Malaysia

We found ourselves a really nice hostel to stay in with really friendly staff here. Melaka is a lovely little port town, and is definitely one of the highlights of Malaysia. We kind of found ourselves reminiscing over Luang Phrabang here. It is similar in setup in that it has retained much of its colonial port history, and the town itself is very quiet with distinguished quarters and very friendly locals! We made a little tour of Melaka by foot on the second day that we were there, and paid a visit to St. Paul’s church which is situated on the top of a hill. From here you get a wonderful view of the town, and the port by the sea which full size cargo ships anchored near the shore. It was also here that we met a nice artist who you felt you could have known for years! We had a good chat to him, and shared many giggles, and so we bought a painting from him.

Melaka is nice quiet town, where you can rest and take your time looking around as we did, it is then that you can find yourselves little surprises like the cultural and handicrafts centre or the various restaurants and cafes with bags of character. I even managed to get Tim to race me to the top of a climbing frame and go on the see-saw. I wish I had a photo to show you all, but alas… definitely one of my favourite memories from here! Next stop, the final destination of our first leg of travelling, Singapore…..


permalink written by  Priya&Tim on July 26, 2006 from Melaka, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip
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