Singapore

Singapore

25th - 28th August

Awesome catch up with Paul, Andy, Debs, Philip and Lorna

Excellent orchid veiwing at the Botanical gardens - sounds nerdy, but highly recommended

Sight-seeing

And Sally's computer went to the hospital - all in working order now!

The Irish wedding

Waterford, Ireland
13th - 24 August

Irish + South African wedding = 3 day party and dancing til the sun rises!!!

We just can't understand why the Irish complain about the weather! We were 'delighted' with the sun shining down on us each day, although of course it didn't outshine the beautiful bride!

Thanks to the Flynnericks for an awesome time. We were very sad to leave after an epic week of fun!

We also spent some quality time with Sera in Dublin - thanks for having us and sorry for being bad shopping influences on you!

WE LOVE LAOS!

Laos

7th July - 19th July

Vientiane

After expecting the worst of the 24 hr bus ride, we were pleasantly surprised and arrived in Vientiane feeling refreshed and excited to explore Laos. The scenery since crossing the border was breath-taking – large green mountains rising out of the jungle, a bit like Halong Bay except on land.

Although very brief, Vientiane was an absolute pleasure. It felt like the streets were on mute – no hooting or chaos, French bakeries and orange-robed monks. Our first stop, a French bakery, sent Gayle to heaven. We awoke at the crack of dawn to watch the monks receiving alms, but sadly the streets were pretty much deserted. We did however see two monks receiving alms from a couple who, after offering sticky rice and Coke, promptly jumped into their Beamer and sped off. Not quite satisfied with our religious sightings we snuck into a Wat to witness the early morning routine and chanting. We were soon discovered by a monk who was very happy to educate us on monkhood. The LP had advised to avoid any eye contact with monks which made for an awkward conversation for us, but he didn’t seem to mind. Feeling inspired, we headed to the Wat Sisaket which remains one of our favourites.

We had a fabulous Laos dinner, ranking on the top 5 so far, including banana flower salad, sticky rice and spicy dips and fish coconut curry. We are already planning our visit to the sister restaurant in Phnom Phen.

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng, aka Gap student paradise, filled us with a mixture of excitement and terror. On good advise from Helene, we wisely chose to stay on the ‘mature’ side of the river. But don’t worry, we did have every intention of experiencing the hedonistic river tubing, Vang Vieng’s claim to fame. Sadly we do not have any pictures to prove the extreme bizarreness of this place. Imagine an amazingly beautiful, tranquil setting with hundreds of drunk travellers downing buckets of ‘Laos Surprise’, swinging from high platforms into the river and mud resettling. We boarded our tubes about 3 kms upstream and stopped at numerous bars along the way and once we had found the courage to take the first leap into the river there was no stopping us.

VV is actually much more than tubing. We cycled to a cave with a beautiful stream (on the way rescuing a little girl who’s chain had fallen off her bike and a Vietnamese family who’s vehicle got stuck trying to cross a river) and risked our lives trying to reach an amazing viewpoint. We could have kept ourselves entertained for days, but time was running out so we boarded yet another bus and continued our journey North.

Luang Prabang

Beautiful Luang Prabang. Rated top of the pops for city experience by Wunderlust and unanimous agreement from us. The city is a mix of Chinese, French and Thai architecture with lush vegetation and very chilled atmosphere. There are beautiful Wats, a great night market and some awesome restaurants. The surrounds are also overflowing with things to do. We spent a day kayaking where Kerry and Gayle, the ‘expert’ kayakers, were defeated by a very mild, grade-2 rapid. We had a picnic on the side of the river, eating sticky rice off banana leaves and visited a very genuine Hmong village. We took a 40 min tuktuk ride to an extremely impressive waterfall. We had lots of fun swinging into the turquoise, tiered pools and climbed to a ‘mid-tier’ and swam in a gorgeous, natural infinity pool and watched the water cascading into the pools way below. There were also entertained by Black Asian bears (in an enclosure).

The highlight of Luang Prabang was Sally’s big 3-0! While Sally attended a cooking class, Gayle and Kerry secretively planned for the impending celebration...

outfits you can only get away with when travelling....

Sally’s 30th

Celebrations started early due to the scheduled 2 day boat cruise (aka the slow boat up on the Mekong to Houxay). Party dresses on, the night began sipping chilled Chilean wine in at a bar straight out of Paris. We can’t explain how great a glass of wine is after months of involuntary abstinence. We then headed to L’Elephant from a magnificent 3 course meal (which eased its way onto our top 5). Not ready to end such an indulgent evening, we returned to the wine bar for one last glass of the delectable nectar. The wine bar evidently elevated our status from backpacker to New York socialite when we were mistaken for Americans by some Italian stallions. Had it not been for the late night curfew the partying would definitely have continued.

The birthday girl awoke to a pile of presents wrapped in bath towels, a cupcake from the market and take away tea from down the road. Sadly there was not much time to savour the moment as we had backpacks to pack and a boat to catch. There isn’t much to say about the day, except the odd reminder from G&K that Sal had come of age and tucking in to the stash of birthday cupcakes.

Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sa Pa

Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa

Vietnam

We tentatively joined the back backers 'Rock Hard Rock Long' tour to Halong Bay. Fortunately our fears subsided when we noticed that the age gap wasn't as bad as we'd feared, although we did chop a few years off our age - pity Kerry and Sally kept forgetting what age we'd decided on!

We spent the first night on a junk ship and the other in "bungalows" on a Robinson Crusoe deserted island where our days were spent kayaking, wakeboarding, swimming and our nights playing drinking games and getting to know the rest of the gang. Our new favourite addition to drinking games is ""change clothes with the person on your left" - leading to some hilarious outfit changes, particularly Kerry, who was wearing only a dress and had to swop for a T shirt in front of everyone, whilst at the same time atempting to hide a bright green thong! We arrived back in Hanoi having made some great friends as well as a few more facebook friends and commended ourselves on taking the plunge with the 1985 + babies.

We then a few spent days in Hanoi waiting for overnight train to Sa Pa. We ended up having a huge night out with some of the Hanoi backpacker team at the Irish bar followed by a random techno-joint in the middle of suburbs with Vietnamese men dancing around with their shirts pulled up above their pot-bellies. We also managed to squeeze in a bit of culture and watched The Water Puppet Show, a uniquely Vietnamese art form where puppets literally dance on the water accompanied by a live traditional orchestra.

We spent 4 days in Sa Pa, a bustling market town nestled in the northern mountains of Vietnam, walking through rice paddies and ethnic minority villages of the Hmong and Dzo people. For once we weren't all vying for the sweaty beast bangle and Gayle was very excited to feel goosebumps for the first time in weeks!

Sadly this was shortlived. Hanoi welcomed us with outstretched 45 degree heat arms forcing us to set up camp in our favourite coffee shop. Against all sensible advice from those who'd made the border crossing to Laos before, the budget chose the 24 hour bus trip over flying. Apart from the 'charming' toilet stops and the locals sleeping in the aisle it wasn't quite as bad as we'd anticipated.

Hoi An

Beautiful Hoi An, quaint lantern lit streets, colonial buildings, Japanese covered bridge... the perfect place to be when you suddenly realise your visa is about to expire and an urgent extension is required.

We decided to enrol in Mrs Vy’s cooking school determined enhance our culinary skills. The class started with a walk around the market where we learnt about some of the weird and wonderful ingredients that contribute to unique Vietnamese cuisine. We learnt to make fresh spring rolls, crispy pancakes, marinated chicken on a scewer and green mango salad – Proudly still our best meal yet!

The South Africa vs. France game took place while we were in Hoi An. Prior to the game an unfortunate Englishman called Andy joined us for dinner and before he could even protest was smothered in South African tattoo’s, cheering for Bafana and downing jagerbombs for every goal scored. Following our big win we ended up taking the party bus to the beach and continued the celebration until the early hours. Gayle paid the biggest price the following day as her hangover confined her to the hotel room the entire day. Not even a papaya fruit shake could coax her out of the air-conditioned sanctuary.

Between all the fun and indulgence we managed a trip to the Cham Towers of My Son, a trip to the beach, a group pedicure and practically filled an entire backpack with tailor made impractical clothes and shoes.

Hue

Travel fatigue momentarily got the better of us and arriving in the heat of the day did no favours for our initial perception of the cultural capital of Vietnam. After camping out in the hotel room we woke up the next day full of motivation to give Hue is due.

We hired bicycles and spent the day exploring the impressive Citadel and the Imperial city as well as the Thien Mu Pagoda. Feeling inspired by these impressive sights we finally decided to sample the dreaded birds nest tea, supposedly good for the skin but not so appealing to the palate. We then boarded yet another night bus Hanoi bound.

Mui Nie & Nha Trang

Mui Ne, Vietnam
12 - 14 June

Three delighted girls boarded the luxury sleeper bus to Mui Ne, but Kerry and Gayles excitement was soon curbed as they couldn't fit in their sleeper seats while everyone else on the bus, including Sally, seemed blissfully comfortable. Specific arms length measurements revealed that they had been given the midget sleeper seats and luckily the situation was then quickly rectified!

Mui Nie is a more remote holiday beach area of Vietnam - this was definitely proved to us that night as we wandered around for ages looking for a 'vibe' but eventually had to settle on a small family run restaurant where 5 locals were watching the World Cup.

We hired motorbikes and quickly learned that ensuring the petrol guage remained above the red was pretty important. Pushing a motorbike to the petrol station at the top of a hill in a very humid 38 degrees is not all its cracked up to be.

Petrol situation rectified, we set off for the Cham Towers (according to tour guide Sal they are older than JC himself!) and to the local fishing villages where fish sauce is made. We watched the men paddling in their round reed boats, the women carrying heavy loads of small fish to the 'factory' where they were then steamed before being dried out in the sun.

Nha Trang

14 - 17 June

Nha Trang is a larger beach town in Vietam where we had our first real encounter with the GAP students backpacker vibe.

Again, we hired motorikes (filled to the brim with petrol) and jetted off to a remote beach favoured by the locals. As the only foreigners there we were definitely the centre of attention. We went searching for the giant buddha, said to be just outside the city, but after witnessing two consecutive accidents inches away from us decided looking from afar was good enough.

We also did two scuba dives. Due to lack of recent diving experience on Kerry's part and complete lack of diving card on Sally's part, our first dive entitled 'discovering scuba diving' was a bit of a refresher. The second dive, involving caves and some great sea life, was fantastic.

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City

11 - 12 June

After the tranquility of the Mekong Delta, the hussle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City was a stark contrast with chaos in every corner!

We spent a humid and sweaty day walking to the various sights of HCMC including a painfully harrowing account of the Vietnam War at the War Museum with graphic pictures and models of events and torture devices used. The highlight of our "City Tour" however was the sighting of a frozen yoghurt shop where we ceased talking for a whole 5 minutes while gorging in air-conditioned bliss!

Ever the proud South Africans (Nam Phi in Vietnamese) we donned our yellow Bafana Bafana shirts, flag tattoos and other South African paraphanalia to watch the opening ceremony and the first game. Amazingly it was very difficult to find a crowd to watch with in this football mad country and in the process of our search an innocent barlady/man was accosted and spent the rest of the evening proudly sporting an SA flag tattoo on his face.

Under construction

We know we have been painfully slow at posting - we promise to provide some rivoting news in the near future....