The Bus That Took Forever

This is a tale of real human spirit.. I hope you're prepared.

To make the journey from Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) to Siem Reap (Cambodia) we had to take a bus. Cambodia has no rail network and we were told the bus would take 10 hours. Being the seasoned travellers that we have now become we didn't think this would be too much of a major issue.
We woke up at 7:00am to catch our 7:30am bus. All was running smoothly, we had $40 for our visas and our iPods and phones were charged to the brim. We also had a packet of crisps each, just as a little journey snack.. These, however, had been demolished within the first two hours! It was fine though because we had a credit card and a few pounds worth of Vietnamese Dong.

Let the journey begin...

Hour One was spent rather chirpily, as you'd imagine. Hannah was obviously asleep within the first five minutes and I entertained myself by taking multiple pictures... Of myself!

Hour Two was spent crossing the border. A task that became somewhat bizarre with the bus conductor and his methods. Rather than trust us to go through immigration ourselves he took it upon himself to take our passports and call us forward when necessary. It was all much more complicated than I just made it sound but I won't bore you with the details! We also ate our crisps in hour two! This made it fun.

Hour Three was pretty standard
...

As was Hour Four

Hour Five, we were dumped in Phnom Penh and told to 'wait for new bus'. Excellent. An Australian woman travelling with her daughter approached us in an absolute state asking where we were and what was going on. We casually said we had no idea but were pretty sure something would come up soon enough! Her rather embarrassed daughter hushed, 'I told you mum, now calm down!' and we waited for 'new bus' surrounded by beggars and sellers and a couple of chickens, I seem to remember!
'New bus' soon arrived and we climbed on board for Hour Six.

Hour Six was not fun, we had got rather hot and sweaty waiting for 'new bus' and 'new bus' did not have great aircon. Needless to say, hour six was was very uncomfortable.

Hour Seven was where things started to drag. We weren't necessarily tired but groggy having been sat down for seven hours and we were rather hungry by this point so were looking forwards to the next stop where we could grab a bite to eat.

Hour Eight was devastating. We stopped, but soon realised that this stop and all future stops were not and would not be like service stations in the UK. They don't take visa. Or Vietnamese Dong come to that and we'd spent all our dollars on our visas. Realisation kicked in and I think a tear trickled down my face. For two girls who love food, not having food is a major issue for us!

Hour Nine felt like mile 25 of a marathon. We could smell the finish line but were still struggling to get there. The hunger pangs has set in but food was on the horizon so not was all good.

Hour Ten came... And went.

Hour Eleven, mr and mrs crankie set in. We were annoyed at the bus, annoyed at our tummies for making such a racket, annoyed at the fact our iPods and phones were beginning to run low and annoyed at mummy Australia who sat up every time there was a bump in the road (which is A LOT out here!)

Hour Twelve was game time. 'Whats your favourite' was our choice and I think it's safe to say we know each others favourite everything now!!

Hour Thirteen was hysteria. We sang, we danced, we laughed and all at absolutely nothing. I think I may have even had a hallucination at one point!

Hour Fourteen, yes that's FOURTEEN people!! We arrived.... To a hut.... And 12 half naked men. Good. I was totally chilled. Actually to be fair, I kind of was, my mind was preoccupied with the thought of food! The tuk tuk arranged by the hostel obviously wasn't waiting, given our four hour lateness but laying in the hut was a man with a piece of paper. He was basically the information desk for the bus station and called our hostel for us to summon a tuk tuk that wouldn't take us to a far away land!

Arriving at the hostel we did not feel the sweet sense of relief you'd expect. The air-con in our room was broken, and we were on the top floor. Hot is an understatement. And guess what else... They'd stopped serving food. 24 hours we went without eating a single thing, but it was definitely an experience..

I do hope you're not missing us too much!

Laters Taters

Two very hot and hungry travelling girls

Xxxxxxxx

Ho Chi Minh City

We were told before going to Ho Chi Minh that it is like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. On arriving, we instantly knew we would fall into the former category. We drove out of the airport and were greeted by bright lights, in the big city. Literally. It was so vibrant and lively. We already preferred it to Hanoi, in fact I may take it upon myself to tell Vietnam they should make it the capital again.
Tash saw my eyes light up when I saw 'Karaoke' in big bright lights. She swiftly told me there was no way we would be going there. To be fair, I think that was for the best.

We made the most of our time here, mainly with shopping in one of the biggest markets in Vietnam. It was totally overwhelming and even I didn't know where to start. Unfortunately my flip flops broke a few days prior and my feet were getting increasingly hot in covered shoes so my first stop was a shoe stall. Vietnamese women are considerably much smaller than us English, including their feet. The stall owner insisted that "Laydee, they perfect, you want, you buy". As my heel wasn't actually touching the floor and I was desperate I thought they'd do. I later found out they were two sizes too small and I had already developed blisters. Luckily I only spent 20,000 on them.

This surmounts to a huge 62 pence. I think I'll survive.

Our second favourite place in town was Kim's Café, we went here for supper three days in a row and had exactly the same each night, phō. Our favourite Vietnamese noodle soup dish. We will most definitely miss Vietnamese food.

We got such a friendly, buzzing vibe from Saigon and would highly recommend it to any fellow travellers.

Love and hugs,
Two city gals

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cu Chi Tunnels

Given that I've basically written every blog so far, we had decided Hannah would write this post, but for safety reasons we thought it best I take the reins. You see, Hannah didn't exactly like our tour guide for the Cu Chi tunnels. And when I say 'didn't like' I mean hate! His endless life stories and constant repetition of the word 'stand', meaning 'understand?' did not set the journey off to a good start. He had a bazillion sob stories that we knew word for word by the end of the trip and his irritating voice meant Han couldn't even sleep through them, something unheard of for this girl!

Arriving at the tunnels we were all rounded up into a room with two fans and with the heat being what it was we weren't impressed. 'Glowing', I think would be an appropriate adjective here! After watching a thrilling (not so much) video on the Vietnam war we had yet another pep talk from our tour guide. [Oh, I should probably mention we were told to call him 'Bean' after Mr Bean.. Whyy?? Probably because he's annoying!] So we had a thrilling pep talk and made our way out into the blistering heat. He demonstrated various traps that were used during the war, which were pretty cool, yes, but not worth the fifty hours he spent at each one giving us an in depth description of his relationship with them! After what felt like a lifetime we stopped for lunch that consisted of charred corn on the cob and rubbery deep fried beef kebabs. At the very end he sat for his 13th cigarette and told us to walk down the small steps into the tunnel. We leaped at the opportunity, anything to escape him. What I remembered whilst walking down said steps, however, was how small Bean has sad the tunnels were (60cm wide and extremely low). Crouching through the tunnels I felt myself getting increasingly hot to the point were I don't think there was an area of my body that wasn't covered in sweat... Yummy huh? Well this tunnel must have been a mile long (maybe a slight exaggeration there but that's certainly what it felt like!) and with no escape route we turned to comedy to get us through... Checking to see if there was wifi? Whether there was a Health and Safety check sign anywhere? Reminding each other how cold we both felt! And asking others around whether we had, in fact, arrived in Cambodia?!

Eventually we found the light! I'm not even going to use a nice adjective like glowing, we were drenched, soaked through. It really wasn't pretty! But I have to say, did make the Cu Chi Tunnels more enjoyable. Perhaps because we were without Bean for that section of the trip? But it was amazing to think soldiers used to live in those tiny tunnels, an space we almost didn't fit into!

Bean aside, the trip was quite interesting, though boiling hot, crouching through the tunnels was an experience I will never forget!


Lots of love


Two very sweaty travelling girls


Xxxxxxx

MeKong Delta

If we're being honest, we didn't really know much about the Mekong Delta before we went. All we really knew was that it was supposed to be absolutely stunning. This was true.

We were picked up from our hostel at 7:30 and driven 3 hours to Mekong Delta. When we arrived our tour guide ushered us onto a junk like boat. This took us to a floating market. The produce on sale was mainly fruit and veg sold to bulk buyers.. A sort of floating Vietnamese cash and carry! But still fantastic to see! We docked the boat at an area where we saw rice paper, coconut sweets and puff rice in production. It was fascinating to see how it was all done! Next stop was a tea break.. But this wasn't any standard tea break. We arrived to a bee hive and given a sweet honey tea. This was delish!.. And apparently very good for ones skin! We hopped back on the boat and travelled further down the river to a place were we stopped for lunch. Here, there was an option for cycling but with the temperature being what it was (37) we decided to relax in the shade, getting to know a Canadian woman who had many pearls of wisdom for us! After lunch, rather than getting back on the junk we were told to hop in small bamboo boats, equipped with traditional Vietnamese hats to protect us from the midday sun, it was beautiful.

After getting back on the junk we made our way returned to shore and took the bus back to our hostel.

You can see for yourself from the pictures, the place is stunning. We had a lovely day and would thoroughly recommend it to a friend.


Lots of love


Two blissed out travelling girls

Xxxxxxx

Goodbye Emma

The three musketeers have now become the two musketeers, waahh! It's time to bid adieu to our ginger nugget. Such sad times! Ems, we will miss you so much! Your organisational skills were impeccable, your sense of direction, incredible and your dedication to Buddha, extremely admirable! We will miss seeing your entire Kingswood uniform everyday, and your cleanliness. Your perpetration for every city and your sun burn. Your, 'I got nervy' and your chunder (which I think is still on my flip flops!) We loved sharing the beginning of this trip with you and wish you could have stayed for all of it, but we promise to send you plentiful snap chats and continue your quest for a total Buddhist lifestyle!

What a buliful bop

Lots of love,

Us Two!

Xxxxxxxxxx

'So then I just got on the back of his motorbike'

We touched down in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) and made our way to the hostel by taxi. On arrival we were told that there had been a problem with our booking. Good. They didn't actually have the room we'd booked, but all was fine, we were upgraded to the hostel's sister hotel. Sounds great right? Well, said sister hotel was about 5 minutes away and with our heavy bags we were told we may not make it (truly life or death). So I thought sod this and just got on the back of this guys motorbike! True story!... Well the bike was arranged by the hostel, so it was all very kosher but still definitely as cool as it sounds! Riding through the streets of Saigon on the back of some randomers bike, oh I felt like one of the Charlie's Angels!


Lots of love

Natalie, Dylan and Alex/ Sabrina, Jill and Kelly (depending on how old you are) xxxxxxxxx

Hoi An

Hoi An

Arriving into Hoi An was like arriving into paradise after what turned out to be a very wet Hong Kong and a pretty average Hanoi. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we could see the sea!! The ride from the train station to the hotel couldn't go quick enough. We had been recommended our accommodation by an absolute lad of a traveller we met in Honkers - a woman from New Zealand that must have been in her 60s who came back every night drunk as a skunk! We obviously took all the advice she gave us and booked the Sunflower after her description of the breakfasts and the POOL had us all champing at the bit.

We checked in and practically ran to the sunbeds. The Sunflower had a young crowd from all over the world so we fitted in nicely.. And we all imagined 'New Zealand' (as we affectionately named her) nocking them back at the bamboo bar by the pool!

The next day we decided a trip to the beach was in order. How does one do this in Hoi An I hear you ask.. By bike of course! Don't worry though parents, we did consider the motorbikes but thought bicycles would probably be a safer option! It was lovely cycling through Hoi An, it's like a very chilled seaside town. Everyone strolls about their business in the sun, we loved it. Arriving at the beach we got into our best tanning positions and let our troubles melt away (not that we really had many!)

Whilst we were chilling on the beach we noticed some parasailing going on above our heads. Han and Em had never done this, so Emma took it upon herself to book the two of them in as a birthday gift for Hannah. I was left out... I know! So rude! But I have already done it and someone had to take the pictures! They took to the sky in a smooth James Bond style but it seems things weren't as suave while in the air... Wedgie wise! They had brilliant fun though.

We loved Hoi An and were sad to leave so soon but it was lovely to have been able to see it!

Much love

Three slightly browner girls!

Xxxxxxx