Nha Trang

When it rains in Asia the clouds come together from out of the blue, the heavens open and the rain comes down in sheets. Half an hour later the clouds are gone and it's business as usual.

Or so we thought before arriving in Nha Trang.

Tagged as Vietnam's number one beach city we arrived with the notion of spending a few days lazing on the beach and seeing the sights. This idea lasted for all of 30 minutes until the first rain drops fell.

It has now rained/showered and generally been miserable for four days straight. Whilst this has literally put a dampener on our plans we've been busy.

The five day forecast is more of the same so we decided to "man up" and hire moto's and see the sites.

Driving in Asia is an interesting experience. Throw in some wind and plenty of rain and you've got your hands full. Luckily we had been loaned some designer rain coats that are all the rage in these parts. First up was a tour of the coastline that we had planned to bask on.


The most well known historic site around Nha Trang is Po Nagar - a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781 A.D. (the Cham are an ethnic group here in SE Asia). The temple had a few nooks and crannies that we could poke our noses into and most importantly there was an enclave where we could get some shelter from the rain.


Clint's waterproof camera was paying for itself as we watched other tourists hurriedly take a photo before stashing camera's in a safe place.


After the temples we visited the Long Son Pagoda a Buddhist temple founded in 1889. After climbing exactly 150 steps (we both counted) we were faced with a giant white Buddha.


Back on the moto's we "found" a Vietnamese wonderland called Vinpearl - a resort, spa and amusement park. Visitors get to Vinpearl via a gondala and the word Vinpearl is even etched onto the hill in Hollywood fashion. It's safe to say that the average Joe from Vietnam could never afford to visit Vinpearl. We were tempted but decided that we could see bigger and better amusement parks in the west.


The photo below is a view of the Nha Trang cityscape. There are two bridges crossing the inlet which made a nice run one evening, which incidentally was our first hit out since the Siem Reap International Half Marathon.

Lately we've been tee totaling and we've engaged in some fitness. One afternoon we set out to find a gym. Our options were an air-con hotel gym or somewhere rough and ready where the locals train. We opted for the latter.

This gym was amazing. It was definitely no thrills and it was definitely hardcore. It leaked, the equipment was "custom" made and either incredibly greasy or rusty. The cables were often motorbike chains and the bathroom was outside in the bush. For the record the locals were working out topless so we did our best to break down the cultural barriers by trying to fit in.

Random Fact: Urinal soaps are like hens teeth. The locals prefer large blocks of ice and sliced lime. The jury is out whether the limes are fresh or discarded from our drinks.

Highlights:
- Vietnam PowerHouse. A better gym would be hard to find
- Gaming lounge. 50-60 locals playing online games with possibly the fastest internet connection we've experienced. As a note two locals challenged us to a game of Age of Empires 2. They won in 30 minutes, it was embarrassing
- Deep fried bananas. A bargain at $0.20 NZ
- Vietnam beating Thailand in football. Thanks to a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser the locals won on aggregate. They then proceeded to go nuts as Vietnam were crowned Asean champions for the first time... within minutes moto's were speeding with flags waving and horns honking. As a result four people died and 400 were injured.

Lessons Learned:
- Regardless of what people tell you buses going north only leave at night time.
- If it's raining there is very little to do in Nha Trang except updating your blog and making it look pretty. If it rains much longer, we'll practically be graphic designers.
- Sidewalk covers are useful to shelter from the rain until locals park their precious moto's under them
- Don't take a shirt to the gym

Da Lat

HCMC was great but after a bit of time the streets feel even narrower and the buildings higher. It was time to get out and Da Lat was an obvious choice.

The bus we had was super comfortable and the ladies that organised our bus were great - they even telephoned a catering company so we could have lunch in their office while we waited for the bus.

Da Lat is a picturesque town located on a plateau in the highlands north of HCMC. The temperature was a lot colder than we were used to (the town is further north and is at altitude) and we were told the average at this time of year is 10º Celsius. Quite a shock to the system after what we've been used to but thermals and multiple layers saw us right.

Christmas came and went. The locals turned out in force on Christmas Eve and we were wondering what was in store for Christmas Day. Turns out nothing. Their celebration seems to end on Christmas Eve and the day itself is business as usual. We caught up online with friends and family and it was great to hear that everyone is doing well but we both really missed being there for the banter and food.

Santa was a common occurrence around town, although none of them were saying 'ho ho ho' and they were smaller and skinnier than we remembered.

After a lazy Christmas Day we set out exploring the town on some cool little motorbikes. Every public garden you saw was immaculately maintained - just like the roundabout below.

Hang Nga's Guesthouse (The 'Crazy House') was like being in the movie Alice in Wonderland. You can pay to visit like we did, or you can stay just like a regular guest house.

It was very cool and will be amazing to visit once the current expansion has been completed.

After our fill of crazy we were off to another tourist attraction - the Valley of Love. Now I know what you're thinking, two guys going to the Valley of Love alone, but hey, it had to be done.

The lonely hearts club, population: Clint. And if one wasn't enough, it only got worse...

Random Fact: Bum shower toilets. Just when we realised they aren't used to fill our drink bottles the locals have taken them away from us.

Highlights:
- A reprieve from the heat, sweat, beggars and biting things
- Vietnamese winter fashion. The peacock theory of accessorise, accessorise, accessorise...
- Manual moto's. Better, cheaper and more fun than auto's

Lessons Learned:
- Christmas is celebrated on the eve not on the day
- When in packs locals find it funny to greet you in English. Usually when level or just past you on the street
- Come back when its warm and you've got a girlfriend. Otherwise you're just losers out in the cold

Ho Chi Minh City

Our first destination in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) - formerly Saigon. We'd only been in HCMC a matter of hours when we realised that the city is stereotypical of what everyone associates with SE Asia. It has all of the things you tend to see in the movies: narrow roads, tall buildings, crazy traffic and something for sale in every place possible. It's a good thing that television doesn't capture smells, but that's another story.

The city itself is more than slightly gigantic with a population of 10 million people. The city is divided up into districts (1, 2, 3 etc) of which there are roughly 20. Each district is more or less the equivalent to the Wellington region in population.

We spent an afternoon at the War Remnants Museum learning about the Vietnam War. Parts of it were very much slanted against the Americans - for instance we felt the amount of civilian, child and old person casualties were unfairly dramatised. Age and uniform doesn't determine whether someone can use a weapon. Still I'm sure the donation box is in a much healthier state as a result.


The most hard hitting section of the museum was easily the photography section - lots of war time photos documenting both sides of the war. The photos were often taken by photographers that had died while photographing the war. The military equipment section was impressive and the armaments were rather imposing. If we didn't know better you'd think the war would have been a mismatch - steel vs. bamboo.


After seeing the weapons the Americans had it was time to check out the Vietnam side of things so we spent a day checking out the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Instead of buying a guided trip to the tunnels we thought we'd do it local style and catch a public bus. With the help of some very nice retail ladies (they told us the place, bus # and time) we were on our way. For a ridiculously small price (approx $1 NZ) we rode a bus for a solid 90 minutes. After that things went downhill... the tunnels were still 15km's away and the moto drivers organised some rapid price fixing. After a lot of debating and false take aways (i.e. us walking away) we settled on a reasonable price and were off. In hindsight the guided trip seemed like a better option.

(Peek-a-boo, Charlie shoots you...)

The tunnels showed how cunning and clever the Vietnamese were during the war. They'd thought of everything when it came to the tunnels and were exceptional at disguising air vents and entrance ways.

(A termite mound grafted with bamboo to act as an air vent for the tunnel system below)

The booby trap section was rather graphic and the guide seemed to take pleasure from describing how they were used to take down the Americans.


Random Fact: Saigon was renamed to HCMC in honour of a Communist, Marxist-Leninist Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman - Mr Ho Chi Minh (commonly known as Uncle Ho).

Highlights:
- Crossing the road. No easy feet considering each side of the road has about 5 moto's side by side.
- Being in a truly massive city.
- Dumplings, the meat pie of South East Asia.

Lessons Learned:
- HCMC is a big city with big city prices. We spent a long time trying to find cheap accommodation but the best we managed was $15 US per night.
- Food and drink are cheap ridiculously so if you hunt around.
- The correct exchange rate is slightly above 17,000 VND to $1 US. When it benefits the locals they'll use this rate, when it benefits you they use 15,000 VND to $1 US. Best option is to load up on the local currency - Dong.

Phnom Penh

To wrap up Cambodia we headed to the capital city Phnom Penh - a sprawling mass of humanity which is home to Cambodia's richest and poorest people.

We decided to visit the hardest hitting sites first off (and all in one day) as we anticipated being sobered up by a cold hard dose of the reality which is Cambodia's recent history.

We spent a cherry morning at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or Security Prison 21 (S-21) for us foreigners. Before the Khmer Rouge came to power S-21 was a quaint high school in the middle of the city. The Khmer Rouge quickly converted it into a prison and interrogation centre - complete with electrified barb wire.

At any one time, the prison held between 1,000-1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed.

We decided to skip lunch because we were spending the afternoon at The Killing Fields. Sadly there a number of Killing Fields in Cambodia. We visited the best known one, Choeung Ek. Prisoners who had served their purpose at S-21 were blindfolded and transported by truck a short distance out of the city. The lucky ones were made to kneel before being whacked in the back of the head with a blunt object. The unlucky ones were either buried alive or made to dig their own graves.


The fields were originally an orchard and walking around you could easily mistake it for another piece of empty land, except of course for the pieces of bone stacked in small piles and signs like the one below.

With these two gruesome attractions out of the way we moved onto more pleasant sites. For some Asian hilarity we decided to visit the misleadingly named Olympic Stadium. Cambodia has never hosted the Olympics and 2008 was the first time they sent athletes but between 5pm and 7pm each night it is the place to work out (or be seen to work out). People run laps around the track but the majority perform some amazing aerobics.

Like everyone else we visited the Independence Monument in the middle of town. The closest you can get is the perimeter as too many vagrants were using it as a halfway house. There is a security guard (presumably 24 hours a day) there with one responsibility - to make sure nobody crosses the perimeter, exciting stuff.

We spent an afternoon at the Royal Palace which was pretty cool despite all the tour groups doing their best to get in our way. Whilst at the Royal Palace we even managed to get a glimpse of the King, he was smaller and shinier than we were expecting.

Random Fact: Luxury cars, there are no fewer than 7 Hummers and 1 Ferrari in Phnom Penh. Ridiculous when there are people sleeping in the streets.

Highlights:
- The local burger joint. Coming in at the same price as a cheeseburger back home, the 'special' burger was the clear champion. We're both ashamed of how many we ate during our stay..
- Dan's hair cut. The professionalism and concentration of the salon was exemplary, and a bargain at $5 NZ. In addition to the lead stylist there were two ladies acting as consultants to make sure that the end product was perfect.

Lessons Learned:
- If a moto driver thinks you are drunk the price of a ride triples.
- If a local guy that's drunk and works at the royal palace gives you his cell number and tells you he'll let you in for free, he probably won't.
- If you find yourself surrounded by tuk tuk drivers the best way to handle it is to say "I want to go here, who has the best price?" When we did it they immediately undercut each other and terse words were exchanged afterwards.

Happy birthday to us

Normally we try and summarise a few days of our trip and avoid going into specific, mostly mundane details, like what we ate for dinner. This post is an exception.

We celebrated our 25th birthday in Phnom Penh. For a birthday treat we kicked off the day by visiting a local diner that is popular with the students who attend the university next door. We devoured a couple of "Special Burgers" which contain a meat paddie, salad and a fried egg to top it off. The burgers really are special and we frequented the diner often.

Early on in our trip we made friends with an Australian - Troy. Troy was in Phnom Penh so we met up with him - it was cool to have someone else wish us happy birthday instead of just ourselves! We hired some bikes to take in the sights before finding the slowest internet cafe in all of Cambodia to Skype with family.


Dan and Clint improving New Zealand/Australian relations, one Australian at a time.

No birthday is complete without cake. We found a cake store and sampled a couple of pieces, which looked a lot better than they tasted (but on the whole not bad), before getting stuck into some ice cream.

The shorts we are wearing in the photo below were purchased as gifts to ourselves and we have been calling them the "birthday shorts".

After the sweet stuff we felt like some pampering so it was back on the bikes and off for a massage. We opted for a one hour traditional Khmer massage with oil. We felt really good afterwards, we weren't sure if it was the hour massage or the hour of listening to American R&B (which is all the rage over here) during the massage. Relaxation is a little diffcult when you're being beaten and bent and the girls are giggling and laughing amongst themselves - this only adds insult to injury.

In the evening we decided that we should have a birthday drink so with Troy in tow we set off to find a dairy to pick up some cold ones.

The first dairy we came across was a Blue Mart (much like a Seven Eleven from back home). In the store we noticed three young local lads at a table with beer cans sprawled around amongst empty plates - just like at a restaurant/bar but in a dairy. We quickly came to the decision that these guys were onto a winning idea so we pulled up chairs.

It wasn't long before the local lads started to ask us where we were from etc. They were all 26 and friends from their university days. One worked for the Ministry of Labour, another was a Policeman (complete with walkie talkie) and the other worked in the private sector. All smart, affluent and eager to show us a good time.

These guys had the show on lockdown and had obviously drunk in the dairy before. They had cold beers an arms reach away but preferred to click for the staff to get them fresh ones.

We inquired about good local nightclubs or "disco's" and they offered to accompany us to a place called Love Orange Club. The policeman took charge and wasn't afraid to pull rank. This was great to behold as he got whatever he wanted and we were "this is my friends".

Love Orange Club was amazing. We were the only foreigners which meant we could watch the spectacle unfold around us without feeling like we were really a part of it. The music was mostly, wait, you guessed it - American R&B, which just added to the hilarity of it all.

It was fascinating watching the dynamic between young Cambodian guys and girls, both of which are many years behind the maturity level of westerners of the same age group. For half an hour slow music was played and couples paired up and slow danced. We can only guess at the amount of strategy that was applied by the boys leading up to the partner allocation. We think it was coincidence but happy birthday featured on the playlist which was awesome.

A great night was had by all and it is anybody's guess how our local guides fared at work the following day. We suspect that crime called in hungover and that the thin blue line was one man short.

Sihanoukville

After the exertion of Siem Reap we felt as though some generally laziness would be appropriate. Sihanoukville is a great place for this as it is on a headland in the South of Cambodia. The bus trip there was an all day affair with a 6am "pick up" which really means you need to be ready at 6am and they'll pick you up anywhere between 6 and 7 to take you to the actual bus.

The bus trip went smoothly but we asked a few questions when it left us and a couple of other tourists behind at a rest stop. We found out that the bus driver had only gone to change a tyre but it is a little bit concerning when you aren't told this and you see the bus driving off in the distance with your bags.

When we arrived the sun was setting and without having a good look at the beaches we were already suitably impressed.

Sihanoukville has several beaches close at hand, most of which you'd think were named by an American for they include: Freedom, Independence, Victory and Serendipity. Tragic names aside, the beaches are great and the water is just as good. The hawkers, beggars and touts that roam some of the beaches are a little less relaxing but if you give them the "cold face" they get the message soon enough.

After the first night we decided to move accommodation to somewhere cheaper. We quickly found the infamous 'Chiva Shack' and we knew that our search was at an end. Chiva Shack specialises in budget accommodation and offers you your very own small room/cell for the tiny sum of $2 US per night.

Chiva Shack has a good atmosphere and was a great place to hang out during the day and into the evening. We made friends with a couple of young lads (Tropic and Thunder) from Christchurch who had both lived in the UK and had recently visited India. They gave us the low down on both places which should prove useful, although we thought some of it such as "watch out for chuckers if you're playing cricket in India" was common knowledge.

Photo above from left to right: Clint, Dan, Thunder and Tropic.

After three nights at Chiva Shack it was time to move accommodation again. Dan had a rather nasty encounter with what we think was a spider and Clint was a magnet to invisible creatures that like to bite. Anti-histamines, tiger balm and a lime (donated by an old Cambodian gentleman) saw us both right within a couple of days.

Above is a rather impressive statue in the middle of a roundabout or traffic circle as the locals like to call it.

Random Fact: The national beer "Angkor Draught" is brewed in Sihanoukville but it's not any cheaper.

Highlights

- Being abused by NZ'ers for not going on a Booze Cruise with them. The early morning wake up insults included "Get up, your not here for the culture!" and "John Key wants you to burn your passport, you're a disgrace to the country!".

- Sunday roast dinner. The first one since leaving home, very good but best described as quality rather than quantity.

Lessons Learned

- Insect repellent is ineffective against invisible creatures that bite.

- If you buy 20 shots of Absinthe (a highly potent alcoholic drink) at Chiva Shack you get a free t-shirt. Info courtesy of Tropic.

- Not all twins are as evenly matched as we are. Info courtesy of Thunder and his twin brother.

Siem Reap

Lately we've found ourselves doing things to excess. Be it eating, sleeping or site seeing we've been prone to over indulging. The rule of excess and our belief that every young man from New Zealand should be able to run a half marathon without training lead us to enter the Angkor Half Marathon. Set around the Angkor Temples the views were great and the temperature was hot.

Having completed the race we now need to update our CV's to include "International Athlete" as a hobby.

Cambodia is notorious for landmines and you definitely don't want to go wandering in the bush off the trail. Evidence is everywhere as beggars with missing limbs try to get "only $1" off of you.
We decided to find out more by spending an afternoon at a landmine museum. Setup by a Cambodian called Aki Ra his motto is "I want to make my country safe for my people". Over the years this guy has disarmed thousands of landmines and a lot of them are on display at the musuem. The museum also doubles as an orphanage and the kids that live there have written their stories which are on the walls to be read.

On the tuk tuk ride to the museum we drove through an army base before stopping at a large shed. We thought that something was up because the shed didn't look like a musuem (even a Cambodian one). A man comes strolling out and asks "you want to shoot gun?" Intrigued we went in and the wall was lined with about 30 different guns. From pistols to bazooka's the full arsenal was there (I tried to take photo's but got told off). This wasn't really our cup of tea so we declined the invitation.

Whilst in Siem Reap we managed to meet up with some Welsh lads who we met early on in our travels on Koh Phanang. It was good to catchup and exchange stories over a pint or two.


Random Fact
Cambodian's love playing volleyball. Neither of us can work out why - no matter how skillful and talented they are - from what we've seen, not very - their small stature is always going to be a major limitation.

Highlights
- Siem Reap town is very small and straightforward. It's easy to find bars, they are on a street called Pub Street and everywhere you can find stalls that sell meals for $1 USD.
- Cycling the city. At the traffic lights it's all out warfare as you navigate your way to the front and through the ensuing melee as the lights change to green.

Lessons Learned
-There really isn't much to do in Siem Reap apart from the temples.
- Marathon isn't pronounced as Marathon - it is "Marraton" (doh us). If you ask how to enter the Marraton you will be sent on a wild goose chase.
- Get up early or you'll get stuck with a really bad bike. There is nothing worse than a small hard seat and a rusty chain that refuses to stay on the gears.

Wat? Angkor Wat

After escaping the fast paced rat race that was the Four Thousand Islands we headed overland to Siem Reap in western Cambodia.

Siem Reap is a pretty popular tourist destination boasting hotels and an international airport. The reason we were there though was to see the Angkor Temples which were built around the 12th century. The most famous temple is Angkor Wat - it is the largest religious monument in the world.

We were up early and back on push bikes sweating up a farang (white person) storm.


The temples are only 7km out of town so we headed to the main gate and bought 3 day passes ($40 USD each). The Angkor Temples are very large and they are truly amazing.

After the Khmer (Cambodian nationals) empire was dominated by the Thai's the temples fell into disrepair before being "discovered" by a french botanist in the 18th century. The photo below is of us at a temple called Ta Prohm (where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed), a huge tree has sprung up over one of the walls.


Three days at temples is a long time by anybody's standards. We developed a routine where we would explore in the morning before avoiding the heat of the day by hiding inside a temple exploring and listening to our iPods. We tried to do our bit to help put the temples back together but it was hard when the rest of the work crew didn't show up...


With no help forthcoming we decided to take matters into our own hands...


As the day draws to a close alot of the tourists flock to Bakheng Hill which has a good view of some of the other temples, and of the setting sun. In the photo below you can see everyone perched like seagulls.


Random Fact
- The temples are leased by a Vietnamese petroleum baron who happens to be friends with the Cambodian King - thus depriving the impoverished country of the largest sum of tourism revenue.

Highlights:
- Seeing the variety of tourists on display. Everyone from the camera mad Japanese/Chinese/Korean to the older men dressed just like Indiana Jones minus the whip.
- Baiting the hawkers. Where there are tourists there are people trying to sell them things they don't want and don't need. A great game is to pretend you don't understand and generally feign confusion.
- Paying the guards "extra" to let us into the very top of Angkor Wat. It is currently closed to the public as it is being repaired.

Lessons Learned:
- Start the day early and avoid being out and about during the heat of the day. Inside a nice airy stone temple is the way to go.
- iPods help pass the time whilst exploring and if you turn them up loud you can't hear the hawkers.

Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands)

We left Vientiane on an overnight sleeper bus and arrived in Pakxe in Southern Laos the following morning. The bus had been a bit on the expensive side and when we saw it we quickly understood why - anything which claims to be "King of Bus" has to be good.


The minivan to Si Phan Don was tedious as the driver made a series of errors which saw us having to spend several hours at the Cambodian border before being dropped at the wrong dock, Don Kong instead of Don Khong (why name two places close to each other like this?!) back in Laos!. Short on cash and on patience we negotiated a reasonable deal for a boat which involved a stop at a money exchange en route to Don Khong.

We arrived at Don Khong in the afternoon. Thanks to our driver we had completed a 20 hour famine before we managed to eat lunch. Don Khong is a nice island catered towards the more mature tourist. We had a good rest after a long day traveling.

The following day we hired bicycles and did a circuit of the island. We took the long way around and ended up biking 32 km’s, once again on one speed bikes and in the heat of the day. It’s safe to say the ride helped our tans a lot.

The lack of young people (or the abundance of oldies?) meant that later that day we headed to a ‘backpacker’ island – Don Det.

Don Det is a great place. The lifestyle is amazingly relaxed, there are things to visit and the prices are the cheapest we have seen.

We went across the island and checked out the waterfalls. They weren’t as beautiful as the ones we’d seen in Luang Prabang but they had alot more volume to them and were far more menacing.



Because we have a streak of daring in us (and because we've had lots of jabs) we decided to roll the dice against dysentery, cholera and typhoid and go swimming in South East Asia's sewer, the Mekong.


Our bungalow was perched right on the edge of the Mekong and came complete with hammocks which made it the perfect place to laze around and watch the sunset.


Don Det doesn’t have any cash points or money exchanges so we were forced off of the island when we ran out of cash. We paid a deposit for a bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia and left the following day.

Random Fact:
-Don Det doesn't have an electricity connection from the mainland. When it gets dark the locals fire up the generators until about 11pm.

Highlights:
- The local delicacy which is steam cooked, minced fish (bones and all), wrapped in coconut leaves. Very salty.
- Dirt cheap accommodation - $4 NZ for a riverside bungalow with sunset views.
- Beating the locals at table tennis - they had nothing to combat the forearm smash, with several balls striking the opposition in the head - awesome.

Lessons Learned:
- Avoid paying for transport up front. We would have avoided the border debacle if we hadn’t of paid all the money at the start of the ride.
- Laolao (rice whiskey) is supposed to be smoother in Si Phan Don. This isn’t the case and it’s as rough as anywhere else in Laos.
- Take plenty of cash because money isn’t available on the islands. We left because of a lack of funds, but the four nights we had on the island were enough.
- Shower whilst it's light outside and you can see whats going on.

Capital City - Vientiane!

After five days in Vang Vieng we'd had enough. We boarded a bus bound for the capital city of Laos, Vientiane.

It was naive of us to believe that Vientiane would be a metropolitan oasis and provide us with our much craved fix of busy city life. Instead Vientiane charged us big city prices for not much in return - but it wasn't all bad.

We spent the best part of our first day at a gym - after Vang Vieng we were craving some healthy living. We did a workout, cooled off in the pool, and then had an hour long traditional Laos massage all for about $10 NZD. Les Mills could take note of these prices!

The following day we hired bicycles and set off to see the sights. First up was Patuxai which translates to Victory Gate or Gate of Triumph.


The Patuxai was built using American funds. The US had given Laos money to build a new airport, however the Laotian government of the day used the money to build the monument instead - classic! For a fee we climbed to the top and the view was worth the effort.


Next on the sight seeing agenda was Pha That Luang - better known as the national symbol of Laos. We timed our visit perfectly to arrive during the full force of the midday sun. We were sweating up a storm whilst fending off hawkers but it was worth it.

Aside from checking out the sights we obtained visa's for Cambodia - the next country on our visit list. The visa process was a very interesting experience - we biked to the embassy at 10am only to be told to come back at 2pm. At 2pm we arrived back and met some irate Israeli's. They warned us that the official on duty would try and charge us extra for the visa - usually $20US.

Sure enough the little scum bag tried to make us pay him $30US. We tried to reason with him but when that failed we put on our angry voices and tried to physically intimidate whilst sitting down. This paid dividends as we got our visa's for the correct price - yay us!

Random Fact
- At sunrise and sunset a public aerobics class takes places on the banks of the Mekong. Everyone is out of time and it is very entertaining.

Highlights
- Seeing a bright yellow Lamborghini in a communist country - Mr Chairman is that allowed?
- Saying good bye to Vientiane - it's not a bad place, there just isn't much to do.


Lessons Learned
- This is it - what you see is what you get, there is no hidden night life, there are no markets, go to bed and get some sleep.
- Cambodian visa's - stick to your guns and you wont get ripped off.