Hanoi, Vietnam - the busiest place we know and Halong Bay, Vietnam - the most picturesque.

When we arrived in Hanoi we thought we would be ok with the traffic due to the fact we had already been to China, Thailand and Cambodia! Wow, were we wrong! This place takes traffic and craziness to a whole new level. 

This is by far the busiest place we have been to and I don't think anywhere (apart from maybe India) will top it! The amount of mopeds, scooters and motorbikes is just incomprehensible - as many as Ho Chi Minh city, but as the streets where we are staying - in the old quarter - are so much smaller, it seems a million times busier. Just crossing the road is like a death run! We've become quite good at it! 

There aren't many restaurants in this area but hundreds of clothes, shoes, jewellery and other knick-knacks markets and shops. There are streets dedicated to just shoes or underwear. 

As cities go, Hanoi isn't one of our favourites and we were glad to only spend a couple of days here. Our main reason to stay in Hanoi was to use it as a base to visit Halong Bay!! 

Our hotel - the "Hanoi Posh Hotel" was lovely, very clean and good value for money. The staff were exceptionally helpful and friendly. They helped us to book our 3 night/4 day boat trip around Halong Bay. All activities, all food and all travel included all for around £100 each sounded like a brilliant deal - and we weren't disappointed! 

After a bumpy 4 hour bus ride to Halong harbour we set sail on the "Deluxe Fantasea Cruiser".

Our first stop were the limestone caves - on one of the 1969 islands in this beautiful UNESCO world heritage site. 

This cave system is buried deep inside the mountain of the island and spirals right up to the peak. Stalagmites and stalactites up lighted made for some impressive photos. 

Unfortunately this was also the starting point for every other cruise in the Halong Bay area - so it was a little crowded to say the least. 

We then had the opportunity to hop in a double kayak and explore another island cove at nightfall. Obviously I sat back and let Oliver do all the work whilst I enjoyed the view. 

We ate dinner under the starlight and whiled away the rest of the evening chatting and making new friends. 

In the morning everyone went their separate ways which was strange to only have known some of them for 1 night only. The rest of us were whisked over to Cat Ba Island.

Cat Ba Island is the biggest of the islands in Halong Bay and in high season is rammed full of sun loving tourists. We were lucky enough to visit in low season and had the beaches all to ourselves. This was also our first time seeing an empty road in South East Asia - not a common occurrence! 

We got to trek up to the top of a mountain in Cat Ba National Park with a crazy little Vietnamese woman that spoke no English, but insisted on calling Oliver "monkey man" and making him swing on a tree! 

The view at the top was worth the hike up even though we ended rock climbing the last section. The jungle was so dense and green it again felt like we were in "Jurrasic Park". 

We spent the afternoon on the deserted beaches and stayed in our nice hotel. In the morning we set off for "Monkey Island" our main attraction! 

This was our first experience of staying on a small island in a beach hut right in front of the ocean. Oliver had a lot of fun on the beach and in the sea, spending most of it in a kayak! 

Having a few drinks and a seafood BBQ - with as many oysters as I could physically eat - was very romantic and special. 

We definitely could have spent a lot longer here enjoying the good food and private beach  - we were very sad to leave but it was time to depart from Halong Bay and move onto our next adventure - trekking through the jungle in Chang Mai, Thailand! 

Ho Chi Minh City - there are 9 MILLION motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh!!!

It's really hard to put the amount of moped and bikes that are scooting around in to perspective! But trust us - it was craaaaazy! 

We started our journey into Vietnam by staying at a local villagers house in small area close to the Cambodian border.  

A quick stop-over only lasting one night. We have stayed in similar “local houses“ on other tours and in our opinion they are wasted journeys. 

The tour companies, G adventure etc use these home stays to give you a cultured, more traditional experience whilst backpacking. In theory the idea is perfect but in practise it doesn't work. 

We think the time should be spent getting to know the family, maybe helping out on the farm or getting involved in some traditional past times. Instead we tend to arrive late normally at night time, eat straight away then go to sleep on something that vaguely resembles a bed. This isn't enough time to fully immerse yourself in their culture or really get to know them and enjoy it.

Ho Chi Minh city itself is not too dissimilar to many other asian cities. They tend to be heavily populated with very bad traffic and have one area where all the western backpackers stay, get drunk and eat full English breakfasts. 

The business in the city!

Vietnam is our first destination that were not on an organised tour but instead travelling on our own and so far loving the freedom that it gives you. 

Never underestimate the exterior of a hostel down a back alley! The front of the hostel we stayed in was actually the family's living room, which we thought was weird but the  owner and his wife turned out to be the nicest owners we've met. 

As he took us to our room we were greeted with an ensuite, double bed, fridge/freezer and a balcony all for £12 a night. This was the cleanest, safest and nicest place that we've stayed in so far. 

We had the chance to visit the Cu Chi defences - a vast network of underground tunnels that held the Vietcong during the Vietnamese war with America. 

These tunnels held the American army at bay for years, by using the environment to their advantage. We were shown a demo of all the nasty hidden bamboo traps they used and also the clever inventions they used to keep themselves alive and unnoticed. 

After the tour we had the opportunity to go to the gun range and experience firing the guns used during the war. We both got the chance to fire AK47's!

I then went to the war museum which the Vietnamese have officially named it the "American war crimes museum" an incredibly bias view on the war. There were no pictures of the Vietcong soldiers, only women and children helping the war effort.

Even though I could tell it was very bias and mainly propaganda against the Americans, no one can deny some of the horrible things the Americans did during this time. The use of agent orange, a chemical weed killer which was supposed to be used to clear the jungle, had some horrific side effects on the human body and even today children are being born with severe health defects. 

I am currently looking into the Vietnamese war more closely because both sides used heavy amounts of propaganda and the media to portray two very contrasting opinions on the war.

In general Ho Chi Minh City was suited more for my interests than Steffie's but entwined with the cute hostel and nice food we both had a short but enjoyable time. The only sad bit was saying goodbye to the new friends we had made during the tour of Cambodia.

The sign for another hostel - questionable...?

Enjoying his Vietnamese food :) 

Now a quick flight to Hanoi and Halong Bay!

Sihanoukville - we FINALLY got to see the sea after 6 weeks!!

After a VERY long and bumpy bus journey from Phomn Penh we arrived at the beautiful beach of Sihanoukville! First stop was to get some washing done - 50cents for 2 kilos - gotta love the locals in Cambodia! 

By this point we were itching to get on the beach so literally ran the 500 metres it took to get there! And we weren't disappointed. It was clean, white sand with lovely blue sea bordered with lots of bars and restaurants. Perfect! We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach and then went back to get ready for our "big night out!" So basically back to the beach.

We had some AMAZING freshly caught and barbecued seafood with baked potato, salad and garlic bread all for $4 each (which is about £2.50!!) Then we cracked on with the drinking! Another $4 gets you a "vodka bucket" - literally a bucket full of vodka and pineapple! Needless to say we only had 5 of these during the night! 

We carried on this way for the rest of the night, partying and dancing and having the best time with our lovely group. Drunk as we were when it started to rain we decided to strip off and jump in the sea at 1am - I had obviously forgotten about all the jellyfish! Rolling around in the dark with everyone laughing hysterically was clearly the best part of the night! 

By this point Oliver was rather drunk and asked to go back to the hotel which i kindly obliged (because I was completely drunk as well!), although not before jumping fully clothed into our hotel pool and dripping all the way up to the room! 

The next morning hangovers kicking in we got on a boat trip for the day. 

We did some snorkelling - only a little bit as I had a little freak out about being in the middle of the sea - and continued on to our deserted beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and sunbathing or in Oliver, Amy and Ryan's case playing water volleyball, making a cricket set and building sand castles. The beach was pure paradise as we were the only ones there. 

Our perfect deserted beach!

Ollie making a cricket set from drift wood!

Playing cricket! 

Sandcastles!!

What would we do without each other!!!

After a bumpy ride back to shore we set of to have a traditional "Khmer" massage at a local beauty salon. It was a brilliant massage but was pretty much the same as a Swedish massage (incase anyone at Lavender and Stone were wondering!) the only difference was it cost us $4 each!! Cheap, cheap, cheap!

We spent the last evening in Sihanoukville at the beach bar from the night before (they were very friendly at Angkor Bar!) having a group meal and again laughing and joking but NO drinking even though the locals were trying to ply us with $4 vodka buckets again! 

Our lovely new friends!

We LOVED Sihanoukville and being at the beach especially with the amazing new friends we have made from this group and were very sad to leave! But on the other hand very excited to explore Vietnam! 

Next stop Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam and a whole lot of army stuff!! 

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - history lesson of Cambodia!

Phnom Penh was a culture shock and a strong history lesson rolled into one.

This built up city of Cambodia is bathed in the blood of its past and has always had its struggled throughout its existence.

The constant changing monarchy and religion finally took its toll on the country in 1975 as the king desperately tried to get his country back. He looked for a solution and like so many developing countries at this time in history, they turned to communism. 

As the king was in exile he left his country in the hands of a local educated man, Pol Pot to get his kingdom back in shape. This man Pol Pot managed like so many other dictators to pray on the weak and poor by giving them hope. 

Pol Pot - the dictator.

People being made to work all day with no food, if they didn't comply they were taken prisoner. 

But by the afternoon of his first day in power he had shut the banking system down, closed all schools and hospitals and started rounding up all educated and foreign members of the public sending them to S21. S21 is a converted school which was now being used as a concentration camp to torture false confessions out of the people and then ship them off blind-folded to the most infamous place in Cambodia - "The Killing Fields". 

The rooms that the prisoners were tortured in

The prison in itself was a depressing but real reminder of the horrors that occurred during this time. 

There are only 2 survivors out of 7 alive today and we met one if them - Mr Chum Mey. He explained that he is nearly deaf from electrocution to his ears. He was constantly tortured if he moved as the chains would make a noise a give him away. If they didn't comply with the guards in any way his toe nails were pulled out, his fingers were broken or he was beaten repeatedly. There was little to no food given to them and he resorted to eating bugs that came into his cell. This also got him beaten if he got caught! He managed to escape as the war ended but  his wife and children were tortured and killed there. For him to come back everyday and relive his past must be torture. To meet this man was so inspirational but also very sad and was too much for Steffie who got upset. 

The cell that prisoners lived in. 

Tortured prisoners found dead at the end if the regime. 

Prisoners had their photo taken when arriving. This lady and her baby did not survive. 

So many people died in "The Killing Fields" that even today, after strong rainfall you can still see bones, rags of clothes and tooth fragments in the mud. 

Seeing all of the areas in "The Killing Fields" where people had been buried in mass graves, mostly naked and headless was disturbing. There is one particular tree that was used only for killing babies, bracelets and candles have been placed there in remembrance to these innocent little babes. 

The tree.

One of the mass graves. 

This tree was used to hang a speaker and to play loud music whilst the prisoners where being killed. This way the locals couldn't hear them scream. 

The sad sight of the hundreds of skulls that we're dug up. 

An estimated 3 million people where killed during this era with another 3 million still missing, all killed by children as young as 10. 

Pol Pot and his regime wiped out half the population and today you rarely see a person over the age of 40. 

Vietnam put a stop the the regime 5 years later but unfortunately like many genocides in our past, this went mainly undiscovered by the western world until 1997. By the time of the war crime trials in the early 2000's all of the people responsible where either dead or in exile. 

Unfortunately the government today is still the same as it was back then and a lot of the war criminals got away with their crimes. 

As Cambodia had full scale economic  collapse, they finally opened its doors to tourism to try and stay afloat. But with the combination of foreigners and a poverty stricken nation, along came the sex industry. We saw this first hand and we would say this has affected us the most on this tour.

Cambodia is filled with old, fat, ugly western men praying on the young and vulnerable. Parading their exploits around as if they have no shame. You can buy the company of a little girl for as little as $100 a night. This is why charities like "New Hope" are so valued in these devoping countries. 

Phnom Penh was a fascinating and thought provoking city and we are leaving this place more educated and culturally aware of the difficulties developing countries have. 

Next stop the beach! Sihanoukville!