The time had come to go home. After 3 and a half weeks of travelling, it is hard to believe it is all over. It seems a long time that we have been away, yet by the same token its flashed by in a... well, flash! We have so many 'thanks' to say...Selective Asia for organising our trip, our guides and drivers for ensuring that we got to experience everything we wanted, our hotels and their staff for their hospitality...oh, and our malaria tablets, without which we would not have been able count down the days before we went home. Before we get home we have many challenges ahead of us...relearning how to open a door for ourselves, having to make a decision other than what shall we eat/drink and navigating a final rail journey comprising shuttle transfer from terminal 4 to terminal1/2/3, shuttle train to Hayes and Harlington, change/train to Reading, change/train to Bristol TM, change/train to Nailsea, all subject to the vagaries of British Rail...and without a guide (and 'mush for brains'). To conclude our trip, I thought I would reflect on our travels, but before I do, there was one final story to recount. We had been dropped off at our final hotel, a final stopover for 5/6 hours before pick up for our flight home.True to form I wasn't going to let a few hours sightseeing go to waste, so I had planned a walk north of our hotel to the West lake (which happens to be in the north of the city), visiting a pagoda and, just in case Julie hadn't had quite enough temples, take in just one more temple. As we strolled around the lake, I did not pay much attention to a free range cockrel wandering around, after all we had strolled past hundreds during the past 3 weeks. Free range chickens can be defined as 'free to roam the streets, eeking its food from the scraps it can find, whereas 'battery chickens' are constrained to wander on the flat roof of their owners house, as we have often observed looking down on high, from our hotel rooms. Now, this is this cockrel decided that I was walking far too close to the female in front of me (Julie), which he had decided was one of his harem and, thus, his property, and he started advancing menacingly towards me. I decided to introduce this cockrel to my size 9 sketchers (shoes) and gave him a light kick. Big mistake! This cockrel thought 'You think you're hard dont you? You and your big time american shoes! Here 'av some!!' At which point he flew at me in a rage of feathers and squawking, leaving me running around in circles, trying to fend off his ball of fury, with my 'man bag', much to the amusement of the onlooking locals. Now we all have heard of the phrase 'being chicken' but what phrase do you use to describe someone who is even more scared than a chicken! So even at the end of our holiday, we have Chickengate II.

So onto my reflections...the people...
Laos - gentle shy folk from a very poor country, where education is still second place to scraping a day to day living.
Cambodia - quiet and passive people, but prone to the giggles most of the time. Still struggling to develop itself under the weight of corruption and, with many Khmer rouge still in positions of authority, could still undergo strife of some sort in the near future.
Vietnam - Gregarious and ambitious people, but very friendly and certainly not as 'pushy' as we were led to believe. The people are desperate to be rewarded more for their hard work but the state, which has a firm grip, does not always reward it.

Five negative experiences? It's difficult to think of 5 such things as almost everything went to plan and better. But here goes...
1. Being bumped off our flight from Hue to Saigon. After the initial sense of panic, it was clear it would only be an inconvenience and, in the end, worked for the better.
2. Being ripped off by $25 dollars by a money changer in Luang Prabang. As always, you take your eye off the ball when something else happens at the same time (I was worried that we had no change to pay the ferryman and in a rush).
3. Losing my prized cowboy hat, $60 from USA, which I have only worn on one holiday. I had put in down in a shop and forget it. When I remembered what I had done and gone back there was no trace of it. Somewhere in Laos there is a man wandering around looking like Indiana Jones but only 5ft in height. If you see him tell him its my hat!
4. (Julie) climbing down a steep muddy bank in the pouring rain and thunder and lightening, to embark on our unofficial ride across the Mekong river.
5. Being attacked by a chicken and coming second (see above).

...and our 5 favourite things...
1. Getting up really close to the people, whether it was our guides, the street children, their parents. We really feel that in the time we have had we have been able to cross over from mere tourist (and therefore only seen as a source of income).
2. The sheer beauty of the limestone karsts at Halong Bay, fulfilling an ambition I have held since 9 years old to swim in the gulf of Tonkin.
3. Our Mekong cruise. The sheer beauty of the delta and feeling like a lord and lady as we cruised in such luxury.
4. Angkor Wat, it met all of the hype you read about in the travel magazines.
5. The sheer variety of food we have tasted, and despite chilligate, we have not suffered one iota. Although I'm not sure that I would have enjoyed eating that rooster I came across... that was one tough bird!

...oh there is one other good thing...
(Andy) watching Julie slither down a muddy river bank in the rain (and thunder and lightening! :-) )

Comments:

Peter B Andy, it sounds like you had an exceptional time, which is fantastic given the time you put into planning and the expectations which you had every time you spoke about it. Good to have you both back in the UK in one piece. About the old rooster. c*** fighting is as you know a major sport in Asia and you probably chose to pick a fight with the sole retired all Asia champion. His agent says that he is up for a rematch. I am going to miss your travel blog. Take care and we hope to see you soon. Pete

Apr 18, 2015