George:

Our last few days in Vietnam consisted of a motorbike tour, quad bikes over sand dunes, a very depressing war museum and 3 days on the meKong delta.

So after the death defying canyoning day we decided to see more of what dalat had to offer and booked a motorcycle tour with the very aptly named 'easy riders'. It was a very fun and interesting day in which we felt we saw the real Vietnam. Perched on the back of a large motorcycle we were driven around various beautiful locations 1,500m above sea level in the city of eternal spring. We stared off at the Dragon pagoda, then climbed a large hill to take in the view of dalat. Next stop was a coffee plantation where we drank weasel coffee. The weasels are bread especially because of their quality taste for coffee beans. They then poop em' out and we drink the grinded remains! Trust me it's good. Other stops included elephant falls, silk worm and rice wine factorys, mushroom and flower farm, minority village and a traditional Vietnamese lunch. All in all a very good tour and for it, dalat became one of our favourite places in Vietnam.

On our last day in dalat we walked around the town and visited a must see in the crazy house.

On to mui ne. This stop was included in our open bus ticket but we herd it was very similar to na trang which we weren't too fond of. We spent one night here and were able to fit in a sunrise trip to the sand dunes. The white sand dunes were spectacular and vast, we hopped on a quad bike and picked our spot to watch the sun rise. Our jeep driver then took us to the red sand dunes. Whilst still awesome it was too crowded and there was a very poorly kept ostrich that was being used for rides. We didn't like this and moved on to the fairy stream. This was a small barefooted stroll up a stream with great views either side of bright red and white sand cliffs. The last stop was a manic fishing village where the locals were bidding on huge amounts of you guessed it....fish! If you stood still for too long you'd get trampled by one of these guys with a big basket of catfish on his head! Up at 4:30 and back by 10am in time to catch the bus to ho chi Minh city.

Kelly:

It was a long and uncomfortable bus journey to Ho Chi Minh. By the time we arrived, we were eager to get straight to the hotel to relax and shower. We stepped off the bus just as the heavens opened and, after being hounded by the taxi and tuk tuk touts, feeling dazed and confused, we jumped into the closest taxi we could find. Needless to say, he saw his opportunity and took it. 20 minutes and 250,000 Vietnamese dong later, we arrived at our hotel... a 3 minute walk from the bus stop. Excellent.

Luckily, the hotel was great value for money and felt quite luxurious. We managed to get over it pretty quickly and headed out, to find our friends John and Amy, to get some grub. All ended well as we decided to go to the cinema and I got to watch (by watch, I mean perve over!) Channing Tatum in 22 Jump Street for 2 hours.

The following day, we immersed ourselves in the history of Vietnam and went to visit the war museum. A lot of what we read and saw was really upsetting and George took in much more than I did. As I prefer writing about prettiness and adventures, I'll get him to write about the gruesome parts...

George:

As we were in Ho Chi Minh we had to go to the war museum, depressing or not. Even though I knew about the Vietnam war I had no idea about the details and the effects it had on the country. Here they call it the American war and the effects of the chemical war fare are still very evident today. Agent Orange was used by the US to spray over the country causing the worst kind of damage. The war went on for 17 years, 3 million people were killed, 2 million being civilian. And this is all only 40 years ago. The day all in all was a shock to the system that made me us feel a bit sick.

Kelly:

There were lots of gruesome photos on show so after all of that we needed a stiff drink. We headed to Vietnam's answer to Khoa San Road and happily took advantage of happy hour.

Travelling from the very top right down to the bottom of Vietnam was a great experience. We took in the obligatory tourist stops, saw parts off the beaten track, went on some incredible and life threatening day trips as well as overcoming some fears and meeting some great friends. It was also really nice to have John around as he was fresh on his travels and still really happy about doing all the planning!! It gave me a break!

To get into Cambodia we all decided that the more interesting route would be via the Mekong River. The 4 of us booked a three day boat trip which took us through the Mekong Delta then up into Phnom Penh with a relatively hassle free boarder crossing.

We had a lot of time on the river, we saw fishing farms, villages and floating markets. The locals would bathe in the river, go to the toilet in the river and use the water from the river to cook!! Our guide used the phrase 'on the riiiver' A LOT!

We visited a Cham village which had families who were not allowed to live in Cambodia but the Vietnamese had said if they can build a house in this area on the river, they could stay. Although they have been pushed into poverty by both the Vietnamese and Cambodian government. They seemed to be both victims of the Vietnam war and even more so the Khmer rouge regime, which we were to find out more about when we arrived in Cambodia. Seeing their little wooden houses was yet another wake up call.

We went from long tail boats to row boats to speed boats. We spent the evenings in two different towns where we sampled the local street food. We saw traditional music performances, tasted honey straight from the hive and ate barbequed rat washed down with more delicious (or not!!!) rice wine. My favourite day was spent in a huge mangrove forest where we had a row boat tour and saw cranes and storks. It was beautiful and peaceful, on the riiiiver!

Eventually, we arrived in Phnom Penh. A place where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There were Rolls Royce dealerships next to wooden shacks and begging children. A sign on one establishment stated 'no bodyguards or weapons permitted inside'. A third world country where certain types of people seem to be reaping all the benefits. Our hotel was questionable to say the least. While in Phnom Penh, we visited the killing fields. The details of the Khmer rouge regime are outrageous, unbelievable and devastating. Thousands of people including women and children were killed in the most barbaric ways and dumped in mass graves. Walking around the killing fields, you can still see bones being unearthed by recent rainfall. In the center of it all, a memorial to the dead with a glass cabinet full of skulls, bones and clothes detailing the evidence of how each discovered body had been killed. This all started in 1975 and didn't dissolve completely until 1999. Again, the effects of this are still very evident today.

On a more light hearted note, while there we also had a spa day and the boys shot guns! Only in Cambodia!

After all of this, I was desperate for some beach time so our next stop was Sihanoukville. We were hoping that we could do some island hopping from here but the weather just wasn't on our side so we had a couple of days by the coast then were on our way to Siem Reap. By this point, Cambodia wasn't really doing it for me! I was expecting Siem Reap to be much like Phnom Penh. However, when we arrived I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. I will even go as far as saying it has been my favourite Asian city. It had a perfect mix of markets, restaurants and night life. We were here for just three days and I could've easily stayed longer. We visited a beautiful spa, shopped in the Incredible markets and spent our evenings watching the world cup and dancing with the locals in Pub Street (sounds horrendous but it really wasn't!) We took in the culture of the impressive 400 square kilometer Ankor region; visiting many ancient temples including the site where tomb raider was filmed. Sunrise over Angkor Wat, the most famous temple in SE Asia was breathtaking.

All in all Cambodia was full of mixed emotions. After the many ups and downs, it was back to Thailand for some island time!

We took another looooong bus to Bangkok, where we said goodbye to John and Amy, then flew from Bangkok to Phuket. Phuket was a total let down, so touristy and ruined. We'd purposely stayed in an area away from the main tourist area and even there we couldn't get away from it. This aspect combined with the rainy seasons monsoons meant that 3 days was too long. Not much else to say about it... On to koh lanta! The boat trip there was an event in itself. The landscape was similar to that of Ha Long Bay but instead of emerald green waters we were blessed with turquoise blue. Stunning! A quick stop at Phi Phi then on to Lanta. We were much luckier with the weather and, due to it being the low season, we found a beautiful bungalow on the seafront where I spent the next 4 blissful days in my hammock reading! The sea was too rough for swimming or snorkelling and most restaurants were closed, it felt like we had the whole island to ourselves!!

We hired a moped, visited the old town, ate, drank and slept. That is all. The most eventful thing that happened was George losing his balance and throwing me off the ped in to a ditch (mum u have my permission to give him a whack for that when we get home!).

After Lanta, we got a bus then a long tail boat to beautiful Railay beach. Low season again striking in our favour; we paid £12 a night to stay in the most incredible jungle bungalow with insane views over the ocean which in high season would have been £40 a night. The island had plenty to do but was a little above our budget so we had another few lazy days sunning ourselves in the morning then avoiding the afternoon downpour. We watched the rock climbers, mingled with the marquey monkeys and ate street food from a boat. At night we were kept awake by the sounds of crickets, geckos and bullfrogs.

Next stop, Krabi. After Phuket, my expectations were low and again I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived on a Friday just in time for the weekend night market! Best market ever!! I've dragged George to hundreds of markets over the past year and even he loved this one. The selection of food, drinks, trinkets, tat and clothes available was impressive to say the least and to top it off we were treated to a free performance from local dancers and musicians while we ate our ample selection of goodies. With the interesting and colourful array of sights and smells, I wanted to eat everything! We settled on mojitos, seafood, chicken, rice, kebabs and cake. If I wasn't so stuffed, I would have gone for seconds!! For the two of us we spent just under £5. Bargain!

With time running out, we had just one day in Krabi before heading all the way north to Chiang Mai, and as it was only 400 baht, we decided to spend that day island hopping- our favourite thing to do! And what an incredible day it was!! White sand, Crystal clear seas and best of all, no rain and a scorching hot sun! We snorkelled, sunbathed and swam all day from one beautiful island to another.

We are currently heading up to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Last night we spent 13 hours on a night bus to Bangkok and straight from there we got on a 12 hour train. A journey that could've taken 2 hours on a plane but would have cost double. Ah the life of a traveller!!

We have exactly three weeks left. Can't quite believe how quickly that year has gone!! Looking forward to seeing everyone at home but there's so much more to see!! I guess we'll just have to do it all over again ;)