Day 1: 14/08/08 Phnom penh

kim got up at 5.50am in order to get to the internet cafe at 6am....precisely midnight english time to check ucas to see if all the million arrangements she had made for clearing would be necessary...literally family, friends even neighbours were all on standby ready for action (especially as our "global"simcards dont actually work in both cambodia and vietnam...helpful!!!) after some difficulty logging on, it turned out the oage was not yet updated and therefore she had no more idea than after first waking!!! we would have to wait until the end of the day for brims mums phonecall! (yes she was veyr narky!) boarded our bus for the journey to ho chi minh city (saigon) where we pretty much slept the whoel way, apart from the silylt iem whenw e had to get off the bus twice in the space of 10 minutes to get through the vietnam border! we said our goodbyes to amy after a last lunch and headed off to find the blue river hotel. we walked in cicles for at least a good hour with our bags we found ti was literalyl 2 minutes from the restaurant we had lunch at and full anyway! however we were sent over the road to a ncie hitel with free itnernet. kim went online on ucas where we were merely confused more about the situation and still didnt know wether she had got into uni or not (we had a slight suspicion that she might off as it said offer accepted but didnt want to get our hopes up!) to stop her beign too moody we dumped our stuff and headed out to book our bus to nha trang. this led to much hilarity walkking up and down the same street as she was sure she had seen a sign for one for 6 dollars! we had o luck findidng this and got drenched in a torrential downpour....which we skipped through! got our ticket and some yummy ponchos (again!!!). pulled funny faces with them to entertain ourselves for a while (yes it doesnt take much!) and the poncho is also useful for covering kim wet t-shirt competiiton t-shirt...u get my drift :p the asians loved it! watched the olympics for a while untill brims mummy rang with the ""dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh" (for dramatic effect!) results! the results were both surprising and relieving as clearing was not necessary, kim had got onto the course she wanted-anatomy and human biology, at the uni she wanted-liverpool and had done it in style with full marks in one of her papers! who needs teachers?!? she did also royally c**k up one paper in another subject though so lets not get carried away! even so, we wanted to make sure this was defintie and called liverpool uni to confirm she had a place....and she does WOOP WOOP!!!!!

brim would just like to say how veyr proud she is of her little munchkin she did FANTASTIC!!!! also she would like to add that she nearly cried, not onyl at how well kim had odne (but at the relief of not havin the stresses of clearing!) NOW FOR THE GOOD TIMES!!!

brim finally gota reply from her otherwise none existant sister (even after akign if she was dead a few times!) ehehhe lvoe you really and we headed to our local favourite restaurnat to celebrate :D the days events had taken their toil and with an 8am bus kim jsut wanted a bit of tiem with brim in the room to take it all in and de-stress!

Day 2: Nha trang

ANOTHER bus journey....yes we are making up for the past years of refusal of english public bus transport! this one was a lovelly 10 hours....on board however we met a vietnamese guy (with a ridiculously long little fingernail!) who later on found us the perfect hotel with satalite tv, aircon, an en0sutie and massive beds all for $10 a night, thats 2.50 pound each! there was also the cutest little australian girl, but not so cute when she was sick. there was one epic event...when the bus drove off and left us at a random place with no luggage....say no more! for dinner we trated ourselves to the same same but different cafe....this turned out to be a very goo choice! we chsoe 2 dishes to share, one was tuna ina tomato and onion sauce and the other was grilled bbq fish..YUM YUM! we had a stroll on the beach under the stars and truly felt at home this is just what we needed after weeks of non stop go go go cultural action. we returned to the hotel to find the wonders fo star world tv channel...we cannot explain the delights and entertainment it gave us...especailly the momment of truth game show, where contestants win moeny by answering honestly to extremly revealign questions~say no more!

Day 3: Nha trang

BEACH DAY! set an alarm to get up, but was woken before by the sun streaming through the window and headed straight to the beach. on the way kim rang her rentals and brim saw the funny little vietnamese guy where she trie dvietnamese ice tea. ntoe to oneself DO NOT DRINK! hit the water and pretty much spent the whole day on the beach where kim bought her 3rd pair of sunglasses which were customised for her (more to come) and brim spent a while trying to take pictures underwater (she then kille done of the batteries by forgetting to dry it oooops!) once it got a little too hot we began to crave fruit but not being able to find any (silly fruit woman dissapeared) went to a local cafe. that evening we were met by vietnamese guy whose name we still cant remember even though he offered for usto go and stay with is family for a few days, and his friend! jumped on thier scooters and were taken to a real vietnamese cafe thing full of locals (we were the only non vietnamese!) for dinner. here kim thought she would try a local vietnamese tattoo...yes she burnt herself nastiy on the exhaust of the scooter....note...we are writing this much later and it is in worse condition...oh dear! seafood was displayed alive and fresh and we ordered a kilo of crab amongst other bits and pieces. unfortunatly brims ridiculousness of stomach prevented her from trying ehr favourite seafood the crab she managed an arm before throwing up, this made her very sad :( kim munched away and instead of taking up the offer to be hosts to 1000 people on the beach for a full moon party with all drinks included, we took brim back to the hotel as she couldn't really move for some mroe star world action! surely that would be the cure?!

Day 4: Nha Trang

Woke up to the sound of the phone ringing...kim had been trying for days to contact her parents who, being so inconsiderate had ventured to vegas in her time of need!!! after receiving other offers for university she became very confused and needed a little advice so the welcome sound of mummys voice was just what she needed to sort her head out! a good chat confirmed what we already knew and cost her mum (andprobably the hotel) a fortune! brim lay and tried to sleep!!! we decided to spend the day out of the sun after a little too much exposure and sort out various issues. first kim frogmarched brim to the doctors where we waited for 2 hours as we were exploited by the rude locals jumping ahead of us. eventually got in for the doctor to diagnose ""ällergy"...she was given 5 sets of differnet tablets, one for each symptom....clearly the doctor had no idea what was wrong!!! kim went to sort out her congratulatory ipod with her 8559 songs (thank u mummy and daddy :D )and to buy battery charegr for the camera she had borrowed off andy! Brim finally bought a new iPod charger...critical for us with the travelling ahead! We spent quite some time at the red apple club booking our trips for the next few days and chatting with Phill the owner...this was to come in handy later on! We were approached by a guy waving a 10% off sign at us for a local restaurant so thought why not! we chose to share a beef hot pot....OH WHAT A CHOICE!!!!! the waitress literally cooked it in front of us and served it as we went, meat cooked to perfection. We have fallen in love with little bowls-they make you think you've eaten loads when u haven't really!!!!! BRILLIANT! Again star world called!!!

Day 5: Nha Trang boat trip

We left at 9am having climbed aboard to find a boat full of korean families when we were expecting more of a booze cruise crew...however we were saved by a bunch of english (+ 1 canadian) girls and funky monkey and his band! First we headed to Mun Island where we jumped off the boat for a dip in the sea and some floating around in rings....we were glad to get off the boat....a korean baby was sick and korean family made no effort to clean it up....REALLY who brings children on a trip like this! We climbed aboard and claimed the top deck as our own for a spot of sunbathing. next we stopped at Mot Island where we were served a FEAST for lunch! Literally bowl after bowl after bowl of food was laid before us! (we even stole a few bananas left at the end-we're on a budget remember!!!)(none for brim though-eugh!) Next came the floating bar!!!! we jumped off the top deck to discover literally a ring of metal with a few cup holders and a seat in the middle with a pot bellied vietnamese holding a bucket of funky monkey cocktail.....this turned out to be the WORST cocktail ever-resembling digestive biscuits and cookies with a slice of pineapple and a hint of lemon :S !!!!! The rule of the bar was you are not allowed to say no....but the barman prompted this answer and we all screamed ha you said no...and were made to drink! messy times! Kim then took over the bar and became bartender, literally sitting in the flaoting bar and shunting out mr pot belly! drinks were liberally served-with a slight tendancy to favour the girls! we climbed back aboard with brim deciding not tot ake the usual route, instead like a monkey she climbed up using tyres strung togetehr the fron bit of the boat onyl to be pushed back off by funky monkey, so she did it again :p oh the arms of steel!!! We then began the karoake....various people were called up....first we danced on the table continually banging our heads to some mexican songs and again were filmed by random men-this is becoming a regular occurrence but is still disturbing!!!! next, kim was called up as miss england (how silly you are funky monkey-u dont know how badly she sings!) and sang eternal flame with funky monkey in a passionate performance with the rest of the boat joining in.....kim had to act up as clearly her singing would just upset the entire boat!!!! Spent the rest of the day jumping on and off the boat at random stops, admiring the islands and their surroundings untill at oru last stop we randomly met these 2 aussie boys who we ahd randomly met in the zone one bar in cmabodia!!!! small world!!! last but not least was the fruit party.....we were very excited and finalyl got to try some dragon fruit (not all that great, the pink is decieveing!) and some little apples which tasted of poo and tree, very upsettign but the pineapple kind of made up for it but it still wasnt jungle pineapple!

ce soir - we went out for dinenr at a local restuarnat called local..hahahaha!! then bought a bottle fo rum and aranged to meet later to finally cleebrate those bloomign results! the red apple club was the source of our entertainment, especialyl as it was ladies night, not as you know it......phill and his crew literally lokked like woman, you wouldnt of been able to tell (we now fully aprpeciate the lady boy situation!). phill continued to serve us bucket after bucket and shot after shot....all for free we bought one all night (mistake makign it the logn island iced tea one which we furthered with a dash or 8 of our rum!). we had more kareoke as we sang wonderwall with phill and summer of 69 as we are having the sumemr of our lives!!! by now we are not going to lie but were quite innebreiated...this led to writing on the walls (brim being told off for writting on the wrong one!) and also brim break dancing in the street....why? she ahs no idea! we decided that ratehr than heading to the beach we should probably get soem food adn head to bed as we had another trip at 8:30...it was past 2 by now! this lasted longer than expected after a political debate with a guy with abd trousers and even worse hair who later appologised and admitted we were both right! HA!

Day 6: Nha trang and doc let beach :D

feeling a little worse for wear we met up with amy and sarah at the red apple clubto depart for our bus and then boat to monkey island. it was nice to know gin (yes couldnt say his name properly!) was also slightly worse for wear, he was our leader!this considerably cheered us up and we were able to feed wild monkeys and watch them in thei rnatural habitat includign a mother protecting her month old baby. the competition for food meant some jumping and naughty monkeys....for ocne the naughty monkeys wernt us! on the other side of the island we had a few momments to take in some astounding scenery with photos of course! then desperate for some food we were erved another amazing feast!!! we learnt how to use rice paper to make vietnamese rolls with fresh fish (served with the head whic gin then later ate iwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!), beef, crocodile and osterich...that was just the first course! took our full bellies for an hours relaxation, sitting in the shadey trees in wodden frames with hammock like seats for chairs, looking out over the secluded bay with light music and entertaining chit chat. heaven.

Ba Ho falls were our next destination. when we arrived we discovered brims drunken state had resulted in a ridiculously swollen ankle, twice the size of the other....we ere meant to climb rocks to reach the tierd waterfalls, which you will be pelase dto know she still did!! gin aided her, partially carryign her over some to the falls where we got to the 2nd and stopped for a rest. kim jumped in onyl to run out a minute later with ehr burn stingign whilst brim carefully for once made her way in. unfortunatly brim couldnt go on to the top level that wo0uld of been silly, but kim went up for a quick peek and posed for some piccies and gin classified her as a warrior and insisted he leave her in nature "where you belong"...thanks gin!!!! brim bravely made her way back down, onyl for gin to give her a terrfiying piggy back at one point, jumping form rock to rock with her on his back why oh why?!. having taken so logn the bus driver was not in the best of spirits and his driving literally terrified us! we made our way to doc let beach later than expected, went for a wonder but the weather soon impeded our activity and the four of us went ot our beach hut to finally recover from the night before!

Day 7: Doc Let Beach

WOW! we all awoke early and went straigh to the beach. this is the most stunning beach we have seen, whtie sands, crystal clear blue water which were shallow so you could walk far out, lined by palm trees and surrounded by mountains and a clear blue sky.......perfect for a day of gossip, sunbathing, chilling out and just a bit of us time in the most beautiful place :) the pictures will prove our point!!! unfortunatly we had to leave and after more pictures we jumped in the bus to play uno and be encouraged by gin to sing britney spears (he knew more of the words than us?!). when we got back did bits a pieces and then headed back to latern (the 10% off restaurant) where kim had anotehr hot pot with amy and brim tried this delicious corn and crab soup! brim had to buy ANOTHER ipod charger after breaking the one she recently bought by pulling it too hard out of her bag! We then prepared ourselves for the 10 hour night bus. It wa a ridiculous bus with a ridiculous driver and crew. kim got told off for putting her flip flop on the bed and was even made to dust off the mess, oh so messy! and we got told off for sitting in the isle whislt platting hair...how petty! the driver also would jerk you awake every 10 minutes lurching round bikes and trwoing you out of the tiny bunk bed whilst loudly beeping his horn. wernt too impressed either by the stops when you finally got to sleep and they scream "TOILET" to wake you back up!we didn't need it anyway! if we did, we'd already be awake!!!!!!

Day 8: Saigon

Arrived back at saigon and thankfully got off the bus with veyr little sleep to share a taxi to the airport with a random german. waited ac ouple of hours for our flight to singapore......sad to be leaving south east asia :(