So, another (nearly) two weeks has absolutely flown by, and we just arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, about an hour ago!! lots to chat about and also some new photos are up on flickr (my user name is lucylu223) if you'd like to take a look... I've had a brilliant time with Gary (and Jade and Chris), it's been a bit like a sort of mini holiday and I probably spent a bit too much money on good food and slightly nicer rooms but it was a real treat after living in the Hanoi hot house while we were volunteering!! Gary left Saigon yesterday morning, and we said goodbye to Chris this morning after we stayed in Saigon an extra day with him, so it's just the two of us again and we're in a brand new country now, ready for some new adventures!

Anyway, to get back to the usual way of things, here's a not-so-brief run down of what I've been up to the last little while...

After an hours' delay and of course being the last person to leave the aircraft too, Gary and I met up on the evening of 24th at Hanoi airport, which was brilliant!!an hour's coach ride back to our hotel and we'd caught up with each other's news, and as it always seems to be with us, it felt like no time at all had passed since we'd last seen each other, even though it'd been over 3 months!!Next day after a hearty breakfast in a nice rooftop cafe (and Gary's first experience of 'pho', a rather delicious beef noodle soup that Vietnamese people have at all hours of the day, including breakfast), and another dose of fanny ice cream, the four of us braved the midday heat and headed to the Hoa Lo Prison Museum (otherwise known as the 'Hanoi Hilton' during the war, where American POWs were kept until 1973). It was pretty interesting to see, and was actually used as a prison long before the war, with both men and women prisoners during the time of the Vietnamese independence struggle against the French. Some parts were pretty gruesome, including a guillotine and various cabinets of torture equipment that the French prison guards used on prisoners, and unfortunately a lot of the original building was destroyed to make way for a big skyscraper, but it was interesting to see what did remain of the place. That evening, we caught an overnight sleeper bus to Hue, which is in central Vietnam and the nearest major city to the former Demilitarised Zone (DMZ).

Unfortunately for poor Gary, the Vietnamese person-sized sleeper bunks and a couple of very noisy, hyper kids meant he didn't get much sleep, so he had a bit of a grump on when we arrived in Hue 16 hours after we set off (of course it didn't take the 12 hours it was supposed to!), but we treated ourselves to a nice, airy bright yellow room in a quaint hotel (with pool!!) in the backpacker area, though there was a brown out for most of the day and the hotel didn't have a generator, so we had to escape to a nearby bar to get some food and the chance of a bit of air being wafted about by some fans to cool us down somewhat!!In the afternoon we headed to the Citadel, a pretty massive walled in area across the river from the backpacker area with the ruins of the Purple City that the emperor lived in how many ever years ago when Hue was the old capital (sorry, the details kind of escape me!). Apart from some remaining hints of the majestic and powerful court that must at one stage have existed, the citadel is in a pretty sorry state, but apparently it is being renovated at the moment, although progress appears somewhat slow. There was of course the usual asian photo op with costumes and a throne you could pose on that some Korean tourists really seemed to be enjoying, but we took a rain check on that!!And indeed, we quite literally took one as about half and hour after we'd started exploring the ruined area, the rain clouds gathered, a gale blew and thunder, lightning and torrential rain hit!!We were able to take refuge in the photo op building for a bit, then we slopped and slid in the puddles back home once it'd eased off a bit. I think it must have been a pretty bad storm though as when we were walking home there were loads of tree branches and debris along one of the main roads, pretty crazy!The rain did take the edge off the humidity though which was nice, and we were able to spend a nice evening having dinner, though the Hue speciality dumplings that we all tried turned out to be pretty gross- basically just whole prawns with the shells on in a clear flavourless jelly-like substance wrapped in lotus leaves, yuk!!

Next day we got up at the pretty ungodly hour of 6am, as we booked a DMZ tour starting at 6.30am...or so we thought!When we came down just after 6.30 the travel agent guy told us we were late and everyone else was already waiting at the breakfast meeting place for us- though our ticket definitely said 6.30, whoops!!We piled into our mini bus which had air conditioning but was still pretty sweaty, and spent all day being guided by our comedian-come-guide (he told us apparently finding a woman is like going shopping for a shirt and you have to try on at least 7 before you buy one!) around the various areas of interest in and around the De-militarised Zone, including the Khe Sanh US army base where a major manouevre in the Tet offensive of 1968 took place and which is now a museum and has some decommissioned tanks and aircraft on show. I actually got quite an unsettling feeling about the place, it's strange to stand on ground that has seen such bloodshed and death. We also visited the Hien Luong bridge across the Ben Hai River which was a key point in the Ho Chi Minh trai connecting North and South Vietnam which the Viet Cong used to transport weapons. It was actually quite hard to imagine the whole area as one of the areas that was bombed the most during the war, as now the whole area has regrown, with lush vegetation covering most of the area. The most interesting part of the day was when we got to go to the Vinh Moc Tunnels, a whole network of tunnels dug as a solution to the problem of being heavily bombed by one village based near the coast. At their deepest, the rather claustrophobic tunnels go 23m below ground level, though I think if I'd been around at the time I would have done quite well as they were built with small people in mind, and I only had to crouch down at a few points whereas everyone else in our group really struggled!Apparently 17 babies were born in the tunnels during the war, and some of them and the longest continual stretch underground that the villagespeople did was 10 straight days. It must have been terrifying to hear the bombing start and have to run to the tunnels, hoping that you would get deep enough in time to not get hurt or killed. Being in the tunnels, seeing bomb craters and the small areas where whole families hid out for days on end definitely helped me to imagine what it must have been like. Although of course the commentary was really biased, I can't help but feel for what the civilians, and the soldiers- on both sides- went through. After we got back after a long day, we had a gloriously cool dip in the pool and some dinner ( I was a bit disappointed with my claypot pork as I was expecting something similar to the claypots with noodles we had in China, but all I got was bits of pork and not even a hint of a vegetable or noddle!)before a relatively early night as we had to be up early for the bus to Hoi An.

Next day we were up bright and early and onto a normal coach for what should have been a 3-4hour trip to Hoi An, but actually took a fair bit longer as the a/c was a bit broken and the bus driver insisted on stopping at every available place to climb on top of the roof and try to fix it, mostly by poking his arm into the a/c unit or banging on it. Needless to say, neither of those methods was very productive!!Anyway, we eventually made it to Hoi An, and after visiting quite a few hotels and trying to haggle down prices to a reasonable level, we eventually decided to go with a place which had rooms for $12 a night, and again, a lovely swimming pool!!After a delicious dip to cool ourselves down, we headed down to the pretty riverside strip (complete with gorgeous old colonial buildings, fishing boats and a pretty Japanese bridge) and to the rather delightful (though slightly pricey for us!) 'Cargo Club' for a late lunch. Although I do really enjoy the fresh. flavoursome Vietnamese food, Jade and I had both been craving a good western meal for a little while, and I wasn't disappointed as I had a great big juicy burger!!We did try one of the Hoi An specialities too though, which is called 'White Rose', and is basically a shrimp dumpling, but also very tasty. Hoi An is famous for it's old-time charm (apparently during the war there was an agreement made by both sides to avoid bombing Hoi An as it is one of the most picturesque places in Vietnam), but also for the more than 300 tailors in residence, and we all wanted to get different things made, so we split up in the evening and went to check out the credentials and styling of various different places. Gary and i settled on
'Peace' tailors as it had loads of good comments in the feedback book that our hotel had, and so we had a good flick through lots of catalogues of designs and were measured up very precisely (the tape measure went places that I didn't even realise it needed to go!) for what we wanted- I went for two pairs of trousers as with my stumpy legs I find it hard to get well cut ones at home, and Gary ordered a really nice grey cashmere-silk mix suit and a coat. With fingers and toes crossed that everything would be made the way we wanted it, we made an appointment for a fitting the next afternoon- these tailors are snappy workers!!

Next day we had a frankly rather spectacular (and cheap at under 2 quid a head) breakfast at our Hoi An fav the Cargo Club- french toast, a whole breadbasket each, a fruit plate, tea and a juice all overlooking the pretty riverside from the balcony- what a great start to the day!After that we headed off to the beach down the road for a morning of white sand, blue sea and relaxation. Bliss!!After lunch the rain clouds looked to be gathering though, so we headed back to town for our tailor's fittings. Both pairs of my trousers fitted like a dream (thanks in part I'm sure to the previous night's crotch measurements!), though Gary's trousers and coat needed taken in a bit so we scheduled a final fitting for the next day and in the evening we headed to the rather fancy Mango Mango bar by the river for cocktails and a couple of rounds of Uno.We bumped into our french friend Claire from the volunteer house earlier in the day, and so we met up with her there and the five of us went to dinner too- though we were lured into a place because of the free pints of beer first, but the food turned out to be pretty mediocre unfortunately!Serves us right for going in with beer goggles on I guess!!

Next day, we were up at a reasonable time (despite the cocktails of the night before- my favourite one was called 'Asian Invasion' haha!) and had another delicious breakfast feast at the Cargo Club before making the decision to leave Hoi An that evening on the overnight bus to Nha Trang. After shopping around a little, we found a travel agent offering an a/c sleeper bus for not too many dollars and booked it, and after putting it off for some time Jade and I decided as they did visas we'd sort out our visa extension- as we only had a 30 day one, we were supposed to leave on the 3rd but our plans with the guys meant we needed to stay longer, though we'd left it pretty late!!The woman told us it would take from that day (last Wednesday) until early on Saturday morning for them to be processed, but we could have them brought to Nha Trang and pick them up at their other branch if we wanted. We were both slightly concerned about not only not having our passports, but also having them travel to a different place without us (especially when the lady told us that they would get to Nha Trang via bus drivers doing the route on sleeper buses like the one we were getting that evening, instead of a courier or something like that!), but we didn't really have a choice, so after much complicated organising, discussion and photocopying to make sure we had at least some sort of ID on us in the meantime, we paid up and were promised we'd have them by 7.15am on Saturday morning sharp so we could get the 8am bus from Nha Trang to Saigon that day... can you sense I'll need to come back to this story?!

Anyway, we spent a lovely last day in Hoi An, taking a boat trip around the river, walking around the pretty colonial streets and having a gorgeous meal in a gourmet Vietnamese place called Morning Glory (named after a popular green vegetable in Vietnam, not anything else incidentally!)- I got to have a bowl of bun cha, which Jade and I both developed a love of in Hanoi and had been on the hunt for unsuccessful ever since we'd got on the road again, which is barbequed pork with vermicelli noodles, fresh herb leaves, vegetables and a yummy sauce. Delicious! Gary managed to get his suit and coat fitted pretty much perfectly, and Jade and I had the quickest of quick sessions at the beauty parlour getting our eyebrows threaded (the lady really hurt me, I was bruised afterwards!) and some pretty toenail art, before hopping on the 6pm bus to Nha Trang. The bus was definitely one of the nicer sleepers we've seen, and although as with all overnight journeys the sleep is never that great, I did manage to catch a few winks before we arrived 12 hours later in Nha Trang, waited it out in a rather unfortunately cockroach-y cafe until our rooms were ready then got to relax a little bit!!After a hearty breakfast, we decided to head off on a day trip to the nearby mud baths, which was so fun!!It's all based outside- first of all you have a shower, then you move on to a big bath which get's filled with apparently 'non-organic' (I don't even know what that means?!) mud and slop around for a bit, pouring mud all over yourself (we were in a big bath together so I got a fair few buckets of mud thrown on me, mainly by Gary I think!),before showering again, walking through water jets, getting in a really really hot big bath of mineral water then swimming in a warm and a cooler swimming pool!It was mainly Vietnamese people surprisingly, and they all seemed to love it, quite a fun way to spend the morning, and it did make my skin softer!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing for the most part, especially Gary and I as we got some aromatherapy massages at Crazy Kim's Spa and Gym!!A bit like the Chinese ones Jade and I had in terms of pressure and back cracking but way more relaxing as it was actually using massage oils and not while we were fully clothed!We continued the holiday vibe that evening and went to Crazy Kim's bar (yep,same Crazy Kim as before- she's a local celebrity apparently whose business supports her charity against the child sex trade) for BOGOF cocktails (a perk of being in quite a touristy area) though we had quite a disappointing meal later on. Next day, we were up bright and early at 8.30 to go on a boat trip out to some of the nearby islands. It was just the four of us, another younger boy and girl and a retired couple who confusingly enough were Jewish Belgians who had been living in South Africa for 40 years, and we'd been on the same DMZ tour as them too!We had a great time on the boat, and off, as we got to do a couple of rounds of snorkelling. I abandoned my flippers after about a minute though as because they were too big they were definitely more of a hindrance than a help, and in the first snorkel spot we went to there were loads of little jellyfish bobbing about so we had to keep gesturing to each other to move away, but we saw some really pretty fishes and coral. It's amazing to think that all that stuff is just hidden under the surface of the water with no clue as to its' existence when you look at the water from the boat!!We had a delicious spread for lunch too, with all the Vietnamese favourites as well as some rather rubbery squid, and some yummy fish that I think had been caught while we were underwater. We spent pretty much all day out on the boat snorkelling and relaxing, though unfortunately Gary's back did turn a rather alarming shade of red as he'd gotten sunburnt without realising it, oops!! When we got back on dry land, we headed off to the travel agents who were dealing with our visa extension to check how that was going, just to make sure we'd be getting them ok the next morning. We walked in and were met with a smiley guy who happily explained to us that despite their previous assurances we'd get it on Saturday, there would be a powercut at the embassy tomorrow and they weren't ready yet so we'd be getting them on Monday instead, ok?! Needless to say that Jade and I were both livid, and went through him for a short cut, eventually getting him to agree to get it sorted the next day, by 11am, otherwise he would be giving us a full refund. Gary and I had decided that instead of going to Mui Ne with Jade and Chris, an beach a few hours away famous for its white and red sand-dunes, we wanted to head to Ho Chi Minh directly on the overnight bus the next evening, as it would mean we'd have two days to explore the city together instead of one. So Gary cleverly booked our bus with the same travel agent, agreeing that no passport meant no money for the bus either, and the guy quickly sped off on his motorbike after we left, presumably because he'd be losing quite a lot of dollar if he didn't fix it for us. Now that's how you get things done!! We then went to a lovely restaurant called Mecca where I had a cheeky but delicious western meal of braised pork and the mashed potatoes I'd been craving for weeks!!You can take the girl out of Ireland but you can't take the Irish out of the girl obviously, as potatoes of the mashed, baked and roast variety are the only foody things I've really been missing. I think when I get home my first meal should consist of champ, chips, baked potatoes, plain mashed potatoes, wedges and roast potatoes just to catch up on all that lost potato-y time!

Jade and Chris left early the following morning for Mui Ne, so Gary and I spent a great day in Nha Trang together chilling out on the beach and eating some great food- and at 11am sharp I nervously approached the travel agents, fearing the worst, but was rewarded with both Jade's and my passport still in one piece complete with (thankfully) extension stamps!We kept joking about how the guy must have ridden on his wee motorbike all night to get them sorted, but whatever he did I'm glad it worked out for us, and he got his money for our bus tickets in the end too so everyone was a winner!!After several lazy hours on the beach and in the sea, we went to an italian restaurant called Da Fernando, which was run by a slightly crazy and certainly rather formidable middle-aged western guy who did appear to have an (I though put on) italian accent. We didn't really need to talk much while we were eating, as his bossing around of the poor Vietnamese waitresses, telling them things like 'we need some olive oil, in Italy you have lots of olive oil with Carpaccio' was entertainment enough! Incidentally, the Carpaccio was delicious, as was my pizza and Gary's pasta, so maybe he was authentically Italian!He gave us free shots of limoncello as a night cap which was sweet of him too, and I think I accidentally underpaid him by about 30,000 Dong as we were in a hurry to catch the bus so I shouldn't make fun too much!

Another overnight bus down, and we made it to Saigon around 6am (apparently only the city bureacrats actually call it Ho Chi Minh City these days), quickly picked a nice-ish looking hotel and crashed for a few hours. We spent our first day there going to the nearby Bin Thanh market for a good bit of shopping (I've been trying to teach Gary the art of haggling, though he says that I start my prices so low that I''ll put people out of business!!), and some delicious bun cha at one of the stalls for lunch, though in the South apparently it's called something different. In the afternoon we walked down the very sunny tree-lined boulevards to Reunification Palace, where the South Vietnamese government was based before the fall of Saigon. It was quite interesting inside as they've kept all the rooms pretty much as they were rom 30 April 1975, so all the receiving rooms, the president's room and even the war room are all still there. There was a whole section underground with reinforced walls in case of bombing (some guy did drop two bombs on it in the early 70s at some point, though I'm not sure whether they exploded or not), and a room rather ominously called the 'security headquarters'. We continued our historical day with a visit to the War Remnants Museum, which was both horrifying and moving- lots of pictures of the war, children and adults suffering from the effects of Agent Orange and Landmine injuries, and a lot of de-comissioned weapons on show. I found it pretty upsetting, but I think places like that are necessary to remind people about the horror and the futility of war, even if it was tinged with a certain amount of bias. It's heart-breaking that the people who feel the real legacy of war are the innocents, and I feel guilty for saying so, but I'm so thankful that so far in my life time I haven't had to see directly the devastation that the Vietnamese people suffered for all those years. I've just finished reading 'First They Killed My Father', an excellent but harrowing memoir written by a woman who was a child during the time of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, so I know that if we visit some of the war related museums and sites here we're in for more upset, but I do think it's important to be aware and awake to these things, even if we can't comprehend them.

Anyway!Sorry to depress you all, on to brighter things!We ended up getting quite lost on the walk back home, but actually quite enjoyed ourselves as we got to see a fair bit of the city centre, and I definitely prefer it to Hanoi- it's got the same hustle and bustle vibe, but there's something a bit less rough-edged about it. Gary and I met up with Jade and Chris that evening as they arrived in from Mui Ne, and headed out for some dinner and then dessert at a yummy bakery right close to the hotel we stayed at. The next day, we did our own thing again, and got up early to visit another market that, as well as selling electricals has loads of stalls devoted to war memorabilia- some real, and some not so real!It was interesting to see, but a bit weird as we were the only two westerners about and so pretty much everyone stared at us as we were walking about, and I find the idea of war merchandise and profiting from war pretty gruesome, even if it isn't real stuff!!We went to another market then, which according to the Lonely Planet sells 'everything' so we were pretty excited about stocking up on some bargains, but in actual fact it was just a pretty run of the mill place selling fruit, meat and household items, so disappointed we headed off the Dong Khoi, the more affluent area of the city, to have a bit of a poke about. We came across the gorgeous Hotel de Ville (complete with Ho with child statue out the front), stopped for a bite to eat at a thai place and then-joy of joys- stumbled upon a branch of Fanny ice cream in a rather upmarket shopping centre, so had an early afternoon ice-cream for good measure!The shopping centre itself was really cool for a spot of window shopping, with designer boutiques, japanese toy shops and some rather interesting interior design concepts- when I can, I'll post a picture on flickr of an equine inspired lighting solution we came across! When evening rolled around again, we met up with Chris and Jade for some dinner, as Gary had read in the book about a place that did fairly cheap but good Vietnamese food with profits going to support a local charity, but unfortunately when we made the trek out to Dong Khoi again it seemed to not exist any more, so we had to settle for a rather run of the mill meal for Gary's last night, followed by some bakery goodness for dessert! Next morning, feeling very blue, Gary and I had to say goodbye to each other as he caught a taxi to the airport for his 12.35 flight. It's always hard to say goodbye to each other, especially what with having done the whole long distance thing at uni we've had to do it a lot more than the average couple, but I'm trying not to get too sad about it, as crazily enough in less than 5 weeks Jade and I will be at home, and the whole asian adventure will be over.

I had a bit of time to myself yesterday morning to get back on form, then I met up with Jade and Chris for lunch, before we decided to go to the cinema (for the third time in Vietnam, that's probably more than I go at home!) to see the Karate Kid, which was actually really brilliant- definitely a feel good film!It's set in China, but thankfully they've avoided most of the Hollywood stereotypes and it's done quite authentically, which only made me more certain that I have to get back there sooner rather than later!!If anyone would like to contribute to the Lucy's asian adventure part 2 fund then please do let me know haha!!

So, that brings us to today really. we said goodbye to Chris this morning, hopped on the bus at 9, and miraculously enough, 6 and a bit hours later and two border checkpoints, and we've arrived in Cambodia completely hassle free!!We haven't had a chance to explore yet, but we're going to spend a few days here before heading further up north. After 5 weeks in Vietnam, I'm really excited to explore a new country and a new culture, but with only 5 weeks in total left, I'm anxious not to wish it away too quickly!!

This has been a VERY long entry, really more of a stream of consciousness I think as it's been quite a while since my last one, but I hope it's not been too much of a slog, and I'll try to be more frequent with the blogs I have left to avoid those computer headaches!

lots of love from Phnom Penh xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

oh, and p.s. Happy Birthday (for yesterday) to my beautiful big sis Becca, love you lots!!

p.p.s a very Happy Birthday to my favourite niece Miss Maya Cairns on Friday for her very first one!Hope you've have tonnes of fun and get spoilt rotten!!