Flashpacking Thailand & Vietnam – November 2003

Up and the hotel wouldn’t get us a taxi so we knew we had to walk to the bus station…. ick. Rucksacks on again and off we headed for a long hike in 33 degree heat. Amazingly as soon as we reached the road a songthew appeared and took us there – marvelous. 7 more hours on a bus and we arrived in Phuket! HURRAH!!! We chose a relatively quiet beach town from the rough guide (Yo Karon), a truck taxi took us there. We walked about passing the posh resorts and the expensive hotels until we found down a little back street, a fab set of bungalows for 350 Baht! Bargain. It had a huge double room and bed, with en suite… luxury for us!

First impressions…. too touristy. Full of big posh resorts and little atmosphere. Decided we were after a bit of luxury so gate-crashed the 5 star resort and eat their lovely buffet (Andy was in heaven) and listened to their dodgy Butlins style entertainment.

Bimbled around the town today. Had a lovely walk all the way down the long crispy white beach to a pub. The sand was heavenly. Spotless and white and it crunched like snow under your feet. The sky and the surrounding hillsides were very picturesque, all that a postcard from Thailand should show.

Had dinner (not a very inspiring one) at a place decked out like the Flintstones. Quite bizarre really, but in a nice “jungle” setting. It was ok until I saw a poor elephant being used as a tourist attraction,, left in a mood, annoyed at its exploitation. (i know I know… I’m silly) Off to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow.

Bus to port and a 2 hour ferry to Phi Phi Don. We loved it as soon as we arrived. It is stunning. Walked along the tiny narrow streets until we found somewhere to stay – a lovely little complex of bungalow, for 600 Baht a night. Not too bad. Reasonably clean, an on suite bathroom and nice traveller neighbours. Our beach is so quiet with white sand and hippies everywhere! Wandered further along the tiny coast lane and found Hippies Bar, written up as the traveller haven of Phi Phi. It was a sight for sore eyes. We didn’t leave…..

The tables are made from old and washed up wood, there are little bits of decking perched up on stilts with tonnes of cushions on for you to lie out on all day. It’s right on the beach under a few trees, it has chilled hippy music, cheap drinks and wonderful food. We sat with a beer and watched the sun go down over the beautiful horizon while the gentle sea lapped up on the crispy white shore.

We rushed back to shower and change and headed straight back to the bar. At night they put down mats and cushions all along their stretch of the beach and have loads of flame torches prodded into the sand. The atmosphere is something else. They have little lights in the branches of all the trees and put on live music and shows….. what a fantastic way to spend the evening… can’t see us leaving here too early!

Its so tiny and understated, no big resorts, just little bungalows and diving operators everywhere. Walked through the village that comprises of a network of tiny streets packed with stalls, bars and food places running from one beach to the other the other side of the narrow island. The shops are all geared up for traveller life – internet places, laundries, travel shops, massages, cheap clothes and jewellery, diving places and bars. Every beach restaurant displays its days catch, shark, swordfish, lobster, crab, snapper, giant prawn, oh its endless.

Although we sat in the shade pretty much all day we both burnt, obviously me the worst affected!

Another lovely, relaxed evening in Hippies bar listening and watching the live shows on the beach…

Had breakfast at Hippies bar, which has become our favourite. It’s right on the beach and has amazing wooden platforms that you can lie on all day – so we do! Today Sophie decided to practice her trapeezing so we watched this and took in the view most of the day.

If you want to feel sorry for us in some way (!), we did actually make a steep walk in 34 degree heat and about 99 percent humidity to a view point that looks over all of the island. Here it is. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It really was spectacular. Knackered and sweating from every centimetre of our bodies (nice) we headed back home. Right we are off for some food now – some fresh fish we think, they catch them in these boats. Life is hard!

Cor yet another lazy day. It actually is too scorching. People who tan well even burn in the shade here. We were chatting to a fellow traveller for 10 minutes and in that time his feet burnt to a glowing red!

We still can’t muster up enough energy to leave here yet. Its too easy and so relaxed and mellow. There are little cats with docked tails everywhere (makes a change from mangey dogs) and everyone is so relaxed and happy.Yet again spent the evening at Hippies bar. Tonight they put on an amazing fire show spinning balls of fire around their heads.. quite spectacular. They asked us to have a go, but Andy needs to drink a few less Brandies first!

If anyone else asks us if we want a “Thai Massaggeeeee?” I think I will scream !

Sat chatting in the sun with our neighbours all morning – Alex and Eve. They are only 23 – bless. We then spent a couple of hours walking around the tiny streets as they have no cars, this whole island just has about 7 of this kind of street and that’s all.

Sod it we said, lets hire a speedboat! So the rest of the day was spent whizzing around Ko Phi Phi Lay – the smaller of the two Phi Phi’s. Most highly guarded is Viking Cave where they harvest the highly sought after birds nests to ship to China to make birds nest soup.

Then to a coral reef where there were so many fish you could hardly swim ! Andy threw some bread in and the mass of fish that came to feed was amazing. I leapt in and snorkelled around them all as they fed (wish we had an underwater camera!)

To Maya Beach. Here they filmed “The Beach” with Leonado De-Caprio (no we haven’t seen it either!). It was totally stunning, we could see why they picked this one! The sand was white and fluffy, the sea was totally transparent and warm. He must have had an awful time filming here for months. It is a protected beach and I had heard stories that it was ruined by tourism. As you can see we were the only people there and it was spotless.

Dinner of freshly caught Red Snapper. It was still wiggling when Andy picked it from the boat! I have never seen Andy eat so fast. He didn’t say a word as he scoffed the lot in record time.

Last day in paradise – well this particular one anyway. The day was spent in hippies bar watching them practice for the evening show and sitting in the shade sipping beer. aaaahhhhhhhhhh The travellers that were staying around us were all big divers and were staying for that… we decided to move on.

Time to move on so a day of travelling ahead. Ferry to Krabi – bus to other bus. Sat waiting for bus. We had a nice view though for an hour so couldn’t complain. Bus (full of Mozzies) to Surat Thani (the other side of the mainland) past Latex Plantations and coconut farms. Express boat to Ko Samui. We negotiated a songtheaw to take us and another couple (very young Canadians) to Chaweng beach – the main lively beach on the island. Phew! 8 hours of buses and boats.

On went the rucksacks and we walked down the beach looking for somewhere to stay. spectacular beach… again crispy white, spotless sand, the bluest sea and sky. Very chilled, lovely atmosphere but there are loads of beach touts so we spend much time saying ‘no thanks’ and nodding our heads (unless you are Andy who talks to them in made up language and really confuses them!!)..

We saw a cheap bungalow that we liked run by a very nice Israeli man. It was pretty basic but not bad for a few nights. At night the beach is covered with mats and triangular cushions to lie out on. Flame torches are everywhere, and its quite stunning. Found a restaurant on the beach, lay on our mats, listened to the chilled music and the sea lapping on the shore, eat lovely fish and drank beer. How fantastic.

Sat and drank tea looking at the beach – awful way to start the day we thought! Had a look round the town. mmmm not terribly nice at all. Very busy, touristy, lots of building work going on. All a bit naff really. We miss our quiet little beach life so may move on pretty quickly. Sat on the beach and drank beer – in the shade, then booked a ticket to Ko Tao for tomorrow

Well we knew this trip was jinxed when our high speed catamaran broke down just past Ko Pha Ngan. A 2 hour wait and we were whisked to Ko Tao on a huge speed boat all 20 of us and rucksacks squeezed into every possible corner. Its still Monsoon season here and didn’t we know it. Most things are shut or being repaired for the beginning of the good season – Dec 1st. Great. Pretty though.

We walked along the main street and found ourselves a fab little bamboo hut with old colonial wood shutters and traditional high bed with mosquito net. Back to cold water showers again though, but its not bad in this heat. Had a lovely view to the sea. This island makes Ko Phi Phi look like Bangkok! Its tiny. It has about 3 roads, the rest being all mud tracks heavily eroded by the rain.

After a quick meal we went to sleep with the shutters open listening to whooping monkeys, barking Gecko’s, chirruping Cicadas and a weird galluuump noise from a thousand toads. Wonderful!

We decided there was no other way to get around this island other than hiring a motorbike! Oh my god. After the first hour of bunny hop starts and shaky steering we were off (then we got back on again!!) The roads were so steep and treacherous that we had to turn back may a time. Fun day though and saw some nice beaches (although cloudy). Weather is really pooh. We feel a storm may be approaching.

Pants day. Storm is really going for it. Wind and rain, thunder and lightning. It makes the island look very dirty and suddenly we are noticing huge piles of rubbish and dirty beaches. Very sad. As the weather is not going to pass we tried to book a ticket to Bangkok. They told us that we can’t leave the island due to the weather – oh fab! Andy is ill with a fever so after a few hours and a trip to Doctor Bamboo and a dozen tablets he is in bed.

STILL RAINING. I headed off into the pouring rain to the travel agents to try and get us out of here. ‘No boats today’. The whole island was in the agents trying to do the same thing – Mayhem. The rain was pouring so hard I had to wade up the main street – the water was ankle deep. We decided that it was too damp and dingy to stay in a little wooden hut in this rain, so we headed off to a luxury apartment and sat and watched telly and DVDs…. and listened to the rain.

Soaking wet and early I headed up to my favourite place – the travel agent. There was one boat to Chumphon (up the mainland) Hurrah!!!. Ran back (as I couldn’t get any wetter now anyway) packed and we raced to the port…. to find that it left 10 minutes before. ‘Oh well’ we said with a smile (NOT!!) So I dragged a fuming (and still ill) Andy to the nearest nice room where we watched HBO movies all day..and listened to the rain.

Got the real pox with being here now. After our gas heated shower blew up and leaked gas everywhere we got up and headed straight for the travel agent to leap on her and pummel her to death unless she gave us a decent ticket OUTTA HERE!!! An hour later we were by the dock waiting for our slow boat to Chumphon. Andy took one look at this rusty battered piece of floating (barely) nastiness and said “I’m not getting on THAT”. With that he was back to the travel agent (who love us by now) and came back beaming. In one hand he had speed ferry tickets back to Samui, the other, 2 plane tickets to Bangkok HURRAH! Samui has the best airport, one bamboo shelter is the arrival lounge and another is departures

So a few hours later we are back on Khao San Road in a dodgy little hotel – less then lovely (special feature – when you turn on the tap it spins round and water pours all over your feet) but we don’t care, better than leaking toilets.

Took it easy today due to Andy still feeling tender. Went to THE shopping street – Phanon Sukhumvit (we didn’t know how to pronounce it either)Had a beer and had a totally fantastic meal at Cabbages and Condoms (recommended by Pedders my boss) Tuktuk ride home – HURRAH!!

walked around Bangkok taking in all the little alley ways (yuk!) and along the riverside ..

Up early and away to the airport. Didn’t think we would get there as our taxi driver had a tantrum and stopped in the middle of the 6 lane highway swearing at us in Thai!!! We just looked at him blankly and he sulked and drove really slowly, we later worked out that he wanted extra money for the toll road, he had more chance of Andy buying him a new taxi but at least we got there.

3 hours later we had arrived in Hanoi . We were out the plane and in a taxi in 10 minutes – very efficient airport. Here we fell for our first scam of a scam ridden country. ‘Oh no sir this hotel is full – let me take you to another hotel, not far, very nice’ yeah right!!!! Andy was tired and unwell so I couldn’t be bothered to argue. The hotel was fine until we discovered that everything was broken, but we tolerated it for the day.

Hanoi is incredible. Its full of low rise old french colonial villas, all very narrow and tall with decorated balconies. If they were new they would be stunning. Oh and streets like this

Other things of note…

– The TRAFFIC!!!! aaahhhhhhhhhhh there are bikes EVERYWHERE . They have no thought for road rules like red lights, one way streets, people. Oh and when the road is too full they drive on the pavement. We quickly worked out that in order to cross the street you need to just walk out into the path of a hundred bikes and they, some how, avoid you. Andy thought this was a great game and I am sure we crossed far more roads than we needed to.

– We feel really tall and get stared at a lot and find ourselves constantly saying ‘No thanks’ to the persistent street sellers.

– The pavements are used to park your bike on, dig up, sit and have a chat with you pals or while eating dinner . Certainly not for walking on.

– They eat dog (therefore there are no strays) – the sandy haired ones are the best tasting apparently. We have seen dogs in cages and tied up and a few cooked and hung up like piglets on a stall beside the road – LOVELY!! Oh and we saw a plate full of fried rats for sale.

– The language is hilarious – The food is pants

– We are millionaires at every cash withdrawal – 1 million dong is about 40 pounds

Woke to BEEP BEEP, beeeep beeeep, beep BEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEP. They seem to beep their hooters all time, even when there is no other vehicle in sight. And NO hot water… aaaahhhhh we legged it paying $20 less than we should have to the non English speaking receptionist, consulted the Rough Guide and headed off to somewhere nice , and we found it.

Discovered that every street sold the same thing so we quickly learnt our way around by what they sold. Up sunglasses street, across funeral stone street and up haircut on the pavement street etc. They had loads of shops that just sold Christmas decorations… all very strange

There are no mini marts or the like, so when Andy had a craving for biscuits and chocolates we headed straight for ‘confectionary street’ (Hang Buom) and there they were. Shame it was the cheapest waxyest chocolate in town.

Walked to Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum, a huge and very grey somber box thing high above a green. Shame as he was a modest man and wanted a simple burial.

Ha Long Bay. Our boat along the bay was an old wooden colonial thing, that looked lovely from afar, but on closer inspection was a bit of a junk yard. It took us to some lovely caves in this amazing bay full of limestone rocky outcrops just peppering the sea like teeth (they look remarkably like teeth hence the name Ha Long meaning dragons teeth) It was beautiful and we had a lovely sail through these islands and past little floating villages.

We hooked up with another Brit, an Auzzie (lots of Rugby talk) and a Kiwi and had a nice time over dinner drinking beer. Bed time… interesting.. We were taken downstairs to our cabins that were tiny, musty and had holes in the floor. I sat and waited for Andy checking for a damp mattress when I heard the familiar scuttling sound of a rat running above me. Oh pants. Andy came in, heard the same thing and was out the room like a shot calling ‘I am NOT sleeping HERE!!’The next thing we knew we were up on top deck spreading out our sheet and blanket underneath the stars. It was lovely…. UNTIL… 3am and I sat bolt upright from a noise. I turned to see 3 rats running straight passed us squeaking with delight at the choccy biscuits they could smell between me and Andy. Aw its ok I thought, there won’t be any more. Another minute later after another noise I looked up to see a rat no more then a foot away staring right at me with his nose twitching at the thought of those biccies. RIGHTTTTTT up we get.. ANDY GET UPPPPPP. We headed downstairs to the restaurant area and found half the boat sleeping there already (they had their own rat issues) and we all slept there hearing rats above us and along the floor the rest of the night.

We woke early, exhausted, cold and miserable. Everyone was fed up and couldn’t wait to get back. We went to our cabin and discovered that both of our rucksacks had been chewed through, so had many other peoples. They really haven’t got the hang of looking after tourists here. When we returned to post we saw the other boats simply pour out all their rubbish (and cockroaches) into the sea without a care (the bay is supposed to be a world heritage sight and protected) I doubt it will be long before this country is a tourist trash can.

As soon as we returned the 5 of us threw our rucksacks over our backs and rushed across town to the Hanoi Hilton. Here they were playing the rugby world cup final in the bar on a huge screen. We arrived just after kick off and settled in drinking beer and listening to the heckles of the Brits and the Auzzies. Andy (who has no interest in what Rugby is all about) was happy to eat proper steak sandwiches at the back. What a game!

Up early for a trip to Nam Toc, a traditional village with a beautiful river trip. All the farm workers (mostly women 🙂 were working hard with their little conical hats on and using water buffalo to plough the fields. Stunning views of fields with hills in the background.Nice view of rural Vietnam

The river trip was beautiful with limestone rocks either side with wild monkeys chasing each other and huge butterflies everywhere. Had to row through 3 natural caves to get to each secret lagoon

We returned just in time to catch our 7pm sleeper train to Hue in the middle of the country. We went to get our tickets from the travel agency only to discover – what a surprise, that they had booked us on the 11pm instead. We are getting used to this!!! 11pm we were on the train sharing a 4 berth compartment with 2 French girls who were charged double the price for the train tickets and were getting fed up with the scams.

Bumpy night but not too hideous, and no one snored so a real bonus. Arrived in the pouring rain, so found a hotel and sat and watched movies until it stopped…. It didn’t stop!

Explored the town. Has a nice bridge with a red river. Pestered every two or three steps. It really is so waring. Its ok the first 20 or 30 times. After that you just feel like punching them. We keep having to remind ourselves that they are poor and need to pester us in order to eat.

A cyclo driver called Loc stayed with us for ages, simply grinning at us while we walked. We had a drink in a hotel, when we came out (an hour and a half later) he was still there waiting for us, grinning. We gave in and he took us to the Citadel , the ancient walled palace in Hue . It must have been beautiful once, but 2 wars and various fires have reduced it to almost nothing.

Loc took us back to town (via a museum and asked for about 30 pence for his 3 hours work, we gave him 2 quid… a very happy man.) to eat a big pile of nastiness (the food totally sucks here)

DMZ (demilitarized zone)day. Here, ironically enough, most of the fighting in the Vietnam/USA war took place as it was the split between north and south vietnam. Our first stop was a small town called Quang Tri which was heavily bombed and shot at. This church was left as a memorial.

On to Dong Ha (former US command post), possibly the most disgusting town in the whole of Vietnam. We stopped for breakfast in the best hotel. Lovely isn’t it. Needless to say not much was eaten here.

The Hien Luong Bridge was the only bridge across the Ben Hai river during the war as the river signified the divide between north and south vietnam.

Up to the Vinh Moc Tunnels where 1000 villagers lived for over 5 years to escape the war. Some of the 100 tunnels built into the coastal hillside went down 25 metres. They were amazing. Although increased in size for westerners we couldn’t believe the tiny living space they had here for so long.

The Rockpile was a prominant hill used by the Americans as a landmark when flying their bombers. It was also the site of one of their bases. Although covered in lush vegetation today, during the war this whole area had been covered in agent orange – a defoliant (kills everything green!), therefore all this land was bare and barren. That chemical is responsible for over 500,000 birth defects here (and we see it everywhere)

Through areas that were covered by napalm (now back to woodland) to an ethnic village. This was kind of embarrassing just walking around someone’s tiny village so we just stood and gave the kids sweets and tried to take sly pictures of children and old ladies! In this area they all live in stilt houses – cor bet they have rat issues !

Last stop the Khe Sanh US Air Base. Nasty story here. It was high up, near the Laos border so the Marines could keep an eye on all movements north and south. BUT they didn’t realise that during some months its covered with mist.- The Viet Cong knew however, and on January 21st 1968 they attacked. 10,000 people died here. The Americans withdrew leaving a desolate, poisoned, barren land, that still hasn’t recovered today. It was later named the Khe Sanh Hell. Its a very solumn place. Nice museum on it though with US helicopters and a plane that never made it! also, pictures of American defeats. Not so nice was the touts selling dug up US Marine dog tags…..

What a surprise they messed up our plane ticket so flying to Siagon at 9.30pm. Ended up in a hotel bar, Andy asked for a brandy and the barmaid turned to me and asked if Madam would like a cappucino, all I could see were Andy’s shoulders going up and down with laughter. We sat there watching escape from Alcatraz… not so bad then.

Arrived in Siagon and OBVIOUSLY our taxi driver took us to the wrong hotel… good grief!

Orientation day. Wow this town is soooo different from the rest of Vietnam. Can sure see the western influence here. There is decent food so we can eat properly for the first time since we have been in Vietnam (Andy promptly had 2 Australian steaks!) It even has department stores and Gucci and Versace shops! WOW!! The french built another Notre Dame cathedral -all very nice, the building to the right of the picture is a post office!!!

Bimbled about and found the nasty side of Saigon by mistake.. ooops.. never mind we walked through it with a smile and found another interesting shop sign Make your own mind up as to what they were selling. The streets were kinda slummy, and it sure did stink! (wet dead dog kind of smell)