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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

With the leader of the pack not joining us in Cambodia, it seemed as though we would need to divi up our friend Stephen’s jobs to be able to continue the next leg of the tour. We actually had a real tour guide but these skills were much needed in our ‘free time’. We had all become complacent with Stephen’s knowledge and his lonely planet guide. With a photocopied lonely plant guide (which was bargained down from $5 to $3) we split Stephen’s skills up: Dave was in charge of directions with a compass, me history, Sharon cheap drink research and Damo was on the language – or at least enough to say cheers in Cambodian… With that established, we could now set off for the 250km bus ride across the border into Cambodia.

After a long 7 hours we stepped off the public bus to board the car ferry across the Mekong and into Phnom Penh. Two little girls were giggling watching us westerners eat crickets for afternoon tea. Their smiles and shabby clothes were something you would see in a postcard. I said to our guide then, my first impression of this country is the Khmer people seem peaceful and happy. He didn’t say anything but just looked at me and simply gave me a weak smile. I didn’t think twice about that or comprehend the deep look he gave me – that was until we visited the killing fields used by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime also known as Angkar (“the organisation”).

Today was one of the hardest days I have ever experienced in my life. The stories we have heard and pictures and things I’ve seen were too hard to share in detail. I’d heard of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, but that was about it. They were just words, but the words spoken to us today were so heartbreaking you just couldn’t listen. But you had to, because these people need to have their stories heard. From their perspective, for many years the world and the UN knew what was happening but turned a blind eye. It seemed ‘not possible’ but I just don’t know as I’m sure there’s more to it. In their eyes, Margaret Thatcher’s government supplied land mines to Cambodia and China swapped rice for guns during the regime. As a side note, post war, in 1991 Princess Diana spent millions rectifying the land mine issue so kids could return to school without fear.

When someone mentions a killing field, you would think it’s just a green paddock that had bad things happen there many years ago and there wasn’t much to see. The first thing I saw was a large glass building filled with cracked skulls. We walked through and there are hundreds of m***********s in the ground. Each one was the mass grave of hundreds of men, women and babies. You would think that they would have since excavated and pieced the bodies back together. There are 20,000 mass grave sites around the country. At this killing ground 20,000 were executed, but only 9,000 bodies were removed from the ground. As we walk through the claylike foot paths we were actually standing on bodies, unknowingly, until our guide tipped some water on the ground under our feet. What I first thought was light coloured sticks everywhere was actually bone. The remains of victim’s clothes also washes up with the heavy monsoonal downpours. Teeth are everywhere. So many people in such a small spot. The way in which these innocent people were killed is literally too horrific to repeat – A life was cheaper than a bullet. Over 3 years, 8 months and 20 days, 3 million of Cambodia’s men woman, children and babies died. Babies were killed because if they weren’t, they’d grow up and tell their story and seek revenge.

The man who went by the name of Pol Pot (political potential) gained power in the early seventies. His Dad was the king. With the hope of a better life and severe brainwashing he gained the trust of the people. It was ‘easy’ to gain the trust of the people because prior to 1975, they’d gone through years of Civil War. The countryside was bombed, so many millions moved to the capital Phnom Penh. On 17th April 1975, the Khmer Rouge told the 3 million residents living in Phnom Penh and other cities around the country, like Battambang and Siem Reap, that they would be moved only 2-3km away from the city and would return in 2-3 days. Families were forced to walk for 7 days straight to the countryside. They were told it was because of the threat of Americans bombing and they didn’t need to lock their houses as they’d be back soon. They were so desperate for a life without war, they believed the brainwashing tactics of the Khmer Rouge. Many were taken to the killing fields or torture prison and most to the the countryside for slave labour – 3 million people were taken away over 3 days.

With the banishment of all foreign influences, including any correspondence with the outside world, abolishing currency, closing of schools, hospitals etc the outside world had no idea what was happening – supposedly. The aim of the new policy was to turn Cambodians into an agrarian society. This form of labour and policy resulted in millions killed through murder, disease and starvation.

Following the visit to the killing fields was the genocide museum. Prior to it being used as a grave for 17,000 and prison for many more, it was a school. Many were taken there unknowingly to their fate, they thought they were going to the re-education centre. Although you can walk through it, it was only in the mid 80s that the smell disappeared. Once again the graphic stories our guide told, the people’s stories we read and the photos we saw were too horrific to repeat here. There was no dumbing down these stories for tourist’s weak stomachs.

These killings went on from 1975 – 1979. In January 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge fled to the border and the remaining prisoners were taken away and killed so that their stories couldn’t be revealed. Two Vietnamese journalists were walking through the town and could smell the prison stench, caused by the thousands who died there. They found 14 bodies which raised the first alarm that something wasn’t right. Their bodies now lay respectfully buried in the prison grounds. They also found, barely alive, but alive, 7 adults and 5 kids. As we stood at the museum our guide said “see the red umbrella behind you?”. A man was sitting there. He was one of the 7 men, and so was another man sitting close by. The way these people were treated and tortured made you literally feel sick. I asked the guide about a photo on the wall, taken in more recent times. In it are two men, one in his 40s and one in his 70s. They are smiling. The guide said that’s one of the 5 year old children found alive and the other one is one of the Khmer Rouge drivers who took thousands to the killing fields. They are both smiling. I asked how this is possible. Surely there is revenge or hatred there. There is, but it can’t be seen on the surface. The man in his 70s, like many hundreds more, has amnesty from today’s government.

Our local guide was also 5 at the time, he lost 5 brothers and his father. How did he survive? The Khmer Rouge were only after people of all ages who were educated. Educated (3 million were killed) was defined as wearing glasses, reading, writing, lighter skin (worked inside or not pure Cambodian) and soft hands. So the ‘lucky uneducated ones’, including our guide at the age of 5, were put to work in the fields and fed 4 teaspoons of watery porridge twice a day, working for 15 hours. Many eventually died of starvation with a life like this.The starving 12-15 year olds and some as young as 8 became soldiers with the promise of a better life – that was their hope for survival. Unfortunately they too would soon die as they knew too much. Our local guide said one of the thousands of former soldiers that now have amnesty, is his neighbour. Obviously the question was asked how do you not want revenge on someone who has killed most of your family. He said, “What is the point? We just want peace, we are Buddhist and want no more war”.

The population of this country was 7 million prior to the regime, with 4 million all ‘uneducated’ left after 1979. Life after the ‘war o
n people’ really didn’t improve until Pol Pot died of natural causes in 1998. Later the UN forced the government (which is still to this day made up some Khmer Rouge party members) to put the remaining leaders on trial for many crimes, including crimes against humanity. It is so recent only TWO weeks ago, one of the former leaders was moved from a nice jail to a jail for normal ‘bad people’. Some leaders of the regime are yet to be charged.

What has made this so real, and so, so hard is that absolutely every single person over the age 34 living in Cambodia has been dramatically affected. The only reason they are alive is that they survived starvation because they worked as slaves in the country. The ones born after 1979 grew up with the land mine issue and the famine of the early 80s. So it’s hard to look into the eyes of your tok tok driver, waiter or tour guide without seeing something very real. Today there are 14.8 million people, a 50% increase since 1979. In 2013, 50% of the population was under 18 years and 4% was over the age of 60. Additionally, as so many kids suffered from malnutrition, there is a generation missing.

After arriving back at the hotel, numb would really be the word to describe my thoughts. We were supposed to go and watch a local kick boxing match that afternoon but I can honestly, and not surprisingly, say it was the last thing I wanted to do. But I haven’t once said no to something on this trip, so I went with the group and I’m glad I did. On our 30 minute tok tok journey out there, we saw locals on the street pulling up plastic chairs, huddling around little T.Vs. We arrived at a fully televised kickboxing match. Shaz, Damo and us were the only white people there so we were given front row seats to this free game jam-packed full of locals. Obviously the movie cameras were moving around our faces and we were looked at continuously. But the reason I’m glad I went was that these people need something to smile at, to relax with, enjoy the moment in while looking to the future and not the past. These people were looking at us and smiling. They wanted us there. Tourism is what will get this very shaken country towards a better future.

These horrendous images and people’s stories will stay with us forever. But it’s a reality in the world we live in. When you travel and open your eyes you see so much – of the good and the bad. Every story needs to be told and every story needs to be heard, no matter how hard it is to hear.
This has been our first day in Cambodia.

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Xin chao from the South – Through the winding hills and cliff top coastline, we travelled for four hours from central Vietnam, south, through to the beautiful coastal town of Hoi An. It really has that old world charm, with a slight European feel. The city was founded as a port in the 15th century and had traders from China, Japan, Holland, France and Portugal. You can definitely see the mark these countries have left. It’s the only town in the country to keep nearly all its architecture intact and perfectly restored. There are only 100,000 people here but the majority live around the outskirts of the town centre, not in the centre itself. The centre is a world heritage site named the Old Town and is about 2km square. This remarkable place looks as though it’s now purely for the tourist trade. There’s hundreds of well presented shopfronts winding through narrow alleyways. Get this, motorbikes and electric bicycles are only allowed into this area for a few hours each day – cars are never allowed. For the majority of time it’s only walking and push bikes. You know it’s a ‘non motorbike time’ when calm music is playing from the lamp posts. We loved being able to cycle through this town or walk in the middle of the road and stop wherever we pleased for a $1.50 lunch and .20c beer. YES, after a lot of dedicated research, we did better the .25c beer. Between $2-$4 seems to be the standard meal price in southern Vietnam. I nearly choked when I read it gets cheaper the further south you go.
A place without traffic really changes the atmosphere. At night it changes again. The place is scattered with lanterns, hanging on shop fronts, in trees and above the trafficless road. Shops also must dim down their lights to truly set a warm mood. My conscience tells me it’s not right loving a town that you don’t really see how the locals live, as it’s such a touristy town. Yet, we only saw a hand full of westerners throughout our stay. But after having lunch in the town’s first restaurant, which only opened in 1992, I got a real appreciation of how much this town relies on and appreciates tourists. 1992 really wasn’t long ago, but the reality is Vietnam is such a new country to the world of tourism.. I took a picture of the menu and how this restaurant expanded. It’s well worth enlarging the pictures of the menu, and having a read of one or two items on the menu. When it opened, the restaurant owner hadn’t heard of any western food and wanted to learn how to expand her Vietnamese only menu. Imagine going into a town that had one restaurant and explaining what a pizza was, shopping for substitute ingredients and teaching the chef how to make it. Over many years that’s how this menu was developed. She would learn from the travellers what garlic bread, pasta etc was and then create it. Quite remarkable and not that long ago.

Any given day on tour:
A 630am electric bike ride around the outer part of the town shows us where and how the locals live. Following an early swim in the ocean, we head by bike to the city with Stephen. There’s something quite liberating going full speed on an electric bike. This really was one of my favourite memories to date. This town is known for the tailors, literally every second shop, all with $50-$70 suits and $10-$15 shirts! Intrepid recommended we go to one particular tailor as they have the best quality in town and donate some of their profits to the local kids welfare. At mid dayI got measured up for a suit (or two), at 4pm was the first fitting and a few hours later they delivered it to the hotel. Three staff, including the actual tailor were taking measurements and then it’s sent upstairs to get made. We had to see how they were made, so we visited the engine room where hundreds of sewing machines were humming away. Walking into this tailor is like walking into Spotlight, complete with a lounge room for patient husbands, 8 changing rooms, 30 sales staff and 300 tailors – the shop is 50m x10m in size and is simply huge! In between fittings, Shaz, Damo, Stephen, Nick and us wandered to the lantern lit city, bar by bar drinking $1.85 cocktails and more .20c beer. For that price – why the hell not? we started at 12pm and finished at 12am and spent less than $15 each! We even managed to squeeze in the time for snake wine, complete with a cobra. I wish I could tell you more about the historical sites in Hoi An but we opted for having a break from being tourists sightseeing to being people having drinks with friends. Over drinks I was analysing this new person I have become, saying I’m normally a stressed, highly, strung person who continuously worries. I was chuffed when Stephen said he couldn’t see that side of me at all. It’s true. I haven’t laughed so much or been as chilled as I am now. We’ll both remember this week in years to come.

We came down from our high once we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, formally known as Saigon, and began with a quick bus tour around the city. Although I hadn’t done any research into this town (nor on ANY town) I didn’t expect it to be so modern with so many designer shops. It’s a blend of old and new, East and West. It’s blatantly obvious that it was once influenced by the French. Much of the beautiful 100 year old French architecture still remains – slightly odd to see as we are in Vietnam! This country was at war for 100 years with the French, then 20years with the Americans in the Vietnam war, then again with the Cambodians a few years later. It astounds me how established and outwardly happy this country and its people are, considering how recent the bloodshed was. Visiting the War Remnants Museum was an eye opener. I don’t think words could describe the photos we saw or stories we read. One observation however, the museum is in the eyes of the Vietnamese – not the Americans. In their eyes the “innocent Vietnamese were attacked by the vicious Americans and their agent orange”. How there is always two sides to every story.

“Random beer story #268: While the boys where waiting for us girls to return from the markets, they found the dodgiest back road to drink beer and watch the revolving doors of the prostitutes. It sounds bad but they sat down at kids stalls on the foot path at one place where beer was $1. The second place also had $1 beer but with a bit of bartering between the two roadside drinking holes, the second place reduced their beer price – They felt ‘slightly’ bad when the kids had to get off their chairs for us to sit down.”

20th June – married one month. We headed further South today to the Mekong Delta which runs for 4,350km through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia. It finishes up in Vietnam before hitting the sea. 17million people live over 10,000km in this particular provence. The main boat delivered us to a coconut candy factory on one of the 4 islands. This sounds random, but coconuts and banana trees are everywhere. In preparation for holding a python, we sampled toxic rice wine, banana wine, snake wine and coconut wine. I’d assume that’s what flavoured petrol tastes like. It suddenly felt very tropical once we left the banks of the river and headed inland. I couldn’t understand why we had to wear helmets on these 3 wheel ‘motorbike tuk tuk bike meets bus thing’ until the over hanging banana trees slapped me in the face and on the head. On the way to lunch we stopped at a remote fruit shop (someone’s house) to sample the local fruit – complemented with chilli powder. (I thought of you both, Allison and Adriaan). Lunch is in the heart of the delta where Elephant Ear Fish is served in rice paper rolls – along with 6 other local courses. Logically, the main mode of transport in this area is on the Sampans. Also known as small rowing boats, they transported us back down the delta. Back to Ho Chi Minh City where we farewelled our new friends who weren’t continuing onto Cambodia with us in a few days time. We farewelled them with a huge, huge night out on extremely strong but cheap buckets of cocktails. I’ll worry about our heads tomorrow. Thankfully we’ll be seeing Stephen again in Australia.

“Random fact #139: the biggest
cat fish in the world are found in the Vietnam Mekong river and are 3 metres in length.”

’Interesting’ would be the word used to describe our visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels. In the War, they were dug and used by thousands of local ‘gorilla’ people, supported by the army of the North (the communist party). They’ve got places for hiding, accommodation, meeting and fighting. The underground kitchen have barrels to contain the smoke until it was safe to release. The 3 levels of tunnels are 3m, 6m, 8-10m deep and stretch over 250km. The original tunnels were so shallow, it’d be a squeeze to crawl. The 40m of tunnels for tourists have been expanded to 1.2m in height and slightly wider.
Each story has two sides but interestingly, the visit here was a one sided view. We watched actual footage from 1967 of the life of the Cu Chi people during the war. The reporter’s view was that this war was about bad Americans killing the Vietnamese. They failed to articulate the fact the South (anti communist) was at war with the North. The odd gruesome, spiked traps scattered around were chilling to see. The ear piercing sound of continuous shots being fired in the shooting range was a surreal feeling – it wasn’t hard to imagine the past as we walked through the lush forest above ground and warrens of tunnels below.

There are a few great things about doing all our trips through Intrepid, including the small group numbers and experiencing travel from a locals perspective. But the biggest thing is the amount of money (our tour trip money) that is put back into each of the communities we visited and seeing our old clothes at the end of the trip sent to those who need it most. Although Vietnam is great, it certainly has another heart breaking side involving young kids doing street vending. Our farewell dinner was at a restaurant Intrepid supports, named Koto. This fine dining, not for profit restaurant is designed to take disadvantaged youths off the street and put them into the restaurant’s hospitality training program as well as providing them with a source of income to support the welfare and training for the students. The food was exceptional and meeting the chefs in the kitchen afterwards was incredible – it was moving to see these kids making the steps to change their lives, and a generational change. It was a perfect place to celebrate Dave handing in his work notice too!

Initially, the reason Dave wanted to visit was to say “back in nam” and I wanted to eat Vietnamese spring rolls. If that was enough of a reason to come and discover this truly remarkable part of Asia, we are thankful. Vietnam offers the friendliness of Bali but is less pushy. It has 1920s prices for beer served on little plastic chairs perfectly situated curb side. It offers amazing beauty in the north, culture in the centre and flavour in the south. I believe over time this place will flourish with tourism. My takeaway from Vietnam is having an understanding of the war that took place and the effects it had. The more you talk to people from different walks of life each with a story to tell, the more you realise how little you know. The more you see, the more you want to see and discover.

The week here wouldn’t have been the same without our tour group. The best thing about travelling is the instant friendships you make and the pure enjoyment you can fit into a day. Stephen, Shazza, Damo and Nick, it’s been a blast – even if we have only had 10 hours of sleep this week.

The week in Nam can only be summed up by the Vietnamese Beer Economy @ .20c each:
– prostitute 125 beers
– athletic shorts 25 beers
– accommodation in Hoi An 200 beers
– cheese burger at Hungry Jacks 18 beers
– flight from Australia to get you to this awesome place 5,000 beers

The number of times you can raise your glass and say “mot hai ba yo”… PRICELESS!

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Hoi An, Vietnam

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Hue, Vietnam

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Halong Bay, Vietnam

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Imagine this, travelling on a privately chartered traditional boat, through alleyways of emerald waters, with thousands of majestic limestone islands providing walls to the sea. Each island is between 10 and 30 metres tall and scattered with deep green trees. There is no sound to be heard apart from the hum of the engine and the insects on the islands. The air is warm, the sky is brilliant blue. This simply beautiful and undiscovered part of the world, Ha Long Bay, is in the Bac Bo Gulf in Vietnam, about 160km south of the Chinese border. This place felt like something from a movie. 2,000 limestone islands dotted over 1,500 sq km of peaceful sea were created over thousands of years by waves and wind. Some rubbish floated by, and I wondered whether the lack of environmental knowledge from the locals could be a detriment to the cleanliness of this beautiful place. Slowly but surely we arrived in a little cove for the night. The afternoon’s events began with a 7 course lunch, then jumping off the boat into the warm South China Sea and drinks on the top deck watching the sun slowly set behind the grand white rock. A 10 course dinner was served on the middle deck complete with tablecloth and napkins. If this is what backpacking is like on an Intrepid tour, I’ll be beaming for the next 100 days, particularly when the beer is $1.20 and the lemonade to accompany it is .80c. Saying that, we are the only backpackers in our tour group of 12.

Being on the ocean, I was in my element, so it would’ve been safe to say that this has been my favourite part of this trip to date, apart from Bali of course! The morning started with a 7am short walk up to the top of one of the islands and at 7:30, a swim in the sea. Following a late breakfast, we slowly chugged our way back to the foreshore in preparation for the 4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. The water was still and no sound could be heard. The only boats up and moving were the tiny little fishing junks, who unknowingly completed this perfect picture.

For those who came to Bali, you’ll understand that feeling of arriving back from Gili Islands into crazy Kuta. The same feeling was experienced arriving back into Vietnam’s capital Hanoi from Ha Long Bay. Hanoi’s population is 6.5million over 1,900km2. It’s busy like Kuta but the streets and shops are slightly more refined and organised, with open front shops rather than market stalls. If you want to find a bag it will be in the bag street. We spent the afternoon with Stephen, an awesome Tasmanian who was spending a month in Vietnam. He’d been here a week so he’d learnt how to cross the four lane, totally chaotic roads without dying. We went to the Museum of Ethnology where they recreated, using the original structures, the way of life of the 52 types of ethnic Vietnamese groups lived, and in most cases still live. They each have their own language and cultural history. The best part of the day was chilling on the side of the road at a ‘local pub’. Get this, the three of us sat at a kids plastic table and chair set, literally on the foot path of a main road, drinking .25c beer that was brewed that day, where the 13 kegs were delivered on one motorbike. And it was the first beer I’ve completed with no lemonade. It was that good! Very impressive! Following our $3 dinner and $2.25 cocktails, at 10pm we headed for the overnight train bound for Huế. Our home, for ‘at least’ 13 hours was a tiny room with 4 bunk beds on a ridiculously wobbly train. So wobbly the toilet water struggled to stay in the shared toilet. This train trip was one to remember. We shared the room with two Aussies from the tour group, Damo and Shaz. We stayed up until all hours of the morning getting to know them and Stephen, crammed onto tiny bunk beds drinking beer, giggling and chatting just like on an overnight school camp.

“Favourite thing about travelling #5643: There’s this thing about the travelling community, for a period of time you spend most waking moments with these complete strangers from all over the world. Each with amazing tales to tell, yet it’ll be days before you find out what they do for a job – which is a one liner – because it simply doesn’t matter. Conversations are interesting and unique and remembering one’s name isn’t as essential as staying up until 1am drinking $1 beer in bunk beds on a wobbly train. I have found my dream profession – travelling!”

With 4 hours sleep from the wobbly train, we headed to the hotel in the town of Huế, pronounced whoway. After an astronomically quick freshen up, we boarded a ‘dragon boat’ and traveled along the 11km Perfumed River, before arriving at Thien Mu Pagoda. This unofficial symbol of Huế is an active Buddhist monastery that dates back to 1601. Most people on tour knew about a famous car we saw here. It belonged to a former monk. In 1963 he drove to Saigon and set himself alight to protest against the treatment of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese regime. It was a blue car with 4 wheels if that helps to jog the memory…

Believe it or not, prior to visiting Vietnam, I didn’t really understand much about the Vietnam War, also known here as the American War. I was surprised to learn it only finished in recent times (1975) and was between North Vietnam—supported by China and other communist allies—and the government of South Vietnam—supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. Huế’s central position placed it very near the border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam which meant this former capital city suffered considerable damage.The result of North Vietnam winning the war that killed millions, was that the Communist governments took power from South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It was interesting visiting the Forbidden Purple City which was almost totally destroyed. In the 20% that still remains, holes left by bombs and bullets paint a very real picture. I was also surprised to see the big royal tomb of Emperor Tu Duc wasn’t decimated – The ground area of these tomb buildings is the size of a soccer field and the height of a castle!

As I write this blog, we are having a ‘Virtual Sunday’ but ironically we found out this morning it’s actually Sunday. We have been gone nearly1.5 months and unbelievably this is only the second time I have needed a few hours of down time, away from sightseeing and people. Stephen and Dave have gone to watch a local soccer game and no doubt see if they can better a .25c beer. Dave just retuned and said they also played a local game of pool where there are no pockets in the pool table and 3 balls only, each player has a ball. The objective is to hit the ball into both other balls, and the person who scores the highest number of points wins.

On the first night in Huế I enjoyed a traditional Julia dinner of macaroni and cheese complemented by a pineapple Vodka Cruiser. To show I can be cultured, the second night’s dinner was at a local family’s house. What a priceless experience. This dinner was an optional extra and not included in the tour price. For $10 per person, a local family had us into their home and cooked us a local meal. The money went directly to the family for food and a bit to say thank you. This rather poor family of 5 live in the tiniest house I’d ever been in and it’s shared with the owner’s brother and his wife. Mr Lam works on a bike transporting tourists and the wife sells soft drinks at a little stall on the street. For us this experience was invaluable, yet I’m sure for this struggling family the extra little bit of cash would supplement their very minimal income. Mrs Lam cooked an exceptionally good 7 course meal for the 11 of us on a little bench, with I bet, no more than a two burner. Dishes were washed in a bucket on the ground out the back. By far, it was the tastiest meal we had all had in a long time. Eight local kids, under the age of 10, willingly came and sang to us. Their beaming smiles lit up the room and the sounds of laughing kids singing was really something else. Among the many songs, we heard was the English version of happy birthd
ay and just when our hearts couldn’t melt anymore, a beautiful giggling 6 year old girl did a random Gangnam style dance. Children of all sides of wealth, nationality and language are so similar. In the simplest of ways, the only difference money can make are the games they play and the toys they play with.

Once again we witness that it’s the people of the world that make this world good, bad and so simply unique.

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Beijing, China

Beijing felt as if we had stepped into a black and white movie, yet we were joined by the most colourful bunch of zoologists studying for their masters degree abroad. They were on their way to Mongolia to spend 10 days in yurts with rare Mongolian horses. They were all very well travelled and brought the excitement back into travelling. It was the kick in the butt we needed. Having an open, positive mind can turn the day around and bring the light to a country. So with that, I’ll continue about our day – first day on tour in Beijing.

The first stop was to the Temple of Heaven Park. This is one of Beijing’s most popular parks and it’s full of people of all ages (mostly ages 50-80yrs from what I saw) taking part in traditional pass times such as tai chi, fan dancing, diablo, card games and my favourite, the brass bands randomly situated with people gathered singing. Next stop was Temple of Heaven, a Taoist temple where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties would offer sacrifices to heaven and pray for good harvests. (It was interesting being on tour with vegetarians at that point).
Now.. the Chinese lunch deserved its own blog as it was amazing. I think it was because we had eaten about 1 days worth of food in the last 3 days and we were starving. At the risk of sounding stupid, I also asked the guide if there were China towns in China. He responded respectfully (the answer was ‘no’ by the way). We then caught the subway to Tiananmen Square. The square is 400,000m2 and can fit 1,000,000 people in all at once and is the biggest square in the world. It was a short walk to enter the Forbidden City through the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which is adorned with its famous Mao portrait. Off-limits to commoners for 500 years, this ‘city’ houses the best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. This ‘city’ is 720,000m2, has 980 buildings, took 1,000,000 people to build and opened in 1420. My favourite bit of the tour was when we got a new perspective on this immense structure from the top of the pagoda in Jingshan Park. This view point, complete with giant golden statue is high on a man made hill overlooking the Forbidden City and Beijing City. The weather was terrible as I’m sure the pictures will indicate. The day was completed with Danishes and coffee with the Americans and then on to a tasty Chinese Restaurant (In China, it’s simply called a restaurant) where we had peking duck for the first time, served with pancakes. It was quite tasty and believe it or not the duck head looking at me didn’t bother me – wow, haven’t I changed!

Travelling with others and sharing traveller’s stories, even if only for a day, was fun. Other travellers were so similar. I felt we might stand out like dorks when travelling by ourselves with our practical backpacker’s gear but with other travellers we fitted right in. They even have those awful croc meets sandal shoe things we are wearing.

The next two days were slightly different than the first. We were the only 2 on tour, so the guide was just for us. Unfortunately it was a 3 day holiday there. From my understanding they were celebrating a poem about not being eaten by fishes??. The itinerary was slightly altered as we now couldn’t eat with the locals. The streets were much, much busier too. Any hoo – today was a bicycle tour through the winding alleyways and back streets around the Forbidden City. These alleyways are known as hutongs and are home to many residents as well as shops, markets, temples and historic buildings. It was interesting taking a glimpse into this traditional way of life and neighbourhood. Many traditional areas have been replaced with high rises. Fortunately this one is being preserved. To give a bit of context as to why they are so special, these houses (living, kitchen, bedroom) in their entirety range in size from between 4m2 – 14m2 and sleep two adults and one child. They are through a door in the alleyway. Depending on how many meter-boxes are outside, determines how many ‘houses’ are in each complex – many have 10. So that would be 10 families/houses x 3 family members = 30 people living in an area that’s no bigger than 80m2. Hopefully you’ll see how small they are in the pictures. The bathrooms are communal and shared between hundreds. The government has provided small green communal areas where people can go to enjoy the outdoors. Here, the locals asked if we wished to play table tennis with them – which was awesome! From there we went to the local markets where we saw traditional ingredients. It’s very different to a market back home. From here we rode around some man made lakes, quite odd seeing them so peacefully located right in the middle of the city. Of course they were built for the emperor. Once upon a time they were forbidden to commoners.

Bike riding through the hutongs and streets of Beijing was an experience in itself. To keep up with our guide and to literally not get walked over by the locals, you had to act as a local.

Our experiences of being walked through, over the last few days meant we had learnt how to do do it straight back. With that, we just rode over and through people. It’s a weird concept but quite liberating getting payback after being rammed by trollies and nearly driven into by a motorbike. At lunch, traditional dumpling soup, I finally got to ask the guide the question I’d been dying to ask. What is it like living in China, in a communist country? By the sound of it, it’s no different than Australia. Large businesses, railways and airport are owned by the government but that’s about it. She could read through my question and said China and Vietnam are nothing like some of the other communist countries. There are something like 52 religions. 23 million people live in Beijing and two thirds of them are “floaters”, people from outside Beijing. We also learnt that the average Beijing office worker’s yearly income is $11,000. Rent on a 65m2 2 bed apartment semi CBD is $1,000 per month or $800k to buy.

Dave’s still sick with the flu. After 3 weeks sick he was getting better but on Sunday walking around in the rain and freezing (20deg) conditions has made it worse. His recovery consists of beer and jam sandwiches for dinner in the room – again.

Final day on tour we were met by Casper the guide and the fanciest transport I’ve seen, to take us on the 2 hour trip to the Great Wall. We weren’t planning on paying the extra for the ski lift style transport up to the Wall and a toboggan down, but over the last few days it has been quite a hike so it was worth the $35. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of the Great Wall but they don’t do it justice. Seeing it in person, I can understand why it’s one of the seven medieval wonders of the world. I probably should have known this before going but it was built to keep the Mongolians out. It took 200 years to build and is 6350km long and was completed in the 17th century. They also call it the world’s biggest cemetery as 1 million people died building and protecting it. The ‘protectors’ spent 3 years in one stint guarding it and often died of poor, freezing living conditions, not actually the war. The modern day locals say you aren’t a hero until you visit the Wall. I’m unsure why, but it got us there! From the Great Wall, Casper took us to a fantastic Chinese restaurant
for local cuisine and specially requested sweet and sour pork, which is not as popular here as it is in Aussie. I’m unsure why as its ‘totz amaze’! Today’s question to Casper over lunch, was why the Chinese Government blocked Facebook, Skype etc. We couldn’t quite get a straight answer but learned that Google is also sometimes blocked. The last stop on this tour with leather seats, was to a traditional Chinese reflexology foot massage. 1 month in hiking boots and a 16kg back pack – We were in heaven.

Beijing, for me was quite frustrating. I struggled with what could be perceived as the rudeness of locals towards tourists, but I have since learnt it’s just the lack of English. Dave explained it’s just the way of life here and Confucius teaches doing what you have to do for yourself, looking after number 1. This may have been lost in translation but does explain a lot about their arrogance. We were blown away with China’s 5,000 year old history and its culture. It was well worth the stop, and like many places the more you spend time, the more you’ll uncover. I’d like to get out of the city and really get to know the people of China.

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Kobe, Japan

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Osaka, Japan

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Kyoto, Japan

“Useful fact on the Japanese railway system #724: They go on time, to the second and reserved seating is never wrong. So, when we boarded a bullet train four minutes early and someone was in our seat, we realised it was the wrong train… The lady sitting in our seat managed to convey in her only known two English words… “off – next”…

I have found my favourite town in Japan. Kyoto, but specifically the area of Gion. Our mission was to find a geisha. Research said in early evening they can be found between engagements on the river Gion at Gion Corner outside the tea houses or outside the famous Minamiza theatre. Fortunately geishas otherwise known as geikos (only 200 of them in Gion) or their under 21 year old counterparts – meikos (only 100) are very easy to spot. It’s probably their distinct white faces, kinda like ours. After ‘finding’ one we decided to abort this mission as they are embarrassingly followed around by tourists acting as paparazzi. This, no doubt, is all thanks to the book and movie ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ which is set in the town of Gion. Gion is more than geishas though. It’s very much old world Japan, with small streets, smaller tea houses and an extraordinary amount of culture. To experience the best of Gion and the traditional Japanese culture, we attended a theatre performance at Gion Corner. This included reenactments of the tea ceremony, Japanese harp, flower arranging, court music, ancient comic play, Kyoto style dance by geishas and a random puppet play by 3 men in black hoods.
As we had spent our dinner money on theatre tickets, we had Maccas for dinner and walked down the famous Pontocho street, the narrowest of lane-ways on the riverfront with expensive but exquisite restaurants. It is simply one of the most beautiful and interesting little place in the world. Gion is very old world and had very little credit card facilities even at Maccas. Geishas must be cheap if you don’t have to pay by credit card..unlikely!

Our second day was visiting Japan’s third largest city, Osaka. We had four hours to see Osaka before the train to Kobe, so we chose to visit Osaka Castle. Getting there required three trains in rush hour and I now know what a sardine feels like. The castle, complete with an inner and outer moat, was first built in 1583 and rebuilt in 1615 and 1931 ish.

“Favourite thing about travelling #101′: There’s time to search for random things suggested on the Internet. The Internet said to try the ‘famous’ Osaka okonomiyaki (cabbage, flour, eggs, seafood and other stuff) and takoyaki (flour batter and octopus). After leaving the aqua bus on the Osaka river we headed to the train station with the mission to find these two delicacies. We asked at the bakery for instructions and got side tracked by the danish pastries and then went to another food shop for instructions. This game is fun! The chef went next door to retrieve a map, explained how to get there in Japanese but we must have still looked confused so he signalled ‘follow me’. We followed the chef across town in his gumboots, apron and a towel on his head and he took us to where we could buy and eat them. All this without a word of English. These are the stories that make travelling memorable.”

Off to Kobe we went for the afternoon. It’s possible to visit three cities in one day with the bullet trains and a Japan Rail Pass. They say people make a holiday memorable and that was certainly the case with Yuma in Kobe. Yuma, who has better English than we do, was Mum and Dad’s exchange student in March 2013. Yuma went above and beyond for us with a full day of adventure planned. Firstly we took the cable car to the Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden for free tea and a spectacular view over the city. Next, using the free subway tickets Yuma got us, we went to an ‘out of this world’ buffet. My first world problem of fruit salad juice mixing with ice cream was sorted at this place. The plates are divided into 9 sections – genius! Did I mention unlimited wine?! Following the best buffet of my life, we wandered over to the Ikuta Shinto Shrine where we learnt to wash our hands and wash the badness out of us before entering. This is the advantage of going with a local. You learn so much more than just meandering aimlessly. Following that was the new mall on the harbour, to the best $1 shop I have ever seen and to coffee overlooking the harbour and port.
“Interesting fact about Kobe #504: the small populated island off the mainland was literally created from broken down rubbish.”
To finish up our best day in Japan, we went to a Japanese photo booth where the pictures are altered with cartoon eyes and can be written on. This unusual and quirky idea was the best way to end the day. Arigato gozaimasu Yuma. You have given us an amazing experience and shown us the beautiful seaside town of Kobe.
After 3 cities, 13 hours, 1 aqua bus and 12 trains, including 3 bullets trains later, we arrived back in Kyoto.

The final morning of sightseeing in Japan was spent just out of Gion, Kyoto.There’s a narrow pathway up a hill, with tea houses either side, linking a temple and shrine. We got lost getting there, then got mashed on an over crowded bus and nearly broke our backs walking up the hill in the heat, so we spent 1,100 yen on a taxi back. That was saying something as we only had 2,000 yen to last until we flew out the next day and we still had to do the washing.

It had been a full on 7 days of sightseeing and we were very much looking forward to the 457km or 2.5hr bullet train ride to the Tokyo hotel by the airport. With so much crammed into this year, our virtual Sundays (any-day dedicated to rest from travelling) are becoming transiting days on a plane or train rather than a whole day’s rest. As a plus, we now go on to 2 months of being on an organised tour. It’s quite draining walking everywhere and continuously being lost 🙂
The last dinner in Japan would have been the best meal for Dave – the inside of the traditional Japanese restaurant, the ones where you take your shoes off to enter, was like a birdcage. Dave and I sat in our own little room on the floor and Dave ate his favourite Japanese food complemented by sake, and I had a pizza complemented by orange juice.

Overall, we both enjoyed Japan. In particular the days out of the city where cultures could really be experienced. Some random piece of information to finish off our blog on Japan:
– Although there are no rubbish bins to be seen, there is no rubbish anywhere.
– Smokers must smoke in designated areas.
– It’s illegal to ride a bike with an umbrella, but you don’t have to wear a helmet.
– Out of the city particularly, you only need to look at a map and someone will ask you if you need help.
– Japan overall is an expensive place, but possible to do ‘comfortably’ on $160 per day. That’s including accommodation, Weetbix for brekkie, combining lunch/dinner and a small amount of sightseeing. That’s twice as much as we allowed for any other country.
– A large vending machine beer is $1.70
– Platform shoes, and out there hair styles are ‘in’ and jandals is short for Japanese sandals!
– There are 26,000 daily train services in Japan, we used about 35 trains in 7days.

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