Easy Riders

We have left Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) and travelled to Delat in the Highlands which is really impressive - we did a day on motorbikes with guides and visited amongst other things a hill tribe and a silk factory.....










When we got back fror our trip we walked around the most incredible market - dog etc...




We are now in Nha Trang but we are only here for two days then heading to Hoi An.

Rainforest Music festival

I'm slightly out of sequence now (I will correct the order before the book goes to print';)  but I forgot I hadn't told you about the Rainforest music festival that we went to in Kuching. (anyone know the difference between rainforest and jungle? I had to google it.)

We picked the busiest weekend of the year to visit Kuching - there was the rainforest music festival on and it is a big deal. check it out here Rainforest music festival

We finally got some accommodation in Kuching by the way - first night in the best hostel in the world but the next two nights we had to splash out and get a proper hotel which still only cost 30 quid a night.

The festival itself took place in a Cultural village about 40 minutes out of Kuching - you are just kind of delivered to the edge and you have to make your own way through the rainforest to the village. Once you are there it's quite a spectacular setting with authentic tribal villages and huts mixed in with marquees, food stalls, beer tents and music stages.

We arrived about four o'clock and the first band weren't on until 7pm so we just mooched around, had some beer and noodles waiting for the likes  of coldplay and U2 to make an appearance. Unfortunately when it did begin the line up was not quite up to Glastonbury or T in the Park but the torrential rain (it is a rainforest after all) made things rather more like home, very very muddy.


I won't go into huge detail about all the bands but the highlights of the Friday night were an Indian band (video to follow) you can watch them practice in their bedroom here Layatharanga, the low point was a Bulgarian trio called the bisserov sisters - if you follow the link I think you will get an idea of how well they might go down at a concert (and this looks like them in their prime about twenty years ago) They scored "nil points".


we had to get up really early the next day to go and visit the orang utans at Semengoggh the next day so we didn;t see out the night even though the rain had stopped - but we had a very funny day at the music festival and was well worth going along but probably not something you should specifically come to Borneo just to catch (or at least research the line up and make sure you miss the Bisserov sisters - in fact, I'm pretty sure they won't be invited back so you'll be safe).

What about the orang utans I hear you ask - well that's a different story with many more pitcures of the Ginger ones, we got closer to them this time, saw a full size adult male, and saw them walking around on the ground but these ones aren't as wild and authentic as the ones at Sepilok.

SB.

Vietnam

The Borneo wildlife extravaganza (we went to see even more orang utans in Semengoggh)



ended yesterday with our flight to Kuala Lumpur and then onto Ho Chi Minh city - and did we get a real shock to the system after friendly, helpful, generally English speaking, easy to navigate Malaysia.


Getting into the airport we had to arrange our visas as soon as we landed - they have a really crap system here where you have to apply for visas in advance and we tried to do it at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur but it was absolutely heaving with people (a bit like Vietnam itself actually) so we had to go through an online company that arranges a pre approval letter for you (for a fee of course) you then take that letter to a desk on arrival in Vietnam, fill out a form, pay even more money (of course) and then get your visa.

To be honest, that was the most straightforward thing we did yesterday - leaving the airport we were bombarded by taxi drivers offering a ride into town and that's when it is good to have done a bit of pre-arrival reading. The guy was wanting to charge us 500,000 Dong (15 quid) to get to our hostel - we had read in the book that it should cost 80, 000 Dong. Unfortunately our book is 5 years old so we knew the prices would be off but they are so off that when we finally got the guy to drop his price we didn't believe him when he said we couldn't get it cheaper than 150,000 Dong. Turns out I think he was right with 150,000 but anyway, never wanting to make things easy for ourselves we decided to take the public bus.

Well, the driver either didn't want to speak to us or he couldn't and there was a crazy old lady trying to get us onto the bus telling us the bus definitely went where we wanted to go even though I don't think she understood - but we just had no clue what was going on. We were looking for help.......

Thankfully another old lady appeared and she was fluent in French so with a little bit of standard grade and some je ne sais quoi we were able to tell her that we were Scottish and we wanted to get to a certain hotel - so she took control, had an argument with the driver who still wanted to over charge us, she eventually paid for our bus trip (refusing anything in return) and when she left the bus she got another family to help us. The other family took a team approach (a bit like family fortunes when they confer for the chance to steal the game) and between them they got us off at the right stop.



From there we had to cross one of the busiest roads in Ho Chi Minh with all of our bags - now crossing the road in Ho Chi Minh is all about blind confidence, in fact it would probably be safer if you did just close your eyes and go. The rule here is that you just walk, slowly, and let the traffic avoid you. Not the easiest to convince your brain this is a good strategy when there are 300 motorbikes travelling in both directions - imagine the game Frogger with motorbikes and you're getting close.

once we were across the road it was a 10 minute walk to our hostel - and it was down some very very interesting local streets, This place really is fascinating. There were three highlights of the walk:

1) A woman on a moped with two children under the age of five hanging onto her feet.

2) All the young children running around the street saying "hello" just because it is funny to say this to westerners.

3) A man on his moped tapping his young child on the shoulder telling him to look at us whilst having a good chuckle to himself.

So, in the end we got there safe and sound and seem to have found one of the more reputable establishments (no available room "extras for example). It's a place however that sounds like it would offer other services, Madam Lois's or something (it's actually called Miss Lui's - which is what a lot of people do here.)

before I go I should make mention of the fact that we went out last night to watch the world cup final at 2am. But because of the time difference it was really 3am for our bodies. We just about managed to stay awake, helped ably by Canadian Kurt who lives here and was able to answer all our drunken questions such as "Dollar or Dong", "Saigon or Ho Chi Minh" and "What are the top five survival tips for Ho Chi Minh" (the best of which was when you are crossing the road never ever take a step back)

We are ruined today - we didn't get to bed until 5.30 and we just had to get up for breakfast (it's included in the price) for 9.30 so we haven't managed to do much today I'm afraid. Just about time to go back out though and get some more noodles methinks.....

Bye for now.

Rush job

Hi folks - well I am staying up late to watch Spain v Germany and I thought I would throw some quick posts and photos on the blog. Not much chat but just some photos - I have loads of others from our trip down the big Kitabangtangan river but I don't think I will be able to get them up anytime soon (a file difficulty)

Hope you enjoy the ones I have put up though and there will be lots more to follow shortly hopefully.

We are now in Kota Kinabulu - just flew in at 10.30pm - staying in a very basic hostel and checking out tomorrow to fly to Kuching where apparently the rainforest music festival is happening this weekend - we are starting to think we'll struggle for good accommodation as we have only just realised that this is a pretty big deal here and everyone wants to go to it!

Will keep you posted.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur - a very interesting place - Malaysian food is amazing but the heat is a bit crippling. We stayed at a really nice hostel in KL and met a great couple Adrian and Michelle (both Malaysian) who looked after us and helped us haggle to get a new compact digital camera.

You may be able to guess what the biggest atracion in KL was apart from foot fish and shopping.

Yep, the Petronas towers. We spent an hour having a cocktail at the Sky Bar next door (with it's own swimming pool) so we could get a closer look at the towers.

Anyone fancy some fish therapy?

This was a pretty bizarre experience - you stick your feet in a tank full of Dr. fish and they nbble all the dead skin off your feet. Methinks I am paying to feed fish - hmmmm.

Very tickly indeed.

Some wildlife shots from Sabah , Borneo

Borneo

Since I wrote last we have seen orangutans, proboscis monkeys, wild snakes, crocodiles - we've been on a night boat trip, a sunrise boat trip on the Sungai Kinabatangan, we've been on a long bus journey to Semporna and then we got lucky with a deal over to Pom Pom Island for 3 nights.

We are now just hanging around waiting for transport back to the main land where we are then flying to Kotu Kinabulu tonight - staying there one night before we head to Kuching in Sarawak which is still in Borneo.

Anyway, things have been mad, computer access limited and little time to write. I am hopeful that when we arrive in Ho Chi Minh on the 11th we will have a few days to catch our breath and hopefully I will get some pictures posted for you all to see (cos let's face it, you'd rather see photos than words eh? ;o)

All the best, 4 weeks til we see you in person!

SB

Kuala Lumpur

Well, we made it - after a quite horrendous flight with lightning storms and crazy turbulence (Katie slept through it all) we made it to K.L. at 1.30am. Made our way into town, got to our accomodation but there was a problem with our booking - we had booked for tomorrow not today. ;o)

So we have just pretty much stayed up all night out on the very plush front porch (it's a proper seated dining area in a covered porch area) watching the world cup and being looked after by the very nice staff here - giving us coffee and breakfast etc. Very nice indeed.

Trying now to book our next stage of our trip but it goes something like this (it is all up in the air and may well change):

Tuesday - fly to Sandakan in Borneo

Wednesday - visit the Orangutans

Thursday - visit the Proboscis monkeys

Friday - go on a river cruise and spend the night in the jungle

Sunday - try and head to Sepidan for a bit of diving with turtles

Wednesday - fly to Kotu Kinabalu (Borneo)

Thursday - fly to Kuching (Borneo) then spend the night in Baku National Park

Sunday - fly to Kuala Lumpur and then straight out to Ho Chi Minh.

We haven't made any plans as yet for Vietnam but will post them as soon as we have a rough idea.

;o)

Hong Kong

Well, after one week in Hong Kong the cold and wet of the New Zealand winter is a bit of a distant memory.

We have had a great time here in Hong Kong and have been well looked after by Roddy from Carradale who has very kindly let us stay at his posh flat in the city centre.

I have just quickly uploaded some pics for you to have a look at - there are plenty more but we are just about to rush out to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur.

We have finally decided on our next part of our trip and we have thrown ourselves into the deep end with a hectic schedule of 6 flights in 14 days to explore Borneo. We cannot wait - I will try and post as much as I can to keep you updated with our movements.