Armed with a new camera, new undies and some lint I found in the bottom of my back pack, I headed to the airport to inflict some pain on another poor country or two. A rather simple couple of flights got extended to three and the layovers in Singapore and Ho Chi Minh city made the trip to Hanoi almost a full day affair. Ah Jetstar....

Hanoi

Taxi from the airport to the hotel not far from the train station, and I spent the two days prior to starting the tour wandering around the streets of Hanoi, had many many bia hoi hanoi – which was beer that came from fresh as fresh kegs wrapped in cold wet rags or sitting in buckets filled with ice that were in little restaurants on the side of the road – some of the cleanest, freshest beer i've ever drunk, and a great way to sit and watch the world go by...was the only place that me being a 6 foot 6 foreigner could sit inconspicuously and drink plenty of tasty beer. I walked a lot around the old town, the lakes and through the poorer areas near my hotel, which was an amazing change from coming from Perth, but still less dust and dirt flying around than in Kalgoorlie. Went out for more bia hoi the night before joining the group and got right in the middle of a group of guys watching manchester united play a game on the tv, and got to chatting – without much actual talking as only one of them spoke english – but buying a bottle of vodka definitely opened up the communication lines, along with the odd shout of Rooney, ROONEY GOAL!!!

Joined up with the travel group, which was a mixed lot but seemed like we all mixed well. From all parts of the travel spectrum – from the sisters who hadn't left sydney, to an english amateur travel photographer and a mother and teenage daughter from new zealand who were spending 3 months travelling through Indochina. Roomed with Anton, a travel agent from melbourne, with whom I spent most of the time on the trip with – we had one interesting experience in Hanoi where we were out for a big night and asked where the place to go to next was...we ended up on the back of scooters being taken a good 20 minutes from downtown through some seedy looking streets to a little club where we spent the night with a few russian guys that bought us drinks all night, and kept having hushed conversations with other big russians, who would leave very quickly and speed away in big black cars...very interesting..but fun!

The next morning was a different story..not so fun to begin with

Halong Bay

Slept through the alarm after the big night with the russians, but managed to get down to the bus quickly and promptly pass out again. Came to just before we got to halong bay, and was feeling quite good..nice clean bia hoi does it everytime...good thing too as the boat trip to halong bay was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Amazing islands rising out of the bay – sheer cliffs and slopes covered in trees – except for our first stop, which was a set of caves decked out for all the tourists in the most natural fashion – bright lights of every colour -especially pink. Purple and yellow – were used in large amounts to bring out the natural colours of the caves...

We stayed the night on cat ba island, which wasnt the most exciting place off season, but again, beer was plentiful so I was happy. We ferried back to Hanoi the next day and had a quiet night before getting up, visiting Uncle Ho in his mausoleum and then catching the overnight train to Hue. Hours spent reading, talking and drinking much of the local wine, spirits and beer when it came by room service...a hard life..and the beds were almost long enough for me to stretch out in too...wonders will never cease.

Hue

People who go to Hue go mainly to visit the ancient capital of Vietnam and its Imperial Citadel and Forbidden Purple City, which we definitely did. Lots of walking and photos at the ancient complex were followed by a corny traditional dinner in the traditional dress. We went on an all day scooter trip around country towns travelling along pathway sized roads checking out temples, agricultural villages and museums,and war era bunkers. Had our first experience of an authentic vietnamese nightclub – table service, bottle service, only girls dancing on the dance floor (which we found out when we went out to dance with them!), and being eyed off (not in a good way) by groups of rich vietnamese guys...lucky our great dancing skills got us out of any scrapes that they were wanting to start...

Hoi An

The bus trip to Hoi An was definitely interesting, passing over some amazing..well..passes and even stopping at the beach in Da Nang...Anton and I ran towards the ocean to go for a swim – seeing as it was so hot and humid, and with no one on the beach, we almost made it to the water before a “lifeguard” started losing his shit about us getting in the water – apparently the half-metre high waves were too dangerous for us to go in...i think he thought we were irish or english...you'd think our tans would have told him otherwise.

Anton and I managed to pull the executive suite at the hotel half way between the city and the beach, and it was furnished with amazing hand crafted furniture and gorgeous artworks, all topped off with a black and white chequered floor. We promptly went down to the tailor district and ordered our suits, shirts and velvet lounge jackets, as Hoi An is famous for its tailors. Next day a few of us hired scooters and headed down the coast to a small beachside village to head down the beach., where Anton promptly got his scooter bogged in the sand. Then up into the mountains via a vietnam war memorial (the vietnamese just call it “the war”) and after having a swim in the river and a beer. Anton managed to run out of petrol, and we consequently got some strange looks as I towed him between rice paddies to the nearest village by holding onto his handle bars. We found an abandoned american air strip that was used during the war and has now been left to fal apart – but it definitely was the widest road through that area, where the average car wouldn't fit down the paths between villages.

Nha Trang

Nha Trang is a good party own and this extends to parties out on boats – of which there are many. The group went out on a tour of the bay and out to an island aquarium where I happened to run into a mate from Perth, Alice who was over in Vietnam with her friend. After running into another boat filled with backpackers and which seemed like a party boat, Anton and I jumped on this boat and left our more relaxed surroundings behind. Music, cruising round islands and beers were the tune for the rest of the day, and random jumping off the boat...but no topless ladies. Sniff sniff.. :(

Ho Chi Minh

So we arrived on the train at about 6am and went to the main square and had an awesome breakfast of random meats...always a good start to the day. Straight off then o the war museum which was pretty confronting – not smart by the yanks starting a war in a place they had no idea about...and they messed up the locals for generations afterwards...still nasty reminders of their attacks all over the country.

Then to the Chu Chi tunnels to see the amazing tunnels and underground cities constructed by the Viet Cong during the war..whole communities were underground and the yanks never knew what hit them..Charlie wasn't only in the trees...but coming from the ground too..Definitely not a place for me though – not able to fit into the holes and struggling through the tunnels on my knees...not quite a front line infantryman for the VC anytime soon..maybe if I had joined when I was 7 I would be able to fit easily enough.

Day trip to the mekong next, and a long bumpy minibus trip made way for a cruise up the mekong and an island tour that included playing with a big python, zooming around precarious little paths on tuk tuks and “driving” the boat using an old 1981 toyota hiace steering wheel to guide the boat around coconuts and small children in the mekong. A relaxing paddle in a dugout canoe down some of the waterways through the palm trees were a great way to digest al the fruit eaten for lunch – yes I was actually eating fruit – so much fresh and tasty fruit everywhere..especially when combined with alcohols in a fruity looking glass!

Phnom Penh

Another ridiculously long bus ride later – think it took 10 hours to go about 300km, and we arrived in Phnom Penh, which was very quiet pretty much all the time, except for around happy hour at the bars along the waterfront. We had an awesome local dinner at one of the local guides' houses with his huge family, and the many beers with the curries helped make it an awesome night. The fried crickets, not so much...crunchy though!

Sihanoukville

Hungover bus ride (is there any other type?) to the ocean resort town of Cambodia, and another nice hotel. Spent the whole time here either on the beach in one of the many straw roofed restaurants, bars or out on a booze cruise...great relaxing spot that would have been very very easy to get stuck in for a good while. Great seafood, cheap beer, clean sand and water and such a cruisy atmosphere...good chance I'll go back. Coconut curry in a coconut is definitely one of my favourite meals of all time!

Khmer Homestay

A real eye opener staying in the most basic of places, where you didnt want to walk too far off the roads at all because the area had only “mostly” been cleared of land mines...but was happy that the local volleyball court had been cleared as we wiped the floor with a group of local kids who, to be fair didnt come above my nipples and we had two guys on our team over 6 foot 4...

Back to Phnom Penh for another couple of days to go to the Genocide museum and the killing fields, with the mass graves and tower of skulls and human bones amazing me that people within the same country can inflict such atrocities on their own people. Life changing, really.

Kompong Cham

Really just a stopover on the way to Siem Reap, this place had only one thing going for it – the bamboo bridge, which is constructed every dry season and is washed away every wet season on the Mekong, that joins the mainland with an island in the middle of the river. An amazing feat of construction and very hard on the buttocks on the way across because it is so bumpy.

Siem Riep / Angkor Wat

Siem Riep's Pub Street definitely isn’t mis-named. The big night that resulted from this street and after having Mr Fish eat all the bits that he could off my feet made Adam not a happy boy in the morning as we got up before dawn to be at Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. Which we couldn't see because it was cloudy and raining on and off. Everyone in the group waited for the full sunrise to happen, and no one had yet gone into the wat so I went in by myself and got to walk around the whole place by myself, only seeing a couple of people at the end of the walk and settled into a hangover-curing fry up at a stall near the front gate while I waited for the rest of the group to come through. It was amazing how such a huge set of structures, including all the other temples in the vicinity, could be built by using only human hands, and that people could spend their entire lives building a place for a king to hang out. I was all Wat-ted out after lunch and caught a tuk tuk back to the hotel early to sleep off the night before.

Big drive to Bangkok next and got to try some creepy crawlies at a roadside stand – sounds appealing hey! Tarantulas and crickets very very tasty...the spiders tasted strangely like crab... Prepared me for the 2-3 hour wait at the border anyways...

Bangkok

Khao Sanh road was the place to be and I was there – a few nights eating, drinking and partying there and at some pubs and clubs with some of dad's mates at Soy Cowboy and up in the business district...a different side of Bangkok in that part of town! Plenty of shopping in the city centre and stocking up on singha t-shirts and stubby holders.

So...many beers and all the available animals that I could find to eat (except dog, which I am still disappointed I didnt get to try in Vietnam!) and some amazing historical sites across indochina, but nowhere near enough time...i'll definitely be back to this part of the world before long!