Vietnam Part I

After the serenity of Siem Reap it was time to 'up sticks' and head east to Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).First impressions after 10 mins in HCMC where "jesus we need to be on our guard here". It was a record for been scammed in a new country- we got hit with a crazy taxi meter immediatly when we got off the bus from Cambodia. With oppresive heat, humidity, noise, pollution and I mean millons.. MILLIONS of motorbikes, I can honestly say I was not designed for
these sort of conditions so its better I dont give my opinon on this city as it wouldnt be very objective!. However their certainly is marked tendancey for locals to really screw tourists more than any other country we have visited to this point or perhaps its like that with everyone..who knows??. The sooner you except this, the sooner you will start too enjoy Vietnam for its been hyped for.
After the Madness of HCMC. it was nice to stumble upon Mui Ni almost sleepy beach resort or maybe it was just not peak season. Their was a lot more to this region once we sratched the surface(we even had a mini revolution of sorts unfold before our eyes..its
a story best told over a pint of temple Brau).
But as all good things must come to an end we traveled north to Hoi An. We had the usaual pattern of hassle and scams you come to expect i.e fighting with the bus company for forcing me
to sleep on the floor of the bus for 14 hours and then threating to throw me off the bus in the middle of the night for not complying to their wishes. Anyways back to Hoi An - an interseting place we were also here for the full moon so their was some nice festivals! It also wins the awards for the quirkiest hotel was have stayed in so far.

Siem Reap - Cambodia

We spent a week in Siem Reap to check out the famous temples of Angkor Wat. The first step was crossing the Thai - Cambodia border which in itself was an adventure The BBC reports it more eloquently than I ever could. This all makes for interesting land border crossing!. Anyway once safely across into Siem Reap Cambodia we were both left in awe of one of the ancient wonders of the world -Angkor Wat and the various other ruined temples from the Khmer Civilisation dating as early as the 10th century. Finally how could I forget we did a cooking course giving us the opportunity to cook and sample some of Cambodian cuisine ...Yummy(and yes that's why I was wearing the ridiculous chefs outfit it wasn't just for fun).

HONG KONG

Hong Kong - colourful, clean, crowded, tidy and a bit expensive. We had a really nice time here even with the smallest hotel room ever with toilet not much bigger than you would find in an aircraft (which is actually quiet appropriate as space is at a premium here). Food was amazing, Adam loved the delicious dumplings and both of us enjoyed some nice cocktails in the night life area SOHO...

The Philippines

The Philippines were our first stop in South East Asia, a good spot for a warming up....as here most of the really nice Filipinos have good English and it is nearly scamfree :) we only paid twice too much taxi fees and that was it. Apart from the really easy to travel features we loved the Philippines above and under the sea. The snorkling and scuba diving were superb, so many different corals and fish, turtles, scorpion fish, manta rays...amazing for us. Hopefully fishermen stop the so called dynamite fishing, as a lot of this fascinating under water world is already destroyed....Our highlights were Pandan Island and Apo Island. Although running water and electricity was - in parts - missing and we had some sleepless nights the overwhelming beauty of these two little gems was more than a compensation.

Pandan Island - The Philippines

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road - Australia

Well here we are its pushing 1 am in Sydney Airport. And its officially been shut down so we have been ushered into the bowels of the airport as it doesn't stay open through the night, Tomorrow we fly to Manila in the Philippines. Anyway I have just uploaded some pictures from Melbourne I have to say it gives Sydney a run for its money for which is the best cosmopolitan city. Also we traveled by car along "The Great Ocean Road" this project was embarked upon after WWI when the many returning soldiers wanted to build something significant to honor all those who died in the War we found stunning coastal scenery on winding road.

Darwin - Australia

Darwin - Australia: it was hot when we got off the plane and this at 6 a.m....We realized pretty quickly we will be confronted with a different type of Australia here. And indeed it was: crocodile warnings everywhere, 3 meter long snakes on the roads and a speed limit of 130 km/h (normal ones are 110 km/h).

Although our stay was very short (three days) we could visit two different National Parks, the famous World Heritage listed Kakadu Park - witness of very old Aborigines tradition and home of hundreds of crocodiles. The second one is Lichtfield full of refreshing waterfalls and 5 meter high termite mountains.

Tassie (Tasmania) - Australia

We spent 8 days in total in Tassie, In my opinion parts of it have to be the most pristine pieces of wildernesses
in the world- the photos speak for themselves. We did the Overland track, a 80 km trek through Cradle Mountain National park. It was bloody tough I have to admit! but was worth the effort and boy that beer tasted good at the end! . The people here were also super friendly, great food and more important great beer in Salamanca square in Hobart.