The whole world looks like Wales - the proof

The Neath Hotel, Hunter Valley, New South Wales



There again - not so much. Views of Hunter Valley: the view from our balcony at the Hermitage Vinyard; the sculpture gardens at the Constable winery - a short walk from where we stayed; and large views over the valley from the Audrey Wilkinson vinyard.

Oz catch up

This is just to let everyone know that - yes, we are still alive. We are still in Oz. Sydney this am having driven in from Katoomba in the Blue Mountains this morning. Wierd and wonderful place katoomba - a bit like Hastings - tatty, obviously seen better days but now full of arty types, bohemians and such - so great cafes, sumptuous desserts, live music on the streets and in the pubs, an assortment of odd shops such as the Flying Frocks and Sanctus, the Catholic bookshop that displays organic holy water in its window, and not a chain store to be seen. There the similarity ends. Katoomba's three sisters - huge sandstone karsts - and rain forest filled Jamison valley.



Internet surprisingly hard to access and very expensive in Oz - that's my plea anyway for failure to keep the blog up. And just to tide things along here some pix and stats:

4000 km - the distance we've driven from up far north in Queensland (cape Tribulation) to Sydney.

11 - the number of locations we've stayed at least one night. We spent two days in Cape Trib on God's own beach, rain forest tumbling down onto gleaming white sand and sparkling turquoise sea. We were about to plunge in when we discovered that sharks were swimming about, and crocs regularly come up the salt creeks into the sea.Not to mention the python spotted in the bay. then Atherton tablelands and nature spotting in a night canoe ride. Down back along the coast Hervey and Byron Bay - and a sort of Australian Butlins we found in a place called Yeppoon. Hunter Valley and then the Blue Mountains.


2 - the number of crocs we've seen in the wild (Daintree river).



I ate my first croc, by the way yesterday in katoomba. jenks ate her first kangaroo. it doesn't seem right does it - especially as she was just feeding some in a roo/koala santuary a couple of days before.



Countless - the number of dead roos we've seen by the roadside.

Strange fact: Jenks can yodel. discovered this while driving through the mountains. It used to be a childhood party piece apparently - yodelling along to Frank Ifield She Taught me How to Yodel.

Random thought: what is happening to the world?

Corn plaster report: J's knees playing up walking in the mountains; the cool Blue mountain air finally clearing my skin rashes. Strange bruise on my foot is getting better - think it happened diving the barrier reef. Prickly heat - that's a slow bastard. Corn plasters - still haven't used them.

Nice to be out for an hour....Ha Long Bay

The romantic story is that the limestone mountain islands in Ha Long Bay were created by dragons to deter invaders from the north. Whatever. We had a bottle of Sav Blanc and a long Vietnamese lunch of pumpkin soup, prawns in tamarind sauce and claypot fish as we cruised through the calm and misty waters. We've seen some views here in Asia - but this must be the best-ever spot for lunch. Or as they would say in Wales: 'it's nice to be out for an hour'. Jenks managed to resist the comparisons with St Davids, but was delighted that our Vietnamese guide was called Dai. 'There's lovely'.



We stayed overnight on the IndoChina Sails junk - one of an armada that sails these waters. Could easily have spent more time there, so beautiful and so peaceful after the constant din of motorbikes and horns that is Hanoi. Sailed up to a couple of the several floating fishing villages in the bay --- and saw the first floating bank of my experience. A spot of kayaking and some swimming. All too short our time there.

Congrats Ju and Di

Big congrats to Ju & Di on your CP. We wished we could be with you...almost.

Here's us at Angkor Wat in those hats you bought us...looking good I like to think...

Rapid Catch up

We're now in Hue, Vietnam and here for five days before flying to Hanoi and Ha Long.

So there's lots to catch up on: Ho Chi Minh City where we stayed at the Svetlana ('Grand') Hotel – yes a bit Soviet Union – then the Reunification Express overnight from HCMC to Hoi An when we roomed up in a 4-berth sleeper with a little old Vietnamese lady with the flexibility (and skin almost) of a four-year-old who clearly was not too keen on sharing with two hulking great Westerners. She moaned constantly and groaned loudly when I planted a shoed foot on the bed to hoist myself inelegantly on to the top bunk. Her compatriot – a sweet and younger woman – obviously embarrassed, compensated by buying us some vietnamese milky coffee for breakfast. Mined was iced and lovely; Jenk's was hot and swamp water.

But back I should go to Siem Reap. We'd so looked forward to this – not just for the temples but of course this is where Gill and Lynda had spent 9 months volunteering. We wanted to get an idea of how they lived. Bloody well I should say. Siem Reap is a party town. We checked out some of their favourite haunts and recommendations including Dead Fish Tower which keeps a crocodile pit downstairs; plus numerous other eat and drinkeries. Slightly surprised at first at how opulent relatively speaking SR is – full of plush and big hotels, loads of bars and restaurants. Typically though for Cambodia you only have to move a street or two back and the poverty is overwhelming. In many ways I thought Cambodia more poor even than Laos – there is obviously much more money in Cambodia but the contrast rich/poor is stunning here. And the begging and the hassling is in a different league to any other part of Asia we've been to. As for that matter is the sex tourism – at least as overt as we saw in Thailand. We were there slap bang after the election – so stacks of propaganda everywhere – especially for the Cambodian People's Party – the winners of course. I'm plotting a pol com blog in the fullness.





Temples – awesome – and pix above of Angkor Wat, Angkor thom – my favourite and one of the wonderful jungle strangled temples. But Siem Reap so so hot and the temple tours – there are so many of them – take whole days, leave you drenched and exhausted. It was here that my skin eruptions started – and that started to slow us down a bit. We managed to catch up with a couple of Gill & Lynda's mates Pok & Tom – but missed out on a lot of stuff, and didn't get to see the shelter where they worked.



From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh by speedboat. A proper boat this time – not the Laos variety. Fab journey past the floating villages – and three hours to cross the colossal Tonle Sap lake. The river journey gives some idea of the poverty too in Cambodia – tin shanties for miles along the river banks as we close in on Phnom Penh.



From there the bus to Ho Chi Minh – by far the biggest, most prosperous and consumerised city we've seen since Bangkok. Hugely busy port on the Saigon River, masses of industry, department stores and shopping malls. Fantastic food here – but that has been true generally of Vietnam. The food easily the best we've had in Asia – aside from the wonderful Kampot pepper crab and the fish amok in Kep.

Corn plaster report: ah hah. Last blog had the prickly heat update. Aided by the steam room in the hotel Svetlana it transformed into a creature-from-the-deep outbreak. Industrial strength anti-allergens seem now to be working. I'm enjoying my new vampire like status – only coming out at night. Fellow travellers calling me 'the lady of the night'. It has a certain charm. Jenks in sympathy has come down with a full on cold. We are planning a dawn raid on the imperial city and ancient tombs tomorrow and will book some serious luxury to stay in Hanoi - just in case I'm still confined to th dark. Corn plasters - amazingly still haven't used em.

Footie update: watched us draw with Villa last night – for God's sake Rafa! Get a grip man.

Phnom Penh again

Back in Phnom Penh at the Billabong Guest House. It's our third time in the capital and we are back here for a couple of nights before we head to Vietnam. We've come to view it as home. We've a a good room by the pool and that's essential in PP. it's so sticky hot here. Siem Reap was blistering and we arrived by boat today and I was just working up to a cooling dip when the monsoon heavens opened again, crashed upon us with the wrath of God, got harder with thunder and lightning and since then the rain has not stopped. Jenks sparko out as I write; meanwhile I'm dispatching a Johnnie Walker Black, and searching the internet for hotels in Ho chi Minh city and cures for prickly heat.

So much to say about PP, Cambodia and Laos - the people, cultures, politics...but just at the moment it's those little things that are on my mind. Little things that you discover about yourselves. Like jenks' obsessive compulsive disorder with the washing. She opens her eyes in the morning, disappears into the bathroom for half an hour and emerges triumphantly declaring that's another six pairs of knickers off our laundry list. I meanwhile can't pass a pharmacy without wandering in stocking up on medicaments and always in the vain hope that there might be Dr Hauschka or MagicoolPlus maybe a little Clinique. I had the bright idea last night to try two different preparations on my heat prickled legs - I put calomine lotion on one and Savlon on the other. One leg showed definite improvement. Had I remembered which leg had which it would have been an excellent experiment.

jenks also has this thing going on about Wales. The whole of south east Asia brings new and hitherto unsuspected comparisons. Angkor Wat? "It's just like Neath Abby - only bigger". Wait till we hit New Zealand.

Love to you all. We'll be up late tonight catching Liverpool v Sunderland - about 11.30 here. The new season? Optimism of spirit, pessimism of the mind. Come on you Reds.

Kep. Cambodia

After the total chaos of Phnom Penh we are powering down in Kep – a sleepy little village by the sea famed only for its pepper crab and for the fact that it was once the hang out of Cambodian royalty before it got smashed to pieces by the Khmer Rouge. Tried the crab last night – wonderful meat and doubtless slimming since it took so much energy to extract. When I say powering down – no internet here, no newspapers and last night the few Tv channels gave out with the ominous warning on some that 'this channel not allowed in this country'. We had no way of knowing if this was a temporary blip or if the trouble at the border had spilled into outright war between Cambodia and Thailand. Slight uneasiness not helped by the soldiers with rifles loitering outside the crab restaurant.

Feels strange to be so far from news. I had to text Chris. He replied straight away Rangers 0 Liverpool 4. Retired to bed much comforted.


Rabbit Island





Fantastic to be beside the sea. The air so clean after Phnom Penh, the street – there is only one – so quiet. save for the breaking waves. We took a ferry across to Rabbit Island on Sunday – noted for its bathing beaches. As is the norm for us in Asia every trip is an adventure. We were talked into it by charming lad who met us off the bus from PP – and offered us a bargain price. Like very many lads we've met here, he has one thumbnail very long and scrupulously clean. A guitarist and budding rock star of course. A Cambodian version of 'Beautiful girl', sung in English although it's hard to tell, is the soundtrack here. Makes a nice change from Hotel California.

The young lad took us to the ferry dock on the back on his motorbike. Fortunately, he had a mate so that was a bike each for us. No crash helmets of course but a bike each was a bonus since three and often four per bike is normal. At the so-called dock it was the usual thing: scramble over rocks, wade through thigh high water, throw yourself into the boat – like gazelles we were. Jenks' swallow dive into the boat especially impressive and clearly a new technique for the nimble Cambodians. Rabbit Island was a delight. Goats, chickens and even cows meandered thru the coconut palms and hammocks. We floated for hours in the South china briny, lunched on fresh prawns and coconut water and then wandered back to the boat across the hillside path.
Then from nowhere came the monsoon rain. We waited wondering if we would have to shelter in the thatched huts overnight. Two by two the other passangers turned up since it turned out we had all been given different departure times. We watched the rain and a lonely paddle boat struggle thru the thundering waves. then it was our time to leave. Somehow I found myself sitting alone at the front of the boat. Rabbit Island is only about half an hour from Kep but as the boat heaved and threatened to capsize it looked an awfully long way off. Make it we did – drenched by the waves and for the first time in Asia cold from the wind. No fish for dinner that night – spaghetti please.