Cheryl & Neil Our Story

Thai-riffic!

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Cheryl & Neil

Thailand makes you realise just how incredibly shitty India really is. It’s cleaner, the people smile, you’re not greeted in the mornings by the hordes defecating in the fields, people queue nicely, everything works and is maintained, the traffic is gentle, quiet and isn’t out to kill you.

Our hotel in Bangkok was excellent with probably one of the biggest beds we’ve ever had. The view from the 6th floor wasn’t exciting but at least we can have the huge balcony door open without anybody peering in at us.

We came to Bangkok to apply for our visa to enter China on March 24th. China is extremely pernickety about having things all confirmed. We needed to provide copies of passport, our old visa from 4 years ago, the immigration stamp for our entry into Thailand, confirmation of flights in and out of China, hotels all booked for our month long visit, explanations for this, explanations for that, what colour underwear we’ll have on when we arrive, when is our next haircut due….you name it, they want it. Anyway, with just one abortive journey, partly our fault and partly an extra item they demanded, we finally got it!

We’ve also been catching up on our ‘business’ things at home like pensions and properties plus final plans for our remaining 3 weeks in Thailand, our week in Laos and cancelling lots of the plans for China and made new ones that fitted our requirements better. One of the advantages of Booking.com is that you can cancel with impunity so once we had the visa granted all the ‘hoop jumping’ was cancelled! Of course, we also did a bit of sightseeing, shopping and generally enjoying the much more relaxed vibe of Thailand. We took our usual trip on the river ferry which, for about £1.20 is a fantastic way to see the city on a 2hr return ticket.

Next stop was to pastures new, Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand. We really liked it, our room was excellent albeit a 40 minute walk to town and it had a much more relaxed feel than Bangkok. The night market was a wonderful experience. As well as many colourful stalls selling clothes and trinkets there was a huge food court. It had about 250 tables surrounded by vendors offering all sorts of food and drinks and a stage that offered free and sometimes dubious entertainment. The show we really liked was the collection of lady boys dressed like Shirley Bassey prancing around the stage and miming to ‘boy band’ music……we just cracked up!

Outside of the city was the White Temple, a bizarre place which may have been influenced by Gaudi. Chalermchai Kositpipat was the architect and builder and he opened it to visitors in 1997. It’s now one of the most visited temples in Thailand and the site also boasts a gallery of some of his paintings………even Neil enjoyed that!

We decided to take a bit of a tour to visit some places that are slightly less travelled. Firstly, it was off to Chiang Saen which was once in the centre of the world’s production of opium. It was as little as 20 years ago that the drug baron Kun Sa Mong surrendered. He controlled the area known as The Golden Triangle with his private army of 20,000 armed men making this part of Thailand an absolute ‘no go area’. The triangle is at the confluence of the Mekong and Ruak Rivers where Thailand meets Myanmar and Laos. The CIA were here helping remove the drug barons and now it’s a major tourist attraction. With the help of lots of money from the rest of the world the 3 nations have now turned this area into a kitschy photo opportunity with a few attractions that include a couple of Opium Museums.

We spent 6 blissful nights here with a super room giving us the view to die for across the mighty Mekong River to Laos. The room lit up with the sunrise that we were privileged to see every morning…….absolutely breath-taking. Watching people meditating first thing in the morning with the sun rising made this place feel very spiritual…….even Neil felt it! The river is the life blood for so many people by providing work transporting goods, ferries and food. The river is home to many varieties of fish including The Giant Mekong Catfish, sadly endangered, which can grow to almost 9 feet and weigh over 600lbs.

Next we decided to head to the hills…….Mae Salong in fact. It’s about 1300m above sea level and it’s renowned for its Oolong tea plantations. Mae Salong is not easy to get to unless you pay buckets of money for a taxi. It was time for a bit of proper travelling, and we are flashpackers so we decided to use local transport, which we quite enjoy as it gives you a slice of local life. It took us around 4hrs to do using a rickshaw, minibus and a songthaew to cover about 40 miles and cost us 230TBH (about £5.50). We hadn’t expected the journey to take so long, but the local songthaew went the longest way possible round to Mae Salong, and included a 30 minute break halfway.

We had yet another room with a stunning view and four nights just enjoying the cooler air and the ‘Chinese Vibe’ that it has. About 50/60 years ago the defeated Chinese army that had been fighting the Communists fled and settled in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. Mae Salong was one of the places that they settled in and Thailand granted them land and a right to settle. The Chinese influence in the food, ambience and features of the people is extremely strong. In fact, the place where we stayed was owned by a Chinese family who also owned tea estates and the very quirky giant tea pots and Mongolian Dogs that you can see in the photos.

We walked through the village, the plantations and also up some long winding lanes, followed by more than 700 steps, to the temple that sits on top of the hill and at night you can gaze up several hundred meters to the beautifully illuminated pagoda. Inside the pagoda roof is a small shrine and it had lots of coins standing on their edges at the base. We decided that we should join with this tradition and when we succeeded a local told us with delight that ‘this good luck’!

It wasn’t until next day that we realised just how right he was! The day after we placed our coins on the shrine and got our ‘good karma’ we were told by Yee our hotel owner that her brother was going to be going to Mae Chan to make a tea delivery on the day we were leaving. Mae Chan is a transport hub where we could get a bus back to Chiang Saen. He took us the short way in his very comfortable pick up, dropped us at the bus stop and 10 minutes later a bus arrived which meant that we got back to Chiang Saen in just 2hrs and at a cost of 100TBH (about £2.50)…….result!

We’re now back in Chiang Saen with the beautiful view across The Mekong enjoying lush Thai food, cold beer and making our final plans to get to Laos and to get back to Thailand for our flight to China…….that’s coming up next!

Cheers

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Cheryl & Neil

Last days in India, travelling with our friends John and Sue. Highs and lows, fabulous wines, sightseeing and technology rescued us twice. Plus we all picked up a bug – well this is India…..it’s inevitable.

We put together a short trip acting as tour guides for our friends. Overnight train to Nasik for some wine tasting and then to the World Heritage sites at Ellora & Ajanta, and a meteorite crater at Lonar for sightseeing. Booking the train turned out to be the usual Indian headache, Cheryl & John managed to get 2 good seats, Neil & Sue were on a waitlist – but we eventually had confirmed seats together just hours before the train departed.

We arrived in Nasik just before lunch time and we got to the hotel which had deteriorated in the usual Indian way since we were last there. Hard beds, grotty pillows and grubby marks on the walls. Time for a quick shower, and then off to Sula Vineyards for a tour followed by a tasting session. We negotiated a ride with 2 tuk tuk drivers and then pulled into a petrol station where the drivers consulted an English-speaking Indian lady who could explain that they had not realised how far we wanted to go and they decided they wanted substantially more money than they had agreed to. We parted company amiably and then had a ‘what do we do now moment’. John decided this was a great time to try Uber in India and after a 5 min wait our taxi pulled up for a bargain price – result!

The short tour and tasting at Sula was interesting. We then headed for the balcony to have some tasty snacks of cheese, olives, nuts, bruschetta and, of course, several half bottles of wine. Sue & Cheryl decided to indulge in the desserts – warm chocolate fondant & cardamom crème brulee. Both were excellent. Suitably refreshed we blagged a ride to a nearby vineyard called York. Here was much of the same, hic, with the bonus of a free baseball cap with the tasting session. We then settled for a delightful bottle of their flagship Merlot to go with our dinner. We all slept soundly that night.

Next day it was slightly less of the same as we were all feeling a bit jaded, especially Cheryl who had had a very bad night (both ends…….too much information?). This time we chose Vallonne Vineyard, which had the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable young Indian winemaker. It is also situated above a huge and beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere. Finally, on to Grover Vineyard which was nearby.

Both these vineyards are around an hour or so south of Nasik. When we got back to the hotel, Neil was feeling bad (no ends involved just shivery) and missed out on dinner.

The following day we discovered John & Sue had had an interesting night (both ends). Cheryl however, was feeling on top form and was irritatingly bouncy. Morning train to Aurangabad where we were met at the station by our driver, Salman, in a very clean and comfortable car.

We headed straight to Ellora Caves. Ellora has around 30 caves cut into solid rock built at differing times by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. The most impressive sight here is the Kaillash Temple which is the biggest temple hewn from one solid lump of rock. After our sightseeing, Salman took us back to our hotel, JP International, which had surprisingly stylish rooms, comfy soft mattresses and a very quirky feature in our room.

Our night was marred by a ‘domestic’ on the same floor as John ‘n Sue’s room. It kicked off at around midnight and took some time to resolve, including some Indian men threatening to punch John after he had the audacity to ask them to keep the noise down…….all very sad considering that everything else about the hotel was superb.

On day 2 Salman took us to the Ajanta Caves. These are also cut into rock but the site is fairly remote and peaceful, and the paintings inside the caves are very well preserved. We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon before we got back the hotel for a roof top dinner and several bottles of KF Strong…..mmmm! Top tip for travelling – join in with anyone singing ‘happy birthday’ and you will get a slice of the cake.

Day 3 started with quick visit to what is known locally as the ‘mini Taj’. It was exactly as described – a cut down version of the Taj Mahal. Cheryl & Suz couldn’t resist the obvious pose.

This was followed by a long drive to Lonar where we visited the Lonar Crater. It was formed thousands of years ago, when a meteorite crashed into the earth and it’s the third largest salt water lake in the world and it’s 7 times saltier than the sea. The crater is 6km round and is an amazing site especially when you see how small the temple at the bottom looks.

There was only one hotel in Lonar, run by Maharastra Tourism. The rooms were surprisingly good and we all looked forward to having a good dinner on our last night as we were all better now and feeling hungry. Unfortunately the food was appalling, the menu was useless as everything we asked for was ‘no have’, so we were forced to take whatever was on offer – bony, salty fried chicken, salty bony chicken curry and a greasy bony chicken biriyani. Neil managed to get an omelette and that was at least edible. There was also a ‘permit room’ which is India speak for licensed premises and that was a series of outdoor private drinking rooms – all very bizarre. However, it did sell a strong beer called Cannon 10000 which went some way to making up for the lousy food. Amazingly, it all stayed in with no surprises the next morning!

We went for an early morning walk round the tiny village and viewed the crater from a different angle. We were the only foreigners and this was rural India a far cry from the ‘economic miracle’ of the major Indian cities. We skipped breakfast and a 3hr drive brought us back to Aurangabad Airport where we had to bid farewell to John ‘n Sue as we were going to Delhi and them to Mumbai. We had a fabulous week with them always finding a laugh to get us through the down moments. Thank you J’nS, we really enjoyed your company…….it was a brilliant week.

Our Delhi Hotel turned out to be an absolute winner. Airport hotels the world over are never great and Indian hotels are amongst the worst. So, unless you really want to up the budget to 5* then you might as well take the best of a bad bunch……it’s always a lottery and you’re usually disappointed. We chose a new small hotel with reasonable reviews – however we needed the help of Google Maps on Cheryl’s phone to help the taxi driver to find it as it was down a tiny alleyway. We arrived late in the evening, checked into a fine room with soft bed, the guys got us some KF strongs, we slept soundly and the included breakfast in the morning was excellent. The minus point was that it was 45 minutes by taxi from the airport but even when you added in the taxi it was still good value at 2500R all in (about £30).

The flight with Air India to Bangkok was surprisingly good. It was a new Dreamliner with excellent IFE and when we asked for G&T we were given 2 small bottles each of Beefeater gin and lots of wine to go with the meal. After drinking Indian gin for 3 months when you get the ‘real McCoy’ it just slips down beautifully……so much so that Cheryl was forced to have a third!

Smarty Pants

Posted on February 7, 2017 by Cheryl & Neil

Here we go again, another thing to **** the tourists off – will India never learn? Please read on about Government edicts, elections, police interpretation, curfews, corruption, rules that are just not enforceable and the public’s ingenuity at getting over ‘totally inept government’.

Now, here’s a question. Is our favourite beach shack becoming like Benidorm? There are many characters who frequent the shack during our three month stay, some more colourful than others. Most are quiet couples who like to chat a little but mainly enjoy reading and the tranquillity of our usually uncrowded and haphazard shack. This year we have our first transgender, a lovely person from Dublin called ‘Sean or Heather’. Heather has a lovely selection of bikinis and dresses and, as you might expect for a Barrister, a great sense of humour. Sometimes the overall effect of the delicate outfits is spoiled a little when Heather sits puffing on a very large cigar! We have a bag lady – well she turns up with plastic bags on her feet then heads down to the sands to top up her mahogany tan. Let’s not forget ‘Frenchy’ a very elegant high maintenance lady with a delightful sing song French accent and her gentleman friend ‘Swede’ who are a couple in their 70’s who use English as their common language. He starts at 10am with a beer before they both hit the vodkas and they openly bicker like there’s no tomorrow.

Then we have the ones we are less keen on. We have the German ‘dog feeders’ that are also the last of the big spenders. They sit at a table and read for about 3hrs over a pot of tea and a bottle of water….100R’s or about £1.10! The normally laid back dogs get growly and snarly at any approaching dark skinned people as they demonstrate they are protecting their feeders. This is hugely annoying as the German couple sit back instead of training the dogs to behave. We also have ‘child bride, granddad and brat’ who are a very young Nepali girl with a 70 something German husband and an annoying 18 month old child. They rarely speak to each other, and both often leave the brat to run wild expecting everyone else in the shack to be babysitters…..but not us miserable old gits!

Finally, and this has driven us to leave Francis after 10 years, we have ‘Rabbit’. She arrived in January and has a very loud and annoying voice, ‘it’ doesn’t have an off switch and ‘it’ only has three subjects to talk about making her conversation with people (definitely not us) extremely repetitive. Her husband is fine, quiet, probably because he can’t get a word in but she’s also got a friend at the other end of the shack, ‘lonely’, who has also got a very loud and annoying voice. She gets bored so heads off along the beach to visit her friends in other shacks (hurrah – an hour of peace!) Unfortunately as soon as she is back she gives a blow by blow account of her conversation with her friend to her husband. One of her favourite repeated sayings is – ‘that shack that so and so uses is so crowded and noisy and you can’t see the sea!’ Oh the irony – it was quiet here in Pescador until you got back motor mouth!!! As we said, she finally ground us down and even loud music on headphones couldn’t drown out the inane ramblings. We couldn’t take any more and left Pescador Beach Shack for our last two weeks and became ‘shack tarts’ trying out different establishments. We’ll will go back to Pescador next season until ‘Rabbit’ returns.

We’ve had a number of events, a very enjoyable quiz night where our team of 6, called Universally Challenged, won! John and Sue, Clive and Linda and us two competed against a dozen other teams …..our prize was a small box of Smarties each……amazing! Wine tasting again, birthdays to celebrate and we’ve spent quite a lot of time with Aditya and Priti who have now gone to Mumbai before Aditya sets off on his round the world tour on his Triumph Bonneville. Hopefully, we can catch up with them when he passes through the UK. John and Sue had some friends arrive from France so we were forced to join them on yet another dolphin trip. This time it was much more reserved although there was still plenty of beer flowing.

We were also invited along to Francis’ son’s First Communion Party. This was held in the small yard in front of his house where a small canopy had been erected to provide some shade. Functions like this are held throughout the village as many of the children all had their First Communion on the same day. The family parties start with a delicious plate of starters and drinks flow. There is time for chit chat and finally the cake is cut and the buffet is served. We are used to people chatting and socialising for a long while afterwards however, the Goan way is to sit almost in silence and then wolf down the buffet and clear off! Our table of foreigners who frequent Pescador had a great afternoon enjoying the delicious food. It was also a novelty to see Francis dressed in smart trousers and a shirt.

The money situation has improved but there are still times when the ATMs are empty. However we have a brand new annoyance. It’s election time in Goa and there is a strict code of conduct applied as Indians are not allowed to drink alcohol in the build up to and during the voting. The Government decreed that for most of the month of January the sale of alcohol stopped at 11pm, even in restaurants, which often became 10pm if the police decided so. Then during the peak 3 days before and during the voting they have shut all bars, and have prevented restaurants from serving alcohol and generally they have made the lives really difficult for the already beleaguered tourist industry of Goa. The police even entered one restaurant at 9.30pm and told people to leave and shut the place. Half consumed food and drink was left on the table and people left straight away leaving bills unpaid…….obviously this bar owner didn’t pay his baksheesh (bribe). The crazy thing is that we have, like everyone else, just stocked up.

However, at one point the police changed the rules once again and without saying anything to the general public all liquor stores were shut 2 days in advance of the ‘dry days’ before the vote itself. We hadn’t bought enough gin and Cheryl had a middle class crisis as there wasn’t a single bottle to be found anywhere in the village! Luckily, Aditya was back at Micon to pick up his bike and came round to our place with a bottle from his stocks as we had plenty of tonics. So, as usual, we found ways around the restrictions. Some people had take out parties on the balcony, some carried neatly disguised drinks to add to the mixers that you can still buy or drank straight from fresh coconuts with a straw having added a shot of rum……..yes it is, once again, proving to be ‘Incredible India’!

We spent our last few days finalising plans for the rest of our trip to Thailand and China plus our week long journey to Delhi with John and Sue to go wine tasting and sightseeing. We also made sure we went to our favourite restaurants to say ‘goodbye, see you next season’. Our trip for pizza and red wine at Luna proved to be particularly eventful as we had some Spanish Flamenco dancing to enjoy…….well not really. A young couple of Spaniards came in at about 9pm and they were obviously very drunk. The girl was singing and generally being annoying. Everyone in the restaurant did the right thing and just chose to ignore the attention seeker. Then she got out her castanets and started dancing but it wasn’t long before she fell comically backwards onto her arse with her legs in the air and her man had to pick her up. Unfortunately at this point a bemused group of young Russians politely applauded!!

She then proceeded to go and annoy the chef at his open air pizza oven which forced Ingelisa, the dotty foreign lady who helps run the place, to intervene. She asked the Drunken Spanish girl politely to please sit at the table and be quiet. Our cabaret star then proceeded to be abusive and accused Ingelisa of being German and rude, she’s actually Danish and very meek, which then forced the hands of several men, including Neil, plus Cheryl to go to her rescue. ‘Get out, you’re not welcome here’ we shouted and without any fuss, just verbal abuse, the couple left! Well, what an evening!

We do have a bit of good news. We’ve managed to secure the same house for next season and you’re all invited to join next year’s madness……but not all at the same time! We have 2 spare bedrooms, a pool to share and a plentiful supply of restaurants offering most types of food. Plus an array of colourful characters, surreal experiences, government ‘surprises’, wall to wall sunshine and temperatures in the early 30’s. How can you resist?

That’s it for lazing around on a beach doing ****** all. Next we’re off for some proper travelling so watch out for the next entry.

Happy New Year

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Cheryl & Neil

Hey, now don’t we scrub up well when we make an effort?! We got the pictures taken of us at the recent wedding. Neil dressed in his suit with collar and tie and Cheryl looking absolutely fabulous – we could pass for a real celebrity couple on the social circuit, ok maybe not.

Sadly, we must report the passing on of Cheryl’s cat Bruno. After 17 glorious years he finally succumbed to old age. We know it’s not of much interest to most of you but for us he was a gem…….even Neil was a tad choked when we heard. After we started travelling 9 years ago Neil’s son took him on and then when he moved out of the house after 4 years a neighbour and her family adopted him and gave him a loving home for his final few years. We didn’t come across anybody who didn’t find a small slot in their heart’s for him……he was such a loving and amusing cat.

It’s been the usual build to Christmas and New Year with a social calendar befitting anybody famous. The pictures tell it all but in summary we had a superb lunch with Priti and Aditya our neighbours in Micon who came to Neil’s rescue when British Airways lost his bag. Hopefully we’ll be seeing them in the UK during the summer as Aditya passes through on his Triumph Bonneville during his round the world trip.

Then it was the obligatory Santa Special on the dolphin boat – 32 people in the party. Hugh was magnificent as Santa as you saw from our previous post and it all got very messy when some in the party started to moon at another boat! Neil didn’t start it but he’s easily led! It was a fantastic day with superb food, great company and maybe one or two drinks, followed by a lot more drinks.

Our calendar took a slight deflection as we went for drinks one evening with a new neighbour, Niloufer, and her friends from Bombay (that’s what they call it and for this blog entry so will we!). It was such a laugh and they also had friends from Quebec who brought some superb Canadian Gin made from a recipe originating from the Inuits. One of the party was a very striking 6ft girl of 15 years old who is studying music. Her and her mum gave us an impromptu Christmas Carol concert in French……….some people get camera envy, some phone envy but for us it’s voice envy……..they were just so harmonious!

Talking of envy, we’re about to give you Christmas Day envy. We had the day on the beach and Francis cooked us a delicious lunch of fish and huge tiger prawns all washed down with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc……just take a look at the pictures if you dare!! We had amazing quality Skype calls with our children and family, the video was the best ever, and then it was cocktails with friends at sunset. Finally, we made our way home, showered and had yet another bottle, this time a slinky Zinfandel Red, to go with our blue cheese pizza at our favourite Italian…..sorry readers but you should really come and experience our Christmas day to fully appreciate just how good it is.

Then, of course, we had the traditional New Year party at Rex’s beach shack. No photos as we decided to travel out very light – money to pay the bill (and we didn’t take enough) plus the key to get back in. The fireworks started at 11.50 and went on with such vigour until 12.15. We paddled in the sea to look down the beach in both directions and the sky was ablaze with fireworks for as far as we could see……who needs Sydney Harbour Bridge? What a great night, staggered home at 4am with Cheryl hiccupping all the way, and now Neil is nursing very sore calves from too much dancing to Madness and Cheryl is nursing a delicate head after far too many G&T’s.

The Goans love to party too and they make us look like real amateurs. We left the beach at 3.30am and having been to Mass they were just arriving in their stunning suits and party frocks. We’re typing this at 11.30 am and we can still hear fire crackers going off and the local church is playing Konkani music that can be heard for miles around…….do the Goans never go to bed?

We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year celebration, today is New Years day and we’re having a very lazy day at home in the cool but we’ll be back on the beach tomorrow!

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Cheryl & Neil

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year wherever you are in the world. Have a great festive season whether it be in the snow, rain, slush or a BBQ on the beach.

Neil’s in the Doghouse

Posted on December 13, 2016 by Cheryl & Neil

What’s on your top ten of things you really should not do? Now, that’s got you all thinking hasn’t it but, sorry, you’ll just have to read the rest of the blog to find out what this is about!

The cash crisis is still with us and is unlikely to get much better before we leave in February. Not letting this get us down we’re enjoying being back here again especially our first morning chorus. Our body clocks were not quite back to normal so we both woke early on our first day here. We sat in bed with a mug of tea and watched the sun rise and listened to the birds, monkeys, buffalo, pigs, firecrackers, the distant sound of the train and the church bells and the singing at morning mass – it’s absolutely fantastic to be back and who cares if we have no money. The rent was paid in the UK and we could both do with losing a bit of weight.

This year we’ve rented a 3 bedroom town house with balconies at the front overlooking the swimming pool and at the back the paddies. It’s in the same development we’ve stayed in for the last 2 years so we’re beginning to get to know more and more people. The advantage is we can have people to stay and Neil’s sister June and best friend Barbs were due to arrive just a few days after us. We got on with planning the rest of their trip and working out how they could pay for things without a wad of cash in their purses. We took them on a boat trip to see dolphins and eat gorgeous garlic prawns and kingfish plus plenty of G&T. They enjoyed time on the beach and Barbs found time to apply some much needed first aid to Neil who slipped in the shower and managed to slash his wrist on the edge of some tiles. Then they were off for 6 nights on their own for their trip on the overnight train to Kerala including the backwaters and tea estates. They had a ball, ate too much and came back with lots of goodies like strawberry jam for us to devour.

They arrived back at midday to find Cheryl banging and crashing about as she swept the stairs and June quietly asked Neil why was Cheryl cleaning today? This was just as he spotted it on the calendar whilst closing down the computer. That was an almighty ‘oh sh*t’ moment – yes readers, he had forgotten Cheryl’s birthday! His mitigating circumstances were concentrating on making sure we all had enough cash to get by plus ensuring that June and Barbs got back from Kerala OK. It had completely slipped his mind – ‘oh sh*t, oh f**k, oh b**llocks, Neil you’ve really gone and done it this time you pillock’! So, blunt rusty knife in one hand, balls ready on a plate in the other hand ready to be surgically removed he went upstairs to beg for mercy. Fortunately for him whilst this was a gargantuan error of judgement Cheryl decided it didn’t warrant the removal of his precious gonads……….but it came pretty close. Keen to make amends, Neil quickly ordered a taxi and we went off to Martin’s Corner for cocktails, a long lunch and a relaxing walk back down the beach just in time for sundowners. Cheryl mellowed a little after her fourth Margarita.

We had more beach time for June and Barbs, a final candlelit dinner on the beach of lots more fish and prawns before they headed off to Rajasthan. We had planned them a trip to visit Udaipur, Jaipur, Fatepur Sikri, Agra and then finally to Delhi. Our plans went like clockwork until they had one of India’s famous experiences – the late train! The final leg of their journey was from Agra to Delhi which normally would take 3hrs…….their journey was 3hrs but unfortunately the train was over 5hrs late arriving to pick them up…..ho hum! Anyway, they finally got there and had a good time exploring its many sights – J&B it was great to have you stay and we’re already planning your trip for next year!!

Everyone here is always looking for different things to do and, mostly, they tend to include alcohol. That’s why the boat trips are always a winner, we had yet another one, and why the wine tasting that Sue and Andy arranged was oversubscribed. It was a great afternoon sampling a number of Indian wines, nibbling on all sorts of goodies and then carrying on into the evening. Some of the wines were reasonable, some ok and two bottles were only fit for pouring down the drain! In between all of this we’ve managed to cram in some beachtime where we just read, swim, eat and watch the activity on the beach.

Now, who wants to come to Goa? We have lots of space and we’re here until February 8th. We have also secured the house again for November, December and January 2017-18 so if anybody wants to come and visit we have 2 spare rooms. C&N’s Best Exotic Tours can also put together a tailor made package to suit your requirements!

India Trumps Trump!

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Cheryl & Neil

Never could you imagine how eventful life can get in just a couple of days.

There was nothing eventful about the backtracking flight from Bristol back to Madrid after the wedding. The Crowne Plaza Hotel at Madrid airport was just as expected. The flight from Madrid and our connection at Heathrow was slick. In fact, our splurge was mighty comfortable as we had our own little pod in the centre of the plane. The food was excellent and the drinks plentiful and the staff even gave us some miniatures and snacks to take off the plane for our wait in Mumbai for the uneventful flight with Jet Airways to Goa.

But, and here’s the but……..just before the BA flight landed at Mumbai one of the flight crew told Neil that his rucksack didn’t make it onto the plane. He was chilled about it having had plenty of fine wines and port with his cheese. When we arrived the ground crew were very helpful saying that the bag would arrive on the same flight next day, flown to Goa and would be delivered to our door within 72hrs. Neil was still chilled at this point as there wasn’t any point in getting angry….it wouldn’t make it arrive any faster, it wasn’t the ground crew’s fault in Mumbai and, anyway, all he needed to do was to buy a couple of T-shirts for the beach……..72hrs would fly by! As savvy travellers we normally split our clothes so that if a bag does go missing we are covered. We didn’t this time and Neil knew that he was going to regret it…….Cheryl’s pants were going to chafe a bit!

We got money from the ATM at Mumbai, headed for our connection to Goa, hassled for a taxi to Benaulim and our swanky 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom town house that overlooks the pool at the front and the paddies at the back. The house was very clean by Indian standards so we headed off to get breakfast and some wifi to let family know we were OK. We started to meet old friends, had a delicious dinner at our favourite curry house, C5, and slept soundly that night.

We woke up to find that Trump had trumped Clinton – how did that happen? We then discovered that India had trumped Trump in terms of shock breaking news. Whilst we were asleep, at midnight, the Indian Prime Minister announced that all 500 and 1000 rupee notes (the equivalent of £5 and £10 notes) were ‘history’! This was aimed at reducing the amount of ‘black money’ in the economy which was earned by corruption, terrorism, counterfeiting and money laundering. It was also intended to make a cash driven economy, where hardly any taxes are paid and incomes are hidden (less than 1% of the population pay tax), into a modern accountable society where salaries are paid into bank accounts and transactions are auditable via electronic payments. The 500 and 1000 notes are about 86% of the currency in circulation so we knew that this was going to be mayhem!

So, it was a S**t moment with a capital S. We had a wallet full of useless Ghandi emblazoned toilet paper taken from the ATM in Mumbai. No problem, the Times of India and the BBC news said that we could get them changed into the new 2000 and 500 notes at any bank at the rate of 4000R/day….but only in 2 days time as the banks were closed so that they could prepare for the onslaught……… and onslaught it was. The official announcement also assured that you could get 2000 each day at the ATMs, about £25, so all we could do was wait until the banks and ATMs re opened.

Fortunately, many restaurant owners who knew us kindly offered us credit and most were still taking old money even though it was technically illegal. We heard that the new 2000 rupee notes that had been promised had arrived on day 3 and we managed to change 4000R each at the local bank after queuing for about 30 minutes, not so bad we thought. Next day we headed off to the nearest large town, Margao, thinking it would be easy if we went to the ICICI Bank where Cheryl had an account. Although it was as crowded as Wembley on Cup Final day we were ushered through and told to go upstairs. The ATM had no money so we asked for some money from the account using the debit card and we were told that we needed to write a cheque! Who has a cheque book these days?…..we certainly don’t. ‘No cheque book, no money’! All the other banks and ATMs either had massive queues or none at all which meant that they had no money. By now we were losing our sense of humour and decided to get the bus back to Benaulim for a beer and some lunch to catch up with other people’s stories.

Then we hit on the ruse that if we exchanged sterling and dollars for old notes at the money changer we could get lots of new money just by getting to the bank early each day and queuing. It was important we got new money as Neil’s sister June and her friend Barbara were arriving very soon and would need currency to go on their 5 day trip to Kerala and their 7 day trip to Rajasthan. Next day we went back and we queued again only to be told that as we had changed money the day before we would have to wait another 15 days. ‘What the ****’! ‘The Government said we could change money every day’. We were again told ‘no’. Knowing that bank systems here don’t talk to each other we went around the corner to another bank and queued yet again for 40 minutes. We were then asked if we had a receipt. ‘No, we got it from an ATM’ we lied. He replied, ‘I’ve just had a phone call from H.O. and no receipt means no new money’. Damn, we had just exchanged $100 and suddenly we were lumbered with old money we couldn’t change. So, we headed back to the money changer to get a receipt. At this point we were getting hot and bothered and didn’t fancy queuing yet again so we headed off for a beer and some lunch. Hey, what the heck, all our favourite restaurants were giving us tick and/or taking old money and we came here to relax not stand in queues. Can you see a pattern forming here? – queues, frustration, empty banks & ATMs followed by a beer and some lunch!

Next day we headed off to Colva which is bigger than Benaulim but is smaller than Margao. All the banks and ATMs were empty so we decided to get the bus back. As the bus went past one of the banks we had tried earlier, Neil spotted a queue at an ATM. We were learning fast, a queue at the ATM means money in the machine. We stopped the bus and leapt off to join it. Then Neil had the idea that if the ATM had money then the bank probably had money.

Cheryl queued in the sun for the ATM and Neil headed into the bank. There was no queue inside so he wasn’t hopeful but, bingo, ‘yes you can change money’. The night before the Government announced that the withdrawal limit at ATMs had gone up to 2500R but not at this bank….the stern bank official (she looked like Hattie Jacques in a sari) overlooking the withdrawals said 2000R only so Cheryl didn’t dare argue. Anyway, 2000 was better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and inside the bank we were getting 5000Rs of old notes changed not 4000Rs……we didn’t know why but by now we had come to the conclusion that despite the Government announcements all the banks were operating by different rules – hey, welcome to India! Then the nice but incompetent lady announced that Cheryl could only have 4500Rs. ‘Why’? We asked. ‘It’s because she has an OCI visa’ – that’s an Overseas Citizen of India. ‘But she’s NOT a Citizen of India, she was born in the UK and has a UK passport’. She was having none of it so we didn’t argue. About 1.5hrs later she told us to go upstairs to collect our money. For this 1.5hrs all she had to do was get us to fill in the exchange form and for her to check and copy our passports, money change receipt, visa and entry stamp, get us to sign each copy and then she had to stamp them and sign them herself. Hence, the ‘incompetent’ label……1.5hrs for something that should have taken 10 minutes! Upstairs we were told that despite what we had been told downstairs the system would not allow Neil to have 5000Rs only 4500….the same as Cheryl but we didn’t argue. The whole process took us more than 2hrs! We also had a serious sense of humour bypass by the end of it but couldn’t show any signs of frustration in case they said no money. Hey ho, we’d missed lunch but we headed back to Benaulim for a beer and a chat and to tell people we had won the lottery!

You had all forgotten about Neil’s bag, hadn’t you? Ha, well to cut a long story short it didn’t arrive in 72hrs, it arrived in Goa in 4 days. Despite being told by the ground crew in Mumbai, the customer service staff on the telephone and the many emails telling him of the status he was finally told that he would have to go to Goa airport to collect it. ‘How can I collect it, I have no money, the ATMs are all empty, how can I pay for a taxi’? After several phone calls, buckets of frustration and pointless blood boiling he gave up and we were lucky to get the lovely neighbours that we met last year to take him to the airport to collect his bag…….finally a result for everyone as frankly he was beginning to pong a bit!

We’re now 2 weeks into our trip and whilst Neil has his rucksack the complaint to BA remains open and we’ve heard nothing about his claim for out of pocket expenses. The money crisis continues unabated with ATMs and banks, in the main, empty. Whilst the withdrawal of the large notes was a bold move the logistics behind getting the new money into the system has been, well, typically Indian………pretty incompetent and needlessly bureaucratic. The first note to be issued was the 2000 (and we have yet to see a new 500) so no one wanted to take one as pretty soon there was a shortage of 100R notes for change. The ATMs need recalibration so for now can only take 100R notes so are quickly emptied once they are re-stocked and restocking is very hit and miss as they haven’t organised enough security staff to deliver the cash. The Finance Minister has made a comment that recalibrating the ATMs will take several weeks so things aren’t going to improve until after Christmas at best.

Tourists have been left high and dry with many unable to spend or change the amounts they exchanged at the start of their holidays. Some new arrivals haven’t been able to get any rupees at all. The only option for tourists who didn’t bring a debit card, or when the ATMs are dry, is to change $, £ etc into old notes at a money changer and queue up at the bank to change 4000R into new notes. The money changers occasionally have new notes so we are changing sterling and dollars but only in dribs and drabs of £10 on a normal day or £50 on a good day. They still have old notes which we still take but we are being cautious with this as, for sure, very soon businesses will not be able to bank the old money so we only get enough for one or two days at a time. Despite it being illegal to use old money, if it hadn’t continued we’re pretty sure that India would, by now, be in a state of anarchy with pitched battles at all banks and ATMs.

All in all it has been an interesting experience despite the frustrations. It’s a strange feeling to have money but not be able to get your hands on it. It’s a really strange feeling to be given credit from people who can only dream about having even half as much money as we do….it’s extremely humbling. We get excited when the ATM makes that satisfying whirring noise which means money is on its way. It’s just like seeing 3 cherries on a slot machine and you jump for joy at getting your daily allowance of £25! We even got a couple of bread parcels from our lovely Indian neighbours.

Just about managing to keep a sense of humour

We’ve been coming to India for a long time now…….so long that nothing really surprises us, it’s just Incredible India. However, this time it’s very, very different. The Government changes the rules almost daily as the owners of the ‘black money’ discover loopholes in the Governments ill thought out master plan. Then the banks respond to the rule changes by operating different rules to each other so nobody has a clue what’s going on………this is India on Acid!

Always a Silver Lining

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Cheryl & Neil

Good news bad news. That was the recurring theme as we set off. Having finished our chores and getting excited about starting the trip we then had the anguish of having our final return flight cancelled at the last minute. Then it was the euphoria of finally getting to Spain to see Clive and Karen’s villa to the embarrassment of finding that the hotel we booked for us all on the way to Madrid was infested with cockroaches….hey, life does have its ups and downs!

We were just about to head off to Spain via Gloucester and London when we were casually informed via text that British Airways had cancelled our return flight in April. Obviously the route from Chengdu was not profitable so it was closed indefinitely. After several frustrating calls to BA, when all we got was ‘you can always get a refund’, we did some homework on our rights and finally got some sense so we have been rerouted from Chengdu back via Hong Kong. The silver lining here is that we are flying back with Cathay Pacific which, for those of you who don’t know, must be one of the most expensive airlines on the planet. We are expecting something very special especially as the two seats we have been allocated would cost £5500 if you wanted to book them direct with C. P. Splurgetastic. There’s also another silver lining to this story – we get around 2hrs to make the most of the C.P. Business Lounge in Hong Kong –result!

Logistics sorted we set off to Gloucester to see Roy and June and leave the car before heading off to London so stay with Alex and Freddy for a few days. Over the weekend we met Bill & Sue for lunch and finally got to meet Freddy’s parents over a lovely meal at the Hospital Club. Then it was off to Gatwick for our flight to Spain to visit Clive & Karen and to see their new home, a hillside villa in the village of Alcalali which is about 20km inland from Denia. It is lovely, with great views and a superb pool. They’ve settled in well – lots of new friends from various parts of Europe, taking Spanish lessons, joining the Harley Club, Zumba, golf and a little bit of DIY.

For some reason Cheryl has been attracted to tacky places and after the excitement of Grimsby and Skegness last summer she obviously wanted to go to Benidorm so C&K took us on a day trip. We think we found the Solana and have to admit it wasn’t as bad as we had expected, and even had some pleasant bits. Yes, it did have some pretty horrific visitors, and a number of perma-tanned geriatrics on mobility scooters, but, in the main, it wasn’t as gross as we anticipated –shame really but of course, it was out of season!

We had a wine tasting at a local Bodega in a nearby village which was great fun and fantastic value plus it converted us to Spanish wine which, until now, we have limited to Rioja – it was a revelation.

The four of us then set off to Madrid which included an overnight stop in the forgettable town of La Roda. We had booked a hotel based upon the reviews and the price only for Clive and Karen to walk into their room and find a cockroach to welcome them – we left, quick! The silver lining was that the alternative hotel we had originally looked at was so much nicer and didn’t cost very much more.

Madrid is spectacular and the apartment we booked was stunning (phew, as after the booking we made in la Roda we were getting worried about the booking we made in Madrid). It was less than 5 minutes walk from the Royal Palace, had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen and living space – the real silver lining was it cost us £40/night per couple – a steal! We hit the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace spot on – the 1st Wednesday in the month. We also exploited the free entry for EU citizens after 4pm and enjoyed looking around the opulence of the interior. We finished up in the superb armoury admiring the full sets even for the horses when suddenly the alarm went off. Yes, you guessed it, there is always one, and it was Neil pointing at a strange piece of metal on the armour and piercing the infra red beam across the display at the same time….ooops. We also enjoyed the dining in Madrid which was excellent and amazingly cheap at around £10 for a lunch comprising a starter, main, desert, bread, an alcoholic drink and a superb setting of The Plaza Major………we highly recommend Madrid if you fancy a city break. If you do come, then you must do the very touristy 15 Euro guided tour on a segway……..what a great way to see the city and have a ball in the process.

The weather in Spain was pleasant at around 23C in Alcalali and 20C in Madrid. It was a bit of shock to backtrack to Bristol to endure a high of 8C and a low of 2C. However, it was to attend the wedding of the year of Neil’s son, and it went off brilliantly. Of course despite our meticulous planning and buying of formal wedding outfits there was a last minute crisis. The day before the wedding Neil was just about to polish his shoes when they literally fell apart in his hands……damn…….more bl**dy shopping!

We agreed on a schedule to get us all showered and ready to go on time. Neil said he would make the early morning tea and set his alarm on his phone. He forgot one thing – his phone mysteriously thought it was in another time zone so we were woken at 5.30am!! Despite the very early start we had a superb day with the kick off in the very intimate registry office in Bath Guildhall, followed by a delightful lunch at The Pig and all topped off with a party at The Manor in Keynsham which was attended by more friends and family. The Pig is set in an old manor house where we were able to really enjoy a season that we usually miss – autumn. We do miss the seasons by travelling so much so it was particularly nice to see the colours of the trees as they change for winter. Unfortunately we enjoyed ourselves so much we forgot about taking a lot of pictures so you will have to wait for the official pics to see just how posh we looked.

Wedding over, waking up to the first frost of the season – hey, time to get on a plane! Posh clothes packed away next day armed with our full rucksacks we backtracked to Madrid to catch our flight to Goa and warmth……….watch out for the next instalment.

Goodnight Vietnam

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Cheryl & Neil

New Year’s Eve was an extremely strange time. Expecting Mui Ne to have at least one or two things going on we were stunned by the silence around us. Restaurants were relatively empty and the usual flood of people to the beach to watch the fireworks laid on by the posh hotels was just a trickle. Then we found out why. Not a single posh resort had fireworks to justify the $75 tickets for the New Year Bash…….cheap skates!!

However, we made the most of it with Marsela and Daniel, a German couple, who are travelling for a year. We sat on the beach, chatted over wine and watched a couple of Austrian women do their traditional thing……waltz on the beach to The Blue Danube that they sang to each other…..aaahhhhhh.

Mui Ne is a strange little place. It’s stretched out over around 15kms, with just one road running the whole length. There is no beach for pretty much most of its length, just a long concrete storm wall protecting the beach but, thankfully, the stretch by our hotel is fine. The hotel is also great value at $22, with a fab pool and pretty gardens. We looked in some places asking considerably more money for a lot less value. Well done Cheryl for persevering to the very last place as Neil had just about given up looking and he had planned to get the next bus out.

We also caught up with Catherine again who came to Mui Ne just the day before we left. We had a really good evening with her, Dani and Marsi and Michelle from Belgium who, apparently, has bumped into Catherine all over Vietnam. We all enjoyed the fresh fish and cheap wine and more cheap wine at the local restaurant whilst listening to an 80’s soundtrack.

Sad news today, January 2nd. Clive’s father died in hospital this morning in his sleep. Neil has so many memories of him…..at the rugby, driving Clive and him home from the pub on many occasions and, of course, always charming the ladies!! RIP Bert, you were a lovely man.

This is our third and possibly final trip to Vietnam. When we came the first time, 3 years ago, we left vowing never to return due the incessant hassle and noise. Within 2 weeks we decided we had to return because there were more things that we liked than disliked about the country and we had lots we still wanted to do.

Sure enough, the following year we spent 2 months exploring new places. This time we have had another two months doing some new stuff and going over some old ground. Sadly, the continuous noise from the roads and the fact that Vietnamese people are just plain LOUD has paid its toll! There is no awareness of others and no thought as to the consequences of their actions. This reflects in their insane driving and the fact that at 06.00 a.m. in a hotel dominated by western people, it’s OK to shriek from one end of the hotel to each other. When you point it out to them they appear genuinely sorry for their actions but we have this sneak feeling that the apology will be short lived. So, finally, it is Goodnight Vietnam and thank you for the experience.

Next stop is a night in Ho Chi Minh City before flying to Kuala Lumpur to catch our onward flight to Sri Lanka.

White Sand Christmas

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

Our stay in Nha Trang for Christmas was pretty much as expected, albeit, much quieter than we thought it might be. The hordes of western tourists we anticipated did not materialise, in fact, it was downright quiet. Being downright quiet made our traditional walk on the white sand beach extremely tranquil other than the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

We made the most of it with Hugh and Catherine having a “traditional” English Christmas Eve Dinner…..several jugs of Bia Hoi followed by a curry…..excellent! Sadly, the only places offering anything near to a British Christmas Day Lunch were those that had a habit of playing very cheesy music.

This could have been tolerated in support of a traditional Christmas but the volume that they tended to play the music was ear splitting ending all hopes of conversation, storytelling, reminiscing and sharing travel information. Instead we opted for our favourite Italian Restaurant and we weren’t disappointed…….an excellent evening was had by all. Take a look at the pics for the silly hats we bought in China and some of the gifts that we exchanged.

Mick & Karen…..do the pictures bring back any memories?

Our highlight was seeing and speaking to our children, Leanne, Alex and Paul over Christmas via Skype. It still blows us away to know that you can talk to someone on the other side of the world for as long as you like for free…..now that’s technology!!

Congratulations to Alex for getting his job as Data Journalist for BBC World Service. One is very proud of one’s son working for Aunty Beeb.

Not much else happened in Nha Trang, we did a lot of planning for Sri Lanka plus our trip south via Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh City to catch our flight. We had planned to stay in Nha Trang until after New Year but the new sound of Vietnam, “building”, moved in next door to our hotel with the demolition starting before 07.00 a.m. We decided to cut our losses and move early to Mui Ne on December 28th.

We do have one interesting story about Nha Trang. Changing money in banks can be as slick as you can image, sometimes less than 5 minutes, or it can be so tedious you cannot imagine. Up until now the longest time we had to spend changing money was in Yangshuo in China. Cheryl was trying to change a traveller’s cheque and must have signed 6 or 7 documents and took around 25 minutes. Changing money in Nha Trang for Neil proved even slower but without the document signing. The bank we chose had obviously not had much experience of traveller’s cheques so the girls had to follow process “by the book” so 55 minutes later, and 25 minutes after the bank had shut, we eventually walked out with our 10 million VND!!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and that the snow made it just that little bit more Christmassy than normal.

Season’s Greetings to all our Readers – Here’s our Yuletide E-card!

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

We would like to wish all our readers a fabulous Christmas, a spanking 2011 and for those in Europe and the USA, a snowy white Christmas. For those in the southern hemisphere, a great beach barbie!

A special mention goes to our children Leanne, Paul and Alex. We miss you a lot and look forward to our chat on Christmas day.

We would also like to say hello to Clive & Karen as we are desperately sorry that they had to cut short their travels, and miss our joint Christmas party, due to Clive’s dad’s illness….we wish him a speedy recovery.

We have made our usual E-card to amuse you, copy and paste this into your browser:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/coOrUtG6ifGKrPBH

Allow plenty of time for it to load. We had a lot of fun doing this and we hope you like it. Mark O, Chris and Andrew, if there’s any vacancies in your bands then we’re up for it!!!

Heading South for Christmas

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

We’ve been away now for almost 2 months and it finally rained during our journey south. Warm rain Paul!!

We travelled from Cat Ba to Ninh Binh where we planned to stay a day or so. The journey was pretty uneventful although the local bus did follow the “Never Full” principle! Fortunately, we were almost first on the bus so we did have a proper seat for the 3 hour journey rather than a tiny plastic stool in the aisle. Ninh Binh itself is used by some as a base for trips, others travel from Hanoi, but the town itself is pretty dull. Its saving grace is that just a few kilometres out of town you find yourself surrounded by fabulous karsts and rice paddies. We had read about a number of scams at the Tam Coc boat rides so opted for the newer and lesser used, Trang An Grottoes instead.

Our hotel is very grand and at $15 was something of a steal considering it had a huge, tastefully decorated room, with enormous bathroom, balcony and flat screen TV. The bonus was that it was very close to the railway station which was to be our next mode of onward transport.

Getting to the grottoes was a little more challenging. Trips were available from hotels and agencies but as the number of tourists is low, there were no cheap group tours, just private hire car at $25. Having checked out the map we decided we could walk it let alone get a taxi for less than $25. It was about 8kms (5 miles) and we managed to get a local taxi that cost us $6 return trip! The grottoes were fantastic, and the ticket price of 100,000VND (about £3.30) included a 2.5 hour boat ride along the river in, out and through the caves in the massive limestone karsts. We went through about 9 or 10 grottoes, some up to 100m long, and some of them so low we had to lie flat on our backs in the boat. Our boat lady sometimes rowed with her hands and sometimes she somehow managed to row with her feet……pretty smart!

The Trang An Grottoes have recently been opened for tourists, with an impressive, but empty, visitor centre, and what seemed like hundreds of rowboats just waiting for the swarms to arrive in peak season. We timed our visit for lunchtime to hopefully avoid any tour buses from Hanoi and were rewarded with the river pretty much to ourselves. It was so peaceful, with only the sound of the water lapping against the boat. We met only one or two other boats towards the end of our trip. It was very much, “up close and personal” to the towering limestone karsts. The kingfishers along the way were a stunning blue, taunting us with their rapid fly-bys, and the very shy snake that swam in front of us soon disappeared under the surface when he spotted us. It was such a lovely experience, and our boat lady did not try to sell us anything or ask for a tip, so we broke a golden rule, and gave her a large tip which she seemed generally surprised to get.

The overnight train to Hue was dead on time and whilst it rattled a lot it was comfortable enough to get some sleep. Sadly our roommates, Swiss we think, were very unsociable despite us offering a snort of Hanoi Vodka. Fortunately, they were quiet so caused us no grief but it was a pity we couldn’t share some stories.

We selected our $15 hotel room including breakfast and a free beer, an idea more hotels should adopt we think. The restaurant also serves great cocktails at less than $2 each. We met up with Catherine, also en route from Cat Ba to Nha Trang, one evening and watched her stagger out of the restaurant after necking 4 of them! We also bumped into Chilla and Paul from Austria that we first met in Yuanshuo and then again on Cat Ba Island. They were due to leave the next day so we had dinner that night in a floating restaurant……very pleasant indeed!

We’ve been to Hue before but decided to use it as a place to break up the journey south. We also wanted to do one of the trips again, The Tombs of The Kings, as we now know much more of the history hopefully making the tour more meaningful. It was, as expected, a great trip and as we opted not to include a tour of the Citadel, we were put into a group of just 5 and taken to visit to a 100 year old traditional Vietnamese house and garden occupied by a very unassuming lady. Inside the wooden house there was a wonderful display of pictures of her ancestors and outside a serene garden with a myriad of fruit trees and spice shrubs. The trip was broken up with an excellent buffet lunch which we hadn’t bargained for. Our ticket price was to include a simple lunch. Being cheapskates, we opted not to upgrade for 50,000VND. By the time we got to lunch the tour guide seemed to have forgotten what we had paid and were cordially invited to tuck into a grand buffet along with everyone else.

Next day, we went further south to Quang Ngai which was to be just a stopover to break the 13 hour journey to Nha Trang. After a long walk we found ourselves at the Central Hotel (not so central) and managed to blag a room upgrade….nice one! We had a long walk from the station to the hotel, followed by a long walk around town and not a single westerner in sight……we appear to be the only ones here, hence all the strange ogling.

Tomorrow we’re on the final leg of our journey to Nha Trang, just a rather dull 7.5 hours on the train.

Purring on Cat Ba Island

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

We came to Cat Ba Island we intending to stay maybe 4 to 5 days. After our less than warm reception we immediately changed that plan to leave first thing next morning. Then we discovered what lovely people we had bonded with during the fracas, what a great family hotel we had checked into and realised what an excellent place this is to just “hang out”. We eventually stayed for more than 3 weeks.

It’s relatively cheap to stay here, our spacious room is just $8/night, includes A/C, TV, mini bar and a view to die for. There are some simple things to do on the island that we can achieve without lining the pockets of the scummy tour operators and the seafood is as fresh as it gets.

We started our stay by doing very little, sussing out the options for sightseeing, getting our bearings for the beach, how to get back to the mainland and having dinner with our new friends. In the mornings, whilst drinking strong Viet coffee, we spent a long time just watching the view of the harbour from our bed as it changed, boats coming in here, boats going out there and the sun getting higher as the day gained momentum. How sleepy can it get?

Our first trip out was to take a local bus to Cai Vieng jetty. Not much here, in fact, absolutely nothing. However, it was a pleasant and cheap sightseeing trip of the island whilst “enjoying” the company of a bus load of kids on the way home from school…..ear plugs recommended!

One evening at dinner in the hotel we decided to share a large Grilled Red Snapper in Lemongrass. The hotel doesn’t have tanks for the fish so dinner was secured by Mr Tuan heading off on his moto to purchase our dinner. A couple of minutes later he reappeared only for Neil to spot something fall off the back of his bike about 30 metres down the road. The large object began flapping manically in its attempt to escape back to the sea. “Oy, that’s my fish!!” shouted Neil as one of the waiters legged it up the road, dodging the rest of the traffic, to retrieve our dinner. Despite the roadside incident the fish was delicious and, as we now know, it was very fresh! Watching our fish flapping around in the road being passed by motorbikes was one of the funniest things we have seen in a long time!

Our next trip was to The National Park where we had a hike through the jungle and a climb of around an hour up to the top of a hill 225 metres high. The views were excellent and it was a great place to have our picnic. We sat for about an hour and met other travellers and exchanged stories including similar “welcoming” receptions at the northern jetty.

We also started to chat to Mr Tuan’s brother in law, Mr Anh the hotel manager, about the benefits of the hostel booking sites, Hostelworld and Hostelbookers. He’s very much “front of house” as he speaks very good English so he was pleased to give it a go. We use these on-line booking agencies all the time for reviews, information and bookings and, surprisingly, not a single establishment on Cat Ba Island is registered with either of them. So, it’s back to work for us and over a period of a few days we gave some free ‘consultancy” to help him get set up. In exchange, Mr Anh fed us some excellent food and beers so, all in all, it was a very fair exchange.

Friday was Cheryl’s birthday, and we took another trip by local bus to explore the Hospital Cave. This is a 3 storey, 17 room building carved into a cave in 1963 with help from the Chinese. It was used in the war to house up to 300 soldiers, and was in use as a hospital until 1975. The rooms are now bare, except for a light bulb, but the excellent local guide, Ba, showed us around, and told us a little of its history. He took great pride in showing us where Ho Chi Minh stayed for the night, as well as the cinema, the swimming pool and the ping pong room!

We took a picnic including chocolate mini birthday cakes from the bakery and enjoyed our lunch whilst waiting for the bus back to town.

Neil planned a surprise birthday cake and asked Mr Anh if he could help him buy a small one, about the size of a tea plate. Mr Anh said no problem and asked how to spell her name. Neil’s intention was to have him bring out the cake after dinner. All this planning happened several days before Cheryl’s birthday and then, on the day, Mr Anh came up with his own plan. “You be in your room at 7 p.m. and I will bring cake and flowers with the two children”. OK, Neil thought, I can’t argue as he insists on paying so we’ll go with it. It was something of a close shave getting Cheryl showered and fully dressed, without appearing too pushy or spoiling the surprise, before the family arrived with a huge cake and some beautiful flowers. Dinner was excellent and the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday as Cheryl blew out the candles and cut the cake.

Mr Anh continues to show his appreciation for our “consultancy” and the fact that we’re now also “touting” his rooms to any traveller that we see looking for rooms with a back pack. So far we must have introduced half a dozen new guests and in exchange we have been invited to eat with the family several times. Take a look at the pics to see what great food we’ve been fed. We’ve also tried a couple of the hotel home brews, Snake Wine and Sea Horse Wine. Basically, they are home rice spirit with a little extra in the jar to provide that added touch of “mystique”. Take a look at the pics of the snakes in the jar.

We’ve also had good fun with the family playing games. Ludo with Mr Tuan’s youngest son who is 7 years old (yes and he did whoop Neil’s arse) and card games such as gin rummy with the staff. These guys are cards mad but we’ve yet to even remotely understand how to play any of their games. Other than playing games we’ve spent a long time re-planning our trip due to the body swerve in the direction of Sri Lanka and also finalising visa dates to match flights home.

Blimey, what a day December 3rd was. Booked tickets to New Zealand for next year’s trip, got Mr Anh live on Hostelbookers, made E-Christmas cards and bought tickets for several games at the cricket world cup in Sri Lanka. Phew, time for a rest followed by a journey from the island to Ninh Binh and southwards.

Chapter 4 – This Travelling is Hobbit Forming!

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

If it isn’t enough that we’re having a great time we’re pleased to announce that next year’s trip is already in the planning stage.

Air Asia has done us proud yet again. We got here for about £100 last October and now we’ve booked our trip for next October 2011.

India is back on the shelf for yet another year as we’re off to Christchurch, New Zealand for a little over £230. Add on a slice of Oz, a dash of this and splash of that and we have the makings of another mega trip.

Trading Places

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

When we originally planned this trip, a highlight was going to be visiting The Philippines in January 2011 to swim with the whale sharks. The plan has now changed.

We have been seduced by the possibility of swimming with turtles, whale watching, the thought of fabulous tasty curry on some of the finest white sand beaches in the world and being in the crowd amongst the craziest cricket fans going to the 2011 World Cup Cricket in Sri Lanka.

Hey, what would you do?

The Sting

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

We spent a couple of days in Halong City trying to work out how to get to Cat Ba Island without giving the scummy tour operators shed loads of money for doing “jack”. We finally sussed out that we could catch the Government Tourist Boat to the island and catch a bus from the jetty into the main town. Cost of the boat was 130,000 VND (£4.30) which included 30,000VND to get us into Halong Bay which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The boat was due to depart at 1pm and would include a stop at a cave, and tour round the bay, the whole trip to take 3.5 hours. Once on the island the public bus should cost us about 10,000VND, “It’s easy” said the nice lady, in the smart uniform.

Whilst waiting for the boat we met an American couple, Rob & Erin, who had been teaching English in Korea, and were now on a short break before returning home to the US. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts to get the official ticket themselves, they ended up trusting one of the “helpful” people who offer to assist with ticket buying. They didn’t know he was a tout until they spoke to us so needless to say they were just a tad hacked off. It wasn’t much money but it is just annoying that the scum make a living out of lying through their teeth to make money out of people who cannot speak the language. We’ve learnt over the last couple of years that it pays to do your homework and if you don’t have time then just accept that you will pay over the odds.

At 1.30 p.m. we finally got on board what turned out to be a tour boat, not a Government Boat at all, after having to wait until the main tour party bus arrived. All had paid varying amounts for pretty much the same trip, most of them all the way from Hanoi. The majority on board had booked a longer trip, including spending a night on Cat Ba and/or a night on the boat. By this time we had already moaned at the boat “captain” about the late start, and got a telling off for going up on deck whilst still at the jetty. The four of us had to put our names on a passenger list, and the captain added a note alongside in Vietnamese. The boat captain refused to explain this but we guessed we had been noted as being “different” from the main group.

We finally set off only to grind to a halt 1km out of the wharf. Lunch time for those on the tour, we didn’t want to pay extra for lunch, but at least we were allowed up on the deck where we made ourselves comfy on some loungers. Some of the main group, who were staying on the boat that night, joined us and we spent a very pleasant trip chatting and watching the stunning scenery pass by. The boat stopped for about 40 mins for the visit to the cave. There was then another stop, around 30mins, for the tour group to go to a water cave at another charge of 50,000VND. We stayed on board the tour boat. When they got back, an exuberant young lad decided to jump off the top deck into the sea, much to our amusement. The captain however was not amused, “no swimming” he bellowed grimly. Several of us shouted to him “no pay, no swim, and no fun!”

Off again and we finally pulled in to a deserted looking jetty at about 4.30pm. Not so bad after all the delays and stops we thought, but strange that Lonely Planet suggested the trip would take 5 – 6 hours. We got off, along with the others who had booked transport only, and those who booked a night on the island as part of their tour. We walked a short way and waited a little apart from the tour group for a bus to arrive. A scruffy beat up green bus pulled in. A Vietnamese guy told us “that is not your bus, your bus in 15 minutes”. We told him we wanted the public bus as we were not part of the tour, and he again said, “not your bus”. Only after the bus left did we see the sign which showed a picture of the scruffy bus and confirmed it was indeed the one to Cat Ba town. He Lied.

It was now that we realised that he was a motorbike taxi driver and we had been turned over and it become very heated between us and the lying little scumbag. His scam was to prevent us getting on the local bus, wait until the tour bus had gone and offer us a motorcycle taxi ride to town at a rate of 700,000VND. We decided with Rob and Erin that we were getting on the tour bus if they liked it or not. If we didn’t then we decided to start a fire, stay the night rough and see if the motorcycle taxi driver could swim!!

It started to get dark and things continued with moto man, and to make matters worse another guy, claiming to be the “Manager” first denied that there was a local bus, and then told Erin off for not getting on it! Our tempers were raised, and it got more and more heated. Finally, after about 40 minutes the tour bus arrived and then it got really sh***y. Neil grabbed our bags and as soon as the arrival tour group got off the bus he tried to get on. Then the tour group organiser shouted that we weren’t allowed on so Neil took his place at the entrance to the bus door so no one could get on or off. It was an ugly standoff between us and the 3 guys from the tour bus, the driver being particularly big and menacing. Neil stood his ground, Cheryl joined in and Rob continued to threaten moto man.

During the “negotiations”, in an effort to get us on the bus we were instantly adopted by Sarah, a wonderfully feisty American girl, who had bought a ticket which appeared to include the bus for her. “You can’t leave them – they’re my parents” she shouted. For a split second the tour guy was confused, her moment of inspiration nearly worked. Then one of the boat guys shook his head, “They not your parent” the tour leader shouted, “you liar”, “ME LIAR??” Sarah bellowed back.

Arguments continued, the official tour group got on the bus plus a few locals and then the tour guide graciously offered to negotiate to get us on the bus, as if he was doing us a great favour. We could get on the bus but it would cost us 100,000 VND (the local bus would have cost 15,000VND!). It had got pretty scary as Neil was pushed, shoved and manhandled by the 3 tour people and he and the rather large driver came pretty close to blows.

At one point during the mêlée he did raise his fist towards Cheryl only to be given a serious verbal threat from her that seemed to make him think and back off. A petite French woman was roughly pushed and shoved as she believed she had paid but the bus man did not think she was included, but eventually let her on. Meanwhile, Robin from Canada, was videoing the whole thing so we hope one day to get a copy if it comes out.

It was pitch dark, we guessed given the time it took for the boat to get here that we must be at the far North of the island, not at the jetty we had been promised by the ticket seller and it was probably too far to walk. Our options were limited, and we definitely were not going to pay the scumbag moto man, so Rob, Erin and us reluctantly handed over the cash, whilst still swearing at the guide and driver, and got on. The bus man passed money to a number of Vietnamese guys, including the moto driver and the boat tour guide, it was clear they had all played a part and were entitled to a slice of the bounty.

The final blatant piece of profiteering took part halfway on the journey. The bus stopped, the tour man screamed at the French couple, Ronan & Clemence, “you not include, I speak to your boat, pay 100,000VND, or I throw you off”. They argued, and our group stood in support, but eventually they paid and we finally arrived in Cat Ba Town at around 7pm.

Cheryl writes, the thing which disappointed me most was the reaction, or lack of reaction, of the people on the official tour. They had been delayed by nearly 2 hours, they had witnessed the ugly standoff and Sarah explained to them what was happening to us when she got on the bus. Even when the French couple were threatened with being abandoned in the middle of nowhere, and Neil asked them if they were going to let them throw them off, the tour group sat in silence. One of my favourite quotes sums it up, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” Edmund Burke.

In real terms the scammers cost us 170,000VND, a paltry £5.50. However, it makes you seethe to think that this treatment gets served up to tourists on a regular basis thus giving Vietnam such a bad name. It only seems to happen around Hanoi and Halong Bay and we know that it’s just a minority of scammers. It just leaves you trusting nobody…..and that’s sad for the majority of people in Vietnam who are very friendly and just trying to make a relatively honest living.

However, in hindsight, the £5.50 turned out to be a good investment as we have “truly bonded” with some very nice people. We’ve been “adopted” by a lovely American girl and we now have a number of friends with integrity to visit on future trips…..overall money well spent. Since arrival we’ve also met other travellers who suffered the same trauma who have also bonded with fellow sufferers so maybe, just maybe, something good is coming out of all this crap.

The Big Brother Hotel

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

So far in our travels we haven’t really felt overly challenged by being in China, despite not speaking any of the language apart from “hello” and “thanks”. Maybe it’s because we are familiar with life in Asia. We have travelled in Japan and learned to get by with gestures and smiles when you have a complete language barrier. Maybe it’s that we are just a little more relaxed in our attitude when things don’t appear to be going as you expect. We suspect that being on the tourist trail also helps as the local people we have met are used to hapless foreigners and can usually work out what is it that we want or are trying to do.

To test this theory we decided to leave our baggage in the hostel and take overnight packs for a couple of nights in the small town of Chongzuo to visit the town’s only attraction, the leaning Pagoda. We checked the train times the day before and set off in plenty of time for the train station. We were met with chaos and a seething mass of humanity in the ticketing hall, about ten queues of jostling people each about 25m long and not going anywhere fast. With almost an hour before our train departed we felt we had a reasonable chance of getting a ticket but joined separate queues just in case. Cheryl’s queue moved fairly quickly, until we realised it was due to the fact there was no ticket seller at the window and people in front had left to join another queue! The slowness of the queue, plus queue jumpers muscling in at the front, almost lead to queue rage….and suddenly a man in uniform appeared and stopped the jumpers. People were getting desperate and were pleading with those at the front to buy tickets for them.

With almost 15 mins to go, the ticket seller suddenly appeared in Cheryl’s queue……and a young girl ahead of her suddenly asked in perfect English “Do you need any help?. Cheryl did have the extract from Lonely Planet with Chongzuo in Chinese script, plus the train number and departure time written down to point to. However, the offer was accepted, and good job too as the ticket seller was reluctant to sell as there were only 7 mins left before departure. Tickets finally in hand we shouted our thanks and ran for the gate. We had to get through airline type bag scanners before finally arriving at the platform and onto the train with 2 mins to spare, phew! The whole chaotic experience was surprising as so far China has impressed us with its efficiency.

Three bum numbing hours later we were told our stop was next. We have found that when using public transport our destination is checked and we are told when to get off, which does make using transport in China pretty easy. Chongzuo is much smaller and less wealthy than Nanning but does have a small range of fairly upmarket shops and the usual good infrastructure of wide main streets. We soon discovered we were the only foreigners around and headed into town to find a bed for the night.

After using signs and gestures we got to see a few rooms, some good, some bad and some downright grubby and decaying. We eventually returned to the first one we tried and started to check in. The girls on reception did not speak any English but we managed to agree a price, work out that there was no internet or wifi, hand over passports and finally understand that what we thought was a huge price increase at the last minute was actually a room deposit! All OK so far we thought as Cheryl’s passport was scanned, then the second girl on reception made a phone call before scanning Neil’s passport.

Suddenly the deal was off, we were no longer welcome, and our money was given back to us along with the passports. A map of the town in Chinese was produced and another hotel was circled, “this engrish” the girl said. We were totally bemused….what had gone wrong? There was no arguing with them, it was clear we had to go.

We decided to head in the direction of the circled hotel and passed another hotel on the way. The reception staff were welcoming so we checked it out and it was pretty good apart from not having wifi. We decided that if the hotel we had been sent too was no good or too expensive we would return here.

Finally we reached the circled hotel. It was big and looked way out of our price range but we ventured in past the crowds collecting for what appeared to be a wedding party. The young man on reception spoke a little English and we checked the price, 130 Yuan (the most expensive so far but still bang on budget at £13). The room was the best we had seen, almost Hilton like in the size and layout of the room, with only the slightly grubby carpet to let it down. We went back to reception to confirm whether there was internet just as the longest set of firecrackers we have ever heard was set off for the wedding. The noise was incredible, totally deafening and continued as Neil pushed the limits of the young man’s English trying to explain about the internet. When the firecrackers eventually stopped we checked in without any problems.

After sorting out the room we went for a walk and wandered around the corner into the nearby neighbourhood. A westerner!!! Our westerner turned out to be the owner of a US style bar, after all he was from Tennessee, and so we decided to stop for a beer and a chat. Our host, Terry, was Operations Director for the local chemical company which appears to be part US owned. Hopefully, we thought, no relation to Bhopal based Union Carbide! Terry had the bar as a sideline which his Chinese wife ran whilst he was at work. He gave us lots of local information including the fact that in this town of around 0.5 million people there are now approximately 12 westerners. We had increased the number by 20%.

We explained to him what had happened over our strange hotel experience and he just smiled. It appears that the “authorities” like to keep westerners in the same location and that the call that the young girl made in the first hotel was probably to the police. They had clearly told her to send us to our chosen hotel which we have since found out is right opposite Police HQ……surprise, surprise! Either way, we weren’t bothered as our hotel was excellent for the price.

Later a couple of other westerners came into the bar, one French one American, for some drinks and overpriced familiar western food. After some tips on how to avoid dog in the food stalls we headed off for our budget priced food. What we eventually settled for was a 50/50 hit/miss. Pork with vegetables was a big hit, and the very chewy dish, which we eventually found out to be intestine, not such a winner. The green vegetables with garlic were, as usual, excellent. After another wander, some interaction with the locals to obtain water etc we headed back to our bed.

On Sunday we headed off to purchase our train ticket for tomorrow to avoid another “bun fight” on the day. No queue, no problem, so why so difficult yesterday? We then headed off to the bus station to catch the bus to Zuojiang Leaning Pagoda. It stated in Lonely Planet that you could get a local bus, number 3, but despite asking a number of bus officials we were eventually led outside and bundled into a taxi. Finding number 3 was just a tad difficult as none of the buses had numbers so we went along with the solution. The nice lady told the driver where to take us and after some sign language he confirmed that it would be no more than 20Yuan (a couple of quid!). As it turns out, it was 13Yuan so we were more than happy.

The pagoda, whilst not the most splendiferous, was very cute, plain and, as described, leaning. It was also virtually tourist free so we agreed our ferry price and headed off for the 15m journey across the river. The steps up the pagoda were very narrow and the roof very low so keeping your head down was the order of the day. A tough call for Neil with his track record but he did well…….only one minor collision which resulted in no blood……well done Nellie!

In the pagoda we met a young couple and the girl was clearly desperate to practice her “engrish” with “hello, where you from?” She tried again and again without being able to get anything else out. Then she said, “Change money?” Cheryl worked out that she wanted to change Yuan for English money. We explained that we didn’t have any money and then Neil remembered that we had a single £1 coin. Neil handed it to her and said, “1 English pound, the same as 10 Yuan”. “Too much” she said, not realising that we had given it to her. When she finally understood that it was a gift she was clearly ecstatic. Now she could go to high school tomorrow and show her friends her coin and explain that her “engrish’ friends had given it to her. (a lot of money, albeit useless, to a Chinese teenager). Do they have “show and tell” sessions in China schools we wondered?

After our visit we walked about a kilometre back to the main road to, hopefully, catch the number 3 bus. After a short while, 3 well dressed Chinese drove back from the pagoda in their fancy 4 x 4, crossed the main road and stopped, then gesticulated to us to get in. Assuming this was a lift and not an abduction we got in and without understanding anything that was said we eventually showed them some information from the hotel and that was exactly where they dropped us. Once again, very nice helpful Chinese that always want to assist the hapless westerner.

Before leaving our hotel we eventually worked out that that it had one or two quirky attributes. Hot water only appears after 20.00hrs and seems to last into the night but by 08.00hrs it was definitely “tepid”. “Bath” towels are not really bath towels at all but are of hand towel size. Not a major problem but it does make drying after a luke warm shower a little more complicated.

After returning to Nanning for one night we caught the early bus to cross the border into Vietnam. What was supposed to be an 8 hour journey was actually 10 (that’s unusual……NOT!!) so we weren’t too unhappy. The border crossing was pretty uneventful, Chinese side very smooth and the utterly shambolic Vietnamese making Dad’s Army look organised.

Not Much Meat on a Chicken Head

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

Our stay in Nanning has been mostly about catching up with news, photos and chilling out at The Nanning City Hostel with the other travellers. It’s run by Weston, a Texan, and it’s a very large apartment over 3 floors in a snazzy complex. It’s just like a flat share Canary Wharf Style with the accommodation a mix of dorms and private bedrooms and a large kitchen/dining and living area that includes an Xbox, Playstation 2 and DVD’s……the backpackers dream. Once again, there’s a mix of guests, Brits from Thornbury near Bristol (about 8 miles from our home in Bradley Stoke!), Americans, Canadians, Germans, Chinese, Austrians and Dutch.

The city itself is about 3.5 million people, clean and with tree lined boulevards making this a quite pleasant place to live. Drivers seem to use their horns much less and even have a little more patience with pedestrians. All in all not a bad place to hang out with parks to visit, trains to sort out, buses to book and different food to try.

Graham, who we first met in Yuangshuo, is also here and we’ve been out to eat with him a couple of times. One evening we went to a Muslim Noodle House where you can watch them make the noodles. The guy makes it look easy as he slowly kneads the dough and then stretches and makes the noodles……years of practice! We all pointed at the pictures on the wall and Graham’s choice turned out to be the most interesting. A large platter arrived with lots of chicken with some vegetables in a rich and tasty sauce, flavoured with cinnamon and star anise. The chicken was more bone than meat, which is tricky to eat with chopsticks, and included both claws and the head! Graham and Neil went for the claws and decided that they were both very dull and devoid of any meat (no shit Sherlock!). Graham baulked at the head but Neil gave it a go…..more Sherlock! Hey, it “head” to be done…..tee hee.

We are here for a reason. To get our visa for Vietnam and this one of the value added services that Weston offers to arrange for free. We’ve had experience before of the “flexible pricing” of visas in Vietnamese Consulates. This way, at least, we’re not going to have to pay the “tourist tax” as decided by the whim of a crooked clerk. 480Yuan (about £48) buys us a 90 day single entry visa. It takes 3 days and gives us more time to do the things we want rather than hassle with the Vietnamese authorities. After evaluating all our travel options into Vietnam we’ve decided to take a direct bus to Halong. It costs us about £17 each and will probably take about 8 hours including a couple of hours crossing the border at the Friendship Pass. Buying the tickets, a few days in advance, was quite easy as the ticket counter had an English translation so all we had to do was point to the chosen route and write down the date and time in the correct Chinese format of year/month/day.

We also set aside some time to visit the ancient town of Yangmei. It turned out to be a quaint village with some well preserved Qing Dynasty houses and not very touristy so it gave us the opportunity to explore the dusty alleyways without any hassle. Our day out was planned to be just the two of us. Then Graham decided to join us. Then a new arrival, Michael and his Chinese “friend”, agreed to join the party. Finally, at the very last minute, the five of us were joined by two young Chinese girls who were on holiday from further north. Like a lot of cities in Asia, Nanning has several bus stations, so we made a number of attempts over the previous couple of days to try and find the correct one. The Chinese girls were very impressed that we went directly to the correct one and even more impressed that we guessed the correct departure time of 11.00 a.m.

The bus was packed and, having been on a number of local Chinese buses in the past, we smartly headed straight for the last remaining space….a seat on the engine in the very front of the bus. We had a great view from the front and it was better than sitting on the plastic stools in the aisles that Michael and his friend had to put up with. Graham found a seat and the two girls joined us facing backwards sitting on the engine. The journey was pretty uneventful, albeit bumpy, but did take us through some busy countryside where all sorts of crops were being grown. Maize, beans, sugar cane, bananas, tomatoes and other salad ingredients plus masses of things that we hadn’t seen before.

We lost Michael and friend shortly after arriving so lunch was just the five of us. We headed down to the restaurants by the river and the Chinese girls helped us choose from the menu. We had a delicious lunch of tiny fried fish, beef with pickled cabbage, stuffed noodles, sliced pork with starfruit, rice and green vegetables. The girls also insisted on paying which was a very honourable and generous thing to do but made us feel very embarrassed. Nothing would change their minds.

On the journey home, we managed to get the five seats at the back of the bus.

Things were going nicely until we reached the level crossing in what can only be described as a soulless, godforsaken, cowboy town.

Here in this strange small town, the road narrows to single file to cross the tracks giving the potential for a major log jam. Sure enough, there were a number of large trucks stuck making it almost impossible for even motor bikes to weave through. Drivers had given up and gone to sleep, others had left their cabs (probably to get food) whilst others just sat and watched. Amazingly there was no road rage. Everyone just accepted the situation and got on with it. We had a little banter through the window with one of the drivers who was woken up by our laughing at him. He seemed to ask us what the situation was ahead so not really understanding exactly what he said we gave the “thumbs down” sign and that seemed to do the trick.

The journey back to Nanning was completed without much more ado and we arrived about 30 minutes late.

Hello Bamboo??

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

We’re now a step further south in a town called Yangshuo. It’s the premier destination for Chinese tourists who come for the Li River cruises to see some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. The number of large cruise boats, medium boats and bamboo rafts defies belief as it replicates the M25 on a Monday morning.

Sadly, as China is home to more than 1.3 billion people it seems that they all want to be here, especially on Saturday nights! It’s not all bad. The limestone karst scenery is stunning so we understand why they come here and they do come to have fun…..lots of fun! It is party town for the Chinese so who are we to criticise……after all it’s their country.

We had a couple of nights in a quieter part of town and then we moved to a much calmer and smaller village called Xingping, pronounced “shingping”. It has a really quaint old quarter that is pedestrianised with couple of very good restaurants. Whilst also very touristy in the day it becomes very sleepy at night with most places closing around 20.00.

The title of this blog is “Hello Bamboo?” The reasoning is simple as everywhere you go in Yangshuo and Xingping you are stalked by ladies asking “Hello Bamboo?” This simply means “would you like an overpriced tour of the river on a bamboo boat?” Firstly, the modern boats are not made of bamboo but plastic pipe and second, the way the ladies sidle up to you makes it all sound very illicit, almost as though bamboo was a form of marijuana…if only!

Our first experience in Yuangshuo was a touristy thing to do…..to watch a fisherman with his cormorants’ fishing at night. Whilst it was a show for tourists, it is still an art practiced by the older fisherman throughout the length of the Li River. Neil saw it on a TV nature programme about 5 years ago, probably David Attenborough, and decided that if he were ever to visit China then it would be on his list of things to see.

Since seeing the show, and visiting Xingping, we have seen a number of bamboo rafts carrying fishermen and their birds doing their stuff in a much more private manner. It is quite amazing. The birds have a small constriction around their necks and are trained to free swim the river, catch fish and bring them back to the raft for the fisherman to disgorge the birds and deposit the catch in a basket. Every 6/7 fish the master allows them to eat thus ensuring their loyalty. It’s very, very clever and fantastic to see man and beast working together so well. A bit like a shepherd and his trusty mutt!

Xingping is quite revered in China as on the back of the 20Yuan note there is a picture of one of the groups of limestone karsts that dominate this area of China. Here we are doing what all the Chinese tourists do…pose with their note (value £2)!!

The room in our guesthouse here in Xingping has the most impressive view we think we’ve ever had…….let us know what you think!

This area is also great for trekking and we’ve done a number of routes some of which have been quite tough….especially up the 1500+ steps (Fiona we didn’t count them) up the nearby karst to the viewing point to catch the sunset……boy was that steep and tricky. It was well worth it as the view below was breathtaking making the village on the opposite side of the river look like toy town. Again, see the pics as nothing we can say can adequately describe what we have seen, especially the sunset over the myriad peaks.

Yes, we did take a dawn bamboo raft trip up the river. By going at dawn we missed the “M25” rush hour and had the river almost to ourselves. Our boatman, whose name can best be described in syllables, (Sin, Chin, A), was great and pointed out some of the most interesting karsts. The locals have given them some amazing wonderfully poetic names like, The Eight Super Naturals, Tortoise Climbing up the Hill and Chicken Cage Hill.

The trip up the river took just over an hour and we decided to take the trek back which took us about 4 hours. Again, take a look at the pics which our “point and shoot camera” really doesn’t do justice to. If there are any camera buffs out there (Alex can we have your camera when you’ve finished with it?) then you need to visit this place! We did name one of our own karsts, Snail Crossing the River, and Neil was good enough to pose as usual.

We returned back to Yangshuo to stay in a different guesthouse where all the food is included in the price. Whilst breakfast is no great shakes, dinner is served for all the travellers around one big table. It’s very sociable and it offers a great opportunity to swap stories and pick up ideas. In addition, the food that Mr Wei and his family put on the table is quite excellent.

What is also lovely about this hostel is that when you walk in the door everyone puts on a pair a cutesy knitted slippers which means that all the floors are kept so clean. You also need to ring the doorbell when you want to come in so it feels like being a teenager again…..”and what time do you call this?!” We have Brits here, Austrians, Germans, French, Spaniards and an Chinese/American….it’s such a friendly social place to stay. Sadly, we leave tomorrow for Nanning.

Adventure to The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Cheryl & Neil

We were looking for an off the beaten track adventure and decided to leave most of our baggage behind at the guesthouse to head off for a few days to walk the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces.

We left the guesthouse in Guilin by a private “taxi” with a few other travellers to take the 2 hour drive to Ping’an. A pretty but very touristy village about 1000m up in the hills that are dotted with other villages occupied by the Red Yao people. Our room for the night had a stunning view over the valley and the rice terraces which date back around 600 years. Whilst a little over our budget, it was the best room we saw and the view was fabulous.

We ate in a nearby guesthouse with Shaun, a young lone traveller from Chepstow of all places. He had been teaching English in Japan and was on his way home to the UK for Christmas. He was doing it the hard way, overland via the Mongolia and Russia railway. Our host for dinner was Mei, a really friendly lady who spent her “not working” time buried in a self teach English book. Whilst we ate and chatted she was busily reading out loud to herself the usual garbage these books teach you. “I can wait for an appointment but my toothache won’t”! We had a lot of banter with her including explaining the meaning of “urgent” by Neil pretending he was desperate for a wee…she soon got the meaning.

Next morning we had the best breakfast yet with Mei whilst explaining a few more things from her book. Then it was off to take the 5 hour hike through the hills to our next destination Dazhai. We headed off up the steep track towards the terraces. The scenery was everything it was cracked up to be. The only slight disappointment being the fact that just a couple of weeks earlier most of the rice had been harvested. Our pictures couldn’t capture the natural beauty of the countryside or the amazing engineering feat of the terracing….truly spectacular.

We met a number of people along the way many of whom had been ‘weak’ and given in to the constant hassle from the locals wanting to act as guides. Whilst the route isn’t particularly well signed it didn’t take much working out for anyone with an ounce of grey matter. One small group in particular, from Philadelphia, had hired two guides to get them to the terraces and then another local guide to navigate the terraces themselves. They were amazed that we were doing this alone, “Do you speak Mandarin?” “Not a word” said Neil. “How do you get by?” “With signs, pointing and lots of laughs!” said Cheryl, “and when it goes wrong you have a great story to tell”. They were gobsmacked at our relaxed attitude.

The rice terraces area is the home of the Red Yao People. They are a minority people occupying a very small part of China. Apart from the brightly coloured traditional dress worn by the ladies they have one other claim to fame….they sport amazingly long hair and in the case of our host to be in Dazhai village, all the way down to her ankles! It is worn wrapped elaborately around their heads and often topped off with a black felt hat.

Once in Dazhai we set about finding a bed for the night. After about 3 or 4 attempts we settled on a room in the ‘Jinkeng Mountain Hamlet’ a traditional wooden hotel. Our host didn’t speak a word of English but with “sign and pointing” plus the aid of a calculator display we agreed a price of 50 Yuan, a little less than £5, and our cheapest room yet, and with the added value of a western toilet! The season is coming to an end here and the guesthouse was going through some improvement and all the chaos brought Fawlty Towers to mind. Her husband, “Basil”, was busy making a huge din with a circular saw in one of the adjoining rooms making our viewing of the room and the subsequent negotiations something of a challenge. “Sybil” shouted at him in Yao with something along the lines of “shut the f**k up” but it didn’t work and she turned back to us with a nice Sybil smile, as though nothing was going on, and encouraged us back downstairs to complete the formalities (parting with money).

We had dinner, probably our best yet, in another guesthouse followed by a walk through the village, just in time to see our first whole cooked dog being prepared for the table. Just next door we bought some local bottled hooch after the proprietor had attempted to sell us his own various brews from large glass demijohns. Whilst the room and bed were very comfortable our sleep was not good. Our guesthouse had a number of animals freely wandering around, both inside and outside, pig, chickens and ducks. The cockerel had quite clearly not been given a watch by his owner as he spent all night roosting in a tree outside our window desperately trying to impress us with his “cock a doodle doo” (noisy little bastard)!

Travelling independently does not always guarantee success, and we do get the occasional dud. Breakfast from our host was just one of those duds. Pancakes and eggs floating in oil, not at all appetizing but after a few mouthfuls it was amazing how quickly our appetites were satisfied.

After our “un-petit dejeuner” we caught a number of local buses to get us to The Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge and the village of Ma’an. Yet another dud! Whilst both the bridge and the village were quaint , neither were worth the arse numbing hours spent on the buses getting there plus the steep £6 admission fee.

However, it was not a complete dud as we did have some local “cabaret” after dinner. Just after we arrived in the village we met a couple who had been staying in the guesthouse in Guilin. We thought we might have bumped into them for dinner somewhere in the tiny village. It didn’t happen but on return to our accommodation we found them inside having their meal. They had been “adopted” by two local guys who had been drinking heavily.

The Dong people have a reputation for fun and these two guys were no exception. There was a total language barrier but with lots of laughing, singing and quaffing, we seemed to communicate and have fun. The highlight of the cabaret was the “gentle slow motion comedy falling” off his seat of one of the locals. Everyone burst out laughing as he went, taking everything off the table with him, including our bottle of local spirit. Check out the pics but no surprises for guessing who fell off his seat. The lady of the house didn’t bat an eyelid. She got off her chair and swept up the debris before providing more beers from the fridge. Cheryl shot off to buy more supplies of very expensive 32% proof…….for 60p!

Next day was notably cooler so we decided to return to Guilin to catch up on mail and plan the next couple of weeks…..busy, busy, busy!

We know that at least two of our readers have done some very extreme travelling more than 20 years ago so to them this probably sounds all very tame. However, for us, just like the guys from Philadelphia, it’s good to get out of your comfort zone and take a few risks. Going “off piste” can be challenging to various degrees depending on your experience so we really enjoyed the last few days and It has encouraged us to do more.

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