Cheryl & Neil Our Story

Hoi An Old Town and My Son Temples

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

We’re now in Hoi An which is about half way up from HCMC in the south and Hanoi in the north. It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site with buildings going back to the 17th century. Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and other traders would have come here as they did to Melaka where we visited in Malaysia. One thing we have noticed is that it is much cooler in the evenings and people here are wearing more clothing, puffer jackets, anoraks and woolly hats. We have a pool at the hotel and even after a full days sun it was freezing!!

It’s great that the buildings are not “prettified” and you can see them “raw”. It’s also interesting to see a slightly, and we mean slightly, quieter city. There is one disappointment, we have seen our first glimpse of the one thing we feared in Vietnam. Pushy traders wanting you to “visit my shop, just lookie and see”. We’ve also experienced the first instance of “how much can I rip off the tourist” syndrome. Unlike HCMC nothing in the shops is labelled. Instead, when you ask how much something is the price is dependant on what they think you can afford. Twice the price of HCMC is not unusual and when you laugh and walk away suddenly the price miraculously falls. Neil refuses to do business this way. He doesn’t mind doing “deals” in a market but if a shop tries to con him he tells them so and walks away despite the fact that the price is now reasonable.

Note the picture of the two dogs. They were tethered so that they could not leave the chairs. A guy with a very posh camera and a huge lens tried to take a picture of them very close up. The dog on the right turned around to bear his backside which made us and a family of locals burst out laughing. I took this pic to see if I was to get the same treatment.…no, he must have liked me.

Today we went on yet another tourist trip (we’re getting to be quite the little tour guides pet!!), to My Son, another World Heritage Site going back around 1200 years. It’s the most important site of the ancient kingdom of Champa, and is a collection of ruins, some in fairly good condition and others obliterated by US bombing, stretched across a small valley surrounded by jungle and mountains.

We were surprised to find that the tour company had used a ‘sleeper’ bus for the trip, so we had a relaxed trip on our fully flat beds at the back! Pity it was only an hours journey……We also chose the option to go back to Hoi An by boat and didn’t realise that lunch was included, so all round a great day out for $7 each!

On yer bike!!

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

No words needed here – the pics say it all.

The Mighty Mekong Delta

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

Today we went on yet another trip!! This time to the Mighty Mekong Delta.

There’s probably not much that we can say that the pictures won’t say so much better. It really is a “mighty” river and it brings so much to the local population that is generally very poor. It brings work on the river, food, transport, renewed fertility to the soil every year and, of course, tourists and their tourist $.

However, there is one story to tell. Neil had a zip break in one of his pockets in his shorts quite some time ago. As he’s already lost one wallet it did make sense to get it repaired. Finally today we managed it. During our trip, we had stopped for lunch and some free time to explore Ben Tre, one of the many islands in the delta. Neil spotted a lady with a sewing machine at the side of the road and decided that this might be a good time to effect the repair. Great fun was in store for all concerned as we had no Vietnamese and she had no English. Through a series of signs, pointing at watches and showing money it was agreed that it would take just a few minutes to replace the zip and cost 15000D (£0.60).

One small problem, the lady needed his shorts and he had no others to wear, and as usual was not wearing any pants!! “No problem” said Neil as he disappeared to the back of the shop and a few minutes later he reappeared shorts in hand and wearing his polo shirt as a pair of shorts. Everyone burst out laughing, the lady, her husband, her mum and her son. The lady then disappeared on her bike to buy a zip and returned shortly afterwards as did a long line of locals to look at this crazy tourist sat at the side of the road wearing his shirt for shorts.

It was very funny, lots of laughs and hopefully a tourist has given some locals some revenue and a story to tell for a long time to come.

The Cu Chi Tunnels of the Viet Cong

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

We joined an organised trip and before we went to the tunnels we visited a handicraft centre. Yes you might be thinking, this sounds like a typical “rip off “the tourist opportunity. Well, not this time. It is a centre that has been established for those people that have been born suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, to gain employment.. After more than 30 years people are still being born with defects caused by the effects of AO on the genetic structure of their grandparents and parents. Horrid deformities that, once again, make you realise just how futile and barbaric war really is.

It was very low key. They were making beautiful ornaments, plaques, bowls, vases, etc using mother of pearl and so on. What really “floated our boat” was the ingenious way that they used broken egg shells to make some fabulous stuff. Take a look at the pics which, sadly, don’t do them justice.

AO was used to defoliate millions of acres of forest so that the VC couldn’t hide or grow food. The US used Vietnam as a giant laboratory because they really didn’t know the effects of using such huge amounts of AO and other chemicals, most of which contained huge amounts of dioxins. Some of the bases used by the US to store and load these chemicals into the planes are still contaminated and waiting to be cleansed…..over 30 years after the war finished!

The tunnels of Cu Chi are about 30kms outside HCMC. Whilst some of what we saw were reconstructions for the tourist, our guide, an ex South Vietnamese working for the US, confirmed that everything had been done in keeping with how it really was when he finally saw and understood what he had been fighting against all those years ago. We did get to try a real tunnel, 1.3m high and 0.80m wide. It was very hard work, very dark in places and was a little mind blowing when you think that people lived, died, married and had children down there for months on end. I did 30m of the tunnel, to get a feel for it, then decided that my back was more important. Cheryl, being a VC in waiting, managed to go 60m.

When the VC finally sent the US home they had built around 250kms of tunnels around Cu Chi. In fact, the Americans built a huge base right on top of them not knowing they were there. It was months before they understood why they kept getting shot at night without being able to trace the VC. The ingenuity of the VC was quite outstanding:

By night, via the tunnels, they would rob the bases of the US whilst they slept. By day and night they would use what they had stolen to kill the “enemy”.

By night, they collected anything including scrap metal from bombs to recycle into there own bombs. Even going as far as collecting any UXO to recycle into their own ordinance.

When the US finally twigged what was going on they brought in dogs to sniff the VC out. What did the VC do? Collect US debris from the battle field, old clothes, cigarette packets, poo, in fact anything that smelt western. Then they laid this around the air vents and entrances into their tunnels to prevent the dogs picking up anything but friendly US scent. They also started washing with US soap that they had stolen in the dead of night so that the dogs would be put off the scent.

Sandals made of US tyres for the whole family with a nice tread in the sole to prevent slipping. But there was more, when they were returning to the tunnels after a night of guerrilla warfare they would put the sandals on back to front so the tread made the US think they had gone a different way.

This ingenious list goes on and on and it makes you realise why the US did lose the war. They thought that fire power alone would win the war. Read some of the quotes from the US Generals who probably now wish they had never opened their mouths.

Sure, this was a one sided story but it makes you realise that if your cause means so much to you then you will find a way to survive and even prosper. The Spirit of the Blitz and all that!!

An excellent day out and well worth our tourist $.

Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

40 years of wishing finally comes true….Hello Vietnam

Neil writes – This for me is a boyhood dream come true. I have wanted to visit Vietnam for as long as I can remember. Maybe it was that year in geography that I studied Vietnam or, more likely, it was that my informative teenage years were blasted on the news by the Vietnam War. Whatever, today a boyhood dream came true after around 40 years.

I am so much more excited than I really expected to be, and it’s exactly as I envisaged it, manic, motorcycles everywhere, on the road, off the road, on the pavement and up your bum if you weren’t careful.

Checked into our room at Luan Vu Guesthouse. No view, no window, but then there’s no noise, a bonus in this crazy city, and no mozzies either, so all in all, ‘tis all OK. It’s very clean and pleasantly presented not as “cell Like” as you might think.

We have lots of US$ which is welcome here but you also need local currency, the Dong. So, off we trotted to the ATM and Cheryl became a millionaire in seconds, 1MD and she’s on a roll, “give me more, more, I need more millions” she kept saying. That was until I reminded her that 1MD is worth around £40!! So now she said “I want 1 billllllionnnn Dong” in that crazed Dr Evil styleeeee!

First evening wonderful and I am still wowed by this place but Cheryl is just a little overwhelmed by it all as she has never experienced such teaming masses and constant noise since the madness of Mumbai.

Second day was spent trying to get ourselves oriented and planning a couple of trips. It’s plain that to go to the places that we want to see it’s much easier to go by organised trips and, surprisingly, they are quite cheap……. bit like the beer here, 10000 Dong (£0.45) buys you 450ml of ice cold Saigon Beer.

We also seem to have mastered the art of crossing the roads, check for a small break in the traffic, look confident, ignore the fact the traffic never stops, walk at a constant speed and keep your eyes open for the maverick motor-cyclist. That’s it, easy! Maybe a change of underwear in your bag might be a good idea!

Also today we saw 2 guys on a motor bike, one driving and one pillion. The pillion guy was actually holding a pane of glass about 4ft x 3ft in heavy trafffic……barking!

We now also possess headphones and mic so that we can seriously use Skype if anyone wants to speak to us, you can get us at… cheryl..neil ….and remember we are 7hrs ahead.

Tuesday 13^th was the anniversary of taking that call in Mumbai when Donna told me that Steve had died suddenly. We did as last year, curry and beers and a large cigar. Thoughts last night were with Donna, Zoe and Matthew who were probably going through some dreadful emotions. I think Steve would have appreciated the evenings agenda, well, apart from the cigar.

Next day we went sightseeing around HCMC. First stop was the central post office, a magnificent building constructed in the late 1800’s. There is a huge picture of ‘Uncle Ho’ beaming down on the people as they buy their stamps. Cheryl continued her obsession with cash – now she’s a multi millionaire following another visit to the cash point.

Took a look around the Reunification Palace, the former seat of government, President’s home and now a museum. Built in the 1960’s it’s the building featured in all the TV & photos taken when the south was surrendered to the tanks of the Vietcong (VC) in 1975. Somehow Neil managed to get into most of the photos I took – see if you can spot him!

Next stop was the War Remnants Museum – full of harrowing pictures and artefacts from the war and the continuing aftermath as still more children continue to suffer birth defects from the effects of Agent Orange. A sobering place and a chilling reminder of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, under the banner of ‘war’.

Singapore – Squeaky Clean and Sparkly

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

On the last night in JB we used up our final Ringits on whisky, wine & cheese and set off early next morning (couldn’t wait to get out of JB) for the huge departure terminal to leave Malaysia. It’s a tortuous routine, walking endless shiny new corridors to get to the departure point, get the passport stamped then walk down to the bus area for the short trip across the causeway only to get off the bus again and walk through the immigration and customs for Singapore. Got through immigration without any hassle, then on through the green ‘nothing to declare’ channel. Then the bags were scanned and Neil was taken to one side.

‘You have bottles in the bag Sir?’ said the man in the uniform. Out came the half bottle of wine. ‘OK Sir, you have another one?’ out came the 15 RM ( appox £3) bottle of whisky with seal intact. ‘You come with me Sir, no duty free from Malaysia’. Oh dear we thought and we followed the man to the office where the customs man spent ages filling in a form and looking at Neil’s passport. Finally the duty man asked Neil into his office and politely explained that there was no duty free allowed and gave him a gentle ticking off, no fine, no penalty. Neil did say ‘I didn’t know & I’ve been nabbed!!’ which made the duty guy laugh, and we were finally on our way. Good job it wasn’t the US, one snigger and it would have been the full body search!!!

Arrived at our ‘upmarket’ accommodation, the Novotel on Clarke Quay, and the contrast with JB was acute. Where JB is grime central, Sing is squeaky clean & colourful – the Quays in particular are almost unreal, like Main Street at Disney World. More upmarket bars & restaurants as far as you can see, full of well dressed people spending serious amounts of cash. Could our £30 a day backpacker budget cope?? Well, we have cheated with the accommodation as we have some vouchers to use so we haven’t included the true £100 per night room cost! The loyalty vouchers came from the extensive travel, care of Microgen, (bas**rds), and Cheryl’s contract with AET in Canary Wharf. We have just enough to cover our 3 night stay in Sing.

Spent the rest of the afternoon finally buying the netbook then took a walk around Chinatown including dinner at the food court, roast & bbq pork with noodles followed by spring rolls all for about £3. Beer from the 7eleven & the rest of the wine back at the room – and the budget survived (ok cheated again as have not included the cost of the netbook).

Great breakfast at the Novotel – we did expect better than the usual sweet white bread toast & Nescafe, and we were not disappointed. Spent the morning sightseeing along Boat Quay, Raffles landing spot, the Merlion statue and the Esplanade. Sing has an interesting mix of colonial and high tech with picturesque buildings dwarfed by skyscrapers in the background. It is also a novelty to walk on decent litter free pavements, use proper pedestrian crossings & have no signs of decay or any graffiti anywhere.

Got to Raffles Hotel, which is stunning and got as far as the long bar, but Cheryl decided not to fall for the tourist ritual of the obscenely priced Singapore Sling ($22) but, in keeping with tradition, ate a peanut and threw the shell on the floor instead!

Mark O, eat your heart out. Drinking cold Tiger Beer and watching flocks of beautiful Sing girls go by is still one of the best past times a man could ask for. And there’s a bonus!!!!! There’s now a Hooters here with all the same tacky trimmings as the ones we were used to in the good old days of MMT Energy and those trips to the US. Take a look at the pics Mark, enjoy!! Yes, I know, more globalisation but it’s Hooters so that’s OK…alright!! (This para was care of Neil….yeah, surprise!).

Neil’s new friend…..Mark O in your dreams

Rounded off the day with food in a Hawker Centre in Little India. Cracking Birianyi on a banana leaf. Say no more, just look at the pics.

Sunday, final day and another walking tour of Sing followed by a visit to another hawker centre out of town not used by many “white folk”. There were two major highlights on the walk.

A guided tour around a large mosque by an American who had converted to Islam. The tour was really interesting in that he explained the similarities between Islam and Christianity. Mohamed was a messenger of Allah just as Jesus was a messenger of the Christian God. Islam recognises God and Jesus. So where is the problem? We all wish we knew. We talked about Muslims and dogs, pork, alcohol and all sorts of stuff. If only the rest of the people of this world believed the same.

Second was a visit to a hawker centre at lunchtime. It was imported from Glasgow in 1894, a magnificent wrought iron structure of Victorian filigree. Absolutely stunning and packed to the gunnels with hungry Singaporeans.

Sunday night was the hawker centre out of town followed by an unintentional visit to a Nepalese Temple including a guided tour by a local follower. Cheryl chose the serenity of the Buddhist temple to light a candle in memory of her mum.

Tomorrow? Vietnam, one of Neil’s dreams to visit and about to come true.

Johor Bahru – Why would you stay here?

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

We left Melaka to head down to Johor Bahru. It’s the border town with Singapore and it’s easy, but slow, to get across to Sing for a day trip. Sing is very expensive for hotels so to extend our visit to Sing we stayed in JB for two nights.

We had read about JB and we were not too surprised to see what a dreadful place it actually is……“a border town of extensive urban decay” would be a polite description. Take a look at the pics to see the area around our hotel. Finding any info about places to stay in JB wasn’t easy so when our cabby found it difficult to find our hotel we knew we were in for an “interesting” experience. Finally he found it. The area was very run down but the hotel reception was welcoming and the room clean but small. It wasn’t expensive, RM 60, and you could rent the room for 2 hours for RM30!!

Anyway, we used the hotel exactly as we had planned, as an overnight to have an extra day in Sing. It worked and the food we had at a nearby street stall was really good…..so not all of JB is that bad!!

Our day in Sing was to look for Netbook, a tiny computer mainly used for internet work and minor spreadsheets and documents. We have had so many problems with internet cafes, bugs on the camera sticks and memory sticks for our trip that we decided to buy one of our own and save all the hassle not to mention the noise in some of the cafes created by kids playing each other on “shoot ‘em up games”. Another advantage of the netbook, apart from portability, is that we can now use it for Skype and see as well as talk to people for free anywhere in the world……OK, so we’re late in getting there but we’ve made it…..we’re up to date with this new fangled techie stuff!

Next stop Sing!

Updated – Multi Cultural Melaka, town of great history

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

Melaka is a town of amazing history that started around 1400 with the Malay Sultans. Around 1500 The Portugese took over, 1640 The Dutch came in and then around the late 1700’s the Brits took over. There was a short Japanese period during the war before Independence in 1957.

The resulting mix of people, cultures, ethnic influences has created a really fascinating city that is full of little treasures that we just “fell upon” as we walked around.

The hotel was on the edge of Chinatown so it was perfectly placed. By day, temples, mosques and people doing their “stuff” and by night all lit up beautifully by red spot lights and, as Chinese New Year looms, lots of paper lanterns, of course, also in red.

The shoemaker, Raymond, is apparently the last shoemaker making handmade replica tiny shoes for women who have had their feet bound. The practice was outlawed around the early 1900’s but was done to show that the woman was from a very wealthy family and she didn’t need to walk or work. It practice was started by an Emperor who liked dainty “ballet” dancer feet. Raymond has a book of his customers including Jaques Chirac, ex French President, and Eddy Merx, ex Belgian cyclist.

Last Days of Ex-Pat Luxury

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

Our last few days were spent shopping and visiting temples and KL. As you can see from the pics, Ikea lives here along side Tesco……how very sad is that!??

Seriously, the shopping trip was to get mice to feed Maya’s snakes. The female guzzled 4 in quick succession but the male, still “on heat” refused food as he is being kept apart from his mate. The little white mouse dropped into his cage was very confused by the whole episode but was still running around the cage the following morning.

The big shirt….we’ll leave you to work that one out!

We have been looked after really well and Maya has cooked us some great food, full fry up breakfast, pancakes and Spam Fried Rice!! You may laugh, the Spam F R was actually very good.

Last night was spent at a Korean BBQ which was very tasty, loads of meeeaatt and bowls of varying pickles to put with the meat and wrap in a lettuce leaf.

The Condo is great and contrasts with the guesthouse life we have been living. 2 pools, 2 badders courts, tennis courts, 2 squash courts and a gym.

Off to Melaka on the 4th to take in some more culture.

Still having problems with the camera so more pics to follow.

Kuala Lumpur over New Year

Posted on January 1, 2009 by Cheryl & Neil

KL is exactly what we expected. Clean, green with impressive architecture and parks. The Twin Towers are stunning although we chose to view the city from the Communications Tower instead. You can only go to the height of the bridge at the Twin Towers, about 130 metres, whilst in the Comms tower you climb to about 350 metres. The views of the City are breathtaking.

New Year with Les and Maya was spent in one of the local bars and we watched some amazing fireworks. And, after a night of bingeing what do you do? You get the munchies and what do you have for the munchies? What else, fried spam, corned beef with egg of course!! Les is a great chef and he knows how to treat his guests to real ex-pat binge food!

On New Years Day we visited Batu Caves, a range of caves with stalegmites and stalegtites, that are now a Hindu Shrine. The pics say it all really.

Problems with camera again…grrrrrrr…..pics to follow.

UPDATE …Managed to get some pics from Maya as we lost ours.

Georgetown, Penang….It’s Fun to Stay at……

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

The ferry ride from Langkawi took around 3 hours, (whatever the book says, add an hour at least!!).

We checked into our accomodation for the next 3 nights, The YMCA!!! Another new luxury experience. That’s no joke, real sheets, carpet and a shower screen! We couldn’t resist the photo opportunity with Jay and Simone who were also at Zacks over Christmas.

Georgetown has great history, colonial architecture, Chinatown, Little India and much more. We had two full days of sightseeing and could probably filled another day or two with ease. All this activity was a shock to our systems having done B All for 3 weeks.

This is a short diary entry as the pics say it all. Take a good look as some of the Temples and Wats are quite stunning.

Krek Lok Si Temple

Wat Chayamangkalaram

Wat Dhammikarama

Off to the bright lights and glitz of Kuala Lumpur and to stay with Les and Maya. (Known Les from June’s ski trips and he’s been living out here for 4 years).

Christmas

Posted on December 27, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve.

For the first time in 3 weeks we got off our bums and did some touristy stuff. We went to a cable car with Mick, Karen and their two kids Lindsay and Lee. Views were quite stunning from the top and the cable car ride a little scary for Karen. We also went to the nearby waterfalls which weren’t so good as it’s the dry season. You can see from the pics that L & L did slide down the 7 pools but, because it was so dry, their bums got a tad bruised.

Christmas Eve night we had a big dinner at the guesthouse including turkey, stuffing cranberry sauce, cake and pud with custard……yum. All followed by the worst karaoke ever!

Christmas Day we went for a long walk on the beach and had a lovely Sea Bass in ginger sauce in the evening…..more yum! Back at the guesthouse we sat outside our cabin for a quiet drink and an early night…..no chance……Zack had a further treat in store for us….21 year old Scotch from the Chivas Distillery which he had been saving for a special occasion. Neil was allowed to open the box, followed by the velvet pouch and finally the porcelain bottle. The scotch was very smooth indeed but not sure we could justify the cost of 64 GBP (tax free!!). Luckily for Zack, he had received it as a gift. What started out to be a quiet nightcap on our own turned out to be yet another impromptu bash outside our cabin ending about 1.30 a.m. as a number of other guests joined us with some more drinks. Great night.

Unfortunately, the Mini Christmas Pudding and custard plus the 3 Christmas crackers we had brought from home got forgotten in all the excitement…..what a couple of losers we really are!

Boxing Day back on the beach followed by a Sting Ray dinner, part BBQ and part in sweet & sour….yes, yum!! Back to the guesthouse for another attempt at a quiet evening. You guessed it, Zack brought out the rest of the Chivas so we brought out the crackers. Luckily, as we travelled next day, this did turn out to be a fairly quiet evening and a relatively early night.

Next day we went for a long walk to the next quiet bay with marina, had a light curry with Rajek in the British Raj and then headed for the ferry to Georgetown, Penang Island. True to form, Zack gave us a ride to the ferry which was on the other side of the island…..he is such a nice man.

By the way, we have now mailed our suitcases back to the UK and become real backpackers!! Well almost, our ‘rucksacks’ also have wheels so can double as wheely cases as well as backpacks….how clever is that.

Parting thoughts? This has been our first true guesthouse experience and it was excellent. Very friendly, very social and we’ve met people from all over the world, swopped stories of travel, life at home and plans for the future. There has been the occasional hiccup with barking dogs at night and building work by Zack but overall our preferred choice of accomodation is definitely a guesthouse. NB. The barking dogs were actually next door in the Chinese Restaurant, Zacks dogs were very well behaved and a great source of amusement.

Merry Christmas to all our readers

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

Firstly, we would like to thank you all for the messages….keep them coming as we get excited every time we get one. It’s great to hear from people we haven’t heard from in ages, Charlotte how could I forget you? and all the gossip, Mike & Chloe I need more detail!

Anyway, apologies for the lack of pics but we’re having trouble getting them from the camera. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed when we get onto another PC.

If you haven’t seen our Christmas card, please copy the link below and paste into a browser. It may take a little time but we know you’ll like what you see.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/PUEVifzKLbfZg2QFaHKH

It’s not likely to be a white Christmas here, only the sand is white! However, all the Chinese restaurants and big hotels are decked out in tacky decorations and playing cheesy Christmas tunes….nice!

We’re having a 2 day party here at Zacks. Starting Christmas eve, to celebrate in Swedish style, followed by Christmas Day for our traditional celebration. Ford, our resident US Cordon Bleu Chef is cooking turkey, Christmas Pudding etc and the Swedish girls are making meat balls and everyone else is going to help…..it’ll be a blast!

We hope you all have a great Christmas too…..we’ll be back on blog in a day or so.

Merry Christmas

Friends (entry updated) to include more pics and party antics.

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

A few friends who dropped in to chat and share beers plus some of the ‘activities’ from the bar!!

You can also see Zack’s dogs….all 4 of them.

An amazing experience

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

We were invited by Pit, a member of the staff at Zacks, to see the Annual Hindu Fire Walking Ceremony at the small temple on the Island. Just take a look at the pics…..wow!!

The Hindu’s are only 6% of the population and this ceremony takes place all over Malaysia. Basically, people pray for good fortune e.g. new job, recovery from serious illness etc and commit to walk the fire. Some more devoted pilgrims also commit to walk with the hooks, the cage or some other device. The have such faith that they believe that they will be unharmed by the fire. Cheryl stood about 2-3 meters from the fire and she could feel the heat from it. Every now and again they would fan the fire just to make sure it was hot!!

The Holy Man assessed everyone before they walked and some were refused the right to walk. Some also collapsed at the end after soaking their feet in the pit of milk at the end. No women were allowed to walk across the pit, only men. One pic shows the Holy Man carrying a small child as thanks for a prayer come true.

It was a jaw dropping experience, it was for real and not a show for the tourist. We have never seen such devotion to a religion and we were both completely “wowed” by the whole event.

Alex, this was “hard core” fire walking and nothing like the “jolly one” in Japan.

Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

We’ve been here a week now and got into a strict routine as follows:

10.00 Tea in bed, 11.00 breakfast, read/plan, 14.00 Beer o”clock, chat to fellow travellers who seem to congregate with beers at our table, 19.00 G&T O’clock, scrounge ice from the bar next door, 20.00 food from the myriad of restaurants in ambling distance, 23.00 whisky/wine O’clock, 24.00’sh bed. It’s a tough regime but somebody has to do it!! Don’t they??

Occasionally we fit in a beach walk, we did visit The Rice Museum and we will, eventually, discover the rest of the island. For now, it’s chill and Zack’s guesthouse is a great place to do just that. It’s a very clean and very friendly place where people mix and mingle during the day and night. Handy kitchen for making that all important tea and breakfast in the morning. Zack’s a really nice guy who will do anything for you providing you drink whisky with him at night!

Couple of downsides. Neil lost his wallet. Not much cash but cards are gone and driving licence so just hassle. Neil is now not allowed any more than 10RM pocket money at any one time! The other downside is that Cheryl slipped on the tile floor and is now sporting a rather large and colourful bruise on her bum. Neil helpfully pointed out that having a large, padded bum is no bad thing as the injury could have been worse……Neil is now sporting a neat little bruise on the side of his head!

The Kings Birthday and Goodbye to Thailand

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

Back to Satun on another bus, same Thai pop but thankfully no videos. We planned to be back in time to go to the bank on Friday to get some Ringitts. On arrival at the very closed bank we discovered that it was a public holiday to celebrate the Kings Birthday and Fathers Day (where was my card kids??!!). So, plan B, change Thai Baht (not many left at this stage) and our emergency US$ for RM at an “authorised money changer” which was a grubby desk at the back of a hardware shop! Cheryl found this “deliciously grungy and underhand”. But this is the way it is…..and his rate was much better than the hotels.

Later that afternoon we heard lots of noise and rushed out of the hotel to see what appeared to be the whole town in procession wearing yellow shirts and marching to several bands celebrating The Kings Birthday. See pics of many happy smiling faces.

We’ve had a great time here in Thailand but it’s off to Langkawi Island in Malaysia tomorrow so watch this space although as it’s beachy don’t expect too much exciting news.

Songkhla and The Monsoon

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

We travelled to Songkhla on a nice comfy air con bus with the usual Thai pop video showing the same old stuff — boy meets girl, girl meets other boy, jealousy, heartbreak sad ending and, of course, the happy ending (happy for us cos it’s finished!!!).

Eventually found what is probably the cleanest digs in Thailand. Spotless, maintained and bright and airy. Excellent value at 450 Baht. The town is on a peninsular with an estuary on one side and sea the other. As you can see some from some of the photos it was a tad damp when we arrived and all the next day it absolutely hissed down…..perfect beach weather and, yes Paul, very warm rain! Note the pics of the sad rain capes!! Neil was sporting a matching red version…how twee! Funnilly enough, every shop was selling capes and umbrellas in all shapes, colours and sizes.

A really pretty city with lots of well paved boulevards which explains why this is such a popular resort in season. We appreciated the lack of pot holes and open ditches and craters! There is very little beach side development which was refreshing. As it was out of season there were few eateries so the first night we ate at the night market in the dodgy part of town where Cheryl was pleased to observe a rat the size of a small Doberman running around collecting scraps. (He obviously thought the food was good).

Bus shelter by day….restaurant by night (we ate elsewhere)

The weather did pick up and we walked miles and miles (about 15-20 over the 3 days) seeing some interesting bits of scenery. The best bit was the serpent in 3 sections. The head (see photo) was at the headland where estuary meets sea. The others, middle and tail, were spread over the promenade about 2kms apart. We didn’t get pics of the middle and tail due to the previously mentioned inclement weather. We also saw a mermaid, just like Copenhagen, also viewed in the rain.

There is a pic of Neil on top of the hill overlooking the whole town which housed a Chedi. We visited it twice, once via the cable car and second time, foolishly, following up the Naga staircase not really knowing how steep a climb it was going to be. (No kids, not one of dads shortcuts, a joint decision made in error….).

We did find a stonking breakfast which sadly was in Farrangs Ville (tourist area containing, and I quote Cheryl, “fat ugly blokes looking for totty”!! Sorry Chloe, definitely not eye candy).

One morning at breakfast the ice delivery man arrived on his motorbike with sidecar. Neil thought he was a little simple because he had to think about everything he did for ages before carrying out the simplest task. Then he fell over and the girl at the restaurant explained that he was blind drunk (happens every morning!!). After delivering his ice he slowly climbed on his bike and drove off.

From Trang to Satun

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

Celebrated Cheryl’s birthday in Trang with:

1. Breakfast of “real” coffee and ‘real” cake, cake and more cake….mmmmm…scrummy.

2. ‘Real’ bacon in a “real” baguette for lunch washed down with a couple of beers.

3. Dinner was an absolute ‘cheesefest’, small platter (actually a very large dinner plate full) of assorted cheeses including Danish Blue, Cheddar and Gouda. Bread was so, so “real’, German style brown bread and French bagette…..cor, it looked like a whole bakery but we did manage to scoff the lot……we even surprised ourselves. take a look at the picture. we forgot to take a ‘before’ pic but we did manage to leave a tiny peice of tomato and the olive stones. All washed down with imported Italian wine (not so “real” but a change from beer).

Wandered around Trang for a couple of days and then moved further south to Satun. We are now domiciled in Hotel Pinnacle (Fawlty Towers in disguise!). Rooms are OK, clean and spacious but like everything here it’s seen better days and badly needs some TLC.

This is where we realised that apart from the numerous Mosques around, our hotel room contains an arrow to point you to Mecca. There has been trouble in the south over the years but, generally, everyone here seems to be getting on.

We met a young American lad at the night market who is teaching English here in Satun. He’s been here several months into a 1 year contract. He’s really enjoying it which is so refreshing when you see some of the “insular” Americans being interviewed on TV over the problems at Bangkok Airport. One guy was incensed because he wouldn’t get back for Thanksgiving, ” a really important American holiday” over” some cockermaimy protest”. What a pr**ck!!!

Ice Station Pasty. Looking for lunch we saw the nice lady deep frying what looked like pasties. We asked what they were but couldn’t really understand so we decided to take a risk and give it a go, “Carpe Diem”!! And what a result, curried pasties containing potato and other veg….quality!! Such good quality that we had three each washed down with a compulsory beer.

Half way through our pasty lunch a lady arrived on her mobile food stall to buy ice by the kilo…..neat.

Went for breakfast this morning at The Towers. “No toast, have orange juice”. “What”, I said, “no toast”?, “This is a hotel”!! “No toast, no toast, have orange juice”.

It took me 10 minutes to nip out and buy my own bread and make my own toast….but it did make us laugh!! Just as we finished breakfast guess what? A dozen loaves of bread arrived!

Going to mill around today, maybe more pasty and beer, and tomorrow we’re going “off piste” again to the east coast where we’ve never been before and we should see something of a monsoon climate.

Paul, we are leaving our cases at “The Towers” so I hope your prediction does not come true!

Movements, movements and observations whilst in Trang

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Cheryl & Neil

Firstly, Cheryl wanted you to know that she did have “one of her headaches” in Sangkhlaburi but Neil also had an incident he failed to mention on the way there which is what has sparked this entry.

We have now come to realise that what dictates our movements around Thailand by bus and train is our own bodily movements! The bus trip to S’buri was about 2 hours. Neil was having some “minor” tummy tremors which turned into a major earthquake about 5 km from our destination. He had been doing his best to keep his sphincter in check but not far from town he had to rush to the front of the bus, wave his toilet roll at the driver and respectfully suggest that it would be in all our interests if he stopped for a few minutes. He gladly obliged and Neil shot off the bus to find an appropriate spot. It was a wall which happily provided a comfortable place for him to make himself comfortable. However, the driver reversed the bus to park it in a safer place which gave us all a superb view of Neil’s arse hanging over the wall…..not a pretty sight!! Sadly, I didn’t have the forethought to take a picture as Neil said he would have definitley done if it was me!!

Now more observations of Thailand, it’s people and it’s culture.

1. People are very friendly and apart from Bangkok taxi drivers generally like to help. When we were taking one of Neil’s shortcuts at the Hell Fire Pass to get us to the main road we found out it was actually a “long cut”….heard this before Leanne & Paul? A steep up hill, baking sunshine and little shade. Up popped a couple in a beat up old car, stopped, no ability to communicate other than by sign language and the name of Thong Pha Phum ( our destination), we got in and they took us out of their way to the nearest bus stop….so, so kind.

A second example of this is the people at VN Guesthouse. When we went of piste they looked after our cases for free and when we returned we were welcomed back like family….so nice.

2. Buses either go very fast or very slow and trains always go slow.

3. There appears to be no concept of property maintenance. Build it, make it look superb then sit back and wait for it to fall down! There is also no concept of real cleaning with bleach or chemical etc. Things look grimy even though they may not be dirty.

4. Thai’s always appear to be eating and now come in 2 different sizes. Traditional stick thin tiny and now Big Bhudda Size!

5. Thai’s, young and old, are very much in tune with their religion and their culture…..so different to the youth of the UK. Their respect for the Royal Family is unprecedented. The funeral of the kings sister was watched on TV by the whole nation and went on for days and days.

6. Now in Trang and it’s wet!! However, it is warm rain. It seems that the monsoon is hanging on later this year and there has been some flooding and some people killed. Gladly, we haven’t seen any of this, just swollen rivers.

7. Despite the news reports, we have seen nothing of the bombs and riots….long may this continue.

8. The Thai people have little respect for health and safety. Motor bikes go everywhere, on pavements and through markets. The whole family will ride on a motor bike with no helmets including the 3 month old baby in mothers arms.

9. Thai’s have TV’s swiched on from dawn until dusk even if they aren’t watching….which isn’t often! Most annoying when you want to have a conversation or a quiet meal.

More to come as we go along.

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