Mui Ne

Just a quick one today as I have genuinely spent more on internet time in the last hour and a half than I have on tonight's room, and that doesn't seem right.

We loved Ho Chi Minh with a passion, had a whirlwind few days there (including an Easter roast dinner in an Irish bar next to the most hilariously awkward couple ever - Charlotte and I spent most of our meal making "awkward turtle" signs at each other across the table) and were sad to leave. Now, after catching an amazing sleeper bus with actual beds (that stopped at 12 midnight, turned the lights on and forced us all out of the bus to have dinner - a gesture of bus fascism up almost to Indian levels) we are in the small windsurfing and kitesurfing town of Mui Ne. I can neither windsurf nor kitesurf, due to aforementioned ridiculous toe injury, so there is not much for me here, but Charlotte is loving the watersports and I am inhaling insipid detective novels from the hostel's book exchange shelf so in some small way we are both moving toward our life goals. Or not. The hostel makes wonderful chocolate brownies which I am having to picture in my head rather than eat because of aforementioned ridiculous toe injury (I sense this may become a theme of this post as well as of the trip).

I haven't achieved or done anything here that is worthy of being included in a blog entry (and, since I have previously blogged about crossing the road, that really does literally mean I have done nothing). The lovely hostel people bring me fresh ice for my foot and I sit around and feel jealous and bored. I am trying not to, but it is inevitable I suppose. I am writing prolifically (and badly, but since no one will ever see, that's fine).

I will update again either in the next town (Nha Trang), which we won't get to for a while I don't think, or if something actually happens here.

Obviously after recent events at home, I am homesick and feeling very far away. Thinking about chocolate brownies can't solve that.

Miss you all, lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ho (Chi Minh)

I am Vietnam sitting at my hostel keyboard and there is a cat fighting with me for control, so please excuse any errant typos. It's the cat's fault.

We got the bus from Phnom Phen this morning and crossed the border which was incredibly (disappointingly?) easy and painless (well, apart from general toe pain). I was sort of expecting a ridiculously covert and spy-style border system where everyone was scrutinised closely for weapons/Facebook-accessing materials (Facebook is supposedly banned in Vietnam, although I have been able to access it fine here in Ho Chi Minh, but then it's a big city so maybe that's why). Actually, you sort of just walked (in my case, hop/shuffled) through and they smiled at you. Not what I expected from "The Socialist Republic of Vietnam" at all - I was very caught off guard.

So we tipped up in Ho Chi Minh about 2pm and sauntered (in my case, hop/shuffled - far less elegant) around until we found a really lovely hostel with friendly people and nice rooms and free internet (no free breakfast, but free bananas so that'll do). We sort of decamped and faffed about for a bit and then went for a wander. I gave some laundry into the hostel and as they were taking it I saw a sign for shoe-mending and thought immediately of my trusty Topshop ballet flats which are, unsurprisingly after the various mountaineering-style journeys I have put them through, looking a little the worse for wear. I have already sewed them up once myself but thought the hostel might do a better job, so gave them into be mended. Imagine my surprise when the hostel owner put them straight in the bin! My look of confusion must have said it all and she, very embarrassed, picked them out again and dusted them off and put them in the mending pile (it could have been the laundry pile actually, who knows - either way, they will come back clean or fixed or both and won't be thrown out with the rubbish...). I was both very upset and very pleased because it really was funny. Although it would have been less funny if I hadn't noticed her putting them in the bin. There are many things in Ho Chi Minh, but not Topshop... yet.

Ho Chi Minh is brilliant. It is so much more of a 24 hour city than Phnom Phen, and it is incredibly cosmopolitan and diverse. There are plenty of backpackers absolutely everywhere which is really nice, and the area we are staying in, District 1, is great because it's so central for everything. We wandered about taking in the bright lights of KFC and Pizza Hut (but not going inside because it's gross), getting increasingly good at crossing the ridiculous roads where thousands of motorbikes come at you so fast (like Jaws in "Jaws", or "Jaws 2") - we actually came up with a really efficient tactic which is use a local person as a human shield as they generally know what they're doing road-crossing-wise. So we just sort of let them take the lead and shadow them very closely and it's worked out really well for us (and no worse for them) so far.

We went for dinner and a few drinks but have had a relatively quiet one tonight, as we're getting up early to do a tour of the tunnels the Vietnamese used in the war, and to go to the War Remnants Museum tomorrow. What a cheerful day ahead. What with that and my toe it's a wonder I am not more depressed. Talking of my toe, I made a hilarious and very expensive trip to the pharmacy earlier to buy everything I could ever need, I nearly bought a wheelchair - it was very tempting but my budget wasn't up to it. I was close, though.

Miss you all very much xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kambodscha

Wow, what a ridiculous length of time without an update. And yet, this is the first time I've sat down at a computer for well over a week. Stealing people's wifi is ruthlessly efficient but not as such conducive to posting informative blog entries.

I think that last time I posted I had just been to S-21 - to be honest, the trauma of that remains with Charlotte and I and still visits us in our nightmares occasionally, but moving on. That night we ended up having a totally ridiculous night out in Siem Reap meeting fellow very fun travellers, having our feet eaten by fishes (for exfoliation purposes apparently?! My feet were certainly exfoliated afterwards to be fair), drinking buckets of various cocktails at the best named bar in Siem Reap, "Angkor What?!" (we spent most of our time there shouting the name at each other loudly and drunkenly, and playing air guitar with our new friends) - they lured us in with the promise of free t-shirts, and to be fair mine has been very useful indeed as I stupidly threw out my other t-shirt in Dharamsala when I felt like I'd never feel warm again, forgetting that Asia is, generally, quite warm. We headed on, ill-advisedly, to another bar and then wandered round a bit, and a bit more, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure how this happened but we absolutely ended up on our 6am bus the next morning still drunk and without having slept. That was a tricky journey to say the least but it served us right for choosing such a ridiculous night to go out drinking - not that we regret it, to be fair. And thus began our journey up north into the Cambodian jungle.

We stayed a night in a pretty town called Kampong Cham, where the Mekong is at its widest. The next day we caught another bus to Stung Treng, which is a bit of a nothing town to be honest - nothing to see and nothing to do besides some reclusive dolphins - and after a lot of travelling for many hours on hot, sweaty buses we were not feeling our best and were a bit cross and out of sorts. The next day we headed even further north, up to Ratankiri, which was the end point of our journey, into a town called Ban Lung. We met two really nice British girls on the bus and headed off to the same hostel as them, called Lakeview, which was, somewhat unsurprisingly, by a lake.

And that's kind of where we stayed for a week, for Khmer New Year. After so much travelling we were pleased to put down roots in somewhere so pretty with nice people for a well-earned break. Ban Lung is really remote and beautiful and calm, there aren't even any taxis. We trekked through the jungle with the two British girls, Maddy and Caitlin, and three others so we had a really big fun trekking party. It was both incredible and incredibly hot, and since my only clean clothes were my free "Angkor What?!" bar t-shirt and my red miniskirt I ended up trekking for two days through increasingly wild landscape looking a bit like I was going clubbing, but at least I had my trainers so it was fine. And my tan is constantly improving.

We got back from trekking and had a couple of days free to hang out in Ban Lung and recuperate. Instead of using the first day for recuperation purposes, I of course used it to have another travelling accident (add it to the list after the rabies - which I am now officially immune from by the way, I have the doctor's report and everything. Good times) by violently slamming my toe in the door and breaking it. Not that I have been to the hospital but the incredibly ridiculous swelling and sticky-up bone (mmm nice) is kind of a clue. That was a pretty hideous couple of days in the end because all I could do was rest and be increasingly bored and jealous at the thought of fun people doing fun things while I hobbled about like a retard. We did move hostel to the most amazing treehouse eco lodge place with the best view ever (and let me tell you, I had a LOT of time to appreciate it... argh stupid toe) and puppies running around constantly which really cheered me up except, since there are no taxis, I had to hobble half an hour with my big bag. But it was ok and I am making the best of it and staying positive. Yes, my toe is stopping me from doing stuff now, but it's not a serious break, the swelling has already gone down soo much, so if I am sensible now and keep it bandaged (thank you Charlotte's First Aid Course) and don't try and do too much, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to go trekking again maybe at the end of Vietnam or something in about three weeks. (That is what I am telling myself to stay positive positive positive). And in the meantime I am needing less and less strong painkillers and hobbling a little bit less like a retard every day. Good times.

Yesterday we caught a ridiculously long, hot bus back to Phnom Phen to put in our Vietnam visas. We are back at the Royal Guesthouse and it feels like coming home, all the restaurant staff recognised us which shows how long we spent in that restaurant...! And they gave us a first-floor room so I don't have to hobble too far (I have perfected "the stair hop"). The Cambodians on the bus absolutely loveddd my bandaged-up foot, they thought it was hilarious (my sympathy with their hilarity decreased in direct proportion to the slow, casual breaking of the air conditioner mid-journey and the increase in the volume of the Cambodian music videos constantly blaring on the TV, all of which seemed to involve either Facebook betrayal or girls betraying guys and then the guys setting alight to themselves - I can't describe how odd it all was), and when I dozed off for a little nap I woke up to find a German girl taking a photo of my foot, which did perplex me slightly - do they not have bandages in Germany?! Anyway, our visas are now processing and we have booked a bus to Vietnam tomorrow morning! Very exciting. So this time tomorrow we will be well on our way to 'Nam to start the next leg of our journey.

So I would imagine that, bar anything incredible happening tonight (somewhat unlikely - our plan at the moment is to find a pad thai down by the river and I need to buy a new watch as mine is now sadly deceased after a talcum powder fight at Lakeside Guest House, but neither of these things really merit their own blog entry), this will be my last Cambodian entry. So all that's left to say is that Cambodia was AWESOME. It has been far less up-and-down than India, it has just been all up. What an amazing country, I am tempted to slip into GAP YAH-style "Oh, Cambodiahhh dahhling, wonderful country, beautiful people") but it really is, I don't know how else to describe it. It's vibrant and busy and colourful and so non-threatening, everyone is so friendly, both traveller and non-traveller. The scenery is beautiful, the Mekong hangs over everything like the prettiest shadow in the world. I will be sad to leave of course, but I am incredibly excited for Vietnam which absolutely softens the blow.

One quick note - there is no Facebook in Vietnam(!!) - it's illegal. So chances are I won't be able to get any Facebook access, or if I do it will be exceptionally slow and limited (and illegal). So if you normally contact/message me on facebook, and want me to reply (I will still receive comments and messages because the notifications come to my email, but I can't reply) - EMAIL ME. My email is amykinross@gmail.com if you don't have it already. I will post the same thing as my facebook status just as a reminder. But yes, I will be on my email relatively frequently (as frequently as I ever am - which is definitely quite frequent) so contact me that way, and I will still be updating my blog of course.

Miss you all so much. Loads of love, will update more frequently from 'Nam!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <3

Pad Thai-mes

The subject of this blog post is our new favourite pun (that's right, we're still "pundering" everywhere we go...). That, and shouting "Angkor WHAT?!" at each other at regular intervals, is powering us through when we are at our most tired.

And man, are we tired. So little sleep recently, and the prospect of so little sleep to come, is killing us. But it's worth it, because Cambodia is just utterly sensational.

Let me backpedal. On our morning in Thailand, we rinsed the hotel facilities (massive breakfast, gym, bird sanctuary, stealing all the free stuff) and then caught our plane to Phnom Phen at around 4pm. We arrived, checked into a really lovely, friendly guesthouse, and pretty much collapsed after a bowl of noodles.

The next morning was the scene of what I think will be one of the defining moments of my life. I'm not sure how to describe it. In a massive rush and not having had time for breakfast, we set off for S-21 prison (a central part of the Khmer Rouge regime - the place where people were tortured for confessions before being sent to the Killing Fields. Only 7 people survived out of tens of thousands who were sent there, including children. And the guards were principally indoctrinated child soldiers) armed with the history section of our rough guide and essentially a loose intellectual understanding of what had happened there, but no real comprehension of what that actually meant.

What a place. I'm not sure if I believe in auras or ghosts or any of that stuff, who knows, but Jesus, I've never felt evil like the evil that surrounds S-21, it's a malevolence so suffocating that I actually found it a little difficult to breathe in there. I can't describe it, but I was reluctant enough to be there in the daytime, let alone if it got dark - I would be out of there so fast, honestly. The horror and the fear that is still palpable in the air is only enhanced by the fact that they haven't cleaned or done anything to the place since the Khmer Rouge abandoned it. The bloodstains are still on the walls and floor. When they abandoned the prison, the guards slaughtered the last fourteen prisoners, and their corpses were found, starved and brutally tortured, still in their cells. These fourteen people were so mutilated they were unidentifiable, but their bodies are buried next to the cells where they were murdered. No wonder evil haunts this place - I'd like to see Most Haunted get hold of S-21, ha. The cells themselves are claustrophobic and traumatic and hideous. They contain a wire bed, a box for excrement and occasionally machines for torture. In the case of the fourteen cells the dead prisoners were found in, they also contain a large photo of the corpse in the state it was discovered. Standing in the cell that person died in, seeing that photo - put it this way, we were beginning not only to understand intellectually but to really, truly comprehend.

The museum exhibition is a collection of photographs essentially. Every prisoner that was killed by the Khmer Rouge who was tortured at S-21 is photographed, and you walk along walls and walls of these photographs, looking into these people's eyes and seeing the fear, the defiance, the anguish that they felt, because they must have known exactly what was going to happen to them. Whole families were killed, the logic being why spare children when they might grow up and take revenge? Babies were smashed against trees. Horrifically, S-21 was a highschool before the Khmer Rouge began to use it as a prison. What used to be the exercise bars became a gallows used for the purposes of torture. Other forms of torture included having finger or toenails removed, starvation and being constantly kicked in the middle of the night whenever the prisoner fell asleep. The methods are so primitive and yet fear is obviously an incredibly primitive emotion, which explains their success. The sheer pointless visciousness of the place, the brutality, really did a number on me to be honest, and it's not like I am blind to this kind of thing, because as well as being well-read and interested in history, I have visited concentration camps and other places of horror. So I'm not uninitiated, but this was something different entirely. S-21 will stay with me for the rest of my life, and will haunt my nightmares for a very long time indeed.

We then headed to the Killing Fields, which are about twenty minutes out of Phnom Phen. There is a monument that holds the skulls, bones and clothes of the people who died there in order to remember and honour them. There's also a museum which details the crimes perpetrated against them, the perpetrators themselves and what happens to them (the outcomes of their UN trials, if they didn't die first) and other information about the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime (how all urbanites were forcefully relocated to the countryside to do manual labour, etc.). It was shocking, no doubt about it, but there was actually a peverse and pensieve beauty and sense of hope about the Killing Fields in comparison to the pure evil that was S-21. There was beautiful grass, and a duck with her ducklings, and everyone was walking around in contemplation and remembrance (apart from one Linsay Lohan-a-like who was asking her friend if her legs looked big in her shorts - there's always one...) and yes it was tragic, of course it was, but there was hope and remembrance and respect. It was, all in all, far less traumatising and harrowing than S-21 but no less meaningful for it, I think.

After a pretty intense morning, we had a pretty chilled afternoon. I mended my leggings, a top and a dress, and as I was doing so realised how lucky I am to be able to sew well, so I don't have to keep buying new things, I can mend the stuff I've got. (I mended my trusty Topshop ballet flats the other day which was excellent) We had an evening out on the lash in Phnom Phen, involving many a cocktail and clapping games with street children, which was really excellent. I dealt with my shakiness after the morning's activities in a typically productive manner - watermelon martinis.

We basically had a planning day the next day which was much-needed and our itineraries for Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are now sorted. We had a wander down by the riverside and a late dinner, and the next day we got on our bus to Siem Reap.

We had a pretty comfortable bus journey and a relatively comfortable night (a cockroach and a room that shook whenever we moved made things a little more exciting). Continuing my long(ish) tradition of being unable to sleep before we do anything important or see any traditional monuments, I had an utterly sleepless night, but we headed off around the city today anyway. We got a day pass to the temples of Angkor Wot (obviously, whenever it is in any way relevant or indeed whenever it is completely irrelevant, we have started to shout "Angkor WHAT?!" really loudly at each other). Wandering round in the sunshine looking at these formiddable pieces of architecture, pretty much iridescent in the midday heat, my one overriding thought was "God, I soo hope I get a tan" - but in my defence I was very tired indeed. We climed up to a temple to watch the sunset and ended up making puns containing the word 'hill' or 'step' to get us through - see my facebook status for further details on that one. 'Hill-arious' was a particular favourite, as well as 'Ít's all downhill from here'(it wasn't, it was uphill, but that's not the point).

And now we are heading out after doing a bit of pre-drinking to a bar, hill-ariously called 'Angkor What?' so that should suit us just fine. Tomorrow we have a criminally early bus to Kampong Cham and are then on the move pretty solidly for a while into quite remote areas in the North, but I will update as and when I can.

Miss you all, very much indeed. Loads of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bangkok Bangkok...

Successful and easy flight from Kochi to Mumbai to Bangkok today (I also managed to find an excellent book in the airport, a concise history of the Arab world, on which to spend my remaining rupees); we arrived in a city that seemed far less intimidating than I remember it from my Thai holiday aged 9 or 10 - maybe I was a lot smaller then or, far more likely, had less experience of completely mental places. After Delhi and the rest of India, Bangkok is a walk in the park - okay, people try and sell you things, but they don't chase you down the street and round the corner to do so. You can just say no. Also, it is wonderful to face absolutely no hassle. That's the boys' lot here; prostitutes unsubtley stalk the streets for prey. We ate street food (fresh watermelon, noodle soup and chicken - my first meat in six weeks as I have been vegetarian since I left for my travels, and I have to say, I haven't missed meat at all but it really was excellent) and were sitting next to a Hugh Hefner-a-like who was eating in silence with a very young Thai girl. I'm sure she was with him purely for his witty conversational acumen.

Absurdly, we checked into a five star hotel. I'm honestly not sure what possessed us to do so. I really can't explain it. We gave the taxi driver the address for a hostel with a dorm, we got out, we tried to find the hostel, we couldn't find it, there was a five star hotel across the street, we both looked at each other in silent agreement and thanked our lucky stars we'd been to the ATM at the airport. So we are now happily ensconced in a lush 18th-floor "superior" room with a stunning cityscape view in a separate, more-five-star-than-normal-five-star (if you're going to do it, you may as well do it properly...) wing of a hotel with a free massive breakfast, pool, gym, "business centre", 24 hour concierge and room service, spa and massage parlor, tropical fish tanks, an in-hotel bakery, all sorts of other completely unnecessary things and, best of all, a bird sanctuary. In the hotel. Marvellous. We are obviously planning to rinse the facilities for all they're worth in the 12 hours or so we have left there and I imagine at least an hour of that will be spent in the bird sanctuary. At least. And all of this for about 30 pounds for the night - what a bargain. Although we were very pleased that our dinner only cost 1 pound each, it made us feel slightly less like terrible backpackers.

Tomorrow we fly to Cambodia, and go back to dorm accommodation, both of which fill Char and I with excitement. We are so looking forward to seeing lots of cultural things and getting back on the backpacker trail. 2 weeks in Cambodia doesn't seem enough but we are going to pack in as much as we can!

India, oddly, already seems like a distant memory. It's so funny how that can happen so quickly; your mind just takes over and moves onto the next place you're left wondering how six weeks went so incredibly fast. I feel desperately sad to not be there anymore, but also fabulously excited to be somewhere else. Swings and roundabouts. Bring on Cambodia.

Lots of love xxxxxxxxx <3

Bye Bye India!

So this is a super quick update because we have been internet booking for hours and are knackered. We have spent the last few days exploring the South, including a night on a luxury rice barge through the backwaters of Kerala which was absolutely fantastic and such a highlight of our entire trip so far. The photos will have to speak for themselves on that one I feel. We have spent the last couple of days in Kochi just faffing around and preparing our plans for South East Asia. Tomorrow we bid goodbye to India and for me personally it is with very mixed feelings indeed. I have loved India, I really have. Every mental, ridiculous minute of it. I will miss this crazy country where "everything is possible... except this. This is not possible". I will miss the people we met and the places we went and the things we did. India has given me new experiences, new confidence, new happiness and, of course, a few new lifelong friends added into the mix. How can I not feel so incredibly grateful and reflect on that with full awareness of not only how lucky I am to have had these experiences, but how lucky I have been to have them with Charlotte and with Rob, Dave and Nick, and Kai, and everyone else we met along the way.

But we are moving on. We fly to Thailand but, because of the flooding we have decided to head straight to Cambodia so have booked a flight for the 7th April, then we'll spend two weeks there, before heading to Vietnam, and then we're coming back to Thailand on 11th May to hopefully meet the boys for Full Moon - that's the plan, anyway. Then we will have a couple of weeks in Thailand and fly to Indonesia possibly via Singapore, then to Sri Lanka and then home. It looks like a busy couple of months, and we are so incredibly excited to be on the move again.

Thanks, though, India. Thanks for everything. Any country where hippies in pirate costumes can get married on a bridge surrounded by monkeys is alright with me.

Love to all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kerala

We have left Goa, which is absolutely a good thing as I was going stir-crazy doing nothing. People stay in Goa for months and just chill out but much as I love to chill out, and absolutely anyone who knows me at all will testify to my endless pyjama days, Goa was too slow for me. I need action and purpose (that's one thing my time in Goa has taught me actually - I thought I would love sitting by the beach doing nothing, but it drove me mental!). So we have moved on, and brought the lovely Nick from Dharamsala with us, and the three of us are about to embark on a riceboat tour of the backwaters of Allepey, in Kerala, armed with a pack of cards and a lot of in-jokes. We are staying at the prettiest hostel and the mood is one of general relaxation, but not endless relaxation, which is just the way I like it.

Four more days and we leave for Thailand. I have loved India, but it can't come soon enough, and I am pretty much at the point of counting down the hours now! So ready for the next adventure.

Love to all xxxxxxx