You would not belive what has just happened to me. I was readong on the bed in bra and knickers by the fan to cool off when a huge humungous black beetle dropped from£ the roof right next to my face because I was in a state of shock I ran into the bathroom which is outside. After a minut I needed a wee when I was having a wee a great big frog jumped at me. Viki would just love it here.  I bet the children laugh but it was a big shock ha ha

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Going to halon bay for a crouse on a beautiful old boat called a junk. On the way we will visit dome villages and padding fields to see rice planting and harvesting with water buffalo and some other things. Had an authentic Vietnameseeal on a lovely old traditional restaurant tonight which was very tasty. Still having a ball. Hope you are too xxxx

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Been out around old town CRAZY! Ten million scooters all driving all over they place. Totally unorganised. If you want to cross the road you just have to hold your breath and walk and hope they all stop….no guarantee!, we also succumbed to a rickshaw  man. He was not big and was fascinated by Dave’s size we had a ricks haw each because we didn’t want the man to die of a heart attach. He rode us all around the town calling out to people that he had such a big man in his ricks haw everyone was clapping and cheering. My man didn’t dare!,, along the road there are chairs where you can sit and have a shave or haircut randomly along the pavement. It’s really mad! Oh bye the way we are millionaires ha ha there are 30,000 Vietnamese dong to the British pound so we changed up enough to get 1 million dong. Everything is very cheap and there are loads of imitation bags etc but I don’t know enough about what the real thing looks like to choose well.  Out tomorrow on a tour xxxxx

It is again blusteringly hot and wonderful too hot to sunbath so I am as usual under my umbrella for short spurts so am not very brown. The humidity is colossal so everyone feels sweaty all the time but I don’t mind it’s just so lovely to be here.

Last night we went into town on a took took for a drive around and dinner. We had red curry and jasmine rice which was nice but not as nice as the fab meal last night in the posh restaurant with the river running through and sparkly lights. Then we’ve went for a walk around. There is a. Huge market and a street called pub street with a big neon sign saying pub street and a zillion little lights strung across the street. There was music coming from every bar and it was really buzzing

Today I received handmade chocs, red wine and a lovely card from my gorgeous children who are always so very thoughtful. Thank you it’s nice to be remembered especially when you feel homesick for everyone. Oh bye the way I ate two when talking to Richard and all the cocoa powder dropped onto to the sparklingly white sheets and now it looks like we have had diarrhea !! Lucky I was on Dave’s side of the bed ha ha!!

Today before dawn at 5 o’clock we went to the jungle to see some temple ruins which were awesome. How they managed to get all those stones all the way there from hundreds if miles away then to build the temples and carve them so intricately I can’t imagine and without tools, the wheel or anything mechanical !!! We also saw lots of monkeys in the jungle which are so tame and sweet.

Our guide has been telling us all about Cambodias history which is really interesting. Until 1991 it was a closed communist Khmer Rouge run country so had no dealings with the outside world. Because they thought that if people were not educated they would not be influenced or have opinions that questioned the government so would be easy to keep in their place. If anyone wanted to be more than a peasant or to make money or be educated they were taken away and tortured and killed. He saw his first European in 1996 and thought we looked very funny and when the person spoke to him he was amazed that anyone could speak a different language or have a different alphabet. Because at that time people weren’t allowed to study he used to get up at 4 in the morning for a scholar to teach him English because he thought it would change his life. It did he became the leading tour guide for a big tour company and earns quite a lot of money and tips for a Cambodia n so he can afford to live in a house with his wife and not his Inlaws which is usually the case here, our last guide in Phnom Penh was a teacher before he was a guide and earned 45 US dollars per month!!! Which he couldn’t live on so he too became a guide.

We arrived back at the hotel at lunchtime and I haven’t moved from my us bed except to go for a dip. It’s glorious

Tonight we are going for a posh meal for Mother’s Day for dave to thank me for giving him two most wonderful children. Lucky me!!! Then I expect to the market and pub street for some fun and then up again at 4.45 for another sunrise tour it is early but worth it because it’s cooler, less busy and soooo pretty then

Take care have a lovely day and don’t forget the clocks go forward!!

Hello everyone

Hope you are all well and having fun

Yesterday we went to the river where everyone goes at night to socialise dance play music Nd have fun. We went to the foreign correspondents club for drinks the got a took took which is a motor bike with a carriage on the back. It has a little roof and two double seats. It’s very comfortable and I think they should have them in England. In the morning we went on some trips to the Imperial Palace which was gorgeous we saw lots of gold and silver. And diamonds as big as grapes or even bigger. ! We saw some Buddhist temples. The Cambodians worship Buddha and the man told me about Buddhas birth. Princess Miya ( same name as Ruby’s sister) sat under the banyan tree and prayed that the birth of her baby would come quick and easy, people were very surprised that just the her baby came and it was Buddha! So Miya was Buddhas mother. Buddhas is a very kind and gentle person and many people become monks for Buddha and dress in orange shawls ( I will send photo) and live in temples. They do not work and collect arms ( food) from people that they take back to the temple to share can’t see me becoming a Buddhist monk any time soon!!! In the afternoon we sat around the pool cooling off. It is soooo hot here – about 38 degrees and soooo humid, it makes you really tired and lazy. In the evening we went to a fantastic restaurant called malise in Phnom Penh . It served Khmer food which is Cambodian and really delicious after that we took a took took ride for an hour to an island called diamond island where there are fun fairs and parties and dancing and lots and lots and lots of pretty lights and even the rides were all lit up like Christmas trees. Today’s flight was really good and quick and this hotel is like some thing from the movies, it is sooo beautiful. I have taken some photos for you to see. Our room was all decorated for us as you can see in the photo with flowers and petals and candles even in the bath and sink!!! We have had the hotel to ourselves today because everyone has been out on trips but are now returning, they all seem nice and friendly and are from South Africa and Singapore .. At 7 o’clock I am having a massage – it has to be after 5 because happy hour is 5-7 and happy Buddha is very happy then. Tonight we are going for a meal and to the night market to have a look around.

Hi there

Hope you are all well. It seems like light years since we were at home. We miss you all loads. Today we left our little paradise island and flew to saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and are now awaiting our flight to phnom penn in Cambodia.

Hello

Today we flew to saigon/ H Chi Minh City then to phnom penh and then drove around the city while our guide told us all about the buildings, the money, the language, customs etc. but all I remember was a scruffy dirty little girl about Ella’s age crying in the middle of a really busy road and knocking on car windows begging for money. We were very upset but the driver said that she will have been trained to do that and that she was not crying but putting on an act to get money. He said her parents would be sitting watching and she would give any money to them. The government are trying hard to get such children off the streets with housing and education projects but their parents won’t allow it because they earn them money. The parents can also join projects to teach them jobs etc but they are lazy and don’t won’t to work. It’s all very sad and makes you so glad that you have the life you have..

Our hotel is lovely and very tropical. We went out on a new form of transport tonight – a three wheeled taxi!! It is a motorbike with a little cab on the back, bigger than a took took and decorated or carrying advertising material such as a great big tube of Colgate toothpaste. It was very comfortable and the first one took us to the Foreign Correspondents Club which is historical as well as a fashionable place to go. We ate in the roof bar which overlooks the river and city. We could see all the people eating, drinking , chatting  etc and all the traffic driving all over the place, on both sides of the road – even doing a u turn in thick traffic – it’s crazy but there are no accidents or road rage and people just slowly walk across the road in front of all the traffic going in all directions and they don’t even look – it’s like a game of dare, but no one gets run over either – mad!!! After dinner we got another motorbike taxi for a ride around town. There are streets with only restaurants and There is even a beer street with only bars, it’s mad.

We are off on some trips tomorrow and I will tell you all about them in tomorrow’s blog

I hope you are all ok and having fun. I wish it was as hot for you as it is for us but I don’t think it is .

Have fun xxxxxxx

We are officially in paradise. This is just the best place ever!!! At the moment we are sitting on the green sofas overlooking the sea eating Vietnamese fish caught today soooo delicious I don’t want to go back to beans on toast that’s for sure but if either of my children are offering a roast dinner on 2 April we would be delighted ( hint hint) Our fishermans cottage is a wooden small building with a pointed roof and a veranda and an open air bathroom. It feels funny doing a wee in the garden but nice and breezy. There are two beds with beautiful flowy Mossi nets over them I feel like a princess in my pretty bed at night and what’s better is that I can’t hear happy Buddha snoring so much in his own little bed. There are hammocks on the beach tied to trees so I thought I would have a go. I got on really easily and layer there swinging reading the problems started when I needed to get up!!!! I thought surely if I just do what I did to get on I would be fine but as soon as I moved the hammock started to spin and I got caught for what seemed like ages. I called for dave to rescue me before anyone saw me dangling but he was asleep  – or ignoring me and two passers by just laughed. I did eventually release myself somewhat ungratefully though but it was funny. I also fell over on the beach – the sea when it comes in makes a small wall of sand, everyone just slid their feet down it and walked into the sea but I put one foot on the sand and my foot just went straight out and I unceremoniously slid into the sea to the sound of sunbathers laughter. My third embarrassment was when rolled over on my sun bed to speak to dave but didn’t realise the mattress and slipped sideways so as I rolled over to speak to dave I rolled off the sun bed for all to see me looking like an upside down tortoise !!!

We have seen lots of wildlife here. Because we are at the edge of the jungle there are lots of creatures. Long scary snacked that May come into your cottage. If they someone comes and catches them and takes them away to eat them! We have also seen lizards that are about 30 cms long and very colourful, they don’t hurt you they just run away if they see people. Yesterday someone’s cows came walking through just past our cottage and it was like no one even noticed. They just carried on walking. I really won’t want to leave here ever but tomorrow we have go but Cambodia will be lovely I Am sure. Have to go and do some more relaxing now – hard as it is I will volunteer for that job ha ha xxxxx.

Today we flew from ho chi Minh City to phou quock the Vietnamese sea just below Cambodia. Loved it on site very hot pretty and we were really excited to have four days  living as five star mr and mrs Robinson Crusoe . As we got closer I was a bit worried. It had stopped looking pretty and was now only jungle and very bumpy unmade roads. Then the car stopped in the middle of nowhere and a man opened the car door and said welcome to mango bay  we had to laugh as he led us down a jungle path but at the end of the path we could a beautiful beach and the the reception bar and restaurant all open and on the beach   The man showed us to our accommodation , on the way we were worried that it might be awful but it is the most beautiful building on stilts on the beach with hammocks tied to trees for sunbathing and handmade beds with mosquito nets and an outside bathroom which is lovely. It is soo rustic and real unlike the five star manufactured dream we thought we were going to get.. The foo sis unbelievable an delicious we have beds on our veranda and our own hammocks and sun beds right by the rippling waves. I may never leave!! Our luggage has just arrived as they didn’t put it in the plane but it didn’t matter it’s here now. Not washed and ironed unfortunately

Hi there  – I don’t know if all my blogs are getting to you but you are probably glad if they are not ha ha

Today we flew from hue to saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City

From 1964 to 1975 there was a war in Vietnam between the north Vietnamese (Vietcong)and the Americans. The war began because North Vietnam was governed by Russia who are communists. America was frightened that other countries would be invaded and made communist so they invaded Vietnam to chase the Russians and communist North Vietnamese out. The war ended when the Americans withdrew on 30 April 1975 at 12 midday when a Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates of the palace that the Americans had overtaken as their head quarters in saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City

Our new guide vu and driver Hahn collected us and took us to cu chi to see the tunnels that the Vietcong lived in and fought from during the Vietnam war. It was interesting learning about how clever they were at digging a vast tunnel system   Apparently the Americans had sophisticated weapons and vehicles which the Vietcong could not compete with so ho chi Minh said ‘use what you know, you are farmers and simple living people who know the jungle and village areas so use your local knowledge.  They are quite short people only 5 ft tall and slight of build so constructed a tunnel system of 3 levels travelling for miles. The tunnels were only 1 1/2 metres tall and 1/2 metre wide which although difficult was possible for the Vietcong to travel through. They experienced various problems using the tunnels such as how to get air down, how to get rid of smoke used for cooking etc and how to get water and stop the tides from flooding the tunnels. They also had to make the entrances difficult to see and find and to deter American army dogs from sniffing them out ( as you can imagine because there was little or no ventilation human smells could come out of the ventilTion pipes and so could be smelt by the dogs searching for tunnels and people. When the dogs barked because they could smell humans the Americans would bomb the tunnel and kill everyone. To avoid this the Vietcong used old discard American uniforms and wet them and stuck them 1/2 mtr into the tunnel so if would travel through the uniforms and then t he dogs could only smell Americans and so did not bark to alert the soldiers of people in the tunnels

So that they could breath in t he tunnels the Vietcong constructed lots of air pipes that went from the tunnels up through the ground to the surface where they were camouflaged so not visible   When they cooked in the tunnel it was possible to see the smoke from the surface so they made lots of pipes that travelled a long way from the tunnel and place lots of material fabrics along the pipe to filter out smells and colour from the food. They only cooked at around 5am so that the now white smoke would look like early morning mist and therefore fool the Americans who wouldn’t see the smoke. The tunnels were constructed near the river so that the Vietcong could draw water from the tunnel or swim across the river to another district. So that the water odd not flood the tunnels when the tide was high dams were constructed to shut off the tunnels. These ‘lids’  ere also used when the Americans tried to look down the tunnel or to get down it. Then the Americans thought that the tunnel was not completed so left it alone.    Because the tunnels were so small children and women were often used to plant bombs and throw hand grenades , they could pop up out do the tunnel and pop back down easily and quickly. The Vietcong lived in the tunnels for 10 years.

The Vietcong used many traps to catch the enemy too using trap doors in the ground with large spikes and spike frames behind doors so that when the door was opened the spikes would crash into the soldiers.

Dave went down an enlarged tunnel purposely built so that tourists could experience what it was like. Dave had to crawl because he was too big. He said that it was dRk and small and scary and he was only down there for 20 mtrs and for 5 minutes. !!!

We saw a lady making rice pancakes and a man making flip flops out of car tyres. The Vietcong used these car tyre flip flops because they only left a track mark in the ground like a bird or an animal so footprints could not be seen.

We took lots of photos of tunnels , traps , guns and bullets, rockets and machine guns, hand grenades etc for you all to see. Dave could have used some of the guns with live rounds but he didn’t .

We then went to the war museum which showed us lots of guns tanks helicopters etc and photos which showed us how awful a war can be and how badly people get hurt and how many get killed.

We went to the palace to see where the Vietcong smashed the gates down and ran up to the roof to put in their flag to say they had won the war   We saw the last American helicopter to leave Vietnam. After this vie5nam was not devised in the south and the north, it became one country.

Vietnam used to be a communist country .  Communism believes that all people are equal and should have equal rights money and opportunity   In Vietnam there is a party committee ruling the country with representatives from all over the country. However, because t eh party members have large cars and big houses and earn lots of money and the farmers and local people are poor it is thought that it is a democratic socialist republic .

After this we went to the catholic cathedral , the old post office etc.  We then went shopping and then to the pool which was lovely. We sunbathed for the first time this holiday!!!!! Wonderful!!!

In the evening we had dinner and went to the bar where everyone was dancing and singing to a Vietnamese band singing English songs. It was fun. We met some Australians and people who now live in Rosales near us in Spain! Small world!!

Today we re on our way to pho quick. A deserted island in the Vietnamese sea to stay on a beautiful mango go resort in a small fishermans cottage with no roof!!! I will let you know what it’s like but maybe not from there because I may not have reception.

Weather very humid today but warm too   We have been to some beautiful historic places today and seen some pretty villages and countryside. I have made a nonsense stick and helped to make a Chinese hat. This afternoon I had a cookery class with a famous chef from Luxembourg. I will make you the recipe for dinner when I get home.  I will send a photo of it to you. Later on we are going shopping and tomorrow we fly from hue to Saigon where we will go to the cu Che tunnels that the Vietcong hid inside during the Vietnam war. We have seen many signs of the Vietnam wR even bullett holes in walls etc.