Don't bother going to watch the movie called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"...a good idea that has been produced and edited terribly. There's better ways to spend 3 hours of your life...even in Manila (yes it really is 3 hours...well almost).

Highlights of the city:

Mini Shabu Shabu restaurant - a Japanese meal involving cooking meet and veg yourself in a boiling bowl of broth and noodles fondue like...very tasty, we went lots....I'm not sure why it was mini...Kim's probably right...it was a small restaurant.

errr I'm struggling to think of a second highlight....actually they're all restaurant based...

Japanese restaurant in the Pan Pacific Shopping Mall in Malate - great tuna sashimi in chili sauce and good sake.

Chinese restaurant in the same mall - HUGE restaurant (seats 500!), HUGE dishes but really tasty food and especially fun if you turn up when the restaurant is all but booked out for a childs first birthday party... magician and all.

Cheesecake ETC in the Robinson Mall - yes we did buy a whole one and devour it in the hotel room.

Petco (at least that's what Kim was convinced it was call .... for the Brits, a huge pet store chain here), I actually think it was Pepecto or something in the Greenbelt - good fish.

We did have one night out partying at a club in Makate. For most of the night we were the only one's there....didn't stop us.

I'm afraid those really are my highlights.

An uneventful flight home...bizarre moment in Hong Kong airport when a random girl walks over and asks if we have motorbikes...after a slight hesitation by both of us, Kim said yes, but not on us...the girl said she recognized us from a day when we were filling up the bikes at a petrol/gas station just outside San Francisco during a ride we took oh...about a year ago! Are we that conspicuous?

My last rant....I promise...why oh why can you get on a plane in some places with duty free liquor and in others not. I mean seriously in Hong Kong you can buy duty free liquor and fly anywhere in the world...yes anywhere...apart from the USA and Australia! Surely if you were going to blow a plane up you'd just pick a different route! And really...are you going to use a bottle you bought in the duty free shop by the gate....RIDICULOUS. I am thinking of becoming a consultant to the airline industry to remove the stupidity that they implement, mainly in the western world....main points:

1. see above liquid thing

2. food...no one likes the fake omelette...no one...so don't even attempt to serve it...a simple bowl of cereal will do.

3. the little wash bags that you get that have so much potential, but that when you open them only contains a pair of socks....waste of money...no one wears them...you don't even get the eye patch thing anymore...you have to request them....think of the money you could save by not dishing out tens of thousands of pairs of crap socks that never get worn.

4. if you show the information video about "healthy exercises to do in your seat during your flight" just to irritate people...it's working. We all know that the space between seats makes it physically impossible to do them. At least make the video realistic and amusing and show us the guy attempting to do them in a confined space.

5. Enforce your seat belt policy. A 2 strikes and you're out rule. Anyone who gets up whilst the seat belt sign is on should get relocated to a middle seat (and made to do the exercises in point 4)...a second time and they should have to stand in a pen at the back for the rest of the flight.

6. Child and stewardess free flights...really...they're both just irritating....both wake you up when you're just nodding off. If people want to eat and drink...bring your own stuff....I wonder how many people you would see sitting there eating fake omelettes if they have to bring their own food? My bet is none...so why do you serve them?

...I could go on...I won't.

Anyway...we're back in the US. Its cold and wet...but despite that we're both glad to be home. I wonder how long that will last? Kim is currently doing a 10 day silent meditation, but finishes on Sunday. I'm not going to write anything about that!

Plans? Find a job...think about the move to Portland...visit Kim's family...we're excited about the move to Portland.

It's been a fun 9 months!

Home Sweet Home remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We jumped onboard and he drove off to go looking for another few passengers to spread the cost. He gave us a pitch about how we could just rent the whole bus and have it all to ourselves and go where we want....we said no at first but after 5 minutes of looking for more people I got bored and told him to just go and we'd pay for the whole thing....it really wasn't that much...but I had no doubt at the time that the bus would be full of people by the time we got to Puerto 7 hours later (needless to say I wasn't disappointed!).

We headed off on a very bumpy ride....there is very little tarmac between Puerto and El Nido....mostly dirt tracks. It soon became evident that the seats in his van were bloody uncomfortable and that there definitely wasn't any A/C as the windows were down and the dust was blowing in. Oh well.

He went at a pace and before we new it we were past Taytay after about an hour and half and heading into Roxos about 3 and half hours after leaving. Surprisingly we were still the only two in the van, but when we pulled in for petrol/gas and he asked me for the fare "to pay for the gas"...I knew that was about to change. Sure enough it wasn't long before we picked up "his cousins daughter" and not long after that his "cousins cousins cousin and his daughter" all who I saw later paid him full fare...obviously he didn't offer us a refund.

When we hit the tarmac road out of Roxas, I saw the driver, in the rear view mirror, start to look sleepy and whilst I didn't actually see him nod off, it was obvious he was struggling. That was probably what prompted him to stick his head out the window, put his foot to the floor, and drive at about 100 miles an hour (ok the van was in no state to go that fast, but it felt like it on the windy roads) while singing Filipino karaoke songs at full pelt.

I started to feel a little green after a while, but then not as green as the cousins cousins cousins daughter who promptly vomited all over the floor in the row behind us...unfortunately that was where I'd see fit to store Kim's bag...oops.

Anyway, annoying as the driver was, he got us to Puerto in record time, covered in dust. We booked back into the Hibiscus Garden Inn.

We didn't do much at all in Puerto other than get over the last few weeks. We did however find the best food in the Philippines. This would be at "Haim Chicken Inato". I have no idea what the name means (and am hoping that Haim doesn't mean "tastes like" and Inato doesn't mean "cat or dog or lizard or something"), but basically they serve BBQ chicken and rice....and it's really good. When you sit down the waitress will hand you a menu and then look at you as if you're stupid if you actually read the thing. There really is only one option...BBQ chicken and rice....the menu also has a fish dish or two on it, but I suspect if you ever ordered it, there would be a real problem in the kitchen. I lie, there is a choice, spicy or not spicy. Obviously you should choose the spicy!

It really is good....and all for the pricely sum of $1.50. We went every day for the 5 days we were there!

Yesterday we flew from Puerto back to Manila...the flight on Air Philippines (not to be confused with Philippine Air...a different airline!) was fine except I was a little disappointed not to receive any snack as I was starving....not even peanuts.

Arriving in Manila (kite bags back in tow) we piled into a cab and set off for Malate, an area of Manila on the edge of the bay that supposedly has some nice restaurants and bars. We had reserved a room at the Malata Pensionne having read some decent reviews on line. On pulling up outside I was encouraged to see that it was fronted by a Starbucks...and on getting inside, the reception looked pretty nice, if a little low (I would have had to remove my head if I wanted to stand up straight).

We checked in and I dragged our kite bags up 2 flights of stairs to our room. Well...I started to smell the cigarette smoke a good few feet from the door and when I opened the door to the room I noticed that I couldn't actually see the bed through the haze. It was really disgusting...not the room, just the smoke and the smell. Someone had obviously just made their way through a pack of cigarettes in there. Kim turned on the fan but there really wasn't anywhere to blow the smoke anyway. I got a headache just standing there and realized there was no way I could sleep in the room....Kim agreed. We went downstairs to ask for another one, but the girl behind the desk told us they were full.

So not for the first time on our travels we trotted off to find an alternative. 50 yards down the street we came across the Pearl Garden Hotel. Clearly more upscale, but surprisingly not a whole lot more expensive and still within our budget. We were both starving so decided to go into their restaurant and order some (pretty bad) lunch. Whilst my lunch was being cooked (I mean, warmed up in the microwave), I went out to reception to see if they had a room...they did, so I reserved it and said we'd be back with our bags later.

After lunch we went back to the Malate Pensionne to check out and get our money back (we'd already had to pay cash upfront for one nights stay). I left Kim at the front desk to do that whilst I once again hauled our bags down the 2 flights of stairs. When I got back, she told me that they wouldn't give us our money back.

I think Kim will vouch for me here...in 8 months of traveling I think I've only lost my temper once up to this point....(for those interested go back and read the entry on getting a cab from the airport in Bali!)....well that changed yesterday.

I worked out my strategy, and went up to the desk with the key. There were two girls behind the desk and some woman standing on the same side as me. I asked why we weren't getting a refund. One of the girls behind the desk said that they couldn't give us a refund but that they could move us into another room.

...HANG ON!...this was the same girl that an hour ago had said they were full and didn't have any other rooms!

...she decided now that there were more rooms, but was adamant that we weren't getting our money back. The woman next to me, who was obviously listening to our exchange finally turned to me and asked what the problem was. She was clearly "management" in the place so I calmly (if maybe a little loudly) told her that we'd been checked into a disgusting room, that when we'd asked to be moved were told there were no rooms available, and therefore we'd gone to another place and wanted our money back.

She also said that we could change rooms but not get our money back. She too couldn't explain why it wasn't possible to change rooms an hour ago. I told them we were moving to another hotel anyway and moved onto stage 2 of my plan...

...I asked them what time check out was the next day...they replied 12 o'clock...so I replied "thanks, I'll be back with the key tomorrow at 12", picked up the bags and headed for the door.

That caused a commotion...."wait, wait!"...."ok we'll give you half your money back if you let us have the key now"! I replied "so you're going to give me half my money back and then give the room to someone else for the full amount?"....the manager woman replied straight away "Yes!"

Well I had to admire the honesty at that point! Weighing up my options I decided to take the offer as we were both exhausted and just wanted to lie down. So in true Asian style I had to sign 2 bits of paper to get my 50% refund (there is a paper trail for everything here!...and I'll admit I didn't sign my name, I just scribbled a wiggly line in my last act of defiance...petty I know, but it made me feel good)...and then the woman asked for the receipt we'd initially been given when we paid for the room. I didn't even know we had one, so looked at Kim, who shrugged her shoulders in an "I don't know where it is" kind of way (I would later find out that this was her final act of defiance as it was in her purse!)...so I just told them we'd left it on the side in the room...at which point we both stormed out the door (ok, more stumbled and tripped whilst trying to drag 2 kite bags, 2 backpacks, a guitar and yoga map....but I'm sure it sort of looked purposeful!).

We are now settled in the extremely nice Pearl Garden Hotel...I would recommend it if you ever have the misfortune to be in Manilla!

El Nido to Manila remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wow. What a 2 days of travel. I always thought I was pretty good when it came to traveling and just going with the flow...you know...delays are delays....you won't have enough space, but you squeeze in anyway...that sort of thing. Well I'm exhausted.

We got up at 6am yesterday morning for our boat trip to Port Barton. The wind was still blowing strong and the seas were still pretty big, but we decided to go for it, along with another German couple. The boat was finally ready to go at 9am, but somehow another group of 3 Germans gazumped us and suddenly the four of us found ourselves stranded. I was pretty peed off...the four of us had been planning our getaway long before the other 3 had even arrived on the island, but before I had a chance to say anything they had staked there claim to the boat, claiming they "had to get to Port Barton right away" (I have to say in stereotypical german style...do the Brits remember that commercial, I think it was for Calsberg, with the Dambusters music and the Germans throwing their towels, bouncing bomb style, from their hotel balcony to claim the pool loungers before the Brits could get there.....reminded me of that!)....I assumed they had a bus to catch or something....grrrr.

We were left waiting for it's return...in maybe an hour...yea right! 2 games of Uno, 3 pancakes, a few cups of coffee, and in fact 3 hours later, we saw the boat heading back to the beach.

We loaded all our backpacks into big plastic bags and put them at the back of the boat, and then timed our run, trying to avoid the crashing waves as we jumped on board. Well what a waste of time that was as in less than 10 seconds it was as though I'd been swimming. Soaked, head to toe, from waves crashing over the bow. We trawled along at an incredibly slow speed to avoid swamping the boat. It was absolutely freezing as the winds howled and every other wave drenched us. The 2 boat guys did a sterling job of keeping it upright and bailing out. I lost track of how long the crossing was, but it was between 1 and 2 hours.

As we came into Port Barton bay it was shielded from the wind, so the sea became very calm. We pulled up into the shallows and jumped off with our bags into the water, heading up the beach to look for a room. First place was full, second place had one room, and the German couple we were with insisted on us taking it (well ok, we said "you take it", they said "no, you take it" and we said "ok!"...I don't need to be told twice!). As we walked round to our little bungalow, who should I see across the way, but the other 3 @#$% Germans who'd stolen our ride, sitting there drinking beer. Seems they were in no more of a hurry than us to get there and just felt like jumping the queue as the seas were calmer first thing in the morning.

The room was basic, but concrete rather than bamboo nipa hut, which is a strange luxury in this part of the world...just feels more bug proof to me. Port Barton is a very quiet and lazy village. We found a great little restaurant with internet access which served really good Thai food, so hung out there for the rest of the day. We also enquired about how to get to El Nido, the next destination on our list. The options seemed to be, a boat, that would take 6 or so hours....we really weren't up for that after the days activities...or a series of bus/Jeepney rides. We opted for overland.

Basically we had to get a Jeepney from Port Barton to Roxas on the opposite coast...a couple of hours...and then from there we were being given estimates of anything from 5 or more hours to El Nido in the north. Taytay is the former capital that appeared to lay halfway between Roxas and El Nido, so we thought that would be an option for a night too to break up the journey.

Another 6am morning and we check out of our room and hiked down the beach to the Bamboo Restaurant, where the Jeepney to Roxas was leaving from at 7:30am. It was already there and waiting when we got there at about 6:45am. I'll let the picture explain what this thing is like, but essentially (and I counted), 5 rows of 2 bench seats with an aisle down the middle, that at a push were probably made for 3 and 2 filipinos (i.e. small people). An area about 3 feet long and the width of the bus at the back for luggage, and a luggage rack on the top. By my reckoning, even knowing they fill these things to the brink, I figured 6 on each row and a few on top, maybe 40 odd people would get crammed on?

"the jeepney before everyone got on"

We soon found out that it was the day before school starts back up so all the kids were heading over to Roxas. We layed claim to a back row, right hand side bench (on the direction of some philipino chap) by putting our 2 back packs down and then headed to the restaurant for a coffee. Just as the coffee arrived I heard the bus start up...and then drive off (it was about 7am at this point!). A slight moment of panic, before realizing it wasn't a complete disaster, we had our little day pack with passports/money etc in...but a little peived that our 2 laptops had just headed off round the corner. The girl at the restaurant assured us it would be back, and had just gone on a circuit of the village to pick people up. I only half believed her, having read stories of jeepney drivers taking off when the bus was full, regardless of time or location.

Sure enough though it pulled back round a few minutes later and we went to jump on board. Well our bags were still on the back row, along with a family of 5. The first four rows were absolutely crammed with people, mainly young school girls...and I mean crammed, 7 or 8 to a row with luggage. The luggage area at the back, was crammed with people sitting on buckets...and I also spotted 2 chickens and a pig (no joke!). The question now was do we sit on the luggage rack up top or do we try and get to our seats. We opted for our seats....we somehow worked our way through the throngs in the back and wedged ourselves into an area that had room for about one of our butt cheeks (not one each)...and about 4 inches of leg room. Well I had 4 inches of leg room (being one in from the window), Kim didn't have any by the window as the wheel arch was under her feet. We managed to wedge Kim's backback down by her feet and she was able to adopt a sideways slant seating position, while I jammed my backpack (which had 2 laptops in and was @#$% heavy) onto my lap, at which time breathing became difficult, and all the time trying not to stand on the box down by my feet that had another live chicken in it, belonging to the unfortunate young girl who'd ended up in the seat (and I use the term loosly), next to me!

I counted 50 people inside the bus at one point, but I know it kept filling up behind. The roof was full of people and luggage as well, and sometime around the scheduled departure time we set off.

I can't even begin to describe the road conditions....it was essentially a mountain pass crossing west to east across Palawan. Obviously dirt road not tarmac, and actually more thick mud like. I have no idea how we didn't get stuck, I guess testamount to the vehicle and its driver, but we slipped and slid our way at a snails pace up and over to the other coast. Other than my Vietnam taxi ride, this has been the only other time where I've been somewhat nervous on public transport. More than once I ran the scenario through my mind of us tipping over and figured I'd didn't have a preference over getting squashed if we fell one way or tumbling 500 feet down a mountainside if we fell the other. It was, no question, the worst bus journey of my life. My knees were almost bleeding as they were scraped left and right on the back of the metal seat in front of me, I was dripping with sweat, feeling very sick, and the worst part....my backside...oh my god, it is raw from sitting on the bench which had next to no padding (like my backside too for those that hadn't noticed!). Sometime into the journey (it seemed an age), I was really struggling and Kim graciously took the backpack on her lap for a few minutes to give me some relief. She had the same problem of not being able to breath, so I decided I was going to find another spot for it, even if it meant evicting a chicken or possibly the pig. I spotted a few inches of floor space off to my right, so went for it, hurling the backpack over, and hoping the laptops would survive. This gave some much needed space and relief.

I believe the journey was a couple of hours, but I'm not really sure. We started to finally see people jumping off as we neared Roxas, and were able to spread out and spend the last 10 or 15 minutes in comparitive luxury.

I had begun to think the top of the bus might have been the better alternative, until I saw the German couple, that we'd taken the boat with the previous day and who'd turned up at the last minute and ended up up there, take the first opportunity to come inside. They were quite a boisterous pair usually, but were decidely pale and quiet, and not smiling or joking when they made it in.

Not a minute too soon we arrived at the bus depot in Roxas. By that point I'd firmly decided I couldn't stand another 6 plus hours of the same thing, and that Taytay would probably be my limit for that day. Thankfully Kim agreed and we went in search for a ride there. No one seemed terribly interested, but Kim found one guy who seemed to think he could take us....in maybe 30 minutes! We perched ourselves in a very dusty corner of the bus station and waited...and waited...for about an hour or so, maybe an hour and half. Eventually we were ushered onto a little air conditioned minibus, just the 2 of us, sheer luxury...nice comfy seats and lots of legroom. Getting suspicious I asked the price...and was given a very reasonable answer....so then thought, to good to be true...and sure enough we were driven out of the bus depot to the nearest Jeepney stop. But no, we didn't have to get on a jeepney, they were just looking for other passengers.

After some investigating we managed to find out that the guy driving the minibus had to go to El Nido anyway, so was giving us a ride and anyone else he could find. When we found this out, we decided to give Taytay a miss, and go all the way whilst we had a comfortable spot. We picked up a few people along the way, but it wasn't crowded at all. It was a rough ride though....dirt track all the way and big pot holes. We were both exhausted when we pulled into the small town of El Nido....but pleased that the journey only took about 4 or 5 hours. Oh and that included a slight hiccup, when we were heading down a steep gradient and the driver decided his right front brake was no longer working. After stopping. jacking up the van, and a moment of investigation the general consensus seemed to be that a replacement of the brake pads was needed. So thats what they did...and pretty quickly I have to say...they had all the tools and supplies onboard! We were underway again in about 20 minutes.

How many people can you fit in a Jeepney? remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The day after we arrived here, we had glorious weather and spent the day sunbathing, swimming and snorkeling. The only complaint was the sand flies...which are bad...really bad...they make an otherwise idyllic place a bit of a nightmare when there's no wind. If there's a breeze they don't seem to be a problem, if there isn't....well lets just say you spend the whole day and night scratching.

New years eve was very quiet...we had a nice dinner, a bottle of ok wine, and I'll be honest, as we saw other guests heading to their rooms at about 8pm (did I mention its a very quiet place?), we decided to go hang out in ours and were asleep by 10pm. Rest assured though, we were woken abruptly at midnight with the sound of a million firecrackers going off outside our window. I'm sure the owner of the resort and his staff were the only ones out there, but I'm also sure anyone staying here was awake to see the new year in! We didn't bother getting up though.

"kim losing at UNO on new years eve"

We had planned to get a boat to El Nido, about a 5 or 6 hour trip from here, on new years day, but were told that there weren't any running, so settled on the 2nd. New years day was fairly calm from a weather perspective although the winds had started to get up a little (yay...no sandflies!!!). We did however realize that we had exhausted everything there is to do here the first day we arrived! Thankfully "Uno", "Phase 10" (card games!) and the hotel backgammon set (it's on its last legs, but still has all the pieces) came to our rescue.

...and then the storm started. High winds and seas meant no boats to anywhere, especially El Nido. Despite that, a boat to the mainland left this afternoon. 4 brave soles decided they were going to attempt to leave for Port Barton...which, in this weather, is still about a 2 hour trip away. I sat in the bar and watched the proceedings unfold. Just to put "boat" in perspective. These things are about 20 feet long and about 4 feet wide...very thin, wooden canoe like structures with 2, outrigger stabilizers. They are powered by refurbished diesel car engines that drive a single prop on the back, and steered by a a wooden rudder. Well the 2 boatmen spent about 20 minutes wrestling the boat off the mooring. They got it near the shore and attached the propeller and loaded on a couple of cans of fuel. They then pulled it back to the mooring and spent 5 minutes bailing out water with buckets, before letting it back towards the shore to load up the passengers and bags. They loaded on the bags by walking out to the boat with them on their heads, and then the 4 passengers waded out and jumped aboard...the boat was in chest deep water so they basically had to swim out and clamber aboard. They then bailed out water again for 10 minutes or so before setting off at a crawl towards the mainland. The people and there bags must have been totally drenched by the time they arrived.

We decided we'd wait another day at that point. However as the weather is too bad to sit on the beach, swim or snorkel, we found ourselves pretty bored today so are going to go for it in the morning whatever the conditions. We're going for the closest spot, Port Barton. If we get soaked in the process we know we can find somewhere to stay there to dry out before heading overland to El Nido (about a 6 hour drive). We'll see how things unfold in the morning.

Stranded on Cacnipa remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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"Jeepney being loaded with motorcycle at the wharf....they just threw it up there"

It became pretty clear we weren't leaving at 7am, but by 8am we had boarded a boat with 4 rotund Swedish guys, a German guy and a German couple on their honeymoon. If there were ever stereotypes of those two countries they were on our boat this morning. As the German's tried to crack jokes in broken English and chortle to themselves, the Swede's loaded there crate of beer on and proceeded to bask in the sun and drink it. I half expected them to break out their collapsable sauna. They were a nice enough bunch though.

Once we'd all boarded and wedged ourselves in...the guy next to me asked the driver if we were going...all I heard was we're waiting for 6 more (there wasn't room for one more let alone 6)! As the 6 turned up on the wharf a general standoff occurred with the 7 of us on the boat determined not to let anyone else on and the 6 on the wharf determined that they be given another boat. At this point it got really complicated, as between the 13 of us we were going to 3 different destinations, so they wanted some of us to get off and get on another boat (which as of yet, wasn't there) and some of them to get on this boat etc etc. After a few moments of stalemate between us, the 6, and the boatmen trying to sort it out...they wanted Kim and I and a few others to get off and onto the non existent boat but we weren't moving as it was bound to mean another few hours wait.... I suddenly realized that the situation didn't need to be complicated at all, and I think the guy next to me had the same revelation. As I shouted "well I'll just have my money back", he simultaneously said "I think we need to talk about money then" and suddenly the engines started and we were on our way!

I thought about feeling bad for the 6 left behind, but then they shouldn't have been over an hour late.

The crossing was...well...wet. The boats are just small outriggers and the seas are pretty choppy offshore, so ever few seconds a wave comes over the side. After 2 hours we pulled into a bay on an island, Cacnipa, just off the mainland, with one small resort, Coconut Gardens, nestled just back from the beach. It's very desert islandy. The 3 Germans were staying here. As we jumped off onto the beach for a pit stop, Kim and I were approached by another Swedish couple who had been staying there. They gave us the low down that Port Barton was very like Sabang, and that they'd immediately left there and come to this island. They said it was a lovely resort with great food, so Kim and I didn't take long to decide that we were going to stop for a few nights.

We have a nice, airy little room on the beach front, with a flushing toilet and cold running water! ahh the luxury of it! And it's only something like $11 a night. There's even a little electricity on and off throughout the day. It's still pretty hot trying to sleep in there....no fan/air conditioning etc....but it's a huge step up from Sabang. The resort seems pretty full, all Westerners, no locals. This also backs up my theory so far that it's the locals who are mainly ruining this country...there are none here as I said, and this is the first place we've been since arriving in the country that is pristine...no trash, everything in good order and well kept.

The food is not bad at all. You can get some nice eggs for breakfast and they bake their own bread. For dinner you have a choice of maybe 10 items that you order during the day and then it's all cooked and ready for you sometime between 6 and 7pm.

I'm not sure how long we'll stay here, but neither of us feels like moving on at the moment. I suspect we'll stay here until the 1st Jan and then head on to El Nido in the north.

Cacnipa Island remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We ended up spending 4 nights in Puerto Princesa. On Christmas eve we took a tricycle to Honda Bay and rented a boat to go "island hopping" and snorkeling.

We ended up visiting 3 islands...snake island, starfish island and something like Luilui island. Snake island was the biggest, essentially a sand bar that was maybe half a mile long. It was the only public island and therefore free to visit, which also meant it was the most crowded...mainly by Filipinos (of whom I'll comment more later!). The snorkeling was ok, but nothing outstanding. To be fair it was a very windy day and visibility was quite poor. I do however think it would make an excellent kite surfing location...maybe if we have time when we're back in Puerto before flying home I'll try it.

Starfish island was much smaller and quieter and the snorkeling was a little better...I didn't see a starfish though. Luilui island was even smaller still and we were the only ones there.

We returned to the hotel after a nice afternoon and despite getting ripped off by the tricycle driver (I'm past caring now). We spent the evening in the hotel eating take out pizza and nursing sunburns.

Christmas day was really a non event. We went out for lunch at Shakey's and had pizza, spaghetti and beer...food was ok, nothing special, but it was busy and a fun atmosphere. We watched movies & played games in the afternoon (so just like any other Christmas really!!!!) and then went for overpriced drinks and dinner in the evening at the Blue Marlin (we were the only ones there). It was a nice relaxing day.

Boxing day (that's the 26th for you Americans), we went to the butterfly farm and the crocodile sanctuary. I was hesitant about both to be honest, but it was actually a really interesting afternoon...the butterfly farm was essentially a small, impeccably kept garden with a big mosquito net over it that was absolutely teaming with butterflies. They also had some tanks with other critters, some millipedes, turtles and (I suspect) a recently deceased scorpion (errrr, talking of which, I will get to the shower that Kim just shared with a live one in a minute!).

The crocodile farm was interesting and sad at the same time. There were throngs of Filipino tourists there when we arrived. We were ushered onto the 3 o'clock tour with about 40 of them. The guide gave a brief overview of the center which was almost impossible to hear as said 40 Filipinos wouldn't keep quiet. From what I could gather, it's a rescue/breeding center for both indigenous salt water and fresh water crocodiles (which can grow to about 17 feet!). We then went into the breeding barn which housed hundreds of baby crocodiles in large, open top tanks. This was the one time on the tour that the 40 Filipinos shut up, as instead of jabbering away they thought it would be fun to try provoking the crocodiles...this was done by whacking or kicking the tanks as hard as they could and dangling limbs over the side. I was surprised the tour guide didn't say anything as there were signs everywhere saying not to do exactly that. Both Kim and I were getting a little irritated by this point. Then we walked outside to a raised walkway that went over a number of pens containing lots of crocodiles, 2 particularly huge ones. The noise and chatter had obviously recommenced at this point, so there was no way we could hear what the guide was saying about them...but of course it did give the Filipinos another opportunity to amuse themselves...they did this by throwing things (plastic bottles etc) or pouring their soda drinks onto the animals below.

Kim and I decided to hang back at that point and wait for all of them to leave, at which point we were able to spend some time quietly observing and taking photos.

We then went on the nature walk which took us through some jungle to see other animals...birds, porcupines, "weasels that they feed coffee beans to so they can collect the beans as they come out the other end and brew them" and a bearded pig!

On our way out Kim had her picture taken holding a baby croc.

I have to say the place seemed very run down, but then that has been my observation of the Philippines in general (at least the little bit I've seen). From Manila to Panay to Boracay to Palawan the standard of acceptability for everything seems to be a lot lower than other countries in this part of the world. Everywhere is run down, unkept and dirty, in a way that other parts of SE Asia arn't, and no one seems to mind. The country has beautiful areas, none more so than where I'm typing this from, but I fear that bit by bit it's being ruined by the Filipinos themselves.

On the 27th we stored our huge kite bags at the hotel and climbed aboard a little mini van to Sabang on the West Coast of Palawan, about a 2 hour drive away. The drive was spectacular over the mountains from East to West....although somewhat ruined by the kamikaze driver we had. The roads were a combination of concrete that was crumbling and falling apart, concrete that was in the process of being put down (but that already looked like it was crumbling and falling apart) or just dirt track.

We arrived in Sabang late morning...and both being a little tired and weary immediately got duped by the minivan driver. He offered to drive us "along the road to where the hotels are"...stupidly we said thanks. Next thing we know, "Elmo" is jumping into the passenger seat and we're being told "Elmo" knows where all the good accommodation is...damn! Well we were driven precisely (and I don't exaggerate) 20 yards to the end of the car park., when "Elmo" grabs Kim's bag and starts heading off down the beach. With no choice but to follow he asks at a couple of places by the car park about a room, but gets sent packing (I don't know whether they were full or just irritated by the guy who was obviously after a commission!). We then walked past a really nice looking place, but were told, "oh that's very very expensive"..."Why?" I said..."Because they have 24 hour electricity" Elmo said! Something told me then, it was going to be a rough night!

Eventually he finds us a room at "Mary's Cottages"...it's 10 dollars a night so we just say yes.

Just to set the scene....Sabang is a small community/village that has grown to support a tourist attraction here....a subterranean river, supposedly one of the longest in the world. So what you actually have, is a very dirty shanty town type area, that has no running water or electricity that is there solely to support the attraction. Whilst the beach and coastline are absolutely stunning, the village itself is a dump...literally. The "resorts" consist of tiny bungalow contraptions that are falling down, that have a bed, a mosquito net and a bathroom of sorts. Most have electricity provided by a generator between the hours of 6pm and 10pm, which translates into a light bulb above the bed that comes on for those 4 hours, whether you want it to or not!

The bathrooms consist of the a tap on the wall with a bucket underneath and a small plastic saucepan like thing, and the bowl part/potty bit/business end if you know what I mean, of a toilet but no water reservoir. Put all those things together and use your imagination and you'll work out how to flush it and have a wash!

Well...I had an inkling but was not totally aware until this point that Kim has a phobia...and I mean a proper phobia...one that brings out sweat and vomiting, of...wait for it...bathrooms. Or I think more precisely not normal, or dirty bathrooms....or something like that...I don't fully understand what it is that triggers it. Well when we walked into our room at "Mary's cottages", I thought she was going to pass out....and I have to admit, I can do cheap and simple when it comes to rooms, but this place was not somewhere you wanted to spend time. I realized that the night was going to be even longer than I first imagined.

Kim couldn't get out of the room quick enough so we dumped our stuff, I evicted a cockroach from above the bed and we went for a walk to look for somewhere else. She decided on another place at the other end of the beach, Bamboo Cottages...it's a similar setup, but I agree, in a much nicer location...although the place was still pretty terrible. Again I compare it to Bali & Vietnam where we had exceptional rooms for $10 a night, and whilst this one cost us $6, they are worlds apart We decided to stay the night at Mary's as we'd committed to it, and then one night at the Bamboo Cottages before moving on up the coast.

That afternoon we went on a scout up the beach and came across the "Mangrove Paddle Boat Tours" being advertised at a little shack on the edge of a river mouth. A tiny little, toothless, Filipino chap came running out and proceeded to talk...but even though I could tell he was speaking English of sorts...I just could not understand a word he was saying. By this time a group of his colleagues had turned up and we communicated we'd like to go but that we had to pop back to our hotel and get the camera.

On returning I was a little disappointed to learn that gummy chap was going to be our guide! Oh well...we donned life jackets and jumped into a tiny wooden canoe, with one younger guy paddling at the back and gummy chap facing us up front, and proceeded to be paddled up river into the mangroves. Well next thing, gummy chap started to talk and it was all I could do not to crack up laughing. I caught "Hello my name is Chris and I'm going to be your tour guide today...." and then I lost him completely....but that didn't stop him....he had his speech and he was going to deliver it.

Well when he took a breath and got in his rhythm I started to pick up a few interesting things. We were basically paddling up the pooey pooey river (or something like that, I'll look up the exact name at some point!)..which was winding its way through a mangrove forest. It was really spectacular and interesting. We didn't see any wildlife so to speak, but the forest itself and the sounds were amazing.

I say we saw no wildlife, however immediately after leaving the riverside the guy at the back paddled us over to a tree that had a yellow and black striped snake coiled up in the branches above our heads. Chris pointed it out and said "not aggressive not aggressive". I thought is was a joke and had been planted there as they found it so quickly, but as I looked around I clocked another 3 in the vicinity. They were indeed real. The guide kept saying "not aggressive not aggressive" which I took as meaning "deadly" (otherwise he would've said "not poisonous" right?) and sure enough when Kim asked "are they poisonous", his reply was "oh yes madam, yes, poisonous".

We paddled about half a mile up the river and back, and on the way back, Chris turns to us and says, "so do you want to hear me sing the Mangrove song?". Expecting him to start mimicking the bird calls or something, he suddenly breaks out into a rendition of a song he's made up. I didn't catch much of it, as I was once again trying not to laugh at having a Venetian gondola type experience in the middle of the rain forest, but I believe it went something like "Welcome to my mangrove, my mangrove is my friend, you're very welcome.......in my mangrove....my mangrove friend...welcome"!

It was a great 45 minute tour and I would highly recommend it if you find yourself in the area, if for nothing else other than the song!

After the tour I figured there was only one way I was going to get Kim back into the room that night, and that was by getting drunk, so we wandered back to the "expensive hotel with 24 hour electricity" to check out their bar and restaurant. Well first off....it is expensive...80 US dollars a night for the basic room....but if you compare it to Mary's its a bit like comparing a run down travel lodge that hasn't been cleaned in a year to the Ritz (or for the Americans, a Motel 6 to the Waldorf!), so I guess that isn't bad. I have to admit when I saw the Visa sign on the front desk, I seriously considered it. Having electricity meant they had cold drinks which was so nice, so I decided money would be better spent on those. We proceeded to drink 2 bottles of ice cold Chardonnay and ate chicken and pasta followed by chocolate cake. The food wasn't bad, nothing outstanding though. We spent a good four hours there, before returning to our place at 9pm. I managed to coax Kim through the door whilst simultaneously ushering a cockroach out with my foot (I think she'd drunk enough that she was unaware of it), and whilst she got under the mosquito net, I set about unscrewing the lightbulb from the ceiling as it wasn't going off for another hour!

I won't go into to detail....but the night was, how shall I put it...restless. At one point it was stifling in there and we had to go out for some air, but proceeded to get bitten so badly by the bugs that we had to return inside. At about 4am it started raining, which cooled off the room really nicely and we were able to get a couple more hours sleep.

At 8am we got up, checked out, went for a horrible breakfast at the expensive hotel (mainly just to use the toilet), and checked into our new place. "Elmo" followed us all the way throughout this process, but I did my best to ignore him. He wanted to know where we were moving to, and tried to sell us a boat ticket to our next destination, and was generally quite annoying. After checking into the new room, we went on a stealth mission to avoid "Elmo" and buy a boat ticket to Port Barton for the next morning. We failed to avoid "Elmo", but Kim told him politely that we were buying the ticket from somewhere else and I think he got the message.

We purchased our boat tickets and then went to visit the underground river. This involved getting a boat to the entrance, a 20 min ride away. As usual here, that involves buying a stupid number of tickets. First I went and paid for our national park permit. I was told the next available boat wasn't until 1pm (it was about 11am at this point) but that I could go to another desk and buy my boat ticket now. So I went to see the guy at the other desk who said that first I had to go and see the boat dispatcher before I could buy the boat ticket, so I went over to see the boat dispatcher, who seemed thoroughly uninterested in talking to me. I think she started to tell me that we were 61st in line for the boat and that they were only at number 31 (boat's hold 4 or 5 people), but she got bored halfway through the explanation and went off to talk to someone else.

I'm not sure what happened next, but somehow we wangled our way into a tour group that had 2 boats chartered and had 2 extra seats available...so without buying a boat ticket we jumped on board. While we were on the boat, the tour guide told me that she'd heard me talking with the dispatcher and grabbed us as she had 2 spare seats. She was really nice and only charged us half price (which I'm sure went straight into her pocket, but I was fine with that!). It was refreshing that someone actually helped us without trying to rip us off.

We were dropped off at a beach and then walked for a couple of minutes to the point where you get a canoe into the caves. There were a load of people milling about waiting for boats, and basically your name goes on the list and you wait....and wait....and wait some more until they call your name. Once again the the tour guide who's boat we'd shared managed to get us nearer the front of the line (don't know how) and probably saved us an extra hours wait.

The little canoes carried 8 people plus one guide paddling at the back. I believe the river runs for 8km or so underground, of which 4km are easily navigable. The tour takes you about 1.5km in and lasts about 45 minutes. If you want to go further you need a special permit and the 4km takes about 3 hours (seems, easily obtained as we were offered a ride from the guy who was paddling us, but didn't partake...my backside wouldn't have lasted the trip). The river was first explored in the late 1800's but the national park was only established in the latter half of the 1900's.

I've been on a few cave tours over the years, but I have to say this one was probably one of the most spectacular. The place was swarming with bats, so you had to keep your mouth shut if you were looking up, and I was glad I had a hard hat on as they had a tendency to swoop in low.

When the tour was done, we wandered back to the beach and had to wait for the rest of the tour group before getting the boat back. While sitting on the beach we got approached by a family of monkeys and a big monitor lizard.

The river and caves are well worth a visit, but I would recommend a day trip from Puerto Princesa as Sabang is not somewhere you particularly want to stay. We had planned on a week there, but soon changed our minds on that. I also recommend doing it soon, as it strikes me all the local tourists are going to make a complete mess of it in the near future. Evidence of trash being dumped at the entrance to the caves and general destruction of the surrounding area is already starting to show.

After the tour we returned back to our room at the Bamboo Cottages. Kim decided to take a shower with aforementioned bucket and saucepan. It wasn't long before I heard a shriek and something about a bug...I'll admit I was assuming another cockroach and I didn't move particularly fast...ok, or at all...until she was a little more descriptive about it, at which point I suddenly found myself using the saucepan to persuade a scorpion that it'd have more fun outside our little hovel. Well ok, I'll be honest, it left the room a lot flatter than when it came in. Another long night was on the cards!

The Final Frontier remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We had a good last few days in Boracay. The wind kept blowing and I kited once more, but struggled a little with my foot, so gave up and spent the time topping up my tan. We found the most amazing beach loungers that could be rented for 2 dollars a day, so spent the last few days swimming and lounging on White Beach.

Last night we packed up our little apartment…I have no idea how we’ve managed to accumulate an extra 30lb of “stuff” but somehow we have….and set our alarm for 6am this morning. After a terrible nights sleep we loaded up a little motorcycle and sidecar with 2 bulging kite bags, 2 backpacks, a guitar and yoga mat….plus me Kim and the driver (I wish I’d had the camera to hand) and headed to the Boracay port (all trying to breath in and be as light as possible so as to make it up the hills…or was that just me?).

On arrival at the port I paid for 2 boat tickets and 2 more terminal tickets (my 5th & 6th of the trip and I still haven’t been in the terminal)….paid 2 porters to carry the kite bags down the precarious gang plank and onto the boat and boarded for the 10 minute trip to Caticlan. Another 100 pesos on the other end saw the bags unloaded…although I watched as the second one was carried off by the skinniest of porters (it weighs a good 60lb) and his “friends” proceeded to tickle him under the arms as he walked across the skinny plank of wood from boat to dock! Thankfully he made it.

Checking in with Seair was a non event. It refreshing when there’s no arguments about excess baggage…there’s a charge per kilo that you pay and that’s that…it’s a reasonable amount and no one is confused or upset!

The flight to Palawan was a non event. The plane is a propeller aircraft that holds about 30 people. I suspect there were no more than 10 on our flight. Kim, who was sat by the window, tells me it was quite a spectacular view flying over all the small islands on the Philippines…I was busy eating my BBQ roasted peanuts and missed it.

On landing at the airport we picked up the bags and were met at the airport by a girl from the Hibiscus Garden Inn in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, where we are booked for the next four nights.
The hotel is really nice…a dozen rooms around a garden area….and there airconditioning…ahhhhhh. It’s really hot here (compared to Boracay) and after 3 weeks without it on Boracay it feels a bit of a luxury. I do however think we are the only ones here.

My only complaint…it’s the Hibiscus Garden Inn Christmas Party today. I’m sat here listening to a mixture of Christmas carols and Filipino karaoke! Something tells me it isn’t going to end soon!

Boracay to Palawan remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Thankfully I made it to the airport in one piece and without killing anyone in the process… which is where my second drama of the day began.

For a start, I would not recommend Philippine Airlines… I have no problem paying for excess baggage, but I do have a problem with getting ripped off, which Kim was on her flight back to the States . I arrived at the check in desk ready for a fight, but didn’t expect it to be over my visa. They wouldn’t let me board the plane without an onward ticket from the Philippines to somewhere else, despite me having a visa etc. In hindsight they were probably just playing by the rules, but I argued anyway… to no avail. In a huff I asked them where their sales desk was and dragged my stuff over there. Explaining my predicament to the person behind the desk, I asked them to book me a fully refundable ticket to anywhere and handed over my credit card… it obviously wasn’t the first time the woman selling me the ticket had experienced this…as she swiped my card with a smile she said “here’s your ticket confirmation, and here’s the phone number to call to cancel your ticket when you’ve checked in”.

Well, back at the desk I then started my argument about excess baggage charges. Well actually there was no argument… they spent an hour discussing what they should charge me as I stood there quietly… they weighed it, measured it, went through their sporting items list (no surprise kiteboarding wasn’t on it!)…until eventually they decided they were going to charge me for 5 extra kilos. I then had to go and line up at the same desk where I’d just bought my extra ticket, to pay the charge, but before I made it to the front of the queue the check in staff came running over and said, oh we’ve changed our minds you don’t have to pay! I was about to ask them why they charged Kim then, but thought that might be pushing my luck.

After an hour and half I was finally checked in and went and boarded my flight to Manila. It’s only a couple of hours and before I knew it we were landing. I cleared immigration and customs in no time and jumped into a cab to the airport hotel where Dad was already waiting. We grabbed a very poor “chicken wing box” at the only available eating establishment within walking distance (KFC…don’t bother…1 chicken wing and a measly portion of fries), and then headed to bed as we had an early flight to Boracay the next morning.

We boarded our Zest Air flight a little late…not the newest of airlines I’ll admit… a prop plane that was somewhat falling apart, but never the less it got us safely, if somewhat hot and uncomfortably, to Caticlan, the entry port to Boracay.

We dragged our bags on a 10 minute walk to the boat port and bought 2 boat tickets to Boracay….and then 2 terminal tickets….and then 2 environmental tickets. The most ridiculous thing ever! You have to buy all three tickets…and you have to buy them at 3 adjacent windows. So you go to the first window where the woman is sitting, to buy your boat ticket (obviously asking if you can buy all 3 at the same time, but no that’s not possible). So you then move to the second window to buy your terminal ticket….and the same woman gets up and walks over and sells you that. You then move to the third window to buy your environmental ticket…and the same woman moves to the third window!!!!!

We walked straight through the terminal (getting no use out of our terminal ticket whatsoever) and up onto the little wooden boats that ferry you across to the island…all of a 10 minute journey.

When Dad and I were in Boracay 10 years ago I remember a fairly idyllic little island, with a handful of hotels and restaurants, fairly empty beaches and no cars or motorized vehicles. Well what a difference 10 years can make. We pulled up at the newly constructed port (which is already falling down) and loaded up onto a motorcycle/sidecar contraption for the 15 minute drive to Bulabog Beach on the east of the island.

Without going into too much detail, the island has become a dump. It has been totally overdeveloped in a haphazard sort of way. Everything is either still being constructed or falling down already. There is trash everywhere. The roads are teaming with mopeds and taxi type motorcycle/sidecar contraptions. It’s really quite sad. The kite beach on the east of the island, once a deserted spot with a couple of windsurfing shops, is now a line of kitesurfing schools and hotels standing shoulder to shoulder the full stretch of the beach. The beaches seem to have been eroded away to almost nothing and on the east side at least, are extremely dirty and polluted.

Anyway, there is wind, and if you can find your spot on the water the windsurfing and kitesurfing is good. We checked into the Isla Kiteboarding School and Guesthouse. A 2 room establishment right on the beach. It was fine for what we wanted, despite having extremely uncomfortable beds, being extremely noisy and my room, having a thatched roof on it that proceeded to rain twigs on me as the winds got up.

Anyway, the 5 days Dad was there, we mostly had some good wind that allowed us both to windsurf and me to get some kiting in. We found some good bars and restaurants on the island (and also some bad ones).

Dad headed home on the 8th and as Kim was arriving back that morning we both took the boat to Caticlan to meet up with her. She arrived early and Dad was able to get on an early flight to Manila. Kim and I made our way back to Boracay and checked into the Blue Bayou Bungalows…a nice little place of 4 or 5 bungalows just around the corner from the beach. We have a living room and separate loft bedroom and a little kitchenette (read, camp stove, fridge and sink) so have been able to do some basic cooking.

The roosters continue to wake me up at 6am every morning, which is fine, because then I’m wide awake and able to listen to the building work start up at 6:30. There’s no getting away from it in this part of the world.

There are 2 little dogs, Lucky and Oscar who fight/play outside our door all day and every time I want to go out I have to hunt down my flip flops which one of them has inevitably stolen and hidden somewhere.

There is not much to do on the island. The kiting has been good, but Kim is not keen due to the crowds of people on the water…which I can understand. It can get crazy out there, although people do seem to congregate in one corner and I can usually find a whole stretch to kite on my own.

So that being said, we will be here another week and then we’re going to head out on the 23rd to a place called Palawan, a island in the south west of the Philippines. We are probably going to pack up the kite gear and spend some time doing some sightseeing.

And so to the fying pan … I stupidly managed to drop a pan of boiling water on my right foot (the same foot that has had a toe nail ripped off, an infected cut, and 2 sea urchin stings!). It @#$% hurt and the only way I could stop it hurting was running it under the cold water tap…but I got bored of standing up, so I filled up the frying pan with water and stuck it in there. Seemed to work. I have a few blisters, but other than that, no permanent damage it seems. I still don’t know how I managed it…no comments please.

Sitting in the Philippines with my foot in a frying pan remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Seriously...a little Vietnamese chap outside the window of my new favorite coffee shop...how festive. They look pretty nice to be honest, so I might don my wooly hat and scarf and try a bag...errr except it's 30 degrees C outside and it's the last thing I fancy eating! I've been sat here 30mins and he hasn't sold any...he should brew up some warm mugs of cocoa to go with them!

Talking of food, I just went for another Indian. I have to say whilst I wasn't locked in the toilet all yesterday, I didn't venture too far from it...with that in mind I went for italian food last night and it was terrible...so feeling hungry I decided the fallout (so to speak) from the curry was worth it and I went back for more tonight.

Lots more westerners in there tonight...encouraging! I decided to study the menu...but on reaching the end (15 mins later) I really couldn't see anything that appealed more than what I ordered the other night.

On trying to order the owner told me that if I enjoyed the madras I should try the "house special". On enquiring what the "house special" was, he stated (rather than asked I felt) "you like spicy!". I replied with a hesitant "well yes but..." but then realized it wasn't a question..."oh you like you like, very good"..."well ok then"...I sensed he would be offended if I didn't try it.

About 2 minutes later he came back..."you like spicy or very spicy? I think you like very spicy yes?"...again I was unsure whether he was asking a question or making a statement, however before he could escape I threw out a "just spicy I think"!

Well long story short...it came...and once again it was delicious...even better than the other night...but oh my god it was hot...not so much that you couldn't eat it, but enough that I drank 3 Saigon beers in the attempt. Tommorrow is going to be a fierce day I think . I will be requesting that extra roll of paper on my return to the hotel!

Yesterday on my return to madam cucs, I was ushered into the kitchen by the woman who works behind reception. She opens the fridge, points at a carton of eggs and says "tommorrow you have eggs with your breakfast"! Well I said that's great and returned to my room thinking maybe it was a special breakfast thing they do on Saturday to accompany the usual baguette and jam.

Well I got up this morning, ventured downstairs and sat myself down at the communial breakfast table, but was immediately told that I had to come sit at a table round the corner on my own. Seems for some reason I was the only one getting eggs and they didn't want anyone else to see. They were actually a pretty refreshing change although it still amazes me some of the ways they manage to cook a simple egg (generally unsuccessfully). I have volunteered to show the 2 girls who seem to do all the cooking how to do good scrambled eggs in the morning.

It was a bit dull and dreary yesterday, and as I was having my post breakfast coffee at a place round the corner from the hotel I noticed that an English version of the new Bond film was opening up at the cinema...so I thought "why not?". I started wandering down there and then suddenly realized that I was being stupid...I was bound to be able to buy a pirated copy cheaper and watch it in the air conditioned comfort of my room...I popped into the next store I passed and sure enough there it was...wasn't a bad recording. Crap film though!

On my way back to the room I witnessed 2 chaps on mopeds having a heated conversation on the side of the road. One of the guys jumped off his bike, walked away from the scene and then suddenly turned and sprinted back towards the other chap...he then launched himself horizontally into the air, both legs outstretched, and in true kungfu style sent the other chap tumbling off his bike onto the street with a flying kick to the head... It was just like the movies, impressive and hilarious at the same time. The chap on the floor jumped up dazed, got on his moped and flew off down the street. Guess be knew when he was beat!

Last day in vietnam tommorrow, I'm ready for a change.

Chestnuts roasting.... remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On a wander today, I spotted a little hole in the wall Indian place not far at all from the hotel. Well why not we've tried everything else. I wandered down there and was encouraged to see that it was run by an Indian guy and was pretty full of Indian people eating! I ventured in.

Well my heart sank when I got the menu. I've seen some big menu's since I've been here...but this one took the biscuit. I kid you not...28 jam packed pages. So the dilemma was, do I read it, or do I just try and order something...I went for the latter, and keeping it simple order a Chicken Madras, Pilau Rice, a Garlic Naan and a bottle of Saigon Beer. To my encouragement the chap took the order without questioning it, so assume those dishes exist somewhere in the 28 pages!

Well soon after I ordered (almost too soon!), it turned up. A dinner plate sized dish of nice looking rice, a huge bowl of curry, a huge naan, a small dish of green stuff (no idea), and a plate of red pickled onions (I think) .... oh and the beer.

I have to say we have not been eating large portions since we left the States 6 months ago...so this was a little overwhelming...anyway deep breath and I tucked in.

Well...this was without doubt, no questions asked, THE best meal I've had in Saigon hands down and possibly even the best in Vietnam (although "before and now" are close rivals...see previous post).

I may be a bit disillusioned after a month here, but I have to say it rivaled any Indian meal I've had anywhere. The curry was nice and spicy, the rice well cooked, the Naan tasty, the green stuff spicy and the pickled onions...well ok they were a little unnecessary. It was delicious.

I devoured the lot in record time and, mouth burning, swigged back the beer...and then immediately started to feel rather unwell with that "oh dear I've really eaten too much and I'm going to regret this". I payed (just under 6 dollars), and stumbled out the door. I took a long stroll to try and walk it off, but have arrived back at the hotel still a little green. Don't get me wrong the food was great and it's still in me (for now), I just ate far too much!

I will probably go back and look at the menu tomorrow night and try something else (or is that mistake???).

In other news...

...I saw an obesely fat Vietnamese person today, kankles and all ...wierd as fat people just don't exist here (I've told you about the food right?)

...my guess is she knows where the Indian restaurant is.

Food Dilemmas remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I can honestly say I've never been anywhere in the world so chaotic. The sheer number of mopeds on the roads at night is just unbelievable...I mean really unbelievable...I can't even put it in words. They drive on the right here (sometimes!)...and at major junctions with lights, hundreds (no joke) of mopeds turning right will just hop up on the sidewalk/pavement to get round the corner...just walking down the sidewalk is a nightmare, let alone crossing the road. At one point I just stopped and started laughing....I was completely surrounded by hundreds of mopeds moving all around me...I don't know whether I was on the road or the sidewalk, I couldn't see my feet. I just started shuffling as gaps opened up in front of me and eventually reached an open area. It's just insane. You mustn't change your mind about where you're going, you just have to keep heading in the same direction...if you hesitate or change course, you'll get hit. Surprisingly I've only seen 4 accidents since I got back here, but I noticed tonight, that people are bumping there mopeds into each other the whole time...glancing taps, rather than full on collisions.

I was heading nowhere in particular, but stumbled across a big night market. Kind of reminded me of Marrakech, Morocco on a smaller scale. There was an interesting variety of foods for sale some of which I have to say looked pretty tasty (although I didn't partake....maybe at some point this week)...there were obviously the usual "squidito on stickito" (dried squid on a stick) and steamed pork buns etc, but there were also hundreds of fish tanks containing various species of live sea creatures, lots of fresh looking fruit and veg, and what I'm pretty sure was squirrel on a stick (a whole, skinned, uncooked animal with a skewer stuck up its butt and coming out of its mouth...if it wasn't a squirrel then other possibilities are rat, cat or small puppy).

From there I headed to the expensive part of town...posh shops and hotels. Seems Christmas has reach Saigon...there were many window displays and outside the Saigon Shopping Center, there were throngs of Vietnamese people taking their pictures alongside model snowmen and santas set amidst a big snowy xmas scene as an asian version of Jingle Bells rang out.

Seems at night you no longer get hassled by motorcycle riders (well not as much anyway), but you get offered a massage every 5 steps by a young lady, dressed in traditional garb, with a bunch of leaflets in her hand. At first I thought it was fairly legit (and am sure it was), but the further I got towards the river the seedier it got as the traditional dress seemed to disappear and they weren't just offering massages. I made it in one piece to the river where I cut back towards to the hotel. The river at night is full of dinner cruise ships it seems with bright lights and load music....seems a bit of a nightmare to me. I did actually have a purpose in that I'd read about a small restaurant, down a side road, that serves (and I quote) "the best burgers in world"...this was from a number of (supposedly) independent reviews, and whilst I am skeptical I thought I'd see if it was indeed there. I did find it and it looked reasonable but the place was empty tonight and I didn't fancy sitting in there on my own. I think I'll head back there in daylight tomorrow for lunch.

I returned to the "backpacker neighborhood" where the hotel is, and stopped at a little italian place for pasta...it was not bad, although Kim will be glad she's not here as they went a bit heavy on the garlic. I'm feeling very uninspired with food at the moment and am looking forward, I hope, to a change in the Philippines next week.

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After a month in Mui Ne, we were read to move on. It was a fun time, but there really is nothing to do there. The wind was good but very inconsistent, I was hoping for much more kiting, although the days we did get were good. Kim is improving all the time, although has her frustrations now and again, as we all do when progressing at something. I have to say she throws herself in with great gusto. We took to doing big long runs down the beach together which was great fun (despite the hike back)...I would go from seeing her doing great long runs one minute to huge, splashing, spectacular crashes the next! She also has a habit of whacking herself in the legs with the board during these crashes...I was horrified to see the bruises she's got from it. My only solution was to wrap her or the board in bubble wrap...but that didn't go down too well. Her only problem really is controlling the speed without getting out of control...we all went through it, but you've just got to get a feel for it which she will soon (any tips Benjamin/Peter????).

I went out on a couple of extremely windy days on our little 7m. It was really gusty with huge seas...challenging? yes...enjoyable? juries still out. My best outing was on the last day we were there. Solid 12m conditions...probably 50+ other kites out...I rode for ages and got a little sunburnt in the process.

We were ready to leave yesterday and endured the 5 hour bus ride back to Saigon to our home away from home at Madam Cucs guest house. As I've mentioned before, the bus ride has never been the same since our first trip to the beach. We were on the sleeping bus again, but it was crowded, smelly, noisy and uncomfortable. In true style about 5 minutes before we arrived the heavens opened with a thunderstorm and we were dumped in a puddle with our 2 kite bags, 2 backpacks and newly received travel guitar (Kim's B'day present to me, I'm so happy to have it as something to play with during the quiet times...well I guess not quiet but you know what I mean). We managed to get said luggage into a little 4 door saloon with Kim, me and the driver who then drove us the 200 yards to the hotel (it really was raining though!).

We got another warm welcome at Madam Cucs, where we were given our usual room on the 5th floor which is actually the 95th floor (or so it seems!). After our meal of noodles and spring rolls (included in price) we went up to bed as Kim had to be up at 6am for her flight back to the US. I've probably mentioned before that it's a very friendly little guesthouse...I am getting the feeling that because I'm here 7 nights I'm a long term resident...the turnover seems to be very high with people just staying for a night or 2 before moving on. All the employees here seem to speak a little English (some very good) and have all come up and introduced themselves this morning. I feel a little bad as they all now remember my name but I can't remember or pronounce any of theirs!

I went back to bed for a bit after Kim left this morning and then, deciding to have a quiet day, I went for a wander around town (and a tour of coffee shops). I really do like the vibe of the city...it doesn't feel dangerous or threatening at all, unlike some big cities in this part of the world. Having said that, I am clearly the main attraction for the locals. I even got recognized today...when Candy, Kim and I were here a month ago, we took a walk down to a supermarket about 15 minutes from the hotel. I took the same stroll today, and a little old lady came running out of her shop shouting "oh you're back!...you here before". I smiled, we talked for a few minutes (no idea about what...probably the usual, oh you're tall, yes I am, you're short...basketball blah blah) and then I carried on my way!

Having said that, I do have a few annoyances (you have to right?)

1. Mops & Brushes - everywhere I walk and especially everytime I sit down down for a coffee (happens a lot here) a person with a mop or brush will appear out of nowhere and start cleaning around my feet. Means you can't enjoy a coffee without also dancing an irish jig at the same time.

2. Motorbike Riders - I am going to have to agree with Candy's observations on this. Something that wasn't evident when we were walking around as a group of 2 or 3 in Saigon, but that is VERY evident when you're on your own, is that you literally (and I'm not exaggerating here) can't walk more than about 10 paces without someone offering you a ride somewhere on the back of a moped. They don't hassle you (or at least not me) but you end up getting in a rhythm of saying "No Thanks" after every 5th or 6th step.

3. Google (and websites in general) - this may seem an odd one, but everytime I go to google (or certain other websites), why do they immediately assume I'm vietnamese just because I happen to be here and take me to the Vietnamese version of their website, with no obvious link to the non Vietnamese version!

...and really that's about it.

No real plans for my week yet. I'm determined to get out and see something though as it would be very easy to chill for a week, drinking coffee and watching the world go by! I was going to go to the Cu Chi tunnels, the vast tunnel network where the Viet Cong hid out during the war, but on learning that at their biggest the tunnels are 4 feet high I'm having second thoughts...I'm not sure it would be good for my posture. I think I'll find something else to do.

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Having said that, we have definitely got out and about more this time. Yesterday we went on a jeep tour (yes, another one…see previous entry!) to a few different sites. Our jeep picked us up at 7:30am (yes that’s in the morning 7:30!). Sleepily we jumped in and set off for a 5 hour tour of…dragon fruit farm, market, Ca Tu Mountain and the Cham Towers!

First the Jeep…there are an abundance of ex USA army jeeps still in operation here, left on the side of the road and reclaimed by local Vietnamese at a later date. As you can imagine they are extremely well used and it’s unbelievable how they keep them running. Observations I made about this particular one…steering wheel was from a Toyota Corrola, welded onto what looked like the original steering column…gear stick looked like it was from a Honda and I’m suspecting so was the gear box itself as when the chap changed gear the layout seemed to be completely upside down, which suggested to me that they installed something else and had to “fit” it in any which way they could….none of the instruments were wired to anything (they are minimal in such a vehicle anyway)….the jeeps are open air with a roll cage and a bit of fabric stretched over it, our roll cage appeared to be made out of plumbing pipes, evident by the screw type corner joints that had “extra” corners and holes...there was no back to the jeep it seemed, and the spare wheel was tied on to something behind our seat, meaning anytime we went over a bump it thumped into our backs…pulling away from a standing stop involved the driver reaching down below the gas/accelerator peddle and pulling on the throttle cable to get enough revs to dump the clutch, which made for an interesting spectacle when he had to pay at the toll road booths as he was reluctant to come to a stand still (missing at least one lot of change)…starting the jeep after it had stood for about 30 minutes involved a lot of work under the hood/bonnet, I’m not really sure what.

I mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again…the driving is crazy here…pick a side of the road and go for it whilst trying to avoid thousands of bikes and mopeds…I can’t believe there aren’t more deaths on the road (maybe there are!). In fact as a side note we have just come back from the supermarket and witnessed the aftermath of an “incident” between a couple of mopeds and a cart pulled by 2 buffalo. All parties seemed to be ok…but the buffalo were loose with their wooden harness type thing (do they call it a yolk??) all smashed up.

Anyway first stop was the dragon fruit farm. A dragon fruit is a bright vibrant pinky red fruit with spikes a bit bigger than a mango but smaller than a melon. The flesh is white with tiny black seeds in (that you eat). Kind of the texture of a papaya, a little mushy. At first I wasn’t a fan, but they are growing on me. Anyway you get served them quite often here and seems that’s because if you drive 30 minutes up the road there are acres and acres of the things growing. The tree/bush they grow on is about head high with what looks like cactus leaves sprouting out the top…the fruits grow on the leaves themselves. Weird looking plants and fruits. Well the visit to the farm was actually just a stop on the side of the road to snap a few photos before heading on to the market.

We stopped at a market just outside Phan Tiet. It was quite big with the usual food and wares stalls. I have to say it seemed a lot more hygienic than some I’ve been to over the years based on the lack of nauseating smells from the food section. We were definitely the attraction of the morning…2 tall, 1 very tall, blonde people…it did strike me how short the people are while we were there. The market is mainly made up of stalls with canvas roofs and awnings although there is an indoor bit too…I spent a lot of time walking round with my head out of the market looking down on the top of the stalls. I definitely felt a little like a tourist attraction myself. One stall had a bunch of live chickens and geese on who seemed to be shaking quite a lot. It was then that I noticed the 2 hanging by their feet, blood dripping from their necks (Kim tells me this is the best way…I don’t want to know how or why she knows this), and the completely plucked pair in a bowl on the same table, which probably explained the nervousness of the others. The only thing we bought were 2 deep friend bananas…I thought mine was pretty good, but Kim wasn’t impressed with the hair she found in hers. On to Ca Tu mountain.

Ta Cu mountain is 20 miles or so from where we are on the beach. It is the site of (and I quote from the guide book) “…a pagoda constructed in 1861 during the Nguyen Dynasty, an important pilgrimage center for Buddhists and the site of Vietnams (…note I’ve only just read this in the guide book while writing this, I was thinking it was the worlds….damn) largest reclining Buddha at 49m/160ft long”.

We arrived at what looked like a very deserted, but pretty entrance to the mountain complex (for mountain, read pretty big hill!). We were told we had to buy a 65,000 Dong return ticket for the cable car (about 5 bucks each…Mike’s “I’m getting conned” alarm starts ringing!) and ushered onto a little electric wagon (kinda like a stretched golf cart) with a young Chinese couple for a ride to the cable car to get up the mountain.

I think the ride on the wagon was possibly the highlight of the trip…it won’t come over well in writing but we have video…the trip was about a quarter of a mile down a little path that wound its why around bends and over a significant hump back bridge. Well the driver slams his foot down at the start and we proceeded to take this journey at about 20 to 30 miles an hour…as we approached the hump back bridge Kim and I both looked at each other thinking “he will slow down right?”…but no, we flew over the thing and through the s-bend/chicane on the other side before coming to standstill at the bottom of the cable car.

A little exhilarated the four of us walked up to the non-operational cable car where there was one car with a guy asleep inside and the control room with 2 other guys smoking, staring at us and generally not doing much. Seemed quite a modern contraption, much like the one at the ski resort of Sunshine Village in Canada with about a tenth of the amount of cars on it (…not many). The Chinese girl went up and asked if they would start it, and with a grunt one guy sauntered over and took all our tickets. There wasn’t much action for the next few minutes, but then once he’d finished his cigarette, he hit the “GO” button and the thing buzzed into action (much to the surprise of the chap asleep in the one cart I imagine…I’m not sure whether he woke up or not!). The four of us jumped in and headed up the mountain.

I’m guessing it was a 10 minute ride up and over the jungle. It seemed extremely dense and green jungle with lots of birds and I’m guessing animals with all the noises we heard. We did spot a few monkeys playing in the trees.

On arrival at the top my heart sank a little bit as I heard the banging of hammers and the general buzz of a construction site. I may have mentioned in a previous entry that this is the general sound of Mui Ne where we are staying. Construction everywhere, including the house they’re building next to the hotel. Well firstly the good, the views were amazing from the top, and the jungle setting spectacular. The ancient Nguyen Dynasty Pagoda, an important pilgrimage site…well that’s been knocked down and is in the early stages of being replaced by, what I can only assume, is an even more important Pagoda of the 2008 Dynasty! Currently a construction site. We climbed about 10,000 steep steps to see this construction site, and when we got there I began to think that the site was also big enough to once house a 49m reclining Buddha! Surely the tour company (or the chap who sold me 2 65,000 Dong tickets, or the jeep driver) would have mentioned if the Buddha had been removed…wouldn’t they? As I caught my breath and scanned the horizon, there was no sign of any Buddha or indeed of any people…other than the Chinese couple (who to me seemed to be having similar suspicions), a Russian family (Russian mafia, they’re everywhere here), and some random locals.

At this point they’re were 2 options, back down or more steps leading up (why they couldn’t have extended the cable car a few more feet I don’t know!). Well we kept climbing and eventually I caught glimpse of said reclining Buddha through the trees. It was indeed large, pretty run down, covered in graffiti, but impressive non the less. It would have been quite a peaceful spot as well, with the spectacular views and jungle setting, but the noise of the construction, jack hammers, drills etc, meant we only spent about 15 minutes hanging around before heading back to the cable car.

Once again it was non-operational when we got there and on asking the guy in the control room whether he could start it, I received a reply in Vietnamese followed by much laughing, so wandered off to wait (I suspect I may now know the Vietnamese for “Sorry you’ll have to walk down”!). 15 minutes later it started up, we were whisked down and rode the “kamikaze cart” back to the front gate.

Our final stop was at the ancient site of the Cham Towers…three 9th Century temples. They were impressive, but by this point it was the middle of the day, 35 degrees C, and we were a bit done in, so we didn’t spend long there. After summarizing there were no ancient pubs in the vicinity (see UK entry), we jumped in the jeep and drove back to the hotel.

A fun and interesting outing…just driving around in this country is fascinating even if the sites when you get there are not quite as impressive as maybe you’d hoped!

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The solution seems to be, don’t order off of the menu. Look for the places that offer fresh BBQ and then turn up about 6pm. You can get a good sized snapper, the biggest prawns I have ever seen, rice and veggies…cooked over a metal bucket with charcoal in…for a very reasonable price. In fact forgo the prawns and you can get the fish (big enough for 2) and trimmings with a couple of beers for about 7 dollars (the prawns triple the price…but they are worth it!!!).

We have scouted out a few fairly decent places now. Breakfast is typically at a place called “Mellow”…a small hostel run by a British guy and his Vietnamese wife. The food isn’t great (we haven’t found a good breakfast anywhere), but they will scramble an egg for you with some toast…actually they’ll scramble the thing beyond recognition, but at least it’s still better than the usual partially fried egg you find elsewhere. The real reason we go here is that you can also pick up free wireless internet from the posh hotel over the street, so it’s a chance to check emails over breakfast (which I also have to admit has been occurring at what most would usually consider the luncheon hour…oh well, did I mentioned we don’t work these days!!!).

Talking of checking internet, there are another couple of options. “Snow”, is a very trendy sushi restaurant/bar/nightclub a couple of doors down from where we’re staying. Cocktails are good but very expensive, food is not good and overpriced…beer and wireless internet are reasonably priced and free respectively. I have my suspicions that the place is run by the Russian mafia so just something to keep in mind if you’re ever there!

WAX is a bar/restaurant across the street from where we are (actually the place we stayed last time). It’s overpriced, the food is bad, but the atmosphere is good and they also have free wireless.

“Before & Now” is a restaurant a few doors down providing “Italian & Vietnamese Food with Real Italian Chef”. I am some what suspicious about the claim “Real Italian Chef”…personally I was expecting to see some big, red faced, Italian pizza chef, however in reality it’s a small Vietnamese chap who to be fair makes up some very fresh pasta and doesn’t over cook it. It’s managed by a very sweet Vietnamese lady who makes you feel welcome without bugging you.

And whilst we’re on bugging…there is a restaurant over the street that serves good BBQ but the woman in there is possibly the most irritating person we’ve met on our travels (or maybe a close second to the woman from the Spirit Café in Bali…see previous posts!). She will stake you out from anywhere up to a mile away to try and get you into the restaurant…at which point she will proceed to read the menu to you and then tell you how you should come back there for 3 meals a day for your whole stay…continuously throughout your dining experience. At first I thought, oh she’s just trying hard, but now I’ve decided she’s just extremely annoying. I’ve noticed she sets up her employees at strategic places along the “strip” (the whole town of Mui Ne stretches along about a 10 mile stretch of road) to try and poach customers from other restaurants. Luckily there is a place next door, “Mango”, which serves even better BBQ in a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. I can also say that they serve the biggest prawns/shrimps that I have ever seen…I’ve seen smaller lobsters in the past. I am considering volunteering my services to Mango a few evenings a week, to sit outside the annoying woman’s place and tell people they should eat next door.

Other services in Mui Ne…there’s a liquor store 2 doors down from where we’re staying…cheaper than everywhere else, and maybe I’m going in there too much or something, but they’ve started to give me “frequent shopper” discounts and free bottles of water with my purchases. And there's a grocery store up the road where you can get out of date UHT milk that doesn't smell bad and doesn't seem to make you sick!

…and finally if you’re really stuck for stuff, jump in a cab for the 15 minute ride to Phan Tiet, the town south of here. Ask your cab driver for the “Co-op Mart” and you’ll be deposited at a big supermarket type place, that lacks in the fresh food department, but that serves up most supplies that you might need (They even have bread…not Bahn Mie…see previous post).

And so to the wind…there was a definite buzz about town a couple of days ago when we went for breakfast (at 11:30am)…I was semi confident the forecast was coming together and that we were going to get wind, and everyone else seemed to be in agreement. By the time we got down there at 12:30 it was indeed blowing and there were lots of kiters out and lots of lessons going on. We are pretty much in the dead center of a beach that stretches a few miles each way around the Mui Ne bay. Most places where people kite in the USA seem to have people congregating in a bit of water 50ft by 50ft…I’ve never understood why…so it was nice to see kites spread out along the whole stretch of beach. It wasn’t overcrowded though, Kim tells me she counted 40 at one point, which in an area that size seems quite sparse.

I put up my 12m and went for a few runs, and was nicely powered up in very consistent winds…not gusty at all. The water is very choppy and there is a little bit of swell, but not really clean enough to wave ride.

I came in to spot Kim on her first day back on the water (with new harness). The wind direction here is totally opposite to anywhere else she’s kited, so this also meant starting off on her so called weak side which she’s had very little practice on. To add to that, we were lucky enough in Bali to have the water to ourselves, so it was also the first time she’s kited in “traffic”. I sensed a little apprehension, but before I knew it she launched her 9m and was up and away, tacking back and forth and getting used to the choppy conditions. I suspect looking back on it, urging her into cold, 10ft swells to body drag without the board at Pismo Beach in California a few weeks before we left on our travels, is starting to pay off!
We both got a good few sessions on the water, and the wind actually picked up throughout the day, before we eventually threw in the towel at about 4:30pm when the sun was starting to go down.

I have to admit, we were both in a pretty embarrassing state, physically, after the first day on the water…both suffering from aches and pains in muscles we didn’t no we had.

Yesterday was a hot hot day…possibly the hottest day since we set off on our travels…there was wind, but it wasn’t quite as strong as the day before. We didn’t need many excuses to just lie on the beach, but even that only lasted an hour in the sweltering heat.

This morning we woke up to see Obama getting elected, it seems much to everyone’s relief. Strikes me people are more interested in the fact that he’s the first African American president than anything he has to say about politics or running the country (although I suspect the cab driver we had in Manila a few months ago, who insisted that there’d been a black president in the past, is still sticking to his story!).

Anyway, the wind was blowing hard when we went for an early lunch (at Before & Now…see above)…while we ate it really started howling. We headed down to the beach and proceeded to get sand blasted by the wind so went back to the room to get the gear but by the time we got back it had dropped a little. I went out on the 9m and found that the conditions were stupidly gusty…one minute struggling to keep the kite in the air, the next getting picked up out the water. I came in and Kim rightly decided not to go out for a bit. It was carnage out there, people struggling with their kites out at sea, whilst learners were being thrown in the water near the beach only to see their kites fall out the sky. As I was kiting I saw boards floating about everywhere in the water! I do have to say though, that everything looked very safe, there were no people getting dragged along the beach or anything…people were staying out of control in the water!

As I came in on my third outing on the 9m I managed to somehow whack myself where it hurts with the board, which was a little unpleasant…that was enough for me to call it a day. Kim decided to give it a go, but as I walked into the shallows I managed to stub my toe on a rock and rip the toe nail off…that definitely convinced me I should quit for the day! I rinsed off my bloody stump and then blew up the 7m for Kim. She went out and made a valiant effort, but the lulls in the wind were so weak that she couldn’t get going, so she came in and swapped onto the 9m. When she tried to launch it was so gusty that even keeping the kite in the air was a challenge…I also tried one more launch and decided it just wasn’t worth it, so we packed up.

It was still fun day. Seems we might actually have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow and catch the more steady winds before the storms start to blow through.

We’ve Got Wind!! remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Despite no kiting, the first few days have been fun. It seems to be an altogether different experience being here this time. For one, there are actually other people here…although it’s not what I would call busy. On our arrival we booked into the Hoang Kim Golden resort, which we found online before arrival. It was really nice, with a semi-decent restaurant (despite breakfast, see previous post) and pool. However in true style, the building work woke us up at 6am, and it was only in the daylight that we were able to see the place was only half finished.

After an afternoon lying by the pool…while construction workers layed bricks, mixed concrete, randomly hammered things very loudly, all around us…we decided on a move.

We found a place right opposite where we stayed on our first trip here…the Nam Khai Resort…which has a clean room with AC, hot water, cable TV, for 10 bucks a night….perfect for what we need. Perfect that is until 6am the first morning…seems someone is building a house about a foot from our room window. There is construction going on everywhere though, so I figure finding somewhere quiet is going to be impossible. Ear plugs will be put to good use I feel.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Kim’s friend Candy joined us for a few days on her way north to Hanoi. On the first day she suggested we rent bicycles and go check out the local fishing village. Seems everywhere rents bikes here, but we were lucky enough to find the ones with rock hard seats and 21 gears of which 2 were functioning if you twisted really hard on the gear knob and held it there. This gave you 2 very useful options of either having your legs spinning at 200 rpm whilst going nowhere, or having to stand up and force all your weight through one pedal just to get the thing moving, whilst praying that the chain didn’t give way and you’d land with a thud on the aforementioned rock hard seat (only happened once to me).

Despite the equipment challenges it was fun. We rode what I felt was about 5 miles (although if you believe the signposts 10 miles) down to the fishing village of Mui Ne. There wasn’t much going on there, however the sight of hundreds of local fishing boats moored in the harbor was impressive.

We stopped for the obligatory coffee, noodles and spring rolls on the way and at the fishing village Kim & Candy managed to get accosted by 3 young local girls selling jewelry and postcards and are now 2 bracelets and 10 postcards better off.

The roads here seem treacherous to me. It is actually illegal for non-Vietnamese to drive (although it doesn’t seem to stop tourists riding around on mopeds) which is good as I have no desire to be behind the wheel or on the seat of something motorized! The drivers, particularly of the large trucks and buses, have no fear…they’ll just put their foot down and not take it up again until they reach their destination…god help anyone who gets in the way.

We were all pretty whacked after our jaunt, but managed to find the energy to hit the local bar where we stayed last time, WAX, for a few drinks and food that night.

Yesterday we booked onto a “Jeep tour to the Sand Dunes”…I was not really sure what I was expecting , but I can now tell you that a “Jeep tour to the Sand Dunes” is exactly that…you pay $9 each, get in a Jeep, drive 30km to some sand dunes and then get in the Jeep and drive 30km back again!

It was fun though. We loaded into the back of the Jeep with our driver and a local Saigon girl, Yang, who was herself traveling around SE Asia and who spoke excellent English. We first went to the “Fairy Streams” which from what I could gather is a canyon that runs up into the hills. We walked a little way up the streams which passed through some amazing scenery. I actually found this to be the best bit of the trip.

From there, we drove to the “White Sand Dunes”…I guess if you’ve never seen a sand dune before it would be more interesting, however I think the drive there was more spectacular. We stopped for a while and then headed to the “Red Sand Dunes” which to me looked no different to the “White Sand Dunes”…and I think everyone else was in agreement…so we drove back to Mui Ne.

Candy left for Delat this morning, a town in the hills about 200km north west of here. Kim is going to meet up with her again in Saigon on her departure in 3 weeks, although if the traveling gets to much we may see her back at the beach again before then!

Kim and I had a day on the beach today…sun was out and we managed to top up our tans.

The food is not quite as bad as I remember it…but it’s not great either. We did have some nice shrimp and fish the other night and I’ve had a couple of ok stir fries…I don’t think we’re going to starve, but I’m guessing after 4 or 5 weeks I’ll be happy to never see a noodle again. Breakfast is a real struggle especially if you want an egg…they will cook it “anyway you want” as long as it’s slighty under-fried. Seems the Vietnamese breakfast options are Pho (spicy noodle soup) or Bahn Mi…a curious invention…basically a baguette that is all crust and no bread…usually served with butter and jam…you tear it apart and watch it disintegrate as the crusty crumbs fall onto your plate…at which point you’re left with a small pot of butter and jam for breakfast.

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After arriving in Chicago, we picked up a rental for the drive out to Kim’s homeland. If you ever want to visit, start driving south west from O’Hare airport, and keep going until you can’t go anymore…and then go about 5 more miles…and then you’ll get there. But don’t blink, or you’ll miss it and be driving through corn fields for eternity!

I jest, but it is sort of out there in the middle of nowhere! We checked into our hotel and went round to the family home where Kim’s dad still is…an idyllic spot of fields, trees and a pond. He cooked us up some amazing steaks from last years hunting exploits…I only wish we could’ve eaten there more over the week we were back rather than the culinary delights that can be found in the restaurants of the surrounding area (let’s just say if it ain’t deep fried you won’t find it!).

"welcome home cake!"

We spent much of the week hanging out with her Dad, but her sister, Marcy’s family also came down for a few days. She has 2 adorable kids, Grace (2) and Emma (1) so I had at least 2 people on my level for the week, although seems I will be forever known as Mite in those circles as the “K” just isn’t in the vocab yet! (I have to say though, as with any kids, I was glad we could return them after a couple of days...nothing personal!!!)

"Emma & Jeff"

"Grace & Kim"

"Grace & Pony!"

On the Saturday night (I think) that we were there, her Dad hosted a party at his place, where the rest of the family (Grandma, Kim’s mum) came out along with a whole load of friends from the area…it was great to meet/catch up with them all until the early hours of the morning. They are a real motorcycle/hunting/hippy crowd though and I have to say some of the conversations lost me, but Kim was able to keep up the translations for most of the time!

I managed to catch up with my friend and old work colleague, Kelli, who had a meeting an hour up the road, whilst I was there. It was great to catch up, I miss hanging out with a number of people from the old company…I have to say though I have no regrets about leaving…(who would! It’s a tough life swanning around the globe!!!)

The visit seemed to fly by…I felt a bit bad that we’d only scheduled in a week there and we had 3 weeks scheduled back in the UK…we will have to make up for it next time.

Onto England…

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I’ve stolen some of Kim’s writing for my blog entry as I think an American’s perspective is probably a little more interesting than mine!!

…

Mike and I spent the last 3 weeks in England, the mother land. I was very excited to have the opportunity to learn to speak English, as opposed to American English, and to have cream teas. I think I learned more English slang than ‘proper’ English, but that was fun too! If you aren’t privy, cream tea consists of 2 warm scones, a pot of jam, a pot of clotted cream, and of course tea. My initial reaction: “clotted” cream? …my only association to the word clot is through science courses – as in blood clot. Eeeek! Clotted cream has nothing to do with blood, thankfully. It’s a sticky and slightly sweet, thick cream. Put that on your warm scone along with the jam and voila, a very tasty snack! Wash down with hot tea (with milk) and repeat as often as possible for maximum weight gain! I’ve packed on a few lbs in this fashion – but I think the fish & chips, sausages and real ale have something to do with that, too. No bother, a waist is a terrible thing to mind, especially when faced with 5 weeks of Vietnam’s nauseating culinary offerings.

We were hosted most graciously by Mike’s family – the first week with Jim and Sandra, his parents, the second week with Melanie and Paul, his sister and brother-in-law, and a few days at Grandma Jean’s followed by a few days in London. I think benevolence and hospitality are in the water in the UK – I felt so at home everywhere we went! Mike’s mom hand-made a bag for my yoga mat during the week we were yachting and touring ancient sites (and ancient PUBS!) with Mel and Paul.

Tour of Ancient Sites...

...and Ancient Pubs!!!!


Yachting!

Everyone cooked for us, which was really fantastic, and they even put up with my egg-eating. =) …for those who don’t know, I eat eggs probably 5 breakfasts per week. Especially since traveling over the last 5 months – seems you can always find eggs for breakie, though you may not want to eat them (see Koh Samet entry!). I thought a Christmas Cracker was something you eat, or maybe slang for Santa Claus, but Mike’s mom put me wise to the English custom over Christmas dinner, which we ate on October 18th. A cracker looks like a huge piece of taffy, twisted paper at both ends, except it’s wrapped in foil papers of all different Christmas-y colors. Everyone at the table has a cracker in front of their dinner plate. You hold one end in your right hand like you’re passing a baton to the person at your left, and they grab the other end with their left hand. You grab the other end of the person’s to your right, and so on around the table. Then everyone pulls them apart at the same time and they explode. Not like with dynamite or C4, just a little pop and you open it up. Inside, you get a paper crown, which everyone instantly dons, a joke on a little piece of paper, and a small trinket or toy – mine was a fingernail brush! That’ll come in handy for sand removal (the war on sand continues!). It was so much fun! I hear the previous year was a bit more fun – the fire department came and everything…someone lit the dining room carpet and hallway on fire with an out-of-control candle. Our families are going to get along great, I have a feeling!

Christmas Dinner

It was, of course raining a bit during our stay. Seems like every time we tried to leave whatever house we were in, it would rain. Insert standard response here: Cuppa tea then? Seriously, I love all the tea drinking that goes on. ….and all the ale drinking for that matter (thanks Mel and Paul!). Anyway, we ate like kings, drank like sailors, and slept like it was going out of style.

While in London, we saw all the sights, and for Mike’s birthday, his parents treated us to a show. We saw Wicked last Wednesday night, and it was superb. If you like the story of the Wizard of Oz, you’ll probably like this. The production was incredible as was the singing, dancing and costumes.

"London Sites"

…

It was indeed a welcome break relaxing down in Devon with Mum & Dad after the calamities of San Francisco. I guess the stereotypical views of bad weather and tea drinking in England are true, but I would debate the view of the food being terrible compared to America…I think Kim agrees that it is, in general, much better over the pond in the UK (assuming chicken nuggets and big mac’s aren’t your thing!!!)

The yachting with Mel & Paul was great fun (despite the abrupt end and injuries that Paul and I obtained in the process), and sparked an interest with both Kim and I that we may pursue wherever we end up next…and I guess I was secretly relieved as a tour of the ancient sites turned into a tour of the ancient pubs when for once the English weather came to my aid.

And so we end up back in Vietnam…the flight was uneventful…and we arrived to find our friend Candy waiting for us in Saigon. The joys of Vietnam have come flooding back very quickly!!! I was excited to be back in Saigon…in a warped sort of way I enjoy the city a lot, despite the craziness of the place. We took the bus to the beach again yesterday…seems the nice sleeping bus that we took the first time has disappeared, never to be seen again…I took a big gulp when I saw the one that turned up this time…let’s just say it made it as far as the first corner before it stalled. Thankfully it was fairly empty so we had plenty of space, and after going through the usual “ooooo 2 people with big bags, a chance to scam them for more money” routine we actually enjoyed a relatively comfortable journey.

I was lulled into a false sense of security last night when we ordered dinner at the hotel (see previous entry on food in Vietnam). It was actually fairly edible…chicken with chilli and lemon grass…but I was bought back down to earth this morning with breakfast. Candy and I suffered uncooked greasy pancakes with banana, whilst being secretly relieved that we hadn’t ordered the same as Kim…on the menu it read, “Baguette, eggs, bean and bacon”. We were all hoping that it would indeed turn up with one bean, but alas it was plate containing 2 uncooked eggs, white beans drenched in tomato ketchup (yes out of the bottle) and some fatty substance that resembled no meat from a pig that I’ve ever seen!

Ahhh Vietnam….joy….the wind had better @#$%^ blow hard!!!!

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The flight back to San Francisco took us via Tokyo on United. I managed to get us upgraded to business class which I thought was going to make for a comfortable flight back, until Kim ate the eggs they served for breakfast just after we boarded and then proceeded to throw up for 14 hours. I always did have a problem with eggs on planes...a smell that I remember hasn’t changed since the flights of my childhood to Oman…it still makes me nauseous whenever they serve breakfast.

Anyway we arrived back in San Francisco on time although with some trepidation as we hadn’t heard from our elusive house sitter for a number of weeks.

Thankfully our good friends Peter & Brent had agreed to put us up for a couple of weeks in their palace of an apartment in the city, so as Kim was unwell and I wasn’t sure what to expect at our apartment we headed there and built our nest in their spare room. It is a beautiful apartment and I think seeing it only heightened my disgust when I finally walked into our place later that day.

Backing up a little, we had rented our place out to a “friend” whilst we were away. I use rented loosely as I basically asked for next to no money in return for the place being looked after…you know, difficult stuff like water the plants, start the car, vacuum the carpet.

Well after the first couple of weeks of being away we never heard from her again, and never received any of the little rent I’d asked for. I fully expected to return and find the place empty.

I should be so lucky…I’ll give you the highlights…

...when I walked in, there were boxes stacked all over the place (seems 3 months was actually too short to move her stuff in), our furniture had been stacked in the corner. I then suddenly realized that the place resembled a pet store…She’d moved a cat in, there was cat paraphernalia everywhere and the place stank, cat hair everywhere, and I don’t think the litter tray had been emptied in 3 months. Said cat also managed to scratch up the sofas in the living room and cupboards in the kitchen.

She had managed to break off the shower taps which were lying on the bathroom floor and had been replaced by a wrench…the smoke alarm was dangling off the wall…seems the battery was needed for something else…probably a toy for the cat. Stains on the carpet that I’m trying to convince myself were red wine and not cat related.

…the list goes on and on and we kept finding new surprises as we spent the next 3 days cleaning up. (If anyone can explain the purpose of a 2 inch crust of hardened, greasy baking soda in the bottom of the oven I’d be interested to hear it!).

I tell you, I can put up with quite a lot, but the place was disgusting and she didn’t seem to think anything was wrong so needless to say we booted her out there and then (the most enjoyable part of the whole proceeding!)

As I’ve mentioned we spent the next 3 days cleaning the place up which was pretty unpleasant. Kim convinced me to advertise the place again, which we did and were inundated with responses. We have since moved a girl our age into the place, who is a school teacher, who has house sat before and provided a pile of references, so fingers crossed this one will work out!

In addition to that I also had my truck broken into and the stereo stolen and a flat tire. Wasn’t a good week!

Thankfully staying with our friends gave us someone to laugh it all off with…well that and a few good bottles of wine and a few hours of home improvement TV (long story!!).

Peter and Brent also invited us up to their house in the Russian River, complete with hot tub, for the weekend, which was an amazing retreat and made for a much pleasanter end to our visit. We ate and drank well, including a batch of “red velvet” cup cakes baked by Kim…I do believe that I’m owed one though…I thought the deal was 5 each and I don’t believe Leo (the dog) ate my last one…Peter!

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Ko Samet is an island off of what they call the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand. Ban Phe is the port about a 3 hour drive east of Bangkok where the boats go from. When we got to Bangkok, we didn't really have a plan as to how we were going to get there. Whilst I stayed with the bags Kim did a deft job of finding out that there was a free shuttle bus that could take us the 45 minutes to the bus station in the middle of Bangkok, where we could then get a bus for the 3 hour journey out to Ban Phe for about 10 bucks each...whilst holding the heavy kite bags in 32 degree (92 Farhenheit) heat, I thought about this for precisely half a second before sheepishly pointing out the limousine service desk and hinting that she might like to go haggle for a car, which she managed to secure for a good price! I guess some first class travel habits never wear off! We loaded the bags into a nice air conditioned car and set off on what turned out to be about a 2 hour ride....I think we were both relieved to be doing it in comfort.

West Coast of Ko Samet

Ban Phe is a mucky little port town spread out about half a mile along the main high street. The taxi driver dumped us at the port there. We had a tentative plan to find the local office of a hotel on the south of Ko Samet island. I left Kim with the bags and on my second attempt found the place and despite the woman there not speaking English managed to negotiate our planned 10 nights on the island plus boat trip for a reasonable price. I then just prayed that it was going to be a decent place!

We got a speed boat over to the island which dumped us right on the beach outside the hotel. Well Ko Samet Ville resort is, how shall I put it, remote! Ko Samet island is a T shape about 5 miles long and at the top a couple of miles across. Our resort is about 3 quarters of the way down the east coast. There is one main dirt track that runs north south through the middle of the island. At the top it is fairly densely populated with resorts, especially the north east. Once you get halfway down, there's really only 3 or 4 places to stay. Where we are the next nearest place is about a 15 to 20 minute walk north.

Our Room

The accommodation is pretty new from what I can gather, at least the building we're in....there's a not very good restaurant, and a very nice beach...and, well, that's it. If I were to say it's quiet, that would be an understatement! It is actually very nice and relaxing though and as I said it is only about a 15 minute stroll to some decent places to eat and drink.

I think when we first got here we were a little shell shocked...I suspect there were maybe half a dozen other people staying here...and whilst it is a beautiful spot, I know I was wondering what the hell we were going to do for 10 days! However 3 days have passed already and it hasn't been a problem and I'm quite enjoying it!!!

The first day we explored the coastline north...it is typically nice sandy beaches in little coves, separated by rocky headlands...you can scramble between the beaches the length of the island I imagine, or you can cut inland through the jungle (yes jungle) and take the dirt road. Places have clearly been over developed, but certainly not where we are!

We rented an ATV for a day (little quad bike) to explore the island. Kim rode whilst I navigated. The roads, well tracks, are terrible....huge holes and ruts, and you really can't get over a few miles an hour. There are no cars really (a couple of taxis that are actually pick up trucks) but the main mode of transport seems to once again be mopeds....this just seems treacherous to me....trying to stay on 2 wheels...and indeed we saw a couple of people take spills, but nothing serious as no one is moving very fast.

Oh, and it's hot....really hot...it got above 100 degrees today with what felt like 100% humidity...and the bugs are a little irritating....well a lot irritating actually....but so far we are mostly keeping them at bay. The frogs are just unbelievable. We walked down to the beach one night and Kim said, "no way listen to the frogs!". I was convinced that there was no way they could be frogs, it sounded so loud. But she was right, a small pond full creating a noise slightly louder than a freight train. I've never heard anything like it. And then there's the snakes...they are everywhere....well I've only actually seen two, but I know they're out there! The first I think was a cobra...brown about 4 foot long....Kim disagrees and reckons it was a harmless grass snake. In hindsight I'm probably in agreement with her that the second one was an earth worm, but it was dark at the time.

PS. Have reached the upload limit for the month on photos for this site, so you'll have to wait for more!

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Kim & I joined the teacher for dinner that evening, and enjoyed a nice Thai meal inclusive of deep fried fish tails....a first for us, but not terrible (although I wouldn't jump at ordering them if I saw them on a menu!).

Yesterday we booked a tour to the Ang Thong National Marine Park about a 45 minute speed boat journey west of here. We were picked up from our hotel at 8am and driven to a pier about 15 minutes up the coast where we joined about 100 other people (ok, I don't know how many but there were a lot!). We were split up into speed boats of about 20 people each. The trip over was via another island called Ko Phan Ngan where we picked up a couple more, and we arrived in the marine park at about 10:30am.

The area is an archipelago stretching north south. I don't know how many islands exactly, but a lot...a beautiful area, but I have to say it looks like tourism is spoiling it rapidly. We pulled around into a cove for the first activity of the day snorkeling. Let me just say there were that many boats there it took some time finding a bit of water where you could lay flat without hitting someone else! The snorkeling was pretty bad...poor visibility and not much marine life (probably due to the large number of boats and tourists). We were there about an hour, before being whisked off to another island.

Kim and I were sat on the front of the speed boat with a couple of others and one of the boat crew...suddenly I heard the guy shouting "Crocodilly, crocodilly"...on closer inspection I saw a group of people snorkeling by a small rocky island and a small salt water crocodile heading there way...maybe 3 or 4 foot. I was glad at this point that our snorkeling was done for the day as I assumed its 12 foot mother was around somewhere! As we pulled away the group in the water were non the wiser and as Kim observed, no one seemed particularly concerned about pointing it out to them.

On arriving at the 2nd island we were ushered onto the beach by the guide and told "we now climb mountain!". There were a few panicked looks around the boat, but on a quick scan of the horizon it became clear that we were going to be okay as there were no mountains evident! What we did in fact do was climb an extremely steep set of staircases up and over a hill and down the other side to a lake in the middle of the island. The views and scenery were pretty spectacular.

On arriving back at the boat we were then taken to a third island for lunch...a green curry, vegetables, rice and spaghetti?? (obviously!!!) picnic on the beach. It wasn't bad food, accompanied by the obligatory pineapple and watermelon afterwards. After lunch it was back on the boat to our third and final island where we were thrown life jackets and told to get in 2 person kayaks. We paddled in a group around a nearby island and although it seemed like we were trying to break some sort of speed record in order to get back, it was good fun. On getting back, we then laid around for about an hour before taken back to Ko Samui (hence not understanding the need to paddle like the wind in the kayaks!!!).

It was a fun trip although it would have been nice to be rich and be able to charter a boat to do it at our leisure!

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That was to be the only hiccup of the trip...our Jakarta leg took off on time and we landed about 7pm....we had a couple of hours to kill there (which involved a bowl of noodles and game of scrabble) before our 9pm flight to Bangkok. Garuda airlines did us proud for both legs, landing us on time at about 1am at Bangkok airport (although I did find out, just before we left, that Garuda has been banned from flying in Europe for failing to meet safety standards...I had no complaints!).

Us In Jakarta

On clearing immigration and collecting bags in Bangkok, we had time to kill before we could check in for our 6am flight to Ko Samui...we set up camp and found coffee and croissants, and after a quick nap were able to check in about 4am. Once again the Bangkok airlines flight took off on time and an hour later we were landing in Ko Samui, at a tiny little open air airport (basically a runway and a little shaded area for the baggage carousel) some 12 hours since departing (actually more with time differences...its really not that far distance wise).

I found us a bus to our hotel which turned out to be about a 10 minute drive away. We set up camp at the Shambala Bungalows in a place called Big Buddha on the northeast corner of the island. It's a tiny little village...one street of shops and restaurants but with a really nice beach and bay, all of which seem very quiet again. We spent two nights in the Shambala Bungalows, but soon discovered that it's a lot warmer here than Bali....we had gone for a cheapy "no aircon, no hot water" room....but with the pathetic fan in there, it was a little unbearable. We didn't have to walk far (2 doors down) to find another much nicer place for pretty much the same price with all the mod cons, including a mini bar and breakfast...(no complaints for less than 15 dollars a night).

Big Buddha Beach

The kiting here isn't great....we made a couple of attempts, but the wind is pretty light, and there's not a lot of room for error with a thin beach, boats and piers so we've found other things to amuse ourselves. (although I have to say the bay is very shallow at low to mid tide....waist deep for a long way out, so if the conditions ever did come right it would be a good spot). Also bumping into 2 bathing water buffalo didn't help fill me with confidence that it was going to be a great spot!

Big Buddha Pier

There are a lot of "Wat's" or Buddhist Temples on the island. As you may have guessed where we are staying is named as it is due to there being a Big Buddha at the Wat here. We can see it from the beach and I have to say when I first got here I was skeptical (shock horror I hear you say!). It didn't look that impressive and I was beginning to think they should have really called the place "Quite Big Buddha", however I stand corrected having visited it up close the other day....quite impressive...as are the other Wat's around the island. They are typically very colorful with lots of bald chaps in orange robes chanting.

Wat's

We have rented a little jeep for our time here as it's so cheap and works out less than getting around on public transport (the taxi's are a huge rip off....they'll charge you 10 bucks or more for a journey of a few hundred yards). To give you an idea what this particular rental car is like, the windows will fall out if you open them to carelessly...the steering wheel has a bit of rope around it that I suspect is holding it on...the wind screen washer thing does a very good job at washing anyone who may be walking down the pavement 2 streets away, which doesn't really matter as the windscreen wipers don't really do anything...and it goes on...in fact when the guy handed me the keys and the bit of paper where I was supposed to mark off any "dents or scratches" on the little picture of the vehicle...I pondered for a minute before drawing a big circle around the whole thing....much to the amusement of the rental car folk...although I did notice they didn't change it!!! Having said that it's doing us proud and we've grown to love its quirkiness!

We took an initial trip around the island...it's not big...I suspect if you drove none stop you could circumnavigate it in an hour or less. Most of the villages are around the coast....the inland is very hilly and from what I can tell from the map mostly forest. On our first trip we failed to find the snake farm, butterfly farm, crocodile farm and the Ha Lin waterfall, but had fun pottering around looking at the different areas (we may make another attempt at some point!). Once again the trip confirmed our choice in locations, there are some terrible resort towns on the west side of the island that made Kuta on Bali (see previous posts) look idyllic.

There are lots of stray animals on the island. Kim is single handedly feeding them one by one in her rescue attempts! (what with this and her "War On Sand" in our room...god forbid I don't brush off before coming in...there's almost not enough hours in the day!!!).

Kim & her kittens!

We saw an advert soon after getting here for the Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts (SITCA) that was offering various courses cuisine related....

to digress quickly, the food here has been FANTASTIC...I was worried when we first arrived that we were just going to spend all hours of the day eating (we have restrained ourselves)...so on seeing the courses we thought it would be fun to check the school out.

Turns out that there are lots of cooking classes, but also a Thai Fruit & Vegetable carving course...which runs over three days. It's a lot of fun...challenging, but doable...run by a very tenacious Thai women who will certainly let you know if your "angles are off by a few degrees" or your "cut is 5mm instead of 4mm"! It's a small class...3 hours each day and we have just completed day 2....it was water melons on the 1st day and cantaloupes on the 2nd....and assuming I don't mess up my turnip and pumpkin tomorrow, I will apparently receive a certification in "Fruit & Vegetable Carving" (that's "carving. not chopping" as the teacher likes to say to the "Italian chef" who is also on our course who seems to have a fairly hap hazard technique that has tended to result in his creation looking more weed than flower!)...who knows, maybe I'll be able to find a job at the Thai restaurant 2 doors down when we get home!

Day 1 our watermelons

Day 2 my cantaloupe & kim at work

We have plans to take a trip to the marine national park about 30km west of here in a couple of days. For those that have seen it this is where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Apparently it's about an hours speed boat ride followed by a day of sea kayaking and snorkeling. Should be fun. We may also do a day trip to Ko Tao, which is another island a similar distance away....apparently good snorkeling.

We have another week here before we return to Bangkok....our plan then being to make our way to Ko Samet...another island about a 2 hour bus journey and hours boat trip from the capital.

(SIDE NOTE: We did indeed make national TV in Indonesia...can't say we saw it ourselves, but apparently it was "good good"!)

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Food has been a million times better here than in Vietnam (oh no, we're going back there!!!!)....but I have to say it has still been a little on the disappointing side (although there have been some great meals I will admit).

Highlights of places we've eaten in case you ever head over here...

The Spirit Cafe is a small restaurant and bar on the beach owned by a particularly irritating Australian woman. Irritating mainly because she likes to let everyone know that she is the owner...that would be everyone in about a mile radius of the place....as she stands in the middle of the restaurant. They seem to do alright on the food front until they get busy...then it goes downhill....one particularly busy Sunday the waiter came over and before we said anything said "don't order pizza, no more pizza...we just can't be bothered, it takes to long"

Benno's is a typical beach side joint serving both Western and Indonesian food and the usual over cooked fresh seafood. I have to say the food is pretty good, but careful with the deserts...on perusing the desert list for a while Kim chose the Cheesecake. When we tried to order the waiter then proceeded to tell us that they didn't actually have anything on the desert menu (it was a good page long)....just fried bananas (don't bother, they're clearly fried a few days in advance).

Menu's in general are a challenge in your reading skills (and patience due to their size). For example there are numerous restaurants offering Chicken Gorden Blue or even Chicken Gorden Blew....one place serves nodlles noodes and noodels on three consecutive lines of the menu (and in fact doesn't serve noodles anywhere on the menu)....and there's the particularly disturbing cafe up the road that advertises what sounds like a nice porterhouse steak until you read that it comes with "...fried skin on potatoes"!

I have to say though, that by far the best food we've eaten is for breakfast at a tiny place called Randy's next to the hotel here. Our mornings consist of me having the "Canadian Breakfast", consisting of 2 pancakes, 2 poached eggs, orange juice and a pot of tea and Kim having the "Basic Breakfast" consisting of 2 slices of toast, 2 poached (sometimes scrambled) eggs, fruit plate and coffee....all for the pricey sum of 5 dollars (3 pounds)including a tip!

Signs in Bali are quite amusing too.

We have seen many signs along the road advertising "Cat Ovens"...I have since found out that this doesn't involve baking feline creatures for pleasure or even food, but that Cat is actually pronounced Tsat and means paint. Oven is used in the Western sense of the word and in fact refers to car garages advertising a car spraying service where they paint your car and then bake it in a special oven to set the paint.

Kim pointed out a useful place the other day....it was advertising "Genuine Antiques for Sale...." and then in small print below "...made to order".

The last 4 days here have seen the hosting of the "Sanur Village Festival". This has seen a number of events and competitions going on in the town and on the beach...traditional boat processions, windsurf racing, kite competitions (more later), Bonsai Tree competitions, pillow fight on a pole knockouts, who can walk the quickest around a course with a liquor bottle full on water balanced on their head (some impressive competitors in that one!)....see who needs the olympics when you've got all that!

The Boat Parade

On Day 2 we headed down to the beach where there was a huge Kite festival and competition taking place. Really quite impressive....massive kites of all shapes and sizes, some that would take a team of people to hold down....I'm not sure what the rules were or who won, but it was fun to watch none the less. Obviously we thought this would be a good time to kitesurf as it was windy....maybe not the best idea but oh well.

getting ready to launch...

all different shapes and sizes...

On getting to the beach, we were immediately approached by a television crew....I obviously pointed them towards Kim and walked away...and despite her best efforts at getting rid of them they were pretty adamant they wanted to film us for the piece. This involved us walking down the beach together and being approached by one of the festival organizers (who turned out to also be the chap who owned the local Bonsai garden that we walk through to the beach everyday) to talk to us about how great Sanur and the festival is. I was quite impressed that we managed to get this right in just 2 takes....I'm still not sure what was wrong with the first one though. They then proceeded to film us setting up the kites and heading out onto the water. Who knows whether we'll make the final cut!

Bonsai Winners!

We surfed for a bit, but the kite competition started getting a little hectic and I feared for our kites a little bit....some of these things are huge...made out of masses of wood and material...they would have destroyed our kites if they'd hit them...and on seeing them crash onto the beach and send people fleeing on multiple occasions we decided to call it a day.

The festival culminated yesterday in a big parade down the main street in Sanur. We were reliably informed this would begin at 3pm but when we were still waiting at 3:30pm we moved to the local pub, "The Piccadilly", that has an open air bar adjacent to the street....the parade finally came through about 5pm, by which point we were a little tipsy, but Kim managed to snap some photo's and I think it was quite impressive.

Today is our final day in Bali before we head to Thailand. It will be sad to leave...the people here are great and we've made friends at the hotel and also the local bar (the aforementioned "Picaddilly"!). My biggest surprise of all was how successful the kiting was (Kim constantly reminds me that it was her idea to come here and that she new the kiting would be good!). I don't believe there's many places in the world now where you can have consistent winds and still be the only ones out for most of the time.

We fly to a place call Ko Samui tomorrow, via Jakarta and Bangkok...I actually had no idea where it was until I just added it to the map....so here it is!

Oh and I haven't wanted to blag...but I'm now 2 games ahead....quite the comeback!

Goodbye Bali... remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

The obligatory "bemo" arrived on time and we managed to cram our bags inside and get in alongside a french couple and their three kids. It is funny how amazed people are by the fact that we appear to be traveling around the world with 2 sets of golf clubs....none more so than when we turned up at the port to get on the boat to a deserted little island in the middle of nowhere! I think it kept some people in conversation for the whole crossing....I was able to make out various comments between couples in French or Dutch that referred to "les body bags" or "crazshy englishe people"

At 8am we arrived at Pandang Bai, a small port on the west coast of Bali about an hour from Sanur. We "checked in" our bags and went off in search of breakfast as the boat didn't leave until 9am. We thought we had better getting something quick, so ordered a coffee and ham and cheese croissant....but in true Balinese style when they were finally delivered an hour later we were wolfing down the coffee and grabbing the croissants as we ran for the boat!

The "Gili Cat" is a 30 person boat...enclosed, with bench seats and three 100 horsepower engines that propels it to some 40 knots across the choppy waters between Bali and Lombok. After a particularly entertaining safety briefing, of which the only part I understood was the bit about "don't worry when the captain shouts JUMP JUMP JUMP three times we all jump at the same time and swim together" (and drown or get eaten by sharks together I heard Kim whisper to me) we were all set to go. We left on time at 9am and for the first 10 minutes enjoyed being bounced around and thrown off our seats as the captain found "full throttle" and just left it there. An hour later there was no noise coming from anyone on the boat and everyone seemed to have lost their suntan and turned a shade of green or white. It didn't help that it was also extremely hot. I think we were all relieved to finally see Lombok come into site. As we pulled into the port we could see the Gili's, which are three islands, off to the left. The boat dropped a few people off in Lombok and then took off again for the busiest of the islands Gili Trawangan.

After what was actually a very efficient crossing (if somewhat rough) and totally on time, we arrived at Gili Trawangan only to be reminded that things are never easy in this part of the world. The Gili Cat's outboard engines were "fixed" and as there was no jetty it couldn't get up to the beach. So it moored up about 20 feet from the shore. Seriously I could have probably walked in, and certain swam it in about 20 seconds. A wooden boat with retractable outboard engine was launched from the beach and pulled up alongside us, where we proceeded for the next 20 minutes to transfer all the bags from one boat to the next and then all the people who were told to sit along each side. That boat was then skillfully maneuvered (for the next 5 minutes) in a "U" turn before we set off on the 10.4 second boat journey to the beach...where people and bags were once again transfered from boat number 2 to the sand. This all probably sounds reasonable without a jetty, until you realize that the second boat, if turned lengthways was longer than the distance between the first boat and beach and could have just been used as a walkway!

We wasted no time in negotiating a ride to our intended destination, Gili Meno, which was the second island across. I say negotiated, when in fact three people offered the same price and wouldn't budge...anyway, we immediately got our own private ride for the 15 minute crossing.

We were dumped on the beach at Gili Meno where it quickly became apparent that there really wasn't anything there. You can walk around the circumference of the island in about an hour, and across the middle in less than 15 minutes. A coral reef circles the island and there are about 10 resorts up and down the east side. In the middle there are a few locals that live there (I believe I read the population was a couple of hundred)....and that's about it. No roads, no cars, no fresh water (just bottled), a lot of cats, and a few million chickens!

We decided it would be safe to leave the kite stuff on the beach and find somewhere to stay. After looking at a couple of places we finally decided on the grandly named "Royal Reef Resort". I'm not sure what was Royal about it, but it was 6 quite nice bungalows next to the beach. We grabbed the one right on the beach front....the photo shows it was quite basic....more gap than wall or roof, a bed with mosquito net, a salt water shower and sink, and the most useless fan I've ever encountered....but perfect for what we were after...especially as it wasn't far from where we got off the boat and I only had to haul the kite bags a short distance in 30+ degree heat.

I haven't really got a lot to write about our time there as we did very little (this was planned!). We invested in some snorkeling gear before we went which turned out to be a good call. We snorkeled every morning all round the island when the seas were calm, but found the highlight to be off the north east side. The reef extended out for a way and then dropped off to the sea floor about 30 meters below. The coral was unfortunately mainly dead due to blast fishing and storms, but the sea life was excellent. The highlight was probably the big turtles that we swam with on a couple of occasions....but also thousands of fish and other creatures that I have no idea what they were!

....oh and the jellyfish....Kim pointed this out the moment she put her head under the water for the first time....I tried to convince her that they weren't jellyfish, but the more there were the less convincing my argument became. She got stung a few times, but then took to wearing her rash guard and kite pants to snorkel in (see photo of her kiting in last blog entry!). This pretty much restricted stings to hands, although she did get a nasty one on the arm the first day, I'll give her that.

I did not have kite pants.....and got stung lots. I also read in the guide book that July and August is the season for the "Portuguese Man O War" (look it up, it's savage!) to be found in these parts. I'm pretty convinced that's what got me on multiple occasions.....Kim is less convinced and keeps telling me to get over it!

We spent four nights there and it was excellent....so quiet (are we getting old?)...apart from the chickens....why is it that there are so many but you can't get decent chicken to eat anywhere?

As we had to get back to Gili Trawangan to pick up the boat we decided to head there a day early and spend the night there. We negotiated a boat ride with the hotel owner to get over there. The waves were big that morning though and he couldn't get the boat up to the front of the hotel and had to dock on the west coast. There was no way I was carrying the kite bags round there, so to Kim's dismay we used one of the pony and carts that are the standard form of transport on the island. Little ponies pulling wooden 2 wheel carts. I have to admit they don't look very well cared for, all skin and bones, which is a little sad....and I did feel a little bit bad when we loaded two 50 pound kite bags, kim, me, the driver, the hotel owner and a girl who was hitching a lift over to snorkel on the other side, onto the back of the tiny cart....I also have to admit I had the camera poised and ready as I was convinced the pony was going straight up in the air with the weight we had on the cart at the back. I guess thankfully this didn't happen and somehow we all made it to the boat launch and across to Trawangan.

Trawangan is a nightmare. It has gained a reputation as a "party island" but is basically a big dusty rubbish dump full of drunk (or worse) people. It was not a nice place and we pretty much locked ourselves in the hotel room and watched movies until the boat left the next morning.

The return journey was a mirror of the outward leg (including ridiculous beach to boat transfer) but on time, slightly less bumpy and all went smoothly. We are back in Sanur, once again at the great "Little Pond Homestay"....highly recommended if you're ever here! 2 weeks before we go say goodbye to Bali and head to Thailand! The wind forecast is good from Monday onwards.

The Gili's remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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me - 12m Naish Helix on a custom made 135cm Amundson directional board
Kim - 9m Naish Shockwave on a Lightwave 132cm Freestyle board

wind - averaging 12 to 14 knots

I have to admit I haven't been too good at taking photo's and video, all my shots have come out terrible...however here's a brief clip of Kim riding with me filming from the water and also from the kite cam.

...Kiting Sanur Continued... remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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This may be a boring post for most as since we got back from Singapore the wind has been consistent and the tide high, so we've been getting a lot of kiting in....but I thought I'd write an entry about it!

The winds got stronger and stronger all week. The first couple of days were pretty light, but enough to get practice runs in for Kim and for me to mess about. Later in the week, it was perfect.

First the bad...I did have a close call that woke me up and made me be a bit more careful. I have been trying to work on some new tricks that require unhooking from the harness and taking all the weight on the arms and bar while performing jumps and spins.

When it goes wrong (quite often at the moment) it goes wrong pretty spectacularly! This isn't a problem if you're far from shore as you're still attached to the kite by a long leash meaning you maybe get dragged around a bit in the water and end up with a lot of water in your nasal passages, but that's about it! However on one run, I cut it too fine, too close to shore....unhooked, realized I was way overpowered, but couldn't let go as the kite was almost over the beach....panicking a bit, I just pulled the bar in the opposite direction to the beach and as the kite went over the top to point out to sea, I shot up about 20 feet in the air....at which point I couldn't hold on any longer and let go of the bar...and plummeted 20 feet in the opposite direction...down...into about a foot of water. I managed to engage the "spread out as wide as possible and land flat" pose, slapping down onto the water without hitting the bottom....at which point the kite slapped down about a foot in front of me.

I grabbed the kite and walked up onto the beach, with my best "I meant to do that" face on....no harm done...and a lesson learnt not to try things to close to shore! I have since been improving!

Anyway, here's some random video of how not to do a trick....

...and here's a slightly more successful version....

Kim is getting better and better every outing and progressing very quickly....I even saw an attempt at a transition the other day (turning around without flopping down into the water and starting again), which she almost pulled off....next time I'm sure. She manages to get her fair share of bumps and scrapes and drags through the water along the way, but never the less seems to be enjoying it judging by the laughing and shrieking that can be heard from the shore!

I kited out beyond the reef yesterday. It's a little sketchy as it's very shallow and you have to negotiate your way through the coral and rocks and sometimes huge breaking waves, but once you're through those it's fine. I had spent some time sitting on the beach at low tide (when there's no water), working out where the big rocks were, after my last mishap of hitting one. Once you're through the breakers, the waters fairly calm, a little choppy, but that's it. It's then possible to get some scary wave rides back in over the reef....not a place to mess up and fall!

in the lagoon on the inside the water is so flat and smooth....it's fun just getting up so much speed and bombing along up and down the coast taking in the view.

We have seen 3 or 4 other kites out this last week, although way south of where we are...I suspect the odd holiday maker. One young girl came over to us the other day to see if she could kite with us for a while....she was there with her non kiting friend for a couple of days. Turns out Hayling Island is her regular spot....small world and sport (for those that don't know, this is where I learnt in the UK). There are quite a few windsurfers out (when I say quite a few, maybe 6 or 7!)...looks like local kids, maybe 10 or 11 years old, who rip back and forth on the oldest gear I can remember. They're very good though. Other than those, the odd outrigger canoe and the 2 terrible jet ski's that get rented out for 30 dollars for 15 minutes (Kim and I are working on ways of disabling them without anyone being able to fix them), we have the whole area to ourselves.

On Monday we up and leave for the Gili Islands for 5 nights. These are 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok (the next major island over), which involve a 2 hour boat journey and island hop to get to. We have picked Gili Meno, the smallest of the 3 and supposedly the quietest....the guide book informs me you can walk around the coast of it in less than an hour and that it's extremely quiet with nothing to do but lay on the beach, snorkel and....well that's it. We thought as it is low tide again next week, we were due a vacation. "Extremely quiet...", well I hope so, but I don't believe that there won't be a cockerel or rooster waking us up at 6am every morning as there seems to have been at every other place we've stayed! It will also be nice to (hopefully) get away from the cries of "transport?", "massage?" or "you looky in my shop?" every time you walk down the street!

Kitesurfing Sanur remains copyright of the author msmitheman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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