Philippines

Finally, the last leg of our trip was in the Philippines. This part of the trip was 7 days spend in Panabo, about 1hr north of Davao, the biggest city on the Island Mindinao, which is the biggest island in the Philippines (did you catch all that?).  This was not a travel and be a tourist trip as the rest of our travelling had been. I have visited this area a number of times over the past 10 years, including a 3 month visit back in the summer of 05/06. The original intent was for Hannah and I to only spend a few nights there as a visit and to say hi to old friends. However, this changed as we found out that some other friends where planning on doing a short term trip there. We decided to extend our stay for a week (they were there for 2 weeks) and join in on the activities!

Largely, our time involved working with kids, putting on feedings, and preaching/sharing. The feedings were in areas of very high poverty, where the children were not always guaranteed a good meal each day. I also had good opportunities to share with everyone how my health has been doing, as they had heard about it, but not in detail. They have been keeping Hannah and I in their prayers over the last year, which is always encouraging.

Getting the food ready to feed the kids.

The 7 nights here were the longest we had stayed in a single bed for our entire trip, so it was nice to settle down somewhere for a bit, but I definitely had the travel bug again by the time we had to leave. We then hit Bangkok with a ridiculously short changeover of flights (we cut it real close) in Singapore, and 2 nights later began the 13th flight home to NZ.

Photos from the Philippines can be found here.

Laos

We spent 5 nights total in Laos. The original plan as per the itinerary was to hit southern Laos via Cambodia, but as time unfolded, it became clear that we had taken on a fairly ambitious timetable that was rapidly running out of time. So, in the end, we decided to take a plane from Siem Reap to Vientiane flying Laos Airlines. Laos Airlines incidentally are one of the few airlines in the world that keep their safety record out of the public eye….. hmmm….

We were told by an australian and british couple that we met in Hoi An, Vietnam, that Vientiane was not too much to get excited about, so with that in mind, we arrived at 8pm at night, and departed at about 7.30am the next morning for a 12 hr bus ride up to Luang Prabang.

The bus ride was officially the worst bus ride ever!! Two hours into the trip, we came upon a bridge that had dropped away at one side, which meant no buses or heavy trucks could get past. So… wait…. wait… and more waiting, for the bus doing the reverse journey occupied the next 8 hours of our day. at 5.30pm, we finally got on the bus heading north, about 30 min before dark. We were starting to make contingency plans just in case we had been left in the middle of the laotion jungle overnight! We made it into Luang Prabang at a bright 3.30am.

Elephant Riding in Luang Prabang

The next 4 nights were in Luang Prabang, which is a really nice little French colonial town in the middle of northern Laos. It was relaxed and scenic, one of the location highlights of all our travels. We went elephant riding with a company that rescues them out of forestry work and rehabilitates them, the first company we felt treats them properly. We ate, we slept, we wined, and we dined….. all chilled out and ready for northern Thailand, the next leg.

Photos from Laos can be found here.

Cambodia

Cambodia was a country that was really split into two parts. There was the Phnom Penh part, which involved the killing fields and the Teul Sleng museum (also known as S21), and the Siem Reap part, which was all about the old cites of Angkor.

We spent 2 nights in Phnom Penh, at a guest house we found out was patronised by Elton John 1 year earlier, and visited the killing fields and S 21 on the same day. It was kinda surreal to see the site of such a huge atrocity, that has been made infamous on a global scale. 2 million Cambodians died during Pol Pots regime, which is 1 in 5. The population dropped from 10 million to 8 million in 3 years. At the killing fields, they have exhumed a large number of the graves, but have left the rest to lie in peace. There is a giant monument there that is filled with the bones of the exhumed bodies that is meant to be a reminder to the world of the atrocities that happened, and to serve as a warning to not let it happen again.

The S21 museum/former prison is where the regime used to take prisoners and ‘interogate’ them in order to get confessions of subversion. The neighbours at the time report hearing blood curdling screams through the night as the prisoners were tortured, and then taken to the killing fields for their execution. The prison used to be an elementary school that was converted. Pol Pot’s regime did not believe in education and shut down all the schools during his time.

After the history of Phnom Penh, we moved on up to Siem Reap, where its all about Angkor, and the temples there. The most famous one being Angkor Wat. We got a 3 day pass and a driver and hit them hard, so much so that we skipped the 3rd day. It is a SERIOUSLY big place, with SO many temples and ruins. We figured that by the end of the 2nd day, when everything started to blur, and I had taken something like 400 photos, that the 3rd day really wasnt going to add anything to the trip. So, we spent the final day relaxing in Siem reap, and getting our feet pedicured by fish.

Feet Pedicure

Photos of Cambodia can be found here: Photos of Cambodia

Vietnam

Vietnam was simultaneously a crazy place and a charming one. We arrived in Hanoi and caught an official Vietnam airlines minibus to take us to our guest house. We were the last couple on the bus, and then this guy gets on claiming to be from the hotel and says that it is actually overbooked and we should go to another one. We were skeptical…. and after and awful lot of arguing, and rightly so, we got off the bus and walked, and found out we were at least 3km from our supposed location. Once we got to our actual hotel, our room was ready and waiting for us.

So we started Vietnam off with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths, feeling somewhat hacked off about these guys that just outright try to scam you with what seems to be no conscience at all.

We spent two nights in Hanoi, which definitely grew on me, it has quite a charm, followed by an overnight train to Sapa. One night in Sapa and an overnight train back to Hanoi was followed by a 2 day, 1 night tour of Halong Bay. Our original booking was cancelled (we found out on the morning of the tour) due to a broken down boat, but the company put us on another tour at their cost which was much better, so in the end it was a really great experience.

After Halong Bay it was another overnight train to Hoi An, the land of over 400 tailors, for 4 nights, followed by a short but ultra cheap flight from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City. We had two nights in Ho Chi Minh before heading off to Pnomh Penh in Cambodia by bus.

That was our 11 days in Vietnam. The favourite was probably Hoi An, even though it was flooding at the time, it was a town like no other in Asia, and had a real charm about it.

You can see the photos of Vietnam here: Photos of Vietnam.

Thailand

The first segment (and subsequently 5th and 8th segments) of our trip was in Thailand before heading around Asia.  We pretty much followed the itinerary shown with a few small exceptions, and with the addition of the Philippines and Singapore.

Itinerary

On our travels, Hannah and I visited Thailand on 3 different occasions. We started with a week at Koh Samui, at the Hutcha Resort (on recommendation from one of our friends), then 2 days in Bangkok before heading to Vietnam. We then returned at the end and spent 4 days in Chiangmai in the north, and finally another 2 days in Bangkok after the Philippines.

The week at Koh Samui ended up only being 5 nights, which was fine. We decided to leave a night earlier to get to Vietnam earlier, only to discover (after we had bought the flights) that our visa didnt kick in till a day later. This meant an extra night in Bangkok, and having to buy new flights. We were flying Air Asia, which dont do refunds or transfers.

So, from an original 600+ photos from Thailand, I have managed to whittle them down to a manageable 161 and stuck them on Facebook. You can seem them here: Photos from Thailand

Melbourne Here I Come!!

I am writting this post from the unexpected location of emirates flight EK407 to Melbourne. Right now we are about 2 hours into the flight.
The story began earlier today where I had arranged to go out for coffee with nigel now that I’m beginning to feel better after the first week of chemo. From there we went to the airport under the pretense of dropping off a bag for someone who was in transit from Sydney to chch, which I believed. Then, by strange coincidence hannah turned up at the airport with some packed bags for me!! Long story short, nigel and I are off to Melbourne to see the melbourne grand prix. The return flights are for Monday evening, after 3 days of F1 and V8 supercar madness!!

So, not entirely sure there will be much blogging over the next few days, but I’ll try to post some mobile pics on facebook as we go, although I hate to think how much the data roaming rates are gonna cost.

Anyway, peace out to the rest of you who won’t be in Melbourne this weekend.

I shal leaveyou with my view of flight EK407.

The trip Hannah and I never quite had….

Wadi Rum in Jordan – We felt a little over dressed for the occaision.. it was pretty hot.

The Dead Sea – ahhhh the memories…

Mt Sinai – We climbed up it early in the morning to catch the sunrise

The Egyptian Pyramids – Again, overdressed I think.

Summit of Mt Kilimanjaro – This was HARD work, but we got there in the end, quite remarkable given the lack of legs i think.

These photos were put together by our friends Dan and Tarryn, whom we were supposed to be travelling with prior to the whole surgical/cancer incident. You’ll notice the finger in the corner of some of them, they laminated the picture and took photos at different locations. Top effort I’d say.