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Tuesday 31st Jan – Tuesday 7th Feb: Bhutan
After a very average night at an airport hotel in Delhi, on 31st January we arrived in Darjeeling/Bagdogra by plane from Delhi and had a 6 hour drive to the Bhutanese land border at Phuentsoling. Immigration on the Indian side was interesting; we arrived at the office and signed in with the armed sentry only to enter a deserted office. Eventually after sending said armed sentry to retrieve the immigration officer from his chai across the road we filled in the relevant paperwork and drove another 10 minutes into Bhutan to the very average Wild Orchid (retro Mickey Rourke, anyone?) hotel where our fantastic guide Kemey met us to sort out our Bhutan-side immigration forms.
The next morning we started the long drive on winding roads up to the capital Thimpu at 2300m. Lunch was at a roadside restaurant – possibly our best food of the whole trip as it included my favourite – momos:
Yum!
On arrival at Thimpu we did some minor sightseeing – the Memorial Stupa and a visit to a sanctuary for the national animal the Takin:
and a short visit to the town itself with the beautiful clocktower in the square:
and our first real experience of the traditional architecture:
The traditional architecture is protected by the king and government – all new buildings must conform so even new office buildings, car showrooms etc as well as homes have the beautiful carved and painted woodwork. As well as ensuring that the landscape and cityscapes are not spoilt by inappropriate architecture and development this also ensures that the traditional skills of woodwork, carving, painting etc are maintained, and ensures employment for the artisans trained in these skills. We later learned that vocational education is available for anyone who does not progress to further academic education, and this vocational education includes these skills, so that this one mandate covers a multitude of benefits; employment, cultural preservation and of course maintaining the uniqueness that draws in tourists. Very smart, and part of the now famous Gross National Happiness initiative. We highly recommend looking into the above link on GNH and following the references – it’s the kind af alternate measure of success that the Acampada movements in Spain and the subsequent Occupy movements all over the world have been trying to promote.
Finally we checked into the charming Peaceful Resort for the night:
Cosy heated room
Huge comfy bed
Chilly but lovely view from the balcony!
After breakfast the next morning Randall had a bit of a runaround on our transport for the next few days:
The classic Royal Enfield Bullet.
Rrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmm!
Quality model name.
Given that I have always been terrified of motorbikes and don’t even like going on the back of people’s scooters I was a bit nervous – this was definitely a ‘for Randall’ bit of the holiday. However it turned out that I LOVED being on the bike (as a pillion) as the two things that scare me about bikes – speed and traffic – just weren’t issues; there is hardly any traffic and you can’t go above about 25mph on most of the roads because of the conditions, so it was just great!
Amazing moment, cresting the Dorchula Pass at 3100m to be presented with snowcapped mountains and the 108 stupas built there.
The stupas at the top of the Dorchula pass:
From the Dorchula pass it was a couple of hours drive with our support vehicle, the tour mini-bus with driver and guide plus luggage, alternately following and leading, to the fertility temple on the way to Punakha where we had our lunch stop:
After lunch we called in at the Fortress at Punakha where we learned about the traditional structure of these fortresses – half administrative and half religious, to reflect the structure of the country.
Finally, exhausted, we arrived at our stop for the night, the Punatsangchhu cottages where after an early dinner we crashed out (we blame the altitude!).
The next morning it was back on the bike and off to another fortress, this one under construction, which was actually really interesting as we got to see some of the techniques used to build in the traditional style.
Huge posts being carved by artisans
Details of carvings
Woodcarver
Careful carving
Painting the wood.
Carpentry workshops set up for the renovations.
Traditional building without nails, just well put together wooden joints.
Scary bandsaw with a large plank about to be pushed through.
On the way to lunch we had an unscheduled stop because of a rock fall blocking the road. We had to wait for the digger to clear it!
jk
After about 20 minutes we were able to pass (presumably the queue of about 20 vehicles on the other side had been waiting longer) and have lunch before driving on to Gangtey:
Gateway to Gangtey town
where we visited the monastery before heading off on a short nature hike across the Phobjika Valley to see the rare and endangered Black Necked Cranes whose habitat is being preserved in Bhutan to the extent that the electricity supply to the local villages was delayed until the cables could be buried instead of going overhead. Lessons to be learned by certain parties in Mid Wales.
At our hotel that night we were the only guests. We were charmed by the wood burner heater in our room, and even more so by the hot water bottles they provided us with!
The next day was a long bike back to Thimpu in the sunshine:
then a short drive to Paro where we lodged for the next 3 nights at Khangkhu Resort.
The next day was a slow and careful snow and ice laden drive up to the Chelela Pass, the highest motorable road in Bhutan at 3988m:
From here we hiked for 45 mins or so up a ridge amongst windblown prayer-flags for stunning 360 degree views of the valleys to either side.
On top of the world!
Stream crossing the road – solid ice!
Randall has to check that it really *is* frozen…
After lunch in Paro we called in at a ruined monastery, Drukgyal Dzong:
Before an early night for an early start on the Tiger’s Nest hike:
It’s a LONG way up!
Tea stop half way.
The hike isn’t as scary as it looks although it is tough because of the altitude (up to 3200m). The path winds steeply up the mountainside across from the monastery, then there is a steep staircase down into the gap between the two mountains and up again to the monastery itself.
The path goes down and around the mountainside on the left and then climbs steeply up the mountainside up to the back of the monastery.
Looking across from one mountainside to the other.
Nearly there!
Waterfall dropping onto snow, spraying us with mini snowballs as we crossed the bridge between the two mountainsides.
About to start the ascent to the monastery.
Pleased with self – halfway back down tea break.
After a final fortress visit, we relaxed with cake and wine on the balcony of our hotel room before dinner in town with our fabulous guide Kemey then an early night for our 5.30am start flight to Kolkata. Bye bye Bhutan! We’ll be back!
Rest of photos are here.
Thursday 26th – Monday 30th January: Jodhpur
After deciding it was too much hassle to try and visit the Kumbalgarh Wildlife Reserve (mainly because the hotels failed to get back to us or were really hard to get to) we headed straight to Jodhpur by car, arriving a day earlier than originally planned so without a reservation. We called the place we had booked for the next few days and they said they might have a no-show so we turned up at Singhvi’s Haveli and had a beer on the roof terrace while they tried to contact their missing person.
The Blue City (Jodhpur Old City) from our guest house roof terrace.
Merangarh Fort, Jodpur, from our guest house roof terrace.
Looking down from the roof terace at the various courtyards of the Haveli.
Unfortunately the people turned up so we had to spend a night in the rather crappy ‘Veggi Guest House’ next door, but we came back to Singhvi’s for dinner and then breakfast the next morning, enjoying a leisurely coffee while they got our room ready. After a couple of hours of logistics stuff – trying (and failing) to buy advance train tickets out of the tourist quota (Oh – the Byzantine workings of Indian Railways!), paying in over 20,000 rupees in cash to a bank to pay for the Vineyard visit as they wouldn’t take credit card over the phone, and trying (and failing once more) to get Airtel Customer Service to sort my phone service out, we felt we deserved a rest so stopped for a late lunch at the legendary Omelette Shop:
The Omelette Man
Happy Omelettes.
On Saturday morning we were up early to have breakfast in the lovely restaurant at our guest house before hiking up to the fort for some crazy ziplining around the fort and ramparts with Flying Fox Asia:
Singhvi’s Haveli – restaurant.
Beautiful sari silk decorations.
Zipping with a great view.
Randall about to take off.
One of our group coming in to land.
The green dot is a slightly terrified Helen.
Phew! That’s over!
Climbing the steep slope to the Palace in Mehrangarh fort.
It’s a long way up!
Stopped for a rest on a canon.
Randall and the Elephant-proof door.
Incredibly intricately carved ‘jali’ screens that are so detailed that they look like carved sandalwood but are actually stone.
Detail of a ‘jali’ the carved screens through which women in purdah would observe the court activities.
Randall doing his best impression of a Rajput princess peeking through the jali at the court activities below.
Beautiful glass inlay and stained glass windows.
On Sunday we went on a trip out of town to visit local artisans and farmers:
Potter throwing incredibly delicate pots and lids on a hand turned heavy stone wheel, turned with the stick on the left.
Small child fixing the missing wheels on his toy car using bottle tops. Future mechanic or engineer?
Extra-large turban tied expecially for Randall (11 metres of fabric!)
Incredible hand-loomed carpets at Roopraj Durry collective.
The durry collective was especially interesting as they formed the co-operative 11 years ago after deciding they were not getting a good deal from the exporters working as middlemen. They have been very successful, mainly because their durries are so beautiful. I will be saving my pennies for a 1200 stitch/sq in, silk, room-sized durry (around £800 a bargain at 2 months work for 2 people ). Even more interesting is that they have been using solar power for their electric light for over 8 years after subsidised small solar panels being provided by the government of Rajasthan.
Some of the exquisite finished products.
After the trip we had a late and long lunch on the terrace at Indique:
Overlooking the clocktower, central Jodhpur, at Indique, the rooftop restaurant at the Pal Haveli hotel.
Sunday 22nd – Wednesday 25th January: Udaipur
We arrived into Udaipur City train station at 6.15 am and were met by the driver and escort from the Taj Lake Palace hotel, who drove us to the Taj Lake Palace jetty where we were ferried over the lake to the Palace itself and sprinkled with rose petals on entering reception, all of which was very romantic even if we were still a bit bleary after about 4 hours sleep.
As we were so early they put us into a – quite lovely – temporary room where we could nap and shower – we watched the dawn through the window:
before breakfasting in the beautiful breakfast room, where we managed to snag one of the best tables, in a little cupola/turret over the lake:
At midday we were escorted to our surprise room upgrade to a suite – glorious and a lovely surprise indeed!
View across to the City Palace from our suite.
Outrageous 8-9 foot long chandelier in the main room of our suite.
Lounging on the big, comfortable bed.
What could she be scrutinising so carefully?
Ahhh that would be it. “Your Butler and You”.
The glorious formal gardens.
Beautiful hotel!
Heated pool, with spa tubs in the cupolas in the corners.
Sunset from one of the bars of the Lake Palace.
Sunset over the lake.
Sunrise from our suite.
In the morning after breakfast I had a lovely massage in the Jiva spa before we had to sadly pack our things (one night was enough for our budget, athough we’ll be saving our pennies from now to be able to stay for a week!). A boat back to the Taj Jetty and a taxi took us to our next hotel:
Rooftop pool (unheated!) at Hotel Chunda Palace.
The next hotel laboured under the unfortunate name of the Hotel Chunda Palace; we had selected it using Tripadvisor when the Oberoi Udaivilas couldn’t accommodate our changed travel dates (that’s one to get back to for sure!) and knew it wouldn’t be quite the same standard but it did have some good reviews and sounded rather nice.
In many ways it *was* rather nice – quite beautiful with a lovely roof terrace and intricately hand-painted walls and ceilings throughout, however the service was comedy Fawlty Towers – I won’t go into the details but you can see my Tripadvisor review here:
Still, we were there to relax so while I did have fun chasing them up on all kinds of things I didn’t get stressed, and even had a chat with the Duty Manager about the things that were done well vs the things that were…errrrr….not. (Oh, and we got free puddings both days to make up for things going wrong, so fair play!).
One of the interesting things was deciding to try the Indian-made Sparkling Wine which we really enjoyed, and we have now booked a 2-night visit to the winery.
Chin-chin!l
Beautiful glass inlay work on the walls – reception.
Incredible handpainted walls.
The entire hotel was decorated like this!
After 2 days of lazing around (and NOT swimming in the supposedly but not actually heated indoor pool never mind the rooftop pool) we moved to a guest house in town for our last night to be near everything, and did a day of sightseeing and watching all the preparations for Republic Day the following day.
Gangaur Ghat gate, next to Tiger Guest House
Rather lovely mission statement of the ‘Eternal Mewar‘ foundation of the Udaipur Royal Family.
Given that they are apparently the oldest surviving dynasty in the world (unbroken since 734 AD) we were quite delighted that the first exhibition in the City Palace Museum, before the main entrance, was of the foundation’s experiments in and sponsorship of solar powered vehicles:
The City Palace is still lived in by the Udaipur royal family. Other parts of it are now 5* hotels, the Shiv Niwas and the Fateh Prakash, and then there is the Museum part.
Detail of the inlay and paintwork of the palace.
Looking down into one of the courtyards at the preparations for Republic Day.
After about 2 hours in the Palace Museum we took the boat trip on the lake, which was frankly a bit underwhelming although included a stop-off on Jagmandir island, the ‘other’ island with a hotel on it.
Elephants at the jetty on Jagmandir Island.
Once we were back on land again we thought we would go for ‘English High Tea’ at the Fateh Prakash as it had been recommended – however it was served in the (deserted) indoor restaurant not the lake terrace bar which seemed a waste, and we couldn’t even have a cocktail in the terrace bar as it was closed (something to do with the Republic Day stuff) so that was a disappointment – instead we found the outdoor bar at the Shiv Niwas (around the pool not facing the lake so not really the same) and had a rather expensive and very average lunch – food splotches on the placemats, the menus and the napkins, and cheap, nasty thick glasses for the sparkling wine – definitely NOT 5*!
Pool bar, Shiv Niwas. Pretty but a bit crap.
Final stop of the day was the Mansapurna Karni Mata Ropeway for sunset – auto-rickshaw to get there, then we splashed out on the ‘couple ticket’ where you pay for 4 seats in the smallest cabin of the cable-car to get it to yourself, instead of being squished in with loads of people:
Sunset.
Finally we took a rickshaw to the Vintage Car museum where Randall ooh-ed and aah-ed over the Udaipur royal family’s cars from as far back as the 1920s, from Mercs and Rollers to a Morris Traveller and an Austin Cambridge.
Then it was back to our guest house for beers on the terrace watching the city lights before bed.
Early start helped by breakfast on the terrace the next day before taking a car service (slackers!) to Jodhpur.
The roof of our guest house, right on the lakeside, in town.
Our driver stopped the car to point out this mountain that looks like…? (Answers on a postcard / in a comment!)
The rest of the photos are here:
Thursday 19th – Saturday 21st January: Pushkar
From our Jaipur hostel we managed to squeeze both of us, a Brazilian girl called Luana and all our luggage into an auto-rickshaw to the bus station, quite a feat. The three tickets for us to get to Ajmer (the direct bus to Pushkar was full with a wedding party, apparently!) cost 311 rupees, which was interesting given that it is a prime number, but whatever, it was a bargain.
The bus ride took about 4 hours and was a little alarming, but it was interesting to compare the new toll highways with the old, poorly maintained roads that passed through towns – I’m pretty sure that the last time I did the journey in 1994 it was all the latter. Interestingly, when stopping to pick up passengers our bus driver was still happy to stop in the middle lane of a 3 lane highway. Which was nice.
At Ajmer station we were mobbed by taxi/rickshaw/hotel touts but Luana and I headed out of the station and negotiated a good rate for a shared taxi while Randall minded the bags – these things are so much easier with 3! On arrival in Pushkar Luana decided to take a room at the same hostel as us which pleased the owners as we had brought them extra business!
The central courtyard of our hostel.
Breakfast on the terrace at the hostel.
Sunshine Breakfast.
After sorting out all our check-in business, doing some minor tech support for the hostel owner (helping him update his Hostelworld.com page) and handing over our laundry we headed for food at the Sixth Sense cafe, marvelling at their cunning pulley system for delivering food from the kitchen on the ground floor to the terrace cafe on the 3rd floor.
The next day we went for a wonder around the town and watched the sunset from a rooftop cafe:
Dilapidated and seemingly abandoned beautiful building. And Helen. And Cow.
An oasis in the desert…
The Brahma temple, seen across the lake and behind the Pushkar Lake Palace Hotel
The ‘holy’ lake.
Sunset over the lake
Sunset
Chill out cafe, great for watching the sunset (although not quite Cafe del Mar)
The ORIGINAL chill out cafe, of course!
In this cafe we discovered a bizarre pudding called ‘Hello to the Queen‘ which on investigation seems to be a regular on the backpackers circuit, although no-one seems to know where it originated. I’m guessing some stoned twonk with munchies…crumbled biscuits, chopped bananas, chocolate sauce and ice cream. A mystery, but Randall liked it (I picked out the bananas and pretended it was chocolate cheesecake)/
On our last day we got up early (well, 7am) to do the steep hike up to the Saraswati temple on a hill above the town:
The start of the hike.
On our way back into town we stopped at the ‘Last Base Camp’ cafe where some other customers persuaded us to try Sandeep’s 11-herb/spice ayurvedic tea which turned out to be rather nice, containing 2 types of cardamom, cumin, anise, basil, pepper, ginger and other stuff (nothing naughty, he promised!):
Sandeep’s ‘Last Base Camp’ cafe, home of the ‘Magic Pinch’
The magic of the pinch!
After breakfasting and lazing around in the sun on our hostel’s terrace for the rest of the morning and early afternoon we wandered through town again and bagszied a spot a the ‘Sunset Cafe’ to watch our final Pushkar sunset:
Sunset last evening
Sunset Cafe
Then it was back to the hotel for a nap before the 11pm taxi to Ajmer for the 00.30 train to Udaipur, on which we shared a 4-berth first class AC compartment with an extremely loud snorer of an Indian chap.
Monday 16th – Wednesday 18th January: Jaipur
I remembered (vaguely, from 1994 being there with Neil) that Jaipur was horribly hectic, and on arrival at the train station on the early Shatabdi from Delhi it seemed so. After a few minutes of dithering (I had booked a hostel, but Randall was feeling unwell so I thought we should go somewhere more upscale) we sat down at a roadside caff or dhaba to figure out what to do.
Several cups of chai and some REALLY good food later:
Food – the answer to so many problems!
we decided to stick to the original plan. A glance at Google Maps and confirmation from the dhaba-wallah told us that it was a 10 minute walk through some of the narrow, non-car streets so we set off.
On arrival we were pleasantly surprised at the beautifully decorated hostel, set back from the road with a small courtyard, and the super friendly owners who checked us in and showed us to our room on the first floor which even had a small balcony!
Randall outside the reception of our lovely hostel in Jaipur.
Reception. Note the beautiful hand-painted walls.
Details of the walls, ceilings and door frame paintings.
Traditional Rajasthani puppet guarding the door.
Painted glass in the stairwells.
Rooftop terrace of the hostel.
Rooftop terrace of the hostel.
Rooftop terrace of the hostel.
The next day we took ourselves off on a walking tour of the walled city, which was as mayhem-like as I remembered. The first stop was the beautiful Hawa Mahal – the palace of the winds:
View of Amber from the top of the Hawa Mahal
Doing my best bollywood film impression
Next up was the Jaipur Jantar Mantar – built after the Delhi one and generally agreed to be the best preserved and most complete of the 5 built by Jai Singh.
Randall having a rest on a measuring instrument
After the JM and it’s appalling audio guide (the Hawa Mahal one was really good, and we’d decided we liked them after the amazing one at the Killing Fields museum in Cambodia) we decided we were touristed out and deserved lunch, so took an auto-rickshaw back to our hotel and then walked to ‘our’ dhaba again for a very late lunch.
The rickshaw driver – like everyone else who thinks they might be able to get some more business from you – asked the classic ‘where are you from’ questions, and when we said ‘England’ (UK or Wales get completely blank looks) immediately yelled “I’M Alan Partridge! Ah HAAAA”. Which was surprising. Apparently one of his customers (proudly displayed in his rickshaw ‘visitors book’) had described him as Alan Partidge and he’d adopted the name having never actually seen the show. We laughed.
Our rickshaw-driver’s meter – possibly the only ‘functioning’ one in Jaipur if not India?? Showing the ‘Indian’ fare: at this point 5 Rupees and 10 Paisa, although I haven’t seen a Paisa coin since 1994. Needless to say (and fair enough), tourists pay about 5-10 time this amount!
Dhaba-wallah
Chapati-wallah
Dhaba fan.
After eating until it was dark we headed back to our hotel as it was COLD (in the desert at night) and watched a film while snuggling under the blankets in bed. Hooray for holidays!
The next morning we took a tour to the Amber Fort/Palace in a taxi (we thought about taking a rickshaw but it would have been rather chilly and quite far at 12km) – I vaguely again remember going there with Neil but didn’t remember much about it except that now it is much more organised and more things are closed off to the public. Again there was an excellent audioguide. We were, however, a bit distressed by the elephants that spend all day plodding up and down the hill to the fort with howdahs and tourists on their back; they did not pass the ‘healthy elephant check’ that we learned in Thailand at Patara – we think they were very dehydrated and sad 😦
The palace/fort was beautiful though; I was reminded of a bigger but less well preserved Alhambra:
The Fort, taken from the approach road
Randall and the Diwan-i-Am
Elephant head detail on the Diwan-i-Am
Formal gardens – if you’ve been you’ll see what I mean about the Alhambra
Randall on the cloister/walkway area around the gardens. Apparently the technology/architecture employed to ensure airflow even in the height of the desert summer was incredibly sophisticated.
Detail of the Zenana
Sheesh Mahal, Diwan-i-Khas
Detail of Sheesh Mahal
Palace on the lake near Amber – no longer inhabited, sadly.
Randall posing, lake palace in background.
After eating lunch in our favourite dhaba again we had a little wander about the area around our hotel, bought some fruit from a roadside seller, and headed back to our hotel to watch the final BBC Sherlock Holmes on iPlayer. Technology – it’s great.
The rest of the photos are here.
Saturday 14th – Sunday 15th January: Delhi
We arrived in Delhi in the early hours of Saturday morning so Saturday was a pretty uneventful day of a bit of a lie in, a leisurely breakfast on a roof terrace in Paharganj, then traipsing around Connaught Place getting a replacement iPhone for Randall as he managed to drop his into the workings of his flat-bed seat on the plane and grind it into pieces., as well as getting SIM cards sorted which turned out to be one of those classic ‘more complex than it needs to be’ transactions requiring photos, which had to be taken in the photo studio down the street, which took 15 minutes to process them (and this after, in the rather Heath Robinson studio upstairs, the photographer had asked me to ‘clean face’ as I was apparently too shiny for the camera).
We had dinner of dhal, rice, veggies and parathas plus a few beers at Paharganj staple ‘Sam’s Rooftop Terrace’ , then after wandering the length of Main Bazaar we called into ‘My Bar’ for another couple:
On Sunday morning we rose in time for breakfast in another rooftop cafe overlooking the bonkersness of Paharganj…auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, the odd car, the odd cow and people people people competing for space and attention. Then it was off in an auto-rickshaw to the Jantar Mantar – our rickshaw driver was quite mad; swerving up to other vehicles to shout at their occupants, but he made me laugh a LOT when we passed a small minibus with some naff western hippy hanging out of the window – all dirty dreads and grubby ‘I”m *spiritual* maaaaaaaan’ robes – and our driver practically pranged the bus so he could yell ‘NICE HAIR, MAN!!!’ at him before veering off across the traffic in the other direction. *Smirk*.
The Jantar Mantar looks like a sculpture park but is actually a series of astronomical measuring instruments built in 1724:
The gnomon of a huge sundial, accurate to within several seconds.
Posing in front of a clock that tells the time in Delhi, Zurich and Tokyo.
Instrument for determining detailed astronomical information for astrological purposes, ie for calculating birth charts based on detailed star sign info.
Samrat Yantra (the big sundial) from another angle.
Part of instrument for measuring azimuth of celestial bodies:
Clever, no?
Peering through one of the arches.
From the Jantar Mantar we walked to the nearest metro station on the Delhi Metro – I was SO excited about this as I had been finding it hard to imagine what a metro/underground/subway system would be like in India. As it turns out, busy, efficient, clean, modern and cheap; women only carriages, mobile phone charging points and and 3G network coverage. At only 15 rupees and 12 minutes to Green Park station for Hauz Khas village, we were very impressed!
At Hauz Khas village we met Farah, a friend from London who had just arrived in Delhi for a week’s work in Gurgaon, for lunch at Gunpowder which was lovely, South Indian food on a table overlooking the lake. However, no booze so we caught a taxi back to Farah’s very posh hotel, the Oberoi in Gurgaon, for pudding and a bottle of wine:
Randall and Farah – terrace of 361° bar/restaurant, overlooking the ‘reflection pool’.
Helen & Farah, one bottle of Prosecco down
Hotel employees, wetsuited up, cleaning the bottom of the pool. Once the sun went down it was really cold so they must have been FREEZING!
The hotel was super modern and very beautiful, although with perhaps still a few teething problems; while the service was very attentive we still had to ask for the dessert menu FOUR times before someone brought it to us! That said, there were a huge number of complimentary snacks – cheese, dried fruit, bread fresh from the oven, indian sweets – brought to our table while we polished off two bottles of Prosecco and they were all fantastic so perhaps they just thought we were mad for actually ordering and paying for food! Still, the melt-in-the-middle chocolate pudding was divine.
Because they messed up our request for a taxi back to Paharganj (oh the come down!) we got a free limo service back care of the hotel. Which was nice.
The rest of the pics are here.
Saturday December 24th – Monday December 26th: Singapore
Arrived in Singapore from Saigon by air, mid afternoon on Xmas eve, checked into the Marina Mandarin, and went pretty much straight to Raffles:
Singapore slings in the Long Bar at Raffles.
Lovely view of kitchen, door propped open with box of bottles, plastic milk containers left lying around, generally a bit poor.
The gorgeous Courtyard bar – beautiful, atmospheric and charming professional bartenders.
The next day was Xmas day and we had booked the famous Mandarin Oriental Sunday Champagne Brunch special Xmas edition with free-pour drinks including Ruinart Champagne. On arrival we were greeted by a choir singing carols in harmony – lovely!
We sat outside in the lovely garden:
Getting stuck into the Champagne.
The food was quite astonishing, both in variety and quantity.
One of the waiters topping up the shellfish station.
Assorted Asian dishes
Chefs flambe-ing to order
Oysters, sushi, charcuterie
Outrageous cheesery.
Antipasti – smoked salmon, gravadlax, roasted vegetables etc
Puddings as far as the eye can see…
Chocolate fountains and crepes to order.
First course
Admirably restrained main course – roast beef & horseradish, mash & veg.
Less restrained pud (!)
Cheese course.
After eating and drinking ourselves silly, on Boxing day we did the 3.5 km walk around the harbour before seeing the new Sherlock Holmes film in the Marina shopping centre. Flight back to UK in the evening.
Tuesday 20th – Saturday 24th December: Saigon
We arrived in Saigon / Ho Chi Min City by ‘international bus’ from Phnom Penh which involved handing over our passports to several different yet indifferent people who took our fingerprints but couldn’t be bothered to scan our bags.
Our hotel was in the Phạm Ngũ Lão backpacker ghetto so we joined in by dining at Allez Boo – surprisingly good noodles & tofu (Randall had his by now trademark burger).
In the morning after breakfast and a read of the local newspaper:
On this day in history…an interesting perspective.
we took ourselves off on an I-phone app guided tour of the city’s landmarks, starting with the War Remnants Museum with its extremely graphic exhibitions about the continuing effects of Agent Orange and other chemicals used on civilians during the American involvement in the civil war.
Next up was the Palace of Reunification which was closed (somewhat random but strictly enforced opening and closing times of public monuments seemed to be the norm) – this was to our relief as after the previous place we were a bit propaganda-ed out.
Instead we did some more ‘standard’ sightseeing:
Notre Dame cathedral
Main Post Office
Inside the Post Office (1)
Inside Post Office (2)
Inside Post Office (3)
Inside Post Office (4) – floor reminiscent of Barcelona
The ‘Hotel de Ville’ apparently modelled after the Paris one.
The 5* Rex Hotel next to the City Hall
One of the many high rise buildings going up in Saigon – lots of investment, much of it Chinese.
The National Museum was mainly interesting for the mummified corpse of a noblewoman. The remaining exhibits were poorly labelled and the party propaganda was at its clumsiest. Still, the floral calendar was quite sweet:
After stopping for coffee just behind the Opera House we attempted to go for lunch at the restaurant on top of the Saigon Trade Centre, only to discover that it had been closed for ages. The final stop on the tour was the Jade Emperor Pagoda
– a bit underwhelming frankly, so given that the weather was starting to turn, we took the soft option and caught a taxi back to Pham Ngu Lao where we had lunch and a couple of pitchers of Tiger Beer while watching the world go by (and local police harassing a local junkie) in Le Pub.
The next day we took the inevitable tourist trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, one of a series of tunnel complexes used by the Viet Cong. The tourist attraction is based around some partially restored tunnels and a kind of walk-through open air museum with varying degrees of factual accuracy about the exhibits; our guide pointed out some waxworks of ‘Viet Cong’ wearing military fatigues and smoking above ground, both fairly unlikely occurrences. Still, the ‘walk through’ tunnel was pretty hairy – we did the minimum 20 metre stretch, although a couple of our group did the full 100m open to tourists, reappearing red, sweaty and very out of breath.
The hilarious ‘John Wayne’ our guide, showing a tunnel entrance.
Way in (for small Viet Cong only)
Randall clambering on a captured US tank
pungi trap
another ingenious pungi trap
Salvaged UXO used for making IEDs. One of the reasons that the UXO issue is less bad in Vietnam than in Laos and Cambodia is that so much of it was scavenged and reused while the war was still on.
We decided to pay a bit extra and take the boat back instead of the bus, which was a great idea (particularly as the enterprising John Wayne had packed a cooler of beers which he sold us at highly inflated prices):
We bagzied the seats outside, along with a kiwi guy. Win!
That evening we decided to try out the nightlife, and selected ‘Carmen’ which turned out to be a delight. There was live music all night; Latin when we arrived – and we even got a little bit of salsa dancing in – followed by French followed by classic country (all together now: “Country Roooaaaaadddsss”). Highly recommend (although the beers were expensive).
We rounded the night off with G&Ts at the beautiful Rex Hotel Rooftop Garden Bar – very civilised, and apparently where all the reporters and photographers hung out during the war so they could peer down into the streets while hanging on to their cocktails – before an off-the-metre 2$ taxi home.
On our final night in Saigon we tracked down KOTO – the training foundation that we first discovered in Hanoi. As they opened in Saigon in January 2010 and the course is 2 years long, the first batch of ‘graduates’ were about to complete, so it was a great time for them. We had a fantastic meal accompanied by a bottle of Barcelona favourite Freixenet:
Stylish surroundings
Cheers!
Yum!
From Koto we took a taxi back towards the centre of town and called in at Alibi – restaurant and bar with super friendly bar staff and sophisticated cocktails – we ended up staying for 2 drinks and nattering with the bartenders. Finally we decided to head off to the (in)famous Apocalypse Now nightclub which seemed to be the ‘in’ place to go based on any websites we could find. Sadly it was pretty naff, mostly full of bored and boring western males in shirts and chinos failing to dance with their accompanying sexy asian ladies, although there were a few younger Vietnamese couples and groups who seemed to be having a whale of a time. We should have gone to Lush which we spotted the previous night next to Bar Carmen. Oh well, we’ll know for next time…
Thursday 15th – Saturday 17th December: Siem Reap
Siem Reap is the jumping-off point for the famous Angkor temples including the astonishing Angkor Wat. We flew in from Da Nang to Siem Reap’s very modern airport, visa on arrival for $20, and free airport transfer to the hotel provided by Mr Be in his cool Cambodian-style tuk-tuk:
On arrival at the highly recommended Angkor Spirit Hotel we discovered that they were having issues with their booking system and were full, so we would have to spend the first of our three nights in a sister hotel, but we would have a tuk tuk and driver at our disposal. This sounded OK but turned out to be a bit rubbish as the ‘sister hotel’ wasn’t as nice, the wifi was broken and the air conditioning unit blew out a load of bugs that had obviously been nesting in it. Nice.
Still, Mr Be’s mate came to take us into town where we had dinner on ‘Pub Street’. Siem Reap town, although it’s the administrative centre for the province, seems to be mainly a tourist town where everything is priced in dollars and there is the inevitable Irish Bar. It didn’t seem to have a lot to recommend it but at least we got dinner and a beer. Mr Be collected us from the crap hotel at 8 the next morning to take us back to our ‘real’ hotel for breakfast. It was very lovely, with a decent pool for doing lengths in and a good restaurant where we set ourselves up for the day and worked, enjoying the warmth after chilly Hoi An.
The next morning we were up super early for sunrise at Angkor Wat – 4.40am pickup by Mr Be and his tuk-tuk.
Approach to the main temple as the sun comes up.
Morning!
The incredible temples at Angkor
Inside Angkor Wat
This stone apsara has shiny boobs, possibly from being groped by passers-by.
Steep steps
Tank
The moat around Angkor Wat.
The approach to Angkor Thom
Me and Mr Be.
Breakfast
The Bayon, Angkor Thom. Look for the faces!
Randall climbing the walls
Hello!!
Randall doesn’t have the patience to wait on the stairs.
Terrace of the Elephants
More Elephants
The next day, against our better judgement, we were persuaded to take a trip to the floating villages on the Tonle Sap lake.
There is now no way to visit the lake and floating villages independently as there is controlled entry to the port/jetty/dock whatever and there is only one operator running tour boats for a fixed price per person. While the floating village lifestyle is pretty interesting (the houses etc get towed around depending on the season) the whole boat tour is aimed at extracting dollars, for example there is a ‘shop’ selling water and noodles that you are requested to buy ‘for the school’ which sounds reasonable enough, but the ‘school’ is a joke, basically a piece of theatre for the tourists – certainly no teaching going on; we met some volunteers in our hotel who were working in *actual* schools in the villages and they said kids were always being pulled out of class to go and row themselves around the tourist boats in a mixing bowl/handle snakes at the croc farm/generally hang around looking cute for money. Sadly there seem to be plenty of tour groups who are into the whole ‘children as tourist attractions’ thing.
Our ‘private’ boat.
At least these days the inhabitants have modern communication: (3 month old mobile phone mast):
We were quite glad to finish the trip to be honest. Mr Be was waiting for us with his tuk tuk and drove us back to the hotel from where were were collected and taken to the bus to Phnom Penh.
Saturday 10th – Wednesday 14th December: Hoi An
We arrived at Da Nang station at 10.30 am after a rather bumpy night and immediately bundled into a taxi to Hoi An with our two cabin-mates. The taxi driver thought it was amusing to play us various versions of Xmas carols, including a Vietnamese version of Jingle Bells and a hard house version of same, complete with sinister Santa voice shouting ‘Ho Ho Ho – Have YOU been a good boy?’. Think it would play well in Fire.
We got dropped off at our hotel, the excellent Thanh Van 2, just a little outside the UNESCO World Heritage site; the old quarter of Hoi An.
Rather nice hotel room with balcony overlooking the (unheated) pool.
After a relaxing morning in the hotel and an afternoon nap to recover from the train journey we headed into the Old Quarter for dinner at Streets, a local social enterprise comprising a restaurant and training programme. The food, surroundings and service were superb.
It was raining when we left but we had a quick wander around. The roads near the river were all flooded – apparently it was a high spring tide; the ‘main’ floods had finished the previous month. Indeed, the next day when we went back in daylight the river was back within its banks; however the paper lanterns floating on the flooded streets were quite lovely, and the whole area was beautifully atmospheric:
The water creeping up the street.
Paper lanterns floating over the flooded pavement as the water rises.
Aside from general tourism, Hoi An’s specialities are 24-hour tailoring and shoemaking. As Randall had worn his favourite shoes out completely and needed a new pair we popped into a shoe shop opposite the Streets restaurant. Within 10 minutes he had selected a style, selected a colour of leather and been measured up, with a promise that they would be ready the next day. Impressive. After wandering the streets for a while, and getting lots of attention from young Vietnamese women who all coveted my umbrella (it was raining, and my umbrella is really rather good) we had a last drink in Before and Now then headed back to the hotel.
Sunday was definitely a day of rest and work. I had a massage and also a swim in the (unheated) pool which I thought was quite brave of me! In the afternoon we went to collect Randall’s shoes which turned out to be too tight…fortunately this was not a problem for our accommodating new friends who vowed to make new ones for the next day. We also dropped off his old, favourite (stinky) shoes as they claimed they could copy them, and I ordered some casual clothes for travelling from the shoe-maker’s sister’s shop (in the way of these things) to be collected the next day too.
In the evening we went for dinner in town and met Mr Phuong, a Vietnamese man who runs an informal tour to his village for interesting/interested people that he meets in the restaurant. We agreed to meet him at our hotel on Tuesday with a rented moped so we could follow him to his village half an hours ride away.
It was an early start the next morning to catch the sunrise over the temple/ruins at My Son. They date from 4th to 14th Century but were trashed by US bombing during the Vietnam War, so that the main 24 metre high temple is just a pile of bricks. The bits left standing are still impressive and another UNESCO site.
Apparently the Cham people who built the temples over many centuries were master brick makers (is there a name for brickmakers?). The restorers at the site tried to renovate one of the walls using modern bricks and within 20 years the new ones were covered in damp and mildew whereas the 1000-year old bricks adjoining them were still perfectly dry.
Body of a god (Shiva in this case)
Peering into a shell casing from the war – there was bombing and fighting around the temples, much destroyed, craters and bullet holes still evident.
It was still early when we got back so we wandered into town:
The centre of the old quarter is pedestrian and bicycle (and other ‘primitive vehicle’) only.
The river was behaving itself.
Back within its banks
Inventive way for dealing with the floods
Secret agent cycle rickshaw
Lunch break
Japanese covered bridge
I ordered some more clothes from a different tailor where I had seen a coat I liked, and we collected Randall’s shoes, both pairs of which were a cinderella-style perfect fit – the copy of his old shoes (which we had been trying and failing to replace for ages) was really impressive. My items from the first tailor were OK – a couple needed some tweaking so we went for a drink next door and then to try and find something to take to the school in Mr Phuong’s village (we found an art shop selling cheap poster paint and brushes – result!) before picking up the fixed and finished items.
It was with some trepidation that the next day we launched ourselves onto Vietnamese roads on a tiny 50cc scooter (I say ‘we’ – Randall drove and I sat on the back trying not to look at the oncoming traffic), but the visit to Mr Phuong’s house and village was definitely worth it. We got a fascinating history lesson about Vietnam – Mr Phuong had fought for South Vietnam against the communists and had subsequently spend a year in a ‘re-education camp’. He explained how, like most civil wars, the North/South, Communist/Free split had driven families apart and still has a huge influence on what jobs and education a person can get.
Family temple in their home.
Apparently under the communists although religion was banned, venerating spirits, ancestors and ghosts was OK because it came under ‘Cultural Practices and Folklore’.
Boiled rice drying – to be made into rice wine, another element of the family business!
Fermenting rice
Down the hatch!
Mr Phuong holding forth
Fishing on the river
Making paan from betel nuts with Phuong mere
Mama Phuong
Pigeon trap – trapping them for pets apparently. Another family business!
Dragon fruit in the marketplace
Fruit seller.
Leaves of tobacco – another cottage industry in the village.
Tobacco rolled and ready for the wholesaler
The village primary school
The level of the flood waters from 2009 on the school wall.
We arrived at nap time!
Village War Memorial, commemorating those who fought and died on all sides.
Bullet holes in one of the only surviving buildings from before the war.
Local equivalent of WI whist drive.
Mr Phuong’s family temple
Mr Phuong and grandson
Mr Phuong’s grandson and friend, beating each other up.
Amazing lunch of baked tuna, rice spring rolls, stir-fried morning-glory with garlic and winter melon & shrimp soup. Yum!
Mr Phuong’s dining table, covered in postcards and travel books so he can ‘travel in his mind’.
Not quite La Dolce Vita, but fun all the same!
Wednesday was time to leave Hoi An for Siem Reap via Da Nang airport, but not before a morning Vietnamese cookery class at Thuan Tinh island cookery school.
After pick-up from the hotel, our group of 9 was led around Hoi An market by Ms Hoa and Bin the chef who picked out ingredients.
Onions, shallots and garlic for sale at Hoi An Market
Veggies.
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Oils and sauces stall (we bought fish sauce,soy sauce and chilli sauce)
Assorted noodles for sale.
Ducks
Half hour boat ride to the island from central Hoi An
Interesting ‘water closet’
Punt trip along the canals of Thuan Tinh island
We even got fetching hats to wear.
Our cooking station – luckily for us, someone else had done all the chopping while we were out and about on the island.
Ingredients for making stock. Mmmmmmm.
The unusual sight of Randall cooking.
More beautifully pre-prepared bits and pieces.
Chef Bin in action.
Randall rolling a spring roll with great concentration.
Yummy rice paper spring roll – result!
Randall showing off his crispy pancakes.
Frying the beef for the beef salad.
Mmmmmmmmmm!
Proud chef
Chef #2, drinking the stock from the Pho we made.
Helen and Randall on the road 
