It's your money I'm after baby

Please can you pledge a small donation to Cliff's fundraising for the first Brighton Marathon on 18th April. He'll be flying back to the UK from Hong Kong especially for the event and has been in hard training for the last 3 months.

His donations page is here and it's for a great cause (we think so):

Thanks so much :)

Hue, Vietnam

On 30th March, after only one night in Hoi An, which was a shame; comfortable hotel and friendly people, we headed to Hue (pronounced 'whey'). Yummi at our Hoi An hotel had phoned ahead and booked us a lovely room for $25. We took the four hour bus in the morning (it was a sleeper bus for some reason) but we got three seats on the top at the back and it was pretty comfortable. We were sharing the back row with two French girls who were moaning that they hadn't been told it was a sleeper. I didn't see the problem, you could stretch out and get the good views.

The driver did keep stopping though, mainly for toilet breaks but conveniently at a pearl shop or restaurant when all we wanted was to get to our destination. We did stop at the Marble Mountains though just outside Denang. We took the opportunity to climb up inside, take a look at all the statues and a good view from the top. Liam bought a moon marble (like a huge marble or crystal ball).

When we arrived in Hue, someone from the hotel was there to pick us up from the bus stop, but as soon as we got back to the hotel, Cliff realised he'd left his new hat (a grey military hat with a red star, that he bought in HCMC) on the bus. So whilst Liam and I went up to our huge room, the guy from the hotel took Cliff back to the travel office. They tracked down the bus driver and Cliff and his hat were finally reunited by a man on a scooter who brought it back for him. A happy ending.

Other than for the Battle of Hue during the Vietnam War and the Hue Massacre, the city is now known for it's historical monuments - and is another UNESCO heritage site. But at this stage, we have started to pass on trying to see everything and concentrated more on exploring Hue on foot.

We had good afternoon coffee and cakes at La Boulangerie Francaise, a bakery that trains young Vietnamese. Excellent coffee and chocolate tarts. Liam finally decided to have a haircut and Cliff joined him by having a shave and his ears cleaned.

Cliff completed another training run, along the Huong river. On our second evening we headed back to the travel office to catch our final night bus (and the final bus of Vietnam) to Hanoi - about 700km (435 miles) away. This time we had booked seats/beds in the main part of the bus (avoiding the back) and whilst they were pretty comfortable, I had cold air blasting me in the neck. It was a long night.

Nha Trang and Hoi An, Vietnam

We left Da Lat for Nha Trang on 28th March. We'd decided that we weren't going to stay in Nha Trang, but take the night sleeper bus onto Hoi An that same night.

Nha Trang is the beach capital of Vietnam. It's famed for many offshore islands and for diving. We found a bar called Crazy Kim's to rest and have some food after our four hour bus ride and we played a couple of games of pool. The owners have built a school at the back of the bar for street kids. After a good Italian meal (you need a break from rice and noodles) we boarded the night bus. We had only managed to book two seats together so Cliff was on the top deck and Liam and I on the bottom. It was stuffy, hot and the man next to me kept poking me with his elbow and knee. Not a comfortable journey.

We arrived in Hoi An the next morning about 6am, so we had breakfast in a cafe near the place we were dropped and managed to find a room at a hotel, the Hai Au. This turned out to be a little jewel. The staff were amazing friendly, we were looked after really well by Yummi (above in pink), it was close to town and had a pool. Good breakfast too.

Hoi An Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site, so we paid for tickets which entitled us to visit some of the heritage sites. We wandered around the lovely old town and the market. We visited the Japanese Covered Bridge (constructed 1593), the Phung Hung Old House, the Museum of History and Culture and the Huoc Kien Assembly Hall and temple that had some hanging incense coils that people attach prayers to.

And yes, we were approached by the young lady offering to take us to her 'auntie's' tailor shop - straight out of the warnings from the guide books. We politely decined. We did buy some really good ginger and roasted peanuts from another smiling lady though.

It was the full moon festival that evening and we saw a stall engaging in some pot smashing, a traditional game. Some clay pots are hung up and the player is blindfolded (in this case, wearing bamboo masks) and he/she has to smash the pot with a big stick. Easy you'd think but not with the crowd shouting and cymbals and drums being played very loudly. We all had a go, I think they felt sorry for us because they actually gave Liam a prize (a silk lantern) because whilst we came close, we didn't actually smash a pot.

Da Lat, Vietnam

Da Lat is up in the Central Highlands (at 1500m) and is lovely and cool. Cliff was able to do a good training run here (24 miles) away from all the heat and humidity. It's also a popular honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese. There's a huge lake which was unfortunately drained and being cleaned when we were there (although there were a couple of sunken- in- the- mud JCBs) . We were only up here for a couple of nights but had found a great hotel; huge clean room, hot showers, a great owner and good breakfasts.

After Cliff's training around the lake, we had hired some Easy Riders (motorbike guides) to take us out on our only full day. Hiep, Sao and Danh were great; experienced bikers so we felt safe at all times, even in the mad Da Lat traffic. We were ridden out first to the Dragon Pagoda, where they had an incredible many-handed Buddha statue .

In the gardens they also had some statues of the Monkey King and his sidekicks Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy the Water Monster. The characters are from classic Chinese literature, Journey to the West, popularised by the cult TV series. We are big fans. Then it was onto the many flower and vegetable farms. Fruit and veg is exported from here to the rest of Vietnam.

We went onto a coffee plantation, which Cliff particularly enjoyed and the Elephant Waterfall (we climbed right down to the base of it) . Whilst having a coffee at the top, Hiep had an argument with the owner of one of the two restaurant owners in the village because she was upset that he didn't bring tourists to her place. Well, I say an argument, she shouted at him a lot.

We travelled onto a silkworm factory, a mushroom farm and a rice wine distillery in the back of someone's house. They had a genuine Vietnamese pot bellied pig in their garden, along with a multitude of other animals. We found out that property is sold by the width and not the length so that explains the really narrow houses that stretch way back from the roads. Hiep was also telling us about education and healthcare in Vietnam - they have to pay for both. He has two children in elementary school which costs the equivilent of £70 per month each.

We also visited the Linh An temple with an amazingly huge happy Buddha.

On the way back into town we went to the Crazy House, a Gaudi-esque building that you can stay in, although I found it a bit creepy. Liam liked it and would have stayed.

Mui Ne, Vietnam

On 24th March we headed out from Ho Chi Minh on the bus to Mui Ne, a small seaside town about a four hour ride away. We had a rest stop on the way and bought fruit and snacks. An elderly Chinese man was laughing his head off and taking photos at the toilets where customers are expected to remove their own shoes and put on the sandals provided to use the facilities. We've got used to it, and I try not to think about all the skin diseases we might catch from sharing sandals with complete strangers! Most of the time it makes for spotlessly clean toilets though.

Unusually, we hadn't booked any accommodation in Mui Ne, but as we were arriving about lunchtime, we didn't think there was much of a risk of having to camp on the beach. We went into the nearest resort when the bus stopped (which happened to be owned by the bus company) and got a room in their guest house across the street, $30 a night cheaper than staying in the resort and we could still use their pool and have access to the beach (what there was of a beach, from water's edge to wall was about a metre).

We spent two nights in Mui Ne, which is renowned for kite surfing. We didn't do any kite surfing, we were out of season but Liam did buy a kite out at the Red Sand Dunes which we're still carrying along.

The wi-fi at the resort wasn't working one day and when I went to reception to report the problem I got shrugged at and told 'yes it is a problem' and when I suggested that maybe they could re-set it by turning it off and on again - she just laughed. We're getting used to the giggling. And the non-smiling staff at the resort. We tried to make them smile, we really did. One day I nipped back to the room to get something and found the door wide open, turns out it was the cleaner, vacuuming the room next door, but using the electrical socket in our room, leaving the door (which opened onto the public pathway) wide open with all our belongings in there and letting all the mosquitos in. Great.

On the second day we took a ride out to the White Sand Dunes and hired a couple of sledges from one of the small boys (they were more sheets of plastic really) and used them to ride down the Dunes. Cliff and Liam managed it many more times than I did (once) as I'd managed to come slightly unprepared, wearing a dress. Click here to see the video of the sledging . A couple of the older boys from the village followed us up to the top and 'helped' to push us down and then expected a tip for their trouble. Cliff gave them 50,000 dong, this is about £1.70 (about what you'd pay for lunch in Vietnam, so not a mean tip by any stretch). But they asked for more, which is a general trend here. We said we didn't have any more change, which was true.

Liam did a bit of kiting at the Red Sand Dunes and then it was onto the fishermen's village to see the catch being brought into shore.

The fishermen use small rounded bamboo basket boats which seem to hold at least four men as far as we could see. They appear to stem back to the time that France governed Vietnam. The French levied taxes on many things, including boats. Many poor villagers could not pay the tax imposed on their small boats so they invented a new type of boat called 'thuyen thung' to evade the tax because the thung (round basket) was not considered a boat.

On our last day, the resort restaurant staff upset us again by taking over an hour to serve us lunch when they knew we were getting the bus to De Lat at one o'clock. We sound like the hotel guests from hell, but we're really not hard to please. Honest. I chatted to an American guy on the morning we were leaving and he was saying how grouchy the hotel staff were here too (all these demanding westerners I expect ;) He works as cabin crew so knows a bit about customer service. He said he been up the road to a resort about to open and had stressed to the owner about the important of some smiling service :)

There wasn't really much there in Mui Ne, so we were quite pleased to be getting on our way. Although on the way out to the bus, an English guy who had just arrived said 'Oh you're not taking the bus up to Da Lat are you?' We were. Apparently the journey down the mountain can be a bit hairy, no worries we thought, we're going up!

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

On 21st March, Lucky collected us from the hotel for the final time and dropped us to the airport, about a 30 minute trip. After we'd argued at length with the lady at the departure tax desk ($25 each!) that Liam's 23rd August date of birth meant that he is 11 and not 12 so we should pay the reduced rate for him, we made it through to departures. I picked up a journal in the duty free shop for Cliff for his birthday the next day and we were soon on the flight to Saigon - or Ho Chi Minh City as it's now officially known. We'd sorted our visas online from Bangkok so it was just a matter of handing over some more dollars and a photo each to be let into Vietnam.

We headed straight to the hotel where there was a mix up with the suite I'd booked as a treat for Cliff's birthday, with them wanting us to pay for an extra bed. When there wasn't an extra bed. And on top of that they tried to charge us for breakfast for Liam, when they had clearly stated under 12's were free, and then said oh no, it's under 11's that eat free (when they'd looked at his passport). Well, it might seem a small thing but I'd had about enough of people trying to squeeze a bit more money out of us. Westerners are considered rich (and they certainly are that by local standards) and are rightly or wrongly considered fair game for overcharging. And this wasn't a private hotel but a large chain. But the stark truth is that that neither of us have a job waiting for us back in the UK and if we are going to manage to complete this trip within our budget, we have to watch every riel, dong and dollar. Staying in some cheap places (our minimum standards are that they have to be safe and clean) means that we can splash out a little now and then for special places and occasions.

Anyway, the suite was lovely and they even sent some flowers up the next day for Cliff, to wish him a happy birthday. Free of charge. There was a small pool on the roof which Liam enjoyed and was great for cooling off after another hot day in the city.

As we had a short time here and wanted to see as much as we could, we found a travel agency and booked a full day trip for our second day. The morning was spent at the Cu Chi Tunnels which the Vietcong dug to hide in and fight from during the Vietnam War. Liam and Cliff tried one of the ground entrances out for size - I wouldn't have got my hips down there :) Later we crawled down a length of a widened tunnel and it was difficult to understand how the Vietcong would have spent sometimes weeks underground, in these dark and tiny tunnels. The video we watched there was quite informative but I would not have wanted to be an American sitting there; balanced and non-partisan the commentary was not!

In the afternoon we headed to the military museum, where they had some captured US tanks and planes, a quite vivid display of the (ongoing) effects of Agent Orange and a really good exhibition about the photographers who covered the conflict.

Our next stop was the Reunification Palace, the presidential palace and the site of the official handover of power during the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The tanks that crashed through the gates are still here. The building itself it pretty swanky, having been re-built in a modern style after having been bombed in 1962. Although the president didn't have a swimming pool (I asked and was told he didn't have time to swim; he was too busy running the country), he did have a nice cinema. And a bomb shelter. Our last stops were the Notre Dame Cathedral, a smaller version of the one in Paris and the impressive Gothic post office building opposite - designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel. Inside is a large portrait of 'Uncle Ho' - Ho Chi Minh; Communist revolutionary and statesman.
Ho Chi Minh City (re-named from Saigon in Uncle Ho's honour in 1976) has a population of 8 million people and it's reckoned 6 million motorbikes. The traffic is unbelivable and we have learned to just cross roads the Vietnamese way - walk steadily, in a straight line, don't run and the bikes will swerve around you. The good thing is that you don't see any road rage. Although Liam and I did witness a bit of a stand off between two moped drivers who were both trying to use the same bit of the pavement (clearly because the road was full), in the dark, without the use of lights.

We had three nights here before heading off on our Vietnam adventure. We'd booked an open bus/coach ticket that would take us in a fairly northerly direction to Mui Ne, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue and into the capital Hanoi. A total of 1145 kms (711 miles) in a straight line, although we were taking a couple of detours. It would be a bit of a whistle stop tour because we were flying out of Hanoi on 5 May for Beijing and we'd arrived in Vietnam about a week later than we'd originally planned, after our extra trip to Bangkok and having taken our time in Cambodia.

Happy Birthday Cliff!!!

Liam and I would like to wish Cliff a very happy 40th birthday. So far we have managed to have a late breakfast, had baths and showers and watched four episodes of Star Trek (original series). And it's not yet 2pm. Perfect.

Cliff nearly gets arrested

Cliff had a run to do and thought what better place to go than the mystical surroundings of Angkor? After about 3 or 4 miles of running in ridiculous heat, he reached the exit gate for the complex and was told he could only enter if he was taking the airport road. Unfortunately he didn't know where the airport road was, so he carried on the road he was on. His friend at the gate had radioed ahead to his colleague, who also stopped him and pointed him in the right direction. But rather than actually take the airport road, Cliff decided to turn back onto to the forbidden road. All of a sudden a guy appeared on a motorbike asking why he hadn't carried on the airport road, so news of Cliff's journey had travelled far and wide. He threatened Cliff with a $100 fine if he so much as stepped any further off the prescribed route. And he wasn't very nice about it. This all seemed a bit excessive. Although I exaggerated a bit when I said Cliff was nearly arrested.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're celebrating St Patrick's Day here in Siem Reap, Cambodia in Molly Malone's. Cliff is drinking green beer and Liam and I are eating baked potatoes. Exchanged some welcome messages with our genuinely Irish friend, Valerie (on her own adventure in Kenya). Facebook is great. Sometimes.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Our tuk-tuk driver Lucky picked us up at 10am and drove us out to the Angkor Wat complex. Our first stop was the ticket office. We didn't have Liam's passport with us and have some difficulty convincing them that he was under 12 (and is therefore free), his height puts him at about 15 out here. Finally, with three-day tickets in hand, we headed along the shady tree-lined road amid forest and farmland. Our first sight of the temples was the moat around Angkor Wat itself. If you could call it a moat - it's 190 metres wide. But this wasn't our first stop, we headed along through the South Gate into Angkor Thom (Great Angkor or Great City) and onto Bayon. We got dropped off here and agreed to meet Lucky again on the far side.

The Bayon's main feature are the 216 huge stone faces, which all bear a striking resemblence to the Kymer King Jayavarman VII, who built the state temple. There are around 11,000 figures depicted in the bas reliefs, showing life in 12th century Cambodia. This was once a city, but only the religious buildings were built of stone and have survived, the wooden city buildings are long gone. We spent about an hour here before moving on. There are 37 different archaelogical sites so we had some hard choices to make.

The Baphuon was the centre of the city that existed here. Restoration was disrupted by the Cambodian civil war and the Kymer Rouge destroyed all records. So the French team now working on the restoration ave been left with a rather big jigsaw puzzle, but without the pictures to guide them.

The Terrace of the Elephants was used as a viewing stand for public ceremonies.

The Terrace of the Leper King is a 7 metre high terrace which once supported a pavilion. The front walls are decorated with at least five tiers of seated asparas carved into the stone. At the base, Liam found the narrow entrance (we had walked right past it) into a hidden terrace (covered up when the outer structure was built) - the carvings here look fresh and almost new.

We headed over for lunch at one of the many tented restaurants opposite the terraces. We were joined by two young boys (both Liam's age, although much smaller, you would have thought they were around 7 or 8). They were selling little bronze figures of animals and religious dieties. We finally bought five of them ater a long negotiation. The boys' selling point was that they knew all (and I mean all) the world's capital cities. They go to school in the mornings (funded by their sales) and then sell until 4pm when they can have some free time (they said they enjoyed watching the cows and football).

In the afternoon we rejoined Lucky and he drove us out to the Chau Say temple. We met a Buddhist nun out there who performed a prayer and gave us each a pink wool bracelet. She later followed us out and got us to exhange a euro coin she'd been given for riel. After that we drove onto the Ta Keo temple. The steps were incredibly steep. There was another small boy working up here, selling postcards. Cliff had a chat with him and bought some and on our way out he gave Liam a paper origami crane he'd made. He was keen to know the time because he was knocking off at 4pm.

After that we went into Angkor Wat itself. The bas-relief of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk (the Hindu creation story) was undergoing restoration so we only got to see some pictures of it on the east section of the temple. Cliff and I then climbed the central tower for some expansive views. Under 12's weren't allowed so Liam sat down at the bottom reading. We saw the static air balloon in the distance and decided we'd try to take a trip this week. After that we called it a day, it was now late afternoon and as we had three day tickets we didn't have to rush.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Today, Monday 15^th March, we took a bus up to Siem Reap, a fairly easy five hour trip north. We had the choice of either the bus ($11) or the boat ($35) both take around the same time, but apart from the cost of the boat, we'd heard it was very noisy. And it's nice to be able to stop along the way, as you can do when travelling by bus. We arrived at the bus stop, outside of the travel agency about 20 minutes early so Liam and I went around the block to see if we could get any fruit for the journey. But we couldn't find any so came back with new Nike baseball caps (genuine of course!) for $2 each instead. The bus left about 20 minutes late and was packed with foreigners (who pay more for their tickets) and locals. We stopped for lunch at Kompong Thom - cold drinks and stir fried vegetables and rice for $5, for all three of us. And really clean toilets.

It seems pretty weird using US dollars here, but Cambodian Riel are about 4200 to the dollar and whilst you get some in change and use them for small purchases, most things are advertised in dollars and that's what you get from ATMs.

When we arrived at Siem Reap bus station, Cliff saw a tuk-tuk driver with our name on a card who had been sent by our accomodation. It was just as well because there were loads of drivers there looking for customers fresh off the bus. But that was nothing, once we'd got our luggage off the bus (we had to wait for two motorbikes to be unloaded first), they opened the bus station gates (we hadn't realised they'd been closed behind the bus when we'd arrived). It was like the first day at the January sales, with about 50 drivers all running inside, cheering. I had to pull Liam back to avoid getting trampled.

The first thing that strikes you in Siem Reap is the dust and colour of the earth - red. We were staying at a French run place with a pool - $30 a night. Apparently you can get rooms here from $2 to $2000 so we're certainly mid-range. We thought we’d need a cooling swim after a long day at the temples.

We arrranged with our tuk-tuk driver to collect us at 10am the next morning to take us out to Angkor Wat and the temple complexes. This was going to cost us $15 for the whole day.

Siem Reap is a lively town, it has a good night market selling local crafts and lots of places to eat and drink. We were a ten minute walk from the centre, along a dusty road and practically no street lighting. We dropped off our bag of washing ($1 a kilo) with some lovely girls who took a real shine to Liam ('he's so handsome'!) We had some $1 rice and noodles for dinner and an early night.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We arrived in Cambodia’s capital on Friday 12^th March. The immigration process was bizarre to say the least. Having completed 4 forms on the flight, we were handed another to complete as we exited the plane. We then joined the queue for visas, handed in our forms and two passport photos each and then joined another queue to pay for the visa. Only it wasn’t a queue. It was just a mass of people waiting for their name to be called out, whilst the immigration officer held up the passport. If you recognise your photo, you go up, hand over your $20 note and come away with your passport and Cambodian visa. The whole thing took only about ten minutes and not something you’d see at Heathrow! There was a bit of confusion when we were going through the passport control, we were bieng called up individually and Liam went up with Cliff’s passport. All sorted though and our bags were waiting on the carousel for us, as was our taxi driver arranged through the hotel.

The airport is only about 14km away from the city, but the traffic is unbelievable; motorbikes everywhere, weaving across the road, usually with three or four people on them, Liam saw one with five – two adults, a kid, a toddler and a baby. Our driver kept taking different turns to avoid the snarl-ups, he said sometimes if there is an accident, nothing gets cleared until the police arrive and that can take a few hours. Our hotel, Villa Langka was a little oasis. We’d had to book a deluxe room for the first night as they didn’t have anything cheaper and we were then moving into a smaller room for the next two nights. The deluxe room was massive, about twice the size of our old lounge and the bathroom (again huge) had our first bath in Southeast Asia. Only Liam actually had a bath.


At dinner we met the cute hotel cat, he didn't have a name - other than 'Chma' the Kymer word for 'cat' - but he enjoyed sitting on your lap and getting a cuddle.

The hotel had a lovely saltwater pool, in one corner there was a mango tree that at regular intervals dropped fruit into the pool, which Liam dived down for and handed over to the hotel staff to make the drinks. The staff were really friendly here and so helpful. Pretty much like every Cambodian we’ve met has been the same. There is a genuine feeling that they are welcoming you to their country and keen for you to see everything.

On the food front, we’ve not yet had a bad meal in Cambodia. We found a little deli place at the end of our road, that did the most amazing veggie and salad wraps. The restaurant at the hotel was good too; lovely breakfasts and on the first night after dinner we tried their deep fried chocolate and ice cream. This was literally dark chocolate deep fried (not in batter or anything) and it was scrumptious. Cliff also found a really good vegan place near the Independence Monument, where we ordered far too much food, but again it was delicious. On our last night in Phnom Penh we went to an Italian place down on the quay. There were no tables left inside so when we helped them bring one in from outside, there was much hilarity amongst the waitresses.

On the first day we took a tuk-tuk over to Tuol Sleng, otherwise known as S-21 or Security Prison 21. During the rule of the Kymer Rouge (1975-1979) it was transformed from a high school to a prison where around 17,000 Cambodians were imprisoned, tortured and taken out to the Killing Fields at Cheong Ek, where they were murdered and buried in mass graves. Often they were beaten to death to save precious bullets and the victims included children and babies (who were beaten to death against a tree out at the Killing Fields). One of the four buildings at S-21 still has the barbed wire up at the balconies, which was installed to stop prisoners committing suicide.

Four things really hit me here; the first are the hundreds of photographs of the victims (the Kymer Rouge were meticulous record keepers), the rooms that still house metal beds on which the people were tortured (some still with blood on the ceilings), thirdly, the fact that the Kymer Rouge was doing this to their own people, and finally that this was all happening in my lifetime. It’s still hard to fathom what it was they were trying to achieve. Conservative estimates put the total death toll at 1.7 million. If you want to learn more about the genocide, please go here.

On day two we went out to Cheong Ek – the Killing Fields. There is a Buddhist stupa built as a memorial that houses the remains of the victims found there. The mass graves that were found are on full view here and human remains are constantly coming to the surface. Despite this, the area feels a lot more peaceful than at S-21, where I felt there was still so much negative energy.

Back to Bangkok

On Friday 5th March, we flew back to Bangkok for a little regrouping, visa sorting, travel booking. and hopefully a little relaxation. We went back to Imm Fusion hotel; inexpensive, good breakfasts, helpful staff and a pool. You won't be surprised to read that I didn't have a Thai massage this time around.

We ended up staying a week; securing our China visas (which turned out very easy in the end, just a one day turnaround) and applying for our Vietnam visas online which allows us to apply for them on arrival in the country.

Cliff went out for a long training run (21 miles!) one morning, but when he came back he wasn't even sweating (unusual in this 35 degree heat) but his skin was incredibly hot (not sunburned). We feared he'd managed to get heat exhaustion, but his temperature was normal. It was a bit of a puzzle and he had to spend a couple of days in the room with the AC turned up to maximum and drinking loads of water, just to get back to normal.


Liam and I left him to rest and went to see the new Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. On the same floor as the cinema, they had a millionaire's car exhibition which mainly consisted of smart cars with two beautiful Thai models draped over them. And lots of amateur photographers. Liam's developed a bit of a liking to Top Gear in recent months and had his photo taken with a Ferrari (minus the Thai beauty).

One evening we returned to the hotel and were told that there was a problem on our floor (we'd noticed someone doing some electrical work outside our room) and they were going to have to upgrade us (for free) to a deluxe room. This really wasn't a problem! We got twice the amount of space for our last two nights. And a dvd player. Excellent.

We were glad to get on the road to Cambodia by the end of the week, we had enjoyed Bangkok but were starting to get a little bored by the end of our stay. Also we'd planned to leave before the Red Shirt demonstrations were due to start at the weekend, so it was all good timing.

Singapore

A short flight over to Singapore from Kutching on Malaysia Airlines. Excellent customer service on display. I hadn't ordered any veggie food because I thought the flight was too short for a meal. So the air hostess gave us some food intended for the crew :) which was very good of her.

We arrived at our hotel mid afternoon and it was a good 10 minute walk there from the closest BTS/metro, with the backpacks not getting any lighter. This was after a pretty direct trip from the airport. Our hotel was excellent, a huge window with window seat and a lovely bathroom with the best shower yet (these things are becoming increasingly important somehow). And a brilliant swimming pool and gym on the 7th floor which luckily happened to be our floor.

We ventured out to a technology mall (yes, just technology stores) to replace Cliff's heart rate monitor. We think it got left behind in Sandakan. But the specific store that carries Garmin stuff was closed so we had to go back the next day. Apart from that we tried to avoid the malls (there are loads) although it's hard to miss the cutting edge architecture used to bring in the punters.

We went along one day to the Singapore Discovery Centre, mistakenly thinking that it was the Science centre. Not sure how we managed that. It was a well thought out place, billed as an 'edutainment' centre. The kids could do some town planning (actually more fun than it sounds), news reporting, quizzes, dancing and there was an IMAX theatre too. And Cliff and Liam did some target shooting with modified rifles (Liam just edged it with the score). But the constant 'Singapore is great' message started to wear thin towards the end. Good pizza though.

Kutching, Malaysia

We arrived in Kutching on 27th March. We were staying in our last Tune hotel of the trip in a really good location, just off the Waterfront - Kutching is situated on the Sarawak river. We were directly opposite the Hilton. Our hotel leaflet actually urged us to go and hang about in the Hilton's reception to boast to their guests about how little we were paying in comparison :)

This hotel, like many other places we've stayed at do not allow guests to bring in two kinds of fruit to the rooms, namely Durian and Mangosteens. And you can understand why. The juice of the Mangosteens is an inky purple colour and stains everything it touches. The Durian's consistancy has been compared to custard, the smell like old socks and over ripe cheese and the taste like vomit. But they are for sale all over South East Asia so someone must like them.

There are many statues of cats in Kutching. The unlikely story goes that when Rajah James Brooke arrived in Kuching along the river, he asked his local guide what the settlement's name was. The guide, thinking that the English adventurer was pointing towards a cat, said 'Kuching' - Malay for 'cat'. And the name stuck. Or something like that. But Sarawakian Malay for cat is "pusak" so this explanation does not hold much water. It might be a variation on the Indian name for 'port' - 'Cochin' - as the area was first settled by Indian traders.

We had three nights here and planned to do a lot of chilling out; the last couple of weeks had been incredibly hectic and we were all a bit exhausted. We'd all come down with a cold in Sandakan which we were struggling to shake. We had toyed with the idea of making a day trip to the Bako National Park to see the proboscis monkeys, but we were just too tired and also didn't really want to rush the park, which really needs more than just a day to do it justice.

So we did lots of walking (Cliff did a couple more early morning training runs - 6 and 10 miles) and eating. We found a really good place in Chinatown serving good Indian and Malay food. The day before we'd walked through Chinatown, and found it closed for the end of Chinese New Year. And we found a veggie place just up the road from the hotel. No meat allowed!

We went to the Natural History Museum because I'd read that Alfred Russel Wallace had been heavily involved in the setting up of the displays. Wallace was a British naturalist who is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution (that pushed Charles Darwin to publish his own theory). I'd been interested in Wallace since I'd done an essay on him for my OU course. But unfortunately it was closed for refurbishment, so we went to the art gallery and the aquarium instead.