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Trip Start Apr 18, 2005 Trip End Aug 06, 2005 Next
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  Koh Tao, Thailand
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

We're back in Thailand now after an unexpected detour back to Bangkok. I was a bit poorly about a week ago while we were in Nha Trang, Vietnam, possibly malaria and so we thought we should probably get it checked out. Unfortunately we had read some horror stories about hospitals in Vietnam and so had to get a flight to Bangkok for the blood test. A real shame as in consequence we have had to miss Cambodia and the southern delta of Vietnam- I guess that'll have to mean another trip out here at a later date...ah well... All good though, no malaria, just a nasty virus which I 've shaken off now.
I can't remember what I last emailed about so I'll just do a quick round up. Laos was beautiful, I wish we could have stayed longer and explored further. I managed to go caving in a place called Vang Vieng, can't believe I did it and am very proud of myself! Not something I shall do again, crawling on my belly through very tight spaces covered in bat poo should only be done the once I reckon!
We moved on to Vietnam, first to Hanoi, a massive contrast from Laos. Hanoi is so so busy, literally fit to bursting with motorbikes everywhere and there are no walkable pavements so it's pretty dicey walking anywhere! Despite that the city itself is still pretty nice, the old quarter is manic, lots of little streets selling particular goods, we stayed on 'toy street'. Lots of museums and historical sites to see too. Unfortunately we didn't manage to stay long, just two days. We did a boat trip to a place called Ha Long bay- absolutely stunning bay with loads of craggy, limestone mountains jutting up out of the see. The trip was for two days/one night- we saw some amazing caves and did some sea kayaking and swimming.
Next stop, we went down to a place called Hue- we did a motorbike tour around the city and countryside- loads of fun!Saw lots of temples and rice fields. Spent most evenings in Hue at a place called the Cafe on Thu Wheels- run by a crazy, man eating lady called Thu, who played beatles music non stop and did lots of innuendo filled 'banana and
coconut' jokes! It was quite refreshing to find such a friendly place as the north of Vietnam, in our experience, really wasn't that welcoming- again in stark contrast to the friendliness we'd experienced in Laos.
After Hue we went down to Hoi An, beautiful old fishing town, where we had loads of clothes tailor made at unbelievably cheap prices.
Next stop was the beach town of Nha Trang. Not the most amazing place and unfortunately this was where I got poorly and so the end of our Vietnam experience, apart from a brief spell in Ho Chi Minh City where we were met with the most unfriendly, unhelpful station guard guy who insisted that we should pay $15 dollars for a taxi to the airport, despite the fact that we knew it should only be $1! We won in the end! Ha!
So now we're in Thailand. We had a few days in Bangkok before heading south to Koh Tao, which is breathtaking. It's one of the smaller islands and is really quiet at the moment. It's really big on diving here, rich has started his 4 day open water course today. I've decided against it as I'm too much of a rubbish swimmer, though I may join him for a fun dive later where I get an instructor to basically hold my hand the whole way down! Other than that I'm going to spend my days lounging on the soft white sand, maybe paddle in the clear blue waters and perhaps do a yoga course... life's hard! xxxxx

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