Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Last Update and final words

Malaysia is an expensive shock when coming from countries such at Thailand and Cambodia. In saying that i am writing this from the 'premium lounge' in the airport (it's $40 for 5 hours - and you get free food and beer.... SOLD). It's still cheaper than Aus (except for beer in clubs in KL) but after the other countries in Asia our wallets just kept seeming to get lighter faster. 

Penang was beautiful. We found a gorgeous cafe called 'Amelie'. It was so quirky and delightful - the lady had made all the furnature herself and the outcome was fantastic. 

After a few days of exploring Penang (Daz had an Archi-Gasm at all the architecture etc), we headed down to KL for the last few days of our adventure. This is where i found out that my (even though we met at the beat - definitely straight) boyfirend LOVES shopping. I'm serious! He dragged me around several 14 storey shopping centres - of which there were many. Although most of the shops in them are similar. One of them had a huge theme park inside of it, with rollercoasters and all. All of this made me a very tired fairy! 

Things and stuff (also stuff and things): 

Most expensive hotel: First night away at Tune hotel Malaysia ($35) 

Cheapest hotel: Hostel in Trang ($4.50) 

Worst hotel: Penang - first night - got in late and just took what we could find. The furnature was worse than a share house and the toliets were down a back alley 

Best hotel: Koh Muk - bungalow on the beach - ok so the toilet didn't have a flush and collected mossies every night - and it was a little run down....but it was a bungalow on the beach - with a mossie net over the bed - and it was lovely 

Cheapest beer: Cambodia $0.50 

Most expensive beer: KL clubs $7 for a pint! 

Favorite place: Koh muk - mainly emerald caves (although koh panang comes in a close second) 

Least favorite place: Bangkok - too many people trying to trick you - and generally smelly 

Will i do it again? Always

Thursday, December 3, 2009

update while in transit

On my last post we had just wound up in Trang. The next day we had a private driver and a CAR (very flash a/c and all) drive us to a cave and two waterfalls. All of which were breath taking. At the caves you have 2 people row you around in a boat to the inside of the cave then you hop out and wander around and then row a bit further. This was all very pretty, however - coming to the end of the circuit our guide starting asking us hopw we were with small spaces. To which we both replied OK. The next thing we know we are laying down in our boat whilst rock and cave are mere inches from our bodies - fighting the instinct to put our hands up to save ourselves and leaving our pretty faces in the careful hands of our guides. Who indeed did very well at getting us though 350m or so of pitch black very low cave. When i get around to uploading pics this may make more sence - lets just say thats certainly kicked some adrenaline around in us. 

The rest of the day was very relaxing - visiting waterfalls and a national park with a sky walk - not unsimilar to the one we payed $18 a head to do in mt tamborine..except this one was FREE. That night we ate dinner at a resteraunt and taught all the staff and thai people in there how to play flick football using 10baht coins. Hillarity. 

After our trang adventures we headed over to a sleepy island named Koh Muk/Mook for some chill out time. We stayed in a bungalow (which was a bit worse for wear) on the beach, and generally did not much. Yesterday we went for a kayak around to emerald cave on the island, which is a cove enclosed by caves. You have to paddle in a cave (torch is very much required) and suddenly you emerge in a beautiful beach with a mini rainforest. Completely surrounded by rocks that were at least the hight of a 10 storey building. To our luck we had a local Thai guy help us get in and out, - very luckily as you can get lost in the cave - all for the price of 2 kisses on the cheek from me.... WIN. Also whilst in the enclosed beach we met some isralies who told Daz to propose to me there - to which we both laughed a lot. He then said if Daz wasn't he would....and proceeded to do so... i'm now going to start a new happy life in Israil....kidding. But it was hillarious all the same. 

Last night we made friends with the people from both sides of our bungalows, and once again bridged language barriers with beer and flick football. Although this time it was with french/spanish/finnish people. 

Today we're making our treck down to Penang in Malaysia and currently we're waiting for the last leg of our (longtail (boat), mini bus, tuk tuk, mini bus, mini bus) trip - not counting the boarder crossing. 

Life is great :)

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Hello from a weary traveler in Trang!

Today we came from Kho Phangan to Trang on no less then 2 mini buses, the back of 2 trucks, a ferry and a large bus - including several stops along the way. All this while recovering from a head cold has made me a very sleepy fairy!

The last week or so have been amazing. After hectic Bangkok we decided to head south and see what happened. We took an over night train to Surit Thani and make a decision in 5 seconds once we got there to take one of the many buses waiting to ferry tourists places - and bought tickets to be bussed and ferried over to Kho Phangan. Once on the ferry we met a group of 30 Canadians - and much beer was drunk in the sun. Through these Canadians we scored a free lift from the ferry terminal into town and said our goodbyes. In our semi drunken stumble we started the task of finding cheap but comfy accommodation. We met a man (obviously who worked for a hostel) who said to follow him on his motorbike for a place for 400 Baht, like following the white rabbit we slowly ambled down the street after him - whilst asking every hostel along the way about prices. We found a place and 6 hours later (keeping in mind we arrived around mid day) we awoke in a hotel room with all our things around us - with a hazy memory of the preceding events. But with a very good feeling about the place. This happy feeling was continued when we met fellow travelers who had apparently searched the whole area - just to find this one was the best. Thank you metaphorical white rabbit (although he didn't seem to happy that we wandered off from him...)

The next day we hired out a scooter and explored the islands west coast. Agreed by both of us that is one of the high lights of our trip so far. We went inland to a waterfall and climbed it until we could climb no more - will upload pics at some point. Then followed the actual track back down. All up i think we climbed about 1.2km up.... there hasn't been much rain so there were plenty of dry rocks to climb on - and it wasn't too steep. From there we just went for a ride for a while until dusk was coming and we returned the scooter while we still had our lives (dodgy roads at the best of times!)

That night we met some random Swedish guys and drank buckets on the beach - enough said. The next morning we all woke up with texta all over us to remind us that we were all meeting up for breakfast - also Daz felt the need to draw a cupcake on one of them. That day was spent mostly flaking out - i was beginning to get a head cold and Daz felt generally ill. We headed out to a 'shiva moon' psy party for a few hours that night - seriously great setup! But we both headed home early due to impending sickness. Was great just to check it out though!

Yesterday we spent on the beach, swimming, having water fights, reading and generally doing nothing. Next time i have a cold can someone please take me to a sunny beachy island? That would be lovely. Thankyou...hahahaha 

Today - as mentioned we made a tremendous journey to Trang - which really isn't that far away - it was just a bit of a pain of a journey. Before we left however we were awoken at about 4am by 2 British guys and the girls they had bought home from the beach - all of whom were VERY drunk - esp the Brits. After about 10 mins of them yelling and carrying on i knocked onj their door to ask them to keep it down to a dull roar. When the door was opened, the 2 boys were laying face down and topless with 2 asian girls (one of whom had opened the door - standing over them. the next thing we heard (leaving a lot to the imagination) was one set of people leaving. A lot of *ahem* noises, and then the Brit who had left knocking on his room door to be let back inside. Which was met with a very loud 'Don't come in I've got my cock out'... to which Daz and i laughed hysterically - in only a way you can when you're sleep deprived. I think it was at this point they understood that when i said earlier we could hear everything - i meant EVERYTHING.

Anyway - it provided us with many giggles, and we had to be up 30 mins later to start our epic journey anyway.

We have found ourselves a hostel for a whopping 150 Baht a night (approx $4-5AU) between us - which i think is our new record - so all in all - life is great - just have to kick this cold!
Tome for bed for this sleepy fairy - have much exploring to do tomorrow!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

First update for on the road

Greetings from hectic Bangkok! We are beginning our third day in Bangkok and we've managed - thus far to avoid being scammed (we think). Yesterday we went for a walk around all the major touristy things - we decided that we'd do the whole thing on foot - because getting lost is half the fun. It also adds the hillarity of people trying to scam you evey few hundred meters! People will come up to you with opening lines of 'oh are you looking for *insert land mark*? you need to head *insert direction*.' followed by 'I am a school teacher on a break/ on holidays from *insert other city*. The place you wnat to see is closed until *insert time*, but *insert other monument* is open for free to tourists today only, usually it is *insert price* After *insert landmark* you should go to *insert several other landmarks*. you should hire out a government tuktuk for 20 baht.' and suddenly a tuktuk shows up. no joke, this happened 3 times before we got to our first tourist attraction for the day (the massive gold standing buddha). Luckily we were onto it straight away - so we got as much info as possible from them and then insisted we were walking everywhere - which we did. 

After a while i decided the reason we kept being targetted was due to the Thailand guide book that fell into our hands while we were in Seam Reap. So we bought a map of bangkok (so we didn't have to keep looking at the guidebook map) and from there things wern't so bad. We headed into the china town market and the thieves market - the former was sooooo hectic, never mind a flow - it was a fast running river of people moving in every direction - well worth a look though! 

After 6 hours of walking around the city we decided we'd had enough for the day and decided to retreat to the less hectic area of our hostel. Last night we drank at a bar that was a kombi van parked in a street with some tables and chairs playing dubstep (of the very wobbly variety), heaven. 

Seam reap was great also. Good to revisit people i met there and the temples as well. The 12 hour bus ride from there to bangkok was not so great - but no dramas. The boarder crossing took about 2 hours but other than that everything was great. 

Thinking about heading south over the next couple of days for some beachy goodness :D

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Cambodian times

Life has been a lot more active since my last update. 

When i finally made it back to Phnom Penh from Sihonoukville i went to the doctor and found out i had a temperature of 39 degrees...and was ordered to stay in bed... which only lasted about 2 days. 

After that i headed up to Siem Reap to check out the temples (angkor wat etc). The main temple in the angkor thom area was my favourite. I got a 3 day pass so i could do a couple of sunsets in different places and watch the sunrise over angkor wat....with about 1000 other people...but it's easy to cut them out of the pics and pretend like you're on your own. On my last night in Siem Reap i went out drinking/clubbing/karaoking with a bunch of Khmer people - one of which i had vaguely met at my hostel. The clubs are pretty similar to Aus ones - although they'll be playing music for ages, and then suddenly a band will appear and play a really different style of music....we moved on at that point. Karaoke was weird because we were in one of those private rooms. Just after we arrived the owner walked in with about 20 girls so the boys i was with could choose their 'company' for while they were there. The guy who had invited me out with them explained to me that in general khmer girls are only after money - so this is an arrangement that works out for everyone involved....aparently. 

After getting about 1 hour of sleep i had to get up to take my 8 hour boat ride from Siem Reap to Battambang. It was a beautiful trip, lots of floating villages and kids waving at us etc....Although getting picked up at sunrise and dropped off at sunset did make it a rather long trip...the only bad thing really was going over a particular choppy area for an hour...which made me seriously rethink the fact i had a mixture of beer, tequila, vodka, johnny walker and coffee in my stomach... :-s all in all it was very relaxing...and a lot nicer than taking the bus (even if the bus was only about 4 hours) 

In Battambang i met up with Adam and we attended a Khmer wedding - the bride and groom being people he works with. It was a very colourful affair and one that apparenty takes around 2 days in total - we just attended the lunch on the second day. There were about 8 courses of food....all of which were meat...but it looks like it would have been good. There was lots of dancing after the meal - everytime someone asked me to dance i had to accept (although i didn't sometimes) due to the fact (as adam kept annoingly reminding me) it is culturally rude not to. However it was fun to learn some traditional Khmer dance moves....and even funnier to watch what they said was their 'western style' dance. 

The next day we went sightseeing in the morning with some people from Adam's work and then embarked on our 5 hour bus trip back to Phnom Penh. 

Monday was a public holiday in Cambodia - although not many people seemed to have the day off. In the afternoon Adam took me cycling around Phnom Penh to the olympic stadium (which has never held an olympics) to see hundreds of people doing areobics all around it. From a distance it all looks like they're doing it in time - not in several different groups. Cycling around wasn't as scary as i was expecting - and it makes the city seem a whole lot smaller. 

Yesterday i caught the bus up to Mondulkiri province (9 hours on a bus...ewwwww). Tomorrow i'm hoping to go on an overnight elephant trek though the 'jungle'. Hopefully i can find someone else who is doing it on their own - as the price is per elephant rather than per person - so if i do it alone it's going to work out very expensive indeed. 

I can definitely say i'm not looking forward to going home and entering the 'real' world again. So i'm going to makesure i make the most of my last (less than) week. 

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Chilling in Cambodia

I'm currently at the beach, and finally have learned the art of doing nothing. I'm wasting away days by the beach, swimming, reading and generally having fun, then dancing, firetwiring and drinking cheap cocktails during the night. I met up with up with a friend from Bris and her brother and friend in Phnom Penh. It was quite exciting to see familiar faces... and 2 of them in the one country (Adam and Ang) i just don't know what to do with myself...hahaha.

I'm really loving the traveller lifestyle, being able to make decisions in the moment and knowing that regardless of what i do, it's all ok. This morning for example, i decided that infact i wasn't ready to leave beautiful Sihanoukville...and thus changed my bus ticket back to Phnom Penh to some time other than today and told the guest house that infact i wasn't leaving....they seemed quite pleased with the decision..haha.

I love that my hardest task during the day is deciding where to eat dinner, or do i want another massage? Today i had (my very first) a manicure while sitting on the beach.followed by a full body massage (all for $10)...life doesn't get much better than this!

So to sum it up... life is amazing. haha. yesty was Australia day and also Chinese new year, and also Indian Independence day... so to everyone around it was just another cause to celebrate... and how better than to enjoy the beautiful beaches and run amok?

I didn't do much in Phnom Pehn. Mainly lay around Adams house and recovered from all the hard days of sightseeing etc i had been doing previously. But i have to end up back there, so the killing fields can wait until i'm ready.

One of the things i love about Cambodia, is the fact that it is socially aceptable to be wearing your pjs in public atany time of the day or night.

In Saigon/HCMC i only really saw the tunnels and fired an AK47 and hung around the backpacker district. I wanted to go on a trip trough the Mekong Delta but you can only use evisas on certain entry points... and the one i'd need to go through wasn't one of them :(

Hope everyone had a grand Aussie day
xxx

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Morning Star and VPV

So as it turns out, i'm not actually working at an orphanage. I'm working at a school for disabled kids. The class i'm helping out in has 12 autistic kids in it. Although i don't think they all actually have autism, i think some of them have ADHD or the likes and have been diagnosed under the autistic category. 

It was a bit hard working there at first, as no one has ever told me what to do/what is expected of me etc. I was just thrown in a classroom with the 3 teachers and left to figure everything out myself. But i've gotten myself into a bit of a routine with it and hopefully i'm actually helping the teachers out (and not just being just another thing they have to worry about) The kids are really cute but they can also be really annoying.... how can you reason with a 5year old autistic kid when you don't speak their language?? However it has been fun for the most part. 

The other night we were told there was a mini celebration happening at friendship village - boarding school for disabled kids (one of the places VPV volunteers at) - and that we should go along. However we forgot that this was Viet speak for - you should make an early tet celebration for the kids tonight. hahaha. One thing i've found about Vietnam is that communication isn't a big thing. Messages always seem to get lost in thin air, and if you want more than one person to know something, then you need to tell each person individually - rather than letting the message be passed on. The tet celebrations were great anyway. We made a giant bonfire and roasted sweet potatoes on them and played games with the kids. I kinda wish i'd been placed there instead of morning star. Everyone at friendship village were so friendly, and so happy we were there. As they live there full time, there was no rushing and prodding along all the time like there is at Morning star - where they have limited time. 

Well that's the week pretty much summed up. Working a lot means that all other activities have been put on hold. Except of course going out at night with the other volunteers - which has provided some VERY funny/random nights indeed. 

Looking forward to some warmer weather down south!!!!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Vietnam Happenings...

Well i figured it was about time for another update, although i don't really know where to start. New Years was lots of random messy 'glam rock' fun... although i saw a girl from our hostel get hit by a motorbike, which was not so fun...especially for her - although she seemed to be ok. I was very surprised at myself for staying awake until 6am as i'd only had one hours sleep the night (i blame you jj.... and family guy!) before and a 4 hour nap during the day... but had to remember i was representing my country... and mustn't let anyone think Australians are weak! (unlike some other aussies i know who were in bed by 9!!!) 

Sapa (where i went before new years) was beautiful. It was like a mix between Nepals countryside and Thailands hilltribes. The first day was so foggy that we couldn't see more than 50 metres in front of our faces. However the next day i got up and watched the sunrise and that was absolutely beautiful! It was the clearest and warmest day i've had in Viet the whole time i've been here (and in the place everyone told me was going to be freezing!). 

I haven't done anything at the orphanage yet. Thursday and Friday (Jan1/2) i had my orientation days where i learnt about Viet culture and VPV and some basic Viet phrases. Everyone from the volunteer dorms where i am staying was heading over to Sapa for the weekend, so i decided to fly down to Hoi An (bypassing the 16 hour bus ride) to meet up with some people i had met at the Hanoi Backpackers, and to hopefully get some sunshine. I found some of them on the Saturday, but they left that night. So i spent Sunday sight seeing and getting the final fittings done on a (very pretty) dress. It rained all day, and i have more than a sneaking suspision i have a cold... something about the continuous coughing up of green crap.... but all in all i had a very good weekend. 

I'm now back at the volunteer dorms and will (hopefully) be seeing where i am working thisafternoon...and (hopefully) finding out what i will actually doing there. 

I just went for a walk though the little town close to the dorms we are staying at. It was a very funny experience indeed. We walked past a school (not one we work at) and instantly we were surrounded by kids who kept saying 'hello hello' and shaking our hands... then when we walked off the followed us for a good 5 minutes....soooo funny. 

Another thing that amazes me about the country here, is that on one side of the road there will be houses/factories/buildings of sorts. But on the other side of the road there will be a guy wading through his rice paddies...certainly different to home! 

Anyway, i'm off to get organised before i see the orphanage. Hope everyone is great back home 
xxx