Well i had a fantastic time in Sapa. Unfortunately i never did totally kick the cold i'd developed (not helped by the absolutely freezing temperatures in Sapa - some nights i actually wore everything i had with me!), so i did not manage to head out trekking as i'd planned.
Fortunately i was travelling with cool people and after a day of sleeping recovering from the night train (which wasnt nearly as bad as i expected actually - air con, small mattress, blanket and a pillow!) we decided the next day to hire scooters with drivers and go on a tour around Sapa. First stop was a village with some very friendly people who we could see all worked together as a community to get everything done - the women were digging out the hillside to make way for a new house, and the men were up in the hills collecting wood for it. We walked to a cave which the vietnamese have hidden in for many wars, awesome to see, and back out to of course now buy a few things off our friendly helpers.
next our scooter drivers offered to take us to a waterfall for some extra $ so we agreed and off we went, up windy half-paved roads with the most amazing views over teh mountains. we were very lucky to have booked this on one of Sapa's rare clear days and we could see for miles. The waterfall was beautiful and after much clambering we managed to make it up high for some great photos. Then back down and the drivers managed to talk us into going to a nice mountain pass view point for extra $ so off we went, more amazing views, and back to Sapa.
spent the next few days not doing a lot, trying to recover from my cold. did manage to spend the night of 'yongkipol' (excuse me for my terrible spelling its phonetic) with some israeli's and i can honesty say i've never seen people stuff themselves with that much food at once. the boys had a big bowl of beef noodle soup, then a big plate of fried rice, then hamburger and fries - and 6 litres of water!! I actually dont quite believe they were hungry by 6pm the next night!!
Anyway spent my days lazing around the town, playing cards in a cafe with a really nice vietnamese woman, eating yummy street food, exploring the town and getting harrassed by every street merchant you can imagine. they're very multi-talented and not at all lazy, i'll give them that. one guy came up to me offering me "postcard sapa, postcard vietnam, map sapa, map vietnam, book, cigarettes, motorbike to rent?". i found out the next day he'd added "cocaine and beautiful vietnamese girl very cheap" to my male companion! hilarious.
On my second to last day i met an American Paul who was new to Vietnam, straight from China. we agreed to rent scooters together the next day, and after visiting many motorbike places, and finding many didnt have working gears, brakes, rare-view mirrors or helmets we finally settled on one guy with two working good motorbikes. not before being sworn at by one of the first guys we'd looked at! He even asked Paul if he was ' a man or a dog', implying he's a dog for listening to someone as low as a woman (after it was me who'd said i didnt trust the guy or his dodgy motorbikes an inch) when it comes to renting motorbikes!
Anyway we went on our way on the motorbikes having an absolute blast. first stop was a village where a woman at a shop said she would look after our motorbikes for us - we bought a drink each to thank her (though regretted that act of kindless later when she tried to extort more money out of us for looking after the bikes. honestly the vietnamese will do anything to squeeze every last cent out of you!). the village was really nice and at the bottom was a beautiful waterfall.
After that we headed on our way back to town for some yummy noodle soup (not before arguing with the stall holder over the price - somehow the price had doubled in the two days since i'd last eaten there.) and then off down the main road through the mountains. was really gorgeous and again we were lucky that we'd run into a reasonably clear day in Sapa. took tons of photos and really enjoyed sitting on a scooter for hours on end... though i have to admit after many hours my legs were pretty sore.
anyway that night it was back on the night train back to Hanoi for me. after my minibus failed to pick me up from Sapa the man who i'd booked the ticket through kindly made a local bus wait for me 'down the road' and organised a motorbike taxi to take me to it - 20 minutes down the road we finally met the bus! Was so kind of the man and great to see sometimes there are Vietnamese people who will do kind things without exorting more money out of you!
Anyway the next day was back to Sapa and booked my tour of Halong bay, 3 days, 2 nights for US$48. Turned out i didnt have any more luck than everyone else i'd spoken to who had done tours though, as we had the rudest and most imcompetent tour people in the world! Took them 2.5 hours to get us from the bus onto the boat, with them yelling at us to give our passports, stand there, dont move (one girl was told off for moving to the rubbish bin). we had people from a variety of tours, one day, two day and three day (and one poor couple just wanting to take the boat to the island, which is apparently quite an impossible task to comprehend). there was no system, no co-ordination, just a lot of walking round in circles with our passports and telling us to 'wait here'! cant imagine that they do this every single day!!
anyway finally we were on the boat and got our lunch at 2pm. was a good lunch though nice to notice the staff had more food than us... we got to an island where there was some beautiful caves which i thought were turned into a bit of a circus with yellow, blue and green lights everywhere, even a fountain! and they had put red lights into the formations that looked like things, just so you knew where the eyes were meant to be... of course we were now late so they sheparded us through the caves at maximum speed (we were trying to tag onto other tours where the tour guides actually spoke english and actually guided), one poor guy on crutches was practically pushed through the cave!
Back onto the boat and we then went to a cave which apparently wasnt included in our 'all entrance tickets included' ticket. most people protested and didnt go, much to the dismay of our guide who insisted we had to have 3 more people before they could visit the cave. After that we dropped some people off at Cat Ba island and stopped in a bay somewhere for the night. Had a nice dinner after being demanded to sit down (some french girls were told off for going outside for a cigarette while waiting for food..). played cards that night and i ordered a cup of tea.. after my tea was finished i asked for some more hot water. climbed over the furniture to reach the staff who had lost the ability to move from their TV watching position and they made fun of me while pouring water into my cup!! really classy. when i asked for more hot water later i was told the jug was empty and that was 'not possible' to boil more water. and no i was not allowed into the kitchen to boil my own water. After that we went down to someones room to closet drink beer that the german boys had bought onto the boat - otherwise they were going to charge $1.50 per beer (the beers themselves coste $0.80).
the next morning we were woken at 6.30 for our 'morning of kayaking', which was to last from precisely 6.45 - 7.15. following the guides advice of 'around here' (pointing to everywhere) as a good spot to visit we kayaked around which was nice. returned back and was told to change, then told off for changing when breakfast was ready, then told off for sitting at the 'wrong' table for breakfast, then told off for taking too long to pack my bag (do you get the picture?) we switched boats to one going to Cat Ba island. On Cat Ba island it was raining but most of us still wanted to go trekking so off we went up the mountain. fortunately it stopped raining and we had magnificent views. was a fantastic climb to the top where we could see the National Park we were supposed to be trekking in, and the sea beyond.
The pamphlet said we would be finished at 5pm from kayaking and trekking, but at 12.00 we returned to the hotel for lunch. after waiting for the staff to scratch their heads over a single room, then eventaully being told they'd found a room and they just needed to get it ready. they had lunch and upon finishing lunch my room was ready and i checked in. Met the lovely couple who had the misfortune of trying to take the boat to Cat Ba island the previous day , and they had hired a scooter to look around the island. I thought this was a great idea so joined them and we spent hours exploring Cat Ba island. Was stunning scenery with the forest and the ocean and long winding roads with hardly a car on the road.
Was very excited that night to find a bar called the 'flightless bird' with tons of new zealand posters and memorabilia around the room! there were steinlager posters everywhere so i went up the bar and ordered 'a steinlager please'. the poor waitress looked at me blankly and said 'a what?'. turned out it was just the pictures but was nice none the less. After a darts competition which i lost horribly back to the hotel ready for our early start the next morning.
again lots of waiting and we finally got from the hotel to the bus (with no working horn, yes!), to the boat, to the bus to the restaurant for lunch and back to Hanoi. I forgot to mention that the Vietnamese believe that the more you use your horn the better a driver it makes you. so you can imagine what its like driving anywhere in Vietnam - horns galore you just cant get away from it. you beep at someone when you want to pass them (even when they are in the lane next to you), you beep at them when passing, then when finishing passing. you beep at people who may pull out in front of you to let them know youre' there, you beep at scooters so they know you're there, you beep at people to say hello.. it just never ends!
anyway the next day i sent a very expensive package home and was off on my flights to Indonesia!! unfortunately my flight was delayed by several hours and i didnt arrive untl 2am. no backpackers on the plane as i'd planned and the 'dodgy' backpacker district was asleep so had to pay NZ$100 for a room for the night somewhere safe. ouch! Anyway spent the next day exploring Jakarta and got to feel why most people tell you to get out (never seen so much car fumes in my life, thick layer of smog on the ground), and took the night minibus to Yogyakarta. spent my first day exploring the local market which was great, as the prices were cheap, the shops were organised and people understood the concept of browsing!! Indonesians are much more friendly than the vietnamese and dont get angry and yell at you for any small reason!!
the next day i booked an early morning tour of Borobodur and Prombanan temples, first one being an ancient bhuddist temple and the second being a hindi temple. Found out how similar they are which i hadnt realised, and spent the rest of the day stopping for photo shoots with the locals, who obviously found us a tourist attraction along with 1000 year old temples!
the next day I took a package minibus to Mt Bromo. Long day in an 'air-con' bus with air con that was much less useful than an open window with dust and fumes flying in. arrived in Mt Bromo at 9.30, had a late dinner and shower and went to bed, ready for my 3.30 wake up call. Was just me and a british girl Anu who had decided to take the cheaper option of walking to Mt Bromo but we were glad we did it. was amazingly beautiful walking first along the desert and then up to the mountain where smoke was puffing out and the sun was just rising. definately have to be one of the highlights of my trip and highly recommend it to anyone who manages to makes it to Indonesia! walked around the crater for a while then rode a horse off the moutain.
then back to the hotel for breakfast and into a series of buses for our long trip to Bali. Was even treated to a Karaoke ferry on the way, where they had the whole set up with TV, microphone, live guitar and drums.. and speakers throughout the entire boat so no matter where you were you could hear it. how kind of them.
finally arrived in Bali dead tired and after a quick dinner and some free shots from some nice boys who had a tray of 20 shots for $10 i was off to bed. Finally got to sleep in the next day and took a wander around town and the beach where it is so hot! the most unbelievably hot place i have been to thus far. the next day woke up not feeling great so didnt go surfing as planned, and yesterday i woke up feeling even worse. it appears theres a bug going round as lots of us here have it so it was a day in bed for me yesterday and dont imagine i'll be doing much else today. What a shame at the end of my trip! Hopefully i'll kick it soon so i can go diving and rent a scooter to explore the island!
Anyway this is way long now so i had best be going.
much love,
Ingrid
Friday, October 24, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
scams and cows penis
Well my time in Dalat was interesting! The night I arrived i was of course immediately hassled by lots of 'Easy Rider' motorbike drivers wanting to take me on a tour of the city. i chattted to an English guy who had taken one that day and said he was good so agreed to take that driver the next day, but also agreed with a 40 year old english guy that we would pair up to make it more fun..
the next day i found out my english friend Mike had his guy for $5 less than mine so after much yelling on the part of my driver and him storming off then coming back grumpily i got the same price. Titi my driver tried telling me that we 'weren't going with Mike' and was insisting i was not going with him but Mike told him he didn't have much of a choice!
We headed on our way and Titi managed to spend the first 30 mins trying to talk me into paying the extra money (have to pay commission to hotel, must buy petrol, other driver doesnt realise this....) and the rest of the day convincing me what a horrible person Mike was! Actually got to be quite funny when he decided we were only spending the day together for one reason and came up with 'Mike old bamboo, you young blade of grass. old bamboo eat young grass' (which was followed by a long laugh at his own hilarity). He even got quite angry when we arrived at our locations first and i insisted we wait for Mike and his driver before going in. Im quite sure that if he wasnt on drugs at that moment he had done a lot in the past because he was quite crazy..
We visited quite a lot on our trip. Went to a coffee plantation, silk worm farm and factory, passionfruit planatation, a beautiful monestary and waterfall, went for a walk through the bush (which was a pine tree plantation that followed the road), went for a yummy local lunch of noodle soup and then went to the 'crazy house' which was created by a vietnamese woman who studied architecture in Moscow. was a really interseting house with hardly a straight line (even the beds werent square), and giraffes coming out of the wall and all sorts...
The next day i was over the cold (even a girl from Quebec was wearing long-johns!) so headed on the bus to Nha Trang. The bus ride was amazingly beautiful and there were quite a few fun people on the bus so when the bus dropped us off at the designated hotel (i swear they dont even have bus stations in Vietnam everyone just pays for you to go to a hotel) we all decided to stay in the same place. that night we wandered along looking for a place to have a late night second-dinner and came across a local place with an enormous menu including such delicacies as pigs feet, porcupine and cows penis! This was too much of an opportunity to pass up so we all agreed to put in 30 cents worth and get a plate of sweet and sour cows penis. Everyone tried a piece and everyone seemed to get different textures, some enjoying it and some not. I thought my piece tasted like bad pork... got a funny video to prove it though!
the next day we agreed to take the hotel boat tour of the Nha Trang islands and went on our way. We visited 4 islands and did much jumping off the boat into the water, as well as a bit of beach lying and 'snorkling' (with masks that leaked..), and a trip to an aquarium. We also had a 'floating bar' which is where one of the boat staff hopped into the water with a big ring with a bucket with the worlds cheapest red wine, plastic glasses and pineapple in the glasses.. and we all got our own ring and swam in the water drinking our free wine and trying not to get too much salt water in the glass while listening to music from the boat. was lots of fun!
That night we all went out for drinks and at the restaurant invented a drinking game which involved someone dance chasing a girl down the street, singing in the middle of the restarant, doing press ups on the street, was a good laugh and even the restaurant staff were laughing along with us. The next morning we all had a relaxing day to make up for the night before so i headed down to the beach and got my legs 'threaded', which is where they use a piece of cotton to remove the hair from your legs (ouch!), then a massage after to make up for it... and a bit of swimming and reading my book.
the next morning Lisa and Luke, an aussie couple and i headed to the local mud spa. It cost a whopping US$5 and we had several hours there. first you showered, then lay in the mud for 15 minutes, then baked in the sun for 10 minutes, then showered that off, lay in a hot spa for 5 minutes and then had the rest of the day to enjoy the normal pools and waterfall (which was like a massage on your back). Was so nice and relaxing and my skin felt so good afterwards! definately recommend doing it if anyone is in Vietnam.
That night feeling way too relaxed we headed on the night bus to Hoi An. After along and uncomfortable sleep we arrived at our hotel in the pouring rain and waited tired and grumpy for our room to come free. finally we were able to get to bed and have a nap before exploring the city in the rain .. which didnt last long before we went back to watch dvd's in our room. the next day we all went out to get some tailor-made clothes, and i got 3 pair of shoes (summer sandles, strappy sandles and work shoes), and a suit and shirt, winter jacket (lined for extra warmth!) a bikini and some other things for presents.. Using the excuse that i find it hard to find good clothes at home that fit! The next day we went to pick up our stuff and none of fitted well! Had to do some quick adjustments and then quicky catch the bus for the night. fortunately most of the adjustments were good so the clothes fit relatively well.
After a beautiful bus ride to Hue we quickly swapped onto our night bus which took us to Hanoi. I thought i would be clever and take up the whole back row with us 3 girls, so we had 5 seats to put our stuff and stretch our legs. unfortunately as the night wore on the bus filled up and we had to move over for a few local men. I was right next to one man who had a cold so spent the night coughing, sniffing and hoiking, and even occasionaly chewing on his hoik!! Was a pretty gross night with not a lot of sleep had, and by the time we arrived in Hanoi at 6am we were all pretty dead. Decided to take a metre taxi hoping that it would be less hassle with having to barter and having them take us to the wrong hotel which they get commission for (which happens often) and our taxi driver tried to charge us NZ$15 for a 5 minute drive! I just looked at him and said he had to be joking (the going rate is 30,000 - 50,000 it turns out) so we gave him 50,000 and told him it was that or nothing. Sometimes you really feel that every person in Vietnam is out to scam you and you just get so tired of it!! but then sometimes people just do the most amazingly kind things and it throws it into perspective...
anyway have been in Hanoi the past few days trying to recover from my bus ride and kick the sore throat and cough i developed since then.. Have explored the city a bit and am heading off to Sapa in the north tonight on a 'hard sleeper bed' on the train (which i am presuming will be a plank of wood.. ) should be a fun night.
Also since I come home in a month i am sending out a message that I will be looking for work when i come back. anyone know of anything please let me know.
If you want to check out my photos look at www.bebo.com/ingridjones
much love to all,
Ingrid
the next day i found out my english friend Mike had his guy for $5 less than mine so after much yelling on the part of my driver and him storming off then coming back grumpily i got the same price. Titi my driver tried telling me that we 'weren't going with Mike' and was insisting i was not going with him but Mike told him he didn't have much of a choice!
We headed on our way and Titi managed to spend the first 30 mins trying to talk me into paying the extra money (have to pay commission to hotel, must buy petrol, other driver doesnt realise this....) and the rest of the day convincing me what a horrible person Mike was! Actually got to be quite funny when he decided we were only spending the day together for one reason and came up with 'Mike old bamboo, you young blade of grass. old bamboo eat young grass' (which was followed by a long laugh at his own hilarity). He even got quite angry when we arrived at our locations first and i insisted we wait for Mike and his driver before going in. Im quite sure that if he wasnt on drugs at that moment he had done a lot in the past because he was quite crazy..
We visited quite a lot on our trip. Went to a coffee plantation, silk worm farm and factory, passionfruit planatation, a beautiful monestary and waterfall, went for a walk through the bush (which was a pine tree plantation that followed the road), went for a yummy local lunch of noodle soup and then went to the 'crazy house' which was created by a vietnamese woman who studied architecture in Moscow. was a really interseting house with hardly a straight line (even the beds werent square), and giraffes coming out of the wall and all sorts...
The next day i was over the cold (even a girl from Quebec was wearing long-johns!) so headed on the bus to Nha Trang. The bus ride was amazingly beautiful and there were quite a few fun people on the bus so when the bus dropped us off at the designated hotel (i swear they dont even have bus stations in Vietnam everyone just pays for you to go to a hotel) we all decided to stay in the same place. that night we wandered along looking for a place to have a late night second-dinner and came across a local place with an enormous menu including such delicacies as pigs feet, porcupine and cows penis! This was too much of an opportunity to pass up so we all agreed to put in 30 cents worth and get a plate of sweet and sour cows penis. Everyone tried a piece and everyone seemed to get different textures, some enjoying it and some not. I thought my piece tasted like bad pork... got a funny video to prove it though!
the next day we agreed to take the hotel boat tour of the Nha Trang islands and went on our way. We visited 4 islands and did much jumping off the boat into the water, as well as a bit of beach lying and 'snorkling' (with masks that leaked..), and a trip to an aquarium. We also had a 'floating bar' which is where one of the boat staff hopped into the water with a big ring with a bucket with the worlds cheapest red wine, plastic glasses and pineapple in the glasses.. and we all got our own ring and swam in the water drinking our free wine and trying not to get too much salt water in the glass while listening to music from the boat. was lots of fun!
That night we all went out for drinks and at the restaurant invented a drinking game which involved someone dance chasing a girl down the street, singing in the middle of the restarant, doing press ups on the street, was a good laugh and even the restaurant staff were laughing along with us. The next morning we all had a relaxing day to make up for the night before so i headed down to the beach and got my legs 'threaded', which is where they use a piece of cotton to remove the hair from your legs (ouch!), then a massage after to make up for it... and a bit of swimming and reading my book.
the next morning Lisa and Luke, an aussie couple and i headed to the local mud spa. It cost a whopping US$5 and we had several hours there. first you showered, then lay in the mud for 15 minutes, then baked in the sun for 10 minutes, then showered that off, lay in a hot spa for 5 minutes and then had the rest of the day to enjoy the normal pools and waterfall (which was like a massage on your back). Was so nice and relaxing and my skin felt so good afterwards! definately recommend doing it if anyone is in Vietnam.
That night feeling way too relaxed we headed on the night bus to Hoi An. After along and uncomfortable sleep we arrived at our hotel in the pouring rain and waited tired and grumpy for our room to come free. finally we were able to get to bed and have a nap before exploring the city in the rain .. which didnt last long before we went back to watch dvd's in our room. the next day we all went out to get some tailor-made clothes, and i got 3 pair of shoes (summer sandles, strappy sandles and work shoes), and a suit and shirt, winter jacket (lined for extra warmth!) a bikini and some other things for presents.. Using the excuse that i find it hard to find good clothes at home that fit! The next day we went to pick up our stuff and none of fitted well! Had to do some quick adjustments and then quicky catch the bus for the night. fortunately most of the adjustments were good so the clothes fit relatively well.
After a beautiful bus ride to Hue we quickly swapped onto our night bus which took us to Hanoi. I thought i would be clever and take up the whole back row with us 3 girls, so we had 5 seats to put our stuff and stretch our legs. unfortunately as the night wore on the bus filled up and we had to move over for a few local men. I was right next to one man who had a cold so spent the night coughing, sniffing and hoiking, and even occasionaly chewing on his hoik!! Was a pretty gross night with not a lot of sleep had, and by the time we arrived in Hanoi at 6am we were all pretty dead. Decided to take a metre taxi hoping that it would be less hassle with having to barter and having them take us to the wrong hotel which they get commission for (which happens often) and our taxi driver tried to charge us NZ$15 for a 5 minute drive! I just looked at him and said he had to be joking (the going rate is 30,000 - 50,000 it turns out) so we gave him 50,000 and told him it was that or nothing. Sometimes you really feel that every person in Vietnam is out to scam you and you just get so tired of it!! but then sometimes people just do the most amazingly kind things and it throws it into perspective...
anyway have been in Hanoi the past few days trying to recover from my bus ride and kick the sore throat and cough i developed since then.. Have explored the city a bit and am heading off to Sapa in the north tonight on a 'hard sleeper bed' on the train (which i am presuming will be a plank of wood.. ) should be a fun night.
Also since I come home in a month i am sending out a message that I will be looking for work when i come back. anyone know of anything please let me know.
If you want to check out my photos look at www.bebo.com/ingridjones
much love to all,
Ingrid
Monday, September 22, 2008
Vietnam!!
So it seemed the entire time i was in Sihanokville in southern Cambodia it rained.. and when i checked the weather map for the next few days it said it was going to rain! So i headed off to the Vietnamese embassy for a 5 minute visa (beats the 3 day visa you get in Phnom Penh!) Afterwards i took a 'moto' (motorbike that you sit on the back of and enjoy the view while praying that you dont crash as the driver is crazy and you have no helmet) to the beach. Even though it was raining the water was so warm so i changed into my bikini and found some locals to swim next to (as the water was rough) and enjoyed the warm water. unfortunately i'd forgotten to remove the giant flashing 'prostitute' sign off my forehead before i got in so i was immediately followed by some local guys who looked at me like a tasty piece of meat.. after a few minutes i got pretty sick of this so got out of the water and moved down the beach!
The next day i started my 11 hour bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam! The bus had plenty of space though and there were some interesting people on board so when we got to HCMC we decided to find a backpackers together. We were immediately adopted by some Vietnamese who were 'helping' us by showing us the way to the hostel we said we wanted, but interestingly every hostel we went into was 'full' so we tried our hardest to ditch the locals and straight away found a dorm room with space. lesson learnt..
the city of Ho Chi Minh is pretty crazy, there are over 3 million scooters and driving through the city in the bus took us a whole hour. While there is so much traffic though it actually makes life not too hard as you just walk in front of traffic and it will part around youlike you are some sort of magical rock in a stream. Its the only way to cross the street here and so long as you make it obvoius what your'e doing and give them enough time to swerve they dont mind at all.
Our first day in HCMC the two canadians and one kiwi i was with went on a walking tour of the city to see the reunification palace, recommended by Lonely Planet. NOt sure why it was recommended as it was pretty boring and eventless.. so after that we headed to a market, had a quick look around and a local lunch of 'pho' or rice noodle soup which is yum (the locals eat it a lot), and then off to the war remnants museum, which was funny in that it sought to paint america as an evil wrong-doer, while giving the impression vietnamese soldiers almost werent involved in the war and obviously did nothing wrong at all! americans were torturers and evil, while the vietcon were freedom fighters and hero's...
was pretty tired after that so Brendan (one of the canadians and I) went and had a $8 massage.. gonna miss the cheap massages over here when im home!
the next morning i was up early to find we had a bus booked to see the Cu Chi tunnels out of HCMC. On the way we stopped at a village the government had set up for the war injured and agent-orange people, (they didnt say iton the tour but it was clearly to keep them away from society!). The people made a living out of making some beautiful artwork and bowls etc. but it was all a bit of a sad tourist show for me. many of the people would be more than capable of holding down a normal job if it werent for the fact that the vietnamese considered them disabled and thus unable to work!
Anyway the tunnels were amazing. We learnt about how the Vietcon had lived underground in elaborate tunnel networks for months on end to outwit the Americans in so many ways. in one place the americans built their base on top of an existing tunnel network so at night teh vietcon would sneak out and steal guns and ammunition, then shoot the baffled americans! they also took the tyres off tanks etc. and made sandles out of them, which were actually better than the american boots for the climate as it rains a lot in vietnam. they would sneak out and shoot americans, then put the shoes on backwards to run back so the americans were always tracking them in the wrong direction. they also found all sorts of ways to get rid of sniffer dogs which tried to find the tunels, by putting american shit on teh hatch to confuse the dogs, laying traps and putting chilli on the hatch to scare the dogs and ruin their noses. its amazing how well they did considering they had nothing and the americans had so much tecnology.
at the end of the tour we got to go through a section of the tunnels, which were so low even i had trouble crouching over and walking through. every 30 metres there was an air vent which they had turned into escape hatch for the benefit of the tourists. I had a headlamp so could see easily but not many people managed to make it to the end of the tunnel! Scary to think the vietcon managed to live in the tunnels for so long.
Anyway the next day Brendan and I headed on a bus to the beach town of Mui Ne. After much wandering we finallyfound a bungalow on the beach and spent the afternoon enjoying the warm warm water. The next day we rented scooters and headed out to the Red Sanddunes to fly down on plastic sheets. After working our way through a hoard of kids and paying two to take us down (and being sworn at by other children we didnt give money to!) the kids walked us to a good spot and set up the boards for us to fly down. The kids were really cool (though sad they are not in school) and boarding down was a bit of childish fun.
After much more time on the scooter, riding along to the most beautiful sunset i enjoyed my 3rd swim for the day and crashed into bed exhausted! This morning I had a chill out day, reading my book , walking along the beach and enjoying many swims. Fortunately Mui Ne's surrouding sand dunes andhills seem to make the rains avoid the place so it has been beautifulhere. although i did manage to quite badly burn my arms on the scooter yesterday.
Anyway tomorrow i am catching a bus off to Dalat where apparently it rains alot and reaches the 'pleasant' temperature of 15 - 25 degrees! Gonna get the jacket and beanie handy i think as anything below 25 now and im cold...
hope all is well back home
much love
Ingrid
The next day i started my 11 hour bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam! The bus had plenty of space though and there were some interesting people on board so when we got to HCMC we decided to find a backpackers together. We were immediately adopted by some Vietnamese who were 'helping' us by showing us the way to the hostel we said we wanted, but interestingly every hostel we went into was 'full' so we tried our hardest to ditch the locals and straight away found a dorm room with space. lesson learnt..
the city of Ho Chi Minh is pretty crazy, there are over 3 million scooters and driving through the city in the bus took us a whole hour. While there is so much traffic though it actually makes life not too hard as you just walk in front of traffic and it will part around youlike you are some sort of magical rock in a stream. Its the only way to cross the street here and so long as you make it obvoius what your'e doing and give them enough time to swerve they dont mind at all.
Our first day in HCMC the two canadians and one kiwi i was with went on a walking tour of the city to see the reunification palace, recommended by Lonely Planet. NOt sure why it was recommended as it was pretty boring and eventless.. so after that we headed to a market, had a quick look around and a local lunch of 'pho' or rice noodle soup which is yum (the locals eat it a lot), and then off to the war remnants museum, which was funny in that it sought to paint america as an evil wrong-doer, while giving the impression vietnamese soldiers almost werent involved in the war and obviously did nothing wrong at all! americans were torturers and evil, while the vietcon were freedom fighters and hero's...
was pretty tired after that so Brendan (one of the canadians and I) went and had a $8 massage.. gonna miss the cheap massages over here when im home!
the next morning i was up early to find we had a bus booked to see the Cu Chi tunnels out of HCMC. On the way we stopped at a village the government had set up for the war injured and agent-orange people, (they didnt say iton the tour but it was clearly to keep them away from society!). The people made a living out of making some beautiful artwork and bowls etc. but it was all a bit of a sad tourist show for me. many of the people would be more than capable of holding down a normal job if it werent for the fact that the vietnamese considered them disabled and thus unable to work!
Anyway the tunnels were amazing. We learnt about how the Vietcon had lived underground in elaborate tunnel networks for months on end to outwit the Americans in so many ways. in one place the americans built their base on top of an existing tunnel network so at night teh vietcon would sneak out and steal guns and ammunition, then shoot the baffled americans! they also took the tyres off tanks etc. and made sandles out of them, which were actually better than the american boots for the climate as it rains a lot in vietnam. they would sneak out and shoot americans, then put the shoes on backwards to run back so the americans were always tracking them in the wrong direction. they also found all sorts of ways to get rid of sniffer dogs which tried to find the tunels, by putting american shit on teh hatch to confuse the dogs, laying traps and putting chilli on the hatch to scare the dogs and ruin their noses. its amazing how well they did considering they had nothing and the americans had so much tecnology.
at the end of the tour we got to go through a section of the tunnels, which were so low even i had trouble crouching over and walking through. every 30 metres there was an air vent which they had turned into escape hatch for the benefit of the tourists. I had a headlamp so could see easily but not many people managed to make it to the end of the tunnel! Scary to think the vietcon managed to live in the tunnels for so long.
Anyway the next day Brendan and I headed on a bus to the beach town of Mui Ne. After much wandering we finallyfound a bungalow on the beach and spent the afternoon enjoying the warm warm water. The next day we rented scooters and headed out to the Red Sanddunes to fly down on plastic sheets. After working our way through a hoard of kids and paying two to take us down (and being sworn at by other children we didnt give money to!) the kids walked us to a good spot and set up the boards for us to fly down. The kids were really cool (though sad they are not in school) and boarding down was a bit of childish fun.
After much more time on the scooter, riding along to the most beautiful sunset i enjoyed my 3rd swim for the day and crashed into bed exhausted! This morning I had a chill out day, reading my book , walking along the beach and enjoying many swims. Fortunately Mui Ne's surrouding sand dunes andhills seem to make the rains avoid the place so it has been beautifulhere. although i did manage to quite badly burn my arms on the scooter yesterday.
Anyway tomorrow i am catching a bus off to Dalat where apparently it rains alot and reaches the 'pleasant' temperature of 15 - 25 degrees! Gonna get the jacket and beanie handy i think as anything below 25 now and im cold...
hope all is well back home
much love
Ingrid
Monday, September 15, 2008
Ancient temples and starving children
Well the past two weeks have been fascinating. After a 17 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia on a scam bus, that was cheap but then overcharged you for visa's and took the longest route possible on the worst road possible and dropped you straight at a hotel so you couldn't be bothered finding another one! Haha the hotel was quite cheap and nice but the next day we moved to another one closer to town with nicer staff and that didn't get people by scams.
Of course the thing you do in Siem Reap is explore the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. I felt a bit stupid for not knowing about the temples of Angkor before this trip as they are so amazing! they are about a thousand years old and just phenomenal in size, and so grand! The first day Owen and i rented a tuk-tuk and he took us round to quite a few temples,all different and yet all so interesting. part of what makes them so amazing is that they were all commissioned by kings and built in the kings lifetime,and considering people didn't live that long back then they all had to be built in 40 years maximum, probably 20.
one thing i didn't expect was the hordes of children waiting to pounce on you the minute you are out of the temple(fortunately they're not allowed into the temples). Children as young as 4 years old come up to you selling you bracelets,scarves, postcards, magnets.. and water. you couldn't leave the temple with out hearing 'hey lady you wanna buy water' at least once, and usually you heard '3 bracelet one dolla, scarf $2, of 2 scarf $3, of 4 bracelet one dolla' many, many times over. after spending 2 months pretty much not buying anything as i couldn't find things i liked i went nuts in Siem Reap as there was so much i loved! got 8 scarves haha (some are presents!) along with way too many bracelets and post cards that children talked me into and a few paintings and more.. expensive postage home! unfortunately you also get lots of children begging for money.someseem to do it for fun to see if they can make money out of tourists but there are many more who need to live. Tried to buy/give them food as much as possible but there is no safety net in Cambodia so there's not much chances for them.
Anyways the next two days i hired a bike and went to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the main areas, which was great as i got to take it slow and explore things at my own pace, taking a ton of photos! on the 3rd and final day of my ticket i got up early and biked out to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. unfortunately it had been raining all night and it was completely clouded over so all that happened was it got light! us and several hundred others feel a little bit stupid. Later that day i went to see Ta Phrom which was the temple Tomb Raider was filmed in (though i wanted it last night and cant see the similarity really). Ta Phrom was amazing as it was left to the forest for several hundred years so while its been cleared out there are still massive trees growing all through the building. YOu wonder how the building still stands as the trees are the only thing holding it up in many places!
the next day a few of us took a tuk-tuk out to the mine museum, which is set up to teach people about mines in Cambodia. the guy who set up the museum was a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge setting up mines, he later ended up getting rid of them. he still works to demine Cambodia but a massive part of the country is still covered in mines and many people die every year from stepping on them. everywhere you go in Cambodia there are people maimed by mines with limbs missing, obviously having no way of working. at the temples of Angkor there are quite a few musical groups of mine victims who sell Cds to try to earn a living so they don't have to beg.
the next morning we were up early and took the bus ride to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. stayed at a nice guest house right on the river (built over the river) with water area right in the middle, a TV with DVD player,hommocks pool table and plenty of places to lounge around and drink.would have been a bit prettier if the water wasn't filled with garbage and you didn't feel like you were staying on a floating rubbish tip!
I went to see the Killing Fields, which is where many people died by the Pol Pot regime,and were buried in mass graves. there was a tower filled with skulls of people they had taken from the graves. I also went to see S-21, which is a school that was changed into a torture place/prisonduring the Pol Pot regime. they still had the cells people were put into, and photos of many of the people who died there.scary stuff. What i found more heart breaking though was on the bike ride home there was a little boy about 4 years old standing in the middle of a busy intersection in the rain holding a little brother, about 2 years old, in his arms. they were going up to cars and begging for money from the brand new lexus's etc. driving past and were ignored most of the time so i pulled into a petrol station and bought some food and milk for them. There are so many starving children on the street and yet you drive along and see brand new ornate temples being built with yet another giant golden buddha statue inside. built by donations from the community who walk past the starving children...
Anyway this morning i was up and caught a bus to Sihanoukville , a beach in southern Cambodia. thus far it has rained the entire time! hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow as i would like to lie on the beach and do some snorkeling.
anyway i think i have written enough for now.my plans nextare to getmy visa for Vietnam and head over that way. I have uploaded quite a few photos to www.bebo.com/ingridjones so check them out if you want.
hope all is well with everyone,
Ingrid
Of course the thing you do in Siem Reap is explore the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. I felt a bit stupid for not knowing about the temples of Angkor before this trip as they are so amazing! they are about a thousand years old and just phenomenal in size, and so grand! The first day Owen and i rented a tuk-tuk and he took us round to quite a few temples,all different and yet all so interesting. part of what makes them so amazing is that they were all commissioned by kings and built in the kings lifetime,and considering people didn't live that long back then they all had to be built in 40 years maximum, probably 20.
one thing i didn't expect was the hordes of children waiting to pounce on you the minute you are out of the temple(fortunately they're not allowed into the temples). Children as young as 4 years old come up to you selling you bracelets,scarves, postcards, magnets.. and water. you couldn't leave the temple with out hearing 'hey lady you wanna buy water' at least once, and usually you heard '3 bracelet one dolla, scarf $2, of 2 scarf $3, of 4 bracelet one dolla' many, many times over. after spending 2 months pretty much not buying anything as i couldn't find things i liked i went nuts in Siem Reap as there was so much i loved! got 8 scarves haha (some are presents!) along with way too many bracelets and post cards that children talked me into and a few paintings and more.. expensive postage home! unfortunately you also get lots of children begging for money.someseem to do it for fun to see if they can make money out of tourists but there are many more who need to live. Tried to buy/give them food as much as possible but there is no safety net in Cambodia so there's not much chances for them.
Anyways the next two days i hired a bike and went to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the main areas, which was great as i got to take it slow and explore things at my own pace, taking a ton of photos! on the 3rd and final day of my ticket i got up early and biked out to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. unfortunately it had been raining all night and it was completely clouded over so all that happened was it got light! us and several hundred others feel a little bit stupid. Later that day i went to see Ta Phrom which was the temple Tomb Raider was filmed in (though i wanted it last night and cant see the similarity really). Ta Phrom was amazing as it was left to the forest for several hundred years so while its been cleared out there are still massive trees growing all through the building. YOu wonder how the building still stands as the trees are the only thing holding it up in many places!
the next day a few of us took a tuk-tuk out to the mine museum, which is set up to teach people about mines in Cambodia. the guy who set up the museum was a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge setting up mines, he later ended up getting rid of them. he still works to demine Cambodia but a massive part of the country is still covered in mines and many people die every year from stepping on them. everywhere you go in Cambodia there are people maimed by mines with limbs missing, obviously having no way of working. at the temples of Angkor there are quite a few musical groups of mine victims who sell Cds to try to earn a living so they don't have to beg.
the next morning we were up early and took the bus ride to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. stayed at a nice guest house right on the river (built over the river) with water area right in the middle, a TV with DVD player,hommocks pool table and plenty of places to lounge around and drink.would have been a bit prettier if the water wasn't filled with garbage and you didn't feel like you were staying on a floating rubbish tip!
I went to see the Killing Fields, which is where many people died by the Pol Pot regime,and were buried in mass graves. there was a tower filled with skulls of people they had taken from the graves. I also went to see S-21, which is a school that was changed into a torture place/prisonduring the Pol Pot regime. they still had the cells people were put into, and photos of many of the people who died there.scary stuff. What i found more heart breaking though was on the bike ride home there was a little boy about 4 years old standing in the middle of a busy intersection in the rain holding a little brother, about 2 years old, in his arms. they were going up to cars and begging for money from the brand new lexus's etc. driving past and were ignored most of the time so i pulled into a petrol station and bought some food and milk for them. There are so many starving children on the street and yet you drive along and see brand new ornate temples being built with yet another giant golden buddha statue inside. built by donations from the community who walk past the starving children...
Anyway this morning i was up and caught a bus to Sihanoukville , a beach in southern Cambodia. thus far it has rained the entire time! hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow as i would like to lie on the beach and do some snorkeling.
anyway i think i have written enough for now.my plans nextare to getmy visa for Vietnam and head over that way. I have uploaded quite a few photos to www.bebo.com/ingridjones so check them out if you want.
hope all is well with everyone,
Ingrid
Friday, September 5, 2008
Burmese days
Well I havent managed to update my blog over the past few weeks as i have been in Myanmar and the government blocks this particular blog site..
anyhow have had such an amazing time in Myanmar. First we arrived in Yangon to find a contrast between the nice new air conditioned thailand taxi's to 1980's taxi's in Myanmar. i never managed to find a taxi with a working speedo or one that would come anywhere near passing a warrant. most of them were rust buckets that belched smoke and threatened to (and often did) break down at any time. unfortunately Japan stopped sending them imports and also stopped sending spare parts so not only do they have old cars they also have cars they cant fix!!
Yangon was so run down it was a real shock. lots of opulent large buildings from the colonial era that were covered in moss and dirt and hadnt been painted for 30 years. many of the buildings were literally crumbling but people still lived in them. the footpaths were in even worse condition, old concrete slabs that had caved in. In Mandalay they had concrete slabs covering drains, but most of the slabs were either loose, gone completely or half collapsed, meaning most of the footpath was unusable! lining the footpaths were hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of things (though if you dared stop and look you would be hassled to buy something). and everywhere we went men came up to us offering to exchange money!! They love US$ over there (though only crisp new notes, even a slight tear makes a note unusable). it turns out the government increases in flation so much that money is worth less and less there (making it impossible for people to save) so they all want US$ as its more stable.
the first day we arrived we wandered into a temple and were pretty quickly adopted by a monk (who turned out to be someone dressed as a monk or a very bad monk, as he asked for money which we later found out they arent meant to do!). anyway he was quite useful and took us to some of the big temples in the area and explained all about them.
the next day we had enough of Yangon so we headed on a bus towards Inle lake. somehow i read the wrong part of the lonely planet and thought the bus ride was 8 hours... 22 hours later and one very uncomfortable sleep on a bus we arrived in Inle lake! seems they dont have sleeper trains here in myanmar so you just get a bus with reclining seats.
Inle lake was really beautiful. We spent the first day doing absolutely nothing as i developed bronchitis from everyone coughing and spitting on the street in yangon, and a cold uncomfortable night bus ride... but the second day we hired a boat and guide and they took us around Inle lake. the lake was beautiful with fishermen rowing their boats along (using their leg hooked around the oar). there were also villages built on the lake, and we went and saw a jewellery maker (that gets the dregs of silver from big places, melts it down and carves it into jewellery), a cigarette maker, a sword maker and a cloth maker.
everywhere we went we were remined that since the monk demonstrations and cyclone nargis they have had almost no tourists. it was unusual to eat in a restaurant and find other people there, and some shop owners talked about the fact that they had no customers for a week! It was eery to see so many taxi drivers, or boat drivers in Inle, as well as restaurants and shops just waiting around for the tourists who hardly ever came. this of coruse meant everywhere we did go they really hassled us, literally shoving necklaces and shirts in our faces, following us as we walked, and asking us to justify why we did not need thier services! sometimes we ran into the temples for shelter, as they cant come into the temples (they just follow you round the building waiting for you to come out..)
after a few more relaxing days at Inle we hopped on a bus to Mandalay. Now i would never have imagined it, but they managed to build a bus small enough to squish MY legs against the seat in front. we were put in a seat on top of the engine so the floor was raised as well, and there was no space to put a bag so it had to sit on my lap the whole time. Owen got the isle seat so he could at least put his legs out there. 10.5 hours of shere uncomfort, broken every 2 hours or so , so that they could throw water on the brakes to cool them down. by the time we got to Mandalay my body was well and truly aching from head to toe!.
the next day we took up an offer from a tri-shaw driver outside our hotel with good english, to take us on a tour of Mandalay. A tri-shaw is a bycicle with a seat on the side, that seats one person forward and one person backward. The drivers name was Starsky and he turned out to be a real legend (i particularly liked him as he treated me like a person, which was quite the opposite to most men in Myanmar who treated me like someone with the social standing of a rat, to quote george orwell in Burmese days). He took us to a few temples including Mandalay hill (which had 1755 steps up and down, and lots of buddahs, pagodas and temples along the way). Mandalay hill did provide an awesome view of the city! He also took us to a gold leaf making store, and out for 'local' food, and explained many things along the way, along with why he hates the government. not hard to see why when he had to pedal us over some appalling roads as the government refuses to fix them, leaving people to sort themselves out!
the next day it was my birthday and Starsky offered to have a friend take us in a taxi to a nearby town to see a few things. first we went to a wooden teak bridge which was 120 years old. quite an amazing feat for being that old and still standing in the water. of course along the way we had children trying to sell us bracelets and be our tour guides... on the opposite side we checked out another temple (which amazingly looked the same as all the other temples we'd seen..) and then headed back. next was a stop to a monestary where we saw hundreds of monks walking past in file having rice placed i their bowls as they went in to eat. Starsky explained to us about how they had riots here last year, and the police had come with tear gas and forced him to run away. tear gas on peaceful protestors...
next we went to a festival which was a Nat celebration (Nat is the spiritual belief they hold alongside buddism). there were tons of stalls and Owen bought me some flowers so i offered it to a Nat statue for good luck. as it was a special holiday women were allowed to put gold leaf on buddah (normally we're allowed nowhere near him) so i did that, and a she-male dancer gave me 1000 kyat so i donated that to another Nat statue. lots of good luck for the day!
after all this Owen and i were pretty tired and hot so Starsky dropped us off at a local flash hotel where we paid to use the swimming pool. was so nice and relaxing... and after dinner at the hotel Starsky picked us up on his tri-shaw and took us to a show for the 'moustach brothers', who are the only open voice of dissent in Myanmar. the brothers (and their wives) used to perform to the local public but after one too many comments about the government two of the brothers were sentenced to 5 back breaking labour years in prison. after they came out a group of tourists came to see them so they put on a show and when the police came along (as they were banned from performing) they simply said they were 'demonstrating' their show to the toursts, and it wasnt a real one as they didnt have costumes or anything on. this seemed to fool the police and they have been largely left alone ever since, touch wood. they even bought out the full costumes for us!
a few days later we decided to head to Bagan, which was a recommended place to visit. 8.5 hours later in a bus with slightly more leg room (though filled with as many peple as you could possibly squeeze into a bus, with a few more on teh roof) we got to Bagan. I should comment about the roads along the way. to save money the government came up with quite a clever idea to only seal one lanes worth of road, there is then dirt on either side. everybody drives on the sealed patch and when you drive towards each other a sort of chicken game gets played until one person turns to the side at the last minute (usually the smallest one). the landscape was beautiful though, changing between rocky dry landscapes (with all the rocks beign removed by people on the roadside with pick axes, to be sent to china), to large open dry fields and then to grassy rice-paddy fields with lucious green landscape.
Bagan turned out to be a gorgeous city, one of the highlights of my trip (helped by the fact that Starsky talked us into taking a hotel at $18 a night with a swimming pool..as the temperature there seemed to be 40 degrees at least every day). there are over 4000 temples in this little city alone, some are grand old ones, and some are brand new ones. they are all made of red brick too which makes them much more interesting than the gold ones we have seen everywhere else! After a day at the hotel poolside we hired the worlds most uncomfortable bikes from the hotel and cycled along the roadside, looking at temples every which direction you could turn. after about 30 minutes there were quite a few in one area so Owen suggested we stop. We were looking around for a while when i found a secret stair case in one of the temples which allowed us to get to the top of the temple and have a view from above! was really spectacular. after a while we cycled back to have lunch and a swim (and were repeatedly followed by men on bikes trying to sell us paitings as we biked along! there were about 8 people that did that in one day! although really by us i mean Owen, they ignored me.. one time sexism worked to my advantage..). after our swim we headed to one of teh big temples close by (and regretted it as were followed by 8 people trying to sell us stuff the whole time!), but then cycled on further until we found another bunch of temples where we found one with a staircase. we sat there to watch an anti-climatic sunset. but got up before the sun the next morning, cycled back to the temple and watched the sun rise over 4000 temples around us. was so beautiful! like nothing else in the world it was really magical.
later that day we prepared ourselves for another night bus trip, but discovered a few hours into the trip that after some heavy rains they had flash flooding on the main highway! there was about 1km of road flooded out with what looked to be quite fast water. some brave tractors could make it across but our bus (which had already made its mandatory one break down for teh trip) had no chance. So for 2 hours we sat around eating rice and drinking tea at some stalls that happened to be right there (probably made for this exact situation..) and headed on our way. fortunately the bus wasnt full and the back seat of the bus had boxes in the foot area and one box plus my bag on the seats. so i removed my bag and could stretch myself out almost totally along the seat! actually had quite a good sleep.. and 5 hours after our 6am 'arrival time' we arrived back in Yangon. Managed to find my hotel and some hotel guests had enough US$ to change my money back (thank goodness!), spent a night in a room which had the sun streaming in (read feels like a sauna) that had windows right next to someones yard filled with rubbish (read wafting rubbish smells).. as the government came up with the clever plan of not having a rubbish management system, to keep some more money for themselves...
anyway i am now back in Bangkok for the night thoroughly enjoying computers that work, ATM's and variety of food, as well as other tourists to talk to! Really Myanmar is a beautiful country with such friendly and honest people, and its such a shame they are being made so poor by such an oppressive regime that even drives away the tourits. its very easy to travel the country and hardly give any money to the government, while giving lots to the locals where it is most needed. in the words of the moustach brothers ' we need tourists. tourists are the trojan horse that can get the message of our plight out to the world'. Its not a dangerous place to travel so long as you stick to where you are meant to be , and there are many things well worth seeing.
I will now head off as this blog is well long enough for anyone who has read it to this point! Tomorrow morning Owen and I head off to Cambodia to see Siem Riep (Ankor Wat), which i have heard is amazing. after that we will head to Vietnam for a few weeks which i am very excited about.
I have also just added heaps of photos onto www.bebo.com/ingridjones if you wanna check them out!
much love to all,
Ingrid
Monday, August 11, 2008
7 weeks on..
the pictures are: Budday Park. Sunset boat trip in Don Det. 'waterfall' at Don Det. Learning to ride a manuel scooter (dont worry mum it was in a vacant car park!). Monument in Vientienne.
More pictures are being uploaded on www.bebo.com/ingridjones
well i havent had much access to reliable cheap internet since my last blog, hence the long time!!
I ended up staying 11 days in Vang Vieng in all, having tonsillitis. Went to the local hospital to seea doctor and was seen straight away!! and it only cost me $6. puts the New Zealand health system to shame really.. I did manage to do another days cave exploring, with a 4 year old guiding us at one point.. were awesome caves to see. I also went tubing as must be done in Vang Vieng. Ryan (the Canadian guy i was travelling with) and i got the last two life jackets available, got our tube and tuk tuk'd up to the drop off point. we hopped into the river only to realise the first bar was 100m downstream!! We were pulled into the bar of course, had a drink and a jump off the massive swing (photos to come), and hopped back into the river only to realise the second bar was a further 200m down stream!! This one was massive, with lots of places to sit and drink, a big flying fox swing (with an equally large line), and some vollyball courts. i shared a Beerlao and joined in a game of vollyball on the muddy court, with a bit of mud fighting thrown in for good measure. then we hopped back into the river, to enjoy the beautiful scenery of limestone cliffs surroudning us, and rice paddy fields all around. it was a bit surreal to rouind a corner and find techno music pumping and lots of drunk foreigners...
Anywho i decided i'd had more than enuogh time in Vang Vieng so Ryan and i headed off to Vientienne, where we stayed at his family friends house right in the city. Was brilliant to have a nice bed, hot shower and access to a fridge, jug and toaster whenever i wanted!! We did a walking tour of the city one day, seeing the museum, market and some temples, and hired a scooter teh next day out to see Buddah park. Buddah park was fantastic, with lots of budday and hindu statues. they all clearly depicted famous stories but i had no idea what they were and was left wondering what on earth was going on when someone was riding an elephant in a lake of skulls, trying to kill someone else...
We also went to visit a big golden monument in Laos which was great, nothing like i have seen before. And that night i hopped onto the night sleeper bus down to Pakse, in Southern Laos. Now by sleeper bus i mean you get a bed, slightly larger than a single bed, about teh right length for me for two people. the tall belgium guy next to me was quite squashed, being far too tall for the beds proportions. still the mattress was soft, a nice change from the usual Laos beds which resemble something like sleeping on a straw mat on concrete, which is what most people here sleep on anyway. 10 hours later we arrived in Pakse and i headed on my Songthaew (which is pretty much a ute with a cage around the back and benches for seats) down to Champasak. this also included a 'ferry' ride across, which was pretty much two small wooden boats,attached by some planks of wood across the top. one of the boats had a motor, and this pushed you across the Mekong to Champasak. Champasak has a really old temple which used to be the capital of the Laos kingdom, but now lies in ruins. it was dreary and raining the whole time but that just added to the mystique of it. the buildings were mostly still in good condition on the outside soyou could see what it used to look like. and when you got to the top temple, you over looked quite a large area and could see the two temples down below. was gorgeous! Again pictures will come when i get the camera cable from my bag at the hotel.
The next day i found some travellers also going to what i thought was Don Khon and joined them on our songthaew and ferry journey down to Don Khong. Haha never the matter though i joined with some spanish people for an afternoon of island exploring on bikes, with the Mekong on one side of us and rice paddy fields on the other. Friendly waving Laos locals along the way too. the people here are so friendly, on the Songthaew on the way down we would stop occasionally and literally have a hoard of locals run at our truck, with entire chicken legs (foot still attached) bbq'd on a stick, or maybe some intestines wrapped around it.. one of the guys on the bus bought a bag of what looked to be bbq'd banana's. through some shitty picture communication we figured out that they were in fact banana's, and when i tried to buy one to try the local guy gave it to me for free! Wouldnt even take small change for it. was quite delicious too. Another girl on the bus also gave me some flower seed thingys to try (impossible to explain), also quite nice.
the next day i headed off on a boat to the intended Don Khon (though stayed on the neighbouring island joint by a bridge, Don Det). Found myself a bungalow with a deck and a hammock right on the Mekong for $1.87 a night!! Even had a queen bed, although no electricity as the island only recently got generators. I followed a lovely british couple in renting bikes to head around the island. the only bikes we could rent were granny-dutch style ones with one gear and a basket on the front, designed for the flat dutch tarmac roads. fortunately for us the roads on the island were neither flat nor tarmac, so it made for an interesting ride. my bike chain fell off about 10 times! still the island was beautiful, and lucky for us the rains ceased for a day so we could really enjoy it. we found a waterfall (which really was a large rapid, is probably more of a waterfall in the dry season) and a beach, which was totally submerged but we swum anyway. and had a great bike around the island.
the next day i decided i needed a lazy day to try and properly kick this tonsillitis so had a read in my hammock, only to discover the girl in the bungalow next to me was the same girl i had bumped into in 7 different places now!! (from the northern border or Laos right down to the very south), so we had to have a coffee, and actually learn each others names... and that afternoon i decided to go for a wander and ended up walking for 3 hours. its such a beautiful island though, with most of the houses still not having electricity, and water bufalo ploughing through the rice fields, it really is like old Asia.
Anyway one very long day, and a rice on a boat, songtheaw, bus and night train and i am back in Bangkok for the next few days, waiting for Owen, my friend from Australia to fly in tonight.
I think this blog may be long enough now, will endeavour to get my photos on in the next few days. Not sure where my next stop will be, probably Burma or Cambodia.. will let you know
much love,
Ingrid
I ended up staying 11 days in Vang Vieng in all, having tonsillitis. Went to the local hospital to seea doctor and was seen straight away!! and it only cost me $6. puts the New Zealand health system to shame really.. I did manage to do another days cave exploring, with a 4 year old guiding us at one point.. were awesome caves to see. I also went tubing as must be done in Vang Vieng. Ryan (the Canadian guy i was travelling with) and i got the last two life jackets available, got our tube and tuk tuk'd up to the drop off point. we hopped into the river only to realise the first bar was 100m downstream!! We were pulled into the bar of course, had a drink and a jump off the massive swing (photos to come), and hopped back into the river only to realise the second bar was a further 200m down stream!! This one was massive, with lots of places to sit and drink, a big flying fox swing (with an equally large line), and some vollyball courts. i shared a Beerlao and joined in a game of vollyball on the muddy court, with a bit of mud fighting thrown in for good measure. then we hopped back into the river, to enjoy the beautiful scenery of limestone cliffs surroudning us, and rice paddy fields all around. it was a bit surreal to rouind a corner and find techno music pumping and lots of drunk foreigners...
Anywho i decided i'd had more than enuogh time in Vang Vieng so Ryan and i headed off to Vientienne, where we stayed at his family friends house right in the city. Was brilliant to have a nice bed, hot shower and access to a fridge, jug and toaster whenever i wanted!! We did a walking tour of the city one day, seeing the museum, market and some temples, and hired a scooter teh next day out to see Buddah park. Buddah park was fantastic, with lots of budday and hindu statues. they all clearly depicted famous stories but i had no idea what they were and was left wondering what on earth was going on when someone was riding an elephant in a lake of skulls, trying to kill someone else...
We also went to visit a big golden monument in Laos which was great, nothing like i have seen before. And that night i hopped onto the night sleeper bus down to Pakse, in Southern Laos. Now by sleeper bus i mean you get a bed, slightly larger than a single bed, about teh right length for me for two people. the tall belgium guy next to me was quite squashed, being far too tall for the beds proportions. still the mattress was soft, a nice change from the usual Laos beds which resemble something like sleeping on a straw mat on concrete, which is what most people here sleep on anyway. 10 hours later we arrived in Pakse and i headed on my Songthaew (which is pretty much a ute with a cage around the back and benches for seats) down to Champasak. this also included a 'ferry' ride across, which was pretty much two small wooden boats,attached by some planks of wood across the top. one of the boats had a motor, and this pushed you across the Mekong to Champasak. Champasak has a really old temple which used to be the capital of the Laos kingdom, but now lies in ruins. it was dreary and raining the whole time but that just added to the mystique of it. the buildings were mostly still in good condition on the outside soyou could see what it used to look like. and when you got to the top temple, you over looked quite a large area and could see the two temples down below. was gorgeous! Again pictures will come when i get the camera cable from my bag at the hotel.
The next day i found some travellers also going to what i thought was Don Khon and joined them on our songthaew and ferry journey down to Don Khong. Haha never the matter though i joined with some spanish people for an afternoon of island exploring on bikes, with the Mekong on one side of us and rice paddy fields on the other. Friendly waving Laos locals along the way too. the people here are so friendly, on the Songthaew on the way down we would stop occasionally and literally have a hoard of locals run at our truck, with entire chicken legs (foot still attached) bbq'd on a stick, or maybe some intestines wrapped around it.. one of the guys on the bus bought a bag of what looked to be bbq'd banana's. through some shitty picture communication we figured out that they were in fact banana's, and when i tried to buy one to try the local guy gave it to me for free! Wouldnt even take small change for it. was quite delicious too. Another girl on the bus also gave me some flower seed thingys to try (impossible to explain), also quite nice.
the next day i headed off on a boat to the intended Don Khon (though stayed on the neighbouring island joint by a bridge, Don Det). Found myself a bungalow with a deck and a hammock right on the Mekong for $1.87 a night!! Even had a queen bed, although no electricity as the island only recently got generators. I followed a lovely british couple in renting bikes to head around the island. the only bikes we could rent were granny-dutch style ones with one gear and a basket on the front, designed for the flat dutch tarmac roads. fortunately for us the roads on the island were neither flat nor tarmac, so it made for an interesting ride. my bike chain fell off about 10 times! still the island was beautiful, and lucky for us the rains ceased for a day so we could really enjoy it. we found a waterfall (which really was a large rapid, is probably more of a waterfall in the dry season) and a beach, which was totally submerged but we swum anyway. and had a great bike around the island.
the next day i decided i needed a lazy day to try and properly kick this tonsillitis so had a read in my hammock, only to discover the girl in the bungalow next to me was the same girl i had bumped into in 7 different places now!! (from the northern border or Laos right down to the very south), so we had to have a coffee, and actually learn each others names... and that afternoon i decided to go for a wander and ended up walking for 3 hours. its such a beautiful island though, with most of the houses still not having electricity, and water bufalo ploughing through the rice fields, it really is like old Asia.
Anyway one very long day, and a rice on a boat, songtheaw, bus and night train and i am back in Bangkok for the next few days, waiting for Owen, my friend from Australia to fly in tonight.
I think this blog may be long enough now, will endeavour to get my photos on in the next few days. Not sure where my next stop will be, probably Burma or Cambodia.. will let you know
much love,
Ingrid
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Vang Vieng
So Saturday morning after deciding we'd had enough of Luang Prabang Fabio and i took the 'local bus' (after an adventurous ride to the bus statoin on a motorbike with a mini cage attached which you could barely see out of, with a driver who spoke no english..) to Vang Vieng. Lucky for us this local bus had about 8 tourists and no locals on it, so we all got 2 seats to ourselves! After a very windy and nauseous few hours we arrived for a toilet stop (1.5 hours after we asked for one..) and were told that as there was too much space on the bus we were to hop onto the air conditioned VIP bus which was quite crowded! Still thats what you get i spose.
The town here Vang Vieng is quite little, population 25,000, and is so beautiful. the town is in a flat area with a river running right by it, and is surrounded by beautiful limestone cliff mountains and caves. The cafe's here all play Friends, The Simpsons and Family guy non-stop, and there are even places wher eyou can pick a DVD for them to play for you! the Laos people are nice but we found one place run bya British guy who kicked us out for not being 'paying customers' (apparently a fruit smoothie and cup of tea dont count us as being paying customers) because we said we werent yet hungry at 4.3opm!! There is so much to do in this town, there is 'tubing', where you hop into a tube and tube down the river, stopping at swings and bars along the way. of course its insanely safe to drink buckets of alcohol, have their 'happy shakes' (i'll let your imagination do the work on that) and then jump into the river and tube back.. tourists do die here but its not hard to figure out why when you see that..
There is also rock climbing (which i did 2 days of, was really tough but really good!), trekking, kayaking (i am going to kayak onto Vientienne, the capital when im finished here), and you can rent a bike and explore the caves. I did that yesterday with Avi, an american guy, and we looked at two caves, stopped for a cold drink and lunch at a cafe in the middle of nowhere, and then left 2.5 hours later when the monsoon rains subsided! Am definately going to do that agian as there are many more caves to see. It was lots of fun trekking to the two caves we did see through muddy rice fields and rivers.. our clothes were pretty well caked in mud by the time we got back to our bikes but it was lots of fun! took us about 20 mins to walk 600 m to the cave.
unfortunately i have had a sore throat for about a week now and i cant seem to kick it, and have run out of home remedies so this is now my 3rd day of hanging out watching Friends and movies and hoping to get better.. i guess at least this is the best town to be sick in as you dont have to walk far at all for internet, movies and food, and the place is teeming with tourists and people to talk to.
My friend Ollie has requested that i provide you all with a link of where i am so go to http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Vang+Vieng,+Laos&sll=19.8841,102.141602&sspn=0.012268,0.022659&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=A
Anyway must get going the internet here is really expensive being a tourist town. Also Fabio left the other day so my accomodation has doubled in price from NZ$1.875 to $3.75 a night. lol. (that in cludes two single beds, and my own bathroom with a fantastic hot shower..).
much love,
Ingrid
Ingrid
i have also uploaded some more photos onto www.bebo.com/ingridjones
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