Well, it has now been one year since we flew to Mexico City from NYC and now we are in Russia - weird! It is also weird to think that in 2 weeks we will be in Cairo, after travelling the remaining few thousand Km of the Trans-Siberian, a brief stop in Latvia AND going to Athens!
Anyway, a lot has happened since the end of the last update, for this we have to go all the way back to Beijing..... but to the best part...
Catherine arrived!! We made our way over to the Hilton to meet her and we were greeted with big hugs and a ridiculous room!! We snuck ourselves in and went out to explore the city, now as a threesome. We went 1st to the Temple of Heaven Park, we had a lovely wander around the grounds and even got to witness a large group of locals having a nice Sunday afternoon dance! From here we went to go for a quick drink and to the Duck Restaurant that had been recommended to us.
We arrived and were greeted with something everyone can appreciate.... free wine! A good start so far. We were all hungry and ready to experience Peking Duck in Peking. Unfortunatly the free wine was the best bit! Despite being delicious, the duck was disappointing as, despite ordering a whole duck, we all only had 3 limply filled pancakes - no good. It was so shocking thas
t we even complained and the girl donned some rubber gloves and started tearing at the duck. "Extra Lean" duck my ass! Anyway, it was delicious and we did not let it taint our night. We went to find a drink and before we knew it we were witnessing a pole-off! That's right people, a guy one one pole, a girl on the other and them both going at it HARD! Genius. Suffice to say, we had a good night!
We awoke in our (thx Cat!) still wonderful room and ventured out to The Forbidden City. When we arrived we were suprised to find a Cartier exhibit (Catherine works in the antique jewellery business) and it was one of the most enjoyable exhibits that we have been privy too, particularly as we had a cute little walking jewellery encyclopedia with us!! We left this to view the rest of the beautiful City before heading across Tian'amen Square to wander around the old network of streets on the other sides. From here we went for a really fun hotpot, cook your own, restaurant before heading back to the Hilton for the evening.
After leaving the Hilton and sadly saying goodbye to Catherine, ouк new fave travel buddy, we went over to our hostel for our last night in China before starting the Trans-Mongolian Railway trip. We left from here the following morning and bee-lined for the train station where we settled into a vitually empty train, meaning we had our own cabin. Yay!! The train trip was really something else, exciting and visually beautiful, seeing the landscape change from the green, limestone mountains of China, to the rock Gobi desert and then to the undulating hills surrounding Ulaanbaatar. Particularly memorable was Jen's puchase of Jack Daniel's at the border... only to find it was Jack Daniei's, a "very convincing" fake - she was not happy!
Arriving at our hostel, and for the 1st time for a while private room, we finally conceeded to machine washing our clothes, much needed after China, and went to explore the city a little. Finally we were really cold and we relished the opportunity to don our new coats and jeans! The next day we explored UB more visiting the very interesting and extensive National History Museum and then onto the Natural History Museum - more of a taxidermists wet dream than a museum - We went for a few local brews (thanks Kev & Arya) before heading back and packing up for our 2 nights stay with a nomadic family in a tradition ger in the Terelj National Park.
After a few hours in the car we arrived at our new family's place in the beautiful National Park. We were greeted with not only amazing landscape but warm mare's milk, and homemade bread & butter! We were left to our own devices till lunch and we went for a very visually rewarding hike up the peak next to the encampment. It was an amazing sight and at this time of year the trees were all an amazing bronze colour. We returned from our hike for lunch and (I) enjoyed freshly cooked (& killed) mutton with potatoes, rice and pickles. We vegged and enjoyed the countryside for the rest of the day before settling in with Anna and Peter, our new Portuguese buddies, and a bottle of vodka in our wood-fire heated ger.
Our 2nd day was greeted with new people coming to stay and more warm mare's milk! Today was our day to go horse-riding, for 4 hours, my 1st time..... it was harrowing! Actually, after nearly falling off in the 1st 5 mins, I got the hang of it and we had a great time trotting to 'Turtle Rock' - you guessed it, it looks like a turtle! With a sore arse we returned and had another relaxing evening, it was only after reviewing the photos from the horse-riding that we realised just how reeeeeeeeediculous I looked on the tiny horse!
We returned to UB after a 2nd night in the countryside and went to get our tickets for the next leg of the train. We rewarded ourselves at the Chinngis Beer Co. and went to stock up on provisions for the ensuing journey.
The next part of the train was just as beautiful, but a little more painful as there was the border crossing at 1am that took close to 6 hours with Mongolians asking us to help them smuggle coats across by claiming that they were ours! Yay. But we did make it into Russia. We arrived in Irkutsk yesterday after several hours skirting Lake Baikal, the World's deepest lake and largest deposit of unfrozen fresh water, to our 1st Russian Couch Surfing host. We hung out with the hairless cats till Spike got home at 1030pm. We hit it off and at 4am, after a bottle of vodka, we finally retired to bed.
Today we were late getting up thanks to the vodka but still made it to Lake Baikal to dip both feet in and gain 5 years of extra life per foot. Take that smoking!
We leave in the morning for Tomsk and more Russian fun!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Chinese trains, terra cotta, and tea scams
Soooooooo we are super duper belated in our blogging, as China has banned many websites including blogspot! AND facebook! We had so much more free time while there :)
To start, here are some much belated pix from Hanoi:
We left off en route to Shanghai from Hong Kong...
The train was long and painless. Sleeper trains are far superior to sleeper buses. We slept well, and arrived in China to chaos in immigration/customs. Man, the locals are not fond of queuing! Additionally, we witnessed an old woman relieved of her fruit at customs, and she consequently spazzed out and started shrieking and lunging at the officials. No one really cared, and it was an interesting contrast to our fruit smuggling experience in Chile, as well as how the ol' US officials would have handled things had this incident gone down on our turf. Anywho...
We figured out the metro, and eventually landed at our hostel. We checked in and went for a wander- unfortunately Shanghai is plagued with tons of construction as well, so the views of the infamous Bund and walks through the old streets were tainted by bamboo scaffolding and banging. We spent just a few days in Shanghai as it was not really what we expected, but we did do some quality museum hopping. The Shanghai museum is top notch!! Unfortunately we were SCAMMED outside the museum by a nice little couple who we had a great chat with and they invited us to come and drink some tea with them. It felt a bit scammy from the start but I guess we were trying to believe that people actually want to talk to us! A big tip off for the scam was when Oli told he guy about his hobbies and mentioned Jujitsu.. the guy FREAKED out and looked terrified. Anyway, we ended up at this tea house and were informed that we should try a lucky 6 types of tea, at 8 bucks per person per type... yea, over $100 for tea. We politely excused ourselves. Another Shanghai highlight was our Crab ovary and digestive tract filled dumplings. They tasted like meatballs, but I could not get it out of my head how many little crabbies it took to feel that heaving queue of people. Though they were tastyish, I was a bit disturbed. Also please note we have lost our HK and Shanghai pix due to a "card error". Yay for cameras!!
Next stop- Suzhou. The "Venice of the East" is sprinkled with tiny traditional gardens, and we had such a lovely time exploring. We loved it there!!! Great little alleys, and a fab museum designed by IM Pei. Maybe the nicest and most atmospheric museum of the trip!?!?
Flash forward to Nanjing. We took another overnight train there, once again found our way on the subway, and got comfy in our hostel. We were pretty lazy while there, lots of hanging out and reading. We did make it to the Nanjing Holocaust Museum which was extensive and very well presented. On the way home we were tourist-napped by a cab that decided to take us on a wild ride in the opposite direction we wanted to go just to jack up the meter, and then pretend he didn't know where the metro station was. Thanks, dude.
We choochooed our way to Xi'an from Nanjing, and settled in one of the 10 most amazing hostels in the world according to Hostelworld. Set in a small neighborhood but within walking distance to everything, the seven sages hostel was awesome!! Great food, great drinks, poor music videos but hey, Vittis isn't for everyone. While in Xi'an we saw a few museums, ate kebabs in the Muslim Quarter, and saw the Terracotta Warriors!!!!!!!!! Self proclaimed 8th wonder of the world, it really was a fantastic visit. We viewed the 3 pits backwards, saving the main pit for last. It housed hundreds of soldiers in formation Life size, and no 2 alike, it was just amazing. We had a blast!! Oli left the guidebook on the bus there so we had to kind of make up our own stories. Thankfully Beijing is covered in our Trans Siberian books!!
Long train to Beijing, on which we tried but failed to make spaghetti in my thermos, and slept lots. Arrived in Beijing in the early morning, threw our stuff in the hostel, and hopped off to the Mongolian embassy to get Oli's visa. Afterwhich we skipped around the city attempting to book tickets to Mongolia, finally having success at CITS for double what we expected to pay. Too many beers (thanks pops!!!!) and off to bed far too late.
Woke up stinky and thirsty just in time for our tour to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!! We had booked ourselves on the Secret Wall tour to the unrestored part of the wall; no tourists, no touts, and definitely no toboggans to ride back down the hill. Three hours of napping in the van were topped off by getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere with a little Chinese man who spoke no English, and the fog encroaching on us with every gust of wind. Oooooh this should be good! We had to hike up the hills for about an hour. It should have been no big thang, but after last nights shenanigans we were huffing and puffing and sweating like madmen. Our little guide wiped the sweat from my brow, chuckled, grabbed my hand, and dragged me up at twice the speed. Ouch.
Our first view of the wall was sudden, as we were climbing switchbacks and the fog was so thick we were seemingly in a bubble. Suddenly there it was. Our 6th Wonder!!!! Wow, very exciting times. We climbed along the spine of the wall, snaking its way up and over the ridge, with little watchtowers at the peak of each hill. We had an absolute blast scrambling over the crumbling rock, dodging trees and weeds that were growing right out of the middle. And eventually, the fog cleared, and we were blessed with the most outrageous views. Good times!!!
We have booked our flights back to the states... Our little adventure will be coming to a close on Dec 30. However we still have to drive across the US to finish our second lap of the world, so we have that to look forward to too!!
To start, here are some much belated pix from Hanoi:
We left off en route to Shanghai from Hong Kong...
The train was long and painless. Sleeper trains are far superior to sleeper buses. We slept well, and arrived in China to chaos in immigration/customs. Man, the locals are not fond of queuing! Additionally, we witnessed an old woman relieved of her fruit at customs, and she consequently spazzed out and started shrieking and lunging at the officials. No one really cared, and it was an interesting contrast to our fruit smuggling experience in Chile, as well as how the ol' US officials would have handled things had this incident gone down on our turf. Anywho...
We figured out the metro, and eventually landed at our hostel. We checked in and went for a wander- unfortunately Shanghai is plagued with tons of construction as well, so the views of the infamous Bund and walks through the old streets were tainted by bamboo scaffolding and banging. We spent just a few days in Shanghai as it was not really what we expected, but we did do some quality museum hopping. The Shanghai museum is top notch!! Unfortunately we were SCAMMED outside the museum by a nice little couple who we had a great chat with and they invited us to come and drink some tea with them. It felt a bit scammy from the start but I guess we were trying to believe that people actually want to talk to us! A big tip off for the scam was when Oli told he guy about his hobbies and mentioned Jujitsu.. the guy FREAKED out and looked terrified. Anyway, we ended up at this tea house and were informed that we should try a lucky 6 types of tea, at 8 bucks per person per type... yea, over $100 for tea. We politely excused ourselves. Another Shanghai highlight was our Crab ovary and digestive tract filled dumplings. They tasted like meatballs, but I could not get it out of my head how many little crabbies it took to feel that heaving queue of people. Though they were tastyish, I was a bit disturbed. Also please note we have lost our HK and Shanghai pix due to a "card error". Yay for cameras!!
Next stop- Suzhou. The "Venice of the East" is sprinkled with tiny traditional gardens, and we had such a lovely time exploring. We loved it there!!! Great little alleys, and a fab museum designed by IM Pei. Maybe the nicest and most atmospheric museum of the trip!?!?
Flash forward to Nanjing. We took another overnight train there, once again found our way on the subway, and got comfy in our hostel. We were pretty lazy while there, lots of hanging out and reading. We did make it to the Nanjing Holocaust Museum which was extensive and very well presented. On the way home we were tourist-napped by a cab that decided to take us on a wild ride in the opposite direction we wanted to go just to jack up the meter, and then pretend he didn't know where the metro station was. Thanks, dude.
We choochooed our way to Xi'an from Nanjing, and settled in one of the 10 most amazing hostels in the world according to Hostelworld. Set in a small neighborhood but within walking distance to everything, the seven sages hostel was awesome!! Great food, great drinks, poor music videos but hey, Vittis isn't for everyone. While in Xi'an we saw a few museums, ate kebabs in the Muslim Quarter, and saw the Terracotta Warriors!!!!!!!!! Self proclaimed 8th wonder of the world, it really was a fantastic visit. We viewed the 3 pits backwards, saving the main pit for last. It housed hundreds of soldiers in formation Life size, and no 2 alike, it was just amazing. We had a blast!! Oli left the guidebook on the bus there so we had to kind of make up our own stories. Thankfully Beijing is covered in our Trans Siberian books!!
Long train to Beijing, on which we tried but failed to make spaghetti in my thermos, and slept lots. Arrived in Beijing in the early morning, threw our stuff in the hostel, and hopped off to the Mongolian embassy to get Oli's visa. Afterwhich we skipped around the city attempting to book tickets to Mongolia, finally having success at CITS for double what we expected to pay. Too many beers (thanks pops!!!!) and off to bed far too late.
Woke up stinky and thirsty just in time for our tour to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!! We had booked ourselves on the Secret Wall tour to the unrestored part of the wall; no tourists, no touts, and definitely no toboggans to ride back down the hill. Three hours of napping in the van were topped off by getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere with a little Chinese man who spoke no English, and the fog encroaching on us with every gust of wind. Oooooh this should be good! We had to hike up the hills for about an hour. It should have been no big thang, but after last nights shenanigans we were huffing and puffing and sweating like madmen. Our little guide wiped the sweat from my brow, chuckled, grabbed my hand, and dragged me up at twice the speed. Ouch.
Our first view of the wall was sudden, as we were climbing switchbacks and the fog was so thick we were seemingly in a bubble. Suddenly there it was. Our 6th Wonder!!!! Wow, very exciting times. We climbed along the spine of the wall, snaking its way up and over the ridge, with little watchtowers at the peak of each hill. We had an absolute blast scrambling over the crumbling rock, dodging trees and weeds that were growing right out of the middle. And eventually, the fog cleared, and we were blessed with the most outrageous views. Good times!!!
We have booked our flights back to the states... Our little adventure will be coming to a close on Dec 30. However we still have to drive across the US to finish our second lap of the world, so we have that to look forward to too!!
Friday, September 11, 2009
China
Well it's been a while but we are now in China and our blog site is blocked!! Also, Hong Kong has a distinct lack of internet cafes as the place as an over-abundance of wi-fi. Nice.
So we are here, in the big red, having a great time. We arrived, very late, after a very long bus ride, in Guilin. A place that is coveted by the Chinese people as the most beautiful place in the country, and it was really close! We arrived late so we didn't get anything done until the next day inehich we had a good chance to explore. The scenery here is amazing, limestone peaks rising from valleys and the Li River winding through it all. We had a lovely day exploring and topped it all of with visit to the acrobats show - despite the rudeness of locals, a great show.
The following day we headed down the river by bamboo raft, a wonderful experience, weaving through the unbelievable landscape towards Yang Shuo, a small town, supposedly even more beautiful. And it really was! On the banks of the river, seperated from itsaelf from huge pinnacles of rock, with nothing to do but admire them and wander around. We spent our 1st full day here hiking the pinnacles for amazing views and enjoying the scenery. Day 2 brought bike riding out to "Dragon Bridge", 10km away. We rented our bike and got on it, only to find the road turn to track, turn to bare rocks 5km out! It was quite the trek there but the whole ride was littered with amazing natural sights. The bridge itself is 500 years old and quite spectacular. From the bridge we started our ride back, which became very eventful as we the track got smaller and smaller until we were pushing the bikes through orchards! Eventually we ended up on a raft to cross the river again before we the short, finally smooth, ride back to town.
We left that evening on another terrible night bus for Shenzen, to finally get us to Hong Kong. We arrived in the morning and after a little wander with our new Japenese freind in the wrong direction (his fault!) we were in a cab to the border. We finally made it into HK and to Kowloon, just across from HK Island, and our hotel - a very dingy little place that still cost us US$25 a night! So we decided to make the most of it and hit the town right away. We had to get our Russian Visas here and had no idea how long it would take and we still had not recieved our package from teh Russian travel agency.... so all we had was time.
We explored the area we were in and visited both the HK Culture Museum and the Science Museum, both very nice and different to what we had seen before, lots of VERY old Chinese artifacts. We finished our day with more wandering and a financial saving by going to see "The Hangover" instead of visiting one of the many expensive bars! HK is a very expensive place for day to day living!
For our 2nd day we decided to head over to Hong Kong Island and explore that side. With lots of Shopping Malls and Western commodities on offer we decidedd to head to The Peak for a view over the bay to Kowloon. The tram up was fun but the view was smoggy! So we headed back down to start the evening with a beer or two. Somehow we managed to find a great little bar that had both Sierra Nevada and Anderson Valley beers!! Crazy!
We finally got our Visa support so we went to the Russian Embassy to find out that we were able to get it in just a day! It cost us a lot but was worth it! So we spent our day essentially wasting time, wandering around Central and the rest of Hong kong Island. Returning triumphantly with our visas in hand... Trans-Mongolian, here we come!
For our last full day in HK we decided to visit a blast from the past for us...... Disneyland! So we spent a long, hot day cruising the rides and having a childish time, enjoying every minute!
We left the following day on a 20 hr train to Shanghai, where we would get back into the swing of things again!
More soon!!
So we are here, in the big red, having a great time. We arrived, very late, after a very long bus ride, in Guilin. A place that is coveted by the Chinese people as the most beautiful place in the country, and it was really close! We arrived late so we didn't get anything done until the next day inehich we had a good chance to explore. The scenery here is amazing, limestone peaks rising from valleys and the Li River winding through it all. We had a lovely day exploring and topped it all of with visit to the acrobats show - despite the rudeness of locals, a great show.
The following day we headed down the river by bamboo raft, a wonderful experience, weaving through the unbelievable landscape towards Yang Shuo, a small town, supposedly even more beautiful. And it really was! On the banks of the river, seperated from itsaelf from huge pinnacles of rock, with nothing to do but admire them and wander around. We spent our 1st full day here hiking the pinnacles for amazing views and enjoying the scenery. Day 2 brought bike riding out to "Dragon Bridge", 10km away. We rented our bike and got on it, only to find the road turn to track, turn to bare rocks 5km out! It was quite the trek there but the whole ride was littered with amazing natural sights. The bridge itself is 500 years old and quite spectacular. From the bridge we started our ride back, which became very eventful as we the track got smaller and smaller until we were pushing the bikes through orchards! Eventually we ended up on a raft to cross the river again before we the short, finally smooth, ride back to town.
We left that evening on another terrible night bus for Shenzen, to finally get us to Hong Kong. We arrived in the morning and after a little wander with our new Japenese freind in the wrong direction (his fault!) we were in a cab to the border. We finally made it into HK and to Kowloon, just across from HK Island, and our hotel - a very dingy little place that still cost us US$25 a night! So we decided to make the most of it and hit the town right away. We had to get our Russian Visas here and had no idea how long it would take and we still had not recieved our package from teh Russian travel agency.... so all we had was time.
We explored the area we were in and visited both the HK Culture Museum and the Science Museum, both very nice and different to what we had seen before, lots of VERY old Chinese artifacts. We finished our day with more wandering and a financial saving by going to see "The Hangover" instead of visiting one of the many expensive bars! HK is a very expensive place for day to day living!
For our 2nd day we decided to head over to Hong Kong Island and explore that side. With lots of Shopping Malls and Western commodities on offer we decidedd to head to The Peak for a view over the bay to Kowloon. The tram up was fun but the view was smoggy! So we headed back down to start the evening with a beer or two. Somehow we managed to find a great little bar that had both Sierra Nevada and Anderson Valley beers!! Crazy!
We finally got our Visa support so we went to the Russian Embassy to find out that we were able to get it in just a day! It cost us a lot but was worth it! So we spent our day essentially wasting time, wandering around Central and the rest of Hong kong Island. Returning triumphantly with our visas in hand... Trans-Mongolian, here we come!
For our last full day in HK we decided to visit a blast from the past for us...... Disneyland! So we spent a long, hot day cruising the rides and having a childish time, enjoying every minute!
We left the following day on a 20 hr train to Shanghai, where we would get back into the swing of things again!
More soon!!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Good Morning, Vietnam
Hoi An was fabulous, and we had a lovely time strolling the streets, enjoying yummy cuisine, and even had a date with the tailors to have wool coats made!! It was a cute little town, still intact throughout all the turmoil over the years, and though it was bloody hot, we had a blast. After Hoi An, we headed up to Hue, where we lounged for a few days, and viewed the amazing citadel in the center of the city, the purple forbidden palace, and more! So freakin hot though,.... we are getting a bit tired of this eternal summer we have been experiencing.
We arrived in Hanoi after a grueling 14hr bus ride,and have basically had a blast. We went to see the traditional water puppets and had our view blocked by some kids with huge foot long lenses and no concept of being polite, saw "the proposal" in the theatres and laughed about the visa/immigration/marriage problems that so reminded us of our issues, ate at Bobby Chinn's Restaurant, a fabulous place owned and run by an old friend of the family, and had a fabulous chat with him while we were there. We took a boat trip around Halong Bay and I came down with food poisoning for the second time in 2 weeks and saw more of the boats bathroom than the limestone cliffs in the bay. Such is my luck.
We have loved bia hoi junction, a crossing with a bunch of little shops with freshly brewed beer, at 3,000 dong per glass. Yes, that's 6 beers for a buck. Not too shabby! Never thought I would find a place even cheaper than Chico for a night out.
We are laying low today to make sure my tummy is decent, and planning on heading to the Moscow Circus tonight. Off to China in the morning!!!
Also- we have officially decided to work for SNWMF '10, so we will be temporarily relocating to Northern California when we return from our travels.
We arrived in Hanoi after a grueling 14hr bus ride,and have basically had a blast. We went to see the traditional water puppets and had our view blocked by some kids with huge foot long lenses and no concept of being polite, saw "the proposal" in the theatres and laughed about the visa/immigration/marriage problems that so reminded us of our issues, ate at Bobby Chinn's Restaurant, a fabulous place owned and run by an old friend of the family, and had a fabulous chat with him while we were there. We took a boat trip around Halong Bay and I came down with food poisoning for the second time in 2 weeks and saw more of the boats bathroom than the limestone cliffs in the bay. Such is my luck.
We have loved bia hoi junction, a crossing with a bunch of little shops with freshly brewed beer, at 3,000 dong per glass. Yes, that's 6 beers for a buck. Not too shabby! Never thought I would find a place even cheaper than Chico for a night out.
We are laying low today to make sure my tummy is decent, and planning on heading to the Moscow Circus tonight. Off to China in the morning!!!
Also- we have officially decided to work for SNWMF '10, so we will be temporarily relocating to Northern California when we return from our travels.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Love you looooooong time
Hello!
We are still loving it here in Vietnam, the people are great, the food is awesome and the beer is cheap!! We have moved on from Saigon now, but 1st some piccies, unfortunatly our memory card has been corrupted and we have lost some of our photos from the last week or so..... hence the lack in quantity :(
Here are the pics of the kids from NFO:
Next, our pics from Saigon, an awesome, crazy busy city with more scooters than an Asda car park near you! We finished our days here at the War Remnants Museum and the Independence Palace. Both interesting places with a lot of history to tell..... even if most of it is quite depressing and somber. Also extremely anti-US!
We left Saigon on a horrid bus to head for the highlands. It took us a while but, despite breaking down just 5km short, we did make it in time to check into our very nice hotel and grab another great meal before bed.
The hotel was renowned for its brekky and they did not disappoint..... bacon, eggs, bread, fruit and marmite!! Even avocados for Jenny too! So, full to the brim, we set out to explore this wonderfully weathered town - finally it was both sunny and cool and there was no need to bring a sweat-bucket with you for your day out! We headed straight for just about the only attraction here, other than the faux Eiffel Tower cell-phone antenna, "The Crazy House" - a guest house that is basically a giant, adult jungle-gym! Fun times. We spent our afternoon doing not much else other than hanging out dreading the bus ride the following day.
From here a long-ass bus took us to Nha Trang, a beach town with lots of promise. We had been recommended a Angel Dive here (Thx Alec & Kate) so got right on it and booked in for 3 dives the next day. And for $47 each including rental and lunch, how could we not?! Without any further a-do we got out of the sun for a beer and a treat - sushi!! And it was good!
Despite the early wake up we were excited to dive and on our way before 730am. With just a short(ish) boat trip we were in the water in no time and enjoying a very nice and different dive on a rock pinnacle. And another change from the last time we dove, we could see our hand in front of our face! The next 2 dives were also very nice, with good visabiliy and lots of coral and marine life. So much so that when we returned we booked in for more diving today!! Last night I decided to treat Jen and we went out to Le Petit Bistro, where we dined fabulously on steak tartare (for me), pasta for Jen and an amazing cheese plate for dessert (mmmmm, cheeeeeese). It was still only 25 bucks! But it was only half way through that I had a 2nd thought about the fact that I was eating raw beef in Vietnam.... no repercussions yet....
As mentioned, we went out on the boat again today and had 2 very satisfying dives, even if one was a little cold despite the full wet suit.
Unfortunately we must leave here tomorrow (no doubt on another shitty bus - we pre-booked them all from Saigon with the same company, cheap, but it shows) and head further north to Hoi An. Thanks to the Vietnamese border folks it looks like we will have to skip Laos as I have no room in my current passport for the visa & we have no time to back-track So we will go straight from Hanoi into China with a brand-spanking new one!
More soon....
We are still loving it here in Vietnam, the people are great, the food is awesome and the beer is cheap!! We have moved on from Saigon now, but 1st some piccies, unfortunatly our memory card has been corrupted and we have lost some of our photos from the last week or so..... hence the lack in quantity :(
Here are the pics of the kids from NFO:
Next, our pics from Saigon, an awesome, crazy busy city with more scooters than an Asda car park near you! We finished our days here at the War Remnants Museum and the Independence Palace. Both interesting places with a lot of history to tell..... even if most of it is quite depressing and somber. Also extremely anti-US!
We left Saigon on a horrid bus to head for the highlands. It took us a while but, despite breaking down just 5km short, we did make it in time to check into our very nice hotel and grab another great meal before bed.
The hotel was renowned for its brekky and they did not disappoint..... bacon, eggs, bread, fruit and marmite!! Even avocados for Jenny too! So, full to the brim, we set out to explore this wonderfully weathered town - finally it was both sunny and cool and there was no need to bring a sweat-bucket with you for your day out! We headed straight for just about the only attraction here, other than the faux Eiffel Tower cell-phone antenna, "The Crazy House" - a guest house that is basically a giant, adult jungle-gym! Fun times. We spent our afternoon doing not much else other than hanging out dreading the bus ride the following day.
From here a long-ass bus took us to Nha Trang, a beach town with lots of promise. We had been recommended a Angel Dive here (Thx Alec & Kate) so got right on it and booked in for 3 dives the next day. And for $47 each including rental and lunch, how could we not?! Without any further a-do we got out of the sun for a beer and a treat - sushi!! And it was good!
Despite the early wake up we were excited to dive and on our way before 730am. With just a short(ish) boat trip we were in the water in no time and enjoying a very nice and different dive on a rock pinnacle. And another change from the last time we dove, we could see our hand in front of our face! The next 2 dives were also very nice, with good visabiliy and lots of coral and marine life. So much so that when we returned we booked in for more diving today!! Last night I decided to treat Jen and we went out to Le Petit Bistro, where we dined fabulously on steak tartare (for me), pasta for Jen and an amazing cheese plate for dessert (mmmmm, cheeeeeese). It was still only 25 bucks! But it was only half way through that I had a 2nd thought about the fact that I was eating raw beef in Vietnam.... no repercussions yet....
As mentioned, we went out on the boat again today and had 2 very satisfying dives, even if one was a little cold despite the full wet suit.
Unfortunately we must leave here tomorrow (no doubt on another shitty bus - we pre-booked them all from Saigon with the same company, cheap, but it shows) and head further north to Hoi An. Thanks to the Vietnamese border folks it looks like we will have to skip Laos as I have no room in my current passport for the visa & we have no time to back-track So we will go straight from Hanoi into China with a brand-spanking new one!
More soon....
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
New Futures
We headed to Takeo and grabbed a tuktuk to the orphanages guest house. No one was around so we kinda just hung out with no real clue what to do! Around dinnertime everyone surfaced and we got the gist of how things were run. The next morning we has lovely egg sanwiches and then headed over to the New Futures orphanage. Upon arrival we were inundated with 52 kids shaking our hands, hugging us, and asking our names. So incredibly friendly and happy! We got a bit of a tour of the facilities, and then it was play time. We spent the next few days playing hardcore vollyball and football with kids who were about 4ft tall, and chatting about our lives. The kids are so incredibly amazing and driven, all want to learn English so they can get good jobs. The orphanage takes great care of them, they all attend school and take English lessons, everyone helps cook and clean, and the kids all look after each other. Ages 6-19, the kids look remarkably younger than their western counterparts, but can eat at least twice as much rice as the hungriest westerner in one sitting. They want cuddles and to hold hands, are interested in politics, and all have such a positive outlook on life. It was so heartwarming and incredible for us to experience this part of Cambodian culture, and it was absolutely one of the highlights of our entire trip thus far. We handed our camera over to the kids and they froliked around and took pictures of the orphanage in their eyes. Just amazing. We plan on staying involved with the orphanage in the future, and are in the process of setting up penpals in NJ at my mom's elementary school, and will also be setting up some sort of non-profit booth or something at SNWMF10. If you are interested in getting involved, have the lucky opportunity to be in the area and want to visit, or just want to make a donation, get in contact with us and we will help sort you out. $20 will feed the kids 3 meals a day for 2 days- a 100lb bag of rice. Oli's mate Andy is currently making a new website for the organization and we will post the link when it is completed.
With heavy hearts, and after postponing our departure for 2 days, we took a bus back to Phnom Penh and then to HCMC, Vietnam. Riding on the bus from 8am to 4pm, we arrived and grabbed a room at Madam Cucs in the backpacker district, $13/night for ac, fridge, hot water, and cable tv. Also includes breakfast and dinner! Not bad. We settled in that evening excited to explore a new country in the month ahead.
The next morning we headed over to the British Embassy to sort out a new passport for Oli since his old one has been filled. It was pretty time consuming, but on the upside, during the embassys lunch break, we headed over to the zoo to say whats up to the animals. We were walking along, and saw a deformed bunny hopping around in a cage that was entirely too large for it. Then we noticed a huge lion napping in the background. THEY HAD POPPED THE LIVE BUNNY INTO THE CAGE FOR THE LION'S LUNCH! We were horrified. Well, I was. Oli was excited to see the outcome. The lion was lazy and didn't really stir, so eventually we headed on without witnessing the carnage.
After finishing the passport process, most of the museums were closing within the hour, so we headed back to the hotel to chill. We had been laying low for the past 4 nights as I had gotten some sort of violent allergy/food poisoning to some delicious fish and chips whilst in Takeo and was still not feeling tip top.
This morning we headed over to the Co Chi tunnels, in which the Viet Cong has hidden out during the war. The whole thing was a bit less authentic than we wanted it to be, but it was kinda cool anyhow. We did end up climbing through the tiny tunnels, on our knees, which was pretty interesting. The tour took a long time, and we ended up grabbing some Indian food when we arrived back in the city. Yum!
We will be in HCMC for a few more days to check out the museums, then heading to Dalat in the north. Pix from the orphanage up soon!
With heavy hearts, and after postponing our departure for 2 days, we took a bus back to Phnom Penh and then to HCMC, Vietnam. Riding on the bus from 8am to 4pm, we arrived and grabbed a room at Madam Cucs in the backpacker district, $13/night for ac, fridge, hot water, and cable tv. Also includes breakfast and dinner! Not bad. We settled in that evening excited to explore a new country in the month ahead.
The next morning we headed over to the British Embassy to sort out a new passport for Oli since his old one has been filled. It was pretty time consuming, but on the upside, during the embassys lunch break, we headed over to the zoo to say whats up to the animals. We were walking along, and saw a deformed bunny hopping around in a cage that was entirely too large for it. Then we noticed a huge lion napping in the background. THEY HAD POPPED THE LIVE BUNNY INTO THE CAGE FOR THE LION'S LUNCH! We were horrified. Well, I was. Oli was excited to see the outcome. The lion was lazy and didn't really stir, so eventually we headed on without witnessing the carnage.
After finishing the passport process, most of the museums were closing within the hour, so we headed back to the hotel to chill. We had been laying low for the past 4 nights as I had gotten some sort of violent allergy/food poisoning to some delicious fish and chips whilst in Takeo and was still not feeling tip top.
This morning we headed over to the Co Chi tunnels, in which the Viet Cong has hidden out during the war. The whole thing was a bit less authentic than we wanted it to be, but it was kinda cool anyhow. We did end up climbing through the tiny tunnels, on our knees, which was pretty interesting. The tour took a long time, and we ended up grabbing some Indian food when we arrived back in the city. Yum!
We will be in HCMC for a few more days to check out the museums, then heading to Dalat in the north. Pix from the orphanage up soon!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Happy birthday to me!
We wrapped things up at our little hut on the hill and grabbed a saengthaew to Lonely Beach, where we waited at the Treehouse restaurant for another truck to cart us to the other side of the island to Long Beach. After a few hours crammed into the back of the truck like sardines, 10 other farang and the two of us arrived at the new Treehouse resort. So cool! For $5 a night, we had a stilted hut with a balcony overlooking the ocean in the only isolated part of Koh Chang left. We spent the next 4 days, including my 25th birthday, reading classic novels, eating thai food, drinking beers, and swinging on treeswings. It was lovely, and a perfect way to relax and get back into the backpacker vibe after living in the lap of luxury with the fam!
Once we had recovered from an overdose of serenity, we hopped on the ferry and headed to Trat, where we took a minivan to the Cambodian border. We were screwed out of less money than expected for the visa, but were still bribed to pay 30% more than it should have cost. That border crossing is notorious for screwing over tourists!
Because we arrived in the afternoon, there were no more buses leaving for Phnom Penh, so we had to spend the night in the shady border town of Koh Krong. To get there, we had to hop on the back of a motorcycle for 15km. Both of us, one motorcycle, 2 backpacks, and one driver. It made for an interesting journey and surprisingly we were not injured! We bunked up at the Apex hotel, and enjoyed having hot water, cable tv, and ac/ It was a good thing that we got a nice room too, because there was a torrential downpour for most of the afternoon! In the evening we ventured over to Bob's Bar for magical chicken parm and english sausages with mash and veg. MMMMmmm.
In the morning we hopped on a VIP AC bus to Phnom Penh, napping and reading until our arrival at 2pm. We found a hotel right by the river, with the same amenities as the night before but lacking a window. We threw our bags down and took a moto to the UK Embassy where we were informed that Oli needed a new passport and could not just get pages added in, as his was almost full. Awesome. We decided to take care of it in Vietnam, then headed over to the backpacker slum for some awesome sandwiches and to be comforted in the fact that we went for nicer accommodation than usual- the $2 rooms in this neck of the woods were not anything you would put your worst enemy in! We headed back to our hotel, watched tv and napped, then headed over to Happy Herb's pizza for some yummy pizza minus the happy herbs, and then retired for the night.
The next morning we rose early, took a moto to the Vietnam embassy to drop off our visa applications, then wandered over to the Russian Market to peruse the stalls and knock off clothing. We then walked up to the S-21 genocide museum. Over 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned there during the Khmer Rouge reign. The history of Pol Pot and the atrocities that his underlings caused it horrendous, and worth a much closer look than I could describe. The genocide museum is in the former high school that was occupied in 1975 by the "revolution"and became a prison for intellectuals, nonconformists, "enemies" of the revolution, and anyone in their families. Cruel torture and barbaric living conditions were prevalent for 4 years, and the prison was a sort of holding place before the victims were moved over to the killing fields. The museum contained the original jail-like structures, the torture beds, and photos of many of the former inmates. Almost every single person who was jailed there was put to death.
After S-21, we had a quick lunch before hopping in a tuktuk to the killing fields. About 15km south of Phnom Penh, the fields once contained a sort of holding cell where the prisoners were kept blindfolded and handcuffed before they were led one by one to the edge of hundreds of mass graves, bashed over the head with one of many cruel weapons, then had their throats slashed and their bodies thrown in on top of hundreds of other lost souls. The small children were taken care of in a different way- taken by the feet and slammed into a tree until dead. The idea was that all children, regardless of age, must be taken care of to ensure no revenge or retaliation attempts once grown.
Pol Pot had a grand communist plan to form the nation into a self sufficient agricultural based country, with a huge export of rice as their only priority. He wanted to exterminate all city people and focus on the villagers, enforcing almost slavelike labor and abolishing hospitals, schools, money, and personal property. Though the reign of the Khmer Rouge lasted only 4 years, until Vietnam envaded and took over, they killed hundreds of thousands of people, and every single person living here not over the age of 30 was affected in some way during that cruel time.
After the killing fields, we had a somber drive back to the Vietnam Embassy to pick up our visas, then met up with Oli's old roomie Andy for a few drinks and dinner. Andy was on his way out of town after volunteering for an orphanage down south, and as he told us about it we realized that we really wanted to go help. He gave us all the information, and we formulated a plan to do a bit of time down south and enter by the southern border to Vietnam in a week or so.
This morning we woke up and visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, then headed to a real genuine supermarket and drooled over all the cheeses and other imports. We had lunch at fatboy subs- YUM, and now are killing time in an internet cafe until our 2pm bus to Takeo. Love to all, we will update again soon! :)
Once we had recovered from an overdose of serenity, we hopped on the ferry and headed to Trat, where we took a minivan to the Cambodian border. We were screwed out of less money than expected for the visa, but were still bribed to pay 30% more than it should have cost. That border crossing is notorious for screwing over tourists!
Because we arrived in the afternoon, there were no more buses leaving for Phnom Penh, so we had to spend the night in the shady border town of Koh Krong. To get there, we had to hop on the back of a motorcycle for 15km. Both of us, one motorcycle, 2 backpacks, and one driver. It made for an interesting journey and surprisingly we were not injured! We bunked up at the Apex hotel, and enjoyed having hot water, cable tv, and ac/ It was a good thing that we got a nice room too, because there was a torrential downpour for most of the afternoon! In the evening we ventured over to Bob's Bar for magical chicken parm and english sausages with mash and veg. MMMMmmm.
In the morning we hopped on a VIP AC bus to Phnom Penh, napping and reading until our arrival at 2pm. We found a hotel right by the river, with the same amenities as the night before but lacking a window. We threw our bags down and took a moto to the UK Embassy where we were informed that Oli needed a new passport and could not just get pages added in, as his was almost full. Awesome. We decided to take care of it in Vietnam, then headed over to the backpacker slum for some awesome sandwiches and to be comforted in the fact that we went for nicer accommodation than usual- the $2 rooms in this neck of the woods were not anything you would put your worst enemy in! We headed back to our hotel, watched tv and napped, then headed over to Happy Herb's pizza for some yummy pizza minus the happy herbs, and then retired for the night.
The next morning we rose early, took a moto to the Vietnam embassy to drop off our visa applications, then wandered over to the Russian Market to peruse the stalls and knock off clothing. We then walked up to the S-21 genocide museum. Over 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned there during the Khmer Rouge reign. The history of Pol Pot and the atrocities that his underlings caused it horrendous, and worth a much closer look than I could describe. The genocide museum is in the former high school that was occupied in 1975 by the "revolution"and became a prison for intellectuals, nonconformists, "enemies" of the revolution, and anyone in their families. Cruel torture and barbaric living conditions were prevalent for 4 years, and the prison was a sort of holding place before the victims were moved over to the killing fields. The museum contained the original jail-like structures, the torture beds, and photos of many of the former inmates. Almost every single person who was jailed there was put to death.
After S-21, we had a quick lunch before hopping in a tuktuk to the killing fields. About 15km south of Phnom Penh, the fields once contained a sort of holding cell where the prisoners were kept blindfolded and handcuffed before they were led one by one to the edge of hundreds of mass graves, bashed over the head with one of many cruel weapons, then had their throats slashed and their bodies thrown in on top of hundreds of other lost souls. The small children were taken care of in a different way- taken by the feet and slammed into a tree until dead. The idea was that all children, regardless of age, must be taken care of to ensure no revenge or retaliation attempts once grown.
Pol Pot had a grand communist plan to form the nation into a self sufficient agricultural based country, with a huge export of rice as their only priority. He wanted to exterminate all city people and focus on the villagers, enforcing almost slavelike labor and abolishing hospitals, schools, money, and personal property. Though the reign of the Khmer Rouge lasted only 4 years, until Vietnam envaded and took over, they killed hundreds of thousands of people, and every single person living here not over the age of 30 was affected in some way during that cruel time.
After the killing fields, we had a somber drive back to the Vietnam Embassy to pick up our visas, then met up with Oli's old roomie Andy for a few drinks and dinner. Andy was on his way out of town after volunteering for an orphanage down south, and as he told us about it we realized that we really wanted to go help. He gave us all the information, and we formulated a plan to do a bit of time down south and enter by the southern border to Vietnam in a week or so.
This morning we woke up and visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, then headed to a real genuine supermarket and drooled over all the cheeses and other imports. We had lunch at fatboy subs- YUM, and now are killing time in an internet cafe until our 2pm bus to Takeo. Love to all, we will update again soon! :)
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