Flashing lights, loud music, bonus rounds, WINNING! who doesn't love the pokies???!! I'm not much of a gambler myself usually but when I was in Vegas I found i have a lucky streak for 2 games...Roulette and the pokies (slots)...so, on arriving in Macau, 1 hour on the ferry from Hong Kong and the only place in China that you can gamble, we hit the casinos with a vengance.
We are putting stamps in our passports faster than you can say 'immigration'. Macau, like hong kong, is a state of china with pretty much it's own independence to do whatever the hell it wants. So it has become a kind of mini vegas - complete with the big names - MGM Grand, Wynn etc...i wiped them all out. Talk about a lucky streak - i managed to pay for our entire weekend plus some on a combination of roulette and pokies...paying for a gorgeous, lush 4 star hotel, incredible food, and many a delish cocktail from my winnings...thank you and goodnight!
Enjoying a celebratory cocktail after my streak of luck we settled in the bar of the MGM Grand, bopping away to an awesome covers band which had the place pumping with old school R&B...in one of their breaks they came over to have a chat with us...turns out one of them will be famous - he's auditioning for X-Factor and, since he's so awesome, i'm sure he'll be on tv...i'll be able to say 'i knew him when...'!! Towards the end of the gig they had a group of russians, all professional ballroom dancers from the Venetian casino nearby, on their feet and doing the sexy cha cha with more than a little pizazz...2 shows for the price of one...well none actually since it was free!! Needless to say one celebratory cocktail turned into several as we had a fabulous night, staggering home, once again, in the wee hours...
I still adore hong kong, love that it's so close to Macau and, to be honest, am dreading leaving. But leave we must and tomorrow we join our tour group to head up to mainland china - overnight train and all....once more we become the nomads.
I don't mind the backpacking life - it serves a purpose - but living it up is pretty cool too...that is how i really like to roll baby. ;-)
stay tuned. xx
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Live it...love it
one minute you're walking through a maze of ancient streets with chinese vendors selling birds nests (for vitality and longevity), sea slugs and flying fox on a stick (complete with head and wings of course - how else would you eat a flying fox?)...a 5 minute tube ride later and you're drinking cocktails in a cosmopolitan bar surrounded by countless other cosmopolitan bars in Lan Kwai Fong - THE district of choice for the sexiest bars and the hottest clubs....
one minute you're on the seaside, bright white sand and english style pubs lining the street...half an hour later and you are back in the city, unable to see the sky for the skyscrapers, making your choice of restaurants from the hundreds in Soho, a choice of every type of cuisine under the sun...if only you could see it...
its a jumble of the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the technological...the asian and the european...this city has it all. Advertisements for HK use this slogan - 'Hong Kong...live it....love it'. I could do both. Already i love it...am IN love with it. And I think I could so easily live here given the right salary which would of course have me living right in the thick of things!
Yesterday we caught the famous Star Ferry across to hong Kong Island, excitedly speeding closer and closer to the heaven-touching skyline. We wandered through expensive shopping malls full to the brim with designer wears, before mozying along streets full to the brim of chinese medicine men and antiques from the Tang Dynasty....eventually we found ourselves in Lan Kwai Fong and settled in with a margarita to do some serious people watching. it's the world cup rugby 7s at the moment in hong kong and the place is overflowing with rugby boys from the uk, south africa and australia...and they were all in lan kwai fong to party on thursday night....the party spilled out on to the street, good spirits helped along by yard long beers hung around the necks of the punters and pumping music spilling out from the bars along the road. We were having so much fun meeting and chatting to people from all over the world that we stayed out drinking till 1am and almost missed the last train home....!
feeling slightly the worst for wear when we woke this morning we took things a little slow, catching a local bus to Stanley, a beachside resort only 30mins from Central, boasting a famous market of cheap clothing rip-offs and souvenirs. The fact that Hong kong city is so very close to beaches and cute little bays just makes it so much more livable in my mind...though i imagine that on a nice sunny day it would be standing room only around there. unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, today it was pouring and we had the place to ourselves...well, us and some rugby boys from england. a 30min bus ride back to the city and we wandered the streets of Soho, spoilt for choice with the countless restaurants whipping up every cuisine imaginable....we settled on a homely little italian with huge servings of pasta and generous glasses of red...i can't tell you how much i have missed a good glass of red, normally my everyday drink, it was expensive and awful most of the way through SE Asia....lets just say i'm making up for it now...
I have a list of Top 5 cities I have been to. cities i love and would love to live in...it didnt take long for Hong Kong to comfortably make its way onto my list...Live it...Love it.
stay tuned. xx
one minute you're on the seaside, bright white sand and english style pubs lining the street...half an hour later and you are back in the city, unable to see the sky for the skyscrapers, making your choice of restaurants from the hundreds in Soho, a choice of every type of cuisine under the sun...if only you could see it...
its a jumble of the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the technological...the asian and the european...this city has it all. Advertisements for HK use this slogan - 'Hong Kong...live it....love it'. I could do both. Already i love it...am IN love with it. And I think I could so easily live here given the right salary which would of course have me living right in the thick of things!
Yesterday we caught the famous Star Ferry across to hong Kong Island, excitedly speeding closer and closer to the heaven-touching skyline. We wandered through expensive shopping malls full to the brim with designer wears, before mozying along streets full to the brim of chinese medicine men and antiques from the Tang Dynasty....eventually we found ourselves in Lan Kwai Fong and settled in with a margarita to do some serious people watching. it's the world cup rugby 7s at the moment in hong kong and the place is overflowing with rugby boys from the uk, south africa and australia...and they were all in lan kwai fong to party on thursday night....the party spilled out on to the street, good spirits helped along by yard long beers hung around the necks of the punters and pumping music spilling out from the bars along the road. We were having so much fun meeting and chatting to people from all over the world that we stayed out drinking till 1am and almost missed the last train home....!
feeling slightly the worst for wear when we woke this morning we took things a little slow, catching a local bus to Stanley, a beachside resort only 30mins from Central, boasting a famous market of cheap clothing rip-offs and souvenirs. The fact that Hong kong city is so very close to beaches and cute little bays just makes it so much more livable in my mind...though i imagine that on a nice sunny day it would be standing room only around there. unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, today it was pouring and we had the place to ourselves...well, us and some rugby boys from england. a 30min bus ride back to the city and we wandered the streets of Soho, spoilt for choice with the countless restaurants whipping up every cuisine imaginable....we settled on a homely little italian with huge servings of pasta and generous glasses of red...i can't tell you how much i have missed a good glass of red, normally my everyday drink, it was expensive and awful most of the way through SE Asia....lets just say i'm making up for it now...
I have a list of Top 5 cities I have been to. cities i love and would love to live in...it didnt take long for Hong Kong to comfortably make its way onto my list...Live it...Love it.
stay tuned. xx
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Lots of Pics!
Due to lack of Wifi access in Laos and Cambodia photos have been few and far between...here they are - the Mekong Delta to Hong Kong...
Mekong Delta
Cambodia
Don Det, Laos
Vientiane and Luang Prabang
Partying in Vang Vieng
Hong Kong Part 1
Mekong Delta
Cambodia
Don Det, Laos
Vientiane and Luang Prabang
Partying in Vang Vieng
Hong Kong Part 1
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Hong Kong flu
When i was growing up Hong Kong was spoken about often in our home with fond memories and interesting anecdotes. When he owned a successful, Sydney based advertising agency back in the 70s and 80s my dad used to do a lot of business here - flying over often to wine and dine and to be wined and dined. 30 years ago, give or take 9 months, Mum decided to go along with him for a little holiday. She spent her days mozying around the city, shopping and having tea in the Penninsular Hotel, before being whisked off to meet dad and his clients for dinner. Needless to say they lived a little more of a high flying lifestyle than we are now but it's fun for me to imagine them here 30 years ago...loving the city so much that they seriously discussed emigrating here until mum went to the doctor one day back in Sydney complaining of the 'Hong Kong flu' that she must have contracted whilst on holiday and found out that actually she was pregnant...with me....I guess, in a way, this is actually my 2nd time in Hong Kong!
I wonder whether mum and dad ever made use of the 'Free Wednesday' days at the museums....? perhaps not, but, as the cheapskates we are, we did today...cruising round the interesting History Museum with its exhibits explaining the evolution of hong kong...from prehistoric nothingness to thriving, cosmopolitan city via wars and opium, colonialism and chinese handovers...it was very interesting since I had never really understood how the british managed to acquire hong kong in the first place (a very long and sordid story involving the importation of drugs....) and the exhibit explained a lot about the layout of the city and the psyche of its people. Next was the science museum...much like the one in london (though admittedly i've never been to that one!) Matt was as enthralled as the 10 year olds around us as he played with the exhibits. Even I was rather taken with the hall of mirrors (particularly the one that makes you look tall and thin!) and the optical illusion exhibition.
All museumed out we trudged across town looking for food...a bowl of wan ton noodle soup later and we were in the midst of the Temple Street night markets - stall after stall of chinese kitch, jade, fake handbags and souvenir t-shirts. since arriving in asia I have been checking out the handbags - waiting for the right ones to jump out at me...and finally i found them - a Jimmy Choo and a D&G - how true they are to the originals Im really very doubtful but they're still rather nice i feel...
it's been a long day. i'm finding the city exhausting after spending the past couple of weeks in quiet, sleepy laos...the bed in our closet sized bedroom calls and tomorrow is another day...hopefully this time we'll actually make it on to the ferry and over to Hong Kong Island itself.
stay tuned. xx
I wonder whether mum and dad ever made use of the 'Free Wednesday' days at the museums....? perhaps not, but, as the cheapskates we are, we did today...cruising round the interesting History Museum with its exhibits explaining the evolution of hong kong...from prehistoric nothingness to thriving, cosmopolitan city via wars and opium, colonialism and chinese handovers...it was very interesting since I had never really understood how the british managed to acquire hong kong in the first place (a very long and sordid story involving the importation of drugs....) and the exhibit explained a lot about the layout of the city and the psyche of its people. Next was the science museum...much like the one in london (though admittedly i've never been to that one!) Matt was as enthralled as the 10 year olds around us as he played with the exhibits. Even I was rather taken with the hall of mirrors (particularly the one that makes you look tall and thin!) and the optical illusion exhibition.
All museumed out we trudged across town looking for food...a bowl of wan ton noodle soup later and we were in the midst of the Temple Street night markets - stall after stall of chinese kitch, jade, fake handbags and souvenir t-shirts. since arriving in asia I have been checking out the handbags - waiting for the right ones to jump out at me...and finally i found them - a Jimmy Choo and a D&G - how true they are to the originals Im really very doubtful but they're still rather nice i feel...
it's been a long day. i'm finding the city exhausting after spending the past couple of weeks in quiet, sleepy laos...the bed in our closet sized bedroom calls and tomorrow is another day...hopefully this time we'll actually make it on to the ferry and over to Hong Kong Island itself.
stay tuned. xx
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
a city of culture....shocks.
I'm not sure that you could get much more of a culture shock than what we have experienced today...having spent the past few days relaxed by the riverside, unwinding with a beer and good company in Laos it was rather a shock today to land in the busy, busting, modern metropolis that is Hong Kong.
Dumping our bags in our closet...sorry, i mean hostel room....on the 8th floor of a building in Kowloon we descended to street level to pound the pavements and investigate our surroundings. A bit of exercise and some fresh - well, ok, not so fresh really - air helped to clear the cobwebs bought about by too many hours spent on buses and trains...it only took 28 hours it took us to get to Hong Kong from Vang Vieng via Thailand....!
Our wanderings this evening took us down to the tip of Kowloon where the lights of the immense skyscrapers of the Hong Kong skyline shimmer in the water of the beautiful harbour. nothing can really prepare you for the sight of a majestic city's skyline I find...but Hong Kong likes to surprise its visitors with a special little show to make this city stand out against its contemporaries of the likes of Manhattan, london and Sydney. A spectacular light show, choreographed to music, plays out every evening at 8pm. As we watched from the Kowloon side of the river the buildings on the other side, resplendant with global brand names galore, came to life with neon lights ablazing and lazer beams lighting the foggy night sky. All i could think was 'imagine if you were working late in one of those buildings....how annoying if your office light kept going on and off for the show...!'
First impressions of Hong Kong for me? exciting and vibrant. Im looking forward to exploring and am glad we have a decent amount of time to spend here...I have a feeling we'll find a lot of cool things to do!!
Stay tuned.xx
Dumping our bags in our closet...sorry, i mean hostel room....on the 8th floor of a building in Kowloon we descended to street level to pound the pavements and investigate our surroundings. A bit of exercise and some fresh - well, ok, not so fresh really - air helped to clear the cobwebs bought about by too many hours spent on buses and trains...it only took 28 hours it took us to get to Hong Kong from Vang Vieng via Thailand....!
Our wanderings this evening took us down to the tip of Kowloon where the lights of the immense skyscrapers of the Hong Kong skyline shimmer in the water of the beautiful harbour. nothing can really prepare you for the sight of a majestic city's skyline I find...but Hong Kong likes to surprise its visitors with a special little show to make this city stand out against its contemporaries of the likes of Manhattan, london and Sydney. A spectacular light show, choreographed to music, plays out every evening at 8pm. As we watched from the Kowloon side of the river the buildings on the other side, resplendant with global brand names galore, came to life with neon lights ablazing and lazer beams lighting the foggy night sky. All i could think was 'imagine if you were working late in one of those buildings....how annoying if your office light kept going on and off for the show...!'
First impressions of Hong Kong for me? exciting and vibrant. Im looking forward to exploring and am glad we have a decent amount of time to spend here...I have a feeling we'll find a lot of cool things to do!!
Stay tuned.xx
Monday, March 23, 2009
A tube to remember
there are some experiences you have when you're traveling that you know are unforgettable...you may have the photos to prove them, but, even without them you know those moments will be forever in your memory...
Such is the case with our day yesterday...tired and chilled and oh so slightly hungover we met our four Spanish friends from Barcelona and a couple of other mates from Quebec, Canada, for some tubing...the activity for which Vang Vieng is most famous. Grabbing our big rubber tyres excitedly and jumping on a tuk tuk for the 10min ride to the first bar on the river we discussed our plans - most people, when tubing, rarely get past the first 3 bars on the river, grabbing the rope being thrown to them they are pulled in by the crowds and the buckets and perhaps never leave till closing...spending the day jumping off the flying foxes and swings into the river...we, however, decided to tube all the way down the river first and then come back for the bar scene...good intentions don't always work out however - Matt and Alberto were enticed into the first bar early on for a beer to carry with us down the river...and so began the blissful ride, sipping on our beer laos as we floated, gazing up at the soaring mountains rising high from the banks of the river, letting the current gently sweep us along, sometimes getting a little stuck in the shallow bits and bumping faster down the tiny little rapids. It took us 3 hours to get back to the town...after another couple of stops for beer and refreshments (the Spanish guys had us craving a few olives to go with our beer - not so easy to find in the middle of laos unfortunatly - chips had to be the replacement)and by the time we got back it was a little too late to go back to the bars...
Not to be deterred we decided on a little nap (siesta?) before meeting up again for dinner and buckets back at the 'island'...the happening place for bars and debauchery. A quieter night definitely than the one before, but chilled and calm, enjoying the people watching and the company...
A day to remember...
we are now on our way to Hong Kong and it is sad to say the least to leave indochina. We have been traveling in this area for over 2 months now and have become accustomed to the ways of life here. We are used to seeing the same people as we move around the backpacker trail, friends and aquaintences, people to nod to in the street....but china will be exciting and a new adventure.
Stay tuned. xx
Such is the case with our day yesterday...tired and chilled and oh so slightly hungover we met our four Spanish friends from Barcelona and a couple of other mates from Quebec, Canada, for some tubing...the activity for which Vang Vieng is most famous. Grabbing our big rubber tyres excitedly and jumping on a tuk tuk for the 10min ride to the first bar on the river we discussed our plans - most people, when tubing, rarely get past the first 3 bars on the river, grabbing the rope being thrown to them they are pulled in by the crowds and the buckets and perhaps never leave till closing...spending the day jumping off the flying foxes and swings into the river...we, however, decided to tube all the way down the river first and then come back for the bar scene...good intentions don't always work out however - Matt and Alberto were enticed into the first bar early on for a beer to carry with us down the river...and so began the blissful ride, sipping on our beer laos as we floated, gazing up at the soaring mountains rising high from the banks of the river, letting the current gently sweep us along, sometimes getting a little stuck in the shallow bits and bumping faster down the tiny little rapids. It took us 3 hours to get back to the town...after another couple of stops for beer and refreshments (the Spanish guys had us craving a few olives to go with our beer - not so easy to find in the middle of laos unfortunatly - chips had to be the replacement)and by the time we got back it was a little too late to go back to the bars...
Not to be deterred we decided on a little nap (siesta?) before meeting up again for dinner and buckets back at the 'island'...the happening place for bars and debauchery. A quieter night definitely than the one before, but chilled and calm, enjoying the people watching and the company...
A day to remember...
we are now on our way to Hong Kong and it is sad to say the least to leave indochina. We have been traveling in this area for over 2 months now and have become accustomed to the ways of life here. We are used to seeing the same people as we move around the backpacker trail, friends and aquaintences, people to nod to in the street....but china will be exciting and a new adventure.
Stay tuned. xx
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Chill-laos
Laos is fast becoming one of my favorite countries that we've visited in South East Asia...we have spend a very interesting, chilled out couple of days in the former imperial capital of Luang Prabang before making the (once again fairly hidious) bus trip down to the backpacker haven of Vang Vieng...
Our days in LP were spent exploring caves hauntingly filled with ancient and discarded budda images, crazy temple caves which you can only walk in with a torch, the light picking up thousands of little budda statues in the far reaching corners...before diving into the clear blue waters of a swimming hole under a waterfall...freezing water straight from the mountains massaging my shoulders as i stood under the stream of water...bliss...
The nights have been spent eating and drinking with some Spanish friends that we originally met early on in Vietnam and randomly ran into again in LP...for a few days we will follow much the same backpacker trail through Laos and it's been fun to hang out with this group - a laugh a minute. We have sat outside in the warm evening air by the river drinking Beer Laos and barbequeing our own meat at our tables before heading to a wine bar to allow the Spanairds to experience the heaven that is a full bodied Australian shiraz...
Vang Vieng is quite a different scene from Luang Prabang...its all about cocktail buckets and tubing down the river, dropping into riverside bars on the way for a beer before finishing the day lounging in bars watching Friends re-runs. It's not exactly a typical 'Laos' experience, but fun for a few days...for hanging out with other backpackers and exchanging stories and anecdotes...tonight we will meet up with the spanairds again for some buckets of our own and tomorrw will try the famous tubing...
All too soon we will be leaving South East asia and moving on to China. It seems quite strange as we have been here so long - we have made a lot of friends on the backpacker circuit and have become quite used to everything that is Indochina...but all good things come to an end and China will be another adventure all together...
Stay tuned...xx
Our days in LP were spent exploring caves hauntingly filled with ancient and discarded budda images, crazy temple caves which you can only walk in with a torch, the light picking up thousands of little budda statues in the far reaching corners...before diving into the clear blue waters of a swimming hole under a waterfall...freezing water straight from the mountains massaging my shoulders as i stood under the stream of water...bliss...
The nights have been spent eating and drinking with some Spanish friends that we originally met early on in Vietnam and randomly ran into again in LP...for a few days we will follow much the same backpacker trail through Laos and it's been fun to hang out with this group - a laugh a minute. We have sat outside in the warm evening air by the river drinking Beer Laos and barbequeing our own meat at our tables before heading to a wine bar to allow the Spanairds to experience the heaven that is a full bodied Australian shiraz...
Vang Vieng is quite a different scene from Luang Prabang...its all about cocktail buckets and tubing down the river, dropping into riverside bars on the way for a beer before finishing the day lounging in bars watching Friends re-runs. It's not exactly a typical 'Laos' experience, but fun for a few days...for hanging out with other backpackers and exchanging stories and anecdotes...tonight we will meet up with the spanairds again for some buckets of our own and tomorrw will try the famous tubing...
All too soon we will be leaving South East asia and moving on to China. It seems quite strange as we have been here so long - we have made a lot of friends on the backpacker circuit and have become quite used to everything that is Indochina...but all good things come to an end and China will be another adventure all together...
Stay tuned...xx
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monks on the Mekong
Luang Prabang is a heritage listed town on the banks of the mekong river in northern Laos. While once the thriving royal city of this country, the revolution and its subsequent removal of the monarchy left LP a sleepy little city albiet in a gorgeous setting. Since it's heritage listing however, tourist numbers have swelled and, other than monks in their orange robes walking down the street, its more likely to see a western face than Laos....
There's good reason for it though. With it's multitude of shimmering, ancient temples, riverside restaurants and opportunities for trekking and boating and general mayhem in the jungle this place is tonic for the soul...
Getting here, however, was a trip i would sooner forget. Northern Laos is incredibly mountainous and the roads here still leave a lot to be desired. It took us 9-10 hours (in despair i stopped counting...!) to get here from Vientaine...and afterwards we felt as if we'd been in a washing machine on the hot spin cycle (the air con that we'd paid extra to have had broken of course..) and our teeth were jarred from our heads being jerked...i'm sure i have a bruise on my shoulder from being thrown against the side of the bus...hmmm - as i keep telling myself....these are the experiences you get when traveling through South East Asia...enjoy them!! lol! It's not the destination, it's the journey and we did see some specacular sights when we weren't squeezing our eyes shut in preference to watching the bus narrowly miss the side of the cliff....
As we trundled along in 1st we were able to catch glimpses of village life around here...these mountain villages have no running water in their homes - and only the wealthier ones have any electricity. So at about 4-5pm it seems, all the families in the town go out to bath, the women wrapped in sarongs and the men in their undies...the babies naked...they wash themselves, their kids and their clothes in mountain spring water piped through to a central place, normally the side of the road it seems which is how i saw the ritual! We watched the older women threading leaves together to patch up the hut roof and kids chasing eachother along the dusty lanes...not necessarily an easy life I wouldn't imagine, but a peaceful one...
We ended up only spending a day in Vientiane before heading north to Luang Prabang...while there are quite a few sites to visit etc our day was spent mooching around the city looking for WIFI to do some banking. WIFI, it seems, is easier said than found in this country! but our day was rescued when we decided to get ourselves a stiff drink and some dinner down by the river and noticed a hullaballoo a bit further on....wandering down to investigate we found a fete in full swing...old french style, with toys and games from the 50s and little tables where you could sit and drink vin rouge. French tourists are in their thousands in Laos and, it seemed, they were all at the fete, celebrating and chatting...it was easy to imagine we were in some little French village along the Loire rather than a Laos city on the Mekong! It was all very oldy-worldy until we spotted a stage and heard some rock music...heading over we watched a modern dance troop and a Laos kid doing some of the best breakdancing i've ever seen...you see it all here in Asia...
Stay tuned. xx
There's good reason for it though. With it's multitude of shimmering, ancient temples, riverside restaurants and opportunities for trekking and boating and general mayhem in the jungle this place is tonic for the soul...
Getting here, however, was a trip i would sooner forget. Northern Laos is incredibly mountainous and the roads here still leave a lot to be desired. It took us 9-10 hours (in despair i stopped counting...!) to get here from Vientaine...and afterwards we felt as if we'd been in a washing machine on the hot spin cycle (the air con that we'd paid extra to have had broken of course..) and our teeth were jarred from our heads being jerked...i'm sure i have a bruise on my shoulder from being thrown against the side of the bus...hmmm - as i keep telling myself....these are the experiences you get when traveling through South East Asia...enjoy them!! lol! It's not the destination, it's the journey and we did see some specacular sights when we weren't squeezing our eyes shut in preference to watching the bus narrowly miss the side of the cliff....
As we trundled along in 1st we were able to catch glimpses of village life around here...these mountain villages have no running water in their homes - and only the wealthier ones have any electricity. So at about 4-5pm it seems, all the families in the town go out to bath, the women wrapped in sarongs and the men in their undies...the babies naked...they wash themselves, their kids and their clothes in mountain spring water piped through to a central place, normally the side of the road it seems which is how i saw the ritual! We watched the older women threading leaves together to patch up the hut roof and kids chasing eachother along the dusty lanes...not necessarily an easy life I wouldn't imagine, but a peaceful one...
We ended up only spending a day in Vientiane before heading north to Luang Prabang...while there are quite a few sites to visit etc our day was spent mooching around the city looking for WIFI to do some banking. WIFI, it seems, is easier said than found in this country! but our day was rescued when we decided to get ourselves a stiff drink and some dinner down by the river and noticed a hullaballoo a bit further on....wandering down to investigate we found a fete in full swing...old french style, with toys and games from the 50s and little tables where you could sit and drink vin rouge. French tourists are in their thousands in Laos and, it seemed, they were all at the fete, celebrating and chatting...it was easy to imagine we were in some little French village along the Loire rather than a Laos city on the Mekong! It was all very oldy-worldy until we spotted a stage and heard some rock music...heading over we watched a modern dance troop and a Laos kid doing some of the best breakdancing i've ever seen...you see it all here in Asia...
Stay tuned. xx
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Making tracks on the tracks of Laos
Spending an extra day lazing and eating and sleeping and floating downstream on tubes and cycling to pretty waterfalls on the remote Laos island of Don Det has meant we must now make tracks quickly...from the south to the north of Laos. There is so much to see and do in the next week or so as we explore this country, many many other travelers we have met going the opposite way to us rave about Laos and already i can see why. The Laos people are so laid back and their country has a dusty beauty...green fields dotted with calves and piglets, much loved puppies scamper down dusty backlanes. 'Roads' are actually tracks and no one seems to care. The food is fresh and full of seafood straight from the Mekong. So far we've experienced much less hassle than in other SE Asian countries we've been to...in fact, on Don Det, it was sometimes quite a job to get the shopkeepers or the waiters out of their hammocks for some service....definitely a change when you are used to people clamoring for your dosh.
So another overnight bus is in store for tonight. No big deal for us now as they are almost a second home - for better or for worse. We will spend a day in Vientaine, the capital city of Laos before making our way up to Vang Viene...another backpacker mecca for it's bars and tubing, but also for it's beautiful caves which we may or may not see, depending on the bars and the tubing.... ;-)
Time is running out now. Our trip will end in 4.5 weeks. I'm excited, SO excited to get back to England and play with my friends again...but how will I cope after being 'home' a month or 2...I worry about my perpetually itchy feet and wish there was a cream I could pick up at Boots to solve this problem. Apparently there's not any treatment for wanderlust apart from saving up the cash and hitting the road again. Already we are planning our next trip. It's an addiction.
But, for now, we must take each day as it comes and appreciate where we are today and where we will be tomorrow....
Stay tuned. xxx
So another overnight bus is in store for tonight. No big deal for us now as they are almost a second home - for better or for worse. We will spend a day in Vientaine, the capital city of Laos before making our way up to Vang Viene...another backpacker mecca for it's bars and tubing, but also for it's beautiful caves which we may or may not see, depending on the bars and the tubing.... ;-)
Time is running out now. Our trip will end in 4.5 weeks. I'm excited, SO excited to get back to England and play with my friends again...but how will I cope after being 'home' a month or 2...I worry about my perpetually itchy feet and wish there was a cream I could pick up at Boots to solve this problem. Apparently there's not any treatment for wanderlust apart from saving up the cash and hitting the road again. Already we are planning our next trip. It's an addiction.
But, for now, we must take each day as it comes and appreciate where we are today and where we will be tomorrow....
Stay tuned. xxx
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Beach
Our little island, Don Det, set among the Si Phan Don (4000 islands) of the Mekong river in Laos kinda has that feeling you get while watching the movie 'The Beach'...with our fave boy Leo....So many travellers, from all over the world converge here to do nothing but chill out, swimming, tubing down the river. If the mood strikes them perhaps a little kayaking...then all converge on one of the few bars which line the river of an evening to drink beer Lao and chill some more. Some never leave.
Its a simple place...electricity only from 6-10pm...the internet is sattelite and expensive so i must be quick..as for WIFI...????? If you're lucky your bungalow has a fan but you'll probably nap in the hammock out the front anyway...
We love it here. And we have already prolonged our stay by a day or so...unfortunately we can not stay longer but we need the break so we will continue to do nothing but...chill...
stay tuned. xxx
Its a simple place...electricity only from 6-10pm...the internet is sattelite and expensive so i must be quick..as for WIFI...????? If you're lucky your bungalow has a fan but you'll probably nap in the hammock out the front anyway...
We love it here. And we have already prolonged our stay by a day or so...unfortunately we can not stay longer but we need the break so we will continue to do nothing but...chill...
stay tuned. xxx
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tomb Raiders
Set deep in the Cambodian jungle, near the thriving city of Siem Reap, lies an ancient city...a source of national pride and the symbol of the Cambodian flag (and it's national beer!)....Angkor Wat.
Some call it the 8th wonder of the world and over the past 2 days we have clambered happily over the moss covered ruins of the formerly majestic temples...some are more than 80% in ruin - including the one that the movie 'Lara Croft, Tomb Raider' was filmed (during the making of this film Angelina Jolie fell in love with this country and decided to adopt one of it's children...). The rain today lent an haunted air to the grand structures, choked by jungle and the smell of incense. watching the sun rise (at an ungodly hour!) this morning over the towers of Angkor Wat itself i could not have felt more peaceful. As we made our way up to this beautifully restored temple at 7 in the morning we basically had the place to ourselves and were able to find a quiet corner and appreciate the age of this place...the history. Today ranks up there as one of my favourite days on this trip...suddenly cambodia, 'Kingdom of Wonder' has gone up a notch or 2 in my 'amazing countries' register!
The temples are what one comes to Siem Reap to experience...that and the 'happy pizzas'....so tomorrow we will leave. We need to make tracks quickly to Laos as we are running out of time now and still have so much more that we want to do! oh for another month!!! ;-)
stay tuned. xx
Some call it the 8th wonder of the world and over the past 2 days we have clambered happily over the moss covered ruins of the formerly majestic temples...some are more than 80% in ruin - including the one that the movie 'Lara Croft, Tomb Raider' was filmed (during the making of this film Angelina Jolie fell in love with this country and decided to adopt one of it's children...). The rain today lent an haunted air to the grand structures, choked by jungle and the smell of incense. watching the sun rise (at an ungodly hour!) this morning over the towers of Angkor Wat itself i could not have felt more peaceful. As we made our way up to this beautifully restored temple at 7 in the morning we basically had the place to ourselves and were able to find a quiet corner and appreciate the age of this place...the history. Today ranks up there as one of my favourite days on this trip...suddenly cambodia, 'Kingdom of Wonder' has gone up a notch or 2 in my 'amazing countries' register!
The temples are what one comes to Siem Reap to experience...that and the 'happy pizzas'....so tomorrow we will leave. We need to make tracks quickly to Laos as we are running out of time now and still have so much more that we want to do! oh for another month!!! ;-)
stay tuned. xx
Sunday, March 8, 2009
PP
The initials PP, in my mind, stand for Phnom Penh...the capital of cambodia and, i imagine, the most modern of its cities...but not long ago this busy city was rendered a ghost town by another 'PP'...Pol Pot....tyranical, evil leader of the gut wrenchingly murderous Khmer Rouge....
this morning began with yet another eye opening visit to a museum which spoke of untold crimes and inhuman torture. I think it is important to go to these places - in this case the toul sleng genocide museum which was once S-21, a prison of detention, interrogation, inhumanity, torture and murder...in vietnam, the war museum...these places bring to life and reality the history of yesterday, much more than reading a book will do. But it's horrendous all the same and, by the end of the visit, after viewing a movie about the regime, walking close to instruments of torture and the bare skulls of victims, viewing the hundreds of mug shots of solumn and scared victims, my emotions could not have handled a visit to the 'killing fields'where the victims throats were slashed before being buried in a mass open grave....
Instead we sat down to regroup and to marvel over the way that this country has also regrouped - all within my lifetime...there is wealth in this city - more so than i noticed anywhere in vietnam...so many more cars - in fact i don't think i've ever seen so many lexus 4WDs...but the devide between the very poor and the very rich seems so much more pronounced here. I'm more likely to give to the beggers here...there is no government help for them...we give bread to the children dressed in rags and don't mind tipping extra to a tuk tuk driver who goes out of his way to help...
But on sunday arvo here in PP people are happy...walking past a park we watched families out for a stroll...their babies chasing the pidgons...teenagers flirting under the trees and a group of boys playing football, dressed in their man city shirts...we could have been anywhere in the world...not least a country which was decimated only 30 years ago.
tomorrow we head out of pp and spend some more quality time with a bus as we head to Siem reap (SR) and the magnificent Angkor wat Temples.
stay tuned. xx
this morning began with yet another eye opening visit to a museum which spoke of untold crimes and inhuman torture. I think it is important to go to these places - in this case the toul sleng genocide museum which was once S-21, a prison of detention, interrogation, inhumanity, torture and murder...in vietnam, the war museum...these places bring to life and reality the history of yesterday, much more than reading a book will do. But it's horrendous all the same and, by the end of the visit, after viewing a movie about the regime, walking close to instruments of torture and the bare skulls of victims, viewing the hundreds of mug shots of solumn and scared victims, my emotions could not have handled a visit to the 'killing fields'where the victims throats were slashed before being buried in a mass open grave....
Instead we sat down to regroup and to marvel over the way that this country has also regrouped - all within my lifetime...there is wealth in this city - more so than i noticed anywhere in vietnam...so many more cars - in fact i don't think i've ever seen so many lexus 4WDs...but the devide between the very poor and the very rich seems so much more pronounced here. I'm more likely to give to the beggers here...there is no government help for them...we give bread to the children dressed in rags and don't mind tipping extra to a tuk tuk driver who goes out of his way to help...
But on sunday arvo here in PP people are happy...walking past a park we watched families out for a stroll...their babies chasing the pidgons...teenagers flirting under the trees and a group of boys playing football, dressed in their man city shirts...we could have been anywhere in the world...not least a country which was decimated only 30 years ago.
tomorrow we head out of pp and spend some more quality time with a bus as we head to Siem reap (SR) and the magnificent Angkor wat Temples.
stay tuned. xx
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The river runs wild
Its funny how the days can just melt away when you are cruising your way from one country to the next along one of the most spectacular rivers in the world...3 days ago we left Saigon, busy and bustling, and were transported to a different world...one where villagers sell their goods from the boats they live on...where fishing is survival and where the great Mekong River splits itself into thousands of canals and smaller rivers, the lifeblood of the millions of vietnamese who call the 'Mekong Delta' home...
It's been an interesting few days as we've meandered through markets, both on land and on river, watched and learned how to make coconut candy (yum) and husk rice (who ever knew rice needed husking??). We have drunk rice wine infused with dead, feathered rooster and coiled snake to make us strong (it had a decidedly 'dead bird' taste that i wasn't entirely fond of and I felt particularly weak kneed afterwards rather than strong!) and eaten frog stirfry with rice. We have rowed through floating villages and tasted exotic fruit....We have gone out for dinner with new friends and sat by the roadside like the locals drinking mango fruit shakes. we've seen women washing their children by the river's edge and children washing their cows...and, many waterlogged hours later we have found ourselves in the capital city of Cambodia, Pheomn Penh...
The children, in both Vietnam and Cambodia have been a highlight for me...while their parents are sometimes stern and intent on making money from us, their children are full of big smiles and waves. At one point yesterday (i think...) while leaving a ferry (one of many...) I stopped to watch some children playing nearby, jumping off a high fence into the river, screaming, shouting and laughing...as I got out my camera to take a photo of them one little girl clocked me, shouted 'hello!!' and made sure i had the camera pointed at her before performing a spectacular jump...leaping out of the water she came running up and grabbed my arm with her river doused fingers to practice the english she must have learned at school...'hello, how are you? what is your name?' On the whole the children are full of smiles, they love to wave at the foreigners and they are just so cute!!
As for Cambodia...well, it has been a very long day lazing around on boats (tough life..) and tomorrow will take care of itself. Perhaps we will visit the museum and, more dauntingly, a visit to the 'Killing Fields'.
Stay tuned. xx
It's been an interesting few days as we've meandered through markets, both on land and on river, watched and learned how to make coconut candy (yum) and husk rice (who ever knew rice needed husking??). We have drunk rice wine infused with dead, feathered rooster and coiled snake to make us strong (it had a decidedly 'dead bird' taste that i wasn't entirely fond of and I felt particularly weak kneed afterwards rather than strong!) and eaten frog stirfry with rice. We have rowed through floating villages and tasted exotic fruit....We have gone out for dinner with new friends and sat by the roadside like the locals drinking mango fruit shakes. we've seen women washing their children by the river's edge and children washing their cows...and, many waterlogged hours later we have found ourselves in the capital city of Cambodia, Pheomn Penh...
The children, in both Vietnam and Cambodia have been a highlight for me...while their parents are sometimes stern and intent on making money from us, their children are full of big smiles and waves. At one point yesterday (i think...) while leaving a ferry (one of many...) I stopped to watch some children playing nearby, jumping off a high fence into the river, screaming, shouting and laughing...as I got out my camera to take a photo of them one little girl clocked me, shouted 'hello!!' and made sure i had the camera pointed at her before performing a spectacular jump...leaping out of the water she came running up and grabbed my arm with her river doused fingers to practice the english she must have learned at school...'hello, how are you? what is your name?' On the whole the children are full of smiles, they love to wave at the foreigners and they are just so cute!!
As for Cambodia...well, it has been a very long day lazing around on boats (tough life..) and tomorrow will take care of itself. Perhaps we will visit the museum and, more dauntingly, a visit to the 'Killing Fields'.
Stay tuned. xx
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Miss Saigon
Pictures are worth a thousand words, they say...and a photo does not lie.
We are in Saigon...or, as it's now supposed to be known, Ho Chi Mihn City (though no-one seems to call it that except the street signs) in southern Vietnam....ground zero for the worst battles and atrocities of the vietnam war which ended less than 40 years ago. The battle scars run deep here.
My knowledge of the history of this war is rather sketchy i'm afraid...whether that's because i was asleep during history lessons at school or if it was never taught to us comprehensively i'm not sure, but i'm ashamed to say that before today it was limited to what i learned from hollywood movies and passing references to 'Nam'...But round here the people have not forgotten. Even back in Hue we wandered down the street beside hawkers selling 'war memorabilia'....scraps of medallions, dog tags, diffused bombs....obviously savaged off the battle fields...
And here in Saigon one of the main tourist attractions is the 'War Remnants Museum'. If I had been hoping to be enlightened about the allied philosophies behind the war and understand Australia's involvement in it, I would have been sorely disappointed. however, I was prepared for the fact that this country is still, justifiably, hurting and the story told here would be one sided...entirely the perspective of North Vietnam...communist propaganda not withheld...for Vietnam calls it the 'American War' and 'this is what America did to us...' was the theme....but pictures do not lie and the sights we saw as we took in the journalistic photos of the battlefields, farmer's bodies carelessly flung next to their ricefields, civilian mothers and their children lying dead in rough trenches, shot in the back of the head, the aftermath of the deadly 'Agent Orange' chemicals - the aftermath of which still affects the next generation today with horrific birth defects. This is not propaganda. These things happened. and they are heartbreaking to see. Whilst being an incredibly sobering experience, this afternoon this war, which i may or may not have learned about in history lessons, one in which my own country was involved for reasons I still do not entirely understand, became real...and heartbreaking and horrific as it was, it has helped me to understand this country and its people even more...understand why, in Saigon, almost everyone is young and it's rare, actually, to see an older man....understand why the people in this country are a just a little more hard-faced than their neighbours before they flash a beautiful smile and why this city, which was razed to the ground in the 60s and early 70s, is so brand spanking new. appreciate the fact that Vietnam, in less than 40 years, has picked itself up from devestation and begun to make something of itself...
Desperate to hear the other side of the tale I came back to the hotel and read what is probably a much less biased view of the war online...the conclusion I've come to is this - horrible, unspeakable atrocities were committed by both sides in this country....and tomorrow we will be even closer to understanding some of the conditions experienced by soldiers of the Viet Cong as we visit the Cu Chi Tunnels....
Saigon is not all about the past...the future is bright for this bustling city...one of my favorite asian cities so far for its energetic, pulsating vibe....we are staying in District 1, the undisputed heart of the city...within the 3 street triangle which makes up backpacker central here....cheap hotels, cheap beer, cheap 'pho'...and some familiar faces from cities further north....still, in the largest city in vietnam, we are running into people we know!! crossing the road is still taking your life in your hands, even more so here than in Hanoi, and the hawkers are still selling pineapples...but there is something exciting about being here...the promise of something special...a vibe which suggests hope...the suggestion of future wealth...a country well and truely on the mend.
stay tuned. xx
We are in Saigon...or, as it's now supposed to be known, Ho Chi Mihn City (though no-one seems to call it that except the street signs) in southern Vietnam....ground zero for the worst battles and atrocities of the vietnam war which ended less than 40 years ago. The battle scars run deep here.
My knowledge of the history of this war is rather sketchy i'm afraid...whether that's because i was asleep during history lessons at school or if it was never taught to us comprehensively i'm not sure, but i'm ashamed to say that before today it was limited to what i learned from hollywood movies and passing references to 'Nam'...But round here the people have not forgotten. Even back in Hue we wandered down the street beside hawkers selling 'war memorabilia'....scraps of medallions, dog tags, diffused bombs....obviously savaged off the battle fields...
And here in Saigon one of the main tourist attractions is the 'War Remnants Museum'. If I had been hoping to be enlightened about the allied philosophies behind the war and understand Australia's involvement in it, I would have been sorely disappointed. however, I was prepared for the fact that this country is still, justifiably, hurting and the story told here would be one sided...entirely the perspective of North Vietnam...communist propaganda not withheld...for Vietnam calls it the 'American War' and 'this is what America did to us...' was the theme....but pictures do not lie and the sights we saw as we took in the journalistic photos of the battlefields, farmer's bodies carelessly flung next to their ricefields, civilian mothers and their children lying dead in rough trenches, shot in the back of the head, the aftermath of the deadly 'Agent Orange' chemicals - the aftermath of which still affects the next generation today with horrific birth defects. This is not propaganda. These things happened. and they are heartbreaking to see. Whilst being an incredibly sobering experience, this afternoon this war, which i may or may not have learned about in history lessons, one in which my own country was involved for reasons I still do not entirely understand, became real...and heartbreaking and horrific as it was, it has helped me to understand this country and its people even more...understand why, in Saigon, almost everyone is young and it's rare, actually, to see an older man....understand why the people in this country are a just a little more hard-faced than their neighbours before they flash a beautiful smile and why this city, which was razed to the ground in the 60s and early 70s, is so brand spanking new. appreciate the fact that Vietnam, in less than 40 years, has picked itself up from devestation and begun to make something of itself...
Desperate to hear the other side of the tale I came back to the hotel and read what is probably a much less biased view of the war online...the conclusion I've come to is this - horrible, unspeakable atrocities were committed by both sides in this country....and tomorrow we will be even closer to understanding some of the conditions experienced by soldiers of the Viet Cong as we visit the Cu Chi Tunnels....
Saigon is not all about the past...the future is bright for this bustling city...one of my favorite asian cities so far for its energetic, pulsating vibe....we are staying in District 1, the undisputed heart of the city...within the 3 street triangle which makes up backpacker central here....cheap hotels, cheap beer, cheap 'pho'...and some familiar faces from cities further north....still, in the largest city in vietnam, we are running into people we know!! crossing the road is still taking your life in your hands, even more so here than in Hanoi, and the hawkers are still selling pineapples...but there is something exciting about being here...the promise of something special...a vibe which suggests hope...the suggestion of future wealth...a country well and truely on the mend.
stay tuned. xx
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Nha Trang
even travelers need holidays. We've been going pretty hard for a couple of weeks now - ever since we left the oasis that is koh phangan really....so we have used this beachside resort, Nha Trang, as a place to stop for a couple of days and take a breath.
We could be anywhere in the world....if not for the hawkers on the beach trying to sell us anything from massages to mentos we could even be somewhere on the east coast of aus...the area around the beach is as western as i've seen vietnam get...one can relax in a western style bar with a western style cocktail (albeit in a non-western sized bucket!), dance to western style music and choose from western style restaurants - anything from italian to mexican. Its comforting in a way since we have now been in Asia for a month and it's nice occasionally to have a few of the homestyle comforts.
So we've relaxed and read and slept and matt has been indulging in the odd massage on the beach. i have topped up my tan till i'm almost black and we are ready to move on again tomorrow...a day on the bus (joy) and we reach saigon.....back to the city for culture and fried noodles...
stay tuned.. xx
We could be anywhere in the world....if not for the hawkers on the beach trying to sell us anything from massages to mentos we could even be somewhere on the east coast of aus...the area around the beach is as western as i've seen vietnam get...one can relax in a western style bar with a western style cocktail (albeit in a non-western sized bucket!), dance to western style music and choose from western style restaurants - anything from italian to mexican. Its comforting in a way since we have now been in Asia for a month and it's nice occasionally to have a few of the homestyle comforts.
So we've relaxed and read and slept and matt has been indulging in the odd massage on the beach. i have topped up my tan till i'm almost black and we are ready to move on again tomorrow...a day on the bus (joy) and we reach saigon.....back to the city for culture and fried noodles...
stay tuned.. xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)