Hello hello
This may be my last update of our adventure in amazing South East Asia.
I will start again with the 27th of June, where i ended the last update.
We were in Ubud at the time, where we thought we would only spend one day, and then set off again for Mount Batur, the second highest volcanoe of Bali. Unfortunately, as we woke up early on the 28th, the rain was pouring down, and at 1.30pm, it was still going strong. Not really fancying a ride in the rain (the roads are dangerous enough as they are) we stayed one more day, and basically waited for the rain to stop. We went and found an indian restaurant, had some food, then around 3pm the rain finally stopped and we went for a ride on the bikes. That's when we took the pictures that i uploaded on my last update. The ones with the street decorations and the wet floor!
In the evening, we got tempted by one of the little spa salons next door to our hotel, and went for a full body massage, a body scrubb and a flower and stuff bath for... 100 000 ruppiah each. Conversion rate is around 15 000rp to the pound, you work it out. It was lush, especially after the wet and cold day we had had.
The next day the sun was back and we left Ubud for Mount Batur. As we were climbing the hill slowly, the temperatures dropped and we arrived at the top of the crater with a BIT of a chill. The village is, sorry, the villageS are built in the crater of the old volcanoe, which is enormous, and must be thousands of years old. But inside this crater also lives the new volcanoe, Batur, which is still VERY lively. We met a man at the top of the crater who told us he had a hotel down by the lake (enormous lake at the bottom) and we followed him down. We checked into a room for a few pounds that had an outside terrasse from which we had probably one of the best views around. The lake was 20 meters away, there were farmers in front guiding their buffaloes through the field, ploughing (i think that's what it's called and i think that's how it's spelled..) and a woman walked up and down from the hotel to the lake, morning and evening with a basket of offerings on top of her head, to make her prayers to the volcanoe god...
That afternoon we booked a treck for the next morning (who am i kidding, calling it morning. It started at 4am!!!!!) to go up to the top of Mount Batur, and watch the sunrise from there. It promised to be very nice.
After the arrangments made we took off on the bikes again and went for some lunch in a little restaurant that served us the most amazing grilled fresh water fish ever, cooked in a chilli sauce and just gorgeous. Then we started off on a tiny dusty road that took us all around the volcanoe, and from some angles we could actually see the smoke coming out of the side of it.. Whao... That's not something you see everyday! When i was little, i used to think the mountains behind our house in Sixt was a volcanoe, especially when the clouds were caught at their tops, and i got pretty scared all by myself in the fields thinking it was suddenly going to blow!!.. now i'm actually willingly wandering around one that last erupted only a few years ago!
In the evening we started hearing the same chanting as in the Gilly Islands, and went to see the ceremony. We stayed a good distance away as we didn't want the attention of the locals to leave their precious beliefs to come chat with the two tourists standing there curious, but we sat down and just enjoyed seeing and especially hearing what was going on. Accompagnying the singing and the story telling were instruments played by men sitting on the floor, in the middle of a crowd. Symbals, gongs, things that kind of sounded like kitchen utensils being banged together, but kept in a lovely little harmony that just took you away. The full moon was showing through the clouds just above the rim of the outside crater, it was dark everywhere apart from around the temple, and the sound of the voices and instruments echoed in the vast crater. You think this sounds peacefull? It's overwhelming when you're there, i'm doing my best to try and pass it on.
Next day, the climb:
Woke up (too) early and set off to the start of the walk with a couple of italian guys. There was quite a crowd there and we started up first, not to be in the middle of it, all the way up. It started very slowly to go up, and it was pleasant, and fresh! It was very dark, and even with the torchlights, the visibility was blurred by fog, and fog breaking, and it felt as if it was snowing tiny snowflakes, same as when you are driving in the snow and it all looks as if it's coming at you. We were walking fairly fast though so we didn't have time to get cold.
After an hour or so we started the real climb. The top is around 1700m above sea level, and the last bit was pretty hard on the legs, and the lungs!
We got to the top in the end, but actually had to ask confirmation from our guide about that. It was so foggy we could hardly see the tip of our noses! The guide told us: "Here is the crater!" and we said "right! We'll take your word for it!"
We all entered a little refuge (mountain chalet, can't think of the english name) and waited for our breakfast to be cooked by the guides. The more we waited, the more people arrived, and the little chalet got more and more crowded. We were all waiting for the sunrise, hoping the clouds would clear up then, but that didn't happen. We realized the sun was up as things were a little clearer, but we were still stuck in the fog, and it just wouldn't let go...
Our guide took us around the top of the crater for a bit, then to a new one forming on the side, and showed us some funny vents in the floor under our feet. There was heat coming out, and i mean serious heat, like you could hardly leave your hand there more than a few seconds, and there was a bit of smoke escaping from there. That's when we took in the reality of our position. We were on top of an active volcanoe! Whao again!
The clouds did not clear up until... we were well on our way down in the valley, and turned around, and saw the top where we had been only 30 minutes ago poke through the clouds and point at the blue sky above. Steve said something like "Let's go back up!" Which i ignored... Well i'm not so healthy so once is good, two... isn't! hehe
We were a bit guttered that the clouds went off just as we arrived back down, but when we turned around again 5 more minutes later, they were back again, and the top of the volcanoe had once again disappeared.
The walk was supposed to take 6 hours, but in about 4 we were done, because of the lack of visibility we didn't hang around in places as much as we would have on a clear day. We had to check out of our hotel around 11am and so we still had time to go back to sleep! lovely.
We left around 11 and headed back up the outside crater, and down onto stable ground... We followed the lonely planet's advice on some roads that were suposed to be fantastic, and they were pretty cool. We also realized that most of these roads we had been on before, when renting the bikes the first time a few weeks before. We obviously know how to find the nice stuff!
We were headed for an area on the north-Eastern coast of Bali called Amhed. To get there, we had to get to the regions' capital "Amlapura" and then we had the choice between a small print coastal road for 15 kms, or a highway through the land. We took the small one, and again, well done Steve and Jenny!
The road was tiny, and the villages bording it tinier. Every now and then we had to pass through a ford, the road just cutting through the creeks, and at every creek there were little kids playing around in the water shouting "hello hello!!" So many kids on that little road, and each shouted hello, and we replied to all of them, sometimes adding a high five from the bike... So sweet... The parents looked at us a bit curiously, and as we smiled carefully at them, they would reply to us too, with their faces lighting up... We know the trick now! Little nod of the head, a smile, and they'll adopt you!
After about 15kms of that little road up and down, inland and on the coast, we got to a place that had a few hotels, called Lipah. By the time we got there, we were dying for a drink, or more precisely, a Bintang, the local beer. We stopped and met Wayan, at Wayan's Cafe, and then we met Delta, and then... Oh dear i forgot his name... Started with a K...
Anyway, they took charge of us, and offered hotel, snorkelling kits, beers, food (when i say offered, don't take it litterally) but they told us where to find everything, and were really nice.
That evening we went back to Wayan's caf for a grilled Baracuda dinner, and then out for more drinks with Delta at the next bar where a band of locals where playing a lot of Rolling Stones covers. It was a fun night, and the fact that the place wasn't full of tourist was one of the highlights too. There were maybe 5 of us, and the rest of the bar was full of locals drinking arak, the coconut based alcohol...
The next day i paid a very high price on the fun night. I thought it was a hangover, but that idea was dropped after being sick for the 2nd time... I'll pass you the details, and will only say one thing. When we left to travel, i knew this would happen. It was bound to happen in India though. And after we left India, and nothing had happened, we both thought we were pretty much safe, although still carefull. What i didn't think was that it would happen during our last month!!! Anyway, i was sick for 2 days, full stop.
Steve had to call the bike rental place as we were supposed to bring them back that day, and there was no way i was even going to make it to the carpark! He made the phone call, and then had to ride 3 hours to Amlapura to withdraw some money that we had run out of. He then went snorkelling to an old japanese shipwreck of a nearby beach, and came back to tell me about it.
The next day i had breakfast and kept it... and i fancied seing that shipwreck too. I didn't have so much energy though, and the current was quite strong, so i didn't last long in the water. Still feeling pretty weak.
We left that afternoon anyway, and made it back to Kuta around 7pm. I pretty much went to bed straight away, and Steve went out to meet Wayan and Jab, and Nyoman and the rest of our friends here.
The next day i felt better finally, but it was Steve's turn to be hangovered... I went on Internet to update the blog a bit, then we went to the pool, then watched the new James Bond while having dinner (Excellent movie, plus eye candy for the girls!!) and then went to the Secret garden(where our friends always hang out) and spent the evening there, like so many other nights...
So Indonesia is a big place. Hundreds of islands, of which we only had time, or so we thought, to visit 2. So on the 4th of July, we decided to make enquiries about how to get to Java, next big island North. It turned out there weren't so many people going that way, and that we would have to take public transports, which was fine, or to rent a whole minivan... hum hum. We decided that afternoon we would take the public bus, and leave the next day. We had about 12 days left on our visa, and in Indonesia, they're not too funny with the visas, so we had to find a way back to Singapore for the 14th of july.
After some dinner and some Mojitos (which have been granted the prize of "Best Cocktails" by Me) we went back to the secret garden to tell the guys we were off the next day, and spent the evening there with them. But after 30 minutes or so of being there at the bar, i looked at Steve and asked him: "What about stopping the moving around? What about we enjoy the rest of our trip, our 12 days remaining in a place that we enjoy, and stop the travelling and transform it in a holiday?" Steve agreed and it was set. 10 seconds later we were telling Jab, Wayan, Nyoman and all, that we were not going anywhere the next day, and that we were staying on Bali! And it was a great decision. We realised that we were going home soon, that there would be no or little time to relax, and life is alway such a rush. And as much as we have tried to give each country enough time, a few of them have been rushed, and we have been rushed, and for once we met some really nice people that took us into their circle, not only to ask us where we were from, but to have talks, and laughs, and we got to know them quite well, and why go somewhere else at the end just to say that we've seen more places?
So there you go. Apart from Singapore, Bali was our last "escale?".
We did slow down a lot once we made this decision, and spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly around the town, renting dvds, going to the pool...
Our last adventure was when we were invited by our local friends to their village for the big ceremony on the weekend of the 7th of july. Their village is called Tygnia (something like that...) and is located in the North of Bali, about 30kms north of Amhed.
We rented some bikes and in a little convoy made our way there on saturday morning.
Steve and I were taken in by the grandparents of Wayan and Jablar. The village is along a fairly busy road, and all of the friends actually live across the road from each other, and everyone knows everyone. Everyone eats everywhere, and my, do they eat. We arrived and were offered Balinese coffee (that i stupidly forgot to buy a pack of) and some pastries and fruits. I think everything was in abundance that weekend because all the families prepared for the ceremony that was taking place, and making food offerings is a big part of the action. But they don't waste the food they offer, they get it back, and eat it. After a bite to eat, we crossed the road to Nyoman's house, and were asked if we were hungry there. We said no, and got offered some biscuits anyhow...
Indonesians are musicians, and in quite a few towns and villages, you could see a sign on the side of the road indicating a music studio. We found out what they called that that first afternoon. In a little room (7m sq) were 2 electric guitars, 1 bass, 1 drum kit, and a mic, and an amplifier for each obviously, set on the loudest possible vlolume! We walked in there as some of the boys were playing and our brain vibrated with the music... We had a little karakoke session, Steve tried himself on the Guns & Roses, but the guys were actually struggling a bit on the music, and it was all a bit of a mess, but funny anyway. We stayed there about an hour, and after that, Nyoman told us it was time for "exercise!!" So off we went 50 meters up the road (everyone on motorbikes obviously!) to a little sports ground. There we were asked if we wanted to play badmington or volley. By the time the decision was to be made, there were about 20 young guys from the village around, and we thought volleyball to be more appropriate. I've never thought sharing a racket of Badmington was a great idea.
And so for the next 1.30 hour we were playing, and i mean, those guys look relaxed and everything, but they knew their volleyball, and what they also knew, was that each player had put around10000 rp in a box, and that the winning team would split that, and that somehow made them pretty vicious players (not mean, just pretty damn good!)
Well after that it was time to check out the beach, with Wayan. When we got there, it turned out to be pretty windy, and the waves were quite enormous. I'm not a great fan of the washing machine effect, and so i let Steve go by himself and splash about. Just keeping an eye out, cause they really were big waves. After 20 minutes, one landed on top of him carrying a few stones and things, and he figured it was time to give it a rest. He came out of the water with loads of little grazes all over... Not what you want for a nice relaxed swim!
We had to get ready and find some sarongs before going to the temple. One of the man of the family where we were staying helped Steve with his (Steve in a skirt... lovely) and a woman came and helped me with mine. No idea how to attach these things... like a shower towel maybe??... Well she turned around me a few times, and when i could only walk around in the penguin fashion, it was done! The next thing i knew though, the same woman was passing a hair comb to me. I got the message, i looked like a witch, and wasn't presentable to their gods! Fair enough.
We then got onto the bike, and i say The Bike with no s this time. Well with my penguin fashion, i could hardly get on there, and manage the gears could I?! So Steve did the work, and i sat as an "Amazone" behind, like a real lady!
We got to the temple, and manage to find a parking place. It was chaos in the parking lot (well, the spot of land next to the temple) honks going, people trying to take charge... funny anyway.
When we got into the temple enclosure, we found that the people, and children, sitting around on the ground were playing games that wouldn't really be considered holly... Adults in their corner, children in their own, all were gambling!!! Well this was the outside area in front of the temple where everyone was smoking, eating, drinking, and of course gambling!. The rules were pretty much the same for adults as for children. A long piece of material spread on the floor, with squares representing different things: for adults, coloured triangles, squares, numbers...; for children, spiderman, teletubbies... stuff like that.
Then there is a ball rolling on a platter that is not entirely flat. There are little curves inside for the ball to stop onto. And there you go. You place you money on your chosen figure, the man rolls the ball, and it looks a lot like roulette! I guess everybody there played their game before going inside the temple so that during the ceremony they would be blessed and forgiven of their sins! Well, is gambling a sin in hinduism? I should think so, the indians wouldn't gamble, or would hide to do so. Here it all seemed very natural, with the kids ready to take over when they'd come of age!...
There was the same music playing there as in Mount Batur, the funny symbals, gongs, and cooking utensils... I was able this time to go and see the musicians closer this time, and they looked entranced and happy, smiling away in their crazy rythmic...
It was soon time for the prayer, Steve and I were invited to join in. It started with holy water sprayed all over the crowd, everyone sitting cross legged on the ground, little children giggling at the two westerner trying to keep up, and hide the fact that we were not drinking the lovely holy water that was beeing poured on our hands.. Sticking the rice to our foreheads, throats, attaching flowers behind our ears and at the top of our heads... Did we feel changed at the end? Not really, but i don't think any of our group really did, they were too busy checking we were doing things right and laughing...
After that, there was the run for the chaotic carpark again. Trying not to get ran over by the cars, and bikes rushing out.
The rush was to go to the next temple, where we were supposed to spend the night at, drinking arak... That was the plan as far as we were told. It changed along the way though, and we ended up with our little group from Kuta, (Wayan, Nyoman, Jablar and the two of us) at nyoman's place, still drinking arak and teaching them blackjack at 4.30 in the morning. Apparently the boys made it to the temple early in the morning. They didn't bother to come and wake us up, or maybe we just didn't hear them...
The next day we took very slowly. The boys wanted to organise a barbecue, and when Steve got taken away by Nyoman on the bike, he didn't know what his mission would be... It turned out he came back with two chicken attached by their legs and that his mission was to hold them on the scooter all the way back... Did i mention the chickens were alive? Nop. Well, i'll have to pass on what happened next as i actually got on a bike, and went to read my book far away for the next two hours. Never wanted to work in a slaughter house!!
When i came back the chickens had been barbequed, and also made in a stew. That's all i need to know!
After that we hung around the rest of the day, and went back finally to our house in the village and watched some tv with Jab.
The next day, monday, Steve Wayan and I were going back to Kuta, giving Wayan a lift. We spent the morning chatting and drinking coffee outside the house. They have little platforms that are basically like a living room in the center of the houses. There are usually a few houses together, for the different parts of the family. One for the grands, one for uncle and aunt etc... and in the middle outside are those little platforms. It's hard to explain how it looks, but it's nice and open and a nice place to sit around and chat. We left the village around 2pm and got back to Kuta around 6.30.
It was hard thanking the family for taking us in, as no one there spoke any english, and our indonesian is pretty inexistent. We said thank you as many times as we could, and told ourselves we would get something in Kuta and give it to one of the boys before we left so they could bring it back to the family for us.
The next few days were spent in Kuta, most of the time very quietly during the day, going out in the evenings to meet the guys, we also met an other of their westerner friends, Nina, who was good fun, and ended up spending pretty much all her nights there too.
On thursday, the day before our last, we set out to do our final bits of shopping. As we were walking i pulled Steve into a piercing studio. I had a nose ring for a long time in London and on a drunken night, lost it, and never replaced it. I thought Bali could be a good place to do it again, and so checked the price. The man told me the price, and i said i'd think about it and was ready to go, when i saw Steve looking at some Tatoo designs on the wall. And heard him ask.."how much would something like this cost?" And like that, out of nowhere, Steve set his mind on having a barong on his back for the rest of his life... Barong... One of the most important god in the bali hinduism. There is a photo of one a bit further down, from my last update.
It's a really nice tatoo, it's just the head of the barong, between steve's shoulder blades, in black and shades of grey.. We'll remember Bali forever!
I say We, because later that evening, Nina told me she had always been keen on getting her nose pierced, and so off we went holding hands for courage to the piercing place, and i have a brand new titanium ring planted in my nose!! (that sounds great doesn't it)
Well that was our last night, and we celebrated at the secret garden, with a lot of Bintang, and a lot of Arak. We played some pool, and ended the night at 8am the next morning.
Our flight was at 10.15pm, so we had plenty of time to recuperate.
We booked a car for 7.30 - 8pm for the airport, and when we were set to go, all the guys were there again, in the secret garden, to say goodbye. Well, we met plenty of people during our whole trip, and we left plenty of places, to be honest, that became our job, packing our bags, and turning our backs.
But we had never had to hold off the tears. As we looked around the secret garden one last time, we just hoped we'll be able to come back, and see those same faces with their guitars and drums, their plastic water bottles full of head spinning arak, and this same friendliness.
Don't get put off by what the government says about travelling to Indonesia. It has it's risks yes, we've all heard the news, but it is a beautiful place that needs the tourism badly, and that needs to be seen.
We arrived in Singapore on the 14th of July, around 1am. We are staying in a hotel where rooms are rented by the hour. There aren't many cheap places around. We getting a taste of home prices, without the home comforts. The money goes fast, and it's time to go home.
We'll see you very soon
Love from Jenny & Steve, hope you enjoyed the read
xxx
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Second load of pics
The 3 Gillis
Street decoration in Bali
The Barong!!
Gunung Batur On our way down from the climb
Views we can't get tired of...Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Enough writing... Here is Indonesia
Jenny on Gilly Trawangan
View from a cocktail bar
Top of the Hill, Lombok Volcanoe in distance
Fresh spices, market Gilly Trawangan
Steve Splashing about
Gunung Agung, Bali's Highest Volcanoe
Cute ducklings!! aaaaah
Professional mattress stuffers (life long experience!)
Our hut on Gilly Air
Steve on Gilly Trawangan...Monday, 2 July 2007
Singapore to Bali +
Hello everyone who is not yet bored of reading this!
I have to say i am missing everyone's comments again, but i believe the blog is still being read...? Well in less than 3 weeks now i will be able to bore everyone straight in the face for ages with all our little stories, so even if you're not reading i will get you HAHAHA (evil laugh)
Ok, next on our little big journey:
We arrived in Singapore via a 7 hours train journey from Kuala Lumpur that was absolutely freezing. The AC is a great thing, but seriously, it shouldn't be pushed. Steve and I were sitting like a little old couple with our Air India Blanket (still advertising) for the whole journey, and when we got out we welcomed the sweat and heat of Singapore.
Well, talking about Air India, guess where we ended up in Singapore, when looking for the budget place? Little India of course!! We found one of the cheapest hotels of the area (that wasn't full) there, but it was still a fair bit of money. Singapore, we realized after our 1st beer, has western prices, and after the cheapness of every other country, it was like coming back to reality. We managed to get a free ride from a nice Australio-Indian we had met in the train though, he must have felt sorry for us and our low budget arriving in Sing and not knowing, and just offered to pay for the cab to drop us off wherever we wanted. Ah those indians, they're lovely!
We didn't do much in Singapore, as we arrived fairly late in the afternoon, were a bit tired, and there was a dvd player in our room. Now, I bought "Gone with the Wind" in Vietnam hoping to watch it soon after finishing the book, but until Singapore, no room spoiled us enough for a dvd player, i wasn't going to let this one pass. So we spent 3 hours in the evening eating... Indian food obviously, in front of the tv. How very british!
Next day, we were flying around 7pm, but had to drop off a bag of stuff at the airport to be able to travel light for the last month. As we're flying back from Sing, it's practical. We didn't feel like doing sight seeing or shopping with our 30kgs on the back, so we just spent the afternoon in the airport. It's supposed to be really luxurious, with spa and gym and pool and all that, but check-in only started 2 hours before our flight, so again we got stuck in a really cold air cond bar for the afternoon! They're mad with the AC...
Anyway a few hours later we arrived in Bali Dempasar Airport. For once i wasn't high on Valium, and i didn't even get a panic attack, or wasn't griping the seat hopelessly, which i have been doing in all my recent flights.
We headed for the touristy town of Kuta, which was simple to get to at 9pm, and after checking into a cheap hotel (back in real asia... pfff!) we went out for drinks in the little lanes of Kuta. There we were called by some local boys from the next table who were playing guitar, singing, and drinking arak, the local alcohol made of coconut water (or milk, whatever). They invited us to join them, and we spent all evening chatting with them, singing (as we drank more arak) and had a great time. It was a good welcome to Indonesia.
Next day, guess what, we realized we had drunk too much, and spent the day by a pool, trying to get the remains of the alcohol out, and swearing we would not do THAT again. Yeah right. Came evening time, we were back at the same bar, and chatting to an english bloke called Phil, and... Drinking Bintang (indo Beer). 1 am and we were still sharing travel stories with this nice guy who, funny enough, is the first person that i meet ever to know about Interval International (my old company). He worked for Thomsons Holidays (spelling??), and basically had been travelling for the last... was it 7 or 14 years? He seemed to have a great life!
Next day we fought our 2nd hangover (although not as bad because no arak...) and rented some motorbikes to visit the island of Bali before making our way to the Gilly Islands. After getting lost in the island's one way system, and getting close encounters with... cars, trucks, bikes, dogs, and other things on the highways, we managed to go up on one of the hills surrounding Gunung Agung, Bali's biggest Volcanoes. There was the real Bali. Beautiful rice terrasses, hills, people... Getting bikes is the best way to see beautiful things, god we're gonna miss them when we get back to London!!!
Everytime we stopped, either for pictures, or for a little map check, locals stopped and asked us where we were trying to go.. thinking we were lost, and giving us directions. Also obviously asking our names, where we came from etc... the usual english practise they are so keen on doing!
People here make me think of Indians very much, and also of Vietnamese. I remember the first time we entered Vietnam in Chau Doc, and that i smiled to the first woman on the side of the road. How she had looked at me slightly cooly first, and then when her face had broken into the biggest loveliest smile. Same thing here. First they wonder why you are here, and with the international language you tell them "we're just friends visiting" and they accept you straight away. It's amazing. Going back to cold London will be hard.
That evening we... got lost again in Kuta's one way system... then discovered the Oxford Street of Kuta... Not kidding! argh, Levis stores, gucci, ralph lauren, but even more surfers' shops like billabong, rip curl, all that, and obviously macdonalds, pizza hut and all that shit... beurk!
We booked our ticket on the bus - ferry - bus - boat to the gilly islands for 6 am, and then i had the stupid idea to say to steve "let's stay awake all night and sleep in the transports" How silly... Well, Steve took me up on that, and after several beers with Wyan, one of the locals we had met the first night, and a friend of his, Moises (yes, himself), who looked like James Brown (when we told him that he said "hey i'm no nigger!!" :O) and was as much of an entertainer as the JB himself, we went to a club that was also billiard place, live band place with open mic and normal club all at the same time.. Moises got on stage and started singing the Guns And Roses, 3 or more songs, with the band, he was really giving it all he had, and with the indonesian accent, it was quality!! we stayed there til closing time, then went to pack our bags, and off we went in our little minivan, looking dead... tired. A few hours of broken sleep on uncomfortable surfaces, 5 hours of rocking ferry, 2 hours of old bus in hills from the South of the Island of Lombok to its North, and 20 minutes of little rocking nutshell boat, and we finally arrived in Paradise. Unfortunately, the weather was reflecting our minds, and it was a bit cloudy. We met Harry a local who took us to his resort on the West side of the little island, and checked in there. We had cocktails as the sun set behind the clouds (the bar was supposed to be the best spot on the island to watch it, when no clouds) and met some english people from Southampton. A bit of the "been there done that, let me give you advice" kind, but ok, plus they were leaving the day after, so not bothered!
Next day we recuperated, slowly walked around the island, played cards, and generally took it easy. We booked a little fishing trip with Harry for the next day.
How can you describe life on a little island that you walk around in only 1.30h? Really??
One day: 2 lines.
one other day: 2 more lines.
Let's just list what we did: we went fishing (i got 2 and i have proof, Steve none.. hehe) we sunbathed, we water bathed, we changed island (The Gilly's have 3: Gilly Air, the one we went to first, Gilly Meno, and Gilly Trawangan) So we left Air for Trawangan, which is a bit more built up, but still extremely quiet. I'd say there were about... 200 tourists max? We couldn't find a bungalow on the beacjh this time though cause they've built loads for more upmarket tourists, with AC and all that, so we went into the little local village in the middle of the island, with nice people at Lisa's Homestay. In Indonesia, almost everywhere in the evening, you can relax, watch the sun go down, while listening to a man singing. Whether it's a muslim part of the country, or Hindu, or Buddhist, it doesn't matter. Its melodic, a bit messy, and when at first a bit surprising, it soon becomes very normal to hear it for hours at a time while walking the quiet sand tracks of the island. An amazing little paradise.
We went snorkelling and added the... SEA TURTLE to our list of underwater animals... just off the main beach, so cool! But we also met our first asian jelly fishes.. .aie aie aie! the current is quite strong around the islands, and they must have arrived with the strong winds of the precedent days...
We did an other boat snorkelling trip and saw more turtles, some coral of every colour and shapes and giant clams... And the same day we also went horse riding. Oh i forgot. There are no cars on the Gillys, no cars, no motorbikes, no engines apart from the boats. Their replacement is horse carts... Well, more ponies, but you can also hire a horse to go around the island. We got two. One that was really quite tired i thing, called Black, but was nothing like Black the stallion... and an other one that just did not want to stop. First i got the lively one, then steve was really struggling with the sleepy black, so we changed. There came more trouble. Off Steve went with mister "i have too much energy + i know home is that way let me go!" trying to trot, but being taken cantering on the little lanes... argh, and me stuck on black the sleepy "i want to go home too but if i go too fast... god knows what will happen!" well Steve stayed on, be reassured, and managed to stop his beast, but gave him back to me... We finished the tour without incidents, and without running over anyone, pff!
Well, after all that, it was about 1 week spent in the Gillys, and our visa for indonesia is only a 1 month one, and we need to make a move to get back to Singapore on time. We therefore left Trawangan on the 26th of june and went back to Bali.
We rented some motorbikes again, but this time for 5 days, and took our back packs with us. We went to Ubud first which is a lovely town full, and i mean FULL of temples and surrounded by rice paddies. We got there just at the right time as there were some celebrations going on, and all the streets, and actually all of Bali, were decorated with bamboos and flags, and yellows cloths full of offereings in front of each door and inside each house and restaurants. All the temples and shrines also decorated, and as we took a walk around town to the Monkey forest, and through Rice paddies after arriving, people were seen just standing on the side of the streets waiting. A bit like India, there is always someone happy to explain, and talk a bit of english, and so we asked one of the smiley ladies and were told there were waiting for the Barong... And you will learn about the Barongs... later, as it's now 1.30 here, and the pool is waiting!!
Lots of love,
See you soon
J n S from Bali - Indonesia - South East Asia for 3 more weeks only... xxx
I have to say i am missing everyone's comments again, but i believe the blog is still being read...? Well in less than 3 weeks now i will be able to bore everyone straight in the face for ages with all our little stories, so even if you're not reading i will get you HAHAHA (evil laugh)
Ok, next on our little big journey:
We arrived in Singapore via a 7 hours train journey from Kuala Lumpur that was absolutely freezing. The AC is a great thing, but seriously, it shouldn't be pushed. Steve and I were sitting like a little old couple with our Air India Blanket (still advertising) for the whole journey, and when we got out we welcomed the sweat and heat of Singapore.
Well, talking about Air India, guess where we ended up in Singapore, when looking for the budget place? Little India of course!! We found one of the cheapest hotels of the area (that wasn't full) there, but it was still a fair bit of money. Singapore, we realized after our 1st beer, has western prices, and after the cheapness of every other country, it was like coming back to reality. We managed to get a free ride from a nice Australio-Indian we had met in the train though, he must have felt sorry for us and our low budget arriving in Sing and not knowing, and just offered to pay for the cab to drop us off wherever we wanted. Ah those indians, they're lovely!
We didn't do much in Singapore, as we arrived fairly late in the afternoon, were a bit tired, and there was a dvd player in our room. Now, I bought "Gone with the Wind" in Vietnam hoping to watch it soon after finishing the book, but until Singapore, no room spoiled us enough for a dvd player, i wasn't going to let this one pass. So we spent 3 hours in the evening eating... Indian food obviously, in front of the tv. How very british!
Next day, we were flying around 7pm, but had to drop off a bag of stuff at the airport to be able to travel light for the last month. As we're flying back from Sing, it's practical. We didn't feel like doing sight seeing or shopping with our 30kgs on the back, so we just spent the afternoon in the airport. It's supposed to be really luxurious, with spa and gym and pool and all that, but check-in only started 2 hours before our flight, so again we got stuck in a really cold air cond bar for the afternoon! They're mad with the AC...
Anyway a few hours later we arrived in Bali Dempasar Airport. For once i wasn't high on Valium, and i didn't even get a panic attack, or wasn't griping the seat hopelessly, which i have been doing in all my recent flights.
We headed for the touristy town of Kuta, which was simple to get to at 9pm, and after checking into a cheap hotel (back in real asia... pfff!) we went out for drinks in the little lanes of Kuta. There we were called by some local boys from the next table who were playing guitar, singing, and drinking arak, the local alcohol made of coconut water (or milk, whatever). They invited us to join them, and we spent all evening chatting with them, singing (as we drank more arak) and had a great time. It was a good welcome to Indonesia.
Next day, guess what, we realized we had drunk too much, and spent the day by a pool, trying to get the remains of the alcohol out, and swearing we would not do THAT again. Yeah right. Came evening time, we were back at the same bar, and chatting to an english bloke called Phil, and... Drinking Bintang (indo Beer). 1 am and we were still sharing travel stories with this nice guy who, funny enough, is the first person that i meet ever to know about Interval International (my old company). He worked for Thomsons Holidays (spelling??), and basically had been travelling for the last... was it 7 or 14 years? He seemed to have a great life!
Next day we fought our 2nd hangover (although not as bad because no arak...) and rented some motorbikes to visit the island of Bali before making our way to the Gilly Islands. After getting lost in the island's one way system, and getting close encounters with... cars, trucks, bikes, dogs, and other things on the highways, we managed to go up on one of the hills surrounding Gunung Agung, Bali's biggest Volcanoes. There was the real Bali. Beautiful rice terrasses, hills, people... Getting bikes is the best way to see beautiful things, god we're gonna miss them when we get back to London!!!
Everytime we stopped, either for pictures, or for a little map check, locals stopped and asked us where we were trying to go.. thinking we were lost, and giving us directions. Also obviously asking our names, where we came from etc... the usual english practise they are so keen on doing!
People here make me think of Indians very much, and also of Vietnamese. I remember the first time we entered Vietnam in Chau Doc, and that i smiled to the first woman on the side of the road. How she had looked at me slightly cooly first, and then when her face had broken into the biggest loveliest smile. Same thing here. First they wonder why you are here, and with the international language you tell them "we're just friends visiting" and they accept you straight away. It's amazing. Going back to cold London will be hard.
That evening we... got lost again in Kuta's one way system... then discovered the Oxford Street of Kuta... Not kidding! argh, Levis stores, gucci, ralph lauren, but even more surfers' shops like billabong, rip curl, all that, and obviously macdonalds, pizza hut and all that shit... beurk!
We booked our ticket on the bus - ferry - bus - boat to the gilly islands for 6 am, and then i had the stupid idea to say to steve "let's stay awake all night and sleep in the transports" How silly... Well, Steve took me up on that, and after several beers with Wyan, one of the locals we had met the first night, and a friend of his, Moises (yes, himself), who looked like James Brown (when we told him that he said "hey i'm no nigger!!" :O) and was as much of an entertainer as the JB himself, we went to a club that was also billiard place, live band place with open mic and normal club all at the same time.. Moises got on stage and started singing the Guns And Roses, 3 or more songs, with the band, he was really giving it all he had, and with the indonesian accent, it was quality!! we stayed there til closing time, then went to pack our bags, and off we went in our little minivan, looking dead... tired. A few hours of broken sleep on uncomfortable surfaces, 5 hours of rocking ferry, 2 hours of old bus in hills from the South of the Island of Lombok to its North, and 20 minutes of little rocking nutshell boat, and we finally arrived in Paradise. Unfortunately, the weather was reflecting our minds, and it was a bit cloudy. We met Harry a local who took us to his resort on the West side of the little island, and checked in there. We had cocktails as the sun set behind the clouds (the bar was supposed to be the best spot on the island to watch it, when no clouds) and met some english people from Southampton. A bit of the "been there done that, let me give you advice" kind, but ok, plus they were leaving the day after, so not bothered!
Next day we recuperated, slowly walked around the island, played cards, and generally took it easy. We booked a little fishing trip with Harry for the next day.
How can you describe life on a little island that you walk around in only 1.30h? Really??
One day: 2 lines.
one other day: 2 more lines.
Let's just list what we did: we went fishing (i got 2 and i have proof, Steve none.. hehe) we sunbathed, we water bathed, we changed island (The Gilly's have 3: Gilly Air, the one we went to first, Gilly Meno, and Gilly Trawangan) So we left Air for Trawangan, which is a bit more built up, but still extremely quiet. I'd say there were about... 200 tourists max? We couldn't find a bungalow on the beacjh this time though cause they've built loads for more upmarket tourists, with AC and all that, so we went into the little local village in the middle of the island, with nice people at Lisa's Homestay. In Indonesia, almost everywhere in the evening, you can relax, watch the sun go down, while listening to a man singing. Whether it's a muslim part of the country, or Hindu, or Buddhist, it doesn't matter. Its melodic, a bit messy, and when at first a bit surprising, it soon becomes very normal to hear it for hours at a time while walking the quiet sand tracks of the island. An amazing little paradise.
We went snorkelling and added the... SEA TURTLE to our list of underwater animals... just off the main beach, so cool! But we also met our first asian jelly fishes.. .aie aie aie! the current is quite strong around the islands, and they must have arrived with the strong winds of the precedent days...
We did an other boat snorkelling trip and saw more turtles, some coral of every colour and shapes and giant clams... And the same day we also went horse riding. Oh i forgot. There are no cars on the Gillys, no cars, no motorbikes, no engines apart from the boats. Their replacement is horse carts... Well, more ponies, but you can also hire a horse to go around the island. We got two. One that was really quite tired i thing, called Black, but was nothing like Black the stallion... and an other one that just did not want to stop. First i got the lively one, then steve was really struggling with the sleepy black, so we changed. There came more trouble. Off Steve went with mister "i have too much energy + i know home is that way let me go!" trying to trot, but being taken cantering on the little lanes... argh, and me stuck on black the sleepy "i want to go home too but if i go too fast... god knows what will happen!" well Steve stayed on, be reassured, and managed to stop his beast, but gave him back to me... We finished the tour without incidents, and without running over anyone, pff!
Well, after all that, it was about 1 week spent in the Gillys, and our visa for indonesia is only a 1 month one, and we need to make a move to get back to Singapore on time. We therefore left Trawangan on the 26th of june and went back to Bali.
We rented some motorbikes again, but this time for 5 days, and took our back packs with us. We went to Ubud first which is a lovely town full, and i mean FULL of temples and surrounded by rice paddies. We got there just at the right time as there were some celebrations going on, and all the streets, and actually all of Bali, were decorated with bamboos and flags, and yellows cloths full of offereings in front of each door and inside each house and restaurants. All the temples and shrines also decorated, and as we took a walk around town to the Monkey forest, and through Rice paddies after arriving, people were seen just standing on the side of the streets waiting. A bit like India, there is always someone happy to explain, and talk a bit of english, and so we asked one of the smiley ladies and were told there were waiting for the Barong... And you will learn about the Barongs... later, as it's now 1.30 here, and the pool is waiting!!
Lots of love,
See you soon
J n S from Bali - Indonesia - South East Asia for 3 more weeks only... xxx
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Samui to Kuala Lumpur
Hello Hello!!
I left you with Koh Samui and our nice room, so I need to check my memory card for the details:
Oh yeah. The first night, we went walking down the road to a little restaurant serving local food. Some idiots ended up eating half of our dinner! Pretending that our spring rolls looked like the crepes they had ordered, right, and one of the guy ordered noodles, but still ate Steve’s dish of rice and curry without a frown, humhum.
The next day we just spent around the hotel, chilling in the AC room (it was boiling outside), went for a little walk and climb on the beach and rocks around it, and finished the day with some cocktails in the pool at the neighboring resort (expensive room ours, but no pool).
We rented some bikes that night and went back to the same little restaurant, then went around the town to see what was there. We discovered a smaller
We kept the bikes the next day and went riding on some small roads inland, went up some mountain roads that ended up as trails at the top, and turned back into tarmac halfway down the other side. We went for a drink in a panoramic restaurant where we could see the whole island. Samui was ok out of the busy bits, but we started thinking about
We checked out the next day, after making a few enquiries about ferries and trains, and got back to the mainland in the afternoon. We booked a train for
We got a sleeper class ticket for the train, and fell asleep as soon as we got in, and until we hit the border station with Malaysia. There we had to get out of the train, get our visas, get our bags checked, and get back in the train. Pretty swift.
When we got to Butterworth, we decided to cross to
So we started chatting with Daniel, who offered to guide us with his book to the cheap hotels area. We ended up in the same hotel, and decided to go for some beers a little later. A little later, Daniel was knocking at our door, so off we went. Daniel was ok… but extremely silent for someone soooo sticky (he stayed with us about a week!) I mean, he just wanted to do things with us, and quoting his guide book for things to do and all that, but apart from that, he was completely silent. We had to force questions and conversations at him, which is ok for a while, but then you start to wonder why the person actually wants to spend time with you!
In
After 2-3 days we decided that we had enough of
Comfiest bus ever. It only had 3 seats on each row and they were airplanes seat. They even had a little rest for your feet coming out of under the seat, excellent. I said that to Dan, and he seemed surprised and ask if the busses in other Asian countries were not all the same… hahaha
We checked into a little, quite dirty hotel near china town and a night market which had everything there.
We got some food from a food stand in a corner, and went for a little walk through the amazing market where people called on to Steve to buy a new Gucci handbag, and called on to me to buy a new tie… go and understand!
The next day we went… to the zoo!
Daniel said there was a good aquarium somewhere in town. We said it would be cool to visit an aquarium. Then he said it was at the zoo. I haven’t visited a zoo since, sorry no, I can’t remember the last time I visited a bloody zoo!! Anyway, after a 20 minutes train ride, we got to the zoo, and Steve and I started paying interest to the place, looking at all the animals, reading their cards and things. Well, Daniel was just waiting for us at the end of each section, looking bored, and just letting us know from time to time that the time for the animal show at the auditorium was almost there… Did we care about the animals doing some tricks for us? No! But still, we went along. The auditorium was in front of the so-called aquarium. There were 2 big tanks with, I have to say, enormous fishes in them, but that was it!
The animal show lasted about 5 minutes, and involved some parrots trying to educate people and placing old can of coke in a bin with their beaks… quite impressive (irony), and a baby orangutan climbing a rope over people’s head in the assembly, and then… oh it was so amazing I can’t remember!!
Oh, I forgot to say something about Dan. He’s a gothic! Why the hell would a Goth want to go and see an animal show, at the zoo!!!!
Right, you’ll have understood I didn’t hold him close to my heart.
Later that day we went to the KL Twin towers (with the most amazing shopping center at their base, every big designer in there, amazing!) that were pretty cool, we took about 100 pictures of them, in the light, in the dark with the lights on, every profile! They say it’s the tallest twin building in the world. We wondered if that was a fact before or after 7/11!
We managed to ditch Dan the next day finally, and we went by ourselves to the national museum. Unfortunately, the second floor was being renovated and that was obviously the more interesting bit. We did read though, about all the different clothing attires that the people of
We went to see the old main train station that an English architect who had also worked in
When we got out of there, it started raining, and we ran under one of the numerous road flyovers and hailed a taxi. He took us back to
After lunch we treated ourselves to a foot reflexology treatment… forget about full body massage, the feet is the way to go! Especially after all the walking we had done that day.
Then we went shopping in that crazy fake things market, and then back to our hotel to meet Daniel.
We left KL the next day, by train, (this time Daniel didn’t follow!) and headed for
This will be for the next update, hopefully soon, so I can get this thing really up to date.
We have about 3 weeks left on our Indonesian Visa. Staying on Bali and touring on motorbikes for 5 days, then going up to Java (next island up) and then maybe fly to the North of Sumatra (again, next island up) and back down a bit, and then we’ll probably also fly for Sumatra to Singapore, and spend a few days spending the last of our money there!
Hope everyone is still well, quite glad to know we will be seeing all of you fairly soon now, although our adventure will then be finished…
Take care,
Lots of love from the two of us xxxx
Now it’s time for a Bintang (indo Beer)
Jenny & Steve live from Ubud xxx
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Koh Tao, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui
Hello Hello!
Today is the 13th of June, and we are in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.
Here is the update:
Koh Tao, 24th of May 2007, the day we met the shark...
Usually, looking for sharks as i'm swimming in nice waters would be the last thing on my mind (staying away from them would definitely be the top of the list), but everybody here seemed to think that those black tip reef sharks were harmless around here, so off we went looking for the beast. After all, everyone here had seen it, so we kind of had to.
We looked and looked, and after half an hour, decided it was time to go back. We had planned to get the 1.30 shuttle to town to get some money and things, and couldn't hang around for mister S forever.
But as we are swimming back, suddenly, a shadow appears over the sea weed at the bottom. I freeze, and by the time i have grabbed Steve's hand to point it at the "thing" it had reached a sandy part of the sea floor, sort of canals of sand underwater, and it was showing itself in all its sharkness. When i say reef sharks, you might be thinking of little things, the size of what... The arm? haha... or more like HAHAHA! it was the size of Steve!
I thought i'd completely freak out but i was just stunned! It came into view, swimming quite peacefully, showing itself to us, and... Showing off with its baby swimming behind it! Amazing creatures that inspire respect (and a bit of fear hey! let's not forget JAWS)
It just went in its little sharky way and disappeared in the distance. We had to swim back to shore (i was fairly happy to the idea of getting out of the water), but it made a second appearance, as Steve was swimming backwards, it came back behind us. Something tells me he was checking us out. What for? I don't want to know.
As we were driven to town that afternoon, we were able to recount the event to our neighbours, and state that finally, we too, had seen Mister Shark.
The day after, we went to the jumping rock, where we had been once before. We hadn't jumped from there yet though, just snorkelled in the same area, but this time steve did. I personnally was still thinking of my encounter with the shark the day before, and could imagine him with his jaws wide open, waiting for me to jump... So i didn't, and checked the waters carefully as i snorkelled to meet Steve around the corner.
Other event that day, the falling mentis, you know, Menthe Religieuse (in french), big green things that move as if they were dancing. One of them, as long as my index, maybe more, fell on my back as we were having a beer at the bar. I pushed it off, not knowing how big it was, but when i saw her, i was relieved i hadn't broken any part of her. Pretty impressive insect! It had eyes that you could see were looking at you! Amazing...
The night there were spent drinking beer obviously, by the beach at the open bar, watching lightnings in the distance, not only normal lightnings, but orange lightnings, like explosions in the distance!! We got one every night, then later, around 3 am or so, the storm would hit us. The other thing we did, was learn how to juggle with tennis balls on strings. Well, the whole thing about it is when you are good enough, you play with fire balls instead. Apparently, i was a natural, and so that night, after the falling mentis thing, the barman asked if i wanted to try with fire, and i did, it was really cool. To explain the concept, you have strings attached to your index and... middle fingers (no name sorry) and at the end of about 40cms, you have tennis balls attached (one for each hand) and you have to swing them around, and do figures and it looks ever so easy, but it's quite tricky! Anyway, on that night, i did my first fire show! I even got a little round of applause at the end from the bar! sweet
Next day, Steve woke up early hoping he would be able to get a fruit shake with breakfast, while the electricity was still on (goes off at 8am till 6pm) but as he was just ready to leave, our fan stopped, and the electricity was obviously gone again, til the evening.
We got an ENORMOUS spider in our bathroom, litterally over the toilets. So usually it's just infested by mosquitoes, but now we also have an 8 legged monster hanging over our heads while we try to "relieve" ourselves... Well let me tell you, what is relieving is to get out of the bloody place!!!
After spending quite a few days on the same bay, we wanted to change and try to get to an other one just north of our resort, and thought we had seen a trail that could lead to it from our road. It turned out unfortunately to be the local junkyard.. Not so nice. and an other one was the resort's generator house. So after half an hour walk in the sun and the jungle, we walked back. We thought we'd try to go through Jump Rock, by the shore, but that lead us to a dead end. We gave up then, and decided to try and snorkel around to that bay. The way there was a bit worrying cause it was very deep in places, and not great visibility (think shark), but on the way back, we realized that we could actually cut through all the big rocks, pass on top of them, between etc... Steve found a little cave and we went in. Inside were like thousands and thousands of little silver fishes, that as we got in, started circling around us, and more and more were joining in from outside. it was mad, and the best best part of our day.
We did indeed start feeling a bit restless in our little secluded paradise. Doing the same things and, instead of gaining more energy from the relaxation, we got more and more lazy day after day.
Oh, over highlights of the that day (27th may) we saw a monitor lizard (think that's what it was) not as big as the one Steve saw on the first day, but still... And in the evening, Steve taught me how to play chess. Well i'm still pretty hopeless at it, but at least i kind of know what it's all about.
So as I said, we were not really doing enough anymore. I could see my birthday approaching, and i didn't know if i wanted to be there at Laem Thiem anymore. The spider and the rat (oh yes, did i talk about the soap eating rat in the bathroom??) started to get seriously on my nerves, obviously the mosquitoes were at the next stage already, pushing me to paranoia!
So Koh Pangan, here we come. Koh Tao, thank you ever so much, you were fantastic.
Hum. Koh Pangan.
We arrived at the pier and, 1st, it was nothing like Koh Tao. No transparency there, just sandy and messy from all the boats. Not an old wooden pier, but a big massive ugly concrete one. An army of "legal" taxis and air con minivans. We headed for Haad Rin, the party area, where we figured we'd have a good time, and as we were planning on going to the full moon party, best to get a bungalow early. Steve found us a diamond. We have a technic when we arrive in a new place now. We don't listen to all the touts bragging about their resorts. We head for the first bar. Order beers, then, when relaxed enough, one of us goes and checks a few places, comes back with the details, and then the other visits a few places too, and again until we find a decent one that meets our criteria.
In this case, Steve found it for 500 Bath (6 pounds?) Surrounded by bay windows on a hill, wooden interior, fridge (for cold water) big terrasse, big bathroom with hot water and a cool view from the hammock of the bay between Koh Pangan and Koh Samui...
But dear dear dear.. the rest of the place is like Koh San road in Bangkok, relocated, and made bigger: Bars, shops, internet, banks, restaurants. That is all there is and that is all you will find.
The first night we couldn't help but to be glad to be back in civilization, and so we enjoyed some israeli falafels in pitta bread, watched the latest spiderman while drinking beer at one of the numerous tv bars, and then went down to the beach where they had a "warm up party" and, well, pass the details, got pretty drunk, and had a good night. The best of our stay actually.
The next day we felt like hell, and so we slept a lot, drank litres of water, had an english breakfast (of course you can find that!) a walk in the sun (not good!) and then watched about 4 hours of Friends. That is to say that Steve was hangovered. He didn't complain once, and at the end, I was the one to say we should make a move!! Not a very eventful day.
Next day we wanted some beach action, and went to Leela beach, to avoid the busy Sunrise beach. This beach was described in the guide book as quieter, pretty and shaded by palm trees. It was all that. What the book didn't say was that the waters are unswimmable!! Seaweed patches everywhere, really shallow and altogether not very inviting. So we went back to busy sunrise beach, and had a swim there, although swim is a big word, the water is really shallow there too.
Steve then discovered that there was a beach football tournament going on, and so we went to watch. An hour later, Steve was enrolled. He came to me saying: "Well, it's tomorrow too, i can't play tomorrow really can I?..." (tomorrow = Jenny's birthday...). I said: "Send me to a spa for the afternoon and you do whatever you like!" And so that's what we did. Steve started playing that evening with a group of guys from the UK, and then we went to check out the spas...
The next day i turned 24. How did i feel? Not very different, same as each year really!!
I went to the Spa in a 5* resort of the area, and got a body scrub, aromatherapy massage, facial herbal massage, manicure, pedicure, the whole set... 3.5 hours very well spent!
After that i went back to meet Steve on the beach, where he was still playing. They got to the final, and were very close to winning the 4000 Bahts price, but just didn't quite make it in the end... They ended up 2nd, got a trophe, and 2000 bahts instead, which was pretty good anyway!
Evening we had some seafood (tiger prawns, red snapper... yum yum...) and some cocktails... Kept it low as the full moon party was the next night, and so we would celebrate properly there.
So the next day we thought it would be a good idea to just chill the whole day, sleep a maximum, and just go out in the evening and be ready!
How wrong were we. Came 9pm, we were both, how to say, the absolute contrary of motivated? You see what i mean.
To be honest, the party wasn't so much. Well, there was plenty of loud music, but the bars were so close together, you could hardly get the difference between a song and an other. There were so many people you couldn't just stroll from one bar to the other, and, well yeah, the party mood just didn't show up, and so we were a bit disapointed. Maybe we should have come here a few years ago, or maybe we were missing our friends, with whom it'd be really cool...
The next day again didn't do much (well, we did stay out drinking until 2am...), and so the day after that, that restless feeling reappeared again. We were bored. We rented some little bike and went around the island on nice little roads, and were pleased to see that there are still towns that look like fishing villages, with loads of cafes and shops where the locals go (you can easily see the difference between tourist spots and local spots). We overall enjoyed getting out of the Haad Rin Circus, and spending the day doing a bit of exploration.
We still decided to check out however.
The next day we moved onto Koh Samui which we knew would be even more built up than Koh Pangan, but we thought we should see it anyway.
Indeed it was Koh Pangan times 10 000. Mac Donalds, Starbucks, enormous shopping malls, tescos for crying out loud!!!!
That's at the main beach of Chaweng. The street is just full of stuff that tourist might want. It's package holiday paradise.
This time we avaoided staying in the popular bit, and went to Coral Bay, a auieter bay. We found a hotel after a little while, and checked into an "expensive" (for Thailand) but amazing little room at Crystal resort. All white sheets, air con, doors with no holes underneath to let in insects and else, clean bathroom, again, with no insects, 2 leather armchair in front of a bay window, a large balcony and a double sun lounger... lush!!
It's 00.47 here in Malaysia, and i am pretty knackered, so i will write the rest soon, just not now.
Tomorrow we are going to Singapore, and we are catching a flight on the 15th to Bali in Indonesia, around 7pm, flight number ZSFRLT. Just so you know where we are...
Love to all, good night, or more, good day!
Take care
Jenny & Steve xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Today is the 13th of June, and we are in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.
Here is the update:
Koh Tao, 24th of May 2007, the day we met the shark...
Usually, looking for sharks as i'm swimming in nice waters would be the last thing on my mind (staying away from them would definitely be the top of the list), but everybody here seemed to think that those black tip reef sharks were harmless around here, so off we went looking for the beast. After all, everyone here had seen it, so we kind of had to.
We looked and looked, and after half an hour, decided it was time to go back. We had planned to get the 1.30 shuttle to town to get some money and things, and couldn't hang around for mister S forever.
But as we are swimming back, suddenly, a shadow appears over the sea weed at the bottom. I freeze, and by the time i have grabbed Steve's hand to point it at the "thing" it had reached a sandy part of the sea floor, sort of canals of sand underwater, and it was showing itself in all its sharkness. When i say reef sharks, you might be thinking of little things, the size of what... The arm? haha... or more like HAHAHA! it was the size of Steve!
I thought i'd completely freak out but i was just stunned! It came into view, swimming quite peacefully, showing itself to us, and... Showing off with its baby swimming behind it! Amazing creatures that inspire respect (and a bit of fear hey! let's not forget JAWS)
It just went in its little sharky way and disappeared in the distance. We had to swim back to shore (i was fairly happy to the idea of getting out of the water), but it made a second appearance, as Steve was swimming backwards, it came back behind us. Something tells me he was checking us out. What for? I don't want to know.
As we were driven to town that afternoon, we were able to recount the event to our neighbours, and state that finally, we too, had seen Mister Shark.
The day after, we went to the jumping rock, where we had been once before. We hadn't jumped from there yet though, just snorkelled in the same area, but this time steve did. I personnally was still thinking of my encounter with the shark the day before, and could imagine him with his jaws wide open, waiting for me to jump... So i didn't, and checked the waters carefully as i snorkelled to meet Steve around the corner.
Other event that day, the falling mentis, you know, Menthe Religieuse (in french), big green things that move as if they were dancing. One of them, as long as my index, maybe more, fell on my back as we were having a beer at the bar. I pushed it off, not knowing how big it was, but when i saw her, i was relieved i hadn't broken any part of her. Pretty impressive insect! It had eyes that you could see were looking at you! Amazing...
The night there were spent drinking beer obviously, by the beach at the open bar, watching lightnings in the distance, not only normal lightnings, but orange lightnings, like explosions in the distance!! We got one every night, then later, around 3 am or so, the storm would hit us. The other thing we did, was learn how to juggle with tennis balls on strings. Well, the whole thing about it is when you are good enough, you play with fire balls instead. Apparently, i was a natural, and so that night, after the falling mentis thing, the barman asked if i wanted to try with fire, and i did, it was really cool. To explain the concept, you have strings attached to your index and... middle fingers (no name sorry) and at the end of about 40cms, you have tennis balls attached (one for each hand) and you have to swing them around, and do figures and it looks ever so easy, but it's quite tricky! Anyway, on that night, i did my first fire show! I even got a little round of applause at the end from the bar! sweet
Next day, Steve woke up early hoping he would be able to get a fruit shake with breakfast, while the electricity was still on (goes off at 8am till 6pm) but as he was just ready to leave, our fan stopped, and the electricity was obviously gone again, til the evening.
We got an ENORMOUS spider in our bathroom, litterally over the toilets. So usually it's just infested by mosquitoes, but now we also have an 8 legged monster hanging over our heads while we try to "relieve" ourselves... Well let me tell you, what is relieving is to get out of the bloody place!!!
After spending quite a few days on the same bay, we wanted to change and try to get to an other one just north of our resort, and thought we had seen a trail that could lead to it from our road. It turned out unfortunately to be the local junkyard.. Not so nice. and an other one was the resort's generator house. So after half an hour walk in the sun and the jungle, we walked back. We thought we'd try to go through Jump Rock, by the shore, but that lead us to a dead end. We gave up then, and decided to try and snorkel around to that bay. The way there was a bit worrying cause it was very deep in places, and not great visibility (think shark), but on the way back, we realized that we could actually cut through all the big rocks, pass on top of them, between etc... Steve found a little cave and we went in. Inside were like thousands and thousands of little silver fishes, that as we got in, started circling around us, and more and more were joining in from outside. it was mad, and the best best part of our day.
We did indeed start feeling a bit restless in our little secluded paradise. Doing the same things and, instead of gaining more energy from the relaxation, we got more and more lazy day after day.
Oh, over highlights of the that day (27th may) we saw a monitor lizard (think that's what it was) not as big as the one Steve saw on the first day, but still... And in the evening, Steve taught me how to play chess. Well i'm still pretty hopeless at it, but at least i kind of know what it's all about.
So as I said, we were not really doing enough anymore. I could see my birthday approaching, and i didn't know if i wanted to be there at Laem Thiem anymore. The spider and the rat (oh yes, did i talk about the soap eating rat in the bathroom??) started to get seriously on my nerves, obviously the mosquitoes were at the next stage already, pushing me to paranoia!
So Koh Pangan, here we come. Koh Tao, thank you ever so much, you were fantastic.
Hum. Koh Pangan.
We arrived at the pier and, 1st, it was nothing like Koh Tao. No transparency there, just sandy and messy from all the boats. Not an old wooden pier, but a big massive ugly concrete one. An army of "legal" taxis and air con minivans. We headed for Haad Rin, the party area, where we figured we'd have a good time, and as we were planning on going to the full moon party, best to get a bungalow early. Steve found us a diamond. We have a technic when we arrive in a new place now. We don't listen to all the touts bragging about their resorts. We head for the first bar. Order beers, then, when relaxed enough, one of us goes and checks a few places, comes back with the details, and then the other visits a few places too, and again until we find a decent one that meets our criteria.
In this case, Steve found it for 500 Bath (6 pounds?) Surrounded by bay windows on a hill, wooden interior, fridge (for cold water) big terrasse, big bathroom with hot water and a cool view from the hammock of the bay between Koh Pangan and Koh Samui...
But dear dear dear.. the rest of the place is like Koh San road in Bangkok, relocated, and made bigger: Bars, shops, internet, banks, restaurants. That is all there is and that is all you will find.
The first night we couldn't help but to be glad to be back in civilization, and so we enjoyed some israeli falafels in pitta bread, watched the latest spiderman while drinking beer at one of the numerous tv bars, and then went down to the beach where they had a "warm up party" and, well, pass the details, got pretty drunk, and had a good night. The best of our stay actually.
The next day we felt like hell, and so we slept a lot, drank litres of water, had an english breakfast (of course you can find that!) a walk in the sun (not good!) and then watched about 4 hours of Friends. That is to say that Steve was hangovered. He didn't complain once, and at the end, I was the one to say we should make a move!! Not a very eventful day.
Next day we wanted some beach action, and went to Leela beach, to avoid the busy Sunrise beach. This beach was described in the guide book as quieter, pretty and shaded by palm trees. It was all that. What the book didn't say was that the waters are unswimmable!! Seaweed patches everywhere, really shallow and altogether not very inviting. So we went back to busy sunrise beach, and had a swim there, although swim is a big word, the water is really shallow there too.
Steve then discovered that there was a beach football tournament going on, and so we went to watch. An hour later, Steve was enrolled. He came to me saying: "Well, it's tomorrow too, i can't play tomorrow really can I?..." (tomorrow = Jenny's birthday...). I said: "Send me to a spa for the afternoon and you do whatever you like!" And so that's what we did. Steve started playing that evening with a group of guys from the UK, and then we went to check out the spas...
The next day i turned 24. How did i feel? Not very different, same as each year really!!
I went to the Spa in a 5* resort of the area, and got a body scrub, aromatherapy massage, facial herbal massage, manicure, pedicure, the whole set... 3.5 hours very well spent!
After that i went back to meet Steve on the beach, where he was still playing. They got to the final, and were very close to winning the 4000 Bahts price, but just didn't quite make it in the end... They ended up 2nd, got a trophe, and 2000 bahts instead, which was pretty good anyway!
Evening we had some seafood (tiger prawns, red snapper... yum yum...) and some cocktails... Kept it low as the full moon party was the next night, and so we would celebrate properly there.
So the next day we thought it would be a good idea to just chill the whole day, sleep a maximum, and just go out in the evening and be ready!
How wrong were we. Came 9pm, we were both, how to say, the absolute contrary of motivated? You see what i mean.
To be honest, the party wasn't so much. Well, there was plenty of loud music, but the bars were so close together, you could hardly get the difference between a song and an other. There were so many people you couldn't just stroll from one bar to the other, and, well yeah, the party mood just didn't show up, and so we were a bit disapointed. Maybe we should have come here a few years ago, or maybe we were missing our friends, with whom it'd be really cool...
The next day again didn't do much (well, we did stay out drinking until 2am...), and so the day after that, that restless feeling reappeared again. We were bored. We rented some little bike and went around the island on nice little roads, and were pleased to see that there are still towns that look like fishing villages, with loads of cafes and shops where the locals go (you can easily see the difference between tourist spots and local spots). We overall enjoyed getting out of the Haad Rin Circus, and spending the day doing a bit of exploration.
We still decided to check out however.
The next day we moved onto Koh Samui which we knew would be even more built up than Koh Pangan, but we thought we should see it anyway.
Indeed it was Koh Pangan times 10 000. Mac Donalds, Starbucks, enormous shopping malls, tescos for crying out loud!!!!
That's at the main beach of Chaweng. The street is just full of stuff that tourist might want. It's package holiday paradise.
This time we avaoided staying in the popular bit, and went to Coral Bay, a auieter bay. We found a hotel after a little while, and checked into an "expensive" (for Thailand) but amazing little room at Crystal resort. All white sheets, air con, doors with no holes underneath to let in insects and else, clean bathroom, again, with no insects, 2 leather armchair in front of a bay window, a large balcony and a double sun lounger... lush!!
It's 00.47 here in Malaysia, and i am pretty knackered, so i will write the rest soon, just not now.
Tomorrow we are going to Singapore, and we are catching a flight on the 15th to Bali in Indonesia, around 7pm, flight number ZSFRLT. Just so you know where we are...
Love to all, good night, or more, good day!
Take care
Jenny & Steve xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Friday, 8 June 2007
The Islands of Thailand
Oh we had been waiting for them. Not knowing what to expect of Asia in general, we were at least sure of one thing: The islands of Thailand, we were going to enjoy.
We arrived on Koh Tao on the 21st of May. Koh Tao is located in the Gulf of Thailand, so on the East coast of the South peninsula, about 500 kms from Bangkok. The boat that took us from the mainland to the island was a catamaran, same as the Isle Of Wight Sea Cat, maybe a bit bigger. Thais are nice and relaxed though, and on this one you can sit outside and not just stand inside listening to the health and safety tape!
There was a group of british guys on the boat next to us that, as soon as they got onboard took off their shirts, started spraying sun lotion on the milky white skin, they were funny... They just didn't count on the rain that started falling as the last one of them was finishing his painting job... Ah the British... No offence (it's the French Jenny talking, not the British one...).
The rain didn't last anyway, and soon the sun was shining, the island getting closer, the water getting shallower and at the same time... clearer.
As we approached the old wooden pier of Koh Tao's main harbour, we could see to the bottom, and exotic fishes were just wandering around there...
We met a girl from Venezuela (1st ever!) and a swiss woman in the boat, and as we were, as usual getting attacked by loads of taxis and resort touts, we decided having beer was the thing to do. Ok, it was 9am, but when you've spent a night in a bus, you simply don't call it a night, it's like it never happened, and you can just keep doing what you were doing before getting on the bus!
As we were chatting, and drinking more beer, a quiet little thai woman approached us. Unlike the usual touts, she didn't sound pushy, and just discreetly placed a photo album of her resort on our table. We looked, and it looked awesome, turquoise water, fish that come eat from your hands (bread, not your hands), little quiet beach, a few bungalows, a jump rock... Steve and I just wanted to relax, like i said in the precedent messages we've been feeling a bit tired of the moving around, and when we got into that truck on the way to Laem Thiem, Ping Pong's resort (Ping Pong is the woman... ) we knew that we'd stay a while.
The road we took was ... not a road, more like a mud track going straight up the mountain. Oh yeah, islands in Thailand are far from flat, they are covered with lush jungle, coconut trees, and pretty much only the coasts are inhabited.
So the road, well, you'll understand that it destroys less forest to make the roads straight right, instead of winding around a hundred times to just get to the top. Well, the people here just make the road straight. You sit at the back of a toyota (most of the time) pick up truck, and hold on, while the truck litterally climbs up the gravelly, rocky, sometimes muddy, dusty track up, and then obviously down the other side. To give you an idfea, the resort was just about 4/5 kms (2 miles) from the harbour, but it took 30 minutes to get there!
It was sooo worth it. As we arrived, the pictures we had seen came to life. The little round bay, the simple huts, the rocky landscape, the fish eating from our hands... everything was perfect!
We took a bungalow which already had a resident: An enormous geiko, when i say enormous i mean it, we've seen plenty on our trip, butthis one was the hercules of geiko. It didn't help against the monstruous spider that we met later, but hey, he had the right to be scared of that monster too (i know i was... picture will come, and you will understand).
Oh dear, it has happened again, half the message has just been deleted.
For the info, Steve and I haven't touched a cigarette in 6 days now, but strangely, tright now, i'm more tempted than ever...
I will continue the update soon, but just for you to know, today is the 8th of June, and we have arrived in Malaysia, and are staying on the island of Penang.
Will let you know more soon!!
Lots of love to everyone!!
xxxxxxx
J&S
We arrived on Koh Tao on the 21st of May. Koh Tao is located in the Gulf of Thailand, so on the East coast of the South peninsula, about 500 kms from Bangkok. The boat that took us from the mainland to the island was a catamaran, same as the Isle Of Wight Sea Cat, maybe a bit bigger. Thais are nice and relaxed though, and on this one you can sit outside and not just stand inside listening to the health and safety tape!
There was a group of british guys on the boat next to us that, as soon as they got onboard took off their shirts, started spraying sun lotion on the milky white skin, they were funny... They just didn't count on the rain that started falling as the last one of them was finishing his painting job... Ah the British... No offence (it's the French Jenny talking, not the British one...).
The rain didn't last anyway, and soon the sun was shining, the island getting closer, the water getting shallower and at the same time... clearer.
As we approached the old wooden pier of Koh Tao's main harbour, we could see to the bottom, and exotic fishes were just wandering around there...
We met a girl from Venezuela (1st ever!) and a swiss woman in the boat, and as we were, as usual getting attacked by loads of taxis and resort touts, we decided having beer was the thing to do. Ok, it was 9am, but when you've spent a night in a bus, you simply don't call it a night, it's like it never happened, and you can just keep doing what you were doing before getting on the bus!
As we were chatting, and drinking more beer, a quiet little thai woman approached us. Unlike the usual touts, she didn't sound pushy, and just discreetly placed a photo album of her resort on our table. We looked, and it looked awesome, turquoise water, fish that come eat from your hands (bread, not your hands), little quiet beach, a few bungalows, a jump rock... Steve and I just wanted to relax, like i said in the precedent messages we've been feeling a bit tired of the moving around, and when we got into that truck on the way to Laem Thiem, Ping Pong's resort (Ping Pong is the woman... ) we knew that we'd stay a while.
The road we took was ... not a road, more like a mud track going straight up the mountain. Oh yeah, islands in Thailand are far from flat, they are covered with lush jungle, coconut trees, and pretty much only the coasts are inhabited.
So the road, well, you'll understand that it destroys less forest to make the roads straight right, instead of winding around a hundred times to just get to the top. Well, the people here just make the road straight. You sit at the back of a toyota (most of the time) pick up truck, and hold on, while the truck litterally climbs up the gravelly, rocky, sometimes muddy, dusty track up, and then obviously down the other side. To give you an idfea, the resort was just about 4/5 kms (2 miles) from the harbour, but it took 30 minutes to get there!
It was sooo worth it. As we arrived, the pictures we had seen came to life. The little round bay, the simple huts, the rocky landscape, the fish eating from our hands... everything was perfect!
We took a bungalow which already had a resident: An enormous geiko, when i say enormous i mean it, we've seen plenty on our trip, butthis one was the hercules of geiko. It didn't help against the monstruous spider that we met later, but hey, he had the right to be scared of that monster too (i know i was... picture will come, and you will understand).
Oh dear, it has happened again, half the message has just been deleted.
For the info, Steve and I haven't touched a cigarette in 6 days now, but strangely, tright now, i'm more tempted than ever...
I will continue the update soon, but just for you to know, today is the 8th of June, and we have arrived in Malaysia, and are staying on the island of Penang.
Will let you know more soon!!
Lots of love to everyone!!
xxxxxxx
J&S
Sunday, 3 June 2007
Back to Bangkok
Khwap Ji la li,
Khwap Ji la li, li li li li li, khwap ji la li, li li li li li li
Or something like that!
That’s how we remembered how to say thank you very much in Laos! Singing it to the tune of I don’t know what….
‘So long Laos’ we said as we smoked on the banks of the Mekong river whiling away the last few hours in the country before our transport across the border to Thailand. A storm cloud approaching from the east, wait a minute, its approaching from the west too – we took shelter & ordered a bottle of beer each – (best thing to do in these situations) & watched the rain making its way towards us, for a few minutes we were having to shout to hear each other as the rain lashed down from the graying marshmallow above us, but by the time our beers were finished (yes only the one on this occasion) the skies were once again filled with sunshine, blue skies & the smaller more friendly looking fluffy white clouds, in about half an hour the only sign that the heavens had opened in such a torrent would be the odd puddle here & there, the ground & plants seeming to have slurped it up as quickly as it had fallen.
The time (approximately Chinese dentist o’clock) came for us to meet our transport to begin the journey across the border & so we loaded our bags in the back of the tuk-tuk type thing (they have many variations of this vehicle around these parts & the general road worthiness of said vehicles has about 20 times more variations ranging from ‘is it better if we walk?’ to ‘nice tuk-tuk!’ ‘it’s not mine sir, belongs to company’)
But basically they are the front half of a motor bike, welded to a small portable shed with a row of benches down either side; some are decorated rather nicely, some not so much.
So to re-cap! The plan was to catch a ride to the border control, check out of Laos, into Thailand (once again) & then catch an over night train from Nong Khau to Bangkok. The date was the 17th of May & we wanted to reach the islands in the Gulf of Thailand in good time for Jenny’s birthday.
We arrived in to Central Bangkok train station on the morning of the 18th. We spent a few days & nights in Bangkok, doing the Koh San Road bit (west meets east in down town Bangkok) & booked up for a coach & catamaran to take us to the island of Koh Tao (Turtle Island).
Oh one thing to mention in Bangkok was the Golden Mount which we went to one afternoon (man made hill started by Rama V, continued by Rama VI & completed by Rama VII a couple hundred years later) a few hundred steps to the top but the best bit was all the bells, I figured you had to give each one a ding dong on the way past (the Thai’s I saw agreed). The other thing I remember is that as with most places in Thailand if you go inside, you have to take you shoes off, outside of most shops & temples etc can be found a small mole hill of assorted flip flops, trainers & ‘shoes’.
Well here the top of the temple is outside & so the floor is hot enough to fry eggs on, probably even a 10oz steak or something big like that, so after taking in the views for a few moments (tourists) or prying to Buddha (Thai’s) everybody is doing a funny sort of skip to move around, like the roof was made of hot coals something.
Khwap Ji la li, li li li li li, khwap ji la li, li li li li li li
Or something like that!
That’s how we remembered how to say thank you very much in Laos! Singing it to the tune of I don’t know what….
‘So long Laos’ we said as we smoked on the banks of the Mekong river whiling away the last few hours in the country before our transport across the border to Thailand. A storm cloud approaching from the east, wait a minute, its approaching from the west too – we took shelter & ordered a bottle of beer each – (best thing to do in these situations) & watched the rain making its way towards us, for a few minutes we were having to shout to hear each other as the rain lashed down from the graying marshmallow above us, but by the time our beers were finished (yes only the one on this occasion) the skies were once again filled with sunshine, blue skies & the smaller more friendly looking fluffy white clouds, in about half an hour the only sign that the heavens had opened in such a torrent would be the odd puddle here & there, the ground & plants seeming to have slurped it up as quickly as it had fallen.
The time (approximately Chinese dentist o’clock) came for us to meet our transport to begin the journey across the border & so we loaded our bags in the back of the tuk-tuk type thing (they have many variations of this vehicle around these parts & the general road worthiness of said vehicles has about 20 times more variations ranging from ‘is it better if we walk?’ to ‘nice tuk-tuk!’ ‘it’s not mine sir, belongs to company’)
But basically they are the front half of a motor bike, welded to a small portable shed with a row of benches down either side; some are decorated rather nicely, some not so much.
So to re-cap! The plan was to catch a ride to the border control, check out of Laos, into Thailand (once again) & then catch an over night train from Nong Khau to Bangkok. The date was the 17th of May & we wanted to reach the islands in the Gulf of Thailand in good time for Jenny’s birthday.
We arrived in to Central Bangkok train station on the morning of the 18th. We spent a few days & nights in Bangkok, doing the Koh San Road bit (west meets east in down town Bangkok) & booked up for a coach & catamaran to take us to the island of Koh Tao (Turtle Island).
Oh one thing to mention in Bangkok was the Golden Mount which we went to one afternoon (man made hill started by Rama V, continued by Rama VI & completed by Rama VII a couple hundred years later) a few hundred steps to the top but the best bit was all the bells, I figured you had to give each one a ding dong on the way past (the Thai’s I saw agreed). The other thing I remember is that as with most places in Thailand if you go inside, you have to take you shoes off, outside of most shops & temples etc can be found a small mole hill of assorted flip flops, trainers & ‘shoes’.
Well here the top of the temple is outside & so the floor is hot enough to fry eggs on, probably even a 10oz steak or something big like that, so after taking in the views for a few moments (tourists) or prying to Buddha (Thai’s) everybody is doing a funny sort of skip to move around, like the roof was made of hot coals something.
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Laos
Hello there!!
Today is the 17th of May (soon my birthday...) and we are in Vientiane, capital of Laos. We are on our way to Bangkok, and arrived from an 11 hours bus trip, and about to embark on a train for an other... 12 hours or so? You can imagine we slept extremely well last night, driving up and down through mountain passes, in the dark, lovely!!
So, I left the blog on our last day of Vietnam. I realized, after reading my update again, that i made the bike trip look really negative, and it's not right (well, not 100% of it at least), so i will start with a little adding up to my precedent message.
When we started up with the bikes, we went down South of Hanoi, by the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It's supposed to be the road that HCM took with his soldiers from the Viet kong to reach the South of Vietnam during the war.
Some of the road has not yet been updated, and there are quite a few passages which are just basically mud tracks. The old Minsk bikes are actually dirt bikes so it was good fun going through those passages, in the middle of puddles etc... Also, there is a place in Vietnam called Halong bay, which is a place in the country where limestone rocks (little mounts) poke out of the water of the gulf of... China maybe? Not sure... Anyway, we actually went through this kind of rocks, but instead of being in a sea of green, they were in a sea of green rice paddies, and we had to snake through them on our way. Every corner was like a kodak moment...
When we (I) broke down the first time, one of the man that helped us tow the bike to the garage invited us back to his hut. Yes, a real hut. We met his family, and i think pretty much all his neighbours, and we all packed into that little bamboo house on stilts, overlooking their little garden. They served us some sort of mango fruit that was actually not ripe... with salt to dip it into, and some peach alcohol. Nice mix hey?
Anyway, we were suposed to go and see a tribal village, and see the locals and sleep in an updated hut one night on this trip, but as we didn't get to go there, this was a good replacement!
I've already explained the funny and good points about Sam Son (the town with the vietnamese who had an english spirit : "there is a festival, it's raining, but i don't care, i will enjoy myself and hey, you know what? i'll even wear my swimming suit and, what the heck, i'll go swimming too, even if it's freezing!!"
On our way back, we went back on the quiet HCM Trail, and had a great sunset, the sun going down over the limestone rocks, the rice paddies, and the colourful clouds. And as the road disapeared to become a mud track, we had to ride again in there, but in complete darkness... Sometimes it was quite hard to see the difference between the track and the fields... We could have got a bit lost on a wrong turn, but we managed, and side by side made it back.
Pff, i almost said made it home there... Actually, we don't have a home at the moment, and sometimes, it's a bit tiring. We have been moving a lot recently, since we entered Cambodia, and a bit of routine wouldn't actually be so bad! Seeing new things everyday gets a bit much sometimes, and I think that is why we are already leaving Laos for the beaches of Thailand. We basically need a holiday.
We arrived on the 4th of may, in Vientiane, the capital, after a 21 hours bus ride (yes, we love those buses!!) We left Hanoi at about 6.30pm, and rode all night to the border with Laos, perched quite high on the top of a mountain pass. We managed to sleep ok, but got at the border quite early morning (3am) and guess what? Well, the border people have to sleep don't they? So here we were, all stuck in a bus, the driver and his little helper (there's always a little helper somehow) both sleeping on the floor in the alleyway, most people snoring, a few phones ringing...
At around 6.00am, there started to be movement in the bus, and Steve and I managed to pass over the driver and his little helper to breathe some fresh air (a whole bus sleeping with no air going through... sweet!) . We got offered some tea from the only border man awake, the one who charged us for using the flooded toilets!
We finally passed the border at about 8am, and entered Laos. We still had a long journey, as were scheduled to arrive in Vientiane at 5.30pm.
In these long journeys, the best you can do is GET A GOOD BOOK. That's all I did the whole way, while looking a bit through the window. We stopped an hour for Breakfast & lunch, and got to Vientiane earlier than scheduled, 4.30pm, but in the pouring rain. The only other country that welcomed us with rain, was Cambodia...
We found a cheap guest house, and stayed basically 1.5 days there. It was raining, and after Hanoi, the town was awfully quiet! The next day we visited a market where they sold pretty much everything and nothing, and had an Indian for dinner. Later we booked our ticket to Veng Vieng.
We arrived in Veng Vieng (VV), which is North of Ventiane in the afternoon of the 6th, and checked into the loveliest little bungalow-hut guest house. The place had been "created" (Joe didn't like the word owned) by Joe, an Irish man. it had a great little Laos English style garden, a bit messy but in a nice way, mixed with exotic plants and big leaves you had to push away from your face to make your way to your hut... The Joe himself was... very irish! Very loud, very sarcastic, ready to make a joke on you any minute, but funny, and welcoming to the english (didn't like the americans much!)
Veng Vieng is in the middle of a valley, a little river runs through it. There are many caves and streams every where, and things they call lagoons.. I call them green rivers you can swim in but anyway!
We had arrived quite early, but the place was so nice and peaceful that we stayed at the guest house, on the terrasse of our little 6$ hut (3 pounds), played some cards, and drank some beer lao, enjoying the view...
Our second day? What didn't we do?? We rented bikes, went swimming, visited a cave, swimming again, cycling some more, cycled through fords, ate some really slimey textured noodle soup... We swam in a little blocked off bit of river, where there also was a little swing to throw yourself into the water, Steve did it countless times...
The cave, we climbed up to it by a dodgy bamboo ladder on the face of the cliff, and were guided by a little group of kids with one or two headlights. There were some stalactites in there that were hollow (apparently they all are, we were told later) that made musical notes when you knocked them. There were a few, so we could almost compose a little piece with the different notes!
We cycled probably 20 kms so were quite happy in the evening to discover that the main attraction in town by night are tv bars, where they play Friends and The Simpsons continually! We spent a little while there, got some food and off to our little hut.
The day after, we did the big thing of Veng Vieng: We went tubing. Ok, what is tubing:
Picture a river with a few gentle rapids, and also quite a few deep places. Then watch for a tractor's inner tube, then picture yourself on that tractor inner tube in a swimming suit, and add a few bars with enormous swings on the banks. Got it? Well, that's what we did, and it was great fun! There was just enough current to take you, sometimes having to lift the butt to avoid a few stones, but going at a lovely speed to look around (and sip your beer quietly). The swings though were monsters, and with the lowest being at the beginning, and me not being drunk enough right at the beginning, or courageous, whichever you prefer, didn't do any... That day...
Steve did most of them, and survived, although with his lighter body, i think he was flying off from higher than anyone else!!
We spent 6 days in total in VV, and the last day, went back tubing, and this time, i tried myself on the smaller swing at the beginning, and then went for the highest... once was enough i have to say, but it was cool, kind of like an enormous trapeze!
On another day we also rented motorbike, but as there was only one main road going South and North, it wasn't so great, and we went back to the river for a swim... Tom (brother), do you remember when i came to visit you in Brighton, and we went with Etienne somewhere between london and brighton to swim in that little river? It was a bit like that, but a bit cleaner (less green)...
On Saturday the 12th we decided it was time to move on however, and we got bus to the next big place on the list, Luang prabang, 6 hours North (here is that bus again)...
Luang Prabang is located in the middle of a junction between the Mekong River, and the Nam Khan river.
It was i think the capital of Laos, or where the king lived and is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It has about 39 temples, and 30 or so of them are still inhabited by monks.
We went around the town to have a look, and it is a very pretty town, kind of in construction everywhere or renovations more like, but has plenty of old style french colonial houses with big shutters, and a lot are a mix between a laos chalet in wood and a french house. Very nice. I have to say though, that Luang Prabang is the main touristic spot in Laos, but it was all so quiet!! in the middle of the day, it's too hot anyway to do anything, and so then it's deserted, but in the morning or evening, well, it's pretty much the same!
Anyway, we got a room in one of those laos french style houses, very lovely, and took a trip to a waterfall with a group of English and Thai people we shared a tuk tuk with. There was a rescue center for black asian bears, and a tiger rescue (only one tiger). We had a look at the enclosures and saw the cutest baby bears, trying to look tough and climbing to the highest spot of the enclosure and standing up almost, only to realize that it wasn't so easy to get down from there, and therefore looking a bit stuck...
We also had a look at the tiger enclosure and there he was, the second Sher Khan of our trip, lying there on a little wooden platform in the leaves. Suddenly, one of the english guys we were with starts to run, and there goes the tiger, jumping off and starting to run behind his fence... Dear i wouldn't like to be in there with him. it was good to see him in action though, he was really quick! I took a few pictures of him, and as i was zooming on his mouth, his teeth kind of gave me a little chill... they are pretty big things!
The waterfall was arranged for plenty of tourists to visit, and there also were pools set up under it. Nice clear green water, or more a dark turquoise, i don't know, but not a usual colour! Ropes to jump from, smaller waterfalls to jump from... pretty cool, although that's also how i could describe the water!! Pretty freezing!
After a little revigorating swim we climbed all the way up through mud stairs to the top of the waterfall, about 30 meters up, and enjoyed a great view again... I'm sorry, you must be fed up about reading about "great views" all the time... Sorry i can't describe them in an other way... They are amazing, every time you turn, you'd like to take a picture, but realize its a film you need, and then not even that would bring back the sight in full. Shame...
In the evening, Steve needed his football fix, and so we went to a sports bar where we could (he could) enjoy the Man U - West Ham U match.
The next day, we walked up the central Hill of the town, where the main Wat is (wat is?? Wat do you mean? Well, that's a wat dear...) sorry - a wat is a temple here, and we've been having loads of fun with that word... Plus there's an other one called "Wat That"!! Come on!!
Anyway, we could see the whole city from up there, and it was pretty cool. Then we went for a laos massage, which is by far the best we've had. All that for 3 dollars (1,50 pound).
Last full day in Luang prabang, we rented some bicycles and visited on wheels the area. After 1pm, it just got too hot, and we had to stop a few times to refuel (sometimes water, sometimes beer, it's like with old motorbikes, mix the oil to the petrol!!).
We booked our tickets back down to Ventiane, 11 hours or so for the day after.
The reason we are going back to Thailand before visiting the rest of the country is, as i said at the beginning of this email, we need a break, and a beach break. We're hoping this won't be ruined by the monsoon... We planned our trip perfectly really... India in the winter, and we couldn't go to the North, and Thailand and its beaches just as the monsoon starts. We'll have to work on that next time...
If the monsoon does hit us hard, then what we might do is return to India for a while. The idea germed in our heads as we were having indian food the second night in Ventiane, and well, we've got to look into it.
On this, i will tell you that i'm up to date, and quite happy about it! I will try not to delete this message before publishing it! (tricky for me) and i'll say bye bye to all our readers!!
I hope you are all doing good, and as a little reminder, we will be back in about 2 months now!
Take good care of yourselves
Lots of love from Laos xxxx
Jenny & Steve
Today is the 17th of May (soon my birthday...) and we are in Vientiane, capital of Laos. We are on our way to Bangkok, and arrived from an 11 hours bus trip, and about to embark on a train for an other... 12 hours or so? You can imagine we slept extremely well last night, driving up and down through mountain passes, in the dark, lovely!!
So, I left the blog on our last day of Vietnam. I realized, after reading my update again, that i made the bike trip look really negative, and it's not right (well, not 100% of it at least), so i will start with a little adding up to my precedent message.
When we started up with the bikes, we went down South of Hanoi, by the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It's supposed to be the road that HCM took with his soldiers from the Viet kong to reach the South of Vietnam during the war.
Some of the road has not yet been updated, and there are quite a few passages which are just basically mud tracks. The old Minsk bikes are actually dirt bikes so it was good fun going through those passages, in the middle of puddles etc... Also, there is a place in Vietnam called Halong bay, which is a place in the country where limestone rocks (little mounts) poke out of the water of the gulf of... China maybe? Not sure... Anyway, we actually went through this kind of rocks, but instead of being in a sea of green, they were in a sea of green rice paddies, and we had to snake through them on our way. Every corner was like a kodak moment...
When we (I) broke down the first time, one of the man that helped us tow the bike to the garage invited us back to his hut. Yes, a real hut. We met his family, and i think pretty much all his neighbours, and we all packed into that little bamboo house on stilts, overlooking their little garden. They served us some sort of mango fruit that was actually not ripe... with salt to dip it into, and some peach alcohol. Nice mix hey?
Anyway, we were suposed to go and see a tribal village, and see the locals and sleep in an updated hut one night on this trip, but as we didn't get to go there, this was a good replacement!
I've already explained the funny and good points about Sam Son (the town with the vietnamese who had an english spirit : "there is a festival, it's raining, but i don't care, i will enjoy myself and hey, you know what? i'll even wear my swimming suit and, what the heck, i'll go swimming too, even if it's freezing!!"
On our way back, we went back on the quiet HCM Trail, and had a great sunset, the sun going down over the limestone rocks, the rice paddies, and the colourful clouds. And as the road disapeared to become a mud track, we had to ride again in there, but in complete darkness... Sometimes it was quite hard to see the difference between the track and the fields... We could have got a bit lost on a wrong turn, but we managed, and side by side made it back.
Pff, i almost said made it home there... Actually, we don't have a home at the moment, and sometimes, it's a bit tiring. We have been moving a lot recently, since we entered Cambodia, and a bit of routine wouldn't actually be so bad! Seeing new things everyday gets a bit much sometimes, and I think that is why we are already leaving Laos for the beaches of Thailand. We basically need a holiday.
We arrived on the 4th of may, in Vientiane, the capital, after a 21 hours bus ride (yes, we love those buses!!) We left Hanoi at about 6.30pm, and rode all night to the border with Laos, perched quite high on the top of a mountain pass. We managed to sleep ok, but got at the border quite early morning (3am) and guess what? Well, the border people have to sleep don't they? So here we were, all stuck in a bus, the driver and his little helper (there's always a little helper somehow) both sleeping on the floor in the alleyway, most people snoring, a few phones ringing...
At around 6.00am, there started to be movement in the bus, and Steve and I managed to pass over the driver and his little helper to breathe some fresh air (a whole bus sleeping with no air going through... sweet!) . We got offered some tea from the only border man awake, the one who charged us for using the flooded toilets!
We finally passed the border at about 8am, and entered Laos. We still had a long journey, as were scheduled to arrive in Vientiane at 5.30pm.
In these long journeys, the best you can do is GET A GOOD BOOK. That's all I did the whole way, while looking a bit through the window. We stopped an hour for Breakfast & lunch, and got to Vientiane earlier than scheduled, 4.30pm, but in the pouring rain. The only other country that welcomed us with rain, was Cambodia...
We found a cheap guest house, and stayed basically 1.5 days there. It was raining, and after Hanoi, the town was awfully quiet! The next day we visited a market where they sold pretty much everything and nothing, and had an Indian for dinner. Later we booked our ticket to Veng Vieng.
We arrived in Veng Vieng (VV), which is North of Ventiane in the afternoon of the 6th, and checked into the loveliest little bungalow-hut guest house. The place had been "created" (Joe didn't like the word owned) by Joe, an Irish man. it had a great little Laos English style garden, a bit messy but in a nice way, mixed with exotic plants and big leaves you had to push away from your face to make your way to your hut... The Joe himself was... very irish! Very loud, very sarcastic, ready to make a joke on you any minute, but funny, and welcoming to the english (didn't like the americans much!)
Veng Vieng is in the middle of a valley, a little river runs through it. There are many caves and streams every where, and things they call lagoons.. I call them green rivers you can swim in but anyway!
We had arrived quite early, but the place was so nice and peaceful that we stayed at the guest house, on the terrasse of our little 6$ hut (3 pounds), played some cards, and drank some beer lao, enjoying the view...
Our second day? What didn't we do?? We rented bikes, went swimming, visited a cave, swimming again, cycling some more, cycled through fords, ate some really slimey textured noodle soup... We swam in a little blocked off bit of river, where there also was a little swing to throw yourself into the water, Steve did it countless times...
The cave, we climbed up to it by a dodgy bamboo ladder on the face of the cliff, and were guided by a little group of kids with one or two headlights. There were some stalactites in there that were hollow (apparently they all are, we were told later) that made musical notes when you knocked them. There were a few, so we could almost compose a little piece with the different notes!
We cycled probably 20 kms so were quite happy in the evening to discover that the main attraction in town by night are tv bars, where they play Friends and The Simpsons continually! We spent a little while there, got some food and off to our little hut.
The day after, we did the big thing of Veng Vieng: We went tubing. Ok, what is tubing:
Picture a river with a few gentle rapids, and also quite a few deep places. Then watch for a tractor's inner tube, then picture yourself on that tractor inner tube in a swimming suit, and add a few bars with enormous swings on the banks. Got it? Well, that's what we did, and it was great fun! There was just enough current to take you, sometimes having to lift the butt to avoid a few stones, but going at a lovely speed to look around (and sip your beer quietly). The swings though were monsters, and with the lowest being at the beginning, and me not being drunk enough right at the beginning, or courageous, whichever you prefer, didn't do any... That day...
Steve did most of them, and survived, although with his lighter body, i think he was flying off from higher than anyone else!!
We spent 6 days in total in VV, and the last day, went back tubing, and this time, i tried myself on the smaller swing at the beginning, and then went for the highest... once was enough i have to say, but it was cool, kind of like an enormous trapeze!
On another day we also rented motorbike, but as there was only one main road going South and North, it wasn't so great, and we went back to the river for a swim... Tom (brother), do you remember when i came to visit you in Brighton, and we went with Etienne somewhere between london and brighton to swim in that little river? It was a bit like that, but a bit cleaner (less green)...
On Saturday the 12th we decided it was time to move on however, and we got bus to the next big place on the list, Luang prabang, 6 hours North (here is that bus again)...
Luang Prabang is located in the middle of a junction between the Mekong River, and the Nam Khan river.
It was i think the capital of Laos, or where the king lived and is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It has about 39 temples, and 30 or so of them are still inhabited by monks.
We went around the town to have a look, and it is a very pretty town, kind of in construction everywhere or renovations more like, but has plenty of old style french colonial houses with big shutters, and a lot are a mix between a laos chalet in wood and a french house. Very nice. I have to say though, that Luang Prabang is the main touristic spot in Laos, but it was all so quiet!! in the middle of the day, it's too hot anyway to do anything, and so then it's deserted, but in the morning or evening, well, it's pretty much the same!
Anyway, we got a room in one of those laos french style houses, very lovely, and took a trip to a waterfall with a group of English and Thai people we shared a tuk tuk with. There was a rescue center for black asian bears, and a tiger rescue (only one tiger). We had a look at the enclosures and saw the cutest baby bears, trying to look tough and climbing to the highest spot of the enclosure and standing up almost, only to realize that it wasn't so easy to get down from there, and therefore looking a bit stuck...
We also had a look at the tiger enclosure and there he was, the second Sher Khan of our trip, lying there on a little wooden platform in the leaves. Suddenly, one of the english guys we were with starts to run, and there goes the tiger, jumping off and starting to run behind his fence... Dear i wouldn't like to be in there with him. it was good to see him in action though, he was really quick! I took a few pictures of him, and as i was zooming on his mouth, his teeth kind of gave me a little chill... they are pretty big things!
The waterfall was arranged for plenty of tourists to visit, and there also were pools set up under it. Nice clear green water, or more a dark turquoise, i don't know, but not a usual colour! Ropes to jump from, smaller waterfalls to jump from... pretty cool, although that's also how i could describe the water!! Pretty freezing!
After a little revigorating swim we climbed all the way up through mud stairs to the top of the waterfall, about 30 meters up, and enjoyed a great view again... I'm sorry, you must be fed up about reading about "great views" all the time... Sorry i can't describe them in an other way... They are amazing, every time you turn, you'd like to take a picture, but realize its a film you need, and then not even that would bring back the sight in full. Shame...
In the evening, Steve needed his football fix, and so we went to a sports bar where we could (he could) enjoy the Man U - West Ham U match.
The next day, we walked up the central Hill of the town, where the main Wat is (wat is?? Wat do you mean? Well, that's a wat dear...) sorry - a wat is a temple here, and we've been having loads of fun with that word... Plus there's an other one called "Wat That"!! Come on!!
Anyway, we could see the whole city from up there, and it was pretty cool. Then we went for a laos massage, which is by far the best we've had. All that for 3 dollars (1,50 pound).
Last full day in Luang prabang, we rented some bicycles and visited on wheels the area. After 1pm, it just got too hot, and we had to stop a few times to refuel (sometimes water, sometimes beer, it's like with old motorbikes, mix the oil to the petrol!!).
We booked our tickets back down to Ventiane, 11 hours or so for the day after.
The reason we are going back to Thailand before visiting the rest of the country is, as i said at the beginning of this email, we need a break, and a beach break. We're hoping this won't be ruined by the monsoon... We planned our trip perfectly really... India in the winter, and we couldn't go to the North, and Thailand and its beaches just as the monsoon starts. We'll have to work on that next time...
If the monsoon does hit us hard, then what we might do is return to India for a while. The idea germed in our heads as we were having indian food the second night in Ventiane, and well, we've got to look into it.
On this, i will tell you that i'm up to date, and quite happy about it! I will try not to delete this message before publishing it! (tricky for me) and i'll say bye bye to all our readers!!
I hope you are all doing good, and as a little reminder, we will be back in about 2 months now!
Take good care of yourselves
Lots of love from Laos xxxx
Jenny & Steve
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Gooooodnight Vietnam!!
Hello Hello!!
I was updating our blog yesterday, and after about an hour of typing, i pressed a wrong key, and the whole bloody thing disappeared!! Couldn't be asked to type it all again, so gave up, and am starting again today.
Anyway, last time i gave some news, we were in Hanoi, thinking of doing a few days bike tour in the North, in the end we opted for the south of Hanoi, to visit a national park 155kms from the town, and a tribal village called Chau Mai west of the Nat Pk. Well, we didn't see either the national park, nor the tribal village. As we were happily riding along on our Minsk bikes on the Ho Chi Minh trail, my bike decided it had had enough. And stopped.
With my extensive knowledge of bike mechanic, i knew exactly what to do... "STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE!!!!"
It turned out it was the electric, we changed the spark plug, nothing, open countless boxes, generators whatever, nothing. After about an hour in the sun in the middle of knowhere, about 15 vietnamese guys were around trying to help. They ended up towing the bike to a nearby village, where a mechanic fixed it... not for long!
500 meters down the road, the bike is caughing like it's going to die again. I say it's not right, but one of the "helpers" that we had to take back home said i should let him drive... Yeah right, like i had just ridden 150kms, but i still didn't know if the bike was going well or not!!
Anyway, after dropping him off, we're on our way again, but not for long. The exhaust is backfiring, it's getting on my nerves seriously, night is falling, we're still in the middle of nowhere, we end up stopping at the next house we see, wake up (they're always sleeping) the mechanic. He replaces the electric box again saying that the other guy before gave us an other faulty one... grrrr Mechanics, they're the same everywhere. That one also opens the generator, checks it then closes it again. Magic, the bike is going again.
We ride in the dark on the little road to the hotel that this family indicated to us, check in, and head for the closest bia Hoi seller (fresh viet beer).
That was well needed, but at least we thought, now it's going well, we can go tomorrow and enjoy the rest of the tour.
That evening, after the beer, we asked our waiter (in our lovely broken miming vietnamese) where we can find some food. He takes us down the road to a little restaurant that serves some kind of meat "brochettes". Just to make sure, we ask what kind of meet it is.. hum hum. They point at the dog who is looking at us with his sorry eyes that seem to say "please don't eat my brother, or i'll be next!!!" ARGHHHHH!!
Quickly we get out of there, and head for an other place, the waiter next to us laughing away... Barbarians!!
In the next place, we mime: "No doggy?? waouf waouf..." The woman smiles and say no, we are a bit reassured, but when she serves us our Phu (noddle soup with meet and herbs) well, that meat still doesn't look like anything i've seen before. She assured us it was no dog, so we ate a bit, but mostly we ate the noodles. I have to remind you we left Hanoi at 8.30 after a ham and cheese sandwich, and had nothing else the whole day. Well, god knows what was in there, we try to forget about it, and go back to the Bia Hoi place to help.
Next morning, fresh and early, and in good mood, we open the door of the hotel room. Argh again... It's pissing down with rain!!!
Nevermind, we're off anyway (after a 15 minutes effort to start the bloddy russian Minsk and killing our feet on them both). We need some breakfast, so we stop in the next town. We ask for Phu with pork, and get served just that. It smells really nice! We eat away, although the meat is a bit chewy, so i only eat a bit.
Later, after a few cafes cause the rain is still pouring down, Steve goes to the loo at the back.
When he comes back, his face looks somehow disturbed, and i ask him how are the toilets (civilised or hole in the ground full of mosquitoes?) second option.. ok we're used to that. But at the same time he also says "well, it's quite an eye opener at the same time" I look at him: "What do you mean??" and he looks down at the remaining of our Phu in the bowls... Oh dear!!!! not again!!. For you mum i won't give you the description Steve gave me, but you can imagine what we think we've eaten... again.
Light headed, we leave the dog eating town, and decide we want some civilisation. Head for the beach town of Sam Son. Well it's raining but who cares, it will be quiet, we can get a massage and some civilised food.
One hour down the line, guess what. My bike breaks down!!! Again!!
This time, Steve manages to fix it, and it appears that our last mechanic had closed the generator on one of the cables, and melted the flipping thing... arghhhh . Steve cuts it short, somehow manages to fix it, and off we go.
We hit the national highway one, full of suicidal and murderers, but make it safe and sound to Sam Son.
Haha, Sam Son, the town with the Vietnamese who have a british spirit.
We arrive there, and there is some sort of festival. About 10 000 people on the beach, in the cloudy and windy and actually pretty cold weather, all nethertheless in their swimming suit, all goose bumped hehe, and obviously, we can't find a hotel under 20 $... Well, we book in there anyway, ask where we can find an ATM, there aren't any. ARGh and ARGH again... I'm telling you, this is proper travel experience!!
We explain to the hotel that we'll ride to the closest town in the morning (30kms there and back) and pay them after. So in the evening we're left with very little money to eat, and have some rice and bony chicken (but i saw the whole chicken beeing cut in the kitchen, so that was better.
We spend the night quite well in the end, Bia hoi costs about 10 p for a pint, so we can drink, and practice our vietnamese with the locals. It turned out Sam Son was a touristic place, yes, but not for westerners, only viets... hum. People are really nice though, so it makes up for all the bad stuff. Actually, even the dog eating people were lovely, and everyone that helped us on the way..
Right, so my bike has broken down 3 times in 2 days. I come to hate the bloody thing. When it goes it's ok, eventhough it does sound a hell of a lot like a lawn mower, it's really nice, but when it stops... argh, as i said.
So the next morning, without a shower cause it's freezing (20 $ room remember, but not the luxury that goes with the price usually) we decide to head straight back to Hanoi. We set up, and what do you know, 1 hour after, not even, guess what. YES, it breaks down again! By that time i'm calling it every name under the sun, and am very tempted to send it to the scrapyard.
Again, some nice vietnamese mechanic helps us, and after two hours of going through the manual and every possible electrical problem, it turns out the lovely little plastic plug that goes into the electric box was... dirty!! we clean that up, and it's 4pm. about 200 kms from Hanoi, we set out again, decide not to stop the whole way. We're riding up that suicidal and murderer's road, and decided against it, and go back west to the dog eating towns districts, to take the nicer and quieter Ho chi Minh trail. We rode all the rest of the day, and a few hours in the dark, going through strips of road, no sorry, mud tracks, that were great fun really, and drove back side by side to get more light on the non lit road. At 10.30 about we finally hit Hanoi, with an amazingly sore bum, and achy wrists and feet, and oviously, get lost for about 1.30 hour turning around that crazy town's road system. We get some directions in the end and finally find our quarters, the old quarters of the town.
The bike shop is obviously closed, but we know that some australian guys, Digby and Dan, that work with the shop, are usually at a bar called Highway 4. We head there and find one of them who is basically singing the praises of Minsk Bike (load of bullshit if you ask me!! I mean we have so many jokes about Ladas, why the hell didn't we go for Japanese Honda!!??)
Well, after a few beers, we get our sense of humour back, and realise that this was THE travel experience.
By the time we get out of the bar, still with our minsks parked outside, it's 1am and we need to find a hotel. Surprise, magically, the hotel prices go up in the evening, and so we can only check into an 18$ room again... Well we made it, and tomorrow we know we'll go set fire to the bike rental place, and then go enjoy a nice french croissant in our favourite bakery...
We go back to the rental shop, and they decided they'll only charge us 1/2 day extra (we had paid for 3) i'm well against it, but Steve gives the money anyway, and in the afternoon, we see a westerner girl on the same flipping bike, and god, i feel ever so sorry for her...
So the day we came back to hanoi was the 30th in the evening. Our visa expire on the 3rd, which is today. We decided to stay in Hanoi and recuperate, and book a bus to Laos, which we are hopping on tonight at 6.30pm. We just chilled for 2 days, drinking plenty more of Bia Hoi, (basically getting drunk for 1 pound or less, amazing, the paradise of beer drinkers!), did a bit of shopping, and reading about the next step, Laos, where we should be staying about 2 weeks, as a 30$ visa at the border will only give us 15 days. Then the plan is to head back to Thailand, forgetting about the North of Thailand as we'll probably do some trekking in Laos, and apparently, Laos's north is nicer.
Wel, that's it for Vietnam, it is an amazing place, so much to do, not enough time to do it in a month, something for every taste, definitely definitely recommended to everyone. Every one would find some great things about it.
Been typing for a while now, so will stop now...
Take care everyone!
Can my family kindly tell me when i could call home (which home?) to talk to everyone at the same time??
Pierre Petra, Gert, i need to know when you are all flying, so we can maybe book our tickets now.
Leanne, last night we were drinking beer with a kiwi that had exactly the same accent as you, ie i didn't understand a word hahaha...
Laura, haven't had news in a while!! how is it going?
Hope everyone is doing good,
Lots of love from the two of us!
xxx Jenny & Steve xxx
I was updating our blog yesterday, and after about an hour of typing, i pressed a wrong key, and the whole bloody thing disappeared!! Couldn't be asked to type it all again, so gave up, and am starting again today.
Anyway, last time i gave some news, we were in Hanoi, thinking of doing a few days bike tour in the North, in the end we opted for the south of Hanoi, to visit a national park 155kms from the town, and a tribal village called Chau Mai west of the Nat Pk. Well, we didn't see either the national park, nor the tribal village. As we were happily riding along on our Minsk bikes on the Ho Chi Minh trail, my bike decided it had had enough. And stopped.
With my extensive knowledge of bike mechanic, i knew exactly what to do... "STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE!!!!"
It turned out it was the electric, we changed the spark plug, nothing, open countless boxes, generators whatever, nothing. After about an hour in the sun in the middle of knowhere, about 15 vietnamese guys were around trying to help. They ended up towing the bike to a nearby village, where a mechanic fixed it... not for long!
500 meters down the road, the bike is caughing like it's going to die again. I say it's not right, but one of the "helpers" that we had to take back home said i should let him drive... Yeah right, like i had just ridden 150kms, but i still didn't know if the bike was going well or not!!
Anyway, after dropping him off, we're on our way again, but not for long. The exhaust is backfiring, it's getting on my nerves seriously, night is falling, we're still in the middle of nowhere, we end up stopping at the next house we see, wake up (they're always sleeping) the mechanic. He replaces the electric box again saying that the other guy before gave us an other faulty one... grrrr Mechanics, they're the same everywhere. That one also opens the generator, checks it then closes it again. Magic, the bike is going again.
We ride in the dark on the little road to the hotel that this family indicated to us, check in, and head for the closest bia Hoi seller (fresh viet beer).
That was well needed, but at least we thought, now it's going well, we can go tomorrow and enjoy the rest of the tour.
That evening, after the beer, we asked our waiter (in our lovely broken miming vietnamese) where we can find some food. He takes us down the road to a little restaurant that serves some kind of meat "brochettes". Just to make sure, we ask what kind of meet it is.. hum hum. They point at the dog who is looking at us with his sorry eyes that seem to say "please don't eat my brother, or i'll be next!!!" ARGHHHHH!!
Quickly we get out of there, and head for an other place, the waiter next to us laughing away... Barbarians!!
In the next place, we mime: "No doggy?? waouf waouf..." The woman smiles and say no, we are a bit reassured, but when she serves us our Phu (noddle soup with meet and herbs) well, that meat still doesn't look like anything i've seen before. She assured us it was no dog, so we ate a bit, but mostly we ate the noodles. I have to remind you we left Hanoi at 8.30 after a ham and cheese sandwich, and had nothing else the whole day. Well, god knows what was in there, we try to forget about it, and go back to the Bia Hoi place to help.
Next morning, fresh and early, and in good mood, we open the door of the hotel room. Argh again... It's pissing down with rain!!!
Nevermind, we're off anyway (after a 15 minutes effort to start the bloddy russian Minsk and killing our feet on them both). We need some breakfast, so we stop in the next town. We ask for Phu with pork, and get served just that. It smells really nice! We eat away, although the meat is a bit chewy, so i only eat a bit.
Later, after a few cafes cause the rain is still pouring down, Steve goes to the loo at the back.
When he comes back, his face looks somehow disturbed, and i ask him how are the toilets (civilised or hole in the ground full of mosquitoes?) second option.. ok we're used to that. But at the same time he also says "well, it's quite an eye opener at the same time" I look at him: "What do you mean??" and he looks down at the remaining of our Phu in the bowls... Oh dear!!!! not again!!. For you mum i won't give you the description Steve gave me, but you can imagine what we think we've eaten... again.
Light headed, we leave the dog eating town, and decide we want some civilisation. Head for the beach town of Sam Son. Well it's raining but who cares, it will be quiet, we can get a massage and some civilised food.
One hour down the line, guess what. My bike breaks down!!! Again!!
This time, Steve manages to fix it, and it appears that our last mechanic had closed the generator on one of the cables, and melted the flipping thing... arghhhh . Steve cuts it short, somehow manages to fix it, and off we go.
We hit the national highway one, full of suicidal and murderers, but make it safe and sound to Sam Son.
Haha, Sam Son, the town with the Vietnamese who have a british spirit.
We arrive there, and there is some sort of festival. About 10 000 people on the beach, in the cloudy and windy and actually pretty cold weather, all nethertheless in their swimming suit, all goose bumped hehe, and obviously, we can't find a hotel under 20 $... Well, we book in there anyway, ask where we can find an ATM, there aren't any. ARGh and ARGH again... I'm telling you, this is proper travel experience!!
We explain to the hotel that we'll ride to the closest town in the morning (30kms there and back) and pay them after. So in the evening we're left with very little money to eat, and have some rice and bony chicken (but i saw the whole chicken beeing cut in the kitchen, so that was better.
We spend the night quite well in the end, Bia hoi costs about 10 p for a pint, so we can drink, and practice our vietnamese with the locals. It turned out Sam Son was a touristic place, yes, but not for westerners, only viets... hum. People are really nice though, so it makes up for all the bad stuff. Actually, even the dog eating people were lovely, and everyone that helped us on the way..
Right, so my bike has broken down 3 times in 2 days. I come to hate the bloody thing. When it goes it's ok, eventhough it does sound a hell of a lot like a lawn mower, it's really nice, but when it stops... argh, as i said.
So the next morning, without a shower cause it's freezing (20 $ room remember, but not the luxury that goes with the price usually) we decide to head straight back to Hanoi. We set up, and what do you know, 1 hour after, not even, guess what. YES, it breaks down again! By that time i'm calling it every name under the sun, and am very tempted to send it to the scrapyard.
Again, some nice vietnamese mechanic helps us, and after two hours of going through the manual and every possible electrical problem, it turns out the lovely little plastic plug that goes into the electric box was... dirty!! we clean that up, and it's 4pm. about 200 kms from Hanoi, we set out again, decide not to stop the whole way. We're riding up that suicidal and murderer's road, and decided against it, and go back west to the dog eating towns districts, to take the nicer and quieter Ho chi Minh trail. We rode all the rest of the day, and a few hours in the dark, going through strips of road, no sorry, mud tracks, that were great fun really, and drove back side by side to get more light on the non lit road. At 10.30 about we finally hit Hanoi, with an amazingly sore bum, and achy wrists and feet, and oviously, get lost for about 1.30 hour turning around that crazy town's road system. We get some directions in the end and finally find our quarters, the old quarters of the town.
The bike shop is obviously closed, but we know that some australian guys, Digby and Dan, that work with the shop, are usually at a bar called Highway 4. We head there and find one of them who is basically singing the praises of Minsk Bike (load of bullshit if you ask me!! I mean we have so many jokes about Ladas, why the hell didn't we go for Japanese Honda!!??)
Well, after a few beers, we get our sense of humour back, and realise that this was THE travel experience.
By the time we get out of the bar, still with our minsks parked outside, it's 1am and we need to find a hotel. Surprise, magically, the hotel prices go up in the evening, and so we can only check into an 18$ room again... Well we made it, and tomorrow we know we'll go set fire to the bike rental place, and then go enjoy a nice french croissant in our favourite bakery...
We go back to the rental shop, and they decided they'll only charge us 1/2 day extra (we had paid for 3) i'm well against it, but Steve gives the money anyway, and in the afternoon, we see a westerner girl on the same flipping bike, and god, i feel ever so sorry for her...
So the day we came back to hanoi was the 30th in the evening. Our visa expire on the 3rd, which is today. We decided to stay in Hanoi and recuperate, and book a bus to Laos, which we are hopping on tonight at 6.30pm. We just chilled for 2 days, drinking plenty more of Bia Hoi, (basically getting drunk for 1 pound or less, amazing, the paradise of beer drinkers!), did a bit of shopping, and reading about the next step, Laos, where we should be staying about 2 weeks, as a 30$ visa at the border will only give us 15 days. Then the plan is to head back to Thailand, forgetting about the North of Thailand as we'll probably do some trekking in Laos, and apparently, Laos's north is nicer.
Wel, that's it for Vietnam, it is an amazing place, so much to do, not enough time to do it in a month, something for every taste, definitely definitely recommended to everyone. Every one would find some great things about it.
Been typing for a while now, so will stop now...
Take care everyone!
Can my family kindly tell me when i could call home (which home?) to talk to everyone at the same time??
Pierre Petra, Gert, i need to know when you are all flying, so we can maybe book our tickets now.
Leanne, last night we were drinking beer with a kiwi that had exactly the same accent as you, ie i didn't understand a word hahaha...
Laura, haven't had news in a while!! how is it going?
Hope everyone is doing good,
Lots of love from the two of us!
xxx Jenny & Steve xxx
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